Mining

As you drive towards Bendigo, past Porcupine Village and the dredge, you will see a sign on the left hand side of the road; ‘Octagonal Gold Processing Plant’. This facility, referred to as “the Mill,”   is still operational and currently processing ore from Kaiser Reef A1 Gold Mine, located 23 kilometres from Jamieson.

A specialist CFA brigade has been called out to two incidents within a week, both involving the rescue of a dog from a mine shaft. Bendigo-based Oscar1 Brigade helped rescue Bruno the Bull-Arab on Sunday 5 December after he’d fallen down a mine shaft at Castlemaine Diggings National Park. Captain Daniel McMahon said it was quite unusual and surprising to receive another call less than six days later, this time to rescue Terry the Kelpie-cross from a mine shaft at Woodend.

Jack Bradshaw. Exposing the hypocrisy of the WA government in banning sustainable timber harvesting in native forest but supporting the strip mining of the same forest.

Mining billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest and his wife Nicola have expanded their lifestyle portfolio, with the Margaret River’s Cape Lodge Hotel the latest acquisition for their investment firm Tattarang.

Turtle monitoring around Rio Tinto’s Amrun mine has shown the unusual benefit of a mining company that improves the environment around it. Before the Amrun mine was constructed, turtle hatchings were rare in that part of the Cape, mostly because feral pigs predated nests.

"Scarborough via Pluto will be one of the lowest carbon emissions intensity global LNG projects projected to be in production in 2030 and will have the lowest carbon emissions intensity of an Australian originated LNG project at around 0.5 tonnes CO2 per tonne of LNG. The project will minimise its greenhouse gas footprint through development of low CO2 reservoir fluids coupled with energy efficient LNG processing, in close proximity to the end market – meeting market demand at lower emissions intensity" : BHP

Apart from brief periods during April, May and August the Maldon Museum has been closed to the public for most of this past year. Volunteer activities have continued during this time however, and much has been achieved behind the scenes in the way of conservation, cataloguing and indexing. The planned re-opening of the museum is eagerly awaited by the museum’s volunteers who have created a special informative display of Maldon’s mines from days long gone.  

Mines and Petroleum Minister Bill Johnston has opened the expanded Joe Lord Core Library in Kalgoorlie ... The completed 2,100 square metre extension has tripled the storage capacity of the world-class core sample library. The improved facility provides geoscientists, explorers and mining companies with greater access to view and analyse the drillcores containing a wealth of geoscientific information.

Kaiser Reef Limited (ASX:KAU) is extremely pleased to announce the first exploration results for the high-grade Maldon historic gold mine.  Managing Director, Jonathan Downes stated, “We are delighted that we are finding high-grade gold in our first trial drilling campaign.  Maldon is one of the great goldfields and it has received extraordinarily limited modern exploration."

A proposed silica mine that will give Traditional Owners a direct slice of the pie has Cooktown and Hope Vale residents excited about its prospects. Diatreme Resources has received a shot in the arm this month with former Treasurer and political heavyweight Wayne Swan agreeing to join Diatreme as chairman of the board.

Mining and cattle magnate Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest has become one of Cook Shire’s biggest ratepayers after he paid $42 million for Lizard Island. Mr Forrest and his wife Nicola’s private investment company Tattarang splashed $42 million for the Great Barrier Reef resort ... Tattarang declined to comment on the Lizard Island deal, but the vendor, Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed SEA Group, announced the deal in an investor statement.

Minister for Resources and Water Keith Pitt says our resources exploration industry can now access another world-leading dataset, revealing exciting new prospective regions across more than one million square kilometres of northern Australia.

Queensland copper mine waste could deliver a key ingredient for the renewable energy revolution thanks to a three-year international study. Qld Resources Minister Scott Stewart announced a three-way agreement between the Queensland Government,  Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC)  and  the University of Queensland  which will examine whether cobalt – a globally-sought-after critical mineral and a key battery ingredient – can be retrieved economically from old copper mine tailings.

Geoff Helisma. Debate about the Clarence Catchment Alliance’s (CCA) petition calling for the cessation of mineral mining and exploration in the Clarence River catchment took place in the NSW Legislative Assembly on Thursday October 14 ... The petition was lodged by  Lismore MP Janelle Saffin (Labor) ... Speaking against the petition was  Member for Clarence Chris Gulaptis (Nationals).  

The Territory Labor Government and Core Lithium have announced construction is underway on the $89 million Finniss Lithium Project ... Construction follows the project reaching Final Investment Decision last month, and Core Lithium successfully raising $150 million from institutional investors and shareholders.

Mawsons Concrete and Quarries are planning to dig a quarry in the Blue Hills, which are located on the outskirts of Maldon, and are nestled between Shelbourne and Baringhup. The Tarrangower Times spoke to the Environment and Compliance Officer, Shari Rankin who stated, “At this stage it’s too early to determine a proposed start date but we don’t envisage this being until at least 2023 ..."

The Northern Australia Committee has tabled the final report of its  Inquiry into the destruction of 46,000 year old caves at the Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.  The report follows on from the work of the Committee’s interim report  Never Again  tabled on the 9 December 2020.

Kel York. On 2 June 1916 the Maldon News reported there was some excitement around Sandy Creek following the discovery of gold on the property of Mr Gordon, just below Cookman’s Ranges, about three miles (five kms) south of Maldon.  The lucky prospectors were John Annand and A Thomas. John had discovered gold in that locality in 1902, and had been prospecting there since.