International Media Resource Articles – Page 746

Sage-grouse could become mining’s ‘Spotted Owl on Steroids’ – AMEA – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – February 4, 2014)

February 4, 2014

http://www.mineweb.com/

Federal designation of the Greater Sage-grouse as threatened or endangered could result in the withdrawal of over 17 million acres from mining, says the American Exploration & Mining Association.

RENO (MINEWEB) – The America Exploration & Mining Association (AEMA), formerly the Northwest Mining Association, recently accused the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service of making an unprecedented attempted to limit multiple use on public lands through use of “the Spotted Owl on Steroids”—the Greater Sage-Grouse.

“BLM and USFS are inappropriately using concerns about a potential listing of the Greater Sage-grouse as a threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act to asset a need for widespread land use restrictions—including withdrawing over 17 million acres from operation of the US Mining Law,” said AEMA, which represents U.S. explorationists, as well as mining companies.

The association claimed that the “sweeping land use restrictions and prohibitions” in the BLM/USFS Draft environmental impact statements for sage-grouse exceed the agencies’ statutory authority “by proposing actions that fail to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and violate:

COLUMN-Indonesian minerals ban bites as well as barks – by Andy Home (Reuters India – February 3, 2014)

February 3, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.

Feb 3 (Reuters) – Indonesian minerals policy is rarely a straightforward affair and so it proved again in the run-up to the Jan. 12 ban on exports of unprocessed ores.

There was plenty of last-minute drama, particularly concerning the treatment of copper concentrates. These were first unexpectedly included in the ban and then granted an eleventh-hour presidential exemption, but with an equally unexpected caveat of rising export taxes.

And there will surely be more twists and turns in the story in the weeks and months ahead. Both of the major copper producers operating in the country, Freeport McMoRan and Newmont Mining, are challenging the government’s right to change existing contracts of work governing their operations at Grasberg and Batu Hijau respectively.

A local mining association, meanwhile, has wasted no time in filing a legal challenge to the ban. The really big surprise, though, is just how total the ban is.

Beyond Blackwater: Prince looks to resources in Africa – by Stephen Eisenhammer (Reuters India – February 2, 2014)

February 3, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

LONDON – (Reuters) – After running one of the world’s biggest and most controversial private military groups, Blackwater founder Erik Prince is starting a new venture providing logistics for oil and mining companies in remote and dangerous parts of Africa.

China is increasingly looking to Africa to meet its ever growing demand for natural resources. Trade between the two reached an estimated $200 billion this year. With 85 percent of Chinese imports from the continent being oil or minerals, Prince sees an opportunity.

He wants to use his experience of getting people and equipment in and out of remote places, where there is little or no infrastructure, to help companies looking to exploit abundant natural resources in places like Sudan or Somalia.

The 44-year-old former U.S. Navy Seal became chairman of Frontier Services Group (FSG) (0500.HK) this month, a Hong Kong-listed company of which China’s state-backed investment fund Citic CITIC.UL owns 15 percent. Prince himself has share options in the firm that would convert to a 9 percent stake.

The appointment is a remarkable turn-around for a man vilified by many as a war-profiteer with blood on his hands.

EY forecasts improvement in mining deals in 2014 – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – February 3, 2014)

February 3, 2014

http://www.mineweb.com/

“A steady improvement in market conditions should see a gradual return to deal-making in the mining and metals sector,” says a new EY report.

RENO (MINEWEB) – “The mining and metal sector is entering 2014 with a more positive outlook: confidence in the global economy is improving, companies have taken action to deleverage balance sheets and the industry-wide focus on productivity and efficiency should begin to yield results,” says consultancy EY.

In their report, EY mining analysts advised “…we expect the gradual strengthening of mining and metals equity valuations to continue and the increased availability of capital.”

Nevertheless, the analysts cautioned, “As supply and demand struggle to return to post-supercycle equilibrium, we expect further price volatility to occur for at least the next two years. This will see caution prevail: any uplift in M&A activity and improvement of capital raising conditions will be gradual and will require innovation in pricing to tame volatility.”

