20 October 2016
Perth, Western Australia
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BASE METALS
Date set for Woodlawn start
Heron Resources Ltd has set itself the Woodlawn could be in production within two years, according to Heron
challenging task of producing first
concentrate from the Woodlawn zinc- copper, 1.3% lead, 0.31 g/t gold and outcome for both sides. That’s not always
copper project within the next two years. the case when these sorts of mergers
31 g/t silver), but Heron considers this happen, but it’s been a great outcome.
On the back of releasing a robust
feasibility study in late June, Heron has to only be a starter case for mining the “I have to say we’ve got an exceptional
outlined its bold development plans for team that has come together from a mix
Woodlawn, about 30km south of Goul- brownfields project. of both Heron and TriAusMin personnel.
burn in New South Wales. Everyone is very keen to work together.
The feasibility study is an update of a No one has a precious position in this,
First up on the company’s agenda is we all just want to see this actually hap-
project funding, with Heron managing di- preliminary economic assessment – Her- pen. You couldn’t ask for a better group
rector Wayne Taylor revealing to Paydirt of guys supporting us.”
his intentions to lock down development on has a secondary listing on the TSX
capital during the next quarter. Taylor said Woodlawn is one of the few
– released in April 2015 and Taylor said zinc projects which could be brought into
“The idea is to have a sensible funding production within two years and believes
structure together by around October or the latest findings had come back as ex- his company was capable of achieving
November,” Taylor said. “It’s a relatively that milestone in the first half of 2018.
tight timeframe, which could mean taking pected.
traditional mainstream bank debt, but we Woodlawn will only fill a small void in
think we can do it.” “We’ve got a reserve in there which we the zinc market left by the mothballed
Century and Lisheen mines, however,
The feasibility study found the pro- think will be sufficient to get a sensible Taylor is buoyed by several market indi-
ject could deliver production of 40,000 cators which suggest now is a great time
tpa zinc, 10,000 tpa copper and 12,000 funding structure together, but it is very to be developing a zinc project.
tpa lead for $163 million, including con-
tingency, over an initial mine life of 9.3 much a subset of what we think the ulti- “One interesting facet in the zinc mar-
years. ket which is also somewhat comforting is
mate project is going to be,” Taylor said. it’s the first time we’ve seen any condu-
Key financials from the study include a cive discipline, particularly by Glencore
post-tax NPV of $207 million, IRR of 32% “Time will tell in terms of your standard who have pulled 500,000t from the mar-
and net cash flow of $402 million. Pay- ket,” Taylor said.
back will occur within 2.3 years of com- debt funding process how much support
missioning of the mine. “They’ve gone on record to say they’re
we’ll get from the primary lenders. Until not going to destroy their valuable assets
Taylor said his company had received and ground just for the sake of producing
plenty of positive feedback following the you get approved terms, you’re never metal…pulling a third of their production
release of the feasibility study, particu- has had a meaningful impact in the avail-
larly from the equity markets. Heron has quite sure where it’s going to land.” ability of metals.
been working with Azure Capital on po-
tential funding options for Woodlawn for Taylor said his company was currently “That discipline in the marketplace is
more than a year. fantastic to have. I can’t see it happening
assessing some project op- in copper, for example. I think it’s been a
“A lot of people are telling us they want great new characteristic of the zinc mar-
to be in zinc,” Taylor said. “To them, timisation options as well as ket that hasn’t been there in the past.”
it’s not a case of if [the market turns],
it’s when. Just by going undertaking a discovery-fo- – Michael Washbourne
through the Heron story
and the story of Woodlawn, cused drilling campaign on
there seems to be a good
level of enthusiasm to get the 632sq km property.
behind it and support it.
Last month marked the
“We’ll obviously get a
bit more colour when we two-year anniversary of
go and seek hard money
on the table, but the ear- Heron’s merger with Tri-
ly stage indications are
there’s quite a number of AusMin Ltd and the addition
funds that would dearly
love to participate.” of Woodlawn to its portfolio.
Woodlawn boasts an Taylor, who was previously
underground reserve of 2.8mt @ 14%
zinc equivalent (5.5% zinc, 1.6% copper, managing director of Tri-
1.9% lead, 0.45 g/t gold and 42 g/t silver)
and a reclaimed tailings reserve of 9.5mt Wayne Taylor AusMin, said it was the clos-
@ 6% zinc equivalent (2.2% zinc, 0.5% est thing to a perfect union.
“It’s been quite interest-
ing looking back in hindsight and asking
what we could have done differently –
and there really isn’t anything,” he said.
“Shareholders of both companies, I
think, would agree that it’s been a great
PAGE 52 SEPTEMBER 2016 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT
Supporters onboard with Venturex
One indication that a company is In the meantime, Nitschke
taking positive steps forward is said the company was “running
the following it builds on its share as fast as its legs could possibly
register. take them in bringing the Sulphur
Euroz Securities Ltd has recently Springs project into production”.
shown its support for copper-zinc Over the last six months Ventu-
player Venturex Resources Ltd, rex has reworked Sulphur Springs,
while hot-to-trot gold producer 30km from Pilbara Minerals Ltd’s
Northern Star Resources Ltd has Pilgangoora lithium-tantalum pro-
also reaffirmed its commitment to ject, and come up with reduced
the company. mining costs.
Northern Star is a large share- Sulphur Springs is develop-
holder in Venturex and has taken ment-ready, however, Venturex
up its full entitlement in a funding remains entrenched in an optimi-
package comprising a $1 million sation phase.
share placement to cornerstone in- Venturex is achieving cash flow from the reprocessing of So far, Venturex has reduced
vestors and a 2-for-5 entitlements copper oxide from heap leach pads at Whim Creek pre-production capex by 28% to
issue to raise $4 million. $202 million, increased mine life
Euroz is the sole book runner and lead from heap leach pads is expected to de- by 30% to 11 years and reduced C1 cop-
manager of the $5 million fundraising, liver $1-$1.5 million to the company in per cash costs by 46% to 84c/lb.
due for completion at the time of print, each of the next two financial years. “Most importantly we have reduced
and has the right to place any shortfall The income essentially underwrites the risk profile. Mining for the first four
securities. Venturex’s corporate overheads and years will be open pit and will enable us
Venturex is unlike many of its peers frees it up to focus on growth opportuni- to understand the geotechnical, geology,
in the junior sector in that it is currently ties. hydrology and metallurgy before we take
generating cash – albeit on a small scale A focus for the company has been look- on the challenges of actually going un-
– and has exposure to zinc, a commod- ing for extensions to the existing copper derground,” Nitschke said.
ity which is in vogue due to forecasts of sulphide resources at Whim Creek, with “At Sulphur Springs, the supergene
supply deficits. three standout targets identified for drill- copper oxide resource we have identified
Venturex is positioned to capitalise on ing, Nitschke said. is within tens of metres of the sulphur val-
any zinc price improvements, as its 7.3mt Two of the targets are basically ex- ley floor. It’s an inferred resource, so we
@ 1.3% copper and 3.1% zinc Whim tensions to the known mineralisation need to do more work to prove it up and
Creek and 13.4mt @ 1.5% copper and at Mons Cupri (4.6mt @ 0.9% copper, get some decent metallurgical work on it,
4% zinc Sulphur Springs projects are 1.3% zinc, 0.5% lead and 24 g/t silver) but we’re pretty confident it is there and it
robust enough to make money at spot and Mons Cupri North West and another is going to be a good project. Most impor-
prices. which is potentially a totally new offset of tantly it is a project that makes money at
“I think investors are understanding the mineralisation not previously identified. spot and it has a capital cost that we can
zinc story and base metals story; zinc is “We will be drilling those in the next achieve with our current balance sheet.”
the next lithium and graphite,” Venturex few weeks and it is always good to take a It is possible Sulphur Springs could be
managing director John Nitschke told punt on someone drilling,” Nitschke said in play in 2018 as a standalone project,
Paydirt.
in early August. while there is always scope to treat ore
“It’s another fundamental part through the Whim Creek facility
of our society, it’s main uses which Blackrock Metals Pty Ltd
are for galvanising the cars we has the rights to.
drive, the white goods we use There is potential to negotiate
and the infrastructure we use as another deal with Blackrock to
part of our day to day life, so it is incorporate the Sulphur Springs
a tremendously important part project with operations at Whim
of our society. I think people in Creek, 150km to the west.
general are seeing base met- Venturex is working on a new
als as the next opportunity. Of reserve estimate at Sulphur
course, we have a lot of work to Springs, where a MoU with
get the Venturex story out there, Macarthur Minerals Ltd over
but we have been getting trac- the lithium rights has been ex-
tion with that and the proof is ecuted. The MoU between Ven-
getting Euroz onboard to sup- turex and Macarthur has been
port us.” recently expanded to include
Venturex’s current value prop- lithium rights at Whim Creek.
osition is the cash flow produced Whim Creek is expected to generate $1-1.5 million a year in – Mark Andrews
from Whim Creek, whereby the
reprocessing of copper oxide the next two financial years for Venturex
AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT SEPTEMBER 2016 PAGE 53
BASE METALS
TNG revives spin-off strategy
Northern Territory-focused TNG will be the flagship project in the new
Ltd has revived plans to spin-off company, however, Mount Hardy
its non-core base metals assets into (two large intersections of copper
a new listed vehicle. and gold) and McArthur River (sur-
TNG, which is rapidly advancing face grades of up 20% copper along
its flagship Mount Peake vanadi- a 9km zone) also appear promising.
um-titanium-iron project, originally Burton said the spin-out would
sought and received shareholder deliver many benefits to TNG share-
approval to divest its suite of zinc, holders, including “free shares” in a
lead and copper projects in May company that will be valued at 20c/
2015. However, prevailing market share upon listing and retaining ex-
conditions forced the company to posure to projects they already own.
defer its demerger plans and the Holding shares in a zinc-focused
shareholder approval expired last company ahead of an impending
November. supply deficit was also advanta-
With sentiment towards base geous, according to Burton.
metals, particularly zinc, improv- “The market outlook is very
ing on a weekly basis, TNG is now strong and positive for zinc,” he
seeking re-approval from share- said. “There’s a shortage of supply
holders to float its subsidiary, Todd because a lot of zinc mines have
River Resources Ltd, on the ASX closed. And there’s a lot of difficult
via an IPO. deposits still around. They’re high
“With our focus on Mount Peake, The proposed suite of base metals projects to be housed grade, but they’re going to be very
we haven’t been able to add any in TNG spin-off Todd River Resources expensive to develop.
value to these projects for our “Some of the new discoveries are
shareholders,” TNG managing director said. “We were talking to a very large, very deep as well. The ones we’ve got
Paul Burton told Paydirt on the sidelines Hong Kong-based fund, but that didn’t are very shallow, particularly up there at
of Diggers & Dealers. eventuate because of the market condi- Manbarrum. Ours is easily extracted and
“We can’t spread ourselves too thin, tions and the base metals cycle. they have good grades.”
only being a junior explorer, so the “It’s much better this year, it’s much im- Meanwhile, TNG and strategic part-
board’s view is the best way to add value proved and we think now we’ll get much ner SMS Group have identified a poten-
for shareholders is to put these projects better value doing an IPO. We’ve had a tial $50 million annual saving on project
into a new entity, allow an in-specie dis- good reception from the people we’ve operating costs at Mount Peake, about
tribution to existing shareholders, retain approached on this concept, so we think 230km north of Alice Springs.
a shareholding from TNG’s perspective it will go extremely well.” SMS applied an innovative redesign
and let it go off and operate on its own Only three resources companies have of the vanadium extraction circuit at the
after completing a capital listed on the ASX via an IPO TIVAN refinery, yielding a 98% recovery
raising by way of an IPO.” this year – Soon Mining Ltd, of the metal and the potential for further
October looms as the Graphex Mining Ltd and Lith- capital and operating cost reductions.
likely earliest listing date ium Power International Ltd Last year’s DFS found the project
for Todd River should the – and all were trading above could support production of 17,560t va-
demerger once again be their initial listing prices at the nadium pentoxide, 236,000t titanium di-
approved by TNG share- time of print. oxide pigment and 637,000t pig iron over
holders. A notice of meet- “We didn’t base our de- a 17-year mine life for $970 million pre-
ing request was with the cisions on those because production capex.
ASX at the time of print. they’re looking at some of the Operating costs are estimated at $167/t
If the company is able more popular elements that and the mine is forecast to generate net
to complete the minimum Paul Burton are catching a lot of attention annual operating cash flow of $780 mil-
subscription requirements in the market at the moment, lion, a NPV of $4.9 billion, pre-tax IRR of
for an IPO sometime next but certainly there seems to 41% and payback within four years.
month, Burton expects the new entity will be a lot more investor confidence coming “Everything looks very strong and the
immediately kickstart a drilling campaign back in,” Burton said. market outlook for those strategic metals
at the Manbarrum zinc project. “We’re seeing that not only in Australia, is only going to get better,” Burton said.
