Megan van Wyngaardt

https://staging1.creamermedia.com/

Megan van Wyngaardt

Megan van Wyngaardt is Creamer Media Senior Contributing Editor Online for Engineering News and Mining Weekly.

Tel: +2711 622 3744

Email: newsdesk@engineeringnews.co.za

Santos turnaround delivers strong operating performance

24th January 2018 A turnaround strategy to deliver a low-cost, reliable and high-performance business at ASX-listed natural gas producer Santos' operations during 2017 progressed ahead of expectations, with the company now being stronger and more resilient, MD and CEO Kevin Gallagher said on Wednesday. "In 2017,... →

Western Areas produces strong quarter, not deterred by volatile nickel market

24th January 2018 ASX-listed Western Areas has completed the first half of the year on track to meet all full-year guidance metrics, the base metals producer said on Wednesday. An increase in production, steady cash costs and improved nickel pricing in the December quarter saw the company generate positive... →

Geopacific to deliver Woodlark DFS in Q3

24th January 2018 ASX-listed Geopacific Resources on Wednesday said it was on track to deliver a gold reserve estimate at its Woodlark project, in Papua New Guinea, in March, following the completion of a 30 000 m drilling programme and historic data review. Simultaneous engineering studies have delivered... →

Universal Coal targeting sales of 4.6Mt in FY18

24th January 2018 Building on the record deliveries it achieved across its operations in the first half of 2018 financial year, ASX-listed Universal Coal is on track to deliver higher-than-projected sales tonnes for the full year. The company, which operates two coal mines in South Africa's Mpumalanga province,... →

Stonewall working to establish maiden resource at Pilgrim's Rest project

24th January 2018 Preliminary metallurgical testwork on reverse circulation (RC) drill samples from gold development company Stonewall Resources' Theta Hill prospect has shown an average recovery from bottle-roll cyanidation tests of 94.9% from eight samples, with an average of 95.7% recovery from its Beta Reef... →

Investment demand for gold on the rise - WGC

23rd January 2018 New ways to access the gold market, such as physical gold-backed exchange-traded funds (ETFs), have resulted in the investment demand for gold growing 18% each year since 2001, indicating that the precious metal has now become more mainstream, the World Gold Council (WGC) said in its latest... →

CompCom suspends advisory opinion services pending outcome of court case

23rd January 2018 The Competition Commission has suspended its advisory opinion services pending the finalisation of the case against Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI). This follows a Competition Appeal Court (CAC) judgment ruling against the regulator on the matter. In August last year, HCI request the... →

MEIBC changes welcome, but should take employer into consideration

23rd January 2018 Although the Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council (MEIBC) main agreement negotiation process, that took place from June to August last year, was riddled with technical issues and procedural hurdles, the extension to all nonparty employers and employees falling within the scope of... →

Poseidon drills for lithium in Western Australia

23rd January 2018 ASX-listed Poseidon Nickel has started a 4 000 m drilling programme at its Medusa lithium project, near its Lake Johnston operations, which would fast-track the company's geological understanding and infill drill hole planning at the Western Australian project. Poseidon contracted Core Drilling... →

Bass Metals moves closer to commissioning graphite mine

23rd January 2018 ASX-listed Bass Metals, which is developing the Graphmada large flake graphite mine, in Madagascar, has completed a major component of the recommissioning process at the project. The mine is now nearing completion of Stage 1 of delivering a 100%-owned mine free of any serviceable debt. "With... →

Carbine expects Mt Morgan revised environmental approval by May

23rd January 2018 ASX-listed Carbine Resources on Tuesday said it expected the completion of a revised environmental authority (EA) for its Mount Morgan gold and copper project, located in central Queensland, in May. The miner lodged an EA amendment application in 2017, with the Department of Environment and... →

Po Valley sells Italy operations subsidiary to Saffron Energy

23rd January 2018 Perth-based Po Valley on Tuesday signed a binding share sale and purchase agreement with Aim-listed Saffron Energy, under which the latter would acquire onshore and offshore oil and gas production, development and exploration assets in northern Italy held by Po Valley Operations (PVO). Subject to... →

Wine industry sees positives despite expected R700m shortfall

22nd January 2018 The smaller wine grape harvest anticipated by industry body Vinpro for this year is expected to result in a R700-million shortfall at farm gate, at a time when production costs have doubled in the past decade and the minimum wage for farm workers is set to increase by 17% in May. However, despite... →

