Teck Resources goes from dud to darling as coal makes a comeback
The company's shares have almost tripled this year, making it the best-performing global miner amid the rebound in commodity prices and a projected fivefold improvement in earnings.
Coal explorer Carabella Resources says it has raised $29 million via a significantly oversubscribed placement to institutional and sophisticated investors, AAP reported:
The company placed 16.08 million shares at a price of $1.80 per share to investors from Australia, Asia, Europe and United States.
Riversdale Mining Ltd., after a slow take-up of acceptances since the offer was first made in December, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal:
The bid was recently sweetened to almost four billion Australian dollars (US$3.99 billion) and the deadline extended a third time after few additional Riversdale shareholders committed themselves to selling to Rio Tinto.
The Alberta government will collect three times more revenue than previously under its revamped mine security program, which pledges to collect money for mine reclamation, The Edmonton Journal is reporting. But existing companies will also get about a 10-year break in payments under the new system, which is geared to collecting more money in the later stages of a mine's life than in the early stages.
Coal mining shares rose on Thursday amid uncertainty over the future of nuclear power as Japan races to avert a meltdown at a power plant crippled by last week's earthquake and tsunami, Reuters reported:
In afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Consol Energy (CNX.N) was up 4.9 percent at $54.96 and Alpha Natural Resources (ANR.N) rose 4.3 percent to $55.17. Peabody Energy (BTU.N) was 3.6 percent higher at $70.05, Massey Energy (MEE.N) was up 3.9 percent at $63.18 and Arch Coal (ACI.N) was 2.2 percent higher at $34.91.
The six-week strike at Teck's Elkview coal mine is coming to an end, Canadian Press reported Tuesday morning.
The Vancouver company and Local 9346 of the United Steelworkers of America have reached a tentative five-year collective agreement covering about 700 workers at the mine, located in southeastern British Columbia.
The union ratification vote is to be completed by Saturday.
If the new labour deal is ratified, Teck expects full production at the mine to resume by next Tuesday.
Reuters is reporting that FE Steel, the world's No 5 steelmaker, on Monday halted production at a plant near Tokyo and global fourth-ranked Nippon Steel suspended operations at two small plants:
- JFE said shipments from its 10 million tonnes per year Higashi Nihon plant near Tokyo had virtually halted due to a power outage.
- JFE resumed operations on Sunday of two blast furnaces at its Higashi Nihon plant, one of its two mainstay plants, which were idled after Friday's quake and tsunami.