The detailed structural study seeks to enhance the understanding and exploration of the promising lithium-bearing system identified in a recently completed discovery drill program.

That study had identified numerous high-priority targets for further examination thanks to the combination of geochemical soil data and a high-resolution drone magnetic survey.

Volta said the discovery drill program confirmed the presence of at least six near-surface spodumene-albite pegmatite-hosted lithium, cesium, and tantalum pegmatites within a 300-meter corridor. The area is still open for further expansion, indicating the possibility of more discoveries, the company said.

“Structural geology is one key to understanding the emplacement and evolution of lithium-bearing pegmatites,” Fred Breaks, the company’s technical advisor, said in the statement. “The structural study is crucial at this project stage and will further generate prospective targets for our exploration program.”

Northwestern Ontario has become a hub for lithium exploration, with many junior players engaging in active staking and land acquisition activities. Unlike companies focused on precious and base metal exploration, lithium junior miners face a more complex operating environment. 

There are no lithium refineries in the province for converting lithium oxide into high-quality battery-grade material known as lithium hydroxide, though  companies such as Rock Tech Lithium (TSX-V: RCK) are trying to fill this gap. 

The clean technology firm inked earlier this month a binding cooperation agreement with BMI Group to build Ontario’s first refinery at the former Norampac paper mill site. 

Volta Metals is in the final stages of preparing its exploration program for 2024, which will involve comprehensive geochemical sampling, mechanized trenching, and, depending on outcomes, diamond drilling.

The London-based company, which has a 6.54% stake in South African platinum group miner Sedibelo Resources, said that plummeting prices for platinum group metals (PGMs) has affected its bottom line.

Since the beginning of 2023, prices for palladium and rhodium, used mainly in the catalytic converters that clean exhaust fumes in vehicles, have dropped by 44% and 63% respectively. This collapse is attributed to inventory reductions and a sluggish global economy. 

While the decrease in platinum has been less significant, the overall decline in PGMs has had a severe impact on producers’ profits.

Gemfields said it had reduced the value of its Sedibelo investment, which will result in a write-down ranging between $4 million and $28 million. This would translate in a loss of $0.8 US cents per share for 2023, a significant change from 4.8 US cents in earnings per share of achieved in 2022. 

Headline loss per share, which includes Sedibelo Resources’ fair value loss, is likely to be 0.9 cents compared with the prior year’s headline earnings per share of 4.8 US cents.

When it comes to its core business, Gemfields saw revenue from its 75%-owned Kagem emerald mine in Zambia drop 40% to $89.9 million in 2023, from $148.6 million the previous year. Top-line revenue at its Montepuez ruby mine in Mozambique decreased by 9.2% to $151.4 million from $166.7 million in 2022.

“Production of premium rough gemstones has been weaker at both Kagem and Montepuez Rompared to 2022, and resulted in November 2023’s planned higher quality emerald auction being withdrawn from our schedule,” chief executive Sean Gilbertson said.

“We look forward to completing our first auction of the year later on today, with a commercial-quality emerald auction taking place in Jaipur, and our next higher-quality emerald and mixed-quality ruby auctions to take place in Q2,” Gilbertson added.

Gemfields’ luxury brand Fabergé also disappointed, recording revenue of $15.7 million, which is 11% lower than the $17.6 million it had in 2022, mainly due to softer demand for precious stones.

Australia’s Lucapa Diamond (ASX: LOM) has recovered a 203-carat diamond at its prolific Lulo mine in Angola, the fifth-largest ever found at the operation.

The diamond is also the third 100-carat-plus stone found at Lulo this year.

Lucapa said the high-quality, type IIa diamond was recovered during the processing of run-of-mine stockpiled ore and its recovery follows those of a 162 and a 116 carat diamonds on successive days last month.

The mine, which hosts the world’s highest dollar-per-carat alluvial diamonds, began commercial production in January 2015. Only a year later, it delivered the largest ever diamond recovered in Angola — a 404-carat white stone later named the “4th February Stone”.

Lucapa has a 40% stake in the Lulo mine. The rest is held by Angola’s national diamond company (Endiama) and Rosas & Petalas, a private entity.

Angola is the world’s fifth diamond producer by value and sixth by volume. Its industry, which began a century ago under Portuguese colonial rule, is successfully being liberalized.

The miner’s profit last year rose 14% to $195.1 million from $171 million in 2022, with revenue climbing 13% to $891.3 million from $788.4 million. 

Gold sales from Sukari in Egypt, the company’s only producing mine, totalled 456,625 ounces, up 4% from 438,638 in 2022. This as Centamin saw realized prices for the precious metal increase 8.6% to $1,948 per ounce from a previous $1,794 per ounce.

Bullion prices climbed 15% in 2023, ending at $2,078.4 an ounce, a record high year-end figure, according to data from the World Gold Council. The average 2023 price of $1,940.54 an ounce was 8% higher than the 2022 average, marking the metals’ best year since 2020.

“2023 was the third consecutive year that we have safely delivered on our production guidance, reflecting the operational improvements and flexibility from our three-year reinvestment plan,” chief executive Martin Horgan said.

The company cut its payout to shareholders to 2 US cents, down from 2.5 US cents it handed in 2022. This made a total payout of 4 cents, down 20% from 5 cents the previous year.

Improvements at Sukari

The executive said Centamin had “re-positioned” Sukari to achieve a consistent annual production of 500,000 ounces. He also anticipated a reduction in operational expenses following the establishment of solar power generation capabilities.

The company invested less than expected last year, with a $204 million total capital expenditure bill, below guidance of $272 million. It attributed the drop to cost savings, lower costs capitalization and changes to equipment rebuild schedules.

Centamin highlighted a grid connection project that it kicked off last year, thanks to recent upgrades to Egypt’s power distribution infrastructure. The completion of this project, which would be supplemented with the existing onsite solar power generation, is expected to cut $41 million a year just in diesel costs.

The plan would also help Centamin achieve its near-term decarbonization goals. It is targeting a reduction of 30% of its Scope 1 and 2 emissions, those hose incurred through mining operations and power consumption, respectively, by 2030.

The miner left its 2024 gold production guidance range of 470,000 to 500,000 ounces per annum unchanged.

The gold producer, with operations in Mali, Guinea and Liberia, called Corica’s move “a clear breach of the mining contract” as it alleges the contractor “failed to meet mining contract volumes due to delays in mining equipment mobilization, commissioning, and overall operating performance”.

Hummingbird issued a notice to Corica on Monday, demanding the resumption of mining by the end of Tuesday. The company warned that if the contractor failed to do so, it might step in to resume mining operations, or work with alternative suppliers.

According to Corica, Hummingbird Resources owes it $27 million for work already completed. It noted the measure remains conditional and reversible provided the miner pays the pending invoices and provides a Deed of Company Guarantee by April 7.

“Corica has over two decades of history in contracting with major clients and is proud to have had zero litigation to this date,” it said in the statement.

Hummingbird issued late on Wednesday a response to Corica, disputing the accuracy of the amount owed and the need for payment.

“Since the inception of the contract in September 2022, Corica has consistently underperformed against established contractual performance targets, failing to meet the mining contract volumes principally due to delays in mobilizing mining equipment, commissioning the equipment, as well as recruitment and training,” Hummingbird said.

The miner argues it has been cooperating with Corica in good faith since July 2023, when it informed the contractor of a contract breach due to the operation’s underperformance.

Kouroussa, Hummingbird’s second operating mine, achieved first gold pour in June 2023 and it is expected to churn out an average of 120,000 to 140,000 ounces of gold for the first three years of commercial production. After that, Kouroussa would average 100,000 ounces of gold a year over an initial seven-year life. 

Hummingbird took on a $55 million loan with Coris Bank in September, pledging to cut $122.8 million in debt over three years starting with a $77 million debt repayment by the end of this year. 

