#Official Mining Thread

[AtD]

Just wonder what the WA gas crash is likely to do to our mines. They are getting rather excited about the impact in WA and later the rest of Aust.

Probably not much, directly.

[crawf]

So glad I don't live in Perth with their current power crisis thanks to the gas explosion.

I've been using so much power lately, due to the increasing cold weather.

[Shuz]

Wear a jumper! Put some socks on! Do as your told!

I'm actually glad my mother put some sense into me to put on warmer clothing rather than using the heater all the time. I get more luxuries now as a result of a drastically reduced energy bill

[crawf]

Eh I always do, however I live in the hills so it can range from 1 - 4 degrees cooler than Adelaide.

[AtD]

At least it's above zero!

[Wayno]

more news about Olympic Dam. This time in the right direction - some key sentences highlighted by yours truly...

http://www.independentweekly.com.au/new ... 94055.aspx

China to fuel Olympic Dam expansion
BILL NICHOLAS
20/06/2008 5:36:00 PM
The planned expansion of BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam from the country’s largest underground mine to the world’s biggest open pit should not be seen as a one-shot investment but the first of many step-ups over a number of decades.

Since BHP Billiton took over the South Australian asset in 2005 drilling had more than doubled the size of the resource and they still haven’t found an end to it.

“The mine will support many stages of development over time and that is why the current “selection phase” – or pre-feasibility – must ensure we take the right first step in decades of expansion,” said Graeme Hunt, president of BHP Billiton’s Uranium and Olympic Dam Development division.

hunt.jpg (15.46 KiB) Viewed 2720 times

He was speaking at the AusIMM Uranium conference at the Convention Centre on Thursday.

Hunt said the continuing shift of the Chinese people from rural to urban dwellers was resetting all the rules in all sorts of industries and it was an unstoppable movement that would result in the Chinese economy matching the US GDP in just over 20 years.

And that was assuming an annual growth rate of 8 per cent which was below the actual rates of economic growth of the past few years.

Hunt said BHP had studied the energy and carbon emission effects of such growth bearing in mind that Chinese CO2 emissions, at 6.2 billion tonnes, had already exceeded those of the US back in 2006.

While China was burning 2 billion tonnes of coal a year now, this was projected to be 6 billion by 2030.

“Chinese energy demand has only just begun,” Hunt said and noted that the increase in Chinese energy demand in 2007 was more than the entire energy used in the UK. Per capita Chinese energy use was still just a third of that in German and less than a fifth of that of the US.

“It’s not realistic the planet will curb its energy demands,” Hunt said adding that the carbon load this future painted would be intolerable.

‘Nuclear must play a role – nuclear must be part of the solution, one of the drivers of the global environmental equation,” Hunt said.

He said that assuming prices for carbon emissions of $US50 or even $US30 a tonne uranium powered reactors, despite their more expensive capital costs, would be competitive with coal.

Hunt said there was no precedent for the growth that is about to happen in China. He said the Chinese industrialisation now included the manufacture of their own regional jet airlines and wide-bodied jets were on the way.

Hunt said the Chinese were rewriting the rules on capital expenditure in a number of industries.

The BHP chief said that while the potential of Olympic Dam (OD) kept getting larger, its future growth was linked to its role in the generation of nuclear generated energy.

As the world gets serious about climate change Hunt said a nuclear renaissance would be the result

Hunt said the SA Government was very proactive and he appreciated its support and that of the Opposition.

“South Australia can look forward to being the world’s leading uranium province and able to make a significant contribution towards providing clean energy to the world,” Hunt told the uranium conference.

If the SA Government was looking for any sign that BHP Billiton had softened its hardball approach about not adding to the capacity of its smelting plants at Olympic Dam, it would have been disappointed. Hunt’s power point includes a slide showing that the first major expansion stage would add a greenfield concentrator plant with excess concentrates exported. Option four on the conceptual diagram includes a smelter expansion.

love to get my hands on a copy of Graeme Hunt's presentation...

[Wayno]

Uranium Processing in SA - the next logical (sensible?) step...

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/stor ... 13,00.html

URANIUM conversion is the next logical step for the Australian nuclear industry, chief executive of U.S.-based conversion company Converdyn Jim Graham said yesterday.

In his keynote address to the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy's International Uranium Conference 2008 in Adelaide, Mr Graham said there were serious discussions going on about moving to the next step in the uranium fuel cycle.
While these were at the early stages, Mr Graham said it was feasible that Australia could have a conversion industry within five to 10 years.

