International Media Resource Articles – Page 571

Output cuts halt nickel price fall, more mine closures needed – by Louise Heavens (Reuters U.S. – March 16, 2016)

March 16, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – Nickel’s freefall may have halted as output cuts move the chronically oversupplied market towards deficit, but prices are unlikely to recover sharply unless more loss-making mines close.

Prices for the metal used to make stainless steel have crashed more than 40 percent since the start of 2015 on rising stockpiles and weak Chinese demand, leaving around 70 percent of producers losing money, according to consultants at CRU Group.

But cutbacks, at a time when demand is steadying, should boost benchmark prices on the London Metal Exchange, which recently hit 13-year lows at $7,550 a tonne. It is now around $8,525.

Soviet uranium legacy blights eastern EU – by Adrian Mogos and Michael Bird (Euobserver.com – March 14, 2016)

March 16, 2016

https://euobserver.com/

ROMANIA, CZECH REPUBLIC, GERMANY – The Soviet Union mined uranium across its empire for decades, leaving a legacy of environmental damage, social breakdown and widespread health issues. In the first of a two-part investigation, we reveal how the devastating effects are still being felt in Germany, Romania and the Czech Republic.

“We live here, with radon [radioactive gas] across the road and with chalk dust from down in the valley – God damn it – it will kill us all,” says 53-year-old Vasile Mocanu, a former miner.

He is describing how his life has been trapped between two sources of pollution – a uranium mine and a chalk mine. Baita Plai, an ex-Communist workers’ colony built by the Soviets in the 1950s, lies on the edge of the Transylvanian countryside, 500km north-west of Bucharest.

Surging Demand For Rechargeable Batteries Is Driving Business To South America – by Rosalba O’Brien and Rod Nickel (Huffington Post – March 15, 2016)

March 15, 2016

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Lithium is an essential component of many consumer tech products.

SANTIAGO/TORONTO, March 15 (Reuters) – Far from the soy and cattle that dominate its vast fertile pampas, Argentina harbors another valuable commodity that is rocketing in price and demand and luring newly welcomed foreign investors.

Lithium, the so-called “white petroleum,” drives much of the modern world. It forms a small but essentially irreplaceable component of rechargeable batteries, used in consumer devices like mobile phones and electric cars. It also has pharmaceutical and other applications.

Over half of the earth’s identified resources of the mineral are found in South America’s “lithium triangle,” an otherworldly landscape of high-altitude lakes and bright white salt flats that straddles Chile, Argentina and Bolivia.

South African Mines-Dispute Case Starts With Third-Party Bid – by Andre Janse Van Vuuren (Bloomberg News – March 14, 2016)

March 15, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

A court dispute between South Africa’s Chamber of Mines and the Department of Mineral Resources about black shareholdings in mining companies started on Tuesday with arguments by a third party that seeks to set aside the country’s Mining Charter.

Malan Scholes Inc., a Johannesburg-based legal firm, is asking the High Court in Pretoria to be allowed to consolidate its case with that of the chamber, arguing there are similarities between its application and that of the mines lobby.

The chamber, which represents South Africa’s largest mining companies including Anglo American Plc and Glencore Plc, and the department are opposing Malan Scholes’ bid for a joint hearing.

Distressed asset buyers see silver lining as miners languish – by Melanie Burton and Swati Pandey (Reuters India – March 15, 2016)

March 15, 2016

http://in.reuters.com/

After years on the sidelines, funds specializing in troubled assets are set to take center stage in the mining industry, driving deals in a sector where the top players alone plan to raise more than $30 billion through sales to cut debt.

Overall deal volume in mining and metals last year sank to its lowest level globally since 2003, according to Thomson Reuters data, as the industry’s sellers, crippled by more than $1 trillion in debt, crowded a market with very few buyers.

Bankers, funds and investors, however, say that could change in 2016, as specialist buyers rethink a market where prices are languishing, mines are losing money and the traditional competition is weak.

