Quietaire Australia

THE Paulsens Gold project near Paraburdoo in WA will now have a mine life of more than five years, thanks to a major resource and reserve upgrade announced by operator Northern Star Resources. The JORC reserves at Paulsens increased by 81 per cent, to 204,000 ounces at 5.3 grams per tonne, with a grade increase of 23 per cent. Northern Star’s total JORC resource increased by 38 per cent to 555,000oz at 5.7g/t, and the grade increased by 14 per cent. This revised resource will give Paulsens a minimum five-year mine life, based on a strong historical conversion of resources into mineral inventory. The result included the company’s 13,000oz at 3.2gpt maiden open pit ore reserve from the nearby Belvedere...

Lithium mica concentrates will be tested in a SiLeach pilot plant. Image: Lithium Australia.   BY ELIZABETH FABRI   LITHIUM Australia will commence testing lithium mica to determine if the material has potential to become base feedstock for its proposed large-scale pilot plant (LSPP) in WA.   Lithium mica, long considered a waste material by the mining industry, will be sourced from one of two sites in the Eastern Goldfields, and tested at ANSTO Minerals’ (a division of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation) Lucas Heights laboratories in Sydney. Lithium Australia managing director Adrian Griffin said WA’s lithium fields hosted abundant pegmatites, many of which contained lithium micas. He said the company had already undertaken substantial bench-scale test work...

Monadelphous secures $200m construction contract with Albemarle Engineering company Monadelphous (ASX:MND) has secured a $200m construction contract with Albemarle to expand the Kemerton lithium hydroxide plant in the south west region of WA. The contract includes front-end pyromet structural, mechanical, piping, electrical and instrumentation works associated with two new lithium processing trains (trains three and four). This contract follows the successful delivery of construction packages on trains one and two, plus the recently awarded long-term maintenance and sustaining capital projects contracts at Albemarle’s Kemerton operations. Monadelphous managing director Zoran Bebic said the award of this contract represents the first in a new wave of major construction projects to come to market. “We...

BRISBANE-based PR Polymers has manufactured and supplied a range of drilling and blasting products to open-cut coal and hard rock mines worldwide since 1992. The company’s KoolKap gas bags are self-inflating bags that, when activated, will seal off a hole and provide an effective deck for loading explosives and/or stemming. The bags save time and money. When using air decking for pre-splits, operators are able to reduce their use of explosives significantly and provide a safer, more stable highwall. The gas bags can be used to block off wet and dewatered holes, eliminating the need for expensive and less effective emulsions. They are also effective for standing off coal beds to stop coal shock, and for decking holes that have...