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Gold Fields to replace 1,500 workers with contractors at Ghana mine

TOP NEWS

Gold Fields to replace 1,500 staff with contractors at Ghana mine

Gold Fields Ltd.'s Ghana unit plans to lay off 1,500 workers who will be replaced by contractors to operate its Tarkwa gold project from early 2018, Bloomberg News reported, citing Gold Fields Ghana Vice President David Johnson. As a result of the move, there is no need for the company to bring in new mining equipment for the remaining mine life of five to six years.

Samarco secures waste permits, inches closer to restart

BHP Billiton Group and Vale SA joint venture Samarco Mineração SA received two waste system permits from Brazil's Minas Gerais state, a small step toward restarting operations at its Samarco iron ore mine in the country, Reuters reported. Environmental authorities expect to assess the operations permit and a corrective operations permit in mid-2018, after the construction of a waste disposal system.

Codelco chairman to resign in March 2018

Codelco Chairman Óscar Landerretche officially confirmed he would resign from his position by the end of the government of President Michelle Bachelet in March 2018, Pulso reported.

BASE METALS

* Workers of trade unions Tornados and No. 1 at Codelco's Ventanas copper mine in Chile approved a new collective agreement in negotiations that kicked off weeks before the current contract expires in 2018. The deal extends for the next 36 months and includes a readjustment of 1% for wages.

* Budgets for copper exploration increased in 2017, although by less than the global average increase for all nonferrous commodities. Using data compiled as part of its Corporate Exploration Strategies series, S&P Global Market Intelligence identified 397 companies that budgeted a total of US$1.65 billion for copper exploration, 8% more than the US$1.53 billion budgeted by 443 companies in 2016.

* Nautilus Minerals Inc. said Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding Ltd. issued a default notice alleging that MAC Goliath Pte Ltd. failed to pay the third installment of the contract price in the amount of about US$18 million plus interest. Fujian is the owner of the shipyard where Nautilus' production support vessel is being built, while MAC is buying the vessel.

* Nautilus Minerals' controversial experimental deep-sea mine is being challenged in court by environmental groups that accused the Papua New Guinea government of withholding key documents about its approval, The Guardian reported. The company intends to extract gold and copper deposits from 1.6 kilometers below the surface of the Bismarck Sea using a seabed mining technique that has never been used before in commercial operations.

* Brower Piven filed a class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey on behalf of purchasers of Katanga Mining Ltd.'s securities. The complaint accuses the defendants of violations of the Securities Exchange Act by failing to disclose that the Glencore Plc unit engaged in improper accounting practices and there were material weaknesses in its internal control over financial reporting.

* Intrepid Mines Ltd. entered into a conditional deal with Weatherly International Plc for the sale of the former's Intrepid Mines Zambia Ltd. unit, which holds the Mumbwa and Kitumba copper projects in Zambia, for an initial cash consideration of A$4.8 million and a deferred payment of A$1 million.

* A group of shareholders representing 20.15% of Finders Resources Ltd. will not accept the takeover offer of 23 Australian cents per share from Eastern Field Developments Ltd., increasing the percentage to 33.19%.

* Griffin Mining Ltd. subsidiary Hebei Hua' Ao Mining Industry Co. Ltd. is now debt free after repaying all of its outstanding bank loans, including US$44.7 million this year.

* Yue Da Mining Holdings Ltd. sold its Fly Ascent subsidiary for 65.1 million Chinese yuan to an undisclosed buyer during an auction.

* Altiplano Minerals Ltd. entered into a binding letter of intent with Comet Exploration Ltd. to acquire the latter's remaining 50% interest in their Chilean joint venture, which holds the Farellon and Maria Luisa copper-gold projects, in a cash and share deal.

* China's Nanjing Hanrui Cobalt, which supplies the metal to a company approved by the London Metal Exchange, said it was unable to establish that its products did not involve the use of child labor in Africa, Reuters reported. Nanjing Hanrui said it was examining its cobalt supply chain in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

* Chile's October copper production increased 15.1% year over year to 510,400 tonnes, its highest since December 2016, Business News Americas reported, citing data from state copper commission Cochilco.

PRECIOUS METALS

* PJSC Polyus turned to automation processes at its Olimpiada gold project in Russia to aid in producing about 100 kilograms of gold per day, a 36% year-on-year spike, Financial Times reported. Meanwhile, profit has so far increased by 10% compared to 2016.

* Stock prices for Australian gold majors Newcrest Mining Ltd., Evolution Mining Ltd. and Northern Star Resources Ltd. were fully valued, outperforming the price of the commodity this year, The West Australian reported, citing RBC Capital Markets mining analyst Paul Hissey.

