SGS heads to Durango
SGS Minerals Services has opened a lab in Durango state, Mexico, to meet the needs of the burgeoning mineral exploration sector in the Latin American nation.
The facility will expand the local services available to partners such as
The Durango facility offers exploration sample preparation, rapid analyses for high-grade materials, party/umpire analyses, metallurgical process control analyses and bench-scale metallurgical testing, including flotation, grinding and bottle rolls.
The lab will act as a gateway to other SGS services, and will submit samples to other SGS labs. The Durango office will be managed by Terry Caverly, a veteran with more than 25 years of mineral testing experience.
Founded in 1878, SGS operates a network of almost 1,000 offices and labs employing 42,000 people throughout the world.
Tiberon selects Ausenco for Nui Phao
Brisbane-based Ausenco is familiar with Vietnam, having undertaken some industrial projects there. In fact, the contractor has secured more than US$600 million in contracts in Asia during the past five years. Currently, Ausenco is designing and building the US$70-million Jinfeng Gold BIOX project in China, and the US$50-million Kainantu gold project in Papua New Guinea.
Construction at Nui Phao will include a processing plant as well as basic infrastructure including roads and rail, accommodation, a tailings dam and water management systems.
“Ausenco has an unusual depth of experience in pioneering mineral projects in the region, making them the ideal partner for the development and completion of our project,” says Trevor Moss, Tiberon’s vice-president of operations.
A July 2005 feasibility study for Nui Phao calls for processing 3.5 million tonnes annually for an average annual production of 4,700 tonnes tungsten trioxide, 214,000 tonnes acid-grade fluorspar, 2,000 tonnes bismuth, 5,500 tonnes copper and 2,300 oz. gold. Nui Phao contains more than 55 million tonnes of proven and probable reserves for an estimated 16 years of operation.
Through the development of Nui Phao, Tiberon is poised to become the world’s largest primary tungsten producer and a major producer of acid-grade fluorspar, as well as bismuth.
Ausenco has offices in Perth, Denver, Toronto and Beijing, and specializes in construction and project management services to the mining and mineral processing industry.
Finning gets Snap Lake contract
Under the 2-year deal, Finning Power Systems will provide prime and auxiliary generators, ancillary equipment, and control systems to produce about 21MW of electricity for the mine.
More specifically, Finning will provide four Caterpillar 3616 diesel generators, which will be installed in the main power facility. Heat from the generators will be used to heat the mine’s domestic hot water supply, as well as provide space heating. The generators are slated for delivery in 2007.
Three more Cat 3516 diesel generators, each in an Arctic enclosure, will be housed in an auxiliary powerhouse and provide power to the mine during construction. These generators will serve as a back-up power supply once the mine is in operation. These generators will arrive later this year.
It is the third Canadian diamond mine for which Finning will design and supply power generation and heat recovery equipment.
Once Snap Lake is built, it will be the first entirely underground diamond mine in Canada. Construction on Snap Lake started in February 2005; production is slated to begin in 2007.
Finning supplies heavy equipment to a number of industrial sectors, including mining. The company is active in Canada’s Far North and employs more than 600 people at 11 northern locations from Fort McMurray, Alta., to locations as far north as Inuvik.
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