Drilling has confirmed the presence of a major new zone of mineralization at the E1 North deposit at Exco Resources’ Cloncurry Copper Project in north Queensland.

Ore grade intersections on the eastern limb of the deposit have been returned in 5 holes over a strike length of at least 160 metres and visual interpretations suggest the presence of significant mineralization in a further 4 holes. The zone remains open to the south-east where further drilling is underway.

A 20km nickel sulphide corridor has been identified at Goldminex Resources’ Iyewe Creek nickel prospect in the Owen Stanley Ranges of eastern Papua New Guinea.

Within this nickel corridor, the company has been able to confirm that this area of the Papuan Ultramafic Belt hosts multiple occurrences of outcropping high grade nickel sulphide mineralization assaying as high as 43.5% nickel. Float rock from within this corridor has returned grades as high as 49.0% nickel.

Drilling results have significantly extended the Bulan portion of East Asia Minerals’ Abong Gold Project in Aceh Province, Indonesia, while a new gold-bearing jasperoid zone has been found at nearby Kapar Creek.

The new drill results, including 8.0 metres of 5.29 grams/tonne gold, 11.0 metres of 1.46 grams/tonne gold and 12.0 metres of 1.01 grams/tonne gold have extended the Bulan portion 600 metres to the southeast.

Recent infill and step-out drilling at the Bulan Gold Zone has consistently encountered the near-surface gold-bearing jasperoid horizon.

Project development has started at Leyshon Resources’ Zheng Guang gold and zinc project in Heilongjiang Province, China, with the access road nearing completion, crushing circuit fabrication complete and first ball mill fabrication well advanced.

The company has also made key professional appointments to oversee construction and development of the mine and associated infrastructure.

A feature of Excellence in Mining and Exploration 2008 in Sydney this month will be the National Mining Awards Gala Dinner.

The National Mining Awards 2008, held in association with the Sydney Mining Club, will be presented at the dinner in the Hilton Ballroom on the evening of Tuesday, September 16.

A feasibility study on the construction of a ferronickel facility at Semirara close to Rusina Mining’s nickel reserves in the Philippines is being fast tracked.

Under an arrangement between DMCI Mining and Rusina, DMCI are investigating the feasibility of the facility where Rusina has up to 40% free carry in such a project and will guarantee the ore supply for up to 5 years.

Due to the completed merger with Lero Gold, the total Central Asia gold resources of Orsu Metals, formerly European Minerals, has doubled to around 10 million ounces.

The company also has substantial copper resources spread across two projects in Kazakhstan and one in Kyrgyzstan.

Half the resource is associated with the Varvarinskoye project in Kazakhstan, which is being ramped up and is expected to be producing gold at 80% of design capacity by year-end.

Phase 1 of a Definitive Feasibility Study on Marengo Mining’s Yandera Copper-Molybdenum Project recommends open-cut mining of a minimum of 450 million tonnes at a grade of 0.48% copper equivalent over an initial 10 year time frame.

The study suggests that ore processing begins at 25 million tonnes per annum for the first two years of operations and then increases to a long-term rate of 50 million tonnes per annum.

China Mining Congress and Expo 2008 will provide an important channel for the exchange of information about mining with emphasis on the role that China plays in the global mining industry.

China Mining will be held at the Beijing International Convention Centre from November 11 to 13 and is hosted by the Ministry of Land & Resources, China, and is supported by domestic and international governments, associations as well as organizations including the World Bank Group, China Mining Association, Australian Embassy and Canadian Embassy.

The Department of Mining Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, India, will run a short course later this year titled ‘Safe Mining: Methods, Design and Technology’.

The course, which has been mandated by the Directorate-General of Mine Safety (DGMS), will be held at the Department of Mining Engineering from December 2-4.

DGMS director of mine safety BP Singh says continuous education is the touchstone of employee productivity.

Indian coal and mining expert Professor Jayanta Bhattacharya has written a new book dealing with coal quality and its importance to the burgeoning global coal industry.

Jayanta Bhattacharya is the head of the Department of Mining Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and his new book follows the completion of a mineral quality awareness program for the industry that he initiated 15 years ago.

An example of the book’s contents is this summary of the effect of water on coal:

Southern Arc Minerals has appointed mining engineer Dr David Stone to its board of directors.

