Mining group Vedanta approved a $500 million expansion plan that will double its copper smelting capacity in India.
London-listed Vedanta, which focuses on India, said the expansion would expand capacity by 400,000 tons a year at the Tuticorin smelter run by its Sterlite affiliate.
"The company will be one of the largest single location custom copper smelters in the world with a total smelting capacity of 800,000 tons per annum," a report said.
The project, which includes a 160-megawatt captive power project, is due to be commissioned in mid-2011 and will be funded through a mixture of debt and internal funds. In the second week of October Vedanta posted strong output gains in most metals in the three months to end September and forecast higher production in its fiscal second half.

Mines minister B K Handique said that the government was considering divesting its stake in copper producer Hindustan Copper, the only public sector copper producer in the country with integrated concentrate mines.
Finance Ministry has written to mines ministry regarding disinvestment in Hindustan Copper. Now the board is considering the proposal, Handique said recently.
Hindustan Copper board is likely to come out with the proposal in the next two months, the company's CMD M Samajpati said. The company may also issue fresh equity along with the government's stake sale. The company said it plans to use the money to part finance its expansion projects. Hindustan Copper is revamping its operations and has outlined a capex of Rs 45 crore for the current fiscal. In the last fiscal, the company produced 38,000 tons of concentrated copper.

Abhay Kumar Srivastava has been appointed as CMD of navratna public sector unit, National Aluminium Company Ltd. Before joining NALCO, he was the chairman and managing director of Cement Corporation of India (CCIL).
Srivastava, a mechanical engineer by profession, took over from C. R. Pradhan, who retired as NALCO CMD in the first week of October.
Before joining NALCO, Srivastava was heading CCIL, a Govt. of India Undertaking under ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises, as its CMD for about 5 years.
However, Srivastava's appointment to the new post is not without its share of controversy as a shareholder has filed a petition in the Orissa High Court challenging his appointment to the post.
The petitioner pointed out that in the interview held for the post of NALCO CMD in 2007, C R Pradhan, who has been acting as the CMD in charge since February 2005, was empanelled as the number one candidate followed by A. K Srivastava in the second slot. The panel was valid for one year. Though the panel of name was finalised in October 2007, Pradhan's appointment was delayed till 3 August 2009. On Pradhan's retirement, the petitioner argued, fresh process of selection should have been started by the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pension and the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) giving opportunities to all those candidates who had not qualified for the post in the earlier interview.
However, the PMO in violation of all the established guidelines and procedure appointed Srivastava, the second person from the panel as CMD, NALCO from 1 October 2009, long after the validity of the panel had expired, the petitioner pointed out.

China's imports of refined copper surged by more than a quarter in September, reversing course after two months of decline, but high import prices are likely to curb further growth in October. Some analysts said demand for the industrial metal, used in power and construction industries, has not kept pace with prices that have doubled this year.
Such a craze is unlikely to continue into October, because the current price conditions are unfavourable to the import business, an analyst said. China's September imports of refined copper rose 28.7 percent on the month to 282,828 tons, still short of a record high of 378,943 tons in June. Imports of primary aluminium were steady at 117,004 tons. Analysts and traders had initially expected China's copper imports to fall for a third straight month, but data earlier October month showing imports of unwrought copper and semi-finished copper products rose 23 percent from the previous month to 399,052 tons had suggested higher purchases of refined copper.
Some traders had expected to move their refined copper to other markets as the price difference between Shanghai and London was unfavourable to imports, but they ended up selling into the Chinese market because demand was weak elsewhere, said a trader. But traders and analysts remain concerned about real demand in China. China's apparent copper demand grew 21 percent in September from the previous month to 657,312 tons. Among the other base metals, imports of refined zinc and lead also rose, while nickel imports slowed to 20,491 tons from August's 22,703 tons. Imports of refined zinc staged a 17 percent rise from a month earlier to 35,652 tons, up 4.78 percent, helping push LME zinc to $2,305 a ton, its highest in more than 17 months.

