One of Victoria’s most productive gold mines, Fosterville Gold Mine near Bendigo, has reached a major milestone by extracting its millionth ounce of gold from the current operation. Minister for Energy and Resources Lily D’Ambrosio joined the mine’s operator, Newmarket Gold Inc, to unveil a plaque on site of the Fosterville Gold Mine to celebrate the achievement. At today’s prices, a million ounces of gold is worth approximately $1.6 billion. Fosterville Gold Mine employs 400 people and boosts the local economy by $90 million a year through wages and sourcing goods and services regionally. The Fosterville mining operation is also…
Leading mining and civil construction firm BGC Contracting Pty Ltd has been awarded a five-year contract extension with Cliff Natural Resources at its Koolyanobbing Iron Ore Project in Western Australia. The current mining contract, previously due to be completed in 2017, will be extended through to 2022, and is valued at more than $520 million. Under the contract, BGC Contracting will continue to provide the full range of mining services, including drilling, blasting, loading, hauling, dumping, crushing, screening and train load-out. BGC Contracting CEO Greg Heylen said the contract extension was recognition of the Koolyanobbing team’s ability to meet Cliffs’…
Newmont Mining Corporation (NYSE: NEM) have announced plans to expand its Tanami operations in Australia by building a second decline in the underground mine and additional plant capacity. The expansion project is expected to add incremental gold production of approximately 80,000 ounces per year and decrease Tanami’s all-in sustaining costs by five to ten percent in the first five years of production. It will open access to two million ounces of profitable production and extend mine life by three years. The project will also create a platform for exploration drilling to support future growth. Recent exploration results demonstrate the potential…
Commissioning of the first gas generators is underway ahead of schedule in the power station at the Tropicana Gold Mine in Western Australia following early completion of the 293 kilometre Eastern Goldfields Pipeline (EGP). Constructed by APA Group (APA) under long-term agreements signed with AngloGold Ashanti Australia Ltd in July 2014, the pipeline is delivering natural gas to AGAA’s Sunrise Dam gold mine, 55 km south of Laverton, and to Tropicana (AGAA 70% and manager, Independence Group NL 30%), 330 km east-northeast of Kalgoorlie. Construction of the pipeline began in March this year and delivery of gas was scheduled to…
Chesser Resources Limited has received first assay results from a recently completed Phase 2 Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling program at the Diamba Sud project in Senegal. Covering 53.2 square kilometres over the gold-bearing Kédougou-Kéniéba Inlier, Diamba Sud is the company’s flagship project. It consists of two blocks referred to as DS1 in the north and DS2 in the south. The Phase 1 drilling program completed earlier in 2019 successfully intersected significant gold mineralisation in fresh rock at all four target areas. The Phase 2 Drilling program within DS1 was completed in mid-July, with a total of 26 RC holes drilled for…
Rio Tinto’s Resolution Copper project in the US has achieved a major permitting milestone with the release of an independently prepared Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the project. The rigorous review, conducted by the US Forest Service over a six year period included broad public engagement. Resolution, one of the most significant undeveloped copper deposits in the world, started the US permitting process in 2013 and the US Forest Service has conducted a comprehensive independent review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The publication of the DEIS triggers a further public consultation process over a 90 day period,…
Lake Resources NL (Lake) has discovered multiple lithium brines over a zone of 144 metres (from 172 – 316m) at its 100 per cent owned Cauchari Lithium Brine Project in Argentina. Lithium values from 340 to 538 mg/L were returned from multiple high flow brines with low Mg/Li ratios of 2.73.0. The brine zones and target sand horizon were intersected higher in the sequence than expected. The hole was terminated at 460m due to less permeable clay horizons from 326m, although conductive brines were intersected at 356m and 386m. Detailed sampling with a packer instrument has commenced from 387m up…
Rio Tinto will reduce the annual carbon footprint at its Kennecott Utah Copper operation, located southwest of Salt Lake City in Utah, U.S. by as much as 65 per cent by purchasing renewable energy certificates and permanently shutting its coal power plant. Kennecott’s electricity needs will now be paired with 1.5 million megawatt hours of renewable energy certificates supplied by Rocky Mountain Power, primarily sourced from its Utah allocated portfolio including wind power from Wyoming. The change will reduce the annual carbon footprint associated with the operation by over one million tonnes CO2. Rio Tinto chief executive J-S Jacques said…
Western Australian based company AVZ Minerals Limited's (AVZ) 60 per cent owned Manono deposit has been confirmed as the largest measured and indicated lithium resource in the world. The Manono Project is located approximately 500 kilometres north of Lubumbashi in the south of the Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa. The project covers approximately 88 square kilometres and hosts lithium pegmatites with a strike length of over 13 kilometres. AVZ has announced a 41.7 per cent increase in Manono’s combined Measured and Indicated Resources, up from 189.8 Million tonnes (Mt) to 269.0 Mt. ANZ has stated that overall tonnage…
A second, larger diamond drill rig operated by Foraco Argentina SA has progressed drilling to a depth of 141 metres at Lake Resources NL (Lake)’s 100 per cent owned Cauchari Lithium Brine Project in Jujuy - a province in Argentina’s remote northwest. Located adjacent to world-class brine projects either in production or under development, the new round of drilling aims to unlock further value from the emerging project. The larger diamond drill rig is targeting a sand horizon estimated between 350-450 metres deep and is set drill to 500 metres. Two rigs are now operational at Cauchari and reporting results…
Rio Tinto has approved the next stage in the development of Richards Bay Minerals (RBM) in South Africa through the construction of the Zulti South project. The $463 million (Rio Tinto share $343 million) investment will sustain RBM’s current capacity and extend mine life. RBM currently operates four mines in the Zulti North lease area, a mineral separation plant and smelting facility. The Zulti North orebody grade is declining, hence the Zulti South mine is required to maintain the output of high-margin zircon and rutile, and provide sufficient ore to support TiO2 sales. The Zulti South mine (Phase 1) will…
