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Dear readers,


The LME prices are showing a downward trend and the non-ferrous metal producers are feeling the pinch. On one hand there is a slowdown in demand due to global recession. The metals like aluminium, copper etc. have major applications in infrastructure and construction industry. The Asian region was witnessing a economic boom mainly due to surge in infrastructure and construction activities. Many of these activities have either slowed down or have come to a halt. This has definitely affected prospects of non-ferrous metals atleast in short term. Secondly, the auto sector has also been affected a lot. Many auto producing companies have considerably reduced their production. This will surely reduce their requirement of metals. The power is not affected by this meltdown and its requirement for metals seems to be steady.
Though today’s situation looks bleak, I am not pessimistic about the future. Firstly, the problem has originated in western world due to lapses in banking and lending system. In India, there are a lot of checks and balances and stringent norms in banking and more importantly they are followed quite religiously. This is the reason Indian banks and financial institutions seem to be doing well. Ofcourse, the present liquidity crunch in global financial markets has hit India also but government pumps in some liquidity in the system, the problem can be diluted. Further, Indian government has recently reduced interest rates and also lowered excise duty. This is a very good move and I am sure this will accelerate the economic momentum. As such nothing gone wrong fundamentally with India economy. Also, there is very little of overseas capital in Indian industry and India’s international trade is very minimal. This is why in 1998 at the time of SE Asian currency crisis, India was not affected and now also, in my opinion, India will be least affected.
Now the biggest question is that when India’s economy will be back on track ? If one studies similar situations in the past, it is seen that the downfalls are always very sudden where as improvements are gradual. I feel that India will substantially recover its position over next six months and if everything goes well, the economy will be fully back on track by end of 2009.

D.A.Chandekar
Editor & CEO

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Birla Minerals Halts Aussie Project

CIL to Hike Minimum Coal Supply Level to 75%

Nalco Uses Washed Coal to Keep Smelters Afire

India's Aluminium Output Increases in October

Aluminum Heads for Worst Losing Streak in Nine Years on Supply

China may Cut Export Tax on Lead, Aluminium

M S Mehta Takes Over as Vedanta CEO

Cheaper Chinese Calcined Coke Arriving at Indian Market

Jiangxi Group to Build Nickel Plant in Philippines

Nickel Producers Cut Output in Indonesia

Rio Cuts Lynemouth Aluminium Smelter Output

Coking Coal Exports by Russia Up 8.1% in Jan-Sept

Japan may Cut Q1 Aluminium Premiums by abt 20%

Japan’s Aluminium Import Declines

Korea Zinc to Cut Output by 10 % for 13 months

Norilsk Posts 9-month Nickel Output

Codelco to Continue Investment

Aleris Closes Tipton, Indiana Facility

Hindustan Zinc Wins Asian CSR Excellence Award

China Aluminium Demand to Rise 3 % in 2009 says Antaike

Hindustan Copper Sees 10% Fall in Output

Ess Dee Aluminium Acquires India Foils of Vedanta Group

Yunnan Province to Buy Base Metal Reserves

Lenders Extend Australian Miner’s Repay Deadline

No Ease in Environment Law

CCEA Approves SCCL Kakatiya Longwall Project

Balco wins international award

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Birla Minerals Halts Aussie Project

 Aditya Birla Minerals, a subsidiary of Hindalco Industries Ltd, has stopped work on the Ezperanza South Project at its Mount Gordon Operations in Australia.
In a letter to the Australian Stock Exchange, company secretary Peter Torre, said, “Aditya Birla Minerals Ltd advises that development work on its Ezperanza South Project at its Mount Gordon operations has been suspended indefinitely. The decision has been taken in the light of the recent slowdown in copper price and market conditions. The operation will be placed on care and maintenance pending an upturn in the market."
“Limited development work will be undertaken in the next 30 days to ensure the operations are left in a condition which will facilitate the recommencement at a future juncture. All other activities at the company's Mount Gordon operations are continuing as normal. Aditya Birla originally envisaged that Ezperanza would expand and possibly extend the life of Mount Gordon by committing to the staged development of the 87 kilo tons copper Ezperanza South ore body. Phase I was expected to occur in 2010 and would have seen approximately 19 kilo tons copper production in addition to the production from the Mammoth ore body," Julian McCormack and Matthew Cross, analysts with Credit Suisse Australia, said.
It is estimated that Mount Gordon has an estimated mineral resource of approximately 500 kilo tons of copper. Most of the mineral occurs at Mammoth within the Ezperanza system. “Capex was put at Australian $31.2 million and operating costs were to be Australian $1.95 per pound. It remains unclear how much capital has been committed to the project to date," they said.  

