Vedanta Buys Anglo Zinc Assets

Vedanta Becomes World's Largest Zinc Producer

Vedanta Resources has bought Anglo American's zinc assets for $1.34 billion in a deal that will see it become the world's largest zinc producer.

After the deal has gone through, Vedanta will have 11 percent of the global zinc market, including the Skorpion mine in Namibia, Lisheen in Ireland and Black Mountain in South Africa.

"These high quality assets complement Vedanta's existing portfolio, creating the largest zinc and lead producer in the world," Chairman Anil Agarwal said.


The sale for Anglo is one step on a divestment programme that seeks trim its portfolio and focus on key commodities, such as copper, iron ore and platinum.

Connemara Mining Makes Significant Zinc Find

39 per cent Zinc-Lead Deposit At Limerick Project

Shares in Irish zinc miner, Connemara Mining, leapt 36 per cent in London yesterday as the company released news of a "very significant result" in its County Limerick zinc project.

The AIM-listed explorer said it has found a 39pc combined zinc-lead deposit from the results of Hole 45 at Stonepark. Chairman John Teeling said the zinc was high grade, at a shallow depth and the discovery area extended over 500 metres.

"But, most importantly, this is a 'sweet spot', which lifts the overall metal content in the deposit to grades which allow for economic mining," Mr Teeling added.

The discovery was made during the company's drilling programme. Hole 45 hit 7.45 metres of 19.2pc zinc and 8.5pc lead -- the best intersection to date on the project -- and includes 4.25 metres of almost 39pc combined zinc-lead.

The Stonepark North programme is operated by Connemara along with Canadian minergiant Teck Resources which holds a 75 per cent stake in the project.

Xstrata Looking At Irish Zinc Project

The chief executive of global miner, Xstrata, has said that his company is interested in buying some of Anglo American’s zinc assets, which were put up for sale last year with a reported price tag of $US800 million.

"We are interested in Anglo's zinc business, and are looking at probably all assets," Santiago Zaldumbide said. "We're particularly interested in Anglo's Lisheen mine [in Ireland], which is close to one of our interests." Xstrata has a majority stake in the Pallas mine.

Xstrata, Minco To Spend $10million In Irish Zinc JV

Xstrata has joined forces with Irish company Minco to spend €7 million this year on a zinc exploration project in Ireland.
Minco has announced that it has agreed to spend €7 million to extend the existing exploration programme at the companies’ zinc and lead project at Tobermalug, Pallas Green, Co Limerick. The project has already been established as holding over 11 million tonnes of zinc and lead will be aimed at increasing proved reserves in the deposit to 15 million tonnes. The partners spent over €2 million on the project last year in what is one of the biggest onshore exploration programmes undertaken in Ireland in the last 50 years.

“This planned 2010 programme will include about 70,000 tonnes of diamond drilling in about 150 drill holes allocated within and adjacent to the Tobermalug zinc-lead deposit, and on further exploration drilling in the general Caherconlish area within a 3.5km radius of Tobermalug,” the company said in a statement.

The drilling programme is aimed at increasing the tonnage and grade of the existing deposit, to explore for lateral extensions of the deposit and to explore additional ore deposits in the Caherconlish area. In the latter regard zinc and lead deposits have already been identified at nearby Caherconlish South and Srahane west and Minco says that the three deposits could potentially contain more and higher grades of zinc and lead.

Xstrata estimates that only around 30 per cent of the potential resource has been explored.

Minco holds 23.6 per cent of the licence while Xstrata owns 76.4 per cent. The entire deposit covers an 11sq km area spanning northeast Limerick and southwest Tipperary.

Connemara Mining Issues Drilling Update

Irish zinc explorer Connemara Mining's drilling in Stonepark in Limerick has found that a zinc deposit located in 2007 stretches over a 2km zone.

“These are very positive results from Stonepark. The Hole 32 intersection has almost everything one would want – high grade, the right type of mineralisation, shallow depth and is located a good distance from the earlier discoveries," said chairman John Teeling.

"The Hole 30 intersection 400 metres away from any previous drilling and 2km away from Hole 32, offers the distinct possibility of a much larger deposit. It is early days but Stonepark is looking good. We will be very active in 2010 and plan to drill 20-30 holes.”

The AIM-listed company said this morning €2 million would be invested by Connemara Mining and operators Teck Resources in drilling a further 30 holes at Stonepark this year, with Connemara Mining contributing €600,000 towards the programme.

Source: Irish Times

Anglo-American Plans Irish Zinc Stake Sale

Mining giant Anglo American plans to sell its stake in Lisheen Mine in Tipperary as part of a bigger plan to sell all its global zinc operations to raise €4bn, London-based 'Metal Bulletin' magazine has reported.

