Neometals and Sms Group announced a joint venture to recycle lithium ion batteries, NSW COVID-19 clusters increase concern as Victoria move into stage 4 lockdown.
A formal agreement has been reached between Neometals and SMS group called Primobius, which will commercialise Neometals’ proprietary lithium-ion battery recycling technology. This offers a unique and sustainable method for recovering valuable lithium, nickel, cobalt and other materials from spent and scrap electric vehicle and consumer electronic LiB’s. Recovered and refined product materials will be in a form that can be reused in the battery supply chain. Neometals Managing Director Chris Reed said, “We have a clear path to commercialise this Australian technology, developed by our technical team in Perth, to meet the needs of the burgeoning European lithium battery and EV makers.”
Redstone Resources Limited has presented its report for Q4 and FY20. This includes the successful completion and interpretation of results from the 2019 exploration West Musgrave Project, which has confirmed the significantly improved prospectivity for copper mineralisation across the project tenure.
Drilling has commenced at the Wild-viper Gold Project for Terrain Minerals Limited. This high-quality gold exploration tenement package located 76 km north of Leanora WA and is surrounded by historic gold deposits and is surprisingly under-explored and appears to be highly prospective. Negotiations are progressing, with plans to farm‐in up to 80% interest in privately owned Hannans South Gold Tailings Project, a large scale tailings gold facility, located on the historic Hannans South Gold Mill site in Kalgoorlie, WA.
Jindalee Resources announces the appointment of Mrs Karen Wellman as CEO, effective 12 October 2020. Mrs Wellman is a geologist with almost 20 years’ experience covering all aspects of the mining cycle from early stage exploration, production and mine geology, through to resource definition and estimation. Jindalee’s Chairman Mr Justin Mannolini has welcomed this appointment, saying “We are delighted to welcome Karen as Jindalee’s CEO. Karen’s industry and development experience will be of great value to the Company as we advance our portfolio of gold and nickel assets in Western Australia to further develop and expand our significant lithium resource base in the US.”
Drilling contract awarded for the Mt Stirling Gold Project for Torian Resources. Phase 1 drilling has proven that the Mt Stirling Project is emerging as a potentially large gold system with ore grade Au now intercepted over 100m below prior drilling and extends over 1,000m strike. This extends on assay results released in June of this year, which returned grades of up to: 4m @ 8.84 g/t (including 33.10 g/t over 1.0 m) and 24m @ 1.26 g/t (including 2.89 g/t over 7.0 m).
Blow out in the Federal Budget – WA and Mining holding it together. Gold reaches over $1870US/oz overnight and this is set to lift the market in open.
Northern Star Resources has announced its Quarterly activities report with a record 262,717oz of gold sold at an AISC of A$1,475/oz, which included the KCGM Operations. Regional exploration for Northern Star was largely suspended due to COVID-19 and this affected Jundee/Yandal, Kanowna, Pogo and South Kalgoorlie, however at Paradigm a short surface RC resource definition drilling program was completed. The Pogo operations were affected by 36 COVID-19 cases and Northern Star expects Pogo volumes to remain around the levels seen in the June quarter, equal to ~25% lower than would otherwise be the case. Northern Star’s A$10M Community COVID-19 fund has provided significant funding to assist local health services, communities and businesses in the areas Northern Star operate. The option to acquire Newmont’s Power Business has lapsed and as such multiple future power options for KCGM now being explored. Executive Chairman of Northern Star Resources Bill Beament, said “Our quarterly sales of 262,717oz was not only a record, but also very solid given the imposts stemming from the COVID-19 measures we moved quickly to put in place,” When speaking about Pogo, Mr Beament said “Pogo sold 50,251oz in a quarter during which we managed 36 cases of COVID-19, We now have a strong insight into the impact of the virus on Pogo and it is clear that this asset will continue to produce at about 75 per cent of its potential while the virus remains in Alaska. However, the 18-month transition to long-hole stoping is finished and the benefits of this new mining method are being reflected in the results, albeit somewhat restricted by COVID-19″ Northern Star is also looking to reduce its hedging to increase margins and free cashflow. On July 16, Northern Star paid a fully franked interim dividend of 7.5cps.
