Anglo American's shrinking market value could eject the global miner from London's blue-chip equity index at the next reshuffle in March, potentially triggering a broader sell-off.Plunging commodity prices last year shrank Anglo's market capitalisation to $5.6 billion (3.9 billion pounds) as its shares fell 76 percent to record lows in 2015, making it the worst performer in the benchmark FTSE 100...Read More
Prospectors are an optimistic bunch. But that optimism is being severely tested in a global economy that's dragging down commodities and Canadian mineral prices, Carl Schulze of All-Terrane Mineral Exploration Services said January 25 at the Mineral Exploration Roundup at Canada Place.Schulze, a geoscientist based in Whitehorse, Yukon, helps mining firms find gold and other metals and minerals acr...Read More
South Africa's Sibanye Gold (JSE:SGL) (NYSE:SBGL) is actively considering acquisitions as the miner seeks to take advantage of its strong current position and the weakness of most competitors.The company's shares have performed exceptionally so far this year. They are up 55% in Johannesburg and 46% in New York, after hitting a record intraday high on Jan. 28, helped in part by a weak rand that has...Read More
Canada's Royal Nickel Corp RNX.TO, capitalizing on discount asset prices as commodity markets swoon, announced two cash and stock acquisitions on Monday that transform the mine developer into a cash-generating nickel, copper and gold producer.Royal Nickel Chief Executive Mark Selby said the company will acquire a 67 percent stake in Australia's privately-held Salt Lake Mining Pty, in a deal worth...Read More
Toronto Ontario, Feb 1, 2016 - Nautilus Minerals Inc. (TSX:NUS, OTCQX:NUSMF, OTC:NUSMF Nasdaq Intl Designation) (the "Company" or "Nautilus") announces that the Solwara 1 Joint Venture (comprising Nautilus 85% and Eda Kopa (Solwara) Limited 15%) has taken delivery of the three Seafloor Production Tools ("SPTs") from Soil Machine Dynamics Limited's ("SMD") facility in Newcastle upon Tyne.The three...Read More
Beleaguered Anglo American (LON:ALL) is said to be planning a complete exit from Brazil, where the company has already put its $1 billion niobium and phosphate business up for sale.First-round bids for those assets are due on Feb. 15, date that - reports local newspaper O'Globo (in Portuguese) - may bring some major surprises. According to veteran columnist Angelmo Gois, Anglo is also seeking to s...Read More
Courtesy of: Visual CapitalistClick here for a larger version of this infographic.In the past, we've published visuals of the biggest public companies in each U.S. state, as well as the largest oil and gas companies in the world.Today's post, however, shows the largest companies by revenue in each U.S. State. (Note: the graphic says 2015 revenue, but we believe it meant to say 2014 revenue as many...Read More
Dr. Thomas Hillig, CEO of THEnergy, participated in and presented at the Energy and Mines Summit that took place in London on January 28 and 29, 2016. More than 200 delegates from the mining, renewable energy and finance sectors attended this event. THEnergy is a German-based consulting company specializing in renewable energy solutions for the mining industry, and it tries to bridge the gap betwe...Read More
Tiny Aston Bay Holdings (BAY-V), a junior with a copper-zinc project in Nunavut, seized the market's attention today by announcing a preliminary joint-venture deal with the world's largest mining company.According to the exclusive letter of intent, BHP Billiton would pay a minimum of $40 million in exploration expenditures over 9 years - including $2.5 million within 2 years of signing a final d...Read More
Teck Metals Ltd. is expected to be hit with substantial fines after the company admits in court next week to causing pollution in Trail, in southeast B.C.The provincial court registry shows Teck, which operates the largest lead-zinc smelter in the world in the small town on the banks of the Columbia River, intends to plead guilty Monday to 15 charges.The charges, which follow an investigation by E...Read More
With sales and operations at the ends of the earth, few companies are in a better position to take the pulse of the global economy and the resource sector in particular than Caterpillar.The world's number one heavy equipment manufacturer has been hit hard by the decline in mining and construction - sales are down more than $20 billion from its peak just four years ago after a drop of over $8 billi...Read More
Anglo will scale back operations and cut costs at its flagship Sishen mine (pictured), which is Africa's largest iron ore operation. (Image courtesy of Anglo American)Shares in besieged Anglo American (LON:AAL) soared Thursday after the miner reported increased production and revealed plans to keep lowering costs at its iron ore mines in South Africa and Brazil, which include laying-off about 4,00...Read More
Barrick Gold Corp. has surged to become Canada's best-performing stock as a two-month rally in the precious metal gives added lift to the company's turnaround efforts.Barrick's shares are up 29 per cent this year in Toronto, making it the best-performing stock on the Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index. It's also overtaken its two biggest competitors, Goldcorp Inc. and Newmont Mining Corp., in m...Read More
Indonesia's government and Freeport McMoRan Inc on Thursday failed to reach a deal on extending the U.S. mining giant's six-month export permit, potentially halting shipments from the country's massive Grasberg copper and gold mine.An export stoppage would deal a blow to Freeport's profits and deny the Indonesian government desperately needed revenue from one of its biggest taxpayers. It could als...Read More
In its 2016 Commodity Outlook published yesterday, the World Bank pays special attention to the impact of weak growth in emerging economies on commodity markets.The answer, unsurprisingly, is that a faster-than-expected slowdown in Brazil, Russia, India and China - especially if combined with financial stress - "could reduce commodity prices considerably" even after three years of sharp declines...Read More
Los Pelambres remains Antofagasta's flagship mine, producing over 55% of the total group output. (Image courtesy of Antofagasta)Chile's Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) said Wednesday it plans to boost copper production in 2016 by as much as 17% after it missed its output target for last year.The mining group, property of the Luksic family -one of Chile's richest- said it produced 630,300 metric tons of th...Read More
Ministro Hales copper mine in Chile. (Image courtesy of Codelco via Flickr)The continued rout in commodity prices that has severely hit the mining industry in the past year can't be considered a "normal" cyclical downturn, but rather, an unprecedented one, says Moody's in a new report released this week.The ratings agency, which recently placed 175 energy and mining firms at risk of downgrades, sa...Read More
Slag tapping at Glencore's Sudbury Nickel Smelter. Image: GlencoreNickel was the worst performer in a pretty sorry commodities field in 2015. The steelmaking ingredient lost just shy of 42% of its value last year.What makes nickel's dismal year even more disappointing is that following Indonesia's ore ban at the outset of 2014, the stars seemed to align for the metal and analysts rushed to its de...Read More
Freeport McMoRan's Grasberg is the world's largest gold mine and third largest copper operation. (Image from archives)Shares in Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) rallied Tuesday morning even though the diversified US miner and oil producer reported a fourth-quarter loss bigger than the one logged in 2014.The stock was up more than 3% to $4.07 at 10:45 am ET, but it has dropped almost 40% since the star...Read More
The ceramic proppants sector is forecast to become the largest market for non-metallurgical bauxite by 2021, overtaking the refractories industry. Consumption of bauxite in refractories, both directly and via brown fused alumina, accounted for more than 20% of the total non-metallurgical bauxite market in 2015.Demand for calcined bauxite in production of ceramic proppants is expected to grow by mo...Read More