International Media Resource Articles – Page 674

Indonesian crunch could prompt rethink of protectionist mineral export policy – by Jewel Topsfield (Sydney Morning Herald – April 23, 2015)

April 22, 2015

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

The Indonesian government’s push to increase revenue from the troubled mining industry by 50 per cent this year could force it to rethink bad policies, according to a lawyer from an Indonesian firm specialising in mining law.

The Indonesian mining industry is facing tough times due to the plummeting prices of some of its key exports including coal, tin and nickel and protectionist policies that ban the export of unprocessed minerals.

Coal production dropped by 21 per cent in the first three months of 2015 compared to the same period last year and mineral producers are laying off workers, mothballing high-cost mines and postponing capital expenditure.

Australian miners with exposure to Indonesia include BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Newcrest Mining and Cokal Ltd.

“The current difficult economic times for the mining industry and the government are going to force a change of policy,” Bill Sullivan, from Indonesian law firm Christian Teo Purwono & Partners, told a forum in Jakarta.

Freeport-McMoRan Crowned With Tarnished Copper – by Tim Maverick (The Wall Street Daily – April 21, 2015)

April 22, 2015

http://www.wallstreetdaily.com/

The price of the world’s most important base metal, copper, continues to hover near a five-year low as copper miners struggle with waning demand from their biggest customer, China.

The current price, near $2.70 per pound, is down roughly 40% from the all-time highs reached in 2011. China accounts for about 40% of overall global copper demand. But, consumption there has slowed as its once red-hot property market cools.

So, when Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) said that it’s going full speed ahead with a vast expansion plan, investors started scratching their heads. Especially since the company recently announced a dividend cut for the first time in seven years!

The company is already the world’s largest listed copper miner, and its goal is to become the overall No. 1 producer, passing up Chile’s state-owned Codelco.

Competitors in the industry, such as Teck Resources (TCK) and Anglo American plc (AAUKY), are delaying their expansion plans for copper.

Southeast depends on its rivers – by Matt Lubov (Juneau Empire – April 22, 2015)

April 22, 2015

http://juneauempire.com/

Southeast Alaska’s livelihood is dependent on its marine ecosystem, especially its salmon runs. As a fishing guide and resident, I know that fishing is Southeast Alaska’s livelihood. While the majority of our most productive salmon rivers — such as the Taku, Unuk and Stikine — have their headwaters in British Columbia, we need to ensure BC manages its side of the rivers properly to ensure healthy fish runs across all of Southeast Alaska.

Alaska residents should be extremely concerned about BC’s plans for massive industrial development in these headwaters. KSM, Red Chris, Tulsequah Chief, New Polaris, Big Bull, Schaft Creek, Galore Creek and more mines are already proposed or in development. The scale of this development is massive, and despite the implications of Mount Polley, BC is going full-speed ahead.

While these mines plan on only being in production for a handful of years, their tailing ponds are immortal and must be controlled for my entire lifetime, my kids’ lifetime, my grandkids’ lifetime, my great-grandkids’ lifetime … and, well, you can get the point.

I urge Gov. Bill Walker and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott to act as soon as possible before much of this development becomes a done deal. We need real action from BC to improve its mining practices and long-term guarantees that BC mining won’t harm us downstream. We need to know that a Mount Polley-type of disaster won’t happen in the Taku, Stikine or Unuk.

Zinc bull story to keep rolling – by Kip Keen (Mineweb.com – April 22, 2015)

April 22, 2015

http://www.mineweb.com/

Base metal is full of surprises (and not always good).

Zinc has started to show signs of life again. In recent weeks the spot price of zinc crossed over $1/lb, up from a one-year low around 0.90/lb.

It seems the prospect of a growing zinc deficit is back in play. The notion of zinc deficit, long forecast by analysts and base metal miners, has already created one false dawn.

With such a deficit in mind, zinc fever caught the market in late 2013 and persisted to mid 2014, driving the price from near $0.80/lb to around C$1.10. LME zinc stocks had peaked after all and begun to fall. Yet eventually so did the price of zinc.

