#Official Mining Thread

[Wayno]

Linc raises $77.4m for SA plant
...first South Australian gas to liquids plant...

Good news indeed. i'm not sure how much we get as royalties from such an operation. Anyone know? probably a percentage per mega-litre of liquified gas.

[monotonehell]

Is it gas to liquid or coal to liquid? Do we have any coal?

[Wayno]

Is it gas to liquid or coal to liquid? Do we have any coal?

The Linc discovery is a 'gas to liquid' operation. We don't yet have any 'coal to liquid' operations but some companies are developing mines in the Arckaringa Basin.

SA has a large traditional coal mine at Leigh Creek which supplies ~40% of SAs electricity at Port Augusta - cough splutter wheeze.

FYI, the Arckaringa Basin runs the distance between Roxby & Oodnadatta (and an equal distance to the west). Coober Pedy is in the middle of the basin. It's largely untapped with only a few petroleum drills out there (and opal mining too). A few mining companies have taken out large exploration licenses in the region and the prospects are looking good

arckaringa.JPG (5.23 KiB) Viewed 2158 times

[JamesXander]

I have a couple of grand invested in Linc Energy so heres hoping they start pumping some gas soon. I need to use this thread more often when investing I reckon.

[rhino]

FYI, the Arckaringa Basin runs the distance between Roxby & Oodnadatta (and an equal distance to the west). Coober Pedy is in the middle of the basin. It's largely untapped with only a few petroleum drills out there (and opal mining too). A few mining companies have taken out large exploration licenses in the region and the prospects are looking good

arckaringa.JPG

Hmmmm......that puts the whole Arkaringa Basin within the northern part of the Gawler Craton, according to the PIRSA map, and yes, it is largely undeveloped from a mineral extraction point of view.

[Wayno]

I have a couple of grand invested in Linc Energy so heres hoping they start pumping some gas soon. I need to use this thread more often when investing I reckon.

and my commision is only 15% of all profits - bargain!

Disclaimer: Wayno Ltd cannot be held responsible for any losses

[UrbanSG]

Public submissions responding to the Olympic Dam Draft EIS close tomorrow, Friday 7th August.

The next step is for BHP to recieve all the submissions, respond to these and finalise the document to then gain South Australia, NT and Federal Government approval sometime next year if all goes according to plan.

[Wayno]

This slipped through unnoticed:

According to Minister Holloway (IMHO a shining light in govt) the "Labanalysis Services" company at Lonsdale has received a $3m grant to establish a geochemical, metallurgical and environmental analysis laboratory to service the State’s growing mining industry. This new laboratory is expected to generate more than 100 jobs.

More details from the city messenger:

MORE than 170 jobs will be created in the southern suburbs in the first round of grants from the SA Innovation and Investment Fund, aimed at countering the effects of Mitsubishi closing its Tonsley Park car plant.

Ten grants totalling $15.4 million were announced last week, including three for southern businesses.

Labanalysis Services will receive $3 million to establish a laboratory at the former Mitsubishi engine plant site, at Lonsdale, to analyse samples from the mining and environmental sectors. Labanalysis managing director Tony Aykroyd said the money would create 109 jobs.

“They’ll be everything from laboratory technicians to preparation staff, analysts and laboratory managers,” he said. “It’s pretty exciting when you put a lot of work into something and get a result.”

The $40 million SA Innovation and Investment Fund, launched last July, provides grants of up to $5 million to companies looking to expand and take on more workers.

The first round of grants are expected to inject $67 million into the local economy.

Elizabeth-based Intex Holdings will receive $1 million to set up a factory in the southern suburbs to produce turbine engine technology aimed at reducing fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from cars.

Intex CEO Roger Davies said the grant would create 45 jobs in areas such as manufacturing, sales and administration.

“We’re very excited it makes a huge difference in terms of doing this in SA instead of going offshore,” he said. “We’re keeping it local.”

A $1 million grant to Lonsdale-based lens manufacturer Carl Zeiss will create 20 jobs.

Onkaparinga Council CEO Jeff Tate was “very pleased” significant investment and jobs were heading south in the face of the global financial crisis.

“We’ve got a growing population and what we’re keen to see is people being able to get jobs within the region instead of having to travel far away for their jobs,” he said.

