Alrosa gets own security force

Diamond giant PJSC Alrosa announced this week that the Russian government has authorized it to establish a departmental security service to protect the company’s production facilities in the country.

Alrosa, together with energy giants including Rosneft and Gazprom, is on a list of strategic enterprises under the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation. According to Rinat Gizatulin,  Alrosa VP, when the company takes over security duties at facilities located in remote and hard-to-reach regions of the country, the state will be able to save up to RUB 200 million ($3.1 million) a year.

30 companies had their creditworthiness downgraded including marquee names like Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, Goldcorp and Chile's state-owned Codelco, but last month Alrosa became a rare breed in the today's mining industry after its credit rating was upgraded.

Credit ratings agency Moody's  said its decision reflects the fact that the Russian giant's financial metrics "have remained strong versus global peers" and will remain robust, "owing to the company's status as a major producer and exporter of diamonds and weak rouble, the company's 29% share in the global diamond output, its low-cost reserve base, technical mining expertise, solid liquidity and conservative financial policy."

The outlook for Alrosa, 77%-owned by Russia and the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), is negative, but that's in line with its assessment of the sovereign rating of Russia says Moody's. The 60-year old group operates across nine countries and ten regions of Russia.

Alrosa's output climbed to 38.3 million carats, a 6% increase when compared to the previous year, thanks mainly to improvements at its Mir and Udachny underground mines, as well as the commissioning of Karpinskaya-1 and Botuobinskaya pipes and other high-potential deposits.

Alrosa, which together with Anglo-American unit De Beers produces more than half of the world's diamonds, also saw its reserves grow last year to 43.6 million carats. Despite poor global diamond market conditions, the company sold 3.8% more rough diamonds and increased sales 8% to $3.4 billion.

Alrosa, which along with fellow Russian resources firms Rosneft and Bashneft are among the most likely candidates for privatization by the Kremlin, is worth $8.1 billion in Moscow (RUB 510 billion) after rising by 23% in value this year.

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Obésité infantile : trop de maladies du foie chez les enfants

De plus en plus d'enfants développent des précirrhoses hépatiques avec des lésions qui n’étaient observées que chez les malades alcooliques. Environ 250 spécialistes réunis en congrès à l’Institut Pasteur de Paris tirent la sonnette d’alarme.

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Rio Tinto exits PNG, gives away copper-gold mine with $51bn in reserves

Mining giant Rio Tinto (LON, ASX:RIO) has given away a 54% stake in a Papua New Guinean copper and gold mine, which has reserves estimated to be worth $51 billion.

The decision to hand back the shares in its subsidiary Bougainville Copper Limited (ASX:BOC) to an independent trustee, follows a company review of the asset that was triggered by the Bouganville government’s pressure to restart mining at Panguna or give it up.

Decision follows a company review of the asset that was triggered by the Bouganville government’s pressure to restart mining at Panguna or give it up.

“Our review looked at a broad range of options and by distributing our shares in this way we aim to provide landowners, those closest to the mine, and the people of Bouganville a greater say in the future of Panguna,” Chris Salisbury, Rio’s copper and coal chief executive said in a statement.

The trustee, noted Rio, will manage the distribution of its shares between the autonomous Bouganville government and the PNG government, providing them with a platform to work together on options for the resource.

In a separate statement, Bougainville Copper said its board of directors is considering the implications of Rio’s move. The company’s Chairman and Managing Director Peter Taylor will resign, and Robert Burns has been appointed acting chairman.

The Panguna mine was once a major producer and one of the largest open pit mines in the world. It’s believed to still hold about 5.3 million tonnes of copper and 19.3 million ounces of gold. However, it could cost up to A$10 billion to restart production, The Australian reports (subs. required).

Bougainville was the mine operator until local opposition sparked a civil war and forced it to shutdown in 1989.

Rio’s decision on Panguna echoes a similar move two years ago, when the company decided to give away its 19.1% stake in Northern Dynasty Minerals (TSX:NDM) (NYSE:MKT), a company leading the controversial Pebble Mine copper and gold project in the Bristol Bay region of Alaska.

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Ligo pourrait détecter mille fusions de trous noirs... par an

Comment est né le couple de trous noirs dont la fusion a généré l'onde gravitationnelle détectée en septembre 2015 par Ligo ? Des simulations numériques apportent peut-être la réponse, supposant qu'il s'est formé à partir des premières étoiles apparues il y a plus de 11 milliards d'années. Si...

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Newmont selling Indonesian unit for $1.3 billion

Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM) said Thursday is selling its 48.5% stake in PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara, the operator of its Batu Hijau copper and gold mine in Indonesia, for $1.3 billion to PT Amman Mineral Internasional.

The amount, said the Denver-based miner, is comprised of cash proceeds of $920 million expected to be paid at closing and contingent payments of up to $403 million.

Newmont has been seeking to sell its local business after Indonesia banned raw ore shipments in January 2014 and put a progressive tax on concentrates.

Nusa Tenggara Mining Corp., majority owned by Sumitomo Corp., has also agreed to sell its ownership stake to PT Amman.

Newmont has been seeking to sell its local business after Indonesia banned raw ore shipments in January 2014 and put a progressive tax on concentrates, a semi-processed ore that’s shipped to smelters for processing into finished metal.

The move, said authorities, was part of a wider policy to boost revenue by turning Indonesia into a manufacturer of higher-value products and to encourage construction of domestic smelters and refineries.

The deal is expected to close in the third quarter pending regulatory approval and other closing conditions.

The open-pit Batu Hijau mine (meaning “green rock”) was discovered in 1990 in the southwest region of Sumbawa island. It's Indonesia’s second-biggest copper and gold operation, after Freeport-McMoRan Inc.’s Grasberg asset, which has the world’s largest gold reserves.

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Cozmo, le robot jouet doté d'une intelligence artificielle

Il a des airs de Wall-E, le facétieux robot du film éponyme créé par Pixar. Et pour cause, deux designers de ce studio d’animation ont travaillé sur l’expression de ce petit robot jouet. Il est doté d’une intelligence artificielle qui lui permet de reconnaître les personnes et de s’amuser avec...

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Le génome du tournesol, plus grand que celui de l'Homme, enfin décrypté

Le génome du tournesol vient d'être intégralement séquencé par des équipes françaises. Cette cartographie permettra d'optimiser les croisements dans les programmes de sélection variétale, explique l'Institut national de la recherche agronomique (Inra).

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Bientôt un module privé sur la station spatiale pour la science et le tourisme

Après la privatisation du ravitaillement de la station spatiale et bientôt du transport d'astronautes, la Nasa va statuer sur une autre demande : l'ancien directeur de l'agence spatiale américaine, qui était chargé du programme de l'ISS, veut y amarrer son propre module, qu'il louera pour des...

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AngloGold investing $400 million in Guinea

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU), the world's third largest gold producer in terms of output, is ready to invest over $400 million in Guinea over the next several years, a source at the government of the West African nation told Reuters.

"Initially, they will invest $117 million and they will add an additional $294 million" over eight years according to a senior official at the Guinea's ministry of mines.

AngloGold already owns the Siguiri mine, a 300,000 ounces per year producer, in the country. AngloGold holds an 85% interest in Siguiri with the balance of 15% being held by the Government of Guinea.

The operation is a multiple open-pit oxide gold mine in the relatively remote district of Siguiri, around 850km by road, north-northeast of the country’s capital, Conakry. The government official hinted that some of the investment could go towards underground expansion.  According to AngloGold the area surrounding Siguiri has significant potential for gold mining and has long been an area of traditional artisanal mining.

AngloGold owns 17 mines mines in nine countries, and the Johannesburg-based miner produced just under 4 million ounces last year. Like its peers, shares in Anglogold has been on a tear with the counter surging 152% in value this year. AngloGold is worth $8.1 billion on the NYSE, trading at its highest levels since mid-2014.

Guinea is one of the top bauxite (the most common aluminum ore) exporters in the world and the Simandou project in the south of the country could catapult it to the top tier of iron ore producers.

SEE ALSO: Brexit double whammy great for these gold miners

 

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2016 already best year ever for world's largest gold ETF

Once the largest fund of its kind in the world, top physical gold-backed exchange traded fund – SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEARCA: GLD) – is having a rip-roaring first half of 2016.

After suffering through three years of a declining gold price and investors liquidating positions built up during the metal's bull run, this year the fund's assets under management have swelled by $18.4 billion year to date.

