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Glencore’s former Ulan coal mine rehabilitated into natural habitat (Australian Mining – July 7, 2020)

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Glencore has transformed 52 hectares of the formerly mined land at the Ulan coal operation in New South Wales into a habitat for a diverse range of native plants and animals.

The rehabilitation efforts have been signed off by the New South Wales resources regulator for meeting the agreed completion criteria, having reached an appropriate post-mining state.

Government sign-off means that the Ulan site has reached the completion criteria and that with continued monitoring and maintenance, it will produce a self-sustaining ecosystem.

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Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Australia amid the rising tide of secessionism in the region – by Vladislav Gulevich (Modern Diplomacy – July 6, 2020)

https://moderndiplomacy.eu/

Secessionist tendencies in Indonesia’s province of West Papua have recently been attracting a great deal of attention from experts and human rights activists.

The main reason for the international criticism of the Indonesian authorities is human rights violations and the suppression of the fundamental freedoms of the indigenous people of West Papua. In 2018, the United Nations even sent to Jakarta a report on this subject filed by its Special Rapporteurs.

In 2019, the UN once again voiced its concern about the Indonesian authorities’ violent crackdown on the Papuans . Jakarta, however, insists that security forces act strictly in line with the law.

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Tesla is the world’s top carmaker on the back of a tech boost and huge Chinese sales – by Gareth Hutchens (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – July 5, 2020)

https://www.abc.net.au/

It’s a sign of the times. Electric car manufacturer Tesla became the world’s most valuable carmaker last week, overtaking Toyota, despite never having made an annual profit.

In the past 12 months, Tesla shares have surged over 400 per cent to reach a market value of $US210 billion ($302 billion). In July last year, its share price was $US233. Last week, it closed at $US1,208.

According to the financial firm Refinitiv, Tesla is now trading at 69 times its estimated 2022 earnings. What’s behind the eye-watering rally? A broader improvement in the tech sector has helped.

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Nickel Shuffle; Russians Go Home And BHP Moves In – by Tim Treadgold (Forbes Magazine – July 3, 2020)

https://www.forbes.com/

An environmental incident in the far north of Russia has confirmed the case for nickel as a metal with strong investment appeal and might also play a role in the world’s biggest mining company, BHP, speeding up the sale of its thermal coal assets.

Linking those seemingly unrelated events are the contentious claims about climate change and the need to ween the world off fossil fuels, replacing coal and oil with alternative energy sources and battery storage of electricity.

The case for nickel has been explored in a number of my recent reports including one early last month headed “Nickel Rush Restarts As Steel And Battery Demand Rises”.

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A Miner Blew Up Ancient Human History. Now An Industry May Pay – by David Stringer, Matthew Burgess and Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – June 30, 2020)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Scraping away delicately at the reddish-brown earth of northwestern Australia’s vast Pilbara region, a team of archaeologists uncovered a record of life dating back more 40,000 years.

Buried in natural shelters at the base of a cliff were thousands of stone and wooden tools, the sharpened fibula bone of a kangaroo and braided strands of hair.

They worked quickly inside the Juukan Gorge rock shelters to recover the artefacts — and needed to. The team was a salvage squad, sent in with a tight deadline to excavate a site in the path of an encroaching iron ore mine and approved for destruction.

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Opal trade in Coober Pedy stalls as international border closures deplete buyers – by Gary-Jon Lysaght (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – June 28, 2020)

https://www.abc.net.au/

Opal is a precious resource in Coober Pedy and the international market for opals is what helps keep the outback South Australian town going. But international border restrictions have all but stalled that trade.

Coober Pedy is often nicknamed the ‘opal capital of the world’, with its rich quantities of the rare gemstone the reason so many people travel to the outback town.

Some of those travellers arrive from countries like India and Hong Kong to buy opal. The word gets around town that the buyers are here and miners line up ready to sell their stock.

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Australian mineral exports still slated for all-time high – by Esmarie Iannucci (MiningWeekly.com – June 19, 2020)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Despite the economic downturn brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, Australian resource export earnings are set to reach an all-time high in 2019/20, the latest Resources and Energy Quarterly from the Office of the Chief Economist has found.

Australia’s resources and energy export values are estimated at a record A$293-billion in 2019/20, a 4.2% increase on the 2018/19 figures.

The latest export estimate was down from the A$299-billion previously estimated, but was still the largest resource and energy export figure in Australian history, the Office of the Chief Economist said.

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Aussie miner Saracen strikes $1.1b Super Pit deal on Kalgoorlie’s Golden Mile – by Jarrod Lucas (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – November 18, 2029)

https://www.abc.net.au/

Australian gold miner Saracen Mineral Holdings has struck a $1.1 billion deal for a 50 per cent stake in Kalgoorlie-Boulder’s famous Super Pit operation.

The deal with Canada’s Barrick Gold finalised in Toronto over the weekend, two months after Saracen privately entered a “competitive” sale process, and was announced to the Australian Securities Exchange on Monday morning.

Saracen estimates it will take more than three years to recover from devastating rock falls, but insists the acquisition will pay off in the long run.

