World’s biggest mining project to start after 27 years of setbacks and scandals
KSA to boost women’s role in industry, mining
Will Saudi Arabia's recent gold discovery provide a major boost to its economy?
Ma’aden announces significant gold discovery in Saudi Arabia
Endeavour Mining says it fired CEO for ‘serious misconduct’
First Quantum in talks to offload Zambia mines stake to Jiangxi
Core Lithium suspends mining at Finniss as lithium prices plummet
£4.7M boost for Cornish metal mining
Spanish activist group blasts exploration project in Huelva
Brazilian government, miners join forces to improve security in gold mining areas
World’s biggest mining project to start after 27 years of setbacks and scandals
Rio Tinto hopes $20bn Guinea iron ore, rail and port plan will pave way for ‘new era’ of mining
The world’s biggest mining project, a $20bn iron ore, rail and port development in a remote corner of west Africa, is expected to start this year after a 27-year wait beset by setbacks, scandals and several false dawns.
UK-listed Rio Tinto first secured an exploration licence in the Simandou mountains in south-eastern Guinea, 550km from the coastal capital, in 1997. Since then the country of 13mn people has had two coups d’état, four heads of state and three presidential elections.
In that time, Rio Tinto has had six chief executives, lost half the licence, fought drawn-out court battles with several corporate rivals, settled corruption allegations with US authorities and even sought to exit the project completely, only for the sale to fall through.
Finally, in 2024, once Rio Tinto’s state-owned Chinese partners receive the last approval from Beijing, the Anglo-Australian miner intends to fire the starting gun on the most complex project in its history.
“There is nothing else out there of this scale and size,” Rio Tinto’s Bold Baatar told the Financial Times in a recent interview.
RIYADH: Saudi Deputy Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources for Human Capacity Development Faris bin Saleh Al-Saqabi said the ministry has successfully formulated a strategy for developing human capabilities in the industrial and mining sectors.
Al-Saqabi added that this strategy, along with the national programs supporting its goals, will be unveiled soon, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
During his visit to the Food Industries Polytechnic in Al-Kharj, Al-Saqabi mentioned that the ministry has initiated discussions with Saudi universities, academies and institutes to qualify and develop capabilities and provide specializations that support the Kingdom’s industrial sector.
He noted that this effort includes the establishment of the mining engineering department at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, along with collaborations with Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, King Abdulaziz University, and King Saud University to develop specializations that contribute to women's participation in the industrial sector.
Al-Saqabi said that the ministry is committed to reaching 2.1 million jobs in the industrial and modification sector. He emphasized the ministry’s dedication to qualifying and training workers and has already started identifying specific scholarship paths.
Furthermore, the ministry supports and monitors national programs and institutes, including the Food Industries Polytechnic in Al-Kharj. This institute serves as a model for producing qualified personnel who have earned the trust of major companies.
Will Saudi Arabia's recent gold discovery provide a major boost to its economy?
Saudi Arabia's latest gold discovery has led to speculation it could emerge as a major regional producer of the precious metal.
Al Amar gold mine, south-west of Riyadh. Saudi Arabia has more than 5,300 mining sites, valued at about $1.3 trillion.
The Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma'aden) last week announced it found massive gold deposits in the Makkah region.
The discoveries, the first from an exploration programme launched by the company in 2022, are located along a 100km strip in the south of Ma'aden's Mansourah-Massarah gold mine.
“The gold discovery could prove significant as the gold content of the ore is high,” Nasser Saidi, a former Lebanese economy minister and vice governor of the country's central bank, told The National.
Samples collected from two random drilling locations, located 400 metres below and adjacent to Mansourah-Massarah, revealed the existence of high-grade gold deposits, measuring 10.4 grams per tonne (g/t) and 20.6 g/t, respectively.
Higher-grade mines typically have densities of eight to 10 g/t, while lower-grade mines have densities of one to four g/t.
Ma’aden announces significant gold discovery in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden) has announced the discovery of significant gold resource potential extending along a 100 km strike from the existing Mansourah Massarah gold mine.
