Category: Features

By Samantha James DESPITE a fluctuating price in 2015, Australia’s iron ore sector is remaining competitive within a global market. Australia's iron ore industry has been one of the country’s great economic success stories for the past 50 years, growing in revenue to more than $70 billion in 2014 following a jump in prices and subsequent increases in production. Prices peaked at more than US$190 per tonne in 2011 however proved unsustainable and steadily decreased throughout 2015, to the lowest level in almost a decade at US$43.89/t in late November. From 2000 to 2014, Australia’s annual iron...

By Courtney Pearson IN the wake of tough market conditions, few other countries have experienced such a roller coaster in minerals exploration as Papua New Guinea (PNG). Mining is an integral part of PNG’s economy, driving growth and services through mineral export revenues. Reflecting the worldwide downturn in mining, the PNG Government’s latest budget figures revealed that revenue from the country’s mining and petroleum tax fell from about PGK1.7 billion to PGK300 million. The 2015 supplementary budget included a 12 per cent fall in revenue. PNG Treasury minister Patrick Pruaitch said that “sharply lower commodity prices” had forced the government to adopt prudent fiscal policies to safeguard the country’s growth record and prospects. The PNG Government’s 2016 national budget theme...

By Courtney Pearson THE sheer size and cost of the Roy Hill project in WA’s Pilbara region is a testament to risk-taking. The tenements comprising the Roy Hill project, 115km north of Newman in WA, were originally owned by BHP Billiton. When the company dropped them,   mining magnate Gina Rinehart took a risk and picked them up in 1993 – just a year after taking on the executive chair role with Hancock Prospecting.  At the time, it was seen as a risky decision. “When , the most knowledgeable company in iron ore in the Pilbara ... decided that the Roy hill area was not of value, you can understand why people thought this was not a viable opportunity,...

By Courtney Pearson 5 November, 2015 IT may only be five years old, but gold explorer Doray Minerals has a to-do list to rival the best in the industry. The company’s project plans are coming to fruition, with first production at its newest development, Deflector, expected in mid-2016 and its flagship project, Andy Well, exceeding annual production guidance. Doray Minerals managing director Allan Kelly said the past year had been better than expected for the company. “We’ve been busy on the production side, the exploration side and on the corporate side,” he said. In fiscal 2015 the company reported good results across the board, including a 15 per cent rise in gold production to 88,736oz, a 21 per cent rise...

By Samantha James WHEN BHP Billiton demerged its nickel, coal, manganese and alumina assets into South32 in May 2015, it claimed established operations and low debt would keep the new company afloat in the slumped market environment. The market expectation was that BHP’s spinoff would be worth around US$15 billion, however shares dropped from its listing price of $2.05 to an average of about $1.4 in September and early October due to low returns on commodity prices and in reaction to South32 impairing assets within its South Africa Energy Coal business and its Cerro Matoso nickel mine. As a result, analysts estimated a slide in value of around US$10 billion and a 27.7 per cent drop in share value since...

By Samantha James EVEN though many explorers hold tenements along the prospective Yamarna Belt in WA, it is still one of the least explored greenstone belts in the region, sitting at the eastern most edge of the Yilgarn Craton. A study completed in 2010 by the Geological Survey of WA suggested the Yamarna Belt shares geological similarities with the well-endowed Kalgoorlie Terrane greenstone rocks, and some solid discoveries made by companies such as AusGold have supported this. However, it is Gold Road Resources’ Gruyere deposit that is proving the Yamarna Belt is capable of hosting WA’s next gold mining hub. Gold Road owns more than 5000 square kilometres within the Yamarna Belt and a pipeline of discoveries dating back from...

By Rachel Dally-Watkins UNSW Australia’s School of Mining research director and conference chair Associate Professor Dr Serkan Saydam spoke to Rachel Dally-Watkins about what delegates can expect at the Third International Future Mining Conference and Second Off-Earth Mining Forum. Q: What will be some of the key issues for mining in the future, and what industry-wide changes need to be considered now? We’re in the down side of the bust and boom cycle right now, but the mining industry has always been driven by commodity prices. There are many economic uncertainties as well as technical uncertainties facing this industry, but we can’t make changes for the economic uncertainties because that’s not something that is in our hands. So what we...

By Samantha James Rio Tinto Iron Ore holds 15 mines 1700km of rail, four port terminals, three power stations, and around 360 trucks, 39 production drills and 190 locomotives in the Pilbara region of WA. All these assets utilise various integrated automated systems, also relying on unmanned trucks and drills to mine iron ore. RIO Tinto produces more than 295 million tonnes per annum of iron ore from its Pilbara operations. Following the completion of port and rail infrastructure in 2015, Rio Tinto is concentrating on improving system-wide efficiency and productivity. The company has been researching new ways to deliver cost savings and improve environmental impacts and safety since operations commenced nearly 50 years ago; and then in 2008 the...

By Samantha James One hundred and thirty years on, BHP Billiton is an old company with new tricks. Despite price drops affecting its major commodities– iron ore, coal and copper – BHP Billiton made more than US$44 billion in revenue for fiscal 2015 and reported a 9 per cent increase in overall production. THE company in its current form was created in 2001 when BHP and Billiton merged.  BHP’s first discovery was made in 1883 in Broken Hill, NSW and Billiton’s was at Billiton Island in western Indonesia. After the merger,...

By Courtney Pearson October 12, 2015 BRINGING together the entire mining industry is no easy task, yet for the second year in a row, the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) plans to do just that. The inaugural IMARC, held in 2014, aimed to unite mining leaders, policy makers, financiers, technical experts, innovators, collaborators and educators. The five-day event attracted 200 speakers from across the globe to deliver presentations, share their insights, address challenges and look ahead, IMARC event director Anita Richards said. “Thought leaders in innovation, investment, workforce strengthening, policy, safety and more were positioned front and centre, presenting to...

By Courtney Pearson October 7, 2015 THE Wiggins Island Coal Export Terminal (WICET) is officially open for business three years after construction began, providing the coal industry with 27mt of export capacity per annum from the port of Gladstone. Queensland's newest export terminal shipped its first 1 million tonnes of coal at the start of September. The privately-funded Wiggins Island Coal Export Terminal (WICET) is owned by eight Australian and international resources companies including Glencore, Aquila Resources, Caledon Coal and Yancoal. The consortium celebrated mechanical completion and its first shipment of 73,000t of coal towards the end of April and hasn’t looked back since. The terminal is...