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Sumitomo rebuffs Glencore’s attempt to engage over attempted takeover of Teck Resources – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – April 6, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., a major holder of Teck Resources Ltd.’s super-voting Class A shares, is refusing even to take a meeting with Glencore PLC to discuss the Swiss mining giant’s unsolicited takeover proposal for Teck. Sumitomo and the Keevil family jointly control Teck’s Class A shares that carry 100 votes each. Unless both are on board with Glencore’s US$23.1-billion takeover proposal, it can’t move forward.

Earlier in the week, Keevil family patriarch Norman B. Keevil told The Globe and Mail that he had no interest in allowing Vancouver-based Teck to be sold to Glencore, no matter what the price.

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How Glencore’s bid for Teck Resources shows the limits of the ESG investing thesis – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – April 6, 2023)

https://financialpost.com/

Teck-Glencore clash represents contrast in strategies for confronting energy transition

Teck Resources Ltd. had a novel rationale for rejecting Glencore Plc‘s US$23-billion takeover proposal this week: the Vancouver-based miner said the Swiss commodities giant was too dirty and Teck’s leaders didn’t want Glencore’s commitment to fossil fuels rubbing off on the long-term value of the company.

As chief executive Jonathan Price put it in a press release, Glencore’s thermal coal assets and oil trading would “negatively impact the value potential of Teck’s business.”

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Glencore Has Three Weeks to Keep $23 Billion Teck Bid Alive – Dinesh Nair and Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – April 4, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Teck Resources Ltd.’s public rejection of a $23 billion offer from Glencore Plc has fired the starting gun on three weeks of drama for the Swiss commodities giant to keep its proposal alive.

Glencore isn’t actually trying to buy any Teck shares yet. There would be little point, after the company’s controlling investor — Canadian mining patriarch Norman Keevil — made clear he’s not interested in selling. Instead, the future of Glencore’s proposal for now depends on convincing Teck’s shareholders to reject the company’s own plan to split into two, at a vote scheduled for April 26.

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Glencore not taking no for answer from Teck – by Nelson Bennett (Business In Vancouver – April 3, 2023)

https://biv.com/

Glencore to continue wooing shareholders, despite board saying no to merger

Glencore, the Swiss mining and commodities trading giant, is not taking no for an answer from Teck Resources on a US$23 billion merger proposal that Teck’s board of directors publicly rejected this morning.

Glencore is still hoping that Teck’s wider shareholder base and Norman Keevil – a key stakeholder — will consider the offer before an April 26 special meeting, at which Teck’s shareholders are to approve a schism that will split Teck into two companies – one for its metallurgical coal business and one for its metals business – and phase out its dual class structure.

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Old Flooded Coal Mine in England Produces Geothermal Heat in the Winter – by Rich Co (Nature World News – April 02, 2023)

https://www.natureworldnews.com/

An old coal mine that has been flooded in England may still be useful because it generates geothermal heat in the winter. Old coal mines might still be used to heat homes, but not by burning fossil fuels this time. Martha Henriques investigates the structures warmed by the heat coming from the long-abandoned mine workings.

Old Flooded Coal Mine

Towers of wine cases that seem to reach the sky are stored in a vast warehouse outside of Gateshead, North East England. In general, maintaining these enormous stacks of alcohol at a comfortable temperature throughout the year would result in a staggering energy bill, especially during the brutal northeastern winters.

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Australia sees lithium exports matching thermal coal by 2028 – by James Fernyhough (Bloomberg News – April 2, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Australia sees its booming lithium sector matching thermal coal’s importance within five years as the world increasingly shifts from fossil fuels to clean energy.

Exports of the battery metal are seen at A$19 billion ($13 billion) in the year to June 2028, matching the record seen for the current financial year, according to government projections released Monday. Meanwhile, the value of power station coal shipments will drop 71% in the period.

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Yes, China Can Quit Coal. Here’s How. – by Seaver Wang and Lauri Myllyvirta (The Diplomat – March 31, 2023)

https://thediplomat.com/

China must begin to challenge its coal dependence, starting by dismantling particularly inefficient policies that have encouraged new coal construction.

Fifty-three miners remain missing or dead after a vast section of wall collapsed at an open-pit coal mine in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on February 22. The wave of earth and rock – over a third of a kilometer wide by one geologist’s estimate – buried dozens of heavy mining vehicles and their operators in a landslide tens of meters deep.

The tragedy shines a spotlight on China’s coal mining sector, where hundreds of coal miners perish each year in accidents. Combined with the toll that coal use in China exacts upon public health, climate, and the environment, this accident reaffirms the wider benefits of shifting the Chinese economy away from coal-fired energy.

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Controversial Alberta coal mine could soon get green energy makeover – by Sarah Offin (Global News – March 16, 2023)

https://globalnews.ca/

It’s an energy source that helped open the west. But coal mining has left scars on the Alberta landscape: abandoned mines and open pits where energy producers are now prospecting something new.

