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Canada is complicit in driving the growing global consumption of dirty coal — but we also have the solution – by David Olive (Toronto Star – June 17, 2023)

https://www.thestar.com/

Global consumption of coal hit a record high in 2022. And there’s no end in sight for the dirtiest of fossil fuels, writes David Olive, despite promises to rid the world of its use a decade ago.

The world, and especially the Western economies, gave the impression of intending to get rid of coal more than a decade ago. And so, the dirtiest of fossil fuels causing climate change has long been thought to be in decline. Not so.

Global coal consumption hit a record high in 2022 and is expected to increase again this year. Climate scientists have said that if the world temperature is to be kept from rising more than 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels, coal production must drop by more than two-thirds by 2030. Instead, it is projected to fall by less than 20 per cent in that time.

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B.C. mining town rebranded as an outdoor paradise hopes to survive another wildfire season – by Mary Zeidler (CBC News British Columbia – June 16, 2023)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/

Dr. Charles Helm is safe at home in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., this week after a wildfire forced him and his wife to flee. “Any community that gets threatened by wildfires, it’s a tragedy, and everyone is very stressed, and it’s horrible,” said Helm, a semi-retired physician who has lived in the town for 28 years and has written a handful of books about its history.

“You can’t exaggerate how terrible it is.” Evacuation orders for the District of Tumbler Ridge, a town of about 2,500 people in the foothills of the Rockies and about an hour’s drive south of Dawson Creek, were downgraded to evacuation alerts on Thursday.

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Queensland Budget built on the back of coal – by Timothy Bond (Australian Mining – June 14, 2023)

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The Queensland Government’s controversial coal royalty system has contributed to an enormous $12.3 billion in revenue and a record surplus, giving the State’s budget the vitality it needs to tackle a range of cost of living issues.

Delivering his fourth budget to parliament, Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick announced an $8.2 billion cost of living relief program, including $550 electricity rebates for households (more for vulnerable households); $650 electricity rebates for small businesses; as well as an additional investment of $645 million over four years for free kindergarten for all four-year-olds.

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Feds are raising awareness about black lung disease in Wyoming coal miners – by Caitlan Tan (Wyoming Public Radio – June 14, 2023)

https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/

According to the Northwest Community Action Programs (NOWCAP) Black Lung Clinic, more people in Wyoming likely have black lung disease than is actually reported, and a federal event this week is trying to raise awareness.

Black lung disease comes from inhaling coal dust. It is incurable, as it chars the lungs – making breathing extremely difficult. It is a progressive disease, meaning it gets worse with time. Often, miners will not realize they have the disease until retiring from the mines.

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‘If that wouldn’t heal your soul, nothing would:’ Cape Breton’s Davis Day recognizes coal mining legacy – by Barb Sweet (Salt Wire – June 11, 2023)

https://www.saltwire.com/

SYDNEY MINES, N.S. — As the Men of the Deeps sang “there’s a pick and shovel waiting down the Coal Town Road,” Lorraine Head teared up as she had a number of times Sunday morning. Nearly 100 years — 98 to be exact — after the gruesome events that inspired Davis Day, the descendent of the man it honours broke down on the grounds of the Miner’s Park in Sydney Mines.

“My mother, her siblings — always, always,” she said of the motivation to return each year to the ceremony she has been attending since she was a little girl. Davis Day is named for her grandfather, New Waterford resident William Davis, 38, who was one of the coal miners protesting deplorable conditions at a Cape Breton coal mine near Waterford Lake in 1925.

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Glencore makes offer for the steelmaking coal business of Teck Resources (Peterborough Examiner/Canadian Press – June 12, 2023)

https://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/

VANCOUVER – Swiss company Glencore it has made an offer to buy the steelmaking coal business of Teck Resources Ltd. The company said in a statement Monday it would pay cash for the assets, but did not say how much publicly.

Glencore said it remains willing to pursue its offer for all of Teck, but that it has made an alternative offer for the coal operations that it would combine with its own thermal coal assets.

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Teck in talks with multiple parties regarding its coal business, company says – by Naimul Karim (Financial Post – June 8, 2023)

https://financialpost.com/

‘Our focus on separation is to unlock the full potential of our unparalleled copper growth business’

Teck Resources Ltd. is evaluating multiple expressions of interest in its steelmaking coal business, more than a month after it decided to pull a proposal to divide the company into separate coal and copper operations.

“Our high-margin, long-life steelmaking coal assets … has, in turn, generated considerable interest from various parties,” Teck’s chief executive Jonathan Price said in a press release on June 6. “Our focus on separation is to unlock the full potential of our unparalleled copper growth business.”