The market realised it may have gushed and rushed on zinc a little early. There was the fact that the stocks were really quite high to begin with, so they would take time to shrink.

Indeed they’re still shrinking and are about half the early 2013 peak. So zinc came back down to earth, plumbing $0.90 this year. Now, the question is, with zinc surging again is this time any different?

UPDATE 4-BHP blinks as iron ore prices fall, delays output boost – by James Regan (Reuters U.S. – April 22, 2015)

April 22, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

SYDNEY, April 22 (Reuters) – BHP Billiton is slowing down its expansion plans in iron ore, the first big miner to pull back as a global supply glut sends ore prices tumbling.

The world no. 3 producer said it would delay an Australian port project that would have boosted output by 20 million tonnes and buoyed annual output to 290 million tonnes by mid-2017.

While BHP’s pullback is small compared with overall seaborne iron ore trade of around 1.3 billion tonnes, it is viewed as significant given BHP’s position as an efficient producer.

“It is probably more a symbolic posturing position by BHP, but it also likely signals the bottom of the iron ore market, given this action is being taken by one of the lowest cost producers,” said Mark Pervan, head of commodities for ANZ Bank.

Some analysts said the move suggests BHP expects ore prices to rise later in the decade, when it hopes to control a greater share of the global seaborne trade than it does now.

With mine layoffs coming, Iron Rangers prepare for hard times – by Dan Kraker (Minnesota Public Radio News – April 22, 2015)

April 22, 2015

http://www.mprnews.org/

The Iron Range – Every year, Doug Ellis sells hundreds of pairs of expensive steel-toed boots to miners, and a lot of hunting rifles.

“My business is built on mining money,” said Ellis, who owns the Virginia Surplus sporting goods store. “It’s what drives all these towns.” Ellis has operated the store in Virginia for 25 years, through three downturns in the mining industry.

People on the Iron Range are used to the booms and busts of the cyclical mining industry. But the latest downturn has Ellis and many others worried. They’re bracing for the impending layoffs of 1,100 mineworkers later this spring. The job losses likely will significantly affect a regional economy that relies heavily on mining.

The loss of 1,100 jobs on the Iron Range might not seem like much compared to the 3,100 jobs that Target eliminated in the Twin Cities last month.

But in a region where mining makes up about 30 percent of the economy, the impact of the layoffs is enormous, said John Arbogast, vice president of the United Steelworkers union Local 1938 at Minntac in Mountain Iron. “On the Iron Range, mining is everything,” Arbogast said.

Mick Davis says commodities prices close to bottoming out – by James Wilson and Neil Hume (Financial Times – April 21, 2015)

April 22, 2015

http://www.ft.com/intl/markets/commodities

Lausanne – Mick Davis, one of the mining sector’s most prolific dealmakers, on Tuesday declared that commodities prices were close to bottoming out, and signalled that this may be the year his X2 private equity vehicle starts buying assets.

The sector has been eager to see how the former Xstrata chief executive would invest after he raised up to $5.6bn to fund his ambition of building a mid-tier diversified miner.

At the FT Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne, Mr Davis said there were now “squeaks of distress” from some companies, with plunging commodities prices hitting corporate valuations. “Are we towards the bottom of the market? Yes. Whether we have reached the bottom of the market, I would not know,” he added.

Is Hillary Clinton Taking ‘Blood Phosphate’ Money From Morocco? – by Julian Pecquet (U.S. News and World Report – April 13, 2015)

April 21, 2015

http://www.usnews.com/

Julian Pecquet is the Congressional Correspondent for Al-Monitor.

Critics of a $1 million Clinton Foundation gift see a ploy to build support for illegal exploitation of the “last colony in Africa.”

WASHINGTON — Presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton is endorsing the illegal exploitation of disputed lands and risks undermining four decades of UN diplomacy by taking money from Morocco, critics say.

Clinton, who’s expected to announce her candidacy for the Democratic nomination April 12, has come under fire for accepting foreign contributions to the Clinton Foundation, most recently a $1 million donation from OCP, a fertilizer giant owned by the Moroccan government. Left unsaid in the initial reports: OCP — the Office Chérifien des Phosphates — is a major player in the exploitation of mineral resources from the Western Sahara, a disputed territory known as the “last colony in Africa” that Morocco took over after colonial power Spain abandoned it in the 1970s.

