Coal – Page 118 – Republic of Mining

National Archives: Margaret Thatcher was days from calling out troops during miners’ strike, documents show – by Sam Marsden (The Telegraph – January 3, 2014)

January 6, 2014

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Ministers considered ordering an emergency recall of Parliament to pass a new law giving extra powers for soldiers to replace striking workers, papers from 1984 made public by the National Archives disclose

Margaret Thatcher came within days of declaring a state of emergency and calling out the military just four months into the miners’ strike, Cabinet papers released on Friday show.

Ministers secretly discussed recalling Parliament in the summer of 1984 so they could urgently pass a new Emergency Powers Act that would give wider scope for troops to stand in for striking dockers.

At the same time Norman Tebbit, the trade and industry secretary, privately warned the prime minister that diminishing coal stocks meant that the Government could soon be forced into making humiliating concessions to Arthur Scargill to end his union’s industrial action.

Doorway to opportunity: B.C. coal town hopes for revival – by Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – December 27, 2013)

January 3, 2014

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.

TUMBLER RIDGE, B.C – Inside the Dinosaur Discovery Gallery in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., a set of two large doors symbolize past pain and future optimism for the coal industry in northeastern British Columbia and the region’s ties to Asia.

After years in storage, the doors finally went on display this past summer, with the entrance handles together forming the Quintette coal project’s logo. The Quintette mine opened in 1982 and supplied Japanese steel mills, but it closed in 2000 amid low coal prices.

The local economy seemed so depressed that the mine’s owner, Vancouver-based Teck Resources Ltd., donated the doors for museum purposes because the company’s executives thought the closing would be permanent and no longer needed for the glass office building on Quintette’s sprawling site near Tumbler Ridge.

“These doors originally were worth roughly $100,000 and they are quite heavy,” said Richard McCrea, curator at the Peace Region Paleontology Research Centre, which houses the gallery. He marvels at the thick aluminum doors, featuring a pewter exterior with artwork that depicts trucks at an open-pit mine in British Columbia and blast furnaces used for steel making in Asia.

Where Arctic camels once roamed, coal mining can wait – by CBC News North (December 24, 2013)

December 24, 2013

http://www.cbc.ca/north/

A coal exploration project proposing to tread the same ground as the ancient fossil forests on Nunavut’s Ellesmere Island has been temporarily put on the shelf.

Canada Coal has delayed its exploration program on Ellesmere Island for at least a year, and withdrawn its application to Nunavut regulators, saying it needs more time to address a host of concerns raised by people in nearby Grise Fiord and scientists across Canada and the U.S. Canada Coal’s active exploration licenses cover more than 7000 square kilometres, mostly on Ellesmere’s Fosheim Peninsula. The company had proposed to set up a 20 to 30-person field camp next summer in order to map and drill for coal the region.

However, the project was controversial. The Fosheim Peninsula is a renowned source of unique fossils, including alligators, turtles and primates that lived on the Arctic Island 50 million years ago, as well as beavers and horses that occupied the site just a few million years ago.

“Frankly, when you discover something new, something people have never seen before, or something that really fills in an important piece of a puzzle, it’s a thrill,” says Jim Basinger, a paleontologist at the University of Saskatchewan.

NEWS RELEASE: Sherritt to Divest of Coal Assets for $946 Million and Focus on Core Businesses

December 24, 2013

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – Dec. 24, 2013) –

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

Sherritt International Corporation (“Sherritt” or “the Corporation”) (TSX:S) today announced it is divesting its coal business for total consideration of $946 million.

A group led by Altius Minerals Corp., will acquire Sherritt’s entire royalty portfolio and its interest in coal development assets for cash consideration of $481 million, subject to closing adjustments.

Westmoreland Coal Company (“Westmoreland”) will acquire Sherritt’s operating coal assets, currently described as the Prairie and Mountain Operations, for total consideration of $465 million, comprised of $312 million in cash and the assumption of capital leases presently valued at $153 million, subject to closing adjustments.

