Xstrata has approved a $360 million expansion for its McArthur River mine in Australia’s Northern Territory which will make the project the largest producer of zinc in the world.
The Vancouver-based miner inked a deal with a Zambian firm for a new mine on Monday adding to its already ambitious expansion plans totalling $3.7 billion which includes building one of the world's largest copper smelters.
Record low gas prices in North America will result in BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) taking an impairment of US$2.84 billion (before tax) against the carrying value of the Fayetteville shale gas assets acquired from Chesapeake Energy in February 2011.
Royal Nickel (TSE:RNX) announced that the Ressources Québec, a resource investment arm run by the province, gave the company $12 million in return for 0.8% of the net smelter return of the Dumont Nickel Project.
LME's warehousing operations "have been dogged by controversy since big banks and trading houses including Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase bought warehousing operations."
The USA's largest rare earth producer Molycorp (NYSE:MCP) is mounting a credible challenge to Chinese rare earth dominance by dramatically scaling up output and potentially increasing its global market share to 30% from 4% at present.
Examples: Worldwide orders for dry-bulk vessels dropped 49% to 9.8 million deadweight tons in the first half of 2012. The monthly index of new-ship prices in China is now at its lowest point since March 2004.