The miner also raised $30 million mainly through a share placement at an average price of 11.26 pence per share with shareholders, including 45% shareholder CIG, an investment bank.

Hummingbird agreed at the time to hedge 30,000 ounces of gold, which represents about 15% of its total production. This decision was made amid soaring bullion prices, which hit a new all-time high of $2,195.15 per ounce on March 8.

The miner has faced challenges in bringing the Kouroussa mine up to full production. Aside the ongoing issues with Corica, activities at the mine were disrupted last year by rain and delays associated with skill development.

The Swiss company totalled 432.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent last year, compared with in 2022, reversing the downward trend of recent years.

In its 2024-2026 Climate Action Transition Plan (CATP), Glencore noted it was still “on track” to meet its 15% reduction of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions for its industrial assets from 2019 levels by the end of 2026, and of 50% by the end of 2035.

The rest of Glencore’s revised climate plan is much like a previous plan it released — but this time includes the interim 2030 target.

“[The new plan] reflects a wide range of inputs, including analysis of the evolving market landscape, new regulatory requirements, mining and energy peer approaches, the IEA’s latest modelling, stakeholder inputs, and emerging insights from the most recent United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) dialogue,” chief executive officer Gary Nagle said in a statement.

“We have also undertaken extensive engagement with our shareholders and appreciate their time and support as we have developed this CATP,” Nagle noted.

Glencore, like most of the world’s biggest listed companies, published its first climate action plans in 2020 in a bid to help with reaching the 2015 Paris Agreement goal of capping temperatures within 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The Baar, Switzerland-based firm, one of the top global thermal coal exporters, has faced backlash for being one of the few top miners still involved in the extraction of the fossil fuel used to generate electricity.

After facing pressure from major investors and shareholders, Glencore committed to run down its coal mines by the mid-2040s, closing at least 12 by 2035.

“We recognize the different roles of thermal coal and steelmaking coal – and the different transition pathways for both,” Nagle said while presenting the new strategy.

The executive noted the company “remains committed” to the responsible phase-down of its coal portfolio and is not progressing any greenfield thermal coal investments. 

The company continues to produce and recycle commodities considered key for today’s cleaner transition technologies. Nagle said the speed and direction of Glencore’s decarbonization efforts are significantly shaped by geopolitics, policy decisions, and technological advancements.

Tackling Scope 3 emissions

Glencore plans to cut “Scope 3” emissions — those produced when customers burn or process a company’s raw materials — by 30% by 2035 and achieving net zero Scope 3 emissions by 2050.

The company did not include its marketing activities in the these goals. It justified the decision by saying that, by trading in the third party volumes, its activities do not generate additional Scope 3 emissions, “which in the ordinary course are associated with the transformation or use of the product by third parties”.

Glencore recently acquired a 77% interest in Teck’s (TSX: TECK.A, TECK.B)(NYSE: TECK) steelmaking coal business, Elk Valley Resources (EVR). The transaction remains subject to mandatory regulatory approvals and is expected to close by no later than Q3 2024.  

The Dutch suit is being pursued by law firms Pogust Goodhead and Lemstra Van der Korst against Vale and Samarco Iron Ore Europe, a marketing unit of the Samarco JV, which was responsible for operating the dam. 

Pogust Goodhead, which is also involved in the UK case against BHP, told the Financial Times on Tuesday the firm was acting on behalf of 77,000 individuals, nearly 1,000 businesses, and seven municipalities.

BHP is already dealing with a major class action lawsuit from around 700,000 claimants in the UK related to the same incident. The rupture of the Fundão mining waste facility on November 2015 resulted in 19 fatalities and pollution of waterways that reached the Atlantic Ocean, more than 650 km (400 miles) away. 

According to Vale, the Renova foundation, which the companies have been using to pay for some of the damages caused by the fatal dam collapse, had recieved 34.7 billion reais ($6.9 billion) in socioeconomic and environmental compensation as of December 2023.

A Brazilian court ruled in January that Samarco, Vale, and BHP had to pay $47.6 billion reals ($9.44bn) in compensation for the dam collapse. Both Vale and BHP have stated that they may appeal this decision.

That ruling did not apply to individual victims, Pogust Goodhead said in January.

The miner said on Tuesday it had inked signed definitive agreements with a group of international lenders, including the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Export Development Canada, the Export-Import Bank of Korea and several commercial lenders for the term loan. The financing has a four-year drawdown period and a 12-year term, Antofagasta said.

“The Centinela Second Concentrator project is a prime example of how Antofagasta can unlock value from its portfolio and our dedication to sustainable and responsible copper production,” chief executive Ivan Arriaga said in the statement.

The company has also signed a separate agreement granting Centinela the option to obtain water for its current and future operations from an international consortium. This group would acquire Centinela’s existing water supply system and extend it to serve the second concentrator. The international consortium is in the process of finalizing its financing to fulfill this agreement within the year.

As part of this deal, Centinela will transfer its current water transportation assets and rights for about $600 million to be received in 2024. The consortium will handle the construction and related capital expenses amounting to $380 million for the planned expansion of the water transportation system.

The $4.4 billion second concentrator at Centinela, whose construction was approved in December 2023, is expected to start operations in 2027.

The preliminary technical and economic study on the viability of the project is based on a scenario that includes developing an open pit mine, constructing a beneficiation facility onsite and a refinery offsite.

The report, compiled by independent firm Stantec Consulting Services, highlights a three million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) operating scenario. 

Net present value (NPV) is pegged at $673.9 million at an 8% discount rate and $505.1 million at a 10% discount rate (pre-tax), yielding an internal rate of return of 22.5%.

The payback period is estimated at 2.9 years, with total initial capital expenditures (capex) of $456.1 million, including a $76 million contingency.

Based on a mineral resource estimate updated in February, Halleck Creek holds 2.34 billion tonnes of material grading 3,196 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth oxides (TREO), including neodymium (Nd) and praseodymium (Pr) oxides, for 7.48 million tonnes of contained TREO. This includes 1.42 billion tonnes in the measured and indicated category.

The new figures represent a 128% increase over the 2023 estimate, at a grade of 3,295 ppm TREO.

Rare earths, a group of 17 minerals critical to the energy transition for their use in electric car batteries and wind turbines, are also crucial to national security for use in aerospace and defence applications.

Wyoming has become an exploration hotbed for these materials in hopes it could become America’s answer to China’s lock on the market. The Halleck Creek project was named by Mining Intelligence last year as one the world’s top 10 rare earth projects, measured in total rare earth oxides (TREO).

On top of the scoping study for Halleck Creek released Monday, the company will also need to acquire the necessary licences to explore on Wyoming state mineral leases in order to collect rocks for bulk material testing and pilot-scale metallurgical test-work.

After that, American Rare Earths will prepare and implement a detailed baseline environmental plan and will also start working on a permit application to mine on state mineral leases.

The company said the volume of diamonds with a viable chance of economic extraction at Lulo increased to 228,000 carats as of December 31, up from 153,870 carats the previous year. The newly identified resources, it said, could add an extra eight years to the deposit’s production.

Lucapa noted the updated figures are the result of an independent asset evaluation conducted by South Africa’s Z Star Mineral Resource Consultants.

The study assessed the resources at $1,897 per carat, a 5% decrease from $2,000 in December 2022, which partly reflects the decline of diamond prices last year. Diamond grades also decreased, but slightly — to 4.55 carats per 10 cubic meters. 

Lucapa recovered 181,900 precious stones in 2023, a 45% increase from the previous year, with an average rough size of 1.26 carats per stone compared to 1.23 carats in 2022.

This increase represents the sixth consecutive year of resources growth at Lulo, the company said. Total production from Lulo to date has reached 200,000 carats, generating $426 million at an average price of $2,122 per carat.

The Lulo mine, in operations since 2015,  is considered the world’s highest dollar-per-carat alluvial diamonds operation.

