total revenue for rocklands $us17.8 billion, page-9

Nothing about DERM.


"Xstrata's Ernest Henry Mining has announced it is suspending magnetite production from a Cloncurry operation, east of Mount Isa in north-west Queensland.

In a statement, Ernest Henry Mining says it will suspend magnetite production from the middle of next month.

It says the business case for magnetite production at the site is not supported by current market conditions.

Glencore Xstrata says it is focused on ensuring the sustainability of the copper and gold mine.

The company says falling revenue, increasing production and transport costs have eroded margins, and global iron ore prices have dropped by more than 30 per cent over the past two years.

Xstrata spokesman Steve De Krujff says about 12 workers and some contractors will be affected by the decision.

He says the workers will be offered other roles in the company.

Mr De Kruijff says margins have been eroded in the current market conditions.

"It's not been an easy decision over the past couple of years," he said.

"We've seen an erosion of the price of iron ore which has got to a point where we're now in negative margins and we can't make the magnetite production profile that we have make any money.

"The main problem is the high logistics costs in getting our production from mine to market."

He says it is a north Queensland operational decision.

"We're very focused in the downturn that we seeing in the markets on producing copper and gold from our operations," he said.

"It is not good news, but I guess what we are doing is making sure we can sustain our business.

"If we have got sections of our business that are not making money, then that is not going to help anyone in the short to medium term."

'Wake-up call' for governments

Cloncurry Mayor Andrew Daniels says the suspension of magnetite production at the mine should be a wake-up call for governments.

Councillor Daniels says the decision is a reality check because while some commodity prices are holding ground, costs are rising.

"It's peculiar - I didn't see it coming that is for sure, but the contractors are going to suffer a bit," he said.

"It's a great wake-up call to the governments of today - both state and federal - because the costs are driving these fellows away from Queensland.

"I suppose there are positives and negatives - we were getting a lot of complaints from residents about the magnetite.""

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-16/xstrata-suspends-magnetite-production-at-cloncurry-mine/4822274

shortchange, it is good that CDU already have a concentrator for the mag, but under the current licence it would take 110 years to process. Which makes the $7.6bn a lot less in DCF terms.

The mine manager - is that the guy that ozblue said picked up a nugget and said that it represented 2% of the cubic metre and what was all this extra stuff? 2% of a cm is 52kg. Did he really pick up a 52kg nugget?