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Rusal tries to win back customers; Novelis nets EU approval for Aleris takeover

TOP NEWS

'Mating season' starts for Rusal, potential customers

United Co. Rusal PLC, the world's largest aluminum producer outside China, said that it has started the aluminum industry's so called "mating season" with the hope to win back customers lost a year ago when sanctions hit the company and roiled world aluminum markets, Reuters reported. This is the first round of autumn negotiations since the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, lifted the sanctions on Rusal last January.

Novelis nets European Commission's conditional approval for Aleris takeover

Hindalco Industries Ltd. unit, aluminum producer Novelis Inc., said that the European Commission conditionally approved its proposed US$2.6 billion takeover of aluminum manufacturer Aleris Corp. As previously reported, the approval is subject to the sale of Aleris' aluminum plant in Duffel, Belgium. Novelis said it is now pitching the plant to potential buyers.

Pala Investments improves takeover offer for Cobalt 27

Pala Investments Ltd. increased the cash consideration to C$4.00 per share, from the previously announced C$3.57 per share, for its takeover offer of Cobalt 27 Capital Corp., representing an additional C$30 million to the previous value of C$501 million.

DIVERSIFIED

* Vale SA said that 82 positive stability condition declarations, or DCE, of its operational structures in Brazil were issued. Three structures improved their stability conditions, obtaining positive DCEs a after negative evaluation in March.

* Avrupa Minerals Ltd. inked a letter of intent with Minas de Aguas Teñidas, S.A.U. to form an earn-in exploration and exploitation joint venture on its Alvalade copper-zinc massive sulfide project in Portugal.

BASE METALS

* Queensland Nickel Pty Ltd. became insolvent in October 2015 as its chairman Clive Palmer did not want to invest more money into the business, according to special purpose liquidator Stephen Parbery, the Australian Financial Review reported.

* Stellar Resources Ltd.'s scoping study on the Heemskirk tin project in Tasmania, Australia, outlined a posttax net present value, discounted at 10%, of about A$71 million, a pretax internal rate of return of about 45% and a three-year payback period.

* Australian Mines Ltd. said its off-take agreement allowing SK Innovation Co. Ltd. to purchase all of the battery-grade cobalt and nickel sulfates from the Sconi cobalt-nickel-scandium project in Queensland, Australia, will terminate if SK Innovation fails to issue a prepayment letter by Oct. 31 or if the formal documentation is not agreed on by Jan. 31, 2020.

* Superior Lake Resources Ltd. confirmed a media report that it received nonbinding indicative proposals from Glencore PLC, Trafigura Pte. Ltd. and IXM BV for off-take from its namesake zinc project in Ontario, although no formal offer has been received.

* Aurubis AG has started on its scheduled maintenance shutdown in its Hamburg plant, for an internal overhaul of the waste heat boiler in the primary smelter, which is legally mandated every three years. A total of 450 individual projects will be executed, representing an investment of about €50 million.

PRECIOUS METALS

* Kinross Gold Corp. denied a Reuters report that said the company is putting future deals in Russia on hold, according to The Northern Miner.

* The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union said it has not been able to reach a resolution with two major mining companies, Sibanye Gold Ltd. and Anglo American Platinum Ltd., about wages, and has referred the matter to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, Bloomberg reported.

* Newmont Goldcorp Corp. said that its all-electric Borden gold mine in Ontario has achieved commercial production safely, on schedule and within budget.

* Theta Gold Mines Ltd. agreed to purchase a 2.5-megawatt ball mill last operated by Glencore PLC for 5.5 million South African rand for its Theta gold project. The mill, which can process up to 820,000 tonnes per annum, is expected to arrive before January 2020.

* Novagold Resources Inc. incurred a net loss of US$8.1 million in its fiscal third quarter, for a loss of 2 cents per share, improving from the net loss of US$88.6 million, or a loss of 27 cents per share, incurred in the same period of 2018.

* Walker Lane Exploration Inc. has signed a preliminary agreement to acquire 55% of the outstanding shares of CBD cosmetics company Cosmetic by Design, Inc., and will retain administrative control of the combined companies.

* Troy Resources Ltd. has made the final payment of US$1.8 million to Investec Bank PLC under its long standing US$71.6 million debt facility. The company is now fully free from bank debt.

* Core Gold Inc. advised shareholders to take no action on Titan Minerals Ltd.'s unsolicited offer to acquire its issued and outstanding common shares. Core Gold's board of directors has yet to make a formal recommendation to shareholders. Titan formally launched its takeover bid of 2.5 shares of Titan for each Core Gold share, representing an equivalent of 42.2 Canadian cents per share of Core Gold.

BULK COMMODITIES

* India is considering easing environmental approvals for mines due for auctions by March, a move that could limit any disruption in iron ore production and potentially turning the country into a net importer of the material, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources. India is set to auction leases of 48 independent mines before March 31, according to the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries.

