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Nickel prices rebound, boosted by speculation of Glencore output cuts – by James Regan and MElanie Burton (Reuters U.K. – October 13, 2015)

http://uk.reuters.com/

SYDNEY/MELBOURNE – Oct 13 Nickel prices have rebounded after dropping to a near seven-year low last week, buoyed by market speculation that heavily indebted miner and trader Glencore Plc could curb output following cuts to its copper and zinc production.

Glencore is the world’s fifth-biggest producer of nickel, with operations in Australia, Canada, Norway, New Caledonia, and Dominican Republic, much of which was acquired in its 2013 takeover of Xstrata.

Glencore, whose shares have been hammered by worries about its debt burden, declined to comment on the speculation.

“In nickel, as in copper and zinc, an output cut by Glencore could have an immense impact,” said Minelife commodities analyst Gavin Wendt.

“It would not only send the right message to Glencore’s investors and bankers, it would be saving the company money and probably lift the nickel price in the process.”

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Glencore to sell copper mines in Australia, Chile – by OLIVIA KUMWENDA-MTAMBO AND SONALI PAUL (Reuters U.K. – October 12, 2015)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/

LONDON/MELBOURNE – Glencore (GLEN.L) plans to sell copper mines in Australia and Chile as the mining and trading company aims to reduce a debt burden accumulated in an asset buying spree that has shaken confidence in the Swiss-based firm.

Selling assets is one element of a broad plan to cut about a third of Glencore’s $30 billion (19.6 billion pounds) net debt and to regain the trust of investors after its shares tumbled to record lows this year amid weak global commodity prices.

Glencore said it would sell its wholly-owned Cobar copper mine in Australia and Lomas Bayas copper mine in Chile after receiving interest from potential buyers.

“This will allow potential buyers to bid to purchase either one or both of the mines and may or may not result in a sale,” Glencore said in a statement on Monday.

A London-based analyst said the Cobar and Lomas Bayas mines together could fetch less than $300 million as they are very small.

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Cree community looks on warily as De Beers scours North for diamonds – by Tanya Talaga (Toronto Star – October 10, 2015)

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

With De Beers’ Victor Mine near Attawapiskat approaching the end of its lifespan, the company is looking farther north — causing a stir in Peawanuck, where residents are concerned about protecting their traditional lands.

WEENUSK FIRST NATION, ONT.—From a height of 300 metres, Jennifer Wabano looks out the window of the eight-seat float plane as it approaches the Winisk River watershed.

Wabano, a mother of 10, watches the mesmerizing landscape of the Hudson Bay Lowlands. String bogs resembling giant tiger stripes splashed across the land stretch for miles before giving way to fields of pristine, lime-green peatland that is thousands of years old. Scattered throughout the peat are hundreds of freshwater lakes of all shapes and sizes that were formed a millennium ago by retreating glaciers.

The lowlands are one of the world’s last untouched carbon storehouses, trapping the gases that warm the globe at an increasingly alarming rate. Bald eagles nest along the banks of the Winisk River. In summer, polar bears wander through town in search of food. Brook trout are caught in the mud flats of Hudson Bay. Migratory caribou and moose are staples in this community that continues to depend on the land for its existence.

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New bids likely after U.S. Steel Canada splits from parent company – by Greg Keenan (Globe and Mail – October 12, 2015)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

The divorce between United States Steel Corp. and U.S. Steel Canada Inc. will likely lead to new bids for the Canadian unit, sources familiar with the restructuring say.

U.S. Steel Canada has been effectively cut loose from its parent company under a transition agreement announced last week that includes a promise that the Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel will not be a bidder if there is a second effort to sell the Canadian unit.

Potential bidders were put off during the first sales effort by a process they believed was skewed in favour of U.S. Steel, sources said. “There are people out there who want to rebid,” said one source involved in discussions about the future of U.S. Steel Canada. “Now, we have a sensible sales and restructuring process.”

