Новости за 20.09.2022

The decision made by the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) on September 15 to permit the backfilling of the historic Jagersfontein diamond mining pit with waste from a second compartment of the tailings dam – to prevent a secondary breach after one compartment of the dam failed on September 11 – has been met with concern and opposition by Youssef Diamonds Liberia chief geologist and Florida International University earth and environmental sciences research professor Stephen Haggarty. Читать дальше...

Botswana-listed coal miner Minergy has reported “remarkable growth” in revenue from P193-million in the 2021 financial year, to P425-million in the 2022 financial year. The company achieved the one-million-tonne mark for ore extracted and processed at its Masama coal mine, which is located 60 km northeast of Gaborone, in Botswana, in the year under review.

Shrinking copper demand in Europe due to a manufacturing recession caused by the energy crisis will dominate market sentiment for some time with prices likely to retreat towards two-year lows early next year. Copper prices typically react to the ebb and flow of demand in China, which accounts for half of global consumption estimated at around 25-million tonnes this year.

For more than 1 200 people gathered at a hotel in Indonesia's resort island of Bali this week the message was clear: coal is here to stay. After two years of pandemic disruptions, Asia's top coal industry event Coaltrans is back in Bali with a turnout that some participants say mirror those seen during the boom years about a decade ago.

A unit of Indonesian state miner MIND ID could scrap a contract to build an $831.5-million alumina smelter due to a lack of agreement with contractors, its director said on Tuesday, noting there was still a target to finish the project by 2024. The contract could be terminated if the contractors had no agreement by October, MIND ID director Danny Praditya, told a parliamentary hearing.

Preparation work has started for the construction of the Pioneer winter road (PWR) at NorZinc’s Prairie Creek project, in the Dehcho region of the Northwest Territories, constituting Phase 1 of the 170 km all-season road that will act as the main point of access connecting the project to the Liard Highway 7. CEO Rohan Hazelton says the start of the winter road is a a significant turning point for the TSX-listed mine development company, as it signifies the start the overall construction of the Prairie... Читать дальше...

Canadian company Bluestone Resources president and CEO Jack Lundin has expressed his disappointment with a referendum that was held at the weekend in a region near its Cerro Blanco gold project, in Guatemala, stressing that the outcome of the vote is not a reflection of the sentiment towards its project. He says the commission responsible for the vote is comprised of individuals with an anti-mining agenda and that several biased and illegal activities were observed during the referendum process.

The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) virtual public hearing for the draft underground injection control (UIC) permit issued for the Florence copper project, in Arizona, has received positive feedback. Triple-listed Taseko Mines reports  that 27 participants have provided comment at the hearing, each supporting the project and calling for the final UIC permit to be issued.

Coal miner Thungela Resources has signed a three-year wage agreement with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) – the recognised labour union across Thungela's operations, which represents 86% of unionised employees. This agreement enables the implementation of a new wage agreement across Thungela's operations, other than Mafube which runs an independent wage negotiation process.

Not even the most hawkish Federal Reserve in decades can beat down the exuberance of gold enthusiasts at the industry’s biggest annual gathering. Bullion prices will reach $1 806.10 an ounce by year end, according to the average estimate in a survey of 10 participants at the Denver Gold Forum, the yearly meetup of mining executives, investors, bankers and analysts. The forecast is 7.8% above Monday’s spot closing price. The last time gold settled that high was at the beginning of July.

Diversified miner BHP expects to halve emissions from electricity generation at its port facilities in Port Hedland, by the end of 2024. The miner on Tuesday announced that it had signed a large-scale renewable power purchase agreement with Alinta Energy, which will see the construction and connection of a 45MW solar farm and 35MW battery energy storage system into Alinta’s existing Port Hedland power station, approximately 14km from BHP’s port facilities.

An independent report into the Queensland government’s new coal royalty regime found that the state’s Treasury had understated the impact of the new rates, and that their forecasts for revenue collection under the previous tax regime had been ‘extremely low’. The report, which was conducted by independent analyst Commodity Insights on behalf of the Queensland Resources Council (QRC) stated that the royalty revenue forecasts from Treasury were based on extremely conservative and unrealistic coal price forecasts.

An updated prefeasibility study (PFS) into the Caravel copper project, in Western Australia, has reduced capital cost estimates, the operating costs, and the water and energy demands from the July PFS. The updated PFS reconfigured the two-train flotation circuit which was presented in the July PFS into a single train 27-million tonne a year throughput plant, which simplified construction and enhanced operatbility and improved both capital and operating costs, said ASX-listed Caravel Minerals on Tuesday.

Iron-ore major Fortescue has announced a $6.2-billion investment by 2030 to eliminate fossil fuel use and achieve real zero terrestrial emissions across its iron-ore operations. The miner said in statement on Tuesday that the investment will eliminate Fortescue’s fossil fuel risk profile and enable it to supply its customers with a carbon free product.