Slowing China tops global executive fears for the first time

McKinsey and Co's March survey of nearly 2,800 executives shows the mood of those in charge of global corporations taking a decidedly dark turn in the new year.

Compared with the previous survey in December, when opinions were buoyant, respondents are now "more likely to report negative than positive views on both global and domestic economic conditions" says the management consultancy.

The notion that things were going pear shaped was most pronounced in Asia-Pacific with nearly half the executives in the region reporting worse conditions over the past six months.  In China the mood is most sour with 57% of executives bearish and only 12% noticing an improvement in business conditions.

McKinsey said there was a notable shift in expectations within China a year ago and the gloominess persisted through the year.

Despite the negative sentiment executives in China are keeping the faith in terms of Beijing's GDP growth target of 6.5% in 2016. Fifty-eight percent of respondents there predict the country's economy will expand at this clip. Outside the country there's widespread skepticism with 37% believing targets will be met.

 

Source: McKinsey & Company

Asked to identify potential risks to global growth in the next year, respondents are "likeliest to cite the slowdown in China—it’s cited most often in every region but Europe—followed closely by geopolitical instability", which topped the list of global risks in McKinsey's past eight surveys. Not surprisingly in developed Asia 61% worry about the impact of a slowing China on their domestic economies. Around the world a full quarter of executives said they fear the impact of a break on growth in China on their own economies.

According to the authors when executives consider the longer run, responses differ more by region. "For respondents in developed economies, the likeliest threats to global growth over the next decade are instability in the Middle East and North Africa and debt defaults, while their peers in emerging markets more often point to the withdrawal of foreign investments and the volatility of oil prices."

Source: McKinsey & Company

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La Grande Barrière de corail connaît un blanchissement exceptionnel

Des scientifiques tirent la sonnette d’alarme après avoir analysé les images aériennes de la Grande Barrière de corail, en Australie : de vastes étendues vivent actuellement le pire épisode de blanchissement jamais enregistré.

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Slow growth, production cuts, divestment expected for Europe mining sector

Europe's mineral production growth will slow as low mineral prices drive further consolidation, production cuts and divestments among metals producers, according to BMI Research’s latest report.

The analysts see five key themes resources companies in Europe will have to deal with in the next few months:

1) Weak metals prices will result in further significant divestment of assets, output cuts and bankruptcies as mining and metals companies remain under significant stress.

2) The UK’s potential exit from the EU would significantly impact the nation’s ability to fund research to develop exploration and extraction technologies for mineral products. From a trade perspective, a Brexit will not significantly affect the UK due to the country’s wide array of export partners.

3) US dollar strength will influence trade dynamics.

4) Russia's coal output growth will be the regional outperformer due to supportive government investment and increasing exports to Asia.

5) Although China will remain the world's largest rare earth producer, Greenland's and Russia's rare earth sectors will gain market share over the coming years.

According to the report, Russia and Greenland will gain rare earth market share as a result of continuing headwinds facing the China’s rare earths industry. BMI says it expects Chinese government to tighten environmental regulations surrounding rare earth production in an effort to curb pollution.

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Vale says write down of Mozambique coal venture won’t affect project

Mining giant Vale (NYSE:VALE) said Thursday that its venture partner in Mozambique’s coal project, Japan’s Mitsui & Co., has no plans to revise the terms of their association or its involvement in it, as reported by Brazilian newspaper Valor Econômico (in Portuguese).

Citing unnamed sources, the local paper claimed that Mitsui was mulling a revision of the joint venture after Vale took a $2.4bn charge on their jointly owned Mozambique coal assets.

The operations continue to cost Vale half a billion dollars per year in losses, according to the financial results released in February. The Mozambique write-down was the second largest single factor behind Vale’s $8.57 billion fourth-quarter net loss. The biggest single write-down was $3.46 billion on a nickel project in Canada.

The Mozambique coal operations cost Vale half a billion dollars per year in losses.

Vale has been unable to obtain project financing to complete a 2014 deal to sell a stake in its Mozambique coal operations to Mitsui. That transaction, originally scheduled for completion in the second half of 2015, would have boosted Vale’s cash flows by $3 billion.

The Rio de Janeiro-based miner noted that Mitsui continues to support Vale in its negotiations with Nexi and JBIC for financing.

The Moatize basin in Mozambique’s northwest Tete province is said to hold one of the world’s largest untapped coal reserves, being especially rich in coking coal, which is used in steel production.

But companies operating in the area are battling the sharp drop in coal prices and demand, while the reserves of coking coal have turned out to be not as rich as initially thought. They have also been hurt by infrastructure challenges as they still depend on one colonial-era, multi-use single-track railway line to ferry coal to the Beira port.

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Petya, un redoutable rançongiciel qui prend les disques durs en otage

Un rançongiciel d’un nouveau genre fait parler de lui. Baptisé Petya, il piège ses victimes en détournant le service de partage de fichiers Dropbox avant de chiffrer l’intégralité du disque dur puis de réclamer une somme en bitcoins équivalente à près de 400 euros. Pour le moment, il n’existe...

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Silver Wheaton to get $500 million in shares sale

Canada’s Silver Wheaton (TSX, NYSE:SLW) expects to raise at least $500 million by selling new shares after reaching an agreement with a syndicate of underwriters in a so-called bought deal.

The Vancouver-based silver and gold streaming company said that proceeds of the offering, which is scheduled to close around April 7, will be used to repay a line of credit drawn in November for the $900 million purchase of future silver production at the Antamina mine in Peru.

Streaming firms typically provide a chunk of cash upfront to mining companies to secure a “stream” of precious metals down the road. These sorts of deals have become increasingly popular of late, as miners have had great difficulty raising cash on stock and bond markets.

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Negative rates to boost gold prices, demand to record highs – WGC

Gold is on track to end the first quarter of the year with an important value increase of over 16%, and may soon climb even further thanks to a spike in demand from investors and central banks alike, a report by the World Gold Council shows.

According to the document, released Thursday, negative interest-rate policies (or NIRP) for some of the world’s key central banks, such as the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank, could change the way investors think about risk, benefitting the yellow metal.

Long-term, says the gold industry body, NIRP may result in structurally higher demand for the precious metal from both central banks and investors.

According to the WGC, gold returns tend to be “twice as high as the long-term average” at times of negative real rates, and while “falling rates are generally linked to higher gold prices,” rising rates aren’t always linked to lower prices, it says.

NIRP, the report notes, significantly reduces the likely pool of assets that investors may hold:

In the current negative nominal interest-rate environment, about 30% of high quality sovereign debt (more than US$8 trillion!) is trading with a negative yield, and almost an additional 40% with yields below 1%, as shown below:

The WGC also expects gold acquisitions by central banks to climb to record amounts this year and beyond.

“The prolonged presence of low (and now even negative) rates has fundamentally altered the way investors should think about risk and may result in a broader use of assets like gold to manage their portfolios more effectively and preserve their wealth over the long run,” the report concludes.

Read full report here.

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Pourquoi la tache rouge de Jupiter est-elle rouge ?

Voilà des siècles qu'elle nous facscine et qu'elle nous intrigue : pourquoi cette tempête est-elle si stable et pourquoi est-elle rouge ? Sa couleur serait due à des rayons cosmiques cassant des molécules d'hydrosulfure d'ammonium, avancent aujourd'hui des astrochimistes. Mais le mélange obtenu...

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Un quasar ultra-chaud défie les lois de la physique

Les quasars émettent des jets de particules qui sont constitués (au moins) d'un gaz d'électrons. Cela permet d'établir une température de brillance. Celle du quasar 3C 273 a été mesurée avec le radiotélescope RadioAstron. Surprise : elle dépasse la limite qui semble autorisée par les lois de la...

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Vasalgel, un contraceptif masculin de longue durée

Testé sur des lapins, Vasalgel s'est révélé efficace jusqu'à 12 mois après son injection dans le canal déférent. Cette technique prometteuse de contrôle de la fertilité masculine, qui bloque mécaniquement le passage des spermatozoïdes, pourrait être commercialisé dans deux ans.

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Saskatchewan – Uranium Eldorado

It's a fact that new high-grade high-tonnage metal deposits are becoming extremely scarce, with falling grades and a lack of new world-class deposit discoveries.

While it is next to impossible to imagine, for example,  discovery of a new 200g/tonne 25 million ozt gold deposit, it is just has become a routine process for one particular commodity in one particular jurisdiction.

