Asia Miner Magazine.july Edition(Page 56)

July/August 2011 | Volume 8 | Issue 4 | Industry Technical Information | 矿业技术信息

ASIA AT THE CORE 亚洲为核心

Philippines in focus • Nickel shines • German technology goes global 聚焦菲律宾 • 镍矿闪耀光芒 • 德国技术走向全球

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FEATURESGerman technology Germany’s mining equipment manufacturers are responding to a new surge in demand

for high technology as the key to higher production and greater efficiency ............................................62

Grinding Mills Xstrata Technology’s IsaMills are keeping up with new technology by taking on a number

of new fine and coarse grinding tasks in a wide variety of ore types ......................................................63

LEADING DEVELOPMENTSAsian Intelligence Direct Nickel’s new processing technology is set to unlock the global treasure trove of

nickel laterite deposits ........................................................................................................................... 4

Legally Speaking Consolidation among stock exchanges is at an unprecedented level in a commodity-

fuelled race to become the premium global minerals exchange. ...........................................................58

Exploration Augur Resources has intersected broad gold-copper zones at Wonogiri ..........................76

AROUND THE REGIONPhilippines Mindoro Resources has encountered strong nickel assays at the Bolobolo target ................8

China The acquisition of a dolomite quarry is another important step for China Magnesium.................20

Mongolia The country’s currency, the Tugrik, is heading north, just like its mining industry ....................26

Indonesia PT Inco is building a nickel processing facility in Central Sulawesi ........................................32

Laos SARCO has signed an EPC agreement with China’s NFC for an alumina refinery .........................36

Cambodia A new stock exchange is set to open in the kingdom during July. ........................................38

Vietnam Olympus Pacific’s Phuoc Son processing plant is ramping up to full capacity .........................39

Malaysia Monument Mining is seeking to purchase the Mengapur Polymetallic Project ........................40

Papua New Guinea Resource Mining is using innovative techniques at Wowo Gap Nickel Project ......42

Central Asia Stans Energy has completed its acquisition of a heavy rare earths processing facility ......46

South Pacific Lion One Metals has recorded bonanza gold results at the Tuvatu project in Fiji ...................50

Australia Surveys have confirmed sulphide anomalies at Global Nickel’s Mt Cornell project........................52

DEPARTMENTS

Advertisers’ Index ........................................75

Calendar of Events ....................................57

From the Editor ............................................2

Product News ............................................68

Subscription Form ......................................75

Supplier News ............................................72

Crazy Horse Resources geologists examinecore samples from the Taysan Copper-Goldproject in southern Luzon, the Philippines.Drilling by the Canadian-based company ,which has six rigs in operation, continues toextend mineralization. An independent r e-search study has found that T aysan is ex-pected to be a major driver of employmentand contribute about 1% to the nation’s GDP.

Photo courtesy Crazy Horse Resources.

July/August 2011 | ASIA Miner | 1

Acoje heap leach trial .........................................10 New energy technology for China........................22 Southern Oyu Tolgoi pre-strip...............................28

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Steel (Group) Co (TISCO) to jointly developthe project. Previously, the investment andoperation of the Dagon project was solely incharge of China Nickel Industry Co, a subsi-diary of China Nonferrous.

It became the first concr ete cooperativeproject following the signing of a strategicagreement by the two companies in March2010. China Nonferrous general managerLuo Tao said that the cooperation wouldserve as an example of friendly cooperationbetween central enterprises and local enter-prises. The agr eement grants TISCO ac-cess to a stable, r eliable and low-coststrategic supply chain of the nickel r e-source, thereby enhancing its control overresources and increasing the competitive-ness of stainless steel.

Nickel, the most important raw material forstainless steel production, accounts for morethan 70% of the total pr oduction costs forstainless steel. TISCO, the par ent companyof Taigang Stainless Steel, is the largest stain-less steel producer in China.

The Dagon Nickel Project includes excava-ting and smelting ores, and is the biggest co-operation between China and Myanmar inthe mining field. The pr oject is estimated tocontain more than 30 million tonnes of highgrade nickel ore for at least 700,000 contai-ned tonnes of nickel.

缅甸镍矿项目准备就绪

中国有色矿业集团公司在缅甸投资建设的达

贡山镍矿开采、冶炼项目预计于7月份投入试运行。该项目服务年限为20年，其产能可达到年产85万吨镍铁，其中含纯镍2.2万吨。试运行在达贡山镍矿项目的一号矿石冶炼

炉完工之后启动。该冶炼炉长32米，宽9米，高6.3米达贡山镍矿项目的建设工作始于2009年，中国有色矿业集团公司共投资8.2亿美元。去年该公司与太原钢铁（集团）有限公司（TISCO）签署了一份合作协议，共同开发这个项目。在此之前，达贡山

项目的投资和运营由中国有色的子公司中国

镍业公司单独负责。

2010年3月份中国有色矿业集团公司和太原钢铁（集团）有限公司签署了战略合作协

议之后，该项目成为双方第一个具体的合作

项目。中国有色矿业集团公司总经理罗涛表

示，这两家企业的合作可以作为央企和地方

企业友好合作的典范。通过合作协议，太原

钢铁获得了稳定、可靠、廉价的镍矿资源战

略供应链，从而使其对于资源的控制得到加

强，并且提高了其不锈钢产品的竞争力。

镍是不锈钢产品中最重要的原料，它的价格

占到了不锈钢产品总成本的70%。作为太钢不

锈钢股份有限公司的母公司，太原钢铁（集

团）有限公司是中国最大的不锈钢生产商。

达贡山镍矿项目包括矿石的开采和冶炼，

它也是中国和缅甸在采矿领域最大的合作项

目。据估计，该项目拥有3000万吨高品位镍矿石，含镍至少达到70万吨。已在香港上市的中国有色今年的目标为盈

利20亿元人民币以上，销售额1000亿元，有色金属产品销量超过100万吨。该公司目前控制的有色金属资源超过2000万吨，铝土矿3亿吨。该公司共拥有14座矿，5个冶炼厂，一个经济合作开发区，并有四家企业

在海外上市。

Drill grant for nickel projectVENTNOR Resources has been awarded adrilling grant by the Western Australian StateGovernment to expand its drilling program atthe Warrawanda Nickel Pr oject in. TheAus$100,000 grant is part of the Co-FundingIndustry Drilling Program under the State’sExploration Initiative Scheme (EIS).

The Warrawanda Nickel Project in WesternAustralia is about 40km south of Newmanand is accessed from the sealed Great North-ern Highway by unsealed formed tracks.Anaconda Nickel explored Warrawanda fornickel-cobalt laterite deposits in 1996 and1997. Work included air-photo interpretation,

airborne magnetic surveys, geological map-ping, gridding, RAB, AC and RC drilling andmetallurgical test work.

The work included 86 vertical RAB holestotalling 1488 metres, with an average depthof 17.3 metres as well as 46 vertical RC holestotalling 930 metres with an average depth of17.8 metres. Holes were drilled at 50 to 100metre intervals on 500 and 1000 metre trav-erses in selected areas. Further drilling wasundertaken along strike from the ultramaficwithin the surrounding area.

In total, about 17km of the strike length of theultramafic has been tested. W arwick Re-sources, now Atlas Iron, pegged Warrawandaand took chip samples at the surface, howevertheir focus switched to iron ore elsewhere andno further work was undertaken.

Warrawanda is in the Sylvania Inlier , anArchean granite-greenstone terrane in thePilbara region of Western Australia. Com-pared to the larger and historically mor eproductive Yilgarn and Pilbara Cratons, theSylvania Inlier has been relatively under re-searched and under explor ed. The majorknown economic or e occurrence is theCoobina chromite deposit, wher e about240,000 tonnes of chr ome ore are pro-duced annually from open pit mining.

The Warrawanda project of Ventnor Resources is in the south of Western Australia’s Pilbara region.

Asian Intelligence

6 | ASIA Miner | July/August 2011

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Philippines

THE final drillholes at Mindor o Resources’Bolobolo nickel target in the Surigao nickeldistrict of northeast Mindanao have returnedstrong assays of potential economic interest.The company is now utilizing the data obtai-ned from this drill program to estimate indi-cated resources.

A total of 497 holes for 5200 metr es havebeen completed from the proposed 7000-10,000 metre program systematically testingregional nickel targets with the objective ofconverting a significant proportion of the Su-rigao regional exploration targets to r esour-ces. Drilling has been completed on a 50 x50 metre grid pattern at Bolobolo and Min-doro says this is suf ficient drilling density toenable estimation of indicated resources.

Best results from the final 52 holes and 433samples are: 13.75 metres from surface @1.36% nickel, including 12 metres from 1.75metres in saprolite @ 1.42%; 12.1 metr esfrom surface @ 1.12%; 9.4 metres from sur-face @ 1.18%, including 5.8 metres from 3.6metres in saprolite @ 1.37%; and 9.95 metresfrom 1.3 metre @ 1.2%, including 4.7 metresfrom 11.25 metres in saprolite @ 1.46%.

The company is carrying out a final topo-graphic survey at Bolobolo before producinga resource estimate while drilling has now

moved to the Agata South ar ea. A previousarrangement with a Philippines company ,Delta Earthmoving, has been r e-negotiated,allowing Mindoro to resume control of theproject in exchange for a gross 1% royalty onfuture production.

Mindoro has NI 43-101 mineral r esourceestimates on its Agata Nickel-Cobalt Projectin Surigao, that include a measured and in-dicated resource of 32.6 million tonnes @1.04% nickel for 340,000 tonnes containednickel. It recently released an integrated pre-liminary economic assessment (PEA) onAgata and has started a pre-feasibility studyinto an integrated on site nickel pr ocessingproject based on the PEA. It is also asses-sing the potential to develop a thermally pro-cessed (upgraded) nickel or e operation togenerate early cashflow.

The company’s president and CEO JonDugdale told delegates at the China NickelConference that Mindoro sees very str onggrowth in Chinese and other (eg Indian) stain-less steel production. Up to 80% of nickelconsumption is in stainless steel production.“Primary nickel supply has not come onstream as forecast and the ‘gap’ in supply isbeing met, just, by nickel pig iron productionin China. Nickel pig iron is produced from di-

rect shipping or e (DSO) laterite sour cedmainly from the Philippines, Indonesia andNew Caledonia. However, there is a tr endaway from DSO in these countries in favourof value added processing.

“Mindoro is very well placed to take advan-tage of the continued strong demand for nik-kel products, with a focus on two stages ofvalue-added processing, a building nickel re-source and a high-quality deposit in terms ofsize potential, location and outstanding me-tallurgical characteristics.”

Second nickel plant on scheduleCONSTRUCTION by Nickel Asia Corp of thePhilippines’ second hydrometallurgical nickelprocessing plant, located adjacent to thecompany’s Taganito mining operations in Su-rigao del Norte, is pr oceeding on schedulewith plant commissioning expected in mid-2013. Nickel Asia has a 22.5% stake in thenew project, while Japan’s Sumitomo MetalMining has a 55% stake. The new plant willuse high pressure acid leach technology toprocess limonite or low grade nickel ore.

Taganito Mining Corp, a subsidiary of NickelAsia, will supply all of the required nickel oreto the plant over an estimated 30 year projectlife. The output, a mixed nickel cobalt sul-phide, will be bought by Sumitomo for finalprocessing at its refinery in Japan.

The new plant is considered particularly be-neficial to the country because of the valueadded created, the jobs and the for eign ex-change earnings. During construction, theproject will employ 4000 workers. When ope-rations start in 2013, ther e will be 1000 fulltime employees.

The country’s existing nickel pr ocessingplant is under Coral Bay Nickel Corporation,a joint venture between Sumitomo and RioTuba Nickel Mining Corporation, another Nik-kel Asia subsidiary.

Nickel Asia has a majority stake in six miningoperations throughout the Philippines, inclu-ding Taganito, Cagdianao, South Dinagat, Tag-anaan and Rio Tuba, and ships its output toJapan and China. The company has a 10%equity interest in the Coral Bay HPAL facility atRio Tuba. The oldest of the mine sites, RioTuba has been operating for mor e than 30years. The sixth mining project on Manicani Is-land is under care and maintenance.


STRONG NICKEL ASSAYS AT BOLOBOLO TARGET

Sampling nickel laterite from Mindoro Resources’ Agata Nickel-Cobalt Project.



Philippines

Nickel Asia expects that a very healthy start to 2011 in terms of salesand net income will be sustained for the rest of the year owing to he-althy nickel prices and better production. President and chief execu-tive officer Gerard Brimo says all indications point to higher nickelprices and a higher sales volume as well as demand for nickel ore re-maining strong. “While the ferronickel plant of our main buyer of sa-prolite ore Pacific Metals Co (Pamco) was affected by the earthquakeand tsunami in Japan, the damage is not substantial and the plant isexpected to restart operations in the third quarter. In the meantime,we agreed with Pamco to divert shipments of ore to other buyers, soour sales volumes for the year will not be affected by this tragic event.”

During the first quarter of 2011 Nickel Asia shipped ore worth PHP1.97 billion, an increase of PHP 996 million on the corresponding pe-riod of 2010. The Rio Tuba mine shipped 396,000 wet metric tonnes(wmt) of saprolite ore and 826,000 wmt of limonite ore, while the Tag-anito mine shipped 203,000 wmt of saprolite ore. The other two ope-rating mines, Hinatuan and Cagdianao in north-easter n Mindanao,started shipments of saprolite and limonite ore in April.

Acoje trial continuesTHE heap leach trial at Eur opean Nickel’s Acoje project on LuzonIsland is continuing with the two heaps being operated in closedcircuit mode in order to increase metal concentrations. By Augustthe high concentration of pr egnant leach solution (PLS) fr om theheaps will be fed to the hydrometallurgical recovery plant which isbeing configured on site.

This plant will test the company’ s enhanced metals recovery pro-cess flow-sheet and will produce separate nickel hydroxide and cobalthydroxide products. Once the leach cycle is complete the stack willbe rinsed, neutralized and rehabilitated.

Irrigation of heap 1 began in April. This heap consists of about 2000tonnes of agglomerated nickel laterite ore stacked on a 33 metre by18 metre pad to a height of 4 metres. Irrigation is with diluted sulphuricacid using a network of drippers and wobblers in combination in orderto test the best delivery method.

PLS production occurred very rapidly with breakthrough occurringwithin 12 hours of the start of irrigation. This shows that the stackingand agglomeration of heap 1 was successful and that acid solution isable to percolate through the heap freely. The PLS, which consists ofdissolved metals in acid, then flowed freely to the PLS pond.

During May/June the company agglomerated and stacked heap 2,which sits adjacent to heap 1 on the heap leach pad, in order to testthe combining of the primary and secondary phases of heap leaching.

The trial pads are also designed to test rain mitigation techniquesand have a combination of HDPE raincoats on the sides of the heap,which also improve slope stability, and a layer of r ocky saprolite oreon top to protect the heap surface.

The trial results at the heap leach trial site will be used in the bank-able feasibility study (BFS) which is under way at Acoje. The recruit-ment of key personnel and consultants for fast-tracking of the BFSis on track with selection of the owner’s team study manager andproject engineer completed.The nickel facilities in the Rio Tuba area.

Irrigation of heap one at European Nickel’s heap leach trial site at the Acoje project.



Philippines

Meanwhile, Philippine company DMCI con-tinues to mine and stockpile dir ect shippingore in preparation for shipments fr om theirport in Santa Cruz. DMCI is undertaking allthe financial risk, operations and marketingassociated with the mining and sale of thenickel laterite ore and pays European Nickela royalty fee on each shipment.

Tampakan partners confidentPARTNERS involved in the massive TampakanCopper-Gold Project are determined to main-tain the schedule of beginning mine develop-ment in 2012 and commer cial production by2016 despite delays caused by a r egional re-gulation banning open-pit mining. Local ope-rator Sagittarius Mines and its overseaspartners Xstrata Copper and Indophil Resour-ces are confident that Pr esident BenignoAquino III will take charge of resolving the issue.

The $5.9-billion project, said to cover thelargest undeveloped copper-gold deposit inSouth East Asia, has been described as ha-ving the potential to be the largest mine in thePhilippines and the fifth-largest copper minein the world by 2016. It is pr ojected to add1% to Philippines’ gr oss domestic productannually after 2016.

Last year, the South Cotabato regional go-vernment passed a new environmental codebanning open-pit mining, a move that hascaused consternation to the Tampakan con-sortium as well as other mining and quarryoperators in this region of Mindanao.

While confident of positive national go-vernment intervention, Sagittarius has alsorecently started forwarding to local officialsan environment impact study (EIS) which islikely to be a key to overtur ning the miningban covering the site. Feedback fr om theconsultations will be used to finalize the stu-dy’s draft before it is ultimately submitted tothe national government.

The study identifies the potential envir on-mental and social impacts of the pr oposedmining operation as well as the strategies ofSagittarius to mitigate such. It details the po-tential impact on water r esources such ascontamination due to discharge from the pro-ject site, generation of tailings and waste rockand clearing of rainforests. The company pro-poses mitigation measures such as putting inplace a water management system which in-volves treatment of all mine water prior to re-lease from the site as well as having storagefor waste rock and tailings, and a plan forclearing procedures.

Xstrata Copper’s Tampakan general mana-ger Andrew Pickford told those attending aPhilippines-Australia Business Council mee-ting in Sydney in mid-June that he expects toAquino administration to resolve the issue be-fore the consortium makes a decision on theproject next year.

He said EIS consultations would take 3-6months, after which Sagittarius would lodge anapplication to get an environmental compliancecertificate. It then hopes to get a declaration ofmining feasibility from the national government.

Philippines trade secretary Gregory L Do-mingo told the Sydney forum that the Presidenthad vowed to directly tackle the dispute. Healso said that the gover nment is on track tostart bidding out infrastructure contracts in thecountry this month.

Indophil, which holds a 37.5% stake in themine, will r etain its stake after San MiguelCorp decided to let go of an exclusive periodto launch a takeover bid. The company’s vicepresident Gavan Collery says it has raisedfunds to cover its involvement up to 2012.“We’re hell-bent on maintaining direct and ac-tive interest in the project through the com-mitment stage and on to development.”

Didipio construction startsCONSTRUCTION has started at OceanaGold’sDidipio copper/gold project with commissio-ning of the process plant scheduled to start inthe fourth quarter of 2012. The project has esti-mated gold reserves of 1.68 million ounces andcopper reserves of 229 million tonnes.

The processing plant will start operation at anannual capacity of 2.5 million tonnes and willramp up to 3.5 million tonnes by the end of thesecond year. Didipio will pr oduce an annualaverage of 100,000 ounces of gold and 14,000tonnes of copper. During the first six years of a16-year life of mine, annual gold production willremain at around 100,000 ounces, but copperproduction will increase to about 18,000 ton-nes over the same period.

Ausenco has the contract to complete the en-gineering design and procurement with mem-bers of OceanaGold’s construction and projectmanagement team working alongside the Aus-enco team in Australia to oversee the project.

Didipio is estimated to cost $185 million todevelop, with ar ound $12 million alr eadyspent to date. The project will be transforma-tional for ASX and TSX listed OceanaGold,according to managing dir ector and CEOMick Wilkes, and would give the company aplatform to expand further into the Philippinesand throughout the Asia Pacific.

“During the past six months, we have beenworking hard to unlock significant valuethrough adjustments to the design of themine, process plant and infrastructure, whichhas seen annual gold production increase by45% and annual copper production increaseby 69% over the life of the mine.”

Mining will be undertaken in six stages overa 14-year period, taking the open pit down270 metres to the valley floor. The maximumplanned annual mining rate is estimated ataround 24-million tonnes.

An aerial view of the proposed layout at OceanaGold’s Didipio project.




Philippines

The access to the underground area througha decline from the side of the open pit is expec-ted to start in 2016, with underground produc-tion planned for 2020 and ramping up to 1.2million tonnes a year by 2023. The under -ground mining is expected to take place for atleast six years of the mine’s life and will run con-currently with the open pit operation.

OceanaGold also has the Macraes goldfieldin Otago, in the south of New Zealand’s SouthIsland, which is made up of the Macraesopen pit and Frasers undergr ound mines. Italso operates the Reefton open-pit mine onthe west coast of the South Island and cur -rently produced around 270,000 ounces an-nually from these two operations.

Taysan mineralization extendedDRILLING by Crazy Horse Resour ces conti-nues to extend mineralization at the T aysanCopper-Gold Project in southern Luzon. Thedeposit remains open and feasibility drilling con-tinues with six diamond drill rigs in operation.

One hole returned and intersection of 426metres from 40 metres @ 0.23% copper, 0.10grams/tonne gold and 0.52 grams/tonne silver,including 52 metres from 254 metres @ 0.35%copper, 0.18 grams/tonne gold and 0.90grams/tonne silver. The same hole also extendsthe resource to depth with 52 metres from 598metres @ 0.14% copper , 0.05 grams/tonnegold and 0.66 grams/tonne silver . This is 80metres below the previously known base of ore.

Another hole also continued to confirm theexistence of deeper ore zones with an inter-section of 10 metr es from 664 metr es @0.28% copper, 0.06 grams/tonne gold, and0.52 grams/tonne silver while another holecontinued to confirm the existence of signi-ficant silver grades associated with the cop-per-gold resource.

Crazy Horse’s president and CEO JohanRaadsma says, “The ongoing positive r esultsfurther substantiate the Taysan deposit as a re-liable, predictable and growing deposit. Persi-stent silver grades ar e fantastic and we willfurther these toward a compliant resource.”

Taysan contains a copper -gold porphyrydeposit with an inferred resource, and is com-prised of two mining exploration permits andthree mining exploration permit applicationsover five contiguous claim blocks covering atotal area of 11,254 hectares. Taysan is in awell-developed mining province and readilyaccessible by road, being 20km east of theprovincial capital and deep water commercial

port of Batangas City. The company is con-ducting a confirmatory scoping study, whichremains on track and on schedule.

A recent independent research study ana-lysed the expected positive economic impactof construction and initial pr oduction fromTaysan on both a regional and national level.The key findings demonstrate that Taysan isexpected to be a major driver of employmentand contribute about 1% to national GDP.

Johan Raadsma says, “W e have workedvery hard on our social licence to operate inthe Province of Batangas and ar e excitedabout the report’s findings that r esponsiblemining development will be a viable tool forpoverty alleviation, education, positive econo-mic impact while providing a return to share-holders and gover nment alike. W e lookforward to working closely with the Local Go-vernment Units in monitoring and impr ovingon the key indicators r elated to the socio-economic well being of the community.”

The report followed receipt of a formal r e-solution of support to develop the pr ojectfrom the Provincial Board of Batangas and aformal resolution of appreciation from the Tay-san Municipal Council.

The company has also executed a bindingasset sale and purchase agreement with a pri-vate Philippines company, to acquire its 15.94hectare port facility in Batangas. The port is onthe southern end of Batangas Bay and adjoinsthe Shell Malampayan onshore gas plant.

Strong Tambis potentialA DETAILED mapping program by Medusa Mi-ning’s Philippines operating company PhilsagaMining has highlighted the excellent r egionalpotential of the Tambis tenement, which inclu-des the Bananghilig gold deposit. Medusa be-lieves there is excellent potential for additionaldiscoveries of breccia-hosted, epithermal veinsand quartz stockwork gold mineralization wit-hin a large intrusive-breccia complex mappedover an area measuring about 7km by 3kmalong a well defined north-easterly tr endingstructural and alteration corridor.

New outcrops of porphyry and related stylesof copper mineralization have also been locatedat the Sawahon Creek prospect, at the lowerBananghilig River prospect, and southwest ofthe Bananghilig deposit in the extensive skar narea which is associated with the fertile cop-per-bearing Supon diorite and the adjacentKamarangan porphyry copper -molybdenumprospect. Drilling is continuing with six drillingrigs at Bananghilig. Medusa’s managing direc-tor Geoff Davis says, “This ongoing mappinghas significantly enhanced the regional potentialof the Tambis District. We see strong similaritieswith the Wafi Golpu Project in Papua New Gui-nea with respect to the regional setting, rocktypes, mineralization styles and potential.

“In addition there are many similarities to therichly mineralized Baguio District north of Ma-nila which has produced about 28 million oun-ces of gold and 2.8 million tonnes of copper.”

Drilling at Crazy Horse Resources’ Taysan Copper-Gold Project in southern Luzon.




Philippines

The Tambis Project is operated under a mi-ning agreement with Philex Gold Philippinesover a granted mineral pr oduction sharingagreement (MPSA) which covers 6262 hec-tares. In addition the company is ear ning a70% interest in a joint ventur e through MRLGold Phils with Apical Mining Corporationwhich covers an adjacent MPSA applicationwith an area of 2084 hectares.

The Tambis district is in the regionally exten-sive Eastern Mindanao volcano-plutonic arc,an area with known pr ecious metals andbase-metals mines, deposits and occurr en-ces. This metallogenic r egion is one of themost significant epithermal and porphyrycopper districts in the Philippines, includinggold and copper-gold deposits at Diwalwal,Co-O, Kingking, Amacan, Masara, Boyon-gan, Bayugo, Siana and Placer.

Meanwhile, at Medusa’s operating Co-OGold Project permitting is progressing for anexpansion in annual production capacity to200,000 ounces. The construction time forthe new plant after the necessary r egulatoryapprovals are granted is estimated at about21 months, and the full benefits of the expan-sion are expected to be r ealized from mid-2013. Medusa has contracted Ar ccon (WA)for the process engineering, plant design andconstruction supervision.

Dilong EPA cancelledPHILIPPINE Metals continues to engagewith the Philippine gover nment Mines andGeosciences Bureau (MGB) regarding can-cellation of its exploration permit application(EPA) for the Dilong copper-gold project. Thecompany believes that the EPA has not been

cancelled legally and is confident it will bereinstated in due course.

Since the date of local elections in Tubo, Abra,last October, the company has accelerated itsconstructive efforts to work with the new localgovernment and community leaders to gaintheir support for EPA at Dilong. Negotiationswith the rightful indigenous peoples to acquir efree and prior informed consent (FPIC) havebeen initiated and ar e progressing positively,and consultation with the Local Gover nmentUnit’s Sanggunian has been ongoing, both ofwhich are key aspects of the EPA process.

However, as a result of the MGB’s ‘use itor lose it policy’, which it has taken steps to

enforce, the company earlier this year recei-ved formal notification fr om the MGB thatthe Dilong EPA has been cancelled. Thecompany believes that it has not been can-celled legally and is in discussions with theMGB to resolve this matter.

It has filed with the MGB central of fice theappropriate objection notice, supported bydocumentation already filed with the MGB re-gional office which demonstrates that thecompany has been actively pr ogressing itspermit application and complying with all r e-quirements set by the gover nment. In addi-tion, the company notes that in its case, theMGB appears not to have observed its ‘three-letter-policy’ of notification in exacting com-pliance in respect of its Dilong EPA.

The company stresses that it is supportiveof the MGB’s efforts to drive r eform in thePhilippines mining industry and will continueto engage with and support the gover nmentin its efforts to implement its reform program.

