NEWS RELEASE.

March 30, 2012: Vancouver, B.C. – Oracle Mining Corp. (Stock Profile – TSX:OMN & OTCQX:OMCCF) announced that Mr. Paul Eagland has been appointed Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors. Mr. Eagland most recently was the interim Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation until March 19.

“It is an honour to accept this senior role on our Board of Directors,” said Mr. Eagland. “I have deep respect for our leadership team and the strong leadership by Doug Nicholson as our CEO ensures that we will continue to execute on our operations and growth strategies.”

To read more about Mr. Eagland’s appointment and his past experience – CLICK HERE.

CompanyFeed™

Graphite has long been used in the aviation, automotive, sports, steel and plastic industries, as well as in the manufacture of bearings and lubricants. Graphite is an excellent conductor of heat and electricity, is corrosion and heat resistant and is also strong and light.

Currently, the automotive and steel industries are the largest consumers of graphite with demand across both industries rising at five percent per annum. The steel industry uses graphite as liners for ladles and crucibles, in the bricks which line blast furnaces and to increase the carbon content of steel. Graphite has already replaced asbestos in automotive brake linings and pads and is used for gaskets and clutch materials. Sparks plugs are also made incorporating graphite.

New, high-tech applications – Flexible graphite sheets, graphene, lithium-ion and vanadium batteries, fuel cells, semi conductors, nuclear, wind and solar power – require more and more graphite production. Graphene seems to be a wonder material and a lot of time, effort and money is being spent researching it – 3000 research reports were written just in 2010.

The natural graphite market is 1-1.2 million tons per year and consists of several different forms of graphite – flake, amorphous and lump. Historical applications primarily use amorphous and lump graphite, however most newly emerging technologies and applications require large flake graphite. Of the approximately 1.2 million tons of graphite that are processed each year just 40% is flake.

China, India and Canada are responsible for most graphite production and processing with China producing the lion’s share at 70–80%. China’s production is 70% amorphous and lower value small flake graphite.

Strike Graphite has recently acquired three graphite projects within mining friendly, politically stable jurisdictions; Deep Bay East, Saskatchewan, Simon Lake, Saskatchewan and the Wagon Graphite Project in Quebec. All three projects possess geologic traits for the discovery of significant, large flake graphite deposits.

Rick: Jody tell us about yourself and Dahrouge Geological Consulting.

Jody: I graduated from the University of Alberta’s geology program in 1988 and for the next three years I worked in the resource industry. The industry is pretty cyclical, being completely tied to the resource market and at that time the market hadn’t yet experienced the explosive growth in commodity demand as a function of Chinese growth.

Consequently a lot of geologists would work for a few years, get laid off, work for a few years and so on. I was employed by ATCO Power, a major coal and electricity producer in Alberta. While working full time for ATCO I decided to go back to University and graduated in 1993 with a degree in computing science.

Upon graduation, instead of going to work in the high-tech industry, I decided to claim stake for industrial minerals in British Columbia. I went to work for a company called Halferdahl and Associates, a consulting company based out of Edmonton that was run by Laurie Halferdahl. Laurie passed away in 1999 after operating his business since 1971.

I purchased the Halferdahl assets from his estate in 1999 and have since run Dahrouge Geological Consulting, we’re primarily focused on industrial minerals and rare metals. We work primarily in Canada and the United States, though we’ve worked around the world, East Africa, China, Australia and South America. We have worldwide experience but we’ve been lucky enough to stay active primarily across North America.

I was also President of Fission Energy for a short time.

Rick: What’s your take on the graphite market?

Jody: Graphite is quite unique because of its unique combination of properties. Graphite in terms of being an electrode has one of the highest conductivities and as you’re aware the amount of graphite in a lithium-ion battery is anywhere from 10 to 20 times the amount of lithium.

The demand just from that one use could potentially double the market over the next ten years to over two million tonnes annually. That type of demand growth would require 25 new mines at 40,000 tonnes per year.

The United States Geological Society (USGS) says the need for graphite in the type of fuel cells being developed could consume as much graphite as all other uses combined.

All of these markets demand the highest quality large-flake graphite, that’s where the most growth would be.

Graphite in itself is not necessarily rare, it’s carbon. It’s an extremely common mineral occuring in a wide variety of geologic terrains. However what is rare is the greater than 177 microns or 0.2 mm large-flake graphite.

Large-flake usually occurs only in very specific geologic environments such as high-grade metamorphic terrains. Metamorphic rocks are those which have changed from their original formation by increasing pressure or temperature, the change gives rise to large-flake graphite under specific conditions.

In order to capture the highest value, you have to beneficiate your graphite deposit and produce this coarse-grained graphite and make sure it’s relatively free of impurities. You need an excess of 94% to 97% carbon content to make the battery-grade graphite.

Rick: Okay, what else is graphite used for?

Jody: One growing demand, or perceived growth in the market, is going to be graphene, which is an exceptionally strong man-made mineral with high conductivity, so there’s all sorts of technological advances that can fuel this growth even further.

Rick: When I look at the recent report by the United States Geological Survey on graphite, there’s no mine production of graphite in the United States. The US relies 100 percent on imports and has for years.

Jody: Yes, and there’s only two mines in production in Canada, one’s in British Columbia and is a small producer, the other is in Quebec. But there are in excess of 40 graphite producers in China. A vast majority of the Chinese mines are producing amorphous graphite, which is generally less than 37 microns, and commands much lower prices than large flake graphite.

China controls about 73% of the market, India is next with 10% to 15%, North Korea is a big producer, less than India, but bigger than Canada in terms of its graphite production, but China consumes most of North Korea’s production.

This is all in terms of a strategic commodity, so once again North American seems to be left out in the cold and beholden to production from China and other Asian countries.

Rick: In 2011, China, Canada, and Brazil were in descending order of tonnage, the major suppliers of crystalline-flake and flake-dust graphite, and in 2011, China produced the majority of the world’s graphite. There’s talk about China cutting back on their graphite production, but this is not, I want to make it very clear that this is not the rare earth space.

The mineralogy and the metallurgy of many rare earth deposits are not well known or understood here in the West, whereas with graphite, we’re perhaps the leaders in mineralogy and metallurgy, we understand it.

Jody: Certainly the experience with rare earth mineralogy is quite important. There’s only been four minerals that are known to have produced rare earth’s; monazite, bastnasite, xenotime and loparite. So the process ability of those minerals is well known, when people started exploring for rare earth deposits, they found rare earths formed numerous minerals that have never been commercially produced.  Hence the large learning curves towards the unknown metallurgy.

There are 17 different rare earths and they are always found together in the host mineral. There are tens if not hundreds of rare earth minerals, some of which are very complicated and not known to be amenable to processing using standard techniques. So, people were finding rare earth deposits, but what was more important were recoveries and processability of the minerals once you recovered them.

Rick: Why is China going to become quickly irrelevant to this market?

