Chromium/Platinum Group Metals – Page 25

Technology slashes power use at Glencore’s huge S African chrome smelter – by Martin Creamer (MiningWeekly.com – November 5, 2014)

November 5, 2014

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

STEELPOORT, Limpopo (miningweekly.com) – The Lion ferrochrome smelter owned and operated by the Glencore Merafe Chrome Venture, uses 37% less electricity than conventional ferrochrome processes to produce the equivalent volume of ferrochrome.

In addition, the smelter needs far less coke than conventional smelters as well as using significant amounts of locally produced, lower cost anthracite and char. (Also see attached video).

Had the Lion operation not installed Premus technology, it would have needed an additional 1 776 MWh to produce the same volume of ferrochrome. Instead, all four furnaces collectively utilise some 4 800 MWh a day. (Also see attached video)

The efficient use of energy – significantly enhanced through pelletising to cope with increasing volumes of fine chrome ore, in-house training programmes to overcome skills shortages, the proximity of the Port of Maputo, the use of more cost-effective upper group two (UG2) chromite ore recovered from platinum tailings, as well as radically reduced use of expensive coke – are the key sources of competitive advantage that place both phases of Lion – known as Lion I and Lion II – in a cost-leadership position.

The UG2 ore is sourced from the nearby Mototolo mine, a platinum joint venture between the London-, Hong Kong- and now also Johannesburg-listed Glencore, black economic-empowerment (BEE) partner Kagiso Tiso and Anglo American Platinum.

Friedland’s Plan for $1.6 Billion Platinum Mine at Impasse – by Franz Wild (Bloomberg News – October 31, 2014)

October 31, 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Construction of the biggest platinum mine planned since 1993 is being delayed because of an impasse between billionaire Robert Friedland’s Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (IVN) and South Africa’s mines ministry over the extent to which local communities will benefit.

South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources delayed authorization to start building the $1.6 billion Platreef mine by 12 weeks to a target date of Nov. 26, saying some elements of the company’s plan to benefit the surrounding community were “sketchy” and did “not offer much,” according to an Oct. 2 letter sent to Ivanhoe and seen by Bloomberg. The department said its demands were “not exhaustive” and it may request “further clarification” before it gives the go-ahead.

Ivanhoe Chief Executive Officer Lars-Eric Johansson said in an Oct. 9 response to the mineral resources department, a copy of which Bloomberg has obtained, that “We believe that each and every formal request by your department to date has been accommodated.”

The department’s demands come amid opposition by some groups from one of South Africa’s poorest communities in northern Limpopo province over how Ivanplats, the Vancouver-based company’s local unit, brokered a deal to sell community members a stake in the project to meet government requirements.

South African mines minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi has asked to meet Friedland to resolve issues, the department said Oct. 30 in an e-mailed response to questions.

Shake-out of ferrochrome industry overdue – by Kunal Bose (Business Standard – October 27, 2014)

October 29, 2014

http://www.business-standard.com/ [India]

India’s ferroalloys producers have built capacity of 5.25 million tonnes (mt), including 3.2 mt of manganese alloys and 1.75 mt of chrome alloys, anticipating much faster growth in domestic production of carbon, alloys and stainless steel than is actually the case. As a result, every segment of the ferroalloys sector has considerable idle capacity. The sector’s attempt to beat overcapacity blues through exports has seen limited success in the face of oversupply of ferroalloys in the global market, thanks largely to Chinese dumping.

Ferromanganese is used for desulphurisation and strengthening of carbon steel, while ferrochrome imparts non-corrosive properties to stainless steel.

Bansidhar Panda, chairman of Indian Metals & Ferro Alloys (IMFA), says “the chromium sector is at a crossroads, buffeted by rising costs, stagnant prices” and China’s overbearing presence in both ferrochrome and stainless steel sectors. Overcapacity is hitting non-integrated producers here, without ownership of chrome and manganese ore mines and captive power plants, the hardest. Such units in the chromium segment are never sure of securing the required supplies of chromite from the Odisha government-owned Odisha Mining Corporation.

Grid power is expensive, as it is highly irregular. For ferroalloys plants without captive power, the electricity bill alone accounts for about 35 per cent of the overall production cost. Therefore, it isn’t surprising that standalone units, which have to buy chromite and electricity, are in dire straits. Only a few, with toll smelting assignments from mines-owning ferroalloys groups, are able to keep their heads above water.

AFRICA INVESTMENT-S.Africa platinum town, wider economy still hurting from strike – by Zandi Shabalala (Reuters India – October 24, 2014)

October 24, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

MARIKANA, South Africa, Oct 24 (Reuters) – Mamsi Ngobeni sat alongside the main road of the South African platinum belt town of Marikana, hunched over a table with a pile of onions, apples, loose cigarettes and tomatoes.

