Category: Headline

EMERGING coal producer OGL Resources has announced it will proceed with plans to access facilities at the Port of Brisbane to handle, store and transport up to 1.5 million tonnes of coal per annum. The announcement came after the company completed a successful feasibility study that confirmed the proposed development at the port was economically and practically feasible. The former timber processor will now work with the port authority to create a commercial access/operation agreement for its exclusive use of the facility. The agreement will permit OGL to re-open the Ebenezer mine and export an initial 600,000t increasing to 1.5mtpa through existing port infrastructure. OGL managing director Allan Fidock said the arrangement would allow the company to produce a high-quality…

DESPITE commodity price volatility, the resources sector is continuing to support the state by attracting global investment and creating thousands of jobs. According to the State Government’s Local Content Report, November 2012, 85 international companies that support resources project activity have expanded into WA in the past two years; nearly half of these operate in the oil and gas industry. The UK and US each have 16 additional companies working on projects in WA, while Norway has 11 and China has 8. WA Commerce minister Simon O’Brien said the report highlighted that offshore companies continued to be positive about the state’s resources sector. “The arrival of more international companies brings a number of benefits to the state – including knowledge…

RIO Tinto’s Blair Athol mine in Central Queensland has been officially shut down after nearly 30 years in operation and producing nearly 250 million tonnes of thermal coal. Coal was discovered at the Bowen Basin site in 1864, but it wasn’t until 1984 that the first shipment of coal was exported (to Japan as part of a 72mt contract). In the last five years, Rio Tinto has gradually scaled back the 12mt per annum operation, 24km northwest of Clermont, as the main coal seam was mined out. According to the company’s Clermont region general manager operations Dawid Pretorius, the mine had a workforce of more than 400 people at its peak and was an “economic powerhouse for the region”. “Rather…

MOUNT Isa is a city built on mining. It owes its very existence to the discovery of a rich mineral deposit in 1923, and today the area’s mines produce a stream of wealth that shows no signs of drying up. The northwest Queensland city encompasses a civic area of 43,310 square kilometres and is home to Mount Isa Mines (MIM), a spectacularly productive holding that bears lead, silver, copper and zinc. Now owned by Xstrata, it has been in production since 1931. The region also hosts projects owned by Altona Mining, MMG, Aditya Birla, Ivanhoe Australia, BHP Billiton and FMR Investments. The existing mines produce a whopping $8.5 billion in gross domestic product for the region. According to one estimate,…

WA-based gold exploration and development company Excelsior Gold has certainly lived up to its name – ‘excelsior’ being Latin for ‘ever upward’ – as it moves rapidly to re-establish operations at its exciting Kalgoorlie North gold project in the WA goldfields, about 45km north of Kalgoorlie. The project covers granted mining and prospecting leases across 25km of the Bardoc Tectonic Zone greenstone belt. Historic production from the Bardoc mining centre, in the central part of Excelsior Gold’s tenements, occurred at the underground Zoroastrian mine between the late 1890s and early 1900s, and at the Excelsior and Zoroastrian open pits between 1987 and 1991. Excelsior Gold managing director David Hamlyn said that when the company acquired the project in 2009, it…

ADELAIDE-based exploration company Quasar Resources has announced it will resume development at the Four Mile uranium project in South Australia despite a key shareholder voting against the proposed start-up plan. Quasar, which holds a 75 per cent interest in the project, voted in favour of a 16-month program that will see in-situ recovery mining operations begin at the prospect in the second quarter of 2013, with first uranium sales scheduled for the third quarter. As part of the plan, uranium capture and processing will take place at facilities operated by Quasar affiliate Heathgate Resources, which owns the adjacent Beverly uranium mine. Alliance Resources, which owns the remaining 25 per cent interest in the Four Mile project, voted against the start-up…

WHITEHAVEN Coal has received approval from the NSW Planning Assessment Commission for its Maules Creek project and intends to go into production “as soon as possible”, the company announced. On the same day, the miner revealed plans to indefinitely suspend its operations at another Gunnedah Basin project, Sunnyside, citing lower coal prices as a major factor behind the move. Whitehaven managing director Tony Haggarty said he welcomed the Commission’s decision but noted that the project still needed approval from the federal Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water Population and Communities. “The Maules Creek project is one of the best coal development projects in the world, with a large reserve of high-quality coal, a low stripping ratio of 6.4:1, relatively low capital…

INVICTUS Gold has announced a two-for-one  renounceable rights issue at $0.04 per share, undertaken to raise $2.88 million for exploration at two projects and to fund the acquisition of a third. The company’s largest shareholder, Impact Minerals, has committed to taking up its entitlement of $1.28 million worth of shares and agreed to underwrite the balance of the  for up to $1.6 million, subject to its own capital raising. Turkey is the focus of much of the fundraising. According to a news release from Invictus, the company intended to further explore and drill its Himmetdede South project in the country. The 7 square kilometre prospect, 50km north of Kayseri, is adjacent to the Himmetdede deposit owned by Turkish company Koza…

AS the world’s more accessible copper deposits become depleted, miners are turning to block cave mining: a highly-productive, low-cost underground method by which deep copper deposits are carefully collapsed under their own weight. While this comparatively new technique is expected to become the most widespread form of copper mining by 2020, the Northparkes gold and copper operation – a joint venture between Rio Tinto (80 per cent) and Sumitomo (20 per cent) – trailblazed block caving in Australia more than 15 years ago. Northparkes is one of Rio Tinto’s smallest copper operations, but its importance to the future of efficient and sustainable underground copper mining outweighs its size. The company has continued to refine and develop its block caving process,…

BOASTING large-scale operations in Australia and Brazil, BHP Billiton remains one of the world’s leading iron ore producers. The company’s principal Australian operations are based in the Pilbara region of northern WA and comprise a complex integrated system of` seven inland mining operations (Jimblebar, Area C, Mt Whaleback, Ore Body 18, Ore Body 24, Yandi, and Yarrie, all 85 per cent owned by BHP). More than 1000km of rail connects these operations to stockyards and two separate port facilities at Port Hedland. BHP Billiton had a strong half year ending December 2011 and it reported record iron ore production in WA as one of the major catalysts for the increase. The commodity earned the company US$12.149 billion for the 2011…

NESTLED in the heart of the Peruvian mountains more than 2400m above sea level is one of the world’s most famous archaeological sites. Built by the Incas in 1450, Machu Picchu, 80km northwest of Cusco on the eastern slope of the Andes, is a creation of ancient, awe-inspiring stone ruins, surrounded by Amazonian jungle. For centuries the ‘lost city’ of Machu Picchu which sits high above the Urubamba River, remained undiscovered and hidden from the world, with only a few locals privy to its existence. It wasn’t until 1911 that American explorer Hiram Bingham stumbled upon the ruins during a South American expedition. Yet the history of Machu Picchu remains vague. Some researchers believe that the pre-Columbian site was built…