TOP NEWS

PotashCorp FY'16 earnings plunge to US$336M on weak sales

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc.'s net income for 2016 dropped year over year to US$336 million from US$1.27 billion as sales plunged to US$4.46 billion from US$6.28 billion. Average realized price for fertilizer tumbled to US$362 per tonne from US$483 per tonne a year ago. Its full-year 2016 dividend totaled 70 cents per share, down from US$1.52 per share in 2015.

Anglo American Q4'16 output up except copper, metallurgical coal

Anglo American Plc posted an increase in production in the fourth quarter of 2016 across all commodities, barring copper and export metallurgical coal, compared to the same year-ago quarter.

DiamondCorp on verge of bankruptcy

DiamondCorp Plc is on the verge of being placed into administration after business rescue practitioners failed to reach an agreement with secured lenders for the company's Lace Diamond Mines Pty. Ltd. on issues related to a previously announced £1.0 million placing. The company's board has delayed the placement and now has until Jan. 30 to resolve outstanding issues to avoid bankruptcy.

BASE METALS

* Freeport-McMoRan Inc. swung to a fourth-quarter 2016 net profit of US$292 million, from a year-ago net loss of US$4.08 billion. Revenue during the quarter rose to US$4.38 billion from US$3.52 billion a year ago, thanks to higher average realized prices for metals. Meanwhile, CEO Richard Adkerson said the mining giant may have to curtail costs by mid-February at its Grasberg copper-gold mine in Indonesia should the company fail to secure a copper export permit, with large layoffs and CapEx cutbacks in the cards.

* Separately, Freeport's PT Freeport Indonesia unit that operates the Grasberg mine in Indonesia's Papua province is weighing its options to challenge a court ruling that dismissed a company lawsuit over US$469 million in water taxes and penalties, Reuters reported. The miner expects to challenge the decision in Indonesia's Supreme Court.

* KAZ Minerals PLC's copper cathode output jumped 73% year over year to 140,300 tonnes in 2016, in the middle of its forecast range for the period. The performance reflects the ramp-up of the sulfide concentrator at Bozshakol and the oxide operations at Aktogay.

* Heavy rains forced Codelco to stop operations at its Chuquicamata and Radomiro Tomic copper units in Chile, daily El América reported.

* The government's Committee of Ministers approved Codelco's Radomiro Tomic Sulfuros project. With an investment of US$5.3 billion, it is the most expensive structural project undertaken by the state miner, daily Pulso reported.

* Weatherly International Plc said its C1 costs are expected to rise to approximately US$4,600 per tonne, up from July 2016 guidance of US$4,100 per tonne to US$4,200 per tonne for its financial year to June 2017, due principally to the strengthening of the Namibian dollar against the U.S. dollar since the previous guidance was given.

* Audley Capital Advisors LLP-controlled Mantos Copper SA reached new collective negotiation agreements with its five workers unions, involving 800 workers at its Mantoverde and Mantos Blancos copper mines in northern Chile. The contracts expire in mid-2020, magazine Minería Chilena reported.

PRECIOUS METALS

* Russian Natural Resources Minister Sergei Donskoi said the government sold rights to develop the Sukhoi Log gold deposit to SL Zoloto, a joint venture of miner PJSC Polyus and state-run Rostec for US$158 million, Reuters reported. According to Soviet-era research from the 1960s, the deposit hosts reserves of 1,943 tonnes of gold.

* Avesoro Resources Inc. expects to produce between 90,000 ounces to 100,000 ounces of gold in 2017 at all-in sustaining cost of US$925 per ounce to US$975 per ounce of gold produced from its New Liberty mine, part of its Bea Mountain property in Liberia.

* Golden Minerals Co. reported an indicated mineral resource for its Rodeo gold property in Mexico. It estimated 46,000 ounces of gold and 200,000 ounces of silver contained within 400,000 tonnes at 3.3 g/t of gold and 11 g/t of silver, using a 0.83 g/t of gold equivalent cutoff grade under the base case scenario.

* Alamos Gold Inc. plans to raise about US$250 million by selling 31,450,000 common shares at US$7.95 apiece to a syndicate of underwriters, on a bought deal basis. Proceeds will rise to US$288 million if the underwriters fully exercise the overallotment option. Net proceeds along with existing cash will be used to repay all of its outstanding US$315 million senior secured 7.75% notes due 2020.

* Highland Gold Mining Ltd. said it produced 261,159 ounces of gold and equivalents in 2016, near the upper end of its output guidance. The company expects production of gold and gold equivalents this year to be at the same level as the previous year.

* Lonmin Plc produced 148,588 ounces of platinum in the three months to the end of December 2016, compared to 157,579 ounces in the year-earlier period, while platinum group metal production was down to 284,705 ounces from 303,303 ounces.

