International Media Resource Articles – Page 672

For De Beers, There’s a Diamond in the Mining Waste – by John W. Miller (Wall Street Journal – April 29, 2015)

May 1, 2015

http://www.wsj.com/

More miners are processing former waste rock as new deposits become harder to find

KIMBERLEY, South Africa—Every day De Beers sends trucks of waste rock through this celebrated mining town, part of its effort to squeeze the remaining diamonds out of the deposit that started the company in 1888.

De Beers, a unit of Anglo American PLC, is still the world’s biggest diamond miner, with operations in Namibia, Botswana, Canada and South Africa. The company stopped mining in Kimberley nine years ago, but as new deposits of the scarce mineral grows even harder to find, exploiting waste pits now represents a lucrative niche—and one that more miners are trying to tap.

Mining companies say processing tailings, as former waste rock is known, is increasingly becoming an economic imperative.

As miners have already plumbed some of the world’s richest deposits, grades of most metals and minerals have declined. That means processing already-mined tailings can be a more attractive proposition than traditional mining.

“Over the past century, the average copper grade has fallen to 1% from 4%, and production has gone up 16-fold,” says Ruban Yogarajah, a spokesman for BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest mining company. “So every year, it gets harder and harder.”

UPDATE 2- Vale posts $3.2 bln loss on iron ore’s relentless fall – by Stephen Eisenhammer (Reuters U.S. – April 30, 2015)

April 30, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – Brazil’s Vale SA , the world’s No. 1 producer of iron ore, on Thursday posted its third straight quarterly loss under pressure from falling prices of the commodity as demand growth from China slows.

The miner reported a net loss of $3.2 billion in the first quarter, compared with a net profit of $2.4 billion in the same period last year. The result compares with a forecast net loss of $2.4 billion according to a Reuters poll.

The first-quarter loss was wider than that in the third and fourth quarters of last year. Vale has been hit by a tumble in the price of the main steel-making ingredient .IO62-CNI=SI, which is near its lowest in a decade having fallen 47 percent in the past 12 months.

Prices have fallen due to huge new capacity from Brazil and Australia that is beginning to flood the market, just as growth slows of Chinese demand for steel.

As well as weaker iron ore prices, Vale said the depreciation of the Brazilian real against the dollar had cost the company $3.02 billion in the quarter.

Brazil’s Vale Considers Cutting Iron-Ore Output – by Paul Kiernan (Wall Street Journal – April 30, 2015)

April 30, 2015

http://www.wsj.com/

Company remains committed to capacity growth, but may freeze some higher-cost production

RIO DE JANEIRO—The world’s largest iron-ore producer gave the strongest signals yet Thursday that it could temper output in the face of an oversupplied global market.

Peter Poppinga, head of the ferrous division at Brazil’s Vale SA, said that while the company remains committed to increasing its annual iron-ore capacity to 450 million metric tons in a few years from around 350 million tons now, it may idle up to 30 million tons of higher-cost production. He reiterated that the strategy was “new” and came in addition to an existing plan to buy less ore from third parties.

Vale and fellow iron-ore majors Rio Tinto PLC and BHP Billiton PLC have been criticized by smaller rivals and many analysts in recent months for increasing their output of the steelmaking ingredient despite stagnating demand from China, the world’s main market. Together the three companies account for some 60% of global iron-ore exports, and all have continued to invest in new supply even as prices collapsed in recent months.

The Brazilian company has faced heat for plowing ahead with a particularly costly, $16.4 billion expansion of its Carajás mining complex in the Brazilian Amazon. Company executives on Thursday again brushed aside suggestions that they might stretch out the project’s timeline.

Why Africa’s mining industry can weather the commodity-price storm – by Rolake Akinkugbe (Euromoney.com – April 2015)

April 30, 2015

http://www.euromoney.com/default.aspx

The correction in the global commodity cycle shouldn’t derail investors’ search for new exploration frontiers in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), given the region’s high-quality mining and metal assets, and still-growing steel demand in China. In any case, efforts to boost local value-added processing should remain on track.

Minds have been refocused on sub-Saharan Africa’s (SSA) mining and metals sector since oil prices began their downward climb in June. Only 18 months earlier, the region’s mining industry had come under heavy scrutiny after a series of labour disputes and worker strikes in South Africa’s mines.

