Republic of Mining

‘They lost’: Canadian aluminum industry, opposition balk over auto provisions in new NAFTA – by Naomi Powell (Financial Post – December 12, 2019)

December 12, 2019

https://business.financialpost.com/

The exclusion of aluminum from tighter auto requirements in the new NAFTA could see Mexico become a back door for China to push the metal into the United States, industry officials and union leaders say.

Canada, the United States and Mexico agreed Tuesday to an amended North American Free Trade Agreement that includes tougher enforcement provisions for labour reforms, a strengthened dispute resolution mechanism, and weaker protections for the pharmaceutical industry.

The deal also included a last-minute change to a requirement calling for 70 per cent of the steel and aluminum used in auto production to be purchased in North America. Under the newly tweaked rules, steel must be “melted and poured” by primary steelmakers in North America in order to receive preferential tariff treatment. No provision was added for aluminum.

Gold’s Deal Blitz Could Draw In the Rest of the Mining Sector – by David Stringer and Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg/Yahoo – December 11, 2019)

December 12, 2019

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) — A torrent of deal-making among gold producers that’s pushed M&A in the sector to an eight-year high is seen spilling over into the wider mining industry — if there’s a rally in global growth.

Pending and completed gold acquisitions have reached about $33 billion so far in 2019, the highest since 2011, according to data complied by Bloomberg. That’s as deals among all mining companies have declined about 29% from last year to $60 billion, the data show.

A revival in the economic outlook, with higher interest rates and inflation, would prompt other metals producers to rethink their current strategy of cutting debt and lifting shareholder returns — and focus again on pursuing growth, according to Christopher LaFemina, a New York-based analyst at Jefferies LLC.

RPT-COLUMN-Australia energy market operator turns Scrooge on coal lobby – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – December 12, 2019)

December 12, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Dec 12 (Reuters) – Australia, which vies with Indonesia for the title of the world’s largest coal exporter, is planning for an electricity future where use of the polluting fuel dwindles and is rapidly replaced by renewable energy sources.

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), which controls the country’s largest electricity and natural gas markets, released a report on Thursday outlining the future development of the country’s electricity market. As Christmas approaches, it made for miserly tidings for the coal miners and politicians supporting the industry.

The report said that 63% of Australia’s current coal-fired generation is likely to close by 2040. It will be replaced by a possible tripling of rooftop solar power, as well as pumped hydropower, utility-scale batteries and distributed batteries, which would include households and businesses.

Alrosa to mine first diamonds from Angola in mid-2020 as market “improving” – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – December 11, 2019)

December 11, 2019

https://www.mining.com/

The world’s top diamond producer by output, Alrosa (MCX:ALRS) said on Wednesday it planned to start trial mining at a new section of its Luaxe deposit in Angola by mid-2020.

The Russian miner and its partner Catoca Mining — the country’s state-owned diamond company — found Luaxe’s Luele pipe in 2013. They have since been analyzing the deposit’s potential, which they believe may turn out to be the largest diamond discovery in the last 60 years.

Luaxe is located 25 km from the giant Catoca operation — Angola’s largest diamond mine — and is estimated to have the potential to yield up to 350 million carats of diamonds during its productive life. Next year alone, the mine is expected to produce 1 million carats of diamonds worth $90 million, Alrosa said in a workshop hosted by the company.

Palladium Tops $1,900 as South Africa Power Cuts Fuel Supply Woe – by Elena Mazneva and Justina Vasquez (Bloomberg/Yahoo – December 10, 2019)

December 11, 2019

https://finance.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) Palladium surged to a record, topping $1,900 an ounce, after South African mining companies halted operations in response to the country’s power cuts. Platinum also rose.

South Africa, the world’s biggest producer of platinum and No. 2 palladium supplier, faced a sixth day of rolling blackouts Tuesday. State utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. is struggling with breakdowns at plants and heavy rains that have soaked coal used as fuel.

“Tight supply that potentially could get even tighter due to production problems in South Africa helps provide the underlying support,” said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank A/S.

