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International Media Resource Articles

A Bitter ‘Fertilizer War’ Gripping Belarus and Russia Is Helping U.S. Farmers – by Andrew E. Kramer (New York Times – September 16, 2013)

http://www.nytimes.com/

MOSCOW — American farmers are getting an unexpected windfall from a contentious fight between Russia and Belarus, a former Soviet splinter state.

The subject of the fight is potash, a fertilizer. The score so far: One imprisoned Russian business executive, the disintegration of a once-effective cartel that kept world potash prices high and political tension between the two countries.

What is being called the “fertilizer war” is the latest of numerous trade and economic spats between Russia and Belarus, whose leaders, though presiding over similar autocratic political systems, do not get along personally, Russian political analysts say. Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, president of Belarus, and Vladimir V. Putin, president of Russia, by most accounts detest each another. Their feelings have spilled over into the fertilizer business.

The potash problem reached a peak on July 30, when Uralkali, the Russian potash company, announced it was withdrawing from an international cartel called the Belarusian Potash Company, or B.P.C., which was created to keep prices high.

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Conflict Minerals: The Price of Precious – by Jeffrey Gettleman (National Geographic – October 2013)

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/

The minerals in our electronic devices have bankrolled unspeakable violence in the Congo.

The first child soldier pops out of the bush clutching an AK-47 assault rifle in one hand and a handful of fresh marijuana buds in the other. The kid, probably 14 or 15, has this big, goofy, mischievous grin on his face, like he’s just stolen something—which he probably has—and he’s wearing a ladies’ wig with fake braids dangling down to his shoulders.

Within seconds his posse materializes from the thick, green leaves all around us, about ten other heavily armed youngsters dressed in ratty camouflage and filthy T-shirts, dropping down from the sides of the jungle and blocking the red dirt road in front of us. Our little Toyota truck is suddenly swarmed and immobilized by a four-and-a-half-foot-tall army.

This is on the road to Bavi, a rebel-controlled gold mine on the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s wild eastern edge. Congo is sub-Saharan Africa’s largest country and one of its richest on paper, with an embarrassment of diamonds, gold, cobalt, copper, tin, tantalum, you name it—trillions’ worth of natural resources. But because of never ending war, it is one of the poorest and most traumatized nations in the world.

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Canadian exchanges push to relax private placement rules – by Allison Martell (Reuters U.S. – September 20, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

TORONTO – (Reuters) – Canada’s main stock exchanges are pushing for regulatory changes that could make it easier for retail investors to participate in small financings long deemed too risky for the general public, a move that could help shore up the country’s hard-hit junior mining sector.

John McCoach, president of market operator TMX Group Ltd’s small-cap TSX Venture Exchange, said his organization has asked Canada’s securities regulators to consider allowing a public company’s existing shareholders to participate in private placements.

Private placements are share issues that are offered to select buyers such as institutional investors and wealthy individuals who qualify as “accredited investors,” and not to the general public.

The TSX Venture Exchange, the main trading venue for hundreds of small Canadian-listed mining and energy companies, wants to expand the qualifying group.

Under its proposal, investors who have held stock in the issuer or 60 days or more would qualify to be included in private placements, but their investments would be capped at C$10,000 ($9,800) per company per year.

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EPA sets first-ever curbs on power plant pollution – by Valerie Volcovici (Reuters U.S. – September 20, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

WASHINGTON – (Reuters) – The Obama administration on Friday announced first-ever regulations setting strict limits on the amount of carbon pollution that can be generated by any new U.S. power plant, which quickly sparked a backlash from supporters of the coal industry and are certain to face legal challenges.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s long-awaited guidelines would make it near impossible to build coal plants without using technology to capture carbon emissions that foes say is unproven and uneconomic. The rules, a revision of a previous attempt by the EPA to create emissions standards for fossil fuel plants, are the first step in President Barack Obama’s climate change package, announced in June.

The revised rule contained a few surprises after the agency held extensive discussions with industry and environmental groups, raising concerns by industry that the EPA’s new restrictions on existing power plants, due to be unveiled next year, will be tough.

