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Uranerz Delivers First Nichols Ranch Uranium to Utilities
Uranerz Energy has delivered the first drums of U3O8 produced from its whollyowned Nichols Ranch in-situ recovery uranium project in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. The shipment of approximately 36,000 lb was received in early September at ConverDyn’s Metropolis Works in Metropolis, Illinois, for subsequent transfer to one of the company’s utility customers. The delivery was made under one of Uranerz’s longterm sales contracts. The company expected to make a second shipment before the end of September...... read
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US Steel Receives Approval to Expand Minntac Mine Area
U.S. Steel announced in mid-September that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has granted the final necessary federal permits for expansion of the taconite mining area at the company’s Minntac operations at Mountain Iron, Minnesota. The mine expansion project had received the necessary state permits earlier this year. As a result, the Minntac mining operations will be expanded by 483 acres, adding 16 years of mine life and ensuring the long-term competitiveness of the operation. Approximately 100 jobs are being created as a result of the project.... read more
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Fluor Gets $1.3B Fort Hills Utilities Contract
Fluor Corp. has been awarded an engineering, procurement, fabrication and construction contract by Fort Hills Energy L.P. for the utilities scope of the Fort Hills oil sands mining project. The project is located about 90 km north of Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada. Fluor booked the contract for $1.3 billion in the third quarter of 2014. Jim Brittain, president of Fluor’s Energy & Chemicals business for the Americas region, said, "Fluor will apply our unique modular.... read
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Fresnillo Buys Penmont Interest From Newmont for $450 Million
Fresnillo and Newmont Mining announced an agreement in mid-September whereby Fresnillo would acquire Newmont’s 44% interest in their Penmont joint venture in Sonora, Mexico, for $450 million in cash. Fresnillo is 56% owner and operator of the joint venture. Assets included in the agreement are the Herradura, Noche Buena, and Soledad- Dipolos open-pit, heap-leach, Merrill Crowe mines; the Mega Centauro…… read
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Grupo Mexico Dealing with Spill at Buenavista del Cobre
Grupo Mexico spent much of August and September responding to issues created by an August 6 spill of 40,000 m 3 of acidic copper sulfate solution from its Buenavista del Cobre mine into the Bacanuchi River in Sonora state, Mexico. The Bacanuchi is a tributary to the Sonora River, which was also contaminated. Grupo Mexico established a $151 million trust fund to pay for cleanup and was working to overcome the impact of…. read more
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| AROUND THE
WORLD - Australasia |
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Frieda River Partners Update Project Development Concept
The joint-venture partners in the Frieda River copper-gold project in Papua New Guinea (PanAust. 80%/Highlands Pacific, 20%) released an updated development concept that will form the basis for a project feasibility study. The study will focus on a basecase assumption of average production of 125,000 metric tons per year (mt/y) of copper and 200,000 oz/y of gold in concentrate. Total life-of-mine mill feed is estimated at 600 million…. read
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Poseidon Buying Norilsk Lake Johnston Nickel Mines
Poseidon Nickel has agreed to acquire Norilsk Nickel’s Lake Johnston nickel mines and associated infrastructure in Western Australia for A$1 million. The Lake Johnston property encompasses the Maggie Hays and Emily Ann underground mines and a concentrator and has been on care and maintenance since April 2013. Poseidon’s acquisition of the property is in addition to its purchase of the Black Swan nickel mine from Norilsk, announced on July 7, (E&MJ, August 2014, p. 16). Black Swan is also in Western Australia …. read
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Amulsar Output Projected at 205K Oz/y Gold for Lydian
Lydian International has announced positive results of an updated feasibility study of its 100% owned Amulsar gold project in southern Armenia. The study proposes development of a large-scale, low-cost, open-pit, heap-leach operation that would produce an average of 205,000 oz/y of gold over a mine life of 10.4 years. Initial capital costs to develop the project are estimated at $426 million, and allin sustaining production costs are estimated at $701/oz. The Amulsar property is located 115 km southwest of Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan and covers an area….
