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WHAT might be done to resurrect a gold sector in Australia that is a shadow of its former glory? For while the Canadian market continues to feature ambitious and growing gold companies such as Goldcorp, Kinross, Yamana and Agnico-Eagle, Australian gold companies of significance outside of Newcrest and Lihir, are a rare commodity indeed.
Quote of the Week“The pre-feasibility study for Tropicana is expected to be completed in the March quarter 2009. Under current price/cost scenarios, we do not believe that the economics of Tropicana are compelling.” - Goldman Sachs JBWere
A SELF-DESCRIBED Kyrgyz Republic trail blazer is counting the cost of being blindsided by a legal challenge to its project tenure, a collision that must give other foreign exploration companies major cause for concern. “We were blazing a trail for a whole lot of people who were going to follow us into the Kyrgyz Republic and are waiting to see if we can succeed,” says Aurum Mining executive Chris Eadie.
HE’S been in the news again this week. While Clinton Wolf doesn’t court the level of media attention that Australian Aboriginal leaders such as Noel Pearson, Warren Mundine and others do, he has always been forthright with his views on the way forward for the country’s indigenous people. Now he realises that words will never be enough.
ROX Resources may be out, literally, on a wing and prayer exploring for deep-seated zinc and lead south of McArthur River in the Northern Territory at a time when the zinc and equity markets are completely indifferent to its activities, but the company should be given full marks for endeavour.
WHILE Anvil Mining has had to lower the price it planned to issue shares at in a major equity raising following ongoing pressure on its share-price and general market conditions, another Canadian listed company seeking to raise a similar amount of cash has been forced to cancel its placement altogether.
THE Chinese nickel pig iron story has been oversold, according to Southern Cross Equities (SCE), and those nickel fans that believe the Sydney-based broker presumably will now be taking a hard look again at the sector. However, Macquarie counters that overall rather bullish view for nickel with a long list of new projects set to emerge.
YES it’s all just politics and we shouldn’t expect much. That’s what HighGrade was told by the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies when we asked for an opinion on the Western Australian Government’s stance on uranium mining.
EMERGING engineering group Ausenco may have spread its wings at the right time, with large mining houses more likely to follow the oil industry model of awarding massive infrastructure contracts to individual, multi-disciplined suppliers in future, according to UBS Securities Australia.
IT’S understandable that one always put forward one’s positives rather than negatives and so it was no surprise to see Kagara happy to describe Admiral Bay as a zinc-lead deposit of world significance and more than happy to suggest the cost of production will be in the lowest quartile of cash costs worldwide.
DESPITE escalating demand for raw materials, access to capital and lack of government support are hurdles currently confronting the mining sector, according to an industry survey conducted by the organisers of the inaugural Australia Mining Congress.
GENERAL investment community impatience towards the application of new mining methods and technology is evident again in an ABN AMRO Morgans review of coal miner Caledon Resources, which it says faces a “critical test” of the viability of its adopted mining approach at the Cook colliery in Queensland in the current half.
RUNGE chief executive Tony Kinnane maintains the company has a natural buffer from resource-sector volatility – which nevertheless tends to pummel mining service companies’ share prices – and remains aggressively in the hunt for acquisitions after it exceeded prospectus forecasts with its 2008 fiscal year financial results.
IF THE unthinkable happens and the mining boom that will never end does in fact “recede, retract, recoil ...”, to borrow an Owen Hegarty euphemism, will a surfeit of partly trained workers create a massive after-party headache requiring painful social re-engineering? That is a question that has already been floated in Canada and, more recently, Australia.
THUNDELARRA Exploration's hunt for nickel in the rugged East Kimberley region of Western Australia continues to turn up promising results with the latest success from the Mable Hill project potentially leading the company to a complete re-assessment of the area.
URANIUM explorers (and investors) hopeful of a change of government in Western Australia will still have a big hurdle, or more aptly a hole, to jump if some of them ever get a chance to convert their exploration licences to mine plans.
IN AUSTRALIA this week the mildly surprising news that business investment could surge by a further 34% in 2008-09 – which would apparently be the biggest jump in 26 years – would have been tempered in board rooms by the still disjointed messages coming from China. HighGrade sought some clearer indications from “Chinese Canadian” banker Howard Balloch, who was in Jilin City.
A CANADIAN geologist with pedigree leads one of the new generation exploration companies hunting that rarest of commodities in Australia in recent years, a major new gold discovery.
THREE people who have most influenced you in your career/life?
WIDESPREAD reports of physical bullion shortages have shone a bright light upon the veracity of pool, certificate and unallocated gold and silver storage accounts. Are they backed by metal? Claim and counter claim, like a Grand Slam tennis match, volley back and forth across the internet. In Western Australia, conjecture about the Perth Mint Certificate Program invariably ensures that its unallocated storage account is centre court.
JUNIOR mining companies must get much smarter with their use of technology and innovative mining practices if they are going to stay in the game being played by the industry’s heavyweights, according to an experienced Australian mining engineer.
THE core messages delivered by BHP Billiton chief Marius Kloppers with the resource giant’s record 2008 fiscal-year profit echoed those conveyed by former Canadian high ambassador to China and now Beijing-based investment banker and advisor, Howard Balloch, on his recent return to Australia after a four year absence.
HEADLINE numbers continue to accumulate for Azure Minerals with narrow drill intercepts of more than 40% copper being made at the company’s Promontorio project in Mexico.