Treasurer Kevin Foley said the projects would help diversify SA’s manufacturing base and go some way in filling the gap created when Mitsubishi pulled out of the south.

About 10 Mitsubishi employees remain at Tonsley, with their last shifts this month.

Applications for the second round of the industry development program are open until Friday, May 29.

More information at http://www.innovation.gov.au or call (03) 9268 7548.

[rhino]

Minotaur upgrades Tunkillia resource
VALERINA CHANGARATHIL
August 05, 2009 12:00pm

MINOTAUR says its Tunkillia gold project has strong potential to be developed as South Australia's newest gold mine.
The company and its joint venture partner Helix Resources said new drilling results at the site showed a 27 per cent boost to measured and indicated resource categories to 803,000 ounces of gold.
The upgraded Tunkillia resource, 700 kilometres northwest of Adelaide, is the first for the deposit since May 2007 and follows work undertaken by Minotaur in 2008 and 2009.
The new work resulted in major changes to the mineralisation model and estimation parameters and a significant upgrade in Measured and Indicated categories, Minotaur managing director Derek Carter said.
``The recent drill program also added confidence to our geological interpretations, especially regarding the continuity of the steeply dipping primary mineralised gold lenses,'' he said.
The deposits silver credits also rose marginally to a total estimated resource of 1,658,000 ounces.

[UrbanSG]

3,950 responses is a lot even considering the scale of this project. Anything above 100 responses is often deemed a lot. From adelaidenow:

Big public response on Roxby
August 08, 2009 12:01am

THE State Government will deliver two reports on BHP Billiton's proposed expansion of Olympic Dam mine because of the sheer number of responses to the company's environmental impact statement.

Premier Mike Rann said the Government had already completed a draft submission, but would produce a second after it had sorted through the 3950 responses.

"The EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) has generated a significant public response and we believe the Government should take into account those views before making its own final submission," he said.

BHP Billiton released its statement for the project at the start of May for a 14-week consultation period.

[Wayno]

Anothe mine upgraded...

There's been a series of SA mine upgrades in recent times - here's a nudder one, albeit not yet delivering product.

From AdelaideNow:

Iron Road soars 84pc on SA results
JUNIOR explorer Iron Road's shares closed 84 per cent higher after it announced an inferred resource of 110 million tonnes of magnetite iron ore at its Warramboo project in South Australia.

Shares in the company more than doubled on the news, which came after a test on a 1.7km portion of the project's strike length of more than 50km.

The magnetite ore is about 19.4 per cent iron, making it less valuable than the high-quality hematite deposits in Western Australia's Pilbara region. However, Iron Road said concentrate made from the ore was 69.9 per cent iron with low levels of impurities.

The company said it hoped to use an existing railway to transport the ore to the Eyre Peninsula for export.

Managing director Andrew Stocks said he was delighted with the sharemarket reaction to the news of the inferred resource at Warramboo. Mr Stocks said that assuming feasibility studies went well, he hoped that first production from the mine would be in 2013.

"We are not looking at selling into the market in the next six months ... but I think we have one of the better projects in the country,'' Mr Stocks said.

In a statement, Mr Stocks said confirmation of the resource at Warramboo was a major milestone. "To achieve this result in such a short timeframe since listing on the ASX (Australian Securities Exchange) in mid-2008 is a testament to our commitment to the exploration and development of Warramboo,'' Mr Stocks said.

Shares in Iron Road closed up 23.5 cents, or 83.9 per cent, at 51.5 cents.

[UrbanSG]

The Officer Basin region in NW South Australia has huge potential for a major oil discovery, it is under explored (a bit more info from PIRSA http://www.pir.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/ ... vol3-1.pdf). Similarities to other huge oil regions in Russia etc.

The company behind the search Ahava Energy (from Indonesia) is very optomistic about the region's potential and leased an office floor at 108 King William Street at the start of this year. I know that if they are successful they plan to set up a large office in Adelaide.

From the ABC News website:

Green light for APY oil search
Updated Fri Jul 24, 2009 1:45pm AEST

The general manager of the APY executive board, Ken Newman, says he hopes there is the equivalent of another Saudi Arabia below the surface of the APY Lands in South Australia's far north.

