COLUMN – India coal output closer to ending years of disappointment – by Clyde Russell (Reuters India – February 18, 2015)

http://in.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia – One of the most common assumptions among coal watchers is that India’s rising demand will translate into increasing imports, thus providing one of the few bright spots for a beleaguered industry.

While there is little doubt about the bullish demand outlook for India, the belief that imports will have to rise is predicated on the view that domestic coal output will continue to disappoint.

If history is a guide, then this is a safe bet, with state-controlled behemoth Coal India (COAL.NS) consistently failing to meet output targets and battling to supply enough fuel for the South Asian nation’s electricity generators.

India’s coal imports have steadily risen and gained 19 percent last year to 210.6 million tonnes, making the country the world’s second-biggest importer after China and ahead of Japan. But it may pay to heed a warning that accompanies financial products that past performance isn’t necessarily a guide to future outcomes.

There are signs that India is taking the right steps to boost its domestic coal industry, and while these won’t necessarily bear immediate fruit, it’s always worth watching the trend.

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Uganda: Why Can’t Uganda Simply Stamp Out Blood Minerals? – by Jeff Mbanga (All Africa.com – February 18, 2015)

http://allafrica.com/

Let’s talk about blood minerals today. About nine years ago, I was assigned to write a story about Uganda’s gold exports.

Back then, as it is today, a number of government reports would list the amount of revenue the country earned from gold exports. However, you could hardly put a name to a company that exported gold, nor tell where this gold was mined, processed, and flown out.

As part of my prep, I looked up a company, which I will not reveal, that dealt in gold. I was lucky to be granted an interview with one of its top directors. We met at a secluded area, somewhere in Kisementi, at the outskirts of the central business district. The man, of Indian origin, made sure few people were at our meeting point.

He first questioned my interest in the story. He then went ahead and complained about the risks in the business, and told me of his fights with a rival company. By the end of our conservation, I knew this was not a trade for the faint-hearted dealers; the mafia were alive and well in this mineral trade.

After all these years, questions still loom large over the trade in gold in Uganda. The characters that prowl around the city, flaunting money as result of their links to the illegal gold trade from the Democratic Republic of Congo, would comfortably fit in a Martin Scorsese movie script.

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B.C. schools increase mining education despite industry downturn – by Derrick Penner (Vancouver Sun – February 17, 2015)

http://www.vancouversun.com/index.html

While recent mining news has been dominated by mine closures, layoffs and a retrenchment of prospecting and exploration, UBC’ is launching a new executive MBA program

VANCOUVER — It might seem counterintuitive to launch new education programs focused on mining while the industry is in the middle of a downturn, but B.C.-based institutions are taking a longer-term view than the current business cycle.

While recent mining news has been dominated by mine closures, layoffs and a retrenchment of prospecting and exploration, UBC’s Sauder School of Business is launching a new executive MBA program for mining professionals. At BCIT in Burnaby, the coming fall will see it offer a new bachelor of engineering program in mining.

It is an age-old story now of preparing for the rising tide of retiring baby-boomers, so current layoffs and unemployment aside, the mining industry — B.C.’s in particular — is staring at a disproportionally high segment of its workforce in the 54-to-64 demographic.

“I’m not sure if the timing is good or bad,” said Brian Bemmels, associate dean of the Sauder School. “There are pros and cons to doing this at this time.” It was Vancouver-headquartered mining firms, though, that don’t see the next generation of their industry’s leaders being developed, who prodded the Sauder School into developing the program, Bemmels added.

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Dollar’s Rise Papers Over Miners’ Woes – by Tatyana Shumsky, John W. Miller and Rhiannon Hoyle (Wall Street Journal – February 17, 2015)

http://www.wsj.com/

Mining companies, slammed by tumbling commodities prices, have in recent days vowed not to cut production, saying the stronger dollar is cushioning the blow of falling markets.

Companies ranging from Australian miners BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto to smaller firms like South Africa’s Lonmin PLC are benefiting from the stronger greenback because they receive dollars for the gold, copper and iron ore they dig up, but pay for labor and many other costs using local currencies. When the dollar rallies, revenue generated by metals sales stretch further in covering expenses.

