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Europe Mining

UPDATE 1-Poland’s KGHM targets lower output after record 2015 loss (Reuters U.S. – March 17, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

Europe’s second biggest copper producer, Poland’s state-run KGHM, signalled on Thursday plans to cut its copper output this year after writedowns pushed its 2015 net loss higher than expected.

The miner posted a record loss of 5.01 billion zlotys ($1.3 billion) at the group level and 2.8 billion loss for the parent company, from which KGHM pays dividends. Analysts had expected losses of 4.81 billion and 2.29 billion respectively.

Earlier this year, the company reported writedowns of $1.3 billion on its foreign assetsdue to falling metal prices, with the largest drag coming from its main overseas mine Sierra Gorda in Chile.

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Soviet uranium legacy blights eastern EU – by Adrian Mogos and Michael Bird (Euobserver.com – March 14, 2016)

https://euobserver.com/

ROMANIA, CZECH REPUBLIC, GERMANY – The Soviet Union mined uranium across its empire for decades, leaving a legacy of environmental damage, social breakdown and widespread health issues. In the first of a two-part investigation, we reveal how the devastating effects are still being felt in Germany, Romania and the Czech Republic.

“We live here, with radon [radioactive gas] across the road and with chalk dust from down in the valley – God damn it – it will kill us all,” says 53-year-old Vasile Mocanu, a former miner.

He is describing how his life has been trapped between two sources of pollution – a uranium mine and a chalk mine. Baita Plai, an ex-Communist workers’ colony built by the Soviets in the 1950s, lies on the edge of the Transylvanian countryside, 500km north-west of Bucharest.

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Norilsk calls for nickel production to be reduced – by Henry Sanderson (Financial Times – March 13, 2016)

http://www.ft.com/

London – The world’s biggest nickel producer, Norilsk Nickel, has warned that prices for the metal are unlikely to rise unless lossmaking producers start to shut mines and close production.

Up to a quarter of global nickel producing capacity needs to shut, Pavel Fedorov, vice-president of the company, said in an interview.

“If other producers are rational we shall see a market readjustment — but if other producers don’t behave rationally then prices will remain low until rational behaviour returns to the market,” he said.

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2016 PDAC Thayer Lindsley Award Winners: Cukaru Peki Discovery Team – Reservoir Minerals & Freeport McMoRan

PDAC 2016 – Thayer Lindsley Award – Reservoir Minerals & Freeport from PENDA Productions on Vimeo.

http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.

Reservoir Minerals & Freeport McMoRan - Cukaru Peki
Reservoir Minerals & Freeport McMoRan – Cukaru Peki (Photo by Envisiondigitalphoto.com)

This award recognizes an individual or a team of explorationists credited with a recent significant mineral discovery anywhere in the world.

Cukaru Peki Discovery Team/Reservoir Minerals & Freeport McMoRan: For the team’s discovery of high-grade copper-gold deposits in Serbia which may prompt explorers to look for a new class of mineral deposit.

In July 2012, a joint venture of subsidiaries of Reservoir Minerals Inc. and Freeport-McMoRan Inc. announced the discovery of what became known as the Cukaru Peki copper-gold deposit in the heart of Serbia’s Bor mining camp, which has been operating for more than 100 years.

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First Quantum Minerals Ltd sells Kevitsa mine in Finland for US$712 million to repair balance sheet – by Peter Koven (Financial Post – March 11, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. has struck a much-needed deal to sell a nickel mine and bring relief to its debt-laden balance sheet.

The Toronto-based company said on Thursday that it will sell its Kevitsa mine in Finland to Boliden AB for US$712 million in cash. The transaction with the Swedish firm should close in May.

First Quantum wants to cut its debt by US$1 billion in the first quarter of 2016, and this sale gets the company most of the way to its goal. Analysts cheered the deal, as Kevitsa fetched a higher price than most of them expected in a weak nickel market.

