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The so-called ‘Great Strike’ really was a lockout, part 1 – by T.W. Paterson (The Citizen – September 6, 2013)

http://www.canada.com/news/index.html [Cowichan Valley Citizen]

It devastated families, divided communities, set trade unionism on the Island back by more than a decade and left memories – for many, bitter, bitter memories – that survived for several generations.

August 2013. As you stand in brilliant late summer sunshine at Ladysmith’s First and French Streets, you’re surrounded by busy traffic, neat and well-maintained businesses, the historic Eagles’ Hall and some roadside artifacts dating from this 49th parallel city’s heyday as a shipping port for coal from the Extension mines.

It taxes your imagination to picture this intersection as it would have appeared in August 1913.

That’s when Ladysmith was a city besieged, having been placed under the equivalent of martial law by order of the provincial government. That’s when the Eagles Hall was headquarters to hundreds of armed soldiers, uniformed policemen and civvies-clad special constables who patrolled these very streets amid sand-bagged machine gun emplacements while on the lookout for, and often provoking, confrontations with hundreds of angry, striking coal miners.

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COLUMN-Fed tapering may boost coal, crimp oil in Asia – by Clyde Russell (Reuters India – September 5, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

(Clyde Russell is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own.)

(Reuters) – The turmoil in some Asian currencies created by the likely tapering of monetary stimulus in the United States is likely to spill over into commodity markets. While it’s obvious that as a currency depreciates, the local cost of commodities, which are normally priced in U.S. dollars, increases.

But what is less obvious is what the impact will be on the supply-demand balance for various commodities. Take crude oil and coal for instance. Both are major sources of energy, priced in U.S. dollars and easily traded.

But for many Asian countries, the price of oil has risen dramatically this year, while that for coal has remained steady, or even declined. The focus has been on India in recent weeks, given the South Asian nation’s efforts to stem the slide of the rupee, which has lost some 23 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar this year.

Brent crude is now at record highs in rupee terms, and is 26 percent above the level that prevailed at the start of the year. Given that crude is India’s biggest import in value terms, it’s clear that the government will want to spend less on oil in order to lower the current account deficit.

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BC First Nation blocks road to proposed coal mine – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – September 5, 2013)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Members of the Tahltan First Nation, in British Columbia (BC), on Tuesday began blockading a road leading to project developer Fortune Minerals’ proposed openpit coal mine and which is also used to travel to traditional hunting camps, as Tahltan Central Council (TCC) leaders prepared for talks with government on Wednesday.

Tahltan community members said they were concerned that Fortune started using the access road after the Iskut First Nation, in preparation for the hunting season earlier in the summer, repaired it.

The First Nation said in a statement that its leaders would meet with provincial Ministers to discuss the impact of the proposed mine and to develop a long-term plan to protect the area surrounding Mount Klappan in the north-west of the province.

“Building an openpit coal mine on the Sacred Headwaters, which supports three salmon-bearing rivers and has been vital for hunting for thousands of years, is a step too far. It is time to be proactive about protecting our own interests and those of everyone in the region,” TCC president Annita McPhee said.

Chief Marie Quock of the Iskut First Nation explained that some of the community’s people asked Fortune to leave so that they could camp on Mount Klappan as usual, without being interrupted by traffic and helicopters.

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Australian coal miners hope election will see new govt cut red tape – by Sonali Paul (Reuters India – September 4, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE – (Reuters) – You know you’re in trouble when you’re ranked worse for red tape than India. The World Economic Forum this week put Australia 129th out of 148 countries, ranking it 25 spots lower than India, in terms of the burden of government regulation.

And Australia’s red tape is hurting growth in its key mining sector at a time when other sectors are struggling to fire up to fill the gap left by a fading mining investment boom.

Australian miners sitting on coal lodes that could produce 100 million tonnes a year say they are frustrated by layers of state and national approvals that take years to secure, anti-coal campaigners using the courts to delay projects, and carbon and mining taxes eating into potential returns.

