International Media Resource Articles – Page 718

Five hours’ flying time winds clock back to the beginning – by Paul Garvey (The Australian – July 10, 2014)

July 10, 2014

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

THE economic growth of China in the past decade has generated tens of billions of dollars in profits for Australia’s mining companies, but it was all about Japan in the heart of the company’s Pilbara iron ore operations yesterday.

Shinzo Abe made a flying two-hour visit to the West Angelas mine in the remote pocket of Western Australia, following through on an invitation made by Rio Tinto chief executive Sam Walsh in Tokyo last year.

The five-hour journey across the country from Canberra to the Pilbara left its mark on Mr Abe, giving him more time to talk with Tony Abbott.

“I was extremely impressed that I could take a five-hour flight and still be in Australia. I’m really amazed by how big this country is,” he said through an interpreter, addressing a gathering on the edge of the gaping West Angelas open-pit as huge trucks rumbled past hauling iron ore bound for Asia.

“The flight took twice as long as the summit meeting we had yesterday, but I actually believe that we had deeper discussions on the flight and we will really be able to deepen our relationship as well.”

[South African] Mines face profound shift in labour relations – by Carol Paton (Miningmx.com – July 10 2014)

July 10, 2014

http://www.miningmx.com/

[miningmx.com] – AFTER the labour turmoil of the past two-and-a-half years, what can mining employers and investors expect in the years ahead?

Since January 2012, when the first illegal mining strike at Impala Platinum (Implats) rocked the industry, so much has changed that the labour market dynamics are hardly recognisable.

Trade unions, employee expectations, and the established mode of conducting negotiations over wages have been suddenly and violently swept away, leaving uncertainty and confusion behind.

Although conditions have changed, too much has stayed the same. Tied up with the new revolt are embedded production and labour market models: a low-skill, labour intensive industry based on a 150-year-old tradition of migrant labour. It is the legacy institutions that the new labour revolt will ultimately displace, whether by intent or as an unintended consequence.

In mid-2014, that fight is far from over because South Africa’s mining industry will be under pressure to change in fundamental ways. This will include many things: from the way it values, rewards and communicates employees and how it takes care of their social needs of employees to the extent to which it is able to mechanise, get by with fewer employees who are more productive, more skilled, less migratory and better paid.

Glencore kicks off $2bn takeover race for Syrah Resources – by Amanda Saunders (Sydney Morning Herald – July 10, 2014)

May 13, 2016July 10, 2014

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

Swiss commodities giant Glencore is understood to have made an informal approach to Syrah Resources that could value the graphite and vanadium junior at as much as to $2 billion.

Melbourne-based Syrah’s prized asset is the mammoth Balama graphite and vanadium deposit in northern Mozambique.

After the Fairfax Media revealed Glencore’s interest on Thursday, the company’s shares surged as much as 25 per cent before it dived into a trading halt before noon. When shares were halted, Syrah’s shares were up 19 per cent at $5.09. The shares have more than doubled in value since touching a 52-week low of $2 on July 10 last year.

Syrah responded promptly to the report and a share price query from the market operator on Thursday afternoon, saying, “From time to time Syrah receives informal,confidential and non-binding enquiries from various parties regarding Syrah’s interest in entering takeover discussions”.

“None of these enquiries have progressed to formal discussions or resulted in any indicative offers being received by Syrah.”

Sources say Ivan Glasenberg’s Glencore, one of the largest producers of primary vanadium in the world, is keen to exert control over the wider vanadium market. Pouncing on Syrah and securing its Balama project would be an early strategic play to shut out fresh competition.

Don’t neglect mining in America – by Mark Perry (Detroit News – July 10, 2014)

July 10, 2014

http://www.detroitnews.com/

Mark J. Perry is a professor of economics at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan and a resident scholar at The American Enterprise Institute.

America’s growing reliance on other countries for strategically important minerals is not much of an issue in this election year. It seems not to be on voters’ minds, but it really ought to be.

U.S. mining policy has become increasingly inept — thoughtless and heedless of consequences. The U.S. has one of the most complex mine-permitting systems in the world, marked by delays and redundancies. Obtaining a mining permit typically takes seven to 10 years, five times longer than in Canada or Australia. Companies seeking to open a new mine sometimes must deal with 10 or more federal and state agencies.

Worse, the Environmental Protection Agency claims it can revoke a mining permit already granted, raising regulatory uncertainty to an entirely new level. This isn’t smart or sustainable. How can mining companies invest in the United States if a project can be arbitrarily stopped at any time?

Amazingly, the federal government restricts — or has an outright ban — on new mining operations on more than half of all federally owned public lands. Why should Americans care about the supply of mineral resources?

