Russia Sells Stake in Diamond Miner Alrosa for $815 Million (The Moscow Times – July 11, 2016)

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/

The Russian government has sold a stake in Alrosa, the world’s largest diamond miner, for 52.2 billion rubles ($816 million), the RIA Novosti news agency reported Monday.

The sale was the first in a program of partial privatizations designed to help cover a large budget deficit. The government sold 10.9 percent of Alrosa at 65 rubles ($1.01) per share — a 3.7 percent discount to their market price. The government still controls one-third of the company’s shares.

Boris Kvasov, a director at VTB Capital, one of the Russian banks that managed the sale, told the RBC news agency about 35 percent of the shares were bought by the Russian Direct Investment Fund, a state-backed investor. A similar amount was bought by Europeans, with Asian and Middle Eastern buyers purchasing a further 25 percent, he said.

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Poland’s disappearing lakes fuel battle over coal mining – by Claudia Ciobanu (Reuters U.S. – July 10, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

WILCZYN, Poland (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – In early summer, the Wielkopolska region in western Poland looks like a scene from “The Hobbit” with intense green fields and lakes surrounded by dense forest and pretty cottages.

But there is growing disquiet in this rural idyll with more and more summer houses up for sale and farmers battling arid land and crop losses amid escalating protests about the impact of lignite coal mining in the area.

Residents ranging from fishermen and farmers to mayors and small business owners say water in the region’s lake system is disappearing, drying out farmland and jeopardizing the region’s economic base in agriculture and, more recently, tourism.

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India expects potash miners to offer decade-low price after Belarus deal – by Rajendra Jadhav (Reuters India – June 28, 2016)

http://in.reuters.com/

MUMBAI – Leading global potash producers, including Russia’s Uralkali, are likely to supply the crop nutrient to India at the same price Belarus agreed, a key Indian negotiator with overseas suppliers told Reuters.

Belarus on Monday agreed to sell 700,000 tonnes of potash to Indian Potash Limited (IPL) at $227 per tonne, the lowest price in a decade. “Uralkali has very good relations with Indian buyers. We are hopeful that it will agree to $227,” said P.S. Gahlaut, managing director of IPL, the country’s biggest importer.

The contract price with Belarus is too low, and Uralkali, the world’s biggest potash producer, is not yet ready to sign a potash supply contract with India, said a company spokesman. “We cannot offer a higher price to any supplier. If they insist, then we can postpone purchases,” Gahlaut said.

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Potash Corp. shares surge on possibility of market thaw – by Ian McGugan (Globe and Mail – June 24, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Shares of Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. are surging on speculation the company’s rivals in Belarus and Russia may once again team up – a development that could potentially mark an end to potash’s long swoon.

Prices for the crop nutrient have plunged since the heady days of 2010, when BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s largest miner, attempted to acquire Potash Corp. during the frenzy of the commodity supercycle.

One key factor in the protracted slide was the split-up in 2013 of the marketing alliance between state-owned Belaruskali of Belarus and Uralkali of Russia, which had previously helped to support global prices for potash.

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As Europe Drops Coal, Poland Embraces It – by Ladka Mortkowitz Bauerova and Maciej Martewicz (Bloomberg News – June 24, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

The World Health Organization estimates that two-thirds of the European Union’s 50 most-polluted cities are in Poland, largely in the mining region of Upper Silesia, where the smell of burning coal lingers in the air.

Undaunted, Poland’s government is doubling down on coal. “Building more efficient coal power plants will get us better results in cutting CO2 emissions than building renewable energy sources like wind or solar,” says Energy Minister Krzysztof Tchorzewski, a member of the Law and Justice party, which swept to power in October with union backing after it pledged to preserve mining jobs.

Even as other European countries shun coal, Poland is still addicted, getting almost 90 percent of its electricity from it. That has more to do with politics and fear of job losses than with the inability to generate power from other sources.

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UPDATE 1-Belarus may revive potash cooperation with Uralkali (Reuters U.K. – June 23, 2016)

http://uk.reuters.com/

MINSK/MUMBAI – Belarus is considering cooperating with Russian potash producer Uralkali, it said on Thursday, the first sign the two sides might work together again since Uralkali broke off a potash alliance in 2013, triggering a fall in global prices.

