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

PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--October 14, 2013--

Allegheny Technologies Incorporated (NYSE:ATI) today announced a restructuring of its Engineered Products segment and commented on third quarter 2013 business conditions.

ATI has restructured its Engineered Products segment as a result of the previously announced pending sale of its tungsten materials business, and the integration of the previously standalone specialty steel forgings business into ATI Ladish’s forgings operations. In addition, to improve operating efficiencies and reduce costs ATI has integrated its precision titanium and specialty alloy flat-rolled finishing business into ATI Allegheny Ludlum’s specialty plate business. As a result, effective with the reporting of the third quarter 2013 results, ATI will report the results of its tungsten materials business as discontinued operations; the specialty steel forgings business will be included in ATI’s High Performance Metals segment and the precision titanium and specialty alloy flat-rolled finishing business will be included in ATI’s Flat-Rolled Products segment.

http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20131014-904143.html

Australia’s “big three” iron ore miners are set to unveil a boost in third-quarter production and will mine even more in the fourth quarter, ignoring forecasts of a looming supply glut in favour of capturing greater economies of scale.

Rio Tinto this month upped annualised output of the steel-making raw material by 20 per cent to 290 million tonnes, while BHP Billiton and Fortescue Mining are in the midst of robust expansion work.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/mining-and-resources/big-three-to-boost-iron-ore-production-20131014-2vhi7.html#ixzz2hiQtpLjw

Rep. Francisco Matugas (1^st district Surigao del Norte), has re-filed his bill “Promoting the development of mineral processing and in the process of banning the export of iron, nickel, chromite, manganese, and other metallic ores and for other purposes.”

The bill was filed in the 15th Congress but didn’t reach the Senate, said Matugas, now chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources.

“The Philippines has not developed the downstream mining industry to focus on the final stages of the minerals value chain and encourage the establishment and development of processing plants that use new process in manufacturing mineral ores,” he said.

http://www.mindanews.com/top-stories/2013/10/13/locals-want-ban-on-export-of-mineral-ore/

Despite the headwinds in the mining industry, Thompson Creek still managed to bring the large project to production.

“It’s a very big thing to bring a project of this magnitude on stream these days, getting it somewhat on budget with all these inflationary pressures we’ve been facing over the past few years in terms of bringing mining projects online,” Loughrey said. “But, we were able to get it done, we have the big mill turning, we’ve got both ball mill lines running, we’re producing concentrate and things are on schedule.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kitconews/2013/10/11/mt-milligan-copper-gold-project-ramping-up-to-commercial-production-thompson-creek-ceo/

With nickel use growing at about 4 per cent every year the report reveals communities in eastern Indonesia’s Halmahera Island are being economically displaced by the PT Weda Bay Nickel Mine, a subsidiary of French mining company Eramet. The island has one of the largest deposits of nickel in the world.

http://phys.org/news/2013-10-dark-nickel.html#jCp

“NPI is already a high cost method of nickel production, and domestic economic forces in China will further adversely impact the economics of maintaining such production,” Belladonna said.

With electricity accounting for around 25-75% of NPI production costs and labor costs rising, as are Indonesian ore export taxes, costs could be put under further pressure, which Belladonna said would benefit the outlook for Australian nickel sulphide concentrate supplies in global markets.

Oct 10 (Reuters) – Two groups of Chinese miners, in partnerships that will pit giant Chinalco against rival Minmetals, lead a shortlist of suitors for Glencore Xstrata’s $5.9 billion Las Bambas copper mine in Peru, according to sources involved in the process.

Glencore agreed this year to sell the Las Bambas project to meet demands from China’s competition authorities after its record-breaking takeover of mining group Xstrata. The Chinese regulator feared that the tie-up handed the newly formed commodities heavyweight too much power in copper.

http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/10/10/glencore-lasbambas-sale-idINL6N0HZ44D20131010

The new bill “opens doors” to the private sector that will need to inject assets into the mining sector in Burundi, the minister said, adding: “Burundi is a poor country and therefore needs private investments in the mining sector.”

The East African country boasts rich nickel resources in its eastern region and gold in the eastern and western parts
: http://india.nydailynews.com/business/0be6be11d44079412a581f2074e8b939/burundis-assembly-passes-bill-on-mining-code#ixzz2hKSZ64Dg

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Cerro Matoso, the world’s No. 2 ferronickel producer owned by multinational BHP Billiton and located in Colombia, said it has temporarily shut its mine after two weeks of protests by indigenous groups, halting 4 percent of world output.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/thomson-reuters/131009/worlds-no-2-nickel-mine-colombia-closed-protests

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Mining giant BHP Billiton has completed the second stage of its Groote Eylandt expansion project, coinciding with the firm celebrating 50 years of mining from the manganese operation, in the Northern Territory.

The $279-million second stage expansion of the Gemco project was expected to increase its beneficiated product capacity from 4.2-million tonnes a year to 4.8-million tonnes a year through the introduction of a dense media circuit bypass facility.

http://www.miningweekly.com/article/bhp-completes-gemco-expansion-celebrates-50-years-2013-10-10