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Nickel reached a nine-month high amid concern that the U.S. will impose trade sanctions on Russia, exacerbating supply constraints amid an ore-export ban in Indonesia, the top producer of the metal from mines.

Republicans in the U.S. Congress are urging swift sanctions against Russia, the second-biggest nickel producer, for its incursion into Ukraine. In Indonesia, Aburizal Bakrie, who rates himself the favorite to win a presidential election in July, said the nation should keep more natural resources at home to bolster domestic industries. Prices jumped 11 percent this year, heading for the biggest quarterly gain since 2010.

Read more at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-06/nickel-reaches-nine-month-high-on-russia-indonesia-supply-risks.html

Ukraine’s producers and consumers of steelmaking raw materials are so far unaffected by the political and social crisis in the country and continue to trade inbound and outbound as usual.

“Business continues as normal; operations and export volumes are fine today [March 5],” said a source close to Ferrexpo, Ukraine’s largest iron ore exporter in 2013. It shipped more than 10.8 million mt of iron ore products accounting for almost 30% of Ukraine’s total iron ore exports.

Read more at: http://blogs.platts.com/2014/03/06/ukraine-ok/

NEW YORK, NY, Mar 04, 2014 (Marketwired via COMTEX) — Today, the Government of Burundi confirmed its support and its will for a fast-tracking and early commencement of the Natural Resource Mining Public-Private Partnership (NRM-PPP) Project, between the World Sports Alliance (WSA) and the Republic of Burundi, targeting in particular the development of the nickel deposits (and other associated minerals) of the Waga and Nyabikere Mining Concessions, in the Gitega Region in Burundi.

Their Excellencies, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development Planning of the Republic of Burundi, Mr. Tabu Abdallah MANIRAKIZA and the Minister of Energy and Mines, Mr. Come MANIRAKIZA, participated in a Conference call that included H.E. Ambassador Alain LEMIEUX, President of WSA, Mr. Jean-Pierre DUBE, President and CEO of the WSA International Business Consortium (WSAIBC) and Mr. Kamran M. KHOZAN, President and CEO of the CVMR Group (CVMR(R)). CVMR(R) will use its proprietary processes in this project and will be the Manager for extraction and refining at both mineral concessions, the operator of the mines, and developer of the refinery based on CVMR(R)’s technologies.

Read more at: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-world-sports-alliance-intergovernmental-organization-and-the-government-of-burundi-confirm-a-fast-tracking-of-the-natural-resource-mining-public-private-partnership-nrm-ppp-project-2014-03-04

President Obama has created a US Department of Defense (DOD)-supported consortium of businesses and university with a focus on lightweight and modern metals manufacturing.

China Minmetals is still in discussion with Glencore Xstrata over the $5.2bn Las Bambas copper project in Peru.

The Las Bambas copper project has more than 10.5 million tonnes of copper resources and is in an advanced phase of construction. It is scheduled to commence operations in 2015.

The project is expected to produce around 400,000t of copper annually during its first five years of operation, roughly comprising 2% of the world’s supply.

Read more at: http://www.mining-technology.com/news/newschina-minmetals-in-talks-with-glencore-over-52bn-las-bambas-copper-project-4189544

Glencore Xstrata, the world’s largest commodities and mining group are set to agree a $1bn deal to take an equity stake in Russian oil company Russneft today, despite the threat of war with Ukraine.

The announcement came as stock markets rallied after yesterday morning’s slide, following the end of Russian military manoeuvres near the Ukrainian border.

According to the Standard, Glencore Xstrata’s revenues, at more than a quarter of a trillion dollars last year, are 30% larger than Ukraine’s entire GDP.

Read more at: http://www.londonlovesbusiness.com/business-news/economic/glencore-xstrata-hammer-out-1bn-deal-in-russia-while-war-risk-looms-large/7605.article

Ivan Glasnberg has found $2.4bn of integration synergies from Xstrata deal – with more to come

Glencore’s Ivan Glasenberg admitted that all but a handful of the senior managers whose pay demands almost derailed its merger with Xstrata have left the commodities giant in the year since he took over his FTSE rival.

Mr Glasenberg, chief executive of the merged Glencore Xstrata  made the comments as he underlined the importance of the cost savings found since the integration.

Read more at: http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/glencore-chief-counts-benefits-xstrata-182432936.html

Signs that Rio Tinto is close to striking a deal with the Mongolian government to develop the second stage of the huge Oyu Tolgoi mine continue to mount, with an engineering contractor advertising for workers on what appears to be the famous copper and gold mine.

Progress on the $US6 billion second stage of Oyu Tolgoi – which arguably ranks as Rio’s most important growth project – has been frozen due to Rio’s inability to strike an investment agreement with the Mongolian government.

Read more at: http://www.smh.com.au/business/rio-tinto-closer-to-striking-a-deal-on-mongolia-mine-20140305-347hh.html

Glencore Xstrata, the world’s fourth-biggest mining company, is studying separate deals with Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton in Australia to reap cost savings at struggling coal and nickel operations.

The company is assessing a bid for BHP’s Nickel West assets in Western Australia, which are near a Glencore nickel project, chief executive Ivan Glasenberg said. The sale also has attracted rival Mick Davis, former CEO of Xstrata, whose X2 Resources has studied bidding, said a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named as it’s not public.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/mining-and-resources/glencore-chief-ivan-glasenberg-eyes-deals-with-bhp-rio-20140305-34707.html#ixzz2v5Ovg1KQ