Twitter

International Media Resource Articles

Japan’s JX to develop its mines, eyes stake buys in upstream copper push – by Yuka Obayashi (Reuters India – September 19, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

TOKYO, Sept 19 (Reuters) – JX Nippon Mining & Metals Corp will focus on development of its own copper mines in South America but may also look at buying stakes in other projects as Japan’s top smelter aims to cut its dependency on major miners for ore, a senior executive said.

Japanese copper smelters are stepping up acquisitions of upstream metal assets and development of copper mines to hedge against any increase in ore prices as their profit margins on smelting declines.

JX Nippon Mining is aiming to raise the volume of copper content coming from its own mine interests for refining to an annual 250,000 tonnes in 2015 and then to 350,000 tonnes by around 2020, its parent JX Holdings Inc had said in March. Around 100,000 tonnes of in-house copper content in concentrate was used to refine metal in 2012.

“We want to achieve our 350,000 tonnes goal first, then move further into upstream where we expect higher profit return,” Keiichi Goto, deputy chief executive officer of JX Nippon Mining, told Reuters in an interview earlier this week.

JX’s rival Sumitomo Metal Mining Co Ltd also plans to boost annual volume of copper content procured from its own mining interests to 300,000 tonnes by the 2021 business year from 120,000 tonnes now.

Read more

Lundin Sees Growth in Rio’s Michigan Cast-Off: Corporate Canada – by Gerrit De Vynck (Bloomberg News – September 18, 2013)

http://www.businessweek.com/

Lundin Mining Corp., the best performer among Canadian base-metal companies, is betting that a cast-off from the world’s second-biggest miner will help double output.

Lundin agreed to buy the Eagle nickel and copper mine from Rio Tinto Group for $315 million in June and plans to bring it into production by the end of next year, Chief Executive Officer Paul Conibear said. Eagle is the company’s first new mine after emerging from two aborted takeovers in 2011. Conibear said he wants to boost companywide annual output to about 500,000 metric tons within five years.

“We’re back to basics to re-grow our company,” he said Sept. 13 in a telephone interview. “We’re looking at trying to increase our cash flow through producing facilities.”

Lundin plans to expand while mining companies including Rio and BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP), the world’s largest, sell assets and reduce spending amid lower prices. Copper has slumped 11 percent this year, nickel dropped 19 percent and zinc is down 11 percent on the London Metal Exchange after growth slowed in China, the world’s largest consumer of metals.

Read more

COLUMN-China’s pollution steps need bite, will cost money – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – September 18, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

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

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Sept 18 (Reuters) – China’s new plans to cut coal use and tackle pollution have a sense of deja vu about them, being the latest in a series of measures aimed at improving air quality in the world’s second-largest economy.

But the key question, as always with environmental moves in China, is will they be enforced this time or whether once again regulation will be soft and easily side-stepped by provincial and local governments, or polluting companies.

On the face of it, the measures announced last week on the government’s website seem sensible and achievable, with the key aim to reduce consumption of fossil fuels, which in China is mainly coal, to below 65 percent of total primary energy use by 2017.

This is a relatively modest decline from the 66.8 percent share fossil fuels held in 2012, but once again the devil will be in the detail.

The announced plans include cutting coal consumption, mainly by closing polluting steel mills, factories and smelters, with a target being Hebei province, the largest steel-producing region.

Read more

New business venture aims to transform global ferrochrome business – by Brendan Ryan (Business Day – September 18, 2013)

http://www.bdlive.co.za/ (South Africa)

DUBAI-based Russian businessman Alibek Issaev has teamed up with South African businessman Abbas Moti to develop a low- and medium-carbon ferrochrome smelter near Rustenburg that they claim will transform the ferrochrome business.

Mr Issaev is taking a 50% stake in private South African company FerroChrome Furnaces (FCF), which is controlled by the Moti family for an undisclosed amount.

The plant is at the commissioning stage and the aim is to boost production of low- and medium-carbon ferrochrome to 420,000 tonnes a year over the next 24 months, targeting a business that is dominated by ferrochrome producers located in Kazakhstan and Russia, in particular Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation.

