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Polish Black-Hole Mining Risks Labor Unrest Before Election – by Maciej Martewicz and Dorota Bartyzel (Bloomberg News – August 16, 2015)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Poland’s struggle to help Kompania Weglowa SA, the European Union’s biggest coal producer, return to profitability risks unleashing union-led protests before October’s general election.

A threatened eruption of street demonstrations next month may seal Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz’s fate, with the ruling party already trailing the opposition in opinion polls. The cabinet extinguished demonstrations in January by scaling back its plans to shut unprofitable mines and agreeing to revamp Kompania with the aid of state-controlled utilities.

The government has missed two self-imposed deadlines for the overhaul and has a third looming on Aug. 31 as it seeks to stem the coal industry’s 1.4 billion-zloty ($372 million) loss in the first half of 2015.

Power producers are reluctant to invest in an industry they regard as a black hole, especially as this month’s heatwave triggered electricity supply curbs which, according to UBS AG analyst Michal Potyra, may raise calls for further investment in infrastructure by utilities.

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K+S says it’s open to Potash Corp. takeover, despite its rejection of U$8.6-billion bid – by Peter Koven (National Post – August 14, 2015)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

The chief financial officer of K+S AG said his firm is not opposed in principle to a merger with Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., despite its total rejection of the US$8.6-billion takeover proposal.

“Don’t get me wrong: We aren’t at all blocking a potential transaction,” chief financial officer Burkhard Lohr said on an earnings conference call on Thursday.

Potash Corp. is offering 41 euros a share, and K+S says that this is far too low. But the German firm also claims a takeover could be bad for its home country, as Potash Corp. could shutter domestic production.

If German politicians end up supporting that argument, Potash Corp.’s proposal may get effectively blocked. While there is no known mechanism for the government to block the bid, it would be difficult to do such a big transaction without at least some political support.

K+S argues that it is only logical for Potash Corp. to close its European mines. The potash market is oversupplied, and Potash Corp.’s Saskatchewan output is lower-cost than what K+S has in Europe.

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K+S says will look at higher Potash bid, profit jumps – by Andreas Cremer (Reuters Canada – August 13, 2015)

http://ca.reuters.com/

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s K+S AG SDFGn.DE said it would consider any improved offer from Canada’s Potash Corp of Saskatchewan POT.TO after its position was boosted by stronger than expected quarterly earnings.

The company affirmed its rejection of a 7.9 billion euro ($8.8 billion) takeover proposal by Potash, but left the door open on Thursday to an improved bid.

“K+S will deliver strong results as a stand-alone company,” finance chief Burkhard Lohr said during an earnings call. “K+S has a great future as an independent company.”

The Canadian firm’s takeover proposal of 41 euros per share does not even remotely reflect K+S’s underlying value, the CFO said, questioning again reassurances the Canadian firm has given on jobs and sites.

K+S’s management and supervisory boards “are extremely concerned that Potash appears to have no sustained interest in continuing the strategically, technically and financially linked fertilizer and salt activities in the current form,” it said.

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UPDATE 1-K+S says private shareholders back rejection of Potash offer (Reuters U.S. – August 10, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

FRANKFURT, Aug 10 (Reuters) – German salt and fertilizer company K+S AG has claimed support from private or retail investors for its rejection of a 7.9 billion euros ($8.6 billion) offer from Potash Corp of Saskatchewan.

K+S said on Monday it had surveyed private or non-institutional shareholders, who hold about 30 percent of its shares, and said more than 84 percent who replied were in favour of rejection, though it also said only about 28 percent had responded to its questionnaire.

Potash Corp has been pushing to talk with K+S management despite the German company’s initial rejection last month of the Canadian company’s bid worth 41 euros per share.

K+S, whose shares traded up 0.8 percent at 37.43 euros by 1130 GMT, lacks the protection of a big anchor investor, with nearly all its shares freely traded on the stock exchange, and the results of K+S’s survey provide the first real indication of how investors may respond to Potash Corp’s approach.

Only about 4 percent of the more than 39,000 private shareholders who participated in the survey said they would accept a 41 euros per share offer, K+S said.

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Whose Sovereignty? Gabriel Resources v. Romania – by Adam Cernea Clark (Huffington Post – August 6, 2015)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Adam Cernea Clark is a writer on sustainable development issues and an environmental attorney.

Two weeks ago, a little-known Canadian gold mining company that has developed or operated exactly zero mines over 17 years announced to its investors that it had initiated international arbitration proceedings against the government of Romania for failing to permit what would be the largest open-pit gold and silver mine in Europe.

Claiming this right under Romania’s bilateral investment treaties (BITs) with Canada and the U.K. (the company consists of ten separate entities in half a dozen countries), Gabriel Resources opined that the Romanian government had unlawfully deprived them of their right to develop the project and extract the full value of their investment.

Using some 40 tons per day, Gabriel subsidiary Roşia Montana Gold Corporation’s project would have created a massive pool of cyanide over priceless archaeological gold mining sites dating back to the Roman Empire and possibly earlier. It would have destroyed the village of Roşia Montana and two adjacent villages, as well as four mountains in this remote corner of the Carpathians.

