International Media Resource Articles – Page 773

In Chile’s dry north, big mining threatens a vital resource – by Rosalind Adams and Sarah Tory (Santiago Times – August 24, 2013) [Part 1 of 3]

October 16, 2013

http://www.santiagotimes.cl/ [Chile]

Part I of a three-part series on Chile’s water crisis: Amid a growing water shortage, the Huasco Valley struggles to find a balance between mining and agriculture.

Deep in Chile’s Atacama Region, Sandra Anacona makes jam from the apricots and peaches that grow on her two-acre farm, land that has been in her husband’s family for six generations. Her face wrinkled into a permanent smile, she shuffles around the kitchen preparing meals and piping-hot cups of Nescafé for the endless parade of neighbors and family who show up at her dining table.

In the Valle del Huasco, these family-run farms, clustered around small pueblos like Alto del Carmen and San Félix, are permanent fixtures: ask for directions, and people give names instead of addresses — testament to a lifestyle that has changed little in 200 years.

Formed by the river snaking between Andean peaks, the Valle del Huasco appears like a ribbon of green in one of the driest places on Earth. Defying the surrounding desert, acres of pisco grapes grow, along with mangos, oranges, papayas and avocados.

Australia’s iron ore miners shrug off glut fears – by James Regan (Mineweb.com – October 15, 2013)

October 15, 2013

http://www.mineweb.com/

Rio Tinto upped annualised output of the steel-making raw material by 20% in October, while BHP Billiton and Fortescue Mining are in the midst of robust expansion work.

SYDNEY (REUTERS) – Australia’s “big three” iron ore miners are set to unveil a boost in third-quarter production and will mine even more in the fourth quarter, ignoring forecasts of a looming supply glut in favour of capturing greater economies of scale.

Rio Tinto this month upped annualised output of the steel-making raw material by 20 percent to 290 million tonnes, while BHP Billiton and Fortescue Mining are in the midst of robust expansion work.

All three already mine ore at costs well below selling prices — thanks to a combination of rich grades and high volumes — and see any dip in prices as simply weeding out less competitive rivals.

Rio Tinto, which is set to post a 3 percent rise in third-quarter output against the previous quarter to 53 million tonnes on Tuesday, is expected to announce a further mine expansion to 360 million tonnes a year by a Dec. 3 meeting with investors.

Copper Supply Glut Seen Tripling as Prices Sink 10%: Commodities – by Nicholas Larkin, Agnieszka Troszkiewicz & Maria Kolesnikova (Bloomberg News – October 14, 2013)

October 15, 2013

http://www.bloomberg.com/

The worldwide glut of copper supply is poised to almost triple in 2014, driving prices to the lowest in at least three years at a time when the International Monetary Fund says economic growth will be weaker than forecast.

The surplus will reach a 13-year high of 272,000 metric tons, according to data from Barclays Plc and the International Copper Study Group in Lisbon. Codelco and Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) Copper & Gold Inc., the biggest producers, are among those scheduled to add supply next year. The metal will drop as low as $6,450 a ton in 2014, or 10 percent less than last week’s close, the median of 22 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg shows.

New mines or expansions to existing pits from Mongolia to Indonesia to Chile will boost output as producers respond to prices that more than tripled in the past decade. Shortages occurred in seven of the past 10 years as the Chinese economy expanded almost sixfold. Mining companies are finally catching up just as growth in China, the world’s second-largest economy and consumer of two in every five tons, is projected to be the lowest in almost a quarter century.

Friedland talks up platinum, the creation of a ‘Platinum Valley’ in Limpopo – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – October 11, 2013)

October 15, 2013

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Outpsoken financier and mining guru Robert Friedland is poised to make history in South Africa, as he envisions the creation of a ‘Platinum Valley’ in the platinum-rich Limpopo province that would be synonymous to hydrogen fuel cell manufacturing, as California’s Silicon Valley is to technology.

Addressing the Canada-Southern Africa Chamber of Business on Thursday evening, Friedland said the rise of megacities around the globe would drive metals demand up, not only for growing infrastructure, but also in achieving cleaner air, especially within the automobile industry.

Friedland, who also is the executive chairperson of Africa-focused project developer Ivanhoe Mines, formerly known as Ivanplats, said the rise of the hydrogen fuel cell-powered car is about to change the global platinum landscape forever.

He said he had it on good authority that Japan-based automaker Toyota will launch the world’s first commercially available hydrogen fuel cell-powered cars in November, which, according to him, would be a game changer for South Africa.

Legislation to protect Chile’s glaciers and water supplies worries important mining industry – by Associated Press (Washington Post – October 09, 2013)

October 15, 2013

http://www.washingtonpost.com/

SANTIAGO, Chile — Just how to define a glacier is at the heart of a Chilean congressional battle that could determine the future of mining in the world’s largest copper-producing country.

The revival of legislation to ban mining in glacial areas is spawning debate among miners, farmers and environmentalists about how to protect both vital water supplies and Chile’s mining industry. If the bill passes, mining experts fear it could shutter multibillion-dollar mining projects and slow investment.

