Commodities market crashes back to earth

After commodity prices posted several years of incredible growth, the past 12 months have seen traders fall back to earth. Nearly all now agree the commodities super-cycle is dead and buried, according to the Australian Financial Review.

Fears of a slowdown in the Chinese economy and concerns that the United States Federal Reserve will begin tapering stimulus later this year have led to weaker prices for base metals such as iron ore, tin, aluminium, copper, lead, zinc and nickel, as well as precious metals such as gold and platinum.

AMP Capital portfolio manager John Payne says Chinese data suggests the mining boom is over and commodity prices are set to fall further.

Chinese demand for iron ore has plunged 24% in the past five months and mining jobs globally are being shed. Australian mining companies have watched their profits and share prices slump, with the iron ore and gold producers hit particularly hard.

Economic growth not the only measure of success, says China

China President Xi Jinping said officials should not be judged solely on their record in boosting gross domestic product, the latest signal that policy-makers are prepared to tolerate slower economic expansion, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

The Communist Party should instead place more importance on achievements in improving people's livelihood, social development and environmental quality when evaluating the performance of officials, the Xinhua News Agency reported, citing Xi at a meeting on personnel management on the eve of the 92nd anniversary of the party's founding.

Xi's comments follow remarks he made in May that China would not sacrifice the environment to ensure short-term growth, as the world's second-largest economy undergoes its worst cash crunch in at least a decade as the government seeks to wring speculative lending out of the banking system.

Environmental headwinds buffet BHP in Colombia

In the wake of heightened environmental sensitivities to the activities of mining companies in Latin America, BHP Billiton's plans to expand a nickel mine in Colombia have been blocked, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Governments from Chile to Argentina have forced several global mining companies to rethink mine applications in response to growing criticism over the industry's rising incursions.

Late last week, Colombia's environmental licensing authority, Autoridad Nacional de Licencias Ambientales, turned down a request from BHP Billiton's Cerro Matoso nickel mine to expand the site, according to wire reports. Cerro Matoso is the second-largest producer of ferro nickel globally.

The request was denied because existing environmental permits cannot be modified to enable mining projects to be expanded, the environmental authority said.