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Lundin mulls interest from multiple parties on Tenke copper mine – by Susan Taylor (Reuters U.S. – June 9, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

TORONTO – Lundin Mining Corp is weighing interest from “multiple parties” for its stake in the Tenke Fungurume copper mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chief Executive Paul Conibear said on Thursday.

In June, Tenke mine operator Freeport-McMorRan Inc agreed to sell its majority stake to China Molybdenum for $2.65 billion to help cut its debt.

Lundin has a 24 percent stake in the mine and the right of first offer on any sale. Last month it hired the Bank of Montreal to help it consider its options. Freeport owns 56 percent of Tenke, one of the world’s largest copper deposits. Congo’s state mining firm Gecamines owns a 20 percent stake.

Lundin could do nothing and allow the China Moly deal to proceed, supplant the offer, or sell its stake.

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Money from Afghanistan’s ‘conflict jewels’ fuels war – activists – by Josh Smith and Mirwais Harooni (Reuters U.K. – June 7, 2016)

http://uk.reuters.com/

KABUL – The illegal mining of some of Afghanistan’s most important minerals is funnelling millions of dollars into the hands of insurgents and corrupt warlords, according to activists and officials who say the money is fuelling the conflict.

The mountains of Afghanistan hold as much as $1 trillion (£693.58 billion) to $3 trillion in mineral resources, according to estimates by the U.S. and Afghan governments, including world-famous lapis lazuli, a deep blue, semi-precious stone that has been mined in northern Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province for thousands of years.

“In the current circumstances, where 50 percent of the mining revenue is going to the Taliban, and before that it was going to armed groups, by any reasonable definition lapis is a conflict mineral,” said Stephen Carter, a researcher for Global Witness, a non-profit watchdog that investigates the links between natural resources, corruption and conflict.

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Mindanao miners reel from [Philippines] President-elect’s remarks (Business World – June 6, 2016)

http://www.bworldonline.com/

Manila, Philippines – OFFICIALS of some of the biggest miners in the country yesterday professed agreement with the next administration’s avowed policy of holding those exploiting the country’s mineral resources more accountable for environmental damage they may cause, but stocks of some of those with Mindanao operations yesterday bared investor jitters.

Global Ferronickel Holdings, Inc.; Manila Mining Corp. and Marcventures Holdings, Inc. yesterday saw substantial drops in their stock prices as trading ended after President-elect Rodrigo R. Duterte warned companies whose operations threaten the environment — particularly those in mineral-rich Mindanao — to upgrade their practices or face closure.

Stock prices of Global Ferronickel, Manila Mining and Marcventures fell 2.22% to 88 centavos, 7.14% to 1.3 centavos and 4.26% to P1.80 apiece, respectively, even as the bourse’s 17-stock mining and oil sectoral index to which they belong gained 0.13%.

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Chinese mining companies feel misled by Canada, report says – by Dean Beeby (CBC News Politics – June 07, 2016)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/

Some of China’s resource companies feel they have been misled by investment-seeking Canadian governments about just how difficult it is to establish successful mines in Canada, Ottawa’s ambassador to Beijing has warned.

That sour note may help to explain declines in Chinese investment in Canada in favour of the United States, and serves as a backdrop to recent diplomatic jousting between the two countries. An internal report last October by Ambassador Guy Saint-Jacques details a raft of complaints from an official with the China Mining Council about the unwanted surprises some mining companies encountered in Canada.

Wang Jiahua’s “concerns seem to centre mostly in what he called less-developed, remote areas, where climate is harsh, infrastructure is less developed, and workforce is scarce,” Saint-Jacques wrote.

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Centerra dispute escalates as executives barred from leaving Kyrgyzstan – by Peter Koven (Financial Post – June 7, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

TORONTO — The dispute between Centerra Gold Inc. and Kyrgyzstan has escalated to disturbing levels, with the Kyrgyz launching a new criminal probe and barring several of the miner’s employees from leaving the country.

The move is the latest salvo in an ongoing cat-and-mouse battle involving the prized Kumtor gold mine. Toronto-based Centerra raised the stakes a week ago when it launched an international arbitration case against the Kyrgyz government, and the state is now answering with force.