“Sites like this don’t really exist in a lot of places,” said Blain van Melle, the executive vice president of Alberta business at TransAlta. “This is really unique. We like to refer to it as a unicorn.” Metallurgical coal was discovered at Tent Mountain in the early 1900s. Small-scale mining made way for the first open cut pit in 1948.

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Teck Coal appeals B.C. fines for contaminating Kootenay waterways (CBC British Columbia – March 12, 2023)

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

Local Ktunaxa First Nation upset mining company seeking reduction to $16 million in penalties

A local First Nation says it’s “disappointed” Teck Coal is seeking to reduce the $16 million in fines it was assessed by the B.C. Ministry of Environment in January for polluting waterways in B.C.’s East Kootenay.

In January, the province imposed three administrative penalties on Teck Coal Limited, a subsidiary of Teck Resources, citing the company’s failure to have water treatment facilities ready by a required date. The company had been asked to have the facilities ready in order to limit emissions of nitrate and selenium from its Fording River operations in the Elk Valley.

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OPINION: Teck’s coal spinoff is greenwashing and a blow to the ESG movement – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – February 28, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

If the ESG movement had one target, it was coal, the grubbiest of the fossil fuels. Mining companies in the Western world eventually succumbed to ESG pressure when they realized that sending their coal operations packing would not only clean up their acts but create value, as investors would reward them for having done good for the planet.

So out went the coal, and the share multiples of the companies behind the spinoffs or sales of the fuel climbed. But coal not only refused to die a polite death, it became hugely profitable after Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago, triggering an energy crisis that sent many countries, from Germany to Pakistan, scrambling for the product they once vowed to downgrade to fringe status.

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Teck Resources to spin off coal business, end Keevil family control – by Andrew Willis (Globe and Mail – February 22, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Teck Resources Ltd. launched a sweeping restructuring on Tuesday by announcing plans to spin off its coal business and end the founding Keevil family’s six-decade run at the helm of the country’s largest base metals miner.

Vancouver-based Teck is asking shareholders to approve hiving off its steelmaking coal mines in British Columbia into a new company called Elk Valley Resources Ltd. Teck valued its offspring at $11.5-billion and will list Elk Valley on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The parent will focus on increasing copper production at mines in North and South America, and be renamed Teck Metals Corp.

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Teck Resources is exploring spin-out of steelmaking coal operations – by Andrew Willis (Globe and Mail – February 17, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Teck Resources Ltd. is exploring a spin-out of its steelmaking coal division, or other ways to exit its largest business, as part of a strategic shift to mining metals that will power a greener economy.

Vancouver-based Teck, the country’s largest coal producer, said on Thursday it is “evaluating alternatives for its steelmaking coal business, including the possible spin-out of an interest in that business to its shareholders.” The announcement came after Bloomberg reported the company could announce a transaction as early as next week.

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Teck is said to plan coal spinoff to focus on metals – by Thomas Biesheuvel, Dinesh Nair and Jacob Lorinc (Bloomberg News – February 16, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca

Teck Resources Ltd. is planning to separate its multibillion-dollar steelmaking coal business to focus more on industrial metals, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Canadian miner is expected to make an announcement on the spinoff as early as next week, the people said, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. Deliberations are ongoing and no final decision has been made, the people said.

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India’s poor coal ‘thieves’ forced to scavenge for survival (Eco-Business/Reuters – February 8, 2023)

https://www.eco-business.com/

A tip-off led police officer Indradeo Rajwar into the Nimiya Tola forests of Hazaribagh, in eastern India, hot on the trail of two men on a motorcycle carrying stolen coal. As Rajwar closed in, the men dumped 1,200 kg (2,646 lb) of the dirty fossil fuel and escaped.

Rajwar’s report on the incident in Jharkhand state documents a story of theft that is common across India’s main coal-mining areas. “These forests are used as cover by people transporting stolen coal,” Rajwar said, adding that the perpetrators are mostly men aged between 18 and 35.

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‘We need to restore the land’: as coal mines close, here’s a community blueprint to sustain the Hunter Valley – by Kimberley Crofts and Liam Phelan (The Conversation – February 7, 2023)

https://theconversation.com/

The decline of the coal industry means 17 mines in the New South Wales Hunter Valley will close over the next two decades. More than 130,000 hectares of mining land — nearly two-thirds of the valley floor between Broke and Muswellbrook — will become available for new uses.

Restoring and reusing this land could contribute billions of dollars to the Hunter economy, create thousands of full-time jobs and make the region a world leader in industries such as renewable energy and regenerative agriculture that improves soil and water quality and increases biodiversity and resilience. But to unlock these future opportunities, we must first clean up the legacy of the past.

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