Mining Breaks

Australian engineering company Monadelphous has won a further 5-year contract to provide fixed plant mechanical and electrical maintenance and shutdown services to Rio Tinto at its iron ore operations in the Pilbara region of WA.
Monadelphous says the contract, including the provision of shutdowns and scaffolding, will be worth more than $A100M over the 5 years.
The Perth-based company has provided services to Rio Tinto’s Pilbara iron ore operations for more than 25 years.
MD Rob Velletri says significant growth over the last 2 years has lifted Monadelphous’s maintenance division revenue by more than 50%.

A 39% increase in ore reserves has confirmed Prospect Resources’ 87%-owned Arcadia project in Zimbabwe as the world’s seventh largest hard rock lithium deposit, supporting its nearly complete DFS and extending its potential mine life beyond 15 years.
Arcadia’s proved and probable ore reserve has increased to 37.4Mt@1.22% for 457,000t Li2O and 121ppm for 10Mlb Ta2O5.
MD Sam Hosack says Prospect’s work confirms Arcadia as a globally unique and significant lithium deposit to supply the glass and ceramics market with technical grade ultra-low iron petalite.

Significant increases in gold (60%) and copper (25%) resources has strengthened the case for West Australian explorer Artemis Resources to move towards a scoping study to be followed by feasibility studies at its 100%-owned Carlow Castle in the West Pilbara region.
New geological and structural models by CSA Global helped update JORC inferred resources to 8Mt @ 0.6% for 48,000t copper, 1.6ppm for 418,000oz gold and 0.08ppm for 7,000t cobalt.
Exec director Ed Mead says Artemis plans fully funded infill drilling to convert more of the resource to indicated classification.
Carlow Castle's location 35km from its Radio Hill processing plant raises options to fast-track infrastructure for the project.

Australian-based explorer MetalsTech aims to take advantage of the strong outlook for the gold sector by signing an option to acquire 100% of the advanced stage Sturec project in Slovakia, a historical 1.5Moz gold and 6.7Moz silver producer.
The project, 150km NE of Bratislava, was subject of a PFS in 2013 for openpit development and holds JORC 2004 measured and indicated resources of 1.01Moz (15.4Mt @ 2.05g/t) and inferred 310,000oz (9.79Mt @ 0.99g/t).
Chairman Russell Moran says Sturec offers a large-scale project boasting significant exploration upside.
MetalsTech retains its Canadian lithium projects.

First Quantum Minerals is targeting resumption of operations in Jan 2020 at its 100%-owned Ravensthorpe nickel mine near Western Australia’s southern coast, issuing a letter of award to contractor MACA for openpit mining services including drilling and blasting, loading and haulage.
The 5-year contract is expected to generate about $A480M revenue for MACA.
They’ve agreed all major items, with finalisation of documentation expected to enable mobilisation to site in Dec.
FQM placed Ravensthorpe on care & maintenance in Oct 2017, blaming persistently low nickel prices.
MACA operations director Geoff Baker says it aims to develop a long working relationship with FQM at Ravensthorpe.
It lifts MACA’s total work in hand to $2.5B, to deliver FY20 revenue of $770M.

Growing West Australian miner Mineral Resources has set its sights on establishing a long-term iron ore operation in the southern part of the state under a newly adopted strategy to link currently stranded and undervalued deposits surrounding its existing Koolyanobbing operations in the Yilgarn region.
The company says it is finalising an operating plan that envisages steady-state production of about 11Mtpa.
It’s released a maiden combined mineral resource of 108.6Mt @ 56.8% Fe within 120km of the Koolyanobbing rail facility, which links to its shiploading facilities in Esperance.

West Australian explorer Horizon Gold plans more infill drilling to increase resource confidence on the back of a positive scoping study on the Swan North and Swift deposits at its 100%-owned Gum Creek gold project.
Gum Creek, 649km NE of Perth in WA’s Mid West region, produced over 1.1Moz gold for various owners prior to 2005 and holds current JORC resources of 1.39Moz (15.9Mt @ 2.7g/t).
The scoping study assessed opencut mining of the two deposits, with the ore toll-treated at a third-party processing plant.
Horizon says further drilling should increase confidence in the resources and support further studies in the coming year.

Global miner Rio Tinto has strongly denied claims that agreements with the Mongolian government underpinning its $US5.3B Oyu Tolgoi underground copper development in the Gobi Desert are illegal.
Responding to reports a Mongolian court found the national government did not follow due process in approving the the mine’s underground expansion, the company stated: “Rio Tinto strongly refutes any suggestion that the underground development and financing plan or any of the foundation Oyu Tolgoi agreements are illegal.”
Rio Tinto notes early reports suggesting the court has made an initial finding that supports the NGO’s case, but says its formal ruling is not expected for some weeks.

West Australian miner Strike Resources has nominated Onslow on the Pilbara coast as the export facility for its 100%-owned Paulsens East iron ore project, settling a key question for its nearly completed project scoping study.
The Onslow Marine Supply Base on Beadon Creek is 233km NW from the proposed mine site and connected by good quality sealed roads.
Paulsens East holds ons JORC inferred resource of 9.1Mt @ 63.4% Fe, including 2Mt of potential direct shipping ore in a 3km ridge of outcropping hematite conglomerate.
MD William Johnson says Strike will work with the port’s private owner OMSB and operator Agility Project Logistics to bring Paulsens East into production.

