Category: Headline

By Courtney Pearson ALL necessary fossil fuel projects have already been developed, and companies risk wasting US$2.2 trillion in the next decade on ”stranded assets”, according to thinktank Carbon Tracker. The $2 trillion stranded assets danger zone: How fossil fuel firms risk destroying investor returns report by Carbon Tracker also predicted that  oil demand would peak about 2020 and growth in gas would disappoint industry expectations. The demand for energy could already be met through existing coal mines; future capital expenditure of US$177 billion on new projects and $42 billion on existing ones was unnecessary, according to the report. Australia, the US and China accounted for 90 per cent of this unnecessary investment. “Our work shows thermal coal has the…

TO provide a behind-the-scenes understanding of the work required, Liebherr-Australia has released a 7 minute time lapse video featuring the manufacture of its T 282 C haul truck fleet. The video follows the journey from the Port of Brisbane to the build-site in North Queensland and culminates in footage of some of the fleet in action. This large-scale, three-month project required 25 hours of road-travel from the Brisbane port to the build-site. The project also featured two cameras on two build pads taking 12,096 photographs each; 22,000 individual frames taken for the tray build; and 62 individual timelapse sequences.  More than 150,000 individual frames of video were sequenced, compressed and edited. The trucks shown on the video, which can be viewed on the…

By Samantha James THE collapse of a tailings dam at the Vale-BHP Billiton owned Samarco operation in Brazil has resulted in flooding across more than 600km in one of the worst environmental disasters in the country’s mining history. On November 5 2015, one of the three dams at the Samarco iron ore mine in Minas Gerais failed, affecting the downstream Santarem dam and causing a “significant release” of mine tailings to flood the nearby community of Bento Rodrigues and others downstream, according to BHP. Four days later BHP advised that although it did not know the causes of the tailings release, it was assisting rescue efforts at the nearby communities where at least one fatality and 13 people had been…

South32 chief executive Graham Kerr at the company’s first AGM in Perth. By Courtney Pearson AT its first annual general meeting, held in Perth, South32 has assured shareholders that their loyalty will pay off after a long period of uninspiring share prices. “Looking ahead, despite the challenging market conditions, I can assure you that we have the right strategy, the right balance sheet strength and management commitment to deliver sector-leading returns,” South32 chief executive Graham Kerr said at the meeting. The company officially demerged from major player BHP Billiton in May this year and has been fairly quiet since, focusing on optimising its existing assets rather than pushing for new projects. South32 has been plagued by lower than expected share…

By Courtney Pearson RESOURCES companies need to collaborate to push through the lower commodity prices and create a more productive and innovative industry, according to Anglo American group director of technical and sustainability Tony O’Neill. Speaking at the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) in Melbourne, Mr O’Neill said that the rise in costs and declining grades meant that the industry needed to resolve the conflict between long-term investment and short-term market cycles. “We are on the brink of a new machine age, our challenge is how to harness this opportunity when our industry is lagging behind others,” he said. “We won’t be able to catch up by going it alone – we need collaboration, partnerships and sharing of ideas…

By Samantha James HEALTH and safety management practices need a complete overhaul to prevent incidents at Australian mine sites, according to presenters at the Fluro Conference in Perth. International safety professionals and experts across Australia converged on 10 and 11 November to discuss issues in health and safety in a range of industry sectors. Imperfect reporting systems were highlighted in presentations by Alcoa global director of refining health and safety Danny Spadaccini and Greg Smith, legal practice director at STE Safety and Legal. Mr Smith told conference attendees that within health and safety companies spend an enormous amount of time creating data “that tells us absolutely nothing”. He said lost time injury rates (LTIR) were the “posterchild of irrelevancy” in safety…

By Reuben Adams AUSTRALIA-Africa Mining Industry Group (AAMIG) has called on the Australian Government to take more notice of the nation’s substantial economic footprint in Africa. AAMIG chairman Bill Turner said that despite more than $50 billion of Australian private sector investment in Africa’s natural resources, the Australian Government’s Economic Diplomacy program was “severely inadequate”. Only seven Australian missions covered Africa’s 54 countries and a population of more than 1 billion. “Australia’s resources sector has a substantial footprint across the continent of Africa and by working together with the Australian Government, greater progress could be achieved in translating African mineral wealth into broader socio-economic development,” Mr Turner said. “…for real gains to be made, the Australian Government must engage more…

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 4 November, 2015 THE Carmichael coal mine has been granted federal environmental re-approval subject to some of the strictest conditions “in Australian history”. Environment minister Greg Hunt reinstated Adani’s mine and rail project in mid-October, two months after it was stripped of its previous approval through federal court proceedings. The proposed $16.5 billion project in the Galilee Basin of Central Queensland would be subject to 36 environmental conditions, Mr Hunt said. “I have the power to suspend or revoke the approval and strict penalties apply if there is a breach of the strict conditions,” he said. “The conditions I have imposed take into account issues raised by the community and ensure that the proponent must meet the…

By Samantha James 4 November, 2015 MANY junior exploration and mining companies have struggled with volatile and declining commodity prices in recent years, but a new survey claims the fight may be easing for gold juniors. The 2015 Grant Thornton Junior Mining and Exploration Survey (JUMEX 2015) found 63 per cent of mining executives regarded gold as the brightest investment opportunity in 2016, followed by copper (50 per cent), zinc (36 per cent) and nickel (23 per cent). “This will be a welcome ray of hope for a significant portion of junior miners given the extremely challenging conditions that persist in the sector,” Grant Thornton Australia national head of energy and resources Holly Stiles said. “Whilst there are companies who…