[Australia nickel] Palmer squeezes back into refinery driver’s seat – by Ben Hagemann (Australian Mining – March 8, 2016)

http://www.australianmining.com.au/news

In a move long awaited by many, Clive Palmer taken responsibility for his business interests and swooped in to save the day for the Yabulu Refinery.

After months of insisting that both the Queensland and federal governments support his ailing business, which was used to donate millions to his Palmer United political party, Palmer has finally bitten the bullet and fronted $23 million in funding to keep the Yabulu nickel refinery from being closed down.

However, the new conditional fund facility has been introduced through a new company called Queensland Nickel Sales Pty Ltd, which will replace Queensland Nickel as manager of the Yabulu Refinery.

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Iron Ore Jumps Most on Record as Market Goes ‘Berserk’ – by Jasmine Ng (Bloomberg News – March 7, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Iron ore soared the most ever after Chinese policy makers signaled their willingness to buttress economic growth, boosting the outlook for steel consumption in the top user and igniting speculation that some investors who’d bet against the market had been caught out.

Ore with 62 percent content delivered to Qingdao jumped 19 percent to $63.74 a dry metric ton, Metal Bulletin Ltd. data show. That’s the biggest gain in daily data going back to 2009 and the highest price since June.

The surge was preceded in Asia by a rally in futures, with the most-active contract on Singapore Exchange Ltd. climbing 21 percent to $60 and prices on the Dalian Commodity Exchange rising by the daily limit.

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Iron ore rally won’t last: HSBC tips $US39 by 2017 – by Stephen Cauchi (Sydney Morning Post – March 7, 2016)

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

HSBC is the latest to join a chorus of voices warning that the rally in iron ore prices may be soon be curtailed, with global oversupply and waning demand from China about to kick in. However, oil’s future is looking a bit brighter, with both HSBC and the Royal Bank of Canada tipping higher prices.

Australia’s biggest mineral export was trading at $US53.75 on Monday, up 40.3 per cent from December’s lows of $US38.30 per tonne, and back at levels the mineral was trading at in October. But it remains far below 2011’s levels, which were over $US180.

Investors have been piling back into mining stocks as a result, with pureplay iron ore miner Fortescue more than doubling its price from the year’s lows to close at $3.08 on Monday. It has rocketed 36.9 per cent in the last three trading days alone.

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Oregon becomes first state to pass law to completely eliminate coal-fired power – by Oliver Milman (The Guardian – March 3, 2016)

http://www.theguardian.com/

Oregon has become the first US state to pass laws to rid itself of coal, committing to eliminate the use of coal-fired power by 2035 and to double the amount of renewable energy in the state by 2040.

Legislation passed by the state’s assembly, which will need to be signed into law by Governor Kate Brown, will transition Oregon away from coal, which currently provides around a third of the state’s electricity supply.

At the same time, the state will also require its two largest utilities to increase their share of clean energy, such as solar and wind, to 50% by 2040. Combined with Oregon’s current hydroelectric output, the state will be overwhelmingly powered by low-carbon alternatives to fossil fuels.

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Mining Collapse Cripples Africa’s Dreams of Prosperity – by Patrick McGroarty and Joe Parkinson (Wall Street Journal – March 4, 2016)

http://www.wsj.com/

Zambia faces economic and social crisis as copper prices plunge and foreign investment from China wanes

KITWE, Zambia—A decadelong commodity boom brought sleek shopping malls, tidy brick homes and dozens of private schools to this palm-pocked mining town in the heart of Africa.

The population doubled and incomes soared as record copper prices and a flood of Chinese investment and workers transformed a region bordering war-ravaged Congo into a beacon for Africa’s rising middle class.

Now the global forces that propelled Kitwe’s rise have reversed, fomenting an economic and social crisis that has interrupted dreams of greater prosperity across Zambia’s copper belt and exposed the fragility of Africa’s commodity-fueled growth model.

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Vale Leads Best Metal Stock Rally Since 2008 as China Woes Ease – by Chiara Vasarri and Sonja Elmquist (Bloomberg News – March 4, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., Vale SA and U.S. Steel Corp. paced the biggest weekly rally in seven years for mining and metals shares as investors wagered that a rebound in prices and efforts to cut spending and debt will return them to profitability.