Uralkali is the world’s biggest producer of potash, a widely used nutrient for crops, while state-controlled Belaruskali is the second largest.

“New Uralkali shareholders are coming to me every month saying: ‘accept us’. We are not against it – let’s unite, on our conditions,” Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said at an event in Minsk.

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Living on top of a Siberian diamond mine – by Andrei Iskrov (Russia Beyond The Headlines – June 17, 2016)

http://rbth.com/

The entire existence of Mirny, Russia, revolves around the enormous pit that is the town’s diamond mine. The precious stones attract a steady flow of newcomers looking for work, but the town’s residents are divided when it comes to their feelings: While some say Mirny is the best place in the world, others feel trapped in it.

The city of Mirny, located in one of Russia’s coldest and most remote regions, exists for one reason and one reason only – diamonds. Indeed, the place owns its very name to the giant pit on the periphery of the town: the Mir (“Peace”) diamond mine, located on one of the world’s richest diamond deposits.

Mirny (Russian for ‘peaceful’) was built in the 1950s, growing around a diamond mining operation started by the Soviet government after several rich diamond fields were discovered in the Siberian republic of Yakutia, located above the Arctic Circle some 5,280 miles east of Moscow, with winter temperatures going as low as -94° F.

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NEWS RELEASE: ALROSA recovers a 241.21-carat diamond

http://eng.alrosa.ru/

Mirny, June 16, 2016 – PJSC ALROSA, the world leader in diamond mining, announces the recovery of a 241.21-carat rough diamond from Nyurbinskaya pipe.

It is one of the largest rough diamonds recovered in the Russian Federation and the third largest among those found at Nyurba Mining and Processing Division.

The crystal measures 38.64 mm by 27.34 mm by 25.46 mm, and is translucent with a grey hue. Traces of dissolution–etching channels and caverns–are observed on the surface. The intermediate and peripheral zones contain large cracks, one of which is ferruginized. The crystal contains graphite and sulphide inclusions. The diamond is 4 Black Clivage/Makeable 2 colour.

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Diamonds Are Putin’s Best Bet to Entice Wary Investors to Russia – by Yuliya Fedorinova and Stephen Bierman (Bloomberg News – June 15, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

President Vladimir Putin is trying to woo foreign investors into the battered Russian economy by offering a chunk of the world’s biggest miner of diamonds.

Russia needs cash to help fill a hole in its budget, the result of a collapse in revenue from plunging oil prices. Putin has proposed selling stakes in state-controlled companies including banks and oil producers. At a time when global money managers remain wary, the one asset that may hold the most appeal is a stake in Alrosa PJSC, valued at more than $860 million.

The company, owned 44 percent by the federal government, is the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds and had record profit of 49.2 billion rubles ($750 million) in the first quarter. The shares are up 23 percent this year. While the timing of the sale hasn’t been announced, Economy Minister Alexey Ulyukaev says Alrosa is a “good candidate” to be one of the first on the auction block.

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Lure of Amber Pits Ukraine’s Illegal Miners Against State – by James Marson (Wall Street Journal – June 3, 2016)

http://www.wsj.com/

KlESIV, Ukraine—A simmering conflict over amber mining, the economic lifeblood on Ukraine’s northwestern flank, boiled over into an armed skirmish here one recent afternoon. At the end of March, police officers loosed a few rounds from automatic rifles in a standoff with hundreds of illegal miners. The miners fought back with a hailstorm of rocks.

“The resources belong to the people, not the cops, oligarchs and politicians,” said Oleksandr Vasilyev, a 42-year-old regional lawmaker and amber miner.

Illegal amber mining has become a major test for the Ukrainian government, which is struggling to overcome entrenched corruption that sparked two revolutions in a decade while waging a nearly two-year-old war against Russia-backed separatists in the east.

