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Russia’s Nornickel sees nickel price stabilizing at $10,000/T – by Polina Devitt and Diana Asonova (Reuters U.S. – September 15, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

MOSCOW – Russian mining giant Nornickel, previously known as Norilsk Nickel (GMKN.MM), expects nickel CMNI3 prices to rise to about $10,000 a tonne by the end of the year and flatten out around that level through 2017, its chief operating officer said.

The stainless steel ingredient has been a top performer on the London Metal Exchange this year, with prices up about 30 percent since February lows to $9,730 a tonne.

Its climb has mainly been driven by concern over supplies after mine closures in the Philippines and Indonesia’s 2014 ban on nickel ore exports. “Everyone is keeping an eye on the development in the Philippines and Indonesia,” Nornickel’s Sergey Dyachenko told the Reuters Russia Investment Summit.

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Germany’s dirty little coal secret – by Tom Morton (Australian Broadcasting Corp. – September 14, 2016)

http://www.abc.net.au/

Germany’s reputation as a pioneer of clean, green energy seems a far cry from the reality on the ground in the village of Atterwasch. It’s been called one of the greatest social experiments in German history, comparable with the process of reunification after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

That social experiment — known as Energiewende, or “energy transition” — is a living reality in the centuries-old village of Atterwasch, in the eastern German region of Lusatia, close to the Polish border.

Next to the village church, which dates back to 1294, the rectory roof sports an impressive rack of solar panels. The solar array recently won an “Ecumenical Environmental Award” from the Ecumenical Council of Berlin-Brandenburg.

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Norilsk’s 1942 nickel plant gone but far from forgotten – by Andy Home (September 13, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – Norilsk Nickel, or Nornik as it has just rebranded itself, has just completed the decommissioning of the nickel refining plant in its far-flung Polar operations in the Arctic north of Siberia. It was known as the 1942 Plant because that’s when it was first commissioned and it has been operating ever since.

The closure is part of a radical overhaul of the company’s nickel operations, with refining operations being refocused on the metallurgical complex on the Kola Peninsula in the west of Russia and the Harjavalta refining complex in Finland. It is decidedly good news for the inhabitants of the city of Norilsk itself.

Located with Soviet practicality within the residential confines of the city, the plant emitted 380,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide every year, representing around 25 percent of total sulphur emissions in the city.

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Lone Norwegian mayor accuses Russian oligarch of fouling the Arctic: When will Oslo follow? – by Anna Kireeva (Bellona.org – August 23, 2016)

http://bellona.org/

KIRKENES, Norway – Following a gathering of politicians and citizens in this town earlier this month, calls from its mayor to forbid travel to a Russian oligarch for his hand in polluting Northern Norway have intensified.

Norilsk Nickel, produces a third of the world’s nickel with facilities on the Kola Peninsula, which Norwegian and other scientists have said are responsible for extremely high concentrations of sulfur dioxide on their side of the border, something Rosprirodnadzor, Russia’s official government environmental watchdog has long denied.

But Rune Rafaelsen, mayor of Kirkenes told Bellona in an interview that he’s tired of watching as nothing is done to solve the 26-year-old crisis, and is appealing to Vidar Helgesen, Norway’s Minister of Climate and the Environment to hit Norilsk Nickel where it hurts.

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Russia’s Fertilizer Tycoon Says Potash Glut May Last a Decade – by Yuliya Fedorinova (Bloomberg News – August 18, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko, whose fertilizer company is investing more than $6 billion in potash mining, said it could take at least a decade for the potash market to work off the excess because of the past “disruptive” actions by the largest sellers.

Potash prices have collapsed since 2013, when a trade pact between Russian and Belarusian producers, which helped prop up the market, fell apart. At the time, Canpotex Ltd., a Canadian potash exporter, and Belarusian Potash Co. controlled about 80 percent of global exports.

Their tactics kept prices at high levels, which encouraged new investment from other companies and led to excess supply, said Melnichenko, who owns EuroChem Group AG and is Russia’s eighth-richest man, according to estimates from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Potash fell to a decade low of about $220 to $230 a ton this year on continued oversupply. In 2008, it reached above $900 a ton.

