| METALS OUTLOOK |
| Platinum expected to bounce back in 2013, metals stocks in surplus |
 | Platinum and palladium were expected to regain some of its lustre in 2013 as rising production costs in South Africa, which produces about 70% of the global supply of platinum, looked set to push prices higher, French bank Natixis said in its latest quarterly metals review. The ongoing labour unrest in the South African mining sector, which had disrupted platinum-group metals production and was spreading to other areas of the industry, had come at the worst possible time for producers who were this year struggling to cover their operating costs, the bank said. Full Article |
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| NATIONALISM |
| Kyrgyz police repel protesters seeking ouster of gov |
| Kyrgyz police fired tear gas on Wednesday to stop protesters storming government headquarters in what their leader called a coup bid after the new premier rejected demands to nationalise a gold-mining venture with a Canadian company. The volatile Central Asian state has seen several attacks on the government since Kyrgyzstan's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The bloodiest protests, in March 2005 and April 2010, toppled two presidents, who then fled abroad. Full Article |
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| LEGISLATIVE ENVIRONMENT |
| Ontario's McGuinty government modernises Mining Act |
| Ontario's provincial government, under the leadership of Premier Dalton McGuinty, on Wednesday said new rules aimed at modernising the provincial Mining Act would come into effect in November. The Ontario government announced new rules that would impose exploration plans and permits on anyone planning to undertake certain early exploration activities, requiring them to immediately inform private landowners or Aboriginal communities of the expected activity. Full Article |
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| PLATINUM |
| PTM expands Waterberg discovery beyond known resource |
| Vancouver-based Platinum Group Metals (PTM) has expanded the discovery area of layered mineralisation beyond the declared inferred resource estimate of 6.6-million ounces for the new Waterberg discovery project, located north of the known northern limb of South Africa's Bushveld Igneous Complex (BIC). PTM said ongoing exploratory drilling had intercepted significant layered near-surface mineralisation on the initial resource strike length of 1.8 km on the T-layers and 2.8 km on the F-layers. Full Article |
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| PROJECT DEVELOPMENT |
| Adex Mining receives updated approval for New Brunswick site |
| The New Brunswick Department of Environment and Local Government on Wednesday granted Adex Mining an updated approval to operate the dormant Mount Pleasant mine site, which the Toronto-based junior intended to restart. The Mount Pleasant property includes the tin/indium/zinc North Zone and the tungsten/molybdenum Fire Tower zone, which Adex plans to develop first, owing to the resource being better understood. Full Article |
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| GOLD |
| Upper East to add 90 000 oz/y to Bulyanhulu output |
| London-listed African Barrick Gold has started ordering long-lead items for its Upper East project, which forms part of a strategy to expand output at the Bulyanhulu mine, in Tanzania, to 400 000 oz/y over the coming years. The Upper East zone, located 1.5 km from the existing Bulyanhulu plant, would add 90 000 oz/y at an average cash cost of $608/oz to the operation's production from late 2014. Full Article |
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| JOB CUTS |
| Newmont trims staff at Indonesian copper mine |
| Newmont Mining, the world's No 2 gold miner, plans to lay off 100 people from a workforce of 4 000 at its giant Indonesian copper and gold mine, to reduce operating costs at a time of low output, it said in a statement on Wednesday. Newmont issued the statement on job cuts at the Batu Hijau mine on Sumbawa island to quell local media reports of larger layoffs, after Reuters reported last week that the mine planned jobs cuts as it was losing $1-million a day. Full Article |
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| CORPORATE ACTIVITY |
| EU regulators to decide on Glencore, Xstrata deal by Nov 8 |
| EU antitrust regulators have set a November 8 deadline to decide on whether to allow trader Glencore's $33-billion takeover of miner Xstrata, after months of talks which the companies hope will help avoid forced sales or a lengthier, in-depth probe. The European Commission said on its website on Wednesday that it had received the notification from Glencore, filed on Tuesday, setting the clock ticking for the regulator. Brussels officials now have just over a month to decide whether to approve, reject or begin a longer, "phase 2", probe into one of the largest mining takeover deals to date. Full Article |
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| OIL & GAS |
| Canada's Simba Energy to drill for oil in Kenya in 2013 |
| Pan-African oil and gas explorer Simba Energy is to drill its first well in northeast Kenya in 2013, a company executive said on Wednesday, the latest effort by an energy firm to find oil in the east African nation. The Canada-based explorer recently completed a passive seismic survey and believes there are at least one billion barrels of oil in the Kenyan block. Full Article |
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| URANIUM |
| Paladin gets first pay-out on offtake agreement |
| Uranium miner Paladin Energy has received the first tranche of $50-million in its $200-million offtake agreement with a major utility. The yellowcake miner said this week that the remaining $150-million under the offtake contract would be received in a second and final tranche by the end of January next year. Full Article |
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| OIL & GAS |
| BHP may bid for Petrobras Gulf stake - WSJ |
| Top global miner BHP Billiton is among the companies talking to Petrobras about buying a stake in the Brazilian state-led oil company's Gulf of Mexico oil fields, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Petrobras has said it is looking for a buyer for a portion of its multi-billion dollar Gulf of Mexico holdings. The company's CE Maria das Gracas Foster told the Financial Times earlier this week that it had narrowed talks down to about three potential buyers. Full Article |
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| COMMODITY ASSETS |
| Private equity firm Carlyle to trade commodities |
| Carlyle Group said on Tuesday it had bought a majority stake in a commodities-trading hedge fund manager, its biggest leap yet in an expansion that has seen it diversify from private equity into other alternative asset classes. Carlyle, which has $156-billion of assets under management, said it bought a 55% stake in Vermillion Asset Management, a New York-based commodities investment manager with approximately $2.2-billion of assets under management. Full Article |
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| NEW REPORT AVAILABLE |
| Creamer Media publishes African Mining: Projects in Progress 2012 |
 | The report tracks the progress of not only the major projects in Africa, also the minor projects beyond of South Africa's borders over the past 12 months in the coal, copper, diamonds, gold, iron-ore, nickel, platinum and uranium sectors. Some projects in smaller mining sectors, such as zinc and potash, are also covered. Full Article |
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