Jody: Graphite is a different story. Graphite is a mineral on its own, it’s one mineral. It may have some built-in impurities or may occur with other minerals, such as mica, which may be somewhat difficult to separate from the graphite. However graphite has a relatively low specific gravity allowing a concentrate to be produced by conventional floatation techniques. If the 94% to 97% carbon cutoff for their product was not then attained, they could apply an acid bath to their product to further remove deleterious constituents to upgrade it. It’s not complicated mineral processing or metallurgy. It’s pretty straight forward, overall.

Rick: I was reading about one company using air in the floatation, they got 85% recovery. When they used a pine oil, they got +95%, and then when they went to an acid, they achieved 99.99% purity. It wasn’t a complicated procedure.  It’s not proprietary methods, there’s nothing secretive about it is there?

Jody: No, nothing secretive about it. It’s pretty simple and pretty straight forward. It’s a recovery technology that’s been around for in excess of 100 years. A company that finds a large deposit of coarse-grain flake graphite, with little in the way of impurities, can put a deposit into production a lot faster than say a company that finds a metallurgically complex rare metal deposit, which would have to have a very unique metallurgical process and a mineral upgrading process designed specifically for that deposit.

Rick: I was reading a news release from Northern Graphite saying they just raised $10 million. However, what was interesting was they said that the $10 million is for all the normal stuff, but also they are going to do a prefeasibility and metallurgical studies. I was shocked at just how far $10 million will carry a graphite company through their studies and permitting activities to actually get to the point where you’re going to build a mine. It was mindboggling how far relatively little money could go in this space.

Jody: Exactly, that’s a very good point because the geology of these deposits are typically pretty straight forward. So in terms of getting from the discovery, say an outcrop with graphite all the way to the resource stage, you could, depending on the geology, advance that in terms of months as opposed to years.

Rick: Most people think this is a race to get to be first to production, but that’s not the reality is it?

Jody: The first one to production might garner the most attention, but go back to our comments earlier on regarding the explosive growth of the sector, there’s going to be many mines required to fill the void, not just one or two.

Rick: I’ve had a lot of people asking me about what the industry means by ‘large-flake’ and why one flake is more valuable than the other. Could you explain to our readers exactly what is meant by flake size.

Jody: Well, large-flake graphite is generally referred to as 80 mesh. Mesh size is a technique of measuring openings in a screen. Different mesh sizes correspond to measurement sizes of the screen openings. Millimeters, or microns would the best way to characterize a mesh size.

80 mesh corresponds to greater than 177 microns in size, 0.177 mm. So, that is what the large-flake graphite is classified as, greater than 177 microns, and it demands the highest price.  You can always crush something that is coarse grained and make it smaller, but it is far more expensive to upgrade something that is fine grained into something coarse grained.

The reason the large flake demands the greatest price is because it has the greatest electrical conductivity – it makes the best batteries. Large-flake graphite costs anywhere from $2,500 to $3,500 per tonne.

Rick: Okay, could you explain the different sizes they talk about with respect to the grade and the money they get, the 40 mesh etc., get into that?

Jody: Ok, large flake refers to grains that will not pass 80 mesh and is greater than 177 microns, which is 0.177 mm and up. I prefer to use the micron size, which is in millimeters (mm) as opposed to mesh size because it’s a lot easier for people to understand.

Medium-flake graphite is in the 149-177 micron range. Fine flake is less 149 microns, which is 0.149 mm. Amorphous graphite is generally less than 37 microns and the price is generally under $1000 a tonne.

From the fine flake and above, you start to get a dramatic jump in prices.  Currently, fine flake ranges from $2,000 to $2,500.  Medium flake is actually priced very close, and the large flake can be anywhere from $2,500 to $3,500 or above even.

Rick: How did you get involved in Strike Graphite Corp. TSX.V – SRK?

Jody: I’ve been conducting exploration for various commodities in Saskatchewan since the beginning of my career, and Dahrouge Geological Consulting has been doing it for over 30 years. Saskatchewan is often ranked as one of the best jurisdictions worldwide to do business, I’m sure you’ve seen the Fraser Institute rankings.

We’ve had a lot of success doing business in Saskatchewan. They’ve put every commodity you can imagine under the sun into production, uranium, potash, industrial minerals. They have a booming oil and gas business and they’ve got gold mines and base metal mines as well. So, with the fantastic geology that’s in Saskatchewan, and my background looking for various commodities plus my involvement in the uranium sector, I recognized the potential and the correct geologic area of Saskatchewan to host deposits of graphite.

In the case of Saskatchewan graphite, there’s lots of Canadian Shield-type rocks that have undergone high-grade metamorphic conditions. The rocks were originally sedimentary and when you start going through government files and our private office files, you recognize lots of graphite occurrences.

Rick: Many times uranium is associated with graphite.

Jody: One of the common ways to do uranium exploration is to complete an airborne electromagnetic survey looking for conductors.  As we mentioned, graphite has great electrical conductivity and uranium and graphite often go hand in hand.

In the Athabasca Basin, which is one of the premier uranium exploration and development districts in Northern Saskatchewan, uranium companies will fly these airborne surveys, and they’ll identify a conductor. Commonly the conductors are located along faults. Graphite being primarily carbon, is a great reductant, so when oxygen-rich fluids impregnated with uranium meet this conductor, they deposit out the uranium.

Hence, the prolific uranium district in Northern Saskatchewan. In the course of flying all these airborne surveys over Northern Saskatchewan for 30-40 years, numerous conductors all over the province associated with uranium, and not associated with uranium, were identified, and a number of companies interested in graphite exploration started looking at these occurrences in the early 1970s.

Rick: One of these companies was Superior Graphite.

Jody: Yes, they had identified a project around Deep Bay in East Central Saskatchewan and they explored the property in 1972. What they were doing was following up a 1968 discovery by Sherritt Gordon Mines, in which very rich graphite zones were discovered around Deep Bay while searching for base-metals. In 1968 they drilled several holes, conducted an airborne survey, did ground work etc. Upon finding very little in the way of base-metals, they allowed the property to lapse.

Then in 1972 Superior commissioned a report on the area that focused on the graphite potential. They went as far as bulk sampling, processing, market studies, hypothetical mining, milling, processing scenarios and transportation scenarios. All this work was based around two deposits, one on the west side of Deep Bay, the other on the east side of Deep Bay.

Dahrouge Geological staked the property on the east side of Deep Bay and vended the project into Strike Graphite.

Rick: The project on the west side of Deep Bay is more advanced than Strike’s Deep Bay East property.

Jody: Deep Bay West is within a Native Reserve owned by the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation and they’ve done a lot of work on it. There’s a historic resource, not 43-101 compliant, we haven’t done the necessary work to confirm the resource, but based on assessment records, we’re pretty confident in that it has in excess of a million tonnes of greater than 10% graphite.

Historic records indicate 60% of that graphite is coarse grained, and work done by Superior Graphite in 1972, 1973, showed greater than 80% recoveries, recent work has shown they can upgrade that deposit to 99% carbon. So graphite in this area will demand the highest prices.

Rick: Is there similarities between what the Natives have and what Strike has?

Jody: It’s not the same deposit, but it’s in the exact same stratographic package, the exact same rock unit, except we’re on the east side of Deep Bay, and they’re on the west side of Deep Bay.