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COLUMN-Australia’s mining lobby takes a baby step on climate change – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – June 22, 2020)

https://www.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia, June 23 (Reuters) – Australia’s mining lobby group, the Minerals Council of Australia, long derided by environmentalists as coal-loving dinosaurs, has launched a climate action plan that is probably significant for what it doesn’t say than what it does.

On the surface the council’s report looks reasonable, committing to an ambition of net zero emissions and outlining a series of actions aimed at achieving the goal.

But the document, released on Monday, is short on specifics, with many of the action points and activities couched in vague language that is open to interpretation. An example is the activity point on “supporting adaptation”.

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‘Gushing cash’: iron ore miners a yield favourite – by William McInnes (Australian Financial Review – June 23, 2020)

https://www.afr.com/

A soaring iron ore price has made the major iron ore miners an attractive option for yield-hungry investors, with alternatives scarce in the Australian sharemarket.

The investment case for Rio Tinto, Fortescue Metals Group and BHP Group is hard for investors to overlook as dividend cuts and earnings downgrades dominate the rest of the market.

“The major mining companies are in a really strong position,” said Yarra Capital Management’s head of Australian equities, Dion Hershan. “These businesses are literally gushing cash and they have very attractive valuations in a market where it’s really hard to find value.

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China’s Shandong scoops up Cardinal Resources – by Mariaan Webb (MiningWeekly.com – June 18, 2020)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

China’s Shandong Gold Mining has moved to buy another gold junior, with ASX- and TSX-listed Cardinal Resources on Thursday announcing that it had entered into a bid implementation agreement with the Chinese miner.

Shandong has agreed to buy Australia-headquartered Cardinal Resources, which operates in Ghana, for A$0.60 a share in cash, beating the preliminary proposal announced by Nord Gold on March 16 of A$0.45775 a share.

The Shandong offer, which is a 75.5% premium to Cardinal’s 20-day unaffected volume-weighted average price and a 39.3% premium to its 20-day volume weighted average price up to June 18, values Cardinal at about A$300-million.

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No end in sight for Australia’s longest-running gold rush on Kalgoorlie-Boulder’s Golden Mile – by Jarrod Lucas (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – August 30, 2018)


National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

https://www.youtube.com/user/FILMAUSTRALIA/

Above film made by The National Film Board 1948. Directed by R Maslyn Williams. Much of the romance associated with the development of the gold industry is to be found at Kalgoorlie on the golden mile, that rich strip of Western Australian territory.

https://www.abc.net.au/

Two prospectors in 1893 thought they had discovered something special when they found a small patch of ground in outback WA, and today it remains one of the world’s richest gold deposits.

Kalgoorlie-Boulder, 600km east of Perth, is famous for the Golden Mile that sparked the greatest gold rush Australia has seen, and it celebrates its 125th birthday this week.

Once considered the richest square mile on Earth, the Golden Mile has produced more than 60 million ounces of gold — and counting. At today’s gold price of about $1,650 an ounce, that is the equivalent of about $100 billion worth of the precious metal.

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Australia Fast-Tracks a $1 Billion Coal Mine – by James Thornhill(Bloomberg News – June 12, 2020)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — A giant Glencore Plc coal project in Australia has been fast-tracked as the nation turns to its vast natural resources to lift the economy out of its first recession in almost three decades.

The A$1.5 billion ($1 billion) Valeria mine in Queensland has been designated a “coordinated project”, which the state said Friday would help to get new jobs happening quicker. That comes as the national government stands firm in the face of calls at home and abroad to shift away from the highly polluting fuel.

“This new mine has the potential to create hundreds of new jobs as Queensland recovers from the extraordinary shock of the global coronavirus pandemic,” state Treasurer Cameron Dick said. “Coal mining has a long history in Queensland and will continue to be a major industry for many years to come.”

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Mining Industry Recovery May Bolster Australia’s Economy Again – by Michael Health (Bloomberg News – June 11, 2020)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) – Australia’s resource industry is set to aid the economic recovery once again as higher prices and expansion plans assist the nation emerging from its coronavirus lockdown.

Mining accounts for nearly 6% of gross domestic product but plays an outsized role in national income, delivering dividends to pension funds and funds for government coffers. Iron ore, the nation’s biggest export, has broken $100 a ton amid off-shore supply concerns, providing a timely budget boost.

The government’s most recent budget numbers from December were based on iron ore falling to $55 a ton, excluding freight, by the June quarter of 2020. The government gains around A$3.7 billion for every $10 in excess of this estimate in the year to June 2021, which will assist the budget position following the massive fiscal injection.

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Rio Tinto chief says sorry for sacred caves blast; Australia starts inquiry – by Melanie Burton (Reuters U.S. – June 11, 2020)

https://www.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Rio Tinto Chief Executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques on Friday apologised for distress caused by Rio’s destruction last month of two ancient and sacred Aboriginal caves in Western Australia, pledging full cooperation with an Australian government inquiry.

“We are very sorry for the distress we have caused the PKKP in relation to Juukan Gorge and our first priority remains rebuilding trust with the PKKP,” Jacques said in a statement, referring to the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) people.

With state government approval, the world’s biggest iron ore miner destroyed two caves at Juukan Gorge that had previously contained evidence of continual human habitation stretching back 46,000 years as part of its Brockman mine expansion in the iron-rich Pilbara region.

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