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International Media Resource Articles

Proponents, critics draw opposite lessons from recent copper mines – by John Myers (Duluth News Tribune – October 5, 2013)

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

Supporters of Minnesota copper mining often cite the Flambeau Mine near Ladysmith in north-central Wisconsin as an example of a mine that can run well, be played out and ultimately be “reclaimed” while not causing significant environmental problems.

While environmental groups cite ongoing issues with runoff at the Flambeau site, including high levels of copper in a small stream in excess of water quality standards, an August U.S. Court of Appeals decision ruled the company is not in violation of its permit. That decision is being interpreted by mining supporters in Minnesota as an example of a copper mine operating and closing without environmental doom predicted by critics.

The small Wisconsin deposit, discovered in 1969, was mined along the Flambeau River between 1993 and 1997, producing 181,000 tons of copper, 334,000 ounces of gold and 3.3 million ounces of silver.

“Yes, copper, nickel and other much needed metal production can and has been done safely and successfully, without polluting local waters,” the industry group Mining Minnesota notes in a recent publication. The Flambeau mine is “a great example of this success … and has since been closed and reclaimed in full compliance with Wisconsin laws.”

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Farm and Food: Potash market isn’t for sissies – by Alan Guebert (Journal Star.com – October 5, 2013)

http://journalstar.com/ [Lincoln, Nebraska]

There are two reasons to keep up to speed on the fast pace of events in what would seem to be the very dull world of potash.

The first is that the key players in this once tightly controlled market continue to lose their grip on it. According to analysts, prices for this key fertilizer will continue to drop — to nearly $300 per ton, some say — through the end of 2013.

If they’re right, that’s more than $100 a ton less than a year ago and a gargantuan $600 to $700 per ton below the record price of five years ago.

In short, go long potash; it’s the best time in years to buy it and apply it. The second reason to pay attention to the potash market is that, in truth, you can’t take your eyes off of what quickly is turning into a Russian version of an American soap opera.

Nine weeks ago the Russian-Belarusian potash cartel, a rocky twosome composed of Russia’s Uralkali and Belarus’ Belaruskali, parted company when the Russians simply called their marriage off.

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Rick Mills: Greenland Is the Final Frontier for Lower-Cost Mining – Interviewed by Kevin Michael Grace (The Metals Report – October 1, 2013)

http://www.streetwisereports.com/

Industrial minerals like copper and nickel are essential to global economic expansion. But everywhere you look, grades are getting lower, and costs are getting much, much higher. Is there a way out? Rick Mills says mining companies need to look to Greenland. In this interview with The Metals Report, the owner and host ofAhead of the Herd.com lauds the world’s largest island for its vast resources, its one-stop regulatory system and its year-round access to ocean transportation.

The Metals Report: You never really believed that there was anything resembling an economic recovery in the United States, correct?

Rick Mills: I don’t believe you can have an economic recovery with the type of jobs that have been created in the last few years. Wages have stagnated. The velocity of money, how many times it turns over in the economy, how many times it’s spent, is at a record low,

TMR: So the decision by the Federal Reserve to hold off on tapering quantitative easing didn’t surprise you?

RM: I’ve gone on record saying there would be no tapering this time around, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t coming—it certainly is. But it will likely be very gradual, and the Fed will start only when they feel the economic data support such a move. I firmly believe, however, that the Fed’s zero interest rate policy is here to stay, and this is very important for gold investors.

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Fickle nickel takes its toll on market darling Mirabela – by Sarah-Jane Tasker (The Australian – October 4, 2013)

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

MIRABELA Nickel once rode the commodities boom, hitting a share price peak of more than $7 in early 2008, but a perfect storm of low prices, debt, decreasing cash balances and a cancelled contract has seen the company join the ranks of the penny dreadfuls. Some 80 per cent has been wiped off the value of its share price in the last month alone — from an already low base.

This is a company that was valued by the market at about $800 million in 2008. Now? $14m. The price of a decent shack on Sydney’s waterfront.

Perth-based Mirabela this week became the latest high-profile casualty of a commodity that has been struggling more than most others.

