The latest issue of International Mining Project News, out today, has reports on 23 Prefeasibility Studies, 17 Feasibility studies, 38 projects in development, four new mines that have gone into production, five existing mines that are expanding, eight merger and acquisition announcements and many new appointments to new positions. The reports cover 39 gold projects, 22 copper, 12 iron ore, nine coal, eight silver, three each of molybdenum and zinc, two each of lithium, vanadium, titanium, potash, lead, manganese, rare earths and nickel and one of each of tin, magnesium, diamonds, silicon, cobalt, phosphate, zeolite and base metals. This fortnightly project watch is a great way of keeping up to date with your peers – other mining companies, other consultants or other engineering companies. These issues build into a global mine project overview. If you are a supplier – it is full of potential sales leads.Stornoway Diamond has announced the results of the Feasibility Study for the Renard Diamond Project located in North Central Québec. The FS outlines a combined open pit and underground mine plan and was prepared by SNC Lavalin with contributions from AMEC Americas for the design of the underground mine and diamond processing plant and G Mining Services for open pit mine design and cash flow analysis. 11 year reserve-based mine life with maximum diamond production peaking at 2.1 Mct/y, and averaging 1.7 Mct/y life of mine.

BHP Billiton has approved a $822 million (BHP Billiton share $698 million) investment for the development of its Orebody 24 mine, located approximately 10 km north-east of Newman, Western Australia. Orebody 24 is a sustaining mine to maintain iron ore production output from the Newman Joint Venture operations. The new Orebody 24 mine will have a capacity of 17 Mt/y.

Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold will, before the end of this year, present, the Environmental Impact Study for the expansion of the Cerro Verde copper-molybdenum mine.

EMED Mining is getting closer to the re-opening of the Rio Tinto mine in Spain to produce approximately 37,000 t of copper-in-concentrate based on processing 9.0 Mt/y of ore.

Kazakhstan’s state mining company,  Tau-Ken Samruk,  plans to begin construction of a third gold refinery next year to process an expected increase in volumes of the precious metal, the country’s Industry Ministry said. The refinery will have a capacity to produce 25 t/y of bullion and could cost up to $30 million to build.

Beadell Resources has announced that the first drawdown for $30 million from the company’s $90 million project finance facility has occurred. Managing Director, Peter Bowler: “This is another very important milestone for Beadell as we continue unabated to make good on our strategy to commence gold production at Tucano between April and June 2012. Construction and mining continues apace.”

Deep Yellow has announced that its wholly owned Namibian operating subsidiary, Reptile Uranium Namibia (RUN) has submitted the Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIA) to the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) for the Shiyela iron project. The project is located entirely within its 100% held Exclusive Prospecting Licence 3496. The EIA incorporates an assessment for a mine initially producing 2 Mt/y of a high quality magnetite product, which could be expanded to 7.5 Mt/y depending on port capacity, ongoing exploration success and market economics.

Oracle Coalfields, the UK developer of a 14,000 Mt coal resource in the south-eastern desert of the Sindh Province, Pakistan, has announced that its 80% owned subsidiary, Sindh Carbon Energy, has submitted an application for a 30 year mining lease, with a 30 year extension, for the company’s Block VI Thar Coalfield Project.

Legend International Holdings plans to begin phosphate rock production and sales operations from its Paradise rock deposits in Australia for domestic value added sales and exports.

Ausenco has been awarded a A$45 million Create phase engineering services contract for the $1.8 billion Bozshakol copper project owned by Kazakhmys. Ausenco Minerals and Metals business will be providing engineering services for the concentrator plant that is expected to have a throughput of around 28 28 Mt/y.

Poseidon Nickel has submitted a detailed Mining Proposal for the Mount Windarra Mine to the Western Australian Government in order to seek approval to both restart mining operations and to build a processing plant on the site. The proposal includes mining up to 500,000 t/y ore from Mount Windarra with an initial mine life of six years.

Altona Mining has exposed the Kylylahti orebody for the first time at a vertical depth of 150 m. This is an important milestone in Altona’s path to copper production in Finland; first concentrate production is expected in the first quarter of 2012.

In Botswana, both Hana Mining and Discovery Metals have news from their exciting copper projects.

Polar Star Mining has begun production at its Chépica epithermal gold-silver-copper mine in central Chile.

Minefinders has approved the construction of a mill, expected to have a minimum capacity of 6,500 t/d, and the development of an underground resource at its Dolores mine.

Monument Mining has advised that the Phase III gold plant expansion construction at the Selinsing Gold Mine is approximately 30% complete and is progressing as planned targeting completion by May 2012. The Phase III expansion is estimated to cost $8.1 million. Its objective is to increase capacity of the gold treatment processing plant from 400,000 t/y to some 1 Mt/y through installation of an additional crusher, a primary ball mill, three leach tanks, and other improvements to the gold room, detox circuit, tailing pipelines and pumping system.

In New Zealand Solid Energy is applying to the Grey District and West Coast Regional Councils for resource consents which would support the company’s exploration of a substantial resource of export-grade hard coking coal near Greymouth.

Full details on all these projects and information on and contacts for many, many more are to be found in the November 18 issue of International Mining Project News….

To receive the full report, subscriptions to this service can be registered and paid for on-line (SUBSCRIBE TO IM PROJECT NEWS BUTTTON), or contact [email protected] for a free trial copy.