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End of Russian palladium exports may result in world market shortage – by Eugene Gerden (InvestorIntel.com – November 18, 2015)

http://investorintel.com/

Russia may significantly reduce exports of strategic rare earth elements to foreign markets during the next several years, despite the recently announced state plans for a significant expansion of their domestic production.

It is planned that at the initial stage such restrictions will apply to palladium, huge reserves of which were accumulated by the country during the Soviet era, which allowed Russia to become one of its world’s largest exporters of the metal in recent years.

In recent years exports of palladium from the reserves of Russian State Precious Metals and Gems Repository (Gokhran) has been varied in the range of 14-15 tonnes, however there is possibility that they might be completely stopped already starting from 2016.

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UPDATE 1- Falling copper forces Poland’s KGHM to scale back – by Adrian Krajewski (Reuters U.S. – November 13, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

Nov 13 Europe’s No. 2 copper producer, Poland’s KGHM, cut 2015 production targets for its main overseas mine and flagged lower spending as well as mining asset write-downs on Friday, as copper prices hit a six-year low.

“The situation on the commodity market is getting worse and there are reasons to presume the possibility of testing our mining assets for value loss,” KGHM’s Chief Financial Officer Jaroslaw Romanowski said.

“We see 2016 as a turnaround year, but we presume that this crisis may continue into next year,” he added. “Our capital expenditures will surely go down or be postponed.”

Worries over growth in China, which consumes half of global copper production, have pushed copper prices below $5,000 a tonne, seen as a stress-test level for KGHM.

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The melting Arctic is like ‘discovering a new Africa’ – by Leslie Shaffer (CNBC – November 12, 2015)

http://www.cnbc.com/

Governments and the private sector are positioning to develop the Arctic, where the wealth of resources is akin to a “new Africa,” according to Iceland’s president.

The melting of the Arctic is an ongoing phenomenon: In October, about 7.7 million square kilometers (about 3 million square miles) of Arctic sea ice remained, around 1.2 million square kilometers less than the average from 1981-2010, according to calculations by Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis that was published by researchers at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

One effect of the melting ice has been newly opened sea passages and fresh access to resources.

“Until 20 or so years ago, (the Arctic) was completely unknown and unmarked territory,” Iceland’s President Olafur Grimsson told an Arctic Circle Forum in Singapore on Thursday. “It is as if Africa suddenly appeared on our radar screen.”

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[Jacob Fugger] Banking history: Goldenballs (The Economist – August 1, 2015)

http://www.economist.com/

Not for nothing was Jacob Fugger known as “Jacob the Rich”

ALBRECHT DÜRER’S portrait of Jacob Fugger shows a man with thin lips and unforgiving eyes. He wears a fine fur tippet about his shoulders and a brown cap; for the time, his dress is strikingly plain. Greg Steinmetz, formerly a journalist with the Wall Street Journal and now a securities analyst in New York, declares that he was the most influential businessman who ever lived. He makes a better case for this extravagant claim than for his assertion that Fugger was also the richest man in history.

A late-medieval banker from Augsburg in southern Germany, Fugger has never been as celebrated as Cosimo de Medici and his Florentine sons and cousins, whose reputation as bankers was burnished by their excellent taste in Renaissance art.

But Fugger was the better banker. Were he alive today, he would have cut a swathe through Wall Street and the City, and yet his remarkable history is still little known. Mr Steinmetz’s prose does not always sparkle and some arcane details of banking history are fuzzy, but the tale of Fugger’s aspiration, ruthlessness and greed is riveting.

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Poland may seek temporary output reduction at some mines – by Agnieszka Barteczko (Reuters Africa – November 10, 2015)

http://af.reuters.com/

WARSAW, Nov 10 (Reuters) – Poland could temporarily cut output at several mines over the next four to five years to take surplus coal off the market as the industry deals with record low prices, a member of Poland’s newly elected Law and Justice party said.

Consolidating state-owned power producers could be considered as a next step as the government seeks first to prop up the struggling coal mining sector, Grzegorz Tobiszowski, responsible for coal issues, told Reuters.

The conservative Law and Justice party (PiS), which won parliamentary elections last month, would consider merging the country’s biggest power firms – PGE, Tauron, Enea and Energa, he added.

“Personally I think Poland needs one big power company,” Tobiszowski said, adding this would likely face scrutiny from the EU over anti-monopoly regulations. “If this turns out difficult, we will be working on the formula of two groups”.

