Coal – Page 92 – Republic of Mining

Elk Valley Coal pumps $1 billion into economy: report – by Gordon Hoekstra (Vancouver Sun – November 15, 2015)

January 14, 2016November 16, 2015

http://www.vancouversun.com/

Nearly 60 per cent goes into Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley businesses

Teck’s Elk Valley coal operations in the southeastern B.C. spent more than $1 billion on goods and services in the province in 2013, a new report by Resource Works says.

While about one quarter of that spending took place in the southern Interior region the coal operations are located, nearly 60 per cent of the money was pumped into businesses in the Lower Mainland, which includes Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.

“We are trying to shine a light on a part of the economy that most people don’t see in their day-to-day lives if they live in larger cities, yet has a very significant impact on the employment prospects they enjoy and also the funding for services that governments deliver because of taxes and royalties,” Resource Works executive director Stewart Muir said Sunday.

Clinton’s coal aid plan leaves critics cold – by Darren Goode (Politico.com – November 12, 2015)

November 16, 2015

http://www.politico.com/story

Hillary Clinton’s proposal for $30 billion in aid for people suffering from the decline of the coal industry drew a mixed-to-hostile response Thursday from critics of President Barack Obama’s environmental policies — raising doubts about whether she can arrest the Democratic Party’s electoral slide in coal country.

The package her campaign outlined includes billions of dollars to shore up coal workers’ pension benefits and retrain out-of-work miners or power plant employees to find jobs in other industries. It also includes spending on the so-far-elusive goal of developing “clean coal” technology that would capture and store coal-burning plants’ greenhouse gas pollution.

The plan, which is similar to proposals from Obama, is meant to help coal-dependent communities navigate the transition toward economies based on cleaner energy sources — something that could have an impact in key 2016 states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia and Colorado.

High-energy coal to help Australia miners steam ahead in Asia – by Sonali Paul (Reuters U.S. – November 12, 2015)

November 13, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE – As debate swirls around the future of coal, Australian miners are counting on the higher energy content of the coal they dig and proximity to growing Asian markets to give them an edge over rivals and defy a global push towards cleaner energy.

With around $35 billion in projects in the pipeline, the world’s No.2 exporter of thermal coal is relying on Asian markets using the cheapest source of power even as they try to contain soaring emissions and choking pollution.

That growth in coal demand comes despite climate change taking center stage internationally ahead of U.N. environmental talks that kick off in Paris this month, with governments coming under pressure to do more to cut carbon emissions.

“Eighty years from now when the world’s last coal-fired power plant shuts its doors, it’ll be burning Aussie coal,” said Morgan Stanley commodities analyst Joel Crane in Melbourne.

Canada’s coal industry hoping for rebound despite global demand drop – by Ian Bickis (Canadian Press/Globe and Mail – November 12, 2015)

November 12, 2015

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.

CALGARY — Coal industry watchers say that while their sector is hurting, the picture isn’t as bleak as two reports this week have painted.

Canada’s coal export market, which is made up almost entirely of metallurgical coal used in steel making, has taken a major hit in recent years as prices have dropped from more than $300 (U.S.) a tonne in 2011 to less than $90 a tonne this quarter because of continued oversupply and slowing demand from China.

Grande Cache Coal cited the difficult market conditions when it announced plans this month to temporarily shut its coal mine in northwestern Alberta, starting Christmas Eve. The move means more than 220 people will be laid off, which is in addition to the 250 jobs the company cut earlier this year.

Poland may seek temporary output reduction at some mines – by Agnieszka Barteczko (Reuters Africa – November 10, 2015)

November 10, 2015

http://af.reuters.com/

WARSAW, Nov 10 (Reuters) – Poland could temporarily cut output at several mines over the next four to five years to take surplus coal off the market as the industry deals with record low prices, a member of Poland’s newly elected Law and Justice party said.

Consolidating state-owned power producers could be considered as a next step as the government seeks first to prop up the struggling coal mining sector, Grzegorz Tobiszowski, responsible for coal issues, told Reuters.

The conservative Law and Justice party (PiS), which won parliamentary elections last month, would consider merging the country’s biggest power firms – PGE, Tauron, Enea and Energa, he added.

“Personally I think Poland needs one big power company,” Tobiszowski said, adding this would likely face scrutiny from the EU over anti-monopoly regulations. “If this turns out difficult, we will be working on the formula of two groups”.

