Anglo American PLC’s (LON:AAL) diamond arm De Beers Group sold US$540mln worth of rough diamonds in its tenth and final sales cycle of 2018.
The amount sold in the cycle ended December 17 represents a 22% increase on the US$442mln sold in the ninth cycle of this year and an 18% rise on the US$455mln sold the same period a year ago.
The mining titan also restarted operations at its Minas-Rio iron ore operation in Brazil after the discovery of two leaks in a slurry pipeline earlier in the year led to a shutdown.
The FTSE 100-listed miner said it expected the operation to ramp up to 1.2mln tonnes per month on a wet basis and to produce approximately 16mln-19mln tonnes of iron ore in 2019.
Europa Metals Ltd’s (LON:EUZ) phase two drilling at its Toral lead, zinc and silver project in Spain has shown “promising results”.
Three infill diamond drill holes all intersected lead, zinc and silver mineralisation at a depth of 300m of the topographic surface.
The results confirmed block model grade and thickness.
Gold miner Scotgold Resources Ltd (LON:SGZ) has started work on the Cononish mine in the Trossachs National Park in Scotland following completion of all permitting conditions.
First gold production is planned for the end of 2019.
Richard Gray, chief executive, said: "We are delighted to have reached this point and are looking forward to a very exciting 2019, bringing the Cononish Project into production."
Scotgold expects to process around 3,000 tonnes of ore per month in the first phase, which will double in phase two.
Randgold Resources Ltd (LON:RRS) will delist from the London Stock Exchange and NASDAQ at the end of the year after its planned merger with Canada’s Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:ABX) received court approval.
Randgold said the Royal Court of Jersey sanctioned a scheme of arrangement, which will give effect to the merger.
Mark Bristow, chief executive of Randgold and designated president and chief executive of Barrick, said the court's approval was the last major milestone towards completing the deal.
BlueJay Mining PLC (LON:JAY) has upgraded the resource for its Dundas Ilmenite project in Greenland.
The AIM-listed firm said the updated JORC compliant mineral resource for the project was now 101mln tonnes at 7.1% ilmenite (in-situ), with higher grade portions at various cut off grades of 31.2mln tonnes at 10.7% ilmenite using a 3.5% cut off and 16mln tonnes at 12.9% ilmenite using a 4.5% cut off.
Arc Minerals Limited (LON:ARCM) is making good progress with metallurgical test work on oxide ore from the Kalaba copper and cobalt prospect in Zambia.
Commissioning of a commercial scale demonstration plant starts this month with batch processing to commence early in the New Year.