AMHERST, N.Y.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Columbus McKinnon Announces First Quarter Fiscal 2018 Conference Call and Webcast for Tuesday, August 1, 2017.
The TSX-listed stock of project redeveloper Champion Iron on Tuesday gained more than 4% after the company announced that it has settled a dispute with the Sept-Îles Port Authority, from where iron-ore product from the Bloom Lake mine, in Quebec, will be shipped to market.
The Montreal-based company announced that its subsidiary Champion Iron Mines (CIM) entered a conditional settlement agreement, resolving without admission, its dispute with the Port of Sept-Îles concerning the July 13, 2012 take-or-pay accord entered between the parties.
Zinc prices are running out of steam, with shortages in China appearing to be less severe than expected, inventories rebounding and producers selling the metal to take advantage of current market levels.
Benchmark zinc prices on the London Metal Exchange surged 60% last year after the shutdown of major mines around the world and suspensions at others raised the prospect of deep deficits.
Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown confirmed on Tuesday that she had submitted a formal request to President Jacob Zuma for the establishment of a Special Investigations Unit (SIU) investigation into allegations of impropriety at State-owned utility Eskom. Speaking on the sidelines of the POWER-GEN and DistribuTech Africa Conference in Johannesburg Brown told Engineering News Online that the request had also been handed to Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha and that she hoped that the proclamation would be forthcoming “soon”.
SPOKANE, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Gold Reserve Inc. (TSX.V: GRZ) (OTC: GDRZF) (“Gold Reserve” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that on July 14, 2017 it completed its previously announced redemption of a portion of its outstanding senior notes which, together with the conversion of senior notes at the election of certain noteholders, has resulted in the Company reducing its outstanding debt by approximately US $28.3 million. In connection with the partial redemption, the Company redeemed
A new World Bank report highlights the potential impacts that the expected continuing boom in low-carbon energy technologies will have on demand for many minerals and metals, including Southern Africa’s platinum, manganese and chrome. Using wind and solar energy, and energy storage batteries, as key examples of low-carbon or “green” energy technologies, the report on the growing role of minerals and metals for a low-carbon future examines the types of minerals and metals that will likely increase in demand as the world works towards commitments to keep the global average temperature rise at or below 2 °C above preindustrial levels.
The new R1.7-billion Nokeng fluorspar mine in Gauteng, the development of which got under way last month, is expected to lead in terms of production volume and quality, and to rank “in the bottom cost quartile when it reaches full production in 24 months”, says SepFluor CEO Rob Wagner. Speaking at a media briefing in Johannesburg on Tuesday, Wagner highlighted the size of Nokeng’s orebody, which has a 12.2-million-tonne reserve, compliant with the South African Code for the Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves.
Real estate investment trust Growthpoint Properties has started the multimillion-rand development of a new head office for diversified miner Exxaro Resources. Exxaro’s new corporate headquarters will consolidate its current offices in Pretoria and Johannesburg into a single workspace, located at a convenient midpoint in a decidedly accessible location for its staff and business partners. Exxaro will occupy all of the new building’s 18 500 m2 of gross lettable area on a long lease.
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Rapaport Melee Index (RMI™) for small diamonds was stable at 108.50 during the second quarter of 2017. Year over year the index is down 1.9% from its level of 110.64 in June 2016. Polished diamond trading remained cautious in June as dealers returning from the JCK Las Vegas show were disappointed by the level of activity. Visitor traffic was down and buyers were less interested in sourcing their goods at trade shows. Overall, there is a continued shift toward good
Russia-focused gold miner Petropavlovsk’s gold production increased by 19% year-on-year to 232 400 oz in the six months ended June 30. The increase is supportive of the miner’s aim to produce between 420 000 oz and 460 000 oz for the full year.
In this opinion article, juwi Renewable Energies MD Greg Austin reflects on prospects in Africa for bilateral power purchase agreements for both grid-connected and behind-the-meter hybrid energy solutions
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–NTE Carolinas II, LLC (“NTE”), an affiliate of NTE Energy, was granted its Air Permit from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality – Division of Air Quality on July 14, 2017 for its Reidsville Energy Center. The receipt of this Air Permit, together with the issuance of the final Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (“CPCN”) from the North Carolina Utilities Commission in January completes the state and local permitting steps requir
Construction at Hummingbird Resources’ Mali-based Yanfolila mine is progressing on schedule and within budget, with several aspects of development, including process design and detailed engineering, now complete. Updating shareholders on developments at the mine during the three months ended June 30, the company on Tuesday said construction was 56% complete, with 73% of the estimated capital expenditure spend committed, as it continued to target first gold pour by the end of this year.