Yellowcake conversion is the process of turning yellowcake, which is currently the product made in Australia, into uranium hexafluoride.

It must be distinguished from uranium enrichment, the process by which the uranium isotope used for nuclear fuel is concentrated.

After his speech Mr Graham said talks on conversion in Australia were "at the preliminary discussion point".

"The industry right now is working on a lot of stewardship issues and we're trying to figure out ways to try to ship better, ship cleaner, and when you look at conversion facilities, we clean the yellowcake up.

"We remove all the impurities that are inherent in the natural yellowcake.

"So when you look at it from a stewardship, global, environmental point of view you look back and say `if you had this at the mine, we wouldn't be shipping those impurities, although they're small, to Europe, the United States or elsewhere'."

Mr Graham said with Australia being home to a large proportion of the world's known uranium it was the logical next step. He said there was no change in radioactivity in the conversion process.

"All you're doing is cleaning it up and putting it in a different form," Mr Graham said.

A complex process
CONVERSION – At a conversion plant, uranium is first refined to uranium dioxide, which can be used as the fuel for reactors that do not require enriched uranium. Most is converted into uranium hexafluoride, ready for enrichment. It is shipped as a gas in metal containers.

ENRICHMENT – Natural uranium consists primarily of a mixture of two isotopes (atomic forms) of uranium. Only 0.7 per cent of natural uranium is capable of undergoing fission, the process by which energy is produced in a nuclear reactor. The fissile isotope of uranium is uranium 235 (U-235). The remainder is uranium 238 (U-238).

In the most common types of nuclear reactors, a higher than natural concentration of U-235 is required. The enrichment process produces this higher concentration, typically between 3.5 per cent and 5 per cent U-235, by removing more than 85 per cent of the U-238.

[Wayno]

comparative scale - Olympic Dam vs other large uranium mines world-wide. also shows current & future location of reactors. I believe BLACK is today, RED is imminent, WHITE is soon after, and YELLOW is longer term...

uranium.JPG (41.88 KiB) Viewed 3207 times

[Queen Anne]

Thanks for that interesting info Wayno.

Here in the US, over the past several months, I have noticed that there have been increasing discussions in the media about America concentrating on nuclear power. I did a quick Google search and discovered that the US has about 3-4% of the world's known uranium deposits, and it seems, currently, not a lot of it is being mined, due to regulation. As a huge market with a smallish source of uranium and a seemingly small uranium mining industry, could the US be an area of growth for us too? That would be great for SA.

One fly in the ointment I see is "green coal". It is also getting attention and effort here in the US. Some see it as of absolutely no merit to a "clean" energy future, while others, (including a hard-line environmentalist I heard on the radio) seem to think it is vital.

It's all a bit confusing. In March, Barack Obama made a speech (in Virginia, interestingly) touting "clean coal". And in Oregon, he talked anti-nuclear (Oregon is that kind of state). I would have thought, of anyone, he would have been the one to look at the issue on its merits - that's what he always says he will do..

Interesting times. So far as America goes, the debate seems to get seriously hijcked by politics, leaving you wondering where the real environmental and economic issues lie.
Caroline

[Wayno]

Thanks for that interesting info Wayno.

Here in the US, over the past several months, I have noticed that there have been increasing discussions in the media about America concentrating on nuclear power. I did a quick Google search and discovered that the US has about 3-4% of the world's known uranium deposits, and it seems, currently, not a lot of it is being mined, due to regulation. As a huge market with a smallish source of uranium and a seemingly small uranium mining industry, could the US be an area of growth for us too? That would be great for SA.

One fly in the ointment I see is "green coal". It is also getting attention and effort here in the US. Some see it as of absolutely no merit to a "clean" energy future, while others, (including a hard-line environmentalist I heard on the radio) seem to think it is vital.

It's all a bit confusing. In March, Barack Obama made a speech (in Virginia, interestingly) touting "clean coal". And in Oregon, he talked anti-nuclear (Oregon is that kind of state). I would have thought, of anyone, he would have been the one to look at the issue on its merits - that's what he always says he will do..

Interesting times. So far as America goes, the debate seems to get seriously hijcked by politics, leaving you wondering where the real environmental and economic issues lie.
Caroline

yep, it's hard for the general public to divorce fact from fiction.

