Mining Breaks

Advanced gold explorer Genesis Minerals is targeting regional consolidation in Western Australia's world-class Leonora mining district through an agreed $A111M takeover of miner Dacian Gold.
The all-scrip transaction, at 0.0843-for-1, seeks to combine the bidder’s high-grade resources with Dacian’s large-scale strategic milling infrastructure at Mt Morgans.
MD Raleigh Finlayson says it’s the first step towards its vision of building the premium Australian gold miner targeting +300,000ozpa of sustainable, high-quality gold production.
Genesis will have time and funding to grow their combined resources and reserves, optimise a new mine plan and await a more accommodative cost backdrop.

Australian steelmaking coal specialist Pembroke Resources has awarded civil works contracts worth $A67M to Golding Contractors for its under-construction Olive Downs project in Queensland’s Bowen Basin.
The contracts comprise $52M civil works for a 19km rail loop including earthworks, drainage culverts and construction of two bridges as well as importing capping material, and $15M bulk earthworks, drainage and roadworks for bulk earthworks, drainage and roadworks for its new coal handling and preparation plant.

Hancock Prospecting subsidiary Atlas Iron has awarded an extension of the mining and crushing service works at its Mt Webber mine in Western Australia’s Pilbara region to contracting group NRW Holdings.
Through its Action Drill & Blast and Primero businesses, the contract extension worth about $A60M will cover load and haul, drill and blasting and ROM re-handling, crushing and screening expected to be completed by the end of 2024.
Primero has designed and constructed a new PGX-1000 crushing plant that will operate at up to 1,000tph.

A record final quarter has helped West Australian miner Westgold Resources meet its gold production guidance of 270,878oz for the year to end-June (FY22), up from 245,411oz a year earlier.
The company’s portfolio of six underground mines and several openpits with three processing plants delivered 72,591oz in the three months to June, up from 65,426oz in Q3, including Cue Gold Operations’ best result of 24,797oz.

Record June quarter performance has helped West Australian gold miner Regis Resources deliver its best production result of 437,300oz for the year to end-June, up from 372,870oz a year earlier and within its full year guidance of 420,000-475,000oz.
Q4 production totalled 123,901oz, from 103,100oz in the March qtr. The Duketon mine posted 92,800oz (74,800oz) and its 30%-owned AngloGold Ashanti lifted to 31,100oz (28,300oz).
Regis says inflationary pressures point to costs for the year slightly above its AISC guidance of $1,425-1,500/oz.
MD Jim Beyer says Regis is set for increased annual gold production in the coming year.

Asset services engineer SRG Global has been awarded a five-year term contract by Fortescue Metals Group and its partner Formosa Steel IB for maintenance and shutdown services to provide rope access and electrical maintenance requirements at its $US3.3-3.5MB Iron Bridge magnetite mine development in Western Australia.
MD David Macgeorge says the company is excited to expand its relationship with FMG and play an integral role in the maintenance of an innovative and significant project.
The specialist asset services, mining services and construction engineer has also won a maintenance contract with glass manufacturer Visy Industries. It says the combined value of the two contracts is about $A100M.

Embattled miner Firefinch hopes increases in resource and reserve estimates feeding into a new mine plan will help turn around performance at its Morila Super Pit in Mali after slow June qtr (Q2) output resulted in it ditching the mine’s FY2022 production guidance.
Firefinch’s 80%-owned giant openpit mine has delivered about 13,300oz gold for the three months, up from 10,874oz in Q1 but well behind its forecast 17,000-20,000oz.
After reaffirming full year guidance of 100,000oz in April, Firefinch now acknowledges that is out of reach and can’t say when it can offer a new target.

UK-based privateer Brazilian Nickel has achieved continuous production from the Piauí nickel project in NE Brazil, the world’s first stand-alone nickel laterite heap leaching operation, after an 18-month construction and commissioning period.
Forecast FY2022 production is 300t Ni and 3t Co, reaching 1,400tpa Ni and 35tpa Co from FY2023.
Technical director Anne Oxley says its low carbon process will help combat climate change while feeding the ever growing demand from electric vehicles.

Australian Rare Earths is aiming for strategic discussions with end users and authorities after posting a 104% increase in mineral resources at its Koppamurra project, straddling the Victorian and South Australian borders.
The company says the new MRE of 81.4Mt @ 785ppm total rare earth oxide, including an initial indicated resource of 45Mt @ 835ppm TREO, demonstrates it is well on the path to establishing a world-scale inventory at Koppamurra.
It aims for first production in 2025-26 to capitalise on strong forecast growth in demand from the global EV and wind turbine industries for non-Chinese sources of vital rare earths.

Western Australian silica sands explorer Carbine Resources has demonstrated the potential for its Muchea West project to become a low impurity supplier of silica products to burgeoning Asia-Pacific glass markets.
Carbine says its maiden indicated and inferred resource of 93.17Mt @ 99.71% SiO2 with low impurity levels of 0.044% Al2O3 and 0.026% Fe2O3 confirms the exceptional quality of the project 40km NE of Perth.
The raw unprocessed product exceeds the quality of the processed products of many silica sand deposit.