Meanwhile, Craig Lindsay has agr eed tojoin the company’s Board of Directors repla-cing Lou Clinton who has resigned his posi-tion as a director to pursue other inter ests.Craig Lindsay has more than 20 years’ ex-perience in corporate finance, investmentbanking and business development in NorthAmerica and Asia and is currently presidentand CEO of Otis Gold Corp and managingdirector of Arbutus Gr ove Capital Corp, aprivate company offering corporate financeand merchant banking services.

A schematic cross section of Medusa Mining’s Tambis tenement.

A massive sulphide outcrop at one of Philippine Metals’ properties.


Masbate 10 tonnes milestoneAFTER achieving the milestone of pouring 10tonnes of gold from its Masbate Gold Project,CGA Mining is continuing to forge ahead byupgrading the process plant and undertakingan aggressive US$10 million exploration pro-gram. When complete the upgrading will en-able the plant to annually process 6.5 milliontonnes while the exploration program is focu-sed on the conversion of additional resourcesto reserves and delineating new reserve andresource ounces.

Masbate is the largest gold pr oject in thePhilippines and was successfully developedwith first gold poured in May 2009. The pro-ject has a total indicated r esource base of153.41 million tonnes @ 0.92 grams/tonnefor 4.55 million ounces, total inferr ed re-source base of 127.15 million tonnes @ 0.79grams/tonne for 3.22 million ounces and a

probable reserve of 92.2 million tonnes @1.0 grams/tonne for 3.03 million ounces.

In its first year of operation the project produ-ced more than 150,000 ounces and is on trackto produce at an annual rate of mor e than200,000 ounces. The existing 4 million tonneplant was constructed by Leighton ContractorsAsia without one lost time injury . The miningcontract for Masbate was awarded to Leighton,the largest mining contractor in the world.

Recent drilling has returned high grade in-tercepts at Libra East, which is immediatelyadjacent to the Main Vein Pit. An extensionof highly mineralized quartz veining has alsobeen identified immediately to the north ofthe planned Colorado pit.

Highlights of the drilling include 6 metres @1.34 grams/tonne gold from 149 metres, 9metres @ 1.55 grams/tonne from 169 metres,14 metres @ 2.25 grams/tonne fr om 131 metres, 30 metres @ 1.57 grams/tonne from92 metres, 7 metr es @ 7.11 grams/tonnefrom 4 metr es, 32 metr es @ 1.98 grams/tonne from 74 metres and 17 metres @ 1.90grams/tonne from 167 metres.

The proposed Libra East pit forms the north-western end of the Main V ein Pit. The currentdesign is limited by drill data and not minerali-zation extents. Results point to the potential foradding additional resources at Libra East.

The Grandview pit forms the northern part ofthe main Colorado pit. Recent exploration dril-ling 300 metres to the NNW of Grandview hasintersected a mineralized quartz vein-stock-work system which appears to be an exten-sion of the mineralization curr ently being

mined. Further drilling, including scissor holes,is planned for this area.

A 41-hole program of resource infill drillingis also being conducted in the planned MainVein Pit targeting the inferr ed section of 4major veins within the Binstar zone as well asthe Main Vein zone itself.

CGA has recently spun out its African assetsin Ratel Group and also holds a 23% interest inSt Augustine Gold and Copper, which is earninga 60% interest in the world class King-king Cop-per-Gold Porphyry Project in the Philippines.

Major drilling at T’BoliA MAJOR undergr ound drilling pr ogram isunder way at Cadan Resour ces’ T’Boli Gold-

Silver Project in a bid to expand the r esourceenvelope and to upgrade existing resource ca-tegories. The first hole of this pr ogram has in-tersected a number of mineralized zones andone of these zones displayed visible free gold.

This program is advancing at the same timeas underground development of T’Boli. Thesouth crosscut from the advancing east declinehas partially penetrated the 40 metr e-wideSouth Vein alteration system with an initial 8.6metre section assaying 8.2 grams/tonne gold.

Other development drive sampling returns in-clude 1.25 metres @ 134.0 grams/tonne gold,2.1 metres @ 6.1 grams/tonne, 1.7 metr es @28.1 grams/tonne, 1.6 metr es @ 12.7grams/tonne, 1.0 metres @ 21.5 grams/tonneand 1.85 metres @ 14.5 grams/tonne.

Old records show that further individual veinswill be intersected as the cr osscut completelyexposes the 40 metre width of the South Veinalteration system. A poorly documented butprospective alteration system is known to existsome 70 metres further south. This system willbe tested with the underground drilling.

Resource definition drilling at the T agpuraporphyry skarn on Cadan’s Comval projectcontinues to produce strong assays, inclu-ding 77 metres from 2 metres @ 1.26% cop-per and 0.42 grams/tonne gold.

This drilling is within the zone which has apotential tonnage of 10 to 15 million tonnes.The completion of this drilling program, toget-her with previous drilling and open pit benchsampling, provide a database of suf ficientdensity to allow the upgrading of the potentialtonnage to a measured resource.

Other recent results include 21 metres from 4metres @ 1.59% copper and 0.4 grams/tonnegold, 106 metres from surface @ 0.65% cop-per, 98 metres from 2 metres @ 0.32% copper,69 metres from 2 metres @ 0.30% copper, and34 metres from 4 metres @ 0.41% copper.

Drilling completed to date, combined withopen pit bench sampling has defined a mas-sive magnetite - chalcopyrite/chalcocite skarnstrike length of 350 metres. Surface mappingof magnetite has extended the strike lengthsome 300 metres to the south while r ecentdrill site preparation has uncovered minerali-zation 100 metres to the north.

A number of other skar ns have been map-ped and new discoveries ar e ongoing. Thetotal skarn potential associated with the largetonnage porphyry copper deposits is yet to bedetermined. Multiples of announced skarn po-tential is a realistic expectation. Drilling of thelarge tonnage porphyry potential is ongoing.

A view over the processing facilities at CGA Mining’s Masbate project on Masbate Island.


Philippines



WASABI Energy’s exclusive Chinese licenseehas begun construction of a state-of-the-artKalina Cycle Laboratory and Testing Facility inShanghai. The facility has been designed to as-sist in testing major components as well as theassembled power generation system for theKalina Cycle system.

The facility, scheduled to begin operations laterthis year, is being built by Shanghai ShengheNew Energy Resources Science & TechnologyCo (SSNE) and is expected to play a pivotal rolein the implementation of Kalina Cycle technologyin China. This technology enables the generationof power fr om geothermal and waste heatsources. The dedicated facility has been de-signed to assist in the testing of major compo-nents including 1:1 scale heat exchangers andturbine assembly as well as a full factory testingcapability for the Kalina Cycle system with ratedpower outputs of up to 5200 kW. It will also in-corporate a Kalina Cycle power plant simulatorto assist in identifying process refinements andproviding operator training.

SSNE is a developer of waste heat, geother -mal and solar thermal power plants, specificallyfocused on delivering thermal power plant ef fi-ciency improvements. SSNE is experienced in adiverse range of energy intensive industries inChina and has assembled a team capable ofdelivering Kalina Cycle projects.

The new facility will not only assist SSNE indelivering Kalina Cycle power plants to themarket in China but will also assist Wasabi inthe manufacturing, assembly and factorytesting of Kalina Cycle systems for its globalbusiness. Following its acquisition of GlobalGeothermal Ltd, Australian-based W asabihas continued to r oll out the technologythroughout the world, including Pakistan,Japan, Taiwan and Iceland. Wasabi’s execu-tive chairman John Byr ne says, “Recentglobal events including the earthquake inJapan demonstrate the power generation,transmission and energy security challengeseven developed economies are experiencingand reinforces the importance of decentral-ized power generation.

“The two Kalina Cycle power plants operat-ing in Japan - at the Kashima Steel W orks ofSumitomo Metals and at the T okyo Bay OilRefinery of Fuji Oil - provide a practical demon-stration of how the technology can provide in-dependent power while reducing the energyintensity of heavy industry. In addition to thewaste heat to power applications, the twoEco-Gen Kalina Cycle units soon to be in-stalled at two hot spring sites in Japan, providea template for how reliable power generationcan be achieved independently fr om estab-lished national power networks.

“In collaboration with Taiwan’s Bureau ofEnergy, SSNE recently conducted a success-ful Kalina Cycle power plant field demonstra-tion in Taiwan which was well r eceived byindustry groups and is expected to result in anumber of commercial scale opportunities.

“In terms of building our Kalina Cycle busi-ness, we continue to develop multiple projectswith recurring revenue streams by dir ectlyowning interests in power plants through ourbuild-own-operate model. We took our firststeps in this strategy with acquisition of theHusavik Geothermal Power Plant in Icelandearlier this year and ar e evaluating a numberof other significant opportunities.”

能源技术服务中国

瓦萨比能源有限公司（Wasabi Energy）的中国唯一授权方开始在上海建造一座顶级的

卡琳娜循环实验室和测试设备。该实验室被

设计用来帮助检测卡琳娜循环系统的主要部

件以及所集成的发电系统。

这座实验室由上海盛和新能源科技有限公

司（SSNE）负责建造，计划于今年晚些时候投入运行。它将对卡琳娜循环技术在中国

的发展起到至关重要的作用。该项技术能够

利用地热和废热进行发电。

实验室中的设备可用于检测卡琳娜循环

系统的主要部件，包括1:1换热器和涡轮装置，同时它拥有为额定输出功率高达5200千瓦的卡琳娜循环系统进行完整的工厂检

测的能力。实验室还包括一个卡琳娜循环发

电站模拟器，可帮助改进工艺以及训练操作

人员。

盛和新能源科技有限公司专业开发废热、

地热和太阳能发电，尤其注重帮助客户提高

热电厂生产效率。它在中国各类能源密集型

行业拥有丰富的经验，其团队有能力交付卡

琳娜循环项目。

这套新的设施不仅将帮助盛和新能源科

技有限公司向中国市场提供卡琳娜循环发

电站，同时也将协助瓦萨比公司在全球范

围内的生产、组装以及工厂测试卡琳娜循

环系统。

在收购全球地热有限公司后，总部位于

澳大利亚的瓦萨比公司在全球范围内不断

地推广其技术，公司业务遍及巴基斯坦、

日本、台湾和冰岛。瓦萨比公司执行董事

长John Byrne说：“包括日本地震在内的国际近期大事表明，即便是发达的经济大国

也正经历着发电、电力传输和能源安全方

面的挑战，分散型发电的重要意义显得更

为突出。”

China

NEW ENERGY TECHNOLOGY FOR CHINA

The Kalina Cycle plant of Wasabi Energy in operation at Sumitomo Metals’ Kashima Steel Works in Japan.

News 2_Layout 1 6/17/11 4:51 PM Page 18

“在日本运行的两个卡琳娜循环发电站分别位于住友金属公司的鹿岛钢厂和富士石油

公司的东京湾炼油厂，它们用实践展示了在

降低重工业单位产值能耗的同时如何通过技

术提供独立的电力。除了利用废热发电外，

还将在日本两个温泉安装两个Eco-Gen卡琳娜循环装置，作为样板展示这种独立于现有

国家电网之外的发电站的可靠性。”“盛和新能源科技有限公司最近与台湾能源局合作，在台湾成功地做了一次卡琳娜循

环发电站的现场演示，并得到业界的一致认

可，预计将带来一系列的商业化规模合作机

遇。”“在拓展卡琳娜循环业务方面，我们将通过建造——拥有——运营的BOO模式直接拥有发电厂的权益，继续开发能带来经常

性收入的各种项目。今年年初我们收购冰岛

的Husavik地热发电站就是实施这一战略的第一步，而且我们正在评估其它多个重要机

遇。”

China Magnesium quarry acquisitionCHINA Magnesium Corporation has taken an-other step along the path to become a large,low-cost, vertically integrated producer of puremagnesium and magnesium alloy, by signinga contract to exercise its option to acquir e adolomite quarry near its Pingyao magnesiumingot production plant in Shanxi Province.

The acquisition will progress the vertical in-tegration of the company’s supply chain fromdolomite supply through to magnesium andmagnesium alloy production. The quarry is atthe foot of T ianzhong Mountain and about30km from the production plant.

China Magnesium has a supply agr eementwith the quarry and all dolomite requirements ofits plant to date have been fulfilled by the quarry.The dolomite is transported by truck with twosealed alternative road routes for transport of thedolomite from the quarry gate to the plant.

Dolomite is, by volume, the largest raw ma-terial component of magnesium pr oductionand locking in supply through ownership of thequarry is important in the company’s aim to be-come one of the world’s largest, low cost pro-ducers of magnesium and magnesium alloy.

To exercise the acquisition option, the com-pany must pay RMB5 million (Aus$730,000)less the option fee of RMB300,000(Aus$44,000) paid at the time of entering theagreement in 2008. The pur chase is plannedto be funded from a mix of existing funds andfrom a Chinese bank debt facility which is beingnegotiated. Satisfying the conditions precedentand completion of the acquisition of the quarryis expected by the end of October 2011.

China Magnesium’s managing director TomBlackhurst says: “CMC is confident of its ex-isting supply chain for magnesium productionbut will continue to take opportunities to ver-tically integrate within the industry when theacquisitions make good economic sense.Dolomite is not a rare or complex raw mate-rial but it is fundamental for the production ofmagnesium, and control over supply require-ments is another positive for the company aswe progress our expansion plans.”

The company has started pr oduction ofpure magnesium following a recent upgradeof its existing ingot pr oduction plant. It be-lieves it has become the first Australian com-pany ever to produce commercial quantitiesof pure magnesium despite attempts by sev-eral other Australian companies in the past.

Commissioning of the plant has pr o-gressed as planned and initial production isat the annual rate of about 2000 tonnes ofpure magnesium. Around the clock produc-tion is now being carried out fr om the newfurnaces at the plant.

The existing plant upgrade and first phaseexpansion continue to proceed ahead of theplanned timetable and, as these develop-ments continue, magnesium alloying capabilitywill be added and annual capacity graduallyincreased to 20,000 tonnes.

中国镁业收购白云石采场

中国镁业有限公司签署了对白云石采场执行

期权收购的协议，该采场靠近公司位于山西

省的平遥镁锭厂，这是公司为成为一个大型

的、低成本的、纵向一体化的纯镁及镁合金

生厂商而采取的另一措施。

此次收购将促进公司供应链从白云石供应

到镁及镁合金生产的纵向一体化发展。该采

场位于天中山（音译）脚下，距离镁锭厂约

30公里。根据中国镁业与该采场之间达成的供货协

议，该采场满足镁锭厂所有的白云石需求。

白云石采用卡车运输，通过两条可供选择的

封闭路线从采场大门运输至镁锭厂。

从体积上来说，白云石是镁生产中最主要

的原材料成分，通过取得采石场的所有权进

而储备供应，这对公司成为世界上最大的低

成本镁及镁合金生厂商之一这一目标是至关

重要的。

根据期权收购协议，除去在2008年签署协议时已支付的30万元费用(约4.4万澳元)，公司必须支付500万元人民币(约73万澳元)。此次收购计划从已有的资金组合以及一个中

国银行债务机构筹资。公司预计在2011年10月底实现这些先决条件并完成对白云石采场的收购。

中国镁业的总经理Tom Blackhurst先生称：“中国镁业对公司镁产品现有的供应链很有信心，但仍将在并购带来良好的经济效

益时，抓住机遇在行业里进行纵向整合。虽

然白云石不是一种稀有的或者复杂的原材

料，但是对镁的生产来说，是必不可少的，

另外，控制供应需求是公司进行扩张计划的

另一个积极因素。”公司近期对现有镁锭厂进行改建后，已经

开始生产纯镁产品。即使一些其他的澳大利

亚公司在过去已经进行了尝试，相信公司依

然是首个大量生产商用纯镁产品的澳大利亚

公司。

工厂已经按照计划投产，纯镁的初始年

产量大约在2000吨。工厂的新炉具已经开始全日制的生产。

为了提前完工，对现有工厂的改造以及首

个阶段的扩产工作在继续进行，随之，镁合

金产量将增加，年产量将逐步增加至2万吨。

Steel agreement in ShaanxiA UNIFIED management agreement betweenGeneral Steel Holdings and Shaanxi Coal andChemical Industry Group Co and Shaanxi Ironand Steel Group Co will r esult in increasedsteel capacity and ef ficiency. The 20-yearagreement will see General Steel provide dailymanagement of operations and operate pr o-duction equipment constructed by ShaanxiSteel at a facility owned by General's sub-sidiary Shaanxi Longmen Iron and Steel Co inHancheng Shaanxi Province.

General Steel, one of China's leading non-state-owned producers of steel products andaggregators of domestic steel companies,says the agreement will also improve raw ma-terial costs and reduce transportation costs.

At designed ef ficiency levels, the newequipment, including two new 1280 cubicmetre blast furnaces constructed by ShaanxiSteel, is expected to annually add 3 milliontonnes of crude steel production capacity.

Up to now , General Steel has 4 milliontonnes of crude steel annual pr oduction ca-pacity, plus 3 million tons of crude steel an-nual production capacity jointly managedwith Shaanxi Steel.

The agreement follows completion of a two-year construction and installation process andfour months of testing of Shaanxi Steel'sequipment at the Longmen JV. The testing ofthe equipment was completed in April 2011and the Company launched full-scale produc-tion in May. On an initial basis, the equipmentis expected to run at 85% of capacity , withtotal annual output at the facility expected tobe about 6 million tonnes of crude steel.


China



Under the agreement, Shaanxi Coal hascommitted to providing the Longmen JV withraw materials, including coke and coal, atfavourable pricing, as well as pr oviding ac-cess to its nationwide transportation systemto reduce General Steel's overall transporta-tion costs. In addition, the agr eement in-cludes provisions under which both ShaanxiCoal and Shaanxi Steel are expected to pro-vide financial support, including cr edit guar-antees, as needed for the operation.

General Steel's chairman and CEO Henry Yusays, “We are extremely proud to have reachedthis agreement with Shaanxi Steel and ShaanxiCoal, the largest state-owned steel and coalproducers in Shaanxi Province. We are com-mitted to supporting the continued develop-ment of China's fast-growing western region.

“We anticipate an increase in demand for ourproducts as a result of large-scale housing andinfrastructure projects, and look forward to work-ing with our partners to support the ongoing ex-pansion of China's economy and infrastructur ethrough the development of western region.”

陕西省的钢铁协议

通用钢铁控股有限公司、陕西煤业化工集团

责任有限公司以及陕西钢铁集团有限公司之

间签署的一份统一管理协议将提高钢铁的产

能和效率。根据这份20年期限的协议，通用钢铁公司将在陕西韩城的一个工厂(由该公司旗下子公司陕西龙门钢铁责任有限公司

所有)提供日常运营管理和运营由陕西钢铁集团建造的生产设备。

通用钢铁是中国领先的钢铁产品民营生产商

以及国内钢铁公司的集合商之一，这份协议

同时还将提高原材料成本并降低运输成本。

按预计生产水平，陕西钢铁制造的新设

备，包括两个新的1280立方米的高炉，每年将可为公司生产总量300万吨的原钢。迄今为止，通用钢铁每年可以生产400万吨原钢，加上与陕西钢铁合资经营的每年

300万吨的原钢产量。该协议将在两年的建设和安装过程以及对由

陕西钢铁提供给龙门合资公司的设备进行的

测试工作完成之后开始实施。设备测试工作

完成于2011年4月份，公司在5月份开始进行全面生产。初始阶段，设备产能预期在85%，工厂的年原钢总产量预计在600万吨左右。按照该协议，陕西煤业致力于以优惠的价格

为龙门合资公司提供原材料，包括煤和焦炭，

同时借助其全国范围的运输系统降低通用钢铁

的总体运输成本。另外，该协议还包括陕西煤

业与陕西钢铁预计提供运营所需的包括信贷担

保在内的经济支持时需要遵守的规定。

通用钢铁的主席兼首席执行官Henry Yu先生称，“我们非常骄傲可以与陕西省最大的国有钢铁和煤矿生产商-陕西钢铁和陕西煤业达成此份协议。我们将致力于为中国快速

崛起的西部地区的进一步发展提供支持。”“我们期望我们的产品需求会随着大规模

的住房和基础设施项目的涌现而增加，并且

期待着与我们的合作伙伴共同努力为中国西

部地区发展带动的经济和基础设施的持续扩

张提供支持。”

New mill at SongjiagouCOMMISSIONING of the new mill is underway at Majestic Gold’s Songjiagou projectin Shandong Province and gold-bearing oreis being run through with the aim of assess-ing the efficiency of the mill. The companyis running the facility at an initial daily rateof 3000 tonnes and will pr ogressively in-

crease throughput towards full capacity of6000 tonnes once the mill is running at op-timal efficiency.

During the commissioning stage Majestichas been utilizing ore that has been stockpiledat the new mill in or der to str eamline theprocess. As well as completing the mill, whichhas expanded daily thr oughout from 1400tonnes, the company has also completed anew tailings dam with all tailings lines andwater return systems in place and now in use.

Majestic’s president and CEO Rod Husbandsays, “We are excited by the prospect of get-ting the new mill on line and being in a positionto significantly increase production levels. Thisrepresents a significant milestone in our transi-tion from exploration to production.”

Based on a recent preliminary assessmentreport prepared by W ardrop, a Tetra Techcompany, Majestic will be able to pr oducearound 105,000 ounces annually for the next22 years, however, the company is consider-ing additional capacity expansion in the nextfew years as 22 years is a lengthy mine life andit should be more like 10-15 years.

Songjiagou is on the Jiaodong Peninsula inMuping County and lies on the western edgeof the Muping-Fushan Gold Belt, which hosts20% of the known gold deposits on thepeninsula. Gold production from the entirepeninsula accounts for mor e than 25% ofChina's annual gold production, which is es-timated to be at least 9.3 million ounces.

The potential at Songjiagou lies at depthand in sub-parallel structures to the knownresource which remain to be tested and in thelow-grade bulk tonnage potential within thematrix of the host conglomerates.

宋家沟新建选厂

马捷斯提克金矿公司旗下宋家沟项目的新选

厂已经开始试运营，该项目位于山东省，旨

在评估选厂效率的金矿石贯通工作正在进

行。工厂初始日产量为3000吨，随后将逐步提高，选场运营达到最佳效率时，将达到

最大产能6000吨。在试运营期间，公司为了简化过程，使用

了堆积在新选厂的矿石。

新选厂使日产量从1400吨开始扩大，除了完成选厂建设外，公司还完成了新尾矿坝的

建设，所有的尾矿管道和水循环系统已经就

位，目前正在使用中。

马捷斯提克的总裁兼首席执行官Rod Hus-band先生称，“我们对新选厂投入使用并且将大幅度提高生产水平感到非常高兴。这

代表了我们从勘探向生产转换的一个重要

里程碑。”

China

China Magnesium’s project is in Shanxi Province, northern China.




根据近期由Wardrop公司准备的一份预评估报告，Wardrop隶属于Tetra Tech公司，马捷斯提克在未来22年里年产量大约可以达到10.5万盎司，但是，22年的矿山寿命毕竟十分漫长，公司正在考虑在未来几年扩大产

能，使矿山寿命更倾向于10-15年。

宋家沟位于胶东半岛的牟平县，坐落在牟

平-福山金成矿带，该成矿带拥有半岛上20%已知的金矿床。整个半岛的黄金产量占中国年黄金产量的15%以上，估计最少为930万盎司。宋家沟的潜力在于其深度以及与已知资源

相近的构造，公司将继续对这些资源进行测

试，另外还在于主要砾岩的添隙物品位低有

可能适于规模性开采。

New copper smelter for QinghaiWESTERN Mining plans to build a coppersmelter with annual pr oduction capacity of100,000 tonnes in the northwest Chineseprovince of Qinghai. The cost of the project isestimated at 2.28 billion yuan (about $347 mil-lion). The Shanghai-listed and state-controlledcompany says it will seek a partner to build thesmelter in the vicinity of Qinghai’s capital Xiningbut intends to hold a majority stake. It will bethe company’s second copper plant.

The project is expected to incr ease pres-sure on local supplies of copper concentrate,according to state-backed research firm An-taike’s senior copper analyst Yang Changhua.He says Western Mining is likely to use cop-per concentrate production in Qinghai andInner Mongolia for the new smelter but will stillneed to buy concentrate from other miners.

Yang Changhua says the company will beable to sour ce some copper concentratefrom its Yulong project in T ibet, which isprobably the largest untapped copper de-posit in China and wher e Western Miningplans to expand production.

The analyst estimates that China, theworld’s leading copper consumer , will add600,000 tonnes of designed copper smelting

capacity to 4.07 million tonnes this year. Thisincludes 200,000 tonnes of new capacity inthe southeast pr ovince of Fujian by HongKong and Shanghai listed Zijin Mining Group.

Zijin aims to complete construction of thesmelter in the second half of the year andstart production. Securing copper concen-trates is also an issue for Zijin with its boar dsecretary Zheng Yuqiang stating, “It is one ofthe main issues we have to deal with befor estarting production.”

Concentrate for the new smelter will bebought in China and from overseas markets asChina does not produce enough concentratesitself. Completion of a new chemical plant,which will take all sulphuric acid from the cop-per smelter, is also a factor for the start-up.

青海新的铜冶炼厂

西部矿业计划在中国西北省份青海建造一座

年生产能力达到100,000吨的铜冶炼厂。建造成本预计为22.8亿元人民币（约3.47亿美元）。

这个在上交所上市的国有控股公司表示其

正在寻找一个合作伙伴在青海省省会西宁附

近共同建造该冶炼厂，但其需取得控股权。

这将会成为西部矿业的第二家铜冶炼厂。

据具有国有背景的研究公司安泰科的高级

研究员杨昌华介绍，该项目的建成会使当地

的铜精矿供给趋紧。据其分析，西部矿业有

可能以产自青海和内蒙古的铜精矿供应该铜

冶炼厂的生产,但仍然需要从其他铜矿购买铜精矿。

杨昌华介绍西部矿业可以从其位于西藏的

玉龙项目获得铜精矿，玉龙项目可能是中国

尚未开发的最大铜矿，西部矿业计划在该项

目扩大生产。

该研究员分析说，中国作为世界最大的铜

消费国，今年将会把铜设计处理能力增加60万吨至407万吨。这其中20万吨将由在香港和上海两地上市的紫金矿业有限公司实现。

紫金矿业计划在今年上半年完成铜冶炼厂

的建设并开始生产。确保铜精矿的供应也是

紫金矿业的一大难题，其董事会秘书郑于强

称：“确保铜精矿的供应将是我们开始生产前的主要任务之一。”由于中国不能生产足够的铜精矿，新的铜

冶炼厂所需的铜精矿将会从中国和海外市场

同时购入。获得化工厂生产所需的硫酸将是

又一大难题。硫酸是铜冶炼厂的副产品。

Strong BYP gold assaysENCOURAGING gold assays have been r e-ceived from the first eight underground drill holesat Silvercorp Metals’ newly acquir ed, 70%-owned BYP Gold-Lead-Zinc Project in HunanProvince, Central China. BYP is expected to be-

come Silvercorp’s third production foothold inChina behind the four silver -lead-zinc mines atthe Ying Mining Camp in Henan Pr ovince andthe GC silver-lead-zinc project in Guangdong.