The promise that U.S. Steel will not bid for the company means other purchasers don’t have to worry about a potential claim of more than $2-billion that U.S. Steel applied against the Canadian company and had been planning to use as credit in its own bid.

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Action against Vale rare: Mining watchdog – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – October 10, 2015)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The enforcement action Environment Canada took Thursday against Vale Canada Ltd. is very rare in Canada, says a spokeswoman for a mining watchdog group.

Environment Canada enforcement officers, with support from Royal Canadian Mounted Police, executed a search warrant at Vale’s engineering building Thursday. The warrant was part of an active Environment Canada investigation that began in November 2012, said Nathalie Huneault of Environment Canada.

The investigation relates to alleged violations of the general prohibition in the Fisheries Act, which prohibits the deposit of substances that are deleterious to fish into water frequented by fish, she said. Huneault said Environment Canada couldn’t comment further because the matter is under investigation.

Vale spokeswoman Angie Robson said Environment Canada was on site Thursday “collecting information related to alleged infractions under the Fisheries Act that allegedly occurred in 2012. Vale is co-operating fully in providing the information required.”

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Old Mo’s. New Tricks. Canadian Mines have fun, doin’ good as a team in Movember – by Movember Staff

Mo Bro Randy Whitcome, BHP Billiton - Specialist Compliance Legal, Potash.
Mo Bro Randy Whitcome, BHP Billiton – Specialist Compliance Legal, Potash.

It’s the time of year when men are getting ready to grow the most epic moustache.

Movember is upon us, the month formerly known as November, which is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces around the world, all in the name of men’s health. During Movember Canadians band together in teams within their industry to create a network challenge at Movember.com.

These networks create a fun and competitive environment that showcases the collective achievement of the industry while raising awareness and funds for men’s health, particularly prostate cancer, testicular cancer, poor mental health and physical inactivity. To date, $175 million has been raised in Canada.

In 2014, BHP Billiton Canada, had 39 members on their Movember team called Average Joes with Awesome Mo’s. Lead by Mo Bro Randy Whitcome, the team has raised over $17,000 and had fun doin’ good with fundraising activities that included direct donations from family and friends and fun challenges.

“My most memorable moment during Movember was hearing some tough Mo Bro’s sharing very personal stories with their co-workers”, said Randy Whitcome, Team Captain, Average Mo’s with Awesome Mo’s. “It made me proud to be part of the team and to have our company rally behind us and the cause.”

This year, the Movember Foundation is adding another way to champion men’s health with the addition of MOVE – a 30-day fitness challenge to promote physical activity. For Mo Sistas, MOVE is a way to do something tangible in the name of men’s health, and for Mo Bros it’s a new challenge. Grow your Mo, MOVE, or take things to the next level and do both.

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Celebration of Peru’s Economic Boom Comes Late (Associated Press/New York Times – October 9, 2015)

http://www.nytimes.com/

LIMA, Peru — The world’s top finance officials lavished praise on Peru’s “economic miracle” this week, lauding it for cutting poverty by half during a decade-long bonanza of record-high prices for gold, copper and other metals it mines.

In a gleaming $160 million convention center built for the meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, policymakers called Peru a prize pupil of their prescriptions for financial stability.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim deemed it a “growth star.” IMF chief Christine Lagarde likened Peru’s economic growth recipe to its world-famous cuisine. Unfortunately, the praise may have come too late.

Plunging prices for minerals, Peru’s economic backbone, have cut annual growth to less than half the 6.3 percent that made it the envy of Latin America from 2002-2012, a period when per capita income doubled to more than $6,600.

Several mammoth mining projects have been stalled by violent protests and declining mining revenues threaten to force cuts in the social spending.

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Essar-Cliffs tension at fevered pitch – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – October 7, 2015)

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North.

