Uranium miner halts Virginia plan

A company is suspending its campaign to mine one of the world’s largest known deposits of uranium ore located in Virginia, concluding that Gov.-elect Terry McAuliffe’s opposition presents a significant challenge over the next four years.

Virginia Uranium Inc. said it will not back the introduction of uranium mining legislation in the 2014 session of the General Assembly, which would be a first step to tap a 54-million-kg deposit of uranium in Pittsylvania County known as Coles Hill.

Read more: Toyota to enter settlement talks on acceleration suits

Toyota, after a four-year legal battle, is entering settlement talks on nearly 400 U.S. lawsuits that allege sudden unintended acceleration problems with its vehicles led to deaths and injuries.

Joint motions filed late Thursday in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana and Los Angeles County Superior Court indicated both sides would begin an “intensive settlement process” next month.

The Japanese automaker, which has recalled millions of cars since 2009 over the acceleration issue, agreed to the negotiations to make resolving the cases more efficient, spokeswoman Carly Schaffner said on Friday.

“We continue to stand behind the safety and quality of our vehicles,” she said.

Cases that don’t settle after a two-stage mediation process will go back to court for trial, said plaintiffs’ co-lead counsel Mark Robinson Jr., but most of the 375 claims will likely get resolved.

“It’s not practical to try all these cases,” he said. “You’ve got two chances to get your case settled and if you’re a plaintiff, at least you’re not just sitting in some file in the courthouse.”

The settlement negotiations come less than two months after an Oklahoma jury awarded a total of $3 million in damages to the injured driver of a 2005 Camry and to the family of a passenger who was killed.

The ruling was significant because Toyota had won all previous unintended acceleration cases that went to trial. It was also the first case where attorneys for plaintiffs argued that the car’s electronics — in this case the software connected to the Camry’s electronic throttle-control system — were the cause of the unintended acceleration.

At the time, legal experts said the Oklahoma verdict might cause Toyota to consider a broad settlement of the remaining cases. Until then, Toyota had been riding momentum from several trials where juries found it was not liable.

Robinson said attorneys for plaintiffs had been discussing a streamlined settlement process with Toyota before that verdict, but the Oklahoma case “couldn’t have hurt” those talks.

Toyota has blamed drivers, stuck accelerators or floor mats that trapped the gas pedal for the acceleration claims that led to the big recalls of Camrys and other vehicles. The company has repeatedly denied its vehicles are flawed.

No recalls have been issued related to problems with onboard electronics. In the Oklahoma case, Toyota attorneys theorized that the driver mistakenly pumped the gas pedal instead of the brake when her Camry ran through an intersection and slammed into an embankment.

Sean Kane, president of Massachusetts-based Safety Research & Strategies, said the Oklahoma verdict likely moved Toyota to the negotiating table because it targeted electronics.

“Nobody did until that case and they got hammered — and they got hammered in a conservative venue,” said Kane, who researches consumer safety in motor vehicles for plaintiff attorneys and has been closely following the Toyota litigation.

“The evidence that came out in that trial has attracted global attention that is remarkable,” he said.

After the verdict, jurors told AP they believed the testimony of an expert who said he found flaws in the car’s electronics. They also pointed to 50 meters of skid marks on the road as evidence the driver was desperately trying to brake.

“What makes the accelerator open? The computer,” juror Vickie Potter said after the verdict.

STUDY: Mining investors wary of Quebec

The Fraser Institute reports that uncertainly about protected areas and environmental restrictions, combined with tougher regulation and tax changes, has mining investors increasingly wary of doing business in Quebec.

The institute's study, Quebec's Mining Policy Performance: Greater Uncertainty and Lost Advantage, outlined the four key barriers to investment in that province.

Uncertainty over policy change involving protected areas such as wilderness zones, parks and archeological sites is the primary deterrent for investors. It has a multiplier effect in that activity is discouraged at the exploration level, and without exploration, the industry is at a standstill.

Uncertainty over environmental regulations has created the perception that special interests, not good science, guide policy decision. Such politization is deterring investors.