Indonesia Ore Ban to Remain Should Widodo Win Poll – by Jake Lloyd-Smith and Yoga Rusmana (Bloomberg News – July 10, 2014)

July 10, 2014

http://www.businessweek.com/

Indonesia’s ban on ore exports will probably remain in place and speculation that the curb may be relaxed if Joko Widodo becomes the country’s next president is misplaced, said Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd.

Nickel fell as much as 2 percent in London yesterday as unofficial counts showed Jakarta Governor Widodo won the most votes in the world’s third-biggest democracy, putting him ahead of Suharto-era general Prabowo Subianto. While the market perceives Widodo’s market-friendly policies as an indication that the ban will be lifted or at least watered down, that’s unlikely, analysts including Mark Pervan wrote in a note.

The ban in the biggest mined nickel producer, which was implemented in January to induce investment in processing plants, spurred forecasts for global shortages of the metal used in stainless steel. Nickel rallied in May to the highest level since 2012, and outperformed all other base metals this year. Widodo, who’s known as Jokowi, would probably relax the ore ban, Mike Dragosits, senior commodity strategist at TD Securities in Toronto, said yesterday as prices retreated.

That decision is unlikely “given the upside to revenue is substantial, and the fact that the policy has been in place for six months already and appears to be encouraging investment in processing facilities,” Pervan said.

ANNALS OF SURVIVAL: SIXTY-NINE DAYS – The ordeal of the Chilean miners – by HÉCTOR TOBAR (The New Yorker Magazine – July 7, 2014)

July 10, 2014

http://www.newyorker.com/

The San José Mine is situated inside a round, rocky, and lifeless mountain in the Atacama Desert, in Chile. Once every dozen years or so, a storm system sweeps across the desert, dropping a torrent of rain. When that happens, the dust turns to mud as thick as freshly poured concrete. Charles Darwin briefly passed through this corner of the Atacama in 1835. In his journal, he described the desert as “a barrier far worse than the most turbulent ocean.”

In the deeper desert, miners are the only conspicuous living presence; they ride in trucks and buses to the mountains, which contain gold, copper, and iron. The minerals draw workers to the Atacama from all over Chile. On the evening of August 3, 2010, Juan Carlos Aguilar began a bus journey of more than a thousand miles to reach the San José Mine, leaving from the temperate rain forests near Valdivia.

Raúl Bustos left for work the next morning, from the port city of Talcahuano, eight hundred miles south of the mine. He travelled along a flat landscape filled with greenhouses, tractors, and the cultivated fields of Chile’s agricultural heartland, passing through the town of Talca, where José Henríquez, a tall, devout Christian, boarded yet another bus. Mario Sepúlveda, a forty-year-old father of two, took a bus from the outskirts of Santiago, five hundred miles away.

When the men reached the port city of Coquimbo, nearly two hundred and fifty miles from the San José Mine, they joined the path that Darwin had followed. In Darwin’s time, the country was only twenty-five years old, and his small expedition rode overland with four horses and two mules, making notes about Chile’s geology and its flora and fauna.

THE LUDLOW MASSACRE STILL MATTERS – by Ben Mauk (The New Yorker – April 19, 2014)

July 10, 2014

http://www.newyorker.com/

On April 20, 1914, members of the Colorado National Guard opened fire on a group of armed coal miners and set fire to a makeshift settlement in Ludlow, Colorado, where more than a thousand striking workers and their families were camped out. Today, the Ludlow massacre, which Caleb Crain wrote about in The New Yorker in 2009, remains one of the bloodiest episodes in the history of American industrial enterprise; at least sixty-six men, women, and children were killed in the attack and the days of rioting that followed, according to most historical accounts.

Although it is less well-remembered today than other dark episodes in American labor history, such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that claimed a hundred and forty-six lives, the Ludlow massacre—which Wallace Stegner once called “one of the bleakest and blackest episodes of American labor history”—changed the nation’s attitude toward labor and capital for the next several decades. Its memory continues to reverberate in contemporary political discourse.

In the summer of 1913, United Mine Workers began to organize the eleven thousand coal miners employed by the Rockefeller-owned Colorado Fuel & Iron Company. Most of the workers were first-generation immigrants from Italy, Greece, and Serbia; many had been hired, a decade prior, to replace workers who had gone on strike. In August, the union extended invitations to company representatives to meet about their grievances—including low pay, long and unregulated hours, and management practices they felt were corrupt—but they were rebuffed.