Athabasca sedimentary basin, located mainly in Canada’s Saskatchewan province, contains both high-grade and high-tonnage unique, a.k.a “unconformity” bonanza-type uranium deposits.

Just for comparison, Priargunsky underground uranium mine in Trans-Baikal region of Russia has approximately 0.15% grade of uranium in resources, while in Saskatchewan the world’s highest-grade and second-biggest Cigar Lake underground uranium mine boasts an average 15% grade of uranium in resources. And this is a mind-blowing 100-times difference.

In addition, Rio Tinto’s struggling Rossing open-pit uranium mine in Namibia has ~0.03% grade of uranium in resources, while recently calculated open-pit portion of Fission Uranium’s Patterson Lake South deposit has yielded 19% grade of uranium in resources, and this is a fantastic 630-times difference!

This is how a common sterotype of uranium as the "yellow" metal looks. Source: http://ift.tt/1ep1Q8e

… and this is the reality. Black-coloured is the mineral called pitchblende, extremely enriched with primary uranium (contains >50% of uranium). Caution: highly radioactive! Source: NexGen Energy’s drill core from its Rook 1 deposit, Saskatchewan

 

What is that unique about Athabasca?  The first Athabasca uranium deposits were discovered in the early 1950s and Eldorado (now Cameco Corp.) began mining at Beaverlodge Mine in 1953. But nothing was special about first deposits discovered there, which had ordinary uranium grades in ores and located out of Athabasca Basin borders.

In 1967, a consortium of companies, the Dynamic Group, seized the opportunity to obtain the state financing provided by the Saskatchewan Government to boost exploration activities, and decided to fly a systematic radiometric survey of the unexplored sandstones of the Athabasca Basin.

In October 1968, as a result of following up airborne anomalies, a consortium drilled the first hole into the Rabbit Lake deposit. An exploration model which had been designed to find sandstone hosted deposits actually led to the discovery of and orebody in the underlying basement rocks. These highest-grade uranium deposits in the world, located on the contact between the overlying Athabasca sandstones and basement crystalline rock, later became known as the “unconformity” bonanza-type uranium deposits.

A cross-section of typical inconformity uranium deposit and its traces on the surface. Source: Unravan Minerals Inc.

Discovery of the Rabbit Lake deposit, which is still being exploited by Cameco unveiled one amazing thing about unconformity type deposits. It turns out that simple radioactive boulder found on the surface could be a reliable precursor of the richest uranium deposits rested at the depths of much more than 500 meters. Nearly all subsequent discoveries were accompanied with mineralized boulders and boulder fields. Later on, scientists also confirmed that those believed-to-be “blind” deep deposits in fact leave traces on the surface with the radon emanation and different geochemical processes and alterations.

 

A radioactive sandstone boulder found on Lakeland's Gibbon's Creek property. Source: Lakeland Resources.

Next year, in 1969, Cluff Lake deposit with high-grade ore (up to 6% of Uranium oxide) was discovered, and the same year almost all of northern Saskatchewan had been claimed by mineral permits.  By 1972, due to fruitless of many participants, a lot of exploration permits in this area were dropped, but work undertaken at this time provided clues that further expanded understanding and bolstered development of geological, prospecting and exploration models of this type of U deposits.

In 1975, as an important outcome of the Key Lake deposit discovery, geologists figured out that graphitic politic gneisses forming the basal unit of the Athabasca unconformity are firmly controlling the locations of unconformity deposits. Since these graphitic units are recognizable on surface as electromagnetic conductors, a new important step has been added to the exploration model, magnetic and electro-magnetic geophysical surveys.

 

In 1968-1977 exploration activities in Athabasca was primarily aimed at discovery

Airborne magnetic survey aircraft. Source: Saskatchewan Ministry of the Economy.

of the near-surface deposits amenable for open-pit mining method.  In 1977, curious prospectors drilled a zone of radioactive boulders deeper underground and discovered Midwest deposit at the depths exceeded 300 meters from surface.

The Midwest discovery demonstrated that the deeper parts of the Athabasca Basin are very prospective for rich uranium deposits. And immediately after it, much of the Athabasca was staked again and a new era of massive high-grade underground uranium discoveries began.

After the discovery of Dawn Lake (1978) and McClean Lake (1979) deposits, geologists uncovered the “uranium gem”, the Cigar Lake deposit (1981), currently being recognized as the world’s highest-grade and second-biggest uranium mine.

In 1988, another massive deposit, McArthur River, was discovered and now this is the world’s biggest uranium mine and second highest-grade deposit after Cigar Lake.

History of unconformity-type uranium deposits discovery in Athabasca. Millions of cumulative pounds of uranium oxide. Source: IntelligenceMine.

In 1990-2005, because of uranium market collapse, no meaningful exploration activities occurred in Athabasca. In this period, only major companies like Cameco and Areva kept spending their significantly reduced exploration budgets in this area, mainly within or around existing deposits. In 2006, their efforts were crowned with the Millennium deposit discovery, intercepted at the depths below 600 meters.

Simultaneously, third major exploration period commissioned in Athabasca, triggered by the Nuclear Renaissance promises and revived uranium market.

This period is still ongoing and characterizes by the following factors:

– huge injection of the private capital into a small and medium junior exploration companies that ended up with real results and discovery of a number of new high-grade deposits,

– dozens and dozens of juniors and majors are proactively exploring new bonanza-type uranium deposits, making Saskatchewan the only region in the world where uranium exploration is still active and even expanding, despite lasting  uranium market uncertainties,

– all geological and exploration concepts in relation to the Athabasca Basin have finally been converted into the common knowledge and practical technologies and techniques, available not only for big corporations,

– Saskatchewan is one of the bRecent string of high-grade high-tonnage discoveries reestablishes Saskatchewan as the world’s richest and biggest uranium jurisdictionest jurisdictions in the world in terms of easiness of doing mining business there, and this fact is also contributes to the uranium exploration boom in the province.

As a result of third exploration cycle, there were a number of high-grade high-tonnage discoveries in Athabasca announced to date:

– in 2009, Hathor Exploration (later acquired by Rio Tinto) discovered Roughrider deposit with uranium grades in ore of up to 17%,

– in 2010, Denison Mines and Cameco first revealed resource evaluation for their recently discovered Phoenix deposit at the Wheeler River Project, with uranium grades exceed 19%,

– the same 2010 year, Areva and UEX Uranium Exploration released an initial mineral resource estimate for the Kianna, Anne and Colette deposits on the Shea Creek property,

– in 2012, Cameco and Areva reported resources at Tamarack deposit and Denison reported resources for Waterbury Lake deposit,

– In 2015, Fission Uranium Corp. discovered Patterson Lake South deposit with uranium grades of up to 23%, and Cameco released its first resource estimate for the Read Lake deposit,

– the most recent uranium discovery in Athabasca is NexGen Energy’s Rook 1 deposit with high-grade resources reported January this year.

Currently, a total of 2691 claims and 21 permits are in and around Athabasca held by 122 companies and individuals, with 15 additional claims that are still pending.

Map of exploration claims and permits in Northern Saskatchewan, as of January 2016. Source: Exploration GIS.

Keeping in mind that only a small portion of the Athabasca Basin’s deep horizons been explored to date, there are certainly more discoveries to come.

To learn more about uranium exploration companies in Saskatchewan and their recent drill results, please visit the IntelligenceMine database, which provides researchers, investors and suppliers with up to date global mining market intelligence – mining and mineral exploration company reports; mine, project and processing facility reports; securities filings; an interactive mapper and much more.

Learn more about IntelligenceMine.

 

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Kinross is going ahead with expansion of its Tasiast gold mine in Mauritania

Kinross Gold (TSX: K)(NYSE: KGC) announced Wednesday it has decided to proceed with the first stage of an expansion of its troubled Tasiast gold mine in Mauritania, which will dramatically increase production and slash costs at project.

The Canadian miner will spend about US$300 million to boost the mill’s capacity from the current 8,000 tonnes of ore per day to 12,000.

Kinross, the world’s fifth largest gold producer, acquired Tasiast in 2010 as part of a takeover.

The expansion, which is expected to reach full production in the first quarter of 2018, will slash production costs at the mine to $535 an ounce from around $1,000, the Toronto-based firm said.

Kinross will make a decision about whether to proceed with the second stage of expansion — which would boost output to 777,000 ounces — by the end of next year.

“Phase one doubles production and drops costs,” CEO J. Paul Rollinson said in a statement. “Phase two doubles production again and drops costs even further.” He added that after the second expansion, “this would become the best mine in our portfolio.”