This is the first find from the company’s extensive exploration programme, launched in 2022, aimed at building Ma’aden’s production pipeline.
Exploration around Mansourah Massarah has focused on identifying potential deposits of similar scale with similar geology. Encouraging drill results from multiple sites on Uruq South, along a 100 km stretch south of Mansourah Massarah, have uncovered similar geological characteristics and chemistry to the Mansourah Massarah deposit. These results include high-grade drill intercepts, found 400 m away from and under Mansourah Massarah, with several high-grade intercepts including core intercepts showing 61 m at 10.4 g/t Au and 20 m at 20.6 g/t Au. In addition, Ma’aden has continued the expansion of its exploration footprint at the Jabal Ghadarah and Bir Tawilah prospects 25 km north of Mansourah Massarah, where the company is converting an inferred resource of 1.5 million oz to indicated and measured status.
In combination, these positive drilling results have identified a potentially 125km strike with significant potential to become a major world class gold belt in Saudi Arabia. The near-mine drilling results around Mansourah Massarah, indicate that the resource is open both at depth and along the strike offering significant potential to expand resources at the mine and, potentially, extend the mine life with underground development. Mansourah Massarah had stated gold resources of almost seven million ounces at year-end 2023 and nameplate production capacity of 250,000 ounces a year.
These results are the first significant finds from the company’s extensive exploration programme, launched in 2022 and aimed at building Ma’aden’s production pipeline, developing Saudi Arabia’s resource base, and supporting the company’s ambition to transform mining into the third pillar of the Saudi economy.
Endeavour Mining says it fired CEO for ‘serious misconduct’
Endeavour Mining Plc has fired president and chief executive officer Sébastien de Montessus, citing serious misconduct and irregularities tied to the sale of a company asset.
The London-based metals producer said it arrived at the decision following a board investigation into an “irregular payment instruction” of $5.9 million issued by de Montessus in relation to one of Endeavour’s asset sales.
The company, backed by Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, also said in a Thursday statement that it had been considering how to respond to an external investigation into the CEO’s personal conduct with colleagues, following whistle-blowing allegations from October.
De Montessus denied allegations of misconduct but acknowledged “a lapse in judgement,” in a statement issued later Thursday afternoon. The former executive said that in 2021 he instructed an unnamed creditor of Endeavour to offset an amount owed to the company for essential security equipment, to protect its partners and employees in an unspecified conflict zone.
The dramatic termination ends de Montessus’ seven-year stint as Endeavour’s top executive. The former executive transformed the company through a flurry of deal-making and mine-building that replaced small and high-cost operations with new flagship projects. The company operates gold mines in West Africa with assets across Senegal, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso.
First Quantum in talks to offload Zambia mines stake to Jiangxi
The two Zambian mines, Sentinel and Kansanshi, have assets valued at approximately $6bn (C$8.02bn).
Jiangxi owns an 18.2% stake in First Quantum
Canadian mining company First Quantum Minerals is in discussions to divest a stake in its copper mines in Zambia to one of its shareholders, Jiangxi Copper, Reuters reported.
In Zambia, First Quantum fully owns the Sentinel mine and holds an 80% stake in the Kansanshi mine, while the remaining 20% stake is held by the Zambian Government.
These two Zambian mines are claimed to have generated $943m in revenue and $210m in operating profit in the third quarter of last year. It is estimated that these assets could be valued at nearly $6bn, based on their earnings.
Jiangxi Copper, First Quantum’s largest shareholder, could acquire either one of the mines or a portion of one, noted the news agency, citing a person privy to the development.
However, the details are not yet confirmed, and the possibility of a deal materialising is still uncertain, the news agency stated.
These talks with the Chinese state-owned enterprise began after First Quantum faced a setback in Panama, where it was ordered to halt operations at its Cobre Panama mine.
Core Lithium suspends mining at Finniss as lithium prices plummet
The suspension of operations at Core Lithium’s Finniss project could result in the loss of around 150 jobs.
Core Lithium, an Australian miner, is conducting a strategic review of its business activities and has halted operations at its Finniss project near Darwin with immediate effect.
