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Burnstone gold project in South Africa and Mount Lyell copper/gold/silver project in Tasmania, both considerably infrastructured with near-term revival outlooks, have been approved by Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed Sibanye-Stillwater.

Burnstone, located near the town of Balfour in South Africa's Mpumalanga province, is a project of about 130 000 oz of gold a year at steady state, with a 25-year life in relatively shallow reef in the Witwatersrand basin's South Rand Goldfield.

Mt Lyell, near Tasmania's Queenstown, comes with established operating insight and an early 2029 production target.

Burnstone's vertical shaft, decline, and surface infrastructure is supported by a trackless mobile machinery (TMM) fleet so that mining can kick-off quickly when it begins next year.

"We're not buying a greenfield premium. This is reserve replacement and a shallower, lower risk ounce to offset depletion from our deep conventional mines," COO South Africa operations Richard Cox outlined during Sibanye-Stillwater's presentation of super-duper, dividend-yielding half-year results covered by Mining Weekly.

For 2026, Burnstone has a capital allocation of R98-million and Mt Lyell $7.5-million.

"We don't have to go out and join expensive M&A sales processes. We have a portfolio of assets that we can develop and that's our focus. Very exciting pipeline of projects coming through. The first six months have helped Sibanye progress its strategy a lot further than I imagined we would 12 months ago when we put that together," an upbeat Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Dr Richard Stewart highlighted.

Burnstone and Mount Lyell were described by Sibanye-Stillwater head of projects Ralph Lombard as demonstrating the strength, depth, and quality of the company's project pipeline, "as well as the disciplined approach we're taking to capital allocation".

When in steady state, Burnstone will have created about 2 500 jobs and Mount Lyell about 300 jobs.

Burnstone has a net present value (NPV) of R19.2-billion with an internal rate of return (IRR) of 36%, while Mt Lyell has a post-tax NPV of $550-million and an IRR of 20%.

So, what makes Burnstone attractive?

"Burnstone sits with a substantial amount of infrastructure already developed. Most important is our vertical shaft and our decline shaft are in place. Over and above that is we have our TMM fleet available," Lombard responded.

"We'll build up to 2029 and create a stockpile for our processing facility to start in the first quarter of 2029 and after that, we'll have continuous operations, steadily building up to steady state.

"At this stage, we are targeting 2.7-million ounces, which form part of our reserve. Successful execution of Burnstone will open up the additional 8.9-million ounces in future. When we talk about a 25-year life, that's the 2.7-million ounces," Lombard explained.

And what makes Mt Lyell attractive?

"Mt Lyell, like Burnstone, also has a substantial amount of infrastructure. It's a copper/gold mine in Tasmania. It's around the town of Queenstown, the top north-eastern portion.

"The orebodies we will target are Prince Lyell, Western Tharsis, Cape Horn, and Copper Chert. Those are the orebodies we are currently targeting as part of the Mount Lyell project.

"On the south-western side, is a fully permitted tailing storage facility. Like Burnstone, again, the infrastructure already in place reduces the capital bill which we need to pay for Mt Lyell," said Lombard.

This year's $7.5-million will be allocated to project setup, recruitment commencement, and mobilisation.

Total project capital to get to production is around $340-million. At today's spot prices, NPV is above one-billion dollars, and IRR in the region of 28%.

The picture of Mt Lyell showed disturbed ground ar...

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US-based gold and silver company Hycroft Mining Holding Corporation has strengthened its board with the appointment of former Newmont Mining Corporation CEO and CFO Richard O'Brien, former Newmont Mining Corporation general counsel and senior VP Blake Rhodes, former AngloGold Ashanti CTO Marcelo Godoy and former Freeport McMoRan Americas president Josh Olmsted to its board of directors, with effect from September 1.

"There are board appointments and then there are moments that reinforce the transformation of the company and underscore the potential significant opportunities ahead. Today is one of those moments. Hycroft is bringing together four extraordinary leaders in the global mining industry, each of whom has earned a level of industry credibility, experience and stature that has helped shape many mining companies.

"We believe this represents far more than an addition to our board. This is also an extraordinary vote of confidence in our vision, our asset, our people and the opportunities ahead," comments Hycroft chairperson and CEO Diane R Garrett.