GLD dwarfs other physically-backed exchange traded gold products holding 48.8% of the global total as of yesterday at 947.4 tonnes or 30.4m ounces worth $40.2 billion. GLD's holdings have shot up by 305 tonnes this year to the highest since July 2013.

The rise in assets under management in 2016 is a better performance than the banner years of 2009 and 2010 when investors caught in the global financial crisis and spooked by quantitative easing piled into GLD.

Stripping out the appreciation in the gold price, 2016 inflows into GLD is over $10 billion also surpassing 2009's tally. Investors actually pulled money out of GLD in 2011 although assets under management grew as a result of the peaking gold price.

 

Number one for a day (or two)

Gold ETFs were credited for a big portion of gold's uninterrupted 12-year bull run, because ETFs make it so easy to invest in the yellow metal. (And to cash out as gold's 2013 annus horribilis so clearly showed.)

While launched a full 18 months after the first physically backed gold ETF was created in Australia, GLD quickly dominated the market.

On August 22, 2011 when gold was hitting record highs above $1,900 GLD became the largest ETF in the world briefly surpassing the venerable SPDR S&P 500 trust

GLD was listed on 18 November 2004 and enjoyed a pretty good first day. Investors bought just over 8 tonnes or 260,000 ounces of gold affording the fund a net asset value of $115 million.

A mere two days later it would cross the $1 billion mark and by the time Thanksgiving arrived the following week gold bugs had snapped up more than 100 tonnes. The 1,000 tonne market would be crossed in February 2009.

On August 22, 2011 when gold was hitting record highs above $1,900 an ounce GLD became the largest ETF in the world briefly surpassing the venerable SPDR S&P 500 trust (assets today $174 billion) at a net asset value of $77.5 billion.

Gold holdings in the trust would peak more than a year later in December 2012 at 1,353 tonnes or 43.5 million ounces. Global ETFs hit a record 2,632 tonnes or 93 million ounces of gold at the time.

All of that came crashing down in 2013 as the gold price plummeted and investors pulled 552 tonnes from the fund. The extent of the panic was evident by the fact that GLD had only 17 days of inflows during the entire year.

Nevertheless, those who got in on the GLD ground floor are still enjoying returns 135%. If you put your money into the S&P 500 in November 2004 you'd be worth 77% more today.

SEE ALSO: Gold price bulls kept faith as hedge funds wavered

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Despite the hype world’s second-largest diamond ever found fails to sell

A three-billion-year-old diamond the size of a tennis ball found by Canada's Lucara Diamond (TSX:LUC) last year failed to sell at a Sotheby's auction in London on Wednesday as bids fell short of the minimum reserve price.

Shares in the Vancouver-based miner collapsed on the news and were trading more than 16% down in Toronto at 3:50 pm ET.

Image courtesy of Lucara Diamond.

Lucara said it will keep the massive 1,109-carat stone, which was expected to go for at least $70 million, but the highest bid was around $61 million only.

The diamond, known as “Lesedi La Rona” or "our light" (in the Tswana language spoken in Botswana), was unearthed in November at Lucara’s Karowe mine.

Image courtesy of Lucara Diamond.

It is a type IIa diamond, the largest discovered in 100 years, and second in size only to the Cullinan diamond in the British Crown jewels.

Botswana is the world's largest producer of diamonds and the trade has transformed it into a middle-income nation.

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Cautiously optimistic about nickel price

Base metals have enjoyed a solid 2016 so far with only lead (-3%) in negative territory for the year. While the likes of zinc (+28%) and tin (+16%) have rallied and steelmaking raw materials iron ore (+24%) and coking coal (+12%) have come back strongly, nickel remains stuck in the doldrums.

On the LME nickel jumped back above $9,000 on Wednesday, but hasn't been in five-digit territory for nearly a year and is worth half of what it was early in 2014 when Indonesia's ban on ore exports led many to believe the volatile metal is entering a bull market.

The subdued pricing environment has mostly been blamed on elevated inventories and both the LME and particularly in Shanghai although stock levels at the former has recently been falling.

Source: BMI, Bloomberg

In a new report on the prospects for the steelmaking ingredient BMI Research says "the market will gradually begin to tighten as elevated Chinese imports start to erode global stockpiles" but the firm also warns "investor sentiment towards industrial metals will remain cautious as Chinese economic data will continue to disappoint."

BMI expects strengthening fundamentals in the nickel market and a more general bounce in metal prices for the second half of the year which "will start to push nickel prices towards $10,000 per tonne."

Longer term there is further upside although the frothy days of 2007 when nickel peaked at more than $50,000 look forever gone.

BMI is of the view that Indonesia will relax in part its ore ban but with Indonesian nickel pig iron smelters coming online by 2017 there won't be supply-crunch in the refined market.

That would keep a lid on the price which BMI forecasts to average $9,000 per tonne and $10,500 a tonne in 2016 and 2017, edging up to $11,500 a tonne by 2019. BMI's predictions are also above consensus.

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Kinross eyes expansions at its new gold mines in Nevada

Canada’s Kinross (TSX:G) (NYSE:KGC), the world’s fifth largest gold producer, believes it can increase reserves at its Bald Mountain and Round Mountain mines, which it acquired from Barrick Gold (TSX, NYSE:ABX) late last year.

The company, which is looking to strengthen its portfolio in North America, has increased its exploration budget for the year by 50% to $9 million as "promising results” at Bald Mountain have “reaffirmed Kinross' confidence in the site's significant upside potential," it said in a market update ahead of an analyst tour this week.

At Bald Mountain, Kinross believes it can increase current mineral reserve estimate and extend expected mine life by developing two sets of deposits in the near term.

Kinross, which operates two mines in Russia and also owns the problem-plagued Tasiast operation in Mauritania, also see great potential in its other Nevada-based mien — Round Mountain. Here the firm continues with an improvement initiative launched in 2014 aimed at enhancing heap leach performance. This process solution management heap leach program is expected to produce approximately 200,000 to 230,000 gold-equivalent ounces over the life of the mine at a low cost of $200 to $400 per gold-equivalent ounce, which includes production cost of sales and capital expenditures, Kinross said.

The company recently completed a scoping study for a potential expansion at Round Mountain known as “Phase W,” which added approximately 2.4 million gold ounces to the estimated inferred mineral resource.

The Toronto-based miner was already the operator of the Round Mountain mine when it bought the other half from Barrick. As part of that deal, which also saw Kinross acquiring neighbouring Bald Mountain, the two companies formed a joint venture to explore a large land package on the property.

The company noted that the permitting process to allow expansion of exploration and mining activities is entering its final days of completion with no substantive issues remaining. The permit covers the expanded mine plan, numerous under-explored pits (including the Vantage Complex and Yankee, another promising target in the South area), and provides significant flexibility for future growth, such as allowing for extensive heap leach capacity.

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Virus Zika : deux vaccins montrent leur efficacité chez la souris

Une étude préclinique réalisée sur des souris suggère qu’un vaccin contre le virus Zika est faisable. Des essais sur l’Homme devraient avoir lieu avant la fin de l’année 2016.

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Latin America the world’s most dangerous place for environmental activists

More environmentalists were murdered in Latin America in 2015 than anywhere else in the world, with anti-mining causes costing the most lives, a report by Global Witness shows.

According to the UK-based organization, which campaigns against natural resource-related conflict and corruption, the region recorded the highest number of conservationist murders —122 out of a total of 185.

Brazil took the lion’s share with 50 killings, followed by Colombia (26), Peru (12) and Nicaragua (12). Though not located in Latin America, the Philippines ranked second overall in terms of activists’ murders, with 33 victims.

Conflicts over mining were the number one cause of killings in 2015 (42 cases), the report notes, followed closely by agribusiness (20), logging (15) and hydroelectric projects (15).

The unfortunate numbers, said the watchdog, are likely to be much higher given the suppression of monitoring efforts by civil society groups and the media in some of the countries investigated.

For the study, the organization defined land and environmental defenders as "people who take peaceful action to protect environmental or land rights."

Numbers are, unfortunately, likely to be much higher given the suppression of monitoring efforts by civil society groups and the media in some of the countries investigated.

Around 40% of killings (67) were of indigenous people who live in remote locations rich in natural resources but where law enforcement is weak, with the consequence that illegal mining and logging are rife.

Impunity prevails for the perpetrators of violence while activists are increasingly criminalized or branded as “anti-development” by influential elites, the report said.

The document calls on national governments, companies and investors and international organizations to take immediate steps to better protect environmental activists.

Among the recommendations, they suggest proper law enforcement by local authorities and the ratification of International Labour Organization (ILO) convention 169, which protects indigenous people’s rights to grant prior consent on projects affecting their land.

