International Media Resource Articles – Page 751

Police Disperse Crowd of 3,000 at Amplats Amid Strike Talks – by Paul Burkhardt (Bloomberg News – February 4, 2014)

February 4, 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/

South African police fired rubber bullets and water cannon to disperse a 3,000-strong crowd who massed at an Anglo American Platinum Ltd. (AMS) mine in support of a strike that has disrupted the world’s three biggest producers.

Police broke up the crowd at the Khuseleka mine, northwest of Johannesburg, Thulani Ngubane, a spokesman for the South African Police Service in the North West province, said by phone today. Two people were arrested.

The group had “the intention of not letting any mineworker go to work and we tried to resolve it amicably and we had to resort to minimum force,” Ngubane said.

Talks resumed in Pretoria aimed at resolving the dispute between producers and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, which has been on strike over pay since Jan. 23. The union has more than 70,000 members on strike at Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. (IMP) and Lonmin Plc (LON), which run the largest mines in a country accounting for about 70 percent of global output of the precious metal.

NEWSMAKER-Indonesian minister tried but couldn’t block his own law – by Wilda Asmarini and Kanupriya Kapoor (Reuters India – February 4, 2014)

February 4, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

Feb 4 (Reuters) – Indonesia’s mines minister, Jero Wacik, has been on an unusual mission in recent months: finding a way out of implementing his own government’s policy.

A smiling, well-rehearsed politician, Wacik was earlier tourism minister, pushing the charms of his native Bali island and other Indonesian attractions. In 2011, he was given the role of supervising the country’s $6 billion-a-year mining sector despite having no experience of the industry.

At the time, part of his job was to enforce a law President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had pushed through, a bold ultimatum to the mining industry: process your ores in Indonesia by 2014 or stop exporting.

But around the middle of last year, the government came to the conclusion that a ban on the export of ore would hurt the economy and lead to job losses that would be damaging in the 2014 election year. Wacik tried postponing the law, but parliament, already tired of the administration’s ambiguities, wouldn’t play ball. He then tried to water it down, but was not successful.

Low-cost production key for gold – by Barry Fitzgerald (The Australian – February 4, 2014)

February 4, 2014

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

IT stands to reason that in the mining world, the best defence against commodity price weakness is to be the lowest-cost producer. That goes doubly for the gold sector after last year’s price collapse.All that has panned out for those investors who responded to the massive shakedown in the gold price and equity values last year for gold producers not by fleeing altogether, but by seeking safe harbour in the lowest-cost producers.

They have been doing very nicely, thank you very much. Australia’s lowest-cost (listed) gold producer, Doray Minerals (DRM), is a case in point. Its cash costs are the lowest in the local industry if Newcrest’s Cadia operation, which gets the benefit of a copper credit, is ignored.

It’s hard to believe now but Doray got as low as 35c a share last July when the shakedown for gold stocks was in full swing. Realistically, some of that weakness was due to the fact that the group’s new Andy Well operation, north of Meekatharra in Western Australia, had yet to pour its first gold, meaning it had yet to prove itself.

Indonesian govt must offer incentives to build smelters-PT Indosmelt – by Michael Taylor and Wilda Asmarini (Reuters India – February 4, 2014)

February 4, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

JAKARTA, Feb 4 (Reuters) – Indonesia’s government must provide tax holidays and other financial incentives to convince companies to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to build copper smelters amid weak global prices, said the head of smelting firm PT Indosmelt.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono last month imposed new mining policies, including a controversial mineral ore export ban and progressive export taxes, aimed at forcing miners to build smelters and process their raw materials in Indonesia.

The policies have forced U.S. miners Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold and Newmont Mining Corp, which together produce 97 percent of Indonesia’s copper, to halt all exports. The two firms have yet to commit to building smelters, saying it was not economically viable to make such large investments.

“The margins for smelters are small, very small,” Natsir Mansyur, president director of privately owned and unlisted PT Indosmelt told Reuters. “There must be incentives from the government. To build (a smelter), this business should be protected by the government.”

In mid-2012, government officials said they planned to offer financial incentives to help firms build smelters to comply with the new mining regulations, although the details have yet to be announced and talks are still ongoing.