“You’ve heard of blood diamonds, but in many ways you could say that OCP is shipping blood phosphate,” Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa., told Al-Monitor. “Western Sahara was taken over by Morocco to exploit its resources and this is one of the principal companies involved in that effort.”

The rapid rise in mining wages represents a turning point – by Sikonathi Mantshantsha (The Rand Daily Mail – April 21, 2015)

April 21, 2015

http://www.rdm.co.za/

Has the mining industry finally come to the party by paying sufficient wages to its employees? It looks like it. Last week Gold Fields agreed to raise the average wage of its employees by 10%/year for the next three years, a rate that is almost four hundred basis points higher than last year’s 6.1% consumer price inflation rate.

The wage agreement that the gold company reached with organised labour in SA is a significant development on the path to normalising labour relations in SA.

It is also a clear indicator that important lessons were learnt from the Marikana tragedy almost three years ago, and the enormous value destruction on the platinum belt during the five-month strike last year.

The most important part of the deal is that it was reached without any loss in productivity for the company or income for the workers through strike action.

In some ways the Gold Fields settlement for its 3 500 South Deep — its only asset in SA — employees validates the sacrifices made by workers on the platinum belt in 2014.

Strike like it’s 2011? Low copper prices loom large over wage talks – by Josephine Mason (Reuters U.S. – April 20, 2015)

April 21, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

SANTIAGO – (Reuters) – When Antofagasta Chief Executive Diego Hernandez took the stage at the world’s biggest copper conference last week, he talked about the growing risks mining companies face from rising worker salaries in South America due to staff shortages and strong unions.

What he didn’t mention at the CRU copper conference in Santiago was the far graver immediate labor threat that many of his rivals face: the biggest round of contract negotiations since 2011, and likely the most contentious in years as falling copper prices and deep cost cutting programs strain relations between workers and operators.

The copper market seems to be perilously indifferent to the threat posed by this year’s contract talks at mines including one of the world’s largest, Grasberg in Indonesia, and Antamina, Peru’s biggest, risking a bullish shock if workers move to strike, analysts said.

“I think people are assuming with the change in the market, it’s going to automatically mean unions will be more flexible. But it could be a very tough situation,” Juan Carlos Guajardo, executive director of Santiago-based mining consulting firm Plusmining, said. Last year, Antofagasta agreed to four-year contracts, including pay increases and cash bonuses, at its mines across Chile.

Asteroid Mining Could Be The Next Frontier For Resource Mining – by Anne Lu (International Business Times – April 21 2015)

April 21, 2015

http://au.ibtimes.com/

Minerals are one of the Earth’s finite resources, so there is bound to come a time when miners would start to look elsewhere for mineral sources, including outer space. Mining company Planetary Resources has recently made headlines when it launched the first of two technology demonstration aircrafts that aim to prospect for valuable resources on asteroids.

The launch of the Arkyd 3 Reflight, or A3R, is just one of the steps that Planetary Resources is undertaking in order to achieve its ultimate goal of having asteroid prospecting missions in the future. Once the two aircrafts are launched, it has the possibility of jumpstarting a trillion-dollar market for oxygen, hydrogen and metal mining from asteroids.

There are basically three main types of asteroids that can be used for mining. The first one is C-type asteroids, which are the most common type but also the furthest from the sun. They contain around 22 percent water, which can be used as fuel for manned missions. S-type asteroids are closest to the sun, and these are made up of stony material, nickel, iron and precious metals like platinum, gold and rhodium.

Finally, M-type asteroids are the least common among the three and are found in the middle region of the asteroid belt.

China expands potash holdings (The Australian – April 21, 2015)

April 21, 2015

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

Dow Jones – China’s sovereign-wealth fund took command of a 12.5 per cent stake in embattled Russian potash producer Uralkali Tuesday by exercising an option on a convertible bond it bought late last year.

