Asia Mining – Page 128 – Republic of Mining

COLUMN-China should follow Elvis’s advice for more action, less conversation – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.K. – February 24, 2016)

February 24, 2016

http://uk.reuters.com/

Feb 24 – If you were to pick one thing that would do the most to help embattled commodity producers around the world, dealing with China’s massive over-capacity would probably rank highest.

It’s no secret that China’s surplus capacity in steel, aluminium, cement, flat glass and other intermediate commodities is keeping prices low and threatening the viability of global resource companies, as well as the health of the Chinese economy.

There certainly have been repeated statements from Beijing that the issues are being tackled, and it appears the authorities have realised that excess capacity is a far bigger threat than what it was during the prior boom years, when double-digit economic growth rates masked mounting problems.

COLUMN-Governments’ bull policies for bear markets hurt commodities – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.K. – February 22, 2016)

February 22, 2016

http://uk.reuters.com/

Feb 22 – One of the problems for embattled resource companies is that the legislative environment in which they exist is often no longer reflective of the reality of the current, or likely future, markets in which they compete.

In other words, government policymakers quite often have laws, taxes and regulations designed for a bull market when a bear market is in place, and vice versa.

While it’s easy to have a shot at politicians, in their defence, it can be the case that by the time they manage to go through the protracted processes of introducing new rules and regulations, the situation they envisaged has been substantially altered.

Indonesia’s minerals sector is a good recent example, but not the only one, of how even policies that were relatively well designed and had reasonable aims can backfire because the market has changed.

China’s Africa Dream Isn’t Dead – by HUANG HONGXIANG, ZANDER ROUNDS and XIANSHUANG ZHANG (Foreign Policy – February 18, 2016)

February 18, 2016

http://foreignpolicy.com/

Despite falling investment in the continent, Chinese entrepreneurs, investors, and wanderers are digging in.

NAIROBI, KENYA — Jeff Kiarie was guarding a Chinese mine back in early 2014 near Arusha, Tanzania when Chinese managers and investors picked up and left, leaving their excavators, tractors, and wheel loaders behind, offering no explanation.

“They couldn’t just leave so many machines here,” Kiarie, the lone Tanzanian now guarding thousands of tons of Chinese mining equipment, says he reasoned.

But that’s exactly what seems to have happened; Kiarie’s mine remains abandoned, and other Chinese operations on the African continent seem to be in peril. For years, Western media has covered Chinese trade and investment with the continent somewhat breathlessly; a November 2006 New York Times report declared that Chinese development “looks more like Africa’s future than its past,” and a February 2011 article for the BBC proclaimed that “the Chinese are coming” to Africa.

UPDATE 1-Indonesia to review rules banning metal concentrate exports from 2017 – by Wilda Asmarini (Reuters U.S. – February 16, 2016)

February 17, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

Feb 16 Indonesia will review rules banning exports of partially processed metal ores, including copper and zinc, as the smelters they were intended to develop have not materialized amid low commodity prices, the country’s mining minister said Tuesday.

Indonesia banned metal ore exports in early 2014 to encourage firms to build smelters to create jobs and shift exports from raw materials to higher-value finished metals. However, the ban cost the country, the world’s top nickel ore exporter and a major supplier of bauxite for aluminum, billions of dollars in lost revenue.

Since the ban, many of Indonesia’s nickel and bauxite miners have shelved smelter projects amid falling commodity prices. Up to seven projects are expected to be completed this year.

We should be so lucky as to have China’s crash – by David Olive (Toronto Star – February 16, 2016)

February 17, 2016

http://www.thestar.com/

E-commerce has taken a stronger hold in China than in most major economies. Walt Disney Co.’s $5.5 billion (U.S.) investment in doubling the size of a Disneyland Shanghai, which will re-open in June, is a bet that China’s current tourism decline is an aberration, and that the enlarged park will be profitable as early as 2019.

China is more of a magnet for Taiwanese immigrants than ever, prompting fears in Taipei of a brain drain. More than 600,000 of Taiwan’s 23 million people live at least half the year abroad, about three-quarters of them in China.

