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International Media Resource Articles

Global Witness’ Latest Silly Suggestion About Conflict Minerals – by Tim Worstall (Forbes Magazine – September 24, 2013)

http://www.forbes.com/

There are times when the actions of do-gooders makes me want to kneel down and weep bitter tears of pain. One such is the latest proposal from Global Witness on the subject of conflict minerals. They’ve decided that one particular program, one massively expensive and destructive of human wealth, should not be curtailed, adjusted or made more efficient: no, they’ve decided that it should be expanded. Forgive me for having rather strong views on this but it’s all happening in a corner of my working world and I can see what they’re doing wrong.

The background is over the use of conflict minerals in the supply chain. Conflict minerals are those coming from war torn areas of the world and it’s most certainly true that we’d like everyone to stop using minerals mined using slave labour, rape to keep people in line, minerals where the profits go to feed the armed gangs that control those mining areas. I agree with this aim and desire: it’s the methods proposed to achieve this goal that are so dire that they cause that pain in me.

For the latest suggestion is that the European Union should bring in regulations similar to those in Dodd Frank. This would require all companies to investigate their supply chains and thus check on whether they, or any of their suppliers, are using said conflict minerals. The problem with this being that this is a vastly expensive method of reaching this mutually desired goal.

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Vale CEO says Batista’s MMX must honor railway deal – by Sabrina Lorenzi (Reuters India – September 24, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

BELO HORIZONTE, BRAZIL – (Reuters) – MMX, a mining company controlled by Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista, should honor a contract to pay Brazil’s MRS railway for iron ore shipments even if its mines are not ready to produce, Vale SA (VALE5.SA) Chief Executive Murilo Ferreira said on Tuesday.

MMX Mineração e Metálicos SA (MMXM3.SA) has a take-or-pay contract with the MRS Logística SA (MRSA3B.SO) railway to ship 36 million tonnes of iron ore a year through 2026 at 26.46 reais ($12.03) a tonne. The iron ore was to be shipped from MMX mines in Minas Gerais state to MMX’s Sudeste Port near Rio de Janeiro.

The contract states MMX must pay for at least 80 percent of the total contracted volume starting in 2017 whether it actually ships the iron ore or not, according to MMX’s website.

Vale owns 38 percent of MRS’s voting stock and 42 percent of its total capital, making the Rio de Janeiro-based miner the railway’s largest shareholder.

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Anglo American pulls out; is it because we’re crazy? – by Paul Jenkins (Anchorage Daily News – September 22, 2013)

http://www.adn.com/

British mining giant Anglo American’s abandoning the complicated, expensive and grindingly slow slog to develop the rich Pebble prospect in Southwest Alaska is understandable — but you have to wonder how it must appear to other businesses and industries considering investments in Alaska.

Anglo American, which poured more than $541 million into the Pebble effort, points to its deep backlog of projects waiting for development. It says it is looking at higher-value, lower-risk undertakings, planning to cut by a third the nearly $950 million it spends annually on keeping afloat pre-approval stage, complicated, from-scratch projects such as Pebble.

All that may be a dodge, a way of saying Anglo American could see the handwriting on the wall and grew weary of trying to win anything resembling a fair hearing for Pebble in Alaska. With the Environmental Protection Agency poised, if not panting, to block Pebble ostensibly to protect Bristol Bay salmon — based, mind you, on an assessment that could not even pass muster with its own peer review panel — the $300 billion project’s future must have seemed sketchy.

It is notable that Anglo American did not sell, likely because there were no takers in the current environmental and regulatory atmosphere. It simply folded its cards and opted to eat a $300 million post-tax penalty for pulling out.

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The gold rush for commodities isn’t over yet, despite claims the super-cycle is dead – by Christopher Silvester (Spear’s.com – September 24 2013)

http://www.spearswms.com/

Demand from governments and private investors for gold and other commodities suggests that, contrary to popular opinion, the latest super-cycle has plenty of life left in it

WE’VE BEEN HERE before, haven’t we? Perhaps the clamour of Cassandra-like voices was not so great in 2011 when Spear’s previously wrote about the supposedly imminent demise of the commodities super-cycle, but it was nonetheless already a clamour. The past nine months or so have heard that clamour amplified several times over.

The Financial Times declared that the super-cycle was dead at the end of June, only to declare about ten days later that rumours of its death were greatly exaggerated. Most recently, the Wall Street Journal reported that the broad consensus of analysts and investors has called the end of the super-cycle.

But super-cycles tend to die slowly. The first identifiable commodities super-cycle in modern times lasted from 1894 to 1932, peaking in 1917, according to academics Bilge Erten and José Antonio Ocampo. The second lasted from 1932 to 1971, peaking in 1951, and the third lasted from 1971 to 1999, peaking almost as soon as it began.