David Stone has more than 25 years of consulting experience in the metal mining industry and his principal expertise is in mining rock mechanics, where he has provided designs and operational advice for open pit and underground operations worldwide. He has also authored a number of pre-feasibility and feasibility studies based on his broad knowledge of current underground mining methods, capital and operating costs and project development requirements.

Nimrodel Resources has appointed Dr Peter Frikken to the role of chief geologist ahead of an extensive exploration program which is due to begin shortly at the company’s uranium tenements in Kyrgyzstan.

Peter Frikken brings to Nimrodel an excellent academic record complemented by more than eight years experience in senior mining roles encompassing a diverse range of geological disciplines, as well as practical knowledge through his experience working on culturally diverse, multi-commodity overseas exploration projects.

Bowen 能源公司专注于煤炭

John Miller

《亚洲矿业》副编辑

BOWEN 能源公司目前将注意力完全放在煤炭上，公司有望在今后一年内由一个勘探商转为生产商。

该公司近期的目标是在 2008 年年底之前探明其几处矿权地的 JORC 标准资源储量，其中三处矿权地位于昆士兰州的 Bowen 盆地，还有一处位于印度尼西亚的东加里曼丹（ East Kalimantan ）。

By John Miller

deputy editor The ASIA Miner

BOWEN Energy is now fully focused on coal and expects to move from explorer to producer in the next 12 months.

The immediate aim before the end of 2008 is to prove up JORC compliant resources at three properties in Queensland ’s Bowen Basin and at East Kalimantan, Indonesia.

It will then start developing a mine in Queensland , Australia , with joint venture partner Bhushan Steel and expects to start extracting thermal coal from the East Kalimantan project with Indonesian joint venture partner Asia Pacific Coalindo ( APC ) during 2009.

The maiden resource estimate for Dragon Mountain Gold’s Zhao Gou deposit in the Lixian Project is 2.2 times larger than reported by previous explorers.

The inferred JORC resource is 18.9 million tonnes @ 1.8 grams/tonne gold for 1.1 million ounces and it remains open in all directions. It was based on drilling undertaken in the past 11 months.

Zhao Gou is the first of at least four deposits in the Liba area within the Lixian Project to be delineated.

Building investment links between Chinese companies and Australia will be the basis of a presentation by Tsinghua Tongfang Company (THTF) deputy general manager for Australia, Eddie Wu, during next month’s Excellence in Mining and Exploration conference.

Follow-up drilling at East Asia Minerals’ Binebase gold project on Sangihe Island, Indonesia has encountered several thick intervals of primary semi-massive sulphide mineralization, including 41 metres of 1.61 grams/tonne gold.

The drilling is being undertaken on the sulphide zone on the central southern flank, below oxide gold mineralization.

Kentor Gold and Arya Overseas will form a joint venture to explore the advanced Khantau iron oxide, copper and gold project in the Zhambyl Oblast of Kazakhstan.

The companies have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding enabling Kentor to earn up to 51% equity by undertaking an agreed exploration program and arranging finance for the project.

THE latest drilling results at Mindoro Resources’ Agata North nickel laterite project in the Philippines have confirmed the grades and thicknesses of previous results.

The phase 2 drill program continues to expand the resource and indicates that the limonite horizon averages 1.03% nickel, 0.14% cobalt and 45.96% iron over an average thickness of 3.40 metres. The underlying saprolite horizon averages 1.22% nickel over an average thickness of 5metres.

An induced polarization (IP) survey on Nimrodel Resources’ exploration leases in the Batken area of the Kyrgyz Republic has identified 15 high-priority anomalies conducive to rollfront uranium mineralization.

The initial dipole-dipole IP survey was carried out over five radiometric anomalies as a result of a field evaluation program which saw testing of all anomaly sites with an RS-125 gamma ray spectrometer and uranium values of up to 1.3kg per tonne returned from the readings.

Development of production facilities at Leyshon Resources’ Zheng Guang gold and zinc project in northeast China has started with the 8.6km access road nearing completion, the crushing circuit fabrication complete and first ball mill fabrication well advanced.

The company is rapidly progressing the project to production status and is aiming to jointly develop it as the first ever Sino Foreign owned mine in the mineral rich province of Heilongjiang.

