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Pipeline operators have been making the news as of late- and little of the coverage has been favorable. The media's main focus has been on the fierce debate over TransCanada Corp.'s (TSX:TRP) $7.6-billion Keystone XL pipeline, which would pump crude oil from the Alberta oil sands to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.crusher in Asia

The Obama administration recently rejected the proposal in light of fierce opposition from environmentalists and landowners. The company now plans to reroute the line to address these concerns. It will then reapply for a permit, with an aim to start transporting the crude in 2015.

"Keystone Kops" reference comes at a delicate time for Enbridge

Concern about the safety of pipelines has been heightened by recent leaks that have caused significant environmental damage. For example, on July 25 and 26, 2010, a line in Michigan owned by Enbridge Energy Partners (TSX:ENB,NYSE:ENB) ruptured, spilling 800,000 gallons of oil into a tributary of the Kalamazoo River. Last week, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released a scathing report on the incident.

"This investigation identified a complete breakdown of safety at Enbridge," said NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman in a press release. "Their employees performed like Keystone Kops and failed to recognize their pipeline had ruptured and continued to pump crude into the environment."

The report comes at a delicate time for Enbridge, which is seeking approval for its proposed 1,177-kilometer Northern Gateway pipeline, which will carry 525,000 barrels of oil and 193,000 barrels of condensate a day from Edmonton to Kitimat, BC. Environmentalists and other groups have been raising concerns about the project.

Why pipeline investments are defying the negative presscrusher in china

Pipeline stocks have been holding their own despite the bad press. Units of the Alerian MLP Index ETF (NYSE:AMLP), an exchange traded fund that is a good barometer for the industry, are about where they were a year ago. And the two companies at the center of the storm have seen their share prices rise: TransCanada is up 7.7 percent from this time last year, and Enbridge has jumped 31 percent.

Pipelines have been attracting a lot of investor attention recently, because they offer an attractive mix of stability and higher-than-average dividend yields, two appealing traits in an era of low interest rates and volatile stock markets.

There are two main reasons for this stability. For one, pipeline operators get steady revenue streams from their businesses, often under long-term contracts. TransCanada, for example, says it has signed 17- to 18-year contracts with producers to ship oil through Keystone XL. As well, they're less exposed to volatile resource prices, because their contracts tend to be fee-based and therefore less affected by swings in commodity prices.

Many pipelines in the US are set up as master limited partnerships (MLPs). This structure is similar in many ways to a Canadian income trust. MLPs don't pay corporate income tax, which gives them more cash to pay out to unit holders in the form of distributions (similar to the dividends you get from a stock). In addition, MLPs offer investors a potential tax advantage because a portion of the income you get from them can be tax-deferred.

One example of an MLP with a steady payout and rising cash flow is Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (NYSE:KMP), which owns or has stakes in 75,000 miles of pipelines and 180 storage terminals. The company ships natural gas, refined petroleum products, crude oil and other chemicals.

Kinder Morgan pays a quarterly distribution of $1.20 a unit, for an annualized yield of 5.7 percent. Its cash flow rose 21 percent in the latest quarter, to $462 million from $382 million a year ago.

Diversified pipeline operators offer greater safety

There are a number of things to keep in mind when looking for pipeline operators to invest in.

For one, you'll want to see rising cash flow and low debt. crusher in mongoliaBoth ensure that the company will be able to maintain (and hopefully increase) its distribution in the future.

In addition, the commodity that the company is shipping could have a significant impact on its longer-term prospects. Right now, natural gas prices are near 20-year lows, partly because new shale gas discoveries are driving up inventories. That could reduce demand for long-distance pipelines in the future, according to Keith Schaefer, publisher of Oil and Gas Investments Bulletin.

"[w]ith so many new shale gas deposits-located all over the US-now every market can be served with 'local' gas, greatly reducing the need for pipelines," wrote Schaefer in a January article. "Dividend-paying pipeline companies have been some of the best performing stocks for resource investors, but the shale gas supply glut may drag them down now, as well."

A good example of this is the 1,100-kilometer Mackenzie Valley Pipeline, which has been in the planning stages since the 1970s. However, the project is now on hold in light of the new shale deposits in the US.

An example of a more diversified pipeline operator is Inter Pipeline Income Fund (TSX: IPL.UN), whichoperates a range of energy-related businesses. In western Canada, it has 6,100 kilometers of pipelines, as well as storage facilities with a total capacity of 4.8 million barrels. Its pipelines handle 950,000 barrels of oil sands bitumen and crude oil a day. Inter Pipeline also extracts natural gas liquids (NGLs) and operates a liquid storage business in Europe.

The company is set up as a publicly traded limited partnership, which is similar to an income trust. It pays a monthly distribution of $0.0875 a unit, for a high 5.46 percent yield.

