#Official Mining Thread

[Ho Really]

I have heard of this idea before, including piping NT water into the upper tributaries of the Murray Darling system in Qld and letting it come south that way. There are some rather serious environmental concerns with this idea. Tropical fungii, animal and plant diseases, and even cane toad eggs could end up down here. Severe filtration may solve these problems, I don't know how practical it would be. One thing's for sure : there's a lot more water up there than they need. However, there's enough water down here for us too, all we have to do is capture it. In the end, would we be better off piping and filtering NT water to SA, or capturing and filtering Adelaide's own runoff, which is more than enough for our needs?

What you say is true. In fact these issues were brought up at the last WA state elections when the Liberals wanted a pipeline or channel built from the Ord River. The idea is there anyway and the filtration solution as well, should they want to take it.

Now, back to mining...

Things are looking better and better at Oxiana's Prominent Hill Mine. I wonder if we could end up with another decent mining town like Roxby Downs up in the desert?

I don't have a map handy. Is Prominent Hill close to Coober Pedy? If yes, there may be no need for another township, but just expansion.

Cheers

[Cruise]

I don't have a map handy. Is Prominent Hill close to Coober Pedy? If yes, there may be no need for another township, but just expansion.

Cheers

i believe it is more than 100 kilometres away from Coober Pedy (could be wrong though)

[rhino]

I don't have a map handy. Is Prominent Hill close to Coober Pedy? If yes, there may be no need for another township, but just expansion.

If you draw a line going east from Wirrida siding on the railway, and another going northwest from Roxby Downs, where they meet is roughly where Prominent Hill is - miles from anywhere. Oxiana has bought an old mining town from the NT and transported it to the site, but it is more of a mining camp than a town. Earlier this week Oxiana announced that mine life could be extended from 10 to 20 years, and they haven't found the bottom of the ore body yet - it's a deep one. When they finish the open cut mining, they are thinking of going underground to the deeper part of the orebody. Whether money is spent on building a town depends on the projected life of the mine, and also whether the ore is to be processed on site or elsewhere.

[Bulldozer]

It's possible. The question is: would Mike Rann want a nuclear power plant? If it went to an election and the state Liberals supported it (which you would think so) would that be the end of a Labor government or are there too many people against it?

From what I understand, the SA population is more favourable to nuclear energy than any other state. With everyone so worried about pollution from fossil-fuel generators I can't see any other way of getting the gigawatts of power the state is going to need to run the new mines, refineries and smelters and the desalination plants we need to end reliance upon the Murray and provide all the water we need. Possibly the only hope is hot-rock geothermal, but it's still a commercially unproven technology and almost a decade away from projected commercial production of electricity if they can get a prototype plant running.

Nuclear is a proven technology that we can build now. Rann has stated "not on my watch" or something similarly short-sighted and populist. The water crisis is coming to a head now and people are furiously angry about it. Ultimately, people will realise there is no other option and accept it. SA would also do well to get into enrichment and fuel fabrication. Australia has apparently developed the most advanced and efficient enrichment process.

[Bulldozer]

I spotted this pic of what I presume is Prominent Hill on the ABC News SA page this morning (it's credited to Oxiana)



It was attached to this article: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/04/2024111.htm

[UrbanSG]

Great find Bulldozer. Yes that looks like Prominent Hill. They still think there is more there than first thought, possibly double the intial resource estimates.

[rhino]

I guess the photographer was standing on the Prominent Hill, cos I can't see it!

[skyliner]

News from the Courier Mail (Brisbane) 11/9/07 re - uranium developments from OPEC

" The Uranuim Deal" (Australia and Russia)
'In a lucrative deal criticised by environmentalists but hailed by the mining sector, Autralia will supply uranium to Russia. Once the expansion of South Australa's Olympic Dam is complete in 2015, Russia will be able to import about 2000 tonnes of yellowcake annually thanks to the two countries having signed a nuclear safeguards agreement. The agreements puts in place firm safeguards dictating that Russia use the uranium for peaceful purposes only, preventing Russian leaders onselling it to unstable countries such as IOran and Syria.

