Archive | Canadian Media Resource Articles

Chinese mining company Jiangxi targeting First Quantum for potential takeover bid, sources say – by Andrew Willis and Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – September 21, 2019)

September 21, 2019 in Asia Mining, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

State-controlled mining company Jiangxi Copper Corp. Ltd. is stalking Vancouver-based First Quantum Minerals Ltd., owner of the largest copper mine in Africa, an approach driven by the Chinese government’s drive to lock up supplies of natural resources in the continent.

First Quantum recently hired investment bankers and lawyers to deal with a potential takeover bid from Jiangxi, China’s largest copper producer, according to financial industry sources who asked not to be named because they are not authorized to speak for the company. These sources said Jiangxi has not made a formal offer, and may decide to abandon the chase.

First Quantum’s share price jumped a total of 20 per cent on Thursday and Friday. Bloomberg this week reported possible takeover interest by global miners and a toehold 9-per-cent investment in the Canadian miner by Jiangxi. First Quantum stock closed Friday at $12.21 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, valuing the company at $8.4-billion. Continue Reading →

Sudbury: Federal Green Party pledges investment in sustainable mining (CBC News Sudbury – September 18, 2019)

September 18, 2019 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Mining Education and Innovation, Ontario Mining, Sudbury Basin

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/

Platform includes a promise for $40 million for the proposed Sudbury mining innovation cluster

The leader of the federal Green Party of Canada is clarifying some misinformation about the party’s stance on mining. In the party’s platform, there is a line that states that “no new pipelines, or coal, oil or gas drilling or mining, including offshore wells, will be approved.”

The platform also states that the party plans to “support the transition of the mining sector to an innovation hub for greener technologies.”

It also pledges $40 million for the proposed Sudbury-based mining innovation cluster. Some have questioned what the promises mean for the mining sector. Continue Reading →

Inquiry into foreign funding of anti-Alberta energy campaigns could shake up enviro charities – by Terence Corcoran (Financial Post – September 18, 2019)

September 18, 2019 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Climate Change, Carbon Taxes and ENGOs, Oil and Gas Sector-Politics and Image

https://business.financialpost.com/

In a drive-by take-down editorial this past weekend, the Globe and Mail blasted Alberta’s public inquiry into foreign funding of anti-Alberta energy campaigns. The editorial had few facts on hand to support its claims, but it let loose with a series of cheap shots, glib commentary and a conclusion that fell back on an ancient tribal chant: “For Alberta to create a public inquiry to go after critics is a McCarthyesque misuse of power.”

Ah, McCarthyism, the old ideological cushion of the lazy lefty — although most Canadians under the age of 50 would have to Google it.

Alberta’s inquiry into the foreign funding of Canada’s green anti-oil activist groups is headed by Steve Allan, by all accounts a solid and objective forensic accountant who is as far from being Joe McCarthy as Mr. Rogers is from being Donald Trump. Continue Reading →

Abandoned mine cleanup federal, provincial responsibility: Cook-Searson – by Alex MacPherson (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – September 18, 2019)

September 18, 2019 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution, Tailing Dams and Abandoned Mines, Saskatchewan Mining, Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

https://thestarphoenix.com/

Liberal candidate Tammy Cook-Searson says both levels of government should help clean up the abandoned Gunnar mine.

The Liberal candidate in Saskatchewan’s vast northern riding says both the federal and provincial governments should be responsible for cleaning up the abandoned Gunnar uranium mine and other, similar sites in the region.

That aligns with the view of many Saskatchewan politicians, but breaks with the federal Liberals’ position that the province should put up virtually all of the cash for the massively over-budget project, which is currently estimated to cost $280 million.

“I think that both levels of government need to sit down and figure out what the fair share is. Negotiate it,” Tammy Cook-Searson said of the largest environmental remediation project in Saskatchewan history, which was originally expected to cost just $24.6 million. Continue Reading →

Canada primed for rare earth revival – by Sarah Treleaven (CIM Magazine – September 16, 2019)

September 18, 2019 in Asia Mining, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Cobalt, Critical, Strategic and Rare Earth Minerals and Metals

https://magazine.cim.org/en/

As China threatens to halt exports of vital rare earth metals, some Canadian companies believe that their time has come

As the U.S.-China trade war heats up, with U.S. president Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping placing tariffs on an increasing amount of goods, even while occasionally offering a more conciliatory appeal for new talks, a small but cautiously optimistic group of miners are wondering if this impasse might finally herald their time in the spotlight.

The focus of that spotlight is rare earths, a group of elements that are increasingly in demand because they make up crucial components of cell phones, electric vehicles, rechargeable batteries and medical devices, as well as many other industrial and military applications. The manufacturing of permanent magnets represents the single most important end use for rare earths, accounting for almost a quarter of total consumption.

