With confirmation of the discovery of two strategic minerals, vanadium and graphite, Energizer Resources says it “is now well positioned to move forward to mine development. This confirmation of the significant discovery of graphite, coupled with the Company’s NI 43-101 compliant resource of vanadium, and their respective roles in Green Energy and new cutting-edge products, has now become the catalyst for development. Energizer’s discoveries place it in a unique position within the industrial minerals arena - the ability to provide two strategic minerals from one source. The company also believes that its graphite discovery is the first new discovery globally of this important industrial mineral. The significance of graphite is now being recognised as a result of its use in multiple new applications and outside of China, companies have been focused on reopening past-producing graphite projects to meet anticipated demand.”

Emission control is one of the major articles in the February issue. Space constraints resulted in cuts to the Dust-a-Side and ECOLOGY news in the dust suppression article. There was also a consideration of how the sounds eminating from an operation and the look of it can be disguised. SLR Consulting is delivering an exemplary solution to an operation in the UK. A new hill is being developed to block out sight and sound. Don’t forget the water management article in the March issue - we are still accepting interesting editorial contributions to that article. Until next Wednesday.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP) plans to invest approximately $140 million to further expand its coal handling facilities along America’s Gulf Coast. Concurrently, Arch Coal has signed a long-term throughput agreement with KMP that will help support the expansion of these export facilities. Also, Arch and KMP are in final discussions to include, in the throughput agreement, port space for coal shipments at KMP-owned facilities on the US East Coast. Upon completion of the proposed terminal upgrades and subject to certain rail service agreements, Arch will ship coal at guaranteed minimum volume levels through KMP-owned terminals. The expansion of KMP s export facilities along the Gulf Coast and East Coast will provide incremental port capacity for Arch s growing seaborne coal volumes.

RBC Capital Markets forecasts copper demand growth of 3.6% in 2011, 5.5% in 2012, 5.6% in 2013, and trend growth of approximately 4.0% in 2014 and 2015. Molydenum growth is forecast at 8.4% in 2012 and 8.8% in 2013, before settling back to trend growth of a little over 5.0% in 2014 and 2015. For nickel the forecast growth is 9.5% in 2012, 10.3% in 2013, and trend growth of approximately 5.0% thereafter. Finally for zinc, RBC says growth of 5.9% in 2012 and 6.0% in 2013, followed by trend growth of 3.1% in 2014 and 2015.

Gold Fields and Gold One International have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to investigate the viability of concurrently reprocessing their combined surface tailings deposits, located on the West Rand region of South Africa’s Witwatersrand Basin. Gold One and Gold Fields currently operate mines on the West Rand, a region with a long history of gold and uranium mining. Gold Fields and Gold One will jointly investigate the feasibility of establishing a Joint Venture into which both parties will contribute surface assets for retreatment. These assets are expected to comprise in excess of 700 Mt and represent over 60% of the total tailings material in the region. The parties aim to complete a detailed scoping study by the middle of this year, following which a decision will be taken on whether to progress the study to a feasibility level.

The complexities of drillhole management are made simpler with Mintec’s release of MineSight Torque Version 2.2 this week. Drillhole, blasthole, and other sample data is stored in a Microsoft SQL server database and managed by MSTorque. The program offers tools for filtering, importing, exporting, formatting, reporting and editing. Like other MineSight products, MSTorque can be standardised for many users, while being customised to suit individual needs. With the release of Version 2.2, composites can now be imported into MSTorque from all supported data sources - ODBC, CSV and SQL. Imported composites are saved as composite sets. Appending to existing imported composite sets is supported as well. At the SME annual meeting this year (February 19-22), Mintec will present a talk about MineSight’s pivotal role in mine planning. Senior MineSight specialist, Ernesto Vivas, will discuss: Schedule optimising for a typical hardrock open pit mine. He will focus on La Caridad, a copper and molybdenum mine in Sonora, Mexico. This porphyry copper deposit is one of Mexico’s largest mines, extracting 90,000 t/d. Vivas’s workshop will examine how MineSight Schedule Optimizer (MSSO) generates complex schedules honouring quantities and qualities requirements while accounting for detailed haul profiles. The case study will analyse the steps required to create a practical monthly schedule with MSSO for La Caridad. It will also discuss the scheduling considerations, data preparation, program set-up and output examination. MSSO is one of several MineSight products exploiting 64-bit technology. Recent upgrades have included a seamless integration with MineSight Haulage. Vivas, from Venezuela, graduated from the University of Arizona in 2000 with a BSc in Mining Engineering. A scheduling expert, he works from Mintec’s Tucson, Arizona headquarters and travels the world to help mine planners with long-range and short-range planning.