Australia/New Caledonia/Papua New Guinea Mining – Page 37

UPDATE 1-Bougainville mining expectations rise amid peaceful referendum – by Jonathan Barrett (Reuters U.S. – November 26, 2019)

November 27, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

SYDNEY, Nov 26 (Reuters) – An independence referendum in Bougainville has reignited interest in copper mining in the South Pacific island, causing a surge in the shares of the former operator of the mine that sparked the region’s war to secede from Papua New Guinea.

Shares in Bougainville Copper Ltd (BCL), the former operator of the giant Panguna gold and copper mine, have more than tripled since early last week to trade at above A$0.40 late on Tuesday. This coincides with the start of a non-binding independence referendum in Papua New Guinea’s region of Bougainville that has begun peacefully and will run until Dec. 7.

The vote is a key part of a peace agreement reached in the aftermath of a decade-long war between Bougainville’s rebel fighters and Papua New Guinea forces that ended in 1998 and killed 20,000.

Australians make a $475-million splash in Red Lake – Staff (Northern Ontario Business – November 26, 2019)

November 26, 2019

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Evolution Mining enters northwest gold camp with plans to boost production, lower operating costs, spend like mad on exploration

Evolution Mining, a leading Australian gold producer, is making a big-splash entry into Canada by acquiring the Red Lake Gold Complex from Newmont Goldcorp in a cash deal worth US$475 million. The Sydney and Perth-headquartered gold miner made the announcement on Nov. 26, Australian time.

The news release included details of a three-year “turnaround” plan to “reinvigorate” the northwestern Ontario gold camp by reducing operating costs, increasing production, and extending mine life.

According to the terms of the transaction, Evolution will pay Newmont Goldcorp US$375 million at close, plus an additional US$100 million contingent on a new resource discovery.

Will Bougainville Reopen the Panguna Mine? – by Joshua Mcdonald (The Diplomat – November 22, 2019)

November 25, 2019

https://thediplomat.com/

With an independence referendum on the horizon, reopening the Panguna mine offers both attractive opportunities and terrible consequences.

The Panguna mine on the Pacific island of Bougainville is one of the largest copper and gold deposits in the world. The mine was also at the center of a decade-long civil war fought between the Bougainville Revolutionary Army and the Papua New Guinea Defense Force in the 1990s. The conflict cost as many as 15,000 lives and displaced 40,000 of the island’s 200,000 inhabitants.

Before the war, the Panguna mine generated more than $1 billion in national tax revenue and accounted for about 45 percent of Papua New Guinea’s total exports, 17 percent of its internal revenue, and 12 percent of its gross domestic product. It essentially paved the way for the nation’s transition to independence from Australia.

But Panguna landowners and local employees — angered by the environmental destruction from the operation, poor wages, and unfair distribution of revenue (less than 1 percent of profits were reinvested in Bougainville) — eventually took up arms.

Landowners Ready To Reopen [Bougainville] Panguana Mine (Papua New Guinea Post-Courier – November 25, 2019)

November 25, 2019

https://postcourier.com.pg/

Landowners of the decommissioned Panguna Copper Mine are now prepared to reopen the mine as soon as the next Bougainville House of Representatives is installed.

Seeing that as the only means of generating income for Bougainville as soon as it gains independence status, the landowners have agreed that Panguna will finance Bougainville like it financed Papua New Guinea back in the 1970s and 80s.

Special Mining Lease Osikayang Landowners Association (SML-OLA) mobilised all landowners from different parts of Panguna to gather at the edge of the mine pit to show that they were now one and ready to re-open the mine when Bougainville gained its independence.

Barrick seeks to eclipse $1.5 billion asset sales target, eyes more copper (Reuters U.S. – November 18, 2019)

November 19, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

TORONTO (Reuters) – Canadian miner Barrick Gold Corp (ABX.TO) is keen to top its $1.5 billion target for asset sales after shedding its half of the Super Pit gold mine in Western Australia, Chief Executive Officer Mark Bristow said on Monday.

Australia’s Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (SAR.AX) agreed on Monday to buy Barrick’s 50% stake of the Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines Joint Venture, which operates one of Australia’s largest gold mines, for $750 million.. Newmont Goldcorp Corp (NEM.N) holds the other 50% share.