While in Brazil most deaths were related to land conflicts, in Colombia and Peru murders were mostly linked to mining and extractive industries.

From 2002 to date, around 80% of the 69 killings documented by the watchdog in Peru have been linked to the mining sector.

It is estimated that about $22 billion worth of mining projects have been cancelled or delayed in the South American country in recent years as a result of social conflicts and red tape.

 

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La Terre aurait eu plusieurs pôles nord il y a un milliard d'années

L'activité du champ magnétique de la Terre traduit ce qui se passe dans son noyau. Des simulations sur ordinateurs laissent penser que pendant quelques centaines de millions d'années, au Précambrien, cette activité a conduit notre planète à avoir plus de deux pôles magnétiques. Le phénomène...

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Gold builds on gains, heads for best first-half in more than 40 years

Gold edged higher Wednesday, trading near its highest level in more than two years amid long-term financial uncertainty following Britain's surprise vote to leave the European Union.

The precious metal traded 0.33% higher at $1,322.20 an ounce in midmorning London and it is heading for its best first-half in more than four decades as investors continue to ditch risk assets and turn instead to havens.

Analysts believe there is a strong probability gold will move above $1,340 towards resistance near $1,580.

According to analyst Daryl Guppy, there is a strong probability gold will move above $1,340 towards resistance near $1,580. But he warns this upward trend is hazardous and volatile, as it comes with a change in the structure of the gold market.

“This structural change in the market means gold demand is now also closely linked to brokerage account margin calls as gold exchange traded funds (ETFs) are a derivative trading instrument,” he wrote for CNBC.

Source: Kitco Live Charts.

“Such high exposure to margin calls is a great concern during periods of high market volatility. It means that the gold price may react much more quickly in either direction than the fundamentals might suggest, “ Guppy noted, adding that it also means price targets are reached faster than usual, and that retreats are more abrupt.

Gold, often perceived as a hedge against economic and financial risk, remains well above the lows of around $1,253 seen in the run-up to the referendum, as markets priced-in a vote to remain in the bloc.

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Tour de France 2016 : la chasse au « dopage mécanique » est ouverte

L'organisation du Tour de France 2016 a annoncé des mesures techniques pour détecter les cas de tricherie au moteur électrique sur les vélos. Des tablettes tactiles capables de capter les ondes magnétiques des moteurs ainsi qu'une caméra thermique mise à disposition par le Commissariat à...

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Les mystérieuses montagnes de Vénus révélées par les nuages

En examinant les images de l’atmosphère de Vénus prises dans l’ultraviolet par la sonde Venus Express, des chercheurs ont découvert que les massifs montagneux provoquent des changements de luminosité des nuages en haute altitude. Au-dessus des sommets, l'atmosphère est plus brilante. De quoi...

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Recherche d'emploi : trouvez un job grâce à Futura-Sciences

Futura-Sciences vous propose un moteur de recherche d’emploi en partenariat avec RegionsJob. Riche de plusieurs milliers d’offres actualisées quotidiennement, ce service vous permet de personnaliser votre recherche, de vous inscrire à des Job Alert et de suivre l’actualité de votre secteur !

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Du cartilage imprimé en 3D à partir de cellules de vache

Des chercheurs américains ont imprimé en 3D du cartilage à partir de cellules de vache. La technique développée pourrait, à l’avenir, aider à traiter des articulations abîmées, offrant ainsi une alternative aux traitements existants pour l'arthrose.

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Morgan Stanley: Iron ore will drop to $35 by fall

After a rocky start to the month the Northern China benchmark iron ore price has now built a solid base above the $50 per dry metric tonne level.

The import price of 62% Fe content ore at the port of Tianjin gained for the third day in a row to trade at $53.40 per dry metric tonne according to data supplied by The Steel Index.

The price of iron ore is down sharply since trading within shouting distance of the $70 mark in mid-April but is back in bull territory for 2016 with a 24.5% rise since the beginning of the year and a 44% rebound since hitting near-decade lows in December.

Year to date iron ore is averaging $51.50, which implies Morgan Stanley sees iron ore below its December low of $37 a tonne in the fourth quarter

Analysts at Morgan Stanley became the latest to upgrade their outlook for iron ore, although forecasts for the rest of the year still call for a steep decline in the price from current levels.

A "reasonable trading range" during March to September is $45 to $55 a tonne, analysts including Tom Price was quoted by Bloomberg as saying adding that world number two and three producers Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton are “adjusting” the addition of new supply to "accommodate weaker market conditions."

Further out predictions are much less optimistic as continued oversupply drags down the price. Morgan Stanley forecasts a glut of 33 million tonnes this year and nearly 100 million tonnes by 2018. The investment bank sees an average price of $46 a tonne this year (a 17% increase over its previous estimate) and $42 a tonne next year.

Year to date iron ore is averaging $51.50, which implies Morgan Stanley sees iron ore averaging below its December low of $37 a tonne during the final quarter.

Analysts at Citigroup recently upgraded their forecasts for iron saying Chinese demand may "surprise to the upside", but the investment bank still expects a decline to an average of $49 a tonne this year and $42 next year before falling to $38 in 2018. Previously Citigroup predicted a retreat to below $40 as soon as the end of this year.

Analysts are not alone in predicting a slump. BHP CEO Andrew Mackenzie said last week the 2016 rally simply was not sustainable adding that iron ore would be one of the commodities to take the longest to stabilize and bringing the market back in balance could take another ten years.

 

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World’s largest diamond found in 100 years goes under the hammer

A now famous three-billion-year-old diamond the size of a tennis ball found by Canada's Lucara Diamond (TSX:LUC) last year could fetch more than US$70 million (or about Cdn$90M) when it goes under Sotheby’s hammer this Wednesday in London.

The giant 1,109-carat rock, known as “Lesedi La Rona” or "our light" (in the Tswana language spoken in Botswana), was unearthed in November at Lucara’s Karowe mine.

Image courtesy of Lucara Diamond.

The company’s CEO, William Lamb is urging the potential buyer of the massive rock, which could yield a flawless 400-carat gem or a 550-carat diamond with impurities to leave it untouched.

In its present form, the precious stone has “untold possibilities,” he told The Australian Tuesday.

Image courtesy of Lucara Diamond.

Lesedi La Rona is a type IIa diamond, the largest discovered in 100 years, and second in size only to the Cullinan diamond in the British Crown jewels.

Botswana is the world's largest producer of diamonds and the trade has transformed it into a middle-income nation.

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SpotMini, le robot mi-chien mi-girafe pour vous servir

Boston Dynamics, la filiale de Google spécialisée dans les robots quadrupèdes et bipèdes, vient de dévoiler SpotMini, nettement plus petit et agile. Pensé pour un usage domestique, il est équipé d’un bras articulé muni d’une pince qui lui sert à manipuler les objets.

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These five coal miners shed $95 million on lobbying before going bankrupt

Five US coal miners that recently went bankrupt spent $95 million lobbying with lawmakers and over half a billion dollars on salaries for their top executives in the decade before facing financial collapse, a report released Tuesday shows.

Coal miners “excessive” spending shows the leases helped lobbyists and executives, not the public, claims report.

According to environmental group Western Values Project, the companies — Walter Energy, Patriot Coal, Alpha Natural Resources, Arch Coal and Peabody Energy (the world's largest privately owned coal producer) — incurred in “excessive spending and reckless business investments.”

The group adds that not even tax subsidies and other incentives provided by the US government were able to save them from going down because of their spending decisions.

The document, released ahead of a Tuesday public meeting in Pittsburgh on the future of the federal coal-leasing program, claims such scheme — which leases land for coal production at a discount — has only benefitted lobbyists and executives, not the public.

The group wants the Obama administration to review the program and increase costs to better match the value of coal extracted from private land.

Currently, coal mined from private property is more expensive than the one extracted from public lands. A White House’s analysis released earlier this month shows producers only paid the US government an average of $1.70 per ton (or 4.9% of coal market value) from 2008 to 2012. Thermal coal is presently trading around $40 per tonne.

Coal miners in the US have been hard hit by power plants substituting the fossil fuel with natural gas. The country’s coal production fell to 900 million short tons in 2015, according to data released in March by the US Energy Information Administration, a 10% decline on the previous year.

And for this year, the EIA is predicting that natural gas will overtake coal as the largest energy source in the US.

Between 2000 and 2008, coal was significantly less expensive than natural gas, and coal supplied about 50% of total US generation, but that will fall to less than a third in 2016, the EIA said.

