Новости за 20.06.2019

A wildfire that is burning near the westernmost property boundary of the Pinto Valley mine has led to owner Capstone Mining curtailing nonessential activities at the mine. The TSX-listed miner said, at the time of sending out its news release at 15:30 EST, that the wildfire had no physical impact on the infrastructure or operations of the mine.

The share prices of SolGold and Cornerstone Capital Resources rose sharply in Canada on Thursday afternoon, following an announcement that the Ecuador mining referendum petition had been dismissed. TSX-V-listed Cornerstone, which is a partner in the significant Cascabel copper/gold project with Toronto- and London-listed SolGold, said in a statement that the Constitutional Court in Quito had dismissed the petition for a referendum on whether or not to allow the development to proceed.

The US Commerce Department has recommended the White House take steps to protect the domestic production of uranium after finding the nation’s reliance on imports was a national security risk, said three people briefed on the matter. Among the trade remedies recommended is to require nuclear power plants to purchase a minimum of 5% of the radioactive fuel from US mines, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss non-public deliberations. Two of the people said an option under consideration... Читать дальше...

A conservation group on Thursday sued the Trump administration for withholding documents related to its decision to cancel a 20-year ban on mining in a Minnesota wilderness area and open it up to copper production. The Wilderness Society filed the lawsuit in a Washington, DC, federal court to force the Trump administration to respond to two dozen Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for documents detailing its decision to open up the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to sulfide ore copper mining.

Vancouver-headquartered Taseko Mines have the three key initiatives – technical, permitting and financing – all aligned for its Florence copper project, in the US state of Arizona, to be construction-ready in the first half of next year, president Stuart McDonald reported on Thursday. On the permitting front, the dual-listed miner submitted the first of two permit amendment applications that are required for commercial production, with the second to follow in the “coming weeks”.

Rio Tinto Group is looking at new ways to develop the giant Simandou iron-ore deposit in Guinea that it almost sold last year, according to people familiar with the matter. Simandou is one of the world’s biggest untapped mineral deposits, but has a controversial past. For more than a decade, it has been the center of a bitter dispute that includes Vale and Israeli mining tycoon Beny Steinmetz. An agreement to sell the project collapsed last year, and Rio now appears increasingly committed to finding a way to build it.

Vedanta Resources said it would take urgent steps to protect its Zambian assets and pursue international arbitration if necessary after a Lusaka court on Thursday rejected its request to be included in liquidation proceedings. A Lusaka judge on Thursday ruled Vedanta Resources could not take part in proceedings to wind up its Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) business in Zambia, but granted Vedanta leave to appeal the ruling. The company said it would consider whether to do so.

ASX-listed Aeris Resources has tipped a 4% increase in full year production expectations on the back of strong production performances at its Tritton and Murrawombie underground mines, along with higher copper grades in New South Wales. The miner on Thursday advised that its copper production guidance for 2019 have now increased to between 26 450 t and 26 650 t, up from the previous guidance of 25 500 t made in April this year.

Mining major BHP and Japan’s Mitsubishi Development have inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to jointly pursue emissions reductions. BHP CEO Andrew Mackenzie on Thursday said that the MoU marked the start of an important collaboration with one of the company’s essential long-term industry partners.

Junior nickel developer St George Mining will raise A$4-million through a share placement, making use of the Junior Mineral Exploration Incentive (JMEI), which will expire at the end of the month. The JMEI is a tax credit arrangement, which allows mineral exploration companies that have no mining income, to renounce and pass future tax deductions to their Australian resident investors.

Construction of the much-maligned Carmichael coal project, in Queensland, has started. Indian major Adani on Thursday said that some 60 workers were currently on site for surveying and clearing purposes to allow access onto the mine site, while also working on geotechnical and water management activities.

This week, new members join the Hydrogen Council; dam safety risks could scare investors and coal companies fighting climate change are on the right path. Mining Weekly editor Martin Creamer unpacks the headlines.

Gold jumped to the highest in more than five years after the US Federal Reserve indicated a readiness to cut interest rates and the dollar tumbled. Gold had a lackluster start to the year but gained momentum this month as investors sought havens amid slowing global growth due to the fallout from the US-China trade dispute and as central banks adopt a more dovish tone. The metal has now broken through a five-year resistance line in a dramatic surge that brought it within spitting distance of $1 400/oz.

Shareholders and optionholders of Vancouver-based copper/gold explorer and developer NGEx Resources have approved the spin-out of the company’s Los Helados project and other exploration properties into a wholly-owned subsidiary NGEx Minerals. The arrangement will include a transfer of the Los Helados project, in Chile, and exploration properties along with $7.3-million in cash to the new company, the shares of which will be distributed to existing NGEX Resources shareholders.

Kentucky- and Virginia-focused Cambrian Coal said on Wednesday that its mining operations and customer shipments would continue during a court-supervised sale process. The coking and thermal coal miner, which at the weekend filed for relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in Kentucky, would be prepared for sale, president Mark Campbell said in a statement.

LSE-listed Gem Diamonds has entered into a binding agreement with Pro Civil for the sale of 100% of the share capital of Gem Diamonds Botswana (GDB), which holds the Ghaghoo diamond mine, which has been on care and maintenance since March 2017. Under the share sale agreement, Pro Civil will make a one-off upfront payment of $5.4-million for the share capital of GDB. Gem Diamonds will use the sale proceeds for general corporate purposes.

President Donald Trump is scaling back sweeping Obama-era curbs on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants burning coal, his biggest step yet to fulfill his campaign promise to stop a “war” on the fossil fuel. Yet the Environmental Protection Agency’s rewrite of the Clean Power Plan, which was signed Wednesday in Washington, will do little to halt a nationwide shift away from coal and toward cheaper electricity generated by wind, sun and natural gas.

Zambia’s government expects to conclude talks with potential buyers of Vedanta Resources’s local copper unit within a month, President Edgar Lungu said. His comments preempt a hearing by Zambia’s High Court on Thursday on the state’s bid to liquidate the asset after a dispute between the government and the Indian company. The stand-off has rattled investors, with yields on Zambian Eurobonds surging to new records last month.