Anglo American is expanding its divestment programme by putting the zinc business on the block as part of a wider restructuring. Anglo American is being pressured by investors after an abortive merger bid from rival Xstrata.

"The zinc business may be the first to go because zinc prices have recovered strongly and they're high quality assets. That's the expectation in the market," Reuters reported, quoting an industry source as saying.

The price of zinc has nearly doubled this year, touching a 17-month high on Monday, and is on course for a 17.7pc rise this month as it benefits from producer cutbacks and Chinese buying.


Zinc is one of Ireland's few valuable minerals and production is centred on three zinc-lead mines -- Lisheen, Galmoy in Kilkenny, and Tara in Meath which is the largest lead-zinc field in Europe. The owners of the Galmoy mine will close in 2011, while Tara mines has been threatened with closure several times.

Anglo's zinc operations consist of Lisheen, Skorpion in Namibia and the 74pc-owned Black Mountain mine and Gamsberg project in South Africa.

Source: Irish Independent

Conroy Diamonds and Gold In Possible Irish Zinc Find

Mining company Conroy Diamonds and Gold said today that results from infill and regional soil sampling at its gold targets in counties Monaghan and Armagh in Ireland, showed values ranging up to 4,047 parts per million (ppm) of zinc.

The findings raise the possiblity of a large zinc discovery at the sites.

In a statement Conroy said infill sampling has resulted in three separate zinc-in-soil anomalies merging into a single, extensive anomaly covering an area of more than 8km2. The anomalies are located just a few kilometres away from the firm's one million ounce gold discovery at Clontibret in Co Monaghan and to the south of the large gold anomaly recently discovered at Clay Lake in Co Armagh.

A total of 166 samples (137 infill; 29 regional) were collected and analysed, returning an average value of 466ppm zinc. Individually, 55 samples assayed over 500ppm, including eight of more than 1,000ppm. Typical background zinc-in-soil values in the area are less than 200ppm.

All of the Company’s prospecting licences in Ireland lie within the Longford-Down Massif, a major geological structure. Apart from Clontibret, it also features a number of near-surface lead and zinc ore bodies which supported historic production in the nineteenth century. These include the Annaglogh lead-zinc-copper mine which was to the west of these new zinc anomalies.

Conroy said the latest results provide further evidence of the presence of "a significant metalliferous system that appears to be a zoned."

“Whilst we remain focused on delineation and development of the Clontibret gold target, the latest sampling results increase the possibility that we have also made a significant zinc discovery nearby. The merging of three previously discovered zinc anomalies into a very large single target, sample values substantially higher than typical background and historic base metal mining in the region, all indicate that the area has significant upside potential," said the firm's chairman, Prof Richard Conroy.

Source: Irish Times

Connemara Strikes High Grade Zinc Deposit

Irish zinc explorer Connemara Mining has struck a high grade zinc-lead deposit with the first drill hole of its 2009 drilling programme in Limerick, the company said today.

The drill hole, which is located 1.5km northwest of an earlier discovery at Stonepark, could represent a new and potentially higher grade mineralisation zone.

“This is a very positive result," company chairman John Teeling said.

"The discovery has almost everything one would want – high grade, the right type of mineralisation, shallow depth and is located a good distance from the earlier discovery."

The drilling programme is being operated by Teck Ireland Ltd., a subsidiary of Teck Resources Limited, Canada’s largest diversified mining company.

Source: Irish Examiner

Zinc Samples Found In Kerry

Rock samples containing over 51 per cent zinc, found near Castlemaine, have fuelled speculation that hundreds of jobs may be created.

On Thursday, exploratory zinc mining company Connemara Mining PLC announced the find on land close to the historic silver and lead mine at Annagh.

Company chairman John Teeling said the find could mirror similar zinc finds at Tara, Co. Meath, and Lisheen, Co. Tipperary, which are ranked the fifth and 12th largest zinc mines in the world.

"We have no idea how much is in Castlemaine but we have found high grade," said Mr Teeling , adding: "There's more high grade in there, this didn't happen by itself. This is very significant from a geological perspective."

A geophysics process will now be started to discover the extent of the underground zinc pods and a further two years of exploration will then be required. Depending on the significance of the find, it would be a full seven years before a fully functioning mine could be developed.

"The rule is that the best place to find a mine is where there has already been one," the chairman stated, adding that the company had an experienced base metal geologist who recognised the full potential of the adjoining former mine.

SourcE: The Kerryman

Oromonde Mining Upbeat On Outlook For Tungsten

Irish-based mineral exploration company Ormonde Mining has reported pre-tax losses of €2.5m for the year to December 2008 compared to losses of €580,00 the previous year.

