Short news minerals
September 26, 2013 Category Automotive Metals & Minerals, Short news minerals
- The Philippines in August detained 18 Chinese men on suspicion of illegal magnetite mining in the northern coastal town of Aparri. Investigators raided two mine sites run by Chinese firm Hua Xia Mining and Trading Corp. The company had a permit to dredge magnetite from a nearby river but not from the coast. It is illegal to extract any minerals within 200 meters of a beach under Philippine law.
- Authorities have launched a three-month campaign from August 15 till November 15 to reduce illegal exploration, production and distribution of rare earth metals and regulate rare earth recycling enterprises, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said. During previous crackdowns conducted in 2011 and 2012, respectively, 14 unauthorized mines were closed and 14 smuggling cases were investigated.
- The Baotou Rare Earth Products Exchange, China’s first national trading platform of its kind, is expected to go into use on a trial basis in October. The exchange will handle spot trading for rare earth products and will not engage in any business related to futures at present. The exchange is also expected to introduce a rare earth product price index in the future.
- Steel-to-property conglomerate Citic Pacific has warned of the possibility of further delays in commissioning the second production line of its over-budget iron-ore project in Australia, after posting a lower interim profit, which dropped 18.6% year-on-year to HKD4.46 billion. Turnover dropped 14.3% to HKD41.29 billion. The net loss of its Australian iron-ore project widened to HKD1.05 billion from HKD110 million in the year earlier period because it began to book interest expenses when mine production began. The iron-ore project, delayed three years and over budget at least three times its original estimate, has been hobbled by technical problems since it was commissioned late last year.
- Sinopec Engineering, the plant construction arm oft China Petrochemical, says orders for coal-to-chemical projects – its fastest-growing sales driver – are backed by the government despite carbon emissions and water scarcity concerns. “Our CNY101 billion of outstanding orders are backed by real contracts, and the projects have received various government approvals,” said President Yan Shaochun. The company’s net profit for the first half rose 10.8% to CNY2.21 billion. Sales from the coal-to-chemicals segment jumped 65% to CNY3.7 billion.
- China Coal Energy, the listed unit of China’s second largest coal producer China National Coal Group, posted a 38% drop in interim profit, hurt by lower coal prices. Net profit for the year’s first six months was CNY3.2 billion, down from CNY5.2 billion in the year-earlier period. Turnover fell 11.6% to CNY40.4 billion, on the back of a 12% decline in the self-produced commercial coal selling price to CNY436 per ton despite a 3.3% increase in coal sales to 7.5 million tons during the reported period.
- IRC, a developer of iron-ore mines in Russia’s Far East serving the northeast China market, is in talks with potential financiers to fund two projects involving an investment of USD540 million. The firm led by British entrepreneur Jay Hambro aimed to raise 20% to 30% of the funds by issuing shares and the rest by other means such as bank loans.
- China Shenhua Energy expects coal demand to remain lackluster in the second half of the year and supply to fall. The company’s interim profit fell 7% to CNY24.9 billion. Power demand, the main factor driving coal use, grew 4.4% year-on-year in the first half, compared with 4.8% last year and 11.7% in 2011. Turnover grew 4.7% to CNY127.2 billion, on the back of a 9.3% rise in coal sales to 242.7 million tons and a 3% rise in electricity sales to CNY37.1 billion.
- Mongolia will have a better chance of regaining its position as the top exporter of coal used to smelt steel in China after a railway is completed in late 2015, according to Battsengel Gotov, Chief Executive of Mongolian Mining. Mongolia lost its leading export position to Australia in the first half of the year with its coking coal exports to China falling 36% to 6 million tons. Australia’s exports to China doubled to 13.3 million tons. Despite the shorter distance to China’s steel mills, a lack of efficient transport by rail meant that Mongolian coal trucked to the Chinese border lost market share to seaborne Australian coal.
- Sinoma International Engineering, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed China National Materials (Sinoma), is acquiring a 59.09% majority stake in German mining equipment firm Hazemag & EPR for HKD1.06 billion. Hazemag makes, trades and services components and facilities used in minerals processing and preparation, process technologies, and machines used in drilling, loading and transport in underground coal mines. Hazemag’s post-tax profit for last year was €7.67 million.
- China has become the only nation authorized by the 165-member International Seabed Authority to explore seabeds for as many as three major types of minerals. In 2001 China first secured the rights to explore for polymetallic nodules in the northeast Pacific in 2001, and for polymetallic sulphide deposits in the southwest Indian Ocean two years ago. China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association (Comra) clinched the latest contract, along with the earlier contracts in 2001 and 2011. The goal is to mine cobalt crusts, which are rich in iron, and hydroxide deposits containing significant concentrations of cobalt, titanium, nickel, platinum, molybdenum, tellurium, cerium and other metals and rare earth elements.
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