pd276-Oct19-mag-web_Neat

by Jindal for the sale of the Came- around the Seahorse project.
roon iron ore project and an antici- “That type of activity from the big boys
pated R&D tax rebate of about $1.2 brings nickel into focus right in our back-
million also add significant weight yard. Obviously BHP and IGO aren’t sub-
to Legend’s treasury. ject to the same capital pressures that a
Access to funding has made junior is, but it certainly makes me feel a
Legend a mainstay in the Fraser lot less lonely in that space,” Wilson said.
Range where diamond drilling at “Exploration in the Fraser Range itself
Area D within the Rockford project is pretty limited and since the Nova dis-
is planned to start this month. covery the story in the Fraser Range has
Legend’s ability to potentially been one of consolidation. IGO has been
create value through the drill bit tending to mop up a lot of that tenure that
comes at an opportune time given juniors have dropped from the early days
the attention the nickel sector is and if you refer their land tenure in the re-
now receiving. gion from 2015 to 2019 you can see their
BHP Nickel West, Western Ar- accumulation as they prosecute what
eas Ltd and IGO have in large they have argued for a very long time; the
part kept nickel on the agenda and Fraser Range is a very fertile place with
Legend, IGO and Creasy Group are entering a JV on while there is an emphasis on the exponential growth potential for nickel-
two Rockford North tenements in the Fraser Range downstream opportunities and pro- copper discoveries.”
duction to drive the EV revolution, Wilson also noted that S2 Resources
exploration is also back in vogue. Ltd had started acquiring ground in the
“From a cash perspective, to get the Out of a budget of $73 million for Fraser Range, which was a welcome
nod from IGO that they are prepared FY2020, IGO is spending $26 million sight for industry.
to invest $9.8 million into the company on near-mine exploration at Nova alone, “Mark Bennett’s presence in that area
at the same premium price that Creasy while about 150km east of Legend’s is great for the industry because he has
accepted our stock for the purchase of Fraser Range ground, BHP has sparked been the most successful to this point in
those two new tenements. It means we interest in the Madura province by peg- time.”
have funding for several years.” ging 26 tenements along a strike length
Staged repayments over the next 12 of 350km covering about 13,000sq km – Mark Andrews
months totalling $3 million to be fulfilled





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aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT OCTOBeR 2019 Page 101

NICKel CoNFeReNCe PReVIeW





Oz/Cassini extend



West Musgrave PFS










































By the end of 2019, Oz Minerals’ expenditure on the West
Musgrave JV with Cassini will have reached $50 million


ith Oz Minerals Ltd doing the heavy 800km west of Uluru, near the borders of WMP, however, with 50,000m of drilling
Wlifting at the West Musgrave project Western Australia, South Australia and completed since the last resource up-
(WMP) JV, Cassini Resources Ltd has Northern Territory – due consideration date, expectations are that the mine life
taken the opportunity to explore more of is being paid to innovations that will help will be increased to at least 15 years in
its portfolio in its own right. improve the valuation of the project in the PFS and a maiden ore reserve also
Oz has satisfied JV conditions, namely consultation with Traditional Owners and delivered.
contributing $36 million towards the Ne- government agencies plus international The West Musgrave province is largely
bo-Babel PFS and regional exploration, and local experts adept at handling re- under-explored and within just 15km of
which now sees it own 70% of the WMP mote operations. Nebo-Babel, the JV sees great poten-
with Cassini holding the remaining inter- “These include the use of a reduced tial in upgrading the inferred resource at
est. site footprint via a Remote Operations Succoth and continues to see vast pro-
An update on the WMP PFS was pro- Centre, the use of hybrid power solu- spectivity at One Tree Hill.
vided in late August and was highlighted tions, potential to use innovative tech- “It is likely that the PFS study will be
by Oz’s board approving an additional nology and a process flow sheet, which completed in early January and will in-
$10 million to extend the PFS. pilot testing has shown, could result in a clude an updated resource and obvi-
Spending by the JV is already sub- significant reduction in power usage,” Oz ously a lot of that inferred material will be
stantial and ahead of schedule and fi- chief executive Andrew Cole said when moved into indicated. That will underpin
nalisation of the PFS is expected in early providing the WMP PFS update. a much longer mine life; the resource I
January. “We believe these opportunities have think is in really good shape,” Cassini
The extension of the PFS is not ex- the potential to reduce our carbon foot- managing director Richard Bevan told
pected to materially impact the timing of print and power costs versus a traditional Paydirt.
the feasibility study completion, as the mine footprint while improving overall “Oz has brought a lot of that feasibil-
JV sets upon firming up a “single go- project economics.” ity study drilling into this phase to make
forward option” to be assessed in the A base case 10 mtpa open pit copper- sure that the resource is in good shape.
feasibility study. nickel operation lasting an initial eight The other thing that we have done a lot
Given the remoteness of the WMP – years is what the JV is working on at the of is met testing. We have had some re-



Page 102 OCTOBeR 2019 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT

ally good outcomes in the metal recover- means once you pay that back you have tioned intercept produced by Beadell
ies and we are landing in the right place. then got money for shareholder divi- Resources.
There has been a lot more opportunity dends and money to invest in exploration Mt Squires and the 80% acquisition
to optimise that and that is really another and development,” Bevan said. of the early-stage nickel-copper-cobalt-
big driver in the value of the project.” “Our goal would be to build a company PGE Yarawindah Brook project, near
The JV has reported that continued like Independence Group [Ltd], with very New Norcia, 130km north-east of Perth,
improvements in metal recovery and re- similar metrics to the kind they had with are strategic foils for Cassini’s interest in
duction in costs through bulk separation Tropicana. We just don’t know how we the WMP.
are being achieved, while work on fully get there yet, but we have options and Bevan said the company was aware
de-risking a new grinding methodology a big partner who has already indicated of the need to be active in the near term
(Loesche Mill), which potentially reduces they are happy to provide some support. and provide news flow and exposure to
grinding power costs by about 30%, is We know we have a really valuable asset other opportunities for shareholders.
being undertaken. with the nickel and the copper. There are Yarawindah was originally host to a
“A lot of the met work and the resource lots of people looking for those commod- non-compliant PGE resource, while
have been done to probably well past ities and we are confident we’ll be able to shallow drilling produced nickel hits of
PFS stage. The PFS is being done by weigh up all these different options and 1.5-2% nickel.
Oz, it is a big company PFS and they are choose the right ones that give value for “We flew some aeromag over there
doing it with the intent to be the opera- our shareholders. I think we need to un- and highlighted some targets. The good
tor. For them, it is really about mitigating derstand the value of the WMP first and I thing was that the aeromag confirmed
the key risks early on in the process and guess get some of that project value into the existing targets and then identified a
they have done a really thorough job,” our share price a bit more to give us a bit few more,” Bevan said.
Bevan said. more leverage.” “It is on farm land so it will take a little
Completion of the PFS will give both To the end of June, Cassini had $8 bit of time to get the access stuff done
parties an indication of the capital re- million cash and at the time of print was and then we will probably wait, it is early
quirements required to build the WMP. amid a 1,000m RC drilling programme stage but it has promise. We have been
Oz’s deep pockets means it would be at the Handpump prospect at its 100% reasonably disciplined about moving
good to fund its share, while Bevan said owned Mt Squires gold project in WA’s onto projects and not pushing on too
Cassini had a number of options to con- Musgrave province. broad a front; just ones that we think
sider with its preference being to main- Previous intercepts at Handpump in- are really worthwhile. It would be good
tain its position in the project. clude 15m @ 2.3 g/t gold from 31m, to get out there and fire a few shots on
“We are in a good position where we within a broader mineralised envelope of Yarawindah before the end of the year
have a big partner and a number of fund- 57m @ 0.94 g/t from 14m. though.”
ing options. We have the opportunity to Handpump has not been drilled since
realise some value if that’s appropriate, 2011, with the purpose of Cassini’s pro- – Mark Andrews
but our primary plan has always been to gramme to confirm mineralisation con-
maintain 30% of a producing asset. That trols and extensions to the aforemen-







