Expressing concerns over the accident at aluminium maker Balco's complex in Chhattisgarh, Mines Minister B K Handique said he would soon visit the site. As many as 41 lives were lost in a chimney collapse at an under-construction 1,200-MW power plant site of Balco at Korba in Chhattisgarh in September.
Around 300 workers were working on the Chimney. The state government has ordered judicial enquiry into the accident. The government is 49 per cent shareholder in the company. Balco should have come and briefed the government on the accident. Metal and mining major Vedanta Resources owns 51 per cent stake in Balco through its flagship firm Sterlite Industries. The state government has suspended an assistant labour commissioner for dereliction of duty. It has also asked labour department to file cases against Balco and two construction firms, GDCL and SYPCO, which were constructing the chimney. Sterlite Industries had cited “excessive rains and lightning” as possible causes for the accident. The godown was running illegally in a residential area and stored with consignment of pesticides which contained aluminium phosphate and zinc phosphate.
The victims said the fire brigade personnel poured water to extinguish the fire, which reacted with the chemicals and resulted in emission of highly poisonous gas. The people from neighbourhood had inhaled the gas and suffered breathlessness, pain in chest, vomiting, diarrhea and stomach ache, victims said.

Japanese copper wire and cable shipments fell by over 17 percent in September from a year earlier, extending a year-on-year decline into the 12th straight month due to a lack of strong demand from the construction sector.
The country's demand for copper, used in areas such as electronics and automobiles, tumbled from late last year due to the economic downturn. Shipments amounted to an estimated 57,800 tons last month, down 17.4 percent from a year earlier, although they were up 14 percent from August, data from the Japanese Electric Wire and Cable Makers' Association showed.
The final number for August of 50,531 tons confirmed a 13 percent decline in shipments from July's 58,032 tons, partly due to a seasonal fall in demand during the summer holiday season. Shipments, including exports which account for around 4 percent of the total, rose month-on-month in March, June and July this year, but showed little signs of sustainable growth. Last month, the association revised down its estimate for copper wire and cable demand for the business year to March 2010 to 648,000 tons, the lowest since 1971-72 and down from 705,000 tons made earlier this year.

Brazil's Vale has begun mining ore from its Goro nickel mine in New Caledonia and expects the processing plant begin production early next year. Goro has been delayed several times over the past year. It is expected to eventually produce 60,000 tons of nickel per year, but will just produce 20,000 tons in 2010 as it slowly ramps up to full production.
The previous cost estimate had been $3.2 billion. Vale acquired the project when it bought Canadian nickel miner Inco in 2006. New Caledonia is an island territory of France in the South Pacific. There has been no recent progress in resolving strikes at its Sudbury and Voisey's Bay nickel operations in Canada. The labor stoppages began during the summer.

World nickel consumption beat output by 7,100 tons in August, the first production shortfall since February 2008, the International Nickel Study Group said. Usage rose 5 percent to 115,300 tons, the highest level since April 2008, the Lisbon-based group said. Production from smelters fell to 108,200 tons, down 2.3 percent in the month. Producers' stockpiles of the metal dropped to 89,900 tons in July, down 12 percent from January, according to the INSG.
Consumption declined almost 30 percent in the first eight months compared with a year earlier in Europe and the U.S., the group said. China, the world's largest user of the metal, posted consumption growth of almost 16 percent at 282,500 t tons. World nickel consumption was 115,300 tons in August, outpacing production of primary nickel of 108,200 tons, the International Nickel Study Group said.