Attention to maintenance is an often-overlooked factor

Something else you'll want to look for, as the Enbridge incident illustrates, are companies with modern pipelines and sterling safety records. Many of North America's pipelines are reaching a point where significant repairs will be soon necessary. According to Forbes magazine, 41 percent of US oil pipelines were built in the 1950s and 1960s, and another 15 percent are even older.

That's something that Enbridge has learned the hard way. So far, the company has spent $800 million on the ongoing Michigan cleanup, plus the costs to repair equipment and retrain its employees.

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MONGBWALU, Democratic Republic of Congo - Gold traders in the eastern Congo district of Ituri have heard of the Dodd-Frank act, or "Obama's law" as it's known here, but don't see why it's got anything to do with them.

"I struggle to understand this Obama's law," says George Lobho, one of hundreds of traders operating out of tiny wooden shacks in the muddy streets of Mongbwalu. "What does it mean?"

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Ituri is one of many areas of the country to have experienced bitter ethnic conflict between rival tribes in recent years. Massacres have left tens of thousands dead.

It is this fighting that led US authorities to take the unprecedented step of naming Congo in section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank financial regulation act, which says US-listed companies that source gold, tungsten, tantalum and tin from Congo or its neighbours must assure the US stock exchange regulator that their business is not helping fund conflict.

The legislation, signed by President Barack Obama in 2010, puts the onus of proof on end-users. But while it has sent shockwaves through the global gold industry, the fractured and opaque nature of the gold supply chain means it has yet to have an impact where it counts - on the ground.

Gold, which hit record highs near $2,000 an ounce last year and remains above $1 500, is a big earner here. People like Lobho who find it hard to feed their families ask few questions about the origins of the metal on offer. mining equipment application

Lobho buys around 50 grams of metal a week, which he sends on to an exporter in the district capital Bunia about 85 km away. He says he doesn't need to provide any documentation and says trading gold from areas where conflict continues, such as the Kivu provinces, is easy.

"If someone comes from North Kivu, they can sell here, of course," he told Reuters. "No problem."

Members of US Congress are lobbying the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to pass the long-delayed guidelines necessary to fully enforce the section. But US companies are not wasting any time getting ready.

Electronics companies such as Dell and Intel have signed up to codes of conduct excluding conflict minerals from their supply chains, and jewellery retailers are pressuring manufacturers to do the same.

Some European gold refineries say they are no longer sourcing any material from Africa's artisanal miners, who can't provide the tracking paperwork their clients demand.

But in Congo, exporters are still finding routes to get gold from remote regions to market.

Research into the impact of Dodd-Frank by a UN Group of Experts last year found that while it had cut the sums earned from tungsten, tin and tantalum mining used to support warlords and buy guns, it had not had the same effect on the gold industry.

"Gold is just less tractable as a mineral in terms of being responsive to this kind of regulation, because it's so easily smuggled," Fred Robarts, coordinator of the Group of Experts' report said by telephone from Kinshasa. "The total volume of gold moving is still quite high."

TRANSIT POINTS

Aside from output from Canadian miner Banro, Congo's only large-scale producer at present, the country officially exported around 112 kg of gold last year. But one mining official in Kinshasa estimated that figure is probably less than 10% of the actual amount.

That means more than 1 000 kg a year may be leaving Congo unofficially, worth more than $50-million in refined form.

While this is a tiny amount in the world gold market,gravel stone crushing line it can buy a lot of arms.

Silva Ucima, who runs an association for artisanal miners in Ituri, said only a fraction of the gold produced here is declared and shipped legally. The rest vanishes into neighbouring Uganda.

"Here people are just crossing the border into Uganda, selling the gold, and then coming back with other goods," Ituri mining official Simon Pierre Bolombo said.

Last year's Group of Experts' report identified Ugandan capital Kampala as a major transit point, along with Kenya's capital Nairobi, Bujumbura in Burundi, and Dar es Salaam and Mwanza in Tanzania.

From these centres, the gold can be re-packaged and sent on, much of its bound for the United Arab Emirates, a major refining and distribution hub. The Group of Experts' research suggested some 3 t of Congolese gold may have been laundered through Kampala into the supply chain in Dubai in 2010.

UAE customs officials declined to comment on the report. The huge gold trading centre has shown it is sensitive to ethical issues, and the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, working with the OECD, issued guidelines on responsible trading this year.

But controlling unofficial supplies is extremely difficult. One participant at a World Gold Council roundtable in Johannesburg last year said they saw travellers arriving in Dubai with suitcases of semi-processed gold for refining.

Gold can be mixed with metal from other sources and moulded into dozens of different forms, which can be melted down and recycled again and again. Even small quantities make big money.

