BHP Moves Coking Coal Prices To Shorter Contracts

BHP Billiton, the world’s largest miner, said on Monday that it had moved a “significant portion” of its coking coal sales for 2010 to “shorter term market based pricing”. This follows an agreement last week with Japanese steelmaker, JFE, in which it agreed an April to June contract price increase of 55 per cent.

Traditionally, coking coal prices have been agreed annually and there has been some resistance on the part of steel makers to agree to shorter-term contracts.

“These settlements reflect the company’s commitment to achieving market clearing prices over time across all its bulk commodities,” the company said in a statement. It said it had reached agreements with customers in Japan, China, India and Europe.

Indian analysts said they had been expecting a price of $180 a tonne for coking coal instead of the $200 a tonne they now face being charged. Pawan Burde of PINC Research said “Steelmakers will have to increases prices by $60-70 per tonne,” though with demand for Indian steel still strong he doesn’t see this as a problem.

NiPlats Confirms Quadrupling Of Speewah Vanadium Resource

NiPlats Australia has announced a quadrupling of its mineral resource at the Speewah vanadium deposit to a total of 3.2 billion tonnes at 0.30% V2O5, 2% Ti and 14.8% Fe.

This quadruples the vanadium resource and confirms Speewah as Australia's largest vanadium deposit.

Macquaries Predicts Cobalt Surplus

Macquarie Commodities Research is forecasting a medium term for cobalt, in its latest report.

Analysts at the investment bank are predicting that a 10 % increase in supply will outstrip a 9% growth in demand over the next couple of years and that the price will drop from $22.50/lb this year to $20/lb next year and $15 in 2012 thanks to expanded output from Australia, Canada and Africa.

Growth is likely to be underpinned by the automotive battery sector which accounts for about a quarter of demand; however the bank also points out that with cobalt being a secondary product from copper or nickel mines demand has remained insensitive to price.

Macquarie also points to volatility in the price of cobalt, especially as the London Metal Exchange recently launched a cobalt futures contract and contracts exchanged on the market are more likely to be sensitive to market developments.

Encouraging Results From African Aura Iron Ore Prospect

Mineral exploration company African Aura Resources Ltd has received encouraging results from the Nkout iron ore prospect on its 1,000 square kilometre Djoum licence in southern Cameroon.

A total of 44 samples returned a maximum grade of 65 percent iron, and an average grade of 54 percent.

The Djoum licence is held by the company's wholly-owned subsidiary Caminex SARL. African Aura considers that the dimensions of Nkout and the surrounding hills represent a potentially economic iron deposit. The region around Djoum hosts a number of significant iron deposits including the 2.4 billion tonnes Mbalam deposit approximately 150 kilometres to the south east.

Said John Gray, chief executive officer of African Aura: “Nkout is strategically well located within a recognised iron ore province, close to existing infrastructure and lies between the 2.4 billion tonnes Mbalam iron deposit to the south east, and the site of a proposed deep water port at Kribi on the Atlantic coast.“