The understanding of the Liquefied Natural Gas industry by Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett came under scrutiny this week.

Barnett told ABC Radio’s AM program there were two ways LNG could be transported around the country.

“You can pipe it – that’s possible but probably the more expensive option,” he said.

“What Australia could well do would be to develop an LNG receival point, perhaps at somewhere like Gippsland, and so that gas can be transported in liquid form around Australia.”

Barnett was making the point that a number of producing gas fields exists in Commonwealth waters, lying off the West Australian coast.

“I would have thought a more important issue, with respect, would be ‘Why isn’t Australia using more of that natural gas?’” he said.

“For example, if Australia was to take a simple policy decision that half of all of the new electricity generation in Australia would be powered by natural gas, we wouldn’t need a carbon tax.

“We’d reduce emissions in a costless and painless way by at least as much.”

Barnett’s comments regarding the transportation of the gas around the country were jumped upon by the gas transmission industry’s representative, Australian Pipeline Industry Association (APIA) chief executive Cheryl Cartwright.

Cartwright said that although Barnett was right in saying natural gas is Australia’s energy future, he was wrong to suggest that WA offshore gas will replace gas produced in Australia’s East – or that it would ever be transported around the coastline via ship.

“The WA Government recently considered establishing an LNG receiving terminal in Perth but shelved the idea because of cost,” Cartwright said in an announcement.

“Not only would it be foolish on a cost basis – the very reason gas is the future of energy is because it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“One LNG terminal produces 10 times more CO2 emissions than the whole of Australia’s gas pipeline infrastructure.”

Cartwright said she was surprised as to why Barnett would make such a misleading statement and that he would do better to focus on getting gas from the North West Shelf into the local WA market rather than allowing major international companies to export the product without considering domestic gas customers.

“The current gas retention policy in WA is virtually ineffective, although it does give the Government an opportunity to feign interest in increasing the State’s domestic gas supply,” Cartwright said.

According to APIA, LNG will never be a cheaper alternative than pipeline gas for Australia.

The body offered as proof to support this statement the price of LNG for international transportation being $14 to $16 per gigajoule compared to the cost of domestic gas in WA, transported via pipeline, of $6 to $8.

APIA said that although construction costs are comparable, continuing operating costs of a transmission pipeline would be far less.

“Premier Barnett clearly doesn’t understand this major industry in WA,” Cartwright said.

“Even if the Government wasted taxpayers’ funds on a new LNG terminal in Perth, there aren’t enough ships to move the gas!”

Barnett’s transportation commentary emerged from speculation regarding the upsurge in price of electricity and gas in West Australia and across the country.

The Premier claimed the West Australian economy to be the world’s biggest and most sophisticated mining economy and that the state was now emerging as an important global source of natural gas.

“The point I’m making is that if Australia really wants to be serious about reducing greenhouse emissions, just note the one simple fact that a baseload power station using natural gas will produce probably a third to a half of the emissions of an equivalent, even clean, coal plant,” Barnett said.

“So why wouldn’t we make a simple policy decision as a country and use some of Australia’s natural gas for power generation and distribution here, and do what Japan, Korea, China and India are quite deliberately doing?

“The reason they’re buying our natural gas is because it’s clean energy.”

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Bulk minerals explorer Sheffield Resources has announced a maiden Resource estimate for its Yandanooka heavy mineral sand (HMS) project located in the Mid West region of Western Australia.

The estimate has come in at 1.84 million tonnes of contained heavy mineral (71.75 million tonne at 2.6 per cent heavy mineral in Indicated and Inferred categories).

The estimate also includes an Indicated Resource for the high grade core of 1.41Mt of contained heavy mineral (37.5Mt at 3.8% heavy mineral).

“This is a terrific result for our shareholders and a great achievement by Sheffield’s exploration team, just eight months after listing,” Sheffield resources managing director Bruce McQuitty said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Yandanooka has many attributes which are favourable for mining – the deposit is at surface, close to established infrastructure, and has a high value mineral assemblage.

