TOP NEWS
Major Yancoal Australia Ltd. shareholder Noble Group Ltd. is planning to challenge the former's planned US$2.5 billion equity raising and will lodge an objection with Australia's Takeovers Panel as early as Aug. 3, The Australian wrote. Noble's 13.2% Yancoal stake could be drastically diluted if it does not participate in the latter's rights issue, as the embattled trading house is facing financial constraints and is selling assets to service impending debt obligations.
China's Shandong province to cut aluminum smelter capacity by 30%
Shares of aluminum producers in China surged after the Shandong province decided to cut smelter capacity by 30% in four months, starting mid-November, which is expected to shrink aluminum production by 860,000 tonnes, the South China Morning Post reported.
State-owned Shenhua Group, China Guodian mull merger
Shenhua Group Corp. Ltd. and China Guodian Corp. have submitted a merger plan between the two state-owned majors to the country's State Council, Chinese news agency Jiemian reported, citing a speech by Guan Weizhu, the head of safety production at China Guodian. The new group will be tentatively named National Energy Investment Group, with total assets estimated at over 1.8 trillion yuan and a debt ratio of more than 60%.
DIVERSIFIED
* BC Hydro and Power Authority exercised its right of first offer to buy Teck Resources Ltd.'s two-thirds stake in the 496-MW Waneta Dam in British Columbia for C$1.2 billion cash.
BASE METALS
* Taseko Mines Ltd. posted a C$5.2 million net income in the second quarter, swinging from a net loss of C$19.4 million in the year-ago quarter. Revenue for the company jumped to C$100 million in the three months, from C$55.1 million a year ago.
* A preliminary economic assessment for Solitario Exploration & Royalty Corp.'s and Cía. Minera Milpo SAA's zinc-lead-silver joint venture project in Peru, Florida Canyon, outlined an after-tax net present value of US$198 million, at an 8% discount rate, and an internal rate of return of 24.7%.
* Padaeng Industry PCL stopped zinc production at its smelter in the province of Tak as it looks to discontinue operations at the facility, which has a capacity of 110,000 tonnes per year, Metal Bulletin reported.
* Nyrstar NV's loss in the first half narrowed to €21 million from €242 million in the same period of 2016, with underlying EBITDA rising 23% to €111 million, driven by a 50% increase in the average zinc price and a stronger U.S. dollar.
* Nyrstar's sell-off of zinc mines could be extended after the company rejected "seriously undervalued" offers for the assets, CEO Hilmar Rode said during a conference call, adding that the company will divest the assets if the right offer comes, Metal Bulletin reported.
* Liquidators are trying to freeze A$200 million of Clive Palmer's assets in a bid to recover millions in taxpayer funds used to pay out the laid off Queensland Nickel Inc. workers, the Australian Associated Press reported.
PRECIOUS METALS
* Randgold Resources Ltd.'s profit attributable to shareholders surged to US$84.0 million in the second quarter, from US$49.0 million a year ago. Gold sales for the period, meanwhile, jumped to US$422.1 million from US$354.4 million in the prior-year quarter, on the back of higher sales volumes.
* Centamin Plc's profit attributable to shareholders dropped to US$12.7 million in the three months ended June 30, from a profit of US$72.6 million in the same year-ago period. Revenue in the quarter dropped to US$151.3 million, from US$180.1 million, as quarterly gold sales dropped to 120,912 ounces, from 141,802 ounces, on a yearly basis.
* The construction of Kingsgate Consolidated Ltd.'s Arqueros gold-silver project in Chile will begin in the first or second half of 2018, with operations starting in 2019, according to Leonardo Hermosilla, general manager and vice president for corporate project development of Kingsgate subsidiary Laguna Resources, Portal Minero wrote.
* Canyon Copper Corp. staked a total of 2,851 hectares contiguous to its Bootleg Lake gold project in Saskatchewan, boosting the project's land area by 329% to 3,718 hectares.
* The uncertainty surrounding South Africa's mining charter has stalled Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd.'s long-running talks to purchase AngloGold Ashanti Ltd.'s South African assets, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The sources value the assets targeted for acquisition at between US$500 million and US$650 million.
* Zhaojin Mining Industry Co. Ltd. intends to issue short-term bonds in China of up to 8.0 billion Chinese yuan. The funds will mainly be used for production and operations of the company, including replenishing liquidity and repaying borrowings.
* Kinross Gold Corp. booked attributable net earnings of US$33.1 million, or 3 U.S. cents per share, for the second quarter, shifting from an attributable net loss of US$25.0 million, or 2 cents per share, in the same quarter of 2016. Quarterly production rose to 694,874 gold equivalent ounces from 671,267 gold equivalent ounces a year earlier, and all-in sustaining cost declined to US$910 per ounce from US$988 per ounce.
