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Over the past 12 months a series of deals has seen Chinese companies soak up surplus assets being offloaded by western companies or, more recently, step up their buying demands by launching unsolicited takeover offers.

The latest raid came on Tuesday when Guangdong Rising made a $1.4 billion, all-cash offer, for full control of the Australian-base copper producer, PanAust. That followed a similar $1.4 billion all-cash offer by China’s biggest steel-maker Baosteel, in conjunction with an Australian rail operator, Aurizon, for the iron ore project developer, Aquila Resources.

Read more at:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/timtreadgold/2014/05/16/western-investors-might-not-yet-have-redeveloped-an-appetite-for-resources-but-china-certainly-has/

May 16 (Reuters) – Global miner Vale late on Thursday submitted a report on an effluent spill at its nickel operations in New Caledonia to the local government, a government official said.

That was later than many observers had expected, possibly delaying the restart of operations closed after the spill last week, which helped send nickel prices soaring.

Read more at:  http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/16/new-calendonia-nickel-idUSL6N0O21MS20140516

Nickel’s roller-coaster ride this year isn’t over, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which expects the highest prices in two years to prompt expanded capacity for smelting and discourage purchases by steelmakers.

Prices plunged 11 percent the previous two days, and probably will fall 15 percent further in 12 months to $16,000 a metric ton, Goldman forecasts.

Read more at:  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-15/nickel-s-roller-coaster-plunge-isn-t-over-goldman-says.html

Vale Canada Limited’s Manitoba Operations has a green light from federal environmental officials on keeping its Thompson smelter and refinery open until the end of 2015.

Pending new federal sulphur dioxide (SO2) emission standards, pursuant to The Canada-Wide Acid Rain Strategy for Post-2000, set to come into effect in 2015, could have required a reduction in airborne emissions of approximately 88 per cent from current levels at the Thompson operation.

Read more at:  http://www.thompsoncitizen.net/article/20140514/THOMPSON0101/305149988/-1/thompson01/vale-could-keep-smelter-and-refinery-open-until-2019

China Hongqiao Group Ltd. (1378), the nation’s largest non-state aluminum producer, is in talks to buy a bauxite mine in Africa to secure raw material.

“We are looking to lock up resources in Africa and may make some concrete progress over the next six months,” Christine Wong, head of corporate finance, said in a phone interview from Hong Kong, without disclosing the target or the price. “We must take a controlling stake to make sure we have the offtake for more than 20 to 30 years.”

Read more at:  http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-05-14/china-hongqiao-eyes-african-bauxite-as-indonesia-supplies-dry-up

LONDON/SINGAPORE, May 14 (Reuters) – Nickel is likely to see a deeper retreat than Wednesday’s 5 percent fall, but it is also due to bounce back as long as top exporter Indonesia  keeps squeezing supply and stainless steel producers can absorb higher prices.

Nickel surged over 50 percent this year to touch a 27-month peak of $21,625 on Tuesday. That steep upward trajectory has raised worries that a wave of speculative buying is fuelling a financial bubble.

Read more at:  http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/14/nickel-outlook-idUSL6N0NZ54X20140514

Henkel operates worldwide with leading brands and technologies in three business areas: Laundry & Home Care, Beauty Care and Adhesive Technologies. Founded in 1876, Henkel holds globally leading market positions both in the consumer and industrial businesses with well-known brands such as Persil, Schwarzkopf and Loctite. Henkel employs about 47,000 people and reported sales of 16.4 billion euros and adjusted operating profit of 2.5 billion euros in fiscal 2013. Henkel’s preferred shares are listed in the German stock index DAX.

Read more at:  http://prnw.cbe.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/henkel-indonesia-a-strong-pillar-for-henkels-growth-in-emerging-markets-2.html

SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 13, 2014 – Applied Materials, Inc. today announced its Applied Endura(R) Volta(TM) CVD Cobalt system, the only tool capable of encapsulating copper interconnects in logic chips beyond the 28nm node by depositing precise, thin cobalt films. The two enabling applications, a conformal cobalt liner and a selective cobalt capping layer, provide complete enclosure of the copper lines, improving reliability by an order of magnitude. The introduction of cobalt as a superior metal encapsulation film marks the most significant materials change to the interconnect in over 15 years.

Read more at:  http://www.marketwatch.com/story/applied-materials-introduces-the-biggest-materials-change-to-interconnect-technology-in-15-years-2014-05-13?reflink=MW_news_stmp

SANTIAGO, Chile, May 13, 2014 – Li3 Energy, Inc.,  a US-listed and South America based global exploration company in the lithium and minerals sector, today announced that its CFO, Luis Santillana, will be presenting at the 6(th) Lithium Supply & Markets Conference at the InterContinental in Montreal, QB, Canada. The Company will present at 11:30am ET on Wednesday, May 21, 2014.

Read more at:  http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20140513-908398.html