Meanwhile, iron-ore, gold and copper prices have been depressed, raising concerns over export revenues for a number of African mineral producers. Should growth in China, which consumes almost 50% of global metal supplies, stagnate, then Africa’s mining sector could be in for a protracted depression.

However, there is some cause for optimism. Despite global economic uncertainty over the past two years, the budget for non-ferrous metals exploration in SSA has remained relatively robust, helping to underpin continued industry investment.

Commodity rush: turnaround…or a dead cat? – by Sungula Nkabinde (Moneyweb.com – April 29, 2015)

April 30, 2015

http://www.moneyweb.co.za/

Significant gains over the past few days may cloud judgement over commodity cycle turnaround.

Even though the JSE closed in the red, Tuesday was another good day for resource stocks with many companies boasting significant gains. Kumba Iron Ore was up 8.44%, Assore rose by 9.63%, while the platinum miners Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum gaining 7.42% and 7.55% respectively. The gold stocks also performed well, but to a lesser extent. Harmony Gold (4.27%) and AngloGold Ashanti (4.46%), among others, were also in the black.

This was the second run in as many (South African business) days. Kumba also rose by 11% on Friday in response to an increase in iron ore prices. BHP Billiton, though it lost some ground on Tuesday, also climbed by about 3.5% on the day.

So, could this be the beginning of the turnaround in commodity stocks that the industry has so desperately been waiting for? Ryan Wibberley, Investec Asset Management’s head of dealing for emerging and frontier markets, says it’s too early to tell but argues that it could be.

“The majority of general equity portfolios in South Africa, at the moment, are significantly underweight when it comes to resources.

Cliffs Natural Resources ‘can’t wait’ to exit ‘horrible’ Australian iron ore business – by Peter Ker (Sydney Morning Herald – April 30, 2015)

April 30, 2015

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

US miner Cliffs Natural Resources says the seaborne supply of iron ore to China is a “doomed, horrible business”, and declared it can’t wait to finish mining in Western Australia.

Speaking after a decision to cut jobs and close one of its three iron ore pits in Western Australia, Cliffs chief executive Lourenco Goncalves said big miners like BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto were trying to scare the iron ore market into pessimism with their expansion plans, but could no longer afford those expansions.

Cliffs’ Koolyanobbing operations in Western Australia made a slim profit of $0.26 per tonne during the March quarter, and the Cleveland-based company responded by reducing the remaining life of the operation from 4.5 years down to 3.5 years.

“The seaborne market is doomed, is cursed, is a place not to be in. I can’t wait to get out of Australia,” said Mr Goncalves. “As soon as I get to the end of life of mine in Australia, I’m out of there … I can’t wait to get out of the seaborne trade and let the Australians take that horrible business on their own hands.”

Ailing Fortescue begins job cuts, hits out at rivals BHP and Rio Tinto – by Andrew White and Andrew Burrell (The Australian – April 30, 2015)

April 30, 2015

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

Andrew Forrest has accused his two larger rivals, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, of jeopardising the budget by driving the iron ore price lower as his Fortescue Metals Group began cutting jobs.

Mr Forrest said the price would be driven lower unless the major producers checked their planned increase in production and stopped saying they intended to continue “oversupplying’’ the market.

“If we don’t get responsibility coming into the future actions and the current statements of the very multinational companies that derive their fortunes from our own land then the iron ore price will continue to fall, the budget will be thrown into jeopardy, the deficit will grow and our standard of living will fall,’’ Mr Forrest told broadcaster Alan Jones yesterday. “And it’s all completely avoidable. None of this had to happen.’’

Mr Forrest has refused to back down on calls for the producers to agree on slowing capacity expansion, despite attention from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission over the possibility of collusion.

Pebble Mine: Down to Lawyers, Lobbyists and Legislators – by Taryn Kiekow (Huffington Post – April 28, 2015)

April 30, 2015

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/green/

Taryn Kiekow is a Senior Policy Analyst, NRDC’s Marine Mammal Protection.

Pebble Mine is not grabbing headlines these days, but the battle to protect Bristol Bay is far from over.

In contrast to the significant headlines and victories in 2014 — Rio Tinto withdrawing from the project; EPA proposing specific restrictions on the development of Pebble Mine; Alaska voters passing an initiative aimed at protecting the Bristol Bay watershed from large-scale mining, which is harmful to Alaska’s wild salmon; and President Obama declaring Bristol Bay off-limits to oil and gas drilling — 2015 has been deceptively quiet.

