Новости за 21.06.2019

ASX-listed Silver Mines confirmed on Friday that the environmental impact statement (EIS) for its Bowdens silver project, in New South Wales, was in the final stages before being submitted for development consent to the New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment. The EIS affirms favourable outcomes including minimal impacts on surface water and groundwater and local economic benefits within the high unemployment jurisdiction that the project is in, while air quality and health parameters... Читать дальше...

Aim-listed Kefi Minerals on Friday reported that fieldwork had started at its Hawiah exploration licence, in Saudi Arabia. The fieldwork began with a modest cost but a potentially high-impact induced polarisation and resistivity geophysical survey aimed at better defining the large volcanogenic massive sulphide target for drilling.

Copper/gold developer Solgold traded 22% higher on the London Stock Exchange on Friday, following news that the Constitutional Court in Ecuador had dismissed a petition for a mining referendum that would have affected its Cascabel project. It is understood that the court rejected the petition on the basis of technicalities.

Aim-listed Premier African Minerals on Friday announced it has entered into a $350 000 loan and subscription agreement with Regent Mercantile Holdings. Should Premier fail to repay the loan in two equal payments on August 1 and September 1, Regent may convert any percentage of repayment into new Premier shares at a conversion price equal to 90% of the daily volume weighted average price.

ASX-listed Middle Island Resources (MDI) has extended the offer period for its off-market takeover offer to acquire 100% of fellow-listed Alto Metals to August 2. MDI first announced its intention to acquire all the Alto shares that it did not own on April 10.

TSX-V-listed Los Andes Copper has assembled a “highly experienced” team to take the Vizcachitas project, in Chile, to construction and, subsequently, production. The senior management team consists of executive chairperson Fernadno Porcile, Vizcachitas project director Manuel Matta, chief geologist Antony Amberg and corporate affairs and sustainability director Jose Letelie.

Toyota Tsusho, one of the world's biggest lithium producers, said on Friday it would take at least two more years to properly gauge the global electric vehicle (EV) market's direction before deciding whether to further expand supply. Over the next two to three years, major automakers would be introducing more electric cars, making EVs less of a fringe product, Masaharu Katayama, head of the company's strategic metals unit, told Reuters in an interview.

It has been a week of big news for coal projects in Australia with another long-gestating mine, Wallarah 2 in New South Wales, gaining a mining lease only days after construction of the much-delayed and -debated Carmichael mine, in Queensland, got under way. The New South Wales Minerals Council on Friday welcomed the granting of the mining lease for Wallarah 2, which is 82.2%-owned and -managed by coal miner Kores Australia.

ASX-listed Azure Minerals has received all regulatory approvals necessary for its planned mining operation at Oposura, Mexico, including openpit and underground mining permits, environmental clearances, explosives permits and surface land-use agreements. The fully-funded zinc/lead/silver project is expected to deliver early cash flow to the company, which will support the completion of the feasibility study, provide general working capital and assist in funding the development of the stand alone processing plant.

Coal miner MC Mining has signed a cooperation agreement with Haohua Energy International (HEI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Shanghai-listed Beijing Haohua Energy Resource Company, which is the largest exporter of anthracite coal from China. The parties had initially entered into a cooperation agreement in 2013, but the introduction of new shareholders during the last six years had resulted in HEI not maintaining the required 19.9% shareholding in MC Mining and the agreement subsequently lapsed.

TSX- and ASX-listed Champion Iron on Thursday announced positive results from its Phase 2 feasibility study for the Bloom Lake mining complex, in Quebec. The study envisioned further exploiting Bloom Lake, which would increase overall capacity from 7.4-million tonnes a year to 15-million tonnes a year of 66.2% iron-ore concentrate, for a 20-year mine life.

An updated ore reserve for the DeGrussa mine, in Western Australia, has extended the copper/gold operation’s mine life to mid-2022, ASX-listed Sandfire Resources reported on Friday. The company’s latest reserve and mineral resource update for DeGrussa includes the Conductor 1, Conductor 4 and Conductor 5 deposits, as well as the Monty mine.

