The Polar transport division of nickel and palladium miner Nornickel said on Wednesday it had shipped about a third of the 72 000 t coal it planned to deliver to remote settlements in the Russian Arctic this year.
Nornickel, which is a key participant of the Northern Supply Haul programme, plans to ship about 48 000 t of coal by river barges and about 24 000 t by sea vessels to the hard-to-reach settlement of Taimyr.
The investigation into State capture by Parliament’s portfolio committee on public enterprises on Wednesday hit its first hurdle as it was confirmed to members that the legislature would not pay for an independent evidence leader. Acting chairperson Zukiswa Rantho told MPs she had asked the chair of chairs, Cedric Frolick, for an evidence leader for the probe, which has been extended to cover not only allegations of State capture at Eskom, but Transnet and Denel as well. But Parliamentary legal advisors then made a submission in which they claimed it would set a precedent if the task of evidence leader would be outsourced that the institution could not afford.
Trade union Solidarity has confirmed receipt of a Section 189A retrenchment notice from steel producer ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) and has indicated that it will enter negotiations with the company to ensure alternatives to retrenchments are considered. On Tuesday, AMSA announced that it had initiated consultations with employees regarding a proposed business-restructuring programme that could result in job losses.
MAYFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Materion Corporation (NYSE: MTRN) announced today the appointments of a Chief Technology and Marketing Officer and President, Precision Coatings. Ian Tribick, Ph.D., President of Materion Large Area Coatings, has been promoted to Chief Technology and Marketing Officer. He continues to report to Jugal Vijayvargiya, President and Chief Executive Officer. In this newly created position, Dr. Tribick will have worldwide responsibility for the Company’s techno
ASX-listed Mineral Resources has reported a 24% increase in revenue for the 2017 financial year, as its Mount Marion spodumene operation, in Western Australia, ramped up to full capacity.
Revenue increased from A$1.1-billion in 2016 to A$1.4-billion, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation increased from A$286-million to A$464-million.
In the next ten years, technology is set to unleash a wave of mining innovation, with the sweet spot centred on changing the thinking around orebodies and processing plants rather than much-spoken-about automation. “Our focus has changed from hunting technologies to hunting value,” Anglo American technical director Tony O’Neill told Creamer Media’s Mining Weekly Online in an exclusive interview.
Junior miner BC Iron has swung back into black during the full year ended June, as the company’s Iron Valley operation delivered strong results.
BC Iron on Wednesday reported after tax profit of A$7.1-million from continuing operations, compared with a loss of A$43.9-million in the previous financial year. Including a A$1.4-million charge from the sale of its share in the Nullagine iron-ore project to joint venture (JV) partner Fortescue, BC Iron reported total profit of A$5.7-million, compared with a loss of A$82.7-million in 2016.
ASX- and Aim-listed European Metals has appointed Craig Reimer to head the definitive feasibility study (DFS) of the Cinovec lithium/tin project in the Czech Republic.
The appointment is aimed at strengthening the Cinovec team, as European Metals works towards delivering a DFS for the project in the second half of next year.
The Northern Territory’s Chief Minister pleads with resources companies to end fly-in, fly-out work practices, as the future of the NT’s gas industry hangs in the balance.
Miners and oil stocks helped Europe’s major share index make robust gains on Wednesday as higher metals prices lent a hand and investors awaited eurozone GDP figures expected to confirm the bloc’s economic growth was on track.
The pan-European STOXX 600 rose 0.7%, its third day of gains after a sharp sell-off last week. Euro zone stocks and blue chips jumped 0.8%.
China will ban the production and trade of a range of products containing mercury by 2020, including thermometers and blood pressure monitors, and ban primary mercury mining by 2032, as a global pact to cut pollution from the metal comes into effect.
China – the world’s biggest miner and consumer of mercury – signed the Minamata Convention on Mercury in 2013. It was approved by the Cabinet last year and takes effect on Wednesday.
ONGC Videsh, the overseas arm of Indian exploration and production (E&P) major ONGC, is aiming to complete a $1-billion capital expenditure programme during the 2017/18 financial year.
This investment spread across exploration, development and production will enable ONGC Videsh to achieve oil production growth of 15%, or 14.35-million tons oil equivalent, from its assets by the end of the 2017/18 financial year.
The Energy Intensive Users Group (EIUG) will approach the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) before the end of September with a proposal for structural changes to Eskom’s tariff for large power users by removing existing cross-subsidies to assist businesses whose future sustainability is being placed in jeopardy by the utility’s current fast-rising price path. In motivating for the short-term tariff relief, the EIUG will argue that competitive prices for electricity heavy firms will help stimulate economic growth and stave off the job losses that are likely to arise should these companies be forced to accept the further double digit tariff increases being sought by Eskom.
Flash floods have left one worker missing and caused extensive damage to a power plant at US-owned miner Freeport Indonesia’s operations in the eastern-most province of Papua, company officials said on Wednesday.
Mining operations were continuing as normal, but power and water outages were expected in the coming days, the Indonesian unit of US mining giant Freeport McMoran Inc said in a statement.
A colleague of Michael Welsh, killed after a mud rush at a Tasmanian mine in 2014, tells of finding his machine “crippled and bent and covered in mud” in the frantic search.
The protracted negotiations between India and Iran on Farzad B gas fields have come to a halt following a hardening of stance of both countries.
