Bellevue Gold said that completion of the camp, along with the other strong progressions being made on site, positions Bellevue for production in the second half of CY2023.

Bellevue Managing Director Steve Parsons said: “Completion of the camp marks another important milestone for the project and ensures that we continue to run on time and on budget.

“The camp design and key features were based on feedback from staff to ensure it meets their requirements for a modern, safe, comfortable and healthy environment. This will also benefit the company because it will help us to attract and retain staff”.

The completed camp will allow for the increased staffing levels for Bellevue and its contractors in the ramp up to production in a new purpose-built modern facility.

The Company placed a high priority on mental health and wellbeing during the camp design, incorporating a dependable high-speed Wi-Fi network and phone access to ensure site-based employees can communicate with their families, a large modern gym, sports court and other recreational facilities.

Particular attention was paid to lighting design and resident safety, while the layout was aimed at minimising noise and disturbance, ensuring the camp is safe and inclusive. The dry mess includes state-of-the-art cooking facilities and rooms are 20% bigger than the industry standard to provide increased levels of comfort for camp residents.

The post Bellevue Achieves Key Milestone with Completion of Mine Camp appeared first on The Australian Mining Review.

Stream Two of the NSW Critical Minerals and High-Tech Metals Activation Fund provides between $2 million and $10 million for key enabling infrastructure, such as heavy haulage modifications, road upgrades, water or power upgrades, and processing facilities, to help explorers and mining companies set up and operate in NSW.

Deputy Premier and Minister responsible for resources Paul Toole said the unprecedented investment would help secure an ongoing pipeline of critical minerals and high-tech metals into the future, positioning the State as a major global supplier.

“Critical minerals represent the future of mining in NSW and we are committed to supporting investment right across the board – from helping explorers make new discoveries and increasing processing capacity right through to the commercialisation of emerging technologies and applications,” Mr Toole said.

“The NSW Government announced in June it had allocated $130 million to activate the critical minerals and high-tech metals sector, setting NSW apart from all other jurisdictions.

“Applications for Stream One of the fund opened earlier this month, offering grants of up to $500,000 for important studies and research and development needed to kick-start early-stage projects. The grants we’re launching today support advanced projects by unlocking blockages through investment in strategic infrastructure.

“Enabling industry investment in critical minerals exploration and mining ensures our State is prepared for the increased worldwide demand, strengthens the future prosperity of NSW and provides a vital economic boost for regional economies.”

Critical minerals and high-tech metals include rare earths, cobalt, copper, antimony, and scandium, which are crucial to a range of current and future technologies, including defence, the manufacture of electric vehicles, solar panels, wind turbines, and more.

The Critical Minerals and High-Tech Metals Activation Fund follows the NSW Government’s Critical Minerals and High-Tech Metals Strategy launched late last year.

For more information about the fund go to: www.regional.nsw.gov.au/activation-fund

The post NSW GOVERNMENT OFFERS MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR SUPPORT FOR CRITICAL MINERALS PROJECTS appeared first on The Australian Mining Review.

With the KOTH Project now well past 83% completion (at the end of December 2021), Red 5 is firmly on track to deliver first gold production through the new state-of-the-art KOTH processing plant in the June Quarter.

The commencement of open pit mining is in-line with the project execution schedule, with underground mining expected to commence on schedule in early April 2022. Macmahon is progressively mobilising to KOTH, establishing infrastructure, and ramping up its site workforce according to plan.

The initial open pit mining fleet consists of one 360-tonne Hitachi excavator and four 789 Caterpillar trucks supporting ancillary equipment.

Red 5 Managing Director, Mark Williams, said the full fleet for open pit mining will eventually comprise three Hitachi excavators, sixteen 789 Caterpillar trucks and additional ancillary equipment. Red 5’s mining team has been optimising the KOTH mine plans over the past 12 months, with the final mining fleet configured to enable scalability and future production growth.

“The start of open pit mining represents another exciting milestone, marking the start of ore production from Australia’s next major gold mine,” Mr Williams said.

“We will now commence stockpiling ore ahead of the planned commissioning of the new, state-of-the-art KOTH processing plant, with all workstreams remaining on track to achieve first gold production in the June Quarter.

“The fact that we have been able to advance construction of the project on schedule and within budget – despite widespread labour and supply chain shortages – represents an outstanding achievement by our construction management team and MACA Interquip.

“With the commencement of mining on schedule, I would also like to acknowledge the efforts of our mining team and mining contractor Macmahon for their hard work and exceptional planning to date.”

For further information please visit: https://www.red5limited.com/site/content/

The post Red 5 On Target With KOTH Mining Kick Off appeared first on The Australian Mining Review.

Introduction

In-situ conversion (ISC) of coal, also referred to as underground coal gasification (UCG) and in-situ coal gasification (ISG), is an industry process by which a coal seam is converted into a product gas, by combusting, pyrolysing and gasifying the coal in-situ in the presence of an oxidant, after the coal is ignited.

The product gas is typically referred to as synthesis gas or syngas and can be used as a feedstock for various applications, including fuels, fertilisers and chemicals production, including power co-generation or power only generation.

A coal seam having injection and production wells with a substantially horizontal wellbore linking the two is typically referred to as an in-situ coal conversion (ISC) gasifier or well pair (Fig. 1).

The well allowing the injection of oxidant is called an injection well. The well from which product syngas emerges, is called a production well. Both horizontal and vertical well regions can be used for injection and production of process streams.

The hot syngas produced in the coal seam by combustion, gasification, pyrolysis and other chemical reactions, flows downstream from the hot cavity and exits the coal seam through the production well.

The production well extends from the ground surface, where the production wellhead is located, all the way down into the coal seam, with the syngas flowing to the surface via the production well head. As coal is consumed or gasified, an ISC cavity within the coal seam develops and expands outwards and along the horizontal injection well liner over time.

