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China's Pengxin International eyes US$1.5B deal for Martabe mine

TOP NEWS

China's Pengxin International eyes US$1.5B deal for Martabe mine

China's Pengxin International Mining Co. Ltd. is in advanced talks to buy the Martabe gold mine in Indonesia from a consortium of investors, including EMR Capital Group, for about US$1.5 billion, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.

US extends deadline for investors to sell out of sanctioned Russian companies

The U.S. Treasury Department extended the deadline for investors to divest stakes in sanctioned Russian companies, including En+ Group PLC and United Co. Rusal PLC, to Aug. 5 from the previous June 6 deadline, Reuters reported. Meanwhile, En+ Chairman Greg Barker told Reuters that he asked the U.S. Treasury for an extension before trading restrictions come into force while developing a plan to meet U.S. requirements to lift the sanctions against Rusal and En+.

US squares off with EU, Canada, Mexico over steel, aluminum tariffs

The Trump administration has begun a battle royal with some of its key allies over steel and aluminum tariffs after moving to lift temporary exemptions on tariffs for the EU, Canada and Mexico, intensifying a trade dispute that could hit a broad swath of industries. Reactions from the EU and Mexico were swift. The EU was set to go to the World Trade Organization, while Mexico threatened equivalent measures against the U.S. Canada announced its own retaliatory tariffs worth C$16.6 billion against U.S. products and said it would also pursue WTO action.

DIVERSIFIED

* The Australian Tax Office is arguing in a pretrial hearing that BHP Billiton Group's U.K. and Australian listed entities were associates in an A$82 million tax dispute over the miner's Singapore marketing hub, The Australian Financial Review reported. BHP may have to pay more taxes if the claim is successful.

BASE METALS

* Southern Copper Corp. is preparing to invest more than US$10 billion in Peru and Mexico to capitalize on rising copper prices and demand, Bloomberg News reported. "There were projects but not enough to cover the demand we will see in the next few years," Southern Copper CFO Raul Jacob Ruisanchez said in an interview. The company expects to start work on its Tia Maria copper project in 2019, one of the three projects it is planning to build in Peru with a combined investment of about US$7 billion, he said.

* The Democratic Republic of the Congo produced 296,717 tonnes of copper in the first quarter, up 8.2% year on year, and produced 34.4% more cobalt at 23,921 tonnes, Reuters wrote, citing data from the country's central bank. Gold output also rose 9.7% to 8,549 kilograms.

* Myanmar Metals Ltd. CEO John Lamb, in an exclusive interview with S&P Global Market Intelligence, said he believes that he has timed the junior's entry perfectly into the country, which is expanding trade links with China, but international mining lawyer and Mining Standards International Founder Robert Milbourne, who helped Myanmar build its regulations, has serious reservations as exploration is still at a trickle.

* S&P Global Market Intelligence's Metals and Mining Research estimated that global mined production of zinc fell in the first quarter to 3.05 million tonnes, compared with the 3.20 Mt registered in the final three months of 2017, which brought the annual total to 12.39 Mt. However, the estimated figure for the latest quarter is still just above the year-ago global output of 2.9 Mt.

* Nelson Pizarro will stay as Codelco's CEO as the Chilean state copper miner moves forward with a 10-year plan to overhaul its aging mines, Reuters reported.

* Weatherly International PLC is seeking advice related to administration after Orion Mine Finance (Master) Fund I LP said it is unlikely to permit the miner to further draw down an existing uncommitted loan facility obtained in July 2017.

* Independence Group NL completed the recently announced A$73.2 million sale of its Jaguar copper-zinc operation in Western Australia to CopperChem Ltd.

* Antofagasta PLC unit Antofagasta Minerals SA is seeking approval from Chilean authorities for a US$100 million expansion plan on its Zaldivar copper mine, which will extend operations to 2031, El Mercurio reported.

* MMG Ltd. reported a fatality at its Sepon operations in Laos. A mine surveyor died after a tree struck the vehicle he was driving. The Sepon operations include a gold mine and a copper mine.

PRECIOUS METALS

* The government of Ghana appointed consultants to review contracts with mining companies as it started an audit of the country's mining sector, Bloomberg News wrote. The country is the second-largest gold producer in Africa.

* South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers reported another fatality at Sibanye Gold Ltd.'s operations in the country and said a worker at the Driefontein gold mine was killed by falling rocks. Reuters wrote that Sibanye confirmed the incident.

* Sumatra Copper & Gold PLC lowered its full-year production guidance to between 37,500 and 42,500 ounces of gold equivalent, from between 45,000 and 55,000 ounces of gold equivalent, after it temporarily suspended mining activities at its Tembang gold-silver mine in Indonesia.

* Kin Mining NL placed the Cardinia processing plant on care and maintenance following the miner's decision to halt construction work at the Leonora gold project in Western Australia.

* Petropavlovsk PLC proposed to remove the board member who represents its biggest shareholder, Kenges Rakishev, Reuters wrote. Rakishev is part of a shareholder group pushing for Pavel Maslovskiy to return as Petropavlovsk's CEO.

* Jaguar Mining Inc. is significantly scaling back underground mining activities at the Pilar and Turmalina gold mines due to the ongoing nationwide truck drivers' strike in Brazil.

