International Media Resource Articles – Page 713

UPDATE 3-Rio Tinto pulls plug on ill-fated Mozambique coal venture – by Silvia Antonioli and Jim Regan (Reuters India – July 30, 2014)

July 30, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

LONDON, July 30 (Reuters) – Rio Tinto has agreed to sell coal assets it bought through a $4 billion acquisition of Riversdale in 2011 for just $50 million to an Indian joint venture, ending its ill-fated venture in Mozambique’s coal sector.

The sale of Rio Tinto Coal Mozambique to International Coal Ventures Private Limited (ICVL), includes the Benga coal mine and other projects in Tete province, assets that had a value of $71 million as of March 31 in Rio’s books.

In 2013, Rio Tinto sacked its chief executive and other executives directly involved in the acquisition of Riversdale and wrote off about $3.5 billion of the purchase price, partly owing to a failure to secure a permit to move coal by barge down Mozambique’s Zambezi River.

Rio Tinto is only retaining one of the assets it got from the Riversdale acquisition: the Zululand Anthracite Colliery, a small coal mine in South Africa.

“It has clearly been a horrible experience for Rio Tinto,” said Liberum analyst Richard Knights, saying that the sale price was lower than he expected and implied a further writedown.

“The assets clearly weren’t as good as they thought but in order for them to be written down that aggressively they must have seen very little scope in the foreseeable future for the profitable export of coal from Mozambique.”

An embargo on Russia’s Norilsk Nickel would hurt West -French rival – by Gus Trompiz (Reuters India – July 30, 2014)

July 30, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

PARIS, July 30 (Reuters) – An embargo against Norilsk Nickel as part of Western sanctions against Russia would hurt nickel users in Europe and the United States rather than Norilsk itself, the head of French mining group Eramet said.

Norilsk, the world’s largest producer of the stainless steel ingredient, has not been targeted so far by western measures aimed at punishing Russia for its support of pro-Moscow rebels in neighbouring Ukraine.

“Nobody expects sanctions against Russia and Norilsk would affect Norilsk’s production since it would sell to China if it couldn’t sell elsewhere,” Eramet Chief Executive Patrick Buffet said during a presentation of Eramet’s first-half results on Wednesday.

“It’s unlikely an embargo by Europe would materialise, because it would be shooting itself in the foot, since Norilsk could ship its production to Asia, creating a shortage in Europe and oversupply in Asia. The consequence would be a jump in physical premiums in Europe and a discount in Asia,” he added.

The most likely scenario for western restrictions against Norilsk would be a U.S.-only embargo, which would push up nickel premiums there but not hit the world market, Buffet added. Nickel prices have already rallied this year after a ban by Indonesia on nickel ore exports curbed supply to China.

UPDATE 2-Hedge fund triumphs in proxy battle with U.S.-based miner Cliffs – by Kim Palmer (Reuters U.K. – July 29, 2014)

July 29, 2014

http://uk.reuters.com/

(Rewrites throughout with details from meeting, analyst view, background)

(Reuters) – Casablanca Capital triumphed on Tuesday in its proxy battle with miner Cliffs Natural Resources Inc, preliminary estimates show, putting the hedge fund in a position to replace Cliffs’ chief executive and sell off underperforming assets.

Shareholders of Cleveland-based Cliffs voted onto the miner’s board all six nominees put forward by Casablanca, the New York-based fund said, citing estimates from its proxy solicitor. That means they will make up a majority of the 11-person board.

Cliffs CEO Gary Halverson said at the company’s well-attended annual meeting in Cleveland that because of the contested nature of the elections, the results would be announced in the next three business days.

Shares in Cliffs, a producer of iron ore and metallurgical coal, jumped as much as 10.4 percent to $18.33 on the New York Stock Exchange. The vote outcome “is a culmination of years of frustration on behalf of shareholders,” said Garrett Nelson, a mining research analyst at BB&T Capital Markets.

Casablanca began a proxy fight in March against Cliffs, of which it owns 5.2 percent, accusing the miner of destroying shareholder value through an ill-conceived expansion strategy.

Coal comfort: faster to start mine in Indonesia than here – by Andrew Fraser (The Australian – July 30, 2014)

July 29, 2014

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

PETER Lynch can tell you exactly the difference between setting up a mine in Indonesia and Australia — the former takes four years; the latter somewhere between seven and 10. And the cost of producing coal from Indonesia is about two-thirds that from Australia.

Mr Lynch is in a position to know. A veteran mining figure who worked for MIM and other companies, he was the first to realise the potential of the Galilee Basin in central Queensland in 2006. He pegged out 13 exploration permits covering 250sq km. In 2010, Clive Palmer made him an offer he couldn’t refuse, paying $130 million for Waratah Coal and control of the project.