The key will be in the fine print of whether the final bill defines glaciers as including frozen areas around them, too, and whether the protections would apply retroactively to mines already operating next to glaciers.

“If it passes as a law with tough conditions, it could harm not only the operation of current projects but also future projects,” said Juan Carlos Guajardo, head of the Chilean mining think tank CESCO. “Depending on the conditions, the scenarios would make mining activity very difficult in high mountain areas.”

Water shortage threatens mining – by Lucky Biyase (Business Day – October 13, 2013)

October 15, 2013

http://www.bdlive.co.za/ [South Africa]

TROUBLED mining companies in the Rustenburg platinum belt are facing another crisis — drought.

This may add to problems besetting companies trapped in the middle of rivalry between the National Union of Mineworkers and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union.

The water affairs department and North West’s provincial government have both warned of a drought in the mineral-rich province.

South Africa supplies nearly 60% of the world’s platinum and rhodium and 30% of palladium. The department has warned mining companies, among them Glencore, Anglo American and Lonmin, to restrict water use.

Lonmin’s executive vice-president for process and sustainability, Natascha Viljoen, said: “We are working with the Madibeng local municipality to explore opportunities to re-use water. Our current external source of water is Rand Water and the Buffelspoort canal scheme, and the rest is internal.”

CHINA, ZAMBIA, AND A CLASH IN A COAL MINE – by ALEXIS OKEOWO (New Yorker Magazine – October 10, 2013)

October 11, 2013

http://www.newyorker.com/

Alexis Okeowo received support for the reporting in this post from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

Twelve hundred Zambians gathered on a sunny morning in August of 2012 to protest at Collum Coal Mine, which is located in a rural southern province and, at the time, was owned by five Chinese brothers. They were angry about the working conditions in the mine: Collum had been cited several times by Zambia’s government for labor violations, and miners said that they felt unsafe working there. They were also upset about annual wage increases that they said amounted to only a single Zambian kwacha—the equivalent of twenty cents.

The miners learned that a Chinese foreman had brought outside workers to replace them during the protest, according to one of the protesting miners, twenty-eight-year-old Robert Mundike. Mundike and his co-workers confronted the foreman at one of the mine’s shafts and assaulted him. Then, according to Mundike, they beat up more Chinese workers, along with Zambian miners who were still working even though the protesters had told them not to.

The group—which included not only Collum miners but also their relatives and former workers who said they were owed wages—was becoming restless. They reached another mine shaft, near a cluster of houses where several Chinese supervisors lived. Five Chinese men ran from the settlement, past the coal-carrying conveyor belt and a rock crusher and into the mine, Danny Sikatari, who works as a mine foreman but who did not participate in the protest, told me.

Exclusive: Glencore, Vale in talks over Canadian nickel tie-up – sources – by Clara Ferreira-Marques and Euan Rocha (Rueters U.S. – October 11, 2013)

October 11, 2013

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON/TORONTO – (Reuters) – Glencore Xstrata (GLEN.L) and Vale (VALE5.SA) have revived talks over a potential combination of the mining groups’ nickel operations in Canada’s Sudbury basin, in an effort to cut costs as prices for the metal languish, sources familiar with the situation said.

The discussions are still at an early stage but have revived hopes of a long-debated Sudbury tie-up, with the companies considering a number of options for their mining and processing operations in the area, the sources said.

Depending on the details of a potential deal, several of the sources said a tie-up could mean substantial savings for both mining heavyweights, if all or part of their mining, milling and even smelting operations are brought together.

In 2006, a proposed merger of Falconbridge and Inco – the then-players in Sudbury, but later taken over by Xstrata and Brazil’s Vale (VALE5.SA), respectively – expected annual synergies and cost savings of about $550 million.

The sources said talks restarted after Glencore completed its acquisition of Xstrata earlier this year. Discussions have progressed against the backdrop of a nickel price that has fallen by around a fifth since January to around four-year lows, weighed down by over-supply.

China’s changing growth profile and the commodities that stand to benefit – by Geoff Candy (Mineweb.com – October 11, 2013)

October 11, 2013

http://www.mineweb.com/

According to Standard Bank, while it is not going to be a linear progression, the nature of Chinese growth is likely to moderate over the next five years.

GRONINGEN (MINEWEB) – Like any good relationship, it is hard to imagine one’s life without the other person while things are going well. Which is why, any mention of slowing growth in China was met by many in the commodities market with loud cries of “I can’t hear you” and hands clasped firmly over ears.

A case in point, it could be argued, is the massive expansion in iron ore production by the likes of Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton in the face of slowing demand from China, which is expected to result in at least four years of expanding gluts, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

That’s also not to say, and this is an important distinction, that growth in China has stopped, rather it is moderating. Overall growth is expected to slow over the course of the next few years but it is still going to be at a healthy rate. Indeed, it should also be noted that the base on which this, albeit slower, growth is now placed, and thus the quantum of commodities required in any given year, is vastly higher than it once was.

Asean nations continue to develop mining industry – by Henry J. Schumacher (Business Mirror – October 9, 2013)

October 11, 2013

http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/index.php/en/ [Philippines]

ASSOCIATION of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) member-states are mineral rich, and mining is playing an increasingly important role in the region’s economic growth (hopefully also in the Philippines). In Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, mining accounts for 12 percent of gross domestic product.

