Editorial: Top stories of 2017 – by John Cumming (Northern Miner – December 20, 2017)

Northern Miner

Broadly speaking, 2017 was a year of renewed optimism for many miners and mineral explorers, fuelled by stronger commodity prices and long awaited financial payoffs from belt-tightening measures taken during the 2012–2016 downturn in mining markets.

Let’s take a look at some of the top mining stories over the past year.

8. Rise of cryptocurrencies — This was the year mining executives and investors could no longer ignore the growing appeal of cryptocurrencies among a niche group of retail investors that would probably be gold bugs in years past.

As gold prices stayed flat for much of the year below US$1,300 per oz., cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin had exceptional years, with bitcoin starting the year around US$1,000 and rising past the US$18,000 mark by mid-December.

7. Technological innovation — If there was one theme that emerged at various mining conferences around the world in 2017, it was a renewed emphasis on technological innovation in mining operations. Miners were keen to show off their multitude of innovation initiatives, from remote control systems and next-level information technology at mine sites to plans for electric vehicle mining fleets and solar panel arrays.

6. Stumbles and belly flops — While a few years ago it was the major miners that filled the industry’s penalty box due to monumentally poor corporate decision-making, 2017 was a year for the smaller miners to make headlines with major operational problems, including TMAC Resources’ rocky ramp-up at its new Hope Bay gold mine in Nunavut;

For the rest of this article: http://www.northernminer.com/news/editorial-top-stories-2017/1003792459/