“Today’s transaction to divest the coal business is the culmination of a competitive bidding process which has extended over several months. It simplifies our asset portfolio to concentrate on our core strengths, enhances our liquidity, and provides us with the opportunity to reduce our debt,” said David Pathe, Sherritt’s President and CEO.

Tale of Two Polish Mines Shows Biggest EU Producer’s Woes – by Maciej Martewicz and Marek Strzeleck (Bloomberg News – December 23, 2013)

December 23, 2013

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Stock markets aren’t usually a subject of discussion when you’re a kilometer underground, yet Dariusz Batyra isn’t a typical Polish miner.

“I check the share price each day,” said Batyra, 39, a senior foreman at the mine run by Lubelski Wegiel Bogdanka SA, one of three coal companies in Poland not controlled by the government. “Everybody does in here.”

The performance of his employer compared with competitor Kompania Weglowa SA, the biggest producer in the European Union, explains why. Since debuting on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in 2009, Bogdanka has more than doubled in value as profits rose every year but one. It has done so even as the price of coal more than halved since 2008, when the global financial crisis took hold, pushing Kompania Weglowa to the brink of collapse.

Another year of diverging fortunes for the two miners underscores the contrast in an industry that’s struggled to adapt to the reality of the free market almost a quarter of a century after communism ended in Poland.

Bogdanka employs about 5,000 and analysts expect net income of 313.5 million zloty ($103 million) for 2013, making it the most profitable of seven Polish coal producers.

Chinese mining company faces another legal challenge in B.C. to foreign workers – by James Keller (Vancouver Sun – December 19, 2013)

December 20, 2013

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

Canadain Press – A Chinese-owned mining firm behind a proposed underground coal project in northern British Columbia is facing yet another union legal challenge over its use of temporary foreign workers.

HD Mining has been fending off controversy since it was revealed last year that it planned to use up to 201 temporary foreign workers from China at its Murray River project, near Tumbler Ridge.

The plan prompted federal politicians to suggest the permits shouldn’t have been granted and led to a legal challenge from two unions, which ultimately ended in the company’s favour.

Now, the United Steelworkers union is asking the B.C. Supreme Court to revoke the company’s mining exploration permit, arguing the province’s chief inspector of mines was wrong to grant the permit without adequately addressing concerns the workers would not be fluent in English.

Global coal demand slows, peak demand not yet in sight – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – December 16, 2013)

December 17, 2013

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Tougher Chinese policies aimed at reducing the country’s dependency on coal would help restrain global coal demand growth over the next five years, the International Energy Agency (IEA) found in its yearly ‘Medium-Term Coal Market Report’ released in Paris on Monday.

Despite the slightly slower pace of growth, coal would meet more of the increase in global primary energy than oil or gas – continuing a trend that has been in place for more than a decade.

“Like it or not, coal is here to stay for a long time to come. Coal is abundant and geopolitically secure, and coal-fired plants are easily integrated into existing power systems. With advantages like these, it is easy to see why coal demand continues to grow.

“But it is equally important to emphasise that coal in its current form is simply unsustainable,” IEA executive director Maria van der Hoeven said at the launch of the report.

The IEA found that coal was the fastest growing fossil fuel in absolute and relative terms in 2012.

BC announces coal rights deferral deal in Sacred Headwaters area – by Dirk Meissner (Vancouver Sun – December 16, 2013)

December 17, 2013

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

VICTORIA – A remote area of northwest British Columbia considered sacred by aboriginals and resource rich by mining companies has received a reprieve from potential coal-mining activities with a government order that puts new coal tenures on hold for one year.

The Tahltan Nation call the area Klappan, and it has been the site of protests by aboriginal elders who say mining will threaten the spiritual, cultural and wilderness values of the region, which includes the confluence of the Skeena, Nass and Stikine rivers.

Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett said Monday the Klappan Coal Licence Deferral Area Order is a temporary measure that will allow the government, the Tahltan and the mining industry time to negotiate a management agreement for the area.

The deferral order impacts 62 coal licence applications, but existing area coal tenures and authorizations, including the Fortune Minerals’ Arctos project, are not impacted, he said.

Fortune Minerals, of London, Ont., announced last fall that it was pausing exploratory work for an open-pit coal mine in the Klappan, following an earlier decision by Shell Canada to give up its rights to explore and drill for coal-bed methane gas.

At summit, Eastern Kentucky leaders look to Minnesota for ideas to renew economy – by Bill Estep and John Cheves (Lexington Herald-Leader – December 9, 2013)

December 10, 2013

http://www.kentucky.com/

PIKEVILLE — Leaders grappling with a painful downturn in coal jobs in Eastern Kentucky got a primer Monday on how another state dealt with a similar collapse in its mining region.

The situation 30 years ago in the iron-ore belt in northeastern Minnesota was dire. Mining jobs dropped by more than 60 percent in 18 months and people started moving out, at times stopping by the bank on the way out of town to drop off keys to houses and cars they couldn’t pay for, said Joe Sertich, a former community-college president in the region known as the Iron Range.

The Eastern Kentucky coalfield has been similarly battered by layoffs. The coal industry has cut 6,000 jobs since mid-2011, with some counties losing more than half the jobs that were once the bulwark of their economy.

Sertich spoke Monday at a daylong summit in Pikeville called Shaping Our Appalachia Region, or SOAR. U.S. Rep Hal Rogers, R-Somerset, and Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat, set up the summit to generate ideas to diversify the economy of Eastern Kentucky.

Glasenberg Raises Glencore’s Bet on Coal as BHP Pauses: Energy – by Thomas Biesheuvel & Jesse Riseborough (Bloomberg News – December 5, 2013)

December 6, 2013

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Ivan Glasenberg, the billionaire running commodities supplier Glencore Xstrata Plc, is investing more in thermal coal than his three closest competitors combined even as investors warn the fuel’s outlook is deteriorating.

The former coal trader is betting on prices rebounding from a three-year drop. The Swiss company, in which he owns 8 percent, is spending $4.75 billion, largely on projects inherited in the takeover of Xstrata Plc, to boost output 21 percent through 2016. At the same time, BHP Billiton Ltd., the biggest mining company, Rio Tinto Group and Anglo American Plc, have stalled new investments, sold mines or halted others.

Glasenberg, 56, is deepening his bet on coal as appetite wanes among some investors for companies that extract fuels blamed for making the biggest contribution to climate change. Share prices of the four largest single-commodity thermal-coal producers have tumbled an average 25 percent in the past 12 months as an explosion in lower-cost supplies of U.S. shale gas compounds a weaker outlook for exports to China.

Coal rush ravages Indonesian Borneo (Malaysian Insider – December 5, 2013)

December 5, 2013

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/

Barges loaded with mountains of coal glide down the polluted Mahakam River on Indonesian Borneo every few minutes. Viewed from above, they form a dotted black line as far as the eye can see, destined for power stations in China and India.

A coal rush that has drawn international miners to East Kalimantan province has ravaged the capital, Samarinda, which risks being swallowed up by mining if the exploitation of its deposits expands any further.

Mines occupy more than 70% of Samarinda, government data show, forcing entire villages and schools to move away from toxic mudslides and contaminated water sources. The destruction of forest around the city to make way for mines has also removed a natural buffer against floods, leading to frequent waist-high deluges during the six-month rainy season.

And despite the 200 million tonnes of coal dug and shipped out of East Kalimantan each year, its capital is crippled by frequent hours-long blackouts as the city’s ageing power plant suffers constant problems.

