Mining

Fortescue Metals Group and joint venture partners Formosa Plastics Group and Baosteel Resources have approved the $US2.6 billion ($3.7 billion) development of the Iron Bridge magnetite project in the Pilbara, with the iron ore miner assuring the market it will not repeat the mistakes of earlier magnetite projects.

Fortescue Metals Group has awarded a major component overhaul and replacement services (MCORS) contract to three contractors with Port Hedland workshops, with Fortescue saying the contract would result in 17 full-time, local jobs.

Rio Tinto has revealed its full-year Pilbara iron ore shipments are expected to be at the lower end of its 338 million to 350 million tonnes guidance, after Tropical Cyclone Veronica damaged its Cape Lambert port.

Construction has officially commenced at Albemarle Corporation’s Kemerton lithium plant, which is expected to cost in excess of $1 billion and create 500 construction jobs and another 500 operational jobs in the south-west of Western Australia.

Pilbara Minerals has announced it is considering selling between 20 per cent and 49 per cent of its Pilgangoora lithium project, as it declared commercial production from the processing plant.

Monadelphous has won a second contract for BHP Group's South Flank iron ore project, just over a month after it secured an $108 million contract at the site.

Struggling gold miner Gascoyne Resources has announced a share placement and rights issue at a 50 per cent discount to its previous closing price, as it seeks to pay down some of its mounting debts.

Geopacific Resources has raised $4.3 million via a share placement, with the funds set to advance due diligence in relation to the financing of its $198.5 million Woodlark gold project.

The independent directors of Sydney-based Riversdale Resources have urged shareholders to reject the $2.20 per-share offer lobbed by Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting last month.

Tropicana gold project joint venture partners AngloGold Ashanti and Independence Group have approved the development of a new underground mine at a cost of $105 million.

Gascoyne Resources has written down the value of its flagship Dalgaranga gold project by $33.5 million, as the company's half-year results revealed its liabilities are greater than its assets.

Mondium, a joint venture between local contractors Monadelphous and Lycopodium, has secured an early start engineering contract at Mineral Commodities’ (MRC) Munglinup graphite project.

Lynas Corporation said it will not engage with Wesfarmers' $1.5 billion indicative takeover offer, after the conglomerate launched the bid for the rare earths miner yesterday.

Western Australia's resources industry experienced record sales in 2018, up 16 per cent from the year prior, thanks largely to a rise in liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports.

Perth-based Westgold Resources has agreed to sell its Higginsville gold operation to RNC Minerals, in a cash and scrip deal worth $50 million.

Wesfarmers has made a $1.5 billion indicative offer for rare earths miner Lynas Corporation, its first takeover bid since its ill-fated $705 million purchase of Homebase in the UK in February 2016.

Sandfire Resources has announced an earn-in and joint venture option agreement with ASX-listed White Rock Minerals for a stake of up to 70 per cent in the multi-commodity Red Mountain project in central Alaska.

Dacian Gold has lowered its full-year production forecast at its Mt Morgans gold project by up to 16 per cent, due to an equipment shortage at the mine.

Jupiter Mines has tapped Hartleys to act as a corporate adviser, as the company re-evaluates its Central Yilgarn iron ore projects in light of improved iron ore market conditions.

Over 99 per cent of Doray Minerals' shareholders have voted in favour of the company’s proposed $615 million merger with fellow locally-based gold miner Silver Lake Resources.

Shares in St Barbara have fallen 30 per cent after the company said it would have to keep using trucking to extract gold from its flagship Gwalia project, due to ventilation issues it discovered at the underground mine.

Supreme Court justice Kenneth Martin has slammed the long-running legal battle between Clive Palmer’s Mineralogy and CITIC Pacific Mining as a massive, unnecessary waste of judicial resources, with both parties bearing responsibility.

Fortescue Metals Group will establish a research and development centre in Karratha to develop autonomous transport for urban areas.

Blackham Resources has announced a fully underwritten renounceable entitlements issue to raise $25.8 million, of which $10 million will be used to pay debts owing to contractor MACA and The Lind Partners.

Northern Star Resources executive chairman Bill Beament has sold about $22 million worth of shares in the gold miner, as part of a Family Court settlement.

A federal Labor government will make Perth the home base for an Australian Future Mines centre, and has also pledged to provide 50 mining engineering scholarships at WA universities.

Meteoric Resources has struck a deal to pay up to $3 million in cash and scrip for Crusader’s Resources Juruena and Novo Astro gold projects, and Crusader has increased the underwriting of its $4.2 million rights issue by $1 million.

RCR Tomlinson’s secured creditors may only receive around $70.6 million of the $230 million they are owed, and its unsecured trade creditors are likely to receive none of the $170.6 million they are owed, as administrators McGrathNicol recommended the failed engineering firm be liquidated.

Kalium Lakes has secured around $102 million of debt funding for the development of its Beyondie sulphate of potash (SOP) project, less than a month after receiving commitments for $74 million from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility for the project.

Mincor Resources has extended its offtake agreement with BHP Nickel West, marking a key step in Mincor’s restart of its Kambalda nickel operations.

A Brazilian court has ordered Vale SA, the world's largest iron ore miner, to suspend operations at two more dams, demanding that it prove the structures are stable.

BCI Minerals has appointed GR Engineering as lead engineer on the Mardie salt and potash project’s definitive feasibility study (DFS).