Category: Legacy

FOCUS Minerals is on track to become one of Australia’s top gold producers following the successful completion of its off-market takeover of Crescent Gold. Last October, the now fifth-largest primary ASX-listed Australian gold producer finalised a deal which saw it acquire 81.57 per cent of Crescent, a WA mining, development and exploration company whose flagship project was the Laverton gold mine. The acquisition doubled Focus’s mineral resources to 4.3 million ounces and tripled its ore reserves to 623,000oz overnight, and will see the company’s projected annual output increase to 200,000oz of gold this year. Focus now operates four mines across Laverton and Coolgardie in WA – Australia’s two largest gold producing regions – and has completed the first full year…

STRUGGLING gold play Apex Minerals has received support from the Andrew Forrest-led The Metal Group, with the latter agreeing to invest up to $18 million in Apex and provide advice and access to its extensive contact network. The investment will give The Metal Group a 20 per cent stake in the troubled miner. The former chief executive officer of iron ore major Fortescue Metals Group, Mr Forrest recently loaned Apex a $4 million short-term debt facility via The Metal Group’s subsidiary AMNL Financing. Apex has been struggling to maintain profitable operations at its flagship Wiluna gold mine, 1000km northeast of Perth. During the December 2011 quarter Apex received an average $1667 per ounce of gold, but its cash operating costs…

PROMISING ASX-listed coal explorer Cokal has added to its extensive tenement landholding in the Indonesian territory of Kalimantan, in Borneo, after completing the acquisition of 72.5 per cent of PT Silangkop Nusa Raya (SNR) for $722,000 cash. Indonesian company SNR holds three exploration licenses covering an area of about 13,000 hectares near the Malaysian border in West Kalimantan. On the completion of the final administrative details associated with the acquisition – due in the June quarter of 2012—Cokal chief executive officer James Middleton said the company intended to embark on a greenfields exploration program to determine the region’s potential. Mr Middleton said that, due to limited historical data on the tenements, significant baseline exploration including scout work and mapping was…

THE proposed Guinea-based Simandou iron ore joint venture between Aluminium Corporation of China subsidiary Chalco and iron ore major Rio Tinto has been completed, after receiving all necessary regulatory approvals from the Chinese Government. Following an earn-in payment of US$1.35 billion, Chalco now owns 44.65 per cent of the Simandou project; Rio holds the majority 50.35 per cent stake in the venture, while World Bank Group member International Finance Corporation owns five per cent. The Guinea Government has also retained an option to participate in the project. In 2003, Rio signed a Mining Convention agreement with the Guinea Government to develop an iron ore mine in Guinea’s south east. Rio has since invested more than US$700 million in exploration and…

PERTH-BASED Metaliko Resources is edging closer to early stage cash flow following results from a scoping study for stage one of its Goongarrie gold project, a proposed mine, truck and treat (MTT) redevelopment near Kalgoorlie in WA. The study estimated that redevelopment of the Goongarrie Lady open pit – which has a resource of 13,400 tonnes at 1.83 grams per tonne of gold – will initially yield between $4 and $5 million from a four-month mining program. “We are exceptionally pleased with the outcome of the study, which indicates a net cash flow considerably larger than the current $3 million market capitalisation of the company,” Metaliko managing director James Searle said. “The $4 to $5 million from Goongarrie will enable…

JUNIOR base metals producer Kagara’s ongoing financial woes have forced the company to suspend mining at its last operational Queensland mine. The recent suspension of the Kagara’s Balcooma mine and Mt Garnet polymetallic processing circuit came just one month after it was savaged by the market in March – its shares slumped nearly 39 per cent in one day – on news that it was halting other key Queensland operations, lowering its production forecasts, suspending development of an underground mine and stopping all exploration activities. The move resulted in 130 job cuts in March and April, as the miner suspended operations at its Baal Gammon open pit and placed its Thalanga mine and processing plant on care and maintenance. In…

FUELLING the fire of its long-running battle with mining unions, the BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) has declared that it will cease production indefinitely at its Norwich Park coal mine in the Bowen Basin. The announcement came as unions planned to start a 36-hour strike at seven BHP-run mines, including Norwich Park, despite a BMA warning in February that the mine had become unprofitable. In a statement, the company said that the mine had been losing money for several months due to a combination of reduced production and processing rates, as well as significant cost increases. It said the decision to end production followed a seven-week mine review that was unable to establish any immediate remedies that would allow Norwich…

AUSTRALIAN resources company TNG has signed a Heads of Agreement (HoA) with uranium and project development company Toro Energy that gives TNG rights to explore for all minerals except uranium within Toro’s EL 27115, EL 26848 and EL 27876 tenements. Called the Walabanba Hills project, the HoA tenements – considered to be highly prospective for copper and nickel mineralisation – lie directly west of TNG’s fl agship Mount Peake strategic metals project, near Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. Under the HoA terms, TNG must spend $500,000 on exploration activities within the fi rst two years to earn a 51 per cent interest in the granted exploration licences, with an option to increase this to 80 per cent after that…

IN what is a first for South Australia, IronClad Mining has received final State Government approval to build new port facilities at the existing Lucky Bay port to service its Wilcherry Hill iron ore project on the northern Eyre Peninsula. The Perth-based miner announced the project development approval last month, concluding the processes required in order for it to commence construction of infrastructure at Lucky Bay port on the Spencer Gulf coast. The new port will export iron ore from Wilcherry Hill, a joint venture project between IronClad and Trafford Resources. The port will provide a multi-user shipping avenue for South Australian exporters and will include iron ore storage facilities. The port will also have the potential for expansion to…

EMPIRE Resources has discovered a high-grade gold intersection at its Penny’s Find deposit in Kalgoorlie, confirming the underground potential of the project. All four reverse circulation drill holes, targeted beneath the base of a potential open pit intersected quartz veining with gold mineralisation. Intersections included: 6m grading 13.34 grams per tonne of gold from 113m, including 4m grading 19.43g/t of gold; 2m grading 12.95g/t of gold from 101m, within 8m grading 4.02g/t of gold; and 3m grading 14.42g/t of gold from 143m. A new hanging wall lode was discovered from an intersection of 16m grading 2.34g/t of gold from 20m, which Empire believes is the first indication that there may be a second mineralised lode at Penny’s Find. The shallow…

IN efforts to support development of its major UK-based Hemerdon tungsten mine, Perth company Wolf Minerals has signed a non-binding heads of agreement for tungsten offtake and a loan facility with two companies. The offtake agreements, with Austrian company Wolfram Bergbau und Hutten (WBH) and US-based Global Tungsten and Powers (GTP), cover 80 per cent of the Hemerdon mine’s expected annual tungsten concentrate output for a minimum of five years. Hemerdon is expected to produce an average of 345,000 metric tonne units of tungsten trioxide in concentrate per annum, as well as 450t of tin, starting in 2015. In addition to the recently announced debt facility of £55 million, WBH and GTP will provide Wolf with a £20 million loan…