Short news minerals
January 9, 2014 Category Automotive Metals & Minerals, Short news minerals
- China’s largest aluminum producer Chinalco has dropped out of the race for Glencore Xstrata’s USD5.9 billion Las Bambas copper mine in Peru, leaving Minmetals Group (MMG) as the front-runner. It was expected that China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) wouldn’t allow for two competing bids. Chinalco is already present in Peru with its Toromocho copper mine, but MMG was seen as having more experience of integrating large Western businesses, sources said.
- Chinese companies are on the hunt to buy overseas coal mines as Beijing’s switch to cleaner fuels stokes demand for higher-quality coal produced in countries such as Australia. These include Australian and Mozambique coal operations of Rio Tinto, and Linc Energy, which is selling its New Emerald Coal business. But they are not rushing to buy as they expect coal mine prices to drop further in the coming months. As part of new cleaner-energy policies, China will push the use of better-quality coal. Private Chinese company China Kingho Energy has offered a hefty 110% premium in a AUD66 million bid for Australian coal explorer Carabella Resources.
- Iron ore exports to China from Australia’s Port Hedland, which handles about a fifth of the global seaborne market, rose 38% in November from the same month last year in another sign of solid Chinese demand. Shipments to China amounted to 22.3 million tons, compared with 16.2 million a year earlier.
- An explosion on December 13 killed 21 workers at the Baiyanggou coal mine in Xinjiang. 34 miners were working underground at the time of the explosion, 12 workers managed to escape but 22 were trapped by the blast. Only one of the trapped miners survived the explosion.
- Liang Jingli, Chairman of state-owned Guangxi Liuzhou Iron and Steel (Group), is under investigation for “severe violation of discipline”, by the government of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the firm’s Shanghai-listed subsidiary, Liuzhou Iron and Steel, said on December 3.
- Rare earth producers nationwide are being encouraged by the government’s economic authorities to consolidate into six groups: the North Rare Earth Group; China Minmetals Corp; Aluminum Corp of China; Ganzhou Rare Earth Group Co; China National Nonferrous Metals Industry Guangzhou Corp; and Xiamen Tungsten Co. The six groups are mainly based in major manufacturing areas in Baotou in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Ganzhou in Jiangxi province, Guangdong province and Fujian province.
- The number of deaths related to mining in China declined by 24% in 2013, the government said. China has the world’s deadliest coal mines, and authorities have made it a priority to improve safety by enforcing rules. The central government said there were 589 mining accidents last year, leaving 1,049 people dead or missing.
- Minority shareholders of China Resources Power Holdings (CRP) have accused its Directors of lying about the extent of its control over a coal joint venture, which was the center of an alleged breach of fiduciary duties by Directors, the Hong Kong High Court heard.
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