Mining and Exploration

London-listed Petra Diamonds has announced that the IFC has agreed to a $25 million loan to expand Petra’s Finsch Diamond Mine in South Africa.

Petra said that given the lead times between its now larger diamond tenders (after the acquisition of the Finsch mine) and the volatility experienced over the last 12 months of both the rand and diamond prices, the new revolving credit facilities will give it additional scope and flexibility to execute its capital expenditure programme and bring its stated production and revenue growth opportunities to fruition.

London-listed Heritage Oil has invested £541 million in a number of assets in Nigeria, it has been announced.

The company is buying a 45 per cent stake in OML 30, a producing oil mining lease in Nigeria, from Shell, Total and ENI, as well as a 45 per cent interest in other assets under the OML 30 joint operating agreement.

OML 30, located onshore in the Nigerian delta, includes eight producing fields and associated infrastructure, including a segment of the 850,000 bopd-capacity Trans Forcados pipeline.

Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited has built a reputation for itself as a leading producer of gold in South Africa and Papua New Guinea. With a commitment to both stakeholder value and corporate responsibility, the company is setting the gold standard for ethical mining in these regions.

Gold Fields Ghana is not only committed to ethical and sustainable mining but is also spearheading a national conservation programme as part of its vision to become a global leader in sustainable gold mining.

Maersk Oil, the petroleum arm of Denmark’s AP Moller-Maersk, is to drill a new exploration well on the Maja licence in the Danish North Sea.

The move comes after the Danish Energy Agency (DEA) granted Maersk a two-year extension to two licences in the region.

The Maja licence is situated near the Maersk Oil-operated Harald gas field and 40 kilometres north of the licences operated by the Danish Underground Consortium. The well will be drilled in water depths of 50 metres and to a total depth of around 5,000 metres.

Mining giant BHP Billiton has approved investment of US$845 million to establish a replacement mining area at its Appin Mine in New South Wales, Australia.

The replacement mining area will sustain operations at Illawarra Coal and will have a production capacity of 3.5 million tonnes per year of metallurgical coal, sustaining production capacity at nine million tonnes per year.

Rio Tinto has announced it is committing US$4.2 billion to developing its tier one iron ore business.

The investment covers $3.7 billion for expansion of the Pilbara iron ore operations in Western Australia; and $501 million for further infrastructure development at the Simandou iron ore project in Guinea.

Liberty Gold Corp. has acquired a 60 percent interest McCord Creek Property gold project in central Alaska's Tolovana Mining District.

Liberty Gold will be the project's operator.

The McCord Creek project comprises 14 State mining claims located 70 miles northwest of Fairbanks in the Tintina Gold Belt, which has produced nearly 30 million ounces of gold to date and has experienced accelerated gold exploration, development, and mining activity over the years.

Romarco Minerals has renegotiated a number of key contracts to re-align equipment deliveries for the development of the Haile Gold Mine in South Carolina.

Last month, Romarco received a schedule from the US Army Corps of Engineers for completing the Environmental Impact Statement for the Federal 404 Wetlands permit. The schedule gives the decision date for the permit as 16 August 2013, somewhat later than Romarco had anticipated.

Despite the contribution mining makes to any economy there are always plenty of hoops to be climbed through as Alan Swaby learns in conversation with one of Canada’s representative bodies.