International Media Resource Articles – Page 734

Mozambique trying to ease coal companies’ pain, but no tax breaks – by Pascal Fletcher (Reuters Africa – July 21, 2014)

July 21, 2014

http://af.reuters.com/

MAPUTO (Reuters) – Mozambique is discussing with its foreign coal mining partners ways to help them ride out depressed markets but will not be offering special tax breaks to ease the pain, its mineral resources minister said on Monday.

Esperanca Bias told Reuters the government understood that companies such as Vale of Brazil and Rio Tinto, which helped Mozambique to start up in 2011 as a coal producer and exporter, were feeling the pain of depressed global prices for coal used in steelmaking and generating power.

The southern African nation, which still bears the scars of a 1975-1992 civil war, has the world’s fourth-largest untapped recoverable coal reserves, estimated at over two billion tonnes.

Vale is investing billions of dollars on rail and port networks to bring greater volumes of coal to the market, up from a current export capacity of five million tonnes per year. It is targeting 22 million tonnes by 2017/2018.

But Vale, which announced an accumulated loss of $44 million for Mozambique operations in the first quarter, says it urgently needs to cut operating costs to remain competitive.

“We’re studying this,” Bias said on the sidelines of the 5th Mozambique Coal Conference in Maputo. “We are working on it to see what can be done from our side.” she added.

Gold Diggers Revive French Exploration as Prices Drive Hunt – by Francois de Beaupuy (Bloomberg News – July 21, 2014)

July 21, 2014

http://www.businessweek.com/

In a field near Saint-Pierre-Montlimart, a small hamlet with a turreted church in western France, Jack Testard and Patrick Lebret dig up some earth with an agronomic drill and put it in a plastic bag.

The president and the chief geologist of a French mining exploration startup owned by Australia’s Variscan Mines Ltd will send dirt samples from the field, which is in an area that was home to a gold mine until 1952, to a laboratory in southern France to look for “mineral anomalies” the company is betting will show evidence of the precious metal.

“There are a lot of attractive points to prospect in France,” Testard says, as he points to a map with yellow dots representing areas where traces of the metal have been found. “It’s a really interesting time to prospect gold because the price is higher than before” and extraction technologies “are much more modern.”

Although France hasn’t historically been a large producer of gold, soaring prices of the metal are bringing companies to its door. By granting the first exploration licenses in mainland France in more than two decades to Variscan, Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg is trying to revamp the country’s mining industry and cut reliance on imports of metals such as rare earths critical for military equipment and renewable energy.

The French exploration push comes even as mining companies extend cuts in spending for a second year.

Keeping the [Australian] mining tax won’t kill investment – by Greg Jericho (The Guardian – July 21, 2014)

July 21, 2014

http://www.theguardian.com/uk

The government’s inability to end the mining tax may hurt the budget, but it’s wrong to fear it will scare investors

In the past week of parliament, due to action by both sides, the budget deficit will be increased. The abolition of the carbon tax and the inability of the government to end the mining tax will see a larger deficit than was expected. But as a recent report showed, it won’t hinder Australia’s position as a great place for mining companies to invest.

There was a pretty high level of stupidity flying around parliament last week. We had the carbon tax being abolished but the compensation that accompanied it being retained; and we had the government wanting to remove the mining resources rent tax (MRRT) but also get rid of the compensation.

This meant that the government was often using an argument for one that contradicted the other.

For example Liberal MP Sarah Henderson opened her speech on the carbon tax repeal bill arguing that “we are concerned about the cost that this tax is causing to our economy. We are concerned about the way in which the previous Labor government drove up the debt and the deficit”.

This was a rather curious opening attack given the carbon tax raises over $7bn a year.

EPA’s new Pebble battle plan stokes fears of wider impact – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – July 21, 2014)

July 21, 2014

http://www.mineweb.com/

U.S. EPA rejects its proposed veto of the Pebble Project in favor of ratcheting down how many miles of streams and acres of wetlands can be disturbed by the mine.

RENO (MINEWEB) – Alaska’s Congressional delegation has expressed concerns that the Environmental Protection Agency’s latest plan to stop the development of the Pebble Mine in Alaska will go far beyond the Pebble project.

Instead of issuing a blanket prohibition of developing Pebble to protect the Bristol Bay watershed, based on EPA’s effort to broaden the scope of its Clean Water Act section 404(c) authority, EPA now is trying to restrict fill activities at the project by proposing caps on how many miles of streams and acres of wetlands could be lost, which may severely impact the Bristol Bay fishery.

The Bristol Bay watershed produces half of the world’s wild sockeye salmon

In a news release issued Friday, EPA asserted that the mine waste produced by the Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum project would fill a major football stadium up to 3,900 miles, while its “massive mine tailings impounds…would cover 19 square miles.” The agency suggested Pebble would fill in 1,100 or more acres of wetlands and re-route streams to more than 20% of daily flow.

