MiningWeekly.com Audio Articles

This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a global leader in process and laboratory measurement technology, offering a broad portfolio of instruments, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation.

ASX-listed Perenti's underground mining business Barminco has been awarded a four-year underground mining contract, valued at about A$850-million, at Bellevue Gold's Bellevue project, in Western Australia. The contract term will start on August 1, with Barminco to take over from current mining contractor ASX-listed Develop Global.

The award follows a competitive tender process.

"Barminco presented an extremely attractive proposal across safety, operational capability and technical expertise, positioning Bellevue strongly for the next phase of operational delivery and growth. Its depth of underground mining experience and global scale will further support Bellevue as the operation continues to mature and optimise," comments Bellevue Gold MD Darren Stralow.

Bellevue points out that Barminco has extensive experience in Western Australia with current contracts at the nearby Gold Fields-owned Agnew mine, as well as at Regis Resources' Duketon underground mines, Ramelius Resources' Dalgaranga mine, AngloGold Ashanti's Sunrise Dam mine and IGO's Nova Bollinger mine.

The Bellevue project is a long-life, high-quality underground gold operation in a well-established mining jurisdiction and represents an important addition to Barminco's Australian portfolio. Under the agreed scope of works, Barminco will provide all underground mining services to support the ongoing development and production activities. "We are excited to partner with Bellevue as we focus on delivering enduring value for our clients, our people, the communities in which we work and, ultimately, our shareholders. This contract award reinforces Barminco as a global leader in underground mining, further strengthening Barminco's underground mining portfolio and earnings in Australia. This award supports our strategy to deliver sustainable cash generation and future earnings growth," says Perenti MD and CEO Mark Norwell.

"The award of the Bellevue gold project recognises the ability of the Barminco team to consistently deliver safe and reliable performance. This delivery is enabled by strong technical capability built from more than 35 years' experience in underground mining. We look forward to working closely with Bellevue to deliver this high-quality project for many years to come," adds Perenti contract mining president Gabrielle Iwanow.

Bellevue Gold says comprehensive transition planning has been undertaken collaboratively between it and Barminco, including workforce, equipment, systems and operational readiness activities, with a strong focus on safety, operational continuity and production stability.

The mobilisation and transition period will start immediately in preparation for the contract handover.

Stralow thanked Develop for its work at the project over the past four years, stating that Develop's commitment and partnership played an important role through the development, establishment and ramp-up phases of the operation.

Develop, in turn, thanked Bellevue Gold for giving it the opportunity to establish its mining services division.

The company has informed shareholders that that the completion of the Bellevue contract will coincide with the scheduled start of underground mining at Core Lithium's Finniss lithium project, in the Northern Territory, where Develop has been awarded a A$274-million three-year contract.

"Our new contract with Core Lithium is ideally suited to our key strengths and will see us relocate highly experienced people from our Bellevue site to the Finniss project," says Develop MD Bill Beament.

Develop intends to retain the personnel it employed at Bellevue, saying the team includes some of the most skilled and experienced underground miners in Australia and, given a tight labour market, these skilled employee...

This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a global leader in process and laboratory measurement technology, offering a broad portfolio of instruments, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation.

A significant zone of visible copper sulphide mineralisation has been intersected down-dip of a wide zone of high-grade copper mineralisation intersected last year.

The intersection has taken place during the first resource-optimisation drill hole completed at the Okiep copper project Flat Mine East prospect, located in South Africa's well-endowed Northern Cape. The drill hole was designed to test an open zone in the block model, 36 m down-dip of previously reported high-grade mineralisation.

The 7.88 m zone of significant visible copper sulphide mineralisation is from a 311.26 m down hole.

The new intersection confirms that the highly prospective mafic norite and previously confirmed significant copper mineralisation continues down-dip beyond the current indicated resource envelope.

The latest results add further momentum to the development strategy of the Sydney- and Johannesburg-listed Orion Minerals for the Okiep copper project.

"Our ongoing drilling at the Okiep Project continues to demonstrate strong resource growth potential, particularly down-dip of previously intersected wide, high-grade copper mineralisation," Orion MD and CEO Tony Lennox commented in a media release to Mining Weekly.

Importantly, the newly intersected mineralisation remains open down-dip, which Orion is targeting with the next drill hole.

"While we remain cautious ahead of laboratory assays, these early observations provide further encouragement regarding the continuity and scale of the mineralised system beyond the current resource envelope.

"These latest results reinforce the quality and growth potential of the Flat Mines area as a cornerstone of Orion's broader Okiep development strategy. We look forward to reporting assay results in approximately three weeks," added Lennox, a former leading light of Palabora Mining Company, which operates a copper smelter and copper refinery complex in South Africa's Limpopo province.

The current drilling programme in the Northern Cape's Flat Mines area fall within the executed mining right, which is surrounded by granted prospecting rights, which host several historically drilled prospects and historical mines that offer the potential for additional mineral resources through future drilling.

