TSHD “Inai Kenanga” Launched (Malaysia)

Malaysia launched its largest and the world’s third biggest trailing suction hopper dredger, named “Inai Kenanga”.

According to bernama.com, the dredger was launched by Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak’s wife, in Pantai Acheh, Pulau Indah.

“It is absolutely unthinkable that a local company can produce a vessel that is recognised as the largest in Asia and the third biggest in the world. Today, what we never thought possible can become reality in the form of such a large vessel, a vessel that can be our pride,” the Prime Minister Najib stated.

This remarkable dredger, which can achieve a speed of 17 knots and has a dredging depth of up to 45 m, was constructed at the dock of Selat Melaka Shipbuilding Corporation Sdn Bhd (SMSCSB), informs bernama.com.

The TSHD “Inai Kenanga” is designed for a capacity of 32,000 m3. The dredger is fitted with a double diesel engine that drives the propellers, the generator and the suction pump system. Two MAN 12V48/60B engines with a power rating of 13.250 kW each are used as the main engines.

 

Read more: China: Six People Missing after Dredger Sinks

The 1,700-ton sand dredger capsized and sank yesterday in the Jinmen Sea near Jinjiang City in east China’s Fujian Province, reports peopledaily.com.

The vessel, travelling from Fujian’s Putian to Xiamen, was turned over while sailing on the water area of Jinmen and nine seamen on board fell into the water.

So far, three people were rescued and six remain missing. Due to the heavy storm waves, the rescuers are having some difficulties searching for the missing people.

France: Rohr-Idreco Delivers KS 225 Dredger

The Rohr division of Rohr-Idreco has announced the successful startup of another new Floating Bucketladder, the KS 225 dredger, in France.

This dredger is being used to replace an older dredger and increase the digging depth in an existing Sand & Gravel operation. The customer chose this type of dredger as it is ideal for shallow dredging of large cobble. The KS 225 is an electric dredger with a digging depth of 43 ft (13m) and production capacity up to 620 tph (432m3/hr) utilizing 225 liter buckets.

The dredger is equipped with an on-board Fine Sand Recovery System, High Frequency Fine Sand Dewatering Screen and Cyclone. The buckets have variable speed and are individually mounted on Caterpillar® Tractor chain, which allows for easy replacement of any damaged buckets.

The KS 225 has fully automated controls (to support a one-man operation) and very low power requirements.

Rohr’s Floating Bucketladders have a standard digging depth of up to 60 ft. (18m), but can be designed to reach up to 75 ft. (23m.) Production ranges from 300 to over 1,000 tph, depending on material and digging depth.

Rohr-Idreco Dredge Systems is the world leader in bucketladder, clamshell, and jet suction dredge applications and technology for the sand and gravel industry, mining and dam restoration projects. Rohr-Idreco specializes in deep digging applications up to 400 feet (120m) deep.

Gold Fields Posts Loss On Ghana Impairments, Spot Price

South African gold producer Gold Fields posted a quarterly loss on Thursday, hit by impairments in Ghana and lower prices, but said it would spend $300 million to snap up Barrick Gold’s Australian assets.

The company said it lost $129 million in the three months to June compared with earnings of $27 million in the previous quarter. This made for a net attributable loss of 18 U.S. cents per share, compared to net earnings of 4 U.S. cents per share in the previous quarter.

Gold Fields, which earlier this year unbundled the bulk of its assets in South Africa, where labour and political risks are high, signaled it remained keen to expand its global presence with the Barrick acquisition, which will add 452,000 ounces to its annual production.

Gold Fields expects to produce between 1.83 and 1.9 million ounces this year. Gold Fields said its loss mostly derived from impairment charges of $143 million at its Tarkwa operations and $127 million at its Damang operations, both of which are in Ghana.

The charges related to its decision to curtail processing activities at the operations because of the lower gold price.

The average gold price in the June 2013 quarter was 13 percent lower at $1,405 an ounce and the spot price has lost around 30 percent since its record high of just over $1,920 scaled in September of 2011.

Rival AngloGold Ashanti also has troublesome assets in Ghana and its chief executive said this week that its flagship Obuasi mine there was unsustainable. 

Treasuries, U.S. Stocks Climb on Housing Report; Oil, Gold Rally

 Treasuries and U.S. stocks rose as a report showing a plunge in home sales eased concern the Federal Reserve will cut stimulus efforts next month. Gold and oil rallied while the dollar weakened. Emerging-market equities gained for the first time in seven days.