A 3293 metre core drilling program at the Jinxi deposit in Tianshan Goldfields’ Gold Mountain Project in northwest China has extended the mineralization to the east and southeast.

East Asia Minerals has appointed David Royle as vice president, exploration
and business development.

David Royle is an exploration geologist with 33 years of international experience in all aspects of mineral exploration, project evaluation and feasibility. He has had regional responsibility for corporate exploration programs with portfolios targeting mainly gold and copper.

China Goldmines has appointed Lance Browne as chairman following the retirement Clive Donner.

Lance Browne was previously a non executive director of the company.

Clive Donner has been chairman of the company since February 2006 and has been instrumental in the initial process of listing the company and steering the business towards its current position as a gold producer. Due to time constraints he decided to step down as chairman but will remain a non-executive director.

A substantial increase in indicated and inferred resources at the Eloise Copper Mine in north Queensland has prompted Breakway Resources’ to initiate a plant expansion.

With indicated and inferred resources now at 3.5 million tonnes @ 3.1% copper, up from 2.18 million tonnes, and excellent potential for further increases, processing plant throughout is being increased by 23% to about 740,000 tonnes per annum.

The known magnetite resource at Gindalbie Metals’ Karara Iron Ore Project in Western Australia has increased by 100% to 1.853 billion tonnes grading 35.4% iron.

In addition, a remodelled pit design has provided a revised probable ore reserve of 522 million tonnes grading 36.3% iron.

Inferred resources at Golden West Resources’ flagship Wiluna West Iron Project in Western Australia have increased to 119 million tonnes grading 58.9% iron.

This represents an increase of 33 million tonnes over the previously reported resource of 86 million tonnes grading 60.1% iron.

Results from recent drilling have extended gold mineralization at Central Asia Resources’ Kepken prospect in Kazakhstan with the company now starting bulk metallurgical testing.

Central Asia's managing director Jason Stirbinskis says: “The drilling campaign was intended to explore lateral extensions to mineralization.

Underground development work is about to start on China Goldmines’ Guanzhuang Gold Project in Hunan Province with Hunan Tunnel Engineering General Corporation to construct a central decline and a 4km underground haulage level, known as ‘Highway -40’.

THE effect of India’s new mining laws on the investment super highway with Australian business will be one of the feature topics of Excellence in Mining & Exploration 2008 in Sydney next months.

With India projected to become one of the world’s powerhouse economies, two sessions of the expo will be devoted examining ways of opening the investment doors.

An operating thermal coal mine in Indonesia forms the centrepiece of a new Aus$10 million resources company, Handini Resources, which aims to list on the Australian Securities Exchange later this month.

Developed and managed by coal entrepreneur Mrs Ibu Ratna Handini, the Mampun Pandan project in Jambi Province, Sumatra, is an operating 1.2 million tonnes per annum coal mine.

The first shipment of copper-gold concentrate from PanAust’s Phu Kham operations in Laos has been made from Sriracha Harbour in Thailand.

The shipment of 10,000 tonnes of concentrate has been sold to a Chinese copper smelter and the company is now preparing for its second 10,000 tonne shipment from Sriracha this month.

Under steady state operations it is envisaged that 10,000 tonne shipments will be undertaken about every two weeks.

Around 90% of 974 confirmatory grade control drill holes completed on MBMI Resources’ Alpha Project in the Philippines had mineralized intercepts grading greater than 1% nickel.

Of these holes completed by MBMI’s Philippine partners the average grade was 1.51% nickel over an average mineralized intersection length of 6.16 metres.

Metallurgical test work has confirmed that gold in the sulphide portions of Jinshan Gold Mines’ Dadiangou Gold Project in China can be extracted through simple cyanide leaching.

Two bulk samples of fresh sulphide mineralization were collected from underground adits within the central portion of the Dadiangou Main Zone.

As part of a definitive feasibility study, a demonstration SX-EW plant with 5 tonnes per day copper cathode capacity is being installed at Finders Resources’ Wetar Copper Project in Indonesia, with planned cathode production from September 2008.

The company is targeting commercial production of 20-25,000 tonnes per year cathode by the end of 2009, subject to accelerated schedules for engineering design work and project funding.

Gindalbie Metals and joint venture partner Anshan Iron & Steel Group have placed Aus$70 million orders for key long-lead items for construction of the Karara Iron Ore Project in Western Australia.

