Coal – Page 58 – Republic of Mining

Confidence returns for Australian coal miners – by Cole Latimer (Sydney Morning Herald – January 19, 2018)

January 19, 2018

http://www.smh.com.au/

Did the doubters declare the death of thermal coal too soon? Certainly the major listed Australian thermal coal miners have all seen positive movement in their share price from late 2017 through into 2018, bucking the wider perception of a market in decline.

That was in turn driven by a resurgent thermal coal price after its massive bust three years ago. From August 2015 to August 2016, prices languished below $US60 ($75) a tonne. By October of last year that had spiked to more than $US100 a tonne in October 2016 and remained in a healthy range rarely falling below $US80 a tonne.

There are combination of international and domestic market factors as well as smarter play by Australian miners that have created market conditions where thermal coal has regained ground, shaking off the zombie company taglines that have dogged the industry over the last year.

India Seeks Steel Ministry Control of Iron Ore, Coal – by Archana Chaudhary and Swansy Afonso (Bloomberg News – January 19, 2018)

January 19, 2018

https://www.bloomberg.com/

India is considering a plan to hand over control of iron ore and coking coal mining to the steel ministry to boost supplies of the key steelmaking materials as the country is poised to become the world’s second-biggest producer, according to a person with knowledge of the plan.

The proposal to shift the regulatory authority from the current mines and coal ministries is under discussion and needs approval from the prime minister’s office and the ministries, said the person, who asked not to be identified as the matter is not yet public.

The integration would allow the steel ministry to make better trade policies, speed up approval of mining licenses and make it easier for foreign steelmakers to set up operations in India, the person said.

Exclusive: Most U.S. states lost coal mining jobs in 2017 – data – by Valerie Volcovici (Reuters U.S.- January 19, 2018)

January 19, 2018

https://www.reuters.com/

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Nearly two-thirds of U.S. coal producing states lost coal mining jobs in 2017, even as overall employment in the downtrodden sector grew modestly, according to preliminary government data obtained by Reuters.

The statistics come as the administration of President Donald Trump claims credit for new jobs in the coal industry, a business he has promised to revive by rolling back Obama-era environmental regulations.

Unreleased full-year coal employment data from the Mining Health and Safety Administration shows total U.S. coal mining jobs grew by 771 to 54,819 during Trump’s first year in office, led by Central Appalachian states like West Virginia, Virginia, and Pennsylvania – where coal companies have opened a handful of new mining areas.

UPDATE 1-Indonesia completes contract amendments with coal miners – by Wilda Asmarini (Reuters U.S. – January 17, 2018)

January 17, 2018

https://www.reuters.com/

JAKARTA, Jan 17 (Reuters) – Indonesia’s mining ministry on Wednesday signed amended contracts with 18 coal mining companies, including PT Adaro Indonesia, as part of a shift towards a new mining permit system it expects to boost government revenue.

Indonesia, the world’s biggest thermal coal exporter, has now amended the contracts of all of its 68 coal mining companies, marking a victory for the government after earlier resistance from some miners to adopt the new terms.

Indonesia’s 2009 mining law requires companies to transfer from so-called contracts of work, long-term agreements with specific rules including on taxes, to newer special mining permits that generally follow the prevailing law.

Queensland mining: Record export figures ‘prove greens wrong’, industry says – by John McCarthy (Brisbane Courier-Mail – January 11, 2018)

January 12, 2018

http://www.couriermail.com.au/

THE world is still turning towards Queensland’s energy resources of LNG and coal with export records broken in 2017, according to the Queensland Resources Council.

The council released figures which it said showed the Queensland economy was underpinned by resources. LNG exports from Queensland in 2017 totalled 20.2 million tonnes, eclipsing last year’s record by 2.7 mt.

“The LNG sector is forecast to continue its record export growth that is being driven by an energy hungry Asia. China was again the largest customer, receiving nearly 11.6 mt, followed by South Korea at 4 mt while Japan imported 2.5 mt,’’ the QRC report said.