There’s lots of infrastructure in place and they’ve done everything necessary to get to the point where they can start mining and processing. But we believe our deposit has a higher tonnage potential.

Sherritt Gordon and Superior Graphite identified a target area that was 1.6 km long, they drilled four holes into it and results include 35 m of 8.5% graphite. Sherritt’s and Superior’s mineralogy and metallurgical studies showed greater than 40% of the material they collected was coarse-grained 80 mesh or greater.

Preliminary metallurgy showed 80%-85% recovery so I’m quite confident we can get a high-quality, high-value product from our deposit.

Rick: In a February 29th news release, the preliminary data from a VTEM survey confirmed the historic conductor at approximately 2.5 kilometer (km) strike length, and a second, newly discovered conductor, of approximately two km in length.

Jody: What that survey showed is actually not two separate conductors but rather one conductor folded back on itself giving a total strike length of about 5 km. So that gives us a lot of exploration upside for this project.

The target we’re developing is a conceptual exploration target that’s roughly 2000 m in length. It’s up to 35 to 50 m wide and if it continued down to 100 m or beyond in depth we potentially have 18 million tonnes or greater.

That’s not a 43-101 resource, that’s a conceptual exploration target, but we believe, based upon the historic work that was done, we can achieve that target. Remember I believe the airborne survey that we’ve just completed shows the conductor to total in excess of 5 km.

Rick: Let’s talk about the newest project that SRK has, the Wagon property.

Jody: The Wagon property was discovered about 30 years ago by Michelle Roberge, he was a metallurgist at the Niobec Mine, a niobium operation.

This project is located 10km east of the Timcal Mine. The Timcal is the largest graphite producer in Canada, consequently the area has lots of infrastructure, power, mining knowhow and numerous roads.

The way the claims were originally explored was by surface outcrops, they mapped over 100 outcrops. Samples ranged from 4% to 18% graphite and this was by chemical analysis. The geologists described flakes of graphite up to 3 mm, which is exceptionally coarse. So, it’s in the right location and at 3000 hectares in size it’s a large project that is very near an existing graphite mine. Quite frankly, you couldn’t ask for a better project.

Rick: SRK has another project that we want to talk about.

Jody: The third project is called Simon Lake, it’s located in Northeastern Saskatchewan just off highway 905. This highway leads to a group of uranium mines and mills in the eastern part of the Athabasca Basin.

Again, this is a project that was explored originally for base metals but we found a relatively big conductor. It was in coarse-grained metamorphic rocks that were subsequently subjected to high-temperature/pressure conditions and therefore it had the potential to develop coarse-grained graphite.

We originally staked a 500 hectare property covering a 10 km strike line for this conductor but after flying an airborne survey over a much expanded area what we found was a 25 km long conductor that was relatively continuous. Within this conductor were historic drill holes that tested this conductor over approximately 5.5 km of strike length.

I have to caution this isn’t chemical analysis, there could be a lot of inaccuracies in the terms of percentages of graphite, but visually they intersected anywhere from 9 m of 35% graphite to 42 m of 38% graphite.  They never did chemical analyses, as I said they were looking for base metals.

They describe coarse flakes of graphite up to 4 mm across all the way down to fine-grained graphite. Given the length of this conductor at 25 km long and that almost all the holes drilled into it bottomed in graphite we’re assuming, based on the geophysics, a potentially very large source of graphite may exist. We really don’t know what the grade is, but we believe that this is the elephant of graphite deposits in Saskatchewan.

Rick: Nobody is saying we have a mine here, nobody is confirming historic numbers, people talk about seeing moly in drill cores, it’s easy to see molybdenum, the same as visible gold and native copper and electrum. What your saying is “we’ve got something, it appears to be large, we need to go in, spend some money, and find out exactly what we’ve got.”

Jody: Absolutely, we’re not saying the historic visual estimates are reliable, we’re saying they’re a good indication that there’s significant quantities of graphite over a vast area. But it’s important to point out this work was done over the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, multiple geologists at different times tested this feature, and they all describe graphite. So, there’s a high degree of confidence around the potential of this project.

Rick: Graphite is graphite. You’re not going to mistake it, it’s either there or it isn’t. If it’s there you see it and you can judge flake size in the field.

Jody: It’s pretty difficult to mistake it. As we talked about earlier, it’s very important to recognize that, in terms of geology, you fly an airborne survey, you find a conductor. Step two is to get boots on the ground, confirm drill targets, step three is drill test that conductor. The first project we’re actually going to explore in a significant way, is Simon Lake. We intend to drill this conductor at various intervals and are also going to drill unique geophysical characteristics all along this 25 km feature.

We’re going to take the material and analyze it as quickly as possible, look at the mineralogy. If it appears to have coarse-grained characteristics to it or a large percentage of it is coarse grained, we’re going to ship it off quite quickly for metallurgical test work. We hope to come back in the fall with a follow-up drill program and build out a resource around the best part of those combinations of grade, ability to process, and coarseness.

Rick: What about infrastructure in the area?

Jody: We have a road on the west side of the property.  It’s highway 905 and it leads to a couple of uranium mills at Rabbit Lake and McClean Lake and the transportation hub of Points North, which is host to a lot of infrastructure for the uranium explorers. The Cigar Lake Mine is in the area, it’s under development.

On the east side of the property, we have a second road that’s under construction, that goes to Wollaston Lake. Simon Lake has fabulous infrastructure for an exploration property in Northern Saskatchewan.

Rick: If you hit it’s going to be a discovery.

Jody: Yes, a grassroots discovery.

Rick: Give us a step by step breakdown on how you, as a geo running the show, plan to approach this.

Jody: Based upon our review of the historic literature we identified Simon Lake as having high potential to host a graphite deposit of significant size.  So, the very first step beyond that is to conduct an airborne VTEM survey.  The VTEM survey is an electromagnetic survey.  It pumps a current into the air which is transmitted into the ground, that electricity is measured and a conductor, if it’s there is identified.

Rick: Wherever it flows, that’s a target for ground follow up?

Jody: Yes, and it flowed in a very consistent way over a full 25 km. So, our next step is to do ground follow-up. Get some geologists on the ground, where there may be outcrops and lots of granite. Approximately 60% – 70% of the ground is covered by glacial till but the balance of it is rock and our geologists can evaluate that in detail. They can take a close look at these rocks, and they can see graphite right away.

They should be able to see grain size right away and they should be able to get good guesstimates as to the percentages of graphite. So, the next step beyond that is if we want to further targets for drilling, is to conduct ground geophysical surveys, which will further identify the boundaries of these conductors. The next step beyond that is drilling, which we’ve scheduled for the second quarter 2012.

Rick: We understand flying the VTEM to identify a conductor. We understand boots on the ground. What are the ground geophysical surveys?

Jody: We can do ground electromagnetics as well, just like you can do airborne. One common type of survey is called a Max-Min survey and is where two people will read the conductivity of the ground. It involves carrying a cable that is 50 or 100 m long, at one end you have a transmitter and at the other end you have a receiver allowing one to measure the conductivity of the ground. That will allow you to very accurately delineate the most conductive parts of the rock below the surface.