Lucapa has a 40% interest and the rest is held by Angola’s national diamond company (Endiama) and Rosas & Petalas, a private entity.

Angola is the world’s fifth diamond producer by value and sixth by volume. Its industry, which began a century ago under Portuguese colonial rule, is successfully lessening government regulations and restrictions in favour of a greater participation by private entities.

Lucapa’s shares closed at A$0.12 on Monday in Sydney, leaving the diamond miner with a market capitalization of A$33.25 million (about $22 million).

The firm, which owns and operates 57.5% of the Escondida, the world’s largest copper mine, and has other producing and exploration assets in the country, including the Spence and Cerro Colorado mines, says female presence in its operations is more than double the national industry average of 15%.

Back in 2016, when BHP had only 17.5% female presence globally, the mining giant set a public goal to achieve gender balance by 2025.

“Gender parity was a goal that many believed impossible. Today, at BHP Americas, we can proudly confirm that we have achieved 40% female representation, one year ahead of schedule,” BHP Americas president Rag Udd said in a statement.

“We are aware that this journey does not end here. Although gender balance is important, it is vital that we focus on creating an inclusive culture, in which everyone can contribute with their full potential,” Udd noted.

At Escondida alone, BHP employs 1,509 women out of 3,935 workers. 

The company says that increased female representation at its operations is a result of the implementation of policies addressing gender pay gaps, the promotion of labour flexibility, as well as training and talent retention initiatives. The company notes that adapting operational infrastructure to better suit the needs of women has also been a factor in the equation.

A recent report by the CCM-Eleva Alliance, a joint initiative between Chile’s Mining Council and Fundacion Chile, analyzed workforce trends and the challenges 27 mining and supplier companies are facing.

One of the report’s main conclusions is that female participation in the labour market sits below those of developed countries. When it comes to decision-making across the mining industry, however, women accounted for 17% in 2022. This means country is better positioned in terms of women’s participation in the mining industry than Peru, and at the same level as the United States.

The mining industry’s treatment of women came under increased scrutiny in 2002, when the government of West Australia published the results of an inquiry that revealed “horrific” incidents at remote projects. 

At Rio Tinto (ASX, LON: RIO), more than a quarter of female workers experienced sexual harassment and bullying, the company revealed in 2022.

The same investigation revealed that BHP recorded 91 reports of alleged sexual harassment or assault in the year through June 30, 2021, of which 79 were substantiated. 

The mining giant, which completed in 2023 a A$300 million ($191 million) project to make its mining villages in Western Australia safer by adding extra CCTV cameras, security lighting, doors and fences, saw a 20% increase in reported sexual harassment last year.

Perseus is offering A$0.55 cash per each share of OreCorp it does not already own, which values the target company at A$258 million ($172m). The bid represents a 4% premium over its rival Silvercorp Metals (TSX, NYSE: SVM). 

Silvercorp approached OreCorp in August last year, hoping to obtain the Nyanzaga gold project in Tanzania, located near Barrick Gold’s (TSX: ABX; NYSE: GOLD) Bulyanhulu mine and AngloGold Ashanti’s (JSE: ANG) (NYSE:AU) Geita mine.

Both bidders, who have been battling for OreCorp since, claim Tanzanian authorities are ready to approve their offers.

The Nyanzaga mine would cost $474 million to build and is slated to produce 242,000 ounces gold per year over its first decade, according to a feasibility study issued in August 2022.

Perseus has three operating mines in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, producing gold at a rate of more than 535,000 ounces per year.

Vancouver-based Silvercorp has two producing precious metals mines in China and has been looking to diversify its portfolio. Its bid for OreCorp closes on March 22 unless extended. 

The Canadian miner, which reported a loss of $92.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, booked a $90.6 million charge related to the anticipated closure of the operation, which would leave about 5,800 direct and indirect employees in limbo.

The company also recorded impairment charge of $10.1 million related to materials inventory at San Jose, Burkina Faso’s Yaramoko, and Argentina’s Lindero mines.

After adjusting for impairment charges and other non-recurring items, the company’s adjusted attributable net income in the last quarter last year was $20.6 million or $0.07 per share. This compares to $6.4 million or $0.02 per share in Q4 2022 and can be explained primarily due to higher gold sales and prices.

Despite promising exploration results at the newly identified Yessi vein, the Vancouver-based miner is moving forward with its plans to close the San Jose mine, but said a decision on whether the Yessi discovery can support operations beyond 2024 will be made in the second half of the year. 

Chief executive Jorge Ganoza said this year Fortuna Silver will focus its exploration efforts on the Diamba Sud gold project in Senegal and the Seguela gold mine in Côte d’Ivoire.

Africa expansion

The precious metals producer inked a deal earlier this week with Australia’s Turaco Gold (ASX: TCG) that gives it the option to gain a 80% interest in five exploration permits that make up the junior’s Tongon North project in Côte d’Ivoire.

Under the agreement, Fortuna is required to make an initial payment of $100,000 to Turaco and invest a minimum of $3.5 million in the project over the next three years.

If Fortuna decides to exercise the option, Turaco can choose to either co-venture with Fortuna, maintaining a 20% interest, or sell its remaining stake for $1.5 million in cash.

The deal would expand Fortuna’s presence in the region, adding to a portfolio that also includes the Yaramoko gold mine in Burkina Faso.

The company also has operating mines in Argentina and Peru. 

The quest for substitutes for fossil fuels has increased the need for metals used in the batteries that power electric vehicles (EVs) and in green-energy applications. Minerals and metals such as cobalt, nickel, copper and manganese can be found in potato-sized nodules on the ocean floor. Reserves are estimated to be worth anywhere from $8 trillion to more than $16 trillion and they are in areas where companies, including deep-sea mining pioneer The Metals Company (NASDAQ: TMC), plan to target. 

According to the report, entitled “How to lose half a trillion” by non-profit Planet Tracker, extracting metals from the seafloor could cost the mining industry $30 to $132 billion in value destruction.

François Mosnier, head of Oceans and report lead author at Planet Tracker, told MINING.COM this estimate is the result of adding the combined value loss the activity would cause for both ocean floor and terrestrial miners.

“For the deep sea mining sector, focusing only on polymetallic nodules in international waters, the cost would reach $35 billion-$49 billion of value destruction,” Mosnier said. 

“This amount was computed based on the estimated invested capital in the sector in 2043 ($115 billion), the industry’s estimated return on invested capital (-2%) and the industry’s weighted average cost of capital (WACC) and long-term growth (3%).”

Put simply, the deep-sea mining industry would not beat the cost of the capital it requires to exist, he said.

“Before factoring in any environmental impacts, the economics already appear uncompelling,” Mosnier said. “High operating expenditures mean that returns will be negative for investors in deep sea mining, which will also destroy value in other sectors, such as terrestrial mining and fishing.”

On top of that, major global banks such Credit Suisse, Lloyds, NatWest, and Standard Chartered, Dutch bank ABN Amro, and Spanish group Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, have all introduced policies that rule out funding deep-sea exploration and extraction.

The report highlights the positive financial impact of respecting nature as sectors dependent on preserving intact ecosystems have outperformed those exploiting resources threefold over the last three decades.

It also urges investors to focus on nature preservation rather than resource extraction a repeats its call for a moratorium on deep-sea mining.

Ready to start

While the International Seabed Authority (ISA) has yet to set rules for the extraction of minerals and metals from the ocean floor, there already is a country that doesn’t need to wait: Norway.

The nation secured in December parliamentary majority to go ahead with plans to open the Arctic Ocean to seabed mineral exploration, despite environmental groups and the fishing industry’s warnings that the move would risk the biodiversity of vulnerable ecosystems.

The European country, where vast oil and gas reserves have made it one of the world’s wealthiest nations, plans to search for minerals on its extended continental shelf.

China is another nation investing heavily in deep-sea mining technology, including remotely operated vehicles, vessels, and sonar scanning systems.

