Zimbabwe: Questions As Chinese Resurface On Anjin’s Marange Diamond Claims – by Mukasiri Sibanda (All Africa – April 23, 2018)

April 24, 2018 in Africa Mining, Diamond Mining, International Media Resource Articles

http://allafrica.com/

On 20 April 2018, the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) accompanied ambassadors from European Union countries during their field visit to the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) mining operations in Marange in the east of the country. One interesting observation was the fresh fence erected on Anjin’s concession, an air strip clearance and the presence of some Chinese on the ground.

The personnel are clearly not ZCDC staff and indications were that they were not maintenance staff either. This raises several questions: is Anjin back? If so, in what disguise? Did they get a new license?

Anjin is a diamond mining partnership between Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Company Ltd of China (AFECC) and Matt Bronze, an investment vehicle controlled by Zimbabwe’s military. Continue Reading →

RPT-Mining firms from China to Canada watch as Greenland holds election – by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen (Reuters U.S. – April 22, 2018)

April 24, 2018 in Europe Mining, International Media Resource Articles

https://www.reuters.com/

COPENHAGEN, April 20 (Reuters) – With melting ice expanding access to the Arctic, investors from China to Canada are watching Greenland’s election for signs of the political will to get a flagging mining programme on the island back on track.

Greenland is hoping rising commodity prices can help attract foreign investment and get its fragile economy up to speed to realise a long-term goal of independence from Denmark.

Hype about a possible mining boom in Greenland after it achieved self-rule from Denmark in 2009 faded in a morass of red tape and a commodity price slump around five years ago. It left the economy reliant on fishing and grants from Denmark. Continue Reading →

Harte Gold Progress at Sugar Zone Property 80KMs east of Hemlo Gold Camp

April 24, 2018 in Gold and Silver, Ontario Mining

 

Harte Gold Corp. (“Harte Gold”) is focused on the exploration and development of its 100% owned Sugar Zone property where it has recently completed a 70,000 tonne Advanced Exploration Bulk Sample at the Sugar Zone Deposit and mined 30,000 tonnes under its Phase I Production Permit.

The Sugar Zone property is located 80 kilometers east of the Hemlo Gold Camp. Using a 3.0 g/t Au cut-off, the Mineral Resource Estimate dated February 15, 2018 contains an Indicated Mineral Resource Estimate of 2,607,000 tonnes grading 8.52 g/t for 714,200 ounces of contained gold and an Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate of 3,590,000 tonnes, grading 6.59 g/t for 760,800 ounces of contained gold. Continue Reading →

As Rusal Sanctions Ease, Traders Eye Other Metal Shock Threats – by Susanne Barton (Bloomberg News – April 23, 2018)

April 24, 2018 in Aluminium/Bauxite, Copper, International Media Resource Articles, Nickel Laterites

https://www.bloomberg.com/

The turmoil in the metals market that sent aluminum to its worst slump in almost eight years isn’t over. Buckle up for a longer bumpy ride ahead.

Aluminum led losses among metals Monday after the U.S. Treasury Department opened the door to relief from sanctions to United Co. Rusal, the largest aluminum producer outside of China. That triggered a selloff in the lightweight metal less than a week after the Rusal curbs sent prices soaring to an almost seven-year high.

While the Treasury Department’s statement signal the refined metal produced by Rusal could soon be back in the market, other uncertainties persist. Among those is the question of the flow of alumina, the main raw material used to make the refined metal. Continue Reading →

Barrick Gold says focus on growth after deep debt cuts – by Nicole Mordant (Reuters U.S. – April 23, 2018)

April 24, 2018 in Barrick Gold Corporation, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://www.bnn.ca/

https://www.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – Barrick Gold Corp (ABX.TO) said on Monday it was done selling assets to cut debt and would instead use funds from future sales for growth or to pay dividends, as it looks set to lose its rank as the world’s biggest gold producer due to declining production.

Toronto-based Barrick, which reported better-than-expected adjusted earnings, said its focus would increasingly be on growth from its own projects and operations in Nevada and the Dominican Republic.

The miner also said it had suspended work on a prefeasibility study on its massive Pascua-Lama gold and silver project in the Andes Mountains, which does not meet its investment criteria. Continue Reading →

Russia Sanctions Spook Palladium Investors – by Joe Deaux (Bloomberg News – April 22, 2018)

April 23, 2018 in Europe Mining, International Media Resource Articles, Norilsk Nickel, Platinum Group Metals

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Hedge funds just made an abrupt about face in the palladium market as U.S. sanctions against Russian titans spark concerns that the world’s largest producer of the metal will get caught in the cross hairs.