Cameroon Alumina Ltd has found 550 million tons of bauxite deposits at the Ngaoundal and Minim-Martap properties in the Adamawa region.
Cameroon Alumina Ltd is a joint venture set up in 2008 by Dubai Aluminium Company Ltd and India's Hindalco Industries, which each have a 45 percent stake, along with U.S. firm Hydromine Inc. which holds the remaining interest.
"We've found a minimum of 550 million tons of bauxite reserves and all indications are that there may be another 200 million tons at least," company co-chair Peter Briger said. "The bauxite is first class quality. It is not terribly deep in the ground," he said.
Briger said the company hopes to build a mining operations at the site that would produce 4.5 to 9 million tons of bauxite per year starting in late 2014 and an alumina refinery with a capacity of 1.4 to 3 million tons.
"The geology and mining feasibility report is under finalization and should be ready by 31 October," said Briger. "The real challenge is the logistics problem because the mining site is 561 km from the port. The key, therefore, is to find an efficient and cost-effective way of bringing processed alumina to the port for export."
Briger said the company was in negotiations with government officials over possibly upgrading and extending existing railway links from the mines to the Kribi deep sea port. General Manager Eric Lavalou said the project will cost some $5 billion to build and said the company is hoping for a mining license from government by the end of the year.
"Over all, the project is progressing well, within all stakeholders expectations," said Lavalou. "If all goes well according to our plan, the bankable feasibility study should be through in 2012 and make way for construction work to begin, which will last 40 months. ...We expect the first shipment of Cameroon alumina in five years."

The global copper market was in a deficit of 71,000 tons in the January to August period of 2009, compared with a surplus in the same months of 2008, the World Bureau of Metals Statistics (WBMS) said.
The figure compared with a surplus of 10 thousand tons in the first 8 months of 2008, the British-based consultancy said in its monthly report. Global consumption in the first eight months of 2009 was 12.26 million tons. Chinese apparent consumption increased to 4,836,000 tons from 3,296,000 tons in the previous year. However, this increase masks a build up of unreported stocks since the output of semi manufacturers was reported to be only 15.6 percent higher than last year. Primary aluminium was in a surplus of 1,361,000 tons from January to August 2009, compared with a surplus of 733,000 tons over the same period in 2008. Over the same 8-month period, the lead market was in deficit by 6 thousand tons and zinc was in surplus of 13 thousand tons, the WBMS said. The Nickel market fell back into deficit during January to August 2009, with apparent demand exceeding supply by 12,100 tons, the consultancy said, adding that tin recorded a surplus of 8400 tons in the same period.

Rio Tinto will not proceed with its Coega aluminium smelter project in South Africa, due to a lack of electricity.
South Africa has been subject to rafts of power shortages, with utility Eskom having to ration electricity after a near collapse of the power grid in 2008. Though Eskom is trying to boost supply with expansions, a lack of funds means there continues to be a shortage of electricity.
Eskom would have supplied electricity to the 720,000 tons Greenfield smelter. While both parties have terminated the agreement, they remain open to further discussions on the project in the future. Rio Tinto says it was originally scheduled to start constructing the Coega aluminium smelter in September 2008.

As Emirates Aluminium (EMAL) prepares to begin production at its smelter, the company already plans to double its capacity and become the world's largest single-site producer by 2014, said a report citing an official of the project.
The first phase of the smelter project at Khalifa Port Industrial Zone is on course to start production this year, said Maurizio La Noce, the executive director of business development at Mubadala Development. “I'm confident that in the next six months we will announce the next phase,” said La Noce. The expansion would give the smelter the capacity to produce 1.4 million tons of aluminium a year.
It is one of several large industrial initiatives in the pipeline to be announced by the firm in the next six months, La Noce said. They would include projects in the aerospace and car industries. In addition to Mubadala, EMAL is backed by Dubai Aluminium (DUBAL), which operates a smelter near Jebel Ali. The EMAL smelter is one of Abu Dhabi's biggest and most important initiatives to diversify the economy and lessen its reliance on crude oil.
Mubadala, the strategic investment arm of the Abu Dhabi Government, plans to next year appraise six recent commercial oil and natural gas discoveries in Vietnam and Thailand, La Noce said. “This year we drilled 11 aspirational wells and had six commercial discoveries already, which is phenomenal,” he said.
Next year the firm will approve and appraise the discoveries to determine the size of the reserves and what type of development plan would be used to help deliver the hydrocarbons commercially. The discoveries will lead to the firm increasing its current output of 25,000 barrels a day in the region, said La Noce. Mubadala bought Pearl Energy, based in Singapore, for about US$833 million (Dh3.05bn) in May last year from Aabar Energy, the Abu Dhabi investment company.
“Mubadala's strategy at the moment is one of execution, consolidation and monitoring very carefully what other opportunities there are out there,” La Noce said. He said one of the firm's objectives was to continue to grow and build on the Dh70bn of assets it manages.
Mubadala is focusing its strategy on oil and gas, health care, infrastructure, property, hospitality and aerospace, among other sectors. The firm's property sector was thriving, said La Noce.
Mubadala's profits more than quadrupled in the first half of this year, after rising prices for its growing pool of assets offset higher costs incurred as it expanded into new operations, it announced last month.