Chinese companies, according to the Pentagon, hold more International Seabed Authority contracts (five out of 31 for exploration and development) than any other country.

Opponents to seafloor mining have long-warned that consequences of both exploration and extraction of minerals from the seabed are unknown and that more research should be conducted before going ahead.

Those that support the expansion of activity believe deep-sea mining is central to meeting the increasing demand of mineral growth. The demand for copper and rare earth metals is predicted to grow by 40%, according to the International Energy Agency. 

The agency also expects that the demand share for nickel, cobalt and lithium from clean energy technologies alone will grow by 60%, 70% and 90%, respectively. 

According to a study published in the Journal of Cleaner Production, producing battery metals from nodules could reduce emissions of CO² by 70-75%,  cut land use by 94% and eliminate 100% of solid waste.

The deal is the largest mining investment in Ecuador’s history, according to the miner, and it is separate from an already committed $311 million for the project, included in the current Investment Protection Agreement (IPA) for Cascabel.

“[This deal] not only reinforces the protections for our key investment in Ecuador but also symbolizes a deepening of our relationship with the Ecuadorian State,” chief executive Scot Caldwell said.

SolGold released in February a new pre-feasibility study (PFS) for Cascabel in which it managed to slash upfront costs. Pre-production capital used for initial mine development, first process plant module and infrastructure is now estimated at $1.55 billion, compared to $2.75 billion from the PFS issued in April 2022.

According to SolGold, the size of the entire resource indicates the mine’s potential to be a multi-generational asset, potentially one of the 20 largest copper-gold mines in South America. Mine construction is set to start in 2025.

Investors have been skeptical of SolGold management’s ability to deliver the project to its potential. The company’s share price has halved over the past year, while the miner has had to cut spending to stay afloat, prompting a strategic review of its assets.

SolGold’s shares were trading 23.07% higher in London mid-afternoon to 8.13p. Year-to-date, however, the stock is down more than 18%. The company’s current market capitalization is £243 million (about $310m).

Vares, which produced first concentrate last week, is the result of Adriatic’s efforts to revive a former silver operation that was abandoned during the years of civil unrest that hit the region in the early 1990s.

The opening event took place at the Vares processing plant and was attended by the Nermin Nikšić, Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zdravko Marošević, Mayor of Vares and other authorities.

Adriatic Metals said it will now work on increasing processing activities to reach nameplate capacity of 800,000 tonnes by the fourth quarter of this year.

Chief executive officer, Paul Cronin, told MINING.COM that the original idea was to resume operations at the old open pit, which still has 7 million tonnes of resources. Studies conducted later showed high levels of harmful elements, particularly mercury, so Adriatic Metals chose not to go that route.

Instead, the junior invested in exploration and pinpointed what is now its flagship silver-zinc asset, which has been awarded the status of “project of special importance” by the government of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Adriatic, which went from the exploration phase to first concentrate production in less than seven years, invested $250 million to bring Vares back to life.

“I am delighted to celebrate this momentous occasion with the team who helped deliver this project,” Cronin said in the statement.

“This not only a significant milestone in Adriatic’s journey to becoming a mid-tier, European focused mining company, but also a turning point for the local community as well,” he noted. 

The company said the development included the use of the latest technology available and was completed using local workers and suppliers.

“It demonstrates that mining operations can be constructed and operated in a sustainable way in Europe, while supporting the economy and improve living standards both locally and nationally,” Cronin said.

The Vares project contributed to 25% of Bosnian 2022 foreign direct investment and is expected to account for 2% of the country’s GDP during operations.

About 27% of the mine’s employees are women, Adriatic noted, which exceeds the global mining workforce average of 15% according to a 2020 World Bank report. It also surpasses the approximately 10% representation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The South America-focused company said its subsidiary Amarillo Mineracao do Brasil had advanced $15 million by way of a 10% interest-bearing secured loan as part of the deal for the project. It also agreed to spend at least $5 million on exploration expenditures at the project in the 12.5-month period ending on March 19, 2025.

Hochschild can chose to exercise the option to buy a 100% interest in Monte Do Carmo during that period by repaying the loan and making a $45 million cash payment to Cerrado Gold, in instalments, over the next three years.

“We are pleased to have secured the option to acquire Monte Do Carmo,” chief executive officer Eduardo Landin said in the statement. “With the project holding significantly advanced permitting and compelling exploration upside potential, the transaction aligns with our strategy of adding high quality, pre-production assets.”

The Monte Do Carmo project holds 21 mineral concessions over 82,542 hectares, and hosts multiple identified gold targets along a 30 km mineralized trend. These include the Serra Alta gold deposit, which has measured and indicated resources of 1,012k ounces of gold and inferred resources of 66,000 gold ounces and was the subject of a feasibility study in October 2023.

According to the study, Monte Do Carmo can generate an annual average output of 95,000 gold ounces during a nine-year life. Initial capex is estimated at $262 million and at a $1,750/ounce gold price, the payback should happen in just over two years. 

Hochschild already has an operating gold mine in Brazil, Mara Rosa, which achieved first production last month. The asset, in the state of Goias, remains on schedule to begin commercial production towards the end of the second quarter of this year.

The company has said Mara Rosa is expected to produce between 83,000 to 93,000 ounces of gold in 2024 at all-in sustaining costs of between $1,090 and $1,120 per ounce.

Analysts at UK investment bank Peel Hunt noted that previous to Tuesday’s announcement, Cerrado had identified several explorations targets at Monte Do Carmo. “We suspect it is this upside that appeals to Hochschild’s project team, seeing the potential to extend the life of the plant should the many prospects within a 10 km radius of the main deposit result in additional resources,” they wrote in a note to investors.

Canaccord Genuity experts said they saw the addition of the Monte do Carmo option as a positive move for Hochschild as it has the potential “to help rebuild its growth profile beyond the addition of the Mara Rosa mine”. 

Shares in Hochschild Mining jumped on the news to 104.4p and were trading 2.7% higher than Monday’s price mid-afternoon Tuesday in London at 102.7p each. That leaves the company with a market capitalization of about £527.22 million ($669 million).

The battery metals-focused miner said the project is close to significant discoveries such as IsoEnergy’s Hurricane deposit, which has an indicated resource of 48.6-million pounds of uranium oxide (U3O8), based on 63,800 t grading 34.5% U3O8.

It also presents potential for “basement-hosted” mineralization, akin to the high-grade deposits found below the Athabasca Basin’s unconformity, such as NexGen’s Arrow deposit, Recharge said.

The company noted it had secured commitments for a A$1.44-million share placement to fund the acquisition and accelerate exploration activities at the asset. An additional A$50,000 will be placed to directors, subject to shareholder approval, Recharge said.

”The continued partnership between Recharge and DGRM, who sold our Express lithium project, has cultivated a robust working rapport over the past year,” managing director Felicity Repacholi said in the statement. 

Interest in uranium assets has picked in the past year as prices for the radioactive material rally. The commodity has extended its gains in 2024 as Kazatomprom, world’s biggest producer of the metal used to produce nuclear fuel, owered its guidance for production for this year by 12% to 14%.

Shares in the company surged as much as 8.5% to A$0.077 on the announcement, their biggest intraday percentage gain since Feb. 16. The stock closed at A$0.072, leaving Recharge Metals with a market capitalization of A$8.1 million ($5.2m). 

_________
RELATED: Uranium firms revive forgotten mines as price of nuclear fuel soars

While experts continue to debate the potential implications of adopting AI at both a personal and business level, the mining industry has not stayed still waiting for the conclusions.

The sector has already embarked on a quest to transform operations from the traditional heavy-equipment and men-on-site operations, to mines that integrate connectivity, automation and AI.

On a visit to MWC Barcelona, an annual trade show dedicated to the mobile communications industry, MINING.COM was able to see how the world of telecommunications and mining are increasingly intertwined. 