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Des patates martiennes bientôt dans nos assiettes !

Depuis quelques années, l’écologiste néerlandais Wieger Wamelink et ses collègues font pousser des plantes dans un sol martien artificiel. Certaines se sont déjà avérées comestibles. Les chercheurs misent aujourd'hui sur un financement participatif pour vérifier que des pommes de terre...

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Copper is soaring, hits 7-week high

Copper prices soared to a seven-week high on Tuesday morning in London driven by growing expectations of monetary stimulus, a weakening US dollar and slightly more steady global markets.

Britain’s decision to leave the European Union won’t have major long-term implications on the copper market, say analysts, unless it triggers a complete fall apart of the EU.

The London Metal Exchange’s three-month copper contract was up 1.9% in midmorning European trade at $4,798 a tonne, after hitting earlier $4,800 a tonne — its highest level since May 6.

The sharp gain came even though markets continue to be affected by worries and uncertainty following Britain’s decision to leave the European Union.

Given its widespread use in the communication, transportation, manufacturing and construction industries, copper is perceived as a bellwether for the mining and metals sector as a whole.

Rumours of the US Federal Reserve delaying interest hikes until December are weighing on the dollar. When it falls, it makes US currency-denominated commodities cheaper for foreign companies, which in turn boosts demand.

Chart courtesy of LME.

The chance of monetary policy easing in China — responsible for nearly half of global metals demand — is also helping the industrial metal.

Analyst at the Economic Calendar say the result on the Brexit referendum won’t have major long-term implications on the copper market, unless it triggers a complete fall apart of the EU.

If that happens, they write, economic turmoil will likely impact the metal, but — in the near-term — they believe demand from China is a far bigger concern.

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Le cacatoès, cet étonnant perroquet capable de réfléchir

Plutôt que de se jeter sur le premier aliment venu, mieux vaut attendre un peu pour en manger un de meilleure qualité, si c'est possible. Si, en revanche, cette seconde opportunité semble trop difficile, alors prenons ce qui se présente. C'est le raisonnement qu'ont tenu des cacatoès devant des...

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L'Homme percevrait les champs magnétiques, affirme un scientifique

D’après Joe Kirschvink, du Caltech, l'être humain possède un sixième sens qui lui permet de détecter le champ magnétique terrestre. Une telle capacité a déjà été repérée chez des oiseaux et est suspectée chez des mammifères. Chez l'Homme, l'hypothèse a été évoquée mais sans preuve tangible.

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L'intelligence artificielle pose cinq problèmes de sécurité selon Google

Google a publié un article scientifique listant, d’après ses conclusions, les cinq principaux problèmes de sécurité que pose l’intelligence artificielle. Une réflexion censée guider les travaux sur les futurs systèmes d’IA qui seront amenés à contrôler des robots devant interagir avec les humains.

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Brexit double whammy great for these gold miners

Gold has consolidated its post-Brexit gains this week hitting a two-year high on a closing price basis on futures markets in New York.

But the metal is down sharply from its intra-day high of $1,362.60, the highest since July 2014, struck on Friday.

While the pullback is somewhat disappointing, some gold mining companies are benefitting from the Brexit fallout not just from an appreciating gold price.

In a new research note Moody's Investors Services assessed the impact of the vote to leave the EU on the financials of AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields.

Gold and the US dollar usually move in opposite directions, but Brexit drove gold and the greenback

Gold and the US dollar usually move in opposite directions, but Brexit drove a higher gold price and a stronger dollar as investors bought US treasuries, resulting in a 4% depreciation of the Australian dollar (AUD) and a 9% depreciation of the South African rand (ZAR) relative to the greenback.

AngloGold Ashanti derives around 14% of its gold production from Australia and 26% from South Africa while Gold Fields derives 43% from Australia and 10% from South Africa says Moody's:

As a result of Brexit, AngloGold Ashanti could generate an additional $120 million in free cash flow in the second half of 2016, while Gold Fields could add an additional $50 million in free cash flow. We base this on a gold price of $1,300 per ounce and exchange rates of AUD1.35 per US dollar and ZAR15 per US dollar.

At a $1,200 per ounce gold price, and slightly weaker exchange rates of AUD1.40 per US dollar and ZAR16 per US dollar, we forecast second-half 2016 free cash flow generation of around $185 million for AngloGold Ashanti and $135 million for Gold Fields.

On Monday, AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU), the world's third largest gold producer in terms of output, added 4% for a market value of $8 billion on the NYSE. The Johannesburg-based miner, which produces some 4 million ounces a year is up 145% since the start of the year and trading at its highest since August 2014.

Fellow South African miner Gold Fields (NYSE:GFI) is ranked seventh in terms of output and is targeting 2.1 million ounces in 2016. Gold Fields shares are up 67% in value this year affording the company a $4.3 billion market cap in New York.

Source: Moody's Investors Services

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Dominion shares tank as fire shuts Ekati plant

Dominion Diamond Corporation (TSX:DDC, NYSE:DDC) announced on Monday it is still assessing damage after small fire halted processing operations at its ageing Ekati diamond mine in Canada's far north last week.

Dominion said in a statement the fire that broke out on Thursday last week was extinguished the same day and all personnel were safely evacuated from the plant and no injuries have been reported.

The miner said its "initial assessment of the process plant confirms damages were limited to a small area, with no damage to the main structural components," but the technical team is not able to say at this point how long the shutdown would last. Surface and underground mining has not been affected and or will be stockpiled while the plant is repaired.

Dominion has lost nearly a fifth of its value this year as expansion plans at Ekati is delayed and the diamond market struggles through a downturn

Shares in Dominion Diamond were off 6% in afternoon trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange affording the company a $983 million market worth. Toronto-based Dominion has lost nearly a fifth of its value this year as expansion plans at Ekati is delayed and the diamond market struggles through a downturn.

Earlier this month, Dominion Diamond said it was not planning to begin construction of the new Jay pipe until 2018, a year later than previously planned.

The project, which would add about 13 years to the mine’s life, received the Northwest Territories government’s blessing in July, but Dominion said it was still waiting for permits needed to start construction, adding that existing reserves at Ekati were enough to prevent the cessation of mining that Jay was originally intended to prevent.

Ekati, which Dominion bought from BHP Billiton in 2013 is located in Canada's North West Territories, 300 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife, close to Rio Tinto's Diavik mine.

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Hedge funds held record bullish gold price bets before Brexit

On Monday, gold consolidated post-Brexit gains to settle on the futures market in New York at the highest price in two years.

In afternoon trade gold futures on the Comex market for delivery in August, the most active contract, was last exchanging hands for $1,327.80 an ounce up $5.40 from Friday's close. On Friday , the metal hit an intra-day high of $1,362.60 the highest since July 2014. The metal is enjoying one of its best years in decades trading up 25% or more than $260 an ounce so far in 2016.

Gold's allure as a safe have asset has been burnished by the shock referendum result in the UK, a collapse in bond yields, and volatility on equity and currency markets.

Ahead of the Brexit vote large scale gold futures and options speculators or "managed money" investors such as hedge funds continue to position themselves for further gains in the gold price with bullish bets hitting a record high.

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 reversed this year however with investors steadily building long positions – bets on higher prices – pausing only briefly in May when gold's 2016 rally appeared to run out of steam.

Hedge funds piled back in as the Brexit vote neared pushing net longs to all-time record number of contracts, surpassing the August 2011 tally when gold was peaking above $1,900.

According to the CFTC's weekly Commitment of Traders data up to June 21 released on Friday speculators cut shorts and added  to longs for a net bullish position of 25.6 million ounces or just shy of 800 tonnes.

Speculators were also well positioned in silver with a record 375.8 million ounces or 11,686 tonnes in net longs. Silver futures were trading slightly lower on Monday at $17.81 an ounce following a spike to $18.37 on Friday, the highest since January 2015. Year to date silver is outperforming gold with a 27.8% rise.

Image: Paul Lloyd

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Canada oil sands output to grow 1 million barrels daily by 2025

Canada's oil sands production will grow by 1 million barrels daily in the next decade above the current output of about 2.75 million barrels, driven mostly by the expansion of existing facilities rather than new projects, a new reports shows.

According to global consulting firm IHS Energy, the roughly 42% production increase will help Canada remain among the world’s largest oil suppliers.

Low crude prices have forced firms to slam the brakes on production, while projects currently under development will be completed by 2018.

