International Media Resource Articles – Page 544

Brazil Police Say BHP, Vale At Fault for Dam Disaster – by Paul Kiernan (Wall Street Journal – June 9, 2016)

June 10, 2016

http://www.wsj.com/

Federal investigation says executives put production ahead of safety, which led to destruction of mining village and 19 deaths

RIO DE JANEIRO—A catastrophic dam failure that killed 19 people and polluted hundreds of miles of rivers in Brazil last year was the result of a mining company’s repeated decision to prioritize production over safety, Brazil’s Federal Police said Thursday.

Top executives at Samarco Mineração, the joint venture between global mining giants Vale SA and BHP Billiton Ltd., for years were aware of cracks and drainage problems at the so-called Fundão tailings dam that collapsed Nov. 5, the police said.

“Don’t call it an accident,” Roger Lima de Moura, head of the Federal Police task force that investigated the disaster, said in an interview. The companies were “more than negligent,” he said.

The Big Bet of 2016: Joining George Soros in Gold – by Stephanie Yang (Wall Street Journal – June 9, 2016)

June 9, 2016

http://www.wsj.com/

There is a new gold rush on. Abating expectations for Federal Reserve rate increases have fueled a fresh boom in everything that glitters, from gold futures to the shares of gold-mining firms to exchange-traded funds that give traders a way to bet on gold’s daily rise and fall.

Front-month Comex gold futures have been among the best-performing major asset classes in financial markets this year, up about 20% as of Thursday. But those gains have been dwarfed by the surge in many gold-related securities, the latest sign of the topsy-turvy trading across markets in 2016 that for now has transformed some of the least-beloved investments on Wall Street into top performers.

The gains reflect a vast shift in investor expectations over the past six months. Many analysts and portfolio managers entered 2016 expecting the U.S. dollar to resume its rise as the Fed carried out a series of interest-rate increases.

Death, Strikes, Rising Costs Show Mining’s Hard Sell for New CEO – by Kevin Crowley (Bloomberg News – June 9, 2016)

June 9, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Wanted: Mining executive who can make money when prices and output fall, will halt skyrocketing costs, and is willing to accept a salary paid in one of the world’s weakest currencies.

That’s the potential job description for whoever replaces Terence Goodlace as chief executive officer at Johannesburg-based Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd., the second-largest producer of the precious metal. Goodlace, 57, said last month he plans to soon resign, ending a four-year tenure that saw one of South Africa’s most reliable cash cows diminished by plunging platinum prices, strikes and fatal accidents.

outh Africa is home to about three-quarters of the world’s platinum reserves and is a major source of commodities from gold to diamonds. But extracting them is difficult and expensive.

[Zimbabwe diamonds] Women Brave Challenges To Scrape A Living In Mining – by Dumisani Nyoni (Radio Voice Of The People – June 8, 2016)

June 9, 2016

http://www.radiovop.com/

Bulawayo, June 09, 2016 – The face of Nomusa Dube, 40, is dusted red with soil as she and her five female colleagues take a brief lunch break. They have been working since dawn on their gold claim in Esigodini, 49 kilometres from Bulawayo along the Bulawayo-Beitbridge road.

She joined the male-dominated industry in 2014 after her husband succumbed to cancer in 2013. “By that time, I saw my world crumbling as I had nowhere to turn to. Two of my children were at high school and three at primary level. Therefore, I was supposed to pay for their school fees, clothe and feed them,” Dube said, checking the sun’s position – a traditional old practice of estimating time – ready to go back to work.

She tried vending in Bulawayo, but with little success. Low returns, and constant raids from municipality police confiscating their wares sucked her strength. In 2013, government invited women to take up mining to supplement their living and Dube was one of the first to respond.

Pharaohs’ shadow an omen in Egypt gold search – by Eric Knecht (Reuters U.S. – June 8, 2016)

June 9, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

EASTERN DESERT, EGYPT – Careering around Egypt’s rocky Eastern Desert, Alexander Nubia (AAN.V) CEO Mark Campbell peers from his jeep and sees hills so rich with gold they could lure billions in investments and jumpstart the ailing economy. His company just has to find it.

Egypt’s gold mining industry has for years been long on potential and short on investment — the result of a jarring mismatch between spectacular geology and an unattractive commercial framework for mining.

