News releases that caught my eye this morning including a silver streaming deal between Franco Nevada and Teck Resources and drill results from Seabridge Gold. Seabridge Gold – (SEA:TSX) – Good news for Seabridge shareholders this morning as the drill bit continues to intersect mineralization at the monster KSM project in northwestern British Columbia. This is… Continue Reading
Mick Davis, the former head of Xstrata who was kicked out after the $70 billion merger with Glencore completed in the spring of 2013, announced that his new venture (X2 Resources) just raised an additional US $1 billion. His warchest now sits close to US $5 billion with US $3.3 billion available for immediate withdrawal and another US $1.5… Continue Reading
Senior analyst at global research firm Sanford Bernstein, Paul Gait, says a merger between Glencore and Rio Tinto to form GlenTinto makes a lot of sense. He spoke to Andrew Bell on BNN’s Commodities. “I think the shareholders of both companies (Glencore and Rio Tinto) ought to welcome the deal,” Gait believes. “If you look at… Continue Reading
According to preliminary reports today from Bloomberg, Glencore (GLEN:LN) which is the fourth largest mining company by market capitalization is entertaining the idea of merging with iron-ore juggernaut Rio Tinto which would create the world’s largest mining company in a +$160 billion deal. According to the report, Ivan Glasenberg (Glencore’s CEO) has begun talks with Aluminum Corp.… Continue Reading
According to a report from The Sydney Morning Herald just moments ago, BHP Billiton has signed an alliance agreement with Mexico’s state oil company, Pemex. This marks the first major agreement signed ahead of Mexico auctioning off certain oil and gas concessions next year. BHP, like most other players in the offshore oil business, is seeking to… Continue Reading
Iron ore is the lifeblood of industrial development with China’s ‘build it and they will come’ policy driving prices to a high of over $180 per tonne in 2011. Flash forward and iron ore prices have slumped to break below $80 per tonne, the lowest level in 5-years. This is causing more pain for an… Continue Reading
Don Argus, led BHP for over a decade, growing the company from US$12 billion market capitalization to over US$200 billion with his tenure ending in 2010. On Thursday the market valued BHP at $US189 billion. Mr. Argus became Chairman in 1999 after leaving his post as the CEO of National Australia Bank and oversaw the Billiton merger… Continue Reading
I would venture to say that many readers were unaware that the largest primary silver mine by annual production on the planet is in the hands of Australian iron ore and coal juggernaut, BHP Billiton. That mine is known as Cannington and produced over 31 million ounces of silver in 2013. More than any other mine in the world. It is the tenth largest… Continue Reading
