Current nickel prices of a little more than $7 a pound are comparable to $2.50 a pound a decade ago, creating huge challenges for Sudbury’s largest nickel miner.
http://www.northernlife.ca/news/localNews/2013/04/16-vale-strong.aspx
LONDON (SHARECAST) –Xstrata has announced that its Koniambo Nickel project in New Caledonia has gone into production after producing its first metal this week, a key milestone for the five billion-dollar greenfield project.
http://www.sharecast.com/cgi-bin/sharecast/story.cgi?story_id=20819933
BHP Billiton is understood to have made a substantial copper discovery in the remote West Australian outback, in a move that could finally help open up the potential of the West Musgrave region.
Industry sources told The Australian that recent drilling by BHP at the Succoth prospect had returned broad intersections of copper mineralisation at relatively high grades.
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa’s Exxaro expects to start mining iron ore in the Republic of Congo this year, with an eye to producing up to 10 million tonnes a year, as the miner diversifies beyond its traditional reliance on coal.
http://www.miningweekly.com/article/exxaro-aims-to-mine-iron-ore-in-congo-this-year-2013-04-10?
Ratan Jindal-led Jindal Stainless Ltd, part of the $16.5 billion OP Jindal Group, has signed a memorandum of understanding with South Korean steel major Posco for a long-term joint business opportunity.
Nickel miner PT Vale Indonesia, whose shares are traded on the bourse under the code INCO, is planning to spend up to US$216 million to support its business this year.
Mining and wind farm deals valued at more than $3 billion have been signed in Beijing during Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s visit on Tuesday.
http://www.skynews.com.au/businessnews/article.aspx?id=862004
Production of niobium in Brazil will reach 120,000 tpy by 2016, a 33% increase from 2011 levels, according to estimates released by the country’s mining institute, Ibram.
(Reuters) – Rio Tinto has hired investment bank Macquarie to sell its majority stake in the Northparkes copper mine in Australia, a source familiar with the matter said, adding to a growing list of planned divestments.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/04/riotinto-northparkes-idUSL5N0CR3Q220130404
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canada’s Namibia Rare Earths on Wednesday said it has produced a concentrate grading 8.39% total rare-earth oxide (TREO), with 96.1% heavy rare-earth enrichment, from a sample of the high-grade mineralisation from its Lofdal project in north-western Namibia.
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