International Media Resource Articles – Page 748

Yukon Government Opens Vast Wilderness to Mining – by Tom Clynes (National Geographic – January 24, 2014)

January 27, 2014

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/

Indigenous leaders, conservation groups vow legal challenge.

Canada’s Yukon Territory announced on Tuesday that it has opened one of the largest unbroken wilderness areas in North America to mining and mineral exploration.

The government’s decree stunned indigenous leaders, who support a 2011 plan developed under Yukon land claims treaties that would have maintained the wilderness character of 80 percent of the area, which is known as the Peel watershed region. The government’s new plan all but reverses that figure, opening some 71 percent of the watershed to mining.

The Yukon features some of Canada’s highest peaks and largest glaciers, as well as tremendous expanses of lake-dotted tundra, boreal forests, and wetlands. (See “Yukon: Canada’s Wild West” in the February issue of National Geographic magazine.) It’s also rich in wildlife, with extreme seasonal shifts that beckon vast herds of caribou and other animals into motion. Larger than California but with only 37,000 inhabitants, the territory has been mostly empty of humans since the Klondike Stampede ended in the 1890s.

In recent years a new gold rush has brought a spike in population and prosperity to towns like Whitehorse and Dawson.

Andrew Forrest strikes cheap coal deal to end Pakistan slavery – by Dennis Shanahan (The Australian – January 23, 2014)

January 27, 2014

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

AUSTRALIAN mining billionaire and philanthropist, Andrew Forrest, has struck an informal deal with Pakistan to do away with more than two million slaves in return for a chance to convert billions of tonnes of cheap coal into much needed energy.

Using Australian technology developed at Western Australia’s Curtin University, Mr Forrest has signed an agreement with the Pakistani State of Punjab to test the feasibility of turning currently uneconomic lignite coal directly into diesel for use in the energy-starved region.

In a linked agreement with Mr Forrest’s Walk Free Foundation, aimed at ending slavery, Pakistan has agreed to introduce laws to cut the practice of slavery through indenture, debt or inheritance.

Mr Forrest, attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, said the agreement was an exciting development which could eliminate slavery in Pakistan and completely transform the Pakistani economy which was dependent on expensive foreign oil imports.

”The goal is energy independence for the Punjab and the eradication of slavery in all of the Punjab, a province of 100 million,” Mr Forrest said.

Contagion Spreads in Emerging Markets as Crises Grow – by Ye Xie and John Detrixhe (Bloomberg News – January 24, 2014)

January 24, 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/

The worst selloff in emerging-market currencies in five years is beginning to reveal the extent of the fallout from the Federal Reserve’s tapering of monetary stimulus, compounded by political and financial instability.

The Turkish lira plunged to a record and South Africa’s rand fell yesterday to a level weaker than 11 per dollar for the first time since 2008. Argentine policy makers devalued the peso by reducing support in the foreign-exchange market, allowing the currency to drop the most in 12 years to an unprecedented low.

Investors are losing confidence in some of the biggest developing nations, extending the currency-market rout triggered last year when the Fed first signaled it would scale back stimulus. While Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa were the engines of global growth following the financial crisis in 2008, emerging markets now pose a threat to world financial stability.

“The current environment is potentially very toxic for emerging markets,” Eamon Aghdasi, a strategist at Societe Generale SA in New York, said in a phone interview yesterday. “You have two very troubling things: uncertainty about the Fed policy, combined with concerns about growth, particularly in China. It’s difficult to justify that it’s time to go out and buy emerging markets at the moment.”

UPDATE 2-Ghana puts plans for mining windfall tax on hold – by Kwasi Kpodo (Reuters India – January 24, 2014)

January 24, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

ACCRA, Jan 24 (Reuters) – Ghana has put on hold plans to introduce a windfall tax on mining profits, Finance Minister Seth Terkper told Reuters, a move that will delight struggling gold firms but could undermine efforts to reduce the country’s budget deficit.

Ghana is Africa’s second-biggest gold producer and the precious metal is a large source of revenues for the country whose government is seeking to maintain rapid economic growth while reining in the deficit and inflation.

But the decision comes after President John Mahama said this week his country had come under pressure from the industry over the planned tax, with companies warning it would lead to job cuts due to a steep fall in gold prices.

