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THE resource industry’s peak national employer group the Australian Mines and Metals Association (AMMA), has labelled a recent Fair Work Australia (FWA) tribunal drug test ruling “inconsistent and conflicting”, warning that the decision could restrict employers from adequately managing drug and alcohol issues. The tribunal ruled that companies could only administer on-site drug and alcohol testing using oral swabs, despite urine tests proving more effective, and found that the use of urine testing was “unjust and unreasonable”. Last month, electricity infrastructure company Endeavour Energy confirmed it had lodged an appeal against FWA’s ruling, saying “it was urine testing, not saliva-based drug testing, that best mitigated the foreseeable risks associated with chronic drug use”. The AMMA has backed the appeal, saying...

ASX-listed Mincor has boosted nickel production and its operating surplus while driving down cash costs for the March 2012 quarter. Compared to the December 2011 quarter, nickel production was up 30 per cent to 87,696t grading 3.06 per cent nickel for 2683.4t of nickel in ore. Cash costs dropped from $7 per pound of nickel in the December period to $4.96/lb for the three months ending March. Despite lower nickel prices, Mincor’s operating surplus leapt 108 per cent to $14.58 million from $7 million in the December 2011 quarter. The rise in surplus was attributed to higher-grade nickel and increased production levels combined with a reduction in cash costs. Mincor used the surplus to fund its share buyback program, which...

DIVERSIFIED metals explorer Midas Resources has entered into a joint venture with Perth-based private exploration company Cazador Resources in a move that will expand Midas’s prospective Leonora gold project from 219 to 375 square kilometres. Midas will earn a 75 per cent interest in exploration tenements E40/284 and E40/288, which adjoin its Leonora gold project tenements in WA, and cover significant sections of key faults believed to be important structural controls in the distribution of gold in the Leonora South area. These structures, known as Dingo-Kelpie and Dahlia, continue through the Midas tenements into the Cazador tenements. Midas will embark on an auger drilling program in May – involving 500 holes over a 12km strike length – pending completion of...

VIKING Ashanti has increased its gold resource by 40 per cent at its wholly-owned Akoase East gold project in southern Ghana. The Perth-based company, which was established in 2007 to develop and mine mineral deposits in West Africa, last month announced an updated JORC classified inferred resource estimate of 18 million tonnes grading 1.2 grams per tonne of gold for 704,000 ounces of contained gold, at a 0.5g/t gold cut-off. This latest resource estimate is based on 10,000m of historical reverse circulation data, plus data from about 8000m of RC drilling and 3000m of diamond drilling completed by Viking during the past 18 months. Viking managing director Peter McMickan said the new resource  estimate gave the company increased confidence that...

NSL Consolidated has produced the first saleable beneficiated iron ore during the commissioning of the phase one Kurnool iron ore dry separation plant in India and is on track for its first sales revenue by the end of the June quarter. A beneficiated iron ore grade of 58 per cent was achieved on a dry separation circuit and further process optimisation will continue. NSL said this was a significant milestone for the company, which is aiming at a phase one initial steady production rate of 200,000 beneficiated tonnes per annum from Kurnool. Currently, 58 per cent iron ore sells domestically at the mine gate for about US$90 per tonne. The company said that given the strength in both demand and...

FUNDING is still available to assist employees and enterprises within the minerals and resources industries to improve skills and workplace productivity, SkillsDM has said. The nationally-recognised advisory board said that funds were still available from the $20.5 million allocated by the Commonwealth Government to the coal mining, metalliferous mining, quarrying (extractive), drilling and civil infrastructure sectors through the National Workforce Development Fund (NWDF). The NWDF was launched in 2011 to provide $558 million during four years to support training and workforcedevelopment in areas facing skills shortages. According to SkillsDM, the NWDF can provide between 34 per cent and 67 per cent of the cost of delivering nationally-endorsed qualifications and skills sets. The first instalment of the funds was focussed on...

AFTER a poor March 2012 quarter, mineral sands major Iluka Resources has refinanced its debt by entering into $800 million-worth of five-year bilateral revolving credit facilities. The debt restructure replaces a $445 million syndicated term loan facility that was in place. In March 2012, $100 million of that facility had matured, with the remaining $345 million expected to mature next March. “Iluka is pleased to secure expanded debt capacity, with the new facilities recognising Iluka’s enhanced credit quality and favourable growth prospects,” Iluka chief financial officer Alan Tate said. “The new facilities will be available for general corporate purposes and provide flexibility for future investment decision making,” Mr Tate added. The debt restructure comes after Iluka posted a 13 per...