Mining Breaks

East African producer Shanta Gold has achieved commercial production on schedule and budget at the Ilunga underground mine, the third source of high underground feed alongside the Bauhinia Creek and Luika mines at its New Luika gold project in SW Tanzania, with the first ore stope in production at 130m below surface.
Ilunga underground has probable ore reserves of 660,500t @ 5.56g/t for 118,000oz plus inferred resources of 636,647t @ 3.57g/t for 73,067oz.
Shanta has spent just $US7.9M gross pre-production capital investment less than 12 months after the initial underground portal blast.

The adoption of a value-over-volume strategy has delivered a three-fold increase in EBITDA to R20.1B for the June half-year (H1FY19) for South African iron ore producer Kumba despite an 11% decline in production volumes to 20.1Mt largely due to unscheduled plant maintenance.
Q2 production was 10.5Mt, 12% higher than Q1.
Chief exec Themba Mkhwanazi says integrating sales and operational strategy improved average realised iron ore price by 57%, reflecting stronger iron ore prices and quality premiums plus Kumba’s marketing and beneficiating capability.
The Anglo American company is progressing towards its $US10/t margin enhancement target. Increased operational efficiency of 67% plus cost optimisation delivered R460M savings, underpinning its 58% EBITDA margin and $32/t break-even price.

West African Resources has passed its final permitting milestone for its Sanbrado gold project with approval of its mining convention by Burkina Faso’s Council of Ministers.
The convention is valid for Sanbrado’s current 10-year forecast mine life, renewable for further five-year terms.
Construction is progressing with the decline 200m from the portal, plant site works well advanced and the accommodation camp and bulk earthworks nearing completion.
MD Richard Hyde says WAF is working to bring Sanbrado into production in mid-2020. Its May 2019 FS envisages production of 217,000ozpa over the first 5 years.

Bauxite explorer Canyon Resources has raised $A4M to fund prefeasibility studies on its Minim Martap project in the Adamwa region of Cameroon through an oversubscribed placement of 25M shares to sophisticated and professional investors at $0.16ps.
MD Phillip Gallagher says it will enable Canyon to move its 100%-owned global tier 1 project into the next stage of development.
The project, encompassing the Ngouandal and Minim Martap deposits within 25km of each other, is adjacent to Canyon’s Birsok bauxite project and well located for a heavy freight railway with proposed port access extension.
The bauxite resource is generally high alumina, low total and reactive silica, high gibbsite, low boehemite and low on other contaminants.

Big Russian gold miner Petropavlovsk has lifted June 2019 half (H1 19) sales from its 4 producing operations 12% on H1 18 to 225,100oz, including 61,300oz from processing refractory gold concentrate at the new POX Hub.
The increase puts the company nicely on track to meet FY/CY19 expectations of 450,000oz-500,000oz, including processing of 2018 Malomir stockpiles, but excluding upside from 3rd party concentrate purchases, and given a seasonally stronger H2 19.
Full H1 19 interim results are expected Sept 10.

Guinea has launched an international tender for blocks 1 and 2 of Simandou, the world’s largest undeveloped iron ore deposit, giving companies until Aug 2 to outline their bids, Mines Minister Abdoulaye Magassouba has told Reuters. The tenders for the high grade blocks are expected to be completed 30-days later.
Source links Australian iron ore majors Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals, but no comment.

South African-focused miner Universal Coal has negotiated significant changes with success in delivering ROM coal production of 8.88Mt for the June year (FY19), 15% higher than FY18. Total sales improved 50% to 6.72Mt, comprising exports of 0.85Mt and domestic sales of 5.87Mt.
The newly acquired North Block Complex exceeded guidance by 19% and Kangala achieved target while New Clydesdale sales were slightly below expectations following a change of the opencast mining contractor.
CEO Tony Weber says Universal achieved its challenges in the changeover of mining contractors and unbudgeted costs on corporate transactions.
EBITDA is estimated at $A93M, 29% above the prior year, including $51M attributed.

Explorer Golden Arrow Resources is selling its 25% of the Puna open pit mine silver-lead-zinc J/V in Argentina to partner SSR Mining in a cash/shares deal worth $C44.4M.
Puna Operations was formed through a J/V which combined SSR's Pirquitas open pit mine/processing plant and Golden Arrow's Chinchillas silver-lead-zinc project.
The deal includes $3M cash, $25.9M worth of SSR shares and another $14.5M cash to repay outstanding principal/accrued interest owed by Golden Arrow under a credit agreement with SSR. Golden Arrow to focus on development of its South America exploration portfolio.

One of the world’s biggest lithium ion battery materials suppliers, China-based Ningbo Shanshan, has lifted its stake in Western Australia lithium producer Altura Mining to 19.4% from 11.8% for $A22M, becoming the company’s biggest shareholder.
The cash, via the issue of 200M shares at 11.2cps, will go towards the continued development/expansion of the world-class Altura Lithium Project at Pilgangoora in WA’s Pilbara region, which began production in 2018 and has a production capacity of 220,000tpa of spodumene concentrate. Founded in 1989, Shanshan has a market cap of $A2.5B, employs more than 4,000 people and in 2018 reported lithium battery material revenue of $14.5B.