The orders represent the first major equipment purchase for the Aus$1.8 billion project and are expected to be followed by a series of project and contract milestones as Karara moves into the implementation phase.

Current market conditions have seen OMH Group postpone its proposed secondary listing on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The company has, however, reaffirmed its commitment to continue expanding its primary Australian and Chinese operations through organic growth combined with strategic business merger and/or acquisition opportunities and developments.

A crucial vote by India’s parliament had enabled the country to proceed with international arrangements to open up nuclear energy commerce.

The parliament’s vote of confidence in the Council of Ministers follows many months of internal wrangling and was passed despite the dissent of coalition partners.

The 10th annual China Mining Congress and Expo 2008 will be held at Beijing International Convention Centre on November 11-13.

The event provides the biggest Asian platform for mining exploration and exploitation, and is an important channel for communication and exchanging information among global mining enterprises, while building relationships.

EDUCATION IN MINING – Mining academics needed urgently

By Jayanta Bhattacharya, PhD, FNAE,

Professor and Head,

Department of Mining Engineering and Centre for Educational Technology,
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

With demand for resources showing no signs of easing the provision of mining education has never been more important but is being jeopardized by a lack of mining academics.

The lack of young people coming through the ranks has resulted in some despondency in the corridors of institutes offering mining education.

EESTECH has appointed Graeme Lynch as operations manager and John Hanson as marketing and public relations manager.

Both spent the past four and half years working for carbon capture and storage specialists HTC Purenergy where they have been involved in pioneering, branding and commercialising the Canadian company’s technology on a worldwide basis.

Orsu Metals Corporation, formerly European Minerals Corporation, has made a number of board and committee appointments.

Mark Corra has been appointed to the board as lead independent director while Dr Alexander Yakubchuk has been appointed director of exploration.

Underground mining is active on 9 mine faces at China Goldmines Guanzhuang Gold Project in Hunan Province with an immediate 1.6 million tonnes available for mining.

This ore will be high graded to achieve budget grades in excess of 6 grams/tonne gold.

Guanzhuang consists of eight mines located along the same host structure with 6km of strike length and on the basis of present production capacity of 550 tones per day, China Goldmines is confident of achieving its target of 20,000 ounces this year.

Astron Limited has big plans for its Astron Titanium Industrial Park in China ’s northeast including development of a mineral separation plant and a trial processing plant for its new Zirconium Opacifier ‘Zirpaque’ plant.

The company purchased an industrial site from the Chinese government in June 2008. The 133.2 hectare Astron Titanium Industrial Park is in the Yingkou Coastal Development Zone in Liaoning Province .

An underground diamond drilling program at Kentor Gold’s Savoyardy Gold Project in the Kyrgyz Republic continues to encounter promising gold intersections.

The latest assay results include 0.5 metres @ 34.2 grams/tonne gold and 5.7 metres @ 5.9 grams/tonne gold.

A joint venture has been formed between Entrée Gold and Ivanhoe Mines to develop the Lookout Hill gold and copper project in Mongolia .

The joint venture has come about after Ivanhoe Mines Mongolia spent US$35 million on exploration of the property as part of an earn-in agreement established in 2004.

Initial results from the phase 2 drilling program at Mindoro Resources’ Agata North Nickel Laterite project in the Philippines confirm continuity of mineralization and are of potential economic interest.

The first 32 drill holes saw the limonite horizon average 1.10% nickel and 42.55% iron over an average thickness of 4.53 metres. The underlying saprolite horizon averages 1.16% nickel over an average thickness of 6.66 metres.

A scoping study has recommended that TVI Pacific undertake comprehensive exploration and full feasibility work to enable a development decision regarding the Balabag epithermal gold project in the Philippines .

The project is near the municipalities of Bayog, Zamboanga Del Sur, and Diplahan in Zamboanga Sibugay and the study was prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

Waratah Coal’s proposed $Aus5.3 billion mine, rail and port development in Central Queensland has been declared a ‘significant project’ by Queensland Premier Anna Bligh.

The declaration assists in fast-tracking of critical infrastructure projects.

It is likely to be Australia ’s largest coal project and the company is proposing a thermal coal mine in the Galilee Basin linked by a new 495km rail line to a purpose-built export facility on the Central Queensland Coast .

