Mining, exploration and processing briefs

Updates on Mount Cannindah drilling, good returns from Blair Athol coal, BHP production drop, QMines land grab, Pure Battery Technologies and more in this week’s exploration, mining and processing briefs. Civmec builds Central Queensland contract book Civmec Limited has announced contracts totalling about $130 million from several repeat customers for maintenance and capital works projects, including at Rio Tinto's Boyne Smelters. The Boyne Island contract is to supply refractory trades and other associated disciplines for maintenance, rebuild, and reduction cell reconstruction works on carbon bake furnaces. The contract term is for three years with two one-year extension options. Civmec said it complemented current maintenance activities in the Gladstone region, streamlining and giving consistency of work activities to the local workforce. The other work making up the $130 million total is in Western Australia, including work on BHP’s Port DeBottleneckingProject Stage 1 and an extension to the existing WHIMS (wet high intensity magnetic separato) plant located at Roy Hill’s Pilbara site. BHP reports 25 per cent drop in met coal output BHP's metallurgical coal production decreased by 25 per cent last quarter compared to the June quarter after a raft of maintenance work at its Bowen Basin sites. The output was nine per cent down on the same quarter last year, with 16 million tonnes produced at the mines it has an interest in (9Mt attributed to BHP). The company said Queensland Coal production decreased as a result of planned wash plant maintenance at Goonyella and Peak Downs, planned dragline maintenance at Caval Ridge and mining in higher strip ratio areas at Poitrel in line with the mine plan. This was partially offset by record stripping at BMC and a significant uplift in truck productivity at South Walker Creek. BHP's guidance for the 2022 financial year remains unchanged at 70 to 78Mt on a 100 per cent basis, with volumes weighted to the second half of the year following planned maintenance in the September 2021 quarter. TerraCom flags rise in Blair Athol margins TerraCom is forecasting $230 per tonne revenue from Blair Athol coal sales in the December 2021 quarter, with an operating cash margin in excess of $140 per tonne. The company has reported an operating EBITDA of $17.2 million for the month of September, achieved from coal sales of 170,000 tonnes. This represented an operating cash margin of $101 per tonne the company said. "Coal sales revenue achieved for Blair Athol was $177 per tonne for the month (September), and forecast revenue for the December 2021 quarter is $230 per tonne," the company announced in a statement to the ASX. "This forecast revenue, if achieved, will result in an operating cash margin in excess of $140 per tonne. Coal sales from Blair Athol for the December 2021 quarter are forecast to be approximately 575,000 tonnes which represents an annualised run rate of 2.3 million tonnes per annum." Battery plant proponent heads west with refinery plan Townsville battery plant proponent Pure Battery Technologies has announced plans to construct and operate a $460 million NMC battery material refinery in Kalgoorlie. The NMC (nickel, manganese and cobalt) refinery hub will initially produce 50,000tpa of precursor Cathode Active Material (pCAM) per year – enough to produce up to one million lithium-ion EV batteries. Pure Battery Technologies managing director and chief executive officer Bjorn Zikarsky, said the company’s highly specialised and patented processing techniques had been successfully proven in the company’s first commercial refinery in Hagen, Germany – the automotive capital of the world – and was now “coming home” to Australia. The Brisbane-based company has previously outlined plans to develop its first commercial plant in Townsville, after positive feasibility study results. "Our Townsville refinery is still planned and discussions are ongoing, however we have made a strategic decision to establish our first Australian refinery in WA where feedstock is more readily available," a company spokeswoman said. Pure Battery Technologies has signed an MOU with Poseidon Nickel to investigate the use of their feedstock for the WA pCAM plant. QMines expands landholding at Mount Chalmers QMines has executed a conditional contract to acquire an additional 50 acres (20.2ha) of freehold land adjacent to its flagship Mount Chalmers copper mine near Rockhampton. QMines executive chairman Andrew Sparke said the parcel of land covered part of the southern open pit and resource at Mount Chalmers. "The acquisition will provide access for further resource extension drilling and bodes well for our planned development strategy,” he said. The company's landholding now includes more than 88ha across four freehold rural properties adjacent to the mine. The copper and gold project is at the centre of a 30,000m-plus drilling program with two rigs in operation. Cannindah Resources reports 92m at 1.2 per cent copper Drilling at Mount Cannindah is continuing to deliver, with results for the lower half of a recent hole adding a further 92m at 1.2 per cent copper. Along with the with the previously announced 117m at 1.01 per cent copper from the first portion of the hole and intervening intervals, this forms a 282m at 0.94 per cent copper, 0.3 g/t gold, 19 g/t silver. Cannindah Resources said the results translated to 282m at 1.28 per cent copper equivalent. The current drilling program was planned to extend the JORC resource, as well as test the continuity of higher-grade copper zones within the project area, and possibly locate new areas of interest for follow up and potential in-fill drilling. The company said it had made major revisions to the planned drilling after Intersecting copper mineralisation over hundreds of metres in the first four completed holes. AustChina explores energy avenues for Blackall coal Blackall coal project owner AustChina Holdings is working with Fortress Capital to conduct due diligence on new technology that would use solid fuels including coal, municipal household and commercial waste, biomass, and other material to generate electricity. The company - formerly Coalbank - said the process had the potential to reduce carbon emissions and utilise waste that would otherwise go to landfill while producing energy for its own purposes or for sale to the electricity grid. AustChina said it would, after completion of the due diligence by January 2022, determine the applicability of the technology, and optimal application of the technology for the advancement of its energy portfolio. AustChina has a JORC coal resource at its Blackall project of 1.3 billion tonnes, of which 30 million tonnes is an Indicated Resource and the remainder Inferred Resource.

Mining, exploration and processing briefs

Industry Queensland

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