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NEWS RELEASE: Boliden to Acquire Kevitsa Mine in Finland (March 10, 2016)

BOLIDEN, Sweden–Boliden today announces that it has entered into an agreement with First Quantum to acquire the Kevitsa nickel-copper-gold-PGM mine in Northern Finland. The total consideration on a debt free basis is USD 712 million in cash. The agreement is subject to approval by competition authorities.

“This is an attractive opportunity to acquire a high-quality mine with excellent operational and geographical fit with Boliden. The acquisition of Kevitsa is consistent with Boliden’s growth strategy. Kevitsa started production in the end of 2012 and is an early stage mine, which we believe can provide good synergies with our existing business in mining, concentrating, smelting and regional exploration. It also establishes a nickel feed base load for our Harjavalta smelter”, says Lennart Evrell, President and CEO, Boliden.

“The timing of the acquisition fits us well. Boliden has executed substantial expansion projects in recent years and is ready to take on a new major project.

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Fraser Institute News Release: Australia top spot for mining investment; Nevada and Alaska ranked best in U.S. [Saskatchewan and Quebec first/second in Canada]

http://www.fraserinstitute.org/

Click here for the mining survey: http://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/survey-of-mining-companies-2015.pdf

TORONTO—Australia is the world’s most attractive region for mining investment, according to an annual global survey of mining executives released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian policy think-tank.

“Despite a global downturn of commodity prices, governments worldwide can offer competitive, transparent, and stable mining policies to encourage exploration and investment,” said Kenneth Green, Fraser Institute senior director of energy and natural resources and director of the Fraser Institute Survey of Mining Companies, 2015.

The annual survey rates 109 jurisdictions around the world based on geologic attractiveness and the extent government policies encourage or deter exploration and investment.

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Russian Coal Mine Accident Kills 36, Including 5 Rescuers (Associated Press/New York Times – Februray 28, 2016)

http://www.nytimes.com/

MOSCOW — A methane gas leak at a coal mine in Russia’s far north triggered three explosions that ignited fires and partially collapsed the mine, killing 36 people, officials said Sunday.

The dead included five rescue workers and a mine worker who were killed early Sunday when the third explosion rocked the Severnaya mine in Vorkuta, a town north of the Arctic Circle in the Komi region, the emergency services said.

The first two explosions struck late Thursday, killing four miners and trapping 26 others. Denis Paikin, technical director for mine operator Vorkutaugol, said Sunday that given the level of gas in the mine, the degree of destruction and the trajectory of the fire, which continued to burn, all the missing miners were presumed dead.

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Greek War of Words With Eldorado Escalates on Short Charge – by Nikos Chrysoloras and Paul Tugwell (Bloomberg News – February 24, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Greek Energy Minister Panos Skourletis says Eldorado Gold Corp. Chief Executive Officer Paul Wright shorted the shares of his own company, comments the miner dismissed as “utter nonsense,” as tensions mount between the Canadian company and the government in Athens.

Eldorado shares fell 19 percent to C$3.53 on Jan. 12 in Toronto, the biggest one-day decline since December 2008, after Wright announced at a press conference in Athens that the company was suspending its investment plans for its Greek mines, blaming the attitude of the government.

“Wright is a CEO, he’s smart and he’s experienced; he gave a press conference knowing that the share price of the company would tumble,” Skourletis said when asked for an update on the country’s talks with Eldorado Gold in a wide-ranging interview on Thursday.

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World Bank lowers nickel price projection, Terrafame sticks to optimistic forecast (Ujtkset News – Feburary 23, 2016)

http://yle.fi/uutiset/

The state-owned company Terrafame, which now owns and operates Talvivaara’s mining operations in Sotkamo, eastern Finland, says it’s sticking to optimistic price forecasts for its business and financial planning. The World Bank however, has forecast a 15-percent drop in market prices for nickel, one of the mine’s main outputs.

Shortly after it acquired the mining operation Talvivaara last August, the state-owned company Terrafame said that it would be basing its business plans on “conservative nickel price forecasts” issued by the World Bank.

