MARKETS

News Wrap

IN THIS morning's News Wrap: Yancoal reveals pain of 'take or pay' coal deals; mining vacancies ...

Lou Caruana

Yancoal reveals pain of ‘take or pay’ coal deals

Another Australian coalminer has revealed it is suffering under its “take or pay” rail and port contracts.

Yancoal Australia has become the latest to concede it took on far more rail capacity in the boom times than it needs today, according to the Australian Financial Review.

The company’s admission comes after recent revelations that numerous Australian coalmines were operating at a loss because fixed-rail and port contracts would impose much greater losses on the owners if the mines were closed.

The industry-wide trend is exacerbating the malaise in the coal sector, which is struggling under high costs and depressed prices for both thermal coal and coking coal.

According to ASX-listed Yancoal’s freshly published annual report, the Chinese-controlled coalminer had a $61.5 million liability for its take-or-pay contracts at December 31 2013.

Mining vacancies drop 20%

The number of job vacancies in the resources sector has fallen more than 20% over the past nine months, according to The Australian.

BHP, Rio join campaign against OECD limits on profit-shifting

BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto have joined global technology firms in lobbying against efforts to stop major multinational corporations from shifting profits to low-tax jurisdictions, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

In submissions to an OECD draft paper, the mining companies said measures to prevent firms from abusing tax treaties would create “unintended consequences” for dual-listed entities such as themselves.

Multinational firms including big pharmaceutical and global technology firms have made submissions rejecting proposals in the discussion draft.

The draft identifies ways to stop companies from “treaty shopping” for the best places to hide untaxed profits.

TOPICS:

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the mining sector, brought to you by the Mining Monthly Intelligence team.

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the mining sector, brought to you by the Mining Monthly Intelligence team.

editions

ESG Mining Company Index: Benchmarking the Future of Sustainable Mining

The ESG Mining Company Index report provides an in-depth evaluation of ESG performance of 61 of the world's largest mining companies. Using a robust framework, it assesses each company across 9 meticulously weighted indicators within 6 essential pillars.

editions

Mining Magazine Intelligence Exploration Report 2024 (feat. Opaxe data)

A comprehensive review of exploration trends and technologies, highlighting the best intercepts and discoveries and the latest initial resource estimates.

editions

Mining Magazine Intelligence Future Fleets Report 2024

The report paints a picture of the equipment landscape and includes detailed profiles of mines that are employing these fleets

editions

Mining Magazine Intelligence Digitalisation Report 2023

An in-depth review of operations that use digitalisation technology to drive improvements across all areas of mining production