International Media Resource Articles – Page 599

PRECIOUS-Gold slumps to 2010 lows after Yellen, market awaits ECB – by Clara Denina (Reuters U.S. – December 3, 2015)

December 3, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Dec 3 Gold hit a near-six-year low on Thursday, as the dollar soared after Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen hinted at a U.S. rate hike later this month and investors nervously awaited the European Central Bank’s policy decision later in the day.

The ECB is expected to ease policy further and deliver a cocktail of measures that could include a deposit rate cut and changes to its asset-buying programme.

“(Although) the chances are pretty high the ECB could disappoint today, the market overall is positioned towards more U.S. dollar strength, related to both the ECB and also to the Federal Reserve,” Julius Baer analyst Carsten Menke said.

The iron ore price is in free-fall – by Frik Els (Mining.com – December 2, 2015)

December 3, 2015

http://www.mining.com/

Iron ore fell to a record low on a spot price basis on Wednesday with the Northern China 62% Fe import price including freight and insurance (CFR) dropping 2.4% to $40.60 a tonne.

After a strong recovery from its July low, the steelmaking raw material has been on a relentless decline since mid-October. Losses so so far this year come to 43% following. Today’s price compare to $190 a tonne hit February 2011 and an average of $135 a tonne in 2013 and $97 last year.

For an iron ore price below $40 you have to go back to 2007 when annual contract pricing between the Big 3 producers – Vale, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton – and Chinese and Japanese steelmakers were still the industry norm.

How Much Metal Does China Need? – by David Fickling (Bloomberg News – December 1, 2015)

December 2, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

China’s metal producers are finally starting to cauterize the wounds inflicted by the commodity bust.

Copper producers will trim output by 350,000 metric tons next year, equivalent to about 4.4 percent of the country’s 2014 levels. Nickel smelters will slash production by 20 percent, and zinc furnaces will remove the equivalent of 4 percent of global output.

Will this be enough to reverse the slide in metal prices? It depends a lot on what sort of country China is becoming. For all the differences between major economies, their consumption of raw materials can be oddly uniform.

Miners: More Pain Before Gain – by Anthony Fensom (The Diplomat – December 2, 2015)

December 2, 2015

http://thediplomat.com/

Asia’s resource sector has felt the pain of falling prices in 2015, forcing job cuts from Indonesia to Australia and destroying billions of dollars of market value. Fortunately for miners, the longer-term outlook appears brighter, although more pain is expected in 2016.

A recent report by BIS Shrapnel predicts Australia’s miners will shed another 20,000 jobs over the next three years, on top of the 40,000 jobs lost since the peak in investment during the mining boom as miners adjust to the post-boom hangover.

Meanwhile in Indonesia, the coal slump has reportedly caused “the majority of coal mining companies in Indonesia to stop operating,” with up to 80 percent estimated to have ceased production as of August 2015.

U.S. bill ends legal quandary over mining rights in space – by Irene Klotz (Reuters U.K. – December 2, 2015)

December 2, 2015

http://uk.reuters.com/

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. – A new law clears U.S. companies to own what they mine from asteroids and other celestial bodies, ending a legal quandary that had overshadowed technical and financial issues facing the startups, industry officials said on Tuesday.

The Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, signed by President Barack Obama last week, includes provisions that authorize and promote exploration and recovery of space resources by U.S. citizens, although no one can claim ownership of a celestial body.

“It’s not unlike fishing vessels in international waters,” said Bob Richards, chief executive of Moon Express, a lunar transportation and mining company.

Our view: Push away petty politics, help Iron Range miners – Editorial (Duluth News Tribune – December 2, 2015)

December 2, 2015

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

Turkey Day has come and gone, and most of us are focusing now on having a merry Christmas.

But not so much across the Iron Range where the upcoming holidays are being anticipated with a little less cheer this year after more than 1,400 iron mining employees were laid off in recent weeks and where, worse, unemployment benefits for some 600 of them are about to expire. That’s 600 families for whom the future is bleak and for whom the holidays — well, who can think of the holidays?

Making matters more gut-wrenchingly maddening is the knowledge that Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton and the Minnesota Legislature have the ability to help but haven’t.

Vale’s Onca Puma ferro-nickel plant operates through court-ordered mine closure – by Luc Cohen (Reuters U.S. – December 1, 2015)

December 2, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

NEW YORK – Dec 1 Brazilian miner Vale is operating a nickel processing plant at the Onca Puma project, an Amazon mine where a court has ordered mining activities halted, the company’s nonferrous metals chief told Reuters on Tuesday.

While the plant continues to process ore into ferro-nickel, Vale has stopped operations at the open pit mine where it obtains the nickel ores, Jennifer Maki, Vale’s head of base metals, said on the sidelines of the annual “Vale Day” event.

Vale, the world’s largest producer of nickel, has said in recent days it is in full compliance with the order to halt mining operations at the key nickel facility.

Iron ore extends slide, Shanghai rebar hits record low (Australian Financial Review/Bloomberg – December 1, 2015)

December 1, 2015

http://www.afr.com/

Spot iron ore hit a new decade low as the glut-hit market for the steelmaking ingredient continued to struggle with poor demand from top consumer China, where Shanghai steel rebar prices sank to a record low.

Stocks of iron ore at China’s ports climbed to 87.65 million tonnes on November 27, the highest since May, data from SteelHome showed. The port inventory has risen more than 10 per cent since June, reflecting slow demand from Chinese steel producers, many of whom have curbed production as falling industrial demand widens their losses.

