International Media Resource Articles – Page 759

Digging into the Copper Coast’s past – by Paddy Woodworth (Irish Times – December 21, 2013)

December 23, 2013

http://www.irishtimes.com/

http://www.coppercoastgeopark.com/

Waterford’s geopark reveals what lies beneath our landscape, the long history of how it got there and how its minerals moulded our history

Everything we do, everywhere we stand and, ultimately, everything we eat is based on rocks, but most of us know very little about them. Very few of us could tell a visitor much about what lies beneath our local landscape, much less the long history of how it got there or how its minerals moulded our history and determined our vegetation.

The Global Geoparks Network aims to change all that. Geology, with its mind-boggling timescales and unfamiliar language, can seem a rather daunting subject, but the network wants to steer it into our cultural mainstream.

“Is a geopark just about geology?” Patrick J McKeever, vice-co-ordinator of this Unesco initiative, asked during his presentation at the opening of Waterford’s Copper Coast Geopark visitors’ centre by the Taoiseach last month.

REPEAT-FEATURE-Dominican gold rush hits a bureaucratic slowdown – by Ezra Fieser (Reuters India – December 23, 2013)

December 23, 2013

http://in.reuters.com/

Dec 23 (Reuters) – Little more than a decade ago, one of the world’s largest known gold deposits sat abandoned in the foothills of the Dominican Republic’s Central Cordillera mountain range. Car-sized boulders leached heavy metals into what locals called the “blood river,” its waters ran so red from contaminants.

Today the mine, which reopened as Pueblo Viejo this year, hums with activity. Trucks with tires twice the size of an SUV roll through its massive open pits on roads that cut through the 11-square-kilometer site (4.24 square miles), transporting tons of rock to a processing facility.

Some 2,000 people already work here, churning out shimmering gold bars that are exported to Canada and the United States, but the mine has the potential to create 12,700 more direct and indirect jobs and contribute $1.3 billion a year in exports. This dynamic, foreign-operated enterprise is part of the country’s effort to develop an industry that could help boost and diversify its tourism-dependent economy.

Yet despite robust commercial production by two of the world’s largest gold mining companies, Canada’s Barrick Gold Corp and Goldcorp Inc, development of the mining sector is vexed by bureaucratic delays and agitation by activists still concerned about pollution and government deals with foreign companies to exploit the nation’s riches.

PRECIOUS-Gold falls, set for biggest yearly loss since 1981 – by Clara Denina (Reuters U.S. – December 23, 2013)

December 23, 2013

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Dec 23 (Reuters) – Gold fell on Monday, on course for its largest annual loss in 32 years, as thin pre-holiday trade and signs of an improving U.S. economy growth kept investors fretting over the impact of the Federal Reserve’s stimulus tapering.

The metal posted its biggest weekly loss in a month after the Fed’s decision to start scaling back its bond-buying stimulus, which was followed by upbeat GDP data.

“Gold is in a bit of a limbo now because we know that the Fed starting to reduce their bond buying is a reality and the dollar should hold relatively strong from here,” VTB Capital analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov said.

“I would argue that there is support at $1,190 … but there may be more downside as it doesn’t take much to move the market in thin holiday trading.”

Spot gold fell 0.6 percent to $1,195.00 an ounce by 1051 GMT. It had briefly rebounded above $1,200 an ounce in earlier trade as investors found value in the metal after prices lost 4 percent in the previous three sessions.

Tale of Two Polish Mines Shows Biggest EU Producer’s Woes – by Maciej Martewicz and Marek Strzeleck (Bloomberg News – December 23, 2013)

December 23, 2013

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Stock markets aren’t usually a subject of discussion when you’re a kilometer underground, yet Dariusz Batyra isn’t a typical Polish miner.

“I check the share price each day,” said Batyra, 39, a senior foreman at the mine run by Lubelski Wegiel Bogdanka SA, one of three coal companies in Poland not controlled by the government. “Everybody does in here.”

