Month: February 2020

Mining services provider Pit N Portal has now officially merged with Emeco. A deal that was previously announced but confirmed today.

According to Emeco Managing Director and CEO Mr Ian Testrow “Pit N Portal has a highly complementary business model which provides a comprehensive hard rock underground equipment services offering and more than doubles our gold exposure. Diversifying our range of value added services is also exciting, as we become more embedded with our customers and secure longer tenured contracts”.

In a LinkedIn post Managing Director Steve Versteegen said

“We are very pleased to advise that we completed the merger with Emeco today and we are now officially part of the Emeco family. As a company, we are excited about the opportunities that this merger will bring and confident that the combined company will accelerate the growth of the Pit N Portal business”

Fellow Pit N Portal Director Ian Barnard will be leaving after 17 ½ years.

Emeco today also issued 4,830,918 fully paid ordinary shares to the vendors as part of the deal.

Lynas Corporation has announced a new three-year operating license in Malaysia which will take its operation to March 2023. There are however some key conditions placed on the license and these include:

1. Lynas to begin the process of developing the Permanent Disposal Facility within the first year from the date of the approved license.
2. Lynas must submit a work development plan for the construction of the Permanent Disposal Facility and report on its development status as determined by the Malaysian Atomic Energy Licensing board
3. Lynas must ensure that the Cracking and Leaching plant outside Malaysia is in operation before July 2023. After that period, Lynas will no longer be allowed to import raw materials containing Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material into Malaysia.
4. Holding of the financial deposit will be maintained for compliance with the relevant license conditions.

As part of the licence conditions,  the commitment to a Kalgoorlie Boulder facility is further strengthened. Lynas Corporation CEO and Managing Director Amanda Lacaze said “We also confirm our commitment to develop our Cracking and Leaching facility in Kalgoorlie Western Australia. We thank the Australian Government, The Government of Japan, The Government of Western Australia and the City of Kalgoorlie Boulder for their ongoing support of our Kalgoorlie Project.” Ms Lacaze also thanked the ALEB (Malaysian Atomic Energy Licensing Board) for its decision to renew the operating license for Lynas for three years.

 

A former advisor to President Nelson Mandela, a key author of twenty one books and a previous Principal Economist at the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) has been announced as the Diggers and Dealers key note speaker for 2020. Professor Ian Goldin.

Professor Goldin specialises in economics and has numerous credentials on the world economic stage. After a start in Africa, Professor Goldin lectures at Oxford, Harvard and Tsinghua Universities as well as providing advisory and consultancy services to thirty leading companies.

His recent speaking engagements include the opening keynote at Google Zeitgeist, the Microsoft CEO Forum and TED. For the past twenty one years he has provided keynotes at the World Economic Forum meetings in Davos.

Adding to an impressive list of achievements, Professor Goldin also was a previous Vice President of the World Bank

 

His key note at Diggers and Dealers in 2020 is sure to be thought provoking and insightful.

 

Gold is on a run. But the ASX has plunged. The ASX dropped around 2.25% points on Monday trade. The ASX S&P 200 closed at6978.3. While the energy and travel sectors were hit, gold grew. Spot prices for gold sit at 1686.80 us/oz at 17:35 WST ($2556.60/oz)

Saracen Minerals rose 7.4%, Newcrest Mining 5% and Resolute Mining 5.5%. According to Commsec, 93% of stocks on the ASX 200 fell today, while 8 of the 14 that improved were gold miners due to the safe haven buying.

Wall Street is expecting trade to be negative when it opens for Monday Feb 24 trade.

Local shares were at record highs last week and showed improvement for the last three consecutive weeks

Newmont is set to invest around $150 Million in a new fleet of CAT 793F autonomous trucks for its Boddington Operation in Western Australia. As well as a new fleet, a number of exisiting trucks will be converted to an autonomous haulage system. This is set to be the first use of the technology in a gold application and paves the way for the extension to mine life and improved efficiencies. Newmont Board of Directors unanimously approved the investment which is set to be in operation in 2021.

“Not only does Boddington continue to deliver strong performance, our investment in autonomous haul trucks will generate an internal rate of return greater than 35 percent with a more controlled and efficient haulage operation,” said Tom Palmer, President and Chief Executive Officer.

