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Vancouver, B.C. - Teck Resources Limited (TSX: TCK.A and TCK.B, NYSE: TCK) (“Teck”) announced today the appointment of Andrew Golding as Senior Vice President, Corporate Development, effective September 16, 2013.  Mr. Golding will succeed Ron Vance, who decided earlier this year to retire, effective February 28, 2014.

 Employing an array of technologies to create more effective ventilation than conventional heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, indoor air quality (IAQ) monitoring and management systems can provide a healthy and productive indoor environment while saving both energy and money.

Canada’s largest diversified miner Teck Resources (TSX:TCK.A, TCK.B), (NYSE: TCK) said Tuesday it will lay off about 600 employees, delay the restart of its B.C. Quintette coal mine and cut spending 5% as it continues to reduce costs and adapt to a lower metal price environment.

Quick Take: Smart grid sales in South America are still relatively modest... but they are poised to hit significant numbers once they finally begin. As you will read below, South America is unlikely to be dominated by smart meters, as was the case in North America. (Even though energy theft is worse than in any other region, a situation that smart meters could help to improve). Instead, distribution automation will lead the way.

The action of cooling things down plays a critical part of any mechanical or electric system, because the inevitable heat, produced by friction, is the number one cause of almost instant failure. So far, different methods that cool systems have been discovered, but not to the extent of performance that engineers dream of building their computers or mechanical devices (cars, for example). Oregon State University researchers, led by Terry Hendricks, have discovered a method of applying a nanostructured coating that could make the heat transfer more easily. Their findings have been published in the International Journel of Heat and Mass Transfer, and they also filed a patent for them.

Rio Tinto will redevelop its listed former headquarters on St James’s Square in London’s Mayfair into new offices and flats in a further sign of the mining group’s return to financial strength.

The Chief Operating Officer (COO), in the person of Massimo Battaini, will be responsible for the Group’s entire supply chain (purchasing, operations, logistics).

This is, in fact, the crux of the argument: It isn't enough to simply establish clear rules in a trading center. Governments can only successfully combat speculators if they coordinate their efforts worldwide and remove the cloak of secrecy from their commodities transactions. As long as this fails to happen, the price of copper will remain unpredictable and industry will be at the mercy of speculators. Companies will no longer be able to assume that copper will be expensive when it's scarce and cheap when it's available in abundance. Speculation destroys the basic signaling function that prices have in a market economy, says Heiner Flassbeck, chief economist at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Although a lot of money moves around as a result of price distortions, speculation doesn't create any real value, says Flassbeck. "The only thing that's created is an illusion of value." Making Life Difficult for Everyone In the end, the popular assessment that speculators are the purest of capitalists is by no means correct. In truth, they are the biggest enemies of the market, because they undermine its central mechanism, the efficient balancing of supply and demand. In doing so, they make life difficult for everyone: for industry, which can no longer predict how expensive its raw materials will be; for consumers, who are forced to bear the costs; and, finally, for copper producers, who face more risk when planning ahead. When the executives at CODELCO in Santiago make investment decisions today, it will be another three to five years before the results become visible. That's how long it takes to develop a new mine or expand an existing mine. The company plans to invest about $15 billion by 2015, but its executives have never been so uncertain about whether their predictions are correct. One thing is clear: Production costs will continue to rise. Now that deposits near the surface, which are easier to mine, are becoming depleted, mining companies are forced to dig deeper and deeper pits.

The mathematical modelling of metals prices is a useful tool for the mining and investment communities by helping to explain market performance. As a service to Mining Journal readers, we provide here an explanation of Bloomsbury Minerals Economics Ltd's model for copper.London-based BME models metals prices with reference to three 'fundamental' forces: stocks of the metal, economic growth (or specific metal demand) and performance of the US dollar. The models have progressed from dealing with commodities as industrial raw materials to dealing with them as a hybrid physical-investment market.BME is this year introducing the influence of investment/disinvestment on the market, and on ways of better understanding investor flows. 

Copper prices are heading higher but KGHM, Poland’s state-controlled copper miner, fears that the good times will not last and is slashing costs, which make it one of the world’s most expensive producers. Last year’s economic crisis “was an argument to change and fix the company”, Herbert Wirth, chief executive, told the Financial Times.

Xstrata, the multinational mining company, raised its project spending guidance for next year sharply, in a sign that it is emphasising internal and not acquisition-driven growth.

China is set to gain access to sizeable copper deposits in Ecuador following an agreed C$679m (US$652m) cash bid for Vancouver-based Corriente Resources.