The latest issue of International Mining Project News, out today, has reports on 21 Prefeasibility Studies, 18 Feasibility studies, 25 projects in development, three 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. The report covers 37 gold projects, 16 copper, 12 silver, seven iron ore and zinc projects, five coal, four on potash and uranium, three lead projects, two projects on tungsten, nickel, molybdenum, rare earth elements and lithium, and one project each on heavy mineral sands, anorthosite, platinum group metals, manganese, vanadium and titanium. 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.
The official opening ceremony of the Perkoa zinc project in Burkina Faso was held on-site on the 19 January 2013 with over 1,000 people attending including representatives of Glencore and Blackthorn Resources as well as senior government officials and Prime Minister Tiao. The commissioning of the process plant is on-going with test batches of concentrate continuing to be produced. Glencore has previously agreed to provide development capital of $120 million to fund the expanded project construction and commissioning via a combination of project equity and project loans. In addition, Glencore agreed to provide or source a working capital facility to a maximum of $20 million, for a total financing package of $140 million. Commissioning is now expected to be complete by the end of February 2013. This revised estimate brings the total cost of the project to the end of commissioning (including Blackthorn Resources’ initial $80 million capital spend) to approximately $260 million.
Oromin Explorations, on behalf of Oromin Joint Venture Group (OJVG), has announced the positive results of its 2013 Carbon-in-Leach (CIL) feasibility study (FS) and Mineral Reserve update for its OJVG gold project in Senegal, West Africa. The FS was compiled by SRK Consulting (Canada). Highlights include an average gold production for first three years of full production at 182,000 payable oz/y; average LOM gold production of 144,000 oz/y; both open pit and underground gold mining with a current mine life of 17 years; and a probable mineral reserves increase of 64% to 2.335 Mo of contained gold since the 2010 FS – the OJVG gold project now hosts the largest gold reserve in Senegal.
Marengo Mining has received pricing for a fixed lump sum, turnkey, Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for development of its Yandera copper-molybdenum-gold project in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea from major Chinese engineering, construction and mining company, China Nonferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering and Construction (NFC). The EPC pricing provides a strong foundation for the completion and delivery of the Yandera feasibility study, which is scheduled for completion in March 2013. As previously advised, NFC has prepared its EPC pricing by working in parallel with the Feasibility Study team as part of the overall development strategy at Yandera. Other infrastructure, including mining fleet, pre-strip and power transmission line, subject to the completion of the pending feasibility study, is currently estimated in the range of $300-400 million for a total project capex in the range of $1.7-$1.85 billion.
Ivanplats has announced that an intensive drilling program during 2011 and 2012 at the company’s Flatreef Discovery in the Northern Limb of the Bushveld Complex in South Africa has dramatically expanded and upgraded the Flatreef precious- and base-metal mineral resources. Speaking in a keynote address at the Investing in African Mining Indaba Conference, Robert Friedland, Executive Chairman, said that a new mineral resource model based on drilling results audited by AMEC E&C Services of Reno, Nevada, has upgraded more than 220 Mt of the Flatreef Discovery’s previously declared Inferred mineral resources into the higher-confidence classification of Indicated mineral resources.Flatreef’s Indicated mineral resources now total 223 Mt grading 4.1 g/t 4PE (platinum, palladium, gold and rhodium), 0.34% Ni and 0.16% Cu, at a 2.0 g/t 4PE cut-off grade and at a cumulative, average true thickness of 24.3 m. The Indicated resources contain an estimated 29.2 Moz of platinum, palladium, gold and rhodium, 1,700 Mlb of nickel and 800 Mlb of copper.
Northcliff Resources has completed a positive feasibility study for its 100%-owned Sisson project located in New Brunswick, Canada, confirming the long-life open pit tungsten and molybdenum development as a technically and economically robust project. The study was undertaken by Samuel Engineering of Denver, Colorado. President & CEO Chris Zahovskis: “In just two years, Northcliff has advanced Sisson from an exploration and early-stage development project to achieve this important project milestone. We have significantly de-risked the project and now have one of the largest tungsten reserves outside China. We are confident that Sisson is on track to earn the necessary environmental and construction permits from federal and provincial regulators in 2014, and Northcliff will be pursuing partnerships with global companies interested in the Sisson project or tungsten off-take agreements, positioning Northcliff to achieve the financing necessary to initiate project construction in 2014 and commissioning by 2016.”
There’s much more information in the report, which runs to nearly 40 pages.