BHP, NexGen in uranium talks
Canadian uranium miner NexGen Energy is in regular discussions with BHP about its Rook I project in Saskatchewan as it prepares to raise $1 billion to help fund the development,…
Froneman on crime: “Don’t be soft, let’s call it treason”
PUTTING people on special leave is no way to root out crime and corruption, says Neal Froneman, the no-nonsense hard man of South African mining and chair of Business Against…
Patrice Motsepe steps down as executive chair of ARM
PATRICE Motsepe has relinquished executive duties on the board of African Rainbow Minerals (ARM), the R46bn diversified mining group he helped found in 2002. Citing compliance…
The copper core
ON December 3 diversified miner Glencore rolled out plans for new copper projects totalling $14bn in expenditure. That increases to $24bn should it develop El Pachón, a project…
Iron ore and anthracite losses clobber Afrimat’s earnings
AFRIMAT’S business conditions went from bad to worse in the second half of its financial year to end-February after the diversified mining group reported a 45% drop in operating…
Why investors are cautious of Glencore
INVESTMENT analysts attempting to parse the comments of Glencore’s fast-talking CEO Gary Nagle at the year-end results presentation in February had much to ponder. Listening to…
Merafe impairs smelter R575m as production hangs in balance
MERAFE Resources posted a 62% decline in full year earnings ended-December owing to a hefty decline in ferrochrome sales and a rise in costs. Its numbers were also impacted by…
Copper 360 mulls entering renewable power distribution
COPPER 360 has signed a deal to acquire 55MW of wind power for R60m which it said on Wednesday could form the business of a renewable distribution business. The Northern Cape…
Rossouw to make NextSource ‘Xstrata of battery metals’
CHINA dominates huge portions of the mining supply chain for electric batteries. In copper, for instance, a key element for all electric vehicles (EVs), it controls less than 10%…
Afrimat profits drop by 45% as it digests the latest acquisition of Lafarge
Diversified mining group Afrimat reported a 45% drop in operating profit to R292,7m in the six months to end-August (previous comparable period – R534.1m) despite a 44% jump in…
Copper 360 founder prepares to relinquish control
LETTING go is hard to do for entrepreneurs, as Shirley Hayes is finding out. Hayes, the founder of SHiP (Shirley Hayes IPK Pty), is the 53.2% owner of Copper 360, a mining…
Will BHP return for Anglo? Definitely, maybe
WILL BHP take a second shot at Anglo American when the UK’s six-month “put up or shut up” takeover rule lapses? ‘Definitely, maybe’, to quote Oasis, the UK rock band that is…
How Draslovka is using a food additive to produce cleaner gold
ABOUT 10 years ago scientists at Curtin University in Western Australia discovered gold particles on plant leaves. They theorised that the gold molecules had been brought…
Is this the end of the mining house?
At his zenith as CEO of Anglo American, in 2019, Mark Cutifani described the group in new terms. It was a ‘materials solutions provider’, he said. The notion of Anglo as a miner…
Anglo re-rate is mission critical for Duncan Wanblad
The clock is ticking on Anglo American CEO Duncan Wanblad’s radical restructuring plan. Having promised to simplify the 107-year-old group in as little as 18 months, he must do…
Anglo ‘review’ raises familiar themes as it looks to regain trust
THE reason investors buy shares in diversified mining companies is to lower the risk presented by volatile and cyclical commodity markets. That approach, however, seems to be…
SA manganese miners unsure how EV demand will work for them
ASK any mining executive involved in the manganese industry about the metal’s prospects in electric vehicle batteries (BEVs) and you’ll likely get some hemming and hawing. The…
Like its trains progress at Transnet has been slow to arrive
WHERE we used to get a number of trains a week, we get some sporadically every other week. It is not getting better as we sit here so there needs to be some intervention,”…
Teck or nothing for Glencore’s coal business
GLENCORE had no interest in separately listing its coal business should a plan to combine it with Teck’s steelmaking coal business (EVR) fail. In June, Glencore said it had…
Glencore unveils $2.2bn ‘top-up’ amid 62% slide in interim profit
GLENCORE announced a $2.2bn top up in returns to shareholders despite producing sharply reduced year-on-year interim numbers in which lower mineral prices saw net profit fall 62%…