Monthly Archives: July 2017

WASMA Alumni > Resources > News > 2017 > July
31Jul

WASM News Letter

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WASM eNewsletter
Welcome from the Director

2017 is shaping up to be an exciting year for the Western Australian School of Mines.

We received fantastic news when Curtin University was ranked second in the world for mineral and mining engineering in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2017. The ranking acknowledges the school’s high-quality teaching and research in helping to place Curtin on the world stage.

We are continuing to strengthen our connection to Curtin, with the Kalgoorlie Campus joining Curtin’s 50 Years of Innovation celebrations – 50 years since the first students were welcomed into Curtin’s predecessor institution, the Western Australian Institute of Technology. The WA School of Mines shares a rich history with Curtin, having been a part of the institution since 1969, and the anniversary provides an opportune time to commemorate our past and look forward to the future.

The Kalgoorlie Campus is looking a healthy 114-years-old, with new technology-rich facilities in place to immerse students in courses like never before. The Agricola residential college has also undergone a $32 million redevelopment to ensure high-calibre students continue to study mining in the Goldfields area. The redevelopment, which came about due to a partnership with the State Government, is just one example of the projects that the school has been able to undertake thanks to the support of our sponsors and industry partners.

I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome the new Head of Department for Mining Engineering and Metallurgical Engineering Professor Chris Aldrich to the WA School of Mines. Professor Aldrich is actively involved in the mineral processing industries as a consultant and has received numerous academic awards and honours. I look forward to seeing his influence at the school.

And finally, I would like to congratulate our staff, students, alumni and community members for all their great work on- and off-campus, and for contributing to the enrichment of our world-class teaching, research and overall student experience.

I hope you enjoy this edition of WA School of Mines, Curtin University news.

Regards,
Professor Sam Spearing
Director Western Australian School of Mines

Latest News

Strength in mining puts Curtin on world stage

Curtin has been ranked second in the world and first in Australia for mineral and mining engineering, up 17 places from 2016.

Remembering Captain James Peat

This year marks 100 years since the death of Captain James Peat – the first surveying graduate from the WA School of Mines.
Gindalbie reaches agreement to use game-changing leaching process

Australian resources company Gindalbie Metals Ltd has reached an agreement with Mining and Process Solutions to use Curtin-developed mineral processing technology on new projects.
Distal footprints project to uncover hidden resources

Curtin has collaborated with key research centres and government bodies aligned with the UNCOVER Initiative to develop a distal footprint ‘toolkit’ that hopes to improve the success rate of mineral exploration in Australia.

Wheels turning on gender equality in resources

Over thirty gifted year 10 female students are set to journey to Kalgoorlie-Boulder in September to learn more about the mining industry and what it has to offer.

Make tomorrow better.

27Jul

MNN Awards

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The winner of the CEO of the Year is Peter Cook, the former Metals X boss and now managing director of Westgold Resources.

Cook led a drawn-out, but ultimately successful battle to “rescue” the Nifty copper mine via a hostile takeover bid for its owner, Aditya Birla Minerals.

That deal paved the way for Metals X to demerge its gold assets late last year. Cook now heads up Westgold Resources, a top 10 ASX producer with strong growth aspirations.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the fence, the Nifty deal is already paying off for Metals X with the turnaround of Nifty well underway.

The runner-up in the CEO of the Year category was Fortescue Metals Group boss Nev Power for leading a culture of continuous improvement even in tough market conditions.

Our New/Emerging Leader of the Year is OZ Minerals MD Andrew Cole, who has led the reboot of the copper miner in the just over two years since joining.

Cole mapped out a clear strategy for the company and has worked hard to shape a distinct company culture in which employees embrace and strive for change.

Resolute Mining CEO John Welborn was named as the runner-up, having celebrated the second anniversary of his transformational time at the gold miner on July 1.

The Deal and/or Merger of the Year category was a close one, but Gold Road Resource’s A$350 million sale of 50% of its Gruyere project to Gold Fields was deemed as the winner.

Gold Road could have built the project on its own, but decided that the project was big enough to share ownership. The deal eliminated the need for debt or a dilutive raising and allowed Gold Road to continue to explore through the construction period.

The very worthy runner-up was Evolution Mining’s $880 million acquisition of a 30% stake in Glencore’s Ernest Henry mine.

Evolution’s results yesterday speak for themselves – in the eight months it has owned the Ernest Henry stake, the mine contributed 60,259 ounces of gold at all-in sustaining costs of negative $361 an ounce.

West African Resources has been voted as Explorer of the Year for continued exploration success at Sanbrado in Burkina Faso.

In fact, West African’s drilling has been so successful – including the discovery of the high-grade M1 South deposit containing 300,000 ounces at 7.2-8.6 grams per tonne – that it has delayed the completion of a feasibility study until next year.

The runner-up in the Explorer of the Year category was Kidman Resources, which confirmed the presence of the significant Earl Grey deposit and drilled it out to define one of the world’s largest hard rock lithium resources in only five and a half months, subsequently attracting the attention of New York-listed SQM in the process.

