Mining News

"La Argentina se posiciona como el cuarto productor mundial de litio", published in "El Inversor Energético & Minero - Newsletter Diario" (City of Buenos Aires) on 10/05/2010.
Local obtaining of this resource grew 6.67% (almost 0.5 percentage points over the global average). Chile, Australia, China and this country currently have the largest productive capacity in the field, but it is estimated that Bolivia might lead the business in the short or medium term. According to a report by the United States Geological Survey, on the past year national lithium production grew 6.67%, that is, it went from 3,000 to 3,200 metric tons (MT). In this way, Argentina kept itself at fourth position among the world's largest producers, only below Chile (which extracted 12,000 MT, i.e. 900 more than in 2007), Australia (which decreased from 6,910 to 6,900 MT) and China (which grew from 3,010 to 3,500 MT).

"La Rioja cobrará el 22% de las utilidades mineras a la producción de uranio", published in "El Esquiú" (Province of La Rioja) on 10/07/2010.
The governor of the Province of La Rioja Luis Beder Herrera announced that he is close to signing an agreement with a company to grant a uranium concession in the area of Los Colorados, and said that the province will have a 22% share in the utilities from the exploitation. Los Colorados is an area located few kilometers from the locality of Patquía, on route 74 to the city of Chilecito. Few kilometers away, in the locality of Amaná, there was already uranium exploitation in the 70's. On the other hand, it is well known that the national-provincial state-owned company Dioxitek has already bought lands north of the capital city of the Province of La Rioja, on national route 38.

"Encuentran más oro en la Argentina", published in "La Nación" (City of Buenos Aires) on 10/07/2010.
Latin American precious metals mining company Hochschild Mining said it has made a new discovery of high-grade gold and silver in its San José project in Argentina, which, as the company expects, will extend the resource's life. The company found five kilometers of high-grade gold and silver veins, corresponding to nine new veins and to the extension of two known veins, as a result of an intensive drilling program during the nine first months of 2010. "The results, which are expected to significantly extend the mine's life, show the significant geological potential of the district", said CEO Ignacio Bustamante. Hochschild is going through the resources estimates of the San Jose project and expects to announce updated figures before the end of the month. Today's announcement follows other recent positive news about the company's projects at times when it is focused in the development of new projects.

"Salen a buscar negocios e inversiones con China", published in "Cuyo Minero" (Province of San Juan) on 10/07/2010.
With the object of promoting investment and trade opportunities with China, the National Mining Secretariat encourages joint participation of the Argentine mining sector in China Mining 2010, which will take place from November 16 to November 18, 2010 in the city of Tianjin, China. There, the Third Seminar on Mining Investment Opportunities in Argentina will also be presented, on November 17, with the attendance of mining operators, investment analysts, business entities and companies from China and other countries of the region.

"Santa Cruz: IRL actualizó el estudio de factibilidad del proyecto Don Nicolás", published in "El Inversor Energético & Minero - Newsletter Diario" (City of Buenos Aires) on 10/08/2010.
Minera IRL, owner of the Don Nicolas project -located near Tres Cerros in the Province of Santa Cruz- announced in a press release the update of the feasibility study for that prospectus. As one of the main features of the document, the company expects to complete the feasibility studies by mid-2011 and to begin production in 2012. Also, it states that the drilling program has been completed on Solfuro and Martinetas veins, obtaining results that include 5.9 meters with 18.17 grams of gold per ton (t), 12.85 meters with 9.98 grams of gold per ton, and 6.8 meters with 15.7 grams of gold. The feasibility study for the Don Nicolas project began early this year, based on the development of the Solfuro and Martinetas veins. Both deposits hold most of the gold resources, which consist of 202,000 indicated ounces of gold and 158,000 inferred ounces of gold. The exploration program was completed with a total of 96 diamond-core drillings that sum up to 13,056 meters in Solfuro vein, defined on a strike of about 700 meters and at a depth of more than 240 meters. As regards Martinetas vein, the company explained that the final results on the assays have not been received yet.