Rick: You’re fine tuning the VTEM.

Jody: That’s exactly what you’re doing. And quite frankly, it might not even be necessary. It might be a bit of overkill because the VTEM survey is extremely accurate and extremely useful on its own. And so, when the geologist goes on the ground he can identify outcrops with graphite in them, right away he might see a drill target. We don’t believe we will need to do any further ground follow-up.

The target is a zone of sedimentary rocks that were subjected to high-grade metamorphic conditions, which likely produced coarse-grained graphite. One of the first targets we’re going to drill is to simply twin one of the historic holes that intersected graphite.  We must reproduce them and in the modern context confirm what they were observing 30-35 years ago.

Rick: Are we going to do any exploratory holes in this first round?

Jody: Absolutely. We intend to drill at least five holes in the first round.  One of the holes will be a twin, and the next four will be exploratory testing various parts of the 25 km long conductor. Once we’ve done that, we’re going to take core samples, log them and write down our own observations.

We will then split the core and send half of it off for analysis, that will tell us exactly what we have in terms of graphite content. We are going to try and identify all the pertinent characteristics that make a graphite operation successful.

Rick: And we’ve got two backup plays?

Jody: We have backup plays. But I’m very confident in Simon Lake. If we have success, with the drilling, the mineralogy, the geochemistry, and with the processing, we can come back in the third quarter, say September to November, and we can further drill test at a very, much tighter spacing, instead of drilling every five km, we could be drilling every 50-100m, and build out a resource in and around a discovery. The resource will be calculated by someone independent, presuming we’ve intersected what we’re looking for. Hopefully we could publish resource numbers sometime in the 1st quarter of 2013.

Rick: Anything you’d like to add Jody?

Jody: The graphite market is not like the rare earth space. I truly believe in the rare earth space, and I think long term it will prove out to be as good as people had anticipated early on. It’s just that with the complexities of those deposits, there may lots of bumps and hurtles, but in the graphite space, those bumps and hurtles are a lot smaller and a lot easier to overcome.

Rick: Thank you, it’s been a pleasure.

NEWS RELEASE.

March 28, 2012: Vancouver, BC – Strike Graphite Corp. (Stock Profile – TSXV: SRK) announced it received exploration drill permits for its Simon Lake Property, located in northern Saskatchewan.   The permit will allow the Company to begin the ground exploration on the approximately 25 km long conductive horizon that was recently confirmed with a high-resolution airborne TDEM survey (see news release of February 23, 2012).

The next stage of exploration is designed to accomplish the following:

•    Confirm with drill testing the known graphite occurrences along the 5.5 km long conductive trend
•    Drill test the new high-priority targets along the recently identified 25 km long conductive trend
•    Process drill-core material for graphite mineralogical characterization and initial metallurgical testing

The company is finalizing the scope of its drilling program and anticipates mobilizing the field crew and drilling contractor within the next 1-2 weeks.

To learn more about the Simon Lake graphite project – CLICK HERE.

CompanyFeed™

NEWS RELEASE.

March 28, 2012: North Vancouver, BC – Stornoway Diamond Corp. (Stock Profile – TSX: SWY) announced it has completed its bought deal equity financing previously announced on March 8, 2012 for aggregate gross proceeds to Stornoway of $15 million (the “Offering”). Scotia Capital Inc. (the “Underwriter”), as sole underwriter, purchased 15 million units (the “Units”), each consisting of one common share of Stornoway and one-half of one common share purchase warrant of Stornoway (a “Warrant”).

The Units were sold at a price of $1.00 per Unit. Each Warrant entitles its holder to purchase one common share in the capital of Stornoway at a price of $1.20 per share at any time prior to 5:00 p.m. (Vancouver time) on March 31, 2014. Stornoway granted to the Underwriter an over-allotment option, exercisable in whole or in part, up to 30 days after the completion of the Offering, to purchase up to an additional 2,250,000 Units at a price of $1.00 per Unit. This over-allotment option has not been exercised at the time of this press release.

Stornoway intends to apply the net proceeds of the Offering, after deducting the underwriter’s fees and the expenses related to the Offering, to fund pre-development expenditures at the Renard Diamond Project, located in north-central Québec, for the 2012 calendar year and for general corporate purposes.

To read more – CLICK HERE.

CompanyFeed™

The past year has been a rough ordeal for nearly every sector of the market, but the metals and mining industry seemed to be battered on all fronts, despite previous run-ups in commodity prices across the board.  As if a stalled economic recovery on a global scale and a debt crisis in Europe were not enough, the industry was beset by earthquakes, flooding, and political maneuverings that prevented it from outperforming the S&P 500 index over the previous two-year period.

When Australia’s BHP Billiton Ltd. (Stock Profile – ASX:BHP & NYSE:BHP), the world’s number one miner, recently cautioned that China’s steel growth rates “will flatten, and they have flattened”, a shudder went through the industry.  When the word came down that the legislature in Australia finally passed a controversial mining tax after two years of near “bare-fisted” brawls over the issue, the shudder became a panic.  Mining stocks fell immediately, after several positive months of appreciation.

Setbacks are to be expected from time to time, but are mining stocks poised for additional growth in 2012?  BHP did temper its comments by stating that prices will hold up over the medium term and that only in 2025 will it “soften markedly.”  China dominates the demand side of the equation for nearly every commodity produced.  Their share of global iron ore shipments is almost 50%, while other metal shares are as follows: copper (38%), coal (47%), nickel (36%), lead (44%), and zinc (41%).

The immediate market “correction” may have been an overreaction, but to assess future prospects, let’s first take a look at past performance:

The S&P 500 index bettered both ETF “proxies” for the mining industry, while Gold and Silver benefited from risk-averse investor buying for most of 2011 until an extended consolidation period commenced. Silver has replaced Gold as the top-return achiever, nearly compounding in value at a 50% per year clip.  A resumption of appreciation trends will depend on a number of factors, but any semblance of real sustained economic activity on a global scale will generate a quick dose of demand.

The mining industry usually suffers from an over supply of materials, but if the comment from BHP is to be believed, then general pricing levels will hold for the next few years, allowing mining executives to focus on development projects with expectations that demand support will not materially decline.  The mining industry, however, has a number of challenges that stand in its way.  Addressing the following issues will be necessary to jumpstart growth and earnings in the foreseeable future:

• With commodity prices at all time highs, mining executives have moved to accelerate production projects.  The issue, however, is that costs have also escalated, whether from labor, new taxes, or extraction techniques.  Cost management will be a critical priority;

• Demand demographics in emerging markets, especially China and India, are far from transparent.  When BHP confirmed slackening China import demand, the market was quick to react.  Commodity pricing may be more chaotic than stable going forward;

• Capital expenditures are rising quickly, but there is a talent and skills “gap” that could restrain the growth engine from ever getting out of the gate.  New approaches are needed to make assignments in remote locations more attractive to workers;

• Despite excess cash on mining firm balance sheets, finding adequate financing in today’s more risk-averse environment will prove to be difficult.  Better relationships in foreign markets will be the key.