End of Eden? Mining push in Philippines ends isolation of islanders – by Ralph Jennings (Christian Science Monitor – March 14, 2016)

March 15, 2016

http://www.csmonitor.com/

PUERTO GALERA, PHILIPPINES — A path cut through a forest hillside outside this resort town is no ordinary road. It will soon connect the modern world to an indigenous tribal group that until now has lived mostly in pre-modern isolation.

Does this road represent the end of a lifestyle and of farming and food sources that villagers have relied on for millennia?

Ask Gabayno Uybad. He grew up in a typical indigenous Mangyan village on Mindoro Island, far from the developed coastline. The community, where people farm both for themselves and the collective, lies seven miles from a modern highway.

Tougher pollution laws put forward in wake of Palmer Queensland Nickel saga – by Joshua Robertson (The Guardian – March 15, 2016)

March 15, 2016

http://www.theguardian.com/

Clive Palmer could be forced to shoulder the $100m cost of cleaning up his Queensland Nickel operation under proposed state laws that would expand the chain of corporate responsibility for pollution.

The Palaszczuk government has introduced a bill that would let environmental authorities pursue parent companies, executives or ultimate owners for the cost of rehabilitating industrial sites after the operator collapsed.

The environment minister, Steven Miles, in a speech to parliament on Tuesday, made clear the draft laws – which would apply retrospectively – were prompted by the “unacceptable prospect of the taxpayer being left to clean up after the owner of the Yabulu Nickel refinery”.

Two Coal Barons, One Overdue Bond Payment and the End of an Era – by Jodi Xu Klein and Tim Loh (Bloomberg News – March 14, 2016)

March 15, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Both men worked down in the mines, in helmet and headlamp, digging out the coal that would one day make them piles of money. As early as Tuesday, the mining empires the two men built from scratch could start to crumble.

Billionaire Christopher Cline, 57, hailed as the savior of the Illinois coal industry, is the founder of Foresight Energy LP, which has until March 15 to pay $23.6 million of overdue bond interest.

Industry champion Robert E. Murray, 76, would suffer with him. The company he created, Murray Energy Corp., paid $1.4 billion in April for a 50 percent stake in Foresight. A default would wipe out that investment.

Steel industry suffers new blow with more job cuts in Sheffield – by Alan Tovey (The Telegraph – March 14, 2016)

March 15, 2016

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

The steel crisis is continuing to claim jobs in UK industry, with a round of redundancies at Sheffield-based Outokumpu and a warning from its parent company that the UK operations could be closed down.

The Finnish-owned business is consulting with staff about cutting 50 of its almost 600 staff as the steel sector battles lower global demand for the metal in the face of a global slowdown.

Steelmakers in Britain have been particularly hard hit by the crisis, as a flood of imports of cheap Chinese steel arrives in the UK attracted by the pound’s relative strength. Domestic steel-makers also face high energy bills.

Brazilian town devastated by dam burst wants mine reopened – by Marta Nogueira (Reuters U.K. – March 15, 2016)

March 15, 2016

http://uk.reuters.com/

MARIANA, BRAZIL – In November, Marcos de Freitas lost his home and everything he owned when a dam burst at a nearby mine released a flow of mud that buried his village.

Now, sitting in a house paid for by the company responsible, he wants the mine to reopen.

“I have nothing to complain about,” said the heavy set 55-year-old retired miner who fled his house, one of the oldest in the destroyed village of Bento Rodrigues, when the mud was up to his ankles.

“Samarco has to start producing again in order to create jobs,” he said. Samarco, which is jointly owned by Vale SA and BHP Billiton, is the mine operator.

India’s GSFC backstops first phase of Karnalyte’s Canada potash mine – by Rod Nickel (Reuters India – March 14, 2016)

March 14, 2016

http://in.reuters.com/

WINNIPEG, MANITOBA – India’s Gujarat State Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd has agreed to guarantee payments on $700 million in debt to finance the first phase of Karnalyte Resources Inc’s Canadian potash mine project, Karnalyte said on Monday, adding supply even as other miners cut production. The company’s shares jumped 76 percent in Toronto to C$1.55.

