Copper – Page 120 – Republic of Mining

Tempers flare at hearing on Central Arizona copper mine – by Michelle Peirano (Arizona Daily Star – March 22, 2013)

March 22, 2013

RESOLUTION COPPER SEEKING LAND SWAP FOR C. ARIZ. PROJECT

WASHINGTON – Cronkite News Service – A four-hour congressional hearing grew testy Thursday as House members considered a bill to swap thousands of acres of private and federal land to make way for a massive copper mine in Central Arizona.

The bill to trade land near Superior with Resolution Copper Mining passed the House last year but stalled in the Senate, and is back now for its eighth year.

Supporters said the deal, which would give Resolution access to a copper-rich piece of government land, would bring thousands of jobs and more than $6 billion in new taxes to the state over 40 years of operation. “The economic benefits are staggering,” said Republican Rep. Paul Gosar, who co-sponsored the bill with Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick, both of Arizona.

The company says the mine would be the largest copper producer in the country and would account for 25 percent of the world’s copper, turning out 1 billion pounds or more a year.

Xstrata outlines future in Timmins – by Thomas Perry (Timmins Daily Press – March 21, 2013)

March 22, 2013

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – When Xstrata Copper talks the Timmins Chamber of Commerce listens … especially when the words of wisdom contain good news for the community.

Tom Semadeni, general manager of Xstrata Copper, provided chamber members with an update on the efforts to extend the life of the company’s Kidd Mine during Thursday’s instalment of the President’s Series Luncheons at the Porcupine Dante Club.

“Xstrata is the fourth largest mining company in the world and we are split into seven commodity groups,” Semadeni said. “There is a coal group, there is a copper group, there is a zinc group, there is an alloys group, their is a nickel group, those are the main ones.”

And with more than 1,000 full-time workers – including 823 at the Kidd Mine and 220 at the Met Site – Xstrata Copper remains one of the largest non-government employers in the Timmins area. The company also employs an additional 165 contract workers.

Xstrata Copper has hired 250 employees at its Timmins operations in the past two years and 546 in the past five years, partially due to retirements. In addition, it is facing up to 400 more potential retirements during the next seven years.

MINING WATCH CANADA NEWS RELEASE: Algonquins of Barriere Lake Affirm Opposition to Copper One’s Rivière Doré Project and All Claim Staking and Mineral Exploration in their Territory

March 19, 2013

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Source: Algonquins of Barriere Lake

(Rapid Lake, Quebec) Today, the Algonquins of Barriere Lake are re-affirming their opposition to the proposed exploration activities of the junior mining company Copper One (TSX-V: CUO) within their unceded traditional territory. Copper One’s Rivière Doré project is within the area of an existing co-management agreement that Barriere Lake signed with Quebec and Canada in 1991 (the Trilateral Agreement).

The Trilateral Agreement was negotiated in a spirit of coexistence with Quebec and Canada in order to share the responsibility and benefits of sustainably managing a portion of the Algonquins of Barriere Lake’s traditional territory. Mining was not a consideration in the agreement and there has not been a process established by which claim staking, mineral exploration or mining could be considered within our territory. Despite a well-established body of case law (for example the recent decisions in Ross River Dena Council and Wahgoshig First Nation) the Quebec government has not fulfilled its duty to consult, accommodate and seek our consent for claim staking or mineral exploration.

In the last decade, both Canada and Quebec have failed to uphold the spirit and letter of the Trilateral agreement. As a result the people of Barriere Lake have been forced to spend considerable resources and put themselves at risk of harm and legal retribution defending their land. The government owes the community the duty to consult and obtain the consent of Barriere Lake prior to any mineral exploration. As the duty rests with the government of Quebec, the community sees no reason to negotiate with Copper One, a private party that established an interest in Barriere Lake’s territory without consent.

First Quantum has its work cut out on Cobre Panama – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – March 14, 2013)

March 14, 2013

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.

