International Media Resource Articles – Page 775

Billionaire Steinmetz Said to Agree to Prosecutor Meeting – by Jesse Riseborough & Andy Hoffman (Bloomberg News – September 12, 2013)

September 13, 2013

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Beny Steinmetz, Israel’s richest person, agreed to be interviewed by Swiss authorities as part of an investigation relating to ownership of a Guinean iron-ore project, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Steinmetz is expected to meet with the office of Geneva’s public prosecutor in the city within the next four weeks, said the person, who was briefed on the matter and asked not to be identified as the investigation is confidential. Henri Della Casa, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, declined to comment on the planned interview.

Steinmetz has a net worth of $7.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and his BSG Resources Ltd. owns a 49 percent stake in a venture that controls half of the giant Simandou iron ore deposit in Guinea. Steinmetz has offered to collaborate with Swiss authorities and is co-operating fully, his lawyer Marc Bonnant said yesterday in an e-mailed statement.

Steinmetz’s Geneva home was raided two weeks ago by Swiss Police following a request by the government of Guinea, a person familiar with the matter said Sept. 11, asking not to be identified as the probe isn’t public. No documents were taken away, that person said.

How Mark Cutifani plans to reshape Anglo American – by Charlotte Mathews (Financial Mail – September 12, 2013)

September 12, 2013

http://www.fm.co.za/

Sculpting new shapes

New Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani says its new strategy will capitalise on future shortages of food, water, energy and the commodities needed for infrastructure development. Charlotte Mathews assesses the challenges faced by the miner.

Big mining companies are groping for their hangover remedies after the long commodities supercycle party. Anglo American had less fun than the rest but still got the hangover. Between 2001 and 2008 BHP Billiton’s share price on the JSE rose almost 10 times — to R300. Anglo American’s rose fivefold to R550. Now Billiton’s share price is R303 and Anglo’s is R255.

The supercycle was a theory put forward in 2004 by Chip Goodyear, then CEO of Billiton. He argued that as China and India played catch-up with the rest of the world in infrastructural development, demand for commodities would stay “stronger for longer” for at least a decade or more.

In fact the supercycle lasted only another two years. A 10-year graph of “Dr Copper”, a proxy for demand for industrial metals, shows prices flattened from mid-2006 and, apart from the dip after September 2008, have tracked sideways ever since. To some analysts, this represents only a “mid cycle correction”.

In response: Mining essential to keep the economy running – by Arthur E. Englund (Duluth News Tribune – September 12, 2013)

May 4, 2015September 12, 2013

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

As a 56-year member of the Society of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, I feel a response is necessary to the Aug. 23 commentary, “What the metals-mining lobbyist left out of column speaks volumes.” The commentary opposing copper-nickel mining near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, without realizing it, actually cited the need for these mines. By enumerating the number of visitors to Ely (700,000 per year), the number of Boundary Waters visitors (250,000 per year) and the number of deer hunters in Minnesota (600,000) the column actually endorsed the need.

How do all of those visitors and hunters get to those recreational areas? Most likely they go in their cars and trucks and not by horse and buggy. And of course, as most everyone knows, a large amount of Earth-based minerals goes into the manufacturing of those vehicles — and it takes mined petroleum to fuel them.

The Society of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers has as its slogan, “If it can’t be grown, it has to be mined.” This is an irrefutable fact. Test it for yourself. It is not an assumption like the opponents’ that rivers and waters will be polluted by the proposed mines. Regulations and restrictions developed over years in conjunction with the latest available science and technology will provide necessary safeguards to prevent pollution.

Zimbabwe to develop economy with “new friends” like China – by MacDonald Dzirutwe (Reuters India – September 11, 2013)

September 12, 2013

http://in.reuters.com/

HARARE, Sept 11 (Reuters) – Zimbabwe will increase economic ties with friendly countries like China to develop its economy as Western nations maintain their sanctions after President Robert Mugabe’s re-election, the new finance minister said on Wednesday.

Mugabe, Africa’s oldest leader at 89 who won a fresh five-year term in a July 31 vote his opponents say was rigged, on Wednesday swore in his cabinet, including Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa who was named on Tuesday.

