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Brazil eyes management overhaul for Vale after dam disaster – by Gram Slattery (Reuters U.S. – January 28, 2019)

https://www.reuters.com/

BRUMADINHO, Brazil (Reuters) – Brazil’s government weighed pushing for a management overhaul at iron ore miner Vale SA on Monday as grief over the hundreds feared killed by a dam burst turned into anger, with prosecutors, politicians and victims’ families calling for punishment.

By Monday night, firefighters in the state of Minas Gerais had confirmed that 65 people were killed by Friday’s disaster, when a burst tailings dam sent a torrent of sludge into the miner’s offices and the town of Brumadinho.

There were still 279 people unaccounted for, and officials said it was unlikely that any would be found alive. Brazil’s acting president, Hamilton Mourao, told reporters a government task force on the disaster response is looking at whether it could or should change Vale’s top management.

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New Dam Disaster Puts Vale CEO, Deals and Dividends Under Scrutiny – by Tatiana Bautzer (U.S. News.com – January 27, 2019)

https://www.usnews.com/

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – When Fabio Schvartsman took the reins of Vale SA in 2017, he suggested a motto for the world’s largest iron miner, turning the page on a tailings dam disaster that hit a small Brazilian town two years before: “Mariana, never again.”

That and many of Schvartsman’s other big promises look destined for the scrap heap. Four years later and some 100 km (60 miles) from Mariana, a breached Vale tailings dam on Friday unleashed a torrent of mud on another small Brazilian community, Brumadinho, leaving hundreds missing and presumed dead.

While the company’s focus so far has been on the human tragedy, analysts and shareholders have little doubt that Vale cannot continue on the track its CEO set.

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UPDATE 2-Brazilian despair turns to anger as toll from Vale dam disaster hits 60 – by Gram Slattery (Reuters Africa – January 28, 2019)

https://af.reuters.com/

BRUMADINHO, Brazil, Jan 28 (Reuters) – Grief over the hundreds of Brazilians feared killed in a mining disaster has quickly hardened into anger as victims’ families and politicians say iron ore miner Vale SA and regulators have learned nothing from the recent past.

By Monday, firefighters in the state of Minas Gerais had confirmed 60 people dead in Friday’s disaster, in which a tailings dam broke sending a torrent of sludge into the miner’s offices and the town of Brumadinho. Nearly 300 other people are unaccounted for, and officials said it was unlikely that any would be found alive.

Vale shares plummeted 17 percent in Monday trading on the Sao Paulo stock exchange, which had been closed on Friday. Brazil’s top prosecutor, Raquel Dodge, said the company should be held strongly responsible and criminally prosecuted. Executives could also be personally held responsible, she said.

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Hundreds missing in Brazil, 34 found dead, after Vale dam burst – by Gram Slattery (Reuters U.S. – January 26, 2019)

https://www.reuters.com/

BRUMADINHO, Brazil (Reuters) – Brazilian rescue workers halted searches for the night on Saturday for hundreds of people missing and feared dead under a sea of mud after a tailings dam burst at an iron ore mine owned by Vale SA, killing at least 34 people.

The dam ruptured on Friday, releasing a torrent of mining waste that slammed into Vale’s facilities and cut through a nearby community, leaving a roughly 150-meter-wide (500-foot-wide) wake of destruction stretching for miles (km).

The Minas Gerais state fire department, which gave the latest confirmed death toll, also said 23 people had been sent to hospitals. Some 250 people remained missing, according to a list released by Vale. All of those missing are Vale employees or contractors, a police spokesman said.

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Hundreds missing in Brazil after Vale tailings dam breaks, area evacuated – by Anthony Boadle (Reuters U.S. – January 25, 2019)

https://www.reuters.com/

BRASILIA (Reuters) – A Brazil fire brigade said it was searching for about 200 people still unaccounted for after a tailings dam burst on Friday at an iron ore mine owned by Brazilian miner Vale SA in southwestern Minas Gerais state.

A statement from the fire brigade issued in Belo Horizonte city said scores of people were trapped in areas by the river of sludge released by the dam failure.