She adds that Hycroft has, over the past several years, built a strong foundation through exploration success, the advancement of technical work to strengthen its operations and its balance sheet.

"The addition of Richard, Marcelo, Josh and Blake builds on that progress and further enhances the board's breadth of operating, technical and financial expertise. Each individual brings distinctive and highly relevant experience. Collectively, they have led major mining companies, operated large-scale mines, advanced complex technical projects and executed transformational transactions. Their perspectives, expertise and leadership will be invaluable as Hycroft continues to advance our asset and realise its significant potential," Garrett says.

Hycroft is developing the Hycroft mine, in Nevada.

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A prefeasibility study (PFS) for ASX-listed Tungsten Mining's Mt Mulgine project, in Western Australia, confirms the potential for the world's largest, lowest-cost tungsten development.

The company intends to move to a definitive feasibility study and final investment decision by the first quarter of 2028, with first production envisioned for the second quarter of 2029.

At a base case eight-million-tonne-a-year scenario, Mt Mulgine has a net present value (NPV) of A$6.8-billion (before tax) and internal rate of return (IRR) of 55%, should prices average $1 509/t. In a higher spot price scenario, the project's NPV increases to A$15.5-billion and the IRR widens to 113%.

The eight-million-tonnes processing scenario requires initial capital of A$870-million, while a Stage 2 expansion that ramps up to 16-million tonnes a year requires an additional A$420-million.

Under the expansion case, the project's NPV and IRR increase to A$8.1-billion and 57%, respectively, at base case prices and A$18.3-billion and 113%, respectively, at spot prices.

The PFS estimates a mine life of 21 years for Mt Mulgine, producing up to 12 000 t/y of tungsten trioxide at the world's lowest C1 cash cost of $53/t and all-in sustaining cost of $127/t.

From a market perspective, Tungsten Mining explains Chinese export restrictions, tighter quotas and dependence on imported concentrate have cut primary availability, shifting the market into a structural deficit that is expected to be sustained through 2028 and beyond. This while demand continues to grow from a current base of 154 000 t up to 215 000 t in 2035, which equates to a compounded annual growth rate of 3.4%, driven by increasing defence and manufacturing requirements.

Additionally, the ammonium paratungstate price has remained at $3 000/t following a sharp increase in 2025 and early 2026.

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If a 20% global truck fleet share can be secured at current or near current platinum loading, there is a six-million-ounce opportunity from a demand perspective, according to Valterra Platinum executive head: marketing Hilton Ingram, who added that truck fleets in their thousands are already being driven around China by producers, distributors and users of low-cost hydrogen.

A fundamental driver of truck fleet demand is the reduction by China of its reliance on energy imports from other countries, said Ingram, who sees China as the most appropriate country to establish a low-cost source of hydrogen at refuelling stations ahead of global replication, hopefully also in South Africa. (Also see attached Creamer Media video.)

In response to Mining Weekly's request for energy-security pursuit insight, Ingram hydrogen stays a strategic element in China's strategy as a result of reliance on energy imports being lessened.

"We're seeing areas of industrial demand uplift, particularly in China, particularly in response to energy security," Ingram reported during Valterra's online and in-person platinum group metals (PGMs)value chain media briefing in Rosebank.

In another response during the webinar, Ingram explained that while Valterra is working with Sasol and other industry players around the hydrogen economy in South Africa, establishing a low-cost source of hydrogen at refuelling stations is best solved in China and then replicated globally.

"The nice thing about it, on the hydrogen side of things, is that China is in its 15th Five Year Plan, and they're talking about significant resource upgrade investments in China.

"We've just in the last week or so had greater clarity around the city clusters that will be impacted by that, and we're waiting to see what each of those individual city clusters and regions are going to focus on, so that'll give us greater insight into the impacts and applications there.

"But the fundamental driver in the space around China is diversifying their energy base, and as result, reducing their reliance on energy imports from other countries," said Ingram, who is next year's incoming chairperson the 100-member International Hydrogen Fuel Cell Association (IHFCA), a global non-profit organisation established in July 2022 and headquartered in Beijing.

