World Mining Exploration News

Australia conservatives buoyed by state election

Australia looked set to expand uranium mining on Sunday with conservatives poised to win elections in resource powerhouse Western Australia state and demolish the coast-to-coast grip of the centre-left.

State Labor Premier Alan Carpenter was bravely tipping a hung parliament with four of the 59 seats still in doubt, but election analysts said the two conservative opposition parties would likely form a coalition government in coming days.

“It has not been the sort of night and the sort of day that we had hoped,” said Carpenter, who called the election five months early to capitalise on disarray caused by a conservative leader caught sniffing the chair of a female staffer.
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Posted in Exploration, Iron ore, Mining, Mining Contractor, Mining Investment, Mining Technology, Uranium | No Comments »

Pacific Iron Corporation Announces Commencement of 2008 Exploration Program

Pacific Iron Ore Corporation (TSX VENTURE:POC), announces the commencement of its 2008 exploration activities with respect to its Pearson Project located on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

On June 1, 2008 the Corporation initiated a drilling program which will eventually be comprised of approximately 70 diamond drill hole samples and cost approximately $1.5 million. As of today’s date the Corporation has completed 48 holes from 28 separate pad locations. The core has been logged and saw cut with samples provided to ALS Chemex, an ISO 9001 and ISO 17025 accredited facility located in North Vancouver, British Columbia, for analysis. For determination of recoverable magnetite, a selection of core samples will be provided to B.C. Mining Research Ltd. for percentage magnetic (Davis Tube) testing. The results of the above tests, when available to the Corporation, will be reported to shareholders at a future date and in a manner consistent with the requirements of National Instrument 43-101 entitled “Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects” as adopted by the Canadian Securities Regulators. Read the rest of this entry »

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Frank Timis faces court over African mines

FRANK TIMIS is no stranger to controversy. Only three years ago he sparked City outrage over the near-collapse of Regal Petroleum. Now the Romanian, who has a number of drug offences behind him, is on the cusp of a legal battle in Sierra Leone over a $45m (£26m) cash and shares deal he announced to the stock exchange last week.

A UK-registered mining minnow fears Timis may have sold exploration rights that did not belong to African Minerals, the AIM-listed miner he controls.

Late last week London Mining filed a writ in a court in Sierra Leone seeking an injunction that would force Timis, 44, to move his workforce from two stretches of disputed land.
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Sphere looking for new partners for iron ore mine in Mauritania

Australia’s Sphere Investments Limited has held fresh talks with potential investors to help develop an iron ore mine in Mauritania.

Sphere and its local partner in the USD 2.2 billion Guelb el Aouj project, Societe Nationale Industrielle et Miniere, have been looking for fresh backing after Qatar Steel backed out of a plan to take a 15% stake.
The pullout came around two weeks after soldiers seized Mauritanian President Mr Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi at his palace after he sacked senior army officers during a political crisis.

Sphere Investments said that its current search for a new strategic partner for its advanced magnetite iron ore project in Mauritania could potentially increase planned maiden production.
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BHP restarting all but one Australia iron ore mine

The world’s biggest miner, BHP Billiton Ltd/Plc, began restarting its Australian iron ore mines a day after shutting down operations over the death of a second mine worker in 10 days, a company spokeswoman said on Saturday.

BHP (BHP.AX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (BLT.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) shut in a third of Australia’s production when it halted production on Friday, and the Yandi mine where the fatalities occurred remains shut as investigations into the deaths continue, the spokeswoman said.

“We’re gradually restarting our operations in the Pilbara, except for Yandi, where the mine is still shut,” BHP spokeswoman Samantha Evans told Reuters.

Evans said it was not yet clear when the mines would return to full production, or when the Yandi lode, 500 km (310 miles) east of the western coast in Australia’s Pilbara district, might be reactivated.
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Vale to Seek Higher Iron-Ore Prices in Asia

Brazil’s Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, the world’s largest iron-ore mining company, this week notified some Asian steelmakers it intends to seek a 20% price increase for contracts it had renegotiated in June.

While the steelmakers privately say they will protest the increase by not paying or finding other suppliers, analysts said the protests are unlikely to succeed. Steel-intensive cars, appliances and construction equipment could get more expensive if, as expected, the companies accept and pass rising costs to their customers. In recent weeks, steel prices have fallen because of a slowing world economy, but the mills are likely to curtail some production to tighten supplies and firm prices.
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MSHA seeks criminal charges in Crandall Canyon coal mine disaster

The Mine Safety and Health Administration announced Wednesday that the agency has asked the U.S. Attorney for Utah to conduct a criminal investigation into the August 2007 Crandall Canyon coal mining disaster, which ultimately killed nine men.

In a news release, Richard E. Stickler, acting assistant secretary of labor for MSHA said, “Through its investigation of the tragic accidents last year at Crandall Canyon, MSHA determined that the operator and its engineering consultants demonstrated reckless regard for safety. MSHA has referred this case for possible criminal charges.”

Previously, both the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions had requested a criminal probe of Crandall Canyon. House committee chairman, Rep. George Miller, D-California, said he believed that Laine Adair, General Manager of the Crandall Canyon coal mine, “willfully misled” federal officials. Read the rest of this entry »

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Coal mines to invite price based bidding soon

Financial Express reported that in a major public private partnership initiative India government is considering development of coal mines through price based bidding as was done in case of ultra mega power projects. A proposal to this effect has been made by the power ministry and is under consideration of the coal ministry.

It has been suggested that coal blocks can be bid out by inviting competitive bids for arriving at the lowest price per tonne of coal. The bidding could be undertaken by a special purpose vehicle under Coal India Limited.

As per report, the coal so produced would be supplied and sold directly to power projects identified by the ministry of coal through agreements between the procurers and the coal mining entities.
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Alaska’s Usibelli mines coal for 65 years, and there’s plenty left to dig

If a North Slope gas pipeline is built will it take markets away from Alaska’s longtime and only coal producer, the Usibelli mine at Healy?

People working on studies of in-state gas demand for the pipeline seem to assume that coal-fired power plants in Interior Alaska, Usibelli’s prime market, will switch over to gas.

But the coal company, which has produced at Healy for 65 years, thinks it will easily be able to beat gas on price when it comes to power generation.
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Keaton to start coal production at Klipfontein

Coal-mining junior Keaton Energy would start coal production at its Klipfontein project, in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province, immediately, it said on Wednesday.

This comes as the country’s Minerals and Energy department granted its 74%-held subsidiary, Keaton Mining, a mining permit for the project.

Keaton Energy spokesperson James Duncan told Mining Weekly Online that the company had appointed mining contractor Shumba Mining, which was local to the area in Mpumalanga, and already on site.

The company was expecting to sell its first coal to a local merchant next month. The mine would produce about 40 000 t/m.
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