TOP NEWS
Glencore shares sink on U.S. DOJ subpoena on Nigeria, DRC, Venezuela operations
Glencore PLC's shares were down nearly 9% in London midday trade but off earlier lows, after subsidiary Glencore Ltd. received a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice to produce documents over its business dealings in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Venezuela beginning in 2007 to the present. The Swiss commodities trader said it will review the subpoena, which was related to the the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the country's money laundering statutes.
Sibanye drops full-year gold production guidance 6% for South African operations
Sibanye Gold Ltd. revised down the full-year gold production guidance for its South African operations due to disruptions caused by safety-related incidents at Kloof and Driefontein, a power outage at Beatrix earlier in the year and infrastructure damage at the Masakhane mine following a May 3 seismic event. Sibanye now expects its South African operations to produce between 1.17 million ounces and 1.21 Moz of gold, down 6% from its earlier forecast of between 1.24 Moz and 1.29 Moz.
LME to require audit of cobalt sourced from DRC
Starting January, the London Metal Exchange will require all companies that source at least 25% of their cobalt from mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to undergo a professional audit as it intensifies scrutiny amid growing concerns over the use of child labor in the electric car supply chain, the Financial Times reported, citing sources.
* Vale SA is seeking approval for the early extension of its railway concessions that expire in 2027. The approval will be submitted to the board after the analysis of the compensation required by the Brazilian federal government that will be formalized following public hearings.
* Rox Resources Ltd. exercised its option to purchase two tenements at its Fisher East nickel and Mount Fisher gold projects in Western Australia for A$600,000 in cash.
BASE METALS
* Independence Group NL will secure up to a 95% joint venture interest in the Southern Hills tenements in Western Australia with three entities owned and controlled by Mark Creasy. The group of tenements are contiguous to the Nova nickel-copper-cobalt mining lease and cover about 1,100 square kilometers of Fraser Range geology west and southwest of Nova.
* Alexander Mining PLC unit MetaLeach Ltd. was granted a 20-year patent in Chile for a method for ammoniacal leaching, effective July 11, 2008, the date of the original filing.
* Australian Mines Ltd. will supply 40 kilograms of nickel sulfate and 4 kilograms of cobalt sulfate to South Korea-based off-take partner SK Innovation for the latter's electric vehicle battery manufacturing process.
* The Democratic Republic of the Congo court suspended a hearing over a lawsuit against Glencore filed by a former shareholder and Congolese-American businessman Charles Brown seeking US$1.14 billion in compensation, Bloomberg News reported. Brown was aiming to take back a 19% stake in Mutanda Mining SARL, which he co-founded and is now a Glencore unit, after he claimed his shares were fraudulently sold in two transactions to Glencore in 2007 and 2012.
* Superior Lake Resources Ltd. is proceeding with a restart study for its namesake Superior Lake zinc-copper-gold-silver project in Ontario after outlining a maiden resource estimate for the Winston and Pick Lake mines of about 2.15 million tonnes at 17.7% zinc, 0.9% copper, 0.4 g/t gold and 33.5 g/t silver.
* Metals X Ltd.'s and Greentech Technology International Ltd.'s 50/50 joint venture Bluestone Mines Tasmania started the commissioning of its new crushing and ore sorting facility at the Renison tin mine in Tasmania, Australia.
PRECIOUS METALS
* The director general of Western Australia's mines department condemned the posting of racist and offensive signs around an eastern Goldfields station owned by Aboriginal people who have reportedly been in a dispute with Hawthorn Resources Ltd. since 2015. Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety Director General David Smith said police are investigating a series of racist signs around the station near the Trouser Legs gold mine, of which Hawthorn has a controlling interest.
* Vital Metals Ltd. is proceeding with an earn-in agreement with private Turkish company Summa Turizm Yatirimciligi AS to acquire a 50% interest in the Bouli gold project in Niger.
* An updated definitive feasibility study for an underground operation at Resolute Mining Ltd.'s Syama gold mine in Mali extended the mine's life to 16 years at a reduced all-in sustaining cost of US$746/oz of gold.
* Resources & Energy Group Ltd. estimated a maiden JORC 2012-compliant resource for its Radio gold mine in Western Australia of 210,700 tonnes at 4.23 g/t gold for 28,600 contained ounces. The estimate includes an indicated resource of 50,300 tonnes at 4.55 g/t gold for 7,400 contained ounces and an inferred resource of 160,400 tonnes at 4.12 g/t gold for 21,300 contained ounces.