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These 10 mines will set the copper price for the next decade – by Vince Peckham (Mining.com – November 3, 2015)

http://www.mining.com/

Chile’s state-owned copper giant Codelco’s announcement today of another round of layoffs is just the latest sign of an industry under stress. Copper has recovered from six-year lows struck late August on the back of supply cuts by major producers but at around $2.30 a pound or $5,000 per tonne on Tuesday there isn’t much breathing room for producers.

The latest estimates by the Lisbon-based International Copper Study Group paint a very different picture from the previous forecast made in April. The market is now expected to be broadly in balance this year and to fall into a deficit of 130,000 tonnes in 2016. This compares with April’s forecasts of surpluses of 364,000 and 228,000 tonnes respectively.

According to ICSG World mine production, after adjusting for expected disruptions, is expected to increase by around 1.2% in 2015 to 18.8 million tonnes. 2014 recorded similar growth rates. The expected market shortfall in 2016 will be against a backdrop of higher mine output of around 4% expected next year.

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Greece says will respect court ruling due on Eldorado’s mining licence – by Angeliki Koutantou (Reuters U.S. – November 3, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

ATHENS – Nov 3 Greece’s energy ministry will respect an upcoming court ruling on its decision to revoke Canadian-listed company Eldorado Gold’s mining licence in northern Greece, it said on Tuesday.

Court officials said on Monday that the majority of Greece’s top administrative court, the Council of State, favoured the annulment of a government decision which revoked Eldorado’s mining licence in northern Greece and that the decision was expected to be published later this month.

The Vancouver-based gold miner had appealed to Greece’s top court to overturn a ban on its plans to develop a gold mine in a forested area of northern Greece, in a case widely seen as a test of the leftist government’s approach to foreign investment.

The Energy Ministry on Tuesday said it was had not been officially notified of such a court decision but will respect it once it is published.

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Turning Brownfields into Greenfields: From Coal to Clean Energy – by Lee Buchsbaum (PowerMag.com – November 1, 2015)

http://www.powermag.com/

As the coal industry declines in many places around the world, can the mines it leaves behind be repurposed for cleaner energy projects that benefit multiple stakeholders, including local economies? Several existing and planned projects demonstrate that there may be multiple paths toward that transition.

No question, the coal industry in Appalachia, the rest of the U.S., and much of the developed world is going through massive structural changes. As mines close and regulators and citizens take stock of their legacy, people are wondering what’s next for the coalfields.

Beyond attempting to restore scarred lands to their “approximate original contours,” as required by U.S. federal law, there may be another approach, one that could provide lasting value to mining companies, landowners, residents, and other stakeholders.

Thousands of acres of once-abandoned mines are now wildlife preserves or slowly reviving parklands, but can mined land be put to economic use?

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Lights Out in Britain for the Coal Industry – by Stephen Castle (New York Times – October 31, 2015)

http://www.nytimes.com/

KELLINGLEY, England — Tens of thousands of British coal miners have lost their jobs in recent decades, during the steep decline of an industry that stoked the nation’s industrial rise, sustained it through two world wars and once employed more than one million people.

Chris Jamieson will be one of the very last. In December, his job is set to disappear when Kellingley colliery, Britain’s last deep coal mine, is scheduled to close for good.

In the mine’s empty parking lot, Mr. Jamieson, 50, is already thinking about the moment in a few weeks’ time when the last group of miners is hauled to the surface. He expects to work the final shift at the colliery, which has been reduced to little more than a quarter of its peak work force and is succumbing to pressure from cheaper imported coal.

“I will be putting the lights out,” he said, adding that, after a quarter-century in the industry, he would particularly miss not just his paycheck but the unique camaraderie among colleagues who work together underground.

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INTERVIEW-Poland to dig in over coal, says potential energy minister – by Agnieszka Barteczko (Reuters U.K. – October 28, 2015)

http://uk.reuters.com/

WARSAW – Oct 28 Poland’s new government will fight even harder in the European Union to win concessions for its coal-based industry, said Piotr Naimski, tipped to lead the country’s energy ministry following last Sunday’s parliamentary election.

Ninety percent of Poland’s energy is generated from the highly-polluting coal and Warsaw has long opposed an EU drive to curb carbon emissions.

But the conservative, eurosceptic Law and Justice (PiS) party, which won outright parliamentary majority in Sunday’s vote, could take an even harder line than the outgoing centre-right government.

Naimski said the new PiS government would fight “any obstacles” that would prevent Warsaw from sticking to coal rather than developing renewable energy sources.