“Green tape in Australia really has become very stifling for business, to the point now where it’s difficult to tell the difference between green and red tape, it’s so embedded,” said Whitehaven Coal Chief Executive Paul Flynn, referring to lengthy environmental reviews by state and federal agencies.

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High-quality coal and house prices: A B.C. town’s second chance – by Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – August 20, 2013)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

VANCOUVER — Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darwin Wren predicts that the quality of British Columbia coal will keep his northeastern B.C. community afloat.

In 2001, Mr. Wren moved from Fort Nelson to Tumbler Ridge, where he bought a house for $28,000, just months after the nearby Quintette coal mine closed amid depressed prices for the commodity. Hundreds of houses were auctioned off in the fall of 2000 as the closing of Quintette triggered fears that Tumbler Ridge would turn into a ghost town.

The town persevered, however, as new coal mines opened several years later. Houses like the one Mr. Wren bought 12 years ago are now worth at least $200,000, despite a slump in coal markets since 2011 that has reduced coal production in northeastern British Columbia.

It’s a recurring theme for Canada: Despite efforts to diversify economically, prosperity rises and falls on the back of demand for what miners can pull out of the ground. More often than not, prices for these products find a floor and rebound.

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Anglo American expands B.C. coal mine with eye on Asia – Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – August 15, 2013)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

VANCOUVER — Anglo American PLC is expanding its northeastern B.C. mine, betting that the quality of the coal and the ease of transport to Asia will help the company win more contracts from steel makers in Japan, China and others in the region.

London-based Anglo American, one of the world’s largest mining companies, will make the expansion announcement Thursday at its operations near Tumbler Ridge, B.C., about 700 kilometres northeast of Vancouver.

The company has budgeted $50-million for the first phase of a $200-million, multiyear project to boost output of coking (or metallurgical) coal, a key ingredient in the production of steel.

Seamus French, head of Anglo American’s metallurgical coal division, said in an interview that its Tumbler Ridge coal is high quality, and that the rail line transporting it to the port of Prince Rupert for export is underutilized. “We see fantastic long-term potential,” he said in an interview, adding that the mining expansion will provide employment security for the 420 Anglo American workers in B.C. as well as generate 100 construction jobs.

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COLUMN-Australia’s coal industry enters the final stage of grief – by Clyde Russell (Reuters India – August 14, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

Clyde Russell is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own.

Aug 14 (Reuters) – Australian coal miners have been in mourning over the rapid loss of profitability and expansion opportunities, but the industry is entering the final stage of the grieving process.

The five stages of grief, as described by Swiss-American psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross on how people face events like terminal illness, are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

While not all of the attendees at the annual Coaltrans Australia conference this week have got past the depression stage, most were looking at how the industry deals with the reality of its myriad of issues.

These include an apparent structural shift to lower prices for the foreseeable future, rising public opposition to mining on the back of a well-funded and organised environmental lobby, lack of capital available for new projects, still high labour costs and an increasing burden of government red and green tape.

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Analysis: Poland to get dirtier as it leans towards lignite coal – by Agnieszka Barteczko and Henning Gloystein (Reuters India – July 31, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

WARSAW/LONDON – (Reuters) – Poland, one of the heaviest polluters in Europe, will become even dirtier now that its shale gas ambitions have faded and it turns to cheap domestic lignite coal to secure its energy supply.

Poland already relies on coal to produce more than 90 percent of its electricity and is home to the European installation that emits the most carbon dioxide – utility PGE’s lignite power plant in Belchatow.

Its choice of fuel now could determine its energy and environmental situation for decades to come, given that Poland needs to build new power stations to replace ageing plants and cope with future demand as its power system operates close to capacity.

The government and utilities, encouraged by firm popular support, are looking to domestic lignite reserves as a cheap way to fuel that new capacity and reduce imports of Russian gas.

