Mining Weekly

Vanadium Resources (VR8), a South Africa-focused, ASX-listed junior, on Thursday announced an offtake memorandum of understanding (MoU) with one of China’s leading vanadium nitride producers, Panjin Hexiang New Materials Technology. Under the terms of the MoU, VR8 will supply of 4 000 t/y of vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) from its Steelpoortdrift and Tweefontein vanadium operations to Hexiang. The agreement spans a period of five years, with the potential for Hexiang to extend for an additional five years.

London-listed Blencowe Resources has confirmed receipt of a third tranche of funding of $1-million from the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). DFC in September last year granted financing of $5-million to Blencowe to cover definitive feasibility study costs for the Orom-Cross project, in Uganda.

Further to Goldway Capital Investment extending the offer period to take over all the shares of coal miner MC Mining that it does not already own for A$0.16 apiece, Goldway has declared its offer as unconditional after increasing its interest in MC Mining to 83.67%. In rand and pound terms, the offer consideration amounts to R1.96 and 8.3p a share, respectively.

Africa-focused mining and development company Marula Mining has unveiled significant assay results confirming high-grade and broad graphite mineralisation at surface at the Nyorinyori and NyoriGreen graphite projects, in Tanzania. This follows a previous update by the company on the Phase 1 programme of exploration activities at Nyorinyori and NyoriGreen, subsequent to the receipt and analysis of assay results from a major sampling programme completed in December 2023.

As ASX- and TSX-listed Perseus Mining’s takeover of ASX-listed OreCorp gains pace, TSX-listed Silvercorp Metals has accepted the offer to sell its 73.8-million OreCorp shares to Perseus. Silvercorp, which has been a rival bidder for OreCorp, has agreed so sell its 15.6% shareholding in OreCorp to Perseus. This takes Perseus’ interest in OreCorp to just under 75%.

Platinum group metals (PGMs) and chrome miner Tharisa performed well, operationally, in the quarter ended March 31, CEO Phoevos Pouroulis says. The company produced 35 300 oz of PGMs in the quarter – the second quarter of its 2024 financial year – compared with the 35 700 oz produced in the first quarter of the financial year.

Gold miner Caledonia Mining Corporation has reported a 6% year-on-year increase in production from its Blanket mine, in Zimbabwe, to 17 050 oz for the first quarter of this year. Gold sales also increased, by 17% year-on-year, to 18 450 oz.

Gold held a record high as investors positioned for US inflation data that could help shape the Federal Reserve’s outlook on interest rates. Bullion was little changed after closing at $2 352.78 an ounce in the previous session. Bond traders are growing increasingly bearish ahead of the consumer price index print on Wednesday, while economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect the reading to show some signs of easing price pressures. That would benefit gold, which doesn’t doesn’t pay interest.

There's no climate solution without hydrogen. It’s the missing piece of the clean energy puzzle, says a global CEO-led initiative that brings together leading companies with a united vision. From 13 leaders at its World Economic Forum launch in 2017, the Hydrogen Council has ballooned to 150 multinationals companies representing the entire value chain of hydrogen, which is planet earth’s most abundant element, as well as being renewable and non-polluting.

Critical minerals and battery materials company Volt Resources has submitted multiparty bids for nondilutive funding that have the potential to deliver more than A$150-million to the company. Volt, which has graphite mining interests in Ukraine and Tanzania, is aiming to build an integrated graphite business that will supply flake and processed graphite to customers in North America and Europe.

London- and Botswana-listed diamond company Botswana Diamonds is going to apply artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to its Botswana database, the company said on Tuesday, April 9. Involved are 380 gigabytes of data and 260 000 files in what is described as the country’s second largest diamond exploration information set.

Fortescue Energy, part of Australian iron-ore major Fortescue, on Tuesday unveiled a joint venture with Morocco-headquartered plant nutrition and phosphate-based fertiliser supplier OCP Group. The equal partnership aims to supply green hydrogen, ammonia and fertilisers to Morocco, Europe and international markets. It also includes the potential development of manufacturing facilities and a research and development hub to advance the renewable energy industry in Morocco.

Gold’s scorching run to an all-time high may seem easy to explain from a distance, given the fractious geopolitical climate and murky outlook for the global economy. The precious metal is famously seen as a “safe haven,” and the general view is that bullion prices should rise when interest rates fall — which many investors expect will happen later this year. And yet. Take a closer look, and it’s far from clear: why is gold suddenly rising right now?

South Africa’s many underground mines can be used as batteries that store the clean electricity that the water descending for cooling can provide. At the same time, the local community could end up with a utility that supplies them clean water along with a store of cheap and reliable green energy.

Potash developer Emmerson has entered into a subscription agreement with Global Sustainable Minerals (GSM) which will see the company gaining a 20.3% shareholding in Emmerson. GSM will have the right to appoint a representative to the Emmerson board of directors.

West African gold producer Tietto Minerals has produced a quarterly record of 37 111 oz of gold at its Abujar gold project, in Côte d’Ivoire, for the quarter ended March 31. Milling rates increased to 410 000 t of ore a month in the quarter under review, compared with a monthly average of 381 000 t over the prior six months from July to December 2023.

After entering into a sales process for the Koffiefontein diamond mine, in South Africa’s Free State province, London-listed Petra Diamonds is on track to deliver $75-million of cash savings in the 2024 financial year. The company has also increased its cash savings target for the 2025 financial year to more than $30-million as a result of other cost-saving initiatives, including possible retrenchments.

ASX- and TSX-listed Perseus Mining has declared that its off-market takeover bid offer for all the current and to be issued ordinary shares in ASX-listed OreCorp is now unconditional, and best and final in the absence of a competing proposal. As of April 5, Perseus has a relevant interest in 239.5-million OreCorp shares representing 51.03% of OreCorp shares in issue.

Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Barbara Creecy has granted Sasol South Africa permission to employ a load-based limit to regulate the sulphur dioxide (SO2) of its Secunda boilers in a decision upholding the JSE-listed group’s appeal of an earlier National Air Quality Officer (NAQO) determination stipulating the use of a concentration-based limit. Sasol lodged an appeal on July 31, 2023, after NAQO published a determination on July 11, 2023, stating that it was not empowered to grant permission to Sasol to apply an alternative limit for SO2 after a once-off postponement had already been granted to the Secunda operations.

South Africa’s mining industry is investing R46-million in an action plan to eliminate fall-of-ground (FoG) fatalities. The FoG action plan is being implemented through Minerals Council South Africa with the assistance of its Rock Engineering Technical Committee, and supported by the South African National Institute of Rock Engineering, the Association of Mine Managers of South Africa, and the South Africa Colliery Managers’ Association.