Fortescue hits back at Vale
Fortescue Metals Group has disputed a claim by a Chinese steel official that its high costs and debt require a fresh equity investment, arguing it has a lower break-even price than Brazilian giant Vale and is catching up to local rivals Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
Australia's third-largest iron ore miner has pledged to cut its break-even price to $US41 ($A53) a tonne in the next three months from $60 a tonne late last year, and says it can get down to $39 a tonne by the end of the 2016 financial year.
BHP Billiton's Tim Cutt keeps the faith in US shale
BHP Billiton's petroleum chief, Tim Cutt, is far from losing faith in the mining major’s huge investment in shale oil and gas in the United States, but is placing much heavier reliance on exploration success to breathe new life into the business, with a focus on conventional oil, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
Cutt remains calm amid some heated and high-profile warnings about an upcoming catastrophe in US shale, most notably from hedge-fund guru David Einhorn.
Rinehart reduces Minister for Agriculture, Barnaby Joyce, to a ‘minion’
A day after the country's richest person, Gina Rinehart, lost control of a multi-billion dollar family trust, her son has called on a federal cabinet minister to explain himself, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
John Hancock, who has battled his mother in the courts for almost four years, described Barnaby Joyce as “naive” and asked him to come clean on why he supported Rinehart's conduct as trustee and pressured Hope Rinehart (John's sister) to drop the court case.
