Rio Tinto Slashes Final Dividend.

Rio Tinto RT claims, after slashing its final dividend by 21% that at least its balance sheet is robust and that it enters 2017 in good shape. Basic earnings per share moved from 2015’s loss of 47.5 cents per share to a positive 256.9 cents. Consolidated sales revenue for the year fell by $1billion to […]

Only Miners Buy Mining Machinery – Are Boom Times Returning

On Wednesday, after a one day leap of 4%, iron ore rose to a 10 month high of $64.30 per tonne making a rise of 50% since the beginning of the year and nearly 75% since the mid December lows. Coking coal is not a glamour commodity by any means but on Wednesday that too […]

Rio Tinto – The First Green Shoots of a Mining Recovery ?

Rio Tinto RIO The first green shoots of a recovery in mining may have been seen in RIO’s first quarter with iron ore shipments up by 11% and global iron ore production up by 13% on a year ago.  Bauxite production also rose by 6% and aluminium by 10%.  Mined copper was down 2% on the […]

Why The Panic ? Ask Ye Not.

This year copper has fallen a further 17%. Last week it traded at $2.30 per lb. having fallen 5% in just two weeks. Poor German manufacturing data led to a fall of 3.1% in one day alone .But things are changing. Chinas manufacturing index has risen off its August lows. This year supply and demand […]

Mayhem Amongs The Miners (2)

Question – does it make sense for the worlds giant mining companies to be ramping up production when metal prices are in freefall. The answer must surely be – of course not – so why are they doing it ? In iron ore Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton have increased production so much that they have […]

Mayhem Amongst The Miners As Iron & Steel Prices collapse

Steel prices on the Shanghai futures index fell 5% in a single session yesterday, leading to a further 3.9% fall in iron ore prices. A knock on effect was felt on the worlds stock markets as mining shares followed suit and billions were knocked off the value of the four big majors, with more still […]