Invited by telecommunications giant Huawei, MINING.com — the first mining media to ever attend MWC — saw sensors, smart cameras and 5G relay boxes ready to be deployed to mines around the world.

There was buzz around the new generation of mobile internet — “5.5G,” or “5G Advanced”. The new standard is expected to make the networks themselves more “intelligent” through the application of AI and machine learning, while also boosting performance and reducing overall power consumption.

When Huawei vice president of global marketing and solutions for mining and oil and gas, Jack Chan, was asked why the company began developing solutions for the industry, the answer was as quick as clear: safety.

“In China we have almost 3 million coal miners working in 4,400 coal mines, which are underground and often register deadly accidents,” Chan said. “When taking workers out of the tunnels and into a room full of screens displaying numbers, graphs and images, not only a company is saving lives, but is also more appealing to the new generations.”

Chan added that Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure is crucial to support intelligent mining. Without fast and reliable communication networks, robust computing power, rapid data storage, and vigilant network security, essential tasks, including real-time monitoring and instant data exchange would be impossible, he explained.

“Young people don’t want to spend hours underground, hot and breathing recycled air, but they are happy to sit in a room with air conditioner and monitor activities in real time,” he said.

Data on extraction, personnel location and danger detection is centralized on a system designed to eliminate problems caused by human error and miscommunication. Instead of people, robots patrol and inspect the dark and narrow underground corridors.

“AI service architects and AI algorithm engineers will become key roles in the era of intelligence,” Chan predicts.

Remote and digital solutions are common in other coal operations, such as those in Canada and Australia, but China has lagged and now the government has set the goal of achieving basic digitalization of all mines by 2035.

Huawei is a step ahead with is AI-based Pangu Mining, a suit of applications launched in July last year, which were developed based on the pilot verification of large AI models at industrial levels. 

The name Pangu comes from ancient Chinese mythology and folklore. The legendary figure is associated with the creation of the world.

There are altogether 21 application scenarios related to nine operating activities, namely, coal mining, tunneling, primary transportation, auxiliary transportation, lifting, safety monitoring, rock burst prevention, coal preparation, and coking.

Rock bursts are a particularly challenging issue in mining. The primary means of preventing rock bursts is drilling destress holes, whose quality matters. Shandong Energy has managed to address this challenge in its Lilou and Xinjulong coal mines by deploying Huawei’s AI model. 

Thanks to its visual recognition capabilities, Pangu can intelligently analyze the quality of stress relief drilling, and assist rock burst prevention personnel in quality verification, reducing their review workload by 82%. It used to take three days to complete such checks; now the time has been shortened to 10 minutes, with a 100% acceptance rate.

Chile’s Codelco, the world’s largest copper miner, has also adopted Huawei solutions with the goal of turning around under-performing mines and projects that have crimped both production and profit.

The state-owned company is looking to streamline structures and prioritize productive areas at a time when copper output is at the lowest level in a quarter of a century.

It’s all about connectivity

Being a telecommunications company at heart, Huawei has been able to deploy connectivity solutions, from networks to an operative system able to run a wide range of equipment and smart machines. Named Harmony, the OS enables different devices to speak the same language, facilitating better connection and collaboration, and bringing a simple, continuous, secure and reliable interaction experience in all scenarios.

“In the era of intelligence, digital intelligence transformation can be accelerated only by combining AI technology with industry cognition and valuable data accumulated by enterprises,” Jason Liu, President, Learning & Certification Services of Huawei told the audience during MWC Barcelona 2024.

Liu said AI solutions should be used as a tool, not as a replacement of human intelligence.

Pangu, for instance, can detect a problem, inform the location and characteristic of such problem and provide solutions suggestions. The application is predictive, in the sense it can fill in the blanks at a very deep level.

AI is enabling mining companies to become insight‐driven enterprises that utilize data to make faster, accurate decisions, improve health and safety, boost efficiency through error elimination and reduce operations footprint.

Digital thinking is not just a tool for mining companies, but a core value that shapes their business. One of Huawei’s key messages is that to succeed in the industry, miners need to foster an organizational culture that embraces innovation and adapts to changing technologies.

The Canadian explorer and developer said it will bring forward plans to refurbish  New Cook’s Kitchen (NCK) shaft at South Crofty after an assessment of the tunnel conditions revealed the deteriorating condition of its timbers, requiring immediate action. 

“This is a key milestone for the project,” chief executive officer Richard Williams said in a statement, adding that rephasing shaft refurbishment would significantly improve the functionality of NCK shaft.

Williams also said the strategic move would enable larger equipment to access the mine at an earlier stage in its re-development as the company re-gains access to the underground mine section.

The Vancouver-based company, formerly known as Strongbow Explorations, said the process of dewatering the mine is expected to be done by the third quarter of 2025.

Cornish has said the project will have a positive impact on water quality in the Red river, as it presently receives untreated water from the mine as a legacy of past mining operations.

Water discharged from South Crofty will serve a dual purpose, the company said, as it will power a hydro-turbine, generating around 15% of the energy required by the water treatment plant.

The firm’s ultimate goal is to secure a leading place in the development of an industry for the battery metal in the UK.

Cornish said the ongoing feasibility study is on track to be completed in the first half of this year, with a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) expected some time between April and the end of June. 

The PEA will play a crucial role in guiding the completion of the Feasibility Study and providing updated funding estimates for achieving first tin production, Williams said.

There is currently no primary mine production of tin in Europe or North America and the US has included the metal in a list of minerals considered critical to the country’s economic and national security.

South Crofty could generate up to 5,000 tonnes of tin a year, with first production expected in 2026. The company said the mine will create up to 270 direct jobs and support a further 750 in the region, one of the UK’s most underprivileged.

The precious metals producer kicked off in October a restructuring process at its four loss-making mines that was expected to result in the loss of 4,095 jobs. 

Sibanye-Stillwater said the reduction in the number of layoffs was possible thanks to strategic decisions taken in consultation with interested parties. These include going ahead with the announced closure of the Simunye shaft, which ceased production in 2023, as well as keeping the 4 Belt (4B) shaft at Marikana open.

The miner said that the Marikana mine shaft, which employs 1,496 permanent workers and 54 contractors, will only stay in production if it does not run up net losses on a monthly basis.

Two other shafts, Rowland and Siphumelele, which were hit by operational and geological issues, “have been repositioned for sustainable levels of production at a lower cost structure”, Sibanye-Stillwater said.

The Johannesburg-based firm noted that almost 1,300 employees had voluntarily left their jobs or accepted early retirement packages, while 467 people left since September due to “natural attrition”.

The company said earlier this week that it expects to report a 91% loss for 2023 due to multiyear-lows for platinum-group metals prices. It also flagged an impairment of 47.5 billion rand ($2.58 billion). 

Palladium and platinum prices decline has driven producers in South Africa, including Sibanye-Stillwater to apply severe cost-cutting measures. 

Impala Platinum Holdings has offered voluntary job cuts, including at its deep-level Rustenburg complex, while Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) has announced plans to cut 3,700 jobs after its profit plunged 71% last year.

The permit will allow Zijin to increase the mine’s capacity to 350,000 tonnes per day by 2025. Once the Julong expansion is completed, the asset will become China’s largest single copper operation, with ore mining and processing volumes of more than 100 million tonnes a year.

Total investment required for the project has been pegged at about 17.5 billion yuan ($2.43 billion), Zijin said. It added it’s already planning to further increase production and capacity at the Tibet mine.

If the third phase of expansion is approved by local authorities, Julong could raise annual output to about 200 million tonnes, making it the largest single copper mine in the world, Zijin said.

The company, China’s largest gold miner and one of the country’s top copper producers, took control of the Julong project in 2020 and had it up and running only 18 months later.

Zijin has several assets in Tibet, including the Zhunuo copper mine, which it acquired in August 2023. It also has a controlling interest in lithium producer Lakkor Resources, and is the second-largest shareholder of Tibet-based companies Yulong Copper and Tianyuan Mining.