The results reported in this announcement continue to demonstrate the potential to extend or in-fill partially drilled zones of high-grade mineralisation in the currently reported mineral resource. Furthermore, a structural control model for the high-grade mineralisation is being developed to enable targeted follow-up drilling where the mafic unit is affected.

South Africa's State-owned Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) has agreed conversion of its convertible loan facility to Orion Minerals into equity.

Orion is reviving the fully permitted Prieska copper/zinc mine (PCZM) in South Africa's Northern Cape, which last operated in 1991, with a mining resource of 31-million tonnes at 1.2% copper and 3.6% zinc.

The equity will be in Orion's subsidiary, PCZM HoldCo, in accordance with the loan facility agreement dated February 2023 and the implementation agreement executed on Tuesday, March 31. Following completion of the equity conversion, the IDC will hold 23.8% of PCZM HoldCo, an effective interest of 16.7% in PCZM and retain a shareholder loan of R272.4-million.

Meanwhile, BHP Xplor is looking to provide longer-term exploration potential in the Northern Cape.

The BHP entity's series of workshops to promote and support greater intelligence and collaboration in minerals exploration in key mining jurisdictions in sub-Saharan Africa will also uplift discovery potential.

The workshops are directed not only at junior mining and exploration companies but also at the region's academic institut...

This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a global leader in process and laboratory measurement technology, offering a broad portfolio of instruments, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation.

ASX-listed Elevra Lithium has secured a sizable financing package of up to A$441-million to fully fund the accelerated expansion of its North American Lithium (NAL) operations and advance development work at its Moblan lithium project in Québec, Canada.

This package includes a fully underwritten A$275-million institutional placement, a A$146-million strategic convertible notes investment from independent investment fund Canada Growth Fund (CGF) and a share purchase plan aimed at raising up to A$20-million from existing shareholders.

This financing strengthens Elevra's balance sheet during a period of significant capital deployment to ensure there is sufficient flexibility to manage construction risk, commodity price volatility and working capital requirements.

It also delivers full funding certainty for critical Moblan technical and pre-development workstreams through to a final investment decision (FID), thereby positioning the project for disciplined progression towards development.

The strategic financing package has been structured to provide Elevra with a high degree of funding certainty and balance sheet flexibility through a transformational phase of growth. Together, the fully underwritten placement, strategic convertible notes investment and share purchase plan will fully fund the NAL Brownfield Expansion project in Québec, Canada, alongside key Moblan technical and pre-development activities through to FID, while maintaining prudent liquidity and optionality through market cycles.

The participation of CGF in the convertible notes establishes a strategic partnership and represents a strong validation of Elevra's assets and growth strategy.

"One of CGF's core objectives is to capitalise on Canada's abundance of natural resources while supporting projects that mobilise private capital. By supporting the staged expansion of Canada's largest operating lithium mine, this proposed investment reinforces Canada's role in the North American battery materials value chain and supports jobs and industrial competitiveness in Québec," says CGF president and CEO Yannick Beaudoin.

Meanwhile Elevra MD and CEO Lucas Dow says the funding package marks a major turning point for the company as it accelerates production growth and advances its longer-term pipeline.

"This financing marks a key inflection point for Elevra, delivering full funding certainty across the three stages of the NAL Brownfield Expansion while preserving balance sheet flexibility at a critical point in our growth trajectory. With strong strategic support from Canada Growth Fund, we are well positioned to execute our near-term growth plans, materially increasing production scale while reducing unit costs.

"Together with advancing Moblan toward development, this transaction sets the stage to fundamentally reshape Elevra into a larger, more resilient, globally competitive lithium producer," Dow says.

Further, Elevra has also announced that it has brought back and terminated a spodumene concentrate offtake agreement linked to the Moblan lithium project that was previously held by an investment vehicle managed by Canada-based asset manager Waratah Capital Advisors. Elevra owns 60% of the Moblan lithium project, with the remaining 40% owned by provincially owned financing operation Investissement Québec.

Elevra and Waratah executed an agreement to terminate the offtake agreement and related delivery obligations and in consideration of the termination, Elevera has agreed to issue Waratah $5-million in Elevra Lithium ordinary shares at an issue price of A$12.20 a share and $500 000 in options at the same issue prices which are exercisable at a 50% premium to the issue price of Elevra's ordinary shares issued under this agreement.

"The origina...

This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a global leader in process and laboratory measurement technology, offering a broad portfolio of instruments, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation.

Construction at the Lumwana super pit copper expansion in Zambia continued to advance on time and on budget during first quarter of 2026, gold and copper mining company Barrick reported on Monday, 11 May.

The initial lift of the mill building wall in the central African country was completed in the period, with mill shells delivered to site and the first loads of structural steel expected in the three months ending June 30.

