International Media Resource Articles – Page 733

UPDATE 2-Guinea president – Vale did no wrong, can bid to reclaim mining permits – by Stephanie Nebehay (Reuters India – April 30, 2014)

April 30, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

GENEVA, April 30 (Reuters) – Guinea’s President Alpha Conde said on Wednesday he hoped Brazilian miner Vale would bid to reclaim two iron ore permits, because the company had not been involved in the alleged corruption that led to their cancellation.

Guinea cancelled the two mining concessions jointly held by Vale and BSG Resources earlier this month, after a government-appointed technical committee accused BSGR of obtaining the rights through corruption.

BSGR, the mining branch of Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz’s conglomerate, has denied the allegations and said it will seek international arbitration. Conde told reporters during a visit to Geneva on Wednesday that Vale, the world’s largest iron ore producer, had done nothing wrong.

“We will launch an open and transparent bidding process … Vale was not involved in the corruption or aware of it and we strongly hope that Vale will participate,” Conde said.

“Vale can come back through the bidding process,” he added.

Enigmatic former Xstrata boss seeks to build another mining giant – by Silvia Antonioli and Sonali Paul (Reuters India – April 30, 2014)

April 30, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

LONDON/MELBOURNE, April 30 (Reuters) – Former Xstrata boss “Big Mick” Davis wants to build another mining giant, partly driven by what several sources say is a keen sense of rivalry with Glencore’s Ivan Glasenberg, but it won’t be easy even for someone with his proven track record.

Davis has been involved in some of global mining’s biggest and most formative deals, including the creation of BHP Billiton and its smaller rival Xstrata. He expanded Xstrata over a decade from a $500 million company to a $46 billion one taken over by Glencore, which was already its largest shareholder, last year.

Now he has set up a fund, X2 Resources, which is looking to buy up mines again and is reportedly targeting some of the very assets he traded more than a decade ago.

Unlike then, when miners rode a boom powered by double-digit growth in China, coal prices now languish near four-and-a-half-year lows and the outlook for coal demand growth is uncertain.

Yet armed with $3.75 billion and rising, and planning to raise three times as much in debt, Davis was reported this week to be lining up a bid for BHP’s thermal coal assets, along with aluminium, manganese and nickel assets that BHP wants to jettison.

UPDATE 2-S.Africa’s AMCU says striking miners reject platinum wage offer – by Zandi Shabalala (Reuters India – April 29, 2014)

April 29, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

MARIKANA, South Africa, April 29 (Reuters) – Members of South Africa’s striking mining union AMCU have rejected the latest wage offer from the world’s top three platinum producers, its president said on Tuesday, extending a crippling 14-week stoppage.

“The members have rejected the offer from the employer,” Joseph Mathunjwa told reporters after addressing a rally of workers near Lonmin’s Marikana mine.

The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) held similar rallies in recent days at Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum. It now plans to meet this week with the companies to inform them in person of the rejection, Mathunjwa said.

Marathon wage talks collapsed last week, dashing hopes for an imminent end to South Africa’s longest and most costly mining strike, which has hit 40 percent of global platinum production and threatens growth in Africa’s most advanced economy.

The companies say they are taking their offer directly to the workers via cellphone text messages and radio and newspaper spots in a bid to circumvent AMCU’s leadership, setting the stage for a grinding showdown between capital and labour.

Nearly 150-Year-Old [U.S.] Federal Mining Law Could Need Update (Jefferson Public Radio – April 28, 2014)

April 29, 2014

http://ijpr.org/

The federal legislation that regulates mining for copper, zinc, gold and many other minerals was originally signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant. In ways, the law reflects a 19th century view of natural resources: limitless and there for the taking.

Now, a legacy of pollution at tens of thousands of abandoned mines across the West is prompting an Oregon congressman to head a new effort to revise the General Mining Act of 1872.

Chris Cora of the Environmental Protection Agency stands on what used to be a mountaintop in the Umpqua River Basin of Southern Oregon. Now, it’s essentially a landfill “filled with waste rock and tailings,” Cora said. “There’s actually zinc ore in here. Well, it’s concentrated zinc, which is really bad for the environment,” he said.