Despite a history of gold mining that stretches back to the pharaohs, the industry is largely dormant. With just a single gold-producing mine, Centamin’s (CEY.L) Sukari, the sector contributes a fraction of one percent to gross domestic product (GDP).

New GM ads hit Ford hard over aluminum pickup trucks – by Brent Snavely (U.S.A. Today – June 8, 2016)

June 9, 2016

http://www.usatoday.com/

Detroit Free Press – Chevrolet launched a new, national ad campaign Wednesday for its Silverado pickups that revives the often testy battle with crosstown rival Ford over who makes the biggest, best or toughest truck.

The ad campaign touts the results of lab tests that it says show how the Silverado’s roll-formed, high-strength steel bed suffers far less damage than the Ford F-150’s aluminum truck bed when a load of concrete blocks are dumped into the back of the trucks.

The ads debuted today with four-page wrap-around print advertisements in several major newspapers, including USA TODAY. General Motors also posted a 3-minute video that shows the cinder block demonstration with the F-150 truck bed getting gashed by the concrete blocks and the Silverado truck bed only being dented.

China miners accused of multiple murders in extortion scam (Daily Mail – June 8, 2016)

June 8, 2016

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

AFP – Chinese prosecutors have charged 74 people in connection with a series of grisly murders aimed at extorting compensation from coal mining firms, state media said Wednesday. The workers are accused of a killing spree that left 17 dead in six regions across the country, the Global Times said, with the deaths made to look like work accidents.

The slaughter was all part of a complicated con by participants who posed as the victims’ family, and then offered mine-owners their silence in exchange for a big pay day, the paper said.

“Once paid, they would quietly move on… since they knew how easy it was to con and extort money out of coal mine owners, they would kill again and again,” the paper reported. The newspaper cited lawyers as saying that such murders have been common in China’s vast mining sector in the past decade.

South Africa GDP Contracts 1.2% in First Quarter of 2016 – by Arabile Gumede and Amogelang Mbatha (Bloomberg News – June 8, 2016)

June 8, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

South Africa’s economy contracted in the first three months of the year as mining and farming output shrunk.

Gross domestic product declined an annualized 1.2 percent in the first quarter, compared with the previous three months when it expanded by 0.4 percent, the statistics office said in a report released on Wednesday in the capital, Pretoria. The median of 21 economist estimates compiled by Bloomberg was for a 0.1 percent contraction.

Fitch Ratings Ltd. affirmed the nation’s credit rating at BBB-, the lowest investment-grade level, with a stable outlook, on Wednesday. S&P Global Ratings affirmed the nation’s credit rating at BBB-, the lowest investment-grade level, with a negative outlook, on June 3 and warned it could cut South Africa’s debt to junk if the economy doesn’t improve or if institutions are weakened by political interference.

Andrew Forrest confident the mining industry will learn from past mistakes – by Tess Ingram (Sydney Morning Post – June 8, 2016)

June 8, 2016

http://www.smh.com.au/

Fortescue Metals Group chairman Andrew Forrest says the mining industry will learn from the “hard lessons” endured during the resources boom and allocate capital more responsibly in the future.

Referring to the findings of a PwC report released on Tuesday, Mr Forrest admitted the industry had recently endured tough conditions, including billions of dollars in write-downs, due to the decisions it made during the boom.

“Our efficiency of allocated capital has been called in to question by those who invest in our industries … and we have been marked down as we have been seen to really charge for supply quantity over supply value maximisation,” he told the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies convention in Perth on Wednesday.

Congo mining sector sheds 3,000 direct jobs since last year – chamber – by Aaron Ross (Reuters U.S. – June 7, 2016)

June 8, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

LUBUMBASHI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO – Democratic Republic of Congo’s mining sector has lost at least 3,000 direct and 10,000 subcontractor jobs since commodity prices began to tumble last year, the chamber of mines said on Tuesday.

Congo, Africa’s largest copper producer, is heavily dependent on the mining sector, which together with its smaller oil industry accounts for 98 percent of export earnings. Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange lost a quarter of its value in 2015 and is down slightly this year.

Congo also faces political uncertainty, as a presidential election set for November is likely to be delayed and opponents of President Joseph Kabila have vowed protests if he does not honour the constitution by stepping down at the end of the year.

