Lust, caution
July 14 - 20, 2008
LOVE me, love me not. Investors have revealed their love affair with mining stocks has been more lust than devotion. Not that it’s been one-way deception. But how much faith investors can place in company operating and project development cost, and profit, forecasts over the coming year is going to become more apparent in the next month or two.
Tennant Creek beauty still in the grade
July 7 - 13, 2008
BROKERS and a couple of analysts pulled out their comfortable footwear and casual gear and converged on central Australia last week to check out first hand the prospects that could herald the renaissance of the historic, high-grade Tennant Creek gold and copper mineral field.
Laterite nickel the real deal
June 23 - 29, 2008
OXIANA has in the past talked about it, and now conventional base metal miner HudBay Minerals has taken the plunge with its decision to get into the laterite nickel caper via its $C436 million merger deal with fellow Canadian company Skye Resources. Australian laterite companies will no doubt have noted the deal with positive interest, none more so than Heron Resources.
Beadell deals to add polish
June 16 - 22, 2008
IT’S still a week or so away from being done and dusted, but Beadell Resources managing director Peter Bowler is confident the company’s proposed $A300 million acquisition of Cracow in Queensland from Newcrest Mining and Lion Selection will ensure it wears the tag for ‘Best gold sector deal of 08’ not too far into the future.
Former Nautilus chief in seachange
June 9 - 15, 2008
DAVID Heydon is playing his cards very close to his chest, but what he’s saying should send a shiver or two down the back of commodity producers. As should the actions of various nation states over the past 12 months.
Leap of faith
May 26 - June 1, 2008
WHY does the mining industry need to get better at using automation technology? The answer may be that it doesn’t. A conference in Perth, Western Australia this week focusing on mining’s Holy Grail – automated production equipment – heard the same message from a well-qualified sceptic who doesn’t see robotic mining becoming a reality any time soon, but also those working feverishly to prove him wrong.
Platinum deficit to support more price hikes
May 19 - 25, 2008
THE platinum price could clear $US2500 per ounce within six months if South African energy company Eskom fails to cope with the predicted rise in power needs, further hindering the efforts of producers to claw back the current platinum deficit, according to a London analyst. South Africa supplies about 70% of world platinum.
Chile's mid-tier status
May 12 - 18, 2008
CHILE is the world’s largest producer of copper, production that by-and-large comes from some of the world’s major mining companies. But as world-class deposits become increasingly rare, the glaring absence of a mid-tier mining sector to sustain production growth is causing concern. For it to emerge the government has to tackle a difficult issue: access to land.
Platinum hunt stepped up
April 21 - 27, 2008
THERE is no time like the present for a junior to discover a platinum deposit outside South Africa. Prices are sky high, and according to an in-depth report on the South African platinum sector, ongoing problems with power generation for “at least” the next four years sees “strong potential” for metal prices to continue to rise.
Quality stakes still producing winners
March 17 - 23, 2008
DON’T panic about Moly Mines putting its financing on short-term hold. Two Australian companies have shown this week that significant debt and equity remains available for quality business stories despite the general market turmoil. Quality is the key, and Moly and others such as promising emerging gold producer Regis Resources have strong confidence about their developments.
Golden opportunity
February 25 - March 2, 2008
FEW in Australia’s shrunken gold sector, even the true believers, are toasting a new golden age despite bullion prices which a decade ago would have unleashed a wave of euphoria. For now the mood is eerily subdued, reflected in the caution being shown by equity investors and those developing new projects. Elusive exploration success remains the key to a real revival.
Double take
February 4 - 10, 2008
WITH Herald Resources’ Dairi project on its way to a new owner, just how long can Zinifex, Teck Cominco or some other ambitious zinc player sit by casually watching events unfold at Terramin Australia’s Tala Hamza deposit in Algeria? A Terramin defence committee awaits.
Ironing out the bugs
January 28 - February 3, 2008
FORMER WMC boss Hugh Morgan’s clarion call for mining to embrace robotics as a means of boosting its appeal to investors and a new generation of workers has been taken up a decade later by Rio Tinto chief Tom Albanese. Morgan’s words were not matched by actions. Some say Albanese’s “mine of the future” is a similarly strategic concept, while others suggest the world has changed a great deal in 10 years.
The base metal kings
January 21 - 27, 2008
QUALITY mining companies at the mid-tier level could well be prompted into a more aggressive M&A approach should the negative investor sentiment of the past couple of months persist into 2008.
Line of resistance
January 14 - 20, 2008
SHARE investors will have to wait a bit longer to get exposure to some of Australia’s best emerging mining service companies, many of which are resisting the IPO path followed so successfully in recent times by companies such as Swick Mining, Ausenco and Industrea. On the other hand, Queensland-based mining consulting and technology group Runge is leading the IPO class of 2008.