The increase in its share of production from the Bengalla mine in NSW from 70% to 80% has continued to increase Australian thermal coal producer New Hope’s total saleable coal production for the Oct qtr (Q1FY20) to 3.33Mt, compared to 3.32Mt in the prior qtr.
New Hope’s 100%-owned Qld operations contributed 1.18Mt (Q4FY19: 1.31Mt) and 80%-owned NSW operations 2.15Mt (2Mt).
Total coal sales were 3.34Mt (3.34Mt).
New Hope says the failure of the Qld state govt to approve its New Acland mine expansion by its preferred end-Aug target date resulted in redundancies taking effect on Oct 31, with 150 employee and contractor jobs lost.

Adriatic Metals has flagged a Q2 2022 start for its $US178 capex, 100%-owned Vareš polymetallic project in Bosnia and Herzegovina, dependent on another $180M being raised.
Scoping study ascribes the project a post-tax NPV8% of $916.6M and 107.4% IRR, with a payback from project start of 21-months and 8-months from the start of processing.

The number of lithium producers reducing output because of falling prices and deferred customer off-take contracts is not discouraging other companies targeting long-term growth in energy storage markets.
Among them is Sayona Mining, which has established an exploration target of 5-25Mt at 1.2-1.3% Li2O at the Viau-Dallaire prospect in Quebec.
MD Brett Lynch says Sayona sees potential for Viau-Dallaire to become part of its strategy to develop a lithium hub close to the major Canadian mining centre of Val d’Or.
Viau-Dallaire, part of the Tansim lithium project, is 82km SW of Sayona’s DFS-stage Authier project, and Australian-based Sayona is also a bidder in the court-supervised sales process for the shuttered North American Lithium mine and processing plant in Abitibi.

ABR is still heading towards its target of commencing civil works next month on its proposed 100%-owned Fort Cady borate mine in S California, USA with detailed engineering focused on site civil works and purchases of long-lead item progressing.
It’s also reporting positive progress on project financing with US investment banker Amvest Capital and off-take contracts with Chinese state-owned enterprises, but says its strong cash position means it can commence infrastructure works.
ABR says it’s engaging US universities to conduct crop trials and studies on a boron-SOP specialty fertiliser targeting high-priced US markets.

It’s taken just 18 months from initial pegging for explorer Jindalee Resources to post a maiden inferred mineral resource of 150Mt @ 2,000ppm Li at its McDermitt lithium project on the Nevada-Oregon border in USA. The resource has been calculated at a relatively high 1,750ppm cut-off grade.
Australian-based Jindalee says it’s achieved the significant milestone at minimal cost due to the shallowness (all within 100m of the surface), flat-lying nature and excellent continuity of the mineralisation, as well as its favourable location.
As well as McDermitt’s significance for the company, Jindalee says it also has potential to be a long-term source of a declared critical mineral for the US.

Former BHP chief Brian Gilbertson will step down next week as chairman and a director of coloured gemstones miner Gemfields Group, a move linked to the company’s proposed dual listing on the London AIM market.
Gemfields says the relationship between Brian Gilbertson and the company’s CEO Sean Gilbertson – his son – is being seen in the UK as a potential corporate governance impediment.
Long-term director Martin Tolcher will take over as chairman. Brian Gilbertson will resign from all his other Gemfields directorships but retain non-executive positions with Fabergé and gold exploration unit Nairoto Resources.

The continuing fall in metallurgical coal prices to the low $US130/t range FOB has led US-Australian producer Coronado Global Resources to lower its profit guidance for the year to end-Dec for the second time in less than 2 months.
Coronado says it now expects FY2019 EBITDA to come in below the bottom end of its current guidance of $687-737M. The company previously forecast EBITDA of $737-807M.
MD-CEO Gerry Spindler says uncertain global economic conditions are still impacting met coal pricing, markets and trade.
However, he says long-term demand fundamentals remain robust for high-quality product, and Coronado’s expansion plans to grow production are unchanged.

Newmont Goldcorp and its new 50% JV partner Saracen Mineral Holdings face another 3.5 years of limited production at Australia’s giant Kalgoorlie Super Pit due to the restraints on operations stemming from two rock falls in mid-2018.
Saracen says the continuing remediation work has limited the mine’s FY2019 gold production to 490,000oz, a level it is expected to maintain into early 2023 before recovering to its longer-term average of 660,000ozpa.
MD Raleigh Finlayson says Saracen looks forward to working with operator Newmont to realise the Super Pit’s significant exploration and development potential. It holds current NI 43-101 compliant ore reserves of 7.3Moz.

A diversified marketing strategy has seen West Australian developer Salt Lake Potash sign three binding term sheets with leading fertiliser distributors for sales of premium SOP from its 100%-owned Lake Way project, a proposed 245,000tpa development 15km S of Wiluna.
In line with its aim of establishing multiple strategic outlets across a mix of geographical regions, the take-or-pay agreements are with Unifert for 69,000tpa for the Middle East and Africa, Indagro for 50,000tpa for North America and Europe, and Fertisur 60,000tpa for South America.
Together they cover 70% of planned production for five years from Lake Way’s first shipments in 2021.
CEO Tony Swiericzuk says discussions are progressing for the rest of its SOP production.

Plans by Australian-based explorer Peninsula Mines to expand its South Korean graphite assets have been plunged in doubt by the appointment of administrators to the private company that was to have been its partner in the deal.
Battery Mineral Resources appointed McGrathNicol as voluntary administrators a week ago.
The two company announced in July they planned to establish a new company, Korean Graphite Co, to hold the assets of both.
Peninsula says it will be holding discussions with BMR’s administrators before reporting on the impact of the move on the proposed merger.