Russia ban seen tightening coal market that’s already surging

Russia ban seen tightening coal market that’s already surging: A looming ban on Russian coal imports by the European Union will add to supply pressure that’s sent prices of the fossil fuel hurtling to a record, according to a key Australian producer. Global supply constraints and strong demand pushed Asia’s benchmark Newcastle thermal coal to a quarterly record of $377-a ton in the three months through June, Whitehaven Coal said Monday in a statement. The company expects to report a jump in earnings to A$3-billion ($2-billion) from A$204.5-million when it next month reports financial-year results.

'The losses are enormous': Mpumalanga shutdown hits coal, chrome exporters

'The losses are enormous': Mpumalanga shutdown hits coal, chrome exporters: Blockaded roads and disruption of transport routes associated with the Mpumalanga shutdown have served to twist the knife in commodity exporters already struggling to move product out of the country. A shutdown campaign gripped Mpumalanga on Wednesday when taxi and truck drivers blockaded critical transport routes, and even offloaded tonnages of coal onto highways, in protest of escalating fuel prices. On Thursday, disruptions spread to the R34 connecting Richards Bay and Empangeni.

Eskom confirms strong flow of grid-connection applications for Bid Window 6 of renewables programme

Eskom confirms strong flow of grid-connection applications for Bid Window 6 of renewables programme: Eskom’s Grid Access Unit reports that it has received payments for 179 cost estimate letters, or CELs, and has issued 53 such letters, following the April 6 issuance of a request for proposals (RFP) for Bid Window Six (BW6) of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP). Speaking during a virtual bidders conference hosted by the IPP Office, the unit’s head, Azwimbavhi Mamanyuha, reported that a total of 219 grid-access applications had been received by Eskom in relation to BW6, the bid submission date for which is August 11.

Negatives and Positives

Our winter period is always a slow time for stocks in the Southern Hemesphere!

This time the market has retreated more than usual  ,burdened by the war in Ukraine,uncertainty as to when it will end and the knock on effect of rising prices as sanctions against Russia have caused energy producing products to increase.

China also has increased its preperations to invade Taiwan and seems to be using older methods to counteract their latest covid outbreak.

Inflation is increasing worldwide as populations are finding it difficult to find work leading to unrest.

On the positive side our minerals and metals which have fallen in price quite sharply will be first to pick up as there will always be a demand for them and oversupply stocks have run down.

We are supposedly neutral in this conflict,but it would good for our rulers to remembeer that the West are our main buyers!

Green hydrogen’s business case significantly strengthened, summit hears

Green hydrogen’s business case significantly strengthened, summit hears: Green hydrogen, when earlier identified as a necessary clean energy source to help the world achieve net-zero emissions in the coming decades, was higher up the cost curve than fossil fuels. Now that has changed with this week’s Financial Times Hydrogen Summit emphasising that green hydrogen’s competitive price position, brought about by rising fossil fuel prices, is likely to be entrenched.

Venture capital funded greenfield exploration is world’s riskiest pursuit, Junior Indaba hears

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Venture capital funded greenfield exploration is world’s riskiest pursuit, Juright hand side colunmthe nior Indaba hears: A deep understanding of the critical drivers of greenfields exploration by junior resource companies and by the majors. “You can’t hope to attract them to invest in your country if you don’t understand how their business model works,” Minerals Council South Africa CEO Roger Baxter said during his keynote address on day one of the 2022 Junior Indaba covered by Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Bushveld’s VRFB value chain to benefit the economies of several provinces

Bushveld’s VRFB value chain to benefit the economies of several provinces: Vanadium producer Bushveld Minerals’ strategy to establish itself in all stages of the vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) value chain will benefit the local economies of three of South Africa’s provinces, claimed Bushveld Minerals subsidiary Bushveld Energy business development manager Neo Kgatuke at the Mpumalanga Energy Summit in eMalahleni, Mpumalanga, on May 25. The company’s vanadium processing plant Vanchem is also located in eMalahleni.

Platinum jewellery continuing to drive 25% of platinum demand

Platinum jewellery continuing to drive 25% of platinum demand: Several reports published during Platinum Week indicate that in 2021, platinum jewellery consumed anywhere between 1.6-million ounces to two-million ounces of platinum, which makes it still the second demand source after automotive, coming in at around 25% of total platinum demand. Positive momentum for platinum jewellery is being maintained in the US, which shone like a star in 2021, and Japan, where platinum jewellery commands more than half of all jewellery sales.

South Africa would do well to highlight its key iridium status to world that needs this very rare metal

South Africa would do well to highlight its key iridium status to world that needs this very rare metal: South Africa would do well to highlight its key iridium supply status to gain the full confidence of a world that requires this very rare platinum group metal (PGM) to advance the fast-moving hydrogen economy. Iridium is a potent co-roleplayer with PGM stalwart platinum when it comes to electrolysing hydrogen from water.

