Mining Breaks

South African producer RBPlat is confident its $US70M acquisition of an 83% stake in the Maseve PGM mine near Rustenburg will go ahead despite a legal challenge by private company Africa Wide Mineral Prospecting and Exploration.
Africa Wide, which held a 17.4% stake in Maseve, has taken action against RBPlat and vendor Platinum Group Metals PL seeking to have the sale invalidated or financial terms improved.
RBPlat says its legal advisers say the Africa Wide claim is weak and they expect to successfully defend the matter.

CMC has begun magnesium lithium production at its Pingyao operations in northern China’s Shanxi province after completing the construction and commissioning of its 108tpa MgLi plant.
The plant utilises proprietary technology to produce a range of high-purity MgLi alloys under a cooperation agreement with Xi’an Nonferrous Metallurgical Design and Research Institute.
MD Tom Blackhurst says MgLi’s lightness, ultra-low density and ultra-high ductility will lead CMC into exciting markets in aviation, aerospace, military and consumer electronics.

Australian-based Graphex posts an updated PFS outlining significantly improved economics for its Chilalo graphite project in Tanzania.
The study calculates pre-production capital expenditure of $US43.6M for the first stage openpit operation to deliver 58,000tpa graphite over the first 2 years, followed by a $32.5M expansion in Year 3 that will sustain production of 108,000tpa for a further 4.3 years.

NTL sees the potential for a significant increase in resources and reserves at its Talisman mine in New Zealand’s Karangahake Gorge after sampling of the muckpile from its first mining of the Mystery vein returned high-grade ore up to 24g/t gold.
The company excavated 5t from the face of the Mystery vein under a resource consent granted in 2013, extending the vein by 1m.
CEO Matthew Hill says excavation deeper into Mystery should provide further confidence on the extent of the vein.

Intermin Resources has lifted post-depletion gold resources at its 100%-owned Teal Gold Project near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia 30% to 562,000oz, following an 80% increase to 289,000oz after mining Teal stages 1 and 2.
A recent 23,545m, 182 RC holes programme, primarily on the Teal, Jacques Find and Peyes Farm deposits, has yielded 4.25Mt @ 2.11g/t Au, using at a 1g/t cut, taking the Teal project total to 8.40Mt @ 2.08g/t, using the same cut. Over 85% of the resources are in the indicated category with mineralisation open in all directions.

West Australian miner Doray expects to complete a mining study by the end of the year for the Da Vinci deposit at its Deflector gold-copper mine after posting a resource upgrade to 248,000t @ 12.5g/t for 100,000oz Au and 0.5% for 1,200t Cu.
Doray says the mining study will enable it to introduce the high-grade Da Vinci ore into the Deflector mine plan as early as possible.

Excelsior Gold shareholders have approved the company’s mutually agreed takeover by Western Australia gold neighbour Spitfire Materials to create a new +2.1Moz resource stand-alone N Kalgoorlie gold production hub with a near future output of circa 100,000oz pa with room for expansion.
The Spitfire offer of 1 share for every 2.208 Excelsior shares, will give Spitfire shareholders 58.3% of the merged entity and Excelsior shareholders 41.7%. Following court approve, it is expected that deal will be implemented Oct 3, 2018.

Rio Tinto has detailed returns to shareholders of $A3.2B post-tax proceeds from its sales of the Hail Creek and Valeria (pre-tax $1.7B), Winchester South ($0.2B) and Kestrel ($2.25B) coal operations in Australia.
It will comprise a buy-back tender for up to 41.2M of Australian-based Rio Tinto Ltd shares, for about $2.7B, plus further on-market purchases of UK-based Rio Tinto plc shares on top of the remaining $1.7B of existing buy-back programs.
The $US500M sale of its Aluminium Dunkerque smelter in northern France to Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty House is incomplete and its $345M sale of the ISAL smelter in Iceland to Hydro collapsed last week.

The share-swap “merger of equals” between Bald Hill lithium mine partners Tawana Resources and Alliance Mineral Assets will continue despite Alliance’s decision to defer its application for an ASX listing, one of the conditions of their deal.
The companies have agreed the ASX listing cannot be met within the merger deadline. Alliance will retain its SGX listing before eventually pursuing a dual listing.
Tawana MD Mark Calderwood says the companies will continue to work towards a simplified ownership and operational structure and a larger entity.

