Author: Chloe Coutinho

Mineral Resources (MinRes) was proud to once again support the annual Cancer 200 Ride for the Perkins, helping to raise much needed funds for the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research. Almost 2,000 riders took part in this year’s two-day event — including 87 MinRes riders — completing the 200km round trip from Perth to Mandurah and back on October 12 and 13. The community-focused Cancer 200 Ride for the Perkins is the institute’s major fundraising event and the highest fundraising charity cycling event in Australia, this year alone raising more than $10 million. This year, Team MinRes raised an impressive total of $885,999 — including a $10,000 donation from MinRes — bringing team’s total contribution to $2.3m over the…

BHP copper and iron ore production have seen increases, driven by operational improvements at Escondida copper in Chile and WA iron ore (WAIO), according to the company’s Q1 operational review. The company reports it is on track to meet FY25 production guidance thanks to strong operational performance. BHP chief executive Mike Henry says BHP is seeing a strong start to the 2025 financial year, with production up across all major commodities for the quarter. “Copper production was up 4% due to higher grade and recoveries at Escondida and WAIO production was up 3% as we unlocked capacity by completing the debottlenecking work at the port,” he said. “We are also seeing signs of stabilisation in our steelmaking coal business with…

Macmahon holdings (ASX: MAH) subsidiary, Decmil, has been awarded a $123m road upgrade contract for Covalent Lithium’s Mount Holland lithium project in WA. The scope of works includes upgrading the logistics link between the Great Eastern Highway and Covalent’s Mount Holland site, with approximately 113km of road upgrades to take place. Decmil commenced work on the project in August 2023 following receipt of a limited notice of award (LNoA) in July 2023. Approximately $59m of works had already been completed during FY24. Work under the full contract award is expected to directly create 220 jobs at its peak and be completed by April 2025. Macmahon chief executive and managing director Michael Finnegan says Decmil is off to a strong start…

UAJV is tackling the challenge of managing outdated and non-compliant personal protective equipment (PPE) as part of its ongoing commitment to sustainability. Rather than contributing to landfill waste, the team has taken the opportunity to make a positive impact by partnering with Loop Upcycling to upcycle functional garments that no longer meet clients’ minimum specifications. With Loop’s expertise, UAJV upcycled 199 shirts and coveralls into 90 padded laptop sleeves, complete with long and short handles and 100 durable duffle bags. The process was managed to ensure zero waste, with even the smallest offcuts utilised by adding handles to the laptop sleeves and duffle bags. UGL senior project manager Kevin Miller comments on the upcycled PPE. “By upcycling non-compliant PPE into…

Petratherm (PTR) (ASX: PTR) has commenced drilling at its Muckanippie titanium project in South Australia. The 4,000m drill program will assess at a regional scale the Rosewood and Claypan Prospect titanium rich heavy mineral sands (HMS) mineralisation. Drilling is also planned over high titanium-vanadium bearing source rock horizons for primary vanadiferous titanomagnetite (VTM) style mineralisation. PTR Chief executive Peter Redi says the company is extremely pleased to have drilling now underway. “The critical minerals, titanium and vanadium, have been identified over large areas and in a variety of target forms which is testament to the fertility of the Muckanippie area,” he said. “This maiden drill program by Petratherm will assist in determining the extent of mineralisation of the prospect areas…

The Federal Government is putting Dubbo, NSW at the heart of its plans to grow Australia’s critical minerals and rare earths industry by providing further support for miner Australian Strategic Materials Limited (ASM) (ASX: ASM). The Dubbo project will produce critical minerals such as zirconium, niobium and hafnium as well as several rare earth elements. Rare earths are critical to the energy and defence industries due to their use in high-strength magnets for EVs, wind turbines and aerospace actuators. The Federal Government will provide $5m to ASM under the International Partnerships in Critical Minerals Program to fund up to 50% of a study to find more efficient ways of refining rare earths at its mine and processing plant. The funding…

Old tyres are being given a new life thanks to an innovative recycling project involving Alcoa Australia and Tyrecycle’s newly established East Rockingham, WA, facility. The “off-the-road” (OTR) haul truck tyres that have reached the end of their operational life are being sent from Alcoa’s bauxite mines in the Peel and South West regions to the local Tyrecycle facility where they are processed to create a crumbed rubber product. The resulting product can be used for a variety of applications including as a crumbed rubber modified bitumen, and a range of soft-surface applications such as those used on athletics tracks and in playgrounds. Alcoa water and waste global program manager Nicole King says the recycling project has been a long…

Rumble Resources (ASX: RTR) has announced a 76% increase to its mineral resources estimate (MRE) for the Western Queen gold project. The project now boasts an upgraded MRE of 4.42mt at 2.02g/t of gold for 286,600oz with indicated resources of 2.39mt at 2.11g/t of gold for 163,800oz, a 142% increase compared to the August 2021 MRE. Diamond drilling completed in June 2024 prompted a comprehensive lithostructural review and reinterpretation of the Western Queen gold project, which led to the remodelling of the MRE. Rumble managing director and chief executive Peter Harold says the company believes the Western Queen is one of the most underexplored high-grade gold projects in WA. “The 76% increase in in contained ounces is an extremely positive…

Two trailblazing women have swapped the salon and vet hospital for new careers at the New Acland mine in Queensland. Jodi Keane-Venz, a former hairdresser and teacher and Ella Graham, a former vet nurse, started work at New Acland Coal in August. The duo is part of a new-to-industry intake, which required no prior knowledge of the mining industry. Mrs Keane-Venz, an Oakey based hairdresser for the past 30 years says she jumped at the opportunity to swap the scissors of the salon for the roads of the New Acland mine. “My husband and sons have worked in the mining industry for years, but it was never a career I considered until recently,” she said. “As an operator, I now…

Westgold Resources (ASX: WGX) produced a record 77,369oz of gold from its expanded portfolio, achieving an average sale price of $3,723/oz for Q1 FY25. The Q1 FY25 result is based on three months of production from the Murchison (52,889oz) operations, but only two months of production from the Southern Goldfields operations (24,480oz). This follows the company’s move to increase FY25 production guidance to 400,000-420,000oz, a substantial increase from its 220,000-235,000oz FY24 guidance. Westgold managing director and chief executive Wayne Bramwell says Q1 FY25 delivered the company’s highest quarterly gold production yet. “In August Westgold successfully completed a $1.4b merger that created a top five ASX and top 10 TSX listed gold producer and propelled the company into the ranks of…

A scholarship fund that’s provided almost $300,000 to help build regional Queensland’s next-generation tertiary workforce has opened its door to applications for its 10th annual scholarship. Marking a decade since it first launched, the QCoal Foundation Scholarship provides a James Cook University (JCU) student with $10,000 each year for three years to offset the costs of studying. Students studying medicine, dentistry, geology, speech pathology, veterinary science, engineering and other disciplines at JCU have all benefitted from the scholarship over the past decade. First year speech pathology student and 2024 QCoal Foundation Scholarship recipient Taylor Dockerty says she is grateful for the support as she adjusts to campus life at JCU in Townsville. “It has really allowed me to strive to…