“Retaliation by Kyrgyz authorities is not unexpected, but suggests that a negotiated settlement, as achieved in previous disputes, may be unattainable,” BMO Capital Markets analyst Andrew Breichmanas said in a note, which he titled “Well, That Escalated Quickly.”

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Greed, Corruption and Danger: A Tarnished Afghan Gem Trade – by Mujib Mashal (New York Times – June 5, 2016)

http://www.nytimes.com/

KABUL, Afghanistan — The local people called the militia’s takeover of the giant lapis mine in northeastern Badakhshan Province a white coup — easy and bloodless. Perhaps, but the seizure has become a lesson in how the lack of accountability and rule of law in Afghanistan can turn bounty into ruin.

Riding waves of excitement after a 2010 report by the United States military that Afghanistan’s mineral wealth could be worth as much as $1 trillion, the Lajwardeen Mining Company won a 15-year contract in 2013 to extract lapis lazuli in Badakhshan. For thousands of years, Afghanistan has been one of the chief sources of lapis lazuli, a prized blue gemstone associated with love and purity and admired by poets as well as jewelers.

Valued at about $125 million a year in 2014, the lapis trade had the potential to be worth at least double that, and Lajwardeen, owned by an Afghan family in the import-export business for three generations, saw a great opportunity.

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Philippine President-Elect Duterte Warns Miners on Environment – by Ian C Sayson and Andreo Calonzo (Bloomberg News – June 5, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte has warned mining companies whose operations threaten the environment to either upgrade their practices or face closure.

“Mining people must shape up,” Duterte told supporters Saturday at a Davao City concert celebrating his May 9 election victory. Much of what they do now, “especially in Surigao,” is problematic. “They have to stop. They are spoiling the land. They are destroying Mindanao.”

Mindanao, Duterte’s home and the second-largest Philippine island, is estimated to sit on $300 billion worth of mineral deposits, from nickel, copper to gold. The region is mostly undeveloped due to a combination of government neglect and decades of insurgency from leftists and Islamic separatists.

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Duterte to big miners: “you have to stop;” small miners: “we will support you” – by Carolyn O. Arguillas (Minda News.com – June 5, 2016)

http://www.mindanews.com/

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/05 June) — Large-scale firms engaged in destructive mining in Mindanao have no place under the Duterte administration as President-elect Rodrigo Duterte vowed to give priority and assistance to small-scale miners who will band into a cooperative. “The mining people must shape up,” said Duterte, citing the destruction wrought by big mining firms, especially in Surigao. “You have to stop,” he said.

Addressing thousands of residents and out-of-town visitors who attended the “One Love. One Nation” thanksgiving party at the Crocodile Park on Saturday night, Duterte said of these big mining firms, many of them Manila-based but operating in Mindanao: “They’re spoiling the land. They’re destroying Mindanao.”

What is more painful, he added, is that even the Moro people who have been marginalized due to historical injustices, remain along the marginal side of business endeavors in Mindanao.”

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Chinese mining giants join forces to create new industry behemoth – by Zhong Nan (China Daily – June 3, 2016)

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/

China Minmetals Co, one of the country’s largest mining groups by asset value and overseas projects, merged with China Metallurgical Group Co on Thursday, creating a new conglomerate bigger than the asset value of any of the three global giant mining companies－BHP Billiton Ltd, Rio Tinto Group and Vale SA.

After the merger, China Metallurgical, the largest metallurgical engineering contractor and service provider in the country, will become a wholly owned subsidiary of China Minmetals. The company will no longer be directly administered by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.

Before the merger, China Minmetals had overseas operations in 34 countries and regions.The new company will have 240,000 employees, 29 national-level research and development centers and institutes, and different types of mines in Africa, Australia, Latin America and Asia.

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NEWS RELEASE: Iran in talks with giants on mining plans (PressTV – June 2, 2016)

http://www.presstv.ir/

Iran said on Thursday that it is discussing with several global industrial giants over investments in the country’s key mining projects.

Mehdi Karbasian, the managing director of the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO), has been quoted by the media as saying that discussions to the same effect are already taking place with Australia’s Rio Tinto as well as European giants Glencore, Trafigura, and Aurubis.

