Coal – Page 7 – Republic of Mining

Newsmakers 2023: End of an era for Vancouver mining giant Teck – by Nelson Bennett (Business In Vancouver – December 21, 2023)

December 21, 2023December 21, 2023

Vancouver-based Teck Resources sacrifices most profitable assets on altar of ESG

One of the biggest B.C. business news stories of 2024 was the announcement Teck Resources (TSX:TECK.B, NYSE:TEK), B.C.’s biggest miner and Canada’s only diversified mining major, will sell its most profitable assets – its B.C. coal mines – to an even bigger diversified mining major: Switzerland’s Glencore plc (LSE:GLEN).

For $9 billion, Glencore will acquire a 77 per cent interest in Teck’s four steelmaking coal mines in B.C., collectively called Elk Valley Resources (EVR), with Nippon Steel and South Korea’s POSCO owning the balance in a deal totalling $12 billion. EVR will also own 46 per cent of Neptune Terminals in North Vancouver.

Alberta hit with $10.8-billion lawsuit by coal companies over policy changes – by Emma Graney (Globe and Mail – December 13, 2023)

December 15, 2023

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Five coal companies are suing Alberta for a combined $10.8-billion, claiming the government’s coal policy reforms have cost them billions in lost investment and potential revenues and have made mining the land they leased all but impossible.

At the same time, the government and the Alberta Energy Regulator are facing questions about why an Australian company was allowed to apply for exploration licences to pursue a potential coal mine at Grassy Mountain when a joint federal-provincial regulatory panel rejected an application for the same site in 2021. The regulator is still assessing the new applications, submitted by Northback Holdings Corp., but critics are pushing the government to do more to boost environmental protections.

Glencore’s prized Canadian coal mines come with rising environmental scrutiny – by Nia Williams and Divya Rajagopal (Reuters – December 14, 2023)

December 15, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/

Dec 14 (Reuters) – A Glencore-led (GLEN.L) consortium’s successful $9 billion bid for Teck Resources’ (TECKb.TO) steelmaking coal unit could face tougher environmental clean-up obligations, as water pollution from the mines comes under increasing scrutiny in the U.S. and Canada.

Canada’s Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault told Reuters that Ottawa and Washington are close to requesting a study of selenium contamination from Teck’s Elk Valley mines in southeast British Columbia.The research would be carried out by International Joint Commission (IJC), a bi-national organization set up under the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty between the U.S. and Canada to prevent and resolve disputes over shared waters.

How to detox coal country – by Kate Morgan (Vox.com – December 11, 2023)

December 11, 2023

https://www.vox.com/

To clean up poisoned streams, Appalachian researchers are turning acid mine drainage into something unexpected.

The most striking thing about the water tumbling out of the ground behind a small cluster of houses in southeastern Ohio isn’t the smell — a sharp, unmistakable sulfur. It’s also not the color, a vibrant red-orange. The weirdest thing about the Truetown Discharge is the silence.

Just before dark on a warm autumn night, there should be a cacophony of crickets and cicadas in the tall grass along the water. Frogs should be singing and splashing into the shallows. Bats should be circling, owls calling, small mammals and salamanders skittering in the leaves.

Thermal coal prices diverge as Japan, South Korea buy more, China, India less – by Clyde Russell (Reuters – December 11, 2023)

December 11, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Dec 11 (Reuters) – The prices of differing grades of seaborne thermal coal in Asia are diverging as strong demand for high-quality fuel coal by Japan and South Korea drives a rally, but lacklustre imports by China and India mean lower grades stagnate.

Japan and South Korea are the main buyers of thermal coal linked to the Newcastle Index, which assesses coal with an energy content of 6,000 kilocalories per kilogram (kcal/kg) from Australia, the world’s second-largest exporter of the power station fuel.

Critics slam N.S. Labour Department over lack of Donkin coal mine inspections – by Tom Ayers (CBC News Nova Scotia – December 4, 2023)

December 5, 2023

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/

Province says its 3 dedicated inspectors are capable, but outside expertise was needed this summer

Nova Scotia’s Labour Department is coming under fire for not inspecting the underground coal mine in Donkin after it shut down following two roof falls in the main access tunnel in July. Instead, the province’s inspectors did site visits and relied on two third-party reviews before saying the Cape Breton mine can reopen.

Critics say the use of outside expertise has dragged out the shutdown unnecessarily. “We just have one problem and that is a regulator that is not equipped to regulate this mine,” said Dawson Brisco, CEO of Morien Resources, a company with a royalty stake in the Donkin mine.

Rare earth discoveries mean coal mines could have a key role to play in the energy transition – by Anmar Frangoul (CNBC.com – November 24, 2023)

November 27, 2023

https://www.cnbc.com/

From Pennsylvania to the north of England, coal mines helped to power the Industrial Revolution, turbocharging the economic growth of countries around the world. Today, however, the production and use of coal has become a thorny issue, with critics slamming the fossil fuel’s huge impact on the environment.

Organizations like Greenpeace describe coal as “the dirtiest, most polluting way of producing energy.” From the UN Secretary General to the International Energy Agency, talk of phasing out coal is becoming increasingly common.

