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JAKARTA: The government is tendering as many as 80 projects related to the development of solar power plants in an attempt to boost the country’s renewable energy supplies.

The 80 projects will have a combined capacity of up to 140 megawatts (MW), according to Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry director general for renewable energy Rida Mulyana.

The ministry opened the tender starting last Thursday and is expected to announce the winners of the projects by this December.

Read more at: http://dawn.com/news/1054507/indonesia-calls-for-solar-power-project-investment

05 Nov 2013 Last updated at 05:29:08 GMT

BRUSSELS (Scrap Monster): The increased use of nickel pig iron (NPI) by Chinese stainless steel industry has lead to major slump in scrap requirement. The continuously growing internal and external scrap volumes may create a stainless scrap ‘bubble’ in the coming years, observed BIR Stainless Steel & Special Alloys Committee in its meeting held in Warsaw recently.

Over the past decade, NPI’s share of the Chinese stainless steel industry’s external raw material purchases rose to 57%, whereas the external scrap requirement plunged from 52% to 11%. The country’s stainless scrap reserve is expected to climb by over 200% to touch 62.2m tonnes by 2020. Further, the scrap reserves may soar to 164m tonnes by 2030. The stainless steel industry’s inclination towards the NPI may ruin the scrap industry in the country.

Read more at: http://www.metal.com/newscontent/54455_chinas-preference-for-nickel-pig-iron-may-prove-disastrous-to-scrap-industry-bir

The four-month rally in iron ore stocks shows no sign of abating, with some miners hitting their highest share prices in more than a year this week.

Shares in BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto were on Monday fetching their highest prices since February and March respectively, while Fortescue Metals Group has not been this valuable since May 2012.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/iron-ore-rally-boosts-miners-20131105-2wzga.html#ixzz2jsM0FFAS

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Chamber of Mines of South Africa on Tuesday elected Mike Teke as its new incoming president.

Teke takes over the reins from outgoing president Mark Cutifani. The Anglo American CEO has had a whirlwind one-year term of office in which he was heavily engaged in far-reaching negotiations with the South African government.

Teke, has been serving as vice president for the past year, is the founder of Dedicoal and a nonexecutive director of the JSE-listed coal-mining company Optimum Coal, which is now in the GlencoreXstrata group.

Read more at: http://www.miningweekly.com/article/teke-elected-new-chamber-president-2013-11-05

MONTREAL, QUEBEC–(Marketwired – Nov. 5, 2013) – Canadian Royalties Inc. announces that it has shipped two loads of copper concentrate production from the Nunavik Nickel Project at the Company’s wholly-owned mine in Nunavik, Quebec.

As part of the transformation to trial production, CRI’s owner, Jilin Jien Nickel Industry Co., Ltd.,(Jilin Jien) engaged Forbes & Manhattan (“F&M”), in late July 2013, to manage the operations and take the mine through to production. F&M has allocated a dedicated team to CRI, headed by Parviz Farsangi, who is also now acting as the CEO for the Company.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1567559#ixzz2jnsIHbBL

Vale SA (VALE5) is poised to deliver its first quarterly profit increase in more than two years after costs declined and iron-ore prices beat analysts’ forecasts.

The world’s largest iron-ore producer on Nov. 6 will post third-quarter net income of $2.8 billion, data (VALE:US) compiled by Bloomberg show. That would be 70 percent more than a year earlier and the first increase since the second quarter of 2011. Vale’s 96 percent estimated increase in year-on-year earnings per share is the most among 14 global peers, according to Bloomberg Industries.

Read more at: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-11-04/vale-delivering-more-profits-on-reduced-costs-corporate-brazil

The federal minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, Bernard Valcourt, gave his approval today to Avalon Rare Metals’ Nechalacho project, about 100 kilometers east of Yellowknife.

It follows the recommendation from the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Review Board in July, and marks a major milestone in the company’s effort to turn the project into an operating mine. Avalon claims Nechalacho is “the most advanced large heavy rare earth development project in the world.”

The Toronto-based company will still have to obtain several operating permits before work can begin.

Read more at: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/federal-minister-approves-n-w-t-rare-earth-mine-1.2356245

The global nickel market is set to experience some tightness in supplies for smelters starting in 2014, with the potential of increasing pressure on nickel pig iron production in China exacerbating the situation, Joe Belladonna, CFO of Australian producer Western Areas, said Thursday.

“Nickel laterites and nickel pig iron are not capable of filling this sulphide void at a time when the metal is increasingly being recognized and sought for its strategic application in stainless steel and other products with quite extraordinary performance characteristics,” he told a conference.

Belladonna expects the “pinch point” for quality nickel sulphide concentrates to occur around 2015.

Read more at: http://www.platts.com/latest-news/metals/melbourne/nickel-market-to-see-supply-tightness-starting-27505765

1 November 2013

Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) saw a drop in production during the third quarter of the year, it was found.

– See more at: http://www.platinum.matthey.com/news-and-events/news-articles/2013/november/1st/norilsk-nickel-third-quarter-results-announced#sthash.CHcELcAV.dpuf

Vale SA (VALE:US) is poised to deliver its first quarterly profit increase in more than two years after costs declined and iron-ore prices beat analysts’ forecasts.

The world’s largest iron-ore producer on Nov. 6 will post third-quarter net income of $2.8 billion, data (VALE:US) compiled by Bloomberg show. That would be 70 percent more than a year earlier and the first increase since the second quarter of 2011. Vale’s 96 percent estimated increase in year-on-year earnings per share is the most among 14 global peers, according to Bloomberg Industries.

Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-11-04/vale-delivering-more-profits-on-reduced-costs-corporate-brazil