Новости за 28.02.2020

State-miner Coal India Limited’s (CIL’s) planned investment in overseas coal assets is facing stiff speed-breakers, with global merchant bankers unwilling to take up an advisory and due diligence mandate of so-called ‘dirty fuel’. Last year, the miner floated a tender to appoint merchant bankers to act as financial advisers and conduct due diligence for its targeted acquisition of interests in coal blocks in Australia, Russia and Canada. However, it has been unable to conclude an agreement, against... Читать дальше...

NYSE-listed Arch Coal on Friday announced that COO Paul Lang would succeed John Eaves on April 30, when he becomes the chairperson of the coal company’s board of directors. James Chapman, who has served as Arch's board chair since the company completed its restructuring process in October 2016, will transition to lead independent director at that time.

JSE- and NYSE-listed Sibanye-Stillwater on Friday changed its NYSE ticker symbol from SBGL to SBSW following a recent internal restructuring and name change. To mark this transformational moment in the company’s history, the company’s executives rang the stock exchange’s closing bell.

Zambia’s Maamba Collieries has relocated water pumps to a new location in the Kariba lake, to provide water for the boilers of its 300 MW coal-fired power plant. The company said in a release on Friday that this was necessitated by falling water levels in the Kariba lake.

Indonesia aims to issue around late next month a regulation governing selling prices of nickel ore, a Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources official said on Friday, following complaints by miners. The rules are aimed at preventing local smelting companies from buying ore at price level that are too low. A monthly metal benchmark price set by the ministry will be used as floor price for nickel ore transactions under the new rules, said Yunus Saefulhak, the ministry's Director of Minerals.

Uranium company Paladin Energy has widened its net loss during the six months ended December, as operations at its Langer Heinrich project, in Namibia, remained suspended. Net loss for the six months to December increased to $19.4-million, compared with a loss of $18.3-million in the previous corresponding period, while zero revenue was reported, compared with the $21.4-million in the first half of 2019.

Brazilian mining company Vale said on Thursday it has begun preparations for a potential fuel leak from the damaged iron-ore carrier MV Stellar Banner, which is stranded off the Brazilian northern coast. Vale said in a statement it requested that oil company Petrobras appropriate ships to deal with the possible leak and has arranged for the dispatch of oceanic buoys to the area.

Declining coal prices has seen South Africa-focused coal miner Universal Coal report a 76% decline in operating profits for the half year ended December, while net profits after tax fell by 95% compared with the previous corresponding period. Universal on Friday reported a 34% increase in run-of-mine coal for the period, with the inclusion of the North Block Complex (NBC) during the period under review. Run-of-mine production for the interim period was reported at 5.4-million tonnes.

The earnings of black-owned diversified mining company African Rainbow Minerals ARM were buoyed in the six months to December 31 by soaring platinum earnings, which helped to offset lower manganese metals and thermal coal prices. ARM Platinum’s half-year headline earnings rocketed 193% to R489-million and along with higher iron-ore prices shielded the JSE-listed ARM group from the decline in the prices of manganese ore, manganese alloy and coal. The company, headed by executive chairperson Patrice Motsepe... Читать дальше...

Junior mineral explorer American Battery Metal has signed a nonbinding letter of intent (LoI) to buy a private Canadian gold company, which has exploration assets in one of the most prolific gold producing regions of Colombia. Fenix’s flagship property, the Abriaqui project, is the nearest gold exploration project to Continental Gold's Buritica mine. Abriaqui is a drill-ready advanced exploration project that shares many geological similarities with Buritica. American Battery notes that Abriaqui... Читать дальше...

Apart from the generational shifts in attitude towards gold in some key markets, notably China, a bigger risk facing the gold industry is its perception by society and how it responds and adapts to societal expectations, says international association World Gold Council (WGC) member and market relations director John Mulligan.  “This perception is also increasingly reshaping investment decisions,” he comments.

The various proverbial “elephants in the room” of the South African mining sector were not addressed by Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe when he delivered his speech at the 2020 Investing in African Mining Indaba earlier this month, says law firm Herbert Smith Freehills partner Peter Leon. At a media briefing held by the firm on February 3, Leon did, notwithstanding, commend the Minister for broaching the energy crisis South Africa faces, owing to the existential situation of State-owned power utility Eskom.

As the mining industry is continuously striving for sustainable extraction – and with high electricity costs and environmental impact as key factors – power provider Aggreko has seen increased interest in its hybrid energy microgrids, says Aggreko Africa MD John Lewis. Since launching the offering in 2017, Aggreko has signed three long-term hybrid power contracts – two in Africa and one in Australia, all for off-grid gold mines, he adds.

Last year Angola sold just over 9.44-million carats of diamonds, earning $1.299-billion, the National Diamond Commercialisation Company of Angola (Empresa Nacional de Comercialização de Angola) – better known as Sodiam – has reported. This represented a year-on-year increase of 12.3% in production and of 6.2% in revenues.