#Official Mining Thread

[Wayno]

I'm not going to be reading the ODX EIS document - will rely on what i hear in the media/etc. Apparently will be the largest document ever produced in South Australia!

[Wayno]

Another One...

Another uranium mine on the horizon. We are certainly heading towards having plenty of moderate/large sized mines in SA!

http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/conten ... 526728.htm

Uranium exploration company, Marmota Energy, has begun preliminary drilling at its Mulyungarie project in South Australia, 50 kilometres west of Broken Hill.

The exploration program is part of a join venture with Monax Mining, with Monax having access to the base metal rights of the project.

Managing director of Marmota Energy, Dominic Calandro, says the company aims for Mulyungarie to rival other uranium mines in the region.

"Our intent would be to eventually become a producer of the same sort of ilk as what you see at Honeymoon, or at the Beverley uranium mine."

[Wayno]

China denied - Good if BHP is interested

If you've been watching, China was just denied the right to purchase the Prominent Hill (gold/copper) mine from OZ Minerals. This could be FANTASTIC news for South Australia, esp if BHP ends up as the owner (which is likely).

So why fantastic? because Prominent Hill is a V-LARGE mine, and is located close to ODX. Owning two monster mines in close proximity is a BIG money/time saver (there are numerous ways to share infrastructure and people). IMO, BHP purchasing PH would also shorten the schedule for the ODX expansion to an open cut mine. I'm excited!

[rhino]

I'm actually actively hating BHP at the moment, so, even though you're correct, I can't bring myself to get too excited about it. The Big Australian is a heartless, ethic-less bitch with no interest in communities or workers, even their own.

[UrbanSG]

This would be great if they moved here (I think they recently signed up in a new Melbourne office building, so maybe they will have to sub let if they move).

Obviously they will downsize their staff and office requirements if they only end up owning Prominent Hill and exploration assets but it would still be a positive step for Adelaide I would think.

OZ won't rule out move to Adelaide
CAMERON ENGLAND, CHIEF BUSINESS REPORTER
April 01, 2009 01:00pm

OZ Minerals managing director Andrew Michelmore has not ruled out moving the headquarters of the mining company to Adelaide.

If the revised $1.75 billion asset sale announced by the company today goes ahead, OZ will end up with just two major assets, the $1.15 billion Prominent Hill gold and copper mine southeast of Coober Pedy, and the Martabe gold development in Indonesia, which it is looking to sell.

The sale of Martabe would leave Oz owning just Prominent Hill and a suite of exploration assets, making a move from Melbourne to Adelaide plausible.

Mr Michelmore said such decisions were not being made at this stage.

However, with MinMetals buying four Australian mining operations, plus overseas operations including the Sepon copper and Gold mine in Laos from Oz, decisions will need to be made about how the company's mainly Melbourne-based corporate employees will be divided between the two companies, or made redundant.

"In the first instance we're going to have a period where we're going to have to split the two companies and there are services that are currently being provided in Oz Minerals across the various operations,'' Mr Michelmore said.

"We would have to continue to provide those services. They are currently being provided out of Melbourne so it will take a transition period to be able to split out a number of those services.

"But obviously with one operation in South Australia the operations headquarters for the Prominent Hill operation would certainly be out of Adelaide.''

Mr Michelmore said the company would have to "work through'' where the appropriate base for the entire company should be.

Mr Michelmore would not speculate on his own future.

"A this stage it's too early to say, my focus is to deliver this deal for shareholders,'' he said.

Mr Michelmore has a history of running large mining companies, including former Olympic Dam owner WMC Resources which he sold to BHP Billiton in 2005, and Zinifex, which merged with Oxiana last year to create Oz Minerals.

[Wayno]

Want a mining license? it'll be approved in a jiffy

This sentence in the article below shows why we need to get better/quicker ==> “Concerningly, South Australia has 26pc of Australia’s inferred gold resources yet accounts for only 3% of Australia’s total gold output."

http://www.borderwatch.com.au/archives/2649

South Australia’s mining authorities have set a goal of granting mining licences within six months of submission as the state seeks to maintain and protect its resources investment against increasingly competing government-backed exploration incentives emerging in Western Australia and Queensland particularly.

The six month approvals target was outlined today at the second day in Perth of the Paydirt 2009 Australian Gold Conference by Paul Heithersay, executive director of Primary Industries and Resources South Australia (PIRSA).