Consolidation of its asset portfolio on Murchison region assets has seen West Australian miner Westgold post June qtr (Q4FY19) production of 66,952oz at AISC of $A1,336/oz, delivering FY19 output of 255,221oz (FY18: 253,210oz). AISC was $A1,408/oz ($1,463/oz).
After completing its exit from the Kalgoorlie region with the June 2019 sale of the Higginsville Gold Operations to RNC Minerals, Westgold operates three assets including processing plants in the Central Murchison goldfields.
Gold sales were 253,874oz at $1,768/oz (252,460oz at $1,659/oz. Mine operating cashflow was $46.3M and net mine cashflow of $22.1M.
Westgold ended the period with cash and bullion on hand of $67.3M.

Regis Resources has posted another record production year with output from its sole-producing Duketon Gold Project in Western Australia up to 363,418oz in the June 2019 year (FY 19) from FY 18’s 361,373oz.
The result, at the upper end of production guidance, came with ASIC up to $A1,029oz from $901oz and cash costs, including royalties, up to $897oz from $794oz.

Below-forecast Q4 production has seen West Australian miner Blackham Resources fall short of its FY19 guidance at its Matilda-Wiluna gold operation, posting 65,406oz at AISC of $A1,760/oz compared to its targeted 66,000-68,000oz at $1,700/oz.
Blackham says the lower Q4 production of 12,045oz at $2,376/oz, compared to 15,296oz at $1,757/oz in Q3, was due to toll-treatment of Northern Star Resources ore as well as lower mined and milled grade.
The company says, after largely completing pre-stripping activities, significant constraints over the 6 months to end-June are expected to reverse in the Sept qtr with lower strip ratios and more consistent higher grades.

West Australian developer Salt Lake Potash has taken another step to de-risk its Lake Way project with a $A10M deal to acquire a strategic package of tenements from neighbour Blackham Resources.
Salt Lake has had access to the tenements for 18 months under a sharing agreement with gold-seeker Blackham. It will now have immediate use of process water and will not be required to pay a brine royalty.
Funding for most of the acquisition costs will come from a $7.4M placement of 10.6M shares at 70cps to equity fund Fidelity International.

Adriatic Metals has confirmed the high-grade Rupice deposit as Bosnia’s highest-grade polymetallic deposit with the posting of a maiden indicated-inferred mineral resource estimate of 9.4Mt @ 5.1% zinc and 3.3% copper, plus credits of 183g/t Ag and 1.8g/t Au plus 31% BaSO4.
The Rupice mineral resource begins at surface and currently extends to depths of 300m. Adriatric says the mineralisation remains open with significant growth potential.
Adriatic has also upgraded the resource for the nearby Veovača deposit to 7.4Mt @ 1.4% Zin, 0.9% Pb, 41g/t Ag, and 0.1g/t Au and 13% BaSO4.

West Australian mineral sands miner Image Resources continued to exceed expectations in its second full quarter of operations at its 100%-owned Boonanarring project 80km north of Perth, lifting June qtr (Q2) HMC production to 69dmt for 137.8t YTD, 138% of budget.
Q2 operating costs were $A329/t, 68% of budget.
Lower than budgeted zircon prices restricted EBITDA to $20.2M, 95% of budget, and NPAT to $5.7M, 65% of budget.

Australian miner OZ Minerals says it’s still on track for FY2019 guidance after posting June qtr (Q2) production of 26,959t copper (Q1: 27,442t) and 27,072oz gold (34,648oz). FY forecasts remain 103,000-115,500t Cu and 122,200-135,600oz Au.
Prominent Hill in SA delivered 26,959t Cu and 25,810oz Au, with Antas in Brazil delivering 1,566t Cu and 1,262oz Au. Costs rose in line with expectations to US119.7c/lb (103.9c/lb).
The Carapateena mine in SA remains on schedule for first concentrate in Q4. Preliminary analysis of the Prominent Hill gold ore processing trial demonstrates improved recoveries and throughput.

Recovering Brazil-based mining major Vale’s June 2019 qtr (Q2 19) iron ore fines production has slumped 12% on Q1 19 to 64.1Mt, with pellet production also down 25.5% to 9.1Mt, all mainly as a result of the impacts from the multi-death Jan 2019 Brumadinho dam rupture at Minas Gerais, unusual weather-related conditions in the Northern and Southern systems in April and early May, and maintenance at the Tubarão plants in Santa Catarina.
However, iron ore fines and pellet sales, rose to 70.8Mt in Q2 19, 4.5% higher than in Q1 19, due to the consumption of offshore inventories.

South Africa-focused platinum group metals miner Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) has more than doubled June 2019 half year (H1 19) earnings, helped by higher metals prices, a weaker rand and a stock count adjustment, Reuters reports.
Headline earnings per share rose 120% on H1 18 to R28.15 ($US2.02), supported by a stock gain of R1B, despite headwinds, including Eskom power shortages and strike action at Mototolo cutting platinum production to 992,200oz from just over 1Moz. EBITDA rose to R12.4B from R6.8B a year earlier and the company declared an interim div up to R11ps from R3.74.

CEO Mike Hodgson says Brazil-focused gold producer Serabi is well-placed to meet its 2019 production guidance of 40,000-44,000oz after delivering first half output of 19,691oz. June qtr (Q2) production was 9,527oz (Q1: 10,164oz).
Hodgson says excellent performance has continued into the start of Q3, and optimisation of planned maintenance to improve plant availability should deliver continuing benefits in H2.
Serabi plans to further enhance production with commissioning of an ore sorter in the second half, with significant impact due in 2020.