The best initial diamond drill results are 69.5metres @ 5.0 grams/tonne gold including 7.21metres @ 10.68 grams/tonne, 24.58 metres @5.55 grams/tonne including 10.23 metr es @7.34 grams/tonne, 33.15 metr es @ 4.34grams/tonne including 14.83 metres @ 7.19grams/tonne, 47.29 metr es @ 4.50 grams/tonne and 46.67 metres @ 4.61 grams/tonneincluding 10.7 metres @ 9.46 grams/tonne.

These are initial r esults from Silvercorp’splanned 50,000 metre surface and under -ground drill program which is intended to up-grade the curr ent historical r esources andexpand the mineralization bodies along strikeand down-dip. Currently four undergrounddrill rigs are operating from underground tun-nels developed within the No3 gold mineral-ization zone at the 252 metre elevation, about100 metres below surface. The undergrounddrills are performing infill drilling at 25 to 50metre spacing intervals within the zone andwill test the No1 gold zone and XII lead-zinc-gold zone about 100 metr es beneath theNo3 zone. Once further defined by the infilldrilling, the No3 gold zone will be the focusof initial mining.

In addition to the underground drilling, threesurface drill rigs ar e carrying out step-outdrilling to expand the known zones and to ex-plore for new zones.

A geological report on the property was com-pleted by the Chinese gover nment geologicalteam in 1992. Based on 36,151 metres of dia-mond drilling in 105 holes, the r eport defined5.44 million tonnes of gold mineral r esourcesgrading 2.76 grams/tonne, containing 482,000ounces of in situ gold, and 3.12 million tonnesof ‘higher grade’ lead and zinc mineral resourcesgrading 2.45% lead and 5.26% zinc. A qualifiedperson has not done sufficient work to classifythe historical estimates as curr ent mineral re-sources and Silvercorp is not treating the histor-ical estimates as current mineral resources.

Silvercorp has completed modification of theexisting flotation mill at BYP by adding a conecrusher, expanding the mill’s daily capacity from400 to 500 tonnes. The mill is tuning up by pro-cessing lower grade gold or es recovered fromunderground tunnelling. Initial mining will focus onsome of the higher grade sections within the No3gold zone. The BYP mine is expected to produceand mill 130,000 tonnes of or e at a grade of 7grams/tonne gold in the current fiscal year.

China

Loading ore in the open pit at Majestic Gold’s Songjiagou project.



BYP强有力的黄金测试结果希尔威金属矿业有限公司新收购的BYP金-铅-锌项目首批施工的8个地下钻孔得到的黄金测试结果鼓舞人心，该项目位于中国中部

的湖南省，公司拥有其70%的股份。BYP预计将成为继位于河南省月亮沟的四个银-铅-锌矿和位于广东省的高城银-铅-锌矿之后公司位于中国的第三个生产基地。

首批最佳的金刚石钻探结果为：见矿69.5米金品位为5.0克/吨，其中7.21米品位为10.68克/吨；见矿24.58米金品位为5.55克/吨，其中10.23米品位为7.34克/吨；见矿33.15米金品位为4.34克/吨，其中14.83米金品位为7.19克/吨；见矿47.29米金品位为4.5克 /吨；见矿 46.67米金品位为 4.61克/吨，其中10.7米金品位为9.46克/吨。以上是希尔威计划的5万米地表和地下钻探项目得到的最初结果，该项目旨在提高当

前的历史资源量，并沿走向和下倾方向扩大

矿体。

目前，四个地下钻机正在位于海拔252米、大约距离地表以下100米的三号金成矿带的地下巷道里运作。地下钻探采用加密钻

探技术，间隔为25-50米，将测试位于3号区域以下100米处的1号金矿区域和12号铅-锌-金矿区域。一旦加密钻探得到了进一步确认，3号金矿区域将成为首先进行开采的重点。

除了地下钻探外，3个地表钻机正在进行探边钻探，以扩大已知区域并勘探新区域。

该矿区的地质报告在1992年由中国政府的地质小组完成。以施工了105个钻孔共钻进36,151米的金刚石钻探为基础，这份报告确定了544万吨黄金矿产资源，品位为2.76克/吨，即含金48.2万盎司，另外，确定了312万吨较高品位的铅和锌矿资源，其中铅品位

为2.45%，锌品位为 5.26%。专业人士还未

做足够的工作将历史资源估计划分到当前的

矿产资源量中，希尔威也没有把历史资源估

计作为当年的矿产资源量。

希尔威通过增加一个锥形压碎机完成了对

BYP现有浮选厂的改造，使选厂的日矿石处理量从400吨增至500吨。该选厂通过处理地下掘进中回收的低品位金矿石开始试运营。

初步采矿重点放在3号金矿区域内的一些较高品位区间。BYP矿预期在当前财政年的采矿和磨矿能力达到13万吨，金品位为7克/吨。

New drilling program at CSHCHINA Gold Inter national Resources hasstarted a major drilling campaign at its ChangShan Hao (CSH) gold mine in Inner Mongolia.The new drill program began in late May andwill consist of about 55,000 metr es of dia-mond drilling in over 100 drill holes.

The focus of the drill program is to delineatemore resources at depth with expectation tofurther expand the current mining capacity atCSH. Currently the company has 11 drill rigsturning at the mine site and the total budgetfor the drill program is about RMB50 million(about US$7.7 million).

China Gold International’s CEO Dr Xin Songsays that the mineral r esource at CSH hasthe potential to be greatly increased after thisdrill campaign and that the strategy to furtherexpand mining and processing capacities atthe CSH gold mine is one of the company'sprimary goals. China Gold Inter national is amining company whose principal property isCSH. The company began producing gold atCSH in July 2007.

In addition the company now owns theJiama Copper Polymetallic Project in Tibet,

which is one of the largest copper poly-metallic mines in China. It is a large scalepolymetallic deposit consisting of copper ,molybdenum, gold, silver, lead and zinc, andis currently in the production stage.

China National Gold Gr oup, which ownsabout 39% of China Gold Inter national, iscurrently collaborating with the Nonferr ousMetals Society of China (NMSC) in Beijing todevelop multi-metal separation technologywhich will benefit the Jiama pr oject by im-proving the methods of separation and r e-covery rate of the various metals.

Special technical staff from Jiama are workingclosely with processing specialists from NMSCto test separation technology of the pr oject inorder to further optimize the metal r ecoveryrate. NMSC is a national industry society com-prising scholars, scientific and technical person-nel and enterprise management fr om all fieldsin the non-ferrous and related industries.

长山壕启动新的钻探作业

中国黄金国际资源有限公司在其位于内蒙古

的长山壕（CSH）金矿启动了大型的钻探作业。本次的新钻探作业始于5月下旬，采用金刚石钻探技术，将钻进大约5.5万米，预计超过100个钻孔。此次钻探项目的主要目的是在深度上圈定

更多的资源，以进一步增加长山壕当前的开

采能力。目前11个钻孔正在矿山现场打钻，本次钻探项目的总预算约为5000万元人民币(约770万美元)。中国黄金国际资源有限公司的首席执行官

宋鑫先生表示，本次钻探后，长山壕金矿的

资源量将具有大规模提升的潜力，进一步扩

大长山壕金矿采矿和处理矿量能力的战略是

公司的主要目标之一。

中国黄金国际资源公司是一家采矿企业，

主要矿产项目为长山壕金矿。公司于2007年7 月开始在其长山壕金矿生产黄金。此外，公司目前还拥有位于中国西藏的甲

玛铜多金属项目，该项目是中国最大的铜多

金属矿之一。它是一个大型的多金属矿床，

富含铜、钼、金、银、铅和锌金属，目前处

在生产阶段。

中国黄金集团持有中国黄金国际39%的股份，目前，集团正在同位于北京的中国有色

金属学会(NMSC)合作发展多金属分离技术，将通过提高多种金属的分离方法和回收率

来优化甲玛项目。

甲玛项目专门的技术人员正在同来自中国

有色金属学会的选矿专家密切配合，为进一

步优化金属回收率而测试该项目的分离技术

。中国有色金属学会是由中国有色金属行业

及其相关行业的学者、科学技术人员和企业

管理人员自愿结成的全国性的行业学会。

China

Silvercorp is developing the GC silver-lead-zinc project in Guangdong Province as its second China production base.


IN 2010 the Mongolian Tugrik (MNT) toppedglobal currency charts, incr easing around15% to the US Dollar (USD), followed closelyby the Australian Dollar (AUD) with a 13%rise. The Mongolian exchange also boasted138% gains from the year to build a bullishoutlook on the country’s future as a majorcommodity exporter, according to Mongolia’sMonet Capital Investment Bank.

The AUD/MNT link is no coincidence,Monet says in a research report. China’s de-mand for coking coal, copper, iron and otherraw materials is expected to drive this tr endlong into the future, and as Mongolia buildsits exporting prices up to compete on aglobal scale, the mining sector will lift thecountry’s currency high.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Mongo-lia hit a new record in 2010, up 143% YoYto $1.4 billion. Demand for MNT invest-ments has af fected the curr ency directlyand continues to do so. Although the nationrelies on imports for the majority of pr od-ucts, demand for its raw materials andheavy investment has driven an influx ofdollars and Yuan. The MNT is being boughtaggressively as the hunt for r esourcesbuilds momentum.

In 2011 the Tugrik has appreciated 0.83%after a bold correction from 2010’s hike. Thehype surrounding Mongolia’s mining sectorhas been subdued from its frantic climb andthe currency has reflected the lull in FDI. Ageneral market nervousness coupled withcertain government decisions has seen thelocal stock exchange and foreign listed Mon-golian companies suffer the withdrawal. Thefollowing factors have r eversed investors’short term enthusiasm:• The Rivers and For ests protection law

came into action, thr eatening 1782 of4000 licences being used in the country.

• Foreign investments were sold in compa-nies worldwide to prepare for the comingyear’s development, reeling in high gainsmade on Mongolia-related stocks.

• The Tavan Tolgoi road was closed fr omover-use, highlighting the lack of infra-structure support for the mining boom.

• Protests demanding a disbanding of thegovernment and cancellation of the OTagreement threw political instability intothe risk mix.


Mongolia

TUGRIK HEADS NORTH – JUST LIKE MONGOLIA


Inflation is a major concer n for the Bank ofMongolia (BoM). A pr omised $1000 ‘gift’ toeach citizen last year and a 30% incr ease ingovernment employees’ wages has inflamedthe World Bank with reports of disapproval, andthe IMF predict levels of up to 20% if not con-trolled properly. Inflation will continue to threatennon-mining sectors as the boom continues andthe government’s aims for 2011 onwar ds willbe to manage this growth accordingly.

The BoM’s policy for 2010 was somewhat‘laissez-faire’, and monthly curr ency flowreached more than $1.5 billion by year end.In a $6.6 billion economy this is a serious fac-tor in driving up the MNT, especially when thefigure continues to increase.

About 80% of foreign trade was conductedin USD, r esting the tugrik heavily on thegreenback. During May, however, the BoMsigned a RMB 5 billion (US$770 million)MNT/RMB swap agreement with China toallow a more stable exchange with its maintrading partner. This had a direct effect on theMNT/USD rate which climbed 5.6% in theweek leading to the announcement. How-ever, this has been corrected and the MNT isback on its appreciation trend.

The IMF predicts 21% GDP growth in 2014once Oyu Tolgoi is in full production. The con-tinuing drive from China’s resource hunger andGDP quotas is expected to boost Mongolia’ sexports and in turn its currency. For an investorinto Mongolia, the currency risk in the mid-termis relatively low. However, there are certain fac-tors that could destabilize its appreciation:• Political instability – pr otests have been

peaceful so far but tension can rise andthe government fears backlash from any

major unpopular decision. Mining is atouchy subject for many Mongolians thatmay see it as foreign theft, destruction ofland and state/investor greed.

• China’s backlash – although China’s im-ports are only expected to grow as its cur-rency appreciates, the macro-economicpressure from artificially r estraining theYuan could have adverse ef fects on itseconomy in the long-term. If Chinesecompetitiveness decreases and its econ-omy slows, Mongolia’s raw materials willbe in far less demand, its exports will suf-fer, and the currency will deflate.

The BoM is confident in its ability to keepthe MNT between 1150 -1265 to the dollarin the coming year but Monet predicts this willbe a tough promise to keep and the currencymay appreciate more as FDI and mining de-velopment continues. The MNT will appreci-ate to near 1000 to the dollar by 2020 if itcontinues on the curr ent path, and all evi-dence is supporting a fast appr eciation thatwill benefit investors greatly in coming years.

Pre-strip to start at Southern OyuPRE-STRIPPING for the phase one open-pitmine on the Southern Oyu deposits at Ivan-hoe Mines’ Oyu T olgoi Copper-Gold-SilverProject is on schedule to begin this quarter .All operational-readiness activities are also onschedule for the project’s first open pit whileother construction and development activitiescontinue at full pace as the company pr e-pares for initial commercial production in thefirst half of 2013.

The final selection of the open-pit miningfleet has been made with purchase orders is-

sued to international manufacturers. All majormining equipment has been secur ed in linewith the open-pit's pr e-stripping schedule.The supplier for the explosives service con-tract has been selected and the permit foropen-pit blasting has been obtained from theMongolian Government.

Oyu Tolgoi initially is being developed as anopen-pit operation, with the first phase of min-ing planned to start at the near-surface South-ern Oyu deposits, which include SouthwestOyu and Central Oyu. A copper concentratorplant, related facilities and necessary infra-structure that will support an initial dailythroughput of 100,000 tonnes of ore are beingconstructed to process ore scheduled to bemined from the Southern Oyu pit.

Full-scale construction at Oyu Tolgoi con-tinues to advance and key elements of theproject, including the concentrator complex,remain ahead of schedule. Official approvalswere received in early May enabling the proj-ect to proceed with construction of a 95kmhigh-voltage power transmission line to de-liver electricity expected to be imported fromChina to supply the initial mining operation.

An 85,000-tonne/day underground block-cave mining operation is also being devel-oped at the Hugo North deposit, with initialproduction expected to begin in 2015. Thethroughput capacity of the concentrator plantis expected to be expanded to about160,000 tonnes when the underground minebegins production. Development of the firstlift of the phase-two underground block-cavemine at Hugo North continues while lateralmine development on the 1300-metre level isahead of schedule.


Mongolia

Construction of the feed conveyors for the SAG mills at the concentrator complex of Ivanhoe’s Oyu Tolgoi project.



Fluor Corporation is in charge of overall OyuTolgoi program management, as well as serv-ices related to engineering, procurement andconstruction management for the or e pro-cessing plant and mine-related infrastructure,such as roads, water supply, a regional air-port and administration buildings.

Meanwhile, exploration drilling at the South-west Oyu deposit is targeting the down-plunge extension of mineralization below thealready defined drill resource. The drilling hasidentified previously undefined mineralization,including 98 metr es @ 1.75 grams/tonnegold and 0.64% copper, with a copper-equiv-alent grade of 1.8%, at a down-hole depth ofbetween 1086 and 1184 metres.

Drilling is also ongoing at the Heruga Northdeposit, the Javkhlant II IP anomaly , on theShivee Tolgoi licence and at the Ulaan KhudNorth zone on the Ivanhoe-BHP Billiton joint-venture licence to the north.

Sharyn Gol expansion plansSHARYN Gol Joint Stock Company is under-taking a major strategic r eview of pr esentpolicies and strategy in order to gain as muchbenefit as possible from its thermal coal r e-sources in northern Mongolia. The review is

investigating the potential for an acceleratedproduction expansion to access new domes-tic, regional and seaborne export markets.

The company believes a major pr oductionexpansion is supported by a recent resourceupgrade, which has mor e than tripled thepre-existing resources, with further explo-ration upside also identified.

The review will enable the company to planfor phased development of a large, long life,open cut and underground mining operationthat will help transform Sharyn Gol into a majorinternational mining company expanding on itsexisting open cut coal mining operation.

Prefeasibility study (PFS) level investigationsare included in the review for a staged expan-sion to annual 4-5 million tonnes run of mine(ROM) production over the medium term and8-10 million tonnes ROM long term.

Sharyn Gol estimates that its total thermalcoal resource now stands at 374 milliontonnes. The company has engaged a suite ofAustralian consultancy firms to investigate thepotential for an expansion in stages.

The JORC-compliant r esource comprises190.5 million measured tonnes, 84.4 million in-dicated tonnes and 98.9 million inferr edtonnes. Of the overall r esource, 337.6 million

tonnes are above 300 metres from the surface,which allows for a continuation of open cutmining for decades. The r esource inventoryhas been calculated from a significantly largernon-JORC inventory of 437 million tonnes.

A new open cut area containing 220.3 mil-lion tonnes down to 300 metr es has beenidentified adjacent to existing open pit whilethere are also adjacent exploration targetswithin the company’s lease area, demonstrat-ing potential for further large increases to theexisting coal resource base.

Coal quality and washability test work indi-cates strong potential to produce a high yield,low ash, moderate to low sulphur , and highcalorific value thermal coal pr oduct suitableto export to international markets.

The company is also investigating the po-tential for a low cost and relatively simple twostage coal wash plant that can produce lessthan 15% ash thermal coal suitable for r e-gional and the North Asian seabor ne exportmarkets with this work including investigatingthe potential for a PCI coal product.

It is also studying rail infrastructur e andconsidering a low-cost capital requirement toreinstate the annual 2.5 million tonne capacityon the company’s dedicated 65km rail spur

Mongolia


as well as identifying the capital requirementto meet medium and long term expansiontargets. The spur line is already connected tothe Trans Mongolian Railway, which connectsthe mine 179km north to Russia and 1047kmsouth to Zamyn Uud at the Chinese border.

Sharyn Gol chairman B Batmunkh says,“The company offers an extremely rare com-bination in the Mongolian coal mining sector:having a curr ent mining operation, existingdedicated and expandable rail infrastructur e,a large workforce, and now a major resource.”

New Voyager copper acquisitionVOYAGER Resources is expanding its intereststhrough acquisition of up to 80% of the KhulMorit Copper Project in the Gobi region. It is theAustralian-listed company’s second major por-phyry project acquisition in southern Mongolia.

Two high order gradient array induced po-larization (IP) anomalies have been identifiedat Khul Morit. These extend for mor e than800 metres and 2500 metr es respectively,and are broadly consistent with identifiedcopper mineralization identified at surface.The larger anomaly is open to the east.

The project comprises five exploration li-cences for about 50sqkm of highly prospec-tive ground. Limited drilling has r eturnedhighly encouraging shallow high-grade cop-per mineralization, including 27 metr es @2.09% copper from 28.8 metres which in-cluded 12.5 metres @ 3.63% copper fr om43.3 metres. This intersection is on the pe-riphery of the smaller 800 metr e-long IP

anomaly and remains open along strike anddown dip.

Voyager plans to undertake the followingdetailed exploration during the r emainder of2011:• A gradient array IP geophysical survey cov-

ering the project area;• At least 100 line kilometres of shallow and

deep penetrating Dipole-Dipole or Pole-Dipole IP geophysical surveys over theidentified gradient IP anomalies;

• A comprehensive gravity survey at 200 by100 metre spacing for about 4000 sta-tions over the project area;

• An infill ground magnetics survey at 100metre line spacing for about 1000 line kilo-metres;

• A detailed surface geochemistry program; and• Complete at least 10,000 metr es of re-

verse circulation and diamond core drilling.Voyager believes Khul Morit is an exceptional

project within an under-explored ‘world-class’porphyry belt that hosts the massive Oyu Tol-goi porphyry deposit, which currently has a re-source of 3.75 billion tonnes @ 0.98% copperand 0.38 grams/tonne gold in measur ed, in-dicated and inferred categories.

Meanwhile, the company has r ecently re-ceived the remaining analytical results fromits Khongor Copper Gold Project in the SouthGobi, where drilling focused on delineatingextensions and testing shallow geophysicaltargets outside of the known mineralized nearsurface areas. Voyager is now undertaking a

number of IP, gravity and ground magneticgeophysical surveys prior to deeper diamonddrilling. The IP survey is essential to targetingdeeper mineralization as seen in similar sys-tems such as Oyu Tolgoi.

Twenty four diamond drill holes wer e com-pleted for a total of 3170 metres and many in-tersected porphyry-style copper mineralization.Drilling focused on extensions to the knownmineralized system and shallow geophysicaltargets external to identified mineralization.

Best assay r esults include 39 metr es @0.5% copper, 0.14 grams/tonne gold and 1.1grams/tonne silver; 17.3 metres @ 0.5% cop-per, 0.14 grams/tonne gold and 1.6 grams/tonne silver; 30.3 metres @ 0.6% copper, 0.15grams/tonne gold and 1.1 grams/tonne silver;37.8 metres @ 0.8% copper , 0.15 grams/tonne gold and 2.3 grams/tonne silver, includ-ing 25.1 metres @ 1.1% copper, 0.21 grams/tonne gold and 3.3 grams/tonne silver; and5.4 metres @ 1.0% copper, 0.5 grams/tonnegold and 1.9 grams/tonne silver.

Hunnu secures Altai NuursHUNNU Coal has added to its impr essivearray of Mongolian coal pr ospects with theacquisition of a 70% interest in the Altai NuursCoal Joint V enture Project in Gobi AltaiProvince in the country’s southwest. There isan exploration target of between 250 millionand 500 million tonnes based on drilling, coaltest work and wire frame modelling.

Through its subsidiary Hunnu Investments,the ASX-listed company acquired Rio TintoMinerals Development’s subsidiary that has acontrolling interest in the JV pr oject through70% of Rio AD LLC, holder of 2 licences inthe Gobi Altai, and 70% of Rio Gobi LLC,holder of 8 licences in the pr ovince. AltaiNuurs comprises 6 exploration licences to-talling 46,212 hectares and four mining li-cences totalling 202 hectares.

Preliminary test work indicates a pr emiumhard coking coal fraction with 1.6% moisture,10.7% ash, 18% volatile matter, calorific valueof 7460 Kcal/kg, total sulphur of 0.048% anda coke strength ratio of +70. These parame-ters compare favourably with similar cokingcoal projects elsewhere in the world.

Altai Nuurs has granted mining licences witha fast track development scenario and Hunnuplans a major drilling program for the remain-der of 2011 to follow up the 19,437 metres ofdrilling completed in 107 RC and cor e drillholes. Preliminary open cut modelling poten-tially indicates a low strip ratio of 3.5:1.


Mongolia

Voyager Resources’ projects are in southern, central and northeast Mongolia.



PT International Nickel Indonesia (Inco) haspartnered with two Chinese steel companiesto build a nickel pr ocessing facility in Mo-rowali, Central Sulawesi. The Chinese com-panies are Baosteel Resources Co and PanChina International.

PT Inco, which is a unit of Brazil’s Vale Inco,one of the world's top nickel producers, hassigned a Memorandum of Understanding toconduct a pre-feasibility study (PFS) to deter-mine continuity of the project. The PFS is ex-pected to be completed during September.

In the next five years, Inco aims to increaseannual production to 90,000 tonnes or up by15,000 tonnes from the current production ofabout 75,000 tonnes. President director TonyWenas says that in order to achieve its target,the company will carry out aggressive explo-ration and exploitation pr ograms in whichmining activities in dif ferent locations will becarried out simultaneously instead of usingtraditional sequential mining. He says the re-linquishment of 28,000 hectares of its con-cession areas will not af fect the company’sfuture productivity.

Inco’s capital project control and financialevaluation general manager Bayu W idyantosays this year the company has allocatedUS$232 million on capital expenditure, whichis 27% more than 2010. The investment willinclude $120 million for sustaining capital,$97 million for growth capital and $15 millionfor health, safety and the environment.

In addition, the company says it intends toset aside funds in the capital plan to build aroad from Bahodopi to Sorowako and to de-velop a Bahodopi mine as part of its CoWundertakings.

Inco produces nickel in matte fr om lateriticores at its integrated mining and processing fa-cilities near Sorowako on Sulawesi, wher e ithas a contract agreement until 2025. The com-

pany says it appears that it may only be ableto obtain one 10-year extension, continuing itspresence beyond 2025 to December 2035.

The company has set out a strategic devel-opment plan covering ar eas in South Su-lawesi, Southeast Sulawesi and CentralSulawesi, which is being discussed with thegovernment. “We will start the expansion in2011 as soon as the gover nment approvesour plan,” Tony Wenas says.

He added that the expected completion ofa 90MW hydropower plant in Karebbe, SouthSulawesi, in August would also support theexpansion of the company’s production ca-pacity. The plant would replace a higher-costgeothermal power generator, thereby reduc-ing the company’s production costs.

Last year, the firm produced 75,989 tonnesof nickel matte, with its entire production soldin US dollars under long-term contracts for re-fining in Japan. Nickel pr oduction in 2011 isplanned to be lower than 2010, mainly due tothe rebuilding of electric furnace number two.

Sulawesi pre-feasibility workSHERRITT International Corporation has al-located $13 million this year for expenditur eat its Sulawesi Nickel Project. The funds willbe used to advance pre-feasibility and feasi-bility work on the project.

The Canadian company has been workingon permitting to date this year as is pr e-pares for the next phase of the r esourcedrilling program, environmental and baselinestudies, and the pre-feasibility study. The Su-lawesi project is a large, high grade undevel-oped lateritic nickel deposit on the Indonesianisland of Sulawesi.

Sherritt has been appointed operator andwill licence its commercially proprietary tech-nology in the Sulawesi project. On November30, 2010, the company entered into an earn-in and shareholders agreement with a sub-sidiary of Rio T into whereby it could acquirea 57.5% interest in a holding company thatowns the Sulawesi Nickel Project upon fund-ing US$30 million and meeting certain otherconditions by March 15, 2013.

Sherritt may elect to spend an additionalUS$80 million by December 31, 2016 to-wards producing a feasibility study fr omwhich a development decision will be made.If the additional US$80.0 million is not spent,

the corporation’s interest in the Project will beforfeited. In compliance with Indonesian min-ing law, local Indonesian inter ests are ex-pected to acquire a 20% stake in the projectafter which Sherritt and Rio Tinto’s economicinterest will be 46% and 34%, respectively.

Study work at TembangSUMATRA Copper and Gold has signedagreements with four leading mining consul-tancies in respect of the pre-feasibility study(PFS) for the Tembang Gold and Silver Project,Tembang in Sumatra. The company aims tohave the PFS completed during July to pavethe way for a definitive feasibility study (DFS)to be carried out in the second half of 2011.

The PFS will be prepared with the supportof independent consultants including PTRunge Indonesia, L ycopodium Minerals,Knight Piésold and PT MAL Sriwijaya (PTMS).

PT Runge Indonesia is the Indonesian sub-sidiary of the Australian-based inter nationalconsulting group Runge Limited. It will act asco-ordinator of the study and be r esponsiblefor the mining input and economic analysis.Runge provides consulting, training, and soft-ware for the mining and related services indus-tries globally. Runge companies include MRMMining Services in South Africa, Pincock Allen& Holt in the USA, GeoGAS in Australia andMinarco-MineConsult, mining and energy in-dustry advisors in the Asia Pacific region.

Lycopodium is an Australian-based interna-tional engineering services and project man-agement group responsible for metallurgicalinput and test work and process design. Ly-copodium has provided feasibility studies andEPCM services for many r ecent gold pro-cessing plants, of similar design to Tembang,in Australia, Asia, and Africa.