* Polymetal International Plc's gold equivalent production for 2016 totaled 1,269,000 ounces, beating the year's guidance of 1,260,000 ounces. The year-ago output stood at 1,267,000 ounces. Gold production in the year rose 3% to 890,000 ounces, while silver production fell 9% to 29.2 million ounces, compared to 2015.

* Petropavlovsk PLC produced 416,300 ounces of gold in full-year 2016, compared to 504,100 ounces produced a year ago. In 2017, the company expects gold production of between 420,000 ounces and 460,000 ounces at total cash cost of US$600 per ounce to US$700 per ounce, and all-in sustaining cash costs of US$800 per ounce to US$900 per ounce.

* Nord Gold SE's refined gold production in 2016 dropped 9% year over year to 868,800 gold equivalent ounces but was in line with the year's guidance of 840,000 ounces to 880,000 ounces. Gold doré production was down 6% to 870,400 ounces. Revenue for the year dropped 4% on a yearly basis to US$1.08 billion. The company expects fiscal-2017 production in the range of 900,000 ounces to 950,000 ounces.

* Avocet Mining Plc failed to achieve its gold production guidance for the year of 75,000 ounces to 85,000 ounces, with output totaling 72,485 ounces at a cash cost of US$991 per ounce. The company's operations were negatively affected after its shipments were seized in late October and November 2016.

* India is considering the restart of production from a group of colonial-era mines, which are anticipated to have deposits worth US$2.1 billion, Reuters reported. State-run Mineral Exploration Corp. Ltd. is undertaking exploration in the Kolar Gold Fields in the state of Karnataka.

* South Africa's Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane expressed concern over media reports that Sibanye Gold Ltd. and AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. are not adhering to the country's mining laws related to the health and safety of workers. According to a statement released by the department of mineral resources, the two companies are responsible for 19 deaths of mine workers in 2016.

* Sibanye Gold may let go of some 330 workers as it looks to achieve 800 million South African rand in cost and operational synergies at its Kroondal and Rustenburg platinum mines.

* China Gold International Resources Corp. Ltd. expects to produce 218,700 ounces of gold from its CSH and Jiama mines in China this year, up from the 211,301 ounces of gold produced in 2016. The company will also produce about 79 million pounds of copper from Jiama in 2017, nearly doubling from the 40.4 million pounds of copper produced last year.

* Compañía de Minas Buenaventura SAA officially started operations at its US$340 million Tambomayo gold mine in Peru's Arequipa region, daily Diario Correo reported.

* Stellar AfricaGold Inc. acquired the remaining 49% interest in the Balandougou gold project in Guinea.

* Independence Group NL swung to a net profit after tax of A$10.2 million in the second quarter of its fiscal 2017, up from a net loss after tax of A$28.1 million a year earlier. Revenue for the quarter totaled A$128.5 million, up year over year from A$98.4 million.

* A National Instruments 43-101-compliant maiden inferred resource estimate for Lumina Gold Corp.'s Cangrejos gold-copper project in Ecuador pegged 191.8 million tonnes grading 0.81 g/t of gold equivalent containing 4 million ounces of gold, 423 million pounds of copper and 4.6 million ounces of silver, at a 0.35 g/t of gold equivalent cutoff.

BULK COMMODITIES

* Australia's Deputy Prime Minister gave conditional backing to Rio Tinto's sale of its Australian coal unit to Yancoal Australia Ltd., saying that even the unions are in support of the deal, The Australian Financial Review reported. The sale is yet to receive approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board.

* Yanzhou Coal Mining Co. Ltd. unit Yancoal Australia, which agreed to take over Rio Tinto's Australian coal operation in a US$2.45 billion deal, faces fundraising hurdles as the company asks its Australian investors to pledge a record sum of cash to fund the purchase, The Australian wrote. The parent has already committed US$1 billion to Yancoal, but local investors would still need to deliver up to A$1.9 billion in fresh equity to fund the transaction.

* Outokumpu Oyj sold its quarto plate mill in New Castle, Ind., to D'Orazio Capital Partners, a U.S.-based private equity company, and to the mill's current management. The cash consideration is expected at about €28 million.

* Shareholders of Adriana Resources Inc. and Sprott Resource Corp. approved the previously announced merger between the companies.

SPECIALTY

* Alberta's superior trial court denied an application brought by Syncrude Canada Ltd. for an injunction on activities at Athabasca Minerals Inc.'s Susan Lake, allowing the latter to continue overseeing operations in the public pit.

* A preliminary economic assessment on Graphite One Resources Inc.'s integrated Graphite One manufacturing project indicated a pretax net present value of US$1.04 billion, at a 10% discount rate, and an internal rate of return of 27%. The project will require total CapEx of US$363 million for mining operations, a processing plant, a manufacturing plant and other infrastructure.

* Rainbow Rare Earths Ltd.'s prospectus was approved ahead of an intended flotation on the London Stock Exchange. The company's focus is the Gakara rare earths project in Burundi, and it has already raised about US$8 million to fast-track the project to production, with first sales of concentrate targeted by the end of the year.

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.