The Federal Government has given an environmental approval for Cameco Australia Pty Ltd’s Yeelirrie Uranium Project, in the remote Northern Goldfields region of Western Australia. Cameco plans to mine uranium ore from the Yeelirrie deposit, positioned approximately 70 kilometres south-west of Wiluna, and construct associated mine infrastructure including ore processing facilities, water abstraction and reinjection infrastructure, roads, accommodation, offices and workshops, stockpile and laydown areas. The Yeelirrie uranium deposit was originally discovered by Western Mining Corporation in 1972 and was a... more

Perth-based junior miner, Bryah Resources Limited, has signed a AU$7.3 million manganese Farm-In agreement and executed a Joint Venture Agreement with OM Holdings Limited -  a strong player in the manganese industry. Bryah Resources Limited is a copper-gold-manganese focused explorer with two projects located in central Western Australia - the 880 square kilometre Bryah Basin Project and the 200 square kilometre Gabanintha Project. OM Holdings Limited is a vertically integrated manganese and silicon specialist involved in mining, smelting and trading, with operations located in Australia, China, Japan, Ma... more

Gold Road Resources Limited and Gruyere Mining Company Pty Ltd, a member of the Gold Fields Limited Group, have advised that construction is progressing at the Gruyere Gold Project. Gruyere is located approximately 200 kilometres east of Laverton in Western Australia. The project is a 50:50 Joint Venture (JV) between Gold Road and Gold Fields. Gold Fields is managing the development of Gruyere and will also manage the operation of the mine, while Gold Road retains responsibility for exploration on joint venture (JV) tenements. Today, the JV announced that construction on the Gruyere process plant is nea... more

Engineering services company, WorleyParsons Limited has  been awarded a contract to perform engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) services for Rio Tinto’s Koodaideri iron ore mine, roughly 110 kilometres from the town of Newman in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The award of the EPCM contract follows the completion of the detailed engineering study for the Koodaideri project. The project will be executed over a three-year period from the Perth project office with additional support teams on the mine and rail locations. WorleyParsons is expected to use data-centric engin... more

A seismic survey program has commenced on QEM Limited's (QEM) 100 per cent owned Julia Creek project, covering approximately 496 square kilometres in the Julia Creek area of North Western Queensland. Julia Creek is located over the vast Toolebuc Formation, which is the host to widespread vanadium mineralisation, and is considered an ‘oil shale’, meaning it has the potential to hold significant petroleum resources. QEM announced in February this year that it had engaged geological service company, Velseis Pty Ltd, to conduct the 26-kilometre 2-D seismic survey which would outline the geological structur... more

EPIK Co. Ltd. has executed an agreement with Watpac for the provision of  design, engineering and construction services for the onshore infrastructure components of the Newcastle LNG floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) import terminal at the Port of Newcastle. Situated at the back-end of the existing gas transmission network, the Port of Newcastle is one of Australia’s largest ports and a major trade and logistics hub, making it an ideal area to develop an LNG import terminal. The potential investment for the Newcastle LNG project is estimated to be approximately $AU547 million and is set to inc... more

Sheffield Resources Limited has secured a 15-year agreement with Woodside Energy Limited and Energy Developments Pty Ltd (EDL) for the supply and delivery of 1,950 terajoules per annum of liquified natural gas (LNG) to the Thunderbird Mineral Sands Project, in northern Western Australia. As per the agreement, LNG will be supplied from Woodside’s Pluto LNG Truck Loading Facility near Karratha and transported to Thunderbird’s LNG storage facility by a newly formed joint venture between Woodside and EDL. The Woodside-EDL joint venture will own and operate a purpose-built road tanker fleet to deliver the L... more

Western Australia’s single largest user of natural gas, Alcoa of Australia Limited has secured three new gas supply agreements which in full will supply close to 25 per cent of the company’s gas requirements from 2020. The agreements with BHP, Woodside and Chevron coupled with other gas supply contracts, which were announced in 2015 (Quadrant Energy and Santos), complete Alcoa’s gas portfolio to fuel its Kwinana, Pinjarra and Wagerup alumina refineries for the mid-term. The company consumes approximately 40 per cent of the gas supplied to the south west of Western Australia and about 25 per cent of t... more

The first large scale project in British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta’s plan to generate one gigawatt (GW) of dispatchable renewable energy in South Australia has been approved. The 280 megawatt (MW) Cultana Solar Farm, to be located on 1100 hectares (ha) of vacant land to the north of the Whyalla Steelworks in the Upper Spencer Gulf town of Whyalla, has just been signed off by the South Australian Government. The Cultana Solar Farm will feature 780,000 solar panels capable of generating 600 GW hours of energy generation per year – which is enough to power almost 100,000 homes while offsetting 492,000 ton... more

Energy Minister Bill Johnston has opened APA Group's new Badgingarra Wind Farm in Hill River, positioned approximately 220 kilometres north of Perth. The $315 million Badgingarra Wind Farm consists 37 3.6-Megawatt (MW) wind turbines installed with a hub height of 85 metres and a tip height of 150 metres. The wind farm will be co-located with APA's $40 million 17.5 MW Badgingarra Solar Farm, which is currently under construction. The potential energy output from Badgingarra Wind Farm is equivalent to the power required for over 115,000 Western Australian homes. Together with APA's nearby Emu Downs Win... more