After the U.S. slapped penalties on United Co. Rusal, American officials have sent conflicting signals about whether fresh sanctions will be imposed on other companies owned by oligarchs, such as MMC Norilsk Nickel PJSC.

The miner controls about 40 percent of the world’s palladium market. The turmoil sent prices for the metal to a seven-week high, and money managers increased their wagers on a rally by the most since June. Continue Reading →

Exclusive: After crackdown, Philippines plans fresh mining curbs – by Manolo Serapio Jr and Enrico Dela Cruz (Reuters U.S. – April 23, 2018)

April 23, 2018 in Asia Mining, International Media Resource Articles, Nickel Laterites

https://www.reuters.com/

MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines is planning to limit the amount of land that miners can develop at any one time to boost environmental rehabilitation, a move that miners say may cut output of nickel ore in last year’s top supplier to China.

The new curbs, contained in a draft government order reviewed by Reuters and confirmed by senior officials, follow a crackdown last year that has left more than half the country’s mines facing suspension or closure due to environmental breaches.

Mining is a deeply contentious issue in the resource-rich Southeast Asian country after past examples of environmental mismanagement. Continue Reading →

Weak first quarter on tap for Canada’s gold producers – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – April 23, 2018)

April 23, 2018 in Barrick Gold Corporation, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver, Goldcorp Inc.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Investors are bracing for a weak first quarter from Canada’s biggest gold companies with lower production and higher costs expected amid a marginally higher commodity price.

Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s biggest gold producer, reports Monday after the close, with Goldcorp Inc. and Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. to follow later in the week.

“We expect rising labour costs combined with higher energy and consumable costs to put upward pressure on both operating costs and all in sustaining costs (AISC) at maturing mines,” wrote Stephen Walker, head of global mining research with RBC Dominion Securities Inc. in a note previewing earnings season at the senior gold producers. Continue Reading →

Bright prospects for exploration industry: Opportunity and change in store for prospectors, junior miners in 2018 – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – April 23, 2018)

April 23, 2018 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Junior Exploration Sector, Ontario Mining

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

The good vibes of confidence and recovery in the mining industry from this past spring’s Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention in Toronto have filtered into northwestern Ontario.

Garry Clark, executive director of the Ontario Prospectors Association (OPA), expects this year to be a busy field season, judging from what he hears and sees walking the floor at the recent Ontario Prospectors Exploration Showcase held in Thunder Bay in early April.

Many companies are ready to do exploration work on their properties if they can raise the financing. Others have money in their treasury and were just waiting for the snow to melt. Clark is expecting to see a mix of new mineral discoveries in 2018 and some stale projects, not worked for years, springing back to life. Continue Reading →

‘People will revolt’: workers say Russia must save sanctions-hit Rusal – by Polina Ivanova (Reuters U.S. – April 23, 2018)

April 23, 2018 in Aluminium/Bauxite, Europe Mining, International Media Resource Articles

https://www.reuters.com/

SAYANOGORSK, Russia (Reuters) – Workers at one of Russia’s biggest aluminum smelters say their Siberian town is doomed unless Moscow mitigates U.S. sanctions against aluminum giant Rusal, a predicament mirrored across the company’s sprawling operations.

Trapped by mortgages for apartments built on barren steppe under communism, residents of Sayanogorsk, one of a string of towns dominated by Rusal, have few options if a loss of customers for its aluminum leads the firm to cut jobs.

“The entire life of this city depends on Rusal,” said Evgeny Ivanov, until recently a foreman at the plant in Sayanogorsk, where pockmarked asphalt recalls the harsh winters endured by its 60,000 inhabitants, and icy blue mountains line the horizon. Continue Reading →

Radical environmentalism has containment problems of its own – by Rex Murphy (National Post – April 21, 2018)

April 23, 2018 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Climate Change, Carbon Taxes and ENGOs, Oil and Gas Sector-Politics and Image

http://nationalpost.com/

Eco extremists are threatening the economy and even Confederation with their opposition to the Trans Mountain pipeline project

For now your straws and swizzle sticks are safe. Prime Minister Trudeau is not (yet) going along with Britain’s Theresa May in her fierce campaign to ban the drinking straw.