Indonesia

NEW INCO NICKEL PROCESSING FACILITY

Operations at a PT Inco nickel project on Sulawesi.

An overview of Sumatra Copper and Gold’s Tembangproject in Sumatra.


Knight Piésold’s mining services expertise hasbeen utilized on hundreds of surface and under-ground mining projects worldwide, particularlywith respect to geochemical characterisation,waste management, tailings disposal, heapleach pads, rock mechanics, groundwater eval-uation, water supply, water management andenvironmental services.

PTMS, an Indonesian based environmentalengineering company, is one of the thr eecompanies approved by West Sumatra Gov-ernment to undertake a full Environmental Im-pact Assessment for the project.

Sumatra’s managing director Jocelyn Wallersays that these appointments represent a sig-nificant step towards timely completion of theDFS. “We selected each consultant on thestrength of their experience and technicalstrengths, plus their understanding of local cul-ture, conditions and requirements for projectdevelopment in Sumatra.”

Geothermal heats upPANAX Geothermal is close to beginningdrilling operations on its first geothermal proj-ect in Indonesia. Required geochemical sam-pling works were successfully completed onthe Sokoria Geothermal Project in early June.

Drilling is expected to begin after the findingsof the testing have been analysed and a de-tailed conceptual reservoir model is finalized toconfirm preferred sites of appraisal wells.

Panax will develop the Sokoria Project in a jointventure with PT Bakrie Power. Panax has a 45%interest and is the operator of the project, whichis on Flores Island. Sokoria has a power pur -chase agreement of US$125 per megawatt hourfor the first 30MW of geothermal production.

ASX-listed Panax has completed a detailedgeochemical sampling program for Sokoriawhich was carried out by Sinclair KnightMertz New Zealand in conjunction with localIndonesian contractors. The aim of the pr o-gram was to finalize all r equired geoscienceworks prior to drilling operations.

The following geochemistry r equirementswere identified following a detailed review toensure no information gaps existed:


Indonesia

Panax Geothermal staff test a hot spring at Sokoria watched by interested locals.



• Gas and condensate samples wer e col-lected from fumaroles;

• Gas samples were collected from the ex-isting exploration wells; and

• Water samples wer e collected fr om anumber of hot springs and one of thecrater lakes on Mount Kelimutu. Gas sam-ples are being analysed in Indonesia andwater samples in New Zealand.

Panax was assisted with the survey by per-sonnel from Department of Mines and En-ergy, Ende Regency (Flores) and people fromSokoria, Roga and Toba villages.

In-house pre-feasibility modelling hasbeen completed on the pr oject. The mod-elling is based on a 10MW developmentwhich will be incr eased to 30MW 12-18months after the initial development. T otalcosts of generation will be about US$57 permegawatt, inclusive of capital and operatingcosts and costs of finance, and based onaverage estimated production rates of 5MWper production well.

Indonesia is considered a world geothermalhotspot, with the government planning to in-crease generation by 240% in the next fouryears to more than 4000MW, or the equiva-lent of about 12 power stations. The NationalGeological Agency of Indonesia estimatestotal geothermal potential at about27,000MW which is equivalent to about 50large coal-fired power stations. As part of itscarbon strategy, the Indonesian Governmenthas announced a guaranteed feed-in tariff ofUS$97 per megawatt hour, plus carbon cred-its, to geothermal energy generators.

Panax and Bakrie have also agr eed anagreement for joint development of the165MW Ngebel Geothermal Project in EastJava and have another agr eement with PTDairi Prima Minerals (DPM), a subsidiary ofBumi Resources Group, for the supply of upto 25MW of geothermal power for PT DPM’sunderground Dairi Prima lead/zinc mine thatis to be constructed in northern Sumatra.

Northern Sumatra region hosts one oper-ating geothermal power plant at Sibayak ge-othermal field, which is operated byPertamina Geothermal. This field is under-uti-lized and discussions are under way regard-ing the development of spar e capacity forsupplying the Dairi Prima Mine, in a co-oper-ative effort as part of the binding terms thathave been agr eed between Panax/Bakrieand PT DPM. There are also two other ad-vanced geothermal prospects, Pusuk Buhitand Sipoholon, nearby.

Encouraging samplesTERRA Firma Resources, through its wholly-owned Indonesian subsidiary PT Terra MineralResources Indonesia, has received encourag-ing first reconnaissance sample results fromthe initial exploration program at its MalawaProperty in South Sulawesi. This early field ex-ploration program consisted of prospecting,reconnaissance mapping and chip sampling.

This work has r esulted in identification ofhigh-grade copper mineralization of up to 7%copper and good grades of silver containedwithin porphyry copper mineralization and anassociated peripheral copper (lead-zinc)skarn mineralization.

A total of 19 samples wer e collected alongpartially exposed bedr ock, mainly alongcreeks. Sample analytical result highlights in-clude 0.10 grams/tonne gold, 26 grams/tonnesilver, 1.75% copper, 0.05% lead and 0.01%zinc; 0.09 grams/tonne gold, 34 grams/tonnesilver, 0.94% copper, 0.08% lead and 0.01%zinc; 0.05 grams/tonne gold, 22 grams/tonnesilver, 4.05% copper, 0.06% lead and 0.09%zinc; 0.17 grams/tonne gold, 57 grams/tonnesilver, 7.33% copper, 0.17% lead and 0.10%zinc; and 1.22 grams/tonne gold, 127grams/tonne silver, 5.22% copper, 9.91% leadand 15.4% zinc.

Numerous occurrences of copper gossanshave been observed within the alterationzones associated with sheared and intensely

fractured rocks. Anomalous gold values of upto 1.2 grams/tonne have also been detectedon one sample. On the periphery of the alter-ation zone to the east malachite and exten-sive chalcopyrite veins assaying up to 7%copper have been identified. Float in str eamdrainages have been observed to containmainly chalcopyrite mineralization.

The second phase of the exploration pr o-gram will consist of trenching, sampling andtest pits. Terra Firma's CEO Brian Buchanansays, “We are very pleased with the first sam-pling results that have identified high gradecopper and good grades of silver mineraliza-tion, within an associated peripheral copper,lead-zinc skarn type mineralization.”

Terra Firma is a mineral exploration companyheadquartered in V ancouver, BC, Canada.The company’s objective is to develop a bal-anced portfolio of properties through a com-bination of grassroots prospecting, propertyacquisitions and the formation of strategic re-lationships. The company is investigating anumber of potential prospects in Sulawesi andSumatra, Indonesia.

Novienindo due diligenceVICTORY West Moly Limited has mobilized anexperienced team to undertake technical duediligence at the Novienindo Copper Pr oject inSulawesi. The project is in a known porphyryprovince and the geological setting isfavourable for exploration of both porphyrycopper-gold style mineralization and more dis-crete zones of higher grade gold mineralization.

Fieldwork is being carried out under the su-pervision of the company’s consulting geologistBrett Gunter along with Dr Jonathan Nassey, acopper porphyry expert with mor e than 20years’ experience and familiarity with theNovienindo project. The company has alsomobilized six senior geologists from its MalalaMolybdenum Project for the initial program.

The initial field work will consist of:• Composition of a series of base maps for

the concession area, including topographyand geology, research surrounding mineraloccurrences and styles of mineralization.

• Compilation of a database of all workcompleted in the ar ea since old Dutchgold mining times, digitizing all availabledata and determining target zones, miner-alization styles and compilation of a geo-logical data model on all digital dataavailable.

• Collecting a series of samples fr om eachsample site allocated, including rock chip

Indonesia

Sampling from a small test pit at Terra Firma’s Malawa project.

A specimen from Terra Firma’s Malawa property.


float, rock chip outcrop, channel samples,opening a number of old Dutch under -ground tunnels for sampling and mapping,collating and digitizing historical workingdata,

• Locating old drill collars to confirm theirexistence, compilation of a geologicalmodel of available data and outlining ofany exploration target areas.

• Collecting samples fr om prospectivezones encountered in the field, generallymapping the distribution of mineralizationto allow an assessment of the target size,describing the geology of the area throughobservations of float and outcr oppinglithologies.

Meanwhile, Victory West is in negotiationswith the Indonesian vendors of the USSUNickel Project in Sulawesi to vary the agree-ments under which Victory West was to ac-quire a majority stake in USSU.

A technical review has indicated the exis-tence of high grade sapr olite nickel ore andbroader limonite and saprolite mineralization,however, it has become clear that in order toraise the significant equity funding r equiredfor the project, Victory West would have toexpand on its exploration activities to build a

substantial certified resource before commit-ting further investment.

As a result of this r eassessment, VictoryWest has adopted what it considers to be aprudent course of action in the best interestsof all parties by seeking to r enegotiate theterms of the current agreement. It is expectedthe parties will seek to secur e alternativefunding from project financiers to developUSSU. PT PUL will continue to spend its owncapital to develop the project and has begunpre-strip and development activities on anarea of identified high-grade mineralization.Victory West will continue to assist PT PULthrough the provision of technical support.

Extra land at Belu projectKILLARA Resources has acquired an 80% in-terest in an additional concession at its BeluManganese Project in West Timor, Indonesia.The acquisition expands the total ar ea cov-ered by the Belu Manganese Project to 5934hectares. Belu was originally acquir ed byASX-listed Winchester Resources but inMarch the company changed its name to Kil-lara Resources.

Belu is about 35km east of Atambua, thecapital of Belu Regency in West Timor. Atam-

bua is about 20km south of the port of Ata-pupu. The new CV SA Block A concession iscontiguous with the souther n block of theBelu project and consolidates ownership ofthe complete CV SA concession, which cov-ers an area of 2080 hectares. The acquisitionexpands the total area cover by the Belu proj-ect to 5934 hectares.

The project is in an ar ea of known man-ganese mineralization and is pr edominantlyunderlain by r ocks of the T ertiary agedBobonaro Complex, a unit consisting of aclay matrix and blocks derived from older se-quences. Rocks of the Permian aged BisaneFormation, which is dominated by dark greyshale, with siltstone, calcareous sandstone,slate and chloritized lava intercalations, occuralong the eastern edge of the project area.

The area has been subjected to negligiblemodern exploration, with no drilling or moderngeophysics completed. A rock chip samplingprogram has been completed in the area in thepast year by the local concession holder . Re-sults from this program, which consisted of 17sample points, highlight the distribution of highgrade manganese mineralization, with valuesranging up to 52.3% manganese and eight ofthe samples recording greater than 40%.


Indonesia



SINO Australian Resources Co (SARCO) hassigned an agreement with China Non-FerrousMetal Industry’s Foreign Engineering & Con-struction Co (NFC) for a futur e engineering,procurement and construction (EPC) contractcovering a proposed alumina refinery in Laoswith annual capacity of 600,000 tonnes.SARCO is the joint venture company ownedby Australian-listed Or d River Resour ces(49%) and NFC (51%).

The agreement provides for NFC to deliverthe fully operational refinery to SARCO withintwo years and provide technical assistanceand training after the refinery commences op-eration. NFC will charge a fixed total EPCprice of US$1000/tonne of capacity and thetotal contract value will be US$600 million.

The refinery would provide a value-addingcomponent to SARCO’ s Bolaven Plateaubauxite deposits in souther n Laos. This keydevelopment for the integrated pr oject fixescompetitive price and delivery time terms,providing the highest level of cost certainty .The fixed price turnkey arrangement can ef-fectively remove main technical risks and re-duce the overall risk of the project.

The agreement also provides for NFC to assistSARCO with arranging pr oject financing fromChinese banks. SARCO is currently negotiatingwith financing banks familiar with such EPCarrangements, such as China Minsheng Bank-ing Corporation (CMBC). Or d River expectsChinese banks to finance SARCO at competitiveinterest rates in light of the EPC cost certainty.

SARCO is continuing discussions with NFCto turn the Memorandum of Understanding intoa binding contract. NFC is an EPC specialistfirm with in-house world leading alumina refinerydesign, engineering, manufacturing and con-struction capabilities. The company has a trackrecord of successful project delivery and hasdesigned and built 60% of China’ s entire alu-mina refinery capacity or 26 million out of 43million tonnes. In addition, NFC has preferentiallong term financing support from China Exim-bank, China Development Bank and CMBC.

On May 26 Ord River reached a major mile-stone in its development as a pr oducer withCMBC stating in a letter of proposal to SARCOthat it intends to provide the necessary projectfinancing SARCO requires. The letter states, “Itis the bank’s intention to provide the necessaryproject financing SARCO requires. ... We be-

lieve the project in Laos presents a significantopportunity for SARCO and the Chinese alu-mina market. ... We think a 70% lending ratiocan be applied to this project.”

Potential new discoveryORE reserves at PanAust’s Phu Kham andBan Houayxai pr ojects have incr eased by37% and 29% respectively while drilling at theLong Chieng Track (LCT) prospect adjacentto the operating Phu Kham copper-gold proj-ect has revealed a potential new discovery.The drilling intersected a zone of massive sul-phide mineralization and a zone of high-gradegold mineralization.

On hole at LCT, which is about 6km north-west of Phu Kham, intersected 18 metr es @1.015 copper, 3.42 grams/tonne gold and94.9 grams/tonne silver fr om 91 metres, in-cluding 6 metr es @ 2.96% copper , 9.40grams/tonne gold and 273.4 grams/tonne sil-ver from 100 metres. Another hole intersected5 metres from 212 metres @ 38.9 grams/tonnegold and 10.8 grams/tonne silver.

The massive sulphide zone is beneath previ-ously identified gold oxide mineralization. T odate six holes have been completed and drillingwill resume in the September quarter, followingthe wet season. The program is aimed at test-ing previous mineralization intersected in RCdrilling and to test the potential for the gold ‘cap’mineralization to overlie copper-gold mineraliza-tion, as was the case at Phu Kham.

The total Phu Kham reserve tonnes have in-creased by 37% and contained copper, goldand silver have increased by 20%, 38% and55% respectively when compared with theprevious 2010 estimate after being adjustedfor mining depletion during 2010. Ther e arenow 210 million tonnes @ 0.53% copper ,0.24 grams/tonne gold and 2.1 grams/tonnesilver for 1.12 million tonnes of containedcopper, 1.63 million ounces of gold and 14million ounces of silver.

The revised reserve estimate supports amine life of more than 14 years assuming thatthe current annual ore processing rate of 12million tonnes will increase to 16 million frommid-2012 following implementation of an up-grade. When compared with the 2010 r e-serve, this represents an increase in mine lifeof more than 3.5 years and a r eduction instrip ratio from 1.5:1 to 1.1:1.

The increase is largely due to additional min-eralization resulting from infill and resource ex-tension drilling together with a new r esourcemodel which incorporates improved gold andsilver grade estimation, and revised metallurgi-cal assumptions. Extensions to the known de-posit have been intersected in 2011 and,subject to mine design work, should further ex-tend the mineral resource and ore reserve.

Total Ban Houayxai ore reserve tonnes haveincreased by 29% and contained gold andsilver ounces have incr eased by 21% and39% respectively.

Laos

EPC AGREEMENT FOR ALUMINA REFINERY

Crushed ore is moved to the grinding circuit at PanAust’s Phu Kham project.


THE new Chatr ee North mill expansion atKingsgate Consolidated’s Chatree Gold Proj-ect is now fully funded and r emains onbudget and schedule. The new plant is pr o-jected to ramp up to full annual capacity of 5million tonnes by the end of December 2011.

Kingsgate’s Thai subsidiary, Akara Mining,has executed a US$100 million baht denom-inated syndicated loan facility that completesits funding requirements for the expansionand has also received final approvals to ac-cess all mining areas at the Chatree project.

As well as the expansion work, Akara’s cur-rent focus is to addr ess a wall failur e andstress cracks that were accentuated by theearly onset of the wet season. The mining op-erations will then have the flexibility to blendhigh and low grade areas during the 2012 fi-nancial year with the company expecting astrong gold production performance in theDecember 2011 half year.

Kingsgate’s managing dir ector GavinThomas says the Chatree process plant hasbeen very reliable and has operated at over

98% availability since it started in its curr entconfiguration in 2003. “During May the plantwas abnormally impacted by a mechanicalbreakdown when the SCATS crusher motorfailed. The rewound motor also failed upon in-stallation before a replacement motor was suc-cessfully installed in late May . This impactedgold production during May but by month-endthe plant capacity was back to normal levels.

“During this period of reduced capacity, andwith the low grade nature of current ore feed,a SAG mill r eline scheduled for July wasbrought forward by about six weeks. Thistook nearly two days and together with theimpacts from the onset of the heaviest earlywet season since Chatree began operationsin 2000, further impacted production.

“A subsequent production review was under-taken and concluded that the lost gold produc-tion was not r ecoverable in June and, as aconsequence, production for the current finan-cial year is expected to be just under 80,000ounces. Group gold production for the year isnow expected to be nearly 120,000 ounces.


Thailand

EPC AGREEMENT FOR ALUMINA REFINERY

The Chatree operations of Kingsgate Consolidated are incentral Thailand.



CAMBODIA is this month set to join thegrowing list of Asian countries boasting stockexchanges. The Cambodian exchange is dueto open its doors in July with thr ee state-owned enterprises the first to go public.

There are a number of overseas entities op-erating in the vastly under -explored kingdomwith most being juniors seeking to capitalize onthe opportunities that are undoubtedly present.However, most local businesses operating inthe mining sector are family owned and oper-ated, as are most other businesses in Cambo-dia, which means they will need to restructureof they aim to list on the new exchange.

Securities and Exchange Commission ofCambodia deputy director general Kao Thachrecently told the media: “Fr om the issue side,they need to restructure, most of the companiesare family orientated, so they need to restructureto have a board, and they need to convert fromthe Cambodian accounting standard to IFOS,which we (will) put into operation by end of thisyear - that is a big challenge for them.”

Experts say that it may take some time forthe new exchange to attract foreign funds be-cause there are still some gaps in r egulationswhile local companies will also require time toadjust to the listing environment, including themany requirements. This is also the case inneighbouring Laos, where a new stock ex-change was launched earlier this year.

There is room for optimism with the new ven-tures, as evidenced by exchanges in otherfrontier economies of Indonesia and the Philip-pines which have attracted investors looking totap into growth after making cautious starts.

Laos, which has enjoyed average GDPgrowth of around 8% for the last four years,launched its exchange with two listed com-panies and a few in the pipeline. Experts sayit could hold some potential but it will takesome time for the market to be stur dyenough to attract for inter national investors.They also expect traditional sectors such asagriculture, mining and the services sectorsto be drivers of the fledgling exchange.

DFDL Mekong’s country managing directorWilliam Greenlee told media: “The rules at themoment, they are quite extensive, (but) thereare some holes - you have the general frame-work guidelines of what they have to do,however there needs to be more detail addedwhich will come.

“The state-run companies that are going tobe listing in the futur e, you have a telecom-munications company that is rumoured to belisting soon, and you have Lao Airlines, youhave a cement company - all ar e very goodassets as far as we know ... maybe in a yearor two, when large inter national companiesthat have local entities may list, that is what Iam looking forward to.

“For a company to operate, it must have aLao entity, a subsidiary, so those are the entitiesI think in the next couple years once they seethe exchange is operating well and that ther eis transparency, there is certainty. We will thensee the exchange really pick up some steam.”

Positive Southern Gold hitsPRELIMINARY results from Southern Gold’smost recent drill campaign show positive goldand base metal hits. Initial assays of up to 5metres @ 5.42 grams/tonne gold from 73 me-

tres and 3 metres @ 8.51 grams/tonne fr om58 metres plus visual logging identifying eco-nomic minerals within core show the companyhas hit targeted mineralization zones.

There were 35 holes drilled during the2010/2011 campaign at two of Souther nGold’s five prospect areas – Kratie South andMemot. The company believes that its tene-ments are prospective for intrusive r elateshear and vein hosted gold and base metalmineralization similar to that of the 600,000ounce gold resource defined by Oz Mineralsin March 2010 at the Okvau project, which is10km north of the Kratie South area.

The majority of work during this campaignhas been completed at the JOGMEC fundedKratie South joint venture with 23 diamondholes drilled at Gossan, Pr eak Khlong NWand O’Khtung SE prospects for 3888 metresof core. The aim was to test geochemicaltargets generated in 2010.

Cambodia

STOCK EXCHANGES FOR CAMBODIA AND LAOS

Southern Gold’s tenements in eastern Cambodia.



Vietnam

OLYMPUS Pacific’s new processing plant atthe Phuoc Son Gold project in central Vietnamis ramping up to full capacity after commission-ing was completed during the second quarter.The plant has two ball mills and daily startingcapacity is 500 tonnes.

The company acquired the Bong Mieu prop-erty in 1997 and was granted exploration li-cences at Phuoc Son, further to the west, in1999. Today the company is producing gold atits two processing plants. The Bong Mieu plantwas built in 2005 and is producing from open-pit and underground mines. The second pro-cessing facility at Phuoc Son is processing orefrom two underground mines.

These mining operations ar e being devel-oped at the souther n end of the licence ar eaand the project contains an open ended NI 43-101 resource estimate. It has been producinggrades in excess of 15 grams/tonne gold andore has been pr ocessed at Bong Mieu untilcompletion of the new plant.

Phuoc Son is within the same plate-tectonicand metallogenic setting as the nearby Seponcopper-gold mine in Laos. The Phuoc Sonarea is in general largely unexplored, with largeexploration upside potential. It boasts relativelyhigh-grade, quartz vein hosted mineralizationwith high-grade ore-shoots plunging northwestand occurring repetitively along strike.

The company expects to pr oduce 48,000ounces from its Vietnam properties in 2011, in-creasing to 72,000 in 2012, 105,000 in 2013,136,000 in 2014 and 168,000 in 2015.

At Phuoc Son total cash costs per ounceare $465, excluding the 15% r oyalty. As atMarch 2011 there are measured and indi-cated resources, which include proven andprobable reserves, of 619,341 tonnes @9.39 grams/tonne for 186,942 ounces andtotal inferred resource is 2.481 million tonnes@ 6.01 grams/tonne for almost 480,000ounces. The company has a potential targetrange of 1-3 million ounces.

At the Bong Mieu open pit and undergroundoperations total cash costs per ounce in 2011are $830 excluding the 3% r oyalty. There is a3000 hectare licence area and the potential tar-get range is 1-3 million ounces. The total meas-ured and indicated resource is 3.2 million tonnes@ 1.75 grams/tonne for 180,658 ounces andthe inferred resource is 4.729 million tonnes @1.40 grams/tonne for 212,930 ounces.

Nat Son drilling startsSTRATEGIC Mining has started a 2500 metredrilling campaign at its Nat Son gold propertyin Hoa Binh Province, northern Vietnam. Theprogram aims to define gold r eserves and togive exact locations where to begin mining op-erations. The drilling using a Boart LongyearLF 70 was due to begin earlier in the year butwas put back owing to unanticipated delaysat customs and the need to or der additionalparts for the rig, which is the first angular coredrill rig to be used in the province.

A geologist and drill crew arrived in Vietnamin late May to begin the deep-hole program,

which the company aims to complete duringthe current quarter. The site has pr oducedsurface samples with gold values as high as47.3 grams/tonne.

The program follows a geologist’ s reportwhich recommended a detailed drill pr ogramto test the subsurface potential. Given positivetest results, a further drilling program would beinitiated that would require another 12 months.

Nat Son is about 50km southwest of Hanoiin the centre of the gold-rich Kim Boi deposit.Exploration interest in the property is basedon the presence of gold-silver bearing quartz-arsenopyrite veins which are exposed at sur-face and within rudimentary undergr oundmine workings. The veins have been exam-ined and studied over a strike length of 4km.

Strategic is also continuing negotiations toacquire an interest in the Dong Thanh goldproperty. Samples are being tested by a wellqualified US metallurgist to determine thecost and the best method to attain the high-est extraction level for the gold. The r esultswill assist in finalizing an agreement.

Strategic has recently appointed Ken Baird asnew CEO and director, replacing Todd Sterck,who has been appointed to manage the V iet-nam operations on a fulltime basis. Ken Bair dhas more than 30 years diversified internationalexperience in the mining and exploration indus-try, including stewardship of three Toronto Ven-ture Exchange exploration companies.

In 1995, he negotiated the financing and op-erating lease to put the Edwards Gold Mine inOntario into production. This yielded more than140,000 ounces in its first four years. His ex-perience also includes the financing and man-agement of several private gold and diamondmines in Canada and South America, andmanaging numerous exploration programs inCentral America and Canada.

PHUOC SON GOLD PROJECT RAMPS UP

One of the two ball mills at Olympus Pacific’s new Phuoc Son processing plant. Daily starting capacity is 500 tonnes.

Drilling at a Strategic Mining property in Vietnam.



MONUMENT Mining’s wholly-owned subsidiaryMonument Mengapur Sdn Bhd has entered anagreement to acquire the Mengapur Polymetal-lic Project in Pahang State. The project, whichis 130km from the company's Selinsing GoldProject, has historic sulphide and oxide r e-sources of copper, gold, silver and sulphur.

Monument Mengapur has entered a mem-orandum of understanding (MoU) with MalacoMining Sdn Bhd and Malaco's wholly-ownedsubsidiary Cermat Aman Sdn Bhd, both incor-porated in Malaysia, to acquire the project.

The acquisition remains subject to due dili-gence, updating of historical resource and re-serve estimates, signing of a definitive sale andpurchase agreement, financing, boar d andregulatory approvals and other conditions.Upon completion of the acquisition, Monu-ment would hold a 70% pre-financing interest.

Mengapur was first discovered by a drillingprogram carried out by the Geological Surveyof Malaysia. It is in central Malaysia, 12km froma highway and 75km from the port of Kuantan.Historical economic and resource estimateson the project were completed and publishedas a definitive feasibility study in October 1990.

The study contains 10 volumes of compre-hensive supporting documents, which r e-sulted from a 10-year, 58,000 metre diamonddrilling program costing about US$40 million.This was carried out by the Malaysian MiningCorporation (MMC), a Malaysian gover n-ment-owned corporation.

It shows a proven and probable sulphidereserve of 64.8 million tonnes @ 8.67% sul-phur, 0.27% copper, 0.21 grams/tonne goldand 2.59 grams/tonne silver; a measured andindicated oxide r esource of 21.272 milliontonnes @ 0.6% copper , 0.1 grams/tonnegold and 26.76 grams/tonne silver; and ameasured and indicated sulphide resource of203.137 million tonnes @ 7.222% sulphur ,0.21% copper, 0.15 grams/tonne gold and3.68 grams/tonne silver.

Monument considers this study to be r ele-vant as it will be further r eviewed and up-graded as part of the due diligence pr ogram,however, it is an historic document completedprior to the intr oduction of NI 43-101 stan-dards and should not be r elied upon. Monu-ment is not treating the historical estimate ascurrent mineral resources or mineral reservesas those terms are defined in NI 43-101.

The study pr oposed construction of aprocess facility, roaster and supporting infra-structure and other supplemental processingfacilities. According to the study, the facilitieswere expected to provide capacity for annualtreatment of 2.5 million tons for a mine life of23 years. Other activities including further ac-quisitions and area exploration could furtherincrease this mine life as the r esource wasfound to be open in all directions.

