Republic of Mining

FISHY BUSINESS: An English mining company is keeping an entire species from extinction in Mexico – by Kata Karáth (Quartz.com – July 19, 2016)

July 19, 2016

Conservationists go to great lengths to save a species from extinction, and in the case of a small Mexican fish, to great depths as well.

For the past 12 years, London Zoo has been breeding a rare fish with crucial help from a large commercial manufacturer. British Gypsum supplies the zoo with gypsum, a mineral it mines in Brightling, southeast England. Gypsum is normally used as a fertilizer and in building products, but in this case it’s the only way of keep the mineral balance of the water just right for the peculiar needs of the checkered pupfish.

London Zoo runs conservation programs in more than 50 countries that are crucial to the survival of several thousand species, but the checkered pupfish has been particularly tricky. It only exists in one Mexican state, San Luis Potosí, and mostly in a single lake called Media Luna.

Congo’s small miners fill hole left by downsizing multinationals – by Aaron Ross (Reuters U.K. – July 18, 2016)

July 19, 2016

http://uk.reuters.com/

His toes bursting out of sneakers several sizes too small, a miner hacks with a pick at the copper and cobalt-laced stone in southeastern Congo, slowly filling a sack that could earn him anywhere from a handful to a few hundred dollars.

The 42-year-old father of five, who only gave his first name, Stany, has done this nearly every day for a decade, after he quit his maize fields for the comparatively lucrative mines of Africa’s top copper producer.

But unlike most artisanal mining, this is sanctioned by the Congolese government. As its mining heartland endures mass layoffs at big mines caused by low commodity prices, small-scale mining is helping to fill the deficit.

Mick Davis rethinks mining fund after failing to complete deals – by Neil Hume (Financial Times – July 18, 2016)

July 19, 2016

https://next.ft.com/

Former Xstrata boss is considering removing veto over potential investments

Launched three years ago with $5.6bn of commitments, Mr Davis’s X2 Resources has yet to complete its first acquisition. Relatively high valuations for mining assets and an investor veto on deals have frustrated Mr Davis and his team in their search for bargains in metals and mining.

They came close to buying a group of coal mines from Rio Tinto a year ago, only for the deal to fall apart after it was blocked by key investors on environmental grounds.

Mr Davis also approached BHP Billiton with an offer to buy a collection of its non-core mines but the Anglo-Australian miner decided to stick with to a plan to spin off the non-core assets into a newly listed company.

Alberta’s ‘lost generation’: Longest post-war recession leads to brain drain among – by Claudia Cattaneo and Geoffrey Morgan (Financial Post – July 19, 2016)

July 19, 2016

http://business.financialpost.com/

Alberta’s longest post-war recession has sliced 6.5 per cent from its GDP over the past two years and kicked off an exodus of people, but it has been especially painful for the province’s geoscience community, the backbone of the oil and gas industry.

The recession has pushed up the provincial unemployment rate to 7.9 per cent, but for geologists and geophysicists, the jobless rate is closer to 50 per cent, and industry leaders say prospects are dim for the next two or three years.

“We are looking at another lost generation of geoscientists,” said Marian Hanna, president of the Canadian Society of Exploration Geophysicists (CSEG), who has been unemployed for a year.

‘Business unfriendly’ is the new normal for Ontario and Ottawa – by Philip Cross (Financial Post – July 4, 2016)

July 19, 2016

http://business.financialpost.com/

Philip Cross is the former chief economic analyst at Statistics Canada.

It is an article of faith among left-wing academics, analysts and pundits that the business community controls the agenda of politicians, who sit by their phones waiting for instructions from The Captains of Industry. If only that was true in Ontario, where senior government leaders plan new policy initiatives oblivious to their impact on business.

How the Ontario government works was summarized in former Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty’s recent autobiography, Making a Difference, in which the business sector barely rates a mention. There is no discussion of the high-tech meltdown in 2001 that devastated McGuinty’s own stomping-grounds in Ottawa when Nortel and JDS Uniphase collapsed.

To McGuinty, the 2008–09 recession was notable because GM and Chrysler came begging for bail-outs, an apt summary of his paternalistic view of the relationship between government and business.

