An Indonesian minefield
March 7 - 13, 2012
DESPITE its efforts, Indonesia has been unable to establish an investment climate for miners capable of doing justice to its substantial mineral wealth. In fact, on the merit of recent events, things have never been worse.
Australia's productivity conundrum
February 15 - 21, 2012
FEBRUARY 20 - ‘HIGH cost, low productivity nation’ was the lament last week of Australian business leaders captured in a national newspaper headline. Later in the week unions stopped work at the nation’s biggest coking coal mines – a clear sign the industry’s decade-long battle with declining productivity isn’t about to get easier. One industry ‘analyst’ believes the productivity problems run deeper than economic commentators would have us believe.
The case for an AusCodes framework (JORC/VALMIN)
January 25 - 31, 2012
CURRENTLY there is a debate which highlights a serious capability gap in the Australian regulatory reporting system. For the mining industry, it also poses a significant opportunity.
‘Resources curse’ or untapped opportunity?
December 8 - 14, 2011
DECEMBER 1: A REPORT on the development of Australia’s mining equipment, technology and services (METS) sector suggests the sector is at “a key stage of evolution”, and that it must get better at promoting itself and become more familiar to policy makers.
A steep learning curve
November 10 - 16, 2011
ONE of Australia’s senior tertiary minerals sector academics has told a Perth mining conference the sector’s survival strategy must evolve into a superior plan for lasting prosperity – if the mining industry really wants a world-class, evergreen supply of mining engineers and other professionals to meet its claimed long-term needs.
Measuring where it counts
October 27 - November 2, 2011
DECISIONS in companies are often dictated by the bean counters, and if you can’t count it, you can’t have it. International Finance Corporation’s Marcos Vaena tells HighGrade how you can get the number crunchers excited about upholding high social and environmental standards in developing countries.
Some deep thought required
July 28 - August 3, 2011
WHEN a mining executive recently suggested he could one day envisage a senate enquiry into why Australia wasn’t doing much better on the back of copper prices well above current levels, he wasn’t entirely kidding. Outside of Olympic Dam and Mount Isa, Australia is a rather poor performer on the copper front, and that arguably seems at odds given those two examples and the vast continent’s overall prospectivity. The question is, can much be done to actively encourage the under-cover exploration needed for big new copper discoveries to be made?
A tough issue to deal with
June 9 - 15, 2011
ON the surface mine sites appear harmonious and safe, but dig a little deeper and in some cases you expose homophobia, aggression and a culture of “real men” putting the safety of themselves and their colleagues at risk.
Unheralded sector uncovered
May 19 - 25, 2011
WHILE Orica, the mine explosives giant built on the foundations of the old British Imperial Chemical Industries company, is the flagbearer for Australia’s $A25 billion-plus domestically owned and based mining services, technology and manufacturing industry, it is the ground moving beneath the leader – and driving expansion of a $A6.4 billion export column – that is a feature of HighGrade’s 2011 listing of more than 100 significant companies in the sector.
A plan for the future
March 17 - 23, 2011
CHINESE investment and some local exploration success are revitalising the minerals industry in Tasmania’s west. But many towns in the region are still dying. Rosebery, both the town and the mine, may benefit from the patience and farsightedness for which the Chinese are renowned.
Aussie attraction
March 2 - 8, 2011
AUSTRALIAN miners often look to the full pockets of Asian investors to fund their projects, but last week one Chinese coal miner instead successfully opened the mining-savvy pockets of the Australian investor with a debut on the Australian Securities Exchange. Is this the start of a rush of junior Chinese miners wanting to side-step the cost of listing in Hong Kong?
Relighting the Musgrave fire
February 9 - 15, 2011
FEBRUARY 6: THE year of the Musgrave Ranges anyone? A resurgence of activity in this isolated but highly prospective part of Australia logically increases the possibility of success, with both majors and juniors busy in the field and, as always, optimistic of a significant breakthrough.
Reed likes vanadium story
November 24 - 30, 2010
DAVID Reed, the former Kalgoorlie stockbroker, has the region’s lifeblood – gold – in his own veins but is currently working with son Chris, the managing director of Reed Resources, to develop world-class lithium and vanadium projects in Western Australia. He explained last week why he was a believer in vanadium, and the company’s high-grade Barrambie project.
In the right place: is it the right time?
August 11 - 17, 2010
ECONOMICS professor, historian, prolific author and one of Time magazine’s 2004 “100 Most Influential People” in the world, Scottish-born Niall Ferguson covered some familiar ground in a keynote address like no other heard previously at the annual Diggers & Dealers conference in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. Presented here is an edited version of the speech, and brief ensuing discussion with the audience.
Kalgoorlie has two up, and away
August 4 - 10, 2010
FROM a moribund state Western Australia’s gold sector is coming to life. Two presentations at Diggers & Dealers captured the essence of the state’s gold revival, while a surge in exploration activity is raising hopes that major discoveries of the calibre of those feted at this week’s conference – Jundee (5 million ounces) and Sunrise Dam (10Moz) – are closer to being made.
Australian companies dig deeper in North America
March 31 - April 6, 2010
MARCH 23: A MATURE Canadian market and a US mining industry in decline have, somewhat surprisingly, in recent times become happy hunting grounds for Australian mining technology and service (MTS) exporters.
Talking heads: the issues that matter to miners in 2010
February 9 - 15, 2010
AFTER the extended summer break the mining industry feels like it is just getting back into the swing of things. But 2010 is already shaping as another interesting year with key concerns like the Henry tax review and the carbon pollution reduction scheme already grabbing the headlines against a backdrop of renewed market volatility.
Chile mining's hot new technology spot?
February 2 - 8, 2010
BHP Billiton has joined Rio Tinto in throwing its weight behind efforts to make Chile’s mining technology and services (MTS) sector a world leader. Australia, once called home by Rio and BHP, has been held up as a template for Chile. So could the South American country become a major competitor for Australia’s burgeoning MTS sector in international markets?
The search for a new business class
October 19 - 25, 2009
WANTED: Australia’s own Pierre Lassonde. Bring your class, charisma and, oh, don’t forget your five million bucks, to a big mining school near you. Your reward: the eternal admiration and gratitude of mining industry alumni, minerals educators ... your country.
