Democratic Republic of Congo will declare cobalt and coltan, used in electric vehicle and renewable energy technology, as "strategic" minerals which will earn the country higher royalties, an advisor to the prime minister said on Wednesday.A new mining code was signed into law on Friday by President Joseph Kabila despite vigorous opposition by global mining companies with operations in Congo such...Read More
(Bloomberg) - Moti Group is preparing to double its investments in Zimbabwe to $500 million after the removal of Robert Mugabe as president in November saw the government adopt a more open approach to foreign companies.Emmerson Mnangagwa, 75, who replaced Mugabe after the military briefly took control, has declared that "Zimbabwe is open for business" and has said he will ease the country's local...Read More
Canada's RNC Minerals (TSX: RNX) said Thursday it might sell all or part of its Beta Hunt gold and nickel mine in Western Australia to focus instead on its Dumont cobalt and nickel project in Quebec, the world's largest undeveloped reserve of both metals.The Toronto-based miner, which acquire Beta Hunt in 2016, said while it has grew the scale of the operation ever since, such asset is now cons...Read More
Big miners operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo took President Joseph Kabila's word seriously.Less than a week ago, Kabila signed into law a new mining code that raises royalties and taxes on operators. As he did so, the President assured them that their questions around the legal instrument would be resolved through transitional arrangements, mining regulations and agreements, and guaran...Read More
Suncor Energy (TSX:SU), Canada's largest oil and gas producer by market capitalization, said Wednesday an eight-week maintenance project at its Syncrude facility will begin Thursday almost three weeks ahead than originally planned.The Calgary-based company said advancing the turnaround will allow Syncrude to deal with an unrelated issue, which has been limiting capacity on a line that feeds bitum...Read More
A mixture of cyanide and copper, when irradiated with UV light, could have produced simple sugars that formed the building blocks of life on early Earth. This is according to Harvard graduate student Zoe Todd and Dimitar Sasselov, the Phillips Professor of Astronomy and director of the Harvard Origins of Life Initiative.In a paper published this week in the journal Chemical Communications, the res...Read More
Anglo American's De Beers, the world's largest rough diamond producer by value, and its partner in Gahcho Ku?(C) mine, Mountain Province, are seeking to acquire a Canadian explorer and so expand their jointed operation in Canada's far north.Toronto-based Kennady Diamonds (TSX-V:KDI) owns the Kennady North project, located immediately adjacent to the De Beers/Mountain Province mine.If the proposed...Read More
Shares in Eldorado Gold (TSX:ELD)(NYSE:EGO) were down on Thursday after the company reported a Q4 loss and technical studies for its Ki??lada??, Lamaque and Skouries mines.In a press release, the Vancouver-based miner stated that, due to a 20 per cent y-o-y fall in sales volumes, its adjusted Q4 loss came in at $400,000 compared to $2.9 million in earnings in the year-ago quarter. In detail, sales...Read More
THUNDER BAY, Ontario, March 22, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - One of the most ambitious and transformative infrastructure projects in Canada's history got the green light today with the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario announcing funding for the Wataynikaneyap Power Transmission Line Project ("the Project") in the aggregate amount of $1.6 billion. The funding framework allows for a v...Read More
LONDON, March 23 (Reuters) - Britain has rejected plans for a new open cast coal mine in northeastern England, as it could hamper efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and curb climate change, the minister for local government said on Friday.Supporters of the project had said it could bring much needed jobs to the region, while environmental campaigners said it would go against Britain's comm...Read More
A report made public today by the Associated Press reveals that an internal accounting of the claims submitted to the EPA in connection to the Gold King mine spill appears to be off by $100 million.Under an open records request, AP obtained a spreadsheet from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that shows that the claims for economic losses and personal injuries from the 2015 spill totalled m...Read More
BHP's Escondida copper mine in Chile, the world's largest, said on Wednesday that it has invited its powerful workers' union to start early talks on a new collective labor contract.Last year, a more than month-long strike at Escondida ended with workers opting to extend their previous contract through July 31 of this year instead of replacing it.New negotiations are scheduled for June, but BHP sai...Read More
Canada's First Cobalt Corp. (TSX-V:FCC) (ASX:FCC) is strengthening its position in the cobalt market by acquiring explorer US Cobalt and so create a pure-play North American-focused miner of the metal, a key component in computer chips, mobile phones and lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles (EVs).The blended company will have projects in Ontario and Idaho which, once in operations, c...Read More
Shares in Canada's First Quantum Minerals (TSX:FM) rebounded slightly on Wednesday, dodging what was about to become their worst two-day drop in almost two years after its chief executive said he was ready to dispute a $7.9 billion bill for alleged unpaid import duties in Zambia.Talking to investors and media during a call conference, Philip Pascall said his company refuted the charge and would wo...Read More
(Bloomberg) - First Quantum Minerals Ltd. plunged the most in almost two years as the miner was hit with a $7.9 billion tax bill by Zambia, which accounts for 84 percent of its revenue.First Quantum received a letter from the Zambian Revenue Authority dated Monday "noting an assessment for import duties, penalties and interest on consumables and spare parts," it said Tuesday in a statement. "The...Read More
(Bloomberg) - One by one, the biggest names in African mining are getting squeezed. The tactics might be blunt, but the message is clear: the countries where they operate want a bigger share of the proceeds.The collapse in commodities through 2015 hobbled some of Africa's biggest resource economies, stunting growth and leaving budgets short. Since then a recovery in prices has sent the continent'...Read More
Canada-listed Fura Gems (TSX-V:FUR), a new gemstone mining and marketing company headed by the former COO of Gemfields (LON:GEM), has kicked off initial production at its Coscuez emerald mine in Colombia.The early output of 1,720 carats of emeralds, including 826 carats of top quality ones, was achieved through a bulk-sampling program carried out within eight weeks of the completing the acquisiti...Read More
Shares in Africa-focused Gem Diamonds (LON:GEMD) jumped as much as 6.5% on Wednesday after the miner revealed it had dug up yet another big rock at its flagship Let??eng mine in Lesotho.The 169-carat, top white colour, Type IIa rock is seventh diamond of over 100 carats the company has recovered so far this year at the mine, the world's highest dollar per carat.The finding comes barely a day af...Read More
A month after closing the acquisition of Rapier Gold, GFG Resources (TSX-V:GFG) announced the launching of an aggressive exploration program at the Abitibi greenstone belt, which is located west of Timmins, Ontario. In a press release, the Saskatoon-based company said that the fully funded, C$3 million exploration program will be conducted 30 kilometres west of the Timmins West gold mine and will...Read More
Goldman Sachs lost its place among the top three earners of commodities-related revenue in 2017, falling below rivals JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Citibank for the first time, data from analytics firm Coalition showed.U.S.-based investment bank Goldman has been among the top three since Coalition started compiling the figures in 2010, having a longstanding reputation for generating revenue from co...Read More