TOP NEWS
Royal Gold Q2'17 earnings up YOY on higher revenue
Royal Gold Inc. booked net income of US$28.1 million in the second quarter of its fiscal 2017, increasing from US$15.1 million reported in the year-ago period. The improvement was driven by a 9% year-over-year increase in revenue, which came in at US$107.0 million. The company also reported record operating cash flow of US$69.7 million during the period, representing a 34% increase on a yearly basis.
Cameco to take C$1.3B sales hit after major customer declares force majeure
Cameco Corp. expects to lose about C$1.3 billion in revenues through 2028 after Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings Inc., or TEPCO, served a termination notice for a uranium supply contract. TEPCO alleged that force majeure has occurred, as it was unable to operate its nuclear generating plants for 18 consecutive months due to government regulations arising from the Fukushima nuclear accident in March 2011. The termination would impact about 9.3 million pounds of uranium deliveries through 2028, and the Canadian uranium miner is seeking "to enforce its rights under the uranium supply contract to recover losses." In 2017, Cameco's consolidated revenue, including the Tokyo Electric volume, is expected to range between C$2.1 billion to C$2.2 billion.
Luna Gold to merge with JDL Gold
Luna Gold Corp. and JDL Gold Corp. have entered into an agreement to merge and establish a multiasset mining company, which will be well funded and strongly positioned to advance the Aurizona gold project in Brazil to production. Under the terms, Luna Gold shareholders will receive 1.105 JDL shares for each share held.
BASE METALS
* Strategic Minerals Plc's access to the Cobre magnetite stockpile in New Mexico, owned by Freeport-McMoran, has been extended by 12 months to Feb. 28, 2018.
* TNG Ltd.'s new company that will own its base metals assets in Australia's Northern Territory filed a A$6 million IPO to list on the ASX. Todd River Resources Ltd. is offering 30 million shares at 20 cents apiece to raise the cash and list on the ASX on March 24.
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* Archer Exploration Ltd. opted to terminate the farm-in and joint venture agreement with Cobalt Bull Pty Ltd. that allowed the latter to earn a 75% interest in certain tenements of the company in South Australia, including the Spring Creek cobalt-manganese project.
* Operations have been suspended at Mitsubishi Materials Corp.'s majority-owned Gresik copper smelter in Indonesia since Jan. 19 amid a worker strike, Metal Bulletin reported, citing a company executive.
* Zinc One Resources Inc. has entered into a binding agreement with Forrester Metals Inc. to acquire the latter's issued and outstanding common shares and complete a private placement financing of C$10 million.
* Glencore Plc unit Katanga Mining Ltd. reported that waste mined in 2016 totaled about 8.1 million tonnes, representing a 79.7% decrease on a yearly basis, due to a revised mining plan, following the suspension of copper and cobalt processing at the end of the third quarter of 2015. Ore mined, meanwhile, came in at 825 tonnes at KOV and is related to incidental ore mined during waste mining.
PRECIOUS METALS
* SEMAFO Inc. reported 2016 production of 240,200 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of US$720 per ounce at its Mana gold mine in Burkina Faso. Gold sales for 2016 totaled 240,600 ounces of gold, resulting in annual revenues of US$300 million.
* Anglo American Platinum Ltd. launched a chrome recovery plant at its Amandelbult Section operation in South Africa to produce commercial-grade chromite concentrate.
* Centamin Plc's net profit attributable to shareholders for 2016 increased to US$214.8 million from US$51.6 million in 2015. Revenues were up 35% to US$687.4 million as EBITDA surged 145% on a yearly basis to US$373 million thanks to higher gold prices, increased production and lower costs.
* Major shareholders of Banro Corp. agreed to support the company's recapitalization plan, which will see it refinance US$207.5 million of outstanding debt, equitize outstanding preferred shares and raise US$45 million through a forward gold sale.
* Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd. suspended all scraper-related operations at its Masimong mine in Free State, South Africa, after an employee was killed in an accident. An investigation into the incident is underway.
* Anova Metals Ltd. secured final approvals required to start mining at its Big Springs gold project in Nevada.
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* Metalcorp Ltd. inked a deal with Golden Peak Minerals Inc., granting the latter an option to earn a 100% interest in 32 mineral exploration claims, dubbed the Hemlo East gold property, in Ontario. Under the deal, Golden Peak is required to make payments totaling C$340,000 and issue 2,250,000 shares to MetalCorp over a three-year period.
* Orca Gold Inc. struck a deal to acquire Kinross Gold Corp.'s two wholly owned exploration companies, which collectively own the Morondo and Korokaha North exploration licenses, along with five exploration license applications, covering 2,268 square kilometers in Ivory Coast.
