International Media Resource Articles – Page 747

US funds afoot in junior space – Roundup talk – by Kip Keen (Mineweb.com – January 30, 2014)

January 30, 2014

http://www.mineweb.com/

We check in on sentiment about the junior market at the AME BC Roundup conference in Vancouver BC.

VANCOUVER, BC (MINEWEB) – I’ve had a lot of where-is-this-junior-market-going conversations in the past three days here at the Roundup conference in Vancouver BC. As at the recent Cambridge International VRIC show there appears to be a small pickup in optimism about junior market.

It’s not euphoria. Far from it. There’s still lots of healthy scepticism.

I bumped into a consulting geologist, Andrew Abraham with Paradigm Shift 3D Geological Consulting, on the way into the conference this morning and he noted that at so many recent conferences there was a similar buzz. Only, afterwards, it invariably soured. He recalled following up once positive sounding leads only to get non-committals: sorry, we still don’t have any cash to spend.

There have been a spat of financings in recent weeks, however. And that has not escaped many people’s attention here. Many here also take that as a good sign.

Chromium market growth continues but ferrochrome producers face headwinds – Roskil (Steel Guru – January 29, 2014)

January 29, 2014

http://www.steelguru.com/

Roskil reported that at end 2013, ferrochrome prices remained near 4 year lows. European benchmark charge chrome prices were rolled over at EUR 112.5 per lb in Q4, while Chinese domestic spot high carbon ferrochrome prices stood at EUR 83 to EUR 85 per lb. World ferrochrome consumption reached a record level of 9.8Mt in 2012, however, and demand was estimated to have risen by a further 6% to 10.3 MT in 2013. The diverging trends reflected the expansion in the Chinese ferrochrome industry, low ore prices and currency depreciation in leading exporting countries.

China soaks up more ore as domestic ferrochrome output soars;

In 2012, China overtook South Africa to become the largest producer of ferrochrome worldwide. Chinese output of 3.12 MT accounted for 33% of the world total, a rise from 13% in 2005. With low chrome ore reserves and production, growth of 20%py in Chinese ferrochrome output has been based on imported raw materials, mainly from South Africa but also from Turkey, Oman and Albania. Imports from South Africa in the first nine months of 2013 already exceeded the 2012 total, with two thirds comprising UG2 concentrates. Concern over the displacement of South African ferrochrome production by Chinese material smelted from South African ores and concentrates has stimulated debate over the introduction of an export tax or quotas.

Demand for ferrochrome closely reflects trends in the stainless steel sector, which accounts for 80% of consumption. Over the past five years, world consumption has risen by 5%py to an estimated 9.8 MT in 2012.

COLUMN-Gold rallies won’t sustain without more China, India buying – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – January 29, 2014)

January 29, 2014

http://www.reuters.com/

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

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Jan 29 (Reuters) – Gold’s positive start to the year seems to be based more on hope than any real change to the factors that saw the precious metal shed 28 percent last year.

Spot bullion has gained 4.25 percent since the start of the year to the close of $1,256.09 an ounce on Jan. 28, with China and India factors helping to drive the rally.

The optimistic view for gold is that top buyer China will continue to buy record amounts and that India, which was supplanted by its Asian neighbour last year, will ease the restrictions that crimped its demand last year.

Taking India first, and the gold bulls have taken heart from comments on Jan. 27 by finance ministry officials that the curbs on gold imports will be reviewed by the end of March. India progressively hiked import taxes to a record 10 percent last year and imposed a requirement that 20 percent of imported gold must be fabricated and exported.

UPDATE 2-Anglo’s overhaul starts to pay off with sharp output rise – by Silvia Antonioli (Reuters India – January 29, 2014)

January 29, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

LONDON, Jan 29 (Reuters) – Anglo American on Wednesday produced a forecast-beating rise in fourth quarter iron ore output and a new quarterly record for copper, a sign efforts to improve performance at its major mines are starting to pay off.

Anglo, the fifth-largest diversified mining group, has embarked on an overhaul plan under chief executive Mark Cutifani, after years of sector-lagging returns.

