HighGrade is a unique weekly online magazine delivering to readers the high-grade cut of mining industry news from around the globe. read more
GREENFIELDS drilling is at a nadir and the general rate of major new discoveries hasn’t changed in nearly 50 years despite some 40 years of research at universities and government institutions, a huge increase in the data available, and the advent of new and sophisticated tools for exploration. So what’s the problem?
Quote of the Week"For the first time in as long as one can remember, negative data are points coming out of China. This could be false alarm, or could be early signals that should be taken seriously." - Citigroup Global Markets
THE Caldag heap leach nickel laterite mine and pilot plant in Turkey – the project on which AIM-listed European Nickel’s profile was built – looks likely to be moved onto the back burner as the company’s Filipino interests start to take centre stage. After initially capturing the imagination of the investment community, Caldag has been a major frustration for ENickel for the past two years, while its growing asset base in the Philippines has provided a constant stream of good news.
BLAND public comments from managing directors are a dime a dozen which is why the sort of strident criticisms of capital markets from the likes of Integra Mining’s Chris Cairns are a refreshing change – even if they are perhaps a little wishful and short on solution.
‘GRADE is king’ is the catchcry of the moment and it applies especially to the beleaguered gold sector. Erosion of the benefits of a good mine resource grade should be sacrilege but that is precisely what is happening with the million-ounce Frog’s Leg deposit 25km west of Kalgoorlie.
WHILE there is undeniably a ‘chicken and egg’ aspect to it, gold exploration could currently be considered little more than a pastime for self indulgent geologists on the basis that it’s cheaper to acquire ounces than find them. Does this partly explain investor exasperation with the sector?
MANY years ago, when I was working at the Financial Times, there was a file on a colleague’s desk that grew fatter by the week. “What’s that?” I asked one day. “That’s my pension. One day I’m going to write a book about De Beers,” he explained. “It’s like the Mafia, only worse. Either the book will make a fortune or they'll pay me a lot not to publish.”
A DISAPPOINTING quarter for Anvil Mining but in the grand scheme of things it’s seen as little more than a minor blip in the company’s journey toward development of a significant, low cost copper business.
WITH an N43-101 (and JORC) compliant resource for the Askot polymetallic project in northern India imminent, Canadian-based Pebble Creek Mining has moved to expedite permitting so it can step up exploration amid the continuing frustration of dealing with the Indian bureaucracy.
AN INVESTMENT bank report calling into question the prospectivity of Burkina Faso has been rubbished by a technically-strong company eyeing its own exploration acreage in the West African country.
AN AUSTRALIAN mining consulting firm that has tripled in size in the past three years has adopted a more cautious approach to predicting growth next year, but doesn’t necessarily see that as a bad thing.
BYRNECUT Mining has won the contract to sink Australia’s deepest blind shaft as part of the $A590 million Perseverance Deeps project at the BHP Billiton-owned Leinster nickel operations in Western Australia.
THE short term disruption to thermal coal supplies from Vietnam is expected to become a longer term constant in regional coal trade, increasing pressure on China’s power generation sector to find alternative supply sources, according to investment bank UBS.
BAD news for Cameco at its Cigar Lake project in Canada is naturally expected to benefit the rest of the uranium sector, but struggling markets generally and uranium’s recent run in the sun means analysts and investors aren’t tripping over themselves to jump back on the yellowcake bandwagon.
SUNNY Tropicana, not a holiday destination but the site of a potentially significant new gold project, could become the scene of groundbreaking developments in mine solar power generation in Australia. Certainly 70% owner AngloGold Ashanti will soon have a better feel than most for the operating cost profile beyond the scary upfront capital cost.
“SELL in May and go away”. The old London market adage has never perhaps been more apt. This article is being written on the Costa del Sol, as the author and many others in London take their summer break abroad (sans blackberry), to eat, drink and to close our eyes and hope it all goes away.
BRAD Sampson’s honeymoon period at the head of a public company appears to be far from over, with this week’s $A8.2 million equity raising by Discovery Metals affirming investor support for Discovery’s strategic course. It’s a path that has taken the Australian mining engineer back to a part of the world that produced both the high and low points of his career.
MOROCCO may have two-thirds of the world’s phosphate reserves but Ross Brown figures there is a lot of sand between the vast fertiliser-mineral deposits and needy farmers along the Niger River in Mali. Hence the head of uranium and now phosphate explorer Oklo Uranium sees an opportunity to reinvigorate phosphate mining in Mali’s north.
THERE is no shortage of energy in the world, indeed, the sun alone provides one kilowatt of energy for every square metre on which it shines. The issue therefore isn’t where to find energy, but how to capture it.
IT’S the ideal time for the adventurous and well-connected gold management team to buy a project. Undoubtedly there are a number of opportunities currently being created in an ambivalent investment climate for gold. In fact, it’s an ambivalent climate for most investments.
THE earlier published story on Western Areas’ cash costs was incorrect, with the error the fault of Goldman Sachs JBWere. GSJBW’s amended report on Western Areas says the following: “In order to compare (Western Areas’) costs to other nickel producers, we need to adjust this for the payability. We understand that other nickel juniors receive revenue for about 65% of the contained nickel, ie 65% payability. We believe that Western Areas have more favorable terms and assume this to be 67% and thus convert the costs including the smelting and refining charge to arrive at a comparable $A/lb cash cost for 4QFY08 of about $A3.20/lb compared to the $A2.15/lb on a contained basis. We note this is lower than its peer group.”
AUSTRALIAN mining technology and service companies: are they followers and imitators, as suggested by veteran industry observer Peter McCarthy of AMC Consultants, or are they world leaders and innovators? That question, predictably, has got a few people stirred up.
WITH commodity price reversals in train operating costs have come back onto the radar big time in the past few months, and it’ll be interesting to see if the mining industry can improve its transparency in this regard should it be left to prove its bona fides sans screamingly high metal prices.