The raw syngas, produced by the ISC process, typically contains syngas (a mixture of CO, CO₂, H₂, H₂O and CH₄) as well as other minor components (e.g. particulates, coal condensate, hydrocarbon vapours, inert gases, minor species of H²S, NH₄, COS and many others), and the relative compositions will depend on various factors including the type of oxidant used for ISC (eg air, oxygen-enriched air mixtures or oxygen and steam mixtures, etc), water present within the coal seam and seeping from the surrounding strata towards the coal seam, coal quality and ISC operating parameters such as gasification temperature and pressure.

Here, a summary of the historical advancement of ISC technology will be provided. The commercial challenges of the ISC technology will be reviewed and potential solutions will be discussed.

ISC technology advancement review

The ISC technology has been gradually conceptualised and developed over the past 150 years.

• First Generation Technology:

It was mainly developed during the 1920s-1950s in the former Soviet Union. The technology makes use of vertical wells which are spaced not more than 50m apart, where the coal is ignited at one of the wells and oxidant injected in the other well at high pressure to establish a fractured link within the coal, where the combustion front burns back along the fractures towards the oxidant source, called reverse combustion linked wells. Once the link is established, the oxidant injection rate is increased until all the coal between the two wells are consumed. This technology is limited by the maximum 50m spacing between the vertical wells, subsidence occurring under/around the wells and by the economics only working for shallow coal seams.

• Second Generation Technology:

With the development of directional drilling technology, the ISC technology was significantly improved. During the 1960s-1970s, the USA had developed the Controlled Retraction Injection Point (CRIP) and Steeply Dipping Beds (SDB) technologies by having one of the wells directionally drilled and linked to the other well to establish the flow path for oxidant injection and syngas extraction to surface.

• Third Generation Technology:

Companies such as Linc Energy and Carbon Energy, in Australia, successfully developed the third generation ISC technology, based on the technology from the previous generations developed up to the 1990’s. In addition, the coiled tubing unit for enriched oxidant and coolant delivery is implemented at the Linc Energy Chinchilla site. The high-quality syngas was used as feedstock for power generation and producing synthetic fuels.

• The Fourth-Generation Technology:

Zhongwei Energy took the lessons learned from most of the field demonstration trials and developed the 4th generation ISC technology. The advances include, but are not limited to:

• A commercial scale concentric coiled tubing oxygen injection system to execute the CRIP method with 99.5% pure oxygen injection
• Downhole oxygen tools with real-time process KPIs feedback and active coolant control functions
• Easily deployable ignition tools and ignition tool delivery systems
• Thermal production wells and wellheads with a sub-surface gas quench system
• Multiple channels injection well and production well system
• Downhole ISC process monitoring and safety system
• Modular and movable ISC surface equipment
• Site ground water monitoring system

ISC commercial challenge

The ISC technology is close to a pivotal point of commercialisation after more than a century of research and development, especially with the advancements from lessons learned from decades of pilot plants. However, there are some challenges, which could significantly affect the success of ISC commercial projects and requires more attention during the ISC exploration, design and operational phases.

ISC process control

In the previous pilot plant operation, multiple “cavities” were naturally designed to keep the oxidant injection point fixed in one location for a long period of time to maximize coal resource extraction, resulting in low gasification efficiency and large variations in syngas quality.

This results in syngas quality and flow stability challenges for the downstream applications of commercial ISC projects, thereby limiting the investment for these types of projects.

The main reasons for these variations are due to the oxidant injection point and the cavity size. When the oxidant injection point remains at a fixed location where the coal gasification process occurs downstream from this location, the available coal for gasification is reduced over time as it is consumed and the coal face is moving further away due to the continued growth of the gasification cavity. In addition, the heat loss and ingress water fluxes are significantly increased when the cavity reaches a certain size and when the coal seam overburden rock surface is exposed, resulting lower gasification efficiency with lower syngas quality. Therefore, the continuous CRIP method, where the oxidant injection retraction is done on a regular basis to better control the syngas quality and flow rate, is highly recommended for commercial applications.

The heat loss at the coal seam overburden rock cannot be eliminated during the ISC process. For an individual ISC gasifier process control, hence, small variations in syngas quality and syngas flow will always exist. By operating at least three or more ISC gasifiers in parallel at the same time in a staggered operation, the syngas quality and flow variances can be overcome to make the commercial downstream syngas conversion processes viable.

In general, the required scale for making commercial ISC projects feasible, requires at least 10-15 ISC gasifiers to operate at the same time, which more that satisfies the requirement for running 3 or more ISC gasifiers to ensure stable syngas flow and syngas quality.

For a large field of ISC gasifiers, standby gasifiers can also be employed in the event of one of the other gasifiers requiring a workover or re-ignition. In addition, the single ISC gasifier process control plus the syngas processing surface facilities process vessels/buffer drums, surface pipe lines and subsurface cavities in the ISC gasifiers will further smooth out the syngas production flow rate and quality.

Independent control of each ISC gasifier and “peak adjustment” control of multiple ISC gasifiers are highly recommended, which could greatly resolve the previous syngas variation issues for downstream commercial application.

ISC gasifier blockage formation

ISC gasifier blockage formation is another critical ISC commercial challenge. The Swan Hills project is a good example of how blockages prevented them from achieving normal ISC operation and only producing high quality syngas up to 4000 hours at reduced rates and ultimately resulting in a well blow out.

Although there was no safety system in the oxygen delivery device (i.e. coiled tubing unit) or along the injection was cited as the main reason, the blockage or the flow limitation is also a critical factor to contribute to the ignition source for the pure oxygen environment for this incident, as the hot syngas gradually accumulated before the blockage and spread along the injection well and mixed with the high pressure oxygen.