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Northern exposure: Life in Norilsk, Russia’s most polluted city – by Andrei Iskrov (Russia Beyond the Headlines – August 16, 2016)

https://rbth.com/

Almost completely shut off from the outside world, the city of Norilsk in northern Siberia is a surreal place dominated by the world’s largest nickel plant. Pollution from the enterprise and the harsh climate make life hard for those who work here, but there is also a pride in surviving in such an inhospitable environment.

In the northern part of Siberia’s vast Krasnoyarsk Territory, not far from the Arctic Ocean, lies the city of Norilsk. It is often referred to using superlatives – the northernmost city in the world with more than 100,000 inhabitants, the most polluted city in Russia, one of the coldest cities in the world, and the home of the world’s most northern railway.

Snowdrifts on the streets of Norilsk may not melt until the following winter, the numbers on buildings are two meters big so that they can be seen during a blizzard and real summer here usually lasts for only one week. Temperatures in the city frequently drop to -50 degrees Celsius (-58 degrees Fahrenheit) and below in winter.

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Zinc deficit looms, prices up, but output restarts unlikely – by Pratima Desai (Reuters U.K. – August 16, 2016)

http://uk.reuters.com/

LONDON, Aug 16 Zinc’s sharp rally and looming market deficit has fed speculation that major producers such as Glencore may reverse output cuts, but analysts caution that is unlikely to happen soon.

Only when stocks of concentrate and metal sink to levels where higher prices can be sustained will large producers look at restarting capacity, they say. Benchmark zinc on the London Metal Exchange has climbed nearly 60 percent from January’s multi-year lows to around $2,300 a tonne, its highest since May 2015.

Many zinc mines have been shut or mothballed over the past couple of years, but prices did not really take off until this year when deficit expectations intensified with the closure of the Century mine in Australia and Lisheen in Ireland.

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Inside Ukraine’s ‘amber mafia’ – by Dan Peleschuk (Al Jazeera.com – July 4, 2016)

http://www.aljazeera.com/

Amber trade booms in northwestern Ukraine, but a shadowy criminal network largely benefits over thousands of miners.

Klesiv, Ukraine – Trundling along the decrepit roads of this remote corner of northwestern Ukraine, past dreary villages and decaying bus stops, few would suspect that the ground beneath is abundant with amber, a gemstone valued around the world as jewellery.

In reality, the business here is booming – but the profits are whisked away into the shadows. The vast majority of the poorly regulated industry operates outside state control, funnelling hundreds of million dollars each year into the hands of illegal miners, smugglers and, critics say, the politicians and armed gangs who run the racket.

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The Kola Mining and Metallurgy Combine: Norwegian politicians and citizens call Norilsk Nickel ‘dirtiest industry in the Arctic’ – by Anna Kireeva (Bellona.org – August 11, 2016)

http://bellona.org/

KIRKENES, Norway – Residents of this Norwegian-Russian border town have long suffered enormous sulfur dioxide emissions from Russian industry, and say they’re fed up with weak reactions from their own politicians to the two-decade old problem.

An area event last week gathered hundreds of residents of the small town in highlighting their worries over the heavy metal emissions wafting in from the Russian Kola Peninsula’s Kola Mining and Metallurgy Company’s industrial complex towns, and requested their own local politicians break deadlocked talks between Oslo and Moscow to improve the situation.

The Kola company is spread out across Northwest Russia in three of the dirtiest industrial towns in the country: Nikel, Zapolyarny and Monchegorsk. The Kirkenes event highlighted the recent publication of a Norwegian-authored book entitled Stop the Soviet Death Clouds, the name of the eponymous movement that was sparked in the early 1990s to fight trans-border pollution from the newly disbanded Soviet Union.

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The Untold Story Of Britain’s Black Miners (The Voice – August 7, 2016)

http://www.voice-online.co.uk/

The memories of African Caribbeans who worked in Nottinghamshire’s coal mines will form part of a new lottery funded project. The Voice spoke to Norma Gregory to find out what inspired it.

