Australia/New Caledonia/Papua New Guinea Mining – Page 52

State urged to strike while lithium ion’s hot – by Daniel Mercer (The West Australian – August 13, 2018)

August 14, 2018

https://thewest.com.au/

An influential mining lobby has urged the McGowan Government to grasp the “once-in-a-generation” chance to make batteries in WA, saying it could deliver huge economic benefits to the State.

In a submission to a parliamentary inquiry, the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies said WA had natural advantages in lithium ion battery manufacturing and needed to exploit them.

Mines Minister Bill Johnston said there was “no question” WA had a finite chance to get a share of the lithium battery market but it was imperative to have a clear plan about how to build the industry.

Russian revelation behind nickel boom – by Neil Watkinson (Kalgoorlie Miner – August 10, 2018)

August 13, 2018

https://thewest.com.au

Legendary mining scientist Roy Woodall used his Kalgoorlie-Boulder Walk of Fame plaque unveiling yesterday to tell the story of how “secret Russian technology” smuggled into Australia helped him discover the Goldfields’ rich nickel deposits.

Dr Woodall told the crowd assembled in blustery conditions outside the Palace Hotel on Hannan Street about how Western Mining Corporation was struggling with its exploration of the Kambalda area in the mid-1960s.

He said he had encountered an immigrant from communist-controlled Yugoslavia, who knew little English but still wanted a job, so he employed the man. Dr Woodall said he discovered the man was a geophysicist, and could get his hands on an induced-polarisation system used behind the Iron Curtain which was not available in the West.

Australian miners steam ahead with lithium exploration – by Melanie Burton (Reuters U.S. – August 9, 2018)

August 10, 2018

https://www.reuters.com/

KALGOORLIE (Reuters) – Australian miners are ramping up exploration for lithium even as prices dip, betting on renewed strength in the raw material used for rechargeable batteries.

Australian miners’ enthusiasm for lithium projects appears undimmed by sliding prices as they expand their exploration and development efforts on the back of expected strong demand for battery chemicals.

Australia accounts for around half the world’s supply of lithium where it is mined from hard rock deposits, with the rest of the world’s supply found below salt lakes, mostly in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile.

Diggers and Dealers plants the seed for M&A action – by Brad Thompson (Australian Financial Review – August 8, 2018)

August 9, 2018

https://www.afr.com/

The biggest Diggers and Dealers event since the last mining boom has wound down with a pregnant pause in big transactions, but they are on the way.

That’s the message from Diggers and Dealers co-owner Myles Ertzen as about 2297 delegates depart Kalgoorlie after three days of presentations, private meetings and partying. “It is never as simple as doing a deal on the back of a serviette,” he said.

“It is about getting people in a room and starting off a dialogue. A lot of deals get done because of Diggers, because of the meetings at Diggers and people catching up.” “In past years, there have been one or two booths with a line five deep waiting to talk to them because they are doing a deal or have made a discovery,” he said.

UPDATE 1-Wages, activity pick up in Australia’s iron ore heartland – by Melanie Burton (Reuters U.S. – August 8, 2018)

August 8, 2018

https://www.reuters.com/

KALGOORLIE, Australia, Aug 8 (Reuters) – New spending by some of the world’s largest iron ore miners is tightening the market for jobs and support services in Australia’s biggest mining region, bringing a sense of optimism after years in the doldrums.

Spending by majors BHP Rio Tinto and Fortescue has boosted confidence throughout the industry, drawing in labour and machines from diggers to drill rigs, said delegates at a mining convention in the outback town of Kalgoorlie.

“This year, the mood is quite buoyant. If Kalgoorlie is going well, then the rest of the industry is going well,” Andrew Broad, chief executive of mining contractor Ausdrill told Reuters on the sidelines of the Diggers and Dealers conference.

Diggers & Dealers 2018: Cost hurdle for nickel developers chasing battery cash, says Western Areas – by Josh Chiat (The West Australia – August 7, 2018)

August 8, 2018

https://thewest.com.au/

Western Areas managing director Dan Lougher has fired a warning shot to nickel laterite developers, questioning whether the oncoming battery boom will make high-cost projects viable.

