October 2, 2012 – Republic of Mining

Glencore merger gets nod from Xstrata board – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – October 2, 2012)

October 2, 2012

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

ROME — The biggest takeover of the year looks set to go ahead after Anglo-Swiss mining giant Xstrata PLC recommended that its shareholders vote in favour of Glencore International’s overhauled merger proposal.

The deal, which was held up for half-a-year because of fights over price and executive pay, would value the combined group at about $80-billion (U.S.), based on current trading prices. It would vault the new company into mining’s super leagues, where it would compete with BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Vale and Anglo American. Xstrata boss Mick Davis and his Glencore counterpart, Ivan Glasenberg, have made no secret of their desire to own Anglo American; Xstrata tried to buy Anglo in 2009, but was rejected.

While the Xstrata-Glencore merger will almost certainly go ahead, risks abound. Glencore is primarily a trading and logistics company and Xstrata is a miner – it is the biggest exporter of thermal coal. Putting the two together is bound to create some cultural and operational tensions, all the more so since the new group is to be run by Mr. Glasenberg even though Glencore is smaller than Xstrata.

The bigger question is the enduring strength of the commodities “supercycle” as China’s growth rates come down. Mr. Davis’s bet that commodities were on a “stronger for longer” run certainly proved true in the last decade, when he built Xstrata from virtually nothing, but prices for some metals have dropped this year amid uneven demand.

Ex-Implats CEO speaks out on strikes, mine conditions – by Christy Filen (Mineweb.com – October 1, 2012)

October 2, 2012

www.mineweb.com

In his first interview with Mineweb since leaving Impala Platinum, David Brown, hits back at critics accusing the company of starting the wave of strikes.

JOHANNESBURG (MINEWEB) – The former CEO of Impala Platinum, David Brown, has said that accusations that the miner had, while he was at the helm, kicked off the recent spate of wild-cat strikes by negotiating and settling with illegally striking workers is misplaced.

Brown said that the accusations are not accurate as nothing extra was given to striking workers until they had returned to work and there was normality.

In the CEO’s first interview since announcing his resignation from the platinum miner, Brown said “Well you can go back to Adam beget Cain, as to who started it, I think that they are missing the point. The point is that we all pay subtly different wages and benefits and that has been one of the issues”.

We saw Implats hurry up an annual increase to workers earlier on in the year after a violent six week strike in which three people died and then Lonmin agreeing to a 11% to 22% increase across the categories after a lengthy strike resulted in the deaths of 46 people and scores injured.

South Africa on the brink – Northern Miner Editorial (October 1, 2012)

October 2, 2012

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

Post-apartheid South Africa has provided duelling optimists and pessimists with plenty of fodder to back up their long-standing positions. There have been unabashed triumphs — such as the country’s avoidance of Zimbabwe-style de-evolution, and its wonderful job hosting the World Cup — bumping right up against major societal obstacles, such as the flood of truly appalling violent crime, and the intractability of the nation’s simmering racial, class and tribal divides.

The strikes this year in the country’s platinum and gold mines, and particularly the recently settled strike at Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mine near Rustenburg, are once again causing miners and investors around the world to pause and wonder what’s next for South Africa’s mining sector, which accounts for a fifth of the country’s gross domestic product.

The 46-person death toll during the now-settled Marikana strike made headlines around the world, as it echoed some of the worst political violence of the apartheid era. As has been detailed in this and past issues, on Aug. 16, what appear on video to be trigger happy police — both black and white — opened fire with automatic weapons on a group of 3,000 strikers that had refused orders to disperse, killing 34 workers and wounding another 78. Some 270 strikers were arrested.

Momentum builds for [Ontario] mining inquiry – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – October 2, 2012)

October 2, 2012

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

There was a sense Monday night, in a crowded room at the Steelworkers’ Hall, that a movement was being born. Its seeds were planted in February when United Steelworkers Local 6500 released its 200-page report on the June 8, 2011, deaths of Jason Chenier, 35, and Jordan Fram, 26, at Vale’s Stobie Mine.

After concluding the accident that killed the men was preventable, the union called on the province to launch a public inquiry into an industry in which hundreds of workers have been killed in the 31 years since the last inquiry was held.

That call was advanced by a postcard campaign by USW Local 6500 and community activist Gerry Lougheed Jr., that has garnered hundreds of signatures of people calling upon Labour Minister Linda Jeffery to launch the inquiry.

Monday night, the campaign took a huge leap forward when almost 200 people packed a room set up with 80 chairs for the first public appearance of a committee called MINES — Mining Inquiry Needs Everyone’s Support. Until now, it has been comprised of members of the Fram and Chenier families, union members and Lougheed, working behind the scenes.