The slogging hammer and wheel slogger from tools and equipment supplier BMG have been upgraded to provide operators with greater efficiency and improved safety when loosening and tightening bolts and nuts during maintenance on mining equipment. Productivity is significantly improved through the controlled and effective impact between the hammer and the spanner, resulting in minimal downtime when compared with other conventional methods, says BMG tools and equipment business unit manager Andrew Johns.

In Angola, 77 cooperatives have been authorised to explore and mine for diamonds, stated an official announcement at the end of last month. The authorisations were issued by the State-owned Endiama diamond mining company. (Endiama is an acronym; the full name of the company, translated into English, is the National Diamond Prospecting, Mining, Polishing and Commercialisation Company.)

Surface mining association Aspasa is encouraging suppliers, service providers and contractors, such as those in the materials handling and logistics sector, to become associate members of the association to meet the industry’s future challenges. Aspasa director Nico Pienaar stresses that this engagement will allow for the use of supplier and end-user expertise and assistance in the establishment of best practices, the training of members, advisory services and compliance, as well as aid government’s local-content drive under Mining Charter III.

The change in lubricants on brick manufacturer KuluCrete’s excavator at its Port Shepstone quarry, in KwaZulu-Natal, has resulted in significant cost savings and a notable decrease in lubrication quantities and applications. KuluCrete is a supplier of bricks, blocks, roof tiles, kerbing, pavers, river sand and crushed stone in southern KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. The company uses a turbocharged, air-to-air aftercooled hydraulic excavator at the quarry to remove raw materials and place them in crushers.

Since receiving an Autogate tailgate manufactured by specialised tailgate manufacturer Philippi-Hagenbuch (PHIL), aggregate business Caldwell Stone Company has reported an increase in productivity at its quarrying site. An upturn of between 12% and 15% in volumetric capacity on its haul truck has been noted allowing for a significant reduction in spillages and product losses.

Diversified industrial group thyssenkrupp has extensive experience in materials handling and minerals processing circuits, and the service support of its own manufactured equipment.  A fully owned subsidiary of thyssenkrupp, headquartered in Essen, Germany, thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions South Africa is able to respond to its clients’ needs and site-specific problems, as well as offers regular on-site inspections. In addition to attending to emergency break downs, the company also has the capacity to undertake turnkey shutdown... Читать дальше...

The mining industry in South Africa is continuing its transformation journey as it adjusts to the ever-increasing pace of the prevailing technological revolution, with the 100-plus-year-old industry, steeped in tradition and at times crisis, seeking out new ways of adapting to this era of change. The present transition sees the industry increasingly emerging with a dual role of stimulating the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and embedding 4IR initiatives into its own operations to reverse its current downward spiral.

Mining equipment maker Metso Minerals’ Metso hybrid truck body, and an expansion to the MX multi-action cone crusher series, the MX3, were launched in April at the Bauma trade fair held in Munich, Germany. The Metso truck body and improved MX3 are available in South Africa and Southern Africa through Metso’s Africa division.

The immense pressure to achieve production targets occasionally means that maintenance practices are difficult to implement in the mining industry and are often time based. Therefore, mines are looking for solutions to improve maintenance management, says Finnish industrial machinery company Metso Africa market area sales support VP Scott Pringle. “Our clients are looking for innovative ways to implement maintenance practices while they focus on their business – the mining and selling of the commodities they have extracted,” he emphasises.

US condition-based monitoring device supplier SpotSee is in the process of obtaining certification in Africa for its Wi-Fi radio, which enables its OpsWatch vibration monitoring system to stream condition-based data to central operations through a Web-hosted platform. The system can detect changes in vibration at an extremely low frequency (one hertz). As a result, SpotSee says, it is better able to identify potential problems with slow rotating equipment, compared with most products on the market.

As the world gears up for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, African mines are embracing real-time information management systems to plug the gap left by the shortage of competent maintenance supervisors and mining equipment operators, Mining Equipment Manufacturers of South Africa CEO Ossie Carstens tells Mining Weekly. “The explosive growth seen in mechanised mining in the past 30 years or so has led to the shortage of mining and engineering supervisors, as good artisans were quickly promoted to... Читать дальше...