State-run National Aluminium Company (NALCO) has finalised a long term contract for export of 270,000 tons of alumina at 14.95 percent of the LME aluminium price on an FOB basis, a company source said. The alumina will be supplied to Switzerland-based Alaska Metals in nine batches of 30,000 tons each through 2010.
Last year in October, NALCO sold 240,000 tons of alumina in a long term contract at 13.29 percent of the average aluminium LME price.

UC Rusal, controlled by indebted Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, posted a net loss of $720 million in the first half of 2009, dented by low world aluminium prices and a weaker rouble.
The world's top aluminium producer posted a $160 million loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for January-June on revenue of $3.76 billion, the report said, citing a company presentation to investors.
Rusal is preparing a $2 billion initial public offering in Hong Kong as part of its recovery plan, said the report. Media have reported it is also eyeing a placement in Paris. Recently, the company's management met investors and analysts interested in the initial public offerings (IPO), which is being coordinated by BNP Paribas and Credit Suisse. Rusal, whose outstanding debts total around $16.8 billion, will use the IPO proceeds to reduce its debts. For the full year 2008, Rusal had posted a loss of $5.98 billion on revenue of $15.68 billion.

Korea Resources Corp., a state-run mineral developer, is seeking to sell as much as a 5.5 percent stake in a nickel project in Madagascar to a South Korean company to raise funds for overseas mineral development.
Korea Resources hired Samjong KPMG Advisory Inc. to arrange the sale of the stake. A preferred bidder will be chosen by early December and the deal closed by the end of this year, the company said, without providing details including the target price for the stake. The company currently holds a 21 percent stake in the Ambatovy nickel project in Madagascar. The money from the stake sale will be used in future overseas mineral development. In 2006, Dynatec Corp., a Canadian mining company, sold a 27.5 percent stake in the project to a South Korean consortium led by Korea Resources. The mine has the capacity to produce as much as 60,000 tons of nickel a year, starting from the second quarter of 2010. The mine's reserves are estimated at 125 million tons, the fourth-biggest in the world.

Repairs to the Century zinc concentrate pipeline that burst in October will extend in November as it awaits installation of a section of piping, the mine's owner said according to reports. A component needed to bypass the damaged area of the 304-kilometre pipeline will have to be installed over a 1 kilometre distance before operations resume, Andrew Michelmore, Chief Executive of Minmetals in Australia, said. Output from world's second biggest zinc mine fell 9 percent in the September quarter versus a year ago to 158,603 tons of zinc in concentrate. The drop was due to a change in the mine plan to better access ore and reduce costs, Minmetals said, and did not take into account any lost production that might result from damage to the pipeline, which occurred after the numbers were compiled. The pipeline carrying wet concentrate from the mine to a storage shed in the port of Karumba burst on October 5, and since then the port stockpile has been shrinking. A new section of pipe was welded into place on October 15 in the hopes of resuming shipments but proved inadequate. Michelmore said workers were racing to plug the leak before the onset of the region's wet season, which would further hamper repair work. The port stockpile of concentrate has shrunk to 30,000-35,000 tons from 70,000 tons prior to the incident. Mining has so far been unaffected, with ore being stored at the mine until concentrating resumes. The mine yields about 1 million tons of concentrate a year, much of it shipped to European smelters, including Belgium's Nyrstar SA, the world's biggest refiner of zinc concentrate into metal. Its low iron-bearing ore is necessary for European smelters to meet environmental regulations.

