While Vedanta cheered over South Africa's recent court ruling against the Zambian government's liquidation of its majority-owned Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), Zambian officials rebuked the decision and denied the enforceability of the foreign ruling that determines the future of the country's largest copper smelting assets. The South Gauteng High Court on Tuesday July 23 granted Vedanta an urgent in...Read More
Ground preparation for a new copper smelter in Indonesia is in progress, with construction expected to begin in 2020, according to Freeport-McMoRan, one of the project's joint venture partners. The smelter is part of a package agreed by Freeport to extend the mining rights of its Indonesian unit PT-FI from 2031 to 2041. Under the terms of the agreement, PT-FI is committed to construct a new smelte...Read More
A summary of Southern Copper Corp's results for the second quarter of 2019. In brief Mined copper output in the second quarter surged year on year, attributed to a production ramp-up at Toquepala mine's concentrator in Peru and increased efficiency at the Buenavista unit. Zinc production fell due to lower output at the Mexican mines of Charcas and Santa Eulalia which offset growth at t...Read More
The domestic prices for hollow steel sections in both Northern and Southern Europe widened this week, with increases proposed for trading done after the summer break, sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday July 24.Fastmarkets' price assessment for steel sections (medium), domestic, delivered Northern Europe, was ?,?615-630 ($687-704) per tonne on Wednesday, widening downward from ?,?620-630 per ton...Read More
Activity in the European hot-rolled coil (HRC) market has been limited over the past week due to high stocks at distributors and poor demand from end users, sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday July 24.And demand is expected to slow down further in August due to traditional market cycle, with European steelmakers usually scheduling maintenances for the second half of summer and buyers preferring...Read More
RAPAPORT... Oprah Winfrey or Victoria Beckham? Rapaport Magazine asked four industry members to name the celebrity whose bling they would love to access. Here are their answers.Elisabeth Austin Founder, DiamondRunway.comDo I get to "keep" or do I only get to "borrow" from myraid? It raises questions, as I typically see the private citizenry to bericher with inspired collectors than the celebr...Read More
RAPAPORT... Nonprofit organization Mercury Free Mining (MFM) hasorganized a global challenge campaign to eliminate the use of the dangerous metal in the industry,with the winning idea earning a $1 million prize, it said Tuesday. More than 15 million artisanal gold miners inadvertentlyrelease 8,000 pounds of mercury into the environment every day, causingirreversible neurological damage, MFM e...Read More
RAPAPORT... De Beers is studying how to eliminate the carbon footprintof diamond mining by storing the emissions inside kimberlite, it saidWednesday. The miner recently received a government grant of CAD675,000 ($514,000) to test the process at its Gahcho Ku?(C) mine in Canada, havingcarried out successful laboratory experiments. The project involves injecting carbondioxide into processed kim...Read More
RAPAPORT... The French Association of Gemmology (AFG) will hold aconference in Paris on the state of the diamond industry, it said Monday.The 18th Paris Gemmological Rendez Vous - whichwill take place on September 9 - will cover topics including diamondmining, the current state of the market, colored diamonds, and the gemologicaland historical aspects of natural diamonds. Martin Rapaport, Cha...Read More
RAPAPORT... Gem Diamonds has recovered a diamond weighing 123.5carats, its third white stone over 100 carats this year, and its second thismonth. It found the high-quality, type II stone at its Let??eng minein Lesotho on July 20, the company said Tuesday. The miner also unearthed a140-carat white diamond from the deposit on July 6, and a 161-carat stone inMarch. In total, the company has ret...Read More
The price for rebar produced and delivered in Southern Europe was unchanged week on week, with Italian mills continuing their attempts to raise prices before the traditional August holiday period, sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday July 24."We are chasing a demand that is lacking. Buyers are reluctant to place new orders until they have a clear perspective on the price direction," one Southern...Read More
The price of domestic rebar produced and delivered in Northern Europe has been unchanged over the past week amid limited market activity, sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday July 24.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, delivered Northern Europe, was ?,?500-520 ($559-581) per tonne on Wednesday, unchanged from one week earlier on July 17."We have not c...Read More
RAPAPORT... Botswana Diamonds has raised the funds needed to continueoperations, and expects to hold its first sale by the fourth quarter. The company, which has struggled with challenges that hitits bottom line, had questioned itsability to continue as a going concern. It had previously recorded losses due to currency fluctuations, an impairment charge, and the cost of buying Alrosa out of a...Read More
Steel H-beam prices in Northern and Southern Europe remained flat this week, with market conditions quiet during the summer, sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday July 24.This week, market participants reported good demand despite the usual summer slowdown as well as lower stock levels. Prices were expected to remain stable during August.Fastmarkets assessed the price for steel beams, domestic, de...Read More
Iranian producers were spurred to raise their export offer prices at the end of July after several weeks of active trading left them with reduced availability of material for foreign sales, Fastmarkets heard on Wednesday July 24.Offers of Iranian billet from August rolling were limited, while some producers had already started to offer September-rolling volumes, according to market participants. O...Read More
Severalmaz, the Lomonosov mining and processing division of Alrosa, said that in the first half of this year, it had increased its production with 21 percent to more than 1.9 million carats of rough diamonds, 340,000 carats more than in the same period of 2018. In January-June, the Lomonosov mining and processing division mined 1.8 million tons of ore and processed almost 1.7 million tons. More th...Read More
LSE-listed Petra Diamonds delivered solid results for the financial year ended June 30, despite a difficult market environment, while it continues its transition from a period of high capital investment to a steady-state operational phase, CE Richard Duffy said on Monday.“The focus in the short term is on driving efficiencies across the business through Project 2022 to provide a stable, cons...Read More
De Beers Group's carbon-capture research at the Gahcho Kue mine in Canada has received a funding boost following the award of a C$675,000 grant from Natural Resources Canada's Clean Growth Program towards pioneering research in partnership focused on delivering carbon-neutral diamond mining. The project in Canada is part of a De Beers Group global research program that includes studies,...Read More
Turkey produced 16.994 million tonnes of crude steel in January-June 2019, down 10.14% on the 18.912 million tonnes produced in the first six months of 2018.According to the Turkish Steel Producers Association (T???oeD), the fall in output was largely due to the negative sentiment that has been dominating Turkey's domestic steel market since August 2018 when the country's lira lost significan...Read More
In response to the severe global health and ecological impacts resulting from the use of mercury by artisanal gold miners (ASGM), a major new effort to address this issue is being launched by Mercury Free Mining (MFM). https://www.mercuryfreemining.org/ More than 15 million subsistence gold miners inadvertently release 8,000 pounds of mercury into the environment every day causing irreversib...Read More