Barrick pays $140m to settle Pascua-Lama lawsuit

Barrick Gold (TSX, NYSE:ABX) has agreed to pay $140 million to resolve a US class-action lawsuit that accused the world's largest gold producer of distorting facts related to its mothballed $8.5 billion Pascua-Lama project in South America.

Barrick confirmed the agreement disclosed in papers filed on Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, adding that the settlement is insured. In a statement the Toronto-based company said it "continues to believe that the claims alleged by the lead plaintiffs in the litigation are unfounded, and under the terms of the settlement agreement, the company has not accepted any charges of wrongdoing or liability."

The Chilean government approved construction of the gold and silver mine in 2006, but held Barrick to hundreds of conditions regarding the environment, particularly concerning glaciers surrounding the project high in the Andes.

On April 10, 2013, an appeals court in Chile ordered the miner to halt construction of the project over environmental concerns. 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 project. Barrick said it wasn’t ruling out a possible partnership to bring the project to completion.

Argentina has been an enthusiastic supporter of the project – while only around a fifth of the deposit is located in Argentina many of the above-ground facilities will be built on that side of the border.

If it ever comes into production 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.

Here's a timeline up to the suspension of the project in October 2013:

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CHARTS: Brutal May for metals and miners

Against expectations and in some instances in defiance of fundamentals, commodities managed to climb a wall of worry over the first four months of 2016 giving mining companies a welcome boost after three years of declines.

Sell in May and go away is one of the oldest adages on the equities market and it was especially true for the mining sector in 2016. While broader US share markets moved sideways and crude oil continued to rally, mining stocks, metals and mineral prices were hammered during the month.

Iron ore was trading back below $50 a tonne on Tuesday after a speculative bubble in Chinese derivatives in the steelmaking raw material popped during the month. After peaking near $70 mid-April, iron ore has managed to hold onto 16% gains for the year however. Coking coal came close to triple digits in April, but fell back to the early $80s by the end of the month and is now flat for 2016.

Weakening metals prices caused a broad-based sell-off with the top five diversified mining companies by output – BHP, Rio Tinto, Vale, Glencore and Anglo-American – losing a collective $41 billion in market value

Copper's dismal performance in May wiped out year-to-date gains for the red metal. The 2016 rally in other industrial metals also stalled with the exception of little-traded molybdenum which continues to climb from historic lows just above $10,000 struck last year.

Zinc is holding up the best and still sports a more than 18% rise year-to-date. Tin lost more than a $1,000 in May, but technically remains in a bull market after rising 21.6% from its January lows. Ever volatile nickel is now also back in negative territory for the year despite a jump this week following news of a possible strike at South32's Cerro Matoso mine in Colombia, the world's second largest ferro-nickel mine.

Precious metals have had a great year, but in May the gold price succumbed to a stronger dollar and a hawkish Fed declining more than 6%. The rally in silver – the year's best performing precious metal – was aslo severely curbed in May. Silver is now down more than 11%  after scaling $18 an ounce for the first time since January 2015 at the end of April. Palladium's move back above $600 an ounce has also been cut short and the precious metal is down year-to-date.

Spot uranium prices continue to struggle near decade lows below $28 a pound and U₃O₈ has declined by more than 20% in 2016. Potash has also been punished by ample supply with free-on-board prices in Vancouver falling $30 a tonne to $239, down 11% for the month.

Source: Steel Index, LME, YCharts, Comex, Nymex, UX, Infomine, Potashcorp

Among the major mining stocks the sell-off has been even more brutal led by Vale and other former high-flyers including Canada's Teck Resources, top copper producer Freeport-McMoRan and Swiss trading giant Glencore.

Rio de Janeiro-based Vale is the world's number one iron ore producer and number two in nickel, but its problems have been compounded by the fallout from a dam burst at its jointly held Brazilian iron ore mine in November. 50-50% owners Vale and BHP-Billiton are being sued for more than $40 billion in damages on top of a $6 billion-plus settlement with the federal government.

The weakening price environment for commodities caused a broad-based sell-off of mining stocks in May, with the top five diversified mining companies by output – BHP, Rio Tinto, Vale, Glencore and Anglo-American – losing a collective $41 billion in market value over the course of month.

Source: Steel Index, LME, YCharts, Comex, Nymex, UX, Infomine, Potashcorp

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McDonald’s Japan fights low sales with appetizing prize: an 18-karat gold McNugget

McDonald’s Japan has launched a peculiar contest that involves customers photo- searching for clues left by a yellow-suited “Nugget Thief” at stores around the country. The prize? A non-edible McNugget made of 18-karat gold, weighing about 1.8 ounces.

The new campaign, Rocket News 24 reports, comes as the fast food chain steps up efforts to attract customers across the Asian country.

In February, McDonald’s Japan posted its first profit in three years. In 2015, however, it reported a loss of 34.7 billion yen, or over $300 million.

The hunt for the mysterious nugget thief is set to run from June 8 to June 28, and during that time one person per day will also win 39 days of chicken nuggets.

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Météo : les prévisionnistes tiennent compte du changement climatique

Comment l'évolution actuelle du climat, qui s'inscrit dans les décennies à venir, est-elle prise en compte par les météorologues, qui cherchent à prédire le temps des jours prochains ? Les échelles diffèrent, nous explique Aude Lemonsu, du CNRS et de Météo-France, mais ces deux sciences se...

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Silver Standard finishes grabbing Claude Resources in $337 million deal

Silver Standard Resources (TSX:SSO) has completed the $337 million takeover of fellow Canadian miner Claude Resources (TSX:CRJ), initially announced in early March.

The deal sees Vancouver-based Silver Standard — which operates mines in Argentina and the United States — acquire all outstanding shares of the Saskatoon-based miner for 0.185 of a Silver Standard share and $0.001 in cash each.

With the addition of La Ronge mine, Silver Standard expects to produce the equivalent of 390,000 ounces of gold.

The acquisition leaves Claude’s shareholders with about 32% of the combined company, which will be the new owner of the Seabee gold mine, located about 125 kilometres northeast of La Ronge in northeastern Saskatchewan.

Brian Booth, the former chairman of Claude Resources' board of directors has been appointed to the Silver Standard's board, effective immediately.

With the addition of La Ronge, Silver Standard will now produce the equivalent of 390,000 ounces of gold at cash costs of $715 per gold equivalent ounce sold this year.

The transaction means that Saskatchewan loses its only home-grown gold miner, which last year produced a record-75,748 ounces of the yellow metal.

Silver Standard now has approximately 118.4 million shares issued and outstanding. Claude Resources’ stock is expected to be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange and cease to trade on the OTCQB on or about the close of trading on June 6, 2016.

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Centerra Gold seeks international arbitration for dispute with Kyrgyzstan

Canada's Centerra Gold (TSX:CG) has taken its dispute with Kyrgyzstan over the firm’s vast Kumtor gold mine to international arbitration, following the Central Asian country’s string of penalties and fees the firm considers to be without merit.

The company said the arbitration proceedings will be held at Stockholm and Sweden, and that they will be conducted under the UNCITRAL rules of arbitration and the governing law of New York.

Despite the arbitration proceedings, Centerra says it remains open to discussing proposals to resolve all outstanding matters with the Kyrgyz Republic. 

UNCITRAL is the core legal body of the United Nations system in the field of international trade law.

Centerra’s move comes as a local court hit its subsidiary, Kumtor Operating Company, with a $10,000 fine, following a lawsuit from an environmental safety regulator. Another court ordered the firm last week to pay almost $100 million in fees related to their mine waste.

The miner's decision also follows last month’s actions by Kyrgyz prosecutors, which raided the company's offices to collect documents related to a separate case. That suit alleges financial violations by Centerra, which the firm said were related to a $200 million inter-corporate dividend.

Kumtor, Kyrgyzstan's largest gold mine, has been a source of political tension in the impoverished country. 

Long-dragged debate

For more than two years the Central Asian nation and the gold miner have been locked in a bitter dispute over Kumtor's structuring.

Centerra once suggested a 50/50 joint venture, but former prime minister Joomart Otorbayev said last year that such deal would not be in the country's interests. Rumours pointing to an imminent nationalization of the mine quickly spread out after that, but were later denied by Kyrgyzstan authorities.

Otorbayev resigned later that month after failing to clinch the restructuring deal. His successor, Temir Sariyev, said at the time that resolving the issue would be among his priorities.

