Frik Els , Editor

Frik has 20 years’ experience as a business journalist across a range of industries including automotive, technology and entertainment markets. Frik has an entry in Global Mining Observer’s Who’s Who of Mining 2018, and contributions to publications and conferences including Business Insider, Investing.com, Mines & Money London and New York, Vancouver Resources Investment, Progressive Mine Forum in Toronto and Canadian Mining Symposium in London, UK. He’s been interviewed on CBC Radio and Korea State TV and quoted in the Financial Post.

Posts by Frik Els:

Week after flagging diamond division sale, BHP says likely no new investment in aluminum and nickel arms

Finance News Network reports BHP Billiton's CEO Marius Kloppers says the miner will likely stop investing in its "tough" aluminium and nickel divisions and run them as "lean and mean as possible". The comments are fuelling speculation that BHP will lob off the two divisions and come just one week after the company said it would decide by January next year whether to get out of the diamond business altogether.
Frik Els | December 8, 2011 | 11:50 am
Shipping mining

Vale readies first Moatize coking coal shipment

Brazil's Vale is set to move its first coking coal shipment next week from its Moatize mine in Mozambique, sources told Reuters on Tuesday. This will be the first coking coal shipment, after 3 thermal coal shipments, and is destined for steelmaker ArcelorMittal's South African unit. Vale last month approved a $6 billion expansion of Moatize to double output to 22 million tonnes per year.
Frik Els | December 7, 2011 | 2:00 pm

FT asks if Indians’ love of gold is destroying their economy

Based on new research by investment bank Macquarie titled India’s Fatal Attraction, the FT asks if India’s weddings are destroying its economy given the huge importance of gold in the culture – especially between October and January, when festival season turns into wedding season and some 20 million Indians tie the knot.
Frik Els | December 7, 2011 | 11:52 am
Congo bans copper, cobalt concentrates exports

Minmetals confident amid DRC election chaos, extends Anvil takeover offer again

Anvil Mining, a copper producer in the Democratic Republic of Congo, announced Wednesday China's Minmetals Resources has extended its $1.3 billion takeover offer for the second time, to January 11 next year. The extension comes as violence and allegations of vote rigging mar the DRC presidential election, for which full results is now only expected later this week. Anvil is also undergoing an audit of its leases with the DRC's state-owned Gecamines.
Frik Els | December 7, 2011 | 11:20 am

LME overhauls electronic platform as trading volumes surge

The London Metal Exchange said Tuesday it has completed a major upgrade to its electronic trading platform to cope with record volumes and high frequency trading. A takeover of the 134-year old exchange – one of the last bastions of open outcry trading – appear to be in the offing as its major shareholders jockey for position and competition from Asia intensifies. Over the last 7 years electronic trading has grown from 2% to over 70% of the LME's market volume.
Frik Els | December 6, 2011 | 12:40 pm

With super-carrier disabled in its port Vale’s shipping strategy is keel hauled

The Vale Beijing, the globe's largest bulk carrier, is disabled in a Brazilian port and shipping agents tell Reuters the vessel had ruptured its hull. If the $110 million vessel should sink it could also turn out the be the final nail in the coffin of Vale's disastrous strategy to tighten its grip on the world's annual 1 billion tonnes sea-borne iron-ore trade. China, the world's number one market for the steelmaking ingredient to where Vale ships about 45% of its output, turned away another carrier in the fleet earlier this year.
Frik Els | December 6, 2011 | 8:54 am
Featured Post

CHARTS: EV battery metals bill sets new low as lithium, nickel, cobalt price slump continues

The raw materials bill for the average EV is now down to $510 compared to a peak of more than $1,900 at the beginning of last year. 
Frik Els | December 26, 2024 | 1:59 pm