Coal tar is the normal product generated when coal is heated up, no matter if it is during combustion, gasification or pyrolysis and the main product that leads to blockage formation in the ISC process. During the commissioning and ignition of the coal seam, the large amount of coal tar produced in the slow pyrolysis process could mix with the coal particles and ash from the combustion process and condensate in the production liner and tubing. In order to reduce the ISC gasifier blockage formation challenges, the likely sources for causing blockages need to be considered throughout all the project phases of the ISC commercial project.

Firstly, during site screening, exploration and field layout design, the site geological and hydrogeological conditions are required to accurately model and fully identify and quantify the sources of blockage formation and exclude them for ISC use.

Secondly, during the gasifier and well design, the syngas flow velocity requires more attention during the design process, to ensure that the flow velocity is greater than the minimum two-phase flow entrainment velocity in tubing. This will ensure that the coal tar liquid drops and small solid impurities can be carried out by syngas to the wellhead and avoid the potential blockage of the gasifier liner and production well.

In addition, the hole dimensions on the perforated casing also have a special requirement to only allow small particles to enter into the syngas pathway which can be carried out by syngas through the production well. Furthermore, the design and operating temperatures of the thermal production well are required to be as high as possible because there are many high melting point components in coal tar.

However, the design and operating temperatures of the thermal production well are required to be actively controlled and not exceed the temperature that would damage the casing and cement bond well integrity. The multiple flow path channels for the injection well and production well designs are useful and provides and extra layer of safety to allow syngas flow (or depressurization) when the primary flow path is blocked and requires physically blockage clearing/well intervention operation, minimizing the interruptions to the normal ISC operation.

Thirdly, the syngas pathway must be fully hydraulically connected (de-watered, cleared with gas flow and gas flow tested) before igniting the coal seam. After drilling and completions is completed and the well connections established, full well flushing is required from the injection well to the production well for the various flow paths to remove drilling mud and drill cuttings from the wells and also to enhance the connections between these wells.

The next step is to dewater (via pumping or gas lifting operations) the wells and then initiate air or nitrogen flow through these wells to remove the remaining moisture and small particulates from the wells to dry establish and maintain the designed gas flow pathways until ignition of the coal seam is initiated.

The thermal production well must be heated up slowly after the coal seam is ignited, to avoid casing thermal shock, where the rapid thermal expansion between the casing and cement bond reduces the integrity of the cement bond with the casing and additionally water in the formation around the casing can heat up rapidly to generate high pressure steam, which can result in casing collapse. The downhole operation parameters and procedures are also required to be monitored closely during the commissioning phase and requires rapid response by using the process control and monitoring system and relying on the safety systems which was configured for the thermal production well and the injection well.

Lastly, a coiled tubing truck is on standby to mechanically clear physical blockage as soon as they occur, especially for a large field of ISC gasifiers.

Surface subsidence

The ISC process has the potential to cause surface subsidence, which depends on the depth of the coal seam, the thickness of the coal seam extracted, the strength of the overburden, the design and control width of the ISC gasifier coal extraction zone, the design width of the coal pillars remaining between multiple ISC gasifiers and also the strength of the coal seam acting as pillars.

The surface subsidence risk can be significantly reduced and controlled through site selection with suitable parameters for ISC and performing geo-mechanical subsidence modelling for the ISC gasifier layout designs which will be most suitable for a specific resource formation strength conditions.

Firstly, the site screening phase should only select resources where the coal seam, immediate overburden and underburden have sufficient strength and low permeability to contain the products from gasification. The roof of typical coal seams mainly consists of consolidated or unconsolidated sandstones, mudstones, carbonaceous mudstones, and siltstones, which would continue to collapse and loosely fill the ISC gasification cavity.

Hence, the roof has negligible opportunity to have a large collapse immediately due to the sudden formation strength changes. Secondly, during the field layout design, the equivalent of “strip” or “longwall” mining approach is highly recommended, which includes the design of sufficient pillar width, calculated via geo-mechanical subsidence modelling and possible inclusion of rock strength thermo-mechanical degradation, between the ISC gasifiers to support the overburden after ISC extraction of the coal.

Thirdly, during the gasifier design, the following factors need to be optimized and balanced to minimise the surface subsidence risk: the cavity width and size are controlled according to the downstream syngas quality requirement, surface subsidence allowance, the resource recovery requirement and the economic feasibility parameters.

Lastly, during ISC operation, the cavity width is controlled by the oxygen injection point retraction rate, distance and frequency along the injection well horizontal section. The surface elevation monitoring system is required to measure the baseline of the surface elevation and regularly monitor the size and frequency of surface subsidence as a good indicator of what occurs along the ISC gasification cavities, relative to where the current gasification zones is located at that point in time.

Furthermore, the manually refilling process using the neighbours’ coal parting, coal ash and/or solid waste could also help the formation nature settlement in “dead” ISC gasifier during the decommissioning process.

Groundwater pollution

The major groundwater pollution concerns for ISC project includes the organics released during the ISC process such as BTEX, phenols and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the coal tar, and the generated inorganics during the ISC process and after decommissioning, such as heavy metals, salts in the char and ash remaining in the gasification cavity. After reviewing multiple ISC project’s lessons learned, the “Clean Cavern Concept” was implemented to minimize and prevent the groundwater pollution risks.

The “Clean Cavern Concept” requires:

• the ISC operating pressure to be controlled lower than the hydrostatic pressure of the target formation;
• the pyrolysis products are required to be vented from the ISC cavity during the decommissioning process;
• the cavity temperature is required to be dropped down quickly to minimize the amount of pyrolysis products.