Cut off from its iron ore supply, Essar Steel Algoma has filed a request for a temporary restraining order in an Ohio court against Cliffs Natural Resources. In an Oct. 6 news release, Essar said the matter is before a federal judge in Cleveland, Ohio.

“Essar Steel Algoma fully expects Cliffs to honour the supply agreement until such time as the matter has been justly resolved,” the Sault Ste. Marie plate and sheet producer said in a statement.

Hours earlier, Cliffs announced it had halted shipments to Essar by terminating its longstanding agreement to supply Essar with taconite iron ore pellets. The decision took effect Oct. 5.

A spokesperson with Cliffs was unavailable for comment. Essar spokeswoman Brenda Stenta said a “swift ruling” is expected on the matter. “There is no immediate impact to operations.”

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PRECIOUS-Gold rises to seven-week high on dovish Fed minutes – by Marcy Nicholson and Mariana Ionova (Reuters U.S. – October 9, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

NEW YORK/LONDON, Oct 9 (Reuters) – Gold rose to a seven-week high on Friday after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last policy meeting showed the U.S. central bank was in no hurry to raise interest rates, pressuring the U.S. dollar.

Spot gold was up 1.6 percent at $1,156.70 an ounce at 2:44 p.m. EDT (1844 GMT), after touching a peak of $1,159.80, its highest since Aug. 24. It is on course to gain 1.5 percent this week.

The U.S. futures contract for December delivery settled up 1 percent at $1,155.90 an ounce.

Prices were supported by Fed minutes released on Thursday, suggesting the central bank was deeply cautious about tightening monetary policy even before last week’s soft jobs data showed a sharp slowdown in U.S. hiring.

“There is less of a sentiment in the market that an interest rate hike will take place anytime soon,” said Bernard Dahdah, metals analyst at Natixis. “The data that has come out of the U.S. lately hasn’t been very positive.”

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The good, bad and ugly: China’s economic rebalancing and commodity demand – by Prinesha Naidoo (Mineweb.com – October 9, 2015)

http://www.mineweb.com/

Not all commodities are equal. Some will bounce off and others will take a beating from China’s shift to consumption.

JOHANNESBURG – Fears of a significant slowdown in China’s economy, the second largest in the world, have whipped markets into a frenzy this year. As global equity markets opened on August 23, one by one and region by region, key indices flashed red.

This, as the after-effects of China’s Black Monday – in which the country’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index extended its losses to post its steepest one-day decline of 8.5% since the 2007 financial crisis – was ripping through world markets and prompting historic single-day sell-offs across the board.

Since then, continued volatility in Chinese markets, tempered somewhat by state intervention, which Goldman Sachs values at $236 billion over three months, has left investors across the globe uneasy.

Last year, the country’s economic growth slowed to 7.4%, its lowest level in more than 20 years. The extent to which the economy will slow this year remains a mystery –

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Lithium Market Set To Explode – All Eyes Are On Nevada – by James Stafford (Oil Price – October 6, 2015)

http://oilprice.com/

While other commodities are floundering or completely collapsing in this market, lithium—the critical mineral in the emerging battery gigafactory war—is poised to explode, and going forward Nevada is emerging as the front line in this pending American lithium boom.

Most of the world’s lithium comes from Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Australia and China, but American resources being developed by new entrants into this market have set up the state of Nevada to become the key venue and proving ground for game-changing trade in this everyday mineral. Nevada is about to get a boost first from Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) upcoming battery gigafactory, and then from all of its rivals.

For several years, experts have been predicting a lithium revolution, and while investors were being coy at first, the reality of the battery gigafactories is now clear, and nothing has hit this home more poignantly than Tesla’s recent supply agreements with lithium providers who will be the first beneficiaries of this boom, followed by a second round of lithium brine developers that are climbing quickly to the forefront.

As Jeb Handwerger—founder of Gold Stock Trades—recently told the Resource Investor: “This is just the beginning. We’re in the early stages of a revolution in powering transportation and homes.