In conjunction with the intended acquisition,Monument has approached Snowden MiningIndustry Consultants to undertake a criticalreview and update of the study. As a part ofthis updated study, Snowden will review theresource and reserve estimates. The acquisi-tion is expected to complement the pr esentgold production, exploration and other activ-ities of the company in Peninsular Malaysia.

Positive Bau drillingPOSITIVE drilling results continue to enhancethe prospects of Olympus Pacific Minerals atthe Bau Gold Pr oject in East Malaysia. Thedrilling is enabling the company to expand re-sources and advance plans for achieving com-mercial production status by 2014.

The most recent program has returned ahigh value mineralized intercept at the Beka-jang prospect which assayed 40 metr es @4.79 grams/tonne gold, including 20.5 me-tres @ 6.91 grams/ tonne and 2.5 metres @18.64 grams/tonne.

Positive intercepts were also received fromthe Tai Parit structure in the Taiton sector, in-cluding 3 metres @ 8.73 grams/tonne and

2.5 metres @ 18.64 grams/tonne in one hole;12.32 metres @ 2.54 grams/tonne, including4.02 metres @ 4.66 grams/tonne in another;19.4 metres @ 1.60 grams/tonne, including5.8 metres @ 2.37 grams/tonne; and 14.2metres @ 1.50 grams/tonne, including 2.4metres @ 5.97 grams/tonne.

A new major mineralized structure has alsobeen delineated in the T aiton sector. TheTaiton-B massive mangano-calcite vein hasnow been mapped over 1.5km of strikelength. A 700 metre section of this vein hashistorically been underground mined on 3levels, but strike and depth extensions r e-main unexplored.

Assays of 74 vein outcrop rock chip samplesranged from 0.16 to 62.0 grams/tonne gold,with 48% reporting above 1.0 grams/tonneand averaging 7.85 grams/tonne. Two scoutholes drilled into the souther n section of thisvein intersected mineralized vein/breccia inter-cepts of up to 9.30m width.

Mineralization has been intersected in theJuala sector where drilling is appr oaching amajor anomaly at depth. Drilling is following upa prior intersection of promising gold-copper-molybdenum porphyry-style mineralizationand auriferous contact skarn mineralization.

Olympus Pacific is carrying out detailed ge-ological mapping/sampling and drilling alonghistorically productive but r elatively unex-plored fault systems. Re-analysis and 3Dmodelling of airborne DIGHEM and Magneticdatasets is also revealing multiple exciting drilltargets, which are being prioritized for sys-tematic drilling in coming months.

Malaysia

MONUMENT CONSIDERS MENGAPUR PROJECT

Drilling operations at Olympus Pacific’s Bau Gold Project in East Malaysia.


A sample preparation facility and fully accred-ited fire-assay laboratory has been built on-siteand is now independently operated by SGSGroup. Full QAQC procedures are in place andassay turnaround time is dramatically improved.

The Bau project has been independently as-sessed as having NI 43-101 gold resources of:560,000 indicated ounces and 1.89 million in-ferred ounces. This resource includes severaldifferent mineralization styles, in multiple de-posits that have to date been drilled only toshallow depth and remain open to further ex-pansion through continuing exploration.

During coming months, Taiton sector step-out and in-fill drilling will delineate the gr ossmineralization geometry and gold grade dis-tribution within the main structures to depthsof 200-300 metres. It is expected that by thefourth quarter, drilling will be adequately ad-vanced to allow estimation of expanded r e-sources for input into definitive miningfeasibility studies during 2012.

LAMP feed in SeptemberCONSTRUCTION of the L ynas AdvancedMaterials Plant (LAMP) for the processing ofrare earths is on schedule with the first feedto kiln on target for September. The basic en-

gineering design for phase two of the LAMPhas been completed and the tender processfor the engineering, construction, pr ocure-ment and commissioning contract was car -ried out during the second quarter.

The plant is being constructed in Gebeng In-dustrial Estate, Kuantan, Malaysia, and LynasCorporation continues to work with Malaysianauthorities, including the Atomic Energy Li-censing Board and the Department of Envi-ronment, to ensur e that ongoing pr ojectconstruction continues to meet all r equire-ments and adheres to international standards.

Lynas has received all required approvals toconstruct the LAMP, and is applying for all pre-operation and operation approvals.

The ASX-listed company has welcomedthe appointment by the Malaysian Gover n-ment of an independent panel of inter na-tional experts to conduct a one-monthreview of the health, safety and environmen-tal aspects of the LAMP to addr ess publicconcern in Malaysia. The company remainsconfident the review will reconfirm that theplant is safe and presents no hazard to thecommunity or Lynas workers.


Malaysia

Construction work on Lynas Corporation’s advanced materials plant in Malaysia.



RESOURCE Mining has received high praisefor its innovative drilling and sampling explo-ration at the Wowo Gap Nickel Laterite Proj-ect in the country’s south east, about 200kmeast of Port Moresby. Wowo Gap is a world-class prospect with an independent valuationin 2009 listing it as worth Aus$168 million.Australian-based Resource Mining has fo-cused its attention for the last few years ondeveloping this resource.

An independent inter national geologicalconsultancy company has completed thedue diligence study on the company’s proce-dures. The site visit and study was under -taken by GeoRes specifically to meetCanadian NI 43-101 standards for technicalreporting of mineral projects.

The innovative approach to drilling, employ-ment and transport was taken by the com-pany because of the pr oject’s remotemountainous location and desire to employlocal villagers.

Resource Mining’s managing director War-wick Davies says “The aim of the due diligencestudy was to obtain an independent third partyexpert opinion on our pr ocesses, so that wecan meet international standards and gain ac-cess to additional capital markets to raise morefunds to further develop this exciting project.

“There’s no roads where we’re operatingand transport is via a day’ s walking or heli-copter. Because we want to engage withlocal landowners in a sustainable way wehave had to come up with new and innova-tive solutions to exploring for nickel in a trop-ical rainforest environment,” he says.

One of the innovations includes the use ofa custom-made man-portable core drilling rigcapable of much faster , higher quality andmore cost effective drilling using a largely un-skilled local workforce. The first stage of thedrill program has confirmed mineralization tothe north and south.

Warwick Davies says “The idea for an auger-based drill rig actually came fr om technologybeing used to dig fence posts in farming andwe’re delighted this innovation and othershave been independently verified as being wellfounded, completely applicable to good explo-ration of a nickel laterite-type deposit andmeeting high international standards.

“We want to set world-class standards forthis world class nickel deposit.”

Daulton gains Wewak prospectNEVADA-based precious metals explorationgroup Daulton Capital has pur chased750,000 hectares of the gold-rich W ewak

prospect in the Prince Alexander ranges. Theacquisition is under a partnership with localcompany South Pacific Connection andmakes up 80% of the site.

The prospect is in the world renowned cop-per-gold porphyry system along the volcanicbelt known as the Pacific Rim of Fir e. Otheroperators in the belt include Newmont Min-ing, Barrick Gold, Goldmine, Xstrata andFrontier Resources.

Targets are very high grade epithermal andskarn gold, bulk mineable intrusive r elatedgold and porphyry copper-gold-molybdenumdeposits. Alluvial gold at the site is beingworked into streams from extensive upliftedauriferous palaeogravels, including the flanksof the Jurassic metamorphic and intrusivecore of the Prince Alexander mountains.

The area’s gold is accompanied by tracesof platinum with minor primary gold and basemetal mineralization associated with hy-drothermally altered intrusions. The mountainrange has a long history of mining by localsfor high distinction alluvial gold.

Daulton’s CEO Terry Fields says “W e arelooking forward to working with South PacificConnection to advance our strategically po-sitioned Wewak prospect and are anxious toget our work program under way as quicklyas possible. Gold continues its upwar dthrust, helping make our purchase potentiallyvaluable for our shareholders.”

“Our strategy focuses on developing a lim-ited risk portfolio of inter national explorationand mining opportunities with r esponsibleand community-strengthening business bestpractices. Papua New Guinea is of gr eat in-terest to the company, because of its highmineral content of gold, silver , platinum andother minerals.”

Daulton Capital has also signed a Letter ofIntent with South Pacific Connection to ac-quire a 64% working interest in the oil, gas andliquid natural gas rights of a property in PNG.

“We believe this agreement will be in keep-ing with Daulton’ s corporate philosophy .”Terry Fields says. “Daulton Capital is beingpresented with a great opportunity to partic-ipate in a pr olific proven hydrocarbonprovince, a Commonwealth country with sig-nificant international Liquid Natural Gas inter-ests close to the Asian markets that isrelatively underexplored.”

Papua New Guinea

INNOVATIVE DRILLING AND SAMPLING AT WOWO GAP

Logging core from Resource Mining’s Wowo Gap Nickel Laterite Project.


Mincor in joint venture dealAUSTRALIAN nickel mining company Mincorhas signed a joint ventur e with a PNG-basedexploration company to secure an Aus$30 mil-lion gold and copper portfolio. The agr eementwith Niuminco provides Mincor with a pipelineof growth assets ranging from the advanced-stage Edie Creek gold proj-ect as well as projects withidentified targets and prom-ising historical drill intersec-tions through to early stageprospects with as-yetuntested potential.

Mincor will fund a varietyof exploration licences atEdie Creek, May River ,Bolobip and Kabuna aspart of the ventur e. Thecompany says this venturerepresents the most signif-icant new business devel-opment initiative undertaken by managementsince its successful acquisition of the OtterJuan nickel mine in 2007.

“We are delighted to partner with Niumincoto pursue the exploration and development ofthese mineral projects. Through this venture Ibelieve we now have some of the bestprospects in PNG, and this is elephant countryfor world-class deposits. Mincor has the skills,experience and funding to bring them to ac-count,” says managing director David Moore.

The Edie Creek gold project is located ingoldfields about 200km north of Port Moresby.It’s between the giant Hidden Valley and Wafi-Golpu gold/copper deposits under develop-ment by Morobe. The project covers an historicgold producing area with minimal modern ex-ploration. Alluvial gold mining began at the sitein the 1920s with underground operations fol-lowing, but then ending during WWII. Struc-turally controlled epithermal gold-silvermineralization is widespread on the project’stenements. Mincor’s aim at Edie Creek is to de-lineate a multi-million ounce gold resource.

The May River exploration licence is next toXstrata’s Frieda River copper/gold project andhistoric drill intercepts there include 109 metres@ 1.53 grams/tonne gold and 19 metr es @11.4% copper and 2.7 grams/tonne gold. Thelicence covers the same structural corridors ofcopper, gold and base metal mineralization asthe Frieda deposit which is estimated to con-tain a total metal content of 8.6 million tonnesof copper and 14.3 million ounces of gold.

The remaining two exploration licences to be

funded by Mincor under the agreement, Bolo-bip and Kabuna, are considered promising forporphyry copper-gold mineralization. Bolobipis close to the very large OK T edi porphyrycopper-gold mine. It’s in a remote area whichis difficult to access, however soil, r ock andstream sediment sampling carried out since

the 1960s has revealed two broad areas thatare anomalous in copper, gold and zinc.

The Kubuna licence is about 10km south ofthe operating Tolokuma gold mine, with rea-sonable access to infrastructur e. Historicalstream sediment sampling has yielded nu-merous gold anomalies.

David Moore says “Both of these licenceareas are considered by Mincor to be early-stage exploration prospects that lie withinkey crustal corridors that elsewher e hostsome of the world’s most valuable ore de-posits. They both contain known geochem-ical anomalies and ar e considered highlyprospective for epithermal and mesothermalgold mineralization and very large porphyrycopper-gold mineralization.”

Yandera drilling ramps usDRILLING at Marengo Mining’s Yandera cop-per, molybdenum and gold project in Madangprovince has ramped up with five rigs em-ployed on the deeps program as well as infill,resource and geotechnical drilling.

There were 21 holes strategically placed atGremi in the central cop-per-molybdenum por-phyry system to give themaximum measured re-source for the next r e-source estimate. Onedeep hole was completedat Imbruminda and a sec-ond has been com-menced in the same zone,with core logging resultsshowing good mineraliza-tion down to 650 metres.

The resource drillingprogram has focused on

extending data at the Dimbi and Imbrumindazones, while the geotechnical pr ogram in-volved a total of four holes investigatingwaste rock dump possibilities in the Tai-Ayorand Imbrum River valleys.

At the Gremi zone, best results from the infilldrilling include 15 metres from 294 metres @0.32% copper, 272ppm molybdenum and1.65 grams/tonne gold. Another hole at theGremi zone r evealed high molybdenumgrades of 485ppm from 228 metres to 368metres with 0.22% copper, 0.77 grams/tonnesilver and 0.08 grams/tonne gold.

Best assay results for the deep drill hole atImbruminda include 99 metr es @ 0.34grams/tonne gold and 63 metr es from 303metres @ 0.42% copper , 0.17grams/tonne


Papau New Guinea

Core tables at Marengo Mining’s Yandera project in Madang province.

The prospects involved in the joint venture between Mincor and Niuminco are close to major operating projects.



gold and 87ppm molybdenum. Best chip sam-pling results from the Dimbi zone are 276 me-tres @ 0.52% copper , 68ppm molybdenumand 1.45 grams/tonne gold.

Marengo’s managing director Les Emerysays “A major focus of the last quarter hasbeen working towards the completion of thedefinitive feasibility study (DFS). The r ecent32% upgrade to the resource estimate andfurther open pit mine optimization programswill be fed into the financial model compo-nent of the DFS.”

The company intends to enter into formalagreements with its strategic Beijing-basedpartner China Nonferr ous Metal Industry’sForeign Engineering and Construction (NFC)for it to become the principal contractor forconstruction of the Yandera project. Work onthe project is expected to begin in the firsthalf of 2012. The NFC group has either builtor is curr ently building major copper andother base metal pr ojects in Iran, Zambia,Mongolia and Kazakhstan.

Drilling at Nakru and SimukuDRILLING to assess the economic mineralpotential at two of Coppermoly’s PNG proj-ects by Barrick Gold is under way . Barrickhas spent half of the agr eed Aus$20 millionon exploration including collation, validationand integration of historicdata to plan for this year’ sfield program at the Nakruand Simuku tenements. Cop-permoly’s three separate proj-ects cover 170sqkm on NewBritain Island.

The Simuku project is aboutan hour’s drive from existinginfrastructure. The inferr edmineral resource at the site is200 million tonnes grading0.36% copper for 700,000contained tonnes of copper,12,000 tonnes of molybde-num, 12 tonnes of gold and391 tonnes of silver . Threedrill holes have been com-pleted by Barrick at the pr oj-ect for a total of 1635.7metres. This adds to the 31historical drill holes at the site over a total of7656.7 metres.

At Nayam, drilling intercepts of 93 metres@ 0.59% copper include an upper zone ofsecondary enrichment of 18 metr es @ 1%copper from 8 metres depth.

Rock chip sampling has confirmed anom-alous grades of copper at the Kulu prospect,which is 5km southeast of Simuku. Mor ethan 200 samples have shown averagegrades of 0.11% copper which are consistentwith historical surface sampling and drillingresults. Reconnaissance mapping by Barrickat Simuku has also helped to define structuralinformation to show the majority of structuresdip east-southeast.

The Nakru project is a four hour drive fromKimbe. It contains a number of discrete mas-sive sulphide and br eccia related copper-gold-zinc systems. Drilling at Nakru-1 will testfor additional mineralization after the first drill-hole intersected 213 metres @ 0.92% copperand 0.33 grams/tonne gold. Assay r esultsfrom drillholes at Nakru-1 show copper min-eralization over at least 500 metr es strikelength. It also shows a high grade silver veinwith an inter cept of 0.7 metr es @ 432grams/tonne silver, 943ppm molybdenumand 1340ppm niobium.

Two initial drill holes by Coppermoly atNakru-2 encountered a primary copper zoneintersecting 64 metres @ 0.59% copper be-tween 141 metres and 205 metres. A highgrade silver vein similar to that at Nakru-1was also intersected - 0.9 metr es @ 474grams/tonne silver, 258ppm molybdenum

and 433ppm niobium. Additional geophysicalsurveys have revealed other anomalies at theNakru-3 and Nakru-4 copper and goldprospects. These remain untested by drillingthough, with surface rock chip samples re-turning up to 1.2% copper.

Coppermoly’s managing dir ector PeterSwiridiuk says “With this year’s drilling pro-gram, we look forward to continuing resultsto improve the value of the projects. At a timewhere the industry is challenged to provide afuture supply of copper to a gr owing de-mand, our copper projects are well placed fortheir size, grade and location.”

Two other tenements are under applicationby Coppermoly on New Britain and ar e notpart of the Barrick agreement. The Powell andFulleborn tenements cover almost 1500sqkmon the southeast extent of the Kulu-Awit cop-per belt and are pending a Warden’s hearingby the PNG Mineral Resour ces Authority.These tenements contain copper and goldprospects with rock sample assay results in-cluding 10.7% and 2.91% copper and 20grams/tonne gold. It’ s expected the tene-ments will be granted later this year.

Crater Mountain drilling extendedA FURTHER 10,000 metre drill program atthe Nevera prospect of Gold Anomaly’s flag-ship Crater Mountain pr oject is under waywith a second drill rig sour ced for the work.This program is expected to be finished byDecember and is aimed to confirming thefeasibility of expediting a shallow, small-scaleopen pit operation to generate cashflow.

Crater Mountain isan advanced explo-ration project ofabout 300sqkm inthe PNG Highlands.The site is about50km southwest ofGoroka and thesealed HighlandsHighway which linksGoroka to the port atLae. Despite this rel-ative proximity to amajor populatedcentre and infra-structure, the CraterMountain area isrugged and remote,with previous explo-ration hampered bypoor access and vol-

canic ash deposits which obscure much ofthe prospective geology.

Results for the company’s second drill holeat the prospect have revealed an intersec-tion of 215 metres @ 1.46 grams/tonne goldfrom 181 metres.

Papua New Guinea

Coppermoly’s Nakru and Simuku tenements are on New Britain Island.


Gold Anomaly’s exploration director PeterMacnab says “Drilling results to date con-tinue to impress and support the possibilitythat a multi-million ounce gold deposit existsat Crater Mountain.

“The upside of the project is tremendous,given that we have just started exploring thearea and have drill tested less than 10% of

the anomalous gold zone at Nevera, whichaccounts for less than 4% of the entir eCrater Mountain tenement.”

Five drill holes have been completed byGold Anomaly for a total of 2537 metres. Thefirst drill hole, 100 metr es west of the latesthole, returned intermittent gold grades up to16 metres @ 1.92 grams/tonne gold. These

grades are considered to be related to fault-controlled apophsyes of mineralized intru-sions, above the main-mineralized zoneextending to near the surface.

Gold grades in the second hole ar e higherthan the first, which indicate a closer proximityto the interpreted deep-seated intrusion-re-lated feeder zone. Executive chairman Gr egStarr says that reinforces the decision to drillseveral 1000 metre holes in the next phase. “Inlight of these very promising results, a follow updrilling program incorporating a number ofdeeper holes targeting the interpr eted feederzone is planned for the second half of 2011.”

Peter Macnab says “We continue to be en-couraged by the very positive drilling results atCrater Mountain. The sheer length of mineral-ization encountered with our drilling is consis-tent with results from previous owners includingBHP. The results back up their assessment thatNevera is a best prospectivity asset.”

“These results highlight the view thatCrater Mountain will ultimately be shown tohost a significant, high tonnage, low gradegold deposit,” he said.

The company has recently raised Aus$3.6million in a placement with these funds to beused in the expanded drill program.


Papau New Guinea

The Crater Mountain project is in the New Guinea Orogen which hosts many large projects.



STANS Energy has completed its US$5.5million acquisition of a heavy rar e earth pro-cessing facility and private rail terminal in theKyrgyz Republic. The facility pr ocessed rareearth elements from the company’s nearbyKutessay 2 open pit mine during the Sovietera and is an integral part of the company’ splans to become a near term pr oducer ofheavy rare earth elements.

When known as the Kyrgyz Chemical Metal-lurgical Plant it pr oduced 80% of the formerSoviet Union’s REE products. It has been r e-named the Kashka REE plant and is the onlypast producing REE plant outside of China. Thenewly purchased rail terminal connects to theCentral Asian rail network connecting to Russiaand all Asian countries, and by ferry to Japan.

The plant is 140km by road from the Kyrgyzcapital Bishkek, with established power and arail line 43km away. The open pit mine has pre-viously produced all 15 REEs at purities of99.99%. An independent technical r eportcompleted in March 2011 included a JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate of 42,980tonnes RE2O3 at an average grade of 0.264%,plus an additional inferr ed resource of 3560tonnes at an average grade of 0.204%.

Stans has hir ed a former engineer whoworked with the Russian institutes that designedand built the complex as its new dir ector gen-eral. Leonid A Bulyonkov is recognized as a raremetals and radioactive processing specialist.

Stans’ CEO Robert Mackay says, “The com-pletion of this transaction is a crucial step to-wards achieving our goal of becoming a major

player in the heavy rare earth elements market.We are fortunate to add Mr Bulyonkov to ourteam as head of operations and we are confidenthe will be able to use his extensive experience toefficiently reestablish a rare earth production lineat the facility. He’s already initiated plans for de-sign and capacity upgrades to the plant.”

Stans will use advice fr om the Russian in-stitutes which initially designed the facility tohelp with the redesign and refurbishment ofthe Kashka REE plant. Robert Mackay saysthey will cr eate a new and mor e efficientsource of rare earth supply and improve theplant’s efficiency using new technologies.

When the facility was last in operation in1991 it comprised four individual plants, one

of which has been decommissioned andwon’t be used in the re-design. Much of thetechnology used in plant 1 is now redundantas newer Sorption technology is now mor eefficient and less damaging to the envir on-ment as a method of r emoving radioactivematerials. The second plant will be r efur-bished and reassembled by Stans for sepa-rating the mixed rar e earth solution. Theequipment for this plant has been stored at anearby location along with parts from plant 4.

Plant 3 separated the middle rare earth andthe heavy rare earth concentrates into final ox-ides, metals, alloys and nitrate solutions. Thisplant was never used to its full capacity by theSoviet government and is in good workingcondition. A feasibility study will determinewhether Stans will need to reassemble plant 4to produce final oxides from plant 2, or whetherit will simply sell light rare earth concentrate di-rectly derived from the second plant.

Report says extend KumtorAN updated technical r eport for CenterraGold’s Kumtor project in the Kyrgyz Republicrecommends extending open pit and millingoperations to 2021. The new report includesdata from drilling exploration programs in thefirst half of 2011 and is based on open-pitmineral reserves. Holes were drilled at theKumtor central pit as well as the northeastand southwest deposits, with regional drillingcompleted at the Kumtor concession area atthe Petrov and Muzdusuu prospects.

Central Asia

STANS COMPLETES RARE EARTHS PLANT PURCHASE

Stans Energy now has a processing plant to add to its rare earths properties in the Kyrgyz Republic.

Centerra Gold’s Kumtor project is in the Tien Shan belt in the Kyrgyz Republic.


Eighteen holes were completed up until Junethis year as part of the company’s $34 millionexploration program for 2011. Five of these drillholes returned significant intercepts at section38. One hole intersected 2.4 grams/tonne goldover 11.9 metres and 8.6 grams/tonne goldover 38.6 metr es. Three holes intersectedlower grades of mineralization on section 62,including 2.2 grams/tonne over 51.2 metres.

Four underground exploration holes wer ealso completed to test for extensions of thestock work zone below the pit. One of theseholes intersected low grade mineralization over58 metres including 2.7 grams/tonne gold over4.1 metres and 2.1 grams/tonne gold over 8.7metres. Further drilling to test the strike anddepth extensions of the SB zone is continuing.

Kumtor is the largest open pit gold mineoperating in Central Asia by a wester n-based company. It is about 350km south-east of the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek and about60km north of the Chinese border. The de-posit is in the T ien Shan Metallogenic beltwhich traverses 1500km thr ough CentralAsia. Kumtor produced 678,941 ounces ofgold in 2010 and is expected to produce upto 600,000 ounces this year.

Consolidated gold production for the first

quarter of 2011 totaled 180,716 ounces,which is lower than the 211,039 ounces r e-ported in the first quarter of 2010. However ,gold production exceeded plans as a result ofhigher than anticipated inventory accumulatedat the end of the fourth quarter of 2010 whichwas drawn down in the first 2011 quarter.

Kumtor also pr ocessed higher than ex-pected gold grade through the mill with itsassociated higher than anticipated metallur-gical recovery in the quarter. A 5% reductionin mill throughput during this quarter was theresult of a four-day shut-down to replace theSAG mill feed end liners and the dischargetrunnion liners.

Centerra’s CEO Steve Lang says “I ampleased with our first quarter operational andfinancial results, we ar e on track with our2011 plan and continue to enjoy the benefitsof the rising gold price.”

Karchiga resource boostedINFILL drilling results for an ongoing definitivefeasibility study at Orsu Metals’ Karchiga Cop-per Project in northeast Kazakhstan has seenthe company increase the indicated mineral re-source to 7.1 million tonnes @ 1.85% copperfor 131,860 tonnes of contained copper metal.

This updated estimate is for the sulphide min -eralization in the central and northeast lodes ofthe deposit. The inferred estimate is now 1.2million tonnes of ore @ 1.68% copper contain-ing 19,860 tonnes of copper metal.

The project is covered by a 47.3sqkm li-cence along the Rudny Altai polymetallic belt.The volcanogenic massive sulphide style ofmineralization at Karchiga is hosted along thecontacts between the shallow dipping alter -nating amphibolite and quartz mica schistunits. The two lodes have a strike length inexcess of 1km and have been intersecteddown to depths of 200 metres.

UK-based consultants SRK interpreted andmodelled a series of narr ow mineralizedlenses with varying dips in the central andnorth east lodes using a nominal 0.1% cop-per cut off for the indicated mineral resourceestimate. The previous estimate was com-pleted with a 0.34% copper cut of f grade.The SRK study was also done without dilu-tion and loss while the 2010 study allowed fora 5% mining loss and 5% mining dilution.

Orsu’s exploration dir ector Dr AlexanderYakubchuk says “While the 2011 and 2010mineral resource estimates and study were pre-pared using two different methodologies, they


Central Asia



have revealed comparable r esults whichdemonstrate once again the robustness of theKarchiga mineral resource. We are pleased theyhave revealed an increase in both the resourcetonnage and contained copper metal which willincrease the life of the mine to 11 years.”

Metallurgical test work staged in thr eephases on 1.5 tonnes of samples fr om drillholes was completed earlier this year . Thework included froth flotation and heap leachingwhere a significantly improved copper recov-ery into concentrate was discovered. The fig-ures for the main composite show an increasefrom 91.05% to 95.76% for copper recovery.

In addition, the gold grade in the main com-posite concentrate was 1.57 grams/tonnegold with 50.44% recovery. Results from theheap leaching test work demonstrate the ef-ficiency of bacterial leaching for the ore foundat Karchiga. After 100 days, the central lodesample had achieved 68% copper recovery.