Details of the approvals objective come as Western Australia’s Mines Minister, Norman Moore, is due to unveil tomorrow (Friday 3 April) a detailed incentive program to attract more exploration drilling activity into that State.

Addressing Paydirt delegates, Mr Heithersay said “imitation” is the kindest form of flattery “and South Australia’s pioneering introduction in 2004 of its PACE drill incentive program had substantially invigorated the State’s exploration impetus for both precious and base metals”.

“To a point, we reported in 2008, exploration expenditure of A$314 million - three times our target of $100 million per annum by 2010,” Mr Heithersay said.

“However, we need to ensure South Australia retains, and builds on, its ability to win exploration investment, in partnership with a mining focused and supportive government.

“This is particularly so for the two stand-out commodities offering high exploration upside in South Australia – gold and uranium.

“Concerningly, South Australia has 26pc of Australia’s inferred gold resources yet accounts for only 3% of Australia’s total gold output.

“That imbalance needs to be addressed if the State is to optimise its gold potential during not only the current high gold price environment, but as part of our total mining mix going forward.”

Mr Heithersay said there was a string of new gold contributors ready to add to the State’s gold output including an expansion of the existing Challenger mine, the start-up to mainstream gold production at the 7.4 million ounces of gold Prominent Hill gold and copper mine, and Olympic Dam’s ongoing expansion potential for the precious metal.

New gold projects on the blocks included Carrapateena, Hillside, Tunkillia, the 2010 start-up at the 8000 ounces of gold a year Kanmantoo copper project, the current mining application for Portia and various projects at pre and feasibility studies – including Bird-in-Hand and Kalkaroo.

“South Australia is very clearly host to multi-million ounces of gold primarily in IOCG systems yet has many targets in open ground awaiting testing,” Mr Heithersay said.

“Ongoing geological surveys are generating drill ready targets and the existing PACE incentive program – which has seen more than $10 million to date invested by the Government in exploration drilling incentives in just five years, is providing valuable new data.

‘On that basis, we have every confidence that if an explorer or existing producer discovers a new commercial deposit, we will target processing any mining lease application within six months of submission.”

[Wayno]

White Dam

Hey guys, just a heads up. The White Dam gold mine has finally acheived full approvals - and mining will commence in a month or two. This is a fairly big mine and is located ~80km south of Broken Hill.

I'm also expecting several more mid-sized mines to soon start production. I suspect that by the end of 2009 we will have an extra 5-7 operating mines. The point to remember is South Australia continues to grow in the midst of the global recession!!

[skyliner]

White Dam

Hey guys, just a heads up. The White Dam gold mine has finally acheived full approvals - and mining will commence in a month or two. This is a fairly big mine and is located ~80km south of Broken Hill.

I'm also expecting several more mid-sized mines to soon start production. I suspect that by the end of 2009 we will have an extra 5-7 operating mines. The point to remember is South Australia continues to grow in the midst of the global recession!!

So 80km south of BH IS in SA??? Would'nt it have to be SSW at least?

BTW - good summary of the mine situation and the conclusion from it mate!!Gotta love it!

SA - STATE ON THE MOVE

[Wayno]

White Dam

Hey guys, just a heads up. The White Dam gold mine has finally acheived full approvals - and mining will commence in a month or two. This is a fairly big mine and is located ~80km south of Broken Hill.

I'm also expecting several more mid-sized mines to soon start production. I suspect that by the end of 2009 we will have an extra 5-7 operating mines. The point to remember is South Australia continues to grow in the midst of the global recession!!

So 80km south of BH IS in SA??? Would'nt it have to be SSW at least?

BTW - good summary of the mine situation and the conclusion from it mate!!Gotta love it!

err, I mean - due south, in a western kinda direction. i recall now why i was kicked out of the Scouts!

white-dam.JPG (28.34 KiB) Viewed 2212 times

[Wayno]

Another large project commencing soon - York Peninsula

1500 jobs during construction. 380 jobs ongoing for 30+ years...

http://www.ypct.com.au/index.php?option ... &Itemid=66

Oil and gas company Syngas (formerly Gulf X) Ltd has confirmed it plans to continue developing a (Aus) $3 billion on-site coal mining operation and premium diesel production plant in the Port Clinton area.