Resources at Nebo and Babel – 800km west of Uluru, near the borders separating WA, SA and
NT – total 238mt @ 0.35% nickel and 0.38% copper, with 59% indicated and 41% inferred


aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT OCTOBeR 2019 Page 103

NICKel CoNFeReNCe PReVIeW





Sinclair sidelined as Lachlan takes



centre stage




inclair remains on the backburner at Kerry Harmanis-backed company is look- some deeper drilling.
STalisman Mining Ltd, but that could all ing to sell and focus solely on NSW. “Right now, Sinclair is competing dol-
change with a sharp uptick in the nickel Madden said the company remained lar-for-dollar against NSW. To put it in
price. open to all options, but the nickel price context, for a greenfield opportunity at
Talisman managing director Dan Mad- would ultimately have the final say on Sin- Sinclair, you’re looking at aircore drilling
den said low-cost exploration success clair’s future. to try and identify the ultramafic, which is
across a suite of greenfield targets in New “We’ve got very, very good optional- then followed up by deeper drilling, which
South Wales had conspired with unpre- ity with Sinclair; it has the vast majority of is more expensive and a longer process.
dictable nickel price movements to justify infrastructure in place, including the pro- That’s why we now have a stronger focus
a reduced spend at Sinclair, about 80km cessing plant, and it does have approxi- in NSW. If the nickel price moves and the
north-west of Leonora. mately four years of mineralisation in terms stock price moves to reflect that, we’ll take
Sinclair has been on care-and-main- of the resource and exploration target put a view at that time and go from there.”
tenance since August 2013. Talisman together,” Madden told Paydirt. Sinclair hosts a resource of 720,000t @
acquired the former Xstrata operation, in- “What dictates how much capital we put 2.3% nickel containing 16,200t, with an
cluding the 350,000 tpa concentrator, the into Sinclair is, of course, the nickel price. exploration target of 670,000-790,000t @
following year for $8 million plus a deferred We’re not there yet, but obviously the nick- 2-2.5% nickel containing 13,700-19,900t
$2 million payment contingent upon the re- el price is very quick moving, so getting a supporting that inventory.
start of production. view on the stability of the nickel price is Earlier this year drilling of multiple struc-
With Talisman seemingly no closer to re- important before we put capital into that tural, geophysical and geochemical tar-
suming operations than when it purchased type of opportunity, which would obviously gets identified a broad zone of oxide nickel
the asset, analysts have speculated the involve some restart costs and probably mineralisation over more than 500m at the


Talisman has flagged a reduced spend at Sinclair
until the nickel price dictates otherwise














































Page 104 OCTOBeR 2019 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT

Exploration efforts are increasing at the
Lachlan copper-gold project in NSW
on the back of some promising initial
drilling results






































Amy Rix prospect. Shallow mineralisation headline intercepts of 13m @ 5.7% copper at depth.
– within 30m of surface – grading 0.7-1% and 21m @ 2.67% copper. “We’ve done holes outside of those
nickel was also reported. “It’s a highly mineralised region but lenses of mineralisation to test that wider
Madden said shareholders were sup- very underexplored, particularly in recent system, we’re building that up at the mo-
portive of the company’s approach to fu- times,” Madden said. ment with the results coming in and we’ll
ture exploration and development work at “We’ve got over 3,000sq km, so quite a be looking for what I hope to be a follow-up
Sinclair. meaningful and significant package. We programme of, most likely, diamond drill-
“I think most people understand that think this is a very good opportunity for ing.”
Sinclair will somewhat take care of itself modern exploration tools and we can test Talisman’s move into NSW coincided
in terms of what happens with the nickel a lot of that [ground] with relatively low- with the sale of its 30% interest in the
price and our allocation of capital to match cost initial reconnaissance work. Springfield JV, including the high-grade
that, obviously in the absence of us taking “Of particular interest for us is the Gil- Monty copper mine, to Sandfire Resourc-
advantage of any strategic options that more suture, a large structure which has es NL. The deal netted the company $58.2
come along,” he said. had a very important part in the role of the million cash, with $41 million subsequently
“Our board has always taken a very, development of the Cobar ‘Superbasin’, returned to shareholders.
very disciplined approach to the allocation and it’s across that suture where our focus Madden said the company had em-
of capital and the focus is all about the un- is.” braced its new beginnings in NSW despite
derlying value of the asset and not diluting Talisman is seeking to drill up to five noting stark differences in the regulatory
shareholder exposure to that underlying high-priority targets identified from recent set-up compared to its previous history in
value.” RC drilling – including Blind Calf, Melrose Western Australia.
Talisman recently beefed up its NSW and Harding’s – with rigs due to start turn- “Some of the timeframes are slower, but
portfolio with the acquisition of the Luc- ing at the time of print. by and large if you understand the time-
know gold project via a farm-in agreement “The next stage will be to move to more frame and the process there’s clarity and
which will see the company initially earn refined targeted drilling, that’s when we will it’s just structuring the flow of the work and
51% by sole-funding $700,000 of explora- know if we’ve got some economic-grade the flow of the programmes to fit in with
tion within a two-year period. That stake mineralisation,” he said. that,” he said.
can then be increased to 70% from an ad- “We had immediate success at Blind “There are positives and negatives as
ditional spend of $800,000. Calf…it had previously been drilled prob- you can imagine with any environment you
Lucknow, which has historically pro- ably 10 years ago by another junior, they operate in. For me, we have very good re-
duced more than 400,000oz at an aver- put some holes underneath it and inter- lationships with the farmers and landhold-
age estimated mined grade of plus-100 g/t sected copper mineralisation but it was ers in the region, we’ve got access agree-
gold, is 200km south-east of Talisman’s very narrow. Our geological concept and ments that we believe both parties are
Lachlan copper-gold project which has model is that these things plumb deep into very happy with and we think there are a
been the company’s main game for the the system along these structures and you number of other opportunities in the region
past 18 months. then get these structurally-controlled lens- that are worth pursuing. I think that says a
Talisman reported immediate success es of mineralisation that, similar to Cobar, lot around what we feel of NSW.”
from drilling at the Blind Calf prospect with can be quite deep and then broaden out
– Michael Washbourne

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT OCTOBeR 2019 Page 105

Walk a



night in



their shoes





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mINING seRVICes
























High five for Curtin






nitially, getting testimonials from mining HiSeis was established in 2009 and blue-chip mining houses, which had also
Ipeople backing the effectiveness of Curtin since then the seismic survey methods enhanced Perth’s standing as a mining ser-
University’s innovative seismic survey meth- have helped mining companies fast-track vices hub.
ods was a hard task. Now, praise for Curtin’s mineral discoveries, reduce exploration “Curtin has sold down its interest in the
work comes from the highest offices in gold and mining costs and allow for improved company and the new set of shareholders
mining in Australia. mine planning and safety. have come in, many of whom are experi-
“We’re a huge advocate of that technolo- The increasing demand for commercial enced mining executives, who really have
gy and so is the gold sector across Austral- seismic imaging in the minerals industry the capability and knowledge to take it to
ia,” Northern Star Resources Ltd chairman has extended beyond the shores of Aus- the next level and they are looking at inter-
Bill Beament told Paydirt’s sister publica- tralia and now HiSeis is looking to broaden national expansion,” McDougall said.
tion GMJ last year. its horizons. “Over our history we have done a number
At that time, Beament said that 3D seis- As of last year, Curtin sold down its inter- of jobs around the world and they are now
mic data from HiSeis Pty Ltd, created by looking at setting up a more serious base
Curtin University, was giving the compa- in regions like Africa. There has been a
ny hope of re-opening its Paulsens gold lot of work done in Europe, they’re also
mine in the future, while he credited seis- looking at the potential to extend services
mic for the discovery of the Zodiac sys- that a company might offer a mining com-
tem at Jundee. pany using seismic and potentially other
Recognition of the value of using seis- techniques to give them a better under-
mic techniques is growing by the day standing and definition of their orebody.”
across industry and another feather in McDougall said the company’s growth
the cap for Curtin’s innovation came last strategy would also include potential
month as the West Australian university partnerships, particularly as it sets out for
received the Knowledge Commercialisa- exposure to international markets.
tion Australasia (KCA) Research Com- “There are always people out there will-
mercialisation Award at its annual confer- ing to try new things. I think there’s people
ence in Sydney. who are still reasonably conservative, but
Through HiSeis, Curtin commercial- if you can demonstrate value and show
ised its innovative minerals exploration results from an application like seismic
technique which uses sound waves to people will eventually adopt it. Some are
create a detailed 3D image of under- quicker than others and we found early
ground ore deposits. on that we were able to collaborate with
Although seismic reflection has proven a number of people willing to take the risk
to be effective in the oil and gas industry, on investment in seismic and we got the
the technique had not been applied to benefits from that,” McDougall said.
hard rock exploration until lead researcher Bill Beament “There are a lot of jobs in the pipeline,
Associate Professor Milovan Urosevic particularly in the Australian gold industry.
from Curtin’s Western Australian School of est in HiSeis, with the new owners elevating Northern Star has been a leader [in the use
Mines and team, including Professor An- the company’s position to expand. of seismic]; they have used it to good effect
ton Kepic, developed and adapted existing Nevertheless, HiSeis maintains a re- and had good outcomes and have been a
seismic imaging technology so that it could search relationship with Curtin and contin- supportive partner along the way.”
be applied to the hard rock environment. ues to tap into the university’s graduates.
The concept and technology took a num- Curtin University commercialisation – Mark Andrews
ber of years to develop, but through many director Rohan McDougall told Paydirt
field trials and successes along the way, HiSeis’ reputation was growing around
industry acceptance has escalated. the world through the work it was doing for


aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT OCTOBeR 2019 Page 107

mINING seRVICes





Austin salutes 50 years



and plans to drive on




he insatiable appetite for a cleaner, EBITDA of $24-28 million to be
Tgreener world and the trend towards achieved this financial year.
electrification and renewable energy has Forsyth’s reign as manag-
Austin Engineering Ltd managing direc- ing director started three years
tor Peter Forsyth feeling good about the ago and since then there has
future. been a “laser-like” focus on
After a lean few years, Austin’s op- reducing debt and improving
erational cash flow of $13.8 million for cash flow through strategies
FY2019 was the highest reported since such as discontinuing opera-
FY2013 and easily surpassed last year’s tions not contributing value to
operating cash flow of $1.2 million. the business.
Austin, based in Brisbane, is largely The result has been a re-
exposed to iron ore, copper and coal; duction in the debt-to-EBIT-
commodities which experienced strength DA ratio to less than one (net
in pricing in the last financial year. debt down to $19.8 million in
And, Forsyth is confident the short- FY2019), and Austin is now
to-medium-term outlook for those com- better placed to absorb the
modities will remain strong despite is- ebbs and flows in commodity
sues between China and the US causing prices.
concern in global markets. “The business we are in –
“I do tend to look more at the macro supporting miners and con-
trends in terms of the commodities that tractors in a commodity-driv-
we work with our customers [iron ore, en business – over a period
coal, copper]. If you look at the macro of time will have peaks and
trends, you look at where copper is go- troughs and the key to hav-
ing to go in the next 10-20 years, it is just ing a successful business is
a relentless trend towards electrifica- making sure you have an ac-
tion and renewable energy,” Forsyth told ceptable return in the trough.
Paydirt. By getting our debt down to a
“Copper production is going to go very manageable level and our
through the roof, so the long-term trends cash flow up, we are going to
for copper, even thermal and met coal for ensure that we are profitable Peter Forsyth
installed capacity, is very strong. Gen- in the peaks as well as in the
eration capacity for base load power in troughs, but also getting back to focus- by the engineering and innovation teams
South East Asia; met coal is going to be ing on what we do and doing it very well,” in Perth and Wyoming for their ability to
strong so is iron ore. The day-to-day fluc- Forsyth said. customise and develop bespoke solu-
tuations – as in prices and trade nego- Austin is the largest non-OEM provider tions, which keeps the company at the
tiations – are not things I focus on. We of bucket solutions in the world, with For- front of the pack.
look more at the longer term trends and syth applauding the accolades received Forsyth pointed to new products like
given uncertainty in the US/China “ We want to leverage as innovations which catered for
the two-piece excavator bucket and
where our customers are going to
ultralight weight Ultima Dump Body,
be placed in the next year or so.”
Austin’s outlook for FY2020 is
safety and efficiency.
for a mixed bag of results through-
the facilities we have
Austin’s people are also exposed
out its core business competen-
to working at heights, in confined
cies, as miners take a cautious
around the world, we see
approach to growth ambitions
to be handled carefully, making safe-
ty the number one focus for Forsyth.
relationship. probably growth coming two spaces and with materials that need
ways; better coverage in
Therefore, as miners grapple “Safety is a state of conscious
with capex and budget increases, some of the areas we unease,” Forsyth said in relation to
Austin has reported delays for historically haven’t what keeps him awake at night.
orders which will essentially curb “A lot of the stuff we are doing, we
the company’s growth rate. participated in, Africa for are not only concentrating on safety
Austin – a supplier of custom- example, there are certainly in our manufacturing business but
ised equipment to large global we are also combining safety in our
mining clients, mining contractors big opportunities there. products; we are coming at it from
and OEMs – expects underlying a different angle. For instance, the
Page 108 OCTOBeR 2019 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT

innovation terms of
the two-piece bucket
which eliminates
the stored energy in
buckets and the stair-
way access to the wa-
ter tank also improves
safety.”
As the company
continues to push
the envelope on in-
novation for improved
safety and efficiency
outcomes, a con-
scious effort is being It has been a significant year for Austin with the company celebrating 50 years in business,
made to gain greater while also making the Australian Financial Review’s Most Innovative Companies 2019 list
long-term visibility on
the needs of customers and OEMs. lower revenue (minus 10%) as the ben- The company has 2,000 employees
Forsyth said having the ability to plan efits of restructuring operations in South and is already well represented in the
for materials and labour requirements America together with strong productiv- Americas (US, Peru, Colombia, Chile),
over a 12-month period, as opposed to ity gains in the US business delivered a South East Asia (Indonesia) and Austral-
delivering an order upon call, would help 69% improvement in margins. ia, with Forsyth and non-executive chair-
remove some of the “lumpiness” in Aus- Meanwhile, rationalisation of under- man Jim Walker leading the charge into
tin’s business. performing operations together with a new pastures.
A clearer outlook would help Austin weak second half for the Perth-based “We have a great footprint around the
move its business forward and expand company resulted in a 22% fall in rev- world in terms of high-quality manufac-
its market coverage and penetration. enue for Australia and earnings declining turing, located adjacent to large ore de-
In FY2019, earnings from the Ameri- 44%. Revenue from Asia grew 7% and posits in iron ore, coal and copper on four
cas improved by 52% to $12.3 million on earnings were maintained at $4.3 million. continents,” Forsyth said.
“We are quite comfortable with our
footprint in South America. We see our-
Austin is the world’s largest non-OEM manufacturer of buckets suitable for mining equipment
selves as a global sales organisation and
there is probably no immediate need for
extra bricks and mortar. We want to lev-
erage the facilities we have around the
world, we see probably growth coming
two ways; better coverage in some of the
areas we historically haven’t participated
in, Africa for example, there are certainly
big opportunities there.
“The footprint we have got we are
happy with and we are going to leverage
that. If we need more capacity we will go
to Austin-accredited third-party suppli-
ers that can build our products on time,
safely and on budget with high quality.
They are our core values, so we need to
make sure that we have quality partners
around the world to meet that need,” he
said.
– Mark Andrews










aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT OCTOBeR 2019 Page 109

ReGIoNAl RouNDuP Chile is hoping its vast lithium reserves will entice Asian and

European groups to build battery facilities within its borders















Chile taps China, Japan in



lithium-for-tech push









hile is making a renewed push for Chile’s investment and development lithium reserves, with both SQM and US-
Cbattery technology investment in agencies InvestChile and CORFO held based Albemarle, the world’s top pro-
return for access to its lithium deposits, events in China, France, Japan and ducer, extracting the coveted metal from
piquing interest from China, Japan and South Korea this year to drum up inter- bright blue brine pools on the desert’s
Europe as global firms look to tie up sup- est. They say issues from the first auc- vast white salt flats.
ply of the metal vital for the shift to electric tion have since been resolved. However, a Reuters investigation in
vehicles. The roadshows attracted interest in July found Chile has struggled to capital-
The South American country, the China from dozens of firms, including ise fully on the tenders, failing to make
world’s No.2 lithium producer, has held China Development Bank, energy firm clear both how much lithium it could pro-
global roadshows ahead of a second lith- TBEA, chemicals giant Sinochem and vide, as well as how deeply it would be
ium-for-investment tender, according to aluminum miner Chinalco, the document discounted.
officials and Chilean government docu- dated August 29 showed. Chilean producers currently export
ments seen by Reuters. Japanese banks and miners, South mostly unrefined lithium, not the high-
These have attracted dozens of firms Korea’s overseas infrastructure body, er-value battery parts Chile hopes will
in China, Japanese battery makers like Belgium’s Umicore and French trans- someday generate added earnings for its
Toshiba Corp and Russia’s state nuclear portation conglomerate Bollore attended export-oriented economy.
agency Rosatom, the documents show, other global shows, an official for In- Despite the renewed interest, the ad-
lured by potential access to Chile’s huge vestChile confirmed. ministration of centre-right President
deposits of the “white gold” under the A statement from Rosatom Group con- Sebastian Pinera has tempered expecta-
arid salt flats in the Atacama Desert. firmed its companies were weighing their tions for this second round.
An auction – slated for early 2020 – of- options in Chile. Falling lithium prices and Chile’s dis-
fers a guaranteed supply of discounted “Rosatom’s organisations are still con- tance from consumer markets increase
Chilean lithium in exchange for a commit- sidering Chile as a potential partner for costs and make it difficult to entice for-
ment to build battery parts plants in Chile implementation of lithium projects and eign manufacturers.
as the Government looks to move up the supporting local government’s initiatives Pablo Terrazas, head of the Corfo de-
value chain. aimed to attract foreign companies to velopment agency, which oversees the
Oversupply and plummeting lithium participate in joint projects in this area,” auction, told lawmakers the offered deal
prices, however, have made the deal a it said. was perhaps not as sweet as anticipated.
tough sell. In a previous tender in 2018, Bollore declined to comment, as did “If the battery-making companies are
all three winners, including electronics Japan’s Toshiba, with spokesman Ryoji not interested... we can’t obligate them to
giant Samsung SDI and Korean steel- Shinohara adding: “We are not disclos- set up in Chile,” he told lawmakers. “This
maker Posco, subsequently dropped out. ing business-related information, includ- can still succeed or fail.”
“I don’t see this ending any better than ing participation in such roadshows, un- Terrazas said he hoped to entice com-
the previous auction,” Chilean lithium less an official decision is made.” panies that make parts for batteries used
consultant Jaime Alee said. Having ad- The China Development Bank, TBEA, in tools, electric scooters and storage
vised foreign investors in Chile, he not- Sinochem, Chinalco and Umicore did not devices.
ed that the global trend was for supply respond to requests for comment. “We started out wanting to sell the
chains closer to home. Chinese interest in Chilean lithium in most sophisticated batteries to the likes
“Given this, I just don’t see the logic in particular has grown as the Asian giant of BMW or Volkswagen. But I think we
installing [a plant] in Chile.” ramps up production of EVs. Last year, need to go little by little... and work our
Nonetheless, Chile’s huge deposits are China’s Tianqi clinched a $US4 billion way up,” he said.
a lure amid a sharpening race to lock in deal to purchase a quarter stake in top
supplies, which will be key to a future of Chilean lithium miner SQM. – Dave Sherwood and Natalia A.
electrified transport and smart devices. Chile is home to half of the world’s Ramos Miranda, Reuters



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lATIN AmeRICA




Vale under fire for dam busts




aced with public outrage after its second had later sent revised data to Reuters and zato, a professor of constitutional law at the
Fmining dam collapse in four years killed other news outlets.” Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, said.
at least 240 people in Brazil, Vale SA mis- Vale said its statements surrounding the Vale operates several different kinds of
represented what it had done to shut down dams had been made in good faith, and dams in Brazil to store the muddy detritus
its riskiest dams, a review of the company’s added that it had done a lot to prevent a re- of its mining activity known as “tailings”. The
statements shows. currence of the Mariana disaster and that two that collapsed used an upstream tech-
Fabio Schvartsman, Vale’s then-chief ex- much “is still being done”. nique in which the dam is gradually built
ecutive, said at a nationally broadcast news The latest development adds to the min- upon a reservoir of sludge.
conference days after the dam burst in late ing giant’s legal troubles. Brazilian prosecu- Such dams are generally cheaper to
January that the company had already de- tors have said they are looking into whether build, but they run a higher risk of water
commissioned nine “upstream dams” in the senior Vale executives were aware of sta- seeping under the dam and weakening the
wake of a 2015 disaster involving the same bility issues at Brumadinho and other dams structure, mining experts told Reuters.
type of structure, and planned to dismantle but failed to disclose them or take adequate Chile and Peru have long banned the
10 more over the next few years. The com- actions to resolve them. construction of such dams, because of the
pany repeated the claim in a statement on Brazilian market regulator CVM has also risks of collapse. In February, Brazil’s ANM
its website. opened at least two different administrative banned new upstream tailings dams and
Reuters asked Vale for details on these probes into Vale’s handling of the disaster, told miners they had to decommission ex-
moves on February 5, seven days after Sch- while the company faces US class actions isting ones by August 15, 2023, a deadline
vartsman’s news conference. and at least one investor arbitration case in it recently pushed back by as many as four
In March, some five weeks later, Vale Brazil. years.
gave Reuters a list of nine dams that it said Mining watchdog ANM is carrying out a Vale, the world’s largest iron ore exporter,
it had closed since 2014, a year before the separate investigation into the causes of the is not the only big miner that operates up-
Mariana disaster. Five were smaller struc- dam burst as well as whether any mining or stream dams. At BHP, for example, 43%
tures, called dikes, which Vale said should other administrative rules were broken. of its 67 operated dams are upstream, al-
be considered “upstream dams,” while four “In my view, it’s clear that the CEO of any though only five of those are active, accord-
others were listed as single-step dams, company, public or private, will certainly be ing to a slide presentation on its website
which experts consider less dangerous. held accountable by shareholders and the from June, with the sole active ones among
But Eduardo Leão, a director of the Bra- authorities for any kind of statement, espe- those based in Chile and Australia. BHP
zilian mining regulator ANM, and another cially if it is proven to be untrue,” Luigi Boniz- verified that the numbers were accurate.
expert who reviewed the list for Schvartsman was removed as
Reuters, said that they were all in chief executive in early March at
fact smaller structures and not the the urging of prosecutors who said
dangerous upstream type. in a letter to the board that his and
Vale also listed the 10 dams that other top Vale executives’ con-
it said it planned to close, including tinued presence at the company
the collapsed one at Brumadinho. posed “immeasurable risks to so-
Brazilian prosecutors now are ciety.”
looking into Schvartsman’s declara- In May, the company told in-
tion that Vale had already shuttered vestors that it expected to spend
nine upstream dams in response to $US1.855 billion to shutter the 10
the 2015 collapse as part of a wider upstream dams it planned to close.
criminal probe into the company’s For now, the company’s dams
conduct, an individual close to the continue to pose risks. In May,
investigation said. one of the upstream dams slated
The 2015 collapse, at its Samar- to be decommissioned, called Sul
co JV with BHP Ltd, killed 19 peo- Superior, came close to breaking,
ple near the town of Mariana. Brazilian regulators and Vale said,
“There was a lot of talk about threatening to force the evacuation
measures being taken to avoid a of 10,000 people from three his-
repetition of what happened, but toric towns.
it was nothing more than talk,” the Vale said the dam at that mine,
source added. known as Gongo Soco, was being
Schvartsman’s representatives monitored in real time by systems
at the law firm of Bottini & Tama- capable of detecting millimetric
sauskas declined to comment. movements, as well as by drones.
In a statement, Vale said the It added that the company in May
original figures that Schvartsman started building a concrete con-
provided were based on “informa- tainment wall 6km downstream
tion available at the time, provided from the dam that would be able to
by employees from the company’s hold back a large portion of the tail-
ferrous metals area at the time of ings if the dam collapsed.
the [news conference] and that it
– Reuters


aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT OCTOBeR 2019 Page 111

ReGIoNAl RouNDuP NoRTH AmeRICA






No worries for new Sayona chief




lack of sizzle in the lithium sector is the
A least of new Sayona Mining Ltd man-
aging director Brett Lynch’s worries.
Lynch’s three-month tenure at Sayona
has coincided with a major flattening of
a lithium market which now appears to
be oversupplied following the develop-
ment and expansion of several operations
around the world.
Such a scenario would ordinarily spell
trouble for a company like Sayona which
is seeking to bring its Authier project in
Quebec, Canada online over the next
three years but despite a challenging intro-
duction to his new role, Lynch sees only
upside for both the lithium industry and for
Sayona.
“I’m even more confident now than
when I started because I see opportunities Brett Lynch
to build a significant player with the right and certainly being able to execute on the
credentials and capabilities in the indus- mining development.” shuttered North American Lithium Inc op-
try,” Lynch told Paydirt. A mining engineer with more than three eration.
“I have no doubt that lithium demand will decades of experience, particularly in the Last month the Quebec Superior Court
be as good, if not better than what all the coal industry, Lynch has had his hands full opened an asset sale process for the lith-
pundits are forecasting. And I don’t think since entering the hot seat at Sayona on ium mine and concentrator which ceased
I’ve seen anything over the last five years July 1, taking over from long-serving com- production in February when NAL sought
that has changed this. pany director Dan O’Neill. protection from creditors.
“These shorter term fluctuations, I’ve One of his main areas of focus is prepar- The operation produced around
seen before in many commodity markets ing the final submissions for Quebec au- 114,000t of spodumene last year, exceed-
so I’m not too perturbed about that, how- thorities to consider ahead of next year’s ing its 180,000 tpa nameplate capacity.
ever, it does mean that you need to focus public consultation process to ultimately Lynch believes Authier and the NAL op-
on not just getting into the market, but like obtain approvals to develop and mine eration could be combined and form a key
all mining operations, being a very com- Authier, about 45km from the established part of the Quebec Government’s plan to
petitive, if not the most competitive player, mining town of Val d’Or. develop a lithium extraction and down-
“We’ve got a very capable project man-
agement team to take this through the as- stream processing hub.
sessment phase, which will take us about “The Government wants to drive lithium
13-18 months, so pretty much through to very strongly in Quebec and are looking to
the end of 2020 when we expect to have establish hubs – of which Authier could be a
passed all the testing and assessment and deposit within a hub – to consolidate produc-
got the tick of approval from the Quebec tion and make sure Quebec is a world leader
Government to proceed with the mining in costs, technology, facilities and manage-
applications,” Lynch said. ment,” Lynch said.
Completion and submission of the envi- “From a market perspective, organising
ronmental impact statement will be pack- financing and funding is a different proposal
aged together with last year’s DFS which today than it was two years ago. My atten-
indicated $C89.9 million (plus $C83.6 mil- tion is focused on where we need to be posi-
lion life-of-mine capital) was required to tioned to be successful, regardless of market
develop an 87,400 tpa lithium concentrate fluctuations.”
operation at Authier. Sayona, which recently raised almost $2
The DFS also highlighted the project million via a SPP and placement for upcom-
would generate a pre-tax NPV of $C184.8 ing work at Authier, has also partnered with
million and IRR of 33.7% over an initial 18 Australian producer Altura Mining Ltd on a
years of mine life. Mine gate cash costs three-year, $1.5 million exploration deal over
of $C416/t and FOB port cash costs of the former’s tenements in the Pilgangoora
$C482/t are estimated. district of Western Australia’s Pilbara region.
Lynch said the downturn in lithium had Altura and Sayona share several common
offered Sayona a chance to review de- board members and have aligned interests,
Sayona is seeking to bring its Authier velopment plans for Authier and consider something which Lynch believes his com-
pany can leverage off.
lithium project in Quebec into development other strategic opportunities that may be
for first production in 2022 on offer in Quebec, including a bid for the – Michael Washbourne

Page 112 OCTOBeR 2019 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT

euRoPe






Britain’s biggest mining project




in peril




irius Minerals scrapped
Sa plan to raise $US500
million in a bond sale on
September 17, delaying
a project to mine for ferti-
liser under a national park
in northern England and
halving the value of its
shares.
The company had al-
ready suspended the
bond issue in August.
Sirius blamed market
conditions aggravated by
uncertainty over Britain’s
departure from the Euro-
pean Union for its failure
to secure funding.
Sirius said on Septem-
ber 17 the Government
had turned down a re-
newed request for backing
in August. The company
said it would conduct a six-
month review to work out cost savings and The development of the North Yorkshire polyhalite project has the potential to deliver
would slow development of the project. up to 1,200 jobs to one of Britain’s most economically depressed regions
“This is the most prudent decision to
give the company the time necessary to The Unite union urged the Government pounds during half a century of mining.
restructure its plans to move the project to provide backing. “This is a vital project The company said it had £180 million
forward,” chief executive Chris Fraser said, for a region which is crying out for new in cash at the end of August, which would
adding that one option was to seek “a ma- investment and jobs,” national officer Ian help it explore options.
jor strategic partner”. Woodland said. The company needed to issue a bond of
The company said 1,200 jobs involved Many local people have invested in at least $US500 million to gain full access
in developing the project would be lost if it the plan to tunnel under England’s North to a $US2.5 billion revolving credit facility
failed, but Fraser told a conference call he York Moors to exploit what Sirius says is from JP Morgan Chase. JP Morgan Chase
was confident it could be saved. the world’s largest deposit of polyhalite, a declined to comment.
The plan would create Britain’s biggest multi-nutrient fertiliser. Sirius also repeatedly sought govern-
mine and add jobs to a part of the country Polyhalite is meant to be superior to the ment help and in August had asked for
hit by the decline of heavy industry. traditional fertiliser ingredient potash. But government backing to enable the issu-
some potential investors ance of up to $US1 billion in guaranteed
are concerned the market bonds.
for polyhalite is not well es- A spokesman for Prime Minister Boris
tablished. Johnson said any request for financing had
Until now, the world’s to weigh “the potential of a project against
only producer of polyhalite the need to protect taxpayers’ money”.
is Israel’s ICL, which has a Humphrey Knight, potash analyst at
mine near Sirius’ project, business intelligence company CRU, said
and markets it under its the project faced many risks, “not least, the
Polysulphate brand. market for polyhalite remains very small”.
Although not in produc- Sirius reported an operating loss of
tion, Sirius has offtake £14.3 million for the six months ended
contracts with customers in June 30 versus a loss of £10.8 million a
the United States, Europe, year earlier.
Brazil, India and Africa. It
has said it has the poten- – Barbara Lewis and Noor Zainab
tial to generate billions of Hussain, Reuters
Investors are concerned markets for Sirius’ polyhalite
product are untested
aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT OCTOBeR 2019 Page 113

ReGIoNAl RouNDuP





Koppar goes for zero carbon lithium




scoping study on potentially the bit more advanced than the URV in terms Koppar may be part of an emerging
A world’s first zero carbon lithium project of the lithium side of things, so there have group in a niche part of the lithium space
is under way in Germany. been a few companies go down this route but few of its peers will be able to boast a
Koppar Resources Ltd recently ap- of full demo plants producing commercial project which sits 60km from a major city
pointed Perth-based consulting engi- quantities of battery-grade lithium prod- like Vulcan does.
neering and project implementation outfit ucts for customers to test,” Koppar man- Vulcan is 60km from Stuttgart; Germa-
Hatch to provide services related to the aging director Francis Wedin told Paydirt. ny’s manufacturing hub and heart of the
Vulcan lithium project in the Upper Rhine “We understand that this has been EU auto and EV battery industry.
Valley (URV). done in the Salton Sea lithium for geo- “In terms of distance to market, it prob-
Hatch will provide engineering services thermal plants and we understand the ably doesn’t get any better than that to the
for the Vulcan scoping study, which in- guys behind it are Hatch on the engineer- automotive industry,” Wedin said.
cludes design on an integrated geother- ing side. We are looking to shortcut that Koppar is fully focused on supplying
mal and lithium extraction plant. learning curve with Hatch now.” European OEMs and cathode manufac-
Koppar proposes to produce battery- Germany’s URV has been known to be turers in the region, many of which are
grade lithium hydroxide from hot sub- lithium-rich and a number of geothermal looking to lessen the reliance on China
surface geothermal brines pumped from plants are fully functioning in the region, for raw materials.
wells, with a renewable energy by-prod- however, Wedin said a historic discon- The likes of Volkswagen are also intent
uct also achieved. nect between the resources industry and on delivering a net zero carbon EV as part
There are few places in the world with the academic knowledge from the geo- of one of their range, therefore, sourcing
similar concentrations of lithium-rich, hot thermal industry meant there had been a lithium closer to home is essential to their
sub-surface brines in geothermal fields gap in the development of what Koppar is strategy.
such as those where Vulcan is located trying to achieve. “OEMs such as Volkswagen ideally
in the URV and the Salton Sea brines in “That is changing now we are reaching want to be fully integrated certainly down
California. an inflection point,” Wedin said. to the cathode space, so they would want
A number of companies are vested in “The URV geothermal field doesn’t those raw materials to supply that and
producing power and lithium in Salton stop on the border with France and on they are desperate not to be reliant on
Sea, with Hatch actively engaged in Cali- the French side there is a consortium – China for such a critical part of that supply
fornia. BASF, EDF Energy, Eramet and Peugeot/ chain. That has been messaged all the
“We are looking at precedence on this Citronen – pursuing the same goal as us, way and we are getting the same mes-
type of plant working and Salton Sea is a so it is not just us in the field,” Wedin said. sage from multiple stakeholders in the
































