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First Quantum signs US$1.5B option deal over Northern Dynasty's Pebble project

TOP NEWS

First Quantum signs US$1.5B option deal over Northern Dynasty's Pebble project

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. signed a framework agreement with Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. for a planned option agreement between a First Quantum unit and Northern Dynasty over the latter's Pebble copper project in Alaska. The option price for the initial four years is US$150 million, payable in equal tranches of US$37.5 million, and the deal will allow the First Quantum unit to earn a 50% stake in the project after a US$1.35 billion investment in Pebble.

Adani terminates A$2B Carmichael coal mine contracts with Downer

Adani Enterprises Ltd. terminated contracts with Downer EDI for the development of the company's Carmichael coal project in Queensland, Australia, with mutual consent and plans to develop the mine on an "owner operator" model, The Australian Financial Review reported. Adani hired Downer in December 2014 to undertake drilling, blasting and coal haulage at Carmichael, in a contract reportedly worth nearly A$2 billion. The Indian miner, however, said the contract termination was not a sign the Carmichael project would soon be terminated as well.

Torex Gold suspends employment contracts in Mexico

Torex Gold Resources Inc. suspended the employment contracts of its Mexican workers, effective Dec. 16, as a result of the ongoing blockade at the company's El Limon-Guajes gold mine. The suspension will affect all employees in Mexico, except for a small group that will manage the company's ongoing responsibilities in the country. However, Torex said it will reconsider the suspension if the blockade is removed by Dec. 20.

DIVERSIFIED

* Mineral Commodities Ltd. opened an office in Tehran as it looks to explore and develop copper, gold, cobalt, nickel, zinc and potash-lithium projects in Iran. The company's wholly owned Iranian subsidiary, Madan Rahjo Kanyab Co., entered into agreements to acquire existing operations and for joint ventures with local partners.

BASE METALS

* French bank Natixis expanded its US$32 million lawsuit over fraudulent receipts for nickel stored at warehouses in Asia and added Glencore Plc warehouse unit Access World, Reuters reported, citing a court filing. Access World rejects the accusations.

* The concentration of cobalt supply is rising in terms of the commercial control of its production and its geographical source. These changes pose a risk, both commercially and geopolitically, to manufacturers relying on cobalt as it becomes increasingly critical with the growth of battery demand, according to the Metals and Mining Research team of S&P Global Market Intelligence.

* PJSC Norilsk Nickel Co. signed a five-year, US$2.5 billion term loan facility agreement with a consortium of international financial institutions.

* CuDeco Ltd. resumed processing plant operations and concentrate production at its flagship Rocklands copper mine in Queensland, Australia, after addressing the issues raised by the Department of Natural Resources and Mines in late November.

* Variscan Mines Ltd. secured a binding option to acquire the Rosario copper project in northern Chile's Atacama region.

* MMG Ltd. made its first shipment of approximately 10,500 wet tonnes of zinc concentrate, part of the commissioning of the Dugald River zinc project in Queensland, Australia.

PRECIOUS METALS

* Royal Bafokeng Platinum Ltd. won a court ruling to transfer workers from Aforika Borwa Mining Solutions, after severing ties with a company connected with the Gupta family, Fin24 reported.

* Calidus Resources Ltd.'s total indicated and inferred resource at its Warrawoona gold project in Western Australia increased 74% to 10.5 million tonnes at 2.11 g/t of gold for 712,000 ounces.

* Colorado Resources Ltd. and Damara Gold Corp. mutually agreed to terminate the letter agreement over the Kinaskan-Castle copper-gold project in British Columbia.

* Trifecta Gold Ltd. terminated an option agreement with Metals Creek Resources Corp. covering the latter's Squid gold-silver property in Canada's Yukon Territory.

* Papua Mining Plc applied for a further exploration license, EPM26726, dubbed Monarch, near its Lighthouse gold project in Queensland, Australia.

* Aphrodite Gold Ltd. shareholders approved the proposed acquisition by Spitfire Materials Ltd., in which the latter will issue 1 share for every 2.8959 Aphrodite shares.

BULK COMMODITIES

* Rio Tinto will retrofit additional haul trucks at the Marandoo iron ore mine, part of its Hamersley Consolidated operations in Western Australia's Pilbara region, to add more driverless trucks to its fleet, The West Australian reported.

* Metals trader Liberty House Group's executive chairman, Sanjeev Gupta, said the company is looking to acquire factories in the Middle East, possibly involving buying manufacturers of steel or aluminum, among others, Bloomberg News reported.

* The Japan Iron and Steel Federation estimates Japanese crude steel output in the business year starting in April 2018 to increase slightly from the current year amid higher demand, but production in the current year ending March 2018 is likely to be little changed from 10.517 million tonnes in the preceding fiscal year, Reuters reported.

* JSW Group's JSW Techno Projects Management Ltd. unit confirmed it will buy a 49% interest in iron ore pellets manufacturer Brahmani River Pellets Ltd. from Aryan Mining & Trading Corp Pvt. Ltd. for an undisclosed amount. According to Reuters, the deal comes after Tata Steel Ltd. backed out of buying the Brahmani stakes in the absence of regulatory approvals.

