Mining Breaks

It’s arbitration or nothing for Australian-based explorer Energy Transition Minerals after the Greenland government formally rejected its exploitation licence application for its 100%-owned Kvanefjeld project.
The project has been in peril since late 2021 due to the government’s opposition to uranium mining, given its significant occurrence among the rare earths, zinc and fluorspar content.
MD Daniel Mamadou says the government’s decision relates to its original 2019 application, which included uranium production. An amended application in Dec 2022 treating uranium as an impurity will be decided separately.
Mamadou says ETM has no choice but to continue with plans to lodge a statement of claim with Copenhagen’s arbitral tribunal in July.

The Namibian government has moved to counter “misconceptions” that led to widespread reports it may seize minority stakes in mining and petroleum producers.
The fallout from media reports has impacted uranium miners and developers Paladin Energy, Deep Yellow, Bannerman Energy and Elevate.
“The government has no intention to seize any stake from existing mineral or petroleum licence holders and remain committed to uphold the sanctity of contract,” it said in a statement aimed at clarifying comments by mines minister Tom Alweendo last week.
It may demand a minimum stake through the state-owned Epangelo Mining or National Petroleum Corp in future mineral or petroleum licences to meet the Namibian people’s legitimate expectations of having an ownership share in the country’s natural resources.

Developer European Lithium has teamed with Riyadh-based investment giant Obeikan Group to jointly develop and operate a lithium hydroxide processing plant in Saudi Arabia with exclusive rights to process lithium spodumene concentrate from its Wolfsberg mining project in Austria.
Chairman Tony Sage forecasts the JV plant will strengthen the economics for Wolfsberg by significantly reducing Wolfsberg’s capital, energy and operating costs.
The JV, which will fully fund the plant development, will take up EUR’s binding lithium offtake agreement with premium carmaker BMW.

Ghanaian soldiers have fired shots to disperse protesters in the gold mining town of Obuasi in the Ashanti Region amid a crackdown on illegal miners, Al Jazeera reports.
The protest comes as hundreds of people remain underground after several days reportedly without food or water, either unable to exit or unwilling to leave for fear of being arrested.
Seven people who exited a shaft belonging to international miner AngloGold were arrested on May 30.

Canadian-based Bear Creek Mining has warned that “significant headwinds” including inflation, exchange rates and below-target operating performance will impact the June qtr (Q2FY2023) results.
The warning by president-COO Eric Caba comes despite recent steps to improve production and decrease operating costs at its 100%-owned Mercedes mine in Sonora, Mexico and to improve its financial liquidity by restructuring certain debt and streaming obligations.
Caba says recent drilling results, dramatic changes in the operating cost structure and short-term funding restructuring support its confidence Mercedes will meet its FY2023 gold production guidance of 65,000-75,000oz at AISC of $C1,120-1,290/oz. March qtr production at Mercedes was 12,038oz gold and 40,241oz silver at $1,386/oz.

The rapid ramp-up in two months since its first gold pour has enabled East African miner Shanta Gold to declare commercial production effective June 1 at its Singida mine in Tanzania.
The company’s second Tanzanian mine reached its 1,000tpd nameplate capacity within weeks of its initial gold production on March 30 and achieved all key production measures including processing rate, plant availability, gold recovery and plant utilisation.
Mining activities at the Gold Tree openpit have built a stockpile of 187,673t @ 2.17g/t for 13,085oz, equating to six months of plant feed and including 37,844t @ 2.4g/t for 2,917oz in-plant crushed ore.

Australian explorer AuKing Mining will push on to more advanced development studies on its Koongie Park copper-zinc project after a scoping study confirmed the potential for a financially robust, globally competitive operation at Halls Creek in WA.
The study estimated total production of 110,000t Cu, 38,000t Zn and 355,000oz Ag over 11 years from the development of four openpit and one underground mine with onsite 750,000tpa processing facility.
It calculates preproduction capex of $A134M resulting in pre-tax NPV at 8% of $176.9M, IRR 39.7% and payback period of 2.45 years.
CEO Paul Williams says AuKing will progress technical and engineering workstreams leading to a final investment decision possibly late 2024.

