In this week's Nugget we dig into the latest industry news, how to use Ai for mining reports, and space mining!
Welcome to November! The smell of pumpkin spice is in the air, and I'm already prepping my sweatpants for all the holiday cooking and eating. I don't know about the rest of the world, but I already have SNOW. The team at Prospector is headed full steam into the end of the year, working on lots of new things for you all! While we can't make it ourselves, we're excited to see the latest mining innovations and thought leadership from these conferences:
IMARC - happening NOW!, Sydney, Australia
Mining Investment North America - Nov 2-3, Toronto, Canada
Colombia Gold Symposium - Nov 7-8, Medellin, Colombia
Precious Metals Summit - Nov 13-15, Zurich, Switzerland
Noosa Mining Investment Conference - Nov 15-17, Noosa Heads, Australia
I hope you all enjoy November and, of course, the latest Nugget!
Jess Scanlan
Head Of New Media
How AI helps Analysts Extract Key Insights From Lengthy Mining Reports In Minutes
CTO Jon Godbout digs into Prospector’s AI-human loop to showcase how effectively utilizing artificial intelligence can help rapidly analyze mining technical reports. This frees up analysts to focus on analysis instead of routine data collection. As language models continue to advance, Prospector's database and insights will become even more efficient and valuable.
Space, The New Mining Frontier?
If you missed our Monthly Mining Roundup Livestream, you won’t want to miss the replay! This month we were joined by special guest Daniel Sax of the Canadian Space Mining Corporation in an out-of-this-world conversation!
.jpg?width=1280&height=720&name=ProspYoutubeThumbs%20(13).jpg)
New Draft Of The Initiative For Responsible Mining Assurance Standard Is Up For Public Comment
The new draft of this Standard is now available for public comment until January 26th, 2024. This V2 is working on improving many sections including gender equality, indigenous peoples, land and soil, circularity, responsible sourcing, and more. The IRMA is also hosting introductory webinars for more information about this revision.
The Real Cost Of Plundering The Planet’s Resources
This article discusses how modern civilization relies heavily on extracting and using raw materials from the earth, such as sand, iron, copper, oil, natural gas, and rare minerals like high-purity quartz from Spruce Pine, North Carolina. It describes the environmental and social impacts of relentless resource extraction, including habitat destruction, illicit sand mining, and destruction of Indigenous cultural sites. The author calls for reducing consumption and waste, recycling more materials, and transitioning to renewable energy, while acknowledging the challenges given humanity's long history of tool use and accumulation of possessions. Overall, the article highlights the unsustainability of continuously extracting finite resources to fuel economic growth and satisfy consumer demand.
The Top 10 Business Risks And Opportunities For Mining And Metals In 2024
Dig into the top 10 business risks and opportunities facing the mining and metals sector in 2024. Key themes include growing ESG scrutiny, the need to secure capital for the energy transition, strengthening license to operate with communities, addressing climate change impacts, accelerating digital transformation and innovation, managing high costs and productivity, navigating geopolitics, enhancing cybersecurity, adapting business models, and improving workforce recruitment, retention and culture. Overall, the sector faces a complex operating environment but has proven resilient and inventive in embracing change.
Earth AI Makes First Greenfield Mineral Deposit Discovery Using AI
Earth AI, a company using AI for mineral exploration, has announced the discovery of a porphyry molybdenum deposit in New South Wales, Australia. This is the first ever greenfield deposit discovered by AI. Molybdenum is a critical metal needed for electronics and clean energy technologies. Lab assays confirmed high molybdenum grades exceeding those in the world's leading molybdenum mines. This discovery demonstrates Earth AI's ability to find rare, high-demand minerals faster, more affordably, and less invasively than traditional exploration methods. It showcases their technology's potential to revolutionize mining economics and address shortages of metals needed for the transition to renewable energy. Earth AI accomplished this discovery in just 3-6 months at a fraction of the typical cost, with an 8x better success rate than the industry average. The company aims to scale up mineral exploration and accelerate the discovery of critical minerals essential for powering the electric future.
CAPEX Of Top 30 Miners To Grow 6.2%, Then Decline
S&P Global expects capital spending by the top 30 global miners to grow 6.2% to $109.2 billion in 2023, following increases of 13.8% in 2021 and 16.3% in 2022, but still below the 2013 peak of $145.7 billion. The largest budgets are BHP at $7.6 billion, Rio Tinto at $7.4 billion, Anglo American at $6 billion, and Vale at $5.5 billion in 2022 growing to $6 billion in 2023. The investments are going towards new mines, expansions, decarbonization efforts, and ramping up key growth projects like BHP's Jansen potash mine, Rio's Simandou iron ore project, and Vale's Voisey's Bay underground nickel mine. However, capital spending may decline after 2023 due to high inflation, interest rates, and slowing economic growth. The miners have not yet reached the peak of their investment and expansion cycle.
Summary:
The Cerro Los Gatos mine is an underground polymetallic mine located in Chihuahua, Mexico that is owned 70% by Gatos Silver and 30% by Dowa Metals & Mining. It produces silver, zinc, lead, gold, and copper concentrates from epithermal veins using mechanized cut-and-fill and longhole stoping methods. As of July 1, 2023, Cerro Los Gatos contains proven and probable reserves of 8.1 million tonnes at 217 g/t silver, 4.32% zinc, 2.20% lead, 0.25 g/t gold, and 0.15% copper. The life-of-mine schedule extends to the end of 2030, with average annual production of 6.6 million ounces of silver. The project has an after-tax net present value at a 5% discount rate of $462 million based on current reserves. Mine development and construction commenced in 2018, commissioning was completed in 2019, and commercial production is ongoing.
.gif?width=1200&height=400&name=Subscribe%20To%20Receive%20The%20Full%20Digest%20(4).gif)
Each week we want to get your opinion about the mining industry. We'll release the results with next week's Nugget!
We chat a lot about thoughts on deep sea mining, but how do you feel about asteroid/space mining?
Get The Nugget in your inbox every week, scroll down to subscribe
In this week's nugget, we discuss how the mining industry can improve public perception with industry expert Dr. Haydon Mort, along with social media...
This week we're digging into the latest mining news, social trends, and sharing our Mining Futurist Community on LinkedIn!
This week's nugget features the latest mining news, data, and our 2023 wrap up livestream!