* Force Commodities Ltd. entered into separate options to sell its two Halls Peak silver project tenements, EL4474 and EL7679, in New South Wales, Australia, for up to A$665,800 to XS Resources Ltd. The sale will allow Force to solely focus on its lithium projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

* Catalyst Metals Ltd. will move to form an unincorporated joint venture with Navarre Minerals Ltd. over the Tandarra gold project in Victoria, Australia, after incurring an A$3 million spend within four years.

BULK COMMODITIES

* A spokesman for Mitsui & Co. Ltd. confirmed that the Japanese company will keep its stake in the Kestrel coal mine in Queensland, Australia, even after Rio Tinto completes the sale of its 80% interest in the project, Reuters reported.

* Evraz Group SA signed a deal to sell its 15.04% stake in Chinese steel producer Delong Holdings Ltd. to Best Decade Holdings Ltd. for about US$91.7 million.

* A recent report from BMI Research showed that China, India and the U.S. will remain the largest thermal coal consumers, while China, India and Russia will continue as the largest consumers of coking coal through 2027, Mining Weekly wrote.

* Certain Nigerian lawmakers are moving to block President Muhammadu Buhari's plans to sell the idled Ajaokuta steel plant in the country by setting up a US$1 billion fund that would retain the state's ownership of the facility, Bloomberg News wrote. The fund will make use of Nigeria's oil savings.

* The EU will take the U.S. to the World Trade Organization to settle a row over steel and aluminum tariffs and vowed to retaliate with additional duties on American imports. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said the WTO will launch proceedings against the U.S. on June 1.

* Outside the U.S., reactions to aluminum and steel tariffs against Canada, the EU and Mexico were blistering as industry called the move counterproductive and governments announced plans to hit back. Historically, these countries accounted for between a quarter and a third of seaborne U.S. steel and aluminum imports, according to data from Panjiva Inc., a division of S&P Global Market Intelligence.

* Tata Steel Ltd.'s Dutch arm called on the EU to protect the European market from a flood of cheap imports seeking new destinations in the wake of U.S.-imposed tariffs, Reuters reported.

* Rio Tinto was caught in the crossfire of the trade war between the U.S. and Canada as the U.S.-based customers of the miner will now have to pay a 10% tariff on aluminum, The Australian Financial Review reported. Rio Tinto's Quebec and British Columbia smelters ship over US$2 billion per annum of aluminum to manufacturers in the U.S., accounting for more than half of Canadian sales.

* Rio Tinto completed the US$200 million sale of its 75% interest in the Winchester South coal project in Queensland, Australia, to Whitehaven Coal Ltd.

* Moody's said tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the EU, Canada and Mexico may boost some domestic metal products, but the move will likely hurt the U.S. economy, Reuters wrote.

* Port Waratah Coal Services Ltd. scrapped plans for a A$5 billion coal terminal at the world's biggest coal port in Newcastle, opting to allow the lease to lapse in 2019 and save about A$100 million in land lease fees, ABC reported May 31.

* A pre-feasibility study for BCI Minerals Ltd.'s Mardie salt project in Western Australia outlined a pretax net present value, discounted at 10%, of A$335 million, an internal rate of return of 20% and a payback period of five years after the start of production.

* ASX hopeful Trigg Mining Ltd. postponed plans for an IPO after failing to raise a minimum of A$4 million from investors, The West Australian reported. The aspiring potash producer attributed the move to "recent weakness in equity markets," adding that it would revisit plans when conditions improve.

* Centrex Metals Ltd.'s updated resource estimate for the Ardmore phosphate rock project in Queensland, Australia, increased to 16.2 million tonnes grading 27.8% phosphorus pentoxide, or P2O5, using a cutoff of 16% P2O5, partly due to a lower cutoff grade used based on the latest project information.

* Altech Chemicals Ltd. received Malaysian government approval for the manufacturing license for its proposed 4,500-tonne-per-annum high-purity alumina plant in the country's Johor state.

* NLC India Ltd. and Indian state miner National Mineral Development Corp. Ltd. signed a memorandum of understanding with Australia's Environmental Clean Technologies for a collaboration in the research and development of the latter's two proprietary technologies, The Hindu reported.

* A proposed deal between Potash Ridge Corp. and Canada Coal Inc. for a potential collaboration on the former's Valleyfield Fertilizer Corp. unit has fallen through. The unit holds the Valleyfield potash property in Quebec.

SPECIALTY

* PJSC Alrosa's third auction in Israel received US$14.5 million in revenue from the sale of 112 gem-quality lots of special-size rough diamonds with a total weight of 1,824 carats.

* Bluejay Mining PLC is set to start production at its Dundas ilmenite project in Greenland in 2019, Chairman Michael Hutchinson said. An ongoing preliminary feasibility study is due in the coming months, with a final feasibility report to be completed later in the year.

* Triton Minerals Ltd. approved the development of the Ancuabe graphite project in Mozambique, following a positive definitive feasibility study in December 2017 and the completion of development and commercialization activity this year.

INDUSTRY NEWS

* Renzo Rossini, manager of the Peruvian central bank, called on the government to intensify efforts to revive mining projects suspended by unrest, noting that three suspended projects would have delivered US$7 billion in investments and about US$500 in annual tax revenues had their development continued, Reuters wrote.

* According to African News Agency, South African Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe is confident that the government will deliver a "solid" mining charter after the last community consultation for the new regulations. Mantashe will convene a summit to present a draft of the mining charter before submitting it to the cabinet.

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