Russian President Vladimir added that his country was desperate for the uranuim to fuel 30 new nulcear power stations to be built over the next 20 years".

All tnhings being equal, it looks good for SA and Adelaide.

[urban]

Skyliner is that your George Bush moment or the Courier Mail's?

[skyliner]

That is a Courier Mail report Urban.You ought to know me better than that by now!

Here is another from the Courier Mail (11/9/07) (Page 30 - 31)
'Export of Australian uranium to China will be fast tracked through the creation yesterday of a joint venture office between explorer PepinNini and the state owned Chinese minerals company Sinosteel.

'The approvals process to develop the Crocker Well uranium mine in South Australia's far northeast will be expidited by having the office in Adelaide as opposed to Pepin Nini's registered headquarters in Sydney', the explorer's managing director said yesterday.

"Already we are in discussion with various government departments on approvals and requirements to develop the project", he said at the office's opening.

Sinisteel is investing more that $40m in the joint venture and will buy all the uranium from Crocker Well, either for use in China or elsewhere. PepinNini has estimated an inferred uranium resource of nearly 20M pounds of uranium oxide at Crocker Well, which would generate about $95m a year in revenue.

Mr Kennedy said the cmpany was "in the process of putting together a definitive feasability study' which he expected to be completed in the next 18 months.

'We will have to address that very quickly and we see that realistically we can get the project up and running by 2010 - and hopefully within 2009,' he said.

Sinisteel is the first Chinese company to invest directly in Australian uranium resources.

It's president Taiwen Huang gave an assurance China was only interested in the 'peaceful utilization of nuclear power and nuclear materials trading"

This all sounds very interesting - especially locating offices in Adelaide in preference to Sydney - speaks something of the future.

[urban]

I didn't think that a geography teacher would repeat George Bush's APEC/OPEC mistake but I also would have thought that following the publicity that Bush had, a newspaper wouldn't make the mistake either.

Look's like your local rag is at the same level as ours.

[Bulldozer]

I didn't think that a geography teacher would repeat George Bush's APEC/OPEC mistake but I also would have thought that following the publicity that Bush had, a newspaper wouldn't make the mistake either.

It's an easy mistake to make, I mean the A and O keys are practially right next to each other!

Look's like your local rag is at the same level as ours.

Same company.

[UrbanSG]

Found this article from the age website written in July this year. I haven't seen it before. It is written by a BHP shareholder but it is still interesting. I really don't think we have any idea of the huge scale this mine could reach. Suggestions of a $10billion expansion are starting to look increasingly possible. More announcements have been slated for October during a BHP meeting in the UK. It is hard to predict how big an impact this development may have on SA. A meeting and information session is also being held for mine equipment providers this comming week outlining the latest plans for this expansion and likely equipment requirements.

Olympic Dam project forces BHP management changes
Barry Fitzgerald
July 12, 2007

THE task of expanding the Olympic Dam copper/uranium mine in the South Australian outback will be bigger and more costly than anything BHP Billiton has ever undertaken, prompting chief executive-elect Marius Kloppers to create a new senior management position for the project.

The market continues to view the expansion as a $US6 billion ($A7 billion) project that will more than double output by 2013 to 600,000 tonnes of copper and 12,000-15,000 tonnes of the new boom commodity on the resources block, uranium.

But continued success in increasing the scale of mineralisation at the monster deposit has encouraged planning for a $US10 billion-plus project that on an annual basis will produce more than 1 million tonnes of copper and as much as 30,000 tonnes of uranium.

BHP has yet to commit to definitive plans for Olympic Dam's expansion but in recognition of its growing overall importance — even to the likes of BHP with its $US175 billion market cap — the decision has been made to upgrade management responsibility.

BHP's aluminium president, Graeme Hunt, is to become president of the newly created uranium and Olympic Dam development group, with Olympic Dam to be separated from the base metals group.

