Rio Tinto to double number of autonomous drills at Pilbara mines

The Hang Seng Index was down 4.38% and S&P/ASX 200 slid 2.78% over fears of euro zone contagion and the risk another recession may be looming. Gold is up and at $1657/oz. It closed last week at $1624/oz. Hang Seng was also hit by worries about the casinos in Macua. There is less credit available from China, which may dampen revenue from gambling.

SBS World News Australia reports that Bouganville copper mine, one of the world's largest deposits of copper, could open if past combatants could be fairly compensated. The report also alleges new complicity in the conflict that cost the lives of around 15,000 to 20,000 people. The open pit mine was established in Papua New Guinea in the early 1970s by Bougainville Copper Limited, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto. While operating, it accounted for 20% of the country's national budget.

Subsitution is driving rare earth demand down, according to analyst Dudley Kingsnorth speaking at an industry conference in China. Kingsnorth is executive director of Industrial Minerals Company of Australia. Dudley told the Metal-Pages(TM) Minor Metals and Rare Earth Conference in Beijing last September that he is dropping projected demand of rare earth oxide per annum to 170,000 tonnes from a previous forecast of 195,000. For example manufacturers of rechargeable batteries may start using lithium ion materials instead of a nickel-metal hydrid, which uses the light rare earth lanthanum.

The Thiess Sedgman Joint Venture (TSJV) has been awarded a A$85 million contract to design, procure, construct and commission a Coal Handling and Preparation Plant (CHPP) at the Codrilla coal mine on behalf of Macarthur Coal (C&M Management), the manager of the Coppabella Moorvale Joint Venture (CMJV).

Despite a rancourous dispute with local landowners over compensation and infrastructure upgrades and an appeal against a Papua New Guinea High Court ruling approving the dumping, Australia's Highlands Pacific on Friday said it is confident it could power on its already built mine next year after the intervention of a provincial governor. The wrangling over the $1.5 billion Ramu nickel and cobalt mine that over its life will dump 100 million tonnes of waste 400m offshore comes as the new PNG's government moves to quell concerns about proposed changes to mining rights that would potentially force projects worth billions of dollars into renegotiation.

Country risk is one of the most important factors in mining, and a new study ranks Australia as the seventh best place to mine in terms of risk. Topping the list was Finland, which got a low score of 7, followed by Chile (9.7), Burkina Fasso (11), Botswana and Sweden (11.3), U.S. (11.4), Brazil (11.9), Canada (12.4) and Argentina (13.1).

With the price of coal off about $5 a metric tonne, coal-mining companies are looking more tempting to acquirers. The Australian reports that Yancoal Australia, fresh from purchasing Wesfarmers' Premier Coal Mine in Western Australia for $297 million last week and Syntech Resources last month for $202.5 million, could buy more coal mines.

Mining Weekly reports mining giant BHP Billiton unveiled plans on Wednesday to increase its iron-ore production in the Pilbara region – the heart of Australia's iron ore mining – to 450-million tons a year by adding infrastructure and building new mines. BHP's current iron-ore production capacity is 155 million tons a year in the Pilbara, while rival Rio Tinto’s capacity is 225 million tons a year. Rio Tinto announced a fortnight ago that it wants to grow output to 333 million tonnes by 2015.

Sandvik Mining and Construction has signed a major contract with Boral Limited, an international Building and Construction materials supplier in Australia. The order includes design, supply, installation and commissioning of a new quarry plant for Boral’s Peppertree site which is situated in New South Wales. The value of the contract is close to 500 MSEK and the project is expected to start during the third quarter of 2011 and to end in the third quarter of 2013.