So sorry BT but you cant just bury that article under that...

So sorry BT but you cant just bury that article under that heading.

Would love some sort of confirmation from FH, but just get answering machines.

Re post of BT's article.


Three mines to restart

NIGEL ADLAM

September 11th, 2009

THREE Northern Territory mining ventures that collapsed because of the global financial crisis are to restart, Chief Minister Paul Henderson said yesterday.

He listed the projects in his speech to open a major oil and gas conference in Darwin yesterday. They are:

THE mineral sands mine on the Tiwi Islands. Stirling Resources has bought the assets of collapsed miner Matilda Minerals for $4.8 million and says it plans an open-cut operation soon.

The mine used to produce 59,000 tonnes of concentrate a year.

THE Pine Creek gold mine.

Collapsed gold miner GBS has been sold to Canadian miner Forbes & Manhattan, which plans to reopen at least some of the five pits.

Forbes & Manhattan has formed a new company, Crocodile Gold, to run the mining operation.

Chief operating officer Grant Davey yesterday said mining should restart within six to eight week.

THE copper mine at Batchelor.

Compass Resources went into administration in January after running out of money to operate the Brown's project, 110km south of Darwin.

The company was given a $72 million cash injection by Chinese company HNC Resources.

Mr Henderson told SEAAOC at the Convention Centre that there were many other big mining projects in the pipeline, including a phosphate project on the Barkly Tablelands that could support several hundred jobs.

Meanwhile, Resources Minister Kon Vatskalis told the Mining the Territory conference - which is running in tandem with SEAAOC - that exploration spending in the Territory last year was more than $146 million.

He said the NT Government had committed $14.4 million over four years to the Bringing Forward Discovery program, which offers incentives to companies to search for minerals in underexplored parts of the Northern Territory.