Новости за 17.10.2018

The Chilean government said on Wednesday it would seek international arbitration over what it alleged was the failure of lithium miner Albemarle Corp to adhere to the terms of a contract drawn up in 2016. The State development agency Corfo said Albemarle had failed to reply to an agreement to supply a preferential price offer for as much of 25 per cent of its annual production to companies seeking to produce battery materials within Chile.

An investor in Hudbay Minerals wants to meet with the Toronto miner to discuss replacing members of its board, as well as to seek assurances it won’t pursue acquisitions or joint venture without consulting shareholders, according to a person familiar with the matter. Waterton Global Resource Management has expressed its concerns to Hudbay chairman Alan Hibben, telling him that it would reserve the right to do anything it deemed necessary to improve the company’s performance, said the person, who... Читать дальше...

Aim-listed Vast Resources, together with Botswana Diamonds (BOD), have received an independent competent person’s preliminary geological assessment relating to the Heritage concession within the Marange diamond fields of Zimbabwe, in which specific exploration recommendations were made. As announced on October 4, BOD has entered an agreement with Vast under which BOD will be engaged in due diligence, exploration, mining and marketing on the Heritage concession.

AltX- and Aim-listed Jubilee Metals has seen a growing demand from both small and global mining companies wanting to work with Jubilee to access the metals available in mine waste, CEO Leon Coetzer said on Wednesday. This statement comes amid the diversified metals recovery company having reported another solid performance for the third quarter of this year.

Alcoa said on Wednesday it would close two of its three aluminium plants in Spain with a combined annual production of 180 000 metric tonnes, resulting in the lay off of almost 700 workers. The Aviles and La Coruna plants were two of the least productive due to intrinsic structural problems such as inefficient technology and high fixed costs, Alcoa said in a statement.

London-listed Hochschild has raised its production target from 38-million ounces to 38.5-million ounces of silver equivalent, following a record nine-month performance. The miner, which operates three mines in Peru and one in Argentina, reported attributable nine-month production of 29.5-million ounces of silver equivalent, comprising 14.73-million ounces of silver and 199 939 oz of gold.

Passing strident strictures on Coal India Limited (CIL) for failing to effectively review production and supplies, the Coal Ministry has directed the miner to immediately start liquidating coal stockpiles to mitigate shortages at power plants across the country. The Coal Ministry, in a rare strongly worded rap on the miner, said that despite the end of the rainy season and despite repeated reminders, CIL had not been able to step up production or offtake to desired levels.

Indian potash import prices have surged 21% to about $290/t for deliveries contracted between September 2018 and July 2019. Importers have warned that higher prices, coupled with a sharp depreciation of the Indian rupee below the Rs73 a dollar mark, would sharply increase the landed price of potash and higher retail price ahead of the new crop sowing season between October and March.

Foundry and engineering company Thos Begbie is working in the Great Dyke of Zimbabwe, close to the town of Shurungwi, where it is helping to construct the Unki platinum smelter, adjacent to a mining operation owned by platinum mining company Anglo American Platinum (Amplats). Thos Begbie was awarded the contract for the new smelter last year by Amplats, owing to a government regulation set out in 2015, which replaces the Mines and Minerals Act of 1963, restricting the exportation of raw minerals from Zimbabwe. Читать дальше...

The stock of triple listed Berkeley Energia plunged on Wednesday, after news reports that the Spanish government has decided not to issue the permits needed for its Salamanca uranium mine. Berkley, which on Monday alerted investors to a delay in receiving an urbanisation licence, traded nearly 30% down on the ASX on Wednesday at A$0.34 a share and fell 45% on the main market of the LSE to 14.25p a share.

Copper/gold producer Oz Minerals has reported an increase on copper production for the three months to September, following the addition o f the Antas copper project, in Brazil. Copper production in the September quarter was up to 31 919 t, up from the 27 131 t produced in the previous quarter, with the Prominent Hill operation, in South Australia, while a further 3 004 t of copper was produced from the Antas operation.

A soil sampling programme has started at a copper/cobalt licence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) owned by Aim-listed natural resources development company Red Rock Resources. The licence was recently acquired from a private seller.

Diversified giant BHP has reported increases in copper and iron-ore production during the three months to September, while petroleum and coal production fell. Iron-ore production for the three months to September was up by 10% on the previous corresponding period, to 61-million tonnes of ore, with record quarterly production reported from the Jimblebar mine, in the Pilbara, while port operations and rail network reliability in the region also improved.

Samarco, a joint mining venture between Brazil's Vale and BHP Billiton, could resume production at a third of its capacity at the beginning of 2020, Vale's CEO said on Tuesday. Samarco halted operations in late 2015 after one of its dams collapsed, killing 19 people and causing one of Brazil's worst ever environmental disasters. The incident happened when the dam, designed to hold back mine waste from the Samarco iron pellets operation in Mariana, burst and unleashed a trail of destruction across... Читать дальше...

Freeport-McMoRan’s annual LME Week party is usually an opportunity for CEO Richard Adkerson to hobnob with the traders and consumers who buy copper from his mining company. At this year’s event, he was surrounded by investment bankers. With its biggest stock overhang – a deal around its flagship asset in Indonesia – close to being solved, the miner has said all options are open, even potentially a sale of the entire company. The comments will have everyone running the numbers. The question is, who would want to buy it?

Chile's State copper miner, Codelco, has submitted an environmental impact assessment of its plans to overhaul its aging Salvador deposit that would sharply increase its production and extend its life by 40 years. The Rajo Inca project would convert the existing mine, which has been in operation since 1959 and is due to run dry in its current state in 2021, to an opencast mine from an underground one.