Coal – Page 85 – Republic of Mining

Glencore to close Tahmoor mine in NSW due to low coal prices (Sydney Morning Herald – June 2, 2016)

June 2, 2016

http://www.smh.com.au/

Swiss miner Glencore will close its Tahmoor coal mine in NSW by early 2019, blaming continued low prices in global coal markets. Glencore, one of Australia’s largest coal producers running 18 mines and employing some 7650 workers, said it had started consultation with the 350 employees at the mine.

A spokesman said the first redundancies wouldn’t occur for at least 12 months. “We’ve tried to give [workers] as much notice as possible … so we can give our people as much time to plan as possible,” a spokesman said.

“We do our best to look for redeployment opportunities for them elsewhere within out business and at other mines in the industry.” The underground mine, in the southern highlands of NSW about 75 kilometres south-west of Sydney, has been operating since 1979 and last year produced 2.1 million tonnes of metallurgical coal used in steel making.

Auction for Walter Energy’s northeast B.C. mines reaches deadline – by Derrick Penner (Vancouver Sun – May 31, 2016)

June 1, 2016

http://vancouversun.com/

The future of Walter Energy Canada’s three coal mines around Tumbler Ridge and Chetwynd will unfold in the coming weeks as the company and its court-appointed monitor auction off the mothballed facilities.

Since March, potential bidders have been looking over the mine’s specifications and company documents in a room in Vancouver (the company isn’t saying who or how many). The deadline to submit bids was May 27.

With the market for the steelmaking coal that the mines produces still oversupplied, the question remains: Who would buy the mines? And for Tumbler Ridge, the community most deeply affected by their shutdown, what is the likelihood they’ll start up soon?

Coal industry shouldn’t get carried away with new-found optimism – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – June 1, 2016)

June 1, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

NUSA DUA, INDONESIA – Something has changed in the coal industry. For the past 22 years Asia’s coal producers, traders and buyers have gathered in the Indonesian resort island of Bali to discuss the state of the sector.

In recent years these have been pretty depressing affairs as participants bemoaned the ongoing slump in prices, prayed that things couldn’t get any worse and then lamented when they did.

But this year was different. For the first time since 2012 there was a mood of optimism at the annual Coaltrans Asia meeting. What remains to be seen is whether this new-found view that the worst is past has any basis in reality, or whether it’s just a different type of delusion for the beleaguered coal industry.

Appalachian Coal Ash Richest in Rare Earth Elements – by Ken Kingery (Duke University/Pratt School of Engineering – May 27, 2016)

May 30, 2016

https://pratt.duke.edu/about/news/

Concentrations are highest in coal from the Appalachian Mountains

A study of the content of rare earth elements in U.S. coal ashes shows that coal mined from the Appalachian Mountains could be the proverbial golden goose for hard-to-find materials critical to clean energy and other emerging technologies.

In the wake of a 2014 coal ash spill into North Carolina’s Dan River from a ruptured Duke Energy drainage pipe, the question of what to do with the nation’s aging retention ponds and future coal ash waste has been a highly contested topic.

One particularly entrepreneurial idea is to extract so-called “critical” rare earth elements such as neodymium, europium, terbium, dysprosium, yttrium and erbium from the burned coal. The Department of Energy has identified these globally scarce metals as a priority for their uses in clean energy and other emerging technologies. But exactly how much of these elements are contained in different sources of coal ash in the U.S. had never been explored.

Coals to Newcastle: A Warning to Both Trump & Clinton – by Ted Gup (Huffington Post – May 17, 2016)

May 18, 2016

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Like politicians, language sometimes fails to keep pace with the times. Consider the phrase “Taking coals to Newcastle,” dating back five centuries to the days when Newcastle, England was coal capital of the world.

The adage came to represent the absurdity of bringing something — in this instance, coal — to a place where it was already in abundance. The phrase endures, though there are no more such mines in England, and Newcastle, humbled by history, is now a port where foreign coal is off-loaded by the ton.

But in this political season, and particularly in the aftermath of the recent West Virginia Primary, the phrase and its backstory have a special resonance for the presumptive candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. For Trump, who imagines he can easily unwind time, bring back the shrinking coal industry, and restore America’s preeminence as a manufacturing center, Newcastle may stand as a stubborn reminder that history has no reverse gear.

