* Q3 rev up 94 pct to $32.0 mln

* Forms committee to look at strategic alternatives

Feb 16  - First Uranium Corp (FIU.TO) posted a quarterly loss, hurt by higher corporate expenses and a $7.4 million foreign currency loss.

For the third quarter ended Dec. 31, the company reported loss of $14.4 million, or 9 cents a share, compared with a profit of $1.3 million, or 1 cent a share, a year ago.

Revenue grew to $32.0 million, from $16.5 million, a year ago, mainly on increasing production.

The company posted corporate expenses of $8.1 million, mainly due to feasibility and rehabilitation costs, stock-based compensation and amortization.

In January, South African authorities withdrew environmental authorization for a new tailings storage facility at First Uranium’s key Mine Waste Solutions tailings recovery project.

First Uranium said it continues to review strategic alternatives for financing and has formed a special committee to review strategic alternatives.

Zhongwang said in a statement the acquisition will increase its annual capacity by 120,000 metric tons. Zhongwang said its annual capacity was about 600,000 tons at the end of 2009.

Zhongwang said it signed a framework agreement on the acquisition with Qinghai Guoxin’s current owners–Xining Municipal Investment Management Ltd. and Qinghai Northwest Aluminum Alloy Material (Group) Ltd.

Zhongwang said it will start due diligence work soon.

Sales for the quarter more than doubled year-on-year to C$290,57-million, compared with C$139,63-million in the same period of 2008, Inmet reported on Tuesday.

The company expects copper output in 2010 to rise by some 50% as it ramps up production at the new Las Cruces mine, in Spain, while gold sales volumes will be lower because production at the Troilus mine is scheduled to end around mid-year.

Zinc production will be higher than in 2009 because of plans to mine higher-grades at the Pyhasalmi mine, Inmet said.

Shares in the Toronto-based company rose 2,5% on Tuesday morning, to C$54,16 apiece by 9:52 ET.

ICSG forecasts copper in concentrate capacity to increase by 2.7 million tons, or 4.3%, a year to reach 17.9 million tons.

Most of the new mine projects and expansions are in Brazil, Chile, Congo, Mongolia, Peru, the U.S. and Zambia, which together account for around 73%, or 2.6 million tons, of the projected increase in mine capacity for the period, ICSG said.

ICSG forecasts annual smelter capacity to grow by an average of 2.6% a year to reach 20.2 million tons in 2013, an increase of 2 million tons, or 11%, from 2009 capacity.

Asia will be the leading contributor to growth, accounting for 1.8 million tons, with expansion and new projects expected mostly in China. India, Indonesia and Iran will also contribute to new smelter capacity.

Africa is the second leading contributor owing to developments in Zambia while North American smelting capacity will fall by 12%, or 250,000 tons, due to closures of plants in Canada.

World copper refinery capacity will reach 26.6 million tons in 2013, an increase of 3.2 million tons, or 13%, from 2009, ICSG forecasts.

About a half, or 1.5 million tons, of the world refinery capacity increase during this period will come from electrolytic refineries in China; about 25%, or 830,000 tons, from electrolytic capacity increases in India, Indonesia and Iran; and about 20%, or 600,000 tons, from electrowinning capacity increases in Congo, Peru and Zambia, the ICSG said.

Coal is expected to account for 40 percent of core earnings this year while copper is due to make up 36 percent and zinc 10 percent, according to Morgan Stanley.

Xstrata, the world’s biggest exporter of ‘thermal’ coal used in power plants, said on Monday total coal production in 2009 rose to 95.2 million tonnes compared to 85.5 million tonnes in 2008 following the takeover of Prodeco in Colombia.

The average price of Australian thermal coal, which accounts for the bulk of production, fell to $80.30 per tonne from $95.60 in 2008, a statement said.

Mined copper output was 906,898 tonnes while zinc production rose 20 percent to 1.03 million tonnes.

Xstrata, the world’s largest zinc producer, did not provide an outlook on the coming year.

For the full year, the company posted net income of $987,8-million, compared with $3,5-billion in 2008.

Potash Corp said that potash sales volumes fell to their lowest since the group became a public traded company in 1989.

Fourth-quarter sales of 1,1-million tons of the crop nutrient were 23% lower on a quarter-on-quarter basis, but reflected an improvement over the 65% decline experienced for the full year, to 3-million tons.

“The fertiliser industry, like many other businesses, felt the impact of the global economic downturn in 2009,” said CEO Bill Doyle.

“While our earnings were well below our company’s potential, we remain committed – as we have been for decades – to strategies that protect the long-term value of our assets.”

The company has forecast a potash gross margin in 2010 of between $1,4-billion and $1,8-billion and total shipments of 7-million to 8-million tons.

The group’s potash capacity this year is estimated at some 11,5-million tons, which means that continued production curtailments are expected.

Potash Corp is forecasting 2010 net income per share in the range of $4 to $5, including $0,70-$1,00 in the first quarter.

Globally, the group said it expects to see potash shipments of around 50-million tons in 2010, marking the transition between the historically low levels of 2009 and a return to higher demand in 2011.

However, while this would be a significant improvement from 2009 levels, it “will not address the multi-year process of refilling distributor inventories and soil nutrient levels”, Potash Corp said.

“We believe the need for more food – and the nutrients to produce it – is irrefutable,” Doyle added.

“Even though fertiliser demand can be deferred on a short-term basis, as we saw in 2009, the long-term requirement cannot be denied.

“We enter 2010 with a sense of optimism, as we look ahead to helping fertiliser dealers and farmers begin replenishing nutrients in the soil and supply chain.”