Mining’s $8 Billion of Private Equity Seen Reviving M&A – by Jesse Riseborough and Ruth David (Bloomberg News – February 3, 2014)

February 3, 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/

The world’s mining assets may be the target of mergers and acquisitions as an $8 billion pool of private-equity money that has lain dormant is stirred this year by attractive valuations and predictions of resilient demand for raw materials.

Some of the biggest names in the industry are keen to buy assets at the same time as the world’s largest producers including Rio Tinto Group are shunning unwanted mines. Former chief executive officers Mick Davis of Xstrata Plc and Barrick Gold Corp.’s Aaron Regent are plotting a return to the business by buying mining projects, backed by private funds. Last week two new mining investment ventures were started, one backed by Warburg Pincus LLC, the other founded by two former JPMorgan Chase & Co. bankers.

While buyout firms have increasingly targeted mining since 2012, only about 14 percent of the almost $10 billion raised in the last two years has been deployed, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Industries. That could change if they face pressure from their investors to act, Michael Rawlinson, co-head of mining and metals investment banking at Barclays Plc.

“They’ve all set up, no one’s done anything,” London-based Rawlinson said. “The sand is going through the hourglass and the money is going to get taken away if they don’t start spending.”

COLUMN-Critical minerals and mining reform in the U.S.: Kemp – by John Kemp (Reuters U.S. – January 31, 2014)

February 3, 2014

http://www.reuters.com/

Jan 31 (Reuters) – Critical minerals like rare earths, lithium and tellurium are becoming ever more essential to the modern economy, yet production in the United States remains limited, leaving the country relying on imports from just a handful of countries led by China.

For many of these materials, there are few substitutes, raising obvious concerns about supply security. It wasn’t always this way. The United States was once the world’s leading producer of rare earth elements (REEs). However, mining at its Mountain Pass facility was largely suspended between 1998 and 2010 owing to environmental concerns.

China came to dominate production in the 2000s. Beijing’s decision to impose export restrictions on REEs, tungsten and molybdenum in 2011 and 2012 to reserve more of them for domestic manufacturers underscored the supply chain’s vulnerability and drew protests from the United States, the EU, Canada and Japan, as well as a complaint to the WTO.

Since then, Mountain Pass has reopened, following the construction of a new $1.55 billion processing facility by its owners Molycorp. New sources of supply are also becoming available from Mount Weld in Australia.

The Trouble with Emerging Markets – by Nouriel Roubin (Project Syndicate.org – January 31, 2014)

February 3, 2014

http://www.project-syndicate.org/

Project Syndicate provides media outlets around the world with insightful commentaries by the world’s foremost economists, statesmen, and public intellectuals.

LAGOS – The financial turmoil that hit emerging-market economies last spring, following the US Federal Reserve’s “taper tantrum” over its quantitative-easing (QE) policy, has returned with a vengeance. This time, the trigger was a confluence of several events: a currency crisis in Argentina, where the authorities stopped intervening in the forex markets to prevent the loss of foreign reserves; weaker economic data from China; and persistent political uncertainty and unrest in Turkey, Ukraine, and Thailand.

This mini perfect storm in emerging markets was soon transmitted, via international investors’ risk aversion, to advanced economies’ stock markets. But the immediate trigger for these pressures should not be confused with their deeper causes: Many emerging markets are in real trouble.

The list includes India, Indonesia, Brazil, Turkey, and South Africa – dubbed the “Fragile Five,” because all have twin fiscal and current-account deficits, falling growth rates, above-target inflation, and political uncertainty from upcoming legislative and/or presidential elections this year.

On Moroccan Hill, Villagers Make Stand Against a Mine – by Aida Alamijan (New York Times – January 23, 2014)

February 3, 2014

http://www.nytimes.com/

IMIDER, Morocco — On a hilltop nearly 5,000 feet high in the Atlas Mountains here, a tiny outpost has taken shape over the past two years. The small stone buildings are decorated gaily with graffiti, and there is an open-air gallery. Many doors bear inspirational inscriptions from people like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa. On the dam of a nearby reservoir, someone has painted the face of a local activist, now in jail on what the locals regard as trumped-up charges.

It is an unlikely spot for a settlement, but it was established with a purpose: to protest a mining company’s expropriation of precious water supplies, as well as the pollution that results from the mining.