"The separation reflects the importance of both the asset and the expansion project in BHP Billiton's project pipeline and is recognition of the growing market for uranium to help meet the world's energy needs," BHP said.

Mr Hunt's new focus on Olympic Dam nevertheless comes at a critical time for the aluminium division, given continued speculation that BHP could gate-crash Alcoa's $US28 billion bid for Canada's Alcan by bidding for Alcoa in partnership with private equity.

But Mr Hunt's replacement at aluminium, Nelson Silva, is no slouch. Previously president, strategy, development and South American operations for aluminium, Mr Silva joined BHP in February but even then was said by outsiders to be one to watch.

The thought then was that the multilingual Mr Silva — he joined BHP from Brazilian mining giant CVRD where he was previously marketing/sales director — would play a key role in BHP's plan to grow the aluminium business through aggressive development in Africa and merger and acquisitions.

While Mr Hunt's move and Mr Silva's promotion generated most interest, they continue to sit outside BHP's most senior management team — the group management committee (previously known as the office of the chief executive).

Departures prompted by Mr Kloppers winning the top executive job have prompted him to rename and reshape the lead management team. He also has to find a replacement for himself as chief executive of the group's non-ferrous business.

Another key change was the promotion of Alberto Calderon to the re-established position of chief commercial officer (marketing, strategy, exploration and business development).

The reporter owns BHP shares.

[skyliner]

I didn't think that a geography teacher would repeat George Bush's APEC/OPEC mistake but I also would have thought that following the publicity that Bush had, a newspaper wouldn't make the mistake either.

It's an easy mistake to make, I mean the A and O keys are practially right next to each other!

Look's like your local rag is at the same level as ours.

Same company.

Urban, I have finally got back to extend the banter a little - sorry for that mate.

Thanks for your response - I respect your opinions given the position you hold. (I seriously considered Architecture at one stage as my preferred career option).

Now, I DO realize the credibility level of the Courier Mail - after all, it IS a tabloid - far gone from the old broadsheet days of yore. I Do realize the same issue with the Advertiser (which is extensively quoted on this forum - by people with great insight and understanding as well I might add). Hence, in qooting the Courier Mail it DOES raise a laugh - after all, we call it the 'Cuious Mail" here. (A curious relic of a paper of much greater credibility, though very insular and parochial at the same time).

Note, there was no mention of George Bush in either posting I made on this thread of late. Like you, I would not have bothered if there was a link to him.

Well, how did I become convinced enough to print the mining reports in the local rag?
Being an avid supporter of all things Acelaide and SA, and RARELY seeing ANYTHING on SA in QLD, I thought there COULD be something in this. There is so much happening in mining in SA, these posts fitted the acene already presented by many others right across this forum. Therefore , I saw the principle of intertextuality as as a more succinct factor of support for the reality of the posts I gave.

Sit back and wait it out before passing judgement altogether on the posts of concern.

BTW - can you give your opinion on the architectural elements of the Currie St, development on that thread sometime. Particularly interested in the cantilevered section - stress factors, sustainability over time, - may be more the realm of civil engineering.

[urban]

Sorry, Skyliner I think we might have a little misunderstanding here. I really should make more use of the emoticons.

News from the Courier Mail (Brisbane) 11/9/07 re - uranium developments from OPEC

I was just having a cheeky dig as the uranium developments were from APEC not OPEC and was referring to George Bush's identical (and much lambasted) slip of the tongue a few days earlier.

Keep posting from the Courier Mail because being based in Adelaide we only hear from the local parochial papers or the Sydney/Melbourne centric national papers which rarely notice that anything is happening in SA. It is also great to hear your views on urban design matters given that your study of it has come from a different perspective.

I will post soon on the Currie St proposal. I haven't paid much attention to it because the pessimist in me never thought it would even reach the planning approval stage. I must go back and have a look at the renders & plans soon.