No working class fan
Jimmy Barnes may have sung about a working class man but he certainly seems to be no fan of them … if they are digging up coal near his home.
The Australian rock icon has joined dozens of protestors in Sydney rallying against the Hume Coal mine that is looking to produce 3 million tonnes of coal a year from seams up to 180m underground,ABC reports.
Barnes, it appears is no steel town disciple himself. He has lived in the New South Wales southern highlands for decades and the national broadcaster quotes him saying he did not want to see the mine come to fruition.
“We have to stop this mine going on,” he said.
“Basically I have intentions of growing old and I want my kids and grandkids growing up there and I want to protect this beautiful place.”
However, project director for the POSCO-owned mine Geig Duncan said the mine was a “low-risk, low-impact underground coal mining project,” the ABC reports.
He said it would barely be visible to local residents.
Pushing Polyus private
UK-listed miner Polyus Gold could soon be taken private if its largest shareholder, Wandle – a vehicle of Russian billionaire Suleiman Kerimov and his son Said – have anything to do with it.
The Financial Times reports Wandle has offered $2.97 a share for the remaining equity, valuing the gold miner at $9 billion.
This price is the same Wandle had mooted in a possible four weeks ago and is 2% higher than the share price before that possible offer was announced.
However, the paper writes, the independent committee of Polyus’ board said the offer “materially undervalues the company and its prospects and therefore is not capable of being recommended from a value perspective”
Polyus is the largest gold producer in Russian and one of the top 10 gold miners in the world by output, producing 1.7 million ounces in 2014.
Euro-coal crunched
European coal had its worst quarterly performance since 2008 as nations plumped for less polluting fuel for electricity generation.
Bloomberg writes northwest European coal for 2016 dropped 1% to $48.40 a tonne on Wednesday.
The coal price has fallen 20% since June 30, the largest quarterly decline for a front-year contract since December 31 2008.