Moody’s downgrades rail sector outlook as coal shipments drop – by Eric Atkins (Globe and Mail – May 17, 2016)

May 17, 2016

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A plunge in the amount of freight moving on North American railways has spurred Moody’s Investors Service to downgrade the outlook for the sector to negative.

An “unprecedented” 37-per-cent year-over-year drop in coal shipments in April will help drive down overall freight volumes down by about 4 per cent this year and send revenues down by as much as 2 per cent for the major carriers, said Rene Lipsch, a Moody’s analyst.

“North American railroads face deeper and longer-lasting declines in freight volumes than we had previously anticipated,” Mr. Lipsch said in a note to clients on Monday. Coal carloads, which account for almost 30 per cent of the rail traffic in North America, have fallen by 33 per cent this year, according to the Association of American Railroads.

Clash between Trump and Clinton over coal foreshadows a tough fight for her in battleground states – by Michael Finnegan (Los Angeles Times – May 10, 2016)

May 10, 2016

http://www.latimes.com/

Voters in Appalachian coal country will not soon forget that Democrat Hillary Clinton told an Ohio audience in March that she would “put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.”

“It was a devastating thing for her to say,” said Betty Dolan, whose diner in this mountain hamlet offers daily testament to the ravages that mining’s demise has visited upon families whose livelihood depends on coal.

Mine closures, bankruptcies and layoffs are staples of lunchtime conversation for those who have not fled town in search of work. Like many fellow Democrats in the region, Dolan, 73, favors Republican Donald Trump for president, however rude he might seem to the proprietor of a no-frills restaurant known for its graham cracker pie. “I’m going to go for the person who wants coal,” she said.

Editorial If coal is too dirty for the U.S., why would Oakland build a dock to export it to Asia? (Los Angeles Times – May 9, 2016)

May 10, 2016

http://www.latimes.com/

If coal is indeed king, it is the lord of a shrinking realm, which ought to be good news for the environment. With the nation’s electricity production shifting to cleaner sources of power, U.S. coal consumption is declining.

But here’s a problem: As major coal-mining companies watch their sales diminish domestically, they are struggling to find export markets in which they can continue to do business. And what have we really gained if coal that the U.S. doesn’t use just gets shipped to other countries for them to burn?

That’s the question that needs to be answered as officials consider a proposal to build a new coal port in Oakland as part of the conversion of a decommissioned Army base. There are a lot of problems with the proposal, which we’ll get to, but just from an environmental standpoint, it is a bad idea.

Trump sees receptive audience in West Virginia as job-loss anger burns hot – by David Shribman (Globe and Mail – May 9, 2016)

May 9, 2016

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

DRY FORK, W.VA. — The latest battleground in the altered presidential race is a battleground that has been dramatically altered over time – and that itself has altered American history substantially.

Amid the mountains and mines, the hollers and hillsides, the timberlands and trailheads, West Virginia has had an outsized influence on America for a state that is less than a tenth the size of Texas.

It has shaped the Civil War and the Cold War, given a distinct accent to the country’s food and folklore, added a surprising element to the country’s basketball and ski heritage – all to the twang of the distinctive country music that echoes through its “Almost Heaven” country roads.

Donald Trump Says He’ll Bring Back Jobs For Coal Miners But He’s Just Blowing Smoke – by Joe Romm (Think Progress.org – May 4, 2016)

May 5, 2016

http://thinkprogress.org/

Donald Trump markets himself as a business-savvy billionaire who will get American jobs back from countries like China. In the case of the coal industry, however, he appears to be just a very clueless politician making pro-pollution promises he can’t keep.

“I’m a free-market guy, but not when you’re getting killed,” he said recently at a rally in Carmel, Indiana. “Look at steel, it’s being wiped out. Your coal industry is wiped out, and China is taking our coal.” Huh? “China is taking our coal”? If China were taking much of our coal (in the form of U.S. exports) that would be great for coal jobs.

If Trump meant Chinese coal exports are taking away our coal market (i.e. potential U.S. sales overseas), then he is truly clueless about the coal business. China flipped from net coal exporter to net importer back in 2009 (!) and quickly became the world’s biggest importer.

