#Official Mining Thread

[Bulldozer]

Good 2-page pdf, updated March 1st so reasonably accurate ==> http://www.pir.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/ ... _web_2.pdf
* Page 1 is a map of SA clearly showing the location of current mines and emerging projects
* Page 2 lists more details about each mine/project, including their production rates

Nice find! Wow, I didn't know there was a Zinc mine near Beltana. That's good news for Leigh Creek and nearby places (Copley, Lyndhurst, Blinman, Nepabunna, Hawker) in the Northern Flinders. My Dad and I were wondering who was doing the drilling near Aroona Dam and what it was for when when we were up there around August last year.

If anyone hasn't been, you really must jump in a good 4wd and go spend a couple of weeks in the Flinders. Any of our railfans spotted the coal train or taken a ride on the Pitchie Ritchie? No doubt they'd enjoy the drive up to Leigh Creek, checking out the still visible route of the original railway built in the 19th century and the ruins of stations, etc. There's some fantastic history there. (Unfortunately when I was up there last year it seems that all the old water towers have been pulled down now)

[rhino]

Beach Petroleum has discovered more oil, at what is the westernmost end of the Cooper Basin. They're thinking of putting in a new pipeline to it. Not huge in the scheme of things, but a new discovery none the less and the infrastructure and oil means more work and more money for the state.

From today's Tiser:

Beach to extend pipe to oil strike

A SECOND commercial strike on its Parsons oil field has inspired Beach Petroleum to extend its oil pipeline to connect the field.
Beach said yesterday the Parsons-2 well had not been tested for flow rates, but it was confident from initial testing that it would be a producing well.
Beach managing director Reg Nelson said the first commercial oil flows were expected in May.
"It's significant that the Parsons and (nearby) Callawonga fields are the furthest-west commercial discoveries to date by any explorer in the Cooper Basin, and the area remains very under-explored," he said.
"Beach is demonstrating the considerable upside yet remaining in the Cooper Basin - Australia's most prolific onshore petroleum production region - particularly as both the Parsons and Callawonga fields have exhibited high initial flow rates."
Beach has a 75 per cent interest in the Parsons field, with Cooper Energy holding the rest as operator.
Mr Nelson said Beach's self-operated exploration program was averaging a long-term finding and development cost of $15 per barrel of oil in the region.
"With oil this week at nearly $US106 per barrel, the significant margin upside being generated by this focus and success rate becomes very apparent," he said.
Mr Nelson said Beach's initial estimates were that its activities in the Cooper/Eromanga in the first half of 2007-08 had added 3.8 million barrels of proved and probable reserves, increasing its reserves in the area to nearly 15 million barrels of oil.
The Parsons and Callawonga fields are on the western flank of the Basin.
Oil from Parsons will initially be trucked to the Callawonga pipeline.

[Wayno]

Beach Petroleum has discovered more oil, at what is the westernmost end of the Cooper Basin. They're thinking of putting in a new pipeline to it. Not huge in the scheme of things, but a new discovery none the less and the infrastructure and oil means more work and more money for the state.
<snip>

that's v-good news as it could be the catalyst for more oil exploration....

[Bulldozer]

Just finished reading through Oxiana's "Oxiana Review 2007". It features an aerial view of the Prominent Hill pit on the front cover and another aerial view of the waste rock and tailings storage ring with the pit in the background on the start of the section on Prominent Hill, which has some interesting contents:

• Ore started being mined in Q4 2007 and it's being stockpiled until the processing plant is completed in Q3 2008.
• A permanent village has been/is being built to house 500 people
• An airstrip was constructed at the start of 2007 and handles up to four flights from Adelaide per day.
• Up to 800 workers are on site while construction continues
• The development budget increased by 30% to $1.08 billion during 2007
• A 45km water pipeline is being built to bring saline water from a bore field to the mine
• The village will be supplied with potable water from a desalination plant
• A 132kV transmission line is being built from Olympic Dam (according to the map it seems Prominent hill is half-way between Coober Pedy and Olympic Dam, and states it is 130km from Coober Pedy)
• Haulage road from the mine to the Adelaide-Darwin Railway, some 116km away (ore concentrate will go via rail to Darwin for shipping)
• Drilling results in 2007 provided impetus for a feasibility study into establishing underground operations that are expected to extend mine life beyond 2030
• Geophysical surveys of the 4,175km^2 tenement have revealed 25 locations for explorative drilling in 2008 that "represent some of Oxiana's hottest exploration property"

Oxiana's "Sustainability Report Summary 2007" also states that Prominent Hill consumed 0.9PJ of energy and generated 67,000 tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent. (Hence why your efforts to reduce your carbon emissions are worthless).

I think one of the exciting spin-offs of this mine is the extension of the electricity grid further north.

[Wayno]

Hey bulldozer, great summary and very interesting - thanks heaps!

Good to see the rail-line to Darwin is getting more traffic. Hopefully the SA mining boom will push it close to financial self-sufficiency.

Yep our personal efforts at home to minimise carbon emissions are trivial in comparison (but still worthwhile as it keeps global awareness levels high, and acts as a catalyst for action)

[rhino]

Yes, thanks Bulldozer, appreciate you summarizing that report.

[AG]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/st ... 00,00.html

Gold rush strikes fear in wine region
Andrew Faulkner and Jeremy Roberts | April 14, 2008

THERE'S gold in the Adelaide Hills, lots of it, setting mining companies on a collision course with those who fear their serene surroundings will be spoiled.