“It’s on hold in parliament and we are consulting,” Terkper told Reuters late on Thursday.

Terkper had told parliament during the annual budget in November that the government would impose the tax, which it has been trying to push through since 2012. No timeframe was given at the time.

UPDATE 2-Indonesia’s mining exports at standstill after new rules -govt officials – by Yayat Supriatna (Reuters U.S. – January 24, 2014)

January 24, 2014

http://www.reuters.com/

JAKARTA, Jan 24 (Reuters) – Indonesia’s metal ore and concentrate exports have ground to a complete halt, government officials said on Friday, signalling the turmoil in the mining sector after a ban on ore shipments and an export tax were imposed nearly two weeks ago.

Southeast Asia’s biggest economy introduced a controversial ore export ban on Jan. 12, although last-minute amendments aimed to ease the impact of the export ban on miners like Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold and Newmont Mining Corp . They now face a progressive export tax on concentrates.

“There has been no concentrate export since January 12,” Bachrul Chairi, director general of foreign trade at the trade ministry told Reuters. “As of now, no miners or companies have requested export approval for concentrate or processed ore from the trade ministry.”

Freeport Indonesia and Newmont are in talks with the government over the new rules and are yet to resume exports since the new tax was introduced, while the Mineral Entrepreneurs Association has filed a legal challenge against the ore export ban.

Platinum Talks Today Will Seek End to Pay Strike at Mines – by Kevin Crowley, Andre Janse van Vuuren and Paul Burkhardt (Bloomberg News – January 24, 2014)

January 24, 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/

South Africa’s government will today mediate talks between union officials and the world’s three biggest platinum producers as a strike that’s crippling mines enters a second day.

Labor Minister Mildred Oliphant will lead talks between Anglo American Platinum Ltd. (AMS), Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. (IMP) and Lonmin Plc (LMI) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, said Musa Zondi, her spokesman. The discussions were due to begin at 9 a.m. in Johannesburg. The companies should expect “marathon negotiations,” AMCU President Joseph Mathunjwa said.

“There are pressures from all sides” to reach an agreement, AMCU Treasurer Jimmy Gama said today by phone. “When you have these pressures, all the parties need to apply their minds constructively to deal with the issue.”

At least 70,000 employees downed tools at platinum mines yesterday in South Africa, home to 70 percent of the world’s production of the metal, causing about $13.1 million of lost revenue on the first day. The police stepped up safety measures as it sought to avoid a repeat of labor unrest that claimed the lives of at least 44 workers near platinum mines in August 2012.

Insufficient mine supply bodes well for medium-term zinc, lead – Macquarie – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – January 24, 2014)

January 24, 2014

http://www.mineweb.com/

The recent North American polar vortex, as well as massive snowstorms and freezing temperatures now slamming the U.S. may result in some unseasonal tightness for lead markets, says Macquarie Research.

RENO (MINEWEB) – “Supply/demand conditions look increasingly positive for both zinc and lead in the medium-term, with increasing concern that there is insufficient new mine supply in the pipeline to replace several major closures,” said Macquarie Commodities Research.

“However, on a one-year view, we are more positive on zinc than lead, on the basis that short-term demand conditions look stronger while supply growth has decelerated faster,” said Macquarie analysts in a “Commodities Comment” published Thursday.

Macquarie analysts think that the refined zinc market “is currently in a modest deficit.” “In 2013, TCs rose to a level to re-incentive metal production, a flow that will continue at least until the raw material market tightens up again,” they advised. “We see this as being in 2015 though much depends on how quickly stocks of concentrate are worked through.”

Zambia Said to Withhold Up to $500 Million of Mine Refunds (2) – by Matthew Hill (Bloomberg News – January 23, 2014)

January 23, 2014

http://www.businessweek.com/

Zambia’s government has withheld as much as $500 million in value-added tax repayments from mining companies failing to provide importer documentation, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

Zambia’s revenue authority is holding back the repayments after last year introducing rules requiring the provision of documents from importers, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter isn’t public. They said they estimated the amount because they don’t have the exact figures.

Vedanta Resources Plc (VED) and other miners in Africa’s biggest copper producer say they can’t comply with the rules because they sell to commodity traders and don’t know the final destination of their output. The tax authority also stipulated that export revenue must be paid directly to a Zambian bank, while some mining companies are paid via foreign accounts.