Essential Metals (previously Pioneer Resources) has announced drill intercepts at its Cade deposit at the Dome North lithium project. A thick shallow high-grade intercept of 21m at 1.79% Li2O was discovered from recent RC Drilling. Essential Metals Managing Director, Tim Spencer, said “The outstanding shallow intercept of 21m @ 1.79% Li2O shows the Cade Deposit contains high lithia grades near surface, while drilling across the project has identified a number of other prospective areas for follow-up. The metallurgical test work is important for us to understand the best development route for the Dome North Lithium Project. The test work completed so far bodes well for achieving good recoveries in a DMS-flotation process route and we await completion of the second phase of test work to see if this is the case.” The Dome North project targets a 20 km strike length around 130km south from Kalgoorlie Boulder.
Copper production of 25,041 tonnes exceeded guidance for Aeris Resources as the company recorded a June quarter production of 6,672 tonnes which is a 10% increase on the previous quarter. The Acquisition of the Cracow Gold Operations was completed on July 1 which has a FY21 gold production guidance of 70,000oz – 75,000oz. with the first Aeris gold poured in early July. The copper production guidance at Tritton Copper Operations for FY2021 is between 23,500 tonnes and 24,500 tonnes. According to the company, there is cash and receivables of $69.4m at quarter end.
Record operating cash flow of A$352M, net mine cash flow A$225M and free cash flow A$188M has been reported by Evolution Mining as a June quarter highlight. Evolution produced group gold production increased to 218,104 ounces at an ASIC of A$1,088 per ounce. A breakdown of some highlights includes Cowal produced 60,594oz at an AISC of A$941/oz generating net mine cash flow of A$59.3 million. Ernest Henry produced 28,183oz at an AISC of A$(617)/oz generating record net mine cash flow of A$68.3 million. Mungari produced 37,178oz at an AISC of A$1,089/oz generating record net mine cash flow of A$39.8 million and Mt Rawdon produced 25,982oz at an AISC of A$1,305/oz generating record net mine cash flow of A$32.3 million The acquisition of the high-grade, long-life Red Lake gold mine in Ontario, Canada has added 27,428 ounces at an AISC of A$1,943 per ounce. A maiden Underground Ore Reserve and updated Mineral Resource at Cowal was made with a Maiden Underground Ore Reserve of 804koz and Mineral Resource increased to 2.9Moz Evolution Executive Chairman, Jake Klein, said: “This outstanding outcome has resulted in the potential to bring forward first production of higher-grade ore from the Cowal underground which will provide a step change to the operation’s production profile. Importantly, the Maiden Underground Ore Reserve is only a starting point on which to build on in the coming years. Our work at Cowal continues to demonstrate that this is a world class mineral system.”
Wrapping out a big day for gold operators as part fo the Morning News Bites June quarterly updates, Newcrest has released its figures for the quarter. There was a record annualised mined ore and mill throughput for the quarter at Cadia, which has been a top producer in Australia as reported by Surbiton Associates. Gold production was 7% higher for the quarter for Newcrest, Cadia again the shining light with a 21% increase in gold production compared to the prior quarter. Newcrest Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Sandeep Biswas, said “Newcrest has safely delivered a strong fourth quarter enabling us to meet our Group gold production guidance for the year, notwithstanding the challenges of addressing the risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Cadia exceeded the top end of its production guidance range and achieved record annualised mine and mill throughput rates in the quarter, further highlighting the strength of this world-class asset.”
Job support for Australians extended at a reduced rate, Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan says mining companies need to stop relying on FIFO and face mask purchases restricted at major supermarket chains.
Downer EDI is starting trade in July 21 in a trading halt as an acquisition is on the cards. The company made the announcement about the acquisition and fully underwritten accelerated non-renounceable entitlement offer of ordinary shares on a pro-rata basis to existing eligible shareholders of the Company. The trading halt is expected to last until the earlier of either the Company making an announcement to the ASX in relation to completion of the institutional component of the Entitlement Offer or the commencement of trading on Wednesday, 22 July 2020.