The 10-year Treasury yield dropped seven basis points to 2.82 percent at 4 p.m. in New York, after reaching a two-year high yesterday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.4 percent for the first back-to-back advance in three weeks. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index climbed 1.4 percent, trimming this week’s loss to 2.4 percent as currencies from India’s rupee to Brazil’s real strengthened. Gold rallied 1.8 percent. The Bloomberg U.S. Dollar Index fell for the first time in three days.

Fed officials met today at a conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to discuss monetary policy. Purchases of new U.S. homes plunged in July by the most in more than three years, a sign that growth in the industry may be taking a pause as mortgage rates rise. Countries from India to Indonesia signaled they will take steps to support financial markets and Brazil announced a $60 billion intervention program involving currency swaps and loans.

“The new home-sales data tells us that all is not well with the economy, and the Fed needs to continue to support growth,” Tom Power, a senior commodity broker at R.J. O’Brien & Associates in Chicago, said in a telephone interview. “The housing recovery is an important thing that the Fed will be looking at when it makes its decision on the timing of the tapering.”

Home Sales

U.S. sales of newly built homes declined 13 percent to a 394,000 annualized pace, the weakest since October, following a 455,000 rate in the prior period that was lower than previously estimated, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. The median estimate of 74 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a decrease to 487,000. Last month’s decline was the biggest since May 2010.

“The fact that there are rising interest rates looks like it may be starting to bite into new home sales,” Paul Zemsky, the New York-based head of asset allocation for ING Investment Management, which oversees $180 billion, said in a phone interview. “That’s probably going to cause the economy be a little softer in the second half.”

Benchmark 10-year yields had touched the highest level since July 2011 after Fed minutes released this week showed most officials are comfortable with a plan to start reducing bond purchases if the economy improves.

September Move

Three Fed regional bank presidents, speaking in interviews today at Jackson Hole, differed over the timing for reducing the Fed’s $85 billion in monthly bond buying, with one backing a tapering next month if the economy remains strong and two others saying policy makers should take time to assess economic data.

“We can take our time” on slowing purchases, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, who holds a vote on policy this year, said in a Bloomberg Radio interview from Jackson Hole. San Francisco’s John Williams told CNBC he wants to “taper our purchases later this year” if the economy doesn’t flag, while Atlanta’s Dennis Lockhart said he “would be supportive” of slowing purchases next month if the expansion holds up.

Microsoft Inc. rallied 7.3 percent today after Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said he would retire within 12 months. PulteGroup Inc. sank 1.6 percent to pace declines in an index of homebuilder stocks.

Trading Halt

Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. rose 1.2 percent after the shares slid the most in more than four months following a trading disruption yesterday. Nasdaq halted trading of its listed stocks for three hours yesterday because a computer problem left some investors without quotes and the company did not want to have “information asymmetry,” Chief Executive Officer Robert Greifeld said in interviews today.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, or VIX, dropped 5.3 percent to 13.98. The equity volatility gauge has fallen 2.7 percent in the past five days, halting two consecutive weeks of advances.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index increased 0.4 percent, trimming its decline for the week to 0.5 percent. An index of household confidence in the euro zone improved for a ninth month to the highest level since July 2011, the European Commission in Brussels said in a preliminary report. U.K. gross domestic product increased 0.7 percent in the second quarter from the previous period, when it rose 0.3 percent, the Office for National Statistics said in London.

A gauge of European oil and gas stocks rose the most, advancing 1.2 percent. Glencore Xstrata Plc and Rio Tinto Group led gains in mining companies.

Emerging Markets

The MSCI gauge of shares from 21 developing countries rebounded as its worst week in two months drove shares to a six- week low. About $1.5 trillion has been erased from the value of emerging-market equities since Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said on May 22 policy makers could scale back bond buying.

Benchmark equity gauges in India, Brazil and South Korea gained more than 1 percent. The rupee jumped 2 percent against the dollar, the real gained 3.4 percent. The Thai baht and the Malaysian ringgit strengthened, rebounding from three-year lows.

“Emerging markets should remain very volatile for the remainder of this year as governments try to restore investor confidence and stem capital outflows,” Vana Bulbon, chief executive officer at UOB Asset Management (Thailand) Co. Ltd., which manages about $6.4 billion, said in Bangkok. “The global outlook has been improving led by growth in the U.S, while economies in Europe and China have bottomed out.”

Government Securities

The 10-year Treasury yield fell seven basis points to 2.82 percent. The yield climbed to 2.93 percent yesterday, the highest since July 2011.

Treasuries due in 10 years and longer are the worst performing government securities in the Group of Seven this month, tumbling 3.7 percent through yesterday, before the U.S. sells $98 billion of notes and bonds next week.