The inhabitants are drawn from the nearby municipality of Imider, 6,000 people scattered over seven villages and neighbor to the most productive silver mine in Africa. But while the area may be rich in silver, it is home to some of the poorest people in Morocco.

The people of Imider (pronounced ee-me-DER) say they have grown to resent the mine because they get nothing from it except pollutants. So two years ago, some of them climbed up the hill and cut the water supply to the mine. Since then, they have occupied the hill as they continue to fight the Imiter Mettalurgic Company and, by extension, the king of Morocco, its principal owner.

Indonesia’s export ban to curb China aluminium expansion – by Melanie Burton (Reuters India – January 31, 2014)

January 31, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

SYDNEY, Jan 31 (Reuters) – China has found an inadvertent ally in its efforts to slim down a bloated aluminium sector, with Indonesia’s ban on exporting metal ores set to boost costs of the raw material bauxite and pile more pressure on struggling smelters.

Beijing has been issuing broadbrush rules aimed at reining in overcapacity in sectors such as aluminium and steel for about a decade, but plans have usually been thwarted by resistance from local governments anxious to boost growth.

In the aluminium sector, ageing and inefficient smelters are already grappling with rising power prices, but now face potential bauxite shortages after Indonesia halted ore shipments on Jan. 12, as part of efforts to make miners process minerals at home.

China is the world’s biggest aluminium producer and curbing expansion could ease a global surplus of the metal and even lead to the country resuming sizeable imports of refined aluminium. It is also likely to provide support to the price of a metal that has been depressed for years.

“(Indonesia’s ban) will have a huge impact on the Chinese aluminium industry in the medium term,” said Citi China commodities analyst Ivan Szpakowski.

Getting the details behind copper-nickel mining in Minnesota – by Renee Richardson (Brainerd Dispatch – January 30, 2014)

January 31, 2014

http://brainerddispatch.com/

Is it a decision between jobs or the environment or is the technology there to protect both? Mining for copper and nickel offers to create jobs, but can it be done without causing environmental harm affecting generations of Minnesotans?

That was part of the discussion during a Rosenmeier Center forum at Central Lakes College (CLC) in Brainerd Wednesday night. The topic was copper-nickel mining in the state’s Arrowhead, centered on the proposed PolyMet mine on what is now public land in Superior National Forest. It’s an issue that has gripped attention across the state with voices in favor of the economic development and others worried about potentially toxic repercussions.

The proposal represents the first copper-nickel-platinum group elements mining in Minnesota. The precious metals go into such things as computers, cellphones and cars.

Kathryn Hoffman, staff attorney with the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, said the proposed PolyMet mine represents the tip of the iceberg. Besides Canada-based PolyMet, other mining companies are exploring options in northern Minnesota.

S. Africa Mining Unrest Overshadows Major Conference – by Anita Powell (Voice of America – January 30, 2014)

January 31, 2014

http://www.voanews.com/

JOHANNESBURG — Unrest in South Africa’s mining sector is overshadowing the nation’s largest mining event, scheduled for next week in Cape Town. Investors are worried that a union leading a platinum mining strike has failed to reach a deal, and economic justice activists say the system is flawed.

The annual Mining Indaba — the Zulu word for “gathering” — is undoubtedly the biggest mining sector event in the nation. It brings together industry leaders, government officials and investors to discuss billion-dollar deals in an industry that claims the lion’s share of South Africa’s economy. But this year’s Indaba is overshadowed by strife in the mining sector.

South Africa’s most powerful platinum mining union launched an indefinite strike on January 23. The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, AMCU, is demanding to almost double the minimum wage for entry-level miners, to about $1,200 per month.

Negotiations are ongoing as some 70,000 workers in the nation’s “platinum belt” have stopped work. The three largest platinum producers — Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), Impala Platinum (Implats) and Lonmin – say the wage demand is unsustainable, and say the strike is costing them more than $17 million per day combined.

COLUMN-China may not be commodity market driver in 2014 – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.K. – January 30, 2014)

January 30, 2014

http://uk.reuters.com/

Clyde Russell is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own.

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Jan 30 (Reuters) – While it’s probably going too far to say the China HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index can be discounted, there are good reasons to be cautious about the weak January reading.

The final HSBC PMI dropped to 49.5 from December’s 50.5, falling below the 50-mark that separates expansion from contraction for the first time in six months.