Under the deal, a subsidiary of State Bank of India and other lenders would loan Saskatchewan-based Karnalyte most of the funds, with GSFC guaranteeing payments in exchange for a greater voting share. Karnalyte plans to make payments from cash flow and eventually issuing more shares.

The mine – to be located in Wynyard, Saskatchewan – would add supply to a struggling industry that has already seen production cuts by Potash Corp of Saskatchewan and others, due to weak crop prices and slack Brazilian demand.

Clive Palmer makes demands before July restart for Queensland Nickel refinery – by Cameron Atfield (Sydney Morning Herald – March 14, 2016)

March 14, 2016

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

Clive Palmer’s Townsville nickel refinery looks set to close for four months, and might never reopen if the mining magnate’s own conditions are not met.

Mr Palmer, the Federal Member for Fairfax, has detailed five demands he said must be met in order to save his embattled Queensland Nickel refinery.

Queensland Nickel Sales, a company set up last week to run the Yabulu refinery, wrote to the Queensland government to outline its five requirements for operations at the refinery to recommence from July.

Mr Palmer said the requirements were:

That QNS obtain the relevant government approvals.
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Labor Protests Multiply in China as Economy Slows, Worrying Leaders – by Javier C. Hernandez (New York Times – March 14, 2016)

March 14, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/

GUANGZHOU, China — For nearly seven years, Li Wei rose before dawn for his 10-hour shift at the steel plant, returning home each night soaked in sweat, the clank of heavy machinery still ringing in his ears. But last month, the 31-year-old welder stood outside the plant with hundreds of co-workers, picketing against pay cuts and singing patriotic battle hymns.

Within a week, the authorities declared their strike illegal, threatening fines and imprisonment. The police descended on the plant by the hundreds, tearing down signs and ordering the protesters to go back to work. “I’ve sacrificed my life for this company,” Mr. Li told officers as they sought to disperse the workers. “How can you do this?”

As China’s economy slows after more than two decades of breakneck growth, strikes and labor protests have erupted across the country. Factories, mines and other businesses are withholding wages and benefits, laying off staff or shutting down altogether.

Cliffs Natural Resources to Restart Minnesota Mine – by John W. Miller (Wall Street Journal – March 14, 2016)

March 14, 2016

http://www.wsj.com/

The U.S.’s biggest iron ore miner Monday said it would restart a key mine in Minnesota, a positive sign for the battered U.S. steel industry following a small uptick in prices and new import tariffs on foreign steel.

Cleveland-based Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. said it would resume production of iron ore pellets at its Northshore operations, which employ 540 workers, by May 15.

The mine, which was idled in December, was one of many industrial facilities in the U.S. to fall prey last year to a painful downtown in the industrial commodities sector, driven by a slowdown in Chinese demand, a collapse of energy prices and the stronger dollar. Steel prices in the U.S. fell over 30% on the year. Big steelmakers laid off thousands of workers, closed plants and posted billions of dollars in losses.

India to investigate cartel activities by iron-ore miners – by Ajoy K Das (MiningWeekly – March 14, 2016)

March 14, 2016

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – India’s Mines Ministry has ordered an investigation into possible cartel activities among merchant iron-ore miners, following the build-up of large stocks as steel producers and pellet manufacturers face supply shortages.

According to an official in the Ministry, mining advisory body Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) had been directed to probe charges of cartel behaviour. An Investigation had started in the eastern Indian coastal province of Odisha.

Several user industries have complained to the Ministry that even as stockpiles across the country had risen to some 125-million tonnes, most merchant miners were not taking any measures to liquidate the stocks at pitheads, while also reducing production in order to keep prices at auctions at a higher level than normal demand-supply dynamics would warrant.