Even as global demand has eased, Asia’s locomotive economies continue to drive Asean’s fast-developing mining sector, especially China, which consumes more than 40 percent of the world’s output of industrial ores.

The most rapid growth in both Indonesia and other Asean states has been seen in the extraction of industrial minerals—such as copper, nickel, tin and, more recently, gold. The region’s status as an area of world mineral importance, with immense, still to be exploited, deposits of an almost limitless range of ores, is a focus for the world’s biggest developers.

The Philippines is considered to be the fifth most mineralized country in the world, with its gold resources ranking as the third largest. The country also has the fourth-largest copper resources and fifth-largest nickel deposits. However, only a relatively small amount of territory has been mined.

Commodity managers warm up to metals as world economy improves – by Claire Milhench (Reuters India – October 10, 2013)

October 10, 2013

http://in.reuters.com/

LONDON, Oct 10 (Reuters) – Base metals are back in favour with commodity managers after a long period in the dog house, reflecting a new enthusiasm for growth-oriented assets as the global economy picks up.

“The key economic regions of the world have either resumed a slight upward trend or have at least put the worst behind them,” said Ronald Wildmann, an adviser to the GFP Long Mining Fund , which returned almost 15 percent in the third quarter. “In China, the hard landing feared by many has not come to pass.”

Commodity prices as indicated by the Thomson Reuters-Jefferies CRB index rose 3 percent in the third quarter, compared with a 6 percent fall in the second quarter.

This turnaround meant the average actively-managed fund in the Lipper Global Commodity sector was up 1.94 percent, compared with a loss of 9.58 percent in the second quarter.

Mining is critical for the planet – Cutifani – by William Lawrence (Mineweb.com – October 10, 2013)

October 10, 2013

http://www.mineweb.com/

Anglo American CEO, Mark Cutifani, is the new chairman of the ICMM Council and has already made it apparent where he would like the organisation to focus in the year ahead.

LONDON (MINEWEB) – “Mining is critical for everyone on the planet” said Mark Cutifani at an ICMM reception yesterday evening in London, as he set out his stall on what he thinks the International Council on Mining and Metals should be focussing on as his term begins as the august organisation’s chairman.

According to its website, the ICMM’s basic brief is as follows: to improve sustainable development performance in the mining and metals industry. Its core membership comprises 21 mining and metals companies (the world’s largest miners) as well as 35 national and regional mining associations and global commodity associations working, in combination, to address core sustainable development challenges.

The ICMM now serves as an agent for change and continual improvement on issues relating to mining and sustainable development. It requires member companies to make a public commitment to improve their sustainability performance and report against their progress on an annual basis.

UPDATE 1-Protests close world No. 2 ferronickel mine in Colombia – by Luis Jaime Acosta and Peter Murphy (Reuters India – October 10, 2013)

October 10, 2013

http://in.reuters.com/

BOGOTA, Oct 9 (Reuters) – Cerro Matoso, the world’s No. 2 ferronickel producer owned by multinational BHP Billiton and located in Colombia, said it has temporarily shut its mine after two weeks of protests by indigenous groups, halting 4 percent of world output.

The impact of the stoppage on the nickel market is likely to be subdued amid a global surplus of nickel that has caused prices to tumble about a quarter in the last year but adds to near-constant disruption in Colombia’s mining sector this year.

The London-traded nickel contract ended 1.7 percent lower at $13,660 per tonne on Wednesday. Cerro Matoso took the decision to close its mine for workers’ safety, it said in a statement, adding that protesters were demanding “monetary indemnification”. It did not say why, merely that the dispute could only be resolved in the courts.

“This implies that from now there will be no ferronickel production or associated activities … until conditions enable the company to operate normally,” it said. A mining ministry source said the protesters were demanding compensation for alleged harm to their health from pollution caused by the open-pit project which the source said generates about $185,000 a day for the government in royalties.

Special Report: The Darfur conflict’s deadly gold rush – by By Ulf Laessing (Reuters India – October 8, 2013)

October 9, 2013

http://in.reuters.com/

KHARTOUM – (Reuters) – With its scrubland, unpaved roads and mud brick huts, the Jebel Amer area in Darfur, western Sudan, can look like a poor and desolate place. Under the ground, though, lies something sought by people everywhere: gold.

In the past year or so the precious metal has begun to alter the nature of the decade-old conflict in Darfur, transforming it from an ethnic and political fight to one that, at least in part, is over precious metal.

Fighting between rival tribes over the Jebel Amer gold mine that stretches for some 10 km (six miles) beneath the sandy hills of North Darfur has killed more than 800 people and displaced some 150,000 others since January. Arab tribes, once heavily armed by the government to suppress insurgents, have turned their guns on each other to get their hands on the mines. Rebel groups that oppose the government also want the metal.

The gold mine death toll is more than double the number of all people killed by fighting between the army, rebels and rival tribes in Darfur in 2012, according to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s quarterly reports to the Security Council.