Europe Mining – Page 77 – Republic of Mining

Tale of Two Polish Mines Shows Biggest EU Producer’s Woes – by Maciej Martewicz and Marek Strzeleck (Bloomberg News – December 23, 2013)

December 23, 2013

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Stock markets aren’t usually a subject of discussion when you’re a kilometer underground, yet Dariusz Batyra isn’t a typical Polish miner.

“I check the share price each day,” said Batyra, 39, a senior foreman at the mine run by Lubelski Wegiel Bogdanka SA, one of three coal companies in Poland not controlled by the government. “Everybody does in here.”

The performance of his employer compared with competitor Kompania Weglowa SA, the biggest producer in the European Union, explains why. Since debuting on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in 2009, Bogdanka has more than doubled in value as profits rose every year but one. It has done so even as the price of coal more than halved since 2008, when the global financial crisis took hold, pushing Kompania Weglowa to the brink of collapse.

Another year of diverging fortunes for the two miners underscores the contrast in an industry that’s struggled to adapt to the reality of the free market almost a quarter of a century after communism ended in Poland.

Bogdanka employs about 5,000 and analysts expect net income of 313.5 million zloty ($103 million) for 2013, making it the most profitable of seven Polish coal producers.

Wieliczka Salt Mine Is an Incredible Polish Underground Amusement Park – by Nina Strochlic (The Daily Beast – November 14, 2013)

December 5, 2013

http://www.thedailybeast.com/

Ever windsurfed across a saltwater lake or visited a 400-year-old chapel—underground? Try it out in Poland, at an unbelievable mine-turned-subterranean playground outside Krakow.

More than 1,000 feet underground in Poland, seemingly impossible things are happening. Hot-air balloons have been launched. A bungee jumper has taken the plunge. A windsurfer has been propelled across still saltwater. A brass band has bellowed on its instruments.

Stretching nine levels beneath the earth, Poland’s Wieliczka Salt Mine is roomy enough to fit the Eiffel Tower and then some. For centuries, miners have been carving out spectacular chapels and sculptures of the country’s most beloved figures underground, not far from the medieval city of Krakow.

And in the past half century, as salt mining slowed and then halted, and tourists began arriving, the cavernous chambers have been transformed into an incredible underground amusement park of grand halls, health spas, museum-worthy art, and record-setting spectacles.

Are Potash cuts a coded message to Russians? – by Sean Silcoff (Globe and Mail – December 4, 2013)

December 4, 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.

OTTAWA — There are two ways to read Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan’s announcement on Tuesday that it is cutting 1,050 jobs and tooling down some production. The first is that demand from developing markets has been soft and that the cuts are necessary to reduce costs. Falling corn prices in the U.S. have also hit potash pricing, which typically moves in tandem with the grain.

The second way to read Tuesday’s news is more interesting. The folks from Saskatchewan may be sending their Slavic rivals a message: “Pay attention to what we’ve done today. We want to end this little war we’ve been having, and so should you. Then we can return to normal, and get back to minting fat profits.”

Remember that potash is predominantly mined in two areas of the world with massive subterranean deposits – Saskatchewan and a region spread out over the former Soviet Union. The three miners in Saskatchewan – Potash Corp., Mosaic and Agrium – have sold overseas for years through their jointly owned marketing organization Canpotex while Russian producer OAO Uralkali and Belaruskali, owned by the state of Belarus, had a similar joint venture called Belarusian Potash Co. or BPC.

Dundee’s real-time data innovations are as good as gold – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – December 2, 2013)

December 3, 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.

CHELOPECH, BULGARIA – You would think an iPhone would be an utterly useless gadget in Dundee Precious Metals Inc.’s Bulgarian gold mine for the simple reason that the mine lies nearly a half kilometre below impenetrable rock.

But the underground reception is working well and that makes Mark Gelsomini, information technology director for the Toronto-listed company, smile like he has just tripped over a gold nugget the size of a golf ball.About 400 metres underground, his e-mails arrive without a glitch. Phones are static free.

“You’re coming in clear,” Mr. Gelsomini tells Dundee CEO Rick Howes, who is also deep underground in a dark tunnel that connects the mine’s various operations.

The free-flowing communication at Dundee’s Chelopech mine is thanks to a fully enabled underground WiFi network – a technological leap is attracting international attention.

UPDATE 2-Finland’s Outokumpu announces major financing plan, divests assets – by Jussi Rosendahl (Reuters India – November 30, 2013)

December 2, 2013

http://in.reuters.com/

HELSINKI/FRANKFURT, Nov 30 (Reuters) – The world’s No. 1 stainless steel maker Outokumpu said it planned to raise 650 million euros through a rights issue and divest assets back to ThyssenKrupp in an unexpected package of steps aimed at shoring up its finances.

The move will partly reverse Finnish Outokumpu’s 2012 acquisition of Thyssenkrupp’s stainless steel business Inoxum as it transfers a large steel plant in Terni, Italy, and high-performance alloy unit VDM back to the German group.