The Vancouver-based miner said its realized copper prices increased by 2%. Production of the metal surged 58% to 103,000 tonnes in the last three months of 2023 from 65,000 tonnes a year earlier, as it ramped up operations at its Quebrada Blanca mine in Chile.

The company also reported higher production at its Highland Valley Copper mines in Canada and at Antamina, in Peru, which is set for a $2 billion expansion.

Total copper output for the fourth quarter of 2023 reached 296,000 tonnes, compared to 270,000 in the same period of 2022. 

Zinc in concentrate production amounted to 182,000 tonnes, up from 143,000 a year earlier, while refined zinc production totalled 70,000 tonnes, up from 46,000.

“We had strong fourth quarter performance across our business, generating adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of $1.7 billion in the quarter, returning cash to shareholders and advancing ramp-up of our Quebrada Blanca operations, resulting in Teck’s record quarterly copper production,” chief executive Jonathan Price said in a statement. 

He added that Teck is well positioned to deliver on its strategic priorities in 2024, which involve securing growth in its copper portfolio with the addition of its British Columbia HVC mine life extension project and kicking off the permitting process for San Nicolas in Mexico. 

The company left copper guidance for the year unchanged at 465,000 – 540,000 tonnes of copper and 565,000 – 630,000 tonnes of zinc.

In parallel, Teck said is executing the planned separation of its base metals and steelmaking coal businesses, following the sale of its coal unit to Glencore (LON: GLEN).

The Swiss mining and commodities trader spent much of 2023 in an open battle with Teck after the Canadian miner rejected its unsolicited $23 billion offer. The bid, while unsuccessful, opened the door for Glencore’s acquisition of Teck’s steelmaking coal business, which it plans to merge with its own coal assets and create a new coal-focused company.

The world’s largest gold miner, which completed the acquisition of Newcrest Mining in November, said that proceeds from the transactions will be used to cut debt. The company, which had $8 billion in debt at the end of 2023, has set a near-term debt-reduction target of $1 billion.

The US-based miner has also identified an additional $500 million in cost and productivity improvements, including job cuts.

“A big part of our commitment is to deliver $100 million of free cash flow by bringing Newmont and Newcrest together…there is a reduction in headcount in order to achieve those synergies,” chief executive Tom Palmer said in a statement.

After the divestments, the gold giant will focus on ten tier-1 assets, its “go-forward portfolio”, which it plans to secure long-term growth. 

“Our go-forward portfolio is the new standard for gold and copper mining [and] provides our shareholders with exposure to the highest concentration of Tier 1 assets in the sector,” Palmer said.

Tier 1 assets are “company making” mines and projects, which are not only large in size, but also have a long productive life and low costs.

Challenges

The gold giant, which also announced its fourth quarter and full-year 2023 results, said it produced 5.5 million ounces of gold last year, a 6.9% drop from the 5.96 million gold announces it churned out in 2022.

Its overall performance was affected by several challenges, including $1.9 billion in impairment charges, $1.5 billion in reclamation charges, and $464 million in Newcrest transaction and integration costs. 

The Denver, Colorado-based company said it had a loss of $3.21 per share. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, came to 50 US cents per share, slightly short of the 51 US cents estimated by Wall Street.

Despite the challenges, Newmont handed $1.4 billion in dividends to shareholders and is forecasting 2024 total production of nearly 6.9 million gold ounces, underpinned by 5.6 million gold ounces from its tier 1 portfolio.

The company also reported higher gold reserves of 135.9 million attributable ounces for 2023 compared to the 96.1 million ounces it had at the end of 2022. Newmont noted it has significant upside to other metals, including more than 30 billion pounds of copper reserves and nearly 600 million ounces of silver reserves.

The update makes of Zinnwald the second largest hard rock lithium project in the European Union (EU) by both resource size and contained lithium, chief executive Anton du Plessis said in a statement.

Europe’s largest hard rock lithium deposit and the world’s fourth-largest non-brine asset is the Cinovec lithium project in the Czech Republic, owned by European Metals (ASX, LON: EMH) and state-controlled utility CEZ.

Zinnwald Lithium’s stock climbed more than 41%, closing at 7.55p on Wednesday. This leaves the company with a market capitalization of £35.84 million ($45.2m).

The project’s latest resources estimate incorporates 26,911 metres of new diamond core drilling across 84 drill holes and a reinterpreted and updated geological model since the previous estimate, released in September 2018, the company said.

Located in the heart of Europe’s chemical and car industries, the project, about 35km from Dresden, is expected to produce battery grade lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide and lithium fluoride (Li2CO3, LiOH, LiF) or a combination of them.

Prices for lithium, once called “white oil” are down more than 80% from their 2022 peak due to slowing growth in electric vehicle sales, including in the top EV consumer China, and a market oversupply. 

The company said it expects to report in March a loss per share for 2023 of 12.68 rand to 14.01 rand, compared with a profit of 6.51 rand a share the previous year. This is equivalent to an eye-popping 91% drop in annual profit.

The announcement comes only two months after the South African miner announced it would lay off 1,500 workers from its gold mines. It also said at the time it had begun talks that could affect 4,000 more employees at its platinum group metals (PGMs) operations, including those in the United States.

“We have already taken proactive steps to address loss-making production at unprofitable operations and the group remains focused on ensuring the sustainability of our business and delivering on our strategical essentials through this period of low commodity prices,” the company said in a statement.

Sibanye shares fell more than 5% in afternoon trading in Johannesburg, closing at ZAC 1,994. The stock has lost almost 48% of its value in the past year, mainly due to the prices decline of palladium and rhodium.

The sharp drop of PGMs prices decline has driven producers to apply severe cost-cutting measures. Anglo American Platinum said on Monday it would cut 3,700 jobs at its South African operations, or 17% of the Anglo American unit’s workforce. 

Impala Platinum Holdings has offered voluntary job cuts, including at its deep-level Rustenburg complex.

Despite the challenges, Sibanye noted that all its South African and Australian operations were profitable before the end of the fourth quarter of 2023. 

RELATED: In election year, South African mines bleed cash, jobs

The three year prepay arrangement with Jiangxi will see First Quantum deliver 50,000 tonnes of copper anode per year to the Chinese miner. The material will be extracted at the Kansanshi mine in Zambia and is payable at market prices, the company said.

“This arrangement is a reminder of the strategic nature of copper as supply challenges abound across the sector, First Quantum said in a statement. “Constructive discussions with our lenders for an amendment and extension of our loan facilities, which are an important component to our fulsome solution, are well-advanced and there is a high degree of alignment among all parties.”

The company, which was forced to shut down in December its flagship copper mine in Panama, has quickly seen its financial situation deteriorate. Since the order to close the operation, First Quantum has lost over half its market value and its exposure to nickel, of which prices have dropped to two-year lows, has added extra pressure.

Together with reporting a net loss for the fourth quarter, First Quantum recorded an impairment charge of $900 million, which includes $854 million at its Ravensthorpe nickel mine, due to significant margin pressure triggered by the battery metal’s weak prices and high operating costs.

First Quantum has billions of dollars of debt maturing in the coming years and concerns about the future of Cobre Panama, its main source of income, has put it at risk of a covenant breach in the coming year. This has resulted in “material uncertainty” that may cast doubt on the company’s “ability to continue,” the miner said.

The Vancouver-based company is in talks with lenders to amend and extend its loan facilities, and expects a conclusion “in the near term.” This include extending its $2.2 billion corporate bank loan and extending its maturity to April 2027.

The miner also announced a $1 billion common share offering to underwriters led by RBC Capital Markets, BMO Capital Markets and Goldman Sachs, and launched a private offering of senior notes worth $1.6 billion due in 2029.