Now chief executive of mining company Cokal, Mr Lynch saw potential in Indonesia, and in early 2011 started digging exploratory holes in a remote part of Central Kalimantan. Three years later, he has all his key approvals in place and is finalising his financial backing, with the aim of starting production in September next year — a bit over four years from when he first eyed the area. By contrast, the earliest date for coal to come out of the Galilee Basin is 2017, despite the approvals process starting several years earlier.

Mr Lynch’s tale illustrates the concerns the Business Council of Australia and Hancock Prospecting chairman Gina Rinehart have raised this week about Australia losing its competitive edge because of high labour costs and red tape.

On Monday, Environment Minister Greg Hunt approved Adani’s proposed Carmichael mine in the Galilee Basin, but the Indian company still needs to get approval for the construction of a proposed railway line to Abbot Point.

Cliffs fights for its life against hedge fund – by John Myers (Duluth News Tribune – July 28, 2014)

July 29, 2014

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

The view from Cliffs Natural Resources’ Minnesota operations looks pretty good.

One of the state’s largest players in the taconite iron ore business, the company’s Northshore Mining, United Taconite and Hibbing Taconite plants are running near capacity with solid domestic markets and long-term contracts with U.S. steelmakers.

The company has more than 1,850 employees on the Iron Range with a payroll of $251 million.

There even was good news from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula this year when Cliffs announced its Empire taconite operations wouldn’t close after all, with a new contract for its ore keeping it running into 2017.

Even after weathering a cold spring and slow start to the shipping season, the company expects to produce about 22 million tons of taconite in the U.S. this year, up from 21 million tons last year. Northshore Mining is back to near full capacity after a temporary slowdown in 2013.

But on a global scale the view is less rosy. The Cleveland-based mining company is fighting for its life, with the decisive battle set for Tuesday. That’s when Cliffs will hold its annual shareholder meeting and election of corporate officers, and it’s when New York-based hedge fund Casablanca Capital will make its play to take over Cliffs.

Casablanca in January announced that it wanted to take control of Cliffs, saying the company was overextended overseas and was spending too much money on new projects.

Insight – Gold, diamonds feed C. African religious violence – by Daniel Flynn (Reuters India – July 29, 2014)

July 29, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

NDASSIMA Central African Republic – (Reuters) – Three young rebels, their AK47s propped against wooden stools in the afternoon heat, guard the entrance to the giant Ndassima goldmine carved deep into a forested hilltop in Central African Republic.

Sat in a thatched shack at the edge of a muddy shantytown, the gunmen keep the peace – for a price – among hundreds of illegal miners who swarm over the steep sides of the glittering open pit, scratching out a living.

The mine, owned by Canada’s Axmin (AXM.V), was overrun by the mainly Muslim Seleka rebels more than year ago. It now forms part of an illicit economy driving sectarian conflict in one of Africa’s most unstable countries, despite the presence of thousands of French and African peacekeepers.

Seleka fighters – many from neighbouring Chad and Sudan – swept south to topple President Francois Bozize in March last year. Months of killing and looting provoked vicious reprisals by Christian militia, known as “anti-balaka”, that pushed the rebels back, splitting the landlocked country of 4.5 million people into a Muslim north and the Christian south.

“We control the mine. If there is a problem there, we intervene,” said Seleka’s local commander Colonel Oumar Garba, sipping tea outside a villa in Axmin’s abandoned compound. “People don’t want the French peacekeepers here because they know they’ll chase them away from the mine.”

Goldman Sees Nickel Rising With Palladium to Beat Soy – by Glenys Sim (Bloomberg News – July 29, 2014)

July 29, 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Nickel and palladium are set to outperform iron ore and soybeans as supply outlooks for commodities diverge amid a tentative acceleration in global economic growth, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

The bank kept its 12-month recommendation for commodities at neutral, analysts including Jeffrey Currie wrote in a report dated yesterday. They expect the total return for the Standard & Poor’s GSCI Enhanced Commodity Index to be 0.1 percent in 12 months helped by positive roll yields.

Citigroup Inc. said last month that interest is returning to the asset class as Societe Generale SA called commodities a “really mixed bag” across the sectors. Raw materials are already trading independently, with a ban on ore exports from Indonesia spurring a rally in nickel, while expectations for a deepening global glut have sent iron ore into a bear market.

“While cyclical recovery tends to see rising commodity demand, prices will likely largely be determined by more structural supply factors,” the Goldman Sachs analysts wrote. “Accordingly, not all boats are expected rise with the tide created by continued improvement in global macroeconomic data.”

Commodities as measured by the enhanced index added 2.4 percent this year as global equities increased 5.6 percent and the Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Bond Index rose 3.5 percent.

Shrinking mining professional ranks may impact investors – HSBC – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – July 29, 2014)

July 29, 2014

http://www.mineweb.com/

The dwindling ranks of geosciences professionals has impaired mining companies’ ability to quickly respond to surges in precious metals prices.