Vedanta Resources Group firm Hindustan Zinc reported 2.55 per cent decline in its net profit at Rs 934.95 crore for the second quarter of the current fiscal over the year-ago period mainly on lower realisations from by-products like sulphuric acid sales.
The positive impact of higher volume, operational efficiencies, lower input cost and rupee depreciation on net profit was more than offset by the sharp decline in the by- product credit realisations, the company said in a statement. In July-September quarter last year, the company had a net profit of Rs 960 crore. Hindustan Zinc, which primarily mines Zinc and Lead and Silver, also produces sulphuric acid and cadamium as by- products in bulk. Rates of sulphuric acid have plummeted to USD 200 a tonne level after hitting a peak of around USD 1,200 per tonne last year. Hindustan Zinc's total income rose to Rs 1,789.59 crore in the latest quarter, against Rs 1,743.84 crore in the same period previous fiscal.

Nexans, the world's biggest cable maker, posted a greater-than-expected drop in third-quarter sales, sending its shares sharply lower. Revenue fell 15.6 percent from last year to $1.5 billion as the company suffered from lower demand as a result of the global economic slowdown.
Nexans was among the main losers on France's wider SBF 120 index, while volume on the shares already represented 153 percent of the stock's 90-day daily average. The French group still expects a 2009 operating margin of about 6 percent and predicted it will be near breakeven at the net profit level, despite posting a first-half net loss of 57 million euros due to restructuring costs. Nexans has been hit by a slump in industrial demand during the global downturn since the end of 2008, but said the third quarter confirmed signs of a recovery. Nexans makes cables and cabling for power production, transmission and distribution, and supplies the car, train, plane and shipmaking industries. Nexans, one of the world's largest private consumers of copper, expected to buy some 600,000 tons of the metal in 2009 - down from the total of between 700,000 and 800,000 tons the company usually consumes. The company has four business units - infrastructure, industry, building and local area networks. Its biggest clients are electrical equipment distributors Rexel and Sonepar.

BHP Billiton Ltd. workers at the Spence copper mine in northern Chile are prepared to go on strike for a longer period unless the company improves its offer on pay and benefits. Workers are seeking similar conditions to BHP workers at the Escondida copper mine, also in northern Chile, Daniel Ibacache, a spokesman for the union representing the workers, said in an interview from a tent housing striking workers outside the mine in the Atacama Desert.
BHP offered workers at Escondida, the world's largest copper mine, a bonus of $25,718 to agree on a new work contract before a December 5 deadline, more than the 8.5 million pesos offered to Spence employees. Spence workers were offered pay rises worth 4 percent a year, less than 5 percent offered to those at Escondida. They are also pressing for similar benefits to their counterparts in education. The Spence workers marched through the city of Calama in northern Chile to demand better pay, after traveling in a motorcade several kilometers long from the mine. The union may also ask the government to arbitrate in the conflict. BHP, however, may declare force majeure on shipments from the mine.

National Aluminium Company Ltd, a Navratna public sector unit, has paid 50 percent dividend for the year 2008-09 amounting Rs 322.15 crore notwithstanding a dip in its profit bottom-line.
Of the total 50 percent dividend, interim at 35 percent was paid earlier in February, 2009 and the balance final dividend at 15 percent has been paid in October. Together, the dividend pay-out works out to Rs.322.15 crore out of which the union government's share is Rs.280.74 crore.
NALCO chairman and managing director, A K Srivastava handed over the cheque of final dividend for Rs 84.22 crore to union minister of mines, B.K. Handique at New Delhi in the presence of union secretary, mines, Mrs Santha Sheela Nair and other officials.
Union government holds 87.15 percent equity in the Company. The balance amount of Rs.41.41 crore has been disbursed to other shareholders of the Company like banks, financial institutions and individual shareholders, a company spokesman said.
NALCO's profits for the year 2008-09 took a knock with the near collapse of metal prices after the global melt down. The profits were down to Rs.1,272 crore from Rs.1,632 crore earned in the previous year even as the volumes of production and sale of its products remained almost at the same level as of previous year.