The performance of his employer compared with competitor Kompania Weglowa SA, the biggest producer in the European Union, explains why. Since debuting on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in 2009, Bogdanka has more than doubled in value as profits rose every year but one. It has done so even as the price of coal more than halved since 2008, when the global financial crisis took hold, pushing Kompania Weglowa to the brink of collapse.

Another year of diverging fortunes for the two miners underscores the contrast in an industry that’s struggled to adapt to the reality of the free market almost a quarter of a century after communism ended in Poland.

Bogdanka employs about 5,000 and analysts expect net income of 313.5 million zloty ($103 million) for 2013, making it the most profitable of seven Polish coal producers.

Friedland raises industry ire over wages claim – by David McKay (MiningMx.com – December 20, 2013)

December 23, 2013

http://www.miningmx.com/

[miningmx.com] – IVANHOE Mines president and flamboyant mining promoter, Robert Friedland, has raised the ire of his platinum industry counterparts in South Africa following comments to reporters that his company would outstrip wages paid to miners on his company’s Flatreef platinum project in South Africa by an “order of magnitude”.

“In a platinum mine in South Africa today, you have to crawl on your hands and knees on that broken rock for several hundred metres to get to the working phase,” Friedland said at a conference in a report by Reuters.

“It’s pretty claustrophobic, the men are working with muscle power, they are getting silicosis, they are breathing what they are drilling and they are tired of doing it for $12 (R120) a day. I don’t think they are going to do it for much longer, and I don’t think they should.”

“You have heard of blood diamonds for example, or Apple getting criticised for what people get paid, or you see Gap stores get worried for what people get paid in Bangladesh for sewing your clothing. Similarly it is just not viable to pay these workers $12 a day,” he said.

World top ten mining billionaires in 2013 – by Steel Guru (December 20, 2013)

December 20, 2013

http://www.steelguru.com/

Forbes has compiled a list of the world’s top 1000 billionaires, and Ferret is cutting that down to show you those in mining that made the cut for 2013.

1. (No.32 globally) Alberto Bailleres Gonzalez and family [Mexico] – USD 18.2 billion
Gonzalez owns a holding company called GroupoBAL, which amongst other things runs Penoles, which is the world’s largest producer of refined silver and bismuth, as well as Latin America’s largest producer of lead and zinc.

2. (No. 35 globally) Iris Fontbona and family [Chile] – USD 17.4 billion
Iris Fontbona is the widow of Antonio Luksic, who is the founder of the Luksic Group.

Similar to GroupoBAL, Luksic holds a number of interests in different areas, but predominantly in mining. The group has major holdings in Antofagasta, the UK listed copper miner.

3. (No. 36 globally) Georgina ‘Gina’ Rinehart [Australia] – USD 17 billion
Australia’s own Gina Rinehart graces the list early on.

Turkey imposes restriction on its biggest ferrochrome producer – by Charlotte Mathews (Business Day – December 20, 2013)

December 20, 2013

http://www.bdlive.co.za/

TURKEY has imposed power restrictions on the country’s biggest ferrochrome producer, Eti Krom, which some analysts hope will help to support prices for one of South Africa’s biggest industries. In 2012, South Africa was the world’s second-largest ferrochrome producer, having lost first place to China largely because of rising Eskom electricity tariffs and power shortages.

South Africa’s biggest ferrochrome producers are Glencore Xstrata in a joint venture with Merafe Resources; International Ferro Metals, which is listed in London; Samancor Chrome; Hernic Ferrochrome; ASA Metals; and Mogale Alloys, owned by Afarak Group (formerly Ruukki Group).

Turkey ranks among the world’s top 10 producers. Ferrochrome is mostly used in stainless steel, whose production is forecast to rise about 5.5% a year for the next few years, as it is closely correlated with global gross domestic product growth. However, ferrochrome prices have been weak recently because of a slowdown in the Chinese economy coupled with growing Chinese production.

Gold Set for First Annual Loss in 13 Years – by Matt Day (Wall Street Journal – December 19, 2013)

December 20, 2013

http://online.wsj.com/home-page

Precious Metal on Track to End a 12-Year Bull Run

Gold prices slid to three-year lows Thursday, effectively closing the book on a historic rally that lured investors on both Wall Street and Main Street.