By just after noon she had sold about 20 rand ($1.8245) worth of goods, well down from what she said was her usual 1,000 rand take before a five-month strike against the world’s top platinum producers drained this gritty town of cash.

Although miners here have been back at work since June with higher wages and the strike-hit operations of Anglo American Platinum and Lonmin are back at full production, money is not gushing back into local businesses.

Africa’s most advanced economy is also struggling to shake off the shock of the strike, the longest in its history, and will only manage growth of 1.4 percent this year, down from the 2.7 percent predicted in February. Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene cited “labour market disruptions” as a key reason for the revision.

In Marikana, where 34 striking miners were shot dead by police during a wildcat strike against Lonmin in 2012, the length of this year’s stoppage has left many miners cash-strapped despite wage hikes of up to 20 percent as they have to repay debt that piled up when they didn’t have a pay cheque.

[Ferrochrome] Merafe Resources Falls on Output Drop, Mine-Halting Strike – by Andre Janse van Vuuren (Bloomberg News – October 17, 2014)

October 21, 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Merafe Resources Ltd. (MRF) declined the most in more than a year after the South African ferrochrome producer said third-quarter output fell 14 percent and some of its mines were shut by a strike.

Merafe, which owns 20.5 percent of the world’s largest ferrochrome operation in a venture with Glencore Plc (GLEN), dropped 8.9 percent in Johannesburg trading, the most since Aug. 7, 2013, to 1.03 rand by the close.

Ferrochrome output for the three months ended Sept. 30 decreased to 74,000 metric tons from 85,600 tons a year earlier as sales declined 18 percent to 60,200 tons, the company said in a statement today.

The venture’s western mines near Rustenburg, northwest of Johannesburg, have been shut since the last week of September after the National Union of Metalworkers started a pay strike, Investor Relations Manager Kajal Bissessor said today by phone. Its eastern operations and all smelters are fully operational, she said.

Merafe’s mines are close to the platinum belt in South Africa, where the world’s biggest producers have operations that were crippled by a five-month strike this year.

Riddle of inventory levels keeps platinum investors shy – by Clara Denina and Jan Harvey (Reuters India – October 17, 2014)

October 17, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

LONDON, Oct 17 (Reuters) – Investors are unlikely to rush back into platinum any time soon after a minimal price reaction to its biggest-ever supply shock highlighted a major problem: no-one knows how much metal exists above ground or more importantly who holds it.

Analysts predicted a surging market as a record five-month labour stoppage in top producer South Africa wiped out more than one million ounces of output worth $1.28 billion.

Yet platinum, used mostly in automotive catalytic converters which clean up exhaust emissions, also failed to react to a 2.4 million ounce accumulation of metal into exchange-traded funds since 2010. The metal has lost seven percent this year and now sits close to 2009 levels around $1,200 an ounce.

The riddle about the level of inventories holds the key to the price direction of the metal, which is also used in jewellery. As banks start to get uncomfortable about the pace of platinum’s sell-off, they are closing out long positions and reevaluating the global market balance.

“If you start pitching through the historic data, it begins to look like… the demand supply balances in the 2000s weren’t as tight as the data suggests,” Citigroup strategist David Wilson said.

Labour strife, safety concerns spur platinum mining mechanisation – by Ed Stoddard (Business Day Live – October 15, 2014)

October 15, 2014

http://www.bdlive.co.za/

Reuters – FOR decades, production in SA’s platinum mines has rested on the muscular shoulders of men risking life and limb to drill into the rock face with jackhammers.

Three years of labour upheaval and a political push to make the shafts safer and transform the low-wage workforce have set in motion a drive to replace such rock drillers with machines.

“Labour militancy is dictating our push to mechanisation and boardrooms will rubber stamp this stuff,” said Peter Major, a fund manager at Cadiz Corporate Solutions. The costly change is happening despite the obstacles thrown by geology, low platinum prices and capital constraints.

At Anglo American Platinum’s (Amplats’s) Bathopele mine near Rustenburg, west of Johannesburg, technology has already made rock drillers obsolete and hydraulic machines do the job, blazing an automated trail others are keen to follow.

Elsewhere in the platinum shafts, plans are afoot to roll out mechanisation, including at Amplats’s rival Impala Platinum, which recently sent a team to Bathopele to observe the layout — an unprecedented example of co-operation in an industry that has long been fiercely competitive and secretive.

