Horizon Minerals and Dundas Minerals have entered into a binding agreement to acquire the Windanya and Baden-Powell/Scotia gold projects in the Kalgoorlie region of WA.
Dundas Minerals has also made an application to acquire three prospecting licenses in its own right, contiguous to Horizon’s Banden Powell/Scotia tenements.
“The option to acquire these advanced stage gold exploration projects in the Kalgoorlie region of Western Australia is an exciting opportunity for Dundas Minerals,” Dundas Minerals managing director Shane Volk said.
“Given the competition for these projects, Dundas is pleased that Horizon viewed us as a worthy partner. We are keen to commence the first phase of exploration in coming weeks.”
The Windanya project is located approximately 50km north of Kalgoorlie, while the Powell/Scotia project is adjacent to the Goldfields Highway, about 60km north of Kalgoorlie.
The projects became available due to Horizon’s focus on advancing its Cannon, Penny’s Find and Rose Hill gold projects towards production.
“Being so near to Kalgoorlie, the Goldfields Highway, and several gold plants, the economics of advancing a gold deposit from within these project areas into production, and generating income for the company are favourable,” Volk said.
Dundas is currently finalising plans for its first phase of exploration at both projects, which will comprise soil and/or auger sampling programs covering multiple targets ranked by prospectivity.
Exploration is expected to commence in early September, and will take up to three weeks to complete.
The next step in the integration of SP Mining (the mining related business of Schenck Process acquired by global, high-tech engineering group Sandvik), will see SP mining entities change their names to reflect the new ownership.
On the October 1, Schenck Process Australia Pty Limited, which became a wholly owned subsidiary of Sandvik in November last year, will become Sandvik Rock Processing Australia Pty Limited. The Australian entity is the largest part of SP Mining’s global business, employing around 450 industry professionals.
Since the acquisition, Sandvik has been focused on bringing together its expertise in crushing with the screening, feeding, weighing and loading know-how of Schenck Process Mining.
According to company president Asia Pacific Terese Withington, this move is part of an integration process which will eventually see SP Mining become a seamless part of the Sandvik organisation.
“In Australia, we are bringing together our sales and back-office teams with those of Sandvik Rock Processing Solutions to allow our customers to access our combined expertise in crushing, screening, feeding, weighing and loading,” Withington said.
“Together we aim to deliver even better digitalisation, sustainability, and productivity solutions to our industry.
“The end goal of our integration is to allow our customers to place combined crushing, screening, feeding, weighing and loading orders with our new legal entity.”
SP Mining president Asia Pacific Terese Withington.
Withington said that the scale of Sandvik’s operations and commercial reach will help to accelerate the combined innovation portfolio of Sandvik Rock Processing Solutions and SP Mining.
“We look forward to continuing to service the business needs of our customers and remain fully focused on the delivery of high-quality equipment, consumables, OEM spare parts and services to help them achieve their business objectives,” she said.
Onetrak has officially opened its Sydney branch in Moorebank, located 27km from the Sydney business district and nearby the M5 Motorway and M7 interchange.
The new Sydney branch is the eighth Onetrak branch. The company has locations around Australia including Bridgewater in Tasmania’s south, Somerset in Tasmania’s north, Hallam in Victoria, Tumut in New South Wales, Albany in Western Australia, Mt Gambier in South Australia and Caboolture in Queensland.
Onetrak is home to large brands within the earthmoving, forestry, material handling and extractive industries. The business offering includes new and used machine sales, rental equipment, service and parts.
Onetrak’s brand portfolio includes Hidromek, Tigercat, Striker, Anaconda, Dressta, Terex Fuchs, EIW Nirox, Alicon, Timber Max, Veriga and Rotobec nationwide and additionally it has Hyundai in Tasmania only.
The company’s regional manager for QLD and NSW, Brad Madden, will be heading the branch and is looking forward to being a part of Onetrak’s growth in the Sydney area.
“Onetrak have had a presence in Sydney for the last three years gradually stepping into the market as we grew,” he said.
“The time has now come to commit to our own facility, and we are excited and serious about providing service and support for our customers. We are currently running two fully maintained service vehicles, have a sales team and parts support for the area. The move into our new facility at Moorebank provides us with a large yard, plenty of hard stand area, office space to accommodate our team and a large warehouse.
“We will be able to hold more parts to make a quicker turn around for our valued customers along with a large workshop space to better service our customers machinery. I personally am excited about the growth we are seeing in Sydney and am excited to be a part of the Sydney journey.”
Onetrak managing director David Hazell said it was important to establish a presence in Sydney as part of the company’s business plan to become a truly national heavy equipment dealer.
“With the help of our loyal customers and fantastic brands, Onetrak has grown beyond our original expectations, and it was important we established a full-time presence in Sydney to better support our growing client base and key franchises in this important region,” Hazell said.
“We are extremely fortunate to have some of the most talented and dedicated employees in the industry working for Onetrak and it’s the company’s family feel and commitment to providing exceptional customer service that has allowed us to grow and prosper in what is otherwise a saturated and competitive space.
