China’s dependency on iron ore is going to grow – that much is sure. Steel output is the rock on which its rapid industrialisation project is based. But from where, and at what price, will the world’s most populous country (and second biggest...
A Bougainville MP – and former mining minister – has cast strong doubt on the validity of recent statements projected an early re-start for Rio Tinto’s long-closed Panguna mine. The Panguna mine is owned by Rio Tinto subsidiary, Bougainville Copper...
In the most important mining takeover yet this year, Rio Tinto is set to acquire Australia’s Riversdale which has mines in Mozambique and other projects in southern Africa. As Mines and Communities pointed out last December: “Rio Tinto’s initial...
Investors have written to BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto to say the miners should ditch ambitions for mega deals in favour of multi-billion pound share buyback schemes, The Sunday Telegraph reported. The newspaper said shareholders, which it did not name, have asked for...
In 1860 a Dutch company secured “rights” to mine tin from two of the largest deposits of their kind, on the Indonesian tropical islands of Bangka and Belitung. That company – Billiton – didn’t withdraw from the islands until 1958, by...
Summary of news 22-28 January, by Jen Moore, Miningwatch Canada Greystar is a Canadian company with a secondary listing on London’s Alternative Investment Market. During the last week, Colombia’s Minister of Mines and Energy, Carlos Rodado Noriega, recommended...
Severstal gold unit hoping for $1.5bn on Initial Public Offering Russian mining group Severstal’s gold unit Nord Gold is seeking up to 933 million pounds ($1.5 billion) from a London float, pushing the hoped-for total from Russian IPO hopefuls past $3 billion...
In a case which may have implications for London-listed Gem Diamonds, the Botswana government has been judged guilty of ‘degrading treatment’. The case was described as ‘a harrowing story of human suffering and despair’. See...
A major copper-gold exploration project on Aboriginal territory has been knocked back by South Australian court. The presiding Judge concluded that: “The native title in the land of the traditional owners in preventing mining are significant and genuine. The...
Ecotierra in Tolima, Colombia, reported that in the face of student protests and international support, the University of Tolima declined on 19 January to sign a research contract with AngloGold Ashanti for research work to facilitate the company’s plans to mine...
AngloGold Ashanti wins spoof award for environmental destruction and human rights abuse in Ghana. See http://publiceye.ch/en/news/press-release-january-10th-2011/. See the company’s response at...
Controversial plans have been drawn up to dig opencast mines on the edge of Wearside in northern England. A major mining firm has identified two green-belt areas either side of Pittington, on the Sunderland-County Durham border, as “strategic coal sites” with some...
