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An attack with an explosive device on an oil field in the northern Iraqi region of Kirkuk was blamed on Islamic State militants, according to an unnamed source who spoke to Turkey's Anadolu Agency.
No damage was done to the field, Bai Hassan, according to the source.
Earlier this year, suspected Islamic State militants blew up two oil wells at the Bai Hassan field, killing at least one security officer and setting the oil wells ablaze.
The Bai Hassan field that can produce around 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil has more than 120 oil wells. Based on these reports, it is an attractive target for the Islamic State, which despite international efforts, is alive and well in Iraq and Syria.
A recent report by VOA News cited intelligence agencies as saying that the terrorist group remained resilient and ready to spring back out when the U.S. implemented its plans to "recede deep into the background."
"The group has evolved into an entrenched insurgency, exploiting weaknesses in local security to find safe havens and targeting forces engaged in counter-ISIL operations," a report by the UN sanctions monitoring team said.
"Attacks in Baghdad in January and April 2021 underscore the group's resilience despite heavy counter-terrorism pressure from Iraqi authorities," the report also said. Islamic State "is likely to continue attacking civilians and other soft targets in the capital whenever possible to garner media attention and embarrass the Government of Iraq."
Based on what we are currently witnessing happening in Afghanistan, the deeper in the background the U.S. recedes, the more emboldened IS will become, which could mean more attacks on oil fields in the oil-rich Kirkuk region. This would interfere with OPEC's second-largest exporter of crude with plans to boost its production considerably once the OPEC+ agreement expires.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The United Nation’s latest climate report paints the most dire picture yet of the warming planet, putting more pressure on the oil and gas industry to change business models and operations to avert the worst consequences of climate change.
The UN-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of hundreds of climate scientists around the world, last week issued its sixth report, a nearly 4,000-page analysis of climate research that forecasts extreme temperatures and weather a decade earlier than expected. The report found that unless there are immediate and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, it will be impossible to limit global warming to the targets set out by the Paris climate accord of 2015.
“This IPCC report makes clear the clock has run out on business as usual for high-carbon industries, including oil and gas,” said Ben Ratner, the Environmental Defense Fund’s senior director of business. “This report is one more confirmation that fossil fuel dependence is risky and unaffordable for our planet. It’s crystal clear that oil and gas companies need to make big changes.”
Although the UN findings put mounting pressure on oil companies and their investors to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, the lack of concrete solutions, analysts said, will continue to expand the vast divide between U.S. and European companies in their approach to combating climate change.
European oil majors, such as BP, Royal Dutch Shell and TotalEnergies, have moved aggressively over the past year to shift from fossil fuels and expand investments in wind and solar power to meet their net-zero carbon emissions. They remain invested in highly profitable oil projects while divesting other oil assets to pay for their energy transition.
American oil majors, like Exxon Mobil and Chevron, have been slower to shift away from fossil fuels, betting that the world’s growing population will continue to rely on gasoline, jet fuel and natural gas to power their economies. Instead of focusing on renewables, these companies are looking to engineer their way out of the climate conundrum, investing heavily in carbon capture and storage technology to remove greenhouse gases from oil and gas operations and other polluting industries. At the same time, companies also are moving to end routine flaring of excess natural gas from shale wells.
On HoustonChronicle.com: U.S., European oil companies make opposing bets on future
“As populations grow and economies expand, the world will continue to need solutions that ensure access to the affordable, reliable energy modern life depends on and at the same time accelerate emissions reductions and improve environmental performance,” American Petroleum Institute, the nation’s largest oil and gas trade group, said in a statement. “Achieving a lower-carbon future will require new approaches, new policies and continuous innovation, and our industry will continue to lead the way by further reducing emissions, advancing cleaner fuels, investing in ground-breaking technologies, and advocating for the direct regulation of methane and market-based solutions like carbon pricing.”
Environmental groups, however, argue that the UN report is an urgent call to wean the world off of fossil fuels as wildfires rage across the West Coast, record-breaking heat sweeps the nation and hurricanes threaten the Gulf. The UN report comes on the heels of the International Energy Agency report, which warned nations they will need to halt oil and gas development this year to meet 2050 net-zero emissions targets. Both reports are expected to push companies and their investors to speed their shift from fossil fuels.
Activist investors have already shaken up the board of Exxon, long recalcitrant in the face of climate change. Exxon shareholders in May voted to add three directors backed by activist hedge fund Engine No. 1, which with a quarter of the Exxon board seats, has much more influence.
“The world must urgently wind down fossil fuel supply in an orderly and transparent way and halt high-risk high-cost oil and gas exploration now,” said Mark Campanale, executive director of London-based financial think tank Carbon Tracker. “That, or face physical catastrophe, stranded assets costs in the hundreds of billions to our infrastructure and a shock to the world economy a thousand times greater than the COVID pandemic.”
Ed Longanecker, president of the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners trade association, said the IPCC report is a call for increased investment in carbon capture technology to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas operations, not to scrap one of the world’s most vital energy sources. He pointed to Exxon’s $3 billion investment into carbon capture projects and the Texas Methane Flaring Coalition’s goal to reduce methane emissions to 1 percent or less by 2025. Several companies, such as EOG Resources, Apache and Kinder Morgan have met its methane goals, and others are investing in real-time emissions monitoring systems to catch leaks, he said.
“We need to realize the U.S. is a global leader in clean air and water, and also the largest oil and gas producer,” Longanecker said. “They’re not mutually exclusive. We should not let some reports out there making catastrophic claims and projections drive overly aggressive regulations.”
On HoustonChronicle.com: Big Oil confronted with 'day of reckoning' on climate change after Exxon board shake-up
Erik Milito, president of offshore oil and wind trade group National Ocean Industries Association, sees the IPCC report as a reason to increase offshore oil production, which some say produces less carbon than shale production because it relies on pipelines, not trucks, to transport oil and natural gas. While offshore continues to produce under the threat of a spill, Milito said the industry implemented more safeguards after the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion in 2010.
“This should be a report that we all embrace as an offshore energy sector,” Milito said. “As long as we have demand, we need to make sure we get it from the lowest carbon sources. Let’s get it from offshore.”
Ratner with the EDF said no segment of the industry should get a pass in the transition to net-zero emissions. While environmental groups understand that oil and gas demand won’t drop to zero overnight, Ratner said every industry — including fossil fuel production — must be greatly reducing emissions immediately to avoid the worst outcomes of climate change.
Ultimately, this energy transition and reduction in carbon emissions will have profound implications for Houston, the “energy capital of the world,” and for Texas, the nation’s top oil-producing state. The state is home to many of the world’s largest oil companies, which still employ almost 150,000 workers despite layoffs that claimed about 60,000 jobs in 2020.
But Ratner said the IPCC report should not be met with doom and gloom in Houston. Instead, Houstonians should view the report as a call to action to innovate and expand into cleaner sources of energy.
“The outlook for oil and gas jobs is a challenging one, but there’s a tremendous need and opportunity for leadership and innovation,” Ratner said. “Houston has a problem, but it needs to be at the forefront of solutions.”
paul.takahashi@chron.com
twitter.com/paultakahashi
Mills in a number of China’s provinces have been ordered to reduce output. In Tangshan, which accounts for about 8 per cent of global steel industry production, have been told to reduce their output by more than 12 million tonnes, or about 8 per cent, this year as part of a 21.7 million tonne cut to volumes in the wider Hebei province. With the authorities mandating that China’s total steel production shouldn’t exceed last year’s, that implies that the industry will need to offset the 12 per cent increase in the first half with a similar reduction in the second half, which helps explain why the iron ore price has been tumbling. What was already a quite complicated picture for the iron ore producers and their steel mill customers has been made fuzzier by the emergence of the Delta mutation of the coronavirus and the recent outbreaks in China. There is a secondary factor in the curbs on Hebei’s mills, given their proximity to Beijing. As it did when it held the summer Olympics in 2008, China is determined to reduce pollution ahead of the winter Olympics in February next year. The restrictions on production will remain in place until after the Games.
The spike in iron ore and other commodity prices earlier this year and their impact on a surge in factory-gate inflation in China as the global economy bounced back from the worst impacts of COVID-19 alarmed the authorities. They have used a combination of threats and direct action – export taxes, reduced or cancelled rebates of value-added taxes and the release of strategic reserves – to try to dampen speculation in commodities, prevent hoarding and reduce demand. In a slowing economy with vulnerabilities in some of its most commodity-sensitive sectors the spiralling of input costs, particularly iron ore, represented a threat. The most effective of the measures Beijing has deployed, however, appears to be the overall ceiling on steel output. As it did when it held the summer Olympics in 2008, China is determined to reduce pollution ahead of the winter Olympics in February next year. The restrictions on production will remain in place until after the Games. Credit:Getty What was already a quite complicated picture for the iron ore producers and their steel mill customers has been made fuzzier by the emergence of the Delta mutation of the coronavirus and the recent outbreaks in China.
Global supply chains hadn’t recovered from the initial waves of the pandemic even before the Delta strain emerged. Shortages of semiconductors in particular have continued to plague manufacturers, most notably automakers, which are major consumers of steel. The logistics chains for global trade – ports, shipping and containers – were still struggling to cope. Loading Outbreaks of Delta in China this year have impacted factories, disrupting the flows of goods, and ports. China has a zero-tolerance policy towards COVID-19. In response to an outbreak last month in Nanjing the authorities implemented severe lockdowns and travel restrictions and cancelled conferences and other events of national significance.
Earlier this year Shenzhen’s Yantian port was closed for a month after an outbreak of the virus. This month a terminal at the Ningbo-Zhoushan container port – the world’s third-largest cargo port – was shut down after a worker tested positive. It remains closed. That has had flow-on effects to other Chinese ports, generating immense congestion, and has impacted the flow of goods across the Pacific. Ports on the west coast of the US are experiencing backlogs of container ships queuing up to berth. This latest disruption of supply chains is also flowing back to manufacturers already struggling to deal with the previous interruptions, shortages and price impacts of the pandemic, forcing them to reduce their own output, with obvious consequences for their demand for raw materials. Rio Tinto, BHP and Fortescue knew that the massive iron ore windfalls wouldn’t be sustained. Credit:Bloomberg Some of these influences will pass, with time. The effects of China’s slowdown, its ceiling on steel production, its efforts to slow the growth in its carbon emissions and to induce new supply of key commodities to drive down price – most notably iron ore – will, however, linger.
The remainder of this year will be particularly “interesting” if the steel mills continue to try to offset their record first-half volumes with matching reductions in the second half to meet the directive of no annual growth in production. Given that the Pilbara producers – Rio Tinto, BHP and Fortescue – are very low-cost producers the surge in iron ore prices earlier this year provided massive windfalls, but the companies knew they wouldn’t be sustained. Longer term, as Vale steps up production in Brazil and China fast-tracks the development of the big Simandou ore body in Africa there will be other structural pressures on the price but their positions on the cost and quality curves means that even at very low prices they will still be exceptionally profitable. Loading Putting aside the shorter-term volatility that the pandemic, the scramble to meet production limits and the pre-Olympics efforts to clean up its environment will induce, China is trying to restructure its economy and reshape it to deleverage and to reduce the rate of growth in its carbon emissions over the next decade and beyond. The big iron producers will in turn need to reshape their portfolios to reflect those structural changes concurring within their biggest customer.
This is the second installment of a series on global currencies. The first part details the forces eroding the U.S. dollar’s reserve status.
Half a century ago today, on August 15, 1971, U.S. President Richard Nixon took a momentous step.
After World War II, the U.S. had used its leverage as the last advanced economy standing to make the dollar the foundation of a global system of exchange rates. The postwar dollar was backed by huge gold reserves built up in part through American sales of munitions to Europe during the war. The system, known as Bretton Woods for the New Hampshire site of its enactment, played a key role in the reconstruction of devastated economies in Europe and Japan.
Related: 50 Years After Bretton Woods, the US Dollar’s Throne Is in Play
But by 1971, those recovering economies had become a threat to the gold-backed dollar. Rising exports from Europe and Japan eroded the U.S. share of global trade, reducing demand for American currency. Combined with excess U.S. spending, this convinced financial markets that the dollar was overvalued against its $35 per ounce gold peg. Starting in the 1960s, dollars were redeemed for gold at a faster and faster clip, a “gold run” motivated by the belief that the dollar’s peg might break, leaving dollar holders short.
Finally, 50 years ago, Richard Nixon suspended dollar redemptions for gold. Though the process took a few more years to play out, this effectively ended the gold standard and the fixed Bretton Woods exchange system that relied on it.
The significance of this moment is arguably exaggerated in the sweep of financial history – the “gold standard” that Nixon ended had lasted less than three decades, under extremely unusual circumstances. In its place eventually came the relatively free-floating exchange rates we know today, in which the relative value of currencies changes based broadly on the economic clout and political stability of the issuing nation.
Story continues
As it happened, despite the rise of Europe and Japan, this new currency regime still favored the (now unbacked) U.S. dollar. For the half-century since, it has remained the dominant currency for global trade, and the overwhelming choice of foreign central banks looking for a stable store of value. As we discussed in the first installment of this series, this has given the U.S. a variety of economic and political advantages, often referred to as the dollar’s “exorbitant privilege.”
Related: Honor Releases First Snapdragon Smartphone With Digital Yuan Wallet
But now, the status quo of dollar dominance is eroding. Post-pandemic inflation has reignited worries about the dollar’s declining reserve status, but it’s a much longer-term trend: In May, the dollar’s share of central bank reserves fell to a 25-year low of 59%.
The dollar’s lost share has been taken up in large part by growth in reserves held as euros, Japanese yen, and Chinese yuan. There’s also another competitor, though it’s still just a glimmer on the horizon: Crypto advocates have long argued that bitcoin or another digital asset could serve as a global reserve currency, and recently much more mainstream figures, including the former head of the Bank of England, have supported the idea of a supranational digital reserve instrument.
Reserve status is not a winner-take-all competition. The circumstances that led to nearly a century of dollar dominance were an anomaly, and experts generally don’t expect any single currency or instrument to become similarly dominant in the 21st century.
But which of the candidates have the best chance of stealing significant reserve market share from the dollar – along with a share of the power and privilege that come with it?
The Euro
The euro has many huge advantages as a potential global reserve currency. Despite a legacy of economic mismanagement by a few member states like Greece and Spain, the Eurozone is by and large made up of healthy, well-regulated economies, with a total GDP slightly higher than China’s. And while the European Central Bank is certainly not without its flaws, it is generally governed in a steady and fairly predictable manner. It has also weathered one truly terrifying crisis in 2010, managing to pull together a bailout package and ward off the euro’s dissolution, considered a real possibility at the time.
So it’s no surprise the euro is already the world’s second-biggest reserve currency, with roughly €2.5 trillion ($2.94 trillion) in central banks globally.
But there are barriers to further growth in euro reserves.The biggest of these is not economic, but political. Power over interest rates and other aspects of euro monetary policy is in the hands of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank, which is made up of a six-member Executive Board and the governors of all 19 Eurozone central banks. That means major conflicts between member states on monetary policy could lead to governance gridlock or breakdown, which creates risk relative to the more unitary U.S. Fed.
Another problem for the euro’s reserve currency potential, according to Stanford economist Darrell Duffie, is that the European Central Bank for many years did not issue Europe-wide bonds. The central banks of member states issue euro-denominated bonds, but they don’t mirror the strengths and weaknesses of the Eurozone as a whole. Each country’s bonds have their own independent yields, for instance. That adds to the complexity and risk of using them as reserves. Bonds, rather than currency, make up the bulk of international central bank reserves, so the lack of true “euro bonds” has constrained the euro’s reserve role.
This situation changed during the pandemic, however. The European Union announced last October that it would begin the first large-scale issuance of Europe-wide debt to fund pandemic relief. The bonds have been generally well-received by markets, and the European Commission plans to borrow 900 billion euros ($1.06 trillion) over the next five years. Though the bonds will go to a variety of buyers, that’s enough to significantly displace dollar-denominated bonds in central banks, which currently total close to $7 trillion.
More importantly, the issuance sets a precedent. “Whether there will be a lot more of them or not is hard to foresee,” says Duffie. “But because this kind of breaks the ice, it may mean there’s more in the future.” That wouldn’t simply add assets to the market for reserves – Duffie argues that shared debt issuance would increase European political cohesion, reinforcing the utility of the bonds as stores of value.
(A note: Despite its past glories, the British pound is not generally part of the discussion of reserve shifts, in part because of the U.K.’s relatively small economy – one fifth the size of China’s and half the size of Japan’s.)
The Yen
The situation of the yen is maybe the most counterintuitive when it comes to reserve status, and it casts crucial light on the challenges facing China’s yuan. Broadly, despite its economic strength, Japan’s financial system still has certain isolationist tendencies rooted in its export-driven postwar rebuilding strategy. Above all, most Japanese debt is held domestically, limiting the available supply of yen-denominated reserves.
“It’s never been Japan’s ambition” to have a global reserve currency, says Alicia Garcia-Herrero, Chief Economist for Asia-Pacific at investment bank Natixis. “If you have a current accounts surplus, like Germany and Japan, you don’t need an international reserve currency, because you don’t have anything to finance. You buy assets.”
In other words, if a nation is a net exporter, it may simply not have enough international debts for its bonds to serve as global reserves. Japan’s high domestic savings rate, which has averaged a stunning 30% over the last 40 years, also means there’s huge demand for government bonds at home.
It’s a strange insight when turned back on the dollar: one reason USD is a dominant reserve currency is because Americans can’t seem to live within their means.
The Yuan
The yuan is something of a boogeyman of the dollar these days – a threat looming just offstage, more rumor than light.
China has been trying to make its currency appealing as a global reserve and trading instrument for at least a decade, and as the world’s second-largest economy, it’s got the muscle. The push for reserve status has included creating offshore bond markets in Hong Kong, a troubled attempt to balance global yuan flows with the CCP’s desire for domestic capital controls. More recently, some observers argue China’s “digital yuan” project is an attempt to gain a technological edge that would increase the yuan’s share of trade transactions and, in turn, its viability as a reserve.
But these efforts face an array of challenges so great that most experts don’t foresee the yuan succeeding as a reserve currency any time soon.
One major obstacle is a global lack of faith in Chinese political stability and rule of law, which was highlighted recently by a sudden, broad crackdown on financial technology by the ruling Chinese Communist Party. Bitcoin miners were caught in that net, but the crackdown also crashed big portions of the Chinese stock market, as well as Chinese stocks listed abroad. That included some companies, such as Luckin Coffee, that were found to be engaging in large-scale accounting fraud.
This led Joseph Sullivan, an economist on Donald Trump’s White House Council of Economic Advisers, to call the CCP an unwitting ally to the dollar’s reserve status. Such interventions and collapses cast doubt on China’s commitment to free markets, its regulatory rigor and, in turn, the fundamental strength of the Chinese economy. The potential consequences are fresh in the memory of the finance industry: a similar stock market crash in June of 2015 was quickly followed by China’s central bank devaluing the yuan to boost export competitiveness.
This all stems from a likely irresolvable conundrum at the heart of China’s reserve-currency ambitions: Tight control over its currency has been a major pillar of its long rise as an economic power, but is incompatible with global reserve status.
This is where Japan is an illustrative comparison. Since the reforms of the late 1970s, China has modeled its development largely on Japan’s postwar rebuilding, above all its emphasis on domestic investment to build an export-based economy. There are very tight controls on the flow of capital out of China because the Communist Party wants domestic capital to be invested within China, whether to build factories for Apple contractors or fund AI development.
But to become a functional reserve currency, the yuan would have to be freely tradeable. Nations need their reserves to be quite liquid, partly so they’re ready for sudden, big shifts in market conditions – like, say, the coronavirus pandemic, which set off a flurry of U.S. bond sales. To get there, China would have to do what’s known as “open its capital accounts,” or allow free flows of capital in and out of its borders.
But “they don’t plan on opening their capital accounts anytime soon,” according to Emily Jin, a research assistant at the Center for a New American Security. “Their nightmare situation is they open an account and they immediately, the next morning, have massive capital outflows.” This could be exacerbated by recent stock market woes, since major outflows would be driven by Chinese investors looking for bigger or more reliable returns overseas.
China’s first attempt to square this circle was to create a two-tier system starting around 2010, involving offshore markets for yuan bonds. “China tried to create a tradeable yuan overseas, and then their own yuan at home,” says Garcia-Herrero. “It didn’t work. And the reason it collapsed in 2015 was a giant stock market correction.”
Now, Garcia-Herrero believes China’s central bank is trying to do something similar by creating the digital yuan, an electronic currency completely and directly controlled by the state bank.
“I have to say they are creative,” she says. “They’ve come up with another way to avoid compulsory convertibility. [With a CBDC], they know all the transactions. So if they thought someone was withdrawing too much, they can just take it back.” Garcia-Herrero doesn’t expect the plan to work, however, because of widespread awareness of this potential abuse, and continued distrust in Chinese leadership.
Some have argued that the digital yuan would also increase the yuan’s international appeal through technological innovation – a digital currency may offer speed or other utilitarian advantages over an old-fashioned dollar. But Emily Jin at CNAS doubts that a merely technical upgrade would have a long-term impact: “It might have lower frictional costs, but that’s not the only reason people park their money in USD.”
This tangle of conflicting forces has badly hampered China’s quest for reserve status. The yuan currently makes up a 2.3% share of global reserves – followed closely by the Canadian dollar, which makes up 2% of reserves. Canada’s economy is just 1/8th as large as China’s, and Canada has made no concerted effort to improve its reserve status.
Bitcoin, etcetera
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ranking-currencies-could-unseat-global-120000610.html
From the Diário do Grande ABC
15/08/2021 | 12:17
OMA Galeria, from São Bernardo, opened the exhibition on the 7th, the first by the artist Isis Gasparini in the space. The exhibition is curated by Pollyana Quintella and displays a selection of more than 21,000 photographs taken by the artist, who investigates the relationship between the public and exhibition spaces, such as museums and art galleries.
The way in which the works are presented is beyond what was expected for an exhibition of photographs, as the artist transformed her collection into large volumes, some bound on all sides, which prevents the images from being viewed individually. Just inside the entrance, there is an apparently solid block. However, the longitudinal section that divides it in two shows clues to its content, made up of more than 500 superimposed photographs.
It only remains to imagine the content of the photographs, which were captured over ten years and include records, studies and completed works. In this exhibition, what matters is not the value of each of the images, but their accumulated volume, which is consolidated into blocks of different thicknesses that form reliefs that occupy the gallery's space. Its stacking materializes the act of photographing, repeated incessantly by the artist over time in different places, such as Germany and France.
The artist also occupies the Antonino Assumpção Chamber of Culture, in the Center of São Bernardo, with the exhibition Under the Risk of Losing the Meeting with Aurora. On the wall, the phrase 'Surviving as poetry' refers to the possibility of living off art, something increasingly difficult, but also reflects on art as a way of surviving setbacks, violence and the pandemic situation of the moment.
Isis Gasparini lives in São Paulo and develops projects that have body, image and light as central materials. The artist thinks of these elements as presences that inhabit exhibitions and cause different responses in the body of the public, investigating the exhibition space as an element that politically interferes in the relations between spectators and works of art. Recently, he participated in group exhibitions in Berlin.
The exhibitions are free to enter and run until October 8th. The use of a mask is mandatory.
Da Redação
Do Diário do Grande ABC
15/08/2021 | 12:17
A OMA Galeria, de São Bernardo, abriu no último dia 7 a exposição, a primeira da artista Isis Gasparini no espaço. A mostra tem curadoria de Pollyana Quintella e exibe seleção de mais de 21 mil fotografias tiradas pela artista, que investiga a relação entre o público e os espaços expositivos, como museus e galerias de arte.
A forma de apresentação das obras foge do esperado para uma exposição de fotografias, já que a artista transformou seu acervo em grandes volumes, alguns encadernados em todos os lados, o que impede que as imagens sejam visualizadas individualmente. Logo na entrada, há um bloco aparentemente sólido. Porém, o corte longitudinal que o divide em dois mostra pistas de seu conteúdo, formado por mais de 500 fotografias sobrepostas.
Só resta imaginar o conteúdo das fotografias, que foram captadas ao longo de dez anos e incluem registros, estudos e obras finalizadas. Nesta mostra, o importante não é o valor de cada uma das imagens, mas seu volume acumulado, que se consolida em blocos de diferentes espessuras que formam relevos que ocupam o espaço da galeria. Seu empilhamento materializa o ato de fotografar, repetido incessantemente pela artista ao longo do tempo em diferentes lugares, como Alemanha e França.
A artista ainda ocupa a Câmara de Cultura Antonino Assumpção, no Centro de São Bernardo, com a exposição Sob o Risco de Perder o Encontro com a Aurora. Na parede, a frase ‘Sobreviver como poesia’ faz referência à possibilidade de se viver de arte, algo cada vez mais difícil, mas também reflete sobre a arte como forma de se sobreviver aos retrocessos, violências e à situação pandêmica do momento.
Isis Gasparini vive em São Paulo e desenvolve projetos que têm como matérias centrais corpo, imagem e luz. A artista pensa esses elementos como presenças que habitam exposições e causam diferentes respostas no corpo do público, investigando o espaço expositivo como elemento que interfere politicamente nas relações entre espectadores e obras de arte. Recentemente, participou de exposições coletivas em Berlim.
As exposições têm entrada gratuita e acontecem até 8 de outubro. O uso de máscara é obrigatório.
(translated by Google)From the Newsroom
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Boris Johnson certainly has a knack for bad jokes and his repertoire is nothing if not varied. Past “hits” include quips about dead bodies on the coast of Libya and tank-topped bum boys. He’s not quite Roy Chubby Brown, but he does seem to have an inexorable compulsion towards being provocative.
Last week, he made arguably his bravest attempt at banter yet and in doing so invoked the spirit of Margaret Thatcher. Our prime minister is a dedicated agitator – but at the expense of enraging newfound northern members of the Tories? Surely not. Unless of course he knows (as I do) that Thatcher isn’t nearly as unpopular in and around the “red wall” as everyone likes to believe.
There are some who loathe Thatcher. In fact, that doesn’t do it justice – they are physically repulsed at the mere mention of her name. Following her death in 2013, “Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead” reached number two in the UK Singles Chart. Many revelled in sheer delight at the news.
To some people, she is the devil incarnate. These cranks probably weren’t even directly affected by Thatcher’s policies but they’re morbidly addicted to the monstrous narrative attached to her. On the other hand, there are some that are justifiably hurt and angered by her legacy. This is seen most predominantly in communities with links to the coal mining industry. Johnson should expect to receive some condemnation and criticism from these people after apparently laughing when stating: “Thanks to Margaret Thatcher, who closed so many coal mines across the country, we had a big early start and we’re now moving rapidly away from coal altogether.”
Of course, politics is an opportunistic game and this was a seemingly wide open goal for Johnson’s opponents to seize on. Finally – they thought – the ghost of Bullingdon past has let his mask slip and is at last revealing his contempt for the red wall. Keir Starmer accused the prime minister of being “out of touch” and called for him to apologise. The ever patient Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, wrote in the Evening Standard that “it will have raised eyebrows in the red wall seats”.
Labour, a party that has recently been pushing the message that we must look to the future, is still preoccupied with strikes that took place in the 1980s. Indeed Keir Starmer, perhaps it is you who is out of touch. Yours was a decent gesture no doubt borne out of empathy and understanding but it concerns a fight that has long since passed. You might say, we’ve slept since then.
This highlights an increasingly visible problem for the Labour Party: they’ve lost touch with the north. And in trying to shake off their cosmopolitan shackles, they’ve sold themselves a false narrative that traditional voters are still perturbed by historical issues. Going back to your roots does not mean literally entering a time machine. It is sad to see that Thatcher still haunts Labour from beyond the grave and their obsession with the north’s supposed universal disliking for her is often misguided.
Perhaps the north has always been more right wing than people like to imagine. One YouGov survey reveals that Thatcher is believed to be Britain’s greatest post-war leader. Indeed, of the 14 prime ministers since 1945, Thatcher tops the list with 21 per cent of the vote. In the north, she comes second only to Winston Churchill. A similar piece of research carried out by IpsosMORI found that 40 per cent of northern respondents think Thatcher did a good job.
Always remember that when Thatcher was asked for her greatest achievement, she replied: “Tony Blair and New Labour”. He still remains the party’s most successful leader. The two are politically dissimilar, but they are unified in their confidence and unwavering vision. Thatcher was irrevocably stubborn, but then again, so is the British public. We will go down with this Brexit ship. The people are not for turning.
And yet the Westminster bubble has always had a tendency to see the North as one homogenous cell bound together by our disapproval of Thatcher. Outside central Manchester, presumably we’re all living on the set of Billy Elliot nursing our miners-strike hangovers. It may come as a surprise to some, but not everyone worked in the pit. The majority of northern boomers and their offspring didn’t visit a picket line: they read about it like everyone else. The fact that political heavyweights are choosing to exploit this remark by Johnson shows that what they think is important to us rarely ever is.
Forgive me for thinking that this concern for our “red wall” feelings is both irrational and unwarranted. Johnson’s comment was not controversial, nor does it deserve faux-outrage.
I PRESUME YOU have read or heard about the IPCC 6th assessment report which was released this week. However, you may have missed it if you are on a digital detox or enjoying the beauty of a staycation.
Let me fill you in on the finer details – our climate crisis is getting worse, we need to act and we need to act fast. The crisis will affect every aspect of our lives and the future lives our children hope to have and everything our civilisation is built upon – a stable, reliable climate – is now a thing of the past.
These facts are undeniably terrifying and are so huge that it is hard for an individual to absorb the enormity of the situation, never mind feeling able to do anything about it. I have been reading and learning about climate change for almost two decades and with knowledge has come fear, anger, grief and a multitude of other emotions.
It is fair to say that I had eco-anxiety way before the term was coined. I see the debates and hear the conversations this week. It’s so tempting to throw your hands in the air and say, ‘what can I do when global governments and corporations have all the power’. I understand this, I have been there. However, what I feel now is something completely different: I feel empowered. I have become empowered because I have started to accept that I am one person who has one responsibility – that is to do my bit towards making things better.
One person can bring change
I have a busy life, three kids and a full-time job so I know how hard it is to find time to think about our climate let alone take action. However, I am happy to report that there are so many easy ways for you, your family, your workmates or your college friends to get involved and to make a difference.
In the grand scheme of things, any changes you make can seem like a drop in the ocean, but cumulatively we have enormous power. There are almost five million of us in Ireland, each of us can start to get involved in making ourselves, our households and our communities more climate ‘friendly’, or carbon neutral, or just better.
We are each of us pieces of a giant planetary jigsaw puzzle and each is connected to the other. We can influence, support and motivate each other to get involved. Covid-19 has taught us that while we were affected as a global population, the focus became very much about local – our homes, our communities. If we switch that up in relation to climate action and focus on our locality, we can make a global difference.
Another way of thinking about climate action is to see it as something that will benefit your family or your community or your sports club. Everyone is motivated in different ways but it is important to make the connection and recognise that you are part of something much bigger.
So what can you do? Start small and think big…
1. Money
We all know that money makes the world go round and your money is hugely powerful. If you are lucky to have savings or a pension you should explore where your money is being invested.
Your bank or pension provider should offer ethical investments, ones that are not linked to carbon-intensive industries but to more sustainable funds. Ethical funds have proven to be more resilient during the global pandemic so they make economic sense too. Don’t be shy, ask your employer, your financial provider, this is how change comes about.
2. Spending
If a courier is your new best friend then maybe it’s time to step away from the phone and have a rethink of how much ‘stuff’ you are buying and why.
We all know that ‘stuff’ doesn’t just arrive in a box but takes an enormous amount of energy to produce. From cotton production to transport costs, our addiction to ‘stuff’ has resulted in runaway consumerism and inevitably a hotter planet. Catch yourself when you’re ordering and ask yourself if you really need this piece of clothing, furniture or tech, etc or maybe you’ve just ordered it because an ad appeared in your social media feed.
If you do need (as opposed to want) ‘stuff’, then consider second-hand or borrow from a friend or neighbour. This particularly works for gardening tools. Check out https://www.thriftify.ie/ and www.weshare.ie/library-of-things.
3. Digital Footprint
Do you have hundreds of cat videos on your laptop? Or are you saving thousands of images onto the ‘cloud’? Over 4.9 billion people globally have access to the internet and are streaming videos, using video calls and uploading cat videos. This transfer of data uses a huge amount of energy and this will continue to increase as our reliance on technology grows.