But the regulations announced on Friday cover only new plants. Under the proposal, new large natural gas-fired turbines would need to meet a limit of 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt hour, while new small natural gas-fired turbines would need to meet a limit of 1,100 pounds of CO2 per MWh.

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South Africa’s raw chrome exports soar as ferrochrome edge is lost – by Martin Creamer (MiningWeekly.com – September 20, 2013)

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

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa’s long-standing position as the top global ferrochrome producer is being lost and the export of raw, unbeneficiated chromite ore is on the rise from this country.

Heinz Pariser Alloy Metals and Steel Market Research director Dr Gerhard Pariser, who addressed the MetalBulletin Event’s chromite conference in Johannesburg this week, says that South Africa’s export of ore is rising sharply and its export of ferrochrome is declining.

This is completely counter to South African government policy, which promotes the beneficiation that ferrochrome embodies. “To put it in a very simple way, Africa is supplying and China’s buying,” says Pariser.

The local production of ferrochrome creates five times more value in the South African economy that chrome ore extraction and three times more jobs. For every ton of ferrochrome exported, R9 000 is put into South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) compared with only R1 600 for every ton of ore exported.

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Iran to invest over 8 billion euros in aluminium sector – by Emma Farge (Reuters India – September 20, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

GENEVA – (Reuters) – Iran plans to invest around 8.5 billion euros ($11.4 billion) in its aluminium industry as part of plans to nearly quadruple production by 2025, an official at mining group Imidro said on Thursday.

Iran is the 20th largest producer of aluminium in the world, according to the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organisation (Imidro), and needs the extra supplies to meet demand which is growing by 10 percent a year.

Aluminium is a lightweight metal used widely in transport, packaging and construction. It can also be used to make tubes for uranium enrichment gas centrifuges.

Iran’s economy has been hobbled by western sanctions aimed at pressuring Tehran to stop efforts to enrich uranium to levels that could be used in weapons.

Iran produced 338,000 tonnes of aluminium last year and is aiming for 770,000 tonnes in 2016 and 1.5 million tonnes by 2025, Panthea Geramishoar, senior expert in Imidro’s non-ferrous department said at a Metal Bulletin conference in Geneva.

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Afghanistan’s plan to jumpstart economy with Chinese mining investment under threat – by Lynne O’Donnell (South China Morning Post – September 20, 2013)

http://www.scmp.com/news/asia

Plan to base country’s future growth on mining may have struck a dead-end as China moves to renegotiate multi billion-dollar deal

Kabul – Afghanistan’s dream of using profits from its vast mineral resources to fund post-war development is fading after China signalled its intention to undo a multi billion-dollar agreement that had been underpinning Kabul’s plans for creating a mining industry.

Fifteen months before the international presence in Afghanistan is reduced, Kabul may have to scale back plans for attracting mining companies to exploit its mineral reserves, including copper, gold, iron ore and rare earths, worth US$1 trillion.

A combination of related factors are working against Afghanistan. As the commodities cycle turns, prices drop, mining firms scale back on new projects, and China’s economy slows, experts said that Afghanistan appears to have missed out on the resources boom for now.

And the country has yet to pass its new Mining Law, which some say could be delayed further by concerns about such issues as community compensation and environment protection, industry sources said. Ministry officials, however, are confident it will pass within weeks.

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Tribes critical of PolyMet’s draft on mining impact – by Marshall Helmberger (Timberjay – September 18, 2013)

http://www.timberjay.com/ [Northeast Minnesota]

REGIONAL – Tribal authorities cooperating in the preparation of PolyMet Mining’s supplemental environmental impact statement are expressing fundamental disagreements with key science and conclusions in the 1,800-page preliminary draft document. In addition, they are challenging the longstanding claim by lead agencies and mining supporters that Minnesota has and maintains strict enforcement of environmental rules pertaining to operating mines in the state.

The lengthy tribal comments, provided by the Fond du Lac Band as well as the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, or GLIFWC, appear to have played a role in the latest delay in the expected release of the draft EIS. The report had been scheduled for release in early September, but officials overseeing the project now say the draft version will be released in late November.

