Twitter

Iron Ore

NEWS RELEASE: RETRANSMISSION: Champion is Pleased With Quebec Government’s Announcement of A Pre-Feasibility Study for A Third Railway Under Their Economic Policy

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – Oct. 8, 2013) – CHAMPION IRON MINES LIMITED (TSX:CHM)(OTCQX:CPMNF)(FRANKFURT:P02) (“Champion” or the “Company”) is pleased to comment on today’s announcement by the Quebec Government Economic Policy regarding the initiation of a pre-feasibility study for a third railway to transport iron ore from the Labrador Trough.

The announcement by the Quebec Government is as follows:

“As part of a vision for responsible development of northern infrastructures that are essential to ensuring the economic and social development of the northern territory.

The government is completing them, while ensuring the risk is shared among all the partners in question. The government will include the First Nations and Inuit in discussions concerning the North for all.

As part of Québec’s Economic Policy – Putting Jobs First, the government has announced investments including the following, a Pre-Feasibility study regarding the construction of a new railway link.

Read more

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

Read more

Rio Replacing Train Drivers Paid Like U.S. Surgeons – by Elisabeth Behrmann (Bloomberg News – October 3, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Train drivers employed by Rio Tinto Group to haul iron ore across Australia’s outback make about the same money as surgeons in the U.S. It’s little wonder the mining company will replace them with robot locomotives.

The 400-plus workers in the remote Pilbara region who earn about A$240,000 ($224,000) a year probably are the highest-paid train drivers in the world, according to U.K.-based transport historian Christian Wolmar. Australia’s decade-long mining boom has sucked up skilled workers, raising wages for engineers to drivers at Rio, the second-largest exporter of the mineral, and its closest competitors, Vale SA (VALE) and BHP Billiton Ltd.

he three companies that control about 59 percent of the $145 billion-a-year global iron ore trade are automating to bolster margins and squeeze out extra capacity as they boost supply to a record to feed steel mills in China, the biggest buyer. The push by Rio (RIO), which aims to move about 290 million metric tons on its rail network by next year, is expected to be the biggest driver for cost cuts in its iron ore unit after currency swings, according to Deutsche Bank AG.

“All producers are chasing better margins and stronger returns,” said Chris Drew, an analyst in Sydney with Royal Bank of Canada.

Read more

Australian tycoon Rinehart wants to end family feud to focus on business – by James Regan (Reuters India – October 1, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

SYDNEY, Oct 1 (Reuters) – Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart, one of the world’s richest women, wants to relinquish control over a $4 billion family trust, after several years of legal wrangling with her children over who gets what and when.

Lawyers for Rinehart, 59, told a court that the legal battle with two of her four children, which has been played out in public and captivated Australia, had placed huge pressure on their client but was now “effectively over”.

Bruce McClintock, one of Rinehart’s lawyers, said the two-year legal fight between the tycoon and her children, John Hancock and Bianca Hope Rinehart, had created “untenable risk” of damage to Hancock Prospecting Group, the mining company established by her late father and the source of her wealth.

“The increased demands on her time in dealing with the … plaintiff’s issues has taken valuable time away from her responsibilities,” he told the New South Wales Supreme Court.

Hancock Prospecting is in the midst of funding negotiations to develop a $10-billion dollar iron ore project in Australia. Rinehart nor her children attended the hearing.

Read more

Chinese Steelmaker Considers Canadian Iron-Ore Deal – by Alistair MacDonald Nisha Gopalan and Gillian Tan (Wall Street Journal – September 26, 2013)

http://online.wsj.com/home-page

Wuhan Iron & Steel Is Possible Bidder for Rio Tinto Assets

Wuhan Iron & Steel (Group) Corp. is in a thinning field of bidders for Rio Tinto RIO.LN -2.80% PLC’s Canadian iron-ore assets, raising the possibility it would be the first Chinese state-owned firm to make a large Canadian acquisition since a controversial oil-sands deal last year.