Canada is part of the “G-5+2”— a group of low-cost Middle East oil-producing countries (the Gulf-5) plus the US and Canada. Collectively, IHS analysts say, they will account for most of the world’s oil supply growth in the next decade.

Most of the growth will have to come from so-called "brownfield" expansions where costs have come down as a result of lower construction activity, improved operating efficiencies and cheaper natural gas.

"We expect oil sands producers to focus future investments in the coming years onto their most economic projects – which we expect to be expansions of existing facilities," Kevin Birn, director for IHS Energy, said in a statement.

"Expansions of existing facilities are better understood, quicker to first oil and lower cost to construct," he added.

Since 2014, the cost of building and operating a new oil sands plant has fallen by $10 a barrel, and the least expensive project — expanding an existing thermal oil sands operation — could break even at a US crude price of around $50 a barrel, IHS estimates.

US oil for August delivery recently traded down 2.3% at $46.57a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after topping $50 a barrel earlier this month for the first time in nearly a year.

Monday’s fall would be oil’s fourth-largest daily decline since early May. Brent crude recently traded down 2.1% to $47.39 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. Both are at one-week lows.

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Hubble, prolongé jusqu'en 2021, nous offre un superbe amas d'étoiles

Après 26 années dans l'espace, Hubble fonctionne toujours très bien. Alors, pourquoi le mettre hors service ? Sa mission vient d'être prolongée de cinq ans, jusqu'en 2021, donc. Peut-être pour fêter cette annonce, la Nasa vient de mettre en ligne une superbe image d'un amas stellaire dans le...

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K+S warns Q2 profit dramatically lower than a year earlier, shares collapse

Germany-based fertilizer producer K+S AG (FRA:SDF1) warned Monday its second-quarter profit would be significantly below year-earlier levels due to weak prices, production outages and poor sales.

The company, which last year rejected a takeover approach from Canadian rival Potash Corp (TSX:POT), said preliminary earnings before interest and taxes dropped plunged to about $11 million (10 million euros) from almost $197 million (179 million euros) a year earlier.

Shares collapsed on the news, trading more than 10% lower to 9.19 euros in Frankfurt near the end of the day.

Potash prices are at their weakest in nearly a decade. A surplus of mining capacity, and weak currencies in consuming countries such as Brazil, have extended the industry's slump.

The company, which is expected to begin producing potash at its Legacy project in Saskatchewan, Canada, later this year, said that supply shortages were possible in coming months. This as a consequence of a limited provisionary permit for wastewater disposal from its Werra plant in Germany, which has already resulted in a production shortfall of more than 400,000 tonnes.

K+S will release detailed first-half financial data on Aug. 11.

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Kyrgyz authorities hand Centerra Gold final permit to keep Kumtor mine running

Canada’s Centerra Gold (TSX:CG) can finally breathe easy again as the Kyrgyz Republic approved the 2016 mine plan for the Kumtor operation, the country’s biggest gold mine.

The approval, the Toronto-based firm said, means the mine now has all the necessary permits in place for continuous operations throughout the second half of 2016.

Last week, Kyrgyzstan's authorities handed Centerra other two key permits the company had been waiting for to be able to keep Kumtor running until the end of the year.

Kumtor mine is the Kyrgyz Republic's largest private sector employer and taxpayer and Centerra’s main gold producing mine.

The company and the Kyrgyz Republic have locked horns for months around the ownership structure of their co-owned Kumtor mine, the country’s largest private sector employer and taxpayer and Centerra’s main gold producing mine.

Renewed antagonism from authorities prompted Centerra to seek international arbitration to solve the impasse.

Centerra, which is the largest Western-based gold producer in Central Asia, has been actively diversifying away from Kumtor as the risks associated with the operation have proved a drag on the company’s market valuation.

The firm has been using the cash generated by Kumtor to develop projects in Mongolia, Turkey and Canada, with the goal of becoming a 1 million ounce per year producer over the next few years.

Kumtor has produced around 10 million ounces since inception and remaining reserves are 5.6 million ounces.

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Les mégots de cigarettes recyclés en briques pour une maison écologique

Et si l’on donnait une seconde vie aux mégots de cigarettes ? C’est ce que proposent des chercheurs australiens de la RMIT University. Comment ? En les utilisant pour fabriquer des briques en argile.

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BHP hikes exploration spending, to focus mostly on copper, oil

World’s No. 1 mining company BHP Billiton (ASX, NYSE:BHP) (LON:BLT) will raise its annual exploration spending by 29%, allocating nearly all its $900 million budget to finding new copper and oil deposits, which the miner has singled out as the key resources that will bolster its future growth.

The budget increase comes despite the Melbourne-based mining giant’s decision to cut overall capital expenditure to $5 billion in the year beginning next month, compared to a peak of $25 billion in fiscal 2013.

The increase comes despite BHP’s decision to cut overall spending to $5bn in the year beginning next month, compared to a peak of $25bn in 2013.

“We are investing at a time when most in our sector continue to reduce discretionary spend,” Laura Tyler, BHP’s head of geoscience, said in a statement.

BHP, already the world's second-biggest listed copper miner, will be looking for more of the red metal in Chile, Peru, the US, Canada and South Australia, and eyeing new partnerships to boost its growth pipeline.

“We execute our copper exploration both directly and through investment in joint venture opportunities and we continue to seek partnerships with junior explorers,” Tyler said.

In terms of oil, BHP said it has begun drilling sites off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago with another rig set to begin work in the Gulf of Mexico.

The miner believes its substantial oil business, which includes shale deposits in the US, can continue to deliver returns at a crude price of $60 a barrel. Oil is currently trading at around $50, having rallied from 12-year lows at the start of the year.

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La Chine réussit le lancement du CZ-7 et part à la conquête de l'espace

Ce weekend, la Chine vient de mettre en service un nouveau lanceur, le CZ-7 (Long March 7), et un nouveau pas de tir. Son agence spatiale a par ailleurs confirmé la signature de deux accords de coopération avec le Bureau des affaires spatiales de l'ONU. Des évènements qui marquent les premières...

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Dossier : la passionnante découverte des atomes et des molécules

Qui ne souhaiterait pas percer les secrets des atomes et des molécules ? Grâce à ce dossier sur les bases de la chimie et son évolution dans l'histoire, la lumière est faite sur un domaine parfois perçu comme difficilement compréhensible.

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Twinkle, le premier satellite privé chasseur d'exoplanètes

Après la privatisation des satellites de télécommunications, du transport de fret et en attendant les vols habités à destination de la Station spatiale internationale, voici le projet Twinkle. Porté par l'Union européenne, il invite le secteur privé à s'intéresser à la commercialisation de...

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Bloomberg picked an odd time to run a gold debate

In case you missed it, James Rickards, editor at Strategic Intelligence, and Barry Ritholtz, founder and chief investment officer at Ritholtz Wealth Management, debated on Bloomberg the merits of gold as an investment on Thursday, a day before Brexit.

Gold had a huge gain the next day after the surprise Brexit outcome.

Ritholtz took the anti-gold side.

"Look, the simple case is that there is a new case for gold because the old case for gold–collapsing dollar, hyperinflation, the Fed's going to ruin us all–hasn't worked out this decade. Gold was a great performer in the 2000s. Those conditions don't exist today," says Ritholtz.

Rickards argues that inflation is coming. Protect yourself with gold.

"The Fed wants inflation and it won't rest until it gets it. So what are you waiting for, get the gold now before the inflation kicks in," says Rickards.

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IMAGE GALLERY: Touring Caterpillar's 6,500-acre testing grounds

Freeport McMoran’s Sierrita Mine is adjacent to Tinaja Hills. The ASARCO Mission Mine is located to the north of Sierrita Mine.

The Caterpillar Tinaja Hills Demonstration & Learning Center sits on 6,500 acres nestled in the Sonoran Desert, Green Valley, Arizona. More than 70 pieces of equipment are on site.

This large, modern complex is built for learning and training. It is staffed with instructors, product demonstrators and other support staff.

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The Tucson proving grounds has a large shop building equipped for assembly and repair of large mining equipment. 

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At the heart of Tinaja Hills is the modern conference center, which features a 150-seat auditorium and a dining room that seats an equal number. A fully enclosed service shop contains two service bays for service and maintenance training. The conference center and shop offer 50,000 square feet of enclosed area.

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The Training Center is staffed by 16 full-time employees, which include 10 product demonstrators/instructors, who also conduct operator training at customer sites around the world.

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Approximately 100 people are assigned to Tinaja Hills testing ground, and many engineers from design groups spend time at the facility during testing of their machines.

