Новости за 04.10.2022

Canadian miner Equinox Gold has achieved commercial production at its Santa Luz mine, in Brazil. “Santa Luz is our fourth operating mine in Brazil and represents 100,000 ounces of average annual production with mine life extension potential from near-mine surface targets, an underground deposit, and additional opportunities in the 70-km-long mineralized greenstone belt that hosts our Santa Luz and Fazenda mines,” said president and CEO Greg Smith on Tuesday.

Supervisors at Antofagasta Minerals' Los Pelambres copper mine in Chile expect to reach a new contract agreement in a mandatory mediation process with the company, which is set to begin later this week to avoid a strike at the site, a union head said on Tuesday. Last week, 94% of union members voted in favor of a walk-off after failing to reach an agreement in the formal negotiation period. Local legislation, however, requires a five-day government-led mediation, which can be extended to 10 days.

Despite a 52% increase in production and a 74% increase in sales for the six months to June 30, JSE-, ZSE- and LSE-listed Zimbabwe-based coal miner Hwange Colliery made a Z$3.97-billion loss in inflation-adjusted terms in the period – a 356% increase year-on-year. For the six months to June 30, 2021, the miner made a loss of Z$870 715.

NYSE-listed Mosaic expects its full-year production to fall by between 200 000 t and 250 000 t, after Hurricane Ian caused modest damage to its facilities and supporting infrastructure in Florida. Repairs will be completed over the next one to two weeks, the company said on Monday.

TSX-V-listed Deep-South Resources announces that the High Court of Namibia’s hearing of the review of the Minister’s decision not to renew the exploration and prospecting licence for the Haib copper project was held on October 3, and the judge indicated that a written judgment is to be expected on November 18. Mining Weekly previously reported that the matter relates to the renewal of the exclusive prospecting licence 3140 covering Haib, in southern Namibia, which was refused by Namibia Mines and Energy Minister Tom Alweendo in June 2021.

Africa-focused mining investment company Marula Mining has entered into a binding heads of agreement with Tanzanian mining company Takela Mining Tanzania and has secured a 49% commercial interest in the Kinusi copper mining project, which comprises ten granted copper mining licences. The signing of the agreement with Takela follows a detailed legal and technical due diligence process and site visits to inspect the licence areas, the existing small-scale mining operations and initial sampling of some... Читать дальше...

London-listed Antofagasta will lower its 2023 production guidance when it reports its third-quarter results later this month, following a delay in the completion of the desalination plant project, which is key to water availability at the Los Pelambres mine in Chile. Marine construction work on the desalination plant project was halted in September, after severe sea swells overturned a construction platform the previous month. The environmental regulator ordered the suspension of work pending the recover of the lost equipment and materials.

South Africa’s mining sector will be required to make major investments into alternative and renewable energy sources and energy planning to address the dual challenges of decarbonisation and reliable power supply, PwC said on Tuesday when it launched its SA Mine report, which highlights mining’s sterling 2022 financial performance of distributing R190-billion to shareholders, growing capital expenditure by 36% and paying 14% more in taxes. The statistic that less than 5% of the total energy consumed... Читать дальше...

Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe on Tuesday warned that the need to transition to low-carbon energy sources sat “uncomfortably” with energy poverty in Africa. He did so in his keynote address at the Africa Oil Week 2022 conference in Cape Town. He pointed out that while Africa was under pressure to decarbonise fast, many people in Africa still had no access to electricity. And, even those who did have access, as in South Africa, now had to minimise their electricity consumption due to rising electricity costs. Читать дальше...

JSE-listed Merafe Resources reports that the European benchmark ferrochrome price for the fourth quarter has been settled at $1.49/lb. This represents a 17.2% decrease from the benchmark price of $1.80/lb in the third quarter.

Australia's Nickel Industries on Monday forecast a slump in its quarterly operating earnings due to weakening nickel pig iron prices and said it would transition one of its Indonesian projects to a low-grade ore of the battery metal. Nickel Industries said it expects third-quarter earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) to come in between $52-million and $55-million, a massive drop from the $103.2-million posted in the second quarter.