18Jul

WASM’S Professor Phil Bland

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Scientists have long held the belief that planets were built from rocky asteroids, but new research from Curtin University challenges that view.

Published in Science Advances, the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the research suggests that many of the original planetary building blocks in our solar system may actually have started out not as rocky asteroids, but as gigantic balls of warm mud.

WASM’s Applied Geology department is home to planetary scientist Professor Phil Bland. Phil undertook the research to try and get a better insight into how smaller planets, the precursors to the larger terrestrial planets we know today, may have come about.

“Working with Dr Bryan Travis from the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona, we set about matching the geological records in meteorites to those in asteroids and then used advanced numerical modelling to come up with a model that sat best across both,” Professor Bland said.

“From this we arrived at the conclusion that many of the first asteroids, those that delivered water and organic material to the planets, may have started out as giant convecting mud balls and not as rock.”

Professor Bland hopes the findings will provide a new scientific approach for further research into the evolution of water and organic material in our solar system.

“We understand how large planets work quite well. These small objects – planetesimals – delivered all the water and organics to the terrestrial planets. They provided the ingredients for life. Over time there have been many attempts to come up with a satisfactory model of their early geological history, but to date, no one has been able to agree on a solution,” Professor Bland said.

“We’re hopeful this latest research will change that and provide a stronger foundation and focus for further study.”

Professor Bland said the research may also generate new approaches to how and where we continue our search for other habitable planets.

05Jul

Timid leadership is no leadership at all (and we have too much of it)

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Steve Heather WASM Alumni member

Board Director I Executive Search I Consulting I Recruitment I Labour & HR Services I Australian Global Mining Industry

Australia might have had a record 26 years of economic growth, but now is not the time for timid leadership.

Australia might have achieved a world record, with 26 years of unbroken economic growth, but we’ve been flirting with recession regularly since the Global Financial Crisis.

The Australian economy grew by just 1.7 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2017 — so confident leadership is more important than ever. Yet there seems to be a huge gap between the desire for real economic transformation and the ability of those in politics to deliver it.

This week, at least, surely, it’s time to be grateful for the small wins — after all the big day is nearly here. The Federal Government’s reduction of the corporate tax rate for small business comes into force on 1 July is particularly welcome. It’s a start, at least — and even more favourable changes will roll out over the next decade.

For many smaller and mid-size recruitment firms and for many junior miners and explorers, the drop in the tax rate to 27.5 per cent is welcome. Any small business with a turnover of under $10 million now has a little clear air to make new investments, employ more staff, and do their bit to help grow the national economy. This said, there aren’t many small mining companies with a turnover of $10million, that are turning any profit, so there probably isn’t much in it for that group.

I can’t help but think about how much more could be achieved for businesses and the national economy if our politicians had been able to find it in themselves to be a little bolder — to dig deeper and provide the kind of economic leadership and vision that will truly help transform our country. All the same, the tax cut is welcome.

I have argued previously that industry associations needed to be bold (if the pollies won’t) and propose their own new royalty regimes in return for some really big tax breaks. These would be seriously game-changing events, but alas the cynic in me realises they’re unlikely or, at best, a long way off.

Instead we seem to play around the edges and sometimes even the seemingly correct decisions aren’t popular

Here in WA our new State Government has decided to bring back a ban on uranium mining.

While our new premier might feel like he’s providing bold leadership by announcing a populist decision, it’s not the kind of bold leadership that is good for investment, job creation and our economy.

It’s also a nothing decision really because the ‘ban’ won’t affect the four uranium projects that have been approved already (Wiluna, Mulga Rock, Kintyre and Yeelirrie) — although it’s unclear what impact it will have on any secondary approvals these projects require when their current approvals lapse in a few years’ time.

Consider the effect of this decision on the industry. Cameco, which owns Kintyre and Yeelirrie, has already invested $1 billion in its projects — and is trying to develop them at a time when uranium prices have halved since 2011 and showing no signs of picking up.

The market is the market and there’s not much we can do about prices. But what does the WA Government’s decision do for confidence? At a time when we should be encouraging exploration and investment, we’re not just turning our back on a potentially lucrative industry and telling them they’re not welcome, we’re creating a climate of uncertainty that will reverberate across the wider resources sector — especially across the ‘unpopular’ commodities, including coal. Last month we commissioned a research piece on the touchy subject of Adani’s Carmichael mine. Read about the on again/off again process here. It’s a prime example.

Where’s the leadership in that? Sometimes the correct decisions aren’t the popular ones.

Leadership is certainty, the opposite of timidity.

Does 99 per cent of your staff approve of you?

But let’s end on a positive note. Let’s look at how good leadership can be transformative for an organisation.

Glassdoor recently announced its 2017 list of Highest Rated CEOs. The winner was the chief executive of US-based cleaning products company, Clorox — Benno Dorer.