The step represents a big move by China–the world’s largest consumer of the fertiliser additive–to secure steady supply in a market where governments have zealously protected against foreign ownership in the past. The deal comes amid a bruising trade battle between Uralkali and Belarus over the collapse of a sales partnership that rocked global potash markets and landed the Russian company’s chief executive in a Belarusian prison.

The president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, has said the trade fight could only be defused if new owners for the Russian potash miner were found. The bond was issued by a special purpose vehicle owned by Uralkali’s primary shareholder Suleiman Kerimov and his two partners. By converting it to shares, the China Investment Corp.–through its Chengdong Investment Corp. subsidiary–transfers ownership of a sizeable stake of the company out of the Russian partners’ hands.

In addition, Mr. Kerimov is in talks to sell the 21.75 per cent stake he owns through his foundation, and his partners are eager to sell their smaller stakes as well, people close to them say. Together the three men control just over a third of the company. People familiar with the situation say potential buyers include several Russian tycoons, but that there is also interest from investment groups in other Asian countries.

Recent Trends in Cuba’s Mining and Petroleum Industries (United States Geological Survey – April 2015)

April 21, 2015

http://www.usgs.gov/

On December 17, 2014, President Obama announced that the United States would begin discussions to restore diplomatic relations with the Government of Cuba and embark on a longer term process of normalization of relations between the two countries.

The U.S. Government had officially severed diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961 in response to political
changes after the Cuban Revolution. In 1962, President Kennedy declared an embargo on all trade between the United States and Cuba, which was implemented through regulations published in 1963.

On January 15, 2015, the U.S. Departments of Commerce and the Treasury published regulatory amendments to the Cuba sanctions (U.S. Department of the Treasury, 2015) in accordance with President Obama’s December 2014 policy announcement (The White House, 2014). These measures made changes in the implementation of the embargo but did not lift the embargo.

Most transactions involving Cuba, including private and public investment in mineral production, continue to be prohibited. This Fact Sheet provides information regarding the current supply of and demand for mineral commodities produced in Cuba (fig.1).

Flickers of life in West Australian mining towns even as iron ore’s profits dim – by Calla Wahlquist (The Guardian – April 21, 2015)

April 21, 2015

http://www.theguardian.com/international

Some towns have gone, but others have diversified from iron ore to cattle farming and new businesses

Three hours from the centre of Western Australia’s iron ore industry, a scrubby patch of ground stands as a reminder of what happens to mining towns when the money moves on.

The patchy outline of a football oval is all that’s left of the town of Shay Gap, which once had a population of 650. Lang Coppin, an East Pilbara shire councillor whose family runs Yarrie Station, where the town was built, can spot it when he flies over the area in his helicopter – but that’s only because he knows where to look.

“You will drive past there now and if you didn’t know where the town was you wouldn’t believe it,” Coppin said. “You wouldn’t know you went past a town that once had schools, football ovals, shops.”

Founded by Mount Goldsworthy Mining Associates in the early 70s as a worker hub for nearby iron ore operations, Shay Gap closed two months after the mine ceased operation in February 1994.

Mine Tales: Copper Creek history includes recent discovery – by William Ascarza (Arizona Daily Star – April 19, 2015)

April 21, 2015

http://tucson.com/

Sometimes referred to as the Bunker Hill district, the Copper Creek district is located on the steep banks of the western slopes of the Galiuro Mountains in southeastern Arizona 75 miles northeast by road from Tucson.

Mining in the area dates back to 1863 with the Blue Bird mine with ore transported to Yuma and sent over to Swansea, Wales, for reduction.

Two decades later, prospectors William N. Miller, Theodore H. Peters and Ely H. McDaniels sought to further develop the outcropping of breccia pipe deposits officially organizing the Copper Creek Mining District in April 1880.

Prior to the 1900s, the focus was on lead-silver ore freighted from Mammoth to Willcox. Ore shipments were later shipped 35 miles northwest of Copper Creek to Winkelman for enhanced transport by the Phoenix & Eastern Railroad.

By the turn of the century, copper mining became prevalent in the area and involved three mining companies, including the Calumet & Arizona, Copper Creek and Minnesota-Arizona Mining Co. Copper concentrates were shipped to the Douglas and El Paso smelters.