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We’re confident a bid for Rio Tinto will clear hurdles: Glencore – by Bridget Carter and Scott Murdoch (The Australian – Jun 15, 2017)

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

Rio Tinto’s preferred bidder is expected to be revealed next week and Glencore is lobbying that its offer is unlikely to be hamstrung by onerous legislative hurdles.

The Switzerland-based trading house’s global coal boss, Peter Freyberg, briefed the Rio Tinto board in Montreal overnight and reportedly emphasised it was confident regulators would not pose an insurmountable hurdle.

Glencore’s critics have highlighted that China’s Ministry of Commerce took six months to approve the company’s purchase of a 50 per cent stake in Rio Tinto’s Clermont mine. But the six months was based on the fact that the Mofcom, arguably the country’s second most powerful arm of government, was examining the broader Glencore and Xstrata transactions.

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Glencore’s Coal Future Burns Bright – by David Fickling (Bloomberg News – June 12, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Is Glencore Plc’s last-minute bid for Rio Tinto Group’s Australian thermal coal assets about quantity, or quality? It’s a bit of both. With a tenement footprint that’s more or less surrounded by Glencore’s own mines, Rio Tinto’s Hunter Valley pits have long been an obvious target for the trader.

In volume terms, the $2.55 billion offer looks like the sort of deal that typically went down a decade ago, when the thermal coal used in power stations was a hot commodity and the likes of Rio Tinto and Anglo American Plc were looking to add assets, rather than exit ones still on their books.

Glencore is by far the biggest coal miner in the Hunter Valley, the region north of Sydney that supplies the world’s biggest coal export harbor at Newcastle. But its mines are rapidly depleting, and will run out in about a decade at current production rates. Add Rio Tinto’s vast resource base and lower output pace, and you could comfortably extend that deadline into the mid-2030s or beyond.

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Glencore outbids Yancoal for Rio Tinto’s Hunter Valley coal mines – by Barbara Lewis and Sanjeeban Sarkar (Reuters U.S. – June 9, 2017)

https://www.reuters.com/

Miner-trader Glencore (GLEN.L) on Friday said it had offered $2.55 billion cash for coal mines owned by Rio Tinto (RIO.L) (RIO.AX) in Hunter Valley, Australia, outbidding a previous offer from Chinese-owned Yancoal.

The large-scale, long-life assets are next to mines already owned by Glencore, which has predicted continued demand for coal, especially in Asia, despite environmental opposition to the most polluting form of fossil fuel.

In January, Rio said it was selling its interest in Coal & Allied Industries Limited (C&A) to Yancoal Australia Limited (YAL.AX) for $2.45 billion. The terms allowed Rio to engage in negotiations with another party if it made a better offer.

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Race Is on to Mine Metal Powering Electric Vehicles – by David Stringer (Bloomberg News – June 8, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

The race is on to supply more of the cobalt needed for batteries in the fast-growing market for electric vehicles — and that means fresh competition for the big players Glencore Plc and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A pipeline of projects is looming in places including Australia, the U.S. and Canada after cobalt prices more than doubled in the past year. Glencore produces almost a third of the world’s supply, mainly from the Congo, which is by far the biggest source, accounting for as much as 65 percent.

Among those backing new global developments are billionaire Anil Agarwal and mining tycoon Robert Friedland. They’re aiming to capitalize as a battery boom sends demand for cobalt soaring more than 30-fold by 2030, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

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Trump ‘Has a Point’ on China’s Cheap Aluminum, Glencore CEO Says – by Jack Farchy, Erik Schatzker and Mark Burton (Bloomberg News – June 1, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Donald Trump “has a point” in criticizing China’s trade in aluminum and steel as cheap power has effectively been a subsidy to Chinese producers, said Glencore Plc chief Ivan Glasenberg.

Trump should be pragmatic in dealing with China, given that it imports a lot of U.S. goods, said Glasenberg during a Bloomberg Television panel at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

“China was producing coal and selling it to the power stations at a loss,” he said. “Aluminum companies were getting subsidized power.”

