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UNFORTUNATELY for Tasmania, the 2012 Federal Budget indicates that the state will face a federal funding shortfall of $500 million during the next three financial years. This news has further compounded Tasmania’s fiscal woes as it struggles to bring an unhealthy deficit – expected to be more than $250 million this financial year – under control. Furthermore, its unemployment rate is the nation’s highest at 8.3 per cent. The Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed a loss of 2500 Tasmanian jobs in April alone, hence the importance of the state’s small yet profitable mining sector. Significant social and economic impacts At the end of 2009-2010, Tasmanian mines employed 1646 people – the majority as direct employees – and spent about $456...

THIS year’s Surat Basin Energy and Mining Expo is expected to be even better than the inaugural expo the previous year, following the implementation of new marketing strategies to strengthen event awareness, increase attendance and further support Queensland’s resources sector. After undertaking research in the region, Queensland-based Australian Events devised the idea of the expo and formulated the event program, with the first ever Surat Basin Energy and Mining Expo held in June 2011. Australian Events director Bob Carroll said that the company’s affiliate, Carroll Media and Marketing, was then used to implement effective marketing strategies. This year’s approach involves utilising the APN media group’s network to promote the event in APN regional newspapers from Central NSW to North West...

AUSTRALIAN base metals explorer Ventnor Resources has significantly boosted its portfolio after acquiring new ground in the highly-prospective Mesoproterozoic Bangemall Basin at Kumarina, 200km north of Meekatharra in WA. The Kumarina exploration project is the largest landholding in the Bangemall Basin and the company intends to conduct greenfield exploration there. Ventnor is also well positioned to begin exploration of its tenements in western Queensland after it was awarded a $125,000 State Government drilling grant. Received in March, the grant is part of the Greenfields 2020 Collaborative Drilling Initiative (CDI) and will be used to progress exploration drilling in the Georgina Basin, 200km southwest of Mount Isa, to test for a possible iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) deposit. The majority of Ventnor’s exploration...

THE Port of Brisbane achieved a new record for annual container throughput in May, with more than 1 million containers moving through what is Australia’s fastest growing port. Also the largest general cargo port in Queensland, the Port of Brisbane sits at the mouth of the Brisbane River. It has seven container berths along an 1800m quay line leased and operated by two stevedores, with 700m of general cargo wharves handling break-bulk cargo, containers, motor vehicles and other roll-on/roll-off cargo. The port’s dry bulk terminals are used for a variety of materials including coal, grain, sugar, cement and woodchips, while the wet bulk terminals are used for crude oil and refined oil products. The Port of Brisbane is managed and...

PRIVATELY-owned development group Asia Iron Australia holds a portfolio of more than 703 square kilometres of tenements in WA’s Mid West region. With the financial backing of its Chinese shareholders, the company is progressing its most advanced project, Extension Hill, with a draft implementation study for Stage 1 recently completed. Asia Iron is a subsidiary of Asia Iron Holdings, a Hong Kong company 60 per cent owned by Chongqing Chonggang Minerals Development Investment and 40 per cent owned by SINOM Investments. Within its tenement holdings, Asia Iron has defined magnetite and thermal coal resources. In addition to Extension Hill, it...