The vast open pit Kumtor gold mine, , which lies near the Chinese border at an altitude of 4,000 metres, is expected to produce 480,000-530,000 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost between $817-$902 per ounce this year.

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Des panneaux solaires ultra-efficaces grâce à des nanotubes de carbone

Des chercheurs du Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), aux États-Unis, ont annoncé avoir amélioré le rendement d’une cellule photovoltaïque des plus classiques. Comment ? Grâce à une association de matériaux high-tech composée de cristaux nanophotoniques et de nanotubes de carbone...

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Sierra Leone grants preliminary OK to Stellar Diamonds Tongo mine

Shares in West Africa-focused Stellar Diamonds (LON:STEL) soared more than 20% to 7.85p Tuesday after the company said the Sierra Leone Minerals Advisory Board had “verbally” approved a mining license for its 100% owned Tongo project.

According to a preliminary economic assessment, Tongo has the capacity of producing almost one million carats of diamonds over 18 years.

Stellar, which applied for large-scale mining in the country earlier this year, noted it still requires written notification of the approval from the National Minerals Agency, which is the licensing body of the Sierra Leone Ministry of Mines.

Once this has taken place, the fiscal terms of the mining licence will be negotiated between Stellar Diamonds and the government of Sierra Leone, the miner said. The resulting mining concession agreement will then require ratification through parliament.

The firm is also waiting to receive documentation regarding its environmental licence for the mine, which secured in February this year.

According to a preliminary economic assessment, Tongo has the capacity of producing almost one million carats of diamonds over 18 years, generating $387 million in revenues.

Initial investment during the first four years is estimated to be $24.8 million, which will enable the establishment of surface and underground mining.

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Les arbres tempèrent le changement climatique, selon le Cern

La formation des nuages n’est pas encore parfaitement comprise mais grâce à l’expérience Cloud (Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets), menée au Cern, les chercheurs progressent. Les derniers résultats précisent l’effet des aérosols émanant des arbres et laissent penser que le réchauffement...

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Portable et cancer : une nouvelle étude sème le doute

Dans une étude réalisée sur des rats, les chercheurs ont observé une augmentation des cas de cancer dans le cerveau et le cœur des sujets mâles soumis aux radiations de téléphones portables. Des résultats controversés et encore non publiés, qui relancent le débat.

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Des briques de la vie sur la comète de Rosetta : pourquoi c'est important

Rosetta a repéré un acide aminé (la glycine) et du phoshore sur « sa » comète, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, alias Tchouri. Pour Hervé Cottin, astrochimiste et co-auteur de cette découverte, la présence de ces éléments clés de la vie doit être prise en compte dans les scénarios de l'apparition de...

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50 years of gold price vs Dow shows metal still a bargain

 

While it has come in for a beating in May, briefly dipping below $1,200 an ounce on Monday down nearly $100 an ounce for the month, the gold price is holding onto 14% gains for the year.

Before the recent slump gold was enjoying it's best start to a year since the early 1980s.

While recovering from a steep sell-off at the start of the year, US blue chip stocks haven't been able to convincingly break through the 18,000 level it first breached at the end of 2014.

So is gold relatively overpriced against stocks?

Despite the exceptional start to 2016 gold is still cheaper than it was for the 24 years between May 1972 and September 1996

This 50-year chart of the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial index from Macrotrends suggests otherwise. The graph tracks how many ounces of gold it would take to buy the Dow over any given month going back to 1966.

In January of 1980 when gold in inflation-adjusted terms hit an all-time high of roughly $2,400 an ounce the ratio was 1.3 ounces and during the Great Depression it took 1.9 ounces to cover the Dow.

That compares to highs around 40 between mid-1999 and mid-2001 when gold reached lows of $250 an ounce.

When the nominal price of gold hit a record high above $1,900 in August 2011 the ratio was 6.4, but has now more than doubled to just under 15.

That means despite the exceptional start to 2016 gold is still cheaper than it was for the 24 years between May 1972 and September 1996 and on a relative basis it's the cheapest since December 2007.

Source: Macrotrends

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Increasingly bearish indicators weigh down lead price

Last year lead was the best-performing base metal on the LME by virtue of dropping by the least over the duration of 2015.

The lead price declined 2.8% last year compared to 20%-plus falls in zinc, tin, cobalt and copper and ever volatile nickel's 42% drop (moly fared just as badly).

In 2015 lead was buoyed by expectations of a handful of significant mine closures, a reduction in Chinese stockpiles and firm demand from the country's lead-acid battery industry.

Things haven't quite panned out this way and lead is now the base metals deepest in the red year-to-date trading at $1,698 a tonne on Friday down 5.7% in 2016. In contrast sister metal zinc has managed to hold onto 18% gains since January.

Source: Capital Economics

In a recent note Capital Economics points out a few factors behind the disappointing performance:

• A hit to Chinese electric bike demand as cities like Beijing with 2.5m of them clogging streets, clamp down on their use
• A new 4% consumption tax on refiners and lead-acid battery makers as part of Beijing's pollution clampdown
• Lithium-ion battery substitution for storage in the renewable energy market

London-based author of the report, Simon MacAdam, says lithium-ion substitution has become such a feature that "the historic relationship between output of electrical equipment and the lead price has weakened markedly" as the graph shows. The lithium carbonate price has rocketed this year.

Capital Economics still expects a deficit this year and next thanks to dwindling mine supply and does see upside for the metal, but has reduced its price forecast for lead end of this year to $1,800 and end-2017 to $1,900.

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US coal ash highly rich in rare earths, scientists find

US scientists have found what it could be key for the future of the country’s ailing coal industry as they detected that ashes from local operations, particularly those around the Appalachian region, are very rich in rare earth elements.

Coal waste generated by Appalachian coal operations are the richest in rare earth elements.

Researchers from North Carolina-based Duke University analyzed coal ashes from coal-fired power plants throughout the US, including those in the largest coal-producing regions: the Appalachian Mountains; southern and western Illinois; and the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana.

One of the team main conclusions was that coal waste generated by the Appalachian coal operations was the richest in rare earth elements, containing 591 milligrams of the coveted elements per kilogram of ashes.

Professor Heileen (Helen) Hsu-Kim, one of the team’s leaders. (Image courtesy of Jon Gardiner | Duke Photography)

"There are literally billions of dollars' worth of rare earth elements contained in our nation's coal ash," the researchers said in a statement.

"If a program were to move forward, they'd clearly want to pick the coal ash with the highest amount of extractable rare earth elements, and our work is the first comprehensive study to begin surveying the options," they noted.

Not only rare earths are crucial to the manufacture of high-tech devices, but also to military communication systems, which is partially why the US Department of Energy recently offered $20 million to companies to solve the economic puzzle.

Previous research has focused on methods that can make the extraction or rare earths from coal waste not only financially viable, but also environmentally friendly.

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Gold price dips below $1,200

On Monday, gold continued its slide after Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen suggested an early interest rate hike may be appropriate and large-scale futures and options speculators sharply reduced bullish positions.

In unexpectedly brisk holiday trading gold futures in New York for delivery in June dropped to a day low of $1,199.00 an ounce, levels last seen February 17 on an intra-day basis. Later the contract clawed back some losses to exchange hands at $1,207 by mid-day.

The gold price is down roughly $100 per ounce in the month of May after briefly scaling $1,300 at the end of April. Gold is in the midst of its longest unbroken losing streak since late November after falling for nine days straight. Year to date gold is holding onto near 14% gains.

After holding onto historically elevated long positions – bets that prices will go up – despite a turn in sentiment as gold retreated during May "managed money" investors on the gold derivatives market such as hedge funds turned decidedly bearish last week.

Higher interest rates raises the opportunity costs of holding gold as the metal provides no yield and any gains for investors is through price appreciation

Last week hedge funds added to shorts – bets that gold can be bought at a cheaper price in future – and cut back longs slashing overall net position by 26%.

That is a sharp reversal from positions held in recent weeks which was at the highest level since the August 2011. Gold futures peaked at an all-time high above $1,900 an ounce that month.

According to the CFTC's weekly Commitment of Traders data up to May 24 released on Friday on a net basis speculators are now long 16.9 million ounces on a net basis, down from 23.4 million ounces mid-May.