UN’s war on coal threatens environmental progress in world’s desperate regions – by Donna Laframboise (National Post – December 4, 2013)

December 4, 2013

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Activists want new coal plants banned outright

In Warsaw last month, Christiana Figueres, an unelected United Nations bureaucrat, demanded that the World Coal Association embrace three dubious and implausible ideas. This industry must, she said, shut down a particular class of coal plant, install as-yet-unavailable carbon-capture technology on any newly constructed facilities, and “leave most existing reserves in the ground.”

In the first instance, the implications of her words weren’t immediately apparent. But a 2012 International Energy Agency report reveals that when she speaks blithely of closing “all existing subcritical plants,” she’s advocating the mothballing of 100% of South Africa’s coal fleet, 99% of India’s, 97% of Poland’s, and 90% of Australia’s.

It turns out Figueres’ standards are so pie-in-the-sky that 79% of Germany’s coal facilities, 75% of China’s, 73% of America’s, and 71% of Russia’s don’t make the cut, either. All told, this UN official believes three-quarters of the world’s existing coal fleet — fully one third of the global electricity supply — should be taken offline.

World Coal: UN climate chief Figueres ‘ignoring reality’ – by Sophie Yeo (Responding to Climate Change – December 2, 2013)

December 3, 2013

http://www.rtcc.org/

The head of the World Coal Association (WCA) has accused UN climate chief Christiana Figueres of ‘ignoring reality’, following her call to the coal industry to invest in more efficient technologies.

In an interview World Coal chief executive Milton Catelin told RTCC that Figueres’ lack of expertise in the mining and energy sectors meant she “misses some of the fundamentals about the energy sector”.

He was responding to a speech Figueres made to a ‘Climate and Coal Summit’ on the sidelines of UN negotiations in Warsaw two weeks ago, where she told the audience that “coal must change rapidly and dramatically for everyone’s sake.”

Figueres called for the closure of all low-efficiency subcritical plants, a roll out of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology and a collective decision to leave most coal reserves in the ground. The UN climate chief was heavily criticised by green groups for attending the gathering, but her message does not seem to have gone down well with the coal investors and representatives inside.

Chinese firms want to buy coal assets overseas, but on the cheap – by Sonali Paul (Reuters U.S. – December 1, 2013)

December 3, 2013

http://www.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE, Dec 2 (Reuters) – Chinese companies are on the hunt to buy overseas coal mines as Beijing’s switch to cleaner fuels stokes demand for higher-quality coal produced in countries such as Australia, according to people familiar with the firms’ strategies.

A renewed appetite for acquisitions by the world’s biggest coal consumer will be a big boost for miners who are trying to dispose of assets worth billions of dollars to boost shareholder returns. These include Rio Tinto, which has put Australian and Mozambique coal operations on the block, and Linc Energy , which is selling its New Emerald Coal business.

The Chinese, however, are not rushing to buy. They see asset values coming under further pressure as coal prices remain depressed amid a supply glut that has already driven prices down about a third since 2011.

“We have clients who are interested in taking stakes in coal assets. But the view is the market’s not going to get any better for two years. So why buy something today when it’s going to be a lot cheaper in eight months’ time,” said Sam Farrands, a Hong Kong-based partner at law firm Minter Ellison.

We all breathe easier in post-coal Ontario – by Stephen Bede Scharper (Toronto Star – December 2, 2013)

December 2, 2013

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

The elimination of coal-fired plants in Ontario is a deeply hopeful story. It shows that progress can be made in fighting climate change.

A decade ago, in the team-taught core environmental studies course at the University of Toronto, my colleagues and I assigned the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) Smog Report as our touchstone text. The report noted the severe health effects associated with air pollution in Ontario.

In 2000, for example, the OMA detailed, there were 1,925 premature deaths, 9,807 hospital admissions, 45,250 emergency room visits, and over 46 million minor illnesses engendered by increased Ontario smog levels. Taken together, these fulsome effects take your breath away—literally.

These disquieting figures all jumped significantly five years later, as indicated in the OMA 2005 report, and were projected to continue to rise unless something were done about elevated levels of air pollution in the province.