All the major investors — Mitsubishi, Anglo American, and Rio Tinto — have fled the project, taking massive losses to walk away from Bristol Bay, and Pebble has been unable to find another moneyed partner to advance the project. This leaves junior mining company Northern Dynasty Minerals, now the sole owner of the project, with a serious cash-flow problem.

But the company hasn’t given up on its dreams to build a colossal mine at the headwaters of the world’s greatest wild salmon fishery. Last January, with the sale of special warrants to existing investors, it raised about $15 million — almost half of which came from a hedge fund in the Cayman Islands.

West Virginia Mine Wars Museum aims to tell overlooked coalfields history – by Marcus Constantino (Charleston Daily Mail – April 28, 2015)

April 29, 2015

http://www.charlestondailymail.com/

Local volunteers and historians are opening a museum in Matewan dedicated to telling the untold and often-overlooked stories of coal miners’ long and bloody fight for labor rights.

The West Virginia Mine Wars Museum is to open Saturday, May 16, with a grand opening celebration at 1 p.m. Charles “Chuck” Keeney, a history teacher in Logan and member of the museum’s board of directors, said the museum is a collection of artifacts and stories from the early 20th century labor uprising that has mostly been passed down informally from generation to generation.

“There’s not a whole lot of emphasis on the history of what coal miners did and the struggles they went through and the tumultuous time,” Keeney said. “The Battle of Matewan has all the elements of a classic Western shootout, yet while something like the Gunfight at O.K. Corral has become a part of American lore, Matewan has languished in obscurity for a number of generations. We’re promoting this regional history that has been overlooked.”

The May 19, 1920, Battle of Matewan, also known as the “Matewan Massacre,” broke out in front of the Chambers Hardware building — the current-day home of the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum at 336 Mate Street.

Biggest Coal Exporter Says Climate Change Won’t Strand Assets – by Jesse Riseborough (Bloomberg News – April 28, 2015)

April 29, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Glencore Plc, the top exporter of coal used in power stations, expects efforts to curb climate change by keeping its fossil-fuel reserves in the ground to fail in the face of world energy demand.

Shareholders won’t be “prevented from realizing the full value of Glencore’s fossil fuel assets,” Ivan Glasenberg, 58, Glencore’s billionaire chief executive officer, said Tuesday.

His comments are a snub to a growing campaign that wants investors to shun fossil fuels that cause climate change. The world can’t safely extract all its oil and coal reserves, meaning some will end up as worthless stranded assets, campaigners say. Investors from Stanford University to the British Medical Association plan to cut fossil fuel holdings.

Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc are among those defending their interests with the argument that the only way the world can feed its appetite for cheap, reliable energy is by burning fossil fuels. Coal supplies the world with about 30 percent of its main energy needs and more than 40 percent of its electricity, according to the World Coal Association. Global coal output reached a record 7.8 billion metric tons in 2013.

The End of the BRICs – by Gwynne Dyer (Gwynne Dyer.com – April 8, 2015)

April 29, 2015

http://gwynnedyer.com/

“The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable,” said John Kenneth Galbraith, the wisest American economist of his generation. (“A paltry honour,” he would have murmured.) But you still can’t resist wondering when the Chinese economy will be bigger than the US economy – or the Brazilian bigger than the British, or the Turkish bigger than the Italian – as if it were some kind of horse race.

The latest document to tackle these questions is “The World in 2050″, drawn up by HSBC bank, which ranks the world’s hundred biggest economies as they are now, and as (it thinks) they will be in 2050. It contains the usual little surprises, like a prediction that per capita incomes in the Philippines and Indonesia, now roughly the same, will diverge so fast that the average Filipino will have twice the income of the average Indonesian by 2050.

The Venezuelan economy will only triple in size, but Peru’s economy will grow eightfold. Per capita income will double-and-a-bit in Nigeria; in Ethiopia it will grow sixfold. Bangladesh powers past Pakistan, with a per capita income in 2050 that’s half again as big as Pakistan’s. (It’s only two-thirds of Pakistan’s at the moment.) And so on and so forth: local phenomena mostly of interest to local people.

But what’s happening at the top of the list is of interest to everybody. That’s where the great powers all live, with the BRICs nipping at their heels. Or rather, some of the BRICs are nipping at their heels, and some are not. That’s the big news.

