The latest issue of International Mining Project News, out today, has reports on 16 prefeasibility studies, six feasibility studies, 22 projects in development, three new mines that have gone into production, 12 existing mines that are expanding, nine merger and acquisition announcements and many new appointments to new positions. The report covers 25 gold projects, nine copper, and coal projects, seven silver, and nickel projects, four iron ore, and uranium, three titanium projects, two minerals sands, base metals, rare earths, zinc, platinum, phosphate projects, and one project each on bauxite, vanadium, niobium, potash, graphite, antimony, tungsten, lithium, and vanadium. Contact [email protected] for a trial copy.
As announced earlier this week by IM, there was an inauguration ceremony for Boliden’s expansion of the Garpenberg mine, with Christer Fuglesang, Professor at the Royal Institute of Technology and the first Swede in space, officiating. The investment, which totaled SEK3.9 billion, has made Garpenberg into one of the world’s most cost-effective and modern zinc and silver mines. The expansion, which is located adjacent to the existing mining area, includes a new concentrator and underground equipment and infrastructure. The theme of the inauguration, Boliden says, was “knowhow and technological development, in that the expansion was enabled by a combination of successful exploration activities and sector leading technological development.”
An independent analysis of uranium samples from Toro Energy’s Wiluna uranium project in Western Australia by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). The samples highlighted significant levels of positive disequilibrium in three of the Wiluna deposits.
Disequilibrium analysis is a lab based analytical technique that tests the accuracy of measuring uranium via a gamma probe compared to chemical assay. The presence of disequilibrium can affect the interpretation of gamma measurements and subsequent eU3O8 estimates that result from gamma probe results. A substantial portion of the published Mineral Resources for the Wiluna project have been based on historic samples which estimated uranium content from the results of gamma data alone.
Hancock Prospecting Chairman, Mrs Gina Rinehart said, “We have realised another significant milestone in the life of the Roy Hill project, with the first official owner/operator mining taking place in The Pilbara, West Australia. “This is a project that will employ thousands of Australians for decades and earn much needed export revenue for Australia. Roy Hill is currently the largest single mainland construction project in Australia. As mining investment generally is contracting in Australia, Roy Hill and Hancock Prospecting is against the trend and continues to invest and grow”.
New Age Exploration (NAE) reports that the Lochinvar coking coal project is an attractive low ash coking coal project ideally located to supply domestic UK and Western European steel mills. A total resource of 111 Mt comprising 49 Mt Indicated Resource and 62 Mt Inferred Resource has been defined following completion of Phase 1b drilling in July 2014.
NAE Managing Director, Gary Fietz, commented: “The successful Phase 1b drilling program has resulted in the conversion of 44% of our initial Inferred Resource estimate to an Indicated Resource. This forms the foundation of our scoping study which is progressing well and will be completed by October.”
Following completion of the extended Phase 1b drilling program (six holes) by NAE on 2 July 2014, an updated resource estimate has been completed. A total resource of 111 Mt comprising 49 Mt Indicated Resource and 62 Mt Inferred Resource has been defined for the Nine Foot and Six Foot Seams. The 49 Mt Indicated Resource represents a 44% conversion of the October 2013 Inferred Resource to Indicated status. The total resource has reduced by 1 Mt from the October 2013 total resource as a result of reinterpretation of the basin margins and the results from Phase 1b drilling.
Morien Resources Corp has waived its Right of First Refusal (ROFR) with respect to the proposed sale by Glencore of its 75% interest in the Donkin coal project in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The corporation offering to purchase the Glencore interest is an affiliate of The Cline Group, a private resource development company. The Cline Group’s US coal company, Foresight Energy, is one of the largest coal companies in the US and well known for its underground mining expertise.
“The decision by our Board to waive our right of first refusal was predicated on the quality of the partner. The Cline Group has a strong reputation as a high quality mine developer and operator. Their development experience in both continuous miner and longwall mining and growing market exposure for similar quality product to the Donkin mine provide great synergy,” said John Budreski, Morien’s CEO. “Cline and Morien will now work with all stakeholders to ensure conditions are met to bring this arrangement to a successful conclusion. We look forward to entering a new phase of the Donkin project with a new, high quality partner.”