Iran launched its biggest aluminum smelter plant named Hormozal with the capacity of producing 147,000 tons of aluminum annually. Ahmad Ali Haratinik director of Iranian Mines and Industries Development and Renovation Organization Director said that "EUR 400 million plus USD 200 million have been invested in the project."
The plant, located in the southern city of Bandar Abbas is capable of increasing Iran's aluminum production up to 47 percent. Iran also plans to build another aluminum plant in the city of Lamard through an agreement with the Chinese NFC Company. The plant will produce 276,000 tons of aluminum annually.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad president of Iran inaugurated an aluminum anodes producing plant in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas in March. The aluminum plant is capable of producing 200,000 tons of raw anodes and 70,000 of baked anodes annually.

Aditya Birla group flagship company Hindalco Industries said its board has increased the size of fund-raising plan by Rs 500 crore to Rs 2,900 crore, to be raised through the issue of securities to qualified institutional buyers.
The board of directors has approved raising of long-term finance up to Rs 2,900 crore instead of earlier approval of Rs 2,400 crore, Hindalco Industries said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The fund would be raised through the issue of securities to institutional buyers, global depository receipts (GDRs) or other securities, it said.
Besides, the company's board has also given its nod for raising investment limit of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) in the company to 40 percent, subject to the necessary approval of the company's shareholders.
The company has called an extra ordinary general meeting on November 17 for seeking shareholders approval for these two decisions, it added.

Russian aluminum giant UC Rusal suffered a six billion dollar loss in 2008 due the global economic crisis, according to a presentation ahead of its planned share listing in Hong Kong and Paris, a report said.
Rusal announced the 2008 net loss of 5.98 billion dollars in a presentation to analysts from investment banks who plan to take part in its Initial Public Offering (IPO). The IPO -- which has so far not been officially confirmed by the company -- would be the most significant such listing by a Russian firm since the onset last year of the financial crisis.
According to the report, the company made a net loss of 720 million dollars in the first half of 2009. It said that revenues at Rusal had remained robust, reaching 15.68 billion dollars in 2008, and that most of its losses stemmed from write-downs on assets.
Most importantly, its 25 percent stake in the world's biggest nickel producer Norilsk Nickel, acquired in April 2008 just before the financial crisis broke, is now only worth a fifth of what it was. The majority shareholder in Rusal is Russia's former richest man Oleg Deripaska who owns almost 57 percent, while the current richest man Mikhail Prokhorov has a 14 percent stake.
The IPO would involve 10 percent of the company's capital and the proceeds would be used exclusively to eradicate its debts. According to media reports, Rusal plans to list simultaneously on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the Paris bourse, part of the pan-European stock exchange Euronext, but not in Russia.
The economic crisis has left Rusal billions of dollars in debt and it has been in complex talks with its creditor banks to restructure the debts.

Inventories of zinc concentrate held by Australia's Century mine are down to half the level of early October, when a pipeline leak caused it to shut down its concentrator. A pipeline carrying wet concentrate 304 km from the mine to a storage shed in the port of Karumba burst on Oct. 5, and since then the port stockpile had shrunk to 30,000-35,000 tons, from 70,000 tons.
Century, the world's second largest zinc mine, has been supplying customers from stockpiles at the Karumba port. A new section of pipe was welded into place on October 15 in the hopes of resuming shipments but further repairs were needed before operations could be reactivated. Mining was unaffected by the pipeline closure, with ore being stored at the mine until concentrating resumes. The mine yields about 500,000 tons of zinc from about 1 million tons of concentrate a year, much of it shipped to European smelters, including Belgium's Nyrstar SA, the world's biggest refiner of zinc concentrate into metal.
The mine's low iron-bearing ore is necessary for European smelters to meet environmental regulations. Only the Red Dog Mine in northwestern Alaska, operated by Teck Resources Ltd, yields more zinc each year. Minmetals bought the Century operation from Australia's OZ Minerals earlier this year.