Kinross, the world’s fifth largest gold producer, acquired Tasiast in 2010 as part of its takeover of Red Back Mining for $7.1 billion, a deal that soon proved disastrous. As gold prices fell and costs remained high, Kinross had to write down most of the asset's value.

In September, Kinross announced more than 225 layoffs and voluntary severances at the mine due to mounting costs and low gold prices.  The biggest challenge for Tasiast is the high cost of operating in a remote desert location, where Kinross had to build a huge camp to accommodate up to 2,500 people.

The company expanded its portfolio last year through a deal to acquire two Nevada properties — the Bald Mountain mine and 50% of the Round Mountain mine — from fellow Canadian miner Barrick Gold Corp (TSX, NYSE:ABX).

The miner’s shares have gained 75% since the start of the year as the price of gold has rocketed.

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Un étonnant impact sur Jupiter détecté par des amateurs

Deux astronomes amateurs, munis de modestes télescopes, ont immortalisé un évènement rare : un bref éclat lumineux dans la haute atmosphère de Jupiter. « C'est clairement un impact », explique à Futura-Sciences Marc Delcroix, de la Société Astronomie de France (SAF), qui a étudié les deux...

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Australia to feed Ukraine nuclear power plants

Australia and Ukraine are set to sign a cooperation agreement in nuclear energy, which will see Canberra supplying the necessary uranium to feed the European country’s nuclear power plants.

The contract, said Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop in a statement, will be signed before the Nuclear Security Summit, to be held from March 30 to April 2 in Washington DC, US.

But experts question the safety of Ukraine’s plans to increase nuclear energy production, as most of its plants are said to be too close to the end of their planned service life.

Experts are questioning the safety of Ukraine’s plans to increase nuclear energy production, as most of its plants are said to be too close to the end of their planned service life.

According to Ukrainian energy expert Aleksey Pasyuk, the majority of the nuclear power plants in Ukraine are passed their expiration date, but they continue to be used, Korrespondent.net reported (in Russian).

He even said that some of those reactors are currently running experimental fuel, which could lead to “a catastrophe.”

Ukraine's 1986 Chernobyl accident was one of the worst nuclear power plant disasters of all time. More than 300,000 people were evacuated from the town of Pripyat near to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant because of nuclear contamination caused by a flawed Soviet reactor design coupled with serious mistakes made by the plant operators.

Australian minister Bishop said her country has the same kind of agreements with other countries, including Canada, China, France, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia, the UK and the US, adding that Australia is ranked first according to the Global Review Initiative on reducing Nuclear Threat Initiative.

Australia holds almost a third of the world's uranium resources but supplies only around 10% of global production.

In 2014-15 Australia exported more than 5,500 tonnes or uranium generating more than half a billion dollars in export income.

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Comment le FBI a débloqué un iPhone sans l'aide d'Apple

Le FBI est finalement parvenu à débloquer l'iPhone utilisé par les auteurs de la tuerie de San Bernardino en Californie en se passant des services d'Apple. Des questions se posent sur la méthode employée et les conséquences potentielles. Désormais, c'est au tour de la firme à la pomme de...

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This is the 68-carat diamond Lucapa just found at its Lulo mine in Angola

Australia-based Lucapa Diamond (ASX:LOM) has recovered another major rock from trial mining at E46 alluvial terraces — a new area at its Lulo mine, in Angola.

The 68.1-carat gem-quality diamond is one eight rocks found at the site, located about 10 km upstream from the alluvial Mining Block 8 and 6, from which Lucapa has been mining diamonds since the firm began commercial operations in January last year.

(Image courtesy of Lucapa Diamond)

According to the miner, the finding highlights the potential for widespread recovery of large gems from its Lulo mine, considering the largest individual diamond recovered from the initial exploration bulk sampling phase conducted in the area weighed just 6.9 carat.

Lulo, about 700 kilometers (435 miles) east of Angola’s capital Luanda, is a joint venture between the company and the Angolan government. Lulo is located 150km from Alrosa's Catoca mine, the world's fourth largest diamond mine.

The mine hosts type-2a diamonds which account for less than 1% of global supply and, according to Lucapa, the world's most famous large, white, flawless diamonds belong to this category.

(Image courtesy of Lucapa Diamond)

Angola is the world’s No.4 diamond producer by value and No.6 by volume. Its industry, which began a century ago under Portuguese colonial rule, is successfully emerging from a long period of difficulty as a result of a civil war that ended in 2002.

The government has recently reduced taxes and cut state ownership requirements as it seeks to rekindle the industry after the global financial crisis forced mines to close.

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De l'azote liquide coulait sur Pluton

Plusieurs images détaillées de la surface de Pluton ont été dévoilées ces derniers mois. Elles suggèrent l’existence d’une structure ressemblant à un ancien lac ainsi que des veines arborescentes qui pourraient être le lit d’anciennes rivières. Étonnement, celles-ci auraient pu drainer de...

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Pour le mathématicien Cédric Villani, l'innovation a besoin de liberté

« Les idées ont leur vie propre » explique le bouillant Cédric Villani. Pour lui, aujourd'hui, les grandes entreprises ont besoin des petites pour aller à la rencontre de solutions originales qui naissent dans un vaste écosystème, allant de la recherche fondamentale à la start-up. C'est ce qui...

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Une bactérie créée avec le plus petit génome viable au monde

Des scientifiques ont créé une bactérie de synthèse avec le plus petit génome jamais décrit pour un organisme indépendant. La bactérie JCVI-syn3.0 ne contiendrait que des gènes nécessaires à la vie et, parmi eux, 149 sont encore inconnus !

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Lettre d'information : toute l'actu environnement en abonnement gratuit

Découvrez chaque semaine dans votre boîte mail toute l'actualité de l'environnement et du développement durable, grâce à la lettre d'information de Futura-Environnement. Retrouvez les dernières actualités, dossiers thématiques et questions-réponses.

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Breakthrough aircraft to transform remote mining

On Wednesday, Lockheed Martin signed the first customer for the LMH-1, the giant defense contractor's hybrid airship. The LMH-1 is a unique new aircraft which is part helium dirigible, part cargo helicopter, part passenger airliner and part hovercraft.

UK-based Straightline Aviation signed a letter of intent with Hybrid Enterprises, the exclusive reseller of the hybrid airship, to purchase up to 12 aircraft with a potential value of roughly $480 million.

When the new aircraft enters commercial service in around three years' time it would not just be an upgrade to the traditional airship or advertising blimp, but would constitute a whole new class of aircraft says Bob Boyd, program manager for hybrid airships at Lockheed Martin: "It's a new opportunity, we're not competing with any other aircraft."

"It's a new opportunity, we're not competing with any other aircraft"

Straightline Aviation is the world's largest airship company and operates in 30 countries. Chief and co-founder, Michael Kendrick tells MINING.com that the company would own and operate the aircraft: "We see pent-up demand in the mining and oil and gas industries and expect our first customers from this sector."

MINING.com recently toured Lockheed’s Skunk Works in Palmdale California where work on hybrid airship technology began more than two decades ago under a classified military program that never got off the ground (nothing except an early prototype to be more precise).

But Skunk Works never abandoned the project, spending around $100 million on research and development on a highly modified version of the original concept. The LMH-1 is now the first commercial venture to come out of the 3,000-staff facility responsible for such iconic flying machines as the SR-71 Blackbird (40 years later still the world's fastest jet) and stealth attack jet the F-117 Nighthawk.

We were not allowed to have cellphones on the premises or take photographs of facilities, but Skunk Works (click here if you're curious about the origins of the name) security allowed me to keep this one (that's a real Nighthawk in this picture btw):

Source: MINING.com

What makes the LMH-1 a hybrid and distinct from traditional airships is the tri-lobe hull that combines the direct lift of a helicopter and the aerodynamic lift of a fixed wing aircraft with the buoyant lift of an airship. The helium-filled envelope provides 80% of the lift because the LMH-1, unlike other blimps, is heaver than air (and therefore requires no mooring).

The landing gear acts as three giant suction cups making it possible to land on ice, snow, mud, sand and water

What sets the LMH-1 apart from competing designs is its hovering and landing capabilities or what Lockheed calls its Air Cushion Landing System or ACLS. By reversing the air-flow the landing gear acts as three giant suction cups and make it possible to land on and grip any unimproved field including ice, snow, mud, sand and water.

Boyd says because the aircraft is such a unique proposition Lockheed spent time talking to mining and exploration companies to understand their requirements and explain how the hybrid airship could fulfil those needs.

