The following are just some of the projects detailed in the latest edition of International Mining Project News. To read the full details of each snapshot here and much more, contact [email protected] for subscription details. This issue includes some 40 pages of news on 31 gold projects (Australia, Burkina Faso, Canada, DRC, Kyrgyz, Liberia, Mali, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania, Turkey, Peru, USA), eight silver projects (Australia, Canada, Italy, Mexico, Peru, USA), seven copper projects (Australia, Canada, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Turkey, USA), four rare earth projects (Canada, Tanzania, USA), four lithium projects (Australia, Mexico), three tin projects (Australia, Morocco Russia), three coal projects (Canada, Tanzania, USA), three uranium projects (Namibia, USA), three graphite projects (Australia, Canada, Sweden), two mineral sands projects (Australia, Mozambique), two zinc projects(Australia, Italy), two lead projects (Australia, Italy), one molybdenum project (Canada), one diamond project (Canada), one nickel project (Australia), one potash project (Laos), one vanadium project (Australia), one tungsten project (Portugal) and one magnesium project (USA).

Alecto Minerals, the Africa-focused gold and base metal exploration and development company, has announced that Caracal Gold Mali, its wholly owned subsidiary, has entered into a joint venture agreement with Randgold Resources (Mali) for the exploration and development of Alecto’s 137 km² Kossanto West gold project in western Mali comprising the Kobokoto Est and Koussikoto exploration permits. The picture here is from this project.

Harmony Gold Mining Company has announced the results of the Golpu Stage 1 feasibility and Stage 2 prefeasibility studies and declare updated Resources and Reserves for the Golpu project. Both studies have confirmed a robust investment case – one that supports proceeding with the project. “The Golpu porphyry is a world-class resource due to its size, high grades, long-life and low operating costs. The design of the mine allows optionality and flexibility to scale the operation up with a relatively low capital investment in response to increasing commodity prices. Golpu is part of Harmony’s future and will create value for our shareholders in the long term”, says Harmony Chief Executive Officer, Peter Steenkamp.

Rox Resources has completed a revised Mineral Resource estimate for the Fisher East nickel sulphide deposits. The project is located 500 km north of Kalgoorile, Western Australia.

Gascoyne Resources’ Dalgaranga gold project in the Murchison region of Western Australia contains a recently upgraded Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resource of 23.0 Mt @ 1.4 g/t Au. The Dalgaranga PFS is on schedule for completion in the current quarter.

A major international engineering company has completed a fatal flaw analysis and scoping study with respect to Northern Graphite’s proprietary purification process. It was concluded that Northern’s process does not present any major technical challenges, can be carried out using relatively standard processing equipment and will not generate any harmful waste products.

Peruvian Precious Metals Corp has announced that together with mining partner Proyectos La Patagonia S.A.C. (PLP) it has received approval of the key permit to begin a test mining and underground bulk sampling program at our Igor Project in the Department of La Libertad in northern Peru. The Regional Government Ministry of Energy and Mines in La Libertad (GREMH-LL) has approved its Plan de Minado, a detailed technical study of the test mining and bulk sampling program, land use in the area of the test mining program, transportation of materials, mining rate, etc.

Excelsior Mining Corp has the results of a comprehensive updated prefeasibility study on the North Star deposit of the Gunnison copper project, located in Cochise County, southeast Arizona. The project is designed as a copper in-situ recovery (ISR) mine using SX-EW. The Updated PFS was completed as a result of the recent acquisition of the Johnson Camp mine and staged production approach which have dramatically lowered initial capital costs to $45.9 million. Excelsior has also made progress on its permitting process.

Commerce Resources Corp has confirmed a reduction in flowsheet processing steps at the pilot scale for the company’s 100% owned Ashram rare earth deposit in Canada.

Ur-Energy has amended the PEA of the Lost Creek property, Sweetwater County, Wyoming (as originally filed on January 19, 2016. At the request of the staff of the Ontario Securities Commission, the Amended PEA includes the addition of detailed Cash Flow and Operating Costs tables that supplement the disclosure already included in the Original PEA in the Summary Cash Flow and Operating Costs tables. The economic analysis remains unchanged from the Original PEA, and there are no other differences between the Amended PEA and the Original PEA, other than the addition of the two tables noted above and conforming changes to the related text.

Gold Reach Resources has the summary results of an independent PEA on its 100% owned copper-gold-molybdenum Ootsa project in west-central British Columbia. The conceptual study demonstrates the potential to develop Ootsa by means of contract mining and toll milling at low initial capital cost to deliver a base case after-tax NPV and IRR of C$186 million and 81% respectively.