Speaking of fiction, i'm a sceptic about "green coal" which presumably means sequestration of CO2 deep undergound. You would probably need very specific geological features to achieve such a feat, and although i'm not a gambling man, i bet most of the appropriate sites are too far away from the world's many many large coal powered generation plants. This simply reeks of a delaying tactic by the coal industry in my opinion. I could be way off the mark though...

[Queen Anne]

Thanks for that interesting info Wayno.

Here in the US, over the past several months, I have noticed that there have been increasing discussions in the media about America concentrating on nuclear power. I did a quick Google search and discovered that the US has about 3-4% of the world's known uranium deposits, and it seems, currently, not a lot of it is being mined, due to regulation. As a huge market with a smallish source of uranium and a seemingly small uranium mining industry, could the US be an area of growth for us too? That would be great for SA.

One fly in the ointment I see is "green coal". It is also getting attention and effort here in the US. Some see it as of absolutely no merit to a "clean" energy future, while others, (including a hard-line environmentalist I heard on the radio) seem to think it is vital.

It's all a bit confusing. In March, Barack Obama made a speech (in Virginia, interestingly) touting "clean coal". And in Oregon, he talked anti-nuclear (Oregon is that kind of state). I would have thought, of anyone, he would have been the one to look at the issue on its merits - that's what he always says he will do..

Interesting times. So far as America goes, the debate seems to get seriously hijcked by politics, leaving you wondering where the real environmental and economic issues lie.
Caroline

yep, it's hard for the general public to divorce fact from fiction.

Speaking of fiction, i'm a sceptic about "green coal" which presumably means sequestration of CO2 deep undergound. You would probably need very specific geological features to achieve such a feat, and although i'm not a gambling man, i bet most of the appropriate sites are too far away from the world's many many large coal powered generation plants. This simply reeks of a delaying tactic by the coal industry in my opinion. I could be way off the mark though...

From what I can gather, "green coal" has issues. It ain't easy bein' green (sorry )

[monotonehell]

Speaking of fiction, i'm a sceptic about "green coal" which presumably means sequestration of CO2 deep undergound. You would probably need very specific geological features to achieve such a feat, and although i'm not a gambling man, i bet most of the appropriate sites are too far away from the world's many many large coal powered generation plants. This simply reeks of a delaying tactic by the coal industry in my opinion. I could be way off the mark though...

Very fictitious in my opinion. One you need to separate the CO2 from the output of the burning of coal. Two you need to condense the CO2 to something you can transport, which requires energy for refrigeration. Three you need a network of refrigerated pipes from the place you burn the coal back to where you intend to sequester it. Four you need those places where you can sequester it.

Sounds way more expensive, in terms of the infrastructure, than the power gained from burning it is worth.

We're way closer to working out how to deal with nuclear waste than how to sequester CO2. There are however people looking at making the CO2 into Sodium bicarbonate by direct aqueous mineral carbonation, which may make more sense. But that's still a theoretical process and the energy required may be cost prohibitive.

[Conrad Vassmann]

some Altona stuff:

Download:
http://www.iom3.org/materialsworld/feat ... sition.pdf


June 20, 2008
At Today’s Oil Price, Altona Has Billions Of Dollars Of Revenue To Look Forward To From Its Ackaringa Coal-To-Liquids Project


By Our Man in the City

The stock market may be being put off by the US$3.2 billion development bill hanging over Altona Resources’ coal-to-liquids Arckaringa project in Australia, but a crude calculation based on today’s oil price of US$140 per barrel suggests it will take less than two years’ worth of production to get a return on its investment, according to chairman Chris Lambert. “Diesel commands a US$15 premium to today’s oil price. Add an extra US$20 on top again for jet fuel and you’re talking about the quality of product we will produce.” By his estimates, Altona will make US$1.7 billion from oil sales and an extra US$150 million from providing power each year. Of course, that is dependent on oil prices staying where they are today. When Royal Bank of Scotland spent four months putting its financial model together in early 2007, it worked off a forward oil price of US$40 per barrel. No-one really knows what the oil price will be when Altona starts production, potentially in 2013. Yet if oil did maintain its price strength, then the company will be laughing all the way to the bank........

http://www.minesite.com/nc/minews/singl ... ing/1.html

To give a headline summary of Altona’s situation, it has 7.8 billion tonnes of coal underneath 150 metres of overburden. This equates to around 7.5 billion barrels of clean liquid fuel which will be converted at the rate of 10 million barrels a year. Around 700 million tonnes of coal should be upgraded to Jorc level soon, the company having drilled up historical workings. “The numbers shouldn’t change. Our drilling confirms the original estimates,” says Mr Lambert. With the technical part of the pre-feasibility study done, Altona will soon begin the bankable feasibility study (BFS). However, for a couple of good reasons, the company is keeping the full details to itself: “We won’t publish the full pre-feasibility information as it spans nine different reports and contains a lot of sensitive information that our competitors could use to their advantage,” says Mr Lambert.

