THE LEADER VOLUME 12 • NUMBER 1
Founder and Publisher John Chadwick B. Sc. Min Eng Email: john @ im-mining. com
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Editorial Board Professor Malcolm Scoble Robert E. Hallbauer Chair in Mining Engineering., University of BC, Vancouver
Peter Knights Professor and Head of Division of Mining
Stephen Stone West One Management Perth, Western Australia
Dr. Andrew M. Robertson President, Robertson GeoConsultants Vancouver, Canada.
Ed McCord Project Consultant Caterpillar Global Mining, USA
Jason Nitz Fleet Management & Dispatch Superintendent Newmont Mining Corporation, USA
Dr Terry Mudder Managing Director, TIMES Ltd, USA
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Dr. Mike Daniel Comminution Process Consultant CMD Consulting Pty Ltd
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ISSN 1747-146X
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A strong foundation of tin and rubber
Today’ s mining industry in Malaysia is not the big business it used to be, since the collapse of the global tin market in 1985. After that date, resource interest has focused on the oil palm, rubber and the oil and gas industries. The country has a recently industrialised market economy, which is relatively open and state-oriented.
Tin was of paramount importance to the country’ s development( Kuala Lumpur might not exist today as the capital were it not for tin mining) and has seen some resurgence this century and the country still ranks sixth among world producers. Production of metallic tin was 4,104 t in 2015 from 35 mines including amang( tin tailings) retreatment operations.
According to ITRI’ s 2016 Report on Global Tin Resources & Reserves,“ the Perak government has an active interest in developing an exploration program, focussing on the Pengkalan Hulu region in the state, to restore tin resources and reserves and encourage investment, but a recovery in tin prices will most likely be required to justify the necessary level of investment. Deep alluvial tin deposits are also known to exist at Kuala Langat in Malaysia, with speculative tin resources estimated at 85,000 t of contained tin.
I have recently returned from the country and was extremely impressed with what I saw. The GDP expanded 1.5 % in the third quarter of 2016 over the previous quarter, reported by the Department of Statistics Malaysia; the fastest growth rate in seven quarters. The GDP growth rate in Malaysia averaged 1.2 % from 2000 until 2016.
Australia’ s Monument Mining is a keen investor in Malaysia with the operating Selinsing gold mine at Bukit Selinsing Koyan. This is an open-pit mine with a 1,200 t / d gold treatment plant. It also has the Mengapur polymetallic project in Pahang State, some 130 km southeast of Selinsing and 75 km northwest of the Malaysian port city of Kuantan. Mengapur contains a historical copper, sulphur, gold, silver oxide and sulphide Resource from a drilling campaign conducted in the 1980s by Malaysia Mining Corp( MMC), consisting of 224 Mt averaging 0.597 % Cu equivalent( 6.54 % S, 0.25 % Cu, 0.16 g / t Au, and 8.86 g / t Ag) at a cutoff grade of 0.336 % Cueq from geologic Zones A, B, and C. A historical sulphide reserve from Zone A consists of 64.8 Mt averaging 0.737 % Cueq( 8.63 % S, 0.27 % Cu, 0.21 g / t Au, and 2.59 g / t Ag) at the same 0.336 % Cueq cutoff. The company has completed 64,000 m of exploration drilling verifying these historic resources and is now in the progress of advancing them to NI 43-101 compliance. MMC( once known as Malaysia Mining Corp) is now largely out of mining and is a leading utilities and infrastructure group with diversified businesses in ports & logistics, energy & utilities and engineering & construction.
The other great tin group of the country, Malaysia Smelting Corp( MSC) is still one of the world ' s leading integrated producers of tin metal and tin based products and a global leader in custom tin smelting, which it has been since 1887. In 2015, the group produced 30,209 t of tin metal maintaining its position as the second largest supplier of tin metal in the world. The smelting facility in Butterworth is one of the most cost efficient smelting plants in the world converting primary, secondary, and often complex tin bearing ores into high purity tin metal. It has a production capacity of approximately 40,000 t / y of refined tin and uses reverberatory furnace technology which is ideally suited for custom smelting.
In November 2004, MSC expanded upstream in mining through the acquisition of Rahman Hydraulic Tin Sdn Bhd( RHT), Malaysia’ s long-established and largest operating open-pit hard rock tin mine. Since then, extensive exploration and improvements of milling / concentrator circuit and recovery operations have been undertaken and today RHT is a sustainable and significant tin producer.
For a great insight into the possible future of Malaysia as a global power house, take a look at the 2020 plan for Kuala Lumpur. In so many countries‘ town planning’ seems to be an oxymoron, but the very bold, majestic, and seemingly practical vision for KL looks like it will be achieved, and it is mightily impressive.
It includes KL118 or Warisan Merdeka, a 118- storey, 682 m building which will see KL re-establish its reputation for tall buildings with this, the world’ s third tallest, when completed in 2019. It will consist of 400,000 m 2 of residential, hotel and commercial space, exceeding the height of the 88 storey Petronas Twin Towers by 230 m.
Malaysian Chamber of Mines( MCOM) President Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Ajib Anuar points out that Malaysia is attractive as a good mining investment destination due to the complete and transparent mineral policy, law and regulations pertaining to exploration and mining development. Easy access to infrastrucure such as water, electricity and roads makes mining less costly in the country so it can also can also contribute to the growth of the mining industry.
John Chadwick Founder john @ im-mining. com
JANUARY 2017 | International Mining 3