Increasing taxes threaten to make mining in Quebec unprofitable. Since 2010, the province increased mining duty rates to 16% from 12% of annual profits, and now bases "profits" on an individual project basis. Losses at one operation can no longer be used to offset profits at another of an owner's operations.

Red tape – in regulatory duplication and inconsistencies – is also choking off investment in Quebec's mineral industry. Notably, the province has steadily increased levels of red tape for mineral projects over the past five years.

The defeat of changes to Quebec's Mining Act, Bill 43, at the end of October 2013 does little to reassure would-be investors. The government has announced its intention to make minor changes and retable the legislation.

PEA confirms Macusani Yellowcake’s low-cost potential

 A new preliminary economic assessment (PEA) by Canadian uranium exploration and development firm Macusani Yellowcake on Thursday confirmed that its uranium properties located on the Macusani Plateau in the Puno district, of south-eastern Peru, have the potential to become a large, low-cost uranium mining operation.

Speaking to Mining Weekly Online from Johannesburg, where he lives, CEO DrLaurence Stefan said the PEA treatment delivered robust financials, which potentially placed the project firmly on the map and made it a target for prospective uranium majors.

The operation’s cash operating costs during the first five years was calculated at $19.45/lb of uranium oxide (U₃O₈) placing it in the lowest quartile in the world when using 2012 production figures. Cash operating costs over the entire ten-year mine life were estimated to average $20.57/lb of U₃O₈.

“If I was one of the major uranium players in Russia, China or Kazakhstan, I would not think twice about partnering with us on this project. When they are producing at price around $50/lb, why would they not consider adding such a low-cost operation to their portfolios?” he asked.

The results from the PEA demonstrated that at an 8% discount rate, the project had a pre-tax net present value (NPV) of $708-million, and an after-tax NPV of $417-million. It also has an internal rate of return of 47.5% before tax, and after taxes had been paid, the internal rate of return stood at 32.4% when using a uranium price of $65/lb of U₃O₈, which the company said was considered as the long-term price by many industry analysts.

The PEA, prepared by GBM Minerals Engineering Consultants in conjunction with The Mineral Corporation and Wardell Armstrong International, estimated that the $331-million capital expenditure could be paid back in about 3.5 years on an after-tax basis.

The yearly output during the first five years of operations was expected to average 5.17-million pounds of yellowcake, which would have ranked the mine as the sixth-largest uranium mine in 2013. The life-of-mine U₃O₈ output was estimated to average 4.3-million pounds a year.

The PEA provided the operation with an 8.5-million-tonne-a-year process plant and the operation would require total life-of-mine sustaining capital costs estimated at $228-million.

“The completion of the PEA is a significant milestone for the company on a number of levels. Firstly, the estimated production cost of $20.57/lb demonstrates that we have a project that has the potential to be one of the lowest-cost uranium producers in the world due to a low stripping ratio in the openpit operations, anticipated low acid consumption, and high process plant recoveries expected to be achieved in a short period of time.

“Secondly, the PEA demonstrates that the Macusani plateau has significant potential to become a major uranium producing district considering that only small areas have been explored to date. And finally, the PEA paves the way for further development of our project and the completion of a prefeasibility study, which we expect to initiate in 2014,” Stefan said.

Potentially economic ore for the project would at first come from multiple target deposits including Colibri 2 & 3/Tupuramani, Chilcuno Chico, Quebrada Blanca, Corachapi and Triunfador 1. Conventional openpit and underground mining methods were proposed, and the PEA contemplated building a mine and centralised processing facility operating over a ten-year mine life at a throughput of about 23 400 t/d.

A simple heap leach would be used to extract uranium into an acidic aqueous leach solution and recovery would be achieved through ion exchange (IX) with a solvent extraction acid recovery circuit. Stefan explained that IX technology was preferred as the simplest and most cost-effective option considering the almost pure uranium mineralisation available within the Macusani rhyolites and the absence of any contaminants such as thorium, molybdenum and vanadium.

The project currently has a National Instrument 43-101-compliant measured and indicated resource of 47.9-million tonnes grading 253 ppm uranium, containing 14.3 t of U₃O₈. The inferred resource stood at 40.5-million tonnes grading 286 ppm uranium, containing 13.6 t of U₃O₈.

