Asia Mining – Page 126 – Republic of Mining

Australia-India consortium wants to restart historic gold mine – by James Regan (Reuters U.S. – April 11, 2016)

April 11, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

SYDNEY – An Australian-Indian consortium wants to restart gold mining in a district that helped symbolize former British rule in India and produced some 25 million ounces over 150 years before being abandoned due to low bullion prices.

Mining in the Kolar gold field in Karnataka state in Southern India ended in 2001 as gold prices slumped. But a government tender could lead to mining leases held by Bharat Gold Mines Ltd sold to the highest bidder and operations resume.

A restart would come amid resurgent gold prices and steps by India to monetize some of the estimated 20,000 tonnes of gold held by its citizens and slow imports to free up capital to strengthen its economy.

UPDATE 1-Malaysia extends bauxite mining ban by another three months (Reuters U.S. – April 8, 2016)

April 8, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

Malaysia will extend its ban on bauxite mining by another three months, effective April 15, in order to clear stockpiles and remove the risk of the aluminium-making ingredient contaminating the country’s rivers, the environment minister said on Friday.

While lower output at the world’s top exporter of bauxite threatens to interrupt supply to the world’s biggest aluminium producer, China, traders expect the impact to be limited given China’s ample stocks of the raw material.

Malaysia’s largely unregulated bauxite mining industry has boomed in the past two years to meet demand from China, filling in a supply gap after Indonesia banned exports, but the frenetic pace of digging has led to a public outcry with many complaining of water contamination and destruction of the environment.

India Could Be Sitting on a Gold Mine – by David Fickling (Bloomberg News – April 7, 2016)

April 7, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Gold is so popular in India that it’s created an economic problem for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The country vies with China as the world’s biggest buyer of gold jewelry, thanks in large part to its cherished status in marriage ceremonies. Imports of the metal came to $35 billion last year, and were equivalent to about 43 percent of the country’s current account deficit in the September quarter.

In November, Modi launched a program to lure private gold holdings onto the market by getting banks to offer interest on items deposited in their vaults. If he really wants to limit the amount of gold imported into the country, here’s a smarter way of doing it: Make it easier to produce the stuff domestically.

At the start of the 20th century, India was the world’s sixth-biggest gold producer, according to the country’s Geological Survey.

Iron ore revival throws shaky lifeline to small miners – by Manolo Serapio Jr. (Reuters U.S. – April 1, 2016)

April 1, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

A surprise spike in iron ore prices this year is shaking out fresh supplies of the steelmaking raw material, but some miners say it is too soon to aggressively restart production shuttered by a years-long price rout.

Iran said it has increased shipments to top iron ore consumer China, while traders have also seen more cargoes from India and Malaysia as material kept idled in warehouses and ports is pushed out to buyers to take advantage of the price spurt.

Iron ore .IO62-CNI=SI ended January-March with a 24 percent gain after pushing above $50 a tonne, far outpacing gold that had its best quarter in three decades. The steelmaking raw material is still the top performing commodity this year despite falling 16 percent from last month’s peak, but the wild swings have kept miners wary about the longevity of the price recovery.

As China turns to consumers, Australia confronts end of iron age – by Michael Heath (Sydney Morning Herald – April 1, 2016)

April 1, 2016

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

Just as China’s industrialisation helped reshape our economy, the Asian giant’s move toward consumer-led growth is challenging it anew.

Chinese demand for food and energy will only partly offset slowing growth in iron ore exports that funnelled cash here for more than a decade, according to the RBA. That means the economy must find new growth drivers at a time when cooling housing market and a resurgent currency compound difficulties posed by the slowdown in the nation’s biggest trading partner.

RBA Governor Glenn Stevens acknowledged last week it’s impossible to know how China’s transition will unfold, given nothing on the scale has been tried before. His comments signalled the risks ahead for Australia, the economy most dependent on China in the developed world. Minutes from the RBA’s March 1 board meeting — where interest rates were kept at a record low 2 per cent — showed a bigger chunk of policy makers’ time was spent discussing China.

Indonesian Group Said to Prepare $2 Billion Newmont Mine Bid – by Joyce Koh, Fathiya Dahrul and Elffie Chew (Bloomberg News – April 1, 2016)

April 1, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

An Indonesian consortium led by veteran investment banker Agus Projosasmito is preparing to offer about $2 billion for control of Newmont Mining Corp.’s operations in the country after lining up bank financing, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The investor group plans to bid for about 80 percent of local operating company PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara over the next week at the earliest, the people said, asking not to be named before an announcement.

It is poised to borrow about $1 billion from banks including BNP Paribas SA, Malayan Banking Bhd. and Societe Generale SA, as well as state-owned lenders PT Bank Negara Indonesia and PT Bank Mandiri, according to the people.

BLOOD DIAMOND: India has to choose between saving its tigers or becoming one of the largest diamond producers – by Manu Balachandran and Madhura Karnik (Quartz India – March 30, 2016)

March 31, 2016

http://qz.com/

India has a tough choice to make. Will it be a Rs20,520 crore ($3 billion) diamond mining project or one of the world’s most beautiful wild beasts and nearly 1,000 hectares of pristine forest with other exotic flora and fauna?

For close to a decade, this question has riled decision-makers in the country as they have weighed the pros and cons of letting Rio Tinto, one of the world’s largest mining companies, look for diamonds under the Chhatarpur forests in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

Now, India’s forest advisory committee—a statutory body in charge of environmental clearance—is deliberating the proposal to award the final clearance. Once the committee gives its final say, the environment ministry seldom rejects those recommendations.

Thousands Rally in Mongolia Over Foreign Mining Concessions (New York Times – March 30, 2016)

March 30, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/

The Associated Press – ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia — A rare public protest in Mongolia’s capital on Wednesday drew thousands of demonstrators who criticized foreign mining concessions and demanded action to prop up the tottering economy.