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Canadian uranium sector prepares for rising tide – by Simon Rees (MiningWeekly.com – September 20, 2013)

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Uranium is back on the radar for many in the Canadian investment community. At first glance, this might seem counterintuitive: effective September 2, the uranium oxide spot price stood at $34/lb, while short-term market sentiment remains muted.

But uranium marches to a different, longer-term beat. Bullish analysts and commentators highlight wider macro factors that will eventually act as key supports for output, spot prices and fixed-term supply contracts. Canada is poised to reap great rewards as the world’s second-largest producer of uranium, they argue.

However, others urge caution; long-term macro expectations have the nasty habit of falling flat, while the junior spectrum – so critical for broadening the pipeline of available projects – continues to suffer from strong economic headwinds. Then there is the question of the possible effect that Quebec’s moratorium on uranium exploration and exploitation may have.

Canada’s two main uranium producers are Cameco and Areva, and both have significant footprints in the prolific Athabasca basin region of northern Saskatchewan.

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Potash Shake-Up Takes Toll as Agrium Sees Drop in Sales – by Gerrit De Vynck (Bloomberg News – September 24, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Agrium Inc. is the latest North American potash producer to cut its sales forecast as the breakup of the world’s largest marketing bloc for the crop nutrient begins to take its toll.

Agrium, the third-largest North American producer, expects to sell 30 percent less potash in the third quarter and forecast a 64 percent drop in profit from its wholesale fertilizer division, the Calgary-based company said yesterday. U.S.-based Mosaic Co., the second-biggest producer, cut its sales forecast by about 20 percent on Sept. 16.

The two companies form an export group, Canpotex Ltd., with Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., North America’s biggest producer. Potash Corp. won’t be spared the drop in demand, said Peter Prattas, an analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald LP in Toronto.

“They’re all going to hurt equally given the fact that they’re a collected group,” Prattas said yesterday in a telephone interview.

The potash market has been roiled since OAO Uralkali, the world’s largest producer, announced it had pulled out of an export sales venture with its Belarusian counterpart on July 30.

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Sandvik’s Customer Day – From start to Finnish – by Cole Latimer (Mining Australia – September 24, 2013)

http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/home

It’s not everyday that a new piece of equipment is launched. But when a company does, it’s unusual, even in these times of a downturn, not to do so without some fanfare. So when a company launches not one, but multiple pieces of equipment it has to make a serious statement.

This is exactly what Sandvik did following the release of not only two new drill rigs, but the world’s largest drifter, new underground drilling equipment, multiple new drilling threads and bits, and the latest developments in its automated and tele-remote mining systems.

It brought together more than 300 people from ten countries to demonstrate its new equipment in the flesh during its massive customer day. The group gathered at its Tampere facility in Finland to see the latest developments.

The facility itself was also on show, asthe visitors tramped across the site which Sandvik claims is the largest mining machinery manufacturing facility in Europe. As we crossed through the gates a little piece of Australiana welcomed the groups, a ‘beware of kangaroos’ sign, greeting visitors. Quickly the group was ushered in, where we were given a first hand demonstration of its AutoMine system.

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COLUMN-Commodity markets sceptical of China PMI boost – by Clyde Russell (Reuters India – September 24, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

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

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Sept 24 (Reuters) – What does China’s factory sector growing at its strongest pace in six months have in common with the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to keep buying bonds? Both failed to boost commodity prices much.

The flash HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 51.2 in September from August’s 50.1, the highest level since March and strengthening the view that economic growth in the world’s largest commodity consumer is regaining momentum.

The PMI improvement came days after the Fed surprised market watchers by keeping its bond purchases at $85 billion a month, judging that it is still too early to taper monetary stimulus, given the nascent economic recovery in the United States.

Both developments should be positives for commodity prices, as both point to the likelihood of stronger growth in the next few months in the world’s two largest economies.

While the Fed decision did give a small boost to some commodity prices, it didn’t last, with London benchmark copper CMCU3 having given up more than half of the 2.1 percent rally on Sept. 19, the day after the Fed announcement.

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Hardship a fact of life in platinum belt – by Jana Marais (Business Day – September 22, 1023)

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

DRIVING around Rustenburg’s central business district, one sees them everywhere — men in old mining overalls and women sheltering from the North West sun behind pieces of cardboard reading “Work wanted”.

Surrounded by some of the richest known mineral deposits in the world, Rustenburg — now better known for last year’s violent strikes and the police shootings of miners at Marikana than its platinum wealth — has seen an influx in residents in recent years.

People have been flocking to the area hoping for jobs on its mines. But for most, getting a job will remain a dream.

Those who are lucky enough to have employment are under increasing pressure as companies resort to cutting jobs, while rising prices of basic foodstuffs and paraffin make it more difficult to support their families.

While mineworkers earn relatively high wages in the South African context, they support on average eight to 10 people, often extended family living in other parts of the country.

