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Ukraine Coal Exports Part of Trump Bid to Counter Russia – by Ari Natter (Bloomberg News – August 1, 2017)

https://www.bloombergquint.com/

(Bloomberg) — A Pennsylvania company will send 700,000 tons of coal to Ukraine in a deal the administration of President Donald Trump heralded as an important tool to undercut the power Russia has over its European neighbors.

While Trump has pledged to improve ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, his administration says it’s trying to use more U.S. exports of coal, natural gas and oil to curtail Putin’s sway with Russian natural resources. Ukraine had been reliant on Russia for much of its oil and gas, and its domestic thermal coal supply collapsed because much comes from the rebel-controlled eastern part of the nation.

“In recent years, Kiev and much of Eastern Europe have been reliant on and beholden to Russia to keep the heat on,” Energy Secretary Rick Perry said in a statement announcing the coal-export deal. “That changes now. The United States can offer Ukraine an alternative, and today we are pleased to announce that we will.”

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UPDATE 1-Eramet plans more nickel cost cuts, to target lower grades – by Gus Trompiz (Reuters U.S. – July 27, 2017)

http://www.reuters.com/

PARIS, July 27 (Reuters) – Eramet pledged further cost cuts after its nickel division suffered more losses in the first half of the year and said it would shift strategy by entering the lower-grade nickel pig iron market via a mining project in Indonesia.

Like other nickel miners, Eramet has been grappling with persistent weakness in market prices, partly due to moves by Indonesia and the Philippines to go back on restrictions targetting the mining sector.

In an interim results statement on Thursday, Eramet reported an operating loss of 104 million euros for its nickel branch, against an 89 million euro loss a year earlier, although a strong performance at its manganese unit helped it post group current operating profit of 256 million euros.

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Rio Tinto moves big Jadar lithium and boron deposit in Serbia to the front burner – by Matt Chambers (The Australian – July 25, 2017)

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

Rio Tinto has upgraded the status of the big Jadar lithium and boron deposit in Serbia to that of its most likely growth project, revealing that if it gets approvals and the economics support it, it will start construction in 2020 and reach first production in 2023.

The announcement, made in Serbia on Monday night, makes Jadar (a potential top-three global lithium producer) the only unapproved medium-term growth project in Rio’s portfolio.

The supply it could bring to the market may be a concern for Australian lithium producers and hopefuls, whose shares have been running hot lately on expected growth in demand for lithium-ion batteries as intermittent renewable power and electric cars take more market share.

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Kamloops city council votes against controversial Ajax copper-gold mine – by Wendy Stueck (Globe and Mail – July 18, 2017)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

VANCOUVER — Local politicians in Kamloops, B.C., voted on Monday to oppose a controversial copper-gold mine that would operate just outside of the city limits.

The city doesn’t have the authority to stop the Ajax mine, owned by Poland-based KGHM, but hopes federal and provincial governments will take Kamloops’s position into account, the city’s acting mayor, Arjun Singh, said. “We’d like, certainly, to be heard in what we are saying,” Mr. Singh said.

“We realize we are not the final decision makers – but I think the work that we have all done to assess [the project] leads at least the majority of us to think it’s not a good idea for the community.” The proposed mine, which is also opposed by First Nations in the region, has been a divisive issue for the city.

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Muted growth forecast for Europe’s mining industry (MiningWeekly.com – July 13, 2017)

http://www.miningweekly.com/

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Mining and metals companies operating in Europe are set to remain in recovery mode, as a sluggish recovery in mineral prices keep investment activity subdued, while environmental regulations will pose headwinds for coal-producing countries.

BMI Research said on Thursday that mineral prices were unlikely to recover over the coming quarters, citing a drop in Chinese demand owing to an economic slowdown in that country. Poor short- to medium-term growth prospects in Europe’s two mining powerhouses, Ukraine and Russia, over the next five years would further hinder mining development in the region.

“As a result, mining companies will remain cautious moving forward and will focus on improving balance sheets and protecting themselves from potential price volatility, rather than investing in greenfield projects,” the Fitch Group company stated.

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Germany’s Blood Coal – by Andreas Macho (Handelsblatt Global – July 13, 2017)

https://global.handelsblatt.com/

Activists say that demand for cheap Colombian coal from German utilities such as Uniper and RWE is leading to systematic killings and evictions in the country.

