Ausdrill Limited has been awarded several contracts which further broaden the services offered by the group. These include a coal seam gas (CSG) contract, new drill and blast contracts and an explosives supply contract. With the continued interest and commitment in CSG in Australia by a number of notable companies operating in this market, EDA envisages an opportunity for long-term sustainable growth in the CSG drilling sector.

The Silver Institute has reviewed the Gold Institute’s Production Cost Standard to determine its use and adoption by the silver industry. Through the formation of a committee mostly comprised of Silver Institute member mining company Chief Financial Officers, the Standard, first introduced in 1996, and subsequently updated in 1999 and in 2002, has been modified to include two minor amendments.

According to local paper, the Duluth News Tribune, P&H Mining Equipment is to close its main Minnesota Iron Range offices in Mountain Iron, Buhl and Hibbing after construction of a new $16 million, 82,000 ft2 building off US Highway 53 on the town of Virginia’s north side. The building should open next summer and will include office space and a giant service floor and crane for equipment repair and service.

Minera Panama SA has upgraded its original 2008 purchase of Metso grinding mills for the Cobre Panama project and has confirmed the resizing of the mills. The original grinding mill supply has been revised to now include two SAG mills of 40 ft (12.2 m) in diameter and four ball mills of 26 ft (7.9 m) in diameter. According to Metso, the change is a consequence of more detailed throughput modelling conducted as part of the Basic Engineering phase and will provide a reasonable design margin over the nominal throughput of 150,000 t/d (dry). Delivery will be completed by the end of 2013. The Cobre Panama project is located approximately 100 km west of the Panama Canal. It is estimated that start-up will commence by the end of 2015. Once the new Cobre Panama mine is in full operation, the concentrator will be capable of processing ore at the 150,000 t/d rate over the first 10 years of operation.

Modular Mining Systems, one of the world leaders in information management solutions for mining operations, has announced that SouthGobi Resources has chosen to implement the Modular IntelliMine Integrated Asset Management Suite at its Ovoot Tolgoi coal operation in southern Mongolia. The installation will include the DISPATCH fleet management system, PowerView reporting software, MineCare maintenance management system, and ProVision machine guidance solution for shovels, dozers, and drills. “We chose Modular because the IntelliMine suite covers all aspects of our business,” said Justin Kapla, General Manager, Ovoot Tolgoi Operations. “From safety, to asset management, to increased productivity, they have solutions that meet all of our needs. We look forward to the value their products will add to our business.”

Rio Tinto is testing new techniques for underground drifting, mineral exploration and improved recovery of ore in its latest push to develop competitive advantage through its Mine of the FutureTM program. Read more

Arch Coal has completed its acquisition of International Coal Group through a merger, with ICG becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Arch. The aggregate value of the transaction totalled $3.4 billion. The acquisition adds nearly 13 Mt of low-cost Appalachian thermal coal production to Arch’s vast domestic thermal coal portfolio, solidifying the company’s number two position among US-based coal miners. With expected metallurgical coal sales of 11 Mt in 2011, Arch also becomes the second largest US metallurgical coal producer and a top ten global supplier to steelmakers. By capitalising on expansion opportunities, Arch expects to boost its metallurgical coal output to nearly 15 Mt by 2015.

Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management, has signed an agreement to acquire Leader Harvest Power Technologies Holdings, one of the leading players in the fast-growing medium voltage drives market in China with a key position in mining drives supply.

With new specialised geometries, a 1,000 hp rating, greater structural strength and proven technologies, the newly launched CH890 and CH895 are designed to increase performance in both secondary and tertiary/pebble crushing applications, according to Sandvik.

In a guest blog post for Oxfam America, Keith Slack, Extractive Industries Campaign Manager wrote that Peru’s new President Ollanta Humala “is generally viewed as bad news for the country’s mining industry. Indeed, Lima’s stock market — which primarily trades mining and minerals companies — promptly crashed following the election.

Africa’s largest copper producing nation saw output fall back over the first four months of 2011, compared with a year ago. Cobalt […]

WPG Resources and Evergreen Energy have signed the agreements that set up the joint venture between them to develop and produce K-Fuel®, […]