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PERTH-BASED junior Impact Minerals has set the ball rolling for trial mining at its Blackridge gold project in Queensland. Following an agreement for tribute mining with Nimble Resources (which will carry all costs for mining, processing and rehabilitation), the trial mining program has been capped at 1m loose cubic metres of oxide material (about 1.6mt) over a three-year period. Impact Minerals Limited managing director Dr Mike Jones said the agreement marked a “very positive step forward” for the Blackridge project. “We know that the best way to determine grade in coarse gold deposits such as Blackridge is to simply start mining,” he said. “This is inherently very high risk, and so this agreement gives Impact a very low risk entry...

NEOMETALS (ASX: NMT)  has entered into an MoU with the Institute of Multipurpose Utilization of Mineral Resources Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (IMUMR) to develop the $692m Barrambie Titanium Vanadium project in WA. The MoU will lay the foundations for a potential 50:50 commercial production JV. IMUMR is a leading metallurgical institute in China with recognised expertise in, and relationships with China’s titanium and vanadium chemical processing industry, and global titanium-vanadium production houses. At an estimated total indicated and inferred mineral resource of 280.1mt at 9.18pc titanium and 0.44pc to 80m vertical depth, the Barrambie deposit is considered to be one of the world’s largest, high-grade titanium-vanadium deposits. Neometals’ cashed-up potential Chinese partner has the ability to fast track the...

THE Qld Department of Environment and Science has granted Pembroke Resources environmental authority (EA) for its 100pc owned Olive Downs coal project in Central Queensland. The EA authorises the activities for Olive Downs’ 79-year mine life, and provides the conditions for the operation of the mine. The 813mt open cut JORC resource holds a 2bt underground target, with 514mt open cut JORC reserves, and is a similar size to Adani’s Carmichael mine. Pembroke said that 90pc of the coal would be used for steelmaking. Pembroke chief executive, Barry Tudor, said the company was “looking forward to Federal Government approval under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, and the granting of a mining lease so that it can begin construction”....

METALICITY Limited’s (ASX: MCT) latest drilling program has confirmed mineralisation extensions at the Kookynie project in WA’s eastern goldfields. The three holes at Leipold, McTavish and Champion bring the total brownfields exploration project to nine holes, with Metalicity indicating that a “significant” mineralisation exists beyond the historical data. The company said it would continue with “a staged, systematic drill program designed to not only address gold grade and geology relationships to a level to support a mineral resource estimate, but metallurgy, geotechnical and density aspects to aid in potential feasibility studies at a later date”. The Kookynie project includes six prospects, with Leipold, McTavish and Champion targeted for this program. Drilling at Leipold yielded 9m at 7.31g/5t gold from 34m;...

TALGA Resources’ UK subsidiary Talga Technologies has gained funding under the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) Faraday Battery Challenge to develop the company’s graphitic anode for solid state batteries. The Faraday Challenge represents a £246m UK Government funding initiative for battery research, development and scale-up of facilities to help create a new supply chain for battery production in the UK and income from battery technologies. Solid state battery technology has the potential to combine high energy and power with improved safety – using a solid state electrolyte made of polymer, ceramic or glass material instead of the (more flammable) liquid electrolyte of  lithium-ion batteries. Talga aims to replace the metallic lithium anode in solid state batteries by developing...

THE Australasian Institute for Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM), the peak body for resources professionals in Australasia, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Indigenous Women in Mining and Resources Australia (IWIMRA), an organisation representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women employed in the resources industry. With an audience in Perth of 150 mining professionals as part of the AusIMM Thought Leadership Series, the MOU was officially signed as both organisations spoke publicly of their commitment to working together to support the needs and grow the voice of indigenous women in the sector. At the official signing, AusIMM CEO Stephen Durkin and IWIMRA co-founder Florence Drummond spoke of the importance of the MOU and the impact their collaboration will have....

THE Australian Government has released a Critical Minerals Strategy Report, exposing huge holes in the supply chain as tensions between Beijing and Washington heat up. The 17 elements that make up the rare earths are vital to high-tech appliances for both domestic and military use, and the heavy rare earths are the fundamental component in the powerful magnets used in electric vehicle motors. The report highlights Australia’s status as the world’s second largest producer of rare earths, and therefore perfectly positioned to supply the US with the high-tech elements, particularly the heavy rare earths that China has traditionally dominated. Resources and Northern Australia Minister Matt Canavan said that the Critical Minerals Strategy would prepare Australia to become the alternative to...

ON August 7 this year, Glencore announced its plans to close the Mutanda mine, citing reduced economic viability and the low prices as the main drivers behind the decision. Glencore chief executive officer Ivan Glasenberg said the company had planned to transition the Mutanda operation to temporary care and maintenance by year end, “reflecting its reduced economic viability in the current market environment, primarily in response to low cobalt prices”. According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence analyst Caspar Rawles, the announcement actually had a ripple effect in the market, which had experienced a downward trend from the first quarter 2018 through to the beginning of August 2019 (when Glencore released its half year report), mainly due to fears over oversupply. “We...

STAVELY Minerals (ASX: SVY) has reported “outstanding” shallow, thick, high-grade copper-gold intercepts at its 100pc-owned Thursday Gossan prospect in Victoria, 250km west of Melbourne. The WA company’s shares skyrocketed 264pc to 87.5c with the results that included two intercepts: 32m at 5.88pc copper, and 1g/t gold and 58g/t silver at 62m. The intercepts also included 12m at 14.3pc copper, 1g/t gold and 124g/t silver at 62m down hole, and 2m at 40pc copper, 3g/t gold and 517g/t silver. Stavely said that the current phase of drilling was evaluating near-surface high-grade mineralisation while it reviewed all results and data from the deep diamond drilling at the source porphyry. Stavely described the mineralisation as a “massive to semi-massive sulphide and quartz sulphide...

RIO Tinto (ASX: RIO) has entered into a historic MoU with Chinese steel giant China Baowu Steel Group and Tsinghua University to implement methods that reduce carbon emissions across the steel value chain. Signed at the China International Steel and Raw Materials Conference in Qingdao, the MoU will enable the formation of a working group tasked with identifying a pathway to reduce the carbon emitted across the entire value chain – amounting to between 7-9pc of world emissions. This comes as a major breakthrough to address carbon emission downstream, or scope 3 emissions, as mounting concerns pressure companies such as BHP to address the global climate impact of their products across the whole supply chain. Rio Tinto chief executive Jean-Sébastien Jacques...

A SPATE of deadly tailings dam accidents and the identification of two BHP tailings dams as being at “extreme risk” have prompted Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) members to release the Australian Mining Tailings Communique, aimed at addressing tailings best practice in Australian industry. The document comes months after Rio Tinto and BHP both identified risks relating mines at home and abroad, and after the first wave of criminal charges were laid against Vale executives following the Brumadinho disaster that killed more than 200 people. The Communique consolidates the industry’s view around best practice of a particularly sensitive issue, and was developed after discussions by MCA members at a workshop earlier in the year which focused on training, research and...