Perth-based private equity firm Resource Capital Fund is Mirabela’s largest shareholder and is the hardest hit by the share price fall. The resources-focused fund stepped in to support the company last May, tipping in $20m at a share price of 40c, which at the time was at a 17.6 per cent premium to the junior’s share price. It also underwrote a $100m raising. The miner said at the time that the funds would strengthen its balance sheet.

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Myanmar’s resources star dims after mine reform delay – by Melanie Burton (Reuters India – October 4, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

SINGAPORE, Oct 4 (Reuters) – A year ago Myanmar was the hot new destination for resources investors looking to make a fast buck in a country opening up to the outside world, but a new mining law is still not passed, the hot-money crowd has filed out and reality has set in. Yet while funding options may have slimmed, opportunity is still knocking, industry participants at a conference in Singapore said this week.

“A year ago everyone was going to Myanmar. You couldn’t get on a flight there because every flight was booked,” said Edward Rochette, chief executive of Canadian explorer East Asia Minerals Corporation, which has applied for an exploration permit in the country.

“Investors were thinking: ‘It’s wide open, it’s the Wild West, we’ll just sign and be done’. Unfortunately, it’s going to take time,” he added.

Explorers have banged up against processing times for prospecting permits stretching out several years while commodity prices have fizzled and debt and equity funding markets have dried up. The country has to fight harder to attract capital.

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FEATURE-Goodbye London, hello Gaborone: De Beers sales head to Africa – by Clara Ferreira-Marques (Reuters U.S. – October 3, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – Oct 3 (Reuters) – In a spartan office in the London headquarters of De Beers, Elliot Tannenbaum holds a cloudless stone the size and shape of a domino to the light: a rough diamond worth millions, even before it is cut and polished.

A veteran diamantaire, Tannenbaum’s family firm is one of some 80 buyers handpicked by the diamond giant to buy rough gems from its mines, under an arcane system of pre-determined allocations and regular sales meetings known as “sights”.

“I have been coming here some ten times a year for 35 years, I have missed only two or three sights. It is part of our routine,” says Tannenbaum, whose Leo Schachter group, founded in New York and now headquartered in Israel, is a major manufacturer of polished diamonds.

But this week’s sight is De Beers’ last in London. From now on, the action will be in Gaborone, dusty capital of Botswana.

The office allocated to Tannenbaum’s firm, his dedicated De Beers contacts and the black-and-yellow attache case stacked with clear plastic bags of diamonds will move south along with the whole of the company’s sales operation – 85 out of 300 London-based De Beers employees.

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A girl’s very best friend: $55 million necklace on sale in Singapore – by John O’Callaghan (Reuters India – October 4, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

SINGAPORE – (Reuters) – For someone with $55 million to spare on an egg-sized diamond, the world’s most expensive necklace is on sale this month at a jewellery show in Singapore, reflecting Asia’s growing appetite for precious gems and expensive baubles.

Known as L’Incomparable, the necklace created by luxury jeweller Mouawad features a yellow, internally flawless diamond of more than 407 carats suspended from a rose gold setting that is studded with 90 white diamonds weighing nearly 230 carats.

“Serious interest” has been expressed by a couple of potential buyers from Asia, said Jean Nasr, managing director of Mouawad in Singapore, declining to identify their nationalities.

“People who will get something like this are looking at it from a different perspective because this is definitely an investment piece,” he told Reuters.

The necklace, whose centrepiece diamond was found by chance in a pile of mining rubble by a young girl in the Democratic Republic of Congo about 30 years ago, will be the flashiest item on offer at the Singapore JewelFest on October 11-20.

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SA situation the biggest risk to platinum prices — Natixis – by Allan Seccombe (Business Day – October 3, 2013)

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

THE direction of the platinum price — and to some extent the palladium price — will be determined by developments in South Africa over the next two years, Natixis has said in a Metals Review.

Natixis, a Paris-based investment banker, said tensions between workers and platinum mining companies were likely to remain high next year. “For the next two years, the situation in South Africa will remain the biggest risk to platinum prices,” Natixis said in its second-half review. South Africa is the world’s single largest source of platinum, making up about 80% of supply.