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CIL to Hike Minimum Coal Supply Level to 75%

Coal India Limited (CIL) is likely to increase the trigger level (minimum level) of coal supply to power plants by 15 percent from the current 60 percent to 75 percent and also bring about amendments in fuel supply agreements (FSA) norms kept in the new coal distribution policy (NCDP).
Under the rules, if CIL fails to meet the 75 percent minimum level supply to power plants it will be penalised. Power plants across the country are demanding that CIL will have to maintain a 90 percent minimum level. Low coal supply has pushed 56 of the 77 power plants to the 'critical' category and rendered another 33 plants 'super critical' with stocks of less than seven and four days respectively.
“It is true there is pressure from power plants to raise the trigger level to 90 percent. But that is not possible. At the most it can be raised to 75 percent after jointly computing the annual contract quantity (ACQ) and trigger level. For this we will give suggestions to the ministry for making amendments in NCDP", said Partha S Bhattacharya, chairman, CIL.
NTPC and various states like Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh have made appeals to the coal ministry to resolve FSA and e-auction issues as stocks in power plants are depleting by the day. The central and state power utilities are firm on not signing FSAs until CIL assures 90 per cent committed supply. NCDP ensures 100 per cent supply to the core sector identified as power and fertiliser units. The tenure of FSAs for new projects should be 25 years considering the useful life of the power plant. The power purchase agreements (PPAs) will be of a similar tenure. The need for FSAs is to fix supply targets by CIL subsidiaries. Highly-placed CIL officials, however, alleged that the power plants are putting pressure to end the system of coal sale through e-auction as they have to pick up the material at a higher price compared to the administered prices under normal conditions. CIL supplies around 40 million ton of coal through e-auction. The power plants, which aim to pick up this amount through the normal roue, feel the system only benefits the non-core sector. Currently, CIL is confronted with an acute coal crisis of around 200 million ton during the 11th plan period and is, therefore, planning an import of the amount at around Rs 18,000 crore ( at current international coal prices). While the target at the end of the 11th Plan is 530 million tonnes the demand is around 720 million with a possibility of peaking further.
Efforts are on to augment underground (UG) coal production to the maximum through the development of seven UG mines spread out in the coalfields of ECL, BCCL and CCL to meet domestic requirements. CIL has also called in for bids to develop its 18 abandoned mines with private sector players. Says Bhattacharya, “I want to zero in on the final player for development of the abandoned mines by March 31, 2009".

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Nalco Uses Washed Coal to Keep Smelters Afire  

National Aluminium Company (Nalco) has come out with a new strategy to tackle a major coal crisis to ensure smooth coal supply.
The company will use washed coal for the first time to continue at its smelter in Damanjodi and power plant in Angul. Nalco has set to use 90,000 tons of washed coal at its facilities in the current fiscal instead of using of imported coal which is costlier. The first tranche of 30,000 tons of washed coal has been received from Spectrum Coal, Nagpur. Another 25,000 tons will be received from Maheshwari, Nagpur. For the remaining amount of coal, the company would go for fresh tenders.
"The idea is to supplement 25 percent of the total coal requirement of Damanjodi through washed coal. Although washed coal is costlier than regular coal, it is better to have an uninterrupted supply and not face the previous crisis situation," said a source familiar with the situation.
The price of washed coal is around Rs 2,500-3,000 per ton compared with Rs 1,000-1,200 per ton for regular coal. Imported coal is far costlier at almost Rs 8,000-9,000 per tons and has to be blended with indigenous coal for use at the refinery. Angul would, however, be using most of regular and imported coal.

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India's Aluminium Output Increases in October

India's aluminium output over April to October the first seven months of the current fiscal year was 739,957 ton as compared with 717,222 tons last year.
India's major aluminum production companies are National Aluminum Co, Bharat Aluminium Co, Hindalco Industries and Madras Aluminum Co. Over April to October, Nalco produced 206,663 ton aluminum compared with 208,847 ton in 2007, Balco 211,457 ton compared with 210,953 ton, Hindalco output 300,000 ton against 275,505 ton a year ago and Malco 21,837 ton up from 21,917 ton in 2007.