The soft start to the year in global industrial powerhouse has raised investor concerns that growth in China, the world’s biggest commodity consumer, may disappoint and struggle to reach 7.5 percent, which is widely expected to be announced as the official target.

Hongbin Qu, chief economist for China at HSBC, said in a statement that the weakness in the PMI was led by weaker new export orders and “slower domestic business activities”. But is this really such a surprise? Export orders are always likely to come off post the year-end holiday season in the West and domestic business would already have been tailing off ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays, which start on Jan. 31.

Zimbabwe: Zimasco to Splurge U.S $300 Million – by Phillimon Mhlanga (All Africa.com – January 30, 2014)

January 30, 2014

http://allafrica.com/

ZIMBABWE Mining and Smelting Company (ZIMASCO), the country’s largest ferrochrome producer, is building a new 600 000 tonnes per annum sinter plant which is expected to boost output, it has been learnt.Sources with intimate knowledge of the company’s expansion plans told the Financial Gazette’s Companies & Markets that the plant, which is the latest technology in ferrochrome production, would cost between US$250 million and US$300 million.

It is understood that funding for the plant will be provided by Chinese majority shareholder, Sinosteel Corporation, which controls a 73 percent stake in the company. ZIMASCO’s spokesperson, Clara Sadomba, said she would not divulge details in the absence of the company’s chief executive who was in China.

“Unfortunately, I can’t officially comment on the developments because my CEO (Li Jinqian) is away on business in China but he is coming back after the second week of February,” said Sadomba. The plant, which will be built in Kwekwe, would process chrome fines into balls that can be processed by other existing blast furnaces.

Rushing for the Arctic’s Riches – by Michael T. Klare (New York Times – December 7, 2014)

January 30, 2014

http://www.nytimes.com/

AMHERST, Mass. — WHILE many existing oil and gas reserves in other parts of the world are facing steep decline, the Arctic is thought to possess vast untapped reservoirs. Approximately 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil deposits and 30 percent of its natural gas reserves are above the Arctic Circle, according to the United States Geological Survey. Eager to tap into this largess, Russia and its Arctic neighbors — Canada, Norway, the United States, Iceland and Denmark (by virtue of its authority over Greenland) — have encouraged energy companies to drill in the region.

For Russia, which recently seized a Greenpeace ship and is prosecuting 30 of the group’s activists for attempting to scale an oil platform, the temptation to exploit the Arctic Ocean is especially powerful. Russia’s economy is heavily dependent on exports of oil and gas, and the government relies on these sales for much of its income. Until recently, the Russians could draw on reservoirs in western Siberia to satisfy their needs, but now, with many of these fields in decline, they are counting on Arctic supplies to maintain current production levels. “Our first and main task is to turn the Arctic into Russia’s resource base of the 21st century,” Dmitri A. Medvedev, then the president, declared in 2008.

The Russians have explored drilling options in several offshore areas of the Arctic. In the Pechora Sea, above northwestern Siberia, the Russian energy giant Gazprom has installed its Prirazlomnaya platform — the one protesting Greenpeace activists attempted to board.

Coral or coal decision looms for Australia’s Great Barrier Reef – by Sonali Paul (January 30, 2014)

January 30, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE – (Reuters) – Australia’s Great Barrier Reef watchdog is to decide by Friday whether to allow millions of cubic metres of dredged mud to be dumped near the fragile reef to create the world’s biggest coal port and possibly unlock $28 billion in coal projects.

A dumping permit would allow a major expansion of the port of Abbot Point for two Indian firms and Australian billionaire miner Gina Rinehart, who together have $16 billion worth of coal projects in the untapped, inland Galilee Basin.

The Galilee Basin could double Australia’s thermal coal exports and see it overtake Indonesia as the world’s top coal exporter, further fuelling China’s power plants and steel mills that have underpinned Australia’s decade-long mining boom.

If the permit is not granted it would add to uncertainty over $28 billion in proposed Galilee Basin projects, already delayed due to difficulty raising funds with coal prices down.

The plan has sparked protests from environmentalists and scientists who fear the sensitive marine park will be damaged by the dumping and an expanded port, would nearly double shipping traffic through the reef, increasing the risk of accidents.