Australia/New Caledonia/Papua New Guinea Mining – Page 48

Rio Tinto approves $3.5b iron ore mine in the Pilbara – by Cole Latimer, Hamish Hastie & Nathan Hondros (Sydney Morning Herald – November 29, 2018)

November 29, 2018

https://www.smh.com.au/

Mining giant Rio Tinto has approved a $US2.6 billion ($3.5 billion) investment in its futuristic Koodaideri iron ore mine in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.

The mine will be one of Rio Tinto’s most heavily automated operations, featuring robotic trains and advanced analytics as well as 3D reconstructions of the operation to help train new miners in simulated conditions.

“Koodaideri is a game-changer for Rio Tinto. It will be the most technologically advanced mine we have ever built and sets a new benchmark for the industry in terms of the adoption of automation and the use of data to enhance safety productivity,” Rio Tinto chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques said.

Rio Tinto leads copper charge into Western Australia’s Paterson region – by Melanie Burton (Reuters U.S. – November 26, 2018)

November 28, 2018

https://www.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – A hive of mine exploration activity is underway in a remote corner of Western Australia’s Great Sandy Desert, led by Rio Tinto Ltd, which has boosted its holdings 10-fold in the little explored Paterson province in the past year.

Rio’s interest in the area – flagged by its application for nearly 30 exploration licenses – has sparked a stampede into adjacent lots by other explorers, who see Rio’s aggressive activity as an indicator of a highly promising find.

Interest was further intensified by the global mining giant’s recent application to build an airstrip in Paterson – roughly halfway between Perth and Darwin, indicating it’s in for the long haul.

Pedal to metal at booming Australian gold mines – by Ben Harvey (The West Australian – November 25, 2018)

November 26, 2018

https://thewest.com.au/

Australia’s latest gold rush has maintained its momentum, with the 81 tonnes produced in the three months to the end of September just a few thousand ounces shy of the previous quarter.

Analysis by mining consultants Surbiton Associates shows the quarter’s production was six tonnes more than a year ago, pushing Australia’s annual output comfortably above 300 tonnes and earning export income of $16 billion. China remains the world’s most prolific gold miner, accounting for 440 tonnes last year.

“Overall, (Australian) production is remarkably stable, despite the ups and downs at individual operations,” Surbiton director Sandra Close said. “If gold output is maintained at current levels in the December quarter, output for the full calendar year 2018 will remain at a near-record level.

Lithium King Bets Big on Demand Shift With Australia Mine Deal – by Laura Millan Lombrana (Bloomberg News – November 21, 2018)

November 22, 2018

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Albemarle Corp. agreed to pay $1.15 billion for a stake in a giant lithium mine in Australia, guaranteeing the biggest producer of the mineral greater access to a more refined form of the raw material that’s increasingly being used in electric-car batteries.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based company will take a 50 percent stake in a potential joint venture with Mineral Resources Ltd. that will own and operate the Wodgina hard-rock lithium deposit with a mine life of over three decades. Under the deal, Albemarle will manage the marketing and sales of lithium hydroxide, which fetches a higher price than lithium carbonate. Mineral Resources rose as much as 33 percent, the most since July 2006, in Sydney trading Thursday.

Albemarle plans to expand output in Australia to gain from rising demand for lithium hydroxide, also known as spodumene. The mineral works better with cathodes containing higher levels of nickel, helping electric cars go further on a single charge. The deal signals the company’s swift reaction toward shifting demand that has previously been concentrated mostly on lithium carbonate.

BHP Nickel West mine receives EPA backing (Australian Mining – November 21, 2018)

November 22, 2018

https://www.australianmining.com.au/

BHP Billiton Nickel West’s proposal to build and operate a new nickel sulphide mine near Leinster in Western Australia has been approved by the state’s Environmental Protection Authority (EPA).

The company plans to integrate the satellite mine into the Mt Keith operation, extending its mine life by 12 years. The proposed Mt Keith project is anticipated to generate around 9.6 million tonnes (Mt) of nickel ore per year.

It is part of BHP Nickel West’s plan to transition into a globally significant battery materials supplier, revealed by asset president Eduard Haegel at the 2018 Diggers & Dealers Mining forum.

