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Gabriel Resources still confident of way forward for Rosia Montana – by Alex Williams (Mineweb.com – November 12, 2013)

http://www.mineweb.com/

While Romania’s parliamentary committee voted overwhelmingly against legislation that would have fast tracked the mine, CEO, Jonathan Henry remains positive.

LONDON (MINEWEB) – Rosia Montana has a future as a gold mine, Gabriel Resources CEO, Jonathan Henry, told Mineweb on Tuesday. “I’m confident that there’s a way forward,” he said. “We just need to see it.”

On Monday a parliamentary committee overwhelmingly voted against legislation that would have fast-tracked the mine’s construction by declaring it a “public utility.”

However, the company views Monday’s committee decision as a rejection of the legislation supporting Rosia Montana, rather than a rejection of the project itself. The committee has left open the possibility of a wide-ranging review of its mining laws, under which Rosia Montana could technically be approved in the future.

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Romania shuts door on Gabriel’s giant Rosia Montana gold mine – by Armina Ligaya (National Post – November 12, 2013)

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

The last lifeline for Gabriel Resources Ltd.’s controversial mining project in northwestern Romania went dead on Monday, after a parliamentary commission voted down a draft bill which would have allowed Europe’s largest open pit gold mine to move forward.

The rejection of the draft bill, which would have finally set out a course for development of the mine, came after 14 years of waiting for permits amid mounting political turbulence.

The news sent the Canadian mining company’s already-depressed stock down 10%, or 9.3¢ to close at 82.7¢ on the Toronto Stock Exchange Monday. Jonathan Henry, the chief executive of Gabriel Resources, however, said he was “confident” there could still be “a potential path forward” for the project.

The draft bill specific to Rosia Montana was rejected, he said, but Romania may go forward with a general gold and silver mining bill which could leave the door open for Gabriel’s project, he said Monday.

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Gabriel Resources’ Romanian mining project suffers setback – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – November 12, 2013)

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.

Rome – Gabriel Resources Ltd.’s 15-year effort to develop Europe’s biggest gold mine suffered yet another setback when a Romanian parliamentary commission overwhelmingly rejected a draft law that, if passed, would have allowed construction of the $1-billion (U.S.) project.

But Toronto-listed Gabriel said the rejection of the draft bill does not mean that the proposed Rosia Montana mine in Transylvania is dead.

A spokesman noted that the draft law was turned down because Romania wants broader legislation to deal with all gold and silver mines, not just the Rosia Montana project. The draft bill dealt only with Rosia Montana.

“The commission believes the bill under consideration does not entirely meet all the complex requirements on the conduct of business in mineral resources exploitation in Romania and therefore proposes its rejection,” Attila Korody, one of the 19 lawmakers on the commission, told Reuters Monday evening.

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Poland, Wedded to Coal, Spurns Europe on Clean Energy Targets – by Danny Hakim and Mateusz (New York Times – October 31, 2013)

http://www.nytimes.com/

BELCHATOW, Poland — They call it Poland’s biggest hole in the ground. The coal mine here is more than eight-and-a-half miles long, nearly two miles wide and as deep in parts as three football fields. Enough coal comes out of it to fuel Europe’s largest coal-fired utility plant, whose chimneys loom in the distance.

“The entire world population could fit in this hole,” Tomasz Tarnowski, an administrator here, said in a bit of proud hyperbole as he led a group of reporters on a walk near a towering mound of brown coal about halfway into the mine.

Poland is Europe’s coal colossus. More than 88 percent of its electricity comes from coal. Belchatow is one of its huge sources and the largest carbon emitter in Europe. (There’s no “belch” in Belchatow — it is pronounced bel-HOT-oof.)

This month, a United Nations conference on climate change will be held in Poland, a location many environmental activists consider the least appropriate choice they could imagine. And while the European Union has mapped out ambitious clean-energy goals intended to reduce the greenhouse gases linked to global warming, Poland has been its fossil-fuels holdout.

