Planet Metals hunts for new project partner

ASX-listed junior Planet Metals was on the hunt for partners to assist in developing its Mount Cannindah copper/gold project, in Queensland.

The company recently retained 100% of the Mount Cannindah project after its farm-in partner Drummond Gold withdrew from a 2010 agreement.

Planet said on Thursday that its initial focus would now be on compiling all data, results and information gained from the A$2.3-million works programme undertaken at the site over the last three years. A review of the grade-tonnage curve would also be undertaken to assess the future strategy and work programme requirements.

The  project’s current resource stood at 5.5-million tonnes, grading 0.92% copper, 0.34 g/t gold and 14.9 g/t silver, of which some 80% was classified as measured and indicated.

Work to date has also highlighted the potential for higher gold content at the Southern Skarn regional target, some 2 km south of Mount Cannindah. A site visit would be conducted in the current quarter to confirm key findings of the review, as well as to assess the next phase of exploration at the Southern Skarn target.

Read more: Industrial Info to Offer Insights on $1.5 Trillion in Mining Projects at AIMEX 2013 in Sydney, an Industrial Info News Alert

 Researched by Industrial Info Resources Australia (Perth, Australia) -- The Asia-Pacific's International Mining Exhibition (AIMEX) will be held August 20-23 at Sydney's Olympic Park, attracting a global platform of Australian and international suppliers of mining technology, equipment and services. An estimated 20,000 visitors are expected over a period of four days, with more than 600 exhibitors.

Industrial Info is monitoring more than 5,600 active mining projects totaling $1.5 trillion as part of its Global Mining Database. Industrial Info will be providing demonstrations of its database at AIMEX 2013. Please visit us at booth H111 for a demonstration and learn more about our expanding products and services.

In recent years, global mining projects have increased to more than $1.5 trillion. Demand, or lack thereof, for resources from developing countries continues to be the prime driver of mining project development, and mining companies are adjusting to the current low period by scaling back on capital expenditures in some markets. In this environment, it is important for equipment and service providers to understand which projects are being deferred or cancelled, and which projects remain active.

The exhibition will bring together diverse stakeholders in the Australian mining industry, facilitating the participants to increase profitability and improving the competitive advantage. Participants will be able to buy services and products in the most effective way where many of the suppliers will be showcasing their products.

The venue, Olympic Park, provides an opportunity to display all sizes of heavy mining equipment. AIMEX will provide an excellent opportunity for networking with peers and exchanging ideas. The exhibition will also consist of several speeches and seminars conducted by some of the experts, pioneers and drivers of the Australian mining industry.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, and eight offices outside of North America, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. 

Newcastle fails to apply for infrastructure grant

The NSW Government had made an election promise to allocate $160 million for infrastructure projects in regional towns facing the brunt of a growing mining industry.

But the Newcastle City Council has passed the opportunity to apply for the government grant for infrastructure projects in the region.

While Muswellbrook and Singleton Councils have received grants for road improvements and upgrade of a hospital emergency department, Upper Hunter MP George Souris said they did not receive an infrastructure grant application from the Newcastle Local Government Area.

“In case people ask the question – why was Newcastle not included? – it’s because Newcastle didn’t make any applications,” he said.

The government previously funded projects in Newcastle, Singleton, Muswellbrook, Cobar, Narrabri and Lithgow council areas.

Newcastle was deemed most “indirectly affected” by mining.

But Maitland, Cessnock and Lake Macquarie were overlooked.

According to the ABC, Labor Councillor Nautali Nelmes is calling for a public clarification on why the Council did not apply for the first round of Resources for Regions grant, which had $40 million on offer.

“We have a long wish list that has been developed with the community of projects and Newcastle Council keeps saying it doesn’t have any money to deliver these projects, as simple as footpaths in local areas,” she said.

“Then we don’t apply for huge amounts of grant funding? It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

She is particularly shocked by the news since local liberal MP Tim Owen toiled to ensure Newcastle qualified to apply for the grant.

“I think it’s shocking that we haven’t applied for any resources for region funding.

“After the state budget not having any money for projects like the Art Gallery, we had our local state member, a Liberal, urging us to apply for a resources for regions grant.

“That art gallery project could have gone ahead with only $7 million, that’s just one of the projects we should be applying for.”

Wollongong was found to be eligible for funding under the grant after it was found to be considerably “indirectly affected” by mining.

"Resources for Regions provides grants worth millions of dollars for communities experiencing unique direct and indirect pressures on their infrastructure and services as a result of mining activity," Deputy Premier and Minister for Regions Infrastructure Andrew Stoner said. 

Maudore mine-down plan interrupted as workers down tools

 Gold junior Maudore Minerals’ plan to place its advanced-stage Vezza project on care and maintenance has been delayed as its main contractor pulled its crews from the project earlier than planned, owing to a dispute over efforts to renegotiate contractual payment terms as work draws to a close.

