Colombia's second-biggest coal producer ordered to stop loading |
- Colombia's second-biggest coal producer ordered to stop loading
- Dr Doom lifts mining gloom
- Turkey's 2013 gold and silver imports skyrocket
- And the 2014 award for the top gold bear goes to…
- 2014 gold price rally builds against record bearish bets
- Lucapa Diamond unearths 32.2 carat rock from Angola mine
| Colombia's second-biggest coal producer ordered to stop loading Posted: 03 Jan 2014 04:17 PM PST Colombia's second largest coal producer has been ordered by a regional environmental body to stop loading coal. The Regional Autonomous Corporation of Magdalena (Corpamag) has told US-based Drummond to immediately cease loading work because the company is not in compliance with new rules which require miners to implement a direct-to-vessel loading system, Reuters reports. Producers were required to complete the upgrades by January 1, 2014. But not even two months ago the government had said it was looking at ways to extend this deadline. Drummond had said that it would be unable to meet the deadline and that without an extension it might have to halt one-third of the country's exports. And indeed the company reached a deal with the government last month whereby Drummond would continue loading with barges and cranes until March but would pay a daily fee to do so. It's unclear whether the regional body's order can override the deal with the government. A Drummond worker told Reuters by phone that the site was still operating normally. Coal shipments account for 12% of Colombia's coal exports – second only to oil. The outcome of this issue will could weigh heavily on Colombia's already troubled coal market; 2013 exports most likely did not meet targets. A director of the country's Ministry of Mines and Energy told reporters in November that he was "extremely worried" about the situation with Drummond. The government introduced the direct-to-vessel coal loading law in 2007. The initial deadline for compliance was 2010. As reported by Platts, Colombia's vice minister said in November that Drummond's upgrades were "very delayed."  |
| Posted: 03 Jan 2014 03:28 PM PST Nouriel Roubini is often, somewhat unkindly, referred to as Dr. Doom (or 'Permabear') because of the many pessimistic economic predictions he's made in the past. But ever since he accurately forecast the 2008 global financial crisis sparked by US sub-prime lending, people have tended to listen to the NYU's Stern School of Business professor and IMF, World Bank and US Fed economist. Roubini, who now heads his own global economics consulting business, was in rare uplifting mode this week delivering brighter forecasts for the world economy in 2014. Growth in developed economies will speed up albeit below capacity and there is even some good news for gold (the dollar printing will continue for a good while longer) in his forecast. But his bullishness on faster rates of urbanization and industrialization in emerging markets is particularly good news for miners: Emerging economies will grow faster in 2014 – closer to 5% year on year – for several reasons. Brisker recovery in advanced economies will boost imports from emerging markets. The Fed's exit from QE will be slow, keeping interest rates low. Policy reforms in China will attenuate the risk of a hard landing. And, with many emerging markets still urbanizing and industrializing, their rising middle classes will consume more goods and services. Some of the biggest winners among emerging markets will be in Latin America including Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Mexico, while Roubini also counts a number of Sub-Saharan countries and the Philippines and Malaysia as potential standouts due to "fewer macroeconomic, policy, and financial weaknesses" than their peers. Roubini picks out among others India, Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa and Argentina as emerging markets that "will remain fragile in 2014, owing to large external and fiscal deficits, slowing growth, below-target inflation, and election-related political tensions." On China, Roubini is harder to pin down but the country, the driving force behind much of the global metals and minerals trade, is expected to maintain an annual growth rate above 7% in 2014: "But, despite the reforms set out by the Third Plenum of the Communist Party's Central Committee, the shift in China's growth model from fixed investment toward private consumption will occur too slowly. "Many vested interests, including local governments and state-owned enterprises, are resisting change; a huge volume of private and public debt will go sour; and the country's leadership is divided on how quickly reforms should be implemented. So, while China will avoid a hard landing in 2014, its medium-term prospects remain worrisome." |
| Turkey's 2013 gold and silver imports skyrocket Posted: 03 Jan 2014 03:03 PM PST
Turkey has been making headlines for its bubbling appetite for gold and silver. According to Turkey's Hurriyet Daily News, the country imported more gold in 2013 than ever before on record. Meanwhile, silver imports in December reached their highest levels since at least 1999 and were 60% higher than in 2012, Bloomberg reported. So what's driving Turkey's interest in precious metals? For one, gold and silver prices just finished off their worst year in decades; silver lost about 36% while gold shed 28% as the US and global economies showed signs of improvement. These lower prices boosted physical demand not just in Turkey but also in China where gold consumption reached record highs. The Turkey-Iran fiasco Another contributing factor is Turkey's controversial gold-for-gas deal with Iran. Though this scheme, Turkish officials help Iran circumvent Western sanctions aimed at preventing Iranian oil from entering global markets. The deal – which caused a massive corruption scandal in Turkey recently – allowed Iran to sell oil and natural gas to Turkey and get paid in gold, thereby bypassing sanctions which were essentially designed to 'trap' Iran's oil earnings in foreign accounts. Because Turkey produces very little gold itself, it has had to boost imports. According to Hurriyet, the country brought in 302 tonnes of gold in 2013 – a 150% increase on 2012. The CEO of Halkbank, the Turkish bank involved in the shady dealings, argues that its actions were legal because there was no law preventing the sale of precious metals to Iran until July 2013, when the Obama administration officially closed this loophole. Halkbank said these transactions stopped in June, as reported by Reuters. Meanwhile, Turkey's gold and silver imports have been rising sharply. In December the country brought in just under 32 tonnes of gold – a 64% increase on the previous month. Silver imports gained 36% on November levels. |