The BI Metals Mining and Steel Aggregate Index of 47 producers is up 20 percent this week. Copper suppliers Freeport-McMoRan Inc. and Teck Resources Ltd. were also among the biggest gainers. Copper climbed to the highest in about four months on speculation top user China will announce more steps to bolster growth.

Vale’s 51 percent rally is the Rio de Janeiro-based company’s steepest weekly advance since 1999, as iron ore prices extended a rebound and Brazilian stocks jumped on bets that a political gridlock in the country may be closer to ending. Anglo American Plc capped its seventh straight gain, the longest winning run in two years.

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China riddle still puzzles big miners – by Amanda Saunders (Australian Financial Review – March 4, 2016)

http://www.afr.com/

Ivan, we’re sorry we laughed at you. When Ivan Glasenberg, head of the world’s biggest commodities trader, Glencore, said last August that he couldn’t read China – and nor could anyone else – it wasn’t the most comforting look.

Some of Ivan’s rivals were quick to disagree. “We don’t find China impossible to read,” BHP Billiton chief executive Andrew Mackenzie said a few days later. But seven months on, it’s clear that understanding China, at least in the short term, has become extremely difficult.

Indeed, when asked about long-term demand for iron ore at the company’s results last month Rio Tinto chief Sam Walsh pointed to recent comments by President Xi Jinping, and had to admit that “nobody quite understands what the new normal means”.

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Mining executives see Alaska in better light – by Shane Lasley (Petroleum News – March 6, 2016)

http://www.petroleumnews.com/

Perceptions of Far North state’s mining policies, mineral potential improve; mixed bag for British Columbia, Canadian territories

Alaska and the Yukon Territory continue to be perceived as among the best places in the world to seek and develop a mine, according to 449 mining executives who responded to the Fraser Institute’s Survey of Mining Companies 2015. This group of miners, explorers and consultants ranked these northern neighbors as two of the richest mineral jurisdictions on Earth, but found certain mining policies in each a cause for concern.

As a result, the mining leaders ranked Alaska sixth and Yukon 12th on the survey’s Investment Attractiveness Index, a measure that weighs miners’ perceptions of both the mineral endowment and mining policies of 109 jurisdictions around the globe.

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Statistics From China Say Coal Consumption Continues to Drop – by Edward Wong (New York Times – March 4, 2016)

http://www.nytimes.com/

BEIJING — China has released new statistics indicating that it used less coal last year than in 2014, lending support to the view that the country, the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide, may have reached a peak in coal consumption.

That would be a boon for global efforts to limit climate change, since industrial coal burning is the primary source of greenhouse gases. The new data, released on Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics, said coal consumption had fallen 3.7 percent in 2015 compared with the previous year. It was the second straight year of decline, according to the bureau, which said coal use had dropped 2.9 percent in 2014.

Much of the world is watching China’s actions on carbon emissions, since it is responsible for about half of the world’s coal consumption. President Xi Jinping has said that China intends for its greenhouse gas emissions to stop growing around 2030. Some climate experts in China say the peak could come earlier, closer to 2025.

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Responsibility For Black Lung Outbreak Being ‘Dodged’: CFMEU – by Sam McKeith (HuffPost Australia – March 4, 2016)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/

The union for coal miners says the screening process for picking up the potentially lethal black lung disease “is a mess” after revelations up to 1,000 Queensland mine workers could have contracted the crippling condition.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) said 6 cases of coal miner’s pneumoconiosis — caused by long-term inhalation of coal dust — were already confirmed in the state, while an unknown number were yet to be diagnosed.

That actual number could reportedly be as high as 1,000.

The union said it was likely many former miners could have gone undiagnosed with the crippling disease because symptoms often developed many years following exposure and long after miners have retired.

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Mining Firms Samarco, Vale and BHP Billiton Settle With Brazil Over Dam Disaster – by Paul Kiernan (Wall Street Journal – March 2, 2016)

http://www.wsj.com/

RIO DE JANEIRO—Mining companies responsible for a disastrous dam failure in Brazil last year signed an agreement with authorities Wednesday that could allow them to pay far less than the 20.2 billion Brazilian reais ($5.2 billion) originally sought by government lawyers.

