The approval of a new $1 billion rare earth and metals mine in Dubbo is great news for the region, the state and national economies, and the New South Wales minerals sector, says Australia’s resource industry employer group, AMMA. “AMMA welcomes New South Wales granting an environment protection licence to Alkane Resources, in what was the final regulatory hurdle after a decade long process for the Dubbo Zirconia Project,” says AMMA executive director, policy and public affairs, Scott Barklamb. “Following construction which will create 450 jobs, this project will produce 30,000 tonnes of rare metals and rare earths annually and…
Decmil Group Limited was recently awarded a $30.6m contract with BHP Billiton Iron Ore to design and construct a warehouse hub at Kingsford Business Park, Port Hedland, Western Australia. The facility will consist of a 12,000m2 warehouse and 35,000m2 sealed hard standing area. Construction is expected to commence in May 2016 and adds to Decmil’s long history of providing non process infrastructure to the West Australian mining sector.
Gold Road Resources Limited has completed the Pre‐Feasibility Study (PFS) for the development of its 5.62 million ounce5 (Moz) Gruyere Project, located 200 kilometres east of Laverton in Western Australia. The completion of the PFS included detailed economic analysis and further technical work building on the findings of the first stage Options Study which determined that the best go‐forward case was a large‐scale open‐pit mine utilising a conventional 7.5 Mtpa SAG/Ball Mill Circuit gravity/carbon‐in‐leach processing facility, powered by a pipeline‐supplied, gas‐fired power generation plant. The full PFS confirms the Project as one of Australia’s best undeveloped gold deposits and indicates…
Doray Minerals Limited has successfully achieved another milestone in its plans to become a multi-mine high-grade gold producer with the recent commencement of open pit mining at the Company’s Deflector Gold Project. Doray’s open pit contractor, MACA Ltd recently completed the first blast in the Deflector open pit and has commenced open pit mining operations during February, as forecast. Doray’s Managing Director, Allan Kelly, said the commencement of open pit mining represented another significant milestone in the rapid development of the Deflector Project and came less than a year after completing the takeover of Mutiny Gold in March 2015. “We…
The Department of Environment and Heritage Protection issued a final environmental authority (EA) for Adani’s Carmichael Mine project on 2 February 2016 with approximately 140 conditions, including 9 conditions relating to the black throated finch as required by the Land Court. The EA application was vigorously assessed by EHP and acted on recommendations made by the Land Court. EHP is confident the strict conditions placed on the EA, including extra requirements based on the Land Court’s recommendations, will ensure this mine will not pose an unacceptable risk to the environment and any potential impacts will be closely monitored. The project…
One of Victoria’s most productive gold mines, Fosterville Gold Mine near Bendigo, has reached a major milestone by extracting its millionth ounce of gold from the current operation. Minister for Energy and Resources Lily D’Ambrosio joined the mine’s operator, Newmarket Gold Inc, to unveil a plaque on site of the Fosterville Gold Mine to celebrate the achievement. At today’s prices, a million ounces of gold is worth approximately $1.6 billion. Fosterville Gold Mine employs 400 people and boosts the local economy by $90 million a year through wages and sourcing goods and services regionally. The Fosterville mining operation is also…
Leading mining and civil construction firm BGC Contracting Pty Ltd has been awarded a five-year contract extension with Cliff Natural Resources at its Koolyanobbing Iron Ore Project in Western Australia. The current mining contract, previously due to be completed in 2017, will be extended through to 2022, and is valued at more than $520 million. Under the contract, BGC Contracting will continue to provide the full range of mining services, including drilling, blasting, loading, hauling, dumping, crushing, screening and train load-out. BGC Contracting CEO Greg Heylen said the contract extension was recognition of the Koolyanobbing team’s ability to meet Cliffs’…