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Glencore threat to quite Mt Isa because of energy woes – by John McCarthy (Brisbane Courier-Mail – May 30, 2017)

http://www.couriermail.com.au/

GLENCORE and the State Government are trying to resolve a crippling energy problem which could force the loss of 2000 jobs in north Queensland. The mining giant has again threatened to close its Mt Isa copper operations because of the high energy costs which have combined with high rail and labour costs.

It made the threat in 2016 over the high cost of operating the assets because of environmental conditions and earlier this month said energy costs were at the heart of the latest threat. The company held talks with the State Government on Tuesday as part of ongoing negotiations to resolve the issues.

It said the State Government had made a significant effort to engage on the issue but the company’s focus was on investigating options for secure, affordable and reliable energy and electricity supply at Mt Isa and Townsville to service its operations.

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Canada’s Trevali picks up Glencore zinc mines in Africa – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – May 18, 2017)

http://www.mining.com/

Trevali Mining’s (TSX:TV) shareholders approved Thursday a planned acquisition of Glencore’s two African zinc mines, in a transaction that makes of the Canadian miner one of the few multi-asset, low-cost global zinc producers.

The acquisition of about 80% of Rosh Pinah mine in Namibia and a 90% stake in in the Perkoa mine in Burkina Faso, will help the Vancouver-based firm’s total production double to about 410 million pounds per year.

The deal also includes gives Trevali an effective 39.24% interest in the Gergarub project in Namibia, an option to acquire the Heath Steele property in Canada, and certain related exploration properties and assets, it said in the statement.

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Glencore Says Electric Car Boom Is Coming Faster Than Expected – by Jesse Riseborough  (Bloomberg News – May 16, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Glencore Plc Chief Executive Officer Ivan Glasenberg said the rise of electric cars will significantly boost demand for minerals including copper and lithium in the coming decades.

“The electric vehicle revolution is happening and its impact is likely to be felt faster than expected,” Glasenberg told investors at an industry conference in Barcelona on Tuesday. Almost all carmakers are increasing investment in electric vehicles as governments adopt tighter emissions targets, he added.

Electric vehicles require more copper wiring than standard internal combustion engines. For example, the battery in an electric car contains about 38 kilograms of copper, 11 kilograms of cobalt and 11 kilograms of nickel, according to Glencore.

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Glencore in talks to sell Peru, other mining royalties: sources – by Clara Denina and Nicole Mordant (Globe and Mail/Reuters – May 3, 2017)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

LONDON and VANCOUVER – Mining-trading group Glencore Plc has hired the Bank of Nova Scotia to sell a portfolio of royalty assets, including one for the Antamina copper-zinc mine in Peru, four people familiar with the process have told Reuters.

The Antamina mine royalty makes up the bulk of the value of the package and could fetch up to $250-million, the sources said. The portfolio includes several much smaller royalties from other mines and exploration assets owned by Glencore around the world, they added.

It is not clear whether Glencore will sell 100 per cent of the royalties, which gives the owner the right to receive a percentage of production from a mining operation, or retain a stake in them.

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Faith in coal breathing new life into Surat Basin plan – by John McCarthy (Queensland Courier-Mail – May 3, 2017)

http://www.couriermail.com.au/

NEW life has been breathed into Glencore’s $6 billion Wandoan thermal coal project, east of Roma, as mining companies dust off plans for developments in the Surat Basin.

The Courier-Mail understands Glencore will receive its mining lease for Wandoan within weeks. The mine will create about 1300 jobs in construction and more than 800 in operation, but Glencore will not comment until after it receives the lease. It will not be alone.

New Hope Group has a resource of one billion tonnes of coal in the Surat and is advanced in a feasibility study aimed at potentially starting development of its projects within three years. The proposals are likely to spark a renewed fight with environmental activists.

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Going deep in Sudbury: Onaping Depth project holds promise for Glencore – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – April 18, 2017)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

When Shayne Wisniewski envisions what the future of underground mining will look like in Sudbury, he sees depth and he sees innovation. As general manager of mining projects for Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations (Glencore), Wisniewski is responsible for evaluating the company’s Onaping Depth project, which will extend to a depth of more than 2,500 metres, considered an ultra-deep mine.

