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LOCAL opposition to Barrick Gold’s massive Pascua-Lama gold and silver mine in Chile has prompted the Copiapo appeals court to suspend construction on the project while complaints are addressed. The project, on the Chile-Argentina border in the Andes Mountains, has attracted complaints of “environmental irregularities” from the country’s Diaguita indigenous communities and various environmental groups, who claim it is destroying glaciers and harming the local water supply. Barrick reported it would suspend activities while it worked to “address environmental and regulatory requirements to the satisfaction of Chilean authorities”. The company stated that construction activities in Argentina, where the majority of the project’s critical infrastructure is located – including the process plant and tailings storage facility – would not be affected.…

URANIUM explorer Toro Energy created WA history in early April, receiving final environmental approval from the Federal Government for its Wiluna uranium project in the state’s Mid West. The project is the first of its kind in WA and just the sixth in Australia, with an estimated worth of $269 million. The prospective mine comprises two deposits, Lake Way and Centipede, 30km south of the town of Wiluna. Centipede, adjacent to Toro’s on-site processing plant, will be the first site to be developed, with first production anticipated by the end of 2015. The mine is expected to process 1.3 million tonnes per annum, producing approximately 780t of uranium oxide concentrate, based on up to 14 years of mine life. Toro…

WA magnetite miners can now apply for an up to 50 per cent rebate on royalties paid in the first year of production, Premier Colin Barnett recently announced. Speaking at the official opening of the Karara project in the state’s Mid West last month, Mr Barnett said the rebate would be considered on a project-by-project basis, and would return to the full royalty rate of 5 per cent after the first year. The concession, which would be available for the next three years, would provide a major boost for the developing WA magnetite ore industry and promote the nation to Chinese investors, he said. “Western Australia has vast magnetite resources and this ore is preferred by many Chinese steel mills,”…

ALLEGED corruption in the Doyles Creek exploration licence approval process is being investigated by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), with the possibility of charges for those involved. Disgraced former NSW Mining minister Ian Macdonald was in charge of the license, approved in December 2008 and granted without competitive tender to former union associate John Maitland against departmental advice. According to The Australian, the granting of the mining exploration licence delivered Mr Maitland and his associates a $48 million profit from the sale to NuCoal, after only investing $165,000. Mr Macdonald’s former chief of staff Jamie Gibson told the ICAC the approval process was unusual, The Australian reported. “He wanted it done quickly and he wanted it done in-house,”…

ADELAIDE-based Resources and Engineering Skills Alliance (RESA) has warned of continued productivity deterioration unless Australia’s mining industry lifts performance and skill levels. A review of the mining labour productivity index has shown severe decline since its peak between 1995 and 2002, while other market sectors have continued to climb. RESA chief executive Phil de Courcey said there had been little analysis of why the mining sector was behind in the productivity game compared to other industries, and that “more critical research into the underlying causes” was required. Current skills in the sector, as well as those skills which were lacking or in short supply, remained the biggest impediment to lifting productivity, Mr de Courcey said. “This lack of required skills…

AUSTRALIAN resources company TNG Limited has increased its reserve estimate at the Mount Peake vanadium, titanium and iron project, following an earlier announcement of a successful JORC-compliant resource estimate. The revised estimate is based on new drilling results, which concluded at the end of 2012 and added more than 100 million tonnes into the JORC measured category. The drilling also collected material for metallurgical test work. Of the 120mt of measured resource, 0.29 per cent is vanadium, 5.5 per cent is titanium and 24 per cent iron. The resource upgrade is another boost for the project which is close to existing infrastructure, including the Alice Springs-Darwin Railway, the Stuart Highway and a new LNG pipeline. TNG managing director Paul Burton…

THE first stage of the exploration program at Triton Minerals’ graphite project in Mozambique has begun, with equipment on the way and staff on the ground at the Balama North prospect in the Cabo Delgado province. The Balama North licence is expected to be highly prospective because of its proximity to known graphite mineralisation, such as that of Syrah Resources’ Balama East deposit, which lies about 3km southeast of the licence boundary. In March, Triton and joint venture partner Grafex Limited appointed Jigsaw Geoscience to assist with the initial mapping, soil sampling and trenching program, with an emphasis on the Balama North licence and high priority zones. The information collected during the first phase will allow the joint venture partners…

WELL-funded explorer Sovereign Gold will aquire unlisted company Gossan Hill and its several advanced gold prospects in NSW for $700,000. The three project areas within eight exploration licenses would provide Sovereign with an expanded exploration footprint in the state. Sovereign said the Gossan Hill prospects were centred on known gold occurrences – some with historic production – and contained more than 20 quality, untested targets. The acquisition price comprised $200,000 in cash and $500,000 in scrip (two million ordinary shares at $0.25 per share) which the company said “compares very favourably to recent peer transactions”. The newly acquired Hobbs deposit at Mt Adrah – which contains a JORC resource of 239,000oz grading 1.13 grams per tonne gold to a depth…

THE Paulsens Gold project near Paraburdoo in WA will now have a mine life of more than five years, thanks to a major resource and reserve upgrade announced by operator Northern Star Resources. The JORC reserves at Paulsens increased by 81 per cent, to 204,000 ounces at 5.3 grams per tonne, with a grade increase of 23 per cent. Northern Star’s total JORC resource increased by 38 per cent to 555,000oz at 5.7g/t, and the grade increased by 14 per cent. This revised resource will give Paulsens a minimum five-year mine life, based on a strong historical conversion of resources into mineral inventory. The result included the company’s 13,000oz at 3.2gpt maiden open pit ore reserve from the nearby Belvedere…

EMERGING WA-focussed explorer Phoenix Gold has announced significant high grade intersections from a recent drill program at its Red Dam project near Kalgoorlie. Red Dam, which is part of the Broads Dam project area less than 40km from Kalgoorlie and 12km from Phoenix’s Castle Hill project, has a resource of 3.4 million tonnes at 2.1 grams per tonne of gold for 229,000oz. The company reported that significant mineralisation was found during the program, including 6m at 97.5g/t from 256m; 3m at 17.3g/t from 42m; and 7m at 12.7g/t from 42m. The Red Dam project is close to the highly prospective Zuleika shear zone in the WA goldfields, and Phoenix reported that there was significant potential for the project to be…

AN Australian explorer has confirmed “excellent” gold recoveries from an exploration prospect in West Africa, one of two advanced standalone gold resource targets in Burkina Faso. Comprising a 2.5km-long zone of continuous gold mineralisation, average gold recoveries from the K4/ K5 prospect at the Reo gold project have left Middle Island Resources with arguably the most promising of its suite of maturing targets across the West African landscape. After procuring 17 individual samples from diamond core holes across the mineralisation zone, representative of all states of oxidisation, rock type and gold grade, the company employed gold cyanisation – a commonly-used metallurgical technique for extracting gold from ore – to establish the gold potential of the prospect. From this, the company…