International Media Resource Articles – Page 774

Boart Longyear focused on weathering cyclic storm, building on lessons learnt – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – October 8, 2013)

October 8, 2013

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The world’s largest drilling company, Boart Longyear, has positioned itself to weather the difficult markets and emerge a leaner, more efficient company that had taken to heart lessons learnt in its recent overleveraged past.

CEO Richard O’Brien said the company was now positioned to perform better with its significantly reduced cost footprint.

“The plan is to keep the costs permanently off the balance sheet, even in the event of a rebound in market conditions,” O’Brien, who joined Boart Longyear this year from gold mining giant Newmont Mining, told Mining Weekly Online in an interview on Monday.

He blamed over-enthusiastic outlook assumptions for the debt blowout and spending that left the company exposed to the recent downturn. The Utah-based and Australia-listed company had last month finalised issuing $300-million in senior secured notes to retire most of its $450-million in debt.

Despite the newly issued notes bearing a 10% coupon, the debt restructuring would give Boart at least some relief from debt covenants that had cast an uncertain shadow over its immediate future.

Vale Sees Iron-Ore Market Oversupplied From 2015 on New Capacity – by Juan Pablo Spinetto (Bloomberg News – October 7, 2013)

October 8, 2013

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Vale SA, the world’s largest iron-ore producer, said supply of the steelmaking raw material is expected to grow faster than demand, reducing support for future increases in price.

Iron-ore producers may have between 5 percent and 6 percent more capacity than demand by as early as 2018 as China steel consumption slows and companies boost output, Vale’s head of Ferrous & Strategy Jose Carlos Martins told reporters in Sao Paulo yesterday. While iron-ore prices are expected to remain above $100 a metric ton, the extra supply will make prices less volatile and unlikely to repeat spikes seen previously, he said.

“We will probably start to have some surplus capacity around 2015,” Martins said at the World Steel Association’s annual congress. “Peak prices are unlikely to happen again.”

Vale, based in Rio de Janeiro, is spending almost $20 billion in its Serra Sul mine and logistics venture in Carajas, the world’s largest iron-ore complex, which is the industry’s most expensive project.

Gold price is ‘bound to go through the roof’ – by Brendan Ryan (Business Day – October 7, 2013)

October 7, 2013

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

GOLD bulls have had it rough this year but many would have found solace in the Precious Metals Round Table web-based conference call and presentation held recently by Sprott Asset Management.

About 6,300 participants logged on to listen to speakers like investment “guru” Marc Faber — publisher of the Gloom, Boom and Doom Report — and Toronto-based Sprott chief investment strategist John Embry, a regular keynote speaker at gold conferences.

The bottom line? Hang on to your physical gold and gold shares because the point is fast approaching when the gold price is going to explode.

That prediction is, of course, completely at odds with what has actually happened in the gold market this year, where the price has plunged from about $1,700oz to $1,200oz, before recovering marginally to just above $1,300oz.

Predictions from institutions such as Natixis are far more restrained. The recently published Natixis Metals Review predicts gold dropping back to lows around $1,170oz over the coming six months to a year and averaging $1,200oz for next year.

No plans to step down for Norilsk’s billionaire CEO – by Clara Ferreira-Marques and Douglas Busvine (Reuters U.S. – October 6, 2013)

October 7, 2013

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – (Reuters) – When he took the helm of Norilsk Nickel (GMKN.MM) last December as part of a deal that ended a long-running shareholder battle, Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin hinted he saw himself in the job for roughly two years.

Almost a year on, Potanin is clearly relishing his role at the center of a major turnaround and indicates he has no plans to stand down as chief executive of the world’s largest producer of nickel and palladium. “I don’t like deadlines,” the 52-year-old Potanin told Reuters over tea in an upmarket London hotel late on Friday after a long day spent wooing investors.

His departure could be years away as he develops the Norilsk management into a world-class team, he said. “For a rich and reasonably successful guy, it is impossible not to enjoy your job, otherwise why would you spend so much time and effort doing it? I am a great fan of Norilsk and I like this kind of challenge.”

Potanin, whose more than $14 billion fortune began in banking, has long been a major shareholder in Norilsk, securing stock at a bargain-basement price in the loans-for-shares privatizations that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union and spawned a new oligarch elite.

Miners retreat from Toronto exchange, one-time portal to riches – by Paul Garvey (The Australian – October 7, 2013)

October 7, 2013

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

THE love affair between Australian miners and the Toronto Stock Exchange appears to be well and truly over, with the bleak conditions in the market driving companies to drop their dual listings and return to their home bourse

Several Australian miners have either left or are preparing to leave Toronto amid complaints about the low levels of investor interest in the resources sector, high levels of compliance, the steep cost of maintaining a listing and the failure of companies to attract the share price re-rating they had expected.

The TSX for years ranked as the largest single exchange for mining ventures and acted as a major gateway for Australian-based companies looking to tap into the North American capital pool. The market also attracted Australian companies that believed they would enjoy better valuations in the eyes of Canadian and American investors.

However, executives told The Australian that investors in North America were increasingly uninterested in resource stocks.

Iron Range mine could pollute water for up to 500 years – by Josephine Marcotty (Minneapolis Star Tribune – October 5, 2013)

October 7, 2013

http://www.startribune.com/

A proposed copper-nickel mine in northeast Minnesota would generate water pollution for up to 500 years and require billions of dollars in long-term cleanup costs, state regulators have concluded as they near a key stage in the project’s review.

The mine would require what critics say is essentially perpetual water treatment — a first in Minnesota’s long history of mining — to remove pollutants and heavy metals that would otherwise flow into nearby streams and rivers and eventually Lake Superior, according to a draft environmental impact statement.

The analysis, which regulators expect to release for public review in November, was prepared as part of the state’s review of a mining complex proposed by PolyMet Mining Corp., at a site near Hoyt Lakes.

The prospect of centuries of water treatment illustrates the scope of the environmental challenges facing what would be Minnesota’s first copper-nickel mine — and why it has generated intense environmental scrutiny and divided communities on the Iron Range. PolyMet is the first of many companies lining up to tap into one of the world’s largest copper-nickel deposits. The deposits offer the promise of a new era of mining for Minnesota, but one that comes with significant ecological risks for the wildest and most treasured corner of the state.

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

October 7, 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.”

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

October 7, 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.

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

October 4, 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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

November 3, 2015October 4, 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.

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

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.

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

October 4, 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.

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

October 4, 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.