Archive | Canada Mining

Hudbay’s Rosemont mine pushes ahead despite concerns on water impacts – by Ian Bickis (Canadian Press/Bloomberg News – March 21, 2019)

March 22, 2019 in Canada Mining, Copper, International Media Resource Articles, United States Mining

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

TORONTO — A controversial mine being developed by a Canadian company in Arizona shows the lengths to which the industry will go to feed the world’s unrelenting demand for copper.

Hudbay Minerals Inc. and a previous owner have been pushing to get approval for the Rosemont mine for more than a decade amid local opposition and skepticism from regulators about water issues in the semi-arid region.

To secure approval for the nearly US$2-billion mine the company has proposed numerous measures to reduce impacts on the environment, including what it says is an “unprecedented” use of dry-stack tailings. Continue Reading →

Paulson says will not support Newmont takeover bid for Goldcorp (Reuters U.S. – March 21, 2019)

March 22, 2019 in Canada Mining, Gold and Silver, Goldcorp Inc., International Media Resource Articles, Newmont, United States Mining

https://www.reuters.com/

TORONTO (Reuters) – Paulson & Co Inc will not support Newmont Mining Corp’s planned $10 billion takeover of rival Goldcorp Inc as the premium offered is unjustified, the investor said in a letter on Thursday.

The transaction is dilutive to Newmont shareholders and only Goldcorp shareholders would benefit from the deal’s synergies, Founder John Paulson and Partner Marcelo Kim said in the letter to Newmont Chief Executive Officer Gary Goldberg.

Newmont made a friendly offer in January for Goldcorp in what would be the gold sector’s biggest-ever takeover transaction, a bid to create the world’s largest gold producer. Continue Reading →

200 gold bars have now been poured at Moose River mine in eastern Nova Scotia – by Paul Palmeter (CBC News Nova Scotia – March 21, 2019)

March 21, 2019 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/

Atlantic Gold mine employs hundreds; environmentalist concerned about January tailings leak

Close to $150 million in startup costs are now behind Atlantic Gold Corp. at its Moose River gold mine, a project now in full swing and which has brought hundreds of jobs to a remote part of Nova Scotia.

During the first 18 months of production at the open-pit mine roughly 40 kilometres inland from Sheet Harbour, N.S., about 200 gold bars, some worth nearly $1 million each, have been poured.

“In our first year of production we were actually able to surpass our 90,000-ounce goal and produce 90,500 ounces,” said Craig Hudson, chief metallurgist with Atlantic Gold. “We’re now looking at higher targets and an increase in our production.” Continue Reading →

[Mining Asteroids] OPINION: Relax: An asteroid will just miss hitting Earth. But our actions could still have a deep impact – by Michael Byers and Aaron Boley (Globe and Mail – March 19, 2019)

March 19, 2019 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Space Mining

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Michael Byers holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law. Aaron Boley holds the Canada Research Chair in Planetary Astronomy. Both are at the University of British Columbia, where they co-direct the Outer Space Institute.

On Wednesday evening, depending on where in Canada you are, you might be leaving school or work, having dinner, or already fast asleep in bed.

Meanwhile, an asteroid the size of a seven-storey building – designated 2019 EA2, to reflect the fact that it is the second asteroid to pass close to Earth this year, and spotted just two weeks ago through a telescope in Arizona – will buzz by the planet we call home. The good news? The 24-metre-wide asteroid will miss us by 300,000 kilometres.

The bad news: asteroids do hit the Earth. Most harmlessly break into pieces as they enter Earth’s atmosphere, but even a relatively small asteroid can damage property and injure people. In 2013, a 17-meter-wide asteroid sent 1,500 people to hospital in Chelyabinsk, Russia, most of them injured by flying glass from broken windows. Continue Reading →

Golden executive payoffs hurt shareholders and economy – by Ian Madsen (Troy Media – March 19, 2019)

March 19, 2019 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver, Goldcorp Inc., Newmont

https://troymedia.com/

Ian Madsen is a senior policy analyst with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

The Goldcorp Inc. merger with Newmont Mining Corp. has many people bemoaning the loss of yet another large, independent Canadian company to an opportunistic acquirer.

With the consequent loss of many Goldcorp executive and other head office jobs, the real tragedy is that too many Canadian companies have aimless, dysfunctional, or outright bad managers who rarely face the ramifications of their poor decisions.

Its not just left-leaning people who are frustrated with those at the top receiving enormous salaries, bonuses, performance incentives, stock options and other emoluments. So do professional, institutional and ordinary shareholders. Continue Reading →

Mining Companies Polluted Western Waters. Now Taxpayers Have to Pay for the Clean Up. – by Mark Olalde (Mother Jones – March 18, 2019)

March 18, 2019 in Canada Mining, Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles, Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution and Abandoned Mines, United States Mining

https://www.motherjones.com/

“They took the heart of the mountains away from us.”

