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SHANGHAI, Aug. 29 (SMM) – Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) is holding the SMM Tin Industry Chain Summit in Shenzhen September 27-29, to focus on China’s tin ore and refined tin imports against Indonesia’s export ban on unprocessed mineral scheduled to take effect in 2014.

Indonesia has proposed several amendments to a controversial 2014 ban on unprocessed mineral exports, its Minister of Industry said. According to the amendments, mining companies with smelters under construction would be allowed to export unprocessed minerals, but would be charged a duty on the shipments depending on progress of their projects. Mining companies that have not started building smelters will not be allowed to export unprocessed minerals.

http://www.metal.com/newscontent/52575_smm-tin-industry-chain-summit-to-focus-on-tin-imports-against-export-rule-change-in-indonesia

Singapore/Jakarta. Indonesia’s top tin exporter Timah said it has stopped tin shipments and declared force majeure since new regulations forcing domestic producers to trade on a local exchange came into force last Friday.

Indonesia is the world’s biggest exporter of tin and the shortfall is already feeding into global prices, with cash tin on the London Metal Exchange soaring to the highest premium against the benchmark contract in more than ten months on Tuesday.

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/business/indonesias-top-tin-exporter-timah-says-halts-tin-shipments/

With China recently achieving its long-held desire to exploit untapped underwater resources, a new method of sustaining its rapid economic development appeared to be secure.

The award of exploration contracts last month for valuable minerals by the 165-member International Seabed Authority, which regulates deep-sea mining activities, approved exploration plans for cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts by both China and Japan.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1302836/china-enters-race-foreign-rivals-mine-seabed-valuable-minerals

China’s refined copper imports are expected to continue rising in the coming months as international sellers increasingly turn to China amid an overhang in global supply, a Chinese industry source said last Friday.

“Global copper supply is expected to rise as global demand (excluding China) will continue dipping due to a slow recovery in the global economy and increasing investment risks,” Jack Yeung, a business professor at the City University of Hong Kong said.

http://www.platts.com/latest-news/metals/hongkong/chinas-copper-imports-to-continue-rising-in-coming-27363395

David McKay | Mon, 02 Sep 2013 10:09

Vale says it had to hire foreign workers to complete projects at its Long Harbour site due to a shortage of skilled trades workers in Newfoundland and Labrador, and the rest of Canada.

Bob Carter, manager of corporate affairs for Vale in the province, said the company has tried to hire local first, but the need for specialized workers could not be met.

“There are now about 900 or so people working in Long Harbour who are from outside Newfoundland and Labrador in the trades that we need, and we’ve had to look outside Canada,” Carter said, adding there are 3,500 workers in total at the site.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2013/08/30/nl-vale-foreign-workers-830.html

The dollar goes a long way in South Africa and other commodity-exporting countries these days but before being tempted to snap up what look like investment bargains in the country’s mining industry consider what some of the local are doing — investing elsewhere.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timtreadgold/2013/08/29/beware-the-currency-trap-if-chasing-cheap-mining-shares/

Vale SA’s cargo unit may be worth $1.5 billion and an expected stake sale may benefit shares in the world’s third-largest mining company, according to Banco Itau BBA SA.

The valuation of Vale’s stock is likely to improve when the Rio de Janeiro-based company sells a stake in VLI, or Valor da Logistica Integrada SA, Itau BBA analysts Marcos Assumpcao and Andre Pinheiro said. A divestment would also benefit Vale by funding the unit without hurting Vale’s balance sheet, they said in a research piece dated yesterday.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-29/vale-sale-of-1-5-billion-cargo-unit-to-help-shares-itau-says.html

Indonesia may increase export tariffs for miners reluctant to build smelters in the country, as part of a series of efforts to add value to the nation’s mineral resources, a senior official at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry said on Wednesday.

“Our position is still the same, that mining commodities must be processed domestically before being exported,” Thamrin Sihite, the ministry’s director general for coal and mineral resources, told reporters on the sideline of a hearing at the House of Representatives in Jakarta.

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/indonesia-may-hike-mining-tariffs-instead-of-export-ban/

HONG KONG (Aug 29, 2013): China will be forced to scramble for supplies of low-grade tin from Malaysia and London Metal Exchange (LME) warehouses after a rule change in top exporter Indonesia, which supplied material used to produce 10% of China’s high-grade tin last year.

Reduced supply from Indonesia is likely to curb the growth of refined tin output in China, while the push to source feed elsewhere could support LME tin prices, which have fallen more than 7% this year, traders and sources at smelters said.

http://www.thesundaily.my/node/220653