With rich easily-reachable deposits being depleted, mining and exploration is pushing further and further into frontier markets and remote locations. Says Boyd: "Not only will the LMH-1 lower construction costs by reducing the need to build transport infrastructure, the low environmental impact would also lower clean-up costs at remote sites."

Mining is water intensive and many mines are located near bodies of water meaning many operations can utilize hybrid airships without creating any new infrastructure.

Pictured below is the prototype version of LMH-1 named the P-791 (notice it has four landing cushions) which undertook its first flight more than 10 years ago.

 

P-791's first flight was in January 2006. Image: Bob Driver

With first customers signed up Lockheed will now start building the commercial version of the aircraft which will be tested for a full year before being put into service. The project received transport certification from the US Federal Aviation Administration in November after Lockheed spent a decade developing a new set of criteria in conjunction with the FAA and Transport Canada as the hybrid airships did not fit within current regulations.

The LMH-1 will be three times the size of the prototype – 300 feet (90m) long and 78 feet (24m) high. Four small side-mounted engines provide thrust vectoring propulsion and vertical take-off and landing. Cruising speed with a full load is 60 knots giving the aircraft a range of 1,400 nautical miles (1,611 miles or 2,593 kilometres).

 

Lockheed considers helium a structural material and the envelope is made of a material not much thicker than canvass or sail

Grant Cool, chief operating officer Hybrid Enterprises, says when you slow down  to say 25 knots the impact on fuel efficiency is enormous and you could conceivably stay in the air for days and travel around the world.

Cool says he almost expects that with the LMH-1 old nautical terms like tradewinds and the doldrums may start to make a comeback. Lockheed considers the helium a structural material and the envelope is made out of a material called Vectran which is not much thicker than canvass or sail.

Cool points out that contrary to popular perception puncturing the hull won't cause deflation. In fact even if you shoot holes in it, you probably won't notice anything for days and patching is a straightforward process.

Lockheed gave those of us on the tour a chance to climb inside the envelope of the P-791 (it's now filled with air not helium obviously). Inside there are are bags that automatically inflate and deflate to compensate for the helium contracting and expanding at different altitudes. It was a strange experience sitting in the dark and underscored for me just what a unique technology a hybrid airship is.

Image: Lockheed Martin

The LMH-1 will find its main application in hauling cargo and fuel to mining and oil and gas installations with little or no transport infrastructure. But with half of the world's population with no direct access to paved road, Lockheed foresees a range of uses for the aircraft says Craig Johnston, business director for Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works.

That includes bringing humanitarian relief during natural disasters (including configuring the crafts as "flying hospitals"), search and rescue (including at sea) transport relays, monitoring and surveying equipment and pipeline inspections.

Passenger services and particularly tourist travel is well suited to the LMH-1 thanks to its ability to fly low, slow and, importantly, quietly. And of course there's the tried and tested display advertising business too.

Image: Lockheed Martin

In the mining and exploration space the immediate competition for the LMH-1 are helicopters.The LMH-1 can carry up to 21 metric tonnes (more than twice maximum helicopter loads) or 47,000 pounds of payload and the roll-on roll-off cargo bay has been configured to match that of a semi-truck at 10"x10"x60".

What also counts in favour of the airship is the fact that it uses a fifth of the fuel of a helicopter (and a third of that of a jet aircraft) on a comparable basis and emits only 0.4kg per tonne mile CO2 compared to 1.2kg per tonne mile for jet aircraft. Keeping things simple was a main priority in the design process according to Boyd which keeps parts, maintenance and running costs low.

 

Image: MINING.com

 

The LMH-1 can carry up to 19 passengers and as this picture of the full-scale model of the gondola shows, can do so in "business-class style." Noise levels at take-off and landing are well below that of jet aircraft and helicopters and Hybrid Enterprises CEO Rob Binns tells MINING.com the airship's low environmental impact, especially how quiet it is, will see it being used in urban areas with strict noise regulations.

 

Landing is the most dangerous part of any flight and the LMH-1's ability to hover and maneuver at low speeds means pilots can take their time to safely position the aircraft says Cool.

I had a chance to try steering an LHM-1 in a flight simulator. The joystick and speed controls seem really simple and straightforward and the fly-by-wire technology are based on Lockheed Martin's advanced fighter jet flight control systems.

The LHM-1 is not without competition. Its closest rival is the UK's Airlander and other companies are also targeting the nascent market. And neither is Lockheed Martin stopping at the LHM-1, next to come to the drawing board would be a 90 tonne payload hybrid airship to compete with jumbo jet cargo planes followed by a 500 tonne concept which would probably be the size of a sports stadium.

But forget for a moment about the transformation the aircraft will bring to the economics and logistics of remote mining and drilling or the new business opportunities it could open up.

I can see too how the Lockheed Martin Hybrid One could be a bush pilot's dream come true.

Lockheed Martin Photography By Kevin Robertson
Hybrid Airship Experience Views

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Du plastique... fait avec du bois

Remplacer le célèbre plastique ABS – celui des briques Lego notamment – par un mélange de lignine et de caoutchouc synthétique serait assez facile selon des scientifiques américains. La réaction peut se faire à moins de 160 °C et sans solvant. Une recette prometteuse mais qu'il reste à peaufiner.

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Pershing Gold raises $6 million to advance Nevada mine

Pershing Gold’s (NASDAQ:PGLC) shares climbed Tuesday after the firm announced it has raised $6 million that would help it support a propose gold mine reopening in the Nevada desert.

The stock was up almost 5.8% at 12:47 am ET and has gained more than 20% so far this year.

The emerging bullion producer said it sold 1.85 million new units — each comprising one common share and one half share warrant — priced at $3.25 per unit to the Donald Smith Value Fund.

Proceeds from the equity sale will be used to advance the Relief Canyon project as well as general working capital purposes, Pershing Gold said in the statement.

Relief Canyon comprises three open pit mines, and a plant with capacity to treat eight millions tons of ore annually. Historically the mine produced more than 110,000 ounces of gold. Currently, the area hosts an estimated 739,000 ounces of measured and indicated gold resources.

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US prosecutors want max of 1 year in prison for ex-Massey Energy CEO

U.S. prosecutors are urging a judge to give convicted ex-Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship the maximum penalty of a year in prison and a $250,000 fine, for its participation in a 2010 West Virginia coal mine explosion that killed 29 men.

In an 11-page court filing Monday evening, Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Ruby said that “only a sentence of many years in prison could truly reflect the seriousness” of Blankenship’s crime and provide “just punishment.”

The former mine executive was convicted of conspiracy in December, originally facing a sentence of up to 30 years in jail.

He also noted that federal laws state that willfully violating mine safety and health standards “is worth, at most, a year in prison.”

The former mine executive was convicted of conspiracy in December, originally facing a sentence of up to 30 years in jail. However the penalty was reduced after he was found not guilty on counts of securities fraud and making false statements.

But Blankenship's attorneys say he shouldn't receive more than probation and a fine. The former CEO denied any wrongdoing, and his legal team has restated their intention to appeal as they believe prosecutors unfairly sought to portray their client as some kind of a monster who cold-heartedly sent miners to their deaths by denying requests to equip the mines with necessary safety gear., and then lied to authorities about it.

Sentencing for the man once known as West Virginia's “King of Coal,” is slated for April 6, which marks the sixth anniversary of the Upper Big Branch mine disaster. Prosecutors are also trying to force Blankenship to pay $28 million in restitution to Alpha Natural Resources, a now-bankrupt coal company that bought Massey in 2011. The money would cover legal fees, investigative expenses and fines incurred by Alpha.

The closely watched case has been one of the most high-profile cases in West Virginia in decades, and the explosion at Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine is considered the worst U.S. coal mining disaster in almost 40 years.

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Séismes : la fracturation hydraulique menace des millions d'Américains

Aux États-Unis, l'USGS a pour la première fois édité une carte des risques sismiques pour l'année en cours dans lesquels sont inclus les possibles tremblements de terre provoqués par la fracturation hydraulique utilisée par l'exploitation pétrolière et du gaz naturel. Résultat : des zones rouges...

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Ghana grants Gold Fields tax rate cut as firm mulls Damang mine faith

South Africa’s Gold Fields (NYSE, JSE:GFI) announced Tuesday the government of Ghana has agreed to lower the corporate tax and royalty rate on the company, which is currently reviewing a $100 million expansion of the Damang operation in the country.

Gold Fields has not yet decided whether to inject more cash into Damang or suspend operations.