Trouble beneath the surface
December 17 - 23, 2007
SOME years into the biggest boom the mining sector has ever seen, the big greenfields-style find that ignites the market is proving somewhat elusive. So what’s gone wrong with exploration, and, more importantly, what is the path forward?
State of denial
November 19 - 25, 2007
PUNTING on an exploration company with mine development hopes is supposed to be a one-in-1000 bet. But in resource-rich Western Australia, the state premier has wound the odds for uranium explorers all the way out to “fat chance”. Why then are so many of Australia’s 200 or so uranium exploration companies putting shareholders’ funds on the line in a bid to find and develop a mine?
Tunnel vision
November 5 - 11, 2007
THE dangers faced by single-asset mining companies and by proxy their shareholders have been most clearly shown by various gold company reversals over the past year, with miners of the yellow metal not having the margins being enjoyed by their base metal counterparts to protect them. Those margins won’t last forever though.
Barrick deal points to underlying value
October 29 - November 4, 2007
A HIGH-GRADE gold mine in a highly prized exploration district, and a gold price seemingly heading further north. That was the nightmare scenario confronting John Gooding back in May this year. Of course, as we now know, things could have been worse.
Dad, you may have been right
October 15 - 21, 2007
RARELY, if ever, do new exploration companies in Australia attract more than $A30 million worth of subscriptions to an IPO, never mind one priced to minimise dilution and one based on greenfield prospects in Papua New Guinea. Investors clearly see something special is in the offing at Goldminex Resources.
Fort Ox
October 8 - 14, 2007
OXIANA’S website slogan reads “Building a major mining company”. The site contents, including numerous presentations by chief executive Owen Hegarty, imply a rider: “… in a hurry”. Hegarty believes there has never been a better time to build a major mining house, despite a raft of challenges, and he says others have shown 5-10 years is not an improbable construction horizon.
Where east is meeting west
September 24 - 30, 2007
A STELLAR trading debut last Friday on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKSE) by Chinese coking coal company Hidili Industry International and a $US500 million IPO currently being put together by nickel miner Xinjiang Xixin Mining are the latest successes for a liquid, capital-rich equity market that’s seen as having big potential for Western resource companies with a Pan Asian bent.
Mythical reality
September 17 - 23, 2007
“THE exploration upside is huge. I’ve been working in South East Asia most of my working life and I’ve really never seen a chunk of ground with as much mineralisation stuffed into it as we’re starting to find.”
Brazil adds copper element
July 2 - 8, 2007
BRAZIL IS perhaps the newest country to set up shop as a copper producer, and has established itself as a meaningful supplier of red metal in a few short years. Brazilian copper production has grown from a barely noticeable 26,275 tonnes in 2003 to 200,000t in 2006, and will almost double to 360,000t by 2010, according to national mining department DNPM, as new projects come on stream.
Smelter now in Mirabela frame
June 25 - July 1, 2007
THE market black hole that typically consumes smaller companies during the construction phase of projects could be deftly negotiated by Mirabela Nickel following a significant jump in resources earlier this month that provides the company with additional growth options to consider and highlight over the next couple of years as its Santa Rita project comes into production.
Borshoff's reality check
June 18 - 24, 2007
WHILE John Borshoff doesn’t quite reach a state of apoplexy when the subject of analysts predicting a flood of uranium production is broached, it’s unambiguously clear the thus-far prescient managing director of emerging miner Paladin Resources is far from impressed.
Manual to automatic
June 11 - 17, 2007
WHAT DOES the world’s first robotic shipping container terminal have in common with the automated mine of the future? The chief executive officer of the company that provided the technology for the greenfields Brisbane terminal says the same technology could be used to automate mines. Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Caterpillar are several of the companies understood to be keen to do what Patrick Terminals has accomplished in Brisbane: change the modern workplace through the application of advanced robotics.
Rates rise on the high seas
May 28 - June 3, 2007
THE sea of ships off Newcastle and various Brazilian ports graphically point to the problem facing iron ore buyers. Freight rates have exploded, exceeding the last peak in 2005 and putting Australian iron producers in particular in position to leverage another iron ore price rise from Chinese steel mills.
Going for gold
May 21 - 27, 2007
ON THE eve of the Beijing Olympics, China is pressing for the mantle of world’s biggest gold producer. Internal demand will be a big driver. Foreign-owned explorers and miners racing to lead the modernisation of the country’s gold sector believe it has the deposits, cost base and, increasingly, the infrastructure to usurp long-time frontrunners South Africa, North America and Australia. And stay No.1 for a very long time.
Dealmaker desert
May 14 - 20, 2007
URGENTLY WANTED: a dealmaker to revive the independent league in one of the world’s great gold mining jurisdictions. Interested parties should apply promptly, as asset may be in terminal decline.
