GoldFields Archives - Industry Link Media Blog

November 4, 2022

What you missed in the news this week 4 Nov 2022

Rox Resources announced a 110% increase of production to 187koz Au since 2018.

The increase is at their Mt Fisher and Mt Eureka gold projects in the Eastern Goldfields.

Rio Tinto and BHP have joined forces to for research into technology to increase water recovery from mine tailings.

They are currently trialling a large-volume filter unit to remove up to 80% of water in the trailing stream before it is deposited in a storage facility.

Removing more water would reduce risks associated with moisture in storage facilities, reduce the foot print of these facilities and allow them to productively reuse tailings are raw material.

After unsuccessfully suing the Western Australian Government, Clive Palmer is trying again, planning to sue the Commonwealth for billions in damages over his stalled iron ore mine in the Pilbara.

Palmer plans to bring the claim under the international courts through his Singapore-based company Zeph International.

If Palmer is successful, tax payers can expect to foot the bill of upwards of $32B.

Classic Minerals has commenced construction on their new Kat Gap gold mine, south of Southern Cross.

Classic Minerals has begun building internal roads and clearing space for the camp but has yet to receive processing approval.

They are hoping to have stage 1 open-pit mining before the end of the year.

Swedish company, Epiroc, has agreed to acquire Kalgoorlie Boulder company, Remote Control Technologies Pty Ltd.

RCT was founded 50 years ago and provides automation solutions to mining companies.

RCT is the second Kalgoorlie Boulder company acquired by Epiroc this year, after their acquisition of JTMEC earlier in the year.

The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

MLG celebrates 20 years this week. The Kalgoorlie Boulder based company started with founder and managing director Murray Leahy and his truck to a business that services 29 sites across Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

S&P/ASX 200 peaked this week on Wednesday at 7,009.00 points, before taking a sharp fall to 2,849 points on Thursday. The markets rounded out the week at 6,893 points.

All Ordinaries followed suit this week, peaking on Wednesday at 7,194 points before plummeting to 7,015 points. The All Ords finished the week at 7,089 points.

Gold is sitting at $2,600.28oz t today, making a solid comeback from Tuesday’s fall. Gold is sitting at a similar position to how October started the month, with $2,567.36oz t on 3^rd October.

Silver finished off at $31.48oz t, finishing a little lower than yesterday’s $31.05oz t.

October 27, 2022October 27, 2022

Federal Budget Breakdown

The 2022 October Federal Budget has been announced. Here’s how the Goldfields and mining are affected.

The migration cap will increase 35,000 persons to 195,000 people in 2022-23. At least 90% of these 35,000 will be for skilled migrants and more than 25% will be targeted to regional areas.

This will ease labour shortages and include accelerating visa processing. Student and secondary training visa holders will have their work restrictions relaxed until 30 June 2023.

In an effort to transform regional industries to net zero by 2025, the Government will establish a $1.9B Powering the Regions Fund to transform Australia into a renewable energy superpower. $1.5B will be allocated to the Pilbara Region to support mining, mineral processing, and local manufacturing, and provide investment in hydrogen and renewable energy projects.

$500M Driving the Nation Fund will reduce transport emissions by installing electric charging infrastructure at 117 highway sites and hydrogen highways for key freight routes. Electric cars will be exempt from fringe benefits tax (FBT) and the 5% import tariff.

$350.0M will be dedicated to seal the Tanami Road between Norther Western Australia and the Northern Territory, $400M for the Alice Springs to Halls Creek Corridor upgrade and $125M for electric bus charging in Perth.

$757.7M will be allocated to improving mobile and broadband connectivity in regional Australia. $7.4B will be invested to support regional development across Australia. The Growing Regions Program will support community groups, fund local projects such as libraries and regional airport upgrades. The Government will also dedicate $1.4B for local community, sport and infrastructure projects across Australia.

$143.3M will be provided over 4 years to support access to healthcare in rural and regional areas by investing in primary care services, training, workforce incentives and trials for innovative models of care.

A $50.5M Critical Minerals Research and Development Fund will invest in lithium, cobalt, manganese, titanium and rare earths to meet growing demands for batteries, electric vehicles and clean technology.

Multinational corporations will pay an extra $1B in tax with the crackdown on excessive deductions and profit-shifting to lower-taxing countries.

Individual taxpayers and businesses will also be targeted with the ATO cracking down on over-claiming deductions and incorrect reporting of income.

Due to high inflation and low wage growth, worker’s pay will effectively go backwards until 2024-25 when inflation is expected to return to 2-3%. Inflation is expected to peak at 7.75% in December.

