International Media Resource Articles – Page 752

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.

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.