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Congress Raids Ancestral Native American Lands With Defense Bill [Resolution Copper] – by Michael McAuliff (Huffington Post – December 3, 2014)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/politics/

WASHINGTON — When Terry Rambler, the chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, woke up Wednesday in Washington, D.C., it was to learn that Congress was deciding to give away a large part of his ancestral homeland to a foreign mining company.

Rambler came to the nation’s capital for the White House Tribal Nations Conference, an event described in a press announcement as an opportunity to engage the president, cabinet officials and the White House Council on Native American Affairs “on key issues facing tribes including respecting tribal sovereignty and upholding treaty and trust responsibilities,” among other things.

Rambler felt things got off to an unfortunate, if familiar, start when he learned that the House and Senate Armed Services Committee had decided to use the lame-duck session of Congress and the National Defense Authorization Act to give 2,400 acres of the Tonto National Forest in Arizona to a subsidiary of the Australian-English mining giant Rio Tinto.

“Of all people, Apaches and Indians should understand, because we’ve gone though this so many times in our history,” Rambler said.

Rambler knew there was a possibility that supporters of the move — which failed twice on the House floor last year — would slip the deal into the must-pass legislation, but aides and officials involved had declined to reveal it. Even Tuesday evening, when Republicans and Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee released summaries of the bill, the land deal was left out.

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Controversial mine legislation slipped into defense bill – by Rebekah L. Sanders (The Arizona Republic – December 3, 2014)

http://www.azcentral.com/

A controversial Arizona mining bill that appeared dead for this Congress has gotten new life, as supporters have tucked it deep into a defense bill that lawmakers must pass before the end of the year.

The legislation would authorize a federal land swap to allow an international mining company to drill into one of North America’s richest copper deposits near Superior, about 60 miles east of Phoenix.

House lawmakers slipped the land-exchange bill late Tuesday night into the 1,600-page National Defense Authorization Act, a key bill that continues funding for the Defense Department.

The must-pass defense legislation may give the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act its best chance of passage yet. A House committee will vote on the defense bill Wednesday and likely advance it to a full House vote on Thursday. From there it would go to the Senate, where no amendments would be allowed.

Lawmakers are trying to plow through a list of lame-duck priorities before leaving for Christmas. Most of Arizona’s delegation supports the land exchange, though they are staying mum for now.

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Copper, zinc, pgms – Friedland’s got them all in mega quantities – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – December 3, 2014)

http://www.mineweb.com/

Robert Friedland’s latest take on his 3 megaprojects in Africa and his forecasts for likely markets are little changed.

LONDON (MINEWEB) – At yesterday’s well attended MineAfrica meeting in London, serial mining entrepreneur Robert Friedland was given virtually unlimited time to close out the day’s talks. He thus spent more than an hour talking delegates through the prospects for platinum group metals, copper and zinc, followed by why one should invest in his company to take advantage of what he sees as a rosy future ahead for the metals sector.

Most of what Friedland said about the metals and his three massive African projects he has said before but nonetheless they are interesting to recount again, with updates, given his remarkable track record in finding mega deposits.

As he is one to tell, his companies found Fort Knox (gold) and then more impressively Voiseys Bay (nickel) and Oyu Tolgoi (copper/gold) although his early near environmental disaster of Summitville (gold) is quietly forgotten. After all he was young then and has since grown older and perhaps wiser – and his almost evangelical speaking presentations have been well polished over the years.

On all the metals he points to global population growth and people’s aspirations to better themselves as being the key drivers for virtually all metals and minerals looking ahead, but particularly for those on which his Ivanhoe Mines company is concentrating.

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HISTORY: Workers at biblical copper mines ate quite well – by By Megan Gannon (Fox News.com – November 28, 2014)

http://www.foxnews.com/

LiveScience – Metalworkers who did skilled labor at biblical-era copper mines in modern-day Israel were rewarded for their efforts with well-rounded meals, new research suggests.

The metalworkers’ diet included good cuts of sheep and goat, as well as pistachios, grapes and fish brought to the middle of the desert from the Mediterranean, according to an analysis of ancient leftovers at “Slaves’ Hill,” a mining camp in Israel’s Timna Valley.