Gold jumped to an 11-week high as the home-sales data boosted speculation the Fed will maintain fiscal stimulus. Futures for December delivery rose 1.8 percent to $1,395.80 an ounce on the Comex in New York. Earlier, the price reached $1,398.70, the highest since June 7. Silver climbed 3 percent to $23.781 an ounce.

Crude futures increased 1.3 percent, the most in two weeks, to $106.42 a barrel. Prices fell 1 percent this week.

The dollar declined 0.2 percent to $1.3382 per euro, erasing an earlier advance. The yen was little changed at 98.69 per dollar after touching 99.15, the weakest level since Aug. 5. Japan’s currency dropped 0.2 percent to 132.06 per euro, having fallen 1.6 percent this week.

–With assistance from Anuchit Nguyen in Bangkok, Emma O’Brien in Wellington, Adam Haigh, Claudia Carpenter, Paul Dobson, Will Hadfield and Stephen Kirkland in London, John McCluskey in Sydney, Shelley Smith in Hong Kong, Pratish Narayanan in Mumbai and Nikolaj Gammeltoft in New York. Editors: Jeff Sutherland, Stephen Kirkland

Shanxi Donghui bids for Aussie mining firm

China’s private energy company Shanxi Donghui Coal Coking & Chemicals Group Co Ltd plansto make an off-market takeover bid to acquire all the ordinary shares in Inova Resources Ltdfor $160 million.

Inova Resources, the Australian-based copper and gold miner, is controlled by the world mininggiant Rio Tinto’s Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd.

Shanxi Donghui’s offer is for AUD$0.22 cash per Inova share, the company said onWednesday.

According to public informa-tion, the mining giant has been considering selling the assets sincea year ago.

Shanxi Donghui’s offer provides Inova shareholders with certainty of value at an attractive, risk-free, cash premium for their investment, said the company.

Inova’s largest shareholder, Turquoise Hill Resources, has entered into a pre-bid acceptanceagreement for 14.9 percent of Inova.

“Shanxi Donghui looks forward to progressing the development of Inova’s mines and growthprojects and managing the inherent risks involved. We believe our offer provides Inovashareholders with a full and fair risk-free cash premium for their investment,” said ZhangYaping, chairman of Shanxi Donghui.

Ron Paul discusses Bitcoins, the US Fed and Tesla Motors

It’s three hours into Congressman Ron Paul’s Reddit AMA and there are, unsurprisingly, already more than 9,000 questions and comments.

Since you probably don’t have the time to read them all, here are some highlights for the mining crowd.

Tesla Motors vs. Texas

One Redditor asked a very topical question: How do you feel about Texas banning the sale of Tesla cars? Doesn’t seem very American or Libertarian.

Ron Paul: It’s un-American and it’s unpatriotic and it’s bad economic policy, and it should not be any business of the government what car you can buy.

Some background: The sate of Texas, Capitalist Mecca and linchpin of American oil industry, is not too keen on electric cars. Under current laws, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, cannot sell his cars in the Lone-Star state. Governor Rick Perry however has promised to change that.

The Fed

Ron Paul hates the US Federal Reserve – maybe even more than gold investors currently do. He has blamed the Fed for everything from the financial crisis to a weak dollar. He also blames congress for giving Ben Bernanke and Co. control over US monetary policy. In fact, the pivotal event that pushed Paul into politics was when Richard Nixon “closed the gold window” in 1971 – a pretty dumb move according to the Doc.

So without further ado, here is Ronald’s most recent rant about the Fed.

Redditor: Dr. Paul, you have been the most outspoken critics of the Federal Reserve. However, no matter how much I look into your positions on the Fed, something is still a little unclear. Would you prefer to have the Federal Reserve powers returned to the United States Congress and have congress control the money supply and interest rate, or would you rather those powers be left to the free market and have private competing currencies?

Ron Paul: The second. I would allow the market to do it. I would not trust Congress either. But the guidance can come from our Constitution, because it says we are not allowed to print money and only gold & silver can be legal tender and there is no authority for a central bank. But I like the idea of competing currencies, especially in a transition period, because it would be hard to take what we have today and suddenly have a gold standard without some problems.

Bitcoin
Cryptocurrency has been all the rage lately. Who wouldn’t want to know what Ronald has to say?

Ron Paul: My thoughts on Bitcoin and the other currencies is that they ought to be legal unless there is fraud involved. The government should not get involved in regulating private money if there is no fraud. I do not take a position on Bitcoin and other proposed currencies in a technical fashion, but I understand the political ramifications of them and I think that government should stay out of them and they should be perfectly legal, even though I don’t endorse (technically) one over another.