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Teck fielding expressions of interest for coal business, as Canadian miner considers new restructuring plan – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – June 6, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Teck Resources Ltd. TECK-B-T is fielding expressions of interest from parties potentially interested in mergers-and-acquisitions transactions concerning its metallurgical coal business, as Canada’s biggest diversified mining company weighs the best path forward after a botched restructuring plan earlier this year.

In April, Vancouver-based Teck did not move forward on a planned split of the business that would have seen it spin off its coal division from its metals mines, after it failed to win sufficient support from shareholders.

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Teck Receives Interest in Coal Business as Glencore Circles – by Jacob Lorinc (Yahoo/Bloomberg – June 6, 2023)

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) — Teck Resources Ltd. received several proposals for deals involving its coal operations, as the Canadian miner works to draw up a new plan for splitting off the business while rejecting a bid from Glencore Plc.

Teck’s plans to exit coal and create a standalone base-metals company suffered a blow in April when it failed to win enough shareholder support for a complicated spinoff proposal. It maintains that separating from its coal assets will create the most value for shareholders, and is now under pressure to develop a plan more appealing than Glencore’s $23 billion offer for the entire company, especially with the prospect of a sweetened bid on the way.

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OPINION: End game nears in the battle for Canada’s last diversified mining giant, and the odds do not look good for the pursuer – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – June 2, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The Phoney War was the period early in the Second World War, when there were few battles on the Western Front. The relative calm ended when Germany invaded France in the spring of 1940.

The battle for Teck Resources, Canada’s biggest diversified mining company, is definitely in the phoney war stage. After a raucous start, a whole lot of nothing has happened for weeks in the campaign that will ultimately determine the shape of Canada’s base metals industry. There are signs that a renewed assault on Teck could start soon, one that will make or break the effort by Switzerland’s Glencore to make Teck its own as it strives to become one of the world’s top producers of the metals needed to propel the green energy revolution.

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Whitehaven says coal is a ‘critical mineral’ for defence allies – by Peter Ker (Australian Financial Review – June 1, 2023)

https://www.afr.com/

Whitehaven Coal managing director Paul Flynn has urged the Albanese government to consider coal’s role in powering defence allies like Japan and South Korea when reviewing its list of minerals that are “critical” to economic growth and national security.

Coal is not among the 26 minerals considered “critical” by the Australian government although coking coal for steelmaking is one of the 34 minerals considered “critical” by the European Commission.

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Coal firms owned by family of West Virginia governor sued over unpaid penalties – by John Raby and Denise Lavoie (Associated Press – May 31, 2023)

https://apnews.com/

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Thirteen coal companies owned by the family of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice are being sued over unpaid penalties for previous mining law violations that the federal government says pose health and safety risks or threaten environmental harm.

Justice, who was not named in the lawsuit, accused the Biden administration of retaliation. A Republican two-term governor, Justice announced in April that he is running for Democrat Joe Manchin’s U.S. Senate seat in 2024. He will face current U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney in the GOP primary.

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Glencore said to prepare sweetened Teck bid – by Thomas Biesheuvel, Dinesh Nair and Jacob Lorinc (Bloomberg News – May 30, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Glencore Plc is getting closer to increasing its offer for Teck Resources Ltd., in a move aimed at ending weeks of limbo in the battle over the Canadian miner’s future.

The Switzerland-based commodities giant is working on a potential improvement to its bid that could be announced as soon as the coming weeks, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. By raising its offer and ratcheting up shareholder pressure, Glencore is seeking to force Teck to the negotiating table, the people said.

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Shift to clean energy accelerating, but coal investments too high, report says – by Victoria Milko and Aniruddha Ghosal (Associated Press – May 25, 2023)

https://apnews.com/

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Energy security concerns — worsened by the war in Ukraine — and policy support from rich countries are likely to help investments in clean energy outpace spending on fossil fuels, the International Energy Agency said in a report issued Thursday.

But investments in coal are on course to rise by about 10% in 2023, nearly six times what the IEA has estimated they should be for the world to end its reliance on fossil fuels and achieve emissions cut goals for countering climate change, it said.

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The View from England: Win their hearts, and minds will follow – by Chris Hinde (Northern Miner – May 19, 2023)

https://www.northernminer.com/

I shed tears within 30 pages. I expect you would too and, if you’re a miner, so you should. In a recently-published novel we are taken back to a small mining town in October 1966 when our industry killed children, young children, half a school of them.

Published by Faber & Faber, ‘A Terrible Kindness’ reminds us (as Jo Browning Wroe writes in her opening sentence) of when “something dreadful happened in Wales.” In Aberfan on that dark morning, 116 children (mostly between the ages of seven and 10) went to school and didn’t come back.

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