According to WesTrac CEO Jarvas Croome, WesTrac are looking forward to the ability to be part of this initiative. “We are excited to be part of the Boddington project and to partner with Caterpillar to deliver ground breaking equipment solutions to support Newmont in this first installation for the gold industry,” he said.

WesTrac who are partnering with Newmont, recently announced building a world leading autonomous training facility in Collie, Western Australia. The Collie Autonomous Training Facility will support customers across Western Australia as well as up skilling existing employees in the new technology.

Boddington mine produced 167,000oz in the September quarter and was the second highest gold producer after the Cadia mine in New South Wales.

Minister for Mines and Petroleum Hon Bill Johnston, has opened Round 21 of the Exploration Incentive Scheme in Fremantle. The scheme provides $5 million a year to encourage innovative drilling in greenfields and under-explored areas of the State.

Explorers can receive a refund of up to 50 per cent for innovative drilling projects, with caps of $150,000 (multi-hole project), $200,000 (single deep hole), and $30,000 for prospectors. There were 41 successful applicants for the last Round of the EIS and over $4.93 Million for drilling projects in 2020. Most of the projects were located in the Eastern Goldfields for nickel and gold projects.

“Last year, there was a significant shift in the focus of explorers in Round 20, with about a third of applicants searching for battery commodities such as nickel, cobalt, vanadium and lithium. The EIS helps keep Western Australia as the leading jurisdiction for mining and exploration, with many discoveries resulting in new mines and creating new jobs for Western Australians.” the Minister said.

Applications are open until March 27, 2020. Further details are located at www.dmirs.wa.gov.au

 

 

GBF Group, which has recently been acquired by Macmahon Holdings Limited (ASX:MAH), has received a conditional letter of intent from Silver Lake Resources (ASX:SLR) to continue work at its Mount Monger Gold operation. The deal is worth around $200 million.

Macmahon has been operating at Mount Monger since 2014 and also provides mining services to the Daisy Milano Complex, Cock-eyed Bob and Maxwells operations. GBF’s tenure will be extended until March 2023 as part of the intended deal.

Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Macmahon Michael Finnegan was pleased to receive the letter from Silver Lake “The new work is an important milestone in our strategy to further expand in the underground market, and demonstrates the value in our GBF acquisition” he said.

The Silver Lake Macmahon relationship will further be entrenched with the new Santa mine starting development in March 2020. The negotiation and finalisation of the deal is expected to be completed in March.

 

In the glow of a new joint partnership between Saracen Minerals and Northern Star Resources, KCGM has announced a new General Manager.

Kous Kirsten started in the role from Monday February 17 and has replaced Ben Wessely. The decision of Mr Kirsten was made by the KCGM JV Executive Committee which members are from both Saracen and Northern Star.

“This is an exciting time for KCGM and Kalgoorlie Boulder. KCGM is 100% WA owned for the first time in 30 years. We are wholly-focused on continued safe production, realising future growth opportunities and creating shared value with the local community, and our Joint Venture owners” Mr Kirsten said.

Mr Kirsten has experience in open pit and underground mining and processing in Australia and Africa and thanked former GM Ben Wessely for his guidance and transitional support.

The remnants of ex Tropical Cyclone Damien is being experienced across the Goldfields and Salt Lakes Districts.

Main Roads has issued a warning to motorists to exercise caution travelling the Goldfields Highway north of Kalgoorlie. The road is open, but floodways may have water across them. DFES has issued a warning to prepare for flooding for people in the Salt Lakes Districts.

Goldfields Hwy CAUTION between Wiluna and Kalgoorlie due to flooding https://t.co/BFeSPm6hYk #waroads

— Main Roads WA (@WA_Roads) February 11, 2020

Rainfall figures to 9am February 11 show:

Yuono Downs – 45.8mm

Credo Station – 18mm

Coolgardie 17mm

Leinster 15.4mm

While Kalgoorlie Boulder received its highest 24 hour reading since June 8 2019 with 15.2mm.

 

For further info on the areas affected:

Emergency.wa.gov.au

Main Roads Travel Map or call 138 138

Bureau of Meteorology