Outokumpu has been hit hard by Europe’s economic slowdown and by overcapacity in the industry, pushing up its debt and leading to speculation that it may need more cash from its shareholders.

The assets will be transferred to ThyssenKrupp in exchange for the cancellation of a 1.25 billion euro ($1.7 billion) loan note that Thyssen granted to Outokumpu when their original deal was done in 2012.

Zeppelins Seen Hauling Caterpillars to Mine Siberia: Commodities – by Firat Kayakiran & Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – November 27, 2013)

November 28, 2013

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Robin Young of Amur Minerals Corp. wants to dig for nickel and copper in Siberia where forbidding winters and poor roads make it tough to haul in equipment. His best option: fly it in with zeppelins.

Otherwise the London-traded explorer would have to spend about $150 million building a 350-kilometer (218-mile) road to truck in heavy construction gear, Chief Executive Officer Young said in an interview. Peter Hambro, executive chairman of gold producer Petropavlovsk Plc, said he invested in a maker of the airships and foresees the mining industry adopting them.

“To build a bridge to take a Toyota Land Cruiser isn’t horrifically expensive,” Hambro said. “To build a bridge that will take a Caterpillar 777 is very, very expensive,” he said, referring to the 87-ton dump truck used in mines.

Zeppelin and blimp manufacturers need mining contracts to creep back to life, 76 years after the Hindenburg burned and crashed in New Jersey, ending most buyer interest for decades.

Poland’s road from coal destined to be long – by Jan Cienski (Financial Times – November 25, 2013)

November 27, 2013

http://www.ft.com/home/us

Less than six months before Poland hosted more than 10,000 delegates for the UN’s climate talks, Donald Tusk, the prime minister, was in the south-western city of Opole showing where his priorities really are.

He was there to shepherd through an agreement to spend 11bn zlotys ($3.5bn) building an enormous 1.8GW coal-fired power station that Polska Grupa Energetyczna, the country’s leading utility, was so reluctant to build that Mr Tusk had to browbeat Krzysztof Kilian, then chief executive, into going along with the project.

“We are now in the process of shaping the energy mix in which coal will again find its place,” Mr Tusk said during the signing ceremony. “It is important that coal produces energy, that people have work and that Poland has enough energy.”

Poland is under growing pressure from the European Union and elsewhere to move decisively away from coal, which provides about 90 per cent of the country’s electricity. However, there are few immediate alternatives. Natural gas, a much cleaner fuel, is unpopular because most of it has to be imported from Russia. Meanwhile, hopes of a native shale gas industry have failed to materialise until now because of -financial, regulatory and geological hurdles.

Eramet chief warns of crisis in world nickel market – by Agence France-Presse (Global Post – November 22, 2013)

November 22, 2013

http://www.globalpost.com/

The chief executive of French mining group Eramet has blamed oversupply in the world nickel market for steep losses at a subsidiary as China ramps up its own production, with little end in sight.

Patrick Buffet said the global overcapacity was causing Societe Le Nickel (SLN), the group’s nickel subsidiary in New Caledonia, to rack up monthly losses of 2.5 billion French Pacific francs ($27 million).

“The crisis in the nickel (market) is very, very intense and nobody expected it to reach such a level,” Buffet told reporters in Noumea on Thursday after a board meeting of SLN, the largest private employer on New Caledonia’s main island of Grande Terre.

The French Pacific territory is home to a quarter of the world’s reserves of nickel, a key ingredient in the manufacture of stainless steel, rechargeable batteries and coins.

Buffet’s warning came after parent group Eramet last month posted a 5.0-percent drop in third-quarter sales to 754 million euros ($1 billion), mainly because of slumping nickel prices.

PRESS RELEASE: Outokumpu Chief Medical Officer Markku Huvinen’s long-term study published in British Medical Journal

November 21, 2013

OUTOKUMPU OYJ

November 21, 2013 at 3.30 pm EET

British Medical Journal has published an article by Outokumpu’s Chief Medical Officer Markku Huvinen. The article is based on his 30-year study and reports its findings on cancer incidence among ferrochrome and stainless steel production workers in Kemi and Tornio, Finland. The study shows that there is no added risk of cancer to individuals working in steel mills and living nearby.

Says Outokumpu CEO Mika Seitovirta: “We are extremely proud of Markku’s research and the work done by our health and safety team. Markku initiated the first systematic measurement in the world on the exposure to chromium and other compounds connected with stainless steel production. Safety comes first in all our operations – we want our employees to return home safely at the end of their working day. If we cannot remove all risks, we make every effort to control them.”

The study assesses the risk of cancer, especially cancers of the lung and nose, since the start of the production in 1967 until 2011. The overall cancer incidence was similar as in general in the same region, and the lung cancer risk was actually lower.

Says Markku Huvinen: “When I started as doctor at Outokumpu in 1970s, one of the ferrochrome smelter workers came to my office, blew his nose and asked me, ‘What does this dust do to my health?’

Like it or lump it: Coal isn’t going anywhere soon – by Carl Mortished (Globe and Mail – November 19, 2013)

November 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.

