Mining Breaks

Australian energy explorer Cobalt Blue has begun construction of key equipment for a metallurgical testing centre in the NSW mining centre of Broken Hill for mineral processing technology it has developed to produce cobalt sulphate from pyrite samples sourced from its now 100%-owned Thackaringa project.
COB says the demonstration plant will also evaluate the application of its technology to other projects.
The first equipment is scheduled to arrive at Broken Hill in the March 2020 qtr, to lead to commissioning in mid-year and the processing of a 4,000t sample.

Independent South African miner Northam Platinum is confident it has secured five years of stability after concluding wage negotiations with the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union at its Booysendal mine on the eastern limb of the Bushveld Complex.
It says the settlement, effective from July 1, assures employees of increases to all major remuneration components in line with industry settlements.
Chief executive Paul Dunne says the agreement, negotiated in a mature and constructive manner, removes uncertainty for employees in line with delivering its growth target of 500,000oz 4E PGM.
The deal follows last month’s signing of three-year wage settlements by PGM majors Sibanye, Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum.

The frustrations of dealing with remote jurisdictions have proved too much for Australian-based explorer Pacific Bauxite, which has announced it will seek a buyer for its Solomon Islands bauxite projects.
After over a year dealing with the purported cancellation of its prospecting licence over the Nendo project, PBX says it’s decided a switch of focus back to Australian assets will reduce sovereign risk and offer more growth opportunities.
The decision comes after it received unsolicited approaches about the bauxite projects.
With the funds it hopes to raise, PBX will focus on its recently acquired 50%-owned Ebagoola gold tenement in N Qld and review other Australian opportunities.

Australian junior explorer Gateway Mining is pursuing its strategy of unlocking the potential around its Gidgee gold project in WA’s Mid West, acquiring seven tenements via JVs, acquisitions and pegging.
For under $A100,000 cash upfront, plus royalty commitments, Gateway has acquired 80% to 100% interests in seven tenements north of its existing 240,000oz inferred Gidgee resource and more than doubled its total area to 480sqkm.
Gateway says the area 70km N of the Sandstone township and 800km NE of Perth has never been systematically explored.
MD Peter Langworthy says Gateway believes the presence of transported cover has prevented past prospectors from identifying a major mineralised corridor.

The Dec 2019 qtr sale price for lithium from Mineral Resources’ Western Australia project has been finalised at 14.5% below the previous qtr’s price amid weaker demand for the commodity, Reuters reports.
The sale price for 6% spodumene conc shipments at its Mt Marion Lithium Project has been set down to $US520.92 per dry metric tonne for the Dec 19 qtr from the previous qtr’s $608.95dmt. The drop comes as Australian lithium miners grapple with a prolonged downturn in prices amid slowing electric vehicle sales in China.
Last month, Mineral Resources said its J/V with the world’s largest lithium producer Albemarle had decided to pause operations at the Wodgina Lithium Project, also in WA, due to “challenging” lithium market conditions.

IAMGOLD has flagged steady state gold production from its underground Westwood Gold Mine in Quebec, Canada, to rise 130,000oz-145,000oz pa within 4-years at ASIC $US1,000oz-$1,100oz sold from FY/CY19 expectations of 95,000oz- 105,000oz.
The updated output guidance, based on preliminary sequencing, envisages a 3-4 year ramp-up producing 100,000oz-125,000oz pa at AISC $1,1250z- $1,225oz to hit targeted steady state production levels. Development rates of 9km-13km pa are anticipated, roughly 10%-60% greater than current levels, but comparable to prior ramp-up rates.
Following the ramp-up period, the steady state production is based on the operating performance of the past few years, with the expected LoM to extend beyond 2030. Westwood is one of IAMGOLD’S 4 operating gold mines on 3 continents.

Advanced battery anode materials/graphene additives provider Talga Resources has raised another $A6.2M to scale up its Talnode®-C anode market sample production Vittangi Graphite Project Stage-1 DFS in N Sweden.
The successful completion of the SPP, as well as the Nov 2019 institutional placement, takes the latest raising for the Vittangi project to $9.45M.
In Oct 2019, Talga announced a maiden indicated JORC resource for the Niska discovery at Vittangi of 1.2Mt (4.6Mt @ 25.8% Cg), 1.2km NE along strike from the Nunasvaara deposit, which holds 12.3Mt @ 25.5% Cg.