Climate change

In 2009 Congressman Paul told Fox News that if cap-and-trade legislation dies it would be “a major victory for people who believe in sanity and markets.” He also said that the greatest hoax of the past century has been the “hoax on the environment and global warming.”

Four years later, Ron explains his views on battling climate change to Reddit:

“Well – thinking that I have the power, authority or knowledge to change the climate. Does man have much influence on the climate? Probably, a little bit. Regarding pollution, nobody has the right to pollute their neighbor’s property. But when I look at the history of the issues, temperatures have gone up and temperatures have gone down, a long time even before the industrial age, so I would not claim that I had any unique ability to regulate the climate.”

Solving A Serious Mystery: Why Don’t Gold And Silver Coins Circulate?

The U.S. Mint has been stamping out gold and silver Eagle coins since 1986. The Mint is required by law to produce Eagles in sufficient quantity to meet demand. In addition, there are many other gold and silver coins that are readily available including Maple Leafs from Canada, and Krugerrands from South Africa. There is no shortage of coins today.

Gold and silver coins do not circulate. This is a serious mystery that requires some thought to solve.

One problem is that these coins are stamped with a face value far below the value of the metal content. The one-ounce silver Eagle has a legal tender value of $1 (silver is currently over $23/ounce) and the gold Eagle is a $50 coin (the gold price is almost $1,400). Obviously, no one would use $23 worth of silver to buy a can of Diet Coke from a vending machine.

Still, this doesn’t really solve the mystery. The legal tender value is just a nominal value arbitrarily set by law. When precious metal coins are bought and sold, everyone understands that the price is based on the current market value of the metal. So the question is not why people don’t use a silver coin to buy a soda. We must explain why they don’t use one to buy a steak dinner.

A growing number of people recognize that the Fed, under Chairmen Greenspan and Bernanke, has been abusing the dollar beyond all precedent, if not all reason. While there are many opinions about the specific consequences, there is a growing realization that it won’t end well. This is why people buy gold and silver coins. However, they don’t circulate, even within the gold and silver community.

For example, suppose you wanted to kick-start circulation. At a restaurant, you might explain to a server that silver is real money and offer a choice of a tip paid on the credit card slip vs. a silver Eagle. Clearly, this won’t work. When the silver price rises rapidly, the idea becomes less practical. More importantly, even if the server takes the silver, you have simply moved one ounce to the server.This ounce will be hoarded, and not spent.

There are a number of reasons, but let’s focus on one: the capital gains tax. The Fed debases the dollar, but of course not gold and silver. As the dollar falls, the prices of the metals rise. The government treats this as a “gain” and upon sale of the metal, levies a tax on it. If the dollar loses half its value, then the gold price will double, say from $1,400 to $2,800. The government takes 28 percent of this difference, or about $400. The only way to avoid this tax is by not selling. Thus gold and silver are best suited to long-term preservation of wealth: hoarding.

There’s more. Suppose a restaurant wants to be paid in silver and you agree to buy a steak dinner with an Eagle. The IRS treats this trade as a sale of the silver at the current market price. You must pay tax based on the gain in the silver price from when you bought it.

If the tax expense doesn’t stop the circulation of silver, then the onerous reporting and filing requirements will. You have to keep records of the date and price of each coin you buy. Each time you use one in trade, you must record the date and current market price. Your tax return must include a ledger of all of your silver transactions.

The capital gains tax renders it inconvenient to use gold and silver as currency.

We should repeal the capital gains tax on gold and silver. If the paper dollar serves our modern economy better than gold then people will continue to choose it. Most economists, notably Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman, are opposed to any form of gold standard. They think that a purely paper money is good for us, and that gold won’t work. However even without coercive laws, people choose cars over horses and mobile phones over telegraphs. There is no need to force people to do what’s good for them.

So most economists have it backwards. It is the fiat dollar that does not suit a modern free market economy. People will migrate toward gold and silver when we remove the artificial barriers. This experiment will solve the mystery, and liberate people to hold and spend their money as they choose.

Keith Weiner is president of Gold Standard Institute USA and CEO of Monetary Metals.

Bankruptcy court approves Patriot Coal labour deal

NEW YORK – A US court approved a labour deal between bankrupt Patriot Coal and its miners’ union on Tuesday, putting the the company on track to emerge from bankruptcy by the end of the year.