Following above guidelines will reduce the groundwater pollution risks significantly when implemented throughout the site screening, design and operation phases of the ISC project.

First of all, the site screening and selection for the ISC project is a critical step prior to the design process. In order to reduce the groundwater pollution risk, the immediate overburden and underburden of the target site should have sufficient strength and low permeability to contain the products from gasification within the coal seam until it is produced from the production well.

Major faults and fractures linking the coal seam to surface or significant formation features such as aquifers are avoided, not only for the loss of containment and environmental considerations, but due to the difficulty it will present to the gasification process – uncontrolled water ingress and poor gasification performance.

Also, sufficient vertical spacing between any aquifers and the ISC gasification cavity and its subsidence affected zone should be carefully evaluated by making use of geo-mechanical subsidence modelling of ISC layout designs in the ISC design phase.

During the ISC design phase, the cavity and pillar widths are determined using the geo-mechanical subsidence modelling, taking into account the thermal degradation of the rock strength during ISC operation. The ash and residual char remaining down hole can be added back to reduce the void space and the associated impact assessment of subsidence.

The ISC design pressure should not exceed the hydrostatic pressure of the target coal seam, which is far below lithostatic pressure. The “fracturing” or “high pressure” linking methods of the old ISC technology should not be used at all, since these methods create fractured flow paths not only between the injection well and production well but also radially into the surrounding formation and towards aquifers. The casing materials, threads and couplings selected for the thermal production well design provide better sealing performance at high temperature and pressure operation to minimize syngas leakage and potential pollution migration to the formation.

Similarly, the high temperature cement and cementing techniques designed specifically for the thermal production well, provide a higher integrity bond between the formation and the casing to eliminate the presence of pathways between the casing and the formation towards the surface.

The installation of subsurface instrumentation monitoring systems allows for the monitoring of the process in the coal seam and inside the wells to allow early detection of process parameters that can be detrimental to the well integrity. The inclusion of multiple individually controlled well flow paths in the designs are highly recommended.

During the commissioning process, after water removal and dry-out, it is recommended to perform an air pressure leak test before igniting the coal seam. During the ignition phase, the coal around the ignition point and downstream from there is devolatilised and pyrolyzed. By maintaining the flow path towards the production well and the controlling the pressure inside the gasifier below the hydrostatic pressure/maximum operating pressure, the coal volatiles and pyrolysis products are entrained by the designed syngas flow velocity to the surface.

As long as the flow path is maintained and the pressure inside the gasifier is kept below the surrounding formation pressure, the gasification products will be produced to surface or remain within the coal seam. The ash and char are good sinks for absorbing any hydrocarbons remaining in the coal seam once gasification is stopped.

A rigorous decommissioning process of the ISC wells are highly recommended to minimise the groundwater pollution risks. After terminating the oxidant injection, the steam generated with the heat remaining in the gasifier cavity is a good mobiliser of the hydrocarbons that remained within the coal seam to flow to surface, usually known as hydrocarbon steam stripping.

Following a program of decreasing the gasifier pressure to the minimum will also allow for steam to be generated at lower temperatures and sustain the steaming period for a longer duration and create a low pressure gradient for gas or liquids in the surrounding formation to ingress towards the gasifier and the production well, further reversing gas and contaminant migration into the formation.

Lastly, monitoring wells will be placed around the ISC well field to act as early detection wells for any changes in the inorganic and organic composition for the groundwater and its hydrostatic pressure. The online data of these monitoring wells are continuously compared with the baseline data to monitor the environmental impact of the gasifier in real time, and help to predict and aid decision making when dealing with any potential groundwater pollution risks in advance.

Conclusions

The critical commercial challenges of the in-situ conversion (ISC) process which need to be overcome have been reviewed. The commercial ISC projects are highly impacted by the site geological and hydrogeological conditions, the ISC technology and design choices, the operational procedures and safety policies implemented, which all require a lot of consideration when attempting to overcome the main challenges for commercial ISC projects.

After more than 150 years of research and development, the ISC technology and its project development approach are at a pivotal point for commercialising this technology.

The successful implementation of commercial ISC projects will bring with it an unconventional revolution to the coal mining industry by providing an alternative technology to convert coal resources to gas reserves that can be extracted safely and economically.

Author: Yuanli Wang
Email: wyl@zwinv.com
Company: Zhongwei (Shanghai) Energy Technology Co. Ltd, Shanghai, 200120, China
Address: Level 27 AB, World Square Building, 855 Pudong South Road, Shanghai, 200120, China

The post Coal In-situ Conversion appeared first on The Australian Mining Review.

NORTHERN Queensland Minerals (NQ Minerals) will see out its inaugural year of production at its flagship, 100pc-owned Hellyer mine on a high note.

The company acquired Hellyer gold mine, an 8mt reserve of high-grade tailings, in 2017, and after a relatively short ramp-up period, started production late in 2018 dredging the tailings for lead, zinc and precious metals concentrates.

The project has a 10-year mine life and a projected revenue of US$706m, with an EBITDA of US$28m.

The existing infrastructure includes a fully-operable 1.6mtpa fully-automated flotation plant, an Undercover concentrate loading station, existing port concentrate housing, handling and loading facilities and an existing tailings dredge.

During 2019, the company contracted a second, high-capacity mining dredge for its operations.

The 100tph dredge will be on site by the year-end and complEment the existing mining dredge at Hellyer, Seabird III, which is currently feeding 100tph to the processing plant.

NQ Minerals said that the second dredge will provide opportunities for increased tonnage through the plant.

It said it would “reduce risk of a major stoppage of feed to the plant, continuity and consistency of feed tonnage and grade to the plant, options in relation to tails transfer logistics, backup operation during maintenance to Seabird III”, which to date has amounted to about 22 hours per month.