Australia’s big three miners look to tighten their iron grip – by Jamie Smyth (Financial Times – July 8, 2014)

July 9, 2014

http://www.ft.com/intl/companies/mining

Port Hedland – The man who made a US$10bn bet on the global iron ore market is predicting Australia’s big three miners will tighten their grip on the global industry over the next few years as higher cost producers fall victim to lower iron ore prices.

Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, founder and chairman of Fortescue Metals Group, says the sharp fall in iron ore prices since the start of the year is causing some smaller Australian producers and overseas competitors to exit the industry.

“Because you have incredibly low operating costs with the big Australian producers we are seeing more substitution take place from China and India as competitors switch off production,” says Mr Forrest, who owns one-third of Fortescue shares.

“The wholesale shutting down of iron ore production industries basically happens in other countries. The Pilbara [in Western Australia] has always been historically the big player.”

Alcoa pledges finished products push as results beat Wall Street – by Nicole Mordant (Reuters U.S. – July 8, 2014)

July 9, 2014

http://www.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – Alcoa Inc’s (AA.N) chief executive officer said on Tuesday the aluminum company would push deeper into the market for more profitable finished products like truck wheels and aircraft fuselages as it reported quarterly results that beat analysts’ expectations.

At the same time, CEO Klaus Kleinfeld said Alcoa was focused on cutting costs and improving the performance of its traditional commodity business, which has been hit by weaker aluminum prices.

Alcoa’s shares rose as much as 2 percent in after-hours trading. The company’s stock price is up nearly 40 percent this year.

“The transformation of Alcoa truly is in high gear and the results show this. Our strategy is working,” Kleinfeld said on a conference call.

Alcoa’s strategy to boost value-added fabricated product output and broaden its footprint in other light-weight materials like nickel, titanium and lithium has partially offset the pain of prolonged weak underlying primary aluminum prices on the London Metal Exchange CMAL3, which have been close to or below breakeven for many smelters over the past year.

Alcoa has idled or permanently closed loss-making smelting capacity as it ramps up its smelter complex in Saudi Arabia, which will be the world’s lowest-cost.

The Ring of Fire’s slow burn (Global Business Reports – July 2014)

July 9, 2014

Global Business Reports is an international provider of industry specific reports to the global trade and investment community. This article is from a profile about Ontario mining for Engineering & Mining Journal.

http://gbreports.com/industry.php?i=2

Making progress in the mineral-rich region despite setbacks

Development of the Ring of Fire has experienced its share of setbacks recently. In November 2013, Cliffs Natural Resources decided to halt its Big Daddy chromite project, citing risks associated with developing infrastructure in the frontier area of northern Ontario. Companies in the mineral-rich area are dependent upon getting federal and provincial support to fund badly needed infrastructure to the region.

“Obviously, having an industry participant leave the region is never a positive development but we are hoping that there is a
silver lining and this event will underline the need for more timely- decision making regarding key issues such as environmental permitting and infrastructure,” said Alan Coutts, president and CEO of Noront Resources Ltd., whose Eagle’s Nest project is the most advanced in the Ring of Fire.

A number of developments in early 2014 may be the starting point to solving the dilemmas that caused Cliffs to suspend its operations. First, the province of Ontario announced the formation of the Ring of Fire Development Corp. to assess various possibilities to fund infrastructure development and engage with First Nations communities affected by development in the region. The Liberal government went even further, announcing a C$1 billion investment to fund a transportation solution.

India needs to restructure Coal India to raise output -govt report – by Krishna N Das (Reuters India – July 9, 2014)

July 9, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – India needs to restructure state behemoth Coal India Ltd quickly to raise output to feed fuel-starved power plants, the finance ministry said in a report, as the country grapples with rising imports amid a push for electricity to all.

Coal India (CIL), the world’s largest coal miner, accounts for about 80 percent of India’s production of the black rock but has failed to meet its output targets for years due to delays in obtaining environmental approvals to expand mines and what critics say are inefficiencies owing to its size.

Millions go without power in India and blackouts are common. “The process of restructuring CIL needs to be pushed through swiftly to boost coal production,” said the finance ministry in the Economic Survey report presented to parliament on Wednesday.

The report – submitted a day before Finance Minister Arun Jaitley delivers his maiden budget – did not say what kind of restructuring it was recommending for CIL.

Reuters reported in May that newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi could explore breaking up some of CIL’s eight local units and making state governments equity holders to help speed land acquisition and other such processes.

The government should also allow commercial mining by private companies, said the ministry’s report.