RENO (MINEWEB) – “A well-established feature of the precious metals market is the apparent inability for producers to raise production levels when demand and prices rise,” said HSBC analysts James Steel and Howard Wen.

“The paucity of trained professionals’ expertise helps explain—along with other factors—the weak supply response by producers to the surge in precious metals prices in 200-2012,” observed HSBC. “This is important to investors because it arguably contributed to the height and longevity of the precious metals rally; it also implies that future rallies are unlikely to be cut short by a rapid increase in mine output.”

An important component in our relatively positive long-term outlook for precious metals generally is the fact that demand exceeds supply in all four metals,” said the analysts, who suggest that lack of professional skilled and technical labor may be a key factor in the ability of mining companies to meet demand.

“If precious metals rallies are not be reversed by rapid increases in mine output, in part due to shortages of professional expertise, then prices may have to rise sufficiently to mobilize aboveground stocks, or deter demand,” they advised.

Obama Seeks Closer Africa Ties as China Is First Choice – by Mike Cohen and David J. Lynch (Bloomberg News – July 29, 2014)

July 29, 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/

When Uganda sought bids last month for an $8 billion contract to expand the East African nation’s rail network, it only invited Chinese companies to apply.

That condition, agreed to by the Ugandan and Chinese governments, illustrates the hurdles President Barack Obama must overcome as the U.S. tries to challenge China’s status as Africa’s No. 1 investor and trading partner. China’s trade with the continent exceeded $200 billion last year, more than double that of the U.S, which it overtook five years ago.

Obama will step up his efforts to forge closer ties with Africa when he hosts more than 40 of the continent’s leaders at a summit in Washington next week. While the World Bank projects African growth of 4.7 percent this year, the U.S. is looking beyond securing deals and access to a consumer market of 1 billion people to promoting democratic principles and countering Islamist-inspired security threats from Nigeria to Kenya.

“China has got a massive head start,” Daniel Silke, director of Cape Town-based Political Futures Consultancy, said in a July 23 phone interview. “From both a diplomatic and economic point of view, China has made all the running over the last few years so there is quite a catch-up for the U.S.”

China has held five conferences with ministers and leaders across Africa since 2000 as it fosters ties with a continent that provides both resources and a market for manufactured goods.

COLUMN-Big 3 iron ore miners in volume, price sweet spot – by Clyde Russell (Reuters India – July 28, 2014)

July 28, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia, July 28 (Reuters) – One thing has become clear from the latest production reports from the big three iron ore miners: They appear intent on ensuring their dominance by boosting low-cost output.

BHP Billiton mined a record 225 million tonnes of the steelmaking ingredient in the year to end-June, beating its own forecast by 4 percent. BHP said in its latest production report that it expects to increase output further, to 245 million tonnes in the 2014-15 financial year.

Fellow Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto boosted output 23 percent in the second quarter from the same period last year to 75.7 million tonnes. It also is forecasting higher annual output, with the quarterly report released on July 16 pointing to 2014 production of 295 million tonnes, up 11 percent from 266 million in 2013.

The world’s biggest iron ore miner, Brazil’s Vale , also had record output in the second quarter, posting a 12.6 percent gain to 79.45 million tonnes. The company is planning to boost its annual output to 450 million tonnes by 2018 from 306 million last year.

The three global iron ore giants have effectively gambled that they can continue to boost production and grab bigger slices of global demand, given that they can withstand lower prices due to their low-cost mines and economies of scale.

INTERVIEW-Mozambique still counting on coal, despite price doldrums – by Pascal Fletcher (Reuters India – July 28, 2014)

July 28, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

MAPUTO, July 28 (Reuters) – Mozambique is still counting on increasing coal exports to expand its infrastructure and drive economic growth, despite depressed global prices which might delay the timing of some major railway and port projects, the transport minister said.

Gabriel Muthisse told Reuters the government was also keen to attract investors to help build the infrastructure needed to exploit huge offshore natural gas reserves in the north.

The World Bank has forecast that coal and gas may generate up to $9 billion in revenues by 2032 for the southern African state, which is still poor and recovering from a 1975-1992 civil war.

Rio Tinto , Brazil’s Vale and India’s Jindal have invested heavily in developing Mozambique’s coal deposits – the fourth-largest untapped recoverable coal reserves in the world.

But billions of dollars of investment in rail and port expansions are still needed to carry the coal from the inland Tete mines to the seaborne market.

With global prices for coal in the doldrums because of oversupply and sluggish demand, experts and producers say Mozambican coal mining operations face an uphill battle to be competitive in the next few years, especially when so much infrastructure capacity still needs to be built.

World’s Best Mining Debt Defies Gold Woe in a Volcano – by David Stringer and Benjamin Purvis (Bllomberg News – July 27, 2014)

July 28, 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Newcrest Mining Ltd. (NCM) bonds are delivering the best returns this year among metal producers even as the gold miner prepares for new writedowns at a floundering asset inside an extinct volcano.