A record quarter

The September quarter saw the company improve plant performance to achieve record monthly production with the trend continuing through October.

The company said that during this period, production emphasis was placed on concentrate grades and metallurgical recoveries in the lead and zinc circuits.

“The improvements in metallurgical recoveries from August to September increased from 36.5pc to 45.35pc in the lead circuit and from 33.7pc to 42pc in the zinc circuit,” it said.

“These recoveries compare with life of mine projections of 47pc for lead and 38pc for zinc.”

The lead recoveries were 41.4pc, and zinc was 48.3pc.

Zinc recovery was lower in the quarter compared to Q2, mainly as a result of the lower zinc grades as the zone being dredged, and lower pyrite production was a result of the process changes that required a temporary halt in pyrite production, which the company said had been resolved.

Outgoing NQ Minerals chair, Brian Stockbridge, said that there was a continued positive trend in milled tonnes and metallurgical recoveries at Hellyer.

“The company achieved record production in September, and we continue to realise improvements in the current month,” he said.

“With operations now stabilised, we are evaluating multiple opportunities for further value creation.”

The company continued its winning streak in November, posting $2.44m revenue from $5.64m.

It mined 73,358t and processed 73,532t of tailings, producing 2780t lead concentrates and 1426t zinc concentrates.

NQ Minerals appoints new chair

Mr Stockbridge stepped down as chair of the company in November, with the company appointing David Lenigas in his place.

Mr Lenigas has a long history of directorship and has chaired many boards, including his most recent position at Future Farm Technologies as non-executive chairman in 2019, and Hampton Bay Capital as director.

Mr Lenigas said that he was excited by the prospect of improving the output of the mine going forward.

“This output is ahead of initial project estimates and resulted in revenue for the month of $5.25m with an operating profit of $1.6m,” he said.

“For the 10 months to October 31, 2019, the project has generated unaudited turnover of $43.7m with an operating profit of $9.1m.

“The dedication of management and operations teams has achieved remarkable success at Hellyer over the past year and we all expect to see even further improvements in operational performance over the coming months from this long-life mining operation.”

Forecastint future growth potential for NQ Minerals, Mr Lenigas said

the company had a fantastic operation at Hellyer, and significant efforts are being made to improve profitability and further extend the operation’s life of mine.

“I am also particularly keen to assist the board and management with their initiatives towards the development of long-life nickel operations in Tasmania, through their recently announced strategic investment into Tasmania Energy Metals,” he said.

“New JORC 2014 resources for the Nickel Project will be available for release over the coming weeks.

“And finally, I join the entire board, management, staff, off-take partners, shareholders, bond and debt providers of NQ Minerals in sincerely thanking Brian Stockbridge for his tremendous efforts with chairing the company since it was formed some four years ago.

“His achievements in assisting to make the Hellyer operations the success we see today, are a true credit to him and a testament to his perseverance and belief in project.”

Barnes Hill, Scotts Hill and Mt Vulcan

The company is looking to expand its operations in Tasmania, launching a pre-feasibility study into the Barnes Hill nickel project, about 120km from Hellyer, and new resources at the Scotts Hill and Mt Vulcan deposits.

The Barnes Hill project has an estimated 14.3mt grading at 0.72pc nickel and 0.05pc cobalt.

The pre-feasibility study is targeting throughput of about 630,000tpa nickel ore, and 240,000tpa of pyrite/precious metal concentrate from Hellyer.

Scotts Hill and Mt Vulcan deposits, or the Scotts-Vulcan, are lateric nickel deposits located 2km from Tasmania Energy Metals (TEM) 100pc-owned Barnes Hill North deposit.

Mr Lenigas said that he was pleased at the progress being made at the projects.

“The new Mineral Resource estimates for TEM’s Scotts Hill and Mt Vulcan deposits more than doubles their available nickel and cobalt resource in the local areas surrounding our Hellyer operations, pushing resource estimates from 6.6Mt to 14.3Mt,” he said.

“TEM is working towards a feasibility study that targets more than 20 years of plant feed for a planned operation in the Bell Bay area.

“NQ’s investment in this project has the potential to materially enhance the economic returns on Hellyer’s gold and silver reserves and add nickel and cobalt to the company’s suite of metals available for global sales from our Tasmanian operations.”

The post Hellyer gold mine: Hellyer on a high appeared first on The Australian Mining Review.

The company achieved profitability in Q1 and was cashflow positive in Q2.

At Q3, the company had produced 201.4kt heavy mineral concentrate (HMC) for the year, with full-year guidance lifted to 260-280kt HMC, which the company said reflected the “better than expected operation performance”.

The company’s ore processing rates had benefited significantly from the installation of a larger trommel at the feed preparation plant in August, which allowed for an 11pc increase in Q3 to hit 874kt.

Image Resources managing director, Patrick Mutz, said that the success of the project in its first year of production had been “nothing short of exceptional”, and that the company was on a journey from “Australia’s newest mineral sands miner to rapidly growing mid-tier prospect”.

The company begun pre-construction activities at Boonanarring in March 2018 with the site entry road and, following the wet commissioning of the plant in December 2018, production ramp-up commenced immediately.

The rapid eight-month cost about $52m.

The mine is expected to produce about 32,400t zircon over the 10-year mine life, and included in the annual production is about 5400t leucoxene and 9000t rutile.

The project has an estimated resource of 14.42mt ore which contains about 8.2pc heavy minerals.

Ore is mined using conventional open-cut dry mining, and ore is delivered to the Mining Feed Unit (MFU) within the active mining area, before being screened and water is added.

The slurry is then treated in the primary concentration plant before a secondary concentration plant to product the heavy minerals concentrate (HMC).

This HMC is then further treated in a dry mill to produce ilmenite, rutile, zircon and leucoxene.

