News

15 August 2023.

Iron ore prices fell on Monday as expectations of steel output cuts in China and weakness in the country’s property segment weighed on sentiment. The most-traded January iron ore on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange dipped 0.4% to 725 yuan ($99.88) per metric ton.“[Citi’s] industry discussions suggest that crude steel control targets will likely be finalized by August 15, and local governments and mills could make their own production control plans thereafter,” the bank said in a note, mirroring earlier concerns from the southwestern Yunnan province.

“It’s going to cost a fortune that farmers and pastoralists don’t have, without a mining company in their back pocket. They just don’t Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, says farmers and the agriculture sector cannot afford the transition to net zero and governments should step in to cover most of the costs. this money to be able to invest.”

West Australian mining company Roy Hill has developed its own internal chatbot to give its employees better insights about the company’s functions and to increase their personal productivity. The program was developed after executive chairman Gina Rinehart put out a challenge 18 months ago for the leaders of WA mining companies to use AI to help increase productivity. “The system is designed to respond to a broad spectrum of inquiries related to production data, company policies and procedures, as well as general HR information,” Roy Hill said in a statement. “Roy Hill’s employees interact with RoyBot using natural language, asking questions through the internal web application.”

Governments and wind farm developers could face stiff opposition from farmers amid growing concern that large-scale projects could change the landscape for the worse, former Northern Territory chief minister Adam Giles says. Mr Giles – now the chief executive of Gina Rinehart’s two key farming businesses, Hancock Agriculture and S. Kidman and Co – told The Australian’s Bush Summit in Perth on Monday that the transition to net zero was being felt as a “blunt instrument” in regional Australia.

Mining billionaire Gina Rinehart has addressed The Australian Bush Summit in Perth, saying that most farmers are unable to afford net zero. “With the consequences, Aussies and the towns will see huge food price increases and fresh food shortages, this is the maths that has to be brought in too,” Ms Rinehart said. “There’s quite a bit of government tape that would make life better if removed.”

Reporting of key elements of Mrs Gina Rinehart AO addressing the 2023 Bush Summit.

Rio Tinto has finally signed off on a key development agreement with the Guinean government over the port and rail infrastructure needed to get the giant Simandou iron ore mine in Guinea, West Africa, into production. Rio late on Friday said it had signed off on the joint venture arrangements with the Guinean government and the China-backed Winning consortium on a “co-development convention”. The agreement clears the way for an acceleration in the development of Simandou, long lauded as the biggest undeveloped iron ore project in the world.

Rio Tinto and its joint venture partners have reached a key infrastructure milestone with the Republic of Guinea towards the full sanctioning of the Simandou iron ore deposit in the West African country. The mining giant said the parties had reached agreements on trans-Guinean infrastructure for the massive project, creating legal framework for the co-development of more than 600km of new rail line. The rail will be used to export the steel-making ingredient from the Simandou mining concessions in the southeast of the country.

Economically we increasingly struggle, given government policies which are not conducive to attracting investment – investment necessary to keep us internationally competitive, and to maintain our living standards, and to help combat welfare dependency in rural and remote regions.
As I look across the vastness from our agricultural properties in the Kimberleys, I see the potential for the creation of jobs to give families and children a future in our north, jobs in industries that can help feed and clothe other Australians and our allies. What is required, though, are policies to help attract investment. It’s about letting people work, such as our patriotic veterans or senior Australians who are hampered by onerous red tape and only permitted to work several hours per week – if more, they face serious financial consequences. It’s about placing more defence facilities in our vulnerable north. Hopefully this Bush Summit can re-energise interest in our north, despite the obvious problem: 85 per cent of Australians, and 85 per cent of the voters, live in our cities.

13 August 2023.