SA platinum market to remain uncertain during 2014 – by Leandi Kolver (MiningWeekly.com – January 7, 2014)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The South African platinum market is expected to remain unpredictable during 2014, but might not be as volatile as it was in 2013, Deloitte associate director Dr Jacek Guzek said on Tuesday.

He stated that the major issues, which kept the industry in crisis over the past two years, such as the unchanged platinum group metals (PGMs) basket price and the ever-increasing wage bill, still persisted.

“South African production in 2014 is either going to stagnate or decrease further. The platinum industry is in crisis for a second year going and there is no end in sight,” Guzek told Mining Weekly Online.

He explained that the industry crisis impacted negatively on production as it led to the systemic holding back of expansion capital by junior and major PGM producers, while, simultaneously, existing mines were becoming older, deeper and more difficult to mine.

Guzek added that the country would also still be faced with labour issues during the course of the year.

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Intel says its processors are now free of minerals from mines held by armed groups in Congo – by Peter Svensson (The Republic – January 07, 2014)

http://www.therepublic.com/ [Columbus, Indiana]

LAS VEGAS — Intel Corp., the world’s largest maker of computer processors, says its processors are now free of minerals from mines held by armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

It’s the first major U.S. technology company to make such a claim about its products. It’s the fruit of four years of work by the company to determine the sources of four crucial metals widely used in electronics manufacturing: tantalum, tungsten, tin and gold.

Eastern Congo is rich in minerals, and economic activity other than mining has been disrupted by nearly two decades of fighting between the government, rogue soldiers and different ethnic groups. There’s been widespread concern that foreign purchases of minerals from mines held by armed groups are fueling the conflict, though many experts say the minerals are not the root cause of the fighting.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich made the announcement Monday in a keynote speech ahead of the opening of the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

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Amnesty International News Release: USA: Reject legal threat to lifesaving Conflict Minerals Rule

http://www.amnesty.org/en

January 6, 2014 – US corporate interests must not be allowed to invalidate the Conflict Minerals Rule, which requires companies to investigate and disclose whether their products contain certain minerals that help fund armed groups in mineral-rich countries in Africa, said Amnesty International today.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will hear a challenge by three industry groups against the rule on Tuesday. Amnesty International joined the lawsuit to support the rule.

“This legal challenge to the Conflict Minerals Rule is nothing but a crass effort by industry groups to put profits ahead of principles,” said Steven Hawkins, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA.

“The rule was required by Congress to save lives and stop human rights abuses by curbing the flow of funding to armed groups operating with impunity in the areas these minerals are mined – in Democratic Republic of the Congo and other central African countries.” The Conflict Minerals Rule was required by the US Congress in 2010 as part of a raft of measures to reform business practices after the 2008 economic downturn.

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Why many of Ghana’s gold miners are giving up – by Matthew Davies (BBC News – December 29, 2013)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/

Ghana – Kwaku Boham worries about the future. For years, he and his four fellow gold miners have scratched out a living on a tiny plot next to the roadside near Tarkwa in south-western Ghana.

All day in the tropical heat and humidity, they dig out the red soil and rocks and crush them in a noisy grinder, hoping to yield some small nuggets to cover their expenses and feed their families.

But they have no control over what they sell any nuggets for – that’s set in markets in New York and London. And over the past year, the price of gold has been falling.

On 1 January this year, the spot price of gold was $1,687.22 an ounce, this month it has been trading around $1,240 an ounce – a loss of around 25%. The outlook for 2014 is not much healthier. The reason gold is losing its lustre is that global economies are looking a lot healthier than they did a year ago.

The US economy grew by 3.6% in the third quarter of 2013, its best performance in 18 months, while unemployment, which hit a 26-year high at 10% in 2009, dropped to 7% last month – a five-year low.

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Tanzania: Gold Mine Boosts Villagers’ Livelihoods – by Mugini Jacob (All Africa.com – January 3, 2014)

http://allafrica.com/

Tarime — TARIME District Council has said it is now seeing remarkable development in the villages surrounding the North Mara Gold Mine at this time compared to the past.

Located in Nyamongo area, North Mara Gold Mine is one of Tanzania’s largest gold mines operated by African Barrick Gold (ABG) “There are big things happening in Nyamongo.

Nyamongo of today is not Nyamongo of the past”, Tarime District Council Chairman Mr Amos Sagara told a full council meeting at the District Council Conference Hall recently.

The latest full council meeting which sat to discuss development issues was attended by all Tarime councillors including those hailing from the villages around the mine and senior government experts based in the area.

The top council leader commended ABG, Tanzanian largest gold producer for speeding up implementation of Villages Benefits Implementation Agreements (VBIA’s) signed between the mine and surrounding villages late 2011.