Maudore in July said that the current low gold price environment and a new three-dimensional structural model of the Sleeping Giant deposit, in Quebec’s Abitibi greenstone belt, which it acquired through a subsidiary of North American Palladium in March, had prompted it to shift its focus from developing the Vezza project, to mining “multiple high-grade opportunities” within the existing mine environment at Sleeping Giant.

The company said it planned to finish mining and processing mineralised material at Vezza over the next several months while deploying a small workforce at Sleeping Giant to prepare the underground workings for exploration and remnant mining.

The shift in focus also entailed a 39% reduction in its current workforce.

Before the contractor downed tools, the planned development shutdown was progressing slightly ahead of schedule, but would now be slightly delayed until replacement workers had been selected.

This transition-mining plan included the migration from contract miners at Vezza to in-house mining crews to re-open the Sleeping Giant mine.

The company had already started an internal hiring process for underground miners to form core crews for the Sleeping Giant reopening.

“While overall industry pressures are up, we remain confident and are committed to our short-term plan to ramp up the Sleeping Giant mine as the Vezza project is ramped down to care and maintenance,” Maudore said in a statement on Wednesday.

Anglo American expands B.C. coal mine with eye on Asia

Anglo American PLC is expanding its northeastern B.C. mine, betting that the quality of the coal and the ease of transport to Asia will help the company win more contracts from steel makers in Japan, China and others in the region.

London-based Anglo American, one of the world’s largest mining companies, will make the expansion announcement Thursday at its operations near Tumbler Ridge, B.C., about 700 kilometres northeast of Vancouver.

The company has budgeted $50-million for the first phase of a $200-million, multiyear project to boost output of coking (or metallurgical) coal, a key ingredient in the production of steel.

Seamus French, head of Anglo American’s metallurgical coal division, said in an interview that its Tumbler Ridge coal is high quality, and that the rail line transporting it to the port of Prince Rupert for export is underutilized.

“We see fantastic long-term potential,” he said in an interview, adding that the mining expansion will provide employment security for the 420 Anglo American workers in B.C. as well as generate 100 construction jobs.

Mr. French and Mark Cutifani, an Australian who was appointed Anglo American’s chief executive officer in April, will be at the Roman mine site to unveil details of their company’s decision to ramp up production.

The expansion is occurring even though coking coal prices have plunged more than 50 per cent over the past two years, to $147 (U.S.) a tonne.

Current output of 1.5 million tonnes a year of metallurgical coal at the B.C. venture is expected to rise after the initial expansion is completed in the first quarter of 2014, clearing the way for a production rate of 2.5 million tonnes annually, Mr. French said. Total output may rise to as much as four million tonnes a year in subsequent phases.

Mr. Cutifani’s move to expand the company’s lone Canadian coal mine follows a series of setbacks over the past year in the global mining sector, which has been hard hit by sharp falls in prices for commodities, such as gold, silver and coal. Vancouver-based Teck Resources Ltd. decided three weeks ago to delay restarting its Quintette coal project, also located near Tumbler Ridge. Teck, which closed its Quintette operation in 2000, received provincial permit approval in June to revive the project. But Teck said on July 25 that it wants to see a recovery in the metallurgical coal market before proceeding with Quintette.

Anglo American has taken steps to avoid environmental and other hurdles that have stalled other large mining projects. In British Columbia, the company has committed to building a water management system to treat a metal-like element known as selenium. As well, it has pledged to set aside 1,852 hectares of its tenures to protect caribou habitat and contribute almost $2.6-million (Canadian) toward the Peace Northern caribou plan.

Anglo American also plans to award construction of the first phase of mine expansion to a firm owned by First Nations, and expects to sign economic benefit agreements with West Moberly First Nations and other native groups.

Steel manufacturers in Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan and India are among the customers that have been ordering metallurgical coal from Anglo American’s B.C. mine.

Anglo American, which wholly owns the B.C. project through its Peace River Coal Inc. subsidiary, also operates six coal mines in Australia.

Bill Bennett, B.C.’s minister of energy and mines, will be on hand for Thursday’s announcement at Anglo American’s Roman property site, which is near the company’s existing Trend mine. The Roman project will effectively be a 499-hectare expansion of the Trend mine, and help extend the life of the company’s coal mining operations in the region by 16 years.

SA coal prices rise on strike talk, higher demand

South African physical coal is trading higher than the equivalent European contract for the first time in six weeks, as unions in the world's fifth largest exporter declared a dispute over wages and buyers stocked up ahead of winter.

South Africa is a major supplier of coal to large developing economies China and India, and is expected to step up exports to Europe in the fourth quarter as part of a deal said to have been done by a trading house to ship 3.5-million tonnes to terminals in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp (ARA).

South African coal for September delivery settled at $74.50/t on Monday, compared with $74.10 for Colombian, US and Russian origin coal, wiping out a $5 premium for the European physical coal benchmark seen just two weeks ago.

South Africa's Business Day newspaper reported on Tuesday that talks between coal producers and unions had reached a stalemate, meaning the government was likely to mediate in the dispute over wages in an attempt to avoid costly strikes.

