Australasia Gold has concluded an agreement for the acquisition of the Murninnie Mine (copper, bismuth, gold) and highly prospective surrounding land located between Whyalla and Cowell on eastern Eyre Peninsula, South Australia.

The area is located in the southern part of the "Olympic Domain" – the geological province containing the Prominent Hill, Olympic Dam (Roxby Downs), Carrapateena iron-oxide-coppergold (IOCG) deposits and the Moonta-Wallaroo copper deposits.

The Murninnie private mine has been owned and prospected by the vendors' family since 1929 but has never been subjected to detailed modern exploration or drilling.

Australasia Gold is making immediate preparations for the early commencement of exploration of this highly encouraging prospect including systematic geological prospecting and rock sampling, extension of the previous soil geochemical survey, detailed gravity and magnetic surveys and drilling.

The Murninnie Mine workings extend to 50m depth below surface. The mineralised lode is exposed over more than 400m strike length in the walls of a steep gully incised into the escarpment at the margin of an otherwise flat plateau terrain.

Prospecting by the owners has discovered occurrences of secondary and sulphide copper, some with associated gold mineralisation, over more than 4 kilometres of strike. The mine is officially reported to have produced between 1,000 and 2,000 tonnes of secondary or oxidized copper ore, some of it also rich in bismuth, between 1862 and 1910. Records describe ore parcels typically grading around 10% copper, with up to 5% bismuth, noting accompanying values of silver and cobalt.

The acquisition agreement covers Exploration Licence 3542 and Private Mine 156, totalling approximately 67sqkm. The main terms of the agreement provide for the immediate acquisition by Australasia Gold of a 45% interest in the above tenements for a cash payment of $25,000 and 592,370 shares in Australasia Gold, plus six-monthly payments of $7,500 and 150,000 shares for a minimum of two years. The total consideration over 2 years is therefore $55,000 plus 1,192,370 fully paid shares in Australasia Gold Ltd.

Australasia can elect to acquire a further 40% interest in the tenements by a further payment of $62,500 and the issue of shares valued at $187,500 based on the share price prevailing at the time of making the acquisition.

Australasia Gold will manage exploration, and the Murninnie Mine Syndicate (the vendors) will be free-carried to the decision to construct a mine, at which point it will have the right to participate for its 15% or to revert to a free-carried 4% participating interest in the project.

Although the union striking at the world's largest copper mine lowered its wage and bonus demands, mine operator BHP Billiton said it won't budge from its last offer which was overwhelmingly rejected by the striking miners Sunday.

As of Tuesday, the union and the Escondida Mine management in Chile had not scheduled a new round of talks to try to resolve the 15-day old strike.

Reuters reported that union President Luis Troncoso told a news conference that the union had reduced its raise demand from 10% to 8% and lowered its special bonus request from $30,000 to $19,000 per miner. Troncoso said the union will file litigation against Escondida management for anti-union practices.

Under Chilean law, individual workers can negotiate their own deal with the company and return to work after two weeks. On Monday, Escondida posted an announcement on its web site offering employment to individual mine workers. However, union leaders said their 2,052 members will not break ranks.

The Financial Times reported Wednesday that BHP Billiton may have to consider flying Peruvian workers to Escondida to restore production at the mine. Chilean regulations allow bringing in outside workers after 15 days of a strike action.

Escondida produces 8% of the world's mined copper supply and 20% of Chile's copper production. The labor dispute is considered a benchmark for upcoming labour negotiations for state-owned Codelco Copper of Chile, the world's largest copper producer. The Chilean Labour Ministry participated in the latest round of negotiations when striking workers overwhelming rejected a new offer.

BHP Billiton Ltd., the world's largest diversified mining company, said Wednesday that full-year profit rose a record 63% due to higher copper and iron ore prices. The company will spend $3 billion buying back shares.

Corporacion Nacional del Cobre, or Codelco, executives and union officials Tuesday said they hope to avoid conflict in upcoming wage negotiations at the Andina division.

"There's a very good disposition on the side of the (union) leaders as well as in the management...in a process where both sides want to reach the best accord," Codelco Chief Executive Jose Pablo Arellano told reporters after meeting officials of Andina's SUT union in the town of Los Andes in the Andean foothills north of Santiago.

Chilean copper workers have demanded their share of the windfall earnings associated with the metal's three-year rally in global markets.

While strong demand, above all from China, has led to the price increase, strikes and accidents leading to production stoppages have played a major role in triggering price spikes.

Andina division executives will carry out the talks in keeping with Chilean labor law, Arellano added.

Manuel Canas, president of the 650-member SUT union, said "we want to build a different relationship" after Codelco submitted separate, different wage proposals to the two unions at Andina the previous time around, triggering a dispute.

The union is scheduled to submit its wage demands between Oct. 16-21.