* Musgrave Minerals Ltd. signed a nonbinding term sheet with Westgold Resources Ltd. for the development of existing gold resources at its Break of Day and Lena deposits, part of the Cue gold project in Western Australia.
* Eurasia Mining PLC secured approval from the Ministry of Economic Development for the mine permit for the Monchetundra platinum mine in Russia.
* Construction and commissioning activities at Endomines AB's Friday gold mine in Idaho is advancing on budget and on target to meet the projected startup by the end of February 2019.
BULK COMMODITIES
* Ferrexpo PLC's total iron ore pellet production in the second quarter remained stable year over year at 2.5 million tonnes. Pellet output in the first half declined 1.2% year over year to 5.1 million tonnes due to a planned 65-day pellet line refurbishment.
* Australia's Westpac bank said further major coal investments are likely Down Under after the federal government revealed on July 2 that the commodity would top iron ore as the country's biggest export earner in 2018-19, though that mantle is not expected to last amid lower price forecasts and mining investment having "bottomed out."
* A new thermal coal mine being built in the U.S. will benefit from very good timing, said Paringa Resources Ltd. interim CEO Todd Hannigan, who is overseeing the mine's development. "We'll be delivering coal next year into an improving market, and we're fortunate we've got our timing right."
* ThyssenKrupp AG called its European steel joint venture with Tata Steel Ltd. "fair" after some shareholders voiced disappointment over the revised terms, Reuters wrote. Meanwhile, a source told the newswire that an IPO of the joint venture is expected to take place in 2020 via a capital increase.
* UniSuper and QSuper, with a combined A$147 billion of funds under management, have thrown their support behind the global Climate Action 100+ group, which aims to steer Australian companies away from coal and toward cleaner energy and reduced carbon footprints, The Australian Financial Review reported.
* In the June quarter, Metro Mining Ltd.'s Bauxite Hills mine in Queensland, Australia, mined 445,000 wet tonnes of bauxite and shipped 399,000 wet tonnes of bauxite. The mine experienced a steady ramp-up in the quarter and is now approaching the budgeted operating rates.
* Ryerson Holding Corp. completed its acquisition of Central Steel & Wire Co. for about US$150.8 million. Following completion of the transaction, Central Steel & Wire became a wholly owned subsidiary of Ryerson.
* Synalloy Corp.'s Bristol Metals LLC unit closed the acquisition of Marcegaglia USA Inc.'s galvanized tube operations for US$10 million.
* Kibo Mining PLC signed an agreement with China-based SEPCOIII for the development of its three existing energy projects and future energy projects.
* Israel Chemicals Ltd. and its Rotem Amfert Negev Ltd. and Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd. units are facing a class-action lawsuit over the alleged exploitation of their monopolistic position in order to charge consumers in Israel excessive and unfair prices for solid phosphate fertilizer from 2011 to the present. The plaintiffs are seeking damages of US$15 million.
SPECIALTY
* Gemfields Group Ltd.'s 75%-owned Ethiopian unit, Web Gemstone Mining PLC, was attacked by a mob of 300 to 500 people. The company said there seems to be no clear motive for the dispute, but "it is believed that they may have been spurred by a faction seeking a portion of WGM's [emerald exploration] license."
* Hardey Resources Ltd. secured a 40-day option to acquire 100% of Nelly Vanadium Pty. Ltd., owner of the 53-hectare Nelly vanadium mine in Argentina's San Luis province.
* An analyst with mining experience said a "diamond boom" could be taking shape, led by Lucapa Diamond Co. Ltd., after DevEx Resources Ltd. became the latest explorer seeking to emulate its success in Western Australia's Kimberley region, believing that science will unlock new opportunities overlooked by the likes of Rio Tinto.
* Stornoway Diamond Corp. temporarily suspended operations at its Renard diamond mine in Quebec due to a local forest fire.
* Argex Titanium Inc. applied for a patent in the U.S. covering the Argex process for producing pigment-grade titanium dioxide. The company plans to use the process in a technology center to be constructed in Quebec with a 5,000-tonne capacity and in a commercial plant with a capacity of 100,000 tonnes.
INDUSTRY NEWS
* A report says a vast portion of Western Australian land remains contaminated with substances including asbestos, cyanide and arsenic, after the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage stopped identifying contaminated sites and reporting about the program to a higher authority, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
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