Not one but two climate change meetings are currently under way in Warsaw. You may be aware of the conference sponsored by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, another effort to agree cuts to carbon emissions after the failure in Copenhagen in 2009. In a provocative gesture, the Polish government is simultaneously hosting a summit meeting of the World Coal Association.

Whether we like it or not, it is the activities of the latter organization which have more significance for human health, wealth and the state of the planet.

Coal is no longer king of energy, it is global emperor. Coal is the fastest-growing source of energy and, according to the International Energy Agency, will remain the top fuel for power generation for the next two decades. Its affordability and accessibility will make it the electricity-generating fuel of choice in Asia, replacing expensive liquefied natural gas.

Russian billionaire Prokhorov to buy stake in potash giant Uralkali – by Polina Devitt (Globe and Mail – November 19, 2013)

November 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.

MOSCOW — Reuters – Tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov has agreed to buy a stake in Uralkali, the world’s largest potash miner, as Russia seeks to ease tensions over the collapse of a potash sales cartel with Belarus that drove down global prices.

The deal was blessed by President Vladimir Putin, sources familiar with the matter said, in a bid to repair ties with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko. Russia’s ally had arrested Uralkali’s boss after the Russian firm quit the marketing pact.

Prokhorov’s investment firm, Onexim, said on Monday that it expected to quickly complete the purchase of Suleiman Kerimov’s 21.75 per cent stake in Uralkali. Talks continued on the sale of stakes held by Kerimov’s partners to other buyers in side deals, which linked together would secure Prokhorov and his allies strategic control over the business.

Lukashenko, riled by the Uralkali gambit that which hit a major export earner for Belarus, has demanded that Kerimov sell out as a precondition for freeing Uralkali chief executive officer Vladislav Baumgertner from house arrest in Minsk.

UN climate chief urges coal industry to leave most remaining coal reserves untapped – by Monika Scislowska (The Associated Press/Vancouver Sun – November 18, 2013)

November 18, 2013

http://www.vancouversun.com/index.html

WARSAW, Poland – The U.N.’s chief climate diplomat on Monday urged the coal industry to diversify toward cleaner energy sources and leave most of the world’s remaining coal reserves in the ground.

On the sidelines of a U.N. climate conference, Christiana Figueres told dozens of CEOs of coal companies meeting at Poland’s Economy Ministry that their industry needs to change radically to curb emissions of heat-trapping gases that scientists say are warming the planet.

“The world is rising to meet the climate challenge as risks of inaction mount, and it is in your best interest to make coal part of the solution,” Figueres said.

The coal event was seen as a provocation by climate activists, who used a crane to reach the ministry’s roof, where they unfurled banners criticizing Poland’s — and the world’s — reliance on coal and other fossil fuels.

Is Poland’s coal and climate summit outrageous or irrelevant? – Ed King (The Guardian – November 8, 2013)

November 18, 2013

http://www.theguardian.com/uk

World Coal meeting is set to discuss the fuel’s future, but science and policymakers may have sealed the polluting fuel’s fate already, says Ed King for RTCC, part of the Guardian Environment Network

On a scale of diplomatic blunders, organising an international coal conference at the same time as a UN climate summit appears to be fairly substantial.

Coal is the most polluting of fossil fuels, which makes the Polish Ministry of Economy’s decision to host the International Coal and Climate conference from November 18-19 appear curious.

Without expensive technologies fixed to power stations, its noxious fumes can choke cities, raise mortality rates, cause acid rain and are heavily linked to climate change. In 2010 it was responsible for 43% of carbon dioxide emissions from fuel combustion – that’s around 13.1 gigatonnes of the 51 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent (GTCO2e) released that year.

In short, coal seems to be an enemy to what UN envoys call ‘climate ambition’. But the Polish hosts of the 19th Conference of the Parties to the UN, which starts on Monday 11 November, disagree.

Miners hope Czech election will end gold extraction moratorium – by Jan Marchal (Business Day – November 18, 2013)

November 18, 2013

http://www.bdlive.co.za/ [South Africa]

CZECH gold deposits are whetting the appetites of foreign prospectors hoping to see the new government lift a mining moratorium in the aftermath of snap elections.

But rather than a dream come true, the prospect of a gold rush is a nightmare for environmentalists and residents of the hilly region south of the capital, Prague, a popular resort area that holds the biggest deposit.

“No one wants an open-cast mine here, in this wonderful natural setting near the Vltava River,” says Jiri Stastka, mayor of the village of Chotilsko. A few hundred metres from the village, the Vesely Vrch wooded hill and its surroundings conceal about 140 tonnes of the metal worth an estimated 100-billion koruna ($5bn ).

Known as the Mokrsko deposit, this is just more than a quarter of the Czech Republic’s estimated 380-400 tonnes of gold, which is about 1% of the globe’s deposits. But locals fear irreversible environmental damage, particularly the pollution of groundwater since toxic cyanide is used in the extraction of gold.