Mining and Exploration

Oil and gas exploration in the North Sea is continuing apace with the award of a new licence in the UK 26th Licensing Round to a Northern Petroleum subsidiary.

The new licence is located offshore adjacent to Northern's Isle of Wight onshore licence, PEDL 240, which was awarded in May 2008. The part blocks—98/13 and 98/14—cover the offshore extension from PEDL 240 of a prospect that was mapped prior to 2008.

Two mineral exploration licences have been granted to the Gold & Minerals JV (G&M) by Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Ministry for Mineral Resources, for a period of five years.

KEFI Minerals, an AIM-quoted gold and copper exploration company, is the operating partner of G&M, holding a 40 per cent interest. To date the company has a total of three granted exploration licences and a total of 15 exploration licence applications in the Middle Eastern country.

UK-based Subsea 7 has won a contract worth $185 million from Elf Exploration UK on the West Franklin Field in the Central Graben area of the North Sea.

The scope of the subsea, umbilicals, risers and flowlines (SURF) contract includes engineering, procurement, fabrication, installation and commissioning of the Sealine Package associated with the West Franklin Phase 2 Development.

Peabody Energy today announced the completion of its acquisition of Macarthur Coal Limited, and has notified the Australian Securities Exchange to delist Macarthur.

Peabody is the world's largest private-sector coal company, with 28 surface and underground mines across the United States and Australia.

Iran’s Petroleum Engineering and Development Company has signed a deal with Russia’s Tatneft to develop the dormant Zagheh heavy oil field in Iran.

Zagheh is located 25 kilometres from the port city of Deilam.

The deal, which was signed yesterday, will bring production capacity at the oil field to 7,000 barrels per day in the first phase and 55,000 in the second phase.

The first well of the oil field, which was drilled many years ago, had been abandoned; however there are now plans to gain more accurate data on the heavy oil field.

Chilean mining operator Cerro Grande Mining Corporation has reported record financial results for its fiscal year ended September 30, 2011.

Revenues from gold, copper and silver sales came in at US $24,289,000 compared to US $10,959,000 in the same period last year. Net earnings were a positive US $3,425,000 compared to a negative (US $5,248,000) last year.

After completing the acquisition of Bucyrus earlier this year, Caterpillar is selling part of the former Bucyrus distribution business to the Industrial Division of Malaysian-based multinational Sime Darby Berhad.

The transaction, valued at approximately $360 million, involves the Sime Darby Industrial Cat dealerships operated by Hastings Deering in Queensland and the Northern Territory of Australia, Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia.

Rockhopper Exploration has announced the discovery of more oil and gas in the North Falklands Basin.

The oil and gas exploration company drilled in multiple reservoir targets: Beverley, Casper South, Casper and Sea Lion Main Complex.

The positive drilling update is expected to raise estimated reserves of hydrocarbons across the four fields.

The Sea Lion discovery was the first oil to flow to surface in Falkland Islands waters, having been successfully tested during September 2010 and June 2011.

BHP Billiton Energy Coal South Africa (BECSA) has entered into an empowerment transaction with a black-owned consortium led by Pembani Group, it announced today.

The consortium will effectively hold an eight per cent equity interest in BECSA, and also includes a Broad-Based Empowerment grouping. BECSA shareholders have also approved the implementation of an Employee Share Ownership Plan in which participating employees will hold a beneficial interest of two per cent equity in BECSA.

Afferro Mining has agreed to sell its 38.5 per cent interest in its Putu iron ore project in Liberia to Russia’s second biggest steelmaker.

Severstal, one of the world’s leading vertically integrated steel and steel-related mining companies, already owns the remaining 61.5 per cent of Putu through its subsidiary, Lybica Holdings.

Afferro will receive a cash payment of $65 million on completion of the deal. It said it would use the funds from the sale to accelerate its development strategy for its 100 per cent owned Nkout iron ore project in Cameroon.