The report also faced significant critique by some officials within the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for a large number of errors. Those DNR comments will likely lead to changes before the draft report is issued in November. Some of the tribal comments may lead to changes, but in other cases, those comments will be incorporated into a dissenting view that’s expected to be included in an appendix to the study.

The extensive comment provided by a number of agencies was not unexpected, according to Steve Colvin, the DNR’s Deputy Director for Ecological and Water Resources.

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Aluminium industry at odds over supply deals, warehouse reforms – by Emma Farge (Reuters U.S. – September 18, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

GENEVA, Sept 18 (Reuters) – The world’s top aluminium producers and consumers are at loggerheads over the thorny issue of what price, or premium, should be paid to secure metal deliveries, and will conclude fewer fixed term supply deals this year, industry sources said.

Producers Rusal , Alcoa and Rio Tinto are descending on Geneva for an industry gathering that marks the start of annual supply negotiations with aluminium product makers.

But unlike in recent years, top consumers like Novelis and Rexam have a strong hand to play thanks to U.S. regulatory scrutiny into claims big banks and trade houses artificially inflated aluminium premiums by building backlogs at London Metal Exchange (LME) warehouses. The scrutiny comes alongside a proposed overhaul of warehouse practices on the LME, which has already helped knock European spot premiums down some 20 percent off a June record high near $300 a tonne.

“I’m sure term premiums will be lower than $230-250 a tonne,” said a source who represents consumers. “Producers are getting nervous about the implementation of LME warehouse rules (and) I think most consumers are going to continue to live hand to mouth because they think the premiums are going to come down further.”

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THE PRESIDENT AND THE PIPELINE – by Ryan Lizza (New Yorker Magazine – September 16, 2013)

http://www.newyorker.com/

The campaign to make the Keystone XL the test of Obama’s resolve on climate change.

On the day of his second Inauguration, in January, Barack Obama delivered an address of unabashed liberal ambition and promise. As recently as early April, before the realities of the world and the House of Representatives made themselves painfully evident, the President retained the confidence of a leader on the brink of enormous achievements. It seemed possible, even probable, that he would win modest gun-control legislation, an immigration-reform law, and the elusive grand bargain with Republicans to resolve the serial crises over the federal budget.

And he seemed determined to take on even the most complicated and ominous problem of all: climate change. The President, who had a mixed environmental record after his first term, vowed that he would commit his Administration to combatting global warming, saying that “failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.”

The President flew to San Francisco on April 3rd for a series of fund-raisers. He stopped in first at a cocktail reception hosted by Tom Steyer, a fifty-six-year-old billionaire, former hedge-fund manager, and major donor to the Democratic Party. Steyer lives in the city’s Sea Cliff neighborhood, in a house overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. As the President’s motorcade headed to the party, several hundred activists were assembling along the route to his second event—a dinner hosted by Ann and Gordon Getty, in Pacific Heights, on a street known as Billionaires’ Row.

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U.S. House passes National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – September 19, 2013)

http://www.mineweb.com/

H.R. 761 faces an uphill battle in a Democratically-controlled U.S. Senate even if the measure manages to survive in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

RENO (MINEWEB) – As the Republicans of the U.S. House of Representatives once again voted Wednesday to streamline mining permit approvals, the question remains as to whether the proposed National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act will again die in the Democratically-controlled U.S. Senate.

The House passed H.R. 761, the National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act, in a 246-178 vote with only 15 Democrats voting in favor.

This time around even House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) issued a public statement applauding passage of the measure, introduced by Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nevada, the former president of the Nevada Mining Association.

“The United States has abundant natural resources, including critical and strategic materials that are vital to our manufacturers, medical providers and military personnel; and that provides the basis for common household products.

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UPDATE 1-Koba Tin to seek arbitration if Indonesia scraps mining permit – by Niluksi Koswanage (Reuters India – September 19, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 19 (Reuters) – PT Koba Tin, a subsidiary of the world’s second-biggest tin producer, will seek international arbitration if Indonesia’s government refuses to extend its permit to operate a mine, the chief executive of the Malaysian parent company said.

