Gypsum industry news

Australia: Cohiba Minerals has received notification that it has successfully secured a 5-year extension of its exploration licence for its Pyramid Lake gypsum mine in south-western Western Australia. The new lease will expire on 4 July 2026.

The company says that it has recommenced its application for a mining lease for the high-grade area of the Pyramid Lake mine, which is not covered by its present lease. It says that it had previously delayed the process due to a change in its application conditions.

Cohiba Minerals previously announced the planned expansion in December 2020 as part of a countrywide expansion of its extraction activities, towards which it was raising US$1.5m through a share purchase plan.

Canada: ScoZinc says that it has increased the gypsum resources at its Scotia mine project in Nova Scotia following a mineral resource estimate. The site has total measured and indicated gypsum mineral resources of 5.18Mt at a grade of 91.8%. Further inferred gypsum resources of 0.79Mt have been recorded at a grade of 91%. The company says that the project has a mining recovery rate of 95% and a cost of US$2/t for gypsum.

Australia: Cohiba Minerals has announced plans to raise US$1.5m through a share purchase plan. It plans to use the money to expand its mineral extraction operations across Australia, including the finalisation of a mining lease for its Pyramid Lake gypsum mine in Western Australia.

The company said, “Some of the funding will also be applied to working capital to achieve these ends.”

US: American Pacific Borates (ABR) has shared plans to begin mining natural gypsum at its Fort Cady borate mine around Barstow in San Bernardino County, California. The company says that it will extract its first batch for sale to the gypsum wallboard industry in mid 2021.

The Fort Cady borate mine works the world’s largest borate deposit. It also yields boron-enriched sulphate of potash for use as an agricultural fertiliser.

Canada: Red Moon Resources says it has restarted production for the season at its Ace mine in western Newfoundland. Overall production at the site in 2020 is expected to be less than in 2019 due to disruption to both operations and markets caused by coronavirus. The situation is expected to stabalise in 2021. The company mined 0.16Mt of gypsum and anhydrite from the site in 2019.

Ireland: France-based Saint-Gobain subsidiary Gyproc has applied to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to have its sulphate discharge licence for its Drummond, County Monaghan, mine increased by 530% to 1250mg/l from 200mg/l. The Irish Independent newspaper has reported that the higher level ‘would not occur year-round,’ according to the company, but ‘only at certain times.’ The EPA is ‘awaiting additional information from the applicant in order to make a decision.’

US: The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will be receiving public comment until 6 Feb 2020 on Eagle Materials' proposed 100 acre expansion of its 830 acre mine near Gypsum in Eagle County, Colorado. The mine supplies gypsum to its 67Mm2-capacity Eagle Materials gypsum wallboard plant in gypsum. BLM Colorado River Valley field manager Larry Sandoval said, “Responsible mineral development is part of BLM’s multiple-use mission,” according to RealVail newspaper.

UK: British Gypsum’s mine at Brightling near Robertsbridge has provided gypsum samples to researchers from the Natural History Museum. The rock specimens are intended to aid the scientists in looking at signs of past life in preparation for a joint European Space Agency and Russian Roscosmos State Corporation mission to send a robotic rover to mars in July 2020, according to the Rye & Battle Observer newspaper. Previously, NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity found bright veins of a mineral, which appeared to be gypsum, in 2011.

"Minerals like those found at Brightling hide clues within them that can tell us about the history of liquid water where they formed, and they have the potential to trap and preserve organic material. Studying these natural fresh samples on Earth that mimic not just the minerals, but also the formation environments we see on Mars, will give us an insight into the potential for life to be detectable at the ExoMars2020 landing site," said Louisa Preston, UK Space Agency Aurora Research Fellow and member of the Department of Earth Sciences at the Natural History Museum.

Canada: Red Moon Resources says it has shipped over 0.13Mt of gypsum and anhydrite from its Ace mine in western Newfoundland since May 2019. Production is scheduled to continue into late October 2019 and the company is expecting for total production to exceed 0.15Mt in 2019. The company is working with Vinland Materials, a related company, to undertake contract mining operations and secure sales agreements for gypsum and anhydrite.

“We have successfully opened up the Ace mine and will continue to work towards a larger operation,” said Patrick J Laracy, President of Red Moon.
. “We have engaged some of the best operational resources in the area to make the mine a success and ensure its viability. The economic impact in the immediate area is significant with an estimated 45 people employed on a seasonal basis in mining, trucking, port facility, marketing, shipping and supervision. This is in addition to the utilisation of specific services such as drilling and blasting.”

Red Moon uses a deep-water port approximately 10km from the mine to ship the gypsum. The quarry site covers 12 hectares and has the potential for a 10 year mining life at an average production rate of 350,000t/yr. The company says that if it can access markets requiring production rates beyond the Ace mine capacity, the company is prepared to develop other existing gypsum deposits located on its mineral licences, which cover approximately 700 hectares of the historic Flat Bay gypsum mines.

US: Gypsum Resources has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy at the Nevada US Bankruptcy Court. It is aiming to reorganise the business amid financial and operational difficulties, according to the Las Vegas Reiew Journal newspaper. The company operates a gypum mine at Blue Diamond Hill but it has been trying to develop a residential housing project at the site for over a decade. The development has been opposed by local environmentalists.

Company president James Rhodes blamed the bankrupty decision on ambitious growth plans, disrupted mining operations due to equipment failure and bad weather. He was optimistic that market demand for gypsum is steady and that the company will report positive net income later in 2019. The mine supplies gypsum to the wallboard, cement and agricultural industries.