Mining Breaks

The $A15M IPO for new nickel-cobalt explorer Galileo Mining, founded by renowned Western Australia-based prospector Mark Creasy, has closed with the company to list on the ASX May 29, 2018.
Galileo, in which Creasy holds 31%, has 2 kick-off projects -- the Norseman cobalt-nickel project, 190km S of Kalgoorlie, WA, with a JORC indicated/inferred resource containing over 22,000t cobalt and 106,000t nickel, and the Fraser Range nickel-copper-cobalt project, 300km E of Kalgoorlie.
Other significant Galileo investors included Independence Group and Mineral Resources’ founder Chris Ellison with the Top-10 shareholders comprising over 50% of the share register. Based on the $0.20cps offer price, Galileo will have a market cap of $24M.

Egypt gold miner Centamin has cut FY/CY18 production from its Sukari mine to between 505,000oz-515,000oz at cash costs up to $US625oz-$640oz produced and AISC to $875oz-$890oz from the previous 580,000oz at cash costs $555oz and AISC $770oz.
The fall is a result of persisting low grades from the transitional zone in the open pit, combined with lower development grade from underground resulting in lower production ore tonnage mined. While the updated mine plan forecasts a weaker Q2 18 production profile, it is expected to strengthen in Q3 and Q4.

Australian miner Aurelia has raised its June half-year production guidance by 50% at the Peak mine in central NSW after just one month of operation since completing its acquisition.
Peak delivered 19,116oz gold in April, compared to its full March qtr production of 25,433oz.
Aurelia is now forecasting total production of 55,000-65,000oz for the 6 months to end-June, up from its previous target of 35,000-45,000oz.

South Africa and Tanzania diamond miner Petra Diamonds is raising $US178M via a fully underwritten 5 for 8 rights issue to cut its $600M+ debt load and increase financial flexibility.
The company, which has 4 underground mines in South African and 1 in Tanzania, will use the cash to overcome the costs of a number of operational delays, primarily the FY17 delay in bringing the new plant at its flagship Cullinan mine on stream, impact this had on the ramp-up of production from the new C-Cut Block Cave at Cullinan and a slower than anticipated ramp-up of the new Sub-level Cave at Finsch. The stronger Rand vs the $US has also impacted the company’s financial position.
The rights issue will be used to accelerate a reduction in leverage to a more sustainable level of 2x or less consolidated net debt/consolidated EBITDA by the end of FY 2020.

With the performance failure of the BIOX® process circuit at gold miner Metals Exploration’s flagship Runruno gold-molybdenum project in the Philippines hopefully behind it, the company has managed to cut Dec 2017 year (FY/CY17) after tax losses to £13.4M from 2016’s £18.03M loss.
However, items that may be subsequently re-classified to profit or loss, including exchange losses of £11.37M from a positive £17.56M, could potentially blow the comprehensive loss out to £24.78M from a £440,991 loss. Since year-end, the BIOX ® process circuit has achieved and operated at design throughput for periods of over a month, with the overall circuit increasing towards design recovery of circa 91%.

The transfer of control of Australian coal explorer East Energy to Hong Kong-based Noble Resources has begun, with Noble nominee Chris Thoroughgood joining the board as a non-executive director.
At the same time, former Noble executive Rex Littlewood steps up as MD-chairman following the immediate resignation of founding director Mark Basso-Brusa.
The changes come although Noble has yet to convert its $A7.5M debt facility into equity, which will result in it holding up to 97.43% of the company. Noble appointees will replace all incumbent East officers once the conversion occurs.

New owner Copper Mountain is preparing major exploration at the Cloncurry copper project in NW Qld after completing its $A93M takeover of Australian developer Altona Mining.
Copper Mountain has approved a $5M program to follow up Altona's shallow reconnaissance drilling in 2017 targeting a NI 43-101/JORC mineral resource, test new targets and support FS work on the proposed Eva copper mine.
It's well prepared for the work. The Altona takeover gave it access to about $30M cash and brought the vastly experienced Alistair Cowden on board.

Paladin Energy has bowed to the inevitable at its Langer Heinrich uranium mine in Namibia, announcing its closure in the face of stubbornly low prices.
Australian-based Paladin warned a month ago that care & maintenance was a likely outcome for the mine, which has been processing medium-grade stockpiles.
There will be a "run-down" phase of up to 3 months while operations are suspended and cleared of remaining ore.
Paladin says the suspension will preserve the project's value while it awaits a market revival.

A higher proportion of gold concentrate sales and increase in gold doré inventory saw Azerbaijan-focused miner Anglo Asian's FY2017 operating profit fall to $US9.2M, from $11.7M a year earlier.
Gold production fell to 59,617oz (FY2016: 65,394oz) while copper rose to 1,991t (1,941t) and silver 172,853oz (165,131oz) at AISC of $604/oz ($616/oz).
Total revenue slid to $71.8M ($79.2M).