Together with a joint venture between Vena Resources and uranium major Cameco, the Macusani Plateau currently hosts about 110-million pounds of uranium, of which YEL owns between 60-million to 70-million pounds. This does not compare with Canada’s Athabasca basin in northern Saskatchewan and Alberta, which is the world’s top source of high-grade uranium, but would more likely be comparable with the resources of Namibia, Niger or Kazakhstan.

He added that the proposed operations had significant “blue sky” potential and would play a significant part in the economic development of the region.

“I believe mining is the first step toward the industrial revolution. With Peru’s significant emerging uranium resources, the country is potentially well positioned to play an increasingly important role of supplying uranium, and even possibly enriched uranium in the future, to its neighbours on the South American continent,” Stefan said.

FORTESCUE IN A HURRY TO SQUEEZE NEW ASSETS

Barely two weeks after bringing its latest mine into production and shifting gear from construction to operations, the world's fourth largest iron ore miner is already talking about increasing capacity.

Fortescue showed off its new Kings mine as well as its rail and port operations this week, hinting that it's looking to export up to 175 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) from the Pilbara.

For the foreseeable future, any extra capacity will have to come from squeezing existing assets beyond the company's stated goal of 155 mtpa by March next year.

Chief executive Nev Power says he wants to run the company efficiently and avoid building infrastructure and loading up on more debt.

"Our first strategy is to drive what we've got as hard as we can, sweat the assets and get that maximum out," Mr Power told reporters during a tour of the company's Pilbara operations this week.

"We think that's 15 to 20 million tonnes that we might be able to squeeze out of it."

He said Fortescue had originally designed the layout of its Port Hedland operations to cater for a capacity of up to 200 million tonnes.

The design of Herb Elliot Port would allow Fortescue to keep expanding without outlaying too much capital.

Official estimates put the overall export capacity of Port Hedland, Australia's largest bulk commodities port, at 495 million tonnes.

But Mr Power believes the real capacity is somewhere between 600 million and 700 million tonnes.

Any future decision to build a fifth berth at Herb Elliott Port would be significant, given the company's debt profile, he said.

Fortescue is trying to reduce its $12 billion debt pile by around $4 billion to $5 billion over the next couple of years while the iron ore price remains buoyant and as the company delivers on its production targets.

The talk of extra capacity comes after mining giant Rio Tinto recently committed $400 million to upgrade its port facilities in the Pilbara as part of its plan to reach 360 million tonnes.

While Fortescue has some way to go to compete with the likes of Rio and BHP Billiton, the company says it is now a lower cost producer than Brazil's iron ore giant Vale.

Improving productivity and efficiency with berths and ship loaders at Port Hedland is key.

Mr Power says such improvements should be a high priority for all Pilbara iron ore producers.

"The more efficient they are and the more efficient we are, the more tonnes are going to go out through the port," he said.

"It's in everyone's interests."

He also gave an insight into Fortescue's plans to automate part of its trucking workforce, taking the media to view a dozen massive unmanned autonomous trucks as they collected iron ore from an excavator.

But it wasn't all smooth sailing as a computer glitch caused the trucks to stop for about an hour.

If a six-month trial of the futuristic Caterpillar trucks is successful, Fortescue plans to purchase up to 45 vehicles valued at $5 million to $6 million each.

Those trucks would carry around a third of the company's iron ore and do the job of 55 manual trucks.

But for now, Fortescue is stripping back its workforce for the production phase and monitoring its multinational competitors for further expansion plans.

Mr Power says Fortescue will only look at bringing forward future expansion plans if the iron ore market becomes heavily undersupplied.

"Our objective is to make sure that we've got a pipeline of projects that's ready to do when the time is right," he said.

HiSea Group Presents Double-Walled Gravel Pumps (China)

HiSea Group has introduced the double-walled dredge pumps. These pumps stand for quality and reliability, and because of the own design can offer the ideal Gravel pump for every need and situation.

