Новости за 15.06.2022

The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) has published an ambitious new strategy for the next three years, which doubles down on the organisation’s spirit of partnership and collaboration. The ‘Strategy and Action Plan 2022 – 2024’ aims to make breakthrough progress on four key areas: environmental resilience, social performance, governance and transparency, and innovation – in pursuit of a safe and sustainable world, enabled by responsibly produced metals and minerals.

JSE- and TSX-V-listed coal miner Buffalo Coal reports that Belvedere Resources has acquired, from Resource Capital Fund, 347.94-million common shares – totalling $540 000 at $0.001552 apiece – in the capital of Buffalo Coal on June 14. Buffalo Coal holds a majority interest in two South African operating mines through its 100% interest in Buffalo Coal Dundee – a South African company which has a 70% interest in Zinoju.

Zambian mining investment firm ZCCM-IH has hired investment bank Rothschild & Co for a strategic review of Mopani Copper Mines "to ensure its sustainability and continued development", the state-owned company said on Wednesday. In April, ZCCM-IH said it was seeking a financial adviser to restructure Mopani and help find a new external investor for the mining complex, which Glencore had sold back to the state in January last year.

Although the world’s top 40 mining companies demonstrated stellar financial results in 2021, it is unclear how long this record run can continue, since the industry is experiencing unprecedented change, says PwC. The enterprise services and advisory company finds in its ‘Mine 2022’ report that the net profits of the top 40 mining companies globally rose by 127% in 2021, while market capitalisation grew by 7%.

Aim-listed gold and copper explorer and developer Kefi Minerals remains on track with the development of multi-party project financing activities and the early development works of its Tulu Kapi Gold Mines Share Company joint venture project in Ethiopia. Kefi has maintained the full funding syndicate for the Tulu Kapi project and plans to sign the funding umbrella agreement this month to demonstrate the full funding commitment, in particular to the Ethiopian Ministry of Mines.

London-listed Arc Minerals has started a maiden exploration programme at the prospective Virgo copper/gold project, in Botswana. The first step of the programme involves soil geochemistry surveying, which will be followed by drilling.

Iron-ore major Fortescue Metals has partnered with multi-national equipment manufacturer Liebherr for the development of green mining haul trucks. The trucks will be integrated with for the zero emission power system technologies being developed by Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) and Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE).

The Supreme Court of Western Australia has called on ASX-listed Vimy Resources to call a shareholder meeting to vote on the proposed A$658-million merger agreement with fellow-listed Deep Yellow. The two companies in April announced the merger agreement under which Deep Yellow would acquire all of the shares in ASX-listed Vimy, with Vimy shareholders to receive 0.294 Deep Yellow shares for every Vimy share held.

London-listed Antofagasta has started repairs to the concentrate pipeline at Los Pelambres, in Chile, with access restrictions partially eased. The copper miner said on Wednesday that the pipeline should be back in operation by the end of the month.

ASX-listed Pacific Nickel has struck a non-binding indicative term sheet with diversified major Glencore for a three-year, $22-million pre-export finance facility, along with a four-year offtake arrangement for all of the production from the Kolosori nickel project, in the Solomon Islands. The offtake agreement could be extended by a further two years, by mutual agreement. The offtake pricing will be linked to market prices, and subject to standard commercial adjustments for product quality.

The United States, Canada and other countries have established a new partnership aimed at securing the supply of critical minerals, which are essential for clean energy and other technologies, as global demand for them rises, the State Department said on Tuesday. Demand for the minerals, such as nickel, lithium and cobalt, is projected to expand significantly in the coming decades.

Workers at Chilean state-owned Codelco, the world's largest copper producer, threatened on Tuesday to go on a company-wide strike due to a lack of investment at the mining firm's troubled Ventanas smelter and refinery. Codelco said last week it paused operations at its Ventanas smelter and refinery to carry out maintenance after authorities declared an environmental emergency in the region earlier in the week.

This week: Circular economy prompting steel, oil, carbon recovery from end-of-life mine truck tyres; Increased efficiency cuts carbon, advances net-zero path, research finds; and, JSE recounts rousing tent-to-tech journey as Southern Palladium turns listing tide

Newly appointed federal Resources Minister Madeleine King is facing backlash following her support of oil and gas major Santo’s controversial Narrabri gas development. In an interview with the Herald and The Age, King was quoted as saying that ‘critics of the project should accept the need for gas as part of the transition from coal to renewable energy’.

The Western Australian government on Wednesday announced the phasing-out of coal fired power generation, with all of the state-owned coal-fired power stations to retire by 2030. The state government said that the continued uptake of rooftop solar and renewable energy has forced changes to the energy system, to ensure a secure electricity supply and guard against higher power bills.

Energy major BP will acquire a 40.5% equity stake, and become operator of the Asian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH), in Western Australia, which has the potential to be one of the largest renewables and green hydrogen hubs in the world. AREH, in the Pilbara, intends to supply renewable power to local customers in the largest mining region in the world and also produce green hydrogen and green ammonia for the domestic Australian market and export to major international users.

Diversified miner Rio Tinto has delivered first ore from the $3.1-billion Gudai-Darri iron-ore mine, bringing online its first greenfield mine in the Pilbara, in more than a decade. Production from the mine will continue to ramp up through the remainder of this year and is expected to reach full capacity during 2023.