“We really look forward to growing and expanding the business further in conjunction with our people and providing a level of customer service that is recognised with our Onetrak brand”.
The Sydney branch is located at 9 Helles Ave, Moorebank, and can be contacted at 02 8729 8400.
Quarries need reliable equipment that can handle intense conditions. High temperatures, freezing cold, heavy material and constant use can put extreme pressure on components.
This is why Oli Vibrators Australia is fully stocked and on standby to assist Australian quarries.
Many quarries are also located in remote areas, operating almost 24 hours per day. They can’t afford a breakdown.
Sean Brewer, sales executive at Oli Vibrators, told Quarry this is why the vibration motor specialist remains fully stocked and on standby.
“Having our Australian subsidiary and warehouse located in Melbourne is perfect for the many customers we have in the quarry and mining sector,” he said.
“There’s so many OLI vibrators out there in Australia’s crushing, scalping and dewatering screens and a lot of them are purring away 24/7 and getting a real workout. The push for higher productivity and minimal downtime is factored in to all the quarry managers budgets.”
“We’re not just down the road from our manufacturing plants in Italy and Malta, so the need for a fully stocked local warehouse is crucial to our customers and distributors. As such we need to ensure that our local Melbourne warehouse is well stocked not only with all our faster moving smaller vibrators, but also our big bangers like our six & eight pole motors with huge kilograms of force and proven reliability.”
Oli Vibrators has a strong presence in Australia.
Oli Vibrators specialise in industrial vibration technology, providing high-quality, European-built industrial electric and pneumatic vibrators, frequency converters, flowaids and aerators. The company has operated in Australia for more than two decades and has built up expertise in providing the right tools for the job.
Oli Vibrators manufactures its product in Italy, where its head office is located, and Malta. Here, the equipment goes through rigorous testing and quality control to ensure they can handle the extreme conditions.
The Melbourne-based branch liaises with the European manufacturing facilities to ensure it has the core items required for quarries.
Brewer said this is important, as several local quarry plant equipment manufacturers and designers incorporate Oli vibrators into their designs.
“They need reassurance so that when they get a call from a stressed quarry manager looking for a quick supply turnaround time, we’ll be able to assist quickly and not to let them down,” he said.
He added that while much of the plant equipment found in Australian quarries was imported and not locally manufactured, it was good to see a lot of it comes with Oli vibrators as original equipment.
“Ideally, we would love to supply mainly local manufacturers with our product out of the Melbourne warehouse but realistically our European colleagues are pushing just as hard to get the Oli vibrators on to their own locally produced quarry equipment bound for Australia,” he said.
“We’re happy to offer the after sales support and advice once it’s here. We are also happy to swap out our competitor’s vibrators for the OLI as happens quite a bit, because we have the stock on hand.”
Brewer spends the bulk of his workday talking with customers, many of whom are the procurement and plant maintenance managers for quarries.
With such a wide range of applications to cover, he helps them find the right size and placement for the company’s range of equipment. Small aerators and fluidisers are often deployed for cement powder, lime, and fly ash applications, while heavy-duty vibrators are installed on hoppers and bins. Even the delivery trucks can make use of the equipment.
Oli Vibrator’s specialists work closely with the site team, using drawings and site visits to help pick the right tool for the job.
Brewer said feedback has been positive.
“They love that we can solve problems for them quickly,” he said. “A site might have a blockage or reduced flow. They give us a phone call or email, and we can work together to get things moving.”
“Oli Group worldwide for many years has strived to stand by our mantra of ‘When You need it, where you need it’, and I think with the huge range of large size and brute force vibrators that we keep on the shelf, combined with the local logistics network we have finely tuned over the years, we live up to that.
“There is also a vast number of maintenance companies in Australia that specifically service the quarry sector, so they look to us to provide solutions with fast and reliable supply times. I get great satisfaction when I’m presented with a problem where our products can help and when the call comes back to me saying problem solved.” •
Pitchers Partners has released its Dealmakers: mid-market M&A in Australia 2023 update, where it found that the mining sector contributed significantly to the country’s M&A (mergers and acquisitions) value through the Newmont acquisition of Newcrest.
Pitcher Partners is an association of independent accounting and business advisory firms located in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Newcastle, Perth and Sydney.
Its latest dealers M&A (mergers and acquisitions) update found that international corporate buyers accounted for $48 billion of M&A activity in the first half of 2023. As a result, this has delivered the strongest six-month interval for offshore M&A values since 2018.
“Across all markets, foreign interest was led by North American dealmakers who contributed 77 per cent of deal value as they explored opportunities in Australia’s rich technology sector, as well as mining and resources, finance and healthcare,” the report said.
The overall value of global M&A was down by 35 per cent compared to the first half of 2022 and with a 37 per cent slump in the mid-market.
However, it was good news for Australia as the country’s M&A value increased by 13 per cent compared to the first half of 2022. Australian transactions in the first half of 2023 were worth $64.8 billion, coming from 390 deals. The number of deals has decreased by 26 per cent compared to those recorded in 2022.
The value figure is said to be influenced by the $26.6 billion Newmont purchase of Newcrest, which has made up approximately 41 per cent of the total deal value in Australia during the first half of 2023.