The rubble in the area is what’s left after a mining operator blasted off the top of the mountain to get to deposits of copper and zinc. The company piled up the leftovers, covered them with plastic liner and soil, then abandoned the site. The liner soon failed.

Now, rainwater percolates down through the mining waste, picking up a toxic load of heavy metals and acid. Cora said that’s made the nearby creek uninhabitable for the region’s threatened coho salmon and other fish.

UPDATE 1-Eramet sees another loss in H1 despite nickel recovery – by Andrew Callus and Gus Trompiz (Reuters India – April 29, 2014)

April 29, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

PARIS, April 29 (Reuters) – French mining and metals group Eramet said on Tuesday it expected to make another operating loss in the first half of 2014 despite a recovery in nickel prices driven by an Indonesian ban on unprocessed mineral exports.

The group, whose nickel operations are based in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia, has been pinning its hopes on Indonesia’s export embargo to curb global oversupply and bolster prices that sank to a four-year low in 2013.

Nickel prices had recovered significantly since March but still remained down 15 percent on year at “an abnormally low average level” of $6.64 a pound, it said.

“Eramet group turnover should pick up in Q2 2014, compared with Q1 2014,” it said in a first-quarter sales statement. “Nonetheless, in view of the relative movement in nickel and manganese prices, current operating income for first-half 2014 should be approximately the same as in second-half 2013,” it said.

Eramet posted a current operating loss of 45 million euros for 2013, including losses in each half. Its nickel branch suffered a full-year loss of 222 million euros and the poor market conditions led Eramet to postpone its flagship nickel mining project in Indonesia.

Industry leaders reflect on evolution of SA’s mining industry over last two decades – by Jade Davenport (MiningWeekly.com – April 25, 2014)

April 29, 2014

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

The mining industry has, from a historical perspective, played an inherently complex and contradictory role within South Africa’s sociopolitical economy. While the industry has, for more than a century, been the main driver of phenomenal economic growth and industrialisation, it was also partly responsible for institutionalising racial discrimination and the exploitation of cheap labour.

Therefore, it stands to reason that, of all South Africa’s pillar industries, the mining sector has had the longest path to walk in addressing its historical legacy and adapting itself to operate under a radically different dispensation.

On the eve of South Africa’s twentieth anniversary, commemorating the advent of a nonracial democracy, there is little question that the character of the mining industry has radically changed from what it was in the early 1990s.

“The mining industry has experienced an accelerated rate of transformation post-1994 in comparison to several other key industries,” Chamber of Mines president Mike Teke tells Mining Weekly.

“I believe that transformation has happened in a voluntary fashion, with the recognition by the industry itself that we are in a new democratic South Africa and we need to transform positively.”

Red dirt in Red Square: Mining World Russia – by Cole Latimer (Australian Mining – April 28, 2014)

April 29, 2014

http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/home

As the Mining World Russia exhibition wraps up, Australian companies are looking to head home and count their successes at the show, and in the country. Speaking to a number of Australian companies which participated in the Austmine and Austrade developed trade mission and the exhibition as well, they said it was a positive experience and has helped them get a foot in the door of one of the largest mining markets in the world.

The trade mission was carried out as a political storm grew in the background, however this didn’t work to deter miners, who were focusing on the longer term goals of taking Australian experience and technology into new and willing markets.

But why Russia? According to Palaris’ Joe Carr “Russian miners are currently seeing a requirement for technical expertise that they just don’t have here,” which includes high end products and experience that many Australian mining and METS companies have.

Bradken added that “there is a real desire for better technology and equipment in the country,” with Gekko’s Nigel Grigg explaining that previously Russia operated with smaller equipment, but lots of it, so now they are looking to larger, single pieces of machinery or technology”.

Vale considers action after iron ore rights revoked – by Tom Burgis (Financial Times – April 27, 2014)

April 29, 2014

http://www.ft.com/home/us

Vale is weighing legal action after Guinea formally cancelled multi-billion-dollar iron ore rights that the Brazilian mining group held jointly with Israeli tycoon Beny Steinmetz’s family conglomerate following a two-year corruption inquiry.