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Aluminum Heads for Worst Losing Streak in Nine Years on Supply

Aluminium headed for its worst losing streak in nine years in London on speculation increased shipments from China, the world's largest producer, will exacerbate global oversupply.
According to a report, China may reduce or even remove taxes in primary aluminium exports. Aluminium supply will outpace demand by 1.4 million metric tons next year, double this year's surplus. “The immediate concern in the aluminium market is that you get some kind of production cuts and a change in export taxes would be counterproductive to that," said an analyst from BNP Paribas in London. “If more metal has found its way outside China, we would have an even bigger oversupply in the global aluminium market," he added.
Aluminium for delivery in three months declined $16, or 0.9 percent, to $1,775 a metric tons on 29th November, on London Metal Exchange, bringing the drop for November to 13 percent. The metal has dropped for five consecutive months, the longest run since the period ending February 1999. BNP forecasts that the three-month contract for the metal will probably average $2,000 a ton next year, down from $2,600 this year. Inventories of aluminium in warehouses monitored by the LME jumped 6,975 tons to 1.8 million tons, the most since December 6, 1994.
Meanwhile copper declined $51 to $3,645 a ton after inventories gained 2,925 tons to 291,650 tons, the most since February 25, 2004.

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China may Cut Export Tax on Lead, Aluminium

China is likely to remove export taxes in refined lead while reducing them on primary aluminium and aluminium alloy informed analysts.
According to a report, the industry sources are divided on the likeness of Beijing enacting these policy changes.
Some are of the opinion that the scene has weakened by the long-term policy Beijing's to decrease exports from its energy-intensive industries. "There have already been lots of rumors on (the tax changes)," said Judy Zhu, analyst with Standard Chartered in Shanghai. "I think it's likely." The report stated that Zhu said it is likely that Beijing may cancel the 10 percent export tax imposed on refined lead to offset drooping domestic demand.
Besides Zhu added it is likely that the government may reduce export tax on primary aluminum and aluminum alloy to 5 percent from 15 percent, effective January 1. Meanwhile the country has plans to reduce or remove taxes on export of some steel and aluminum products from December 1. It has also been decided that to reduce value added tax rebates for some copper tube and primary aluminium products. However some analysts opine that the removal of tax on refined lead is not likely to take place partly due to the environmental risks of lead.
"It's impossible this would happen in the short term, because of the pollution lead causes," said Macquarie Bank's Bonnie Liu, in Shanghai. "I don't believe it will happen. It's probably much easier to lift duties on any other metal other than lead," stated the report. The report stated that Liu informed that there are less chances of change in the export tax regime for aluminum or aluminum alloy. "The core policy is to slow exports from energy-intensive industries. That's the long-term goal and the government wouldn't want to change this policy (because of short-term demand contractions)."

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M S Mehta Takes Over as Vedanta CEO

Mahendra S Mehta, CEO & Whole Time Director, Hindustan Zinc Ltd, took over as CEO of Vedanta Resources plc. Kuldip K Kaura, Chief Executive Officer of Vedanta Resources Plc was retired on 30 September 2008.
M S Mehta joined Sterlite in April 2000. Prior to assuming his role as Chief Executive of HZL in August 2005, he worked in the management team of Sterlite's Copper business and as Head of Group Marketing. Over the last two years, he made a significant contribution to the rapid growth of HZL and the present stature it enjoys.
Kuldip Kaura joined Sterlite Industries (India) Limited in January 2002 and soon assumed responsibility as the first Managing Director of Hindustan Zinc Limited, following Vedanta's investment in the company. Upon listing of Vedanta on the London Stock Exchange in December 2003, he was first appointed Chief Operating Officer and subsequently to his current position as Chief Executive Officer in March 2005. Kuldip Kaura had been instrumental in integrating and transforming the Group's various operations, building the organisation and putting in place management philosophies and processes to achieve organization excellence.

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Cheaper Chinese Calcined Coke Arriving at Indian Market

Chinese calcined petroleum coke (CPC) used by aluminium and steel industries, is arriving at the Indian port recently. Chinese calcined petroleum coke is not only cheaper but better in quality also.
Due to closure of several aluminium smelters in China these materials are currently available in India at theses rates, said importers. Domestic CPC are currently available at Rs 26,000 per ton ex-work from the calciners have carbon 99 percent and sulphur 1.5 percent. These calciners buy raw petroleum coke generally from IOCL at approximate Rs 17,000 per ton and sell to steel and aluminium plant after calcinations.
In contrast, Chinese CPC is directly reaching the steel and aluminium plants at Rs 19,000 per ton, said a purchaser of a reputed aluminium smelter in the country. Chinese CPC has very low sulphur but have the same carbon content. Low sulphur cpc is infact in greater demand at the aluminium and steel plants to reduce inclusions in final product. Generally, Chinese CPC arriving at $340 CIF India ports contain 0.5 percent sulphur, said an importer.