* Fortescue Metals Group Ltd.'s stock price tumbled by as much as 17% this year as it failed to meet Chinese steel mills' demand for high-grade iron ore following the country's crackdown on heavily polluting steel mills, Bloomberg News reported.

* Steel Authority of India Ltd. and ArcelorMittal entered into a nonbinding agreement after SAIL approved the long-delayed US$1 billion joint venture to make automotive-grade steel, Reuters reported. SAIL said a definitive agreement with ArcelorMittal will be finalized in due course, subject to financial viability, with the joint venture expected to start producing automotive steel in three years.

* Workers at Vale SA's Moatize coal mine in Mozambique downed tools in a dispute over bonus payments, Reuters reported, citing a Mozambican television station. The move resulted in the stoppage of work at the plant. The workers were seeking the reinstatement of the bonuses and claimed the miner had cut the bonus payments due to a sharp decline in global coal prices.

* Ukraine's coal imports from January through November in monetary terms reached US$2.43 billion, the bulk of which came from Russia, the UNIAN Information Agency reported, citing the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine.

* Italy's state holding company, CDP, and Intesa Sanpaolo entered into a nonbinding agreement to join ArcelorMittal's bid to acquire Ilva International SpA, Reuters reported, citing a source close to the matter. The CDP and Intesa's participation will amount to about €100 million, replacing the share in the consortium held by Italian steel processor Marcegaglia.

* Tokyo Steel Manufacturing Co. Ltd. will raise steel bar and U-shaped steel-sheet pile prices by as much as 4.6% for a second consecutive month as a result of local and international market conditions and expected higher market prices, Reuters reported.

* According to an independent study commissioned by the U.K. government, the country will have £3.8 billion per annum of business opportunities for steelmakers by 2030, Reuters reported. The government also plans to use 3 million tonnes of domestic steel in infrastructure projects over the next five years.

* The strike at Griffin Coal's Collie coal mine in Western Australia is expected to spill over into the new year after the maintenance workers again failed to reach a breakthrough in stalled wage negotiations, The West Australian reported. The workers have been striking for a record 17 weeks after the company in 2016 shifted them on to an industry award resulting in wage cuts of up to 40%.

* AK Steel Holding Corp. and members of the United Auto Workers Local 600 union of its Dearborn, Mich., plant ratified a labor agreement, effective until July 31, 2021.

* Mechel PAO signed a protocol of intent on developing ties between Mechel-Steel Management Co. OOO and Kyrgyzstan's state-owned Kyrgyz Temir Zholu. The protocol will run for five years and aims to build systematic cooperation, including product information exchange, as well as cooperation in steel rolls supplies such as broad-gauge rails.

* Jastrzebska Spólka Weglowa SA concluded a five-year coking coal supply deal with voestalpine Rohstoffbeschaffungs Gmbh and Importkohle GmbH in Linz, Austria. The contract will take effect April 1, 2018, and is estimated to be worth about 1.35 billion Polish zlotys.

SPECIALTY

* The state government of Nebraska conditionally approved tax incentives for NioCorp Developments Ltd.'s Elk Creek superalloy project that are possibly worth more than US$100 million over the first 10 years of the project's commercial operations.

* Savannah Resources Plc estimated a maiden inferred resource of 32,000 tonnes contained in 3.2 million tonnes grading 1.0% lithium oxide at the Reservatorio deposit of the Mina do Barroso lithium project in northern Portugal.

* PJSC Alrosa recovered a 98.63-carat, large, gem-quality diamond from the Jubilee pipe of the Aikhal Division in Russia. More than 20 large rough diamonds of over 50 carats have been extracted from Jubilee this year, said Evgeny Agureev, the director for the company's united selling organization.

* Bass Metals Ltd. kicked off recommissioning of the Graphmada graphite mine in Madagascar.

INDUSTRY NEWS

* The trends in juniors companies' exploration budget history are largely the same across all targets in 2017. However, because their business model is essentially risk-driven, aiming for a big return, the juniors have historically been driven more by the precious metals sector, particularly gold and silver, than by base metals, according to the Metals and Mining Research team of S&P Global Market Intelligence. In 2017, data collected for S&P Global's Corporate Exploration Strategies series shows that while gold and other target allocations are up, essentially ending the four-year decline in budgets, base metals allocations by the juniors are down for the fifth consecutive year.

* Pacific/Southeast Asia is the only global region that has reported lower exploration budgets in 2017 compared with 2016, according to the Metals and Mining Research team of S&P Global Market Intelligence. With allocations US$67 million lower year over year, the region's share of global budgets has decreased to 3.8% from 5.3% the year before, continuing its last-place finish since 1999. Data gathered for S&P Global's Corporate Exploration Strategies series shows that out of the 14 countries in Pacific/Southeast Asia with budgets in 2016, seven have reported lower exploration budgets year over year in 2017. Only 86 companies are exploring in the region, a 22% drop from 110 reporting in 2016.

* Large-scale mining in Chile will require more than 29,000 new technical workers by 2027, with demand focused on maintenance and machine operators, Soy Chile reported, citing a study by Chilean mining association Consejo Minero.

* Metallurgical companies will pay more dividends due to a raft of measures to protect the environment, increased demand and higher prices for basic metals, mostly completed investment cycles, and less debt, Vedomosti reported, citing reviews by UBS.

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.