Iron Ore – Page 21 – Republic of Mining

COLUMN-Iron ore prices shift structurally higher on Vale woes – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – April 2, 2019)

April 3, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

HONG KONG, April 2 (Reuters) – Iron ore prices in China reached a record high on Tuesday as market participants wrestled two dilemmas, namely the likely temporary weather-related disruptions from Australia and the rather more serious safety outages in Brazil.

A major tropical cyclone hitting the main producing and shipping areas in the world’s largest iron ore miner was always likely to boost prices, and indeed, markets largely responded as expected.

Iron ore futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 4.2 percent on Tuesday to reach 665.5 yuan ($99) a tonne, the most since the contract starting trading in 2013.

Iron Ore Thunders Higher as Mine Dams Closed, Exports Collapse – by Krystal Chia (Bloomberg News – April 3, 2019)

April 3, 2019

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Iron ore’s supply-driven rally picked up pace on Wednesday, with futures topping $90 a ton, amid increasing concern the crisis at Brazil’s Vale SA will be drawn out as regulators ordered dozens of dams to be shut.

Futures for benchmark material rallied as much as 4.1 percent in Singapore, while spot ore climbed to a two-year high and the contract for high-grade ore extended gains above $100 a ton. Barclays Plc raised price forecasts on expectations for a global deficit.

The seaborne market has been roiled this year after top producer Vale suffered a dam breach in January, spurring mine suspensions and concerns there’ll be a shortage.

COLUMN-Iron ore prices shift structurally higher on Vale woes – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – April 2, 2019)

April 2, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

A major tropical cyclone hitting the main producing and shipping areas in the world’s largest iron ore miner was always likely to boost prices, and indeed, markets largely responded as expected.

Iron ore futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 4.2 percent on Tuesday to reach 665.5 yuan ($99) a tonne, the most since the contract starting trading in 2013.

Vale shares jump on iron prices despite losing certifications, asset freeze (Reuters U.S. – April 1, 2019)

April 1, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian miner Vale SA said on Monday it failed to obtain stability certificates for 13 dams under review following the rupture of another dam in January that killed hundreds, although its shares rose on strong global iron ore prices.

The world’s largest iron ore miner also disclosed in a securities filing on Monday that a court had frozen an additional 1 billion reais ($258.42 million) in assets over potential damages related to the evacuation of its Vargem Grande dam.

Despite the disclosures, Vale shares jumped to their highest point since the Jan. 25 disaster, rising 3.6 percent to 52.79 reais.

Baffinland CEO makes a case for mine expansion – by Derek Neary (Nunavut News – March 31, 2019)

April 1, 2019

Nunavut News

A proposed railway and many more cargo ships are the major concerns Baffinland Iron Mines’ CEO Brian Penney is hearing about in relation to the miner’s phase two expansion proposal, which would increase shipping to 12 million tonnes per year.

Penney said there’s misconceptions that the railway would reduce jobs for Inuit. He said there are only three or four existing Inuit truck drivers who go back and forth on the tote road from the mine to the port. However, Inuit represent close to 40 per cent of truck drivers at the mine site and the number of trucks at Mary River will rise dramatically if phase two proceeds.

“Anyone that drives a truck is going to be trained on driving trains,” the CEO said. “Inuit employment is only going to grow at Baffinland under all scenarios… we’re going to continue to build skills within the communities, to build skills that will make the workforce of the future for Baffinland. And hopefully someday Baffinland will be run by Inuit, totally.”

Brazil’s Vale slashes iron ore sales estimate after dam burst – by Marta Nogueira and Roberto Samora (Reuters U.S. – March 28, 2019)

March 29, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

RIO DE JANEIRO/SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian miner Vale SA on Thursday estimated selling up to 75 million tonnes less iron ore this year, after several mines were halted following its second deadly dam burst in less than four years.

The estimate, which is 20 percent below its prior forecast, is the latest blow to Vale from the collapse at Brumadinho, which killed some 300 people and forced the world’s largest iron ore exporter to fire its chief executive officer earlier this month.

Chief Financial Officer Luciano Siani said in a call with analysts that under the most optimistic scenario, 2019 sales would decline about 50 million tonnes.

Mining group works with U.N., ethical investors to tackle tailings (Reuters U.S. – March 27, 2019)

March 27, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – A group bringing together the world’s biggest listed miners on Wednesday said it was working with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and ethical investors to help agree a global standard for tailings dams.

The safety of dams used to store mining waste known as tailings became more high profile after the collapse of a Vale tailings dam in Brazil in January killed an estimated 300 people.

Vale and other major miners, including Rio Tinto, BHP and Glencore, are members of the industry body International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), which met in London on Wednesday to debate tailings safety.

Global Iron Ore Market Faces Deficit, Mining Billionaire Forrest Warns – by Krystal Chia and Tom Mackenzie (Bloomberg News – March 27, 2019)

March 27, 2019

https://www.bloomberg.com/

The global iron ore market is likely to have a shortfall following the dam spill and mine curtailments at top supplier Vale SA, according to Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. founder Andrew Forrest, who cautioned that other producers face constraints in boosting output.

“We do have to face the reality of a potential deficit,” Forrest said in a Bloomberg Television interview at the Boao Forum in Hainan province. While the Australian miner is “looking very hard” at how it can help customers, it can’t guarantee it’ll be able to help fill the deficit, according to Forrest.