It’s not often that the subject of murder is raised at a shareholder meeting. So it’s fair to say that the comments made by Maina van der Zwan at the otherwise uneventful AGM of German energy company Uniper were unexpected.

Holding up a grainy picture of a Colombian man, the activist at Dutch NGO Pax announced: “He was the spokesman for a community which had opposed the expansion plans of a mining company in the Colombian region of Cesar. On September 11, he was murdered in cold blood.”

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Rusal resumes Taishet aluminum project, sees deeper global deficit – by Anastasia Lyrchikova(Reuters U.S. – July 12, 2017)

https://www.reuters.com/

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s Rusal has resumed construction of its long-stalled Taishet aluminum smelter project in Siberia in expectation of a widening global aluminum deficit, the company said on Wednesday.

The world’s second-largest aluminum producer behind China’s Hongqiao needs a further $700 million to complete the project, having invested about $800 million in Taishet before it was halted because of falling aluminum prices.

Aluminum prices have jumped by 12 percent to $1,887 a tonne since the start of January and Rusal expects them to climb above $1,900 by the end of the year, said Deputy Chief Executive Oleg Mukhamedshin, citing the company’s belief that the global deficit will reach 1.8 million tonnes in 2018, up 500,000 tonnes this year.

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Life In Norilsk, A Frozen Gulag Turned Mining Town – by Emmanuel Grynszpan (World Crunch.com – January 11, 2017)

https://www.worldcrunch.com/

NORILSK — The belly of Mother Russia is most fertile 1,000 meters underground and 300 kilometers north of the polar circle. Outside, the temperature can drop as low as -60 degrees Fahrenheit. But down below, it’s warm and moist. And the walls shine. The blocks that detach themselves as bulldozers strike the stone are loaded with precious and semi-precious metals: nickel, copper, palladium and platinum.

In the “Skalista” mine, in Norilsk, monstrous machines stride along a maze of tunnels that will soon reach 2,000 meters below ground level. The sound of the machines shaving off the walls is terrible. Danger is omnipresent. “The worst thing is the fires,” explains Ivan Grinchuk, lead engineer at the mining group Komsomolsky, an affiliate of Norilsk Nickel.

This year, at least four miners have lost their lives in accidents. “What can I say? That’s how mining is. It’s the same all over the world,” says Grinchuk, who’s been working in Norilsk for 20 years. “It was a lot worse in the 1960s,” he adds. Grinchuk says the accidents are often caused by drunk workers. “When that’s the case,” he explains, “their families don’t get any compensation payments.”

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Eldorado finishes Integra Gold acquisition, expands operations in Canada – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – July 10, 2017)

http://www.mining.com/

Canada’s miner Eldorado Gold (TSX:ELD) (NYSE:EGO) has taken over Integra Gold (TSX-V:ICG) in a move that helps it strengthen its position in the home country, particularly around the gold-rich Eastern Abitibi region, in Quebec.

The deal, worth about Cdn$590 million (US$457 at today’s rates), was approved by Integra shareholders and the Supreme Court of British Columbia last week.

The transaction gives Integra shareholders about Cdn$129 million cash and 77 million common shares of Eldorado, for all the issued common shares of Integra that the company did not already own. That represents roughly 10% of the total issued common shares of Eldorado, post-completion of the arrangement, the company said in the statement.

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A Gold Rush Revival in Italy, With Nuggets the Size of Bread Crumbs – by Elisabetta Povoledo (New York Times – June 28, 2017)

https://www.nytimes.com/

VERMOGNO DI ZUBIENA, Italy — Italy may not be the first place that leaps to mind when you hear the words gold rush. But for thousands of years this neck of the northern Piedmont region, what some call Italy’s Klondike, has attracted prospectors seeking gold flowing down the Elvo River from deposits left eons ago by receding Alpine glaciers.

Gold rushes in the area have ebbed and flowed over the centuries, but they have seen a revival in recent, recession-hit years. Increasing numbers of people have been contacting local gold-seeking associations hoping to get rich quick.

Last weekend, panners from around the world even descended on a clearing for the Italian Goldpanning Championship. Under a hot sun, they stooped knee deep in mucky water, swishing sand and gravel around a flat grooved pan in search of gold specks.

