NEWMONT REOPENS MINES AFTER ACCIDENT
Newmont Mining Corp. said it has resumed operations at its two gold mines in Ghana after six construction workers died in an accident Saturday.
The workers of a contractor died after a tunnel roof collapsed at the Ahafo operation in central Ghana, the world’s biggest gold miner by value, based in Greenwood Village, said in a statement on its website on Sunday. Two others were injured.
Operations at the Ahafo mine were suspended. Newmont’s Akyem mine in southeast Ghana was also suspended “in solidarity” with staff at the Ahafo asset, Yaw Okyere, acting general manager for Ahafo, said Monday on Accra-based Joy FM. “The area will remain closed until an investigation is concluded,” he said.
The mines in Ghana accounted for 14 percent of Newmont’s revenue in the year through December, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The country is the continent’s second largest gold producer.
Wells Fargo may face huge fine. Wells Fargo & Co. could be fined several hundred million dollars by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for the bank’s mortgage-lending and auto-insurance abuses.
The agency is in talks with the San Franciscobased bank over penalties for the problems, Reuters reported Monday, citing two unidentified people with knowledge of the discussions. CFPB acting Director Mick Mulvaney is pushing for fines as large as $1 billion, Reuters said.
A CFPB spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
U.S. corn shipments soar to record amid trade concern, drought. U.S. corn exports jumped to the highest in at least 23 years amid adverse crop weather in the Americas and the threat of Chinese trade tariffs.
A persistent drought in Argentina has cut grain output, and dry weather into May may curb production of the second-season harvest in Brazil. Cold, wet weather in the next two weeks will crimp U.S. planting, increasing risks that Midwest crops will pollinate during hot weather in July, reducing prospects for global supplies.
U.S. exports in the week ended April 5 jumped 60 percent to 1.94 million tons from a year earlier to the highest since the Department of Agriculture began reporting the data in 1995. Japan and Mexico were the biggest buyers with a small amount sold to China, which is embroiled in a trade dispute with the Trump administration.