“Adverse government decisions, a protracted power outage and most importantly a serious escalation in labour unrest could lead to a significant shortage and higher platinum prices,” it said.

“The South African government seems to be unable to solve the root of the problem facing the mining companies. We are still years behind the completion of a reliable national power supply, and the government has been unable to resolve the core economic issues facing the population and the country,” it said.

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Tracing the Chinese gold rush – by Jan Skoyles (Mineweb.com – October 1, 2013)

http://www.mineweb.com/

According to Jan Skoyles, 2013 will be remembered by the gold market as the year of China, but the Asian giant’s domination, while quick hasn’t happened overnight.

LONDON (THE REAL ASSET COMPANY) – The year 2013 in the gold investment market will be remembered as the year of China, so we’ve produced a stunning infographic detailing China’s great golden rise to power.

In just a few months the world’s largest country will overtake India as the biggest consumer of gold and its gold market continues to break records.

A country that already mines over 400 tonnes of gold a year, China still demands more physical gold no matter the price. Between January and July this year the Shanghai Gold Exchange delivered more than 1,333 tonnes to gold investors.

In the last 100 years China’s gold mine productivity has climbed from just 4 tons of gold in 1949 to an expected 440 tons this year, none of which is exported. Hong Kong imports have been over 600 tonnes this year alone, but still more gold is demanded.

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Iamgold CEO committed to low-grade gold – by Allison Martell (Reuters U.S. – October 3, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

Oct 2 (Reuters) – Stephen Letwin is a man of conviction. The chief executive of mid-tier gold miner Iamgold Corp believes low-grade deposits are the future, whether the industry is ready or not.

With prices down and higher costs cutting into margins – already slim at many low-grade mines – explorers that once boasted about the size of their deposits are now wooing investors with tales of high-grade zones.

But Letwin, who was touting low-grade gold last year, before spot prices dropped more than 20 percent, sees no reason to change his tune. “I don’t care who you are – we are all migrating to lower grade,” he said in an interview. “It’s just a fact of life.”

Iamgold’s operations in Africa and South America have relatively low concentrations of gold. At the Rosebel mine in Suriname, for example, the reserve grade is one gram per tonne.

That is not far off the average reserve grades of the senior producers, but unlike some of those companies’ mines, Rosebel and Iamgold’s Essakane mine in Burkina Faso do not produce silver, copper or other valuable minerals that are often recovered with gold.

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Alaska’s Zombie Gold Mine to Nowhere – by James Greiff (Bloomberg News – October 1, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

James Greiff is a Bloomberg View editorial board member.

What happens when the main financial backer pulls out of a project? The answer is usually clear: The deal fails, which is what the foes of a gigantic gold and copper mine in Alaska are counting on. But in this case the mine has only been dealt a setback and is far from dead.

That about sums up the state of play after last month’s announcement by Anglo American Plc that it would pull out of a partnership that planned to build what’s known as Pebble Mine, proposed for the Bristol Bay region of southwest Alaska. If the mine were developed, it would be the biggest of its type in North America — and located on the headwaters of rivers flowing into the world’s most productive salmon fishery.

Environmentalists, the commercial salmon industry and local indigenous tribes were ecstatic, as one might expect. They had argued — no doubt correctly — that the mine couldn’t be safely developed without damaging the salmon fishery, and they waged a savvy campaign that no doubt raised the stakes for Anglo American.

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Rio Replacing Train Drivers Paid Like U.S. Surgeons – by Elisabeth Behrmann (Bloomberg News – October 3, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Train drivers employed by Rio Tinto Group to haul iron ore across Australia’s outback make about the same money as surgeons in the U.S. It’s little wonder the mining company will replace them with robot locomotives.