Barring a rebound of unprecedented scale, the price of gold is set to notch its first annual decline in 13 years and its biggest drop since 1981. Gold is down 29% year-to-date.

On its way up, gold attracted legions of investors large and small, including big-name hedge-fund managers such as Paulson & Co.’s John Paulson, Greenlight Capital Inc.’s David Einhorn and Third Point LLC’s Dan Loeb. They bet that the Federal Reserve’s extraordinary stimulus launched after the financial crisis would weaken the dollar and stoke inflation, raising gold’s value as a form of protection.

Many investors got burned this year when Fed officials began to hint at scaling back the central bank’s bond-buying program designed to boost growth.

Numsa will now recruit from mining sector, says Jim [South Africa mining unions conflict] – by Matuma Letsoalo (Mail and Guardian – December 18, 2013)

December 20, 2013

http://mg.co.za/ [Johannesburg, South Africa]

Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim has declared war on the National Union of Mineworkers, saying it will recruit openly in the mining industry.

National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) general secretary Irvin Jim has declared war on its sister union – the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) – saying his union would now recruit openly in the mining industry and welcome NUM members who wanted to join Numsa.

In a move that is intended to appeal to the mining community, Numsa on Wednesday asked its members to donate anything from R100 towards the Marikana Trust, to support families of the 34 miners who were killed by police in August last year.

The NUM, which has been accused by workers of having close ties with mining companies, has lost thousands of workers to rival union Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu). As a results of this, the union lost its prime status as Cosatu’s largest union to Numsa.

Chrome, Cliffs and Fire: how Ontario’s Ring of Fire started burning for all the wrong reasons – by Razvan Isac (Global Business Reports Roundup – December 18, 2013)

December 19, 2013

http://gbroundup.com/

TORONTO, CANADA – The Ring of Fire, named so in honor of Johnny Cash’ famous country ballad, is a mineral rich region situated in Ontario’s deep north, approximately 540 km northeast of Thunder Bay. Containing chromite, nickel, copper, platinum, zinc and gold resources equating over $60 billion in value, it is even said that the Ring of Fire alone could sustain Ontario’s mining industry for a century. However, nothing as good as this comes easy in life, and this particular James Bay Lowlands area is no exception.

While several issues have been on the development agenda since the Ring of Fire’s discovery in 2007, the most controversial and complex ones so far have been the establishment of proper infrastructure and finding the appropriate formula for collaborating with the Matawa First Nations of the region. Given its scale and projected economic benefits, the Ring of Fire has certainly been a topic of high political interest for the last couple of years. However, on November the 20th, this subject became a fiery-hot topic that has since sparked several weeks of intense national media coverage and debate.

Cliffs Natural Resources, probably the largest private player with a stake in the region, announced on the 20th of November that it would be suspending its $3.3 billion Black Thor chromite project indefinitely. The company quoted project timeline uncertainties and the unresolved infrastructure issue as the main reasons for taking the decision. The announcement took the general public by surprise, and subsequently caused immediate and heated political debates, in which the likes of Ontario’s premier, Kathleen Wynne, and Ontario’s Minister of Northern Development and Mines, Michael Gravelle, were put in the spotlight. However, a closer look into the evolution of Cliffs Natural Resources’ Black Thor project developments in 2013 reveals plenty of early signs that this suspension was bound to happen.

BHP to close Perseverance nickel mine – by Oliver Probert (Australian Journal of Mining – December 19, 2013)

December 19, 2013

http://www.theajmonline.com.au/

BHP has ceased operations at its Perseverance mine in Leinster, WA, after the mine was shut following seismic activity in October.

Perseverance was closed on October 31 this year, after nine miners were trapped following a 3.7 magnitude earthquake. All nine were returned to the surface safely, and there were no injuries reported.

After further investigation, BHP has decided to formally cease operations at Perseverance, but will continue to maintain the underground mine – leaving the door open for the potential re-opening of the mine down the track.

BHP’s Leinster operations are part of its Nickel West business unit. “Since the [seismic] event, Nickel West technical and operational teams, supported by independent experts, have been assessing the technical data and risks on the sub-level cave operations and all the options available,” BHP said on Tuesday.

