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  BHP has significantly bolstered its Oak Dam operations, one of the most significant copper discoveries in recent history, with 12 rigs presently on site and the majority of its 150-person drilling camp now occupied.  The miner has established an integrated copper province in the South Australia’s far north by combining the Prominent Hill and Carrapateena mines with its existing Olympic Dam mine, smelter and refinery, and the Oak Dam exploration prospect.  The so-called “OD Deeps” program has identified extremely high grades of copper deep underneath the Olympic Dam ore body, in some instances of more than 2%, according to the miner.  BHP asset president copper South Australia Anna Wiley says encouraging exploration data at Oak Dam is coupled with…

The South Australian government is planning to establish a hydrogen-based direct reduction iron (DRI) plant in the state by the end of the decade and is seeking partners to get the project off the ground. South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas announced that an expressions of interest process would commence in June, seeking involvement from businesses to jointly investigate the development of a hydrogen-based DRI plant in South Australia. “The world needs steel, and as it seeks to decarbonise, it will increasingly need green iron and steel,” he said.  “We have the key ingredients for a DRI plant in the Upper Spencer Gulf – an unrivalled resource of magnetite, and soon, a supply of renewable hydrogen, produced using our spectacular wind…

Industry leaders have signed a deal to establish Australia’s first vanadium flow battery manufacturing supply chain in Queensland.   Idemitsu Australia, Sumitomo Electric Industries and Vecco Group signed a collaboration agreement to build a complete manufacturing supply chain, from mining to energy storage, expected to be operational in 2026.  Under this non-exclusive agreement, Idemitsu plans to market, sell and deliver vanadium flow batteries to Australian customers using Sumitomo Electric hardware and Vecco’s electrolyte made from vanadium mined in Queensland’s north west minerals province.   Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. general manager of energy systems division Mr Kamada says “we are very pleased to be able to participate in this framework together with Idemitsu Australia, which has a great track record in this country…

Abbot Point Operations (APO) is celebrating four decades of safe and responsible operations at the North Queensland Export Terminal, Australia’s most northern deepwater export port. It was this week in 1984 when the Fukukawa Maru arrived at the Terminal, located north of Bowen in Queensland, to load 60,000 tonnes of coking coal from the Collinsville mine, destined for Hong Kong. Yesterday the BBG Liuzhou was the 6,902nd ship to safely berth at the Terminal and load high-quality coal from Bowen or Galilee basin mines for export to the world. Abbot Point Operations General Manager Port Operations Allan Brown said the milestone was a credit to the hundreds of local workers who had maintained the Terminal for more than a generation.…

The Queensland Government has allocated $20m to address the loss of up to 1,200 jobs after Glencore announced the closures of its underground copper mine and copper concentrator and the nearby Lady Loretta zinc mine. The fund, part of a $50m support package for Mount Isa, will focus on projects that can start up quickly to create jobs and enhance Mount Isa’s attractiveness as a place to live and work.  The package also includes up to $30m to accelerate resources projects in the North West Minerals Province, led by Queensland Treasury and the state’s department of resources.  Queensland State Development and Infrastructure Minister Grace Grace says “when Glencore announced the upcoming closure of these two Mount Isa mines, our government stepped…

QEM (ASX: QEM) and The University of Queensland (UQ) have teamed up to produce the first high-purity vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) from an industrial waste stream in Australia. In June last year, QEM announced an agreement with Incitec Pivot Limited (ASX: IPL) to collect vanadium-bearing spent catalyst from IPL’s Mount Isa sulphuric acid plant and process this waste into high-purity vanadium pentoxide (V2O5), an essential component of the electrolyte used in vanadium flow batteries. QEM also entered a similar agreement with Sun Metals Corporation Pty Ltd’s Townsville zinc refinery in March last year. Currently the spent catalyst removed from sulphuric acid plants ends up in waste facilities. Test work previously conducted by QEM and Clean-Teq Water, established that 90% of the…

Mineral Resources (MinRes) (ASX: MIN) has announced its financial results for H1 FY24, reporting strong operational performance across all businesses.  The miner says revenue was up 7% to $2.51b, with underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $674m.  A diversified business model was key to the solid financial results, despite weaker lithium prices, according to the miner. ?  MinRes managing director Chris Ellison says “incredible progress was made on Onslow Iron over the half”.   “We currently have more than 2,000 people working on the project, with first ore-on-ship on target for June 2024,” he said.  “Our unique ‘build, own, operate’ model at Onslow Iron ensures we have full control over costs and project delivery despite the high inflationary…

Auric Mining (ASX: AWJ) will commence stage two of mining the Jeffreys Find gold mine near Norseman, WA, in early March, with first parcel of ore expected in mid-April this year. BML Ventures Pty Ltd of Kalgoorlie, Auric’s joint venture partners, has executed a contract with FMR Investments Pty Ltd to toll mill a minimum of 300,000t of ore at the Greenfields mill in Coolgardie this year. Auric Mining managing director Mark English commented on this. “Last year our partners extracted 175,000t of ore from Jeffreys Find gold mine and we achieved a great result for the joint venture with almost $10m total surplus cash generated,” he said. “With a contract to process a minimum of 300,000t in 2024 at…

Revolver Resources Holdings Limited (ASX: RRR) has secured a $1.3m grant from the QLD Government’s Critical Minerals and Battery Technology Fund for its Dianne copper mine project in northwest Queensland. The grant received will be directed towards advanced technical studies and site-specific engineering designs for the project starting next month. These include $800,000 for the SX/EW processing engineering design and $500,000 for site engineering design. Revolver managing director Pat Williams says the company is very pleased to be the recipients of the very first grant. “Given the stated objectives of the fund, I believe that this demonstrates excellent validation of the production potential of our Dianne copper mine project,” he said. “Critically, this non-dilutive funding source enables us to rapidly…

Australia’s advertising regulator has rejected a complaint about Bravus’ website by anti-coal activists and the taxpayer-supported Environmental Defenders Office. An Ad Standards Community Panel found Bravus’ website did not breach the Australian Association of National Advertisers Code on the Bravus website. The complaint was brought by the Environmental Defenders Office on behalf of the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change (ARRCC). This dismissal followed the Community Panel’s initial rejection of the complaint in December 2023, which the Environmental Defenders Office then appealed. There are no further avenues for appeal. A Bravus spokesperson said the company was pleased the complaint had been dismissed as it was a misuse of process and taxpayers’ money by anti-coal activists waging green lawfare. “We stand…

Fortescue (ASX: FMG) shipped 94.6mt of iron ore in H1 FY24, the second highest first half shipments in the company’s history.  Fortescue’s near-record shipments helped the miner increase its net profit after tax (NPAT) by 41% over the prior corresponding period to $5.04b (US$3.3b).  Fortescue Metals chief executive Dino Otranto says “Fortescue’s performance in the first half of FY24 has been excellent, with the team achieving our second highest first half shipments while maintaining our strong focus on safety and keeping our costs low”.   “This contributed to outstanding financial results, with EBITDA of US$5.9b ($9.01b) and net profit after tax of US$3.3b ($5.04b).  The results follow the first shipment of high–grade magnetite concentrate from Iron Bridge in September 2023.  “Whether…