Saudi Arabia's Ma'aden increases capital by $3.2bn to strengthen financial position
Altona Rare Earths shares start trading in London
Canadian operations halted as miners grapple with record wildfires
New evidence solidifies Omanb s role as major copper provider during Bronze Age
Oman has signed 16 mining agreements to date - official
What is causing the record rise in both Chinab s coal production and imports?
Norway set to become one of the first countries to start deep-sea mining
Russia faces a new neighbourhood threat: China
Saudi Arabia's Ma'aden increases capital by $3.2bn to strengthen financial position
Saudi Arabian Mining Company, better known as Ma'aden, is increasing its share capital by 12.3 billion Saudi riyals ($3.2 billion) as it looks to strengthen its capital base.
The shareholders of Mab aden, one of the Gulf's biggest miners, approved the board recommendation to increase capital by 50 per cent to 36.91 billion riyals, from 24.61 billion riyals, through issuance of bonus shares, the company said in a filing to the Tadawul stock exchange, where its shares are traded.
b The company aims to strengthen its capital base, which contributes to boost the future growth plans,b Mab aden said in the bourse filing.
The increase in capitalisation will come from the companyb s statutory reserve and retained earnings.
The Saudi miner will issue about one bonus share for every two owned by shareholders, it said.
Africa-focused Altona Rare Earths (LON: REE) began trading on the London Stock Exchange on Friday, raising B#2 million ($2.5m) via an oversubscribed placing and a subscription.
The switch from the Aquis Stock Exchange (AQSE) to the main market is a step up for the explorer, which is advancing the Monte Muambe rare earths project in northwest Mozambique.
Altona said it issued 40 million new ordinary shares at 5 pence a share through an oversubscribed placing of B#1.7 million ($2.1m) and a subscription of B#322,700 ($406K).
The company said the funds will be used to complete a mineral resource estimate and scoping study that will allow it to increase its holding in Northwest Mozambique.
Shares jumped more than 15% on the companyb s debut in London, but were down about 1% to 6.35p by mid-afternoon.
Monte Muambe is a carbonatite-hosted REE deposit located in the African countryb s Tete Province.
Since June 2021, Altona has drilled over 7,000m at the property, defined a JORC exploration target, and is currently preparing its maiden mineral resource estimate and a scoping study.
The company plans to start production by 2027, delivering its output directly to the UK and the European Union, to help countries diversify away from China. The Asian giant is the market top producer of the rare elements used in everything from consumer electronics to military equipment.
Canadian operations halted as miners grapple with record wildfires
Despite the outlook calling for improving weather conditions, including anticipated rainfall and cooler temperatures, the mining industry in Canadab s Ontario and Quebec provinces is grappling with a disruptive blow caused by persistent wildfires.
Record-setting wildfires have been wreaking havoc across Canada since March, reaching peak intensity this month. Experts have marked the ongoing wildfire season as the most severe in Canadian history, sparing no provinces or territories except Nunavut.
Government data sources show Quebec has borne the brunt of the 2023 wildfire onslaught, witnessing a surge in frequency and intensity compared to previous years.
The impact of these fires has extended beyond the affected regions, with thick smoke blanketing Ottawa, Toronto, and large parts of Southern Ontario from June 5 to 7. The air quality in these areas reached its highest level on Environment Canadab s Air Quality Health Index, posing a significant risk to public health.
As of June 8, Quebec alone reported an alarming count of 137 active fires, while Ontario battled 54 blazes, according to Canadab s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service. According to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, as of June 9, there were 422 active wildfires across Canada. So far this year there were 2,402 wildfires burning 4.5 million hectares of land.
A rundown of how mining companiesb operations have been affected over the past week.
Hecla Mining (NYSE: HL) has suspended operations at its Casa Berardi mine in Quebec. The company said as of June 6, mining infrastructure has not been affected so far.
Osisko Mining (TSX: OSK) said on June 5 it had suspended all activities at the Windfall gold project in Quebec. However, the company does not expect any significant impact on its overall business.