The Chinese steel giant is looking to buy, potentially with partners, the 59% stake in Iron Ore Co. of Canada that Rio Tinto put up for sale in March, according to people familiar with the matter. Wuhan’s interest underscores China’s continued appetite for metal assets, including iron ore, around the world.

In Canada, such a deal would be the first test of new rules Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government applied to state-owned bidders in the wake of Cnooc Ltd.’s 0883.HK +1.52% $15.1 billion takeover of Canadian oil-sands operator Nexen Inc. Though Canada approved the Cnooc-Nexen tie-up, it effectively blocked state-owned companies from acquiring oil-sands assets in the future, and signaled that attempts by state-owned firms to seek control of other Canadian assets would face higher scrutiny.

Read more

Iron ore giant Vale has a secret but it is not telling – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – September 25, 2013)

http://www.mining.com/

Brazilian miner Vale (NYSE: VALE), the world’s biggest iron ore firm, is considering more non-core asset sales by the end of the year, but it is also working on a deal that could shock the market, said Chief Executive Murilo Ferreira yesterday.

After a speech at the Brazilian Mining Congress, the executive told reporters Vale was evaluating whether to sell its 22% stake in aluminum producer Norsk Hydro ASA (STO:NHYO), as well as its 40% stake in Brazilian bauxite miner Mineracao Rio do Norte SA. The company is also evaluating what to do with its remaining oil and gas assets.

“We also have a surprise that I won’t mention so you remain curious,” Ferreira told reporters Tuesday, after a speech at the Brazilian Mining Congress, according to Bloomberg.

Iron ore prices to hold

The miner is quite bullish about global iron prices, as it sees demand from China, the world’s top iron ore consumer, likely to moderate next year. The executive director for ferrous and strategy, Jose Carlos Martins, said Wednesday the firm was expecting prices to be in range of $120-$130 a tonne in the fourth quarter.

Read more

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.

Read more

Guest Post: Wisconsin Needs Iron Ore Mining to Grow the Economy and For a Better Tomorrow For All – by Brett Healy (Minerals Make Life.org – September 18, 2013)

http://mineralsmakelife.org/

Brett Healy is president of the MacIver Institute for Public Policy—Wisconsin’s free market voice.

Across a 22-mile-long stretch of Northern Wisconsin, lies more than 2 billion tons of iron ore— a key material in the production of American made steel. Wisconsin’s resources account for an estimated 15 percent of all recoverable iron ore in the United States, representing a deposit critical to U.S. economic competitiveness.

Much progress has been made in recent months to develop Wisconsin’s robust mineral wealth and provide the far-reaching economic benefits that come along with this development. After the passage of Wisconsin’s iron ore mining reform in March 2013, the industry worked swiftly to respond to the updated environmental regulation, which sets a 420-day limit for the state’s Department of Natural Resources to approve or deny a permit. Gogebic Taconite, the owner of the proposed mine in Ashland and Iron counties, spent the summer exploring the deposit and sharing with the public its plans for the project.

If progress continues, the proposed mine could provide more than 700 direct, well-paying jobs that will change the fortune of families in the area for generations to come. It will also indirectly support an additional 2,100 jobs— all in an economically depressed part of Wisconsin that needs help. The mine could also contribute more than $600 million to the state’s GDP, a boost that would positively affect all Wisconsinites.

Read more

Northern Promise: Mining projects spark much-needed Sept-Îles port expansion – by Nicolas Van Praet (National Post – September 17, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Northern Promise is a six-part series that explores the pace and progress of development in Canada’s remote communities. In this fifth instalment, Nicolas Van Praet explores mining projects in northern Quebec

SEPT-ÎLES, Que. – The sun is setting on a cool September evening in this northern Quebec port town and three cargo ships sit anchored in the half-moon bay.

From this distance several kilometres away, the ocean-going freighters look like giant match sticks waiting to be struck. Above them, storm clouds hang like a menacing hook and behind, you can sketch the outline of North America’s biggest primary aluminum smelter — Alouette, its hill-perched electrolytic pots powered by transmission wires stretching from Hydro Quebec’s massive Churchill Falls hydroelectric facility.