Mumbuna Kufekisa, a spokesman for the Zambia Revenue Authority in the capital, Lusaka, declined to comment. Emmanuel Mutati, president of the Chamber of Mines of Zambia, couldn’t immediately comment when called on his mobile phone.

SPECIAL REPORT-How Caterpillar got bulldozed in China – by Clare Baldwin and John Ruwitch (Reuters U.S. – January 23, 2014)

January 23, 2014

http://www.reuters.com/

ZHENGZHOU, China, Jan. 23 (Reuters) – Asia’s top mergers and acquisitions bankers gathered two years ago at the swanky Island Shangri La in Hong Kong to celebrate the top deals of 2012. As the transactions were being toasted, one was unraveling.

Advisers on Caterpillar Inc’s $677 million purchase of ERA Mining Machinery Ltd picked up an award for cross-border deal of the year. The purchase was billed as a coup for Caterpillar, the world’s top maker of tractors and excavators. ERA was the holding company for Zhengzhou Siwei Mechanical & Electrical Equipment Manufacturing Co Ltd, one of China’s biggest makers of hydraulic coal-mine roof supports. Siwei would help Caterpillar gain traction in the world’s largest coal industry.

“Siwei was going to be our Chinese business card,” said a person with direct knowledge of Caterpillar’s strategy.

The night of the awards on Nov. 16 three Caterpillar lawyers were wrapping up an eight-hour grilling of Wang Fu, Siwei’s chairman. Major accounting problems had been unearthed at Siwei headquarters in the gritty Chinese city of Zhengzhou. Two months later, on Jan. 18, 2013, Caterpillar said it had discovered “deliberate, multi-year, coordinated accounting misconduct” at Siwei.

Freeport, Newmont Say Indonesian Rules Infringe on Pacts – by Liezel Hill (Bloomberg News – January 23, 2014)

January 23, 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX) and Newmont Mining Corp. (NEM), the largest U.S. miners, said new Indonesian rules on metal export duties infringe on contracts they have with the government.

Indonesia issued regulations on metal exports this month that curbed the shipping of unprocessed ore and placed duties on exports of copper concentrate, a semi-processed ore that’s shipped from mines to smelters. The rules have resulted in delays to obtain export permits, and Freeport plans to defer some production, according to the Phoenix-based company, the world’s biggest publicly traded copper producer.

The duties on copper, which begin at 25 percent and will rise to 60 percent by mid-2016, took Freeport by surprise, Chief Executive Officer Richard Adkerson said yesterday on a conference call with analysts. Indonesia, where the company operates its biggest mine, the Grasberg copper and gold operation, accounted for 19 percent of its third-quarter revenue, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Newmont’s Batu Hijau mine in the country contributed 6.8 percent of the miner’s total sales, the data show.

“It would get pretty rough for Freeport if Indonesia stuck to its guns on this,” Dan Rohr, an analyst at Morningstar Inc. in Chicago, said yesterday in a phone interview.

UPDATE 1-MMG warns output from key Australia zinc mine to drop – by James Regan (Reuters U.S. – January 23, 2014)

January 23, 2014

http://www.reuters.com/

SYDNEY, Jan 23 (Reuters) – Output from Australia’s Century zinc mine, the world’s third biggest, could drop 5 percent this year as it nears the end of its operating life, exacerbating an emerging global supply pinch.

The mine will yield between 465,000 and 480,000 tonnes of zinc in concentrate in 2014 against 2013 output of 488,233 tonnes, said Chinese owner MMG Ltd.

The decline comes amid a supply deficit driven by rising galvanised steel production. Zinc is primarily used as a rust-inhibitor in the galvanising process.

MMG’s nearby Dugald River mine is under development and was supposed to start yielding zinc in late 2015, partially replacing lost output from the Century mine, which MMG forecasts will run dry in mid-2015.

But MMG last month warned Dugald River would miss its start date due to poor ground conditions. An additional A$57 million has been allocated to study problems at the project, according to MMG.

US miners hit out at Indonesia copper tax – by Ben Bland (Financial Times – January 23, 2014)

January 23, 2014

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

Jakarta – US mining majors Freeport McMoRan and Newmont have hit out at Indonesia’s new tax on the export of copper concentrate, saying it is in breach of their long-standing contracts of work with the government.

