Thundelarra wants to go it alone
March 2 - 8, 2010
WHEN it comes to getting projects moving, joint ventures or selling equity stakes can be the only option for many juniors. But explorer Thundelarra Resources wants to go it alone to develop its promising Thunderball uranium property, saying the project is just the right size for the cashed up company.
Kanmantoo in the Twilight Zone
February 16 - 22, 2010
UNTIL Hillgrove Resources recognised the potential of the old Kanmantoo copper mine in the Adelaide Hills, it was slated to become a rubbish dump. If all goes to plan, instead the project will export 17,000 tonnes or about $A118 million worth of copper each year once production starts in 2011.
Soft uranium market not a concern: Hall
January 19 - 25, 2010
THE weakness in the spot uranium price isn’t worrying Toro Energy managing director Greg Hall as the company pursues a 2012 start date for the Wiluna uranium project in Western Australia.
Once upon a time in Spain
October 5 - 11, 2009
THE SCENE is set for Harry Anagnostaras-Adams to make a name for himself in Spain, hopefully as a hero. For the moment, Anagnostaras-Adams commands the role of knight in shining armour, sitting resolute atop his trusty steed, EMED Mining. His challenge: to rescue damsel in distress Proyecto Rio Tinto (PRT) – the project that gave its name to the mining giant more than a century earlier – from the clutches of local villains and nervous bureaucrats.
Signs remain positive: EMED
October 5 - 11, 2009
TICK TOCK. Tick tock. Tick tock. Though keeping his cool and pragmatic disposition, EMED Mining managing director Harry Anagnostaras-Adams must be growing increasingly anxious about losing his chance at the historic Proyecto Rio Tinto copper project in Spain.
Underground processing could be key to lower Hera costs
August 31 - September 6, 2009
USE OF ‘keyhole’ underground ore processing could save YTC Resources considerable capital expenditure and streamline operating costs at the proposed Hera gold mine in New South Wales.
Discovery ticks another box
July 6 - 12, 2009
BOTSWANA copper company Discovery Metals has now ticked off most key development elements on its checklist for the Boseto project, having effectively eliminated water as a constraint on a two-million-tonnes-per-annum – and possibly bigger – concentrator.
End to rolling resistance is near
July 6 - 12, 2009
FOSTERS Stockbroking is expecting good news for Brockman Resources shareholders on rail access early next year and “suspects” the Pilbara iron ore junior’s key shareholder, Hong Kong-based Wu Nam International Holdings, doesn’t see major capital expenditure on port infrastructure as a show stopper.
Rare earth meets green money
June 22 - 28, 2009
ROD Mcillree is shying away from publicly divulging any of the all important numbers that ultimately tell the tale, but suffice to say from a macro perspective, the Australian-domiciled company that he heads, Greenland Minerals and Energy (ASX ticker: GGG), should be the sort of resources company to benefit in the brave new world that’s apparently being mapped out by the likes of the Obama Administration in the US.
Citadel has Saudi minerals on the map
May 18 - 24, 2009
THERE are easier places for Australian businesses to reap better-than-average returns from high-risk investments than China and Saudi Arabia, right? Sino Gold has helped change the popular view of the Middle Kingdom in this regard. Citadel Resources might do the same in the world’s richest oil sheikdom.
Vanadium risks low, Reed assured
May 11 - 17, 2009
CHRIS Reed comes across as the sort of knockabout character you’d expect of a Kalgoorlie boy, and especially one who is the son of well known former stock broker and raconteur David Reed. But that’s not the reason why he seems unflustered about a somewhat daunting capex number that’s been calculated for Reed Resources’ significant Barrambie vanadium project in Western Australia.
Magic in Merlin numbers
May 4 - 10, 2009
IVANHOE Australia’s Merlin molybdenum-rhenium deposit in Queensland could be a hugely profitable mining venture after $A115 million is spent developing a 500,000-tonne-per-annum operation.
DSO snag the latest hurdle for Karara
April 27 - May 3, 2009
HARD to be optimistic about short term prospects for new iron ore producers with the stream of negative news coming from the steel industry, but the long-term picture remains somewhat more cheery. Ditto the prospects for Gindalbie Metals, described this week by RBC Capital as “one of the more credible iron ore development plays on the Australian market landscape” after a site visit.