There are some great ways to reduce your digital footprint and if 4.9 billion people did it then we could make big savings. Check out www.myclimate.org/information/faq/faq-detail/what-is-a-digital-carbon-footprint/ for some easy wins.
4. Plant, plant, plant
If you have a window box, garden, allotment or farm then now is the time to get planting. We have not only a climate crisis but a biodiversity crisis, so getting your hands dirty and planting is a really fantastic way to take action.
Try growing some food in window boxes or planting some pollinator-friendly plants to support our bees. Trees are carbon heroes and will absorb extra carbon from the air, as well as looking beautiful and giving a home to wildlife so if you have space plant a tree or a native hedge.
Children particularly love planting trees and they can watch it grow over their lifetime. Check out: https://pollinators.ie/gardens/
5. Warm your home
If your home’s temperature fluctuates between cosy and freezing then you know you need insulation, new windows or a new heating system. Insulating your home is a very positive step in reducing your energy bills and thus your carbon use. There are grants and support to help you when you are upgrading your insulation or heating system so check out: https://www.seai.ie/grants/home-energy-grants/ and www.superhomes.ie.
6. Do you need a car?
Modern society has somehow developed the idea of a ‘two-car family’ as the norm. I can hear those living in rural Ireland screaming now that yes, you do need your cars. It’s difficult to argue with that when Ireland’s rural transport network is far below par, but if you live in a city or town, ask yourself if you need that car (or cars). Cars are so costly, both financially and environmentally, that it is time to rethink our use of transport.
You could start by working out the cost – how much did it cost to buy, how much is the insurance, tax, how much is petrol/diesel weekly, etc. This will give you a potential savings cost for you or your family.
Bikes are much cheaper for those in urban settings and electric bikes are a great investment if you need to travel longer distances. Cargo bikes for families are now becoming much more common and are great fun – there’s nothing like watching your kids in one.
If you live in a more rural location, you can make changes. Consider investing in an e-car. They are expensive, but they hold their value and maybe you could trade two petrol cars in for one e-car. Again, it’s not an option for everyone because of the costs involved.
The main thing to consider is; Do I need to use my car today? Hopefully, you get into the habit of saying no more than yes. Try to keep it in the driveway as much as you can.
7. A load of rubbish
We have a waste crisis. Yes, we have the infrastructure in place to remove, sort and either compost, incinerate or recycle our waste, but the volume of waste we are producing is increasing, especially electronic waste.
Waste isn’t really waste but a valuable asset, and in time the hope is that we will have a circular economy whereby each product can be redesigned for use over and over. However, now we have a linear model whereby each product bought has a short lifecycle and can either be recycled once or ends up as waste.
Stick to the classic; rethink, reduce, reuse, repurpose and recycle. Get a compost bin, question the amount of packaging you are being given at the supermarket, stop wasting water (yes another resource to consider) and try to buy less plastic. It is a difficult one, but if each of us starts to complain at the check out then eventually big business will have to listen. Check out: www.mywaste.ie.
8. At work
Many of us are working from home, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t get involved in influencing how our workplaces take action on climate.
There is a growing corporate awareness of sustainability and many companies have signed up to Net Zero. This is a global campaign aimed at businesses and governments to set strong carbon reduction targets ahead of COP26. If you work in a corporate setting then you could find out more from the company’s Sustainability Officer or CSR Officer.
However, if you work for yourself, you can set your own targets. There are many organisations helping SME’s to set carbon reduction targets and many new employees are keen to learn more about how businesses are playing their part.
If you are a business owner, set the tone and be a leader – this may lead to many opportunities to network with like-minded people, save money, retain staff and ultimately help build a resilient economy. If you are an employee, start to ask questions, offer support and solutions and reach out to others who have done something similar. Check out: https://unfccc.int/climate-action/race-to-zero-campaign and https://www.bitc.ie.
9. Talk, share, engage
If we are to reach our national target of a 51% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030 then we need to get behind the solutions offered. 2030 is only nine years away – near enough for FIFA to be planning the 2030 World Cup!
This means that we have to start stepping up to support radical decarbonisation, we can’t sit on the fence and wait for the dissenting voices to shout loudest. We need to vocalise our support for ideas or projects we feel will benefit us and the climate for example if there is a cycle lane proposed and you want to start cycling then offer support in writing or phone your elected representative.
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It is also important to listen to each other and talk about your thoughts and concerns about changes that will happen during this time. We have to be open to change but change can be hard and some of us will feel left behind, but if we have strong communities with strong leaders then we will be able to face these challenges. Therefore get to know your neighbours, volunteer if possible, vote and have your elected representative’s number on speed dial. Remember leaders come from all sectors of society – do you fancy being one?
10. Mix up the BBQ
For a few weeks there the Irish BBQ business was in full flow. Burgers were flying off the shelves and sausages were big business. We are big meat eaters in Ireland and we eat on average 10 times the amount of meat in comparison to someone from, say, Malawi. This means that our dietary carbon footprint is large especially when you add dairy into the mix.
However, we have a strong agricultural tradition in Ireland and farmers work hard. So how do we mix up our diet while at the same time supporting our farmers? It is critical that our agricultural system is supported so that it can adapt to our changing climate, whilst at the same time tackling its own carbon footprint.
Each of us has to think of our diet in terms of how it is impacting our national GHG targets. You could ask yourself if you could reduce the amount of meat and dairy you are eating. Should you be buying better quality, local food? How much value do you place on your food and where it comes from? Is ultra-processed food good for you or good for our planet?
Food is the ultimate gift from nature and should be treated with respect. In the face of this climate emergency, we must reassess how we value our food system, how much we are willing to pay for our food and ultimately what type of food we wish to pass on to the next generation. Being a small island means that we can and should be producing food of high quality for our own population, we are a nation that once understood what it was to be hungry and now is the time to value our food system once again.
11. Become a Climate Ambassador
If you want to learn more about our amazing planet, how its climate is changing, what solutions are available and how you can play your part then apply to become a Climate Ambassador. You will meet some great people from all walks of life, become excited about the solutions we have and feel empowered to get involved. Find out more at: www.climateambassador.ie.
Jane Hackett is Senior Programme Manager, Environmental Education Unit, An Taisce.
Amy Niu researches selfie-editing behavior as part of her PhD in psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In 2019, she conducted a study to determine the effect of beauty filters on self-image for American and Chinese women. She took pictures of 325 college-aged women and, without telling them, applied a filter to some photos. She then surveyed the women to measure their emotions and self-esteem when they saw edited or unedited photos. Her results, which have not yet been published, found that Chinese women viewing edited photos felt better about themselves, while American women (87% of whom were white) felt about the same whether their photos were edited or not.
Niu believes that the results show there are huge differences between cultures when it comes to “beauty standards and how susceptible people are to those beauty filters.” She adds, “Technology companies are realizing it, and they are making different versions [of their filters] to tailor to the needs of different groups of people.”
This has some very obvious manifestations. Niu, a Chinese woman living in America, uses both TikTok and Douyin, the Chinese version (both are made by the same company, and share many of the same features, although not the same content.) The two apps both have “beautify” modes, but they are different: Chinese users are given more extreme smoothing and complexion lightening effects.
She says the differences don’t just reflect cultural beauty standards—they perpetuate them. White Americans tend to prefer filters that make their skin tanner, teeth whiter, and eyelashes longer, while Chinese women prefer filters that make their skin lighter.
Niu worries that the vast proliferation of filtered images is making beauty standards more uniform over time, especially for Chinese women. “In China, the beauty standard is more homogeneous,” she says, adding that the filters “erase lots of differences to our faces” and reinforce one particular look.
“It’s really bad”
Amira Adawe has observed the same dynamic in the way young girls of color use filters on social media. Adawe is the founder and executive director of Beautywell, a Minnesota-based nonprofit aimed at combating colorism and skin-lightening practices. The organization runs programs to educate young girls of color about online safety, healthy digital behaviors, and the dangers of physical skin lightening.
(Bloomberg) -- Chinese technology stocks slumped Monday after sustaining another round of criticism from state media over online games.
Tencent Holdings Ltd., which gets about one third of its revenue from games, dropped 3.5% in Hong Kong. NetEase Inc. and Bilibili Inc., which each earned at least 45% of revenue from mobile games last year, slid 3.9% and 7.7% respectively. The Hang Seng Tech Index dropped 2.6% to the lowest in almost three weeks.
China should tighten regulations of online games to ensure they don’t misrepresent history, state media reported after a government-controlled agency criticized the industry earlier this month. Beijing’s clampdown on the Chinese technology sector has pushed the Hang Seng Tech Index down more than 40% from its February peak.
“This industry’s future direction might change from here. Investors are pricing in a bearish scenario,” said Castor Pang, head of research at Core Pacific Yamaichi Intl HK. “If they do not allow games to alter history, this may curb creativity and then ultimately hurt the growth potential.”
The onslaught faced over gaming is also reflected in policy curbs in other parts of the technology industry as the government tightens its grip. Digital finance, monopoly practices and preferential tax arrangements have also faced increased scrutiny.
Earnings Jitters
On top of all this, investors tend to remain cautious before earnings season, said Christopher Ho, an analyst at Kgi Hong Kong Ltd. Both Tencent and Bilibili are due to announce their second-quarter earnings this week. News that large foreign funds were selling Chinese tech names have also hurt the sentiment, said Ho.
“Weaker-than-expected growth data out from China has added woes to the share prices of China big tech stocks on top of the on-going regulatory uncertainties,” said Kelvin Wong, analyst at CMC Markets (Singapore) Pte. Investors are also waiting to see what impact the policy crackdown has on revenue guidance for companies like Tencent and Meituan, he said.
On the flip side, some sovereign entities have been buying the dips in China’s tech shares in recent weeks, according to UBS Asset Management.
(Updates trading prices in the second paragraph and added UBS comment in the last paragraph. An earlier version of this story corrected name of index in third paragraph.)
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-tech-stocks-hit-salvo-090948739.html
By Thomas Biesheuvel and James Thornhill
(Bloomberg) -- BHP Group unveiled the most sweeping change
to its business since the world’s biggest miner was created two
decades ago, as it plans an escape away from fossil fuels to
shift toward what it calls “future facing” commodities and
clears up some longstanding questions facing investors.
BHP will sell its oil and gas operations to Woodside
Petroleum Ltd. in exchange for shares that it will distribute to
its own investors, it announced Tuesday. The company also
approved $5.7 billion of spending to build a massive new
fertilizer mine in Canada and said it will unify its dual-listed
structure and shift to a single primary listing in Australia.
The shares in London jumped as much as 9.8% after the flurry of
announcements.
The decisions -- which come alongside record free-cash flow
for the year through June and a $10.1 billion final dividend --
represent a pivotal moment for Chief Executive Officer Mike
Henry, who took the helm in January last year. Investors have
been waiting years for a decision on Jansen, while the company
has said previously its dual listing was up for discussion after
coming under pressure from activist investor Elliott Management
Corp., which also pushed for an exit from oil and gas.
Since his appointment, Henry has been seeking to focus the
company toward metals and minerals that will benefit from global
efforts to reduce emissions, electrify cities and feed a growing
global population. A Canadian-born executive who joined BHP in
2003 from Mitsubishi Corp., he inherited a business that had
been stripped down and simplified under his predecessor, who
sold out of shale and spun off unwanted assets, but still faced
huge decisions on potash, the listing and the future of fossil
fuels.
“These are sweeping changes,” said Ben Davis, an analyst at
Liberum Capital. “The new, improved, not so-boring BHP.” The
change to the listing structure means “they can be more nimble
in the future,” he said. “It’s not just change today, but it
means there’s more change coming tomorrow.”
Summertime markets can be a bit dysfunctional. Last week, for example, the top two sectors were the classically defensive utilities, and the highly cyclical materials. The total market volume on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq on Tuesday was 59% below the peak of the year, and 19% below the year’s average.
Tavis McCourt, institutional equity strategist at Raymond James, points out the last two years, there was a big value and cyclical bias in stock markets after Labor Day, and in 2018, markets basically collapsed after the summer drew to a close. “We believe as the chase for the end of the year begins, a renewed value/cyclical outperformance is likely along with higher 10-year Treasury yields, but like it has been for the past 18 months and will be for the foreseeable future, the virus is the boss,” he says.
The 10-year, he says, is the linchpin to the whole market. Quantitative easing, bank liquidity, Treasury gamesmanship and delta variant fear should all fade in the second half, allowing yields to rise up to a reasonable level. That in turn will get the yield curve steepening, helping value stocks, small-caps and cyclicals — which have a long way to go, given the summer reversal in markets.
Another point he makes is there is no income or spending cliff. By the end of 2021, personal income will be about $1.2 trillion higher than the fourth quarter of 2019 — or put another way, almost exactly in line with the 4% annual average between 2010 and 2019. Since so much of the stimulus was saved, consumer spending should still grow, and an infrastructure stimulus would be a net positive.
Another huge tailwind, he says, is that financial obligations as a percent of disposable income are near 40-year lows. “Consumers have dry powder to spend, for a long, long time even with incomes returning to trend line,” says McCourt. Public company leverage also is down — on a next 12 month basis, net debt-to-Ebitda of S&P 500 companies has dropped to 1.07 in July from a peak of 1.55, and 1.28 in December 2019. Inventories, he adds, are “horribly low,” which while depressing this year’s economic output will lead to restocking demand over the next two years.
BHP has restructured its portfolio as it reported a rise in profit in the year to the end of June 2021, driven by higher prices of iron ore and copper.b The company’s attributable profit for the 2021 financial year stood at $11.3bn, marking a 42% increase compared with $7.95bn a year ago.
This includes a significant loss of $5.8bn, mostly related to the impairments of the miner’s potash and energy coal assets, as well as the impact of the Samarco dam failure. The firm’s underlying attributable profit soared 88% year-on-year to $17.1bn, due to higher commodity prices. Profit from operations climbed 80% to $25.9bn from $14.4bn, reflecting reduced fuel and energy costs among others.
Underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in the 12 months to June 2021 soared 64% to $37.4bn. In addition to generating free cash flow of $19.4bn, the firm strengthened its balance sheet by reducing net debt to $4.1bn from $12.04bn a year ago. The firm has announced a final dividend of $2 per share. This brings its full-year dividends to $15.2bn.
Additionally, BHP announced plans to make its operations simpler by unifying its corporate structure to a single primary listing on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). The firm currently operates as a dual-listed company. It has two parent entities, both holding primary listings, notably BHP Group Limited (BHP Ltd) in Australia and BHP Group Plc (BHP Plc) in the UK.
Furthermore, the company is pursuing the sale of its oil and gas business to Woodside Petroleum and has approved a $5.1bn investment for the Jansen Stage 1 (Jansen S1) potash project in Canada. BHP chair Ken MacKenzie: “Our plans announced today will better enable BHP to pursue opportunities in new and existing markets and create value and returns over generations.”
https://www.mining-technology.com/news/bhp-annual-profit-surges/
Industry Trends
Welcome to Thomas Insights — every day, we publish the latest news and analysis to keep our readers up to date on what’s happening in industry. to get the day’s top stories delivered straight to your inbox.
When LA-based blues and rock band Canned Heat wrote “Poor Moon” in the same year Neil Armstrong took his famous giant leap, their lyrics reflected the Cold-War-era concern that spacefaring nations would one day scar the moon by testing a bomb on its surface.
While this, thankfully, hasn’t yet happened, the moon — along with all the other planets, moons, and asteroids in the solar system — could one day be mined for resources to meet Earth’s ever-growing needs.
Why Mine Off-Earth?
Space Exploration Is Expensive
While the price tag involved in establishing a human colony on the Moon or Mars is mind-boggling, the costs of sustaining off-Earth colonies and keeping them resupplied indefinitely are even more so — unless the settlements can somehow pay for themselves. Mining for much-needed metals and sending them back to Earth could change the game for space exploration, transforming off-world ventures from prohibitively expensive to financially viable.
That being said, bringing a heavy payload of minerals down through Earth’s atmosphere is not currently feasible. Futurists believe that instead, minerals mined in space will be used in space as humanity spreads outwards.
Rare Earth Materials Are Abundant
There are around two million near-earth asteroids brimming with rare earth minerals, precious metals, iron, and nickel. The Moon contains helium-3, yttrium, samarium, and lanthanum, while Mars contains an abundance of magnesium, aluminum, titanium, iron, chromium, and trace amounts of lithium, cobalt, tungsten, and other metals. Importantly, many planetary bodies contain water, which through hydrolysis can be used as rocket fuel.
It Helps with Sustainability
Earth’s resources are finite. Non-renewable metal resources are inherently unsustainable, and mining causes environmental degradation all over the world. The answer is to source our minerals off-world. Off-world minerals are exhaustible as well, but the argument is that mining lifeless rocks such as the Moon or asteroids is infinitely preferable to continuing to damage Earth’s fragile biosphere.
Discoveries May Be Made
Opening space to commercial mining does not mean that science takes a back seat. Space-mining interests could drive scientific advancement by discovering extremely rare or unknown minerals on other planetary bodies.
Robotics Would Do the Work
While countless lives have been lost on Earth over the centuries due to mining accidents and disasters, it is likely that humans will not have to risk their lives by traveling in-person to off-world mining sites. Regolith-sampling probes are already in use and provide an early glimpse of what a scaled-up robotic mining craft may one day look like.
Off-Earth Mining and Space Law
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty is unclear in terms of whether any country — or private company — can claim mineral rights in space. It states that “exploration and use of outer space shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries and shall be the province of all mankind.”
The 1979 Moon Treaty was an attempt to declare the Moon and its natural resources to be CHM (Common Heritage of Mankind). Significantly, it called for “an equitable sharing [by all countries] in the benefits derived from these resources.” Most nations, including the U.S., did not ratify this treaty.
Recently, the U.S. has accelerated its efforts to create a legal framework for the exploitation of resources in space.
The Obama administration signed the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015, allowing U.S. citizens to “engage in the commercial exploration and exploitation of space resources.”
In April 2020, the Trump administration issued an executive order supporting U.S. mining on the Moon and asteroids.
In May 2020, NASA unveiled the Artemis Accords, which included the development of safety zones around lunar mining sites. Former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said: “It’s time to establish the regulatory certainty to extract and trade space resources,” and clarified in a separate statement that: “We do believe we can extract and utilize the resources of the moon, just as we can extract and utilize tuna from the ocean.”
NASA planned an Asteroid Redirect Mission which involved collecting a multi-ton boulder from an asteroid and redirecting it into a stable orbit around the moon, but the mission was canceled in 2017.
What Companies Are Preparing for a Future of Space Mining?
One thing that is becoming clear is that off-earth mining is unlikely to be a state-run activity. Instead, several private companies are jockeying to be first in line to access minerals in space.
iSpace (Japan) has a mission to “help companies access new business opportunities on the moon,” including the extraction of water and mineral resources to spearhead a space-based economy.
Planetary Resources (defunct) was founded in 2009 with the goal of developing a robotic asteroid mining industry. Despite having high-profile founding investors including Alphabet’s Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, Planetary ran into financial trouble in 2018 and was gone by 2020.
Deep Space Industries (defunct) was another early mover that intended to explore, examine, sample, and harvest minerals from asteroids. DSI was acquired by Bradford Space in 2019.
Offworld is an AI company building “universal industrial robots to do the heavy lifting [including mining] on Earth, the Moon, asteroids, and Mars.”
The Asteroid Mining Corporation (UK) is a venture currently crowdfunding for a 2023 satellite mission called “El Dorado,” which will conduct a spectral survey of 5,000 asteroids to identify the most valuable for mining.
Alongside the U.S., the tiny European nation of Luxembourg has also developed a space mining framework and has subsequently emerged as a European hub for the fledgling industry.
Image Credit: SeventyFour / Shutterstock.com
More from Industry Trends
Remember that weird Will Smith movie about robots?
Yeah, neither do we. But Elon Musk does. Tesla is developing a 5’8” Tesla Bot, with a prototype expected sometime next year. The news comes during Tesla’s inaugural AI Day, which was streamed on the company’s website Thursday night.
The bot is being proposed as a non-automotive robotic use case for the company’s work on neural networks and its Dojo advanced supercomputer.
Image Credits: Tesla
“Basically, if you think about what we’re doing right now with cars, Tesla is arguably the world’s biggest robotics company because our cars are like semi-sentient robots on wheels,” Musk said. “With the Full Self-Driving computer, [ … ] which will keep evolving, and Dojo and all the neural nets recognizing the world, understanding how to navigate through the world, it kind of makes sense to put that on to a humanoid form.”
The bot is “intended to be friendly and navigate through a world built for humans,” he added. He also said they’re developing it so that humans can run away from it and overpower it easily. It’ll weigh 125 pounds and have a walking gait of 5 miles per hour, and its face will be a screen that displays important information.
Interestingly, Musk is imagining this as replacing much of the human drudge work that currently occupies so many people’s lives – not just labor but things like grocery shopping and other everyday tasks. He waxed about a future in which physical work would be a choice, with all the attendant implications that might mean for the economy.
“In the long term I do think there needs to be universal basic income,” Musk said. “But not right now because the robot doesn’t work.”
Musk finished off by inviting engineers to “join our team and help us build this.”
Just remember, Tesla is not the only automaker, or even company, to produce a humanoid robot. Honda’s Asimo robot has been around for decades and it’s incredibly advanced. Toyota and GM also have their own robots, so why are we so hyped about Tesla’s? Is it just because it’s Tesla? Or is it because of this potentially really powerful vision-based supercomputer that will be powering it?
Who knows if anything will ever come of this humanoid robot, but we shall remain entertained by Tesla updates until such time as we can buy one of these things in a store and take it home to buy our eggs for us. Now that’s an AI utopia.
Saudi Aramco and Reliance Industries are engaging in advanced-level talks for an all-stock deal in the refining and chemical business of the Indian oil-to-telecom giant. The deal could be worth $20-25 billion if the talks of purchasing a 20 per cent stake by Saudi Aramco in Reliance O2C Ltd follows through, Bloomberg reported citing sources, adding the final announcement in this regard could come in a few weeks.
The talks between both the giants have been going on for the past two years. The delay was caused due to Covid-19 pandemic and falling crude oil prices. If the deal is signed, it'll be Saudi Aramco's first all-stock deal since the initial public offering (IPO).
In 2019, RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani had said Aramco would pick up a 20 per cent stake in the newly-floated subsidiary Reliance O2C. In his address to the shareholders in June 2021, he said Saudi Aramco's plan to join Reliance O2C Ltd as a strategic partner is expected to be formalised in an "expeditious manner" this year.
Also read: Saudi Aramco's rising oil fortune to speed up Reliance O2C deal
The deal also ensures a dedicated market for Aramco's crude in India. As part of the deal, O2C will sign to buy 500,000 barrels of crude oil every day (28 per cent of the company's Jamnagar refinery requirement) on a long-term basis from Aramco. Besides, the O2C business will be a value-creating proposition for both the giants as it focuses to channel 70 per cent of the refined crude for manufacturing high-value chemical products.
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) had also inducted Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Chairman of Saudi Aramco and the Governor of the Public Investment Fund, on its board. The move is believed to have hastened the deal talks. The partnership of RIL and Aramco is expected to improve India-Saudi relations, especially while negotiating the crude price.
Also read: RIL's partnership with Aramco to be formalised in 'expeditious manner' this year: Mukesh Ambani
The relationship between the governments was also not smooth, which could also be the reason behind the delay in finalising the deal. India, the third-largest crude oil importer and consumer, in May had asked public sector crude refining companies to scale up imports from the US and Africa following Saudi Arabia's decision to raise the official selling price (OSP) of oil shipments to Asia. The action by Saudi, the world's largest crude exporter, was largely conceived as retaliation to India's plan to cut crude imports from the country.
Saudi Arabian state oil producer Aramco had reported a nearly four-fold rise in second-quarter net profit this month. The record profit was reported following higher oil prices and a recovery in the demand. The O2C business of RIL includes the twin refineries in Gujarat's Jamnagar and the adjacent petrochemicals complex, besides the petroleum retail joint venture of RIL-BP Plc.
Also read: Saudi Arabia to ship 80 metric tonnes of liquid oxygen to India
Also read: Saudi Aramco Q2 profit surges on higher prices, demand recovery
Also read: Saudi Arabia to ship 80 metric tonnes of liquid oxygen to India
Acceleware Kicks off Marwayne RF XL Commercial Pilot Drilling Program
GlobeNewswire2021-08-17
CALGARY, Alberta, Aug. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Acceleware Ltd. (“Acceleware” or the “Company”) (TSXV: AXE), a leading developer of electrification technology targeting low-cost, low-carbon and clean extraction of heavy oil and bitumen, today announces that the Company has kicked off the drilling and completions program of the commercial-scale RF XL pilot project at Marwayne, Alberta (the “Pilot”), representing a major milestone in the execution of the Pilot.
Akita Drilling Ltd.’s Rig 29 moved onto the Marwayne site August 9, 2021. The RF XL producer well was spudded on August 12, 2021, followed by the heating well on August 13, 2021. Spud to completion of both the heating well and the producer well, barring unforeseen delays, is expected by late Q3. Facility installation will commence immediately thereafter, and RF XL heating starting shortly after final commissioning. While the initial heating phase is planned for approximately six months, this period may be extended to allow Acceleware to capture additional information on the efficiency and operation of the technology.
“Acceleware’s RF XL is designed to become an electrification work-horse for the clean energy transition,” said Laura McIntyre, project lead and CTO of Acceleware. “Our team, alongside multiple expert partners, has performed an incredible amount of design, planning and de-risking to get to where we are today – we are very excited to deploy this technology and to further prove out its feasibility at commercial scale.”
Partners involved in the drilling and completions program of the Pilot include Halliburton, Akita Drilling Ltd., Tristar Resource Management Ltd., Weatherford Canada Ltd., CES Energy Solutions, Precise Downhole Solutions, Tenaris, Stream-Flo Industries Ltd., Pro Pipe Service, Variperm Energy Services Inc., among others.
“We are excited to work with innovators that think outside the box,” said John Gorman, Halliburton VP Canada and West Coast USA. “Working toward a next generation technological solution is a critical step toward a low-carbon future.”
Colin Dease, Canadian Division President of Akita Drilling Ltd., added, “we are very pleased to play a role in Acceleware’s electrification pilot drilling program. The potential to eliminate or materially reduce GHG emissions from the extraction of heavy oil and bitumen could be a game changer for Canada’s oil sands.”
Acceleware’s RF XL electromagnetic heating technology is designed to generate zero scope 1 and scope 2 GHG emissions when it is powered entirely by renewable electricity, nuclear, or other clean power sources. In addition, RF XL eliminates the need for fresh water, which in turn means fewer surface facilities and less land disturbance, offering a cleaner and more sustainable solution to meet the world’s growing demand for energy. With a successful Pilot and subsequent commercialization, numerous potential environmental benefits could be realized by oil sands producers deploying
RF XL, and the Company anticipates highly skilled job creation as well as skilled jobs transition opportunities, including jobs for Indigenous peoples.
Acceleware’s Marwayne Pilot is supported by Sustainable Development Technology Canada, Emissions Reduction Alberta, Alberta Innovates, and three major oil sands partners.
For further information about the Pilot, to review prior news releases and learn more about Acceleware’s innovative RF XL technology, please visit the Company’s website at acceleware.com.
EOG Resources has been beaten down lately with too much selling pressure. While the stock has lost 6.3% over the past four weeks, there is light at the end of the tunnel as it is now in oversold territory and Wall Street analysts expect the company to report better earnings than they predicted earlier.
Guide to Identifying Oversold Stocks
We use Relative Strength Index (RSI), one of the most commonly used technical indicators, for spotting whether a stock is oversold. This is a momentum oscillator that measures the speed and change of price movements.
RSI oscillates between zero and 100. Usually, a stock is considered oversold when its RSI reading falls below 30.
Technically, every stock oscillates between being overbought and oversold irrespective of the quality of their fundamentals. And the beauty of RSI is that it helps you quickly and easily check if a stock's price is reaching a point of reversal.
So, by this measure, if a stock has gotten too far below its fair value just because of unwarranted selling pressure, investors may start looking for entry opportunities in the stock for benefitting from the inevitable rebound.
However, like every investing tool, RSI has its limitations, and should not be used alone for making an investment decision.
Here's Why EOG Could Experience a Turnaround
The RSI reading of 29.93 for EOG is an indication that the heavy selling could be in the process of exhausting itself, so the stock could bounce back in a quest for reaching the old equilibrium of supply and demand.
The RSI value is not the only factor that indicates a potential turnaround for the stock in the near term. On the fundamental side, there has been strong agreement among the sell-side analysts covering the stock in raising earnings estimates for the current year. Over the last 30 days, the consensus EPS estimate for EOG has increased 17.3%. And an upward trend in earnings estimate revisions usually translates into price appreciation in the near term.
Moreover, EOG currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), which means it is in the top 5% of more than the 4,000 stocks that we rank based on trends in earnings estimate revisions and EPS surprises.
The stock of upstream energy operator Whiting Petroleum Corporation (WLL - Free Report) showed no substantial movement since its second-quarter 2021 earnings announcement on Aug 4. Despite top and bottom-line beats and an increase in production guidance, investors were possibly spooked by a rise in its capital budget.
Whiting Petroleum reported second-quarter 2021 adjusted net income per share of $3.01, handsomely beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.45 and the sequential quarter’s earnings of $2.79 owing to prices and better-than-expected production and significant improvement in oil price realizations.
Total operating revenues came in at $351.6 million, ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $269 million. Moreover, the top line improved 14.4% from the quarter-ago level of $307.4 million.
On an encouraging note, the company’s free cash flow of $111.3 million was higher than the first-quarter 2021 figure of $108.2 million.
Whiting Petroleum’s total oil and gas production reported a sequential increase of 4.2% to 8,431 thousand barrels of oil equivalent/ MBOE (comprising 80% liquids). Oil volumes at 4,860 thousand barrels (MBbl) edged up 0.8% from the level achieved in first-quarter 2021, while natural gas output improved 4.1% to reach 10,666 thousand cubic feet. Daily production averaged 92.6 MBOE, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 87 MBOE.
The average realized crude oil price during the second quarter was $63.46 per barrel, reflecting a 19.2% rise from the quarter-ago realization of $53.24.
As of Jun 30, Whiting Petroleum had approximately $19.1 million in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash. The oil explorer’s long-term debt of $115 million represented a debt-to-capitalization of 9%. In the reported quarter, the company spent $58.5 million on its capital program.
Aerial view of Tinmiaq 7, the first well drilled at ConocoPhillips' Willow prospect during the 2018 exploration season. (Judy Patrick / ConocoPhillips)
A federal judge in Alaska on Wednesday voided development permits for a major oil development on the North Slope that was backed by the Trump and Biden administrations.
In a written order, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason said the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service incorrectly approved the Willow oil project, which could produce more than 160,000 barrels of oil per day from the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, west of Prudhoe Bay.
The project has been seen by its developer, ConocoPhillips, as part of a “renaissance” in North Slope oil development. Several conservation groups sued the BLM in November, saying the agency underestimated the plan’s harm to wildlife, among other factors.
“This is a huge deal,” said Siqiñiq Maupin, executive director of the Sovereign Inupiat for a Living Arctic, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit.
“This will actually stop the entire project, they will have to do everything over again,” she said.
A spokeswoman for ConocoPhillips said the company is reviewing the decision and evaluating its available options.
Maupin said she expects the decision will be appealed.
“I’m sure that if the process can be appealed, ConocoPhillips will do what they can,” she said.
The state of Alaska intervened on the side of ConocoPhillips during the lawsuit, and Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy implied an appeal in a statement issued after the decision.
“Make no mistake, today’s ruling from a federal judge trying to shelve a major oil project on American soil does one thing: outsources production to dictatorships and terrorist organizations,” the governor said. “This is a horrible decision. We are giving America over to our enemies piece by piece. The Willow project would power America with 160,000 barrels a day, provide thousands of family-supporting jobs, and greatly benefit the people of Alaska.”
Though the suit was filed under the Trump administration, the federal government’s support for the project continued under the Biden administration, with attorneys for the new president arguing that the project is legal.
A preliminary injunction, approved by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in February, halted preliminary work on the project, and Wednesday’s decision from Gleason said the conservation groups’ arguments have merit.
Among other findings, she concluded that federal authorities incorrectly considered the impact the project would have on foreign greenhouse gas emissions and disregarded potential alternative development plans for the region.
