QLD Mining and Energy Bulletin
Issue link: http://ebook.aprs.com.au/i/31843
AngloGold says rains affect Australia mine output AngloGold Ashanti, the world’s third-largest gold producer, said heavy rains in Australia have affected output at its Sunrise Dam mine. The company said in a statement that while open pit mining has resumed, underground operations remained suspended for safety reasons. AngloGold said it expects that Sunrise Dam, located 56 kilometres south of Laverton in Western Australia, would achieve normal mining rates in the June Quarter. “AngloGold Ashanti is therefore expecting that fi rst quarter guidance of 1.04 million ounces will be negatively impacted by approximately 20,000 ounces with a consequential impact on unit total cash costs,” the company said. Africa’s top gold miner, which has operations across four continents, also said the group’s full year production guidance of 4.55-4.75 million ounces remained unchanged. Source: Reuters Miners want EU-style protection for carbon tax The Minerals Council has warned that Australian exporters will be put at “extreme risk” if the carbon tax is modelled on the former emissions trading scheme (ETS). The mining sector wants Australia to emulate the approach of the European Union (EU) and give free emissions permits to trade exposed sectors. But Climate Change Minister Greg Combet says the EU scheme offers signifi cantly less compensation. With months to go before the Government names its carbon price and offsets for households and businesses, the Minerals Council is warning Labor against basing its compensation on the old ETS. Chief executive Mitch Hooke says Australia’s export industries need to be on a level playing fi eld with their European counterparts. He is arguing for a better deal than under the ETS, even without knowing what the carbon price will be. 16 16 QLD Mining and Energy Bulletin Winter 2011 “We support there being a price on carbon. We do not support unilaterally sacrifi cing the competitiveness of Australia’s trade sector,” he said. “There must be a level playing fi eld. If our businesses can’t adjust to this carbon cost because they don’t have the technology or the capacity to do so, if they can’t pass it on to their consumers and their customers, if their competitors don’t face those costs, it goes to the bottom line. “There’s a risk of a loss of jobs, there’s a risk of a lost investment, there’s a risk of carbon leakage offshore. You just get a baseball bat to the economy, without an environmental dividend and I don’t see any common sense in that.” Hooke says Australia should adopt the same approach as the European Union, which he says it offers greater protection to trade- exposed industries. “They give equal weight to trade exposure and emissions intensive. The Rudd CPRS scheme only looked at emissions intensive,” he said. “Secondly they don’t require fi rms to buy their permits upfront, to essentially establish a carbon price. So you’re not belting these fi rms with a loss of trade competitiveness by requiring them to buy their permits.” The Government has signalled industries should not expect any more compensation for a carbon tax beyond what was offered two years ago. Hooke says it is not a question of being “more generous or not more generous”. “It’s actually a question of whether or not the carbon pollution reduction scheme was globally aligned and the answer is it was not,” he said. But Combet has labelled the EU’s approach to carbon pricing as inferior. He says the European scheme is tougher on emissions-intensive industries than anything the Government is proposing. “The EU scheme doesn’t guarantee any assistance for electricity costs for industries whereas under the carbon pollution reduction scheme we do,” he said. “In an industry like aluminium that is absolutely critical. “One of the things that Mr Hooke perhaps doesn’t follow about the European scheme is that there is a hard cap, a limit, and the limit reduces on the number of free permits that are allocated to these trade exposed industries, whereas under the Government’s proposition, the number of permits can increase as production increases. “I reckon if Mitch Hooke and some of his members had a very close look at [the EU’s scheme] they’d run a mile from it.” Source: ABC News Pike River mine blast inquiry opens in New Zealand An inquiry into the Pike River mine disaster has opened in the New Zealand town of Greymouth. The proceedings opened with a one-minute silence to remember the 29 men killed in a series of explosions at the mine in November 2010. Judge Graham Panckhurst said the aim of the inquiry was to fi nd out what caused the accident and ensure a similar incident did not happen again. Formal evidentiary hearings will take place from May to November. A fi nal report from the inquiry, which is a Royal Commission, is due in March 2012. The mine, in the north-west of New Zealand’s South Island, was rocked by an explosion on 19 November 2010. The coroner said evidence suggested the 29 men died in the blast or from the impact of poisonous gases shortly afterwards. Their bodies have not been recovered and the mine is now sealed off following several other blasts. “No-one is on trial, there are no sides, no-one will win or lose,” the judge told the court. “Our job is to fi nd out what happened, why and what must change for the future good.” A lawyer for the families said they wanted to know the truth about what happened at the mine. But operator Pike River Coal - which is now in receivership - told the court it did not have funds to prepare documents for the inquiry. NATIONAL NEWS