Новости за 09.03.2022

Diversified miner Anglo American’s copper operations in Chile – the Los Bronces and El Soldado mines and the Chagres smelter – have been awarded the Copper Mark in recognition of responsible copper production practices. The Copper Mark framework has been developed to demonstrate the copper industry’s commitment to the green energy transition and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Indonesian coal miners are holding exploratory talks with buyers seeking alternatives to Russian coal, although some other countries may be better placed to supply the European market, a senior official of an industry association said on Wednesday. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has prompted buyers of Russian coal and gas to seek alternative power sources and has boosted the Indonesian coal benchmark price for March to $203.69 per tonne, the second-highest monthly price on record.

JSE-listed Wescoal Holdings' shareholders have voted in favour of the group’s proposed name change to Salungano Group. Based on the outcome of the vote, which received nearly 100% approval from Wescoal shareholders, the name change will go ahead. A finalisation announcement regarding the name change is expected on March 29, once the change has been registered with the Companies and Intellectual Properties Commission.

Trade union Solidarity said on March 9 that it would approach the Labour Court on an urgent basis to obtain an interdict against the lock-out of its members at diversified miner Sibanye-Stillwater’s South African gold mines. This comes after Solidarity members received a notice informing them that they would be locked out of the workplace despite Solidarity’s acceptance of Sibanye’s wage offer and Sibanye negotiators having allegedly given an undertaking to Solidarity that this would not happen.

TSX-V-listed Canada Nickel has announced a C$25-million bought-deal financing, which CEO Mark Selby says will provide the company with the flexibility to remain well-funded with a broader base of institutional shareholders to support the company as it continues to advance the Crawford project, in the Timmins-Cochrane camp. The underwriters have agreed to purchase for resale on a bough-deal basis, 4.03-million shares at C$3.10 each and 3.42-million shares as flow-through shares at C$3.65 each.

Diamond miner De Beers has earned revenue of $650-million from its second sales cycle this year. This follows the $660-million in revenue earned in the first cycle of the year and is an improvement on the $550-million of revenue earned in the second sales cycle of 2021.

French smelter Aluminium Dunkerque has signed a deal to source feedstock alumina from commodity trader Glencore, broadening its supply chain after previously buying only from Trafigura. The smelting firm has also signed a new deal to sell aluminium to Glencore, already a customer for its metal. The multi-year contracts, effective from 2023, come at a time of disruptions to exports of commodities such as alumina after Russia invaded Ukraine, a major producer.

Colombia's government has begun talks with the nation's coal producers to increase exports after requests for extra supplies by European, Central American and Caribbean countries, the minister of Mines and Energy Diego Mesa told Reuters on Tuesday, as global energy flows are disrupted by the crisis in Ukraine. Colombia's coal output was hit in 2020 by low demand and a long strike at a major mine. Energy producers in the country have been rushing to recover output since last year amid a rising need for fuels for power generation... Читать дальше...

Aim-listed tin miner AfriTin Mining has dual-listed its ordinary shares on the Namibia Stock Exchange (NSX), as of March 9. “This is an important milestone for the company, which cements our commitment to developing Namibia and its capital markets further,” said AfriTin CEO Anthony Viljoen on the day of the listing.

The uptake in renewable energy could see gas demand from Australia’s East Coast decline by some 60% in 2050, depending on the pace of the energy transition, said advisory firm Wood Makenzie (Woodmac) this week. Woodmac noted that Eastern Australia’s gas demand has dropped in recent years, partly due to the pandemic, but primarily as rapid growth in renewable energy displaces fossil fuel-based power generation.

Independent power producer Zenith Energy has inked an ecosystem framework agreement-deployment (ESAD) with Sydney-based clean technology innovator 5B, that could result in renewable energy penetration increasing on mine sites in the Goldfields and the Pilbara. The ESAD would permit Zenith to deploy 5B’s Maverick system, which is a prefabricated solar array, allowing for rapid deployment and increasing Zenith’s ability to expand renewable assets across sites.

Uranium developer Vimy Resources is hoping to raise A$17-million through a share placement to institutional and sophisticated investors, to fund a bankable feasibility study (BFS) for its Mulga Rock project, and to fund drilling at Alligator River. The ASX-listed Vimy will issue 100-mililon shares, at a price of 17c each under the company’s existing placement capacity, with the offer price representing a 24.4% discount to Vimy’s last closing price, and an 11.3% discount to the company’s 15-day volume weighted average share price.

Green energy developer Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) and aeronautics major Airbus have joined forces to enable the aviation industry to decarbonise through zero-emissions green hydrogen. FFI and Airbus have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that would allow both companies to collaborate closely, as one focused taskforce, to implement green hydrogen as a fuel within the aviation industry.

Oil and gas major Santos on Wednesday announced that it had entered the front-end engineering and design (FEED) phase for the proposed Bayu-Undan carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, in Timor-Leste. The Bayu-Undan CCS project could potentially safely and permanently store up to 10-million tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum, equivalent to about 1.5% of Australia’s carbon emissions each year.

The platinum surplus in 2021 is forecast to reduce by 47% in 2022 as Covid-related and operational disruptions gradually settle, the World Platinum Investment Council (WPIC) states in its Platinum Quarterly. Covering the fourth quarter of 2021, along with a full year review of 2021 and revised forecast for 2022, the WPIC's Platinum Quarterly states that Covid--related factors and operational disruptions played out particularly during the second half of 2021, having a huge impact on both the supply of and demand for platinum. Читать дальше...

US President Joe Biden's ban on American imports of Russian oil and other energy products, announced on Tuesday, does not include a ban on imports of uranium for nuclear power plants, a source familiar with the matter said. The US power industry relies on Russia and its allies Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan for roughly half of the uranium powering its nuclear power plants. The industry has been lobbying the White House to continue to allow uranium imports from Russia despite Moscow's invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.