Cutifani said in December the plan would focus mainly on improving operations of major mines but did not envisage immediate asset sales. Anglo has long lagged rivals in returns and share performance. Its shares have lost about 60 percent of their value in the last three years compared with a 40 percent decline for the sector.

In the past two years, it has been hit by labour troubles in South Africa, operational hiccups at copper mines and multibillion-dollar cost overruns in Brazil. The fourth-quarter production figures helped to boost Anglo’s shares which were one of the top gainers in the FTSE 100 index.

Lack of critical minerals processing capacity U.S. ‘Achilles heel’ – Wyden – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – January 29, 2014)

January 29, 2014

http://www.mineweb.com/

U.S. Senate leaders say the nation must address inadequate U.S. mining processing capacity as well as promoting domestic mining of critical and strategic minerals.

RENO (MINEWEB) – During a U.S. Senate hearing Tuesday on S. 1600, the Critical Minerals Policy Act of 2013, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, noted, “A crucial but too often neglected part of this [U.S. critical minerals] supply conversation is mineral processing.”

“Although mining is an important part of the supply equation, and S. 1600 encourages federal agencies to expedite permitting for new critical minerals extraction, it is the lack of processing capacity—transforming the raw materials that we pull out of the ground into the high-purity compounds needed for manufacturing—it is that challenge that is my concern and the concern of many experts,” he observed.

Opposition to Critical Minerals Policy Act is misguided – by Colin T. Hayes (Alaska Journal of Commerce – January 9, 2014)

January 29, 2014

http://www.alaskajournal.com/

Colin T. Hayes is an executive vice president at McBee Strategic Consulting and formerly served as senior professional staff to Sen. Lisa Murkowski on the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources.

As someone deeply familiar with Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s leadership on the “Critical Minerals Policy Act,” John Kemp’s Dec. 9 Reuters column criticizing the bill struck me as a cynically misguided reaction to her important work.

Sen. Murkowski introduced the legislation in order to, as she put it, “keep the United States competitive and begin the process of modernizing our federal mineral policies.” This is a laudable goal and an important process, particularly as our foreign reliance increases for materials needed to build semiconductors, skyscrapers, and everything in between.

In Kemp’s view, however, the bill “deserves to die” because it would authorize new federal funding that he views as a sop to “special interests.” With all due respect, he’s wrong.

Anglo chief warns on pace of innovation – by James Wilson (Financial Times – January 26, 2014)

January 28, 2014

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

One of the world’s senior mining leaders has called on the sector to speed up innovation or risk being marginalised by groups that spend more on research.

Mark Cutifani, Anglo American chief executive, said research and development in mining was lagging behind the oil and gas sector at a time when there was an urgent need for larger and better deposits of many metals and minerals.

In 10 years the world would “have to pay to move twice the amount of waste to get the same minerals to market”, he said. “We need to do it differently. We need a better way. We need to innovate.”
Innovation in oil and gas has transformed the energy landscape in the US, with fracking and horizontal drilling unlocking vast reservoirs of shale gas previously considered uneconomic to develop. By contrast innovation in mining has been incremental. Many methods have changed little except for the size of equipment used.

“Our industry is damned by the fact that our spending on innovation, research and development is one-10th that of the petroleum industry,” Mr Cutifani said.

Rio Tinto in talks to sell Quebec aluminum plant – by Josephine Mason (Reuters U.S. – January 27, 2014)

January 28, 2014

http://www.reuters.com/

NEW YORK – Jan 27 (Reuters) – A small Canadian aluminum producer is in talks to take over Rio Tinto Alcan’s aluminum casthouse in Shawinigan, Quebec, rescuing the plant from closure at the end of this year, the fund’s project leader told Reuters on Monday.

Sotrem, a company based in Saguenay, Quebec, that makes aluminum foundry alloys and deox, a type of aluminum used to remove oxygen in steel production, is leading the deal to buy the plant, said Yvon D’Anjou, who is in charge of the project.