Dazed and Confused in Deutschland – by Christopher Ecclestone (InvestorIntel.com – April 29, 2015)

April 29, 2015

http://investorintel.com/

In the balmy (barmy?) days before the global financial crisis in 2008, Germany was regarded as the Promised Land for Vancouver stock promoters. They had never seen anything like it… so many sheep to be fleeced and none of them up to date on the guiles and wiles of Vancouver’s best and brightest.

It was a happy hunting ground. Even better the various German exchanges went out of the way to make their lists open to all and sundry. Stocks that you couldn’t even find a ticker for in Canada, trading on some third sub-tier of Yellowknife Adventurers Exchange could get itself a listing in Berlin or Stuttgart by merely existing.

This not only gave an extra ticker to fill up embarrassing white spaces, between photos of the moose pasture, on the company website but also gave one status when one strutted the floor of the Munich Gold Show touting one’s vermiculite, granola or alfafa deposit. I have met executives who still sigh for the days when their registers frequently had 40% of the holders located on the Continent.

Sadly all good things had to come to the end and the severe fleecing the German sheep received at the hands of the promoters left their hides red raw and it was a long time in healing. Germany faded from view and most German-speaking investors forswore any involvement or interest in Canada besides the hockey scores at the Olympics.

Iron ore streak extends to nine days – by Daniel Palmer (The Australian – April 29, 2015)

April 29, 2015

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

Iron ore has continued its march back toward $US60 a tonne in offshore trade amid rising hopes for more stimulus out of Beijing.

At the end of the latest session, benchmark iron ore for immediate delivery to the port of Tianjin in China was trading at $US59.20 a tonne, up 0.9 per cent from its prior close of $US58.70 a tonne.

The gains extend a withering run for the commodity that has come as a surprise to many, with a surge of over 25 per cent from its 10-year low of $US46.70 a tonne earlier this month. Much of this recovery has come in the past nine trading days, with iron ore last seeing a red session on April 15.

The developments have allowed for a strong bounce in stock prices within the iron ore sector, with BC Iron and Fortescue Metals leading the way.

The two WA-based miners endured a rare negative session yesterday during the current iron ore streak, with stock in both firms sinking around 5 per cent by the close as the broader market moved lower. Another lift in the commodity’s price overnight, however, leaves them primed to recover much of those losses during today’s trade.

In Argentina, $5 Billion of Mine Projects Is Riding on Elections – by Pablo Rosendo Gonzalez (Bloomberg News – April 27, 2015)

April 27, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Some of the world’s biggest miners are ready to spend at least $5 billion in Argentina if October’s presidential elections herald an easing of capital restrictions.

Goldcorp Inc., the largest gold miner by market value, billionaire Ivan Glasenberg’s Glencore Plc and Yamana Gold Inc. are among producers signaling new investments in the country if the next government is more receptive to the industry, according to the country’s mining association and provincial and company officials briefed on the matter.

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner restricted imports and repatriated export revenue since she was re-elected in 2011. She created currency controls that hurt international mining companies and led Brazil’s Vale SA to cancel a $5.9 billion potash project in the country. The main presidential candidates appear more amenable to luring foreign investment, according to Martin Dedeu, president of the Argentine Mining Chamber. Fernandez isn’t allowed to seek a third term.

“The three leading candidates are convinced about the importance of the industry,” Dedeu said by telephone from Buenos Aires. “Daniel Scioli has said mining should be an engine for the economy, Mauricio Macri has been consistent in his support and Sergio Massa has said the sector deserves attention.”

COLUMN-Iron ore rallies on small BHP output deferral? Ridiculous – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – April 23, 2015)

April 27, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia, April 23 (Reuters) – While it’s well-known that markets can have irrational short-term moves, the 4 percent jump in Asian spot iron ore on Wednesday must be a more extreme case.

Spot iron ore .IO62-CNI=SI jumped to $52.90 a tonne from $50.80 on April 20, continuing its rally from the record low of $46.70 reached on April 2.

On the surface the catalyst for Wednesday’s spike was BHP Billiton’s announcement that it would defer an expansion of its output of the steel-making ingredient from 270 million tonnes a year to 290 million tonnes.

The future loss of 20 million tonnes from a market that’s oversupplied by multiples of that amount clearly isn’t a sound basis for a price rally. What it does show is a market where many participants are keen to call a bottom, and are happy to grasp onto any positive news as justification for a price rally.

It also shows that many in the market weren’t really reading into this week’s quarterly production reports from BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Brazil’s Vale.