Aluminium/Bauxite – Page 24 – Republic of Mining

Bauxite in Malaysia: The environmental cost of mining (BBC News – January 19, 2016)

January 20, 2016

http://www.bbc.com/

Bauxite mining has become a controversial political issue in Malaysia. As the government implements a temporary ban on extracting the aluminium ore, BBC South-East Asia correspondent Jonathan Head visits the most-affected area.

Amid the monotonous dark green lines of Malaysia’s endless palm oil plantations, there are now vivid red gashes in the hills behind the east coast town of Kuantan. These have appeared only in the past 18 months, as a frenzy of open-cast bauxite mining gripped Pahang province.

Tonnes of bauxite are being transported out of the region. It is the world’s main source of aluminium so is vital for the construction of everything from airplanes to saucepans and cooking foil.

Alcoa smelter closure to bring U.S. aluminum output to post-WWII levels (Reuters U.S. – January 7, 2016)

January 8, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

NEW YORK – Alcoa Inc’s (AA.N) plans to close its 269,000 tonne-per-year Warrick smelter, announced on Thursday, will bring U.S. aluminum output to its lowest level in more than 65 years as the industry endures tumbling prices amid rising trade tensions with China.

Warrick is the largest currently-operating smelter in the United States and the biggest shoe to drop in a string of recent curtailments and closures, potentially boosting prices and possibly bolstering some U.S. producers’ claims they are harmed by subsidized Chinese production.

The Evansville, Indiana plant’s closure, which will take place by the end of the first quarter, will leave Alcoa with just one active smelter: the 130,000 tonne-per-year Massena West plant, which was saved from closure with $70 million in New York state aid.

Malaysia to Ban Bauxite Mining for Three Months – by Biman Mukherji and Celine Fernandez (Wall Street Journal – January 6, 2016)

January 6, 2016

http://www.wsj.com/

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—Malaysia on Wednesday imposed a three-month ban on bauxite mining beginning later this month amid worries over its environmental impact, potentially affecting exports of the aluminum-making ore to Chinese smelters.

Malaysia emerged last year as a major provider of bauxite after leading producer Indonesia banned ore exports to encourage more processing at home.

From January to November, Malaysia exported some 20 million metric tons of bauxite to China, the world’s biggest aluminum producer. That was nearly half China’s total bauxite imports and a sharp increase from 3.25 million tons in the same period in 2014.

Potential Malaysia bauxite ban to chip away at China stockpiles -industry – by Joseph Sipalan and Melanie Burton (Reuters U.S. – January 4, 2016)

January 4, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

KUALA LUMPUR/MELBOURNE, Jan 4 A potential suspension on bauxite mining in Malaysia, the world’s top exporter of the aluminium-making ingredient, could dent stockpiles in China but is unlikely to curb breakneck output in the aluminium sector there, industry and analysts said on Monday.

The Southeast Asian nation is pushing to suspend bauxite output due to concerns over its impact on the environment, threatening to interrupt supply to No.1 aluminium producer China, a cabinet source said at the weekend.

The councillor in charge of the environment for Malaysia’s main producing state of Pahang, Mohd Soffi Abd Razak, told Reuters on Monday that Pahang’s chief minister and the national resources minister would make a joint statement on the issue “very soon”.

Rivers, sea run red in Malaysia as bauxite exports boom – by Joseph Sipalan (Reuters U.S. – December 30, 2015)

January 4, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

KUALA LUMPUR – Rivers and the sea ran red in parts of Malaysia this week after two days of heavy rain brought an increase in run-off from the booming and largely unregulated bauxite mining industry.

Demand from China for the aluminum ingredient has fed a rapid rise in bauxite mining in the third-largest state of Pahang, in the east of peninsular Malaysia, and concern is growing about the impact on the environment.

Media on Wednesday showed images of red seas and rivers near the state capital of Kuantan, the center of the industry and the location of a port from which much of the bauxite is shipped.

