TOP NEWS
Impala to acquire North American Palladium
Brookfield Business Partners LP agreed to sell its 81% interest in North American Palladium Ltd. to Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. for US$570 million. Impala Platinum will also acquire the remaining 19% shares not held by Brookfield in North American Palladium.
Glencore enters 5-year cobalt supply deal with China's GEM
Glencore PLC agreed to supply at least 61,200 tonnes of cobalt hydroxide to China-based battery recycler GEM Co. Ltd. between 2020 and 2024.
Liberty House to address transparency concerns by posting accounts, naming board
In response to criticisms of its lack of transparency, Sanjeev Gupta's Liberty House Ltd. will publish consolidated accounts and name a board of directors for the first time, The Times of London reported. The group has an annual turnover of £20 billion and employs 35,000 workers globally, but its lack of financial transparency and corporate governance structures have raised questions over its viability as well as the uncommon nature and cost of its borrowings.
DIVERSIFIED
* Pacific Iron Ore Corp. will delist its common shares from the TSX Venture Exchange, effective Oct. 14.
BASE METALS
* New Century Resources Ltd.'s output for the September quarter totaled 26,171 tonnes of zinc metal produced in 53,500 tonnes of concentrate grading 49.0% zinc, higher than the 20,450 tonnes of zinc metal produced in 42,500 tonnes of concentrate grading 48.1% zinc.
* Bezant Resources PLC conditionally agreed to sell an 80% stake in its Mankayan copper-gold project in the Philippines to private Singaporean company Mining and Minerals Industries Holding Pte. Ltd.
* The Indonesian government appointed state miner PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Persero) to acquire the 20% stake in PT Vale Indonesia Tbk. The company is looking to divest to local investors to meet new regulations aimed at limiting foreign ownership of the country's mining resources, Reuters reported.
* Mirasol Resources Ltd. granted First Quantum Minerals Ltd. the option to earn-in an 80% interest in the Coronación copper-gold project in Northern Chile.
* First Energy Metals Ltd. entered into a binding letter of intent to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Muzhu Mining Ltd.
* Worthington Industries Inc. has acquired Heidtman Steel Products Inc.'s pickling and slitting facility in Cleveland.
* Osisko Metals Inc. has completed staking 84 claims covering a surface area of 24,340 hectares that will more than double its mineral claim holdings for the Pine Point zinc project in the Northwest Territories in Canada.
* Fitch assigned a first time B+ credit rating with a stable outlook to Ryerson Holding Corp.
PRECIOUS METALS
*
* China's central bank has boosted its gold reserves by more than 100 tons since it restarted purchases in December 2018, raising holdings to 62.64 million ounces in September, Bloomberg reported. During the first half, central banks worldwide purchased 374.1 tons of gold, pushing total demand to a three-year high amid slower growth, the U.S.-China trade war and rate cuts, according to the World Gold Council.
* Euro Sun Mining Inc. has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Vilhelmina Minerals Inc. in addition to the 1,274,000 shares or 37.8% shares of Vilhelmina that Euro Sun currently owns.
* Mexus Gold US is expecting its new Merrill Crowe gold recovery plant, which is en route to its Santa Elena mine in Mexico, to be operational by Nov. 1.
* Bluenose Gold Corp. entered a letter of intent to acquire Gran Colombia Gold Corp.'s subsidiary Medoro Resources Colombia Inc for C$57.5 million to be satisfied by issuing 28,750,000 shares at 2 Canadian cents apiece. The subsidiary holds all of the shares of Gran Colombia Marmato SAS, which in turn holds all of the mining assets.
* Velocity Minerals Ltd. has been granted an exclusive right to acquire a 70% interest in Gorubso-Kardzhali AD's Sedefche gold deposit in Bulgaria.
* Gold Resource Corp.'s Isabella Pearl gold mine in Nevada has reached commercial production levels.
* Great Panther Mining Ltd.'s production from its Tucano gold mine in Brazil increased by 21% year on year to 36,317 ounces in the third quarter from 29,941 ounces. Silver production in its Guanajuato Mine Complex decreased by 45% to 143,807 ounces from 260,836 ounces, while gold production decreased by 32% to 2,991 ounces from 4,414 ounces.
* The Pulacayo mining production contract between Prophecy Development Corp. and the Corporacion Minera de Bolivia, a branch of the Bolivian Ministry of Mining and Metallurgy, was executed. The contract grants Prophecy the 100% exclusive right to develop and mine at the Pulacayo and Paca concessions for up to 30 years.
* RNC Minerals reported 8,239 ounces of consolidated gold production for September. Total production for the third quarter was 24,216 ounces.
* Resources & Energy Group Ltd. secured an additional 10 square kilometers in the western zone and 10 square kilometers in the eastern zone of the Menzies gold project in Western Australia.
* Trial mining of up to 1.0 million cubic meters, or about 1.6 million tonnes, will be undertaken at Impact Minerals Ltd.'s Blackridge gold project in Queensland, Australia.
* Nova Minerals Ltd. secured an additional 101.65-square kilometer tenement adjoining the current Estelle gold project in Alaska, representing an 86% increase in the land position.
BULK COMMODITIES
*
*
* Emmerson PLC signed a memorandum of understanding with renewable energy developer Voltalia SA for the potential supply of electricity to the Khemisset potash project in northern Morocco.
* Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. confirmed that it submitted a bid to develop blocks 1 and 2 at the Simandou iron ore deposit in Guinea, Reuters reported.
* Local authorities in Poland's Silesia coal mining region urged the nationalist Law and Justice government on Monday to drop the proposed legislation that will allow opening new mines without the need for local authorities' consent, Reuters reported.
* UBS Group AG analysts remain cautious on American steelmakers such as U.S. Steel Corp. for providing worse-than-expected guidance in September, Bloomberg reported. The report said a strike at General Motors Co. provides another reason to worry for the industry.
* Agrimin Ltd. signed a binding memorandum of understanding with Transhipment Services Australia Pty Ltd for the provision of barge loading services for the MacKay potash project in Western Australia.
* Paringa Resources Ltd. shipped about 136,000 tonnes of its Poplar Grove mine coal in western Kentucky from its dock on the Green River during the September quarter, up from the approximately 26,000 tonnes shipped during the June quarter.
SPECIALTY
* Mineral Commodities Ltd. completed its acquisition of Skaland Graphite AS, owner of the Trælen graphite mine and Skaland processing facility in Norway.
* Mali Lithium Ltd. significantly reduced the risks for its Goulamina lithium project in Mali by optimizing key infrastructure, including obtaining a water license to de-risk the project's water supply by pumping water from the nearby Selingue Dam.
* Brazil plans to restart uranium mining this year, for the first time in five years, Reuters reported, citing an interview by Estado de S. Paulo newspaper with mines and energy minister Bento Albuquerque, who said the operations will begin at a mine in the city of Caetite in the state of Bahia.
* Petra Diamonds Ltd. could earn up to US$15 million for a 20.08-carat blue rock it found in its Cullinan mine in South Africa in September when it goes for a sale at a planned tender in Johannesburg, Mining.com reported, quoting investment group Shore Capital's Yuen Low.
INDUSTRY NEWS
* Major Drilling Group International Inc. agreed to acquire all issued and outstanding shares of Norex Drilling for an amount of up to C$19.7 million composed of cash and shares.
The Daily Dose has an editorial deadline of 7 a.m. Hong Kong time. Some external links may require a subscription. Links are current as of publication time, and we are not responsible if those links are unavailable later.