THE SAYING, ‘You are only a handshake or two away from a coal miner’, seems to resonate now more than ever before, in Britain’s social, political and industrial landscape. However, little is known about the experiences of miners of African Caribbean heritage in the UK until now.

Nottingham News Centre, a community interest company that aims to improve the sourcing, collating and sharing of diverse local history and community news has been awarded a special grant to launch a special project looking at the history of African Caribbbean miners.

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Eramet sees progress in nickel rescue plan, shares slide – by Gus Trompiz and Joseph Sotinel (Reuters U.S. – July 28, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

French mining group Eramet says in results presentation on Thursday that a mix of cost savings, divestment and extra financing including a convertible bond issue will help its nickel unit in New Caledonia stem heavy losses.

Chairman and Chief Executive Patrick Buffet says planned 100 million euros convertible bond issue “is part of measures to return as soon as possible to positive cashflow” at New Caledonian nickel unit SLN.

Says bond issue will support financing after announcement of 200 million euro ($221.76 million) French government loan to SLN, and Eramet’s own commitment to lend up to 325 million euros to SLN up to 2018.

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FISHY BUSINESS: An English mining company is keeping an entire species from extinction in Mexico – by Kata Karáth (Quartz.com – July 19, 2016)

http://qz.com/

Conservationists go to great lengths to save a species from extinction, and in the case of a small Mexican fish, to great depths as well.

For the past 12 years, London Zoo has been breeding a rare fish with crucial help from a large commercial manufacturer. British Gypsum supplies the zoo with gypsum, a mineral it mines in Brightling, southeast England. Gypsum is normally used as a fertilizer and in building products, but in this case it’s the only way of keep the mineral balance of the water just right for the peculiar needs of the checkered pupfish.

London Zoo runs conservation programs in more than 50 countries that are crucial to the survival of several thousand species, but the checkered pupfish has been particularly tricky. It only exists in one Mexican state, San Luis Potosí, and mostly in a single lake called Media Luna.

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‘King Coal’ mining mogul Richard Budge dies aged 69 (Wakefield Express – July 18, 2016)

http://www.wakefieldexpress.co.uk/

Richard Budge, the businessman who was crowned “King Coal” after successfully spear-heading the purchase of State-owned British Coal’s mining assets when the industry was privatised over 20 years ago, died today (Monday) at the age of 69. Mr Budge was born in 1947, the year the UK coal industry, with almost a thousand deep mines and a million employees, was nationalised and became the National Coal Board.

Almost half a century later when the “ultimate privatisation” was completed, there were just 19 deep mines in production – and Mr Budge’s Doncaster-based RJB Mining company bought all but two of them.

The three English coalfield packages embracing 17 deep mines, 30 surface mines, over 400 million tonnes of reserves and nearly 50,000 acres of land, cost RJB Mining, of which Budge was Chief Executive, £815 million. Some £700 million was paid to the government on completion on December 30, 1994, and the remaining bank acquisition debt was paid off within two years.

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A Loss For China And A Win For Russia In The Philippines – by Tim Treadgold (Forbes Magazine – July 14, 2016)

http://www.forbes.com/

Russia is a likely winner from changing government policy in the Philippines just as the South East Asian country emerges as a thorn in the side of China.

The problem between China and the Philippines is well understood and relates to disputed territorial claims by China to a vast area of the South China Sea that is close to other countries, including the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia.

Earlier this week an international disputes court in the Netherlands found against China and in favor of a case taken by the Philippines against the Chinese claims which are based on ancient history and modern “island building”.

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Poland to spend on boosting its image, defending coal industry (Reuters U.S. – July 13, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

Poland’s state-controlled firms will pay $25 million per year to finance a foundation aimed at bolstering its reputation abroad, Treasury Minister Dawid Jackiewicz said on Wednesday.

He said one of the foundation’s tasks will be to defend Poland’s coal industry from European Union plans to curb carbon emissions.

Since winning the first outright parliamentary majority since Poland’s 1989 transition from communism, the Law and Justice (PiS) party has overhauled the rules governing the constitutional court, prompting the EU executive to launch an unprecedented inquiry in January into whether the party has weakened the rule of law — a notion PiS mostly rejects.

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