The deal is a first step in Barrick’s plan to jettison at least $1.5 billion in less-profitable assets by the end of 2020 in the wake of its acquisition of Rangold Resources a year ago. “The number is $1.5 billion to beat,” Bristow said in an interview. “We’re already half way.”

Barrick Gold sells half of Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines for $750 million – by Valentina Ruiz Leotaud (Mining.com – November 17, 2019)

November 19, 2019

https://www.mining.com/

Canada’s Barrick Gold (TSX:ABX)(NYSE:GOLD), the world’s second largest producer of the yellow metal, reached an agreement to sell its 50% interest in Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines in Western Australia to Saracen Mineral Holdings (ASX:SAR).

Saracen already holds two gold operations in the Kalgoorlie region, namely, the Carosue Dam and the Thunderbox mine sites.

In a media statement, Barrick said the KCGM transaction involved the payment of $750 million in cash and that such funds will be used to further strengthen the company’s balance sheet, invest in future projects and deliver returns to its shareholders.

World’s biggest miner names Canadian as new CEO, raises intrigue about potash ambitions – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – November 14, 2019)

November 15, 2019

https://business.financialpost.com/

Decision could have consequences on whether BHP pushes forward with a massive potash project in Saskatchewan in the coming years

Canadian Mike Henry will be the next chief executive of giant Australian miner BHP Group, a decision that could have consequences on whether it pushes forward with a massive potash project in Saskatchewan in the coming years.

Henry, 53, takes the helm in January, leaving a month or so for him to transition from his current role as head of BHP’s Australian mining operations, where the company’s iron ore mines that account for nearly half its revenue are located.

One item on his eventual to-do list, though not necessarily at the top, will be whether the company will allocate $5 billion to construct the first phase of its Jansen potash project in Saskatchewan. The project would initially add four million tons of potash to the market and as much as four times that over time, which could drastically alter the supply and demand dynamics for existing producers such as Saskatoon-based Nutrien Ltd.

Global miner BHP taps Australia head Henry as new CEO – by Sonali Paul and Melanie Burton (Reuters U.S. – November 13, 2019)

November 14, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – BHP Group Ltd (BHP.AX) (BHPB.L) on Thursday named its Australian head Mike Henry to succeed Andrew Mackenzie as the miner’s chief executive, shunning calls from some investors for fresh blood from outside the Anglo Australian giant.

Mackenzie, 62, will step down on Dec. 31 ending nearly seven years in charge of the biggest global miner, during which time he overhauled the company, spinning off a raft of assets and cutting costs sharply.

Henry, a 53-year-old Canadian who joined BHP in 2003, has led its Australian operations over the past three years, including its biggest earner, iron ore, and the world’s largest metallurgical coal operations.

Burning Coal – by David Fickling (Bloomberg News – November 11, 2019)

November 12, 2019

https://www.bloomberg.com/

It’s becoming harder for Australia’s government to avoid talking about the link between its biggest export earner and rising temperatures.

You could smell the approach of Sydney’s bushfires two weeks away. Leaving my home for work last month at a time when California’s fires were at their most intense, the sandalwood odor of burning eucalyptus was heavy on the air.

Looking north from Bloomberg’s office to the far side of Sydney Harbour, the normally sparkling blue water was a barely discernible smudge. That was mostly not wildfire, but a dozen deliberate hazard-reduction burns under way across the metropolitan area in a last-ditch attempt to eliminate flammable plant litter and undergrowth before conditions worsened.

Tuesday will prove a test of how effective that has been. Sydney’s entire metropolitan area and a swathe of country in the Hunter Valley to the north and Illawarra to the south will face catastrophic fire danger, the highest risk rating in New South Wales state, thanks to strong winds combined with temperatures up to 37 degrees centigrade.

Gold prices are trading near record highs, so why are Australia’s mineral explorers crying poor? – by Jarrod Lucas (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – November 6, 2019)

November 7, 2019

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

The movers and shakers in Australia’s mineral exploration industry could be channelling Tom Cruise’s character from the movie Jerry Maguire because they constantly seem to be shouting: “show me the money!” Known as the lifeblood of the mining industry, exploration is an expensive game which is as much a gamble as it is an investment.

