Record iron-ore and coal production at BHP Billiton’s operations – by Staff (Business Day Live – January 22, 2014)

http://www.bdlive.co.za/ [South Africa]

GLOBAL resources group BHP Billiton has reported a strong operational performance for the six months ended December 2013, with production records achieved across 10 operations and several commodities.

Releasing its operational update for the second half of the year on Wednesday, the group said it had maintained strong momentum in the period. Full-year production guidance was retained for its petroleum, copper, iron-ore and coal businesses.

Iron-ore production was up 19% in the half-year to a record 98-million tonnes, while metallurgical coal production rose 22% to a record 22-million tonnes. Alumina production improved 8% to a record 2.6-million tonnes.

“A strong operating performance across our diversified portfolio in the December 2013 half-year delivered a 10% increase in production, and volumes are expected to grow 16% over the two years to the end of the 2015 financial year,” CEO Andrew Mackenzie said.

“Iron ore and metallurgical coal were particularly strong and are very well positioned to achieve guidance, notwithstanding the general uncertainty that exists as we enter the wet season,” he added.

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Essar comes under Greenpeace attack (Business Standard – January 22, 2014)

http://www.business-standard.com/ [Mumbai]

Greenpeace activists scale Essar’s 21-storey headquarters in Mumbai to protest against the company’s proposed mine in Mahan forest, Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh

After taking on the Tatas, the Adanis and the Vedanta group, activists of pro-environment body Greenpeace took on the Essar group on Wednesday regarding the Mahan coal mining project in Madhya Pradesh. It organised demonstrations outside the Essar offices here and in London.

An Essar spokesperson said Greenpeace activists, masquerading as building cleaning agents, gained access to the company’s office in Mumbai. “In this illegal act, the trespassers misused the office premises to spread anti-corporate, misleading and false propaganda,” the spokesperson said. “These people suspended themselves from the top of the building. In doing so, they endangered lives of those working in the building and disrupted normal working of the employees,” he said. The police later arrested all activists for trespassing, the official said.

The Supreme Court had last year allowed gram sabhas (village councils) in Odisha to decide the fate of Vedanta’s Lanjigarh plant, meant to make aluminium by excavating bauxite from the Niyamgiri hills, the latter revered by the villagers as a sacred place.

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Reverse the resource curse – by Jana Morgan (The Hill – January 22, 2014)

http://thehill.com/ [Washington D.C.]

Groups representing more than 1,300 mining companies, including some of the largest in the world, are backing mandatory disclosure of payments to governments, similar to a rule created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.

Canadian mining industry associations and civil society organizations recently released recommendations to the Canadian government after nearly a year and a half of consultation and negotiation.

These recommendations, modeled after Section 1504 of Dodd-Frank, are aimed at reversing the resource curse – where countries with abundant natural resources suffer from severe poverty, instability and corruption. Seven of the ten lowest-scoring countries in the UN Human Development Index, which measures life expectancy, income and education, rely on oil and mineral revenues for a majority of their exports.

A 2013 report by the Africa Progress Panel, chaired by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, estimated that Africa alone loses $63 billion every year to corruption. Shedding light on secretive resource deals will help track this money and stem the flow of corruption.

The recommendations would require that all mining companies listed on Canadian stock exchanges disclose the payments they make to governments where they operate.

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Gold bull market ‘firmly in rear view mirror’: TD – by John Shmuel (National Post – January 22, 2014)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Gold investors hoping to make up last year’s massive losses may be in for a disappointment as analysts now expect gold prices to stay stagnant over the next couple of years.

TD senior economist Sonya Gulati said gold is likely to spend the next two years “stabilizing” after experiencing a serious rout in 2013. The precious metal declined 28% on the year to US$1,200 an ounce, a far cry from its all-time record of US$1,921.15

“We project that gold prices will stabilize over the next two years, hovering around US$1,175 in 2014, before rebounding to US$1,280 in 2015,” she said. Meanwhile, a Reuters poll released Tuesday shows that the 37 analysts surveyed are forecasting gold will finish 2014 at an average price of US$1,235 an ounce, while essentially remaining unchanged in 2015 at US$1,260 an ounce.

Furthermore, the spread between the highest and lowest forecasts is only half its usual size, which suggests most analysts believe gold prices will be little changed over the next two years, which would be a divergence from the extremes that gold prices have experienced in the past decade.

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Potash turning into a buyer’s market – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – January 22, 2014)

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 giants of the potash industry are losing their grip on the market. In a sign that the industry is shifting in favour of the buyer, Russian producer OAO Uralkali took a 24-per-cent cut in potash prices when it negotiated a semi-annual contract to supply China with 700,000 tonnes of the crop nutrient.

“This was a very good deal for the Chinese,” said Michael Levshin, analyst with Veritas Investment Research Corp. “It’s the least China has paid for potash in more than half a decade,” he said. In the past, China and India have tried to force the world’s biggest producers to reduce prices by delaying their potash purchases.

But the Asian countries had marginal success until last year when Uralkali killed the Russian-Belarus potash cartel and sent the fertilizer industry into turmoil. Before the breakup, Belarusian Potash Co. (BPC) and its North American equivalent Canpotex Ltd. controlled 70 per cent of the market.

