2016 metals, mining outlook darkens

The United States is poised to export the most coal since 1992 this year, filling a gap created when flooding interrupted Australian supplies and buoying shipments for railroads such as Union Pacific and CSX. Union Pacific, the nation’s largest railroad, may double coal exports this year to more than 4 million tonnes, said Doug Glass, the company’s vice president and general manager for energy. CSX predicts shipments may rise 33 percent to a record in 2011 after first-quarter volumes climbed 45 percent.

More details of the carbon tax are trickling out as the Australian Government prepares to take the next step towards imposing its carbon price.

Zambian President Rupiah Banda opened the country's largest coal mine Friday, after Singapore's Nava Bharat took over majority shares and invested $750 million (525 million euros) at the once defunct state entity. Nava Bharat, a Singapore subsidiary of India's Nava Bharat Ventures, has a 65 percent stake in Maamba Collieries, with Zambia's government owning 25 percent through its Zambia Copper Mines Investment Holdings.

Shares of Coal India and other mining companies tumbled in morning trade on the Bombay Stock Exchange Friday after a ministerial panel approved a draft bill for the mining sector. Coal India fell to a low of Rs 361 in opening trade on the BSE, but later regained some lost ground and was trading at Rs 374.10, down 5.11 percent.

SEOUL -- Seoul called Thursday for talks with Ulan Bator after a consortium involving South Korean firms was left off a list of groups chosen to develop a huge Mongolian mine, saying the decision was “unclear and unfair.”

Indonesian coal miner Bayan Resources Tbk has signed a deal with India’s Universal Crescent Power Private Ltd to supply 100 million tonnes of coal over 15 years from 2015, the firm’s chief financial officer said on Friday. “It’s an index linked contract based on the Newcastle index (and) is fully compliant with the minimum pricing regulation,” Alastair McLeod told Reuters. “It’s not a fixed price contract, and so it will vary every month on delivery of the contract.”

Twenty-eight miners were still trapped underground Thursday while 63 others were rescued after a fire broke out in a coal mine in China's Shandong province Wednesday night, Xinhua reported. A total of 91 people were trapped after an air compression device located in a parking lot 255 metres underground caught fire at 6.45 p.m. Wednesday, a provincial government spokesman said.

The introduction of improvement to the Sena railroad would cost over US$200 million and take at least 18 months, the chairman of Mozambican port and rail company, Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique, said Tuesday in Maputo. Brazilian mining group Vale and Australia’s Riversdale Mining have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in coal mining projects in Tete province and plan to use the Sena railroad to transport the coal to the port of Beira.

Unrest and strikes in Indonesia, Chile, Australia and Africa, a shortage of skilled workers in North America and rising labour costs all over the globe are quickly becoming the most serious downsides of a mining boom that started almost a decade ago. While a historically high overall jobless rate is masking spiking wages in the resources sector in the US, workers in emerging markets are shutting down operations of mining companies deemed not to be sharing record profits fairly.