Official figures do not specify where gold is exported to from Dubai, but traders say much of it is bound for India, the world's biggest gold consumer, and elsewhere in the Middle East. Those markets accounted for more than 1 000 t of demand last year - about 40% of global consumption.

US-listed companies sourcing gold from these markets, many times removed from its original source, for use in jewellery or electronic goods bound for the United States may decline to buy unregulated metal. But others won't worry.

"It's fair to say that consumer awareness [of conflict funding] is nowhere near as developed in India and China as it is in Europe and North America," says Michael Rae, CEO of the Responsible Jewellery Council.

GUIDELINES

Detailed guidelines for section 1502 are still pending. Even when the act is fully enforceable, companies will not be punished directly for buying from Congo and its neighbours.

But if their reporting turns out to be inaccurate, they could fall foul of SEC artificial stone crushing equipment disclosure regulations, leaving them open to civil and criminal penalties. In theory, directors could be held individually liable.

"Companies are concerned about the burden they are facing," said Tim Engel of law firm King & Spalding in Washington. "They are concerned about what would happen if they make a disclosure in good faith and it turns out to be inaccurate."

Supporters of section 1502 say the legislation, though imperfect, is an important part of a push towards greater accountability in the global gold industry.

Section 1502 was, for example, one of the pieces of legislation the London Bullion Market Association looked at when it drafted its guidance for refiners on its Good Delivery List, a key quality standard, earlier this year.

"It's a huge opportunity," said Annie Dunnebacke, a campaigner at Global Witness, which aims to increase awareness of conflict and corruption around natural resources.

"It is the first time there is a piece of legislation that actually tackles the issue of conflict financing and makes requirements of companies in a supply chain, particularly downstream, end-user companies."

But the very nature of gold is always going to make it hard to track and control supply, especially via legislation aimed at the upper end of the industry. To make a real impact, more direct action within Congo is needed to target the warlords who profit from gold trading.

Convincing traders in Congo that this is practical is likely to be an uphill task.

"How can we differentiate gold?" said Silva Ucima. "It's all yellow. How can you know where it comes from?"

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) - Production at TSX-listed New Gold's New Afton mine, in British Columbia, has started with the first ore having been processed through the mill circuit on June 28.

The miner said the June production start met its originally stated timeline and that the commissioning of the mill circuit had also been consistent with its expectations.

The mill circuit had been running on a continuous basis since it received the first ore, with progressively more volume being added.

New Gold anticipated that the daily milling rate would continue to increase over the coming weeks. The company's target for commercial production at New Afton, defined as 30 days of operation at 60% of capacity, or 6 600 t/d, remained August. hot sale beneficiation equipment

In addition to the recent mill production start, New Afton's underground mining operations, which began in the fourth quarter of 2011, continued to perform well. The daily mining rate and the growth in the surface ore stockpile were tracking at or ahead of targeted levels.

hot sale magnetic separator price"We are proud to be in a position to deliver this project on schedule and to see it become the fourth operating mine in our portfolio.

"New Afton is an important part of the history of our company and we look forward to this mine becoming our most significant cash flow generator," president and CEO Robert Gallagher stated.

New Afton's total development cost remained about C$765-million, which was net of revenue from gold and copper sales between the start of production and the commencement of commercial production in August.

New Afton was forecast to produce 35 000 oz to 45 000 oz of gold and 30-million to 35-million pounds of copper at total cash cost, net of by-product credits, of $1 200/oz to $1 300/oz in 2012.

On a coproduct basis, the total cash cost in 2012 was expected to be $630/oz to $650/oz of gold and $1.35/lb to $1.45/lb of copper.

New Gold said the by-product and coproduct costs at New Afton were expected to decrease significantly in 2013 and beyond, as the mine hits its full capacity.

Further, New Afton's production forecast included gold and copper produced between mill hot sale spiral classifier start-up and commercial production. The revenue from this precommercial production would be offset against capital costs.

New Afton gold and copper sales from commercial production for 2012 were anticipated to be 20 000 oz to 30 000 oz of gold and 20-million to 25-million pounds of copper.

Over its currently estimated 12-year mine life, New Afton was expected to produce an average of 85 000 oz of gold and 75-million pounds of copper every year, at a total cash cost, net of by-product credits, of about $1 750/oz.

The total coproduct cash cost was anticipated to reach $525/oz of gold and $1.15/lb of copper.

New Gold's exploration team could now also drill the C-zone block of mineralisation that lay below and to the side of the New Afton reserve block in an effort to add to the mine's base 12-year life.

The company had budgeted $5-million for exploration at New Afton in the second half of 2012 to further explore and delineate the C-zone.