This has already given rise to the development of China's current closed-loop hydrogen fuel cell mobility system, which is taking place amid aspirations to advance from closed-loop into a new open-loop era that can be emulated globally.

"So, what you'll see is truck fleets in their thousands being used by folk that produce low-cost hydrogen, distribute the low-cost hydrogen, and use the low-cost hydrogen.

"You have a company like Rockcheck, which moves its iron-ore from port to its steel mill with fuel cell trucks, and it moves its finished product from steel mill to customer using fuel cell trucks," Ingram explained. Tianjin Rockcheck Steel Group Company is a Chinese steel manufacturing enterprise based in Tianjin that processes ferrous metals and utilises iron-ore for steel production.

In March, Northam Platinum CEO Paul Dunne expressed the belief that the world had moved from over-estimating hydrogen to under-estimating it and spoke of the need for more extensive China travel to further witness the emergence of the hydrogen economy.

The next step in the journey is looking to develop open-loop systems, which Ingram outlined as requiring low-cost hydrogen produced by one company, distributed by another company, and used by others.

"That challenge, we think, is best solved inside of China, and for the moment we think the best chance of that success is in the Yangtze River Delta region and so we're working with our partners in the...

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.

Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed gold and copper mining company Harmony is very optimistic about adding additional surface gold production from its surface retreatment operation options in the Free State and on the West Wits.

In flagging these organic options during its latest presentation of excellent financial results, Harmony CEO Beyers Nel expressed the belief that, on a conceptual level, the Free State and West Wits surface options could add about 100 000 oz of annual long-term, low-cost, high-margin production to Harmony, whose surface retreatment assets contributed 7 t of gold at a solid 46% margin in the 12 months to June 30.

To add more surface ounces, new tailings storage facilitation has to be constructed, similar to what Harmony has at Karreerand, the location of Mine Waste Solutions' mega surface retreatment operation.

"It's a process of working through regulatory approvals, doing the capital estimates correctly, and making sure that these projects, which are hydro-mining operations, have adequate water supply, for example," Nel pointed out to Mining Weekly in a one-on-one interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Being worked on are options to ensure that it has enough water to mine without interruption the water-scarce Free State, where Harmony has 5.7-million ounces on surface. Once feasibility studies, now being concluded, have been determined, those outcomes will be disclosed to the market.

UNDERGROUND EXPERTISE

Harmony, which produces 1.4-million to 1.5-million ounces of gold a year, is particularly good at extending the life-of-mine of underground operations. It does so by injecting new life into undercapitalised assets, or short-life assets, or strategic-exit assets, though capital infrastructure redevelopment.

These organic mine life extensions in which Harmony excels are relatively low-cost resource-to-reserve conversion opportunities when compared with inorganic opportunities, "so we continue to extend mine life, and we'll probably continue to do so for many years to come", said Nel.

Mining Weekly: When it comes to copper, Harmony seems to be moving quite steadily in new terrain in Australia.

Nel: We're very excited about our copper prospects. What we do say is that gold is Harmony's foundation, our cornerstone, who we are, and that copper is a growth lever for us. We've got two copper operations at the moment. We're building a mine called the Eva copper mine, that will be in contrast to the mine we own. Eva is an openpit bulk mine, slightly lower grade but a big volume openpit mine, which is under construction. Then, we've also got the CSA copper mine, which is a deep underground copper mine but very high grade.

We do believe the two dovetail. CSA has a clear pathway to 40 000 copper tons per annum level and Eva will be 60 000 t of copper per annum. That is a pathway for Harmony to be at 100 000 t of copper per annum within about three years from today. Most importantly, that excludes the copper we'll be getting from the Wafi-Golpu Tier 1 copper/gold project, which on a standalone 100% basis, will produce 180 000 t of copper per annum, with more than 200 000 oz of gold, and that's a mine that we own 50:50 with our JV partner, Newmont.

Minerals Council South Africa has been saying South African mining is falling behind other mining jurisdictions on the modernisation front.

Let me first acknowledge the work that the Minerals Council is doing. The Minerals Council is doing phenomenal work for the mining industry in South Africa and Harmony is a key contributor to that work and an active participant. I do think some of the modernisation lags are a little bit structural. We do mine these deep underground orebodies. It is slightly easier to modernise surface pr...