Jinchuan Makes Offer For Canada's Crowflight

Chinese Mining Giant In $150m Cash Bid

China’s Jinchuan Group has made a $150 million cash offer for Canadian nickel producer Crowflight Minerals.

Crowflight Minerals recently restarted production at the Bucko Lake Nickel Mine in Manitoba, and has a number of platinum group metals, nickel and copper projects in the Sudbury Basin and Thompson Nickel Belt in Ontario.

Jinchuan is become a global mining giant that controls mining, processing, refining and other metal processing and manufacturing lines. It production of nickel ranks fourth in the world; its production of cobalt ranks second in the world; and its mining and processing technology ranks third in the world.

Jinchuan has made a partly-diluted offer of 22 cents per share. By 3.30pm local time on Tuesday Crowflight Shares stood at 21.5 cents, a rise of 26.5%.

South Africa's Pgm Production Up In January

Statistics SA announced on Thursday that the country’s production of platinum group metals increased by 3.3 per cent in January,

The agency said the sector made the most significant contribution to the country's overall mining production with a rise of 7.7 per cent over the course of the month. It was the first improvement since July 2008.

PGM mineral sales were 11.2 per cent lower in 2009 than in the previous year. The fall for the whole of the mining sector was 22.7 per cent.

Anglo-American Profits Fall 53 Per Cent

Profits at mining giant Anglo American Plc fell 53% in 2009 as metals prices fell sharply as a result of the global economic downturn. The company also blamed falling demand, especially for its metallurgical coal and thermal coal.

The London-based firm reported full-year net profit of $2.42 billion, or $2.02 per share, compared with $5.22 billion, or $4.34 a share, in 2008.

Group revenue fell 25% to $24.6 billion from $32.9 billion.

South Africa Mining Output Shows Fall For 2009

Figures released by the South African government show that mining production declined by 6.7% year-on-year in 2009. A rise in iron ore production of 13.1% was offset by a fall of 6.7% in diamonds. Gold production also fell.

The figures, prepared by Stats SA, added that the seasonally adjusted value of mineral sales at current prices for the three months ended November 2009 increased by 847.3 million rand - or 1.5% - compared with the previous three months. This was mainly due to increases in the sales value of Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) contributing 4.4 percentage points or 2.494 billion rand, gold (contributing 1.6 percentage points or 923.1 million rand) and manganese ore (contributing 1.3 percentage points or 730.2 million rand.

Peru Now Second-Largest Copper Producer

Peru’s National Mining, Oil and Energy Society (SNMPE) has reported that Peru became the world’s number two copper producer in 2009, replacing the U.S.

SNMPE based its figures on the U.S. Geological Survey which showed that last year Peru produced a total of 1,273,000 metric tons of copper, whilethe U.S. produced 1,190,000 metric tons in 2009.

Chile occupies first place in the ranking by volume, producing over 5 million tonnes per year - four times as much as Peru.

Vale Production Report Q2 2009

Vale S.A. (Vale) had a better operational performance in the second quarter of 2009, showing significant percentage increases in the production of iron ore (+23.1%), pellets (+47.4%), manganese ore (+387.9%), platinum (+18.6%), palladium (28.6%), kaolin (+40.5%), and thermal coal (+125.5%) relative to the low levels of 1Q09.

Over the last few months, a recovery in global industrial production has been taking place, a process in which Asia is at the forefront. However, it is worthwhile highlighting that the global economy is recovering from a very low level of activity, after a powerful demand shock.

Given the signals issued by some leading indicators of industrial production and the conclusion of the de-stocking process of the steel industry in some regions - such as Europe where it was running at very low levels of capacity utilization - it is likely that the gradual recovery of the global demand for minerals and metals will continue over the next six months which will lead to us to increase operational activities although at a more moderated pace than last year.

The whole press release is available @ www.vale.com/investors

PGM Production Down At Crocodile River

Eastern Platinum confirmed yesterday (26th January) that production of platinum group metals (PGM) at its Crocodile River Mine in South Africa's North West Province decreased by around six per cent in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Statistics released by the company show that a total of 298,514 tonnes were processed for an output of 29,015 oz, compared to figures of 317,602 tonnes and 30,755 oz for the previous quarter.

The decline is being attributed to the fact that the number of milling and hoisting shifts between Q3 and Q4 fell by 12 per cent, mainly as a result of the statutory worker holiday period.

In addition, Eastern revealed that development meters were down by 18 per cent on a quarterly basis after the reduction in shifts and the planned cut in reserve development, which commenced in late November.

The latter includes suspending operations temporarily at the Crocette mine as the company looks to slash its costs and preserve cash against a backdrop of falling prices in PGM markets.

Eastern Platinum, which is based in Canada, was founded in 2003 and became South Africa's country's largest PGM producer in 2006.

Full report