International Media Resource Articles – Page 777

REFILE-UPDATE 5-S.African gold miners’ union offers some compromise as strike bites – by Xola Potelwa (Reuters India – September 5, 2013)

September 5, 2013

http://in.reuters.com/

WESTONARIA, South Africa, Sept 4 (Reuters) – A strike for higher pay hit production at most of South Africa’s gold mines on Wednesday, but the main union behind the stoppage said it was willing to relax some of its demands.

The stoppage, called by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), began at the evening shift on Tuesday, with many miners refusing to go underground.

Producers grouped in the Chamber of Mines said output at 16 of the 23 mines currently involved in talks was partially or severely affected on Wednesday morning. The operators of the mines include South Africa’s main producers AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields, Harmony Gold and Sibanye Gold.

“The majority of Harmony’s operations have been severely affected, although all essential services personnel are at work,” the company said in a statement.

However, the NUM, which represents two thirds of the country’s gold mine workers, has already opened the prospect of a compromise, saying it was prepared to lower its pay increase demands for some specific employee categories.

COLUMN-Fed tapering may boost coal, crimp oil in Asia – by Clyde Russell (Reuters India – September 5, 2013)

September 5, 2013

http://in.reuters.com/

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

(Reuters) – The turmoil in some Asian currencies created by the likely tapering of monetary stimulus in the United States is likely to spill over into commodity markets. While it’s obvious that as a currency depreciates, the local cost of commodities, which are normally priced in U.S. dollars, increases.

But what is less obvious is what the impact will be on the supply-demand balance for various commodities. Take crude oil and coal for instance. Both are major sources of energy, priced in U.S. dollars and easily traded.

But for many Asian countries, the price of oil has risen dramatically this year, while that for coal has remained steady, or even declined. The focus has been on India in recent weeks, given the South Asian nation’s efforts to stem the slide of the rupee, which has lost some 23 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar this year.

Brent crude is now at record highs in rupee terms, and is 26 percent above the level that prevailed at the start of the year. Given that crude is India’s biggest import in value terms, it’s clear that the government will want to spend less on oil in order to lower the current account deficit.

BC First Nation blocks road to proposed coal mine – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – September 5, 2013)

September 5, 2013

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Members of the Tahltan First Nation, in British Columbia (BC), on Tuesday began blockading a road leading to project developer Fortune Minerals’ proposed openpit coal mine and which is also used to travel to traditional hunting camps, as Tahltan Central Council (TCC) leaders prepared for talks with government on Wednesday.

Tahltan community members said they were concerned that Fortune started using the access road after the Iskut First Nation, in preparation for the hunting season earlier in the summer, repaired it.

The First Nation said in a statement that its leaders would meet with provincial Ministers to discuss the impact of the proposed mine and to develop a long-term plan to protect the area surrounding Mount Klappan in the north-west of the province.

“Building an openpit coal mine on the Sacred Headwaters, which supports three salmon-bearing rivers and has been vital for hunting for thousands of years, is a step too far. It is time to be proactive about protecting our own interests and those of everyone in the region,” TCC president Annita McPhee said.

Chief Marie Quock of the Iskut First Nation explained that some of the community’s people asked Fortune to leave so that they could camp on Mount Klappan as usual, without being interrupted by traffic and helicopters.

Indonesia plans to soften foreign miners’ divestment rule (Reuters U.S. – September 5, 2013)

September 5, 2013

http://www.reuters.com/

JAKARTA – (Reuters) – Indonesia plans to relax a rule forcing foreign miners to sell majority stakes and allow those who make downstream investments to keep bigger holdings, a spokesman at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry said on Thursday.

Last year, the Indonesian government said foreign companies must reduce their stake in a mine to 49 percent or less within 10 years of production starting, though it has been unclear how the rules will be applied.

The rule was part of a push by Indonesia, which is the world’s top nickel ore, refined tin and thermal coal exporter, to generate more profits and influence in commodities markets.

“For those companies that integrate the upstream and downstream mining activities, they may have that divestment relaxation policy. Instead of divesting 51 percent to be achieved on year 10 of its activity,” ministry spokesman Saleh Abdurrahman said in an email.

“They may divest less than that, depends on the negotiation,” he said, adding there would be a revision to the current government regulation. He gave no timeframe for the change, but new regulations and rules can often get delayed in the lengthy Indonesian legislature system.

