#Official Mining Thread

[Howie]

Double thumbs up from me too! Thanks Wayno you're a legend.

[skyliner]

More thumbs up from me too mate. The thread ought to be re named Wayno's Answer to Negativity in SA. ALWAYS impressed with the constant positive nature of your input mate.

ODX appears more likely in the near term - I'm sure they will work a way through the desal issues.

And yes Mono, sequestration is a just a lot of rot. Expense is extreme and highly inefficient use of energy - almost as much as what is produced!!(Recently told to me by a highly qualified engineer in a QLD coal fired power station). However,QLD (the 'smart state')is trying desperately to get it's coal trade back.

SA - STATE ON THE MOVE

[Wayno]

appreciate the positive feedback guys - but you do realise this is MY thread and you need to obtain permission in advance to post herein - even to give me kudos

[Wayno]

Another SA mine starting production

First kaolin mine shipment close

The first bulk shipment of high-grade kaolin mined on Eyre Peninsula in South Australia will be sent for refining in Queensland in the next few weeks.

The mine near Streaky Bay is owned by Minotaur Resources.

A recent inspection found it contained twice as much of the mineral as earlier thought.

Kaolin is an industrial mineral used in paint and for making porcelain and medical products

[Wayno]

Another one starting investigations

"Highly Confident" is how you can summarise the potential for this large copper mine. Could even work to invigorate the pretty town of Burra (one of my fav townships for a weekend getaway).

Phoenix Copper’s main focus is the Burra region of South Australia. The company has four principal Projects covering an area of more than 1,300 km2. Three of these Projects are in the historically significant and highly prospective Burra region of South Australia. The fourth Project covers two separate areas of the highly prospective Yorke Peninsula and is underlain by favourable geology similar to that of the famous Copper Triangle which, at its nearest point, lies just 20 kilometres to the north of this Project.

[Wayno]

and another one expanding coz they can!

This is a conservative expansion estimate - i'm expecting a doubling in resource size to be announced when the time is right...

DOMINION Mining will spend $4.82 million to increase production at its Challenger mine in South Australia by just shy of 10 per cent.

The Perth company said yesterday it had decided to go ahead with a plant upgrade at the mine in western SA, which would increase its ore processing capacity by about 100,000 tonnes a year to 530,000.

Dominion said it expected this would increase annual production to about 120,000 ounces of gold per year, up from 109,326 last financial year.

This would generate more than $13 million in extra revenue per year for the company, based on the average price received over the past quarter of $1220 an ounce.

Dominion said yesterday the expansion works were expected to be finished by the end of this calendar year with increased production starting in January next year.

The construction work would be carried out in concert with the completion of a new ventilation shaft and the installation of a new exhaust ventilation fan.

"This will provide more scheduling flexibility with sequencing stoping, as well as development drives from more than one working area underground," the company said in a statement yesterday.

"Over the period of the plant, expansion capital works there will be a greater focus on mine development in readiness for the scheduled increase in plant throughput rates."

The company said exploration drilling had intersected the three main gold shoots at the deposit 150m below the previous deepest intersections.

Dominion reported quarterly gold production of 25,141 ounces of gold at an operating cash cost of $459 per ounce. It generated $30.9 million in revenues from the sale of 25,309 ounces of gold.

The company had $48.2 million worth of cash and bullion at the end of the quarter.

Dominion Mining spent $4.75 million on mine development during the quarter and $1.07 million on ongoing capital works.

[Brando]

appreciate the positive feedback guys - but you do realise this is MY thread and you need to obtain permission in advance to post herein - even to give me kudos

Permission to at least read this thread sir...

Agree, great work Wayno on this thread, sure does give you great hope for our mining sector and the 'next perth'...

[Wayno]

The latest MESA Journal is out (6monthly SA mining update) ==> http://www.pir.sa.gov.au/minerals/publi ... _volume_51

Here's a few interesting points:

There's currently 20+ govt subsidised mining exploration ventures under investigation (as a part of the PACE initiative). Drilling is well advanced covering a wide area and many mineral types. See image below - most of these will result in mines, a few will fissle and fade - but at a minimum we'll have a much better understanding of SA's geology and where to focus next time.

mesa-51-pace-drilling.JPG (52.37 KiB) Viewed 1758 times

We are also leading the world in geology and mineral search technologies. SARIG is a web-enabled application developed by PIRSA for the delivery of South Australian spatial data and geoscientific information. The application has continued to grow over the last 7 years and is recognised nationally and internationally as a leader in online information delivery for the mineral resources industry. The latest series of imagery has just been released - and includes 6 new geophysical images. Here's the new images (probably difficult to read - visit the full report for details)
* radiometrics — ternary
* radiometrics — potassium
* radiometrics — thorium
* radiometrics — uranium
* radiometrics — total count
* bathymetry

mesa-51-new-search-technology.JPG (46.99 KiB) Viewed 1760 times

[skyliner]

On the news on ABC TV 2 minutes ago (eastern standard time 2.02PM) - mistakenly tabled document in fed. gov't speaking of significantly increasing uranium exports to China from Olympic Dam. (Site filmed for TV).

Bodes well for the expansion as China is such a huge user of uranium and plans to build many more nulear power stations.

Wayno - what do you know of this?

SA - STATE ON THE MOVE

[UrbanSG]

Thanks for the heads-up skyliner. First web report from Radio New Zealand:

Uranium export plans tabled in Parliament
2:00pm on 14 May 2009

The Australian Government plans more exports of uranium to China.

A confidential list of Australia's treaty negotiations with other countries has been accidentally tabled in the parliament.

The ABC reports includes details of negotiations between Australia and China about boosting exports of uranium from BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam mine in South Australia.