Australian-based international miner Resolute Mining will assess options including JV, partial or complete divestment as part of a strategic review of its Bibiani gold project in Ghana, deferring previous plans for a go-ahead this year on a 10-year, 100,000ozpa underground operation.
Other options for the review by advisors Cutfield Freeman and Treadstone Resource Partners will include off-balance sheet financing of the $US115M capital development proposed in its mid-2018 updated feasibility study.
Resolute says the review will seek to maximise value for its shareholders and ensure local stakeholders benefit from a sustainable operation at Bibiani.
The review will be conducted through the first half of 2020.

Privateer Tasman Mining has secured a $NZ15M ($A14.3M) loan from the New Zealand Govt’s Provincial Growth Fund Tuawhenua (PGF) to support the redevelopment of the high-grade Blackwater Gold Project near Reefton on the West Coast of NZ’s South Island.
The cash will go towards the construction of a decline tunnel for underground drilling to build more geological confidence in the existing inferred 940,000t gold resource at 23g/t containing 695,000oz and determine a decision to mine. The decline tunnel development/underground drilling program is estimated to cost about $50M and Tasman is now working on other funding sources to complete this work, a prerequisite to accessing the PGF funding.

Aus Tin Mining is planning a March 2020 resumption of operations at its shuttered Granville tin mine in Tasmania, Australia after agreeing non-binding indicative terms for up to $A1.5M in loans from a group of sophisticated and professional investors.
The company says the loans will cover the costs of bringing the mine out of care & maintenance, future expansion plans and a proposed demerger of the Granville assets into a new listed company in 2020.
The loans will be convertible into shares in the proposed IPO.

The completion of geological work at Vital Metals’ recently acquired Nechalacho rare earths project in Canada’s NW Territories has resulted in a re-estimate of JORC measured, indicated and inferred resources at 94.7Mt @ 1.46% TREO in the Upper Zone.
MD Geoff Atkins says the high-grade targets and high neodymium-praseodymium content reinforce the Upper Zone’s potential for a near-term start-up accessing easily accessible near-surface mineralisation.
Results are pending on drilling and resampling on the North T deposit, which demonstrates excellent potential for a high-grade start-up, while drilling will commence in early 2020 on the Tardiff Zones.

Global energy company Uranium One is eyeing an equity investment and offtake agreement for at least 51% of lithium production from Prospect Resources’ 87%-owned Arcadia project in Zimbabwe, the world’s seventh largest hard rock lithium project.
Australian-based Prospect, which just completed a DFS update for the project, has given Uranium One exclusivity for 90 days to carry out due diligence and conduct negotiations.
If a deal results it will add to the world-wide asset portfolio of Uranium One, a former listed Canadian company now wholly owned by Russian nuclear energy agency ROSATOM.

Lower 1st half 2020 (H1 20) gold production from the Young-Davidson mine in Canada is expected to see Alamos Gold’s FY/CY20 output fall to 425,000oz-465,000oz from FY/CY19 expectations of 480,000oz-520,000oz.
The fall is expected to be accompanied by total cash costs from its Young-Davidson, Mulatos, Mexico, and Island Gold, Canada, operations up to $US770oz-$810oz from $710oz-$750oz and AISC to $1,020oz-$1,060oz from $920oz-$960oz.
The lower production from Young-Davidson will occur while completing the tie-in of the upper and lower mines, as well as the end of production from El Chanate, Mexico.
The outlook for FY/CY21 is for production up to 500,000oz from existing operating mines, primarily driven by higher production from Young-Davidson driven by increased mining rates.

Shareholders in Australian royalty house Royalco Resources have been told they should accept the $A12.65M takeover offer by Fitzroy River Corp, to avoid being trapped with an illiquid asset and little chance of an alternative offer.
The advice comes from David Croll, Royalco’s only independent director – fellow directors Susan Thomas and Malcolm McComas also sit on the Fitzroy board.
Croll notes the 24cps offer is 25% above Royalco’s weighted average value and the overall value is 50% higher than its net assets of $8.41M in June 2019.

