Australian government last week said that an environment assessment would be conducted on a possible alternative milling site for the proposed Jabiluka uranium mine in the Northern Territory. Energy Resources of Australia Ltd said the option of on-site milling had been put forward in recognition of `some opposition from Aboriginees to the processing of ore at the existing Ranger mine facilities nearby. "The preferred milling option already has approval from the Commonwealth government, as does the mine development," the company said.

Japan March platinum imports up

Japan's platinum imports in March soared 150.5 per cent from a year earlier to 13.75 tonnes, finance ministry data revealed. Cumulative imports in the first three months of 1998totalled 23.10 tonnes, up from 17.79 tonnes a year earlier. Copper unaffected by Japan package Japan's largest-ever stimulus package was unlikely to bolster weak demand for copper cable and wires soon, an official atthe Japanese Electric Wire and Cable Makers' Association said last week. The government last week adopted a stimulus package worth 16.65 trillion yen in tax cuts, government spending and low-cost loans to boost the ailing economy. "Unless it boosts domestic capital spending by the private sector, it would be hard to see a recovery in the first half of this business year because demand tends to lag behind economic recovery," Michio Arai, an association senior managing director, told the press. "We expect severe conditions to continue at least through the first half of this business year," Arai said. Arai said copper cable shipments were expected to fall by about two percent a year on an annual basis in the first half of this business year, and it could be hard to meet previous association forecasts. The industry body said at end-March it expected copper cable shipments in 1998/99 to total 1.02 million tonnes, down by 1.2 percent from 1997/98.

Revision in import duty sought

The ministry of steel hassought an upward revision of import duty rates for both cold-rolled (CR) coils/sheets and coated sheets and the case seeking this increase has been placed before the competent authority, the ministry of commerce. Following representation from the cold-rolling sector, the ministry of steel, the nodal authority for the sector, has taken up the case for increasing duties to 40 per cent for all qualities and sizes of CR coils/sheets from the existing rate of 30 per cent, to 40 per cent galvanised sheets/coils of all qualities and sizes against the present rate of 30 per cent and 30 per cent for hot-rolled (HR) coils from the existing rate of 25 per cent. The industry feels that in particular the anomaly of higher rate of 30 per cent duty for high carbon HR coils vis-a-vis 25 per cent for CR coils and identical rates of duties for both HR and CR silicon coils must be rectified to relieve the industry from the negative rate of protection. It also sought imposition of a price cap on the imports of seconds anddefective CRs coils and sheets. The import of defectives has sharply risen by over 150 per cent in the past few years.

EIW lowers LME nickel prices

United Kingdom's Economist Intelligence Unit lowered its average London Metal Exchange cash price forecast for nickel in 1998 to $2.66 a pound from $2.83 a pound, in its second quarter world commodity forecast. However, the EIU sees the nickel price recovering in 1999. `The return to market balance will support prices above $3/lb during 1999-2000,' the report said. The reason for the price rethink for 1998 is the fact that stocks of nickel are expected to increase 10.9 per cent this year compared with the previous year, while world consumption is forecast just 1.3 per cent above its 1997 level. `Stocks will continue to rise during 1998. But despite the fact that producers are expected to hold much of the increase off the market (there are reports that they are already doing so), the stock properties.

Cominco forecast on zinc prices

ComincoLtd president and chief executive David Thompson said last week that he expects world zinc prices to average about 50 US cents a pound during 1998. `It'll be around the 50-cent mark,' Thompson said after the company's annual meeting. Cominco is the world's largest miner of zinc concentrate and the third-largest producer of refined zinc metal, which is used primarily as a coating on galvanized steel. Zinc prices slumped in recent months due to weak demand from the troubled Asian economies. Last week's settlement price for cash zinc on the London Metal Exchange was 49.4 cents a pound; the average price in the 1998 first quarter was 48 cents a pound. `Fifty cents is really too low a price for most zinc mines in the world,' Thompson said, noting that the market is already seeing some production curtailments as a result of the weak price. However, he noted that Cominco's zinc mining operations are profitable at that level. He said he is hopeful that prices will rise in 1999. Thompson predicted that global zincproduction will rise about 1 per cent in 1998, as growing North American and European demand offsets the weakness in Asia.

Russian copper to Europe

Some 20,000 metric tons of Russian copper was on its way to European ports as ice began to melt in the Russian port of Dudinka, Russian sources said last week. `There are two to three ships destined for Europe and each of them can carry 15,000 tonnes. Usually, half of this cargo is copper and half of it is nickel,' said an official for a Russian export company who preferred to remain anonymous. Copper on board the Russian vessels is standard grade copper, which means it can not be delivered on the London Metal Exchange. However, all of this copper is already sold to European consumers, according to the Russian official. `Although this copper is not deliverable at the LME, it will slow down withdrawals of inventories,' said a London-based trader for a French brokerage. Exporters are keen to ship as much metal as possible in the coming 6 weeks as afterthat period melting ice is expected to flood the port of Dudinka.

Gold reserves found in China

Gold reserves estimated at 350 tonnes have been discovered in China's western Qinghai province, the Xinhua News Agency reported last week. The underground reserves add to other large gold deposits discovered in the area during the past year, officials with the Qinghai Provincial Geological Prospecting Bureau told Xinhua. Last year, China's gold output reached a record annual high of more than 160 tonnes. But many of China's small scale gold producers are expected to curb production this year because falling gold prices and inefficient production methods have turned their mining operations into money-losers. New large-scale mining operations, many in China's mostly untapped western regions, are expected to make up for dwindling production from China's small scale gold producers, in line with a government plan to overhaul the gold mining industry over the next three years. The government outlined a planearlier this year to revamp the gold mining industry, withdrawing support from remote, small scale mines and encouraging the development of gold mining companies.

Precious Metals' vanadium reserve

Precious Metals Australia Ltd said it has established a reserve of 51 million tonnes of vanadium at its A$95 million Windimurra project, located in Western Australia state. However, there's more than 2,500 meters of drilling in 1998 still to account for and further increases to mineable reserves could soon be expected, according to the company. It said that the reserve, at a grade of 0.46 per cent, is part of the biggest mineable vanadium deposit in the world. Overall inferred resources stand at 250 million tonnes of ore at a grade of 0.53 per cent vanadium. Commissioning of the Windimurra project should start by December 1999, the company said. Vanadium is used in metal alloys principally to strengthen steel and is a component of nickel hydride batteries in mobile telephones. A feasibility study on theproject, originally due for issue at the end of April, will be held back to allow for extra drilling to increase mineable reserves and extend metallurgical test work, Precious Metals Australia said.

(Reuters, Dow Jones and agencies)