Australian uranium processing developer Marenica Energy will increase marketing efforts for its U-pgrade beneficiation technology after raising $A1.2M in a placement of 11.8M shares at 10c to professional and sophisticated investors.
MD Murray Hill says Marenica aims to take advantage of the uranium sector’s improving investment environment adding to the impetus of the award of patents for the U-pgrade process and its progress with third-party projects.
As well as increasing its marketing reach to external resource owners, the funds will support acquisitions of mining assets for development.

Intrepid Mines has moved to consolidate exploration rights in the under-explored Plutonic and Marymia greenstone belt, considered one of Western Australia’s largest gold camps, through an agreed off-market takeover bid for fellow explorer ı. The 1-for-3 shares offer constitutes a reverse takeover under ASX rules.
If successful, it will establish a well-funded and experienced company holding 3,200sqkm of contiguous land position in the Little Sandy Desert region about 700km east of Carnarvon.

New opportunities are opening up at the Dalgaranga project in the Murchison region of Western Australia, where Gascoyne Resources has intersected gold grades up to 1,450g/t (46.6oz/t).
The ultra high-grade mineralisation occurred within 8m @ 373.5g/t from a depth of 53m, in one of the two initial RC holes at the Tanqueray prospect, just 1.8km north of Dalgaranga’s 1.3Moz resource.
MD Mike Dunbar says, as well as delivering by far the highest grades at Dalgaranga, the new prospect with its very coarse visible gold within quartz-rich clay highlights the potential for a completely different mineralisation style.

West Australian mineral sands developer Sheffield Resources has been offered $A95M from the government-funded Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund for its Thunderbird project in the Kimberley region.
The $30M project development and $65M infrastructure development facility will support construction and upgrading of minesite roads, power generation and accommodation plus port logistics and shiploading infrastructure for the planned 42-year mining operation.
Sheffield says it will no longer require a $US25M contingent instrument facility negotiated with Taurus Mining Finance Fund in 2017.

Indonesian-focused miner Kingsrose has delineated mineral resources of 81,000oz gold and 769,000oz silver at its Way Linggo gold project in southern Sumatra after reaching full production as an openpit mine.
The JORC-compliant indicated and inferred resource comprises 354,000t @ 7.2g/t Au and 68g/t Ag.
The resource update is the first since Kingsrose reopened the mine via the first of a series of pit cutbacks last year, after suspending its narrow-vein underground operation in mid-2013.

Europe/Americas gold-base metals miner Eldorado Gold has laid a €750M payment claim against the Greek Govt for damages arising from delays in the issue of permits for the Skouries Gold Project, including damages for out-of-pocket costs and loss of profits.
The application is a non-judicial request for payment and does not initiate legal proceedings. It follows Eldorado moving the 140,000oz pa gold/67Mlbs copper pa, 23-year LoM Skouries project to care and maintenance in Nov 2017.

Velocity Minerals sees an independent PEA, flagging gold production of 461,000oz over an initial 6-years from the $US98M Rozino Gold project in SE Bulgaria, as the 1st step in the development of a multi satellite deposit hub operation producing more than 100,000oz pa gold for over 10-years.

Tahoe Resources has laid off another 169 workers, 2-weeks after the country’s top court kept in place a more than 14-month suspension of operations at the company’s Escobal silver mine, Reuters reports.
The layoffs now total 872 since the company’s property was forced to halt operations last year after a Guatemalan court suspended the licenses after an environmental organization filed an appeal alleging the country’s Ministry of Energy and Mines did not consult with the Xinca indigenous people before awarding the Escobal mining license to Tahoe. Earlier this month, Guatemala’s Constitutional Court upheld the suspension, meaning Tahoe must return to the Xinca for consultations in order to try to regain its license.

South Africa’s Competition Commission has recommended the nation’s Competition Tribunal approve the £285M all-shares takeover of Lonmin by Sibanye Gold, following similar approvals by the UK Competition and Markets Authority and SA Reserve Bank.
The merger of the two major platinum producers is expected to be completed in H2 2018, subject to approvals of shareholders of both companies and the UK courts.
Sibanye CEO Neal Froneman says the SACC decision is subject to conditions acceptable to the company relating to mitigation of job losses and honouring existing Lonmin commitments with suppliers and communities.