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Glencore shuffles copper business leaders amid DRC probe

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Glencore shuffles copper business leaders amid DRC probe

TOP NEWS

Report: Glencore shuffles copper business leaders amid DRC accounting, management probe

Glencore Plc shuffled the leadership of its copper business after a review of its operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo raised questions over the business' accounting and management practices, Bloomberg News wrote. According to people familiar with the matter, Aristotelis Mistakidis will lose control over the group's industrial copper operations and will instead focus on trading, while the copper business will be entrusted to Mike Ciricillo, who runs copper smelting and refining operations.

Polyus cancels US$886.9M stake sale to Fosun-led group

Russian gold miner PJSC Polyus threw out a US$886.9 million deal to sell a 10% stake to a group of Chinese companies led by Fosun International Ltd. due to the nonsatisfaction of the terms of the agreement.

Report: BHP said to seek US$1B for Samarco stake from Vale

BHP Billiton Group is seeking about US$1 billion from Vale SA for its 50% interest in their Samarco Mineração SA joint venture, The Australian Financial Review reported, citing "people familiar with the matter." The valuation includes the provision that BHP would continue to assume liabilities in connection with the 2015 dam spill. The mining major is also asking to receive royalties for the life of the mine, as the talks between the parties continue, the sources added.

BASE METALS

* The suspension of operations at Vale SA's Coleman nickel mine in Ontario has been extended as critical repair works are expected to continue through the end of January, CBC News wrote. The mine was halted late last year for repairs, which were last pegged for completion in December.

* Cruz Cobalt Corp. said it began operations at the War Eagle cobalt prospect in British Columbia.

* Jilin Jien Nickel Industry Co. Ltd. expects to book a net loss for 2017 and warned that the Shanghai Stock Exchange could delist the company if the net loss was confirmed.

* S&P Global Ratings revised its outlook on Cía. Minera Milpo SAA to stable, from negative, and affirmed its corporate credit and issue-level ratings at BB+. The ratings affirmation and outlook revision follow the same action on Milpo's ultimate parent, Votorantim SA, and on its immediate parent, Nexa Resources SA.

* Central Asia Metals Plc expects to produce 13,000 tonnes to 14,000 tonnes of copper cathode from the Kounrad mine. At Sasa, CAML expects zinc-in-concentrate production of 21,000 tonnes to 23,000 tonnes and lead-in-concentrate production of 28,000 tonnes to 30,000 tonnes. In 2017, the company produced 14,103 tonnes of copper, 21,585 tonnes of zinc, and 29,881 tonnes of lead.

* Artemis Resources Ltd. estimated a maiden JORC-compliant resource of 557,000 tonnes at 1.0 g/t gold, 0.2% cobalt and 0.5% copper, at a 0.5% metal content cut-off, for the Quod Est deposit at its Carlow Castle cobalt-gold-copper project in Western Australia.

* Blina Minerals NL said that La Cobaltera Pty. Ltd. signed an agreement with Comet Exploration Ltd. to acquire up to six cobalt-prospective mining licenses and an exploration license to expand the La Cobaltera project in Chile.

* Tasca Resources Ltd. decided not to option its Bleiberger zinc-lead project in Austria, and has notified the optioner regarding its decision.

* Sherritt International Corp. produced 35,474 tonnes of nickel and 3,053 tonnes of cobalt from its Ambatovy joint venture in Madagascar in 2017, below its full-year guidance. The company's Moa Bay joint venture in Cuba, meanwhile, produced 31,523 tonnes of nickel and 3,601 tonnes of cobalt, in line with forecasts.

* Nevada Copper Corp. successfully executed binding agreements to raise US$100 million of equity financing from institutional investors as part of its US$378 million construction financing and recapitalization transactions.

PRECIOUS METALS

* Torex Gold Resources Inc. said it restarted operations in priority areas of its El Limon-Guajes gold operations in Mexico, although a subset of the Real del Limon Ejido continues to actively support the blockade staged by the Los Mineros Union.