Pointing to multiple flaws in last month’s election cited by domestic vote observers, Western governments, especially the United States, have questioned the credibility of the outcome and are considering whether to prolong sanctions against Mugabe.

However, African election observers broadly endorsed the voting and its result as peaceful and free.

Chinamasa told reporters the ZANU-PF party government had accepted the reality that the West would not remove financial and travel sanctions on Mugabe and his senior allies and would not release any direct financial assistance.

Ex-Massey official gets 3.5 years in prison in mine safety conspiracy – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – September 12, 2013)

September 12, 2013

http://www.mineweb.com/

The 2010 Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster that killed 29 miners in West Virginia has resulted in prison sentences and jail time for 4 former Massey executives and supervisors so far.

RENO (MINEWEB) – The former president of Massey Energy’s White Buck Coal and the Green Valley Resource Group, David Hughart, 53, has become the highest-ranking coal official to date to be sentenced to prison for violating U.S. mine health and safety standards.

In addition to a 42-month prison sentence, Hughart was also ordered to serve an additional three years of supervised release, according to U.S. Attorney Beth Goodwin.

Although Hughart never worked at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia–where 29 men were killed in April 2010 in the largest coal disaster in 40 years–he admitted that he and others at Massey conspired to violate health and safety laws and to conceal those violations by warning mine operations when MSHA inspectors were arriving to conduct mine inspections.

His cooperation with the criminal investigation of the mine disaster revealed that Massey Energy schemed to avoid compliance with what federal regulators said was even basic safety practices. The investigation was conducted by the FBI, the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, and the IRS-Criminal Investigation division.

Cliffs’ application for an easement over Canada Chrome claims dismissed – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – September 12, 2013)

September 12, 2013

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The Ontario Mining and Lands Commissioner on Wednesday dismissed an application by a subsidiary of US iron-ore miner Cliffs Natural Resources seeking an easement over mining claims that TSX-V-listed junior KWG Resources had staked from Exton, in the Ring of Fire, in Northern Ontario, on which it proposes to build a railway.

In August 2012, Canada Chrome said it was pushing ahead with its proposed 300 km railway and had applied to Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources for 32 aggregate permits on sites located along a string of claims that could form the bed of its proposed railway. The claims on the northern half cover the only ridge of high ground where road and rail is constructible.

However, Cliffs brought an application seeking that the Minister of Natural Resources grant an easement under the Public Lands Act over Canada Chrome’s mining claims.

The easement was sought to build a road for the development of the Black Thor deposit, while Canada Chrome wants to build a railroad to develop its interests in the Ring of Fire, including the Big Daddy and Black Horse deposits.

CORRECTED-Asia stainless steel mills to benefit from Chinese nickel-pig-iron from Indonesia – by Polly Yam (Reuters U.S. – September 11, 2013)

September 11, 2013

http://www.reuters.com/

HONG KONG, Sept 11 (Reuters) – Chinese firms operating nickel mines in Indonesia are likely to step up plans to build nickel-pig-iron plants in the Southeast Asian country in order to continue shipping ores back home, which would help support higher production in China next year.

The move could mean Chinese firms’ supply of nickel-pig-iron, a low-grade ferro-nickel used in stainless steel production, would rise in Asia in 2 to 3 years time, helping regional mills such as POSCO and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal to cut costs, industry sources said.

China is the dominant producer of nickel-pig-iron in the world and the output accounts for about a quarter of the global nickel production. But the production relies on imports of raw material nickel laterite ores, with Indonesia and the Philippines providing most ores.

Indonesia had planned to ban the export of ores from 2014 to push miners to build smelters at home to benefit the local economy. But in a policy reversal, it may now relax the ban in order to help support the rupiah currency and miners with smelters under construction will be allowed to continue to export ores.

Insight – Changing China set to shake world economy, again – by Kevin Yao and Alan Wheatley (Reuters India – September 11, 2013)

September 11, 2013

http://in.reuters.com/

BEIJING/LONDON – (Reuters) – Long after concerns about tightening U.S. monetary policy have faded, a more profound issue will still dog global policymakers: how to handle the second stage of China’s economic revolution.