The Clean Water Act requires a section 404(c) permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before any person can place dredged or fill material into streams, wetlands, lakes and ponds.

Anglo American Platinum Plans to Exit Some South African Mines – by Devon Maylie (Wall Street Journal – July 21, 2014)

July 21, 2014

http://online.wsj.com/home-page

Platinum Producer’s First-Half Profit Plunges, Output Falls After Prolonged Strike

JOHANNESBURG— Anglo American Platinum Ltd. AMS.JO +4.55% said on Monday it plans to sell some South African mines as it grapples with rising costs compounded by a five-month-long strike in the country.

The platinum producer also said its first-half profit plunged and it lost more than a third of annual production due to the strike that ended in late June.

“Both management time and capital are finite,” the world’s biggest platinum producer said on Monday. “The decision has been made to possibly exit certain assets that will be better placed in the hands of a new owner.”

Anglo American AAL.LN +0.59% Platinum said it would exit its Union and Rustenburg mines in South Africa and its Pandora joint venture. The Union and Rustenburg mines account for just over a quarter of Anglo American Platinum’s annual platinum production and more than half of its workforce.

The company said it is still assessing its Bokoni operation. Anglo American Platinum said it plans to retain its smelting and refining operations in both Union and Rustenburg. It will also keep its mine in Zimbabwe and several others in South Africa that have lower costs.

How the mining zombies found a future in technology – by Tess Ingram (Australian Financial Review – July 21, 2014)

July 21, 2014

http://www.afr.com/

Failed listed resources companies are finding a profitable future above ground – in technology.

Since January, at least eight struggling resources companies, including Latin Gold and Macro Energy, have merged with technology companies. Start-ups and companies looking for alternative capital raising mechanisms are using the “zombie” companies as shell vehicles for backdoor listings on the Australian Securities Exchange.

Last week, Perth-based Intercept Minerals announced plans to acquire US online streaming business xTV for $12.5 million.

Operating conditions are difficult for the small end of the resources sector. The median spend on exploration activity fell 27 per cent in the first quarter, BDO’s March Explorer Quarterly Cash Update said, noting that it was the biggest such decrease since it started looking at the trends.

Perth-based analyst Peter Strachan estimates that more than two thirds of listed resources companies have less than $2 million net cash.

“Over the last few years there has been a capital strike,” Mr Strachan said. “A lot of exploration companies are sitting around watching the paint dry and thinking about how to make some money.”

Phosphate: Morocco’s White Gold (Bloomberg News – November 04, 2010)

July 21, 2014

http://www.businessweek.com/

(Please note, this article was published in November 2010.)

In May 2009 a petite brunette from Paris wearing black heels scrambled up a pile of mine tailings on the outskirts of the Moroccan town of Khouribga. From up there, Béatrice Montagnier, a hotel specialist with the hospitality consulting firm Horwath, took in the view: parched plains scoured by bulldozers; an old warehouse baking in the sun; a jumble of two-story concrete block homes with a rectangular minaret beyond them.

She spun around 360 degrees snapping photos with her pink cell phone and imagining the future: a planned 800-acre resort project that would attract visitors from around the world. How many hotel rooms would they need? she wondered. Should it be three stars or four? And where would the museum be going? There was one issue—project funding—about which Montagnier had no questions. The estimated $1 billion needed to build the resort would come from the ground beneath her feet.

Miners have been working in Khouribga for almost a century, but only now is the area poised to become central to the global economy. Back in the 1920s pioneers started tunneling through the earth here, digging through layers of sediment formed under an ancient sea, looking for phosphate-rich rock and occasionally plucking out the tooth of a 30-million-year-old shark. The phosphate extracted from the rock, used in fertilizer, detergent, food additives, and more recently lithium-ion batteries, sold for decades in its raw state for less than $40 per metric ton. Those days are gone. It’s currently trading at about $130.

B.C. mines get financial boost, one to open soon – by Ed Schoenfeld (CoastAlaska News – July 17, 2014)

July 18, 2014

http://www.krbd.org/

Canadian investors are putting millions of new dollars into mining projects near the Southeast Alaska border. They include the KSM and Tulsequah Chief prospects, which critics say could damage regional fisheries.

KSM is a multi-metal deposit about 150 miles northeast of Ketchikan. It’s near rivers or their tributaries that drain into the ocean northeast of Ketchikan and just south of the Alaska-B.C. border.

A group of Canadian financial firms are in the process of purchasing a million shares of Seabridge Gold, KSM’s parent company. They have an option to buy more, with the total new investment between $13 million and $15 million.