This story was originally published by the Center for Public Integrity.

The remnants of an abandoned gold and silver mine scar the Little Rocky Mountains just south of the Fort Belknap Indian Community in Montana, bleeding polluted orange water into streams that meander through the reservation. Warren Morin remembers drinking the once-pristine water while he was growing up in the 1970s. Now it’s so acidic it makes his skin burn and turn red on contact.

Pegasus Gold Corp., a Canadian company that owned that mine and several others in the state, went bankrupt and folded 20 years ago. That left a legacy of water pollution and a cleanup bill nearing $100 million—with no end in sight. “They took the heart of the mountains away from us,” said Morin, chair of the tribal council’s natural resources committee.

Pegasus isn’t an isolated case. Especially in the drought-prone West, the outdated and opaque regulatory system meant to ensure money is available to restore water and land at gold, copper and other hardrock mines often falls short. Continue Reading →

Sorry Liberals – the ‘jobs’ excuse for the SNC-Lavalin debacle won’t fly – by Rex Murphy (National Post – March 16, 2019)

March 18, 2019 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Canada Mining, Oil and Gas Sector-Politics and Image

https://nationalpost.com/

Whoever is masterminding the Liberal response to this scandal appears to be confusing the anchor with the life jacket

Whoever is masterminding the Liberal response to the SNC-Lavalin scandal is confusing the anchor and the life jacket. To be clear, the life jacket is the one that keeps you afloat … the anchor is the heavy thing.

The justice committee Liberals — who are obviously not mariners — met Wednesday only to shut the committee down for a week, to stall on allowing Jody Wilson-Raybould back to complete her testimony, giving every indication possible that they weren’t really very interested in hearing from her at all anymore.

There is nothing opposition MPs could have done more effectively to juice up an already highly-charged saga than the five Liberals’ blatant and televised amputation of what a committee named justice ought to be doing. Continue Reading →

Bristow’s masterstroke gives Barrick control of Newmont’s Nevada assets — but now he must deliver – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – March 16, 2019)

March 18, 2019 in Barrick Gold Corporation, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver, Nevada Mining, Newmont

https://business.financialpost.com/

Barrick CEO Mark Bristow says investor’s poor reaction to the Newmont-Goldcorp merger created an opportunity and he pounced

One day after announcing a deal to effectively create the world’s third largest gold company, Mark Bristow, chief executive of Barrick Gold Corp., stayed in Elko, Nevada — a dry, rugged city situated near the Carlin Trend, one of the world’s richest gold mining districts — to assemble the team responsible for executing his promises.

For decades, Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp. and its archrival Colorado-based Newmont Mining Corp., the two biggest gold mining companies in the world, have fuelled a large part of their growth through discoveries along the Carlin Trend, and tried numerous times to reach an accord to work together there.

Now, Bristow, 12 weeks into his tenure at the helm of Barrick, is holding up a joint venture agreement with Newmont to share assets in Nevada, which he claims will save both companies US$500 million per year, and billions of dollars over the long run. What’s more the deal was ramrodded through in a matter of days while Bristow proposed a $17.8 billion hostile offer to takeover all of Newmont. Continue Reading →

New Mexican ambassador offers warning to Canadian companies in Mexico – by Stephanie Nolen (Globe and Mail – March 16, 2019)

March 18, 2019 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Latin America Mining

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canadian mining companies operating in Mexico should be on notice that the sector is going to face increased scrutiny on its environmental practices and treatment of Indigenous people, according to the the country’s new ambassador to Ottawa.

“President [Andres Manuel] Lopez Obrador has been very public about this, that we really want a strong, profitable mining sector – and Canadian mining companies are large investors in Mexico – but we expect them to operate in this country with exactly the same standards as they do in Canada,” Juan Jose Gomez Camacho, who was ratified as the new ambassador on Thursday, said in an interview at the foreign affairs ministry in the Mexican capital.

Some 70 per cent of foreign-owned mining companies operating in Mexico are based in Canada, according to Global Affairs Canada. In 2015, Canadian firms held assets in Mexico totalling nearly US$20-billion. Continue Reading →

[Space Mining] Maple moon rising: a gateway to better Canada-US relations? – by Christopher Sands and Sean Kelly (Policy Options – March 2019)

March 18, 2019 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Space Mining

http://policyoptions.irpp.org/

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on February 28 that Canada would join the United States in its Lunar Gateway project, becoming the first international partner to officially sign on. The announcement came with a financial commitment of $2 billion over 24 years.

Then, on March 6, Minister for Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Bains launched a comprehensive new Canadian space policy. Titled Exploration, Imagination, Innovation: A New Space Policy for Canada, the strategy sets federal research funding priorities for space science in four areas: lunar science, artificial intelligence, robotics and health.