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Friedland raises industry ire over wages claim – by David McKay (MiningMx.com – December 20, 2013)

http://www.miningmx.com/

[miningmx.com] – IVANHOE Mines president and flamboyant mining promoter, Robert Friedland, has raised the ire of his platinum industry counterparts in South Africa following comments to reporters that his company would outstrip wages paid to miners on his company’s Flatreef platinum project in South Africa by an “order of magnitude”.

“In a platinum mine in South Africa today, you have to crawl on your hands and knees on that broken rock for several hundred metres to get to the working phase,” Friedland said at a conference in a report by Reuters.

“It’s pretty claustrophobic, the men are working with muscle power, they are getting silicosis, they are breathing what they are drilling and they are tired of doing it for $12 (R120) a day. I don’t think they are going to do it for much longer, and I don’t think they should.”

“You have heard of blood diamonds for example, or Apple getting criticised for what people get paid, or you see Gap stores get worried for what people get paid in Bangladesh for sewing your clothing. Similarly it is just not viable to pay these workers $12 a day,” he said.

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Turkey imposes restriction on its biggest ferrochrome producer – by Charlotte Mathews (Business Day – December 20, 2013)

http://www.bdlive.co.za/

TURKEY has imposed power restrictions on the country’s biggest ferrochrome producer, Eti Krom, which some analysts hope will help to support prices for one of South Africa’s biggest industries. In 2012, South Africa was the world’s second-largest ferrochrome producer, having lost first place to China largely because of rising Eskom electricity tariffs and power shortages.

South Africa’s biggest ferrochrome producers are Glencore Xstrata in a joint venture with Merafe Resources; International Ferro Metals, which is listed in London; Samancor Chrome; Hernic Ferrochrome; ASA Metals; and Mogale Alloys, owned by Afarak Group (formerly Ruukki Group).

Turkey ranks among the world’s top 10 producers. Ferrochrome is mostly used in stainless steel, whose production is forecast to rise about 5.5% a year for the next few years, as it is closely correlated with global gross domestic product growth. However, ferrochrome prices have been weak recently because of a slowdown in the Chinese economy coupled with growing Chinese production.

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African Barrick to compensate assault victims – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – December 20, 2013)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

JOHANNESBURG — A Canadian-owned gold company says it is giving cash payments and other compensation to 14 women who were sexually assaulted by police and security guards at its controversial North Mara gold mine in Tanzania.

African Barrick Gold, a subsidiary of Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp., says it spent two years questioning more than 200 people in an independent investigation of the sexual-assault allegations, which were first disclosed by Barrick in 2011. “Fourteen women are presently receiving remediation packages,” the company said in a statement to The Globe and Mail on Thursday.

“Although the exact components of each package depends on the individual claimant, they have included cash compensation, sponsored employment to provide job training, financial and entrepreneurial training, education expenses for claimants’ children, relocation expenses, home improvements, health insurance for claimants and their families, and counselling services.”

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Numsa will now recruit from mining sector, says Jim [South Africa mining unions conflict] – by Matuma Letsoalo (Mail and Guardian – December 18, 2013)

http://mg.co.za/ [Johannesburg, South Africa]

Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim has declared war on the National Union of Mineworkers, saying it will recruit openly in the mining industry.

National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) general secretary Irvin Jim has declared war on its sister union – the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) – saying his union would now recruit openly in the mining industry and welcome NUM members who wanted to join Numsa.

In a move that is intended to appeal to the mining community, Numsa on Wednesday asked its members to donate anything from R100 towards the Marikana Trust, to support families of the 34 miners who were killed by police in August last year.

The NUM, which has been accused by workers of having close ties with mining companies, has lost thousands of workers to rival union Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu). As a results of this, the union lost its prime status as Cosatu’s largest union to Numsa.

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Decline Shutters [South African] Mines – by Paul Burkhardt (Bloomberg News – December 17, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

A half-dozen unemployed workers from the Blyvooruitzicht gold mine southwest of Johannesburg finish off the last scraps of a slaughtered cow in the searing October heat. Since losing their jobs in August, meals have become much less predictable.

The men stand near a small wood fire as the sun shines off a hill of extracted earth, in sight of a housing block that was supposed to be vacated. One holds a jaw bone over the flame, nibbles the meat off, and tosses the rest into a rusty barrel. What’s left of the carcass with its entrails spilling out is starting to dry at their feet.

The scene, resembling something from an apocalypse film out of Hollywood, is an extreme example of the impact gold’s 25 percent drop this year may have on towns around the world that are dependent on the precious metal. Mining companies have announced plans to shutter mines or reduce operations from Nevada and Peru to Papua New Guinea in the Pacific Ocean, as gold heads toward its first annual loss in 13 years.

Blyvooruitzicht’s name means “happy prospect” in Afrikaans. These days that’s not such a sure thing. The mine’s most recent operator, Johannesburg-based Village Main Reef Ltd., cut funding and closed it last summer, letting go the remaining 1,700 workers. Plunging prices made it difficult to profitably extract gold, especially with electricity prices soaring and workers demanding higher wages.