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Jiangxi Group to Build Nickel Plant in Philippines 

Jiangxi Rare Earth and Rare Metals Tungsten Group Corp. will build a pilot nickel-cobalt ore processing plant in Philippines.
The plant will be built at the Berong Nickel Corp's mine in the western island of Palawan, and is expected to have a capacity of 3,000 to 5,000 tons a year. The plant would furnish key inputs to the eventual construction of full-scale plant capable of processing company, is now building a refinery in China to process the product from the Berong leach plant.
Jiangxi group's investment is in line with China's continuing heavy investment in oil and mineral resources abroad to supply the growing needs of its powerhouse manufacturing sector. Atlas told the Philippine Stock Exchange in a disclosure statement that the Chinese firm will finance the entire capital cost of the leach plant in exchange for a guaranteed long term laterite ore supply agreement. The partners' ownership shares in the plant are yet to be agreed, it added. Atlas said the Berong deposit has about 140 million tons of reserves averaging 1.41 percent nickel and 0.07 percent cobalt. It started production last year.
" The deal puts Berong Nickel Corp. on the path to becoming a mid-tier, vertically integrated nickel producer," it said. "In the current economic climate, added value processing of ore is the optimum way forward for nickel producers, eventually to replace direct ore shipping," it added.

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Nickel Producers Cut Output in Indonesia

Indonesia's two biggest nickel producers have cut 2009 production target as nickel prices have declined while the global economic downturn has reduced demand. State mining company PT Aneka Tambang cuts its production target by almost 30 percent to 12,000 tons for next year on lower demand, president director Alwin Syah Loebis said. “Global consumption of nickel would go below 1 million tons next year from 1 million tons this year, in particular because of the forecast reduction in world economic growth,” said Alwin. Rising production cost has also led to cut the production target. Alwin reported that as of the end of October, production costs reached US$5.69 per pound, while the sales price of nickel was around 44.70 per pound.
Indonesia's another leading company- PT International Nickel Co (Inco) Indonesia cut this year's production target by 20 percent to 70,000 tons, following its decision to shut down its diesel-fired power plants after production costs rose. The company has several power plants with a total capacity of 360 megawatts, of which 85 megawatts are fired by fuels and 275 megawatts by hydro power.
Concerning next year's projections, booth companies are optimistic that nickel prices in the second semester of 2009 will rise as demand should start to recover in the second half of the year. Analysts have said that the recovery of nickel prices may be primarily driven by stronger demand from stainless steel makers, who will opt for nickel rather than chrome, since the price of chrome has steadily increased.

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Rio Cuts Lynemouth Aluminium Smelter Output

Mining company Rio Tinto has cut production by one-third at its 180,000 tons Lynemouth aluminium smelter in north-east England, a company spokesman said.
“The company has temporarily stopped about one-third production at Lynemouth, partly due to high electricity prices and low aluminium prices," said the spokesman. The plant in Northumberland has the capacity to produce around 175,000 tons of primary aluminium. According to a report, the company plans to restart full production sometimes in 2009. However, nothing has been finalised as of now the spokesman informed. During this time, the company would be doing maintenance work on the idled potlines.
He added that reductions would make sure that smelter runs without any disturbance even incase a grid failure occurs during winter at a time of high consumption. Meanwhile, the spokesman said that the company was thinking of lowering high-cost aluminium production wherever it can. "We're looking at this on a region by region basis," the report stated.

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Coking Coal Exports by Russia Up 8.1% in Jan-Sept

Russia exported about 11 million tons (mt) of coking coal, up by 8.1 percent during the period of January to September 2008 compared to the corresponding period last year.
Out of 11 million tons, Russia exported 5.22 mt of coking coal to Ukraine, which is 3.9 percent more than the export to Ukraine during January to September 2007.
Exports to Japan, which stood at 1.33 mt, witnessed a drop of 36.6 percent during this period as against the export in the same period previous year, stated a Tex Report data.