And development continues on the world’s biggest megalopolis, Jing-Jin-Ji, connecting Beijing, Tainjin and the Hebei Province, with a population about the size of Japan’s 130 million.

UPDATE 1-Sumitomo Metal Mining to buy 13 pct stake in Morenci mine for $1 bln (Reuters U.S. – February 15, 2016)

February 16, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

Feb 15 Sumitomo Metal Mining, Japan’s second-biggest copper producer, said on Monday it would raise its stake in southeast Arizona’s Morenci open-pit copper mine by buying 13 percent from majority owner Freeport-McMoRan for $1 billion.

The move comes at a time when copper prices are near six-and-a-half-year lows. Last November, the company’s President Yoshiaki Nakazato said it was looking to acquire stakes in copper and gold mines, taking advantage of its sound finances and a slump in commodity prices to sustain future growth.

The acquisition will take Sumitomo Metal’s share in Morenci to 25 percent from 12 percent, while Sumitomo Corp holds 3 percent, leaving Freeport with the rest.

RPT-Iran offers mining riches post-sanctions, but investors cautious – by Eric Onstad (Reuters U.S. – February 14, 2016)

February 16, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Feb 14 Iran’s rich deposits of zinc, copper, gold and other minerals are tempting international investors after the lifting of Western sanctions, but development of the sector will take time and problems will have to be overcome.

A slump in metals prices and uncertainty about working with the Tehran government, which controls virtually all the country’s mines, means that many foreign mining firms are not scrambling to sign deals.

Nevertheless, some agreements have already been struck and other foreign firms have been looking at Iran’s mining and metals sector in the weeks following the scrapping of sanctions as part of a nuclear deal, which went into force last month.

Bad Blood the Color of Rubies – by Eric Konigsberg (New York Magazine – February 11, 2016)

February 16, 2016

http://nymag.com/

A Jewelry Feud, Set In Jaipur and on Madison Avenue

On a recent morning when Siddharth Kasliwal came downstairs, his mother dropped a sheaf of papers on the table in front of him. “Potential brides,” he said later. “There were some party pictures, clippings about their families. My mother is getting impatient. There are 15 to 20 serious candidates, and already in my life I’ve met seven or eight of the girls.”

Siddharth, or Sid to his friends, is 31: handsome, cultured, deferential, occasionally preening — at once humbled and entitled by his privileged birthright as a ninth-generation co-owner of the Gem Palace, India’s most glamorous jewelry business. The Gem Palace was a sleepy favorite, before he was born, of Jackie Kennedy, Marella Agnelli, and Lord Mountbatten, among others.

Now there are satellite boutiques around the world, including in Istanbul, Tokyo, and New York. His father, Munnu, and an uncle, Sanjay, were the public faces of the business for decades.

[Mining Indaba] China, India and Japan court Africa at the mining table – by Lee Mwiti (Mail & Guardian – February 10, 2016)

February 10, 2016

http://mg.co.za/

This year’s Mining Indaba has been cast as taking place under a pall, but not too much has changed, at least not from the perspective of China, cited for much of the turmoil in the global mining industry.

Chinese government officials here in this South African port city gave away little about the Asian giant’s thoughts about its central role in the turbulence, instead focusing on what they said would be better times ahead in what is a highly-cyclical industry.

Zhao Caisheng, a division director at China’s national land and resources ministry, forecast a strong outlook for mining, on the back of developed economies re-industrialising and increasing spending on capital projects, and emerging economies accelerating the industrialisation push.

Ecclestone on the Iranian Mining Market: Potential “Huge” – by Christopher Ecclestone (InvestorIntel.com – February 4, 2016)

February 5, 2016

http://investorintel.com/

As emerging markets go the last great unopened can of beans is Iran. With the removal of international sanctions on trade and investment the rush will be on to get positioned in Iran’s mining scene.

