Mercury Rising in Cloncurry

THE imminent summer will likely be hot in the historic Cloncurry region of northwest Queensland – after all Australia’s highest ever temperature of 53.1 degrees Celsius was recorded there 120 years ago! ASX-listed Cloncurry resource stocks are doing the same with an intriguing bunch of companies moving inexorably towards mining.

Two of the key players in the historic region are Robert Friedland’s Ivanhoe Australia, and the copper contender, Exco Resources

Freidland’s man downunder, Ivanhoe Australia’s CEO Peter Reeve, has already driven a huge year for the company, with the Merlin molybdenum and rhenium discovery being a key factor in the stock moving from a 52-week low of 15c to more than $4 recently. A cool $100m has gone into the ground.

Responding to a speeding ticket from ASX earlier this month, it was pointed out that near surface drilling at the Merlin project had recorded the highest grades in the world for molybdenum.

The rhenium is used is in nickel based superalloys in jet engines and is amongst the most expensive and stategic metals on Earth. Merlin is a world vault of rhenium.

With drill rigs now going hammer and tong and a scoping study in train, it was also claimed that plenty of offshore interest had been “entertained” by Ivanhoe Australia. Being a company associated with Friedland anything is possible.

Meanwhile Michael Anderson at the less high profile Exco moves ever closer to pushing the development button for the company’s Cloncurry copper project after the onerous environmental impact statement was submitted to the Queensland authorities this month. Ivanhoe holds 19.5% of Exco.

Exco, which also owns 75% of a gold project currently being built in South Australia, has established a 51 million tonne resource base in Cloncurry, capable of underpinning a 10 year mining operation producing some 25,000t of copper and 17,000oz of gold annually.

What makes the situation particularly intriguing is the project’s location, with Xstrata’s Ernest Henry operation clearly visible just over the fence line 8km away. The big Ernest Henry operation is on its last legs as an open cut operation, and it seems likely Exco’s dirt would be coveted by those charged with having to fill the big, hungry mill. However to date a deal with Xstrata hasn’t been cut, and time is surely running out for this scenario to become a reality.

And it’s not as if Exco would seem short of options for developing its own, stand-alone copper operation. As well as the financiers that will come knocking on Anderson’s door on the back of copper being routinely lauded by investment banks as the base metal with the best future prospects, Exco will soon have decent cash flowing its way courtesy of its gold project.

Merlin magic and Cloncurry copper will heat up the Sydney Mining Club next month. Not to be missed!

Please remember to book early and avoid any late booking charges applicable within three days of the event!

For further information please contact: info@sydneyminingclub.org

October, 2008. 7th Annual Excellence in Exploration & Mining, Sydney

October - Sydney Mining Club - Annual Mining Awards Dinner

31 October - 02 November - Mining2008 Conference, Hilton Brisbane

To Register go to http://www.verticalevents.com.au/

November, 2008

On the eve of the publication of his book Emissions Trading - Why Bother?, and with Australia's Rudd Government moving quickly to an emissions trading regime, Professor of Mining Geology at Adelaide University Ian Plimer will present an array of arguments that the thesis of Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth might itself find inconvenient to recognise. Planet Earth has form in producing Greenhouse gases - major form - particularly from volcanic eruptions. The quantity of solar radiation the Sun gushes at Earth each year also varies dramatically as flares and gravitational orbit wobbles change the amount of heat we intersect. There are also concerns that the way we measure temperature is skewed in favour of a warming Earth. So against the backdrop of geological time - and our inability to distinguish any anthropogenic affects - why says Plimer bravely punt severe impact to Australia's economy, and most notably the well-being of its buoyant primary producers, by volunteering the nation as a pioneer in the emissions trading concept.

Not only has the Earth endowed us with great resource wealth but also with detailed tracers of the past. The rate and amount of modern climate change is well within past variability. The current rate of sea level rise is low, changing sea levels is normal, sea levels can over geological time change by up to 600 metres. The atmospheric CO2 content at present is the lowest for millions of years. CO2 levels have been up to 25 times higher than at present yet, during the history of the planet, CO2 has not created acid oceans. Natural processes capture and store CO2. Planet Earth is a warm, wet greenhouse planet that has had ice for only 20% of geological time. Extinction of life on Earth is normal and life is most commonly stressed by cold climates. Temperature is buffered by the water cycle. Supernova eruptions, the Sun, the Earth's orbit, tectonics and the water cycle are the primary drivers of climate. In the past, CO2 changes have followed temperature changes. The hypothesis that humans change climate is not in accord with history, archaeology, geology, chemistry, physics and astronomy, and is rejected. Conserving energy might be a jolly good idea he says, but until there is a workable energy policy in Australia, then fundamental errors of policy can only decrease the standard of living and quality of life. All this and a lot more science to ask in capital letters - "Why bother with Emissions Trading?"

The downside Plimer says is great. What is our risk in bankrupting primary industries? Will we export the remains of our manufacturing industry offshore? How will the increased fuel, food and other costs hit consumers? Is it an act of Russian roulette that only the wealthy Australians want to play? And lurking beneath the bureaucracy and regulation is there a future of emissions trading scams?

We thank you for supporting your Sydney Mining Club and for your interest in the current affairs and issues that drive our industry. Students $15, all others $55 (incl. GST). Sign-posted corporate table of 10, $550. The Tattersalls Club is at 181 Elizabeth St. Ties and Jackets no longer required.

The 7th Annual Victorian Gold 2008

Held in conjunction with the Melbourne Mining Club Luncheon
The Supper Room, Melbourne Town Hall
For further information please contact via registration@informa.com.au