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Cameco welcomes Greenland’s decision to lift uranium mining ban – by Jan Olsen (CTV News/The Associated Press – October 25, 2013)

http://www.ctvnews.ca/

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Greenland’s parliament has agreed to remove a 25-year-old ban on uranium mining, paving the way for an industrial boom that the Arctic island hopes will help it gain independence from former colonial master Denmark.

Greenland, a semi-autonomous part of Denmark, wants to step up its mining of rare earths, valuable elements used in the production of smartphones, weapons systems and other modern technologies. But uranium is often found mixed into rare earths, so the ban was blocking key mining activity.

Cameco (TSX:CCO), one of the world’s largest uranium producers, welcomed the decision, adding that it would be open to setting up projects in Greenland.

“We are pleased to see that Greenland has opened the door to safe and responsible uranium mining,” said Rob Gereghty, a spokesman for the Saskatoon-based company.

“Currently, we are focusing our exploration efforts in Canada, Australia, Kazakhstan and the United States. As we look forward, the removal of this barrier will allow us to consider Greenland for potential uranium exploration projects.”

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UPDATE 2-Mining slump weighs on Nordic suppliers Sandvik, Metso – by Niklas Pollard and Johannes Hellstrom (Reuters India – October 24, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

STOCKHOLM, Oct 24 (Reuters) – Swedish machinery and tool maker Sandvik said on Thursday a sharp fall in demand from a shrinking mining industry was showing signs of levelling out.

But the slump still hit its earnings, and led to a fall in orders at Finnish rival Metso, which also stepped up a programme of cost cuts.

The global mining industry is under pressure to reduce overheads as demand for raw materials levels off after a decade of strong growth, and sector heavyweights led by BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto have slashed capital spending by billions of dollars.

The cuts have translated into job losses and plunging order intakes for a cluster of Nordic suppliers.

Sandvik, which together with Swedish peer Atlas Copco supplies more than half the world’s underground mining gear, said the order intake in its mining business fell 17 percent year-on-year in the third quarter. The rate of decline eased from the second quarter, however.

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Outokumpu asks EU to let it keep Italian steel plant: sources – by Silvia Antonioli and Maytaal Angel (Reuters India – October 22, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

LONDON, Oct 22 (Reuters) – Finnish stainless steel maker Outokumpu has asked the European Commission to let it keep the Italian steel plant the company agreed to sell to gain approval for its purchase of ThyssenKrupp’s Inoxum unit.

The Acciai Speciali Terni plant has been valued at more than 500 million euros ($677 million) by Outokumpu, but is now expected to sell for less than that due to weakness in the global steel market.

Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that Terni, one of Europe’s biggest and most modern plants, will lose 80-100 million euros this year, and that Outokumpu believes it is not anti-competitive to keep it under current conditions.

The Terni plant, about 100 km (62 miles) north of Rome, was valued by one analyst at up to $1 billion over a year ago. “They have been trying to convince the EU that they should keep Terni since the market situation has completely changed from last year – the sector got much worse,” an industry expert said.

Refraining from selling the plant could allow more flexibility in valuing it, the expert said, leading to a lower writedown in the company’s books.

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Mining group Eramet plans more savings as nickel stays weak – by by Gus Trompiz (Reuters India – October 21, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

PARIS – Oct 21, 2013 (Reuters) – Eramet on Monday said it would step up cost saving measures to counter the effects of a depressed nickel market, which contributed to a five percent fall in the mining group’s third quarter sales.

Benchmark prices of nickel, mainly used in stainless steel, sank to a four-year low in July due to poor industrial demand and rising stocks, leaving a swathe of global production operating at a loss.

Eramet reported a 5 percent year-on-year fall in third-quarter sales to 754 million euros ($1.03 billion), which included a 23 percent decrease for its nickel division.

“The Group is stepping up its measures to decrease its costs and capital expenditure, adjust its productions to its markets and reduce its working capital requirements,” Eramet said in a statement, without giving details.

