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By Samantha James HEALTH and safety management practices need a complete overhaul to prevent incidents at Australian mine sites, according to presenters at the Fluro Conference in Perth. International safety professionals and experts across Australia converged on 10 and 11 November to discuss issues in health and safety in a range of industry sectors. Imperfect reporting systems were highlighted in presentations by Alcoa global director of refining health and safety Danny Spadaccini and Greg Smith, legal practice director at STE Safety and Legal. Mr Smith told conference attendees that within health and safety companies spend an enormous amount of time creating data “that tells us absolutely nothing”. He said lost time injury rates (LTIR) were the “posterchild of irrelevancy” in safety...

By Reuben Adams AUSTRALIA-Africa Mining Industry Group (AAMIG) has called on the Australian Government to take more notice of the nation’s substantial economic footprint in Africa. AAMIG chairman Bill Turner said that despite more than $50 billion of Australian private sector investment in Africa’s natural resources, the Australian Government’s Economic Diplomacy program was “severely inadequate”. Only seven Australian missions covered Africa’s 54 countries and a population of more than 1 billion. “Australia’s resources sector has a substantial footprint across the continent of Africa and by working together with the Australian Government, greater progress could be achieved in translating African mineral wealth into broader socio-economic development,” Mr Turner said. “…for real gains to be made, the Australian Government must engage more...

By Courtney Pearson 5 November, 2015 IT may only be five years old, but gold explorer Doray Minerals has a to-do list to rival the best in the industry. The company’s project plans are coming to fruition, with first production at its newest development, Deflector, expected in mid-2016 and its flagship project, Andy Well, exceeding annual production guidance. Doray Minerals managing director Allan Kelly said the past year had been better than expected for the company. “We’ve been busy on the production side, the exploration side and on the corporate side,” he said. In fiscal 2015 the company reported good results across the board, including a 15 per cent rise in gold production to 88,736oz, a 21 per cent rise...

By Samantha James WHEN BHP Billiton demerged its nickel, coal, manganese and alumina assets into South32 in May 2015, it claimed established operations and low debt would keep the new company afloat in the slumped market environment. The market expectation was that BHP’s spinoff would be worth around US$15 billion, however shares dropped from its listing price of $2.05 to an average of about $1.4 in September and early October due to low returns on commodity prices and in reaction to South32 impairing assets within its South Africa Energy Coal business and its Cerro Matoso nickel mine. As a result, analysts estimated a slide in value of around US$10 billion and a 27.7 per cent drop in share value since...

By Samantha James EVEN though many explorers hold tenements along the prospective Yamarna Belt in WA, it is still one of the least explored greenstone belts in the region, sitting at the eastern most edge of the Yilgarn Craton. A study completed in 2010 by the Geological Survey of WA suggested the Yamarna Belt shares geological similarities with the well-endowed Kalgoorlie Terrane greenstone rocks, and some solid discoveries made by companies such as AusGold have supported this. However, it is Gold Road Resources’ Gruyere deposit that is proving the Yamarna Belt is capable of hosting WA’s next gold mining hub. Gold Road owns more than 5000 square kilometres within the Yamarna Belt and a pipeline of discoveries dating back from...

By Reuben Adams 5 November, 2015 Abandoned by its coal-mining residents in the 1970s to be reclaimed by nature, the eerie ghost island of Hashima serves as a significant reminder of early Japanese industrialisation. On 31 March, 1854, the Convention of Kanagawa was signed by American and Japanese government representatives; a significant treaty which made possible the first official trade between the nations. Within five years Japan – which had remained insulated from much of the western world to that point – had officially opened its doors by signing similar treaties with other countries. The coastal capital of Nagasaki subsequently became important as a stopover for commercial ships and naval vessels. Trade in the region flourished further in the late 1850’s, as western...

By Rachel Dally-Watkins 4 November, 2015 THE Carmichael coal mine has been granted federal environmental re-approval subject to some of the strictest conditions “in Australian history”. Environment minister Greg Hunt reinstated Adani’s mine and rail project in mid-October, two months after it was stripped of its previous approval through federal court proceedings. The proposed $16.5 billion project in the Galilee Basin of Central Queensland would be subject to 36 environmental conditions, Mr Hunt said. “I have the power to suspend or revoke the approval and strict penalties apply if there is a breach of the strict conditions,” he said. “The conditions I have imposed take into account issues raised by the community and ensure that the proponent must meet the...

By Samantha James 4 November, 2015 MANY junior exploration and mining companies have struggled with volatile and declining commodity prices in recent years, but a new survey claims the fight may be easing for gold juniors. The 2015 Grant Thornton Junior Mining and Exploration Survey (JUMEX 2015) found 63 per cent of mining executives regarded gold as the brightest investment opportunity in 2016, followed by copper (50 per cent), zinc (36 per cent) and nickel (23 per cent). “This will be a welcome ray of hope for a significant portion of junior miners given the extremely challenging conditions that persist in the sector,” Grant Thornton Australia national head of energy and resources Holly Stiles said. “Whilst there are companies who...

By Reuben Adams MINOTAUR Exploration stated it was remaining “firmly positive” about the future of copper demand despite the metal falling to six year lows in August. Mintotaur chairman Derek Carter said that the explorer’s projects in South Australia and Queensland provided “superior discovery exposure to a rising metal price” as existing mines globally drew down on their reserves. “We remain enthusiastic towards copper as a globally significant commodity, contrary to current price pressure due to softening demand from China,” Mr Carter said. “Even though ‘grassroots’ exploration continues to be out of favour with many investors our view is that discoveries will reward effort and quality deposits will reward shareholder support in multiples.” Minotaur chairman Derek...

By Courtney Pearson 4 November, 2015 SMALL-cap junior MZI Resources has begun production at its Keysbrook mineral sands mine days after completing a major capital raising. The Keysbrook mine, south of Perth, started production at the end of October, three weeks ahead of schedule and on budget, with first sales targeted for late December. “The Keysbrook project is performing exceedingly well and we now look forward to commencing product sales later this year,” MZI Resources managing director Trevor Matthews said. The mine would be progressively commissioned to reach full capacity during the December quarter, to produce more than 95,000t of leucoxene and zircon products annually. Heavy mineral concentrate from Keysbrook would be transported about 130km to Doral’s mineral separation plant...

By Rachel Dally-Watkins UNSW Australia’s School of Mining research director and conference chair Associate Professor Dr Serkan Saydam spoke to Rachel Dally-Watkins about what delegates can expect at the Third International Future Mining Conference and Second Off-Earth Mining Forum. Q: What will be some of the key issues for mining in the future, and what industry-wide changes need to be considered now? We’re in the down side of the bust and boom cycle right now, but the mining industry has always been driven by commodity prices. There are many economic uncertainties as well as technical uncertainties facing this industry, but we can’t make changes for the economic uncertainties because that’s not something that is in our hands. So what we...