Gold Standard Ventures Corp (GSV) has closed its previously announced private placement financing with Goldcorp for gross proceeds of C$16,100,000. Goldcorp now owns approximately 9.9% of the company’s issued and outstanding shares on an undiluted basis. The net proceeds of the financing will be used to further advance the company’s Railroad-Pinion project. GSV is an advanced stage gold exploration company focused on district scale discoveries in Nevada.

Nevada Clean Magnesium reports that Phase 1 & 2 of the materials testing program being conducted in Norway was very successful. An effective, low cost heat transfer medium was found, that will enable efficient recovery of previously lost high grade heat from the magnesium production residue without interacting with the unreacted furnace charge.

Altura Mining has announced the results of the mining preliminary feasibility study completed by Western Australian based mining consultants Orelogy Consulting. The study has been completed to prefeasibility study level with Orelogy currently commissioned to further develop the scope of the current study to definitive feasibility level with completion anticipated at the end of March 2016. Orelogy was commissioned by Altura to undertake the PFS on the Pilgangoora lithium project which is located approximately 90 km to the south of Port Hedland in Western Australia.

Kasbah Resources has completed a prefeasibility study for a small start mining option at its joint venture Achmmach Tin Project in Morocco. The 2015 DFS envisaged a 1 Mt/y operation but the SSO has been designed to operate on reduced scale.

Search Minerals has the results of an updated PEA on its Foxtrot rare earth element (REE) project located in southeast Labrador. This PEA evaluates an open pit-underground scenario with lower capital costs, a lower mining rate and higher grade processing facility feed.

Peruvian Precious Metals Corp has entered into a non-binding agreement with RIVI Capital to provide the company with an investment of $5,000,000 in return for a Metal Purchase Agreement (MPA or Gold Streaming Agreement) on future precious metal production from the company’s Igor 4 concession, at its Igor project in northern Peru.

White Cliff Minerals reports that metallurgical test work on samples taken from the Aucu gold deposit in Kyrgyz Republic “has delivered excellent gold recoveries. The metallurgical test work was carried out by the Bureau Veritas Minerals Laboratory in Perth.” Managing Director Todd Hibberd: “The Aucu gold deposit is shaping up as a rare find. It displays all the characteristics of a worldclass deposit including very high gold recoveries, an exceptionally high gravity gold component, a high average gold grade, visible gold in outcrop at surface and multiple mineralised shear zones that extend kilometres”.

Energia Minerals says it is on track for a maiden resource and scoping study at Gorno in Italy as drilling continues to expand the Zorzone deposit. Resource statement and Scoping Study on schedule for completion by end of March 2016.

Capricorn Metals has appointed experienced mining executive Neville Bergin as Project Study Manager to oversee the development of the Bibra gold deposit, part of its 100%-owned Karlawinda gold project in Western Australia.

Osisko Gold Royalties and Barkerville Gold Mines have closed their previously announced royalty financing and private placement. Sean Roosen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Osisko: “This is an important milestone in respect to our investment in Barkerville and we look forward to working with the team in place to create additional value at the Cariboo gold project.”

Dacian Gold has received highly encouraging initial results from the ongoing 310-hole infill and resource-extension drilling program at the Jupiter prospect, part of its 100%-owned Mount Morgans Gold Project (MMGP) in Western Australia. The company has so far received assay results for 138 RC drill holes (for 13,640m) since drilling commenced in mid-December 2015. The new results will be incorporated into a revised resource estimate for Jupiter due for completion next quarter. Ultimately this will be included in the MMGP feasibility study due for completion by the end of this year.

Komet Resources has filed first technical evaluation report compliant with the 43-101 for its Guiro project located in Burkina Faso. As mentioned in the report, Guiro was underground mined by the Burkinan company, Stremco, which produced 427 kg of gold from 50,000 t at 8.6g/t Au from 2011 to 2013.

Peak Resources announces the completion of technical development programs that have resulted in a simplified leach recovery flowsheet. The new flowsheet has been successfully trialled on the high grade concentrate produced by the beneficiation pilot plant and is a significant improvement over the flowsheet developed during the PFS. The Ngualla rare earth project in Tanzania is one of the highest grade of the known large undeveloped rare earth deposits.

Centerra Gold reports that the Mongolian Parliament has passed a resolution setting the state ownership interest in the Gatsuurt project at 34% and authorising the government to complete negotiations with Centerra on the terms of such ownership. In October 2015, the company and the Government agreed to a 3% special royalty in place of the state 34% ownership interest in the project (such royalty being in addition to the existing Mongolian mineral royalty and tax regime).  Based on discussions with the Government, Centerra understands that the resolution is a mandate to the Government to implement such agreement between Centerra and the Government.

