Mining Breaks

Barrick Gold has notified the Papua New Guinea government it will seek undisclosed damages for current and future losses over the refusal to extend its special mining lease over the giant Porgera gold mine in the Enga Province, 600km NW of Port Moresby.
Through its Australian subsidiary, the global gold mining giant will claim PNG has breached its bilateral investment treaty with Australia and international foreign investment law.
Barrick says, if negotiations can’t resolve the dispute, it will seek arbitration before the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.
Mine operator Barrick Niugini, a JV of Barrick and Zijin Mining Group (each 47.5%), is also seeking ICSID conciliation proceedings against PNG.

Pan African Resources is prepared for a long battle against COVID-19 after overcoming the many challenges to lift June year (FY20) gold production from its South African operations to 179,575oz, from 172,442oz in FY2019 and 2% above its revised 176,000oz guidance.
It’s now raised guidance for FY21 to 190,000oz.
Production came from the Barberton underground 68,302oz (FY2019: 75,356oz), Barberton tailings retreatment 20,153oz (24,007oz), Evander underground and tolling 31,541oz (26,878oz), Elikhulu 59,579oz (46,201oz).
Better than anticipated production, exchange rate movements and disciplined working capital management enabled Pan African to reduce group net debt to $US62.5M from $123.7M a year earlier, lower than its forecast $70M.

Australian-based global mining services company Thiess will extend its involvement with Jellinbah Group’s Lake Vermont coal mine in Qld with the award of a full service contract extension including mine planning, mining, topsoil and overburden removal, drill and blast, water management and landform rehabilitation that will generate $A2.5B revenue over its 5 years.
The CIMIC Group company will be statutory operator, provide all mobile plant and equipment and manage Jellinbah’s coal handling and preparation plant. It will also provide advanced services including autonomous drilling and semi-autonomous dozer push.
Thiess has been active at Lake Vermont since 2007. The contract extension will commence on Jan 1, 2022.

Explorer Alt Resources has highlighted the potential of an under-explored area in Western Australia’s Northern Goldfields with the completion of a PFS it says confirms the technical and financial viability of its Mt Ida-Bottle Creek project 80km NW of Menzies.
The study, culminating 3 years of work by Alt, estimates $A73.4M development cost for a 750,000tpa mine comprising 10 openpits and a processing plant accessing an ore reserve of 4.61Mt @ 1.8g/t for 272,000oz gold and 15.8g/t for 2.1Moz silver.
It assesses production of 35,000ozpa gold and 115,000ozpa silver at AISC of $1,396/oz over 7 years. Key economic results show post-tax NPV at 5% of $82M, IRR of 41% and capital cost payback of 39 months.

Australian miner Metals X says it has set the foundation to increase tin production at the Renison project in Tasmania to over 10,000tpa from FY25 after delivering 7,182t tin in concentrate for the June year.
The FY20 result compares with 7,124t in FY19 and meets guidance of 7,100-7,300t. Renison’s FY21 guidance is 8,200-8,700t.
The predicted increases in subsequent years rest on the announcement last month of a maiden ore reserve and updated life of mine plan that underpin its decision to proceed with the $A50-55M development of the Area 5 deposit.
Renison is a 50-50 JV between Metals X and Yunnan Tin.

Record copper concentrate production in Q4 has helped Australian miner Red River Resources’ Thalanga mine in N Qld post June year (FY20) output of 7,939t, up from 4,642t in FY19. Production of zinc concentrate was 18,834t (FY19: 32,504t) and lead concentrate was 5,142t (12,866t).
Red River also produced an additional 600t of gold concentrate from the processing of 13,000t of historical gold-rich tailings.