Challenges abound, but the reality is that commodities will be in short supply.  At some point, the fundamentals are anticipated to propel the industry forward ahead of the pack.

By Tom Cleveland.

Tom Cleveland writes for ForexTraders.com and has an engineering degree and extensive business background. The information herein has been provided to MiningFeeds.com by the author and, as such, is subject to our disclaimer: CLICK HERE.

The Financial Post reports that while tensions between native communities and the resource sector remain high in many parts of the country, Stornoway Diamond is bending traditional corporate practice in an attempt to win a “social licence” for Quebec’s first diamond mine.

Stornoway has signed a binding agreement with the Cree Nation of Mistissini and the Grand Council of the Crees for its Renard diamond project in the Otish mountains of Northern Quebec. The deal governs the long-term working relationship between the miner and the Cree parties throughout the project’s development, up to and past its projected start-up in 2015. The agreement is unusual for the level of detail it discloses.

The summary says the company will reserve a quarter of the Renard goods and services contract bidding invitations for Cree businesses, set up a mechanism allowing the Cree to benefit financially from the success of the mine over its estimated 20-year lifespan, and consult the aboriginal tallymen in the territory on no-fly zones into the mine site during spring goose and fall moose hunt seasons. The deal brings in the Cree as corporate insiders.

To read the full article – CLICK HERE.

CompanyFeed™

NEWS RELEASE.

March 27, 2012: North Vancouver, BC – Stornoway Diamond Corp. (Stock Profile – TSX: SWY) announced it has entered into an Impacts and Benefits Agreement for the Renard Diamond Project with the Cree Nation of Mistissini (“CNM”) and the Grand Council of the Crees (Eeyou Istchee) / Cree Regional Authority (“GCC(EI)/CRA”).

The new agreement, designated the “Mecheshoo Agreement”, was signed by representatives of Stornoway and the Cree parties at a ceremony held in Mistissini, Quebec earlier today in the presence of community members, members of the local “Tallymen” family, regional dignitaries and media.

The Mecheshoo Agreement is a binding agreement that will govern the long-term working relationship between Stornoway and the Cree parties during all phases of the Renard Diamond Project.

To read more – CLICK HERE.

CompanyFeed™

Rising bond yields, a stronger U.S. dollar and an improving U.S. economy have squelched expectations for a third round of quantitative easing (QE3) and consequently, spelled trouble for gold. Since late February, gold has declined more than 7 percent.

As confidence improves, UBS says the yellow metal is losing the dual role of safe haven and risk asset: “Gold is moving off center stage, while growth assets are moving to the fore.” Earlier this month, we saw the largest weekly contraction in long gold positions on the Comex since 2004.

In his latest Gold Monitor, Dundee Wealth Economics Chief Economist Martin Murenbeeld lists 10 positive factors for gold, one of which is monetary reflation. We are currently experiencing one of the greatest global liquidity booms the world has ever seen. Over the past seven months, there have been 122 stimulative policy initiatives from central banks around the world, according to ISI Group.

Injecting liquidity into the global monetary system has been a steroid for stronger gold prices over the past decade. The global monetary base has ballooned three times larger, with gold increasing nearly six-fold.

While we are seeing strong signs of improvement in the global economy, it’s important to remember that the recovery has been built upon a mountain of printed money that cannot be hastily unwound. Dr. Murenbeeld explains, “Money doesn’t grow on trees; it will have to be borrowed by some government and/or it will have to be printed by some central bank.”

For these reasons, the long-term bull market in gold may very well still be intact.

From the article, “Gold and China: Where the Bulls and Bears Square Off” by Frank Holmes. Frank Holmes is chief executive officer of U.S. Global Investors – a registered investment adviser that manages approximately $2.8 billion. The information provided herein has been provided to MiningFeeds.com by the author and, as such, is subject to our disclaimer: CLICK HERE.

Japan had plans to construct nine new nuclear power plants by 2020 and at least another 14 by 2030. After Fukushima, Japan’s then Prime Minister Kan advocated replacing nuclear energy with renewables.

Kan resigned because of criticism of his handling of the crisis and questions over his energy strategy. Japan’s current Prime Minister has changed course and backed away from his predecessors sudden shift to phasing out nuclear and jumping headlong into renewable energy.

Japan has little of its own coal, oil or natural gas so the country has made up a good portion of their missing nuclear supplied energy by burning even more imported liquefied natural gas (LNG), coal and fuel oil. Japan is now the world’s largest importer of coal and liquefied natural gas and is the second largest importer of oil – the country now imports about 84% of its energy requirements. All of Japans LNG imports come from the middle east and LNG currently supplies a large portion of Japan’s energy needs.

In response to an appeal for support from the U.S. regarding an Iranian oil sanction Japan pledged to cut Iranian oil imports – Iranian crude makes up just 10 percent of Japan’s overall oil imports.

“It would cause immense damage if they were cut to zero.” Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi said referring to Japan’s Iranian imports.

Japan has unplugged their nuclear reactors that provided 30 percent of the country’s electricity before Fukushima.

“They’re swapping fossil fuels for nuclear, and that’s driving up their CO2 emissions and the carbon intensity of their electricity supply.” Jesse Jenkins, energy analyst, the Breakthrough Institute.

It will be difficult for any country to achieve sustainable energy supplies and curb greenhouse gases, particularly Japan, unless nuclear power remains an important part of their energy mix.

Many decisions, made with the best of intentions, yet undertaken when emotions are running high might not result in the best direction for individuals or countries.  Due to energy security, safety and the necessity to reduce their carbon footprint, will Japan turn back to nuclear energy?

Australia’s senate has approved a 30% tax on iron ore and coal mining profits despite strong protests from global mining giants BHP Billiton Ltd. (Stock Profile – ASX:BHP & NYSE:BHP) and Rio Tinto Ltd. (Stock Profile – ASX:RIO & NYSE:RIO). Following a two-year battle with Australian mining companies, the tax is set to take effect on July 1st and is expected to raise $11.2 billion over the first three years.

Some feel the tax will hamper mining investment in Australia. Evy Hambro, resource investment chief of BlackRock Inc., the world’s biggest money manager, felt Australia had “dropped down” the global mining investment list because of the soon to be implemented mining profits tax and a pending carbon tax.

Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. (Stock Profile – ASX:FMG), the country’s third-biggest iron-ore exporter, said the tax was “unfair, narrowly based, complex, inefficient and will reduce investment and future jobs in the Australian mining industry.”

Outside of Australia the sentiment may not be as dissenting. Adani Group, the largest Indian investor in Australia, said the new mining tax will not have any “significant” impact on its coal business. Adani Group, through Adani Enterprises, recently began a coal mining exploration program at the Galilee Basin in Queensland. “The law allows the full capital expenditure incurred to be set off from the profits derived from its mining operations in the year it is made, and any unabsorbed excess is carried forward.”

Adani Group, which is diversified into energy, ports, shipping, mining, power generation and agriculture, said it plans to invest $6 billion in overseas expansion by 2015, primarily in its Australian mining and related assets.

