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[India]‘Madhya Pradesh copper mine threatens local communities’ – by Shuriah Niazi (Vancouver Desi.com – August 9, 2014)

http://www.vancouverdesi.com/

Malajkhand (Madhya Pradesh), Aug 10 (IANS) — What is said to be Asia’s largest copper mine in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh has become a threat for the tribals and the indigenous communities living in the area, environmentalists charge.

People in the Malajkhand area of the Balaghat district, some 370 km from state capital Bhopal, are suffering from the loss of farmland and the degradation brought about by the mining activities, environmentalists say. Now, the state-owned Hindustan Copper Limited (HCL) plans to more than double its production from two million tonnes per annum (MTPA) to five MTPA after it receives the necessary clearances from the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

Environmentalists fear this will accelerate the destruction of forests and lead to further contamination of the surrounding environment.

The Malajkhand area, 20 km from the Kanha National Park, contains 70 percent of India’s copper reserves and accounts for 80 percent of HCL’s production.

The Centre of Environmental Science and Engineering at the Bhilai Institute of Technology had pointed out that the mineral processing plant in the area is causing serious damage to the environment and harming the health of both humans and animals.

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Indonesia ban on nickel ore, bauxite exports to stay – officials – by Fergus Jensen (Reuters India – August 11, 2014)

http://in.reuters.com/

JAKARTA, Aug 11 (Reuters) – Indonesia has no plans to wind back a seven-month old ban on exports of unprocessed nickel ore and bauxite that has led to billions of dollars in planned investments in smelters, top government officials said.

Indonesia – previously the world’s top exporter of nickel ore and a major bauxite producer – effectively halted all but processed metal shipments in January in an effort to force miners to build smelters, winning the country bigger returns from exports of its mineral resources.

Last month the government allowed a handful of firms producing partially processed minerals such as copper concentrate, including Freeport McMoRan Inc, to resume exports.

However, Indonesia’s chief economic minister Chairul Tanjung said the same rationale does not apply to unprocessed exports of nickel ore and bauxite.

“Nickel is different because if you are smelting in Indonesia the added value is much higher than copper,” Tanjung
told Reuters in a recent interview. “Because of that it’s a separate issue.”

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UPDATE 2-China’s Ramu nickel mine in PNG restarts after attacks – embassy – by Sonali Paul, Melanie Burton and Polly Yam (Reuters India – August 7, 2014)

http://in.reuters.com/

Aug 7 (Reuters) – A Chinese-owned nickel mine in Papua New Guinea has resumed production three days after an attack by armed villagers forced work to halt, a Chinese embassy official in the South Pacific country said on Thursday.

The $2.1 billion mine, forecast to produce 22,000 tonnes of nickel in 2014, is operated by Ramu NiCo, which is majority owned and run by Metallurgical Corporation of China Ltd (MCC) .

Equipment including nine excavators, a fuel truck and a lighting vehicle were burned and five Chinese workers were injured in the attack on Monday, the embassy said, confirming earlier media reports.

“The embassy strongly condemns these brutal attacks and makes urgent request to the PNG Government to take immediate and effective measures to prevent the violence from recurring and ensure the safety of the personnel and properties, and to bring those attackers to justice to deter such criminal acts,” an embassy official said in an emailed response on Thursday.

“With the assistance of the police force, now the situation is under control and the mining production has been resumed.”

Mining and energy projects are the major source of income for Papua New Guinea, but outbreaks of violence sparked by landowner disputes and environmental concerns are not uncommon.

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COLUMN-Coking coal prices set for modest gains, thermal still marooned – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.K. – July 5, 2014)

http://uk.reuters.com/

Clyde Russell is a Reuters columnist. The views expressed are his own.

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Aug 5 (Reuters) – Prices for thermal and coking coal appear poised to diverge, with the power-plant fuel remaining mired in the doldrums and the steel-making ingredient posting modest gains.

The halving of thermal coal prices since early 2011 has grabbed the most attention in the beleaguered industry, but coking coal has actually performed worse, dropping by almost two-thirds since its post-2008 recession peak in mid-2011.

The 2011 high was reached after severe flooding in Queensland state, the main coking coal producer in top exporter Australia.

Both types of coal have been plagued by oversupply, which has swamped the modest increases in demand in top importers China and India.

The problem for thermal coal has been supply hasn’t significantly been cut despite weak prices. Producers in the top two exporters Indonesia and Australia have been instead trying to cut costs and increase volumes in order to boost revenues.

Australian producers have another problem, the so-called “take-or-pay” contracts that commit them to paying for transport costs whether they actually ship coal or not.

