New book ‘102 Things to Do with a Hole in the Ground‘ spotlights global reclamation projects
Stories of reinvented coal mining regions, regenerated communities and rebuilt ecosystems are told in a new book published this month.
Goldman has faced protests, falling coal prices, an environmental law and the Federal Reserve considering limits on the ways commercial banks can produce, store and sell raw materials. (Image via Wikimedia Commons)
Barely a year after acquiring its second coal mine in Colombia, U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs is said to be mulling a quick exit from the market, driven by “operational issues” and dramatically lower prices for the commodity.
The potential mine sale, WSJ.com reports, would put an end to Goldman’s rocky involvement in raw-materials production:
Goldman has faced protests, falling coal prices, an environmental law and the Federal Reserve considering limits on the ways commercial banks can produce, store and sell raw materials, as it struggled to make the investment pay off.
It is understood that Goldman has been quietly seeking a buyer for its $3 billion Colombian Natural Resources (CNR) since it was forced to stop exporting coal in Jan. 2014 due to the country’s new environmental regulations. And while CNR resumed exporting coal via the Carbosan terminal at the publicly owned Santa Marta port in February, it is said Goldman has had enough.
Mick Davis?
According to industry insiders, mining tycoon Mick Davis has shown interest in the operation, which continued to produce coal last year without exporting it. In 2013, the CNR produced around 3.5 million tonnes of coal, about 4% of the country’s total output of around 82 million tonnes that year.
Goldman, the biggest trading firm on Wall Street, began orchestrating its exit early last year. In May 2014, the bank analysts published a report saying that, with Chinese demand for imported coal past its peak, seaborne thermal coal consumption would grow a mere 2% a year on average to 2018. This, they added, would leave coal prices too weak to generate profitable investment from new mines and infrastructure.
Late last year, Goldman unloaded all of its power plants, an aluminum-storage business and said it would also sell its uranium assets.
2 Comments
Golden finger
Coal is worth big 0 why not just give a way
Gideon Blaauw
Coincidentally this week the Netherlands and Colombia signed
a Memorandum of Understanding where the Netherlands offers to assist Colombia
on the social and environmental challenges the coal industry is facing in
Colombia. The Netherlands took action after the Dutch NGO Pax published a
revealing report, The Dark Side of Coal, in which was mentioned that through
paramilitary involvement local communities were forced from their lands and
mining corporations (including CNR, Drummond, Prodeco/Glencore) in the area
would have benefited from it. This is one of the “operational issues’ to
which Goldman is referring. The Netherlands import ~20% of the total thermal
coal export of Colombia. The Dutch Government has a vested interest to create
more transparency in the coal supply chain and is looking to get all
stakeholders involved.