International Media Resource Articles – Page 505

Green activists must not usurp [Australian] national sovereignty – Editorial (The Australian – October 24, 2016)

October 24, 2016

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

To paraphrase John Howard, we should decide what mining projects are opened up in this country and the circumstances in which they open. Such authority rests with Australia’s democratically elected representatives and established government processes.

It does not belong with overseas governments (including prospective US presidents or their staff), self-appointed meddling international activists or local vigilante “lawfare’’ litigants funded by activists.

Thinking Australians, whatever their views about coal, should be appalled by the revelation, reported exclusively by Dennis Shanahan, that the Sunrise Foundation, part of a highly organised group of Australian activists working to stop the $16 billion Adani coalmine in Queensland, is being funded by the Sandler Foundation in the US. The connection surfaced in material released by WikiLeaks, including Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails.

Foreign-funded anti-coal activists risk driving India away – by Dennis Shanahan and Michael McKenna (The Australian – October 24, 2016)

October 24, 2016

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

A highly orchestrated, secretly foreign-funded group of Australian environmental activists opposing the $16 billion Adani coalmine in Queensland has “dampened” Indian investment interest in Australia and received heated criticism from the federal Coalition and Queensland Labor governments.

Indian Power Minister Piyush Goyal told The Australian yesterday the years of legal challenges to the vast Carmichael coal project, now revealed to have been funded by multi-million-dollar foundations in the US, “will certainly dampen future investments” from India.

Federal ministers and the Queensland Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, have warned of the danger posed by activists to jobs and investment, and questioned the links between the Australian groups, through their US funders, to the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s Democratic election campaign, John Podesta.

[Mesabi Iron Range] FOOTPRINTS OF A GIANT – by Aaron Brown (Hibbing Daily Tribune – October 23, 2016)

October 24, 2016

http://www.hibbingmn.com/

Once, a few years ago, I was overcome with the urge to climb a roadside berm at an Iron Range taconite mine. I drove by this spot all the time, but couldn’t picture what was on the other side.

So I did it. (Don’t try this at home kids). I scrambled up the side to peer over the rampart. I’d seen mine pits before, but this was a tailings pond. Picture a vast lake surrounded by martian landscape spanning the entirety of your peripheral vision. The groaning engines in the pit miles away were the only sound.

I was overcome by the loneliness of it all. I came prepared to evade security. But there were no humans here. Not one.Despite recent struggles, iron mining remains the most productive industry here along Northern Minnesota’s Mesabi Range.

An 8,000-Mile Journey Spurs Vale Shift as Iron Outlook Fades – by R.T. Watson and David Stringer (Bloomberg News – October 21, 2016)

October 24, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

For years, Brazil’s Vale SA fought with rival iron-ore producers in Australia to supply the fast-expanding steel industry in China by building more mines and boosting output. But slowing demand and prospects of a multiyear glut are changing the battle lines. Now, it’s all about protecting ever-narrowing profit margins.

The challenge for Vale is that its mines are more than 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) farther from China than Australian competitors Rio Tinto Plc and BHP Billiton Ltd. That means shipments are more expensive at a time when ore prices are half what they were two years ago. After a record $13.5 billion loss last year, the Brazilian company is investing in higher-quality reserves and automation to erase that cost gap.

It won’t be easy. Vale is producing record amounts of iron-ore, which accounts for more than half its revenue. While operations are returning to profit in 2016, earnings will drop next year, according to analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Aberfan disaster: 50th anniversary marked with silence (British Broadcasting Corporation – October 21, 2016)

October 21, 2016

http://www.bbc.com/

Wales fell silent on Friday as the country remembered the Aberfan disaster 50 years ago.
On 21 October 1966, a mountain of coal waste slid down into a school and houses in the Welsh village, killing 144 people, including 116 children. A day of events to commemorate the disaster included a service at Aberfan Cemetery at 09:15 BST on Friday.

Prince Charles has visited the Aberfan memorial garden and will unveil a plaque in memory of the victims. Earlier, he visited the Aberfan Cemetery and laid a wreath.

He also attended a reception with the families of some of those who lost their lives, before signing a book of remembrance. Prince Charles said anyone old enough remembers where they were when they heard the “appalling news” about the Aberfan disaster – saying he was at school in Scotland.