The APY board has signed a joint land access agreement with the Indonesian petroleum exploration company Ahava Energy, opening the way for the company to do seismic work and drilling on the remote Aboriginal lands.

Mr Newman says a big oil find would mean more than just employment and royalties for Anangu people.

"If there's a significant find, and some of these people that we've spoken to are very optimistic, it has the potential to not just change the economy of the APY Lands, but it could change the tax rate for the state and it could also change the entire Australian economy," he said.

[Wayno]

More focus on Yorke Peninsula

Some of this has been reported by myself previously - but this story is bigger and better

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

An Adelaide-based mining company has confirmed it hopes to be drilling for gold rich copper deposits in the Copper Coast by early next year.

Adelaide Resources is planning to join fellow mineral exploration companies Rex Minerals, Marmota and Monax in searching YP for copper, gold and uranium, though it says uranium will not be a target of investigations.

The company holds the licence to deposits around almost the entire District Countil of the Copper Coast area, and has been actively surveying there on and off since a joint venture with Phelps Dodge and Red Metal in May 2002.

With the recent success of Rex Minerals’ eastern YP discoveries, Adelaide Resource’s Managing Director Chris Drown says it hopes to conduct further surface surveys and drilling over this summer.

“The Moonta Project covers most of the Copper Coast, north toward Alford and east toward Paskeville,” said Mr Drown.

“It is only one of many areas in South Australia and Northern Territory we hold the licence to, but one we’re pretty keen on now.”

Mr Drown said exploration north of Wallaroo led to a copper discovery dubbed “Wombat”, but at the end of 2006 Phelps Dodge and Red Metal withdrew from the project.

Adelaide Resources hasn’t done any work on the ground since then, but that could change later this year.

Adelaide Resources targets
“Through research, we are aware of uranium being present in the area, in natural levels that are non-dangerous but could be profitable if mined,” Mr Drown said.

“It is a government requirement all drill samples are stored, so we for quite some time scanned the old core. The outcome of that was us realising there is widespread uranium associated with the area’s copper and gold.”

Mr Drown said despite spending so much money on these investigations, the company decided uranium wasn’t the right project goal for the Copper Coast.

“Our licence area has 10,000-15,000 people, and we thought looking for uranium would be inviting problems we don’t want, so we are now changing our focus to copper and gold,” he said.

“We now want to focus on trying to find gold rich deposits with significant gold as well as copper.

“We believe the mineralisation is not just in the historic mining areas of Moonta and Wallaroo Mines, but the whole region.

“The project has quite exciting potential from a geological point of view.”

Mr Drown says the company’s next step is to conduct non-invasive surface sampling, digging around one feet below the ground for greater understanding of the Copper Coast’s mineralisation.

“We’d like that to start in the next couple of months, and then hopefully we will be in position to do some drilling after harvest, ideally from January to Anzac Day next year,” he said.

“This will, of course, all be provided we can reach agreements with land holders to make sure no-one suffers financially from our activities.”

[Wayno]

Timing is everything...

I'm in favour of higher royalties, but let's first get several more mines fully operational. It's more expensive to develop open cut mines in many areas of SA (lots of dirt sitting on top of the underlying minerals).

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009 ... n=business

The Conservation Council has joined a push for mining companies in South Australia to pay higher royalties.

Mining royalties are 3.5 per cent in SA, compared with 7 per cent in Western and more than 10 per cent in Queensland.

Jamnes Danenberg, from the council, says SA is being ripped off by mining companies and taxpayers will face higher costs from BHP Billiton's planned Olympic Dam mine expansion.

"BHP Billiton are going to be making extraordinary demands in the South Australian community in terms of energy," he said.

"They'll generate about 20 per cent of South Australia's entire greenhouse gas emissions and consume up to 40 per cent of our electricity.

"That's going to be a massive impact on the state's electricity grid."

SA Unions has been pushing for higher mining royalties to be paid in South Australia and the state National Party is keen that regional communities get a bigger share of mining royalties.

[Shuz]

I think royalties should be at _least_ 10%. Why we have such an absurdly low rate, is beyond me. Lifting these royalties would enable us to gather a much more significant stream of income, and be able to reduce things like Payroll Tax, and whatnot.