Australian explorer Ragusa Minerals has underlined the multi-commodity development potential of its 100%-owned Burracoppin project, posting a maiden inferred JORC resource of 96Mt @ ISO-B 80 kaolinite/halloysite bearing material.
The resource, which equates to 36.9Mt of kaolin product and 2.1Mt of halloysite product, lies within less than 5% of Ragu’a's tenure in WA’s Wheatbelt about 300km E of Perth.
Chairman Jerko Zuvela says it offers a development opportunity for highly valued and strategic minerals including total rare earth oxides/rare earth elements and kaolin/halloysite.
The shallow and high-grade REE mineralisation alongside the kaolinite and halloysite adds significant potential to the project.

New miner Goldstone Resources is relying on additional purchases of mobile equipment and plant components to help it overcome the disappointing initial performance of its Homase gold mine in SW Ghana.
Goldstone says mine plan revisions and process plant improvements funded by its £2.4M convertible loan note in Jan have lowered the mine’s March qtr (Q1FY2023) production to a gold pour of just 205oz.
Mining has resumed after a pause, with 60,000tpm production levels now expected within 2 months.
CEO Emma Priestley says Goldstone is reviewing production costs guidance, including fuel, reagents and consumables.

West Australian miner Beacon Minerals has begun work on an ore reserve and mine planning on the Geko openpit deposit in the WA Goldfields after posting a new resource estimate of 57,000oz gold (1.39Mt @ 1.3g/t).
Beacon acquired the inoperative mine 25km NW of Coolgardie in Dec 2022 under a strategy to increase the life of its Jaurdi project and mill 15km away.
MD-exec chairman Graham McGarry says Beacon will begin hauling Geko’s low-grade stockpiles comprising 10,000oz (326,000t @ 1g/t) in July and mining in the Dec qtr, subject to approvals.
Due to expected delays in approvals, McGarry announced mining of Beacon’s newly acquired Lady Ida project nearby is postponed from its original Dec qtr target.

Record Q4 production achieved despite limited mining and haulage capacity due to equipment delivery delays and an extended crusher shutdown has enabled Canadian miner Champion Iron to lift its FY23 production to 11.19Mwmt of 66.1% Fe concentrate, from 7.91Mt in the previous year.
Revenue was $C1.4B (FY22: $1.46B) on sales of 10.59Mt (7.65Mt) iron ore concentrate at net average selling price of $131.7/t ($190.9/t), against AISC of $86.5/t ($73.1/t).
Lower cash operating margins slashed EBITDA to $493.2M ($925.8M) and net income to $200.7M ($522.6M).

Battery anode materials miner/processor EcoGraf has teamed with multinational industrial company POSCO to advance development of its Tanzanian mines, supply chain and processing assets.
Under their non-binding cooperation agreement, EcoGraf and POSCO have agreed to negotiate the supply of up to 40,000tpa battery anode material over an initial 10 years.
It follows successful technical programs assessing EcoGraf’s graphite products and discussions on supporting development of its vertically integrated battery anode materials business, including the Epanko graphite mine and Merelani-Arusha project in Tanzania.

Philippines-focused explorer Celsius Resources has achieved a milestone in development planning for its flagship Maalinao-Caigutan-Biyog copper-gold project with the receipt of its environmental compliance certificate.
Exec chairman Julito R Sarmiento says it reflects the company’s commitment for MCB to become a model for responsible mining.
The project in the Cordillera Administrative Region about 320km N of Manila holds resources of 338Mt @ 0.47% for 1.6Mt contained copper and 0.12g/t for 1.3Moz gold, which it expects to underpin a feasibility study.

Explorer Arcadia Minerals has outlined $US9.9M total capex to develop a 12,000tpm, 8-year mining operation in a definitive feasibility study on its 80%-owned Swanson tantalum-lithium project in Namibia.
The DFS comes immediately after Arcadia’s agreement for up to $7M construction funding from HeBei Xinjian Construction.
Chairman Jurie Wessels says it validates Arcadia’s aim to establish a cash-generative enterprise to fund exploration of its potentially transformational assets in Namibia, including the exploration potential of its lithium and tantalum licences surrounding Swanson. The study outlines annual free cashflow of about $A3.2Mpa to Arcadia.
It indicates project post-tax NPV at 8% discount of $15.36M, IRR of 25.4% and payback period of 3.2 years.