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UPDATE 1-Timmins Gold joins new mining rush to equity markets – by Euan Rocha (Reuters U.S. – January 22, 2014)

http://www.reuters.com/

Jan 22 (Reuters) – Timmins Gold Corp, which owns the San Francisco gold mine in Mexico, said on Wednesday it will sell C$25 million ($22.7 million) in equity to a syndicate of banks, the latest in a slew of recent share offerings from Canadian miners.

The Timmins deal, designed to strengthen its balance sheet, builds on a wave of offerings that may signal a thaw in the financing environment for miners, which have long been out of favor with investors.

The bank syndicate, led by RBC Capital Markets, will buy the shares at C$1.50 each, a significant discount to Timmins’ closing price of C$1.73 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Tuesday. The transaction was done as a bought deal.

A bought deal occurs when an underwriter, or a syndicate, buy shares from an issuer before selling them to the public.

While these deals typically occur at a slight discount to a company’s last trading price, the large discount that Timmins agreed to underscores the challenges still facing gold miners.

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Rick Rule: get ready for the recovery in resources – by Alisha Hiyate (Mining Markets – January 22, 2014)

The Northern Miner’s quarterly flagship magazine focusing on investing in the mining sector: http://www.miningmarkets.ca/

Having seen a few bear markets during his three decades as a resource investor, Rick Rule, founder and chairman of Sprott Global Resource Investments, offered some words of reassurance to would-be investors who are wary of the sector after the drubbing it has taken over the past two to three years.

“Bear markets are the author of bull markets,” Rule said at the Vancouver Resource Investment conference on Jan. 19-20, explaining that he’s optimistic about the industry precisely because of the rout. However, he stopped short of declaring that the sector has seen a bottom.

“The only thing that stands between me and saying that we have bottomed and are headed up in the market has been that there is as of yet no incidence of total market capitulation – that’s where a market collapses – or issuer capitulation, where there is the widespread rush to market to fund ongoing concerns that existed as an example in July and August of 2000, which was of course the bottom of that market.” While there is financing out there, issuers are still demanding too high a price for their securities, Rule says — something that he believes will change this year.

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PRESS RELEASE: Teck Named to the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations List

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, Jan 22, 2014 (Marketwired via COMTEX) — Today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Teck Resources Limited TCK -2.63% (“Teck”) was recognized as one of the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations for 2014 by media and investment research company Corporate Knights. Teck was the only mining company named to this year’s Global 100 list. This is the second straight year Teck has been included on the list.

“This ranking recognizes the dedicated work of our employees, whose commitment to responsible resource development has made Teck a global leader in sustainability,” said Don Lindsay, President and CEO. “At Teck, we are focused on ensuring people around the world can enjoy a better quality of life because of mining and the products it helps create. We remain committed to continually improving our sustainability performance and this recognition confirms we are moving in the right direction.”

Launched in 2005, the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations has been recognized as the world’s most credible corporate sustainability ranking in a GlobeScan/SustainAbility survey. The top 100 companies are selected from all publicly traded companies with a market capitalization over USD$2 billion. Companies were evaluated based on a range of sector-specific sustainability metrics, such as water, energy and carbon productivity, and safety performance. For more information about the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations and the full rankings, visit: www.global100.org .

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NEWS RELEASE: CEMI awarded $15 Million for Ultra-Deep Mining Network


(L to R) Samantha Espley, Vale; Janet Walden, NSERC; Douglas Morrison, CEMI; Minister Greg Rickford; Irene Sterian, ReMAP; Sylvain Cofsky, GARDN; Loretta Renard, ReMAP; and Sudbury Mayor Marianne Matichuk

Sudbury, ON (January 22, 2014) – The Honourable Greg Rickford, Minister of State (Science and Technology) was in Sudbury to announce winners of the Business-led Networks of Centres of Excellence (BL-NCE) program. The Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) was selected as one of four recipients for its Ultra-Deep Mining Network (UDMN) proposal awarded $15 million, the largest grant recipient of the 2014 competition.

In conjunction with $15 million received from the BL-NCE, the UDMN has also received significant partnership commitments of $31 million in leveraged cash and in–kind contributions. The UDMN is a $46 million business-driven network, founded and funded by members of the mining and oil & gas industries, with the active participation of small to medium sized enterprises, industry agencies, research facilities and academia.

Managed through CEMI, the UDMN will lever collaborative, networked solution teams to solve critical private sector research and development challenges that impact resource extraction in ultra deep mining environments, as well as in deep, tight shale-hosted hydrocarbon reservoirs. Addressing these development and operational challenges in some of the deepest mines in the world will result in increased productivity, decreased risk to workers, lower energy utilization, as well as lower capital and operating costs, achieved through performance and efficiency improvements.

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Unrealistic demands threaten companies, employees and country – Platinum bosses – by Zandi Shabalala and Ed Stoddard (Mineweb.com – January 22, 2014)

http://www.mineweb.com/

The chief executives of Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin, in a rare joint statement, said strikes have cost the companies over $1.15bn in the last 2 years.

