The Bellevue gold project is located in Western Australia, and returned up to 1130 grams per tonne of gold during a grade control drilling exercise.

The grade control drilling exercise results come off the back of Bellevue Gold announcing the start of mining at the Bellevue gold project’s Vanguard open pit in early April.

Bellevue managing director Darren Stralow said the results were exceptional.

“These exceptional results are important because they demonstrate the extremely robust nature of the resource model and therefore the strength of the production forecasts,” Stralow said.

“On site, we are continuing to hit our targets, with the underground development and construction activities on time and on budget.”

In additional to the major gold discovery, Bellevue reported its significant high-grade results returned from all its underground production areas, which stayed on time and budget.

Results from Armand include:

• 9 metres (m) at 91.5 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold, plus 0.3m at 1130 g/t of gold
• 6m at 142.5 g/t of gold, including 0.4m at 599 g/t of gold
• 7m at 26.3 g/t of gold
• 1m at 36.9 g/t of gold, including 0.9m at 116.9 g/t of gold

Results from the Marceline area saw:

• 8m at 123.3 g/t of gold
• 4m at 25.6 g/t of gold, including 1.9m at 53.4 g/t of gold
• 9m at 85.1 g/t of gold, including 0.7m at 156.9 g/t of gold

The Bellevue south mining area saw:

• 1m at 52.6 g/t of gold
• 7m at 28.1g/t of gold
• 5m at 10.7 g/t of gold

Bellevue said the results continue to confirm the robustness of the resource models for all its mining areas, as well as highlight the excellent quality and flexibility of its resource and mine schedule.

Australian Mining.

Andromeda cited ongoing delays in the process of the CC&C project, including the certification process for components of the carbon capture pilot plant and its set up and installation by GICAN after its arrival in Newcastle as the reasons for the termination.

Andromeda will retain control of the CC&C project’s business opportunities and ownership of the intellectual property, as well as its physical carbon capture pilot plant. The company retains the right to continue the project and can seek to further develop the project with suitable partners.

Andromeda executive director James Marsh said the mutual termination does not prevent Andromeda from continuing to progress the opportunities presented by the unique properties of the halloysite-kaolin resources underpinning the Great White Project (GWP).

“With the recent approval of the program for environment and rehabilitation (PEPR), our priority is to get the GWP up and running as it brings Andromeda closer to becoming a globally significant producer of halloysite-kaolin products,” Marsh said.

“We remain excited by the emerging business opportunities to collaborate with partners going forward to progress the development of halloysite-derived nanomaterial and critical mineral, HPA, solutions for solving the global decarbonisation challenge.”

The GWP is located 15 kilometres south-west of Poochera, Eyre Peninsula, South Australia and is wholly owned by Andromeda.

Andromeda recently received approval of the PEPR for the GWP from South Australia’s Department for Energy and Mining, which was the second and final stage of the SA Government’s two-stage regulatory process. The approval permits the processing of up to 300,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of ore, producing up to a nominal 150,000 tpa of halloysite-kaolin products from the GWP.

Australian Mining.

The Capricorn copper mine was affected by unprecedented rainfall in early March, leading to the mine’s operations being suspended on March 8. Its recovery planning is underway with an update to be reported in mid-May.

Capricorn’s copper production was 2.6 kilotons (kt) for the two months to end February 2023, a decrease from the previous quarter which saw 5.3 kt produced. The low copper production was due to reduced milling rates to manage tailings capacity at the site and its planned maintenance, which was exacerbated by the extreme weather.

Capricorn’s costs were also lower with site costs of $31 million for the two months to end February 2023, compared to the previous quarter’s $51 million. 29Metals credits the lower costs spent to the lower activity and the suspension of Capricorn.

29Metals’ chief executive officer Peter Albert said the extreme weather at Capricorn dominated the March quarter results but is proud of the Capricorn team’s efforts to manage safety after the fact.

