#Official Mining Thread

[Wayno]

Wilcherry Hill set to export

On the back of the recently opened Cairn Hill iron ore mine (the first in SA for over 100 years), here's another starting in under 6 months time...

Also lamenting the lack of export infrastructure.

From ABC Online:

New mine cleared to start production

Another South Australian iron ore mine is expected to start production early next year. A native title agreement has been signed covering the Wilcherry Hill operation, west of Whyalla.

Executive chairman of IronClad Mining, Ian Finch, says it will produce up to two million tonnes of ore per year.

He says the company could mine more ore but there is not a suitable port for export.

"Aspirants to becoming miners and exporters for this state and this country are constricted by the lack of infrastructure," he said. "We would like to be planning to export a lot more"

"It is very, very difficult to be able to export larger tonnages and larger tonnages means more royalties for the state."

[Wayno]

Rex strikes copper - again!

The next 20+ years are looking good for copper mining on the York Peninsula, and so close to population centres!

THE potential for several large-scale copper discoveries on the Yorke Peninsula is coming closer to reality with another significant early-stage find by Rex Minerals.

The company, which has already defined a copper resource at its Hillside project near Ardrossan, said it had also struck copper 10km north of that project.

Rex said it had intersected 34m of 0.6 per cent copper at a depth of just 25m at its Parara prospect. Managing director Steven Olsen said it was a "great start'' to the exploration program.

"Just as we did at Hillside, we will follow this up with further drilling to define the broad extent of this new discovery,'' he said.

"We already have 100 million tonnes (of ore) at 0.7 per cent copper defined at Hillside and are at the early stages of a very steep discovery curve on the Pine Point copper belt. Many of our targets are underneath less than 20m of cover rocks and with no previous drill testing.

"The opportunity for multiple large-scale copper discoveries on the Yorke Peninsula is becoming more obvious with every drill hole.

"The regional drilling program has the potential to add significantly to the advanced Hillside project.''

Follow up drilling is planned at Parara, in addition to the drill testing of a number of other targets in the area.

Rex is targeting between 1.5 million and 2.8 million tonnes of contained copper at Hillside, compared with the 700,000 tonne resource it has so far defined.

[UrbanSG]

More good news for SA.

A lot of business people I speak to up here in QLD keep asking what is going on down in SA and Adelaide at the moment? Everyone knows Melbourne is booming and big money is being made there but attention is now turning more and more to SA.

Companies are realising the state is turning its performance around and they are seeing that big money might be able to be made in SA too. Especially when states like QLD are having big issues with lack of confidence, huge debt and deficits.

Whyalla jobs boom as Arafura picks site for $1bn rare earths processing facility
Russell Emmerson From: The Advertiser September 17, 2010 10:02AM

RARE earths miner Arafura Resources has selected Whyalla as the site for its $1 billion processing facility.

The project will create 1000 jobs during its construction phase and another 300 processing jobs once it comes online in 2013.

Arafura estimates it will pump $100 million of economic benefits into the region every year.

The company bought the 800ha site from OneSteel to process rare earths, which are used in consumer goods such as iPods and flatscreen TVs and also in hybrid cars and energy-efficient light bulbs.

[Wayno]

Whyalla jobs boom as Arafura picks site for $1bn rare earths processing facility

[Waewick]

I was just about to come in here and post hat story along with some humble pie.

If that comes through, 300 FT jobs is a fantastic result, I just hope it isn't Fly in fly out jobs or the like.

[rhino]

If that comes through, 300 FT jobs is a fantastic result, I just hope it isn't Fly in fly out jobs or the like.

Unlikely to be fly-in-fly-out in Whyalla. It's an already-established city, so the need to supply services to workers' families is not there. Also, as far as I am aware, fly-in-fly-out is less common at processing sites than at mine sites, where mine life may not make the establishment of services and a town worthwhile. I'm sure there are exceptions, but I don't think Whyalla is going to be one.

[Waewick]

well that is a positive result

It would be great if the state could organise significant enough resources to make the trip between Whyalla and Adealide shorter or easier (dedicated rail)

and try and take advantage of this to grow the city further. Perhaps even as a renewable energies hub to compliment the not so renewable ones.

[Wayno]

Olympic Dam Update

The expected govt approval timeline is about 4-5 months slower than i anticipated.

from AdelaideNow:

BHP Billiton aims to reach the next major milestone in the project to expand Olympic Dam within the next three months.

"The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) approval process continued for the Olympic Dam Expansion project," president of BHP's uranium division Dean Dalla Valle said in the company's annual report.

"The company expects to complete the supplementary EIS by the end of calendar year 2010, with government decisions expected to be obtained in the second half of next year."

Mr Dalla Valle's statement fills in dates for the intermediate steps toward estimates made in May and August by chief executive Marius Kloppers who hopes to put a final investment decision proposal to his board on Olympic Dam by about the end of next year.