“We expect to come to a consensus in the next few months,” said D’Anjou. He is familiar with the plant, having worked as head of business development at Alcan until 2008, he said. A spokesman for Rio Tinto confirmed in an email that the company has entered exclusive negotiations for the sale of the casthouse, but did not give any further details.

Under a plan drawn up by Sotrem, the casthouse would produce 35,000-40,000 tonnes per year of small-diameter extrusion billet, a niche product used to make gas cylinders and scuba diving tanks, D’Anjou said.

That capacity could increase to 60,000 tonnes in the next two years if there was demand. The smelter on site, which Alcan shut towards the end of last year, is not included in the deal, he said.

Well-regulated sulfide mining can be done effectively – by Rolf Westgard (Minn Post.com – January 27, 2014)

January 28, 2014

http://www.minnpost.com/

Rolf Westgard is a professional member of the Geological Society of America and is guest faculty on energy subjects for the University of Minnesota’s Lifelong Learning program. His 2013 fall-quarter class was “Minnesota’s Volcanic Geologic History; from Mountain Building to Minerals.”

The dispute over mining Minnesota’s world-class mineral deposits is drawing big crowds to the public hearings on the new Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS ) on the proposed NorthMet Project. All those minerals — including copper, nickel, cobalt, gold and platinum — lie in a band, meandering from southwest to northeast, adjacent to the Archean granite of Minnesota’s Iron Range.

They arrived a billion years ago in the magma during northern Minnesota’s active volcanic history. They are concentrated out of the magma by liquid sulfur, which acts as a “collector,” because these elements prefer the sulphide liquid to the magma by a factor of 1,000 times more.

One of the proposed Minnesota mining ventures is by PolyMet Mining Corp. of Canada. PolyMet’s group includes Swiss commodity and mining giant Glencore, which now owns 18 percent of PolyMet shares.

UPDATE 1-Indonesia to limit exports of processed minerals – by Fergus Jensen and Wilda Asmarini (Reuters India – January 28, 2014)

January 28, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

JAKARTA, Jan 28 (Reuters) – Indonesia will issue export quotas for processed minerals and concentrates soon, a senior mines ministry official said, the latest policy step tied to controversial government efforts to take greater control over shipments of its natural resources.

The government is trying to force miners to process mineral ores in the country, as part of plans to transform Southeast Asia’s biggest economy into a producer of finished goods, rather than simply a supplier of raw materials.

But the new policies, which include a ban on unprocessed mineral ore shipments and export taxes on mineral concentrates, have led to widespread confusion, forcing miners to halt exports until there was more clarity.

Hersonyo Wibowo, chief of mineral production supervision at the mines and energy ministry, said the export quotas could be issued within the next few days. “We have to control mineral exports. We are also worried that once purification facilities (smelters) are ready there may be no (ore) reserves left,” Wibowo said at an industry conference.

Antam and Vale Receive Green Light on Processed Mineral Exports – by Rangga Prakoso (Jakarta Globe – January 27, 2014)

January 27, 2014

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/

Antam and Vale Indonesia — two of the biggest nickel producers in the country — have secured a recommendation letter to export their processed mineral products, almost two weeks after the government enforced a ban on ore shipments.

“Vale and Antam don’t have any problems. The others simply have not submitted their respective proposals to the government, which is why I am calling on other miners to do so,” said Susilo Siswoutomo, vice minister at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, on Friday.

Susilo said the government has given Antam approval to export around 17,000 metric tons of ferronickel annually, while Vale is allowed 75,000 tons of nickel matte per year. He did not say whether Antam will be allowed to export its nickel ore.

The vice minister also confirmed the government’s intention to set a “maximum production limit” for minerals to ensure that newly-built smelters in Indonesia can be fed with adequate resources.

Harper Collides With Native Canadians’ Natural Resources Claims – by Jeremy van Loon (Bloomberg News – January 27, 2014)

January 27, 2014

http://www.businessweek.com/

Back in the spring of 2012, while walking in the deep woods of northern Ontario, Sonny Gagnon stumbled across a collection of surveying equipment among the towering spruce trees. Gagnon is chief of the Aroland aboriginal tribe, a band of 450 people living in a village of ramshackle houses surrounded by swampy muskeg. He tracks everything that goes on in his community. And the surveying tools weren’t supposed to be there.