BHP has released is quarterly report with Iron Ore in Western Australia achieving record production. Increased petroleum production at Bass Strait due to higher seasonal demand, partially offset by lower volumes at Atlantis due to planned maintenance and preparation work for Phase 3 project commissioning, and lower demand in Trinidad and Tobago was the difference in Mar – Jun Qtr reports. Other highlights included Olympic Dam completing a quarter of higher production due to improved operating sustainability, Higher volumes at Queensland Coal including record production at Poitrel mine and higher nickel volumes due to the ramping of full capacity at the Kwinana refinery and Kalgoorlie smelter during the prior quarter. BHP Chief Executive Officer, Mike Henry also commentated on the impact of COVID19 in its operations “BHP safely delivered a strong operational performance in the 2020 financial year, achieving record production in a number of our operations, and an improved cost base. This performance, achieved in the face of COVID-19 and other challenges, is a result of the outstanding effort of our people and the support of our communities, governments, customers and suppliers. We have sought to support those who rely on BHP through the pandemic with increased hiring, shorter payment terms for small, local and indigenous suppliers, support for contract workers and community funding for health and social services” He said. “We expect to continue to generate solid cash flow through the cycle and we remain confident in the outlook for demand for our products over the medium to long-term. We continue to focus on becoming even safer, delivering exceptional operational performance, maintaining disciplined capital allocation, creating and securing more options in future facing commodities and building social value. We have learned new ways of working, both internally and with others, through the COVID-19 pandemic. We will seek to embed these in a way that helps to reinforce these priorities.” according to Mr Henry.
An expanded drilling program for Gateway Mining is set to be undertaken after a $7m capital raising. Gateway are set to embark on a program of 5,000m of Reverse Circulation (RC) and 10,000m of air-core (AC) drilling to be completed at priority targets around the Montague Dome. CEO at Gateway Mining Peter Langworthy commented on the drill program by saying “We have positioned the Company to the point we can effectively accelerate our drilling programs to unlock the true potential of what we believe to be an emerging large-scale gold system. Having sufficient funding in place means that we can maintain a fast pace of drilling activity, with drill programs set to be maintained continuously right through to the end of the year and into 2021.” “The current program of RC drilling is making excellent progress and already approaching the halfway point of the expanded 4,500m of drilling. This will be followed by one of our biggest programs of air-core drilling to date, before we embark on what will be a crucial program of RC and diamond drilling through to the end of the year.” he said
Silver Lake Resources – Rothsay Mine (pic via Silver Lake Resources LinkedIn)
Quarterly group production was a record 71,291 ounces gold and 494 tonnes copper with sales of 64,593 ounces gold and 416 tones copper at a sales price of A$2,300/oz and AISC of A$1,344/oz for SilverLake Resources. Mount Monger mining camp produced 45,333 ounces and 42,331 ounces recovered, of this 38,017 ounces were sold at an AISC of A$1,471/oz with record annual sales from Randalls of 154,900 ounces at an AISC of A$1,414/oz. Deflector has a record quarterly gold production of 28,960 ounces and 494 tonnes of copper with record annual gold production of 104,376 ounces gold and 2,356 tonnes copper. Average mill grades at Deflector were also higher for the quarter. Meanwhile the Box Cut for Rothsay has commenced this month as significant approvals progress has taken place with mining camp and occupation taking place on July 1.
Image Resources has reported a strong quarter at its high-grade, zircon-rich Boonanarring mineral sands project, located 80km north of Perth. Image has increase to production in the June quarter of 83kt, on pace with guidance Heavy Minerals Concentrate sales increased substantially quarter on quarter to 65kt and sales volumes are expected to further increase in the second half to achieve guidance. Managing Director and CEO of Image Resources Patrick Mutz said “In the first half of 2020 Image has demonstrated strong operational performance with production of 167kt Heavy Mineral Concentrate, despite the significant adjustments to daily work practices aimed at minimising the potential spread of COVID-19. The June quarter represents a turning point for our sales volumes which were up sharply from the prior quarter. It was therefore particularly pleasing, subsequent to period end, to receive a sales agreement with our off-take partners for 100kt of HMC to be delivered over the next 3-5 months to monetise our HMC inventory, while keeping open the opportunity to sell additional material to others outside of the off-take agreements. The Company remains in a very strong position to achieve our original guidance and we have a strong balance sheet, solid underlying assets and exciting opportunities for future growth.” he said.