It took six months and more than $5-billion for First Quantum Minerals Ltd. to get its hands on Cobre Panama, one of the world’s largest copper projects.

The trick now will be to build the mine on time and on budget in a world where costs have skyrocketed and the outlook for metals prices is murky. Moreover, Cobre is to be built in a country, Panama, that has virtually no mining industry to speak of.

Vancouver-based First Quantum gained control of the project this week with the hostile takeover of Inmet Mining Corp., and hopes it can shave as much as $1-billion (U.S.) from the $6.2-billion construction cost budgeted by its current owner.

The mine, already fully financed under Inmet, will be the largest ever in Central America and represents the most ambitious development project in Panama since the building of the Panama Canal. After it comes into production in 2016, it is expected to produce about 300,000 tonnes of copper a year for 40 years.

Analysts are divided on whether First Quantum can build Cobre Panama more cheaply than Inmet, pointing to such massive cost escalation across the mining industry that it has felled free-spending CEOs and decimated smaller companies.

Myanmar villagers protest mine – by Yadana Htun (Globe and Mail – March 14, 2013)

March 14, 2013

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.

MONYWA, MYANMAR — The Associated Press – Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi met with rare public scorn Wednesday as she tried to justify an official report endorsing continued operation of a copper mine opposed by many local residents in northwestern Myanmar.

Ms. Suu Kyi travelled to Monywa township on Wednesday to talk with protesters about the report of a commission she led to investigate the Letpadaung mine’s operations and a police crackdown on a protest there last November that left scores of people badly injured.

The report, made public Tuesday, said honouring the mining contract with a Chinese joint venture outweighed villagers’ demands that mining operations be halted because of alleged social and environmental problems. It only mildly criticized police, despite the injuries caused to protesters, mostly Buddhist monks, by the use of incendiary smoke bombs.

More than 700 protesters shouted denunciations of the report as Ms. Suu Kyi’s motorcade passed between visits to four villages.

Raising their fists in the air, protesters yelled: “We don’t want the commission,” and “To stop the Letpadaung copper project is our duty,” shouting louder as Ms. Suu Kyi’s car came closer. Sandar, a protester from Alaltaw village, said the report neglected the troubles the mine caused local residents.

Support for Minnesota copper mines drops in poll – by John Myers (Duluth News Tribune – March 14, 2013)

March 14, 2013

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

Opponents of copper mining in Minnesota might be winning over more state residents, according to a new poll that shows more people oppose the new kind of mining here than support it.

The poll, paid for by the Minnesota Environmental Partnership and released Wednesday, found that 48 percent of state residents polled opposed copper mining while 39 percent favor the projects.

It’s the first time in five years the poll has been taken that more people opposed than supported copper mining. The coalition of 75 environmental groups conducts the survey annually to gauge public opinions on several key conservation issues.

The results show support for mining slipping from a high of 66 percent in 2009 to 62 percent in 2010, 52 percent in 2012 and 39 percent this year. Statewide, opposition increased from 19 percent in 2009 to 48 percent this year.

The telephone poll was conducted Jan. 6-8 by the team of California-based Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz and Associates along with Alexandria, Va.-based Public Opinion Strategies.

First Quantum believes hostile bid for Inmet likely to succeed – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – March 13, 2013)

March 13, 2013

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Base-metals miner First Quantum Minerals on Tuesday said it expected to close its C$5.1-billion hostile takeover bid for Inmet Mining on March 21, after unveiling Inmet shareholders had tendered about 61.45% of the company’s outstanding shares to the offer as on Monday at 23:59 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).

First Quantum on Tuesday changed the cash-and-stock offer to allow the minimum tender condition to be satisfied when more than 50% of the outstanding Inmet shares (on a fully diluted basis) had been validly deposited, before the newly extended expiry time of the offer closed at 23:59 EDT on March 21.

“We are delighted with the overwhelming support that Inmet shareholders have shown for our offer. We have varied our offer such that the minimum tender condition will now be satisfied if more than 50% of the Inmet shares have been tendered at the revised expiry time of the offer.

