Новости за 21.01.2020

South African miner Gold Fields has hired investment bank RBC Capital Markets to explore the sale of a 30% stake in its gold project in northern Chile, two sources said. The gold sector has seen two multi-billion dollar takeovers over the last 18 months and bankers and investors say a buoyant gold market could drive further activity.

Dual-listed Sibanye-Stillwater and dual-listed Gold Fields have been included in the Bloomberg 2020 Gender-Equality Index (GEI). The companies are two of only 325 companies globally, and two of only eight South African companies, over 11 sectors, which qualified to be included in index.

The upcoming Investing in African Mining Indaba will focus on forging the future direction of the continent’s mining industry. Under the theme ‘Optimising Growth and Investment in the Digitised Mining Economy’, key topics to be discussed at the event include green and sustainable technology, investment opportunities in African mining, resource nationalism, climate change and youth challenges.

The government of Russia's Yakutia region, which has a stake in diamond producer Alrosa, has proposed the company sell rough diamonds worth $0.5-billion to $1-billion to the precious metals and gems repository Gokhran in 2020, Interfax news agency reported. Diamond miners are battling falling demand, as well as competition from diamonds manufactured in laboratories. Alrosa is the world's largest producer of rough diamonds in carat terms. Together with Anglo American's De Beers unit, it produces about half of the world's rough diamonds.

Aim-listed BlueRock Diamonds turned a profit for the first time during the second half of the 2019 financial year, the success of which was based the diamond producer having sold 12 675 ct of diamonds for the year, marking an increase of 118% over the year before. While grades and prices per cart had also improved, BlueRock on Tuesday noted that its production volumes had increased by 70% year-on-year to 323 000 t for the 2019 financial year.

LSE-listed Pembridge Resources on Tuesday announced that it would appoint an operator for the Minto mine, in Canada’s Yukon, to allow the company to focus on activities such as new investment opportunities. The third-party operator would act as the adviser to the Minto general manager and provide direction to senior members of staff on day-to-day operations.

Rio Tinto Exploration Canada (RTEC) has received permits to construct a 99 km winter access trail and installation of a temporary 65 to 80 person capacity work camp at the Janice Lake copper project, in Saskatchewan. The camp will support drilling and mineral exploration at the Janice Lake copper project, in which RTEC can earn an 80% interest from Forum Energy Metals.

Canadian miner B2Gold has published a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for its Gramalote joint venture (JV) with South Africa’s AngloGold Ashanti in Colombia, outlining plans for an openpit mine that will yield 3.85-million ounces over its 13.6-year mine life. The PEA is based on a yearly processing rate of 11-million tons, with an average life-of mine (LoM) gold recovery of 94.3%. The study calculates that Gramalote could produce an average of 416 000 oz/y for the first five years of production... Читать дальше...

The artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector is in need of formalisation in order to establish itself as a legitimate source of diamond supply; however, faced with complex mining ecosystems and operating conditions that are vastly different from the large-scale diamond mining sector, De Beers says “the approach to supporting formalisation must be tailored, incremental and robust”. While the ASM sector represents an important source of global diamond production and is a critical livelihood, artisanal miners face many challenges... Читать дальше...

The global mining and metals sector is facing one of its most challenging transitions yet as the industry is considering how it can best position itself to regain and maintain stakeholder confidence on environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters, global law firm White & Case states in its ‘Mining and Metals 2020’ survey report. According to the report, miners spent 2019 navigating a raft of challenges, with omnipresent concerns about a global slowdown offsetting strong fundamentals.

Russian diamond major Alrosa has announced that it has started test drilling at the Mir kimberlite pipe, which was partly flooded in 2017, leading to the death of eight workers. The test drilling forms part of its strategic investment plan to study the feasibility of resuming production at the mine. The earliest that the Mir underground mine could reopen will be in 2030, the company has pointed out. Experts from Alrosa’s Vilyui Exploration Expedition will start studies at 1 200 m to 1 600 m below the surface. Читать дальше...

A feasibility study into the Honeymoon uranium project, in South Australia, has estimated that a capital investment of $63.2-million would be required to restart the operation. ASX-listed Boss Resources said that the feasibility study base case had been limited to the restart area only, which comprised 36-million pounds of Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource.

Russian steel and coal producer Mechel has decided not to buy back a stake in its biggest asset, the Elga coal mine in Russia's far east, from its creditor Gazprombank, which has held the stake since 2016, said on Tuesday. Mechel is engaged in talks with its creditors about restructuring $6-billion in loans.

The board of ASX-listed Deep Yellow has green-lit a prefeasibility study on the Tumas uranium project, in Namibia, following a positive scoping study. The scoping study, which focused on the Reptile project’s Tumas palaeochannel calcrete deposits, focused on openpit mining and a purpose-built processing facility.

ASX-listed mining services provider MACA on Tuesday announced plans to cease operations in Brazil, effective from this month, following the early termination of a contract with a subsidiary of ASX-listed Oz Minerals. MACA’s contract with Oz Minerals at its Antas copper mine, was due to conclude in 2020.

Anglo American's plan to buy a giant potash project overlooking England’s North Sea is a bittersweet twist for local residents. The deal will ensure billions of dollars of investment in the downtrodden region of North Yorkshire. But people like Neil Trillo, one of the thousands who bought shares in project owner Sirius Minerals before it ran out of money, have been left counting their losses. “It was a bit of a local dream,” Trillo said from behind the counter of his coffee stand in the seaside town Whitby. Читать дальше...

Diversified giant BHP on Tuesday maintained its production expectations for the 2020 financial year, with CEO Mike Henry saying that production would be slightly higher than the 2019 financial year. “We delivered solid operational performance across the portfolio in the first half of the 2020 financial year, offsetting the expected impacts of planned maintenance and natural field decline.