UPDATE 1-Australia ships more iron ore to China as demand stays strong – by Wayne Cole (Reuters U.K. – September 5, 2013)

September 5, 2013

http://uk.reuters.com/

SYDNEY, Sept 5 (Reuters) – Australian shipments of iron ore to China looked to have stayed strong in August, a month after Australia boasted its second-highest exports ever to the Asian giant and a sign of healthy demand for resources.

Iron ore exports to China from Port Hedland, which handles about a fifth of the global seaborne market for the steel-making raw material, rose 9 percent in August from July.

Ore shipments of 22.3 million tonnes were up a hefty 33 percent on August last year and not far from all-time highs hit in May. Since the figures are released just a few days after the end of the month, they offer a timely leading indicator of demand in China.

Australia is the single largest supplier of the ore to China, ahead of Brazil. Iron ore is Australia’s single biggest export earner, bringing in around A$60 billion ($54.9 billion) in a good year. The strength of shipments increases the chance that Australia will report a trade surplus for August, and also add to economic growth.

New high grade zone drilled on Duluth base and precious metals complex – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – September 5, 2013)

September 5, 2013

http://www.mineweb.com/

New drill holes on the Twin Metals Minnesota Maturi deposit on the massive Duluth metallurgical complex indicate the presence of yet another high grade nickel-copper zone.

LONDON (MINEWEB) – In what Duluth Metals CEO, Chris Dundas, described in an email to Mineweb as yet another ‘exciting’ piece of news, the company has reported that a new high grade zone of nickel-copper mineralisation has been intersected on the southern edge of its Maturi deposit within the Duluth/Antofagasta Twin Metals Minnesota (TMM) project in north eastern Minnesota, USA.

The Duluth Complex possibly contains the world’s largest undeveloped polymetallic resource containing nickel, copper, cobalt, platinum, palladium, gold and more. It is somewhat comparable in size to the Sudbury nickel complex in Canada, Norilsk in Russia and the Bushveld Compex in South Africa as massive bodies containing huge amounts of strategic metals, but these others are already being worked extensively. The Duluth Complex is believed to contain the world’s third largest nickel resource and the second largest concentration of copper and platinum group metals.

Duluth Metals with TMM is one of the biggest concession holders in the area, if not the biggest, having acquired Franconia in 2011, although PolyMet is perhaps more advanced towards production with the smaller, but still significant-sized, NorthMet project on another part of the Complex, while Teck is among other companies which are looking at other areas there.

Wisconsin iron ore project accused of ‘sweetheart’ dealmaking – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – September 4, 2013)

September 4, 2013

http://www.mineweb.com/

The fight over the return of Wisconsin iron ore mining is not finished, as opponents try to prove the Gogebic Taconite project will harm water quality in wetlands.

RENO (MINEWEB) – Wisconsin tribes, lawmakers and miners are fighting over an emergency bill introduced in the Wisconsin State Legislature over the long Labor Day weekend and scheduled for hearing Wednesday, which would allow a controversial iron ore project to restrict public access to a parcel of land near the project.

The Gogebic Taconite iron ore company, owned by West Virginia coal magnate, Chris Cline, aims to construct a $1.5 billion iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin after the state legislature enacted permitting reform in March 2013 to bring back iron ore mining to the state. The mine would operate for at least 35 years and generate 700 jobs in an economically hard-hit area of Wisconsin.

However, the battle over the project is far from over as Native Americans have been regularly protesting against it, prompting accusations of “eco-terrorism” by mining officials. In June, protestors were accused of slashing tires, damaging equipment, and knocking over fences on the minesite. Opponents argue the new mine permitting legislation has relaxed environmental regulations that will lead to pollution of the Bad River watershed, which flows north from the proposed mine area into Lake Superior.

Australian coal miners hope election will see new govt cut red tape – by Sonali Paul (Reuters India – September 4, 2013)

September 4, 2013

http://in.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE – (Reuters) – You know you’re in trouble when you’re ranked worse for red tape than India. The World Economic Forum this week put Australia 129th out of 148 countries, ranking it 25 spots lower than India, in terms of the burden of government regulation.

And Australia’s red tape is hurting growth in its key mining sector at a time when other sectors are struggling to fire up to fill the gap left by a fading mining investment boom.

