While talks sputter to end Guinea’s deadly two-week nationwide strike, the country’s main export industry is starting to feel the effects. Guinea is the world’s largest exporter of bauxite, the raw material used to make aluminum. Phuong Tran reports from VOA’s West Africa bureau in Dakar on how the strike in Guinea is affecting the [...]

Swiss metals company Glencore, which earlier this year bought U.S. miner Asarco’s zinc operations, now wants to buy Asarco’s remaining copper and molybdenum mining and smelting operations, according to documents filed with a Corpus Christi, Texas, federal bankruptcy court.
In a December 26th court filing, which was just made public by a Mexican investor, Glencore said [...]

Nickel and tin hit new record highs on the London Metal Exchange (LME) on Tuesday as supply concerns boosted prices, analysts said.
“Nobody would go short in nickel…there is some genuine market tightness,” analyst Michael Widmer at Calyon said.
Nickel for delivery in three months was at $37,500/37,600 a tonne at midsession after hitting a high of [...]

Guinea’s general strike has halted all shipments of bauxite from the world’s biggest bauxite exporter, Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinee (CBG), its operator Alcoa Inc. said on Monday.
Company officials in the West African country, the top bauxite exporter, had previously said ship loading operations could continue for around a week using security stocks, but Alcoa [...]

Alcan will support the Centennial celebrations of the CHU Sainte-Justine hospital through an official year-long partnership. The official launch of the celebration took place today at Montreal’s City Hall in the presence of Mayor Gérald Tremblay.
“Alcan is honored to be a part of this special celebration commemorating an important milestone for one of Montreal’s most [...]

Nickel hit a new record high of $35,700 a tonne on Wednesday as supply jitters resurfaced, while aluminium softened despite market fears of a potential squeeze, analysts said.
Aluminium for three-month delivery on the London Metal Exchange eased to $2,678 a tonne from Tuesday’s $2,681 close, while nickel ended up more than 5 percent at $35,500 [...]

The Vietnam Coal and Minerals Industrial Group has announced a target of 37 million tonnes of coal in 2007.
The group will pour more investment in increasing the capacity of coal mines and factories as well as speeding up the construction of such projects as Son Dong and Cam Pha electric power plants, Bao Lam bauxite [...]

Brazil’s Minas Gerais state government has shut down local bauxite mining company Rio Pomba Cataguases after an environmental accident, state news agency Agência Minas reported.
Specifically, a residue dam ruptured in Miraí city, releasing some two million cubic meters of mud into the Fubá river.
The material is not toxic, the report said, adding that Rio Pomba [...]

Schools, shops and markets in Guinea were shut on Wednesday as a nationwide general strike got under way, but the volatile West African country’s key bauxite industry did not immediately appear to be seriously affected.
Additional police and army patrols deployed around the streets of the capital Conakry on the first day of the indefinite strike, [...]

Heavy rains caused a bauxite mine’s rejects dam in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais to burst and drive 5,000 people from their homes, Brazil’s CBN radio station said on Wednesday.
Dozens of people have died and more than 8,000 have been left homeless in southeast Brazil in the past weeks due to mud slides and [...]