The first phase, industrialisation, shook the world. Commodity-producing countries boomed as they fed China’s endless appetite for natural resources. Six of the 10 fastest-growing economies last decade were in Africa.

China’s flood of keenly priced manufactured goods hollowed out jobs in advanced and emerging nations alike but also helped cap inflation and made an array of consumer goods affordable for tens of millions of people for the first time.

The second stage of China’s development promises to be no less momentous. Consumption will take over the growth baton from investment. Services will grow as a share of the economy, while industry shrinks. Commodity-intensive mass manufacturing based on cheap labour will give way to greener, cleaner ways of making things.

More of the value added by a better-educated, more productive workforce harnessing new technologies will stay in China instead of going to multinational companies.

Low prices take toll on Cuban nickel revenues – by Marc Frank (Reuters U.S. – September 10, 2013)

September 11, 2013

http://www.reuters.com/

HAVANA, Sept 10 (Reuters) – Cuban nickel industry revenues were well below expectations in the first six months of the year, mainly because of low international prices, official radio reported this week.

The provincial radio station of Eastern Holguin province, Radio Angulo, reporting on a visit to Moa municipality by provincial Communist Party leader Luis Torres Iribar, said the municipality’s exports were short 26 percent, or $90 million, for the period.

Cuba’s only two nickel plants, the Cubaniquel-owned Ernesto Che Guevara plant and the Pedro Soto Alba, a joint venture between Canadian mining company Sherritt International and Cubaniquel, are both located in Moa.

The report said that the Ernesto Che Guevara plant’s earnings were 15 percent below expectations, and the Pedro Soto Alba plant was down 25 percent, “mainly due to the low price of the mineral on the world market.” Cuba plans to produce around 62,000 tonnes of unrefined nickel plus cobalt in 2013, according to local and foreign company reports.

Sherritt International has said it expects the Pedro Soto Alba plant to produce 38,000 tonnes, similar to 2012. An Ernesto Che Guevara manager said earlier this year the plant would produce 23,700 tonnes.

Mining companies balk at Mexico’s proposed royalty plan – by Gabriel Stargardter (Reuters U.S. – September 10, 2013)

September 11, 2013

http://www.reuters.com/

MEXICO CITY – (Reuters) – Mining companies have threatened to cut investment in Mexico after the government proposed a 7.5 percent mining royalty, arguing that lower metal prices, rising running costs and higher taxes reduce the country’s investment allure.

The royalty proposal was part of President Enrique Pena Nieto’s plan to bolster Mexico’s feeble tax haul, a reform which focuses on reaping more income tax from higher earners, closing corporate loopholes and widening the tax base.

In April, Mexico’s lower house of Congress approved a new percent royalty to redistribute miners’ profits to the states and municipalities where they mine. The bill was originally due for a Senate vote in coming months.

However, lawmakers later decided to fold it into Pena Nieto’s fiscal reform, which has upped the stakes, proposing a royalty of 7.5 percent of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). It would rise to as much as 8 percent for gold, silver and platinum miners.

Guest post: can China help Kazakhstan to diversify? – by Usen Suleimen and Xiaojiang Yu (Financial Times/Beyond -BRICS – September 9, 2013)

September 10, 2013

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

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

Dr Usen Suleimen is ambassador at large, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kazakhstan. Dr Xiaojiang Yu is associate professor in the department of geography at the Hong Kong Baptist University.

The visit of Xi Jinping, China’s president, to Kazakhstan last weekend and the signing of $30bn of new agreements is another symbol of the growing closeness between two of the world’s largest countries. It is a relationship built on mutual challenges, geographic proximity and energy, as China increasingly looks to central Asia to power its growing economy.

But these links have also raised alarm bells in the west. Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, the region’s main producers of oil and gas, have been warned against letting China dominate their economies. China has found itself accused of a modern colonialism as part of a new ‘Great Game’ and of plundering the natural resources of poorer, weaker countries.

From Kazakhstan’s perspective, such fears are badly misplaced. Our two countries have had warm relations for more than 20 years, fostered by close links at senior government level. We cooperate on a range of foreign policy issues, including through the Shanghai Co-operation Organization and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia.

