The prospect of a shale oil deposit, which could be used to produce synthetic crude oil or gas, has been identified in South Australia’s mid-north.

Perth based explorer Tasman Resources Ltd said it had identified the potential for the deposit while drilling for coal and other minerals 80km southwest of Coober Pedy.

The company said early drill work suggested the organic rich sediments could stretch for as much as 40km with 22 of the 33 drillholes encountering significant thicknesses.

Results from the one hole initially test sampled returned the equivalent of about 118 litres of hydrocarbons per tonne.

“While the results are encouraging, it is very early days yet,” Tasman’s executive chairman Greg Solomon said.

“We will, however, commence an immediate follow-up work program involving sampling and analysis of the existing holes drilled in the first pass.

“Tasman will also undertake some further broadspaced drilling to determine the distribution and thickness of the organic rich mudstones.”

Mr Solomon said the follow-up program would lead to extensive hydrocarbon analysis of each hole to determine if the overall volume and oil-generating capacity of the deposit were potentially economic.

Vale plans to sell as much as $13.3 billion of new shares, the biggest offering in Brazilian history, to fund projects and acquisitions intended to create the world’s largest mining company.

The sale of up to 256.9 million common shares and 164.4 million preferred shares will take place as soon as today, Vale said yesterday.

The shares, excluding underwriters’ over-allotments, are worth 20.5 billion reais ($13.3 billion), based on Wednesday’s closing price in Sao Paulo.

“If Vale gets these resources, it must be for a possible acquisition,” said Daniel Gorayeb, a metals and mining analyst for Sao Paulo-based broker Spinelli. “The offer will certainly be oversubscribed.”

Rio de Janeiro-based Vale, which bought Canadian nickel producer Inco last year, said June 10 it would sell as much as $US15 billion ($15.6 billion) in stock to pay for expansion and possible takeovers.

Vale, which abandoned a $US90 billion bid for Xstrata Plc in March, said this week it may try to buy a copper smelter and a phosphate-fertilizer unit from Brazil’s Paranapanema.

Vale preferred shares fell 69 centavos, or 1.6%, to 42.71 reais yesterday in Sao Paulo. The company’s common shares fell 1.24 reais, or 2.4%, to 50.95 reais.

An acquisition would be in addition to the $US59 billion that Vale, led by chief executive Roger Agnelli, is already spending over five years as it tries to overtake BHP Billiton as the world’s top mining company.

With the investment, Vale aims to increase annual iron-ore output by 40% to 450 million metric tonnes by 2012, equal to more than a third of global seaborne trade of the commodity.

Vale also plans to double nickel and copper output to about 500,000 tonnes and 592,000 tonnes, respectively.

The share sale is the “next step in the process to strategic development or acquisition,” Cristiane Viana, a Rio de Janeiro-based analyst with broker Agora Corretora, said. She recommends buying Vale shares.

Vale’s share offering, equal to about 8.7% of its market capitalisation, would be the biggest ever by a Brazilian company.

The government and minority shareholders first sold a stake in Vale for 3.34 billion reais in 1997.

Vale will apply to list its ADRs on the Paris-based Euronext exchange. Shareholders who are residents of Brazil will have priority in the sale.

Newmont (NYSE:NEM) also expects to produce 500,000 ounces of gold a year at its new Akyem mine in Ghana once it was up and running, a senior official said on Friday. “We’re pretty confident that our Ahafo mine will produce around 500,000 ounces (a year)… and we think our eastern region Ghana project (Akyem) will produce something similar to that,” Chris Anderson, director of external affairs for the Africa and Europe regions told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum for Africa.
American-based Newmont is the world’s second biggest gold producer and in 2006 mined its first gold at Ahafo, the company’s pioneering foray in Africa.

“We want to expand. We want to find new deposits in west Africa. We want to look to some acquisitions and I think all that goes to our optimism about Africa for investment,” Anderson said.

He said Newmont,

which was considering Ghana’s capital Accra as the new base for its African and European operations, was also prospecting in Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea

General Metals Corporation (OTC: GNMT) (FRANKFURT: GMQ) has announced results with excellent mineralization continuing the expansion of the target zone at the Independence Project; in the vicinity of the historic Wilson Independence Mine next to a mine operated by Newmont Mining Corporation (NYSE:NEM). Adding 250 000 Ounces to the already established 250 000 Ounce Reserve with more drilling to come.

“The excitement of management grows with each result,” says Dan Forbush, the Company’s CFO. “We have recently completed a review of all of the available drill, trench and sample data including assays and geology related thereto. This analysis along with our current results continue to confirm management’s expectation that we have a deeply and thoroughly oxidized ore grade zone.”

“The mineralization exhibits excellent continuity in width and grade, along strike and up and down dip in the target zone. This oxidized material characteristically is amenable to low cost recovery techniques such as heap leaching.

“Finding mineralization this close to the surface will allow for an open pit mining model that may be able to bring ore to the pad quickly and at a very low strip ratio thereby improving the startup economic model,” added President and CEO Steve Parent.