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December 2015
21 December 2015
The BC Oil and Gas Commission in Canada has determined that the August earthquake in Canada was triggered by fracking. Although no damage was reported, the severity of the 4.6 tremor is higher than expected from fracking activity.
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21 December 2015
A roundup of the year's main events in the global bauxite and alumina industries.
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18 December 2015
The UK government is driving ahead with its plans to ensure UK energy security, placing emphasis on the importance of fracking. It has now offered Cuadrilla additional exploration licences in England, which the company plans to study extensively over the next year.
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17 December 2015
The divestment comes as part of a broader move by Albemarle to hone its focus on its core business areas of bromine, lithium, catalysts and surface treatment, while Huber tries to extend its geographic reach in flame retardants.
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16 December 2015
The Canada-based exploration company published a PEA in March for its Greenland anorthosite development. However, Hudson has had to amend the document after the BC Securities Commission discovered a number of discrepancies in it.
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16 December 2015
The Canadian company planned to bring its HPA facility online by the end of this year. However, commercial output at the Cap-Chat-based plant will take a little longer to start than anticipated, as the construction process has run into delays for the second time this year for the same reason — a dispute with a contractor.
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15 December 2015
Having added resources from Chad, Kazakhstan, Oman and the UAE to its analysis, the EIA has increased its global oil and gas estimates. A number of factors need to be addressed before commercial production takes off, including oil and gas market prices, operating costs and other resources.
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15 December 2015
While the economic benefits of fracking in the UK have been widely touted by supporters, an industry funded panel has said the only way to find out how beneficial the industry will be is to start drilling.
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10 December 2015
Unlike many of its contemporaries, the company seems to be bucking the trend of not being able to obtain finance for its project. Altech has received a letter of interest for German export credit cover for its HPA development.
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09 December 2015
The Colorado Oil and Gas Association has challenged fracking bans in Longmont and Fort Collins, saying they are preempted by existing regulation in Colorado. The cases could have implications in other states and industries, addressing the authority of local and state governments.
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09 December 2015
The Belgian company has finalised the acquisition of its US counterpart Cytec, marking a step change in Solvay’s portfolio upgrade. Solvay has now embarked on integration plans as it aims to fully consolidate Cytec within the group as of from 1 January 2016.
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09 December 2015
The Canada-based company is setting the wheels in motion for its Bonasika ceramic proppant project in Guyana, as it receives news from the Latin American government that it has approved a mining licence extension for the development.
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08 December 2015
The organisation has said a production cut of 5% would not push oil prices up unless non-OPEC countries also participated in capacity reductions, indicating the growing sway of the US oil sector.
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07 December 2015
While fracking activity has seen a decline in line with tumbling oil prices, Nevada-headquartered Double Crown has seen growing interest in its 4.2 barite owing to its high grade and a resurgence in re-fracking wells.
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02 December 2015
The Australian company is stepping up its project funding efforts by executing a senior debt financing mandate with German state-owned KfW IPEX-Bank in order to push forward with its Malaysian high purity alumina development, which is due to come online by 2017.
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November 2015
30 November 2015
The Australian mining industry continues to be squeezed by a global oversupply of most commodities and a slowdown in demand from China. According to an Australia-based industry analyst, these factors are stifling Australian economic growth and will cause thousands of job losses in the next three years.
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30 November 2015
The latest round of global discussions on climate change, dubbed COP (Conference of Parties) 21, begins today in Paris. It will finish on 11 December. Environmental campaigners want heads of state to agree on emissions cuts and industrial minerals producers have pledge to go green by improving their operations.
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27 November 2015
A variety of private sector stakeholders, government officials and members of the public from Africa recently congregated at an oil, gas and mining conference held in Sudan and led by a UN body responsible for dealing with development issues. The organisers called for the mining sector to take action in creating jobs for local people.
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27 November 2015
Invoking the “recovery” procedure, the UK’s Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government will now make a ruling on the company’s unconventional drilling appeal himself.
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26 November 2015
The Latin American country is struggling to produce refractories to meet the demand of its domestic steel industry. Sector experts have met to discuss the challenge of boosting refractories production.
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24 November 2015
The Germany-based speciality alumina producer saw its third quarter 2015 revenue increase, aided by a strong technical ceramics unit— a segment which produces ceramic materials for the refractories industry.
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19 November 2015
Fears over environmental pollution and the mistreatment of aboriginal peoples have led to a frosty attitude of local people with the Andhra Pradesh government over bauxite mining permits.