NEWS RELEASE: Early-Stage Research Hints at Big Advancements Ahead in Lead Battery Energy Storage Innovation (Essential Energy Everyday.com – December 11, 2019)

December 11, 2019

https://essentialenergyeveryday.com/

CEOs Visit DOE National Laboratory to Review Collaborative Research Project

WASHINGTON, December 11, 2019 – A three-year scientific research project currently underway at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory is showing promising results to unlock the untapped potential of lead batteries. Lead batteries currently supply over 70% of the world’s rechargeable battery energy needs. Yet, possibilities exist to expand their performance to meet growing energy storage and transportation demands.

The project is funded by a joint industry CRADA (Cooperative Research and Development Agreement) comprised of more than 90% of the U.S. lead battery industry. They are working with Argonne scientists to study lead and its unrealized potential for batteries, which can be employed for both transportation and the nation’s energy infrastructure.

The CRADA is part of the ongoing research and development by the lead battery and recycling industry, which spent more than $100 million in battery R&D in 2018, supports nearly 25,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs, and generates $26.3 billion in economic output.

The future of nickel: tensions, trade bans and technology – by Umar Ali (Mining Technology – December 10, 2019)

December 11, 2019

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

It’s an interesting time for nickel on the global markets. Prices have risen dramatically despite trade tensions between the US and China, and are expected to explode as Indonesia and the Philippines prepare for nickel export bans. We assess the market dynamics of this important metal.

Indonesia’s export ban

With increased demand for stainless steel production and recent developments in technologies such as electric vehicles, demand for nickel is higher than ever. Unfortunately, this demand is struggling against an increasingly tightening supply of the essential metal.

In response to the risk of this increasing demand tightening local supply, the Indonesian government announced in September 2019 a ban on the export of raw nickel ores, bringing the ban forward from 2022 to January 2020.

Barrick to sell Senegal gold project for $430-million – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – December 11, 2019)

December 11, 2019

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. is selling its Massawa gold project in Senegal for up to US$430-million to West African junior producer Teranga Gold Corp., as part of its push to shed assets that don’t move the financial needle.

After buying African-focused Randgold Resources Ltd. earlier this year for US$6-billion, Toronto-based Barrick has been ridding itself of anything it deems too small, or not sufficiently profitable.

In the past month alone, Barrick has sold US$1.2-billion in assets, or about 80 per cent of what it hopes to achieve by the end of next year.

[Emerald Mining] Taliban negotiations resume, feeding hope of a peaceful, more prosperous Afghanistan – by Elizabeth B. Hessami (Baltimore Sun – December 10, 2019)

December 11, 2019

https://www.baltimoresun.com/

(THE CONVERSATION) Peace talks have resumed between the United States and the Taliban of Afghanistan, three months after negotiations ended abruptly following a deadly Taliban attackin Kabul.

The Taliban – an armed insurgency promoting an ultra-conservative form of Sunni Islam – has battled the Afghan government for power for three decades. Since the U.S. invasion of 2001 following the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, it has also fought the United States.

A new Washington Post report on the 18-year conflict in Afghanistan finds that 2,300 American soldiers and more than 43,000 Afghan citizens were killed in what U.S. officials knew was an “unwinnable war.”

COLUMN-Aluminium producers prepare for troubled times ahead – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – December 9, 2019)

December 11, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Dec 9 (Reuters) – The aluminium market is in trouble again. The London Metal Exchange (LME) price touched a three-year low of $1,705 per tonne in October and has failed to stage any significant bounce over the intervening period. It is currently trading around the $1,760 level.

Earlier this year there was a lot of excited talk in the market about growing supply deficits and falling stocks. Fast forward to today and LME stocks are surging again and no-one is talking about deficits any more.

LME stocks are a poor lens through which to understand aluminium’s dynamics but the rapid increase in visible tonnage has reinforced concerns about a deteriorating demand outlook.

Ramaphosa Cuts Short Trip as Power Crisis Grips South Africa – by Paul Vecchiatto and Liezel Hill (Bloomberg/Yahoo – December 11, 2019)

December 11, 2019

https://finance.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) South African President Cyril Ramaphosa cut short a trip abroad to deal with an escalating crisis at the state power company, as week-long blackouts threaten to tip the economy into recession.