Burton said his company had consid- but certainly in London and those impor- “We’ve got some very significant devel-
ered several divestment options, includ- tant financial sectors. The base metals opment agreements with Downer and
ing JVs, for its base metals projects, as cycle is coming back, there’s no doubt SMS Group and we’ve got binding off-
well as some gold and aluminium assets, about it, and we have some very strong takes in place for life of mine on two of
but an IPO now appeared to offer the base metals projects, so to raise $4-5 those commodities and we’re working on
best value for shareholders. million we think is an achievable task.” the third as we speak.”
“The one we really wanted to go for last With more than 45mt of combined – Michael Washbourne
year was a cornerstone investor,” Burton zinc-lead-silver resources, Manbarrum
PAGE 54 SEPTEMBER 2016 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT
Metalicity rears Admiral for JV
Admiral Bay has a resource of 111mt zinc-lead-silver
AJV deal is the catalyst Metalicity Ltd ure says much about current
needs to finally force the market to
recognise the value inherent in the com- market sentiment.
pany’s massive Admiral Bay base metals
project, according to managing director “Admiral Bay is a very
Matt Gauci.
large, long-life project and
The junior explorer picked up Admiral
Bay and its 111mt zinc-lead-silver re- isn’t the kind of story eq-
source for a song in 2014 from the ad-
ministrators of Kagara Ltd. At the time, uity markets catch-up with
neither base metals nor juniors holding quickly,” Gauci told Paydirt
big ticket projects were garnering much
interest from the investment community, recently. “But, it is the larg-
but Metalicity’s belief that sentiment to-
wards both would eventually change est undeveloped zinc project
made the acquisition a compelling case.
And now, with the market more condu- in Australia and is still our
cive to juniors’ stories and the LME zinc
price putting on 50% in 2016, the oppor- main project.”
tunity Metalicity first identified may be
nigh. Admiral Bay’s flagship
Gauci admits it was no surprise that status within Metalicity was
the Admiral Bay acquisition didn’t lead
to a company-defining rerating for his confirmed in July when a
firm. Indeed, the fact Metalicity has en-
joyed more market support on the back scoping study confirmed
of expanding its greenfields lithium ten-
the technical feasibility of
the project. Although new
ASX rules prevented Met- Admiral Bay was bought for a song in 2014 from
alicity from releasing the full Kagara Ltd’s administrators
scoping study numbers, the
company did announce an associated in- The study was the clearest indication
crease in resource to 170mt @ 7.5% zinc yet of Admiral Bay’s development poten-
equivalent. tial. Discovered by CRA in 1981 during
The study also confirmed open stoping oil and gas exploration, the project has
as the base case mining method but rec- suffered a stop-start development histo-
ommended investigation of longwall min- ry. Junior base metals developer Kagara
ing and further automation in the PFS. eventually took over the project in 2004
AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT SEPTEMBER 2016 PAGE 55
and while the company spent consider- rently be enamoured by the Admiral Bay sibility study work until a deci-
able money in its early years of owner- story but the situation is very different sion to mine is taken.
ship, the increasingly fraught position of within the base metals sector itself, ac-
its Queensland operations meant atten- cording to Gauci. “We’ve managed the project
tion and funding was diverted away from to this stage and have built a
Admiral Bay. “There is completely different motiva- strong relationship with stake-
tion from JV partners versus equity mar- holders so I think any partner
Metalicity eventually picked up the kets and we continue our engagement would want to keep the com-
project from Kagara’s administrators in with every major zinc player in the world,” pany in there. A 10% or 20%
2014. he said. “This is a project with a 20-40 free-carried stake in a project
year mine life and it is that question about of this size would be valuable
“Our mandate was to take the project security of supply that keeps popping up to any junior company. It is the
out of administration and clean it up un- when we speak with smelters, etc...” kind of deal that could be de-
der a simple, single owner,” Gauci said. scribed as a company-maker.”
“We did that and have since doubled the The closure of some of the world’s
resource and increased the grade by most longstanding base metals mines Without published PFS num-
30%. The scoping study has shown it is has only increased the need for smelters bers, it is impossible to define
technically feasible and I think it is now in to find reliable resources of material. how large an Admiral Bay op-
excellent shape.” eration could be and Gauci is
“Admiral Bay is not a project that needs confident there is ample op-
The challenge remains funding such a to be built in this cycle or the next,” Gauci portunity to expand the 111mt
project. Its remote location, 250km south said. “This is a multi-cycle asset.” resource, which remains open
of Broome in the Kimberley region of in all directions.
Western Australia, provides task enough Although informal discussions have
but the depth of the orebody – minerali- already taken place, Metalicity will be “We’ve already doubled the
sation begins 1,200m below the surface stepping up the JV process as the PFS contained tonnes and we will
– means capital costs are beyond the ca- begins. continue work on the resource
pacity of an ASX-listed junior. in the PFS because it remains
“We’ve not really set a timeframe for open in all directions. The
Gauci said the company had started bringing a partner into Admiral Bay,” depth means it is very expen-
the process of attracting a project part- Gauci said. “It will take about 18 months sive to drill – around $1 million
ner to fund the next stage of Admiral to complete the PFS so anytime in that Matt Gauci a hole – so we want to make
Bay’s development. period would be suitable. We didn’t want sure we don’t have to drill the
to give up our position until we had rec- entire thing out because it is not some-
“We have entered the PFS process ognised value but now we are at the PFS thing a junior would or could pay for.”
and have already begun talking to con- stage we have around 40 players looking Instead, the company is combing the
tractors about helping us with the study,” seriously at it.” seismic data originally produced by CRA
he said. “In addition, we are talking to 40 with the mineral drilling data to produce a
potential JV partners about entering the He said the ideal deal structure would 3D model to restrict the amount of drilling
project.” see a partner pay cash to secure a JV needed.
agreement before earning a majority “That work will only be truly reflected
Traditional equity markets may not cur- share in the project by undertaking fea- once we have a PFS partner onboard,”
Gauci said.
In the meantime Metalicity can work on
improving its share price through explo-
ration on its ground in the Pilgangoora
lithium district of the Pilbara.
“We’ve made progress with the lithium
targets and will drill some of them this
year and we are hoping for a rerating off
the back of those results,” Gauci said.
Among its widespread lithium portfolio,
Metalicity has the largest tenure package
in Pilgangoora – home to Pilbara Miner-
als Ltd, Altura Mining Ltd, Dakota Miner-
als Ltd and other lithium hopefuls – and
has struck a MoU over off-take with 10%
shareholder and lithium cathode produc-
er Shanghai Metals.
“Despite all the talk of a bubble, the
Chinese users are getting more and
more bullish about the future of lithium
markets,” Gauci said.
– Dominic Piper
PAGE 56 SEPTEMBER 2016 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT
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BASE METALS
Aeon in the cobalt hunt
Cobalt rarely attracts attention in a Hamish Collins cobalt from 34m; 12m @ 7.58% zinc and
company’s portfolio. 0.11% cobalt from 64m.
It is because the silver-grey metal is Walford Creek, 100km north of the old
usually a by-product of more sought after Century zinc mine, over a 6km strike Collins said the past 18 months had
nickel and copper resources, however, a which bears an indicated and inferred been spent tinkering with different pro-
rebound in pricing for cobalt this year has resource of 73mt for 300,000t copper, ject parameters focusing on a large-
sparked some interest in the commodity. 639,000t lead, 639,000t zinc, 60,000t scale project, however, the latest round
cobalt and 57 moz silver. of results are forcing Aeon to change its
“Cobalt is definitely one [commodity] I thinking.
want to tell more people about. I have a Copper is the metal holding most value
list of the resources in Australia, it is a within the resource, about 45% at the “We will probably make it smaller.
by-product, and we are up there in terms moment, which is hosted within a fault The processing for the copper-lead-zinc
of size of resource and cobalt metal in extending over 20km. which is the base metals component can
the ground. The big producers of cobalt be done via the standard/conventional
in Australia are Murrin Murrin from the Aeon has 20km of that fault where the float plant producing copper, lead and
nickel laterite and Glencore’s Mt Isa ore- mineralisation is structurally bound and zinc concentrates. We have done a lot
body which has very similar mineralogy at the end of June it had completed a of work on that and our recoveries are
to ours,” Aeon Metals managing director round of drilling totalling 3,450m over 20 good. The cobalt is effectively the tailings
Hamish Collins told Paydirt. holes, with 11 holes pending release at of the copper-lead-zinc float plant and
the time of print. there are a number of methods you could
The bulk of cobalt production – about use to recover it. We’ve looked at many,
60-70% of global supply – comes from Results from the programme will go including roasting,” Collins said.
the DRC and with the metal’s importance towards increasing the company’s con-
to the lithium-ion battery sector, there is fidence in the resource and an upgrade. With cobalt grades north of 1,300 ppm
expected to be a surge in demand for it. or 0.13%, a conventional Hydromet cir-
The drilling was focused on 600-700m cuit – like Glencore is using at Mt Isa – is
“The old comment that everyone strike and Collins expects a high-grade one processing option Aeon is consider-
seems to be pulling out now is that there component to be a feature of the up- ing.
is more cobalt in a lithium battery than grade, considering prevailing results in
lithium,” Collins said. the ilk of 20m @ 3.8% copper and 0.29% “Our grades which we’re looking at in
cobalt from 34m; 20m @ 2% copper and the top lens and even in the second lens
“So the growth profile or the demand 0.22% cobalt from 123m; 31m @ 2.77% down are better than that [1,300 ppm], so
side of that is really good. Demand for copper and 0.25% cobalt from 34m, in- a conventional Hydromet circuit for the
cobalt will pick up more in the near-term cluding 18m @ 4.45% copper and 0.29% cobalt is an option,” Collins said.
rather than the long-term I suspect, so
that is a nice one [commodity] to be in.” “In this latest drill campaign, we have
focused on about 700m within that 6km
In fact, Aeon has a few metals to con- resource. It has shown us that the top
tend with at its Walford Creek project in lens contains the high-grade copper and
north-west Queensland. cobalt. From the cobalt perspective, eve-
ry 0.25% of cobalt is about 1% copper in
“Zinc is also something of a focus of terms of value; that is pretty damn good
ours, we are up in that part of the world grades for cobalt.”
where zinc is prevalent and we are find-
ing good grades. We have copper and By the end of the year, Aeon aims
cobalt too, so our leverage towards those to have a PFS completed on Walford
is second to none,” Collins said. Creek, therefore, converting all its re-
sources into the indicated category is the
Aeon is compiling a large resource at immediate priority.
27000 With increased confidence in the re-
source, Aeon can start entertaining
26000 project parameters such as throughput
rates.
Price US$ per tonne 25000
Infrastructure requirements will also
24000 need to be considered and Aeon is one
of a number of companies to forward an
23000 EOI over MMG Ltd’s assets at Century.
22000 Among the items which could provide
some value to successful applicants are
21000 17 Mar 2016 30 May 2016 12 Aug 2016 a 7.1 mtpa processing plant, a zinc tail-
3 Jan 2016 ings resource, water bore fields, a 304km
underground concentrate slurry pipeline
Cobalt price this year. Source: LME to port, camp and airstrip, ship loading
and port facility at Karumba and grid
power.
– Mark Andrews
PAGE 58 SEPTEMBER 2016 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT
MMG rethinks its zinc future
Arenewed exploration push in Latin Marcelo Bastos
America is the greatest indication yet
that MMG Ltd is planning for a new phase Marcelo Bastos said Peru’s importance carried on through 2016. Construction
of growth in its zinc business.
to base metal production was growing of the processing plant has also started
Base metal production in the Hong
Kong-listed miner fell last year after the and would soon rival that of neighbour and the company has stuck to its target
closure of its Century mine in Queens-
land but chief executive Andrew Michel- Chile. of first concentrate production in the first
more flagged interest in new projects
during the company’s June quarterly re- “This will come into fruition with im- half of 2018.
sults conference.
minent first produc-
“There is so little zinc around,” Michel-
more said. “Those people who are in zinc tion and ramp-up of LATIN
are also bullish about the zinc market so Las Bambas, Toro-
they don’t want to sell. That’s why we mocho and other AMERICA
keep coming back to the focus we’ve got projects that are
on finding zinc.” expected to sustain
the strong Peruvian
The comments came after a June
quarter which highlighted the Melbourne- growth,” Bastos
based company’s shift from zinc to cop-
per. Zinc production fell 82% in compari- said. 29-30 May 2013, Sydney
son to June 2015 thanks to the closure of The company is
Century and lower production at Golden
Grove in Western Australia and Rose- also active in Aus-
bery in Tasmania. However, over the
same period copper concentrate produc- tralia with construc-
tion rose 1,310% thanks to the arrival of
concentrate production from the newly tion on its Dugald
opened Las Bambas copper mine in
Peru. River zinc-lead-
The company has received several ap- silver project set
proaches from external parties interested
in acquiring the Golden Grove operation to start this year
and as a result a financial advisor will be
appointed to start a formal expression of after reducing up-
interest process which is expected to be
completed by the end of the year. front capex for the
In total, MMG produced 90,329t cop- development by
per-in-concentrate in the June quarter
with an additional 37,835t of copper cath- $US150 million. The
ode produced at its Kinsevere (DRC) and
Sepon (Laos) mines. 1.7 mtpa operation
Group zinc production was 28,549t is set to produce
while Golden Grove and Rosebery pro-
duced 7,618t of lead-in-concentrate be- 170,000 tpa of zinc-
tween them.
in-concentrate plus
The company maintained its 2016
guidance of 415-477,000t copper and by-products, plac- The CD-Rom of Paydirt’s 2016
120-135,000t zinc as the Las Bambas ing the Queensland Latin America Down Under Conference
acquisition continues to redefine the operation among
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“The crunch has finally come [in the velopment in 2015 Phone (+61) 8 9321 0355 or email [email protected]
zinc market],” Michelmore said. “We are and work on the
looking at places like Peru where there’s
a lot of zinc.” two declines had
Speaking at Latin America Down Un-
der in May, MMG chief operating officer
AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT SEPTEMBER 2016 PAGE 59
BASE METALS
Aeris’ new look
Aeris Resources Ltd has not had Tritton has achieved three consecutive years of record copper production for Aeris
the high market profile it is per-
haps worthy of. Nevertheless, Labuschagne said if an Copper production targeted from Tritton
asset could generate cash and fitted into in FY2017 is 28,000t (FY2016:30,425t),
Admittedly, the New South Wales the company’s strategic rationale, the as Murrawombie ramps up to full pro-
copper miner has had some issues synergies could encourage the company duction capacity in the second half of
to overturn from the days as Straits to act. FY2017.