This range of dredge pumps is based on three Gravel pump types: submerged low pressure, inboard medium pressure, and inboard high pressure.

The minimal amount of wear parts in these dredge pumps lead to low wear, long life and lower maintenance which translates into reduced downtime and significant cost savings.

To accomplish these goals for the wear parts only very high quality, wear-resistant, materials with a hardness above 60HRC are used.

The dredging pumps are specially developed for the dredging industry and tailored to the specific needs and requirements. All Gravel pump designs comply with the client’s specific requirements:

1. 3, 4 or 5 blade impeller;

2. Low pressure, medium pressure, high pressure;

3. Water seal;

4. Sealing and flushing water pumps;

5. Wear-resistant material , hardness above 60HRc.

Turquoise Hill sinks 26%

Shares in Turquoise Hill (TSE:TRQ) operator of the massive Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine in Mongolia, dropped sharply on Wednesday as the rights issued under its recent $2.4 billion offering began trading in Toronto

By midday Turquoise Hill stock was changing hands at $3.44, down 26% in an anticipation of the more than one billion shares to be issued under the rights offering, doubling the number of shares outstanding.

The Vancouver-based firm decided on the rights offering to help the company repay a $600 million bridge loan and a $1.8 billion interim funding facility after talks with the Mongolian government over financing for the mine went nowhere.

Investor confidence in Mongolia has been shaken by the impasse over Oyu Tolgoi with foreign direct investment in the country dropping by almost half this year compared to last year.

Oyu Tolgoi – turquoise hill in the vernacular – which could have a final bill of as much as $14 billion if an underground expansion goes ahead  is 34% owned by the Mongolian government with Rio Tinto-controlled Turquoise Hill owning the rest.

Talks over Oyu Tolgoi's expansion and the reworking of the initial 2009 deal which first unleashed the Mongolian investment boom, have dragged on for the better part of a year.

Both sides provided fresh faces for the Oyu Tolgoi board in September to break the impasse.

Talks on financing arrangements with the Mongolian government including a World Bank-led $4.5 billion debt package – the largest in the history of mining – have gone nowhere forcing Turquoise Hill's hand to launch the right offer.

The disputes are centred on costs with Rio's management fees and the Mongolian government's share of funding of surrounding infrastructure proving particular sticking points.

Production at Oyu Tolgoi's open pit began this year and the mine is now operating at nameplate capacity of 100,000 tonnes of ore processed per day.

The giant copper, gold and silver mine is set to contribute as much as a third of the nation's economy if the underground expansion – where some 80% of the value of the deposit is situated – in put into production.

Turquoise Hill – then called Ivanhoe Mines – was founded by mining financier Robert Friedland after making the Oyu Tolgoi discovery in 2001.

Friedland, who lost control of the miner to Rio Tinto in 2012 and still owns 8-9% of the company, told CEO.ca he plans to take up his rights, which means the colourful billionaire will have to fork out at least $200 million for the privilege.

New Surpac mine planning software version launched

Dassault Systèmes has released the latest version of GEOVIA Surpac, said to be the world’s most popular geology and mine planning software application. Surpac 6.6 provides unique and powerful underground engineering tools that are especially suited for the design of stope shapes.

The new Stope Design Tools module enables underground engineers and designers to accomplish stope design tasks efficiently with an easy, simple and fast stope design process. The module includes two tools: interactive Stope Designer and Stope Slicer.

·         The interactive Stope Designer tool offers easy and rapid comparison of the geometry on successive planes so that it is easy for the engineer to ensure the resultant designs are practical and achievable.

·         The Stope Slicer tool quickly and easily produces practical, tactical mining shapes, by dividing any solid into smaller solids that represent the stoping units to be mined and the pillars that must remain to satisfy safety requirements. 

Additional release highlights include:

·         Productivity improvements for plotting, making it dramatically faster and easier to include tabulated data on plans and sections created by Surpac.

·         New enhancements to Surpac’s digitising and 3D CAD tools, providing benefits to underground and open pit mining operations by enabling more efficient work practices with fewer mouse clicks to achieve better results.

·         Numerous customer-requested product enhancements for a better user experience and increased productivity.