Andrew Forrest takes fight to Nintendo – by John Daffe (Herald Sun – February 4, 2014)

February 4, 2014

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/

IT’S the battle that pits one of Australia’s richest men against one of the world’s biggest video game makers. And it’s game on.

Mining billionaire and philanthropist Andrew Forrest has set his sights on Nintendo, hoping to force the Japanese giant to beef up measures ensuring its products contain no “conflict minerals”.

The name refers to minerals – commonly tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold – that are heavily mined in and around the Democratic Republic of Congo using forced labour, debt bondage and child slavery.

Walk Free, the anti-slavery group founded by Mr Forrest, is stepping up its campaign against Nintendo, which it says is yet to take concrete steps to guarantee that the microprocessors powering its consoles are free from the minerals.

The group started an email campaign encouraging people to quiz Nintendo chiefs about their conflict minerals policy last year. It has launched a new push after last month’s decision by Intel, the world’s largest semiconductor chip maker, to guarantee its microprocessors are conflict mineral free.

Base metals in a post super-cycle world – Lennon – by Geoff Canday (Mineweb.com – February 4, 2014)

February 4, 2014

http://www.mineweb.com/

Jim Lennon discusses why demographics alone aren’t enough to recreate the massive type of growth in China that led to the super cycle.

CAPE TOWN (MINEWEB) – GEOFF CANDY: Hello and welcome to this Mineweb.com Newsmaker podcast, my name is Geoff Candy and joining me here live at the Cape Town International Convention Centre for the 2014 Mining Indaba is Jim Lennon, he’s the managing director at Red Door Research.

Jim, you’ve just done a presentation, the key note, about where we’re headed from a metals point of view, where the super-cycle is or if it’s going to come back, just generally speaking, the lay of the land. One of the things that struck from that is that it does seem to be moving very much from a demand-driven story to what’ s going to happening with supply over the next ten, 15, 20 years, is that a correct reading of things?

JIM LENNON: Partly, I think first China will continue to be a dominant factor on the demand side, the rates of growth in China were high double digit for the last ten years, we’re now seeing that slow down, so necessarily the growth rates are slowing. However, the volume required as a result of that slow growth because you’re working off the high base is still very, very high.

Cuba to cut nickel plant output for major overhaul (Reuters U.S. – February 3, 2014)

February 4, 2014

http://www.reuters.com/

Feb 3 (Reuters) – Cuba will reduce production at one of its two nickel plants this year so it can carry out maintenance and capital improvements to make the plant competitive at low international prices.

A report on the evening government newscast on Sunday said the Ernesto Che Guevara processing facility in eastern Holguin province would be given a major overhaul.

The state-owned plant, built with Soviet technology and opened in 1986, has a capacity of about 30,000 tonnes of unrefined nickel plus cobalt a year at a cost of more than $12,000 a tonne.

Spot nickel prices on the London Metals Exchange opened at $13,695 a tonne on Monday. The broadcast quoted the plant’s head of maintenance as saying it would be the biggest overhaul in the plant’s 28-year history and that workers face the challenge of producing 14,700 tonnes of unrefined nickel plus cobalt while it is taking place.

Tighter South African emission laws boost platinum ‘beneficiation’ – by Martin Creamer (MiningWeekly.com – February 3, 2014)

February 4, 2014

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

CAPE TOWN (miningweekly.com) –Tighter vehicle emission legislation in South Africa would boost the struggling platinum mining industry and be a fantastic local beneficiation route for the metal, which is facing an uphill battle, SFA Oxford MD Beresford Clarke said on Monday.

Beresford, who was addressing the Investing In African Mining Indaba on Monday, said that South Africa was becoming less competitive in the platinum market and the next three years would be tough for platinum.

The recycling of platinum autocatalysts and platinum jewellery had risen to two-million ounces a year, four times higher than in 2000, and was tantamount to Lonmin-sized output being incrementally added every five years.

Palladium-rich Russian and North America were outdoing platinum-and-rhodium dominant South Africa, with both countries producing at lower cash costs and higher by-product credits than South Africa.

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.