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Japan may Cut Q1 Aluminium Premiums by abt 20%

Japanese buyers will urge for a cut of about 20 percent in the premium for January- March 2009 primary aluminium supplies, citing the financial crisis that has cut demand for the metal used in automobile.
The battle lines are being drawn near $60 per ton for the term price, compared with the $75-$76 premium for the October-December quarter, industry sources say. According to the industry sources, Japanese end-users were eager to settle below $60 while offers by producers stand around $65 at initial stages of talks. “I think there is a worry among many people that things might get even worse," said a Japanese official with a leading firm involved. Japan's domestic demand for aluminium in 2008 is expected to fall 0.5 percent to about 4.5 million tons, the second year of decline in a row. The outlook for next year is even bleaker. On top of stricter building rules introduced in 2007 after an industry scandal, aluminium demand was dealt a further blow as the financial crisis took on the broader economy. The sharp global economic downturn has forced top automakers including Toyota Motor Corp to cut production to prevent inventories from ballooning further as sales sagged in major markets, leading to a reduction in metal consumption. Japanese industrial production dropped sharply in October and manufacturers are warning of record falls in coming months, prompting warnings that growing global gloom means Japan's recession will be deep and long.

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Japan’s Aluminium Import Declines

Japanese shipments of aluminium products fell 5.4 percent in October from a year earlier to 193,157 tons, data issued by the Japan Aluminium Association showed. The preliminary figures showed October output of aluminium mill products fell 4.7 percent year-on-year to 195,425 tonnes.

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Korea Zinc to Cut Output by 10 % for 13 months

Korea Zinc, the world's second-biggest zinc refiner, will cut production for 13 months, joining a growing list of rivals slashing production to battle falling and weak demand.
The company would reduce output by 45,000 tons from its capacity of 450,000 until the end of 2009, but the decision was subject to change in market condition. Zinc smelters are cutting production, as the worst financial crisis in 80 years and a spreading global recession may further cut demand for industrial metals and make it difficult to predict when price and consumption may recover.
The recent swathe of mine output cutbacks and closures has done little to support prices of zinc as consumption has remained weak, leading to an inventory build-up. Zinc on the London Metal Exchange has lost nearly 50 percent so far this year. It was quoted at around $1,190 a ton on December 1.
The global zinc market was in surplus by 112,000 tons in the first nine months of 2008, as refined zinc output grew faster than consumption growth, according to the International Lead and Zinc Study Group (ILZSG).

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Norilsk Posts 9-month Nickel Output

Norilsk Nickel, a leading nickel producer, said that nickel production for the first nine months of 2008 was 218,474 tons, mainly in line with about 219,000 tons produced during the same period in 2007.
The company has also confirmed that the output of Palladium in January-September 2008 was 2.124 million ounce. This includes output at its Polar and Kola division in Russia as well as at its units in Finland, Australia, Botswana and South Africa. But this did not include its U.S. unit Stillwater Mining Co.
Norilsk Nickel produced up to 316,639 tons copper in the first nine months of this year from 312,000 tons. Meanwhile Norilsk Chief Executive Vladimir Srzhalkovsky had said earlier this month that the company would consider in December whether to cut production of its non-Russian units due to falling demand owing to the financial crisis.

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Codelco to Continue Investment

Chile's Codelco, the world's largest copper producer, is expecting investments in 2009 to be in line with 2008, in the $2 billion range. Codelco is in a cost-cutting drive at the same time as it is trying to add new production to ageing mines with falling ore grades.

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Aleris Closes Tipton, Indiana Facility

Aleris International, Inc. has permanently closed its Tipton, Indiana specification alloys facility from December 1, 2008. The production activity at the facility had been halted from March 30, 2008.
Now, production has been transferred to other Aleris facilities in North America. Aleris will continue to provide the same high quality products and services that customers expected.
Aleris International, Inc. is a global in aluminium rolled products and extrusion, aluminium recycling and specification alloy production. Headquartered in Beachwood, Ohio, a suburb Cleveland, the company operated over 40 production facilities in North America, Europe, South America and Asia, and employs about 8,400 employees.

