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Baffinland Receives Approval to Ship from Mary River
Baffinland has received Canadian federal government approval to start "early-revenue- phase" shipping of iron ore from its Mary River project on northwest Baffin Island. The approval from the federal minister of aboriginal affairs and northern development followed a positive recommendation by the Nunavut Impact Review Board. During the project’s early revenue phase, Baffinland will be allowed to ship 3.5 million metric tons per year (mt/y) during the open-water summer shipping.... read
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PEA Supports Restart of Trevali’s Caribou Mine
Trevali Mining has announced the results of a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for restarting production at its Caribou underground zinc-lead-silver mine and mill complex in the Bathurst mining camp of northern New Brunswick, Canada. Trevali acquired the inactive Caribou operation from Maple Minerals in November 2012. The mine and mill had operated for approximately 13 months prior to going into receivership in 2008 due to depressed commodity prices. The base case PEA for reactivation of the 3,000-metric-ton-per-day (mt/d) Caribou operation indicates positive economics at a... read more
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Midway Selects Ledcor CMI as Pan Project Contract Miner
Midway Gold has announced two scope changes for its open-pit Pan gold project in White Pine county, Nevada, 50 miles west of Ely: utilization of a contract miner for early years of mining and leaching of the South Pan ore body by run-of-mine methods. Midway has awarded the Pan project mining contract to Ledcor CMI Inc. During the early years of operation, Ledcor will provide all mining-related services, including manpower and equipment, and will be directly responsible for drilling, blasting, loading and hauling ore to the leach pad for processing by Midway. The term of the agreement between Midway and Ledcor is five years.... read
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AROUND THE
WORLD - Latin America |
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Three Development Options for Exeter’s Caspiche Au-Cu Deposit
Exeter Resource Corp. has reported the results of a new preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of its Caspiche goldcopper deposit in northern Chile. The PEA reviews a low-capex, stand-alone, open-pit heap-leach oxide gold operation, as well as two other staged mine plans that include expanded open-pit mining and underground mining of the central, higher-grade gold-copper zone at Caspiche. The options are, in descending order of choice…… read
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First Quantum Buying Certain Petaquilla Assets for $60M
First Quantum Minerals and Petaquilla Minerals announced in early May an agreement whereby First Quantum subsidiary Minera Panama will pay Petaquilla up to $60 million for transfer of a range of Petaquilla assets and property rights in the area of Minera Panama’s Cobre Panama copper project and Petaquilla’s Molejon gold mine in Colon province, Panama. The agreement ensures complete development and operational flexibility for the Cobre Panama project by providing Minera Panama with ownership of all concession application areas surrounding the Molejon…. read more
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AROUND THE
WORLD - Australasia |
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Rio Tinto Hits 290M Tons of Iron Ore on Way to 360M Target
Rio Tinto announced in mid-May that its Pilbara iron-ore mines, rail system, and ports in Western Australia had reached a targeted expansion run rate of 290 million metric tons per year (mt/y), two months ahead of schedule. In October 2010, starting from its then operating capacity of 220 million mt/y, Rio Tinto announced a planned expansion to 283 million mt/y. In 2012, the expansion target was increased to 290 million mt/y, followed by another hike to 360 million mt/y, with 60 million mt/y of capacity to be added between 2014 and 2017…. read
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Northern Star Adds Jundee to its Growing Mine Portfolio Northern Star Resources and Newmont Mining have entered into a binding agreement whereby Northern Star will buy Newmont’s Jundee underground gold mine in Western Australia for total proceeds of about $91 million, comprised of cash at closing of approximately $77 million plus a further payment of approximately $14 million for working capital. Closing is expected to occur by early July. The agreement, announced on May 13, represented Northern Star’s fourth purchase of a gold mine in Western Australia in a period of less than five months. In December 2013, the company purchased …. read
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Newmont to Suspend Mining at Batu Hijau Due to Export Restrictions
PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (PTNNT) announced on May 7 that the Batu Hijau copper and gold mine on Sumbawa Barat, Indonesia, would ramp down production on or about June 1, unless ongoing discussions with the government led to completion of the process to secure an initial export permit. In April, PTNNT obtained registered exporter status from Indonesia’s Ministry of Trade, a necessary milestone prior to receiving the export permit. Batu Hijau’s copper-concentrate storage facilities were due to be filled to capacity by late May. Once they were filled, PTNNT would cease mining and milling, along with significantly scaling back contracted services, purchasing, and capital….
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Norilsk Developing $1.1B Chita Copper Project
Norilsk Nickel reported during an investorday presentation in London, England, on May 19 that its corporate investment committee has approved development of its open-pit Chita copper project in southern Siberia, approximately 300 km from the Russia-China border. Development will be based on a mining reserve of 294 million metric tons (mt) of ore, grading 0.7% copper, 23% iron, and 0.8 g/mt gold, with startup scheduled for 2017. Capital expenditures to develop the Chita project are estimated at $1.1 billion. EBITDA margins are estimated at about…. read
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African Barrick Plans Major Expansion at Bulyanhulu
African Barrick Gold has announced plans to lift gold production at its Bulyanhulu mine in northwest Tanzania from under 200,000 oz in 2013 to a run rate of 350,000 oz/y by the end of 2015. Bulyanhulu is a high-grade underground mine with reserves of 9.1 million oz at a grade of 9.5 g/mt gold and further resources of 6.2 million oz at 11.6 g/mt gold. A core element of African Barrick’s strategy for the mine is to bring production rates more into line with the scale of this resource base…. read more
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Roxgold Foresees High-grade, Underground Burkina Faso Mine
Canadian junior Roxgold Inc. has announced the results of an NI 43-101 compliant feasibility study of the 55 Zone on its Yaramoko exploration permit in southwest Burkina Faso. The study envisions an underground mine, producing 99,500 oz/y of gold over an initial mine life of 7.4 years. Average all-in sustaining production costs are estimated at $590/oz. Pre-production capital is estimated at $106.5 million. Probable mineral reserves at the highgrade 55 Zone stand at just under 2 million mt, grading 11.8 g/mt gold and containing 759,000 oz of gold……
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Turkish Authorities Investigate the Soma Mine Disaster
In the wake of Turkey’s worst mine disaster, authorities began to investigate the situation as anger spread among the general public. Rescuers recovered the remaining bodies on Saturday, May 17, bringing the final death toll for the Soma mine disaster to 301. Authorities detained 25 people for questioning and charged several with negligence, including General Manager Ramazan Dogru and the mine’s Operations Manager Akin Celik, according to Turkey’s Dogan news agency. Controversy over Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's response to the tragedy refuses to blow over…. read more
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Queensland’s Coal Business Treading Water Around one quarter of Queensland’s coal production is in the red, according to the latest industry data provided to Treasurer Tim Nicholls in the lead-up to the June state budget. The bleak outlook headlines a Strong Choices submission from the Queensland Resources Council (QRC), compiled with the assistance of independent economic consultants, Wood Mackenzie and Lawrence Consulting. "Despite vigorous cost cutting, 25% of the coal currently produced in Queensland is being done so at a loss, including half of all thermal coal production," said QRC Chief Executive Michael Roche. "Some of these mines are only staying open because…. read more
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ACWA to Build Power Plant in Mozambique
The Saudi Gazette reported that the Mozambican government and the Saudi ACWA Power signed a concession agreement in Maputo for the construction of a coa-fired power station in Moatize district, in the western province of Tete. The power station, which will produce 300 MW in its first phase, will be built at the mouth of the gigantic open-cast coal mine in Moatize, operated by Vale. It will…. read
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