Friedland’s SA platinum project faces local challenge – by Franz Wild and Tshepiso Mokhema (Bloomberg News – October 7, 2014)

October 8, 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Billionaire Robert Friedland’s South African platinum project may be held up by a split in the local community, with residents accusing his Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (IVN) of subverting a process to give them a fair share in the mine.

People living in the Mokopane area in the northern Limpopo province, one of the country’s poorest regions, are lobbying the government to delay the mining license of Ivanhoe’s local unit, Ivanplats, three activists from the area said. They’re unhappy because the company sold the community a 20 percent stake in the $1.6 billion Platreef project to fulfill government demands for black shareholding without all of the residents being part of the negotiations over the terms of the deal, they said.

While the stake will be paid from future proceeds of the mine, residents don’t know what the interest rate on those repayments are and how long they will have to wait before seeing any dividends from the project, the opponents said.

“The million-dollar question for us is when will our debt be fully repaid,” Aubrey Langa, 56, an adviser to the Kopano Committee that represents five settlements in the community, said in an Oct. 1 interview in Johannesburg. “They won’t tell us. The community will be drowning in debt for a very long time. We won’t allow them to build a mine until this is cleared up.”

US warns Zimbabwe over US$3bln Russia deal – by Staff Reporter (New Zimbabwe – October 3, 2014)

October 6, 2014

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/index.aspx

THE United States has reportedly warned Zimbabwe about its growing economic dealings with Russia after Harare recently sealed an agreement with Moscow for a US$3 billion platinum mine.

According to Herald columnist Nathaniel Manheru, who is thought to be President Robert Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba, the Obama administration threatened further sanctions against Zimbabwe over its ties with Russia.

Manheru’s claims could not be verified with the US embassy in Harare late Friday night. The US has imposed sanctions against Moscow, tightening restrictions on major Russian state banks and corporations, after accusing the Kremlin of providing military backing to Ukrainian separatists and generally destabilising the region.

Zimbabwe’s Pen East Investments has teamed up with Afronet, a consortium of three Russian partners, to form Great Dyke Investments, which is developing the US$3 billion Darwendale platinum project.

At full development in 2024, the mine will produce 800,000 ounces of platinum, pushing Zimbabwe’s output over one million ounces, and create 8,000 jobs.

KWG, Noront react to Cliffs shakeup – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – October 3, 2014)

October 3, 2014

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

Frank Smeenk was direct in his appraisal of Cliffs Natural Resources ending up on the wrong end of an acrimonious proxy fight with a New York hedge fund. “I thought they deserved everything that befell them,” said the president-CEO of KWG Resources. “They haven’t been easy to get along with at all.”

There’s no love lost between the Toronto junior and the Ohio miner, but a change in leadership and corporate philosophy in Cleveland may signal the thawing of a frosty relationship.

The head of KWG wasn’t at Cliffs’ July 29 shareholders meeting to gloat over the demise of the old guard at the 167-year-old mining giant, but it was a get-acquainted opportunity to meet the new blood as Casablanca Capital seized control of the board of directors.

Casablanca has vowed to make good on its promise to carve off Cliffs’ costly international projects, including its mothballed Ring of Fire chromite properties, like the Black Thor deposit, from its core U.S. mines.

“I’m trying to persuade them that KWG can be the (development) vehicle,” said Smeenk, “that it might be opportune for (us) to be their partner of choice.

In depressed platinum market, Amplats struggles to go solo – by Clara Denina and Silvia Antonioli (Reuters U.K. – October 1, 2014)

October 2, 2014

http://uk.reuters.com/

LONDON, Oct 1 (Reuters) – Less than a year after tearing up a $57 million annual supply contract with its main buyer, Anglo American Platinum is struggling to implement a new strategy of selling directly to end-users against a backdrop of weak prices, sources say.

The world’s top platinum producer, known as Amplats , late last year ended a long-standing deal through which it had sold the bulk of its output at a discount to refiner Johnson Matthey, in exchange for marketing.

The idea was to make more money by cutting out the middleman, going direct to traders and carmakers and seizing profit opportunities by financing or lending metal and arbitraging different locations and grades.

To achieve that, the company, which mines platinum in South Africa and Zimbabwe, expanded marketing and sales teams in London and Singapore.

Amplats’ parent company Anglo American, whose portfolio spans iron ore, thermal coal, nickel and copper, is also undergoing a big overhaul as it tries to improve returns after years of underperformance compared with its peers. It has made a series of high-ranking personnel changes within its wider commercial department, hoping to boost the division’s earnings by $400 million by 2016.