Crater Gold Mining Limited has announced the arrival of the upgraded custom built gold processing plant from China. The mining plant is currently at the company’s premises in Goroka, PNG.

Khingan Resources is an exploration company actively developing its Khinganolovo tailings project within the Maly Khingan orefield in Russia’s Far East. The tailings were created during mining operations at the Khinganskoye deposit between 1945 and 2005. From 2014, the company contracted out exploration work at the tailings dumps and has since defined JORC-compliant reserves and completed a DFS for the project. The project is located in a well-developed area with access to water, roads and electricity.

Paringa Resources Has the results of a scoping study on the Buck Creek No.2 Mine, which is located within the Buck Creek mining complex and south of the Buck Creek No.1 Mine’s proposed 3.8 Mt/y coal project.

Morien Resources Corp has provideD an update on development activities at the Donkin Coal Project in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, where owner/operator Kameron Collieries, a subsidiary of The Cline Group, has been actively advancing the Project toward production. Morien has a gross production royalty on all coal sales from the Project.

Marenica Energy will test its proprietary U-pgrade process technology on uranium ore samples from Deep Yellow’s Tumas project in Namibia. Tumas is located in the same region of Namibia as the Marenica project and shares many similar metallurgical properties.

Ucore Rare Metals reports an update on the preparations for the SuperLig®-One rare earth separation pilot plant. Some 40 t of material sourced from the company’s flagship Bokan-Dotson Ridge property was processed at Tomra Systems using DEXRT ore sorting technology. The DEXRT process resulted in approximately 19 t of sorted rare earth bearing material. The Tomra work represents the first step in the company’s process flowsheet, delivering upgraded material that is consistent with prior test work, eliminating approximately 52% of the feed as waste while retaining 96% of the rare earth oxides.

Golden Queen Mining reports on the mining and construction activities at its 50%-owned Soledad Mountain gold-silver project located just south of the town of Mojave, California. Project construction has been completed in-line with the budget. Commissioning activities are almost complete and the leaching process on the heap leach pad has been initiated.

Aureus Mining has announced increased gold recovery levels and production performance at the New Liberty gold mine in Liberia. Total gold production since 1 January 2016 of 11,001 oz versus 17,172 oz produced in H2 2015.

Franco-Nevada Corp’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Franco-Nevada (Barbados) Corp (FNB) has agreed to acquire a precious metals stream with reference to production from the Antapaccay mine for $500 million. The Antapaccay mine is located in Southern Peru and is wholly-owned and operated by Glencore.

Blackham Resources has announceD the latest upgrade in resources at the Williamson Mining Centre which is part of Blackham’s Matilda gold project. The resource update includes a revision of the geological interpretation and additional drilling undertaken in late 2015.

Tahoe Resources Inc and Lake Shore Gold Corp have announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement whereby Tahoe will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Lake Shore Gold.

Lithium Australia NL is to join forces with Alix Resources having entered into a binding joint venture to explore and develop the projected extensions of the giant Sonora lithium clay deposit located in Mexico – the Electra Project.

FYI Resources has signed of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Yuntianhua Group, headquartered in Yunnan China, for a potash project collaboration and potential resource development and production opportunities in Laos. Yuntianhua, via a subsidiary company – Sino-Lao Mining Development and Investment Co Ltd majority owns the Sino-Lao potash project located approximately 40 km north of Vientiane, Lao’s capital city. The Sino-Lao project includes an established trial potash production facility and infrastructure as well as a significant potash deposit.

Australian resources company GBM Resources has acquired from Rio Tinto Exploration the Moonmera Cu-Mo porphyry project, located less than 10 km from the Mount Morgan mine in Central Queensland, Australia. Moonmera is one of the largest known mineralised porphyry copper systems in eastern Australia.

Further to Atlantic Ltd’s announcement of 3 February 2016 regarding its proposal to acquire the Windimurra vanadium and iron ore project with the support of its major shareholder and creditor Droxford International Ltd, Atlantic is pleased to announce the proposal has been approved by over 99% of creditors of both Midwest Vanadium Pty Ltd (MVPL) and Atlantic Vanadium Holdings Pty Ltd (AVHPL) at a creditors’ meeting held on 12 February 2016. Droxford and Atlantic will proceed to execute definitive documentation including (among other things) the deed of company arrangement with the Administrators and Receivers and Managers of MVPL and AVHPL and an asset sale agreement under which a newly incorporated 100% wholly-owned subsidiary of Atlantic will acquire the Windimurra vanadium and iron ore project.