Major reserves can be found in China, Australia, Brazil, Russia and Malaysia, though China currently produces close to 90 per cent of the global supply. (The only other meaningful producer is the Lynas Corporation in Australia.) Continue Reading →

BHP boss’ pay cut by almost 25% after worker’s death, runaway train – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – September 18, 2019)

September 18, 2019 in Australia/New Caledonia/Papua New Guinea Mining, BHP Billiton, Canadian Media Resource Articles

https://www.mining.com/

BHP’s chief executive, Andrew Mackenzie, saw his annual pay shrink by almost a quarter after an unexplained death at one of the company’s Queensland mines and a runaway iron ore train cost him a portion of his short-term bonus.

Mackenzie, 62, had his short-term bonus reduced by more than $1 million from 2018 to $1.3 million. His base salary was kept at $1.7 million, taking his total earnings, including other benefits, to $3.5 million, from $4.6 million in 2018.

According to BHP’s 2019 annual report, the death of a 49-year-old worker at its Saraji coal mine on New Year’s Eve last year, the cause of which it was unable to determine, was the main reason for the pay-cut. It was the first time in more than 15 years that the company had failed to pinpoint the cause of a fatal accident, BHP said. Continue Reading →

‘Momentous day’ as Yukon’s newest mine pours 1st gold bar (CBC News North – September 18, 2019)

September 18, 2019 in Canada Mining – North of 60, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

Yukon’s newest mine marked a milestone on Tuesday, as it poured its first gold bar — 1,001 ounces in size, and worth about $2 million. “A momentous day,” said Mark Ayranto, chief operating officer of Victoria Gold, which owns the Eagle mine near Mayo, Yukon.

Ayranto was in Whitehorse on Tuesday, in a roomful of people watching a live video feed from the mine site. On screen were two people decked head-to-toe in protective silver suits, ready to tip the molten gold into the mould.

Unrecognizable in one of those suits was Yukon Premier Sandy Silver. The $500-million mine will be the largest in Yukon’s history. It’s expected to be a major contributor to the territory’s economy. Continue Reading →

New geological survey maps understudied part of N.W.T. – by Laura Busch (CBC News North – September 18, 2019)

September 18, 2019 in Canada Mining – North of 60, Canadian Media Resource Articles

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

Mining advocates are applauding the N.W.T. Geological Survey for its recent work mapping an under-explored area of the territory. Tom Hoefer, the executive director of the NWT & Nunavut Chamber of Mines, says the information could spur mineral exploration and help the N.W.T.’s slumping mining industry.

“The [economic] outlook in the future isn’t that great, and the reason why is we haven’t found enough new mines to offset the mine closures that are going to be coming,” he said. “And the reason for that is we’ve had flagging, or really low exploration investment for the last 12 years now.”

The N.W.T. Geological Survey released new data on Monday of a large swath of the Slave Geological Province, including an area known as the Point Lake greenstone belt. Point Lake is located about 300 kilometres north of Yellowknife, near the Nunavut border. Continue Reading →

‘They burned everything’: Guatemalan women press Hudbay on human rights claims in closely watched case – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – September 18, 2019)

September 18, 2019 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Latin America Mining, Mining Conflict and Opposition

https://business.financialpost.com/

Two indigenous Guatemalan women stood quietly in front of a Toronto courthouse on Tuesday morning, surrounded by a scrum that included a filmmaking crew, lawyers, media and a gaggle of other people.

On a crowded city street during rush hour, the women drew little notice from passersby but their case is being closely followed by the mining sector and beyond.

Both women, Irma Yolanda Choc Cac and Angelica Choc, had travelled from a remote part of eastern Guatemala, to continue pressing legal claims that Hudbay Minerals Inc., one of Canada’s oldest mining companies, bears liability for rape, violence and other human rights abuses that took place more than a decade ago when their village was razed to make way for the Fenix nickel mine. Continue Reading →

Revving up Greenland’s mineral production will take time – by Virginia Heffernan (Northern Miner – September 16, 2019)

September 17, 2019 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Cobalt, Critical, Strategic and Rare Earth Minerals and Metals, Europe Mining

Global mining news

The MV Happy Dragon had just sailed into safe harbour at Charleston, South Carolina when Hurricane Dorian forced the vessel back out to sea to await better weather.

The cargo ship was carrying more than 14,000 tonnes of anorthosite from Vancouver-based Hudson Resources’ (TSXV: HUD; US-OTC: HUDRF) White Mountain mine in Greenland for customers in the paints, coatings and fibreglass markets. Hudson has an agreement with Terra Firma, a privately-held chemical distributor, to market its anorthosite in the U.S. and a 10-year off-take agreement with an unnamed fibreglass producer.

Could White Mountain and other mineral deposits — especially those containing rare earth elements (REEs) used in most electronic devices and in the aerospace and defense industries— be what U.S. President Donald Trump had in mind when he offered last month to buy Greenland, an offer Denmark called “absurd”? That’s at least part of the story. Continue Reading →

Vale misled public on dangerous dams, prompting Brazil probe: source – by Marta Nogueira, Jake Spring and Christian Plumb (Reuters Canada – September 17, 2019)

September 17, 2019 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Iron Ore, Latin America Mining, Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution, Tailing Dams and Abandoned Mines, Vale

https://ca.reuters.com/

RIO DE JANEIRO/BRASILIA/SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Faced with public outrage after its second mining dam collapse in four years killed at least 240 people in Brazil, Vale SA misrepresented what it had done to shut down its riskiest dams, a review of the company’s statements shows.