Australian miner Bowen Coking Coal expects a quick ramp-up after sending off the first shipment of 35,000t of ultra-low volatile pulverised coal injection product from its Bluff opencut mine.
The mine in Qld’s southern Bowen Basin is expected to reach steady-state ROM production of 80,000-100,000tpm by end-Aug, maintaining the 1-1.2Mtpa rate over 4-6 years.
Bluff coal is washed and loaded on rail at the recommissioned Cook Colliery for transport to the RG Tanna Coal Terminal at Gladstone.
The initial shipment was sold to Taiwan conglomerate Formosa Plastics Group by Bowen’s 50-50 marketing JV with specialist metallurgical coal trader M Resources.

Australian explorer Monger Gold plans more systematic exploration at depth and along strike after posting a maiden gold resource of 16,400oz (204,700t @ 2.5g/t) for the Providence deposit at its Mt Monger North project.
The mineralisation is at openpit depths over just 200m strike length within a prolific gold district SE of the WA Goldfields capital Kalgoorlie.
Chairman Peretz Shapiro says it displays similar characteristics to the 76,000oz Wombala Dam and 30,000oz Wombala Pit deposits recently mined by Silver Lake Resources.

Developer Triton Minerals has declared force majeure at its Ancuabe flake graphite project in Mozambique following a mid-June raid by insurgents in which two security staff were fatally injured.
The Australian-based company says force majeure will remain in place until it can safely resume operations.
Work will continue on a scoping study, project funding, permitting, offtake and the preparation of contracts for the project’s development and operations.
Triton says it remains committed to the planned mining and processing project with its targeted first phase production of 5,000-8,000tpa graphite concentrate.

Leading western world rare earths producer Lynas has appointed West Australian engineer DIAB to fabricate and erect the filter building, a key component of a $A500M processing facility being constructed in Kalgoorlie to produce rare earth carbonate from locally mined ore.
Fabrication of the 1,500t unit will be done at DIAB’s Geraldton facility before transportation to site and installation.
DIAB has also won a Rio Tinto contract to fabricate and  supply dust suppression systems for crusher and conveyor systems at the iron ore major’s Tom Price and Western Turner operations.
Parent company NRW Holdings says the two new contracts for its engineering subsidiary have a combined value of about $A78M.

Australian-based Alara Resources has teamed up again with Omani construction giant Al Tasnim Group to seek entry into zinc-copper exploration at the Khnaiguiyah project in central Saudi Arabia.
Their JV (Alara 51%, Al Tasnim 49%) is among eight parties shortlisted for the award of a 353sqkm exploration licence.
The licence area includes Alara’s former Khnaiguiyah zinc-copper project, which it brought to completed DFS stage nearly 10 years ago before becoming embroiled in a furious ownership battle with then partner United Arabian Mining.
Alara says its knowledge of the area will help the new JV produce a competitive bid. The award of the licence is expected in mid-Aug.

West Australian miner Calidus Resources expects to reach nameplate 2.4Mtpa production rate next month at its Warrawoona gold project in July after delivering 8,916oz in the June qtr (Q4FY22).
MD Dave Reeves says Calidus is rapidly closing in on steady state operations after pouring first gold in May at the project in the East Pilbara region, 25km SE of Marble Bar.
The mine’s process plant has tested at up to 2.8Mtpa and daily mine movement reaching 20,000bcm, above its 18,500bcm target.
Warrawoona is forecast to produce up to 105,000ozpa, with potential to reach 139,000ozpa once Calidus brings its nearby Blue Spec deposit on line.

START THE WEEK: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Deep-sea mining could supply the manganese, copper, nickel and other precious metals the world needs to support the shift to clean energy and electric vehicles, but concerns about the potential environmental damage to seabeds 5km or more below the surface are swelling a move to ban the technique forever.
The proponents for an open-ended moratorium appear to have won the support of French President Emmanuel Macron at a major meeting of the United Nations Ocean Conference in Portugal last week.

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LAST WEEK’S BIGGEST STORIES
(Some articles may be accessible only by subscribers)

• AERIS RESOURCES BUILDS MID-TIER PORTFOLIO
• PILBARA MINERALS TARGETS GLOBAL LITHIUM SUPPLY ROLE
• LIONTOWN CLOSER TO KATHLEEN VALLEY GO-AHEAD
• KINGSROSE MINING TALKS ON WAY LINGGO SALE
• PILBARA MINERALS OKAYS PILGANGOORA GROWTH
• SSR MINING SHUTTERS ҪӦPLER MINE AFTER CYANIDE LEAK
   

Matsa Resources has teamed with West Australian regional nickel-copper producer IGO to advance exploration of its Fraser Range tenements, including its Symons Hill prospect.
IGO is paying Matsa $A600,000 for the Symons Hill prospect, which lies just south of its Nova nickel mine and processing facilities in the western sector of Fraser Range. Matsa will be free carried through to a decision to mine.
Executive chairman Paul Poli says the deal provides Matsa with a cash boost as well as the IGO team’s “second to none” expert knowledge and exploration experience while it focuses on its broader Lake Carey leases.

As many as 37 Nigerian police and soldiers have been killed and an unknown number of miners – including four Chinese nationals – are missing after a raid on a mine at Ajata Aboki village in the NW Nigerian state of Niger.
Nigerian newspaper The Nation reports about 300 armed terrorists stormed the mine site early on June 29, shooting security personnel and abducting workers apparently for ransom.
The soldiers were ambushed when they arrived at the mine site in three trucks.
The identity of the attackers has not been established, but President Muhammadu Buhari referred to Boko Haram in condemning the attack.