Almost two years ago, the project triggered historic street protests of tens of thousands of people around Romanian cities.

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Finnish nickel mining execs on trial for environmental damage (AFP – August 4, 2015)

https://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/

Four former executives with a Finnish nickel mining company accused of contaminating lakes with uranium, cadmium and other toxic elements went on trial Tuesday charged with aggravated environmental damage.

Talvivaara Sotkamo, the bankrupt operator of the European Union’s biggest nickel mine, is also named among the defendants in the highly-publicised case in Kainuu, east-central Finland.

The prosecutor asked the district court to seize 13.3 million euros ($14.6 million) in illegal profits from Talvivaara Sotkamo’s estate and the four executives, according to court documents.

Situated around 500 kilometres (300 miles) north of Helsinki, the mine opened in 2008 amid expectations it would usher in a new era in nickel mining in Finland.

But the operation ended in environmental disaster and economic failure after toxic levels of nickel, cadmium, uranium, aluminium and zinc were detected in nearby lakes and rivers in 2012, and again in 2013 after waste water began to leak from the mine.

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UPDATE 1-K+S rejects Potash Corp’s new attempt at takeover talks – by Patricia Weiss (Reuters U.S. – July 21, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

FRANKFURT, July 21 (Reuters) – Salt and fertilizer group K+S has rejected a new attempt by Canada’s Potash Corp to entice the German company into takeover talks, a K+S spokesman said on Tuesday.

K+S earlier this month rebuffed Potash Corp’s 7.9 billion euros ($8.65 billion) proposed bid of 41 euros per share as too low and suggested the suitor was planning to shrink the company.

A K+S spokesman said Potash Corp Chief Executive Jochen Tilk had met the state premier of the German regional state of Hesse – where K+S is headquartered – and had handed over documents about Potash Corp’s plans to preserve jobs after a takeover. K+S was also given the documents.

“We’ve looked into these statements and concluded that they contain nothing substantial beyond what we had already been given in writing. That’s why we still see no basis for talks,” the spokesman said.

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5,000 year old mine, and the inspiration behind Rio Tinto, set to reopen – by Lawrie Williams (Mineweb.com – July 17, 2015)

http://www.mineweb.com/

One of the world’s most fascinating and oldest mines, Rio Tinto in Spain, is now at the final stage of development ahead of re-opening.

There now seems to be nothing in the way to prevent the full-scale go-ahead by AIM and TSX listed EMED Mining from re-opening one of Europe and the World’s most historic mining sites.

The Rio Tinto mine in Spain has been mined since 3000 BC, as well as being the birthplace at the end of the 19th Century of one of the world’s biggest mining companies – Rio Tinto, although it is no longer involved in the Spanish mine.

EMED has now announced receiving the final operating licence from the Rio Tinto Municipality, which is the last piece of paper necessary to let it go ahead with initiating mining operations at the historic site. Wet commissioning of the rebuilt and refurbished concentrator is already under way and the company says it is now scheduling first commercial production in Q3 this year.

Company CEO, Alberto Lavandira commented on the permitting award: “The receipt of the licence is a major milestone for the company as it represents the final permit required to start building up production over the next few months, ahead of the originally anticipated target date of January 2016.”

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Police Watch Over a Vision of Golden Riches for Northern Ireland – by Firat Kayakiran (Bloomberg News – July 15, 2015)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

The explosives for the mine arrived with a police escort.

An hour after more than 30 blasts shook the Curraghinalt mine in Northern Ireland, dust still hung in the air. Through the haze, among the collapsed rock, were glints of gold. That’s the prize for Canada’s Dalradian Resources Inc. and a potential boost for one of the U.K.’s poorest regions.

“There is wealth here,” Patrick Anderson, Dalradian’s 47-year-old chief executive officer, said in the region’s capital of Belfast, where his ancestors worked in nearby shipyards that produced the Titanic in 1911. “I’m not talking about a single mine. We are working on building a mine camp here.”

Anderson, who co-founded a company that developed an Ecuador gold mine and sold it to Kinross Gold Corp. in 2008 for C$1.2 billion ($940 million), plans to raise $250 million for Curraghinalt. He says the mine can produce at least 2.9 million ounces of gold over 18 years more profitably than bigger deposits elsewhere.

So far, developing gold reserves in Northern Ireland has been a challenge.

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Employee concerns main hurdle in Potash Corp. takeover of K+S – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – July 13, 2015)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

In Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc.’s quest to buy K+S AG, one of its biggest hurdles may lie in the German company’s corporate structure.

K+S has two boards of directors, one comprised of executives and another of employee representatives and shareholders.

The employee-shareholder group, known as the supervisory board, has enormous influence over the company with the power to hire and fire executives.

Unlike most takeovers, where a high enough bid will succeed, the buyer must also deal with the supervisory board, which takes into account the employees.