It seeks to improve working and living conditions and environmental protection beyond basic wage demands, Canas added.

Andina workers earn an average 730,000 pesos ($1,380) a month, compared with "an estimated" post-tax salary over CLP5 million earned by senior management, the SUT said ahead of the meeting.

Tuesday's meeting came as the strike at BHP Billiton PLC's (BHP) Escondida mine in far northern Chile entered its 16th day.

While Arellano declined to comment on that conflict, Canas said the SUT was more interested in the relationship evolving between the Escondida workers and management than in their specific demands.

Workers and management in Chile's copper industry are watching the Escondida dispute closely as it may set a precedent for upcoming negotiations at other mines.

BHP Billiton PLC (BHP) controls Escondida with a 57.5% stake, while Rio Tinto PLC (RTP) holds 30%, a Mitsubishi Corp. (8058.TO)-led Japanese consortium 10%, and International Finance Corp. 2.5%.

Chilean copper mine Escondida won't comment on whether it is hiring replacement labourers to maintain output, after striking workers on Monday rejected its latest contract offer, a mine spokesman said Tuesday.

"I can neither confirm nor deny reports that we've hired replacements," Escondida spokesman Mauro Valdes said in response to an article in Tuesday's La Tercera.

"If we had, we're in our legal right to do so."

In a Monday vote, 98% of union members at Escondida rejected a sweetened offer and vowed to prolong the strike.

"We regret that it's come to this point," Valdes said, "but we continue to be open to any dialogue whose genuine objective is to reach an agreement."

According to Valdes, negotiations are at a stalemate.

The union, meanwhile, is still optimistic government mediators will call them back to the negotiating table.

"We're expecting Labour officials to contact us with a date for the next round of talks," said union representative Francisco Aedo.

Now that the strike is in its 16th day, workers can legally abandon the strike and negotiate individually.

When asked if disillusioned workers had approached the company to negotiate individually, Valdes declined to comment.

"Maybe one or two did so, but we haven't had reports of workers abandoning the strike in droves," the union's Aedo said.

On Sunday, Escondida – controlled by Anglo Australian miner BHP Billiton – offered the workers a 4% real wage increase, up from its previous 3% offer, and another 1.3% hike in the fourth year if workers signed a four-year contract.

Additionally, the company offered contract signing benefits totalling 17 million pesos ($32,000), including an unprecedented CLP9.6 million market conditions bonus, a CLP3.4 million end-of-negotiations bonus and a CLP4 million interest-free loan.

While unionized workers often receive end-of-negotiations bonuses, this is the first time mining workers were offered a bonus linked to sky-high copper prices.

In a statement Sunday, the company had said this latest offer was its final.

Minera Escondida resumed copper mining operations in Chile on Sunday, August 20, and expects to be operating at about 50% of production capacity using non-unionized workers and contractors, a BHP Billiton spokeswoman told Platts Monday.

"We have started operating at Escondida on Sunday and expected to go back to around 40-60% capacity very soon. We should be running at about 50% capacity by now," the spokeswoman said.

"Talks have resumed with the workers and we have given them a new offer, but we cannot comment on the details now," she added.

Escondida, the world's largest copper mine, is said to have made a new contract offer Sunday to striking workers in a bid to end a two-week old industrial action which began on August 7 and resulted in the shutdown of the site on August 18. The mine's 2,052 unionized workers, representing 97% of the workforce, went on strike in a dispute over wages. On Friday, BHP Billiton said it had been forced to close the Escondida mine because of safety concerns over actions taken by striking workers and would pursue legal action against union workers who blocked access roads to the mine to keep out non-union workers.

AFP reported Monday that sources close to the talks said that on Sunday the company had upped its offer to 4%, plus an $18,000 signing bonus. The new offer will be shown to the union workers, who could vote on it Monday.

The miners are demanding a 13% wage increase and a $30,000 bonus, which they say reflects a tripling in global copper prices since the previous collective bargaining agreement, reached three years ago.

Escondida is majority owned by Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP Billiton. It produces 1.3 million mt/year of copper, roughly one-fifth of Chile's total production and 2.5% of Chile's entire economic output.

BHP Billiton raised its wages offer to workers at the world's largest copper mine as it attempts to resolve a strike that will enter its 15th day.

It is offering more pay and higher bonuses, BHP Billiton spokeswoman Alejandra Wood said in an e-mailed statement from Santiago.

Workers are meeting now at an athletic centre at the mine to discuss the progress of talks with management, said Luis Troncoso, president of the Escondida's Workers Union No. 1, in a phone interview before BHP's announcement.

Prices of copper, used in wires and pipes, have more than doubled in the past year as consumption soared in China, prompting unions to seek a greater share of the industry's record profits. Mine management said Aug. 16 the dispute was costing owners including BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto Group and Mitsubishi Corp.