The company reiterated that current operating profit in the second half would be “significantly lower” than in the first half, when Eramet reported a 9 million euro loss.

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Canadian miners should learn from Gabriel’s missteps – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – October 19, 2013)

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.

ROME — After almost two decades of false starts and a running battle with some of the savviest environmental groups on the planet, it’s make-or-break time for Europe’s biggest and most politically sensitive gold project. In early November, the Romanian government will, like a Roman emperor at a gladiator fight, give the thumbs up or thumbs down to Gabriel Resources Ltd.’s $1.4-billion (U.S.) Rosia Montana mine in Dracula’s legendary homeland, Transylvania.

The vote could go either way, though the share price says the odds are against the Toronto-listed company. Gabriel’s stock collapsed early last month, falling from $1.47 (Canadian) to as low as 41 cents, when Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta said parliament would likely reject a draft mining law that would allow the project to go ahead. (It’s now at 93 cents.) Gabriel’s response was to threaten the government with a $4-billion (U.S.) lawsuit if the law were to die. That threat still stands. Rosia Montana’s future lies in the hands of lawmakers and lawyers, not engineers and financiers.

Gabriel says a lot about what’s right and what’s wrong with Canadian gold miners, which dominate the industry. About half of the top names are Canadian, among them Barrick, Goldcorp, Yamana, Kinross and Eldorado. They are big risk takers, superb at engineering and financing and occasionally capable of impressive value creation.

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UPDATE 2-Outotec to cut up to 500 jobs as miners slash spending – by Ritsuko Ando (Reuters India – October 17, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

HELSINKI, Oct 17 (Reuters) – Finnish mining technology company Outotec lowered its full-year sales and profit margin forecasts and said it planned to cut up to 500 jobs as a sluggish global economy forces miners to rein in spending.

In a further sign of tough times for Finland’s industrial firms, its warning on Thursday came just after engineering company Metso said it faced a fall in sales and profit due to weakness in its pulp, paper and power unit.

Shares in Outotec, whose job cuts represent 10 percent of the workforce, slid 15 percent by 0930 GMT while Metso lost 6 percent.

Outotec said it was seeing delays in customer payments. One project, worth 30 million euros ($40.5 million) in its order backlog, was cancelled in September.

Mining companies have over the past year been pulling back on spending in the face of weaker prices as many boom-year projects turned sour, and many have scrapped or delayed plans.

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No plans to step down for Norilsk’s billionaire CEO – by Clara Ferreira-Marques and Douglas Busvine (Reuters U.S. – October 6, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – (Reuters) – When he took the helm of Norilsk Nickel (GMKN.MM) last December as part of a deal that ended a long-running shareholder battle, Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin hinted he saw himself in the job for roughly two years.

Almost a year on, Potanin is clearly relishing his role at the center of a major turnaround and indicates he has no plans to stand down as chief executive of the world’s largest producer of nickel and palladium. “I don’t like deadlines,” the 52-year-old Potanin told Reuters over tea in an upmarket London hotel late on Friday after a long day spent wooing investors.

His departure could be years away as he develops the Norilsk management into a world-class team, he said. “For a rich and reasonably successful guy, it is impossible not to enjoy your job, otherwise why would you spend so much time and effort doing it? I am a great fan of Norilsk and I like this kind of challenge.”

Potanin, whose more than $14 billion fortune began in banking, has long been a major shareholder in Norilsk, securing stock at a bargain-basement price in the loans-for-shares privatizations that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union and spawned a new oligarch elite.

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Farm and Food: Potash market isn’t for sissies – by Alan Guebert (Journal Star.com – October 5, 2013)

http://journalstar.com/ [Lincoln, Nebraska]

There are two reasons to keep up to speed on the fast pace of events in what would seem to be the very dull world of potash.

The first is that the key players in this once tightly controlled market continue to lose their grip on it. According to analysts, prices for this key fertilizer will continue to drop — to nearly $300 per ton, some say — through the end of 2013.