“During and after the extreme weather event the team at Capricorn Copper did a tremendous job managing safety and protecting the environment,” Albert said.

“The outstanding drilling results at Capricorn Copper reported earlier this month demonstrate the long-term value of the mine. We are laser-focused on the recovery plan, to return Capricorn Copper to operations and realise its potential.”

However, the March quarter results were not all negative. 29Metals saw its safety metrics improve, which Albert said was a testament to the company’s focus on safety.

“Group safety metrics continued to improve, with the total recordable injury frequency rate (of 8.1 per million work hours) decreasing for a fifth consecutive quarter and a reduction in lost time injury frequency rate (with Capricorn having five-months recordable injury-free to end March 2023),” Albert said.

The Capricorn copper mine will see the full reinstatement in 2024.

Australian Mining.

The company sold 191,031 ounces (oz) of gold from its Kalgoorlie production centre. Gold here was produced at an all-in sustaining cost (AISC) of A$1781 per ounce. Northern Star has revised its financial guidance for the year, raising the AISC estimate at Kalgoorlie from 1560 – 1660 up to 1700 – 1735.

Northern Star sold 46,978oz gold at an AISC of US$1668 per ounce. The gold company has since revised down 2023 gold production targets at Pogo from 260 – 290 to 225 – 240. The company also raised the AISC.

Extended mill downtime is understood to be the cause of lower production from these two sites.

But it was business as usual at the Yandal production centre, which sold 125,072oz of gold at an AISC of A$1627 per ounce. Yearly targets at Yandal remain unchanged.

Northern Star managing director Stuart Tonkin reacted to the results.

“This quarter was a challenging one for Northern Star but we have emerged with positive momentum, and the prospect of improved production across the group, to remain on track for a strong finish to the 2023 financial year,” he said.

“Unplanned mill outages at KCGM and Pogo have been addressed and the team is now focused on delivering our full-year production guidance.

“I am extremely grateful to the Pogo operations team, which worked tirelessly to repair the damaged mill motor in a safe, cost-efficient and timely manner.

In total the company sold 363 thousand ounces of gold for the quarter at an all-in sustaining cost of $1813. Northern Star spent $191 million on growth capital and $34 million on exploration.

These results make it “the best year-to-date quarter for cash generated at operations, after capex and exploration spend,” the company told the ASX.

Australian Mining.

In terms of operations, the company called the results were “excellent”.

“Neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) production of 1,725 tonnes was the highest ever quarterly production at the Lynas Malaysia plant,” the company told the market.

“This was achieved despite a general shutdown of the Lynas Malaysia plant for over 3 days whilst tie-in works for the mixed rare earth carbonate (MREC) receival facility were undertaken.

“The strong NdPr production result is the outcome of plant efficiency improvements and no significant downtime from external events.”

Lynas clocked in $237.1 million in quarterly sales revenue, up from $217.5 million in the previous quarter.

Closing cash and short term deposits counted over $1.1 billion.

The license conditions on the company’s Malaysian operations will prohibit the import and processing of lanthide, which will require the closure of the cracking and leaching component of the Lynas Malaysia plant.

Cracking and leaching leaves behind low-level radioactive waste, which the Malaysian Government seems no longer willing to tolerate.

Lynas has been racing to ramp up its Kalgoorlie rare earths processing facility to pick up the slack left by changes to its Malaysian operations.

“The Kalgoorlie… project has now entered the final phase of major construction activities and dry commissioning activities have commenced in certain parts of the plant,” the announcement said.

“We retain a target feed on date for the Kalgoorlie Facility in Q4 FY2023.”

When the expansion is complete, Lynas will undertake the cracking and leaching of rare earths in Kalgoorlie, before sending the intermediate product to Malaysia.

But the Kalgoorlie expansion won’t be on its feet until at least August, leaving a potential three-month void of rare earth supply.

Though the appeal will be heard today, there is no timeframe under Malaysian law by when the Minister is required to make a decision.

Australian Mining.