Stenprop appoints broker to assist with London listing

22nd January 2018 To assist in implementing its proposed LSE listing, JSE-listed Stenprop has appointed Numis Securities to act as its broker. Numis Securities will be acting as financial adviser on the proposed move from the Bermuda Stock Exchange to the SFS of the LSE. →

Industry confident Eskom board changes will help save utility

22nd January 2018 The appointment of a new Eskom board with “credibility, business acumen and experience” has given South African businesses hope that the embattled State-owned entity (SOE) can be salvaged, with a number of organisations lauding Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa for taking a step in the right... →

South32 makes management shifts as SAEC becomes standalone business

22nd January 2018 As part of setting up its South African Energy Coal (SAEC) operations as a standalone business, triple-listed South32 will make changes to the operational accountabilities of its two COOs, Mike Fraser and Paul Harvey. Fraser will now be accountable for the alumina and aluminium operations in... →

Bushveld Minerals upbeat about year ahead

22nd January 2018 Aim-listed Bushveld Minerals made “tremendous strides” during the fourth quarter of 2017, which was marked by a strong financial performance from its Bushveld Vametco operations. Supported by a strong vanadium price environment – the ferrovanadium price averaged $33/kg for the 12 months to... →

Gem Diamonds makes fourth 100-ct-plus discovery at Letšeng this year

22nd January 2018 LSE-listed Gem Diamonds on Monday reported that it has the recovered a 149 ct, D-colour Type IIa diamond, with excellent shape, from its 70%-owned Letšeng mine, in Lesotho. This is the fourth high-quality diamond of over 100 ct recovered so far this year, and follows closely upon the recovery of... →

Strike testing suitability of Burke graphite for lithium-ion batteries

22nd January 2018 Flotation tests conducted by Perth-based Independent Metallurgical Operations at Strike Resources’ high-grade Burke graphite project, in Queensland, have confirmed that a concentrate of purity in excess of 95% and up to 99% total graphitic carbon (TGC) can be produced using a standard flotation... →

Sundance inches closer to developing Mbalam-Nabeba project

22nd January 2018 Iron-ore developer Sundance Resources has signed a binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) with private Chinese company Tidfore Heavy Equipment Group and Cam Iron – a subsidiary of Sundance that has a mining permit application over the previous EP92 in Cameroon. The MoU will provide a framework... →

Strandline signs offtake deal for Tanzania mineral sands project

22nd January 2018 ASX-listed Strandline Resources has secured a binding offtake agreement for 100% of the zircon/monazite product to be produced at its Fungoni mineral sands project, in Tanzania. Marking it as a major step towards bringing its first mineral sands project into production, the company said on Monday... →

Kibaran board approves spherical graphite pilot plant

22nd January 2018 The board of ASX-listed Kibaran Resources has approved the spherical graphite pilot plant programme at a plant in Germany, using feedstock from the Epanko graphite project, in Tanzania. Funded through available working capital, the initial testwork programme aims to optimise the spherical... →

Coca-Cola increases recycling efforts to contribute to waste-free world

19th January 2018 To battle the increasing number of plastic items on landfills and in the world’s oceans, beverage giant Coco-Cola plans to take one can or bottle “back”, for every bottle or can sold globally, by 2030. “We are fundamentally reshaping our approach to packaging, with a global goal to help collect... →

GoldStone investigates potential to restart Ghana underground mine

19th January 2018 Africa-focused miner GoldStone Resources has initiated a project to potentially revitalise the old Akrokeri underground mine, in Ghana. The mine is situated within the Akrokeri prospecting licence, about 1.5 km south of the proposed AK01 South pits. →

Mkango shareholders approve Talaxis investment transaction

19th January 2018 Shareholders of Aim- and TSX-V-listed Mkango Resources have approved an investment transaction with Noble Group subsidiary Talaxis. In November, the company secured a direct investment from Talaxis, to be paid in three tranches, in exchange for a 49% interest in Mkango subsidiary Lancaster... →

Signing of power purchase agreements with IPPs imminent – SAWEA

19th January 2018 The South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) expects the conclusion of 26 outstanding power purchase agreements (PPAs) with independent power producers (IPPs) to occur during the first quarter of this year. It said on Friday that the majority of the processes required to conclude the PPAs... →

PPC reschedules DRC cement plant debt

19th January 2018 Construction materials provider PPC has further improved its liquidity position by finalising a capital repayment moratorium with funders of the group’s Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) operation, limiting PPC’s capital requirements to only interest payments from January this year to January... →

