Mining Breaks

Tanzanian gold miner Acacia has confirmed that three of its local subsidiaries together with a current and former employee, have been charged with 39 corruption offences including breaches of anti-money laundering legislation.
They follow charges laid against another employee last week.
All have pleaded not guilty.
The charged individuals are being held without bail.
Acacia says it’s continuing attempts to negotiate with the Tanzanian government, and pursuing arbitration processes, in an attempt to resolve its dispute over allegations denied by the company.

South African miner/trader Osho SA Coal has stepped up for Ikwezi Mining with a fourth short-term loan facility for ZAR10.5M to facilitate the start-up of mining activities at the Kliprand colliery, part of its 70%-owned Newcastle project in KwaZulu Natal, while it proceeds with a planned $A6M renounceable entitlement issue.
Osho’s four short-term loan facilities total ZAR40.5M and carry interest at 10%.

Things are looking bleaker for Australian-based Berkeley Energia, with local media reporting the Spanish government plans to refuse it the permits it needs to open its Salamanca uranium project in the country’s west.
Spain's Nuclear Safety Council and Energy and Environment Ministry have both declined to deny the reports.
Berkeley says it’s received no official notices, and has contacted the departments  seeking immediate clarification of the reports.

Jupiter Mines lifted NPAT to ZAR2.087M for the half-year to end-Aug (H1FY19) on the improved performance of manganese producer Tshipi é Ntle Manganese Mining in South Africa up from ZAR680M a year earlier. Revenue improved to ZAR5.323M (H1FY18: $2.899M).
The company ended the period with cash and equivalents of ZAR2.777B (ZAR643M), building net assets to ZAR4.955B (ZAR2.316B).
Jupiter holds a 49.9% beneficial interest in Tshipi, which recorded NPAT of ZAR2.087B and distributed ZAR2B to its shareholders.

Australian producer Aeris Resources is on track for FY19 copper production guidance of 24,500t at C1 cash costs of $A2.75-2.90/lb after its Tritton operations delivered 6,753t at $2.77/lb in the Sept qtr (Q1FY19), down from 7,592t at $2.10/lb in the June qtr.

Troy Resources has suspended mining in the Smarts 3 pit at its Karouni gold operation in Guyana after a small failure of the northern wall of the pit.
The Australian-based miner says there were no injuries or damage to machinery but operations will be deferred until geotechnical consultants complete a review, expected this week.
Dec qtr gold production will be slightly below forecast due to delays in accessing slightly higher grades. Mining Is being rescheduled as far as possible to minimise any impact.

Gold explorer Calidus Resources will gain $A3.7M to complete a resource update and PFS for its Warrawoona gold project through a placement of 125M shares at $2.95ps to fellow Australian miner/developer Alkane Resources.
Alkane will emerge with 8.8% equity in Calidus, plus capacity to reach 10% through the exercise of options.
Warrawoona, 30km SE of Marble Bar in WA’s East Pilbara, holds current resources of 712,000oz @ 2.11g/t.
The companies will also establish a strategic alliance utilising Alkane’s operating experience and capital resources to support the Warrawoona project’s critical feasibility phases in 2019.

Australian miner Centennial has resumed operations at its A1 gold mine in Victoria with $A2.1M funding from largest shareholder Octagonal Resources and short-term loans totalling $1.5M from employees and suppliers.
The financial support was needed after the A1 mine capital costs and reduced revenues from lower-grade ore at Union Hill left Centennial unable to refinance convertible notes at their extended maturation in August.
Centennial says production in Sept and into Oct indicate a sustained recovery. By reaching about 40,000t/qtr at over 5g/t, it says the mine can generate good net cash-flow.

The restart of openpit mining at the Wiluna mine for the first time in 10 years is expected to reduce plant feed grade, reduce haulage costs and significantly reduce mine sequencing costs for West Australian gold miner Blackham Resources.
The operation, targeting recently defined free-milling oxide ore within 3km of the processing plant, will enable Blackham to significantly reduce geological and mining risks associated with the project’s larger sulphide pits prior to recommissioning its sulphide circuit.
The Wiluna openpits will be mined concurrently with the remaining openpits at its nearby Matilda mine through FY19.

Gulf Manganese has slowed work on construction of its nearly complete $US67.5M manganese smelter at Kupang in the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara province after a $A10.7M funding deal collapsed over a provincial moratorium on mining activities.
The move could result in delaying the commissioning date for the smelter until March 2018.

Mishaps at Olympic Dam in South Australia and Spence in Chile have cut BHP’s copper production guidance for the year to June 2019 by about 3% to 1,620,000-1,705,000t despite continuing improvement at the giant Escondida mine in Chile.
BHP’s Sept qtr (Q1) copper production of 409,000t (Q4 FY18: 463,000t) reflected the impact of a fire and scheduled maintenance at Spence and acid plant outage at Olympic Dam.
Maintenance and Pilbara port updates reduced Q1 iron ore production to 61.4Mt (63.6Mt), despite another record performance at Jimblebar. FY19 guidance remains 241-250Mt, 
Metallurgical coal production declined to 10.4Mt (12Mt) but stronger H2 performance should meet its FY19 target of 43-46Mt.