Wallbridge Mining (TSX: WM) has evacuated the camp at its Fenelon gold project and suspended all exploration activities on its Detour-Fenelon Gold Trend property in Quebec. The company plans to resume exploration activities as soon as it is feasible.
New evidence solidifies Omanb s role as major copper provider during Bronze Age
Remains of three copper ingots found during the excavation in Oman
A tip from locals in Ibra, Oman, led German archaeologists to discover a rare lump of copper dating from the Early Bronze Age (about 2600-2000 BC).
The lump, weighing 1.7 kilograms, was corroded on the outside and consisted of three individual ingots in the shape of a round cone.
According to the researchers, during that period, the territory of present-day Oman was one of the most important producers of copper for ancient Mesopotamia b in modern-day Iraq -, as well as for the Indus culture in what is now Pakistan and India. It was only there that copper ore occurred on a larger scale.
Casted into ingots, the red metal was a coveted commodity, as documented by cuneiform texts from Mesopotamia.
Since copper ingots were usually further processed to make tools and other objects, they are only rarely unearthed in archaeological excavations. All the more surprising was the discovery of several such ingots in Ibrab s Early Bronze Age settlement.
The copper ingots have a plano-convex shape typical for the period, which was formed by pouring the molten metal into small clay crucibles. Through the discovery of the copper ingots, it is possible to learn more about the role of Oman in interregional trade relations during the Early Bronze Age, as well as about the metal processing technologies already known at that time.
Smelting copper requires a lot of combustible material, which was likely to have been a major challenge in a region as arid and low in vegetation as Oman. How people in the Early Bronze Age handled their limited resources and whether it was possible for them to use these sustainably are questions to be answered in the further course of the project.
Oman has signed 16 mining agreements to date - official
Oman has signed 16 agreements to date in the mining sector, Saud Khamis Al Mahrouqi, Director General of Minerals at the Ministry of Energy and Minerals said.
The agreements include 12 concession areas for metallic minerals with Minerals Development Oman (MDO), one concession area for laterite ore with British company Knights Bay and three concession areas for potash and lithium ore with Mawarid Mining, Tasnim and Ara, the state-owned Oman News Agency (ONA) reported.
Oman is abundant in metallic mineral ores such as copper, chromium, iron ore, manganese and non-metallic ores such as marble, limestone, gypsum, clay, silica and dolomite sandstone.
The Sultanate is the world's leading exporter of gypsum ore due to its high purity and abundant reserves, the ONA report said.
What is causing the record rise in both Chinab s coal production and imports?
A new perplexing trend has emerged this year in Chinab s coal market. The countryb s coal imports reached a new record for March and April this year. This seems paradoxical because domestic coal supply has increased sharply recently. This article uses data to identify the drivers of the increase in imports, and the implications for Chinab s energy security policies.
In the first four months of the year, Chinab s coal imports increased no less than 89% year-on-year. The increase continued in April with a 73% increase year-on-year. This seems paradoxical because domestic coal supply has increased sharply recently, growing 10.5% in 2022 and 5.5% in the first quarter of 2023. At the same time, total coal consumption increased by 4.3% in 2022 and 3.6% in the first quarter of 2023. Thermal power generation, the main user of imported coal, increased 1.4% year-on-year in 2022 and 1.7% in the first quarter of 2023.
Various explanations have been offered: increase in coal consumption, resumption of imports from Australia, resumption of exports from Indonesia and restocking demand. We will use data to examine each one of these factors.
As noted above, coal consumption and thermal power generation did increase in the first quarter of 2023. However, total seaborne coal deliveries, including deliveries of both domestic and imported coal, increased 7%, according to shipment tracking data from Kpler. This indicates increased demand, but cannot account for the brunt of the 89% increase in imports.
Imports from Australia did increase, but they only made up of 19% of total imports in the first four months of 2023, and cannot therefore explain much of the increase.
