Sensational-Adelaide.com

Will wrote:I've been hearing about this mining boom for the last decade, and how "it's just around the corner". This promised mining boom seems more like a mining mirage....

FOREIGN investors are looking at the Eyre Peninsula as a place to build minerals processing plants, an economic forum in Adelaide was told yesterday.

Centrex Metals managing director Jim White said South Australia should look beyond exporting raw minerals and seek the benefits of a downstream industry.

"We've clearly got a very significant mineral resource in South Australia," he told a Committee for Economic Development of Australia forum.

"We've got an increasing number of mines but we need to focus on what we do with the output from those mines. We have a real opportunity with some of our infrastructure and some of our skills base to add significant value."

Centrex, which is developing a string of iron projects in Eyre Peninsula, has two Chinese partners - Wuhan Iron and Steel and Baotou Iron and Steel.

"They see this jurisdiction, South Australia, as a place where they would like not only to mine - because the mineral resources are here - but also to process," he said. "Processing adds a massive amount of value to the product and also adds massively to the economic and social infrastructure. It's much more engaging with the communities in which we work."

Mr White said the Eyre Peninsula had a natural advantage because of potential deep water ports which would not need dredging.

The area was already connected to the national electricity grid, although this needed upgrading, and had a well established network of towns to provide a residential backbone.

KPMG partner and SA leader on resources Derek Meares told the CEDA forum SA potentially ticked many of the boxes for investors - infrastructure, social licence to operate, the state of the global economy and sovereign risk.

He said SA's world-class resources were already attracting major global players. Rio Tinto has now entered joint venture with Tasman Resources in an exploration tenement near BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam.

"These large players create a platform to develop the mining services industry," he said.

Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis said SA's resources industry had a breadth of opportunity with diverse minerals and energy sources and would take its place "among the global titans".

BHP Billiton Ltd’s head of non-ferrous metals, Andrew Mackenzie, will face tough questions on the miner's Olympic Dam expansion when he holds a series of meetings in Melbourne and Sydney this week, according to The Australian Financial Review.

Speculation has been mounting of late that the miner will announce the copper-uranium expansion will be delayed.

BHP needs to approve the expansion by December 15, or an indenture agreement with the South Australian government will expire.

Mr Mackenzie is also likely to face questions over the possibility of the miner selling a a minority stake in Olympic Dam, according to the AFR.

Wayno wrote:Waewick, there's nothing noteworthy in that business spectator article. Hoping we'll restrain ourselves from posting the constant flow of simplistic & negative media regurgitations re ODX.

World's largest miner wants to explore vast areas of Outback South Australia for major mineral deposits

Business editor Christopher Russell
July 09, 2012 11:00PM




BHP Billiton's expanded exploration licences in South Australia.

BHP Billiton is staking its claim to a vast area of South Australia's Outback, putting it in pole position to find more Olympic Dam-sized deposits.

The world's biggest miner wants to explore a huge, 300km-long arc of land from north of Lake Torrens south towards Hawker and Port Augusta.

The claim, plus $24 million worth of exploration rights BHP has bought from smaller companies over the past few months, represents a major shift in thinking for the miner.

Last year, it had exploration rights to 2658sq km of land. It now wants rights to 22,806sq km - an area a third of the size of Tasmania.


SA Chamber of Mines and Energy chief executive Jason Kuchel said the claim shows BHP's commitment to a long-term future in the state.

"If you take exploration tenements then you have to spend money - it's a requirement of the licence," he said.

"So this speaks to their confidence in the likelihood of making more very significant discoveries in that area."

The move comes as BHP's SA team finetunes the proposal it will take to the company board on the expansion of the Olympic Dam copper, gold and uranium mine.

BHP has until December 15 to commit to the project or face the indenture agreement going back into Parliament. While bipartisan support would ensure its passage, clauses such as the 45-year guarantee on fixed royalty rates could be reopened.

Despite speculation about delays to Olympic Dam, BHP has made no decision or published a cost on the project, estimated by analysts at about $30 billion.

Advance work on the Olympic Dam project continues with the third shipment of Caterpillar mining trucks offloaded from the vessel Carmen on Saturday.

Because BHP is such a big company it has not had to tell the stock exchange about the exploration push because it would not be deemed financially material to its share price.

However, the four smaller companies from which it made acquisitions - Minotaur Exploration, Tasman Resources, Archer Exploration and Copper Range - made stock exchange announcements because the transactions were significant for them.

The claims made under BHP's name - 12 tenements totalling 10,590sq km - are on the public record though not announced by the Government or BHP.

Asked to comment, BHP said the company was "making a relatively low-cost investment in a potential future option".

"We believe there is potential for additional iron oxide, copper, gold discoveries in the Stuart Shelf region of Australia and in the context of our long-term development plans and strategy for Olympic Dam this makes BHP Billiton well placed to develop any future mines in the area."

The Stuart Shelf is a region inside the Gawler Craton geological province which covers much of SA. Rich deposits of mixed copper, gold, silver, uranium and iron are known to be buried in the region - including Olympic Dam, Prominent Hill, Carrapateena and others.

Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis welcomed BHP's increasing interest in SA as a sign major players were optimistic about more big finds.

"BHP Billiton, along with other major resource companies including Rio Tinto, have recently shown their faith in the prospectivity of this part of SA by securing exploration rights," Mr Koutsantonis said. "These investment decisions are yet a further sign of SA's transformation into a mature mining jurisdiction."

The minimum annual expenditure required by government on an exploration licence is not publicly revealed.

However, industry sources say the minimum is usually about $100,000 per tenement a year for three to five years. BHP now wants 40 tenements, so it would need to spend at least $4 million a year, if the average applied.