"Chubut aprobó nueve proyectos para buscar uranio", published in "El Inversor Energético & Minero - Newsletter Diario" (City of Buenos Aires) on 10/12/2010.
The government of the Province of Chubut approved nine mining projects in the past two months. According to the official gazette, four companies have permits to carry out exploration activities on the central plateau. Four enterprises are authorized to search for nuclear minerals and five are authorized to search for first and second-class minerals. The company that was most favored by the permits was Energía Minera, specializing in uranium exploration. It is followed by Canadian company Madero Minera SA, English Uramerica, specializing in the same field; and the Spanish Tolsa. The surfaces go from 3,000 hectares to 10,000. The undertakings are spread along the departments of Mártires, Paso de Indio and Escalante. To begin the works, they only have to submit the environmental impact reports.

"Dique de cola: San Juan hará punta con legislación", published in "Diario de Cuyo" (Province of San Juan) on 10/25/2010.
The Mining Secretariat of the province is working on a draft bill to regulate the construction, management and closing of the tailings dams, the waste material from the metal extraction process. This was stated by sources from the mining entity and the Committee on Mining of the House of Representatives, whose president Pedro Horacio Espejo, from Jachal [Province of San Juan], assured that the bill may soon be treated in the house. The details of the draft bill have been closely guarded, but it is known that it will be about seismic-resistant construction, maintenance and care after the closing of the mine. The province wants to pioneer legislation on this matter -there are no laws on tailings dams even in mining countries such as Chile and Peru- to anticipate possible charges from the national opposition, as happened with glaciers. "There are rumors about national anti-mining groups planning to press forward on this matter, even asking for prohibitions", said national Representative Daniel Tomas (head of the Committee on Mining of the lower house), to explain the province's idea of designing a regulation that provides the general rules for this type of works. In the case of the law on glaciers protection, San Juan and other mining provinces anticipated the sanction of a law adverse to this industry, and passed their own rules and regulations appealing for their constitutional rights to autonomy and federalism.

"Suspenden la aplicación de la ley de glaciares en San Juan", published in "Diario de Cuyo" (Province of San Juan) on 11/02/2010.
Federal Judge Miguel Galvez decided this morning to suspend the application of 6 sections of the law on glacier protection that the Congress approved last month. In a quick procedure -the filing was made yesterday by businessmen and trade-unionists- the judge granted a precautionary measure, until the subject matter is solved. Jaime Berge, president of the Mining Chamber of the Province of San Juan estimated that the issue is now going to the Supreme Court of Justice. The local delegation of the "Confederación General del Trabajo" (CGT) [General Confederation of Labor] and several business chambers filed yesterday with the Lower Court on Federal Matters No. 1 of the Province of San Juan a precautionary measure and challenged the constitutionality of the new law on the protection of glaciers that was enacted past Thursday. Berge, seconds after being notified of the decision, said that "the suspension of the application of the law within the territory of the Province of San Juan, as was requested, has been decided". Later, Federal Judge Miguel Galvez said to "Radio Antena 1" that he suspended sections 2, 6, 5, 6, 7 and 15 of the law and confirmed that his decision is applicable only within the Province of San Juan. Speaking of the future of the law, Jaime Berge ventured that it will probably end up in the Supreme Court of Justice. Likewise, the attorney for AOMA ("Asociación Obrera Minera Argentina" - the mineworkers trade union), Javier Campora, considered the ruling is "a recognition of provincial autonomy". "I want to highlight the union between workers and businessmen, which have left their differences aside and worked together for San Juan", he declared. When asked about Governor Gioja's participation in the design of the defense strategy, the union attorney answered: "Total. He asked for this, he asked us not to leave him alone, because he understands that this is not an issue for the mining industry but for everyone in San Juan".