* Firesteel Resources Inc. closed a joint venture deal with Nordic Mines AB covering the acquisition of a 60% interest in Nordic Mines Marknad AB, which owns the Laiva gold mine in Finland. Production at Laiva is expected to resume by summer 2018.

* Compania Inversora en Minas SA began production at its Don Nicolas gold-silver project in Argentina, Mining.com reported.

* Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed into law a measure that ends a nearly 20-year moratorium on gold and silver mining in the state, The Associated Press reported.

BULK COMMODITIES

* Adani Enterprises Ltd. seeks to adjust to constraints around its A$16.5 billion Carmichael coal mine project after Queensland, Australia, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she would veto a proposed A$900 million infrastructure loan application immediately after she was sworn in Dec. 12, Reuters reported, citing a company statement.

* Russia's Sberbank is in discussions to finance the purchase of a 10% stake in PJSC Uralkali by rival fertilizer producer OJSC Uralchem, Interfax reported, citing Sberbank's deputy chairman, Maxim Poletaev.

* Noble Group Ltd. subsidiary Noble Americas Emerald Corp. completed the US$34.5 million sale of coal sales unit MR Coal Marketing and Trading to an unnamed buyer, The Business Times reported.

* PJSC Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works shareholders approved a dividend of 1.11 Russian rubles, or about US$209 million, for the third quarter.

* Coal India Ltd. faces another wage hike as the miner enters into wage agreement talks for its 200,000 to 300,000 contract workers, Mining Weekly reported. Trade union representatives expect the increases to be about 20%, the same level the company recently agreed on for its over 250,000 workers on the payroll.

* United Kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority cracked down on three companies that provided pension transfer advice to workers of Tata Steel Ltd.'s Port Talbot operations in South Wales, Financial Times reported.

* Chinese coal imports increased 3.6% on a monthly basis in November to 22.05 million tonnes, but fell compared to year-ago figures of 26.97 million tonnes, Reuters reported, citing Chinese customs data. Year-to-date imports also increased, by 8.4% to 248.17 million tonnes.

SPECIALTY

* Anglo American Plc's rough diamond sales in the 10th sales cycle of 2017 for its De Beers SA unit slipped to a provisional US$450 million, from US$466 million in the ninth sales cycle. Sales in the 10th sales cycle of 2016 totaled US$422 million.

* Azincourt Energy Corp. signed a nonbinding letter of intent for the acquisition of up to a 100% stake in five projects in Manitoba from New Age Metals Inc.

* Chile's Mining Ministry withdrew the draft version of a special lithium operations contract it had submitted to the Office of the Comptroller General for approval. The document concerns the creation of a joint venture between Codelco and an external partner to develop state-owned lithium reserves in northern Chile. Sources told Diario Financiero that the comptroller disputes the model by which Codelco plans to develop the deposits.

* Sheffield Resources Ltd. entered a maiden off-take agreement for the future sale of zircon concentrate from its Thunderbird mineral sands project in Western Australia. The company agreed to supply a minimum of 27,000 tonnes of zircon concentrate per annum to China-based Hainan Wensheng High-Tech Materials Co. Ltd. from stage one of the project.

* Gem Diamonds Ltd. said a proposed offer to sell its Ghaghoo diamond project in Botswana to an unnamed party was withdrawn. The project has been under care and maintenance since February due to prevailing market conditions.

* With the required funding in place, Berkeley Energia Ltd. is moving ahead with the award of major contracts and filling key management positions to begin construction at the Salamanca uranium mine in Spain.

INDUSTRY NEWS

* For decades, Maine was widely considered near impossible to crack in terms of mine permitting under stringent 1991 mining laws. But following recent legislative changes — a new mining law went into effect in November — there are tentative signs the industry is starting to reconsider the state as a mining jurisdiction. The law opens the door for smaller-scale underground projects, assuming they can meet, or economically justify, the stringent criteria of Maine's mining law.

* European investment managers are well ahead of their U.S. peers in allocating assets based on environmental, social and governance principles, but the American market is likely to begin catching up as returns match or better those on traditional investments, market participants say.

* Despite the persistent challenges in the mining industry, mining companies continued to strengthen their cash balances. A review of 1,559 Australian, London, New York and Toronto stock exchange-listed companies with comparable data indicates that the mining industry's aggregate cash holdings increased 2% in the September quarter to US$38.81 billion from US$38.05 billion in the June quarter, according to the Metals and Mining Research team of S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The Daily Dose is updated as of 7 a.m. ET and scans news sources published in Chinese, English, Indonesian, Malay, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai and Ukrainian. Some external links may require a subscription.