Новости за 18.03.2019

Sibanye-Stillwater on Monday said the South African Labour Court has dismissed the application made by the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) to interdict the Section 189A restructuring process at the miner’s gold operations in South Africa. Sibanye on February 14 announced that it would start a process of restructuring its nonprofitable gold operations, this while AMCU has been on strike at the miner’s gold operations since mid-November, owing to a wage dispute.

The Debswana Diamond Company (Debswana) on Monday announced the start of its Cut-9 project, which is aimed at extending the life of the Jwaneng mine, in Botswana, to 2035. The project is expected to yield an estimated 53-million carats of rough diamonds from 44-milllion tonnes of treated material.

Russian State-controlled miner Alrosa will assess the quality of Zimbabwe's diamond reserves over the next six months but would only start mining if it can take a majority stake in such a project, the company's chief executive said on Monday. Zimbabwe is seeking to attract investment and has scrapped legislation that restricts foreign participation for some commodities. It has yet to do so for diamonds and platinum but has said that it will.

The Supreme Court of Chile has overturned an Environmental Court order to permanently close the stalled Pascua–Lama project, which straddles the Andes mountains with Argentina. The Supreme Court last week annulled the October 2018 administrative decision of the Antofagasta Environmental Court on procedural grounds and remanded the case back to the court for review by a different panel of judges, Canadian miner Barrick reported on Monday.

Rio Tinto said on Monday it would recommend that shareholders vote against a resolution requiring the miner to report its direct emissions and those of its customers in greater detail. In a notice ahead of its annual general meeting in May, Rio said shareholders should vote against the proposed rule change that would have it set transition plans that adhere to the goals of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit).

A definitive feasibility study (DFS) into the Tenas coal project, in British Columbia, has found that the project could produce some 750 000 t/y of saleable coal. ASX-listed Allegiance Coal on Monday reported that the DFS estimated a 22-year mine for the project, extracting just 15% of the entire resource of the grater Telkwa coal resource, with the Tenas project projected to deliver some A$121.3-million in annual revenues.

Phoshpate developer Avenira is targeting a final investment decision on its Baobab project, in Senegal, in the first half of 2020, following the release of a positive feasibility study (FS). Based on a one-million tonne a year phosphate rock concentrate capacity, the FS estimated that the project would require an investment of A$254-million, and would have a pay-back period of 3.3 years.

A deadly mine collapse in Angola has left at least 30 people dead.  The incident occurred in Chipindo municipality in Angola’s south-west Huila Province as illegal gold miners mined for gold, the state media reported on Sunday.

TSX-listed project developer Continental Gold has obtained a $175-million funding package to complete the construction, commissioning and start-up of its Buriticá gold project, in Colombia. The package consists of $75-million of unsecured convertible debentures issued to certain investors, including gold major Newmont Mining, and a $100-million gold and silver stream from Triple Flag Mining Finance Bermuda.

Mine restoration at the Mir diamond mine, which flooded about a year-and-a-half ago, is only expected to start after 2024, Russian miner Alrosa reported on Monday, detailing the timelines for the potential restart of the Siberian underground operation. To decide on the mine’s fate, Alrosa would start embark on exploration down to 1 300 m to confirm the operation’s reserves. Budgeted to cost two-billion ruble, these activities were scheduled to be completed by early 2022.

Eleven years ago, Cloud Peak Energy made an all-or-nothing bet its rivals were unwilling to match: that coal would remain indispensable to the US power sector. That gamble has now pushed it to the brink of bankruptcy.

Aluminium producer Norsk Hydro said its 2018 underlying earnings before interest and tax fell by 2.15-billion crowns, due to higher raw material costs and reduced operations at Brazil's Alunorte plant, it said on Friday. The world's largest alumina refinery has been running at half its capacity after Hydro admitted it had to make unlicensed emissions of untreated water in February last year because of severe rainfall.

Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska is fighting back in a US court against American sanctions that he said are unfairly destroying his global businesses and are based on unproven allegations about his close ties to the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Deripaska, who made his fortune in the metals industry, sued the US Treasury Department and Secretary Steven Mnuchin in Washington on Friday, asking a federal judge to lift the restrictions. In his complaint, the magnate said he is “the... Читать дальше...

A Brazilian court ordered Vale to halt production at another of its iron-ore mines, further reducing the company’s output capacity after a deadly dam burst increased government scrutiny over its operations. The Timbopeba mine in Minas Gerais state produces 12.8-million tons of iron-ore per year, Vale said in a statement, adding that it will comply with the court decision.