The expansion of India, China and other emerging economies has boosted demand for resources such as iron ore and coal in Australia. Globally, Australia is the largest exporter of steel-making and energy-producing materials.

“We’ve got a spectacular resources boom,” Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said in an interview with national broadcaster Channel Nine television. “It makes sense to take some money from the turbo-charged section of the economy and share it more broadly around the nation and that is what the mining tax does.”

NEWS RELEASE.

Mar 19, 2012: Vancouver, B.C. – Oracle Mining Corp. (Stock Profile – TSX:OMN & OTCQX:OMCCF) announced that Doug Nicholson has been appointed Chief Executive Officer by the Board of Directors, effective today.

Mr. Nicholson joined Oracle Mining in February as Chief Operating Officer and has undertaken a rigorous review of the Corporation’s operations for the past month. He will continue to lead the Oracle Mining operations team in the re-start of the Oracle Ridge Copper Mine near Tucson, Arizona. He has extensive experience in the construction and management of mining operations in North America and will also lead all aspects of the Corporation’s strategic planning and business development.

“It is an honour to take the leadership role with Oracle Mining as we develop a near-term copper project in a desirable jurisdiction,” said Mr. Nicholson. “Oracle Mining is executing on a plan to production that will deliver value to shareholders and to the economy of the Tucson area.”

To read more about Mr. Nicholson’s appointment and his past experience – CLICK HERE.

CompanyFeed™

Approximately 48% of the world’s 2007 mined cobalt was a byproduct of nickel mining from sulfide and laterite deposits. An additional 37% was produced as a byproduct of copper operations, mainly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Zambia. The remaining 15% of cobalt mining came from primary producers.

The copper deposits in the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are the top producers of cobalt and the political situation in the Congo influences the price of cobalt significantly. The politically unstable Democratic Republic of Congo contains half the world’s cobalt supply and represents the lion’s share of anticipated future cobalt supply – the DRC’s 2007 output was equal to the combined production of cobalt by Canada, Australia and Zambia.

In a nine billion dollar joint venture with the DRC China got the rights to the vast copper and cobalt resources of the North Kivu in exchange for providing $6 billion worth of road construction, two hydroelectric dams, hospitals, schools and railway links to southern Africa, to Katanga and to the Congo Atlantic port at Matadi. The other $3 billion is to be invested by China in development of new mining areas. Approximately half of  known global cobalt reserves are in the DRC, and close to 40%-50% of incremental cobalt production, over the next five years, is anticipated to emanate from the DRC.

Net import reliance on cobalt supply in the United States as a percentage of consumption: 2007 –  80%, 2008 – 81%, 2009 – 76%, 2010 – 81%, 2011 – 75%. In 2011, cobalt contained in purchased scrap represented an estimated 24% of cobalt reported consumption.

Cobalt has not been mined in the U.S. since 1971 – the U.S. has no domestic production and is 100% dependent on imports for its supply of primary cobalt. The United States is the world’s largest consumer of cobalt and considers cobalt a strategic metal.

The U.S. mining industry has been in decline for decades. A number of factors have contributed to this trend making the world’s most powerful nation ever dependent on the supply of foreign resources.

A number of factors are attributed to the decline. First, restrictive environmental regulations make mining and processing more difficult and costly and has increased lead times for new mine development – the U.S. minerals industry is impeded by 80 different laws administered by 20 different agencies.

Second, approximately three-fourths of the 750 million acres of public land has been closed to exploitation, and closure continues. And third, the U.S. share of investment in mining is at an all-time low dropping from 21 percent of the world’s mining investment in the early 1990’s to 10 percent in 2000 and 8 percent today.

Several major and uncontrollable factors have also led to a decline in America’s mineral processing industry:

• Sharply higher energy costs.
• Most of the world’s mineral wealth is not located in the U.S.
• Foreign ore deposits are usually richer than those found in the U.S.
• Foreign mines are usually located close to cheap energy sources and low-cost labor.

Many minerals were recognized as critical and strategic to the United States over 20 years ago. The 1988 article “United States Dependence On Imports Of Four Strategic And Critical Minerals: Implications And Policy Alternatives” by G. Kevin Jones identified the most critical minerals upon which the United States is dependent for foreign sources of supply – chromium, cobalt, manganese and the platinum group metals (PGMs).  In 2001, these metals were labelled the “metallurgical Achilles’ heel” of United States strategic mineral supply because their role in the economy is pervasive and they are vulnerable to supply interruption.

Today, the Rare Earth Elements (REE) and most recently graphite, have caught investors attention and rightly so as the United States becomes ever dependent on foreign minerals. In the future, it’s expected many minerals will become ever more critical and supplier countries even more unreliable.

According to Dr. Mathis Wackernagel, President of the Global Footprint Network, “As resource constraints tighten globally, countries that depend heavily on ecological services from other nations may find that their resource supply becomes insecure and unreliable. This has economic implications – in particular for countries that depend upon large amounts of ecological assets to power their key industries or to support their consumption patterns and lifestyles.”

It’s expected many minerals will become ever more critical and supplier countries even more unreliable. Accessing a sustainable and secure supply of raw materials is becoming a major priority for all countries. Many nations, including the United States, are becoming increasingly dependent on foreign supply and are looking for privileged access from other countries. But this may prove to be challenging as more and more countries are expected to ensure their own industries have “first rights” to internally produced commodities.

The world’s biggest economies are joining forces to oppose China’s policies on domestic rare earth elements as the risk of a global shortage looms closer to reality.

The United States joined the European Union and Japan to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Tuesday against China’s export restrictions and duties on rare earth elements. Rare earths are used in electronics and high-tech products and help power products such as hybrid cars and cell phones.

This latest round of posturing highlights the possibility that a rare earth shortage may indeed become a reality. The dispute concerns Chinese policies that effectively limit the rest of the world’s access to rare earth elements from China. Over the past year, China has suspended the issuance of new licenses for rare earth prospecting and mining, imposed production caps and export quotas, and announced tougher environmental standards for rare earth production.

“American manufacturers need to have access to rare earth materials – which China supplies,” U.S. President Barack Obama said in a speech in Washington on Tuesday.

In response, China stated it will defend its policies at the WTO, according to Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei. Miao said some rare earth metals would last only 20 years if China does not stop excessive mining.

The Minister stressed that China’s rare earth export restriction is not against any specific country, nor is it a kind of trade protectionism. Instead, the policy was established out of concern for the environment and the sustainable use and development of resources.

Prior to the WTO action, China announced it will establish two or three large rare earth enterprises by consolidating companies in the sector. During a press conference at the annual national legislative session that China, Miao Wei said China will retain limits on rare earth export quotas after the industry rationalization. Miao said the first large rare earth enterprise had already been created in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region by consolidating 14 related companies under the leadership of Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Hi-Tech Co.

Although a timetable was not given for the nationwide restructuring, the Minister previously indicated the reorganization would likely take place over a five-year period and that China would continue to regulate the industry to ensure “reasonable exploration and orderly production“.