Samarco Mineração SA and its parent companies, Brazilian mining giant Vale SA and Australia’s BHP Billiton Ltd., reached the settlement after weeks of haggling with federal and state authorities that had joined the lawsuit.

The deal represents a major milestone in the miners’ efforts to move past the Nov. 5 collapse of Samarco’s Fundão tailings dam, described by activists as the biggest accident of its kind. The dam released an avalanche of mud and mine waste that left 19 people dead and hundreds more homeless, as well as polluting some 400 miles of rivers in southeast Brazil’s Rio Doce basin.

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Iron Ore’s 18% Rally Bucks Bears’ Forecasts as BHP, Rio Jump – by Jasmine Ng (Bloomberg News – March 3, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Iron ore isn’t sticking to the script, at least for the bears. The commodity that was supposed to be weighed down again this year by rising low-cost supply and poor demand has soared 18 percent, establishing a foothold above $50 a metric ton.

The rebound, which means that iron ore has outperformed all the members in the Bloomberg Commodity Index in 2016, has probably been powered by restocking by Chinese mills and some weather-related disruption to shipments from Australia, according to Capital Economics Ltd. These supportive factors may prove temporary, it said.

Iron ore’s upswing has accompanied a revival in the price of other commodities including oil and industrial metals. Glencore Plc Chief Executive Officer Ivan Glasenberg said on Tuesday that raw materials have bottomed, and Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. said in a report on Thursday that commodity sentiment has turned in the last fortnight, citing gains in both crude and iron ore. Steel prices in China have also climbed.

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High life, low coal price sends Australian mining baron bankrupt – by James Regan (Reuters U.S. – March 3, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

SYDNEY – Rags-to-riches coal baron Nathan Tinkler, who rode the mining boom to become Australia’s youngest billionaire before losing it all when coal prices collapsed, has been declared legally bankrupt after failing to pay off a private jet.

The bankruptcy order comes 10 years after the 40-year-old scraped together a A$1 million ($728,700) deposit for a rundown coal mine that returned a profit of A$442 million 18 months later. At that time, coal was at the forefront of a boom in Australian mining, with rising orders from fast-industrializing Asia creating a rush of development and consolidation.

Tinkler quickly parlayed a series of audacious deals into a fortune, far removed from his days as an apprentice at one of BHP’s coal mines, where he is said to have spent much of his free time scouring share prices in newspapers.

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Glencore joins the mining world’s gruppetto – by Matthew Stevens (Australian Financial Review – March 2, 2016)

http://www.afr.com/

Glencore boss Ivan Glasenberg is said to be pretty passionate about cycling and its Grand Tours. So he would be well aware of the term “gruppetto”. It is the pack of riders that sits at the back of mountain stages with that aim of just finishing the day inside the time limit. They are sprinters looking just to survive until conditions better suit their skills.

Consolidation before and during the long mining boom crafted five diversified global miners: BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Vale, Glencore and Anglo American. By the end of a sectoral recession of rare severity, even in this most cyclical of industries, this group of five could be permanently trimmed to two giants and the rest.

The question right now is whether or not Glencore has the wherewithal or the will to join BHP and Rio Tinto in their break away from big mining’s rapidly withering peloton.

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UPDATE 1-Samarco to pay 24 bln reais in damages for dam disaster – by Anthony Boadle (Reuters U.S. – March 2, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

Mining company Samarco and its owners, BHP Billiton and Vale SA, reached a deal with the Brazilian government on Wednesday to pay an estimated 24 billion reais ($6.2 billion) in damages for a deadly dam spill in November.

Of the total, Samarco will pay 4.4 billion reais through 2018 into a fund to cover the cleanup of the spill from the tailings dam. From 2019 to 2021, payments will be between 800 million reais and 1.6 billion reais.

Further investment will be made for a period of 15 years as the company agreed to a lengthy environmental plan to regenerate the impacted area through replanting and dredging.

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