The latest International Mining Project News, out today (some 60 pages), has reports on 21 prefeasibility studies, 21 feasibility studies, 37 projects in development, six new mines that have gone into production, ten existing mines that are expanding, six merger and acquisition announcements and many new appointments to new positions. The reports cover 45 gold projects, 27 copper, 11 iron ore, 10 of both coal and silver, six rare earths projects and six zinc projects, four lead, three each of nickel, potash and molybdenum, two platinum, tungsten, cobalt and vanadium projects and one report each covering precious metals, palladium, polymetallic, tantalum, lithium, diamonds, tin, uranium, fluorspar, mineral sands, bismuth, phosphate and base metals projects. 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.
Exeter Resource Corp’s prefeasibility study for its Caspiche project in northern Chile has returned a pre-tax NPV (5% discount), calculated from the time of commencement of the project, of $2,800 million and average operating costs of $606/oz gold equivalent. The gold production cost drops to $18/oz when copper and silver by-product credits are considered. The study predicts an average annual production over the 19 year mine life of 696,000 oz gold, 244 Mlb of copper and 844,000 oz silver.
At Mercator’s El Pillar, LOM average annual production is expected to be 73.0 Mlb of copper cathode, with copper cathode production averaging 78.7 Mlb in the first five years. The expected average LOM total cash operating costs are $1.37/lb of payable copper, average $1.27/lb in the first five years, and $0.94/lb in the first year.
An updated resource estimate has been completed following the recent drilling campaign at the Reward and Bellbird prospects, part of Kentor Gold’s Jervois project in the Northern Territory. The total Inferred Resource
has increased to 11.9 Mt @ 1.3% Cu and 25.2 g/t Ag.
Australian rare earths company Arafura Resources has completed a series of meetings with target customers to understand their future product and quality needs. A significant milestone has now been achieved in Arafura’s marketing program with production of the first Rare Earth Oxide (REO) samples for target customer evaluation.
Fortescue Metals Group announcd a 72% increase in the North Star magnetite deposit of 880 Mt, taking the total resource to 2,120 Mt at a Fe grade of 31.6%. North Star is located 100 km to the south of Fortescue’s Port Hedland operation and is within 25 km of the existing rail line. It sits adjacent to another magnetite deposit known as Glacier Valley which is owned under a joint venture relationship with one of China’s largest steel producers, Baosteel (Fortescue 65%:Baosteel 35%).
Ausenco has signed a Create phase (EPCM) contract to manage the $125 million expansion of Barrick Gold’s Lumwana copper project in Zambia. Ausenco’s Minerals & Metals business will manage the project, which involves expanding the existing ore crushing and processing plant at the existing Lumwana copper mine to achieve and maintain a plant production rate of 25 Mt/y.
An innovative clean coal technology project in Texas will supply electricity to the largest municipally owned utility in the US under a recently signed Power Purchase Agreement. Under the agreement – the first US from a commercial-scale, coal-based power plant with carbon capture – CPS Energy of San Antonio will purchase approximately 200 MW of power from the Texas Clean Energy Project (TCEP), located just west of
Midland-Odessa.
Tertiary Minerals announced a substantial maiden, JORC compliant, Mineral Resource Estimate for its Lassedalen fluorspar project in Norway of 4 Mt grading 25% Fluorite (CaF2). Patrick Cheetham, Executive Chairman: “We are very pleased to announce this significant increase to the JORC resource base. The definition of a robust maiden resource at Lassedalen gives Tertiary a firm basis to progress scoping and feasibility studies for this, the company’s second European fluorspar project, and further supports our ambition to become a major supplier of fluorspar in Europe.”
Image Resources has applied for a mining lease over the Atlas Measured and Indicated resource at its 100%-owned Cooljarloo mineral sands project in the North Perth Basin. The application for a mining lease over this resource is a significant milestone in the development of Image’s North Perth Basin assets currently in feasibility study.
Goldplat has poured the first gold from its wholly owned Kilimapesa gold mine in Kenya, following the successful commissioning of the elution plant. This plant enables Kilimapesa to smelt and produce gold bullion on site
on an ongoing basis. The initial smelt produced a 12.4 kg (399-oz) gold bullion bar which has now been sold to Rand Refinery in South Africa.
Nordgold, spun off from Severstal has started trading on the LSE. It has significant development projects, “Bissa and Gross, which we expect to deliver more than 150,000 oz gold in 2013, their first year of production.”
Mutiny Gold reports that Cobra Mining intends to begin production at the White Well project in Western Australia in the second half of this year.
Chalice Gold Mines’ 60% subsidiary, Zara Mining Share Co (ZSMC), has been granted two Mining Licences covering the high-grade Koka gold mine at the Zara project in Eritrea.
Full details on all these projects and information on and contacts for many, many more are to be found in the January 18 issue of International Mining Project News…..
To receive the full report, subscriptions to this service can be registered and paid for on-line (SUBSCRIBE TO IM PROJECT NEWS BUTTTON), or contact [email protected] for a free trial copy.