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Hindustan Zinc Wins Asian CSR Excellence Award 

Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL), a Vedanta Group company, has bagged the 'Asian CSR Excellence Award-2008', a prestigious recognition in the field of corporate social responsibility. The Singapore-based Asian Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility gave the award to HZL for the “Zinc Integrated Poverty Alleviation Programme (ZIPAP)”, a company statement said. HZL associate vice-president for CSR Ahmar Sultan received the award from Noeleen Heyzer, undersecretary general of the UN and executive secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia. The ZIPAP aims at sustainable change in the quality of life of people living below the poverty line (BPL). The programme is executed in four districts of Rajasthan - Udaipur, Chittorgarh, Bhilwara and Rajsamund, the statement said.

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China Aluminium Demand to Rise 3 % in 2009 says Antaike

 Consumption of primary aluminium in China, the world's top consumer, may rise 8.5 percent this year and just 3 percent next year due to the global financial crisis, a senior analyst at Antaike, a state-owned research group, said.
The expected growth rates would be the lowest in years and mark a sharp fall from a more than 30 percent rise in 2007. “Consumption is slowing due to the global financial crisis and weak performance of the local property market," Wang Feihong told an aluminium conference in Sanya city on Hainan island. "The Chinese market will have a surplus and prices will fall," he added. Antaike sees China's aluminium consumption rising to 13 million tons this year and 13.4 million tons in 2009.
The country will still have a surplus, even though aluminium smelters have cut production. Wang said about 1.5 million tons of aluminium smelting capacity might halt production by the end of this year, given weak domestic demand and low prices. He added start-ups of about 2.2 million tons of new capacity would be delayed. Production cuts and output disruptions by the weather and electricity issues earlier in 2008 would trim the country's metal output by at least 1 million tons this year, he said.
Antaike expects China's primary aluminium production to rise 10.6 percent this year versus a third last year, to 13.9 million tons, although capacity is still likely to rise nearly 20 percent to 18.2 million tons. Wang said the production cuts and weak demand would extend to 2009 and that would discourage smelter production, which could keep the metal output flat in 2009, for the first time in years.With production of aluminium having slowed, the output of alumina, the main input for the metal's production, is also falling, Antaike analyst Zhu Yan told the same conference.

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Hindustan Copper Sees 10% Fall in Output

The public sector Hindustan Copper Ltd, India's third-biggest copper producer, is expecting a 10 per cent fall in production in the fiscal year to end-March 2009. The estimated less production this year because of the closure of one smelter which it anticipated to restart very soon.

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Ess Dee Aluminium Acquires India Foils of Vedanta Group

Kolkata-based Ess Dee Aluminium, a leading manufacturer and supplier of Aluminium foil & PVC based primary packaging acquired a majority stake in India Foils Ltd. (IFL) a Vedanta Group Company thereby making it a subsidiary. As part of the Rehabilitation scheme approved by the honourable BIFR vide its order dated 18.08.2008 for the revival of India Foils Ltd., Ess Dee Aluminium Ltd. and Malco have joined hands to revive India Foils. India Foils Ltd. is engaged in the businesses of manufacturing, processing and selling of Aluminium Foil and foil based products. The company has three manufacturing facilities located in West Bengal with total foil rolling capacity of 19000 tons backed by adequate front end conversion capacity that allows it the flexibility to offer value added products. The company was declared sick in the year 2006 and two plants out of three were shut down. As part of the rehabilitation plan, Ess Dee Aluminium Ltd. and Malco have infused about Rs. 261 crores in the company in the form of Equity and Preference shares to repay all existing lenders of IFL making it debt free. The shutdown foil stock and rolling plant located at Hoera will also be restarted using the funds infused. The net worth of the company has become positive upon fund infusion. The revival of plants will be commenced shortly. Speaking on the transaction Sudip Dutta, Chairman & Managing Director, Ess Dee Aluminium Limited said “IFL enhances Ess Dee’s rolling capacity from the existing 18000 tons to 37000 tons spread across 5 manufacturing facilities and thus making it India’s largest pharmaceutical foil manufacturing company. At the same time it also places Ess Dee on track to achieving self sufficiency in raw material requirements once the foil stock plant located at Hoera is restarted. Addition of IFLs manufacturing facilities in West Bengal would add strength to Ess Dee’s successful hub and spoke model of manufacturing and printing foil based products with plants spread across the country.” India Foils Limited has the unique distinction of having innovated and developed every foil specification used in packaging in India.

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Yunnan Province to Buy Base Metal Reserves

China's Yunnan province will buy base metal reserves to help the operations of metal smelters struggling with weak domestic demand and low prices, a report on the Ministry of Land and Resources' website said. Yunnan would buy 150,000 tons of copper, 300,000 tons of aluminium, 150,000 tons of lead, 300,000 tons of zinc and 100,000 tons of tin, the report said. The reserves will be kept for one year.