A new plan for the future
January 26 - February 1, 2009
KEY features of the underground mine of the future are becoming fixed in Chilean state-owned Codelco’s $US3 billion-plus blueprint for extending the life of the world’s biggest underground copper mine for at least a further 40 years. They include extensive measures aimed at shifting the “brains” of the operation to a central, off-site location where worker safety can legitimately take a back seat to production efficiency.
Sparkling future at depth
October 13 - 19, 2008
THE automated ‘rock factory’ of the future is expected to come a step closer to reality at the giant Argyle diamond mine in Western Australia’s Kimberley region, though initially at least operator Rio Tinto will come up against familiar obstacles in the quest to achieve the operator-less mine.
Wolf at the door
July 7 - 13, 2008
FORMER American miner AMAX was a successful tungsten explorer. It found two of the world’s best tungsten deposits in the 1960s and 70s, both of which lay undeveloped decades later. A still-changing outlook for the metal now sees Hemerdon Ball in Devon, England, emerging from a long slumber.
Irons in the fire
July 7 - 13, 2008
THEY don’t muck around with declines in Scandinavia. Kiruna, in far north Sweden, has a decline you could land a small plane in. Sydvaranger, 8km south of Kirkenes on the north coast of Norway, is not much smaller. There the decline is only 14m wide and 8m high.
Kanyika gets initial thumbs up
June 23 - 29, 2008
A COFFEY Mining scoping study on the Kanyika niobium-uranium project in central Malawi has indicated a $US177 million openpit mine and smelting operation producing up to 4000 tonnes per annum of niobium metal could achieve payback on invested capital within two years, without uranium revenues.
Hard road for tungsten miner
June 16 - 22, 2008
THE apparent scramble to meet growing tungsten demand in and outside China could be about to take a new turn with Vancouver-based North American Tungsten (NTC) looking more and more like a potential casualty of extreme mining industry cost pressures, the extreme weather in Canada’s Yukon, and China’s at times ponderous approach to foreign investment.
Silver Lake gets tick from thorough Goode
May 19 - 25, 2008
NEWLY minted gold producer Silver Lake Resources (SLR) has joined the backyard makeover crowd trying to breathe new life into Australia’s old gold districts – in its case the Mount Monger field east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, and parts of the state’s Murchison. Its success will depend, at least initially, on the effectiveness and sustainability of a new mining approach at Mount Monger.
In the shadows of giants
March 17 - 23, 2008
STEEL buildings and bridges in China and the Middle East are making bigger holes in the red dirt of Western Australia’s Pilbara region. Iron ore, copper, nickel, manganese and chromite are already filling ships heading north. Molybdenum will be next, says Moly Mines chief Derek Fisher.
Good and bad news for Sundance
February 4 - 10, 2008
WORLEYPARSONS has estimated the cost of developing the Mbalam iron ore project in Cameroon has risen by nearly a third since a 2006 scoping study was completed for Sundance Resources Ltd by Promet Engineers.
Heat on Goanikontes costs
November 12 - 18, 2007
THE drive to cut projected operating costs used in the recent scoping study on Bannerman Resources Ltd’s Goanikontes uranium project in Namibia by a third or more is on in earnest in the lead-up to a new resource statement, expected late this year or early next, with a $US50-70 million acid plant part of a longer-term view of the project’s potential scale.
U-boat sails - to Africa
October 22 - 28, 2007
WHILE the boat many junior explorers are hoping will one day transport yellowcake from Western Australia and other parts of the country looks to be permanently docked, the African uranium rush being led by WA-domiciled juniors continues to power up. Extract Resources Ltd has added a $US211 million project in Namibia to the list of new developments – against a backdrop of increasing corporate activity.
Angostura Colombia's first gold star
September 17 - 23, 2007
DAVID Rovig made his first trip to Angostura in January 1995. The president of Greystar Resources Ltd believes start-up of Colombia’s biggest gold mine within two years will vindicate the long development path taken by the company. “I think that our project clearly has shown the way for other large exploration projects in Colombia,” he said.
Bannerman tracking well in Namibia: analysts
September 3 - 9, 2007
RECENT visitors to Bannerman Resources’s emerging Weltwitschia/Goanikontes uranium project in Namibia have dismissed concerns about infrastructure for a major new mine one analyst said would be at least as big as the Rio Tinto-operated Rossing operation.