The continued strong performance of the Proyecto Riotinto project in SW Spain has lifted Atalaya's March qtr (Q1) after-tax profit to €8.8M, from €5.7M a year earlier.
A 7.2% increase in copper production to 9,441t (Q1FY2017: 8,805t) at AISC of $US2.65/lb ($2.01/lb) saw revenue double to €52.7M (€25.6M) and EBITDA improve to €15M (€12.6M).
Net cash flow from operations was €18.4M after changes in working capital (€14.3M).

South African miner Pan African is on track for annualised gold production of 21,000oz from the Barberton Mines tailings retreatment plant in the next month with commissioning of its regrind mill heading to completion on schedule and budget this week.
The 5-month construction is planned to reduce the coarseness of material from the Harper Dump and will improve material handling and recoveries.
Pan African's Elikhulu project remains ahead of schedule for first gold production in Aug, to generate over 70,000ozpa including Evander tailings retreatment once in full production.

Growing Australian miner Whitehaven will move to 100% ownership of the Winchester South coking coal project with binding agreement to buy the 25% held by retailer Scentre Group.
The deal follows its $US200M deal in March to acquire Rio Tinto's 75% interest in the undeveloped 356Mt JORC resource project in the Bowen Basin, Qld.
Consideration for the Scentre Group transaction has not been disclosed, but Whitehaven says it's consistent with the Rio deal.
Whitehaven says development work will begin at Winchester as soon as the transactions are completed, expected to be in H2 2018.

Bauxite producer ABx has begun the process for development of a pilot plant to produce aluminium fluoride for aluminium smelters and lithium ion battery manufacturers.
ABx approved incorporation of wholly owned subsidiary ALCORE to fund and manage construction of a $A2.5M AlF3 pilot plant at Berkeley Vale in NSW.
The ALCORE technology converts raw bauxite worth about $50/t into AlF3 and by-products worth 20 times the value at operating cost of $400-500/t bauxite.
CEO Ian Levy says funding talks are under way, with an IPO in 2019 possible.

Gold explorer Spitfire Materials has boosted the potential of its flagship, 100%-owned, 1.26Moz resource Aphrodite Gold Project with a $A1M+ shares/cash deal to buy the remaining 49% of the Mulwarrie Gold Project, 150km NW of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
The company has already earned 51% of the project, 65km from Aphrodite, under a farm-in/JV agreement with Goldfield Argonaut P/L. Under the new agreement, Spitfire will issue Goldfield Argonaut 10M of its shares to be escrowed for 12 months and $100,000 cash in its quest to build a sizeable, high-quality gold resource inventory centred on the Aphrodite project.

Pantoro has declared a maiden underground probable ore reserve of 62,000oz @ 5.4g/t gold at the Wagtail and Rowdies deposits, the targets of its planned underground development of the Nicolsons project in Western Australia's Kimberley region.
The company has updated JORC mineral resources for the deposits to 126,000oz (574,000t @ 6.8g/t), with the mineralisation open along strike and at depth.

First Cobalt has advanced a $C5M bridging loan to enable fellow Canadian US Cobalt to continue its drilling program at the Iron Creek project in Idaho, USA ahead of the scheduled completion of their takeover about May 31.
The loan agreement comes as the BC Supreme Court approves the $150M all-shares transaction that will advance FCC's drive to become the leading North American pure-play cobalt company.
FCC says the loan will become inter-company debt and be terminated once the takeover is completed.

A six-fold increase in resources has raised expectations of the scoping study/PEA of the Cauchari lithium project in Jujuy, Argentina.
The update by Peru-based FloSolutions following phase 2 drilling by 75% JV holder Advantage Lithium established inferred resources of 1,200Mcum @ 450mg/l lithium and 4,028mg/l potassium for 3Mt LCE.
Advantage's 25% JV partner, Australian-based Orocobre, says the resource covers a significantly larger area and goes deeper in Cauchari's NW and SE sectors. Drilling is underway to upgrade the inferred resource and underlying brine for a DFS due in the June 2019 qtr.

South African gold miner AngloGold Ashanti plans to cut 2,000 jobs from the roughly 8,200 employed at its domestic operations to further cut costs, Reuters reports.
The restructuring will affect employees across the company, including the region’s executive committee and senior management. It follows the closure of a South African mine and sale of 2 others in the country to local rival Harmony Gold and China’s Heaven-Sent SA Sunshine last year. The company’s remaining South African assets are the Mponeng mine and a surface operation.