Debt securities issued by Australia’s biggest gold producer returned 24 percent this year through July 25, compared with 15 percent for the world’s largest extractor Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX), according to a Bank of America Merrill Lynch index of dollar notes sold by investment-grade miners. Falling costs have buoyed the company, which last week flagged a charge of as much as A$2.5 billion ($2.4 billion) mainly on its Lihir mine in Papua New Guinea.

While the writedown may raise Newcrest’s gearing by as much as 6 percent, the miner forecasts cash flow will stay positive after production costs fell 8 percent in the three months to June 30 and gold rose 3.4 percent. Output expenses have been helped by a decline in the Australian dollar, which averaged 10 U.S. cents less in the first half than it did in the same period a year earlier. For every one-cent drop in the Aussie, earnings before interest and tax are boosted by A$28 million, the Melbourne-based company said in February.

“Cost-cutting initiatives and the recent move in the Australian dollar have provided some relief,” Tariq Chotani, a credit strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney, said in a July 24 interview. “The company’s plan to reduce capital expenditure has also been a credit positive overall.”

‘Nationalisation alone will fix capital’s crime’ – by Chris Barron (Business Day Live – July 27, 2014)

July 28, 2014

http://www.bdlive.co.za/

THE National Union of Mine-workers (NUM) was shocked by Anglo American Platinum’s decision to sell its most labour-intensive South African mines, but Dick Forslund, the economist who advised the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) during its devastating platinum strike, seems unmoved.

“We say good riddance. This is one of the Anglo American subsidiaries that have caused a lot of damage to the South African economy,” says Forslund, an economist and researcher at the Alternative Information and Development Centre.

The NUM said after the announcement by Amplats CEO Chris Griffith this week that it feared 20 000 jobs would be lost. Analysts believe the Amplats decision is the inevitable consequence of the five-month strike.

Forslund, 60, a hardcore socialist from Sweden, rejects the possibility that his advice may have prolonged the strike and put these jobs on the line.

Anyway, he says, Griffith “was planning this long before the strike”.

This is what Griffith implied when he said the decision to walk away from its deepest and most labour-intensive mines had nothing to do with the strike, even if the results announced this week left no doubt about its hugely damaging impact on Amplats.

Surface mining’s price – by Rebecca Schmoyer (Albany Times Union – July 26, 2014)

July 28, 2014

http://www.timesunion.com/

Mountaintop coal removal leaves environmental and health impacts

A few weeks ago, I stood on top of Armstrong Mountain. The day was clear and the valley below filled with spruce, fir and hardwood forest. Unbroken ridges extended into the distance. As my final summit of the 46 Adirondack High Peaks, it was a moment of accomplishment. But while I took in the view, I was troubled by a somber national milestone.

As of this year, over 500 of the Appalachian Mountains have been destroyed by mountaintop removal coal mining. It’s time for New York state to divest from this industry.

According to the Office of State Comptroller’s 2013 asset report, the state has millions invested in companies that practice what the industry decorously calls “surface mining.” But the impact of mountaintop removal mining on the people and landscape of central Appalachia is far from superficial. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates the industry has left 1.2 million acres, or over 2,000 square miles, of barren, scarred land — an area bigger than the state of Delaware. And the devastation continues.

A few days later, Vernon Haltom and I are standing on a flattened ridge in southwestern West Virginia. Here, in the dust above Coal River Valley, summertime means blasting.

“They’re at it six days a week,” says Haltom, executive director of Naoma, W.Va.-based Coal River Mountain Watch.

Anglo warns of ore price torpor – by Matt Chambers (The Australian – July 26, 2014)

July 25, 2014

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

MINING giant Anglo American says iron ore prices are set to remain depressed for the rest of the year as growing supply exceeds demand that is being tempered by a fragile Chinese housing market.

But the outlook is better for coking coal, with the British miner’s Wollongong-born chief executive Mark Cutifani expecting contract prices to rise from six-year lows of $US120 a tonne and change the fortunes of the company’s metallurgical coal unit, where first-half profits fell 86 per cent.

Anglo released first-half earnings last night, reporting a $US2.9 billion ($3.08bn) profit, in line with expectations. Net debt of $US11.5bn was lower than forecasts of $US12bn because of lower capital expenditure.

Anglo is the first of the big miners to deliver its June-half profit report and the first to offer its assessment of the global markets, with Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton both having stopped giving their views on economics and fundamentals in quarterly production reports.

“Uncertainty is likely to persist for the balance of 2014, though there are some encouraging signs that activity is strengthening in our key markets,” Mr Cutifani said. “Over the long term, we expect new supply to be constrained and to see tightening market fundamentals and a recovery in price performance.”