The latest issue of International Mining Project News, out today, has reports on ten prefeasibility studies, eight feasibility studies, 26 projects in development, seven new mines that have gone into production, 10 existing mines that are expanding, three merger and acquisition announcements and many new appointments to new positions. That people section of the newsletter has been interestingly redesigned. The report covers 25 gold projects, 12 copper projects,11 iron ore, six projects on silver and rare earths, five zinc, four lead and coal projects, three molybdenum projects, two projects in uranium, diamonds and lithium, and one project each on magnetite, zircon, manganese, potash, ferroalloys, ferrochrome and steel.
The following are just a few of the many projects covered in this latest edition.
Barrick is much in the news with the long-awaited debut of Barrick’s Pueblo Viejo, one of the largest gold deposits in the world, arriving with the mine producing its first commercial gold. And in Tanzania, MDM Engineering Group has received a Letter of Intent for the award of the detailed engineering and execution phase for a 2.4 Mt/y gold plant for African Barrick Gold’s Bulyanhulu Process Plant Expansion project.
The long-awaited startup from the second major iron ore province in Western Australia’s Midwest region – over 1,000 km south of the massive resources of the Pilbara region – has seen the first ore train leaving Gindalbie Metals’ Karara mine for Geraldton Port.
Perseus Mining plans to review the life of mine plan for its Edikan gold mine in Ghana in 2013 after upgrading ore reserves by 3.2%.
Outokumpu plans to invest $542 million in expanding ferrochrome output at its Tornio site, which will double its annual ferrochrome output to 540,000 t.
Seabed mining pioneer Nautilus Minerals has received the go-ahead for its Solwara 1 deep sea gold and base metals mining project from the PNG government.
Tyhee Gold announced positive results from an independent feasibility study on its Yellowknife gold project in Canada’s Northwest Territories. At a base-case gold price of $1,400/oz and a projected 4,000 t/d processing plant comprised of a conventional gravity-flotation-cyanide process and incorporating open-pit and underground mining methods on the Ormsby, Bruce Lake, Clan Lake and Nicholas Lake deposits, the YGP is estimated to return a pretax NPV at a 5% discount rate of some $216 million and an IRR of 20% based on initial estimated capital cost of $193 million (including a 10% contingency.)
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. Contact [email protected] for a free sample copy.