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INTERSESTING NEWS...

IRON ORE'S SUPPLY VS. DEMAND

Iron ore is a one billion tonne per year industry. Adam Low (CFA), an equity researcher for Raymond James Ltd., predicts that “Most of the supply is going to come from Western Australia, from two of the world’s largest iron ore producers – BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.” Both companies have major expansion projects in the Kildare area of Western Australia, making up some 100-200 million tonnes of the world’s mined iron ore.

Though Western Australia is the world’s largest exporter of iron ore, production is beginning to show some cost escalation. Low explains, “Cost pressures are something we’re seeing throughout the entire mining industry. And in most extractive resource industries, not just iron ore or mining specific.” Low believes this inflation is in large part due to “the mining boom that’s been going on for a decade or more – for instance we’re seeing quite a bit of wage increases in Western Australia that are fairly dramatic to what they are in other parts of the world.”

Cost pressures elsewhere could be one of the reasons that ArcelorMittal is so committed to iron ore growth in Canada, and why Black Iron is willing to brave an uncertain political climate in the Ukraine for their Shymanivske Project, projected start 2017.

Can the world supply keep up with demand?

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DETAILS VAGUE ON TASIAST DELAY

Last week Kinross Gold Corp. announced a six to nine month delay with their already unpopular West African Tasiast project – but the details as to why they are delayed have been vague. Kinross CEO Tye Burt has defended the decision to delay development, stating that his company is simply being “prudent.” Industry sources are now saying the mine will effectively ‘shut-down’ further development in reaction to new geological findings at the site. In a mid-2011 press release Kinross described Tasiast as a mine “within an extensive gold system that is largely underexplored.” Original geological reporting showed evidence that gold mineralization would continue laterally and at depth, south of the current operating mine. What has changed?

The specific details of the new findings remain unconfirmed, but Kinross has reported that they will need up to nine months to plan and allow for these changes. The EPCM contractor is expected to redeploy all of their Tasiast project team to other sites.

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KEYSTONE PIPELINE MEETS ANOTHER BUMP IN THE ROAD

On January 18th, the Obama administration denied Trans Canada Corp.'s proposed $7-billion Keystone XL oil pipeline, but has left the door open to future applications by the Calgary company.

 ...Read more of this article in our blog section…