There are never any guarantees a rich mineral deposit lies beneath the surface and for all the mining industry’s technological advances in recent decades, the best way to make new discoveries is by drilling into the earth. The pay-off can be big if a company strikes it lucky.

Case in point is one-time penny dreadful stock Sirius Resources, which was almost broke when it discovered the Nova nickel-copper deposit in Western Australia in 2012 before completing one of the great rags-to-riches stories in 2015 with Independence Group’s $1.8-billion takeover.

Australia’s threat to outlaw mining protests highlights industry split – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – November 3, 2019)

November 5, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia (Reuters) – The boss of a major mining company last week made a plea to the industry to do more to win the hearts and minds of the broader public. A few days later the leader of the country hosting the bulk of his operations threatened to outlaw those opposed to mining.

What makes the situation more bizarre is that the threat against the right to protest was made by Scott Morrison, the prime minister of Australia, a country with a long democratic tradition and a history of political tolerance.

Morrison, the leader of the conservative Liberal Party, told a meeting of a mining lobby group on Nov. 2 that there is a “new breed of radical activism” that didn’t permit the expression of alternative viewpoints.

Not The Best Deal: Albemarle Pays $1.3 Billion For A Lithium Asset— And Closes It – by Tim Treadgold (Forbes Magazine – November 1, 2019)

November 1, 2019

https://www.forbes.com/

Too much lithium and not enough demand for the battery-making material have hit the Australian expansion plans of U.S.-based specialty chemical maker Albemarle Corporation which effectively acquired, and closed, a new mine on the same day.

The deal to buy a stake in the Wodgina lithium mine in Western Australia was first negotiated 12 months ago, a time when lithium prices were higher and demand for the electric vehicles which use it in their batteries was forecast to be stronger than it is.

Celebrations Turn Sour

Rather than celebrating the deal today turned into commiserations with the workforce sent home and the almost new mine put in mothballs.

BHP’s Colombian coal takes on Australian miners in Asia market switch – by Peter Ker (Australian Financial Review – October 30, 2019)

October 30, 2019

https://www.afr.com/

The Colombian coal business owned by BHP, Glencore and Anglo American will switch focus from Europe to Asia, in a move that would put it head to head with Australian coal exporters.

Cerrejon president Guillermo Fonseca urged the Colombian government to consider cutting its tax take to make Cerrejon more competitive against Australian miners, who enjoy a shorter, and therefore, cheaper route to Asia.

”Europe (demand for coal) is declining and declining much faster than we expected, Asia is still growing and definitely that is where the market is going to be for the medium to long term,” he told The Australian Financial Review at Melbourne’s IMARC conference.

The end of the ‘rarest diamonds in the world’ is at hand and jewellers are already feeling nostalgic – by Claire Ballentine (Bloomberg/Financial Post – October 24, 2019)

October 28, 2019

https://business.financialpost.com/

For 30 years, jeweller John Calleija has been purchasing rare gems from Rio Tinto Group’s Argyle mine in remote Western Australia, home to 90 per cent of the world’s prized pink diamonds.

On a recent rainy afternoon in New York’s Peninsula Hotel, the Australia-based Calleija studied some of the rarest pink and red stones through a magnifying glass as part of Rio Tinto’s annual pink diamonds tender, which held a total of 64 diamonds making up 56.28 carats. The intense quiet in the room was broken only by Calleija’s occasional murmurs of approval at the gems’ cut and clarity.

The stones themselves are always breathtaking, but this year’s tender also had a heightened sense of nostalgia. The Argyle mine is set to close at the end of next year, now that its supply of economically viable jewels has been exhausted.

Chinese-owned nickel plant in PNG shut down after toxic slurry spill – by Bethanie Harriman (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – October 24, 2019)

October 25, 2019

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

Papua New Guinean authorities have shut down a Chinese-owned nickel processing plant for breaching safety and mining laws, after the operator spilled tens of thousands of litres of toxic slurry into a bay in August.

PNG’s Mineral Resources Authority (MRA) chose to take punitive action against the Ramu Nico plant, which is majority owned by the Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC), after it failed to fix problems the authority identified while investigating the spill.

These included incompetency among operators at the plant in PNG’s Madang province, problems with the spillage containment system, and inadequate equipment maintenance.