Iron ore volatility masks positive shift in fundamentals – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – July 18, 2016)

July 18, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, AUSTRALIA – Iron ore’s wild price gyrations this year may be masking a small, but significant, shift in the underlying fundamentals for the steel-making ingredient.

While seaborne iron ore remains a well-supplied market, it appears the level of over-supply has been diminishing faster than many expected, leading to an improvement in the supply-demand balance.

This provides some fundamental justification for the rally in spot prices, with the China benchmark index up almost 35 percent so far this year. Let’s be clear, there is no reason to believe that iron ore is poised for a major, sustained rally. But there is reason to be hopeful that prices are more likely to pivot around the $50 a tonne mark, rather than revisit the December 2015 lows of $37 a tonne.

Mining houses pledge support for fight against HIV/Aids – by David Oliveira (MiningWeekly.com – July 18, 2016)

July 18, 2016

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Major miners Anglo American and Harmony Gold have pledged their support for the United Nations’ HIV/Aids organisation UNAids’ global #ProTEST HIV campaign.

The campaign is aimed at positively contributing to the goal of ending HIV/Aids by 2030, by highlighting the importance of voluntary HIV testing, which is a critical intervention to help link care and support for those infected with HIV and other prevention programmes.

On the occasion of the twenty-first International AIDS Conference, being held at the Durban International Convention Centre, in KwaZulu-Natal, Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani on Monday said the company’s partnership with UNAids would assist in achieving the first HIV-free generation by 2030.

‘King Coal’ mining mogul Richard Budge dies aged 69 (Wakefield Express – July 18, 2016)

July 18, 2016

http://www.wakefieldexpress.co.uk/

Richard Budge, the businessman who was crowned “King Coal” after successfully spear-heading the purchase of State-owned British Coal’s mining assets when the industry was privatised over 20 years ago, died today (Monday) at the age of 69. Mr Budge was born in 1947, the year the UK coal industry, with almost a thousand deep mines and a million employees, was nationalised and became the National Coal Board.

Almost half a century later when the “ultimate privatisation” was completed, there were just 19 deep mines in production – and Mr Budge’s Doncaster-based RJB Mining company bought all but two of them.

The three English coalfield packages embracing 17 deep mines, 30 surface mines, over 400 million tonnes of reserves and nearly 50,000 acres of land, cost RJB Mining, of which Budge was Chief Executive, £815 million. Some £700 million was paid to the government on completion on December 30, 1994, and the remaining bank acquisition debt was paid off within two years.

Samsung rumoured to invest half-a-billion in Chinese electric car company – by Andrew Topf (Mining.com – July 17, 2016)

July 18, 2016

http://www.mining.com/

Samsung Electronics (KRX:005930) is looking to take the plunge into electric vehicle (EV) technology with a sizable investment into BYD Co., (HKG:1211) the world’s largest electric car manufacturer.

The division of Samsung, one of the most important “chaebols”, or conglomerates in South Korea, said investing in BYD, backed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., (NYSE:BRK.A), is expected to bolster the South Korean company’s semiconductor business for cars. Samsung Electronics is the largest maker of cellular phones and memory chips in the world.

Talks between the two companies have apparently been underway the last few days. Korea Economic Daily reported on Friday that Samsung Electronics is about to pull the trigger on a 3-billion yuan (US$450 million) investment in Shenzhen-based BYD for a 4% share of the company.

Namibia’s Diamond Discoveries Seen Extending Mining by 50 Years – by Felix Njini (Bloomberg News – July 18, 2016)

July 18, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Discoveries of diamonds on land bordering the southern Atlantic coastal areas of Namibia, the world’s largest producer of marine gems, may extend ground-based mining operations by another 50 years, Finance Minister Calle Schlettwein said.

Namdeb Diamond Corp., jointly owned by the Namibian government and Anglo American Plc’s De Beers, struck more deposits after pushing back the sea wall at its land-based operations, Schlettwein said an interview Sunday in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, where he was attending the African Union summit.

“An additional resource has been now made available,” he said. “And with that, the life of mine from the land-based operations has been extended by another 50 years.”