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Merkel’s `Black Gold’ Loses Shine as Lignite Phase-Out Begins – by Tino Andresen (Bloomberg News – October 28, 2015)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Less than two years ago, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government dubbed lignite East Germany’s “black gold.” Last week, she reached a deal with utilities that analysts at Berenberg and B. Metzler Seel Sohn & Co. see as the start of the phaseout for the dirtiest power-plant fuel.

“The federal government is taking its gloves off,” Guido Hoymann, an analyst at B. Metzler, said by phone from Frankfurt. “That’s the beginning of the end for this type of energy production. The first step is being made.”

RWE AG, Vattenfall AB and Mitteldeutsche Braunkohlegesellschaft mbH agreed to close plants corresponding to 12 percent of the nation’s total lignite generation capacity in a 1.6 billion euro ($1.8 billion) accord as Germany is falling behind its target to cut carbon emissions. For the remaining 56 units, it’s a question of when they will be forced to shut, Lawson Steele, an analyst at Berenberg, said by phone from London.

Lignite, a sedimentary rock formed from compressed peat, has been a mainstay of German power generation for almost a century and helped underpin growth in Europe’s biggest economy.

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FOCUS: Poland’s love affair with coal won’t end soon – by Paulina Pacula (Euobservor.com – October 23, 2015)

https://euobserver.com/

Poland’s coal-based energy sector provides a livelihood for hundred of thousands of people in Upper Silesia and has the potential to swing Sunday’s (25 October) national election.

In the small Polish town of Brzeszcze, part of the Upper Silesian coal basin, almost half of the 21,000 inhabitants depend on one employer: the KWK Brzeszcze mine, which is soon to be closed.

More then 2,000 men stand to lose their jobs because, for the last couple of years, the mine has been unprofitable – for every tonne of coal sold, the company had to pay an extra 265 zlotys.

If the mine is closed, unemployment in the municipality will skyrocket from its already-high level of 11.6%.

A similar fate probably awaits another 11,000 workers from unprofitable mines run by the biggest state mining company, Kompania Węglowa and 3,000 from JSW.

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Sirius Minerals gets permission to start building North Yorks potash mine – by Andy Richardson (Northern Echo – October 20, 2015)

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/

THE company behind a 1,000-job fertiliser mine has been handed the crucial paperwork for building work to start next year on the landmark project.

The decision notice from the North York Moors National Park Authority, which formally grants planning permission for the £1.5bn York Potash Project mine, near Whitby, gives the go ahead for Sirius to start digging.

It now needs to secure financing to take forward its bold plans. Industry experts have estimated that the cost to get the mine up and running is about £2.3 billion.

The company said its financing strategy is advancing and the first phase is planned to be put in place during the first quarter of 2016.

Sirius wants to take the fertiliser mineral polyhalite from underneath the North York Moors National Park, using an underground tunnel to transfer it to a proposed handling site at Wilton, near Redcar, for distribution.

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Russia may face with shortage of gold and strategic commercial minerals during next 20 years – by Eugene Gerden (InvestorIntel.com – October 19, 2015)

http://investorintel.com/

Russia may face with a shortage of gold and some other strategic commercial minerals during the next 20 years, which is mainly due to the decline of the volume of exploration works in the country in recent years.

In the case of gold, the predicted growth of gold production in Russia up to 350 tonnes per year may result in the gradual depletion of gold reserves in Russia already by 2035, taking into account even projected resources.

This will be mainly due to lack of attention to the technological aspects of gold production in Russia, as well as the reduction of exploration works in recent years, because of the economic crisis in the country.

In the case of production methods, due to poor technologies, the losses of gold during ore processing usually reach 27%.

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Alrosa president ‘concerned’ over synthetic diamonds – by Tom Davis (Jewellery Focus – October 15, 2015)

http://www.jewelleryfocus.co.uk/

Andrey Zharkov, president of Russian diamond mining company Alrosa, has warned that the diamond industry is suffering from reputation risks due to synthetic stones.

Speaking at the World Diamond Council (WDC) in Moscow on Tuesday, October 13, Zharkov said that the industry should be concerned by “growing occasions” on the market when natural diamonds are mixed with synthetic diamonds, or when “stones are worked on for the purpose of their improvement.”

Under a new Russian law “stones of synthetic origin, even having characteristics of natural stones, are not considered to be precious ones,” he said. “Therefore, the law determines that synthetic stones cannot be associated with precious stones.”

He said that Alrosa is conducting research into developing faster and more effective synthetic diamond detection devices. The WDC will play a more active role in defending and supporting the “favourable reputation and positive image of the diamond industry”, he said.

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