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MINING AND RESOURCES 6/5/2022 FOR HOLDINGS AND MY SPECIALIST RESOURCES LISTS

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26/5/2022 MY SPECIALIST LIST

Wimbledon opts for platinum to mark Queen’s jubilee, centre court centenary

Wimbledon opts for platinum to mark Queen’s jubilee, centre court centenary: In the year of the Queen of England’s platinum jubilee, the coins to be used in the Wimbledon ladies’ and gentlemen’s singles finals coin toss will be made of platinum for the first time in the championships’ history. This follows last month’s unveiling by the UK Royal Mint of its largest ever platinum coin to coincide with the year of Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee.

Hydrogen economy ‘incredibly exciting opportunity’, says Minerals Council’s Baxter

Hydrogen economy ‘incredibly exciting opportunity’, says Minerals Council’s Baxter: Mobility in mining is perfectly suited to kickstarting the domestic hydrogen adoption process, according to Minerals Council South Africa CEO Roger Baxter, who drew attention during the PGMs Industry Day conference to several mining companies that had already played a leadership role in the hydrogen field. All the options pointed to the hydrogen economy being an “incredibly exciting opportunity” for the mining industry to continue on its journey towards:

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UPDATES FOR APRIL 2022

 See the post updates below and all the other updates in the right hand column .

Also look at previous post updates and also labels in right hand column

POST  MAIN POST(below) STOCKS AND SHARES 2/4/2022

POST METALS AND MINERALS (right hand column)    also pages 1 and 2 updated 11/4/2022

 also pages 3 and 4    16/4/2022

ALSO PAGES  " MY SPECIALIST UPDATES 18/4/2022

POSTS SMALL/MIDCAP 25/4/2022

Mantashe rallies coal producers to save industry despite growing climate change concerns

Mantashe rallies coal producers to save industry despite growing climate change concerns: Despite South Africa’s significant coal resources, there are “binding constraints” impacting on the future growth of the coal industry – an issue Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe says is the coal mining industry’s issue to solve. Speaking at the Coal Colloquium, held at the Council for Geoscience in Pretoria on February 1, he rallied coal producers to band together in tackling constraints within the coal value chain; which, if left unattended, “will result in the stagnation and ultimately the shrinking of the coal industry”.

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1.MY SPECIALIST WATCHLIST

2 LARGE CAP STOCKS

3.MINING AND RESOURCES UPDATES  POST 9/2/2022, Pages number 1-14/2/2022 ,no, 2 - 14/2/2022 ,no3- 18/2/2022,  no4 -18/2/2022 

4 SMALL CAP STOCKS

Better Prospects likely in 2022

Rather a bold statement I know.

 First there seem to be a number of pills issued by the major manufacturers such as Pfizer, Astro Zeneca that actually work against all Covid strains which could see it turned into a minor influenza. Many more people would rather take the pill than an injection. The pill works in a different way to the injection as it breaks the inner core down and then it cannot reproduce as I understand it. It is said to be 90% plus effective.

 Second war against the Soviet and China does seem so imminent at this time. Each seems to be maneuvering to avoid such a conflict with the West ,but the brinkmanship they display with Ukraine by Russia and  the South China Sea by China can have unfortunate consequences. Lets hope futher talks will at least restore the uneasy calm the world has known for the last decade!

 Third minerals and metals we have in abundance here in Southern Africa  prices are always likely to stabilise as there will always be a demand to meet the needs of the world.

The right hand side column shows all the latesr updates

Year end events

 2021 has been a very trying year all round ! its not quite finished yet! How ever

 now is the time to ask ,what of the future?

Business wise the effects of covid sent the market into a downward spiral,the

 followed by an almost rapid recovery. Polititians of course world wide did not get it

 right and only seemed interested in saving their own skins!

Lookiing forward it seems as if a recovery might be more permanent. China has

 been flexing its muscles of late, seen the weakness of

 the United States led by a

 geriatric leader who is really out tof touch  with reality

 and is a threat to Taiwan

 also  to ,Hong Kong and is treating their minorities badly with rumours of

 ethnic cleansing.Also claims to the mineral rich South China Sea ,ignoring other

 nations long term standings.As well as its borders with India.

At the same time Russia seems determned to reclaim its borders and even enlarge

 its size and if China enters a war might see an opportunistic opportunity to do just

 that.

China is likely to hold back till after the winter Olympics ,before making sudden moves.

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Seriously Trending --Fuel cells !

 BOB OLIVER a Canadian expert on climate control said "There is no pathway to

 zero carbon inthe atmosphere that does not include fuel cells !"