Namdeb, as the De Beers unit is known, uses the latest technology to scour the bottom of the Atlantic for gems.

Kazakh-Chinese talks build on cooperation agreements (World Nuclear News – July 18, 2016)

July 18, 2016

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/

The heads of Kazakh uranium producer KazAtomProm and China’s CITIC Group have met to discuss attracting investment to the Central Asian country’s nuclear energy sector. Askar Zhumagaliyev and Chang Zhenming met as part of the working visit to China of Kazakhstan’s first deputy prime minister, Bakytzhan Sagintayev.

CITIC Group, formerly the China International Trust and Investment Corporation, is a state-owned investment company established in 1979.

The talks build on agreements KazAtomProm signed with Chinese companies at the end of last year. These include one for the development of Kazakh uranium mines and the construction of a nuclear fuel plant in Kazakhstan.

Asia Pacific: Duterte regime’s impact on Canadian miners in the Philippines – Chuck Chiang (Vancouver Sun – July 18, 2016)

July 18, 2016

http://vancouversun.com/

New Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte may make headlines because of his outspoken (and often controversial) ways, but his approach to mining will have a substantial impact on foreign firms — including several Canadian companies.

Duterte, who is known for his tough stance on crime and disregard for due process, said after winning the country’s presidential election in May that mining companies in the Philippines need to “shape up”. He went on to say he prefers mining assets to be owned by locals, rather than foreign companies.

That was followed by the naming of committed environmentalist Regina Lopez to head the country’s natural resources department, which set off uncertainty for foreign firms operating in the Philippines. One industry official told Reuters the sector is “shell shocked” by Lopez’s appointment.

Chinese steel mills drive iron ore price surge – by Matt Chambers (The Australian – July 18, 2016)

July 18, 2016

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

The forces driving a recent 20 per cent surge in the iron ore price became clearer in recent days as monthly Chinese data revealed the Asian giant’s steel mills are at their busiest ever, despite expectations of a slowdown.

The official June data, coupled with industry data showing steel inventories had fallen, led to reports that underlying steel demand was healthy, despite general market speculation that a slowdown in demand is looming.

The price of iron ore, Australia’s biggest export and the key ingredient in steel, had risen from $US48 a tonne in early June to nearly $60 a tonne. However, on Friday iron ore fell 1.4 per cent to $US57.80 a tonne . Even so, the ongoing rise has pushed up the shares of Fortescue by 25 per cent and mining giant Rio Tinto by 16 per cent over the period.

BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Fortescue are in no rush to change iron ore balance – by James Thomson (Australian Financial Review – July 17, 2016)

July 18, 2016

http://www.afr.com/

It’s highly likely that Fortescue Metals Group will be the only one of the Big Three iron ore players to beat its production target this week when BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and the Third Force present their numbers for the June quarter.

We already know that FMG has eclipsed its annual 2015-16 target of 165 million tonnes, with shipments hitting 169.4 million tonnes during the period. We also have a fair idea, from data from the Port Hedland port authority, that BHP missed its shipping target of 260 million tonnes for 2015-16, and is likely to report around 258 million tonnes.

Rio Tinto expects to ship 350 million tonnes out of the Pilbara and its Canadian operation in the 2016 calendar year. It’s on track to meet the target, but Macquarie says it will still need to strong finish to the year.

Glencore reveals tax payout – by Staff (Sudbury Star – July 16, 2016)

July 18, 2016

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

Glencore paid the government of Canada $5.65 million US in taxes last year for its Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations. The figure is contained in a report released by the miner called Glencore: Payments to Government 2015.

Glencore is one of the world’s largest global diversified natural resource companies, and a major producer and trader of more than 90 commodities, it says on its website. In Sudbury, Glencore operates two underground nickel-copper mines: Nickel Rim South, which the company says is Sudbury’s largest mining operation, and Fraser Mine.

Its Strathcona concentrator receives ore from those two mines and from third-party custom feed ores, and produces two concentrate streams, a nickel-copper concentrate that goes to the Sudbury smelter and a copper concentrate that goes to Glencore Copper for smelting and refining.