BHP Billiton Ltd has closed operations at the world's biggest copper mine and called-off talks with striking workers, sending copper prices soaring.

The world's largest diversified miner said it will abandon the talks in favour of legal action against the workers, who are seeking a larger share of the benefits of spiralling copper prices.

BHP Billiton is due to break its Australian corporate earnings record and post an annual net profit of $US10 billion ($A13.16 billion) when it reports on Wednesday, helped in part by a record annual copper production.

BHP Billiton says workers have blocked all access roads to the Escondida mine, located in Chile's Atacama Desert.

"This heightened union activity means we no longer feel that we are able to unequivocally guarantee the health and safety of our people or the integrity of the operations, infrastructure," said spokeswoman Emma Meade.

"As a result, Minera Escondida has closed its operations and ceased negotiations with the union."

BHP Billiton said it will not negotiate with the union while it is carrying out "illegal activity".

"We will be taking legal action against the union to resolve this," Ms Meade said.

"We will only reopen the operations and restart negotiations when we are comfortable that we can guarantee the health and safety of our people and the integrity of the operations."

The news sent copper prices up by $US160 a tonne.

London Metal Exchange three-month copper futures rose to US7,450 in after hours trading, from to $US7,290 at London close on Thursday.

BHP Billiton said earlier this month that the strike action over pay at Escondida, the largest copper mine in the world, had slashed operating capacity to 40 per cent.

Suspension of cathode production also led to the mining giant declaring a force majeure on its copper concentrate contracts.

A force majeure is a contract clause that would free it from its contractual obligations due to an extraordinary event beyond its control.

Of the mine's 2,930 permanent staff, 2,052 are union members.

Earlier this month workers rejected an offer of three-year contracts including a three per cent rise in pay and bonuses.

It was an improvement over an earlier offer for a 1.5 per cent raise, along with a bonus and low-interest loans, but fell substantially short of a 13 per cent raise and $US30,000 ($A39,408.87) net bonus per worker the union was seeking.

BHP Billiton is the operator of the Escondida mine with a 57.5 per cent stake, while Rio Tinto also holds a 30 per cent share.

Copper prices surged in early London trade on Friday after mining group BHP Billiton said it was temporarily closing operations at its strike-hit Escondida mine in Chile.

BHP called off wage talks with a labour union and shut down production at the world's biggest copper mine by output, saying that because of picketing employees blockading roads, it could not guarantee the safety of those still working at the mine.

Before Friday's closure, Escondida was still producing at 40 per cent of capacity despite the wage strike. At full capacity, the mine provides 8.5 per cent of the world's copper.

With inventories of the metal at little more than a day's worth of global demand, speculators have kept a keen eye on developments in Chile. Traders however, said that a rebound was always likely after Thursday's 5 per cent fall in copper prices as technical selling drove the base metals complex lower.

Three month copper on the London Metal Exchange was trading 2.1 per cent higher at $7,440 a tonne.

"The copper market will be watching developments at Escondida very closely," said Robin Bahr, base metals strategist at UBS. He added: "This mine alone accounts for some 8 per cent of global copper supply in a market characterised by tight supply, strong demand and very low stocks."

Just below the dusty topsoil here in the scrubby African bush lie some of the richest copper deposits in the world.

Many of the world's largest mining companies, including Phelps Dodge Corp. of Phoenix and Anglo American PLC of London, have done business here. They eventually went home, stymied by central Africa's corruption, crumbling infrastructure and often violent political unrest.

Now, copper prices are close to records, and the world's mining giants are looking for new mother lodes. But in this part of Africa's interior, the dominant players these days are companies like First Quantum Minerals Ltd., a relatively unknown Vancouver, British Columbia, outfit that managed to hang on here even when copper prices plunged a few years ago.

First Quantum, whose Toronto-listed stock has been rallying (it also trades in London), is one of a number of smaller mining concerns rushing to develop more copper, nickel, and other commodities at a time when their big-name counterparts, including Phelps Dodge, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, are struggling to meet demand.

The production of these "junior" miners is hard to quantify but has implications for prices. For now, their output is small: First Quantum expects to produce about 220,000 tons of copper this year. In Chile, the world's biggest producer, that much is mined every 15 days.

Still, over time, analysts predict, junior miners likely will play a bigger role, and possibly help bring commodity prices back to earth. That is because they are willing to operate in higher-risk areas, as many big players focus more on mergers and acquisitions than on developing new mines.

The juniors also are increasing spending more quickly to hunt new deposits. According to Metals Economics Group, a Nova Scotia research firm, juniors have accounted for 57 percent of the $3.2 billion increase in exploration spending world-wide since 2002. Last year, they accounted for 63 percent of the increase, a figure many analysts believe will keep climbing.