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Canada’s Gabriel Resources sues Romania for a record C$5.7bn – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – June 29, 2017)

http://www.miningweekly.com/

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Canadian project developer Gabriel Resources is suing Romania for a record C$5.7-billion before the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), the TSX-listed company revealed on Thursday.

The company hopes to tie up a drawn out dispute with the country’s fluid government, based on what it argues boils down to the effective expropriation, without compensation, of its flagship Roşia Montană gold/silver project – the largest undeveloped gold deposit in Europe and among the top 20 undeveloped gold projects globally.

“The ICSID arbitration seeks compensation for the loss and damage resulting from the Romanian State’s wrongful conduct and its breaches of protections against expropriation as set out under bilateral treaties, as well as its unfair and inequitable treatment and discrimination of the project and related licences,” Gabriel president and CEO Jonathan Henry told Mining Weekly Online.

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Russia’s Nornickel in talks to supply materials for BASF’s battery plans (Reuters U.S. – June 27, 2017)

https://www.reuters.com/

Russia’s mining giant Norilsk Nickel (Nornickel) (GMKN.MM) is in talks with German chemicals firm BASF (BASFn.DE) to supply raw materials needed in the process for making lithium-ion batteries in Europe in the future, they said on Tuesday.

The talks between BASF and Nornickel, the world’s second largest nickel producer and a major cobalt producer, highlight the burgeoning market for metals needed for lithium-ion batteries production as the car industry’s push towards electric vehicles gathers pace.

Nornickel and BASF said in a joint statement the talks covered “cooperation to set the foundation to supply battery cell producers for electric vehicles in Europe with regionally produced cathode materials.”

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Peter Hambro ousted from his gold mining company Petropavlovsk – by Barbara Lewis (Reuters U.K. – June 22, 2017)

https://uk.reuters.com/

LONDON – Shareholders voted for four new board members at Russian-focused gold miner Petropavlovsk (POG.L) on Thursday, ousting Peter Hambro who has run the company since he founded it in 1994. Rebel shareholders, holding around 40 percent of the company, backed nominees to replace four out of six of the board at Petropavlovsk, including Hambro, Hambro said.

The new appointments include Bruce Buck, who is chairman of Chelsea Football Club, and Vladislav Egorov, who works for Renova, Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg’s conglomerate. Speaking after the annual general meeting at a city lawyers’ offices on the banks of the Thames in London, Peter Hambro said he could not disguise his disappointment.

But he hoped “with all my heart” the new board would build on progress he said the company had made. “I will enjoy my new role as an ordinary shareholder and in it I shall advocate for a continuation of the same transparency, diligence and good corporate governance that I believe we achieved at Petropavlovsk,” he said.

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Bringing Gold Back to Germany – by Moa Fromm (Handelsblatt Global – June 12, 2017)

https://global.handelsblatt.com/

The German central bank is currently repatriating much of its overseas gold, but part of the reserves is going to stay abroad. It was a scare from Germany’s Federal Audit Office that the public actually paid attention to. In 2012 financial controllers said they were unsure whether the gold reserves of Germany’s Bundesbank actually physically existed.

The Federal Audit Office demanded the central bank make regularly spot checks so that gold reserves abroad should be “physically counted and their authenticity and weight” confirmed. We’re not talking peanuts here. Following the United States, Germany has the world’s largest gold reserve, constituting two-thirds of German currency reserves. And in 2012, around 70 percent of the total of 3,378 tons of the precious metal (total value around €119 billion or $132.98 billion) was in the vaults of foreign central banks.

The Bundesbank took the suggestion to heart and discretely transferred 300 tons of gold stored in the vaults of the US Federal Reserve to Frankfurt over the past years. Over 100 tons were brought home in 2016 alone.

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Miners eye Europe’s largest lithium deposit in Czech Republic – by Robert Muller (Reuters U.S. – June 7, 2017)

https://www.reuters.com/

CINOVEC, CZECH REPUBLIC – Mining for lithium could start in the Czech Republic in two years, exploiting Europe’s largest resource of the metal that is used in batteries for electric vehicles and home power storage.

The deposits lie around Cinovec, a village with a tradition of mining since the 14th century and situated near the border with Germany, the industrial powerhouse at the heart of Europe’s bid to build electric cars and develop battery technology.

The resource, a term used for a deposit whose extent has yet to be proven by exploration, could amount to 1.3 million tonnes, or about 3 percent of the global lithium stock, according to the Czech Geological Survey.

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