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BY CAMERON DRUMMOND LITHIUM developer Kidman Resources is the first Australian miner to sign an offtake agreement with Elon Musk’s Tesla. Kidman entered into a binding agreement to supply lithium hydroxide to the electric vehicle maker over an initial three year term on a fixed price, take-or-pay basis. Kidman and Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (SQM), under their Western Australia Lithium (WAL) 50:50 joint venture, are building a lithium hydroxide plant in Kwinana, south of Perth, to process spodumene concentrate from their Mt Holland hard rock lithium project. According to Kidman, the Tesla offtake deal equates to less than 25 per cent of Kidman’s proportion of output from the proposed 44,000tpa refinery. Other commercial terms of the agreement were…

Images of flake (left) versus spherical natural graphite (right). Syrah’s BAM strategy will initially focus on precursor (unpurified, purified spherical graphite) and finished BAM product (coated spherical graphite). Image: Syrah Resources. BY ELIZABETH FABRI ASX-listed Syrah Resources will become a battery anode material (BAM) producer, after purchasing a US industrial site to establish downstream processing facilities. The $US1.225 Vidalia industrial site in Louisiana covers 25 acres and has an existing 50,000 square foot building. Once developed, the commercial plant will process graphite from Syrah’s Balama project in northern Mozambique to produce BAM for anodes in lithium ion batteries. The 60,000tpa capacity plant will have an initial output of 20,000tpa using proven technology and processes. Syrah managing director and chief executive…

All images: OZ Minerals. BY ELIZABETH FABRI THE final stage of construction has now kicked off at OZ Minerals Carrapateena copper mine, with just over a year left on the clock before commissioning begins. We chat with OZ Minerals managing director and chief executive Andrew Cole about Phase 2 of the construction campaign, power plans for the mine, and exploration potential further afield. Q. Can you describe the work undertaken at Carrapateena to date? Phase 1 construction at Carrapateena is on schedule and in early April, we received approval from the South Australian and Commonwealth Governments for the Carrapateena project, which cleared the way for mobilisation of Phase 2 of construction from mid-April as scheduled. The work we’ve undertaken is…

Quartz vein outcrop on Connors Arc’s Aurora Flats. Image: Orion Minerals. BY ELIZABETH FABRI EVOLUTION Mining has agreed to acquire Orion Minerals’ Connors Arc gold exploration project, which is strategically positioned near Evolution’s existing Mt Rawdon, Mt Carlton and Cracow operations in central QLD. The acquisition includes an upfront cash payment of $1.5 million, followed by two payments of $500,000, and a 2 per cent net smelter return royalty over gold produced from the project, with payments capped at $5 million. Evolution Mining vice president Discovery Glen Masterman said Connors Arc was a technically compelling project with multiple and extensive alteration zones, which could be indicative of multiple preserved epithermal gold systems. “The Connors Arc acquisition is in line with…

SAG and ball mills at Cadia. Image: Newcrest. BY CAMERON DRUMMOND NEWCREST has lowered its gold production forecast to reflect the temporary suspension of operations at its Cadia gold project in NSW. Cadia’s production guidance was downgraded to between 560,000oz and 600,000oz for FY18, down from between 680,000oz and 780,000oz. An embankment slump of Cadia’s Northern Tailings Facility had occurred in March, halting production at the mine. Mining was suspended, with processing recommencing at a restricted capacity from 29 March due to limitations of the capacity of the Southern Tailings Facility. In April, the gold miner announced it had received approval from the NSW Department of Planning and Environment to use the first 200m of the old Cadia Hill open pit…

A map of Yancoal’s Mount Thorley Warkworth operation. Image: Yancoal. BY REUBEN ADAMS YANCOAL’S Australian thermal coal sales surged 123 per cent year-on-year in the March quarter, as it enjoys its second quarter of full output from the newly purchased $US2.9 billion Coal and Allied assets. Yancoal, now Australia’s largest independent coal producer, saw equity share of thermal coal sales from its Australian mines jump to 6.97mt from 3.12mt in the year ago period, but still down by 14 per cent from the December quarter. Its equity share of metallurgical coal sales volumes of 2.25mt was a 19 per cent increase on the year prior. In NSW, Moolarben saleable coal production was up 53 per cent on the year-ago period…

A drill rig at Mount Peake mine, under development in the Territory. Image: TNG. BY ELIZABETH FABRI THE resources industry has given the Northern Territory’s revised mining royalty plan the thumbs down, claiming a new system will jeopardise future investment and put jobs at risk. Introduced as part of the 2018 Territory Budget, the new hybrid royalty scheme, effective from 1 July 2019, will force all operating mines to pay increased royalties. This includes paying the greater of the existing 20 per cent profits-scheme or a minimum value-based royalty on their gross mineral production revenue as soon as they start operating – 1 per cent in a mine’s first year, 2 per cent in its second, and 2.5 per cent…

Copyright © 2018 Rio Tinto. Image: Christian Sprogoe Photography. BY REUBEN ADAMS AUSTRALIA’S first nationally accredited courses in automation will be delivered for the first time in 2019. This is the next step of a landmark partnership between South Metropolitan TAFE and Rio Tinto announced in October last year, with the miner contributing $2 million towards a new curriculum including robotics, data analytics and digital inclusion education. Rio Tinto Iron Ore chief executive Chris Salisbury said the new wider curriculum being developed would enhance capabilities of those in the mining sector and form part of the learning pathways for those seeking to enter a range of industries applying automation and technology. The proposed curriculum will be completed by the end…

Unearthed Perth 2018 winners Team Steel Ballers. BY REUBEN ADAMS MORE than 100 innovators gathered at CORE Innovation Hub over 13-15 April to tackle four real operational challenges from BHP Nickel West for Unearthed Perth 2018. Students and professionals from the science, engineering, business, entrepreneurial, software development, and mathematics disciplines participated in the 54-hour open innovation event. Nickel West head of integrated operations Karl Stokes said working with Unearthed was an opportunity to connect with some of the best minds in the technology and data science space. “Nickel West is in an exciting period as we are set to become a globally significant battery material supplier very soon,” Mr Stokes said. First prize went to Unleashing SAG2; a State based…

Image: Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade. BY REUBEN ADAMS THE Minerals Council of Australia and nine other national industry groups have expressed strong support for the resurrected Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which was formally signed in Chile by 11 nations after the US backed out last year. Ministers and senior officials representing Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, signed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership on 8 March. The TPP-11 will enter into force 60 days after at least 50 per cent of the original signatories to the Agreement have notified each other of the completion of their domestic legal procedures. US President Trump’s decision to withdraw the world’s largest economy…