Fortescue cuts iron ore price outlook as Chinese production slowdown, trade tensions weigh

A South African court has ruled that the Department of Mineral Resources wrongly awarded prospecting rights to the Sishen iron ore mine to Imperial Crown Trading 289 (ICT).

Hundreds piled into a public hearing Wednesday on a new bill affecting a huge iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin. "Many stood against the wall and dozens more stood outside the room in the hallway. Committee aides said about 130 people had registered to speak," Duluth News Tribune reported.

China Knowledge reports the Middle Kingdom could experience an escalation in the demand for iron ore according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The head of India's biggest iron ore miner says Australia's reputation as a very favorable place to invest has not been dented by the combination of a carbon tax, mining tax and escalating labour costs as the $22 billion group prepares to establish a local mining arm.

Pressured by Asian and European steelmakers not wanting to be locked into expensive iron ore contracts, Vale SA has bent to a new system that would see lower quarterly prices.

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.

Interfax-China reports that about half of China iron ore miners – mainly small and medium-sized firms – have suspended production in the face of dwindling profit margins.

Tom Albanese says "assumptions that the floor price would not go much below $120 a tonne might be valid next year but not long beyond that."

As workers in South America and Indonesia strike for better wages and to receive more of a share of mineral wealth wrought by rising copper prices, a mine in South Africa is handing over cash to its employees. The Financial Post reports on Kumba Iron Ore's employee share ownership scheme, whereby workers who have been at the mine more than five years can earn a lump sum of 345,000 rand (about US$43,000).