Exploration, mining and processing briefs

Updates on QCoal, Sunshine Gold, ActiveEx, QAL, Castillo Copper, GBM Resources and more in this week’s exploration, mining and processing briefs. GBM boosts coffers for gold development GBM Resources is raising $7 million in a share placement to drive its Drummond Basin gold development forward. The company said funds raised would be used to fund drilling programs in the Drummond Basin as well as covering the Twin Hills acquisition and to provide working capital. In addition, directors Peter Mullens and Peter Rohner have indicated that, subject to shareholder approval, they intend to subscribe for 1,000,000 and 3,000,000 shares respectively to raise a further $400,000 - taking the total raising to $7.4 million before issue costs. GBM is acquiring the Twin Hills project for $2 million from a subsidiary of Pajingo mine owner Minjar Gold as it continues its ‘processing halo’ strategy to build an asset portfolio with more than two million ounces of gold within the Drummond Basin. Explorer to chopper rig to NW Queensland copper site Castillo Copper has appointed Down Force Drilling to test-drill a 130m thick sulphide target at the Arya prospect in North-West Queensland. The rig, key supporting equipment and personnel would be choppered to site to ensure this inaugural campaign started on schedule, Castillo said. The company is awaiting return of all assays from the laboratory from a recent campaign at Big One, which it says will enable the geology team to interpret the results then formulate the next drilling campaign. Arya and Big One lie within Castillo’s Mount Oxide project, located 150km north of Mount Isa near the old Mount Oxide copper mine. Monto coal mine proposal advances QCoal is a step closer in the approvals process for the Monto open-cut coal project, south of Monto in Central Queensland. Notice for a 25-year mining lease for the project has been published, with the period for public objections closing on October 21 The coal project is a joint ventrure of QCoal subsidiaries Monto Coal and Sanrus with H & J Enterprises. Alpha HPA joins Australian Aluminium Council The proponent of Gladstone's HPA First high purity alumina (HPA) plant has joined the Australian Aluminium Council. Alpha HPA's membership diversifying the council’s representation to include high purity alumina for the first time. "We are excited at the prospect of representing a new product which is set to be made in Australia and distributed to the world as part of the ever-growing range of products we will need to meet technology challenges – today and into the future,” council executive director Marghanita Johnson said. Aluminium oxide - better known as alumina - has been produced in Australia for more than 50 years and is largely supplied to the global aluminium smelting industry, usually at purities of more than 99 per cent. Increasing the purity of alumina to 99.99 per cent or more to make HPA allows applications in a new world of technologies including longer lasting lithium-ion batteries, synthetic sapphire for LED lighting and high technology optics. Siemens technology in QAL plant upgrade Queensland Alumina Limited is upgrading its refining process with the installation of Siemens’ medium voltage variable speed drives (VSDs). Three GH180 Perfect Harmony VSDs will replace existing drives, helping reduce energy usage and emissions. In addition, another two VSDs will be for installed in the boiler house ash pumps. The work is part of QAL’s strategic five-year environmental strategy (5-YES) aimed at reducing environmental risks and emissions through a $400 million capital improvement program. Paul Bulloch, head of the Large Drives Applications business at Siemens Australia and New Zealand, said the company was proud to work closely with QAL, assisting them in achieving their targets of reduced energy consumption and emissions. “QAL has a rich history in Gladstone spanning over 54 years. Their operations contribute to the economy on a local, national and global scale," he said. "It’s great to see them investing in cutting-edge technology that has a proven track record of helping reduce OPEX costs globally from China and Singapore to Germany and Australia through higher productivity, faster project execution thanks to 30 per cent shorter commissioning times and maximised efficiency.” Sunshine Gold drilling at Ravenswood West Sunshine Gold has started RC drilling programs at the Titov and Keans prospects at its Ravenswood West project in North Queensland - the first drilling at those sites in more than 50 years. Despite surface gold (to 14.7 g/t gold) and silver anomalism, the prospects have only been historically assayed for copper and molybdenum, the company says. The RC drilling programs include 1400m of focussed drilling at Titov and 1500m of reconnaissance drilling at Keans. Sunshine Gold managing director Damien Keys described Titov as an amazing geological, geochemical, geophysical and geobotanical anomaly. SER covers NT and Qld ground in grant projects Strategic Energy Resources has started drilling at the Cottage IOCG prospect within its East Tennant copper-gold project. The diamond drilling program was awarded co-funding from the Northern Territory Government under the Resourcing the Territory initiative. Immediately following the East Tennant drill program, the drill rig will move to SER’s Canobie project in North-West Queensland to test the base metal target ‘Kalarka’. The drilling at Kalarka is co-funded through the Queensland Government Collaboration Exploration Initiative. ActivEX broadens NQ gold footprint ActiveEX has been granted exploration tenements covering 117.28sq km at the Georgetown gold project in North Queensland. The company said it had completed a broad prospectivity analysis of the region between its Gilbertongold project and Georgetown, where Kempton Minerals has a gold processing plant on care and maintenance. This resulted in it applying for four tenements close to Georgetown, with two of those granted.

Exploration, mining and processing briefs

Industry Queensland

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