On Friday, Yellen was uncharacteristically hawkish during a debate at Harvard University echoing similarly aggressive comments by her colleagues on the Fed's rate-setting committee, saying a rate rise during the summer months is probably appropriate.

Yellen's comments caused a spike in government bond yields and boosted the dollar which usually move in the opposite direction of the gold price. Higher interest rates raises the opportunity costs of holding gold as the metal provides no yield and any gains for investors is through price appreciation.

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ForcePhone, ou comment contrôler son smartphone juste en le serrant

ForcePhone est un logiciel qui permet de rendre n'importe quel smartphone sensible à la pression exercée sur sa coque ou son écran grâce à des ultrasons. Cet outil pourrait ajouter une nouvelle dimension aux interfaces des smartphones sans nécessiter de composant physique...

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Noble shares hammered after CEO's sudden resignation

Noble Group’s (SGX:N21) stock shed more than 8% Monday in Singapore after its chief executive officer Yusuf Alireza quitted unexpectedly and the firm announced it plans to sell Noble Americas Energy Solutions (NAES), one of its crown jewels.

The surprising move comes just weeks after Alireza, 45, secured crucial financing for Asia’s biggest commodity trader by volume, which has been hit quite hard in the last year by slumping prices, a large debt pile and questions over its accounting practices.

Noble also announced it would sell a business that less than a month ago Alireza himself described as a core asset the trading company wanted to keep.

Noble said it has named its president William Randall, and Jeff Frase, global head of oil liquids, as co-CEOs, effective immediately.

The embattled group, founded by British-born former scrap dealer Richard Elman 30 years ago, also said it would begin a sale process for NAES, worth over $1.25 billion as per Aug. last year.

According to Noble, the NAES transaction is “expected to generate both significant cash proceeds and profits to substantially enhance the balance sheet”.

The Hong Kong-based company booked a $1.2bn write-down on long-term coal contracts in its 2015 annual results, as assessments of future energy prices dropped. That led to a $1.7bn net loss, the firm’s first annual loss in more than two decades.

Noble shares have fallen almost 65% over the past year after Iceberg Research alleged the group was inflating its assets by billions of dollars. The beleaguered commodity trader rejected the claims and board-appointed consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers found it had complied with international accounting rules.

Other companies, including GMT Research, have since come forward to criticize the trader's bookkeeping practices.

Noble Group’s credit rating has been cut by Moody’s Investors Service Inc., S&P Global Ratings and most recently Fitch Ratings on May 17. It had net debt of $1.9 billion maturing over the next 12 months, the firm said earlier this month.

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La maladie de la Grande Barrière de corail est bien réelle en Australie

Les biologistes australiens persistent et signent : la Grande Barrière de corail est mal en point. Après les résultats de la dernière étude, présentés fin avril, démontrant que 93 % du récif géant sont affectés par le blanchissement, trois universités se regroupent pour publier un communiqué...

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Glencore bids for Anglo American’s coal mines in Australia — report

Mining and commodities giant Glencore (LON:GLEN) and Apollo Minerals (ASX:AON) are said to have made a joint bid for Anglo American's (LON:AAL) metallurgical coal mines in Australia, valued at up to $1.5 billion.

According to The Australian (subs. required), the companies are offering $1 billion for both Grosvenor and Moranbah mines, only days ahead of the June 6 deadline set by Anglo for final bids.

Other firms that have also circled the coal mines at various stages of the process include BHP Billion, South32 and X2, with varying reports as to which remain in contention.

The Queensland-based operations have been up for sale since February, when chief executive officer Mark Cutifani singled out the assets the firm had decided to offload after a prolonged commodities rout left it with high levels of debt.

He said at the time that Anglo American expected to generate between $3bn and $4bn from asset sales this year.

Other firms have also circled the coal mines at various stages of the process, including BHP Billion (ASX, NYSE:BHP), South32 (ASX:S32) and X2, with varying reports as to which remain in contention.

From those, Glencore is the one that has been more vocal about its intentions to take advantage of the merger and acquisitions opportunities in the market at the moment. In march, CEO Ivan Glasenberg said he was “looking at everything,” as long as the asset purchases wouldn’t undermine the company’s balance sheet.

Last month, Anglo sold its 70% stake in Foxleigh coal mine, also located in Queensland, to a consortium led by Taurus Fund Management, an Australian fund manager that invests in the commodities industry. The total amount was not disclosed.

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Dossier : comment les météorites racontent notre histoire

Il existe différentes sortes de météorites. Ce dossier donne les éléments pour les reconnaître. Il détaille également la nature et la composition des météorites.

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Les effets secondaires des gaz lacrymogènes

Utilisés par les forces de l’ordre pour disperser les manifestants, les agents anti-émeutes, comme les gaz lacrymogènes, ont différents effets sur l’organisme. S’ils restent peu toxiques, ces gaz peuvent tout de même avoir des conséquences sur la santé en cas d'exposition prolongée.

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SpaceX réussit à nouveau à poser son Falcon 9 : et maintenant ?

Vendredi, SpaceX a de nouveau lancé avec succès un satellite et récupéré l’étage principal de son lanceur. Et de quatre, donc. Pour autant, il reste une étape à franchir, et non des moindres : le retour en vol d’un étage. Pour l'instant, la clientèle semble rare.

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Habitabilité : autour des naines rouges, les exoterres sont bien trop chaudes

Autour des naines rouges, il ne suffit pas d’être dans la zone habitable pour être une planète habitable. Des simulations informatiques montrent en effet que les exoplanètes peuvent conserver une atmosphère étouffante, bien trop chaude pour l’eau à l’état liquide. Sauf si la taille est plus...

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Botswana's first uranium mine gets environmental nod

Australian company A-Cap Resources (ASX:ACB) is a step further to developing Botswana's first uranium mine, after the government approved its environmental impact statement (EIA).

“We have been conducting extensive work over the years, commencing 2009, in studying and identifying the overall environmental and social impacts associated with developing the first uranium mine in Botswana. The board has ensured the highest standards have been adopted in preparing the Environment Impact Statement,” A-Cap CEO Paul Thomson said in a statement.

The ASX-listed junior, valued at $17.6 million as of Friday, is planning to develop the Letlhakane uranium mine, an open-pit operation that would run for 18 years, producing 3.75 million pounds annually. According to A-Cap Letlhakane  is "one of the world’s largest undeveloped uranium deposits" with a JORC-compliant resource of 365.7 million pounds U3O8, with a high-grade resource of 103.8Mt at 450 parts per million (ppm) U3O8.

A-Cap says it has completed over 149,000 metres of reverse circulation and diamond drilling over the area, indicating shallow mineralization resulting in a low capex operation.

Investors in the company have been taken on a ride recently, with the stock advancing 50 percent year to date and jumping 41.1 percent on Friday.

Another Australian firm, Impact Minerals (ASX:IPT), is also exploring some prospective deposits in eastern Botswana, a country that is estimated to hold around 1.04 billion tonnes in uranium reserves, mostly in its central area.

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Suncor restarts operations after wildfire evacuation

Suncor Energy (TSX, NYSE:SU) on Sunday announced the "safe and staged restart" of its oilsands operations after an approaching wildfire forced the company to abandon its camps north of Fort McMurray.

Around 8,000 workers were moved out of the area on May 16 amid heavy smoke and flames from the massive wildfire that destroyed parts of Fort McMurray.

The province of Alberta lifted mandatory evacuation orders for the last of the accommodation and production sites last Monday, to be followed by inspections by forestry and health officials to ensure they are safe.

In a media release Sunday, Suncor said initial production started at its Firebag insitu operation early last week, with start-ups underway at Base Plant and Mackay River.

Suncor has moved over 4,000 employees and contractors back into the region, including Fort Hills workers, and anticipates that over the coming week it will move approximately 3,500 additional people to support its return to operations.

There has been no damage to Suncor's assets and all sites have enhanced fire mitigation and protection. Additionally, cooler weather and several days of precipitation have contributed to improved conditions in the region.

Critical third-party pipeline and power infrastructure required to support the start-up have been restored. Services and accommodations for employees and contractors have been established following approval for occupation of our lodges from Alberta Health Services on May 27, 2016.

Canada's largest oil sands company also said that Syncrude, another major producer operating in the Wood Buffalo area, is in the process of a return to operations. Suncor owns 12 percent of Syncrude.

