FIFO watchdog
A watchdog to ensure work practices around fly-in fly-out work are above board is one of the recommendations expected to be handed down by the Queensland Parliamentary inquiry into the impacts of FIFO next month, the Gladstone Observer reports.
The paper quotes Gladstone MP Glenn Butcher saying while the coordinator general set out rules and regulations for mining companies, no-one was sure they were followed.
“There is no body overlooking the mining companies to make sure they are doing the right thing, so that’s something we have included in our recommendations,” he said.
Cutting through the China fog
Two of the world’s largest diamond miners have dismissed fears of a crisis in the industry and suggest global markets will soon recover from the “indigestion” caused by China’s slowdown, the Financial Times writes.
It cites both De Beers Forevermark brand head Stephen Lussier and Rio Tinto diamonds & minerals unit chief Alan Davies saying China’s still-rising wealth was a sign their long-term confidence in stronger demand would bear out.
“Last year consumer sales rose 3% but rough sales were up about 12% in anticipation of stronger growth into China than was realised,” Lussier told the FT.
The paper quotes Davies saying demand in India and China had fallen about 6% this year but overall growth worldwide was 2%, driven mainly by the US, which is still responsible for more than a third of the $US80 ($A113) billion market.
Euro coal slump
Coal prices in Europe have dropped below $US50 a tonne for the first time amid slumping demand from China, the largest consumer, according to Bloomberg.
Prices have fallen 25% so far in 2015, heading for a fifth straight year of drops in the benchmark year ahead contract, according to broker data compiled by the news wire.
Bloomberg quotes AVU AG fuer Versorgungs-Unternehmen energy trader Danny Graefe saying: “Until now the only support for coal has been the psychological barrier at $50, after this there is a no-man’s land from a technical perspective.
“Fundamentally, coal should have bottomed out, but even still all news points downward.”