Climate protesters invade UK’s largest opencast coalmine – by Steve Morris (The Guardian – May 3, 2016)

May 3, 2016

http://www.theguardian.com/

Hundreds of environmental activists have invaded the UK’s largest opencast coalmine and halted operations across the vast site.

Dressed in red boiler suits, groups of protesters crossed barbed wire fences to gain access to Ffos-y-fran mine near Merthyr Tydfil in south Wales. Some chained themselves to machinery, others lay across access roads. Dozens of protesters, joined by local people, also blockaded the entrance to the mine’s headquarters.

The action in Wales marks the start of a global wave of direct action coordinated by the group Reclaim the Power supporting a transition away from fossil fuels in 13 countries including Germany, South Africa, Indonesia and North America over the next two weeks.

Following a weekend of planning, protesters entered the site shortly after dawn on Tuesday.

Teck Resources Goes From Dud to Darling as Coal Makes a Comeback – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – May 3, 2016)

May 3, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Shares of Teck Resources Ltd. have almost tripled this year, making the Canadian company the best-performing global miner amid the rebound in commodity prices and a projected fivefold improvement in earnings.

The price of Teck’s three main products have surged, with metallurgical coal leading and zinc a close second. Until recently, copper had lagged the pack but gains last week have narrowed the gap. Last year, 37 percent of the Vancouver-based miner’s revenue came from met coal, which is used to make steel, 34 percent from zinc and 29 percent from copper.

The renewed vigor of the three commodities has led to a surge in positive sentiment toward the company from analysts and investors. Analysts covering Teck boosted their estimates for the company’s second-quarter results by more than fivefold on average this year, data compiled by Bloomberg show, the biggest increase in the 98-company Bloomberg World Mining Index.

Clinton begins Appalachia tour in Trump-friendly coal country – by Amanda Becker and Valerie Volcovici (Reuters U.S. – May 2, 2016)

May 2, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

WASHINGTON – U.S. Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton begins a two-day tour on Monday through rural, traditionally coal-reliant parts of the eastern Appalachian region where Republican rival Donald Trump’s pro-coal, anti-trade message has resonated with economically distressed voters.

Clinton, in a move to reclaim her early pledge to focus on helping the struggling region resuscitate its economies, will meet the head of a local steel workers union, retired mine workers and others in Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio affected by declining coal and steel prices.

Her pledge of more than $30 billion to help coal regions was overshadowed in March when Clinton, at an Ohio town hall, said the country would “put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.”

Is King Coal on Life Support? – by Bob Kohut (The Bull.com – May 2, 2016)

May 2, 2016

http://www.thebull.com.au/

On 27 April a story appearing here on thebull.com reported the sad tale of the “last train to leave Leigh Creek.” The train carried coal from a now-shuttered mine in the town formerly operated by electricity retailer Alinta Energy for the South Australian state government.

At its peak the mine produced about 2.5 million tonnes of coal per year to fire two power generating stations that supplied 40% of South Australia’s electricity. Coal mining at Leigh Creek dates back to 1888.

Since the advent of electricity, coal has been viewed as the “king” of commodities. But even with the most highly valued commodities, technology can issue a death sentence. More than a century ago the world had a seemingly insatiable demand for whale oil to light the night. The onset of kerosene sent whale oil demand plummeting, leaving only its use in soap and vegetable and certain machine oils. The last whaling ship in the once mighty US whaling fleet left the Port of New Bedford Massachusetts in 1921.

A Crusader in the Coal Mine, Taking On President Obama – by Jad Mouawad (New York Times – April 30, 2016)

May 2, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/

ST. CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio — The rolling hills of eastern Ohio show few signs of the frenzied activity unfolding hundreds of feet underground. Inside the Powhatan No. 6 mine, a machine the size of a city bus is slowly slicing the earth, scraping out coal and sending it on a 40-minute ride to the surface.

“It will see the light of day for the first time in 200 million years,” says Robert E. Murray, the 76-year-old chairman of the Murray Energy Corporation, rolling toward the coalface, where the coal is cut out of the rock, in an electric cart.

The digging occurs at the distant end of a forbidding maze of tunnels stretching more than 16 miles into the earth. The walls are coated with “rock dust,” or pulverized limestone, which acts as a fire retardant and gives the place a chalky, ethereal appearance. It is mostly silent but for the occasional whoosh of air venting from above.