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Coal comfort: faster to start mine in Indonesia than here – by Andrew Fraser (The Australian – July 30, 2014)

 http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

PETER Lynch can tell you exact­ly the difference between setting up a mine in Indonesia and Australia — the former takes four years; the latter somewhere between seven and 10. And the cost of producing coal from Indonesia is about two-thirds that from Australia.

Mr Lynch is in a position to know. A veteran mining figure who worked for MIM and other companies, he was the first to realise the potential of the Galilee Basin in central Queensland in 2006. He pegged out 13 explor­ation permits covering 250sq km. In 2010, Clive Palmer made him an offer he couldn’t refuse, paying $130 million for Waratah Coal and control of the project.

Now chief executive of mining company Cokal, Mr Lynch saw potential in Indonesia, and in early 2011 started digging exploratory holes in a remote part of Central Kalimantan. Three years later, he has all his key approvals in place and is finalising his financial backing, with the aim of starting production in September next year — a bit over four years from when he first eyed the area. By contrast, the earliest date for coal to come out of the Galilee Basin is 2017, despite the approvals process starting several years earlier.

Mr Lynch’s tale illustrates the concerns the Business Council of Australia and Hancock Prospecting chairman Gina Rinehart have raised this week about Australia losing its competitive edge because of high labour costs and red tape.

On Monday, Environment Minister Greg Hunt approved Adani’s proposed Carmichael mine in the Galilee Basin, but the Indian company still needs to get approval for the construction of a proposed railway line to Abbot Point.

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What is Harper’s ‘real interest’ in Mongolia? – by Campbell Clark (Globe and Mail – July 28, 2014)

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.

OTTAWA — John Baird was given a ceremonial welcome in Ulan Bator, and invited to try a bow-and-arrow at a festival in the Jargalant Valley. The Foreign Affairs Minister is on a trip to Asia, visiting big powers China and Japan. But last week, his first stop was in a sparsely populated nation of three million.

Stephen Harper’s government is taking a particular interest in, of all places, Mongolia. Why?

Mongolia’s Foreign Minister, Luvsanvandan Bold, called Canada an important part of his country’s foreign policy. Canada just put Mongolia, a middle-income country, on its list of “countries of focus” for foreign aid.

Yes, there’s potential mining trade. But there’s also an invitation that the Harper government finds alluring: to help a little democracy maintain its independence from its two authoritarian neighbours, Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the People’s Republic of China.

“The Prime Minister has taken a real interest in Mongolia,” Mr. Baird said in a telephone interview.

Mr. Harper long ago turned from strident China critic to pragmatic trader with a rising economic power, but he still views its global influence darkly. And Mr. Harper has been a vocal critic of Mr. Putin’s actions in Ukraine: He’s called the Russian President a “throwback” to the Soviet Union.

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India’s Uranium Boss Says Deformed Children May Be ‘Imported’ – by Rakteem Katakey and Tom Lasseter (Bloomberg News – July 23, 2014)

http://www.businessweek.com/

Confronted with reports villages near Uranium Corp. of India Ltd.’s mines have unusually high numbers of physically deformed people, Chairman Diwakar Acharya said: “I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of those guys are imported from elsewhere, ok?”

A Bloomberg News report on July 9 highlighted the struggles of the locals with disease and early deaths — and the suspicion they shared with some environmental activists that the health conditions are linked to mining waste.

Acharya dismissed as biased any findings of a correlation between the mines and deformities in nearby villages.

Activists and doctors come with an agenda to Jadugora, a town of about 19,500 people in eastern Jharkhand state that’s home to the company’s main operations, he said in a July 14 interview.

“See, what happens is, you say you are a specialist and you’ll come and treat,” Acharya said at Uranium Corp.’s headquarters. “But all you do is, you are convinced UCIL is evil and you have come here only with the sole motive of finding reasons which would validate your preconceived notions.”

Uranium Corp. sends its security officers to monitor attempts by outsiders to examine villagers, Acharya said, explaining it was a necessary step for collecting information about alleged health problems.

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Coal India undermined by basic equipment flaws – by Krishna N Das (Reuters India – July 25, 2014)

 http://in.reuters.com/

NEW DELHI – (Reuters) – As Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government looks to shape up Coal India Ltd (COAL.NS) for a potential major restructuring, the world’s biggest coal miner still faces basic problems: it does not have enough mechanical shovels, dumpers and explosives.

The new government, which has a 90 percent stake in the company whose total market value is about $40 billion, is exploring a break up and opening up the sector to foreign investment to boost output and cut imports, sources have said.