It is the latest corporate wrangle to raise questions over Indonesia’s openness to foreign investment. Southeast Asia’s biggest economy had pushed for more control over its natural resources, ranging from coal to gold, in the past few years but is rethinking the policy after a recent slide in its currency.

The dispute has been brewing since last year when Indonesian government officials said Koba Tin’s permit would not be renewed and that state-run PT Timah should take over the concession in the Bangka-Belitung islands off the east coast of Sumatra island. PT Timah is a minority shareholder in Koba Tin.

The government has since softened its stance, launching a review of the concession, which is eight times the size of New York’s Manhattan island. It was due to announce a decision this week.

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Pressure on Barrick Board Centers on Long-Time Directors – by Liezel Hill & Katia Dmitrieva (Bloomberg News – September 18, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Investor pressure to change the board at Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX), the world’s biggest producer of the metal, is centering on long-serving directors, including former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

Canada’s biggest pension funds want new independent board members and say the miner should consider replacing directors who have been there longer than 20 years and are close to Co-chairman and founder Peter Munk, according to two investors briefed on the matter who asked not to be identified because the information hasn’t been made public.

Barrick said yesterday it will add new independent directors and strengthen its executive pay policies after investors criticized governance at the company. The gold miner took $8.7 billion of writedowns in the second quarter and cut its dividend 75 percent after gold prices fell the most in three decades.

“The tenure on the board is far too long and there are far too many non-independent directors,” said Robert Gill, a Toronto-based fund manager at Aston Hill Financial Inc. (AHF), which manages C$7.8 billion ($7.6 billion), including Barrick shares. “It’s time to change the board and we need to bring in more independence into the board,” he said by phone Sept. 11.

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Nolan, U.S. House vote for quicker mining permits – by John Myers (Duluth News Tribune – September 19, 2013)

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan joined with other mining supporters Wednesday when the U.S. House passed legislation to streamline federal environmental permitting for mining projects.

U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan joined with other mining supporters Wednesday when the U.S. House passed legislation to streamline environmental permitting for mining projects on federal lands.

The Bill, HF 761, called the National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act of 2013, passed the Republican-controlled House by a 246 to 178 vote.

The bill declares most new mining projects as strategic for the nation, speeds up the federal agency review process and restricts efforts to file lawsuits to stop such projects. The bill essentially sets a 30-month limit for environmental review and a 60-day limit for any challenges.

Nolan, D-Crosby, was one of only 15 Democrats to vote in favor of the bill. He had said in recent weeks that he was undecided on the bill, and opponents of faster-paced mining projects in Minnesota bombarded Nolan with calls to vote no.

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Guest Post: Wisconsin Needs Iron Ore Mining to Grow the Economy and For a Better Tomorrow For All – by Brett Healy (Minerals Make Life.org – September 18, 2013)

http://mineralsmakelife.org/

Brett Healy is president of the MacIver Institute for Public Policy—Wisconsin’s free market voice.

Across a 22-mile-long stretch of Northern Wisconsin, lies more than 2 billion tons of iron ore— a key material in the production of American made steel. Wisconsin’s resources account for an estimated 15 percent of all recoverable iron ore in the United States, representing a deposit critical to U.S. economic competitiveness.

Much progress has been made in recent months to develop Wisconsin’s robust mineral wealth and provide the far-reaching economic benefits that come along with this development. After the passage of Wisconsin’s iron ore mining reform in March 2013, the industry worked swiftly to respond to the updated environmental regulation, which sets a 420-day limit for the state’s Department of Natural Resources to approve or deny a permit. Gogebic Taconite, the owner of the proposed mine in Ashland and Iron counties, spent the summer exploring the deposit and sharing with the public its plans for the project.

If progress continues, the proposed mine could provide more than 700 direct, well-paying jobs that will change the fortune of families in the area for generations to come. It will also indirectly support an additional 2,100 jobs— all in an economically depressed part of Wisconsin that needs help. The mine could also contribute more than $600 million to the state’s GDP, a boost that would positively affect all Wisconsinites.

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