A by-product of the production
process, renewable geo-thermal
energy could be generated from dual-
purpose wells that fully offset energy
consumption in lithium processing





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Koppar aims to produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide from geothermal brines. A direct ported from Wyoming in the US all the way
lithium extraction process is being assessed and success would mean lithium processing down to the Atacama desert, so distance
will be quicker and less water and carbon-intensive relative to the evaporative method to market is a real factor,” he said.
used in South American salars Koppar’s indicative timeline, subject
to exploration and conceptual success
along the way, currently has the Vulcan
project ready for permitting, financing and
construction in 2022-23.
According to forecasts Koppar is fol-
lowing, by the mid-2020s Europe will
account for about 16% of global lithium-
ion battery production and battery-grade
lithium products (hydroxide or carbonate).
Wedin said that represented the entire
global demand now for lithium products
(200-300,000 tpa lithium carbonate) of
which zero production of battery-grade
lithium currently comes from Europe.
The lithium market has been soft this
year due to oversupply and a slower than
anticipated rise in conversion capacity
downstream but Wedin said the sector
was poised to bounce back after experi-
encing a retraction from what was a pre-
mature boom.
“I don’t think anyone fully grasped how
much of a big effort it is in terms of capex
and build the amount needed for batteries
and cars,” he said.
“This is a massive transition. Obviously
Tesla was kicking off back then and start-
ing to get widespread adoption, but the
other car companies [weren’t]. I think the
inflection point starts in a year or so and
for Europe it is really 2023 onwards when
EU. It is a very clear message that they from South American brine, it would have you really start to get that mass produc-
want local supply going into that early to travelled 50,000km by the time it arrives as tion of EVs. I think the market has started
mid-2020s period,” Wedin said. an EV delivered to your door. to become more educated and hopefully
“It is a big call and effort producing a “That is a huge number for a semi-bulk lithium ends up in a more sensible pricing
net zero carbon EV, but Volkswagen have commodity; you can imagine the CO2 range, which I think it is doing, and will be
identified the cathode of the battery as the from that and that doesn’t include all the more sustainable going forward.”
CO2 hotspot and lithium is part of that.” reagents that have to be transported down – Mark Andrews
Some analysts say that when you buy to South America. For instance, soda ash
an EV in Europe, if your lithium is sourced for the lithium carbonate has to be im-




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Thiess wins $1.3 billion
Curragh extension

CIMIC Group’s global mining services
provider, Thiess, has been awarded a
six-year, $1.3 billion contract extension
by Coronado Global Resources Inc to
provide mining services at the Curragh
coal mine in Queensland’s Bowen Basin.
Under the extension, Thiess will con-
tinue to provide overburden removal and
haulage, mining and run-of-mine rehan-
dling services, equipment maintenance
and pit dewatering.
In addition to this contract, Thiess will
continue delivery of its existing scope of
works, including the operation and main-
tenance of the client-owned 1,400t elec-
tric rope shovel and ultra-class trucking
fleet.
Thiess has a long record of service at
the metallurgical coal-rich mine, having
operated at the project since 2004. Thiess has won a six-year contract extension at the Curragh coal mine, valued at $1.3 billion
CIMIC companies Sedgman and UGL
also provide various operations and projects throughout Africa in the past five tion at the Prieska copper-zinc project in
maintenance contracts at Curragh. years valued at a combined $120 million, South Africa.
including Katanga Mining Rehabilitation in Both parties will seek to enter an alli-
the DRC. ancing agreement related to underground
CPC Engineering in APP’s JV partners are Advent Con- mining at Prieska, whereby Byrnecut will
Africa JV struction, Fenix Construction, Gear Min- provide underground mine development
ing Construction, Ignite Energy, Steel Ser- and production services, promote local
Perth-based CPC Engineering has en- vices and Allied Industries, Strutfast Cable employment and skills transfer, and col-
tered into a ground-breaking JV with multi- Management Solutions, and Power Plant laborate with local BEE enterprises.
ple African-focused companies to service Electrical Technologies. Formalising the agreement is one of the
the continent’s mining industry. CPC employs more than 300 people key project development milestones that
Africa Project Partnerships (APP) was and has a wealth of experience in Africa, followed the release of the positive BFS
formed to bring together companies with having successfully delivered multimillion- on Prieska in June, as well as last month’s
expertise across a range of disciplines dollar projects for graphite, nickel, copper grant of the Mining Right for the proposed
with the ability to deliver EPC and EPCM and diamond operations in Mozambique, 2.4 mtpa operation on the Northern Cape.
projects. The JV is working closely with Zambia, Ghana, DRC and South Africa.
the South African Government through its
Department of Trade and Industry and the BGC set to see out
Industrial Development Corporation. Brynecut at the starting Mt Webber
The companies in the APP JV have gate for Prieska
more than five decades of experience in BGC Contracting Pty Ltd has been
the mining industry and more than three Orion Minerals Ltd has concluded a awarded a life-of-mine extension to its
decades of experience in executing pro- MoU with Byrnecut Offshore Pty Ltd which contract at Atlas Iron Pty Ltd’s Mt Web-
jects across Africa. Together they em- envisages an alliancing agreement for un- ber iron ore mine in Western Australia.
ploy 1,100 people and have completed 15 derground mine development and produc- Under the contract, BGC will continue



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Page 116 OCTOBeR 2019 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT

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to provide a range of mining services, work for an agreed term of five years Thyssenkrupp Industrial at BHP Ltd’s
including drilling, blasting, loading, haul- from the start date, a minimum supply of $US4.6 billion South Flank iron ore pro-
ing, dumping and mineral processing for 20MW daily power to meet all of Arca- ject in the Pilbara.
the operation. dia’s power supply requirements and an The scope of the pre-assembly con-
This life-of-mine contract extension option for an additional 25MW of supply tract is for two stackers and one off-re-
will see BGC providing services up to the in the event of further expansion of the claim machine, to be undertaken at the
end of operations at the Mt Webber mine facility of downstream processing. Australian Marine Complex in Hender-
site, currently scheduled for June 2022. ACM currently holds two special son, south of Perth. These will be the
grants containing a total 245,000ha and largest rail-mounted stacker/reclaim ma-
NRW locked in to is awaiting the final approvals on a third chines to be installed in the world, with a
asset.
loading capacity of 20,000 tph.
pre-strip Koodaideri Arcadia’s primary source of power Work is expected to be completed by
supply is from the national grid which is the end of the current financial year. Up
NRW Holdings Ltd has been awarded owned and operated by the Zimbabwe to 60 direct positions will be created over
the Koodaideri mine pre-strip contract by Electricity Transmission & Distribution the contract period.
Rio Tinto Ltd. Company, with its main power distribu- Thyssenkrupp was awarded a supply
The contract scope includes develop- tion lines running adjacent to the project, and installation contract for the balance
ment of initial mining pre-strip and earth- some 15km away. machines last November.
works infrastructure to enable the start of Primero’s committed order book for
mining operations. FY2020 currently stands at around $90
Other works include mobilisation and Primero’s balancing act million. The company had a similar value
site establishment, clearing and strip- Primero Group Ltd will oversee the of committed works at the same time last
ping topsoil and subsoil, drill and blast pre-assembly of balance machines for financial year.
operations, pre-strip mining operations,
construction of access roads, haul roads
and in-pit facilities, bulk earthworks and Prospect has identified a potential power supplier for its Arcadia lithium project in Zimbabwe
drainage construction.
The contract is valued at circa $95
million and is expected to run for about
78 weeks, with works due to begin next
month. At its peak, there will be over 150
site-based personnel required.