More than 2,000 demonstrators in Ulaanbaatar’s Freedom Square also called for parliament to be dissolved and a new government formed over alleged corruption and the economic crisis battering the vast, landlocked nation.

Protesters say the mineral wealth that accounts for 94 percent of the nation’s exports has been exploited by foreign companies, with few benefits going to Mongolia’s 3 million people, one-third of whom live in poverty.

This people’s movement is posing a challenge to Goa’s mining mafia – by Amita Kanekar (Daily News & Analysis India – March 30, 2016)

March 30, 2016

http://www.dnaindia.com/

The ironies of the so-called development of Goa are indeed unlimited. On the one hand, the government and elites of this state hard-sell it to India as a place of unlimited ‘good times’, to be used for holidaying, partying, drinking, gambling and so on , the price of which is paid in many ways by common Goans.

On the other, the Bahujan communities, esp. Bahujan Christians whose culture is sold as Goa’s tourism USP, are painted as anti-nationals by the Goan elites when they ask for their Konkani—i.e. Roman script Konkani—to be recognised as one of Goa’s languages, or even for English-medium education for their children.

As for the physical landscape of Goa, hyped as paradisiacal for consumption by largely Indian tourists, is disappearing before our very eyes.

INTERVIEW-India to rely on state miners to meet coal target – minister – by Tommy Wilkes (Reuters U.K. – March 28, 2016)

March 29, 2016

http://uk.reuters.com/

NEW DELHI, March 28 India will meet its target of doubling coal production by 2020 without the help of private miners, the country’s coal and power minister said, ruling out new measures to entice cash-strapped companies to begin mining the commodity.

India wants to produce 1.5 billion tonnes of coal by 2020 to power its economy and reduce imports. State-owned Coal India Ltd , the world’s largest coal miner, has raised production in line with reaching a target of 1 billion tonnes a year within four years and the government wants private miners to produce much of the remainder.

But only a few companies that won the right to mine coal for their power plants last year have started production as they struggle to recover their costs, while the ministry this month delayed plans to open up commercial mining to private firms because of weak demand and depressed coal prices.

Philippines’ major nickel miner seals China supply deals (Reuters U.S. – March 28, 2016)

March 29, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

MANILA – Global Ferronickel Holdings Inc, the Philippines’ second-biggest nickel ore miner, signed contracts with Chinese buyers, including Baosteel, equivalent to about 90 percent of its nickel ore output target for this year, it said on Monday.

The supply deals as well as efforts to cut operating costs amid the slump in nickel pricessince last year should help the company stay profitable this year, it said. Nickel prices have fallen due to rising stockpiles and weak Chinese demand.

Philippine nickel ore producers, the biggest suppliers to top market China of the metal used in making stainless steel, agreed earlier this month to slash output and exports in 2016 by as much as 20 percent in response to weak prices.

COLUMN-Robust commodity imports don’t tell the whole China story – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.K. – March 23, 2016)

March 23, 2016

http://uk.reuters.com/

The improved sentiment surrounding the outlook for China’s demand for natural resources is being reflected by rising imports for some major commodities, but as usual it pays to be wary when interpreting the numbers.

Customs data released this week shows strong import growth in the first two months of the year in copper and crude oil, a more modest expansion in iron ore and a surge in imports of alumina and bauxite, the main raw materials used to make aluminium.

Taken at face value this lends support to the view that China is heading for a better spring season after a gloomy autumn and winter cast a pall over the outlook for demand in the world’s largest consumer of commodities.

Axiom Mining’s nickel license revoked by Solomon Islands’ court (Reuters U.S. – March 22, 2016)

March 22, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

TOKYO – The development of a large nickel deposit in the Solomon Islands is back to square one this week, as the nation’s highest court ruled that neither of the two firms in Japan and Australia fighting over the discovery were entitled to the license.

The Solomon Islands Court of Appeal on Monday rejected a portion of Sumitomo Metal Mining’s appeal that the country’s government should not have cancelled in 2011 Sumitomo’s license to develop the Isabel nickel laterite discovery.

In the same ruling, the Court of Appeal accepted another portion of the appeal by revoking Axiom Mining’s current license for the Isabel site.

China Hongqiao Is Devouring The Global Aluminum Industry – by Gordon G. Chang (Forbes Magazine – March 20, 2016)

March 21, 2016

http://www.forbes.com/

On the 14th of this month, the chief executive of China Hongqiao Group, the world’s largest aluminum producer, said his company would raise annual capacity by 16% this year, spending 15 billion yuan ($2.3 billion). Zhang Bo’s announcement sent prices of the metal tumbling.

Last year, Hongqiao’s capacity hit 5.2 million tons. This year, the plan is to take that to just a few notches over 6.0 million.

There is already far too much aluminum capacity, both in China and elsewhere, and investors initially did not like Hongqiao’s debt-fueled plan. Shares of the Hong Kong-listed firm fell the following day.

From Oscars to Tuna Cans, Tin Gets More Expensive as Mines Quit – by Joe Deaux (Bloomberg News – March 17, 2016)

March 21, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Smartphones, cars and a prolonged mining slump are creating tighter supplies of tin, a metal used mostly as solder for electrical circuits.

Demand for tin remains strong from all sorts of manufacturers, from makers of food cans and building materials to iPads and Oscar statuettes. At the same time, big exporters like Indonesia and Myanmar are shipping less, following a three-year slump that discouraged investment in mines and smelters.

Supplies in 2016 will be the smallest relative to demand in almost two decades, industry forecasts show. Tin on the London Metal Exchange has surged into a bull market, after prices in January were at their lowest since 2009.