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Iron Ore

Iron ore extends rally, fresh bull market beckons – by Timothy Moore (Australian Financial Review – November 24, 2017)

http://www.afr.com/

The spot price of iron ore appears headed toward a bull market on optimism about Chinese demand for higher grades of the steelmaking material.

So far this month, ore with 62 per cent iron content quoted by Metal Bulletin has risen 15.7 per cent, including a 3.9 per cent leap to $US67.69 a tonne on Thursday. It surged 4.3 per cent on Wednesday. The latest price swing is in keeping with a volatile year.

The latest rally appears to be underpinned in part by China’s push to curb pollution from now through March by closing less efficient steel mills in particular those in the northern part of the country. One result is that mills are using more higher grade, less polluting imported iron ore to maintain output.

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UPDATE 1-Vale says Brazil iron royalty hike could hurt high-cost mines (Reuters U.S. – November 23, 2017)

https://www.reuters.com/

RIO DE JANEIRO/BRASILIA, Nov 23 (Reuters) – Brazil’s Vale SA , the world’s largest iron ore producer, said on Thursday that a hike in the country’s royalty rates for the mineral could compromise its ability to maintain high-cost mines and would hurt its ability to compete.

Congress passed the higher royalties in votes on Wednesday with the bill now moving to President Michel Temer for signature. Vale said in a statement that it hoped Temer would veto some of the changes to the proposal made by Congress.

“Congress has made profound changes to the original text, resulting in a model that affects our competitiveness, especially at a time of depressed prices, as well as compromises the maintenance and operation of high-cost mines,” Vale said in a statement.

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Anglo to halt Minas Rio in Brazil if expansion licence delayed further – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – November 20, 2017)

http://www.mining.com/

Anglo American (LON:AAL) will have to shut its massive Minas Rio in Brazil next year if authorities for the state of Minas Gerais, where the iron ore operation is located, further delay a licence needed to kick off a final and key expansion.

The miner, which has already been granted permission for a second phase at Minas Rio, has been trying for months to secure the environmental license for the mine’s third and last expansion, but has faced several roadblocks along the way.

Chief executive of Anglo American Brazil, Ruben Fernandes, told local paper Hojeemdia (in Portuguese) the permit was first expected in July this year, but ongoing requests from the state’s public prosecutor and the rescheduling of necessary public hearings have pushed the deadline to December.

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Bloom Lake mine, dumped by Cliffs, to reopen by March – by John Myers (Duluth News Tribune – November 18, 2017)

https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

The Bloom Lake iron ore mine in northern Quebec, shut down and abandoned by Cleveland-Cliffs in 2014, will be back up and running by March, the mine’s new owner says.

Quebec Iron Ore Inc., a subsidiary of Champion Iron Ltd., said Wednesday that it already has 250 employees on site and will have 450 workers by Christmas at the facility near Fermont, Quebec, near the border with Labrador.

The new company raised $350 million in financing, including about $51 million from the Quebec government, a $100 million loan from a government pension fund and another $80 million loan from a private lender.

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How Rio Tinto chief Jean-Sébastien Jacques learnt the power of social media – by Pilita Clark (Australian Financial Review – November 13, 2017)

http://www.afr.com/

Of all the chief executives at a FTSE 100 company, the one I am coming to know best is Jean-Sébastien Jacques, the 46-year-old Frenchman appointed to run the Rio Tinto mining group last year.

Mr Jacques has lived in London for more than a decade and was “insanely happy” when he became a British citizen in 2013. He loves rugby. He travels constantly. His wife nicks his socks and he lives around the corner from a French bakery selling bread as good as any you can get in Paris.

I learnt all this from French Yummy Mummy, a blog by a gabby London-based Parisian engineer named Muriel Demarcus who is, I recently discovered, also Mr Jacques’ wife.

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RPT-COLUMN-Caution needed over weakness in China’s imports of iron ore, coal – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – November 9, 2017)

https://www.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Nov 9 (Reuters) – If the sharp drop in China’s iron ore imports in October looks suspicious, it should be viewed in the light of the record high the previous month and a holiday week.

Preliminary commodity import figures released on Wednesday by China’s General Administration of Customs showed iron ore imports for October slumping to 79.5 million tonnes, down a massive 22.7 percent from September’s all-time high of 102.8 million.

October’s imports were the weakest since February 2016, sparking market concern that China’s cuts to steel output over the winter in order to lower pollution were biting far harder, and faster, than initially anticipated.

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COLUMN-China’s iron ore appetite stays voracious even as steel output cut by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – November 6, 2017)

https://www.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Nov 7 (Reuters) – There is no sign as yet of a slowdown in China’s imports of iron ore, despite an increase in the amount of steel-making capacity being idled as part of efforts to combat air pollution during winter.

It would seem logical that if steel mills are forced to cut production in order to lower emissions, demand for iron ore in the world’s top importer would also slow to reflect the reduced steel output.

While this still may occur in coming months, it certainly didn’t happen in October, with vessel-tracking and port data compiled by Thomson Reuters Supply Chain and Commodity Forecasts pointing to another bumper month.

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Nunavut mining company takes icebreaking off the table – by Lisa Gregoire (Nunatsiaq News – November 6, 2017)

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/

Baffinland Iron Mines, which operates the Mary River mine in North Baffin, has scrapped its plans for winter icebreaking in Eclipse Sound.

The mining company had been seeking an amendment to the North Baffin Regional Land Use Plan to permit limited icebreaking so they could bring in a maximum of two winter sea lifts of freight from December to February.

“Baffinland has reviewed the comments submitted by the parties and has considered the concerns expressed by the community of Pond Inlet,” wrote Todd Burlingame, vice-president sustainable development for Baffinland, in a letter to the Nunavut Planning Commission.