The company said this was due mainly to a write-down of early exploration work on the Salamon and Trives projects.

Ormonde said that an increase in the total resource led it to double its proposed production rate to 400,000 tonnes a year.

It said its Barruecopardo Tungsten project at Salamanca in Spain is positioning itself to become a major, low-capital, long-life tungsten operation at a time when structural changes and integration within the industry continue in anticipation of future tungsten shortages.

Tungsten has a hardness close to diamonds. It is mainly used in the manufacture of cutting steels and in tungsten alloys, electronics, and chemical products

Chairman Mike Donoghue said that the company - in line with many firms - has been curtailing discretionary development and administrative expenditures, and adopting a very conservative approach to budgeting.

He said that credit crisis and overall fall in demand has impacted adversely in metal prices and stock market valuations.

'However, it would appear that we may have reached the trough of the downturn and a sustainable recovery of the stock market is predicted in anticipation of a broader, if low, economic recovery in 2010/2011,' he stated.

He said that within the mining industry, there is general acceptance that the metal commodity shortages have not been rectified during the last five years and stronger metal prices are deemed inevitable when the world economy recovers.

Source: RTE

Connemara Reports Irish Zinc Find

Connemara Mining, the Irish zinc explorer which is listed on London's AIM market, says it has discovered zinc at its Castlemaine licence block in Co Kerry.

An exploration programme focusing on a region 1km north of Castlemaine village has produced samples containing 51.43% zinc.


Connemara chairman John Teeling said that while 'it is very early days, the work is very encouraging.'

Source: RTE

Minco Finds High Grade Lead, Zinc At Irish Project

Minco Plc, a precious- and base-metals exploration and development company, said on Monday it found additional high grade zinc and lead mineralisation on its Pallas Green project in Ireland.

"Hole MN-636-121 on the northwest extension at Tobermalug has returned one of the highest zinc and lead assay values received to date on the Pallas Green project," the company said in a statement.

A second drill would be repositioned to further explore the Northwest Extension area, where the company plans to complete four additional holes by the end of June 2009, Minco said.

The results confirmed the potential of the Northwest Extension area, which now extended over a 1,000 metre length and remained open ended, Chief Executive Terence McKillen said in a statement.

The Pallas Green project, a joint venture with Xstrata Zinc, has four diamond drills with 5,380 metres drilled from January 1 to April 30, Minco said.

Source: Reuters

Closure Threat Lifted At Irish Zinc Mine

The immediate threat of up to 700 job losses at Tara Mines at Navan, Ireland, has been lifted with the acceptance by all sides of a cost-cutting package aimed at preventing the closure of the huge complex, Europe's biggest zinc mine.

However, mine owner Boliden has indicated the continuing operation of the mine depends on the price of zinc and lead and the euro/dollar exchange rate.

New work practices will come into effect on Monday morning next. The Swedish owners have lifted a protective notice served on workers earlier this month.

Three hundred and fifty member's of the trade union, SIPTU, voted by a 60/40 margin last week to accept new terms providing for continuous, four-cycle shift working. The Unite and TEEU unions also voted to accept the deal over the weekend.

Tara’s human resources manager, John Kelly, said this week there was a great air of relief in the mines. “Hopefully, the price of zinc and lead and the exchange rate will hold so we can stay open,” he said.

“At least now we have done what we can do. The negotiations were tough and a lot of hard work went into it on all sides,” he said. “We are delighted with the outcome.”

Management and employees will be meeting this week to discuss the new arrangements.

SIPTU’s Meath branch organiser John Regan said following his union’s ballot: “The tightness of the vote, especially on pay, shows that a lot still needs to be done by the company on how it implements the new terms.”

The deal, which will come into effect on Monday 2nd February, was put forward by facilitator Janet Hughes who had warned that if either side rejected the proposals, there would be an immediate loss of employment at Tara.

Under the new plan, the mine will move from a 5½-day to a continuous seven-day operation on a four-shift cycle, and will operate every day of the year, except 25th and 26th December, with payment for public holidays at the same rate as general rates of pay.

The shift premium paid to workers for operating the new system will be increased from 26 per cent to 29 per cent.

There will be no wage increases this year but all workers at Tara who have to change shift patterns will receive a bonus of €1,400 and there are proposals for workers to receive further bonuses in September 2009, April 2010 and January 2011, if mine production targets have been met.

The owner of the mine says it will invest €56 million in the operation this year, and it plans to recruit 10 additional mine labourers and three additional storemen. A total of eight voluntary redundancy packages will be made available at the end of 2009 and a further eight at the end of 2010 under the terms of the agreement reached.

Source: Meath Chronicle, Ireland