First smelter-grade alumina refinery for Indonesia? Yenipazar feasibility study, Amulsar gold project, Sisson tungsten-molybdenum and many, many more (news from over 100 projects) in the latest Project News

azumah.jpgToday’s issue of International Mining Project News is well over 50 pages packed with detailed information with reports on 22 prefeasibility studies, 27 feasibility studies, 32 projects in development, two new mines that have gone into production, seven existing mines that are expanding, six merger and acquisition announcements and many new appointments to new positions. The report covers 32 gold projects, 14 coal, 12 iron ore, 12 copper projects, nine uranium projects, six reports each on rare earth and silver projects, four in nickel and four in zinc, three projects each on zinc and molybdenum, two projects each on tungsten, lead and mineral sands, one project each on lithium, potash, diamonds, tin, bauxite, alumina, manganese, titanium, rutile, zircon, ilmenite, vanadium and lead, and includes one polymetallic project.

King Island Scheelite (KIS) announced results from the recently completed DFS for its 100% owned Dolphin project. Redevelopment of this worldclass, high grade tungsten deposit on King Island (Tasmania) has the potential to generate strong cash flows over an initial 10 year mine life, during the course of which it would produce approximately one quarter of the current world non-Chinese supply of tungsten.

Banro has announced the closing of its $175 million debt financing. The net proceeds from the offering will be used for the development of the company’s Namoya project.

Inmet Mining has announced an initial independent resource estimate and recent drill results for the Balboa copper-gold porphyry discovery originally announced March 8, 2011. The deposit is located on the Cobre Panama property in central Panama and is owned by Minera Panama.

IMX Resources reports a 150% increase in Measured and Indicated mineral resources at the Ntaka Hill Ni-Cu deposits at the Nachingwea JV Project in southern Tanzania. Managing Director, Neil Meadows: “This substantial increase in resources at the Nachingwea Nickel Project is great news for IMX shareholders. Through our 25% interest in the Joint Venture and 37% direct investment in Continental Nickel we have almost 53% beneficial ownership of the project which is beginning to advance towards development.”

Blackthorn Resources has provided a project update for surface construction and mine development activities at the Perkoa Project in Burkina Faso.

IronClad Mining has announced further success with its capital raising program for ongoing development of the Wilcherry Hill iron ore mine on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula.

AXMIN announced that over and above its previously announced $185 million mandated senior debt (press release July 20, 2011 and January 26, 2012) a further $25 million in senior debt and $25 million in subordinated convertible debt has been mandated with the International Finance Corp (IFC) for the purposes of partially funding the development of the Passendro gold project in the Central African Republic (CAR).

Petmin has issued a maiden resource statement for its jointly-controlled North Atlantic Iron Corp (NAIC) iron sands to pig iron project in Canada’s Labrador province. Petmin will now accelerate its investment in NAIC based on the project’s technical and economic viability.

Tahoe Resources announced financial results for the year ending December 31, 2011, and updated construction progress at its flagship Escobal project in Guatemala.  Project development costs of $39.6 million were expensed in 2011.  At December 31, 2011, the total project work force amounted to 428 employees, of whom more than 95% are Guatemalan. The project remains on schedule and budget for mill commissioning in the second half of 2013 and commercial production in 1Q 2014.

Mechel OAO, one of the leading Russian mining and metals companies, has received subsoil licenses for exploring and extracting iron ore in the Sutamsky area and in the Sivaglinsky deposit, both located in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)’s Neryungri region. The Sutamsky iron ore area is about 3,300 km2 and consists of several promising iron ore deposits. The license area is over 740 km2. Its estimated reserves under Russian standards are 1,350 Mt. The Sutamsky ores’ Fe content averages 32-40%. The Sutamsky area is located 210 km southeast of Neryungri.

Jonathan Henry, Gabriel’s President and Chief Executive Officer: “We continue to work closely with the Romanian Government to permit and build Romania’s first modern mine. Our campaign to highlight the substantial economic, social and environmental benefits of the Rosia Montana project continues and it is pleasing to see recent polls in Romania showing a significant majority in favour of the development of mining in Rosia Montana. We look forward to the TAC recommendation in the coming months.”

ENK has completed the infill drilling program and has a nickel limonite and saprolite resource update for the Acoje project as well as an update on the nickel laterite infill drill program for the Zambales Chromite Mining Corp (ZCMC) project.  Both projects are located in close proximity on the west coast of Luzon, 250 km north of Manila in the Philippines. 

Xstrata Coal and JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp have created a joint venture comprising contiguous metallurgical coal assets in the Peace River Coalfields in Western Canada.  JX Nippon Oil & Energy (Australia), a subsidiary of JX, has paid $435 million in cash to acquire a 25% interest in Xstrata Coal British Columbia (XCBC). 

Vista Gold Corp has announced the initial results of the current resource conversion drilling program at its Mt. Todd gold project in Northern Territory, Australia, and provide an update on the company’s development activities at the Mt. Todd gold project as the definitive feasibility study nears completion. The company has decided to build a project development team in Australia and to evaluate the potential for a larger project than contemplated in the feasibility study.

Azumah Resources has reported an expansion in mineral resources to 1,016,000 oz Measured and Indicated and 659,000 oz Inferred gold plus a substantial upgrade in the classification of all major mineral resources at its Wa gold project, northwest Ghana.

These are just some of the projects covered in this issue. 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.

Full details on all these projects and information on and contacts for many, many more are to be found in the March 2 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.