Sept-Îles, named for the seven-island archipelago that fronts the bay, is a 10-km wide natural harbour in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence some 650-km downriver from Quebec City. The waters here are deep, plunging down as much as 80 metres, and they’re free of ice for year-round passage — a huge advantage for commodity producers getting their goods to market.

Read more

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

Read more

Vale Awaits Chinese Shipping Decision – by Colum Murphy and Chuin-Wei Yap (Wall Street Journal – September 10, 2013)

http://online.wsj.com/home-page

Beijing Considers Relaxing Policy Barring Iron-Ore Producer’s Supersize Vessels

SHANGHAI—Vale SA VALE5.BR +1.84% of Brazil is banking on a pickup in the Chinese economy to lift steelmaking demand, which could pave the way for the mining company’s supersize ships to supply directly the market that they were designed to serve but that now bars them from docking. A decision by Beijing to loosen restrictions on the cargo ships, known as Valemaxes, would be a boon for the world’s largest producer of iron ore, an ingredient in steel.

Valemaxes, the world’s largest cargo vessels, are about twice the size of the next-largest class of freighters, weighing in at about 400,000 deadweight tons. They were developed by Vale specifically to reduce the disadvantage from the company’s longer distance from the crucial Chinese market compared with the Australian operations of rivals BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.

Threatened by the competition to their own fleets, Chinese shipowners including state-owned China Ocean Shipping (Group) Co. successfully lobbied Beijing early last year essentially to ban Valemaxes, describing the ships as “a matter of monopoly and unfair competition” and citing safety concerns.

Read more

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

Read more

Concern growing over Sept-Îles oil spill – by Lynn Moore (Montreal Gazette – September 9, 2013)

http://www.montrealgazette.com/index.html

MONTREAL — An oil spill that happened more than a week ago in Sept-Îles might be far more serious than first reported.

Quebec Environment Minister Yves-François Blanchet visited the area Sunday while cleanup crews tried to contain a large slick before tides and winds take the oil out into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

While Blanchet urged a more “aggressive approach” to preventing oil spills during his visit, local environmental groups worried about damage to aquatic life in Sept-Îles Bay and beyond.

Overnight on Aug. 31, bunker oil was spilled near a shipping operation of an iron ore pellet plant operated by Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. at Pointe Noire. While the “source of the incident” is under control, investigation into the cause of the incident is ongoing, the company said Sunday.

Some media reports have pointed to a botched reservoir transfer as being at the heart of the problem. Environment Quebec has said that about 450,000 litres of bunker oil were spilled.

Read more

China slowdown spells end of big payday for iron ore traders – by Manolo Serapio Jr and Silvia Antonioli (Reuters India – 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.

Read more

Uruguay Prepares for Iron Rush – by Inés Acosta (Inter Press Service – August 26, 2013)

http://www.ipsnews.net/

The legal framework for large-scale mining is being prepared in Uruguay, a country where mining has never played an important role in the economy but which could become the world’s eighth largest producer of iron ore.

MONTEVIDEO, Aug 26 2013 (IPS) – A bill that would regulate large-scale mining operations is making its way through Uruguay’s two houses of parliament, despite a lack of political consensus and vocal opposition from environmental organisations and other sectors of civil society.

The proposed legislation, submitted by the executive branch and backed by the ruling Frente Amplio (FA) or Broad Front coalition, declares that large-scale mining would serve the “public interest”. But critics charge that the bill was drafted to serve the interests of the Aratirí project planned by the Indian mining group Zamin Ferrous, aimed at the production of 18 million tons of iron ore annually, with a promised investment of three billion dollars.

Opposition to these plans by environmentalists, farmers and other residents of the areas that would be affected by the mining operations is becoming increasingly louder. In the last demonstration against large-scale mining in Uruguay, held on May 10, more than 10,000 participants marched down 18 de Julio Avenue, the main thoroughfare in downtown Montevideo.

Read more