Hundreds of Greek gold miners and technical staff are preparing to stage "powerful demonstrations" directed against the left-wing Syriza government, unions told Al Jazeera. Their employer, Canada's Eldorado Gold Corporation, announced last week that it will lay them off and utilize a key mine in northern Greece after years of government obstruction."We're not going to take this lying down," the m...Read More
Glencore's Middelburg South Africa chrome smelter. Image: GlencoreA feeble attempt at a rally yesterday evaporated on Friday with the copper price hitting a fresh six-and-half year low of $1.9365 a pound ($4,270 a tonne) after falling nearly 2% in New York. Following a 26% decline in 2015, copper is already down 9% this year and worth less than half its peak as commodity investors choose to ignore...Read More
BHP's Fayetteville Shale, Arkansas, USA. (Image courtesy of BHP Billiton)Mining giant BHP Billiton (ASX, NYSE:BHP), (LON:BLT) logged Friday its largest-ever write-down, a roughly US$7.2 billion pretax charge on its extensive US shale assets, as a persistent downturn in commodities continues to hurt the mining and energy sectors.The fresh disappointment from the company's $20 billion foray into the...Read More
Gold King Mine discharge. (Image from archives)The state of New Mexico plans to sue the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over last year's toxic Colorado mining spill that sent 3 million gallons of waste into the Animas and San Juan rivers.In a notice of intent to sue filed by the state Thursday, officials claim the EPA is to blame for the the consequences of the blowout at the abandoned...Read More
The area where Pebble mine would be built, 320 km southwest of Anchorage, within the Bristol Bay watershed. (Image courtesy of Northern Dynasty Minerals)A government probe into the US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) rejection of massive copper-gold mine project in Alaska, has found 25 months of missing emails from the account of an employee who is believed to have played a major role in de...Read More
Construction of a concrete batching plant at Skouries mine. (Image courtesy of Eldorado Gold)Greece's left-wing government is asking Canadian Eldorado Gold (TSX:ELD) (NYSE:EGO) to resume halted mining operations and preserve jobs currently in the line as a condition for the two parties to continue talks on the country's biggest foreign investment.Environment and Energy Minister, Panos Skourletis,...Read More
Chief executive Sam Walsh expects 2016 to be "an even tougher year" than the last. (Image: Screenshot from IBM's video)Rio Tinto (LON, ASX:RIO), the world's second largest miner, has put a freeze on salaries for all employees, in a fresh attempt to weather tough market conditions marked by a continuing slump in commodities prices.Chief executive Sam Walsh told employees that expenses for travel an...Read More
The US dollar has been on a tear.And for miners in certain jurisdictions, this has helped operators immensely, especially when coupled with lower fuel prices, which typically accounts for 15-20% of overhead.With traditional inputs being purchased with the weakening local currency, and gold being sold for the appreciating dollar, some operators in Australia have been able to improve their bottom li...Read More
Mining and commodity trading giant Glencore (LON:GLEN) kicked off the process to sell its Australian copper mine in Cobar, New South Wales, and its Lomas Bayas copper mine in the Atacama desert in Chile in October.Glencore said at the time it had received a number of unsolicited expressions of interest for the mines and that potential buyers can bid to purchase "either one or both of the mines and...Read More
Anglo American mines the majority of its niobium ore from the Boa Vista open pit, in Brazil. (Image courtesy of Anglo American via Flickr)Mining scene newcomer and BHP spin-off South32 (ASX, LON, JSE:S32) may make an offer for Anglo American's $1 billion niobium and phosphate business in Brazil, Bloomberg reports.Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg says the company is seeking to hire...Read More
McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE:MUX) (TSX:MUX) is pleased to announce record annual production in 2015, solid fourth quarter production results, and the outlook for 2016.Highlights22% increase in production year-over-year to 154,529 gold equivalent ounces(1) in 2015.New pro-business government elected in Argentina, positive policy changes already enacted.4.2 grams per tonne (gpt) average crushed gold gra...Read More
E-waste, which comprises precious metals like gold and silver, can produce more gold than what is obtained through mining, a senior academician said today.Fifty pounds of gold and 20,000 pounds of copper could be extracted from one million discarded cell phones, if processed properly, Pranabesh Ray, Dean (Academics), XLRI - Xavier School of Management told a two-day national conference on e-waste...Read More
A meagre 0.6% of private capital raised in 2015 for natural resource investment is destined for mining projects. Just two funds closed on $400 million in private investments for metals and mining last year according to data by industry tracker Preqin.Investors aren't necessarily staying away from mining assets because of a weak outlook. Of the $63 billion raised for natural resources more than 90...Read More
It's only 12 January and the copper price is down 8% year to date.March futures in New York dropped to $1.9525 a pound (just over $4,300 a tonne) early on Tuesday and by the close on the Comex continued to languish at levels last seen March 2009.For a sustained period below $2 you have to go back a decade at the early days of the China-induced supercycle.China is responsible for nearly half of glo...Read More
Codelco chairman, chairman Oscar Landerretche. (Image courtesy of University of Chile)Codelco, Chile's state-owned copper miner and the world's largest producer of the metal, should soon review its investment plans in light of historic low prices, chairman Oscar Landerretche has said.In an interview with local news site El D?-namo (in Spanish) last week, the economist said the first step should b...Read More
Image by docstockmedia | Shutterstock.com.New climate change regulations, fraud in e-payment systems, "poison pills", privacy class actions and cybersex in the workplace are among the top 10 legal risks companies operating in Canada will face this year, according to Canadian law firm Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG).In its annual report on the issue, the group outlines those and other key trends, a...Read More
Anglo American's overhaul reflects the dire straits the global mining industry is in these days. (Image: Screenshot from Anglo American video via YouTube)Anglo American (LON:AAL) announced Tuesday it has finally completed its exit from the Middle East by selling its Tarmac business to Colas Moyen Orient, a subsidiary of French engineering and construction company Bouygues Group.The full sale follo...Read More
Greece has delayed construction at Eldorado's Skouries mine and processing plant for over three years. The company is halting most work at the project in response.Canadian miner Eldorado Gold (TSX:ELD) (NYSE:EGO) is suspending work at its mine in northern Greece and laying off 600 workers following protests by local residents and a fresh spat with the country's left-wing government.The Vancouver-b...Read More
Gold is the big exception with managed money futures investors slashing bearish bets on the gold price by 44%After a nice run at the beginning of the new trading year, on Monday on the Comex market in New York, gold futures with February delivery retreated as worries about the global economy and geopolitics overwhelmed financial and commodity markets.In afternoon trade gold was exchanging hands fo...Read More
The world's northernmost mines are all located in just three countries; on Norway's Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean you'll find four of them. All are underground coal mines, operating in the rugged, frigid terrain between continental Norway and the North Pole.Further south, in Russia, you'll find Alrosa's diamond mines. Nizhne-Lenskoye, in the Sakha Republic, is the fifth northernmost min...Read More