Miners exploring diggings dating back to the mid-19th century, including possibly the nation's first gold mine, are finding lodes of gold, copper, lead and zinc.

The discoveries have split communities - those in favour pointing to the 250 jobs on offer and the naysayers highlighting pristine groundwater and the mines' impact on settlements.

Mines at Kanmantoo, Strathalbyn, Woodside and Williamstown promise to inject big dollars into the hamlets dotted throughout a region reliant on vineyards, orchards and dairies for jobs.

"It's a new opportunity," Kevin Wills from Maximus Resources says. "I think there's a lot of gold in the Adelaide Hills that's not been realised. The potential is there, I think, and it's good, high-grade gold."

The state's, and possibly the nation's, first significant gold strike was at Montacute, 12km east of the city, in 1841. The 5cm vein yielded just 24 ounces - enough to fashion a brooch for Queen Victoria.

Maximus predicts that a million ounces of gold will be pulled out of proposed sinkings at Woodside, east of the city, and at Williamstown, further north along the Mt Lofty Ranges.

Andrew Nugent's Bird in Hand vineyards stretch across the gold deposit, putting the award-winning winemaker in the front line of a debate.

Maximus is proposing to supply farmers with water pumped out of the mine - a surplus might be pumped into Adelaide's reticulated water system - but Mr Nugent is sceptical.

"I've got a bore I can turn on whenever I like and out flows good-quality water," Mr Nugent said. "Why would I want to place it in the hands of someone else?

"Cyanide and arsenic and all sorts of stuff could be used to extract the gold."

Ronald Baker and his wife, Ethny, own an 80ha farm 2km south of the Maximus Resources mine. He pumps water from a fractured rock aquifer for his 7000 olive trees and beef cattle.

He said the mine would "de-water" the aquifer, leaving about 50 bores, servicing 2674ha of local farms, barren.

"We are independent people who are used to managing our properties ... To be beholden to a mining company is anathema," Dr Baker said.

Any extraction by Maximus would fly in the face of a long list of federal and state laws and regulations designed to ensure sustainable water use, he said.

Across the hills to the east, Hillgrove Resources is on track to start drawing copper, gold and silver out of its Kanmantoo open cut mine from next year.

"It's one of the few new copper mines that will be developed in Australia this decade," Hillgrove's managing director, David Archer, said.

Like Woodside, Kanmantoo is on the site of a disused mine made viable by advances in technology. "There's certainly a growing mining industry in the Adelaide Hills and I think the industry there has a great deal of potential," Mr Archer said.

Hillgrove has kept neighbours up to date through meetings and newsletters.

The company has gone as far as quarantining a patch of native woodland and promising to leave some of the ore in the ground to limit the environmental impact.

It has also said it will pay to reroute a road for its trucks around the Kanmantoo township.

Further south, mining company Terramin admits the initial consultation for its mine on the outskirts of Strathalbyn was inadequate. Terramin will start shipping lead and zinc from August after being dogged by protesters.

"We assumed a level of knowledge of the mining industry in the general community was higher than it was," said the mine's general manager, Andrew Robertson. "The community has a fear of the unknown."

Besides the challenges of appeasing jumpy locals, the mining companies have in common a ready access to labour and transport links.

Mr Robertson has hired three underground drillers from the local area who previously worked in the outback.

"We're not paying top dollar; people are making a lifestyle decision. They're after that work-life balance."

[Professor]

Oxiana and Zinifex are set to merge their companies and operations.

From what I understand, the new CEO of the merged company will be the same person who headed Western Mining, the mining company that BHP bought out in a hostile takeover. Western Mining Corporation (WMC) were an Australian mniner, over 100 years old, and owned Olympic Dam.

I would imagine that the new CEO of Oxiana-Zinifex, with Oxiana's mine at Prominant Hill just down the road from Olympic Dam, will have a few things to prove! The Prominant Hill deposit sounds very exciting and could be further developed onto a major operation.

[rhino]

I didn't realize that was a hostile takeover

[Bulldozer]

I didn't realize that was a hostile takeover

Xstrata launched a hostile bid for WMC and BHP then made a counter bid, which I suspect may have been the government calling in a favour as there was some real concern about the money behind Xstrata. Four Corners did a story on it: http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/ ... 307039.htm

So they reckon 1 million ounces of Gold in the hills? That's almost $1 billion at current prices - anyone who opposes that will be crushed/bought out.

[rhino]

Thanks Bulldozer, I do remember it, now that you mention the Xtrata bid

[Wayno]

<snip.
So they reckon 1 million ounces of Gold in the hills? That's almost $1 billion at current prices - anyone who opposes that will be crushed/bought out.

crushed like grapes!

[monotonehell]

<snip.
So they reckon 1 million ounces of Gold in the hills? That's almost $1 billion at current prices - anyone who opposes that will be crushed/bought out.

crushed like grapes!

Just as long as we can still have our decent wines. I mean what's wealth if you can't buy a decent wine and a wheel of cheese?

[Professor]

If we want to do something positive we should be placing pressure on BHPB and the SA Govt to make sure that the processing of the ore from Olympic Dam is done here in SA. Create jobs, wealth and value add from the basic mineral extraction.

Their alternate plan is to mine and then export the slurry ore direct by ship to China and process it all there.

[Professor]

and I only wrote this to get 100 posts!

Sorry!