Mount Gibson Iron Limited (Mount Gibson) advised today that it has commenced development of its Iron Hill iron ore mine in Western Australia’s Mid-West region following receipt of final statutory approvals.
Iron Hill is located 3km south of the Company’s recently depleted Extension Hill open pit and this close proximity enables the utilisation of Extension Hill’s substantial existing workshops, processing facilities, camp and transport infrastructure, as well as the Extension Hill workforce comprising approximately 160 employees and contractors.

The jobless rate in Western Australia increased from 6.5 per cent to 6.9 per cent last month, which is the highest level since 2002. The state Opposition leader blamed Premier Colin Barnett for the rise.

WPG Resources Ltd advised that the Tarcoola gold mine was officially opened yesterday at the South Australian minesite, located approximately 3km from Tarcoola.
On the 11th November WPG announced that a Decision to Mine had been taken and the project’s immediate development was progressed following the approval of the project’s Program for Environment Protection and Rehabilitation. Within 2 weeks of the Decision to Mine, work commenced on developing the Tarcoola pit.
The first ore from Tarcoola is anticipated to arrive at Challenger in the coming weeks.

Independence Group NL advised that the first nickel concentrate has been transported from the Nova Project to BHP Nickel West Pty Ltd in Kambalda. Peter Bradford, Managing Director and CEO of IGO said:
“The first shipment of concentrate is another important milestone for the Nova Project and this took place earlier than contemplated by the Feasibility Study and in line with the guidance we provided to the market in our ASX release of 26 October 2016.”

Saracen Managing Director, Raleigh Finlayson today said the A$42m exploration budget had already made substantial inroads towards achieving the goal of growing group production and mine life.
“ We see outstanding potential to grow our gold inventory in the coming quarters, laying the foundations for future production growth above the 300,000oz pa production rate we anticipate by the June quarter,” he said.

Flagship co-funding program encourages exploration investment
The EIS was established in 2009

Western Areas Ltd announced that it has negotiated and entered into an Offtake Contract with the Tsingshan Group, through its associated entity Golden Harbour International Pte Ltd, to import raw materials for the production of stainless steel. Tsingshan is China’s largest producer of stainless steel, particularly the high nickel content 300 stainless series. Tsingshan has advised that it is the largest consumer of nickel products in China and use approximately 25% of China’s total annual consumption of nickel.

Barrick Gold is reviewing the financial backing behind an approximately $US1.3 billion ($1.8 billion) bid for its stake in the Kalgoorlie mine by Minjar Gold, a unit of Shanghai-listed Shandong Tyan Home, two sources have told Reuters.
According to these sources, little-known Minjar has trumped offers by Australian, Chinese and Canadian companies for the asset and Toronto-based Barrick, the world's largest gold producer, is studying the offer for the 50-per cent stake to ensure Minjar has adequate resources and support to complete the transaction.

Monthly trend employment in Australia decreased in October 2016, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today.
In October 2016, trend employment decreased by 1,000 persons to 11,946,600 persons, the first decrease in the trend series since November 2013. This slight fall in trend employment reflected an increase in part-time employment of 8,400 persons being more than offset by a decrease in full-time employment of 9,500 persons.

Australian gold producers gave a big thumbs-up with key gold miners on the ASX finishing up over 10% for the day. Gold took off as Trumps shock likely win sent markets into turmoil around the world. Gold traded close to $US1340 as the market went into defence mode. It marked gold's biggest single-day gain since June 24 when it rose as much as 8 percent when Britain decided to leave the European Union. The economic uncertainly this brings has seen a flight to safe haven assets.