The deal, said the miner, includes a cut in corporate tax to 32.5% from 35 percent, and a change in the royalty rate to one based on the gold price rather than a flat 5% of revenue, effective from January 2017.

Gold Fields, the world’s seventh-largest bullion producer with operations from Australia to Peru, unveiled in November that it was evaluating whether to invest in Damang, or if it would be better to keep the gold in the ground until prices for the precious metal recover.

The company has not yet decided whether to inject more cash into Damang or suspend operations, which would put 2,000 jobs at risk.

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Une intelligence artificielle gagne presque un concours littéraire

Une équipe de chercheurs japonais a coécrit une nouvelle avec une intelligence artificielle qui a été sélectionnée pour un concours littéraire. Intitulé Le jour où un ordinateur écrira un roman, l’ouvrage a passé le premier tour de la sélection auprès d’un jury qui ignorait tout de son origine.

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Gold-buying spree makes of Russia the world's largest consumer

Russia’s central bank is now the world’s top gold buyer after adding 356,000 ounces of the precious metals to its reserves in February, data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) quoted by local paper Vedomosti (in Russian) shows.

According to the report, the country — which has been hoarding bullion as of late — increased its foreign reserves last week by another $5.8 billion to $387 billion.

In February, the country's central bank added 356,000 ounces of gold to its reserves.

China, another country that has consistently been adding more gold to its reserves, is said to have bought about 320,000 ounces of gold in February. However, the IMF has not yet included China in its statistics for that month.

In contrast, Canada — one of the world’s top 10 gold producing countries — has recently wound down its gold reserves to basically nothing after a multi-year strategy of selling them off in favour of hoarding other countries' currencies instead.

According to the Department of Finance's official international reserves data released in early March, Canada’s gold reserves were down effectively to $0 as of the end of February. That's the value that Ottawa assigns its gold holdings from an accounting perspective.

According to the latest figures from the World Gold Council, however, Russia remains in 7th place in terms of reserves, slightly behind China and significantly below the U.S., which held about 8,133 tonnes of gold, or 72% of its reserve, by the end of February.

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Hitomi, le tout jeune satellite japonais, est-il devenu incontrôlable ?

L'incertitude est grande concernant le satellite Hitomi de l'Agence spatiale japonaise (la Jaxa). Le contact avec ce tout nouvel observatoire d'astronomie X, lancé il y a seulement quelques semaines, a été perdu ce weekend. Il est aujourd'hui entouré de débris spatiaux. L'appareil évolue dans...

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Je suis une pauvre galaxie naine solitaire

Installée en périphérie de notre Groupe local, Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte est une solitaire endurcie. Sa petite taille et son isolement excluent toute interaction passée avec une quelconque galaxie. Cette virginité semble exceptionnelle et nous montre l'état initial de ces structures, au début de...

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Les huîtres menacées par les microplastiques

En présence des microplastiques, les huîtres - et peut-être d’autres mollusques - se reproduisent mal. Cette pollution invite à nous interroger sur notre usage du plastique au quotidien.

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Vancouver co in $30m deal to restart Botswana diamond mine

Tango Mining (CVE:TGV) has announced a deal with California-based  lender Vanderbilt Commercial Lending for a US$30 million loan commitment to fund the acquisition and provide the capital required to restart the BK11 kimberlite diamond mine in Botswana.

Southern Africa-focused Tango says the BK11 mine was a diamond-bearing, champagne-glass shaped kimberlite pipe with a surface area of 8.7 ha, located in the Orapa/Letlhakane kimberlite district, which was one of the world’s most prolific diamond producing areas.

According to Tango's October 2015 preliminary economic assessment BK11 was expected to yield about 569 610 carats over a seven year mine life. Gross revenues from the operation was forecast at $188 million with an after‐tax discounted net present value of $40 million for an expected after tax internal rate of return of 43% when using an 8% discount rate.

Vancouver-based Tango also announced that it had entered into an agreement with Botswana's Firestone to acquire Firestone’s right in the processing facility, and interest and title in the mineral rights comprising the BK11 mine for $8 million. The deal is subject to Tango paying the balance of the consideration of $7.65 million to Firestone by April 8 and funding ongoing maintenance at BK11.

Tango also announced the sale of its past-producing Oena diamond project in the Northern Cape province of South Africa last week.

Tango's operating business is the 51%-owned Kwena Group which has four thermal coal, metallurgical and processing plant and engineering contracts that process 6.5 Mt per annum for clients in South Africa. The Vanderbilt will have a first lien position on the BK11 Mine and on Tango's interest in the Kwena Group.

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September cyanide spill at Argentina gold mine wasn't the first

Barrick Gold Corp (TSX, NYSE:ABX) was recently fined 145.7m pesos or $9.8m fine over a September cyanide spill at its Veladero mine in San Juan province, but it's been revealed that was not the first such incident at the mine.

Reuters reports that a local newspaper published a report by the environmental ministry not previously made public that outlined three cyanide leaks at the mine between 2011 and 2012. All three spills were contained by the mine's control system and duly reported to authorities according to a Barrick statement:

"The events described in the article were properly contained by our contingency systems in the operating area of the mine," the statement said. "They did not represent a potential risk to the environment."

Veladero, one of the largest gold mines in Argentina, produced 602,000 ounces  last year.  Proven and probable mineral reserves as of December 31, 2015, were 7.5 million ounces of gold. Gold production in 2016 is expected to be 630,000-690,000 ounces at all-in sustaining costs of $830-$900 per ounce according to the company's website.

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Ultra-bearish call on copper, oil prices

Despite falling to a one-month low on Monday after three straight weeks of declines, year to date gold is holding onto a 15% gain, silver and platinum are up 10% while copper's trading more than 15% higher than its January lows.

Industrial metals have all advanced in 2016 led by zinc which has jumped by more than 20% in three months. Volatile iron ore at $55.20 on Monday is the best performer with a more than 30% jump this year while the improvement in oil prices to around $40 a barrel has underpinned the broad rebound in commodities.

According to a new note by investment bank Barclays quoted by the Telegraph, these returns are not likely to last and the $20 billion that flowed into commodity investments in January and February (a five year high) could just as easily flow back out again.

The strong gains year to date are not supported by fundamentals and "could make commodities vulnerable to a wave of investor liquidation that we estimate could, in a worst case scenario, knock as much as 20-25% from current price levels,” for oil and copper according to Barclays:

“We very much doubt that recent large inflows to commodity investments are the start of new wave of enthusiasm for long-term, broad-based exposure. Given the weakness of underlying fundamentals, we suspect that the latest move into commodities by investors may be closer to its end than its beginning,” it said.

 

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'Significant milestone' for new gold mine in Scottish highlands

Scotgold Resources (ASX:SGZ ) said on Monday it has reached a "significant milestone" in its quest to restart mining at its high-grade Cononish gold and silver project at Tyndrum in Scotland.

Scotgold, which is listed in Australia and on London's venture market, will soon start processing a portion of a stockpile of approximately 7,000 tonnes of ore at the site near Loch Lomond inside the borders of the Trossachs National Park to pave the way for full-scale mining. The processing equipment is being shipped from South Africa this week to be installed at the project.

The fully permitted project is around 1 kilometre inside the park boundary and was first tunnelled in the 1990s. Scotgold bought the Cononish site in 2007. It boasts reserves of 198,000 oz Au and 851,000 oz Ag. Grade 11.1 g/t Au and 48 g/t Ag according to a May 2015 updated study.

“100 per cent Scottish gold” could command a “significant premium”

Scotgold is targeting production of around 20,000oz of gold and 80,000 oz of silver annually for eight years with total production of 175,000 oz gold and 639,000 oz silver. Capital outlays for the Cononish project including life of mine capital development is a modest US$34 million and according to Scotgold average life of mine operating costs a mere $523 per ounce.

Chief executive Richard Gray told the Financial Times the company would "capitalize on the market for jewellery and souvenirs among visitors to the Highlands" adding that “100 per cent Scottish gold” could command a “significant premium”:

“This will get people holding the gold bars and saying ‘This came out of the mine last week’,” Mr Gray says. “It will have an impact.”

Scotgold, worth US$12 million in Sydney, is also undertaking exploration activities on its land position outside the park at the River Vein prospect and at its Grampian gold project with more than 4,000 square kilometres under option.

The closing of the last coal operation notwithstanding, mine development in the UK has undergone something of a revival recently.

