South Africa’s Kumba Iron Ore, a unit of Anglo American, and a major union have signed a three year wage deal giving workers an increase of much as a 10% a year, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Friday. NUM, which is the majority union at all of Kumba’s operations, said workers would get an annual pay rise ranging between 7% to 10%.
ASX-listed junior Blackstone Minerals has inked a definitive agreement to acquire the Little Gem cobalt/gold project, in British Columbia.
Under the terms of the agreement, Blackstone would issue Cobalt One 25-million fully paid ordinary shares, subject to shareholder approval. A further eight-million performance shares, convertible into one fully paid ordinary share each, will also be issued to certain Cobalt One shareholders.
Gold miner Ramelius Resources has reported 14% increase in revenues for the 2017 financial year ended June, on the back of a 13% increase in gold production.
Revenues for the full year was up from the A$173.7-million reported in 2016 to A$197.4-million, with gold production during the period up from 110 839 oz to 125 488 oz.
Kambalda miner Mincor has been fined $65,000 for safety breaches that saw a worker left teetering on the edge of a 19 metre drop.
Since the release in July 2013 of the South African Coal Roadmap (SACRM), there has been no impetus by government or coal miners to implement any of its recommendations. The SACRM was developed with a view to identifying possible scenarios that may impact on the coal industry, particularly in relation to power generation. At the time, State-owned power utility Eskom had warned that coal supply was dangerously close to being insufficient to meet the country’s future demand. Consequently, the study was initiated to identify the obstacles preventing coal miners and the power generator from finding a mutually beneficial strategy to mitigate the myriad of challenges.
Russian aluminium giant Rusal reported a 48% rise in second-quarter core earnings on Friday due to a higher aluminium price, and pointed to a positive outlook for the second half as supply in China tightens.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose to $510-million from $344-million in the same quarter a year ago, in line with a Reuters survey of analysts at six banks for $507-million.
Investors will have to wait a little longer to review an update of the 2014 feasibility study on project developer Fortune Minerals’ Nico cobalt/gold/bismuth/copper project, in Canada’s Northwest Territories, the company said on Thursday.
The London, Ontario-based explorer advised that the feasibility study update by Hatch and Micon is proceeding well for the initially planned scope of work for the mine and concentrator.
One of the earliest known ecological regeneration projects in the world was led by a crippled metallurgist from Broken Hill in the 1920s and 30s.
Institutional investors hoping to profit from cobalt, this year’s high-flying metal, are buying into companies that are smaller than their usual fare to gain exposure to an industry supplying the burgeoning electric car market.
Prices for cobalt, a key ingredient in lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, have spiked 83% this year on forecasts that demand will double in the next decade as consumers switch to less-polluting cars.
Canadian vanadium producer Largo Resources has shipped its 1 000th consignment of the steel-hardening and catalytic compound from its flagship Maracás Menchen mine, in Bahia state, Brazil.
The shipment represented about 44-million pounds of vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) dispatched from the operation.
TSX-V- and Aim-listed lithium explorer Bacanora expects to publish a feasibility study on its Sonora lithium project before the end of the year, the company announced on Wednesday.
The explorer is currently targeting first production for 2019/20, following an 18-month build programme.
Small-scale Peru-focused gold processor Inca One Gold has reported a 109% year-on-year increase in gold output during May and June, achieving an average throughput of 60 t/d for the two-month period.
TSX-V-listed Inca One’s main asset is its Chala One gold milling facility, in Peru, servicing government-permitted, small-scale miners. The company declared commercial production at the facility in March 2015.
Mexico-focused exploration junior Colibri Resource Corporation plans to extend three tranches of reverse circulation drilling over 10 000 m at its newly acquired Pilar gold project, in Sonora state.
To manage the expanded exploration campaign, the company has enlisted the services of well-regarded geology Pierre Jean Lafleur, to undertake three-dimensional (3D) hole plottings of pre-drilling and drilling services.
Locals living in regional towns near mines are being given a leg up to get jobs in the mining industry in laws passed with bipartisan support in Queensland Parliament overnight.
Three obscure kimberlites in the Free State, near the origin of the South African diamond rush of the 1800s, have piqued the interest of diamond exploration and project development company Botswana Diamonds. Kimberlites are formed when volcanoes become extinct, with the potential of diamonds forming in the igneous rock as molten magma cools.
Diversified mining company South32 is considering opportunities to enlarge its foray into the lithium-ion battery market, CEO Graham Kerr said on Thursday.
The group, which swung back to the black in the 2017 financial year, is particularly keen on adding more base metals exposure to tap into the rapidly expanding global battery market.
ASX-listed junior Mod Resources was ‘rethinking’ its plans for the T3 copper project, in Botswana, following a resource upgrade.
The company on Thursday reported a 16% increase in the contained copper at the T3 project, which was now estimated to host a total mineral resource of 36-million tonnes, at 1.14% copper and 12.8 g/t silver for around 409 000 t of copper and 14.8-million ounces of silver.
The remaining $3.4-billion shareholder guarantees over the Australia Pacific liquefied natural gas (APLGN) project’s $8.5-billion project finance has been released after the project met all of the lender’s completion tests, ASX-listed Origin Energy reported.
