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Indonesia’s controversial decision to ban exports of unprocessed minerals is triggering unintended but predictable consequences: about 500,000 mining workers are losing their job.

On January 12, Jakarta announced new regulations banning the export of mineral ores as part of efforts to keep a greater share of resource profits in the country, one of the world’s biggest producers of minerals such as copper, gold and nickel.

But a month after the ban was imposed, more than 570,000 people working in the mining industry have been left without work as companies halt operations, said Juan Forty Silalahi, spokesman for the National Mining Workers Solidarity lobby group.

Read more at: http://www.gulf-times.com/business/191/details/382200/570,000-people-lose-jobs-as-indonesia-bans-ore-exports

A group led by China Minmetals Corp. is nearing an agreement to purchase Glencore Xstrata Plc (GLEN)’s Las Bambas copper project in Peru for more than $5 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

A deal between Minmetals, China’s biggest state-owned metals trader, and Glencore could be announced as early as this month subject to Chinese government approval, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the process is private. The asset could fetch closer to $6 billion, one of the people said.

Read more at: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-02-06/minmetals-said-to-be-near-deal-to-buy-glencore-s-las-bambas-mine

JAKARTA, Indonesia–Indonesia won’t back down from preventing exports by mining companies refusing to put up sureties they will build smelters, the country’s director-general of minerals and coal says.

Mining companies must place cash equal to 5% of the cost of constructing a smelter in local banks to show they are “serious,” Director General of Minerals and Coal at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Sukhyar said late on Thursday.

“The money will be returned after smelter construction is completed,” Mr. Sukhyar said. Companies promising to build smelters can still export ore.

Read more at: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20140206-717560.html

(Reuters) – At a time when major miners have turned gun-shy on acquisitions after a rash of value-busting deals, two big players made it clear last week that they are still keen to partner with junior firms on high-quality, early-stage projects.

Under pressure from investors to retreat from large, capital-intensive projects, companies like Canada’s Teck Resources Ltd (TCKb.TO) and Poland’s KGHM Polska Miedź SA KGH.WA are looking to tiny exploration companies to secure future output.

Read more at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/06/us-mining-juniors-idUSBREA151VC20140206

Rio Tinto is in talks with potential partners from the Middle East and China to seek finance for an $US18 billion mine project in Guinea, in what could be a model for miners to fund the soaring cost of developments.

The Anglo-Australian miner has been in discussions with groups including Mubadala, oil-rich Abu Dhabi’s active investment vehicle, as well as the sovereign wealth funds of Kuwait and Qatar over possible investment in a 650 kilometre railway and port needed to unlock Rio’s development of Simandou, an iron ore deposit in the west African country.

Read more at:  http://www.afr.com/p/business/companies/rio_seeks_partners_for_us_billion_4MiDeGfjTrJ2DL33MMptqI

Since Newmont’s Batu Hijau project is expected to be its top cash-flow generator in 2015/2016 as the company accesses the high grade core of the deposit, the threat is prompting caution from J.P. Morgan analyst John Bridges.

“This cash flow improvement has been a key advantage for Newmont compared with other large gold producers,” he told clients, lowering his rating on the stock to neutral from overweight and cutting his price target to US$26 from US$28. “What’s worrying is that the country has made the investment climate very uncertain and this will likely reduce new investment in the country’s mineral industry.”

Read more at: http://business.financialpost.com/2014/02/04/newmont-mining-corp-downgrade-on-indonesia-fears/

JAKARTA, Feb 4 (Reuters) – Indonesia’s government must provide tax holidays and other financial incentives to convince companies to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to build copper smelters amid weak global prices, said the head of smelting firm PT Indosmelt.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono last month imposed new mining policies, including a controversial mineral ore export ban and progressive export taxes, aimed at forcing miners to build smelters and process their raw materials in Indonesia.

Read more at: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/02/04/indonesia-indosmelt-idUKL3N0L91D920140204

The really big surprise, though, is just how total the ban is. Right up until the Jan. 12 deadline the consensus view was that the Indonesian authorities would fudge the issue, most likely in the form of wide-ranging exemptions to companies that had displayed a minimum level of commitment to building processing plants.

Not so, however. Such exemptions may come with time but for now this ban bites as well as barks.

Read more at: http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/02/03/column-home-indonesia-minerals-idINL5N0L82G920140203

The Wuhan Iron and Steel Corporation, China’s first giant state owned iron and steel company and now the fourth largest steel maker in the world has begun exports of reduced iron powder.

The company stated that earlier this month a shipment of reduced iron powder was delivered to a customer in Korea, marking the first international export of WISCO’s Powder Metallurgy products and laying a solid foundation for further exports of the company’s reduced iron powder.

Read more at:  http://www.steelguru.com/international_news/WISCO_successfully_delivers_first_exports_of_reduced_iron_powder/331815.html