Resources, but after a third con-
secutive year of record production “We have been in a few [project bids], it Murrawombie ore will replace produc-
at Tritton, it appears Aeris is on the has been about making sure we are dili- tion from the North East/Larsens mine
way up. gent in our approach and know what we and will contribute to the remainder of
want,” he said. Tritton’s seven-year mine life scheduled
Having exited the Mt Muro gold to operate at a throughput of 650,000
project in Indonesia and success- “We are happy to look at copper, we tpa.
fully restructured its debt; essen- are happy to look at gold, we have been
tially reducing it by 55% to $US50 in this space before. It is about what will What Aeris has in front of it at Tritton
million (to be repaid over seven complement our current position.” will be revealed in the near future as
years) plus being afforded a work- greenfields exploration returns to the
ing capital facility of $US25 million, In the next two years, Aeris will enter fold.
Aeris now has a cleaner corporate a capital intensive period at Tritton, so it
structure and a strategy in place is preferable that any acquisition made is A budget of $7.5 million has been allo-
to become a multi-mine company cash producing. cated to greenfields targets over the next
again. two years.
“We are happy to look at something
“Tritton will be the foundation and that needs a turnaround, we have done “We have basically reworked the strat-
I’d say by then [end of FY2017] we it a couple of times, we have done it egy. Over the last two years we have re-
will have another asset. By FY2017, with Norton Gold Fields, we have done ally focused on brownfields exploration
I think we’ll have a very different look. We it now so we are happy to go hard and of the extension of Tritton at depth be-
are not really explorers, we like to be op- make changes or find something which is cause we knew it extended and you have
erators,” executive chairman Andre La- ready to keep going,” Labuschagne said. got the infrastructure in place to extend
buschagne said. the mine life which makes a lot of sense,”
Earlier this year the board approved Labuschagne said.
“We have been working through the development of Tritton Deeps which
debt restructure and the whole reset of means a new ventilation shaft – 880m “We have now come up with a green-
the business, and we are coming out deep and 5m in diameter – costing fields strategy outside of the current
with a much stronger balance sheet. The $11.25 million will be sunk to access ore brownfields areas and the focus is on
mine is well set, the life of mine is now deeper into the mine. finding the next big orebody. The explo-
very clear. We are putting in the capital ration ground that we have got is highly
and doing the exploration, so now is the Work on the new shaft has started and prospective, we know there are targets
right time to have a look around [at pro- is expected to be completed in the March out there so we will start up with an EM
jects]. We have always said strategically 2017 quarter. project which can go deeper with new
that we want to be a multi-mine business technology. That will be a focus in the
focusing on operational excellence.” By bringing Tritton Deeps and the next six months.”
Murrawombie underground deposit on-
Despite copper prices – under stream, the mine life at Tritton is now ex- – Mark Andrews
$US2.15/lb at the time of print – not pected to last until 2023.
experiencing the same uplift as other
commodities such as gold and zinc, La-
buschagne is encouraged by the change
of sentiment in the resources sector in
the last six months and is confident that
investors value copper as a primary met-
al to have in their portfolio.
Therefore, even if it takes two years for
the copper market to bounce back, La-
buschagne wants Aeris to be there in a
big way when the sector does turn.
Given Labuschangne’s experience in
the gold game – he was managing direc-
tor of Norton Gold Fields Ltd before he
orchestrated a sale to Chinese interests
– the precious metal also interests Aeris.
However, the improved gold price has
meant good projects are probably fully
valued at the moment and may be out of
reach for Aeris.
PAGE 60 SEPTEMBER 2016 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT
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BASE METALS
Orion on the go in South Africa
The significant base metals package Prieska was last in operation in 1991. The mine produced 1mt zinc and
Orion Gold NL is putting together in 430,000t copper in the 20 years prior
South Africa is starting to be appreciated
by the market, according to managing di- Internal studies have provided more is looking like it is sulphide and certainly
rector Errol Smart. encouragement for Orion to pursue work a higher grade ore. As a percentage of
at Prieska with vigour and results to date contained metal, the vast majority of it is
It has been a telling couple of months have not disappointed. going to be sulphide ore. The mine had a
for Orion as it has seen its share price successful sulphide concentrate in it and
double from the low base of 1c/share. First assays from drilling at the +105 operated until 1991. That gives us a lot
open pit target at Prieska returned 22m of comfort about the timelines and cost
“In the last six months our share price @ 10.8% zinc, 1.38% copper and 0.3 g/t lines when it comes to feasibility studies.”
has jumped from 1c to 2.5c/share and I gold from 57m, including 7m @ 17.8%
think we will continue to see strong share zinc and 1.41% copper and 12m @ 4.14% Permitting is under way to re-access
price appreciation as people can see copper, 1.89% zinc and 0.29 g/t gold underground infrastructure at Prieska,
we are putting together an exceptional from 57m, including 3m @ 7.4% copper with primary development in place to
package. We did it in the downturn in and 4.34% zinc. reach the deep sulphide mineralisation
the market coming from a very low cost together with extensive regional infra-
and it is an advanced stage project than Orion has guided exploration targets structure.
can deliver into new markets,” Smart told of 3-4.5mt @ 1-1.6% copper and 1.3-2%
Paydirt. zinc from the +105 open pit and 7-11mt @ When Smart spoke to Paydirt, he said
1.2-1.8% copper and 3.9-5.9% zinc from Orion had not been drilling for long and
Wanting greater exposure to zinc, Deep Sulphide. while initial results were exceeding ex-
Orion headed for South Africa a year pectations, it had been a challenge get-
ago and secured an option to acquire Infill drilling at Prieska was continuing ting started.
a 73.3% interest in the historic Prieska at the time of print, and while the mine
VMS zinc-copper project and virgin epi- is supported by great infrastructure, in- “As always when you start drilling in
thermal Marydale gold project from Aga- cluding a tarred road to site, 48km of bi- a new terrain, drillers need to learn the
ma Exploration and Mining Pty Ltd. tumen road to an existing rail siding and ground and the geological team need to
an 800km link to a major bulk commod- find their feet, but it is going very well.
Orion added to its South African pro- ity deep water port, Smart is not getting We’ve actually only been drilling for
jects in Copperton, 270km south-west carried away with production scenarios about six weeks and we have made good
of Kimberley, Northern Cape, earlier just yet. Although, when it comes time progress,” he said.
this year with the option to acquire an to compiling feasibility studies, the infra-
initial 50% (increasing to 73%) of the structure in place will definitely shorten With zinc prices increasing 40% so far
Masiqhame zinc-copper and Namaqua the timeframe in which Orion can com- this year, there has been no better time
nickel and Disawell zinc-copper projects plete such detailed programmes of work. in the recent past to be drilling prospec-
also within the Areachap project area. tive zinc projects, particularly advanced
“Prieska operated in producing a dual stage plays such as Prieska.
Orion has the right until January 2017 copper and zinc concentrate and it is a
to start an initial 25% earn-in of Namaq- very attractive concentrate for the mar- “The zinc market has really recovered
ua and Disawell. ket. We know metallurgically that we are strongly and I am glad that we managed
dealing with something that is a known to establish ourselves when we did. We
“It is probably a culmination of two parameter in the sulphide zone,” Smart went in and bought at the bottom of the
years work that we have started estab- said. market and hopefully we can deliver on
lishing ourselves in the area. We are our advanced stage projects on the up-
putting together a very significant land “It is the oxide we have to establish turn page of the metals market,” Smart
package, particularly with greater expo- the metallurgical performance for, but said.
sure to zinc. But, zinc-copper-nickel-gold it is also very encouraging that we can
deposits are our targets and in Areachap hit sulphide from surface. Even at our – Mark Andrews
there is an opportunity to put together a flat 105 targets, at least 50% of the ore
really big land package also,” Smart said.
The Australian audience is perhaps
more familiar with Orion’s domestic as-
sets – nickel-copper and gold in the Fras-
er Range, where geophysics are under
way and the epithermal gold Connors
Arc project in Queensland, where drilling
is expected to start this month.
However, the advanced opportunities
Orion has in South Africa, particularly at
Prieska, are too compelling to ignore in
the current climate of considerable zinc
price movement.
In the period 1971 to 1991, Prieska
produced 1mt zinc and 430,000t copper,
employing 4,000 people and milling ore
at a rate of 8,000 tpd.
PAGE 62 SEPTEMBER 2016 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT
Red River makes a splash
Investors must have had An internal restart study
an inkling Red River was completed last Novem-
Resources Ltd was on ber, based on production
to something big at its of 21,400 tpa zinc, 5,000
Thalanga zinc project in tpa lead, 3,600 tpa cop-
Queensland. per, 2,000 ozpa gold and
Prior to the result of the 370,000 ozpa silver over an
first diamond hole drilled initial mine life of five years,
into the Liontown East tar- for a pre-production capital
get being released, Red estimate of $17.2 million.
River raised $8.9 million The initial mining plan
via a heavily oversub- is focused on the three
scribed placement to insti- main deposits of West 45
tutional and sophisticated (421,000t @ 15% zinc equiv-
investors. alent probable reserve),
The placement was Far West (1.6mt @ 14.9%
completed at 12c/share, zinc equivalent resource)
slightly above Red River’s and Waterloo (707,000t @
share price at the time. West 45 will be the first mine to enter production under 19.1% zinc equivalent).
The company’s stock has Red River’s restart strategy for Thalanga Palancian is keeping his
since soared 88%, peak- cards close to his chest
ing at 27.5/c share in early August on the the bank, ensures the company is funded about the likely restart date, but the com-
back of a high-grade zinc discovery at to pursue a drill-out of Liontown East and pany has previously stated it believes
Liontown East. can also follow-up other priority drill tar- commercial production can occur within
Hole LTED01 intersected two zones gets. six months of a final investment decision.
of massive and semi-massive sulphide “We’ve stepped out 100m, which is a “The first mine, which will be West 45,
mineralisation, with hits of 7.5m @ 16% little bit brave, but you’ve got to be brave is pretty much ready to go,” Palancian
zinc equivalent (9.6% zinc, 4.1% lead, sometimes,” Palancian said. said.
0.4% copper, 1 g/t gold and 37 g/t silver) “From my point of view, if we continue “We’ve dewatered that, it’s on a mining
from 452.7m, including 4.3m @ 25.2% to get good results out of Liontown East lease which is 1.4km from the ROM pad.
zinc equivalent (15.1% zinc, 6.6% lead, then more than likely we’ll park up a rig We’ve also started work on refurbishing
0.6% copper, 1.6 g/t gold and 56 g/t sil- there and do a drill-out on it. I’ve got an- the long-lead items on the process plant.”
ver) and 8.35m @ 6.8% zinc equivalent other rig at the moment on site which is With zinc demand growing 2-3% each
(4.2% zinc, 0.7% lead, 0.4% copper, 0.3 currently testing the West 45 footwall year, Palancian said now was a great
g/t gold and 18 g/t silver) from 472.65m, anomaly. Once that hole is drilled, it will time to be bringing on an advanced zinc
including 2m @ 9.8% zinc equivalent then do the infill for the Far West uppers project such as Thalanga.
