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SAIL to approve US$1B automotive steel JV with ArcelorMittal

TOP NEWS

SAIL to approve US$1B automotive steel JV with ArcelorMittal

Steel Authority of India Ltd., or SAIL, called for an emergency board meeting to approve the long-delayed US$1 billion joint venture to make automotive-grade steel with ArcelorMittal, Reuters wrote, citing three sources familiar with the matter. The companies signed the memorandum of understanding for the joint venture in 2015, but the transaction has been delayed due to clashes over terms of the agreement.

Noble needs to extend, restructure US$1.1B revolving credit facility by Dec. 20

Noble Group Ltd. is facing a potential default should it fail to reach a debt restructuring agreement or an extension for its US$1.1 billion revolving credit facility by Dec. 20, Bloomberg News reported. The company held talks with lenders in Hong Kong and London over the last two weeks to allow creditors to carry out further due diligence on the sustainability of its operations, people familiar with the matter told the newswire.

Vale may deploy spare iron ore capacity if prices get too high

Vale SA CEO Fabio Schvartsman told Bloomberg News that the company is ready to use its idle 50-million-tonne iron ore capacity to help maintain market balance if prices become too high. According to the report, Vale expects to produce 390 million tonnes of iron ore next year, and output is capped at 400 million tonnes over the following four years, compared to the company's annual production capacity of 450 million tonnes.

DIVERSIFIED

* Glencore Plc appointed Gill Marcus, former governor of the South African Reserve Bank, as an independent nonexecutive director, effective Jan. 1, 2018.

BASE METALS

* Vedanta Resources Plc's Zambian subsidiary Konkola Copper Mines Plc plans to set up a new copper smelter in Zambia under a US$1 billion investment program announced in March, Reuters reported. The program also includes a cobalt processing plant and an investment for de-watering the Konkola mine.

* Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Co. Ltd. has started idling 20% to 30% of its 800,000-tonne annual copper smelting capacity in accordance with an Anhui province government directive to curb pollution over the winter months, Bloomberg News reported, citing a company official.

* Rockcliff Metals Corp. said that an updated resource estimate for the Talbot copper deposit, part of its Snow Lake property in Manitoba, defined 150 million pounds of copper, 130.4 million pounds of zinc, 241,000 ounces of gold and 3.8 million ounces of silver.

* Pasinex Resources Ltd. secured an option to earn up to an 80% stake in the Gunman high-grade zinc project in Nevada from Cypress Development Corp. and Silcom Systems Inc.

* First Cobalt Corp. bought four contiguous mining claims in Ontario near the past-producing Caswell mine for 224,000 company shares.

* Taurus Funds Management Pty. Ltd., which owns an 11.31% stake in Finders Resources Ltd., will not accept the takeover offer of 23 Australian cents per share from Eastern Field Developments Ltd.

* Shares of St George Mining Ltd. plummeted by 29.7% to close at 26 Australian cents per share on the ASX following subpar drilling results from the Mount Alexander nickel project in Western Australia, The West Australian reported.

PRECIOUS METALS

* Empire Resources Ltd. will now treat up to 36,000 tonnes of gold ore at the Lakewood mill from the Penny's Find mine in Western Australia during the ongoing ore treatment campaign. The company will terminate processing at the Burbanks mill and focus on mills closer to the Penny's Find mine.

* Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd. expects its US$300 million acquisition of the Moab Khotsong gold mine in South Africa to boost its operational cash flow by over 60% and provide "substantial cost savings" with its average overall underground recovery grade anticipated to increase by 11% compared to the current year, Reuters reported.

* Separately, Harmony Gold said a Dec. 5. incident related to a ground fall at its Tshepong gold mine in South Africa killed one of its employees. An investigation into the incident is underway, but challenging conditions continue to hamper efforts to recover the miner's body.

* Monarques Gold Corp. secured another custom milling contract for its Camflo gold mill in Quebec. Ressources Nottaway Inc. will process at least 15,000 tonnes of ore per month in 2018 from its Vezza gold mine for a minimum of 180,000 tonnes in the whole year at Camflo.

* AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. and Independence Group NL approved the first phase of the Long Island strategy for the 70/30 Tropicana joint venture, which will increase mine life by about seven years to 2027. The entire strategy will add 2.1 million ounces to Tropicana's business plan.

* Wishbone Gold Plc said construction crews have returned to its Honduran gold mining project to complete the buildings for housing the processing plant after weather conditions improved. The operations in Honduras were temporarily stopped due to the worst Caribbean hurricane season on record.