Billionaire Battles Native Americans Over Iron Ore Mine – by Christopher Helman (Forbes Magazine – September 9, 2013)

September 10, 2013

http://www.forbes.com/

Chris Cline became a billionaire through his investments in Illinois coal mines. His privately held Foresight Energy is rolling in profits while other coal companies are failing.

Now Cline hopes to repeat his fortune mining a different mineral, a form of iron ore called taconite, from a giant open pit mine in Wisconsin.

Coal has many detractors, so Cline is accustomed to being in the cross hairs of environmentalist groups. But because Cline’s coal mines are underground operations their impact on the immediate environment is obscured.

That wouldn’t be the case with his proposed taconite mine. Proposed by Gogebic Taconite, which Cline bought a few years ago, the mine would be built in the far northern reaches of Wisconsin near the town of Mellen, in an area crossed by rivers and streams that flow north into Lake Superior.

Wisconing Gov. Scott Walker is in favor of the mine, which is expected to generate 8 million tons a year of taconite and support 700 direct jobs. Naturally, the Sierra Club and Native American tribes are against it.

Energizer expects better economics from feasibility at Madagascar project – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – September 9, 2013)

September 10, 2013

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Madagascar-focused Energizer Resources on Monday said a series of milestones at its flagship Molo graphite project, and recently updated mineral resources had led it to expect improved economics from a feasibility study currently under way.

The company’s shares jumped more than 16% in early trade on the TSX on Monday to C$0.185 a share, before falling back to C$0.165 apiece around noon.

The company in February published the results of a preliminary economic study (PEA) for the project, which had found it to hold an after-tax net present value (NPV), using a 10% discount rate, of $341.8-million, and an after-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 41%.

The project was expected to cost $162.04-million to construct and would produce about 84 000 t/y of 98% to 98.6% pure flake graphite, which could sell at an average market price of about $1 564/t. The project was expected to have a three-year payback period.

Vladimir Potanin plans Norilsk Nickel overhaul – by Courtney Weaver and Charles Clover (Financial Times – September 9, 2013)

September 10, 2013

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

Moscow – After years of vicious shareholder infighting, lawsuits and mudslinging, Norilsk Nickel’s oligarch shareholders are scrambling to overhaul its investment strategy and management structure following the steep fall in metals prices.

In an interview, Vladimir Potanin, Norilsk Nickel’s single biggest shareholder with 30 per cent and chief executive, said the company had hired western consultants including McKinsey and BCG to advise the nickel, platinum and palladium producer, which has a market capitalisation of $20.6bn.

According to Mr Potanin, Norilsk has never managed to shake off its Soviet legacy and develop into a 21st century multinational, despite being the world’s largest nickel producer with $12bn in annual revenues and close to $5bn in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.

“To put it simply, the company should become more modern. It’s still working like a Soviet ministry,” Mr Potanin says. “There is a lot of red tape and other things that need to be done away with, given today’s difficult financial markets.”

China slowdown spells end of big payday for iron ore traders – by Manolo Serapio Jr and Silvia Antonioli (Reuters India – September 10, 2013)

September 10, 2013

http://in.reuters.com/

SINGAPORE/LONDON, Sept 10 (Reuters) – With China’s insatiable appetite for iron ore cooling alongside a slowing economy, once in-demand traders of the steelmaking raw material face a new reality: fewer financial perks and tougher resume requirements.

Anyone without a network of connections in top market China need not apply. And the days of guaranteed bonuses to attract the best talent are largely over. Just two years ago, iron ore traders were the envy of even investment bankers, a famously well-paid breed of financial players.

“Two years ago, banks were all over the market. If you could spell iron ore, they wanted you in their team,” said Paul French, the London-based global head of commodities at recruiting firm Global Sage. Now, with iron ore prices retreating from a record near $200 a tonne in 2011 to $134.80, recruiters say the phones are not ringing like they used to.

“I haven’t had a requirement for an iron ore trader for some time. Eighteen months ago we were regularly asked about it and I don’t think we’ve been asked about it in the last 12 months,” said Charles Crichton, Asia general manager at UK-based Commodity Appointments.