Also involved in the deal is former Sentula Coal chairman Sir Sam Jonah. According to FCF spokesman Ashruf Kaka, Sir Sam is the nonexecutive chairman of FCF but has no business stake in the transaction and is only involved because of his long-standing friendship with the Moti family.

Read more

Juniors cull approaches as alternative gold narrative takes effect – by Simon Rees (MiningWeekly.com – September 17, 2013)

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Head of Kaiser Research Online, John Kaiser, delivered his keynote speech at the Toronto Resource Investment Conference on September 13, telling delegates the gold narrative is changing and that hundreds of juniors were about to be culled.

Kaiser started by considering the resource supercycle’s effect on the metals markets over the past ten years, noting the current retrenchment as China and other Asian economies witnessed a fall back in growth.

The economic performance of the US and Europe would become the driving force for the next few years, he said. “But we’re not going to see demand ratchet up because these economies aren’t going to grow at huge rates. There’s also lot of new supply for metal coming on stream over the next few years.”

Kaiser predicted it will take four or five years before demand starts outstripping supply at a noteworthy rate. “This means we’ll have to live with sideways metal prices that won’t go up in a big way except under extreme circumstances.”

Kaiser had analysed merger and acquisition (M&A) activity through the TSX-V over the previous decade. “There was $129-billion-worth of takeover bids that involved juniors,” he said.

Read more

‘Price of Gold’: Mining in Mongolia [Documentary] – by Cynthia Fuchs (Pop Matters.com – September 17, 2013)

http://www.popmatters.com/

I Think It’s Like a Human Life

“Everything is difficult.” As she speaks, Aagi bends over a cook fire, preparing supper for a crew of gold prospectors. “I’m the only woman and have to cook for many men,” she goes on, “This is a tough situation, I think. I’ve never cooked so much.”

Cooking isn’t the only difficulty Aagi faces. As revealed in the film Price of Gold, the current excursion employing her doesn’t have a schedule or even a specific goal so much as it has hope. Or, as the gold digger Khuyagaa puts it, the workers have dreams, dreams that come with a price. ““They say dreams cost nothing,” he says in voiceover as you look out on what seems the endless Gobi Desert in Mongolia “But today, you have to pay for your dreams. I think first you have to find the money, to make our dreams come true.” The frame cut to a close shot of Khuyagaa as he draws on his cigarette, backed by a pile of dirt and rocks, the result of his labor, the earth turned inside out.

Read more

Use it or lose it, miners warned by Coalition – by David Crowe (The Australian – September 18, 2013)

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

RESOURCE giants will be told to step up their spending on mammoth new projects or risk losing their rights to tap the deposits, under an Abbott government plan to accelerate investment and kill off fears of an end to the boom.

The incoming government aims to use its power over the vast gas deposits to bring forward up to $180 billion in new investment, sending a blunt message to companies to develop rather than hoard the nation’s resources.

As Tony Abbott and his ministers prepare to be sworn into office today, the resource plan marks another stage in an economic agenda that promises to lift growth, but will depend on stronger business investment to deliver results.

The policy is also set to reignite debate on the cost burdens – including high salaries – that global companies blame for stalling Australian projects and diverting their investments into cheaper projects in Africa and Asia.

Incoming industry minister Ian Macfarlane told The Australian that companies should extract “every molecule” of gas to boost exports and supply the domestic market.

Read more

What’s good for BHP is good for us all – by Terry McCrann (The Australian – August 24, 2013)

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

THE world’s biggest resources company is Australia’s BHP Billiton. BHP is also, in a sense, Australia’s General Motors.

That’s the 21st-century Down Under equivalent of GM when it was the world’s biggest company; so that today, Down Under, what’s good for BHP is good for Australia. This means at its simplest that if BHP is doing well, so also will be the country more broadly.

BHP’s profit showed that the company was doing pretty well, if not quite so wonderfully as two years ago. That pretty much captured the broader economic state of play: a glass at least half-full. At a deeper level, the aphorism takes on a darker, more challenging message. That what BHP needs to do well is also precisely mirrored in what the nation overall needs to do well.

The darker emphasis comes in the clear message from BHP that it is not getting what it needs to do well; the logical inference is that the nation is therefore also not getting what it needs to do well.