Iron ore is heading for the biggest quarterly advance since late 2017 as investors seek to gauge the consequences of the disruption in Brazil, with Citigroup Inc. warning the market has yet to see the full impact of the disaster as a looming mid-year crunch will spur a rally to $100 a ton.

A Delay In Mining Auctions Could Disrupt A Third Of India’s Iron Ore Supply – by Nickey Mirchandani (Bloomberg News – March 26, 2019)

March 26, 2019

https://www.bloombergquint.com/

Nearly a third of iron ore supplies to domestic steel mills could be disrupted if the auction of 33 mines whose leases are slated to expire in March next year are not held in time.

These mines contribute about 28 percent of the country’s total production of iron ore, a key raw material used in steelmaking, according to a report by the Ministry of Mines. The majority of these are located in Odisha (16 licences set to expire), followed by Karnataka (eight) and Jharkhand (five).

Among the 16 working licences of India’s largest iron-ore producing state of Odisha, Serajuddin and Rungta mines produced 6 million tonnes and 11 million tonnes, respectively, last year, a report by SteelMint said. Overall, these two miners have 2.9 percent and 11.65 percent share, respectively, of India’s total iron ore market, it said.

Australian miners see some impact from two cyclones, clean up begins – by Melanie Burton (Reuters U.S. – March 25, 2019)

March 25, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Mining giants Rio Tinto, BHP Group and Fortescue Metals said their Australian operations had suffered some impact after two cyclones hit the country over the weekend, with clean up starting on Monday in the wake of the storms.

Cyclone Veronica has been weakening after battering Australia’s northwest, while further east, Cyclone Trevor was downgraded to a low pressure system on Sunday.

Businesses affected included those in the iron ore export hubs of the Pilbara region, as well as Rio Tinto’s bauxite operations in Weipa to the east.

Vale’s Sul Superior Dam in critical condition – by Valentina Ruiz Leotaud (Mining.com – March 23, 2019)

March 25, 2019

http://www.mining.com/

Brazilian mining giant Vale (NYSE:VALE) announced this weekend that the Sul Superior Dam at the Gongo Soco mine is in a critical condition when it comes to stability. This, following the work of an independent auditor, hired to evaluate the state of the structure.

The dam is located in the municipality of Barão de Cocais, in the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. This is the same region where, back in January 2019, a dam at Vale’s Córrego do Feijão iron ore mine collapsed killing hundreds and causing massive environmental destruction.

With the idea of avoiding a similar tragedy, the company launched a protocol to initiate level 3 of the Mining Dams Emergency Action Plan for Sul Superior, which is inactive and is scheduled to be decommissioned together with other nine dams.

Guinea risks ‘conflict and confusion’ with mining eviction policy – by Nellie Peyton (Reuters U.K. – March 21, 2019)

March 22, 2019

https://uk.reuters.com/

DAKAR, March 21 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Civil society groups rejected Guinea’s first policy seeking to protect people displaced by mines and dams on Thursday, saying it would worsen poverty and conflict in the mineral-rich nation.

Seven human rights and development organisations asked the government not to adopt the proposed national standards for relocating and compensating displaced communities, and to spend the next six months consulting with local people instead.

“If the document is adopted like this, it means the problem will never be resolved,” said Mamady Koivogui, executive director of the Association for Mines Without Poverty, one of the groups which hosted a Conakry news conference on Thursday.

COLUMN-Tug-of-war: China’s steel sector grapples short-term bulls, longer-term bears – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – March 21, 2019)

March 21, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

PERTH, March 21 (Reuters) – China’s steel sector, and the imported iron ore upon which it relies, are currently locked in a struggle between largely bearish longer-term structural factors and short-term cyclical influences, some of which are bullish.

It’s not unusual for an industry to grapple with competing narratives, but for China, which produces half the world’s steel and consumes two-thirds of seaborne iron ore, how the issues are resolved will have a flow-on effect through other parts of the economy, such as manufacturing, mining and construction.

The other impact of the tug-of-war of factors is likely to be volatility in prices as market participants try to reconcile the short-term drivers with the longer-term trends.

Miner Vale quashed dam safety audit efforts before Brazil disaster: prosecutor (Reuters U.S. – March 20, 2019)

March 21, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Executives at Vale SA, the world’s largest iron ore miner, quashed efforts by Brazilian authorities to audit one of the company’s mining dams months before it collapsed and killed over 300 people, a state prosecutor was quoted as saying by news website G1 on Wednesday.

William Garcia, a prosecutor in Minas Gerais where the January disaster occurred, told G1 his office had filed subpoenas with Vale last June to review safety documents regarding Vale’s dam.

But Vale’s lawyers responded in November arguing they had received positive reviews of the dam by an auditor the firm had hired, the German firm Tuv Sud, Garcia said.

EDITORIAL: Peterborough’s Innovation Cluster exemplifies ties that bind Canada, Brazil – by Examiner Staff (Peterborough Examiner – March 20, 2019)

March 21, 2019

https://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/

Water purification technology born here is used to help disaster victims

Canada has a complicated history with Brazil. Much of our shared experience is written in the language of commerce and has been controversial to the point of bitterness. But those are big-picture issues.

Scale the focus down and, as often is the case, smaller relationships create space for support and compassion. Peterborough is now part of just such a story, a reminder that people with open minds and hearts can find ways to cross international boundaries.

This story began in January when a huge tailing pond dam at Brumadinho in south-west Brazil collapsed. A torrent of mud and waste water from an iron mine swept away an entire section of rural Brumadinho, population 40,000. At least 300 people died.