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OPINION: Ottawa sets out clear path for Glencore’s purchase of Teck’s coal mines – by Andrew Willis (Globe and Mail – August 17, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The federal government is giving Switzerland’s Glencore PLC a clear path to acquiring Canada’s largest coal miner from Teck Resources Ltd., while making it clear Ottawa will block any foreign player bidding for all of Teck itself, the country’s critical minerals champion.

Although federal officials previously signed off on acquisitions of major metals producers – so long Inco Ltd., farewell Alcan Inc. – the current regime signalled a more protectionist, nationalist approach this week during a news conference at a condo construction site in Toronto.

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Teck to sell coal business to Glencore, Nippon Steel and POSCO in US$8.9-billion deal – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – November 14, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Teck Resources Ltd. has agreed to sell its coal business to Swiss commodities trading giant Glencore PLC and two Asian steelmakers, in a US$8.9-billion transaction that requires federal approval, and will be closely scrutinized by Ottawa before it can proceed.

Vancouver-based Teck has been fielding offers for its core metallurgical coal business since the spring, when an earlier plan to spin it off was cancelled at the eleventh hour because of insufficient shareholder support. Founded in 1913, Teck is Canada’s largest diversified mining company, a major employer in British Columbia and one of the oldest miners in the country.

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U.S., Canada and Ktunaxa Nation to discuss coal-mining pollution in Kootenai River watershed (Montana Free Press – November 9, 2023)

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At the first-of-its-kind meeting, representatives of U.S., Canadian and tribal governments will discuss water quality impacts stemming from an expansive coal-mining operation in British Columbia.

After years of delays and false starts, eight governments impacted by an expansive Canadian coal-mining operation are set to meet today on Indigenous territory in Cranbrook, British Columbia, to discuss the future of the governments’ shared waterways.

The meeting will include representatives from the federal governments of the United States and Canada and the Ktunaxa Nation Council, which advocates for the interests of six bands of Indigenous people spread across present-day British Columbia, Montana and Idaho. The council, which includes representation from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, has for years asked for greater oversight of Teck Resources’ British Columbia-based coal-mining operation.

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Conservation groups sue feds in bid to protect endangered species from Appalachian coal mining – by Ryan Knappenberger (Courthouse News – November 8, 2023)

https://www.courthousenews.com/

The endangered Guyandotte River crayfish, one of three at-risk species centered in the lawsuit, has suffered a 93% habitat loss due to coal mining activity in the region, conservationists say, limiting the species to just two creeks in West Virginia.

WASHINGTON (CN) — Environmental groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday urging the federal government to enact protections for endangered fish and crawfish found in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia as they groups say nearby coal mining operations are driving the species to potential extinction.

The suit, brought by the Center for Biological Diversity and Appalachian Voices in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, slammed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, saying the agency had ignored the significant impacts of coal mining sedimentation and approved hundreds of mining permits without the required protections.

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Critics slam proposed coal mining on eastern slopes at NDP town hall meeting – by Stephen Tipper (Calgary Herald – November 2, 2023)

https://calgaryherald.com/

Austrialian-based Northback Holdings has resurrected a proposal for a steelmaking coal mine on Grassy Mountain in the Crowsnest Pass

Critics expressed frustration and concern over a potential coal mining operation on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, in an online town hall meeting held by the Opposition NDP Wednesday night.

Austrialian-based Northback Holdings, formerly known as Benga Mining, resurrected last month a proposal for a steelmaking coal mine on Grassy Mountain in the Crowsnest Pass. The company has applied to the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) for licences that would allow the company to divert water, drill and explore for coal.

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Mine Fire in Kazakhstan Kills 46, Accelerates Nationalization Talks – by Catherine Putz (The Diplomat – October 31, 2023)

https://thediplomat.com/

After years of safety problems, ArcelorMittal confirms its in talks to transfer ownership to Kazakhstan. But a change of ownership won’t necessarily make mining any safer.

When a fire broke out at the Kostenco coal mine in Kazakhstan’s Karaganda region on October 28, 252 people were underground. Although 206 were safely evacuated to the surface, 46 miners died in the mine.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev did not mince words, calling ArcelorMittal – the international mining giant and parent company of ArcelorMittal Temirtau, which operates the Kostenco mine – “the worst in our history in terms of cooperation between the government and [a private] enterprise.”

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Canada, U.S. to meet with Indigenous leaders in B.C. over pollution issues (Canadian Press/Business In Vancouver – November 1, 2023)

https://biv.com/

Indigenous groups in both countries have been clamouring for years for a bilateral investigation of selenium contamination from B.C. coal mines owned by Teck Resources

Canadian and U.S. officials are expected to meet next week with Indigenous leaders as they work on cleaning up toxic mining run-off that’s polluting waters on both sides of the border.

Ktunaxa Nation officials say the meeting will take place Nov. 9 on Indigenous territory in Cranbrook, B.C. Indigenous groups in both countries have been clamouring for years for a bilateral investigation of selenium contamination from B.C. coal mines owned by Teck Resources.

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Springhill mining disaster remains a horrific memory – by Patrick Kennedy (Kingston Whig Standard – October 28,2023)

https://www.thewhig.com/

Dave Cochrane leans forward and unpacks a memory from more than a half-century ago, back to a winter’s day in Sudbury at the Inco employment office. He had ventured to the Nickel City to land a mining job and go to work in the bowels of Mother Earth, much like his father and his grandfathers had done before him back home in Nova Scotia.