A plan of what Syngas hopes Port Clinton’s premium diesel production plant will look like, and what stages of the coal-liquid process happen where.Based on the West Perth company’s recently completed base case prefeasibility study (PFS), it predicts the plant will produce 15,800 barrels of diesel per day over a mine life of 33 years and create 380 full-time jobs, with up to 1,500 jobs to be available during construction.

The completion of the PFS validates Syngas’s belief the construction and profitable operation of a brown coal mine and premium diesel production plant is viable. The company is now commencing a full feasibility study, which will take until around 2012, with full operation to commence in 2015.

Syngas Executive Director Merrill Gray says the company is very pleased to be able to confirm the good news, but still has a lot of work to do before full funding is secured, plant construction begins and production can commence.

“The entire purpose of our PFS was to ask, ‘should we move to our next stage and go ahead with further developing the project?’ and this confirms our answer is yes,” said Ms Gray.

“We will now get straight into our full feasibility study, which will involve more drilling to get higher confidence levels on the feed material, working with landholders, commencing environmental studies and work with the government and community, and of course, detailed design and operation planning.”

Syngas has made Clinton its clear priority and plans to move its office to either Adelaide or YP next year.

Syngas hopes to produce over 15,800 barrels of fuel each day for 33 years, producing a total of around 150 million barrels of oil equivalent.

The project has the potential to provide many benefits to the area, with Syngas looking to source workers locally.

“We will look to source workers from the local community, as well as attracting new people into the region,” Ms Gray said.

“We plan to train locals in many jobs, though specialist gasification engineers and other qualified staff may even have to be sourced from overseas.”

Ms Gray says Syngas will also look to source waste biomass such as residual cereal straw and organic waste locally whenever possible, and slag produced from operation may be used in local roads.

“The plant can produce additional power, and we are hoping to put any power back into the national grid during peak demand periods when blackouts are experienced in South Australia,” said Ms Gray.

“The brown coal is also going to have a lot of water when we mine it, and we believe that when we use heat to remove this water, we will be able to collect the water and make it potable (drinkable) for consumption in the community.”

How it worksSyngas plans to strip mine 170 million tonnes of brown coal from its local deposits, which altogether hold 558 million tonnes.

Once mined, around 18,000 tonnes of the coal, supplemented with 10 per cent waste biomass (plant material, such as residual straw stubble which reduces the project’s carbon footprint), will be fed into a “gasification chamber” which turns the coal and biomass into synthetic gas (energy in the form of hydrogen), at high temperatures of around 1,4000C. Oxygen is added as part of this process.

The gas will then be used to create clean, premium diesel, through another stage called Fischer Tropsch, with some of the gas being fed into an onsite power generation plant.

Although brown coal has not been widely used in the past due to its low energy value, its high oxygen content make it highly suited to the gasification technology.

Each barrel is expected to cost (US) $33, so profit to be made will depend on the price of oil. Based on a conservative long term oil price of (US) $66 per barrel, Syngas looks to make around (Aus) $240 million per year, with any oil increases to significantly increase cash flow.

If the oil price were to stay at (US) $66 per barrel for the life of the project, Syngas would break even, that is achieve around a 10% return, whilst covering all costs (operating and capital) though estimates suggest oil prices and demand will rise.

[Wayno]

Billions in uranium bound for China

Very good for SA!

http://business.theage.com.au/business/ ... -ae41.html

CHINA is shaping as a multibillion-dollar new uranium export market as it looks to Australia to supply the resources it needs to underpin a massive expansion in its nuclear power industry.

Chinese officials this week announced they would start building five extra power plants this year on top of the 24 already under construction and 11 already in operation.

Chinese analysts say the country's dearth of uranium is "the tiger in the road" to fulfilling its nuclear power ambitions and that Australia is the most obvious solution.

"There are not enough uranium resources in China to support the aggressive nuclear power development plan for the next 20-30 years," said Professor Liu Deshun, of China's Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology.

"Australia has the uranium resources that could be exported and in China we have the demand," he said.

The acceleration of China's nuclear power plans stems from mounting concerns about climate change, energy security and the more immediate task of kick-starting the economy as part of the Government's 4 trillion yuan stimulus plan.

Vice-Premier Zhang Dejiang announced at a Beijing conference this week that China would "accelerate the development of nuclear power and increase the ratio of clean energies like nuclear power".