Sure small emerging markets appear from time to time but Iran is a very large economy with enormous export revenues from oil, a highly prospective geological profile and a large and rather well-educated population.

In this piece I shall give a review of the mining activity at the current time and its potential to grow.

Despite being “beyond the pale” the USGS nevertheless continued to produce reports on the Iranian mineralogical scene.

Canada’s Centerra given go-ahead to mine Mongolian gold deposit (Reuters U.S. – February 4, 2016)

February 4, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

Feb 4 Canada’s Centerra Gold Inc has been given the go-ahead from Mongolia’s lawmakers to mine the Gatsuurt Gold deposit after a five-year delay, as the resource-rich country looks to bolster its economic activity and gold reserves.

Mongolia’s once-booming economy has taken a steep slide, with the Asian Development Bank estimating growth in 2015 at less than 3 percent compared with 17.5 percent in 2011. Mongolia hopes to rake in greater revenue this year and stimulate growth by green lighting projects such as Gatsuurt, despite a backlash from some citizens.

The parliament passed a bill granting the country 34 percent ownership of the mine with 1.6 million ounces of probable gold reserves, a government website says. Centerra, which also owns the Boroo mine in Mongolia, will hold the remaining 66 percent of equity.

COLUMN-Bulls may win gold tug-of-war in China, India – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – February 3, 2016)

February 3, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

Feb 3 – Gold’s rally this year has been driven mainly by what may be termed Western factors, namely buying on the back of worries over the state of the global economy and the subsequent desire for safe haven assets.

Spot gold has jumped 6.3 percent to around $1,127 an ounce since the start of year, bringing out bullish views that the yellow metal’s dark years since the peak near $2,000 in September 2011 are finally over.

Falling equity markets, both in developed and developing markets, credit and currency worries in China and monetary easing from major central banks other than the U.S. Federal Reserve have made gold look more attractive.

India’s new mineral policy likely to offer incentives for explorers – by Ajoy K Das (MiningWeekly.com – February 3, 2016)

February 3, 2016

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

KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – India’s proposed New Mineral Policy (NMP) is expected to offer a slew of monetary incentives to private domestic and foreign companies to undertake mineral exploration activities across at least 100 mineral blocks across the country.

The NMP, the details of which were not yet in the public domain, was slated to be unveiled within the next few months, and was expected to offer investors in mineral exploration projects an assured revenue stream even if they decided not to undertake mining operations post discovery of resources.

To further sweeten deals for exploratory investments, in the case that no significant or economically viable discovery post exploration was made, investors would be entitled to reimbursement of exploration expenses based on pre-determined parameters.

Commodities Crash Washes Up In Korea – by Tim Treadgold (Forbes Magazine – February 2, 2016)

February 3, 2016

http://www.forbes.com/

Two of Korea’s biggest companies, Samsung and Posco , are feeling the pain of the commodities-price crash which has devastated the mining and oil industries.

Samsung, a broadly diversified industrial business, has been hit by a loss associated with building an iron ore mine in Australia. Posco, a steel maker, from being an investor in the same mine.

The project causing problems for the Korean corporate giants is Roy Hill, a mine controlled by one of Australia’s richest people, Gina Rinehart.

Iran Looking To Ramp Up More Than Just Oil Production – by Andrew Topf (Oil Price.com – February 2, 2016)

February 3, 2016

http://oilprice.com/

As the oil markets remain focused on the re-emergence of Iran as a major oil producer following the recent lifting of sanctions, another oversupply storm is brewing as the Islamic Republic appears keen to start mining its substantial metals reserves.

On January 17 Iran emerged from years of economic isolation as world powers lifted sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear weapons ambitions. The controversial deal, stickhandled by U.S. President Obama, will free up tens of billions of assets and allow foreign firms to do business with a country once (and still by its enemies) considered an international pariah.

The addition of 500,000 barrels of oil a day could further depress the price of crude oil which is struggling to break through a resistance level in the low-$30s, although there have been rumblings lately that Iran may increase output more gradually than initially thought, in order to prevent adding downward pressure on prices.