A deal this month for new collective bargaining agreements and retiree healthcare benefits with the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) helped avoid more drastic cutbacks Patriot was authorized to impose earlier this year.

Bankruptcy Judge Kathy Surratt-States, who is overseeing the company’s restructuring in St. Louis, approved the agreement on Tuesday, Marshall Huebner, a lawyer representing the company, told Reuters.

The judge also granted the company’s request to amend an Ebitda covenant in its debtor-in-possession financing agreement, he said.

“We view the consensual agreement with the UMWA as a major milestone in our restructuring,” Huebner said.

Patriot declared bankruptcy in 2012, saying it needed $150-million in annual labour cost savings to regain profitability. The United Mine Workers, which represent 1 700 current Patriot workers and 13 000 retirees and their relatives, have fought to salvage benefits.

The bankruptcy case is In Re Patriot Coal Corp, US Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of Missouri, No. 12-51502.

Chrysalis estimates resource for Wangolo

Junior explorer Chrysalis Resources has declared a maiden mineral resource estimate at its Wangolo copper deposit in Zambia.

The ASX-listed Chrysalis estimated that the project hosted an inferred resource of some 18.6-million tonnes, grading 0.52% copper, for 96 000 t of copper.

The resource model was based on mineralisation to around 250 m vertical depth, and was estimated on the results of 4 172 m of drilling.

“The resource estimate was a significant milestone for the company and there is considerable scope to increase this mineral resource estimate, based on potential along strike and at depth,” said Chrysalis chairperson Neale Fong.

The Wangolo prospect is located within the Shikila licence, in which Chrysalis holds a 99.9% stake.

 

Read more:Pan African expects up to 26% rise in 2013 headline earnings

 Dual-listed Pan African Resources expects its headline earnings a share for the financial year ended June 30 to be between 16% and 26% higher than the 24.89c recorded in the 2012 financial year.

Earnings a share for the full year were expected to be between 34% and 44% higher than the 24.83c a share in the prior year.

Meanwhile, Pan African reported that its Barberton Gold Mines Operations (BGMO) had improved its production in the six months ended June, compared with the first six months of the financial year.

This brought total production for BGMO to 96 296 oz for the full year, compared with the 94 449 oz produced the year before.

The Evander gold mine, which was acquired by Pan African at the end of February, contributed 34 197 oz of gold to the group in the four months ended June 30, taking total group output for the year to 130 493 oz.

Pan African would release its results on September 17.

AngloGold struggling to keep flagship mine in Ghana open — report

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) (JSE:ANG) (ASX:AGG), the world’s third-largest gold producer, may have to sell or close down its flagship Obuasi gold mine in Ghana, as operations are becoming unsustainable.

The firm’s new CEO, Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan, told Reuters he is looking to make cuts to counter rising costs at the mine, which have more than doubled since 2008, and falling production.

“Obuasi is currently making losses at the operating level … The current cost structure at the operation is clearly unsustainable,” Venkatakrishnan said in an email to Reuters.

Earlier this month, Venkatakrishnan said AngloGold would “more than halve” its corporate costs in 2014, narrowing its exploration and evaluation programmes to just three core regions, in a effort to save a minimum of $482m.

The South African miner, which posted a $2.2bn quarterly loss after a $2.4bn post-tax charge on its assets in response to the historic fall in gold prices, also said it will cut close to 2,000 management jobs, or about 40% of its top positions.

Ghana is the second-largest gold producer in Africa and Obuasi is its largest mine.

 

 

Read more: Silver price drops on stimulus worries, gold follows

Silver slid nearly 4 percent on Tuesday, falling a second straight session after its biggest rally in five years, as worries over the US stimulus outlook and technical selling dragged it lower and gold followed.

 

Silver was already edging down in early Asian trading but once prices fell through Monday’s low of $22.94 an ounce, stops were triggered, causing a sharp sell-off, traders said.

Gold was wavering between losses and gains earlier but fell as much as 0.9 percent after silver crashed. This is the yellow metal’s second straight session of losses after posting its biggest weekly gain in five weeks.

“We need a correction. The rally looks a bit overdone to me,” said one Hong Kong-based precious metals trader. “The correlation with the dollar and US yields have not been working at all since last week.”

Gold prices typically fall as bond yields improve and the US currency strengthens.

Last week’s 5 percent rise in gold was largely due to technical buying after prices rose above the $1,350 mark and some support from physical buying in Asia.

The focus has now shifted to looking for further signals on the Federal Reserve’s stimulus measures when the US central bank on Wednesday releases minutes of its July policy meeting.

Spot gold fell to a low of $1,352.2 an ounce before