The prospect of low taxes and cheap labour have made Vanuatu an attractive option for a Chinese-backed joint venture hoping to build a huge nickel smelter.
If approved, the New Caledonian mining company MKM and Jin Pei of China will ship nickel ore from New Caledonia to a US$1 billion smelter to be built on Santo.
Read more at: http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/256175/debate-over-$1b-vanuatu-nickel-plant
Diversified miner Aneka Tambang (Antam) announced on Friday that it had commissioned several facilities in its Pomalaa ferronickel plant expansion project, saying that the project has been running according to the company schedule.
Read more at: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/10/04/antam-commissions-facilities-pomalaa-ferronickel-plant.html
Former Barrick Gold Corp. chief executive Aaron Regent is back in the mining business.
Mr. Regent’s private equity firm has teamed up with Asian investors to buy Iamgold Corp.’s niobium mine and rare earth deposit in Quebec for $530-million (U.S.) in cash.
Mongolia’s economy subsequently would increasingly turn its untouched mineral riches, close to both industrialized Russia and resource hungry China. The nation is essentially empty, with its 2.8 million citizens producing an average population density of just over 1 person per sq. km., one of the lowest rates in the world. Mongolia’s mining sector has some of the world’s richest deposits of gold and copper, uranium, coal, fluorspar as well as rare earth elements (RREs) such as tantalum, niobium, thorium, yttrium and zircon. According to a 2009 estimation by the U.S. Geological Survey, Mongolia has 31 million tons of rare earth reserves, or 16.77 percent of the world’s total, exceeded only by China.
Read more at: http://www.silkroadreporters.com/2014/10/03/mongolias-mining-boom-environmental-costs/
The Tesla deal, negotiated by Sandoval in hope of bringing as many as 22,000 jobs to the state, includes a $5 billion factory to produce lithium ion batteries for electric cars. Tesla alone may employ 6,500 people at the new plant, 20 miles east of Reno. In the past three years, 50 companies have moved to the area, helping cut unemployment in half and restoring some life to a town that calls itself “The Biggest Little City in the World” but is littered with aging casinos and seedy bars.
Read more at: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-tesla-factory-near-reno-is-bet-old-nevada-will-meet-the-new–2014-10
TORONTO – Iamgold Corp. (TSX:IMG) will sell its Niobec mine in Quebec for about US$500 million to a group led by Aaron Regent, a veteran mining executive who has previously been CEO of two major Canadian companies — Barrick Gold (TSX:ABX) and Falconbridge, a copper and nickel producer that was later sold to Xtrata.
Regent now heads Magris Resources, a Toronto-based company that has partnered on the Niobec deal with Hong Kong-based CEF Holdings Ltd (CEF) and Temasek, a Singapore-based investment manager.
Analysts polled by Reuters in July still expected the nickel market to swing into a 99,000 tonne deficit next year.
“The run in nickel prices was never about a shortage of metal, it was about a shortage of ore. And nickel metal just isn’t a good replacement for the low-quality ore that NPI producers in China need,” said analyst Joel Crane of Morgan Stanley in Melbourne.
Indonesia’s nascent nickel pig iron industry is not expected to be in full swing until at least late 2016.
Analysts estimate that China’s mills have enough stockpiles to last until the middle of 2015, as they have boosted imports of Philippine ore – up 26 percent in the January-August period to more than 22 million tonnes.
Although U.K-based precision measurement company Renishaw only recently became involved in 3D printing, management is optimistic about its future growth prospects. Throughout its 2014 annual report, Renishaw highlighted that it experienced strong demand and growing interest from its two laser melting metal 3D printers, the AM125 and AM250.
In the following video, 3D printing specialist Steve Heller and industrials analyst Blake Bos discuss Renishaw’s AM250 metal 3D printer relative to the competition, and also weigh in on an unconfirmed rumor they learned about while attending The Big M manufacturing conference in Detroit.
Read more at: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/09/30/1-metal-3d-printing-company-that-3d-systems-corpor.aspx
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Mining giant BHP Billiton on Wednesday welcomed a decision by the New South Wales Planning Assessment Commission (PAC) to approve a modified extension of the existing Mt Arthur opencut operation.
The extension would see BHP extract an addition 128-million tonnes of run-of-mine coal from the Mt Arthur operation, extending the mine life by four years, to 2026. Mining at the Mt Arthur operation would continue at a steady pace, with the project operating at its currently approved maximum rate of 32-million tonnes a year.
Read more at: http://www.miningweekly.com/article/nsw-commission-approves-bhp-coal-extension-project-2014-10-01
Gold Coast, Queensland (Platts)–1Oct2014/147 am EDT/547 GMT
Australian nickel producer Mincor Resources expects the nickel market to perform strongly in 2015 and move back above the $20,000/mt level as demand is boosted by a booming US economy and a stock drawdown in China, company CEO David Moore told a conference in Queensland Wednesday, October 1.
The LME nickel price stood at $16,505/mt Tuesday, but has largely traded in the range of $18,200-20,000/mt since Indonesia imposed a ban on nickel laterite ore exports in January, hitting a year-to-date peak of $21,500/mt in early May, LME data showed.
Read more at: http://www.platts.com/latest-news/metals/goldcoast-queensland/mincor-ceo-sees-strong-nickel-market-in-2015-27682506
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