Where else can you start a look back at the week’s mining stories than with Wolf Minerals (LON:WLFE).
The boss of Britain’s first new metal mine in more than 40 years says he hopes the project will kick-start a ‘wider renaissance’ of mining in the UK.
Drakelands, a £140mln tungsten mine on the fringes of Dartmoor, Devon, was officially opened this week by Wolf and its chief, Russell Clark.
In other tungsten news, Premier African Minerals (LON:PREM) has achieved steady state production at its RHA mine in Zimbabwe.
George Roach, chief executive, said throughput was 25% higher than initial design expectations, with 20 tonnes per hour being processed.
To gold – where Amara Mining (LON:AMA) said its 2015 drill programme at the Yaoure project has demonstrated its potential to become a large, low cost gold mine.
"Our drilling and optimisation work indicates that we can significantly reduce the upfront capital cost, whilst improving head grade, as we move Yaoure forwards to becoming a large, low cost gold mine,” said chief executive John McGloin.
Meanwhile, Orosur Mining (LON:OMI,), the operator of the only producing gold mine in Uruguay, has delivered in line with production and cost guidance in its first quarter, it said.
The firm produced 12,471 ounces of the yellow metal in the three months to August 31 compared with 13,684 ounces in the same period last year.
Elsewhere, Savannah Resources (LON:SAV) has unearthed more high grade gold mineralisation at the Salahi 1 prospect, within Block 4, Oman.
The company says field work, following up previous sampling and mapping, has increased the gold potential of Block 4. Grab samples contained grades of up to 13.9 grams per tonne. Trenching included 12 metres of mineralisation at 11.87 grams per tonne.
Hummingbird Resources (LON:HUM) said a new report into the construction of a water-generated power plant in south-east Liberia was encouraging for its Dugbe gold development.
A preliminary report from Knight Piesold Consulting looked at four run-of-river hydropower options ranging from 15Mw to 30Mw with varying intakes at a site 10km from Dugbe.
Galantas Gold (LON:GAL) discovered high grade gold on the boundary of the Omagh Gold Mine, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.
It had previously discovered boulders near the Sharkey vein with high concentrations of the precious metal.
Away from gold, Gem Diamonds (LON:GEMD) sold the second ‘exceptional’ white diamond recovered from the Letšeng project this year.
The 357 carat diamond was sold for US$19.3mln, at US$54,000 per carat, a new record for dollars to carat ratio from the project, and follows the sale of a 314 carat white diamond earlier this year.
Sticking with diamonds, Paragon Diamonds’ (LON:PRG) new mine acquisition in Lesotho may be an even bigger gem than expected according to two new technical reports.
The studies, carried out by consultant MSA and based on 2013 work by owner Lucara Diamonds (TSX:LUC), pointed to a significant increase in the size of the diamonds present, which will boost potential revenues and its value over time.
In other news, Asiamet Resources (LON:ARS) said it has now identified two near-surface, high-grade areas within its BKM copper deposit in Indonesia that it expects will have a “highly positive impact” on the economics of the project.
The latest drill results have unearthed 35 metres of mineralisation at 1.73% copper from 20 metres depth. Within that was an 11-metre section at 3.49% copper and a 2 metre intercept at 10.15% copper.
Finally, Noricum Gold (LON:NMG) gave an upbeat assessment of prospects in its half year results, saying it was confident of future newsflow coming from the recent acquisition of a stake in the Bolnisi copper-gold Project in Georgia.