Новости за 17.10.2019

BHP shareholders are poised to reject a motion urging the world's biggest listed miner to suspend membership of some industry bodies judged to be at odds with goals to tackle climate change, initial voting in London suggested on Thursday. Ethical investors have called for the suspension, arguing BHP's membership of some industry organisations funds pro-coal lobbying.

Dual-listed Ivanhoe Mines on Thursday announced that the spot price of palladium had reached another all-time high of $1 781 /oz. It stated that recent increases in the prices of palladium, nickel, rhodium and gold had resulted in the weighted price of the basket of metals contained in the ore of the company’s Platreef palladium/platinum/nickel/copper/gold/rhodium project, in South Africa, increasing to a new, multiyear high.

Nickel is currently one of the “best performing” metals and demand for new nickel resources is expected to grow over the next decade. This places Horizonte Minerals' Vermelho nickel/cobalt project, in Brazil, in a great position, CEO Jeremy Martin told Mining Weekly Online on Thursday.

ASX-listed Lucapa Diamond Company and its partners Empresa Nacional de Diamantes (Endiama) and Rosas & Petalas have earned a further A$3.9-million from the sale of diamonds recovered at the Lulo mine, in Angola. Lucapa reported on Thursday that it had sold a parcel of 1 736 ct at an average price of A$2 265/ct.

Gold major Barrick Gold said on Thursday that its full-year production was continuing to trend towards the upper end of its 5.1-million to 5.6-million ounce guidance range, despite third-quarter production being lower than that of the second quarter. CEO Mark Bristow said that the third-quarter production results were strong across its portfolio and explained that the quarter-on-quarter gold production drop was the result of operational restrictions at North Mara, in Tanzania.

The clearest sign yet that America’s Coal County is headed for widespread job cuts: The amount of coal being produced per US miner is at the lowest level in eight years. Productivity has slid 11% this year alone. The last time it was this low was in 2011, when coal companies ended up cutting almost half their workers in a downturn that lasted more than four years.

In 2017, the world's largest copper producer - Chile's Codelco - announced a plan to sell "green copper" at a premium price to customers using more sustainable practices like renewable energy and recycled water to cut its carbon footprint. The project has run aground however, Codelco insiders and an executive said, as the miner realised it would struggle to guarantee its copper's sustainability once it left the mine to be melted down and taken to market. Without that, traders said, higher prices were unjustifiable.

TSX-V- and JSE-listed Alphamin’s Bisie mine, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo produced 2 345 t of contained tin in the third quarter. Overall recoveries at the mine, which is ramping up, improved to 65% during August and September, compared with design levels of about 72%.

Although refined tin use grew by 2% year-on-year in 2018, the International Tin Association (ITA) expects demand to contract for this year, primarily as a result of an unstable macroeconomic environment. Releasing the results of its fifteenth annual report, on Thursday, the association said there had been a contraction in refined tin use in most sectors so far this year.

The Proyecto Riotinto mine, in Spain, expects to reach its expanded throughput rate of 15-million tonnes a year by the end of 2019, despite delays to increased electricity supply. The expansion project reached full mechanical completion on August 19 and has started ramping up. However, the increase in throughput capacity and the full completion relies on additional electricity supply to be provided by power supplier Endesa.

The Jansen Stage 1 potash project, in Canada, will be presented to the BHP board for a final investment decision in February 2021, the diversified mining company announced on Thursday. In order to make a final investment decision, work on engineering to support project planning and on finalising the port solution is required, and the board has approved $144-million for these activities.

Coal miner Stanmore Coal has reported record coking coal sales during the quarter ended September. The ASX-listed miner on Thursday reported that run-of-mine production for the quarter had declined by 19% on the previous quarter, to 704 000 t, while saleable coal production was down 14% to 619 000 t.

Biodiversity and climate are everyone’s issues says Creecy; Environment government’s most important Ministry; And Mabuza says there is ‘No future without Eskom’

Planned maintenance work and natural field decline have resulted in mining major BHP reporting decreased production volumes across its portfolio for the quarter ended June. Iron-ore production from the Pilbara was impacted by planned maintenance, resulting in a 3% decline in the September quarter production, compared with the June quarter, with BHP producing 61-million tonnes.

Diversified miner South32 has reported a solid first quarter for its 2020 financial year, noting increased production at a number of its operations. “We have maintained annual production guidance for all of our operations with a strong start to the year at our alumina refineries, a 30% increase in production at Illawarra metallurgical coal, and a 10% increase in manganese ore production,” said CEO Graham Kerr on Thursday.

At the Fish Place diner in Fort McMurray, booths are filled with oil workers in baseball caps and the parking lot is lined with pickup trucks sporting six-foot neon safety flags, a hallmark of the mining industry. Fort McMurray is the regional hub for the oil sands that produce two-thirds of Canada’s crude, a status that puts the city carved out of Alberta’s wilderness at the heart of the October 21 federal election.

To weather a dimming global growth outlook, the largest US aluminum producer plans to get leaner in the next 18 months, selling non-core assets after its worst streak of quarterly losses in at least three years. Alcoa predicts world demand may contract by as much 0.6%, reversing a July outlook for growth of at least 1.25%. The forecast came a day after the International Monetary Fund cut to its 2019 global growth forecast this week, citing a broad deceleration across the largest economies.