The findings imply that “Slaves’ Hill” might be a misnomer; the people who manned the furnaces probably weren’t slaves, but rather, they held a higher status because of their craft, archaeologists say. [The Holy Land: 7 Amazing Archaeological Finds]

Not-exactly ‘Slaves’ Hill’

“Somebody took care that these people were eating well,” said Erez Ben-Yosef, an archaeologist from Tel Aviv University.

Since 2012, Ben-Yosef has been leading an archaeological expedition in the heart of Timna Valley, the second biggest source of copper in the southern Levant region. (The biggest is Faynan, farther north in Jordan.) People have taken advantage of the copper deposits at Timna for millennia. There are dozens of smelting sites and thousands of primitive mining pits clearly visible in the region today. And the area is still used for copper production; the Mexican mining giant AHMSA has a stake in the region.

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Callinex to target high-grade copper- and zinc-rich VMS deposits in Manitoba (MiningWeekly.com – November 21, 2014)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

HANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – TSX-listed CallinexMines has adopted an aggressive new strategy to discover and develop high-grade copper- and zinc-rich volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposits.

The company has identified its Flin Flon and Pine Bay projects as the focus of future exploration based on potential to host the Flin Flon mining district’s nextVMS deposit. Both projects are located within 20 km by road to Hudbay Minerals’ processing facility in Flin Flon, Manitoba, which is projected to require additional ore in the coming years.

President and CEO Max Porterfield said: “I am eager to lead the renewed exploration focus on VMS deposits within the Flin Flon mining camp. Prior to the 2011 spinout from Callinan Mines, the company has benefited from several VMS discoveries based in its project portfolio, including the Callinan and 777 mines.

“Additionally, existing infrastructure and Manitoba’s favourable permitting environment can be leveraged to significantly reduce capital costs and lead times to production.”

He added that the strategic shift in focus “comes at a time when the zinc market faces a medium-term supply deficit and copper continues to have positive long-term fundamentals”.

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EXCLUSIVE-Foreign firms challenge Poland over access to mine concessions – by Adrian Krajewski and Anna Koper (Reuters India – November 21, 2014)

http://in.reuters.com/

WARSAW, Nov 21 (Reuters) – Two foreign-owned mining firms have challenged the Polish government over what they see as the unfair allocation of copper and potash extraction permits to state-controlled miner KGHM.

Poland’s environment ministry, which allocates concessions, denied it gave preferential treatment to KGHM over Canadian Miedzi Copper, which has filed a lawsuit, or British firm Darley Energy, which has submitted an appeal.

KGHM, Europe’s second-largest copper producer and an industrial champion for Poland, is 31.8-percent owned by the state. It said it did not limit competition.

Whatever the outcome, the row could rattle foreign investors at a time when Poland’s resource sector, struggling with low prices on the world market, badly needs investment.

The government is also anxious to bring investors into shale gas, which it hopes will reduce its reliance on imported Russian gas. But a number of firms have pulled out, citing difficult geology and unclear regulations.

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Florence copper leaching project stalls – by Howard Fischer Capitol Media Services (Arizona Daily Star – November 15, 2014)

http://tucson.com/

PHOENIX — A state board has blocked construction of a controversial copper leaching operation beneath Florence — at least in the form it was proposed.

The Arizona Water Quality Appeals Board accepted the findings of an administrative law judge, who concluded that the state Department of Environmental Quality’s permit allowing Curis Resources to pump acid into the ground would not adequately protect water quality. The judge’s report found a series of shortcomings.

But board members did not kill the project outright. They rejected Diane Mihalsky’s recommendation that the permit for Florence Copper Inc. be entirely voided, concluding that would place an “unnecessary burden” on both the company and the DEQ. Instead, they agreed to give the state and Curis a chance to change the operating plan — and the conditions DEQ is imposing — to put the proposed mining operation in compliance with state laws and regulations.

DEQ spokesman Mark Shafer defended his agency’s original decision as justified.

“We issued an environmentally protective permit,” he said, but acknowledged the judge disagreed. “Given that, we think the appeals board made the correct decision in remanding the case back to DEQ to take a look at it again.”

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Canada injects $300m in Chile’s copper giant Codelco – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – November 12, 2014)

http://www.mining.com/

Export Development Canada (EDC) said Wednesday it has granted a US$300 million loan to Chile’s owned copper producer Codelco to help it with a much needed massive investment program aimed to guarantee the firm’s status as the world’s biggest copper producer.

