Rio Tinto: Guinea pressure still on
Rio Tinto may have breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday when Guinea’s mining minister, Mohamed Lamine Fofana, admitted it would miss a production target of 2015 due in part to the infrastructure challenges of the Simandou mega-project.
But Guinea’s president, Alpha Condé, on Friday overruled Fofana, insisting there was no change in the timeline. So the time pressure is back on then? Continue reading »
Paraguay strikes it big in iron
Seek and ye shall find … even if it is not what you were looking for.
That, at least, is what has happened to US-Chilean company, Darmatal, in Paraguay. As interest increases in Paraguay’s hydrocarbons potential, Darmatal was exploring for oil. Instead, it found iron. Continue reading »
Kumba issues profits warning
The fallout from the mining strikes in South Africa has already made a dent or two in the economic statistics. It has also had repurcussions for several companies – Lonmin in particular. Now Kumba Iron Ore, majority owned by Anglo American, has issued a profits warning.
Shares in Kumba fell nearly 3 per cent in Johannesburg on Tuesday. The company said in a statement that full year earnings for 2012-13, to be announced in February, could be 20 per cent lower than in the previous year. Continue reading »
S Africa strikes: now it’s iron ore
Platinum, then gold, then transport, now iron ore. Strikes in South Africa just keep on spreading.
The latest miner to be affected is Kumba Iron Ore, which is majority owned by Anglo American. On Wednesday 300 miners started a wildcat strike at the company’s Sishen mine in the Northern Cape. While it’s a small proportion of the total workforce, it’s a worry, and the share price shows it. Continue reading »
India: iron ore miners hit by Goa ban
Shares in India’s Sesa Goa and Sterlite Industries – which are set to be merged by parent company Vedanta – fell more than 5 per cent in early trading Tuesday after the Goan state government announced a temporary suspension of all mining late on Monday.
The move came just days after a judiciary commission exposed an illegal mining scam scam involving “serious illegalities” in the award of licences, the latest in a long line of mining scandals to have rocked the country. Continue reading »
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Stefan Wagstyl
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