Quote of the Week“In other words, we’re facing a clear and present danger to our way of life, perhaps even to civilization itself. How can anyone justify failing to act?” – US media commentator Paul Krugman in the New York Times after the US House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey climate-change bill.
Dubbo resource is rare earth
RARE earths may be all the rage at the moment but according to those who have long been chipping away in the arena, advanced projects are rather rare beasts themselves.
Rosy outlook for Blackthorn?
BLACKTHORN Resources may have had a very cloudy recent history but current directors are continuing to back the company in by making regular share purchases on market.
ABC spells out gold's attraction
EMERGING gold companies of significance are continuing to attract plenty of professional market interest in their stories, with the ABC of Andean, Banro and Centamin each finding strong support in the past week.
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Going, going ...
WHILE vestiges of a tungsten market revival seem thin on the ground there is still plenty happening behind the scenes, according to Wolf Minerals managing director Humphrey Hale. Plenty for a junior would-be tungsten producer to be enthused about that is.
Equity credit makes a comeback
STRONGER commodity prices and confidence that the worst has passed should pave the way for a return to more vanilla financing in the second half of the year, according to a London mining analyst. Ironically, the comments were prompted by a relatively rare form of financing that is being made available to select resources companies on AIM.
More pressure on high cost platinum miners
THE proposed merger of Sylvania Resources and Finland’s Ruukki Group is not good news for those at the wrong end of the PGM cost curve.
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Swick or the dead
DEXTERITY and a keen strategy have one driller back on a growth footing even as bigger rivals continue to clamp down on capital expenditure and pull back on revenue forecasts. Having stabilised its position in Australia, it’s next stop Canada for ASX-listed Swick Mining Services.
VIEW FROM THE WEST END
The pace of things
IN THE words of Robert Louis Stevenson, “there are no foreign lands, it is the traveller only who is foreign”.
FINANCE
Forcing the pace
FOR the giants moving mountains of high-grade iron ore from the Pilbara to Asian markets, low-lying mesas such as those at Nullagine are insignificant specks in a timeless landscape. It has taken a little force to move them into a short-term development window, though BC Iron boss Mike Young acknowledges the big picture for the region may also have shifted in favour of small companies such as his.
FINANCE
Major merger a ‘net positive’ for juniors
Emerging iron ore producers are likely to be buoyed by the proposed $US116 billion merger of BHP Billiton’s and Rio Tinto’s Pilbara iron ore assets. The deal, which has backed China into a corner, is expected by many to support the spot price and increasingly force Chinese steel mills into the arms of the junior sector as they search for alternative sources of supply.
MINING
Dust will take a while to settle in Pilbara
PROPOSED iron ore superpower, the BHP Billiton-Rio Tinto JV, has promised shareholders of the two companies billions of dollars in upfront cost savings from the union. However, observers say major operational benefits could be a long time coming and that faith in ‘junior’ partner Rio Tinto’s mining approach might be needed to underpin a harmonious marriage.
AUSTRALIA'S MTS LEADERS
Rise of the machines
AUSTRALIA’S mining technology and service sector has a big future, say many of its supporters, but equipment manufacturing remains by and large an area of missed opportunities. Dale Elphinstone, where are you now? One company channelling the great man is Ballarat-based Gekko Systems.
