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’…
Pan Asia Metals Limited (PAM), has today provided an update on the drilling program at the Khao Soon Tungsten Project (KSTP) and has reported that a drill rig has been mobilised to the Reung Kiet Lithium Project, both located in southern Thailand. KSTP, located approximately 600 kilometres south of Bangkok, is one of PAM’s primary assets and a significant historical high-grade producer. PAM outlines that modern exploration has discovered potentially world-class district-scale tungsten mineralisation across numerous prospects. Today PAM announced that drilling of Priority One holes at the Than Pho West (TPW) Prospect have been finalised. Ten holes were drilled…
Rio Tinto has agreed to a new electricity agreement with Meridian Energy that allows New Zealand’s Aluminium Smelter (NZAS) to continue operating the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter until 31 December 2024. The extension provides certainty to employees, the local community and customers while providing more time for all stakeholders to plan for the future. NZAS is New Zealand’s sole aluminium smelter. It commenced production in 1971 and produced 353,293 tonnes of aluminium in 2019. NZAS is 79.36 per cent owned by Rio Tinto and 20.64 per cent owned by Japan's Sumitomo Chemical Company. In July 2020, Rio Tinto announced the…
Australian precious metals mining exploration company, Prospech Limited, has received 18 rock chip samples taken from outcrop and spoil heaps, located within the company’s Pukanec exploration licence, which is part of its 100 per cent owned Nova Bana project in Slovakia. Prospech’s Nova Bana project is a package of three licences totalling 45 square kilometres situated on the western flank of the Hodrusa caldera. Of the 18 rock chip samples assayed, the company outlined that eight returned gold grades over 1 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold (Au) and of these, the average was 12.1 g/t Au. 10 of the…
Rafaella Resources Limited has contracted Geotech Limited to conduct a helicopter-borne survey over the recently acquired Midrim and Laforce claims in the Belleterre-Angliers Greenstone Belt in Quebec, Canada. The survey is anticipated to commence early next month and, subject to weather conditions, should take two weeks to complete. Rafaella states that the Versatile Time-Domain Electromagnetic (VTEM™ Max) combined with Groundfloor EM is excellent for locating discrete conductive anomalies as well as mapping lateral and vertical variations in resistivity. The VTEM™ Max provides the industry’s highest signal/noise ratio and spatial resolution of conductors, offering excellent depth of penetration and high resolution.…
In December 2020, Syrah Resources Limited announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with global solar power company, Solar Century Africa Limited, to progress a solar and battery storage hybrid power system at the Balama Graphite Project in Mozambique. The solar and battery storage system aims to reduce CO2 emissions and operating costs at Balama, which is the largest integrated natural graphite mine and processing plant globally as measured by annual flake concentrate production capacity. Syrah Managing Director and CEO, Shaun Verner, said: “Progression of a large-scale solar and battery installation will reduce the operating cost base at Balama and further…
Eagle Mountain Mining Limited has announced further assay results from its recent drilling program at the company’s 80 per cent owned Oracle Ridge Mine Project in Arizona, USA. Assay results from selected zones within drill holes WT-20-06, WT-20-07, WT-20-09, WT-20-11 have been received and were reported in an announcement on 18 December 2020. Initial observations from hole WT-20-10 were also provided. Notably, WT-20-06 lead to the discovery of quartz-breccia grading 6.67 per cent copper (Cu), 63.5 grams per tonne (g/t) silver (Ag) and 0.87 g/t of gold (Au) over 2.95 metres at 210 metres downhole. The company advised that a wide…
This week the Innu communities of Uashat mak Mani-utenam and Matimekush-Lac John signed a Reconciliation and Collaboration Agreement with the Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC). The agreement was named 'Ussiniun', which means 'renewal' in the Innu language. The Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) is a joint venture between Rio Tinto (58.7 per cent), Mitsubishi (26.2 per cent) and the Labrador Iron Ore Royalty Income Corporation (15.1 per cent). The IOC’s operations are integrated across a mine and processing plant in Labrador City, Newfoundland and Labrador; a port and stockpile in Sept-Iles, Quebec; and a 418-kilometre railway that joins…
