The latest issue of International Mining Project News, out today, has reports from the past two weeks on 15 prefeasibility studies, 11 feasibility studies, 39 projects in development, two new mines that have gone into production, six existing mines that are expanding, three merger and acquisition announcements and many new appointments to new positions. This week’s reports covers 23 gold projects, 11iron ore and copper projects, three projects each in coal, manganese and rare earth elements, three projects each on molybdenum, uranium, zinc and potash, two niobium, vanadium, titanium, and iron sands projects, one project each for tantalum, zirconium, magnesium, graphite, phosphate, lithium, silver, fluorspar, lead, anthracite, ferro alloys, cobalt, tungsten and mineral sands and one polymetallic project. In each case there are full project and contact details.Vale celebrated its 70th anniversary on June 1, 2012. At the same time it achieved the extraordinary milestone of five billion tonnes of iron ore production accumulated since the company’s incorporation (iron ore production accumulated from June 1, 1942 to June 1, 2012, totalled 5,007,783,000 t). The volume of iron ore produced by Vale during these seven decades is sufficient to feed more than two years of global crude steel output at the current pace of 1.5 billion t/y. In this context, on June 27, 2012, Vale obtained the preliminary environmental license (LP) to develop the Carajás S11D iron ore project. Located in the Southern Range of Carajás, state of Pará, Brazil, S11D has a nominal capacity to deliver 90 Mt/y, with an average Fe content of 66.48% and low concentration of impurities. Vale says “S11D is the largest project not only in Vale’s history but also in the entire iron ore industry, being our major lever for production growth and maintenance of Vale’s undisputed leadership in the global market in terms of volume, mining costs and quality.”

Codelco has submitted an environmental permit request to go ahead with its $12.8 million expansion project for El Teniente copper mine, the company’s most profitable division, according to the newspaper La Tercera. This will extend mine life for another 50 years, maintaining current copper output levels and also generating long-term growth. Under the project, El Teniente will mine 2,500 Mt from reserves located at a deeper level in the mine at with an average 4% Cu grade.

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