Новости за 02.09.2020

This week: Third of Master Drilling’s labour force let go; Master Drilling aligning with opencast mines going underground in changing world; and, Sibanye prides itself in having the 'rock star' metals of the moment

Coal India reported the first increase in monthly shipments since February, after demand for the fuel picked up with easing of restrictions aimed at controlling the coronavirus pandemic. The company shipped 44.34-million tons of coal in August, 9.3% more than a year earlier. Output rose 7% to 37.2-millions tons, the first increase in five months, company filing shows. The demand for electricity has been rising since offices, factories and other commercial establishments resumed work after weeks of strict lockdown... Читать дальше...

With the push for hydrogen as a clean source of energy gathering pace in Europe, one of the region’s biggest utilities cautioned that it’ll be another decade before the fuel is profitable. “It will take 10 to 15 years until this business can yield decent results,” Anja-Isabel Dotzenrath, CEO of RWE AG’s renewables unit, said in an interview. “However, it’s an attractive long-term growth area for RWE.” While green hydrogen -- made from renewable power sources -- is increasingly seen as one of the... Читать дальше...

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer unpacks dealing with mine dumps to cut down commute time in Johannesburg, linking tax laws to job creation and Rhodium being "metal of the decade".

ASX-listed King Island Scheelite has inked an offtake agreement with Kalon Resources to supply 1 500 t/y of tungsten concentrate from its Dolphin mine, in Tasmania. The offtake contract would run for an initial three year period, and represents around 50% of the expected annual production from the Dolphin project.

Aim-listed diamond miner BlueRock Diamonds has sold 3 805 ct of diamonds at an average price of $330/ct for an aggregate consideration of $1.2-million. BlueRock’s flagship project is the Kareevlei diamond mine, in South Africa.

A revised remuneration structure has been agreed to with base metals developer Orion Minerals’ MD and CEO Errol Smart. In April, the cash component of his package was reduced from $300 000/y to $257 600/y, as part of the dual-listed miner’s implementation of cost savings and asset preservation initiatives across its business owing to the impact of Covid-19.

Rio Tinto Exploration Canada (RTEC) has started drilling at TSX-V-listed Forum Energy Metals’s Janice Lake sedimentary copper/silver project, in northern Saskatchewan. A rotary air blast (RAB) drill is on site and has started investigating historic and newly mapped regional copper showings, as well as recently developed geophysical targets buried by overburden to help delineate the extent of the sedimentary-hosted copper/silver mineralisation over the 52 km length of the Janice Lake property.

Copper mining in Peru, the world's No. 2 producer, is almost completely recovered from the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, a government official said on Tuesday. Peru's copper production, however, fell 2.2% in July, compared with the same period a year earlier, to 198 796 tons, under the weight of the pandemic, which restricted mining, the vice minister of energy and mines, Jaime Galvez, said in a virtual conference. The Peruvian government decreed a quarantine due to the coronavirus in mid-March... Читать дальше...

Fitch has upgraded the credit rating of Brazilian miner Vale, saying the iron ore producer has lowered its chances of default after improving dam safety since a deadly disaster in 2019, the rating agency said in a note on Tuesday. The upgrade to "BBB" from "BBB-minus" applies to both foreign and local currency long-term issuer default ratings, Fitch said. The rating agency estimates Vale will distribute more than $2-billion in dividends this year. The miner had announced in July it would resume... Читать дальше...

Uranium developer Vimy Resources has had its environmental management plans for its Mulga Rock project, in Western Australia, approved. “We are very pleased to have achieved approval for all the condition environmental management plans (CEMPs), a significant milestone for Vimy and the development of the Mulga Rock project,” said CEO Mike Young. The Mulga Rock project will cost $255-million and is expected to produce 3.4-million pounds of uranium a year, over 15 years.

Major BHP on Wednesday announced plans to reduce emissions from electricity use at its Queensland coal mines by 50% by 2025, signing a renewable power purchasing agreement with Queensland’s state-owned clean energy generator and retailer CleanCo. The agreement will run for five years from January 2021, and would effectively displace an estimated 1.7-million tonnes of CO2e between 2021 and 2025, which the miner said was equivalent to the annual emissions of around 400 000 combustion engine cars.