TOP NEWS
Goldcorp beats FY'17 output guidance; CEO says "done" with M&A
Goldcorp Inc. produced 646,000 ounces of gold in the fourth quarter of 2017, pushing full-year output to exceed the company's 2.5-million-ounce target for 2017 at about 2.6 million ounces. Meanwhile, Goldcorp President and CEO David Garofalo said the Canadian miner is "done" with mergers and acquisitions and will now focus on building new mines at its existing properties as well as on improving current operations, Reuters reported. Goldcorp is continuing with its 20/20/20 plan, which forecast gold production and gold reserves each increasing by 20% and a 20% reduction in all-in sustaining costs by 2021.
Barrick's FY'17 gold output meets guidance
Barrick Gold Corp.'s full-year gold production reached 5.3 million ounces in 2017, in line with the company's adjusted guidance of between 5.30 million ounces and 5.50 million ounces, but lower from the 5.52 million ounces it produced in 2016, according to the preliminary figures. Copper output totaled 413 million pounds, slightly below the company's adjusted guidance of 420 million pounds to 440 million pounds.
Nutrien to sell Israel Chemicals stake for US$700M
Nutrien Ltd. subsidiary Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan is planning to off-load its entire stake in Israel Chemicals Ltd. in a private secondary offering. The offering is expected to close Jan. 23, and Nutrien expects to receive about US$700 million in net proceeds from the sale.
DIVERSIFIED
* Increasing commodity prices are expected to drive upgrades to Rio Tinto's profit forecast amid expectations the miner will pay its largest ever dividend in February, The Australian Financial Review reported. Full-year dividends are tipped to surpass the US$1.70 per share paid out in 2016, with most analysts predicting 2017 dividends will be well above US$2.50 per share.
BASE METALS
* Lundin Mining Corp.'s attributable copper output totaled 202,989 tonnes, zinc output reached 149,319 tonnes and nickel production came in at 22,081 tonnes, all falling within the full-year 2017 production guidance range.
* Sherritt International Corp. plans to undertake a C$100 million offering of units and launched an offer to purchase for cash its outstanding 8.0% senior unsecured debentures due 2021, 7.5% senior unsecured debentures due in 2023 and 7.875% senior unsecured notes due in 2025 for a targeted aggregate principal amount of up to C$75 million.
* ECobalt Solutions Inc. signed multiple letters of intent with potential strategic off-take partners for its clean cobalt concentrate and is negotiating definitive terms while it continues to advance its Idaho cobalt project. ECobalt President and CEO Paul Farquharson said securing a partner was "critical" for the project's long-term success.
* Boreal Metals Corp. signed a definitive deal to acquire EMX Royalty Corp.'s Modum cobalt project in Norway.
* Freeport-McMoRan Inc. unit PT Freeport Indonesia paid a dividend of about US$112 million to the Indonesian government in 2017, the first payout in three years, the Jakarta Globe reported, citing a finance ministry official. The U.S. mining giant suspended annual dividends in 2015 to strengthen its balance sheet amid a prolonged slump in metal prices.
PRECIOUS METALS
* IAMGOLD Corp.'s attributable gold production for 2017 totaled 882,000 ounces, hitting the top end of its guidance of 845,000 to 885,000 gold ounces. The company expects to produce between 850,000 and 900,000 ounces of gold in 2018.
* Eldorado Gold Corp. produced 292,980 ounces of gold in 2017, in line with its full-year guidance of 280,000 to 310,000 ounces of gold.
* PJSC Polyus called off an agreement to sell a 10% stake to a consortium of Chinese companies led by Fosun International Ltd., terminating a deal potentially worth US$886.9 million. The Russian company attributed the move to the "non-satisfaction" of certain terms of the agreement and said both parties had agreed to terminate the deal. However, industry analysts have suggested that Polyus' sluggish share performance at the end of 2017 coupled with a dispute over control of the gold miner may have triggered the cancellation.
* Polyus increased its production guidance for 2018 after recording a 10% increase in full-year 2017 gold production to 2.16 million ounces, beating the year's guidance by 3%. The company expects to produce 2.375 million ounces to 2.425 million ounces of gold in 2018, from guidance of 2.35 million ounces to 2.40 million ounces previously. Output in the fourth quarter of 2017, meanwhile, declined 10% quarter over quarter to 580,000 ounces.
* OZ Minerals Ltd. exceeded its 2017 gold production guidance of between 115,000 ounces and 125,000 ounces, producing 126,713 ounces, while full-year copper production totaled 112,008 tonnes, which is within its forecast range of 105,000 tonnes to 115,000 tonnes.
* Detour Gold Corp. produced 571,463 ounces of gold in 2017, falling with in its full-year guidance of 550,000 ounces and 600,000 ounces of gold, and up from 537,765 gold ounces produced in 2016.
* Rusoro Mining Ltd. secured up to US$7 million in funding for its ongoing efforts to collect a US$1.3 billion award from the Venezuelan government. The award was granted to the company by a World Bank tribunal in August 2016 after a ruling found that Venezuela had unlawfully expropriated Rusoro's mining operations in the country, but the government has continued to refuse to pay the award, Rusoro noted.