New offtake agreements

Image Resources entered an agreement with China-based Shantou Natfort Zirconium and Titanium (Natfort) for the sale of the entire HMC produced at Boonanarring in May 2017.

The two companies reached another agreement in October 2018 allowing for 50pc of HMC production to be sold to Hainan Wensheng High-Tech Materials (Wensheng).

Natfort and Wensheng will each purchase 50pc of the HMC produced at Boonanarring following the transaction.

On November 12 last year, the company announced it had secured new sales agreements with offtake partners, for the sale of a nominal total of 65kt HMC in Q4 2019 with no reduction in zircon pricing.

The company finalised another regular monthly 20kt monthly shipment of HMC that was purchased by its offtake partner, Natfort.

In addition, a sales agreement has been reached with Haninan Wensheng for nominally 45kt over two shipments.

The post Boonanarring: A strong start appeared first on The Australian Mining Review.

At October 31, exported 92,021,793t of coal from both the Carrington and Kooragang terminals, up from 90,454,527t at 2018, with Carrington contributing 12,190816t. and Kooragang contributing 79,878,238t.

Fires temporarily closed the rail network that supplied both the port of on November 12, and the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) said that there was no damage to assets and services gradually began to resume operation from 7:45 until the morning of November 13.

“ARTC continues to monitor conditions regarding train operations on its network in NSW and is working with operators and emergency services regarding train movements and access to the rail corridor,” it said.

In 2019, the company won the prestigious SafeWork award alongside Sydney Metro, CareSouth and John Harris from Liberty Industrial.

Minister for Better Regulation and Innovation, Kevin Anderson, said that the award recognised the hard work of employees and businesses that had outstanding health and safety standards.

“The winners are setting new standards for providing safe and healthy workplaces across NSW,” he said.

“Every worker has the right to work in a safe environment, so they can return to their homes and loved ones at the end of the day.

“These awards acknowledge the commendable work we see in categories including ‘Leadership in Workplace health and safety culture’, ‘Best Solution to High Risk Work Health and Safety Issue’, as well as acknowledging ‘Excellence in Recovery at Work’ for both businesses and individuals.

Port Waratah Coal Services chief executive Henry Du Plooy said that it was a credit to the company’s dedication to safety.

“Continuously improving the way we work is integral to our safety performance, with the aim of working free from injury, illness and harm,” he said.

“Whilst we as a business are responsible for providing a safe site for employees, contractors and visitors, we are also committed to empowering our employees to make safer choices and encourage a shared responsibility for health and safety.”

Terminal illness

At the end of 2018, throughput fell short of both budgeted and contracted volumes, although it did exceed the 2017 throughput due to high demand.

The controversial $5b Terminal 4 was scrapped after “extensive consultation with stakeholders”.

Mr Du Plooy said that market conditions for Hunter Valley coal were still strong.

“At Port Waratah’s terminals, 105mt were loaded in 2017 and incremental growth is expected this year,” he said

“With significant growth capacity available in the existing terminals, we do not expect that the conditions to support an investment of the large and long-term nature of Terminal 4 will be in place before the development approval lapses in September 2020.”

“We are proud of the role our Carrington and Kooragang terminals play in connecting Hunter Valley coal with the world.

“We are confident that with ongoing investment in the reliability and performance of these terminals, we will be well positioned and flexible enough to adjust quickly to changes in demand.”

““We are committed to understanding and meeting the expectations of our stakeholders, particularly in limiting noise, reducing dust and water usage, and creating the smallest environmental footprint that we can. We continue to make significant investments in our terminals, to improve both operational and environmental performance.”

The company said that it was focused on being responsive and flexible to better service customers during periods of high demand and Port restrictions due to weather impacts so that the full capacity of the terminals was available when required.

During the year Port Waratah diversified its funding base by successfully refinancing $232m in the Japanese debt capital market through a new seven-year “samurai” syndicated loan.

The post Port Waratah: Safety First appeared first on The Australian Mining Review.

Nickel West has made significant progress in FY2019 on its transition to become a leading supplier to the battery materials market – from selling zero nickel to the batter market in 2015 to selling more than 75pc of its production to global battery material suppliers this year.

BHP’s operational review for the September quarter showed production on site increased by one per cent to 22kt, reflecting higher volumes at the Kalgoorlie smelter following the fire in September last year.

The company has commenced construction of a nickel sulphate plant at the Kwinana Nickel Refinery, with first production expected in the first half of 2020.

While major maintenance shutdowns of the refinery and smelter are scheduled during the December 2019 quarter, stage one of the refinery project is expected to produce up to 100kpta of nickel sulphate, just in time for the expected jump in demand in mid-2020.

The company has its sights on reducing bottlenecks at its Mt Keith concentrator and Kalgoorlie smelter as well as the Kwinana refinery.

Green and brownfield exploration

The company is investing in new greenfield exploration programs in WA and continuing nickel mine development in the northern Goldfields.

BHP has secured a new tenement package called Seahorse, which consists of 26 tenements along a strike length of 350km over an area of about 13,000sqkm – approximately 10 times larger than its current tenement holding at Agnew Wiluna Belt.

The Seahorse belt has direct access to rail and road routes to Nickel West, is around 450km from the Kalgoorlie smelter and is near the Transline Railway corridor.

Brownfields exploration projects are underway around the Leinster nickel operation, with the potential to develop untapped potential and provide feed to fill spare capacity in the mill.

Work has also commenced at the underground Venus Mine near Leinster on the new main ventilation shaft and pastefill plant, where Nickel West will operate the underground infrastructure for the mine.

BHP is also developing the undercut for Leinster B11 (block cave) with first ore production expected in the second half of 2020,  pending external approvals.