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Police raid Vale office in Sudbury – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – October 9, 2015)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Three sources have told The Sudbury Star that police and Environment Canada officials raided Vale’s general engineering building in Sudbury on Thursday as part of an investigation into what one source said was a spill affecting fish and wildlife.

A source said Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Environment Canada employees spent four hours removing files, cabinets and computers with passwords from the Vale building on Lorne Street in Copper Cliff.

Another source said police and government officials seized all files, passwords and data from the environmental department, located in the engineering building.

“And they were collecting security cards after the employees left, so they couldn’t come back to the building,” said the Vale employee, who provided the information to The Sudbury Star on the condition of anonymity.

Vale’s Sudbury spokeswoman Angie Robson confirmed that Environment Canada was on site Thursday “collecting information related to alleged infractions under the Fisheries Act that allegedly occurred in 2012.

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Canada’s Liberals Vow to End Rampant Boil Water Advisories on Reserves – by Hilary Beaumont Vice News – October 6, 2015)

https://news.vice.com/

“We’re seeing a debate nationally about whether a person should wear a piece
of clothing, yet our First Nations communities are dying because of the poor
water conditions in their communities,” Chief Isadore Day said at a press
conference Monday in Toronto.

“So to be clear, you are committing then within five years there will be
clean water on all, for all First Nations?” VICE News Canada managing editor
Natalie Alcoba asked Trudeau at the town hall.”In all those 93 communities,
yes,” Trudeau replied.

If he’s elected prime minister on Oct. 19, Canada’s Liberal leader would end the rampant, widespread issue of boil water advisories on First Nation reserves.

Justin Trudeau made the promise Monday night during a town hall hosted by VICE Canada following announcements earlier that day by two First Nations that have each endured boil water advisories for nearly 20 years.

“We have 93 different communities under 133 different boil water advisories across the country,” Trudeau said when asked about the water issue.

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John Baird says pushback needed to support mining (Northern Miner – October 8, 2015)

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry.

Former Foreign Minister John Baird says the mining industry and government “must play offence, not defence,” when it comes to defending their interests and combatting anti-mining activism.

“Far too often, the industry, and to some extent government, are playing defence when it comes to anti-mining activists and their close friends in the media,” Baird declared in a keynote address at a mining conference in Toronto. “To a great extent, anti-mining activism has become a bit of an industry in this country, and it takes many, many forms.”

Baird resigned his post as cabinet minister earlier this year and now sits on the advisory board of Barrick Gold Corp., is a global strategic advisor to engineering and development consultancy Hatch Ltd., and is a senior advisor at Bennett Jones, a law firm active in the mining industry.

“You would be absolutely amazed at how many times that we discovered Canadian taxpayers’ dollars going to fight Canadian commercial interests abroad, especially in the extractive sector,” he told the conference, organized by Red Cloud, a capital markets advisory service firm.

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BHP Billiton exec talks up Nickel West prospects – by Barry Fitzgerald (The Australian – October 9, 2015)

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

BHP Billiton has served up a surprise by talking up the prospects of its Nickel West division in the face of depressed prices for the stainless steel ingredient.

Nickel West is the price-challenged division BHP withdrew from sale last year after failing to attract reasonable offers, and it is the division that was not good enough to be included with the other non-core assets spun off by BHP into South32 earlier this year.

Because Nickel West was seen internally as doubly non-core to BHP, it was to be run for cash and would not receive new investment, raising fears that the once proud business — spawned during the Poseidon nickel boom and a cornerstone of BHP’s 2005 acquisition, WMC — would be left to wither on the vine.

But at the Australian Nickel conference in Perth, Nickel West’s new asset president, Eddy Haegel, said there was a now sense of “nervous excitement’’ in the division. He said Nickel West had embarked on a journey to reinvent itself by adopting a junior miner mindset, while remaining inside the world’s biggest mining company.

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