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Didipio’s Underground Development Plan Rescheduled
OceanaGold Corp. has announced preliminary results from an ongoing optimization study of its Didipio gold-copper operations on Luzon island in the Philippines. Oceana currently operates an open-pit mine and concentrator at Didipio that produced 45,266 oz of gold and 11,185 mt of copper in concentrate during the first half of 2014. Development of an underground mine has been an integral part of Oceana’s planning for future Didipio operations, and the…. read
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Ivanhoe Finalizes BEE Participation in Platreef
Ivanhoe mines has transferred a combined 26% interest in its Platreef project on the Northern Limb of South Africa’s Bushveld Complex to a black economic empowerment (BEE) structure, fulfilling requirements for the company’s Mining Right application. Ivanhoe is planning a multiphased development of a large, mechanized, underground mine at Platreef. A preliminary economic assessment released in March estimated that a base-case operation mining 8 million…. read more
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Allana Potash Awards Danakhil FEED Contract to AMEC Americas
Allana Potash has engaged AMEC Americas to complete Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) on its 1-million-metric-tonper- year (mt/y) Danakhil muriate of potash project in Ethiopia in anticipation of completion of project financing and expected start of construction. AMEC’s work will be undertaken primarily by its Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, office and is estimated to take about six months to complete. The work will include design of process, maintenance, and service buildings; conveyance to and from the ponds; product……
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Luminant Completes Dragline Relocation Project
Luminant recently relocated four draglines more than 30 miles in total to new mining areas across east and central Texas using a state-of-the-art 1,000-wheel vehicle. Nearly 60 self-propelled modular transporters, trailers powered by up to nine 600-hp engines, were used to move the draglines—the smallest weighing 6 million lb and the two largest weighing 13 million lb each. This engineering achievement was no small feat, according to Steve Kopenitz, Luminant senior vice president of mining …. read more
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BHP Retrenches More Australian Miners
Officials at BHP Billiton have announced the layoff of 700 workers at its central Queensland coal operations, amid a slackening market; the BHP Billiton-Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) runs seven mines in the Bowen Basin. The job losses will "deliver further cost reductions and productivity improvements and remain viable for the long-term," company representatives said in a statement; the joint venture is one of the largest exporters of met coal…. read more
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Alpha Builds LNG Facility to Fuel Wyoming Haul Trucks
Plum Energy will construct a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant for Alpha Natural Resources on property adjacent to Alpha Coal West’s Eagle Butte mine, near Gillette, Wyoming, USA. The Plum Energy facility will supply LNG for the mine’s haul trucks. LNG is attractive from a price point when compared to the cost of conventional diesel fuel. "This project not only will reduce fuel costs for Alpha Coal West, but will also help solidify supply lines for other LNG users in the Powder River Basin," said Kirt Montague, CEO of Plum Energy…. read
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Probe Mines Ltd. announced that Jamie Sokalsky has been appointed as a director of the company. Sokalsky will be appointed as the non-executive chairman of the board of directors upon the retirement of Patrick Reid, current chairman. Sokalsky was president and CEO of Barrick Gold from June 2012 to September 2014. John Haflidson has been retained as senior mining advisor to work in developing the Borden Gold project.
OZ Minerals appointed Andrew Cole as the new managing director and CEO. Cole joins the company from Rio Tinto, where he has enjoyed a successful career over 22 years.
Uranium Energy Corp. appointed Scott Melbye as executive vice president. Prior to this, he spent 22 years with the Cameco Group of companies, both in the Saskatoon head office and with their U.S. subsidiaries. He last served as president of Cameco Inc.
Freeport-McMoRan appointed Mike Kendrick president- Climax Molybdenum Co. Kendrick has been with Freeport-McMoRan since 1997, and in 2009, moved to his current role of vice president-operational improvement, Freeport-McMoRan Mining Co. He will succeed Dave Thornton, who retired after 36 years.
Pershing Gold Corp. announced that Timothy M. Janke joined the company as COO. He was formerly COO for AuEx Ventures Inc. where he was responsible for operations planning and development of the Long Canyon project.
Sundance Resources announced that George Jones will retire as chairman at the end of November. Jones will be succeeded by former chief executive of Leighton Holdings, Wal King, who was appointed to the Sundance Board as non-executive deputy chairman in May.
ADX Energy announced that Paul Fink is stepping down as executive technical director to become a non-executive director.
Columbia Steel announced that Tony Miotke has accepted the position of dragline product engineering manager. Miotke joined Columbia Steel in 1999, having previously served as lead engineer for dragline products.
