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HighGrade is Australasia’s weekly online mining magazine delivering to readers the high-grade cut of mining industry news from around the region, and the globe. read more

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A long road for Liberty

February 20 - 26, 2013

EVIDENTLY he has not had much in the way of headline public company success for the past 4-5 years, and his two public ventures immediately prior, gold juniors Michelago and Apollo/Crescent, were not exactly standout success stories. But Andrew Haythorpe firmly believes his latest venture will enjoy good times in 2013.

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Met-coal prices hit the floor

January 23 - 29, 2013

MET coal producers may not have as much to console themselves as producers of the other big steel-making input, iron ore, at the moment, but Citi analysts say the ‘good news’ is current prices around $US165 a tonne afford them a floor “given the cost of production for the Australian producers”. Here’s hoping they are right.

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Stanmore stands firm on strategy

November 7 - 13, 2012

NOVEMBER 7: BUILDING mines and reputations during coal boom times is for wimps, Stanmore Coal chief Nick Jorss declared at Mining 2012.

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A suitable address

October 10 - 16, 2012

COAL, like many of its commodity peers, may not exactly be flavour of the month at the moment, but a venture aimed at finding the stuff right next door to arguably Australia’s best coal mine, would seem to make a lot of sense no matter what the point in the cycle. And that’s the sound rationale of ASX-listed junior International Coal (ICX).

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High mark for low-seam longwall

September 26 - October 2, 2012

OCTOBER 2: An automated low-seam longwall plow has set another production record in the USA, with the Cliffs Natural Resources-owned Pinnacle mine in southern West Virginia churning out nearly 30,000 tonnes from a 1.42m seam in 24 hours.

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Lemur faces crunch time

August 22 - 28, 2012

BY the end of the year Lemur Resources will be making some big decisions about the future of its Madagascar coal project.

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AMMG targets great southern coal

August 22 - 28, 2012

AUSTRALIA Minerals and Mining Group is about to embark on a mission to prove up a coal resource in Western Australia’s great southern region.

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Indo nuances not foreign to Asian investors

August 15 - 21, 2012

REBORN coal play Exalt Resources and its high-calibre chief executive Barry Tudor will provide a clear indication of the scarring sustained by Indonesia’s reputation in recent months as they push towards a $A20 million raising.

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Celsius sets sizzling pace

August 1 - 7, 2012

CELSIUS Coal has started its new corporate life at a cracking pace in a jurisdiction largely unknown to western coal companies – Kyrgyzstan.

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Draig notches up maiden resource

August 1 - 7, 2012

DRAIG Resources’ first round of drilling at its Teeg licence in Mongolia’s Ovorhangay province has produced a maiden inferred resource of 75 million tonnes – a number beyond expectations and with growth potential.

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China coal tide goes out

July 25 - 31, 2012

THE beleaguered coal miners counting on China to deliver a reprieve from the current weakened market conditions may be waiting some time.

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Tudor exalts Indonesia

July 25 - 31, 2012

JULY 27: UPHEAVAL around Indonesia’s foreign ownership laws has seen the share price of western juniors active in the country suffering as their futures operate under the shadow of sovereign risk. It’s not been enough to put off former Gloucester Coal and Noble Resources man Barry Tudor, who still sees Indonesia as a highly desirable coal destination.

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Botswana junior’s energy boost

July 25 - 31, 2012

A-CAP Resources management are getting their heads around two new coal discoveries which take the company from pure uranium play to multi-commodity African explorer.

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Hancock opens doors for junior coal play

June 27 - July 3, 2012

“I’D rather own 49% of something very substantial than 100% of something stuck in the ground,” says International Coal director David Round who has struck a deal with Hancock Prospecting that opens up infrastructure for its Bundaberg project in Queensland.

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Cuesta Coal delivers on Surat promise

June 27 - July 3, 2012

JUST six short weeks after listing, Cuesta Coal announced an 87% resource upgrade at its Thorn Hill deposit in Queensland’s Surat Basin.

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New Age out to shatter misconceptions

June 13 - 19, 2012

THE UK coal industry has been shrinking for years. Against the grain Australian junior New Age Exploration announced this week it had secured an underground licence over what it claims is a major coking coal project across the Scottish and English borders. Is the company mad or genius?

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Aspirations beyond the great divide

June 6 - 12, 2012

WAS it a good or tough week for Aspire Mining? A confidence-boosting pre-feasibility study on its Ovoot project showing robust economics was released. On the flipside its share price fell significantly ... on the back of good news. So what’s the deal?

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Research targets dragline cost

May 30 - June 5, 2012

IT costs an opencut coal mine more than $A1.5 million each year to replace worn dragline ropes for each of the large dragline machines they operate. Add the cost of downtime and associated safety risks and it’s a significant expense to an operation’s uptime and profitability. Early research has shown replacing steel wire ropes with synthetic fibre ropes could see a step change in a dragline operation’s safety, equipment productivity and cost.

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Coal could become a factor in northern Queensland wealth

May 9 - 15, 2012

WITH a long history in copper, lead, zinc and silver, coal is now being added to northern Queensland’s riches as Townsville’s prospects for exporting coal and providing workers for prospective northern Galilee coal projects are assessed.

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Bob Cameron revisits early PRB attraction

May 2 - 8, 2012

WHEN Bob Cameron visited the Powder River Basin as a young mining engineer he saw a geologist’s heaven. When an opportunity arose a good 40 years later to work in the area as chairman of Australian-listed County Coal the “mining engineer and businessman” in him simply couldn’t say no.

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