At the time, Cochrane weighed maybe a buck-forty, well under the company’s 160-pound minimum weight requirement for underground workers. “Sorry, son, you’re 20 pounds too light,” the Inco man at the employment centre said.

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A deadly Canadian mining disaster: exactly 65 years later, there are still lessons for us – by Ken Cuthbertson (Toronto Star – October 28, 2023)

https://www.thestar.com/

The warning signs were all there. Yet economics dictated that the residents of Springhill, N.S., continue their blind reliance on coal — the ultimate fossil fuel.

One hundred and seventy-four men were working deep within the Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation (DOSCO) colliery at Springhill, N.S., on the evening of Oct. 23, 1958. That’s when death came calling. “At the surface (in Springhill), people … felt a bump,” a Nova Scotia Energy and Mines senior geologist would say many years later. “That wouldn’t explain what the miners felt deep underground. It was much more violent.”

It has been guesstimated that the force of what locals ever after came to refer to as “the Bump” was the equivalent of about 1,000 tonnes of dynamite being exploded underground. That may well have been so, for the grim consequences of the upheaval still stand as one of Canada’s worst workplace disasters. the hard-luck town of Springhill had a long, painful history of such misfortunes.

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As Teck weighs offers for coal business, likelihood of regulatory approval a factor – by Amanda Stephenson (CTV News/Canadian Press – October 24, 2023)

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/

The head of Teck Resources Ltd. says he will only accept a bid for the company’s steelmaking coal business if he feels confident Canadian regulators will approve the transaction. Jonathan Price, CEO of Canada’s largest diversified mining company, made the comments on Tuesday as part of an update on Teck’s ongoing efforts to separate its base metals business from its steelmaking coal unit.

Price said the Vancouver-based company continues to evaluate offers put forward by prospective buyers of its coal business with the hope of making a decision before the end of the year. While he said he is pleased with the level of outside competition the process has generated, Price said regulatory clearance will be a crucial factor.

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A deadly Canadian mining disaster: exactly 65 years later, there are still lessons for us – by Ken Cuthbertson (Toronto Star – October 23, 2023)

https://www.thestar.com/

The warning signs were all there. Yet economics dictated that the residents of Springhill, N.S., continue their blind reliance on coal — the ultimate fossil fuel.

One hundred and seventy-four men were working deep within the Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation (DOSCO) colliery at Springhill, N.S., on the evening of Oct. 23, 1958. That’s when death came calling. “At the surface (in Springhill), people … felt a bump,” a Nova Scotia Energy and Mines senior geologist would say many years later. “That wouldn’t explain what the miners felt deep underground. It was much more violent.”

It has been guesstimated that the force of what locals ever after came to refer to as “the Bump” was the equivalent of about 1,000 tonnes of dynamite being exploded underground. That may well have been so, for the grim consequences of the upheaval still stand as one of Canada’s worst workplace disasters. the hard-luck town of Springhill had a long, painful history of such misfortunes.

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BHP sells Blackwater and Daunia coal mines to Australian mining company Whitehaven – by Jessica Clifford (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – October 18, 2023)

https://www.abc.net.au/

Mining giant BHP has sold two of its central Queensland coal mines for more than $US4 billion. Australian company Whitehaven Coal has purchased the Blackwater and Daunia mines which produce some of the world’s highest quality coking coal for steelmaking.

The Blackwater site, located south-east of Emerald, is also one of the southern hemisphere’s longest coking coal mines, with a striking rate of 80 kilometres. Daunia is located south-east of Moranbah in the Bowen Basin and has only been operational since 2013.

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Chinese miners to be hardest hit by global coal job cuts, study finds – by You Xiaoying (Nikkei Asia – October 12, 2023)

https://asia.nikkei.com/

Shift to renewables is forecast to slash nearly 250,000 jobs in Shanxi by 2050

Chinese miners will likely be hardest hit by sweeping job cuts expected in the coal industry over the next three decades as countries shutter coal plants in favor of cleaner — and increasingly cheaper — renewable energy, a new analysis has found.

Coal mines in Shanxi province in northwest China, the country’s coal heartland, could slash 241,900 jobs by 2050, according to a report published on Tuesday by Global Energy Monitor (GEM), a San Francisco-based nongovernmental organization.

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Kingston author looks back at one of the greatest disasters in Canadian history – by Peter Hendra (Kingston Whig Standard – October 2023)

https://www.thewhig.com/

Sixty-five years ago, in the tiny coal-mining town of Springhill, N.S., a mini-earthquake — what they called a “bump” — in the No. 2 mine took the lives of 75 people, making it one of the worst workplace disasters in Canadian history.

While he was born and lives in Kingston, Ken Cuthbertson, the author of the just-published “Blood on the Coal: The True Story of the Great Springhill Mine Disaster,” has roots in Nova Scotia and remembers his grandparents talking about the Halifax Explosion of 1917 and Springhill, a story that had captured the nation’s attention.

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The politics of climate alarmism – by Derek H. Burney (National Post – October 3, 2023)

https://nationalpost.com/

The climate debate has been hijacked by a political narrative that brooks neither dissent nor balance

Damaging weather events inevitably lead to climate evangelists making apocalyptic claims of imminent disaster. UN Secretary General António Guterres led the most recent chorus, talking about “global boiling” and raising alarmism to a fever pitch.

Yet, more than 1,600 scientists, including two Nobel physics laureates, have signed a declaration stating that, “There is no climate emergency.” That poses a serious political problem for any government that has been arguing the contrary.

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