Vale said there were employees in the administrative buildings of the dam that were covered by the surge of mud and water and there could be casualties in that area. There was no immediate word of fatalities.

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BHP second-quarter iron ore output down 9 percent, flags $600 million negative impact (Reuters U.S. – January 21, 2019)

https://www.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Global miner BHP Group said on Tuesday its second-quarter iron ore production fell 9 percent and flagged a $600 million negative impact due to production disruptions at its copper and iron ore operations.

The world’s biggest miner said unplanned production outages at Olympic Dam, Spence and Western Australia Iron Ore are likely to negatively impact productivity and flagged that it would revise guidance at its results on Feb 19.

The miner also raised its 2019 copper production forecast to between about 1.6 million tonne and 1.7 million tonne bolstered by the retention of Cerro Colorado copper mine in Chile, after a sale to private equity house EMR Capital fell through.

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China’s iron ore hits over 10-1/2-month peak on strong demand – by Enrico Dela Cruz (Australian Financial Review – January 22, 2019)

https://www.afr.com/

Manila | China’s iron ore futures rose on Monday to their highest since March 2018, extending gains on expectations of increased demand as the country’s steel inventories fell, and hopes that Beijing will roll out more economic stimulus measures.

Steel futures held on to their gains after data showed last month’s average daily steel output of China, the world’s biggest steel maker, hit its lowest level since March as producers cut output amid shrinking profit-margins.

The most traded iron ore contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange closed 2.2 per cent higher at 533 yuan ($US78.53) a tonne, after rising as much as 3.2 per cent to 538 yuan early in the session, the highest since March 2, 2018 when it hit the same level.

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Mining powerhouse Vale launches artificial intelligence center – by Anmar Frangoul (CNBC.com – January 16, 2019)

https://www.cnbc.com/

South American firm Vale, one of the world’s largest mining companies, has opened an artificial intelligence (AI) center at its Tubarao site in Vitoria, Brazil.

In an announcement Tuesday, the business said that the center was aiming to “leverage the adoption of innovative and disruptive technologies in all areas of the business.“

The work related to the center is focused on several things, including optimizing the maintenance of assets such as off-road trucks, and improving the management of ore processing.

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Mining mafia is wreaking havoc across India – by Anand Kumar (Dawn.com – January 14, 2019)

https://www.dawn.com/

THE mining mafia, which undertakes illegal mining of coal, iron ore, sand, bauxite, chromite and sand, has tremendous reach across different Indian states. And it is only when a disaster strikes illegal mining, as happened last month in the north-eastern state of Meghalaya, that a lot of noise is generated and government leaders talk of enforcing the ban on illegal mining and cracking down on the mafia.

But within weeks, things just settle down and the mafia deepens its operations across India. Last month saw one of the worst disasters when 15 miners were trapped — and are believed to have died by now — in an illegal ‘rat-hole’ coal mine in Meghalaya.

The illegal operators of rat-hole mining dig holes and make narrow tunnels to extract coal. In Meghalaya, the lush green state nestling in the hills, coal mining is a notorious activity undertaken by many illegal miners.

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BHP, Southern Innovation develop technology to identify quality of iron ore – by Yolanda Redrup (Australian Financial Review – January 11, 2019)

https://www.afr.com/

Mining giant BHP has recruited Melbourne-based tech firm Southern Innovation to help it identify the quality of iron ore in real time, with trials of a new device set to begin this year.

The companies have collaborated to develop and commercialise technology that dramatically improves the performance of radiation detectors for the mining industry, based on a complex signal-processing algorithm.

Traditionally during exploration, mining companies use drill rigs to determine how far down to mine for materials such as iron ore. The drills spurt a cloud of dust, which is captured and analysed for ore quality – a process that can take as long as six weeks.

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Goldman Warns Iron Ore’s Jump Into the $70s ‘Is Not Sustainable’ – by Krystal Chia (Bloomberg News – January 9, 2019)

https://finance.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) — Iron ore’s rally over the past month, with benchmark material pushing back into the $70s, is at risk as banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley warn that prices are poised to drop back.