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The testing grounds hosts dealer events and other special occassionans. Attendees at the 2014 Global Mining Forum take pictures of the big equipment on display.

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Tinaja Hills is adjacent to the Freeport McMoran Sierrita Mine, which is a large surface mine recovering copper and molybdenum. Caterpillar leases previously mined property from the mining company for mining equipment testing.

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The Tinaja Hills Demonstration is used for performance and durability testing of large mining equipment and proof-of-concept testing of prototypes.

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The variety of geological conditions and high ambient temperatures in summer enable testing in tough conditions.

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The Demonstration and Learning Center has several different demonstration areas—ranging from the main demo area that has permanent, covered seating for hundreds to industry-focused areas such as paving, building construction and quarry.

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The testing areas are often reconfigured for specific tests.

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The testing grounds comprise of 6,500 for all of Tinaja Hills, both the training center and proving grounds.

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The location near mining operations provides true mining conditions, and the location near a city with good air transportation and accommodations is especially important for the many visitors to Tinaja Hills.

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Many miles of haulage roads and a variety of digging areas allow thorough testing.

With writing provided by Mark Sprouls, editorial consultant for Caterpillar.

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Child labour group takes aim at electronic manufacturers that use gold

Sony, Ericsson and Foxconn receive a poor rating on their efforts on combating child labour and gold mining, according to Stop Child Labour.

The activist group ranked ten electronic companies on how well it is performing in eradicating child labour from gold mining.

According to the World Gold Council, the electronics industry consumed 63.9 tonnes of gold in the first quarter of 2016, about 5% of total demand.

Companies were ranked on seven criteria such as "Can the company trace back the origin of gold in its products?" and "Has the company a policy on the eradication of child labour?" The group estimates that more than 1 million children work in gold mines around the world.

"Only two companies, the Dutch Fairphone and the multinational Microsoft show that they are actively involved in gold mining initiatives in which the eradication of child labour is included," writes in Stop Child Labour.

"Not even one of the electronics companies knows exactly where the gold comes from and whether child labour occurs in these mines."

Ranking from Stop Child Labour report.

Creative commons image of phone by Wowbagger, the Infinitely Prolonged

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Les gènes zombie se réveillent après la mort

Des chercheurs ont identifié chez le poisson et la souris des centaines de gènes actifs après la mort, même au bout de plusieurs jours. Des travaux qui montrent que la machinerie cellulaire ne s’arrête pas brutalement après le décès, et même que certains gènes sont activés.

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London-based gold seller says 'phones are ringing off the hook'

Gold broker GoldCore says sales are at an all-time high since UK voters decided to leave the EU.

"There has been record online sales on the GoldCore website for this time of day and the phones are ringing off the hook," says GoldCore founder Mark O'Byrne in a news release.

On the day Brexit results were announced spot gold popped $70 per ounce peaking at $1,330.

On the same day "buy gold" Google searches soared 400% in the United Kingdom, according to Google Trends.

Searches for "buy gold" were up 400% on June 24, the day the Brexit results were announced. Chart is from Google Trends.

O'Byrne says there has also been sizable selling but "sellers are vastly outnumbered by buyers."

"We have had more sales than during the Lehman crisis and at the height of the Eurozone debt crisis. It is nearly all buying with a preference for gold over silver. We may have to restrict trading to existing clients if we continue to see this level of demand."

O'Byrne predicts increased coin and bar buying in the coming months.

Leading gold-seller Kitco is running Brexit banners to market gold and silver sales.

Screenshot of Brexit banners on Kitco.

Image of a poll card by Abi Begum

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De nouveaux objets dans l'épave du mécanisme d'Anticythère

Depuis plus d’un siècle, l’épave d’une galère romaine engloutie au large de l’île d’Anticythère ne cesse de surprendre les archéologues. Elle a fait l’objet de plusieurs fouilles, à commencer par l’équipe Cousteau. Elles continuent de nos jours et se médiatisent sur la toile. Livreront-elles une...

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Science décalée : les chats comprennent des lois physiques de base

D'après des chercheurs japonais, les chats auraient des notions sur la gravité et peuvent prévoir la présence d'un objet invisible grâce à des informations auditives. Ils comprendraient donc des lois de base de la physique.

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Cette voiture électrique passe de 0 à 100 km/h en 1,513 seconde

Grimsel, une monoplace à moteur électrique mise au point par des étudiants de l'ETH Zurich et la Haute école de Lucerne (Suisse), vient d'établir un nouveau record mondial pour une accélération de 0 à 100 km/h en très exactement 1,513 seconde. Le sport automobile pourrait être le principal...

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Prêts à circuler dans une voiture programmée pour nous tuer ?

Que doit faire une voiture autonome en situation de risque de collision avec un groupe de piétons ? Protéger le conducteur et sacrifier les piétons ou, au contraire, les sauver en sacrifiant l’automobiliste. Dans un sondage sur ce choix cornélien mené aux États-Unis, une majorité estime qu’il...

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La physique du LHC simulée sur ordinateur quantique

En mariant les idées de deux célèbres prix Nobel de physique, Richard Feynman et Kenneth Wilson, un groupe de physiciens explore la simulation des phénomènes de la physique des particules à l'aide d'un calculateur quantique. Première victoire : la création virtuelle de paires de particule et...

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Surprise : une exoplanète survit étrangement à son étoile en pleine crise

Des astronomes ont détecté une exoplanète qui, en théorie, ne devrait plus exister. En effet, les forces de marée imposées par son étoile, très proche et en train de grossir, auraient dû la broyer. Comment ce monde peut-il encore survivre à cet enfer ?

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Un symptôme ? Google vous répond

Aux États-Unis, le moteur de recherche Google propose désormais aux internautes effectuant, depuis leur mobile, des requêtes sur des symptômes, des renseignements médicaux complétés dans certains cas par des informations sur les possibilités d’automédication.

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Gravity, braqué sur le trou noir galactique, prêt à vérifier la relativité générale

Avec son trou noir supermassif de quatre millions de masses solaires, le centre de la Galaxie est, pour les astrophysiciens, le laboratoire idéal pour tester la théorie de la relativité générale d’Einstein. Le nouvel instrument Gravity du VLT, conçu pour l'ausculter, n'a pas déçu : il vient...

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Copper stocks deep into red as gold miners surge

It was a tale of two markets on Friday as the shares of diversified mining majors were dumped and gold stocks surged after the UK's vote to leave the European union wreaked havoc on financial and commodity markets.

In massive volumes in  afternoon trade on Friday gold futures in New York for delivery in August, the most active contract, was priced at $1,321 an ounce after earlier in the day peaking at $1,362 an ounce up just under $100 from Thursday's settlement and levels last seen March 2014. 2016 is turning into one of gold's best years with the metal up 25% or nearly $270 an ounce since the start of the year. 

It was a different story for copper with the metal falling as much 4.5% in early trade

It was a different story for copper with July contracts on the Comex falling as much 4.5% to $2.0660 a pound or some $4,554 a tonne. Like gold the copper also overshot early on as panic over the fallout of Brexit on the world economy and global trade spooked investors, and by early afternoon had retraced some of the declines to exchange hands for $2.1170. That brought copper back to breakeven on a year to date basis.

Iron ore also held up better than expected with the benchmark Chinese import assessment declining slightly to $51.40 a tonne. Iron ore is down sharply from 16-month highs struck mid-April, but is in bull territory for the year with a rise of 20%. Crude oil lost 5% a barrel to $47.54 on Friday, but is still up an astonishing 81% from its February 11 low of $26.20.

Red metal rout

Incoming CEO Jean-Sébastien Jacques is said to be planning a $9 billion spin-out the company's non-core businesses including Iron Ore Co of Canada

The diverging fortunes spilled over onto stock markets with shares in the world's most valuable miner BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) losing 7.1% in New York.  The $71 billion Melbourne-based company hit near decade lows at the end of last year following a deadly dam burst at an iron ore mine in Brazil it jointly owns with Vale, but despite today's retreat is in the black for 2016 thanks to its exposure to rising oil and robust iron ore prices.

Shares in Vale (NYSE:VALE.P), the world's top iron ore producer, fell 9.3% in New York. The Rio de Janeiro-based company which also holds the top spot for nickel production is up 43% in 2016 for a market value of $23.3 billion. Vale dropped to a more than a decade low in January following the Samarco disaster which is still the subject of a $44 billion civil lawsuit, turmoil in its home country and a weak iron ore price.