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19 November 2015
The unnamed Germany-based bank’s interest in financing Altech’s HPA project has been made more significant by a federal government insurance programme for export finance, according to the company.
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18 November 2015
The move to phase out unabated coal fired plants by 2025 will make the UK one of the first countries to commit to taking coal out of its power generation system, but the government's focus on nuclear and gas rather than wind and solar has been criticised.
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17 November 2015
New rules proposed by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission are proving to be less unifying than anticipated as recent discussions in the state have created further disagreements over fracking regulation.
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17 November 2015
The company is the latest Indian refractories supplier to report a drop in its fiscal Q2 2016 earnings as India’s domestic steel market struggles to compete with cheap Chinese imports.
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16 November 2015
The company’s latest planning application to the local council follows years of environmental studies and public consultation to address the concerns which previously led to the rejects of M-I SWACO’s 1996 application. With the potential for 120,000 tpa barite production, the company hopes to enable to the UK to become self-sufficient in its barite requirements.
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13 November 2015
The company has seen a widening of its net loss for the third quarter of this year due to a slight dip in net income. However, Orbite confirmed that it was fully financed for the completion of its HPA facility, due to come online in the next quarter.
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12 November 2015
With fracking activity showing no sign of rebounding, demand and prices for frac sand and resin-coated proppants deteriorated further over the quarter. However, Fairmount believes that as supply continues to consolidate the company has managed to retain market share.
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12 November 2015
The UK-based refractories producer has issued a trading update for Q3 2015 and said that trading conditions since the first half of the year have weakened due to challenging economic conditions in China and North America. However, it also said that its thermal ceramics business has continued to perform well.
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12 November 2015
The free trade agreement currently in discussion could benefit a number of mineral producers in New Zealand including Imerys Ceramics' New Zealand division and Dominion Salt, for which Europe has never been a natural market owing to the high percentage of export costs accounted for by freight.
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11 November 2015
The company, which changed its name from Orbite Aluminae Inc. to Orbite Technologies earlier this year, has been given the green light by US officials to pursue the commercial application of its fly ash processing technology. The innovation transforms fly ash into a high value mineral feedstock by extracting all the valuable constituents, including rare earths and alumina.
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10 November 2015
Ministers from across Europe have focused on tackling the challenges currently facing the steel industry at recent talks. The underlying pressures driving the difficulties in the sector are global overcapacity and cheap Chinese imports. Refractories producers who have businesses in Europe are likely to welcome the discussions on the topic.
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09 November 2015
As foreign investment interest picks up steam following the removal of western sanctions on Iran, the country is accelerating its mineral exploration efforts, recently announcing a project to identify natural resources in the province of Kerman.
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09 November 2015
With oil and gas prices failing to show signs of meaningful recovery, proppant companies such as Fairmount Santrol are continuing to develop new technologies and demonstrate that their products can help to lower costs and improve efficiencies in oil and gas production.
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06 November 2015
The company has obtained a financing arrangement to help advance its business plan, as it gets ready to bring its 3 tpd HPA plant into commercial production by the end of the year.
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04 November 2015
A survey conducted for the API has revealed that a large proportion of voters in the US would support a candidate who pushed for higher oil and natural gas production ahead of the general election in the country next year. The UK government meanwhile has been lambasted by Greenpeace for its fracking policies in protected areas and national parks.
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04 November 2015
The UK-based refractories producer has worked with the Swiss glass manufacturer for the past 45 years and is now its exclusive partner in this area.
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03 November 2015
The Indian refractory producer’s earnings were helped by strong performances in its abrasives and electrominerals divisions. CUMI’s CEO noted that the weak rouble is making it more expensive for Russian alumina users to import the mineral and they are turning to the company’s electrominerals’ business in Russia.
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02 November 2015
As the UK government attempts to fast-track fracking developments, opponents of the oil and gas extraction process are speaking out against it including UK Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn. Meanwhile, Western Australia is also experiencing anti-fracking protests as a parliamentary enquiry into the process is completed.
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02 November 2015
Scientists have created a new containerless processing technique to create a new type of glass made from alumina that could lead to the development of a new generation of windows in buildings and cars.
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02 November 2015
The Canadian company is expanding the geographic coverage of its intellectual property portfolio to develop its chloride technology. Its innovation can transform red mud and fly ash into a high value mineral feedstock by extracting all the valuable constituents, including rare earths and alumina.