Coronavirus Company News Summary – Australia’s Mid-tier Miners Excel Despite Pandemic – Bushveld Minerals’ Vanadium Output Crosses 1Bt – Anglo Asian Lowers 2020 Output Guidance

Australia’s 50 mid-tier mining firms outdid market expectations despite the coronavirus pandemic disrupting operations, according to a PwC report. The MT50, comprising ASX-listed mid-tier miners, continued to make profits and recorded a 6% rise in revenue to $29.4m and increased market cap to $44.7bn. The MT50’s net assets also hit a record $31.6bn, registering a 16% surge in cash, even as they spent $4.3bn on CAPEX in 2020.

Global thermal coal demand is expected to reach 960Mt next year compared with 925Mt in 2020, even as the projected demand for 2020 declined from 1.04Bt last year as the Covid-19 pandemic diminished consumption throughout the world. The demand is expected increase marginally by 3.8% next year, thanks to a rise in consumption levels in India and southeast Asia on the back of post-pandemic economic recoveries.

South Africa-based Bushveld Minerals registered a 31% increase in group production of vanadium in third quarter to 1.02Bt, compared with 778Mt in Q2, thanks to the lifting of Covid-19 induced lockdown restrictions across the country. The company is planning to advance its expansion plans as the economy recovers from the pandemic and operations resume.

Azerbaijan-based Anglo Asian reduced its production guidance for 2020 owing to the conscription of engineers and sluggish tunnelling progress triggered by rock faulting affecting output. The company’s production estimates from its Gedabek mine in west Azerbaijan are in the range of 68,000 and 72,000 gold-equivalent ounces . Anglo Asian’s turnover is expected to reach $100m, notwithstanding its reduced output, while its conscripted engineers are expected to return to work early next year.

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