Let's talk
May 7 - 13, 2007
CASHED up Perilya Ltd is loitering “with intent” after management received board approval to set up a dedicated merger and acquisition team that’s being aided and abetted by investment bank UBS.
Mactung in the spotlight
April 30 - May 6, 2007
NORTH American Tungsten Ltd (NTC) is now in “fast track” mode at the world’s largest undeveloped tungsten deposit after switching its focus from restarting production at Cantung in Canada to the much more substantial, and potentially influential – in terms of the global tungsten market – Mactung project, according to chairman and chief executive, Stephen Leahy.
Betting starts on nickel's orbit
April 23 - 29, 2007
AS SERIAL M&A activity takes hold on the North American nickel scene, those down the mine in Australia that are actually rolling in cash as a result of the stupendous price are evidently taking more serious note of the outlook.
Tyre pressure still rising
April 16 - 22, 2007
INCREASING quantities of earthmover tyres from “alternative” suppliers are expected to come into the Australasian market from early next year, bringing the booming Australian mining industry more into line with the world’s other key mining regions and almost certainly affecting the timing of more major projects.
Labour problems
April 9 - 15, 2007
A SERIOUS decline in labour productivity at Australian mines over the past five years has not yet rung any alarm bells in the investment community. After all, mining is a highly capital intensive industry and the massive build-up in mine and infrastructure capacity, which finally seems set to unleash significant output growth this year and next, is already delivering historically high capital returns due to record commodity prices. But productivity readings are triggering alarm bells in the industry itself, and they’re getting louder.
New opening for nickel miner
April 2 - 8, 2007
A SIZEABLE new independent nickel plant could be developed in the Forrestania region of Western Australia following the identification of additional significant mineralisation at Western Areas NL’s Diggers South project.
Power play
March 26 - April 1, 2007
OLYMPIC Dam is not the only mega resources project on the radar in South Australia. A multi-billion dollar coal-to-liquid (CTL) mining and processing proposal in the backcountry of the northern Gawler Craton is also taking shape in the offices of various first tier consultants around the world.
Fast reactors
March 19 - 25, 2007
INVESTMENT bank Goldman Sachs JBWere (GSJBW) has joined the throng backing the strong prospects for the uranium price, though a London-based analyst has succinctly pointed out the risks at hand for the equities and investors flooding the sector (see accompanying story).
Rising market
March 8 - 14, 2007
IS AUSTRALIA becoming the world’s feature market for publicly listed global mining supply and service companies? Boart Longyear chief executive Paul Brunner believes it is. An increasing number of CEOs presiding over burgeoning mining equipment, technology and service supply businesses may be thinking along the same lines.
Dealing itself in
March 1 - 7, 2007
GEOPOLITICAL skills shape as a key to how far China gets in its bid to maximise its resource self-sufficiency and, therefore, the impact it has on the fortunes of the West’s booming mining sector. Is the “stronger for longer” catchcry of the markets destined for the rhetorical waste-bin sooner than expected?
Curly one for nickel
February 15 - 21, 2007
IN DAYS gone by it was the bear that put the fear of God into nickel miners everywhere. The big Russian bear that is – Norilsk. These days it is a wave of entrepreneurial Chinese that miners should be wary of as the incredible nickel price threatens to be the catalyst for an “industry changing” development. Welcome to the year of the pig.
U marks the spot
February 8 - 14, 2007
MARCH and April shape as influential months for the global uranium sector as Cameco Corp comes to grips with the future of its Cigar Lake project in northern Saskatchewan, and the Australian Labor Party (ALP) wrings its hands regarding party policy on the commodity. Equities that have enjoyed a nuclear powered performance over the past couple of years will be extremely interested onlookers.
All tied up
December 14 - 20, 2006
TOUGH times for Kingsgate Consolidated Ltd should not obscure the potential this producer in Thailand has to become one of the key gold miners in Asia. Ten million ounces should comfortably see to that, though the market at the moment is unsurprisingly cautious.
Anglo next in play?
November 23 - 29, 2006
AS THE crowd at the M&A club at the very top end of town dwindles, there is one long time beauty whose attractions look increasingly luminous to those holding the means and ambitions for growth and market power.
Cat pause
November 9 - 15, 2006
HAVING sped clear of its competitors in the past few years, Caterpillar Inc will drop back a gear in 2007 in anticipation of some tighter turns and maybe the odd pothole. However, behind the scenes, massive investment in technology and new machinery looks like ensuring the company will come out in 2008 with an improved engine capable of even more power in the straights.
Skills a key to safety barrier
November 2 - 8, 2006
COLLABORATION and focused effort helped the Australian mining industry avert more than 40 mine deaths over the past decade, according to a leading geomechanics expert. In the current rush to develop more, bigger and deeper hard-rock mines, that fact as much as any other must not be forgotten, he says.