In a June 30 call with investors, senior ConocoPhillips vice president Nick Olds called Willow the company’s “next great Alaska hub.”
He said the company’s financial analysis had indicated that the area could support 200 wells and a processing plant capable of supporting 180,000 barrels per day of production.
The company was slated to make a $6 billion final investment decision by the end of the year, with first oil production possible by 2027. He included a note of caution: That schedule was dependent upon the end of the court case.
“We have every reason to believe that Willow should and will be developed,” Olds said on the June call. “However, we’ve been clear that we won’t take the final investment decision until the legal risks are resolved.”
(Bloomberg) -- The sobering United Nations-backed report on global warming last week prompted a lot of hand wringing from governments and the general public about fossil fuels. The response from investors in the oil and gas industry? A big shrug.
Shares of energy companies, which led the S&P 500 higher for much of the year, ended the week little changed. Oil prices rebounded from a selloff earlier in the month, despite the warnings that the world must wean itself off fossil fuels, and fast.
Investors must now weigh the industry’s soaring revenue and improving profitability against the long-term prospect of a carbon-light world. The key is how long it will take for countries to phase out internal combustion engines in the coming decades and what kind of supply and demand imbalances occur along the way.
“Investors for the most part are not buying into the sky is falling climate change narrative,” said Martin Pelletier, portfolio manager at Wellington-Altus Private Counsel. “There is no doubt a transition towards renewables, but the pace of that transition is what is under question.”
Energy stocks have jumped this year as oil prices bounced back from Covid-19 lockdowns and investors rotated into cyclical sectors. The energy group, which includes oil majors like Exxon Mobil Corp. and refiners like Phillips 66, has advanced 30%, beating out more expensive sectors in the benchmark like technology.
Blip or Beginning
It remains to be seen if this year’s strength is a blip in the long-term decline or the start of a sustained rebound. Unlike most other sectors, energy stocks remain well below pre-pandemic levels after years of poor returns and souring sentiment over their contribution to global warming. The S&P 500 energy index now has a weighting of just 2.5% in the broader index, down from 11% in 2014.
Read more: Leaders of Reopening Trade Are Running Out of Gas: Taking Stock
Energy stocks face a number of hurdles, from the increasing adoption of electric vehicles and environmental, social and corporate governance investing to risks to global growth from rising Covid-19 infections. The International Energy Agency on Thursday cut its oil demand forecasts for the rest of the year, citing the virus surge.
Story continues
The U.S. is set for a wave of investment in electric vehicles, renewable power and clean energy initiatives as part of a massive infrastructure spending bill passed this week by the Senate.
Keeping Allure
The list of problems for oil and gas companies hasn’t dimmed the allure of their stocks for some Wall Street strategists. Last week, RBC’s Lori Calvasina recommended investors maintain a higher exposure to energy and financials, despite dialing back expectations for value stocks in general. Bank of America’s Savita Subramanian’s named energy as a top pick with the potential for higher earnings and depressed valuations “the most supportive of all sectors.”
Energy companies in the S&P 500 saw revenue more than double in the second quarter and sales growth is projected to exceed that of every other sector for the remainder of the year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence.
Meanwhile, total cash on balance sheets leaped to $72 billion in the second quarter, up 36% from a year earlier. The S&P 500 Energy Index is trading at 16 times estimated profits over the next 12 months, while the S&P 500 sits at 22.
Energy stocks will likely face plenty of headwinds in the future, but for the time being, they appear well positioned after years of underinvestment in capital spending, according to Ryan Bushell, president and portfolio manager at Newhaven Asset Management.
“Now, you have a real supply side problem,” he said in an interview. “You’re going to continue to have earnings and cash flow that look good.”
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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cheap-energy-stocks-shrug-off-120000249.html
After a volatile week of reversals and re-reversals, oil prices have rebounded a bit again on Wednesday thanks to an overall risk-on theme returning to the markets after the Senate passed the crucial $1 trillion infrastructure spending bill.
September WTI crude (CL1:COM) closed +2.7% to $68.29/bbl, while October Brent (CO1:COM) settled +2.3% to $70.63/bbl.
The biggest challenge for oil markets has been the fast-spreading Covid-19 Delta variant hurting confidence about a global economic recovery, with market participants watching the rapidly swelling infection figures with considerable alarm. Even more worrying are new developments in China, the world's biggest crude importer and once the world's Covid-19 epicenter, after Beijing imposed new lockdowns in at least 144 of the worst-hit areas nationwide in a bid to stop the spread. Beijing has opted to employ its tried-and-tested method of targeted lockdown that has been successful in stopping at least 30 Covid-19 flare-ups in the past.
Adding to the pressure on the oil bulls are reports that the Biden administration is worried about high oil prices and wants OPEC+ to increase production in order to lower prices for consumers. According to the report, U.S. officials spoke this week with representatives from several OPEC members, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The Biden administration is reportedly saying the July OPEC+ agreement to gradually ease production cuts into next year is not enough during a "critical moment in the global recovery."
Bullish: some analysts are saying that the worst could be in the rearview mirror, and oil prices could have established a new floor.
When the July WTI contract managed to close Monday above the July low at $66.41/bbl, it marked that level as a "line in the sand for the oil market."If support holds, which it likely will as long as the news flow regarding COVID does not continue to materially deteriorate, then WTI will remain range-bound between aforementioned support at $66 and resistance from July at $75 a barrel," Tom Essaye of the Sevens Report has told MarketWatch.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/where-does-wall-street-think-230000927.html
London (CNN Business) Are the supply and demand fundamentals that have governed oil markets for decades coming unstuck ?
In normal times, a surge in demand and rising prices would trigger supply increases . But as the past week has shown, these aren't normal times. The latest: Just two days after the Biden administration urged swift action to move towards a low-carbon economy, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan appealed to OPEC+ to increase oil production in order to curb rising gasoline prices. The glaring contradiction highlights an uncomfortable fact: the world still needs oil. But there is growing pressure on major oil companies to ditch fossil fuels, and US producers are laden with debt. That leaves Saudi Arabia, Russia and their OPEC+ alliance, which is taking a cautious approach and slowly unwinding production cuts despite a 60% surge in the price of Brent crude over the past year.
That means supply could remain tight over the coming months. One big-picture reason: Investors' growing climate concerns are keeping a lid on production growth at oil companies that are answerable to shareholders, Per Magnus Nysveen, head of analysis at Rystad Energy told me. Last year, global investment in oil and gas field development fell to around $348 billion, down from a peak of $740 billion in 2014, according to analysts at Morgan Stanley. They estimate that the lack of investment at public companies will start to drive their production into decline from 2024.
US shale producers have also kept output relatively flat, under pressure to return cash to shareholders following the past decade's spending spree. At the same time, demand has been rising. While the recent oil price rally has lost steam amid a surge in Covid-19 cases from the Delta variant, the International Energy Agency has kept its forecast for global oil demand growth over the next year largely unchanged.
In a report last week it said that the market could still be left slightly short of supply towards the end of the year, despite the decision by OPEC+ to ease production cuts. More supply could come online next year, it added.
Remember: The Delta variant poses a risk to oil demand in the near term, but the global economy is still projected to grow 6% this year, expanding 4.9% in 2022, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Longer term, demand is likely to prove "sticky" as the world's population grows and GDP per capita increases, Morgan Stanley commodities strategists Martijn Rats and Amy Sergeant wrote in a research note last month.
"Combined, this leads to a growing supply/demand deficit from 2024 onwards," they added.
What it means: A more favorable environment for OPEC and sustained higher prices. The alliance already controls more than a third of the world's oil production, rising to about 50% when non-OPEC producers such as Russia and Mexico are included. "In 10 years from now, OPEC's share of production will be higher," remarked Nysveen.
Given dwindling investment by rivals, OPEC may no longer need to trade off supporting oil prices in the short term against defending market share in the long term, added Rats and Sergeant. They expect Brent to be in the mid-to-high $70s for the remainder of the year and be well above $70 a barrel throughout 2022. One big unknown: It took several rounds of negotiations for OPEC+ to agree on production increases recently and there are questions over whether alliance members will stick to output restrictions.
Between now and the beginning of a phase that will see a tripling of hydrocarbon production at Hindustan Oil Exploration Company (HOEC) stands just one barrier — the monsoons.
Once the weather clears, the company will move the ‘single point mooring’ (SPM), currently dry-docked in Mumbai, to ‘B-80’, a 56 sq km block that lies in the Arabian Sea, some 110 km off Mumbai’s coastline. The SPM is the final piece of infrastructure required to produce oil from the block.
The other three major elements are in place — the oil gathering and processing platform, the floating storage unit (FSU) that can hold 900,000 barrels of oil, and the hook-up pipelines to evacuate the oil.
When HOEC begins production from B-80 in December, in which it has a 60 per cent participating interest, it will increase the company’s hydrocarbon production from 2,300 barrels of oil equivalent per day, to 7,000 boepd.
Alongside, another development took place in June 2021 in its other major asset — the Dirok gas field in Assam, in which HOEC has a 27 per cent stake. Moving away from a (government) fixed price contract with its buyer, Oil India Ltd, HOEC e-auctioned its gas directly to customers. This got the company a premium of $1.3 per MMBtu (metric million British Thermal Unit) of gas, over and above the fixed price, which currently stands at $1.78.
HOEC currently produces a million cubic metres of gas a day from Dirok. The plan is to raise production to 1.5 million cubic metres a day.
These developments have the potential to take the company’s top-line past the ₹500-crore mark, from ₹224 crore in 2019-20 (₹125 crore for the pandemic-hit year of 2020-21).
In 2019-20, HOEC made a net profit of ₹137.56 crore, 61 per cent of turnover. Going forward, its finance costs will increase — the company’s long-term borrowings increased to ₹160 crore in 2020-21, from nothing in 2018-19, as it borrowed for the $100 m (₹ 750 crore) investment in the development of B-80. However, since oil prices are firm and are expected to remain so, profits could be expected to grow in tandem with the top-line.
The stock market seems to have taken due note of all this. On the NSE, the HOEC share price has risen from the lows of around ₹37 in April 2020 to ₹ 169.45 now.
It’s come a long way
HOEC has come a long way since 2015, when its principal shareholder, ENI of Italy, which held a 47 per cent stake, decided to quit. Around that time, oil prices were plummeting and HOEC was producing nothing meaningful, mainly due to operational challenges at its principal asset, the PY-1 gas field in the Bay of Bengal; in 2015-16, the company’s turnover was ₹28.3 crore and net profit ₹8.2 crore.
ENI approached Pandarinathan Elango, the then CEO of Cairn Energy, asking him if he would take over the management of HOEC. Elango, who was looking to return to his home state of Tamil Nadu, from Delhi, agreed, but on the condition that ENI would waive its ₹1,000-crore loans to HOEC.
Keen to quit India, ENI agreed. Elango roped in his friend, Ramaswamy Jeevanandam, who was then looking after finance at Hardy Oil, a UK company that operated the PY-3 oil field in the Bay of Bengal. The two friends entered HOEC in February 2015, picking up a 3 and 2 per cent stake respectively.
Unburdened of loans, HOEC then had cash of ₹36 crore on its books and participating interests in the PY-1 gas field and PY-3 oil field in the Bay of Bengal, neither of which was producing much. However, the company had a 27 per cent interest in the Dirok field, a promising asset that had cash-rich, public-sector giants, IOC and OIL for partners, but which was yet to be put into production. The asset was brought to production in a record time of 27 months, says Elango, the Managing Director of HOEC.
It also helped that HOEC had a winnable case at the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, involving ₹100 crore. “The issue was over tax-deductibility of exploration expenses,” recalls Elango. The money won and the ₹36 crore reserves with the company, paid for bringing Dirok to production, without a bank loan.
In March 2016, Ashok Goel of Essel Propack and Rohit Dhoot of Dhoot Industrial Finance together picked up 14 and 10 per cent stake respectively from ENI, at a price of ₹18.5 a share, which formed a major part of ENI’s exit. Thereafter, Elango and Jeevanandam picked up a further 4 per cent each, at the same price as Goel and Dhoot.
With Dirok producing gas (sold to OIL), HOEC’s cash flows improved. “That (Dirok gas) changed the narrative of Assam,” says Elango, pointing out that Assam had 40 per cent of India’s onshore gas but contributed only 12 per cent to national gas production.
The next big break came in 2017, when HOEC successfully bid for B-80 when the government auctioned ‘discovered small fields’.
“But for the pandemic, B-80 would have been producing oil now,” says Elango. When it does go on stream, it will produce 15,000 barrels of oil a day, 60 per cent of which belongs to HOEC. Once B-80 becomes operational, HOEC intends to train its sights on the other assets it has — Kherem and Kharsang in Arunachal Pradesh, a couple of small fields in the Gulf of Cambay, and the high-potential but operationally challenging PY-1.
Another round of auctions for ‘discovered small fields’ is in the offing and HOEC is licking its chops. The company prefers offshore fields, where, according to Elango, “the rewards are high and competition thin.”
The oil boom over the past decade, which made America the world’s top crude oil producer, made a small rural county in North Dakota the fastest-growing county in population between 2010 and 2020, U.S. Census Bureau data showed.
North Dakota’s McKenzie County was the fastest-growing county in America in the past decade, according to the decennial U.S. census, as carried by the Associated Press.
The Bakken boom, which began early in the 2010s, contributed a lot to the fastest-growing county in America.
The numbein r of residents in McKenzie County more than doubled over the past decade, jumping from 6,360 residents in 2010 to 14,704 residents 2020, according to the U.S. census.
The growth was “whopping,” Census Bureau demographer Marc Perry said during a press conference, as quoted by the AP. Williams County, also in North Dakota, registered an 83-percent surge in the number of its residents over the past decade, to 40,950 people in 2020.
Several counties in west Texas and east New Mexico—home of the top-producing U.S. shale basin, the Permian—also saw large growth in population between 2010 and 2020, the census showed.
U.S. oil production has started to recover from last year’s market crash that led to many curtailments, deferred drilling programs, and prioritization of debt and shareholder repayment to production growth.
Total U.S. crude output is nowhere near the 13 million barrels per day (bpd) just before the crash in March 2020, but North Dakota has seen flat production recently, due to a shortage of workers, Lynn Helms, director of North Dakota’s Department of Mineral Resources, told the Bismarck Tribune last month.
“It’s going to take higher pay and housing incentives and that sort of thing to get them here,” Helms said, noting that many workers had moved to Texas.
Meanwhile, the Midland basin in Texas produced an average of 1.68 million bpd of crude oil last year, accounting for 15 percent of all crude output in America, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said earlier this week, citing data from Enverus.
EXCLUSIVE
Andrew Forrest's Squadron Energy is abandoning plans to frack the Kimberley for gas a year after acquiring new exploration acreage, but Squadron's partner may continue the work.
Squadron and its 20 per cent equity partner Goshawk acquired the 5300 km2 EP 499 exploration permit in August 2020. The partners planned a six-year $3.75 million work programme of seismic surveys and two exploration wells.
The effort appeared in conflict with Forrest's concerns about climate change and the commitment of iron ore miner Fortescue that he chairs to net-zero emissions by 2030.
In June, Forrest criticised Australia's two largest gas companies – Santos and Woodside – for their contribution to greenhouse gas emissions.
"Only a fossil would back long-term fossil fuel in today's world," Forrest said.
A spokesperson for Squadron Energy said the company continuously reviewed its investments to ensure they were aligned with its climate policy and actively supported the transition to a low carbon economy.
"As part of this ongoing review, Squadron Energy has made the strategic decision to exit from our limited Canning Basin permits," the spokesperson said.
"This process is in advanced stages."
However, Squadron's exit does not necessarily mean the exploration will stop.
Boiling Cold understands Goshawk, which operates EP 499, continues to progress the work program independent of Squadron's exit.
Reprocessing of seismic results costing about $1 million is planned for the next 12 months, followed by a $3.5 million seismic survey.
Forrest's five years in the Kimberley
Squadron first partnered with Goshawk in 2016 to apply for 220,000km2 of permits.
"We believe that developing WA's onshore petroleum resources responsibly is a key part of delivering value for WA, such as employment opportunities and energy security," a Squadron spokesperson said in 2015.
Squadron and Goshawk had extensive permits in the Kimberley that were affected by fracking restrictions announced by the McGowan Government in late 2018.
The two companies held numerous special prospecting authorities, an early-stage permit, that were excluded from permission to perform hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. These SPAs are now listed as expired on the WA Government's Petroleum and Geothermal Register.
Some exploration permits held by the companies were affected by a ban on fracking on the Dampier Peninsula.
Privately-owned Goshawk is run by Andrew Leibovitch and Will Barker, who also control Western Gas that is trying to monetise Carnarvon Basin offshore acreage bought from US-major Hess for a nominal amount.
Environs Kimberley executive director Martin Pritchard congratulated Forrest on the decision.
"He's recognised that the Kimberley is one of those special places in the world that has to be protected from industrialisation," Pritchard said.
"Other companies would be wise to follow suit,
"There is no doubt that the shale oil and gas in the Canning Basin is going to be a stranded asset as opposition to fracking continues to mount, and the world becomes increasingly constrained in terms of carbon and methane emissions."
Big players leave the Kimberley to small fry
Forrest's Squadron Energy has joined a long list of companies that have invested time and money trying to develop oil and gas in the Kimberley and then left the region.
ConocoPhillips and PetroChina withdrew in 2014, leaving the acreage to junior New Standard Energy that was suspended from the ASX five years later for not including rehabilitation liabilities in its financial reports. In 2020 New Standard Energy said it did not have the money to plug and abandon four exploration wells.
In 2015 South West alumina producer Alcoa, one of the State's largest gas consumers, killed a $40 million deal with Buru Energy to fund gas exploration and production.
Apache Energy farmed into permits held by Buru Energy and Mitsubishi in 2013, funding two exploration wells. Quadrant Energy bought Apache's Australian interests in 2015 and pulled out of further involvement in the Kimberley.
In 2017 Buru and Mitsubishi dissolved their joint venture, with Buru taking control of the oil-focussed permits and Mitsubishi retaining gas acreage.
Mitsubishi sold exploration permit EP 371 to a subsidiary of Houston-based Black Mountain Oil and Gas in 2018, ending seven years of activity in the Kimberley.
In a move counter to the last decade's trend in late 2020, Origin Energy farmed into two permits held by Buru Energy and Rey Resources with a $35 million commitment to fund seismic work and two exploration wells over two years.
In August, Black Mountain subsidiary Bennett Resources submitted initial environmental approval documents for exploration wells that use fracking to the Environmental Protection Authority. The EPA's assessment will be its first since the State Labour Government lifted a complete moratorium of fracking in 2018 and added a requirement for EPA approval.
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Main image: Andrew Forrest at an FMG iron ore mine in the Pilbara. Source: Fortescue Metals Group.
A three-well (net) drilling program will begin this month in the Thorsby area. The development wells are expected to be on stream early in Q4’21.
Calima continued its strong run in July, prompting Hannam & Partners to increase its risked NAV (Net Asset value) to A$0.0255 per share from A$0.0245 per share, implying 155% upside from the current share price.
Calima also increased its guidance to C$27.3 million in July, upgraded from June guidance of C$21.1 million (including hedging losses of C$4.6 million).
The solid performance can in part be attributed to the production of an average 2,959boe/d (barrel of oil equivalent per day), primarily from Calima’s Brooks and Thorsby assets.
Calima is an Australian listed exploration and production company, focused on Canada, an established energy market with a supportive energy policy.
It has exposure to a large-scale wet gas play in the Montney and - with the completion of its C$61.5mm acquisition of Blackspur on May 3 - low-cost, high-return, oil-weighted assets in Alberta.
The Blackspur acquisition has been integral to Calima’s performance over the past two months, giving it near-term cash flow and production growth.
Blackspur contributes to Calima’s performance
Calima exited the quarter with June production of 2,883boe/d: Brooks (~70%) and Thorsby (~30%).
Production and revenue from the four Gemini wells drilled at Brooks will flow through to the September quarter results.
Net debt was A$16.4 million at the end of the quarter but has now fallen to A$15.5 million, with Hannam estimating that it will fall to ~A$12 million by YE’21.
Calima’s debt is falling despite a heavy investment program, which augers well for its financial position moving forward.
Further, Calima has A$10.9 million of liquidity, giving it a solid financial outlook made better by the fact that adjusted EBITDA was approximately A$4.5 million for just 61 days of Blackspur contribution.
Oil price leads to higher EBITDA
While the oil price has been volatile over the last few weeks, with the average crude oil price currently sitting at US$73.28/bbl and the ( ) spot price at US$69.95, the higher price is contributing to upgraded EBITDA guidance.
In July guidance increased to C$27.3 million, implying H2'21 EBITDA of ~C$23 million or C$46 million annualised.
According to Hannam analyst Anish Kapadia, Calima is “trading on 2.5x EV/EBITDA or adjusted for the value of the Montney (not generating EBITDA) implied in the share price prior to the Blackspur deal of ~C$25 million, it is trading on <2x EBITDA.
“Furthermore, with significantly higher Canadian gas prices and deal activity in the Montney, the market value of these assets should be significantly higher than C$25 million.
New wells in 2021
Calima is set to spend C$15.4 million on the Brooks and Thorsby asset areas between July and December 2021.
Costs include drilling, completion and equipping costs for Gemini 3 and 4 wells, the three wells planned at Thorsby in Q3’21, as well as waterflood, workover, and maintenance capital on existing assets.
A three-well (net) drilling program will begin this month in the Thorsby area. The development wells are expected to be on stream early in Q4’21.
End-’21 exit production is guided to be >4,500 boe/d, with average production for the 8 months of 3,700 boe/d.
Key catalysts on the horizon
There are several key catalysts on the horizon for Calima.
Results from Gemini wells are due in early September.
Small bolt-on acquisitions around existing assets are expected shortly.
In the Montney, Calima continues to evaluate strategies to unlock shareholder value through development, partnerships, farm-out or outright sale of Calima Lands.
Consolidation of the Montney in North East British Colombia has started. With rising gas prices, currently above US$4/mcf in North America, the Calima Lands provides significant optionality (Calima’s closest comparable in the Montney, Saguaro, sold a 50% interest in its production and facilities to Tourmaline for ~C$205 million (9,000 boe/d, 25% condensate/NGLs).
Valuation increases expected again
Kapadia says, “There is 6% upside to our Core NAV of A$0.0106 per share, which only includes the 1P reserves.
“Using the ~C$25 million valuation for the Montney implied pre-Blackspur, sees it trading on just 2.1x EV/CFFO in 2022 at a conservative US$60/bbl Brent.
“On operational metrics, we see Calima trading on EV/2P reserves of C$5/boe and on a flowing barrel basis on $24k per boe/d in 2022.
“We expect C$24/boe of post-tax cashflow per barrel in 2022. Cash distributions will be driven by market conditions and achieving sustainable production of >5kboe/d, which we expect in 2022.”
In the midst of the difficult global economic context, the price of natural gas in Europe set a new historical record by surpassing 585 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters.
On Monday morning, natural gas futures for September this year stood at almost $550 per 1,000 cubic meters, but by the end of the day they reached $586.3 per 1,000 cubic meters on the Dutch stock exchange, RIA Novosti agency reports.
The significant price rise is explained by the decision of the Russian company Gazprom to reserve a minimum of additional transit capacity for the Ukrainian gas transportation system, while during the previous months it reserved all the additional capacity of the infrastructure.
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) has benefited immensely from the surge in global crude oil prices so far and the effect of this was visible in its June quarter performance.
The company Russian oil company Lukoil began drilling its first exploration well in the Block 12 located in the waters of Gulf of mexico after acquiring the license in 2017.
In this way, the exploration will focus on the sedimentary deposits of the Upper and Lower Miocene while the water depth at the drilling site is 207 meters. The hole Yoti West-1 Exp to be drilled by the Valaris 8505 semi-submersible rig, which was transported to Block 12 after its work in Block 10, in the Sayulita-1 EXP well.
“The drilling of the Yoti West-1 Exp will provide the necessary geological and geophysical data to make a decision on the further exploration of Block 12”, indicated in a statement.
In addition, just a few weeks ago the Italian Eni announced a discovery of between 150 and 200 million barrels of crude oil equivalent. Although in principle Lukoil won this block alone in oil round 2.1 carried out by the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) in June 2017, a year later, the Russian oil company gave 40% to Eni and kept 60%.
Last June, the CNH gave the go-ahead for the drilling of the Yoti Oeste-1EXP well, they estimate prospective resources of 113 million barrels of crude oil equivalent. The investment destined for the exploration activities of the first well of block 12 is of the order of $ 72.9 million. Likewise, this block is located kilometers from the coast in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tabasco and its surface amounts to 521 square meters, with a water depth that varies from 150 to 400 meters.
Crude oil prices climbed higher today after the Energy Information Administration reported an inventory draw of 3.2 million barrels for the week to August 13.
This compared with a small draw of 400,000 barrels for the previous week and a slightly bigger draw of 1.1 million barrels reported for the week to August 13 by the American Petroleum Institute.
Analysts had expected an inventory draw of 1.26 million barrels for the period.
In fuels, inventory movements were mixed.
The authority estimated a gasoline inventory build of 700,000 barrels for the week to August 13, with production averaging 10 million bpd.
This compared with a decline of 1.4 million in gasoline inventories reported for the previous week and production averaging 10 million bpd.
In middle distillates, the EIA estimated an inventory decline of 2.7 million barrels, with average production at 4.8 million bpd.
This compared with an inventory build of 1.8 million barrels for the previous week and production averaging 4.9 million bpd.
Oil has been under pressure recently after China released weaker than hoped for economic data in factory output and retail sales. The U.S. also posted weaker retail sales growth for July, but factory output grew, which contributed to a stronger dollar, which normally has a negative impact on crude.
However, the effect of the weak figures was mitigated by OPEC+ that indicated it did not feel any further additions to supply outside what was already agreed were necessary. This comes despite calls from the White House to add more barrels to output as prices at the pump at U.S. fuel stations rally.
Worry about the latest wave of Covid-19 and its future impact on world economies and oil demand remains strong, too, pressuring oil.
At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $69.44 a barrel, with West Texas Intermediate at $66.87 a barrel, both up slightly from the opening of trade.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Origin Energy has slumped to a full-year net loss of $2.3 billion after hefty writedowns and has flagged continuing vulnerability in its energy markets business due to lower power prices and higher fuel costs.
The massive loss comes after the power and gas retailer last month outlined impairments of $2.25 billion against some of its generation assets and in relation to a deferred tax liability.
Underlying profit for the 12 months to June 30 slid 69 per cent to $318 million.
Origin, like its peers, has been buffeted by the impact of coronavirus lockdowns on electricity demand, with wholesale power prices sliding amid an increase in rooftop solar generation. It was also hurt by higher gas costs.
"Operating conditions were challenging this year due to low prices and the impacts of COVID-19 across our key commodities of electricity, natural gas and oil," chief executive Frank Calabria said in a statement.
"Energy Markets headwinds are expected to persist into FY2022, though this should be largely offset by the strong performance of our Integrated Gas business," he added.
Earnings at its energy market business fell 32 per cent to $991 million, mainly due to lower wholesale prices. The company expects this to slump further this financial year to between $450 million and $600 million before rebounding the following year.
Its integrated gas unit earnings also fell 35 per cent to $1.13 billion due to lower oil prices but could recover in the current year.
Origin will pay an unfranked final dividend of 7.5 cents a share, down from 10 cents a year ago.
The energy transition dream clashes with a reality in which the funding and behavioral changes necessary for deep decarbonization of the global energy system are grossly underestimated.
That’s one of the key messages of JP Morgan’s 2021 Annual Energy Paper published days after the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that if the world were to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, it would have to stop investing in new oil, gas, and coal supply immediately.
Overwhelmed by enthusiasm about electric vehicles and solar and wind energy, many enthusiasts, and even analysts at the IEA, believe that new technologies about carbon capture, hydrogen production and its industrial use, surging solar and wind power installations, and constantly growing energy efficiency could be enough to transform the world of energy over the next few decades.
Don’t get ahead of yourselves, Michael Cembalest, Chairman of Market and Investment Strategy for JP Morgan Asset Management, warns in the bank’s paper.
The world still depends a lot on fossil fuels, and even with record growth, renewables are solving just a tiny part of the carbon footprint problem—electricity generation. But electricity accounts for just 18 percent of the total final energy consumption globally, Cembalest notes.
Four Big Obstacles To Deep Decarbonization
“In other words, direct use of fossil fuels is still the primary mover in the modern world, as the demise of fossil fuels continues to be prematurely declared by energy futurists,” Cembalest wrote.
The rise of renewables is moving the world in the direction of decarbonization of electricity generation, but wind and power still account for just 5 percent of global primary energy consumption, JP Morgan says.
“Absent decarbonization shock treatment, humans will be wedded to petroleum and other fossil fuels for longer than they would like,” is the lead sentence of the bank’s 44-page-long paper.
Since no one wants a “shock” transition and a massive disruption to the global economy, energy systems, and people’s lives, the world will need oil and gas for much longer than environmentalists want.
But it could also be much longer than policymakers committed to net-zero by 2050 would like, because, JP Morgan reckons, new technologies in decarbonizing sectors other than electricity generation face steep challenges. These challenges will also arise because those policymakers have likely grossly underestimated how much money and effort the energy transition would really cost.
“The overarching message of this paper is not climate nihilism; it’s that the behavioral, political and structural changes required for deep decarbonization are still grossly underestimated,” Cembalest notes.
Related: The Main Reason Oil Prices Won't Go Above $80 Per Barrel
The decarbonization is going at a slow pace, despite the hype of rising renewable capacity and EV sales or hydrogen and carbon capture projects.
JP Morgan has identified four big obstacles to faster deep decarbonization. These are slow EV penetration, the required enormous upgrades to transmission infrastructure, the challenge with geologic carbon sequestration, and electrification of industrial energy use.
The world’s “most EV loving nation” Norway, where EV sales account for more than 60 percent of new passenger car sales and which is often cited as the poster child of the EV boom, is not the global average, it’s the exception, JP Morgan says. To compare, the EV share of light vehicle sales in the United States was just 2 percent in 2020, according to data from California State University cited by the bank.
Then there are the “transmission dreams” versus transmission realities, in which “Grid expansion can be a hornet’s nest of cost, complexity and NIMBYism, particularly in the US,” Cembalest says.
Carbon capture, on which many energy transition forecasts rely, could face “the steepest climb of all,” because CCS turns out to be a very complex process at the few locations that implement it, according to the bank.
As far as deep decarbonization of the industrial sector—the largest fossil fuel end-user globally—is concerned, “Even assuming greater renewable electricity, only some industrial processes can be easily electrified,” JP Morgan’s Cembalest notes.
Stranded Oil Assets?
In view of the huge challenges ahead for decarbonization, especially in light of the expected growth of global energy demand, “the world is not on track to strand a lot of oil and gas in the future and is much closer to the IEA Stated Policies scenario than its Sustainable Development scenario,” Cembalest says.
In the IEA’s Stated Policies scenario, no oil and gas assets would be stranded in 2070, the bank estimates, since the world will still need a lot of oil and gas for its growing energy consumption. The Stated Policies scenario is not the status quo: it reflects some far-reaching and ambitious targets that have been legislated or announced by governments, JP Morgan notes.
Earlier this year, Wood Mackenzie said that the energy transition could put as much as $14 trillion upstream oil and gas assets at risk.
“But the world will still need oil and gas supply for decades to come, and the scale of the industry will remain enormous,” Wood Mackenzie vice president Fraser McKay said.
The Energy Transition Needs Big Oil
Due to the huge—and grossly underestimated— challenges to deep decarbonization, “the companies we all rely on for dispatchable, thermal power and energy will need to survive and prosper until we get there,” Cembalest writes.
The bank doubles down on its bullish call for oil and gas from last year and recommends investors to stick with the industry.
“Big Oil” return on capital fell to single digits by 2016 due to excess competition; we expect these returns to rise back to 1990’s levels of 10%-15%,” JP Morgan says.
Finally, “peak oil demand forecasts may end up being just as wrong as peak oil supply forecasts were a generation ago,” the bank noted.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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State-run SJVN Ltd on Saturday announced that it has bagged 200 MW grid connected solar PV power project worth Rs 1,000 crore in Bihar. SJVN chairman and managing director Nand Lal Sharma said in a statement that SJVN Ltd bagged the project through Open Competitive Tariff Bidding Process for quoted capacity of 200 MW Rs 3.11/unit on Build Own and Operate (BOO) basis during e-reverse auction held on August 13, 2021.