Reporters said the sea were discolored along a 15 km (9 mile) stretch of coast.

Rio Tinto to increase aluminium output in 2016 despite global surplus – by Eric Onstad (Reuters U.K. – December 8, 2015)

December 9, 2015

http://uk.reuters.com/

LONDON – Global miner Rio Tinto (RIO.L) plans to boost aluminium production next year by about 10 percent due to productivity improvements, it said on Tuesday, despite a global surplus weighing on prices.

Hard-hit prices will remain under pressure until loss-making producers slash output, Rio said.

Rio (RIO.AX), one of the world’s biggest producers of the metal used in transport and packaging, told a presentation in London that it targeted output of 3.6 million tonnes in 2016.

“Just what the world needs, more aluminium,” said analyst David Gagliano of BMO Capital Markets in a note.

Rio Tinto Now Has a Pair of 60-Year-Old Legal Problems in Canada – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – December 7, 2015)

December 8, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Rio Tinto Group has found trouble on both ends of Canada. The global mining giant is being told it can’t skirt a pair of lawsuits that reach back to projects built in the 1950s, a quarter-century before it first set foot in Canada.

On a single day in October, the Supreme Court of Canada cleared the way for separate aboriginal groups to challenge the future operations of a Rio Tinto hydroelectric dam in British Columbia and an iron-ore mine, with accompanying railway and port, in Quebec and Labrador.

The rulings received scant notice during the final days of a dramatic Canadian election that brought Justin Trudeau and his Liberals to power.

Commentary: The Challenges Are Real, But the US Aluminum Industry Can Still Thrive – by Heidi Brock (Metal Miner – December 3, 2015)

December 3, 2015

http://agmetalminer.com/

Heidi Brock is the President & CEO of the Aluminum Association, based in Arlington, Va.

Like many industries in the global commodities sector, 2015 has been a bit of a roller-coaster for the North American aluminum industry. From highs, such as the release of the aluminum-intensive Ford F-150, to lows like the announced curtailment of some domestic production, this has unquestionably been a year of ups and downs.

However, some recent chatter and reporting suggesting a “collapse” of the US aluminum business, framing ours as an industry “fighting for its life,” are overblown, misjudged and simply incorrect.

It’s time to take a deep breath, tone down the rhetoric and look at the hard facts.

Rio Tinto launches $2.6b bauxite push in Queensland – by Peter Kerr (Sydney Morning Herald – November 27, 2015)

November 27, 2015

http://www.smh.com.au/

Rio Tinto will spend $US1.9 billion ($2.6 billion) growing its exposure to the increasingly lucrative bauxite trade after announcing a redesigned expansion of a massive project in Queensland on Friday afternoon.

Known as the South of Embley project, the expansion has been expected for three successive years, but had so far been deferred by the Rio board.

Rio Tinto chief executive Sam Walsh told Fairfax Media on Friday that the project would have been difficult to approve if it were still in the scope put before the board in 2013, and praised his team for redesigning the project, which has been renamed “Amrun” in a mark of respect to the local indigenous people.

Elliott Confirms Alcoa Stake, Supports Plans to Split Company – by Sonja Elmquist and Joe Deaux (Bloomberg News – November 23, 2015)

November 24, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Normally when an activist investor shows up on a shareholder register it comes with a set of ultimatums. Not with Alcoa Inc., where the arrival of Paul Singer’s Elliott Management Corp. was seen as an endorsement.

Alcoa was the best performer among major metal and mining shares on Monday as Elliott disclosed a 6.4 percent shareholding, saying Chief Executive Officer Klaus Kleinfeld’s plan to split the company in two would “create value substantially above the current share price.”

Elliott, which has sought changes at major companies including Hess Corp. and Samsung Group, built up the Alcoa stake on the assumption that the market was undervaluing its manufacturing business because of the metal price rout, according to people familiar with the transaction, who asked not to be identified discussing non-public information.