Last week a Vancouver-based junior announced the acquisition of 26 past producing tin mines in Cornwall. Wolf Minerals’ Drakelands tungsten and tin mine located in  the county of Devon recently started operations while the development of Dalradian Resources’ Curraghinalt gold project in Northern Ireland is also advancing. Then there's Sirius Minerals’ York  project in North Yorkshire which is up to the definitive feasibility stage for a large-scale 20 million tonnes per annum potash mine.

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Le piratage des voitures connectées inquiète le FBI

Le Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) vient de publier un bulletin d’alerte destiné à sensibiliser les constructeurs automobiles ainsi que les conducteurs aux risques potentiels de piratage des véhicules dotés de systèmes connectés à Internet ou aux réseaux cellulaires.

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La bactérie qui est peut-être allée sur Mars

Bacillus safensis se développe 60 % mieux dans la Station spatiale internationale (ISS) que sur la terre ferme. Cette bactérie, isolée sur des surfaces d’un vaisseau spatial, est peut-être même allée sur Mars ! Une véritable énigme microbiologique pour les chercheurs.

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Dis-moi quel mois tu es né, je te dirai si tu as des allergies

Les enfants nés en automne ont plus de risque d'eczéma et ceux nés en automne et en hiver risquent plus l'asthme. Ce lien entre allergies et saison de naissance s'expliquerait par une modification de l’ADN.

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Avec le réchauffement climatique, le vin sera-t-il meilleur ?

Une étude conduite par la Nasa et l'université d'Harvard, aux États-Unis, montre que les vendanges précoces observées ces dernières décennies sont dues au changement climatique. Ce phénomène aurait un impact sur le vin qui serait de meilleure qualité. Mais pour combien de temps encore ?

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China racking up copper inventories

China is stashing away copper from London warehouses at a breakneck pace, which may put downward pressure on the price.

While copper has rebounded 15 percent since mid-January, copper investors may be lulled into a false sense of security. That's because there is mounting evidence that the industrial metal is really just being stockpiled rather than imported to satisfy increasing demand for copper to be used in construction and other applications. The reason is that Chinese traders are taking advantage of an arbitrage opportunity to buy copper stockpiled at LME warehouses in London, and move it to Shanghai, where it can be sold at a higher price on the Shanghai Futures Exchange.

"Most of it, I would say, ends up in the warehouse," a senior account executive at London-based broker Sucden Financial told the Wall Street Journal last week.

Copper in Shanghai traded at around US$4,750 a tonne in late January compared to $4,440/t in London.

Source: Wall Street Journal

According to Nikkei Asian Review, LME copper inventories have fallen by 40 percent since the start of the year, while China's copper imports have risen by over 20 percent. The publication also notes that Chinese investors have been buying copper in anticipation that copper in yuan-denominated prices will rise, if the currency is devalued against the dollar.

That spells trouble for the price, because the piled-up inventories will eventually drag down the Shanghai price and then the LME price, notes Nikkei Asian Review.

So far, however, the price has held up reasonably well since surging 2.8 percent on March 17, along with other metals, on March 17 – copper's highest close since November 4.

Last Thursday copper for May delivery ended the day at $2.29 a pound, the same price as on March 17, after slumping 5.6 cents for the week.

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Namibia's uranium production to triple by 2017

Uranium production in Namibia is expected to triple by 2017 with the opening of the massive Husab mine, states a senior government official.

“We are of the opinion that, in spite of weak commodity prices and relatively slow growth in external demand, the coming into operation of large-scale mining projects will support decent levels of economic growth. Namibia's output of uranium in 2017, for example, is projected to be more than three times the volume produced in 2015, thanks in large part to the Husab uranium mine,” Calle Schlettwein, Namibia's finance minister, said recently in parliament.

He added that tourism and export-oriented industries are expected to do well in 2016 due to the recent depreciation of the Namibia dollar.

According to Namibia's central bank, production of the nuclear fuel will rise 62.9 percent in 2016 and 89.5 percent in 2017.

Figures quoted by The Namibian show uranium oxide production expanding by a factor of 3, from 3,713 metric tonnes in 2013 to around 11,000 MT in 2017. Namibia is the fourth largest uranium producer in the world behind Kazakhstan, Canada, Australia and Niger.

Meanwhile according to China General Nuclear Power Holding Corp., the country's biggest producer of nuclear energy, first production of uranium oxide at Husab was expected to start in February, with full ramp-up expected in 2017.

However the timeline may have been pushed back due to a fire at a ball mill in one of the processing plants under construction, at the end of December.

The $2-billion project in the Namib Desert could potentially produce 15 million pounds of U308 annually, thus overtaking Niger and Australia, Bloomberg reported.

Canada’s Cameco Corp (TSX:CCO), the country’s biggest uranium producer, has been signalled in the past as potential buyer for offtake output from the project, located 8 kilometers (5 miles) south of Rio Tinto Group’s Z20 deposit in the Namib-Naukluft national park.

Uranium mineralization was first discovered in the Namibia’s Rossing Mountains, Namib Desert, in 1928 by Capt. G. Peter Louw. Uranium exploration official started in 1960s with Rio Tinto obtaining exploration rights for the Rössing deposit in 1966. It started production in 1976.

The Rössing mine is currently Namibia’s longest running and one of the world’s largest open pit uranium mines.

Image of the Namib-Naukluft National Park by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen

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Face2Face ou comment truquer un discours en vidéo

Un logiciel développé à l’université de Stanford (États-Unis) permet à une personne de parler devant une webcam et de voir ses paroles reproduites en temps réel sur le visage d’une autre. Réellement impressionnante, cette technologie pourrait potentiellement servir à truquer les discours vidéo...

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Le smartphone pour esquiver la pollution

Pour afficher sur un téléphone l’état de l’air à l’échelle d’un quartier, l’application Plume Air Report s’appuie sur le réseau de capteurs de la ville mais aussi sur un algorithme qui a enrichi son savoir-faire grâce à des méthodes issues de l’intelligence artificielle. C'est une illustration...

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La comète qui a frôlé la Terre le 22 mars ressemble à une poire

Des deux fragments de comètes qui nous ont frôlés les 21 et 22 mars dernier, on en sait un peu plus sur le second. D’abord pris pour un astéroïde, P/2016 BA14, très sombre, a une forme irrégulière et est plus grand que prévu, mesurant environ un kilomètre dans sa plus grande longueur.

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Les toilettes sans eau de Bill Gates arrivent

Répondant à un concours lancé en 2011 par la fondation Bill et Melinda Gates en vue de « réinventer les toilettes », l’université britannique de Cranfield a relevé cet étonnant défi. Ses chercheurs ont créé une toilette qui n’utilise pas d’eau courante et ne coute que quelques centimes...

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La curieuse galaxie gorgée de matière noire

L’observatoire des Canaries a débusqué une galaxie « ultradiffuse », VCC 1287, contenant, en proportion, 200 fois plus de matière noire que la Voie lactée. De quoi revoir l’histoire de ces curieuses galaxies.

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Dossier : comment bien choisir un revêtement mural

La superficie du local, sa hauteur sous plafond et sa luminosité conditionnent le choix décoratif du revêtement mural. Voici un tour d'horizon des revêtements muraux afin de bien les choisir.

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L'étrange souffle d'une supernova est trop bleu pour une naine blanche

Dans la lumière anormale émise par une supernova, les astrophysiciens ont vu la première signature du souffle de l’explosion d’une naine blanche à l’origine d’une SN Ia. Il aurait rendu plus lumineuse son étoile compagne à l’origine de l’explosion, donnant la preuve que certaines SN Ia ne sont...

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La matière noire serait constituée de particules ultramassives ?

Le boson de Brout-Englert-Higgs a des caractéristiques qui rendent problématique la découverte de la matière noire à basses énergies. Alors, doit-on la chercher dans des particules très lourdes, sortes de mini-trous noirs, ayant presque la masse de Planck ? Si tel est le cas, la trace des ondes...

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Bientôt plus besoin de machine à laver ?

Des chercheurs australiens ont élaboré un revêtement à base de nanoparticules d’argent ou de cuivre grâce auquel les textiles se nettoient lorsqu’ils sont exposés à la lumière naturelle ou artificielle. S’il va sans doute falloir attendre encore longtemps avant de mettre sa machine à laver au...

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La première image d'un bébé planète étonne les astronomes

Fin 2014, Alma dévoilait un disque protoplanètaire autour de HL Tauri, une étoile toute jeune qui n'a qu'un million d'années. Avec le VLA, une équipe est allée plus loin encore et a découvert un grumeau de poussière qui pourrait être un véritable embryon planétaire. Surprenant pour une étoile...

