Short news metals
January 10, 2013 Category Automotive Metals & Minerals, Short news metals
- Hebei Iron and Steel Group, China’s biggest steelmaker, will lead a group to buy Rio Tinto Group’s Palabora Mining Co in South Africa for about USD476 million. Rio will sell 57.7% for USD373 million to the group, which includes Industrial Development Corp of South Africa. Anglo American will divest a 16.8% holding for USD103 million. Hebei Steel makes up 35% of the group, General Nice Development has 25%, Industrial Corp of South Africa 20%, and China’s Tewoo Group another 20%. Palabora Mining has magnetite resources used in making steel.
- Two workers were killed and another 13 injured in December after a ladle furnace at MCC Baosteel Technology Service Co in Shanghai toppled as the workers were removing slag from the furnace. The injured workers suffered severe burns.
- Chinalco is planning to level the Toromocho mountain in Peru to exploit is resources of copper, silver and molybdenum worth up to USD50 billion. The town of Morococha, home to 5,000 people, will be relocated, although some villagers do not want to leave. Mayor Marcial Salomé wants Chinalco to pay compensation of USD300 million to the town for the “loss of identity, culture and tradition” from the move. Chinalco bought the land for USD860 million and invested USD2.2 billion in the mine. The old town will be swallowed up by the opencast mine’s crater, from which will be extracted 1 million tons of copper, 10,000 tons of molybdenum and 4 million ounces of silver every year for 35 years.
- China’s steel industry is facing a problem of overcapacity, with steel prices at 1994 levels. “The steel industry is facing an increasingly difficult time, and the surplus capacity is worsening,” said Zhang Changfu, Secretary General of the China Iron & Steel Association (CISA), at the annual meeting of mysteel.com, a steel industry website. The sales margins of China’s major steelmakers averaged a negative 0.18% in the first 10 months of last year, and overall the steel industry is at break-even point, Zhang said.
- Chongqing Iron & Steel says the Chongqing government is granting it CNY500 million in compensation for the forced relocation of its plant to help protect the city’s environment. The firm’s parent, Chongqing Iron & Steel (Group), has undertaken to help it obtain at least CNY1.5 billion from the government to offset the operating losses incurred during the relocation.
- China National Gold Group Corp, the country’s largest gold producer, said in its annual report that its sales reached CNY100.6 billion in 2012, up 27.1% from 2011. Profits of CNY4.45 billion were down CNY55 million year-on-year. Total assets had hit a record-high CNY65 billion by the end of the year, up CNY11.5 billion from a year earlier. The company’s gold reserves reached 1,758 tons, up 374 tons from the previous year.
- The world’s biggest gold producer, Canada’s Barrick Gold, said it had called off talks to sell some of its African assets to China National Gold, a state-owned firm that is the country’s biggest gold miner. Barrick did not give a reason for the failure of the deal, which had been estimated to be worth up to USD3.9 billion.
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