(5.3% zinc, 1.3% lead, 0.8% copper, 0.4 where we’re converting inferred resourc- “I think we’ve seen over 1mt of mine
g/t gold and 28 g/t silver). es into indicated resources. supply come out of the market, mainly
Red River managing director Mel “If the other rig is doing a drill-out on from the closures of Century and Lish-
Palancian said his company had plenty Liontown East, we’ll more than likely look een and the cutbacks that Glencore have
of happy shareholders who are antici- to get a third rig.” put in place,” Palancian said
pating more good news over the coming Red River acquired Thalanga, 60km “We’re seeing tightening on the supply
months. south-west of Charters Towers, from side, we’re seeing treatment charges for
“The capital raise we did a few weeks Kagara Ltd in 2014. The mine has been smelters dropping, so all of those things
ago was a bit overwhelming in the sense on active care-and-maintenance since are pointing to a good fundamental story
it was very heavily oversubscribed,” 2012, but the company has been building for zinc in the coming years.
Palancian told Paydirt. up towards a potential restart for the best “If you have a look at the last 20-30
“A lot of people are taking notice of part of the last 18 months. years, there’s been very little zinc explo-
what we’re doing and this was even ration, so we haven’t actually found
before the discovery, so people could any decent zinc orebodies to replace
see the Thalanga opportunity and the the depletions that have happened,
value-add equation there. It just rein- and all the big companies have walked
forces our strategy and delivers con- away from zinc exploration.
viction to keep going and keep going “That’s the scenario we’re facing at
harder.” the moment, so from my point of view,
At the time of print, Red River was zinc’s a good commodity to be in. It’s
drilling a second hole at Liontown a bread and butter metal. The world
East, targeting a mineralised horizon consumes nearly 14mt of it every
about 100m east of LTED01.
year.”
The recent $8.9 million capital rais- – Michael Washbourne
ing, along with another $2.5 million in Some of the high-grade drill core from Liontown East
AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT SEPTEMBER 2016 PAGE 63
REGIONAL ROUNDUP AFRICA
Banfora to fly with Teranga
The Banfora gold project in ga recorded its best ever produc-
Burkina Faso has been closely tion performance at Sabodala,
followed by this magazine and sis- 52,540oz gold at total cash costs
ter publication Gold Mining Jour- of $619/oz for a total of 123,267oz
nal and many pages dedicated to for the first half of 2016.
the success Perth-based Gryphon Teranga is on track to produce
Minerals Ltd has achieved at the 200,000-215,000oz gold this year
project in the past decade. and with the company looking to
Gryphon listed in 2004 on the optimise the Banfora feasibility
back of raising $3 million and study in the early part of 2017, it is
from there the company headed eyeing becoming a 300,000 ozpa
to Burkina Faso, led by ambitious producer in the near-term.
managing director Steve Parsons. A scoping study on Banfora
In the space of two years, Gryph- completed last year indicated po-
on announced a maiden gold tential for a 2 mtpa start-up heap
resource of 410,000oz gold at a leach project to produce 63,000
discovery cost of less than $US10/ ozpa gold, which could increase
oz and by 2009, the company had to total output of 129,000 ozpa with
taken Banfora beyond the magical the addition of a conventional 1
1 moz mark. mtpa CIL plant.
At that stage, Gryphon was fast “Teranga are under what they
becoming the trailblazer for junior should be performing at compared
explorers in West Africa and was to their peers and a combined ap-
providing the Australian market proach – potentially 350,000 ozpa
with an education on the place production profile – puts you up
known as the “land of honourable with the big boys and I think they
men”. will get a very big re-rating on the
Gryphon’s exploration feats at Paydirt and Gold Mining Journal have covered Gryphon’s back of that,” Parsons said.
Banfora were acknowledged in the rise since it first entered Burkina Faso more than a decade “To find a way to get Banfora
mining community with the com- ago. On the cover of the September 2005 edition of Paydirt into development is a fantastic out-
pany claiming Gold Mining Jour- is management consultant to Gryphon back in 2005, come. This is a very simple, easy
nal’s Explorer of the Year award in
Hamish Halliday, with managing director Steve Parsons way of getting it into development,
2009. the guys have done it before in
The company was certainly all the Parsons is in a good position to com- Senegal; they know how to mine, they
rage in the period 2009-2011, reaching ment on the setting in West Africa at have an excellent track record, good
share price highs in excess of $2/share. the moment, considering he has put to- community relations with what they do in
However, like many in the West Afri- gether a deal which will see Canadian Senegal, so we think they will be able to
can gold space, Gryphon was severely outfit Teranga Gold Corporation acquire fast-track this through. It will be a bigger
impacted by the fall in gold prices and Gryphon. mine, a bigger operation than the smaller
the vigour with which investors were The scheme of arrangement deal an- start-up we were going to start with. That
prepared to back ASX-listed companies nounced in June valued Gryphon at will be better for the Burkina Faso Gov-
chasing African gold teetered. 20.6c/share and implied a total equity ernment in terms of taxes, royalties and
After a rough few years, the gold bugs value of about $86 million on a fully di- the like.”
are back and with having booked healthy luted basis. As the transaction goes through due
returns from domestic producers, Aus- Teranga will acquire all the ordinary corporate process, Gryphon remained
tralian investors appear ready to add shares of Gryphon, with the transaction active in the field with two drill rigs op-
some spice back into the West African expected to close in October. erating double shift at Banfora where a
gold mix. Parsons said the deal was a fantastic resource/reserve update is expected in
“The last two years in Australia it has outcome for shareholders and stakehold- the coming months.
been all about the Australian dollar gold ers and would essentially see Teranga “We have some excellent exploration
production and Australian mines have become a major gold producer. properties that we have been slowly
been doing very well and institutions and Banfora’s resource of 3.6 moz gold will massaging and getting targets ready to
investors have been jumping in on the sit nicely alongside the Sabodala, Gold- drill over the last couple of years while
back of that,” Parsons told Paydirt.
en Hill and Gourma projects in Teranga’s the market has been down. We have
“But now you are seeing the US dollar portfolio. seven or eight walk-up drill targets ready
gold coming back and I think you will see Sabodala, 650km from Dakar in Sen- to go and it will be the first time we would
a bunch of investors jumping back into egal, has been in production since 2009 have drilled on those properties, so we
West Africa. You have already started and, based on proven and probable open are excited to be getting into those,” Par-
to see that happening and I think West pit reserves of 2.6 moz gold, has a mine sons said.
Africa will come back to the forefront of life of 13.5 years. – Mark Andrews
people’s investments.” For the quarter ended June 30, Teran-
PAGE 64 SEPTEMBER 2016 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT
REGISTER NOW
7 - 9 September 2016
Pan Pacific Perth
www.africadownunderconference.com
For all enquiries please contact Tammy Caldwell on (+61) 8 9321 0355
or email [email protected]
7 - 9 September 2016 Wednesday 7th September
Perth,Western Australia
Tuesday 6th September
17:00 Welcome Reception, lobby bar Pan Pacific Perth Hotel
Programme Day One
07:30 Arrival, tea, coffee and registration
Session One
08:45 Welcome: Bill Repard, Executive Chairman, Paydirt Media Pty Ltd (5)
08:50 Opening Address: Hon Colin Barnett MEc MLA, Premier of Western Australia TBC (15)
09:05 Hon Dan Kazungu, Cabinet Secretary for Mining, Kenya (20)
09:25 Tim Carstens, Managing Director, Base Resources Ltd (25)
09:50 Hon Nii Osah Mills, Minister of Lands & Natural Resources, Republic of Ghana (15)
10:05 Jeff Quartermaine, Managing Director & CEO, Perseus Mining Ltd (25)
10:30 Questions (5)
10:35 Morning tea sponsored by South African Airways (25)
Session Two
11:00 HE Alfa Oumar Dissa, Minister of Energy, Mines & Quarries, Burkina Faso (15)
11:15 Paul Roberts, Managing Director, Predictive Discovery Ltd (15)
11:30 Mark Strizek, Managing Director, Vital Metals Ltd (15)
11:45 HE Tiemoko Sangare, Minister of Mines, Republic of Mali (15)
12:00 John Welborn, Managing Director & CEO, Resolute Mining Ltd (25)
12:25 Grame Barty, Acting CEO, Austrade (20)
12:45 Questions (5)
12:50 Lunch (60)
Session Three
13:50 Dr Kayode Fayemi, Minister of Solid Minerals, Nigeria (15)
14:05 Hugh Morgan AC & Louisa Lawrance, Director & Consultant, Comet Minerals (20)
14:25 Julian Hanna, Managing Director, MOD Resources Ltd (15)
14:40 Bertrand Montembault, Partner, Herbert Smith Freehills (15)
14:55 Hon Lebohang Thotanyana, Minister of Mining, Kingdom of Lesotho (15)
15:10 Questions (5)
15:15 Afternoon tea (30)
Session Four
15:45 Harry Anagnostaras-Adams, Executive Chairman, Kefi Minerals PLC (15)
16:00 Andrew Spinks, Managing Director, Kibaran Resources Ltd (15)
16:15 Panel Session: “Meet the Australian High Commissioners”
Dominic Piper (convenor); Susan Coles, Ambassador to Madagascar; Adam McCarthy, High Commissioner
to South Africa; John Feakes, High Commissioner to Kenya; Paul Lehmann, High Commissioner to Nigeria;
Mark Sawers, Ambassador to Ethiopia; Suzanne McCourt, Ambassador to Zimbabwe; Andrew Barnes,
High Commissioner to Ghana; Neil Hawkins, Ambassador to Egypt (45)
17:00 Questions (5)
17:05 Cocktail function in exhibition area
* This programme is subject to change
For all enquiries please contact Tammy Caldwell on (+61) 8 9321 0355
or email [email protected]
7 - 9 September 2016 Thursday 8th September
Perth,Western Australia
Programme Day Two
08:00 Arrival, tea, coffee and registration
Session Five
08:45 Godfrey Oliphant MP, Deputy Minister of Mineral Resources, Republic of South Africa (25)
09:10 Johannes Van Heerden, CEO SE Asia Operations, Harmony Gold Mining Ltd (25)
09:35 Errol Smart, Chief Executive Officer & MD, Orion Gold NL (15)
09:50 Antonio Carlos Sumbula, Chairman, ENDIAMA (25)
10:15 Stephen Wetherall, Chief Executive Officer & MD, Lucapa Diamond Company Ltd (20)
10:35 Brad Gordon, Chief Executive Officer, Acacia Mining PLC (25)
11:00 Questions (5)
11:05 Morning tea sponsored by South32 (25)
Session Six HE Ying Vah Zafilahy, Minister of Mines, Madagascar (20)
11:30 Tim McManus, Chief Executive Officer, Bass Metals Ltd (15)
11:50 Simon Taylor, Managing Director, Oklo Resources Ltd (15)
12:05 Sheila Khama, Director, African Natural Resources Centre, AfDB (15)
12:20 Questions (5)
12:35 Panel Session: “Security concern: managing the risk in Africa”
12:40 Jeff Hart (convenor); Marc Innes-Brown, FAS Africa and Middle East Branch, DFAT; Michael Blakiston,
Partner, Gilbert + Tobin; John Welborn, Managing Director & CEO, Resolute Mining Ltd; Mark Gubbins,
13:30 Managing Director Credit & Political Risks, Arthur J. Gallagher; Bill Turner AO, Board Member, AAMEG (50)
Lunch (45)
Session Seven
14:15 TBA, First Quantum Minerals Ltd (20)
14:35 Julian Stephens, Managing Director, Sovereign Metals Ltd (15)
14:50 Archie Koimtsidis, Managing Director, Cardinal Resources Ltd (15)
15:05 HE Osheik Mohamed Tahir, State Minister of Minerals, Republic of the Sudan (15)
15:20 Michael Blakiston, Partner, Gilbert + Tobin (15)
15:35 Questions (5)
15:40 Afternoon tea (25)
Session Eight
16:05 Tom Eadie, Managing Director, Strandline Resources Ltd (15)
16:20 Jason Brewer, Director, Black Mountain Resources Ltd TBC (15)
16:35 HE Hassane Baraze Moussa, Minister of Mines & Industrial Development, Republic of Niger (15)
16:50 Tim Carstens, Chairman, AAMEG (15)
17:05 Questions (5)
17:10 Cocktail function in exhibition area
* This programme is subject to change
www.africadownunderconference.com
7 - 9 September 2016 Friday 9th September
Perth,Western Australia
Programme Day Three
08:00 Arrival, tea, coffee and registration
Session Nine
09:00 HE Adoum Hassane Arsine, Minister of Petroleum, Mines & Energy, Republic of Chad (15)
09:15 Brandon Munro, Managing Director & CEO, Bannerman Resources Ltd (20)
09:35 Allan Mulligan, Managing Director, Walkabout Resources Ltd (15)
09:50 Caigen Wang, Managing Director, Tietto Minerals Pty Ltd (15)
10:05 TBA, Prospect Resources Ltd (15)
10:20 Questions (5)
10:25 Morning tea (30)
Session Ten
10:55 HE Jean-Claude Brou, Minister of Industry & Mines, Republic of Cote d’Ivoire (15)
11:10 Cherie Leeden, Managing Director, Metals of Africa (15)
11:25 Giulio Casello, Managing Director & CEO, Sundance Resources Ltd (15)
11:40 Lindsay Reed, Chief Executive Officer, Minbos Resources Ltd TBC (15)
11:55 Questions (5)
12:00 Panel Session: “Bridging the gap: overcoming Africa’s infrastructure challenge”
Neale Goddard, Managing Director, DRA Mining, Giulio Casello, Managing Director & CEO, Sundance
Resources Ltd (45)
12:45 Lunch (60)
Session Eleven
13:45 Freddy Elonga, Deputy Secretary General, DRC Chamber of Mines (15)
14:00 Michael Griffiths, Chief Executive Officer & MD, Tiger Resources Ltd (15)
14:15 Lisa Sharland, Senior Analyst, ASPI (15)
14:30 Questions (5)
14:35 Panel Session: “Sourcing the sentiment: finding capital for African projects”
Liam Twigger, Managing Director, PCF Capital Group; Brandon Munro, Managing Director & CEO,
Bannerman Resources Ltd; Ben Gargett, Australia-Africa Practice Leader, PwC Panellists TBA (55)
15:30 Closing Remarks: Bill Repard, Executive Chairman, Paydirt Media Pty Ltd (5)
15:35 Cocktail function in Pan Pacific Lobby Bar
* This programme is subject to change
For all enquiries please contact Tammy Caldwell on (+61) 8 9321 0355
or email [email protected]
REGIONAL ROUNDUP AFRICA
Bass beats the graphite drum
There may be more high- high growth markets.”