“Baffinland has reconsidered the need for seeking an amendment to the [land use plan] to allow for annual winter sea lifts and is formally withdrawing the proposed winter sea lift from the proposed amendment application.”

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New chief of Brazil’s Vale aims to halve debt – by Neil Hume (Financial Times – November 5, 2017)

https://www.ft.com/

Fabio Schvartsman says he wants miner to become ‘results orientated’

The new head of Brazil’s biggest private company Vale has said the miner must halve net debt to less than $10bn if it wants to become a “results-orientated” company.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Fabio Schvartsman said reducing debt was his number one priority and that there was a better chance of restarting the Samarco iron ore mine — the site of Brazil’s biggest environmental catastrophe and which it owns 50:50 with BHP Billiton — if Vale were able to take control.

“If we are at the $10bn level, it doesn’t matter what happens with commodity prices,” said Mr Schvartsman. “Vale will be in a very sound position to do everything that is necessary.” The company’s current market capitalisation is $53bn.

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Biggest Miner Tracking Trucker Brain Waves in Technology Race – by David Stringer (Bloomberg News – November 1, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Truck drivers employed by the world’s biggest mining company are wearing baseball caps and hard helmets with sensors mounted inside to track their brain waves so they can get early warnings of fatigue and cut accidents.

BHP Billiton Ltd. has deployed the technology for 150 trucks at the Escondida copper mine it operates in Chile as part of efforts to boost safety, Chief Technology Officer Diane Jurgens told reporters Wednesday on the sidelines of a mining forum in Melbourne.

The company intends to adopt the method at other sites globally, including its giant iron ore mines in Australia, she said.

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Gina Rinehart’s Roy Hill iron ore mine to introduce driverless mining trucks – by Matt Chambers (The Australian – October 31, 2017)

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

Gina Rinehart’s Roy Hill iron ore mine plans to roll out driverless mining trucks in the second half of next year and will look to increase capacity beyond current plans of 55 million tonnes per year, once the new operations are running smoothly.

The move to implement autonomous mining trucks sees Roy Hill join its three bigger rivals Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Fortescue Metals Group in the Pilbara mining region of Western Australia in moving that way and follows a program to install autonomous drilling.

“We are looking at the phased implementation (of autonomous trucks) in the second half of next year,” Roy Hill chief executive Barry Fitzgerald said today on the sidelines of the International Mining and Resources Conference in Melbourne.

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[Northern Minnesota Mining] APOLOGY ACCEPTED. BUT WAS IT SINCERE? – by Sen. David Tomassoni (Hibbing Daily Tribune – October 27, 2017)

http://www.hibbingmn.com/

The whole incident reported in the New York Times magazine makes me believe that the environmental extremist movement led by Becky Rom and her husband, Reid Carron, showed their true colors.

They aren’t only opposed to copper, nickel and precious metals mining. They want to stop all mining, iron ore mining included. They probably don’t like logging or farming, either.

It came to me as I was sitting on my deck drinking a beer (metal chair, a byproduct of mining; wooden deck, from logging; beer, from hops and grains from farming). I thought, now what’s wrong with sitting on my deck and drinking a beer. Then I thought, I wonder if the anti-mining people have metal chairs on their decks?

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‘Leaner’ Vale reports better earnings, profits (Bloomberg/Sudbury Star – October 26, 2017)

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

Vale SA shares rose to the highest in two years after the world’s biggest iron-ore miner beat analysts’ earnings estimates on lower costs, stronger prices and record production.

Shares advanced for a sixth day, gaining 2.1 per cent at 10:18 a.m. in Sao Paulo, after the Rio de Janeiro-based company posted adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $3.02 billion for the third quarter, exceeding the $2.7 billion average of nine dollar-based [estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Pummeled by the biggest commodities downturn in a generation, Vale is once again generating cash after cutting costs and selling assets as prices recover. Chief Executive Officer Murilo Ferreira is betting on new, high-grade deposits in northern Brazil to offset his transport cost disadvantage with Australian mines that are much closer to Chinese steel mills.

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Candidates mull devolution, mining and tourism potential in Pond Inlet – by Walter Strong (CBC News North – October 25, 2017)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

Pond Inlet, Nunavut, a community of about 1,600 people on North Baffin Island, is surrounded by stunning mountainous terrain and the newly created Tallurutiup Imanga (Lancaster Sound) marine conservation area — the largest of its kind in Canada.

It’s also the closest community for the nearby Mary River iron ore mine owned and operated by Baffinland Iron Mines. The mine, approximately 180 kilometres southwest of Pond Inlet by air, has been in production since 2015 and maintains an 800-person camp.

The mine will impact the economic and social life of Pond Inlet for decades to come, but what that legacy will eventually amount to is not clear: the mine has struggled to fulfill its Inuit hiring commitments, and risks to the traditional hunting and trapping way of life in the region have been well-noted by community members and activist groups.

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How One Iron Ore Miner Plans to Beat a Global Glut – by Swansy Afonso (Bloomberg News – October 24, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

The global iron ore market may be oversupplied for as long as half a decade, keeping prices under pressure, according to billionaire Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Ltd., which plans to fight back by raising the quality of its output amid a global shift toward higher-grade material.

Supply will exceed demand for the next three-to-five years, keeping prices between $50 and $60 a metric ton for ore with 62 percent iron content, according to R. Kishore Kumar, chief executive officer of the company’s iron ore division.

Weak prices and the rising preference for higher-grade supplies by China is hurting miners on India’s western coast, which ships out most of the nation’s lower content ores, he said in a phone interview from Goa.

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