Sawis warns wine grape crop may be smallest since 2005

19th January 2018 Continuing drought and low water supplies in the Western Cape may lead to South Africa’s smallest wine grape harvest since 2005, when 1.15-million tonnes were harvested owing to drought and diseases in some production areas. Industry body South African Wine Industry Information and Systems... →

Asanko achieves solid quarter at Ghana mine

19th January 2018 A solid quarterly performance was recorded at NYSE-listed Asanko Gold’s eponymous mine in Ghana, which produced 51 550 oz in the fourth quarter of 2017. Asanko CEO Peter Breese on Thursday noted that this helped the company achieve its revised 2017 guidance, with full-year production of 205 047 oz. →

Po Valley makes significant commercial gas discovery in Italy

19th January 2018 Shares in Australia’s Po Valley Energy (PVE) surged on Friday, reaching an intraday high of 10c each, up from the previous day’s closing price of 4c each, following the news of significant commercial discovery at its new Selva gas field in northern Italy. By 16:00 in Sydney, the stock traded at... →

African Energy to delist from Botswana exchange

19th January 2018 ASX-lsited African Energy Resources (AER) on Friday said it would delist from the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE), as it currently encompassed only 22 shareholders with less than 0.3% of its shares on issue. Listed since October 2011, AER’s directors believed that the administrative costs and... →

Confidence returning to Western Australia’s exploration industry

19th January 2018 The Western Australian Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS) reports that the number of Programme of Works (PoW) received in 2017 has increased by 40% from 2016. This totaled 2 575 PoW applications compared with 1 799 the previous year. During the year, the department... →

Offtake agreements now cover 60% of Montepuez production – Battery Minerals

19th January 2018 ASX-listed Battery Minerals has signed a binding offtake agreement with Qingdao Black Dragon Graphite for 10 000 t/y of graphite concentrate from its Montepuez project, in Mozambique, for an initial term of three years. This marks the third offtake agreement for the project. →

Ivanhoe’s DRC copper mines connected to national grid

19th January 2018 TSX-listed miner Ivanhoe Mines on Monday said its Kakula mine development site, 10 km south of Kamoa’s initial Kansoko mine site, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), started receiving power from the national grid in December. Kakula’s development is being fast-tracked, with a... →

AfDB to support Mozambique rail project

19th January 2018 The African Development Bank (AfDB) is taking the lead in facilitating the takeoff of one of Africa’s largest infrastructure project − the $5-billion Nacala corridor rail and port project, supporting the project with $300-million from its private sector window. After years of financial... →

Ethiopia signs $4bn deal to build geothermal power plants

19th January 2018 Ethiopia has signed an agreement to build two geothermal power plants at a combined cost of $4-billion, to be run by the country's first privately-owned utility. The Corbetti and Tulu Moye plants will produce a combined 1 000 MW of power upon completion in eight years time in the... →

Building efficiency improvements needed to meet Paris target

19th January 2018 The energy intensity per square metre of buildings need to improve by 30% by 2030 to keep the Paris Agreement on track, the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction’s ‘Global Status Report 2017’ has revealed. The report, released on Monday, found that total floor area reached an estimated... →

Mining equipment maker in bid to raise $20m as it seeks to increase production capacity

19th January 2018 Mining equipment and machinery supplier CMTI Group, which started operations at its Gauteng-based factory last year, aims to raise $20-million before the close of the first quarter of this year to increase its production capacity. Initial indications and expressions of interest from potential... →

Winds of change have landed, bringing economic growth – BLSA CEO

18th January 2018 Business in South Africa has not been this hopeful about the future of the country in years, Business Leadership CEO Bonang Mohale said at a pre-World Economic Forum (WEF) briefing on Thursday. He highlighted that while the country was below investment grade, the recent African National Congress... →

Kefi approves final model for Tulu Kapi project

18th January 2018 The final project models for Kefi Minerals’ Tulu Kapi project have now been agreed to by the government of Ethiopia, contractors Lycopodium and Ausdrill/African Mining Services and preferred project financiers. "The models were uploaded into the formal financing data rooms. They show some... →

Employee dies in accident at Harmony’s Tshepong mine

18th January 2018 Harmony Gold on Thursday said an employee at its Tshepong mine, near Welkom, in the Free State, had been killed in a mining equipment related incident on Wednesday afternoon. An investigation into the accident was currently under way. →

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