While industry fundamentals have improved, current prices won’t last as more supply is on the way, Goldman analysts including Hui Shan said in a note received on Wednesday. The bank expects a decline to $60 in six months.

After a sell-off in November driven by declining mill margins, iron ore staged a comeback with benchmark spot prices surging 11 percent in December, the biggest monthly gain in more than a year. The raw material has maintained that advance even as signs of slowing growth stacked up in China, the top user.

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Rio Tinto plans to list Canadian iron ore unit in early 2019: sources – by John Tilak, Joshua Franklin and Barbara Lewis (Reuters U.S. – December 24, 2018)

https://www.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto (RIO.L) (RIO.AX) is preparing to take its Iron Ore Company of Canada business public in the first half of 2019 by dual-listing it in New York and Toronto, people familiar with the situation told Reuters.

The company has hired investment banks Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO), Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) to lead the IPO, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity as the information is not public.

Rio Tinto, the world’s second-biggest listed miner, is targeting a valuation of about $4 billion, they said. While Rio did not see much traction with a sale process, it has not ruled that out, the people said.

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Iron Range cities ready to welcome mining revival Matt McKinney (Minneapolis Star Tribune – December 30, 2018)

http://www.startribune.com/

As PolyMet, Twin Metals mines clear hurdles, cities hope for economic boost.

EVELETH, Minn. – At the new Boomtown Woodfire restaurant in this Iron Range city, diners can order the Steelworker prime rib with a Mesabi’s Best beer and, as the menu states, pay homage to the miners who dug the state’s mining industry out of a deposit of rich iron ore.

It’s a heritage many here hope will come roaring back, perhaps as soon as this summer, after officials granted the state’s first copper-nickel mine its final approvals last week.

“We’ve been talking for years about how to get ready,” said Biwabik Mayor Jim Weikum. “It’s been hard to keep people’s spirits up. You want people to be excited and to know that there’s light at the end of the tunnel, but it was a really long tunnel.”

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Rio Tinto iron ore boss Chris Salisbury says the public doesn’t trust miners – by Brad Thompson (Australian Financial Review – December 9, 2018)

https://www.afr.com/

His comments came days after an EY survey of 250 mining executives found more
than half now considered licence to operate the biggest risk to their businesses
amid rising nationalism, changing community perceptions of mining operations and
the impact of automation on the workforce.

Rio Tinto iron ore boss Chris Salisbury says the mining industry has a trust problem with the Australian public as the company continues to put a heavy emphasis on shoring up its social licence to operate and pushes towards an autonomous future. The 30-year industry veteran said Rio Tinto, along with other miners, needed to change and adapt to ensure its future was as strong as its past.

Mr Salisbury said he agreed with critics calling on miners to be more diverse, inclusive and progressive, but said many observers wouldn’t even know that Rio Tinto contributed $42.7 billion to GDP, or 2.5 per cent of Australian economy, last year and paid $5 billion in tax and royalties.

“In an industry that is built on the goodwill and trust of governments and communities, we need to positively engage with our neighbours and the broader community to tell our story better,” he said.

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Gina Rinehart: “Don’t call me an heiress” – by Andrew Hornery (Sydney Morning Herald – December 8, 2018)

https://www.smh.com.au/

Gina Rinehart ranks as the richest Australian ever, owns vast swathes of the continent, directly and indirectly employs tens of thousands of her fellow countrymen, has homes around the globe, travels in an $80 million private jet, is instantly recognisable across the land, has been the subject of a television mini-series and several bestsellers as well as having the ear of the Prime Minister.

Just don’t ever call her an “heiress”. I innocently made this incursion recently, only to be swiftly dealt with by Rinehart’s team of “communications specialists”, one of whom wrote to inform me she was hardly of the ilk of Paris Hilton.

Rinehart was disputing the term “heiress”: “When Lang Hancock passed away his estate was bankrupt, which is publicly available information. “In addition, Hancock Prospecting which he’d largely sold out of was in an extremely bad financial situation at time of his death in March 1992 with the few remaining assets under threat of litigation or heavily mortgaged. Tenements to Roy Hill were not in the company when Lang was alive – these were acquired after his death.”

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