Author: Chloe Coutinho

Queensland new-to-industry intake gets women into mining 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...

Westgold reaps record post-merger results 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...

QCoal scholarship helps students achieve their dreams 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...

Australia waves hello to ocean energy Clean renewable energy from harnessing ocean waves can be a critical enabler in helping Australia achieve its Net Zero targets — and we are uniquely well-placed to lead in this space, a new report shows. Commissioned by the Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre and led by a team of researchers at The University of Western Australia’s Ocean Institute, the Ocean Wave Energy in Australia report details the opportunities, application, integration and development of an ocean energy industry in Australia. With the world’s largest and most consistent national wave...

Sandvik introduces industry’s most advanced narrow vein underground drill Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions is introducing Sandvik DD212i, its first intelligent i-series narrow vein drill and the industry’s most advanced underground drill of its type. Sandvik DD212i is a compact single-boom jumbo with a new carrier and updated design, offering improved productivity, drilling accuracy, intelligence, versatility and easy integration? into operations. Optimal in narrow vein and medium-sized drifts, Sandvik DD212i ensures more tons and maximum profitability, as well as operational efficiency with precise electronic positioning and instrumentation...

Renewables at their Zenith as Liontown lifts lithium with hybrid power project WA Energy Minister Reece Whitby officially opened the Kathleen Valley hybrid power system, ushering in a new age of emissions free mining for the energy transition. The power system is the largest operating off-grid power system in Australia, designed, funded, built, owned and operated by Zenith Energy for Liontown Resources (ASX: LTR). The 95MW Kathleen Valley hybrid power system incorporates the nation’s largest off-grid wind farm utilising the largest land-based wind turbines in the country....

WesTrac expands autonomous training centre to shape future workforce Leading Caterpillar® dealer WesTrac will complete the construction of new facilities at the WesTrac Technology Training Centre in Collie, WA, by November, offering further world-leading training opportunities. Speaking during a visit to the facility by WA Premier Roger Cook, WesTrac chief executive Jarvas Croome said the State Government supported the project by providing $1m from the Collie Futures Industry Development Fund. “It is fantastic to have Roger Cook at the WesTrac...

Trigg moves swiftly on antimony Trigg Minerals (ASX: TMG) is rapidly working to restate the existing mineral resource estimate (MRE) and grow the potentially significant Wild Cattle Creek (WCC) resource at its recently acquired Achilles antimony project in NSW. WCC contains 15,600t of antimony and is also enriched in tungsten and gold, making it NSW’s second-largest antimony deposit and the highest-grade undeveloped antimony project in Australia, according to Trigg. Tungsten and gold were excluded in the original MRE as well as potentially significant antimony veins. In addition to these potential enhancements, Trigg says antimony...

NRW awarded $360m mining services contract at Mungari NRW Holdings (ASX: NWH) is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a contract by Evolution Mining (Mungari), a wholly owned subsidiary of Evolution Mining (ASX: EVN), for surface mining at Castle Hill in WA. The project is in the heart of the Goldfields, 50km northwest of Kalgoorlie and 40km north of Coolgardie, ideally situated to allow NRW to engage with local businesses and further develop the local community partnerships established by the Mungari operations. The works to be performed include load and haul, drill and blast and construction of...

MACA Interquip Mintrex made study managers for Hillgrove gold-antimony project MACA Interquip Mintrex (MIQM) who are part of the Theiss Group have been appointed study manager for Larvotto Resources’ (ASX: LRV) NSW Hillgrove gold and antimony project’s definitive feasibility study (DFS). MIQM will assume overall supervision of the ongoing metallurgical test work program currently underway at Independent Metallurgical Operations (IMO) and design modifications and detailed costings required to ensure optimal performance and production from the 500,000tpa Hillgrove processing plant. Larvotto managing director Ron Heeks says the company is looking forward...

Successful recovery of tin and palladium from electronic waste MTM Critical Metals (ASX: MTM) has achieved successful results extracting metals from electronic waste (e-waste) using Flash Joule Heating (FJH). This expands the list of recoverable metals to gold, silver, copper, tin and palladium, confirming the versatility of FJH in efficiently extracting multiple metals from e-waste. This was achieved without the use of toxic acids, recovering approximately 86% of the tin and 82% of palladium content from printed circuit boards (PCBs), a common...