Wolf at the door
July 7 - 13, 2008
FORMER American miner AMAX was a successful tungsten explorer. It found two of the world’s best tungsten deposits in the 1960s and 70s, both of which lay undeveloped decades later. A still-changing outlook for the metal now sees Hemerdon Ball in Devon, England, emerging from a long slumber.
Irons in the fire
July 7 - 13, 2008
THEY don’t muck around with declines in Scandinavia. Kiruna, in far north Sweden, has a decline you could land a small plane in. Sydvaranger, 8km south of Kirkenes on the north coast of Norway, is not much smaller. There the decline is only 14m wide and 8m high.
Kanyika gets initial thumbs up
June 23 - 29, 2008
A COFFEY Mining scoping study on the Kanyika niobium-uranium project in central Malawi has indicated a $US177 million openpit mine and smelting operation producing up to 4000 tonnes per annum of niobium metal could achieve payback on invested capital within two years, without uranium revenues.
Hard road for tungsten miner
June 16 - 22, 2008
THE apparent scramble to meet growing tungsten demand in and outside China could be about to take a new turn with Vancouver-based North American Tungsten (NTC) looking more and more like a potential casualty of extreme mining industry cost pressures, the extreme weather in Canada’s Yukon, and China’s at times ponderous approach to foreign investment.
Silver Lake gets tick from thorough Goode
May 19 - 25, 2008
NEWLY minted gold producer Silver Lake Resources (SLR) has joined the backyard makeover crowd trying to breathe new life into Australia’s old gold districts – in its case the Mount Monger field east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, and parts of the state’s Murchison. Its success will depend, at least initially, on the effectiveness and sustainability of a new mining approach at Mount Monger.
In the shadows of giants
March 17 - 23, 2008
STEEL buildings and bridges in China and the Middle East are making bigger holes in the red dirt of Western Australia’s Pilbara region. Iron ore, copper, nickel, manganese and chromite are already filling ships heading north. Molybdenum will be next, says Moly Mines chief Derek Fisher.
Good and bad news for Sundance
February 4 - 10, 2008
WORLEYPARSONS has estimated the cost of developing the Mbalam iron ore project in Cameroon has risen by nearly a third since a 2006 scoping study was completed for Sundance Resources Ltd by Promet Engineers.
Heat on Goanikontes costs
November 12 - 18, 2007
THE drive to cut projected operating costs used in the recent scoping study on Bannerman Resources Ltd’s Goanikontes uranium project in Namibia by a third or more is on in earnest in the lead-up to a new resource statement, expected late this year or early next, with a $US50-70 million acid plant part of a longer-term view of the project’s potential scale.
U-boat sails - to Africa
October 22 - 28, 2007
WHILE the boat many junior explorers are hoping will one day transport yellowcake from Western Australia and other parts of the country looks to be permanently docked, the African uranium rush being led by WA-domiciled juniors continues to power up. Extract Resources Ltd has added a $US211 million project in Namibia to the list of new developments – against a backdrop of increasing corporate activity.
Angostura Colombia's first gold star
September 17 - 23, 2007
DAVID Rovig made his first trip to Angostura in January 1995. The president of Greystar Resources Ltd believes start-up of Colombia’s biggest gold mine within two years will vindicate the long development path taken by the company. “I think that our project clearly has shown the way for other large exploration projects in Colombia,” he said.
Bannerman tracking well in Namibia: analysts
September 3 - 9, 2007
RECENT visitors to Bannerman Resources’s emerging Weltwitschia/Goanikontes uranium project in Namibia have dismissed concerns about infrastructure for a major new mine one analyst said would be at least as big as the Rio Tinto-operated Rossing operation.
Sabodala construction 'officially' underway
August 20 - 26, 2007
SEACHANGE miner Mineral Deposits Ltd has stepped up the pace of construction work at the $US145 million Sabodala gold project in Senegal, where the country’s first modern gold processing plant will be built by experienced engineering group Ausenco.
