The Northern Territory Government has granted a new manganese exploration licence covering part of Winchelsea Island to Winchelsea Mining Pty Ltd – a joint venture between the Anindilyakwa Advancement Aboriginal Corporation (AAAC) and AUS China International Mining, with AAAC the majority partner. The AAAC is made up of the two Traditional Owner clans of Winchelsea and benefits from this project will be shared with all 14 Anindilyakwa clans. The unique joint venture between AAAC and AUS China International Mining came together following the successful trade mission by Chief Minister Michael Gunner and the Anindilyakwa Land Council to Rizhao, Shandong, in November 2016. The Northern Territory is a world leader in the production of manganese with more than 100 million tonnes of manganese ore and concentrate produced to date. If exploration on Winchelsea Island locates an econ... more

Emerging Australian lithium developer, Core Lithium Ltd (Core), has just been granted Northern Territory’s first lithium-focused Mineral Lease, achieving a historic moment for both Core and the Northern Territory. Core’s 100 per cent owned Finniss Lithium Project will be positioned 36 kilometres from Berry Springs and 90 kilometres from Darwin by road and is expected to create up to 150 jobs during its construction phase and 90 on-going jobs during operations. The mine holds a JORC 2012 compliant Mineral Resources of 3.45 million tonnes at 1.4 per cent lithium oxide (Li20) and is said to be situated within a highly prospective area for lithium in the NT. In commenting on the news this morning, Core’s Managing Director, Stephen Biggins, said it was a significant milestone in the Company’s history. “As we continue on our path towards becoming Australia’s first lithi... more

Mining services company, Ausdrill Limited, has just secured $171 million in new contracts, including work through their recently acquired subsidiary of underground hard-rock miner, Barminco. Rosemont Gold project: Barminco has been awarded a three-year underground mining services contract at the Rosemont Gold Project from Regis Resources Limited (Regis) worth approximately $113 million. Rosemont has been a fully operational open-pit gold mine since March 2013 and is one of three Regis projects in the Duketon deposit area, located 130 kilometres north of Laverton in the Goldfields region of Western Australia. Regis recently approved expansion of the mine to an underground operation located directly below the current Rosemont open pit. Barminco is set to perform development and production work at the underground deposit. Barminco will shortly commence mobilisation and expect... more

Altura Mining Limited has provided an update on Stage 1 operations from the recently commissioned Altura Lithium Project, which is located in Pilgangoora, approximately 120 kilometres from Port Hedland in Western Australia. The company experienced some initial challenges and subsequent delays in stable production throughput, caused by the complexity of the process plant, but the processing capability has since delivered positive increases in performance during the last quarter and is continuing to improve. Altura has been pleased with the product quality outcome of all cargoes dispatched, with four cargoes totalling 24,000 dry metric tonnes dispatched to Chinese based customers during the December 2018 quarter. Stage 1 production from the project has a target nameplate capacity of 220,000 tonnes per annum of 6 per cent grade lithium oxide. Altura plans to dispatch regular mon... more

Sheffield Resources Limited (Sheffield) has secured a 15-year agreement (Agreement) with Woodside Energy Limited (Woodside) 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 (Thunderbird), 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 LNG to Thunderbird. Sheffield has stated that using LNG at Thunderbird provides them with a low cost, low emission, fuel source that is ideally suited to the ilmenite low-temperature roast process proposed for the Thunderbird proc... 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 the state’s total domestic gas supply. President of Alcoa Alumina and Managing Director of Alcoa of Australia, Michael Parker said in securing these new gas contracts Alcoa is demonstrating to employees, suppliers, customers and the communities where they operate that Alcoa is... more

Perdaman Chemicals and Fertilisers Pty Ltd and Woodside Energy Limited have signed a historic Gas Sale and Purchase Agreement (GSPA) for the supply of pipeline gas to the proposed Perdaman Urea Plant on the Burrup Peninsula in Karratha for a period of 20 years, with the option to extend to 25 years. The 2 million tonnes per annum (tpa) Urea Plant will be Australia’s first urea export project supplying the demand in the growing Asia Pacific region. It is expected to create in excess of 2,000 direct jobs during the project’s three-year construction phase and hold a permanent staff of 200 to operate the plant on a non-FIFO basis in Karratha. The GSPA is for a quantity of approximately 125 terajoules (TJ) of gas per day for use in the proposed urea plant. Gas will be supplied from Woodside’s portfolio and primarily sourced from the company’s proposed Scarborough development. ... more