Top global iron ore miner Vale said earlier it expected to produce between 340 million and 350 million tonnes of iron ore in 2016. That compares with guidance of 376 million tons given in December.

OPINION: Obama’s Appalachian Tragedy – by Paul H. Tice (Wall Street Journal – November 30, 2015)

December 1, 2015

http://www.wsj.com/

Mr. Tice is a senior managing director and head of the Energy Capital Group at USCA Asset Management LLC.

The traveler comes to the Appalachians in the lovely season. He sees the hills, the streams, the foliage—but not the poor.” That passage comes from “The Other America,” Michael Harrington’s 1962 book that opened the eyes of liberal policy makers to America’s invisible poverty.

The classic work helped provide the intellectual ammunition for President Lyndon Johnson’s “unconditional war on poverty,” announced in his State of the Union address two years later.

Fast forward to today. The latest touchstone of liberal policy, the regulation of greenhouse-gas emissions, is causing economic destruction and pushing poverty higher in the Appalachians.

Dayton issues warning to Essar about paying companies working on Nashwauk site – by John Myers (Duluth News Tribune – November 30, 2015)

December 1, 2015

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

Gov. Mark Dayton on Monday pledged to play hardball with Essar Steel Minnesota, saying he’ll call the state’s $67 million loan to the company on Wednesday if Essar doesn’t pay past-due bills from local construction companies.

Essar has essentially been in default on the state money since October because it failed to live up to an agreement to create jobs at an iron and steelmaking facility in Nashwauk by that date.

The company has moved ahead with work building a taconite plant at the Nashwauk site, but has shelved plans to make iron and steel at the site.

That puts the company in violation of the 2007 agreement signed when the economic development money was awarded by the state.

Europe’s Coal Curtain Is Complicating the Climate Fight – by Ladka Mortkowitz Bauerova (Bloomberg News – November 30, 2015)

December 1, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

At the Bilina mine 50 miles north of Prague, excavators the size of 10-story buildings claw at the earth and scoop out 2,700 tons of brown coal a day to feed the smoke-belching power station on the horizon. After the Czech government relaxed environmental regulations this fall, they’ll be able to keep going for another 40 years.

Some 130 miles away, in eastern Germany, Vattenfall AB’s Jaenschwalde coal pit is preparing to scale back production as the country shifts away from coal and the oldest units of the adjacent power station are scheduled to shut down by 2019.

The two mines highlight Europe’s growing divide on cutting greenhouse gases as global leaders descend on Paris for the biggest climate conference in history.

Brazil sues BHP, Vale for $5 billion in damages for mine disaster – by Anthony Boadle (Reuters U.S. – November 30, 2015)

December 1, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

BRASILIA – Brazil filed a lawsuit on Monday against two of the world’s largest mining companies for 20 billion Brazilian reais ($5.2 billion) to clean up what it says was its worst environmental disaster, caused by the collapse of a tailings dam.

The governments of Brazil and those of two states hit by the damburst sued iron ore operator Samarco and its co-owners, the world’s largest miner BHP Billiton Ltd and the biggest iron ore miner Vale SA.

Earlier on Monday, President Dilma Rousseff blamed the disaster on the “irresponsible action of a company” in a speech to the COP21 climate change summit in Paris. “We are severely punishing those responsible for this tragedy,” she said.

Super-Cycle, Citigroup Picks Winners – by Pratish Narayanan (Bloomberg News – November 30, 2015)

December 1, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

There’s still money to be made from investing in commodities, according to Citigroup Inc.

While a rising U.S. dollar, sustained oversupply and slowing growth in emerging markets including China are still hurdles to a recovery, many markets may strengthen in the second half of next year as the collapse in prices shrinks production, the bank said in a report.

Citigroup also forecasts “a more persistent price recovery by 2017 for oil and base metals, and possibly agriculture.”

The bank predicts the start of a recovery in some raw materials as returns from commodities head for a fifth annual drop amid the slowest growth since 1990 in China and the prospect of a stronger dollar if U.S. interest rates increase.

Iran’s Mines Could Bring in Even More Cash Than Crude – by Ladane Nasseri (Bloomberg News – November 29, 2015)

November 30, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Iran, OPEC’s fifth-largest crude producer, has potential to generate more revenue from mining than it does from crude if the government puts more focus on developing the metals sector, according to Mojtaba Khosrowtaj, first deputy minister in charge of trade at Iran’s Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade.

Metals such as copper and lead and higher-priced rare earth elements could be worth “much more” than the nation’s oil industry revenue of about $30 billion, assuming crude at $40 a barrel and exports of 2 million barrels a day, Khosrowtaj said in an interview.

Iran is opening $30 billion of energy projects and $29 billion of mining deals to investors once international sanctions are lifted.

China metal producers have two ideas, one good, one bad – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – November 30, 2015)

November 30, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

Nov 30 – Chinese metal producers have taken two steps to arrest the slide in prices, one that’s both sensible and has a reasonable chance of working, while the other is bad policy that would only provide a temporary boost.

The good idea is moving to lower output of refined copper, zinc and both refined nickel and nickel pig iron.

The not-so-good idea is to try to convince the government to start buying up various metals, including aluminium, in a bid to soak up surplus production and support prices.

Nine large Chinese copper producers have agreed an initial plan to cut output of refined metal by 200,000 tonnes next year, equivalent to about 5 percent of this year’s output, following a meeting of companies on Nov. 28.