| And the 2014 award for the top gold bear goes to… Posted: 03 Jan 2014 02:45 PM PST Predictions for the gold price in 2014 by investment and bullion banks don't vary much in that the vast majority predict a decline this year. There are bulls – none of them anywhere near raging – like Germany's Commerzbank and Scotia Mocatta which predict a return to $1,400 an ounce. Barclays is somewhere in the middle with a move to $1,350 in the first half but for gold to be back to around $1,270 by end-2014. Merrill Lynch sees the opposite price movement with $1,350 hit at the end of the year. The bear camp includes Goldman Sachs calling for a 15% decline from the November level when the investment bank made the forecast which translates to below $1,100. JP Morgan Cazenove sees gold averaging $1,263 in 2014 which is 10% below last year's average. But the award for the most bearish forecast comes from Dominic Schnider, head of non-traditional asset classes at Switzerland's UBS Wealth Management.* Schnider, who gets extra points for the conviction with which he holds his views, said this week "for investors who have gold, it's just going to be an awful year again"and that the metal will fall to $1,050 an ounce in 2014: "People have been talking about [the Federal Reserve's] taper, but I would really think about rate hikes. If you make a 12-month forecast you need to look into 2015 and rate hikes are on the cards," he said. A rising interest rate environment typically makes owning gold more expensive as it is not an income-producing asset. With the global economic growth and inflation mix looking promising in 2014, the risk-reward balance is now skewed toward risky assets, Schnider added. Around the 1:30 level in the video below Schnider gives advice for those who despite the dire predictions, still want to hold gold in their portfolio. Schnider says stay away from the gold mining companies which will come under severe margin pressure, but if you want to have gold as an "asset of last resort" hold the physical through the banks or better still "keep it under your mattress." *Cannot help but be struck by the fact that UBS classifies gold as a "non-traditional asset" given the fact that the first gold coins were minted in ancient Greece. |
| 2014 gold price rally builds against record bearish bets Posted: 03 Jan 2014 11:31 AM PST The gold price enjoyed a second day of double digit gains, adding 1% on Friday to reach a near 3-week high and notching up its best performance since October. On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange gold for February delivery added as much as $13 an ounce to a day high $1,238.30 in early afternoon trade. Gold's fightback from last year's lows of $1,187 which was again tested on the last trading day of 2013 has put the record number of short sellers in the market on the back foot . Short positions – bets that the price will go down – held by large investors or so-called managed money climbed to a record to 82,765 lots or 8,276,500 ounces in the week to December 24 according to the delayed Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released yesterday. So many big players short of gold could translate into further upside for the metal as commercial traders and hedge funds are forced to cover their positions should gold go higher from here. Gold has also been boosted by increased demand from Asia. The premium paid for taking immediate delivery of gold in Shanghai has risen to $23 an ounce, up from zero in November and a 4-month high. Demand from world number two importer of the metal could also be boosted this year. The Reserve Bank of India lifted some import restrictions on December 31 which was responsible for a plunge in imports on the subcontinent of between 250–300 tonnes in 2013 from a peak above 1,000 tonnes in 2011. A negative in the market remains continued outflows from gold-backed exchange traded funds. Holdings of the world's largest gold ETF – SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEARCA:GLD) – dropped 3.5 tonnes yesterday after a 45 tonne decline in December. At 794.6 tonnes GLD holdings are at the lowest level since January 2009. Overall, the more than a hundred gold-ETFs traded around the world saw net selling last year of 869 tonnes with the bulk of the selling – 586 tonnes – occurring in the first half of 2013. The price of of gold ended 2013 down 28% at a shade over $1,200 an ounce, bringing a 12-year bull run that took it from around $270 an ounce at the end of 2000 to a record high above $1,900 in September 2011 to a decisive end. |
| Lucapa Diamond unearths 32.2 carat rock from Angola mine Posted: 03 Jan 2014 10:01 AM PST  Image courtesy of Lucapa Diamond. Shares of Australian Lucapa Diamond (ASX:LOM) were momentarily halted Friday morning as the Australian Stock Exchange was waiting for a formal update on the recovery of a 32.2-carat white diamond from its Lulo mine, in Angola. Later in the day the firm announced it had recovered the D colour massive diamond from a bulk sample approximately 1,600 metres south east of the priority Se251 kimberlite pipe. A D colour is given to only the finest white diamonds; these are totally colourless and classified as "exceptional white". The diamond measures 32x10x8mm, is of irregular dodecahedral shape, is the largest recovered through Lucapa's new Dense Media Separation plant, and the fourth largest diamond recovered at Lulo to date. While the diamond appears flawless to Lucapa staff, this will need to be confirmed by independent examination. Lulo, a joint venture between Lucapa and the Angolan government, hosts type-2a diamonds, which the company qualifies as "the world's rarest and most valuable gems". These kinds of precious rock account for less than 1% of global supply and, according to Lucapa, the world's most famous large, white, flawless diamonds belong to this category. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from MINING.com To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 Comment for "Colombia's second-biggest coal producer ordered to stop loading"