Coal mining executive blasts U.S. regulators for rejecting subsidies – by Valerie Volcovici (Reuters U.S. – January 9, 2018)

January 10, 2018

https://www.reuters.com/

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Robert Murray, the chief executive one of America’s largest coal mining companies, criticized U.S. regulators on Tuesday for rejecting the Trump administration’s proposed subsidies for aging coal and nuclear power plants – saying the decision could lead to higher electricity costs for consumers.

The backlash from one of President Donald Trump’s big supporters reflects frustration in the coal industry as the White House struggles to deliver on a promise to revive the coal sector, which has been in decline for years due to competition from cheaper natural gas.

“This is a bureaucratic cop-out,” Murray, CEO of privately-held Murray Energy [MUYEY.UL], said in a statement. “I fear that we will now immediately observe the announcement of further decommissioning of nuclear and coal-fired electricity generation that will further exacerbate this critical situation,” he said, warning that power prices could rise as a result.

Regulators Reject Perry’s Plan to Help Coal and Nuclear Plants – by Catherine Traywick and Ari Natter (Bloomberg News – January 9, 2018)

January 9, 2018

https://www.bloomberg.com/

The White House’s plan to bail out America’s coal country has been shot down — by the very energy regulators that President Donald Trump appointed last year.

In an order Monday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s sweeping proposal to subsidize struggling coal and nuclear plants in the name of keeping power grids dependable. Instead, the commission asked grid operators to suggest their own ideas to make the system more resilient.

“We appreciate the Secretary reinforcing the resilience of the bulk power system as an important issue that warrants further attention,” the agency said in the order. Four of the five commissioners were appointed by Trump; three are Republicans.

Asia powers demand for thermal coal – by Neil Hume (Financial Times – January 8, 2018)

January 9, 2018

https://www.ft.com/

Price of fossil fuel used for electricity reaches highest level since late 2016

Thermal coal, the least loved major commodity, has jumped to its highest level since late 2016 as strong manufacturing activity in Asia and appetite from China drives demand.

Thermal coal is burnt to generate electricity, and is a big source of income for miners such as Glencore, Whitehaven and Yancoal, which produce material for the seaborne market.

While the fossil fuel is being phased out in Europe on environmental grounds, it still accounts for about 40 per cent of energy consumption in emerging markets.

Adani’s mega mine: it’s not over yet – by Julien Vincent (Sydney Morning Herald – January 10, 2018)

January 9, 2018

http://www.smh.com.au/

A couple of months ago, Adani looked set to defy economic logic, popular opposition and the urgent reality of climate change. Before Queensland’s election campaign began, the prospect of Adani receiving a $1 billion public bailout from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) loomed large.

It then emerged that Adani had been in discussions with China Machinery Engineering Corp (CMEC) about its possible involvement in the Carmichael mine. In CMEC, Adani had a prospective engineering partner, but also an investor and one that would open doors to Chinese financial institutions providing credit.

Adani even had the Australian government on its side, providing assurances to the Chinese embassy that everything was tickety-boo with the proposed mega coal mine and rail complex.

Mini mining boom as export earnings hit a record $214b – by John McCarthy (Brisbane Courier-Mail – January 8, 2018)

January 8, 2018

http://www.couriermail.com.au/

AUSTRALIA has entered a mini mining boom pushing estimated export earnings for the financial year to a record $214 billion, according to the Federal Government’s Office of the Chief Economist.

That represented an increase of about $3.3 billion and was based on better than expected trading in iron ore and coal. The report also said there were committed projects in Queensland worth $10.2 billion.

Metallurgical coal export volumes may have grown to equal their highest level on record while earnings are likely to be unchanged at about $35.3 billion in 2017-18, but then drop by about $10 billion in 2018-19 as prices fall back.

Coal dwarfs battery metals in mining deals despite war on pollution – by Clara Denina and Barbara Lewis (Reuters U.S. -January 5, 2018)

January 8, 2018

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – Coal and iron ore dominated mining takeovers in 2017, Thomson Reuters data shows, with buyers favoring the heavily polluting devil they know over the uncertainties of a battery-powered future.