“The representative of the employees represent different interests,” said Martin Imhof, a partner at law firm Heuking Kuhn Luer Wojtek, who specializes in cross-border mergers and acquisitions in Germany.

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K+S investors see Potash Corp deal within reach despite rebu – by Andreas Kröner and Ludwig Burger (Reuters Canada – July 9, 2015)

http://ca.reuters.com/

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Shareholders in takeover target K+S say a deal could be done because suitor Potash Corp’s main aim is to get control over its German rival’s ambitious Canadian project and scale it back.

K+S’s “Legacy” mine in the prairies in western Canada would be the first built from scratch in the global potash industry in almost 40 years. It would add to an already oversupplied market where demand is suffering from weak emerging market currencies and low crop prices.

Potash Corp could more easily ration global supply by controlling K+S, but still commit to leaving its German operations largely intact. The potential threat to K+S’s domestic operations were seen as one reason why German regulators might block a deal.

K+S last week rebuffed Potash Corp’s 7.9 billion euro ($8.6 billion) proposed bid of 41 euros per share as too low and suggested the suitor was planning to shrink the company.

Potash is in demand as a mineral because it plays a vital role in plant growth and crop resistance to cold and drought.

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U.K. to End 300 Years of Deep Coal Mining as Prices Slump – by Alessandro Vitelli (Bloomberg News – July 10, 2015)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Britain plans to close its last deep coal mine in December, spelling the death of an industry that’s kept the nation’s economy humming since the Industrial Revolution.

The U.K.’s last deep underground mine, located at Kellingley in northern England, will shut around Dec. 15, U.K. Coal Holdings Ltd. said in a statement. The company’s Thoresby mine ceases production on Friday.

The closing of Kellingley will mark the nation’s exit from an industry that employed more than a million workers at 3,000 pits a century ago. Since 2000, U.K. power generators Electricite de France SA to RWE AG bought more of the fuel from abroad, where coal from Australia to Colombia is cheaper, according to the Federation of U.K. Coal Producers. European prices slumped to an eight-year low in April.

“The U.K. coal industry has been in structural decline for 40 years,” Paolo Coghe, an analyst in Paris at Societe Generale SA, said Friday by phone. “It’s no longer positioned to withstand an extended period of low prices such as the one we are experiencing now.”

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UK Coal’s Thoresby Colliery to cease mining on Friday (Reuters U.K. – July 10, 2015)

http://uk.reuters.com/

LONDON – Coal mining at Thoresby Colliery, one of the last remaining underground coal mines in Britain, will cease on Friday and 360 employees will be made redundant, mine owner UK Coal said in a statement.

Mining at UK Coal’s Kellingley mine will also cease on or around December 15, the company said.

Underground coal mining has become unprofitable in Britain because of fierce competition from cheaper markets such as Colombia, Russia and the United States, falling domestic demand and a government drive away from carbon-intensive coal power generation.

UK Coal was placed into administration in 2013 after struggling with rising costs, hefty pension liabilities and strong competition from cheaper coal imports.

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Potash Corp. confident of K+S bid, could raise if more value seen – by Pachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – July 8, 2015)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. is confident K+S AG shareholders would accept its $8.7-billion (U.S.) bid, but is open to raising the offer if its German rival could reveal more value not currently seen by the Canadian company, according to a source close to the deal.

K+S has rejected Potash Corp.’s offer of €41 ($45 U.S.) a share, saying it is too low and grossly undervalues its Legacy potash project in Saskatchewan. K+S has said it believes Legacy alone is worth €21 a share, which has led some analysts to speculate that K+S is looking for an offer of about €50 a share.

The source characterized that amount as inconceivable and said there was no chance that such an offer would materialize given the average takeover premium in Germany is 32 per cent and Potash Corp. is offering a 57-per-cent premium to K+S’s share price over the past year.

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How German cities are turning former coal mines into parks [photos] – by Marielle Segarra (Newsworks.org – July 7, 2015)

http://www.newsworks.org/

I’m spending a few weeks in Germany as part of a German/American journalist exchange program through the RIAS Berlin Kommission and the Radio Television Digital News Foundation. During the trip, I’m sending back lessons on urban planning and revitalization from German cities. Today’s topic: how cities in the Ruhr region are embracing their heritage by repurposing industrial sites.

When I think of quintessentially European cities, I imagine cobblestone streets, historic brick buildings, magnificent cathedrals, sidewalk cafes, and chocolatiers on every corner. I think of cities with history stretching back hundreds, and even thousands of years. Paris. Or Brussels. Or Rome, or Prague, or Vienna, or Hamburg…

But of course, Europe has all kinds of different cities, each with their own unique aesthetic and history.

Last week, I visited several cities in Germany that don’t fit the mold. What’s most prominent about them isn’t ancient history, but rather, their more recent, industrial heritage.

The Ruhr region of Germany is a sprawling metropolitan area, with 5.2 million people and 53 cities with boundaries that blur together. For decades, the region was dotted with thousands of coal mines, steel mills, and other industry.

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