“I was ticked off,” he says, after learning that the equipment belonged to a subcontractor of Cleveland-based mining company Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (CLF:US)

It turned out Cliffs had plans to mine for chromite to the north of the Aroland reserve and to build a road through the territory to transport truckloads of the mineral to a railhead, Bloomberg Markets magazine will report in its March issue.

“They weren’t consulting us on what they were doing on the land,” Gagnon says. “I told them to leave and that we didn’t want them back.”

Gagnon and his native band then set up a roadblock to monitor traffic. Cliffs suspended plans for the mine in November, citing in a statement the “risks” associated with its ability to transport the ore for processing.

As smelters weigh cost, Indonesia’s ore export ban may backfire – by Fergus Jensen and Melanie Burton (Reuters India – January 27, 2014)

January 27, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

JAKARTA/SYDNEY – Jan 27 (Reuters) – Indonesia’s ban on exports of key mineral ores – unless they are processed in the country – risks backfiring as weaker commodity prices mean it is not cost-effective to invest in expensive smelters and refineries.

The ban, which came into effect on Jan. 12, was unveiled in 2009 as a commodities boom began to froth and Jakarta sought to extract more value from its mineral resources. But metals prices and margins have since fallen, leading to oversupply and less need for building more processing capacity.

Worried about the impact on its current account deficit and a sagging rupiah currency, Jakarta tried to ease the ban last month only to be blocked by parliament. This month, it issued exemptions to allow shipments of copper, zinc, lead, manganese and iron ore concentrate, leaving nickel and bauxite – key ingredients in making steel and aluminium – the main targets.

Companies considering building alumina refineries are moving slowly as they weigh the big investments required amid caution over Indonesia’s policy flip-flops.

A 1 million-tonnes-a-year alumina refinery in Indonesia would cost around $1.5 billion to build.

Gold stocks best performing market sector so far this year – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – January 27, 2014)

January 27, 2014

http://www.mineweb.com/

Hong Kong based Financial Services Group, REORIENT, is decidedly bullish on gold, and on gold stocks in particular, and has set out its reasoning in a new sales commentary.

LONDON (MINEWEB) – Investors in gold equities have had little cheer in the past couple of years – indeed the period has seen a sell-off not experienced in the sector since the Bre-X fraud exposure of 1996, which had a huge downside impact on gold stocks, particularly in the junior gold sector. But so far this year – admittedly it is very early days yet – gold stocks have proven to be the sector to be in and while the major global stock indices have drifted downwards so far many gold stocks have risen by up to 30% or more.

Is this the signal the market has been waiting for to get back into what has to have been the most oversold stock market sector of the past two years?

Hong Kong based Global Financial Services specialist, the REORIENT Group, certainly thinks this is the case and is distinctly bullish on the gold stock market sector. In a note the Group puts forward a number of factors which it sees as distinctly bullish for gold stocks – and they may well have a strong point here with all of these:

Rio Tinto details blueprint for indigenous jobs – by Patricia Karvelas (The Australian – January 27, 2014)

January 27, 2014

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

MINING giant Rio Tinto has told Tony Abbott’s indigenous jobs review that enormous changes must be made to get Aborigines into jobs.

These include providing incentives for the nation’s best teachers to relocate to remote Australia and changing rules that make it attractive to stay on welfare in order to receive cheaper housing.

Rio Tinto Australia managing director David Peever, who has been appointed to the Prime Minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council, has written to the indigenous jobs review headed by mining magnate Andrew Forrest to present a blueprint for change.

Rio Tino has been under scrutiny after it decided to wind down its Gove alumina refinery in Arnhem Land, devastating a 1500-strong workforce that includes many indigenous employees, after telling Australian governments there was no point in further negotiations to save the plant.

Rio says in the third quarter of last year, the company employed approximately 1650 indigenous people in permanent roles across its Australian operations, representing 7.3 per cent of the total workforce.