No top level talks between officials of India and Iran have been held since the expiry of the last deadline of February, but official written communications between relevant authorities of the two countries indicate that neither nation is willing to accede ground to arrive at an agreement.
Private equity house EMR Capital has purchased an 80% stake in a Zambian copper mine from African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) and its partner for $97.10-million, ARM said on Tuesday. The 80% indirect interest in Lubambe Mine, held equally by ARM and Vale International includes the equity holding in Lubambe mine as well as loans to the mine, and will be settled in cash contingent on certain conditions being met, ARM said in a statement.
A decision to reject two controversial mining applications on a far north Queensland cattle station owned by the Government is good news for the Great Barrier Reef, the state’s Environment Minister says.
Structural changes in China’s rare earths supply chain bodes well for companies outside of the country making progress on developing new rare earths projects.
A new report published by respected industry observer Adamas Intelligence of Sudbury, Ontario, highlights a 50% increase in the price of certain rare earths since the start of the year, which will especially benefit companies such as Mkango Resources, which is working towards the development of the Songwe Hill rare earths deposit, in Malawi.
Quebec-based miner Stornoway Diamond Corp has reported increasing prices for its rough diamonds produced at the flagship Renard mine, the Francophone province’s first diamond mine.
For the three months ended June 30, Stornoway earned revenues of C$42.6-million, as rising rough-diamond prices at Renard boosted the top line, the miner said on Monday.
West Africa-focused junior project developer Algold Resources has received a formal decree by the Mauritania government granting a 30-year mining licence for the Tijirit project.
Montreal, Quebec-based Algold in June announced that the Mauritania government intends to issue the mining licence, which will require Algold to deliver a feasibility study by December 2018. This decree formalised the Mauritanian Ministry of Oil, Energy and Mines consent to the grant, first announced on June 12.
Hedge fund Elliott Management has raised its stake in BHP Billiton to 5%, stepping up a campaign to make the top global miner quit all or part of its petroleum business, boost returns and ditch its dual listing.
New York-based Elliott launched its effort in April, at which point it held a 4.1% “economic interest” in BHP’s UK-listed shares, and later increased that to 4.5%.
Base metals producer Imperial Metals is reviewing its mine plans and its capital requirements because of lower-than-expected metal output in the first half of 2017, the company said late on Monday.
To tide it over, the Vancouver-based company that operates the Red Chris and Mount Polley copper mines, in British Columbia, has accepted a C$20-million bridge loan from affiliates of its two major shareholders that matures on the earlier of October 15, or as soon as the company secures additional financing.
Junior explorer Prize Mining has intersected the highest gold-in-soil sample in recorded history along the Silver King shear system dating back to the early 1970’s, at its Kena-Daylight gold project, in south-eastern British Columbia.
The Calgary, Alberta-based mining issuer on Tuesday reported the initial batch of soil assay results from Phase 1 fieldwork on the Daylight property, which confirmed the presence of at least two large prospective geochemical trends, the company said in a news release.
US iron-ore specialist Cliffs Natural Resources has renamed the company to its historical name Cleveland-Cliffs, as part of celebrating its 170th anniversary, the company announced on Tuesday.
Under the name Cleveland-Cliffs, the company has been operating for decades as an important part of the North American iron and steel industry.
Gold prices posted new losses on Monday and overnight as the US-dollar index climbed on positive comments by Federal Open Market Committee voting member William Dudley.
Dudley said on Monday it is not “unreasonable” to expect the Federal Reserve to release plans in September to start reducing the balance sheet, and he also highlighted he was in support of another rate increase before year end, if economy performs as expected.
Rescuers have been unable to reach the area of an underground mine in Siberia where four of eight missing miners might have been working during a partial flood this month, Russian diamond producer Alrosa said on Tuesday. State-controlled Alrosa has been searching for the eight missing miners since Aug. 4 when its Mir mine in the remote Yakutia region of eastern Siberia was partly flooded by water from an openpit mine above it.
The African Union’s human rights body urged the Democratic Republic of Congo’s government to prosecute officials of an Australian mining company over their alleged role in a military crackdown in 2004 that left more than 70 people dead. The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights also asked the state to compensate victims of the assault, in which 28 people were allegedly summarily executed, according to a decision adopted by the Banjul, Gambia-based organiSation last year and approved in January by the African Union’s executive council. The decision was communicated to nongovernmental organisations that brought the complaint in a June 13 letter. The commission hasn’t made the decision public.
Steel producer ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) announced on Tuesday that it had initiated consultations with employees regarding its proposed business-restructuring programme, which could result in job losses. CEO Wim de Klerk said in a statement that it was premature to provide an estimate as to the number of employees who could be retrenched. However, it was possible that more than 50 employees could lose their jobs, which “means that this will fall within the ambit of a large-scale retrenchment”. The JSE-listed company currently employs over 8 600 people directly and more than 3 200 contractors.
Nonprofit organisation Corruption Watch (CW) and the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) have launched a survey, on the eve of the commemoration of the Marikana massacre, seeking public input on the selection of the new South African Police Service (Saps) national commissioner and the head of the Hawks. Both posts were vacant after former Saps National Commissioner Ria Phiyega was suspended following the 2012 killings at Marikana, which left 34 miners dead, and Hawks boss Berning Ntlemeza was found by a High Court to be unfit for the position.