According to CBC about 2,300 firefighters are still battling the blaze, which remains uncontained and covers almost 580,000 hectares.

About a million barrels of oil per day, or 40 percent of Alberta daily oil sands production, were shut in due to the wildfire. Along with Suncor and Syncrude, Shell Canada closed its Muskeg River and Jackpine mines, ConocoPhillips Canada shut down its Surmont project and Nexen Energy evacuated its Long Lake facility.

On May 10th Shell re-opened its Albian Sands operations, including Muskeg River and Jackpine, after a 7-day closure.

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L'ADN retrouvé d'Ariche, un Phénicien de 2.500 ans

Séquencé, l'ADN du « Jeune homme de Byrsa », alias Ariche, révèle une filiation avec les populations de la péninsule ibérique. Cette découverte exceptionnelle apporte un nouvel éclairage sur les Phéniciens.

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Un immense trou coronal sur le Soleil

SDO a filmé un trou coronal béant dans un hémisphère du Soleil. De cette région plus sombre, car moins dense, s’est envolé un vent solaire trois fois plus rapide.

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Science décalée : ils transforment l'eau en vin

Une start-up californienne, Ava Winery, affirme pouvoir transformer de l'eau en vin en seulement 15 minutes grâce à des composés aromatiques et de l'éthanol. Ou comment accomplir un miracle biblique avec beaucoup de chimie, mais sans raisin.

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Poulpes, seiches et calmars prolifèrent étrangement

Depuis plus d'un demi-siècle, les populations de céphalopodes prolifèrent dans l'ensemble du monde marin. Les activités humaines ne serait pas l'unique facteur responsable de ce phénomène, qui ne serait pas sans conséquence sur les autres espèces aquatiques.

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Des chercheurs retrouvent la recette d'une bière chinoise de 5.000 ans

À l'aide de récipients préhistoriques, des chercheurs ont reconstitué la recette utilisée à Mijiaya, en Chine, il y a 5.000 ans, pour brasser de la bière. De manière surprenante, l’orge faisait bien partie des ingrédients alors que sa culture s’est développée en Chine bien plus tard.

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Facebook et Microsoft vont déployer un câble sous-marin transatlantique

Long de 6.600 kilomètres, le câble Internet sous-marin Marea voulu par Microsoft et Facebook aura une capacité de 160 téraoctets par seconde. Destiné en premier lieu aux services en ligne des deux géants, il reliera les États-Unis à l’Europe du Sud via l’Espagne. Marea devrait être opérationnel...

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Les gaz lacrymogènes ne sont pas totalement inoffensifs

Utilisés par les forces de l’ordre pour disperser les manifestants, les agents anti-émeutes, comme les gaz lacrymogènes, ont différents effets sur l’organisme. S’ils restent peu toxiques, ces gaz peuvent tout de même avoir des conséquences sur la santé en cas d'exposition prolongée.

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Sur l'ISS, le premier module gonflable pose problème à la Nasa

Le module Beam devait être gonflé jeudi mais la tentative a échoué car la grosse structure souple de Bigelow Aerospace s'est mal déployée. Un nouvel essai, programmé vendredi soir, a été reporté à ce samedi. La technologie reste à mettre au point mais intéresse la Nasa, qui aimerait la...

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Le triste sort des grenouilles

Des grenouilles aux tritons, les amphibiens voient leurs populations décroître et des espèces disparaître. Le phénomène est observé depuis une cinquantaine d'années mais les causes de ce déclin sont mal comprises. Une vaste étude vient de paraître mais elle ne simplifie pas le problème : les...

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Australia's mining project pipeline dwarfs other countries

A new report by BMI Research forecasts the global mining project pipeline will continue to narrow in 2016 and 2017 as low metals and mineral prices force miners into further cost cuts and lower capital spending.

However, a handful of countries are set to continue to make significant investment into both brownfield and greenfield projects, bolstered by a combination of low production costs, high-grade reserves and favourable regulations says BMI.

None more so than Australia, where significant initial capex projects nearly outnumber the next ten countries on the list.

BMI warns however that a majority of the projects in the pipeline are in the announced/feasibility study stage, and a proportion are not be expected to come to fruition over the research forecast period of 2016–2020.

BMI believes tin, nickel and bauxite will emerge as the sector's production  growth bright spots through 2020 with a number of key projects coming online over the next few years.

BMI  highlights a number of projects including Metals X's continuing expansion through brownfield investment and its reported new high-grade reserves at its Renison Bell mine, the largest tin mine in Australia. Other high-grade tin mine expansions include Stellar Resources' Heemskirk project, which boasts an estimated 4 .4 million tonne reserve.

BMI expects MMG's $1.4 billion Dugald River mine to lead a lead production revival over the coming years as zinc mine closures drag down lead output. Rio Tinto's $2.6 billion expansion of the massive Weipa bauxite mine is due to kick off early next year with production in the first half of 2019.

While gold and coal output growth will slow markedly says BMI, the country's copper sector will be buoyed by projects such as BHP's expansion at Olympic Dam and Sandfire Resources' DeGrussa copper mine, which will produce 300,000 tonne per year at full capacity.

Source: Business Monitor International

 

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Yellen drops gold price to two-month low

On Friday, gold continued its slide after data out of the US showed  the world's largest economy is growing faster than previously estimated and Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen suggested an early interest rate hike may be appropriate.

In heavy early afternoon trading gold futures in New York for delivery in June dropped to a day low of $1,209.50 an ounce, levels last seen April 1. The gold price is down more than $90 per ounce in the month of May and is in the midst of its longest unbroken losing streak since late November .

Sentiment on gold markets have shifted dramatically in recent weeks and Yellen was uncharacteristically hawkish during a debate at Harvard University on Friday ahead of a long weekend in the US. Yellen echoed similarly aggressive comments by her colleagues on the Fed's rate-setting committee, saying a rate rise during the summer months is probably appropriate.

Yellen's comments caused a spike in government bond yields and boosted the dollar which usually move in the opposite direction of the gold price. Higher interest rates raises the opportunity costs of holding gold as the metal provided no yield and any gains for investors must come through price appreciation.

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Anglo American’s Be Beers gets a new CEO

Anglo American's (LON:AAL) diamond giant De Beers has named strategy director Bruce Cleaver as its new chief executive, replacing Philippe Mellier, who held the position for five years.

Cleaver, 51, takes on the new role at a rough time for De Beers, as diamond prices and sales declined sharply last year amid an economic slowdown in China.

Cleaver, 51, takes on the new role at a rough time for De Beers, the world’s biggest diamond producer, as gem prices and sales declined sharply last year amid an economic slowdown in China, where blooming wealth once fuelled demand for diamonds.

"Having steered through some of the diamond industry's toughest times and with the market showing signs of recovery, now is the right time for me to pass the baton to the next generation," France-born Mellier said in the statement.

Diamonds accounted for 31% of Anglo’s underlying earnings last year, making it the group’s second-most important earnings driver after coal. The company owns 85% of DeBeers.

Cleaver first joined De Beers' board in 2008 and served as its co-acting CEO in 2010 before Mellier's appointment. He will assume on July 1.

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Quand le climat bouscule la météo

Météorologie et climatologie : quels rapports ? quelles différences ? Les échelles diffèrent, nous explique Aude Lemonsu, du CNRS et de Météo-France, mais ces deux sciences se nourrissent et évoluent. La demande de prévisions météo fiables se fait plus forte dans de nombreux secteurs. Ce...

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La matière noire est peut-être en partie formée de trous noirs primordiaux

Pour Alexander Kashlinsky, chercheur au GSFC de la Nasa, la matière noire pourrait bien se composer de trous noirs primordiaux, comme cela a déjà été proposé. Certaines correspondances dans le fond diffus infrarouge et le fond diffus de rayonnement X tendent à le montrer. Et selon lui, toutes...

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Sibanye’s platinum mine workers begin indefinite strike

Unionized workers at Sibanye Gold's (JSE:SGL) (NYSE:SBGL) Kroondal platinum mine in South Africa began Friday an indefinite strike over transport, bonuses and safety pay.

The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), the country’s platinum industry largest union, wants the company to provide miners with transportation and increased safety, as many members have been attacked after working night shifts, Reuters reports.

Sibanye acquired Kroondal through its purchase of Aquarius Platinum in October last year.