While the biggest deal was in Brazil, China was a top player despite planning to reduce domestic coal and steel-making to tackle smog in its cities. Elsewhere, miners haunted by the overpriced mega-purchases they made before the commodities crash of 2015 hesitated on deals involving the metals needed to run electric cars.

Mining deals totaled $96.8 billion, based on 2,109 mostly modestly-sized transactions in the past year, Thomson Reuters Deals Intelligence showed. That marked a 10 percent increase in value from 2016 but fell far short of $150-$200 billion totals in the boom years, after which miners had to write billions of dollars off the value of their assets.

It’s more important than ever to remember the miners who made us (Wales Online – January 2018)

January 8, 2018

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/

A new programme marks the 10th anniversary of the closure of Tower Colliery – the last deep mine in Wales

In the decades after King Coal lost his crown there was the sense that mining was a cliché the Welsh image-builders could do without. The tourist ideal of Cool Cymru was all chi-chi waterfront developments in Cardiff Bay and extreme sports on Snowdon.

Coal was on a par with sheep jokes and warbling male voice choirs for those whose obsession with a shiny new future erased the importance of our fascinating industrial heritage.

How they cringed when the National Lottery show was set against the pit-head wheels of Rhondda Heritage Park! How they fretted over the damaging PR of the Pot Noodle miners adverts!

Queensland coal mining: Billion-dollar projects in pipeline for Surat and Galilee basins – by John McCarthy (Brisbane Courier Mail – January 4, 2018)

January 5, 2018

http://www.couriermail.com.au/

A RACE valued at billions of dollars for Queensland has started among a handful of mining companies with the potential to dwarf Adani’s megamine.

GVK Hancock, in which Gina Rinehart has a minority stake, has revealed renewed interest in its Galilee Basin projects, while New Hope and Glencore have their sights on 2020 to 2022 for projects costing billions.

GVK cited a report from the International Energy Agency predicting stronger coal demand in 2022 and that Asian countries, including India, were expected to more than offset lower demand in other markets in Europe, America and China.

GVK has two Queensland projects, the $10 billion Alpha mine and rail line and the $6 billion Kevin’s Corner mine, and the renewed interest follows a major spike in coal demand, which has pushed thermal coal spot prices above $US100 a tonne.

Chinese firms to build 700 coal plants (Singapore Straits Times – July 3, 2017)

January 5, 2018

http://www.straitstimes.com/

They will make up nearly half the new coal power output likely to go online next decade

BEIJING – When China halted plans for more than 100 new coal-fired power plants this year, even as US President Donald Trump vowed to “bring back coal” in America, the contrast seemed to confirm Beijing’s new role as a leader in the fight against climate change.

However, new data on the world’s biggest developers of coal-fired power plants paints a very different picture: China’s energy companies will make up nearly half of the new coal generation expected to go online in the next decade.

These Chinese corporations are building or planning to build more than 700 new coal plants at home and around the world, some in countries that today burn little or no coal, according to tallies compiled by Urgewald, a Berlin-based environmental group. Many of the plants are in China, but by capacity, about a fifth of these new coal power stations are in other countries.

Coal demand to remain flat to 2022, resulting in a decade of stagnation (International Energy Agency – December 18, 2017)

January 5, 2018

https://www.iea.org/

Global demand for coal should remain nearly flat between 2017 and 2022, resulting in a decade of stagnation for coal consumption, according to the International Energy Agency’s annual coal market report.

Global coal consumption fell 1.9% to 5,357 million tonnes of coal equivalent (Mtce) last year, the second year of decline, because of lower gas prices, a surge in renewables and improvements in energy efficiency, according to Coal 2017. Coal demand is down 4.2% over the last two years, nearly matching the two-year decline in the early 1990s, which remains the biggest recorded drop since the IEA started compiling statistics more than 40 years ago.

By 2022, global coal demand is expected to reach 5,530 Mtce, the same as the average of the last five-year period, and meaning that coal use will have had a decade-long period of stagnation.