The review is being conducted in response to the 85% drop in spodumene concentrate prices over the past year.
The company will instead process existing ore stockpiles. By processing stockpiles, it plans to reduce its operational costs while still generating revenue.
This will help preserve its ability to restart mining when the market recovers.
The reduction in operations could result in the culling of nearly half of the 300 jobs at the mine, ABC News reported.
Core Lithium has around 280,000 tonnes of ore stockpiles as of last month, enough to be supplied to the concentrator until mid-2024 without further mining.
One of the pits at the mine will be maintained for a potential ramp-up in operations if the market recovers.
Ambitions to make Cornwall a world class region for tech metal mining have received a boost with a £4.7 million investment from the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Good Growth Programme.
The strategic investment will accelerate Cornwall’s goal to be a major environmentally sustainable producer of critical minerals such as lithium, tin and tungsten, unlocking potentially thousands of jobs.
The Government has identified Cornwall’s resources as nationally important to the UK’s future green growth and for a raft of industries, from car making to electronics and defence.
Research shows that Cornwall alone could meet more than half the UK’s 2030 demand for lithium, which is an essential part of the electric vehicle battery supply chain.
And in December, Cornwall was named the Most Improved Mining Jurisdiction of the Year, beating competition from Egypt, Namibia, and Saudi Arabia. Cornish company, Cornish Lithium, was named Exploration Discovery of the Year winner at the same awards, run by the Resourcing Tomorrow mining conference.
Cllr Louis Gardner, portfolio holder for economy at Cornwall Council, which manages the Good Growth Programme, said: “We’re investing in this sector because it will speed up Cornwall’s emerging critical minerals industry and help underpin the supply chains that are going to be essential to the UK’s net zero transition.
Spanish activist group blasts exploration project in Huelva
Activist group Ecologistas en Acción (Ecologists in Action) issued a statement against Geoland Services, S.L., the company behind the Valdegrama project in the southern Spanish province of Huelva.
According to the organization, Geoland’s plans to explore 2,000 hectares of land spanning the municipalities of Aroche, Cortegana and Almonaster la Real will endanger the Alcalaboza riverbank, one of the best-preserved banks in Huelva, which flows into the Chanza River.
The Chanza River supplies a big portion of the province’s freshwater and is part of the Natura 2000 Network. It also flows into the Guadiana River, which defines a long stretch of the Portugal-Spain border.
Geoland Services plans to carry out 20 drill campaigns covering 200 metres in the area in its search for graphite, gold, silver, and nickel.
However, Ecologistas en Acción noted that some sections of these rivers and nearby bodies of water already have a water quality classified as “worse than bad” in the province’s hydrological plans. “This is fundamentally due to the destruction of their ability to support life due to discharges and spills from mining operations,” the communiqué reads. “The few stretches or banks that were not affected in the past by mining exploitation, continue to barely house important remains of biodiversity, among which are endemic and endangered species of freshwater fish such as jarabugo, short-headed barbel and Guadiana boga, which have their last pockets of survival on the banks that go down to the Guadiana, especially in the Alcalaboza and the Chanza.”
Brazilian government, miners join forces to improve security in gold mining areas
The Brazilian Institute of Mining (Ibram) joined forces with the Ministry of Justice and Public Safety and some of the largest mining companies operating in the South American country to develop a special security plan for the municipalities that host gold mining operations.
In a media statement, Ibram said that the main goal of the plan is to avoid cargo theft by organized crime.
The agreement signed between the government and the miners contemplates the preparation of studies and diagnoses that would lead to the formulation of strategies to confront the activities of organized crime impacting gold and precious metals operations.
The work will be carried out by the National Secretariat of Public Safety (SENASP) together with communities and local authorities. The idea is that the strategies developed incorporate defence mechanisms against criminal activities, and encourage the exchange of information between mining companies and municipal authorities, states and federations.
“Mining companies represent a strategic sector of the Brazilian economy and an important part of the trade balance,” Ricardo Cappelli, Minister of Justice and Public Safety, said at the event where the agreement was signed. “Security is one of the pillars for Brazil to attract investments.”
