| AROUND THE
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Nevada Copper Focuses on Pumpkin Hollow Development
Following passage on December 19, 2014, of a federal land bill conveying 10,400 acres of federal land to the city of Yerington, Nevada—land that will subsequently be conveyed to Nevada Copper— the company outlined updated plans to bring its Pumpkin Hollow copper project into production. Under the new land-ownership regime, the entire Pumpkin Hollow project area is being consolidated into a single, privately held land package owned by Nevada Copper, with all required permits under state jurisdiction.... read
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Dominion Completes PFS for Ekati’s Jay Pipe
Dominion Diamond Corp. has announced the results of a prefeasibility study (PFS) of the Jay kimberlite pipe located within the Buffer Zone joint venture property of the Ekati diamond mine in Canada’s Northwest Territories. The Ekati mine area consists of the Core Zone, owned 88.9% by Dominion, which includes the current operating mine and other permitted kimberlite pipes, and the Buffer Zone, owned 65.3% by Dominion. The Buffer Zone is adjacent to the Core Zone and hosts kimberlite pipes having both development and exploration potential, including the Jay and Lynx pipes... read more
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Centerra and Premier Form JV to Advance Trans-Canada Property
Centerra Gold and Premier Gold Mines have formed a 50:50 joint venture for ownership and development of Premier’s Trans- Canada property located near the Trans- Canada Highway in northern Ontario. The Trans-Canada property comprises a group of mineral claims within the Geraldton- Beardmore greenstone belt approximately 250 km northeast of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Together, the claim blocks cover an area of.... read
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Lundin Gold Organizing Fruta del Norte Feasibility Study
Lundin Gold announced in early February that it has assembled an integrated engineering team for the feasibility study of its Fruta del Norte gold project in southeast Ecuador. Lundin acquired the project from Kinross Gold for $240 million in a transaction that was announced in October 2014 and that closed in December 2014. The project’s principal engineering firms, and their areas of responsibility…… read
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Yamana Gives Go-ahead for High-grade Cerro Moro Mine
Yamana Gold announced in mid-February that it will proceed with construction of its high-grade, low-cost Cerro Moro goldsilver project in Santa Cruz province, southern Argentina. Planning calls for average annual production of 135,000 oz of gold and 6.7 million oz of silver during the first three years of full production. Production over the currently planned mine life of about eight years will average 102,000 oz/y of gold and 5 million oz/y of silver. These life-of-mine production estimates consider only current mineral reserves…. read more
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| AROUND THE
WORLD - Australasia |
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Starts Construction of Nova Nickel Mine
Sirius Resources reported in late January that construction is under way at its 100% owned, underground Nova nickel mine near Norseman, Western Australia. Project development is based on a definitive feasibility study released in July 2014. At full production, the mine is expected to produce an average of 26,000 metric tons per year (mt/y) of nickel and 850 mt/y of cobalt in a nickel concentrate and 11,500 mt/y of copper…. read
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Mill Maintenance Limits Olympic Dam Production
The largest of three mills at BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam processing operations in South Australia suffered an electrical failure in late January and was shut down for maintenance. A diagnostic review revealed damage to the motor stator coil. A repair and remediation plan was being developed, and the company said the mill would be out of service for approximately six months. BHP Billiton plans to use this period to bring forward some of the maintenance activities and preparatory work required to …. read
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Oyu Tolgoi Reaches Product Milestone
Oyu Tolgoi LLC announced on February 18 that it had shipped its 1 millionth metric ton (mt) of copper concentrate, approximately 19 months after its first concentrate shipment in July 2013. Oyu Tolgoi LLC President and CEO Andrew Woodley said, "This is a major milestone for the company. To reach 1 million mt in such a short time has required extraordinary teamwork from each member of the Oyu Tolgoi family, along with the strong support of our stakeholders.….
