Latest issue of International Mining Project News available (July 17): This issue we cover a wide variety of minerals and metals ranging from the usual batch of iron ore, cobalt, gold, silver, uranium, zinc and nickel projects to oil sands, fluorspar, potash, tin and chromium projects. We also have reports from two diamond projects (one in development and one in expansion) – hopefully a sign of recovery for 2010!
The big news this issue comes from South Australia and the uranium sector. The Australian Government has approved Alliance resources and Quasar Resource’s Four Mile uranium mine, located 550 km north of Adelaide. The Hon. Peter Garrett MP, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts said “I have not taken this decision lightly. As with all proposals examined under national environment law, this mine was subject to a comprehensive, scientifically robust and transparent assessment process.”
There are two mineralised zones within the joint venture area; Four Mile West and Four Mile East. Four Mile West has an Inferred mineral resource of 32 Mlb U3O8 in accordance with the JORC Code. Estimation of the mineral resource for Four Mile East is in progress. In September 2008 Quasar Resources notified Alliance of its ‘decision to mine’ and provided Alliance with a feasibility study recommending uranium mining using in situ recovery technology, with production commencing in January 2010 at a projected rate of 2.6 Mlb/y U3O8, increasing to 3 Mlb/y U3O8 within three months.
Moving to iron ore and Western Australia, BC iron has successfully completed the feasibility study on its Nullagine project in the Pilbara. The study has confirmed that the Nullagine project is an economically and technically robust direct shipping ore project, which will produce at an initial rate of 1.5 Mt/y, ramping up to 3 Mt/y then 5 Mt/y as roads and infrastructure are upgraded. Following a review of the study, BC Iron’s Board has made the formal decision to move forward with development of the project, paving the way for the company’s transition to production, subject to acceptance of the study by Fortescue Metals Group and appropriate project finance being secured. Based on these requirements, first production is targeted for the second quarter of 2010.
In the DRC, Central African Mining (CAMEC) has entered into a long-term sales agreement to sell all cobalt-in-concentrate production to Zhejiang Galico Cobalt & Nickel Materials (Galico) at market prices. CAMEC is on track to produce 8,000 t of cobalt in the financial year to March 2010, and the cobalt SX/EW line is on track for September commissioning, ramping up to full production of 3,200 t/y cobalt-metal by March 2010. Ambrian’s Brock Salier said “this news is interesting; Galico is a producer of cobalt and nickel compounds, not a metal trader…with CAMEC selling 8,000 t/y (about 12% of worldwide production) directly to the Chinese, this may cause a tightening in the secondary traded market.”
Moving to the Americas and, in particular, Mexico, Goldcorp has completed construction of the first sulphide process line (Line 1) at the company’s Peñasquito project in Zacatecas (Operation Focus in IM September 2008, p12-22) and has commissioning work advancing on schedule. The primary crusher is complete and has filled the coarse ore stockpile with 230,000 t of crushed ore in preparation for initial milling. It also has construction of the second sulphide process line (Line 2) well underway and is progressing toward planned completion in the third quarter of 2010.
In Brazil, Mirabela Nickel has advised that Vale subsidiary Inco Brasil has agreed to formally terminate the Farm-in Agreement covering potential underground nickel sulphides at the company’s Santa Rita and Palestina projects. Inco Brasil has undertaken no activity under the agreement for over two years, and Mirabela believes the agreement to have lapsed, however, any ongoing uncertainty in that respect has now been removed.
There is also news of Persian Gold’s gold and silver projects in Iran, Pebble Creeks’ copper/lead/silver/gold project in India and Bonaparte Diamond Mines’ Meob/Sandpiper marine phosphate joint venture in offshore Namibia as well as many others.
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