The world's second largest miner based on revenue Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) declined 7.9% in New York affording it a market cap of $51.8 billion. The Melbourne-HQed company’s is in the midst of a overhaul of top management amid speculation that incoming CEO Jean-Sébastien Jacques, is planning to spin out the company's non-core businesses — coal, uranium salt, borates and its Iron Ore Co. of Canada — as a $9 billion separate company in the fashion of BHP's South32.

Freeport's been struggling to get its $20 debt load under control following the ill-timed acquisition of oil and gas assets

Top listed copper producer Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) plunged just under 10% with a 40 million shares having changed hands as the counter gets hit by metal and oil weakness. The Phoenix-based company is now worth $13.6 billion on the NYSE,  down sharply from its end-April peak but still trading 56% for the better in 2016. Last month Freeport announced the sale of its massive Tenke Fungurume mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo for $2.7 billion.

Glencore (LON:GLEN) was the biggest loser on the day, with ADRs trading in New York coming in particular punishment falling 15.6%, following a 8.5% loss in London trading. The Swiss  giant  is the third largest copper miner and top trader of the metal. Glencore is up 54% in 2016 after falling to a record low last year.  Like most of its peers Glencore has been struggling to get its debt load under control by shedding assets.

Anglo American (LON:AAL, OTCMKTS:AAUKF) gave up 9.6% in New York, but continues to hold onto 100% gains in 2016. Anglo, the world's fifth largest publicly held mining company in terms of output,  is in the middle of arguably the most far-reaching restructuring and downsizing program the mining sector has seen in many years which could the London-listed company with fewer than 20 mines from more than fifty before.

After falling to its its lowest since 1989 in September, today's advance brings the world's top producer of the metal's gains for the year to a 178%

Rush for gold stocks

The gold sector enjoyed one of its best trading days (of which there has been many) this year with Toronto's Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX) which earlier this year was the best performing stock across all sectors on the Toronto Stock Exchange, reaching a three-year high with a 6% jump on Friday.

After falling to its its lowest since 1989 in September last year, today's advance brings the world's top producer of the metal's gains since the start of the year to an astonishing 178%. At a market value of $23.6 billion in New York, the Toronto-based company is the most valuable gold mining company in the world.

World number two in terms of production Newmont Mining Corp (NYSE:NEM) pared some of its earlier gains for a 5.1% advance in afternoon trade following a more than 9% jump out of the gates on Friday. Denver-based Newmont, the only gold company that forms part of the S&P500 index, is also having a monster 2016, doubling since the beginning of the year.

Denver-based Newmont, the only gold company in the S&P500 index, is having a monster 2016, doubling since the beginning of the year

While others are disposing of mines, Newmont is building its portfolio and last year acquired the Cripple Creek & Victor gold mine in Colorado. Newmont also has five key projects that are in execution stage including the Turf Vent project in Nevada and Merian mine in South America expected to start production late in 2016.

American Depository Receipts of AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU), the world's third largest gold producer in terms of output, added 6.9% for a market value of $7 billion on the NYSE. AngloGold Ashanti is up 137% since the start of the year and trading at its highest since August 2014.

Goldcorp (TSE:G, NYSE:GG) climbed 5.6%  for market capitalization of $14.9 billion in New York. The year-to-date increase for the Vancouver-based firm which recently saw a top management overhaul is more modest than its peers at 59%. Goldcorp recently lowered its production forecast for to 2.8 – 3.1 million ounces from 2016 to 2018 from about 3.5 million ounces in 2015 driven by production declines at older mines.

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Euro 2016 : l'étonnante aventure scientifique du ballon de football

L'antique vessie de porc a depuis longtemps été remplacée par du cuir puis par des polymères mais la question de la forme du ballon de football demeure toujours d'actualité. Pour faire au mieux, il faut que la balle s'apparente à une sphère, ce que l'on peut faire astucieusement,...

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De nouveau, une jeune planète géante trop près de son soleil

La jeune exoplanète géante K2-33b, découverte dans le cadre de la mission K2 de Kepler, est vraiment très jeune et très près de son étoile. Elle permet aux chercheurs de mieux comprendre comment des géantes gazeuses chaudes peuvent arriver là. Que se serait-il passé chez nous si Jupiter ou...

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Brexit: Gold, metals, markets react as Britain chooses to leave the EU

British citizen have dealt the world’s political, financial and business scenes quite a blow by voting to leave the European Union, a historic decision set to bring uncertainty as it reverses all past efforts of integration on which the old continent’s stability has rested upon in recent years.

While the world is just digesting the news and experts try predicting what will happen next, investors have already taken action.

Oil, copper and other metals were struggling this morning as most financial markets have been covered in red in the last few hours.

Gold prices soared the most in eight years as the metal holds a value as safe haven.

Spot gold was trading 5.1% higher at $1,319 an ounce Friday morning in London, after rallying as much as 8.2% to $1,358.20, the most it has gained since March 2014. The last time the precious metal had experienced such a strong rally was in in September 2008, when it gained nearly 11%.

Oil, copper and other metals were struggling this morning as most financial markets have been covered in red in the last few hours, in a situation only comparable to the financial shock brought by the 2008 crisis.

Dow Jones industrial average futures were predicting that the gauge could open down nearly 650 points when stocks start trading in a few minutes.

If stocks were to drop as much as predicted on Friday it would be the sixth worst daily point dive in Dow history, Fortune reports.

More to come…

 

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Une alimentation riche en fibres réduit-elle les allergies ?

Chez la souris, l'augmentation de la quantité de fibres alimentaires et de vitamine A dans son alimentation réduit l'allergie à la cacahuète. Cette expérience suggère que manger peu de fibres favorise les allergies.

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Russia-Belarus potash pact may stage a comeback

The Republic of Belarus has revived hopes of reinstating a business alliance with Russian producer Uralkali, aimed to limit supply and so boost sales of potash, one of the few commodities that remains depressed on increased competition and a supply glut triggered by lower demand from top consumers China and India.

While signing a new potash supply contract with New Delhi Thursday, President Alexander Lukashenko said he was considering cooperation with Uralkali, which broke off an alliance with state-owned fertilizer group Belaruskali in 2013, causing global prices to collapse.

Weak prices for the crop nutrient have made recreating the Belaruskali-Uralkali (BPC) marketing operation more pressing.

"New Uralkali shareholders are coming to me every month saying: 'Accept us,'" Lukashenko told Reuters. "We are not against it. Let's unite, on our conditions (…) Let's resume work and agree how much we will produce."

Weak prices for the crop nutrient have made recreating the Belaruskali-Uralkali (BPC) marketing operation more pressing.

Without the cartel formed by the world's two biggest potash producers, not only supply, but also competition has soared.

German K+S AG (FRA:SDF) is expected to begin producing potash at its Legacy project in Saskatchewan, Canada, later this year.

Another large project, the Garlyk mining and processing factory in Turkmenistan, is set to kick off operations in early 2017.

Sirius Minerals (LON:SXX) has already lined up contractors to start building its vast potash mine beneath a U.K. national park. York mine is set to start producing in 2018, initially generating 10 million tonnes per year of polyhalite – a form of potash that is used in plant fertilizers –, before it enters a second phase that will double that production to 20 million tonnes a year.

Potash prices are hovering around $260 a tonne, down from more than $800 a tonne in 2008.

 

Russia’s EuroChem is developing two potash mines — Usolskiy and VolgaKaliy, with an expected 2.3 million tons of annual production each in the first phase of development.

With potash prices hovering around $260 a tonne, down from more than $800 a tonne in 2008, there are major projects waiting for a market recovery before moving ahead.

Other smaller actors are moving ahead with new exploration projects. London-listed Harvest Minerals Limited (LON:HMI), for instance, announced Tuesday it had began tangible exploration work at its two projects in Brazil, country that currently imports 90% of its potash needs.

With potash prices hovering around $260 a tonne, down from more than $800 a tonne in 2008, there are other major projects waiting for a market recovery before moving ahead.

The most famous is BHP Billiton's (ASX,NYSE:BHP) Jansen mine, once touted the miner’s “next big project,” which recently saw its development budget reduced once again due to low potash prices and uncertain outlook.

There is also Mosaic’s (NYSE:MOS) Esterhazy mine, which will produce about 6.3 million tonnes per year once its latest expansion is complete.

Despite a slower first half of the year, potash demand is forecast to improve for the last six months of 2016. Adverse weather conditions affecting planting in Asia, however, will make overall consumption to fall again this year, compared to 2015.

As a result, analysts predict that potash prices will stay in the $200 to $300 range for the next several years.