The goal is to highlight areas in which Canada has already developed deep expertise while accelerating cutting-edge research to ensure that Canada can continue to contribute as a partner of choice for the US and other countries engaged in space exploration. Continue Reading →

Goldcorp’s Ian Telfer gives up director seat at Newmont amid outcry over retirement payment – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – March 15, 2019)

March 18, 2019 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver, Goldcorp Inc.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Goldcorp Inc. says its long-time chairman will not be joining the board of Newmont Mining Corp. after an outcry over a huge bump in his retirement benefits.

Last week, Goldcorp’s board approved a near-tripling of Ian Telfer’s retirement benefit to US$12-million from US$4.5-million. The cash is payable to Mr. Telfer should Newmont succeed in its plans to buy the Vancouver-based miner. In explanation for the increase, Goldcorp has said Mr. Telfer’s compensation has not historically been adjusted for inflation.

The arrangement was met with scorn by some stakeholders, especially considering Mr. Telfer agreed to sell Goldcorp near a historic low in its stock price. Continue Reading →

Provinces divided over minerals and metals plan – by Tyler Nyquvest (Business In Vancouver – March 14, 2019)

March 15, 2019 in Canada Mining, Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications

https://biv.com/

Recently, Canada’s mining ministers announced the new Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan (CMMP) to draw attention to the importance of the sector and create a road map for the future.

Some of the key themes of the CMMP are raising awareness, responding to ongoing and emerging challenges and helping to position the country as a major supplier of the minerals and metals that will power the cleaner global economy of tomorrow.

“While Canada has long benefited from a prosperous minerals and metals industry, we are not immune to global competitive forces, and cannot take the benefits and opportunities that mining offers Canadians for granted,” Pierre Gratton, president and CEO of the Mining Association of Canada, said in a press release. Continue Reading →

SolGold’s Nick Mather our Mining Person of the Year for 2018 – by John Cumming (Northern Miner – February 27, 2019)

March 15, 2019 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Copper, Gold and Silver, Junior Exploration Sector, Latin America Mining, Northern Miner – Mining Person of the Year Award

Northern Miner

Nicholas Mather, president and CEO of Australian junior SolGold, is The Northern Miner’s Mining Person of the Year for 2018 in recognition of his role as the driving force behind the wildly successful grassroots team that has drilled off the world-class Alpala gold-copper deposit at its Cascabel project in Imbabura province in northern Ecuador, with potentially many more discoveries to come in the region.

The past year was a pivotal one for Toronto- and London-listed SolGold. In November 2018, it tabled an updated resource for Alpala that tallied a staggering 2.1 billion indicated tonnes grading 0.41% copper and 0.29 gram gold per tonne, or 0.60% copper equivalent (at a 0.2% copper-equivalent cut-off), plus another 900 million inferred tonnes grading 0.27% copper and 0.13 gram gold, or 0.35% copper equivalent, at the same cut-off. These numbers are based on 133,600 metres of drilling.

That translates to a contained metal content of 8.4 million tonnes copper and 19.4 million oz. gold in the indicated category, and another 2.5 million tonnes copper and 3.8 million oz. gold in inferred. Continue Reading →

OPINION: Mining’s Dirty Secret Won’t Survive a Changing Climate – by David Fickling (Bloomberg News – March 13, 2019)

March 14, 2019 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles

https://www.bloombergquint.com/

(Bloomberg Opinion) — Can mining be green? That’s certainly the ambition of some of the biggest companies in the sector. Rio Tinto Group last year became the first major miner to stop digging up coal altogether.

Glencore Plc, historically one of the commodity’s most vocal boosters, has promised to cap production at current levels. “We have a portfolio free of coal and oil and gas,” Rio’s Chief Executive Officer Jean-Sebastian Jacques told investors after annual results last month. “We are well-positioned to thrive in the world that values sustainability more and more.”

Well, up to a point. Miners have certainly been working to reduce the impact of their own operations. Partly thanks to asset sales and spinoffs, carbon pollution from on-site fuel and electricity – so-called Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions – has fallen by almost half in the past five years at the two biggest players, Rio Tinto and BHP Group. Continue Reading →

Once-Mighty Canadian Mining Losing Ground to Global Competitors – by Danielle Bochove (Boomberg News – March 14, 2019)

March 14, 2019 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Canada is in danger of losing its global dominance in mining, despite recent government initiatives to improve competitiveness, according to a report from an industry association.

The report, by the Mining Association of Canada, comes as debate about the hollowing out of the country’s mining sector grows. Mega-mergers by Canada’s two largest gold companies, Barrick Gold Corp. and Goldcorp Inc., stand to erode its global influence.

The Barrick tie-up, with Channel Islands-based Randgold Resources Ltd., has already resulted in job cuts and further decentralization away from Canada, a trend that will likely increase under Barrick’s newly inked joint-venture in Nevada with Newmont Mining Corp. Continue Reading →