In 2012, APLNG secured the project finance facility with US EXIM, China EXIM and a consortium of Australian and international banks to fund the downstream component of the project, including the construction of the Curtis Island LNG facility.
AngloGold Ashanti recently presented its half year results in Johannesburg and held a media roundtable discussing its plans for future South African mines. Mining Weekly editor Martin Creamer speaks to Creamer Media’s Sashnee Moodley about the outcomes and plans.
Junior graphite developer Walkabout Resources has reduced the expected start-up capital cost for its Lindi Jumbo graphite project, in Tanzania, from $38.7-million to $29.6-millio.
The ASX-listed company told shareholders that an updated definitive feasibility study also adjusted the project’s net present value from $320-million to $302-million, and the pre-tax internal rate of return from 108% to 96%.
The Queensland government has enacted laws to deliver stronger workers’ compensation protectors for Queensland miners affected by black lung and associated dust diseases.
Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace on Thursday said the protections outlined in the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation and Other Legislation Bill were a huge step forward for those battling the insidious disease.
Restructured engineering and construction group Murray & Roberts (M&R), which offers project lifecycle services in selected natural resources markets globally, is actively pursuing a US acquisition, which it hopes to consummate during the company’s 2018 financial year. CEO Henry Laas tells Engineering News Online that M&R is assessing opportunities valued at between R400- and R500-million and has whittled down to four the number of prospective acquisition targets. All the companies have a track record of implementing construction projects, primarily in America’s oil and gas sector.
Diversified miner South32 reported solid performances across its aluminium supply chain for the financial year ended June 30, with record production from Mozal Aluminium, in Mozambique, and near-record production at the Hillside aluminium smelter, in South Africa. “Our aluminium smelters and refineries operated at their maximum technical capability,” CEO Graham Kerr said in a webcast on Thursday, noting that the smelters and refineries continue to operate and further test their maximum technical capability.
With metals and mining companies increasingly investing in technology that will help reduce their carbon footprints, owing to the global drive to lower carbon emissions, meaningful efforts to improve environmental standards in the extractive industries require significant upfront costs, according to Fitch Group-affiliated BMI Research. In its latest industry trend analysis on corporate strategies for a low-carbon economy, the market analyst noted that long-term cost savings will, however, benefit companies that are ahead of the curve when it comes to prioritising green strategies.
Copper/gold miner Oz Minerals has approved the development of the $916-million Carrapateena mine, in South Australia. “The board’s decision represents the next stage in the company’s development. This is an exciting time for Oz Minerals,” said chairperson Rebecca McGrath, adding that the project would be a robust, cash generating asset with expansion potential that would set Oz Minerals up for further growth.
Coal India Limited (CIL) has hardened its stance in negotiating a coal wage agreement, with the miner this week citing an adverse business environment as a limitation to effecting a wage hike to its estimated 370 000 workers.
After eight rounds of negotiations hit a logjam, CIL stated that its inability to maximise sales, a glut of dry fuel at thermal power stations and the high costs of land acquisition for greenfield projects made it difficult for the miner to match the 25% wage hike agreed to in the previous National Coal Wage Agreement IX.
Aim-listed Regency Mines has completed the sale of a 1.9% interest in Horse Hill Developments (HHDL), the special purpose vehicle owning an oil and gas licences in southern England.
Regency sold the 19 shares in HHDL to UK Oil and Gas Investments (UKOG) for £323 000 in cash and shares. UKOG now holds 49.9% of HHDL.
Copper output in Congo, Africa’s top producer of the metal, rose 15% year-on-year in the first half of 2017 to more than half a million tonnes, and cobalt production surged 27% to almost 40 000 t, the central bank said. But despite higher commodity production, Democratic Republic of Congo’s central bank forecast year-end inflation at 52.6%, up from an earlier projection of 48% and from last year’s figure of 25%.
The survival of South Africa-focused coal miner Buffalo Coal depends on the outcome of the seventh amendment to the company’s term loan and revolving credit agreement with specialist banker and asset management firm Investec, which is currently being negotiated. Despite having implemented various restructuring initiatives, the embattled miner continues to experience operational challenges and is still in breach of “certain covenants” with respect to its borrowings from Investec.
Australian explorer Auroch Minerals is ready to proceed to drilling at its Tisová project, in the Czech Republic, and aims to get its drilling campaign under way in mid-September.
The company has government approval for an initial 12 holes for 5 500 m of drilling at Tisová.
Aim-listed BlueRock Diamonds has sold a parcel of 400.06 ct of diamonds, at an average price of $330/ct, in an August tender. The company, which operates the Kareevlei diamond mine, near Kimberley, on Thursday noted that the diamonds produced and sold at the tender had resulted in a grade of 2.07 carats per hundred tons (cpht), compared with the average grade of 1.7 cpht achieved, on average, during this year.
TORONTO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Americas Silver Corporation (TSX: USA) (NYSE “MKT”: USAS) (“Americas Silver” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce initial results from recent exploration drilling on its 100% owned Zone 120 deposit, adjacent to the San Rafael development project, part of the Cosalá Operations property in Sinaloa, Mexico. Highlights of the program include: Step-out hole SR-396 with 61.4 meters grading 306g/t Ag, 0.23g/t Au and 0.79% Cu (412g/t AgEq) including 5.9 meters of 932g/t Ag