The dispute has been beneficial to rare earth junior miners. Quantum Rare Earth Developments (Stock Profile – TSXV:QRE & OTC:QREDF.PK), Ucore Rare Metals (Stock Profile – TSXV:UCU), and Rare Element Resources (Stock Profile – AMEX:REE & TSX:RES) are among the top weekly gainers on the MiningFeeds Tech Metals Index posting gains of over 20 percent.

Saskatchewan based Great Western Minerals Group (Stock Profile – TSXV:GWG), which has its sights set on becoming the next integrated rare earth producer, is currently halted. We contacted the company and management confirmed the halt was connected with the recently announced debenture financing that is currently being offered by GMP Securities, ISM Capital and Byron Capital Markets.

Great Western’s integrated rare earth production strategy may have been conditionally validated last week with Molycorp’s (Stock Profile – NYSE:MCP) proposed 1.3 billion dollar takeover of Neo Material Technologies (Stock Profile – TSX:NEM). About the Neo Material acquisition, Daniel Kim, an analyst at Paradigm Capital Inc. in Toronto said, “I view Neo as really a crown jewel within the rare earth industry and it’s a real shame from my perspective to see it being sold to another entity in this manner.”

Also in the news, Quest Rare Minerals (Stock Profile – TSX:QRM & AMEX:QRM) recently graduated to Canada’s senior board – the company’s shares are currently trading at $2.84 on the TSX Exchange.

For the MiningFeeds list of publicly traded rare earth companies – ranked by market cap – CLICK HERE.

NEWS RELEASE.

March 15, 2012: Johannesburg, South Africa – Witwatersrand Consolidated Gold Ltd. (Wits Gold – Stock Profile – TSX:WGR) announced the appointment of Bernard Wessels as chief operating officer, effective 1 March 2012.

Bernard is a mining engineer with 14 years’ experience in the South African mining industry. He holds a Diploma and Higher Diploma in metalliferous mining, as well as a B.Tech mining engineering degree from the University of Johannesburg.

Commenting on the appointment of Mr Wessels, the CEO of Wits Gold, Philip Kotze said, “The appointment of Bernard adds additional mining expertise to the Wits Gold executive team. His experience of underground mining will be particularly advantageous as the recently announced Evander acquisition is bedded down, while his development experience will be invaluable in planning Wits Gold’s flagship DBM Project in the southern Free State goldfield”.

To read more – CLICK HERE.

CompanyFeed™

NEWS RELEASE.

Mar 12, 2012: Vancouver, B.C. – Oracle Mining Corp. (Stock Profile – TSX:OMN & OTCQX:OMCCF) announced it has entered into a non-binding, indicative term sheet for project financing with Credit Suisse AG for a secured term loan of up to US$70 million. Upon completion, the loan will be used to advance its Oracle Ridge Copper Mine re-start project in Arizona, USA.

“We are pleased to initiate the relationship with Credit Suisse for a key component of the financing of Oracle Ridge,” said Mr. Paul Eagland, Oracle Mining’s Chief Executive Officer. “Once put in place, the loan facility is expected to expedite Oracle Mining’s re-start of the Oracle Ridge Copper Mine.”

To read more – CLICK HERE.

CompanyFeed™

In June, 2011 Standard and Poor’s warned plans for the private sector to roll over Greek debt could trigger a default under its ratings criteria.

Standard and Poor’s also said that, depending on the circumstances, it viewed “certain types of debt exchanges and similar restructurings as equivalent to a payment default”. In their view, “any such transactions would likely be on terms less favourable than the debt being refinanced, which we, in turn, would view as a de facto default according to Standard & Poor’s published criteria,” the agency said.

Fast forward to March 9th, 2011. Today, Greece took an important step towards its second bailout after it managed to win a crucial debt swap. The Greek deal with its lenders is the largest restructuring of government debt in history. Under the deal, banks and other financial institutions have agreed to exchange their existing Greek government debt for new bonds – now worth much less and paying a lower rate of interest.

According to the Greek government website, the deal involves 172 billion euros worth of debt under exchange with some investors taking a loss of up to 74 percent. At a press conference in Athens, Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos welcomed the deal saying, “We can say now that instead of what usually occurred, we are today reducing the debt.” Based on Standard and Poor’s assessment from last year, does that mean that Greece just defaulted? The short answer is yes – under the previously assigned status of “Selective Default”.

In a February 28th interview with Bloomberg, head of sovereign ratings at Standard & Poor’s, Moritz Kraemer, discusses Greece’s “Selective Default” status and European sovereign debt.

But what’s really going on here? On March 2nd, European leaders signed a German-driven fiscal compact treaty to enforce EU deficit-cutting and debt reduction rules more strictly. Key states such as Italy and Spain are implementing tough spending cuts and pension and labour reforms; and now, more European countries may be forced to adopt austerity measures – not just Greece.

Rewind to 1932 and the Great Depression. Didn’t we learn that tax increases and cut-backs do not promote economic recovery during a contraction? Last month it was reported that Greece’s economy shrank, on an annualized basis, 7.0 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011. While on March 8th, Greek statistics service ELSTAT said the overall jobless rate rose to 21.0 percent and that, for the first time on record, more than half of Greek youth (ages 15-24) are unemployed. The overall unemployment rate at the height of the Great Depression in the United States was 24.9 percent in 1933.

But this is not just a Greek problem. Unemployment rates in the EU are very high. Currently, the youth unemployment rate for the EU-27 and EU-17 is hovering around 22%. In Spain, the fourth biggest economy in the eurozone, official unemployment is more than 21 percent while youth unemployment is over 49 percent. In comparison, the unemployment rate in the United States is 8.3 percent and youth unemployment is in the neighbourhood of 18 percent.

The problems facing other European countries – Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain – have until now been peripheral to those of once mighty Greece. But with the recently signed fiscal compact treaty, the working-class in the heavily indebted peripheral countries are bracing for what’s coming next.

For an excellent overview on European debt visit the European Commission eurostat website – CLICK HERE.

A Report by the APS Panel on Public Affairs and the Materials Research Society coined the term “energy-critical element” (ECE) to describe a class of chemical elements that currently appear critical to one or more new, energy related technologies.

“Energy-related systems are typically materials intensive. As new technologies are widely deployed, significant quantities of the elements required to manufacture them will be needed. However, many of these unfamiliar elements are not presently mined, refined, or traded in large quantities, and, as a result, their availability might be constrained by many complex factors. A shortage of these energy-critical elements (ECEs) could significantly inhibit the adoption of otherwise game-changing energy technologies. This, in turn, would limit the competitiveness of U.S. industries and the domestic scientific enterprise and, eventually, diminish the quality of life in the United States.”