Australian energy generator, AGL Energy Ltd has secured the right to develop, own and operate a 250-megawatt pumped hydro energy storage project at Hillgrove Resources Limited’s Kanmantoo Copper Mine in the Adelaide Hills region of South Australia. The contract allows AGL to transform the Kanmantoo open pit mine into a pumped hydro facility, while Hillgrove will retain processing and mining rights outside the Giant Pit. AGL’s Executive General Manager of Wholesale Markets, Richard Wrightson said the signing of binding agreements was the start of a multiple stage process to progress the project, includi... more

The AUD$850 million Coopers Gap Wind Farm near Kingaroy in Queensland is now one step closer to getting on the grid, thanks to the completion of a nearby substation. Publicly-owned transmission operator, Powerlink, has energised the new 275 Kilovolt (kV) substation that will connect one of Australia’s largest wind farms to the electricity grid and 9 million Australian energy users. The Cooper’s Gap Wind Farm is expected to generate up to 440 Megawatts of renewable energy – the equivalent of powering a city the size of Ipswich. Energy Minister Dr Anthony Lynham said Queensland has led the way with ... more

The Queensland Government has ticked off a major milestone on a proposed $1 billion overhead high-voltage electricity transmission line which would connect major energy users and North West Queensland’s public to the national electricity grid. Queensland’s independent Coordinator-General declared CuString Pty Ltd’s CopperString Project a ‘coordinated project’ on 27 April. The proposed project is a 1,100-kilometre 275-kilovolt overhead high-voltage electricity transmission line connecting the North West Minerals Provence and Mount Isa to the National Electricity Market grid south of Townsville. ... more

The Queensland Government has fast-tracked $100 million, as part of its $225 million commitment to Townsville’s water security, to keep construction of the Haughton 36.5 kilometre water pipeline moving. Member for Townsville, Scott Stewart said the $100 million payment (paid last week) would go towards supporting up to 1000 jobs over the life of the project. “We all know Townsville has been doing it tough and is currently recovering from an unprecedented flooding event. The jobs that flow from the Haughton pipeline are a shot in the arm during the rebuilding period,” Mr Stewart said. There are mo... more

Construction of the $1 billion Albemarle Kemerton Plant in Western Australia, Australia’s largest lithium processing plant, has commenced. The plant will become Australia's largest lithium hydroxide plant, with approval to produce up to 100,000 tonnes per annum of premium battery grade lithium hydroxide. Western Australia is currently the number one global producer of lithium, the second largest global producer of rare earths, the third largest global producer of cobalt and the fourth largest global producer of nickel. The Government of Western Australia is working with Albemarle to ensure job opportu... more

Premier of Western Australia Mark McGowan, and Federal Minister for the Environment Melissa Price, have officially ‘turned the sod’ at Australia’s first thermal waste-to-energy facility in Kwinana, Western Australia. The facility, named Avertas Energy, will use state-of-the-art technology to process 400,000 tonnes of household, commercial and industrial waste each year to significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 400,000 tonnes (equivalent to taking 85,000 cars off Perth’s roads). Once operational in 2021, the facility will generate and export 36 megawatts of baseload electricity t... more

Rio Tinto will reduce the annual carbon footprint at its Kennecott Utah Copper operation, located southwest of Salt Lake City in Utah, U.S. by as much as 65 per cent by purchasing renewable energy certificates and permanently shutting its coal power plant. Kennecott’s electricity needs will now be paired with 1.5 million megawatt hours of renewable energy certificates supplied by Rocky Mountain Power, primarily sourced from its Utah allocated portfolio including wind power from Wyoming. The change will reduce the annual carbon footprint associated with the operation by over one million tonnes CO2. Rio... more

Western Australian based company AVZ Minerals Limited's (AVZ) 60 per cent owned Manono deposit has been confirmed as the largest measured and indicated lithium resource in the world. The Manono Project is located approximately 500 kilometres north of Lubumbashi in the south of the Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa. The project covers approximately 88 square kilometres and hosts lithium pegmatites with a strike length of over 13 kilometres. AVZ has announced a 41.7 per cent increase in Manono’s combined Measured and Indicated Resources, up from 189.8 Million tonnes (Mt) to 269.0 Mt. ANZ ha... more

A second, larger diamond drill rig operated by Foraco Argentina SA has progressed drilling to a depth of 141 metres at Lake Resources NL (Lake)’s 100 per cent owned Cauchari Lithium Brine Project in Jujuy - a province in Argentina’s remote northwest. Located adjacent to world-class brine projects either in production or under development, the new round of drilling aims to unlock further value from the emerging project. The larger diamond drill rig is targeting a sand horizon estimated between 350-450 metres deep and is set drill to 500 metres. Two rigs are now operational at Cauchari and reporting r... more

Rio Tinto has approved the next stage in the development of Richards Bay Minerals (RBM) in South Africa through the construction of the Zulti South project. The $463 million (Rio Tinto share $343 million) investment will sustain RBM’s current capacity and extend mine life. RBM currently operates four mines in the Zulti North lease area, a mineral separation plant and smelting facility. The Zulti North orebody grade is declining, hence the Zulti South mine is required to maintain the output of high-margin zircon and rutile, and provide sufficient ore to support TiO2 sales. The Zulti South mine (Phase 1) w... more