(Bloomberg) — South African miners are battling a growing threat miles underground in the world’s deepest platinum shafts: Gangs stealing copper cables and disrupting operations.
Enticed by high copper prices, thieves are sneaking in, descending deep underground and setting up camp among vast networks of tunnels to strip metal from power cables. The country’s platinum giants are struggling to contain the syndicates of trespassers known as “zama zamas” — a Zulu name that means “take a chance.”
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa would do well to highlight its key iridium supply status to gain the full confidence of a world that requires this very rare platinum group metal (PGM) to advance the fast-moving hydrogen economy.
Iridium is a potent co-roleplayer with PGMs stalwart platinum when it comes to electrolysing hydrogen from water. Because of South Africa’s solar power potential, land availability and PGM endowments, SFA Oxford CEO Henk de Hoop expresses the view that the country should raise its flag to highlight the key role it can play in fostering global decarbonisation. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)
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Potential mine development could provide benefit for northwestern Ontario Indigenous bands
A Thunder Bay palladium company has signed an exploration agreement with three First Nations.
Clean Air Metals, Fort William First Nation, Red Rock Indian Band and Biinjitiwaabik Zaaging Anishinaabek announced last week that they’ve advanced their ongoing relationship with a signed exploration agreement. A year ago, all the parties signed an initial memorandum of understanding concerning the company’s Thunder Bay North project.
Russian gas and oil are by far the most significant exports Moscow sells to Germany. Yet other important raw materials are also under the spotlight because of the war in Ukraine.
Almost all the debate surrounding Germany’s economic ties with Russia since the invasion of Ukraine has focused on gas and oil. With good reason — Germany buys more Russian oil and gas than any other European country, making energy Russia’s most lucrative import to Germany by far.
However, many German companies rely on a steady supply of other Russian exports, particularly raw materials such as nickel, palladium, copper and chromium.
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Palladium company to release pre-feasibility study on open-pit River Valley mine project
Areas outside the Sudbury Basin are proving to be fertile ground for junior mining exploration companies probing for precious, base and so-called ‘green’ metals. Two projects are showing definite mining potential.
New Age Metals expects to release a pre-feasibility study this summer for a proposed open-pit mine at its River Valley project.
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Federal Minister for Resources and Water Keith Pitt has applauded work done by Geoscience Australia in discovering the largest nickel sulphide discovery in Australia in over two decades.
ASX-listed Chalice Mining this week announced a maiden indicated and inferred mineral resource estimate of 10-million ounces palladium/platinum/gold, 530 000 t of nickel, 330 000 t of copper, and 53 000 t of cobalt at its Gonneville deposit, which makes up part of its larger Julimar project, in Western Australia.
Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN)(OTCQX: IVPAF) said on Wednesday it had secure $300 million in stream financing for its platinum group and gold Platreef mine in the South African province of Limpopo.
The Canadian miner said its subsidiary, Ivanplats, closed a $200 million gold stream financing agreement with Orion Mine Finance and Nomad Royalty Company, as well as a $100 million palladium and platinum streaming facility for Platreef.
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Clean Air Metals express confidence that future mine at Thunder Bay North could have Norilsk-like potential
The proponents of a potentially large platinum and palladium mine near Thunder Bay believe they’ve only scratched the surface of its vast metal potential.
This week, Clean Air Metals released a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of its Thunder Bay North Project, forecasting a 10-year mine operating life. But company officials insist that’s only the “minimum” as their property has the resources in the ground to last much longer.
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Clean Air Metals releases preliminary economic assessment of its Thunder Bay North Project
A Thunder Bay-based junior mining company is placing a 10-year underground mine life on its high-grade platinum, palladium, copper and nickel project, located north of the city.
In a Dec. 1 news release, Clean Air Metals issued a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of its Thunder Bay North Project, located between the city and Impala’s Lac des Iles Mine.
Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd.’s decade-long quest to buy a smaller rival that owns assets key to prolonging the life of its own mines in South Africa came to a shuddering halt on Tuesday.
Chief Executive Officer Nico Muller thought he finally had a deal to acquire 100% of Royal Bafokeng Platinum Ltd., after gaining the backing of the company’s management and board. Implats, as the miner is known, was preparing to make an offer this week after announcing it was in talks on Oct. 27, according to people familiar with the matter.
In the early days, Canada’s most western province, British Columbia, was built on gold. While there were the famous gold rushes of the Fraser River in 1858 and Barkerville in 1862, there is one gold rush that stands apart from the rest – the Granite Creek gold rush near Princeton, southwest B.C.
What make Granite Creek different is that besides gold, there are also platinum nuggets – one of only two places in the world – the other being the Amur River in Russia.
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Generation Mining, the developers of a proposed palladium near Marathon, has selected Wood PLC to handle the project’s engineering work. The global consulting and engineering company was awarded the contract to do the processing plant engineering and the equipment procurement for the Marathon palladium-copper project in northwestern Ontario.
In an Oct. 13 news release, Gen Mining said the goal over the next few months is get 75 per cent of the engineering work completed by the time construction starts. Early ground preparation work is tentatively anticipated sometime in the second half of next year.
Not all that glitters is gold. Sometimes it’s silver, platinum and palladium. The Northern Miner takes a look at eight companies active in the space.
Bayhorse Silver (TSXV: BHS; US-OTC: KXPLF) is the 100% owner of the past-producing Bayhorse silver mine 14 km from Huntington, Oregon in the United States. The company spent US$7.5 million to return it to production in 2018 and the company poured its first silver bar in February 2019. Because there is no mill on the site, the operation has a small environmental footprint.
The property has a known mineralized zone that was historically estimated to be 255 metres long, 25 metres wide, and 6.7 metres thick. It was previously estimated (not 43-101 compliant) to contain 150,000 tonnes of mineralization grading 585 to 690 grams silver per tonne, including a 30,000-tonne zone of rhyolite that has returned grades as high as 10,793 grams silver per tonne.
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The Town of Marathon is out to make a good impression. A proposed open-pit palladium mine project is undergoing scrutiny through an environmental assessment (EA) process this fall and the north shore community of 3,300 is determined to show its support for the mining industry.
A government-appointed environmental review panel is scheduled to arrive in Marathon this week for a site visit. Marathon Mayor Rick Dumas said when they do they’ll see lawn signs displaying Marathon Supports Mining and other demonstrations of support for Generation Mining and its Marathon Project.
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From River Valley to Massey, junior miners eye old mine sites and underexplored areas in the search for ‘green’ and precious metals
The periphery of the Sudbury basin is proving to be favourable exploration ground for junior mining companies on the hunt for gold and the ‘green’ metals needed to drive the global clean energy movement.
One of the area’s most advanced projects is 100 kilometres east of Sudbury where New Age Metals expects to release a prefeasibility study early next year for a proposed open-pit mine.