The Chilean miner will procure goods and services from Canadian companies down the road, particularly small-to-medium sized enterprises.
As part of the agreement, the Chilean miner will procure goods and services from Canadian companies down the road, particularly small-to-medium sized enterprises.

“Such loans have been very productive in the past, especially with Codelco, where they have helped promote Cdn$888 million worth of purchases from more than 150 Canadian companies in the last five years,” a spokesman for EDC told MINING.om.

Jean Cardyn, EDC’s Regional Vice-President in South America said in a statement that the Canadian trade finance agency has identified Chile as a market that holds tremendous promise and potential for growth.

Late last month President Michelle Bachelet enacted a special law to spur the company’s output, which grants Codelco an extra injection of S$4 billion between 2014 and 2018.

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BHP offers little hope of revisiting giant copper mine expansion – by James Regan (Reuters U.K. – October 31, 2014)

http://uk.reuters.com/

SYDNEY – (Reuters) – Expansion by BHP Billiton’s giant Olympic Dam mine in Australia, once considered among its prized growth assets, is off the agenda due to low metals prices and productivity inefficiencies, the company said on Friday.

BHP shelved plans for a multi-billion-dollar expansion of the copper, gold and uranium mine in 2012 after a year-long study, citing a need to reign in spending as the Australian mining boom started to fade.

Since then business leaders and politicians, including Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, have implored BHP to reconsider its decision, hoping to alleviate job losses caused by the exit of car manufacturing in Australia.

But BHP has stood firm and on Friday reiterated its mothballing of expansion plans for Olympic Dam.

“Our immediate challenge is how we self-fund the required investment by being prudent and creative with our capital and engaging our workforce to not only reduce costs but also accelerate the initiatives that will reduce our costs,” Darryl Cuzzubbo, Olympic Dam assetpresident, said in a business speech emailed to Reuters.

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UPDATE 1-Zambia may be backing off steeper mine royalty rates -Barrick – by Nicole Mordant (Reuters India – October 30, 2014)

http://in.reuters.com/

Oct 30 (Reuters) – There are indications Zambia may be backing away from plans to impose a 20 percent royalty rate on open pit mining in the country, a top executive with Barrick Gold Corp said on Thursday.

Zambia’s Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda rattled mining companies with investments in the copper-rich southern African country earlier this month when he announced that from January royalties on open pit mines will rise to 20 percent and on underground mines to 8 percent from 6 percent currently.

Barrick, which is the world’s biggest gold producer but also owns the Lumwana copper mine in Zambia, has said that a 20 percent royalty would seriously challenge the economics of the large open-pit mine.

“Our sense is that the government realizes that the numbers they have imposed will be very challenging for the industry,” Barrick co-president Kelvin Dushnisky said on a conference call to discuss the company’s third-quarter results, which were released late on Wednesday and beat market expectations.

“I don’t want to handicap anything, but going into this week, our sense is there would be movement away from that number. I can’t guarantee it but that’s certainly the direction discussions were going,” he said.

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Copper hopes ‘bright despite volatility’ – by Neil Hume and James Wilson (Financial Times – October 22, 2014)

http://www.ft.com/intl/markets/commodities

Copper is set for a period of price volatility as the market digests new supply but long-term prospects remain bright due to grade declines and extended lead times for new projects, according to global miner Rio Tinto.

Sentiment toward the red metal, used extensively in construction and electrical applications, has turned increasingly bearish over the past year as new projects have come on stream and concerns about slowing growth in China have intensified.

China accounts for about 40 per cent of global consumption of the commodity. These factors have pushed the benchmark copper price down 9.2 per cent this year to $6,691 a tonne.

However, some traders believe the price will recover. They say rising supply may not lead to a surplus in the refined copper market next year because of a raw material bottleneck.

Jean-Sébastien Jacques, head of copper at Rio Tinto, one of the world’s biggest mining companies, said a “wave” of new supply was set hit the market between now and 2016 as investments made over the past decade stared to bear fruit.

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McCain: Why I’ll vote for Resolution Copper – by John McCain (Arizona Republic – October 15, 2014)

http://www.azcentral.com/

John McCain is Arizona’s senior senator.