Glencore must face U.S. lawsuit over zinc prices – by Jonathan Stempel (Reuters U.S. – June 6, 2016)

June 7, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

NEW YORK – A U.S. judge said on Monday two units of Anglo-Swiss mining company Glencore Plc must face a private antitrust lawsuit accusing them of trying to monopolize the market for special high grade zinc, driving up its price.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan said zinc purchasers alleged “a plausible story of market control” by the Glencore units, Glencore Ltd and Pacorini Metals USA Inc, that violated the Sherman Act, a U.S. antitrust law.

In a 62-page decision, the judge also dismissed the purchasers’ claim that Glencore’s 2010 purchase of Pacorini was an illegal merger because its effect was to reduce competition.

Money from Afghanistan’s ‘conflict jewels’ fuels war – activists – by Josh Smith and Mirwais Harooni (Reuters U.K. – June 7, 2016)

June 7, 2016

http://uk.reuters.com/

KABUL – The illegal mining of some of Afghanistan’s most important minerals is funnelling millions of dollars into the hands of insurgents and corrupt warlords, according to activists and officials who say the money is fuelling the conflict.

The mountains of Afghanistan hold as much as $1 trillion (£693.58 billion) to $3 trillion in mineral resources, according to estimates by the U.S. and Afghan governments, including world-famous lapis lazuli, a deep blue, semi-precious stone that has been mined in northern Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province for thousands of years.

“In the current circumstances, where 50 percent of the mining revenue is going to the Taliban, and before that it was going to armed groups, by any reasonable definition lapis is a conflict mineral,” said Stephen Carter, a researcher for Global Witness, a non-profit watchdog that investigates the links between natural resources, corruption and conflict.

BHP, Glencore Said to Bid for Anglo’s Australian Coal Mines – by Brett Foley and Dinesh Nair (Bloomberg News – June 7, 2016)

June 7, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

BHP Billiton Ltd. and Glencore Plc are among final bidders for Anglo American Plc’s Australian metallurgical coal assets that may fetch about $1.5 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Anemka Resources, the mining investor backed by Warburg Pincus, has also made a bid, two of the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. China’s Yanzhou Coal Mining Co. and a pairing of Apollo Global Management LLC and Xcoal Energy & Resources LLC, submitted final bids for the Moranbah and Grosvenor mines by a June 6 deadline, as well, the people said.

Anglo American could reach an agreement for the mines as soon as this month, though no final decision has been made and talks could still fall apart, they said. Glencore may be bidding with a partner, one of the people said.

Mindanao miners reel from [Philippines] President-elect’s remarks (Business World – June 6, 2016)

June 7, 2016

http://www.bworldonline.com/

Manila, Philippines – OFFICIALS of some of the biggest miners in the country yesterday professed agreement with the next administration’s avowed policy of holding those exploiting the country’s mineral resources more accountable for environmental damage they may cause, but stocks of some of those with Mindanao operations yesterday bared investor jitters.

Global Ferronickel Holdings, Inc.; Manila Mining Corp. and Marcventures Holdings, Inc. yesterday saw substantial drops in their stock prices as trading ended after President-elect Rodrigo R. Duterte warned companies whose operations threaten the environment — particularly those in mineral-rich Mindanao — to upgrade their practices or face closure.

Stock prices of Global Ferronickel, Manila Mining and Marcventures fell 2.22% to 88 centavos, 7.14% to 1.3 centavos and 4.26% to P1.80 apiece, respectively, even as the bourse’s 17-stock mining and oil sectoral index to which they belong gained 0.13%.

Zimbabwe sets Tuesday deadline for chrome miner to cede half its claims (Reuters Africa – June 7, 2016)

June 7, 2016

http://af.reuters.com/

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe has set a Tuesday deadline for the country’s second largest ferrochrome producer Zimbabwe Alloys to hand over half its chrome claims or risk having them seized, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

The Southern African nation holds the world’s second largest deposits of chrome, which is smelted to produce ferrochrome, a raw material used in the making of stainless steel.

Zimbabwe’s mines minister last year asked Zimasco, a unit of China’s Sinosteel and Zimbabwe Alloys (ZimAlloys), which owned 80 percent of all chrome mining claims, to release some ground for distribution to new investors.

Sinosteel’s Zimasco said in April it had ceded half its mining claims to the government.