Author: Chloe Coutinho

Art enthusiasts from WA and beyond are invited to experience the stories and culture of Pilbara Aboriginal artists at the annual Colours of our Country exhibition. Now in its 19th year, the exhibition will be held at the Central Park building in Perth, from Monday, September 16, to Friday, September 27. It will showcase a vibrant collection of 160 unique Aboriginal artworks from 43 artists. This year’s line-up features independent artists and art centres across the Pilbara, including the Yinjaa-Barni Art Centre, Cheeditha Art Group and Juluwarlu Art Group. Since the exhibition launched in 2006, more than 2,987 artworks have been sold, generating almost $3.3m for local artists, their art groups and communities. Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) Iron Ore chief…

Westgold (ASX: WGX) has increased its FY25 production guidance as its WA mines Beta Hunt, Bluebird – South Junction and Great Fingall begin to deliver increased outputs. FY25 guidance is 400,000-420,000oz, a substantial increase from its 220,000-235,000oz FY24 guidance. The company is gearing up for a peak investment year, as Southern Goldfields assets are integrated and optimised, the Murchison operating assets are expanded and Great Fingall commences production. Westgold managing director and chief executive Wayne Bramwell says FY25 sees a substantial step change in the scale of operation for Westgold. “Integrating and optimising the Southern Goldfields assets will be the focus in H1, FY25 with Beta Hunt beginning to deliver increased output in H2,” he said. “Murchison production lifts in…

Metso has launched the newest member of its MHC hydrocyclones product family, the MHC curved bottom (CB). The MHC CB is suited for lithium, gold, aggregates, nickel, magnetite, hematite, limestone, aluminium, zinc, molybdenum, silica and more. The new hydrocyclone is designed for superior particle separation with increased unit capacity and coarser cut sizes while minimising the fines bypass. Metso hydrocyclones product group manager Ben Klein says the design of the MHC CB is based on the proven MHC hydrocyclone but upgraded with new innovative features, making it a true breakthrough technology for the classification process. “Thanks to this unique patented design, the new hydrocyclone offers higher unit capacity compared to standard hydrocyclone technologies,” he said. “The MHC CB is also…

IGO (ASX: IGO) will focus heavily on its lithium business, embracing expected volatility in the market as demand and supply imbalances play out. Presenting at the company’s 2024 Strategy Day, IGO managing director and chief executive Ivan Vella says the global energy transition is happening, with electrification at its core. “To drive the transition, the world is going to need to discover and deliver a lot more battery materials,” he said. “This is where IGO has a significant role to play. “Under our new strategy, IGO will focus on upstream mining, where we can leverage our existing skills and capabilities to generate the most value through the cycle. “We intend to build out a diversified portfolio with exploration, development and…

Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King delivered a speech at the Minerals Week 2024 Conference in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, arguing that the Federal Government is especially focused on critical minerals and rare earths industries. “No government in recent memory has put the resources industry at the centre of its policy making in the way that the Government has,” she said. “In June last year, I released the Critical Minerals Strategy, which provided the blueprint for our approach for supporting the industry. “We then updated the critical minerals list and created a new Strategic Materials List of commodities — providing more projects with the potential to access government funding. “We doubled the Critical Minerals Facility to $4b and had the…

Two Queensland women have received national recognition for their outstanding contribution to the resources sector at the BHP (ASX: BHP) Women in Resources National Awards. Gold Coast based FIFO engineer, Ashara Moore, and support manager, Kanae Dyas, were honoured at the awards presented by the Minerals Council of Australia. Ashara Moore, who works at BHP’s Saraji mine in Central Queensland, was named the Exceptional Young Woman in Australian Resources. Anglo American’s workplace support manager Kanae Dyas was recognised as the Gender Diversity Champion in Australian Resources. As well as the individual recognition, Anglo American was also awarded a highly commended in the Excellence in Diversity Programs and Performance Award category. Queensland Resources Council (QRC) chief executive Janette Hewson says Ashara…

Aurelia Metals’ (ASX: AMI) Federation critical minerals and high-tech metals mine is opening in NSW, after receiving development consent in 2023 for operations until 2036. The mine will be located near the historical mining town of Cobar, NSW, and will support more than 140 skilled jobs while providing a $143m investment boost to the region. Production for the mine is estimated at 600,000tpa of high-grade zinc, gold, copper and lead. The mine is projected to produce 4.0mt of ore containing approximately 328,000t of zinc, 192,000t of lead, 12,000t of copper, 116,000oz of gold and 772,000oz of silver. NSW Natural Resources Minister Courtney Houssos says the opening of the Federation mine highlights the State Government’s commitment to critical minerals and the…

The Federal Government has granted environmental approval for BCI Minerals’ (ASX: BCI) Optimised Mardie project (OMP) in the Pilbara region of WA. The OMP will be the largest solar salt project in Australia and the third largest globally, producing 5.35mtpa of high-quality industrial salt for export with an operating life expected to exceed 60 years. The approval allows operations to commence and enables further construction in the northern area of the project footprint. BCI Minerals will commence operations by filling evaporation ponds one, two and three with seawater from September 10. Once the initial three ponds are filled, BCI Minerals will update its Groundwater Monitoring and Management Plan (GMMP) using real-time data from the company’s extensive network of monitoring bores…

Kincora Copper (ASX: KCC) has been awarded the Nyngan West, Nyngan South and Nevertire South projects in central west NSW. These new projects double Kincora’s position on the Macquarie Arc’s Northern Junee-Narromine Belt (NJNB) and provide continuous landholding along more than 100km strike of the Arc. This consolidates the immediate extensions of the Nyngan and Nevertire projects held in partnership with AngloGold Ashanti Australia. Kincora president and chief executive Sam Spring says the company’s strategy to create shareholder value is through obtaining the best ground, concluding commercial deals and making large scale copper-gold discoveries. “Recently we have attracted four industry partners and unlocked up to $60m of multi-year funding,” he said. “We are very pleased to have opportunistically secured three…

Northern Star Resources (ASX: NST) managing director Stuart Tonkin spoke on the company’s record FY24 at the WA Mining Club August luncheon. The gold producer saw record cash earnings in FY24 of $1.8b plus revenue of $4.92b, crediting these results to the strong operational performance across its Kalgoorlie and Yandal production centres in WA, plus its Pogo production centre in Alaska. Looking forward, Mr Tonkin says one of the biggest threats to the Australian mining sector is the global risk of the flight of capital. “You need business planning runway,” he said. “As start to modify and change, companies need time. “What the nation doesn’t quite realise is that the money will go. “It will leave Australia and it…

A differential fee model for lodging mineral title objections before WA’s mining wardens will take effect on September 16. The introduction of the fee follows a significant increase in the number of objections to mineral title applications brought before the mining wardens over the past three years, which required the appointment of a second Perth mining warden. The new general fee of $430 will effectively support partial cost-recovery to fund the second warden and additional administrative staff. Like other courts and tribunals in WA, concession card and pension card holders will incur a $100 fee. Registered Native Title Bodies Corporate and freehold landowners that overlap the application for a mining tenement will have a $0 fee. Under amendments to the Mining…