SJVN participated in tariff-based competitive bidding process for solar project of capacity 200 MW floated by Bihar Renewable Energy Development Agency (BREDA) wherein three other bidders also participated.
He further informed that the tentative cost of construction and development of this project is Rs 1,000 crore.
The project is expected to generate 420.48 MU (million units) in the 1st year and the project cumulative energy generation over a period of 25 years would be about 10,512 MU.
The PPA shall be signed between BREDA and SJVN for 25 years.
Sharma also told that presently, SJVN has a total installed capacity of 2,016.5 MW which includes two hydro power plants of 1,912 MW and four renewable power plants of 104.5 MW (two solar plants of 6.9 MW and 2 wind plants of 97.6 MW).
Earlier, SJVN bagged two solar projects totalling 145 MW in the state of Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. Both these solar projects have also been bagged through open competitive bidding.
With this recent allotment of 200 MW, SJVN now has 345 MW of solar projects under execution.
He stated that all these solar projects are scheduled to be commissioned by March 2022, which shall be a gigantic leap for SJVN's renewable capacity.
The Government of India has envisaged the vision of Power to All 24X7 and has set a target of 175 GW of renewables, out of which 100 GW is to be met through solar by 2022.
In September last year at the United Nations Climate Action Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced increasing the renewable energy target to 450 GW by 2030 from 175 GW by 2022.
In line with the target set by the Government of India, SJVN has set its shared vision of capacity addition of 5,000 MW by 2023, 12,000 MW by 2030 and 25,000 MW by 2040.
Also Read: Tata Power Renewable Energy commissions 100 MW solar power project in Gujarat
Also Read: Rooftop solar plant installed at Koraput railway station
As signatories to the Paris Agreement, Central Asia's fossil fuel rich countries have all committed to reduce emissions. Solar power is a natural alternative but the challenges are numerous.
Solar power's first criticism as being expensive is no longer there. Cheap solar power has destroyed the traditional mindsets of many system planners. Solar power is ubiquitous, and it is cheaper than a new coal power plant in almost all countries.
The second criticism of solar power is that it is not a reliable power source, as our day's sun can't bring light into the night or when the sun is covered in clouds. This criticism is also slowly coming to an end with cheaper energy storage or battery technologies.
In the past, fossil fuel rich energy countries in Central Asia often did not know or care about climate change.
Today Uzbekistan holds the record in solar price auctions in the region and climate change actions are big agenda items. Countries understand the nature of fossil fuels-82 per cent of today's coal, 49 per cent of gas, and 33 per cent oil must remain underground if we want to meet the 2°C target. Where are these reserves? More than 50 per cent of these fossil fuel reserves are in ex-Soviet republics and a significant number are in Central Asian countries.
Today, fossil fuel-rich countries need technical support to diversify from fossil fuels. These industries employ a large part of the population, and they are a significant part of the country's GDP. Technology leapfrogging is essential for these countries, and they are keen to invest in tomorrow's technology today to minimize the risk of stranded assets.
Turkmenistan, the 12th largest natural gas producer in the world, and the 10th biggest oil producer in Asia and the Pacific, is sitting on this dilemma. The government plans to diversify the economy from single energy source-gas-and meet their Paris commitment.
We are working with the Turkmenistan government on a new concept through technical assistance and other support that has not been tried anywhere in Asia. The idea is to introduce solar power-generated steam in a gas fired power station and allow the turbine to use both solar and gas-powered steam based on availability to generate electricity.
Concentrated solar power is an approach to generating electricity in which mirrors are used to reflect, concentrate, and focus sunlight onto a specific point. This generates heat (thermal energy), which is then used to generate steam, which in turn runs the turbine to generate electricity.
The proposed technology - integrated solar combined cycle systems - will use solar thermal energy to generate steam, which will drive turbines that were originally using gas generated steam only. The system will also include molten salt to store thermal energy, unlike batteries that store electricity generated by using solar panels.
Today it is common to store solar energy as electricity (solar panel plus batteries) or thermal energy (concentrated solar power with molten salt storage). Solar thermal power costs have also decreased significantly, in the last decade, making it a viable alternative to supplement gas generated steam. The integration of storage (molten salt) allows storage of part of the daytime production for use in the peak night hours.
Today many projects use a battery energy storage system with 1 to 4 hours of storage capacity to stabilize the variable output from solar panels during the day and shift this power to night-time for about 5-10 cents per kWh. Battery plus solar panel are most suitable option for storing electricity for 1 to 4 hours.
For concentrated solar power technology, using molten salt in large tanks as a storage of thermal energy for generating steam later, the cost of the thermal storage is only about 2- cents per kWh equivalent, which can be substantially lower than batteries for large installations. Concentrated solar power solutions are more flexible in responding to the needs of the grid. Under high solar radiation conditions, like Turkmenistan, the concentrated solar power may be able to generate electricity at costs below 5-6 cents per kWh. Our technical experts are considering a design to operate primarily at night, with more than 9 to10 hours of storage. Overall, this will introduce increase flexibility and dispatchability of solar power.
Turkmenistan has vast land mass and technically could be the power source for the entire central Asian region with power from solar not just from gas-a small step for Turkmenistan but a giant leap towards decarbonisation of the power sector of Central Asia.
The piece is excerpted from Asian Development Blog
www.blogs.adb.org
It is an age-old, simple and cheap technology, yet shelved for nearly two centuries because it was never easy to use. It is a technology centred around reluctance.
The first ‘switched reluctance motor’ was made in the early 19th century. Reluctance is the property of a material to resist the flow of magnetic flux — similar to ‘resistance’ to ‘current’. The physics behind it is fairly simple. Magnetic flux — the invisible magnetic lines passing through a surface — likes to travel down the path of least resistance (‘reluctance’). A reluctance motor uses this principle. It has a rotor with alternating regions of high and low reluctance and a stator featuring electromagnets. When electricity is supplied through them, the rotor will rotate.
And now, switched reluctance motors are being brought back, mainly to serve the electric mobility revolution.
Why now
The comeback is for two broad reasons: Cost and China.
Motors need magnets; today the best magnets are made of rare earths — neodymium, dysprosium, samarium, strontium, cobalt and so on. China controls the supply and trade of rare earths. Wary of China’s grip, the world has been trying to find other ways of making efficient motors (see ‘The Big Attraction’, in Quantum dated August 2, 2021).
So, if you can make magnets without rare earths, you are a winner. But you are a bigger winner if you can make motors without permanent magnets.
This is where switched reluctance motors (SRMs) come in. All you need to make them are copper and steel. That means lower costs. Steel costs around ₹100 a kg, copper costs ₹800 a kg, while magnets cost ₹6,000 a kg. SRMs, overall, are 30-40 per cent cheaper than conventional motors.
In a motor, when you supply current, you get a torque — the twisting force that creates rotation. To put it simply, the more the current the greater the torque. However, the relationship between current and torque is also dependent on the rotor position and the current through the windings. This relationship, in an SRM, is non-linear, which means if you double the current you don’t double the torque. You have to send just the right amount of current in the windings to make it work, which is difficult.
“Owing to the non-linear behaviour of SRMs, the motor parameters need to be constantly monitored,” says Bhaktha Keshavachar, Founder and CEO of Chara Technologies, a Bengaluru-based start-up, which designs SRMs. “But now, with better computing power and machine learning-based algorithms, it is possible to better control the SRMs,” he told Quantum.
The power of algo
This is how it works: By creating a ‘digital twin’ of the motor in software and mapping to it the observed parameters such as current, voltage and position, the current applied at any instance can be controlled optimally to enable smooth operation and extract the desired performance. “With the increased computing power, it is now possible to perform on-the-edge, real-time optimisation of currents based on the electromagnetic behaviour of the motor,” says Keshavachar.
EVs and beyond
Electric vehicles need high-powered motors, and those that fit the bill contain rare earth magnets — which means dependence on China. Further, the motors in electric vehicles heat up more, which is a problem because degmagnetisation occurs above 150 degrees C.
SRMs can withstand extreme temperatures. A Bengaluru-based start-up called Bounceshare, which rents out scooters at a per km charge, has said it would manufacture 30,000 electric scooters featuringSRMs.
“SRMs are coming back with a bang,” says Amith Bysani, Head of Products, Chara Technologies. Two companies, Turntide Technologies and Advanced Electric Machines, both based in the UK, are bringing out SRMs. Advanced Electric Machines’ technology even allows the use of the cheaper aluminium instead of copper for the windings.
Though SRMs are often hyphenated with EVs, they can gainfully replace any motor. SRMs will “create a new revolution in India,” says Ravi Singh, Partner, Kalaari Capital, which has invested in Chara.
Rotational blackouts are expected to get worse in 2022 amid aging power plants. More power outages are expected in Luzon, with the Department of Energy (DOE) implementing rotational blackouts beginning in May to manage power demand and supply. However, rotational blackouts are not a long-term solution – they are temporary and band-aid measures that will affect productivity as remote work becomes the norm with the pandemic. Rotational blackouts can also lead to an increase in consumer electricity bills, mainly due to higher WESM charges.
The situation might worsen next year with anticipated forced outages in power facilities, the reduction of gas plants' power rating, and a shortage of gas fuel from the Malampaya field. The Department of Energy has been implementing a series of measurements to increase renewable energy generation capacity in the past decades. But simply augmenting coal-fired power plants and importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) are not sustainable solutions. Heavy reliance on imported fuels also increases risks of energy supply under the current pandemic. Solar power might just be the answer to sustaining the country's economy. Transitioning to solar power now ensures that Filipino energy users don't bear the cost when these fossil fuel plants eventually become unusable.
Solar PV has numerous advantages that overshadow its upfront cost. It is now the cheapest source of energy in many countries in the world, including Philippines. In addition, it's a clean energy source, making it a great way to reduce our carbon footprint that meets the Philippines commitment to climate change. Solar power does not release environment-harming greenhouse gases. Apart from clean water for occasional maintenance, off-grid solar installations do not require other resources to function.Shifting to solar PV also reduces the energy demand from aging coal fired generators and can deliver competitive, lower utility electricity rates compared to existing distribution. Rooftop solar PV for self-consumption increases energy efficiency, as it does not need extensive networks to transport electricity from power plants to households.
Energy generated from rooftop solar PV can offset the initial investment in just a few years. Solar power is the perfect choice for a tropical country like the Philippines with high irradiation. Photovoltaic technologies convert solar irradiation into electrical current, and the power can be used as a direct electricity source in households or stored in batteries. LONGi Solar is the industry leader in manufacturing monocrystalline solar products used in many major solar panels in the PV industry. Founded in 2000, LONGi is the fastest-growing PV module manufacturer and has become the largest mono wafer and solar module manufacturer worldwide.
It is the only solar panel producer rated AAA in PV ModuleTech Bankability Ratings. Bloomberg New Energy Finance has rated the manufacturer with the top annual module capacity (Tier 1) in Q2 2021 and the highest Altman-Z score. LONGi is forecasted to further supply 85GW of mono-crystalline wafer and 45GW of solar modules in 2021, representing around 40 percent and 30 percent global wafer and module market shares, respectively. LONGi entered the Philippines market in 2017 and today the company has already become an established brand in the country. LONGi has supplied the 100MW PV + 132MW wind hybrid project in Ilocos Norte, with another 80MW project expected to be completed in 2021.
LONDON and VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 16, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mkango Resources Ltd. (AIM/TSX-V: MKA) (the "Company" or "Mkango") is pleased to announce that further to the Company’s announcement of 5 August 2021, it has now received TSX-V conditional approval for the issuance of 23,007,495 common shares of no par value (“New Shares”) at an issue price of £0.24 (approx. C$0.42) per New Share, raising £5.52 million (£5.29m net of fees) from new and existing investors (the “Placing”).
Subscriptions from related parties, being Resource Early Stage Opportunities Company (“RESOC”) for 1,666,666 New Shares and Derek Linfield for 2,916,666 New Shares, remain conditional on approval from shareholders other than RESOC (in respect of its subscription) and Mr Linfield (in respect of his subscription), which approval will be sought at the Company’s Annual General and Special Meeting of Shareholders (the "Meeting") to be held on 6 October 2021. An investor who had previously indicated that it wished to delay its subscription for 350,000 New Shares until after the Meeting informed the Company earlier this week that it no longer wished to delay such subscription.
Accordingly, 18,424,163 New Shares have now been issued pursuant to the Placing with the remaining 4,583,332 New Shares to be issued conditional upon shareholder approvals at the Meeting.
In addition to the New Shares, the Company has issued an aggregate of 344,815 non-transferable warrants to the brokers who advised in connection with the Placing. Each warrant is exercisable for a period of 12 months with an exercise price of £0.24 per warrant. The warrants (and the underlying shares) are subject to a statutory hold period in Canada expiring on the date that is four months and one day from the issuance of the warrants.
Admission to trading on AIM and Total Voting Rights
Application has been made for the 18,424,163 New Shares, which will rank pari passu with the existing common shares of no par value each (“Common Shares”) of the Company, to be admitted to trading on AIM ("Admission"). It is expected that Admission of 18,074,163 of the New Shares will become effective and dealings will commence at 8:00 a.m. on or around 17 August 2021, and Admission of the remaining 350,000 New Shares will become effective and dealings will commence at 8:00 a.m. on or around 18 August 2021.
Following the issue of these New Shares, the total issued share capital of the Company will consist of 153,949,884 Common Shares. The Company does not hold any Common Shares in Treasury. Therefore, the total current voting rights in the Company following Admission will be 153,949,884 and this figure may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change in their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.
The New Shares will also be listed for trading on the TSX-V and will be subject to a statutory hold period in Canada expiring on the date that is four months and one day from issuance of the New Shares.
About Mkango
Mkango’s corporate strategy is to develop new sustainable primary and secondary sources of neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium to supply accelerating demand from electric vehicles, wind turbines and other clean technologies. This integrated Mine, Refine, Recycle strategy differentiates Mkango from its peers, uniquely positioning the Company in the rare earths sector.
Mkango is developing Songwe Hill in Malawi with a Feasibility Study targeted for completion in Q1 2022. Malawi is known as “The Warm Heart of Africa”, a stable democracy with existing road, rail and power infrastructure, and new infrastructure developments underway.
In parallel, Mkango recently announced that Mkango and Grupa Azoty PULAWY, Poland’s leading chemical company and the second largest manufacturer of nitrogen and compound fertilizers in the European Union, have agreed to work together towards development of a rare earth Separation Plant at Pulawy in Poland. The Separation Plant will process the purified mixed rare earth carbonate produced at Songwe.
Through its ownership of Maginito (www.maginito.com), Mkango is also developing green technology opportunities in the rare earths supply chain, encompassing neodymium (NdFeB) magnet recycling as well as innovative rare earth alloy, magnet, and separation technologies. Maginito holds a 25% interest in UK rare earth (NdFeB) magnet recycler, HyProMag (www.hypromag.com) with an option to increase its interest to 49%.
Mkango also has an extensive exploration portfolio in Malawi, including the Mchinji rutile discovery, for which assay results are pending, in addition to the Thambani uranium-
ABU DHABI, 16th August, 2021 (WAM) -- Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) today announced that its Jebel Ali smelter has received certification from the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) for its strong environmental and social performance, and governance - together known as ESG.
EGA was the first Middle East-headquartered company to join ASI, the leading global authority on ESG performance for the aluminium industry, in 2017. EGA also became the first Middle East company to achieve an ASI certification for its Al Taweelah smelter in 2019.
Speaking on the occasion, Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, EGA Chief Executive Officer, said, "We are proud to again receive ASI’s esteemed stamp of approval with the certification of our Jebel Ali smelter. This ASI certification is a direct consequence of EGA’s steadfast commitment to improving our ESG performance and the overall sustainability of our business to ensure resilience into the future.
"At EGA, we believe it is not enough to produce the metal that makes modern life possible and is integral to building a more sustainable future. It also matters how responsibly and sustainably our aluminium metal is made. Strong ESG performance is, first and foremost, good and necessary for our world, for the societies in which we operate, and for our people," added Bin Kalban.
Fiona Solomon, Chief Executive Officer at ASI, said, "We warmly congratulate EGA on achieving this certification for their Jebel Ali operations. Having already certified its Al Taweelah smelting operations in 2019, the first in the Gulf region to do so, both of the company’s smelting operations are now ASI Performance Standard certified. Their ongoing commitment to ASI Certification further underscores the company’s strong commitment to sustainability principles more broadly."
Japanese trading firm Sumitomo has agreed to divest its stake in the Rolleston coal mine in Queensland, Australia, to its partner Anglo-Swiss commodity firm Glencore for an undisclosed sum.
Under the agreement, Sumitomo’s subsidiary Sumisho Coal Australia will sell its 12.5% stake in the mine to a Glencore subsidiary.
In June 2021, Glencore acquired a 12.5% stake in the Rolleston open-cut mine from its partner ICRA Rolleston, increasing its stake to 87.5%. The remaining 12.5% stake in the project is held by Sumisho Coal Australia.
Upon completion of the latest deal, Glencore will have a 100% interest in the mine, which is located 16km west of Rolleston township and 140km south-east of Emerald in Queensland’s Bowen Basin.
The sale is part of Sumitomo’s policy to address climate change.
In May 2021, Sumitomo revised its climate change policy, which included the 2030 goal to reduce its thermal coal output to zero.
Sumitomo also holds a 37.13% stake in the Clermont mine in Australia.
The firm, however, intends to retain this interest as the operational life of the mine is scheduled to end by 2030, Reuters reported citing a company spokesperson.
Separately, Sumitomo Metal Mining has demonstrated its technology’s ability to recycle nickel and cobalt from rechargeable batteries that can be reused as raw materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs).
Following optimising processes at its pilot plant, the firm recovered a high-purity nickel-cobalt mixture by separating out the impurities in used secondary batteries, as well as manufactured and evaluated LIB cathode material using the nickel-cobalt mixture.
In a press statement, the firm said: “We were able to verify that the performance of those batteries was equivalent to that of batteries manufactured using existing raw materials derived from natural resources.
“Through the integration of this world-first original technology into our processes, we have established a new recycling process that is able to recycle copper, nickel, cobalt and lithium from used secondary batteries.”
https://www.mining-technology.com/dashboards/deals-dashboards/sumitomo-stake-rolleston-glencore/
Schneider Electric, a leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, and AVEVA, a global leader in industrial software, driving digital transformation and sustainability, say they are powering the unification of operations for Vale, a global natural resources and mining company. “The combination of AVEVA and Schneider Electric software, technology and mining domain expertise is providing Vale with the ability to integrate, centralise, and remotely monitor operations across its Mariana and Itabira complexes in Brazil.”
Vale ranks among the top five largest mining companies in the world. Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, the world’s leading producer of iron ore, pellets and nickel employs a global workforce of over 170,000 people in 38 countries. The Mariana Complex and Itabira Complex are two of Vale’s major iron ore production sites, located in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Together, the complexes are responsible for more than 75% of the production data from Vale’s Minas Gerais mining operations.
While primarily implemented to improve safety through remote operations, digitalisation is critically important to driving efficiency and sustainability in mining. Through the partnership, Vale can unify operations across multiple sites and upgrade its old system to one capable of remotely controlling all the diverse technologies operating across each mining facility. Crucially, the remote management solution enables Vale to have fewer professionals onsite, increasing safety and reducing operational expenditures while also vastly improving energy efficiency, and therefore, sustainability.
Vale chose Schneider Electric and AVEVA for the technological performance and visibility offered by their solutions. These provide an extremely high level of flexibility due to their vendor-agnostic nature, making it easy to integrate disparate technologies across multiple sites.
“We are constantly looking to improve safety, efficiency and sustainability, not just now but also for the future,” said Paulo Henrique Fontes Coura, Senior Automation Leader, Vale. “Schneider Electric and AVEVA have become an integral part of that journey. Rather than simply offering the software, they provided a complete, bespoke end-to-end service helping us optimise at every turn. This included training, support, and advice throughout.”
“The collaboration between our companies has created something much greater than the sum of its parts,” said Gilberto da Cunha Vieira, Electrical and Automation Engineer Leader, Vale. “We are enormously grateful to Schneider Electric and AVEVA for bringing our facilities together.”
Schneider Electric deployed EcoStruxure™ Control Expert – Asset Link, combining AVEVA™ System Platform and Schneider Modicon M580, to provide visibility and unify operations for Vale. The technology enables data to be integrated directly into the system, so Vale’s managers have granular insights without having to manually transfer any intelligence. By bringing this data together, Vale can now create a master operations center and remotely manage everything. This greatly improves operational efficiency and means less people are onsite, providing a significant boost to safety.
Other results include:
Cost savings with faster data to make decisions
Full visibility and compatibility for all plants, providing a single holistic view
Better coordination in operations, and increased efficiency and productivity by unifying multiple disciplines at the same place
Complete standardisation through one platform, with multiple device manufacturers
Greater sustainability through resource optimisation
“In today’s world, information is imperative,” said Rob Moffitt, President – Mining, Minerals and Metals, Schneider Electric. “It drives safety, sustainability, and profitability for those able to use it successfully. Iron production is essential to all our lives, providing steel for the automotive and construction industries around the world. It is vital that a sector upon which we rely can run efficiently, safely and sustainably. The system we have created for Vale alongside AVEVA is vital to this process. We look forward to seeing Vale unlock its potential to understand, manage and enhance its operations across Brazil.”
“Mining operations are data-rich environments where digital transformation can drive sustainability and productivity gains for improved asset utilisation and enhanced value optimisation,” commented Marc Ramsay, Vice President, Global Strategic Partners, AVEVA. “Together with Schneider Electric EcoStruxure, AVEVA System Platform supports Vale in realising the mines of the future through contextualised operations built on a collaborative, standards-based foundation that unifies people, processes, and assets across all of Vale’s facilities for continuous operational improvement and real-time decision assistance.”
An agreement between Global Energy Group and Swiss company Proman could lead to the cration of a methanol production plant at Port of Nigg. Photograph: Malcolm McCurrach | New Wave Images UK
Highland-based Global Energy Group (GEG) is joining forces with Swiss-based multinational Proman to create a green methanol production plant at GEG's Nigg Energy Park in Easter Ross.
The Cromarty Clean Fuels Project agreement with Proman, the second largest methanol producer in the world, would see captured carbon dioxide (CO2) from local industrial sources used to power the plant.
Subject to the sucessful completion of ongoing financial and technical feasibility studies, and further development and financing of the project, Proman will become the owner and of the production facility, which GEG is developing as part of its aim to strengthen the resilience and competitiveness of the Cromarty Firth region by establishing an industrial low carbon cluster at the Port of Nigg.
The Cromarty Clean Fuels Project team is now assessing the commercial, technical and financial viability of a renewable power to methanol production and export facility with the ability to store onshore at Nigg and load methanol to be exported on bulk carrier vessels using the repurposed Nigg Jetty. It will also determine the optimal scale for the project.
Green methanol is used as a transportation fuel or as a feedstock in the chemical industry. It is produced from recycled carbon dioxide and hydrogen produced from renewable electricity using proven technologies such as electrolysis. Green methanol can be used as a fuel which drastically cuts greenhouse gas missions by eliminating sulphur oxide and particulate matter, and significantly reducing nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide emissions, helping in the battle against climate change and improving public health through better air quality.
Tim Cornelius, chief executive of Global Energy Group, commented: “We are delighted to be joining forces with Proman on this potentially seminal project for Scotland. Green methanol can be made from many plentiful sources and with the efforts being made to capture North Sea carbon dioxide, we hope to become an important customer and consumer of projects such as the Acorn Project to produce clean fuels for the wider maritime transport sector.
"Onshore and offshore wind is one of the world’s fastest growing sources of energy, however, wind power must be dispatched as soon as it is produced, even if there is not enough demand for electricity. When this happens, operators have little choice but to disconnect the renewable source from the grid, leading to wasted energy and costs for governments and operators.
"This plant will have the capability of harnessing excess power to produce green methanol, which can then be used as an automotive or shipping fuel or as a chemical building block in thousands of everyday products.“
Proman chief executive David Cassidy added: “As a global leader in methanol production we are actively investing and pursuing green methanol projects to further develop methanol’s potential as a clean fuel for the future. Working with Global Energy Group in establishing green methanol production in Scotland is an exciting development in our strategy as it combines the necessary requirements of low cost renewable energy and utilises local sources of captured CO2 to produce green methanol.
"The UK has proven itself as a world leader in supporting offshore wind, tidal and other clean power generation technologies. Green methanol presents a significant opportunity to bridge the gap from fossil-based to renewable fuels as we move to a lower carbon future and as such the production of and market for green methanol from sustainable sources such as waste, bio-mass or renewable energy is growing and highly scalable.“
Vestas has received a 126 MW order from Taaleri Energia for the Isoneva project in Finland, adding to the more than 1.8 GW in firm orders already received in Finland for the EnVentus platform.
The order includes supply, installation 21 V162-6.0 MW turbines from Vestas' EnVentus platform. This order follows the 126 MW order received from Taaleri Energia for the Murtotuuli project in the second quarter of 2021.
Vestas will provide service for the Isoneva project through a long-term Active Output Management 5000 (AOM 5000) service agreement, providing power performance certainty and Vestas' industry-leading service expertise throughout the lifetime of the project.
The Isoneva project, which will be situated in Siikajoki municipality in the North Ostrobothnia region, will receive turbines in the first quarter of 2022 and be fully commissioned by the end of 2022.
About Vestas
Vestas is the energy industry's global partner on sustainable energy solutions. We design, manufacture, install, and service onshore and offshore wind turbines across the globe, and with more than 136 GW of wind turbines in 84 countries, we have installed more wind power than anyone else. Through our industry-leading smart data capabilities and unparalleled more than 117 GW of wind turbines under service, we use data to interpret, forecast, and exploit wind resources and deliver best-in-class wind power solutions. Together with our customers, Vestas' more than 29,000 employees are bringing the world sustainable energy solutions to power a bright future.
SM Lab, a South Korean battery material startup, has developed a cathode with 98% nickel content, the highest density ever for rechargeable batteries used in electric vehicles.
The battery research arm of state-run Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) said on Wednesday it has successfully developed the nickel-rich cathode material, which can be commercialized through mass production in the first half of next year at the earliest.Industry officials said the development marks the industry’s first to break beyond the barrier of 94% nickel content in cathodes.
During a battery conference organized by Korea’s trade, industry and energy ministry in June, the country’s three major battery makers – LG Energy Solution Ltd., Samsung SDI Co. and SK Innovation Co. – said 94% could be the highest nickel density theoretically possible for mass production.“Given that about 100 kg of cathodes are needed in batteries for an electric car, the new nickel-rich cathode can have an additional 1,600 Ah capacity, meaning longer mileage,” said Jaephil Cho, chief executive of SM Lab.Cho, a professor of the university’s Energy and Chemical Engineering Department, also heads the Samsung SDI-UNIST Future Battery Research Center, a joint venture between Samsung and UNIST.He expects the new cathode to increase an electric vehicle’s mileage by 15-16% while slashing battery production costs by 20%.
A cathode is a key raw material that accounts for about 40% of rechargeable battery production costs.CEO Cho said SM Lab aims to begin the mass production of the cathode with 98% nickel content in the first quarter of 2022, and raise its production capacity from the current 20 kg a day to 21,600 tons a year by July 2023.“We are reviewing plans to supply our product to an overseas automaker,” he said.A former senior researcher at Samsung SDI, Cho has been leading the Samsung-UNIST battery research center since 2014. He established the startup, SM Lab, in July 2018.SM Lab is the only company in the world with the technology to manufacture nickel-based single-crystal anode material, which makes the battery lifespan 30% longer.SM Lab received a total of 64 billion won ($55 million) in venture capital investment from the likes of Korea Investment Partners and STIC Ventures until last year.
Recently, the battery startup attracted 45 billion won in pre-IPO investment.The company plans to go public on the tech-heavy Kosdaq market in July next year. It has hired NH Investment & Securities Co. and Korea Investment & Securities Co. as its IPO managers.
Currently, the domestic cathode market is dominated by two players – EcoPro BM Co. and L&F Co. Neither company has yet produced a cathode with a nickel content of over 90%.EcoPro BM is working with SK Innovation to raise the nickel content in its cathodes to as high as 94%.The global demand for cathodes is forecast to grow more than tenfold to 6.3 million tons by 2030 from 609,000 tons in 2020, according to market tracker SNE Research.Hae-Sung Lee at ihs@hankyung.com In-Soo Nam edited this article.
Report: Clean electricity accounted for record two-thirds of EU's generation mix for first half of 2021
Renewables and nuclear power accounted for a record 66% of electricity production across the EU during the first half of 2021, with clean energy proving far more resilient to the pandemic than fossil fuels.
That is according to a new analysis from climate think-tank Ember; the latest in a series of bi-annual updates on electricity generation and demand in the EU.
Ember’s figures show that nuclear and renewable generation accounted for 66% of electricity generation across the bloc between January and June 2021, up from 63% during the first half of 2019 – the previous record. Renewables took a 39% generation share and nuclear a 27% share.
The uptick in clean energy generation was largely due to wind and solar, which collectively saw a 9% increase in output. Solar output grew more rapidly than wind, predominantly due to poor weather conditions for wind generation.
Within the same timeframe, coal’s generation share dropped from 16% to 14%. Natural gas did not experience such a steep drop in generation share, but, overall, fossil electricity generation in the EU for H1 of 2021 stood at around half of the levels seen in H1 of 2019.
These trends have resulted in a lower-carbon electricity mix. Ember claims that emissions from electricity generation in the first half of 2021 were 12% lower than in the first half of 2019. In other words, emissions have not rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. This is even though energy demand across the EU has largely rebounded and is now just 0.6% below pre-pandemic levels.
The hope, of course, is that a rebound in emissions can be prevented in the longer term, with an increase in energy demand being met with low-carbon sources. The EU recently built on its 2050 net-zero goal with a package of policy changes designed to deliver a 55% reduction in emissions by 2030, against a 1990 baseline. One of the targets in this package, called ‘Fit for 55’, is for renewable energy to account for 40% of final consumption in 2030, up from 20% in 2019.
While celebrating the progress made, Ember’s conclusion is that it is, ultimately, not rapid enough to put the bloc on track to meet its own climate targets. The think-tank believes that year-on-year progress in increasing clean power’s share of the generation mix will need to happen at double the speed seen here, through to 2030.
Ember is emphasising that the cost of accelerating progress is continually falling; it states that, on average across the EU, it costs around twice as much to generate electricity from existing gas and goal plants than from new large-scale wind or solar farms.
“Now the pandemic effect on the power sector has passed, the overall trend is clear: fossil fuels are in rapid decline as Europe cleans up its power sector,” Ember’s European programme lead Charles Moore said. “But progress is nowhere near fast enough to meet the EU’s own emissions target, let alone reach 100% clean electricity by 2035.”
UK trends
The latest analysis of the energy generation and consumption mix in the UK was published last month by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s (BEIS).
BEIS’s latest Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES) revealed that the proportion of the energy mix accounted for by renewables reached a record 43.1% for 2020. When nuclear and other low-carbon energies are added, 59.3% of the generation mix is accounted for.
At the same time, the proportion of fossil fuels in the energy mix reached a record low in 2020, dropping to 37.7%. As in Europe, coal declined more rapidly than natural gas and has not recovered as well. The UK is mandating that all coal-fired power plants come offline by the end of October 2024, with the last closure set for September 2024.
Sarah George
Benzinga routinely researches a stock that might be considered a little under the radar. The company may not be well known, but chances are the industry it is in is quite well known.
This is called the ‘thing behind the thing’.
One company that caters to the needs of rare earth minerals for a variety of industries is featured this week’s “Thing Behind The Thing.”
About MP materials: in 2020, MP Materials Corp (NYSE: MP) announced a SPAC merger to go public. The deal brought the decades-old Mountain Pass mining site in California public in another effort to help the US become less dependent on China’s rare earth mineral extraction. MP Materials’ mission is to “restore the entire supply chain of rare earth metals to the United States of America”. The company is the largest producer of rare earth materials in the US and the Western Hemisphere.
“MP Materials has the best ore body in the world”, CEO James Litinsky Benzinga told in a previous interview.
The company presented a three-phase growth plan in its investor presentation, with Phase II to be completed by 2022 and Phase III by 2025 to expand the company into magnets. Thing behind the thing: MP Materials is “the thing behind the thing” as it works to provide the essential rare earth materials used in industries such as wind turbines, automation, robotics, electric vehicles, drones, electric public transportation and electric aviation. Electric vehicles could consume the current supply of rare earth minerals within a decade, MP said last year. Litinsky called MP Materials a pick-and-shovel game last year, noting that those who made real fortunes in gold mining were the ones who provided the materials.