Southern Copper Corp said that third-quarter net profit fell 25 percent to $312.5 million from $417.8 million in the year-ago period as prices for metals fell.
Net sales in the quarter were down 20 percent to $1.15 billion, from $1.44 billion a year ago.
The company, one of the world's largest copper producers, said sales slipped on lower prices but that production rose and costs fell. Copper production increased 1.3 percent in the quarter to 120,240 tons, while molybdenum output climbed 14.3 percent and zinc production rose 3.5 percent in the same period.
The company, a unit of Grupo Mexico, said total costs in the quarter fell 15.8 percent to $643 million. "We believe the forecast for the copper market is strengthening for the next few years and we expect more improvement in our results," German Larrea, president of Southern Copper's board, said in a statement.
The company has approved a $934 million investment program for Tia Maria, and has spent about $250 million on it so far. It has spent $74.9 million on its Toquepala expansion.
Once operational, Toquepala and Tia Maria are respectively expected to add 40,000 tons and 120,000 tons of copper a year to Southern's overall output. Tia Maria is scheduled to start production in the second quarter of 2011, while construction at Toquepala is set to begin in the middle of next year.
"We've revised our cash flows for the next few years and, under current conditions, we expect to have sufficient cash flows generated internally to continue with the projects," said Larrea.

Copper miner Grupo Mexico posted a 16.4 percent decline in net profit as lower metals prices cut into earnings. But the company predicted results would improve as the world economy recovers.
Grupo Mexico earned $286 million as cost cutting and higher production at its mines partially offset lower metals prices compared to a year ago. Revenues fell 19.6 percent to $1.396 billion. However, sales were up from the second quarter, reflecting the recovery in commodities prices in the second half of the year as prospects for the world economy improved.
"We anticipate the volatility of metals prices will continue in the short term but continuing with the upward trend for remainder of the year," the company said in its earnings statement.
"We are confident that from 2010 on there will be a positive outlook for copper based on probable restrictions in supply as developed economies recover." Prices for Grupo Mexico's major metals -- copper and molybdenum -- have steadily recovered from lows reached at the end of last year when commodities were hit by the global financial crisis.
The company also reiterated its belief that the lengthy bankruptcy case of its U.S. subsidiary Asarco LLC would be resolved before the end of the year in its favor.
A U.S. bankruptcy court judge has ruled that Grupo Mexico's plan to take Asarco out of bankruptcy protection offers creditors the best chance to recover what they are owed but the final decision rests with a U.S. district court judge.

India's state-run National Aluminium Co Ltd has finalized a long term contract for export of 270,000 tons of alumina at 14.95 percent of the LME aluminium price on an FOB basis, a source in the company said.
The alumina will be supplied to Switzerland-based Alaska Metals in nine batches of 30,000 tonnes each through 2010, said the source, who has direct knowledge of the sale but could not be identified due to company policy. Last year in October, NALCO sold 240,000 tons of alumina in a long term contract at 13.29 percent of the average aluminium LME price, said the report.

Aluminum Corp of China Ltd (Chalco), the world's most valuable aluminium maker, returned to profit in the third quarter on recovering demand and prices for the metal used in transport and packaging.
China's top alumina and aluminium producer posted a July-September net profit of $3.11 million versus a profit of 173 million a year ago, based on China accounting standards. Chalco reversed losses made in the previous three quarters after it raised alumina spot prices five times this year by a total 32.5 percent on rising demand for the main component of aluminium production.

Engineering firm Hindustan Dorr Oliver bagged an order worth Rs 96 crore from Anrak Aluminium. The company has bagged the order from Anrak Aluminium for their upcoming alumina refinery at Vishakhapatnam, Hindustan Dorr Oliver said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Leading German technology firm, Outotech GmbH would be the technology partner for the contract, the filing said.
The project is expected to complete in 18 months, the filing added.