Fabio Schvartsman, Vale’s then-chief executive, said at a nationally broadcast news conference days after the dam burst in late January that the company had already decommissioned nine “upstream dams” in the wake of a 2015 disaster involving the same type of structure, and planned to dismantle 10 more over the next few years. The company repeated the claim in a statement on its website.

Reuters asked Vale for details on these moves on February 5, seven days after Schvartsman’s news conference. In March, some five weeks later, Vale gave Reuters a list of nine dams that it said it had closed since 2014, a year before the Mariana disaster. Continue Reading →

OPINION: The oil geo-political risk premium that should never have disappeared is suddenly back – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – September 17, 2019)

September 17, 2019 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Oil and Gas Sector-Politics and Image

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The weekend attack on an enormous Saudi crude oil-processing plant reintroduces a key factor – a geopolitical risk premium – that had largely disappeared from the price. The premium could remain permanent if any next attack were to take out a giant oil field. This one did not.

The skillful attack on the Abqaiq plant, which prepares crude for delivery in pipelines by removing its sulphur and other guck, and the nearby Khurais oil field put the vulnerability of Saudi oil infrastructure on full and instant display.

Drones, or possibly cruise missiles, hit several big tanks at Abqaiq and other equipment, sending clouds of black smoke billowing upward. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen took credit for the damage, though U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, without supporting his claim with evidence, placed the blame squarely on Iran even though some reports said the attacks may have come from Iraq or from within Saudi Arabia. Continue Reading →

In the Neskantaga First Nation, undrinkable water is a crisis of health and faith – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – September 16, 2019)

September 17, 2019 in Aboriginal and Inuit Non-Mining Issues, Canadian Media Resource Articles

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Why can mining companies build water treatment plants for their
workers in remote locations in a timely manner that have no problems?

And why could a dinky little country of 4.5 million, take less than five years, in the early 1880s, to build the longest railroad in the world, at that time, through some of the harshest geography on the planet and yet a modern, industrialized G-7 C$2 trillion economy not be able to provide clean drinking water to all affected FNs in ONE political
mandate of roughly four years?? – Stan Sudol

After a quarter-century of Canada’s longest boil-water advisory, the people of Neskantaga thought their water crisis could not possibly get worse. They were wrong.

The breakdown of two electric pumps has left the isolated First Nations community without any water in some of its homes this week, and only a trickle of unchlorinated water in others. Its school has shut down, and nearly 100 people were flown to Thunder Bay on emergency evacuation flights on Sunday, with more evacuations scheduled for Monday evening.

Some residents are already reporting headaches and skin infections from the water, according to Chief Chris Moonias. The federal Liberals have pledged to eliminate all of the 56 remaining boil-water advisories in First Nations communities across Canada by March, 2021. But the prolonged crisis at Neskantaga and other First Nations has raised doubts about whether or not that promise will be met. Continue Reading →

In Planet’s Fastest-Warming Region, Jobs Come With Thaw – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – September 17, 2019)

September 17, 2019 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Canada Mining – North of 60, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://www.bloomberg.com/

The Canadian Arctic is melting, and two new gold mines are booming.

James Kalluk spent much of his childhood inside an igloo in Canada’s far north, close to the Arctic Circle. Building that kind of home requires temperatures low enough to freeze the region’s countless lakes, a particular consistency of snow and a long-bladed knife the Inuit call a pana.

“Today, there’s not much snow and it’s harder to make an igloo,” said Kalluk, now in his early 70s. “You may find a spot here or there that’s good, but the snow is very difficult now. It’s different.”

The loss of snow and ice are causing Canada to heat up much faster than the rest of the world—more than twice the global rate of warming, according to a national scientific assessment published in April. The farther north you go, the more accelerated the warming. Continue Reading →

Exclusive: Greece seeks new mining jobs, higher royalties in talks with Eldorado – by Angeliki Koutantou (Reuters Canada – September 16, 2019)

September 16, 2019 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Europe Mining, Gold and Silver

https://ca.reuters.com/

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece is in talks with Canada’s Eldorado Gold to secure higher royalties from its mining development projects and new jobs, Energy Minister Kostis Hatzidakis said on Monday.

Vancouver-based miner Eldorado has two operating mines and two development projects in northern Greece and its planned investment is viewed as one of the biggest in the country in years. The projects have, however, repeatedly stalled over licensing delays and environmental concerns.

They have become flagship schemes for Greece’s new conservative government, which took office in July with a pledge to unblock foreign investments and help boost economic output crimped by a quarter through years of financial turmoil. Continue Reading →