BMO analyst Jackie Przybylowski considered First Quantum’s update as positive. “It included material improvement to balance sheet liquidity and ongoing work to continue to manage debt and other obligations in the event of a prolonged Cobre Panama closure,” she wrote.

The expert said the bank will be watching closely how the Cobre Panama issue unfolds. “On the positive side, blockades around the mine have dissipated, allowing deliveries by road and at port to receive supplies necessary for the preservation and safe maintenance. Sale of the concentrate in inventory will help to fund this program”, Przybylowski said in a note to investors.

First Quantum holds out hope the May Presidential elections in Panama may bring a change in fortune for its halted operation, one of the world’s largest new copper mines to open in the past decade.

First Quantum is also considering a minority investment from strategic investors in its Zambian business, and is running a sales process for its small Las Cruces mine in Spain, chief executive Tristan Pascall said in a Wednesday call conference to discuss fourth quarter results.

The company is the sole owner of the Sentinel copper mine and has a 80% stake in the Kansanshi mine. Its presence in Zambia, Africa’s second-largest copper producer, includes the Fishtie copper project, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. It also comprises two licence options through a deal with African Pioneer (LON: AFP).

The US-based startup aims to earn a 75% interest in the Dumbwa portion of Solwezi by spending $15 million in exploration and making cash payments totalling $500,000 over four and a half years.

“We look forward to KoBold applying their groundbreaking exploration approach to the Dumbwa Target and moving this important Zambian copper asset toward development together, which we view as perfectly timed to coincide with an upcoming phase of unprecedented global copper demand,” Midnight Sun chief executive Al Fabbro said in the statement.

KoBold Metals Africa CEO Mfikeyi Makayi said the Dumbwa target hosted “intriguing” copper-in-soil anomalies and a structural setting comparable to other major deposits in the region.

“The KoBold sediment-hosted copper team has decades of experience working in the African Copperbelt, which we will combine with our library of analytical tools and proprietary technology to aggressively explore at Dumbwa,” Makayi said.

KoBold has an established presence in Zambia, including its flagship Mingomba project for which it is currently completing resource definition drilling and a pre-feasibility study. 

Earlier this month the California-based firm said recent drilling at Mingomba had confirmed the “huge” size of the deposit.

It noted the asset was shaping up to be “extraordinary”, according to KoBold president Josh Goldman, who said the potential of the discovery compared to that of the Kamoa-Kakula mine, owned by Ivanhoe Mines and China’s Zijin Mining. This operation, located just across the border in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), produced almost 400,000 tonnes of copper last year. 

Beyond copper

KoBold is not just focused on copper, but rather all minerals and metals considered critical for the energy transition.

It began its quest for battery metals began almost four years ago in Canada, after it acquired rights to the area in northern Quebec, just south of Glencore’s Raglan nickel mine, where it detected lithium.

The startup is now advancing 60 active projects spanning four continents, Africa, North America, Australia and Asia.

Using artificial intelligence, Kobold aims to create a “Google Maps” of the Earth’s crust, with a special focus on finding copper, cobalt, nickel and lithium deposits. It collects and analyzes multiple streams of data — from old drilling results to satellite imagery — to better understand where new deposits might be found.  

Algorithms applied to the data collected determine the geological patterns that indicate a potential deposit of cobalt, which occurs naturally alongside nickel and copper. 

The technology, KoBold said, can locate resources that may have eluded more traditional geologists and can help miners decide where to acquire land and drill.

The Toronto-based gold producer, with operations and projects located in Bulgaria, Namibia, Serbia and Ecuador, said on Tuesday it would not amend its offer.

The half-stock, half-money deal inked in December, would have given Dundee all of Osino’s shares for C$0.775 each plus 0.0801 of a Dundee share, with an implied value of C$1.55 per Osino share. The offer represented a total equity value of C$287 million ($213m).

The new takeover bid, from an unnamed company, gives Osino’s shareholders C$1.90 cash for each common share they hold, valuing Osino Resources at approximately C$368 million ($273m). In addition, the suitor will pick up the termination fee bill that Osino will have to pay Dundee Precious Metals.

Osino Resources’ allure stems from its advanced-stage Twin Hills gold project in Namibia. The proposed open-pit will have a 13-year mine life and average annual production of 175,000 ounces of gold over the first five years. First production is expected in the second half of 2026, according to feasibility study released in June. Namibia has granted the project a 20 year licence leaving only site-level permits still required.

The suitor has also offered Osino Resources a $10 million loan to continuing the fast development of Twin Hills and to fund the company”s other liquidity needs.

The Modification of the Environmental Impact Study (MEIA) approval allows the mine, co-owned by Glencore (LON: GLEN), BHP (ASX, LON: BHP), Teck Resources (TSX: TECK.A, TECK.B)(NYSE: TECK) and Mitsubishi (TYO: 8058), to apply changes within existing components. These include the expansion of the open pit and the optimization of the mine’s dumps and tailings dam. 

“The MEIA is an important milestone for Antamina and the Peruvian mining industry (…) It broadens our horizon and allows us to continue working hand in hand with the authorities and communities,” Víctor Gobitz, chief executive of Antamina said in the statement.

Antamina’s mine area will be increased by 25% and the open pit will be deepened by 150 metres. This represents an extraction of up to 173,000 tonnes of ore a day, with a waste movement of up to about 742,000 tonnes daily.

The project also includes replacing the primary ore crushing station and installing a new rock crusher. Dam storage capacity will be increased to 1,572 million tonnes from the current 1,100 million tonnes.

The granting of the permit comes only a week after representatives from the largest mining companies operating in the country met with Peru’s Ministry of Energy and Mines, Oscar Vera, to provide feedback on a new digital initiative expected to speed up permitting in the world’s second largest copper producing nation.

The move is part of an addendum to an October 2023 agreement granting First Quantum a two-year earn in period over two of four licences held by African Pioneer’s Zambian subsidiary in the Copperbelt. The area is a copper-rich region extending between northern Zambia and the southern Democratic Republic of Congo.

First Quantum now has to prepare a technical report before the end of February demonstrating an indicated mineral resource of at least 300,000 tonnes of contained copper to be able to earn a 51% shareholding in African Pioneer Zambia.

Shares in African Pioneer jumped on the news and were trading 16% higher at 2.32 pence each midday on Friday. The explorer and developer focused on Sub-Saharan Africa has a market capitalization of £5.29 million ($6.65m).

Work completed by FQM during the initial period of the option agreement includes mapping, soil sampling, ground geophysics, air core and diamond drilling in excess of the minimum qualifying expenditure of $500,000 on each of the four exercised licences. 

The Vancouver-based miner already has two copper operations in Zambia — Sentinel and Kansanshi — as well as the Fishtie copper project, near the border with the DRC.

Market rumours earlier this year indicated that First Quantum was planning to sell a stake in its Zambian mines to Chinese state-owned Jiangxi Copper, the company’s top shareholder.

The report followed an announcement by the companies in December in which they committed to speed up the development of their jointly held Fishtie copper project, with the goal of beginning production in 2026.

Zambia, Africa’s second-largest copper producer, plans to triple its copper output by the end of the decade. It has made some progress to achieve this goal, mostly in the form of reviewing its tax policy to increase investment in the sector. 

The nation would need to solve a key infrastructure challenge — the stabilization of the national power grid. A report this week showed every power outage results in an average of 35 tonnes of lost copper production.This means that the country could lose up to $33.3 million per year in export earnings and tax income.

First Quantum is scheduled to release fourth quarter and year-end 2023 financial and operating results next week.

The partners aim to develop alternative markets for the battered-metal, as prices fell more than 40% last year due mainly to weak demand from China. The rout has rolled into 2024, with the palladium price falling below platinum’s last week for the first time since 2018.

The joint venture, which will be equally funded by both parties, says that while palladium demand has been dominated by auto catalysts for the past few decades, is time to find new applications for the metal.