The Better Regions Fund (BBRF) was the former Government’s regional grants program designed to deliver funding for regional infrastructure projects and community development activities. The Government scrapped the fund in the budget as they believe the fund wasn’t awarded based on merit and were favouring National Party electorates.

However, the budget includes a new national grants program.

Truck drivers will be hit with an extra 0.8 cents in tax for every litre of diesel they purchase. The Heavy Vehicle Road User Charge will increase from 26.4 cents/litre to 27.2cents/litre.

Consumer confidence continues to sit at a low, having peaked in 2021. The current figure is comparable to the start of the pandemic in 2020 and the Global Financial Crisis in 2008.

Source: Westpac-Melbourne Institute, MWM Research, October 2022

September 21, 2020September 21, 2020

Morning News Bites – September 21

1.62 million collected JobSeeker and Youth Allowance unemployment benefits in August. Perenti Global advises that Fitch Ratings has provided the company with a BB rating, Perenti is rated BB by Standard & Poor’s and Ba2 by Moody’s. Net Zero emissions by 2050 is achievable according to a road map set to be released this week by the Scot Morrison government.

Focus Minerals and Lithium Australia has ended its Coolgardie Rare Metals Venture for a group of tenements known as the “Nepean Group”. As part of the ending of the venture, the Coolgardie Rare Metals Venture is terminated and the parties mutually release each other from any and all associated claims and;Focus transfers Lepidolite Hill tenements P15/5739, P15/5574 and P15/5575 to Lithium Australia in exchange for the grant of a royalty equal to 20% of the statutory royalties payable the State of Western Australia in relation to those tenements.

An upgrade to the Adelong Gold Processing Plant in New South Wales is set to take place for 3D Resources after awarding a contract to Timora to provide specialised Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Management Services. 3D Resources Chairman Ian Hastings said “The Company is pleased with the progress since acquiring the Adelong Gold Project and this step to commence the upgrade of the plant is particularly significant. The Company has always aimed to recommence production as soon as possible and upgrading and reconfiguring the plant is one of the most important steps in that process The work and reviews to date have generated substantial understanding of the project which will drive the plant upgrades now underway.” The contract’s finalised plans include a recommendation to more than double the plant capacity with a view to initially improving the economies of scale during a single shift operation as well as providing the additional capacity for use as the increased resources are brought into the mining plan.

The maiden drilling intercepts at Mandilla – 20km south west of Kambalda WA, for Enterprise Metals have been released. The best initial aircore result of 4m @ 1.8g/t from 40 metres and was supported by anomalous gold and gold-indicators such as arsenic in the weathering profile. According to Enterprise Metals, The August drill program was confined to the eastern side of the highway and clear of the Kambalda-Esperance High Pressure Gas Pipeline and east of private land around the Mandilla homestead. 121 shallow vertical holes were drilled for a total of 2,408 metres.

A southern plunge at The Hub Deposit for NTM Gold has been detected at the Redcliffe Gold Project near Leonora in WA. The latest diamond drill hole testing the mineralisation down plunge at the Hub deposit has increased the vertical continuity of the high-grade material, returning: 7.5m @ 8.1 g/t Au from 405.6m, incl. 4.4m @ 12.2 g/t Au. Hole 20RDD004 is approximately 65m vertically above the first hole testing the southerly plunge, 20RDD003, which previously returned: 6.5m @ 7.0 g/t Au from 459m, incl. 2.5m @ 12.2 g/t Au. According to to NTM Gold Managing Director Andrew Muir “This latest intercept confirms and extends the mineralisation seen in the 20RDD003 and validates the presence of the southern plunge at Hub. The next few holes will continue to test the mineralisation and will provide a good insight into the dimensions of the high-grade mineralisation. The grades and widths intersected are excellent and highlight that the deposit has outstanding upside beyond the shallow high-grade oxide mineralisation.”

A diamond drill program is underway on Lake Lefroy with Lefroy Exploration and Joint Venture partner Goldfields. An update to the program, which commenced in July has been provided, with Lefroy Exploration Managing Director – Wade Johnson excited about a second drill rig being added. “The addition of a second drill rig and the commencement of diamond drilling in Lake Lefroy to accelerate exploration is exciting news. The multiple large regolith gold anomalies over a prospective stratigraphic rock package in the vast area of Lake Lefroy requires the drill-based commitment and experience that than GoldFields can bring. We are very supportive of the exploration methodology being undertaken by
our partner and keen to see the outcome from this phase of drilling” he said. The drilling program is part of a 9000m multi-target drilling program expected to be completed in October 2020 with results soon after.