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Does Anglo American’s departure doom the Pebble prospect? – by Alex DeMarban (Alaska Dispatch – September 21, 2013)

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/

Anglo American’s pullout from Pebble is hardly a death knell for the promising but beleaguered mineral prospect in Southwest Alaska. But the move increases the chance of an important shift in the project, one that could lead to a less environmentally risky design than the massive, open-pit option that has sparked widespread opposition.

That’s the opinion, anyway, of Paul Metz, a longtime mineral economics expert from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

With Anglo departing, Rio Tinto is now the only major mining company invested in the project. Rio Tinto, headquartered in London, holds 19.8 percent of Northern Dynasty Minerals, the junior mining company from Canada that has long led efforts to develop the prospect.

Rio Tinto has said it would support an underground mine at Pebble, while rejecting the open-pit approach that many believe will play a large part of Northern Dynasty’s eventual plans.

The Pebble Partnership, once owned half by Anglo American and half by Northern Dynasty, is now working on a transition plan as Anglo backs out, as was publicly announced earlier this week, an official with Pebble said.

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Biting the hand that feeds it [South Africa mining amendments] – by Chris Barron (Business Day – September 22, 1023)

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

CHAMBER of Mines boss Bheki Sibiya says nobody should be under any illusions about the impact that proposed mining law amendments will have on the industry and South Africa.

Public hearings on the amendments ended this week, leaving an overwhelming sense of approaching disaster. Mr Sibiya, who in three years as CEO of the chamber has impressed with his measured, thoughtful but frank assessments of the challenges facing the industry, says this could be the biggest so far.

The crux of the amendments being pushed through by the government in the teeth of detailed submissions by the mining industry is that they will empower the minister to intervene in all sorts of issues from pricing to ownership rights.

The immediate consequence is that “quite a number” of marginal mines will close, says Mr Sibiya. Projects that are at the prospecting stage will be suspended, thousands of jobs will be lost and investors will not invest.

“Mining is long term. Once one is not so sure about one’s rights in the long term, one would rather say let’s cut our losses now. This is what investors will do.”

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Innovators work to diversify the U.P. economy – by Kathleen Lavey (Detroit Free Press – September 22, 2013)

http://www.freep.com/

Gannett Michigan – Seven hundred feet below the surface of the earth, John Mason drives a truck through the heart of Eagle Mine, the tires crunching on irregular pieces of rock at the bottom of the tunnel.

He points to a section of the rock that’s a slightly different color than the rest. It gleams a little in the artificial light from the lamp on his hard hat.

“There,” Mason says, “is the ore body. Right there.” Four percent copper. Five percent nickel. An estimated 550 million pounds of usable metal in a mine near Marquette.

That’s no match for the purity of the copper hewn from the U.P.’s ancient rock formations during its 19th- and 20th- Century mining boom. But these days, getting it out is worth an investment of more than $1 billion and an effort that will keep a crew of up to 220 miners busy for at least eight years.

The new mine, scheduled to begin extracting ore late next year, is the next chapter in the Upper Peninsula’s long history of making a living from natural resources.

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Copper mine belt to ring Grampians – by Nick Toscano (The Age – September 22, 2013)

http://www.theage.com.au/ (Austrialia)

Mining companies have been permitted to drill at the doorstep of the Grampians National Park, and the area could become ”a new copper belt” in Australia, according to one mining executive.

Since December, the Department of State Development, Business and Innovation has pushed through three exploration licences that allow companies to drill on either side of the Grampians, after geological surveys showed the area was ”highly prospective” for copper.

An application was lodged on May 7 by the Queensland miner Diatreme Resources for a government licence to begin exploratory drilling near the Grampians’ southern border. Last month it was approved after what the company said was the ”quickest turnaround” it had ever experienced.

”The speed at which they’ve granted this tenement, which took about four months, is the fastest we’ve ever had,” chief executive Tony Fawdon said. ”They can often take several years.” Mr Fawdon said the recent departmental surveys had identified substantial copper deposits, which are believed to stretch from the Grampians to the state’s north-west.

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Tentative deal in dispute over N.Y. [Copper] heiress’ will – by Jennifer Peltz (Associated Press -September 21, 2013)

http://www.boston.com/?mastheadLogo

NEW YORK (AP) — A tentative deal has been reached in a New York court fight over the will of a reclusive Montana copper mining heiress that would give more than $30 million of her $300 million estate to her distant relatives, a person familiar with the case said Saturday.

The breakthrough in the fight over Huguette Clark’s estate comes after jury selection started in a trial pitting nearly two dozen of her half-siblings’ descendants against a goddaughter, a hospital where she spent the last 20 years of her life, a nurse, doctors, a lawyer and others.

An April 2005 will cut out her distant relatives. Another will, six weeks earlier, left them most of her money. The tentative settlement will give the relatives about $34.5 million after taxes under the deal, while her nurse would have to turn over $5 million and a doll collection valued at about $1.6 million, the person told The Associated Press. Her lawyer would get nothing.

The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss the settlement because it hasn’t yet been made public. News of the tentative settlement was first reported by The New York Times and WNBC.

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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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