MP Materials can benefit no matter which electric vehicle companies dominate. Investing in MP Materials can be a gamble on the rise of electric vehicles rather than on an individual company. Companies like Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA), Apple inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) and General Motors Company (NYSE: GM) are required to source their magnets from China as part of its current business, but that could change when all three phases of the MP Materials business plan are operational.
Home » Models » BMW i » Might Electric Cars Get Higher Speed Limits on Highways?
August 13, 2021
https://www.bmwblog.com/?p=407560"
Governments around the world are trying to figure out how to get more customers into electric cars, reduce emissions, and create a more sustainable automotive market. Admittedly, there are far bigger issues regarding climate change than the automobile but that’s a conversation for another time. Fact of the matter is that we have to start switching over to electric vehicles sooner than later and one way to incentivize that might be with speed limits.
In this new video from Auto Trader UK, Rory Reid talks about the potential for increased speed limits on highways and motorways for electric cars. It’s certainly worth a watch, as it poses some good arguments for doing so.
Austria has already done this. In certain areas, the motorway speed limit is 100 km/h (62 mph) for all internal combustion vehicles. While the speed limit, in those same areas, for electric vehicles is 130 km/h (81 mph). The reasons for this are two-fold. For starters, the reduced internal combustion speed limit reduces CO2 emissions. Simply put, the faster you go, the more gasoline (or diesel) you burn, therefore the more emissions you put out. However, since electric vehicles produce no emissions while driving, there’s no reason to limit their speed.
By Adam Vaughan
ESA
Solar power beamed from satellites could provide the UK with a continuous supply of green energy as soon as 2039, according to a report commissioned by the government’s space agency.
The idea of space-based solar power dates back to a 1941 short story by sci-fi author Isaac Asimov and a 1968 paper in the journal Science, but technology developments and climate change concerns means the concept has seen renewed interest in recent years from China, Japan, the US and, …
Element 25 Ltd has acquired two STEINERT 2-m-wide KSS ore sorters fitted with multiple sensors that are now installed at its Butcherbird manganese project in Western Australia.
The sorters will be used to upgrade the high-quality manganese concentrate for export markets, STEINERT says.
The Butcherbird operation has a proven and probable manganese ore reserves of 50.55 Mt at an average grade of 10.3% Mn for 5.22 Mt of contained manganese.
Element 25 plans to use the STEINERT KSS sensor-based sorters to upgrade the washed feed material to an average grade of >32% Mn, STEINERT says.
The miner has already shipped its first consignment of ore and the second is scheduled to be loaded at Port Hedland, in Western Australia, in late August. Current annual production is estimated at 365,000 t of manganese ore concentrate with a 40-year mine life for Stage 1 of the operation.
Element 25 previously said Butcherbird is ideally placed to feed potential demand, with advanced flowsheet development work undertaken in 2019 and 2020 confirming a simple, unique, ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure leach process for Element 25 ores which, when combined with offsets, will target the world’s first Zero Carbon Manganese for EV cathode manufacture.
https://im-mining.com/2021/08/19/element-25-targets-butcherbird-upgrade-steinert-kss-ore-sorters/
Floating Wind Turbine Market expectation surges with rising demand and changing trends by industry analysis through 2027
Report Ocean has published a new report that examines the Global Floating Wind Turbine Market. This research report provides detailed insights into the key factors required to demonstrate the market's growth. This report gave an insight into prominent growth drivers, restraint factors, challenges, opportunity analysis, trends, and several other essential factors, including geographical outlook, current, and future competitive landscapes, and market vendors.
Moreover, this report provides a detailed analysis of market sizes, segments, and determinants for the dominant categories in the market.To Remain ‘In front of’ Your Competitors, Request for Sample Report Here (Use Corporate email ID to Get Higher Priority): (up to 20% OFF)The global floating wind turbine market was valued at $3.2 billion in 2019, and is projected to reach $30.6 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 32.5% from 2020 to 2027.
It has shown an impressive growth rate in recent years and is forecast to exhibit profitably in the years to come. The report examines in detail the key competitors in the global Floating Wind Turbine Market. The report shares in-depth information on our operating business segments, product portfolio, key performance indicators, and key strategic developments.Segmentation overview:By FoundationSpar-buoySemi-submersibleOthersBy DepthShallow Water (less than 60 m Depth)Deep Water (higher than 60 m Depth)Competitive Landscape:Siemens Gamesa Renewable, MHI Vestas Offshore Wind, Senvion SA, ABB group, GE Renewable Energy, and NORDEX SE.The major companies profiled in Floating Wind Turbine Market include several key competitors. Expansion, mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, product releases, and collaboration are a few of the strategies these companies use to remain competitive in the market.The report provides a thorough analysis of the market’s pre and post covid-19 factors. The whole world was under lockdown after WHO announced Covid-19 as a pandemic.
This study examines how the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is affecting the global Floating Wind Turbine Market by discussing several points:• In-depth analysis of COVID-19 on the global Floating Wind Turbine Market in the upcoming years.• This report describes in detail the research regarding the Coronavirus disease in each region and country.• An overview of the strategies and ideas adopted by renowned market players to ensure their survival in a lockdown situation.Key Insights covered in Global Floating Wind Turbine Market Report• This report provides an overview of the new and upcoming market strategies of the Floating Wind Turbine Market.• A quality and quantity analysis of the trends, yearly estimation, growth rate, and CAGR.• Analysis of the upcoming threats, challenges, which can hamper the market growth. Market segmentation based on type, organizational size, component, services, region, etc.• Porter's Five Forces analysis determines how much competition will exist in the industry based on potential buyers and suppliers.•
This approach outlines a framework of macro-environmental factors, including Political, Economic, Socio-Cultural, Technological, Legal, and Environmental aspects.• A summary of the most significant factors and the biggest investors is included in the research.• An in-depth analysis is given to each region to determine which countries are contributing most to the generated revenues.Regional Overview:Market segments are based on geography, with the region being segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, and the Middle East & Africa. Furthermore, the report includes a classification of market data and an analysis of region by country.Furthermore, the countries and regions are grouped into these types:• North America (U.S., Mexico & Canada)• Middle East & Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, South Africa, and Rest of the Middle East & Africa)• Europe (Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, and Rest of Europe)• Asia Pacific (Japan, China, India, New Zealand, South Korea, Australia, and Rest of Asia Pacific)• South America (Argentina, Brazil and Rest of South America)
A tangle of power lines in Erbil, the most populated city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Credit: Leif Hinrichsen/Creative Commons
On June 29, Iran halted gas and electricity exports to Iraq over nonpayment of fees. The move left millions of Iraqis without power as temperatures soared to more than 120 degrees, turning cities into ovens and throwing the embattled government of Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi into yet another political firestorm. While the Iranian move was clearly designed to increase Tehran’s influence over its neighbor, it also raises questions about Iraq’s proposal last month to restart the country’s civilian nuclear program, once the subject of proliferation concern.
Iraq is the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ second-largest producer and has some of the largest oil and natural gas reserves on the planet. By rights Iraq should be energy self-sufficient, but decades of war damage and mismanagement, combined with an overreliance on oil and gas exports, mean the country doesn’t generate enough power to meet demand. Instead, between a quarter and a third of Iraq’s electricity is produced with piped-in Iranian gas, and Iraq also imports about 5 percent of its electricity directly from Iran—an uncomfortable reliance on a historic enemy.
The Iraqi government owed Iran $4 billion in unpaid utility bills at the end of June, but the coronavirus pandemic and other economic troubles have made it difficult to pay. What money Iraq does release must perform complex financial acrobatics to get around US sanctions on Iran, a process Iran says takes too long.
Against this backdrop, Iraq’s announcement that it plans to spend $40 billion on eight nuclear reactors for civilian energy production is puzzling. Nuclear power would diversify the country’s energy sources and make the petrostate less dependent on energy imports from its neighbors, but there are faster and cheaper ways to help the millions of Iraqis currently without power in the sweltering heat.
Iraq’s nuclear legacy. Iraq received its first research reactor from the Soviet Union in 1962, and acquired several more over the next two decades. Although these reactors were purportedly developed for peaceful purposes, Iraq launched a covert nuclear weapons program in the early 1970s in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which it signed in 1968. Concerned with Iraq’s likely nuclear weapons development, Israel bombed the Osiraq reactor complex in 1981, driving Iraq’s nuclear weapons program underground. Iraq spent the next decade experimenting with different methods to enrich uranium covertly to weapons-grade levels (typically 90 percent uranium 235), along with additional research on nuclear weapons designs.
After the 1991 Gulf War, the United Nations Security Council instructed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to dismantle Iraq’s nuclear weapons program. The IAEA removed all weapons-grade nuclear material from Iraq and destroyed or disabled the country’s nuclear facilities. Iraq was reluctant to cooperate with international inspectors, however, which, coupled with then-President Saddam Hussein’s tendency to exaggerate his country’s weapons-of-mass-destruction capabilities, led US intelligence agencies to incorrectly assess that Iraq was hiding a nuclear weapons program. This assessment led to the 2003 US invasion, after which it was discovered that Hussein had not, in fact, restarted the program.
The Iraqi government made efforts to conform to international nonproliferation norms in the post-Hussein era. Iraq ratified the IAEA Additional Protocol in 2012, giving the IAEA greater insight into the country’s nuclear activities, and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 2013. The UN Security Council lifted restrictions on Iraq’s nuclear industry in 2010. Current and former government officials have routinely floated the idea of using nuclear power to solve the country’s crippling energy shortages, which leave large parts of the country without power during the hot summer months, a major cause of political unrest in recent years.
In June, Kamal Hussein Latif, chairman of the Iraqi Radioactive Sources Regulatory Authority, said the Iraqi government is currently in talks with Russia’s Rosatom about a $40 billion plan to build eight nuclear reactors. Latif also said Iraq discussed the plan with French, American and South Korean officials. Rosatom has secured contracts to construct nuclear reactors with several of Iraq’s neighbors, including Turkey, Iran, Jordan, and Egypt, although the contract with Jordan later fell through.
The $40 billion question. Part of Iraq’s nation-building strategy is ensuring greater access to electricity, and Baghdad sees nuclear power as an attractive way to address this challenge. The proposed eight-reactor plan would provide the country with a steady 11 gigawatts of power, bridging the gap between supply and demand even during the hottest part of the year. Iraq would reduce its reliance on Iranian gas, free up more of its hydrocarbons for export, and limit its dependence on carbon-based fuel generally. Nuclear power could also boost the legitimacy of al-Kadhimi’s government, and potentially rehabilitate Iraq’s image as an upstanding member of the civilian nuclear community.
There are some problems with this plan, though. Establishing and maintaining nuclear facilities would impose a large financial burden on a government already struggling to provide basic services to its citizens. Declining oil prices in 2020 forced Iraq to dip into its foreign reserves to pay public-sector salaries, and to shelve a much smaller plan to repair and upgrade the country’s dilapidated transmission and distribution network. And don’t forget the $4 billion Iraq owes Iran in unpaid utility bills, the cause of the most recent blackouts sweeping the country. Even with favorable terms, a $40 billion project would be hard to justify given the government’s difficulty meeting its current financial obligations.
Compounding the affordability problem is the fact that about two thirds of generated power isn’t paid for, due to theft or unmetered connections. The government already heavily subsidizes electricity costs, with customers only paying for about 10 percent of the actual cost of the electricity they use. As a result, the Ministry of Electricity needs $12 billion per year to balance the books. Adding nuclear energy to the mix would push the ministry even deeper into the red, depending on how much financing Iraq could get for the project.
Proliferation is another major concern. The Iraqi power grid has weathered 35 terror attacks so far this year. Introducing nuclear technology would increase the risk of nuclear material falling into terrorist hands, either through a direct attack on a nuclear facility or via a corrupt government official. Given the country’s existing abundant energy resources, Iraq’s neighbors may suspect a civilian nuclear program is once again a cover story for weapons development. With other regional states like Turkey and Saudi Arabia toying with the idea of nuclear weapons, the appearance of seemingly unaffordable reactors in Iraq could be the straw that breaks the back of the already overburdened camel that is nonproliferation in the Middle East. Uncertainty over what happens if the Iran nuclear deal is not renewed, or renewed but expires in a few years, adds to this danger.
Iraq needs energy, but nuclear power is not the answer. In the short term, Iraq must rebuild its broken transmission and distribution system, overhaul the Ministry of Electricity’s fee collection system, and remove bottlenecks in the gas pipeline network to improve generation capacity. In the medium term, the country can encourage renewable energy use and diversify its energy mix by expanding solar power projects and refurbishing existing hydroelectric facilities. These infrastructure projects will ensure Iraq has reliable and consistent power generation in the long term, and be a better use of resources than an unnecessary, budget-busting prestige project.
"It seems that the moment is approaching when shipments will stop, which means that we will lose around 60 million euros in annual revenue and Lithuania's entire logistics chain will not receive over 100 million euros in revenue," Bartuska told BNS on Thursday.
"Belaruskali's products are clearly the most significant, but we are already not transporting oil products and freight from Grodno Azot," he said. "We estimate that we may need an infrastructure subsidy of around 60 million euros per year."
Otherwise, growing infrastructure costs will lead to a hike of 30 percent in rail tariffs, according to Bartuska.
LTG is in talks with Ukraine on new cargoes and is also looking toward Turkey, according to BNS.
Transport Minister Marius Skuodis confirmed earlier on Thursday that Belarusian fertilizer shipments via Lithuania will stop from December due to the new US sanctions on Belaruskali, one of the world's biggest suppliers of potash fertilizers
Last year, LTG handled around 11 million tons of Belaruskali fertilizers and a total of 18 million to 19 million tons of Belarusian goods.
U.S. officials on Monday are expected to declare the first-ever water shortage from a river that serves 40 million people in the West, triggering cuts to some Arizona farmers next year amid a gripping drought.
Water levels at the largest reservoir on the Colorado River — Lake Mead — have fallen to record lows. Along its perimeter, a white “bathtub ring” of minerals outlines where the high water line once stood, underscoring the acute water challenges for a region facing a growing population and a drought that is being worsened by hotter, drier weather brought on by climate change.
States, cities, farmers and others have diversified their water sources over the years, helping soften the blow of the upcoming cuts. But if current conditions persist — or intensify — additional cuts in coming years will be more deeply felt.
Lake Mead was formed by building Hoover Dam in the 1930s. It is one of several man-made reservoirs that store water from the Colorado River, which supplies drinking water, irrigation for farms and hydropower to Arizona, California Colorado, Nevada New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and parts of Mexico.
But water levels at Lake Mead and Lake Powell the river's two largest reservoirs, have been falling for years and faster than experts predicted. Scorching temperatures and less melting snow in the spring have reduced the amount of water flowing from the Rocky Mountains, where the river originates before it snakes 1,450 miles (2,334 kilometers) southwest and into the Gulf of California.
“We’re at a moment where we’re reckoning with how we continue to flourish with less water, and it’s very painful,” said Sarah Porter, director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University.
HOW IS THE RIVER WATER SHARED?
Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming get water from tributaries and other reservoirs that feed into Lake Powell. Water from three reservoirs in those states has been drained to maintain water levels at Lake Powell and protect the electric grid powered by the Glen Canyon Dam.
WHICH STATES WILL BE AFFECTED BY THE CUTS?
In the U.S., Arizona will be hardest hit and lose 18% of its share from the river, or 512,000 acre-feet of water. That's around 8% of the state's total water use.
An acre-foot is enough water to supply one to two households a year.
Nevada will lose about 7% of its allocation, or 21,000 acre-feet of water. But it will not feel the shortage because of conservation efforts and alternative sources of water.
California is spared from immediate cuts because it has more senior water rights than Arizona and Nevada.
Mexico will see a reduction of roughly 5%, or 80,000 acre-feet.
WHO IN THOSE STATES WILL SEE THEIR WATER SUPPLY CUT?
Farmers in central Arizona, who are among the state’s largest producers of livestock, dairy, alfalfa, wheat and barley, will bear the brunt of the cuts. Their allocation comes from water deemed “extra” by the agency that supplies water to much of the region, making them the first to lose it during a shortage.
As a result, the farmers will likely need to fallow land — as many already have in recent years because of persisting drought — and rely even more on groundwater, switch to water-efficient crops and find other ways to use less water.
Water suppliers have planned for the shortage declaration by diversifying and conserving their water supply, such as by storing water in underground basins. Still, water cuts make it harder to plan for the future.
The Central Arizona Project, which supplies water to Arizona’s major cities, will no longer bank river water or replenish some groundwater systems next year because of the cuts.
“It’s a historic moment where drought and climate change are at our door,” said Chuck Cullom of the Central Arizona Project.
Water levels at the reservoir have been falling since 1999 due to the dry spell enveloping the West and increased water demand. With weather patterns expected to worsen, experts say the reservoir may never be full again.
Though Lake Mead and Lake Powell could theoretically be refilled, planning for a hotter, drier future with less river water would be more prudent, said Porter of Arizona State University.
KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 16): The crude palm oil (CPO) futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives ended higher due to concerns over weak production in coming weeks, palm oil trader David Ng said.
He said stronger soybean oil prices also continue to lift sentiment higher today.
“However, weaker export performance may cap further upside in the near term.
"We locate support level at RM4,350 per tonne and resistance level at RM4,580 per tonne,” he told Bernama.
At the close, the CPO futures contract for the new spot month September 2021 gained RM53 to RM4,663 per tonne.
Meanwhile, October 2021 rose RM53 to RM4,564 per tonne, November 2021 added RM49 to RM4,447 per tonne, December 2021 improved RM50 to RM4,359 per tonne, January 2022 rose RM53 to RM4,286 per tonne and February 2022 was RM60 higher to RM4,210 per tonne.
Total volume widened to 60,983 lots from last Friday’s 51,650 lots, while open interest increased to 260,484 contracts from 244,987 contracts previously.
The physical CPO price for August South went up RM60 to RM4,730 per tonne.
"The government is not considering any subsidy at the moment for next year," Sudhanshu Pandey, the most senior civil servant at the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, told Reuters in an interview.
"Under current circumstances, as we see the scenario, there appears to be no need to have the support of the subsidy. If exports can happen on their own, then it's also better for the global market that no subsidy is provided," he said.
India, the world's biggest sugar producer after Brazil, encouraged overseas sales for three years in a row, helping New Delhi emerge as a significant, stable exporter of the commodity.
Rival suppliers have often opposed India's sugar export subsidies. After protests from Brazil, Australia, and Guatemala, the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2019 decided to set up panels to rule on complaints against India's export subsidies for sugar.
The Australian Sugar Milling Council (ASMC), one of the organizations supporting the WTO action, said last week that there was "widespread concern amongst the world's sugar producing countries that the Indian government might be contemplating further contentious export subsidies".
ASMC recently commissioned a report from Green Pool Commodity Specialists, which estimated India's sugar overproduction between 2017 and 2020 cost Australia's sugar industry A$1 billion ($724.40 million).
"Green Pool found that the subsidies and global oversupply had forced down the price of sugar on global markets by an average two cents a pound over the four years," said ASMC Director David Rynne.
India has maintained that its sugar export subsidies do not violate WTO rules.
"The demand for Indian sugar is going to be higher, so (global) prices are expected to firm up. There may be no requirement of subsidy," Pandey said.
On Tuesday, benchmark raw sugar prices in New York climbed to a fresh 4-1/2-year high, supported by fund buying against the backdrop of tightening supplies.
Brazil's 2021/22 center-south (CS) sugar production is forecast to fall to 32.5 million tonnes from a June forecast of 34.1 million tonnes due to drought and frosts hurting the sugarcane crop, according to food trader Czarnikow.
Cashing in on rising sugar prices, Indian traders for the first time have signed export contracts five months ahead of shipments as a likely drop in Brazil's production prompted buyers to secure supplies from India in advance.
Indian mills have contracted to export around 725,000 tonnes of raw sugar and 75,000 tonnes of white sugar for shipments from November to January.
"Overseas demand is very good as Brazil's production is being revised down. We can export 6 million tonnes in the next season," said Prakash Naiknavare, managing director of the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd.
In the current year to Sept. 30, India is set to export a record 7.1 million tonnes of sugar, thanks to the subsidies to boost overseas sales.
For the past many years, higher sugar production has hammered local prices, hitting mills' financial health and making it hard for sugar barons to make timely payments to cane farmers.
(Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj and Rajendra Jadhav; additional reporting by Marcelo Teixeira in New York; editing by Sanjeev Miglani, Anil D'Silva and Marguerita Choy)
By Mayank Bhardwaj and Rajendra Jadhav
PARIS/SINGAPORE: Chicago corn and soybeans edged higher on Tuesday as lower-than-expected US crop ratings underscored mixed growing conditions, while the market awaited results from a Midwest field tour.
Gains were capped by signs of slower demand in some markets as consumers adjust to elevated prices and falling inventories.
US and European wheat dropped as investors booked profits after 8-1/2 year highs last week linked to declining northern hemisphere harvest prospects.
The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was up a quarter of a cent at $5.69 a bushel by 1035 GMT, while CBOT soybeans were up 0.3% at $13.72 a bushel.
In a weekly report after Monday's market close, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) rated 62% of US corn crop good to excellent, down 2 points from a week earlier, and soybeans 57% good to excellent, down 3 points. Traders on average had expected no change.
Soybeans up 5-20 cents, wheat up 1-3 cents, corn down 3-4 cents
The lower ratings tempered hopes for a boost to crops from rainfall forecast in the coming days.
"The market is considering downside but not any upside to yields," said Michael Magdovitz, commodity analyst with Rabobank. "The rains have come too little, too late."
Initial results from this week's Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour projected lower corn yields and soybean pod counts than last year in South Dakota but higher levels in Ohio, supporting expectations of contrasting yields between western and eastern growing belts.
Soybeans have also been supported by a run of sales to China.
However, monthly US soybean crushing in July, according to National Oilseed Processors Association (NOPA) data released on Monday, was below trade estimates.
"Consumers are having to make pricing decisions at 50%-60% higher than last year. We're starting to see some demand rationing," Magdovitz said.
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was down 1.4% at $7.49-3/4 a bushel as it pulled away from Friday's 8-1/2 year peak of $7.74-3/4.
Wheat markets had surged after the USDA made steep cuts to world supply projections in a monthly outlook on Thursday, before edging down on Monday.
"The consolidation process is there and we're waiting to see what the next level is," Magdovitz said of wheat prices.
Russia's declining output and higher prices have caught short international trading companies that sold wheat to Asian millers, traders told Reuters.
JAKARTA: Malaysian palm oil futures rose 1% on Monday after closing at a record high in the previous session, tracking stronger rival soyoil prices, but a plunge in August exports so far capped gains.
The benchmark palm oil contract for November delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange rose 44 ringgit, or 1%, to 4,442 ringgit ($1,048.88) a tonne.
Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for August 1 to 15 fell 21% from July 1 to 15, according to AmSpec Agri Malaysia.
“Market moved up on strong soybean oil prices in Chicago Board of Trade last Friday. Upside in Dalian also helped gains in Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange crude palm oil contract,” a Kuala Lumpur-based trader told Reuters.
Dalian’s most-active soyoil contract and its palm oil contract climbed 1.7% and 1.6%, respectively. Soyoil prices on the Chicago Board of Trade, which rose 2.7% on Friday, slipped 0.1%.
Palm oil imports in India, the world’s biggest buyer, plunged 43% from a year earlier to their lowest in five months, the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) said, as demand was curtailed by prices that rallied to a multi-year high.
Refinitiv Agriculture Research said the contract will trend lower with support at 4,330-4,350 ringgit a tonne this week, while resistance is at a record high of 4,560 ringgit, following last week’s strong gains.
The bullish sentiment had been fuelled by a sharp 7% on-month fall in inventories for July, but the upside is expected to be limited by profit-taking and COVID-fuelled demand worries across Asia, Refinitiv analysts said in a note. ($1 = 4.2350 ringgit).
BANGKOK (AP) — Iran continues to produce uranium metal, which can be used in the production of a nuclear bomb, the United Nation's atomic watchdog confirmed Tuesday, in a move that further complicates the possibility of reviving a landmark 2015 deal with world powers on the Iranian nuclear program.
In a report issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna to member nations, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said that his inspectors had confirmed on Saturday that Iran had now produced 200 grams of uranium metal enriched up to 20%.
Grossi had previously reported in February that his inspectors had confirmed that a small amount of uranium metal, 3.6 grams, had been produced at Iran’s Isfahan plant.
The production of uranium metal is prohibited by the 2015 nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, which promises Iran economic incentives in exchange for limits on its nuclear program, and is meant to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear bomb.
Iran insists it is not interested in developing a bomb, and that the uranium metal is for its civilian nuclear program.
The European members of the JCPOA earlier this year voiced “grave concern” over the production of uranium metal, however, saying Iran has no credible civilian need for it and that it is a “key step in the development of a nuclear weapon.”
The U.S. unilaterally pulled out of the nuclear deal in 2018, with then-President Donald Trump saying it needed to be renegotiated.
Since then, Tehran has been steadily increasing its violations of the deal to put pressure on the other signatories to provide more incentives to Iran to offset crippling American sanctions re-imposed after the U.S. pullout.
The western Europeans, as well as Russia and China, have been working to try to preserve the accord.
President Joe Biden has said he is open to rejoining the pact, but that Iran needs to return to its restrictions, while Iran has insisted that the U.S. must drop all sanctions.
Months of talks have been held in Vienna with the remaining parties of the JCPOA shuttling between delegations from Iran and the U.S.
The last round of talks ended in June with no date set for their resumption.
Following the latest IAEA report on the increase in uranium metal production, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said the move was “unconstructive and inconsistent with a return to mutual compliance.”
“Iran has no credible need to produce uranium metal, which has direct relevance to nuclear weapons development,” he said in a statement.
“Such escalations will not provide Iran negotiating leverage in any renewed talks on a mutual return to JCPOA compliance and will only lead to Iran’s further isolation."
He said further that “Iran’s nuclear advances have a bearing on our view of returning to the JCPOA,” and suggested that the U.S. was slowly running out of patience.
“We are not imposing a deadline for negotiations, but this window will not remain open indefinitely,” he said.
US extends probe into organic soy imports
The Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration will complete its investigation into whether organic soymeal imports from India should be hit with duties later than planned. Commerce was due to wrap up its “less-than-fair-value” investigation by Sept. 7, but that deadline is now being pushed back to Oct. 27.
The International Trade Commission already conducted a separate investigation and concluded that “there is a reasonable indication that an industry in the United States is materially injured by reason of imports of organic soybean meal from India.”
India exported about $249 million worth of organic soymeal to the U.S. in 2020, up from $192 million in 2019, according to Commerce.
NEW YORK: ICE cotton futures steadied on Wednesday after soaring to a more than seven-year peak in the previous session, as traders reassessed crop conditions in the wake of a storm that brought rain to some key cotton-growing regions.
The cotton futures contract for December was little changed at 94.92 cents per lb, by 1:23 p.m. Prices hit their highest since March, 2014 at 96.71 on Tuesday.
Tropical depression Fred has brought heavy rainfall to parts of Georgia, Virginia, the southeast and mid-Atlantic, which analysts say could affect the crop as most of the cotton growing belt has already received a lot of rain.
Rogers Varner, president of Varner Brokerage in Cleveland, Mississippi, described it as a mixed event - neither too damaging nor helpful for the crop - and said traders were still assessing how much cotton would be produced this year.
“The big issue is whether the USDA was correct in cutting the Texas production so severely last week because the crop index reports suggests this is the best crop in years, so there’s a real theoretical argument as to what is correct,” he added.
The US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) weekly crop progress report on Monday showed that about 67% of the cotton crop was in good to excellent condition. That was well above the level of 45% this time last year.
But the agency lowered its outlook for US production by more than half a million bales for the 2021/22 crop year in its monthly demand and supply report last week.
“With good soil moisture in mid-Aug and a later than normal arrival of autumn weather, yields could be much higher than USDA currently expects,” Louis Rose, director of research and analytics at Tennessee-based Rose Commodity Group, said in a note.
Market participants are now looking forward to the USDA’s weekly export sales report due on Thursday.
LAHORE: Irked by the increasing trend of having two rice crops in a season in Punjab, both the public sector and progressive farmers have stressed the need for discouraging this trend being a water-guzzling crop.
Stakeholders are even proposing to enact legislation to restrict transplanting time to allow one rice crop in a season and transplanting within the given period.
Rice is an important food as well as a cash crop. It is the second main staple food crop after wheat and the second major exportable commodity after cotton. It contributes 3.5 percent of value added in agriculture and 0.7 percent in GDP.
During the last few years, production of coarse types is increasing. During 2020-21, the crop was cultivated on 3,335 thousand hectares, reflecting an increase 9.9 percent as compared to last year’s sown area of 3,034 thousand hectares. The current year witnessed a record production growth of 13.6 percent to 8.419 million tonnes against 7.414 million tonnes last year.
The Punjab Agriculture Department (PAD) sources told Business Recorder that rice crop is traditionally planted in this region to harvest monsoon and rainy season (June-September), therefore Basmati is dominant variety in Punjab. However, recommended water requirement in normal season is 40 acre-inches, but in hot and dry environment, this requirement can increase further and one-acre inch is equal to 102,790 liters.
They said that increasing trend of having two crops in a season is also against the government policies, where, a huge sum is spent on water efficient management schemes. Significant fall of underground water is also a challenge for Punjab’s agriculture. They said that it is being contemplated to restrict this trend by taking lead from the neighbouring country where rice plantation period has been restricted through legislation.
Rice Research & Development Board (RR&D) Punjab, Shahzad Ali Malik while talking about this trend said this year many farmers have opted for two rice crops on trial. First is of early maturing hybrid rice and second of Basmati. Lot depends upon the outcome at harvest time. “If successful it will definitely give boost to rice production and increase farmer’s income. However, he said it certainly should be discouraged but who will make farmers understand this if this trend catches on,” he added.
Crop Reporting Services (CRS) sources admitted that having two rice crops trend is in, especially, in Gujranwala and Khanewal areas but at the same time said that it is almost 1 percent of the total rice production and continuation of this trend relies on its commercial success.
Aamer Hayat Bhandara a climate change advocate and progressive farmer from Pakpattan said every human should be careful about it we Pakistanis are running desperately short of water and we are in fact exporting our water in form of rice and sugar. He said as climate change activist, he strongly opposes all the water intensive and carbon emitting crop.
Hamid Malik, a consultant said that growing two rice crops (presently being practiced in Kharif season) is a healthy, economical and viable option. Areas like Sheikhupura, Naushehra Virkan, Khankah Dogran, Doaaba of Hafizabad, Alipur Chathha, Nankana Sahib, Kanganpur, Deepalpur already have a practice of having a short duration non Basmati and the Basmati crop. With the adoption of Hybrid seeds it has become more economical for growers. This practice is also prevalent in Sindh (Badin, Tando Muhammad Khan, and Golarchi), upper Sindh Kasmore, Kandhkot and Usta Muhammad of Balochistan.
However, he said that disadvantage of this trend is that early short duration Rice crop is down in Early/mid April & needs huge water, 4200 litre water for 1 kg rice.
* Rains in parts of U.S. Midwest seen improving crop prospects
* Wheat ticks lower after rally, global supply woes limit decline
SINGAPORE, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Chicago soybean futures slid for a third consecutive session on Thursday with prices weighed down by expectations of welcome rains in parts of the U.S. Midwest, although losses were curbed by strong demand for U.S. supplies.
Wheat slid, giving up some of last session's strong gains which were driven by concerns over world supplies and corn lost ground.
"Weather forecasters are expecting cooler and wetter conditions in the north west of the Midwest starting this weekend," said Tobin Gorey, director of agricultural strategy at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
"The rains are likely to arrest the yield declines..."
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) fell 0.6% to $13.45 a bushel by 0325 GMT, near the session low of $13.43-1/4 a bushel - the weakest since Aug 13.
Wheat gave up 0.4% at $7.48-1/4 a bushel and corn lost 0.6% at $5.61-1/2 a bushel.
U.S. soybeans are in critical stage of development and rains are likely to improve crop prospects.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday confirmed private sales of 131,000 tonnes of U.S. soybeans to China, the latest in a series of recent deals.
The USDA has announced fresh sales of U.S. soybeans each business day since Aug. 5.