New Dombraly zonesDRILLING at Alhambra Resources’ Dombralyresource in Kazakhstan has r evealed fournew zones of mineralization as well as signif-icant gold in low-grade stockpiles and theopen pit backfill of the former mine. Dombralyis part of the company’s 9800sqkm Uzboy li-cence within the central Asia-Chinese Al-tayshan gold belt in norther n Kazakhstan, arapidly emerging significant gold tr end. Theformer Soviet open pit gold mine is about60km north of the city of Stepnogorsk whichis the company’s Kazakhstan operating base.

The new zones of gold mineralization southof the Dombraly open pit have incr eased thestrike length of the overall zone by 300 metres.Diamond drill r esults show mineralization ismainly oxide with average gold grades ranging

from 0.45 to 3.95 grams/tonne gold. Ther e’salso a high peak sulphide gold grade of 40.50grams/tonne over 1 metre. One new zone lo-cated north of the mine is estimated to bemore than 100 metres long and between 9 and14 metres wide. The mineralization in this zoneis sulphide with average gold grades of be-tween 0.48 grams/tonne gold over 10 metresand 4.08 grams/tonne gold over 4.3 metres.

There were 37 RC drill holes between 40and 57 metres deep that intersected signifi-cant gold mineralization in both the low gradestockpile and the material used to back fill theopen pit, with results ranging from less than0.1 to 19.3 grams/tonne gold. This materialwas generated by a mining company in themid-1980s and was drilled to validate and re-classify the historic r eserve data. The goldgrades in the stockpile are not evenly distrib-uted, however the back fill has a mor e ho-mogenous distribution of gold concentration.The drilling program covered 8511 metresfrom core and non-core drill holes.

Alhambra’s CEO John Komarnicki says thediscovery of the new zones of gold mineraliza-tion has exciting implications for the Dombralyresource. “This was one of our 2010 priorityexploration targets and will continue to be apriority for 2011. The positive r esults shouldallow us to re-classify the historical Soviet re-source and reserve data into a compliant NI43-101 resource estimate for Dombraly.”

The company is also completing follow upcore drilling at its Shir otnaia gold pr ojectwithin the Uzboy licence. Analyses fr om adrilling program at the site in 2010 have r e-vealed that its three zones of gold mineraliza-tion are the northern extension of the Aksuand Quartzite Hills deposits which host an es-timated 15 million ounces of gold.

Gedabek drilling programA DRILLING pr ogram of 17,500 metr es isunder way at Anglo Asian mining’ s flagshipGedabek copper and gold mine in AzerbaijanRepublic. The program aims to increase theconfidence of the resource estimate and toincrease the resource base. The defined ex-ploration strategy at Gedabek is aimed at in-creasing the life of the r esource whichcurrently stands at 6 years, with a target pro-duction in excess of 300,000 ounces of gold.

Gedabek is 55km from Azerbaijan’s secondlargest city Ganja and began operation inMay 2009. It is in the company’s 1062sqkmcontract area along the Tethyan tectonic belt,which is one of the world’s significant copperand gold bearing areas. This area is one ofthe company’s priorities for exploration in theregion as it works to establish itself as a lead-ing gold producer in Central Asia.

Gold production for the first quarter of 2011is already 3% higher than during the same pe-riod in 2010, despite extreme winter conditionsresulting in the leaching pr ocess becomingsluggish. The gold grade for this period, how-ever, has decr eased to 3.32 grams/tonnecompared to 4.79 grams/tonne last year . In2010 the company exceeded its forecast goldproduction by 11% with a total of 67,267ounces of gold produced at an average cashoperating cost of US$358 per ounce.

Copper production began in February 2010with a total of 182.5 tonnes of copper ,46,940 ounces of silver and 833 ounces ofgold produced. Copper and silver r ecoveryfrom the operation has impr oved during thefirst quarter in 2011 with copper concentrateproduced containing 104 tonnes of copperand 24,499 ounces of silver.

Anglo Asian’s chief executive Reza V azirisays these encouraging results are proof thecompany is on target to becoming a debt-free, profitable gold producer by 2012. Hesays the portfolio of highly pr ospective ad-vanced projects could also be developed intonew revenue streams.

Exploration of the company’s portfolio ofgold and copper assets in Azerbaijan remainsa priority in its gr owth strategy. Anglo Asianhas two other grassroots contract areas nearGedabek which have the potential to r epli-cate its underground mining success. A dia-mond drilling program at the Gosha contractarea is already being planned, while the Or -dubad area contains numerous targets withina 5km radius which warrant further explo-ration that has been planned for early 2012.

Central Asia

The Dombraly and Shirotnaia deposits are part of Alhambra’s Uzboy project.



India

SAIL will seek bids fr om global mining firmsto operate a number of its ir on ore and coalmines in India in order to introduce the latestmining techniques with the least amount ofwaste and the best environmental practices.The move will help SAIL get the most possi-ble from its mineral deposits, ther eforestrengthening its raw material security.

SAIL will initially seek tenders for its Rowghatiron ore project and the recently allotted Tasarahigh-grade coal blocks, and is also talking tobig players for the Chiria iron ore project.

Although the company has not named po-tential partners, Indian sour ces say bignames, including Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton,could be expected to bid for the projects.

Rowghat has 500 million tonnes of high-grade iron ore reserves and SAIL plans to ini-tially tap up to 5 million tonnes annually forsupply to the Bhilai Steel Plant. The companyhopes to increase production up to 15 milliontonnes annually in the future.

SAIL plans to mine about 5-7 million tonnesof high-grade iron ore annually from the threeblocks at Chiria, which hold about 1.2 billiontonnes of r eserves. A two-phase Rs 3500-crore plan to expand mining and set up a ben-eficiation plant in the area is being proposed.

The company’s chairman CS V erma says“We need about 39 million tonnes of ir on oreonce modernization is over as against a currentrequirement of 23.2 million tonnes. Conse-quently, besides ore, we are planning to usethe fines from our mining projects to generateabout 10 million tonnes of iron ore pellets thatwill be used to meet ore requirements.”

SAIL plans to set up a 4 million tonne pel-letization plant near IISCO’s Gua mines andthree pelletization plants of 2 million tonnesannual capacity at other sites.

CS Verma says “We also need to secur ecoal requirements … right now we sour ceabout 3.5 million tonnes of coal fr om withinthe country and 10.5 million tonnes via im-ports.” For this reason it intends to appointglobal miners to operate its T asara mines,where quality is supposed to be better thanother indigenous sources it has.

“We have also signed a deal with Indonesiapromising to set up a 3 million tonne steelplant in exchange for high quality coking coalmine there and are in talks for a similar dealin Mongolia.”

New managing director for IndiaPARSONS Brinckerhoff has appointed infra-structure expert Allen Gale as managing di-rector for the company in India. He is basedin the company’s New Delhi office.

Parsons Brinckerhoff’s Australia-Pacific, Asiaand Southern Africa chief operating officer andpresident Stuart Glenn says Allen Gale has thedepth of experience required to drive stronggrowth. “Mr Gale has more than 40 years’ ex-perience in project delivery, including seniorroles in India, China, Hong Kong, Brunei, Pak-istan, Malaysia, Singapore, Fiji and the USA.He also has the integrity and experience toexcel in leading large consulting teams on a di-verse range of infrastructure projects in India.

“In addition to his management and pr ojectdelivery expertise, Mr Gale has an acute under-standing of client needs and how to meet them.I am confident in his capacity to oversee thesustainable growth of our people and opera-tions throughout India. Mr Gale will work closelywith the Balfour Beatty Group and its newly-ap-pointed India country manager Mike Shaw.”

Allen Gale says he sees further opportunitiesfor Parsons Brinckerhoff to contribute deliveryof high quality infrastructure required for India’semergence as a world power . “ParsonsBrinckerhoff is already at work on signatur eprojects across the country. These include theDelhi International Airport, the Kolkata Airport,metro projects for Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai,and the Abir thermal power station.”

Prior to joining Parsons Brinckerhof f, AllenGale was managing director for SMEC Indiaand regional manager India for SMEC Inter-national. Before this role, he held positions in-cluding general manager – technical servicesfor Goulburn Valley Water, regional managerfor URS in Western Australia, and group prin-cipal and environmental manager for SKM.

The company has also appointed Paul Tur-ney as new general manager for power inAustralia and the Asia-Pacific r egion. StuartGlenn says Paul Turney is well-equipped tochampion the company’ s next phase ofgrowth in this sector. “Mr Turney has an im-pressive background of 25 years in seniormanagement positions. In his career he hasalso created successful new businesses inpower generation, oil and gas and operationsand maintenance. This experience spanswork in many countries and crosses diversesectors of the industry – most recently in re-newable energy in particular.” He is based inthe Singapore office.

Parsons Brinckerhoff is a leading planning,environment and infrastructure consultancywith more than 14,000 staff based in officesacross six continents. It is part of BalfourBeatty, the international infrastructure groupoperating in professional services, construc-tion services, support services and infrastruc-ture investments.

Firms eye off AfghanistanA CONSORTIUM of 15 Indian steel and min-ing companies may be formed to invest iniron ore mines in Afghanistan, including thelarge Hajigak deposits in Bamiyan pr ovince,130km west of the Afghan capital Kabul.

Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) said in apress release issued after a recent meeting ofthe companies: “Indian contenders for the Ha-jigak deposits discussed the major concer nsand identified the issues to be discussed withthe Afghan and Indian governments.”

SAIL chairman CS Verma says the group hasuntil August to submit bids, and that SAIL is in-terested in building a steel plant as well. “Ac-cording to estimates, the mine should be goodto produce up to 1 billion tonnes of steel.”

The Hajigak deposits hold 1.3 billion tonnesof iron ore. Afghanistan’s Minister for MinesWahidullah Shahrani pitched these mines as aninvestment destination during a visit to India.

SAIL LOOKS TO GLOBAL MINING FIRMS

Parsons Brinckerhoff managing director for India Allen Gale.



LION One Metals has reported bonanza gradegold results from the first 1200 metr es oftrenching on its Tuvatu Gold Project on the Fijianisland of Viti Levu. A selected sample returnedan impressive 1715 grams/tonne gold and sig-nificant intervals included 8.7 grams/tonneacross 4.8 metres from the surface expressionof the north-west striking Tuvatu Lode.

Strong gold prices have paved the way forLion One’s testing of br oad zones of lowgrade mineralization which have the potentialfor surface mining methods.

Canada-based Lion One embarked on thetrenching program in mid-January this year .Five samples fr om the tr enching includedgrades over 100 grams/tonne gold, including210 grams/tonne gold acr oss 0.05 metres,188 grams/tonne gold across 0.87 metres and188 grams/tonne gold across 0.70 metres. Ofthe 187 rock samples taken from the trench-ing, 15 graded between 0.4 grams/tonne goldand 1 gram/tonne gold, while 22 samplesgraded over 10 grams/tonne gold.

Geologists have now embarked on a testprogram to determine whether br oad zonesof lower grade, near surface gold mineraliza-tion exist in the hanging and foot walls of themany high grade gold veins either exposedon surface or in historic drill holes.

In the past, former operators needed toconcentrate on the underground exploitationof the high grade, narr ow vein mineral r e-source, with an average grade in excess of8 grams/tonne gold.

In addition to trenching, surface mapping andsampling, prospecting and stream sedimentsampling programs are ongoing. A first-phasediamond drill program, designed to test severalof the recently identified, near-surface targets,is scheduled to commence soon.

Seventy-nine of the rock samples from therecent trenching program were from the 135metre-long, Bench 5 W est, where a br oadzone of alteration and mineralization up to 60metres wide is exposed. This structural corridorconsists of mineralized veins and veinlets withina weathered and hydrothermally altered, quartzmonzonite host. Mineralization predominatelyconsists of black, crystalline quartz, calcite,chlorite, pyrite and chalcopyrite.

Intervals grading 1.5 grams/tonne gold across20 metres, 1.19 grams/tonne gold acr oss 11metres, 0.66 grams/tonne gold across 7.5 me-tres and 0.68 grams/tonne gold across 3.8 me-tres were exposed. Individual samples gradedup to 24.3 grams/tonne gold across 0.33 me-tres. These results give a strong indication of theexistence of a near surface, lower grade, oxideenvelope surrounding a high grade core.

Technical staff observations can be con-firmed once the planned core re-logging andre-sampling program has been completed,covering selected portions of the existingcore from previous drilling stored on the site.The incorporation of a significant volume oflower grade material is expected to signifi-cantly increase the mineral resource while en-hancing the open pit viability of the project.

Gold Ridge producing againALLIED Gold has re-opened the Gold Ridgegold mine on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands,after investing $150 million to r efurbish andredevelop the mine which will annually pr o-duce 120,000 ounces of gold. First gold waspoured in March, with 1563 ounces yieldedduring that month and production now beingramped up to full capacity.

The official re-opening in March was at-tended by local political, community andlandowner leaders, and it is expected thatGold Ridge will account for one quarter ofSolomon Islands’ gr oss national pr oduct.The project has 600 mining and operationalemployees with 85% being residents of theSolomon Islands.

Allied’s executive chairman Mark Caruso saidthe company had delivered the redevelopmentahead of time and on budget, with no fatalityor serious injury to any employees. “A year ago,at a ceremony to mark the start of the redevel-opment, Allied Gold undertook to the peopleof the Solomon Islands and to our shar ehold-ers to rebuild and refurbish Gold Ridge.”

Mark Caruso also said that Allied’ s agree-ments and commitments, including the pr ovi-sion of local jobs, had been honoured. “And wehope our success in redeveloping Gold Ridgewill help restore the reputation of the Solomonsand send a clear message to the inter nationalinvestment world that the Solomon Islands isopen for business and welcomes and supportsinvestments in the mining industry.

“The challenge for us all now is to build onthe momentum of this positive start. With thesuccess and new wealth that will be createdcomes responsibility to manage and investwisely for the next generation, and that mustnow be the focus for the Solomons.”

Allied Gold acquired Gold Ridge in 2009-10 when it took over T oronto-listed Aus-tralian Solomons Gold. Gold Ridge has notoperated since 2000, when it was closedamidst the Solomons’ political and socialupheaval of that time. It is expected to yieldan average of 120,000 ounces annually fora minimum of 10 years.

Relocation of villages affected by mining ac-tivities is continuing, with 95 new homeshanded over and 329 residents resettled fromthe mining area. At a reconciliation ceremonywhich was held as a precursor to the re-open-

South Pacific

STANS COMPLETES RARE EARTHS PLANT PURCHASE

Bonanza trenching grades at Tuvatu



Australia

STRONG, legitimate bedrock conductors con-sistent with the pr esence of major sulphideanomalies have been confirmed at GlobalNickel’s Mt Cornell gold and nickel pr oject inWestern Australia. The project is at the north-ern end of the Jutson Rocks Greenstone Beltabout 125km northeast of Laverton.

Follow-up ground-based fixed loop explo-ration has been completed with a total of 10FLTEM surveys consisting of 57 survey linesand 36.7 line kilometres of coverage. Thesesurveys have further defined the eight air -borne electromagnetic VTEM anomaliesidentified in December 2010. The gr ound-based surveys confirmed the bedr ock con-ductors and enabled constrained modeling ofthe depth/location/orientation of eachbedrock source and also the true strength orconductance of each target.

Four of the eight anomalies have been as-sessed with three of them located on gabbr oand pyroxenite, one of which is spatially asso-ciated with a copper-in-soil anomaly locatedwithin the keelof plunging syncline in gabbr o.The fourth anomaly is in a sand covered area.These anomalies are being refined with theinput of the company’s geophysicist to opti-mize drill hole design. Drilling will begin shortly,once clearance processes are complete.

Global Nickel’s executive director AndrewMortimer says the overall results are very en-couraging. The eastern targets have modeledconductance levels of above 10,000s.Bedrock conductors at two other targets ap-

pear to show good corr elation with anom-alous copper in historic soil and auger sam-pling. Historic rock chip sampling results fromMt Cornell include 8.4 grams/tonne gold,3.2% copper, 1.31 grams/tonne platinumand 0.769 grams/tonne palladium.

In addition to the drilling targets generatedby the geophysical survey, three geochemicalprograms are under way. Two conventionalsoil sampling programs will extend and infilltwo significant copper-in-soil anomalies in theMt Cornell area. The soil grids of 300 sampleseach will cover areas of about 2.5 x 1.5km on400 x 100 metre sample spacing.

Detailed analysis of geochemical data col-lected by Global Nickel and previous explorershas highlighted a pr onounced gold-anom-alous trend through the centre of the Green-stone belt which is traceable for mor e than30km as discrete anomalies variously deter-mined from soil, auger and vacuum programs.This ‘gold corridor’ is consider ed an excitingtarget for detailed exploration.

The company is also completing FL TEMsurveying at the nearby Mt V enn project,which was delayed earlier this year by wetweather. This is aimed at providing further re-finement to the five priority VTEM anomaliesdelineated in December 2010.

Mulga Rock mining applicationsIN a major milestone for W estern Australia’slargest independent uranium developer, En-ergy and Minerals Australia (EMA) has lodged

two mining lease applications for its MulgaRock deposit. This step secur es the com-pany’s progress towards commencing pro-duction at the site in 2014.

The Mulga Rock deposit is about 770kmeast-northeast of Perth and about 240kmnortheast of Kalgoorlie-Boulder , whichmeans there is good access to all r equiredinfrastructure for development. The depositis within a small sedimentary basin knownas the Narnoo Basin.

There are three separate deposits namedAmbassador, Emperor and Shogun makingup one of Australia’ s largest undevelopeduranium resources. The deposits also showevidence of nickel, cobalt, rar e earth ele-ments, scandium, vanadium, copper , zincand gold. EMA says some of these com-modities may be produced as by-products touranium production from open-pit mining.

Uranium production by insitu r ecovery fromsandstone-hosted mineralization pr esent atbotVBh the Mulga Rock deposit and elsewhereis also anticipated. Results from a scoping studylast year indicated the project has a minimum 12year life with 1200 tonnes produced annually.

EMA’s managing director Chris Davis saysunusually high rainfall in the first quarter of2011 occurred at the project area. Anotherdelay resulted from a high court appeal byYarri Mining to overturn the validity of the ex-ploration licences for the Mulga Rocks De-posit but this was refused in April, paving theway for exploration activities to continue.

MT CORNELL SURVEYS CONFIRM ANOMALIES

A view over EMA’s Mulga Rock uranium project in Western Australia.



Australia

Historic drill hole data has been r e-logged to expand the ar ea ofknown mineralization which was described in October 2010 as be-tween 7600 to 13,000 tonnes of sandstone-hosted uranium mineral-ization at grades of 240 to 650ppm. Results fr om 15 new drill holeshave been added to the data from 149 historic holes.

Analysis of 5000 historic duricrust geochemical samples obtainedby vacuum drill was carried out using a portable XRF tool to provideleveled base metals values to account for variations in the concen-trations of specific major elements known to scavenge heavy metalsin regolith. Limited chemical analysis of these samples has shown thatthey can provide useful vectors to uranium and base metals mineral-ization. Chris Davis says field work and budgeting is ongoing as thecompany moves forward with its pre-feasibility study.

CST revises Lady Annie plansPLANS at CST’s flagship Lady Annie copper cathode project have beenrevised, after unusually high rainfall earlier this year delayed mining oper-ations. The Asia Pacific’s newest copper mining company’s Aus$28 millionexploration program for 2011 is expected to reveal a higher resource es-timate at the pr oject about 100km north of Mount Isa in northwestQueensland. Updated overall resource estimates for the nearby MountClarke, Flying Horse Anthill, McLeod Hill and Swagman copper prospectsin December 2010 saw a 34% increase over previous estimates.

The revised mining plans include reversing the mix of tonnages tomine the highest grade ore zones first in order to build up the copperinventory in the heaps. The wet weather in February and March forcedmore overburden removal and mining at higher bench levels wher ethe ore grade was lower than ore zones deeper in the pits.

There are more than 82,000 tonnes of contained copper in the tran-sitional ore beneath the existing Mount Clarke, Flying Horse and LadyAnnie pit shells. Transition ore is a mixture of oxide and sulphide or elaying between the oxide and sulphide mineralization of those deposits.

CST has begun a metallurgical drilling pr ogram to get samplesneeded for leaching metallurgical test work on these transitionalzones, with preliminary results expected by September. The com-pany’s CEO Damon Barber says those results will help CST to under-stand the economics of leaching these or es. Five drill rigs are beingused at the site and an additional Rotary Air Blast (RAB) drill has justarrived to help with the program.

Copper outcropping and rubble at CST’s Lady Annie project in Queensland.



Australia

Drilling at Lady Annie is targeting oxide r e-source extensions and delineation of sulphideore. Eight new staf f have been recruited totake the exploration team to a total of 17 ge-ologists and 18 field assistants who’ll under-take the large number of drilling targets.

Total copper cathode production in the fivemonths ending March 31 was 5907 tonnes,which is on track to meeting the company’ s2011 target of 24,000-25,000 tonnes. Thecompany’s overall ramp up schedule is to an-nually see up to 30,000 tonnes of copper cath-ode production.

An automatic cathode stripping machinehas arrived on site and should be commis-sioned by July. All 100 cells in the numberone cellhouse are fully operational and the re-furbishment of the cathode blanks for the 58cells in cellhouse number two is now com-pleted for commissioning in July. This secondcellhouse will expand the plating capacity ofthe Lady Annie operation.

中科矿业修改了Lady Annie项目的计划中科矿业集团有限公司的旗舰项目LadyAnnie电解铜项目的计划由于今年早些时候不寻常的庞大降雨量推迟了采矿运营而被修

改。这个亚太地区最新的铜矿公司2011年投资2800万澳元的勘探活动计划预计将为该项目披露一个较高的矿产资源量估计，该

项目位于昆士兰州西北部的Isa山脉北部大约100米处。附近的Mount Clarke、FlyingHorse Anthill、McLeod Hill 和Swagman铜矿权地在2010年12份更新的总矿产资源量估计比之前的提高了34%。修订后的采矿计划包括修改吨位数组合，

为了恢复堆场的铜资源存量需要首先开采最

高品位的矿石区域。由于2月份和3月份气

候潮湿，需要移除更多覆盖岩层，以及于较

高标准层面上开采，当中的矿石品位低于矿

坑下的矿石地带。

现有Mount Clarke、Flying Horse及LadyAnnie矿坑下的过渡矿石含有8.2万吨以上的铜。过渡矿石为氧化矿及硫化矿的混合物，

储藏于那些矿床的氧化及硫化矿化带。

冶金钻探项目已开始取得所需样本，在这

些过渡地带进行堆浸冶金测试工作，预期于

9月前完成初步测试工作结果。公司的首席执行官Damon Barber先生称，这些结果将有助于中科矿业了解堆浸这些矿石的经济效益

。该矿区使用了5个钻机，另外，一个回旋式空气喷射(RAB)钻机已经运抵，协助钻探。

Lady Annie项目的钻探作业主要目的是扩大氧化物资源及圈定硫化矿。现已招聘8名新地质学家使勘探组成员增加，目前共有

17名地质学家和18名矿场助理，他们将对众多的勘探靶区负责。

截至3月31日结束的5个月内电解铜总产量为5907吨，是公司完成2011年2.4-2.5万吨产量目标的一部分。公司总体的产量增长计

划是每年增加3万吨电解铜产量。自动电解铜剥离机现已运抵现场，计划在

7月份投入运作。在一号电解厂内的全部100个电解冶金槽均全面运作，而二号电解厂内58个电解冶金槽的阴极种板也按计划翻新，预计在7月份投入运作。二号电解厂将扩大Lady Annie的电镀产量。

Vanadium resource up 30%ATLANTIC Limited has increased the JORCcompliant ore reserve estimate at itsWindimurra Vanadium Project by 30% to 128million tonnes. The proposed annual vana-dium output has also incr eased by 10% to6300 tonnes and this is expected to meet 7%of worldwide demand.

The project, which is expected to begin pro-duction in the next few months, is about600km north of Perth and 80km by road fromMt Magnet in W estern Australia. The vana-dium and hematite ore deposit lies within theeastern flank of the 2000sqkm Windimurra in-truded layered gabbro complex which is partof the regional Murchison granite-greenstoneprovince. It’s being explor ed by Atlantic’ swholly-owned subsidiary Midwest Vanadium.

Atlantic’s managing dir ector Michael Mi-nosora says the increase extends the potentiallife of mine to 28 years. “The reserve increasealso delivers the tangible potential for an in-crease in vanadium output fr om our nearlycompleted plant. A r evised life of mine planshows we will process ore with a head gradeof 0.51% vanadium, an increase from 0.47%and which is sustainable for a 10 year period.

“With improvement in head grade andprocess optimizations, we also expect an im-provement in operating costs which will be-come evident as we ramp up production.”

With the increased output capacity, Atlantichas begun to bring online the existing vanadiumpentoxide circuit which was a legacy of the pro-ject’s previous owners. Michael Minosora saysthe vanadium pentoxide market has pr ovidedan attractive option for the company.

Vanadium demand is directly linked to globalsteel consumption, with about 90% of globalvanadium production consumed in the steel in-dustry. It’s primarily used as an alloy to steelsin order to increase the strength and improvethe high temperature performance of steels.

The project is expected to be a low-cost op-eration because of Atlantic’s negotiations dur-ing its acquisition of Windimurra. It acquired the

The crushing and beneficiating facilities at Atlantic’s Windimurra Vanadium Project.



Australia

crushing and beneficiation plant as well as ahematite by-product revenue stream opportu-nity and has renegotiated key supply contracts.The existing accommodation camp at the sitehas also been acquired to allow managementof the construction and commissioning of theproject in the coming months. Structural, me-chanical and piping is under construction withelectrical and civil work proceeding.

The company has also pr ogressed imple-mentation of its strategy to monetize thestockpile of hematite at W indimurra as wellas the expected one million tonnes ofhematite that will be produced annually oncethe project is operational. Talks have beenheld with logistic supply chain partners to de-liver the product into the world market.

Atlantic holds a further 23km of the highlyprospective magnetic signature to the south ofits current mining leases, which has been de-tected from aerial geophysics techniques andconfirmed by land based mapping.

Farm-out boost for DynastyAN announcement on whether Dynasty Metalswill commit to a pre-feasibility study at its flag-ship Prairie Downs iron ore project is imminent

while a farm-out agr eement with China CoalGeology Engineering Corporation (CCGEC) hasallowed the company to take the next steps ina strategic plan at its iron ore tenements.

The agreement covers Dynasty’s non-corebase metals tenements, including the uraniumtenements at Hector Bore and Mt Phillips andits Hyden gold tenements. These have beentransferred into a separate legal entity for anAus$2 million interest from CCGEC.

Dynasty’s Prairie Downs pr oject is 40kmsouthwest of the Mt Newman township inWestern Australia’s Pilbara region. The com-pany is evaluating three types of mineraliza-tion at the site including detrital channel ir ondeposits, iron-rich basal conglomerate de-posits and the Marra Mamba ir on depositswith direct shipping ore grades of iron.

On a tenement holding known as theSpearhole deposit, the company has identi-fied a 1.4 billion tonne detrital ir onstone de-posit and a 23 million tonne hematite deposit,which includes 932 million tonnes at 27%iron. Preliminary test work has indicated thatsimple, low-cost processing can upgrade thedetrital iron to direct shipping ore (DSO). Thepotential development of this deposit is likely

to benefit from a number of economic advan-tages and its strategic location in the Pilbara.