* Xtract Resources Plc unit Explorator Ltda. negotiated significantly enhanced terms for the western portion of the alluvial concession under the existing mining contractor agreement for the exploitation of alluvial gold deposits at its Manica mining concession in Mozambique.

* Noble Metals Ltd. said US$2.5 million was misappropriated from the accounts of its GPS Metals Labs subsidiary by former Managing Director Miguel Palomino, who resigned in October due to health and personal reasons.

* Goldcliff Resource Corp. is examining regulatory compliance requirements for an initial coin offering as part of an effort to introduce a digital currency based on gold.

BULK COMMODITIES

* Ferrexpo Plc announced a special dividend of 3.3 U.S. cents per share, to be paid Jan. 15, 2018.

* Israel Chemicals Ltd. agreed to sell its fire safety and oil additives business units to private investment firm SK Capital for a total of about US$1 billion. The sale of the divisions, which have low synergies with the company's core mineral chains, is expected to close in the first half of 2018.

* The Securities and Exchange Board of India fined Tata Steel Ltd. for 1 million Indian rupees for delays in making necessary disclosures on increased shareholding in Tinplate Co. of India Ltd., Mint reported. Tata Steel currently holds nearly 75% in Tinplate.

* Authorities of a northern Indiana city threatened to take legal action against U.S. Steel Corp., condemning the company's silence over an October spill of a potentially carcinogenic chemical into a Lake Michigan tributary, The Kansas City Star reported.

* Moody's revised the outlook on ArcelorMittal's ratings to positive from stable while affirming the steel giant's Ba1 credit rating.

* ArcelorMittal plans to invest US$60 million into its Tubarão steelworks in Brazil to increase steel production capacity to 7.70 million tonnes per year, Metal Bulletin reported.

* Ironveld Plc said it remains in advanced discussions with a number of funding providers for the acquisition of the Middelburg smelting facility that would allow for the necessary upgrades and subsequent processing of the company's own magnetite.

* Data from Statistics South Africa showed that mining production rose 5.2% year on year in October, led by iron ore, Mining Weekly reported.

* China's steel market would face a supply gap of up to 10 million tonnes in early 2018, which may support a steel price rally, China Securities Journal wrote, citing a senior official at the country's metallurgical industry association. The steel production cutback in the winter season may impact 50 million tonnes of supply, the official added.

* North China's Shanxi province has shut down 27 coal mines, eliminating 22.65 million tonnes of coal capacity this year, China Securities Journal wrote, citing data from a local industry body.

SPECIALTY

* France's Electricité de France SA rejected a debt restructuring proposal from the administrators of Paladin Energy Ltd., saying the deal is not in the interest of creditors.

* Savannah Resources Plc said the Mutamba Consortium completed the commissioning of a pilot processing plant at the mineral sands project in Mozambique. The 20 tonne-per-hour plant will be used to produce concentrates as part of the prefeasibility study for Mutamba, which began earlier this year.

* Lepidico Ltd. posted an initial resource estimate for its Alvarrões lithium project in Portugal, comprising 1.5 million tonnes at 1.1% lithium dioxide in the inferred category.

* UEX Corp. remains on track to earn its full 70% stake in the Christie Lake uranium project in Saskatchewan, after increasing its interest to 45% from 30%.

* PJSC Alrosa's rough and polished diamond sales in November totaled US$334.2 million, with polished diamond sales accounting for US$8.4 million of the total.

* Lithium Australia NL estimated a JORC 2012-compliant maiden inferred lithium resource at its Sadisdorf tin-lithium project in Germany of 25 million tonnes at 0.45% lithium oxide.

* Boss Resources Ltd. agreed to acquire all the shares in Wattle Mining Pty Ltd. to take its stake in the Honeymoon uranium project in South Australia to 100%. Wattle holds the remaining 20% of the shares in Boss Energy Pty. Ltd., the holding company for Boss Uranium Pty. Ltd. and the Honeymoon project, which is on care and maintenance. The completion of the transaction is expected in February 2018.

INDUSTRY NEWS

* Mining fatalities in South Africa rose for the first time in nine years, with 81 fatalities reported from January through November this year, compared to 73 fatalities in 2016, Bloomberg News reported, citing the Chamber of Mines.

* The Australian Tax Office said its corporate tax take fell A$3.6 billion in 2015-16 amid the mining and energy sector's reduced profitability during the period, though an official said the tax office expects increased collections in 2016-17 thanks to higher commodity prices, The Australian Financial Review reported.

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