Australian miners sitting on coal lodes that could produce 100 million tonnes a year say they are frustrated by layers of state and national approvals that take years to secure, anti-coal campaigners using the courts to delay projects, and carbon and mining taxes eating into potential returns.

“Green tape in Australia really has become very stifling for business, to the point now where it’s difficult to tell the difference between green and red tape, it’s so embedded,” said Whitehaven Coal Chief Executive Paul Flynn, referring to lengthy environmental reviews by state and federal agencies.

Rio to BHP Invest $244 Billion as Glasenberg Warns: Commodities – by Elisabeth Behrmann & Jesse Riseborough (Bloomberg News – September 4, 2013)

September 4, 2013

http://www.bloomberg.com/

The biggest mining companies are set to spend about $244 billion on expansions to 2015, slow to heed Glencore Xstrata Plc Chief Executive Officer Ivan Glasenberg’s call for austerity to end an oversupply in mineral markets.

That’s just a 2.4 percent drop from the $250 billion in capital expenditures made in the previous three-year period, according to forecasts compiled by Bloomberg for the 20 largest mining companies by market value. Glasenberg joined a chorus of investors pushing for spending cuts after the companies had to make $60 billion of writedowns over 18 months.

From BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP), the world’s biggest, to Rio Tinto Group, industry members are telling investors they’ve become more optimistic for demand growth in the U.S. and China, the biggest minerals buyer, and that future capex will be more disciplined. The Bloomberg World Mining index has jumped about 16 percent from a four-year low in July.

“Institutional shareholders still feel that management need to prove to them that over the long term the discipline associated with capital allocation is there,” Catherine Raw, co-manager of BlackRock Inc. (BLK)’s $7 billion World Mining Fund, said yesterday in a phone interview from London. “They could always do more. Shareholders are not releasing the pressure.”

COLUMN-China PMI may not signal rising commodity demand – by Clyde Russell (Reuters India – September 3, 2013)

September 3, 2013

http://in.reuters.com/

(The author is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)

(Reuters) – Commodity producers and traders have no doubt been cheered by the recent recovery in China’s key manufacturing sector, but the boost may be more to sentiment than actual demand.

This is because there is a fairly weak correlation between movements in China’s official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) and imports of key commodities such as crude oil, iron ore and copper. There is a far better correlation between China’s imports and the price of these commodities.

This suggests that while stronger, or weaker, industrial growth helps set the direction for imports, the actual size of the movement in imports is more related to price.

The official PMI rose to a 16-month high of 51.0 in August, beating market expectations for a reading of 50.6, with the breakdown showing better conditions across the factory sector, including the key export orders category.

Anglo American Platinum to Eliminate Thousands of Jobs in South Africa – by Abayomi Azikiwe (Global Research – September 02, 2013)

September 3, 2013

http://www.globalresearch.ca/

Downsizing comes amid rising strikes by workers

South African workers are continuing their struggle against the bosses with strike actions spreading from the mines, automobile plants, air transport technology stations to construction sites. On September 3, thousands of members of the National Union of Metalworkers Union (NUMSA) were scheduled to march through Pretoria to the headquarters of the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa to deliver a memorandum demanding that the trade group pressure car production firms to settle a strike that was in its third week.

In the most significant industry, platinum mining, the largest owner Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), has announced that up to 7,000 jobs could be eliminated in a restructuring program. The company had earlier threatened to fire twice as many workers but revised its plan to wipe out only 50 percent in the initial proposal.

These developments are taking place throughout the mining industry inside the country. Anglo American, which is also involved in other extractive markets such as gold, has reported a 10 percent decline in value since the beginning of 2013. Amplats produces 40 percent of the platinum sales internationally. The most profitable region for the firm is located in Rustenberg where during 2012 police shot dead 34 miners at the Lonmin corporation facility at Marikana on August 16.

Mining opponents: You think you know Ely’s needs? – by Joe Baltich (Minneapolis Star Tribune – August 31, 2013)

September 3, 2013

http://www.startribune.com/

Joe Baltich lives near Ely, Minn.

These days, everybody has a lot to say about mining, tourism and the northern Minnesota economy. Many from the Twin Cities area oppose an underground copper-mining proposal near Ely and have been trying to stop the project in its tracks.