But a Chinese official at the same conference raised concerns about nuclear waste disposal and operational safety.

"If we are not fully aware of the sector's over-rapid expansions, it will threaten construction quality and operation safety of nuclear power plants," said Li Ganjie, director of National Nuclear Safety Administration.

Chinese companies are lining up to invest directly in Australian uranium mining and exploration companies and sign long-term supply contracts with Australia's established mining companies, if expansion plans receive Government approval.

The Minister for Resources, Martin Ferguson, indicated the Federal Government was unlikely to stand in the way, subject to environmental and investment tests. He told BusinessDay he welcomed China's decision to fast-track its nuclear power industry.

Today, ERA is expected to say more about a new plant to extract uranium from low-grade ore and an exploration pit for the expansion of its Ranger Mine in Kakadu, which already produces 10 per cent of the world's uranium.

Next week BHP Billiton will move a step closer to a massive expansion of its Olympic Dam mine in South Australia — the world's biggest proven uranium reserve — with the release of an environmental impact assessment.

Chinese analysts have said the country's nuclear power expansion plans will not succeed unless China secures the necessary uranium supplies.

Australian analysts say the local mine expansions are unlikely to proceed without the certainty provided by long-term supply contracts to China.

"The two go hand in hand," said John Wilson, uranium analyst at Resource Capital Research.

Australia's uranium exports are currently valued at $900 million but that figure is rising rapidly.

ERA exported Australia's first and only uranium shipment to China late last year after the two countries signed a nuclear safeguards agreement.

[Wayno]

FYI, The BHP ODX EIS is due out next week - largest document in the history of Australia!

[skyliner]

Can't wait for it mate! This last report should have some bearing on the outcome of the expansion - much more positive for us - and in the face of the official recession for Aust.

SA - STATE ON THE MOVE

[Wayno]

SA to produce 25% of world Zircon supplies by 2010

More good news - it just keeps coming...Read about Zircon here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zircon). It's used for abrasives, nuclear reactors, insulators, ceramic products, fake diamonds, blah...

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/stor ... 55,00.html

CHINESE demand for zircon, used in ceramic tiles and toilets, will underpin production from Iluka Resources' Jacinth-Ambrosia mine in the far west of South Australia over the next few years.

Iluka Resources managing director David Robb said at a luncheon in Adelaide yesterday the South Australian mine would produce about 25 per cent of global demand, or 300,000 tonnes a year, once it came on stream from 2010.

About 40 per cent of the world's zircon buyers were Chinese, hoping to lay 40 billion square metres of tiles over the coming years - about five times the global floor surface, Mr Robb said.

"That's a lot of floor tiles; that's a lot of zircon.''

The Jacinth-Ambrosia project, the largest zircon discovery in almost 40 years, had the highest assemblage of zircon of any mineral sands deposit in the world and was likely to have a 10-year life span, Mr Robb said.

But newer discoveries in the region were likely to grow the Eucla Basin into a mineral sands province, Mr Robb said.

Perth-based Iluka, which has been reducing its workforce and offloading other mineral projects, would gradually move its "centre of gravity'' from Western Australia to South Australia as the project proceeded.

The company already employs 60 people at its Kent Town corporate office and would increase its on-site workforce from 180 to 270 in the next few months.

While the ore would be concentrated on site, it was uneconomic to undertake all processing at the remote SA site, Mr Robb said.

Iluka's Geraldton plant in Western Australia would handle most of the processing before it was shipped to mainly Asian markets.

"Geraldton is already an established mineral sands export facility . . . as the province develops then obviously that's a question we will revisit,'' he said.

[Wayno]

Another mine getting ready for the economy to turn

This is a big one too!

Work begins on Honeymoon uranium mine

Construction has begun on South Australia's third uranium mine.

Preparatory work at the Honeymoon project in the state's far north-east will continue until the middle of next year, with mining to start after that.

The uranium mine will also be the fourth in Australia.

South Australian Premier Mike Rann says the start of construction comes almost two years to the day since the Labor Party scrapped its no new uranium mines policy.

"I think that mining will play a dominant role in South Australia's economic future for the next 50 years," he said.

"I think it's going to help pull us out of these global economic conditions in better nick than most other places."

The three other Australian uranium mines are at Olympic Dam and Beverley - both in South Australia's north - and at Ranger in the Northern Territory.