“Energy, mining and utilities made up 78 per cent of deal value in the first half of 2023, and even without the inclusion of the Newcrest sale, the sector still made up 50 per cent of total sales,” the report said.
Pitcher Partners Sydney corporate finance partner Andy Hough said that while values remain strong, Australian deal volumes were the lowest in more than five years, which he attributed to deals taking longer to complete in comparison to 12 months ago.
“Due diligence is becoming an increasingly drawn-out process, with factors such as environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) and increased regulatory burdens leading to a greater depth of scope,” Hough said.
“While that has negatively impacted on deal numbers in this half, it should result in an uptick of completed deals in the second half of the year,” Hough said.
Anglo American and Glencore have reported the progress they have made towards meeting the global industry standard on tailings management (GISTM).
Last week, Rio Tinto released details on its tailings facility.
Anglo American has set out its progress towards bringing its 12 tailings storage facilities (TSFs) that are currently within the two highest potential consequence categories into conformance with GISTM.
“We have made very significant progress towards conformance with the GISTM over the last three years, building upon our already high technical standards,” Anglo American chief executive Duncan Wanblad said.
“We continue our prudent approach to align with a number of specific GISTM requirements, as well as the social and community aspects that are already encompassed in our comprehensive social way management system. We are addressing the few outstanding areas and have set out the work needed to get us there.
“As an industry, we have a clear ethical imperative to do everything possible to ensure that TSFs are managed to the highest standards as we work together to build greater levels of trust with all our stakeholders. GISTM’s role in driving continuous improvement across the industry with full transparency is beyond doubt.”
Glencore also reported its conformance to GISTM for its TSFs with ‘very high’ or ‘extreme’ consequence classifications.
“We have taken a rigorous and technically robust approach to applying the GISTM, which goes beyond self-assessments and includes independent third-party assurance,” Glencore said.
“We welcome the greater transparency it has brought around the management of these important facilities. We are pleased with the progress we have made over the last three years… Based on our ongoing TSF management systems and independent third-party assessments we have in place for our TSFs with ‘very high’ and ‘extreme” consequence classifications we believe that any gaps in conformance are identified and managed appropriately.”
Both miners have committed to working towards conformance in respect of its TSFs that are within the other three lower consequence categories, ‘low’, ‘significant’ and ‘high’, by August 2025. This in line with the commitment made by all ICMM member companies.
Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC) has granted clearance for Newmont to proceed with its acquisition of Newcrest.
After a three-month process beginning in February 2023, Newmont secured a $26.2 billion takeover deal with Newcrest.
The Canadian Competition Bureau issued a ‘no action’ letter clearing Newmont’s announced transaction with Newcrest under Canadian competition law in mid-July.
Newmont has since been continuing to advance other regulatory approvals, such as PNG’s, and it expects to close the transaction in the December 2023 quarter.
Newmont still needs regulatory approvals from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the Australia Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB), the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC), the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC), and the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) to complete its acquisition of Newcrest.
Additionally, Newmont has been in consultation with Newcrest, and through this has determined that a pre-merger notification under the Hart–Scott–Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 will not be required in the US for the transaction to proceed.
“We appreciate the ICCC in Papua New Guinea carefully reviewing and clearing our proposed acquisition of Newcrest,” Newmont chief executive officer Tom Palmer said.
“Lihir in PNG is one of the world’s great gold mines and a Tier 1 operation by any measure. In addition to Lihir, we see profitable gold and copper growth through the world-class Wafi-Golpu project.
“We remain committed to building strong, mutually beneficial and long lasting relationships with PNG’s government and local communities. As part of this commitment, Newmont plans to establish PNG as a standalone fifth region in our portfolio with an in-country senior leadership presence and pursue a secondary listing of Newmont depositary interests on the PNG’s National Stock Exchange (PNGX).”
Both miners will continue engaging with the PNG Government and regulators about other approvals and clearances for the takeover.
Western Australia is set to see a renewable energy boost with Horizon Power’s purchase of a vanadium redox flow battery.
Vanadium is a metal found in mineral deposits. Currently, there is only one vanadium mining lease granted in Queensland, located in the North West Minerals Province. The Saint Elmo vanadium project began construction in 2022.
Australia’s first commercial vanadium flow battery was completed in South Australia in June this year.
The WA vanadium flow battery is expected to arrive in Perth in 2024. Western Australia Energy Minister Bill Johnston said the delivery will help the state lead the way in clean energy technology.
“Vanadium redox flow batteries are specifically designed to deliver energy over a long period of time, which is crucial for achieving the high levels of decarbonisation we are after,” Johnston said.
“If the pilot is successful, there is potential to expand the use of long-duration, 100 per cent renewable energy across Horizon Power’s 2.3 million square-kilometre network.”
The 78-kilowatt battery will provide Horizon Power will key learnings around how renewable energy can be integrated into the grid system.
Horizon Power has signed an agreement with VSUN Energy, a subsidiary of Australian Vanadium Limited, for the purchase, installation, and commissioning of the vanadium battery.
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