Mr Dalla Valle also commented on the repairs completed in June to the damaged Clark Shaft at Olympic Dam. The shaft went on to achieve records for the daily quantity of ore hauled to the surface. "The exemplary safety demonstrated during the Clark outage has resulted in the project being nominated for the BHP Billiton safety award," he said.

[skyliner]

Of note - a mechanical engineer friend of mine has his company working on the desal plant for ODX - I suppose included in the EIS report.

SA - STATE ON THE MOVE

[Wayno]

Of note - a mechanical engineer friend of mine has his company working on the desal plant for ODX - I suppose included in the EIS report.

interesting - by what do you mean 'working on the ODX desal plant'? AFAIK its location is not yet decided/approved

[skyliner]

Wayno - as far as understand it is linked with developing the most efficient design materials for the plant as well as subjecting these to fatigue tests, site feasability etc. He says his work is linked with point Lowly site.

SA - STATE ON THE MOVE

[Wayno]

Wayno - as far as understand it is linked with developing the most efficient design materials for the plant as well as subjecting these to fatigue tests, site feasability etc. He says his work is linked with point Lowly site.

thanks skyliner, good that core activities are progressing ahead of the approval process!

[rhino]

Wayno - as far as understand it is linked with developing the most efficient design materials for the plant as well as subjecting these to fatigue tests, site feasability etc. He says his work is linked with point Lowly site.

thanks skyliner, good that core activities are progressing ahead of the approval process!

Indeed! A pleasant surprise, as it's a pretty good clue that something is going to happen.

[rhino]

BHP outlines $15bn Olympic Dam growth plan
Matt Chambers From: The Australian September 29, 2010 12:00AM

BHP Billiton's phased expansion of the Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine is to be done in three or more $US5 billion ($5.2bn) lots.
Each stage will involve production of 200,000 tonnes of copper a year, analysts briefed by the company say.
While the company yesterday maintained it had not given cost guidance on the project, UBS and Macquarie analysts came out of a brieing by non-ferrous metals chief Andrew Mackenzie saying BHP indicated it would develop the mine in modules costing about $US5bn each.
BHP last month quietly lifted the potential cost of its first phase of the Olympic Dam expansion on its growth options chart from less than $US500 million to more than $US2bn, indicating it had changed the way it was looking at developing the expansion.
Yesterday, BHP would not say whether it had changed its plans, which had always been for a three-stage expansion.
Apart from the $US5bn indication for module costs and the feeling BHP had changed the way it would develop the mine to modules rather than attacking it as a big one-off lift in production, the Santiago briefing was interpreted widely by analysts in attendance.
UBS analyst Olivia Ker said the company could be ready to move ahead with stage one by early 2011, a year earlier than guidance by chief executive Marius Kloppers last month. Mr Kloppers has said that environmental and board approval is 18 months away.
"Earlier than anticipated start-up has been largely influenced by the variable uranium grade of the orebody, which allows the uranium-poor sections of the orebody to be accessed first," Ms Ker said.
Macquarie analysts said the expansion's first stage would target underground replacement volumes of 180,000 to 200,000 tonnes of copper a year. This contradicts BHP's environmental impact statement, which said the underground mine would complement theopen-pit expansion.
Goldman Sachs analyst Neil Goodwill said he now expected a slower ramp-up to 800,000 tonnes of copper production a year than the 2020 date he had been expecting, but that there was now the potential for the mine to do one million tonnes of copper a year. In the briefing, Mr Mackenzie also said a life extension of the Cannington silver and lead mine in Queensland was also on the agenda. The extension was taken off BHP's list of future options during the global financial crisis, but had now been reinstated.
A five- or six-year mine life extension is now in pre-feasibility stage.
Meanwhile, Potash Corp of Saskatchewan's complaints about BHP Billiton's $US40bn hostile bid will be heard by a Chicago court on November 4, earlier than had been asked for in Potash's court submission.

[UrbanSG]

South Australia is really about to go places over the next few years imo. More and more mining companies are opening up offices in Adelaide as well as companies such as IT services who service these mining companies. Huge flow on effects are starting to take place now.

$5 billion modules are still huge investments especially when they will keep rolling on over time.

More about ODX from the Australian yesterday in an arvo update:

BHP's dam modules

INFORMATION continues to filter out of BHP's Santiago base metals briefing in Chile, with a report from Citi analyst Clarke Wilkins saying the Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine expansion could potentially cost $US50bn ($51.5bn) . Wilkins reports BHP is now thinking of building the expansion through up to 10 modules costing $US5bn each. The module capex was out yesterday in Macquarie and UBS reports but BHP's plan to build so many wasn't. BHP is remaining tight-lipped on what the real story is behind a change of design plan and why the briefing has spawned a series of different analyst interpretations. It appears stagnant uranium prices are part of the change of heart, with the first expansion module focusing on low uranium grade portions of the mine. Another factor in the decision to go modular appears to be the huge cost of removing the massive amount of waste rock from above the orebody. Instead of previous plans to remove it all in one go, the so-called modules would mean less outlay on development before cash from the expanded production started rolling in.