There is one huge difference between BHP and the nation. If the company is not getting what it needs here, it can go somewhere else. It is doing exactly that. The one big greenfields project it has on its radar is potash. In Canada. BHP will also continue to spend $3 billion to $4bn a year on shale oil and gas. In the US.

Read more

Guest post: more super, less cycle for commodities prices – by Paul Bloxham (Financial Times – September 17, 2013)

http://www.ft.com/home/us

http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/

Paul Bloxham is HSBC’s chief economist for Australia and New Zealand

Commodity prices have been broadly steady over the past year. This is despite China’s slowdown, fears of Federal Reserve tapering and nervousness about the emerging economies. Indeed, commodity prices are still over 120 per cent above their 1990s levels, in inflation-adjusted terms. This may have surprised some observers, particularly those expecting the end of the so-called commodities super-cycle and forecasting large commodity price declines. So far, it has not happened.

For some time now, our view has been that commodity prices will stay at much higher levels than in the late 20th century. While we expect strong mining investment to boost supply in coming years and keep commodity prices below their 2008 peak levels,we still think prices will stay structurally high. In short, the so-called super-cycle may be more super and less cycle.

Two elements drive our commodity prices outlook, the first empirical, the second theoretical. Empirically, history shows us that commodity prices are not in fact exceptionally high right now. Rather, they were exceptionally low in the 1980s and 1990s. Data for the past 150 years reveal that real commodity prices are actually currently around their long run average levels.

Read more

COLUMN-Australia’s coal industry enters the final stage of grief – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – August 14, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

Aug 14 (Reuters) – Australian coal miners have been in mourning over the rapid loss of profitability and expansion opportunities, but the industry is entering the final stage of the grieving process.

The five stages of grief, as described by Swiss-American psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross on how people face events like terminal illness, are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

While not all of the attendees at the annual Coaltrans Australia conference this week have got past the depression stage, most were looking at how the industry deals with the reality of its myriad of issues.

These include an apparent structural shift to lower prices for the foreseeable future, rising public opposition to mining on the back of a well-funded and organised environmental lobby, lack of capital available for new projects, still high labour costs and an increasing burden of government red and green tape.

The coal miners have limited influence over most of these issues, but they appear to be making concerted efforts to change what they can in a bid to strengthen their position and make sure Australia remains the world’s biggest exporter of coking coal and number two in thermal coal.

Read more

Will Pebble Project’s growing risks cloud investor rewards? – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – September 17, 2013)

http://www.mineweb.com/

More bad news for Northern Dynasty’s massive, but struggling Pebble copper-gold-silver-moly project as the deep-pocketed Anglo American announces it is leaving the Pebble Partnership.

RENO (MINEWEB) – The withdrawal of Anglo American from one of the most controversial mining projects in the United States, the Pebble Project in Alaska, should not come as a major surprise to those who have following the project since 2001, the year it was acquired by Northern Dynasty Minerals. Anglo American would become a 50/50 partner in the massive project in 2007.

On Monday, however, Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani—who is definitely no dummy when it comes to determining project feasibility—said: “Despite our belief that Pebble is a deposit of rare magnitude and quality, we have taken the decision to withdraw following a thorough assessment of Anglo American’s extensive pipeline of long-dated project options.”

“We wish the project well through its forthcoming permitting process and express our thanks to all those who have supported Pebble and who recognize the opportunities and benefits that such an investment may bring to Alaska,” he added. Anglo will take a $300 million writedown on its Pebble investment.

Read more

KWG disappointed in rail delays, reaffirms support for union’s ‘New Deal’ – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – September 16, 2013)

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Chromite mining hopeful KWG Resources on Monday expressed its disappointment in the near three-year delay of a planned railway into the Ring of Fire and reaffirmed its belief that a 300 km rail track would open up the region for mining.

After staking the right-of-way claims and conducting preliminary railroad engineering design and assessment, the development of the Ring of Fire railroad concept was delayed as a result of the dispute with US iron-ore major and joint-venture (JV) partner Cliffs Natural Resources, before the provincial Mining and Lands Commissioner last week dismissed Cliffs’ request to the Natural Resources Ministry for a road-access easement over KWG’s claims.