“Our business plan is based on it [nickel prices] rising to about 16,000 dollars [per ton] by 2020, which it the World Bank’s forecast. If we stick to this framework, then we will be able to achieve a positive cash flow by the end of 2017 into 2018,” Terrafame board chair Lauri Ratia said in mid-August.

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‘A CITY LOST IN THE DESERT’: A visit to the Sahara’s uranium capital – by Armin Rosen (Business Insider India – February 23, 2016)

http://www.businessinsider.in/

In May 2013, a car bomb detonated near the Somair uranium mine in Arlit, in northern Niger, killing one person. Moments earlier, in Agadez, some 150 miles south, Al Qaeda-affiliated militants waged an assault on Nigerien army positions that killed over 20 people.

That same year, Niger’s two uranium mines produced 4,238 tons of uranium, down from 4,572 the year before – but up from 4,159 tons in 2011. The mines didn’t miss their production targets. Extraction continued as if the bombing had barely even happened.

The Somair mine is one of two uranium sites in Arlit that are largely owned and operated by Areva, a majority state-owned French nuclear-services company.

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Finland’s Outokumpu plans cost cuts to stem losses (Reuters India – February 11, 2016)

http://in.reuters.com/

Feb 11 Outokumpu, the Europe’s largest stainless steel maker, on Thursday posted an underlying loss from the fourth quarter and forecast more losses in the first quarter, adding it aims to improve profitability with new cost cuts.

Outokumpu, 26 percent owned by the Finnish state, has suffered as a steep drop in the price of nickel, an ingredient in stainless steel, has made distributors hold back orders, while production problems have also harmed the business.

The fourth-quarter underlying operating loss was 11 million euros ($12 million), compared to analysts’ average expectation of a loss of 38 million euros in Reuters poll.

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S&P downgrades Glencore to just above junk – by Neil Hume (Financial Times – February 4, 2016)

http://www.ft.com/

Standard & Poor’s has downgraded Glencore’s debt to one notch above junk, citing the “challenging outlook” for the mining industry and increasing uncertainty about demand from China, the world’s biggest consumer of raw materials.

The rating agency said Glencore, which has been hard hit by the worst commodities rout in two decades, was now rated triple B minus, from triple B previously.

However, the company is not under review for a further downgrade unlike some of its peers including BHP Billiton. Moody’s, a rival rating agency, put through a similar downgrade of Glencore’s rating before Christmas.

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Ukraine’s Illegal Miners Come Out of the Darkness – by Kyrre Lien and Per Christian Selmer-Anderssen (Slate.com – January 29, 2016)

http://www.slate.com/

Civil war has led to the legalization of a dangerous shadow industry.

SNIZHNE, Ukraine—The darkness bred fear. Tolek Golovko tried to calm down as a wagon carried him 800 meters down into the mine. The boy was afraid the wooden pillars would fail and the ceiling would come crashing down on him and the rest of the group. That happens on a regular basis here in Eastern Ukraine.

Most recently in March last year, 33 people were killed when a mine collapsed outside of Donetsk. That one was large and state-owned, so the news went global. But when illegal mines like the one in Snizhne collapse, it is not always reported. Instead, families are compensated, mines are closed—and they become another secret mass grave deep in the woods.

In other words, the 14-year-old had reasons to be afraid. “It was so dark, so cold, so wet. It was almost as if I couldn’t breathe,” Golovko recalls six years later, when we meet him after his shift.

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Greenland rare earth mining to remain contentious due to uranium – minister – by Gwladys Fouche (Reuters U.S. – January 26, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

TROMSOE, NORWAY – Jan 26 Greenland’s push to extract rare earth metals will remain a contentious political issue for years to come because the mining also produces uranium as a by-product, the nation’s finance minister told Reuters.

Greenland has been opening up to foreign companies with hopes that its vast resources in metals and minerals, including rare earths, would help finance its ambition to become independent from former colonial master Denmark.

Greenland banned uranium mining decades ago due to its potential use in nuclear weapons but lifted it in 2013 and the government’s majority in parliament supports the new policy.

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