The latest issue of International Mining Project News has reports on 21 prefeasibility studies, 23 feasibility studies, 28 projects in development, seven new mines that have gone into production, 12 existing mines that are expanding, one mine that is downsizing, nine merger and acquisition announcements and many appointments to new positions. The reports covers 34 gold projects, 15 iron ore, 13 copper, 10 coal, eight silver projects, seven uranium, five rare earths and zinc projects, four projects on potash, three lead and nickel projects, two projects on molybdenum, PGMs and tungsten and one project each on scandium, mineral sands, phosphate, lithium, alumina, cobalt, bismuth, vanadium, chromite, tin, aluminium and precious metals. New Gold’s New Afton mine has started with the first ore having been processed through the mill circuit on June 28, 2012. New Gold is pleased that the June production start met the company’s originally stated timeline and the commissioning of the mill circuit has been consistent with its expectations. Since the first ore was placed in the mill circuit, the mill has been running on a continuous basis with progressively more ore being added to the circuit. The company anticipates that over the course of the coming weeks, the daily milling rate will continue to increase. New Gold’s target for commercial production at New Afton, defined as 30 days of operation at 60% of capacity, or 6,600 t/d, remains August 2012.
Codelco plans to invest $400 million in a molybdenum processing plant. The company, which Reuters reports is already the world’s No. 2 producer of molybdenum, will build the plant in the north of Chile, with production starting around 2015. Last year, Codelco sold 22,800 t of the moly and will ramp up its molybdenum production along with the planned transition from open-pit mining to underground operations at Chuquicamata mine.
St Barbara and Allied Gold Mining have reached agreement on a recommended offer to combine the two companies through a scheme of arrangement, on terms considered to be value enhancing for shareholders of both St Barbara and Allied Gold. The combination will create an international diversified gold mining and exploration company with forecast gold production of approximately 435,000 oz in the financial year ending 30 June 2013.
BHP Billiton has approved investment of $845 million to sustain operations at Illawarra Coal, in southern New South Wales, Australia by establishing a replacement mining area at the Appin mine. The replacement area will have a production capacity of 3.5 Mt/y of metallurgical coal and will sustain Illawarra Coal’s production capacity at 9 Mt/y. Appin Area 9 will be operational in 2016 and will replace production at the West Cliff mine. The project includes roadway development, new ventilation infrastructure, new and reconfigured conveyors and other mine services.
Resolute Mining has approved a major expansion of its flagship Syama gold mining operation in Mali. The approved works include an expansion of the existing sulphide open pit at Syama and the establishment of a parallel 1 Mt/y oxide processing circuit. As a result average annual production at Syama will increase to 270,000 o/y at cash costs of $720 /oz over the first nine years of operations. The expansion will extend Syama’s mine life to 15 years.
Discovery Metals has produced its first copper-silver concentrate, as commissioning of its Boseto copper project in north-western Botswana continues. The Boseto copper project (100% owned) is designed to produce an average of approximately 36,000 t/y copper and 1.1 Moz/y silver in concentrate from 3 Mt/y of ore feed.
Fortune Minerals has completed the Front End Engineering and Design study for its 100% owned NICO gold-cobalt-bismuth-copper project. NICO is a planned vertically integrated project consisting of an open pit and underground mine and mill near Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories of Canada and a hydrometallurgical refinery near Saskatoon, the Saskatchewan Metals Processing Plant (SMPP), where Fortune will process concentrates from the mill to high value metal products. Fortune plans to be a reliable Canadian-based producer of gold doré, 99.8% cobalt cathode (“cobalt metal”) and/or cobalt sulphate heptahydrate, containing 20.9% cobalt (cobalt sulphate), 99.99% bismuth ingot, and a copper metal precipitate.
Sirius Minerals has announced the mineralogical assay results of the deflection of the third borehole (SM3A) and provide an update of drilling at the York potash project. Chris Fraser, Managing Director and CEO: “The results of deflection drilling at SM3A and SM4A help to confirm the lateral consistency of the deposit which is an important step to achieve sufficient defined resource to underpin financing of the project. These results provide further confidence of the world-class nature of the York potash project following the release of our maiden Resource delivering the world’s largest and highest grade resource of polyhalite.”
Altona Mining has received notice from Mt Isa Mines that Xstrata intends to exercise the option it holds to acquire a 51% interest in a portion of the Roseby project. Roseby contains the Little Eva copper project which is located in the Mt Isa – Cloncurry mining district in Queensland, Australia. In accordance with the Option Agreement, Xstrata has the right to acquire the Sale Interest at an agreed or fair market price.
Oracle Coalfields has signed a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) with Karachi Electric Supply Co (KESC), through its 80% owned subsidiary Sindh Carbon Energy (SCEL), which will see SCEL provide KESC with a long-term supply of coal and water. This agreement supersedes the MoU signed between the respective parties on 12 December 2009. The coal and water will be used initially by a 300 MW coal-fired power plant (with potential to be increased to 1,100 MW) which will be constructed by KESC adjacent to Oracle’s planned coal mine in Block VI of the Thar Coalfield in Pakistan, in an area that will be sub-let by SCEL to KESC as part of the JDA agreement.
Black Range Minerals has executed a binding Heads of Agreement (HoA) with Ablation Technologies (ABT) to establish a joint venture to commercialise ABT’s ablation mineral technology process. Ablation is an environmentally sensitive and low cost method of concentrating ore that, based on test work, should enable the company to produce a high value uranium concentrate from ore at the company’s 90.9 Mlb Hansen/Taylor Ranch uranium project in Colorado, USA. Through the JV, the company will also have the potential to realise returns from the application of Ablation to other uranium mining operations, worldwide.
Beacon Hill Resources has announced an update to the Minas Moatize expansion project. Optimisation work continues on the Minas Moatize expansion project aimed at a phased expansion of the existing operation to in excess of 2 Mt/y of saleable coal.
Rio Tinto has started exporting premium hard coking coal from its Benga mine in the Moatize Basin in Mozambique. The first shipment of 34,000 t left the Port of Beira, bound for an Indian steel mill.
Cloud Peak Energy has acquired the Youngs Creek Mining Co joint venture and other related coal and surface assets from Chevron USA and CONSOL Energy for $300 million. Of this purchase price, $195 million is allocated to the lease of about 450 Mt of in-place coal and $105 million to the purchase and lease of 15,701 ha of land. The coal and land are well suited to support potential increased exports through the Pacific Northwest. Youngs Creek is a permitted but undeveloped surface mine project in the Northern Powder River Basin located 20 km north of Sheridan, Wyoming, contiguous with the Wyoming-Montana state line. It is 11 km south of Cloud Peak Energy’s Spring Creek mine and 11 km from the main railroad.
DTEK made its first coal acquisitions outside Ukraine by closing a deal with Rostovsky Anthracite to buy three mines and a coal processing plant. The company acquired corporate rights to public mining corporation Obukhovskaya (Obukhovskaya mine and a processing plant); Public Company Don-Anthracite (Dalnyaya mine) and Sulinanhtracite Company of Limited Responsibility (mothballed mine No. 410).
Bellzone Mining has announced that loading of the iron ore barge shipments for the Forécariah JV iron mine in the Republic of Guinea has commenced at the transhipping port at Konta.
These are just a few of the items in this fortnightly project watch (over 50 pages this issue). It 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. For subscription details check http://corporate.im-mining.com/subscribeprojnews.asp or contact [email protected]