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Iron Ore

Mining is a small part of Minnesota’s economy. So why is it such a big political issue? – by Greta Kaul (Minn Post.com – October 17, 2018)

https://www.minnpost.com/

Visit Iron Range towns like Babbitt, Hibbing, Virginia and Eveleth, Minnesota this election season and it’s not just signs supporting candidates that decorate lawns and businesses.

Signs with slogans like “We Support Mining” are pretty much permanent fixtures in this part of the state, where mining has been an important pillar of the economy for well over a century.

The signs may be numerous, but the number of people actually employed in mining in Minnesota isn’t: Mining is directly responsible for about 0.2 percent of Minnesota’s jobs and less than 3 percent of its economic output, according to state data.

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Brazilian miner Vale will not chase big acquisitions – by Neil Hume (Financial Times – October 16, 2018)

https://www.ft.com/

Brazilian mining company Vale will deploy its cash wisely and “does not need” to chase big acquisitions because it has a big opportunity to grow organically in nickel.

Speaking at the FT Commodities Global Summit in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday, Vale chief executive Fabio Schvartsman said big dealmaking “adventures” were not on his agenda and any acquisitions would be small bolt on deals, probably in iron ore.

“We don’t need to do it given the potential of our nickel business,” he said. Although Vale is best known for its huge iron ore business, it is also the world’s biggest producer of nickel, a metal that will be needed in greater quantities as electric vehicles go mainstream.

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Aussie iron miners struggle to keep pace with Vale – by Peter Ker (Australian Financial Review – October 16, 2018)

https://www.afr.com/

Australian iron ore miners have struggled to keep pace with Brazilian miner Vale, with BHP and Fortescue expected to follow in Rio Tinto’s footsteps by reporting softer exports of the steelmaking ingredient in recent months.

Rio confirmed on Tuesday that maintenance disruptions and the death of an employee had contributed to weaker than expected iron ore exports in the three months to September 30, and data from Port Hedland suggests its tenants (BHP, Fortescue, Roy Hill, Mineral Resources and Atlas Iron) exported six per cent less iron ore in the period compared to the previous quarter.

BHP is scheduled to confirm its iron ore exports on Wednesday morning, with RBC predicting its Australian division shipped 72 million tonnes in the three months to September 30.

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Looking up, up north: The territories reap tangible and intangible benefits from their biggest industry – by Greg Klein (Resource Clips – October 5, 2018)

http://resourceclips.com/

Nunavut’s environmental review said no to a mining proposal but Ottawa said yes. What happened? Hoping to finally make a profit at its four-year-old Mary River operation, Baffinland Iron Mines asked permission to boost production from 4.2 million tonnes annually to six million tonnes.

Worried about possible environmental effects, the Nunavut Impact Review Board recommended in late August that the federal government reject the proposal. But it was the NIRB recommendation that got rejected. Five cabinet ministers approved the mine’s request, for the time being anyway.

Swaying the decision was the support of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, whose members “strongly support the Production Increase Proposal as a method of furthering Inuit aspirations in the region,” Ottawa stated. Support also came from Nunavut Premier Joe Savikataaq, who urged a swift decision in favour.

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UPDATE 1-Brazil’s Vale third-quarter iron ore output hits all-time high (Reuters U.S. – October 15, 2018)

https://www.reuters.com/

SAO PAULO/RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 15 (Reuters) – Iron ore output at Brazilian miner Vale SA, the world’s largest iron ore producer, reached a record in the third quarter, boosted by the ramp-up of its S11D project in the Amazonian state of Pará.

In a securities filing on Monday, Vale said iron ore output jumped 10.3 percent from the year before to 104.945 million tonnes, while pellet output rose 8.7 percent to 13.878 million tonnes. Ore sales also touched a new high at 84.0 million tonnes.