“We believe the railway is in the public interest and can be used to benefit the various mines in the Ring of Fire, as well as local communities, and is a much better alternative to a private road; a higher-cost transportation option, which the government is currently considering funding,” KWG president Frank Smeenk said in a statement.

While KWG proposed a rail route connecting at Exton to transport chromite to export markets, Cliffs proposes an all-weather road south towards Capreol, in the Sudbury area, where it has proposed to build a chromite beneficiation facility.

Read more

UPDATE 1-Ousted Rio boss Albanese makes comeback at Vedanta – by Clara Ferreira-Marques (Reuters India – September 16, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

LONDON, Sept 16 (Reuters) – Former Rio Tinto boss Tom Albanese has taken on a senior advisory role at Indian mining group Vedanta just eight months after being ousted as chief executive of the world’s No. 3 mining group.

Albanese was one of several top mining chief executives who took the blame for their companies’ relentless pursuit of growth during the boom years that ended in 2011, and for acquisitions that soured and turned into billions of dollars of writedowns.

He is the only one to have returned to a full-time role at a major mining group, albeit a smaller one. Out of the world’s top six miners, only one still has the same chief executive as it did at the beginning of 2011.

Albanese, who held the top job at Rio for almost six years, is now chairman of Vedanta Resources Holdings, a subsidiary wholly owned by the oil and gas and mining group. He will act as adviser to both the operations and the main group board, providing advice on everything from operational troubles and expansion to reputational concerns and relations with investors.

It was unclear what weight Albanese would have in a company almost 65-percent controlled by its founder and chairman, Indian scrap dealer turned metals tycoon Anil Agarwal.

Read more

N.Y. trial to examine will of Montana Copper King heiress – by Associated Press (The Missoulian – September 15, 2013)

http://missoulian.com/

NEW YORK — She had wealth few could boast and used it to finance a life few would choose — an heiress to the fortune of the founder of Las Vegas spending 20 years voluntarily in New York hospital rooms.

Now Huguette Clark’s reclusive existence is about to be scrutinized in a Manhattan courtroom, where jury selection is due to start Tuesday in a civil trial over her will. With an estimated $300 million at stake, the case broaches questions about aging, caregiving and the line between encouraging gratitude and extracting gifts.

Clark’s distant relatives say hospital executives, a nurse, a lawyer, an accountant and others in her small circle induced a dependent, fragile woman to give them millions of dollars during her lifetime and in her will. The beneficiaries say she was a sharp-minded, strong-willed, munificent person whose decisions were as deliberate as they were unusual.

Signed when the childless Clark was 98, the disputed April 2005 will largely left her estate to arts charities, her nurse and a goddaughter. It provided nothing for her relatives, who were the main beneficiaries of a will she’d signed just six weeks earlier.

“Fundamentally, however, this tragic story presents much more than just a question of whether a particular will is valid or not,” the relatives’ lawyer, John R. Morken, said in a court filing.

Read more

28 miners die in Afghanistan coal mine blast – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – September 16, 2013)

http://www.mineweb.com/

Neighbors of the Abkhorak coal mine were among the rescuers who managed to bring 100 miners to safety after 28 miners perished in a coal mine blast in northern Afghanistan.

RENO (MINEWEB) – When 57 miners were trapped after gas explosion at the Abkhorak mine in the Ruyi Du Ab District of Samangan Province in northern Afghanistan, nearby residents dug through the rubble and debris with their bare hands.

However, 28 miners were killed, while 100 of their coworkers were taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

Samangan provincial governor’s spokesman Mohammad Seddiq Azizi told the BBC that four members of the rescue teams were badly injured, while 14 men were overcome with fumes, but were brought out safely. Samangan’s Deputy Security Chief Mosadiqullah Muzafari said four rescue workers were badly injured.

Workplace safety standards are considered poor in Afghanistan and mine accidents are considered common. Javed Noorani of Integrity Watch Afghanistan told Al Jazeera that 90% of mining in the country is illegal. In December, 11 miners were killed in a mine collapse in the northern province of Baghlan.

Read more