Sibanye, South Africa’s largest gold producer, acquired Kroondal through its purchase of Aquarius Platinum in October last year for about $294 million. The deal was finalized in April.

A company’s spokesman said Sibanye would seek a court order to stop the strike because it was negatively affecting output.

"With metal prices being low for AMCU to now go on strike over issues that are being dealt with is irresponsible. This poses a threat of to the viability of the mine," James Wellsted told Reuters.

Kroondal is just one of several mines Sibanye Gold has bought lately as it seeks to expand from gold and platinum to other commodities, including coal, uranium and base metals.

The strike comes as the AMCU is in the process of preparing wage demands for the country's top platinum miners before a two-year agreement ends next month.

The last deal was signed after a five-month strike, the longest in the mining history of South Africa, the world’s largest producer of the metal.

Kroondal platinum mine plant. (Image from archives)

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Innorobo 2016 : les robots les plus remarqués du salon

Pour sa sixième édition, le salon Innorobo s'est déroulé à Paris et a accueilli plus de 200 exposants venus du monde entier. L’occasion de découvrir les dernières tendances en matière de robots, drones et autres exosquelettes. Voici notre sélection des nouveautés qui ont retenu notre attention.

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La matière est peut-être en partie formée de trous noirs primordiaux

Pour Alexander Kashlinsky, chercheur au GSFC de la Nasa, la matière noire pourrait bien se composer de trous noirs primordiaux, comme cela a déjà été proposé. Certaines correspondances dans le fond diffus infrarouge et le fond diffus de rayonnement X tendent à le montrer. Et selon lui, toutes...

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Tara Pacific : la plus vaste étude des récifs coralliens débute demain

Actuellement, 20 % des coraux sont menacés de disparition d'ici à moins de 40 ans et leur biologie conserve encore des mystères. Demain, la goélette Tara quittera Lorient pour l'océan Pacifique et mènera durant deux ans et demi la plus grande campagne scientifique de ce genre. L'aventure a aussi...

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Votre façon de conduire est une manière... de vous reconnaître

Il est possible d'identifier des conducteurs à partir des données récoltées dans les boîtiers électroniques d’une automobile, comme la position du volant, la sollicitation de l’accélérateur et de la pédale de frein. C'est ce que démontrent des chercheurs dont l'objectif est d’attirer l’attention...

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Here comes the half conveyer-belt, half train hybrid

Australia's Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN) is a mining services company supplying a wide range of services including remote site power and aerodrome services, plant processing and crushing, pipeline design, port logistics and sales.

The Perth-based company has operated BC Iron's 7mtpa Iron Valley mine in the central region of the Pilbara since August 2014. Ore is transported to Port Hedland and Mineral Resources says with mine and port supply upgrades tonnage can be more than doubled to 16mtpa.

The system is almost completely re-locatable once a resource is completely exhausted

That's where the $1.5 billion company's BOTS come in. That stands for Bulk Ore Transportation System and Iron Valley is potentially the first location where the system can be deployed.

BOTS is an elevated rail line that according to Mineral Resources occupies a niche between heavy rail and conveyor: BOTS employs an elevated below rail structure "comprising various designs, dependent on ground clearance requirements to satisfy track geometry, hydrology, topography, geotechnical conditions, and grade separation needs" reads the website.

Source: Mineral Resources

BOTS has many advantages says Mineral Resources: It's significantly less capital intensive than traditional heavy-haul rail because the below rail design minimizes cut and fill earthworks during construction.

In addition it's much more environmentally friendly because it results in much less disturbance to surface water and fauna habitat. On top of that the system is almost completely re-locatable once a resource is completely exhausted.

Mineral Resource which will make the technology available to others says it has the potential "to open up significant mining assets long considered stranded."

Source: Project Monitor

Hat tip: Project Monitor

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Iron ore price back below $50

On Thursday  the Northern China benchmark iron ore price dipped to just below the $50 per dry metric tonne level for the first time since February according to data supplied by The Steel Index.

Iron ore is down 27.4% from its April high near $70, but is still trading 16% higher than at the start of they year.

The correction is the result of near and longer-term supply and demand dynamics (in short: rising output in Australia and slowing demand in China) and many factors are  stacked against a seaborne iron ore price above $50:

• The price spike this year and particularly since March was purely a speculative bubble and not an indicator of improving demand
• Chinese port stocks above 100 million tonnes for the first time since February last year is evidence of opportunistic buying and slack in the market
• As much as 50m tonnes steel capacity came back online this year, but China's swing steelmakers' margins are shrinking fast and they could exit the market just as quickly
• Beijing is continuing its program of eliminating chronic overcapacity in heavy industry which goes hand-in-hand with stricter pollution controls
• After three decades of growth China's own steel industry association said steel output already reached its peak in 2014
• US and other countries' anti-dumping policies mean Chinese blast furnaces can't export their way out of trouble
• China's accumulated steel output will top 10 billion tonnes this year, providing a huge reserve of scrap
• With more than 200m tonnes of capacity closed in three years, the remaining domestic Chinese miners may hang on for longer
• Global output is still growing – an estimated 180 million tonnes of additional supply will enter seaborne trade through 2020
• Additional tonnage is on the left of the cost-curve – cash costs at the Big 3 have been cut by half since 2012 and are heading below $10 a tonne
• Roy Hill is ramping up, Vale's S11D is on target for end-2016, Rio Tinto's Silvergrass will take less than a year to build and further out the likes of Simandou, Zanaga and Central Eyre (not to mention a resurgent Iran) could fill any gaps opening up
• Record-low freight rates have shrunk the differential between FOB and landed costs, removing another layer of potential per-tonne-profit
• Some marginal miners encouraged by $50-plus prices restarted production and a chunk of this supply is hedged
• Once the number three exporter, India has lifted export duties for  low-grade ore and may soon do the same for 58% Fe and up

Even before the recent drop, the consensus forecast of analysts polled by FocusEconomics was a sub-$50 average during the second quarter. Of the 17 analysts polled the most bearish was JP Morgan at an average of just $38, while even the most optimistic, Oxford Analytics saw the price topping out at $55.

The median forecast for 2017 is even more pessimistic at $44.80 over the course of the year according to FocusEconomics data.

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Planetary Resources now has $21 million to help miners find resources… on Earth

The Series A funding announced today will be used to deploy and operate Planetary Resources’ Earth observation program, known as Ceres. (Image from archives)

Asteroid mining company Planetary Resources is expanding its mining horizons by focusing on a celestial body we all know rather well —Earth.

The Redmond, Washington-based firm said Thursday it has received a $21.1 million investment to deploy and operate Ceres, an advanced Earth observation business that features the first commercial infrared and hyperspectral sensor platform to better understand and manage humanity’s natural resources.

From now on, Earth observation will be another aspect of Planetary Resources’ operations, the company said in a statement.

From now on, Earth observation will be another aspect of Planetary Resources’ operations.

Conceived from the company’s vision for the exploration and utilization of asteroid resources, Ceres will leverage Planetary Resources’ Arkyd spacecraft to deliver affordable, on-demand intelligence of natural resources available on any spot on the planet.

“While typical satellite imagery provides only a picture, Ceres will provide actionable data with higher spectral resolutions – going beyond what the human eye can see – by measuring thermographic properties and detecting the composition of materials on Earth’s surface,” it said in the statement.

Planetary Resources also announced it would be shutting down what was once a wildly popular Kickstarter project, which would have enabled backers to take “space selfie” pictures with the company’s space telescopes.

Chris Lewicki, Planetary Resources' President and Chief Engineer, said all 17,614 backers would be offered full refunds.

Image courtesy of Planetary Resources.

Many consider asteroid mining a first and key step to the eventual colonization of outer space, something like California's Gold Rush, but out of this planet.

Nearly 9,000 asteroids larger than 36 meters (150 feet) in diameter orbit near Earth. Geologists believe they are packed with iron ore, nickel and precious metals at much higher concentrations than those found on Earth, making up a market valued in the trillions of dollars.

Asteroids are also a prime source for water in space, essential for interplanetary outpost.

Watch the announcement below:

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BHP to boost copper output, lower costs at vast Olympic Dam

The Olympic Dam is the fifth largest copper mine in the world, and the No.1 uranium deposit. (Image courtesy of BHP Billiton)

World’s largest miner BHP Billiton (ASX, NYSE:BHP) (LON:BLT) has made a bold bet on copper and it’s starting by finding a way to boost output for the red metal from its Olympic Dam, Australia’s biggest underground mine, even before a proposed and long-awaited mega-expansion of the operation takes place.

