INFOGRAPHIC: Quick primer on cobalt and batteries

---

• INFOGRAPHIC: Quick primer on cobalt and batteries
• Brazil appeals court rules in Vale's favour over $10bn tax bill
• Vancouver gold junior pops on Mexico discovery
• Construction, not mining lifts Caterpillar’s profit
• Texas ranch family gets $3 million in 'fraccident' suit
• Illegal gold mining expands in South Africa at sky-high rates: report

INFOGRAPHIC: Quick primer on cobalt and batteries Posted: 24 Apr 2014 04:27 PM PDT Fortune Minerals (TSE:FT) is advancing a gold-cobalt-bismuth-copper mine in Northwest Territories, Canada and readying a metals processing plant in Saskatchewan. The London, Ontario-based junior has put together this infographic on the use of cobalt in rechargeable battery technologies which is set to rocket in coming years.

Brazil appeals court rules in Vale's favour over $10bn tax bill Posted: 24 Apr 2014 03:17 PM PDT Brazil's Superior Justice Tribunal, the country's second highest court, on Thursday ruled in favour of iron ore giant Vale SA (NYSE:VALE) in a dispute over taxation of foreign subsidiaries. Reuters reports the court ruled 3 to 1 that Brazilian treaties with Belgium, Luxembourg and Denmark prevented Brazil from taxing the profits of Vale units in those countries, although it also said taxation of company's profits in Bermuda are valid. In November last year Vale, the world's largest iron ore producer and top nickel miner, agreed to pay the Brazilian government $9.6 billion to settle a decade-long dispute over the back taxes, after the country's tax authority offered to reduce the firm's original $14 billion bill. The Rio de Janeiro-based company paid $2.6bn up front, with an additional $7bn over the next 15 years. After the news emerged near the end of trading, Vale shares jumped more than 2% higher in huge volumes and in after hours trade in New York the $70 billion counter gained another half-percent.

Vancouver gold junior pops on Mexico discovery Posted: 24 Apr 2014 12:57 PM PDT Shares in Cayden Resources (CVE:CYD) jumped 9% on Thursday in brisk trade after releasing maiden results from from its Peña de Oro target at its El Barqueño property in Jalisco State, Mexico. In afternoon trade the Vancouver-based junior was changing hands at $1.86, up 5.7% on the Toronto Exchange, off its $1.92 high for the day. Around 190,000 shares in the $87.8 million company had traded, almost twice the usual daily average. The counter is up a whopping 86% year to date after a string of good results from other zones at El Barqueño and completing bought deal financing in March for $9 million. The company reported highlights from the Peña de Oro target with all seven drill holes intersecting significant gold mineralization, including 27 metres grading 4.46 g/t gold, 1.7 g/t silver and 0.09% copper and another returning 12 metres at 4.77 g/t gold with silver, copper results pending. Peña de Oro is located within five kilometers from Cayden's Azteca and Zapoteca targets, where a total of 41 drill holes and trenching defined a mineralized zone of roughly 1.3 kilometers. Cayden is currently drilling at Peña de Oro with two rigs and thanks to today's intercepts will add 4,000 meters of drilling for a total 6,000 meters. There are also currently 10 additional holes in the lab for analysis. President and CEO Ivan Bebek said: "We are very pleased with the initial results at Peña de Oro, our second of nine highly prospective targets identified. The Azteca and Peña de Oro results indicate a great level of consistency and growing predictability for the potential discovery of higher-grade gold deposits from surface throughout the El Barqueño concessions."

Construction, not mining lifts Caterpillar’s profit Posted: 24 Apr 2014 10:37 AM PDT World's largest maker of heavy machinery Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) posted Thursday a 5% increase in quarterly profit and raised its 2014 earnings forecast based on a more sustained rebound of its US construction sales. After beating analysts' estimates the Illinois-based company now expects this year's earnings to reach $6.10 per share excluding restructuring costs, up from its previous forecast for $5.85 per share. Caterpillar said it earned $922 million, or $1.44 per share, in the quarter that ended March 31. That compares to $880 million, or $1.31 per share, last year. Earnings totalled $1.61 per share, excluding restructuring costs. Total revenue was nearly flat at $13.24 billion. The company also revealed mining-related sale continue to be low. The machinery maker has been hit especially hard by the slowdown of the past two years, having to lay-off employees and close down plants. During this first quarter Caterpillar cut over 9,000 jobs, bringing its global workforce to about 132,000. "Given the business and economic uncertainties around the world and continuing decline in our mining sales, I am pleased with our performance in the first quarter," said Jim Oberhelman, chief executive. The firm said warned the political conflict between Russia and Ukraine could escalate, slowing growth and result in government trade sanctions that would hurt sales in the region. However it maintained its expectation for global economic growth to accelerate to 3% this year, from about 2% in 2013, with China growing 7.5%.

Texas ranch family gets $3 million in 'fraccident' suit Posted: 24 Apr 2014 10:04 AM PDT A jury in Dallas, Texas awarded nearly $3 million to a family for health problems they said they suffered as a result of a fracking operation a few kilometres from their farm. Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a process by which micro-fractures are created in shale rock to free hydrocarbons by combining the injection of a high-pressure fluid and horizontal drilling. UPI reports the family's lawyer claims, "Robert and Lisa Parr, along with their young daughter, began experiencing health problems in 2009, after Aruba began drilling the first of 20 wells which the company operates less than two miles from the Parr's ranch near Decatur, Texas — about 45 miles northwest of Fort Worth." During proceedings the Parr family reported symptoms such as severe headaches, rashes, vertigo, nausea and chronic nosebleeds, including one instance when their daughter "woke up in the middle of the night covered in blood." Fred Stern, a spokesman for Aruba Petroleum, told Al Jazeera in an emailed statement that "the facts of the case and the law as applied to those facts do not support the verdict. Natural gas development has long been prevalent in Wise County with hundreds of wells drilled and currently operated by dozens of companies. Aruba is just one of those operators." Activist group Earth Justice says there are over 12,000 gas wells in the Barnett Shale surrounding the Dallas-Fort Worth area and points to numerous incidents (or "fraccidents") including in the region. Image by Daniel Foster

Illegal gold mining expands in South Africa at sky-high rates: report Posted: 24 Apr 2014 09:03 AM PDT Illegal miners in South Africa. (Screenshot from VICE News documentary, via You Tube) The land around South Africa's capital Johannesburg, known in Zulu as eGoli or the "City of Gold," is dotted with abandoned mine shafts, which have began to attract hundreds of unemployed people both locals and from neighbouring nations, such as Lesotho, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Hoping to get some of the gold remaining in those deposits, these workers often spend weeks underground under unsafe conditions, which had led to the death of many, Bloomberg reports. The last incident, in February this year, saw at least 200 illegal miners trapped underground, most of who reportedly refused to come out, as they knew they would face jail. Over 80 illegal miners died after an underground fire at a Harmony gold mine in 2009. In March 2012, at least 20 workers were buried alive after a rockfall hit a closed gold mine in the eastern South African province of Gauteng. Accidents are not the only life threat to these people. Bloomberg's report highlights that gang violence, robbery and prostitution have also began to claim their victims, as the illegal operations have become a scene of deadly gang warfare between rival factions. The South African government estimates that 14,000 people are involved in illegal mining throughout the country, the world's fourth-biggest gold exporter.

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