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Zimbabwe to allocate former Zimplats land to Karo's US$4.2B project

TOP NEWS

Zimbabwe to allocate former Zimplats land to Karo's US$4.2B project

The land forfeited by Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. unit Zimplats Holdings Ltd. in Zimbabwe will be used by Karo Resources for its planned US$4.2 billion platinum project in the country, Bloomberg News wrote, citing Zimbabwean Mines Minister Winston Chitando.

Fortescue takes up 19.9% stake in Atlas Iron

Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. secured a 19.9% stake in Atlas Iron Ltd. by acquiring 15% of the latter's common shares at 4 Australian cents apiece and another 4.9% through a cash-settled swap relating to notional shares. The company said it will not support Mineral Resources Ltd.'s proposed all-share play for Atlas.

More Australian aluminum could head to US, experts say

Australia could end up sending more aluminum to the U.S. following the Trump administration's decision to lift temporary exemptions on tariffs for the EU, Canada and Mexico, according to Wood Mackenzie's aluminum research head and the Australian government. Wood Mackenzie's London-based head of aluminum markets research, Uday Patel, told S&P Global Market Intelligence that more metal may come from Australia into the U.S. due to remaining exemptions that apply to Australia, but much will depend on the economics.

DIVERSIFIED

* Rio Tinto and China Minmetals Corp. formalized a deal to establish a 50/50 exploration joint venture in China. The venture will have a registered capital of 200 million Chinese yuan.

* Glencore PLC and Off The Shelf Investments Fifty Six (RF) Pty. Ltd. are in the running to purchase Chevron Corp.'s South African assets in a 50/50 joint deal estimated to be worth US$900 million, a source familiar with the matter told S&P Global Market Intelligence.

BASE METALS

* Cameo Cobalt Corp., formerly Cameo Resources Corp., signed a letter of intent to acquire a 456-hectare property in Chile's Carrizal Alto district.

* Copper miner OZ Minerals Ltd.'s takeover offer for Avanco Resources Ltd. has received acceptances of 43.5%, and the offer is now unconditional.

* A key shareholder of Nevsun Resources Ltd., Adrian Day Asset Management, urged the miner to enter into "good-faith negotiations with any suitor" regarding a proposed takeover, Reuters reported. Nevsun recently rejected a C$1.5 billion joint bid from Lundin Mining Corp. and Euro Sun Mining Inc., saying the bid did not value the company appropriately and was structured in a way that was "highly problematic."

* Separately, an environmental tribunal in Chile rejected a claim filed by Lundin's Candelaria copper mine in northern Chile against a November 2016 sanction by environmental regulator SMA over a series of breaches of its environmental permit. The court ordered the company to pay a fine of about 2.8 billion Chilean pesos, daily El Mercurio reported.

* Metals X Ltd. expects to achieve the targeted production rate at its Nifty copper mine in Western Australia of 40,000 tonnes per annum by the end of the year despite the delay in the timing of production ramp-up. In the September quarter, the company is targeting a production rate of 35,000 tonnes per annum.

* The Michilla copper mine will resume operations in the first quarter of 2019, said José Miguel Ibáñez, general manager of Haldeman Mining Co. SA, which acquired the mine in 2016 for US$52 million from Antofagasta PLC. The project already received the environmental permit and now needs to obtain specific sector permits, Ibáñez said, daily El Mercurio de Antofagasta reported.

* Clive Palmer claimed that his Queensland, Australia-based companies own a combined A$6 billion of cobalt in tailings, which contain 69,000 tonnes of contained metal, Australian Mining reported.

PRECIOUS METALS

* Sibanye Gold Ltd. expects to generate US$500 million from a streaming deal in the U.S. and potentially another structure worth US$100 million relating to the inventory held at its recycling business in the U.S. as a way to address debt concerns, Business Day reported.

* PJSC Polyus estimates Russia's largest untapped gold deposit, Sukhoi Log, to have an average annual output of 1.6 million ounces of gold at a cash cost of US$420/oz to US$470/oz.

* Two mine workers were found dead at the Cieneguita gold-silver complex in Chihuahua, Mexico, after a June 4 dam collapse swept away workers and machinery, Reuters reported. Authorities earlier said seven workers were missing after the incident.

* According to The Australia Financial Review's Street Talk, JPMorgan was looking for buyers for A$156.9 million of Aurelia Metals Ltd. shares, or about 37% of the miner's outstanding capital, on behalf of private equity firm Pacific Road Capital. The shares are being offered at 50 Australian cents apiece, equivalent to a 14.5% discount to the previous day's closing price, according to the report.

* Gold Fields Ltd. agreed to earn up to a 70% joint venture interest in tenements in the western portion of Lefroy Exploration Ltd.'s namesake gold project in Western Australia.

* Matsa Resources Ltd. received the final approval for the mining proposal, mine closure plan and project management plan for its Red Dog gold project in Western Australia, completing the project's permitting process and allowing mining to start immediately.

* Members of the Gull Bay First Nation agreed to end the blockade of the Lac des Iles palladium mine in Ontario after reaching an agreement with North American Palladium Ltd. The parties will negotiate a more detailed participation agreement in the near future.

* Goldcorp Inc. signed an impact benefit agreement with three First Nation communities in northern Ontario for development of its Borden Lake project, which is set to contribute ore to its Porcupine mill starting in 2019.

* A preliminary economic assessment for Deer Horn Capital Inc.'s namesake gold-silver-tellurium project in British Columbia pegged an after-tax net present value of C$36.5 million, at a 5% discount rate, and an internal rate of return of 42%.

