Новости за 06.02.2019

Holdings in global gold-backed exchange traded funds (ETFs) and similar products rose by 72 t in January to 2 513 t, which is equivalent to $3.1-billion in inflows. This marked the fourth consecutive month of net inflows, said a monthly report by Gold Hub, which is an initiative of the World Gold Council.

Disaster-hit Vale has announced a R$1.5-billion (about $390-million) investment in the implementation of dry stacking technology, as the company moves to reduce its reliance on tailings dams. By 2023, Vale will rely on dry processing for 70% of its production, compared with 40% in 2014 and 60% in 2018.

London-listed Bushveld Minerals , which has vanadium mines in South Africa, said on Tuesday it planned a to list on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange by the third quarter of this year. Bushveld Minerals, which has vanadium operations in South African and coal operations in Madagascar, said the listing was not intended to raise capital but would allow investment from South Africa where its core business was located.

Copper production in Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa's top producer, rose 12.9% in 2018 to 1.2-million tonnes, the Chamber of Commerce said in a presentation on Wednesday. Output of cobalt, a key component of electric car batteries, rose 43.8% to 106 439 t, while gold production increased by 22.6% to 28 539 kg.

Angola's State-owned diamond firm Endiama sees production rising to 13.8-million carats in 2022 compared with 9.5-million carats forecast for this year, a senior official said on Wednesday. Production in 2018 was 9.4-million carats, Endiama's director of geology, Kapingana Mandavela, told an African mining conference.

Toronto-based miner Ascendant Resources has secured financing from a US government agency that helps businesses invest in emerging markets to expand its El Mochito zinc/lead/silver mine in Honduras. The nonbinding term sheet with Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) is for a $35-million project loan, the TSX-listed company said on Wednesday, noting that it would be sufficient to cover the total financing requirements for the expansion programme, including mine development expansion, a new underground shaft... Читать дальше...

Following a challenging year for silver, reflected in the muted price performance of 2018, the Silver Institute expects 2019 to be a better year for the metal and that prices will regain some shine. The Washington-based nonprofit industry association says it expects sentiment for the silver market to be “more supportive” in 2019, noting that the year has already proven to be good for silver investors.

Gold is bought as a luxury good as much as an investment, and, as such, can play four fundamental roles in an investment portfolio, an analysis published by the World Gold Council (WGC) shows. Firstly, gold is a source of long-term returns.

The Minerals Council South Africa has welcomed the statements made by President Cyril Ramaphosa during his address at the Investing in African Mining Indaba, in Cape Town, on Tuesday. The Minerals Council said the President had, throughout his address, echoed the sentiments expressed by Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe on Monday, assuring stakeholders of government's commitment to creating an enabling environment for investing in mining, which would ultimately result in a thriving mining industry to the benefit of all South Africans.

Financial services company Investec has acquired a further interest in the ordinary shares of Sibanye-Stillwater, taking its overall shareholding to about 5.19% of the company’s issued shares. It previously held 4.91% of Sibanye’s shares.

JSE- and LSE-listed platinum-group metals (PGMs) and chrome producer Tharisa on Wednesday started trading on A2X Markets. This is the company’s secondary listing in South Africa, with its primary listing on the JSE. Its LSE listing also remains.

Independence Group, an Australian miner looking to move into making chemicals used in electric vehicle batteries, on Wednesday said it was in talks with a range of potential buyers of those products. The mid-tier miner trialled production of battery chemical nickel sulphate in December and January, said CEO Peter Bradford, and is now set to send samples to potential customers and partners.

Global trader Glencore said on Wednesday that production at two of its Australian coal operations has been affected by heavy rain that has caused flooding in northern parts of Queensland state. "We have experienced short-term production impacts from heavy rain at our two most northerly coal sites, Collinsville and Newlands," a Glencore spokesman said in a statement to Reuters.

Queensland’s exports grew to A$81.7-billion in 2018, up 16% on the last year, with the resources sector accounting for 80% of the state’s exports. The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) on Wednesday said that Queensland coal exports had increased by more than 15% in value over the 12 months to December, as coal became Australia’s largest export earner, earning A$66-billion in revenues.

Japanese trading house Sumitomo Corp booked one-off losses of about 15-billion yen ($137-million) on the Ambatovy nickel/cobalt project in Madagascar in the October to December quarter and cut its nickel output estimate for the current year for the project. The losses include about 10-billion yen due to lower-than-expected production and about 5-billion yen on the disposal of some fixed assets and appraisal of ore inventories, Sumitomo CFO Koichi Takahata told a news conference.

Vale did something it said it wasn’t going to do in the wake of the deadly tailings dam collapse in Brazil last month – declare force majeure on some of its iron ore contracts. Futures in Singapore gained. The Brazilian mining giant invoked the clause a day after a judge forced it to suspend some operations at its Brucutu mine – a move that it said would result in an annual production loss of 30-million metric tons. The court order was issued to help improve safety following the fatal breakdown... Читать дальше...

AngloGold Ashanti CEO Kelvin Dushnisky is very upbeat about developing its Obuasi gold mine, in Ghana, and has described it as being "in a class of its own on a number of metrics".  “It will be an engine of growth for this company. You need big, chunky engines of growth which, year after year, provide reliable, predictable production, and they don’t come along very often.”