Both companies, which employ thousands of people at their vast copper and gold mines in Indonesia, said on Wednesday they were in talks with the government to resolve the situation. Newmont said it was considering other remedies including “possible legal action”.

Indonesia, a major global exporter of metals such as bauxite, copper, and nickel, implemented a hotly-contested ban on the export of unprocessed mineral ores on January 12 as part of a drive to promote the development of a refining industry. Freeport and Newmont, which together contribute well over $1bn a year in taxes and royalties to the Indonesian government, initially won a reprieve, getting permission to export their partially processed copper concentrate until 2017.

But the finance ministry delivered a sting in the tail when it announced shortly afterwards that the companies would have to pay a progressive export tax that will start at 25 per cent and rise to 60 per cent by 2017.

Record iron-ore and coal production at BHP Billiton’s operations – by Staff (Business Day Live – January 22, 2014)

January 22, 2014

http://www.bdlive.co.za/ [South Africa]

GLOBAL resources group BHP Billiton has reported a strong operational performance for the six months ended December 2013, with production records achieved across 10 operations and several commodities.

Releasing its operational update for the second half of the year on Wednesday, the group said it had maintained strong momentum in the period. Full-year production guidance was retained for its petroleum, copper, iron-ore and coal businesses.

Iron-ore production was up 19% in the half-year to a record 98-million tonnes, while metallurgical coal production rose 22% to a record 22-million tonnes. Alumina production improved 8% to a record 2.6-million tonnes.

“A strong operating performance across our diversified portfolio in the December 2013 half-year delivered a 10% increase in production, and volumes are expected to grow 16% over the two years to the end of the 2015 financial year,” CEO Andrew Mackenzie said.

“Iron ore and metallurgical coal were particularly strong and are very well positioned to achieve guidance, notwithstanding the general uncertainty that exists as we enter the wet season,” he added.

Essar comes under Greenpeace attack (Business Standard – January 22, 2014)

January 22, 2014

http://www.business-standard.com/ [Mumbai]

Greenpeace activists scale Essar’s 21-storey headquarters in Mumbai to protest against the company’s proposed mine in Mahan forest, Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh

After taking on the Tatas, the Adanis and the Vedanta group, activists of pro-environment body Greenpeace took on the Essar group on Wednesday regarding the Mahan coal mining project in Madhya Pradesh. It organised demonstrations outside the Essar offices here and in London.

An Essar spokesperson said Greenpeace activists, masquerading as building cleaning agents, gained access to the company’s office in Mumbai. “In this illegal act, the trespassers misused the office premises to spread anti-corporate, misleading and false propaganda,” the spokesperson said. “These people suspended themselves from the top of the building. In doing so, they endangered lives of those working in the building and disrupted normal working of the employees,” he said. The police later arrested all activists for trespassing, the official said.

The Supreme Court had last year allowed gram sabhas (village councils) in Odisha to decide the fate of Vedanta’s Lanjigarh plant, meant to make aluminium by excavating bauxite from the Niyamgiri hills, the latter revered by the villagers as a sacred place.

Reverse the resource curse – by Jana Morgan (The Hill – January 22, 2014)

January 22, 2014

http://thehill.com/ [Washington D.C.]

Groups representing more than 1,300 mining companies, including some of the largest in the world, are backing mandatory disclosure of payments to governments, similar to a rule created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.

Canadian mining industry associations and civil society organizations recently released recommendations to the Canadian government after nearly a year and a half of consultation and negotiation.

These recommendations, modeled after Section 1504 of Dodd-Frank, are aimed at reversing the resource curse – where countries with abundant natural resources suffer from severe poverty, instability and corruption. Seven of the ten lowest-scoring countries in the UN Human Development Index, which measures life expectancy, income and education, rely on oil and mineral revenues for a majority of their exports.

A 2013 report by the Africa Progress Panel, chaired by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, estimated that Africa alone loses $63 billion every year to corruption. Shedding light on secretive resource deals will help track this money and stem the flow of corruption.

The recommendations would require that all mining companies listed on Canadian stock exchanges disclose the payments they make to governments where they operate.