Gold miner Zijin stands out as overseas acquisition pioneer – by Eric Ng (South China Morning Post – October 21, 2016)

October 21, 2016

http://www.scmp.com/

Chinese gold mining firms have said for years they have been on the overseas acquisition trail, especially as the recent crash in commodity prices has sent asset prices tumbling. Few have managed to land any gilt-edged deals on foreign turf – but Zijin Mining Group is now standing head and shoulders above the crowd as being able to buy at just the right time.

One of three state-backed gold miners listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, Xiamen-based Zijin has also been by far the most aggressive.

The company has spent about 7.9 billion yuan since 2010 on 13 transactions, mainly buying stakes in gold and copper projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Australia, Tajikistan, Papua New Guinea, Peru and Canada, more than double the 3.3 billion yuan it has invested in domestic mines.

De Beers Harvests Diamonds at the Bottom of the Sea – by Alexandra Wexler (Wall Street Journal – October 20, 2016)

October 21, 2016

http://www.wsj.com/

ORANJEMUND, Namibia—A dozen miles off the southwestern edge of Africa’s Atlantic coast, a 285-ton vacuum machine operating 400 feet below sea level is sucking some of the world’s most valuable diamonds from the ocean floor.

The $10 million crawler is part of a one-of-a-kind marine-diamond mining operation dubbed Debmarine Namibia. A joint venture between De Beers, a unit of Anglo American PLC, and the government of this sparsely populated desert nation, the marine mine has emerged as a rare revenue driver in today’s languishing commodities markets.

Remote and secretive, the operation is only reachable by a 30-minute helicopter ride from sleepy Oranjemund, a town built by the diamond-mining industry to house workers and their families in the Sperrgebiet, or Forbidden Area, where diamonds were once mined from the sand dunes by the shovel-full.

‘Catastrophic’ decline in Eastern lowland gorilla blamed on mining for minerals used in mobile phones – by Aislinn Laing (The Telegraph – October 20, 2016)

October 21, 2016

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

The Eastern lowland gorilla, the world’s greatest ape, has suffered a “catastrophic decline” in the restive Democratic Republic of Congo, blamed on mining for minerals used in mobile phones.

Scientists said the numbers in the wild have dwindled three quarters in 20 years, to just 3,800 from 17,000 before civil war first broke out in 1996, and fear that without rapid intervention, the majestic creatures could disappear altogether in the next five years.

Andrew Plumptre, of the Wildlife Conservation Society and the lead researcher on the gorilla count, said while they knew numbers had declined, the results came as a shock. “‘Back of the envelope’ calculations had predicted a 30-50 per cent decrease,” he said. “However, we received a major shock upon pulling together all the regional survey data: none of us were prepared for such a large decrease.”

Goldman Sees China’s ‘Stealth’ Coal Bailout Lasting to 2020 (Bloomberg News – October 21, 2016)

October 21, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

China’s coal production restrictions are a “stealth” bailout for miners and their creditors that may last until the end of the decade as the policies help boost prices, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Without government intervention, China’s coal industry wouldn’t be able to service the nearly 3 trillion yuan ($444 billion) in debt from investing in new mines before demand started to drop, the banks analysts including Christian Lelong wrote in an Oct. 20 note.
The twin goals of the mining restrictions have been to develop a “safe, solvent and efficient” industry and protect the country’s financial system from the risk of large-scale defaults, they wrote.

UPDATE 2-South Africa’s AMCU union reaches tentative wage deals with platinum trio – by Ed Stoddard (Reuters U.S. – October 21, 2016)

October 21, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

JOHANNESBURG, Oct 21 South Africa’s AMCU union has reached wage deals in principle with platinum producers Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin, subject to final approval from its members, the union’s president said on Friday.

This means a strike has almost certainly been averted in South Africa’s platinum sector, which is still recovering from a crippling five-month stoppage led by the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) in 2014.

“What our members have been demanding has been secured from the companies,” AMCU President Joseph Mathunjwa told Reuters, without elaborating. Asked if AMCU had an agreement in principle with the three producers, Mathunjwa responded: “Yes, subject to a mass meeting of general members to confirm it again.”

