TOP NEWS
Oleg Deripaska remains on Rusal board
United Co. Rusal PLC said Oleg Deripaska has not formally resigned from its board, even after he stepped down as a director at En+ Group PLC in a bid to lift U.S. sanctions imposed against the company in April.
Rio Tinto warns Mongolia against interfering with Oyu Tolgoi contracts
Rio Tinto warned Mongolia against interfering in contracts related to the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine in the Gobi desert, if the country wants to attract foreign investors, the Financial Times reported. Rio Tinto copper business head Arnaud Soirat said at the Mongolia Economic Forum that Mongolia may become a "successful resource nation," but only if it would honor tax and royalty agreements.
Australia to evaluate impact of Clive Palmer's Alpha North coal project on Great Barrier Reef
Australia's federal environment department will evaluate Clive Palmer's proposal for the development of the Alpha North coal project in Queensland by his company Waratah Coal Pty Ltd., including its impact on the Great Barrier Reef, The Guardian reported. With a footprint of 144,000 hectares, it will be the biggest open-cut coal mine in the southern hemisphere.
DIVERSIFIED
* BHP Billiton Group has tapped LiDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging, technology, which is also used in driverless cars, to automate its shiploading functions at Port Hedland in Western Australia, The West Australian wrote. The company is now planning to expand the project to cover each of its eight shiploaders next year, with a final decision expected soon.
* Australian Vanadium Ltd. recovered cobalt, nickel and copper in a sulfide concentrate at Gabanintha, adding another saleable battery metal opportunity to its flagship vanadium project in Western Australia.
* Swiss commodities trader Glencore PLC is nearing a US$1 billion deal to buy Chevron Corp.'s southern African assets, Bloomberg News reported, citing sources. The assets include a 100,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Cape Town and more than 800 gas stations in South Africa and neighboring Botswana.
BASE METALS
* Jiangxi Copper Co. Ltd. plans to set up copper, zinc and lead concentrates blending and scrap processing operations in Southeast Asian countries, Metal Bulletin has learned.
* Weatherly International PLC's shares fell more than 10% at market close in London on May 21 after the company announced several updates on its operations. The company said an increase in water inflows at its Tschudi copper mine in Namibia is expected to affect production at the site.
* Heron Resources Ltd. awarded two contracts for equipment supply and mining services for the reclamation of tailings for reprocessing at its Woodlawn zinc-copper project in New South Wales, Australia. The under-construction project is due to kick off commissioning at the end of this year.
* Alara Resources Ltd. received government approval for the first mining license for the Al Hadeetha copper project in Oman.
* European Cobalt Ltd. acquired the historical Kotlinec and Medzev cobalt-silver-copper mines located near the the company's flagship Dobsina project in Slovakia.
* Cobalt Blockchain Inc. expects to receive shortly final approval for a copper/cobalt trading and export license, which will enable the company to set up regional buying depots in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, process minerals in-country and export the commodities, Metal Bulletin reported.
PRECIOUS METALS
* Goldplat Plc will close Plant 1 at its Kilimapesa gold mine in Kenya, after the successful installation and subsequent second-stage expansion of a new processing plant, which is processing at a rate of around 5,000 tonnes per month.
* New Jersey Mining Co. sold its Toboggan gold project in Idaho to Hecla Mining Co. unit Hecla Silver Valley Inc. for US$3 million in cash.
* DGO Gold Ltd. now holds 7.0% of De Grey Mining Ltd.'s ordinary shares, after making a A$5 million investment through the subscription of 25 million shares at 20 cents each.
* PJSC Polyus said its Natalka gold mill in Russia is operating at 80% of its design throughput capacity of 10 million tons per annum. Natalka has produced over 40,000 ounces since the beginning of the year and will deliver 450,000 gold ounces per year following the ramp-up.
BULK COMMODITIES
* Ferroglobe PLC posted an attributable net profit of US$36.7 million in the first quarter, swinging from a year-ago net loss of US$6.6 million. Sales in the period totaled US$560.7 million, up from US$396.0 million in the first quarter of 2017. The leading producer of silicon metal in the world shipped a total of 91,615 tonnes of silicon, up from 75,753 tonnes shipped in the year-ago period.
* ArcelorMittal said steel production at the Kryvyi Rih mill in Ukraine is returning to normal levels after workers of its railway division ended a strike, Reuters reported. The labor action, which was related to salary demands, had paralyzed plant operations. The company did not specify the strike's potential impact on its financial performance or output.
* Israel Chemicals Ltd. priced the cash tender offer for US$800 million of its 4.500% senior notes due 2024. The company will pay US$1,008.22 per US$1,000 principal amount of the notes accepted for purchase. The offer is set to expire May 22.
* The Mongolian government will seek proposals for public-private partnerships targeting about US$15.95 billion in investments, Reuters reported, citing a government official. The investment program will involve 113 projects, including transportation infrastructure near the Tavan Tolgoi coal mine.
* The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal in India refused to grant an interim stay on Tata Steel Ltd.'s acquisition of Bhushan Steel Ltd., Mint reported. Bhushan Steel promoter Neeraj Singal filed an appeal against the National Company Law Tribunal's approval of Tata Steel's resolution plan for the debt-laden steelmaker. The NCLAT bench, however, issued notices to the resolution professional, committee of creditors and Tata Steel, asking them to file their responses on the matter.
* Brazilian securities regulator CVM opened an administrative investigation into David Moise Salama, Cia. Siderúrgica Nacional's investor relations director, after a minority shareholder in the company filed a complaint, Reuters reported, citing Brazilian newspaper Valor Economico. Shareholder Geração Futuro Lpar accused Salama of restricting access to the list of CSN shareholders and withholding the names of two board candidates from an official bulletin in 2017.
* The U.S. Commerce Department imposed anti-dumping duties of 199.76% and countervailing duties of 256.44% on imports of cold-rolled steel from Vietnam that originated in China after determining that the product evaded U.S. anti-dumping and anti-subsidy orders, Reuters reported. Meanwhile, the department slapped anti-dumping duties of 199.43% and anti-subsidy duties of 39.05% on corrosion-resistant steel from Vietnam.
SPECIALTY
* Anglo American PLC subsidiary De Beers SA generated sales revenue of US$550 million in the fourth sales cycle this year, an increase from the US$522 million in sales generated in the fourth sales cycle of 2017.
* Gem Diamonds Ltd. recovered a 115-carat, top white color type IIa diamond from the Letseng mine in Lesotho. The company noted that it is the ninth diamond of over 100 carats recovered this year, already exceeding the total number of over-100-carat diamonds recovered last year.
* Altura Mining Ltd. completed the first stage of commissioning at its wholly owned flagship Altura lithium project in Western Australia. The company said its on track for first lithium concentrate production in the second quarter and first shipment in July.
* The U.S. Supreme Court took up a case regarding the right of states to ban uranium mining for public health reasons, in connection with a dispute over a moratorium Virginia put in place on the radioactive metal in 1982, Reuters reported.
* NioCorp Developments Ltd. awarded a major contract to Rockwell Automation to engineer, design and procure process automation and instrumentation for the company's proposed critical minerals, mining and processing facility at its Elk Creek project in Nebraska. The facility is expected to start producing superalloy metals niobium, scandium and titanium by 2021.
* Lucapa Diamond Co. Ltd. recovered a gem-quality 25 carat yellow diamond from the Mothae mine in Lesotho.
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