Located about a 45-minute drive from the city of Sudbury, in the vicinity of the company’s Craig and Onaping Mines, the nickel-copper-PGE deposit was first discovered in 1994, when the company was looking for the down dip extension for Onaping and Craig, Wisniewski said.

Glencore undertook a drill program in the area in 2014 and discovered a fair-size indicated and inferred resource in two zones: a contact zone and a footwall southeast zone.

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Canada’s Gran Colombia Gold files $700 million lawsuit against Colombia over Marmato project – by Luke Taylor (Financial Post – April 11, 2017)

http://business.financialpost.com/

BOGOTA — Canadian miner Gran Colombia Gold has filed a US$700 million lawsuit against Colombia under the Colombian-Canadian free trade agreement after the government ordered the company to cease operations at the El Burro site in Marmato until it has further consulted with local residents.

The Marmato project has been plagued by controversy ever since operations began 10 years ago, with heavy resistance from traditional mining communities of the 500 year-old town. The company has been unable to remove illegal miners from the area — by some reports, illicit mining is a US$2.5 billion industry in Colombia.

Gran Colombia’s plan to flatten a mountain and create an open pit mine has also met with resistance. Critics say the initiative would not only destroy the livelihoods of the miners, but also the surrounding community and the environment.

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Timmins launches assessment appeals against local mines – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – March 30, 2017)

http://www.timminspress.com/

Timmins has taken steps to appeal the assessed values of all the major local mining properties to the Ontario Assessment Review Board (ARB), on the grounds that mining property assessments are just too low. This is being done on a “just-in-case” basis since the city is already in negotiations with the three big mining companies in town to reach some sort of a deal outside of the MPAC (Municipal Property Assessment Corporation) assessment values and procedures.

Part of the reason is that in recent years MPAC has laid out new valuations for mining properties. In many cases means that MPAC is applying lower values to those properties. That means less tax money going into the city hall treasury.

MPAC has mentioned the term Economic Obsolescence (EO) in one of its studies relating to the gold mining industry to justify the need to provide lower valuations. “EO can be described as a form of depreciation or an incurable loss in value that occurs when influences external to an asset itself reduce the value of the asset,” said the study.

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Threat of Cyclone Disrupts Mining in No. 1 Met Coal Exporter – by Ben Sharples and Perry Williams (Bloomberg News – March 27, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

BHP Billiton Ltd. and Glencore Plc are halting some production in the world’s largest exporter of coal used in steel-making, as the biggest cyclone since 2011 to hit Australia’s Queensland nears the state.

South Walker Creek metallurgical coal mine operations will be suspended from the end of day shift on Monday and preparations are under way to manage increased rainfall throughout the week, BHP said in a statement. Glencore is preparing to temporarily halt output from the Collinsville and Newlands mines, the company said in a separate release.

Severe tropical cyclone Debbie is forecast to cross the coast Tuesday morning with wind gusts up to 260 kilometers (162 miles) per hour, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. Previous storms in Australia have flooded mines, swamped machinery and led to price spikes.

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Glencore tightens grip on zinc through deal with Canada’s Trevali – by Barbara Lewis and Eric Onstad (Reuters U.S. – March 14, 2017)

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – Miner-trader Glencore (GLEN.L) has increased its control of core commodity zinc through a deal with Canada’s Trevali (TV.TO) in which it is selling shares in two mines and helping to create the first pure zinc company with wide geographical reach.

Glencore’s share price has risen around 13 percent this year, adding to gains of more than 200 percent in 2016 when it rebounded from a commodities price crash. Its CEO Ivan Glasenberg has said it is well-placed for deals, which analysts say are as likely to involve commodity offtake or tactical disposals as acquisitions.

Through a $400 million transaction, announced late on Monday, Glencore is selling 80 percent and 90 percent stakes respectively in a mine in Namibia and another in Burkina Faso to Trevali with which it has a long-standing relationship.

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