NEWS RELEASE: KWG Makes International Patent Claim; Steel and Chrome Giants Interested in Offtake and Marketing Alliance, Engineering and Construction

September 22, 2014

September 22, 2014 10:30 ET

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – Sept. 22, 2014) – KWG Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE:KWG)(FRANKFURT:KW6) has filed an international patent application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty. This will provide KWG with the right to file patent applications in over 140 countries around the world in order to secure its rights to its new method of refining chromite ore into ferrochrome by means of natural gas. The disclosed subject matter of this PCT application is supported by results of ongoing metallurgical tests being conducted on behalf of KWG by XPS Consulting and Testwork Services.

KWG has received expressions of interest in creating two strategic alliances:

A global steel company has proposed to provide project engineering and construction expertise and to market intermediate products for primary stainless steel casting. In this regard, KWG is studying the opportunity to build a facility to produce custom-made stainless steel billets for global export to stainless steel makers for remelting and dilution with iron.

A large ferrochrome producer has proposed a strategic marketing alliance for the global charge chrome market.

The parties are mutually exploring terms for offtake agreements for such products that could support future project financing facilities.

NEWS RELEASE: Outokumpu’s Kemi mine celebrates 50-year anniversary

September 11, 2014

www.outokumpu.com

September 11, 2014 – This September it will be exactly 50 years since Outokumpu made the decision to begin mining operations in its chrome mine in Kemi, Finland. The deposit had been found five years earlier by a local diver, Martti Matilainen. The mining began in 1967, with large-scale mining operations and ferrochrome production to begin next year.

Chrome mine and ferrochrome works were the first steps in Outokumpu’s journey to become the leading stainless steel producer in the world. Today the Kemi mine employs 400 people, and on top if this the nearby ferrochrome works and stainless steel mill in Tornio employ some 2,000 people.

CEO Mika Seitovirta: “The Kemi mine is the only chrome mine in the Europen Union, and it is an essential part of the integrated production chain in the Tornio site. Chromium is what makes steel stainless, and our own chrome mine guarantees us competitive sourcing of chromium for the future. Chrome mine puts Outokumpu in a league of its own, since none of the other stainless steel producers has its own source of chromium. Therefore, the Kemi chrome mine is a unique competitive advantage for us globally.”

The operations of the Kemi mine differ from several other mines because there are enough reserves for mining for several decades. At the moment, Outokumpu mines some 2,4 million tonnes per year. Since there are proved ore reserves of 50 million tonnes and mineral reserves, not yet fully explored, estimated to be some 98 million tonnes, the continuation of the mining operations is therefore guaranteed.

Odisha [India] to ensure long-term [chrome, iron] ore supply to industries (Times of India – September 9, 2014)

September 10, 2014

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/defaultinterstitial_int.cms

BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government on Monday decided to put in place a long-term raw material linkage policy to supply iron ore and chrome ore to industries that have signed MoUs with it.

The decision, taken at a meeting of the state cabinet headed by chief minister Naveen Patnaik, aims at encouraging establishment of mineral-based industries in the state, official sources said.

It follows repeated demands from different industrial houses for assured raw material supply. “The Odisha Mining Corporation will enter into five-year contracts with industries having MoUs with the state government,” chief secretary Gokul Chandra Pati said, briefing mediapersons.

The state-owned corporation will provide half of its production or iron ore to such industries while it would sell the rest in the open market. “The industries will get assured supply, but will have to pay the market price,” the chief secretary noted.

Official sources said the OMC will have a sales agreement with such industries akin to central PSUs National Mineral Development Corporation and Mahanadi Coalfields Limited. “We will consider supplying bauxite and manganese through similar arrangements in future,” a senior officer said.

[South African] Smelters need support to survive – by Mark Allix (Business Day Live – September 4, 2014)

September 5, 2014

http://www.bdlive.co.za/

SMELTERS and foundries need support if they are to survive. As a start, Eskom has to sort out its electricity supply problems, and government’s R4-trillion infrastructure plan needs to get under way soon.

Better still, the private sector should be encouraged to provide more traditionally sourced energy. BHP Billiton has turned off its Bayside aluminium smelter in KwaZulu-Natal. Smelting costs too much, even though the company has a hugely preferential electricity pricing agreement with Eskom.

Bayside, BHP Billiton’s Hillside aluminium smelter and the Mozal smelter near Maputo in Mozambique together used about 9% of South Africa’s total electricity output.

A chunk of state infrastructure funding is being spent on building new energy capacity — mainly the delayed Medupi and Kusile coal-fired power stations, but also the Ingula hydropower project in KwaZulu-Natal.

The manufacturing sector is under pressure from strikes, above-inflation wage and increases in administered price, as well as poor maintenance and development of infrastructure.