China Burns Much More Coal Than Reported, Complicating Climate Talks – by Chris Buckley (New York Times – November 3 2015)

November 10, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/

BEIJING — China, the world’s leading emitter of greenhouse gases from coal, has been burning up to 17 percent more coal a year than the government previously disclosed, according to newly released data. The finding could complicate the already difficult efforts to limit global warming.

Even for a country of China’s size, the scale of the correction is immense. The sharp upward revision in official figures means that China has released much more carbon dioxide — almost a billion more tons a year according to initial calculations — than previously estimated.

The increase alone is greater than the whole German economy emits annually from fossil fuels.

Officials from around the world will have to come to grips with the new figures when they gather in Paris this month to negotiate an international framework for curtailing greenhouse-gas pollution.

India’s coal-fueled economy taking a toll on environment and rural villagers – by Shashank Bengali (Los Angeles Times – October 15, 2015)

November 10, 2015

http://www.latimes.com/

A giant power plant set atop what was once a virgin forest churns with coal from a nearby mine, a roaring example of India’s aspirations to best China’s economic growth and light the homes of its poorest people.

Yet the privately run Sasan power project — backed by hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. government funding — has also generated land disputes, health and environmental concerns and financial hardship for villagers who say it has delivered little of what was promised.

As India tries to bring electricity to 300 million people who lack it, it is defying international calls for reducing climate-changing fuel emissions and instead heavily expanding investments in coal, often with huge costs for rural people living in the path of the inexpensive fossil fuel.

In the village of Amlohri two miles west of the Sasan plant, a mountain of rocky mining waste dumped by Reliance Power, the plant developer, surrounds a cluster of mud-and-brick dwellings, their tin roofs reflecting a blinding sun.

Coal isn’t going away anytime soon – by Nastassia Arendse (Mineweb.com – November 4, 2015)

November 5, 2015

http://www.mineweb.com/

Its a problematic trade-off between climate change and economic development.

Even as coal prices remain depressed, weighed down by oversupply, coal in South Africa isn’t going away. As more countries phase out their coal-fired power stations to decrease carbon emissions, South Africa may not find that easy to achieve.

The country is a big player in the production of coal although not as significant as countries such as China, the USA and India, who are much larger producers. Coal mining is a major employer and has helped power giant industrial companies like Eskom, Sasol, ArcelorMittal SA and the mining industry. The country has large coal reserves and is also a major consumer of coal; mainly for electricity production.

The outright replacement of coal-fired power plants will come at a great cost and the reduction of coal-fired generation capacity is expected to be minimal. “We have to acknowledge that we do have very significant coal reserves in South Africa, and we also have a huge fleet of coal-fired power stations and its not like we can just suddenly scrap them,” says Chris Yelland, managing director at EE Publishers.

Mining Alaska Part II: Digging into Alaska’s only producing coal mine – by Mallory Peebles (KTUU.com – November 3, 2015)

November 4, 2015

http://www.ktuu.com/

Of Alaska’s six currently operational mines, only one produces coal, a resource that supplies energy and heat to more than 37 percent of the Interior, according to the Alaska Energy Authority.

Usibelli Coal Mine near Healy has been a family-run operation since before Alaska obtained statehood. It holds five permits to mine areas within the Nenana coal field. The land within the area is leased by Usibelli from the state.

The company’s first ever tractor stays parked outside the main office while haulers and bulldozers five times its size help extract the mineral buried deep underground.

BHP Billiton says no relief from weak iron ore prices – by Amanda Saunders (Australian Financial Review – November 3, 2015)

November 3, 2015November 3, 2015

http://www.afr.com/

A senior BHP Billiton executive says there is no light at the end of the tunnel for depressed iron ore prices, which will gradually deteriorate over the next few years before finding a new normal well below $US50 a tonne.

Alan Chirgwin, BHP’s vice president of marketing for iron ore, says the price will gradually fall over the next few years before finding a new normal at the highest breakeven of “a major producer in Australia or Brazil”.

That would likely be either Fortescue Metals Group or Brazil’s Vale, which are both racing to avoid the unwanted marginal producer status. Fortescue is sitting at about $US37 to $US38 on breakeven, while Vale is closer to to $US40 a tonne, and they are well behind the other two majors, Rio Tinto and BHP.