While the company will take another three years before deciding if heap leaching technology will ultimately allow a big expansion of the mine, the fifth largest copper deposit in the world, and the No.1 uranium deposit, BHP wants to up output for the industrial metal from the mine by 40% over the next year.

BHP wants to up output for the industrial metal from its Olympic Dam by 40% over the next year.

Speaking ahead of the first anniversary next week of her appointment as BHP's asset president of Olympic Dam, Jacqui McGill warned the current smaller-scale stepping up of production won't allow the mining giant to fully maximize the sweet spot of global copper demand.

As costs decrease, however, McGill says she is in a position to fight for funding to eventually double the tonnes mined to around 450,000 tonnes from 2025.

"I think at a dollar a pound we've earned a seat at the table," McGill said according to Reuters.

Jacqui McGill on site at Olympic Dam. ( Aaron Bunch | BHP Billiton)

She is also planning to step up hiring. The mine is now advertising for 120 workers, 50 of which are newly created roles. This, as BHP first pursues a more sedate underground mining push into the large, untouched part of the ore body originally earmarked for a massive $30 billion open pit.

McGill said there would be no “big bang” hiring, but rather gradual growth.

“We’ll do it in a sustainable way,” she told The Courier Mail.

The operation has already improved the number of copper units produced per employee by more than 40% over the past two years, after cutting its workforce by 36%.

Olympic Dam has about 470 km of tunnels and plans to drill a further 120 km over the next five years to open a new underground seam that will give it some of the richest ores in the world.

BHP hopes to improve the grade by around 20% to more than 2.2% copper within by 2021 — compared to average grades of less than 1% anticipated elsewhere by then.

That would position Olympic Dam, which is at the heart of BHP’s new strategy to grow its output of copper and oil, to be able to hike output from 200,000 tonnes this year to 230,000 tonnes by 2021.

The mine has been operating since the late 1980s but still has 70% of its resource untouched.

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Cancer de la peau : les bons gestes pour l’éviter

En ce 26 mai, journée de prévention et de dépistage des cancers de la peau, voici quelques conseils pour se protéger et profiter en toute tranquillité des rayons du soleil. Découvrez aussi comment l'e-santé a pu apporter une aide intéressante dans ce domaine grâce aux applications mobiles.

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Nautilus underwater project in Polynesia richer than thought

Canadian seafloor miner Nautilus Minerals (TSX, LON:NUS) posted Thursday upgraded mineral resource estimates for its underwater mining project in the Central Pacific, off the Tongan coast, which shows the venture is much richer than originally though.

The project’s inferred mineral resource base went up from 410 million tonnes to 685 million tonnes (wet).

According to the updated estimate, the Clarion-Clipperton fracture zone (CCZ) project’s inferred mineral resource base went up from 410 million tonnes to 685 million tonnes (wet).

The new figures include portions in the inferred, indicated and measured categories, following the successful completion of exploration campaigns in the area in 2013 and late 2015, Nautilus said in the statement.

Sampling copper under the sea. (Courtesy of Nautilus Minerals)

The firm’s chief executive Mike Johnston said the finding highlights again the significant potential of seafloor resources.

“Technological advances in mining, oil & gas and maritime technologies over the last 20 years now mean there are reasonable prospects for economic extraction of these massive mineralized systems,” Johnston said in the statement.

“At Nautilus, we are both excited and privileged to be leading the development of this significant, currently untapped potential,” he noted.

(Courtesy of Nautilus Minerals)

The Toronto-based firm, the world's first yet not the only seafloor miner, is better known by its Solwara 1, in the minerals-rich Manus basin of the Bismarck Sea, set to become the world's first commercial high-grade deep-sea copper, gold and silver mine.

Nautilus Minerals settled a key dispute with the PNG’s government last year. Since then, progress has moved quickly and the company expects to begin mining operations in early 2018.

Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands have all granted permits for deep sea mining exploration and the Cook Islands recently undertook a minerals exploration tender process. But PNG is the only country in the region to have granted a license for ocean floor mining.

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Le mystère des panaches de Mars s'éclaircit grâce au Soleil

Sur Terre, les colères du Soleil génèrent des aurores polaires. Sur Mars, bien plus éloignée, elles interagiraient aussi avec l'ionosphère et seraient les responsables des mystérieux panaches qui s'élèvent parfois au-dessus de l'atmosphère. Une énigme qui semble résolue.

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Une recette de bière chinoise vieille de 5.000 ans révèle son secret

À l'aide de récipients préhistoriques, des chercheurs ont reconstitué la recette utilisée à Mijiaya, en Chine, il y a 5.000 ans, pour brasser de la bière. De manière surprenante, l’orge faisait bien partie des ingrédients alors que sa culture s’est développée en Chine bien plus tard.

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Grotte de Bruniquel : les stupéfiantes constructions de Néandertal

Dans la profonde grotte de Bruniquel, au-dessus de l’Aveyron, des Hommes de Néandertal ont aménagé des feux pour s’éclairer. Ils ont aussi cassé et déplacé plus de deux tonnes de stalagmites pour construire d'énigmatiques structures. La datation en fait un record : 176.500 ans, une époque bien...

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Les trous noirs supermassifs se formeraient à partir d'une graine

Deux hypothèses concourent pour expliquer l’existence de trous noirs très massifs moins d’un milliard d’années seulement après le Big Bang. Naissent-ils petits puis grossissent-ils très rapidement ou bien naissent-ils déjà gros ? Des chercheurs italiens pensent avoir trouvé un début de réponse.

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Boom in private debt financing for mining

A study of private capital in the resources sector by industry tracker Preqin finds significant growth since the global financial crisis in the debt fundraising market with 54 funds closed since 2010 raising more than $29bn.

According to Preqin which tracks 1,520 funds active in natural resources investment around the world, at the moment there are 32 unlisted natural resources funds in the market that will invest in debt. Collectively, these funds are targeting an aggregate $23.2bn. This figure includes 19 funds focused on making debt investments in energy assets including oil, gas, coal and renewables, targeting $14.5bn.

Investments will primarily be funnelled into in North America. The authors of the report say that's because the region has a longer tradition of private ownership of natural resources assets than many other areas.

With regulation still affecting the ability of banks to address all the financing needs of natural resources companies, the next commodity boom will likely be financed, to an extent, by private capital

Only $700 million of the total raised is destined for debt financing in mining and metals as a primary focus although a chunk of the money flowing into energy markets will go towards coal. One of the biggest resources deal completed deal last year was a $1.1 billion coal power plant in Zimbabwe. Funds with a diversified strategy may also invest in mining.

Currently there are only two unlisted metals and mining funds in market planning to invest in debt, both targeting approximately $400m in institutional investor capital – "perhaps partly due to concerns among investors and fund managers that the slump in the value of metals and minerals may be considerably longer lasting than that of energy" according to the report by the London-HQed firm.

"Nevertheless, among fund managers with the requisite expertise, the particular financing needs of mining companies may create attractive opportunities," says Preqin.

The report highlights Australia's Taurus Fund Management which closed its Mining Finance Fund in September last year. The Sydney-based investment company raised $683m to invest in the debt of global emerging public and private metals & mining companies for financing or refinancing, mining project development, expansion or acquisitions.

Tom Carr, Head of Real Assets Products at Preqin says “under pressure from increased regulation and capital requirements since the financial crisis, many banks have looked to deleverage and reduce their lending, creating more and more opportunities for fund managers to provide a range of financing options to natural resources companies":

"The continued growth of interest in debt investment in these companies will depend on the success or otherwise of the current group of funds and also on the direction commodity prices take. However, with regulation still affecting the ability of banks to address all the financing needs of natural resources companies, the next commodity boom will likely be financed, to an extent, by private capital.”

 

 

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ETF investors pile in despite worst gold price run in 6 months

On Wednesday, gold suffered its sixth straight day of declines as economic data out of the US made an early rate hike by the Federal Reserve more likely and large-scale futures market investors scrambled to liquidate long positions not seen since 2011.

In heavy early afternoon trading gold futures in New York for delivery in June, the most active contract, dropped as low as $1,217.70 an ounce to a seven-week low before clawing back some lost ground. The gold price is down $60 per ounce since Wednesday last week, its longest unbroken losing streak since late November .