profile graphite explor-
ers and developers on the In late July, Stratmin
ASX, however, Bass Metals
Ltd can now attest to being a Global Resources plc share-
standout in the sector.
holders approved the sale
Last month, the company
became the only current of Graphmada to Bass and
ASX-listed graphite produc-
er when it took control of the at the time of print the latter
Graphmada mine in eastern
Madagascar. was finalising the retail com-
“The company is pleased ponent of a $7 million capital
that, in a short period of time,
we have been able to scope raising.
and implement changes at
Graphmada. We continue to Funds raised will be used
be excited by the upside at
Graphmada in applying ex- to improve operational per-
perienced, well-funded and
modern management to a formance at the mine, with
mine with a proven premium
product,” Bass chief executive Tim Mc- a major overhaul and plant
Manus said.
refurbishment programme
“Continued development and rapid im-
plementation of the major improvement planned to increase the
quality and value of product
from Graphmada, 100km by
sealed highway to the export
port of Tamatave.
Bass Metals is the only ASX-listed company producing In 2015, 1,500t of Graph-
and selling graphite concentrates mada product was sold from
an operation running at
and refurbishment programme will see 6,000 tpa.
Graphmada transformed into a signifi- Of the product sold, 37% was fine to
cant supplier of graphite into traditional medium grade, while 63% was in the
markets with the capacity to expand into large to jumbo category.
AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT SEPTEMBER 2016 PAGE 69
REGIONAL ROUNDUP LATIN AMERICA
Latin Resources expands its
lithium horizons
After several years of scraping to- lithium dioxide respectively.
gether exploration budgets, Latin Gale said the company would work
Resources Ltd finds itself in the envi- quickly to define a resource and build
able position of having funding in the a development case in Argentina.
bag for multiple projects. “We want to be in production by
Latin raised $3.4 million through a 2018,” he said. “That may sound opti-
placement in August, with managing mistic but look at companies like Neo-
director Chris Gale saying the capital metals [Ltd]; they have done a great
injection would mean all the compa- job building a mine in just 18 months.”
ny’s active projects would be funded Latin has brought in Imex Consult-
for the next year. ants to run the lithium exploration pro-
“The placement was undertaken in gramme. Imex president, Iain Scarr,
order to fund our recently acquired has more than 36 years experience
Argentine lithium projects,” Gale told in the sector and has recently worked
Paydirt. “Now we have the money in on some of the world’s largest lithium
the bank we will begin planning the ex- developments including Rio Tinto
ploration programme. We believe the Ltd’s Jadar deposit in Serbia and the
exploration permits will be ready for a Sal de Vida project in Argentina.
start to drilling in October-November.” Metallurgical test work will then be
Latin picked up the lithium assets conducted by process and chemical
– in Argentina’s Catamarca province engineering consultant Vijay Mehta
– earlier this year. Gale said the com- who worked with major ithium pro-
pany had been on the lookout for new ducer FMC for more than 25 years.
projects having seen new JV partner Chris Gale Such is Gale’s confidence in Ar-
First Quantum Minerals Ltd take over gentina’s hard rock lithium potential,
management of the Pachamancha cop- There, the company has secured ex- he is keen for Latin to further expand its
per project in southern Peru. ploration rights to hard rock lithium tar- footprint in the country.
“It is a fantastic boost to have a com- gets in a region of South America known “The new Macri Government has put a
pany of First Quantum’s standing come as the Lithium Triangle. The region is lot of confidence back into the economy
onboard,” Gale said. already host to ASX-listed lithium brine and there is a lot of foreign investment
The TSX-listed copper miner’s sub- miner Orocobre Ltd and lithium brine de- now coming in,” he said. “Salta and Cat-
sidiary, Minera Antares Peru S.A.C. has veloper Galaxy Resources Ltd but Latin’s amarca are a big focus of that and the
begun geophysical work on the project arrival represents the first time an ASX- region already has some of the largest
“and can earn a 51% interest by complet- listed explorer has tackled Argentina’s lithium producers in the world there.
ing 4,000m of drilling. It can take its total hard rock lithium potential. “We want to grab as much land as we
holding up to 80% by carry- can in the country. We’ve
ing the project through to a The new Macri Government has identified a number of other
decision to mine. Latin will put a lot of confidence back hard rock opportunities.”
be free-carried throughout
this period with Minera An- into the economy and there is a lot of While the company has
tares retaining an option to foreign investment now coming in. enjoyed a share price
bounce off the back of its
acquire the remaining 20%, entry into lithium, Gale is
dependent on independent conscious of spreading Lat-
valuation. Latin would then in’s efforts too thinly.
retain a 2% NSR which can be halved “We pegged some of the old mining “We can’t fund everything but if we can
through a $US40 million cash payment areas so we know the spodumene is start to get value by bringing JV partners
by Minera Antares. there, it is just a question of how much in as we have on our other projects; who
Gale said the deal was not only contin- there is and at what grade,” Gale said. knows? There is likely to be consolida-
ued long-term benefits for Latin but also “We have old records but nothing JORC- tion coming into the lithium market and
freed the company up to pursue other compliant. Those records only record the the companies who have got through the
opportunities. spodumene content but we are confident tough times and are set up properly will
“It leaves us – with our Guadilupito iron grades will be comparable to those cur- be the ones who thrive.”
sands project on care-and-maintenance rently being found in the Pilbara region of – Dominic Piper
amid potential JV discussions – without Western Australia.”
any spending commitments in Peru and Analysis of four samples collected by
allows the company to commit further to Latin’s exploration team have reported
Argentina.” grades of 6.6%, 7.1%, 6.3% and 4.9%
PAGE 70 SEPTEMBER 2016 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT
LATINSAVE THE DATE
AMERICA
17-18 May 2017
Perth,Western Australia
www.latinamericadownunder.com
To present, exhibit or attend as a delegate please contact
Melita Fogarty on (+61) 8 9321 0355 or email [email protected]
REGIONAL ROUNDUP
Kinross to retreat from Chile
Canada’s Kinross Gold Corp is look- been disputed by Kinross, Chile’s envi- suspended since 2013 after problems
ing to retreat from Chile and has put ronmental regulator in March shut down which included permitting issues.
its main assets in the country up for sale, the water system linked to the Maricunga
according to people familiar with the pro- mine. In 2015, the mine accounted for On a conference call on July 28, Kin-
cess. about 15% of the country’s gold produc- ross chief executive Paul Rollinson said
tion. the company was “not in a situation
The move comes at a time Toronto- where we need to sell assets”, but no de-
based Kinross has suspended opera- After a suspension in May, mining re- cision had been made on a sale.
tions at Maricunga, its major mine in sumed in July, subject to ongoing regula-
Chile, because of environmental con- tory proceedings. Diaz said the mine was According to the Chilean Govern-
cerns raised by the Chilean regulator. suspended again that month, following ment’s lobbying transparency website,
pressure from the regulator. two representatives from Kinross – Bob
The world’s fifth-largest gold miner by Musgrove, vice president of operations
output has hired Bank of Nova Scotia to Operations at La Coipa were suspend- in South America, and Jose Letelier, vice
help find buyers for its two main Chilean ed in 2013. president of external affairs in Chile – vis-
gold mines, the sources said. They re- ited with Mining Minister Aurora Williams
quested anonymity because the matter Located in northern Chile, Maricunga on April 12 to discuss “information on the
is not public. produced 212,155oz gold equivalent last mine’s situation”. Letelier told Reuters the
year, making up about 8% of the com- meeting concerned the environmental is-
Interest has been very strong, with pany’s total production. sue.
bids coming from mining companies
from Canada, Chile and other parts of Chile produced 1.44 moz gold in 2015, Kinross also has mines and projects
the world, the sources said. according to government statistics. in Brazil, Russia, Mauritania, Ghana and
the United States.
“We have received expressions of in- Spurred by local demonstrations,
terest for Maricunga and La Coipa, as Chile’s enforcement of environmental Last year, Kinross acquired some Ne-
we do for our other assets from time to regulations has become stricter in recent vada assets from Barrick, and sources
time, and we continue to keep our op- years. Some business leaders have criti- told Reuters at the time that Kinross was
tions open,” Kinross spokesman Louie cised tougher rules and protracted court aiming to increase its exposure in safer
Diaz said. He declined to comment on cases, saying they have driven away in- mining jurisdictions.
whether the company has begun a for- vestment.
mal process to sell its Chilean mines. – John Tilak and Rosalba O’Brien,
For instance, the huge Pascua Lama Reuters
Citing environmental damage that has gold-silver project, run by another Cana-
dian miner, Barrick Gold Corp, has been
Glencore sits on Chilean copper mine
Glencore has shelved plans to sell a tial buyer makes a much better offer, the Chile that produces about 75,000 tpa of
copper mine in Chile that was ex- company has decided to keep the asset copper cathode.
pected to fetch about $US500 million, af- for now, the sources said.
ter failing to achieve a high enough price, Some analysts have valued the mine
according to people familiar with the situ- The Swiss-based mining and trad- at about $US500 million.
ation. ing firm, which reports results later this
month, declined to comment. Interest in the Lomas Bayas mine
Glencore has been seeking to offload came from Magris Resources Inc, a pri-
a range of assets to reduce debt follow- Glencore’s official position has not vate equity firm run by former Barrick
ing the commodities price crash, but a changed since a presentation in Miami in Gold Corp chief executive Aaron Regent,
rally on raw materials markets and in the May when it said it expected to complete as well as other private equity firms and
value of share prices of mining compa- asset sales in the second quarter, which mining companies, the sources said.
nies this year has taken away the need would include a mixture of Lomas Bayas
for urgent sales at any price. and Cobar copper assets, additional Glencore conducted a process that
monetisation of precious metals and G involved three rounds of bids, receiving
Glencore began a process to sell its Rail infrastructure in Australia. multiple offers for each round, one of the
Lomas Bayas copper mine in Chile late sources said.
last year, when anxiety about the health Glencore has also said it would only
of some mining firms’ balance sheets sell assets at the right price. The price of copper has been largely
was high. stagnant since the start of the year and
“Glencore definitely has some pres- analysts are largely bearish because of a
A deal could not be reached partly be- sure off them. That gives them more time supply overhang.
cause Glencore did not get the price it and more negotiation power,” US hedge
was looking for, the sources said, speak- fund Livermore Partners’ managing di- In August, Glencore revised up its
ing on condition of anonymity. Further, rector, David Neuhauser, said. guidance for full-year copper produc-
Glencore feels it is in a stronger footing tion following strong performance across
and is not compelled to make a sale at “We just want the capital structure to several assets.
any cost, the sources said. come in line so it’s sustainable and it can
withstand any shocks to the system,” he Glencore shares have more than dou-
While it is always still possible that said. bled since the start of the year, echoing
Glencore changes its mind or a poten- strong gains across the mining sector.
Situated in the Atacama Desert, Lo-
mas Bayas is an open pit copper mine in – John Tilak and Barbara Lewis,
Reuters
PAGE 72 SEPTEMBER 2016 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT
LATIN AMERICA
Copper: The underperformer
Copper is underperforming every other 400,000 tpa next year. ditional capacity of around
major base metal so far this year.
The London Metal Exchange (LME) Constancia, owned by 200,000 tpa.
three-month price was trading around
around $US4,840/t on August 18, trans- Canada’s Hudbay Min- However, Chile’s copper
lating to a year-to-date gain of just under
5%. erals Inc, is a smaller woes are also part struc-
And there are plenty of analysts ex- project and has been tural with state operator
pecting even lower copper prices over
the coming months. ramping up longer since Codelco in particular hav-
Investors are shunning copper, prefer- starting production in ing to invest heavily just
ring hotter metallic markets such as zinc,
currently showing a year-to-date gain of early 2015. to maintain historic output
almost 47%.