The market is digesting findings from this week's Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour. Nebraska corn yield prospects are above average, the tour said late Tuesday, but soybean pod counts fell below average.
In Indiana, corn yield prospects and soybean pod counts are above the tour's three-year average.
Commodity funds were net buyers of CBOT wheat and corn futures contracts on Wednesday and net sellers of soybean, soymeal and soyoil futures, traders said. (Reporting by Naveen Thukral; editing by Uttaresh.V)
Gold, a haven during the early days of the pandemic and one of the best assets to own in 2020, is the second-worst performer in the Bloomberg Commodity Index for 2021. Gold appears to have lost its luster this year, with investors preferring energy, industrial metals, and agricultural commodities as the global economy rebounded from the pandemic lull. As a result, gold has declined 7.5 percent year-to-date, dropping to the bottom rung of the commodity ladder together with silver and platinum. Below, we cite the reasons for the underperformance of gold.
Industrial metals outshine gold
Industrial metals from copper to aluminum to nickel and iron ore have outshined gold this year. As the global economy recovers from the pandemic, demand for cars, electronics, infrastructure, and renewable energy has driven prices of these metals higher. Biden’s trillion-dollar infrastructure plan undoubtedly benefits industrial metals. Aluminum is up 30.8 percent year-to-date, while copper and nickel have respective gains of 22.4 percent and 16.7 percent this year.
Inflation more manageable
Gold is a well-known inflation hedge and has performed well during inflationary periods like the mid-1970s and early 1980s. However, the July data reveals that inflation will likely be more manageable and that the recent price pressure may be peaking. Core CPI (which excludes the volatile energy and food prices) registered a monthly increase of 0.3 percent, below market expectations of 0.4 percent, and significantly less than June’s 0.9 percent rise.
Taper talk intensifies
Talks that the Fed would soon end its massive bond-buying program have intensified lately, which has bearish implications for gold in the short run. Boston Fed’s Rosengren mentioned last Monday that he favors announcing the taper plans as early as September. Dallas Fed’s Kaplan said last Wednesday that the taper should begin in October. Meanwhile, Atlanta Fed’s Bostic urges a fast taper in case of another strong month or two of employment gains. Other Fed officials, including Fed Vice Chairman Clarida, made similar comments during the prior week.
Strengthening US dollar
The strengthening US dollar is another significant headwind for gold. The dollar touched a four-month high last week after the strong US jobs report bolstered expectations that the Fed would tighten its monetary policy soon. Gold immediately fell to its lowest level in four months, briefly trading below $1,700 per oz before rallying higher to close the week. A strengthening dollar diminishes the demand for alternative assets like gold. Gold has an inverse relationship to the dollar.
Losing ground to crypto
Traditionally, institutional investors allocate 10 to 20 percent of their assets to alternative investments like private equity, hedge funds, and gold. This year, however, gold seems to be losing ground to cryptocurrencies that have now gone mainstream. Cryptocurrencies are no longer in the realm of early adopters (geeks and programmers) and millenials. Today, a growing number of institutional investors have allocated a percentage of their portfolios to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other digital assets. As a result of increasing demand and institutional support, Bitcoin has gained 54.7 percent year-to-date, while Etherum has surged 335.7 percent over the same period.
Record highs after record highs
Despite surging new COVID cases due to the Delta variant, the US stock market continues to make new all-time highs on optimism about the gradual recovery from the pandemic. Last Friday, the S&P 500 rose for a fourth consecutive session, hitting a record closing high for the 48th time this year. Likewise, the European benchmark STOXX 600 index edged higher, closing higher for the 10th consecutive day to a new record high of 475.82. As a result, investors have piled into US and European equity ETFs this year. Meanwhile, according to the World Gold Council, investment demand for gold, which includes bars, coins, and gold-backed ETFs, is down 60% in the first half of 2021.
Gold’s uptrend line broken
Gold broke below its long-term uptrend line following the sharp two-week decline this month. However, it bounced off the critical support level at 1,700 to close at 1,779 for the week. Based on technical analysis, a decisive break below 1,700 would confirm the reversal from a bullish to a bearish stance for gold.
Source: Tradingview, Wealth Securities Research
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Vancouver, B.C. - TheNewswire - August 16th, 2021 - Opawica Explorations Inc. (TSXV:OPW) (FSE:A2PEAD) (OTC:OPWEF) (the “Company” or “Opawica”) is pleased to announce it has received surface exploration approvals for the 2021 field season from the Department of Natural Resources, Newfoundland and Labrador. The exploration approvals are for Chapel Island, Density, Eclipse, and Mass properties to undertake surface fieldwork including geochemical surveys and prospecting.
Blake Morgan, chief executive officer of Opawica stated, “With permits in hand we can begin our path to drilling in Newfoundland. We will move to get crews on the ground in the coming weeks.”
The Opawica project areas cover more than 217 square kilometres along and between the Red Indian Line (RIL) and the Valentine Lake shear zone (VLZS) in the Central gold belt of Newfoundland. The Company's prospective holdings extend for more than 50 km along the Central gold belt, a northeast-trending structural zone extending across Newfoundland. These regionally extensive fault zones are deep crustal sutures, which localize deformation and fluid flow and host orogenic-style gold-bearing quartz veins and stockwork zones.
Companies working on active gold projects within this belt and the broader Exploits subzone have noted similarities in the geological setting and characteristics with the Abitibi greenstone belts in Ontario and Quebec, Canada, and the Bendigo-Fosterville gold deposits in Australia. Regionally, till and lake sediment sampling programs provided by the Newfoundland and Labrador Geological Survey defined northeast-trending clusters of gold-in-till anomalies south of the Red Indian Line.
Newfoundland has long been known to have many gold occurrences with relatively little modern exploration. Historical production from the Hope Brook, Nugget Pond and Point Rousse projects have been typical of the province's mines with relatively modest production from high-grade deposits.
More recently, significant drill intersections were announced by New Found Gold Corp. (TSXV-NFD) including 146.2 g/t gold over 25.6m (New Found Gold press release dated May 21, 2021). Many explorers in the region continue to produce positive drill results which has led to extensive staking and expanded landholdings within Newfoundland's Central gold belt giving rise to a modern-day gold rush.
Opawica has terminated the company’s option on the Enterprise Property and returned it to the vendor.
Derrick Strickland, P Geo (1000315), is the qualified person for Opawica Explorations and has reviewed and approved the technical content of this news release. The qualified person has been unable to verify the information on the adjacent properties. Mineralization hosted on adjacent and/or nearby and/or geologically similar properties is not necessarily indicative of mineralization hosted on the Company’s properties.
Mr. Lawrence Roulston reports:
Completed 5 holes on the historic High-Grade Zone.
Completed 2 holes on the High-Grade extension where 949 g/t silver was sampled on surface.
Currently drilling the Maybee Zone where 3,444 g/t silver was sampled on surface.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 16, 2021) - Mountain Boy Minerals Ltd (TSXV: MTB) (OTCQB: MBYMF) (FSE: M9UA) ("Mountain Boy" or the "Company") announces that drilling is proceeding on its flagship American Creek property, with 7 holes completed from 2 drill pads and the drill is now on the third pad.
The American Creek Project is centered on the past-producing Mountain Boy silver mine, located 20 kilometres north of Stewart in BC's Golden Triangle.
Five holes have been completed on the High-Grade zone and two holes on the High-Grade extension. The drill is now on the Maybee Zone. Core samples have been shipped to the lab from the High-Grade and High-Grade extension pads and assays are pending.
Results from surface sampling earlier this season have now been received with highlights in the table below. The recent work included mapping and sampling along the cliffs north of the old mine, an area that had not previously been examined due to the difficult access. Geologists skilled in rock climbing, traced the structure hosting the High-Grade mineralization approximately 400 meters to the north, identifying an area now referred to as the High-Grade Extension where an initial two holes were completed.
Geological work is continuing, focused on the area between the High-Grade Zone and the Maybee zone, a 2-kilometer-long corridor within the 33 square kilometer property. Multiple veins in that area remain under-explored. The intent of the current program is to improve the geological context with the intent of identifying further drill targets.
Mountain Boy CEO Lawrence Roulston commented: "Silver and base metal mineralization has been identified over multiple kilometers and includes some exceptional grades. We are working systematically toward an understanding of this extensive and robust mineralizing system which we firmly believe has the potential to host the kind of deposit for which the Golden Triangle is renowned."
About Mountain Boy Minerals
Mountain Boy has six active projects spanning 604 square kilometres (60,398 hectares) in the prolific Golden Triangle of northern British Columbia.
The flagship American Creek project is centered on the historic Mountain Boy silver mine and is just north of the past producing Red Cliff gold and copper mine (in which the Company holds an interest). The American Creek project is road accessible and 20 km from the deep-water port of Stewart.
On the BA property, 178 drill holes have outlined a substantial zone of silver-lead-zinc mineralization located 4 km from the highway. Work this year is aimed at extending that zone with drilling due to begin in August.
Surprise Creek is interpreted to be hosted by the same prospective stratigraphy as the BA property and hosts multiple occurrences of silver, gold and base metals.
On the Theia project, work by Mountain Boy and previous explorers has outlined a silver bearing mineralized trend 500 meters long, highlighted by a 2020 grab sample that returned 39 kg per tonne silver (1,100 ounces per ton).
Southmore is located in the midst of some of the largest deposits in the Golden Triangle. It was explored in the 1980s through the early 1990s, and largely overlooked until Mountain Boy consolidated the property and confirmed the presence of multiple occurrences of gold, copper, lead and zinc. A property wide Skytem survey is set to begin by the end of August.
The Telegraph project, acquired in May 2021, has a similar geological setting to major gold and copper-gold deposits in the Golden Triangle. Exploration this season has been organized in two phases. Phase one is now complete and phase two is set to begin in September.
The technical disclosure in this release has been read and approved by Andrew Wilkins, B.Sc., P.Geo., a qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101.
Vancouver, British Columbia - TheNewswire - August 16, 2021 - IM Exploration Inc. (CNSX:IM.CN) (“IM” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce the appointment of David Kelley, B.Sc. (Geo), M.Sc. (Geo) to the Company’s Board of Directors.
Mr. Kelley brings over 30 years of international mineral exploration experience to the Company, having worked on projects across all stages of development and throughout the Americas, Central Asia and Australasia. He is a Co-Founder of Chakana Copper (TSX-V: PERU), an exploration company focused on advancing the Soledad copper-gold-silver Project in Peru, and has served as President, CEO and Director since 2016. Prior to that, Mr. Kelley was responsible for developing the exploration program at the world-class Las Bambas Project for MMG USA Ltd. as the company’s General Manager of Exploration (Americas). In that role he also implemented and led exploration programs across multiple commodities and stages for properties in Canada, U.S.A., Mexico, Jamaica, Peru, Brazil and Chile.
Perth-based ASX listed Calidus Resources can now lay claim to being a gold miner having made the elusive leap from explorer to miner at its Warrawoona gold operation in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. Plant construction is more than 50 per cent complete and the company is on target now to deliver its maiden gold bar in the first half of next year.
Mining has commenced.
The company reported that construction at Warrawoona was progressing in line with budget and time schedules and the initial mining campaign has already delivered first ore to the run of mine, or “ROM”, pad.
Delivery of first ore to the ROM pad is always an important marker in a project’s development and confirms we are on track to be Australia’s next gold producer.
Strong progress is also reportedly being made at the processing plant which is now 53 per cent complete. According to Calidus, the crusher has been successfully installed and the preliminary works for the SAG mill installation are well underway.
Construction costs are fully funded by a loan from Macquarie Bank that has been divided into a “Facility A” senior secured loan of $85 million and a “Facility B” facility of $25 million in mezzanine debt. Facility B has been fully drawn and Facility A is $8 million in the red after the successful completion of all remaining conditions precedent under the Loan Facility Agreement.
Warrawoona’s centrepiece Klondyke deposit hosts proven and probable open pit and underground reserves of 14m tonnes of ore at an average grade of 1.2 grams per tonne for 521,000 ounces of contained gold.
Klondyke has an overall open-pittable and underground measured, indicated and inferred resource of 42.3m tonnes of ore going at 1.02g/t for 1.38 million ounces of contained gold.
Warrawoona is forecast to produce up to 105,000 ounces a year which the company hopes to bolster up to 139,000 ounces when its nearby high-grade Blue Spec deposit is developed.
Blue Spec is located within easy trucking distance just 70km from Warrawoona and is now the subject of a definitive feasibility study, or DFS, which is due for completion in the June quarter of 2022.
Blue Spec hosts an impressive remnant inferred and indicated mineral resource of 415,000 tonnes of ore grading at an eye-catching 16.35g/t for 219,000 ounces of contained gold.
Pre-tax free cash flows from the Warrawoona gold processing hub were estimated in eth company’s financial studies at $662 million, or $82.75 million a year across eight years.
All-in sustaining costs of gold production are forecast to remain steady at an estimated $1,292 an ounce.
Calidus holds an enviable 780sqkm landholding in a region that hosts a number of multi-million ounce gold deposits, including Capricorn Metals’ 2.15 million ounce Karlawinda mine and DeGrey’s recently discovered 9 million ounce Hemi project.
Exploration of Calidus’ largely unexplored terrain has identified 22 high priority targets, setting the scene for a potential expansion of the initial mine life.
Calidus continues to make firm headway in an industry that is facing its share of challenges with labour shortages and COVID inspired supply disruptions.
Calidus has come a long way in just a few short years since Reeve’s and his cohorts managed to pull together multiple disparate tenement packages that had never previously been housed under the same roof – and it was no mean feat with multiple and sometimes difficult negotiations being undertaken in parallel that ultimately resulted in a gold mine being built– gotta love it when a plan comes together.
Credit: woong hoe from Pixabay
Concept: New Zealand-based urban mining company, Mint Innovation (Mint), is developing affordable, scalable processes for salvaging valuable metals from e-waste streams. Mint Innovation’s clean processes leverage biotechnology and hydrometallurgy (biometallurgy), which use microbes to extract value from metal waste streams, thereby minimizing the waste and developing a fully circular economy in precious metals, while mitigating environmental harm.
Nature of Disruption: The Mint process has been optimized to maximize sustainable metal recovery from e-waste while generating minimum waste. E-waste refers to discarded electronic appliances like mobile phones, computers, and televisions. First, any incoming feedstock is ground into fine powder to allow the chemical processes to work efficiently. Once ground, it is then transferred into the first reaction vessel where base metals comprising copper, iron and tin are removed. Proprietary chemical leachate gets added to the solid and stirred, drawing the base metals into the solution. The first leaching process gets completed in about an hour and the solids can be separated from the base metal-rich liquid using filtration. Only precious metals are now left in the solid fraction. The precious metals contained in the leachate like copper can then be removed via electrolysis and other techniques. These extractive metals can then be put back into the economy to make new manufactured goods. The remaining solids are then moved to the second leach to recover the remnant valuable metals which are more difficult to recover than the base metals. This is where Mint’s technology stands apart and its ability to recover precious metals at higher concentrations than other existing methods. Once the metals get dissolved, Mint adds its special microbes into the reactor to absorb the metal ions. This process is known as bio-absorption. The microbes gain weight as they absorb these precious metals, facilitating them to be easily isolated with a centrifuge. Finally, the gold is liberated from the biomass using a gnashing and refining process. The various precious metals can then be extracted using established procedures to produce high-quality metals for use in industry. Metals recycled in this way have a low carbon footprint as well as reducing the environmental degradation associated with mining and other forms of extraction. Also, the process ensures data protection as the remnants get destructed completely.
Outlook: Extensive utilization of electric and electronic equipment in a wide range of applications has resulted in the generation of huge volumes of electronic waste (e-waste) globally. Mint with its innovative processing technology enables product reuse and the recovery of embedded value from waste or end-of-use products. The startup has recently accumulated $20M in funding which it plans to set-up bio-refineries in the UK and Australia with the capacity of processing up to 3,500 tons of e-waste annually.
This article was originally published in Verdict.co.uk
https://www.mining-technology.com/research-reports/mint-innovation-helps-e-waste-management/
SODANKYLÄ, FINLAND / ACCESSWIRE / August 17, 2021 / FireFox Gold Corp. (TSXV:FFOX) (OTCQB:FFOXF) ("FireFox" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has extended the drill-indicated gold system by an additional 650 metres along trend from the Northeast Target at its 100%-owned Mustajärvi Project in the Central Lapland Gold Belt of Finland (See Figure 1: https://bit.ly/3skzPqJ). Drill hole 21MJ004 was drilled 654 metres northeast of the previously reported bonanza-grade hole 21MJ001 (see Company news release dated June 17, 2021) and yielded 2.9 metres at 1.30 g/t gold. Drill hole 21MJ005, which was collared 580 metres from 21MJ001, returned 3.79 g/t gold over a 1 metre interval from 15m downhole, sitting atop a wider zone of weakly anomalous gold.
Key Implications from the Newest Mustajärvi Results Include:
New gold mineralization revealed along the probable continuation of the shear zone delineates a stretch of more than 2.1 kilometers with gold-bearing drill intercepts;
Quartz-carbonate-tourmaline-pyrite veins at new East Target are lower grade (so far) but consistent in mineralogy and geochemistry with high grade veins at Central Zone & Northeast Targets;
The veins have variable continuity, but the larger and more sulfide-rich veins have been intersected in four drill holes (21MJ001, 21MJ002, 21MJ006, and 21MJ010) and appear to become higher grade with depth;
Predictive 3D modeling of dilational jogs along the Mustajärvi Shear Zone continues to yield altered country rock and significant gold in drilling, even while exploring beneath overburden; and
Melbourne, Australia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 18, 2021) - Newcrest Mining Limited (ASX: NCM) (TSX: NCM) PNGX: NCM) is pleased to announce that the Newcrest Board has approved the Cadia PC1-2 Pre-Feasibility Study (the Study), enabling the commencement of the Feasibility Stage (the Feasibility Study) and Early Works Program.
The Study updates and defines a significant portion of Cadia's future mine plan, with the development of PC1-2 accounting for ~20% of Cadia's current Ore Reserves. The approved commencement of the Early Works Program will allow critical infrastructure to be established in parallel with the Feasibility Study, before the commencement of the Main Works program in the second half of CY22. A$120 million (~US$90 million) of funding has been approved for this Early Works Program which is expected to commence in the December 2021 quarter.
Summary of Study Findings1,2,3,4
The PC1-2 Pre-Feasibility Study has the following key findings: Estimated total capital expenditure of ~A$1.3 billion (~US$0.9 billion) Real, after-tax Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 21.5% Net Present Value (NPV) of A$2.0 billion (US$1.5 billion) [5] ~17 year mine life from first production, at an average of 15mtpa Total ore production of 258mt producing 3.5moz of gold and 660kt of copper Average All-In Sustaining Cost (AISC) of A$54/oz (US$41/oz) Enhanced footprint design and productivity allowing: Deferral of ~25% of the previously required footprint into a future PC1-3 project A$150 million (US$112 million) reduction in the initial capital spend Enhanced average gold and copper grades in the medium term
Early Works Program of critical path activities for the establishment of PC1-2 is expected to commence in the December 2021 quarter
Feasibility Study has now commenced
Newcrest Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Sandeep Biswas, said, "The development of the PC1-2 cave is the next step in Cadia's block caving journey. The Study underpins an optimised mine design which we expect will deliver higher gold and copper grades and enable the deferral of capital expenditure in the medium term. We have significant financial headroom to fund the construction of PC1-2, together with our other organic growth options, from our expected cash flow generation over the development period and our strong balance sheet."
Russia has imposed a 15% tax or a minimum of $254 a tonne on aluminium exports between August and December. Rusal, Russia's only aluminium producer, accounted for 6% of global supplies estimated at 65 million tonnes last year.
Graphic: Rusal's aluminium sales, https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/yzdvxljygvx/Rusals's%20aluminium%20sales.PNG
Consumers purchasing aluminium on the spot physical market pay the benchmark aluminium price on the London Metal Exchange (LME) plus a premium which covers transport and handling costs and taxes.
Graphic: Global container freight rates, https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/lgvdwwmqapo/Global%20container%20freight%20rates.PNG
Prices of aluminium used widely in the transport and packaging industries were already climbing due to soaring demand, shrinking supplies and surging freight costs, recently reaching $2,642 a tonne - the highest since April 2018, after the United States imposed sanctions on Rusal.
Graphic: Aluminium prices in the US and Europe, https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/lgvdwwmxapo/Aluminium%20prices%20in%20the%20US%20and%20Europe.PNG
Premiums in Europe and the United States are at record highs near $360 and $760 a tonne respectively.
"If you had 100% pass through of the tax in the United States you would actually get to about $990, but I don't think it will get there," said Citi analyst Oliver Nugent.
"This tax level will be in place until the end of the year. There will be no better time for a trader holding inventory to sell. Consumers are also incentivised to destock."
The forward curve suggests U.S. premiums have peaked and a drop to $570 a tonne by the end of 2022.
Graphic: US aluminium premiums, forwards curve, https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/byvrjjoxmve/US%20aluminium%20premiums.PNG
A permanent tax on aluminium exports is likely after comments to that effect from President Vladimir Putin and the country's economy minister, although expectations are for a significantly lower rate.
Jorge Vazquez, founder of Harbor Aluminium, said higher premiums due to the "the inflationary effects of Russia's export tax" were "psychologically supported" by a reduction in production at at Rio Tinto's Kitimat operation in British Columbia due to a strike.
"Large consumers are actively looking for additional contract volumes for September-December 2021 and into 2022, aiming to reduce exposure to the spot market," Vazquez said.
(Reporting by Pratima Desai; editing by Kirsten Donovan)
By Pratima Desai
Alien Metals has been making strong progress with its iron ore and silver projects
Broker Turner Pope has said that there is “quite significant potential for an upward reassessment” of the valuation of ( ), after drill results from the Hancock iron ore property in Australia showed clear potential for a direct shipping ore operation.
“With the project potentially firming up as a standalone operation, selected results include 47 metres at 61.5% iron from two metres and 78 metres at 61.2% iron from one metre,” said Turner Pope.
“Having now defined continuous DSO grade iron ore over a strike length of 350 metres at the Sirius Extension alone, once all laboratory results are available management will have sufficient data to calculate a maiden JORC resource for the prospect.”
Indeed, maiden resource estimation work has already commenced and Alien is confident that the current drill spacing is sufficient to enable the delineation of a maiden JORC resource.
“Laboratory results from the second phase of in-fill drilling have further confirmed excellent potential for the Sirius Extension project,” continued Turner Pope.
“Further drilling at the Western Ridges project is presently being planned as a third phase program, with expectation that this further pinpoint drilling will deliver a second, comparable sized resource. As part of this work, management is also planning for surface traverses and sampling of as yet untested parts of the tenement while also considering a further program in new areas where it now has improved access.”
Meanwhile, Alien has engaged specialist mining consultants Mining Plus, a global mining services provider, to deliver a high-level scoping study for the Sirius Extension prospect. Mining Plus has extensive experience with similar DSO grade projects that have recently transitioned from explorer to producer in Western Australia.
“This is expected to provide valuable data as a benchmark for the group,” said Turner Pope, “and is expected to provide robustness to the financial model even at this relatively preliminary stage.”
John Battista, Mining Plus’s Principal Mining Consultant, also sounded a note of enthusiasm. “Based on our conceptual study-level work to date,” he said, “the Hancock project has the potential to be developed into a niche direct-shipping iron ore producer in the heart of the world-famous Pilbara region of Western Australia.”
The company is in a reasonable financial position, according to Turner Pope.
“Alien remains reasonably well capitalised, with sufficient financial resources to provide a working runway beyond the end of 2021,” the broker said.
“Over this period, it is expected to continue to build upon the recent exceptional run of development progress reported across its portfolio of highly prospective base and precious metals exploration projects. These include its 90% controlled high grade Hamersley Iron Ore Project and 100%-owned Elizabeth Hill Silver Project in Western Australia as well as the newly acquired surrounding Exploration Licence, Munni Munni North, while carrying out a maiden drilling programme at its 100%-owned Los Campos and San Celso silver projects in Mexico.”
Previously, Turner Pope has individually assessed each of Alien’s continuing projects and derived a sum-of-parts upside valuation of £82.9mln.
Hamersley dominated in that assessment, contributing some £61.2mln of the total. But since then Alien has successfully increased its holding in the Brockman and Hancock Ranges projects from 51% to 90% through a cash and shares transaction.
Alien’s most obvious albeit more advanced peer, Fenix Resources Limited is presently valued at A$161mln, some way ahead of Alien’s own market capitalisation of around £28mln.
HIGHLIGHTS:
Base PEA Case proposes average annual production of 11.7ktpa copper and 2.9Mozpa silver in concentrates over a 14-year mine life
4-years open-pit mining at 2.75Mtpa followed by 10-years underground mining at 2.0Mtpa
Use of SART processing in early years to process oxide material, followed by conventional sulphide flotation
At Consensus prices (US$3.86/lb copper and US$25/oz silver), post-tax net present value ("NPV") of US$205.5M and internal rate of return ("IRR") of 26.7%
May 21, 2021, Spot Prices (US$4.54/lb copper and US$28/oz), post-tax NPV of US$380.4M and IRR of 44.4%
Post-tax NPVs of the updated PEA are 39-158% higher than the previous PEA prepared on Unkur in 2018 - Substantial improvements include: lower pre-production capital expenditure; higher average annual throughput; and a 75% longer mine life
The PEA also considered an alternative Open-Pit Only Case to mine and process the oxide material only for 4 years with post-tax NPV of US$95.1M and IRR of 46.3% (at Consensus Prices) and NPV of US$162.2 million and IRR of 70.1% (at May 2021 Spot Prices)
Positive PEA result based on updated 2021 Inferred Mineral Resource of 51.1Mt at 0.59% copper and 40g/t silver
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / August 16, 2021 / AZARGA METALS CORP. ("Azarga Metals" or the "Company") (TSXV:AZR) announces the positive findings of an updated preliminary economic assessment ("PEA") for the development of its wholly owned Unkur Copper-Silver Project in the Zabaikalsky administrative region of Eastern Russia.
Gordon Tainton, 'Azarga Metals' President and CEO commented, "It's encouraging to see this 2021 PEA for Unkur incorporating 2019-2020 drilling substantially bettering the 2018 PEA. We can also see how relatively small additions of open-pit mineralization could potentially drive even better economic outcomes and we will have this in mind for our plans for additional exploration."
The following table summarizes key Unkur Project PEA metrics.
Table 1: Key Unkur Project PEA metrics for Base Case Parameters / metrics
Amount 1 Production - Total mill feed 31.76 million tonnes LOM Average annual mill feed 2.75 million tonnes from open pit ("OP") and 2.0 million tonnes from underground ("UG") - Copper feed grade (ave) 0.59% (OP) 0.77% (UG) - Silver feed grade (ave) 48.24 g/t (OP) 53.11 g/t (UG) - Initial LOM 14-years - LOM copper recovery 58.8% (oxide) 89.1% (sulfide) - LOM silver recovery 77.3% (oxide) 82.7% (sulfide) - Concentrate grade - copper (dry) 68% (SART) 1 25.8% (sulfide) - Concentrate grade - silver (dry) 6,642 g/t (SART) 1,634 g/t (sulfide)
Total copper production 163,271 tonnes LOM / 11,700 tonnes per year (ave) - Total silver production 38.87 million ounces 2 LOM / 2.8 million ounces per year (ave) - LOM waste to ore ratio 8.87:1 (OP) Capital and costs - Pre-production capital for OP and SART Heap Leach of oxide US$152 million (including 15% contingency) - Capital for UG and Sulfide Concentrator US$249 million (including 15% contingency) - LOM sustaining capital US$50.39 million - Closure and reclamation costs US$16 million - Copper C1 cash cost (excl. G&A) US$0.30 per pound (assuming silver as a by-product) Project economics (post-tax) 3 US$3.32 per pound (excluding by-product sales)
Copper price US$3.86 per pound (Consensus Price) US$4.54 per pound (May 2021 Spot Price) - Silver price US$25.0 per ounce (Consensus Price) US$28.0 per ounce (May 2021 Spot Price) - Russian Ruble 74 per US$1 Base Case Scenario (OP and UG) - NPV (at 8.0% discount rate) US$205.5 million (Consensus Price) US$380.4 million (May 2021 Spot Price) - IRR 26.7% (Consensus Price) 44.4% (May 2021 Spot Price) - Payback 3.75 years Notes: 1. SART = sulphidization, acidification, recycling and thickening metallurgical process. 2. References to ???ounces' are troy ounces, 3. Assuming Unkur Project qualifies for Russian Far East & Siberian tax incentives for mineral extraction projects.
The updated resource estimate and PEA were independently prepared by Wardell Armstrong ("WAI").
The PEA is preliminary in nature and includes Inferred Mineral Resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the PEA will be realized.
A NI 43-101 technical report has been filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on Azarga Metals' website at www.azargametals.com .
MINING AND PROCESSING
The mining method selected for the PEA is open-pit mining followed by underground mining, based upon owner mining of ore and waste.
The initial mine plan has been designed on a higher-grade sub-set of the 2021 Mineral Resource, comprising 16.1 million tonnes of oxide mineralization at a grade of 0.61% copper and 44g/t silver and 35 million tonnes of sulfide mineralization at a grade of 0.58% copper and 38g/t silver constrained for open pit and underground mining.
The annual production rate from an open pit will average approximately 2.75 million tonnes of ore per year, with a maximum of 3.5 million tonnes in Year 2 and 3. This is identical for Base and Open Pit Only Scenarios. The overall LOM waste to ore (i.e., strip) ratio from open pit is projected to be 8.87:1. However, it should be noted that much of the overburden is unconsolidated moraine material that will not require blasting.
The annual production rate from an underground operation will average 2 million tonnes of ore per year. It is applicable to Base Scenario.
WAI prepared additional scenarios to mine both oxide and sulfide mineralization from the open pit. These scenarios are linked to different processing options and require much higher capital expenditure with negative impact on NPV and IRR of the project, albeit remaining economic for potential consideration.
Preliminary metallurgical test work on a bulk sample demonstrated that most economically viable extraction of copper and silver from oxide mineralization can be achieved using a SART circuit in heap leach, accepted as a Base Scenario in the PEA. The PEA also considered a SART process in agitated leach and sequential SX-EW process in agitated and heap leach. The latter three options provide higher recoveries from oxide mineralization for both copper and silver. Although remaining economic, they require much higher capital expenditure as well as much higher operating costs, elongating the payback period for the project by additional 2 years, with lower NPV and IRR.
The Base Scenario assumes the proposed SART process plant will be based on heap leaching operation that will provide an average silver recovery of 77.3% and an average copper recovery of 58.8%, taking most recent tests and process efficiencies into account. The SART process is estimated to produce a high-grade copper and silver concentrate and to recycle cyanide that can be returned into the SART process.
The sulfide mineralization can be treated using conventional hydrometallurgical processing methods. Production of sulfide concentrate will be based on conventional gravity and flotation processing, with an average silver recovery of 82.7% and an average copper recovery of 89.1%
Tailings from the process plant will be pumped to a tailings management facility.
PRODUCT AND MARKETING
The SART process will produce synthetic minerals largely consisting of chalcocite (Cu 2 S) and acanthite (Ag 2 S), which will result in a high-grade copper concentrate of approximately 68.0% copper and 6,642g/t silver. This compares favourably with standard copper concentrates that are typically 22-24% copper and so it should make this product very attractive to smelters. The conventional sulfide concentrate from Unkur will contain 25.8% copper and 1,634g/t silver.
OUTBOUND LOGISTICS
The PEA assumes 11 kilometers of oversite roads to be built from the existing highway, which is also where the Baikal-Amur Mainline railway is, as well as on site. The concentrate can either be sold within Russia, exported to China (via rail or road) or other international customers (assumed to be via rail to the Russian Pacific port of Vanino, some 2,300 kilometers).
INFRASTRUCTURE
Unkur Copper-Silver Project has access to infrastructure (Figure 1). The project site is situated within 20 kilometers of the town of Novaya Chara, with major road and rail access. A regional 220kVA power line runs across a corner of the Unkur license area, and the PEA assumes construction of a 4-kilometer overhead powerline and substation to connect the processing plant and main site to mains power.
The world's largest current copper project development is taking place at Udokan, approximately 30 kilometers south from Unkur. During Phase 1, Udokan is forecast to produce 120,000 tonnes of copper per annum starting from 2022. As a result, substantial investment in improved ancillary infrastructure is being made that will be of future benefit to Azarga Metals and Unkur, including a renovation of the regional airport, roads, and a significant expansion of facilities at Novaya Chara town.