If they’re right, that’s more than $100 a ton less than a year ago and a gargantuan $600 to $700 per ton below the record price of five years ago.

In short, go long potash; it’s the best time in years to buy it and apply it. The second reason to pay attention to the potash market is that, in truth, you can’t take your eyes off of what quickly is turning into a Russian version of an American soap opera.

Nine weeks ago the Russian-Belarusian potash cartel, a rocky twosome composed of Russia’s Uralkali and Belarus’ Belaruskali, parted company when the Russians simply called their marriage off.

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Rick Mills: Greenland Is the Final Frontier for Lower-Cost Mining – Interviewed by Kevin Michael Grace (The Metals Report – October 1, 2013)

http://www.streetwisereports.com/

Industrial minerals like copper and nickel are essential to global economic expansion. But everywhere you look, grades are getting lower, and costs are getting much, much higher. Is there a way out? Rick Mills says mining companies need to look to Greenland. In this interview with The Metals Report, the owner and host ofAhead of the Herd.com lauds the world’s largest island for its vast resources, its one-stop regulatory system and its year-round access to ocean transportation.

The Metals Report: You never really believed that there was anything resembling an economic recovery in the United States, correct?

Rick Mills: I don’t believe you can have an economic recovery with the type of jobs that have been created in the last few years. Wages have stagnated. The velocity of money, how many times it turns over in the economy, how many times it’s spent, is at a record low,

TMR: So the decision by the Federal Reserve to hold off on tapering quantitative easing didn’t surprise you?

RM: I’ve gone on record saying there would be no tapering this time around, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t coming—it certainly is. But it will likely be very gradual, and the Fed will start only when they feel the economic data support such a move. I firmly believe, however, that the Fed’s zero interest rate policy is here to stay, and this is very important for gold investors.

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NEWS RELEASE: Norilsk Nickel Unveils New Strategy Focused on Tier I Assets and Higher Returns

October 04, 2013 09:05 AM Eastern Daylight Time

MOSCOW–(BUSINESS WIRE)--MMC Norilsk Nickel (hereinafter, Norilsk Nickel or the Company), the largest global nickel and palladium producer, today announced further details of its new strategy at MMC Norilsk Nickel’s “Unveiling New Strategy” event held in London.

Highlights

  • Capture full potential of MMC Norilsk Nickel’s unique resource base in Russia
  • Focus on Tier 1 assets to deliver sustainably high return on capital
  • Focus on capital discipline and introduction of return on investments as key metric for the organization
  • Increased focus of existing portfolio on copper and PGMs
  • Prioritize Polar Division Upstream assets, with a plan to:
    -Maximize high-margin production utilizing existing infrastructure
    -Develop the greenfield Skalisty mine, with a potential 2.4Mtpa ore capacity
    -Upgrade of the Talnakh infrastructure into a world class concentrator

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Steel firm Outokumpu should help itself: Finland’s state fund – by Jussi Rosendahl (Reuters U.S. – September 30, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

HELSINKI – (Reuters) – Steel company Outokumpu (OUT1V.HE) should try to solve its own problems even though its heavy debts have raised the prospect it might need more money from shareholders at some stage, the head of Finland’s state investment fund Solidium said.

While Finland is often listed among the most innovative economies and remains triple-A rated, government funding is still badly needed in the country of 5.4 million people which has a limited pool of private capital. Kari Jarvinen, Solidium’s managing director, told the Reuters Nordic Investment Summit that the fund was making its long-term investment decisions independent of political pressure to help out troubled Finnish companies.

“It is better that the company tries to sort out its problems by itself. The company already had a 1 billion (euros) rights issue only one-and-a-half years ago,” Jarvinen said when asked about Outokumpu’s finances. “It is paramount that these companies find ways to be profitable in the future.”

Solidium holds stakes worth in total 7.7 billion euros in 11 Finnish listed companies including paper maker Stora Enso (STERV.HE) and investment and insurance group Sampo (SAMAS.HE).

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