According to the APS and MRS report several factors can contribute to limiting the domestic availability of an ECE:

• The element may not be abundant in the earth’s crust or might not be concentrated by geological processes
• An element might only occur in a few economic deposits worldwide, production might be dominated by and, therefore, subject to manipulation by one or more countries – the United States already relies on other countries for more than 90% of most of the ECEs identified in the report
• Many ECEs have, up to this point, been produced in relatively small quantities as by-products of primary metals mining and refining. Joint production complicates attempts to ramp up output by a large factor.
• Because they are relatively scarce, extraction of ECEs often involves processing large amounts of material, sometimes in ways that do unacceptable environmental damage
• The time required for production and utilization to adapt to fluctuations in price and availability of ECEs is long, making planning and investment difficult

This report was limited to elements that have the potential for major impact on energy systems and for which a significantly increased demand might strain supply, causing price increases or unavailability, thereby discouraging the use of some new technologies.

The focus of the report was on energy technologies with the potential for large-scale deployment so the elements they listed are energy critical:

• Gallium, germanium, indium, selenium, silver, and tellurium – employed in advanced photovoltaic solar cells, especially thin film photovoltaics.
• Dysprosium, neodymium, praseodymium, samarium and cobalt – used in high-strength permanent magnets for many energy related applications, such as wind turbines and hybrid automobiles.
• Gadolinium (most REEs made this list) for its unusual paramagnetic qualities and europium and terbium for their role in managing the color of fluorescent lighting. Yttrium, another REE, is an important ingredient in energy-efficient solid-state lighting.
• Lithium and lanthanum, used in high performance batteries.
• Helium, required in cryogenics, energy research, advanced nuclear reactor designs, and manufacturing in the energy sector.
• Platinum, palladium, and other PGEs, used as catalysts in fuel cells that may find wide applications in transportation. Cerium, a REE, is also used as an auto-emissions catalyst.

After meeting with mining companies for the past two days at the annual PDAC convention in Toronto, we’re pleased to present a list of upcoming mining milestones in March. Or shall we say, March/early April as prefaced by many of the executives in attendance at this year’s convention.

In alphabetical order, here’s what we discovered.

AuRico Gold Inc. (Stock Profile – TSX:AUQ) reported they are ready to “pour the first gold” from the company’s Young-Davidson mine in northern Ontario towards the end of this month or early April.

Balmoral Resources Ltd. (Stock Profile – TSXV:BAR) has an ongoing drill program underway on its gold project in Northern Quebec and expects to release the results from 45 holes throughout March and early April.

Copper Fox Metals Inc. (Stock Profile – TSXV:CUU) is set to release its long awaited Feasibility Study in late March/early April.

Eastmain Resources Inc. (Stock Profile – TSX:ER) has budgeted $10 million and will commence a 50,000 meter drill program in March for their Clearwater gold project in James Bay.

Encanto Potash Corp. (Stock Profile – TSXV: EPO) is finishing off an updated 43-101 Resource Report which is set for release in late March or early April.

Formation Metals Inc. (Stock Profile – TSX:FCO) expects to secure its $80 million credit facility this month. Management stated this is the last round of capital required to complete the development of its highgrade cobalt mine and reach production.

Goldgroup Mining Inc. (Stock Profile – TSX:GGA) is set to release a Preliminary Economic Assessment this month. Goldgroup is developing three gold projects in Mexico.

Orbite Aluminae Inc. (Stock Profile – TSX:ORT) has been halted by the AMF as the Quebec regulators have asked for more details regarding the comapany’s Preliminary Economic Assessment Technical Report. Compliance was not anticipated within this month.

Pele Mountain Resources Inc. (Stock Profile – TSXV:GEM) is finishing off their Preliminary Economic Assessment Report for the company’s flagship Eco Ridge rare earth/uranium project in Ontario.

Peregrine Diamonds Ltd. (Stock Profile – TSX:PGD) is initiating drilling in Lac de Gras (NWT) in early March and will start ground geophysical surveys at Chidliak (Nunavut) in late March. The Chidliak project has 59 kimberlites discovered to date.

SilverCrest Mines Inc. (Stock Profile – TSXV:SVL) is set to release phase II drill results (80 holes) for the La Joya project towards the end of March.

Ur-Energy Inc. (Stock Profile – TSX:URE) anticipates that a 43-101 Resource Estimate will be ready in 6 to 8 weeks which will include the company’s 2012 property additions at Lost Creek.

Vista Gold Corp. (Stock Profile – TSX:VGZ) expects to release a Feasibility Study for its Mount Todd gold project in Australia prior to the end of March.

Volta Resources Inc. (Stock Profile – TSX:VTR) is working on a 43-101 Resource Update for release this month which is expected to convert previously reported Inferred Resources to Indicated Resources.

NEWS RELEASE.

March 5, 2012: Johannesburg, South Africa – Witwatersrand Consolidated Gold Ltd. (Wits Gold – Stock Profile – TSX:WGR) announced the appointment of Mr. Kenneth Dicks as an independent non-executive director of the Company effective 5th March 2012.

Mr. Dicks, a mining engineer by background, has 39 years’ experience working in the South African mining industry, having held a number of senior positions within AngloGold. He presently also serves as an independent non-executive director on the boards of Harmony Gold and Bauba Platinum.

To read more – CLICK HERE.

CompanyFeed™

NEWS RELEASE.

March 2, 2012: Littleton, Colorado – Ur-Energy Inc. (Stock Profile – TSX:URE & AMEX:URG) has issued a mineral resource update for the company’s Lost Creek property. The company has prepared a technical report to update the mineral resource estimate following the 2011 drill program and further evaluation of historic drilling records on the property. The updated resource estimate results in notable increases of all three categories of mineral resources (measured, indicated and inferred) at the Lost Creek property. This result does not yet include an evaluation of the property interests recently acquired and announced on Feb. 29, 2012. The company anticipates the preparation of a further update of the mineral resource estimate and the economic analysis of the Lost Creek property in respect of these new property interests.

Ur-Energy is currently completing mine planning and permitting activities to bring Lost Creek into production. At this time, the Lost Creek project awaits the sole remaining regulatory approval, the record of decision from the United States Bureau of Land Management, in respect of the project’s plan of operations.

To read the full release – CLICK HERE.

CompanyFeed™

From Metals Economics Group’s (MEG) Exploration Activity Services, the dollar amount of junior financings declined 24% in 2011 to $21.5 billion from $28.1 billion in 2010 and increased 12% from 2009 and 43% from 2008 totals. Of the total, financing amounts for base metals fell 32%, while the decline for gold was just 16%, mainly due to the strength of the gold market through most of the year.

The volume of financings roughly follows the rise and fall of metals prices. As gold prices increased through most of 2011, so did investor interest, and after a slow start to the year, financings increased in number and size. Gold financings increased in six of the twelve months. Copper prices decreased through much of 2011, as did base metals financings altogether. The 410 base metals financings of $2 million or more in 2011 was a slight increase from 395 in 2010, albeit at a smaller average amount, and indicates a sustained recovery from the low numbers and dollar amounts seen in 2008 and 2009.

From the article entitled, “Metals Economics Group Strategic Report: Junior Financings Review, 2012” by Metals Economics Group. Metals Economics Group (MEG) is a trusted source of global mining information and analysis. With three decades of comprehensive information and analysis, MEG has an unsurpassed level of experience and historical data. The information provided herein has been provided to MiningFeeds.com by the author and, as such, is subject to our disclaimer: CLICK HERE.