Wildfires sweeping across British Columbia, the world’s biggest exporter of softwood lumber, sent timber prices surging and forced the closure of two copper mines in the western Canadian province. More than 375 fires have swept across the province, burning forests, displacing an estimated 37 000 people from their homes, and forcing sawmills and mines to shut down or evacuate. Lumber futures on Monday jumped by the exchange limit in Chicago to the highest in more than two months. Imperial Metals Corp. and Taseko Mines Ltd. both said Monday that they’ve idled mines in the region.
PITTSBURGH–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Evoqua Announces Confidential Submission of Draft Registration Statement for Proposed Initial Public Offering
Peru’s biggest precious-metals producer will consider taking a deeper dive into copper if prices of the industrial metal keep rising. Cia. de Minas Buenaventura is tripling annual output at its Marcapunta copper mine to about 60,000 metric tons. Another expansion would take it to 100 000 tons, making Marcapunta one of Peru’s 10 largest mines, CEO Victor Gobitz said. Buenaventura subsidiary El Brocal operates the mine.
Aim- and FSE-listed Bluejay Mining is in for a busy second half of the year at its Pituffik titanium project, in Greenland. Licence applications are under way, drilling will start shortly and the company has now also appointed a consultant to firm up processing and development plans for the project.
SRK Exploration Services and SRK Consulting have started work to on a mining and infrastructure study, which will define locations and conditions for mine construction at Pituffik. The work will primarily focus on the raised beach environment, where the current resource of 23.6-million tons at 8.8% ilemenite and an exploration target of between 6.3% and 8.4% ilmenite has been defined.
Diversified major Rio Tinto has revised its full year production guidance for iron-ore and coal, as rail maintenance in the Pilbara and Cyclone Debbie in Queensland, took their toll.
During the three months to June, Rio Tinto produced 79.8-million tonnes of iron-ore from its Pilbara operations and shipped 77.7-million tonnes. This was up by 3% and 1% respectively on the previous quarter.
Democratic Republic of Congo’s central bank has announced stiff new financial penalties for companies that fail to repatriate at least 40% of their revenues from mineral exports, a decree seen by Reuters on Tuesday showed. Congo, Africa’s top copper producer, has been hit hard by low commodity prices over the last two years and is seeking emergency financial support from international donors to contain inflation expected to top 30% this year.
Rio Tinto Group’s pursuit of new diamond output to tap rising demand in Asia is focusing on an unheralded exploration project in the Canadian forest. The world’s second-biggest miner on Tuesday added the Fort a la Corne joint venture, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) east of Prince Albert in Saskatchewan, to its published list of advanced projects after striking an agreement last month to take as much as a 60% stake.
Niche minerals company Lithium Americas has closed an investment agreement with BCP Innovation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Thai energy company Bangchak Corporation Public Company, in which the latter has agreed to provide Lithium Americas with an aggregate of $113-million to fund a portion of the construction costs for the Cauchari-Olaroz lithium project, in Argentina’s Jujuy province. “We are very pleased to complete this important financing with Bangchak and to welcome Bangchak’s CEO, Chaiwat Kovavisarach, onto the Lithium Americas’ board of directors,” commented Lithium Americas CEO Tom Hodgson.
The Tomingley gold mine, in New South Wales, has delivered record production for owner Alkane Resources during the quarter ended June.
The mine produced 27 924 oz of gold during the three months under review, which was above forecast and well above the 18 721 oz delivered in the previous quarter.
Gold miner Saracen Mineral Holdings has reported record production during the three months to June, with the miner producing 79 985 oz of gold.
This was up some 23% on the previous quarter’s production, and was above the run-rate required to achieve the 300 000 oz/y production target.