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Pilot Gold Reports Downsized PEA for Halilağa
Pilot Gold has reported the results of a revised preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of the Halilağa copper-gold porphyry project in northwest Turkey. Teck Resources’ Turkish subsidiary, Teck Madencilik Sanayi Ticaret A.S., holds a 60% interest in the project and is the project operator. Pilot Gold holds the remaining 40%. The revised Halilağa PEA represents an update of an October 2012 PEA, which contemplated a 50,000-mt/d operation…. read
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Roxgold Clears Permitting for Yaramoko Gold Project
Roxgold Inc. received the exploitation permit for its Yaramoko gold project in Burkina Faso in late January and was expecting to begin initial site work shortly thereafter. The exploitation permit was finalized through endorsement of a Mining Decree by the president of Burkina Faso and other governmental authorities. The decree formally grants Roxgold the rights to develop and operate the Yaramoko project…. read more
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Kinross Shelves Tasiast Expansion
Kinross Gold announced on February 10 that it will not proceed at this time with a major expansion of its Tasiast gold operations in Mauritania. "The current gold price environment does not provide the company with sufficient confidence that it will be able to maintain balance sheet strength while financing the expansion during the three-year construction period," the announcement said. Kinross will continue to assess market conditions, with a view to reconsider……
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FutureGen Power Plan Scrapped
The Obama Administration has suspended development funding for the billion-dollar landmark proposed project FutureGen 2.0, America’s first near-zero emissions coalfueled power plant project that would capture and store carbon dioxide. A U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) spokesperson said that the project’s earmark, which had been in…. read more
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Cyclone Spares Australian Coal Mines
Marcia, a Category 5 cyclone, made landfall on February 20 near Rockhampton in Queensland. Despite widespread structural damage and power outages, the coal ports, most of the railroads and all of the coal mining operations in the region were spared. The storm quickly dissipated after making landfall. The ports, railroads and mines were prepared. All of the coal mines in the region are operational, according to Michael Roche, chief executive, Queensland Resource Council. Aurizon, the railroad that…. read more
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Justice Buys Bluestone Back from Mechel
Mechel OAO has closed a deal on the "disposal" of Mechel Bluestone’s mining operations, to a company owned by the Justice family. The deal includes an immediate cash payment of $5 million, royalty payments on coal mined and sold in an amount of $3/ton, and a portion of any future sale of the company and/or its assets of 12.5% of the sale price if within five years of transaction close or 10% of the sale price after year five, but before year 10. In addition, as part of the transaction, the parties agreed to terminate all claims…. read
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Claude Resources announced that Patrick Downey has joined the board. Most recently, Downey was the president and CEO of Elgin Mining Inc., which was acquired by Mandalay Resources Inc. in June 2014.
SilverCrest Mines Inc. appointed Michael Rapsch as vice president, corporate communications.
Pan American Silver Corp. promoted Michael Steinmann to president. Prior to this promotion, Steinmann was the executive vice president, corporate development and geology.
Primero Mining Corp. appointed Ernest Mast as president and COO. Mast previously held leadership positions including vice president of corporate development at Copper Mountain Mining.
SRK’s Nordic team hired senior rock mechanics engineer, Pekka Bergström. Most recently, Bergström was a senior geotechnical engineer at the Pyhäsalmi mine, Finland.
North American Nickel Inc. appointed Patricia Tirschmann as vice president, exploration, and Sharon Taylor as chief geophysicist. Previously, Tirschmann served for six years as vice president, exploration, for Continental Nickel Ltd. Most recently, Taylor also worked with Continental Nickel including nickel exploration at the St. Stephen project in New Brunswick and the Nachingwea Nickel Project in Tanzania.
Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations announced a new head of marketing for the commercial tire division, Vice President, Commercial Tire Division, Marshall Hyzdu, as well as a new president in the commercial tire division,Taylor Cole.
Alcoa hired Nahla A. Azmy as vice president, investor relations. Azmy had been vice president, investor relations and communications for Rockwood Holdings Inc. She succeedsKelly Pasterick, who has been named to the position of vice president, global financial processes for global primary products.