Sabodala construction 'officially' underway
August 20 - 26, 2007
SEACHANGE miner Mineral Deposits Ltd has stepped up the pace of construction work at the $US145 million Sabodala gold project in Senegal, where the country’s first modern gold processing plant will be built by experienced engineering group Ausenco.
Worth the wait
August 6 - 12, 2007
FRUSTRATION for Avoca Resources Ltd over the lack of early access to processing facilities for ore from its new Trident underground mine in Western Australia will likely be tempered by more exploration highlights and the prospect of production quickly ramping up beyond 200,000oz a year after its own plant is activated in mid-2008.
More than an anomaly
July 30 - August 5, 2007
UNCERTAINTY about secure, long-term water and power sources in Namibia, not its capacity to find more uranium, is likely to keep a lid on the hype building around Perth-based explorer Bannerman Resources Ltd, though signs on these two vital fronts are also now more encouraging.
Govt backs Sundance pace
July 23 - 29, 2007
SUNDANCE Resources Ltd has commissioned WorleyParsons to manage the pre-feasibility study for its proposed $US2.5 billion Mbalam iron ore project in Cameroon, which is winning support on the ground and from investors in Europe.
Tests lend weight to processing strategy
June 25 - July 1, 2007
AUSTRALIAN tungsten hopeful Vital Metals Ltd is confident it will be able to go down the ore pre-concentration path at its Watershed scheelite project in north Queensland, enabling it to significantly reduce its overall processing plant footprint and cost.
Mining to fund deeper search
June 18 - 24, 2007
STACKS of exploration potential, finite cash reserves: that’s the standard junior company dilemma forcing Canada’s Scorpio Mining Corporation to push the start button on a modest silver operation in Mexico. With plant and equipment already purchased, only one thing will stop Scorpio’s Nuestra Senora project commencing production by March next year, according to company chief Peter Hawley.
Botswana copper options multiply
June 11 - 17, 2007
DECIDING on a new name for their flagship Botswana copper project won’t be the toughest call the London-based directors of African Copper Inc have to make over the next six months.
Jaguar ready to purr
June 4 - 10, 2007
RECENT news has mostly been good for emerging zinc producer Jabiru Metals Ltd. But it is likely to get better, according to an experienced mining analyst who visited the company’s flagship Jaguar project in Western Australia after its underground development hit ore for the first time in late March.
Dance partner the key
May 28 - June 3, 2007
A DEFINING feature of the modern era of global resource development is the junior with a bank balance in the tens of millions of dollars contemplating a multi-billion-dollar project in a jurisdiction in which it not only has to trailblaze on infrastructure development but usually also an investment framework. Sundance Resources Ltd fits the contemporary mould exactly.
Company (re)making projects
May 14 - 20, 2007
NEW TERRITORY, new environment and new era for Mineral Deposits Ltd (MDL). But the company will be back on familiar ground when it starts mining beach sand north of Dakar in Senegal in the latter part of next year.
Night and day
May 7 - 13, 2007
IT IS more than two decades since Watershed was last on the verge of becoming a mine. A long, dark night for tungsten has given way to a bright new day, meaning the price of the metal is up, and exploration and investment outside China are recovering after a 20-year slumber.
Prominent challenge
April 9 - 15, 2007
THE PEOPLE of Coober Pedy, the South Australian opal mining town 850km north of Adelaide, know a bit about mining. More than three-quarters of them are said to live underground in old mines or more recently excavated tunnels. But they’ve had limited exposure to the large-scale, new generation opencut mining machines working at modern mines such as Prominent Hill – until now.
'Low' bid draws a Blanco
April 2 - 8, 2007
THE $US1.4 billion Peru copper project at the centre of a tug-of-war between a Chinese consortium led by gold producer Zijin Mining Group, and some of Monterrico Metals plc’s lead shareholders, could become a key test of increasingly nationalist Latin American sentiment towards resource ownership over the next few years. Right now though, Rio Blanco provides something of a check on how global mining groups see the policies of new Peruvian president Alan Garcia impacting social and economic stability in Peru.
Safford's moment of truth
March 19 - 25, 2007
ELIMINATING process variance – a signature Six Sigma management goal – has been a focus of the former high-cost American copper producer Phelps Dodge for the past five years. The company plans to take implementation of Six Sigma methodology to a new level at its greenfield Safford mine in Arizona – the first new copper mine in the US in more than three decades.