Is the curtain coming down on U.S. aluminum smelting? – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – November 24, 2015)

November 24, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – At the end of the last century the United States was home to 22 aluminum smelters, all but one of them operating.

By the end of this year there will be just eight, of which only four will be producing metal, two of them at reduced rates.

The latest round of closures, led by Alcoa, is happening just as the metal’s usage in the United States is set to experience another quantum leap forward.

Aluminum has made steady inroads against steel in the automotive sector, a process that is going to markedly accelerate with the roll-out of the mass-market F-150 pick-up truck.

Tough road ahead for LME’s new steel, aluminum contracts – by Maytaal Angel and Eric Onstad (Reuters U.S. – November 20, 2015)

November 23, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – New steel and aluminum contracts to be launched next week by the London Metal Exchange (LME) are expected to attract initial interest from customers, but building up strong liquidity in the current bear market may be challenging.

The launch on Monday is a key element of a strategy by the LME’s owner, Hong Kong Exchanges and Cleaning (HKEx), to boost profitability at the 138-year-old exchange.

Three new contracts in steel rebar, steel scrap and aluminum premiums will go live nearly three years after HKEx bought the LME for $2.2 billion, pledging to widen the scope of the exchange from its core business in key industrial metals.

Adoption of aluminum in auto industry slower than expected – by Jeff Sanford (Collision Repair Magazine – November 16, 2015)

November 17, 2015

http://www.collisionrepairmag.com/

Toronto, Ontario — November 16, 2015 — Once a quarter the world’s major publicly-traded corporations announce their earnings. Corporate executives appear before the press to offer explanations for exactly why their companies are making or losing money. One story that emerged this past earnings season involves the aluminum sector.

This past earnings season, the CEO of the world’s largest producer of rolled aluminum, Novelis, explained to investors that sluggish business at the company was a result of a slower-than-expected adoption of aluminum by the automotive industry. The big story in the metal sector over the last year has been the shift to wider use of aluminum in the automotive industry.

For decades, high-end vehicles have been made with aluminum. But over the last year the adoption of an aluminum body in the Ford F-150, the best selling car in America, was supposed to mark the beginning of a once-in-history shift from steel to aluminum for more mainstream vehicles.

Diamonds Are Abundant – by Peter Diamandis (Huffington Post – November 16, 2015)

November 17, 2015

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Peter Diamandis is the Chairman/CEO of XPRIZE.

What’s more scarce than perfect diamonds, right? Wrong.

This week, a new company called Diamond Foundry announced that it is able to “grow” hundreds of perfect, “real” diamonds (up to nine carats) in just two weeks in a lab.

Announced “above the line of supercredibility,” with the backing of Leonardo DiCaprio and 10 billionaires, my friend Martin Roscheisen is about to disrupt an industry that has been built on scarcity for centuries.

More details on Diamond Foundry in a second… but in the meantime, this audacious company really begs the question: What is truly scarce?

North Country aluminum giant Alcoa to lay off 500 in Massena and seal its toxins in riverbed – by Brian Nearing (Albany Times Union – November 9, 2015)

November 9, 2015

http://www.timesunion.com/

Massena – An aluminum smelting plant that has operated on the shores of the St. Lawrence River for more than a century is closing, taking with it hundreds of good-paying jobs in the North Country.

But while last week’s announcement by Alcoa means jobs will be lost, a troubled environmental legacy will linger at its sprawling, 2,700-acre Massena Plant at the Canadian border in St. Lawrence County.

Alcoa touts the plant, first opened in 1902, as the longest continually operating aluminum smelter in the world; since the 1950s, the plant has relied on a flood of cut-rate state hydropower provided by the New York Power Authority.

Last week, Pittsburgh-based Alcoa announced it was abandoning plans to modernize its Massena East Plant mothballed two years ago — formerly owned by Reynolds aluminum — and will close its newer Massena West Plant by the first quarter of 2016, throwing 500 people out of work. Smaller facilities at Massena for aluminum casting, forging and extrusions will remain in operation.