Strong prospect of

power supply at Arcadia
Prospect Resources Ltd has signed a
non-binding MoU with African Continen-
tal Minerals (Private) Ltd for the supply
of power to the Arcadia lithium project in
Zimbabwe.
The agreement provides Prospect with
power supply optionality for the project,
while also generating opportunities for
additional services/projects, such as
ACM’s soon-to-be-developed coalbed
methane gas-to-power project.
Key terms of the MoU provided frame-




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DRILL BITS www.capdrill.com www.capdrill.com




Alkane booms off The project area has already delivered surface Kaiser deposit. Drill intercept
some strong indications of a big porphyry highlights from KSRC027 included: 40m
Cadia-style potential system near surface at Kaiser and, along @ 1.30 g/t gold and 0.22% copper from
with the results from this diamond drill surface (including 10m @ 2.86 g/t and
Alkane Resources Ltd’s share price hole at Boda, we can see clear evidence 0.36% from surface), 2m @ 3.24 g/t and
boomed last month on the back of a sig- of Cadia-style mineralisation and grade 0.26% from 25m and, from KSRC029:
nificant discovery of porphyry gold-cop- over hundreds of metres. Alkane is imme- 32m @ 0.53 g/t and 0.27% from 2m (in-
per mineralisation at its Boda prospect, diately prioritising follow up drilling, seek- cluding 11m @ 1.09 g/t, 0.4% from 9m).
within the Northern Molong porphyry pro- ing to determine the scale of this highly Boda and Kaiser are part of the NMPP
ject (NMPP) in Central West New South encouraging discovery,” Alkane Resourc- which incorporates exploration licens-
Wales. es managing director Nic Earner said. es covering an area of 110sq km of the
The company went into a trading halt Drill intercept highlights at Boda from northern Molong Volcanic Belt. The area
on September 5 priced at 38c/share and KSDD003 included: 502m @ 0.48 g/t is considered highly prospective for large
when it announced the Boda discovery gold, 0.2% copper from 211m (includ- porphyry gold-copper mineralisation, as
on September 9 Alkane shares hit 56c. ing 313m @ 0.62 g/t, 0.17% from 228m, demonstrated by the Cadia Valley por-
At the time of print, Alkane was trading at including 12m @ 3.28 g/t, 0.67% from phyry district, south of the volcanic belt.
71c/share as interest in Boda intensified. 419m) and 35.8m @ 0.21 g/t, 0.49% from
“These drill results suggest a signifi- 735m to end-of-hole.
cant and exciting discovery in a region At Kaiser, assays confirmed strong Northern Minerals
that has a history of delivering large, low- gold-copper porphyry mineralisation
grade and long-life gold-copper mines. 200m south-east of the small near- dazzles
RC infill drilling at Dazzler, part of
Northern Minerals Ltd’s Browns Range
project, has produced a best ever result
of 52m @ 4.15% TREO from 20m (includ-
ing 18m @ 11.48% from 22m).
Another intersection of note was 20m
@ 0.62% TREO from 16m (including 4m
@ 1.91% from 22m), while a new discov-
ery south-east of Dazzler also produced
encouraging results.
Northern Minerals was continuing with
3,000m of infill and exploration RC drilling
in the Dazzler-Iceman area, while 1,500m
of exploration RC drilling at four other
prospects was also under way last month
at the West Australian project.

Lift off at Lake Rebecca
Strong drill results continue to be re-
ported from Apollo Consolidated Ltd’s
Lake Rebecca gold project in Western
Australia.
Diamond drilling at the Jennifer lode re-
turned 11.75m @ 2.28 g/t gold and 4m @
5.27 g/t (including 1m @ 17.46 g/t). Drill-
ing was continuing at Jennifer at the time
Nic Earner of print, including at the new target area







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associated with the recently discovered cluding 4m @ 1.72 g/t, including 1m @ The right moves by
high-grade hanging wall mineralisation 5.52 g/t).
whereby 29m @ 4.1 g/t gold was hit. While the hole is not believed to have Chesser
Meanwhile, highlights from infill drilling intersected the porphyry responsible for
at the Laura lode returned 21m @ 2.48 the high-grade structurally-controlled Assays received from the remaining 12
g/t gold (including 1m @ 15.1 g/t), 11m @ polymetallic copper-gold-silver miner- RC drill holes from the Phase 2 drilling
2.52 g/t, 16m @ 1.82 g/t, while new re- alisation, the hole is expected to provide programme at Chesser Resources Ltd’s
sults from Duchess were 22m @ 1.22 g/t, further valuable information on the po- Diamba Sud project, Senegal, returned
35m @ 0.85 g/t (including 20m @ 1.04 tential location of the source porphyry. further significant intersections along two
g/t) and 11m @ 1 g/t. Once all assays have been received interpreted north-trending host structures
and the short-wavelength infra-red data adjoining Line D within the Northern Arc
target.
Catalyst for high grade collected and processed, there will be a Results included 53m @ 2.61g/t gold
review of the observations and consider-
A high-grade gold intersection of 11m ation given towards targeting a possible from 57m (including 17m @ 4.97 g/t from
@ 37.2 g/t gold has highlighted the poten- second deep drill hole. 59m), 4m @ 2.23 g/t from 93m, 4m @
tial down-plunge extensions at Catalyst At the time of print, a drill rig was be- 2.75 g/t from 99m, 14m @ 1.74 g/t from
Metals Ltd’s Boyd’s Dam on the Four Ea- ing moved to SMD050 to test for shallow 8m and 2m @ 4.99 g/t from 22m.
gles project, Victoria. high-grade structurally-controlled poly- The Northern Arc target reportedly ex-
The 11m @ 37.2 g/t gold (including 1m metallic copper-gold-silver mineralisa- hibits characteristics similar to other large
@ 247 g/t and 1m @ 150.5 g/t) and 1m @ tion on the ultramafic contact fault. gold systems in the region, including
24.3 g/t was struck at the southern plunge Gounkoto/Loulo and Fekola.
extension, with the company reporting
the completion of geotechnical diamond
drilling at Boyd’s Dam.
Meanwhile, a small RC and diamond
drilling programme at Pickles was suc-
cessful in extending the gold zone by
200m to the south, with low-grade gold
hit in three diamond holes.

Surprise gold for

Stavely
Stavely Minerals Ltd reported that par-
tial assays from a deep diamond hole
at SMD049 at the Thursday’s Gossan
prospect in western Victoria returned un-
expected gold intervals.
SMD049, drilled to target the source
porphyry for the polymetallic high-grade
structurally-controlled copper-gold-silver
mineralisation intersected in recent drill-
ing, was to a depth of 1,767.6m. Assays
returned down to 1,325m included: 17m
@ 0.3% copper from 583m (including
6m @ 0.43% copper and 0.26 g/t gold
from 587m), 37m @ 0.26% from 664m,
22m @ 0.11%, 0.49 g/t from 1,223m (in- Chesser continues to have success at Diamba Sud, Senegal







African expertise that delivers results


Contact us to discuss how our knowledge and experience

operating across Africa can help your project.