Roxby Downs, the town built to service BHP’s Olympic Dam mine, celebrates 30 years – by Sarah Tomlinson and Patrick Martin (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – November 18, 2018)

November 19, 2018

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

The town of Roxby Downs in South Australia’s far north is so young, it has never buried a single local resident. Nestled on hot red sand 563 kilometres from the creature comforts of Adelaide, Roxby Downs officially opened on November 5, 1988 to service BHP’s Olympic Dam mine — one of the largest of its kind in the world.

Now 30 years old, the town boasts a pool, numerous sporting facilities, a supermarket, jewellery store, theatre and gallery, community radio station, and even an old video chain store that has been converted into a community hub for the many young families who occupy the town.

It also has its own rugby team, The Barbarians, whose success is only hampered by distance and the availability of having other teams to play. The young town even has a cemetery, but as Roxby Downs residents come from far and wide, they are laid to rest elsewhere — only pets inhabit this cemetery.

WA’s newest lithium mine officially opens, with plans to expand already in motion – by Hamish Hastie (Sydney Morning Herald – November 16, 2018)

November 19, 2018

https://www.smh.com.au/

The lithium train shows no sign of slowing in WA as the state’s newest mine officially opens, with plans already in motion to expand the Pilbara operation. The first shipment from Pilbara Minerals’ Pilgangoora lithium-tantalum project left the mine on October 2 but was officially opened by WA Mines and Petroleum Minister Bill Johnston on Friday.

Located 120 kilometres south of Port Hedland, the mine will produce 330,000 tonnes of lithium a year and about 300,000 pounds of tantalum. The Pilgangoora project’s workforce peaked at more than 800 during construction, but now there are about 200 operational staff on-site and in Perth.

The opening comes just more than four years to the day the first hole was drilled and is one of the fastest major lithium developments in recent history. Plans are already underway to expand the mine.

BHP to meet iron ore commitments despite train derailment: CEO – by Melanie Burton (Reuters U.S. – November 8, 2018)

November 8, 2018

https://www.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Global miner BHP Billiton will meet its iron ore commitments to customers despite a supply disruption after it had to derail a runaway ore train in Western Australia, Chief Executive Andrew Mackenzie said on Thursday.

The miner suspended its rail operations after the incident on Monday that wrecked track and left a locomotive and wagons upturned nearly 120 km (75 miles) south of Australia’s iron ore export hub of Port Hedland.

Asked whether BHP would invoke force majeure, Mackenzie told media after the company’s annual general meeting in South Australia that he did not expect the miner would let down any of its customers.

Tata Steel comes shopping for coal security – by Matthew Stevens (Australian Financial Review – November 6, 2018)

November 8, 2018

https://www.afr.com/

Having failed very recently to acquire the security blanket of Australian metallurgical coal mines, global steel giant Tata Steel is promoting the need for a forum with Australian governments and miners to more productively align the central Queensland coal system with India’s surging raw materials needs.

An executive delegation from Tata, led by relatively new chief executive TV Narendran, landed in Brisbane on Monday with proposals that aim to take its relationship with Australian suppliers to a new level, moving it from its currently transactional standing to something more symbiotic.

It is understood that Tata management continues to investigate its ownership options in Australian coal after recent efforts to acquire projects or buy into joint ventures have come to nought. As one source told The Australian Financial Review, Tata has either been “outbid or beaten to the punch” in a number of recent sale processes.

Nickel and No to Independence: New Caledonia Sticks to France – by Scott Tibballs (Nickel Investing News – November 6th, 2018)

November 7, 2018

Nickel Investment News

The French Territory of New Caledonia has voted to remain with the Fifth Republic, returning a 56 percent ‘no’ vote on becoming an independent state.
New Caledonia is the world’s third-largest nickel supplier with an annual output of 210,000 metric tonnes.

Mining and smelting is the backbone of the territories economy and would be the basis of the economy of a potentially future independent New Caledonia — a possibility still on the cards as the Noumea Accords signed in 1998 promised three referendums.

For the small pacific territory though, independence from Paris — which provides subsidies — would mean being exposed completely to the volatile nickel price, which has haunted miners in recent years.