But the firm, which accounts for more than 80 percent of India’s production and employs 350,000, has not met its output target for years, ensuring the country remains the world’s third-largest coal importer despite sitting on huge reserves.

A failure to boost efficiency could threaten long-run plans to spin off some of the seven units of the coal miner, a vital part of the government’s reform strategy. [ID:nL3N0O6458]

Two units produced less in the last fiscal year than a year ago, partly due to lack of basic equipment and ageing machinery, Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal told parliament this week.

The minister did not provide data but according to a top official at one Coal India unit this issue could be cutting Coal India’s annual output by more than 10 percent. The official declined to be identified due to its policy on talking to media.

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COLUMN-New Indonesian president can bring certainty, consistency to mining: Russell – by Clyde Russell (Reuters India – July 24, 2014)

http://in.reuters.com/

Clyde Russell is a Reuters columnist. The views expressed are his own.

LAUNCESTON, Australia, July 24 (Reuters) – The election of reformist Joko “Jokowi” Widodo as Indonesia’s new president has spurred hopes of a rapprochement with global miners and the scaling back of some of the nationalistic resource policies.

Certainly the new leader of the world’s fourth-most populous nation is making the right noises, telling Reuters in an interview published July 22 that he wants to sit down with mining companies and resolve differences.

And indeed this was followed by Freeport-McMoRan, which owns the giant Grasberg copper mine, saying it expects to “imminently” sign an agreement with Indonesia that will allow for the resumption of exports of copper concentrate.

Newmont Mining Corp also said it was close to a memorandum of understanding with the government that would allow it to resume exports of copper concentrate and re-open its Batu Hijau mine.

These negotiations with the two U.S. mining giants, which account for 97 percent of Indonesia’s copper output, have been ongoing for months, so it’s not clear that Jokowi had any influence on the talks, but equally his election victory may have provided momentum to the talks.

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Jim O’Neill: What Jokowi’s Win Means For Jakarta’s Market? – by Shuli Ren (Baron’s Magazine – July 23, 2014)

http://online.barrons.com/home-page

The following is a guest post by my colleague Assif Shameen:

“Jokowi’s victory is potentially as important as Modi’s was for India,” says Jim O’Neill, former Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management and the man who coined the term BRICs or the world’s largest emerging markets. O’Neill has long regretted not including Indonesia among the emerging giants.

As the world’s third largest democracy, O’Neill says Indonesia can’t just be dependent on the global commodities cycle. “Indonesia has huge potential and a guy like Jokowo could just be the one to unleash it but he has to be bold and take on vested interests and those that allow corruption as well as other forms of misallocation of capital,” he says.“Indonesia needs a Modi-type figure to galvanize its young dynamic population to deliver on its potential,” O’Neil says.

But the former Goldman Sachs economist notes “expectations in Indonesia are now as high, if not higher than they are in India” in the wake of Jokowi’s victory. “India and Indonesia now need to deliver or otherwise the scope for disappointment in both places is obvious, specially in the short term. If the changes are for real in Indonesia and India then the case for further re-weighting in both those markets is huge,” he says.

Year-to-date Jakarta Composite Index is up 21.1% . The market has risen 9.1% over the past 12 months. But stocks may have gotten ahead of themselves. Sam Le Cornu, Senior Portfolio Manager at Macquarie Funds Group who co-manages the Macquarie Asia New Stars Fund in Hong Kong says while the macro picture in Indonesia looks encouraging the only problem now is valuations.

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Freeport Sees Indonesia Deal ‘Imminently’ on Export Curbs – by Liezel Hill (Bloomberg News – July 23, 2014)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX) expects to sign a deal with the Indonesian government “imminently” to resolve a dispute that has curbed production at the world’s third-biggest copper mine.

The largest publicly traded copper producer and the government have developed a memorandum of understanding under which the company would commit to help develop a smelter, Phoenix-based Freeport said today in a statement. The agreement includes reduced export taxes and higher royalties for copper and gold.

The agreement, which would enable the immediate resumption of exports, also states that Freeport and Indonesia would start negotiations immediately on changes to the company’s contract to operate in the country.

Freeport reduced operating levels this year at its Grasberg copper and gold mine after Indonesia introduced restrictions and duties on mineral exports in a bid to increase local processing. Exports of concentrates, a semi-processed raw material, have yet to resume after months of negotiations between the company and government officials.

Freeport has been able to run Grasberg at about half of normal rates because it sends some concentrate to a domestic smelter it helped build in the 1990s.

