Latest issue of International Mining Project News available (October 9): Finally, Rio Tinto and Ivanhoe Mines have signed the Investment Agreement with the Government of Mongolia for the development of Oyu Tolgoi. This news clears the way for both companies to progress the project, with the goal of starting production in 2013. After a five year ramp up period, production is expected to reach 450,000 t/y of copper and 330,000 oz/y of gold. There is also a great deal of production news in this issue. Newmont Mining has poured its first gold at the Boddington gold/copper mine in Western Australia, Production has started at Highland Gold’s Novoshirokinskoye lead/zinc/gold/silver mine in east Siberia, Mirabela Nickel has started commissioning at its Santa Rita nickel mine in Brazil and North American Palladium has produced its first gold bars at the Sleeping Giant mine in Quebec, Canada.
In Brazil, ramp-up to full operating capacity of 6.4 Mt/y is anticipated to take about one year at the just-commissioned Santa Rita mine. At full production, it is expected to produce 26,000 t/y of nickel in concentrate. Mirabela Nickel owns 100% of the worldclass project. With a JORC/NI 43-101 Indicated open-pit resource of 130 Mt grading 0.60% Ni, Santa Rita is the largest nickel sulphide discovery worldwide in over a decade.
In Western Australia, Newmont’s Boddington mine not only poured its first gold, it also shipped the first copper concentrate from the mine to the port in Bunbury; copper production started in August. Boddington is a large, open-pit mine located 130 km southeast of Perth within the Saddleback Greenstone Belt. Newmont believes Boddington has significant exploration potential, with gold reserves increasing from 16.6 Moz in 2007 to 20.1 Moz in 2008 (on a 100% basis) and an expected mine life in excess of 24 years.
In Russia, Highland Gold’s Novoshirokinskoye mine in the Zabaikalsky region will focus on testing various processing technologies for the rest of the year. Initially 30,000 t of low grade stockpiled ore will be processed, after which processing will be increased, beginning in January 2010 with 280,000 t of ore to be processed in the same year. Plant throughput is expected to achieve the designed processing capacity of 450,000 t/y of ore by 2011. Production over the life of the mine (through 2023) is expected to be 1.5 Moz in gold and gold equivalents.
In Canada, North American Palladium will now ramp-up to a commercial production rate of 50,000 oz/y of gold during Q4, 2009. The mine, in the Abitibi region of Quebec, produced over 1 Moz of gold from 1988-2008 at an average grade of 11.44 g/t Au. Staying in Canada, a piece of good news for the diamond industry. De Beers Canada is cancelling the planned four-week winter production shutdown at its Snap Lake mine in Canada, scheduled for December this year. Jim Gowans, President and CEO: “This is a good news decision in response to some positive trends we are seeing in the market place”.
In South Africa, Platinum Australia has issued three updates on its Kalplats PGM/gold mine, 300 km west of Johannesburg. The company was expecting the results of the project’s prefeasibility study early in the issue. It then completed a placement to raise around A$30 million, with the proceeds going towards Kalplats. Then, late in the issue, it received the results of the study. This shows the project to be commercially and technically viable; able to generate an IRR of 25% on the Base Case assumption (based on mining four of the seven deposits). The project would produce over 1 Moz of 4E PGM (platinum + palladium + rhodium + gold) concentrate over a nine year operating life.
There is also news from Kentor Gold’s Savoyardy gold and Andash gold-copper projects in the Kyrgz Republic, Citadel Resource Group’s Jabal Sayid project in Saudi Arabia, and EMED Mining’s planned restart of the Rio Tinto copper mine in Spain, as well as many others.
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