BHP Group expects to receive three more bulk carriers powered partly by liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the next six to nine months, part of the company's plans to cut emissions from shipping, a senior executive said. BHP, which received its first two LNG-fuelled vessels earlier this year, has locked in some term supplies of LNG buffering the company from volatile prices and is studying the potential for biofuels, Fergus Eley, BHP's Head of Maritime Enterprise, told Reuters on the sidelines of the... Читать дальше...

Junior Alpha HPA has started commissioning of Stage 1 of its HPA First project, in Queensland. The Stage 1 precursor production facility (PPF) has now started commissioning ahead of production of HPA’s high purity aluminium precursors, slated for the December quarter of this year.

TSX-V-listed Silver Bullet Mines (SBMI) has made a surprise discovery of significant quantities of palladium and gold in the mineralised material from its Buckeye silver mine, in Arizona, which CEO John Carter says could be a “game changer” for the company. The gold and palladium were discovered after SBMI initially processed about 60 t of Buckeye material at its 100%-owned mill, and then encountered challenges in pouring proper silver dore bars to satisfy the outstanding sample run order.

Diversified mining company Anglo American, in partnership with EDF Renewables, on Tuesday announced an agreement to form a new jointly owned company, Envusa Energy, to develop a regional renewable energy ecosystem in South Africa. The energy ecosystem is expected to catalyse economic activity in South Africa's renewable energy sector, supporting the country's broader just energy transition. It follows the two companies signing a memorandum of understanding in March to explore the ecosystem's development... Читать дальше...

The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) has called for additional price risk management measures to be included in any changes to the safeguard mechanism to prevent excessive costs, damaging volatility or predatory price speculation and other forms of behaviour that would cost jobs and exports in Australia’s mining industry. The safeguard mechanism requires Australia’s largest greenhouse gas emitters to keep their net emissions below an emissions limit, and built on the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting scheme’s requirements.

Diversified miner BHP has made the case that steel, and in effect iron-ore, should also be classified as a critical mineral given it was essential for the decarbonation of power. Speaking at an investor day, BHP’s VP for market analysis and economics, Dr Huw McKay noted that power generation currently provided less than 2% of global steel demand.

Australia’s resources and energy exports are forecast to reach a record A$450b-illion in 2022-23, with the export of battery metals, including copper, nickel and lithium, expected to more than double on the 2020-21 earnings. In the latest Resources and Energy Quarterly, the Office of the Chief Economist has forecast that the current surge in the resource and energy export earnings has been driven by a spike in energy prices and the Australian dollar weakness against the US dollar.

US-based mining major Freeport-McMoRan has acquired an exclusive right and option to acquire up to an 80% interest in Canadian private company Falcon Butte Minerals’ Butte Valley copper project, in the White Pine county, Nevada. Under the terms of the agreement, announced by Falcon Butte, Freeport ha to sole fund $33-million in exploration expenditures in two stages.

US coal prices surged past $200 for the first time as a global energy crunch drives up demand for the dirtiest fossil fuel. Spot prices for coal from Central Appalachia rose to $204.95 a ton for the week ending September 30, the highest in records dating to 2005, according to data released Monday by the US Energy Information Administration.

Potash development company Brazil Potash has signed several agreements with Amaggi, one of the world’s biggest privately held soyabean producers, for the offtake, marketing and barge transportation of its production from the Phase 1 Autazes mine. The contracts are for 2.4-million tonnes a year of potash, over a 15- to 17-year term with a mutual option to extend.

South32 aims to accelerate development of the first new US manganese mine for decades as carmakers rush to secure supply of the metal needed in electric vehicle batteries. Automakers are “super keen” to secure supply from the company’s Clark Deposit in Arizona, which would become the only local source of the metal, CEO Graham Kerr said in an interview. “Probably the bigger challenge is can we get it to them quick enough?”