S. Africa platinum strike damage irreversible, losses close to $1bn |
| S. Africa platinum strike damage irreversible, losses close to $1bn Posted: 25 Mar 2014 07:13 AM PDT
"The extended strike in the platinum belt is unprecedented, and at a stage where some of its impacts are becoming irreparable," said in a joint statement the world's top three producers, Anglo American Platinum (or Amplats), Impala Platinum (JSE:IMP) and Lonmin (LON:LMI). The companies added the financial cost of the strike doesn't really tell the full story: "Mines and shafts are becoming unviable; people are hungry; children are not going to school; businesses are closing and crime in the platinum belt is increasing," the companies said. The platinum titans urged the radical Association of Mineworkers and Construction workers Union (AMCU) to come back to the negotiating table, as they said, a settlement must soon be found "for the sake of our companies, our employees, the sector as a whole and everyone adversely affected by the strike." The group wants the workers' basic salary increased to $1,155 (12,500 rand) a month for the lowest paid workers over a period of four years. Anglo American Platinum (LON:AAL) said this would represent an average annual increase of 29%, which they said was "unaffordable". South Africa, Africa's largest economy, holds about 80% of the world's known platinum reserves, accounting for about 70% of global output, used for jewellery, catalytic converters in vehicles, and as a key source of hard currency for the country, among other applications.  |
| Rio Tinto, Russians to begin work at massive Canadian potash deposit by 2017 Posted: 25 Mar 2014 04:50 AM PDT  Potash is expected to boom as income in emerging economies continues to improve. Only a week after Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) revealed it has been sitting on a world-class potash deposit in Canada's Saskatchewan, its Russian-owned joint venture partner, North Atlantic Potash, has hinted they are ready to start building the project within three years. The KP405 discovery, located close to where rival BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) is building its $3.8 billion Jansen mine, is said to have enough of the fertilizer ingredient to sustain a mine for decades, reports The Australian. Based on North Atlantic's last report, KP405 has an inferred resource of 1.4 billion tonnes of potash with an average grade of 31% KCl. The company believes that based on a solution mining operation, it can recover roughly 329 million tonnes of KCl at the wellhead from the resource defined within the northern area of KP405. Rio's incursion into potash has been fraught with some false starts. In 2009, Rio sold its potash properties in Canada and Brazil to Vale (NYSE:VALE), the Brazilian mining giant, only to jump back into Canadian potash in 2011 with the joint venture with JSC Acron, North Atlantic's parent company. While a United Nations report expects the world's population to surpass 9 billion people by 2050 (we are around 7.2 billion today), potash is expected to boom as income in emerging economies continues to improve. Potash prices, however, are no so hot these days. The fertilizer ingredient has been trading at roughly $300 per tonne. BHP recently committed to spending an additional $2.6 billion on Jansen over the next few years, just to gain access to the deposit, but it hasn't made a decision on when to start building the mine. The reason, say experts, is that potash producers need prices as close as $500 per tonne as possible, so they can cover construction costs. |
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