* Jubilee Metals Group PLC said its Hernic platinum-chrome tailings project in South Africa achieved record production of 2,101 ounces of platinum group metals in May, taking the total for second quarter's first two months to 3,972 ounces. Meanwhile, the first PGM material delivery under an April agreement with Northam Platinum Ltd. is scheduled for June.

* The gold market could be using bitcoin-style technology to track a nearly US$200 billion supply chain by 2019, Bloomberg News wrote.

BULK COMMODITIES

* The German government named the members of a commission to develop a plan for phasing out the country's reliance on coal for power generation, EURACTIV wrote. The plan will aim to protect the environment and jobs in the affected sectors.

* Ontario-based Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. and Baffinland Iron Mines LP announced a cash tender offer to purchase any and all of the 12.00% senior secured notes due 2022, which have C$350.0 million outstanding.

* Thiess was awarded a A$160 million contract extension at Coronado Coal Group's Curragh coal mine in Queensland, Australia, Australian Mining reported. As part of the contract, Thiess is required to mine about 45 million bank cubic meters of waste and coal at Curragh's North Pit until June 2019.

* The retail and business community lauded bipartisan legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate that would require President Donald Trump to gain congressional approval before imposing tariffs on global trading partners.

* The European Commission plans to apply tariffs on about €2.8 billion of U.S. products including makeup, bourbon, steel and motorcycles starting in July in response to Washington's levies on steel and aluminum products.

* Phosphate producer Itafos closed a previously announced, four-year, US$165 million secured term loan facility from a syndicate of lenders. The funds will be used to cover cash requirements of the Arraias phosphate operations in Brazil and the Conda phosphate operations in the U.S. and to develop other phosphate projects, including Paris Hills in the U.S. and Farim in Guinea-Bissau.

* Labor representatives of ThyssenKrupp AG again expressed concerns over the company's planned joint venture with Tata Steel Ltd.'s European business, citing the recent drop in the latter's profits, Bloomberg News wrote.

* Kommersant reported that PJSC Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant, owned by Ural Mining & Metallurgical Co., announced the sale of U.K.-based Brock Metal Co. Ltd., which provided the plant with about 20% of its revenues. The British asset does not depend on supplies from the Chelyabinsk zinc plant and brought few dividends, the source said. Analysts estimate the deal to be valued at between £15 million and £20 million. Brock Metal was sold to Luxembourg-based NFM Alloyz SA on May 31, the company said, without disclosing details.

* The closure of the Navajo coal plant in Arizona, scheduled for 2019, may be delayed as the U.S. Interior Department is considering using executive powers to force a water project in the state to purchase power from the plant, Reuters reported.

* The Queensland Minister for Natural Resources, Mines and Energy Anthony Lynham denied an ABC report that said the state is still considering funding an estimated A$100 million upfront cost of road access for Adani Enterprises Ltd.'s Carmichael coal project, Australian Mining reported.

* Seriti Resources Pty. Ltd. is interested in buying the assets and quotas of Gupta family-owned Optimum Coal Holdings Ltd. in South Africa as it looks to move into exporting coal, Reuters reported, citing CEO Mike Teke.

* North China's Hebei province intends to close 22 coal mines this year, phasing out more than 12 million tonnes of coal production capacity, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

* Australian Federal Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg approved the development of Forward Mining Ltd.'s Rogetta iron ore mine in Tasmania, Mining Weekly reported. The project will comprise an open ut operation producing at a rate of 1 million tonnes per year over a proposed seven-year mine life.

SPECIALTY

* After acquiring Nutrien Ltd.'s 24% stake in Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile SA, or SQM, for US$4.07 billion, Tianqi Lithium Corp. told Bloomberg it will not be pursuing a controlling stake in SQM nor will it interfere in its operations, daily Diario Financiero reported.

* Angola plans to revise policies for its diamond industry in a bid to attract more investment, boost production and obtain higher revenues, Reuters wrote, citing President Joao Lourenco, who added that he plans to double the country's diamond output to 14 million carats in the next four years.

* Mason Graphite Inc. cleared a critical permitting hurdle that sets the stage for possible construction of the Lac Gueret graphite project in Quebec and may also remove a damper on the company's shares, one analyst said.

* Following days of discussions, only one major shareholder of mineral sands play Mineral Deposits Ltd. has fully embraced Eramet's takeover offer of A$1.46 per share, The Australian Financial Review's Street Talk reported. Eramet is likely to table an improved offer, with the current offer set to expire June 21.

* Western Uranium Corp. signed a deal with a Nevada-incorporated Battery Mineral Resources Ltd. subsidiary to form a joint venture for vanadium development at the Sage Mine project, composed of 94 unpatented claims in Utah and Colorado.

INDUSTRY NEWS

* Canada's Bank of Nova Scotia is reducing lending by its ScotiaMocatta metals unit as it moves toward radical restructuring, which is likely to halve the size of its metals business, Reuters reported, citing sources.

* Brazil President Michel Temer plans to issue a decree next week to overhaul the rules for mining permits, bypassing Congress after it failed to approve similar changes in 2017, Reuters reported, citing sources. The decree aims to cut red tape and attract international investment into the country's mining sector.

* South Africa nixed plans to force mining companies to contribute 1% of their annual turnover to a new community development agency, fearing that the funds could be abused, Bloomberg News reported, citing Mining Minister Gwede Mantashe.

* The London Metal Exchange is planning to launch about 15 new contracts in January 2019, including cash-settled cobalt and hot-rolled coil steel contracts, Reuters reported, citing Robin Martin, head of market development.

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