The rand declined the most in a month Tuesday as Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. said there’s a high likelihood of power cuts all week and mining companies including Sibanye Gold Ltd., the world’s biggest platinum producer, temporarily halted operations. Vodacom Group Ltd., the nation’s biggest mobile operator, said the outages are disrupting its service.

Ramaphosa returned from Egypt, having terminated his trip a day early to “attend to urgent domestic priorities,” the presidency said in a statement. Eskom management will brief the president on Wednesday morning on “plans to mitigate and resolve the current electricity crisis,” it said.

Capt. Kenney journeys to the heart of the Obfuscation Galaxy – by Rex Murphy (National Post – December 11, 2019)

December 11, 2019

https://nationalpost.com/

Trudeau might want to rev up the (free) Enterprise and go where no Liberal has gone before — to the galactic outpost of Fort McMurray itself

Early this week Captain Kenney and at least eight other explorers travelled from the Alberta Belt to spend all of Monday and Tuesday in hoped-for meetings with the space-time continuum lifeforms that cosmologists and political science interns refer to as the Ottawa Confabulation.

They populate a region housing a concentration of civil servants and politicians that forms the dark centre mass of the Obfuscation Galaxy. Kenney and his crew had just emerged from their space vehicle, Greta II … (Ed. Stop it. Now!)

Well, if I must yield to a purely terrestrial account, Premier Jason Kenney and his ministers made a second visit in less than two weeks to continue urging the case for some “rearrangements” in the Confederation, in part to ward off the deep and pervasive disenchantments in their home province.

Greta Thunberg is Time’s 2019 Person of the Year – by Safia Samee Ali and Elizabeth Chuck (NBC News – December 11, 2019)

December 11, 2019

https://www.nbcnews.com/

Greta Thunberg, the soft-spoken Swedish teenager who became a global conscience for climate change and environmental activism, has been named Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2019. The magazine announced the 16-year-old as its choice Wednesday exclusively on the “TODAY” show.

“She became the biggest voice on the biggest issue facing the planet this year, coming from essentially nowhere to lead a worldwide movement,” Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal told the show, adding that Thunberg is the magazine’s youngest choice ever to be named Person of the Year.

Thunberg quickly bloomed into one of the world’s most notable climate change activists, sparking a collective movement to fight the issue after protesting alone outside the Swedish Parliament during school hours on Fridays when she was 15. The teen held up a now universally recognized hand-painted sign that read “skolstrejk för klimatet,” which translates to “School strike for the climate.”

Get Sirius: Can the UK’s biggest mining project be saved? – by Julian Turner (Mining Technology – December 11, 2019)

December 11, 2019

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

Sirius Minerals has cancelled a $500m bond sale to finance its polyhalite mine in North Yorkshire, citing economic conditions and uncertainty around Brexit. Can the UK’s biggest mining project be saved? We talk to Humphrey Knight, potash analyst at business intelligence firm CRU.

Could the UK’s most ambitious mining project really be over before production has even begun? Sirius Minerals has spent the past three years drumming up interest in its £4bn Woodsmith project under the North York Moors National Park.

The firm is building two mile-deep shafts to access what it claims is the world’s largest and highest-grade deposit of polyhalite, a naturally occurring mineral containing potassium, magnesium, calcium and sulphur that can be processed into fertiliser.

Eskom reform urgent to restore ferrochrome potential – by Martin Creamer (Engineering News – March 12, 2019)

December 11, 2019

http://m.engineeringnews.co.za/

JOHANNESBURG (minngweekly.com) – The demise of State power utility Eskom has caused South Africa to lose its optimal position in the lucrative ferrochrome business.

Because of Eskom’s decline, unbeneficiated chrome ore exports from South Africa to China have enabled the Asian giant to ascend up the ferrochrome production ladder. As reported by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed chrome and ferrochrome company Merafe Resources on Monday, 76% of the chrome ore imported by China last year came from South Africa.

Merafe shares in 20.5% of the earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation of the large Glencore-Merafe Chrome Venture, the world’s second lowest cost producer.