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INTERVIEW-RPT-Indonesia’s new president says he will sit down with miners – by Randy Fabi and Wilda Asmarini (Reuters India – July 23, 2014)

http://in.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – Indonesia’s new president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said he wants to sit down with mining companies and other parties in a bid to resolve a row over mining policies that has halted $500 million of metal exports a month in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy.

The comment by the former Jakarta governor, who has a reputation for tackling entrenched interests, appeared to be a positive sign after an increasingly bitter dispute between the mining sector and the outgoing government.

Until this year, Indonesia was the world’s top exporter of nickel ore and a major supplier of copper, iron ore and bauxite. But a ban in January on exporting unprocessed ore and an escalating tax on metal concentrates have paralysed shipments.

“First, I want to sit down with stakeholders, investors, regulators and with the people to know the problem and find a good solution for them. I want to know the details,” Jokowi said in an interview at his residence in Jakarta on Saturday, before he was declared winner of the presidential election on Tuesday.

Jokowi did not say specifically how he would handle the row over the ore ban, and when pressed on the issue an aide stepped in to say “too much detail”. But mining companies will be hoping the new president can help reanimate negotiations, which had run into trouble with the administration of outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhyono.

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RPT-COLUMN-China aluminium surplus likely to cap price rally – by Clyde Russell (Reuters India – July 22, 2014)

http://in.reuters.com/

Clyde Russell is a Reuters columnist. The views expressed are his own.

LAUNCESTON, Australia, July 22 (Reuters) – Rising Chinese output is likely to act as a brake on aluminium’s 15 percent rally since May, even as the global outlook for the industrial metal improves.

It’s no secret that much of Chinese aluminium smelting capacity operates at a loss and is reliant on subsidies from local and regional governments to survive.

But the price gain in the second quarter resulted in capacity that was either idled, or about to be shut, remaining in operation, according to a July 17 report from Beijing-based consultants AZ China.

This is despite some 80 percent of Chinese smelters, representing some 20 million tonnes of annual capacity, operating at a theoretical loss, AZ China said.

The average cash cost for a Chinese aluminium smelter in the second quarter was 14,161 yuan ($2,282) a tonne, above the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) spot price of 13,435 yuan, the report said.

Still, the average cash cost for Chinese smelters was 2 percent lower in the second quarter than the first as inputs such as electricity and alumina decreased in price, allowing plants to remain in business.

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Australia could start uranium sales to India – by Shivom Seth (Mineweb.com – July 22, 2014)

http://www.mineweb.com/

Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb told newspersons that Australian uranium sales to India were very close.

MUMBAI (MINEWEB) – With the International Energy Agency forecasting a doubling of nuclear power generation out to 2035, Australia has said it could soon start exporting uranium to India.

Australia holds about a third of the world’s recoverable uranium resources, and exports nearly 7,000 tonnes a year. Energy starved India is looking to nuclear power to supplement its existing options to fuel economic growth.

Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb told newspersons that Australian uranium sales to India were very close, after he attended a G20 trade ministers meeting in Sydney last week, and held talks with an Indian trade delegation.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard had started talks on supplying uranium to India during a three day official visit to the country in 2012. Gillard had reversed the ban in 2011.

With a new government at the helm in Canberra in 2013, India and Australia were aiming to complete negotiations on a civil nuclear agreement for uranium supplies by the end of the year.

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Eastern Promise: Is Kazakhstan our new mining hotspot? – by Cole Latimer (Australian Mining – July 22, 2014)

http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/home

Mining is full of quiet achievers; be it individuals, companies, or even countries.

Globally speaking Australia, Canada, South Africa, China, India and the US are in focus every day, but what about the countries that are the quiet achievers?

What about Chile, Ghana, Kazakhstan? Kazakhstan has been touted as one of world’s best endowed states when it comes to high class deposits, if perhaps one of the world’s most overlooked.

It is the world’s largest uranium producer under IAEA standards, the fourth largest copper producer (with 40 million tonnes in proven reserves), has the world’s ninth largest proven gold reserve and almost the same levels of zinc, but often fails to rate a mention.

As Austrade states “Kazakhstan is one of the world’s most promising emerging markets for natural resources”, and importantly for Australian operators it is looking to double mineral production within the next five years. Kazakh president Nazarbayev outlined a gold production goal of 70 million tonnes per year before 2015.

This has created a high potential for Australian operators, with the potential to rate as highly as China, after it rated ahead of the major Australian trade partner, ranked at 59th according to the World Bank’s 2010 ‘Doing Business’ survey.

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