He also mentioned at a climate conference that there 40,000 forklifts in North America and 10,000 heavy transport vehicles that already run on the fuel cell technology!

By the way he personally drives a HYUNDAI  NEXO CAR  that runs on fuel cells. The Canadian and US governments have helped set up filling stations through out their respective countries by way of subsidies etc. As the Southern African region is the main producer of the platinum group metals ,we should o the same. This is where ordinary citizens could get involved. Ask your local parliament representive what they are going to do about  helping garages to supply fuel cell pumps!

Fuel cells are produced by running HYDROGEN FUEL CELLS OVER THE PLATINUM PROTON MEMBRANE.

GREEN HYDROGEN is generated with the help of platium and iridium.

UNLIKE BATTERIES hydrogen fuel cells never run out!

Trending Energy Polluting updates

 Energy Polluting update and what should be done about it.

Then huge windmills also are scattered all over the country side spoiling the veiw in beautiful areas.

Intesresting to note that only about 4 % of the energy needed is at present to produce these awful tools come from windmill and solar power sources at present! Just think what a mess it would be to power up to the amount needed to actually produce all power needed by our over populated world.

The first option that is good is of course nuclear fuel,which also comes with its own dangers.These can be mitigated by limiting the amount and good placing. Not thought of yet is placing these underwater in the sea at stable sites.

Coal has done its thing by improving methods that are cleaner and require less water for cooling.

A non polluting wonderful invention is of course fuel cells for large stationary power stations which are feasible and several have already been built. Fuel cells can also be used for vehicles . Veiw many of my previous posts.

Hydro power has been used for many years so far. Not thought of yet is placing some  down river beneath an existing scheme where its not intrusive.

France has generators that use the tides at strategic locations. 

Talked about but not yet used is of course using the natural rivers in the oceans,such as the gulf stream.

Finally a no,no is lithium batteries which generally use spodium a rare earth mineral. Production of lithium batteries uses a great deal of electricity produced by conventional means.

Settling Down

 South Africa having still elements of a first world economy,has returned to normal after the recent turbulent months. The economy marches on and by and large with little racial tension which seems to produce so many problems for the rest of the world.

Of course we have the resources to thank for this situation as they produce most of the taxes ,for our rather inept government to waste on social schemes that will see them re-elected rather than stimulating the economy to produce stable jobs that will grow the non mining sectors .

We produce most of the platium group metals in the world . Other metals and minerals are in good supply such as coal,gold,chrome,diamonds,iron ore and many rare minerals as well.

As minerals and metals are now coming into their own as uses increase and special ones needed for clean air etc we are on a good recovery path.

At the moment major mining groups have paid exceptsionaly good pay outs ,which then usually drops the capital price of those shares by that amount. No need to rush in to buying, but good to nibble at extra lower prices. We feel in our opinion that the future is very bright. 

At the moment Palladiun and Rhodium are at very high prices,but as Palladium is connected to petrol and diesel the future uses for these minerals might be limited. On the other hand  for Platinum and Lithium the sky is likely to be the limit, as clean air is the now thing gowing forward!

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THE FUTURE !

The future remains tricky ,in ourSouth African sense. 

The riots were part political and part because of poor economic prospects. Luckily the political part was led by only one main tribe,mostly the Zulus  to reverse the outcome not to their liking of their former state president showing contempt of court and being jailed after FAILING TO ANSWER SUMMONESSES TO APPEAR IN COURT.

This lit the fuse on a nation already finding difficuly in the work situation ,made worse many times buy Covid lockdowns, calling on their tribe and the rest of South African tribes to loot shops ,blow up electrical pylons an disrupt commerce on main roads etc. the police in Natal 80% ZULUS just stood by and did nohing.Almost the same when the army was called in.

How ever when the more educated middle class saw that stores burnt down left them with out work ,all stood together with Europeans ,Indians and Africans to guard their homes,work places and added to that private securiity companies stopped the bad actions to a large extent as home guards etc were formed which could have led to full scale civil war.

Thank God,what finally led to  a victory of law and order was the vast TAXIS ASSOCIATIONS COUNTRY WIDE THAT CAME UP ARMED AS THEY REALISED THAT THEY WOULD LOOSE THEIR LUCRATIVE INCOME OF TRAVELLERS TO AND FROM WORK.They organised private armies which they mostly paid for. They also gave the police and military thorough talking to to bring them into the action ,pointing out they would loose their jobs if anarchy  was going to rule.

The final answer is of course to educate more people and have schemes to uplift the middle class to be more productive. The government is now starting to work in this direction,hopefully an on going process in future.

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BVN Under-- THE-- Radar: FORECASTS ?

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