Anglo American has announced a collaboration agreement to complete a feasibility study to develop a 'hydrogen valley' anchored in the platinum group metals-rich Bushveld geological area in South Africa. Spearheaded by South Africa’s Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), the collaboration agreement also includes energy and services company ENGIE, the South African National Development Institute (SANEDI) and clean energy solutions provider Bambili Energy. The proposed hydrogen valley will stretch approximately 835 kilometres from Anglo American’s Mogalakwena platinum group metals (PGMs) mine near Mokopane in Limpopo province in the north of South Africa, along the industrial and commercial corridor to Johannesburg…
Eagle Mountain Mining Limited has announced assay results from the ongoing drilling program at the company’s 80 per cent owned Oracle Ridge Mine Project in Arizona, USA, have returned the highest grades ever recorded at the project. Assay results from hole WT-21-04 and WT-21-06 have been announced by Eagle Mountain, with results for holes WT-21-05, WT-20-07 and recently completed WT-21-08 still pending. [caption id="attachment_31864" align="aligncenter" width="807"] Figure 2 – Summary map of recent drill holes at Oracle Ridge with highlight of assay results reported in thecurrent announcement in red. Image credit: Eagle Mountain Mining Limited.[/caption] WT-21-04 WT-21-04 was…
African lithium developer, Prospect Resources Ltd has developed a scope of work for an Optimised Feasibility Study (OFS), for a staged development of the Arcadia Lithium Project in Zimbabwe, with the first stage expected to produce 1.2 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa), ramping up to 2.4Mtpa. Perth-based engineering consulting group, Lycopodium Ltd, has been appointed to complete the OFS. Lycopodium will supervise metallurgical testwork, optimise the staged 1.2Mtpa to 2.4Mtpa flowsheet, design the process plant, as well as related infrastructure including site power reticulation and on-site water treatment and distribution. The engineering work during this stage will enable formal quotations…
Rio Tinto has announced it will explore the deployment of Heliogen’s breakthrough solar technology at the miner’s borates mine in Boron, California. Under a Memorandum of Understanding, Heliogen will deploy its proprietary, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered technology at the Boron operation, where it will use heat from the sun to generate and store carbon-free energy to power the mine’s industrial processes. The two companies will begin detailed planning and securing government permits for the project, with the aim of starting operations from 2022. The companies will also use the Boron installation to begin exploring the potential for deployments of Heliogen’s technology…
Lucapa Diamond Company Limited and its partner, the Government of the Kingdom of Lesotho (GoL), have announced that the Mothae kimberlite mine expansion project in Lesotho in Southern Africa has been completed. The project is designed to increase nameplate capacity by 45 per cent from approximately 1.1 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) to 1.6Mtpa. The processing plant was handed back to the production team after completion of the installation of the new scrubber bypass conveyor, the new primary jaw crusher and other associated upgrades. The project was completed on-time, within budget and with no safety incidents recorded. Lucapa advised that…
Rafaella Resources Limited has announced that Geotech Limited has completed Versatile Time-Domain Electromagnetic (VTEM Max) airborne EM surveying across the Midrim and Laforce nickel-copper-platinum-group elements (PGE) mineralised projects in Quebec, Canada. The VTEM Max, combined with Groundfloor Electromagnetic (GFEM), is an excellent system for locating discrete conductive anomalies as well as mapping lateral and vertical variations in resistivity. GFEM utilises an airborne EM transmitted with a set of surface-based receivers. The larger transmitter-receiver separation in Groundfloor EM over standard airborne techniques gives the ability to compute the step-response with sufficient accuracy to study extremely high conductivity targets that are commonly…
Rio Tinto will soon commence construction on a plant that will recover tellurium, a critical mineral used in solar panels, from copper refining at its Kennecott mine near Salt Lake City, Utah. Rio Tinto is investing $2.9 million to set up the plant, which will recover tellurium as a by-product of copper smelting, extracting a valuable mineral from waste streams. The plant will have the capacity to produce approximately 20 tonnes of tellurium per year. Rio Tinto expects to begin production of tellurium in the fourth quarter of 2021, creating a new North American supply chain for this critical mineral.…