JOHANNESBURG (REUTERS) – Bosses of the world’s top three platinum producers accused South Africa’s AMCU union of making “unaffordable and unrealistic” demands on Tuesday ahead of a strike this week which could hit over half of global output of the precious metal.

The chief executives of Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin made the dramatic warning as signs of some divisions emerged in the hardline Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, which has called the stoppage for Thursday.

In a rare joint statement that throws down the gauntlet in a bruising standoff between capital and labour, the trio said that “it is of great concern … that employees are being made promises by AMCU that cannot be delivered upon.”

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Amanda Van Dyke: A Dozen Gold, Copper, Phosphate and Uranium Standouts – by Kevin Michael Grace (The Mining Report – January 21, 2014)

http://www.theaureport.com/

Amanda Van Dyke of Palisade Capital is confident that China’s reforms will ensure that the commodity supercycle will continue for some time to come. In this interview with The Mining Report, Van Dyke argues that investors should worry less about the right balance of specific commodities and more about the right mix of early-stage, development-stage and producing companies. She expands on a dozen she believes have the right stuff to succeed.

The Mining Report: In December Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke announced a $10 million ($10M) cut in monthly quantitative easing (QE). He also said that interest rates would remain at zero for the foreseeable future. What effects will these decisions have on the economy and on precious metals?

Amanda Van Dyke: Precious metals have been trending down for a number of reasons. One was the perception, starting about March 2013, that the Federal Reserve was going to taper QE and an end to QE was in sight.

The Fed is shutting down the printing presses because they were never intended to be a permanent crutch to the economy, and because there are green shoots in the economy that would suggest the time has come to begin tapering.

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NEWS RELEASE: Osisko Board recommends shareholders reject Goldcorp’s opportunistic hostile offer

(Montreal, January 20, 2014) — Osisko Mining Corporation (“Osisko” or the “Company”) (TSX: OSK; Deutsche Boerse: EWX) announces today that its Board of Directors, on the recommendation of its Special Committee, unanimously recommends that Osisko shareholders (“Osisko Shareholders”) REJECT the hostile take-over bid (“the Goldcorp Offer”) launched by Goldcorp Inc. (“Goldcorp”) on January 14, 2014 and NOT TENDER their Osisko shares to the Goldcorp Offer.

After careful consideration and discussion, the Special Committee and Board of Directors have determined, following analysis by the Board of Directors with financial and legal advice, that the Offer is financially inadequate and not in the best interests of Osisko. Goldcorp’s Offer significantly undervalues Osisko’s world-class Canadian Malartic mine, and the rest of the Company’s portfolio of high-potential projects in North America. The premium offered by Goldcorp, as well as the transaction multiples implied by the offer, are both significantly below the relevant precedents.

The Board of Directors and management of Osisko remain focused on delivering superior value to shareholders. Osisko believes the true strategic value of the Company’s assets will be demonstrated as the review of value-maximizing alternatives progresses. It is important to note that, while Osisko has had several preliminary discussions with Goldcorp over the past five years, those discussions have never led to a credible proposal from Goldcorp.

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UPDATE 1-Indonesian mining group challenges ore export ban in court – by Fergus Jensen (Reuters India – January 22, 2014)

http://in.reuters.com/

Jan 22 (Reuters) – Indonesia’s Mineral Entrepreneurs Association (APEMINDO) has filed a legal challenge against a ban on ore exports introduced less than two weeks ago.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono signed off on the controversial ore export ban on Jan. 12, although last-minute amendments eased the impact of the export ban on mining giants Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold and Newmont Mining Corp which are now subject to an export tax.

Indonesia is the world’s biggest exporter of nickel ore, refined tin and thermal coal and is an important producer of copper and gold. It is seeking to increase added value from its mineral wealth but has been widely criticised for the ore export ban, seen by many as unfeasible.

“If this policy is carried out it will kill mining businesses,” Revly Harun, a lawyer for APEMINDO, told Reuters on Wednesday. “If they want to make smelters they need money for that. We don’t think this ore export ban is realistic.”

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[Suzuki] An admission of bombast – by Lorne Gunter (Toronto Sun – January 21, 2014)

http://www.torontosun.com/home

Last fall, David Suzuki, the high priest of Canadian enviro-alarmism, used an eco-conference to predict the likelihood of another Japanese earthquake comparable in size to the March 2011 monster Tohoku quake at “over 95% … in the next three years.”

True to his all-scaremongering, all-the-time form, Suzuki predicted that when a second catastrophic seismic event occurred, the remaining fuel rods at the Fukushima power plant would unleash a nuclear disaster that would mean “bye bye Japan” and would force an evacuation of the entire North American west coast.

This is about as crazy as the hoaxes circulating around the Internet claiming that a giant squid, driven eastward by radiation emanating from Japan, had beached itself at Santa Monica, Calif., or that 98% of the Pacific’s sea bottom is strewn with irradiated fish. (In fact, less than 5% of the Pacific’s floor has even been mapped, so knowing what is on 98% of it is impossible.)

This week, Suzuki told the Vancouver Province that he had stirred up his Japanese quake scenario “off-the-cuff” and he now regretted being so bombastic.

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