Capital expenditure for 2026 is expected to come in at the lower end of the $750-million to $850-million guidance range, with total project capital anticipated at $2-billion.

First copper production from the expansion remains on track for the end of the first quarter of 2028.

Overall, first-quarter copper production of an 11%-higher 49 000 t was in line with plan.

Copper cost of sales of $3.41/lb was up 17%, copper cash costs3 of $2.57/lb was up 14% and all-in sustaining costs of (AISC) of $3.67/lb was up 20%, with royalties tied to the higher realised copper price and increased site operating costs the cost drivers, Barrick stated in a press release to Mining Weekly.

Copper production guidance for 2026 remains unchanged at 190 000 t to 220 000 t at copper cost of sales of $3.05/lb to $3.35/lb, copper cash costs of $2.20/lb to $2.45lb, and AISC of $3.45/lb to $3.75/lb.

"Copper performed well and is an important part of the growth pipeline," Barrick president and CEO Mark Hill commented during the presentation of results.

First-quarter gold production of 719 000 oz beat guidance on the ramp-up at West Africa's Loulo-Gounkoto, as well as performances at NGM and Veladero.

New York- and Toronto-listed Barrick generated $5.22-billion in revenue, $2.55-billion in operating cash flow, $1.97-billion in attributable operating cash flow3, and $1.21-billion in attributable free cash flow.

"We started the year with another strong quarter. Building on momentum from the fourth quarter, we operated safely and outperformed our plan on both gold production and costs.

"Our performance allowed us to capture even more of the higher gold price, producing significantly higher earnings and cash flow compared to a year ago.

"Our growth pipeline advanced, with good progress at Lumwana and Fourmile. Most importantly, we continued to improve safety," said Hill.

Gold costs per ounce were better than plan, driven by efficiencies in mining and processing. Gold cost of sales for the quarter was $1 922/oz, total cash costs $1 327/oz, and AISC $1 708/oz.

Higher gold production, lower costs, and a supportive gold price drove year-on-year growth in earnings and cash generation.

Net earnings totalled $1.60-billion and adjusted net earnings $1.65-billion. Earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) were $2.76-billion, an increase of 103% over the prior-year quarter, and the Ebitda margin was up 66%.

Gold production expected to increase sequentially throughout the year with second-quarter gold production of 730 000/oz to 770 000/oz.

Cost guidance for 2026 is based on an oil price assumption of $70/bbl. For every $10/bbl change in the oil price, the direct impact on costs associated with diesel consumption is $12/oz across gold operations, and $0.04/lb across copper sites.

A quarterly dividend of $0.175 per share has been declared amid Barrick's dividend policy targeting a total payout of 50% of attributable free cash flow on an annualised basis.

In addition to the quarterly dividend, the board authorised the repurchase of up to $3-billion of the company's outstanding common shares at prevailing market prices.

This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a global leader in process and laboratory measurement technology, offering a broad portfolio of instruments, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation.

ASX-listed Dateline Resources says the results of the bankable feasibility study (BFS) for its 100%-owned Colosseum gold and rare earth element (REE) project, in San Bernardino County, California, demonstrates a robust gold development, generating significant margins.

Highlights from the BFS, which indicate a technically simple restart with strong economics, include a $1.08-billion undiscounted pre-tax free cash flow, increasing to $1.36-billion using the gold spot price.

It also reveals a $785-million net present value (pre-tax), increasing to $999-million using the spot price.

There is a 49.5% internal rate of return (pre-tax) at a base model gold price of $4 200/oz, increasing to 59.5% using a spot price of $4 700/oz.

The project requires $249-million of startup capital (including $16-million of capitalised mining), as well as a $25-million contingency.

The BFS shows 75 000 oz/y average gold production of over the first six years, with 573 000 oz total gold production over the 10.4-year mine life.

Peak gold sales of 102 000 oz are expected in the sixth year.

An about $55-million increase in undiscounted pre-tax free cash flow is anticipated for every $100/oz increase in the gold price.

The BFS shows a $1 825/oz all-in sustaining cost based on current industry costs.

A low 3:1 strip ratio highlights Colosseum's strong mining efficiency, with reduced waste movement supporting lower operating costs.

There are 55 000 oz of inferred mineral resources within the pit shell that have not been included in the ore reserve.

There is also additional underground potential in the northeast of the North pit, that is open at depth and subject to ongoing drilling not included in ore reserve, including recently drilled holes.

"Since acquiring Colosseum in 2021, we have recognised the significant potential of the project. The near vertical nature of mineralisation associated with the breccia pipes demonstrates excellent continuity that continues with depth," says Dateline MD Stephen Baghdadi.

"Since the original scoping study was completed in October 2024, we have continued to see strength in the gold sector, with the project forecast to generate operating margins of greater than $2 500 /oz.

"With the BFS complete and the front-end engineering studies well under way, our engagement with project financiers is advance as we look to secure the funding required to commence production as soon as possible," he adds.