Some investors worry the sudden emergence of more juniors, at a time when the rest of the mining industry is consolidating, suggests a commodity bubble could be developing. Some smaller companies, which include United Kingdom-listed Vedanta Resources PLC, Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. of Canada and Equinox Minerals Ltd. of Australia, didn't exist a few years ago, and many are flush with cash invested by speculators.

For now, the risk of a glut seems slim. Demand continues to outpace supply for many minerals, and analysts say, more junior exploration successes are needed just to prevent prices from going higher.

Events in central Africa's "Copper Belt" spotlight the juniors' bigger role.

The region – which includes Zambia and the Congo, formerly known as Zaire – once was one of the world's biggest copper suppliers. In the 1970s, those two countries produced more than a million tons a year, more than 10 percent of global output.

Corruption, political unrest and mismanagement of state-owned mines drove foreign investors away. In the Congo, upheavals that killed as many as four million people in recent decades intensified in the 1990s. By 2000, Zambia was producing less than 286,000 tons a year; Congo's output fell to almost nothing.

First Quantum smelled opportunity amid the gloom. "It's like the old story: If you want to shoot elephants, you have to go where the elephants are," says Matt Pascall, a U.K. citizen born in Zimbabwe who now serves as First Quantum's director of operations near the Zambia-Congo border.

First Quantum has a market capitalization of 4.1 billion Canadian dollars (US$3.65 billion). The shares have risen 67 percent in Toronto this year and 57 percent in London.

Philip Pascall, Matt Pascall's brother, founded the company in the mid-1990s after a hunting trip in the region. With cash raised in part through a South African bank, his first target was Bwana Mkubwa, a decrepit mining operation near the Congo border that Zambian officials had closed in the 1980s. The area lacked reliable electricity and paved roads.

In 2001, copper prices fell to multiyear lows. Anglo American, the big miner that also had invested in Zambian mines in the late 1990s, decided to bail out after more than $500 million in losses.

First Quantum had no other major assets, so it stayed. Now, copper prices are about five times higher, at just under $3.50 a pound on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up from less than 70 cents a pound in 2001. First Quantum is riding high, with two mines in operation and others in development. The company reported net profit of $205 million in the first half of this year, up 265 percent.

First Quantum is particularly bullish on a mine called Kansanshi, near the town of Solwezi. The site was mined in the early 1900s and includes a graveyard filled with the bodies of early European prospectors who died of malaria. The mine has been largely abandoned in recent years. First Quantum is spending $70 million to upgrade processing facilities there, with plans to crank out as much as 165,000 tons next year, up from 77,000 last year and none in 2004.

A few years ago, "this place was dormant," says Probby Chama, 35-year-old manager of Janki Enterprises, a dry-goods store that supplies the Kansanshi mine. Since 2000, his sales have more than doubled.

Environmental activists and labor advocates fear that companies in places like Africa are able to sidestep basic environmental and safety standards. They also contend that it is almost impossible to operate in the Copper Belt without paying bribes. Indeed, some areas along the Zambia-Congo border are a wasteland of clear-cut forests, belching smokestacks and assorted industrial activity. Several mining projects, including one First Quantum holds a small stake in, have suffered work-related fatalities.

First Quantum officials say they follow international environmental and financial standards established by the World Bank and say they haven't had any fatalities at facilities they operate. The company also says it doesn't pay bribes and has established its own international border crossings, which help it bypass bribe-taking government agents at official border stations. Mr. Pascall says executives take Canadian diplomats with them when they meet government officials to discourage extortion.

Thanks in part to First Quantum's investments, Zambia is inching back to its 1970s copper-output levels, and a host of other companies, as well as some Chinese investors, are making their way into the region. Analysts believe output from Zambia and Congo combined could exceed a million tons of copper in a few years.

Meanwhile, high prices could begin to lure some of the mining giants back as well. Phelps Dodge, for example, has started work on one of the world's largest undeveloped copper mines, called Tenke Fungurume, in the Congo, though it isn't clear when production will begin.

Mexican mining company Grupo Mexico said Wednesday it plans to raise its copper production through expansions in Mexico and Peru.

In a press release, Grupo Mexico said its subsidiary Southern Copper Corp. (PCU) has concluded studies on its Tia Maria project in southern Peru, which will produce copper cathode using the SX-EW process.

The Tia Maria project is expected to take two years to complete, and coupled with an expansion at the Cananea mine in northwestern Mexico, could increase output by 110,000 metric tons a year.

The company said that it expects to make decisions on the Los Chancas project in Peru and El Arco in Mexico by the end of November.

All the projects combined could raise copper output by 470,000 metric tons, and molybdenum production by 20 million pounds, within about four years, the company said.

Grupo Mexico produced 690,000 metric tons of copper in 2005. In the first half of 2006, output was down 13.8% from the year-ago period to 285,000 metric tons, affected by strikes at La Caridad and Cananea mines.