“Following this analysis BHP Billiton has decided it is unable to safely resume operations in the sub-level cave at Perseverance mine.”

Australian bauxite miners are pinning their hopes on a new market in China – by Kathryn Diss (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – December 19, 2013)

December 19, 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/news/

Australian bauxite miners are pinning their hopes on a turnaround in the struggling industry, with a new market likely to open up in China.

Indonesia has long satisfied China’s growing hunger for bauxite to feed its aluminium smelters, which has prevented Australian companies from entering the market.

Now that might change, with Indonesia expected to endorse tough, new restrictions on exports from January. Peter Kopetz from Stockbroking agency State One Capital says he has been closely watching the bauxite price increase in recent months.

“Some of the projects which maybe were marginal beforehand are becoming more economic as the price goes up and we’ve seen a gradual price increase over the last 12, 24 months and we see that continuing,” he said.

“There’s a push for Australia to become a more prominent player in the bauxite industry; we’ve got the quality, we’re close to China and of course we can supply long-term the raw materials to whatever china needs.”

COLUMN-China’s 2014 commodity demand subject to policy influences – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.K. – December 19, 2013)

December 19, 2013

http://uk.reuters.com/

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

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Dec 19 (Reuters) – China’s commodity demand has been lumpy this year, with weakness in crude oil and copper being offset by robust gains in iron ore and coal, and this pattern is likely to continue into next year.

However, the relative winners may change. Much will depend on the track of economic reforms and how much success the world’s largest commodity user has in rotating its economy to be more consumer-led.

China’s official target for gross domestic product growth was 7.5 percent for 2013, and while the target for next year has not yet been announced, it’s likely to be maintained or perhaps lowered slightly. But more important than the overall target for GDP is how the growth is achieved.

The pattern for the past two years has been that China’s economy has seen momentum losses in the key industrial sector, followed by a re-acceleration in growth as policies are implemented to boost infrastructure and construction investment.

Indonesia to Study Rules for Miners With Smelters as Ban Looms – by Yoga Rusmana and Agus Suhana (Bloomberg News – December 19, 2013)

December 19, 2013

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Indonesia, the world’s largest mined nickel producer, will study rules for mining companies operating smelters as a ban on mineral-ore shipments nears, said Coordinating Minister for the Economy Hatta Rajasa.

The government will seek legal advice on the regulations as interpretations differ, Rajasa said today. The law that bans shipments must be fully implemented and companies that don’t have smelters will have to comply, he said.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX), owner of the world’s second-biggest copper mine at Grasberg, said last week it intends to abide by the terms of its contract of work, which allow it to operate the mine and export concentrate. Indonesia is seeking to boost the value of shipments by promoting local processing and is set to prohibit all ore exports after Jan. 12.

“We will look at regulations but they cannot contradict the law,” Rajasa told reporters in Jakarta. “We must pay attention to business concerns.”

Three-month nickel advanced 0.2 percent to $14,165 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange at 8:39 p.m. in Singapore.

Go short gold, long nickel – Barclays – by Geoff Candy (Mineweb.com – December 19, 2013)

December 19, 2013

http://www.mineweb.com/

The bank expects 2014 to be another tough year for commodities but sees good things to come from a move out of structural surplus.

GRONINGEN (MINEWEB) – 2014 is likely to be another difficult year for Commodities, writes Barclays, in a note out earlier this week. But, it expects base metals to out perform both oil and precious metals in the early parts of the year.

The main reasons for this are twofold. Firstly, on the base metals side, Barclays expects 2014 to mark the end of a period of structural surplus that has afflicted base metal markets to a greater or lesser degree since 2007/2008.

“Markets such as aluminium and lead are expected to move into deficit, while surpluses in nickel and zinc are likely to shrink dramatically. Even in copper, the one exception, where we expect supply to grow faster than demand, the surplus next year is likely to be very modest indeed,” the bank writes.

This, Barclays says is primarily a result of an acceleration in demand growth that is currently running at an annualised rate of around 8%, which it points out is double the level of the first quarter of 2013.