* The Union steel ministry has called for deferring the proposed sale of National Mineral Development Corp. Ltd.'s Nagarnar steel plant in Chhattisgarh, India, until it is commissioned, The Economic Times reported.

* Coal India Ltd. halted operations at its Mahanadi Coalfields after locals protested against the killing of a trespassing goat in an accident in a prohibited mining zone, Reuters reported, citing the concerned unit’s spokesman Dikken Mehra. The halt in operations cost the company 26.8 million rupees.

* Despite that the European Commission has made a number of changes to its safeguard measures concerning 26 steel product categories effective Oct. 1, it will still not be sufficient for a large part of the sector given the depressed domestic steel demand, European steel association Eurofer said, Fastmarkets reported. The association's director general Axel Eggert said that the largest part of the sector is still being hampered by unsustainable import pressure.

* Bayou Steel Corp. (Tennessee) has filed for bankruptcy as the company ran low on cash and defaulted on debt, Bloomberg reported, citing a statement from the company. Bayou has idled most of its operations, and close to 400 workers may be impacted by the company's shutdown of a plant near New Orleans.

* Wynnchurch Capital LLC said that it has made an investment in Eastern Metal Supply Inc., which distributes aluminum extrusions and related products to industrial, commercial, residential and marine end markets. The middle-market private equity firm said it is actively investing from its $1.3 billion Fund IV.

* Ampco-Pittsburgh Corp. has completed the sale of its cast roll manufacturing facility in Avonmore, Pennsylvania, to WHEMCO Inc.'s affiliate Akers National Roll.

* Moody's Investors Service said that the joint venture entered into by U.S. Steel Corp. to acquire a 49.9% interest in Big River Steel LLC for US$700 million is credit neutral since the proceeds from the equity sale will be paid to existing shareholders and will not impact the credit profile of Big River Steel.

* Steel International Trade Company, the new owner of the Tkibuli coal mines in Georgia, has fully paid the salaries of miners formerly on strike demanding their back pay, Agenda.Ge reported.

* Metinvest BV saw an oversubscription of US$639.4 million for its tender offer to purchase up to US$440 million of its outstanding US$944.5 million senior notes due 2023, at the early tender deadline of Sept. 30.

* Red Mountain Mining Ltd. entered into a binding agreement with the vendors of HPA Resources Pty. Ltd. to fully acquire the 84-square-kilometer Mount Kokeby kaolin project in Western Australia.

* Agrimin Ltd. secured an option to purchase a 17-hectare waterfront site in Western Australia to host its proposed Wyndham Port facility, which will comprise key infrastructure for the large-scale export of potash products from its MacKay project.

SPECIALTY

* Magnis Energy Technologies Ltd. said Imperium3 Townsville finalized the feasibility study for an 18-GWh lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing facility in Queensland. As part of the study, the project was divided into three stages of 6 GWh each, which reduced the first-stage capex to A$1.12 billion. Total capital expenditure for the project was estimated at A$3.05 billion.

* Sigma Lithium Resources Corp. outlined a posttax net present value of US$249 million at 8% discount, with an internal rate of return of 43.2% and a payback period of 3.1 years in its feasibility study for the Xuxa lithium deposit. The estimated initial capital is US$98.4 million, while life of mine is 9.2 years.

* Galan Lithium Ltd. outlined a maiden JORC 2012-compliant indicated mineral resource for its Candelas project in Argentina of 684,850 tonnes of contained lithium carbonate equivalent at 672 milligrams per liter of lithium, at a cutoff of 500 milligrams per liter of lithium. The company said the resource forms a solid basis to advance the pre-feasibility study at the project.

* Ioneer Ltd. expects to complete the final pilot plant test work at its Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project in Nevada by the end of November and deliver a definitive feasibility study in the first quarter of 2020.

* A front end engineering and design study outlined a capital expenditure estimate of C$2.6 million for GeoMega Resources Inc.'s demonstration plant.

INDUSTRY NEWS

* South Africa's mining industry recorded 35 fatalities in the first nine months of this year, as of Sept. 23, the lowest rate since the industry began tracking safety performance a century ago, BusinessDay reported. This is an improvement from the 71 deaths recorded in the comparative period in 2018.

* Mining equipment supplier Komatsu Australia Pty Ltd. was fined A$12,600 in the Industrial Magistrates Court in Perth for breaching the Fair Work Act, ABC reported. The company should have paid its workers a 10% annual bonus, which was stated in the official paper work in 2017, but the company said that this is a typographical error and only meant a 2% annual bonus for its workers.

* Chile's economic activity increased by 3.7% in August year on year, as mining activity surged by 5.3% compared with the same month in 2018, Reuters reported, citing data from the country's central bank.

* Ausdrill Ltd. has formally changed its name to Perenti Global Ltd.

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