An “Owners Team” has been assembled to oversee the BFS including engineering consultant Jacobs Australia and project management group Enthalpy. An overall project manager will soon be announced in the form of a reputable mining engineer, says Mr Lambert. A key aim of the team will be to bring down the capital expenditure requirements. This is where Chinese energy group Tongjiang should be able to help. Having paid the first two components of a three-part £11.6 million investment in Altona, Tongjiang currently owns 20.9 per cent of the business. “We’re hoping they will introduce us to Chinese manufacturing companies who can provide reliable equipment for the project,” says Mr Lambert. He also expects to see an offtake agreement into China, potentially alongside opportunities to supply fuel and power domestically in Southern Australia and to BHP Billiton, which needs water and power for its Olympic Dam project 300 kilometres from Altona’s base. These conversations are considerations for the future but are already on the company’s agenda. “We’ve not even talked to BHP yet, but it’s an obvious customer on our doorstep,” adds Mr Lambert.

The BFS should be completed by the middle of 2010. Altona raised enough money through the Tongjiang investment to pay for around 60 to 70 per cent of the study. “They offered to put up all the money, but we wanted the ability to raise more at a higher level later on,” explains Mr Lambert. “It will be at least another year before we will need to come back to the market for this extra money.”

The company is certainly at a turning point in its career. The recruitment of mining experts and the securing of most of the BFS funding means Altona can now focus on refining the design of the project and working out with whom it should sign sales contracts. There are still a few areas that require clarity, however. The appearance in February of coal group Homeland Energy on the shareholder register with a 15.6 per cent stake, shouldn’t be ignored. Homeland caused a fuss before the recent EGM convened to approve Tongjiang’s involvement, but eventually declared its support. If it’s trying to muscle in on Altona, it may want to consider that Tongjiang will soon own 45.9 per cent of the business, once the third tranche of its investment is made, and will be a dominant force. A memorandum of understanding with BP has seen Altona swap information on potential development opportunities at Arckaringa. Mr Lambert says he is none the wiser as to whether BP will take a stake in Altona. The agreement expires at the end of this month.

Shareholders may be disappointed with the lacklustre share price performance of late, but those familiar with the story know that this is a slow but steady development that could eventually yield significant returns. “We haven’t hyped the project. The information we’ve supplied has been conservative and we’ve stuck to the timetable,” comments Mr Lambert. “Yet in three years, having turned around a large coal deposit in the desert into possibly one of the largest energy banks in the world, is pretty impressive.”

[Conrad Vassmann]

Appointment of Jacobs Australia and Enthalpy (Altona Resources)

RNS Number : 7324W
Altona Resources PLC
16 June 2008


Altona Resources Plc / Index: AIM / Epic: ANR / Sector: Exploration & Production
16th June 2008
Altona Resources Plc ('Altona' or 'the Company')

Appointment of Jacobs Australia and Enthalpy Pty Ltd to
Altona's Integrated Owners Team

Altona Resources Plc, the AIM listed Australian based energy company, has established an
experienced management team to oversee the
final stage of the Bankable Feasibility Study ('BFS') for the Company's Arckaringa Coal to
Liquid ('CTL') and Power Project in South
Australia (the "Arckaringa Project"). Leading engineering consultants, Jacobs Australia Pty
Ltd ('Jacobs Australia') and project management
firm, Enthalpy Pty Ltd ('Enthalpy'), will join Altona's current management to form an
Integrated Owners Team ('Owners Team') with immediate
effect.

The new Owners Team brings together a wealth of experience in delivering feasibility
studies and controlling complex world scale
resources projects. Jacobs Australia has a strong background in project management and
controls, and also benefits from the extensive
reach-back into the greater Jacobs Engineering Organisation of over 55,000 personnel
worldwide. Australian based project management company
Enthalpy, specialises in conducting feasibility studies for major resource companies based on
a series of tested, disciplined BFS control
procedures.