West Australian miner Westgold Resources expects to complete a mine start evaluation within weeks after posting a 49% increase in resources at its Great Fingall gold deposit near Cue.
MD Wayne Bramwell says the “stunning” growth keeps Westgold on track for a final investment decision in the March 2024 qtr on reopening Great Fingall, a past producer of about 1.2Moz gold.
Westgold’s drilling to date has focused on better defined targets, and Bramwell says largely untested areas support its confidence in more upside at Great Fingall.

Plans to establish an Australian vanadium battery industry have moved forward with the execution of a $A49M collaboration grant agreement between the federal government and explorer AVL.
The grant will support the proposed construction by AVL and industry partners of a concentrator and high-purity processing facility linked to the company’s high-grade vanadium deposit near Meekatharra in WA’s Mid West.
Planning for the processing facility near the port city of Geraldton will include the use of green hydrogen in the extraction process.
The grant will also support AVL’s collaboration with Bryah Resources into potentially extracting cobalt, nickel, copper and gold economically from the project.

Explorer Southern Palladium has posted a 39% increase in UG2 reef mineral resources to 11.65Moz 4E as it prepares to submit a mining right application in the Sept qtr for its Bengwenyama PGM project in the Eastern Limb of South Africa’s Bushveld Complex.
The interim resource update comprises 2.56Moz (10.76Mt @ 7.65g/t PGE+Au) indicated and 9.09Moz (39.09Mt @ 7.49g/t PGE+Au).
The Australian-based company also posted a maiden 7E (6PGE+Au) resource of 14.13Moz, while establishing a UG2 exploration target of 37-56Mt @ 6.2-9.2g/t PGE3+Au.
MD Johan Odendaal says drilling since its 2022 prospectus has taken SPD closer to its first milestone target of 2Moz reserves.

Australian miner EQ Resources has executed a 70-months, $A179M mining services contract with Golding Contractors to restart openpit operations at its 100%-owned Mt Carbine tungsten mine near Cairns in N Qld.
EQ says the first 12-18 months will be completed on a rates and costs-plus basis, before transitioning to rise and run matrix rates reflecting fleet composition and material type. It says the two-phase structure de-risks the project in view of the unique challenges of mining hard rock tungsten.
Personnel from the NRW group contractor are on-site, accelerating the ramp-up towards first ore delivery.

Battery minerals explorer Arcadia Minerals has lined up construction funding of at least not less than $US7M for its 80%-owned Swanson tantalum project in Namibia from Chinese multinational HeBei Xinjian Construction, which is preparing to start construction soon on its mine and infrastructure, multi-gravity separation plant.
HeBei will gain 38% interest in the project, which is expected to begin production by the March 2025 qtr.
Arcadia exec chairman Jurie Wessels says the companies expect to open more opportunities including offtake discussions with several parties.

West Australian nickel miner Mincor Resources is begging customer BHP to waive its rights to claim damages or cancel its offtake agreement over production shortfalls from its Kambalda operations.
Lower than forecast Kambalda ore deliveries, blamed on disputes over arsenic levels, contributed to BHP lowering FY23 production guidance last month at its Nickel West operation.
Despite its increasing confidence of achieving its 600,000tpa nameplate capacity at Kambalda, Mincor says it’s still at risk of falling short of their contracted minimum quantity condition for FY2023.
The move comes as Mincor proceeds towards delisting from the ASX under the takeover offer by entrepreneur Andrew Forrest’s Wyloo Metals. Wyloo now holds 72.77% of Mincor shares and has declared it won’t be extended beyond its July 5 deadline.

West Australian explorer Star Minerals has underlined its confidence in the Tumblegum South gold project in WA’s Mid West region after converting 60% of its mineral resource to the indicated category.
Indicated resources now make up 27,000oz (337,000t @ 2.52g/t Au) of the updated JORC 2012 total resource of 45,000oz (616,000t @ 2.28g/t).
Star says tremendous upside remains to be investigated in ongoing feasibility studies over the shallow, high-grade indicated resource.
The company is progressing toll-treatment options for the project 40km SE of Meekatharra.