* McEwen Mining Inc. said it achieved its 2017 gold output target of 109,500 ounces. The company, however, missed the production guidance for silver with 2017 output of 3.2 million silver ounces.

* Monax Mining Ltd.'s Western Queen gold project in Western Australia is estimated to host indicated and inferred resources of 962,000 tonnes grading 3.9 g/t for 120,000 ounces of gold, using a gold cutoff grade of 2 g/t.

* Alacer Gold Corp. said gold production from the Çöpler operation in Turkey totaled 168,163 ounces in 2017, with its 80% stake in the project yielding 134,530 ounces of gold. For 2018, the mine is expected to produce 120,000 ounces to 190,000 ounces of gold, on a 100% ownership basis.

* Superior Gold Inc. produced 80,143 ounces of gold in 2017, slightly exceeding its guidance of up to 80,000 ounces for the year.

* Acacia Mining plc produced 148,477 ounces of gold in the fourth quarter of 2017, compared to 212,954 ounces produced a year ago. Full-year production totaled 767,883 ounces, beating the year's guidance of 750,000 ounces, but down compared to the 2016 output.

* Caledonia Mining Corp. Plc achieved record quarterly gold production at its Blanket mine in Zimbabwe in the fourth quarter of 16,425 ounces, a 21% increase year over year. The full year 2017 gold production totaled 56,135 ounces, increasing 11.4% year over year and beating the 2017 guidance of 54,000 ounces to 56,000 ounces.

* Cygnus Gold Ltd. started trading on the ASX after a A$6 million IPO. The shares were trading at 30 Australian cents apiece in late afternoon trading.

* Newmont Mining Corp. subsidiary Newmont Exploration Pty. Ltd. decided not to proceed with work on Greatland Gold Plc's Ernest Giles gold project in Western Australia. Greatland said it plans to start a targeted exploration campaign at the project in the current quarter using its own finances.

* TerraX Minerals Inc. secured an option to acquire the past-producing Ptarmigan gold mine property within its Eastbelt property, which is part of the Yellowknife City gold project in Canada's Northwest Territories.

* Royal Sapphire Corp. will not proceed with the acquisition of 70% interests in the Beardmore and Tessa gold properties in Canada.

* West Wits Mining Ltd. is fast tracking an application to secure a small-scale mining permit to establish an additional open pit mine, dubbed as W2, within the Witwatersrand Basin gold project in South Africa.

* Columbus Gold Corp. received conditional approval for listing spinoff company Allegiant Gold Ltd. on the TSX Venture Exchange, the last requirement to set the share distribution record date for completing the spin-out transaction, which was announced in July 2017.

BULK COMMODITIES

* China's state-owned companies are targeting 12.65 million tonnes of coal capacity cuts in 2018, Reuters wrote, citing a Xinhua News Agency report.

* Centrex Metals Ltd.'s scoping study for the Ardmore phosphate rock project in Queensland, Australia, estimated a pretax net present value, discounted at 10%, of about A$124 million to A$129 million, an internal rate of return of 39% to 42% and a three-year payback.

* RBC Daily and Kommersant reported that VostokUgol announced the formation of an alliance with Michel Litvak's OTEKO, which plans to put into operation this year the Taman terminal for the transshipment of coal, iron ore, sulfur and mineral fertilizers with a total design capacity of 35 million tonnes per year. The mixture for pulverized coal injection, or PCI, will be produced mainly from coal mined in Kemerovo on the Kiizassky section, with the addition of anthracite from the Vostochny section in the Novosibirsk region. During the year, the alliance plans to export 500,000 tonnes of PCI per month.

* Helix Resources Ltd. divested its 14% diluting interest in the noncore Yalleen iron ore project in Western Australia to the joint venture manager.

* Base Resources Ltd.'s acquisition of the Toliara sands project is now unconditional and is scheduled to complete during the week starting Jan. 22.

* Tata Steel Ltd. produced about 6.49 million tonnes of steel in the third quarter of its fiscal 2018, compared to about 6.24 million tonnes in the prior-year quarter. Total third-quarter sales came in at about 6.31 million tonnes, compared to year-ago sales of about 5.97 million tonnes.