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Mining and nuclear decommissioning: Robots in dangerous and dirty areas (Robohub.org – June 3, 2016)

I2Mine Full Promotional Video from MIRO on Vimeo.

http://robohub.org/

Workers have long confronted dangerous and dirty jobs. They’ve had to dig to the bottom of mines, or put themselves in harm’s way to decommission ageing nuclear sites. It’s time to make these jobs safer and more efficient, robots are just starting to provide the necessary tools.

Mining has become much safer, yet workers continue to die every year in accidents across Europe, highlighting the perils of this genuinely needed industry. Everyday products use minerals extracted from mining, and 30 million jobs in the EU depend on their supply. Robots are a way to modernise an industry that is constantly under pressure with the fall in prices of commodities and the lack of safe access to hard-to-reach resources. Making mining greener is also a key concern.

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‘Ghost’ Of Woman Coal Sorter Pictured In Lady Victoria Pit Mine – by Sara C Nelson (Huffington Post U.K. – June 3, 2016)

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/

‘It’s an old colliery so there is bound to be something there’

A ghost hunter believes he has captured the spirit of a female coal sorter taking a nighttime walk through a former mine. Jimmy Devlin, 44, says he came across the apparition during a paranormal investigation in April.

He took pictures of the eerie sight at Lady Victoria pit in Newtongrange, Midlothian, which is now home to Scotland’s National Mining Museum. He said: “I have very rarely shared any of my work, more because of ridicule and cyber abuse from closed minded individuals.

“I do however feel I would like to share this image I captured whilst taking random shots before my investigation began. “It was taken whilst standing on one of the high walkways that run over the old bogey tracks that surround the pit head.

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Miner Ends Quest for Gold to Unearth Strongest Material in World (Graphite) – by Anna Hirtenstein (Bloomberg News – May 31, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Mark Thompson dumped his plans for a gold mine to pursue a fortune in graphite, the same stuff used in pencils for centuries.

But he isn’t so interested in old-school writing instruments. Thompson’s Talga Resources Ltd. plans to convert high-grade graphite from Sweden into a material called graphene, which is stronger than steel, conducts electricity better than copper and is so light and flexible that companies like Samsung Electronics Co. are using it to develop new devices.

Graphene was discovered in 2004 by two British scientists who used Scotch tape to extract atom-thin layers of pure carbon from flakes of graphite, earning a Nobel prize for their work. While the market for it is still emerging, Talga’s effort to profitably produce the material could open commercial uses from batteries and touchscreens to smart clothing and building materials.

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OPINION: Jadarite feeds Rio Tinto’s lithium battery-powered future – by Matthew Stevens (Australian Financial Review – May 18, 2016)

http://www.afr.com/

In 2004, a Rio Tinto exploration team went looking for borates in a place called Jadar on the north-western fringe of Serbia. But the drillers found kryptonite instead. Well, but for the lack of fluorine and a green glow, they did.

What Rio recovered is a unique mineral that has since been named jadarite. And it might yet become pretty important to the company because jadarite is rich in boron and, more critically, lithium.

Lithium is, of course, a music anthem of legend by the desperately divine Nirvana. It is also the Earth’s lightest metal and a source of resilience in heat-resistant glass and ceramics. And, increasingly, it is one of the raw materials fuelling the revolution in battery technologies that is already changing the future of automobiles and will probably change the way we use the traditional electricity grid.

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Coals to Newcastle: A Warning to Both Trump & Clinton – by Ted Gup (Huffington Post – May 17, 2016)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Like politicians, language sometimes fails to keep pace with the times. Consider the phrase “Taking coals to Newcastle,” dating back five centuries to the days when Newcastle, England was coal capital of the world.

The adage came to represent the absurdity of bringing something — in this instance, coal — to a place where it was already in abundance. The phrase endures, though there are no more such mines in England, and Newcastle, humbled by history, is now a port where foreign coal is off-loaded by the ton.

But in this political season, and particularly in the aftermath of the recent West Virginia Primary, the phrase and its backstory have a special resonance for the presumptive candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. For Trump, who imagines he can easily unwind time, bring back the shrinking coal industry, and restore America’s preeminence as a manufacturing center, Newcastle may stand as a stubborn reminder that history has no reverse gear.

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