But first half 2016 out- Copper is up about 5% this year levels as it seeks to over-
But then zinc has an enticing bull nar- put of 63,800t was more come a long-term decline
rative of a pending supply crunch, while
copper is struggling to absorb a wave of than double the 30,700t in ore grades.
new mine production, much of it coming
from projects that were planned years generated in the year-earlier period. Such investment, of course, has be-
ago when the price was double current
levels and the market was characterised The focus now, according to Hudbay, come much harder to obtain in the cur-
by structural supply deficit.
is on “optimisation of plant performance” rent weak pricing environment and the
Famine has turned to feast in the in-
tervening years, extra supply hitting the with the mine expected to produce 110- company has warned that there will be
market just when demand, particularly
Chinese demand, is stuttering. Yet an- 130,000 tpa this year, which is actually an incremental impact on production
other commodities text-book case of
bad timing to file alongside iron ore and above the anticipated life-of-mine aver- over the coming years.
nickel.
age performance rate. There are new mines ramping up in
But what’s unusual about this particu-
lar copper production surge is where’s Cerro Verde, majority owned by Free- Chile such as Antofagasta plc’s Antu-
it’s coming from.
port McMoRan Inc, is now reaping the coya, which is expected to hit capacity of
It’s coming from South America, but
not Chile, the country most synonymous benefits of a major upgrade that was 85,000 tpa in the second half of this year.
with copper production, but rather its
northern neighbour, Peru. completed late last year. The expansion But Antucoya in part is only compen-
Peruvian production of mined copper will deliver an extra 270,000 tpa capacity. sating for the company’s exhausted
jumped by a staggering 51.5% to 1.12mt
in the first half of this year. National out- First half production jumped to Michilla mine, which was put on indefinite
put was 741,000t in the year-earlier pe-
riod, according to Peru’s Ministry of En- 260,000t from 98,700t in January-June care-and-maintenance last year.
ergy and Mines.
2015. Others such as Sierra Gorda, owned
The core drivers of this surge are two
new mines, Las Bambas and Constan- Significant tail winds to Peruvian pro- by Poland’s KGHM, and Caserones,
cia, and the expansion of another one,
Cerro Verde. duction are also coming from Glencore’s owned by a consortium of Japanese en-
Las Bambas, majority owned and op- Antapaccay mine and the JV Antamina tities, are struggling to master complex
erated by MMG Ltd, the listed arm of
China Minmetals, is the single biggest mine. orebodies and resulting high production
contributor to rising Peruvian copper out-
put this year. Production from Antapaccay rose by costs.
The mine only came into production 22% year-on-year to 106,700t thanks to These starkly differing South Ameri-
in the fourth quarter of last year but has
ramped up extremely quickly to the point the restart of a concentration unit in May can production trends have some way to
that MMG could declare commercial pro-
duction at the start of July. last year. run yet.
First half production was 118,600t of A 31% output hike at Antamina, mean- There’s a bit more to come from Las
contained copper, compared with zero
this time last year. while, reflects sequencing between cop- Bambas and Cerro Verde in Peru before
Guidance is for full-year production of per-rich and zinc-rich parts of this unu- they hit full design capacity.
250-300,000t and nameplate capacity of
sual bimetallic orebody. Chilean production, meanwhile, has
It’s all a far cry from the trials and been trending lower at an accelerating
tribulations being experienced by South pace this year and Codelco, the country’s
American neighbour Chile. top producer, has switched its attention
Chile is still by some margin the world’s to cutting costs with serious implications
largest copper producing nation but out- for medium-term production prospects.
put in the first half of this year fell by 5.6% Further ahead, though, both countries
to 2.78mt. and indeed just about every other cop-
National production in June itself fell per-producing nation are going to be hit
even harder by 7.7% year-on-year. by the current low price environment.
In part, this year’s falling output is cycli- Capital expenditure on new projects
cal, resulting from grade variability at Es- has been sliding for the last four years
condida, the world’s largest copper mine. and it is becoming ever harder to find
Average grades at Escondida slumped what the industry terms “world-class” de-
to 0.94% in the second quarter of this posits, witness the multiple teething dif-
year from 1.32% in the year-earlier pe- ficulties of some of the latest generation
riod, according to operator and majority of mines.
owner BHP Billiton Ltd. This withering of the future project
Copper production, a mix of concen- pipeline is the light at the end of the tun-
trates and leached cathode, accordingly nel for embattled producers.
slid to 267,000t from 338,000t. But right now it is still a distant light as
Escondida’s output will recover next the market soaks up the Peruvian mine
year thanks to a $US180 million expan- surge.
sion project that is targeted to deliver ad- – Andy Home, Reuters
AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT SEPTEMBER 2016 PAGE 73
REGIONAL ROUNDUP
Duterte puts his iron fist
into nickel
As the Philippines’ tough-talking new Jasareno was replaced earlier this
president ratchets up a campaign week as head of the Government’s Mines
against irresponsible mining, the suspen- and Geosciences Bureau by Mario Luis
sion of a quarter of the country’s nickel Jacinto, a geologist who worked in south-
mines and the risk of more action to come ern Davao City where Duterte was mayor
is spooking global nickel markets. for 22 years.
The South East Asian nation is China’s The Chamber of Mines of the Philip-
biggest supplier of nickel ore and with pines said some miners were weighing
few alternative suppliers available, the up possible legal options in the event of
crackdown pushed nickel prices up 13% more mine closures.
last month. But they would “rather have the Philip-
President Rodrigo Duterte, who swept pine Government appreciate the industry
to power on June 30 with a vow to crush for its merits,” chamber spokesman Ron-
crime by targeting hundreds of suspect- ald Recidoro said.
ed drug dealers, warned miners to follow The Philippines supplied 95% of Chi-
tighter environmental rules or shut down, na’s nickel ore imports in the first six
saying the country can survive without Rodrigo Duterte months of 2016, according to Chinese
mining. customs data, and while global stocks
“Whether it is legal or not it will destroy “For as long as there is cause and the are high a suspension or closure of more
the country,” Duterte told a forum in Au- reason falls within [legal] grounds, the mines could drive refined nickel prices
Government has the authority to cancel up further.
“gust. “It’s about time to reconfigure the
mining contracts,” Jasareno told Reuters. “If the Philippines does shut its min-
wealth of the nation among its citizens.”
Six out of 27 nickel mines were ing industry, the fact that you’ve got
suspended in the first weeks of an Whether it is legal or high stocks simply won’t matter, the
audit that began on July 8 – repre- not it will destroy the market will simply skyrocket,” Wood
senting 8% of total output – and the Mackenzie analyst Andrew Mitchell
suspension of a seventh was an- country. It’s about time to said.
nounced in August.
Nickel touched an 11-month high
Mining has powerful opponents reconfigure the wealth of the of $US10,900/t on July 21, and has
in the Philippines, including the in- nation among its citizens. stayed well above $10,000 since.
fluential Catholic Church, following
The Government is now also in-
public anger over past environmen- vestigating public complaints of
tal disasters and the displacement environmental infractions against a
of local communities. local iron ore miner and against Ocean-
Despite a wealth of untapped re- aGold’s exploration of an area near its
sources, a once thriving industry in Didipio gold mine that complainants
the 1970s is now dominated by a few want for agriculture, Jasareno said.
local miners, mostly nickel producers, OceanaGold declined to comment
and even fewer foreign players, led by on the exploration issue, but chief ex-
Australian miner OceanaGold Corp. ecutive Mick Wilkes said the company
Mining contributed less than 1% to the supported Duterte’s stance on respon-
Philippine economy last year. sible mining and is happy to work with
“I would like that the mining compa- the new administration.
nies, the ones that we suspend, must Manila-based business consultant
rehabilitate. That is social justice,” Peter Wallace said Duterte appeared
Environment and Natural Resources to be employing his “shock and awe”
Secretary Regina Lopez said. Lopez, strategy in his war against drugs in
a staunch environmentalist, was ap- dealing with miners.
pointed by Duterte who believes open- “If it puts fear into the irresponsible
pit mining is “madness”. lot and gets them to close down or for
The Government has not said how local governments to force their clo-
many of the country’s 40 mines have sure, this is good. But if it scares away
been audited so far, but Leo Jasareno, the responsible ones that’s not so
who is supervising the audit as a sen- good,” he said.
ior undersecretary in Lopez’s depart- – Manolo Serapio Jr and Enrico
ment, said he expected it to be com- Dela Cruz, Reuters
pleted this month.
PAGE 74 SEPTEMBER 2016 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT
ASIA
Tin price gets a lift
China could ramp up imports third quarter as appetite for tin
of refined tin as a string of
environmental inspections at grows after the slow summer
smelters in the world’s top pro-
ducer of the metal curbs local holiday season.
output.
Shanghai tin prices reached
Officials in eight provinces
last month began inspecting 13-month peaks in early July at
metals producers including tin
smelters, forcing some to shut- 125,690 yuan/t ($US18,860/t),
ter production while they look
to comply with environmental while in early August LME tin hit
standards, according to industry
officials and analysts. its highest since early 2015 at
The checks come as a crack- $US18,450/t.
down on pollution spreads be-
yond steel in the country’s mam- “If the cuts are extended, do-
moth metals processing and
mining industries. mestic supply tightness will be
“It should have a huge impact exacerbated in the short-term,
on the whole (tin) industry,” a
trader at a Chinese tin smelter said of the leading to continued upwards
environmental inspections. He declined
to be identified due to the sensitivity of pressure on domestic tin prices,”
the issue.
ITRI said in a report in July.
“It’s part of long-term supply side re-
form not just for the private sector or spe- An official with Jinlong Min-
cial smelters.”
ing in Jiangxi province said the
Affected smelters account for some
45% of China’s annual tin production, or company had brought forward a
around 110,000t of capacity, according
to tin industry group ITRI. Global refined Environmental inspections in China could see tin plan to relocate by a week from
tin output was around 340,600t last year. prices surge higher late July at the request of the
environmental inspectors after it
ITRI analyst Cui Lin told Reuters that
some producers had cut production from July 25 and would not be able to resume failed to meet standards.
full output until August 15 at the earliest. The official added that other smelters
She added that four smelters in Yun- in the region had temporarily suspended
nan province could be shut for longer. production last month due to environ-
Those smelters have a total production mental checks.
of some 42,000t of tin annualised, ac- China produces most of its own tin by
cording to ITRI figures. smelting, importing additional ore from
The cuts in production of tin, used in Myanmar. Its overall refined tin imports
everything from electronics to packag- slumped by 70% in June, and were down
ing, will likely boost imports of refined by 5% at 4,220t for the first six months of
metal from global markets, and have al- the year.
ready helped push local and international – Melanie Burton and Ruby Lian,
prices to their highest in well over a year. Reuters
Momentum is expected to pick up in the
Myanmar hitting peak tin production
Analysis by ITRI China suggests tin of above-ground stocks of ore and con- ground sources, incurring higher operat-
production in Myanmar is peaking at centrate accumulated over the last few ing costs and lower grades.
50,000 tpa. years. This masks an underlying decline
in mining activity and depletion of readily Many smaller companies have felt the
In the four years to 2015, it is estimat- accessible higher-grade ore resources. pinch and exited the industry, as bigger
ed tin production from Myanmar has in- companies investing heavily in mecha-
creased tenfold. The longer-term outlook for production nised mining systems and generally
in Wa, where the main mining zone at large operations have thrived.
Rapid growth from the new mining Man Maw – 90km north-west the capital
centre of Wa county, near the border of Pangsang on the China-Myanmar border The introduction of better technologies
China’s Yunnan Province, is behind the – covers 200sq km, is dependent on new and equipment to process ore has also
production spike and accounts for about discoveries being made in the next few meant allowed for lower grade ore to be
95% of production from Myanmar. years. Otherwise, production may peak treated as improving tin prices demand
in 2015-2017 and then decline. it and companies looked to make quick
Output from Wa seems stable in the returns on higher grade material.
near-term, but with the rainy season from Wa county production can be meas-
June-October, production and shipments ured by China’s official tin ore and con- Common grades are also down to
are expected to be reduced. centrate import data. In the past two 2-3% tin, compared to 10% in 2014, even
years major changes have occurred in despite the big 7-8% tin deposit recently
ITRI believes that the big increase in Myanmar’s tin industry, with production discovered, which has been mined and
imports reported by China in the first half shifting from large open pits to under- resources largely depleted.
of 2016 (up 88% year-on-year in gross
weight terms) is based on a depletion
AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT SEPTEMBER 2016 PAGE 75
REGIONAL ROUNDUP
Energia plays cool hand
Energia Minerals Ltd remains on track Gorno is one of the few zinc projects ready to be developed by 2018
to start production from the Gorno
zinc mine in Italy’s north in mid-2018. in zinc projects around the world, how- working on the exploration decline, which
ever, there are few as far advanced or of had been advanced to about 360m at the
However, despite the supply deficit in the quality of Gorno. time of print, while adit stripping and re-
the market brought on by the closing of furbishment work was also happening.
the Lisheen and Century mines and with Mining at Gorno dates back 2,500
a myriad of players looking to fill the void, years, and since the 1890s 6mt averag- Once in operation, Gorno will produce
Energia managing director Kim Robin- ing over 14% zinc plus lead has been 40-50,000 tpa zinc plus lead mine sup-
son is playing a cool hand regarding off- mined. porting a direct workforce of about 200
take discussions. people.