Dynasty has undertaken investigations in thefirst half of 2011 to form the basis of a pre-fea-sibility study. These works include pr eliminarymine planning and pit optimization studies,process-route design, infrastructure, operatingand capital costs. Base line environmental andnative title studies have commenced to sup-port a mining lease application and approvals.

There were 20,000 metres drilled at PrairieDowns during 2009 and 2010. Since then,economic investigations suggest the Spear -hole detrital iron deposit will annually produceat least 15 million tonnes, with low mining costsdue to a low to negligible waste to ore ratio anda free-digging, unconsolidated iron deposit.

Dynasty’s chief financial officer Michael vanUffelen says the ore will require simple phys-ical processing to achieve marketable gradesof iron and silica.

“We consider there is scope to develop thismassive deposit and also to discover addi-tional ironstone deposits and additionalhigher grade hematite deposits. Such addi-tional material will add to the economics ofthe Spearhole deposit,” he said.



PAKISTAN is currently facing a huge energy cri-sis of around 5000 MW with fr equent powercuts and this translates to an annual cost to thecountry of around US$2.5 billion. Moreover, theannual unemployment rate is touching highpeaks with a massive r eduction in annual ex-ports. Keeping in mind the current energy se-curity issues in Pakistan, utilization of its mineralresources is of immense importance.

Pakistan has a huge coal deposit, Thar , inthe southern part of Sindh Pr ovince(Tharparkar) about 400km from Karachi. Theterrain is sandy and r ough with sand dunesforming the topography. As a result of wide-spread drilling over the area of 9100sqkm, atotal of 176 billion tonnes of coal resource po-tential has been assessed. The Thar lignite isrecognized as a major energy source, whichhas potential to substantially support energyproduction from an indigenous resource.

From 1992 until 2010 several r econnais-sance and exploration programs have beencarried out and nearly mor e than 500 ex-ploratory drill holes have been sunk coveringan area of 700sqkm to determine the extentof the lignite deposit. A detailed geologicalassessment has been carried out in order todefine the blocks available to be mined. Manydrilling companies have been allotted explo-ration licences in this domain.

The geology of the Thar Coal Field is notvery complex, having Aeolian sand overlaidon alluvial limonitic siltstones. Coal isbounded with unconformity fr om top andbottom while the basement is granitic. Theonly fault in the ar ea is Mainland Runn ofKutch Fault and tectonically the area is con-sidered as passive. The stratigraphic succes-sion of the region can be seen in figure 1.

Based on these exploration results and geo-

logical assessments up to 2011, 10 blockshave been developed at Thar. The lignite re-source estimation in the Thar region has beenbased on various standards but mainly JORC,USGS & GESCR (China). A number of the Tharblocks with their resource figures and methodof estimation can be seen in figure 2.

During the extensive drilling thousands of coalsamples have been sent for proximate and ul-timate testing in different coal testing laborato-ries around the country and overseas as well.Thar coal is classified as lignite of ‘ASTM’ typeB. The quality tests for Thar coal r eveal higherheating values (LCV) of about 12 Mj/kg withtotal moisture of 47%, and low ash and sulphurvalues, ie 6.5% ash on as r eceived basis and1.09% total sulphur as received, which is com-parably better than lignite being used in Greeceand Germany for power generation.

In 2004 RWE-RE of Germany carried out adetailed feasibility study for Block I while in par-allel Shenhua China carried out a detailed mineand power plant feasibility study for Block II.However, for Block I no adequate financing clo-sure could be established and for Block II proj-ect agreement could not be reached.

In August 2010 Sindh Engr o Coal MiningCompany successfully completed a bankablefeasibility study for an open pit mine on Block IIwith assistance of Shenhua and SinocoalGroup of China and in consultation with RWE-RE. This is now awaiting financial closure. Thestudy also covered a detailed Environmental &Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) Report whichwas completed by SRK Consultants. Accor d-ing to a precise estimate, development of BlockII alone would bring in investment of US$12 bil-lion and would be capable of pr oducing 5000MW for 75 years of the mine. The study also re-vealed a favourable stripping ratio of 6.5 cubicmetres/tonne, which is again comparable to dif-ferent operating mines in the world.

Considering the technical viability and exis-tence of enormous lignite deposits, OracleCoal Fields, a UK-based company, has leasedBlock VI of the Thar Coal Field and is settingup a feasibility study with and ESIA r eport,which is expected to be completed in the mid-dle of this year. Proposed annual productionlevels for this mine would initially be 2.5 milliontonnes rising to 3.5-4 million tonnes as the de-mand for power generation starts up.

Pakistan

THAR COAL RESOURCES AND PAKISTAN ENERGY GROWTHSpecial report by Waqas Abdul Aziz, geologist, Engro Powergen

Figure 2: Coal resources of the various Blocks at Thar Coal Field.

Figure 1: Regional stratigraphic details of the Thar Coal Field.


CONSOLIDATION amongst stock exchanges isat an unprecedented level in a commodities-fu-elled race to become the premium global miner-als exchange. Exchanges are merging, formingstrategic partnerships, and developing new andtailored listing rules in order to offer more oppor-tunities and sources of finance. What ef fect willthese changes have on miners seeking capital?

BACKGROUND2009 was a tough year for junior miners.While the challenging market conditions ledto majors deferring capital expenditur e, jun-iors found their ability to raise funds in an illiq-uid market severely curtailed.

Fast forward to 2011 and the mining industryis roaring ahead while global commodity pricesare high. Some of the largest recent IPOs andsecondary listings have been by mining com-panies - Glencore, Tahoe Resources, PretiumResources, Aston Resources and Vale.

MORPHING AND CHANGINGAs investors demonstrate their enthusiasmfor the mining industry, so the resource-heavystock exchanges have started a r ound ofjockeying for position. Proximity of market tomine is no longer the primary driver for r e-source companies - access to capital, so-phistication of investors, valuation levels andsuitability of listing requirements are now asimportant as geographical considerations.

Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and TSX Venture Exchange (TSX-V):With thousands of juniors listed on the ex-change, a sophisticated pool of analysts, agood supply of experienced bankers, lawyersand accountants supporting the industry andaccess to North American capital, the TSX andTSX-V have reputations as the leading globalmining exchanges. Valuations by analysts whounderstand the political risks faced by Asian

juniors are typically high, and the flexible twotier system with tailored listing requirements of-fers straight forward and swift access to capi-tal for early stage exploration companies andsmaller financings. Over the last 5 years, morethan 80% of all mining equity financings wer ecarried out on the TSX or TSX-V.

London Stock Exchange (LSE)/Alternative Investment Market (AIM):The LSE is home to some of the world’s largestmining companies - 2010 saw the financings ofRio Tinto and Xstrata - and has much to of fermining majors in terms of profile and access tocapital. However, geographical considerationsand the LSE/AIM’s historical links to Africa andRussia mean that it may not be the first marketan Asian miner will look to for finance.

In April 2011, the TSX and LSE announceda merger aimed to create a ‘global resourcespowerhouse’. It will be some time before reg-ulators announce their decision. Meanwhile,the LSE has announced a strategic partner -ship with the Mongolian Stock Exchange(MSE) to r estructure and develop its ex-change by advising on market rules and pro-cedures and developing a market index.

Australian Securities Exchange (ASX):Junior miners have historically made up alarge proportion of the listings on the ASX,and this board has long been attractive toAsian miners due to its geographical proxim-ity and established mining credentials. How-ever, the ASX’s traditional position as primarydestination for Asian juniors is subject to chal-lenge from Canada and, potentially , HongKong. It is currently carrying out a review andconsultation to establish how it might in-crease its appeal to r esources companiesoutside the top 200.

Singapore Exchange (SGX):The SGX is going to some efforts to developits reputation as a destination for mining ex-ploration companies. In February 2011, it in-troduced the new Catalist rules in an ef fortto attract early stage mineral, oil and gascompanies. Amongst other things, the new

(Continued on p.60)

Legally Speaking


ASIAN JUNIORS: RAISING CAPITAL IN EVOLVING MARKETSBy Sean Twomey, Norton Rose Group, head of business development-Asia

Mining equity financings in 2010 with the figures representing billions of Canadian dollars.

The number of mining listings in 2010 on various stock exchanges.

Legally Speaking_Layout 1 6/17/11 4:54 PM Page 58

THE Indonesian Government has recently is-sued a Moratorium Instruction and 2 Regula-tions on Forest Area Utilization. The mattersare of considerable interest to existing and po-tential investors in Indonesia’s mining industry.

Indonesia-based Christian Teo Purwono &Partners has provided executive summariesbased on its understanding of these Pr esi-dential regulations. Many of the points madein the summaries are necessarily speculativein nature and subject to further clarificationand confirmation. Accordingly, it would beprudent not to rely solely on the summariesbut, rather, to seek specific legal advice.

Presidential Instruction re Moratorium on the Grant-ing of New Licences and the Improvement of Pri-mary Natural Forest and Peat Lands Management:1. For the purpose of reducing Greenhouse Gas

Emissions, the President has instructed vari-ous authorities to take all necessary action tosupport a moratorium on the issuance of newlicences for the utilization of Primary NaturalForests and Peat Lands except in the case of:(i) Applications that have already received

an Approval in Principle Licence fr omMoFor;

(ii) The implementation of vital nationaldevelopment, such as geothermal, oiland gas, electricity, rice and sugar canefields;

(iii) Extension of existing Forest UtilizationBusiness Licences and/or Forest AreaUtilization Permits (ie, Rent Use Per -mits) provided that the r elevant busi-ness licences (eg, IUPs/CCoWs/CoWs)are still valid; and

(iv) Ecosystem restoration.

2. ‘Primary Natural Forest’ is a term which iscommonly understood as referring to nat-ural forest areas which have never beenthe subject of any logging activities. How-ever, there is no legal definition of ‘PrimaryNatural Forest’. Accordingly, the determi-nation of whether or not a For est Area isPrimary Natural Forest is to be made byhaving regard to the indicative map at-tached to Presidential Instruction 10/2011.

3. The indicative map is to be r evised andupdated every 6 months.

4. The indicative map is not at all clear.

5. It is tolerably clear, however, that all typesof Production Forest, as well as Areas forOther Purposes, may include areas of Pri-mary Natural Forest. Accordingly, Presi-dent Instruction 10/2011 will pr event theissuance of Rent Use Permits for miningactivities in that part, if any, of ProductionForests and Ar eas for Other Purposeswhich comprise Primary Natural Forest orPeat Lands.

6. The moratorium is for 2 years fr om May20, 2011.

Presidential Regulation re Underground Mining in Protected Forests:1. Mining activities may be carried out in Pro-

tected Forest Areas by way of under -ground mining so long as this does notalter the main purpose and function of theProtected Forest Areas.

2. In order to be able to utilize Protected For-est Areas for underground mining activi-ties, the holders IUPs/CoWs/CCoWs mustapply for and obtain Protected Forest RentUse Permit from the Minister of For estry(MoFor).

3. MoFor will, first, issue an Approval in Prin-cipal Licence to the applicant for a Pr o-tected Forest Rent Use Permit, with amaximum initial validity period of 2 yearsbut which is extendable, subject to evalu-ation by MoFor.

4. The Approval in Principal Licence willspecify a number of obligations thatmust be fulfilled by the Protected ForestRent Use Permit applicant in or der toobtain the Pr otected Forest Rent UsePermit.

5. Once the Appr oval in Principal Licenceholder fulfils the Approval in Principal Li-cence Obligations, MoFor will issue theProtected Forest Rent Use Permit.

6. Protected Forest Rent Use Permits will beinitially granted for a maximum period of20 years but be extendable in accordancewith the validity period of the underlyingIUPs/CoWs/CCoWs and subject to eval-uation by a Monitoring & Evaluation Team.

7. Protected Forest Rent Use Permits ar etransferable subject to MoFor’s prior writ-ten approval.

8. Protected Forest Rent Use Permit holdersare prohibited from carrying out under -ground mining activities which may causeland surface subsidence or permanentchange to the purpose or function of Pro-tected Forest Areas.

9. A Protected Forest Rent Use Permit maybe revoked by MoFor if its holder (i) doesnot fulfil certain obligations under the Pro-tected Forest Rent Use Permit or (ii) vio-lates Presidential Regulation 28/2011.

Ministry of Forestry Regulation on Guidance re Rent Use Permits for Forest Areas:1. Rent Use Permits authorize the utilization

of (i) Production Forest Areas and (ii) Pro-tected Forest Areas for non-forestry activ-ities, including general mining activities.

2. Rent Use Permits ar e now divided into 2types being:

(a) Rent Use Permits for Survey or Ex-ploration Activity (Exploration Rent UsePermits), which ar e valid for 2 years(and extendable); and(b) Rent Use Permits for Other Activi-

ties (i.e., exploitation activity) (Exploita-tion Rent Use Permits), which are validfor the same period as the underlyingbusiness licence (eg, IUP, or CoW).

3. Except in very limited situations, Rent UsePermits are issued by MoFor.

4. According to MoFor, there is no expresslimitation on the size of the area which maybe covered by an Exploration Rent UsePermit. However, certain limitations mayapply, on a case by case basis, subject toevaluation and consideration by MoFor.


Legally Speaking

FOREST MORATORIUM COMMENTS


5. In order to obtain a Rent Use Permit, aparty must, first, submit an application toMoFor and fulfil a number of administra-tive and technical requirements.

6. If the Rent Use Permit applicant fulfils thesubject administrative and technical r e-quirements, MoFor will issue to the RentUse Permit applicant, in the first instance,an Approval in Principal Licence with amaximum validity period of 2 years whichis extendable, subject to evaluation.

7. The Approval in Principal Licence is to beissued within 3 to 4 months of completionof the administrative and technical r e-quirements.

8. The Approval in Principal Licence will spec-ify a number of obligations that need to befulfilled by the Rent Use Permit applicantfor the purpose of obtaining the Rent UsePermit. Once the Approval in Principal Li-cence holder fulfils the obligations statedin the Approval in Principal Licence, MoForwill grant a Rent Use Permit to the Ap-proval in Principal Licence holder.

9. The Rent Use Permit is to be issued fol-lowing submission of an application afterfulfilment of the Approval in Principal Li-cence obligations and in (i) 4 months forExploration Rent Use Permits and (ii) 2months for Exploitation Rent Use Permits.

10. A Rent Use Permit applicant must meet acompensation requirement as follows:

(a) If the total Forest Area in the rele-vant province, where the target forestarea is situated, comprises less than30% of the total Provincial land area (in-cluding islands and rivers), then the ap-plicant must pr ovide compensationland in certain ratios depending on thepurpose of the activities to be con-ducted in the forest area; and

(b) If the total forest area in the relevantprovince, where the target forest areais situated, comprises more than 30%of the total pr ovincial land ar ea (in-cluding islands and rivers), the appli-cant is obliged to pay Non T ax StateRevenue in respect of Forest Area Uti-lization and carry out r eforestation incertain ratios depending on the pur -

pose of the activities to be conductedin the forest area.

11. In the case of a Pr oduction Forest Areathat is already the subject of a Forest Uti-lization Business Licence, Rent Use Per -mits for mining activities may only begranted for a maximum of 10% of the totalarea covered by the For est UtilizationBusiness Licence.

12. In the case of a Pr oduction Forest Areathat is not the subject of any For est Uti-lization Business Licences, Rent Use Per-mits for mining activities may only begranted for a maximum of 10% of the totalProduction Forest Area.

13. Rent Use Permits for mining activities, ina Protected Forest Area, may only begranted for a maximum of 10% of the totalProtected Forest Area.

14. The ‘10% r estriction’, in points 11, 12and 13 above, does not apply to Rent UsePermits in respect of exploration activities.

15. In addition to the relevant utilization activ-ities (ie, general mining activities), a RentUse Permit also gives the holder the rightto carry out land clearance and deforesta-tion activities.

16. A party is not allowed to transfer its RentUse Permit to another party without priorapproval from MoFor.

17. Transfers of Rent Use Permits will be ap-proved within 2 months of the transfer ap-plication being submitted.

18. Renewals of the Rent Use Permits will beapproved within 2 months of the r enewalapplication being submitted.

19. MoFor Regulation 18/2011 is intended toremove much of the uncertainty and r e-duce much of the delay which is presentlyassociated with obtaining a Rent Use Per-mit. However, whether or not these objec-tives are realized depends very much onhow MoFor Regulation 18/2011 is imple-mented in practice.

Please contact Bill Sullivan, licensed foreign advocate, Christian Teo Purwono & Partners, +62 21 515 0280 or [email protected]

Legally Speaking


rules introduce disclosure and trans-parency standards in line with inter na-tional practice.

Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx):Hong Kong has overtaken London and NewYork as the primary destination for largescale listings (IRC Ltd’s IPO, Vale SA’s sec-ondary listing, Glencore’s IPO, UC Rusal’slisting, Agricultural Bank of China’s dual list-ing, SBI’s secondary listing) but it has nothistorically been an obvious choice for juniormining companies seeking capital. In June2010, the board changed its listing rules tomake it easier for mining companies to raisecapital for discoveries already made. In April2011 the HKEx announced the establish-ment of the Hong Kong Mer cantile Ex-change, a commodities exchange designedto meet the rising commodities demandfrom China. These developments, togetherwith its access to Asian capital and proxim-ity to resource markets, may see the HKExemerge as an incr easingly attractive ex-change for the junior mining sector.

Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX):A small number of domestic mining com-panies have elected to list on the IDX, suchas Bumi Resources and Adaro, but to datethere has been little precedent for non-In-donesian juniors listing on the IDX. Con-tributing factors may include the languagebarrier, the lack of a substantial institutionalinvestor base and consequent level of liq-uidity when compared to the HKEx, ASXand the SGX.

THE FUTUREThe TSX/TSX-V and ASX r emain estab-lished markets for Asian juniors. Develop-ments on the HKEx, pr opelled byinvestment appetite from the mainland, arelikely to increase its attractiveness to jun-iors seeking capital on the Asian markets.Singapore’s Catalist is in the early stagesof its development as a mining, oil andminerals hub, and the MSE may be a long-term watch.

Sean Twomey is based at Norton Rose (Asia)LLP in Singapore, phone +65 6309 5451 oremail [email protected]

(Asian Juniors - from p.58)



CHURCHILL Mining’s appeal has beenfiled to the Administrative High Court inJakarta, Indonesia. The company has beencaught up in a major legal battle over thefuture of its flagship East Kutai coal minedevelopment after an attempt by r egionalauthorities to cancel the licences that hostthe project.

Previously the East Kutai Regent (Bupati),an authority that governs the East Kutai ad-ministrative region of the East KalimantanProvince, had purported to have cancelledthe four mining licences.

Churchill subsequently referred the matterto administrative tribunal in Samarinda, theprovince’s capital city. It was an attempt tohave the original cancellations of ficially ex-punged from the record because they con-sidered that the Bupati had violated a numberof administrative pr otocols. In Mar ch theSamarinda tribunal ruled against Churchill.

The company has now confirmed that its

Indonesian partner Ridlatama has filedMemoranda of Appeal with the Administra-tive Court in Samarinda and the appeal willbe heard by the Administrative High Court inJakarta. Churchill says that the Administra-tive High Court will advise the parties of itsdecision in due course.

The AIM-listed firm’s chances at appealreceived a major vote of confidence recentlyas two new Indonesian partners invested£7.7 million and subscribed for shares in thecompany. Analysts believe the two influen-tial business people Churchill has broughton board could provide some much neededlocal expertise.

Northland Securities analyst Andr ewMcGeary says that Churchill shares are stilltrading at good ‘recovery levels’ under thecircumstances. “The company has ralliedstrongly since its private placement with alocal investor raised £7.7 million. W e wel-comed this move which pr ovided a much

needed fillip,” he said in a note to clients.“However, we view the legal pr ocess as

high risk and therefore maintain caution onthe shares which are trading at good recov-ery levels under the circumstances.”

Churchill Mining is an AIM-listed miningcompany with a significant thermal coal de-velopment project in the East Kutai Re-gency where to date more than 2.73 billiontonnes of coal resource has been defined toJORC standard. The project feasibility studyhas been completed, indicating an eco-nomic and desirable project and the studyforms the platform for the next stage in thedevelopment of the project.

In addition to the East Kutai pr oject,Churchill has interests in the Sendawar CoalBed Methane Pr oject in East Kalimantanand a strategic holding in Spitfir e Re-sources, which is developing the SouthWoodie Woodie Manganese Pr oject inWestern Australia.

Legally Speaking

Field work at one of Churchill Mining’s tenements in Kalimantan.

CHURCHILL FILES EAST KUTAI APPEAL


ACCORDING to Xstrata T echnology, itsIsaMill horizontal grinding mill has gainedground in the tertiary grind and the r egrindmarkets. Originally developed for fine grind-ing down to 7 µm for lead/zinc or es, XstrataTechnology says the IsaMill has also estab-lished itself in coarser applications for a vari-ety of ore types that include copper , nickel,platinum group minerals, industrial minerals,gold and lately, molybdenum and magnetite.

According to the company, which is a sub-sidiary of Xstrata plc, mor e than 90 IsaMillshave been installed worldwide since the firstinstallation in 1994, with mor e than 140 MWof power employed in grinding minerals. Themajority of the mills operate using ceramicmedia, providing an iron-free grinding environ-ment to allow better contr ol of downstreamflotation and leaching operations due to no fer-ric ions being generated by the media.

The other big advantage of the mills, saidXstrata, is energy efficiency due to the abra-sion and attrition grinding action of themedia on mineral particles. The high mediaload in the mill, agitated by high-speedgrinding discs, ensur es minimal energywaste and provides high energy ef ficiency.The IsaMill also incorporates a pr oprietaryparticle separator, minimizing overgrindingof the particles as the ground particles passthrough the separator, while reticulating theoversize material back into the mill.

An IsaMill can be pr ovided as part of acomplete grinding plant for pr ojects, whichreduces the installation time for the pr oject.

Steve Schmidt, operations manager–mineralprocessing at Xstrata Technology, said cus-tomers are interested in this approach, as itminimizes risk and includes mills, surr ound-ing steel work, feed and discharge pump-boxes and pumps and the media chargingsystem as well as commissioning crews.

Schmidt said the large number of IsaMill cir-cuits Xstrata Technology has designed and in-stalled, from the smallest M250 and M500circuits to the largest M10000 cir cuits withmultiple mills, ensur es that key informationfrom development of previous circuits is usedin any current project, leading to trouble-freeoperation when the circuits are commissioned.

Projects in various stages of study or de-velopment that will include IsaMill technologyinclude the Endako molybdenum pr oject,where three M1000 IsaMills powered by 500-kW (670-hp) motors ar e being installed. Alarger M3000 IsaMill will be installed at a Valenickel concentrator in a br ownfield applica-tion, using ceramic media to assist in down-stream nickel flotation. Both pr ojects are in

Canada, with Xstrata Technology’s Vancou-ver office managing IsaMills installations.

Xstrata Copper’s recently approved LasBambas Project also will feature IsaMills. Theproject is located in the Apurímac Region ofSouthern Peru, and is expected to be one ofthe biggest greenfield copper mines to comeon stream globally in the next decade. XstrataTechnology will provide three M3000 IsaMillsin the regrind circuit of the new concentrator.Each mill will be powered by 1500-kW (2,000-hp) motors and will use ceramic media.

The new concentrator will be designed totreat 140,000 mt/d of ore in a two-line oper-ation and will initially pr oduce 400,000 mt/yof copper in concentrates. The IsaMills will beincluded in the concentrate regrinding circuit,and like Xstrata Copper’s Antapaccay instal-lation, will incorporate Xstrata Coppers’ stan-dard concentrator design concept.

Bob Drabik, executive general manager ofXstrata Copper Project Development–SouthAmerica, said: “We chose IsaMill technologyfor our Antapaccay and Las Bambas projects


Grinding Mills

ISAMILLS ROLL INTO NEWGRINDING APPLICATIONS

Initially designed for ultrafine grinding, IsaMills have taken on a number of new fineand coarse grinding tasks in a wide variety of ore types

IsaMill circuit including IsaMill, pump boxes and the new IsaCharger media handling system.

Grinding Mills_Layout 1 6/17/11 4:29 PM Page 63

in southern Peru because of the equipment’senergy efficiency and ability to deliver a pr e-cise size distribution curve with minimal over-grinding, which in tur n helps to r educeexcessive circulating loads.

“A primary consideration when developingour new projects is to seek ways to minimizeour environmental footprint and IsaMill tech-nology helps us to achieve this due to itssmaller size than other comparable mills.”

The IsaMills ar e being supplied as a fullpackage, where Xstrata Technology will beresponsible for the supply of the mills, steel-work, feed and discharge pumpboxes, aswell as the new proprietary IsaCharger mediatransfer system. The M3000 IsaMills will in-clude the new High Flow design that permitshigh tonnage throughput, and still delivers su-perior energy ef ficiency. Commissioning ofthe mills is planned for 2014.

NEW DEVELOPMENTSIron Ore ApplicationsThe newest application for the IsaMill is inmagnetite grinding. An M10000 is being in-stalled at Xstrata Copper’s Ernest Henry mine,in Queensland, Australia, where a new circuitat the plant will use magnetite-rich tailings fromthe copper concentrator to pr oduce a high-grade iron concentrate for export.

An M10000 IsaMill will be installed in the circuitto reduce magnetite-bearing material down to40 µm for production of higher-value concen-

trate. Total production from the circuit is plannedto be 1.2 million metric tons per year (mt/y).

John Twomey, manager—magnetite projectfor Xstrata Copper, said that Xstrata Technologywill provide an M10000 IsaMill package to theErnest Henry site, which includes the IsaMill,powered by a 3-MW motor, as well as feed anddischarge pumpboxes, steel work and mediaaddition system. The Installation of the mill at thesite is planned for the first half of 2011

IsaChargerXstrata Technology also notes that a newmedia handling system for the IsaMill hasbeen undergoing development over the lastseveral years, r esulting in r elease of theIsaCharger, which has no moving parts anduses a high-capacity water induction feeder,a fully integrated media collection system,pipework, valving and instrumentation to effi-ciently add media to the IsaMill. TheIsaCharger has been designed to operate intwo modes: the first is to add media at lowrates to maintain the grinding power on themill. However, it also can be set to r efill themill quickly after maintenance at much higheraddition rates. This reduces the media han-dling and enables the mill to operate at higherpower much quicker than previous methods,minimizing downtime.

High Flow RangeThe IsaMill design was r ecently improved toincorporate High Flow models. Based onDEM computational modelling, the mill de-sign was modified to allow for higher through-puts to be achieved in the mill, impr ovingpower draw and power efficiency. The basicshape, footprint and auxiliaries around the millremain the same as the previous model, andceramic media is still used in the mill.

Information for this article was provided by Xstrata Technology.

Grinding Mills


Xstrata Technology’s new IsaCharger is a media addition system for IsaMills; it has no moving parts and uses water induction to transfer media to the mill.

This 3,000-kW M100000 IsaMill was installed at PanAustralian’s Phu Kham copper operation in Laos in 2007. In Octo-ber 2010, the company approved a $110-million investment to increase capacity of the Phu Kham process plant to an-nual copper production of 65,000-70,000 mt starting in mid-2012. The scope of the upgrade includes an increase to anominal 16 mt/y of ore from the current rate of 12 million mt/y.