Ambitious to expand and acquire assets overseas, Chinese metals giant Chinalco is eyeing assets held by UC RUSAL despite the setback of its failed investment this year in Australian mining giant Rio Tinto.
The mining and metals conglomerate has targeted RUSAL's stake in an alumina refinery in Australia, but is less interested in buying into the indebted Russian company's Hong Kong share issue, two sources familiar with the situation said.
However, political pressure may oblige state-owned Chinalco may be obliged to subscribe to the share issue and take a stake in RUSAL, the sources said. RUSAL's top management is visiting China now to bargain for a series of potential cooperation moves.
The visit coincides with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's trip to Beijing, where deals worth some $3.5 billion are to be signed, officials said, with hopes of further cooperation in energy, trade and political ties.
"The subscription largely depends on how Putin's visit goes," one of the sources said. "At the state level, Russia and China have a long-term friendship, but a big concern is that Chinalco is a state-owned company while RUSAL is private-sector. "Chinalco is not lacking money, but RUSAL is deep in debt. The two sides could seek other ways of cooperating besides the share subscription, as Chinalco has shown interest in RUSAL's global production assets," the source said.
The asset Chinalco is keenest to invest in is Queensland Alumina Ltd, which would shore up its supply chain in Australia, the sources said. The plant is one of the world's largest alumina refineries, with a nominal capacity of 3.95 million tonnes of alumina each year, RUSAL says on its website.
RUSAL owns 20 percent and Rio Tinto, in which Chinalco is the biggest shareholder, holds the rest of QAL. Chinalco subsidiary Chalco already has a A$3 billion project to develop the vast Aurukun bauxite deposit in Queensland. "If a deal succeeds, the plant could process Aurukun's bauxite," another source said.
Officials from Chinalco were not available to comment, and RUSAL's media office said in an emailed statement the company had no intention of selling its stake in QAL.
"It could be very hard for Chinalco to hammer the deal as it would be very tough to persuade RUSAL to sell the refinery stake, especially if RUSAL has its own bauxite supplies in Australia," said an analyst at Essence Securities.UC RUSAL, more than $16 billion in debt, has restarted plans for a stock listing in Hong Kong to raise between $1.5 billion and $2.5 billion by the end of this year, said the report.
The company must first settle its debt restructuring plan with more than 70 international and Russian banks, the sources said. UC RUSAL has said it plans to complete this long-delayed process by the end of October. Despite political pressure, Chinalco was still likely to decline the proposal to potentially become a major shareholder of the world's biggest aluminium maker in terms of production.
A refusal could dampen RUSAL's planned initial public listing in Hong Kong, which the Russian firm intends to finalise by the end of this year and use 80 percent of proceeds to pay back debt, the sources said. "The accounting system in Russia is very different from the ones in Europe, China and Hong Kong. And that was a big reason that the company dropped its London listing plan," one of the sources said. Essence Securities' analyst said the discussion on the IPO subscription could focus on prices since Chinalco would not decline the offer if it was clearly profitable. A source has said the benchmark for RUSAL's valuation would be Chalco.

Japan's shipments of aluminum rolled products may increase for the first time in 14 months in November as demand from carmakers recovers and the influence of adverse weather on can sales fades, an industry group said. “We expect shipments will probably start increasing in November from a year-ago level,” Koji Iida, head of statistics at the Japan Aluminium Association, said. The recovery will be led by the auto and electronics industries as their sales are supported by government incentives, he added. Supplies of Japanese aluminum products to the domestic and export markets plunged by record 23 percent in the first half of this fiscal year, as the worst recession since World War II slashed demand for the metal used in buildings and car parts. The pace of decrease slowed for a seventh month in September as government subsidies and tax cuts helped lift sales of energy- efficient cars and appliances. Shipments in the six months ended Sept. 30 declined to 897,441 metric tons from 1.17 million tons in the same period last year, data from the association showed. The volume was 32 percent lower than the record high reached in the fiscal first half ended Sept. 30, 1997.
“We will have difficulty returning to the peak level as Japanese rolling mills are cutting local output and shifting production bases to abroad because of a contraction in domestic demand,” Iida said in Tokyo. Furukawa-Sky Aluminum Corp., the largest Japanese maker of flat-rolled products, said this month it would take equity stakes in two rolling mills in China to produce auto-related materials from 2010 for sales in Asia and the U.S.