OPINION: Teck’s inessential coal sale makes it smaller and more vulnerable to takeover – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – November 24, 2023)

November 27, 2023

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

After two decades of evisceration, the Canadian diversified mining industry had one big name standing – Teck Resources. The company was not among the half-dozen giants that dominate the global mining industry, but it was the biggest we had left. With a smart strategy, disciplined spending and more than a little luck, Teck could emerge as a homegrown champion, perhaps not among the industry’s A-team players, but near the top end of the B list.

That was the vision, at least. What happened instead was self-evisceration. On Nov. 14, Teck sold its vast coal assets, all of them in Canada, to Glencore of Switzerland, Japan’s Nippon Steel and South Korea’s POSCO, in an US$8.9-billion deal. The sale of Teck’s coal made sense on one level, perhaps, and no sense on others.

‘Easier deal to swallow’ — B.C. politicians soften their stance as Glencore buys Teck’s coal mines – by Naimul Karim (Financial Post – November 22, 2023)

November 22, 2023

https://financialpost.com/

Two dozen commitments agreed by the Swiss mining giant reassure community leaders

The mayors of two towns in British Columbia’s southeastern Kootenay region weren’t too happy when Glencore PLC first tried to buy Teck Resources Ltd. and its four steelmaking coal mines.

Six months on, however, both mayors seem to have changed their point of view now that Glencore is set to take over most of Teck’s coal mines for about US$7 billion. One of them even hopes the Swiss mining giant can help build more homes to address the region’s housing shortage.

Australian company revives its push for a controversial coal mine in Alberta – by Emma Ganey (Globe and Mail – November 21, 2023)

November 22, 2023

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A company whose application for a coal mine in Alberta was rejected two years ago is back – with a new name, and an updated request to explore its lease in the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

Northback Holdings Corp., formerly Benga Mining Ltd., is a subsidiary of Australian mining giant Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd. It is again eyeing a potential mine at Grassy Mountain, submitting applications to the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) for a 105-day exploratory drilling program and a request for a water diversion.

Ukraine’s coal mines turn to women to solve wartime staff shortages – by Max Hunder (Reuters – November 22, 2023)

November 22, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/

PAVLOHRAD, Ukraine, Nov 22 (Reuters) – After more than a thousand of its workers went to fight Russia’s invasion, a coal mining enterprise in eastern Ukraine suffered a huge staff shortage. Its answer was to allow women to work underground for the first time in its history.

Over a hundred took up the offer. “I took this job because the war started and there were no other jobs,” 22-year-old Krystyna said candidly. For five months, she has worked as a technician 470 metres below ground, servicing the small electric trains which haul workers more than four kilometres from the lift shaft where they descend to the seams of coal.

From bad blood and public bashing to an $8.9-billion deal: How Teck made nice with Glencore – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – November 18, 2023)

November 20, 2023

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Back in the spring, Teck Resources Ltd. suffered one of the biggest blows in its more than 100-year history. At the 11th hour, Canada’s biggest diversified mining company called off a restructuring that had been years in the making, after failing to garner enough support from shareholders.

On the day of that grim announcement, the atmosphere at Teck’s annual general meeting was akin to that in a morgue. Teck’s sombre-faced chief executive officer Jonathan Price and its board of directors were forced to publicly accept blame for putting forward a poorly conceived restructuring.

Vern vs. the miners – by Robson Fletcher and Joel Dryden (CBC News – November 20, 2023)

November 20, 2023

https://www.cbc.ca/

Vern Emard is 62 years old but his age doesn’t show as he leads the way up a rickety plywood ramp. His boots clomp as he steps onto the metal roof of what he calls his “palapa” — a shelter that’s not quite a complete house — at a high point of land on his remote property north of Blairmore, in the southern Alberta Rockies.

From atop the roof, he gestures across the valley toward Grassy Mountain, its rocky peak protruding from an evergreen forest, dotted with yellow deciduous trees, into blue sky.

Teck coal sell-off a green politics manoeuvre – by Terence Corcoran (Financial Post – August 17, 2023) https://financialpost.com/

November 17, 2023

https://financialpost.com/

Green promise may not play out as imagined

Somewhere within the machinations of Canada’s largest mining corporation the goal of increasing shareholder gains must still exist in some form, although the latest developments around Teck Resources does make one wonder.

The news Tuesday that the mining giant has agreed to sell its steelmaking coal operations to Swiss mining giant Glencore and companies in Japan and Korea for an “implied value” of $9 billion popped Teck shares to $52, a gain of eight per cent on the day. But the pop didn’t last long.

Glencore-Teck deal reveals the irony of coal: Profitable and vital, yet endlessly shunned – by Heather Exner-Pirot (Globe and Mail – November 17, 2023)

November 17, 2023

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Heather Exner-Pirot is the director of energy, natural resources and environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

In many ways, the US$8.9-billion deal Glencore has struck for Teck Resources’ coal assets represents an elegant split that plays to each company’s strengths.

Teck, the Canadian miner, can now focus on its core base metals business, in particular copper, as it bets on strong returns in the years to come. Swiss commodities giant Glencore can build up its coal empire, adding the steelmaking coal assets to its vast thermal coal trade.