The revocation of the rights came two weeks after a government inquiry in the west African nation concluded that BSG Resources, the mining arm of Mr Steinmetz’s business empire, won them through a bribery scheme before agreeing to sell a majority stake in its Guinean assets to Vale for $2.5bn in 2010.

Vale, the world’s biggest iron ore miner, said on Friday that it was “actively considering its legal rights and options”. A spokesperson for the group declined to elaborate on its plans on Sunday.

BSGR denies wrongdoing and says it is the victim of a plot to seize its assets. The Guernsey-registered company has said it will “prove the allegations raised in Guinea’s rigged and illegitimate process are false” and has threatened to take Guinea to international arbitration. BSGR declined to comment on Vale’s statement.

Mining industry support firms congregate here – by Tony Davis (Arizona Daily Star – April 27, 2014)

April 28, 2014

http://azstarnet.com/

A growing phalanx of companies in Tucson and Southern Arizona service the mining industry.

Amigos, a statewide industry support group, counts its Southern Arizona membership at about 250 to 300 businesses. They employ a total of 25,000 to 30,000 people, says Bob Humphrey, an Amigos board member. The business count has grown from about 150 in 2003, due mainly to the rise in global copper prices from about $1.30 per pound back then to a little over $3 today.

The companies include engineering firms, environmental consultants, industrial distributors, equipment manufacturers, metal fabricators, dealers of Caterpillar construction equipment, systems suppliers, temporary employee firms, construction service firms, structural concrete and steel suppliers, construction services firms, mine planning and evaluation firms and many more.

While individual companies cite many reasons for locating here, chief among them is the large copper mine presence in the region, including Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold’s Sierrita Mine and Asarco’s Mission Mine south of Tucson; mines elsewhere in Arizona and in southern New Mexico; and a smelter in Hayden.

Election violence flares in South Africa’s platinum belt – by Ed Stoddard (Reuters U.K. – April 27, 2014)

April 28, 2014

http://uk.reuters.com/

JOHANNESBURG – (Reuters) – Police used water cannon and stun grenades to disperse rioters in South Africa’s strike-hit platinum belt on Sunday after a government minister was attacked by rock-throwing protesters while campaigning for the May 7 election.

Police spokesman Thulani Ngubane told Reuters a community hall, municipal centre and the house of a councillor for the ruling ANC were burnt down. He would not identify the rioters but local media and union leaders said the minister had been attacked by members of the striking AMCU miners’ union.

Ngubane confirmed sports minister Fikile Mbalula had to be whisked away under police protection after he and the ANC activists he was campaigning with were confronted by a crowd in the shanty town of Freedom Park northwest of Johannesburg.

It was after this that the protest erupted into a full-scale riot, Ngubane said. Sydwell Dokolwana, the regional secretary for the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), a key ANC ally and AMCU’s arch rival, told Reuters he was with the minister at the time and that several people were hurt in the scuffle.

Can private equity reboot the mining sector? – by David McKay (Miningmx.com – April 25, 2014)

April 25, 2014

http://www.miningmx.com/

ROUGHLY $8bn to $10bn has been raised by newly founded private equity companies, many of them started by former resources bankers or mining executives, in an effort to participate in an estimated $40bn worth of divestments by major mining companies such as BHP Billiton.

The question is, however, whether private equity has ‘the legs’ to remain a valid alternative to traditional forms of lending, such as banks. According to Glencore Xstrata CEO, Ivan Glasenberg, private equity will struggle. “Now there are a lot of private equity guys starting companies, a lot of guys who left the industry and started private equity groups. It’s never worked in the past,” he said.

“The problem with the commodities space if you have high gearing is that you are not running Boots pharmaceutical where you have a pretty constant earnings base,” said Glasenberg.

Another analyst said it was noticeable that private equity couldn’t compete in the big deals. The sale of Glencore’s $5.5bn Las Bambas copper project in Peru went to China’s part-state-owned group, Minmetals, suggesting that start-up companies are battling against sovereign funds for big mining deals.

