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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

Gecamines, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s state-owned mining company, may sell its 20 percent stake in Glencore Xstrata Plc (GLEN)’s Kamoto Copper Co. to raise money for other projects, said Chairman Albert Yuma.

“We’ve been in discussions with 14 groups who’ve gone through a tender and the process is ongoing,” Yuma said in an Oct. 3 interview in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa. Glencore’s Katanga Mining Ltd. (KAT), which owns 75 percent of KCC, would have right of first refusal of any sale, he said.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-10-06/gecamines-of-congo-studies-selling-stake-in-glencore-copper-mine

Santo Domingo.- President Danilo Medina will meet in the National Palace Monday morning with workers’ representatives of the miner Xstrata Nickel Falcondo, after it announced Wednesday that it will temporarily shutter operations in Dominican Republic.

Presidency Administrative minister Jose Ramon Peralta stated the government’s concern with the situation facing the mining company’s workers.

http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/economy/2013/10/4/49174/Medina-to-meet-with-Xstrata-Falcondo-workers-as-mine-concern-grows

The company will focus on developing assets in Russia, mostly its Arctic projects, while it plans to sell assets in Africa and Australia, it said in a presentation on strategy to investors in London today.

Annual capital spending for 2014 through 2016 will be about $2 billion, including as much as $2 billion over the period to develop existing assets and as much as $3.2 billion of “stay-in-business” expenses, it said. It will spend as much as $1.2 billion on new projects in the period.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-10-04/norilsk-plans-10-billion-investments-by-2018-to-boost-output