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Zimbabwe: Mugabe Uses Zanu-PF Conference to Rage and Threaten [miners] – by Alex Bell (All Africa.com – December 16, 2013)

http://allafrica.com/

ZANU PF’s ageing leader used the party’s conference this weekend to rage against the West, his old partners in government, the country’s economic position, the mining sector and more.

The 89 year old also moved to threaten some players in the country’s platinum and gold sectors, repeating calls to ban raw mineral exports. “We should not continue to send our minerals out in their raw form,” Mugabe told delegates at the party’s annual conference in Chinoyi.

He singled out Zimplats, a subsidiary of platinum-mining multinational Implats, for “externalising” raw platinum ore. “Zimplats has been exporting platinum but we have very little by way of earnings. We don’t know where the money is going. We must have our money back.”

Mugabe also said the government was considering slashing the number of diamond miners operating in the country. “We should be looking at the possibility of rationalising the mining of diamonds,” he said. “We have six companies mining diamonds, but of these six only three are really worth talking about. We would also want greater transparency.”

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Only legislation will stop minerals being traded at the expense of human rights – by Zobel Behalal (The Guardian – December 16, 2013)

http://www.theguardian.com/uk

Conflict minerals found in cars, electronics and other products will only be eradicated with new laws and business buy-in

One of the key drivers underpinning some of the world’s worst ongoing violent conflicts over the past few years is the extraction and trade of natural resources.

Recently in the Central African Republic (CAR), the Séléka rebels, who have carried out acts of violence against their people, have taken advantage of the diamonds trade to consolidate their power. This has led to the exclusion of the CAR from the Kimberley process aimed at tackling conflict diamonds.

Meanwhile in the Democratic Republic of Congo the extraction of cassiterite, gold, tungsten and coltan has financed warring factions for the past two decades, in a conflict that has already resulted in millions of victims.

But Africa does not have a monopoly on this kind of problem. In Burma the mining industry was militarised for several decades, with the national army controlling mining sites, business operations and exportation. While in Colombia tantalum, wolframite and gold mines as well as their respective business concerns are controlled and taxed by armed groups.

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Chinese investors warned about African mining risks – by Toh Han Shih (South China Post – December 16, 2013)

http://www.scmp.com/business/commodities

Resource-rich continent attractive to China, but potential investors are told to proceed cautiously

Chinese companies are keen to pour money into mining projects in Africa, but investors have received a fresh warning about the risks in the continent’s mining sector. Speakers at the recent Global Resource Investment Conference in Shenzhen told of some of the problems that can beset projects in resource-rich Africa.

“There are many potential Chinese clients who are interested in investing in mines in Africa, but there are lots of challenges,” said Cindy Pan, a lawyer at international law firm Dentons.

Pan cited poor infrastructure, political instability, corruption, cultural differences, as well as other political and legal risks. She cited the case of a Chinese company that invested in a mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where officials made repeated demands for bribes.

One Chinese company bought a mine in Mozambique, where the acquisition contract included a clause that allowed the government to buy 15 per cent of the mine, Pan said.

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Think You’re Not Part of the Congo Conflict? Check Your Pocket – by Paul Dewar (Huffington Post – December 13, 2013)

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

Paul Dewar is the NDP MP for Ottawa Centre; Official Opposition Foreign Affairs Critic

As we prepare for the holiday season, many of us are thinking about how we can be responsible consumers. The choices we make about where we shop and what we buy have an important impact on the environment and on the people who make the products we enjoy.

Four and a half years ago, I visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo — a place of beauty and heartbreak, mountain gorillas and mass atrocities. For a decade and a half, government forces, rebel groups, and private militias have been competing for control of territory and natural resources.

I spoke with Congolese government officials to see what was being done to enable a future of peace and sustainable development. The most striking response was not an answer but a question — my question, turned back on me: “What are you doing?”

And it was a fair question, because the truth is that the tragedy of the Congo is not merely a Congolese or an African problem. It is our problem — and the reason is probably in your pocket.

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Cutifani vows to restore Anglo American’s iconic status – by Martin Creamer (MiningWeekly.com – December 12, 2013)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani, who this week charted the company’s progress and pathway forward, has vowed to restore its iconic status.

“Anglo American in my 37 years in this industry has been an icon. We intend to put it right back up there,” he said in a media conference call from London.

On Thursday, the the day of the company’s major investor update, Anglo American opened at a higher £13.08 a share on the London Stock Exchange, after investment banker Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce set a “sector outperform” rating on the shares the day before and investment management company Sanford C Bernstein reiterated the “outperform” rating the next day, American Banking & Market News reported.

Analysts at Deutsche Bank last week reiterated a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note to investors, Analyst RN reported. Hosting a presentation to update investors on the London- and Johannesburg-listed company’s strategy, Cutifani said he knew of no other mining major that was in the process of doubling its earnings before interest and taxation (Ebit).

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