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Mieux détecter les ondes gravitationnelles grâce aux horloges atomiques

Deux horloges atomiques, installées dans l'espace, pourraient compléter efficacement les deux instruments terrestres, Ligo et Virgo, et le futur interféromètre spatial eLisa. Cette astuce, qui ne s'appuie pas sur l'effet relativiste d'une onde gravitationnelle sur l'écoulement du temps,...

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Des cellules photovoltaïques ultrafines pour les vêtements connectés

Des chercheurs sud-coréens ont créé des cellules photovoltaïques si fines et souples que l'on peut les enrouler autour d'un rayon d’à peine 1,4 millimètre. De quoi faciliter leur intégration dans des vêtements et des terminaux connectés tels que des lunettes ou des bracelets.

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Molybdenum price is on tear

While base metals have enjoyed a good 2016 so far with only lead (-5%) in negative territory for the year and the likes of zinc (+27%) and tin (+18%) entering bull markets, molybdenum is making a star turn.

A metric tonne of molybdenum on the London Metal Exchange fetched $16,500 on Thursday after customs data from China showed imports of concentrate and oxides surged 131% in May. Over the first five months of the year, China imported 8,851 tonnes of molybdenum concentrates and oxide, up 89% year on year.

The price of molybdenum has shot up 43.5% year to date as it recovers from a record low of $10,200 hit in October last year.

Thinly traded and primarily produced as byproduct of copper mining with annual supply of less than 270,000 tonnes a year, the molybdenum price is bound to be volatile, but the last year has been particularly topsy-turvey – the metal is still only worth half of what in July 2015.

The difficult environment has led several molybdenum mine closures in north America which together with China supply more than two-thirds of the world's molybdenum used primarily in steel alloys.

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China's nuclear war on coal

After 13 years of rapid growth, China burns more coal than the rest of the world combined. The country was responsible for more than 80% of global growth in coal usage since the start of the century.

Even these numbers were upped in a recent study by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) that showed energy-content-based coal consumption from 2000 to 2013 was up to 14% higher than previously reported at nearly 4.5 billion tonnes, while coal production was up to 7% higher.

But the growth stopped abruptly and started to reverse in 2014 when energy-content-based coal consumption remained flat and production declined by 2.6%. The downtrend is even more noticeable with Chinese imports which last year tanked by 30% to 204 million tonnes and has continued to shrink in 2016.

China added 138GW of new power generation capacity in 2015 – more than half of this came from increases in nuclear, hydro and renewables

Given the slump in domestic demand, a new report by metals and mining research company CRU examines the likelihood of China becoming a net exporter of coal. The London-based firm concludes it’s unlikely to happen over the next five years – not least because China’s coal miners are not cost competitive on the seaborne market (see graph).

Source: CRU

But it’s the changes in the power generation industry in China and the speed at which the country is moving away from coal detailed in the research, that’s really startling.

China’s ambitions under COP21 is nothing if not ambitious. The country has pledged to source 20% of its energy from low-carbon sources and cut emissions per unit of GDP by 60% of 2005 levels by 2030.

CRU expects China “achieving the vast majority of its targets for thermal substitution”. China added 138GW of new power generation capacity in 2015, an increase of 10% compared to 2014 – more than half of this reflected increases in nuclear, hydro and renewable power according to the report:

“This shift is only going to be accelerated, following the pause to approvals of thermal plants in areas with an excess of capacity. And when we look at this in more detail, we find the impact of that substitution on coal market share in the South East is extreme – it falls from 64% to 49% over the next 4 years.”

According to the UN's annual environment report China invested a total of $103 billion or 36% of the world total on renewable energy last year. The country also has 26 nuclear reactors currently under construction, another 40 in the planning stage and more than 100 being proposed which would require a five-fold increase in the country's uranium requirements.

CRU says while 2015 saw expansion in power consumption from the residential sector of 6%, overall growth was dragged down by a 3% year-on-year decline in in heavy industries.

Chinese power demand is dominated by a few industries such as steel, non-ferrous smelting and chemicals, which account for 2.5 times as much as the entire residential sectors

That decline has implications beyond coal and coal mining because as CRU points out “the unusual aspect of Chinese power demand is the extent to which it is dominated by a few industries such as steel, non-ferrous smelting and chemicals, which account for 2.5 times as much as the entire residential sector”:

“Lower enthusiasm for new investment in housing inventory has considerably reduced demand for steel products and cement and we expect this sector to remain flat at best in the coming years.”

Falling demand is being reflected on the supply which has been contracting sharply this year – lower quality supply from Inner Mongolia has dropped nearly 20% so far this year according to the authors:

“Furthermore, large companies are enacting the Government-mandated cut to a 5-day working week, which has cut annual working days from 330 to 276.

“Longer term, the state council guidelines target a reduction of 500 Mt of coal capacity and consolidation another 500 Mt into the hands of fewer, more efficient operators in the next 3-5 years.”

Click here for CRU’s outlook for the seaborne coal market published last Friday.

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La banquise d'Encelade serait moins épaisse que prévu

Selon un nouveau modèle, la petite lune de Saturne, Encelade, aurait, dans son ensemble, une banquise plus fine qu’escompté, atteignant quelques kilomètres seulement autour de son pôle sud. Une bonne nouvelle pour les futures explorations spatiales de ce monde potentiellement habitable, situé à...

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Centerra Gold to keep Kumtor mine open as Kyrgyzstan hands key permits

Centerra Gold (TSX:CG) scored Thursday a significant victory in its long-dragged dispute with the Kyrgyz Republic over Kumtor mine after authorities handed the Canadian firm two key permits to keep it running throughout the second half of 2016.

The maximum allowable emissions permit (MAE), said the company, is valid until Dec 31 this year and it is the first new such licence issued by the State Agency for Environmental Protection and Forestry to Kumtor since 2014.

The move comes barely a week after the Central Asian country’s President, Almazbek Atambayev, ordered state prosecutors to review the legality of agreements signed with the company in 2003-2004 and 2009.

More to come…

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Primero Mining wants Canadian Gov’t to intervene in tax dispute with Mexico

Canada’s silver producer Primero Mining (TSX:P)(NYSE:PPP) could throw a wrench into the North American Leaders' Summit next week, as the miner wants Ottawa to intervene in its tax dispute with Mexico.

The Toronto-based company, which owns the San Dimas gold-silver mine in Durango, Mexico, launched earlier this month a NAFTA challenge against the Mexican government arguing that local tax authorities were trying to improperly collect more taxes from Primero.

The dispute between Primero Mining and Mexico centres on how it is taxed on the sale of its silver, which the company has called it "neither fair nor equitable."

The dispute centres on how the Mexican government taxes the foreigner miner on the sale of its silver.

In 2012, a Mexican court ruled Primero should be taxed based on what's known as the "realized price" of the metal, which is a slightly over $4 an ounce. This price is much lower than the market value for silver, which is currently trading above $17 per ounce.

The Canadian firm had argued it should be taxed at the lower rate because it is contractually required to sell a large portion of its output to another company, Vancouver-based Silver Wheaton (TSX, NYSE:SLW), at the lower realized price.

But in February, the Mexican tax authority — SAT — decided to retroactively overturn that 2012 deal.

In its latest statement, Primero accused SAT of being "neither fair nor equitable" in its actions towards the company.

The silver miner says Ottawa needs to press Mexican authorities to ensure Canadian investors are treated fairly.

"The company believes that the SAT's actions are discriminatory against Primero as a foreign investor," it said. "As a consequence, Primero believes the government of Mexico has failed to uphold the core values of NAFTA, including its obligation to protect Primero's foreign investment under NAFTA Chapter 11, and therefore the company is entitled to full compensation.”

The office of Primer Minister Justin Trudeau, who will meet the leaders of the US and Mexico in Ottawa on June 29, has indicated it doesn’t plan to get involved.

In an e-mail sent to Ottawa Citizen, Global Affairs Canada spokesman Austin Jean said the government was following the case closely, but it considered it to be a private matter between an investor and the Mexican government.

Primero chief executive Ernest Mast disagrees and says Ottawa needs to press Mexican authorities to ensure Canadian investors are treated fairly — or there could be more such disputes in the future, the paper reported.

Primero inherited the Silver Wheaton obligation when it acquired the San Dimas mine from Goldcorp (TSX:G), (NYSE:GG) in 2010.

San Dimas mine is considered one of Mexico’s most significant precious metal deposits. Situated within in a very large (15 square kilometres) mining district, the area’s historic production has been estimated to total 11 million ounces of gold and 582 million ounces of silver.

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