“Over the longer term, demand for palladium in the automotive sector is expected to decrease, creating an opportunity to consider new applications for the metal (…) Palladium has a very high selectivity for hydrogen and thus can be used in a broad range of applications,” the companies said in the statement.

Palladium is mainly used by the auto industry, which makes up four-fifths of its demand. Consumption of the metal, however, dropped by almost 40% in 2023 as carmakers switched to cheaper platinum for the devices that reduce harmful emissions and as more drivers opted for EVs.

Sibanye and Heraeus expect to ultimately ensure a “sustainable PGM supply basket”, which should include palladium, platinum and critical raw materials, such as iridium, ruthenium and rhodium.

“We expect hybrids to become the dominant engine type underpinning demand for palladium in the medium term,” Sibanye-Stillwater chief executive, Neal Froneman said in the statement. “Longer term and in response to changing demands, the PGM industry must innovate and stabilize the platinum group metals market,” he said.

Palladium and platinum prices decline has driven producers in South Africa, including Sibanye-Stillwater to apply severe cost-cutting measures. 

The company is even axing jobs at its mines in the United States, with about 7,000 workers expected to be affected.

Fellow miner Impala Platinum Holdings has offered voluntary job cuts, including at its deep-level Rustenburg complex. Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) has also held talks with the government about potential job cuts.

GM and Panasonic have each committed to purchase 18,000 tonnes of  natural graphite active anode material annually over a period of six to seven years, the Montreal-based miner said. They are also making equity investments of $25 million each in the company.

The two firms and potential co-investors could join future rounds of financing worth hundreds of millions of dollars, Nouveau Monde Graphite (NGM) said in a statement.

NGM aims to raise $1.2 billion to build the whole project, with $725 million coming from debt and $475 million from equity. The miner aims to become North America’s first fully integrated source of natural graphite active anode material, which accounts for about half of an electric vehicle (EV) battery. 

To achieve this goal, it is is developing the Matawinie project in Saint-Michel-des-Saints, Quebec, about 100 miles north of Montreal, where it also plans to build a graphite concentrator. 

NMG will also install a refining facility for the production of active anode material in Becancour, Quebec. This is the same area where GM and Ford Motor Co. are already constructing EV battery-component facilities.

The Matawinie open pit mine is expected to produce 103,000 tonnes of graphite a year over the course of 25 years and is part of a larger strategy to turn Canada into a production centre for lithium ion batteries. 

The miner said the investments and agreements are seen as a testament to the company’s bankability and are expected to boost the commercialization of a local and traceable value chain for the EV market in North America.

“We had been looking for top-tier EV and battery manufacturers to bolster our commercial vision [of becoming a leader in the market],” NMG’s founder, president and chief executive, Eric Desaulniers, said in a statement. “Thanks to visionary customers and investors, we are now moving toward establishing a fully local and traceable value chain.”

NMG is also backed by the Quebec government’s financial arm, London-based private equity shop Pallinghurst Resources LLP and Japan’s Mitsui & Co. 

The West is looking for sources of graphite outside China, the world’s top producer and exporter, which also refines more than 90% of the world’s graphite into the material that is used in virtually all EV battery anodes.

The quest to bring graphite projects to fruition has become more urgent in the past months, as China announced in October it will require export permits for some graphite products.

NMG said its recent acquisition of the Uatnan project for its Phase-3 expansion also provides a supply opportunity for Western EV and battery manufacturers looking to secure and grow active anode material volumes as their production increases.

The combined company, which will continue to trade as Horizon Minerals, would have global mineral resources of around 1.8 million gold ounces. It would also hold exploration assets in the gold mining hubs of Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie.

The transaction will see Horizon buying 100% of the ordinary shares in Greenstone and 100% of the listed Greenstone options. Upon completion, Horizon shareholders will own 63.1% of the merged entity, which will continue to operate under the Horizon Minerals brand. Greenstone shareholders will own the remaining 36.9% of the combined business.

“This really is a logical consolidation of complementary assets, which creates greater potential for Horizon to unlock the value within our longer project pipeline,” the company’s chief executive officer, Grant Haywood, said in the statement. 

The combined mining company will be pursuing its growth strategy from a position of greater market scale, underpinned by a cash and listed investments balance of about $14.9 million and a lower consolidated cost base, they said.

The merger transaction is anticipated to be completed in June 2024, subject to various customary conditions.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said that police and military teams, mine rescuers and volunteers, totalling more than 1,700 search and rescue personnel, were on the ground to look for the missing workers. Five of them are believed to have been in a container hut, three in a vehicle and one in a truck, the minister said.

The incident happened on Tuesday at the Çöpler gold mine, 80%-owned by US-based SSR Mining, which suspended operations. The landslide, described by the company as a “large slip on the heap leach pad”, caused shares to lose more than than 50% of their value in both the New York and Toronto exchanges on Tuesday. 

Security footage shared on X shows a massive mound of soil, which authorities said had been processed for gold and piled on the hills, speedily crumble and flow into the valley in a deluge of earth and rocks, prompting mining trucks nearby to escape.

İliç Altın madeninde meydana gelen toprak kaymasında yeni görüntüler ortaya çıktı pic.twitter.com/PUypBnmfSM

— Politic Türk (@politicturk) February 14, 2024

Turkish authorities have launched a probe to determine the cause of the landslide and the safety conditions of the mine.

Cyanide leak fears

Environmental groups fear a cyanide and sulphuric acid leak, used in the process of gold extraction, could reach the Euphrates River, which flows from Turkey to Syria and Iraq.

Their worries stem from cyanide leak at the mine in 2020, caused by a burst pipe, which forced the mine’s suspension. Çöpler reopened two years later after the company was fined and a cleanup operation was completed.

“No contamination has been detected for now,” the Environment Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. 

Turkey’s mining industry has been marred by a series of accidents in recent years. In 2022, a coal mine explosion killed 41 workers. But the country’s worst mining disaster in record happened in 2014 also at a coal mine, which resulted in 301 workers dead.

The government is facing criticism from opposition parties and industry groups for ignoring Copler’s activities after the 2022 accident that also caused a cyanide spill.

“The government has preferred to side with mine owners, not with citizens,” Meral Aksener, leader of the opposition IYI Party, said in Ankara on Wednesday. “I specifically warned them in 2022 about the danger this mine poses, but they chose to turn a deaf ear.”

The Çöpler gold mine, in operations since 2010, is run by private company Anagold. It produced 56,768 ounces of gold in the third quarter of 2023 and is SSR’s second-largest producing gold mine.

The company said the milestone positions it as one of the few pure-play copper producers on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), with first revenues from copper concentrate sales expected this week.

The Kanmantoo underground mine, located around 55km (34m) from Adelaide, has been a site of substantial copper and gold production in the past. From 2010 to 2020, Hillgrove Resources operated a series of open pits at the site, which yielded nearly 137,000 tonnes of copper and 55,000 ounces of gold.

The company began exploring the potential for an underground operation in 2020, which led to the development of a single decline towards the base of one of the pits in mid-2023.

“First production (…) and the transition to cash flow generation, is a watershed moment for the company,” CEO Lachlan Wallace, said in the statement. “Over the next few months, the mine output and copper production are expected to ramp up as the planned additional work areas are established underground.”

The mine is now fully connected to the South Australian power grid, which is supplied by more than 70% renewable energy generation. This considerably reduces Kanmantoo’s carbon footprint, the company said.

Hillgrove believes there is a “considerable opportunity” to grow both the resource and mine life, based on recent drilling results. Exploration targets at the project this year sit at 60 million to 100 million tonnes at 0.9% to 1.2% copper and 0.1 g/t to 0.2 g/t gold, it said.

To leverage the miner’s position as a copper producer into the future, Hillgrove is actively seeking to grow both the mine life and annual production through exploration.

Shares in the company jumped after the announcement closing 1.32% higher at A$0.077 on Tuesday. This left Hillgrove with a market capitalization of A$139.86 million ($90m).