* Nickel One Resources Inc. Inc. signed a definitive agreement with Finore Mining Inc. to fully acquire the Lantinen Koillismaa platinum group elements-copper-nickel project in Finland.
* Polyus Gold International Ltd. priced its US$800 million 5.250% notes due Feb. 7, 2023. The notes will be guaranteed by JSC Polyus Gold. Closing and settlement of the notes is expected to occur Feb. 7.
* Employees who had staged a sit-in at Randgold Resources Ltd.'s Tongon gold mine in Ivory Coast returned to work Feb. 1, after management and local and central authorities negotiated a settlement.
BULK COMMODITIES
* Arconic Inc.'s 10.5% shareholder, Elliott Management, is looking to oust CEO Klaus Kleinfeld, claiming it could improve the company's valuation to between US$33 and US$54 per share from the Jan. 31 close of US$22.79 per share, Reuters reported. Elliott proposed former CEO of Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Larry Lawson as Kleinfeld's replacement.
* Russian fertilizer group PJSC PhosAgro's overall fertilizer production in 2016 increased 9.4% year over year to 7.4 million tonnes, after a 13.4% jump in output in the 2016 fourth quarter to 2.0 million tonnes.
* Beowulf Mining Plc shares crashed after the County Administrative Board for the County of Norrbotten referred the company's exploitation concession application for the Kallak iron ore project back to the Mining Inspectorate of Sweden. The company lodged a revised exploitation concession application with the Inspectorate in 2016, which was sent to the country board to respond to the Inspectorate's questions until Feb. 28.
* The Danakali Ltd. and Eritrean National Mining Corp. 50/50 joint venture, Colluli Mining Share Co., which wholly owns the Colluli potash project, entered into a mining agreement with the Eritrean ministry of energy and mines covering about 100 square kilometers, including the entire Colluli resource. The joint venture secured exclusive exploitation rights of all mineral resources within the agreement area, an exclusive right to apply mining licenses within the area and the exclusive right of land use over the life of the resource.
* Prairie Mining Ltd. estimated a maiden coal resource of 301 million tonnes of hard coking coal at its wholly owned Debiensko hard coking coal project in Poland.
* In 2017, PAO Severstal plans to invest about 43 billion Russian rubles across its operations, primarily focusing on increasing production of high-value added products, enhancing safety and customer care, and cost control.
* Voestalpine AG said it complied with European Union requirements regarding financial watchdog FMA's probe on the Austrian steelmaker's communication on cost overruns at its plant in Texas, Reuters reported.
* Reunion Gold Corp. completed the previously announced sale of its Matthews Ridge manganese project in Guyana to Chinese firm Bosai Minerals Group Co. Ltd. As consideration, Reunion Gold received US$5 million at closing.
* North China's Shanxi province has recoverable coal deposits of 267.4 billion tonnes, representing 25% of the nation's total proved coal reserves, Finet.com reported. The province has produced 832 million tonnes of coal last year, down 14.7% from the year before.
SPECIALTY
* Supreme Metals Corp. inked two separate agreements an exclusive option from Anstag Mining Inc. to acquire a 100% undivided interest in and to the 1,600-acre Silver Shadow property located in the northwest part of the Clayton Valley and a 100% undivided interest in the 1,920-acre Columbus property in Esmerelda County, from Doctors Investment Group Inc., both of which are lithium-prospective properties.
* Avira Energy Ltd. received approval from Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board to take a 30% stake in Paladin Energy Ltd.'s Manyingee uranium project in Western Australia and form a joint venture with Paladin.
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* Mineral Deposits Ltd. kicked off chloride titanium slag and high-purity pig iron production at its TiZir titanium-iron ilmenite upgrading facility in Norway using ilmenite from the Grande Cote mineral sands operation in Senegal.
INDUSTRY NEWS
* Exploration budgets allocated to Canada in 2016 totaled US$971 million, which was US$214 million less than in 2015, according to SNL Metals & Mining. This represented a fall of 18%; however, the decline was less than the global average decline of 21%. The 2016 total budget was a 12-year low for the country, down 70% from the 2012 high of US$3.24 billion. There were 400 companies budgeting for exploration in Canada in 2016, which was 14% less than the 464 companies with budgets in the previous year.
* Dean Cunningham, CEO of Omani gypsum exporter Kunooz Oman Holding, said he expects Oman to issue a new mining law this June, Muscat Daily reported. The new law would permit companies to mine for a longer period and ease the process to secure a license.
* A day before announcing the results of a months-long review of the country's mineral producers, Philippine Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Regina Lopez said a handful of mines in the country need to be shut down due to the environmental harm caused, Reuters reported.
SNL Metals & Mining is owned by S&P Global Inc.
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.