Shares in the company slid 5,6% on Thursday morning, to C$110,03 apiece by 11:59 in Toronto.

Zijin has already agreed to buy a 19,99% stake in Indophil from Swiss-based miner Xstrata.

Indophil owns a 34,23% stake in the $5,2-billion Tampakan copper and gold project in southern Philippines, controlled by Xstrata.

The Tampakan project has an Australasian joint ore reserves committee (JORC) compliant mineral resource estimate of 2,4-billion tons containing 13,5-million tons of copper and 15,8-million ounces of gold at a 0,3% copper cut-off grade.

The project is in the final feasibility study phase, which is due for completion in the second quarter of 2010. First production is scheduled for early in 2016.

Zijin is offering A$1,28 a share. The offer period for Indophil shares would start on January 18 and would close on March 19.

In their second assembly this week, the miners set 5:00 a.m. Monday as the starting time for a strike by the roughly 5,600 workers at Chuquicamata, the world’s second-largest copper mine, located some 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) north of Santiago.

Codelco, the globe’s No. 1 copper producer, told union leaders that because workers did not accept the proposed three-year contract by noon Thursday, the offered bonus was cut from 11.5 million pesos ($23,500) per worker to 6.5 million pesos.

The revised offer retains a 3.8 percent pay hike as well as no-interest loans worth around $6,000 to each employee.

In a statement issued Thursday, Codelco restated its willingness to continue talks aimed at reaching “a mutually advantageous accord.”

But the unions declared negotiations at an end after rejecting the latest offer from the company.

Union officials said the workers want a pay raise of 4.7 percent and a bonus comparable to the 14 million pesos ($28,000) each that BHP Billiton paid out earlier this year to secure labor peace at its La Escondida copper mine, the world’s largest.

Chuquicamata accounts for around 1.6 million tons in annual copper production, more than a third of Codelco’s total output, and a strike would cost the firm around $8 million a day.

This is the first time Codelco workers have voted to strike since 1996 and revealed fissures between union officials, which backed the company’s offer, and the rank and file.

Codelco posted pre-tax profit of $2.06 billion for the first nine months of this year, compared with $4.97 billion for all of 2008.

A group of workers want union representatives to seek higher wages and bonuses in negotiations with the company, union official Jaime Graz said in a telephone interview today.

The state-owned company, the world’s largest copper producer, is offering a 3.8 percent wage increase and benefits worth 14.5 million pesos ($28,634) to sign a new 3-year wage deal.

Codelco extended the terms of an early signing bonus beyond a Dec. 23 deadline after workers rejected an offer on Dec. 22. The Chuquicamata workers’ current contract expires on Dec. 31.

As the pace of recovery gained momentum in the developed world, expectations for next year began to turn rosier.
The steelmakers’ association in Germany, Europe’s biggest steel producer, said the country’s output would rise 10-15 percent next year after an expected fall of 28 percent this year.
The German Steel Federation, which represents manufacturers such as ThyssenKrupp and Salzgitter in Europe’s biggest steelmaking country, expects domestic output of 36-38 million tonnes in 2010, it said.
But analysts are cautious about next year’s recovery and do not expect to see the peak levels of 2007-2008 before 2012.
“I think a return to peak levels in 2010 is quite optimistic,” said Colin Hamilton, steel analyst at Macquarie Bank. “It’ll certainly rise in Europe but to go back to the peaks will take at least 2-3 years,” he said.
In January to November, output was down by 10.8 percent to 1.09 billion tonnes because of the sharp production cuts at the beginning of this year as global recession hit steel demand.

The Cape Lambert Resources vehicle said it has also resolved to reduce the minimum raising under the IPO to $164.5 million through the issue of 164.5 million shares at an issue price of $1 each.

With an original target of between $203 and $214 million, the size of the fundraising target was reduced after an unnamed UK investor pulled out of the deal because of the effects of the Dubai credit crisis.

The boards of Q Copper and Cape Lambert, together with IPO lead manager Patersons Securities Limited, have consequently agreed to a variation of the pricing and closing date.

“Whilst we are disappointed with the need to reprice and extend the closing date of the Q Copper IPO, it will not affect our proposed partially franked, special dividend of 10 cents per share,” Cape Lambert executive chairman Tony Sage said.

“It still represents an excellent return over the acquisition cost of the asset in a relatively short period of time.”

It was believed that Cape Lambert had been targeting up to $158 million from the Q Copper float in return for reducing its shareholding to 10%, but the revised deal will see Cape Lambert receive a total consideration of approximately $137.5 million in cash and Q Copper.

News of the revised IPO comes just days after Talison Lithium withdrew from its planned listing due to its failure to reach an “acceptable value.”

A Talison spokesperson told MINING DAILY that the company, which had planned to raise between $143.5 million and $196.4 million, is unsure whether it will be pursuing another IPO in the near future.

The company today said it had already raised a more than half of those funds through a placement of 16.4 million shares at $2.30 each to institutional investors to raise $37.8 million. The placement was led by Macquarie Capital Advisers and Argonaut Securities.

Mirabela also agreed to place 5.5 million special warrants, principally in Canada and the US, on a private placement basis to raise $C12.27 million.

The warrants convert into ordinary shares on a one for one basis, subject to conditions.

The company will also place a further 2.1 million shares to director related entities, namely 1.7 million to Lancaster Park SA and 400,000 to chairman Craig Burton, subject to shareholder approval.

Mirabela plans to also raise a further $10 million through a share purchase plan.