Новости за 01.08.2019

Brazil's Vale hopes to wrap up a global compensation settlement for victims of its deadly January dam burst by year-end, its chief financial officer said on Thursday, a day after the company announced $2-billion in related charges. That came in addition to nearly $5-billion in first-quarter charges the iron ore miner has previously disclosed. It remains unclear whether the writedowns taken so far would cover such a victims' settlement.

Chile's State-owned Codelco , the world's top copper miner, said on Thursday that it signed a non-binding agreement with foreign-backed miner Salar Blanco to develop a joint lithium project at the Salar de Maricunga in the country's north. The memorandum of understanding with Salar Blanco, which is 50% owned by Australia's Lithium Power International with smaller stakes held by Canada’s Bearing Lithium, comes after a disagreement over adjoining lithium deposits in the Maricunga salt flat.

Hudbay Minerals shares plunged more than 20% on Thursday after a court ruling barred the company from proceeding with construction at its Rosemont project in Arizona. The ruling from the US District Court for Arizona challenged the US Forest Service's June 2017 decision that enabled the company to move forward with a mine plan, which was approved in March.

Zimbabwe will repeal its indigenisation and economic empowerment legislation dealing with ownership of foreign-controlled companies and replace it with a new empowerment law, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said on Thursday. Addressing parliament, Ncube also said foreign investors can now take majority stakes in the platinum and diamond sectors.

The need for pressure to be applied to the platinum mining industry to go “green” was expressed at the recent Nedbank CIB Mark Research Conference on fuel cells in Cape Town. While platinum group metals (PGMs) are used to stop air pollution in the world, steps have only started to be taken by some members of the PGM mining industry itself to halt the emission of carbon into the air at mining operations.

Dual-listed Tharisa Mining’s board has approved a $54.2-million project (about R780-million) that will increase chrome recovery and add 400 000 t/y of chrome to the company’s production from its chrome and platinum group metals (PGMs) mine near Brits, in South Africa’s North West province. The construction of the Vulcan plant is key to Tharisa’s Vision 2020 strategy, which is targeting production of two-million tonnes a year of chrome concentrate and 200 000 oz/y of PGMs by next year.

The former head of Anglo American in Brazil, Paulo Castellari, has joined Appian Capital to head up the investment advisory firm’s Brazilian business, which includes an advanced stage greenfield copper/gold project. The dual Brazilian and Italian national, who speaks four languages and holds a MBA from London Business School, previously headed Anglo American’s iron-ore operations in Brazil and also looked after the company’s niobium and phosphates businesses in the South American country.

Dual-listed miner Alamos Gold’s operations performed well across the board in the second quarter ended June 30, with gold production in line with its guidance, while total cash costs were down 16% year-on-year, driving stronger margins and record cash flow from operations. Alamos produced 125 200 oz of gold, in-line with its performance in the second quarter of 2018.

Samarco Mineracao, the Brazilian mining venture that hasn’t operated since a deadly dam collapse in 2015, is close to regaining a licence to restart production and move closer to paying back $3.5-billion in defaulted debt. The licence will most likely be granted within the second half of this year, the Minas Gerais state environmental agency press department said in an email. A Samarco spokeswoman declined to comment. Negotiations with creditors will resume in October following the license renewal... Читать дальше...

Mining major Rio Tinto on Thursday reported a 12% increase in underlying earnings for the first half of the 2019 financial year, on the back of strong iron-ore prices. Underlying earnings for the half-year reached $4.93-billion, up from $4.41-billion a year earlier, while underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisaiton (Ebita) increased by 11%, from $9.19-billion to $10.25-billion.

Eskom needs more support from coal producers, SADC; Prevost urges coal producers to focus on local demand; and, Amplats targeting largest fuel cell truck, mulling renewable energy

Rio Tinto-controlled Turquoise Hill Resources said an impairment charge at the cash-generating unit of its Oyu Tolgoi copper mine in Mongolia led to the company missing estimates for second-quarter profit on Wednesday. Turquoise Hill, which owns 66% of the mine, reported a loss of $736.7-million, or 22c a share, in the three months ended June 30, compared with a profit of $204-million, or 9c, a year earlier. That compared with analyst expectations for earnings of 3c a share.

Brazilian miner Vale on Wednesday said it swung to a quarterly loss as the company announced more than $2-billion in fresh writedowns related to two deadly dam bursts suffered by the company over a period of less than four years. In late January, the collapse of a Vale tailings dam storing muddy mining waste near the town of Brumadinho killed nearly 250 people, less than four years after a deadly disaster at the company's Samarco joint venture with BHP Group.

Glencore senior executive Peter Freyberg has been appointed to the board of directors of PolyMet Mining Corporation, the US-based company with corporate headquarters in Toronto.   Freyberg, who launched his 40-year mining career with Anglo American in South Africa after graduating in mining from Wits University in Johannesburg, currently serves as the head of industrial assets for Glencore, on which he has a board seat.

Base metals miner New Century Resources is hoping to raise A$42.5-million through a fully underwritten share placement to institutional and sophisticated investors, to fund the continued refurbishment and ramp-up of its Century Zinc mine, in Queensland. The share placement, which will be priced at 33c a share, will be conducted in two tranches, with the first consisting of 73.9-million new shares that will be placed under New Century’s existing capacity.

Global gold demand grew to 1 123 t during the second quarter, representing an increase of 8% year-on-year, the World Gold Council’s (WGC’s) most recent ‘Gold Demands Trends (GDT)’ report shows. Published on Thursday, the GDT shows that continued central bank buying and sustained growth in gold-back exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were the key drivers of the increase in demand.