* Itafos completed the acquisition of the Conda phosphate operations in Idaho from Agrium Inc., a subsidiary of Nutrien Ltd. In November 2017, Agrium agreed to sell the Conda mining project and Conda plant to Itafos for US$100 million, including working capital.

* China's top state coal miners slashed spot coal prices to keep prices stable, which climbed by more than 10% after Beijing reversed a ban on using coal for heating amid the nation's winter heating crisis, Reuters reported. Coal mining companies, including Shanxi Coking Coal Group Co. Ltd., Datong Coal Mine Group Co. Ltd. and Jinneng Group Co. Ltd., lowered their coal prices by 15 yuan to 20 yuan per tonne, according to the China Coal Transport and Distribution Association.

* PJSC Novolipetsk Steel will increase production of iron ore pellet at its Stoylensky iron ore plant in Russia by 11.9% year over year to 6.4 million tonnes per annum this year, Metal Bulletin reported.

* Moody's upgraded Brazilian steelmaker Gerdau SA's corporate family rating to Ba2 from Ba3, with a stable outlook. The upgrade reflects debt reduction and liability management efforts, which have intensified since October 2017 and are expected to result in much faster deleveraging than previously thought.

SPECIALTY

* State-owned Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Co. expects to increase diamond production by 65% this year to at least 3 million carats from 1.8 million carats in 2017, Reuters reported, citing the country's mines minister.

* The Upper Mining Authority of Saxony granted Lithium Australia NL a 133-square-kilometer exploration license, where lithium minerals have been identified on the surface, in Germany's Erzgebirge region.

* S&P Global Ratings assigned to Netherlands-based AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group NV a BB- corporate credit rating with a stable outlook and a BB- issue level rating to its proposed seven-year US$300 million term loan B and US$200 million revolving credit facility maturing 2023.

* Harvest Minerals Ltd. is substantially expanding operations at its wholly owned Arapua fertilizer project in Brazil to increase the annual capacity to over 320,000 tonnes. The plant expansion is expected to be installed and commissioned by the start of the second quarter.

* Gem Diamonds Ltd. recovered an exceptional quality 910 carat, D color type IIa diamond from the Letseng mine in Lesotho. The discovery is the fifth-biggest diamond ever found.

* Richland Resources Ltd.'s Capricorn Sapphire Pty. Ltd. unit sold US$183,399 in rough and cut sapphires from 278,270 carats between November 2017 and December 2017, bringing total fourth-quarter sales to US$545,025 from 2.65 million carats of sapphires.

* Peninsula Mines Ltd. signed a binding agreement with DNI Metals Inc. for the latter to supply up to 24,000 tonnes per year of flake graphite to South Korean end-users through the former's Korea Graphite Co. Ltd. unit up to July 1, 2021.

* PJSC Alrosa is holding a contest for ideas on how to restore operations at the flooded Mir mine, part of its Mirny Division property in Siberia. Operations at the Mir pipe were shut down in early August 2017 after floodwaters from the pit mine above cascaded into the facility, killing eight miners. The deadline for applications is Jan. 29, and the company is offering a prize of 1.5 million Russian rubles for the best proposal.

* Additionally, Alrosa received approval from Angolan President Joao Lourenço to expand the company's stake in the Catoca diamond mine in Angola by 8.2% to 41% for US$70 million. The transaction will be legally formalized in February or March.

INDUSTRY NEWS

* The Indian Mines Ministry has published the draft National Mineral Policy 2018, which proposes exploration incentives such giving mineral exploration companies the right of first refusal at the auction of any area that they are exploring, Mining Weekly wrote. The draft is open for feedback from industry and stakeholders.

* An illegal mine in Peru collapsed after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit the southern region of Arequipa, resulting in 17 miners reported missing, Mining.com reported.

S&P Global Ratings and S&P Global Market Intelligence are owned by S&P Global Inc.

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.