Worth the wait
August 6 - 12, 2007
FRUSTRATION for Avoca Resources Ltd over the lack of early access to processing facilities for ore from its new Trident underground mine in Western Australia will likely be tempered by more exploration highlights and the prospect of production quickly ramping up beyond 200,000oz a year after its own plant is activated in mid-2008.
More than an anomaly
July 30 - August 5, 2007
UNCERTAINTY about secure, long-term water and power sources in Namibia, not its capacity to find more uranium, is likely to keep a lid on the hype building around Perth-based explorer Bannerman Resources Ltd, though signs on these two vital fronts are also now more encouraging.
Govt backs Sundance pace
July 23 - 29, 2007
SUNDANCE Resources Ltd has commissioned WorleyParsons to manage the pre-feasibility study for its proposed $US2.5 billion Mbalam iron ore project in Cameroon, which is winning support on the ground and from investors in Europe.
Tests lend weight to processing strategy
June 25 - July 1, 2007
AUSTRALIAN tungsten hopeful Vital Metals Ltd is confident it will be able to go down the ore pre-concentration path at its Watershed scheelite project in north Queensland, enabling it to significantly reduce its overall processing plant footprint and cost.
Mining to fund deeper search
June 18 - 24, 2007
STACKS of exploration potential, finite cash reserves: that’s the standard junior company dilemma forcing Canada’s Scorpio Mining Corporation to push the start button on a modest silver operation in Mexico. With plant and equipment already purchased, only one thing will stop Scorpio’s Nuestra Senora project commencing production by March next year, according to company chief Peter Hawley.
Botswana copper options multiply
June 11 - 17, 2007
DECIDING on a new name for their flagship Botswana copper project won’t be the toughest call the London-based directors of African Copper Inc have to make over the next six months.
Jaguar ready to purr
June 4 - 10, 2007
RECENT news has mostly been good for emerging zinc producer Jabiru Metals Ltd. But it is likely to get better, according to an experienced mining analyst who visited the company’s flagship Jaguar project in Western Australia after its underground development hit ore for the first time in late March.
Dance partner the key
May 28 - June 3, 2007
A DEFINING feature of the modern era of global resource development is the junior with a bank balance in the tens of millions of dollars contemplating a multi-billion-dollar project in a jurisdiction in which it not only has to trailblaze on infrastructure development but usually also an investment framework. Sundance Resources Ltd fits the contemporary mould exactly.
Company (re)making projects
May 14 - 20, 2007
NEW TERRITORY, new environment and new era for Mineral Deposits Ltd (MDL). But the company will be back on familiar ground when it starts mining beach sand north of Dakar in Senegal in the latter part of next year.
Night and day
May 7 - 13, 2007
IT IS more than two decades since Watershed was last on the verge of becoming a mine. A long, dark night for tungsten has given way to a bright new day, meaning the price of the metal is up, and exploration and investment outside China are recovering after a 20-year slumber.
Prominent challenge
April 9 - 15, 2007
THE PEOPLE of Coober Pedy, the South Australian opal mining town 850km north of Adelaide, know a bit about mining. More than three-quarters of them are said to live underground in old mines or more recently excavated tunnels. But they’ve had limited exposure to the large-scale, new generation opencut mining machines working at modern mines such as Prominent Hill – until now.
'Low' bid draws a Blanco
April 2 - 8, 2007
THE $US1.4 billion Peru copper project at the centre of a tug-of-war between a Chinese consortium led by gold producer Zijin Mining Group, and some of Monterrico Metals plc’s lead shareholders, could become a key test of increasingly nationalist Latin American sentiment towards resource ownership over the next few years. Right now though, Rio Blanco provides something of a check on how global mining groups see the policies of new Peruvian president Alan Garcia impacting social and economic stability in Peru.
Safford's moment of truth
March 19 - 25, 2007
ELIMINATING process variance – a signature Six Sigma management goal – has been a focus of the former high-cost American copper producer Phelps Dodge for the past five years. The company plans to take implementation of Six Sigma methodology to a new level at its greenfield Safford mine in Arizona – the first new copper mine in the US in more than three decades.