It is a tribute to the wily manoeuvres and insidious influence of the international straw lobby that our PM “refused to be pinned down” and remained “noncommittal” on the menace of the common drinking straw to the planet’s ecosystems. On so grand a question he felt it better to defer till at least a full convocation of the world’s great economies, the G7. Wise man.

It was a severe disappointment to those hoping for Trudeau leadership on the straw cartel. After all, straws are, as one environmentalist noted, just small pipelines for CO2-saturated, atmosphere-degrading soft drinks. “Anyone can stand up to the oil lobby, but the gnomes of the international straw trade … ?” Well, that’s a different set of emissions. Continue Reading →

Brazilian shuffle: Canpotex opens Sao Paulo office as Vale exits fertilizer industry – by Andrew Willis (Globe and Mail – April 23, 2018)

April 23, 2018 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Potash/Phosphate, Saskatchewan Mining, Vale

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

As Brazil’s largest mining company exits the fertilizer industry, Canada’s leading potash exporter is ramping up its operations in South America’s largest agricultural market.

Canpotex Ltd., the Saskatoon-based company that sells potash from 10 Saskatchewan mines to farmers around the world, is expected to announce the opening of its first office in Brazil on Monday.

In an interview, Canpotex chief executive Ken Steitz said expanding its sales effort in Brazil is part of a $1-billion investment to better position the Canadian company as a dominant fertilizer supplier to a country that’s expected to lead the world in food production over the next three decades. Continue Reading →

South Africa to Appeal Ruling on Black Ownership of Mines – by Paul Burkhardt (Bloomberg News – April 23, 2018)

April 23, 2018 in Africa Mining, International Media Resource Articles

https://www.bloomberg.com/

South Africa has sought leave to appeal a court judgment earlier this month over a crucial black-ownership principle in the country’s Mining Charter, the nation’s mining lobby said.

The Chamber of Mines has been notified that Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe and the Department of Mineral Resources filed the application, it said in a statement Monday.

The High Court in Pretoria on April 4 ruled that the first two versions of the country’s charter didn’t require producers to top up black-shareholding levels in perpetuity if they previously met the minimum 26 percent requirement. Continue Reading →

Hope is only surviving camp from Upper Kenai Peninsula gold rush – by Ray Bonnell (Fairbanks Daily News-Miner – April 22, 2018)

April 23, 2018 in Alaska Mining, Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles, United States Mining History

http://www.newsminer.com/

FAIRBANKS — According to the 1915 U.S.G.S. report, “Geology and Mineral Resources of Kenai Peninsula, Alaska,” the only recorded instances of Russian gold exploration in Alaska occurred between 1848 and 1851, when Peter Doroshin, a Russian-American Company mining engineer, discovered gold in the Kenai River and spent two summers prospecting along the Russian River.

Doroshin, or his men, may have searched further afield, though. American miners in the Hope area found abandoned workings that they attributed to the Russians.

After the 1867 purchase of Alaska, prospectors began pushing north along the coast from British Columbia. By the 1880s, miners were working beach deposits along Lower Cook Inlet. In about 1888, a prospector named King (first name unknown) sojourned into the Upper Kenai Peninsula, returning two summers later with four pokes of gold. Continue Reading →

How B.C. blocking the Kinder Morgan pipeline does damage to us all – by David Olive (Toronto Star – April 21, 2018)

April 23, 2018 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Oil and Gas Sector-Politics and Image

https://www.thestar.com/

“But the hard reality is that global oil demand is expected
to keep rising between now and 2040, according to the latest
forecast of the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA).
Oil not sourced from Athabasca will be obtained from the emirs
of Kuwait, the perpetual conflict zone Nigeria, or the Siberian oilfields
that enrich the kleptocratic regime of Vladimir Putin.”

There’s a strong possibility that the proposed expansion of the Kinder Morgan crude oil pipeline from Alberta’s Athabasca tar sands to the B.C. coast will never be built. And that setback will do no small damage to Canada.

It’s been two weeks since the sponsor of the Ottawa-approved $7.4-billion megaproject, Kinder Morgan Inc., suspended all but essential operations on the pipeline.

Kinder Morgan gave Ottawa until May 31 to persuade the Houston-based company that there will be an end to B.C.’s relentless obstruction of the project. The company noted that B.C. “has been clear and public in its intention to use ‘every tool in its toolbox’ to stop the project.” Continue Reading →