“Glencore and China’s NFC already have business agreements to help develop Iran’s copper industry, Karbasian said earlier this year. Iran hopes to raise its copper concentrates output to as much as 2 million mt/year by 2025 in conjunction with partners, from some 200,000 mt/year at present, as part of a national development plan,” Karbasian has been quoted as telling the reporters in Berlin by Platts.

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Saudi mining hub plays key role in kingdom’s industrial dream – by Katie Paul (Reuters U.S. – June 3, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

RAS AL-KHAIR, Saudi Arabia, June 2 At a sprawling desert complex on Saudi Arabia’s northeastern Gulf coast, refineries, smelters and casting machines transform dull pink rocks into silver aluminium bars, a symbol of the kingdom’s attempt to diversify its economy.

After only two years in operation, the $10.8 billion aluminium project at Ras al-Khair, an industrial city 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of the oil hub of Dammam, is already the world’s largest integrated aluminium facility.

And in coming years, the success of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to build an economy that does not rely on oil and state subsidies will depend partly on what state-controlled Saudi Arabian Mining Co (Ma’aden), which runs the complex, can achieve with it.

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Iran says in talks with Rio, Glencore about copper projects – by Frik Els (National Post – June 1, 2016)

http://www.mining.com/

Iran is stepping up talks with potential foreign investors with an eye to developing its mining and metals industries according to Mehdi Karbasian, president of Imidro a state-owned group pushing for mine development in the country, Platts News reported on Wednesday.

The annual value of Iran’s mining and metals imports and exports only amount to $11.5 billion at the moment, but following the lifting of sanctions last year the country has ambitious plans saying potential revenues from the sector could be worth more than crude oil.

Speaking following the opening of a new Europe-Iran trade center in Berlin, Karbasian said Imidro recently held talks with Australia’s Rio Tinto about new investments in the Middle Eastern nation’s aluminum, steel, copper and gold industries.

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Mitsubishi Materials Apologizes to Chinese World War II Laborers – by Austin Ramzy (New York Times – June 1, 2016)

http://www.nytimes.com/

HONG KONG — The Japanese corporation Mitsubishi Materials apologized on Wednesday to Chinese workers who were forced to work in its predecessor company’s mines during World War II, and it signed an agreement in Beijing to compensate three surviving former laborers.

The agreement represents a rare step toward alleviating lingering anger over Japan’s brutal occupation of China. “The Second World War ended 70 years ago, and our forced labor case today has finally reached a solution,” one of the former laborers, Yan Yucheng, 87, told reporters after the signing. “This is a great victory.”

Nearly 40,000 Chinese men were taken to Japan in the final years of World War II and forced to work in slavelike conditions for 35 companies. Roughly one in five died because of maltreatment.

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Coal industry shouldn’t get carried away with new-found optimism – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – June 1, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

NUSA DUA, INDONESIA – Something has changed in the coal industry. For the past 22 years Asia’s coal producers, traders and buyers have gathered in the Indonesian resort island of Bali to discuss the state of the sector.

In recent years these have been pretty depressing affairs as participants bemoaned the ongoing slump in prices, prayed that things couldn’t get any worse and then lamented when they did.

But this year was different. For the first time since 2012 there was a mood of optimism at the annual Coaltrans Asia meeting. What remains to be seen is whether this new-found view that the worst is past has any basis in reality, or whether it’s just a different type of delusion for the beleaguered coal industry.

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Centerra Gold escalates profit-sharing dispute with Kyrgyzstan to international arbitration – by Peter Koven (Financial Post – June 1, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

TORONTO An ugly feud between Centerra Gold Inc. and the government of Kyrgyzstan is poised to get uglier as the Toronto-based miner has launched an international arbitration case against the state.

It is the first time since 2008 that Centerra felt the need to go to arbitration, and it reflects how toxic the company’s situation is Kyrgyzstan has become.

Last week, a local court fined the company US$98.4 million over its placement of waste rock from the Kumtor gold mine. There was also a separate US$10,000 judgment against the company, and other environmental claims continue to work their way through the court.

Centerra has stated repeatedly that it has done nothing wrong, and is appealing the rulings to a higher court.

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