The latest issue of International Mining Project News, out today (over 50 pages), reports 23 prefeasibility studies, 17 feasibility studies, 39 projects in development, four mines that have gone into production, 12 existing mines that are expanding, eight merger and acquisition announcements and many new appointments to influential positions within mining and exploration companies. It covers 39 gold projects, 16 copper, 14 coal and 13 iron ore projects, 10 silver, six reports on uranium and rare earth projects, four on zinc, molybdenum and nickel, three projects on tungsten, phosphate, diamonds and tin, two on PGMs and manganese and one project each on zirconium, sulphur, titanium, feldspar, zircon, tantalum, barite, cobalt and lead. Xstrata Coal has received the go-ahead for its A$6.3 billion Wandoan mine in Australia, potentially the largest thermal coal mine in the southern hemisphere. The proposed mine is in Queensland’s Surat Basin.Twin Metals Minnesota has instructed Bechtel Engineering to prepare the NI-43-101 prefeasibility study on the massive Twin Metals copper, nickel, PGM project in northern Minnesota.

First Quantum Minerals has issued the mineral resource and reserve estimates for its Sentinel copper project in Zambia. The project is part of the Trident project that is located approximately 150 km west of the company’s flagship Kansanshi mine.

Golden Star Resources has announced the completion of a company authored PEA of the West Reef orebody of the Prestea underground gold mine in Ghana.

Baja Mining Corp has provided a project update for its 70% Boleo copper-cobalt-zinc project, located near Santa Rosalia, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Construction of the Boleo process plant and site infrastructure continues on schedule. Critical path analysis of the construction schedule continues to indicate a process plant completion date which is consistent with Baja’s objective of producing copper in the first half of 2013.

Stonegate Agricom has announced the results of its prefeasibility study for the development of an underground mine in the Lower Phosphate Zone of its Paris Hills phosphate project in Idaho, USA.

Encanto Potash Corp has released the resource results of a new NI 43-101 Technical Report being prepared by North Rim Exploration on the company’s Muskowekwan project situated on the Muskowekwan First Nation (MFN) Home Reserve and the MFN Treaty Land Entitlement lands (TLE Lands) which in combination cover approximately 23,600 ha in Saskatchewan. North Rim has prepared the resource calculations based on the solution mining extraction method. 

Sundance Resources and Equatorial Resources have signed a Memorandum of Understanding under which both companies will examine how Equatorial may use the rail and port infrastructure associated with Sundance’s Mbalam/Nabeba iron ore project in West Africa.

Australian gold company Cortona Resources is on track to begin development of its flagship Dargues Reef gold project in NSW.

Altona Mining has received first revenues from the Outokumpu copper project in Finland. Copper-gold concentrate shipments commenced in the last week of February and some 445 t (dry) of concentrate was delivered to the Harjavalta smelter in western Finland, some 400 km by truck from the project.

White Mountain Titanium Corp has entered into additional agreements with professional firms to advance work necessary to take the Cerro Blanco project to final feasibility.

Bateman Australia has been engaged by Toro Energy to provide a definitive feasibility study for the company’s flagship and wholly-owned Western Australian Wiluna uranium project. Bateman Australia’s Managing Director John Riordan said his team has been working closely with Toro Energy since September 2011 to assist the company with its pilot plant test work.

Xstrata Coal has received the go-ahead for its A$6.3 billion Wandoan mine in Australia, potentially the largest thermal coal mine in the southern hemisphere. The proposed mine is in Queensland’s Surat Basin.  The Wandoan coal project is an open-pit thermal coal mine immediately west of the Wandoan township. The mining lease application area covers approximately 32,000 ha. The proposed mine would include a coal handling and preparation plant, and support facilities. With an expected life of more than 30 years, the mine would produce thermal coal that would be exported around the world or sold to the domestic market. It is anticipated that around 30 Mt/y run-of-mine coal would be mined.

Greenland Minerals and Energy (GMEL) has announced the first mineral resource estimate for the ‘Zone 2′ multi‐element deposit. Zone 2 is the second mineral resource established in the broader project area, following the delineation of a 619 Mt resource at Kvanefjeld (March 2011).

Rare Element Resources has entered into an agreement with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) to develop and test a process to produce separated rare earth (RE) products from concentrates derived from ore material at the Bear Lodge project, Wyoming.

Hastings Rare Metals has announced the engagement of ANSTO, a world-leading specialist in process development in rare earths and uranium processing, to act as R&D developer for the Hastings heavy rare earths oxide (HREO) project located in the northwest, Western Australia. Jacobs Engineering, as previously reported, will assist the Hastings team in the management of project development through to the prefeasibility stage.

Avalon Rare Metals has provided an update on progress on the Nechalacho rare earth elements feasibility study, Thor Lake, NWT. Work on the Feasibility Study on the Nechalacho rare earth elements project, being carried out by SNC-Lavalin, is progressing steadily and remains on target for completion at the end of 2012.

The 44.5 Mt Abu Dabbab tantalum-tin-feldspar deposit is located within the Central Eastern Desert in Egypt. The deposit is located about 16 km inland from the western shore of the Red Sea. The deposit is covered by two Exploitation Leases (1658 & 1659) granted in the name of Tantalum Egypt JSC, a company incorporated in Egypt and owned 50% by the Egyptian Government via the Egyptian Mineral Resources Authority (EMRA) and 50% by Tantalum International which is a 100% owned subsidiary of Gippsland.

Sumatra Copper & Gold has advised the critical environmental permitting (AMDAL) for its 100%-owned Tembang gold and silver project, located in central Sumatra, is now complete.

Bushveld Minerals, a mineral development company focused on iron and tin projects on the Bushveld Complex in South Africa, commenced trading on AIM after a placing raised gross proceeds of £5.46 million.

Pan American Silver Corp and Minefinders Corp have announced the positive results of their respective shareholder votes to approve the previously announced plan of arrangement whereby Pan American will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Minefinders.

AuRico Gold and Crocodile Gold Corp have entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which Crocodile Gold will acquire the Stawell and Fosterville mines located in Victoria State, Australia through the acquisition of all of the shares of Northgate Australian Ventures Corp from AuRico, for total consideration of up to C$105 million.

Cuesta Coal has launched its IPO.

All this and so much more in this latest 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 30 issue of International Mining Project News…..

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