“We will now investigate its feasibility for near term development.”

According to Sheffield, Yandanooka is one of few remaining outcropping HMS deposits in the Mid West.

The project is situated on cleared freehold land just 2.5 kilometres from an existing sealed highway and railway connecting to Geraldton port, which is approximately 140km to the northwest.

“Yandanooka is just one of several heavy mineral sand projects held by Sheffield in the North Perth Basin,” McQuitty said.

“Our strategy is to carefully evaluate each project with a view to sequential mining with a mobile plant.”

The deposit has a central high-grade core of greater than two per cent heavy mineral, which is enveloped by a lower grade halo of greater than 0.9% heavy mineral.

Sheffield claims the deposit to be 5km long by 1.7km wide, between two metres and 20 metres thick, with minimal overburden and lies above the water table.
 
The company also said that in addition to elevated zircon and rutile content, the heavy mineral assemblage at Yandanooka comprises a significant proportion of high-titanium dioxide ilmenite and leucoxene.

Previous work, based on analysis of 6 composite samples, carried out by Iluka Resources at Yandanooka ascertained a titanium dioxide content of the ilmenite of 64.7%.

Sheffield considers the high titanium dioxide content of the ilmenite to indicate its potential suitability as feed for chloride process pigment production or synthetic rutile production.

The company will conduct further mineral separation studies to gain information on the ilmenite quality.

Geologists may not be quite as rare as the proverbial dentures of common farmyard fowl but the paucity in their ranks is a concern for the resources industry.

Although the mining industry is a destination of choice for what seems to be just about every job seeker in Australia at the moment, this hasn’t always been the case.

There are plenty of geologists working in the industry today that will tell you that once upon a time, a geology degree was the forerunner to a taxi-driver’s licence due to the lack of employment possibilities for graduates.

The current boom, however, and its predecessor, have raised the resources industry employment stakes with a job, ‘on the mines’, now being a high priority for university graduates.

To ensure that current wave of interest is maintained Earth Science Western Australia (ESWA) is working to strengthen Earth Science education across WA.

ESWA was formed in 2003, with the support of some of the State’s leading educational institutions.

These included Curtin University, the University of Western Australia, CSIRO and the Western Australian Museum.

ESWA has also worked closely with schools across the state to enhance Earth Science education.

“With the main aim of raising the profile of geoscience in Western Australian schools to a level matching the State’s strategic needs, ESWA has sought to tackle this issue through a many pronged attack,” ESWA executive officer, secondary education Jo Watkins told The Roadhouse.

“These include publications like our 520 page full colour textbook, ‘Exploring Earth and Environmental Science Stages 1, 2, and 3.

“This was the first textbook to cater to the West Australian Earth and Environmental Science (EES) curriculum, released early 2011.

“The textbook is supported by, many teaching resources including field guides, programs and worksheets; available in hard copy and also on our website.”

Education Officers deliver educational experiences to students ranging from kindergarten to Year 12.

In the 2010-11 year alone nearly 5000 students accessed the ESWA programs.

ESWA also offers hands-on resources including ‘Do It Yourself’ kits for teachers, which are full of physical resources and lesson ideas.

“Our Geoscientists in Schools program, launched in March of this year, has seen volunteer geoscientists present to over 500 students from Years 8-12, with unanimously positive feedback,” Watkins said.

“The field support fund allows schools to apply for funding to assist them to take their students out into the field, and they may also receive support in planning and running these experiences.

“The many pronged approach continues with; a quarterly newsletter, ongoing research, to guide our work, and student revision seminars, to name a few things.”

For this work to continue to impact upon Earth Science education in Western Australian schools ESWA relies on the generous support of many, including several big name mining companies.

To recognise this ongoing support ESWA has adopted a Corporate Members Program with varying levels of support available.

Annual contribution categories start with the contribution of $1,500 for the Bronze entry-level and move through Silver at $3,500 and over, Gold at $5,500 and over, reaching the final Platinum Level at $11,000 and over.