Low growth, negative sovereign-bond yields, the potential of inflation making a rare return and upcoming event risks make us view the current setback as a healthy correction

While sentiment seems to have shifted as the Fed takes a much more hawkish stance and bond yields, which have a negative correlation with the gold price, rise a new note by Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, makes the case that the long-term outlook still favours upside despite the current blip in the gold price.

The World Gold Council in its latest demand trends report showed ETF investors who've been stocking up on the metal right out of the gate in 2016 were behind the best ever first quarter for the metal and the second largest quarter on record after Q1 2009. The jump was entirely driven by investment demand which was 122% higher than Q1 2015 and increased three-fold quarter on quarter.

Unlike hedge funds playing the futures and options market which "add and reduce positions in accordance with market behaviour" says Hansen, ETF investors view the price weakness "as an opportunity to accumulate exposure in the belief that the long-term direction remains to the upside":

"While US interest-rate expectations are being adjusted higher and the dollar continues to recover, gold will be struggling.

"However low growth, negative sovereign-bond yields, the potential of inflation making a rare return and upcoming event risks make us view the current setback as a healthy correction within the established uptrend."

Source: Saxo Bank

 

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Chine : un bus géant qui évite les embouteillages bientôt sur la route ?

Lancé en 2010 par les autorités chinoises, le straddling bus est un concept de bus-tunnel électrique sur rails sous lequel les voitures peuvent circuler. Cet engin étonnant est présenté comme une alternative au métro. Il serait moins onéreux à déployer et permettrait d'éviter les embouteillages...

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Centerra Gold charged $98M fine for environmental damage in Kyrgyzstan

Canada’s Centerra Gold (TSX:CG) received Wednesday yet more bad news from Kyrgyzs authorities as a court ruled that its local subsidiary, Kumtor Gold Company (KGC), must pay about $98 million for environmental damage.

The move follows another court decision Monday ordering Kumtor, the country's biggest gold miner, to pay a $10,000 fine.

Kumtor's lawyers told reporters at the hearing that they would appeal the ruling, Reuters reports.

String of penalties are one of the latest signs of renewed tensions between the Kyrgyzstan government and the Canadian miner.

The string of penalties come less than a month after prosecutors raided Centerra’s offices in the Central Asian republic to collect documents related to a separate criminal case alleging financial violations by the firm.

They are also one of the latest signs of renewed tensions between the Kyrgyzstan government and the firm, which have been locked in a bitter dispute over profit sharing for over two years.

The government wants to swap its 32.7% stake in Centerra for half of a joint venture that would control the Kumtor gold mine, Kyrgyzstan's largest bullion operation, which lies near the Chinese border at an altitude of 4,000 metres.

Long-dragged dispute

Last year, former prime minister Joomart Otorbayev suggested a 50/50 joint venture with Centerra was not in the country's interests and rumours pointing to an imminent nationalization of the mine, later denied by Kyrgyzstan authorities, spread out.

Otorbayev resigned later that month after failing to clinch the restructuring deal. His successor, Temir Sariyev, said at the time that resolving the issue would be among his priorities.

Kyrgyzstan's environmental and technical safety authority has filed several lawsuits against Centerra’s subsidiary for a total of about $103 million. Wednesday's ruling was just the second one of those.

The vast open pit Kumtor gold mine is expected to produce 470,000-520,000 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost between $819-$908 per ounce this year.

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Les pleurs de bébé transforment le cerveau des parents

Des chercheurs canadiens se sont intéressés à ce qui se passe dans le cerveau des adultes lorsqu’un bébé pleure ou rit. L’étude montre une modification des fonctions cognitives des parents sous l’effet des cris de l’enfant.

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Gold price rally boosts Canada’s mining sector growth

Canada’s mining sector got a shot in the arm in the first three months of 2016, recording gains that outperformed both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the London Metals Exchange in the period, a new report shows.

The welcome bonanza, says Ernst & Young, was fuelled mainly by recovering gold prices, which rallied 16% in the first quarter of the year, after falling about 10% in 2015.

The Canadian Mining Eye index — which tracks the sector’s performance based on 100 mid-sized and junior companies listed in Toronto — gained 26% from January to March.

Other key metals for the sector, such as copper and zinc, also enjoyed some nice gains. The red metal rose 4%, compared to a 9% decline in the previous quarter, while zinc went up 14%, which eliminated the loss experienced in late 2015.

The firm’s Canadian Mining Eye index — which tracks the sector’s performance based on 100 mid-sized and junior companies listed on the TSX and TSX-Venture Exchange — gained 26% from January to March compared to 2% in the fourth quarter of 2015, the report said.

In contrast, the S&P/TSX Composite index gained a mere 4% in the quarter and the London Metals Exchange index — a global trading platform for industrial metals like copper and nickel — rose only 3% over the same period.

According to Bruce Sprague, EY’s Canadian Mining & Metals leader, the strong growth of Canadian mining equities also came on the back of strategic initiatives, such as non-core asset sales, aggressive cost control measures and a disciplined approach in reducing debt.

“As markets anticipate more of the positive environment over the next few quarters, we are likely to see a turnaround of fortunes for mining companies,” Jay Patel, E&Y’s leader of mining and metals transactions in Toronto, said in a statement.

“At the other end of the spectrum, challenging global market conditions remain, so some caution is warranted,” he added.

Major mining companies saw their shares gain 21% in the period, compared with a slight gain of 1% in the fourth quarter of 2015.

World’s top bullion miner Barrick Gold (TSX:ABX) was one of the companies that experienced the most significant rebound, with the stock more than doubling in price this year, which makes it a top performer on the Toronto Exchange this year.

Modest growth ahead

While the Canadian Mining Eye’s strong start this year is a reflection of the progress many miners are making, E&Y believes this year will bring modest return to growth, underpinned by improved investor confidence.

With government bonds expected to see limited upside, warn the analysts, gold appears more attractive for mitigating risk and portfolio diversification in 2016.

The E&Y index tracks companies with market capitalizations between $47 million and $1.6 billion, which are seen as a key barometer for the industry, since they do most of the exploration.

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Test réussi pour une sorte de navette spatiale indienne

Le prototype HEX-01, qui vient de réussir son vol d'essai, ressemble à une navette spatiale. Le concept est en fait celui d'un premier étage ailé, fonctionnant comme un avion et entièrement réutilisable. Il est trop tôt pour affirmer que l'agence spatiale indienne parviendra au terme de ce...

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Grenouilles : les amphibiens semblent décliner… inexorablement

Des grenouilles aux tritons, les amphibiens voient leurs populations décroître et des espèces disparaître. Le phénomène est observé depuis une cinquantaine d'années mais les causes de ce déclin sont mal comprises. Une vaste étude vient de paraître mais elle ne simplifie pas le problème : les...

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Lettre d'information : l’actu de l’espace débarque sur votre mail

Pour ne rien rater de l’actualité spatiale, Futura-Sciences vous propose un abonnement hebdomadaire gratuit à sa lettre d’information Futura-Espace. Retrouvez en un clic les dernières actualités, dossiers thématiques et questions-réponses.

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L'apparition de la vie serait-elle due aux colères du jeune Soleil ?

Certaines tempêtes solaires peuvent être dévastatrices. Pourtant, selon une étude de la Nasa, celles, beaucoup plus puissantes, que le Soleil encore jeune produisait il y a 4 milliards d’années ont pu être salvatrices en favorisant le réchauffement de la Terre. Elles l’auraient peut-être même...

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Idaho silver mine shaft sunk to final depth of 9,587 feet

The Lucky Friday silver, lead and zinc mine is located deep in the Bitterroot Mountains, in one of the world’s most prolific silver-producing districts: northern Idaho’s Silver Valley.

Lucky Friday has been in commercial production since 1942 and this week the number 4 shaft project to extend the life of the mine for another generation reached a big milestone.

Cementation USA Inc. on Tuesday announced it has completed sinking the deepest shaft in the United States at the mine owned by Hecla Mining outside the town of Mullan in Shoshone county, Idaho.

With a finished diameter of 18 feet, the Lucky Friday #4 Shaft was sunk to a final depth of 9,587 feet (2.92 kilometres) below surface. The project is moving into the furnishing construction phase where shaft steel and the final conveyances will be installed.

