A Blog for Browsing Mining, Mineral Processing, and Metals Info

It’s been just over a year since diversified mining majors BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto appointed new CEOs to navigate the companies out of the mining investment boom and into a cost rationalisation era.

Both Rio’s Sam Walsh and BHP’s Andrew Mackenzie took office with a game plan to rip out a combined $10 billion in costs across global operations over two years.

Read more at: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/rio-is-beating-bhp-in-the-cost-cutting-race-between-australias-mining-giants-2014-3

SYDNEY, March 13 (Xinhua) — The government of Western Australia (WA) has approved plans by Rio Tinto to increase production at two of its Pilbara iron ore operations, WA Premier and State Development Minster Colin Barnett announced on Thursday.

The approval has cleared the way for the creation of more than 760 new jobs in the Pilbara region, the premier said.

Read more at: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=206359

Santo Domingo.- The Superior Arbitration Court (TSA) on Wednesday ordered all government agencies to immediate halt any effort or authorization involving mining at Loma Miranda.

It also set the hearing on an injunction sought by the plaintiffs against the Senate, the Environment Ministry and the Mining Agency for April 2, to halt the exploitation of Loma Miranda, and subpoenaed Xstrata Nickel Falcondo to appear in court.

The Justice and Transparency Foundation (FJT), which filed the request for the injunction, called the Court ruling respectful of the constitutional right to a healthy environment.

Read more at: http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/economy/2014/3/12/50835/Dominican-Repcourt-deals-Xstrata-Nickel-mine-a-major-setback

(Reuters) – Indonesia’s next president is unlikely to make major changes to the country’s controversial mining rules, after major political parties backed an export ban that has led miners to halt $6 billion in annual mineral exports.

The broad political support will disappoint miners, like Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, Newmont Mining Corp , that may have been hoping the tough new rules were only temporary measures imposed by a lame duck administration.

Political parties representing presidential front runners for the July election told Reuters they support the current government’s moves to ban mineral exports and tax concentrate shipments, aimed at forcing miners to build smelters in Indonesia.

Read more at: http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/03/12/indonesia-minerals-elections-idINL3N0M81A520140312

 

 

 

(Reuters) – U.S. mining giant Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc has cut production at its Indonesian copper and gold mine by around 60 percent, a union official told Reuters on Tuesday, two months after halting exports over a dispute with the government on a new export tax.

Freeport and fellow U.S. miner Newmont Mining Corp have refused to pay an escalating export tax introduced on Jan. 12 as part of package of new mining rules aimed at forcing miners to build smelters and process raw materials in Indonesia.

Read more at

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/11/indonesia-freeport-exports-idUSL3N0M817Q20140311

Jakarta. Indonesia will maintain its policy on taxing exports of mineral ores, Deputy Finance Minister Bambang S. Brodjonegoro says, reminding the mining industry of its commitment to build smelters.

“We have the policy, and it must be continued. There is no change in the export tax,” Bambang said at his office on Friday night.

He also assured that policies on the mineral export ban set by the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and the Industry Ministry will be maintained .

“We will coordinate with them [the two ministries] in a short time. On the tax export we are assured by the Finance Ministry that the policy will not change,” Bambang said. He denied that there will be a review or changes in the export tax regulation.

The Trade Ministry and Energy Ministry each has its own policy on the mineral export ban, such as the guarantee of mining companies’ willingness to build smelters, Bambang said.

Read more at: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/business/indonesia-insists-on-maintaining-mineral-ore-export-tax-policy/#.Uxyt7vldXDs

Singapore  – Nickel held near nine-month highs on Friday, heading for a seventh session of gains in what would be its longest rally since October 2010, with global supply tightened by Indonesia’s ban on ore exports.

Nickel is the best performing base metal this year with a gain of more than 11 percent.

The more-traded copper has lost 4.4 percent amid signs Chinese demand may slow as the top user of the metal eyes a less-investment driven economic expansion.

Three-month nickel on the London Metal Exchange was up 0.2 percent at $15,497 a tonne by 0327 GMT, heading for a seventh session of gains that would mark its longest rally since an 11-day stretch in September-October 2010.

Read more at: http://www.mb.com.ph/nickel-in-longest-winning-streak-since-2010-on-indonesia-ban/

Anglo American Plc (AAL)’s decision to quit plans for a coal port expansion in Australia leaves Indian billionaires G.V. Krishna Reddy and Gautam Adani as the last major investors left looking at extending the terminal.

Anglo, the world’s fourth-biggest miner by market value, follows BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto Group in pulling out of Abbot Point in Queensland state. GVK Group and Adani Enterprises Ltd. are studying expansions at the port to export power station coal from separate mine projects they are planning inland in the Galilee Basin at a total cost of about $17 billion.

Read more at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-06/anglo-coal-port-exit-sees-indian-billionaires-last-men-standing.html