ESWA’s current Platinum membership base includes:

BHP Billiton, Chamber of Minerals & Energy of WA, CSIRO, Curtin University, Public Education Endowment Trust, the University of Western Australia, and Woodside Energy.

Gold membership has been taken up by:

Anglo American Exploration, Apache Energy, Barrick Gold of Australia, Chevron Australia, Independence Group, Newcrest Mining, Newmont Australia, and Silver Lake Resources.

The Silver member roster contains:

AusIMM and BP Developments Australia.

The Bronze membership comprises generous support from:

Australian Institute of Geoscientists, Digirock, Fugro Airborne Surveys, Geological Society of Australia, Jim Ross, Kingsgate Consolidated, Marcus Harris, Mitsui E&P Australia, PESA, SRK Consulting, Teck Cominco, In-Kind, DMP, Geological Survey of WA, Scitech, STAWA, and the Western Australian Museum.

“Since ESWA started working with schools, in 2006, there has been more than a 17-fold increase in the number of upper school students undertaking studies in Earth Science, more than a six-fold increase in the number of schools offering Earth and Environmental Science and more than an eight-fold increase in the number of students sitting tertiary entrance examinations in Earth Science,” Watkins said proudly.

“Since 2007, ESWA has interacted with more than 12,000 K-12 students in over 200 schools, with more than 1,200 teachers provided with professional development.

“Now that all schools are aware that the new text book is available, it is anticipated that there will be continuing growth in uptake of EES.”

If you’re interested in helping ESWA encourage school students to consider geology as a career click on the logo to find out how.

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: The commodity focus of Phosphate Australia has shifted following the company’s acquisition of 100% of the historic Tuckanarra gold project in the gold producing Murchison district of Western Australia.

Under the terms of the acquisition agreement with vendor Gold and Mineral Resources, Phosphate Australia will pay consideration for 100% of the Tuckanarra project comprising one million of its shares and A$45,000 cash.

There are no outstanding royalty commitments included in the deal.

In an announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange, Phosphate Australia said the acquisition of the Tuckanarra gold project repositions the company as a serious gold explorer.

The company’s wholly-owned 56 million tonnes at 16 per cent phosphate Highland Plains phosphate project in the Northern Territory will remain within the company until it can find a strategic partner to assist in its development.

Phosphate Australia said it will continue to actively promote Highland Plains.

The Tuckanarra acquisition includes almost all of the historic workings and four open pits at the project, all of which produced a total of around 95,000 ounces up to 1995.

The project consists of three exploration tenements and eight prospecting tenements, with a combined area of 270.4 square kilometres.

The permits are all currently in application. Phosphate Australia said it anticipates the main tenements will be granted by mid-October.

Heritage agreements have already been signed with the traditional owner claimant group for the area.

The project area is a historic goldfield dating back to 1900. During this time production was approximately 30,000 ounces at a grade just over one ounce per tonne.

The company said historic follow up work in the area appears underdone yet potential exists for it to build on existing prospects and discover new ones.

Tuckanarra is situated centrally within the Murchison goldfield with the Great Northern Highway running through the project area.

Nearby existing gold plants at Burnakura, Bluebird, Cue and Mount Magnet opening up possibilities for toll treatment.

“There are a number of highly prospective targets for immediate follow up, which include existing areas of known shallow mineralisation, undrilled targets based on geophysics and/or geochemistry, on strike extensions to existing pits and en-echelon structures parallel to existing pits and deeper targets under existing pits,” Phosphate Australia said.

Phosphate Australia is currently planning a program of drill holes and will be submitting an application with the Department of Mines to drill Tuckanarra as soon as the core tenements are granted.

The company is anticipating these to be granted around mid-October, after which a Phase 1 drilling program will be carried out through November to December.

The company expects this will lead to increased drilling activity in 2012 with an initial resource estimate aimed for by May 2012.