OZ Minerals’ flagship Prominent Hill mine in South Australia is heading towards the top end of its full year guidance after boosting copper production to 28,915oz in the Sept qtr (Q3), from 27,131t in the previous period. AISC also improved to US109.4c/lb (Q2: 117c/lb), shaping to better its 120-130c/lb forecast.
With first production from the Antas mine in Brazil following its acquisition of Avanco Resources, OZ’s total Q3 copper output was 31,919t (27,131t) – well on track for FY2018 guidance of 106,000-116,500t.
Total Q3 gold production was 36,601oz (28,121oz), with Prominent Hill contributing 34,143oz (28,21oz) on its way to 120,000-130,000oz guidance.

Australian rare earths developer Hastings has advanced its planned $A335M Yangibana project in WA’s Gascoyne region with the award to leading global equipment supplier FLSmidth of a contract to supply and install an acid-bake rotary kiln.
Exec chairman Charles Lew says placing the order is a milestone in developing the mine 250km NE of Carnarvon to supply global demand for high-grade neodymium and praseodymium.
The $13.2M fixed price contract envisages delivery in the March 2020 qtr. Hastings says it will be funded from existing cash reserves.

Brazilian mining giant Vale has reinforced its global leadership in iron ore production, achieving a 400Mtpa production rate in the Sept qtr (Q3) while also lifting its average iron content to 64% Fe.
Total Q3 production was a record 104.9Mt (Q2: 96.8Mt). Iron ore and pellet sales were also a record at 98.2Mt (86.5Mt).
Vale’s “flight to quality”, boosted by ore from its S11D operation, saw the proportion of premium product rise to 79% of total sales, from 77% previously.
The average price premium paid for iron ore above the 62% benchmark improved to $US8.60/t ($7.10/t).

Turquoise Hill Resources has lifted 2018 year (FY/CY18) copper-in-conc expectations from its 66%-owned open pit/underground Oyu Tolgoi operation in S Mongolia from 125,000t-155,000t to between 140,000t-155,000t, with gold remaining at 240,000oz-280,000oz.
The increase follows Sept 2018 qtr (Q3 18) copper-in-conc steady at 39,400t on Q2 18, with higher grades/recoveries partially offset by lower throughput, but gold up 54% to 77,000oz on higher grades/recoveries and silver to 230,000oz from 225,000oz.
Output was on ore treated down 5% to 9.65Mt due to increased processing of harder Phase-4 ore and a planned maintenance shutdown, with the average copper mill head grade up to 0.51% from 0.48%, gold to 0.38g/t from 0.26g/t and silver to 1.19g/t from 1.17g/t.
Copper-in-conc sales fell to 36,000t from 46,100t, with gold up to 55,000oz from 51,000oz and silver easing to 201,000oz from 250,000oz, impacted by torrential rain in July and Aug, which affected Chinese road/rail availability.

The world’s biggest miner BHP has nearly doubled its stake in SolGold to 11.2%, bolstering its position against top shareholder Newcrest Mining as it eyes SolGold’s promising Cascabel copper-gold project in Ecuador, Reuters reports.
BHP, which bought in to SolGold 6-weeks ago, has paid almost $US60M (£45.6M) to increase its holding, not far off the 14.5% held by Newcrest, Australia’s biggest listed gold miner. The new deal takes BHP’s total spend on Solgold to $85M.
BHP says that subject to certain exceptions, it will not acquire any more shares in SolGold for 2-years without SolGold’s consent, but will be allowed to maintain its shareholding at 10% and will also get a board seat. No comment from SolGold or Newcrest.

Australian-based Davenport Resources believes it’s well on the way to declaring Europe’s largest potash resource after outlining an inferred 1.13Bt potash resource within the Mühlhausen‐Keula sub‐area of its Mühlhausen‐Nohra mining licence in Germany.
The resource, at 11.10% K2O, comprises mostly sylvinite within 834Mt at 12.10% K2O and carnallitite, contained in 295.8Mt at 8.2% K2O. It also holds significant amounts of sulphate and magnesium‐rich potash minerals, important for the production of multi‐nutrient fertilisers.
Davenport now controls over 1.7Bt JORC inferred resources grading 11.4% K2O within its Ebeleben and the S portion of the Mühlhausen‐Nohra licences.

Australian project developer Centrex has signed its first offtake contract for a 5,000wt trial shipment of phosphate rock concentrate from its Ardmore project near Mount Isa in Qld, where it’s constructing a 70tph modular wet processing plant.
The start-up operation is targeted to produce about 30,000t for trial shipments to priority customers in mid-2019.
They are expected to lead to long-term offtake agreements that will underpin the expansion of the plant to full-scale operations at 800,000tpa from late 2019.
With its first contract signed with a major local fertiliser manufacturer, Centrex is advancing negotiations on further trial shipments.

Major global commodities trader/miner Glencore is cutting 430 workers, 30% percent of the workforce, from its Bowen Basin Hail Creek coal mine in Australia’s Queensland, following a review of its operations.
Glencore, which bought the mine from Rio Tinto in Mar this year and began operational management on Aug 1, says it will introduce a 7-days on, 7-off roster system as part of a reconfiguration of mining methods. It expects the process to be phased in over the next 18-months, with majority of the changes to be in place by Q2, 2019.
In 2017, Hail Creek produced about 9.4Mt of hard coking and thermal coal for export.

Australian coal producer Whitehaven has reaffirmed its FY19 managed saleable coal production guidance at 22-23Mt despite a decline in ROM output to 3.98Mt (Q4FY18: 4.7Mt) for the Sept qtr (Q1).
The decline is attributed to a Narrabri longwall relocation due to previous production outages and delays that led to accelerated production at Maules Creek and other opencuts to compensate.
Whitehaven says production has now returned to normal at Narrabri and the opencut mines has normalised its mining sequence.