Hecla, which is celebrating its 125th year of operations, kicked off the expansion project at a cost of roughly $225 million as far back as late 2008 and completion is scheduled for late 2016.

The Cementation group, which is currently sinking 15 shafts worldwide, has sunk the deepest single lift shaft in the world at South Deep Mine in South Africa, the deepest shaft in Canada at Kidd Mine D No.4 Shaft, the deepest single lift shaft in the United States at the Resolution Copper Project, and now the deepest shaft in the United States.

Hecla also announced the acquisition of the Montanore project in Montana, considered one of the largest undeveloped silver and copper deposits in North America, located 50 miles north of Lucky Friday

The Lucky Friday #4 Shaft is a vertical shaft that begins underground, which makes it a Winze in mining terminology. A Winze is an internal shaft which requires the equivalent of a shaft headframe and hoisting system to be installed underground before the excavation activities can occur.

Hecla selected Cementation USA to sink the shaft, excavate accesses, stations and pockets, and install the related infrastructure, which include a state-of-the-art fully automated ~200 ton per hour material handling system, a 500 gallon per minute water pumping system, a centralized refrigeration system with 977 tons of cooling capacity, a batch plant, and other systems.

Hecla produced more than 3 million ounces of silver, 18,300 tons of lead and 8,100 tons of zinc at Luck Friday last year. The mine boasts measured and indicated resources of more than 128 million ounces of silver.

Hecla expects to produce 13.5–14 million ounces of silver this year from mines in the US, Canada and Mexico. The company, headquartered in Coeur d'Alene on Tuesday announced the acquisition of the Montanore project in Montana, considered one of the largest undeveloped silver and copper deposits in North America. The project is 50 miles north of Luck Friday.

 

Image: Cementation

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Gold price drops to six-week low

On Tuesday, gold suffered its worst trading day since late March as exceptional housing numbers in the US put a June rate hike by US Federal Reserve firmly back on the table. It would only be the second interest rate increase in the US in a decade and expectations of more aggressive monetary policy also boosted the dollar, which usually moves in the opposite direction to the gold price.

In heavy trading of nearly double usual volumes gold futures in New York for delivery in June, the most active contract, closed near its lows of $1,228.30 an ounce. Gold has been losing ground steadily since hitting a 15-month high above $1,300  an ounce at the end of April but remains up nearly 16% in 2016.

Large gold futures and options speculators or "managed money" investors such as hedge funds have stayed bullish on the metal despite recent headwinds and last week added to already historically high bullish positions.

Large gold futures and options speculators such as hedge funds have stayed bullish on the metal despite recent headwinds

Hedge funds dramatically raised bearish bets on gold during the final months of 2015 pushing the overall market into a net short position – bets that gold could be bought back at a lower price in the future – for the first time since at least 2006, when government first started to collect the data.

The trend was thoroughly reverse this year however with investors building large bullish positions. Last week hedge funds cut shorts and added to longs – bets that the gold price will rise – pushing overall levels to close to the highest level since the August 2011. Gold futures peaked at an all-time high above $1,900 an ounce that month.

According to the CFTC's weekly Commitment of Traders data up to May 17 released on Friday on a net basis speculators are now long more than 22.7 million troy ounces or 708 tonnes.

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Iron ore price falls 5% – China scrap adds to oversupply fears

On Tuesday the Northern China benchmark iron ore price plummeted 4.7% to $50.20 per dry metric tonne according to data supplied by The Steel Index. After two months of wild swings, the price now seems set to breach $50 a tonne level for the first time since February.

Iron ore is down 27% from its April near $70 when the made-in-China speculative bubble in the steelmaking raw material reached its peak, but is still trading 17% higher than at the start of they year.

The latest sell-off was sparked by stockpiling data showing inventories at major Chinese ports topping 100 million tonnes for the first time since February last year indicating the country's steel furnaces, despite ramping up production as the price improved, have ample supply of ore.

China's steel industry association noted that accumulated steel output will exceed 10 billion tonnes this year, providing a huge reserve of scrap

The port data is just more evidence for what many analysts argue: the correction towards the $40s is the result of long-term supply and demand dynamics that are still stacked against the iron ore price at these levels.

Even before the recent drop, the consensus forecast of analysts polled by FocusEconomics was a sub-$50 average during the second quarter. Of the 17 analysts polled the most bearish was JP Morgan at an average of just $38, while even the most optimistic, Oxford Analytics saw the price topping out at $55.

The median forecast for 2017 is even more pessimistic at $44.80 over the course of the year according to FocusEconomics data.

Slowing Chinese demand, the impact of a race to the left of the cost curve and oversupply – 180 million tonnes of additional supply between 2016-2020 – has been well-documented.

In September the price to a Chinese coastal mill of producing one tonne of pig iron fell for the first time below scrap priced inside the country

But at the annual gathering of the industry in Singapore last week another risk factor for miners came to the fore. In a post-mortem organizers Singapore Exchange said scrap will play an increasing role in the Chinese market:

[China's steel industry association] CISA noted that accumulated steel output will exceed 10 billion tonnes this year, providing a huge reserve of scrap. Significant growth in obsolete scrap over the next decade is expected to lead to greater substitution for pig iron in the steelmaking process. Over time, this should result in a gradual decoupling of pig iron and crude steel production growth rates, translating to relatively lower demand for iron ore.

Scrap supply has not in the past played much of a role in the Chinese steel industry, especially when compared to places like Europe where steelmakers have been known to charge up to 18% scrap to furnaces.

But in September last year the price to a Chinese coastal mill of producing one tonne of pig iron (including cost and freight of all iron ores, coking coals, sintering and pelletizing costs) fell for the first time below scrap – typically around 90% Fe – priced inside the country.

On Tuesday ferrous scrap prices in eastern China (heavy melting scrap 6mm and above thick, including 17% value-added tax, delivered to Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu province) continued to slide hitting $209 a tonne – down nearly 20% since the beginning of May according to S&P Global Platts data. The fall in Taiwanese import scrap has been even more dramatic. A 13% drop on Tuesday to $200 brought the price decline over the past month to 32%.

 

SEE ALSO: Vale readies for iron ore price war

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State of emergency in Peru over mercury poisoning from illegal gold mining

Peruvian President Ollanta Humala has declared a 60-day state of emergency in a large remote area of the Amazon jungle as levels of mercury from illegal gold mining have reached record high levels.

According to country's environment minister, as many as 50,000 people or 41% of the population of the gold-rich Madre de Dios region, bordering Brazil, has been exposed to mercury contamination.

Even children work at illegal gold operations in Peru’s Amazon.(Image: Screenshot via YouTube)

The lethal element is not only in people, but it has also polluted rivers and fish, state-run news agency Andina reports (in Spanish).

The government plans to send hospital ships and loads of untainted fish to the area, where illegal miners use mercury to separate the gold from rock and then dump the chemical into water streams.

They often handle the neurotoxin with their bare hands and inhale its fumes when it is burned off.

Mercury poisoning can affect vital functions such as the nerves, digestive system, lungs and kidneys, according to the World Health Organization.

In July last year, armed police swooped in to Peru’s Amazon basin, burning down an entire town that was home to a vast illegal gold operation.

The story, unfortunately, is nothing new. For years, illegal miners have been eating away the Peru’s rainforest, while the government tries to tighten the screws on illegal mining. However, the battle against illicit miners is far from over.

Until recently, no one really knew the full extent of the damage, but a research team from the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington DC, and Peru’s Ministry of the Environment released in 2013 the first set of satellite images mapping the destruction.

The study showed the illicit activity had already destroyed almost 20,000 hectares of the Amazon rainforest.

Recent invasion of Tambopata National Reserve. (Images courtesy of MAAP.org —Monitoring the Andean Amazon Project | Satellite images: ©DigitalGlobe 2016)

The findings shocked millions and finally highlighted the devastating effect illegal miners have had in the area.

Covert gold production in the South American nation has increased fivefold since 2012, and it is estimated to provide 100,000 direct jobs in the country, 40% of which are in the Madre de Dios region, located in southern Peru.

The situation is mirrored in dozens of the countries, where gold is similarly mined and where the desperately poor often end up working in risky conditions.

Peru is the world's sixth largest gold producer, but an estimated 20% of its annual output is of unknown origin.

Watch the impacts of the devastation in this video:

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