South Australian explorer Andromeda Metals has posted a maiden probable ore reserve of 12.5Mt bright white kaolinised granite at the Carey’s Well deposit within its Poochera halloysite-kaolin project on the Eyre Peninsula.
The reserve, comprising 15% halloysite and 78% kaolinite in the minus 45 micron fraction, would support the 500,000tpa, 26-year mine life reported in Poochera’s PFS last month.
Andromeda, which is earning up to 75% of the project 130km SE of Ceduna from Minotaur Exploration, is working to complete a DFS and mining lease application targeting site mining activities in early 2022.

Australian-based explorer Chesser Resources has named experienced African executive Mark Connelly as non-exec chairman in a board restructure as it raises $A6M through a private placement to fund large-scale work on its Diamba Sud high-grade gold discovery in Senegal.
Connelly, former chairman of West African Resources through development of the Sanbrado gold mine in Burkina Faso, replaces lawyer Simon O’Loughlin, who remains on the board.
Stephen Kelly resigns as executive director but remains as company secretary and CFO.
Chesser says the placement of 75M shares at 8cps was strongly supported by existing and new institutional and sophisticated investors.

West Australian miner Silver Lake’s investment in near-mine exploration is delivering results at its Deflector project in the southern Murchison region, with mineral resources growing 54% to 1.27Moz and ore reserves increasing 30% to 447,000oz gold and 7,000t copper.
After mine depletion, the updated estimates represent increases of 80% in mineral resources and 102% in ore reserves.
Silver Lake says the growth in resources and reserves will increase Deflector’s mine life and enable it to optimise in-mine and near-mine ore sources. The mineralisation is open along strike, and potential remains to unlock the potential of the Deflector corridor.

Despite its 2 Mexican operations being hit hard by COVID-19 closures, the unaffected Tucano mine in Brazil has led Great Panther Mining to lift June 2020 qtr (Q2 20) gold equiv production to 38,540oz, up 11% on Q1 20, with gold up 26% to 36,356oz, but with silver down 26% to 142,457oz.

The Asanko Gold Mine J/V in Ghana, W Africa, has posted another record milling/production qtr with June 2020 qtr (Q2 20) gold production (100% basis) up to 69,772oz from Q1 20’s 66,333oz on the processing of a record 1.64Mt of ore from 1.4Mt.
Manager/operator of the 50:50 J/V with Gold Fields, Galiano Gold (formerly Asanko Gold) has reported the total tonnes mined rose to 9,488t from 8,962t, with the average grade mined easing to 1.4g/t from 1.6g/t and gold recovery up to 95% from 94%. The mine remains on track to deliver between 225,000oz-245,000oz at AISC of $US1,000oz-$1,100oz in FY/CY 2020.
As a result of receiving $15M in distributions from the Asanko mine, Galiano finished Q2 20 with cash/receivables up to $68M and no debt. Full financials/production expected July 30, 2020.

Mandalay Resources’ June 2020 qtr (Q2 20) gold equiv production from its Australian/Swedish operations eased to 24,752oz AuEq from Q1 20’s 25,677oz, but with sales up to 24,916oz from 24,276oz.
The result was on total gold production up a little to 21,603oz from 21,370oz, but antimony slid to 946t from a record 1,108t. Gold output from the Björkdal operation in Sweden rose to 11,250oz from 10,750oz, with Costerfield, in Victoria, Australia, easing to 10,353oz from 10,620oz and all of antimony.

Australian miner New Century Resources has achieved commercial production at its Century zinc tailings reprocessing operation in Qld after posting record June qtr (Q2) zinc metal production of about 34,500t, from 28,292t in the previous period. C1 costs also improved to about $US0.79/lb from $0.95/lb.
New Century completed the transition from contractor to full owner-operation of the hydraulic mining and processing plant.
MD Patrick Walta says after 7 consecutive quarters of improving production and costs, the Century mine has been re-established as a global top 10 zinc producer just 3 years after previous owner MMG shut the depleted mine.

