Company Announcement:SepFluor unveils R2.1 billion fluorspar mining/beneficiation development plans

SepFluor Limited, the new name in fluorspar mining and beneficiation in South Africa, has unveiled plans for the development of its first fluorspar mine, 80 kilometres north of Pretoria, together with a fluoro-chemical beneficiation hub near...

Grande Cache earnings boosted by coal prices

Calgary, Alberta-based Grande Cache Coal Corp earned $5.1-million in its fourth quarter (to end March), an increase of 264% compared with a year earlier, after higher coal prices offset lower volumes. The company reported coal sales for the...

Quarterly iron-ore prices expected to remain stable in 2011

The iron-ore market, which moved to quarterly contracts in the second quarter of the year, has stabilised, following a period of volatility after the global financial crisis and the collapse of the yearly benchmark pricing system. The quarterly...

Macarthur coal sales up 50%, extends Gloucester offer

Queensland-miner Macarthur Coal has increased its coal sales by 50% to 1,2-million tons in the March quarter, as demand for metallurgical coal rebounded. The miner, which US-based Peabody is looking to acquire, said on Wednesday that it remained...

Iamgold 'comfortable' with niobium price, sees upside

Canada's Iamgold is “comfortable” with the current niobium price in the mid-$30s per kilogramme, and expects to see prices firm as steel demand and prices increase, interim CEO Peter C Jones said on Wednesday. Iamgold is primarily a gold...

Cliffs agrees to buy Canada's Freewest

US iron-ore and coal miner Cliffs Natural Resources has agreed to buy Montreal-based chromite junior Freewest Resources, the two companies announced on Monday. Freewest is exploring in Canada's 'Ring of Fire' district, an emerging multimetal...

Alpha Natural sees 'encouraging early signs'

US coal-miner Alpha Natural Resources reported substantially lower revenue and profit for the second quarter of 2009, compared with a year ago, but the company is seeing "encouraging" signs that coal buyers are beginning to return to the market,...

Steel sector unlikely to recover significantly until late 2009 – Deloitte

Governments worldwide have plans to spend billions of dollars to stimulate local economies. From incentives to encourage consumer spending to massive infrastructure programmes, many of these measures hold the potential to significantly affect the...

South African steel products maker to open shop in India

A local manufacturer of steel products for the mining industry VR Steel reports that it will set up shop in India from January next year, making this the company’s fifth global operation. The company has appointed an Indian national who will...

Vanadium leader mulls empowerment options

The world’s largest vanadium producer, Highveld Steel & Vandium, is mulling over a range of empowerment options to facilitate the conversions of mineral rights.

Thabazimbi – on the road to a century?

In the 73 years that Thabazimbi mine has been operating, it has supplied a million tons of iron ore to Iscor’s steelworks in Vanderbijlpark and Newcastle.

Xstrata settles coking coal prices for Asia and Europe

Multinational miner Xstrata has announced that Xstrata Coal has settled 2004/5 term prices for the supply of hard coking coal into the Asian and European steel markets, at an increase of up to 200% from the previous contract year’s prices of...