Driving through Superior last week, I saw the boarded-up shops that line its Main Street. I spoke with residents of this small community, many of whom are struggling to find opportunities to better their lives and those of their families.

Just a few decades ago, this area, an hour east of Phoenix, was a busy mining community. But its economy bottomed out after the old Magma Copper Mine closed in 1995. Today, a quarter of its residents live below the poverty line. Their neighbors on the San Carlos Reservation are in worse shape, reportedly suffering from a 70 percent unemployment rate and a rampant drug-abuse problem.

Today, hope is on the horizon for this hard-hit community. Last month, Resolution Copper, a joint project of mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, finished sinking a tunnel more than a mile underground, within reach of one of the top five undeveloped copper ore deposits in North America. It was a critically important development for this major job creator in one of Arizona’s most economically depressed rural areas.

The Resolution Copper project has the potential to utterly transform these communities. At full capacity, the mine could create as many as 4,000 jobs and produce roughly 25 percent of our nation’s domestic copper supply. Arizona as a whole will likely benefit from tens of billions of dollars in increased economic activity over the lifespan of the mine.

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Chile Seeking to Loosen Major Miners’ Grip on Idle Land – by Matt Craze (Bloomberg News – October 7, 2014)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Chile’s government will seek talks with large-scale mining companies to make more land available for smaller mineral explorers as it seeks to expand the copper industry, the world’s largest.

Two-thirds of land with potential for discoveries is in the hands of major mining companies and vast areas under concession are lying idle, Deputy Mining Minister Ignacio Moreno told a conference in Santiago today. Chile is falling behind Mexico and Peru in capturing mining investment, he said.

“Everyone knows there is a problem that we have to take on,” Moreno said. “For the exploration companies this topic creates a lot of enthusiasm. For the majors it causes concern.”

The government will seek talks with the industry and act with “prudence” to achieve a consensus before reaching a conclusion next year, Moreno said. One proposal under study is to create a tax for land concessions that are not being explored, he said.

Chile, which produces a third of the world’s copper, says major companies including state-owned Codelco, Anglo American Plc and BHP Billiton Ltd. plan to invest more than $100 billion in new copper and gold mines.

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Lundin bulks up on copper with purchase of Freeport mine – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – October 7, 2014)

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.

Canada’s Lundin Mining Corp. has agreed to buy a Freeport-McMoRan Inc. copper mine for $1.8-billion (U.S.), a move that will double its production as the red metal slumps on fears of weaker Chinese demand.

Lundin’s deal to acquire 80 per cent of Freeport’s Candelaria mining complex in Chile comes at a rocky time in the mining industry. Mining giants such as Phoenix-based Freeport are trying to divest assets to pay down hefty debt loads incurred during the commodity boom.

Meanwhile, economic growth in China, the world’s largest consumer of copper and other commodities, is slowing. And big new copper mines are expected to start producing next year, which will add to an already well-supplied market and likely weigh on prices for some time.

For Lundin, however, the downturn represents a buying opportunity. The base-metals miner will fund the deal through debt and an equity financing.

Toronto-based mining royalty company Franco-Nevada Corp. will help finance the deal by paying Lundin $648-million for a stream of Candelaria’s future gold and silver production. The Candelaria complex includes an open-pit copper mine, infrastructure and the nearby Ojos del Salado underground copper mines.

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150th anniversary timeline [Butte, Montana Copper History] (Montana Standard – October 5, 2014)

http://mtstandard.com/

1864 to 1889

1864 – Prospector “Seven-Up Pete” McMahon names Silver Bow Creek.

1866 – Residents of Butte City attempt to form a miners’ union.

1870 – The Emma Mine has a new foreman – Marcus Daly, who later would become one of Butte’s famous Copper Kings.

1872 – W.A. Clark, another soon-to-be Copper King, makes first visit to Butte.

1876 – Mining prospector hits a substantial copper vein in the Parrot Mine.

1876 – Mining begins to boom in Butte with the opening of the Dexter Mill and Centennial Mill.

1876 – Marcus Daly, with the help of investors, takes over Alice Mine.

1878 – Cut wages at the Lexington Mine and Alice Mine trigger Butte’s first-ever strike.

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