Figure 1: Proposed indicative site layout, Unkur Project
PRE-DEVELOPMENT
The PEA assumes a one-year pre-development timeline prior to first production. Initial development in the first year consists mainly of infrastructure works, site preparation and commencement of plant construction. Pre-stripping will also occur in the first pre-development year along with completion of the processing plant. This is considered reasonable giving the heap leach treatment for oxide mineralization chosen under Base Scenario. Tailing's storage facility development will be completed before the project transits to underground mining, although some of the waste material generated during the first years of open pit mining will be used for construction of the tailing's facility.
ALTERNATIVE LOWER CAPITAL OPEN-PIT ONLY SCENARIO
The PEA also considered an alternative Open-Pit Only Case to mine and process the oxide material only for 4 years. The average open pit mining rate will be 2.75 million tonnes per annum using SART Heap Leaching.
This case will require a pre-production capital expenditure of US$152.4 million, including US$70 million for open pit equipment, US$52.3 million for oxide plant and US$10 million for general infrastructure plus contingency at 15%. The Open-Pit Only Case showed a post-tax NPV of US$95.1M and IRR of 46.3% (at Consensus Prices) and NPV of US$162.2 million and IRR of 70.1% (at May 2021 Spot Prices). The payback period for the standalone Oxide Open Pit operation is expected to be achieved in the first year of ore production (at May 2021 Spot Prices) or second year (at the Consensus Prices).
The Open-Pit Only Case provides attractive optionality for Unkur Project, depending on capital availability, with high IRR. However, Azarga considers that the above-described Base Case results in the highest overall economic value.
2021 MINERAL RESOURCE ESTIMATE REVIEW
The 2020 SRK Consulting (Russia) Ltd. ("SRK") model provided the basis of an Inferred Mineral Resource estimate totalling approximately 44Mt at 0.65% Cu and 44g/t Ag (1.04% Cu equivalent). Reporting from the SRK model was limited by a cut-off grade of 0.18% Cu equivalent inside an optimised open pit shell generated by suitable economic and technical parameters and by a cut-off grade of 0.57% Cu equivalent outside and below this pit shell to account for the possibility of underground extraction.
Major industry players including Glencore, China Molybdenum, Umicore and Tesla, announced in May they were piloting Re|Source, a blockchain solution for end-to-end cobalt tracing.
Amnesty International reports in recent years had put a spotlight on child labour and human rights issues in cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In its Impact Report 2020, Tesla said it had opted to collaborate with Re|Source because it was industry-led, designed to be readily accessible and inclusive to all parties across the supply chain and scalable, so it could include other critical battery materials in the future.
"Where we can be assured that minerals, including cobalt, are coming from mines that meet our social and environmental standards, we will continue to support sourcing from the DRC and other regions," Tesla said.
Glencore said last week the pilot was being tested in "real operating conditions" in the DRC and Europe, with plans in place for further pilots in Asia and the US later this year, and the final pilot across the entire Tesla supply chain expected in the fourth quarter.
"The launch of the final industry solution is expected in 2022 and is being supported by boutique blockchain technology studio, Kryha," Glencore said.
Responsible Minerals Initiative and the Cobalt Institute have joined Re|Source as strategic advisors,
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - August 16, 2021) - C3 Metals Inc. (TSXV: CCCM) ("C3 Metals" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Company has entered into a royalty purchase and assignment agreement with Rodinia Resources Pty Ltd. ("Rodinia") to purchase 1.5% of a net smelter returns royalty (the "NSR") on the Company's Main Ridge and Hungry Gully properties located in Jamaica (the "NSR Purchase Agreement"). The NSR Purchase Agreement replaces the original 2% NSR with a 0.5% NSR and provides the Company with a right of first refusal to purchase the remaining 0.5% NSR. As consideration for the NSR Purchase Agreement, the Company has paid Rodinia US$75,000 and has agreed to issue 190,062 common shares of the Company at a deemed value of $0.162 per share, being US$25,000 in C3 Metals common shares calculated based on the 30-day volume weighted average price of C3 Metals common shares on the date of the NSR Purchase Agreement. The Common Shares when issued will be subject to a four month and one day hold period in accordance with Canadian securities legislation and are further subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval.
Kevin Tomlinson, C3 Metals' CEO stated, "We are pleased to be able to renegotiate the royalty arrangements as we recommence exploration over our high-grade gold and copper projects in Jamaica. Reducing the outstanding royalty on these properties will place us in a better position to advance exploration and introduce a joint venture partner should we decide to do so."
Shanghai aluminium prices hit their highest in 13 years on Tuesday, as output disruptions in top producer China raised supply concerns.
The most-traded September aluminium contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange climbed as much as 1.6% to 20,575 yuan ($3,175.74) a tonne, its highest since August 2008.
Three-month aluminium on the London Metal Exchange hit its highest since July 30 at $2,635 a tonne.
LME aluminium may rise to $2,674 this week
China's state planner has stopped reviewing proposals for new high energy-consuming projects that has no support of the national government in Yunnan, Guangxi and Xinjiang, all aluminium producing areas, after they increased their energy consumption in January-June.
"The output of electrolytic aluminum (in China) continued to decline in July... The power curtailment policies in various regions continue to put pressure on aluminum supply," said Huatai Futures in a report.
However, there were signs of slight stockpiling in the traditionally slow season, Huatai added.
FUNDAMENTALS
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 17, 2021) - EMX Royalty Corporation (NYSE American: EMX) (TSX: EMX) (FSE: 6E9) (the "Company", or "EMX") is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement dated August 16th, 2021 to acquire an effective 0.418% Net Smelter Return ("NSR") royalty on the operating Caserones Copper-Molybdenum Mine (the "Caserones Royalty") located in northern Chile for US$34.1 million in cash. Closing is anticipated to take place in two phases with both closings being completed by September 1st, 2021. In completing this transaction, EMX expects immediate and long term cash flow from a large porphyry copper-molybdenum deposit in a top tier mining jurisdiction.
To purchase the Caserones Royalty, EMX has formed a 50%-50% partnership with Altus Strategies Plc ("Altus" (AIM: ALS) (TSXV: ALTS) (OTCQX: ALTUF) to acquire an effective 0.836% NSR royalty for US$68.2 million (see below for additional acquisition details). EMX and Altus will each control an effective 0.418% royalty interest and will each be responsible for $34.1 million of the purchase price.
To finance its US$34.1 million portion of the US$68.2 million purchase price, the Company has entered into a Credit Agreement (the "Credit Agreement") with Sprott Private Resource Lending II (Collector), LP ("Sprott"). The Credit Agreement will increase the Company's current proposed US$10 million credit facility with Sprott, in connection with the Company's recently announced transaction with SSR Mining (see Company News Release dated July 29, 2021), to US$44 million (the "Credit Facility") to include financing for the Caserones Royalty acquisition. Further details of the Credit Agreement are provided below.
The acquisition of the Caserones Royalty represents an important strategic development for EMX, by further enhancing the Company's royalty cash flow and long-term exposure to copper as a key metal for the global economy. Recognition of the opportunity directly resulted from EMX's ongoing assessment work in the region and serves as another example of how the Company leverages its regional expertise in various jurisdictions around the world to identify value enhancing business opportunities.
Caserones Mine Overview
The Caserones open pit mine is developed upon a significant porphyry copper-molybdenum deposit in the Atacama Region of the northern Chilean Andean Cordillera, 162 kilometers southeast of the city of Copiapó, at an approximate elevation of 4,300 meters above sea level. The Mine is operated by SCM Minera Lumina Copper Chile SpA, which is indirectly 100% owned by JX Nippon Mining & Metals Corporation ("JX Nippon").
Caserones is located at the southern end of the well documented Maricunga mineral belt and comprises an Early-Miocene porphyry system associated with a cluster of dacite porphyries and breccias intruding Palaeozoic granitic, volcanic, and metamorphic rocks. Caserones has a well-developed supergene enrichment profile of oxide copper and secondary chalcocite that overlies hypogene sulfide (chalcopyrite-molybdenite) mineralization.
Caserones produces copper and molybdenum concentrates from a conventional crusher, mill and flotation plant, as well as copper cathodes from a dump leach, solvent extraction and electrowinning plant. In 2020 the mine produced 104,917 tonnes of fine copper in concentrate, 2,453 tonnes of fine molybdenum in concentrate, and 22,056 tonnes of fine copper in cathodes. The Caserones open pit has operated with an average waste: ore strip ratio of 0.47, has 17 years remaining in its current mine plan, along with excellent exploration potential. In a news release dated November 9, 2020, JX Nippon announced plans for "stepping up exploration efforts in areas around the mine" in an effort to expand production and extend the mine life.
Acquisition Details
The Caserones Mine is subject to a 2.88% NSR royalty provided for in a 2009 agreement between Minera Lumina Copper Chile S.A. as purchaser, and Compañía Minera Caserones ("CMC") and Sociedad Legal Minera California Una de la Sierra Peña Negra ("SLM California") as vendors. CMC and SLM California originally staked the mineral claims that overlie the Caserones deposit, and ownership of the 2.88% NSR royalty is currently divided between CMC (32.5%) and SLM California (67.5%). EMX and Altus will each be indirectly purchasing a portion of the SLM California royalty. Under the 2009 agreement, the NSR interest will be reduced to 2% and 1% if the London Metal Exchange ("LME") quoted copper price falls below US$1.25 and US$1.00 per pound respectively.
EMX and Altus have formed a Chilean company, Minera Tercero, Spa ("Tercero"), of which the EMX and Altus each own 50%. Tercero will purchase 43% of the issued and outstanding shares of SLM California through a Share Purchase Agreement with 16 shareholders of SLM California (represented by Leonel Polgatti Goycoolea, a shareholder) for US$68.2 million. Tercero will enter into a shareholder's agreement with the selling shareholders of SLM California, that together with Tercero hold approximately 89% of SLM Californa's issued and outstanding shares, to govern SLM California. SLM California's sole purpose is to administer the company, pay Chilean taxes and distribute its royalty proceeds to the shareholders, including Tercero.
Sprott Credit Agreement
In order to finance its US$34.1 million portion of the US$68.2 million purchase price under the Share Purchase Agreement, the Company has entered into the Credit Agreement, which encompasses the previously proposed financing related to EMX's recent transaction to acquire the SSR Royalty Portfolio. The senior secured Credit Facility is in the principal amount of US$44 million, which includes up to US $10 million which will be used to finance a portion of the purchase price of the SSR Royalty Portfolio.
Under the Credit Agreement, the Credit Facility matures on July 31, 2022, bears interest at a rate of 7% per annum, and is secured by general security agreements over the assets of the Company and certain of its subsidiaries, and pledges of the shares of certain of the Company's subsidiaries, who will, at Sprott's election, also be guarantors of the loan. In addition to interest payable, the US$44,000,000 advanced under the Credit Facility was subject to an original issue discount equal to 4.61364% of the amount of the advance. Under the Credit Agreement, the Company will be required to maintain minimum unrestricted cash of USD $1,500,000.
In conjunction with the Credit Agreement, Sprott subscribed for US$1,235,000 of common shares of the Company ("Common Shares") at a deemed price equal to a 10% discount to the 5-day VWAP of the Common Shares on the NYSE American exchange immediately prior to July 12, 2021 of $US 3.0450, which resulted in the issuance of 450,730 Common Shares.
Summary
The acquisition of the Caserones Royalty provides immediate enhancement to EMX's royalty cash flow and secures long-term proceeds from copper and molybdenum production in one of the world's top mining regions. This transaction nicely compliments the Company's growing portfolio of royalty interests in South America, which has become a recent emphasis in the Company's growth strategy.
Eric P. Jensen, CPG, a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and an employee of the Company, has reviewed, verified, and approved the disclosure of the technical information contained in this news release.
About EMX
EMX is a precious, base and battery metals royalty company. EMX's investors are provided with discovery, development, and commodity price optionality, while limiting exposure to risks inherent to operating companies. The Company's common shares are listed on the NYSE American Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol EMX. Please see www.EMXroyalty.com for more information.
For further information contact:
David M. Cole
President and Chief Executive Officer
Phone: (303) 979-6666
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Scott Close
Director of Investor Relations
Phone: (303) 973-8585
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Isabel Belger
Investor Relations (Europe)
Phone: +49 178 4909039
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Neither the TSX-V nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX-V) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release may contain "forward looking statements" that reflect the Company's current expectations and projections about its future results. These forward-looking statements may include statements regarding completion of the transaction, perceived merits of properties, exploration results and budgets, mineral reserves and resource estimates, work programs, capital expenditures, timelines, strategic plans, market prices for precious and base metal, or other statements that are not statements of fact. When used in this news release, words such as "estimate," "intend," "expect," "anticipate," "will", "believe", "potential", "upside" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, which, by their very nature, are not guarantees of the Company's future operational or financial performance, and are subject to risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause the Company's actual results, performance, prospects or opportunities to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and factors may include, but are not limited to: unavailability of financing, failure to identify commercially viable mineral reserves, fluctuations in the market valuation for commodities, difficulties in obtaining required approvals for the development of a mineral project, increased regulatory compliance costs, expectations of project funding by joint venture partners and other factors. It is possible EMX may not complete the transaction, as a result of failure to fulfill conditions of closing, unavailability of financing or for other reasons EMX cannot anticipate at this time.
Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this news release or as of the date otherwise specifically indicated herein. Due to risks and uncertainties, including the risks and uncertainties identified in this news release, and other risk factors and forward-looking statements listed in the Company's MD&A for the quarter ended June 30, 2021 and the year ended December 31, 2020 (the "MD&A"), and the most recently filed Revised Annual Information Form (the "AIF") for the year ended December 31, 2020, actual events may differ materially from current expectations. More information about the Company, including the MD&A, the AIF and financial statements of the Company, is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the SEC's EDGAR website at www.sec.gov.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mayfair Gold Corp. (“Mayfair” or the “Company”) (TSX-V: MFG; OTC: MFGCF) is pleased to announce further drill results from the ongoing infill and expansion drill program at the Fenn-Gib project, located in the Timmins region of northeast Ontario. Infill drilling is focused on the western section of the Fenn-Gib deposit and expansion drilling is defining mineralization below the shallow central section of the current conceptual open pit, which strikes east-west over approx. 1.25 kilometers. The drill results reported below are part of the fully-funded 50,000-meter (m) Phase 1 drill program at the Fenn-Gib project. Resource infill and expansion drilling is being supported by four drill rigs and 39 holes have been completed to date for a total of 27,879m.
Mayfair Gold President and CEO Patrick Evans commented: “We are excited to report the highest gold grade intercepts recorded to date at Fenn-Gib. These results, combined with excellent results from the infill and expansion holes reported today, boost our confidence in the potential to upgrade Fenn-Gib’s resource estimate to plus 3 million ounces by the end of 2021.”
Numerous historic drill holes in the upper portion of the Fenn-Gib deposit did not drill through the entire mineralized stratigraphy, with some holes ending in mineralization. The infill and expansion drill program within and below the current conceptual open-pit is identifying additional mineralization.
Highlights of Results
Infill drilling in hole FG21-152 at the western section of the deposit returned 192.3m at a grade of 1.28 g/t gold (Au) from a downhole depth of 13.2m, including 35.0m grading 3.59 g/t Au. Hole FG21-152 was drilled from the same collar location and above Hole FG21-155 that returned 241.1m at a grade of 1.67 g/t Au (news release June 29, 2021).
Expansion drilling in hole FG21-153 intersected 233.0m at a grade of 1.05 g/t Au from a downhole depth of 352.7m, including 25.5m at a grade of 4.70 g/t Au. This hole is testing for mineralization below the shallow central section of the current conceptual open pit.
The exceptional high-grade intercept of 63.59 g/t Au over 5.0m from hole FG21-165, including 200.89 g/t Au over 1.5m, is also from below the shallow central section of the current conceptual open pit. This intercept was at a downhole depth of 540.0m, which equates to approx. 400 vertical meters below surface.
Copper prices spiked on Wednesday due to fears of a significant supply disruption at the Las Bambas mine in Peru. Las Bambas produces 400,000 tonnes of copper a year and is one of the largest mines in Peru, which is itself the world’s second largest producer of the metal. The disruption fears led three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange to rise 0.8%, to $9,325 a tonne.
This comes after a two-week truce facilitated by newly-elected President Pedro Castillo broke down, with residents near the MMG-owned mine blockading the road used to transport the metal. The mine had already experienced a four-day blockade earlier in the month.
Las Bambas’ location within the more densely populated southern part of Peru, rather than the highlands, had worsened relations with locals due to the need to transport all concentrates along a specific road. This has led to heavy truck traffic in the area, which has led to mineral dust being spread, threatening the local communities’ agriculture.
Communities in the surrounding area demanded that MMG pay them to use a dirt road that goes from the Las Bambas mine and eventually arrives on Peru’s coast, where minerals are loaded on ships. They have claimed that MMG has made little to no effort in brokering a deal that would positively impact local communities, leading to the resumption of the blockade.
Victor Gobitz, president of the Peruvian Institute of Mining Engineers, stated: “To mitigate the disruption caused by protests, we require better infrastructure and to invest in a pipeline that is cost-effective and is better for the communities”.
The new government has stated it has been making a more concerted effort to develop a new approach with miners on community relations. Minister of Energy and Mines Ivan Merino said: “We all agree that all projects must be given a new social face, that we need a new pact.”
Despite this more pragmatic approach, the local communities seem steadfast in their protest of the mine.
“The communities have decided to restart the road blockage because the company does not want to participate in dialogue to solve the conflict,” said Walter Molina, who represents nearby communities.
Castillo, who has appointed a prime minister who hails from Chumbivilcas, has said that his government will prioritise the welfare of historically marginalised communities. Therefore, this blockade will be the first test of the Castillo presidency on balancing the wants and needs of the mining interests and the local communities that were instrumental in bringing him to power.
https://www.mining-technology.com/news/copper-prices-spiked-blockade-las-bambas/
The OZ Minerals Board has approved construction of a hoisting shaft at the Prominent Hill copper-gold mine in South Australia, paving the way for a mine life extension and throughput expansion.
Prominent Hill mine began operation in 2009 as an open pit and is now an underground mine producing 4.5 Mt/y, moving to 4.5-5 Mt/y from 2022 via a trucking operation.
Coming with a pre-production capital expenditure of A$600 million ($436 million), the Wira Shaft expansion project will see the underground production rate increase to 6 Mt/y from 2025. At this point, the average annual copper and gold production is expected to be circa-54,000 t and circa-108,000 oz, respectively, some 23% more than expected in the current trucking operation.
The study leverages close to 100 Mt of mineral resources outside the previous Prominent Hill ore reserves of 38 Mt of underground material.
Sinking of the shaft is expected to commence in the March quarter of 2022. Mining and installation of underground and surface infrastructure is scheduled for completion along with commissioning of the Wira shaft at the end of 2024, with nameplate capacity expected in the first half of 2025.
The shaft design comprises a 1,329-m-deep, concrete-lined shaft with a diameter of 7.5 m. Construction of the shaft will be via conventional strip and line method, with the sinking period approximately two years.
The shaft mine expansion also enables generational province potential with further mine life extensions possible as 67 Mt of resource remains outside the shaft expansion mine plan, OZ Minerals says. Further, an exploration program has also identified that mineralisation remains open at depth beyond the current resource boundary, potentially accessible via the shaft.
Announcing the expansion today, OZ Minerals Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Cole, said: “We are thrilled to see a long and productive future for Prominent Hill with the Wira shaft mine expansion enabling access to areas previously thought uneconomic and opening up potential new prospects.
“Prominent Hill is a quality orebody and remains open at depth. The reliable performance of the operation and its consistent resource to reserve conversion rate were all influential in the decision.”
For the first time, the company has used a carbon price in determining the project valuation, a practice it plans to adopt in other OZ Minerals projects going forward, Cole said.
The company plans to reduce its underground loading fleet to eight vehicles, from nine after the shaft expansion, with its trucking fleet going from circa-14 to five, post-shaft.
Scope 1 emissions intensity per tonne of concentrate are also expected to drop from 0.47 t CO2-e/t to 0.28 t CO2-e/t after the shaft installation.
The pre-production capital of A$600 million, which was an increase on the A$450 million outlined in the November 2020 expansion study, enables transformation of the site in line with the strategic aspirations of OZ Minerals, it said.
Provisions have been included in site capital projections to support this transformation, including progressing underground fleet electrification, upgrading some of the existing infrastructure, remote operation capability and automation.
The company expanded on this: “A battery-powered mining fleet is part of the future vision as OZ Minerals moves towards its zero-carbon emission aspiration. For this study, diesel trucks were assumed. However, installation of enabling infrastructure is included in the Prominent Hill Expansion case to minimise future disruptions when the switch to an electric fleet occurs. This, implemented as part of the asset’s site-wide electrification aspiration, would contribute to a further reduction in Scope 1 emissions.”
A pilot study is also being undertaken to review a low-energy dry grinding option. The Prominent Hill Expansion Study is not directly connected to, nor dependent on this ongoing work, however, the work presents potential future cost reduction and other opportunities, OZ Minerals said.
https://im-mining.com/2021/08/18/oz-minerals-board-gives-go-ahead-shaft-expansion-prominent-hill/
Trevali Mining (TSX: TV; OTC: TREVF) has released a positive feasibility study for the expansion of its Rosh Pinah zinc-lead-silver mine in Nambia to 1.3 million t/y from 700,000 t/y.
At an initial capital cost of US$111 million, the expansion will include modifications to the mill, a new paste fill plant, a water treatment plant, a new portal, decline and material to the WF3 deposit, plus surface and underground infrastructure. Once the project is commissioned, Trevali expects to reduce its operating costs by about 26% on a per tonne milled basis. The company owns 90% of the underground mine and mill 800 km south of Windhoek. The remaining 10% is held by Namibian and employee empowerment plans. Assuming a positive investment decision, detailed engineering for the 86% mill throughput increase and procurement of long lead items will begin by the end of this year. Construction will follow in the middle of next year, with commercial produced expected around mid-year 2024. The after-tax project economics reveal a net present value (8% discount) of US$156 million, and internal rate of return of 58%, and a payback period of 4.6 years. A free cash flow of US$290 million is estimated. Trevali’s plan for the Rosh Pinah expansion could cut costs 26% on a per tonne milled basis. Credit: Trevali Mining.
The grinding circuit at the mill will receive an upgrade that sees the installation of a single stage semi-autogenous (SAG) mill and pebble crusher. Work will also include primary crushing upgrades and an ore blending area. Flotation, thickening, filtration and pumping capacity will also be upgraded. The development of a dedicated portal and decline to the WF3 underground deposit will support the increased mining rate and reduce operating costs. New 60-tonne trucks will deliver the ore to a new surface primary crusher. New large load-haul-dumpers (LHDs) will also be purchased. Ore transported from other area will be transported to the existing underground crusher in the existing 30-tonne trucks.
The planned paste fill plant will be designed to operate at the current mining rate and the 1.3 million t/y eventual rate. A water treatment system at the paste fill plant will reduce the amount of needed to 0.5 cu. metre from 1.5 cu. metres. The project would reduce the project’s carbon intensity and water consumption on a per tonne milled basis. The underground mine will be modernized (it began operations in 1969). Mill throughput will to 1.3 million tonnes/year from the current rate of 700,000 t/y. The Rosh Pinah mine has proven and probable reserves of 12.4 million tonnes GRADES , containing 1.7 billion lb. of zinc, 370 million lb. of lead, and 7.9 million oz. of silver.
The resources (including reserves) are 18.5 million measured and indicated tonnes grading 7.4% zinc, 1.8% lead and 25.8 g/t silver as well as 1.6 million inferred tonnes at 8.3% zinc, 2.2% lead and 54.9 g/t silver. Trevali has signed a 15-year solar power purchase agreement with Emerging Markets Energy Services Company (Emesco) to supply 30% of the Rosh Pinah power needs. The fixed rate agreed in the contract is expected to reduce energy costs at the project by 8%. The Rosh Pinah project produced 85.6 million lb. of payable zinc in 50.6% concentrate and 18.2 million lb. of payable lead in 18.2% concentrate. Included were 200,000 payable oz. of silver.
ASX-listed gold and base metals explorer Lefroy Exploration is cooling its heels awaiting a barrage of assay results for more than 3,000 drill core samples from four diamond holes and nine reverse circulation holes put down recently at its exciting Burns gold-copper prospect in WA. Burns sits within the Perth-based company’s Eastern Lefroy tenement holdings that form part of its greater Lefroy gold project about 50km south-east of Kalgoorlie.
According to Lefroy, the latest round of RC drilling has extended the Burns mineralised system to the north and south. Interestingly, one hole testing the nearby Smithers prospect points to the same alteration signature as observed at Burns, the company says. The next batches of Burns drill intersections are expected to start rolling in from later this month. Preparations for further step-out RC drilling aimed at expanding the Burns system and mapping out the extent of the prospect’s recently discovered eastern porphyry zone are under way, Lefroy says.
The eastern porphyry discovery hole coughed up an eye-catching diamond drill hit of 38 metres grading an average 7.63 grams per tonne gold and 0.56 per cent copper from 134m depth earlier this year. The headline intercept included a higher-grade core of 27m at an average grade of 10.1 g/t gold and 0.74 per cent copper from 141m. The broad high-grade gold mineralisation is hosted within a hematite-pyrite-chalcopyrite-magnetite altered diorite porphyry that intrudes high magnesium basalt at Burns. This porphyry – the eastern porphyry – remains open to the north and south, the company says. Copper and gold mineralisation at Burns is lodged in both the diorite porphyry, basalt and massive magnetite. The Burns copper-gold prospect occurs on the eastern margin of a large interpreted felsic intrusion, which Lefroy refers to as the Burns intrusion.
Lefroy suggests there is a genetic relationship between the Burns intrusions and says follow-up exploration is intended to establish the association between the larger Burns intrusion and the diorite porphyry intrusions intersected at the Burns prospect. The recently completed RC drilling at Burns totalling 2,328m was designed to evaluate both strike extensions to the eastern porphyry and strike and down-dip extensions to the copper-gold mineralisation in the western basalt.
Lefroy is also gearing up to kick off aircore drilling later this month at the Coogee South prospect, which was excised from the joint-ventured Western Lefroy tenements package in June this year. Its planned 150-hole program will pepper a 1.5km-long corridor identified by past drilling directly along strike from the historical Coogee open pit. The drill-ready targets in our portfolio provide us with optionality while we wait on assay results from the diamond and RC drill holes at Burns. Coogee South is one of those priority target areas.
Thunder Bay Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - August 18, 2021) - Metals Creek Resources Corp. (TSXV: MEK) (OTCQB: MCREF) (FSE: M1C1) (the "Company" or Metals Creek) is pleased to announce final diamond drill results for drill holes DL21-016 and DL21-017 from the phase II diamond drill program at the Dona Lake Gold project (See News Release November 18, 2020).
Drill hole DL21-017 returned a core length intercept of 2.17 grams per ton (g/t) gold (Au) over 15.70 meters(m) (568.40 - 584.10m). Included in this interval was 3.94 g/t Au over 4m (568.40 - 572.40m). Mineralization is hosted within silicate-sulfide iron formation and characterized by stringer to disseminated pyrrhotite ranging from 1 to 5% with local pyrite. Sections of silicate-oxide iron formation with magnetite is also present.
Drill hole DL21-016 intersected the main zone at approximately 596m below surface and returned a core length intercept of 5.0 g/t Au over 3m. This was a part of a broader zone of mineralization of 2.39 g/t Au over 11.42m (625.58 - 637.00m). (See Table 1 Significant Results). Mineralization consisted of 3-12% pyrrhotite with local pyrite. Alteration consists of moderate to strong grunerite, amphibole and garnets with strong folding also present locally. Hole DL21-016 intercepted the main zone stratigraphy approximately 58m north along strike and roughly the same elevation as hole DL21-010, which was the deepest hole drilled to date on the Dona Lake project. A 3m felsic dike was present within the high-grade mineralization in hole 016 resulting in a narrower high-grade intercept. Both holes DL21-010 and DL21-016 continue to demonstrate the continuation of high-grade iron formation at depth below current drilling to date. Further delineation of the high-grade mineralization below the current drilling will be a high priority in the upcoming drill program scheduled for this fall.
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / August 18, 2021 / Trigon Metals Inc. (TSX-V:TM) ("Trigon" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the signature of a Power Supply Agreement ("PSA") with local power distributor, CENORED (Pty) Ltd ("CENORED").
On August 13, 2021, representatives of Trigon attended a rebranding launch hosted by CENORED, at which the formal PSA between Trigon and CENORED was signed.
This follows an earlier agreement between the parties on the terms and conditions of the PSA and the payment by Trigon for the installation of the power supply, on which preliminary work has already commenced.
Jed Richardson, President and CEO of Trigon, commented, "CENORED has established themselves as a welcomed partner in our restart efforts at Trigon. The relationship between Trigon and CENORED began in April of this year with an agreement to install new power infrastructure, updating our grid connection, and electrifying the Kombat mine and mill. This new announcement gives us a formalized agreement that ensures a reliable and stable power supply for our foreseeable future at Kombat and extends power benefits separately to the people of Kombat Village."
About CENORED
CENORED is the third licensed Regional Electricity Distribution Company to be established in Namibia, distributing power to three of Namibia's fourteen legislative regions an area of approximately 120,000 square kilometres and 8,000 kilometres of line infrastructure. The CENORED distribution licence area covers the Oshikoto, Kunune and Otjozondjupa regions (where Kombat is situated).
CENORED recently launched its Strategic Business Plan where it places emphasis on supplying power to large commercial consumers such as Trigon.
About Kombat Mine
The Kombat Copper Project is the flagship project of Trigon Metals Inc., with the Company's mining and prospecting licence areas covering an area of more than 7,500 ha in the Otavi Mountainlands in Namibia. The Kombat Project is comprised of three mining licences, which produced approximately 12.46 million tonnes of copper between 1962 and 2008, at a grade of 2.62%. The other two mining licences are within close proximity to Kombat at Gross Otavi and Harasib, which are believed to be highly prospective for lead and zinc. In addition, the Company also holds an interest in two exclusive prospecting licences, which represent a potential strike extension of Kombat.
HALF YEARLY FINANCIAL REPORT FOR THE SIX MONTHS ENDED 30 JUNE 2021
Strong Financial Performance
Antofagasta plc CEO Iván Arriagada said: “We have seen strong copper demand and prices at multi-year highs
over the first half of this year which has contributed to the robust financial performance of the Group,
generating revenues of $3.6 billion and increasing EBITDA by 133% to a record $2.4 billion and our EBITDA
margin to 66%.
“The half year was not without challenges as we continued to manage our operations and projects under
COVID-19 conditions, although the resilience and agility of the Group has resulted in costs below guidance.
COVID-19 continues to impact our communities as well, which is why we have extended our community COVID
Fund into 2021, totalling now $12 million since the outbreak of the pandemic.
“The weather in central Chile during H1 saw unprecedentedly dry conditions, with almost no rainfall. We have
now had 12 years of drought, and the precipitation in 2021 has so far been less than in 2019, which itself was
one of the driest years on record. As a result, assuming there is only minimal precipitation during the rest of
H2, we are adjusting our full year copper production guidance to 710-740,000 tonnes as the winter rainy season
is now coming to an end. However, we are maintaining net cost guidance at $1.25/lb.
“Following our strong performance in H1, the Board has declared an interim dividend of 23.6 cents per share,
in line with our normal pay-out ratio for interims of 35% of net earnings.
“Our key growth projects are on track and we remain focused on operating discipline and cost control, while
producing copper responsibly and sustainably for all our stakeholders.”
However, so far this year precipitation at Los Pelambres has been significantly less than in 2019, which was itself the driest year of the current 12-year drought. Strict water management protocols are in place and various options are being evaluated to mitigate the risk of the impact of the reduced rainfall, in case this situation continues. Guidance assumes minimum required precipitation levels resume over the balance of the year and is therefore subject to water availability.
https://www.antofagasta.co.uk/media/4174/antofagasta2021hyreport-vf.pdf
South32 chief executive Graham Kerr says a broad-based commodity price rally over the first seven weeks of the new financial year has his company well placed to deliver another year of improved returns.
The miner enjoyed a 153 per cent surge in underlying profit over the past year on the back of the global economic recovery and prices for several of its commodities have surged again since July 1.
