Mining Companies in Global Talent War

A prefabricated six-story hotel, once destined to house BHP Billiton Ltd. workers, is sitting in 126 boxes stranded on the Melbourne city docks. The stalled project is a sign of the deepening global slowdown in mining. The contents were to have been assembled 1,990 miles away at Port Hedland, where BHP planned to use the hotel as temporary housing for its estimated US$22 billion harbor expansion to export more iron ore. That was before the world’s biggest mining company scrapped its plan, and the hotel developer went bust.

Montreal – Quebec’s largest natural gas distributor is postponing plans to extend gas pipelines to the province’s north, the latest company to shelve development plans because of weakness in global markets for iron ore.

By MetalMiner: By Stuart Burns An article this week in the Financial Times suggests the current rise in copper prices is a result of growing concerns about the ongoing strike at the Escondida copper mine in the Atacama desert in Chile. The suggestion is the Escondida strike, which is entering its sixth day, is raising fears of supply shortages.

CGA Mining (CGAFF.PK) was added to the S&P/TSX Global Gold index on the 23rd of December, just two years after beginning construction on its 7.8M ounce Masbate Gold Mine in the Philippines, and three weeks after declaring a maiden high grade resource on its Segilola project in Nigeria. This index, which comprises the top 34 gold mining companies listed on the TSX, TSX Venture, NYSE Amex and NASDAQ markets, accounts for around two thirds of world gold production.

Montreal – Premier Pauline Marois has outlined more details about her minority government’s economic vision for Quebec’s north, earmarking $868-million to develop the vast territory over the next five years. The bulk of the money will go infrastructure, the premier said during a stop in the mining town of Chibougamau Tuesday.

SANTIAGO — A Chilean court temporarily suspended the construction of Barrick Gold Corp’s Pascua-Lama gold and silver mine after indigenous communities protested the controversial project was destroying glaciers and harming water supply. The northern court of Copiapo will analyze the communities’ complaints of “environmental irregularities” against the project, which has already been plagued by soaring costs and stiff opposition from environmental groups.

Champion Iron Mines Ltd T.CHM announced February 14 that following the February 12 decision by the Canadian National Railway Co to suspend its multiuser railway feasibility study on the Quebec/Labrador iron-ore range it will now refocus its efforts on a proposed rail-line southbound to Pointe Noire and reactivate discussions with relevant parties that can assist the company in the construction, financing and operation of this more flexible and highly economic alternative.