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This country just ended its coal power production

Scotland has stopped generating electricity from coal for the first time in more than 100 years, as its Longannet power station, north of the capital Edinburgh, switched off the last of its four generating units Thursday afternoon.

Its owner, Scottish Power, said the high cost of connecting to the grid was to blame.

Scotland plans to meet 100% of its electricity needs from renewable supplies only by 2020.

The power station used more than 177 million tonnes of coal was used along with 2.7 million tonnes of heavy fuel oil and 2.4 million cubic metres of natural gas during its 46 years of production.

More than 60 billion cubic metres of cooling water from the Firth of Forth have also passed through the power station.

It was the largest power station in Europe when it went online in 1970, capable of producing 2,400 megawatt of electricity for the national grid and powering over two million homes each year.

UK’s coal-fired plants have been shutting ahead of a 2023 deadline for compliance with new EU rules on air quality.

The Scottish government has outlined ambitious plans to meet 100% of its electricity needs from renewable supplies only by 2020.

The Scottish energy strategy refuses to consider new nuclear energy, putting it at odds with the wider U.K. policy mix.

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Archéologie : sauver les monuments syriens… en les numérisant en 3D

En Syrie, des archéologues ont entrepris un travail titanesque : numériser en 3D les monuments antiques. « Des milliers de sites », nous explique Yves Ubelmann, de la société Iconem qui réalise cette action. D’ordinaire, elle utilise des drones mais ils sont aujourd’hui interdits en Syrie, tout...

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China’s Zijin Mining profit in 2015 hit by gold, base metal prices slump

State-owned Zijin Mining, China's largest listed gold producer, said Friday net profit for 2015 dropped by almost 30% to $261 million (1.7 billion yuan) from the previous year's $353m (2.3 billion yuan) as a result of weak metal prices.

The firm, which also mines copper, zinc and lead, said it aims to increase gold production this year by 15% to 42.5 tonnes this year. It also expects to hike copper output by 3% to 155,000 tonnes.

"As gold and other metals are seen as safe haven metals, we expect prices to be well supported with some room for rises this year. Base metal prices are also expected to rebound gradually," Zijin said in the statement quoted by Reuters.

The firm, which also mines copper, zinc and lead, said it aims to increase gold production this year by 15% to 42.5 tonnes this year.

Zijin, formed in 1993, has been looking abroad for gold and copper assets to acquire for more than a decade, but it has only been a very active buyer in the last five years.

In December 2014, it unveiled an $81 million investment in Canadian miner Pretium Resources (TSX, NYSE:PVG). It then announced two significant investments deals with Barrick Gold (TSX, NYSE:ABX) and Ivanhoe Mines (TSX:IVN).

Zijin paid Barrick $298 million for a stake in the Porgera mine in Papua New Guinea, and gave Ivanhoe $412 million for an interest in the Kamoa copper project in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The deals instantly made of Zijin, which is also China’s second-largest copper producer, a significant global player.

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Vache folle : le cas d'ESB dans les Ardennes est confirmé

Le ministère de l’Agriculture a confirmé un cas de vache folle, ou ESB (encéphalopathie spongiforme bovine), dans un élevage des Ardennes. Il n’y aurait toutefois pas à ce jour de risque lié à la consommation de viande bovine. Le dernier cas sur le territoire français remonte à 2004.

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Barrick Gold chairman John Thornton takes a 76% pay cut

Canada’s Barrick Gold (TSX, NYSE:ABX), the world’ largest producer of the precious metal, has decided to shrink its chairman salary by almost US$10 million, or 76% its current pay, in response to relentless criticism from investors over the firm’s compensation packages.

John Thornton, 62, will receive $3.4 million for his work in 2015, including compensations and pension, a significant reduction from the almost $13 million he pocketed in 2014, according to a regulatory filing.

He will receive $3.4 million for his work in 2015, significantly less than the almost $13 million he pocketed in 2014.

Shareholders have criticized Thornton’s pay, voting twice against it in recent years. Last month, the executive said Barrick had listened to the concerns and, as a result, it changed the way it pays management.

“When we said last year we will fix this, we’ll fix it,” Thornton said in an interview with Bloomberg at the end of February. “In fact we have fixed it.”

Based on the SEC filing, released after the close of markets Thursday, the company’s President Kelvin Dushnisky received $4.35 million last year, or 3.1% less than in 2014, when he was awarded $4.48 million for sharing a co-president role with James Gowans.

The cuts should help Barrick reduced its debt by $2 billion this year. The company, however, faces other risks, such as the declining value of its assets and a major lawsuit.

On Wednesday, a U.S. judge ruled that Barrick must face a class-action lawsuit filed by investors who accuse it of concealing problems at its Pascua-Lama mine on the border of Argentina and Chile.

The project was halted in 2013 as a result of environmental breaches, cost overruns and falling bullion prices.

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ArcelorMittal is selling LaPlace and Vinton steel plants in US

World’s largest steel producer ArcelorMittal (NYSE:MT) is selling two of its facilities in the US to an affiliate of the asset management firm Black Diamond Capital Management for an undisclosed sum.

The deal includes offloading the Lousiana-based LaPlace steel facility, along with a rolling mill in Tennessee, which produces long steel products such as beams, angles, flats, channels and billets.

It also includes the Vinton facility, located in El Paso, Texas which produces rebar and grinding media, also long steel products.

The deal should help the steel maker reduce debt, which stood at almost $16 billion for the quarter ended Dec. 2015.

The transaction, subject to certain conditions and forecast to close in April, aims to help the Luxembourg-based steel maker to reduce its debt that stood at almost $16 billion for the quarter ended December 2015.

Amid the sustained commodities rout that has hit the global mining industry in the past year, ArcelorMittal reported a $7.9bn net loss for 2015 last month after recording large write-downs on its iron ore mining and steelmaking businesses.

Shares in the company have dropped more than 50% since January last year, when a global glut began making steel cheaper than at any other point in the past decade.

The price slump has weighed heavily on earnings at most major producers, including US Steel and Posco of South Korea. In the UK, the situation has triggered an existential crisis in the industry that has claimed thousands of jobs and cast doubt over its future.

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La Lune a basculé il y a plus de trois milliards d’années

L’inclinaison de la Lune a changé il y a plus de trois milliards d’années. Avant cette date, elle présentait ainsi à la Terre un autre visage. Ce sont des traces de glace d’eau qui ont mis les chercheurs sur la piste d’un basculement. L'origine du phénomène pourrait être due à un changement de...

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En faiblissant, les vents du Sahara risquent d'échauffer l'Atlantique

Les émissions de poussières par le Sahara – la plus grosse production mondiale – va se réduire dans les années à venir : c'est ce que prédit une équipe franco-américaine. La conséquence sera positive pour la santé des populations régulièrement envahies par ces aérosols. En revanche,...

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Les Chinois partent à la conquête de Mars

La Chine, vexée d'avoir vu l'Inde lui passer devant et devenir la première nation asiatique à atteindre Mars, entend bien montrer de quoi elle est capable… En 2020, elle devrait lancer une mission martienne plutôt ambitieuse. Alors que les Indiens s'étaient contentés d'un orbiteur, la Chine...

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World’s No.1 copper miner Codelco posts historic loss of $1.4bn in 2015

Chile’s Codelco, the world’s No.1 copper producer, posted Thursday (in Spanish) a net loss of $ 1.4 billion for 2015 related to asset impairments and a sharp fall of prices for the red metal.

The company, which produces nearly 11% of the total global copper supply, booked $2.4 billion in write-downs, and said the results were its worst bottom-line figures since it began issuing earnings reports in the early 1990s.

Delivering the results, president executive Nelson Pizarro, said he believed 2015 was the worst year ever for the state-owned company, citing the sharp drop in metal prices as the main reason for it.

The results are Codelco’s worst bottom-line figures since it began issuing earnings reports in the early 1990s.

Copper prices fell over 20% last year, while molybdenum dropped 40% and silver about 18%.

“For every penny copper prices drop, Codelco loses $36 million and the country $50 million, he said while delivering the gloomy results, according to Diario Financiero (in Spanish).

Output, however, climbed 3.6% last year to 1.73 million tonnes, while production cost per pound dropped 8% to $1.39 in 2015, from the previous year.

Copper prices climbed to a 20-week high this week, but analysts and producers alike are not very optimistic about the short-term outlook for the metal.