That’s not a lot for a large mine. So Seabridge, headquartered in Toronto, is negotiating to find much larger investors.

“We continue to seek partners and we have confidentiality agreements with several,” says Brent Murphy, vice president of environmental affairs for Seabridge Gold. Exploration continues at the KSM project, sometimes compared Western Alaska’s Pebble Prospect.

In an interview at a Vancouver, British Columbia, office, Murphy said the company has drilling rigs on site right now.Officials say the more-than-$5-billion project could be built and ready for operations by the end of the decade.

Coal Fuels Brewpubs in Wyoming as Kentucky Mines Misery – by Mark Drajem (Bloomberg News – July 18, 2014)

July 18, 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Trying to find the boom in U.S. coal? Stop in the Gillette Brewing Company in Wyoming, which 38-year-old Tom Gorton opened using some of the $70,000 a year he earns mining coal.

“Things were iffy there for a little bit, but it’s picking up now,” Gorton said at his brewery in the center of town, where customers wash down brie baked in a wood-fired oven with gluten-free blue agave ale. “When people have a little extra money, that changes things.”

In the coal region of eastern Kentucky, about 1,300 miles away, extra money is hard to come by. Brandon Farley lost his job there when the James River Coal Co. (JRCCQ) mine closed. Months of looking turned up only one job lead: a minimum wage opportunity at the local Pizza Hut.

“They want coal to be done with,” Farley said. “I believe it’s coming to an end.”

The experience of these two mining communities reflect the conflicting views of coal itself. Environmentalists see signs of its demise in shrinking production and growing concerns over global warming. Boosters point to a surge in demand by developing countries hungry for cheap and plentiful energy. Germany and Japan, too, are burning more coal as they reconsider the risks of atomic power.

Glencore’s Female Director Marks Mining Industry Progress – by Jesse Riseborough (Bloomberg News – July 17, 2014)

July 18, 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Mining companies, long laggards in appointing women to their boards, are starting to catch up under pressure from corporate governance groups and activist shareholders.

The latest is Glencore Plc, the Swiss commodity trader, which on June 26 appointed mining executive Patrice Merrin. Prior to her arrival, Glencore was the last company left on the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index with an all-male board. At the start of last year, five of the seven corporations on the U.K.’s FTSE-100 Index without women board members were mining companies. Now all five have at least one woman director.

“If a board has open spots and open-minded men, finding outstanding women is the easy part,” said Beth Stewart, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. investment banker and founder of executive search company Trewstar Corporate Board Services, which focuses on placing women directors.

Merrin’s appointment to the board of Glencore and her public endorsement of a goal of appointing women to a third of all board seats is a milestone for the $80 billion company run by billionaire Ivan Glasenberg and may open opportunities for more women directors.

Glasenberg’s company had been a lightening rod for criticism from activists, shareholders and U.K. business secretary Vince Cable for its all-male board.

REFILE-Indonesia ends 6-month stoppage of metal concentrate exports – by Wilda Asmarini and Fergus Jensen (Reuters India – July 18, 2014)

July 18, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

(Corrects company name in 5th paragraph to “Lumbung Mineral Sentosa” from “Lumbung Mineral Stocks”)

(Reuters) – Indonesia has resumed exports of metal ore concentrates, a mining ministy official said, ending a six-month stoppage resulting from a new policy to improve returns on resources shipped out of southeast Asia’s largest economy.

Indonesia in January banned unprocessed ore exports and levied an escalating tax on metal concentrate exports as part of the policy to force miners to build smelters and process minerals domestically.

Disputes and confusion over the rules halted about $500 million worth of monthly mineral ore and concentrate exports. Prior to the ban, Indonesia was the world’s top exporter of nickel or and a major supplier of iron ore and bauxite.

However, last week shipments of iron ore, lead and zinc concentrate left the country, after two firms agreed to pay a 20 percent export tax, coal and minerals director general Sukhyar told reporters late on Friday.

“There are two firms that have started to export; Sebuku Iron Lateritic Ores (SILO), and Lumbung Mineral Sentosa,” Sukhyar said, adding that SILO had sent two shipments or around 100,000 tonnes of iron ore concentrate and Lumbung had shipped around 8,000 tonnes of lead and zinc concentrate already.

From Mining Magnates To Beef Barons, The New Focus For Two Australian Billionaires – by Tim Treadgold (Forbes Magazine – July 17, 2014)

July 18, 2014

http://www.forbes.com/

One billionaire adding beef cattle to their mining interests is a curiosity. Two is a stampede.

In Australia, that’s just what has happened with the country’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, spending an estimate $40 million to buy a half share in two cattle-breeding properties covering 1.1 million acres of the Kimberley region in the country’s north.

