Новости за 11.06.2019

The oases that once interrupted the dusty slopes of the Atacama desert in northern Chile allowed humans and animals to survive for thousands of years in the world’s driest climate. That was before the mining started. Sara Plaza, 67 years old, can still remember guiding her family’s sheep along an ancient Inca trail running between wells and pastures. Today she is watching an engine pump fresh water from beneath the mostly dry Tilopozo meadow. “Now mining companies are taking the water,” she says... Читать дальше...

Diversified miner Vedanta Resources on Tuesday said its application to be joined to the confirmation hearing for the ex parte appointment of a provisional liquidator for its Konkola Copper Mines subsidiary had been heard by judge Annesie Banda-Bobo in the Lusaka High Court and that judgment had been reserved. Vedanta wanted to be represented by law firm Nchito & Nchito Attorneys and not those appointed by the provisional liquidator.

The Gert Sibande District Municipal Planning Tribunal has approved Atha-Africa Ventures’ application for a land use change to allow for the construction of the Yzermyn underground coal mine. “Atha-Africa is extremely pleased with the decision, as this particular authorisation was the last outstanding authorisation for the Yzermyn mine,” Atha-Africa senior VP Praveer Tripathi said in a statement on Tuesday.

Aim-listed Botswana Diamonds’ associate, Vutomi, has received approval to sell 256 ct of rough diamonds recovered during a bulk sampling programme at the Thorny River project, in South Africa. The sale of diamonds from bulk sampling will enable the further development of the project.

Aim-listed Gem Diamonds paid Lesotho $24.55-million in royalties and taxes for the 2018 financial year. The company, which operates the Letšeng mine, in Lesotho, paid $6.16-million in taxes to the Lesotho Revenue Authority and $18.39-million in royalties to the country’s government.

Efforts to wean the world from burning fossil fuels for transportation and energy generation will drive demand for commodities for years to come, paving the way for miners of so-called green metals to play a crucial part in solving some of the planet’s biggest problems, says Canadian miner Ivanhoe Mines. In its second sustainability report, co-chairmen Robert Friedland and Yufeng ‘Miles’ Sun say that zero-emission, energy-efficient transportation, and the distribution and storage of grid-scale volumes of clean... Читать дальше...

JSE-listed Wescoal has, through its Keaton Mining subsidiary, entered into two indivisible memoranda of agreement for the purchase of immovable property from Johan Louis Venter Testamentere Trust (JLV Testamentere Trust) and Andries Schoeman Brakfontein Boerdery (ASB Boerdery). Keaton will acquire the remaining extent of Portion 8 of the Farm Vanggatfontein 251 and the remaining extent of the Farm Vanggatfontein 251, respectively.

Uranium junior Deep Yellow has raised A$9-million through a share placement, which will be used to fund the company’s growth strategy. The company issued more than 29-million shares, at a price of 31c each, under its placement capacity.

Zambia has no plans to seize the assets of First Quantum Minerals and the copper producer intends to stay in the country despite the government's move to wrest control of a rival miner, government and industry sources told Reuters. Canadian-listed First Quantum has looked on nervously as the Zambian government appointed a provisional liquidator to run Vedanta's Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), claiming KCM has breached the terms of its licence.

The US Supreme Court agreed to use a Montana case involving a BP unit to consider shielding companies from environmental cleanup lawsuits that go beyond what federal regulators have ordered. The justices will review a Montana Supreme Court decision that allowed a suit by property owners whose land was contaminated by arsenic discharged decades ago from a copper smelter in the western part of the state. The landowners are suing BP’s Atlantic Richfield, which acquired the smelter’s operator, Anaconda, in 1977.

Lithium prices aren’t going go back to the historic highs of recent years but won’t plummet to pre-boom levels either, according to the world’s third-largest producer of the mineral key to electric-vehicle batteries. Prices have now stabilised after miners globally boosted production capacity to match soaring demand from automakers, Tianqi Lithium CEO Vivian Wu said on Monday. Orders for the soft, white mineral produced mainly in Chile and Australia remain solid, she said.

It was Beijing’s decision almost 30 years ago to make rare earths a strategic material and ban foreigners from mining them that helped pave the way for China to elbow aside the US as the world’s leading producer. In the intervening period, as China tightened control of domestic output of rare earths -- a broad group of 17 elements used in everything from electric vehicles to military hardware -- the US all but surrendered to China’s dominance of the sector.