[email protected] | www.capdrill.com





aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT OCTOBeR 2019 Page 119

ComINGs AND GoINGs




ormer Gold Road Resourc- ter to its board of directors. The tional and corporate matters. as a mining equity research
Fes Ltd managing director South American-based lithium analyst with leading global bro-
and chairman Ian Murray has expert joins the company as it NG Ltd has added former kerage firms. She also serves
joined Geopacific Resources prepares to undertake a PFS TGalaxy Resources Ltd exec- as chair of of Women in Mining
Ltd as an independent non- on the Candelas project in Ar- utive Terry Stark to its expand- Canada.
executive director. gentina. ing operational team tasked
with delivering the Mount Peake ustin Boylson, Simon An-
ave Anthony has been vanadium-titanium-iron project Jdrew and Michael Davy have
Dappointed chief operating in the Northern Territory. Stark, joined the board of Riversgold
officer at Cardinal Resources who headed Galaxy’s resource Ltd following a recent capital
Ltd. He previously held the division, has been appointed raising. Boylson will assume an
same role with Acacia Mining to the newly created role of executive position with the com-
plc, having joined that com- general manager, mining op- pany, with current chairman
pany prior to its listing on the erations. Graeme Stephen has Roderick Webster transitioning
London Stock Exchange ear- also joined the team as titanium to a non-executive role. Aaron
lier this decade. process manager, initially on a Colleran and Kevin Hart have
consulting basis, to oversee the resigned as directors.
imon Beans has joined development of TNG’s titanium
SCannindah Resources Ltd dioxide pigment business. ony Ferguson has been
as non-executive technical di- Tappointed a non-executive
Ian Murray rector following the retirement rocobre Ltd has appointed director of Dateline Resources
of Laurie Johnson. Beans is OHersen Porta as its new Ltd. The majority of Ferguson’s
est African Resources managing director and princi- chief operating officer. Born and career to date has been with
WLtd has revamped its pal geologist of Terra search educated in Argentina, Hersen Macquarie Group where he
board and management team Pty Ltd and is also an active is a chemical engineer who will established and led the natural
as the company transitions to member of several geological oversee the operations at the resources team which advised
gold producer. Richard Hyde societies including AusIMM Olaroz lithium facility and at Bo- on multiple major transactions.
has been elevated to executive and the Australian Institute of rax Argentina SA.
chairman, with Mark Connelly Geosciences.
to continue as a non-executive eter Thompson has stepped
director. Ian Kerr has resigned TI Resources Ltd has ap- Pdown as a director of Mar-
from the board, allowing chief Gpointed Bruce Lane as an mota Ltd as the gold-focused
operating officer Lyndon Hop- executive director. Chairman company transitions from ex-
kins to step up to an executive Murray McDonald has transi- plorer to producer. Shane Bark-
director role. Ron Leonard and tioned to a non-executive role, er has been appointed to the
Nigel Spicer have also joined Emma Gilbert has resigned newly created position of execu-
the company as independent from the board and John Kay tive director, production. Barker
non-executive directors, while has replaced Frank Campagna was the principal metallurgist
Luke Holden (operations), Stu- as company secretary. and manager of the processing
art Cruickshanks (technical team which operated the White Tommy McKeith
services) and Todd Giltay (fi- Dam heap leach gold mine.
nance) have assumed general oward Golden has been
manager positions. ark Hancock has joined Fe Hconfirmed as chief executive
MLtd as an executive direc- of Arrow Minerals Ltd following
evin Tomlinson is the new tor. Also a director of Centaurus its acquisition of Boromo Gold.
Kchairman of Bellevue Gold Metals Ltd, Hancock spent 13 Tommy McKeith and Morgan
Ltd, replacing Ray Shorrocks. years at Atlas Iron in numer- Ball have also formally joined
Tomlinson also chairs fellow ous roles, including chief com- the company as non-executive
ASX-listed companies Cardinal mercial officer, chief financial directors, while Nicholas Ong
Resources Ltd and Infinity Lith- officer, executive director and has retired from the board. Ste-
ium Corporation Ltd and previ- company secretary. ven Michael will continue as an
ously served on the boards of David Riekie executive director and Frazer Ta-
Centamin plc, Orbis Gold and oseidon Nickel Ltd has ap- arc Steffens has been beart remains chairman.
Medusa Mining Ltd. Ppointed David Riekie as Mappointed an executive
interim chief executive officer director of Oro Verde Ltd. The
taly-focused Alta Zinc Ltd has while the company continues company has also added met-
Iappointed Geraint Harris as its its search for a permanent allurgical engineer Hayden
new managing director. A min- replacement for recently re- Buswell and geologist Geoff
ing engineer with more than tired managing director Rob Chapman to its technical team.
24 years of experience, Harris Dennis. Riekie, who will be
was most recently chief execu- supported by new chief finan- atherine Gignac is the lat-
tive of Adriatic Minerals plc. cial officer and joint company Cest addition to OceanaGold
secretary Brendan Shalders, Corp’s board of directors. Gig-
alan Lithium Ltd has add- has been working with the nac has more than 30 years
Ged former SQM senior ex- Poseidon board for the past of capital markets experience,
ecutive Daniel Jiménez Schus- six months on various opera- including an extensive career
Morgan Ball

Page 120 OCTOBeR 2019 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT

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leFTFIelD





Pink diamonds set to



fetch $1 million at auction



ith the closure of Western Australia’s your hand. a privilege,” Lee Hames, chief operations
WArgyle mine, the world’s largest col- It comes not long after the recent an- officer for Lloyds Auctions, said.
oured diamond mine, pink diamonds were nouncement declaring the closure of Rio “We predict that these pink diamonds
expected to sparkle at an auction at the Tinto Ltd’s Argyle, the largest diamond will sell far exceeding their valuations due
time of print. mine in Australia. to the closure of the mine, and the interest
The pink diamond is one of the rarest The closure of Argyle – responsible we have had so far. We have two rings
in a world where coloured diamonds are for 90% of the world’s output of pink dia- featuring pink diamonds valued at nearly
becoming increasingly popular for invest- monds after nearly four decades of op- $600,000 as well as a solitaire brilliant cut
ment reasons. eration – has hit news headlines world- diamond worth over $350,000 from the
The pink diamonds up for auction all wide and prompted speculation about the Argyle mine, along with some other fea-
originated from WA and are considered value of investing in coloured diamonds. tured items within the auction.”
the most desired and admired diamonds “This pink diamond is beyond rare and In 2018, an auction house sold a Pink
in the world representing less than 0.1% is in extremely high demand worldwide so Legacy diamond for nearly $70 million,
of all diamonds. The annual production we feel very privileged to see one a year setting a world-record price.
of pink diamonds would fit in the palm of but to have a few in the same auction is


INDeX



Adriatic 120 Chesser 119 Lindian 8 S2 101
African Gold 59 Comet 19, 51, 77 Lucapa 22, 50 Salt Lake 6
Albemarle 110 Coronado 46, 116 Salternas 74
Alita 65 Mako 42-43, 58 Sandfire 71, 72, 105
Alkane 118 Danakali 6 Mali Lithium 65, 66 Sayona 112
Alta Zinc 120 Dateline 120 Marmota 120 Sirius 113
Altura 65, 112 Medusa 120 SQM 110, 120
Anglo American 19, 72 Endiama 51 Minbos 65 St George 12-15, 82
Antam 91 Exore 60 Mincor 82, 87, 99 Stavely 119
Apollo Consolidated 118-119 Minotaur 98 Strandline 38
Ardea 82 Fe 120 Mod 22, 72 Syrah 38, 71
Arrow 120 First Quantum 4, 32
Atlas 116 Force 77, 80 Newmont 49 Talisman 104-105
Auroch 98-99 Fortescue 18 Nickel Mines 46 Technology Metals 7
Australian Potash 6 Norilsk 18 Teranga 59
Galan 120 North American Lithium 112 Terramin 73
Bannerman 19 Galaxy 120 Northern Minerals 118 Theta 61
Barrick 32, 58, 60, 65, 120 Geopacific 120 Northern Star 107 Tianqi 110
Base 38, 46, 52, 68, 74, 80 Gold Fields 29, 30, 71, 80, 120 TNG 120
Battery Minerals 71 Gold Road 120 OceanaGold 120 Tsingshan 91
Bellevue 59, 120 Golden Rim 40 Orca 79
BHP 13, 39, 82, 87, 99, GTI 120 Orion 28-29, 48, 116 Vale 61, 91, 96-97, 111
101, 111, 117 Oro Verde 120 Vimy 10-11
Black Mountain 82, 89 ICL 113 Orocobre 120 Viva Energy 56
Black Rock 53 Independence 13, 19, 42-43, Oz 102-103 Volt 38
BlackEarth 54 82-83, 87, 99, 100-101, 103
Blackstone 86 Infinity 120 Paladin 10, 19 Walkabout 53, 80
Bligh 61 IronRidge 62 Panoramic 82, 94-95 West African 40, 120
Perseus 58 Western Areas 13, 15, 82-83,
Cameco 10 Jupiter 61 Pilbara 65 87, 101
Cannindah 120 Poseidon 82, 87, 88-89, 99, 120
Canyon 8 Kefi 49 Prospect 75, 117 Zeta 95
Cape Lambert 48 Kidman 87 Zimplats 75
Cardinal 32, 80, 120 Koppar 114-115 Resolute 4, 21, 22, 25, 27, 34,
Cassini 102-103 36, 38, 39, 42-43, 80
Catalyst 119 Largo 7 Rift Valley 8
Centamin 120 Latitude 75 Rio Tinto 19, 46, 117
Centaurus 96-97, 120 Legend 82, 100-101 Riversgold 120



Page 122 OCTOBeR 2019 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT



ODYSSEUS




A new nickel mine on the horizon















































































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