“Accordingly, with all regulatory approvals already received, it is our expectation that we will be in a position to complete the offer and begin taking up and paying for shares shortly, following the expiry of the offer on March 21,” First Quantum chairperson and CEO Philip Pascall said.

First Quantum takeover of Inmet crosses finish line Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – March 13, 2013)

March 13, 2013

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.

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. has gained control of Inmet Mining Corp. after a drawn-out hostile bid, charting a course to the major leagues of copper mining as it takes on the massive Cobre Panama project.

Vancouver-based First Quantum said on Tuesday that holders of just over 61 per cent of Inmet stock had tendered to the $5.1-billion cash-and-stock bid. First Quantum also lowered the minimum threshold for acceptance to 50 per cent and extended the deadline another 10 days.

In winning Inmet, First Quantum will get Cobre Panama, one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper projects. When it is up and running some time in 2016, the project will add around 300,000 tonnes a year of copper production for the next 40 years.

The First Quantum deal could in theory still be scuppered by a surprise white knight bidder, but that is seen as increasingly unlikely at a time when the mining world is facing some of its grimmest times since the financial crisis of 2008. The anticlimactic outcome of the deal, with no higher offer made by First Quantum, reflects the sombre state of the mining industry, which is coping with lower prices, uncertain demand and a string of recent writedowns due to overpriced deals done in the industry’s high-flying days a few years ago.

First Quantum makes last-minute plea for Inmet investors to accept $5.1-billion deal – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – March 11, 2013)

March 11, 2013

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.

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. made a last-ditch plea to shareholders of Inmet Mining Corp. on Monday to tender their shares to a $5.1-billion takeover offer, promising to unleash greater value in the giant Cobre Panama copper project in Central America.

Vancouver-based First Quantum’s cash-and-stock offer for Inmet expires at one minute before midnight on Monday, unless extended.

“By tendering today, as First Quantum shareholders you will have immediate exposure to the Company’s strengths and renowned project capabilities on Cobre Panama, a project at a critical juncture of its development in a challenging environment,” the company said in a statement.

“Our vision of the two companies combined is that a major geographically diversified copper company will be created,” it said. “We have already outlined the superior growth prospects of the combined entity. To achieve this vision, the combination needs to be established soon in order to exploit First Quantum’s strengths and capabilities on the Cobre Panama Project.”

Cobre Panama is one of the world’s few large copper projects in development. It would be one of the most ambitious projects ever in its native Panama, home to the namesake canal that joins the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The mine would be the largest ever in Central America.

Author mines copper’s history, complexities – by Gerald M. Gay (Arizona Daily Star – March 7, 2013)

March 7, 2013

http://azstarnet.com/

A startling discovery in Bill Carter’s backyard led the Arizona author to write his latest book, “Boom, Bust, Boom: A Story About Copper, the Metal that Runs the World.”

Carter lived in Bisbee for nearly a decade. He met his wife and they had two children in the former mining town, which sits nestled in the Mule Mountains, nine miles north of the Mexico border.

In his book, Carter notes a local saying that Bisbee is “100 miles and 100 years from Tucson” with evidence of its past found all over town.

“The big open pit was not far off from our house,” said Carter, who now lives in Flagstaff and who will sit on three panels at this weekend’s Tucson Festival of Books.

“If you live in Bisbee, you just kind of use it as a landmark. You stop thinking about its history. It’s just that thing down the road.”

It wasn’t until the corporation Freeport-McMoRan acquired Phelps Dodge, owners of the dormant mining operations in Bisbee, in 2007, that Carter began thinking about the remnants from the past that he couldn’t see.

PDAC-Mining legend Friedland looks to burnish his image – by Euan Rocha and Rod Nickel (Reuters.com – March 6, 2013)

March 6, 2013

http://www.reuters.com/

TORONTO – (Reuters) – Leave it to the irreverent Robert Friedland to brighten the mood of a mining conference in the throes of a deep, collective depression.