Coking coal prices have surged by more than 80 per cent over the past seven weeks, aluminium prices are up by more than 30 per cent while lead, nickel, zinc and manganese prices have surged by between 10 per cent and 25 per cent over the same period.
“Almost every single one of our commodities, albeit not silver, have actually had a significant double-digit increase in price, so we are seeing the right trajectory,” he said.
“The world has recovered to pre-pandemic levels in the second quarter of this year and I think that has been a positive and that is despite Delta which has obviously been a risk.“
Mr Kerr said the highly infectious Delta strain of the virus could make for a bumpy economy in the next six months but he remained optimistic about the demand for South32’s commodities.
HVC was suspended on the weekend when the order was put in place by the district of Logan Lake.
Teck said HVC was in the process of ramping back up to full operation and the company's copper guidance would be "updated as necessary after the risk of further effect on operations from wildfires subsides".
HVC accounts for almost half the company's copper production and was expected to produce 128,000-133,000 tonnes this year of the company's forecast 275,000-290,000t.
Meanwhile explorer Kodiak Copper said it had temporarily halted drilling at its MPD copper-gold porphyry project in southern British Columbia as a precautionary measure due to the wildfire situation.
"I sincerely hope that the lower temperatures and forecasted rain over the next couple of days will help improve the fire situation and bring some relief to the local communities," president and CEO Claudia Tornquist said.
The BC Wildfire Service currently lists 31 "wildfires of note" which are highly visible or post a potential threat to public safety.
Canada is experiencing an unusually hot summer and difficult fire season, which has impacted the resources sector across the country, including uranium miner Cameco which temporarily suspended its Cigar Lake mine in Saskatchewan last month due to a wildfire.
A recent gravity gradiometer survey has revealed the Yarabrook Hill intrusion has “much greater extent” than previously mapped and drilled.
Caspin has made several major advances at its Yarawindah Brook PGE-Nickel-Copper Project in Western Australia, identifying new targets at the Yarabrook Hill prospect in particular.
The company conducted a gravity gradiometer survey, which helps build a picture of subsurface anomalies, and discovered the Yarabrook Hill intrusion has much greater extent than previously mapped and drilled.
A 5,000-metre reverse circulation drilling program is ongoing, with around 1,800 metres completed thus far.
Yarabrook Hill shows more promise
The gravity gradiometer survey outlined the extent of the Yarabrook Hill intrusion, which covers a surface extent of at least 8 square kilometres, a fourfold increase on the current area of mapping and exploration.
“This supports our belief that the intrusion is largely unexplored and that exploration to date has been focused only on easily accessible surface exposure,” the company said.
“Yarabrook Hill is now demonstrated to be a large intrusive mafic/ultramafic system, which bodes well for the discovery of economic deposits of PGE-Ni-Cu sulphides.”
The anomalous PGE-nickel-copper surface geochemistry footprint at Yarabrook Hill has now been extended over at least 3 kilometres of strike and is much larger than that currently defined by drilling.
The gravity data found that strong new soil anomalies in the northwest and eastern parts of Yarabrook Hill are likely located on the intrusion contact, with these soil anomalies considered extremely significant and warrant follow-up drill testing.
New targets at Yarabrook Hill
Infill soil geochemistry results have been received from the northern area of Yarabrook Hill and have defined a strong PGE anomaly on the north-western contact of the Yarabrook Hill intrusion.
This anomaly has a peak value of 192ppb platinum group elements (PGE), when background PGE in soil is commonly 1ppb, which is of a similar magnitude to peak results across the main Yarabrook Hill anomaly.
A large, airborne electromagnetic anomaly has also been discovered; it is a modest-strength, late-time anomaly with approximate dimensions of 700 x 500 metres.
It has only been lightly explored by drilling in the 1970s which showed anomalous copper and nickel anomalism in the weathering zone, likely to be supergene enrichment, with limited drilling into bedrock.
Caspin says there are similarities between the anomaly, named XC-22, and the Gonneville intrusion at ( , )’s Julimar project.
The new gravity data shows that XC-22 is coincident with a gravity low and magnetic high, with this combination of anomalies most likely to represent serpentinised ultramafic rocks which are commonly associated with PGE mineralisation, such as Gonneville.
Importantly, the size of the gravity low anomaly suggests this area may be the most significant area of ultramafic within the Yarabrook Hill intrusion.
Finally, another strong target has also emerged on the eastern margin of the Yarabrook Hill intrusion which is referred to as the Eastern Anomaly.
It is a strong, coherent PGE geochemical anomaly that lies in a parallel position 500 metres to the east of the historical Yarabrook Hill anomaly, striking over 1.2 kilometres.
Drilling programs
Caspin says results from recent diamond drilling work has revealed that PGE mineralisation at Yarabrook Hill occurs in two main styles - one hosted by shear zones developed at and near the upper contact of the intrusion and is interpreted to represent structural/hydrothermal remobilisation from some primary magmatic sulphide source, and the second as primary, stratabound zones of disseminated magmatic sulphides.
“Finding a large body of primary sulphide remains our priority target,” the company said.
“Intersecting wide intervals of primary mineralisation is considered a very positive step forward towards doing this and we expect that zones of primary mineralisation will have significant lateral extent and have the potential to significantly increase in both grade and width in parts of the intrusion with an originally flatter dip.
“The current structural interpretation is that the zones of primary mineralisation are not exposed at the surface, which highlights the potential for significant blind PGE mineralisation.”
Caspin’s current RC drill program is designed to gain a better understanding of the internal architecture of the intrusion, along strike as well as up and down-dip.
Its aim is to better understand the stratigraphic setting of mineralisation and the effect of later structures, with the objective of vectoring towards potentially stronger zones of PGE-Ni-Cu mineralisation.
The first drill results are expected in late September, and Caspin is now looking to produce the first 3D model for the Yarabrook Hill intrusion.
A short diamond drill program is also in line to test the full sequence of Yarabrook Hill.
- Daniel Paproth
It is “very optimistic” about the year ahead in getting the Nolans Project fully funded and ready for production.
Arafura is focused on its reaching its Final Investment Decision for its Nolans Neodymium and Praseodymium (NdPr) Oxide Project in the Northern Territory in mid-2022.
The company is “very optimistic” about the year ahead in getting the Nolans Project fully funded and ready for production when the global economy is desperate for a secure and alternate supply of its critical minerals.
It is “exceptionally well-placed” to capitalise on the ever-escalating global demand on the back of strengthening NdPr prices and forecast shortage of the product.
Chairman Mark Southey said: “With strong project economics, secured development tenure and our social license to operate, we have never been better placed to execute the Nolans project.
Critical year for Arafura
“The 2021 financial year was a critical year for Arafura. With strengthening rare earths pricing and increased interest from financiers and potential offtake partners as well as optimisation of the process plant design and mine scheduling following the ore reserve update, there was a strong case to review the findings from the Definitive Feasibility Study delivered in 2019.
“With extremely positive results, confirming the financial viability of the Nolans Project, this has enabled us to prepare for Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED), a critical step to progress the commercialisation of Nolans NdPr Project towards offtake and project funding.
“As the world focuses on ESG, Arafura has set its goal ‘to be a trusted global leader and supplier of choice for sustainably mined rare earth products', helping our customers deliver clean and efficient technologies.
“Arafura has committed to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, with its greenhouse gas reduction options study well advanced to set interim targets to meet this goal.”
Offtake progress
Arafura continues to advance its rare earth product offtake arrangements with parties in Japan, Europe, South Korea, the US and for its phosphoric acid product with parties in India.
Commercial discussions to secure offtake arrangements with European partners, who are seeking alternative supply sources from transparent and ESG-compliant suppliers are all progressing positively.
With changes to global priorities around sustainability and ESG standards, Nolan’s strong alignment with sustainability goals is meeting the changing mandates of key-end users.
In fact, it is starting to become evident that Nolan is emerging as the supplier of choice to secure supply NdPr oxides from a sustainable mining and processing source from Australia.
Arafura managing director Gavin Lockyer said: “We continue to advance discussions on key terms with various European end-users in the automotive and wind industry,
"European customers’ immediate objectives are to establish supply security and jurisdictional diversification of the NdFeB magnet supply chain and traceable product from a sustainable mining and processing source."
Project update
Supply chain partners in Europe, China and Japan have confirmed that the product is well within the required key specification for use in their processes.
The feasibility study update follows extensive work from the Arafura team and confirmed ultra-low operating costs of US$24.76/kg NdPr oxide and robust financial metrics for the Nolans Project, showing an outstanding net present value (NPV) of $1.4 billion and average EBITDA of A$354 million per annum.
It incorporates key improvements following the completion of the pilot program, allowing elements of the process flowsheet to be refined or optimised.
With the forecast supply shortage, the company has reviewed the process plant design and deferred cerium production to allow the company to focus on the ramp-up of on-specification high-value NdPr production.
To optimise the production profile and economic outcomes at Nolans, an updated mine scheduling was used based on the updated ore reserves and also include an associated minor increase in concentrate processing capacity.
These now form the basis of all its discussions with potential financiers and offtake partners.
Domestic support
Increased support from the Australian Government has been seen with non-binding letters of support from both the Export Finance Australia and the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility for senior debt facilities of $200 million and $100 million respectively, both for a 15-year term each.
“With sovereign support now achieved, we will continue to engage with key banks, advisors and export credit agencies (ECA) to execute our debt-led strategy from ECA-backed debt to attract project equity,” Southey added.
Approvals secured
All ancillary mineral leases to host the Nolans borefield in support of the mine and processing plant and allowing for the construction of a water diversion channel have been granted.
Having already secured both Federal and State environmental approvals, Nolans remains the only fully permitted ore to oxide rare earths project in Australia.
With renewed Major Project Status by the Australian Government for a further three years, Arafura retains ongoing focused support from the Australian Government’s Major Projects Facilitation Agency (MPFA) with Nolans recognised as an economically and strategically significant asset to Australia.
Coupled with the Indigenous Engagement Strategy released in the prior year, it continues to make strong commitments to the local community and as such retain its social license to operate.
Cash position
Arafura had a strong cash position of $10.8 million as at the end of June 2021.
Further, its two-tranche placement and share purchase plan will raise A$45.5 million to commence its FEED and for general working capital purposes.
Tranche 1 and Tranche 2 have already settled to raise $40 million before costs and following high shareholder interest and participation, the SPP closed early and is expected to settle on 20 August 2021 to raise $5.5 million before costs.
NdPr market
The demand for NdPr has increased more than anticipated, with tightening supply globally driven by the need for global powers to secure their supply chains of critical materials which are both sustainable and traceable.
Further rare earths are continuing to be recognised as a priority in the accelerated electrification of transport and renewable energy transitions to meet ambitious climate targets many countries are adopting and bringing into policy.
With market analysts forecasting that NdPr oxide demand to increase to 98,000 tonnes by 2030, Arafura is well placed to meet the potential supply gap by supplying up to 10% of the world’s rare earth magnet supply from the Nolans Project.
NdPr oxide prices strengthened through the financial year, increasing by 78% overall, and looks to continue to strengthen through the year.
Ahuriri Estuary (Te Whanganui-a-Orotū), Napier, is where much of the city's stormwater ends up. (File photo)
Sampling of a Napier waterway entering a popular estuary has revealed a huge reading for zinc - 53 times more than is in one of the world’s most heavy metal-polluted estuaries.
Napier City Council staff undertook the sampling as part of a project looking into preventing further degradation of the Ahuriri estuary, Te Whanganui-a-Orotū, and associated waterways.
The staff analysed sediment samples from the Thames and Tyne waterways for various heavy metals and other contaminants.
In a paper before the council, discussed at a meeting on Thursday, staff used zinc readings as a way of illustrating the level of heavy metal contamination.
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To put the readings in context for councillors staff compared the readings with a study undertaken in the Ria de Huelva estuary in Spain. The Ria de Huelva estuary is affected by many years of industrial mining and is regarded as one of the estuaries most polluted by heavy metals in the world.
The highest zinc concentrations in the Ria du Huelva samples were about 13,000 counts per second.
A reading from the Thames/Tyne waterway was 53 times higher than that.
MARTY SHARPE/Stuff Napier's Pandora Pond - a popular swimming and boating site - becomes contaminated following heavy rain or wastewater spills. (File pic)
The readings of other contaminants were low, although the polychlorinated biphenyl reading at one site exceeded the lower guideline value by 34 times.
The paper states that because most of the contamination was within the top 40cm of sediment there was an opportunity to remove it by dredging.
The next step will involve investigating options and costs.
“Considering the proximity of the Thames-Tyne network to the estuary, and the history of the water quality within the Thames and Tyne, this project is essential in ensuring the sustainable improvement of the socially and ecologically important, yet delicate estuary,” the paper says.
Once options for rehabilitation had been developed by appropriate expertise, transparent communications with stakeholders will guide the selection and implementation of the preferred option for improving the Thames-Tyne waterway system.
POSCO's steel plant complex in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province / Courtesy of POSCO
By Kim Hyun-bin
Local steelmakers are on the verge of coming to a consensus with heavy industry companies in setting the steel plate price for the second half of this year.
According to the industry, Wednesday, the steelmakers and local big three heavy industry companies ― Hyundai Heavy Industries, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) and Samsung Heavy Industries ― went through tough negotiations and came to a compromise on the price, which is expected to be a little lower than POSCO's initial offering of 1.15 million won ($977) per ton. The deal is set to be finalized within this week.
"We came to a compromise with the heavy industry companies on a price that will be beneficial for all affected parties," a POSCO representative said.
Local shipbuilders initially wanted to negotiate a price of around 1 million won, claiming that a sudden rise in the steel plate price will affect their profitability. However, steelmakers say the rise in commodity prices, including iron ore, made a price increase inevitable, so they had to lower their initial price slightly in consideration of their long-term relationships with the shipbuilders.
The set price has not been made public but industry watchers say that it is around 1.1 million won per ton.
"The steel plate price is a sensitive issue as it directly affects shipbuilders' profitability. But we were expecting the price to be raised to around 1.1 million won per ton," a heavy industry official said.
Local steelmakers and shipbuilders agreed to cooperate to secure their competitiveness in the shipbuilding sector, including plans to cooperate with each other in constructing eco-friendly vessels.
The increase comes amid rapid rises in commodity and iron ore prices.
According to the Korea Resources Corp., the price of mainland Chinese iron ore came out to $163.20 per on ton last week. The price of iron ore peaked at $219.90 per ton on July 9, and has since been on a gradual decline for five consecutive weeks.
The price negotiations took into consideration the fact that the iron ore price, at over $200 per ton, will result in an increase in the steel plate price. Steel plates are widely used in shipbuilding as well as in construction, heavy equipment manufacturing and plant construction.
The steel plate price soared in the second quarter, with suppliers charging over 1.2 million won per ton, but price negotiations with shipbuilders are held only semiannually, so the steelmakers were unable to reflect that increase in price in their price negotiations.
Vale says it has been investing in different models of robots to assist employees in maintenance tasks, helping to remove them from risky situations and contributing to the company’s objective of becoming benchmark in mining safety. Currently, Vale works with three main robot models: two developed by the Vale Institute of Technology (ITV – Mining), which resemble “carts”, and one acquired from international supplier ANYbotics, ANYmal, nicknamed by Vale as “puppy.”
Created in 2010, ITV keeps a robotics cell, which has been developing robots, drones and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for operations. In 2015, Vale’s Speleology area started the SpeleoRobot project, which the following year was taken over by ITV in partnership with the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). The remotely operated robotic device, with cameras and a lighting system, capable of moving over rough terrain, was initially designed to help speleologists working for Vale by mapping caves close to operations.
As of 2017, the SpeleoRobot began to be tested in other operational functions, such as inspections in confined environments, which are difficult for people to access. Inspections have already been carried out in pipes, galleries and drains, in addition to services in plant equipment, such as mapping of ball mills and inspection of crusher teeth. The SpeleoRobot has already been used in more than 15 different services in the operations in the Brazilian states of Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo and Pará. Its interchangeable locomotion system allows the robot to move using wheels, tyres, treads or legs, providing mobility conditions on different types of terrain, and its sensing system allows for high resolution inspection, generation of three-dimensional maps, in addition to other modular capabilities.
Recently, some of the robot perception modules developed by ITV were exchanged with NASA, the US space agency. “These modules are being validated for use in an international underground robotics challenge,” comments researcher Maira Saboia, from ITV. ITV is producing three more units of this robot, which will be leased to copper operations in Pará and iron ore operations in Vitória (Espírito Santo) and Itabira (Minas Gerais), where they will be used in inspections of mills, pipelines and other confined environments.
The Robot for Inspection Services (ROSI) is also being developed by ITV, in partnership with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Designed since the beginning of the project as an inspection tool in Vale’s operational areas, ROSI focuses on conveyor belts, a critical piece of equipment for mining. For this, ROSI carries a robotic arm capable of acting with dexterity in the operational environment, being able to reposition sensors and collect samples in places with difficult access. The robot began to be developed in 2017 and is currently in the testing phase.
“These robots were created within Vale by the employees themselves and are a constantly evolving technology,” explains researcher Gustavo Pessin, from ITV. “Development is open-source, completely open from hardware to software, and its structure is modular. Everything that is developed can be used in other robots and equipment and adapted to new situations or functionalities using resources within Vale.”
In addition to developing equipment at home, Vale is also acquiring ANYmal, a quadruped robot created by ANYbotics, a Swiss company. Already used in other industries, the robot was adapted for mining operations with the support of a team from Vale. This year, a proof of concept was completed at the Cauê iron ore processing plant in Itabira (Minas Gerais). The success of the tests convinced Vale that it should purchase a unit of the robot. During the proof of concept, the robot manoeuvered around the platform and overcame obstacles such as going up and down stairs. It created and displayed a digitised map of the area under inspection, executed route planning and defined the way forward, focused on specific objects and instruments, transmitted images, recorded thermal images with temperature measurements, among other functions.
Using the robot minimises human exposure in hazardous locations, in addition to allowing remote asset inspection and data collection so that more effective decisions can be made. “With the robot, we eliminate risks pertaining to inspection activities, such as rotating equipment parts, noise and dust,” explains Rayner Teixeira, operational analyst responsible for developing Anymal at Vale. “We also eliminate activities that have ergonomic risk, where the employee would need to perform a task in an uncomfortable position. The robot also gives us access to confined spaces, like the inside of a mill.”
The robot will be used to carry out inspections of the grinding unit and the three-dimensional map of the Cauê mine. In addition to the gains in employee safety, a reduction in the number of stops and maintenance costs is expected, as well as greater reliability in inspection and the collection of parameters to control the performance of assets in real time.
The company concludes: “Innovation is key for Vale to improve people’s lives and transform the future together with society. In its strategy, the company prioritizes safety, reliability, low carbon agenda and generation of shared value. Ongoing safety innovation initiatives aim to remove employees from risk or reduce their exposure through the use of technologies such as autonomous vehicles, among others; identify and resolve causes of accidents with motor vehicles and energy equipment through operator fatigue detection systems and proximity alerts, for example; and elimination of risk scenarios.”
Monday, 16 August 2021 11:22:52 (GMT+3) | Kolkata
Indian state-run iron ore miner NMDC Limited has reported its highest-ever quarterly profit of INR 31.9 billion ($430 million) in the first quarter (April-June) of the fiscal year 2021-22, according to a company statement on Monday, August 16.
According to the company, strong domestic demand and higher international prices enabled the company to achieve all-time-high quarterly profits. Its previous highest quarterly net profit of INR 19.1 billion ($258 million) was achieved during the fiscal year 2014-15.
Total turnover of NMDC during the first quarter was reported at INR 65.1 billion ($877 million) up 236 percent over the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.
NMDC’s iron ore production was up 35 percent during the quarter at 8.91 million mt and sales were up 51 percent to 9.45 million mt, both year on year.
The company’s average sales realization during the given quarter came to INR 6,823/mt ($92/mt) per metric ton, up 123 percent, year on year with 94 percent of its total production sold in the domestic market.
$1= INR 74.20
Monday, 16 August 2021 13:31:45 (GMT+3) | Shanghai
In July this year, China’s pig iron, crude steel and finished steel outputs amounted to 72.85 million mt, 86.79 million mt and 111 million mt, down 8.9 percent, 8.4 percent and 6.6 percent year on year, respectively, as announced by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on August 16.
Crude steel output had been rising year on year since April. At the same time, production declined month on month again, with crude steel output down 7.6 percent or slightly more than 7 million mt from June. Finished steel output decreased by 8.05 percent month on month in July.
Such more visible reductions in steel production are due to the inspections at mills and tighter controls on production and emissions by the government. Moreover, weak seasonal demand has added to the pressure.
In the January-July period this year, China produced 533.5 million mt of pig iron, up 2.3 percent year on year, with the year-on-year growth 1.7 percentage points slower than that recorded in the first six months this year. Also, China’s crude steel and finished steel outputs totaled 649.33 million mt and 809.02 million mt in the first seven months this year, up 8.0 percent and 10.5 percent, respectively, year on year, with the year-on-year growths 3.8 percentage points and 3.4 percentage points slower than those recorded in the January-June period.
KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 18): Lion Industries Corp Bhd said today its hot rolled coil (HRC) plant in Banting, Selangor is undergoing repair and refurbishment.
The plant, which has a rated annual capacity of 3.2 million tonnes of HRC, is expected to be ready to commence production in December, ramping up to full production by February 2022, the group said in a statement.
HRC is used to produce a wide range of steel products such as highway guardrails, water pipes, high pressure vessels and gas cylinders, vehicle chassis and parts, and is also used to produce cold rolled coils.
Lion Industries is also undertaking modification work at its steel plant in Pasir Gudang, Johor which produces billets, and steel bars and sections.
The plant is targeted to commence production early next year, in January or February.
It has a rated annual capacity of 720,000 tonnes for production of billets, bars and sections which are used in the construction and downstream manufacturing industries.
Lion Industries said its steel operations will continue to support the local downstream manufacturers through its supply of both flat and long steel products that are required for the country’s industrialisation programme.
The group, in its statement, stressed that the steel industry is deemed a strategic industry by the government as it supplies essential raw materials to a host of industries, thus deepening and widening the manufacturing base.
Lion Industries’ share price closed 0.5 sen or 0.89% lower at 55.5 sen, valuing the group at RM402.02 million.
A bankruptcy court has reportedly received a request from Brazilian prosecutors to compel miners Vale and BHP Group to fully settle their $9.47bn debt related to the Samarco dam disaster.
According to a court document reviewed by Reuters, the prosecutors believe the two miners, who jointly own Brazilian miner Samarco Mineracao, are responsible for the 2015 Brazilian dam collapse.
The 2015 breach of the Fundão tailings dam at the Samarco-owned Germano mining complex killed 19 and resulted in widescale pollution of one of Brazil’s largest river basins.
Samarco was consequently burdened with borrowings of $10bn.
According to the latest document, Vale and BHP are also mulling a restraining order that would oblige them to cover their debt.
The prosecutors claim that bankrupt miner Samarco has been used by BHP and Vale to obtain immediate gains amid a price boom for iron ore.
These prosecutors were reported by the news agency as saying: “They chose to put at risk the lives of people who lived and worked there, as well as the environment, causing tragic consequences and incalculable damages.”
Although Samarco filed for bankruptcy protection in April 2021 amid struggles to restructure its debt, its creditors objected to the move in July citing them as ‘absurd’.
In a securities filing, Vale said: “The request attacks the clear letter of the agreements signed between the parties, to which the MPMG (prosecutors from Minas Gerais state) is a signatory, in addition to threatening the ongoing discussions and efforts to renegotiate the reparation measures for damage resulting from the Fundão dam collapse.”
BHP, however, said that it found bankruptcy protection a viable solution to help Samarco recover financially.
https://www.mining-technology.com/news/vale-bhp-samarco-debt/
U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh toured an underground coal mine for the first time, joining Sen. Joe Manchin at a northern West Virginia facility on Wednesday.
Walsh did his best to signal that Democratic President Joe Biden s administration won’t be an enemy of the coal industry as he and Manchin visited American Consolidated Natural Resources' Golden Ridge Portal Mine near Wheeling.
"It was quite the experience, I'll tell you that," Walsh said in a telephone interview on his way back to Washington, D.C.
Walsh described donning the proper safety equipment, taking an elevator ride down to the mine and then a mantrip ride by rail to the longwall to watch a machine grind and extract coal from the seam.
Walsh's agency oversees the Mine Safety and Health Administration as well as the administration of benefits for coal miners disabled by black lung disease.
“I felt it was really important for me to go down and get a feel for what mine workers do," Walsh said. "I have a different understanding and appreciation of the work."
The mine was operated for years by Murray Energy Holdings, which emerged from federal bankruptcy protection under a new name and ownership group. St. Clairsville, Ohio-based American Consolidated is the largest privately owned U.S. coal operator.
West Virginia has lost thousands of jobs in the past decade as companies and utilities explore using other energy sources such as natural gas, solar and wind.
Democratic candidates for president have struggled in recent years to connect with voters in West Virginia, in part due to a push toward clean energy under the Obama administration. Still, despite his promises, coal did not come roaring back under President Donald Trump though he again won the state of West Virginia in 2020 by an overwhelming margin in his unsuccessful bid for re-election.
Earlier this year, the United Mine Workers Union, the nation’s largest coal union, said it would accept Biden’s plan to move further away from coal and other fossil fuels in exchange for a “true energy transition” that includes thousands of jobs in renewable energy and spending on technology to make coal cleaner.
In June, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm joined Manchin, the only Democrat currently holding statewide elected office in West Virginia, on a tour to promote the Biden administration's plans to involve the once-booming coal state in the development of clean energy.
Manchin said in a news release that he discussed with Walsh the impact that the $1 trillion infrastructure bill passed by Congress would have. Manchin has vowed that as new energy opportunities emerge, West Virginia coal communities won't be left behind, and he said he looks forward to working with Walsh to support and reinvest in them.
“I have always said the transition to a cleaner energy future must come from innovation, not elimination and the bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed the Senate will do just that," Manchin said.
Walsh said Manchin got that point across to him in their discussion about coal's future.
“The president has goals of carbon neutrality and alternative energy sources,” Walsh said. "Certainly these conversations need to happen. We do have an industry where people are working in. They’re concerned about the future of their industry as well.”
Heavy losses have continued for the iron ore giants, contributing to a fourth consecutive ASX loss as a resurgent coronavirus entangles the global economy.
BHP and Fortescue each lost more than six per cent as China's reduced appetite for steel causes the iron ore price to keep falling.
BHP shares have lost more than 13 per cent in the past two days.
The other major iron ore miner, Rio Tinto, had its shares decline by more than five per cent on Thursday.
ANZ analyst Daniel Hynes said China was continuing to restrict steel production for environmental benefit.
"This should see prices for steel and iron ore remain under pressure," he said.
Energy shares were also widely sold. The more infectious Delta variant of COVID-19 has spread around the world and lowered demand for travel and oil.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed lower by 37.5 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 7464.6.
The All Ordinaries closed down 35.4 points, or 0.46 per cent, to 7735.3.
Also moving lower was the Aussie dollar, which slipped to buy 71 US cents.
NAB head of foreign exchange strategy Ray Attrill cited investor concern about an economic slowdown in China and restrictions elsewhere due to the coronavirus spreading.
"When global risk sentiment is poor, commodity currencies and the Aussie dollar suffer more than most," he said.
He dismissed any impact from Australian unemployment data, which showed the jobless rate unexpectedly fell to 4.6 per cent in July, with lengthy lockdowns in Melbourne and NSW likely to turn the momentum.
Investor confidence was also down in the US overnight as Wall Street's main indexes dropped.
Minutes from the Federal Reserve's policy meeting last month showed officials felt the US employment benchmark for reducing support to the economy "could be reached this year".
On the ASX, Origin Energy had a troubling story for investors.
The company posted a full-year loss of $2.3 billion and flagged continuing vulnerability in its energy markets business due to lower power prices and higher fuel costs.
Origin will pay an unfranked final dividend of 7.5 cents a share, down from 10 cents a year ago.
Shares were down 4.12 per cent to $4.19.
Casino operator Star Entertainment is selling stakes in two properties and a plane used to fly VIP customers, after COVID-19 troubles.
Star outlined in its full-year earnings report that it is looking to sell and leaseback stakes in its Sydney and Treasury Brisbane casinos.
Star posted a net profit after tax of $57.9 million but will not pay a final dividend.
Shares were up 6.78 per cent to $3.62.
Treasury Wine Estates has preserved its full-year profit despite losing a big chunk of its key China market and amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The owner of brands such as Penfolds, Wolf Blass and Lindeman's on Thursday reported net profit for the year to June 30 rose 1.8 per cent to $250 million.
Shares were down 1.5 per cent to $12.50.
In banking, most of the big four were lower. The Commonwealth fared worst of the group and shed 0.55 per cent to $99.22.
The Australian dollar was buying 71.72 US cents at 1729 AEST, lower than 72.62 US cents at Wednesday's close.
ON THE ASX
* The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed lower by 37.5 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 7464.6 on Thursday.
* The All Ordinaries closed down 35.4 points, or 0.46 per cent, to 7735.3.
* At 1729 AEST, the SPI200 futures index was lower by 10 points, or 0.14 per cent, at 7365 points.
CURRENCY SNAPSHOT
One Australian dollar buys:
* 71.72 US cents, from 72.62 cents on Wednesday
* 78.82 Japanese yen, from 79.57 yen
* 61.45 Euro cents, from 61.93 cents
* 52.36 British pence, from 52.82 pence
* 104.89 NZ cents, from 104.90 cents.
The iron ore will be transported from Venture’s Riley mine in Tasmania to the Burnie port and eventually on to China.
Venture Minerals is more than 20% higher on booking its first shipment of iron ore following the completion of plant commissioning and steady-state production achievement at its Riley Iron Ore Mine in Tasmania.
The shipment will be hauled from Riley to the Port of Burnie, where a 46,000-tonne capacity bulk carrier vessel will be chartered by a major international shipping operator.
Venture’s offtake partner and one of the world’s largest iron ore traders, Prosperity Steel United Singapore, will designate the discharge port in China.
Shares have been as much as 26.6% higher this morning to 10.5 cents and VMS is currently at 10 cents while the market cap before the opening was approximately $110.7 million.
Becoming an iron ore producer
Venture managing director Andrew Radonjic said progress made in recent months at Riley had put the company in good stead.
“Through the now completed commissioning of the plant, Venture already has a significant stockpile of iron ore ready to ship,” he said.
“The achievement of steady-state production and consequently continuous ore haulage has enabled us to immediately charter a bulk carrier vessel to load and deliver the first shipment,” he said.
“This marks a major milestone for us as we transition from a highly successful explorer to producer.”
Riley Iron Ore being loaded onto Qube trucks destined for Burnie.
Background progress
Venture began the commissioning of its wet screening plant in May and it is now fully installed and operational.
24-hour processing is now underway and the first stage of steady-state production has been achieved, allowing the continuous ore haulage from Riley to the Burnie port.
All of this has enabled Venture to book its first shipment, which is due for arrival in the second week of September.
Venture then plans to work on continuous improvement programs for the following months as it ramps up production from one to two shipments per month.
Other projects
Venture has a multi-commodity focus, with exposure to platinum-group elements, zinc, nickel, copper, gold, lead, tin and tungsten also among its projects.
Recently it doubled its nickel-copper-PGE portfolio with new tenure at Kulin Project in Western Australia.
That followed drill spinning on a priority tin target at its Mount Lindsay Project in Tasmania.
- Daniel Paproth
Asian stocks were set to dip, after a slide on Wall Street sparked by Federal Reserve minutes indicating officials could start paring stimulus from later this year, Bloomberg reported.
The S&P 500 closed down more than 1%.
Meanwhile, BHP has warned "the increasing likelihood of stern cuts to steel output in China in the current half year … is testing the bullish resolve of the futures markets".
"Prices have decreased materially in late July and early August, but they remain extremely high relative to history at around US$160/t at the time of writing," BHP said in an economic and commodity outlook posted on its website this week.
BHP shares have continued to slide, down more than 6% in morning trade, as investors continue to digest the company's plans to end its dual company structure and exit oil and gas.
Base metals closed lower in London, while gold remains around $1,785 an ounce on the spot market.
Finally Arbor Metals (TSXV: ABR) shot up 11.1% or C20c in Toronto after saying access and travel to Burkina Faso and its Rakounga gold project continued to improve and it was confident "significant progress" would be made in developing the project through the fall and winter.