Work has begun on the Mt Keith Satellite mine development with excavation of the northern pit (Six Mile Well), while construction of the haul road and additional capacity from the project will be matched to meet the Mt Keith mill requirements.

BHP expects production to grow by debottlenecking the milling circuit and leveraging the significant spare capacity in the flotation circuit of the concentrator to increase feed from 10.5mtpa to 12mtpa.

Over time progressive and incremental investment in new flotation technology could further expand capacity to 15mtpa and overall, expanding the milling capacity could improve processing of harder ores, reduce grind size and provide a recovery benefit – increasing equity production and supporting plans to fill the smelter.

Native title agreement

In August, Nickel West signed an agreement with the traditional owners of the land surrounding used by Nickel West’s operations in the northern Goldfields, the Tjiwarl people.

The Comprehensive Agreement with the Tjiwarl Aboriginal Corporation will provide native title compensation, financial and other support to assist the Tjiwarl people to deliver their community plans in areas such as health, education, training, employment and contracting.

The agreement also supports the ongoing development and operation of Nickel West, including a framework to work together on cultural heritage management and the protection of areas of special significance.

Tjiwarl Aboriginal Corporation director and Tjiwarl native title holder Brett Lewis said the agreement was a milestone for his people.

“It gives Tjiwarl a seat at the table,” Mr Lewis said.

“It means the respect of our fathers and mothers who didn’t have a say and will now get a say in their country.”

BHP Nickel West president Eddy Haegel said the agreement demonstrated a joint commitment to a long-term mutually beneficial partnership.

“This landmark agreement for the region has been built on trust, transparency and strong leadership from both parties,” Mr Haegel said.

“It reflects BHP’s commitment to making positive economic and social contributions in our communities, including employment and engagement of Tjiwarl people across our diverse operations in WA.”

The agreement will also provide support for the Mt Keith Satellite mine development, which will supply additional ore to the Mt Keith concentrator with first ore expected by the end of this year.

A Nickel West Tjiwarl Work Readiness Program is also underway in Kalgoorlie for Tjiwarl graduates to work on country at BHP’s northern operations in the Goldfields with 15 members of the Tjiwarl currently employed at Nickel West.

The post Nickel West: Demand driving growth appeared first on The Australian Mining Review.

The focus has been on the existing ore reserves to produce zinc in the lowest cost quartile globally – with substantial mineral resources on the mining leases (including more than 2,200,000t of JORC compliant zinc metal equivalent resources located within mineralised tailings, and around 1,000,000t of JORC compliant zinc and lead resources in the Silver King, South Block and East Fault Block base metal deposits) offering a the potential for mine life extension and metal production increases from the mine’s operations.

The mine concentrate continues to achieve relatively low impurity penalty rates.

This is despite spot treatment charges rising over 200pc since the start of operations and representing more than 30pc of New Century’s C1 costs, which are continuing to reduce in line with increasing metal production.

Treatment charges received for Century concentrate remain in line with standard market pricing and are also competitive with other global zinc miners.

In the medium term, treatment charges are expected to fall in line with increasing smelter utilisation rates – especially in China.

To date, 100pc of New Century’s concentrate has been sold with all forecast production for the remainder of the year contracted and scheduled for delivery.

Operational performance

Looking back over the course of the year, the mine has also delivered strong zinc recovery improvement and continued to report record metal production rates, with more than a 30pc increase in average daily metal production and decreased C1 costs of around 24pc from May through August.

As part of the ramp up to 12Mtpa operations, New Century initiated slurry commissioning and optimisation of cleaners 2B, 3B and 4B in August, which has allowed the full cleaner circuit of the processing plant to be incorporated into operations for the first time.

The upgraded cleaner circuit has also contributed to improving Century zinc concentrate product quality, with operations now regularly achieving average zinc grades of 49-50pc zinc and to a seven-day moving average of 55pc (up from 52pc) during September.

For the month of September, the company reported record performance across all production parameters, with operations delivering around 50pc recoveries for 30 days straight.

Essentially, the upgrade removed bottlenecks for continued recovery improvement and increasing metal production, which was evident in an overall zinc metal output increase of 28pc, with 26,171t of zinc metal produced in 53,500t of concentrate grading 49pc zinc (compared to 20,450t zinc metal in 42,500t of concentrate at 48.1pc zinc during the March quarter).

Silver content of 150g/t in concentrate remained in line with previous quarter.

From a mining perspective, the overall average mining rate increased 17pc quarter-on-quarter (1.87mt in September vs 1.6mt in March.

The average mined grade during the quarter was 2.96pc Zn, which continues to reconcile strongly with the Ore Reserve model and mine plan.

Stable operation has been achieved in hydraulic mining, at a rate above 8mpta during the month of September.

This stability has continued into October and the mining rate is now being progressively increased to 9mtpa over the course of the December quarter.

For the December quarter the company expects guidance of 27,000t – 33,000t zinc metal at C1 costs of US$0.87/lb-US$0.98/lb (payable metal basis including treatment charges).

With improved production throughput, company’s C1 costs could potentially reduce by approximately a further US$0.15/lb outside of any production increase or cost savings, should treatment charges revert to a 10-year average.

Expansion upgrades

New Century anticipates further improvements to metallurgical recoveries and metal production rates during FY20, through the expansion to 12Mtpa plant capacity.

Improvements during the December 2019 quarter are set to be achieved from the continued optimisation of the upgraded cleaner circuit and the implementation of the new scavenger circuit upgrade.

On October 24, New Century announced the initiating of slurry commissioning of the upgraded scavenger circuit to allow the full capacity of that section of the processing plant to be incorporated into operations for the first time.

The circuit upgrade was the second stage in optimising throughput, recoveries and concentrate quality and recent operational rates are sitting at around 9mtpa, meaning only around an additional 25pc increase in throughput is required to meet New Century Resources goals for the site of 12mtpa in FY20.