In early March, Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) said the copper market is likely to stay in surplus this year following 147,000 tonnes of oversupply in 2015 (the highest since 2009). The Phoenix-based company said that's despite 700,000 tonnes of supply likely dropping out of the market for the 12 months through June.

Chile's Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) and Codelco itself, are also sceptical of a prolonged recovery in the copper price. They both have argued the current rally seems to be "driven more by financial investors than any change in the fundamentals," adding that a price around $2 or lower is likely for the next two years.

Mining companies in Chile axed some 23,000 jobs last year alone, or about 10% of positions in the sector. Codelco carried the weight, becoming the mining company that has chopped the highest amount of positions in the South American nation since metal prices began their decline over a year ago.

 

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Vendanges précoces : le changement climatique donnerait du bon vin

Une étude conduite par la Nasa et l'université d'Harvard, aux États-Unis, montre que les vendanges précoces observées ces dernières décennies sont dues au changement climatique. Ce phénomène aurait un impact sur le vin qui serait de meilleure qualité.

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US judge rules Barrick Gold must face group lawsuit over Pascua-Lama mine

Pascua-Lama has been shut since 2013. (Image courtesy of Barrick Gold)

Canada’s Barrick Gold (TSX, NYSE:ABX) will have to face a U.S. class-action lawsuit that accuses the world's largest gold producer of distorting facts related to its now halted $8.5 billion Pascua-Lama project, straddling the border of Chile and Argentina.

U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin in Manhattan ruled Wednesday that shareholders who acquired Barrick shares from May 7, 2009 through Nov. 1, 2013 can pursue their class action, which claims the Toronto-based firm repeatedly and knowingly misled them about whether Pascua-Lama complied with environmental regulations, Law 360 reported.

Class action claims Barrick repeatedly and knowingly misled shareholders about whether the project complied with environmental regulations.

The Chilean government approved construction of the massive gold mine in 2006, but held Barrick to hundreds of conditions regarding the environment.

On April 10, 2013, an appeals court in Chile ordered the miner to halt construction of the project over detected environmental infractions. The company later admitted to those violations, vowing to make “things right.”

In October that year, Barrick decided to halt Pascua-Lama indefinitely citing massive cost overruns and nose-diving bullion prices.

The company said at the time it would resume it only if it found a cheaper way to proceed and earlier this month it revealed it was re-evaluating plans for the mothballed project. Barrick said it wasn’t ruling out a possible partnership to bring the project to completion.

If ever concluded, Pascua-Lama would produce about 800,000 to 850,000 ounces of gold a year in the first full five years of its 25-year life. The mine is set to become one of the top gold and silver mines in Chile, the world's top copper producer.

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Avec quatre siècles d'avance, les Romains connaissaient l'encre métallique

Des siècles avant leur utilisation massive en Europe, les Romains écrivaient avec de belles encres métalliques. C'est ce que montre une analyse poussée de papyrus fortement endommagés par la chaleur de la célèbre éruption du Vésuve, découverts à Herculanum entre 1752 et 1754.

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Petra Diamonds just sold this ‘exceptional pink’ gem for $15m

Petra Diamonds (LON:PDL) shares recovered some sparkle Thursday after the company announced it had sold an ‘exceptional pink’ diamond for $15 million, or $463,965 per carat.

The stock was up more than 2% in afternoon trading in London to 109.75p, and it has gained about 25% to date since the beginning of 2016.

It was found in November at Petra's Williamson mine in Tanzania.

The 32.33-carats diamond was recovered in November from the firm’s Williamson mine in Tanzania.

Golden Yellow Diamonds purchased the rock on behalf of Israel-based diamond manufacturer, M.A. Anavi Diamond Group, which specializes in large and unique coloured diamonds.

Petra Diamonds, known for major findings in recent months, said it would retain a 10% interest in the polished proceeds.

The company, which owns the Finsch and Cullinan mines, posted last month a loss for the first half of its financial year as fewer sales demand and a glut of supply pushed rough diamond prices down by 9%.

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Mitsubishi books almost $4bn in commodities-related write-downs

Commodities giant Mitsubishi Corp became Thursday the second Japanese trading house this week to report huge write-downs and a likely first annual loss ever, echoing Mitsui & Co’s warning on the effect of weak commodity prices.

Japan’s biggest trader said it expected to book an impairment charge of $3.8 billion (430 billion yen) mainly on its metals and energy businesses, which will lead to a net loss of $1.3 billion (150bn yen) in fiscal 2015.

About $2.5 billion of the total write-down was on its stake in Chilean copper business Anglo American Sur. 

This would be the Tokyo-based firm first loss since it was established in 1954 and a setback from the $3.6bn (400.5bn yen) in net income logged the previous year.

About $2.5 billion of the total write-down was on its stake in Chilean copper mining and smelting company Anglo American Sur, Mitsubishi said.

As most oil and mining companies, the firm has been caught off guard by steep falls in the prices of all commodities, from iron ore and copper to oil as China's economic growth has slowed.

President Ken Kobayashi said he is taking a 50% pay cut while all other executives have had bonuses scrapped, but the company kept to its annual dividend forecast of 50 yen per share.

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Cette étrange bactérie se développe mieux dans l'espace que sur Terre !

Bacillus safensis se développe 60 % mieux dans la Station spatiale internationale (ISS) que sur la terre ferme. Cette bactérie, isolée sur des surfaces d’un vaisseau spatial, est peut-être même allée sur Mars ! Une véritable énigme microbiologique pour les chercheurs.

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L'onde de choc d'une supernova observée pour la première fois

Une équipe internationale de chercheurs a retrouvé, dans les données de la première mission Kepler, deux étoiles surprises en train d’exploser en supernova. C’est la première fois que le flash provoqué par l’onde de choc qui traverse la supergéante rouge jusqu’à la surface a pu être observé dans...

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Sophia, le robot qui veut « détruire l’humanité »

Sophia est devenue une vedette depuis qu'Hanson Robotics l'a présentée à la conférence SXSW. D'un réalisme jamais atteint, ce robot humanoïde reproduit une soixantaine d'expressions et, par reconnaissance faciale et vocale, elle peut tenir une conversation. Ses réponses sont tantôt étonnantes,...

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Commodity bulls twisting in the wind

On Wednesday investors curbed their enthusiasm for commodities, sending everything from copper and gold to oil and iron ore sharply lower.

But despite nervousness returning to metals and mining markets this week, 2016 is still looking decidedly better for the sector. Year to date gold is holding onto 15% gains, silver and platinum are up 10% while bellwether copper's trading nearly 15% higher than its January lows.

Key commodities are set for further gains if supply remains constrained, demand improves further and investor sentiment doesn't turn sour

Industrial metals have all advanced in 2016 led by zinc which has jumped by more than 20% in three months while volatile iron ore is the best performer with a 33.5% gain this year. The improvement in oil prices to around $40 a barrel has underpinned the rebound by halting the cost deflation that's plagued mining for more than two years.

There is little doubt that sentiment has improved. Frankfurt-based sentix, a leader in the emerging field of behavioural finance, has been compiling a commodity sentiment index for more than a decade by surveying more than 4,500 institutional and private investors.

After a false dawn in October the sentix Asset Class Sentiment for Commodities index dropped precipitously in December to lows not seen even at the height of the global financial crisis or during the fall in the price of crude in the second half of 2014.

Source: Capital Economics

From the record low of –22.5 in December the sentix index has shot back up to 6.25 above with the new bullish mood reflected on the the S&P GSCI, a global production-weighted commodity price index.

A new note by Capital Economics argues that key commodities are set for further gains if supply remains constrained (mining capex peaked in 2012 and the bulk of new supply should be absorbed by now), demand improves further (Chinese imports continue to break records, although stocks remain high too), and investor sentiment doesn't turn sour (today's retreat may be a bad omen).

Julian Jessop, head of commodities research at the London-based firm says "any two of these three should be enough for prices at least to stabilize, but all three may be needed for substantial gains."

As for the turnaround in sentiment Jessop warns that sentiment tends to track prices, rather than lead them:

The turnaround has also been boosted by an improvement in sentiment towards riskier assets more generally, so may be vulnerable to shocks that are not specific to the underlying fundamentals of commodity supply and demand.

Capital Economics' house forecast sees copper gain another 10% from today's levels to around $2.50 by the end of the year. The company is less optimistic about a continued rally in iron ore however. Capital Economics believes the steelmaking raw material will drop to $45 by end-2016. International oil prices should improve to $45 a barrel during the fourth quarter.

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