Brazil's Vale likely to sell rail, ships before mining assets

(Minews) - Brazil's Vale SA may find it easier to dispose of giant ships and part of its stake in a rail logistics business before selling mining assets, as the world's top iron ore producer looks to raise cash amid a price rout, according to four sources with knowledge of the situation.Struggling with ...

India's coal imports to jump 19 percent to 200 million tonnes in 2014/15

(Minews) - India's coal imports are expected to jump 19 percent to a record of about 200 million tonnes this fiscal year, Coal Secretary Anil Swarup told Reuters, as power companies add capacity to meet rising demand even as millions go without electricity.Shipments into the world's third-largest coal ...

Rolls-Royce signs deal to supply engines to seabed mining vessel

(Minews) - British engineering company Rolls-Royce said it signed a deal to supply six engines to a seabed mining vessel being built to extract copper, gold and silver off the coast of Papua New Guinea.The company said on Wednesday that the ship would be powered by its new B33:45 medium-speed diesel ...

Kazakhstan extends gold buying spree as Russia keeps assets

(Minews) - Kazakhstan boosted gold reserves for a 29th straight month as Russia and Ukraine maintained holdings, the International Monetary Fund said. Tajikistan increased assets.Kazakhstan held 196.1 metric tons in February, according to data on the IMF website. That’s up from 193.5 tons in January,...

Mining projects worth over $8.5B launched in Iran

(Minews) - The Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation (IMIDRO) has launched 30 mining projects, worth over $8.5 billion, over the past 1.5 years.IMIDRO director Mehdi Karbasian said that more than $7.5 billion worth of the projects have been launched by the private sector, Iran’...

Beijing to shut all major coal power plants to cut pollution

(Minews) - Beijing, where pollution averaged more than twice China’s national standard last year, will close the last of its four major coal-fired power plants next year.The capital city will shutter China Huaneng Group Corp.’s 845-megawatt power plant in 2016, after last week closing plants ...

Iron ore cut 28% at Morgan Stanley on China’s loss of confidence

(Minews) - Morgan Stanley, which began the year saying the worst was probably over for iron ore prices, cut forecasts for the raw material through 2017, citing weak conditions in China and a seaborne surplus that’ll more than double.The steel-making commodity will average $57 a metric ton in 2015,...

Venezuela steel, aluminum output hit lowest level in 30 years

(Minews) - Venezuela's production of aluminum and steel in 2014 fell to their lowest levels in three decades due to limited investment, aging machinery and chronic labor conflict, according to the industry ministry's annual report.Output at Venezuelan steelmaker Sidor, nationalized in 2008 by late socialist ...

Outotec to deliver technology for a waste-to-energy plant in the UK

(Minews) - Outotec has agreed with M&W High Tech Projects UK Limited for the delivery of technology for a new waste to energy plant to be built near Lanark in Scotland for Levenseat Renewable Energy Limited. In addition, Outotec has signed a twelve-year operation and maintenance contract for the ...

Rio Tinto to help create Australia’s largest national park

(Minews) - Rio Tinto and Alcoa have agreed to terminate a mining agreement to help create a massive national park.The two companies have agreed to axe the Alumina Refinery (Mitchell Plateau) State Agreement Act which allowed them to mine bauxite and for the development of an alumina refinery in the ...

Russia's Alrosa says 2014 net loss at 16.8 bln roubles

(Minews) - Russian diamond mining company Alrosa said on Monday it had a net loss of 16.8 billion roubles ($283.28 million) in 2014 due to the revaluation of the dollar-denominated part of its debt portfolio caused by a weaker rouble.The miner, the world's top producer by output in carats, said its ...

Indonesia says may ease bauxite export ban to help fund new smelters

(Minews) - Indonesia is looking at easing its mineral export ban for bauxite producers to help promote the building of smelters, a mines ministry official said on Monday.Early last year Southeast Asia's largest economy put in place export restrictions aimed at forcing mining firms to develop smelting ...

China steel firms turn overseas as domestic woes mount

(Minews) - Laden with debt and struggling to make money as the world's No.2 economy loses momentum, China's steel mills do not appear obvious candidates for overseas expansion.But the country's crisis-hit steel sector is calling for strong government backing for plans to ramp up foreign acquisitions,...

Iron ore will breach $50 on China demand, Citigroup says

(Minews) - Iron ore will slump below $50 a metric ton as steel demand in China, the world’s largest producer of the alloy, remains fundamentally weak and mining companies’ costs extend declines, according to Citigroup Inc.Chinese steel demand shrank in January and February from a year earlier,...

A “wave of bankruptcies” about to hit coal industry

(Minews) - The future for the coal industry is looking “increasingly bleak,” according to an investor’s note from Macquarie Research. The analysis firm also said that “a wave of bankruptcies” appear to be just over the horizon as coal mining companies deal with mounting debt and a ...

Global February daily aluminum output up on month: IAI

(Minews) - Global primary aluminum output, excluding China, averaged 68,300 mt/day in February, up 700 from a revised 67,900 in January and up 1,600 mt/day from 66,700 mt in February 2014, International Aluminium Institute data showed Friday.Total production in February (28 days) was 1.911 million mt,...

Freeport’s Indonesia Grasberg mine opens after five-day blockade

(Minews) - Freeport McMoRan Inc.’s Grasberg copper mine in Indonesia, the world’s second-largest for the metal by capacity, reopened Saturday after a worker roadblock stopped production for five days and helped push the metal to a two-month high.Access to the site, located in the mountains ...

Iran’s January-February steel production up 15%

(Minews) - Iran’s steel production output in January-February 2015 has increased by 15 percent from 2.4 million tons in the same 2-month period last year, a report by the World Steel Association said.According to the report, Iran’s steel production in the first two months of 2015 stood at ...

Gold market launches electronic pricing mechanism

(Minews) - The gold market marched into the 21st century Friday with the launch of a new electronic platform designed to make the daily market price benchmark less vulnerable to manipulation.But nervousness about new trading rules, as well as a law in the U.K. that makes manipulating benchmarks a criminal ...

China claims coal mine deaths down to record low

(Minews) - China claims coal mine deaths down to record low Coal mine fatalities in China dropped almost 87% to 931 last year from more than 7,000 casualties registered in the sector in 2002, recent figures disclosed by Beijing show, but doubts remain about death counts and cover-ups in one of the world’...