It also lists the current status of negotiations between Australia and Indonesia on a new defence treaty.

It was tabled with Mr Smith's authority in both houses of federal Parliament on Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for Mr Smith says the document was tabled in error. The Government says it is contacting countries affected by the accidental release.

The document says DFAT officials attended talks in Beijing in January this year, on a proposal by a proposal BHP Billiton to send uranium-infused copper concentrate to China from its Olympic Dam mine.

The document says Australia's nuclear transfer agreement with China would have to be amended to make sure the uranium is properly accounted for.

BHP Billiton has been pushing for more uranium exports to China as part of its plan to expand the Olympic Dam mine.

The company wants to make Australia's biggest underground mine into one of the world's biggest open pit mines over the next 11 years.

Copyright © 2009 Radio New Zealand

[Wayno]

The above is obviously a surprise, but not really surprising (if that makes sense ).

I wonder if anything is ever 'accidentally tabled' in parliament? there's so many layers of stealth and strategy...

[UrbanSG]

From adelaidenow:

OZ Ltd's Prominent resource grows
May 18, 2009 02:30pm

OZ Minerals has announced an increase in resources at its Prominent Hill copper and gold mine in South Australia, and obtained key Chinese approval for its Minmetals deal.

OZ Minerals said resources at its Western Copper deposit had increased 32 per cent to 245,000 tonnes of contained copper.

"At the first available opportunity, drilling of the deposit will be reactivated to further expand the deposit,'' OZ Minerals said.

The deposit is situated about 800 metres west of the Prominent Hill open pit, which is currently being mined, and requires further drilling to enable the calculation of an initial ore reserve.

Studies are under way examining the viability of developing an underground mine immediately beneath and to the east of the open pit, the company said.

OZ Minerals describes Western Copper as its most promising near-mine deposit identified to date.

"However, the remainder of the Prominent Hill region is highly prospective with multiple iron-oxide-copper-gold targets within trucking distance of the Prominent Hill plant still to be tested,'' it said.

Prominent Hill is OZ Minerals' sole asset following the sale of its other projects to China Minmetals Non-ferrous Metals Co Ltd and China Sci-Tech Holdings.

The deals offer debt-laden OZ Minerals a financial lifeline, given debt of about $1 billion was threatening to send it into administration.

The Minmetals deal is expected to be complete by mid- to late-June while the sale of the Martabe gold and silver project in Indonesia to China Sci-Tech Holdings Ltd is expected to be complete by early June.

Key Chinese approval

China Minmetals Non-ferrous Metals Company received approval from the National Development and Reform Commission of the People's Republic of China for its proposed acquisition of various OZ assets and businesses, OZ Minerals said.

The approval follows that of Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan on 23 April and represents the satisfaction of an important condition for the completion of the transaction.

Minmetals has also advised OZ Minerals that it has received binding financing commitments from its financiers to enable the transaction to be completed.

Further necessary Chinese regulatory approvals, including from the Ministry of Commerce, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange and the State-owned Assets Supervision an Administration Commission, are expected to be received before June 11.

[UrbanSG]

From adelaidenow:

Iluka wins final nod for $420m Jacinth-Ambrosia mine in SA
CAMERON ENGLAND
May 20, 2009 10:30am

ILUKA Resources has received the final major approval for its $420 million mineral sands mine near Ceduna.

The State Government yesterday announced it had approved the project's mining and rehabilitation program (MARP), allowing the company to start mining and processing operations at the site.

Acting Mineral Resources Development Minister Michael Wright said the Jacinth-Ambrosia mine would contribute about 3-5 per cent of the South Australian strategic plan's target for mineral production of $3 billion by 2014.

"Investment in the project will contribute more than $470 million to the State's economy, as well as providing royalties and export income for South Australia,'' Mr Wright said.

"Importantly for South Australia, this project will generate 110 permanent jobs during the operation of the mine.''

Employment was currently sitting at about 280 people, Iluka general manager South Australian development Hans Umlauff said.

Mr Umlauff said the MARP was the final significant regulatory approval for the project, where construction started late last year.

"It is the culmination of a considerable amount of work between the company, its principal contractor Parsons Brinckerhoff and numerous South Australian Government regulatory agencies,'' Mr Umlauff said.

"The project is well advanced with the major part of the civil infrastructure and processing facilities under construction on site.

"The project is trending ahead of schedule and is within budget.''

The Jacinth-Ambrosia project will produce at least 300 thousand tonnes of zircon per year and has an economic life of at least 10 years.

Production is expected to start in the first quarter of next year.

The mine is located about 200km northwest of Ceduna in the Eucla Basin in the State's far west.

[Queen Anne]

From the ABC Adelaide website:

The South Australian Government has pulled the pin on its planned investment in BHP Billiton's desalination plant to be built next to Spencer Gulf.

The Government had been looking to tap into the water supply from the proposed plant at Point Lowly for a number of regional centres.

Treasurer Kevin Foley says there is now no need because of Adelaide's planned desalination plant.

"Our initial decision to be a partner was before we had decided to sort of go it alone on our own plant here in Adelaide," he said.

"We're relieving the Murray of 100 gigalitres a year of water through our major desalination plant so the need to be involved in BHP's plant is eliminated.

"It saves us money but equally, and I don't want to pre-empt the water security plan, but there are other options that we will be looking at and indeed deciding upon to secure water security for the northern regions of our state and the Eyre Peninsula in the west of our state."

BHP Billiton says the desalination plant will supply a planned expansion of its Olympic Dam mining operations in outback SA.

I'm just wondering what this might mean for the expansion at Olympic Dam, if anything.

Where's Wayno when you need him?

[frank1]

If BHP have to pay for the entire plant they will probably give the state gov less revenue when the expansion is up and running.