A 60% increase in resources at the Salt Creek deposit has taken overall resources at Integra Mining’s Aldiss-Randalls Gold Project in Western Australia to 1.8 million contained ounces.

JORC resources at Salt Creek are now at 400,000 ounces at an average grade of 2.7 grams/tonne gold.

Ongoing beneficiation test work at Brockman Resources’ Marillana Iron Ore Project in Western Australia has demonstrated the potential to increase the project’s total estimated shipping inventory by more than 20%.

The testing on the detrital mineralization indicates that direct shipping ore (DSO) plus beneficiated mineralization at the Pilbara region project could be more than 680 million tonnes.

Kazakhstan 's state-owned uranium and nuclear energy company Kazatomprom aims to overtake Canada and Australia to become the world's leading uranium supplier from 2009 and has already targeted production of 15,000 tonnes in 2010.

Indian engineering group Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is preparing to enter the export market with its heavy engineering components for nuclear reactors.

The handheld Thermo Scientific Niton XL3t XRF analyzer designed and manufactured by Thermo Fisher Scientific has been awarded a prestigious R&D 100 Award for technological innovation.

Thermo Fisher Scientific is the world’s leading manufacturer of handheld x-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzers.

The following summary of the uranium industry in Australia was prepared by Marino Pieterse for his publication Uraniumletter International, an independent information and advice bulletin for uranium resource investments. See www.goldletterint.com

A deal between Indonesian company PT Antam and mid-tier miner Oxiana could see the government-backed company progressively obtain 25% of Oxiana’s Martabe mine for more than $US133 million.

The memorandum of understanding with Antam is over potential opportunities in Indonesia where the two companies can form joint ventures or other cooperative ventures.

Commissioning of the production plant at Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corporation’s Toledo Copper Project on the island of Cebu in the Philippines has been completed and production of copper is under way.

Ongoing drilling at the Quang Binh Gold Project in Vietnam will enable Axiom Mining to prepare a JORC resource by the end of the year or early 2009 at the latest.

There are four drilling rigs on site at Quang Binh, which has a potential gold resource of 1.8 million ounces.

Western Prospector Group has taken the final regulatory step before making a formal application to convert its exploration licence at Gurvanbulag uranium deposit in Mongolia to a mining licence.

The first sales of copper and gold concentrate have been completed from Orsu Metals Corporation’s Varvarinskoye Mine in Kazakhstan.

Results of sample analysis and initial leach tests of 17 of the 23 tailings dams at the Mailuu-Suu Uranium Tailings Project in Kyrgyzstan have prompted Nimrodel Resources to begin mineralogical and metallurgical test work.

The Australian-based uranium explorer has completed ‘first pass’ resource evaluation drilling and sampling at the 48sqkm project with the remaining 6 dams considered too small to drill.

Drilling at Churchill Mining’s East Kutai Coal Project in Indonesia has defined a coal-bearing sequence of up to 16.5km along strike.

It has defined a sequence of about 11.5km along strike from the north-northwest to the south-southeast of the property covering about 3489 hectares of the first target block, the RTM concession area, which represents the area of less than 10% of the four main coal target tenements.

Initial copper cathode production from the pilot plant at Finders Resources’ Wetar Copper Project in Indonesia has been delayed until late September owing to delays in the supply of several key components.

BHP Billiton has reached agreement withChina's Baosteel on the price for iron ore deliveries for the contract year which began onApril 1, 2008.

Prices for Yandi FineOre and Newman FineOre are US$1.44.66 per dry metric tonne and for NewmanLump Ore US$2.01.69 per dry metric tonne.

Mincor has started production at its newest operation, the McMahon Nickel Mine in Western Australia , and has achieved record nickel production for the 2007-08 financial year.

A positive scoping study has prompted BC Iron to commit to undertake a feasibility study for the Nullagine Iron Ore Project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia .

Australian copper and gold producer PanAust Limited has appointed Qantas director Garry Hounsell as its new chairman, replacing Bob Bryan.

Garry Hounsell is also a director of Orica and Nufarm, and is deputy chairman of Mitchell Communication Group.

Marengo Mining has appointed John Hick and Elizabeth Martin to the board as non-executive directors as the company progresses development of its Yandera Copper-Molybdenum Project inPapua New Guinea.