* McEwen Mining Inc. produced 22,191 ounces of gold and 779,487 ounces of silver in the second quarter, down from 27,888 ounces gold and 875,006 ounces silver produced in the year-ago quarter.
* Pure Gold Mining Inc. initiated a revised preliminary economic assessment for the Madsen gold project in northwestern Ontario after a 48% increase in contained indicated resources.
* Goldcorp Inc. completed the acquisition of all issued and outstanding common shares of Exeter Resource Corp. that it does not already own via a plan of arrangement.
* Ardiden Ltd. signed an option to acquire the Pickle Lake gold project in Ontario from White Metal Resources Corp. for cash and shares.
BULK COMMODITIES
* Ferrexpo Plc posted a profit attributable to shareholders of US$215.1 million, or 36.72 U.S. cents per share, for the first half of the year, swelling from the year-ago profit of US$77.1 million, or 13.17 cents apiece. The company's net finance expense shrunk to US$27.8 million in the six-month period, from US$37.9 million a year ago, and it realized a non-operating foreign exchange gain of US$6.6 million for the half, swinging from a year-ago loss of US$2.5 million.
* Israel Chemicals Ltd. booked net income attributable to shareholders of US$57 million in the second quarter, dropping to less than half of the US$120 million net income recorded a year ago. Sales for the company slid to US$1.32 billion in the three-month period, from US$1.38 billion in the same prior-year quarter, mainly due to lower sales volumes and lower selling prices for phosphate fertilizers.
* Lindian Resources Ltd. entered a binding heads of agreement to earn a 75% interest in Batan Australia Pty Ltd.'s Lushoto bauxite project in northeastern Tanzania.
* Mitsubishi Corp.'s metals segment booked consolidated net income of ¥50.7 billion for the quarter that ended June 30, up from ¥14.7 billion a year ago, thanks to higher commodity prices received by its iron ore and coal businesses.
* Marubeni Corp.'s energy and metals business segment booked an attributable net profit of ¥7.19 billion in the first quarter of its fiscal 2018, swinging from a loss of about ¥5.0 billion booked a year earlier. The company attributed the unit's results to improved profits from its Chilean copper and Australian coal businesses, driven by higher prices, along with improved margins in the LNG field.
* Sojitz Corp.'s metals and coal division posted a profit attributable to the company of ¥4.17 billion for its fiscal first quarter that ended June 30, swinging from a year-ago loss of ¥360 million.
* Metinvest BV's second-quarter crude steel output declined year over year to about 1.9 million tonnes from 2.2 million tonnes, impacted by the loss of assets to separatist fighters in east Ukraine.
* AK Steel Holding Corp. said its AK Steel Corp. unit will raise US$280 million through the issues of senior notes due in 2025.
* Tata Steel Ltd.'s Tata Steel UK Ltd. unit completed the sale of its steel pipe mills in Hartlepool, U.K., to Liberty House.
* India's National Company Law Tribunal accepted petitions from Essar Steel India Ltd.'s lenders to initiate insolvency proceedings against the debt-laden steelmaker, Metal Bulletin reported.
* Rio Tinto CFO Christopher Lynch said the company is making good progress in selling its stakes in the Simandou iron ore project in Guinea, though talks are still underway given the complexity of the deal, Reuters reported.
* Fluor Corp. was awarded a project and construction management services contract by BHP Billiton Group for the South Flank iron ore project in Western Australia's Pilbara region.
SPECIALTY
* Liontown Resources Ltd. exercised an option to acquire the Bynoe lithium project in Northern Territory, Australia, by purchasing tenure that it not did already own from Orema Pty. Ltd. for A$100,000.
* Brazil's Odebrecht SA agreed to off-load its 16.4% stake in an Angolan diamond mine to partners as it seeks to raise 12 billion Brazilian reais cash by the end of 2018, Reuters reported, citing sources with knowledge of the transaction.
* MGX Minerals Inc. entered a binding letter of intent to acquire all of Power Metals Corp.'s U.S. petrolithium brine assets, as well as a 20% working interest in the latter's current hard rock assets and any future assets acquired for the next three years.
* Azarga Uranium Corp.'s 70%-controlled UrAsia in Kyrgyzstan LLC subsidiary granted Mining Investment Co. Alliance an earn-in option to acquire the Kyzyl-Ompul uranium project in Kyrgyzstan.
The Daily Dose is updated as of 7 a.m. London time, and scans news sources published in Chinese, English, Indonesian, Malay, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai and Ukrainian. Some external links may require a subscription.