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Lenders Extend Australian Miner’s Repay Deadline

Australian miner Oz Minerals Ltd, facing sharp falls in selling prices for its minerals, was given one month instead of two by its lenders to come up with a way to refinance $560 million in debt, it said. Oz Minerals, the world second-biggest zinc supplier and also a miner of nickel, copper, gold and silver, has also been granted a month-long share trading suspension by regulators, fearing the negotiations would be hindered by volatility in its share price. The extension to restructure its debt until Dec. 29 is a month short of the Jan. 31, 2009 extension it was seeking. Oz Minerals said there was option from the group's lenders to extend the deadline to the end of January but warned that was subject to certain conditions, declining to say what the conditions were. There was a risk it may have to seek the conditional extension given market volatility and tight credit. The delays are the result of conditions requested by one of seven syndicated lenders. Oz Minerals recently said it will cut production at its giant Century zinc mine by 4 percent in 2009 and delay A$495 million ($323.5 million) in copper and gold mining projects, joining a growing number of miners forced to trim output as slowing global economies knock demand and prices. Costs at the Century mine were running at around $0.69 a pound, compared with current selling prices of around $0.55 a pound on the LME ($1=A$1.53).

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No Ease in Environment Law

The ministry of environment & forests (MoEF) has turned down ministry of mines’ proposal to ease environmental regulations for mineral exploration in forests. MoEF’s tough stand may adversely impact investments in locating new mineral reserves in the country. Global mining majors such as Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto — who have invested in exploration for minerals — may restrict their expansion plans. MoEF apprehends that relaxing environmental regulations will destruct precious forest reserves. Restrictive regulations include permission to test drill holes to roughly one borehole per sq km. The hole should not be more than 10-cm diameter. Most of the country’s mineral wealth is under forest cover and location of minerals by drilling test holes may harm wildlife. Mines ministry had approached MoEF seeking simpler environmental regulations, as investment in exploration in the country remains paltry. In the wake of a report by Metals Economics Group, which says the country’s share of global investment in exploration was a mere 0.5%, government plans to attract private investment in exploration. In order to safeguard the forest reserves and wildlife, MoEF has argued the ministry can only allow drilling of 15 boreholes in a 10-sq km area, a mines ministry official, who did not wish to be identified, said. However, mines ministry suggests the number of boreholes generally goes up to 20 boreholes per sq km depending on the mineral and type of deposit. Mines ministry additional secretary Vijay Kumar said his ministry had written to MoEF requesting softer regulation to allow exploration of minerals in forest-rich areas. The Planning Commission report, National Mineral Policy (NMP), 2008, suggests the ministry of mines and MoEF should jointly set up a working group to prepare a Sustainable Development Framework especially tailored to the context of the mining environment to sort the environmental and forests clearances. It says the level of waste-generation is minimal at the exploration stage, further suggesting that exploration — both regional and specific — should be exempted from environmental clearance. NMP 2008 envisages 100% exploration of all potential areas and exploitation limited to such areas where it is possible to take suitable measures for restoration of the ecological balance.

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CCEA Approves SCCL Kakatiya Longwall Project

The Indian Cabinet Committee on Economy Affairs (CCEA) gave its approval to Kakatiya Longwall Project of Singareni Collieries Company Limited for a net capital requirement of Rs 453.63 crore and a total capital outlay of Rs 620.03 crore.
The CCEA has also approved flexibility in the implementation stage within the approved cost estimate to respond to improvements in technology and equipments which would result in improved profitability and productivity parameters. Once fully operational, the Kakatiya mines would supply 2.747 million ton of coal a year to meet the demand of pithead power stations of AP Genco and other units.

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Balco wins international award  

Vedanta-controlled Bharat Aluminium Company Limited (BALCO) won two international awards for the innovative fuse technology. BALCO was the only Indian company to be short listed from over hundred organizations across the world that entered the European Aluminium Award 2008, and the Ideas UK 2008 Competitions. The Balco fuse technology was designed, developed and implemented by the Plant II in order to eliminate frequent disturbances to the power plant operations. This technology was entered in the competition for Industrial Design and Engineering in Aluminium. It won a special prize for Product Technique in the mechanical engineering and electronics category of the European Aluminium Award 2008, held in Germany. The technology also won the Ideas UK 2008 award in the technology category.

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