Diamonds may be forever, but they are not an investor’s best friend – by David Dodwell (South China Morning Post – October 21, 2016)

October 21, 2016

http://www.scmp.com/

Impetuous, romantic and old fashioned as it may seem, I got married last month. So diamonds have been much on my mind, and of course have knocked a large hole in my bank balance. No comfort, then, to discover how poor an investment diamonds are. I’m sure the quality of the marriage more than makes up for it.

It seems the world’s diamond business – very important to Hong Kong, as one of the world’s leading diamond trading centres after Antwerp and Tel Aviv and host to at least nine diamond and jewellery fairs every year – is in a bit of a tizz.

The value of worldwide sales last year fell by 2 per cent to US$79 billion – but the volume of sales of rough diamonds tumbled by around 30 per cent. In Hong Kong, jewellery-shop leader Chow Tai Fook has seen sales fall by 12 per cent this year, while Tse Sui Luen has reported an 8.6 per cent fall.

[Africa] Continental vision identifies mining’s role in transforming economies – by David Oliveira (MiningWeekly.com – October 21, 2016)

October 21, 2016

http://www.miningweekly.com/

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The need to diversify Africa’s primary-resource export-focused economies in support of other industry-related value chains is key to helping transform the continent’s economy and generate greater wealth from its significant minerals endowment.

At this year’s Joburg Indaba, which took place earlier this month in Johannesburg, Chamber of Mines of South Africa VP Neal Froneman noted that the African Union (AU) had adopted the Africa Mining Vision (AMV) based on the principle of moving away from minerals extraction to broader development imperatives that integrated minerals policies with economic and socioeconomic development policies.

“What this means in practice is using our country’s vast mineral resources as a catalyst for developments so that it can play a transforma- tive role,” he added.

China’s steelmakers the relative winners in coking coal surge – by Clyde Russell (Daily Mail/Reuters – October 21, 2016)

October 21, 2016

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

LONDON, Oct 21 (Reuters) – While no steel maker will be happy with the explosion in coking coal prices, Chinese mills are the best placed to deal with the impact, given they are nowhere near as exposed to spot prices as competitors in the rest of Asia and Europe.

The spot price of premium hard coking coal <_.PHCC-AUSSI> in Australia, which dominates global exports, surged to $242.90 a tonne on Oct. 20, taking the rally so far this year to a staggering 210 percent.

While only a small percentage of coking coal cargoes are actually sold at the spot price, the quarterly contract price was recently settled above $200 a tonne and customers of Australia’s BHP-Mitsubishi Alliance, the world’s largest coking coal exporter, will be paying prices linked to monthly indexes.

BHP Sees Imminent Turning Point in Nickel With Deficit Looming – by Rebecca Keenan (Bloomberg News – October 20, 2016)

October 21, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s largest mining company, sees the nickel market swinging into deficit because of supply threats in the Philippines and growing demand from electric vehicles and stainless steel.

“There are signs that this year could be finally the turning point for nickel with many expecting the market to be in deficit and so starting the much needed re-balancing process,” Eduard Haegel, asset president of BHP’s Nickel West unit, said at a conference in Perth Thursday. “The welcome return to balance over the next few years should see further recovery in nickel prices.”

Nickel has rebounded more than a third from the intraday low in February this year, which was the cheapest in more than a decade. Prices have been buoyed as the market awaits the final results from a nationwide audit in the Philippines, the world’s largest producer, which was ordered by President Rodrigo Duterte to ensure suppliers aren’t flouting environmental rules.

PHL nickel supply to depend on government mining policies – by Cai Ordinario (Business Mirror – October 21, 2016)

October 21, 2016

THE Philippines’s nickel supply in the next few years will depend on mining policies implemented in the country, the World Bank said.

In its latest Commodity Markets Outlook, the World Bank said the suspension of operations of several mining firms by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has already resulted in economic losses for the country. Nickel prices, the World Bank added, surged 16 percent due to strong stainless-steel demand, which the Philippines missed out on due to the suspensions.

“The nickel market had already moved into deficit with falling production output in the Philippines due to depletion, and declining NPI [nickel pig iron] production in China,” the World Bank said. The suspension of mining permits has effectively suspended 55 percent of the country’s nickel production, equivalent to over 10 percent of global supply, the bank added.