Consolidated metal production from triple-listed Sierra Metals decreased 3% during the second quarter of the year, the base metals miner said Monday. Sierra, a Canada-based growing polymetallic mining company, attributed the decrease to lower throughput, lower head grades and lower recoveries of all metals – except gold recoveries at Bolivar copper mine, in Mexico – as well as lower throughput, lead and zinc head grades, and silver and lead recoveries at Cusi silver mine, in Mexico.
Aim-listed Ortac Resources has restarting mining activities at the Šturec deposit, in Slovakia, which will allow the company to continue to work towards establishing a commercial mine in the Kremnica mining licence area.
Restarting small scale mining activities fulfils a condition required by Slovak regulations to preserve Ortac’s right to exploit the Šturec ore deposit.
Gold prices rose to a two-week high on Tuesday as the dollar dipped to multi-month lows amid fading prospects of further rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve this year and doubts whether President Donald Trump would be able to push through healthcare reforms. Asian shares stepped back from more than two-year highs on Tuesday, while the dollar extended losses as passage of a U.S. healthcare bill grew doubtful and investors bet the Fed would be more cautious about raising interest rates.
Silver, known for being a market of extremes, is living up to its reputation this year. Prices rallied 17% in the first four months of the year, only to reverse and wipe out those gains. Despite the selloff, investors are pouring money into exchange-traded funds, and assets have reached a record 21 211 metric tons, valuing the holdings at $11-billion. At the same time, the picture is bearish in the futures market, where hedge funds now hold the first net-short position in two years.
Platinum mining company Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) on Tuesday advised its shareholders to expect a sharp fall in earnings of between 67% and 45% for the six months to June 30. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed platinum major advised that headline earnings for the first half of the year are likely to decrease to between R550-million and R875-million, compared with last year’s restated R1.65-billion, and headline earnings a share to between 210 c and 335 c a share compared with last year’s restated 629 c a share. The expected earnings decreases are primarily the result of attributable post-tax impairments totalling R2.2-billion, as well as strengthened local currency and a smelter problem, which lowered refined production.
The business rescue plan of troubled dual-listed alluvial diamond miner Rockwell Diamonds will be published by September 30. The business rescue process of Rockwell’s three South African subsidiaries – Rockwell Resources, HC van Wyk Diamonds and Saxendrift Mine – is ongoing.
Gold and copper miner Orvana, which owns mines in Spain and Bolivia, has achieved a new quarterly consolidated gold production record of 26 414 oz in the third quarter of fiscal 2017. Consolidated gold equivalent production reached 35 292 oz in the quarter, a 27% improvement on the 27 683 oz produced in the second quarter.
The Blair Athol coal mine, in Queensland, is on track to deliver its first coal sales in August, ASX-listed TerraCom reported on Tuesday.
The project is expected to ramp-up to a production rate of two-million tonnes a year by the fourth quarter of 2017.
Mineral sands miner Base Resources has repaid in full the $20-million unsecured debt facility provided by shareholder Taurus Funds Management.
The company said on Tuesday that the repayment of the Taurus facility continued the rapid debt reduction achieved on the back of strong operational performance from the Kwale operation, in Kenya, as well as continued improvement in product markets which has seen the company’s debt reduced to $98.5-million at the end of June.
ASX-listed Musgrave Minerals has exercised its pre-emptive rights over the Cue joint venture (JV), in Western Australia, taking full ownership of the project.
In June, JV partner Silver Lake Resources announced that it had agreed to sell its interest in the project to fellow-listed Westgold Resources for a cash consideration of A$1.5-million. However, the sale had been subject to Musgrave not exercising its pre-emptive right.
Iron-ore miner Fortescue Metals has applied for environmental approval for new capacity of 50-million tons a year in the Pilbara, but the company was quick to point out that the application does not reflect a production guidance.
Fortescue, which last year spearheaded a campaign to force Australia’s big iron-ore producers to cap their production, has lodged an environmental application with the Western Australian Environmental Protection Authority for the development of the Eliwana mine, some 90 km north-west from Tom Price.
Dual-listed Banro Corporation’s Twangiza and Namoya operations produced a combined 38 739 oz of gold during the second quarter of this year, bringing the year-to-date production to 84 954 oz of gold. The lower-than-expected gold production from both mines, along with the ongoing challenging operating environment given the current instability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), during the first six months of this year, will see the company fall short of its full-year gold production guidance, Banro said in an update to shareholders this week.