The company reports that capital expenditure program for the expansion is on schedule and budget, at 55pc complete with $18m ramp up expenditure remaining of a total $40m.

New Century also expects to incur a further $9m in sustaining capital expenditure in FY20, predominantly associated with the five-yearly survey of the company’s transhipment vessel, the MV Wunma, and the annual dredging of the Norman River.

The third and final stage – upgrading the rougher circuit – is on track for completion in March 2020.

Ramp up royalties

The mine expansion will also be supercharged by the Queensland Government agreeing to a royalty deferral agreement, supporting more than 260 construction and 240 operation roles on site.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the royalty agreement was an important step in her government’s commitment to open up the North West Minerals Province.

“We know the North West Minerals Province is rich in minerals like copper, cobalt, zinc and gold, as well as potential deposits of rare earth minerals that will play an increasing role in renewable electricity generation and battery technology,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“We want to see new projects in the North West Minerals Province, but also new technologies that can extract more value from former projects like this.”

The agreement is the first Royalty Deferral and Repayment Agreement to be negotiated under the Resources Regional Development Framework (RRDF) and will provide a precedent for similar arrangements in the future.

Deputy Premier, Treasurer and Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Partnerships, Jackie Trad, said New Century was a great example of what the RRDF can achieve.

“We said when royalties were deferred, they would have to be repaid in full, with interest and with security of payment in place,” Ms Trad said.

“We said investors would have to meet a financial assurance model to ensure compliance with environmental conditions to cover rehabilitation costs.

“New Century has satisfied all these conditions through an exhaustive process and has also committed to employ a significant proportion of local indigenous workers through the additional jobs being created by the project.

“The company has set a great benchmark for future proponents wishing to engage in a Royalty Deferral and Repayment Agreement.”

The reinvigoration of the Century Mine has the additional benefit of continuing the operation of a 304km slurry pipeline between the mine site and Karumba, and the continued dredging of the port of Karumba, making the site available for other commercial users.

The post New Century Resources: Ramping up appeared first on The Australian Mining Review.

Currently operating at 3mtpa, it will ramp up to its nameplate capacity of 10mtpa coking coal after a significant site expansion.

The open cut mine in the Northern Bowen Basin, about 20km west of Glenden, has employed about 1000 people during construction and the mine will have a permanent workforce of more than 500 people during operations.

The mine comprises four mining areas with a total of 18 open-cut pits, two coal handling and preparation plants, two train loading facilities, including rail loop and spur lines, connected to the existing line to Abbot Point, and an augmented power supply.

It is a JV between QCoal and JFE Steel 80:20 respectively, and has been five years in the making, with first approval from the Queensland Coordinator General granted in July 2014, and Federal approval granted in October 2014.

The first mine lease was granted to the company in April 2015, and it has an expected mine life of more than 50 years.

Queensland Resources Council (QRC) Chief executive Ian Macfarlane said that the opening of the Byerwen coal mine in North Queensland was testament to the strength and diversity of the state’s mining sector.

“This is a milestone not only for QCoal Group, but for all Queenslanders,” he said.

“Every new mining job in Queensland leads to at least another four jobs in associated industries and adds to the budget bottom line.

“Mines are part of the local community and during both construction and operations QCoal Group has kept track of its local spending and employment.

“Almost half of the spend during construction was in Queensland and in operations more than three quarters of the spend is in our state.

“More than half of the workers currently at the mine are from the Isaac, Whitsunday and Mackay regions.”

Coal mined at Byerwen will be exported to Japan, Europe, India and South East Asia.

“Queensland’s resources industry benefits all of us, from the workers at the mine site, to regional communities and down to the South East corner.”

The opening day

Resources and Northern Australia Minister Matt Canavan said the official opening of the mine was symbolic of the resilience of Queensland’s coal industry, and that it would deliver more than $3b in direct wages, $3.8b in royalties.

“This mine has already contributed significantly to the region’s job numbers and will continue to do so over its potential 50-year lifespan,” he said.

“It also enhances our trade relationships with other nations which rely on our high-quality coking coal to produce the steel they need to grow and prosper.”

Speaking to attendants at the opening ceremony, in a somewhat bizarre rant, Mr Canavan launched into an anti-protester tirade.

“The history of the Australian mining industry is a reminder that dreams still come true,” he said.

“And today’s opening shows that we should still dream about a bigger and brighter future for the Australian mining industry.

“Today those dreamers have the modern problem of fighting a bunch of hypocritical, self-indulgent activists who like to enjoy all of the conveniences of modern life powered by our mining sector while campaigning against the very industry that makes this happen.

“The modern protest movement has become some kind of perverted take on the medieval purchase of indulgences.”

Outlook

JFE Steel is one of Australia’s biggest trading partners, according to Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.

As the world’s largest producer of coking coal, Australia has seen a sharp decline in the price of coking coal.

The Resources and Energy Quarterly September 2019  said that rising supply, combined with falling demand, is expected to drive an easing of the average price from US$186/t in 2019 to US$158/t in 2021, while Australia’s exports are predicted to grow from 183mt over 2018-2019 to 198mt by 2020-21.

“The price has declined more sharply than previously anticipated, driven by a combination of factors,” it said.

“Demand growth has been relatively muted against a background of a deteriorating global economic outlook (see the macroeconomic outlook chapter) and weak global steel production outside of China.

“While Chinese imports of metallurgical coal have been strong, there has been growing negative sentiment impacting on buying from Chinese steel mills, due to multiple drivers.

“These include slowing demand, declining steel margins and an expected tightening in coal imports.”

The post Byerwen Coal: New kid on the block appeared first on The Australian Mining Review.