INPEX has just announced that they have officially commenced operations at the Ichthys LNG Project, which is located in the Ichthys Gas-condensate Field, offshore of Western Australia. The large-scale project is expected to be operational for over 40 years. The project is set to produce and ship approximately 8.9 million tons of LNG, along with approximately 1.65 million tons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) per year. Aside from this, it is predicted that the project will further produce approximately 100,000 barrels of condensate per day during its peak. The produced gas will be gathered within the Central Processing Facility (Ichthys Explorer) where it will be separated into gases and liquids. Thereafter, the liquids will be piped to the nearby Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) Facility (called the Ichthys Venturer), whereas the gases will be transported via the... more

The Australian Government has announced the completion of a grid-scale battery at Dalrymple substation on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula. The Dalrymple ESCRI ElectraNet 30 megawatt (MW) / 8 MWh grid-scale battery will improve energy reliability for 4,500 local households and businesses by working together with the existing 90 MW Wattle Point Wind Farm and rooftop solar photovoltaic panels to provide back-up power supply to the region. In the event of a supply interruption from the electricity grid, the Dalrymple battery can provide 2-3 hours of electricity while connection to the grid is restored. Local federal MP Rowan Ramsey said the Dalrymple battery would provide more reliable power for customers at the fringe of the South Australian grid. “The Dalrymple battery is strategically located to instantly respond to the intermittency and variability of power generated fro... more

Less than a year after construction began, global renewable energy company, BayWa r.e., have completed two new wind farms in Victoria.  Located at Timboon West and Yawong, the two farms each consist of two Vestas V126 3.6 megawatt (MW) turbines, spanning up to 150 metres tall at the tip of the blade. The two wind farms have the capacity to produce enough clean energy to power 9,000 Australian homes. Managing Director of BayWa r.e. Wind Pty Ltd, David Shapero, said the company is thrilled to have the first wind farms in their Australian project pipeline fully operational and generating renewable energy in such a short space of time. BayWa r.e. will sell the wind farms together with 15-year Operation and Maintenance contracts with Vestas in place and have secured a Power Purchase Agreement to sell 100 per cent of Timboon West and Yawong Wind Farm's power to Alinta Energy. T... more

The Northern Territory is set to be powered by 10 per cent renewable energy before the end of 2019, thanks to a new $43 million solar project announced by the NT Government today. Australian renewables developer, Tetris Energy, will soon advance to construction on two 10 megawatt (MW) solar farms at Batchelor and Manton Dam, which are estimated to generate enough energy to power 5000 homes once they are completed in the second half of the year. The project, in combination with Epuron and Island Green Power’s previously announced 25MW Katherine Solar Farm, is set to increase the share of renewable energy use in NT’s major centres from the current 3 per cent to 10 per cent. Up to 70 local jobs are expected to be supported during the construction phase of the two new solar farms, in addition to several ongoing service and maintenance roles. Minister for Renewables and Essen... more

The University of Newcastle has signed a seven year contract with Red Energy to buy 100 per cent renewable electricity across its Newcastle and Central Coast campuses. The move is in response to feedback from students, staff and stakeholders who want to see the University do its bit to tackle climate change through increased investment in renewable energy. The University of Newcastle is also the first university in Australia to sign up to Red Energy’s new 100 per cent renewable product. Its contract commences 1 January 2019, with 100 per cent renewable electricity provided from 1 January 2020 (once Red Energy has finished building its solar, wind and hydro capacity). University of Newcastle Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Alex Zelinsky AO said social and environmental responsibility is at the core of their operations. “Our students, staff and community told us th... more

The Department of Environment and Energy have approved Tellus Holdings Ltd’s Sandy Ridge Facility, which is set to reside within the Goldfields Region of Western Australia. Tellus is proposing to construct and operate Australia’s first dual open-cut kaolin (clay) mine and arid near-surface geological waste repository, the Sandy Ridge Facility, approximately 75 kilometres north-east of Koolyanobbing. There are two key aspects of Tellus' proposal. The first involves mining kaolin primarily for export to Asia or the domestic ceramic clay market, with the second aspect involving storing hazardous, intractable and low-level radioactive wastes within the void spaces left from mining operations. Western Australia holds several world-class kaolin deposits, however to this day none of these deposits have been developed on a commercial scale due to issues with development and operati... more

