In mid-February a Perth-based dual-listed resources house took a major step towards establishing a sovereign national graphite project which entailed a ‘mine to market’ capability and integrated operations located within its home state of Western Australia. In doing so, it moved further towards its goal of becoming a significant player in the global processed graphite market. International Graphite Ltd (ASX: IG6) has just completed the successful wet commissioning of its new $1.5 million, 200 tonnes per annum graphite micronising plant in the coal mining town of Collie in WA using imported graphite concentrates. To be known as the Collie BAM…
An ASX-listed junior is looking to expeditiously dual-track its two lithium projects during the coming year, with the Perth-based Future Battery Minerals Ltd (FBM) targeting deposits in both Western Australia and the US state Nevada. In WA, the prize is its wholly-owned Kangaroo Hills, located just 17 kilometres south of the historic gold town of Coolgardie, where a high grade lithium-caesium-tantalum pegmatite discovery has so far returned an assay of 29 metres at 1.36 per cent lithium. Meanwhile, in southern Nevada, the aptly-named Nevada Lithium Project (NLP), in which the junior has an 80 per cent interest, is a large-scale…
Ora Gold Limited has announced a significant update to the mineral resource estimate (MRE) for the Crown Prince Prospect at its flagship Garden Gully Gold Project, located in the heart of the prolific Murchison gold district near Meekatharra, Western Australia. The total resource at Crown Prince has now reached 240,000 ounces of gold at a grade of 4.1g/t Au, a considerable growth from its 2019 estimate. Notably, 68 per cent of these ounces fall within the Indicated JORC category, highlighting the enhanced drill density and improved geological understanding of the prospect. This advancement underscores the prospect's strong open pit mining potential,…
Intra Energy Corporation Limited has begun a comprehensive soil geochemical survey at its Maggie Hays Hill Project in Western Australia's Lake Johnston Province. It marks a significant step in the exploration of historical gold and lithium targets within the project area. Following the acquisition of the Maggie Hays Hill (MHH) lithium and gold project, preliminary rock sampling conducted in December unveiled highly anomalous levels of tantalum, with a maximum of 390 ppm, and niobium, with a maximum of 482 ppm. These findings, reported in an ASX release on 17 January 2024, underscore the potential of the area and necessitate a comprehensive…
Victory Metals Limited has today announced the results of its recent metallurgical test work conducted on the North Stanmore Rare Earth Element (REE)Project — situated 10 kilometres north of Cue, Western Australia. The optimised mixed rare earth carbonate metallurgy concentrate from North Stanmore has shown great proportions of dysprosium (Dy) and terbium (Tb), with Dy constituting 73.6 per cent and Tb 10 per cent of the concentrate. This composition contrasts with the figures from the commissioning Serra Verde, Pela Ema Project mixed REE concentrate product — which contains 9.4 per cent Dy and 1.6 per cent Tb. Victory Metals said…
Intra Energy Corporation Limited has acquired an 80 per cent interest in the Maggie Hays Hill lithium project (MHH Project) in the prolific Lake Johnston region of Western Australia. Intra Energy Corporation Chairman Graeme Robertson stated: “The acquisition of the MHH Project opens the exciting opportunity to IEC for advanced exploration for lithium, gold, and nickel in the well-known Maggie Hays Hill area of southern Western Australia. “Initial work done by IEC and historical exploration has identified visible outcropping pegmatites with recently discovered spodumene deposits to the south providing potential for lithium. ”As this is a more advanced area than…
Toro Energy Limited has issued an update that its extension study to the proposed Lake Maitland Uranium-Vanadium operation — located approximately 105 kilometres southeast of the Wiluna township in Western Australia and 730 kilometres northeast of Perth. The study involves the evaluation of the incorporation of material from Toro’s 100 per cent owned Lake Way and Centipede-Millipede uranium deposits into a proposed processing operation at Lake Maitland. Toro Energy Executive Chairman Richard Homsany said: “The uranium resources at Lake Way and Centipede-Millipede are strategically located and considerable, and need to be thoroughly evaluated for viability. “The inclusion of additional material…
Lithium Power International Limited’s 50% owned Chilean joint venture company Minera Salar Blanco (MSB), responsible for developing the Maricunga Lithium Brine Project, has been awarded a key regulatory export licence by the Chilean Nuclear Energy Commission (CCHEN) to produce, market and export lithium products from Chile that are extracted from the Maricunga salar. MSB was granted a significant extraction quota on 9 March 2018 to export lithium from Chile. The quota has a term of 30 years and covers brine extracted from Maricunga, containing 88,885 metric tonnes of metallic lithium in brine or 472,868 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE).…
Construction at the US$80-million Epanko project in Tanzania is expected to commence next year. Following mining and processing, Epanko will produce a high-grade graphite concentrate. The proponent, the Australian company Kibaran Resources, is also looking at a further processing step, to produce graphite suitable for lithium-ion batteries. Because of their use in electric vehicles, such batteries present a strongly-growing market for graphite. Australia is the largest foreign investor in mining in Africa. Epanko is one of several dozen Australian projects that have progressed beyond an early exploration stage. There are many more at an early stage. According to one estimate,…
5G technology from Ericsson could soon be used to improve communication and remote control operations in the Swedish mines. A project designed to improve productivity and safety in traditionally dangerous environments is being run by Ericsson, ABB, Boliden, SICS Swedish ICT and Volvo Construction Equipment. In the pilot phase of the project, a 5G development system consisting of new and existing technologies will be used to remotely control a Volvo truck used for transporting ore within the mine. The actual location for the pilot is still to be chosen from a shortlist of mines operated by Boliden. The successful implementation…
A contract by Preem AB, the largest fuel company in Sweden, has awarded a contract for the Engineering, Procurement and Construction management (EPCm) of their Lysekil refinery’s new Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU). The new facility will manufacture Vacuum Gas Oil hence removing the need for its import. Amec Foster Wheeler announces the award of the EPCm contract follows the successful completion of a feasibility study for the VDU by Amec Foster Wheeler in 2014 to confirm the technical viability of the project, and its subsequent Front End Engineering Design in 2015. “I am delighted that we are able to continue…
Amec Foster Wheeler has announced that its Clough AMEC joint venture has been awarded a three year contract by ConocoPhillips to provide asset support, operations and maintenance services to the Bayu-Undan offshore field development, located in the Timor Sea. The Bayu-Undan offshore facilities consist of a floating storage and offloading facility and three fixed platforms, a remote wellhead platform and a compression, utilities and quarters platform (CUQ) and a drilling, production and processing platform. The latter two are located adjacent to each other and linked by an access bridge, forming the Central Production and Processing Complex. “We are delighted to build on our…
