Metal Snips (November 30, 1987)

While a Japanese cosmetics firm reports it has available a synthetic mica, substitution of natural mica in foundation and face powder by the new material does not appear imminent: it costs four times as much to produce the synthetic variety as the natural kind. Shiseido Co. says the synthetic mica is a mix of magnesium oxide, alumina and silicon baked at temperatures exceeding 1,400 degrees C.

An international Gold Bank is planned for Perth, Australia, which would provide banking and investment services in gold and foreign currencies to gold producers, private investors, international banks and government authorities.

The main organization for tungsten producers worldwide, the Primary Tungsten Association, reports it will close its doors at year-end. Low prices for the metal have shut down more than a few of the group members’ mines. Tungsten is used in the manufacture of light bulb filaments and in strengthening steel.

Bids to buy Seleine Mines, which operates a rock-salt mine on the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, will close Jan 22, 1988, the Quebec government has announced. The government is selling the mine, opened in 1983, as part of a privatization plan.

A merger between the Commodity Exchange (Comex) in New York and the New York Mercantile Exchange may not be too far off. The board of governors of Comex, an active market for precious metals futures and options, has approved the recommendations of a report calling for an administrative merger between the two exchanges, the first step towards full consolidation. Futures on U.S. crude oil and oil products are traded on the mercantile exchange.