May 24 Indonesia's mining ministry has issued the local unit of U.S. copper and gold miner Newmont Mining Corp with a recommendation to continue copper concentrate exports for the next six months, a ministry official said on Tuesday.

Newmont, Indonesia's second-biggest copper miner, will be allowed to export "around 400,000" tonnes of copper concentrate from its mine in eastern Indonesia, Coal and Minerals Director General Bambang Gatot told reporters, without providing further details.

http://www.reuters.com/article/indonesia-newmont-mining-idUSJ9N17P00V

India’s sole State-owned integrated copper producer Hindustan Copper Limited (HCL) has lowered its capital expenditure (capex) for the current financial year, owing to delayed clearances for reopening and expanding three of its captive copper mines. 

Data sourced from the government showed that HCL had planned capex of $100-million for 2016/17, when it developed its strategic plan last year. However, two months into the new financial year, HCL had reduced its capex to $59-million as the expansion of the three mines was not expected to gain momentum during the current year. 

In the previous financial year, HCL had also failed to deploy its entire planned funds for capex. Government data showed that HCL only spent $43-million during 2015/16, compared with planned capex of $70-million. 

A Parliamentary Committee, designated to oversee government-owned companies, at a recent meeting criticised HCL, saying the company should review the practice followed in framing yearly capex targets. 

The delays in securing the mandatory approvals, including environmental approval, to reopen the Rakha, Chapri Siddeswar and Kendadhi mines, in Jharkhand, The three mines were forced to close down almost a decade and half ago in the face of depressed global copper price and HCL's high production costs. 

http://www.miningweekly.com/article/indias-hindustan-copper-reduces-capex-to-59m-2016-05-23

The latest figures from the International Aluminium Institute (IAI) showed a collective annualised run-rate outside of China of 25.1 million tonnes in April. That was the lowest level since August last year, reflecting the ramp-down of capacity in the U.S., where local producer Alcoa has shuttered its Warrick and Wenatchee smelters.

The world outside of China is widely believed to be in supply deficit.

China, on the other hand, is widely believed to be still in production surplus, the resulting imbalance generating continued flows of semi-manufactured products into international markets.

There were signs that Chinese smelters were also curtailing capacity at the end of last year but with Shanghai aluminium prices staging an impressive rally, the fear is that production discipline will be lost and that Chinese exports will increase again to fill any supply gap in the rest of the world.

So is Chinese production going up, going down or is it largely unchanged?

It should be an easy question to answer but unfortunately it's not because of the volatility in the recent figures supplied to the IAI by China's Nonferrous Metals Industry Association (CNIA).

If the figures are to be believed, Chinese output slumped by an annualised 6.6 million tonnes in the December-February period only to surge back by 5.2 million tonnes in March and April.

Except anyone who knows how an aluminium smelter works will tell you the figures don't make any sense.

Looking for example at the apparent 4.8-million tonne increase between run-rates in February and March, Paul Adkins of consultancy AZ China noted wryly that the month-on-month jump was equivalent to "10 smelters running at full speed on March 1 after being idle on February 29".

Volatility is nothing new to these Chinese aluminium production figures, particularly around the turn of the year, both calendar and lunar, but this year's variance is unprecedented.

Perhaps the best way to penetrate the statistical smoke is to look at annualised production over a longer period.

On this basis April's run rate was 31.3 million tonnes, down a net 1.79 million tonnes from September last year.

That would tally with the anecdotal evidence that capacity was indeed curtailed as local prices fell below 10,000 yuan per tonne in November, lower even than during the worst of the Global Financial Crisis in 2008-2009.

The figures for March and April would also suggest, however, that restarts may already be happening, albeit not on a scale implied by that month-on-month explosion in output in March.

And Chinese smelters right now have every incentive to lift output rates, given the strength of the rally in Shanghai prices.

The strength of the rally since November's trough has dispelled all the earlier talk of coordinated production cutbacks in return for government help in setting up an aluminium stockpile.

There is no hard evidence that the proposed scheme ever got off the ground, although it may have played a part in deterring the short-sellers who were swarming over the Shanghai market at the end of last year.

But while other over-heating commodities such as steel rebar and iron ore have collapsed in the wake of the regulatory intervention, Shanghai aluminium has recouped most of its immediate losses and is trending upwards again.

This does in part reflect an improving demand picture in China, AZ China's Adkins for example noting that "several sectors are showing good growth signals, including high voltage cables, automobiles, white goods and consumer durables".

What is not in doubt is the outperformance of the Shanghai aluminium contract relative to the London market this year.

The Shanghai price has risen by 16 percent, while the price of three-month aluminium on the London Metal Exchange (LME) is up by a far more modest 6 percent.

That doesn't bode well for producer discipline since Chinese smelters have in the past responded first and foremost to domestic price signals in terms of capacity utilisation.

It in turn will depend on the underlying supply-demand drivers in the country. Just a shame they are currently so obscured by statistical smoke and market mirrors.

http://www.reuters.com/article/china-aluminium-ahome-idUSL5N18K286

The first permanent infrastructure is being built at the proposed new tin mine at Bisie, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), for which $130-million is being raised. 

Alphamin Resources CEO Boris Kamstra said the return airway drive being built would be used to acclimatise mining crews to safety at the Mpama North prospect in North Kivu, where a definitive feasibility study points to a 380-employee operation that will produce at a rate of 9 000 t of tin in concentrate a year from 2019. 

Kamstra said the company would make use of the infrastructure to allow 26 artisanal miners to undergo training in hazard identification and risk mitigation, ahead of the full development of what will be an underground mine. 

To date, about $50-million has been invested in the project, which will require capital expenditure of $120-million and working capital of $10-million. “$130-million will be the final hurdle we have to get over,” Kamstra told Mining Weekly Online. 

The all-in cost of production of $8 448/t compares with a tin price of $16 465/t at the time of going to press and a definitive feasibility study tin price of $14 800/t, which allows for payback in 22 months. Results of a drilling programme have lifted the quantum of contained tin to 230 000 t at an in situ grade of 4.5% from a previous 194 000 t at 3.5%. 

At the current tin price, it has a probable 18-month payback for a mine that will have a life of ten to 12 years. “We’ve got terrific margin, just as a consequence of this most extraordinary grade and this really unique deposit,” Kamstra commented. 

The supply charts of the tin industry currently resemble those drawn up during South Africa’s energy crisis to depict the coal supply cliff that Eskom was facing. The only difference in Kamstra’s view is that this time, the tin supply cliff is going to eventuate, owing to major tin producers experiencing grade deterioration, greater mine depths, ore reserve depletion and profitability challenges. 

Even if the supply from Myanmar, which has been unpredictable, remains at 40 000 t/y, Kamstra’s view is that question marks over supply adequacy will remain. He insists that new operations are desperately needed to fill the supply gap.

Bisie’s past has been one of the reasons why tin was included in the Dodd-Frank legislation, which was introduced by the US to stop DRC warlords from using metals to finance their conflicts. The legislation means that Alphamin will now be forced to demonstrate to the likes of Apple, Microsoft and Samsung that its tin is 100% conflict-free. 

“We will comply,” Kamstra assured Mining Weekly Online.

http://www.miningweekly.com/article/first-permanent-infrastructure-being-built-at-new-drc-tin-mine-2016-05-23