Grinding Mills_Layout 1 6/17/11 4:29 PM Page 64


Product News

1. GET THE MEASURE OF YOUR FUEL USEYou can’t manage what you can’ t measure.To make sure that a mine is getting what itpays for it is essential to have inward flow me-tering. This gives managers a baseline meas-ure of what comes into the site.

On site fuel measur ement is now an easyand powerful pr ocess for contr olling costs.Many mining companies are wasting significantmoney because they cannot measur e fuelwastage or fuel shrinkage. Precise monitoring,reconciliation and centralized reporting is pos-sible for all hydrocarbons dispensed by vehi-cle, tank and distribution points.

The benefits of such systems extend farbeyond fuel security. They assist with envi-ronmental compliance, stock reconciliation,maintenance scheduling, cost analysis, the

calculation of burn rates, fuel or dering andthe correct claiming of tax credits.

2. FILTRATION PREVENTS CONTAMINATIONReducing contamination is a key to enhanc-ing the life of capital equipment - anothermajor cost input for mines. Fuel quality is alsocritical in optimizing the efficient operation ofthat equipment. Clean air and fuel can im-prove fuel economy in equipment by be-tween 5% and 8%. Having a clean fuelsupply to begin with is important but a minesite generates plenty of water and dust par -ticles that can quickly contaminate fuel sup-plies. A leading mining company r ecentlycarried out a global study of its fleets and de-termined that it had between 200 and 300tonnes of dirt in its equipment fuel tanks.

Data suggests that up to 70% of lubricatedequipment failure is attributable to contamina-tion. Water and particle contamination signifi-cantly reduces the longevity of the majormechanical components in the engine. It also in-creases fuel injector degradation. Proper injectoroperation is, of course, vital for optimum com-bustion, economy, emissions and lubrication.

While cutting costs and corners in filtration is afalse economy the solution is not always buyingmore equipment or upgrading to mor e expen-sive synthetic base lubricants. The solution oftenlies in establishing contamination control meas-ures. There have also been significant improve-ments in oil transfer fittings in r ecent years toensure a cleaner, more reliable connection. Verylow cost solutions like ensuring tank vents haverobust and serviceable seals as well as making

FUEL is one of the majorcosts for mining opera -tions, accounting for up to40% of the total cost of

equipment operation. Particularly in an envi-ronment of rising fuel prices, mine managerscan enjoy significant efficiency savings by tak-ing a unified fuel management approach from

‘buy’ right thr ough to ‘bur n’. Here are fiveareas that are critical for ef fective unified fuelmanagement that will save mines money andimprove productivity in the long term:

By Bill Clifton, Banlaw chief executive officer

MINES MUST UNIFY FUEL SUPPLY FROM

Banlaw urges mine operators to adopt a unified fuel management approach.

Supplier-Product News_Layout 1 6/17/11 4:34 PM Page 66

PAID ADVERTISEMENT


sure dust caps are on when couplings aren’t inuse can all help to make fuel inputs cleaner.

Another issue affecting mines is new emis-sion control standards that will continue to bestrengthened as governments and industry re-spond to climate change. OEMs are already in-troducing more stringent fuel cleanlinessrequirements. Unfortunately, this means that inmany mines we are seeing modern mining ve-hicle engines not able to perform as they ar edesigned using current grade fuel. A commonmistake is to simply buy a filter but if it is not theright one for the job it can lead to other costly is-sues such as r educed fuel flow. I have seenfuel-flow rates drop by 50% because a minehas inserted a filter into a fuel line to meet OEMspecifications. Filtration must be designed to re-duce contamination and maintain flow rates.

New filtered tank vents are coming on to themarket offering substantially finer tank filtrationwhile ever the tank is br eathing. Rates of 10micron absolute can now be achieved as op-posed to current rates of 30 micron nominal fil-tration. These fine filtered vents also have theadded advantage of a separate exhaust pathwhich doesn’t allow the filter elements to bedamaged or compromised by overfilling.

3. TANK LEVEL MONITORINGAn often overlooked aspect of unified fuelmanagement is fuel tank level monitoring.

Monitoring is essential for water detectionwhich, as discussed above, is a real issue interms of contamination of fuel stocks.

With proper fuel tank monitoring in placemines can also look at ef ficiencies gainedthrough fuel companies managing site fuelstocks. With web-based monitoring it is easyto ensure that tanks don’t get below 75% full.Monitoring also provides opportunities for con-signment stock and the charging of third partiesworking on the mine site for fuel used.

here are simple tank systems that can beinstalled to ensur e zero overfill, zer o tankpressure and zero spillage during refuelling.Mines no longer need to have the unsafe andcostly practice of manually checking tank lev-els. Creating zero tank pressure also extendsthe working life of the asset and r educesmaintenance costs. Reducing spillagesmakes for a cleaner, safer workplace.

4. FASTER, SAFER FUEL DISPENSINGBeing able to reduce the downtime associatedwith refuelling vehicles and equipment can bringsignificant savings and ef ficiencies to a site.Using nozzles with the highest possible flowrate is one solution. Ther e are now refuellingnozzles and systems that can deliver flow ratesof up to1000 litres per minute. Many mines areachieving rates of just 500 litr es per minute,when they could be halving refuelling times.

Speeding up the pumping of fuel is onlypart of the solution and may prove ineffectiveif the other equipment mounted componentsare not suitable. An equipment suitabilityaudit is a simple way to ensur e the differentOEM components and systems used to r e-fuel mining vehicles ar e customised to suitthe application and site requirements.

5. FACILITY MANAGEMENTWhen it comes to our health we all know pre-vention is better than cur e. A ‘healthy’ minesite is one wher e assets are monitored andprotected to ensure their day-to-day reliability.

Proper programmed maintenance ensur esmines gain the maximum benefit from their uni-fied fuel management systems. Having expertsfrom external companies on site as r equired,rather than employing staf f, can provide effi-ciencies here. Our clients also enjoy the addedbenefit of a 24-hour help desk, an incr easinglyimportant requirement for mines operatingaround the clock. Mine managers don’ t wantdown time when paying overtime rates!

An example of the importance of mainte-nance is the calibration of diesel meters. Thisnot only ensures that a vital piece of equip-ment is working accurately; it is also a legal re-quirement. Australia’s National MeasurementInstitute recommends all meters be inspectedand calibrated on a six monthly basis.


Product News

1. GET THE MEASUREBanlaw FuelTrack– Precise monitoring, rec-onciliation and centralized reporting of fuel use.

2. BEAT CONTAMINATIONBanlaw LubeCentral- Makes oil and fluidtransfer a clean, efficient and safe operation.

3. TANK LEVEL MONITORINGBanlaw FillSafe- Fully electronic and auto-matic system with flow rates of up to 1000litres per minute with zero tank pressure andzero overfill.

4. FUEL DISPENSINGBanlaw Refuelling Systems- At rates of upto 1000 litres per minute. Drybreak refuellingnozzles, receivers, vents, caps, br eakawayvalves and check valve receivers.

5. FACILITY MANAGEMENTProgrammed Maintenance ServicesAudit and Consulting ServicesDiesel Meter Calibration Services

As the pioneers of Unified Fuel Management, Banlaw

employs a unique end-to-end fuel management

process called Fuel-Pro3. With integrated fuel

management hardware, end-to-end fuel asset man-

agement, consulting and training, Unified Fuel Man-

agement delivers productivity, reconciliation and cost

reduction like no competing solution. Its products

and systems are now used in 29 countries. Visit

www.banlaw.com or see Banlaw representatives at

the AIMEX convention in Sydney.

Unified Fuel Management makes fuel use more efficient at mime sites.

Pioneers of Unified Fuel Management


LUDOWICI is set to revolutionize the mining industry with its latest tech-nologies in fine coal beneficiation known as the Reflux Classifier or RC,which was developed thr ough a joint ventur e with the University ofNewcastle. This new equipment can be configured for separating fineparticles on the basis of either density or size. As of ficial licensors ofthis technology internationally, no other company may promote or layclaim to the technology without Ludowici’s undertaking.

The company says the Reflux Classifier is the perfect alternative tospiral technology and has a footprint up to six times smaller than spi-rals. Used in coal and minerals pr ocessing, it combines three tech-nologies - a Lamella Settler, an Autogenous Dense Medium Separatorand a Fluidised Bed Separator. It comprises inclined lamellar channelsthat deliver better hydraulics compared to conventional technologies.

Ludowici’s Classifier technology has already been proven with theRC300, RC600 Mk2 and RC2020 units applying the latest in gravity-based separation engineering. The RC2020 model has been en-hanced for fine coal and minerals applications and comprises a moreeasily scalable design incorporating a new ‘laminar high shear rate’mechanism. Ludowici will unveil the RC2020 at this year’s AIMEX atSydney Olympic Park from September 6-9.

Ludowici’s Reflux Classifier technology can be ‘test driven’ thr oughthe smaller, pilot RC300 scaled unit. The RC300 is designed for in-planttest work in coal and minerals applications and pr ovides an excellentopportunity for engineers to observe how RC technology is one of themore exciting developments in mineral processing for decades.

Ludowici has RC300 pilot units used in minerals field-testingthroughout Australia, North America, China, India and South Africa.The Reflux Classifiers of fer enhanced functionality with featur es in-corporating a new cone-shaped base for impr oving underflow, around mixing section, additional wear -resistant lining as well as im-proved internal launder adjustment and instrumentation.

Ludowici was founded in 1858 and is one of Australia’ s most es-tablished companies. Today it is a world leader in the design, manu-facture and supply of minerals pr ocessing and materials handlingequipment. Products servicing the mining industry include vibratingscreens and feeders, the patented Reflux Classifier , centrifuges,screening media and consumables, various piping solutions and wearresistant materials.

Ludowici’s managing director Patrick Largier says the diverse suiteof products and services is testimony to the company’s reputation forinnovation founded more than 150 years ago with continued dedica-tion to manufacturing quality and service excellence. “Ludowici istrusted in international markets and our vision is to build an inter na-tional business by innovating for our customers, sharing the knowl-edge of our people and developing our own technology.”

From its head office in Brisbane, Ludowici’s global footprint now in-cludes wholly-owned subsidiaries in South Africa, Chile, Peru, USA,China, India and agents in other mining r esource countries. PatrickLargier says Ludowici has placed special emphasis on driving salesgrowth in Asia through its operations in India and China, its agents inIndonesia, Vietnam, Philippines and its customers in Thailand, Laosand PNG. “Ludowici continues to target sales gr owth as the miningindustry expands in the region.”

He says Ludowici products are widely recognized for their qualityand value, and are backed by significant investments in research, de-velopment and service. “Ludowici represents leading edge innovationfor our customers, sharing the knowledge of our people and devel-oping our own technology.”

These values were recognized when Ludowici was announced aswinner of Ai Group's 2011 Icon of Industry award at the QueenslandGala Dinner on May 5, 2011. This awar d was presented to PatrickLargier by Queensland Pr emier Anna Bligh, who made the an-nouncement in front of almost 300 business and government leaders.

The technology was also recognized by the IChemE2010 Awards inthe UK, winning the Cor e Chemical Engineering category for maxi-mizing resource efficiency.

Product News


PROVEN CLASSIFIER TECHNOLOGY

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh presents the Ai Group's 2011 Icon of Industry award to Ludowici managing director Patrick Largier.



Product News

MICROMINE, a provider of intuitive software so-lutions to the exploration and mining industry, hasbeen selected by Gold Fields Ltd to implementits mine control and management reporting so-lution, Pitram Optimum, at the Damang GoldMine in Ghana. The company says Pitram Opti-mum will allow Damang to increase productionefficiencies by capturing data in real-time and im-proving the site’s reporting capabilities.

MICROMINE says Pitram is a mine control andmanagement reporting solution that provides thetools needed to make informed production andsafety decisions, and run shifts more effectively.Comprised of intuitive asset, personnel and ma-terial tracking; safety; grade and stockpile man-agement; real-time viewing; planning andoptimization; and reporting and analytics capa-bilities, Pitram offers mining operations of all sizesa scalable and flexible solution for maximizingprofitability and driving continuous improvement.

Pitram Optimum is one of four solutions thatcomprise the Pitram product suite, which pro-vides a unique upgrade path from the entry levelPitram Report solution, to the Pitram Control So-lution, then to the fully automated Pitram FleetManager and Pitram Optimum Solutions.

The implementation of Pitram Optimum atDamang, an open-pit gold mine in southwest

Ghana, began in early May 2011 and is expectedto be complete in mid-September. MICROMINEhas also been contracted by Gold Fields to pro-vide the wireless network that communicates, inreal-time, the information captured by Pitram.

MICROMINE’s business solution managerKyle van der Berg explains, “Because PitramOptimum integrates production planning andoptimization, Damang will see a significantimprovement with regards to the execution ofmining plans and the maximization of assetutilization and efficiency.

“Damang’s management will be able to com-pare actuals against plans and will have the abil-ity to correct deviations from plans. Also, throughintuitive equipment allocation, Damang can op-timize production, reduce wait time and executeshift plans according to design or blending r e-quirements. This will allow business targets to beachieved at the lowest possible cost”.

PITRAM OPTIMUM FOR DAMANG

CYTEC Industries have intr oduced its latestACORGA OR15 and ACORGA OR25 extrac-tants which are specifically formulated to pro-vide extra oxidative degradation protection.

Cytec’s Asia Pacific r egional sales managerShane Wiggett says, “Our ACORGA extractantsenable customers to limit the ef fects of high

manganese oxidation, r educe organic lossesand impurity transfer, and improve stage effi-ciency. Ultimately, this results in an improved andefficient extraction process with a higher yield.”

Cytec offers two extraction product families- hydroxyoxime extractants under the nameACORGA and organo-phosphorus deriva-

tives under the name CYANEX.The ACORGA NR and ACORGA OR series

expand Cytec’s line of solvent extraction prod-ucts for copper solvent extraction. They helpprotect against degradation of solvent extrac-tant, particularly that caused by exposur e tohigh nitration or oxidative conditions.

This is a significant challenge for mining com-panies, many of which have more than $1mil-lion invested in extractants that their pr ocessuses over and over again. The Cytec productsresult in substantial cost savings by r educingextractant replacement costs and impr ovingthe operational reliability of a processing facility.

CYANEX 600 allows mining companies toextract valuable molybdenum from their cop-per solvent extraction process. Molybdenumalso exists at varying levels in most or eprocessed for copper extraction. By extractingthis metal during their copper solvent extrac-tion process, mining companies can gain anadditional revenue stream from their existingoperations. Molybdenum is in high demand foruse in alloys that are used in applications thatrequire high-strength, high pressure, high tem-perature or high corrosion resistance. Cytec’sCYANEX 600 allows selective extraction, pu-rification and concentration of molybdenumfrom low concentration acidic streams.

OXIDATIVE DEGRADATION PROTECTION

The super pit at the Damang Gold Mine in Ghana.



Product News

CONVEYOR safety for moving bulk materials inmining and manufacturing operations is criticaland there are few more dangerous environmentsthan conveyors. It’s reasonable for employees toexpect that the workplace will be clean and safe,free of spillage from conveyors. If this is not a pri-ority and employees ar e expected to work inpoor conditions then staff turnover will be highand worker safety will be compromised.

Kinder & Co’s K-Self Aligning Idlers for bothtrough and return applications are used toovercome belt miss-tracking. They are madeto suit the existing belt pr ofile and are con-structed using a centre pivot bearing.

The most common type is the ‘pivoting basestyle and this type of K-Self Aligning Idler , inboth trough and return applications, automati-cally provides belt centring. The outboard servorollers cause the idler frame to pivot as theycontact the belt edge and this swivel actioncauses the belt to realign automatically.

When considering the ef fects of conveyormiss-alignment, the consequences of requiredmanpower to corr ect the situation or the

spillage are significant.Misaligned conveyor belts ar e potentially

the cause for many problems associated withthe conveying of bulk materials. This includesmaterial spillage and reduced life to conveyor

belting and conveyor structure. The goal in achieving pr oper and consis-

tent belt tracking is to ensur e safe, consis-tent, trouble-free, economical conveyorsystem operation.

AVOID BELT MISS-TRACKING

Kinder and Co’s K-Self Aligning Idlers overcome conveyor belt miss-tracking.


A NEWLY refurbished geological laboratory in East T imor will boostthe fledgling country’s research capacity and help geologists betterunderstand its complex geology. A joint project involving The Univer-sity of Western Australia (UWA), East Timor’s National Petroleum Au-thority (ANP) and State Secretariat for Natural Resources (SERN), andItalian-based international oil and gas company Eni, the r enovatedbuilding was opened during a cer emony in the capital, Dili.Pr ojectmanager John Williamson, of UWA’s School of Earth and Envir on-ment, was responsible for designing and implementing the pr oject,with UWA professors Myra Keep and David Haig. Pr ofessor Keepsaid the university had been asked to submit a pr oposal to turn theexisting lab into a hi-tech facility for rock preparation and petrology.

“The new lab boasts some of the latest technologies in preparing ge-ological materials and production of petrographic thin sections. It hasthe capacity to operate as a one-stop shop for housing of geologicalsample collections and their pr eparation on site for further analyses,”she said. “The lab can be used for storing equipment and materials forprocessing paleontological samples as well as curating and storing rock

specimens collected during mapping and exploration trips.”UWA has also helped train SERN technicians to operate the new fa-

cility and equipment. Pr ofessor Keep said geological sample pr o-cessing was highly skilled and r equired specialist training andconstant practice.

Eni Timor Leste country representative Tony Heynen said the refur-bishment was the r esult of common inter ests between Eni T imorLeste, SERN and ANP to build capacity in the petr oleum sector. Hesaid Eni held four production sharing contracts in the Timor-Leste Ex-clusion Area and was committed to providing support for petroleuminfrastructure projects in the region. “Eni committed over US$1.1 mil-lion to this project and we thank SERN and ANP for entrusting us withthis contribution and UWA for fully delivering the project in time andwithin budget.”

East Timorese company RMS Constructions carried out the r efur-bishment with more than two-thirds of the workforce employed lo-cally and sourcing 60% of goods from within East Timor.FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT UWA: WWW.UWA.EDU.AU


Supplier News

GERMANY’S ContiTech Conveyor Belt Grouphas strengthened its position in China andnorthern Asia through the acquisition of TianjinXinbinhai Conveyor Belt Co. ContiTech plans toexpand the Tianjin-based company’s produc-tion facilities and to produce its industrial con-veyor belts for Asian markets from the plant.

The transaction was finalized on May 28when ContiTech’s mining world segment headClaus Peter Spille and T ianjin Xinbinhai Con-veyor Belt’s future general manager Dr Hong-bin Dong signed the contracts closing the dealwith the local sellers. Both sides have agr eednot to disclose the purchase price.

ContiTech Conveyor Belt Group’s generalmanager Hans-Jürgen Duensing says, “Thismove gives us a new market in an up-and-coming region and strengthens ContiTech’sposition in China. W e already manufactureconveyor belts for industrial applications at anumber of locations worldwide. Now we cansupply the Chinese market with pr oductsmade right in the country. We are set to fur-ther expand the plant.”

Situated in the port city of T ianjin, 120kmsoutheast of Beijing, the plant pr oducesmainly conveyor belts for metal and cementprocessing and mining, as well as for powerplants, port operations and the automotiveindustry. It has a workforce of around 150.

ContiTech, which is based in the norther n

German centre of Northeim, has been activein China already for 30 years. ContiTech has2100 employees in China and currently pro-duces hose line systems, vibration compo-nents, air springs, surface materials,conveyor belts, drive belts, coated fabrics,and other components and systems locallyat nine modern production plants.

It is thus able to very successfully serve theneeds of automakers, machine and plant engi-neering and construction, mining, the printingindustry, and rail transportation.

康迪泰克增强了在中国的地位

总部设在德国的康迪泰克输送带集团通过收

购天津鑫滨海输送带有限公司，巩固了其在

中国和亚洲北部的地位。康迪泰克计划扩建

这个天津公司的生产设备，为中国市场提供

用于工业领域的输送带。

收购合同于5月28日，由康迪泰克采矿业务单元主管Claus Peter Spille和即将出任天津鑫滨海输送带有限公司总经理一职的董宏

斌博士，以及卖方代表一同签订。双方协商

同意不透露收购价格。

康迪泰克输送带集团总经理Hans-JürgenDuensing表示，“通过此次收购，我们将在新兴地区开发一个新市场，同时增强在中国

的市场地位。我们已在全球许多生产基地制

造用于工业领域的输送带。现在，我们能够

为中国市场供应本土生产的产品，并且将继

续扩建这一生产基地。”

天津鑫滨海公司位于中国港口城市天津，距

离北京东南120公里。该公司生产的输送带主要用于金属、水泥和采矿工业，以及发电厂、

港口作业和汽车工业。公司约有150名员工。康迪泰克位于德国北部的中心诺特海姆

县，进入中国市场已经有30年的时间。康迪泰克在中国拥有2100名员工，目前，公司在中国建有九座现代化的生产工厂，分别生

产管路系统、振动元件、空气弹簧、表面材

料、输送带、传动带和涂胶布材料等产品。

能够全面满足汽车业、机器与设备制造业

与施工、建筑业、采矿业、印刷业以及铁路

运输业等领域的需求。

CONTITECH CHINA ACQUISITION

EAST TIMOR LAB REFURBISHED

ContiTech will produce industrial conveyor belts for Asianmarkets from its plant in Tianjin.



Supplier News

ESCO Corporation, a designer, manufacturer and provider of highlyengineered wear parts and replacement products used in mining andinfrastructure development, has appointed Stonetec Industrial Sup-plies as its distributor in Tasmania, Australia.

Located in Hobart, Stonetec Industrial Supplies is a leading localsupplier of mining and construction equipment, and is well positionedto serve ESCO’s customers in this region.

ESCO Asia Pacific operations managing director Jeff Kershaw says,“We are very excited to have Stonetec as a partner in Tasmania. Withmore than 30 years of experience in the mining and construction in-dustry, the Stonetec team is known for its outstanding product knowl-edge and superior customer service. They ar e a key addition toESCO’s global network of distributors in Australia.”

Stonetec will offer a complete range of ESCO Pr oducts includingSV2 and Ultralok ground engaging tools, Universal W ear Solutionsand ESCO blades following expiration of ESCO’s licence agreementwith Bradken on June 30.

ESCO is also expanding its presence in Australia with a new salesand service location in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales.Jeff Kershaw says, “ESCO Rutherford represents a crucial step for-ward in our efforts to directly serve Australian customers with qualityESCO products and support services.”

When fully operational on July 1, 2011, the Rutherford location willbe home to local sales and service personnel, and will offer a full line

of ESCO ground engaging tools, including the SV2 and Ultralok toothsystems, buckets and related wear parts, as well as a complete rangeof manganese crusher products, and bi-metallic wear buttons andblocks. ESCO Rutherford will also sell the new ESCO truck bodies.

ESCO's director of sales for Australia Steve Lennard says, “ESCOCorporation’s investment in a Rutherford facility provides a vital con-nection to our customers in the Hunter Valley region. We look forwardto serving these key customers with r obust customer support andimmediate access to ESCO products and services.”

ESCO EXPANDS IN AUSTRALIA


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AUGUR Resources has intersected br oadzones of gold-copper mineralization in diamonddrilling at Randu Kuning pr ospect within theWonogiri joint venture project in Java, Indonesia.A recent intersection of 105.5 metr es @ 0.95grams/tonne gold and 0.24% copper fr om 14metres included 2 metres @ 6.06 grams/tonnegold and 1.0% copper from 40.5 metres.

While this zone began at 14 metres, anom-alous gold was detected from surface whichindicates further mineralization may exist tothe west of the hole. Another hole drilledabout 60 metres to the west r eturned 59.1metres @ 1.31 grams/tonne gold and 0.30%copper from 8.2 metres.

Augur and joint venture partner PT Oxindohave also received assays from the first 92.5metres of another hole drilled to the west ofand below an earlier hole that r eturned 37metres @ 1.23 grams/tonne gold and 0.44%copper. The recent work detected two zonesof mineralization, including 32.5 metres from5 metres @ 0.66 grams/tonne gold and

0.13% copper, and a further 43 metres from49.5 metres @ 1.55 grams/tonne gold and0.27% copper.

Additional mineralized areas exist aroundRandu Kuning. Augur has escalated itstrenching program after identifying a numberof additional targets and is undertaking de-tailed assessments of each with the aim ofdrill testing the most promising zones duringthe remainder of 2011. It is focusing initialdrilling at Randu Kuning with the intention ofestimating an initial JORC-compliant r e-source by the fourth quarter.

Wonogiri is in the Sunda Banda Arc whichalso includes Newmont Mining’s Batu Hijauand Elang projects and Intrepid Mines’ TujuhBukit. It is 30km south of the provincial city ofSolo in central Java and easily accessible bydaily flights fr om Jakarta. Augur has anagreement to earn a 51% interest after ex-penditure of US$1.5 million by December 15,2011, and can earn an 80% if it spends a fur-ther US$2 million by the same date in 2012.

Weishan zones identifiedFOUR major zones of mineralization havebeen identified in an exploration concessionin Weishan County, Yunnan Province, China,hosting gold, copper, lead-zinc, iron and an-timony mineralization. South American Iron &Steel (SAIS) is set to purchase an 11.25% in-terest in the concession for US$1.2 million.

In 2009 Weishan Feiste Mining Companywas granted the 48.15sqkm concession,which was historically exploited by local arti-sanal miners. Targeted costeaning, tunnellingand drilling are expected to go ahead soon.

The Sichuan Metallurgical Geological Bu-reau 606 Survey Institute’ s previous workprogram identified the zones – north andsouth extensions of the Zacun gold minearea, the Ganjiaping zinc-lead zone, theMiaojiacun copper zone and a zone contain-ing antimony in the north-west.

Geochemical soil sampling was conductedin the copper zone and the north and southextensions to the gold zone, to mor e accu-rately define the major mineralized systems.The bureau also completed geological map-ping across the region surrounding the Zacungold region, where six gold mineralizationbelts were defined.

Surface sampling and tunnelling has r e-vealed near-surface gold mineralization. Thesurface sampling, trenching and tunnellingwork along strike to the north and south ofthe Zacun gold mine reveals highly prospec-tive gold mineralization.

The bureau initially defined a mineralizationzone 200 metres-long and 150 metres-widein the Ganjiaping zone. Costeans and tun-nelling revealed five mineralized belts, thr eeof which have been further defined thr oughshallow engineering work.

In the Miaojiacun zone, mineralization is inthe core of a fragmented zone, distributednorth-south on the short axis of an anticline.The brecciated zone is over 40 metres wide.Hydrothermal copper mineralization appearsas multiple narr ow veins and stockworks.Massive chalcopyrite deposits have been ob-served in numerous samples.

The transaction by ASX-listed SAIS in-volves the purchase of 15% of the shares inHong Kong company Ample Success In-vestment, whose sole asset is a 75% inter-est in the concession.


Exploration

STRONG GOLD-COPPER INTERSECTIONS AT WONOGIRI

Core samples from the Wonogiri project of Augur Resources.

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Documents

Asia Miner Magazine.july Edition(Page 56)