The 400-plus workers in the remote Pilbara region who earn about A$240,000 ($224,000) a year probably are the highest-paid train drivers in the world, according to U.K.-based transport historian Christian Wolmar. Australia’s decade-long mining boom has sucked up skilled workers, raising wages for engineers to drivers at Rio, the second-largest exporter of the mineral, and its closest competitors, Vale SA (VALE) and BHP Billiton Ltd.

he three companies that control about 59 percent of the $145 billion-a-year global iron ore trade are automating to bolster margins and squeeze out extra capacity as they boost supply to a record to feed steel mills in China, the biggest buyer. The push by Rio (RIO), which aims to move about 290 million metric tons on its rail network by next year, is expected to be the biggest driver for cost cuts in its iron ore unit after currency swings, according to Deutsche Bank AG.

“All producers are chasing better margins and stronger returns,” said Chris Drew, an analyst in Sydney with Royal Bank of Canada.

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The X factor – how well timed is Davis’ return to mining? – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – October 3, 2013)

http://www.mineweb.com/

Former Xstrata CEO, Mick Davis, has raised $1 billion towards what appears to be his aim of creating a new major diversified mining company from scratch.

LONDON (MINEWEB) – Given the low commodity prices currently facing the sector, Mick Davis, former highly successful dealmaking CEO of Xstrata, could well have picked the perfect time to start a new company.

On Monday, Davis announced his return and, importantly, that he has already raised $1 billion with which he hopes to become a major player in the diversified mining sector – in short birthing another Xstrata (he has even named his new company X2 Resources). Buying when prices are depressed would seem to be the ideal time for a well-funded entity to enter the market, provided prices don’t fall too much further.

But even if commodity prices do fall further, the downside is probably relatively low given the extent of the fall to date, which has left companies really focusing on savings and cost cutting which should leave them in a far better position to weather any continuing storm. And in setting up a new major mining company you don’t invest for the short term anyway, but look for long term growth – and the depths of a market downturn are obviously the best time to do this.

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Appetite for Destruction – by Damien Ma and William Adams (Foreign Policy Magazine – October 1, 2013)

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/

Why feeding China’s 1.3 billion people could leave the rest of the world hungry.

On Aug. 20, the Australian mining giant BHP Billiton announced that it will pump nearly $3 billion into developing a deposit of Canadian potash, a mineral used in the manufacture of fertilizer destined for farms fields across the world. And in late September, Chinese pork producer Shuanghui officially purchased Smithfield Foods in the largest Chinese acquisition ever made in the United States. The companies’ investments are both decisions that speak to a vote of confidence in global food consumption growth over the next decade — and nowhere will bellies be filling up faster than in China.

For three decades, resource-intensive manufacturing fueled China’s spectacular economic rise. By 2012, the country was consuming nearly half of the world’s coal and producing 46 percent of its steel, 43 percent of its aluminum, and about 60 percent of its cement. The Chinese economy has slowed in 2013 in part because of the government’s recognition that such a resource-intensive growth model has become unsustainable.

As a result, Beijing is trying to rebalance away from exports and investments and toward domestic consumption. Companies like BHP Billiton are betting that China’s rebalancing will spur rapid growth in demand for food and the inputs needed to produce it.

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Wanted by the taxman: Indonesia’s $5 billion of lost coal – by Fergus Jensen (Reuters U.S. – October 1, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

JAKARTA – (Reuters) – Indonesia may be the world’s top exporter of thermal coal, but that masks an embarrassing fact for a government scrambling to raise revenue – more than $5 billion worth of the fuel is mined illegally and goes untaxed each year.

Export and consumption data shows Indonesia produces around 12-15 percent more coal annually than the ministry of energy and mineral resources reports. That’s enough to supply Taiwan, the world’s fifth-largest coal importer, for a year.

The $460 million of lost tax revenue that industry officials estimate this represents would provide Jakarta, which is considering roughly doubling royalties paid by coal producers, with some of the funds it needs to redress its budget deficit.

The gap between recorded and actual output has also attracted the attention of Indonesia’s top anti-graft agency the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

A combination of export data from the Bureau of Statistics, using customs information, and consumption data from state electricity utility Perusahaan Listrik Negara PLNEG.UL, shows Indonesia’s total coal output at 451.9 million tons in 2012.

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