The Owners Team is focussed on delivering the BFS over two stages:

* Stage One - pre-BFS - selection of the Study Engineer that will carry out design and
environmental assessments for the Arckaringa
Project, the formalisation of the corresponding contractual services arrangements and the BFS
Study Plan.
* Stage Two - delivery of the BFS - working in concert with the Study Engineer, within
an agreed cost and timeframe to enable the
Arckaringa Project to achieve government approval and financial close.

Stage One is currently underway with the appraisal of the Expressions of Interest received
from world class engineering companies for
the role of Study Engineer. The selection and appointment process is anticipated to be
completed to allow a smooth transition into Stage Two
in the fourth quarter 2008 with the study expected to take a further 21 - 24 months.

Altona Managing Director Chris Schrape said, "The combination of Jacobs Australia and
Enthalpy, working with our existing highly
experienced team, provides us with a ready-made core of feasibility study experience, a proven
and detailed study procedure and controls,
and top level specialists supported by a global network of resources. Together with the Study
Engineer, we will form an extremely strong
team to take the Arckaringa Project through the BFS phase. Both Jacobs Australia and
Enthalpy have welcomed the opportunity to contribute
to Altona's development of this significant Australian energy project."
* * ENDS * *

For further information visit http://www.altonaresources.com or please contact:

Christopher Lambert Chairman Tel: +44 (0) 207 024 8391

Christopher Schrape Managing Director Tel: +61 (0) 417 984 434

Hugh Oram Nabarro Wells & Co. Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 207 634 4705
Alastair Stratton Matrix Corporate Capital LLP Tel: +44 (0) 207 925 3300
Victoria Thomas St Brides Media & Finance Tel: +44 (0) 207 236 1177
Ltd

Notes to Editors

About Altona
Altona Resources Plc is an Australian based energy Company that was admitted to trading on
AIM in March 2005. Altona's primary focus is
the completion of a bankable feasibility study for its wholly owned Arckaringa Project for an
integrated 10 million barrel per year Coal to
Liquid ('CTL') plant with a 560 MW co-generation power facility.

The Company holds, through its wholly owned subsidiary Arckaringa Energy Pty Ltd, a 100%
interest in three exploration licences covering
2,500 sq. kms in the northern portion of the Permian Arckaringa Basin in South Australia.

These include three coal deposits, Westfield
(EL3360), Wintinna (EL3361) and Murloocoppie (EL3362). All three lie close to the Adelaide to
Darwin railway and the Stuart Highway.

Containing more than 7.5 billion tonnes of coal (based on previous JORC standards) these coal
deposits are effectively one of the world's
largest undeveloped energy banks, capable of conversion into clean liquid fuels, low cost
power and high value industrial feedstocks.

About Coal-to-Liquids (also see http://www.altonaresources.com)
CTL is a proven technology which converts coal into more environmentally clean and
manageable energy sources including gas and synthetic
fuels. The process involves two major stages, gasification to produce synthetic gas ("Syngas")
rich in hydrogen and carbon, and a
liquefication stage where the Syngas is reacted over a catalyst to produce high quality,
ultraclean synthetic fuels and chemical feedstocks.

CTL is a prime example of clean coal technology - the associated combined cycle units
produce negligible sulphur oxides, significantly
less nitrogen oxides and 10 - 20% less CO2 per unit of power generated than a conventional
coal fired plant, whilst carbon capture and
storage offers the potential to reduce the overall greenhouse gas emissions from CTL to below
the "well to wheel" level of fuels derived
from crude oil.

The technology is best demonstrated in South Africa, where currently 30% of the country's
gasoline and diesel fuel needs are met through
CTL plants

Jacobs Australia
Jacobs employs over 270 people across Australia and has been established in the country
since 1997, with staff in all mainland capital
cities except Darwin. The company provides a wide range of advanced technology and project
management services to the Department of Defence
and engineering consultancy services to the Australian mining and resource development
industries, using its Australian workforce and the
support of the global Jacobs Organisation, one of the world's leading engineering companies.

Forfurtherinformation visit http://www.jacobs.com.

Enthalpy Pty. Ltd
Enthalpy commenced operations in Australia in 1988. Today the company employs 140 senior
personnel in Australia and overseas, typically
engaged as project controls, contract and management teams on large scale projects for major
resource, energy and infrastructure companies.

Projects under management total A$5 billion and under feasibility studies, A$11 billion. For
further information visit http://www.enthalpy.com.au


This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

[Conrad Vassmann]

http://minister.ret.gov.au/TheHonMartin ... lenge.aspx

You can view Chris Schrapes presentation to Minesite on video here:
http://clients.westminster-digital.co.u ... anyId=52_4