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RPT-COLUMN-China’s winter anti-pollution shift may be good or bad for iron ore – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – October 5, 2018)

https://www.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Oct 5 (Reuters) – Unlike the turbulence being experienced by many other commodities, iron ore prices have snoozed through the past seven months, staying locked in a narrow range. A shift in China’s winter pollution abatement strategy could cause iron ore prices to awaken, but it’s far from clear as to which way they may break.

China’s Ministry of Environment and Ecology issued its anti-pollution plan last week, allowing local authorities to adopt measures based on regional emissions levels rather than imposing blanket output curbs on heavy industry.

At first this was seen by the market as a loosening of strict air quality rules, the result being that heavy industries such as steelmaking wouldn’t face output curbs as severe as they did last winter.

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Top Iron Ore Shipper Warns China Is at ‘Peak Steel’ – by Krystal Chia (Bloomberg News – October 2, 2018)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

The world’s largest steel market is about to go into reverse. Production in China will peak in 2018 and then shrink next year as local demand drops, according to forecasts from the Australian government, which says the shift will add to headwinds for core ingredient iron ore.

Mainland steel production is “forecast to peak in 2018,” the Department of Industry, Innovation & Science said in a quarterly report on Tuesday. After topping out at 886 million metric tons, output is expected to drop to 861 million tons in 2019 and hit 842 million in 2020, the department said. Over the same time frame, local demand is seen contracting by 34 million tons.

China accounts for half global steel output, and trends in its mammoth industry shape the worldwide market. This year, the sector has boomed with local mills — the largest buyers of seaborne iron ore — making record volumes as Beijing’s drive to curb overcapacity and fight pollution aids margins.

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New mining pit in Labrador west extends IOC’s mine operations 50 years (CBC News Newfoundland and Labrador – September 25, 2018)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/

The Moss Pit has officially opened at the Iron Ore Company of Canada’s Labrador City mine. IOC says the $79-million investment is not a massive hole in the ground yet, but as it is scooped out it will allow the company to speed up production and extend the life of the mine by about 50 years — and at a reduced operating cost.

“It’s been a long time coming. A little over five years,” said Clayton Walker, president and CEO of Iron Ore Company of Canada. Walker said it’s the right time to invest, feeling that support is in place from stakeholders, government, employees, local unions and there’s confidence in the market.

“I’ve been really pleased with how everyone has come back, we got back to work, everyone’s working hard,” he said, referencing the labour-management dispute which started at the mine last winter and stretched into spring.

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No shoes or high vis: Dampier’s old boys recall laidback life in remote Pilbara port town – by Kendall O’Connor (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – September 23, 2018)

http://www.abc.net.au/

When Pauline Hill’s husband read about a job going in remote Western Australia offering double his current wage, they thought it was too good an opportunity to pass up. “He was reading the Advertiser one day and saw a job advertised for Hamersley Iron, which we didn’t know anything about,” she said.

They planned to stay in the mystery town for two years, but ended up living there for 14 years. “We just loved it,” she said. Thirty-seven years later, Mrs Hill has returned to the Pilbara port town for the second annual reunion of people who lived in the town between the 1960s and 80s.

The idea for the Old Boys Reunion came from Dave Randle, who now lives on the Gold Coast. “I went to a Pilbara reunion down in Perth and I just felt that it wasn’t the right place for it,” he said.

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Vale eyes expansion of Brazil iron ore mine to feed Chinese demand – by Manolo Serapio Jr and Muyu Xu (Reuters U.S. – september 19, 2018)

https://www.reuters.com/

DALIAN, China (Reuters) – Mining giant Vale is looking at expanding its flagship iron ore project in Brazil, a company official said, hoping to cash in on a growing appetite for higher-grade varieties of the commodity in its top market China.

China, the world’s biggest consumer of the steelmaking ingredient, has ramped up buying of higher-quality, less polluting grades of iron ore as it battles to clear its notoriously smoggy skies.

Peter Poppinga, executive director at Vale, said at an industry conference in China that the world’s largest iron ore miner was studying expanding its S11D project in the Amazonian state of Para, even though it was still being brought up to the planned capacity after it was inaugurated in December 2016.