Chinalco Mining sets sights on copper projects in Latin America – by Eric Ng (South China Morning Post – April 25, 2014)

April 25, 2014

http://www.scmp.com/business/commodities

Metal unit keen on copper projects in Peru with its huge potential and friendly environment

Chinalco Mining, the non-ferrous and non-aluminium metals unit of aluminium giant Chinalco, is seeking acquisition opportunities in Latin America for copper projects with long-term return rates of more than 10 per cent.

Chief executive Peng Huaisheng said the region presented more development potential, especially Peru, where the company has been developing the Toromocho copper project since 2007.

“Our understanding is that Peru offers greater potential within Latin America,” he said. “Peru has a strategy to catch up with Chile in metals and mining development, so it provides an overseas-investor-friendly investment environment.”

Chile is the world’s largest producer and resource holder of copper, which is used widely in the power distribution and construction sectors. China imports about 70 per cent of its raw copper ore needs. Hong Kong-listed Chinalco Mining’s US$3.5 billion Toromocho project, about 140 kilometres from Lima, started trial commercial production in December.

Timing mining of Asia food boom – by Stirling Larkin (The Australian – April 26, 2014)

April 25, 2014

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

THE so-called “mining to dining’’ boom is expected to be a significant driver of deal flow in the Asia-Pacific not only for the next decade, but also quite possibly through to 2030 at least. Such changes as a move from minerals to food take a while for many commentators and investors to get used to, as the evidence of previous changes shows.

For instance, some of the most successful international investments made around 2004 spotted how important massive capital expenditure in China was going to be to mining and energy companies in Australia and Canada.

The sectors had underperformed in the 1990s and in 2004 commentators were looking the wrong way, failing most particularly to recognise this sea change and the imminent correlation between Australian and Canadian supply, and Chinese demand.

Those who did see this opportunity yielded strong returns in those following years. The Australia in China’s Century conference, hosted by The Australian, will discuss how important these investments were for the economy and how they have advantageously positioned us for future Chinese and regional opportunities.

In platinum’s war of attrition, capital has labour out-gunned – by Ed Stoddart (Reuters U.S. – April 25, 2014)

April 25, 2014

http://www.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – Labour brought a machete to a gunfight with management in South Africa’s platinum belt. Small wonder it looks set to lose.

South Africa’s big platinum strike has highlighted issues ranging from cash reserves to changing market dynamics that have curtailed labour’s ability to influence prices. The result has been to expose the weakness of the country’s miners in any confrontation with producers.

As it marked its 13th week, the showdown took a dramatic turn on Thursday when marathon wage talks collapsed. The world’s three top producers now say they will take their latest offer directly to employees.

They are effectively forcing the hand of the hard-line Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union. The AMCU’s leaders were reluctant to take the latest offer back to their members – probably because they feared the rank and file would accept it after three months with no pay.

A typical South African mine worker has eight dependants and often two families, one in his home village and the other near the shafts. That means many of them are now near the breaking point, especially as domestic inflation accelerates.

In destabilising economic war over Ukraine, gold the winner – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – April 25, 2014)

April 25, 2014

http://www.mineweb.com/

U.S. data and the escalating Ukraine crisis have seen gold Yo-Yo down and back up again.

LONDON (MINEWEB) – Some very volatile trading in gold and silver yesterday. The former dived to its lowest price since February to around the $1,270 mark before almost immediately rebounding sharply to a little below $1,300 before settling above $1,290, a position it held overnight.

Silver, living up to its more volatile general role at one stage dipped down below $19.00, its weakest level since its December lows before it too revived sharply jumping back to close the day at around the $19.60 level before settling back to around $19.55 where it was sitting this morning as Europe opened.

Analysts put the price movements to factors such as U.S. economic data, but in this writer’s view the downturn was largely due to a loss in confidence by traders in the prospects for short term precious metals price growth following gold and silver’s lacklustre performance as it drifted downwards – but then the recovery came on the back of the deteriorating situation on the ground in the Ukraine. Ukrainian forces started to move in to quell the demonstrations and government building occupations in the Donetsk region in the east of the country.