So far, the Colonna Zorzone resource
There has been no shortage of inter- estimate of nearly 4mt contains 238,000t Robinson said it would be a significant
est in the company’s resource since zinc @ 6.1%, 63,000t @ 1.6% lead and employer in the region.
the maiden estimate of 3.87mt @ 7.7% 3.1 moz silver @ 25 g/t.
zinc plus lead and 25 g/t silver was an- There is capacity for Gorno to expand
nounced in March. Metallurgical test work has indicated beyond its initial capabilities, Robinson
recoveries of 95%, 90% and 80% for said, while there was also scope for En-
The resource, which formed the basis zinc, lead and silver from the Mississippi ergia to extract more zinc from its other
of a scoping study, was compiled from Valley Type (MVT) deposit. brownfields opportunities in the country.
a total of 57 holes. Energia has since
drilled a further 40 holes, mainly focused Therefore, unlike some other zinc pro- Salafossa, 7km from the Austrian
on infill drilling on the inferred resource jects around the world, particularly the border, recorded average production of
which will be updated in November. Sedex and VMS style deposits which 500,000 tpa over 22 years of 5% zinc
require a lot more work, Gorno can be and 1% lead, while Predil, near the Slo-
“There is absolutely no rush for us to brought onstream relatively quickly. venian border, was producing 50,000 tpa
enter into an off-take partnership, this @ 5% zinc and 1.2% lead concentrates.
is the sort of material that will be sought A potential roadblock to production
after by any smelter,” Robinson told Pay- for Energia could have been negotiating Zinc in Italy is not Energia’s only area
dirt. with a government devoid of experience of interest, with the company keen to
in the mining industry. spend some money on its Australian as-
“One of the big reasons for this sort of sets sometime in the future.
material being sought after is because it There hasn’t been a mine developed
has very low iron content. Our concen- in Italy in the last 30 years and Robin- The company has nine granted tene-
trates are showing iron content of about son said the past 18 months had been a ments in Western Australia’s Paterson
0.5% and very low lead in our zinc con- learning curve for both Energia and the province plus four applications pending
centrate as well. We see absolutely no Government. grants in the McArthur Basin, Northern
need to tie down off-take partners at this Territory.
stage.” “We think all of that learning has hap-
pened now and we see a fairly seamless “I think there is a renaissance already
Neither is Robinson is in a hurry to fi- transition to production,” he said. happening in the exploration business,”
nalise any project financing options just Robinson said.
yet. “We’ve had to get our head around a
different process and they have had to “It is a lot easier to do business in Italy
“We have to go through the EIS pro- get their head around the concept of min- at the moment, but Australia has a very
cess to enable us to build a plant. We ing in Italy. The current crop of bureau- high endowment of opportunities, so it is
expect the approvals to come by July crats in Italy isn’t familiar with mining, so definitely worth putting the money and
next year and from that point on we can there has been a fair bit of learning from effort into Australia.”
commence construction of that treatment both sides.”
plant. We have estimated a capital cost – Mark Andrews
of about $80 million to get it all up and There are about 25 people on site, with
that assumes all brand new plant,” Rob- a mining contractor in place currently
inson said.
“There may be marginal savings if we
use second-hand equipment, we haven’t
fully explored that, but we know there are
treatment plants of that sort of size avail-
able around the world, so we will be look-
ing at that as part of the DFS.”
The company is fully funded to com-
plete the DFS by the end of the year and
Robinson sees few issues in giving the
brownfields project a new lease on life by
mid-2018 when zinc is tipped to be trad-
ing higher than today’s prices.
A rebound in zinc prices – up 40% this
calendar year to over $US1/lb – has re-
invigorated exploration and development
PAGE 76 SEPTEMBER 2016 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT
EUROPE
Dakota’s fact-finding mission
After a fact-finding mission to Europe, electric vehicles on “The [Australian]
David Frances is more convinced
than ever that Dakota Minerals Ltd is in the road by 2018, the analysts especially
the right jurisdiction to play an important
role in the lithium sector. demand for electric don’t really under-
The company does have the Lynas vehicles and home stand the supply
Find project (maiden resource expected
by the end of Q3) which abuts Pilbara and commercial lith- and demand curves,
Minerals Ltd’s Pilgangoora project in
Western Australia, however, also excit- ium battery driven most of them are re-
ing it is a series of projects in northern
Portugal. storage units in Eu- ally only considering
Dakota has seven tenement packages rope is being driven electric vehicles as
under application in Portugal, with the
one granted piece of land comprising by the general popu- the main use for lith-
three tenements shaping as one of the
better plays, according to managing di- lation. ium carbonate. How-
rector Frances.
“Everybody there ever, after this latest
Sepeda, within the Barroso-Alvão field,
was subject to drilling at the time of print. [Europe] has already trip to Germany I ab-
There has been a history of tin and made the shift to solutely understand
tantalum mining on the project, with rock
chip and other sampling from under- clean and green, en- that is not going to
ground and open cut workings revealing
the presence of lithium. vironmentally friend- be the case; the [bat-
“They are very thick pegmatites, up to ly vehicles and pow- tery] storage will be
45m thick in some places,” Frances told
Paydirt. er and all of the rest a massive consumer
“About 500m away there is a cliff face of it,” Frances said. Dakota managing director David Frances of lithium carbon-
that shows stacked horizontal pegma- “They really want with a Daimler-Mercedes modular lithium ate and I don’t think
tites with sub-vertical thin feeders and Australian analysts
from the mineralisation we can see it is this to happen and ion battery home energy storage unit get that,” he said.
part of Sepeda that we are going to drill. it is happening, I be-
It is the horizontal fat pegmatites that are
mineralised and the small vertical feed- lieve, quicker in Eu- “That paradigm
ers that are not. What we are hoping for
is another repeat of stacked horizontal rope than in anywhere else in the world.” shift has already been made by the Eu-
pegmatites of which only the surface
ones have been exploited by historical For instance, 22% of all new vehicle ropeans and we believe that is where the
mining at Sepeda.”
sales in Norway are electric vehicles, earliest uptake of electric vehicles is go-
Drilling will hopefully provide an indi-
cation of how thick the pegmatites are, the Netherlands is pushing hard to have ing to be and that is absolutely the mar-
as well as the distribution and grades,
while some deep holes are also planned legislation in place which rules out any ket we want to be in,” Frances said.
to see if Dakota’s theories hold true.
purchasing of new internal combustion Frances believes being in Portugal
As the company starts working on its
opportunities in the field in Portugal, it vehicles by 2025, while Germany wants – currently Europe’s largest lithium pro-
appears Frances and the team, which
includes chairman John Fitzgerald and to switch to 100% renewable energy in ducer, mainly from small-scale mining
technical director Francis Wedin, are
starting to realise there is much more to the not too distant future. – is Dakota’s best chance of getting a
the lithium carbonate story than just its
use in electric vehicles. Frances said the Europeans were a reasonable-sized lithium project up and
Attending a battery conference in Ger- long way down the track of assessing dif- running to satisfy European demand.
many, Frances’ eyes were opened to
what the likes of Daimler and Mercedes ferent lithium ion technologies, with large While it is early days for Dakota in Por-
were doing in the battery storage space
to cater for Europe’s increasing appetite amounts of R&D directed towards initia- tugal, the company is also entertaining
for cleaner, greener energy solutions.
tives such as lithium air. other potential acquisitions in the Euro-
In contrast to China, where the Gov-
ernment’s decree is to have 4 million Europe and North America are sub- pean time zone.
stantially ahead of an Australian market Due diligence is under way on several
that had some catching up to do, Frances other projects, as Dakota looks towards
said. establishing a safe supply of lithium to
the European and Asian markets.
“The other thing to come out of the
European conference was that the Ger-
mans are petrified of China restricting
supply of lithium carbonates,” Frances
said.
“They are also nervous about the geo-
political instability in the Americas. They
are looking for big projects with long
mine lives that they can have a stake
in with absolute guaranteed security of
supply to build their battery plants and
their increasing commercial and home
storage facilities.”
– Mark Andrews
Dakota technical director Francis Wedin with
exposed spodumene in Portugal
AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT SEPTEMBER 2016 PAGE 77
SIGNED, SEALED AND DELIVERED
Nuclear Fuel Associates and Fivemark Partners will oversee marketing and project financing initiatives for
Bannerman Resources at the Etango uranium project in Namibia
Bannerman appoints engineering, procurement and construc- Aurizon starts hauling
key uranium advisers tion of a new primary crusher, 9km of coal from Wongawilli
overland conveyor and associated 33kV
Uranium hopeful Bannerman Re- power line. Wollongong Coal has awarded an
sources Ltd has appointed Nuclear Fuel 800,000 tpa coal haulage contract to Au-
Associates LLC and Fivemark Partners Construction is expected to begin at rizon Operations Ltd.
to strengthen its marketing and project the iron ore operation in the next quarter,
financing capabilities. pending Rio Tinto gaining the required The contract to haul coal from the
government approvals. Wongawilli colliery to the Port Kembla
Bannerman said the appointments coal terminal expires in August 2018.
of both advisory firms were directed at “This contract award demonstrates
ensuring the company could advance that RCR is certainly leading the iron ore Wollongong Coal was recently ap-
product marketing and project financing processing industry and is a result of our pointed to mine and operate the Won-
initiatives for its Etango project in Namib- innovative approach to cost-competitive gawilli colliery on an initial two-year con-
ia through the current trough in uranium solutions,” RCR managing director Paul tract, extracting about 1.45mt ROM coal.
market conditions. Dalgleish said.
Aurizon said the contract would extend
Nuclear Fuel Associates has been “Our design was innovative and pro- the company’s footprint for coal haulage
marketing Namibian uranium supply for vides Rio Tinto with a solution that uses in New South Wales beyond the Hunter
ASX-listed producer Paladin Energy Ltd capital efficiently. We look forward to de- Valley and the Gunnedah Basin.
for 12 years. livering this important turnkey project for
Rio Tinto.” Four of a kind for
The remuneration structure for both Monadelphous
advisory firms is weighted towards equity EnviroSuite suits
incentives. Americas Monadelphous Group Ltd secured
$140 million worth of new contracts and
“The willingness of such high cali- Pacific Environment Ltd has made its additional work across multiple resourc-
bre partners to accept equity incentive first sale of EviroSuite into the Americas. es and energy projects in four Australian
weighted payment underscores their states and territories.
confidence in the Bannerman team, the EnviroSuite, an Australian-developed
Etango project and their positive outlook technology that has functions to pro- The Perth-based engineering firm has
for uranium prices,” Bannerman chief ex- vide real-time air quality data and alerts, committed to another five years at BHP
ecutive Brandon Munro said. three-day forecasts including site specif- Billiton Ltd’s Olympic Dam copper-ura-
ic risk identification and automated daily nium operation in South Australia. The
RCR wins Silvergrass reports, will be used at the Cerrejon mine company has been providing mainte-
turnkey contract in Columbia. nance and industrial services support at
the Roxby Downs site for more than 25
RCR Tomlinson Ltd will deliver a pri- The Cerrejon coal mine is owned by years.
mary crusher and overland conveyor subsidiaries of BHP Billiton Ltd, Anglo
system to Rio Tinto Ltd’s Silvergrass American plc and Glencore. Monadelphous has also won a contract
mine in the Pilbara. for the design, construction and commis-
The contract is worth $400,000, which sioning of a liquid fuel supply system at
The $120 million contract includes the includes an initial consulting component Rio Tinto Iron Ore’s Cape Lambert port
plus three years of the EviroSuite opera-
tion.