* Torex Gold Resources Inc. released a maiden mineral reserve estimate and a mine plan for the subsill underground deposit at its El Limon-Guajes mine complex in Mexico. In the mine plan, the company plans to process probable reserves of 480,000 tonnes of ore grading 11.65 g/t of gold containing 180,000 gold ounces at the plant over 29 months, projecting pretax free cash flow of US$86 million.
* First Majestic Silver Corp.'s silver production in the fourth quarter of 2017 declined 3% quarter on quarter to 2.3 million ounces, with silver production for the full year down by 18% year on year to 9.7 million ounces, just missing the lower end of the company's full-year guidance of 10 million to 10.6 million ounces.
* A National Instrument 43-101-compliant mineral resource estimate for GoldMining Inc.'s Crucero gold project in Peru estimated indicated resources of nearly 1 million ounces of gold contained within 30.7 million tonnes grading 1.0 g/t of gold and an inferred resource of 1.1 million ounces of gold hosted within 35.8 million tonnes grading 1.0 g/t of gold, at a 0.4 g/t gold cutoff.
* Equinox Gold Corp. said Pacific Road Resources Funds plans to exercise its pre-existing nondilution rights to acquire an additional 21 million common Equinox shares, for proceeds to the company totaling C$19.2 million.
* Mirasol Resources Ltd. acquired the Zeus gold project in northern Chile. The project comprises 18,480 hectares of contiguous claims in the Miocene Mineral Belt.
* Tonogold Resources Inc. inked a binding option agreement with a private Mexican company to secure an exclusive right to acquire the Claudia, Promontorio and Montoros gold-silver properties in Mexico's Durango state for US$7.3 million.
* Fremont Gold Ltd. entered into an option deal to acquire Ely Gold Royalties Inc.'s Gold Canyon property, comprising 26 unpatented lode mining claims covering approximately 460 acres in Nevada's Gold Bar district.
* Tahoe Resources Inc. posted record gold production of 445,000 ounces in 2017, achieving the high end of its revised annual guidance range. Silver output for the full year, meanwhile, reached 9.9 million ounces.
* Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd. is on track to meet its annual production target of 1.1 million ounces of gold after producing more than 550,000 ounces of gold in the six months to December 2017. The miner expects its total gold production in the six-month period to increase by between 3% and 5% compared to the previous half.
* Goldplat Plc extended the option period allowing Ashanti Gold Corp. to acquire the former's 75% interest in the Anumso gold project in Ghana. Ashanti now has until Oct. 31 to earn an initial 51% of Goldplat's interest by spending US$1.5 million and a total 75% by spending an additional US$1.5 million in a further 12 months.
* Latitude Consolidated Ltd. signed a binding heads of agreement with Alt Resources Ltd. to sell its Mount Ida gold tenements in Western Australia's Kalgoorlie region in a cash and share transaction worth A$2 million.
BULK COMMODITIES
* EnergyAustralia Yallourn Pty. Ltd. signed a memorandum of understanding to supply fly ash from its Yallourn power station in Victoria, Australia, to Latrobe Magnesium Ltd.'s proposed 3,000-tonne-per-annum magnesium plant in Latrobe Valley.
* China Hongqiao Group Ltd intends to raise HK$6.2 billion through a placement of 650 million shares, reflecting 8.07% of the company's issued share capital, at HK$9.60 each. Proceeds from the placement will be used to reduce its outstanding liabilities, currently at 106.67 billion Chinese yuan, and for general working capital.
* Cokal Ltd. shares closed more than 20% lower on the ASX on Jan. 16 after the company said it discontinued negotiations for off-take financing totaling about A$400 million with Renjian International Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. for pulverized coal injection coal produced at the BBM project in Indonesia.
* Pelican Resources Ltd. completed the sale of its interest in the Cockatoo Island iron ore joint venture in Western Australia to Cockatoo Iron NL and its subsidiary Pearl Gull Pty. Ltd.
SPECIALTY
* Anglo American Plc unit De Beers SA plans to launch the first industry-wide blockchain in 2018 to track diamonds, Reuters reported, citing CEO Bruce Cleaver.
INDUSTRY NEWS
* Despite the major challenges faced by the commodities market in 2017, the year concluded with most commodities having higher actual average prices compared with 2016 actual averages. A similar trend is projected for 2018 as most of S&P Capital IQ's consensus price forecasts as of Jan. 15 displayed higher values compared with the 2017 price averages.
* Another 33,000 industrial workers in Germany downed tools in support of the IG Metall union, demanding higher pay and smaller working hours, bringing the total number of workers participating in warning strikes to about 425,000 since last week, Reuters reported. IG Metall would decide following the current round of wage talks, whether to escalate the dispute into 24-hour strikes.
* HNA Innovation Finance, the commodity trading and logistics unit of Chinese conglomerate HNA Group, does not plan to chase U.S. deals in 2018, partly due to Washington's increased scrutiny of Chinese investments, Reuters reported, citing an executive of the unit.
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.