China coal testing regime ‘significant impost’ on free trade, BHP says – by Amanda Saunders (Australian Financial Review – November 1, 2015)

November 2, 2015

http://www.afr.com/

The world’s biggest exporter of metallurgical coal, BHP Billiton, says China’s import-coal quality testing regime is a “significant impost” on free trade and some rivals are being forced to sell rejected cargoes at “distressed” prices.

Shaun Verner, BHP’s vice-president of marketing for coal, told Fairfax Media the testing was hurting sentiment and making it “much more difficult” and slower to sell tonnes into China.

BHP has not had a cargo rejected, but Mr Verner said “our understanding is that where some cargoes have been rejected, and we have heard through the market that there have been a few, they have had to be reloaded and resold as distressed cargoes in other markets.

“If you take the general market situation, and price where it is, the risk of having a cargo rejected is not something that people are willing to bear.”

Turning Brownfields into Greenfields: From Coal to Clean Energy – by Lee Buchsbaum (PowerMag.com – November 1, 2015)

November 2, 2015

http://www.powermag.com/

As the coal industry declines in many places around the world, can the mines it leaves behind be repurposed for cleaner energy projects that benefit multiple stakeholders, including local economies? Several existing and planned projects demonstrate that there may be multiple paths toward that transition.

No question, the coal industry in Appalachia, the rest of the U.S., and much of the developed world is going through massive structural changes. As mines close and regulators and citizens take stock of their legacy, people are wondering what’s next for the coalfields.

Beyond attempting to restore scarred lands to their “approximate original contours,” as required by U.S. federal law, there may be another approach, one that could provide lasting value to mining companies, landowners, residents, and other stakeholders.

Thousands of acres of once-abandoned mines are now wildlife preserves or slowly reviving parklands, but can mined land be put to economic use?

Lights Out in Britain for the Coal Industry – by Stephen Castle (New York Times – October 31, 2015)

November 2, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/

KELLINGLEY, England — Tens of thousands of British coal miners have lost their jobs in recent decades, during the steep decline of an industry that stoked the nation’s industrial rise, sustained it through two world wars and once employed more than one million people.

Chris Jamieson will be one of the very last. In December, his job is set to disappear when Kellingley colliery, Britain’s last deep coal mine, is scheduled to close for good.

In the mine’s empty parking lot, Mr. Jamieson, 50, is already thinking about the moment in a few weeks’ time when the last group of miners is hauled to the surface. He expects to work the final shift at the colliery, which has been reduced to little more than a quarter of its peak work force and is succumbing to pressure from cheaper imported coal.

“I will be putting the lights out,” he said, adding that, after a quarter-century in the industry, he would particularly miss not just his paycheck but the unique camaraderie among colleagues who work together underground.

COLUMN-Colombia is the ultimate cap on Asian coal prices – by Clyde Russell (Reuters India – October 29, 2015)

October 29, 2015

http://in.reuters.com/

Oct 29 (Reuters) – There are several reasons why coal prices in Asia are unlikely to rally much in the coming years, but the most compelling one is also likely one of the most obscure: Colombia.

Why should a South American country that hasn’t exported much coal to Asia recently provide the cap for prices?

Because as soon as Asian coal prices rise to a level that would make sense for Colombian miners to resume exports, they will, and they have as much as 25 million tonnes of spare capacity in their production and export chain.

It’s true that Colombia and other producers in the Americas, such as the United States and Canada, have been largely forced out of the world’s biggest coal market by the relentless decline in prices.

But while U.S. and Canadian miners may struggle to resume exports to Asia even if prices do recover, given they have been closing pits, their Colombian counterparts are largely ready to increase output.

INTERVIEW-Poland to dig in over coal, says potential energy minister – by Agnieszka Barteczko (Reuters U.K. – October 28, 2015)

October 29, 2015

http://uk.reuters.com/

WARSAW – Oct 28 Poland’s new government will fight even harder in the European Union to win concessions for its coal-based industry, said Piotr Naimski, tipped to lead the country’s energy ministry following last Sunday’s parliamentary election.

Ninety percent of Poland’s energy is generated from the highly-polluting coal and Warsaw has long opposed an EU drive to curb carbon emissions.

But the conservative, eurosceptic Law and Justice (PiS) party, which won outright parliamentary majority in Sunday’s vote, could take an even harder line than the outgoing centre-right government.

Naimski said the new PiS government would fight “any obstacles” that would prevent Warsaw from sticking to coal rather than developing renewable energy sources.