Record run of mine output in May and June following reduced production during South Africa’s COVID-19 restrictions have enabled Tharisa to increase June qtr (Q3FY20) production at its namesake mine in the Bushveld Complex to 35,000oz 6E PGM, from 32,100oz in the previous period. Chrome concentrate production also increased 321,400t (310,100t).
CEO Phoevos Pouroulis says unit cost control and favourable prices keep Tharisa strongly cash generative and financially solid.
Despite the death of an engineering section employee from COVID complications, and nine positive cases across its workforce, Pouroulis says its health and safety measures mitigate the potential impact of the pandemic on operations.

Zimbabwe miner Caledonia has recovered ground from its March qtr production dip at its 49%-owned Blanket mine, lifting June qtr (Q2) output to 13,499oz gold from 12,712oz previously.
The recovery brought H1FY2020 production to 27,732oz, up from 24,660oz in H1FY2019, maintaining its FY2020 guidance at 53,000-56,000oz.
CEO Steve Curtis says its strong performance despite COVID-19 disruption of its workforce and supply chains provides a very solid foundation as it prepares for production growth to 80,000oz by 2022.

UK-based Central Asia Metals is on track for full year guidance after lifting June half (H1FY2020) production from its Kounrad project in Kazakhstan and Sasa mine in North Macedonia to 6,607t (H1FY2019: 6,594t) copper, 12,203t (11,517t) zinc and 15,140t (14,357t) lead. FY2020 forecast production is 12,500-13,500t Cu, 23,000-25,000t Zn and 30,000-32,000t Pb.
CAML has reduced employee numbers at Kounrad to a minimum this month after rising case numbers in the local community saw some mine workers diagnosed with the virus. CEO Nigel Robinson says the smaller workforce would allow greater social distancing and allow it to maintain near-term production.

Underground mining contractor Byrnecut Australia has been awarded a new 5-year mining services contract by OZ Minerals at its Prominent Hill copper-gold project in South Australia.
The contract continues Byrnecut’s provision of underground mining services at the Prominent Hill mine since 2010.

International mineral sands miner Astron Corporation is exploring enforcement options after an international tribunal confirmed its entitlement to $A31M-plus over the Gambian government’s revoking of a zircon mining licence in 2008.
The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes rejected the government's application to annul the arbitration award in mid-2015 of $US18.7M damages, $1M interest. $0.5M arbitration costs and £2.25M legal costs.
A stay order on enforcing the award has been lifted.

Despite the Kiziltepe Gold Mine’s mill hitting some of the highest monthly rates ever recorded, Ariana Resources’ June 2020 qtr (Q2 20) Turkish gold production fell to 4,679oz from Q1 20’s 5,129oz.
Total ore processed rose to 54,862t from 53,840t at an average head grade to the plant slipping to 3.02g/t gold from 3.22g/t, with open-pit ore mined down to 77,179t from 92,482t, but at an average mined grade up to 2.79g/t from 2.54g/t. Total material movement for the qtr was down to 973,603t from 1.03Mt and average gold metallurgical recovery remained high at 91.8% from 92.5%.
While ore production also continued at near record levels, the mill performed at some of the highest monthly rates ever recorded, reaching an annualised almost 220,000tpa, an increase of over 45% on the FS designed rate.

UK-listed NQ Minerals’ metals concentrates production from its flagship Hellyer Gold Mine in Tasmania, Australia, have been bolstered in the June 2020 qtr (Q2 20) by increased gold and silver content.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, lead concentrate production rose to 8,762t from Q1 20’s 8,127t, but with zinc concentrate slipping to 4,241t from 4,609t. The icing was gold output jumping to 1,223oz from 1,081oz and silver to 229,947oz from 229,441oz produced as payable precious metal credits in the lead and zinc concentrate streams. The result was on overeall processed tonnes up to 252,188t from 225,764t.
Major plant upgrades and process optimisation plans were implemented at Hellyer in the last week of June 2020, which successfully increased plant throughput 44% to over 1.3Mtpa (1.2Mtpa at 92% plant availability).