Most of the increase in imports came from Indonesia, along with Russia and Mongolia. Indonesia banned coal exports for the entire month of January 2022, affecting Chinab s imports both in January and February 2022, and therefore the year-on-year increases for the same months in 2023. The restrictions on exports from Indonesia only lasted until the end of January however so they cannot explain the year-on-year increase in March and April. Furthermore, Chinab s coal imports in Marchb April also increased in comparison to 2021 when there were no restrictions on Indonesiab s exports.
Norway set to become one of the first countries to start deep-sea mining
The Norwegian Government says that transition minerals found on the sea floor are needed to meet growing demand.
Norway plans to become one of the first countries to open its waters to deep-sea mining in the race for critical mineral sourcing.
The Scandinavian country plans to open up an area of the Norwegian Sea the size of Germany for the mining of transition minerals on the sea floor.
The Norwegian Government is readying plans to be submitted to parliament. The plans will require approval before mining can commence.
Polymetallic nodules found on the sea floor at depths of around 3,500b 6,000m contain base metals used in energy transition technologies including batteries. The nodules contain, copper, manganese, nickel sulphate and cobalt sulphate.
Environmental concern
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr StC8re told national newspaper Bergens Tidende that deep-sea mining can be conducted without harming ocean life, a claim countered by environmentalists and scientists, including Norwayb s own environment agency.
b The removal of parts of the seabed in this way, in the way that that commercial mining is likely to go ahead, is going to mean that areas of these habitats will be removed, and that will be irreversible,b said ecologist Dr Kirsten Thompson, speaking to Mining Technology in March. b Those areas wonb t recover, certainly within our lifetimes and more likely beyond.b
Supporters of deep-sea mining maintain that exploiting the sea floor is central to meeting transition mineral demand growth. Demand for copper and rare earth metals will grow by 40% in a net-zero by 2050 scenario, predicts the International Energy Agency (IEA), which expects demand for nickel, cobalt and lithium to grow by 60%, 70% and 90%, respectively.
Moscowb s Ukraine struggles and neocolonialism have made its former partners in Central Asia turn to Beijing.
On May 18, Chinese President Xi Jinping held a lavish ceremony in the ornate Tang Paradise theme park in Xian, the heart of the ancient Silk Road, for five visiting Central Asian presidents who had arrived for the inaugural China-Central Asia summit. Conspicuously, the summit took place at the same time as the G7 meeting of wealthy nations in Hiroshima. Commenting on the two summits, Chinab s state-run Global Times claimed that the b G7 speaks the language of an outmoded Cold War mentalityb while the Xian summit focused on the b promotion of cooperation and inclusivenessb .
In his welcoming remarks, Xi hailed the summit as signalling b a new era of China-Central Asia relationsb . Xi said that b China is ready to help Central Asian countries strengthen capacity building on law enforcement, security and defence in an effort to safeguard peace in the regionb . The summit resulted in a string of economic agreements signalling that China is again open for business after two years of COVID-19 border restrictions.
While China consolidates its hegemony in Eurasia, it is also promoting a viable competitive vision to the current United States-led order. Yet it is presenting itself as an alternative leader not just to the US, but also to Russia, which it aims to gradually displace from Central Asia.
An uneasy partnership
China has grown into the largest economic actor in Central Asia. Total Chinese investments in the region ballooned from $40bn in 2020, to over $70bn by the end of 2022. Russia, which accounted for 80 percent of the regionb s trade in the 1990s, now accounts for less than two-thirds of Beijingb s trade.
Lurking beneath these big numbers is a growing asymmetry between China and Central Asia. In 2020, an estimated 45 percent of Kyrgyzstanb s external debt, and 52 percent of Tajikistanb s was owed to China. Meanwhile, 75 percent of Turkmenistanb s exports depend on Chinese consumers. The growing debt burdens have been linked to high-level corruption scandals and have resulted in political instability, also undermining Beijingb s credibility.