The country's Richard's Bay terminal handled 68.5-million tonnes of exports last year, mostly thermal coal, and a strike at its coal mines later this year could have a major impact on shipments, traders said.

Most of South Africa's export grade coal is produced by Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Glencore Xstrata.

"India in particular stepped up buying in recent months of South African coal as power stations needed more imports and took advantage of weaker prices," said one trader.

South Africa exports around a third of its thermal coal to India, where high grades are mixed with lower standard Indonesian coal to burn in big new power stations operated by companies including Adani Power, Reliance Power and Tata Power.

South Africa exported 6.2-million tonnes of coal in July, up from 5.3-million in June and 4.3-million in May, figures from the Richard's Bay terminal show.

INDIAN DEMAND

India, which is the world's second biggest importer of thermal coal, looks likely to step up demand in the coming months as an extra 12 gigawatts of coal-fired power is added to the grid in 2013, according to a forecast from Macquarie Bank.

The country's largest power company NTPC on Tuesday issued seven tenders to buy five-million tonnes of coal to make up for a shortfall in local supply.

Indian power companies are looking increasingly to imports to try and avoid a repeat of a huge a power cut in 2012 that was partly blamed on inadequate stocks of the fuel.

Prices for European physical coal have fallen around $3 since late July despite a three-week strike at U.S. coal miner Drummond's operations in Colombia, which has so far removed around 1.5-million tonnes from the market.

Plentiful supply from other producers in the Americas and Russia has avoided sustained tightness in prompt contracts, traders said.

However, ARA coal for November delivery is changing hands at a $2.60 premium as utilities book cargoes to stock up at a time power demand starts to rise sharply in the northern hemisphere.

Rio Tinto appeals decision to block coal mine expansion

Rio Tinto Group, the world’s second- largest mining company, said it began today an appeal against a decision to block a coal mine expansion in Australia’s New South Wales state.

“We are committed to doing everything we can to avoid the loss of production and associated jobs for our workforce of 1,300 people at Mount Thorley Warkworth mine and that is why we are proceeding with this appeal,” Harry Kenyon-Slaney, Rio’s energy chief executive, said in an e-mailed statement. “We’ve already spent close to four years trying to secure approval for this mine extension and it is unlikely the legal system can deliver an outcome in time to avoid impacts.”

London-based Rio’s plan to expand the coal mine in the Australian wine-growing region of Hunter Valley was rejected in April by a judge, overturning a government approval.

Coal & Allied Industries Ltd., a unit of Rio Tinto, planned to extend the operation’s life and expand the area the company is mining. Warkworth has a permit to operate the existing mine until 2021 and sought to extend it to 2031. The mine has a production capacity of 10 million metric tons of thermal coal, Rio said on its website.

Rio Tinto, which together with Mitsubishi Corp. bought out the minority holders in Coal & Allied in 2011 for A$1.53 billion ($1.4 billion), hired Deutsche Bank AG to help reduce its interest in the venture to as low as 51 percent from 80 percent, the Wall Street Journal reported April 3, citing unidentified people.

Lithuania: Klaipeda Port Unveils Capital Dredging Plan

The summarised activity results of the Ist half of 2013 demonstrated that investments of Port Authority to the port development constituted 233,612 million litas – this sum is not only a record sum comparing with other half year periods of the previous years, but also exceeds annual investment rates.

Up till now only the year of 2008 marked the largest amount of YEAR investments that constituted 166 million litas.

The Port Authority plans to invest 467 million litas (excluding VAT) within the period of 2013–2015. Private companies operating in the Port allocate annually more that twice larger sums for the Port development. Their contribution to the Port development, direct relations with cargo owners and consignors in line with competitive tariffs of cargo handling works guarantee the synergetic and efficient Port development process.

The income of Port Authority received from the port dues and port land lease constitute over 160 million litas per year. The total earned profit as well as loans received from EU support funds and banks constitute the overall share of State financing that is allocated to the development of Port infrastructure, construction of access roads and railways, capital dredging of Port waters‘ territory, implementation of Port security and safety tools and measures, development of the activity of Port Authority.

The Port is constantly making investments into the welfare of the town and its inhabitants allocating annually 5-8 million litas for construction and reconstruction of Klaipėda roads and financing of social projects.

„It is also worth to accentuate that the Port Authority is to carefully consider and evaluate the selected measures while making diverse investments as their purpose is to increase of the efficiency of the activity, to assure the largest benefit to State economics, society and Port Authority and create the conditions for successful activity and development of transport business sector, i.e. for the development of business that should both create new work places and, via the paid taxes, should return to full extent the finances invested by the State. Pursuant to the data submitted by „Ernst & Young“ 1 ton of cargo handled via the Seaport of Klaipėda in 2011 ensured 11,23 litas income to the State budget. On assessing the cargo handling results in 2011 it is possible to say that due to the infrastructure objects constructed by Port Authority and respectively to the increased cargo handling turnover the State budget received 411 million litas via diverse taxes“, said the director general Arvydas Vaitkus.