Rinehart is following in the footsteps of Andrew Forrest, one of her rivals in the iron ore business, who invested an estimated $30 million in May to buy Harvey Beef which has extensive farming and processing interests in the south of Western Australia.

Both billionaires (Rinehart is worth an estimated $18.2 billion and Forrest $4.4 billion) have most of their fortunes tied up in the production of iron ore, the price of which has been falling thanks to its heavy dependence on demand for steel in China where a construction boom is slowing.

Fading Iron Ore Demand, Rising Food Demand

Neither Rinehart nor Forrest has described their move into farming ventures as a way of trimming their future exposure to iron ore, but that’s a reasonable interpretation thanks to the flattening outlook for iron ore demand.

Rio Tinto Iron-Ore Output, Shipments Surged in First Half – by Rhiannon Hoyle (Wall Street Journal – July 16, 2014)

July 18, 2014

http://online.wsj.com/home-page

Production Rose 10%, While Shipments Increased 20%

SYDNEY— Rio Tinto RIO.LN -0.83% produced record volumes of iron ore in the first half of 2014, after expanding several vast mines in the Australian Outback even as prices of the steelmaking ingredient tumbled.

The results demonstrate how Rio Tinto is deepening its reliance on a commodity used in things as diverse as cars and apartment blocks for profit, despite concerns among some investors that global mining companies are adding new supply too quickly. Several fund managers recently cut their holdings of mining shares, including Rio Tinto’s stock, amid worries about a looming supply glut of iron ore that could take years to clear.

Meanwhile, Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. said Wednesday that it expects to ship as much as 29% more iron ore to buyers in countries such as China over the coming year after completing an expansion of its Australian operations.

Fortescue, the world’s No. 4 iron-ore mining company, has grown over the past decade from a tiny explorer, competing against resource titans such as Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton. BHP.AU -0.42% It recently reached a long-targeted annual output rate of 155 million tons after building new mines in the resource-rich Pilbara region of Western Australia state.

Rio Tinto said Wednesday that it produced 139.5 million metric tons of iron ore in the first half, up 10% from a year earlier. Its shipments rose 20% to 142.4 million tons.

As Rock Phosphate Runs Out, What is More Important – Food Crops or Fuel Crops? – by Professor Chris Rhodes (Oil Price.com – June 21, 2012)

July 18, 2014

http://oilprice.com/

(Please note that this article was published in June 2012)

World rock phosphate production is set to peak by 2030. Since the material provides fertilizer for agriculture, the consequences are likely to be severe, and worsened by the increased production of biofuels, including those from algae.

Introduction

The depletion of world rock phosphate reserves will restrict the amount of food that can be grown across the world, a situation that can only be compounded by the production of biofuels, including the potential large-scale generation of biodiesel from algae. The world population has risen to its present number of 7 billion in consequence of cheap fertilizers, pesticides and energy sources, particularly oil.

Almost all modern farming has been engineered to depend on phosphate fertilizers, and those made from natural gas, e.g. ammonium nitrate, and on oil to run farm machinery and to distribute the final produce. A peak in worldwide production of rock phosphate is expected by 2030, which lends fears over how much food the world will be able to grow in the future, against a rising number of mouths to feed. Consensus of opinion is that we are close to the peak in world oil production too.

Phosphorus is an essential element in all living things, along with nitrogen and potassium. These are known collectively as, P, N, K, to describe micronutrients that drive growth in all plants and animal species, including humans.

UPDATE 3-Indonesia threatens to take over Newmont mine if output stays shut – by Wilda Asmarini and Fergus Jensen (Reuters India – July 18, 2014)

July 17, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

JAKARTA, July 17 (Reuters) – Newmont Mining Corp risks its Indonesian mining licence being taken over by a state-owned firm if the U.S. miner does not resume copper production, the Southeast Asian nation warned, escalating a six-month dispute over export rules.

The move represents a hardening of the stance of Indonesia’s outgoing government. The mining ministry earlier this week said it could terminate Newmont’s mining contract in response to the miner stopping production and filing legal arbitration over the export rules.

The developments mark the latest twist in the dispute between Indonesia and U.S. miners Newmont and Freeport-McMoRan Inc that has led to a halt in copper concentrate shipments from Southeast Asia’s biggest economy.

Indonesia plans to soon send a letter to Newmont saying that the company has defaulted on its contract, said Sukhyar, director general of coal and minerals at the mining ministry. “The default is due to the stopping of production, so we can say they are negligent,” Sukhyar told reporters on Thursday.

A Newmont spokesman did not comment on the risk of the company losing its mining licence at its Batu Hijau copper mine but said in an email that the company is eager to resume production as soon as the government issues it an export permit.