Albemarle Corporation has commenced earthworks for its new lithium hydroxide manufacturing plant in the Kemerton Strategic Industrial Area, which is located approximately 17 kilometres north-east of Bunbury. The Albemarle Kemerton Plant will process spodumene ore concentrate from the Talison Lithium Greenbushes mine, which is the largest source of spodumene ore concentrate in the southern hemisphere (Environmental Protection Authority 2018), through five process trains. The plant is expected to produce up to 100,000 tonnes per annum of lithium hydroxide and has the potential to expand to 100,000 metric tonnes. Further to this, the plant is expected to generate over 500 construction jobs and an initial 100 operational jobs, increasing to 500 at full operational capacity. Western Australia's Acting Premier Roger Cook said the commencement of construction by Albemarle demonstra... more

GFG Alliance Executive Chairman, Sanjeev Gupta, has revealed plans for a  mega steel plant for the South Australian City Whyalla, signing an engineering contract with CISDI for the ambitious project. Mr Gupta said GFG Alliance’s cutting‐edge transformation plans for the existing steel plant are just the beginning of what they have in store for the region. “Utilising almost perfect local conditions – our own infrastructure including a deep‐sea port; rich local resources; and unrivalled community passion – we now plan to build a new steel plant, one of the world’s largest, right here in Whyalla,” he shared. Liberty Next-Gen Steel is set to become the largest of its kind in the Western world, capable of producing 10 million tonnes per year, with the ability and infrastructure to double capacity in time. Plans indicate that the roughly $600 million project will ... more

Minister for Planning and Housing, Anthony Roberts, has launched a new asphalt plant in Sydney, expected to bring 50 permanent jobs to the area. At the ceremony yesterday, Mr Roberts said that State Asphalts NSW’s $20 million facility in St Marys is set to produce both transport material and asphalt, and in doing so is significant for Western Sydney. “State Asphalts NSW has delivered thousands of tonnes of asphalt for thousands of kilometres of road throughout NSW, including the Hume Highway, the Great Western Highway, Camden Valley Way, and even through Centennial Parklands,” Mr Roberts announced. “It’s an unsung hero of the infrastructure revolution we’ve been driving throughout this state in recent years. Without high-quality asphalt to cover the roads we’re building, our progress would be stalled,” he added. The new plant (a Marini Top Tower 4000S asphalt... more

Strandline Resources Limited is preparing to commence the next phase of air-core drilling at the Sudi mineral sands project in Southern Tanzania, alongside Joint Venture partner Rio Tinto Mining & Exploration Limited. The Sudi project is located 30 kilometres by sealed road from the port and city infrastructure of Mtwara in southeastern Tanzania. Under the terms of the Joint Venture, Rio Tinto is funding the exploration programme at Sudi, with the exploration itself being conducted by Strandline. In March this year, Strandline announced that drilling at Sudi returned thick intervals of heavy mineral sands along an 8-kilometre anomaly, with these intervals ranging... more

Metallurgical coal development company, Montem Resources Limited, has lodged its Prospectus with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to raise up to $20 million and list on the Australian Securities Exchange via an Initial Public Offering (IPO). Following a successful capital raising and listing, Montem is likely to have a market cap in the range of $50 million to $55 million. The Prospectus offers up to 40 million new ordinary shares at an issue price of $0.50 per share to raise up to $20 million, with capital raising expected to close in early October, and trading of Montem shares expected to commence mid-October. The company has multiple properties covering 220 square kilometres, including four metallurgical coal projects that have been mined previously. These brownfield projects, known as the Chinook Properties, are said to contain an estimated 163 Millio... more

Lithium exploration and project development company, Lake Resources NL have confirmed that drill hole locations have now been determined for the upcoming drill program at their 100 per cent owned Cauchari Lithium Brine Project in Argentina. Following recent discussions with relevant authorities in Argentina this week, the company has announced plans to drill three holes, with a possible fourth hole, to depths of 400 metres. Drilling is anticipated to show a likely extension to the high-grade lithium brines in adjacent properties and work is likely to commence in early October, barring any unforeseen delays. Third party drill results on the adjoining project were found to include 600mg/L lithium with high flow rates and 470mg/L close to the lease boundary. Based on recent seismic lines, Lake expects these high-grade lithium brines to extend into its leases and brine bearing sedimen... more

BHP Billiton plc (BHP) has entered into an agreement with Canadian based mining company Guyana Goldfields Inc. (Guyana) to acquire a 6.1 per cent interest in SolGold Plc (SolGold), the majority owner and operator of the Cascabel porphyry copper-gold project in Ecuador. SolGold is a copper-gold exploration company with objectives to discover and define world‐class copper‐gold deposits in Ecuador. They hold the largest exploration team and the most active exploration programme across the country. Cascabel is SolGold’s flagship project and is one of the most advanced resources project in Northern Ecuador. Under the terms of the new agreement, BHP will acquire 103.1 million shares in SolGold, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange. The pur... more