Western Australia-based strategic metals company TNG has signed a deal with leading Indian mining conglomerate and 9.84% shareholder, Vimson Group, for the LoM off-take of the high-purity iron ore products from TNG’s flagship 100%- owned Mt Peake Vanadium-Titanium-Iron Project in Australia’s Northern Territory.
The binding term sheet covers all the iron products planned to be produced by Mt Peake on an FOB basis for global marketing/distribution, for a fixed commission. TNG is looking to produce about 500,000tpa of iron oxide fines from its planned Darwin-based TIVAN® processing facility, alongside high-purity vanadium pentoxide and titanium pigment products.
The latest deal follows yesterday’s announcement of completion of off-take agreements for all the vanadium pentoxide production from Mt Peake with global commodities trader Gunvor covering up to 40% of the proposed 6,000tpa output. Earlier deals with Korea’s WOOJIN covered the other 60% of vanadium output and with Swiss chemicals distributor DKSH for all its titanium.

Euro Manganese has named China’s Changsha Research Institute for Mining and Metallurgy to supply the technology and equipment package for a demonstration plant to produce high-purity electrolytic manganese metal and manganese sulphate monohydrate at its 100%-owned Chvaletice project in Czechia.
Subject to financing, commissioning of the $US2.5M plant in two existing buildings is due to start by the Dec 2020 qtr.
It’s expected to produce up to 100kg/day of dry crystalline HPMSM from 32kg/day of HPEMM.
The Canadian company has named Beijing General Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy’s Technology Group as lead process engineer for the Chvaletice FS.

Australian-based Walkabout Resources is asking the shareholders who advanced it $A5M in a 3-month bridging loan in Oct for a bit more time due to delays in finalising an international development funding process for its 100%-owned Lindi Jumbo graphite project in Tanzania.
Walkabout says it’s unlikely to complete its previously announced $US40M international funding process through investment bank Pareto Securities by end-2019 as planned due to ongoing management presentations to global investors and subsequent due diligence.
It’s also assessing alternate funding proposals that could lower the total cost of finance for its proposed $27.8M development.

Australian-based mineral sands producer Base Resources is targeting a Sept 2020 final investment decision on its Toliara project in Madagascar after a DFS reinforced its world-class potential.
The DFS confirmed its March 2019 preliminary study, outlining a $US442M, 13Mtpa stage 1 development that will expand in stage 2 to 19Mtpa at capex of $69M.
Ore reserves of 586Mt @ 6.5% HM are forecast to support steady-state production of 780,000tpa ilmenite, 53,000t zircon and 7,000t rutile over an initial 33-year LOM.
MD Tim Carstens says Base will focus on concluding offtake and funding arrangements while engaging with the national government, which last month ordered a site work shutdown over community protests.

Edenville Energy has signed washed coal offtake agreements for 9,000tpm, about 75% of the current capacity of the refurbished wash plant at its flagship Rukwa project in SW Tanzania.
The company credits its new marketing focus on countries to the north of Tanzania for the sales successes – 6,000tpm to Tara Group in Rwanda and 3,000tpm to Springwood Capital for a Ugandan steelworks.
Edenville aims to begin supply by end-March 2020, but says it must first secure operating capital to fund production. It says the new sales deals should assist its talks with a potential strategic investor and possible equity investor.

The Australian government’s push to encourage mining of critical minerals has seen Multicom Resources granted major project status for its Saint Elmo vanadium project on cattle grazing land 25km east of Julia Creek in NW Queensland.
Saint Elmo holds total measured, indicated and inferred resources of 493.5Mt @ 0.28% V2O5 and 140ppm molybdenum.
Multicom targets 10,000tpa V2O5 initial production over 20 years, with scale up potential subject to market conditions.
Queensland Resources Council chief executive Ian Macfarlane says vanadium is just one of the critical minerals in the state, which also holds globally significant reserves of copper, nickel, zinc, graphite and molybdenum and major deposits of cobalt, rhenium, scandium, tantalum, niobium and lithium.