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BHP ditching ‘Billiton’ from its name, trims CEO pay rise – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – September 18, 2018)

 

http://www.mining.com/

World’s largest miner BHP Billiton (ASX, NYSE:BHP) (LON:BLT) is rolling out the second phase of a $10 million rebranding campaign launched last year, which may see it become dropping “Billiton” from its name an attempt to emphasize its Australian roots.

Documents released Tuesday to the Australian Securities Exchange, show the miner will ask shareholders at the annual meeting in October to vote to rename the company as BHP Group.

The rebranding, the first since BHP used the late actor Bill Hunter 30 years ago in its “Big Australian” promotion, can also be seen as an effort to regain public trust after the damage to the firm’s image caused by the November 2015 dam burst at its Samarco joint-venture in Brazil.

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New Soudan mine tours go deep – into geology, that is – by Pam Louwagie (Minneapolis Star Tribune – September 15, 2018)

http://www.startribune.com/

Geology groupies: Take note. For a limited time, the Lake Vermilion-Soudan Underground Mine State Park is offering a new, more scientific walking tour geared toward explaining details about how geologists figured out where and how to extract iron ore from the area.

Guides at the park in northeastern Minnesota bring visitors a half-mile underground in an elevator-like cage. While typical tours then transfer visitors to a train for a ¾-mile ride to a large underground “room” where ore has been extracted, the new tours involve walking there.

“It gives us an opportunity to stop at locations that people on the train are never going to see,” said Park Manager Jim Essig. The new tours emphasize how mines were mapped, he said.

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Vale to automate iron ore mine to improve safety and production – by JP Casey (Mining Technology – September 13, 2018)

https://www.mining-technology.com/

The world’s largest iron ore miner Vale plans to operate its Brucutu iron ore mine in Brazil with a fully autonomous fleet of vehicles next year, following a successful trial of driverless technology, to improve production and safety at the operation.

The trial involved the deployment of seven Caterpillar 793F CMD fully-autonomous trucks at the mine for a month, following six years of research and development.

The project cost $62m and the site saw a 26% increase in the volume of ore transported during the trial, results that the company’s ferrous planning and development director Lúcio Cavalli called ‘promising’.

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NEWS RELEASE: An Open Letter to the Iron Range – by Mark Dayton (August 28, 2018)

Mark Dayton is the Governor of the State of Minnesota.

Dear Friends,

I am as frustrated as anyone, by all of the setbacks that have delayed completion of the former Essar Steel’s taconite plant in Nashwauk. When I became Governor in 2011, the project had already been plagued by several years of broken promises, missed deadlines, and lame excuses.

After another missed deadline, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) gave Essar the legally required notice that we intended to revoke the company’s mineral leases of state lands in Nashwauk. Instead, Essar filed for bankruptcy, which under federal law blocked our actions and transferred control of the project’s future to a Bankruptcy Court Judge in Delaware. We were enormously frustrated by this maneuver; but we had no choice, other than to abide by federal law.

After several months of legal filings, the judge asked for bids from anyone who wanted to buy ownership of the project, pay off existing creditors, finish building the plant, and begin to produce pellets.

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Chinese-Built Port Evokes Dreams of El Dorado in Cameroon – by Pauline Bax (Bloomberg News – August 29, 2018)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

A controversial $1.3 billion port in Cameroon will open the region’s iron ore, cotton and other commodities to world markets.

Every day at sunrise, Alain Eko walks half an hour on a footpath cutting through a coastal forest to the edge of what’s to become the biggest deep-water port in central Africa.

Eko, 34, is among hundreds of migrant workers who have pinned their hopes on Cameroon’s most ambitious project since independence in 1960 that’s meant to transform the sleepy fishing town of Kribi into an industrial hub.

Built and funded by China, the project is helping Chinese companies gain a foothold in Cameroon, whose oil-dependent economy used to be dominated by French firms, and eased access to neighboring Chad and Central African Republic.

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