The euphoria around the potential for lithium ion batteries to transform demand for their highest volume ingredient and rising prices for cobalt have prompted owners of a string of low-grade lateritic projects to dust them off. Large-scale nickel laterite mines can be costly to both build and process, often relying on a chemical-intensive process called high-pressure acid leach to extract the resource.

Mr Lougher told delegates at the Diggers and Dealers forum in Kalgoorlie-Boulder today the battery market would be a growing contributor to nickel demand over the next decade, which was still dominated by steel makers, but that high-grade nickel sulphide producers would be the quickest to scale up for the new market.

Independence boss aims for ‘multiple Novas’ – by Josh Chiat (The West Australian – August 7, 2018)

August 8, 2018

https://thewest.com.au/

Independence Group managing director Peter Bradford says news that multimillionaire prospector Mark Creasy has made a new nickel discovery north of the Nova nickel mine has validated his belief in the potential of the Fraser Range in the Goldfields to become a major mining district.

Mr Bradford told delegates at the Diggers and Dealers mining forum in Kalgoorlie-Boulder yesterday that IGO was looking to find “multiple Novas” across 15,000sqkm of exploration tenure around the new operations, spending millions on exploration.

Mr Creasy, who is now a major shareholder of IGO after its $1.8 billion takeover of Nova founder Sirius Resources, revealed his “Silver Knight” nickel-copper find in a public mineralisation report last month after his company Great Southern Nickel applied for a new mining lease.

Miners Set to Spend $11 Billion in Search of the Next Jackpot – by David Stringer (Bloomberg News – August 7, 2018)

August 7, 2018

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Miners and investors are poring over satellite images, tracking drilling rigs and quizzing company executives for clues on whether the sector’s heavyweights are close to a new jackpot discovery.

As Rio Tinto Group searches Australia’s Great Sandy Desert for copper and Anglo American Plc scours a 19,000-square kilometer package of land in Brazil, they’re among the mining giants stoking excitement over potential reserves that’ll replenish project pipelines and overturn the industry’s lack of recent success in unearthing deposits.

It’s part of a broader global push across the industry that’s driving a revival in exploration spending on key metals, forecast to top $11 billion after hitting a low of about $9 billion in 2016, according to Melbourne-based MinEx Consulting Ltd.

BHP boosts nickel mining, exploration investment amid electric vehicle boom – by Melanie Burton (Reuters U.S. – August 6, 2018)

August 7, 2018

https://www.reuters.com/

KALGOORLIE, Australia (Reuters) – Global miner BHP is plowing more investment into nickel mine development and exploration in Western Australia, seeking to secure its own supply of a key material in batteries needed to meet booming demand for electric cars.

BHP is building what is expected to be the world’s largest battery-grade nickel sulphate plant on the outskirts of Perth and is boosting output to be “as self-sufficient as possible”, asset president Eduard Haegel, told Reuters on the sidelines of the Diggers and Dealers mining conference in Kalgoorlie.

Nickel is in increasingly hot demand in new battery technologies that mean cars can travel further on a single charge. Using more nickel also cuts costs by reducing the amount of expensive cobalt, a mainstay of current electric vehicle (EV) battery technology.

Battery boom skeptics seen driving short holdings in lithium miners – by Melanie Burton (Reuters U.S. – August 3, 2018)

August 3, 2018

https://www.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Short selling of shares in lithium miners SQM, Albemarle, Galaxy and Orocobre has ballooned this year, reflecting what fund managers say is a sign of growing scepticism of an imminent battery boom.

The heavy shorting of the stocks puts investors at risk of a short squeeze if project timelines meet or beat expectations, or if near-term oversupply of battery chemicals proves to be more seasonal than structural, fund managers and analysts said.

Short selling entails a bearish investor selling shares he or she does not own in the hope of profitably buying them back at a lower price in the future. If the shares rose instead, an investor would need to close, or “cover”, their position by buying back the shares for a loss.