PAGE 78 SEPTEMBER 2016 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT
facility near Karratha, Western Australia. Ravenswood Extension Project may be G Mining Services Inc, which will take
It follows the successful completion of approved. care of geological and mining studies.
petroleum pipeline installations at Rio Golder Associates will complete the geo-
Tinto’s West Angelas and Cape Lambert These two successful awards were technical and hydrogeological studies.
facilities. part of a strategy to diversify into com-
modities beyond iron ore mining and into Meanwhile, Minbos has appointed
Other key work now in the company’s new geographical regions outside West- South African-based Prime Resources
portfolio include a contract for the design ern Australia and South Australia. Pty Ltd to oversee the environmental and
and construction of a potable water treat- social impact assessment for Cabinda.
ment plant for the Western Downs Re- Swift entry at Jerriwah
gional Council in Chinchilla, Queensland, Prime will coordinate with Ausenco to
and electrical and instrumentation works Swift Networks Group Ltd, a leading deliver the necessary documentation re-
for JKC Australia LNG Pty Ltd’s product entertainment and communications ser- quired for Angolan approvals and project
loading jetty at the Ichthys onshore LNG vice provider, has won a material con- financiers.
project in Darwin, Northern Territory. tract with Rio Tinto Ltd at the Jerriwah
village. AMS, Lycopodium
“These new awards demonstrate the extend stay at Edikan
depth of our capabilities and build on our Swift will provide its digital entertain-
valued relationships with key customers,” ment services to 420 new rooms across Ausdrill Ltd subsidiary African Min-
Monadelphous managing director Rob 105 accommodation buildings and six ing Services (AMS) has been awarded
Velletri said. support buildings at Jerriwah village, a $US120 million contract for additional
80km north-east of Tom Price, Western works at Perseus Mining Ltd’s Edikan
Meanwhile, Monadelphous has also Australia. gold mine in Ghana.
reached an agreement with renewable
energy specialists, ZEM Energy Pty Ltd, Ausenco the one for The additional works contract covers
to form a new incorporated joint venture, Minbos a 42-month period and includes drilling,
to be named Zenviron Pty Ltd. blasting, load and haul operations at the
Ausenco Ltd has been selected to con- Esujah North pits.
Downer earns Karara duct a BFS on Minbos Resources Ltd’s
contract extension Cabinda rock phosphate project in An- Equipment will be sourced from AMS’s
gola. existing fleet and the company expects
Downer EDI Ltd has been awarded a to employ up to 280 people, including
four-year contract extension worth an es- The BFS has been divided into two two expatriate personnel.
timated $350 million with Karara Mining stages, with stage one focusing on the
Ltd. completion of a trade-off study to deter- AMS has been providing mining ser-
mine the best beneficiation route for the vices to Perseus in Ghana since 2011.
Downer has been providing mining Cacata resource.
services for Karara’s magnetite op- Meanwhile, Lycopodium has been
eration in Western Australia’s Mid West Stage two will provide capex and opex awarded a $38.4 million contract for EPC
since 2012. estimates for Cabinda based on the pro- services at Edikan.
cessing route selected by the JV partners
The current agreement will see Down- upon completion of the trade-off study. Lycopodium previously completed
er engaged at the project until March DFS and front-end engineering and de-
2022. Ausenco’s bid was in conjunction with sign work for Perseus at the mine.
BGC spreads out in Qld African Mining Services and Lycopodium have been recontracted for work at
Perseus Mining’s Edikan gold mine in Ghana
BGC Contracting has been awarded a
$97 million contract at Incitec Pivot Ltd’s
Phosphate Hill site, 150km south of Mt
Isa, Queensland.
The five-year contract at Phosphate
Hill, from October 2016, will see BGC
providing mining services at the site to
feed the onsite ammonium phosphate
fertiliser manufacturing plant.
Meanwhile, BGC has also scored a
$17 million contract with Resolute Mining
Ltd’s Carpentaria Gold.
Carpentaria Gold will support the re-
starting of open pit mining at Nolans
East in the Ravenswood district, south of
Townsville.
BGC will provide drilling, blasting, ex-
cavating, ore and waste haulage, engi-
neering services and general mine site
management.
The initial 15-month contract will run
from August this year to November
2017, after which the next stage of the
AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT SEPTEMBER 2016 PAGE 79
COMINGS AND GOINGS
Miles Kennedy has executive of Paladin Energy battery-grade graphite for the more than two years with In-
stepped down as non- Ltd, takes over the role from lithium ion battery industry. dependence Group NL.
executive chairman of cop- Ranko Matic, who remains on
per-gold explorer RNI NL. the board as a non-executive Mark Calderwood Frank Giustra has stepped
Kennedy was responsible for director. down from the board of
building the company’s ex- Mark Calderwood has re- Endeavour Mining Corp, hav-
tensive exploration portfolio Vickki McFadden will join signed as a non-exec- ing served as a director of the
in Western Australia’s Bryah Newcrest Mining Ltd as utive director of Explaurum company since September
Basin. Non-executive director a non-executive director on Ltd to focus on his new role 2013.
Simon Heggan has been ap- October 1. McFadden, who as chief executive of Tawana
pointed RNI’s chairman. will become a member of the Resources NL. Thor Mining plc had ap-
audit and risk committee, is pointed Gervaise Heddle
Stephen Brockhurst has chairman of Eftpos Australia BHP Billiton Ltd has ap- as a non-executive director.
replaced Adrien Wang Payments Pty Ltd and a non- pointed Ken MacKenzie Sydney-based Heddle is an
as company secretary at Volt executive director of The as an independent non-exec- executive director of Great-
Resources Ltd. Wang, who re- Myer Family Investments Pty utive director. MacKenzie is land Gold plc and the found-
signed due to other work com- Ltd and Tabcorp Holdings Ltd. the former managing director ing managing director of
mitments, previously served Meanwhile, Richard Knight and chief executive of global Bletchley Economics.
as the company’s chairman. has resigned as a non-exec- packaging company Amcor
utive director after eight years Ltd. Alhassan Andani and Peter
Talga Resources Ltd has on the company’s board. Bacchus have been ap-
appointed Martin Phillips Clifford Chance has pointed independent non-ex-
as projects manager, Europe. Austral Gold Ltd has ap- strengthened its interna- ecutives of Gold Fields Ltd. It
Phillips is an experienced pointed Stabro Kasaneva tional corporate, energy and follows the recent additions of
commercial manager and as chief executive and Jose resources offering by adding Yunus Suleman and Terence
company director with over Bordogna as chief financial Jessica Davies to its Asia Pa- Goodlace to the company’s
25 years of global metals and officer. cific practice as counsel. board.
mining sector experience.
Mark Arnesen has joined Jon Dugdale has been Jim Simpson has joined
Martin Phillips Regal Resources Ltd as appointed chief execu- Aurelia Metals as its new
chief executive and executive tive of Peninsula Mines Ltd. managing director. A mining
Dragon Energy Ltd has ap- director. A chartered account- Dugdale was most recently engineer, Simpson replaced
pointed Joel Fishlock as a ant, Arnesen is the sole direc- managing director of Philip- Rimas Kairaitis as Aurelia’s
non-executive director. Fish- tor of ARM Advisors Pty Ltd pines gold junior Red Moun- chief executive from Septem-
lock is an adviser at Morgans and has served as a non-ex- tain Mining Ltd. ber.
Australia. ecutive director of Centamin
plc since February 2011. Mark Wellesley-Wood Rimas Kairaitis
David Wrigley has been has been appointed as
appointed chief financial Boart Longyear Ltd has a non-executive director of David Porter has retired as
officer of CuDeco Ltd. Wrig- appointed Brendan Ryan Ethiopian gold developer Kefi a director of West Austral-
ley has had previous mining as chief financial officer and Minerals plc. ian explorer Terrain Minerals
experience with the likes of Denis Despres to the newly Ltd.
Consolidated Metals Ltd and created role of chief operating Leigh-Ayn Absolom has
Alacer Gold Corp. officer. joined Goldphyre Resourc- Tyranna Resources Ltd
es Ltd as company secretary, has promoted Nick Rev-
Dehong Yu has resigned Joe Walsh will start as chief replacing John Ribbons in the ell as technical director, while
as a director of Kairos executive of Platypus Min- role. Frank Lesko has joined the
Minerals Ltd to pursue other erals on November 7. Walsh board as a non-executive
business interests. served PanAust Ltd for 12 Tony Walsh has been ap- director. Meanwhile, Yugi
years as general manager pointed a director of At- Gouw has been appointed
Argosy Minerals Ltd has corporate development. las Iron Ltd. Walsh has been chief financial officer and joint
appointed Alexander company secretary and head company secretary, with Ian
Molyneux as non-executive John Cahill has replaced of corporate since rejoining Finch and Neil McKay depart-
chairman. Molyneux, the chief Tim Netscher as non-ex- Atlas in October 2015 after ing as directors.
ecutive chairman of uranium
hopeful Toro Energy Ltd.
Kibaran Resources Ltd has
appointed graphite spe-
cialist Christopher Frey as a
non-executive director. Frey,
a qualified process engineer,
will be based in Germany and
will help accelerate the com-
pany’s strategy to process
its graphite concentrate into
PAGE 80 SEPTEMBER 2016 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT
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LEFTFIELD
Town set to outlive host mine
Kalumbila, near First Quantum “Airlines from Angola, South Af-
Minerals Ltd’s $C2.1 billion rica and other countries will be
Sentinel mine in Zambia’s north- able to fly straight into Kalumbila
western province, could be the to drop off passengers and cargo,
world’s first mining town not to or simply to re-fuel.”
depend on the project it currently Kalumbila intends to rival the
hosts. established copperbelt town of
Some $C200 million has been Kitwe in size and scope by 2050.
invested in building Kalumbila Several companies have al-
and making it a viable commercial ready moved operations to Kalum-
destination in its own right. When bila’s industrial zone, attracted by
Sentinel reaches the end of its its planned tax incentives, its in-
working life in about 20 years from frastructure and growth potential
now, it is intended that Kalumbila and the proximity of Congo and
will not only survive but thrive. Kalumbila is expected to remain buoyant beyond the end of Angola as export markets.
The town’s airport runway is operations at First Quantum’s Sentinel mine, Zambia ME Elecmetal, a leading Chilean
already the second longest in mine supplier, recently concluded
Zambia and can easily handle mid-size “This will eventually become a major a contract to construct a multimillion-
regional jets. When the runway reaches business and tourism hub,” Michael Ka- dollar plant to manufacture high-quality
its full 4km design length, it will be the bungo, Kalumbila Town Development steel mill-balls at the Sentinel mine.
longest in the country. Corp’s town services coordinator, said.
INDEX
ABM 37 Energia 4, 49, 76 Macarthur 53 Platypus 80
ACH 45 Evolution 4, 8-9, 29, 36, 39, 44 Primary Gold 4
Aeon 58 Explaurum MacPhersons 8
Aeris 60 Exxaro 80
Agama 62 7 Magris 72
Alacer 8, 80
Alchemy 37 Marindi 50 Red Mountain 80
Alloy 25
Alto Metalicity 48-49, 55-56 Red River 4, 63
Altona 8
Altura 8 First Quantum 70 Metals X 4, 28, 29, 45 Regal 80
Anglo American 56 Fortescue 29, 32
AngloGold 7, 78 Freeport Millennium 43 Regis 39, 42
Antipa 41 73
Antofagasta 30 Middle Island 4 Resolute 15, 79
Argosy 73
Asian Mineral 80 Minbos 79 Rio Tinto 4, 10, 12, 29, 30, 32, 70,
Atlas Iron 18
Aurelia 34, 80 Galaxy 70 Mincor 29 78-79
Austral Gold 80
80 Gascoyne 39 Mineral Deposits 10 RNI 80
General Mining 15 Minjar 36 Rox 25, 50
Glencore 29, 40, 48-49, 52, 58, 72, Minmetals 73
73, 78 Minotaur 13 Sandfire 37, 44
Saracen 14
Gold Fields 29, 35, 36, 44, 80 Mithril 13 Sheffield 10
Sibanye 7
Gold Road 8 MMG 49, 58, 59, 73 Silver Lake 45
Sipa 35
Goldphyre 80 Musgrave 45 Soon 54
Southern Gold 35
Graphex 54 St Barbara
Stratmin 14, 43
Greatlands 80 Neometals 70 Superior 69
11
Gryphon 64 New Gold 41
Newcrest 80
Bannerman 78 Hanking 43 Newmarket 8, 41
Harmony 29
Barrick 8, 72 Heron 4, 49, 52 Newmont 38
Hudbay 73
Base 10 Nexus 14
Bass 69 Northern Star 4, 8, 29, 38, 39, 41,
BHP Billiton 4, 12, 13, 29, 73, 78, 44, 53 Talga 80
Talisman 44
80 Iluka 10-11, 25 Norton 60 Tawana 80
IMI Zinc 50 Teck 50
Billabong 38, 41 Incitec 79 Nyrstar 48-49 Teranga 64
Independence Terrain 80
Blackrock 53 29, 37, 80 Thor 80
Toro Energy 13, 15, 80
OceanaGold 74 TNG 54
Troy
Carbine 46 Orion 62 Tyranna 8
Cassini 13 80
Centamin 80 Kairos 80 Orocobre 70
Consolidated Metals 80
CuDeco 80 Karara 79 Oz Minerals 13
Kasbah 18
Kefi 80 Padbury 16
Paladin 78, 80
KGHM 73 PanAust
Panoramic 80
Dacian 4, 8-9, 46 Kibaran 80 Pantoro 29
Dakota 56, 77 Peninsula Mines 29, 46
Diatreme 10-11 Kinross 72 PepinNini 80 Vale 29
Doray Perseus 13 Venturex 49, 53
Dragon Energy 20-25, 29, 44 Latin Resources 70 Pilbara Minerals 79 Volt
80 Lithium Power 54 34, 53, 56, 77 80
Lynas 33, 35 Western Areas
Wollongong Coal 29, 40
Endeavour 80 80
PAGE 82 SEPTEMBER 2016 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT
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