Dorer received a 99 per cent approval rating from his employees, who rated him for his “focus on professional development, transparency, and his vision for the company.”

“What I care about is results, versus how many hours you put in,” Dorer said.

“I think all of our employees take great ownership of the work and the results, but I don’t care if you achieve those results working from home or working in the office or if you sent an email at 11pm or 11am — that is up to you.”

Challenging the norms of business operation, trusting your team, creating innovative work solutions to get the best results from your team – now that’s bold leadership.

A bold leader is someone who looks for opportunity, someone who sees the need for a change and makes that change. A bold leader takes on difficult challenges and makes the big and sometimes unpopular decisions. A bold leader is constantly looking for new ways to increase productivity and quality.

If only our political leadership could be as bold as our industry requires, imagine what we could achieve. In the meantime, it’s up to all of us to be bold leaders within our own organisation.

Steve Heather

Managing Director & Principal Executive Search

05Jul

Reviving a historic Western Australian gold mine

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Ben Creagh Mining News June 30

Strong gold prices and a general improvement in market conditions have ignited a wave of activity across Western Australia’s Goldfields region.

The value of gold has held firm in 2017 and remains strong in Australian dollar terms, at times rising to around $1700 an ounce depending on its strength against the US dollar.

WA’s Goldfields region is on the verge of notable growth from a range of mid-tier companies that are advancing projects towards production.

Eastern Goldfields, which is chaired by experienced mining executive Michael Fotios, is contributing to the expansion through the Davyhurst project about 120km northwest of Kalgoorlie.

Fotios, who played a key role in building Northern Star Resources into one of Australia’s largest gold miners, has guided the revival of the Davyhurst operation after its 1.2 million tonne per annum (Mtpa) processing plant was placed on care and maintenance in 2008.

First ore was crushed at Davyhurst this month, with Eastern Goldfields hopeful it will become a 200,000 ounce a year operation in the coming years.

The company raised $25 million this year, which followed a $27 million share placement in 2016, to complete funding for the commissioning of Davyhurst, which has historically produced close to one million ounces of gold from a mix of deposits.

Fotios said there was a perception in the gold mining industry that Davyhurst had a “chequered history” following the activities that led to the operation closing in 2008.

However, he explained that Eastern Goldfields would re-launch the operation by taking a different development and mining strategy to what had been used historically at the site.

Fotios said the mine’s previous owners had targeted the site’s lower-grade open pits, a strategy that broke down during a period of much lower gold prices compared with today.

“We are looking more at the high-grade potential of the project, which we think is vastly underestimated,” Fotios told Australian Mining.

“Our strategy is lower tonnes and higher grade in the open pits, and then we are pushing hard on the undergrounds, which historically no one has looked at.”

To reach production, Eastern Goldfields has refurbished and recommissioned the plant to process ore from sources within the Davyhurst hub. The company has also built a new raw water dam and installed a 5.5MW diesel-fired power station to support the existing grid power supply.

Eastern Goldfields anticipates that the September quarter will be the first full three-month period of production at the site.

During the commission phase, Eastern Goldfields will focus on low and medium-grade stockpiles at the site, Fotios explained.

“We will run the mill up to its rated capacity on that stuff…maybe see how fast it can go as part of the commissioning process,” Fotios said.

“We have budgeted the mill at 1.2Mtpa, but we plan to run it at 800,000tpa through until December this year.”

Davyhurst processing plant

 

The company will then move on to processing high-grade ore as it ramps up operations at the processing plant

“We will see a significant amount of high-grade input from July onwards,” he said.

Fotios said the Davyhurst strategy shared similarities with how Northern Star expanded over the past decade. He believes this approach has helped the company secure ongoing support and funding for its plan at Davyhurst.

“A lot of it has to do with the track record of our group being involved with the early days of Northern Star – we had success there and it is a similar strategy to be honest,” he said.

“A lot of our investors have been with us since Northern Star, and then were with us at General Mining in the lithium space. We had a good track record for delivering strong returns – I see Eastern Goldfields to be the same.”

Fotios is also hopeful that Eastern Goldfields will share one more similarity with Northern Star – growth.

“We will look at organic growth with the project we’ve got first, but we will always look at other opportunities we think will complement what we’ve got around Davyhurst,” he concluded.

Eastern Goldfields has a joint venture with explorer Intermin at the Menzies and Goongarrie gold projects which has potential to deliver this growth in the years to come.

05Jul

Unraveling the Geology of Mars

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Interview with Associate Professor Gretchen Benedix
Tuesday, 4 July 12.17pm
6PR Perth (Afternoons)
Associate Professor Gretchen Benedix from the WA School of Mines discusses a new project called Unravelling the Geology of Mars.

Gretchen Benedix is a world renowned Astro Geologist and Associate Professor at Curtin University. She joined Simon Beaumont on Afternoons to delve into the world of martian rocks and meteorites.

Gretchen is one of only a few people in the world who have had a meteorite named after them. 6pr Interview