Investors Want Australia’s Gold Producers to Buy Their U.S. Rivals – by Ranjeetha Pakiam and David Stringer (Bloomberg News – August 3, 2018)

August 3, 2018

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Gold producers in Australia are outperforming their global competitors, prompting investors to encourage them to expand their horizons and acquire struggling North American rivals.

Boosted by some of the sector’s best margins, low debt and swelling cash piles, miners in the world’s No. 2 producer are defying a wider lull in gold equities. Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd. and Northern Star Resources Ltd. have surged in the past year as rivals in Canada, the U.S. and South Africa faltered.

“Australian gold miners currently enjoy some of the highest margins in the world,” said Stephen Land, San Mateo, California-based portfolio manager at the $1.1 billion Franklin Gold and Precious Metals Fund. The producers are being supported by cuts to operating costs and stronger prices of bullion in Australian dollar terms.

Skimpies make way for ‘himpies’ in famous WA mining town tradition – by Isabel Moussalli and Jarrod Lucas (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – July 28, 2018)

July 30, 2018

http://www.abc.net.au/

Male skimpies are set to become a regular feature in the WA gold mining town of Kalgoorlie-Boulder after making their near-nude debut in front of a packed house.

Scantily-clad female barmaids are famous in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, 600 kilometres east of Perth, but so-called “himpies” were only briefly trialled a decade ago.

More than 250 people attended last night’s grand reveal of three male skimpies — Matty Abbott, Byron Phillips and Billy Bosco — at the Hannans Hotel. The topless trio had to battle it out with more than 40 candidates after an ABC report led to a spike in applications.

India’s Adani sees six-fold rise in coal mining volume despite challenges in Australia – by Sudarshan Varadhan and Abinaya Vijayaraghavan (Reuters U.S. – July 24, 2018)

July 24, 2018

https://www.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – India’s Adani Group expects an over six-fold rise in coal mining volumes by the end of fiscal year 2021, an executive said on Tuesday, despite its struggle to develop a coal project in Australia.

The resources conglomerate is looking to buy mines in countries such as Indonesia and is securing financing for its Carmichael mine in Australia amid challenges from environmental groups concerned about climate change and potential damage to the Great Barrier Reef.

Adani’s coal mining volumes are expected to be 80 million tonnes by the end of March 2021, from 12.17 million tonnes at the end of fiscal year 2017, said Sudhir Kumar Agrawal, the techno-commercial head of Adani Ports And SEZ Ltd.

[Australia Mining] Miners could be forced to look overseas if enrolments don’t improve – by Hamish Hastie (Sydney Morning Herald – July 21, 2018)

July 23, 2018

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

The mining sector may once again have to look overseas for workers to fill engineering roles if enrolments and interest in mining engineering courses don’t improve.

WA School of Mines’ mining engineering enrolment figures revealed just 90 students were currently enrolled in courses as of last week – a drastic plunge from 2013’s 321 enrolments. 2018 student commencements (those in their first and second year of study) were also significantly lower than 2013, 142 compared to 24.

With plenty of new mines in the WA construction pipeline, including BHP’s $4.8 billion South Flank mine in the Pilbara, the issue of talent to make them a reality is on the industry’s radar. The Chamber of Minerals and Energy recently established a taskforce with its members, including BHP, to address the issue.

Rio Tinto posts jump in iron ore output, flags stronger 2018 (Reuters U.S. – July 16, 2018)

July 18, 2018

https://www.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Global miner Rio Tinto said on Tuesday that its second-quarter iron ore shipments from Australia rose 14 percent and indicated its annual production would be at the upper end of its guidance.

The miner said it expected iron ore shipments for the year to be at the upper end of its range of 330 million to 340 million tonnes, driven by productivity improvements and fewer weather-related disruptions compared with the same quarter last year.

It had said earlier it did not expect tensions over a global trade war to materially affect steel demand. Each of the four big iron ore miners are expected to log record production in the second quarter, given a ramp up in China’s steel demand in the quarter, Shipbroker Clarksons Platou Securities said.