NALCO seeks to set up $2.6 billion Iran aluminium complex

(Minews) - India's National Aluminium Co Ltd (NALCO) wants to set up an aluminium smelter and an associated power plant in Iran worth as much as $2.6 billion, its boss said, once sanctions against the country start to be lifted.Tapan Kumar Chand will meet with India's foreign ministry officials and ...

Iranian researchers produce zinc from mining waste

(Minews) - Iranian researchers have produced the world’s third strategic metal using mining waste.Iranian researchers at a Science Park in Markazi Province, central Iran, recovered slag from zinc industries, ISNA reported.Ali Azimi, the lead researcher, said the project finds a solution for extracting ...

Iran seeks $29 billion for steel to mining projects

(Minews) -  Iran has $29 billion of mining investments attracting interest of companies from Europe to Asia, with plans to more than double steel production by 2025 and boost exports once international sanctions are lifted.Iran, home to the world’s biggest natural gas reserves, plans projects ...

Bucking the global trend, South Koreans pile into gold

(Minews) - South Koreans are on course to buy a record amount of gold in 2015, worried that a meltdown in China's stock markets will destabilize South Korean equities and keen to replenish a traditional store of value in an era of low interest rates.In contrast to the weak demand in top gold buyers ...

South Africa strives to save jobs at under-fire mines

(Minews) - South Africa's mining ministry held talks with companies and unions over planned job cuts on Wednesday, as President Jacob Zuma's government frets over high unemployment ahead of key elections next year.The mining industry, which contributes around 7 percent to Africa's most developed economy,...

Zambia copper miners to cut power use 15% to ease shortage

(Minews) - Zambian mining companies agreed to reduce their electricity consumption by as much as 15 percent to help ease a power shortage in Africa’s second-biggest copper producer.The local units of Glencore Plc, Vedanta Resources Plc and other operators reached the agreement with Mines Minister ...

Iranian steel company's exports more than double

(Minews) - Iran's Khouzestan Steel Company (KSC) has exported over 450 thousand tons of steel ingots in the first four months of the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 21), indicating a growth of 215 percent compared with the same period last year, an official said.A report by Iranian Mines ...

KIOCL to import 2 mn tonnes of iron ore from Iran, Brazil

(Minews) - The state-owned KIOCL will procure one million tonne (MT) of iron ore each from private miner Anglo American from Brazil and Gol Gohar Mining Company of Iran with the first shipment expected next month. KIOCL (earlier Kudremukh Iron Ore Company) produces iron ore concentrates and iron oxide ...

Sari Gunay gold mine to become operational

(Minews) - Sari Gunay Gold Mine in the city of Qorveh in Kurdestan Province will be operational in two to three months, according to the Minister of Industries, Mining and Trade Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh.In a joint project between Iran and Kazakhstan, some four tons of gold are estimated to be extracted ...

Iranian company makes 70-ton gear

(Minews) - Iranian Foulad Mobarakeh Company made its first double helical gear after two years of endeavor, without any foreign help.Built under a consortium contract in Isfahan, the gear weighs 70 tons with a diameter of 5,000 mm and 1,600 mm height and is the biggest double helical gear used in hot ...

These nations are panicking with gold and copper prices so low

(Minews) - Just a few years ago, life was very good for countries like Peru that have a lot of copper and gold.China's explosive economic growth fueled seemingly-insatiable demand for industrial metals like copper, which represents a fifth of Peru's total exports. Prices for these natural resources ...

Iran's steel alloy exports grow 9% in 4 months

(Minews) - Export of the products of Iran's Steel Alloy Company has grown by more than 9% in the first four months of the current Iranian calendar year (starting on March 21) compared to the preceding year, according to the director of public relations department of the company.Speaking to IRNA, Zia ...

LafargeHolcim, Cemex defeat EU as cement antitrust probe closed

(Minews) - LafargeHolcim Ltd., the cement maker formed this month in a Franco-Swiss tie-up, won an five-year long antitrust fight with the European Union after regulators dropped a price-fixing probe for lack of evidence.Cemex SAB, the largest cement maker in the Americas, and Germany’s HeidelbergCement ...

A $600 million coal mine just sold for less than $1

(Minews) - The destructive force of a collapse in world coal prices has been underscored by the sale of a mine valued at A$860 million ($631 million) three years ago for just a dollar.Brazilian miner Vale SA and Japan’s Sumitomo Corp. sold the Isaac Plains coking-coal mine in Australia to Stanmore ...

German firm to fund Iran's steel projects

(Minews) - A reputable German company will finance steel projects in Iran, deputy minister of industries, mining and trade and head of the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization, Mehdi Karbasian, has announced, without naming the company.“After seven to eight ...

Bureaucratic hitch delays Freeport's Indonesian export permit

(Minews) - The implementation of an export deal reached earlier this week by Indonesia and Freeport-McMoRan has been delayed indefinitely due to the sickness of a senior trade ministry official.Arizona-based Freeport, which runs one of the biggest copper mines in Papua, reached an agreement with the ...

Sponge iron units in Provincial Steel Projects to become operational by March 2016: IMIDRO

(Minews) - Sponge iron production units in three out of seven major steel plants, known as Provincial Steel Projects, are expected to become operational by the end of the current Iranian year on March 19, 2016, through Chinese financing, said Mehdi Karbasian, deputy minister of industries, mines and ...

Iron ore seen at $35 by Clarksons as port stockpiles rebound

(Minews) - For a clue about where iron ore prices are headed, watch port stockpiles in China.Holdings will probably extend a rebound from a 19-month low as supply rises, according to Clarksons Platou Securities Inc., the world’s largest shipbroker, which says prices may slump to $35 a metric ton ...

Gold demand weakest since 2009 in Q2 as Chinese turned to stocks-GFMS

(Minews) - Demand for gold slid to its lowest in six years in the second quarter of this year as buyers from top consumer China poured funds into its now troubled equities market, an industry report showed on Tuesday.Retail investment from China fell by a quarter and jewellery demand by 23 percent in ...

US family make million-dollar gold find from Spanish fleet off Florida

(Minews) - A Florida family has been rewarded for years of treasure hunting after finding gold artefacts worth $1m or more from the wreckage of a 1715 Spanish fleet that sank in the Atlantic, according to a salvage company.The find included 51 gold coins of various denominations and 40ft (12m) of ornate ...