The dollar’s rise is reverberating across the global economy, dividing the corporate world into winners and losers along geographic lines and reshaping the next phase of commodities prices. The greenback rose against virtually all currencies in 2014 and is off to a roaring start this year, as some central banks around the world, reaching for new ways to boost sluggish economic growth, take steps to devalue their currencies.

Some of the dollar’s biggest gains this year are against the currencies of major commodities exporters. As of Friday, the buck was up 5% against the Australian dollar, 7% against the Canadian dollar and 7% versus the Brazilian real.

For many U.S. firms that do business abroad, the strong dollar is an unwelcome development, making their wares more expensive for buyers in other markets and reducing the value of foreign sales when translated back into U.S. currency.

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U.S. “vs.” China in Africa: A Message to President Obama and Premier Li Keqiang – by André Corrêa d’Almeida and Jinglin Duan (Huffington Post – October 14, 2014)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theworldpost/

The U.S. and China are not actually competing in most of the African markets and sectors in which they are operational. They could in fact adopt much more official collaborative approaches and drop the political competitive rhetoric, which, regardless, economic agents are not following in practical terms.

The political rhetoric used by the U.S. and China to distinguish their respective economic policies toward Africa is misaligned with the actual strategy, investments and operations governmental agencies and companies from those same countries develop on the ground. The behavior of “real economic agents” in Africa, such as companies, follows much more closely notions and principles of complementarity, synchronization, comparative advantages, market niches and market segmentation, than principles of competition, market shares and rivalry.

While official discourse about the presence of these two countries in Africa has been inflamed with political intrigue and a competitive attitude, economic agents’ actual behavior shows a much broader propensity for collaboration. Will the competitive paradigm in geo-strategic politics hold Africa back once again?

“We don’t look to Africa simply for its natural resources. We recognize Africa for its greatest resource which is its people and its talents and its potential,” President Obama stated during the US-Africa Leaders Summit held in the White House in August. The President continued: “We don’t simply want to extract minerals from the ground for our growth. We want to build partnerships that create jobs and opportunity for all our peoples, that unleash the next era of African growth.”

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Barrick Gold Chairman’s Shakeup Keeps Investors Guessing – by Liezel Hill (Bloomberg News – February 17, 2015)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

(Bloomberg) — On an icy late-January evening in Toronto, more than 30 Barrick Gold Corp. mine managers and country heads gathered in the basement of a pub to hear their executive chairman’s vision for the world’s largest gold producer.

In town for year-end meetings, the group listened intently as John Thornton outlined a plan to give them the authority they needed to run their units like their own businesses, according to a person present. Barrick’s Toronto headquarters would shrink in size and reach.

To outsiders these are eye-opening words, coming from a leader known within Barrick for a detail-oriented style which has placed him at the center of decision-making at different levels of the company.

While his comments suggest he’s trying to return Barrick to its nimble roots, questions remain within the investment community about what that may mean over the long run. Will Thornton, an ex-Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker, keep Barrick focused on gold, or diversify further into other metals such as copper, as he has hinted in the past?

“I have no idea what’s going on,” said David Christensen, chief executive officer of ASA Gold & Precious Metals Ltd, a San Mateo, California-based investor that holds Barrick shares. “I feel like I’m looking into a black hole.”

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Mining review final report near end of March – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – February 18, 2015)

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

A much anticipated report on improving safety in Ontario mines will be released by the end of March, focusing on challenges in the mining sector today and those anticipated tomorrow, says the province’s chief prevention officer.

It will contain some recommendations that are regulatory and require amendments to mining legislation and others that are voluntary or industry-led, directed at employers, workers, health and safety committees, and other stakeholders.

The final report will be the result of 14 months’ work including several meetings by the stakeholder advisory panel, and public and private consultations with dozens and dozens of miners, more than 90 mining industry experts and several health and safety advocates.

George Gritziotis has been leading the mining review and he said he’s pleased with the way the final report is shaping up. Last week, he was going over a draft and consulting with panel members to put the finishing touches on it.

The Mining Health, Safety and Prevention Review was ordered in December 2013 by then Ontario Labour Minister Yasir Naqvi after a Sudbury-led campaign to reduce the number of mining fatalities by improving working conditions underground.

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