New Cold War arrives in Papua New Guinea – by Alan Boyd (Asia Times – November 6, 2018)

November 7, 2018

http://www.atimes.com/

Australia outpaced China for a deal to develop PNG’s Lombrum naval base, a strategic facility that will bolster Canberra’s power projection in the South Pacific and South China Sea

Australian naval vessels have arrived in Papua New Guinea to protect leaders at a summit of Pacific Rim nations next week, giving a foretaste of the newly elevated defense relationship between the two neighbors.

Defense officials confirmed that Australia’s helicopter docking ship HMAS Adelaide is now off Papua New Guinea’s capital of Port Moresby, accompanied by two patrol boats. They will provide security for cruise ships tethered in the harbor that will house delegates to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gathering.

Australian special forces troops have been in Papua New Guinea for two months preparing security measures around facilities for the November 17-18 summit, which will be attended by US Vice President Mike Pence, Chinese Premier Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leaders of 18 other countries.

The parallel universes of thermal coal – by Matthew Stevens (Australian Financial Review – November 4, 2018)

November 5, 2018

https://www.afr.com/

The parallel universes of thermal coal have rarely been in more confounding focus. In one cosmos we have arguably the most financially literate of the anti-fossil-fuel lobby, the IEEFA, mounting an apparently data-filled argument that the home of Australian thermal coal, the Hunter Valley, is now on track to “terminal decline as markets transition away from coal”.

Then, in a galaxy far, far away, there is Glencore, which over two years has spent $US3.4 billion ($4.7 billion) adding thermal and coking coal projects to what was already Australia’s single biggest coal mining business.

On the very same day last week that the IEEFA called out a tipping point in the decline and fall of coal, Glencore offered up a similarly data-fuelled prediction that coal demand in Asia was actually set to double by 2040 and that demand for the quantities and qualities of the little black rock that only Australia can produce would rise disproportionately to the general growth curve.

BHP derails 268-car Pilbara iron ore train which travelled 92km without driver – by Peter Milne (The West Australian – November 5, 2018)

November 5, 2018

https://thewest.com.au/

BHP deliberately derailed a runaway Pilbara iron train carrying 268 wagons early today after it travelled 92km across the Pilbara without a driver. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said about 4am the driver of a loaded ore train travelling from Newman to Port Hedland alighted to inspect a wagon.

The bureau said the train, consisting of four locomotives and 268 wagons, started to run away without the driver and with no one on board, travelling for 92km. BHP then stopped the train by deliberately derailing it at a set of points about 120 km from Port Hedland.

A BHP spokeswoman said no one was injured and the Pilbara miner has suspended all train operations. “We are working with the appropriate authorities to investigate the situation,” she said.

China’s boulevard to nowhere: The battle for influence in APEC’s Pacific host – by Jonathan Barrett and Colin Packham (Reuters Canada – November 3, 2018)

November 5, 2018

https://ca.reuters.com/

If the region – pivotal in the Pacific battles of World War II – is
a strategic treasure, PNG is one of its jewels. It controls large
swaths of ocean, is rich in mineral resources and is close to both
U.S. military bases on the island of Guam and to Australia.

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Workers are putting the finishing touches on a Beijing-funded boulevard designed to showcase Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) capital to visiting world leaders at this month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

Critics say the six-lane road – complete with wide, illuminated footpaths – is emblematic of a regional power play whereby donor countries vie for influence with show-stopper gifts, even as deeper problems plague the Pacific nation.

Australia, PNG’s traditional partner and a close Washington ally, is lifting aid and has plowed more than A$120 million ($86.5 million) into APEC, seeking to keep its sway over its neighbor.

New Caledonians vote down independence to stay part of France – by Charlotte Antoine (CTV News – November 4, 2018)

November 5, 2018

https://www.ctvnews.ca/

The Associated Press – NOUMEA, New Caledonia – A majority of voters in the South Pacific territory of New Caledonia chose to remain part of France instead of backing independence Sunday, a watershed moment that led French President Emmanuel Macron to promise a full dialogue on the archipelago’s future.

Final results had 56.4 per cent of the voters who participated in the referendum deciding to maintain ties with the country that has ruled New Caledonia since the mid-19th century and 43.6 per cent supporting independence, the high commissioner’s office said.

“I’m asking everyone to turn toward the future to build tomorrow’s New Caledonia,” Macron said, speaking from the presidential Elysee Palace in Paris. “The spirit of dialogue is the sole winner.”