“Looking at Poland’s limited reserves of gas and oil, lignite coal has to be perceived as the stabilizing factor for Poland’s energy safety,” Poland’s economy ministry said in an email, adding Poland’s lignite reserves will last for 200 to 300 years.

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Women coal miners to gather in Jonesborough this weekend Archives of Appalachia to document their stories – by Sue Guinn Legg (Johnson City Press – July 30, 2013)

http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/

Women coal miners from across the United States, Canada and England will gather in Jonesborough this weekend for a reunion at which their stories will be documented by the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University.

The first international gathering of women coal miners conducted in nearly 15 years, the Saturday and Sunday reunion will include guests from former underground miners’ organizations that pioneered gender integration in the coal industry in the 1970s as well as representatives from Women Against Pit Closures in England.

On Saturday, representatives of the Archives of Appalachia and ETSU’s Office of University Relations will film interviews of women miners to add to the archives’ existing coal mining collections, to strengthen the public understanding of the histories of mining and labor and to foster a greater appreciation for women miners.

Amy Collins, director of the Archives of Appalachia, said interest in the history of women coal miners draws researchers from across the country and abroad to archived collections at ETSU that document women miners’ efforts in the areas of mine health and safety, pregnancy research, parental leave and pay equity.

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COLUMN-Pain of drop in China coal imports isn’t evenly shared – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – July 29, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

Clyde Russell is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own.

LAUNCESTON, Australia, July 29 (Reuters) – The sharp drop in China’s coal imports in June helped to finally bring growth in imports closer to that for power output and was validation of the view that inbound cargoes had been unsustainably high.

While a pullback in imports had been expected for several months, the breakdown of the customs data shows the pain hasn’t been evenly spread amongst China’s major suppliers. Total imports in June were 18.037 million tonnes, down 22 percent from May and 19.6 percent from the same month a year earlier.

This was enough to drag the year-to-date growth in coal imports down to 13.9 percent in June from May’s 22.3 percent. The rate is also less than half the 28.7 percent jump in imports achieved in 2012 over 2011.

Part of the reason imports had been strong in the first five months of 2013 was that prices were competitive with domestic producers. Falling domestic prices as demand for power generation eased caught up with imports in June. But it’s not necessarily the higher-cost suppliers that are being squeezed out of the market.

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India eyes B.C.’s coal reserves as it ramps up steel production – by Gordon Hoekstra (Vancouver Sun – July 28, 2013)

http://www.vancouversun.com/index.html

Delegation meets with B.C.’s premier, new international trade minister

India wants to buy a bigger chunk of B.C.’s vast metallurgical coal reserves to feed its growing steel industry, a potential boost to the province’s No. 1 export business, worth $5.7 billion a year.

A high-level delegation led by India’s Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma was in B.C. this month and met with Premier Christy Clark, International Trade Minister Teresa Wat and B.C. coal industry representatives.

The Indian government forecasts that by 2017 the country will need twice as much metallurgical coal. The additional 47 million tonnes of metallurgical coal India forecasts it’ll need every year is more than B.C.’s entire annual production of 24 million tonnes.

However, British Columbia sits on vast coal reserves of an estimated 13 billion tonnes with several proposed metallurgical coal mines in the environmental assessment process. Karina Brino, president of the Mining Association of B.C., said the province’s coal industry is paying close attention to the burgeoning Indian market.

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INDIA HUNTS FOR COAL IN BC (Asia Pacific Post – July 23, 2013)

http://www.asianpacificpost.com/

India has announced that it is exploring options for sourcing coal from British Columbia, including equity participation in assets and acquisition of mines just as Vancouver city council voted to ban the handling, storage and trans shipment of coal at its marine terminals and berths.

The ban, mostly symbolic, was passed as Port Metro Vancouver, the No. 2 exporter of coal in North America triggered controversy over planned expansion of its facilities. Vancouver city council has no jurisdiction over the port operations.