Zinc Scales The $1 A Pound Barrier And Keeps Going – by Tim Treadgold (Forbes Magazine – July 8, 2014)

July 8, 2014

http://www.forbes.com/

Last week a 5% rise in the price of zinc over the previous two weeks was considered sufficiently newsworthy to earn a report into what seemed to be the start of a revival in a sector of the mining market known as base metals, which makes it hard to ignore the fact that zinc has just gone up by another 5%.

The latest rise takes zinc, which is largely used to galvanize (rust-proof) steel, over the $1 per pound mark to $1.03, its highest in three years.

Other base metals, including nickel and copper, are also performing strongly as global industrial production continues its slow recovery and mine development continues to suffer from a capital drought.

But, while many investors favor stories from the technology sector early-bird speculators playing the small end of the mining market are making a killing.

Thanks in part to heavy selling over the past three years which has trashed their share prices mineral exploration stocks have been consigned to the bargain basement, though it is getting hard to ignore stocks which double in a matter of days.

Gold Shines Again as Hedge Funds Boost Wagers on Advance – by Marvin G. Perez (Bloomberg News – July 8, 2014)

July 8, 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Gold is precious again. After investors sent bullion tumbling in 2013 by the most in three decades and kept dumping the metal earlier this year, demand is now up and prices are defying bearish forecasts. Money managers increased net-long positions for a fourth straight week through July 1 and holdings in exchange-traded products are climbing at the fastest pace since 2012.

“Gold’s performance has proven the bears wrong so far this year,” John Kinsey, who helps manage about C$1 billion ($935 million) at Caldwell Securities Ltd. in Toronto, said in a telephone interview yesterday. “We look for further strength through the balance of the year.”

While the latest government data point to an improved U.S. economy and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Societe Generale SA predict prices will retreat by year-end, inflation concerns and pockets of unrest are sending investors into gold as a haven. Prices extended gains after the Federal Reserve signaled earlier this month that it will keep interest rates near record lows and violence spread in Iraq and Ukraine.

The bulls are being rewarded. The value of the gold funds rose by $4.6 billion this year as prices rallied 9.5 percent. The metal has rebounded from last year’s 28 percent plunge that was triggered by muted inflation and as investors shunned the metal in favor of equities.

Amplats’ Griffith convinced of Rustenburg sale – by Allan Seccombe (Miningmx.com – July 8, 2014)

July 8, 2014

http://www.miningmx.com/

[miningmx.com] – THE longest mining strike in South Africa’s history has forced the country’s platinum producers to consider accelerating plans to move to smaller, more productive workforces.

According to them, there’s simply no other way of coping with a volatile, unpredictable labour environment, a business restraint which is compounded by the increasingly complicated market for their metals.

Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), the world’s largest primary producer of platinum, has been the most outspoken on its plans. After spending most of 2012/13 trying to restructure its Rustenburg assets, it is now in the throes of a company-changing review.

The outcome is largely expected to see it cast off the deep-level, labour-intensive mines where the sweetest parts of the orebody have been mined out.

“Amplats’ non-core Western Limb assets, Union, and some of its marginal Rustenburg shafts may well be divested by the group in time,” JP Morgan Cazenove’s Allan Cooke and Steve Shepherd said in a recent report.

Australian nickel projects on sale – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – July 7, 2014)

July 8, 2014

http://www.mineweb.com/

Western Australian nickel assets owned by two of the world’s largest producers of the metal have been sold or are currently up for sale and attracting much interest.

LONDON (MINEWEB) – Australian nickel projects, presumably deemed non-core businesses, by mining majors BHP Billiton, and Norilsk Nickel are either reportedly up for sale, or sales have been agreed, which will see some of the country’s nickel production, or potential output move into the hands of new ownership. Australia was the world’s fourth largest nickel producer (after the Philippines, Indonesia and Russia) in 2012.

BHP Billiton, which had previously sold off its Ravensthorpe nickel mine and metallurgical plant to First Quantum back in December 2009 for $340 million – having cost over $2 billion to build – is now looking to sell the rest of its Western Australian nickel operations which come under its Nickel West banner, comprising the Mount Keith Nickel mine, Leinster Nickel mine, Kambalda Nickel concentrator, Kalgoorlie Nickel rmelter and Kwinana Nickel refinery.

There are reportedly six major potential suitors for the package, including Mick Davis’ X2 Resources. BHP inherited its nickel mining operations through the take-over of Western Mining in 2005.

Simultaneously, Norilsk Nickel the world’s largest nickel producer, has announced that through its Australian subsidiaries, MPI Nickel and Black Swan Nickel it has agreed to sell its Black Swan/Silver Swan assets, also located in Western Australia and currently under care and maintenance, to Poseidon Nickel. Norilsk had been reported as planning to sell all of its Australian assets back in May.