One of their reasons for doing so is well-intended — they want to protect the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The second reason is more self-serving — they want to protect it for whenever the day comes that they decide to pay a visit.

I felt that it is time someone actually from Ely explained our reality. We want to protect the BWCA all the time, and we also want to be a viable, vibrant community. It is hard to do that with outside forces trying to stifle economic activity. I was recently asked by a Twin Cities resident to sign an anti-mining petition. Here is a condensed version of the letter I sent in reply:

The whole town of Ely is economically collapsing. Last year, 156 people were in the obituaries, and the New Year’s baby was born on Feb. 10. Resort bookings for May and June were substantially off, and I’m pretty sure they will be down for July and August.

Europe’s Biggest Planned Gold Mine May Face Romanian Referendum – by Irina Savu (Bloomberg News – September 2, 2013)

September 3, 2013

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Romania’s President proposed a vote on allowing development of Europe’s largest gold mine project following protests against technology that made the country home to one of the continent’s worst environmental disasters.

A day after thousands of demonstrators rallied against the use of cyanide in gold mining, President Traian Basescu said he may call a referendum next year on the Rosia Montana mine. That may delay the project, for which Canada-based Gabriel Resources Ltd. (GBU) said it could “hopefully” receive approval by November.

The rallies followed the government’s unveiling last week of a draft law to raise the state’s stake in the project, rekindling anger over the 2000 Baia Mare spill. Listed by the United Nations Environment Programme alongside Chernobyl as one of Europe’s major human-caused disasters, the spill happened when a dam holding back mine debris burst, flooding the Somes, Tiza and Danube rivers with tens of thousands of tons of cubic meters of cyanide-contaminated water.

“The biggest scare about the Rosia Montana mine is the cyanide process, which should have been discussed with experts,” Basescu said on newspaper Adevarul’s website. He said “society is rightfully reacting to this” because Romania had suffered from the Baia Mare spill.

Lancaster Co. proposal could affect future gold mining – by Sammy Fretwel (Herald On Line.com – September 2, 2013)

September 3, 2013

http://www.heraldonline.com/

That’s why plenty of people are watching Romarco Minerals Inc. these days. The fate of gold mining in South Carolina is tied to an ambitious plan by the company to offset wetlands damage at a huge mine it plans near Kershaw – and how well Romarco navigates the environmental permitting process, observers say.

More than 20 years after one of the state’s most prolific gold mines closed, Romarco Minerals Inc. of Canada is trying to persuade state and federal regulators to let it dig up and substantially expand the Haile mine in Lancaster County.

To do that, Romarco must convince regulators that the company has done all it can to avoid unnecessary damage to wetlands, streams, rivers and groundwater – and Romarco must offer compensation for the environmental impacts the mine will have. The company recently offered a wetlands offset package that could cost it $32 million.

Romarco’s efforts are expected to guide future company work in South Carolina, as well as those of other gold-exploration companies on whether to dig new mines. Some of Romarco’s competitors have been searching for gold in the Carolina Slate Belt, a rocky area that in South Carolina is largely between Columbia and Charlotte.

Tearful Cutifani in appeal to end ‘tide of destruction’ in mining – by Allan Seccombe (South Africa Business Day – August 30, 2013)

September 3, 2013

http://www.bdlive.co.za/

A DEEPLY emotional Mark Cutifani, the CEO of Anglo American and president of the Chamber of Mines, has urged the government not to add to the risks besetting the mining sector by creating regulatory uncertainty.

“Our most important industry is in crisis and we have not yet found the answer to stemming the tide of destruction,” he said.

Mr Cutifani broke down in tears at the start of a speech at a dinner on Thursday marking the end of the three-day Mining Lekgotla in Sandton, where stakeholders gathered to discuss the sector’s competitiveness and transformation.

He said “cowards, thugs and murderers” and “loud-mouthed opportunists” should not be allowed to intimidate and bully others and to define the dialogue South Africa was having.

Mr Cutifani, the former CEO of AngloGold Ashanti, praised the achievements of South Africa, which had undergone one of the world’s largest social reconstructions since the demise of apartheid in 1994. However, despite the JSE outperforming the New York bourse since 2007, posting a 60% growth, the mining index was flat and had destroyed 30% of absolute value in the same time, he said.