Even before the ink was dry on the 9 to 2 vote which aims to curb greenhouse gas emissions and set the air quality target to “breath the cleanest air of any major city in the world”, a high powered delegation from India met with British Columbia Premier Christy Clark to scour for coal resources.

The Indian delegation was led by Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma who is looking to feed India’s steel industry which is growing at a fast pace and needs additional quantities of coking coal. “The delegation held a series of discussions with the coal asset owners and various avenues for sourcing coking coal to India to meet its ever-growing requirement were discussed,” an official statement said.

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Alabama Coal Billionaire Battles Murder Suits as Prices Ebb – by Anthony Effinger & Matthew Bristow (Bloomberg News – July 16, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Gustavo Soler knew he was in trouble. It was 2001, and Soler was union president at a coal mine in Colombia owned by Drummond Co., which is controlled by the wealthiest family in Alabama.

Soler’s predecessor, Valmore Locarno, and Locarno’s deputy, Victor Orcasita, had been killed seven months earlier, and now Soler was getting threats, says his widow, Nubia, in an interview in Bogota. He told his family to pack up. They would leave the area as soon as he got home from the union office in Valledupar, a city in the country’s coal belt. He never made it.

Armed men stopped his bus, asked for him by name and abducted him. He was found under a pile of banana leaves with two bullet holes in his head, Bloomberg Markets magazine will report in its August issue.

After the killing, Nubia says, Garry Neil Drummond, chief executive officer of Drummond Co., sent a taxi to bring her to the Drummond offices near the coastal town of Santa Marta, where, in a meeting, he promised to put her children, Sergio and Karina, then 14 and 9, through school.

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Donkin mine project receives environmental approval – (Cape Breton Post – July 17, 2013)

http://www.capebretonpost.com/

DONKIN — Although residents of Donkin and surrounding areas are happy another aspect of the Donkin mine project has moved forward — the transportation proposal continues to be controversial.

Morien Resources Corp. of Dartmouth announced in a press release that Peter Kent has signed off on the environmental assessment of the Donkin mine project proposed by Xstrata Coal Donkin Management Ltd. Kent’s tenure as the federal environment minister ended this week, but the Donkin project received his approval after his review of a Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency report.

Hugh Kennedy, chair of the Donkin Xstrata community liaison committee, said the approval is good news which will move the project ahead and allow those involved to acquire permits. He believes this approval will help with the sale of the mine. “A company ready to invest hundreds of millions of dollars … into this mine is not going to do that unless they know it has environmental approval.” The province must also approve the environment assessment, explained Kennedy.

“I can’t see any roadblocks as the provincial and federal authorities have been working closely and sharing in the process. “Hopefully now with this out of the way Xstrata will continue with that work, to get approval from the provincial government on how to repair the tunnels and put a plan forward, get it approved and seek a permit for the mine.”

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Beware dire predictions on Obama’s war on coal – by Steve Hargreaves (CNN Money – July 3, 2013)

http://money.cnn.com/

When President Obama announced steps to rein in greenhouse gases last week, the condemnation was swift and fierce.

“It is astonishing that President Obama is unilaterally imposing new regulations that will cost jobs and increase energy prices,” House Speaker John Boehner said of Obama’s plan, which would heavily target emissions from coal-fired power plants.

How steep of a cost do critics fear? Some 500,000 jobs lost and $1.65 trillion shaved off the national income by 2030 if all coal plants have to close, according to a Heritage Foundation report released the day after Obama announced his plan.
Yet there’s reason to doubt these and similarly dire predictions.

Environmental clean up is a difficult thing to measure. Early estimates on how much it would cost to clean air or water have often turned out to be way off. The debate over acid rain is a good example. In the late 1980s, the nation was considering tough new rules on coal-fired power plants and other industrial emitters to curb what was then a major problem.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimated the new rules would total $6 billion in both retrofit costs and in knock-on effects to the economy — such as higher energy prices that cause manufactures to set up shop elsewhere — according to Robert Stavins, director of the Environmental Economics Program at Harvard University.

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