The outspoken financier, known for his talent for picking winners in a risky business, made a rare public appearance on Monday to trumpet his latest venture, Ivanplats Ltd. It was a star turn by a man apparently unburdened by self-doubt or any lack of confidence in the industry’s resilience.

Friedland’s company, one of a handful of initial public offerings in the mining industry last year, owns South Africa’s Platreef, a project rich in platinum, palladium, gold, rhodium, nickel and copper.

Ivanplats owns the “largest mechanizable, ethical precious metal discovery in the world,” Friedland said at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention in Toronto, promising that the geological nature of the deposit would allow for more humane working conditions than those in rival South African mines.

“We’ve discovered something that is very good,” he said, “We’re quite confident that the nickel and copper values are double what we would need to recover, gold, platinum, rhodium and palladium at a negative cost.”

First Quantum bid down to wire as Inmet calls for rejection – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – February 27, 2013)

February 27, 2013

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.

Inmet Mining Corp. made a final attempt to persuade shareholders to turn down a $5.1-billion hostile takeover bid from First Quantum Minerals Ltd. after failing to secure a better offer from its suitor.

Inmet, which has been fighting the hostile bid for months, opened the doors to First Quantum executives last week to examine its prize asset, the Cobre Panama copper mine that is the largest mining project ever in Central America.

“Despite its communication to Inmet shareholders stressing the link between due diligence and its ability to increase the offer, First Quantum has not increased its offer to date,” Inmet said, as the deadline loomed for a shareholder vote Wednesday on the hostile bid.

The high-stakes battle for Inmet comes amid a wave of embarrassing writedowns taken over the past few months on acquisitions made by some of the world’s biggest miners in recent years.

Many large companies have lost their appetite for deal-making, cowed by industry-wide cost overruns and multibillion-dollar writedowns on assets bought in headier times. Several analysts speculated last week that First Quantum might be hard-pressed to justify a higher bid to its shareholders.

First Quantum closes in on Inmet Mining takeover – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – February 25, 2013)

February 25, 2013

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.

A hostile takeover bid for Inmet Mining Corp. is looking ever more likely to succeed as the deadline approaches for shareholders to vote on the $5.1-billion offer, as the odds of a counter-bid ebb along with softening copper prices.

With just a few days to go before the First Quantum Minerals Ltd. bid expires on Feb. 27, and two months after the $72-per-share was made, there are no signs of a rival offer emerging.

Vancouver-based First Quantum began courting Inmet well before that, proposing bids at $62.50 a share and $70 a share in October and November as it pursued Inmet’s massive Cobre Panama project, one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper deposits, amid buoyant prices for the metal.

But copper prices have since retreated along with a less optimistic outlook for demand and big base metals companies appear to have lost their appetite for deal-making amid massive cost overruns.

“I’m still hoping the deal goes through with a premium to the current offer, but it’s looking in this current environment that it might just go through as it is,”said Terry Thib, a portfolio manager with Norrep Funds in Toronto, which holds Inmet shares.

Excerpt from “The History of Mining: The events, technology and people involved in the industry that forged the modern world” – by Michael Coulson

February 22, 2013

To order a copy of The History of Mining please click here: http://www.harriman-house.com/products/books/23161/business/Michael-Coulson/The-History-of-Mining/

DANIEL GUGGENHEIM (1856-1930) MINING EMPIRE

These days the name Guggenheim is synonymous with the world of modern art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York. However in the 19th and the early 20th centuries the Guggenheims were better known as the most powerful force in US mining, having built a mining empire in both North and South America.

A Jewish immigrant from Switzerland, Meyer Guggenheim started his business career in the US in manufacturing and then in importing fine lace from Switzerland. He invested some of the gains from his importing business in silver and lead mines at Leadville, Colorado. In 1884, encouraged by the success of his Leadville investment, and of the rapid industrialisation of the US, he closed the lace business to concentrate on mining interests and founded Philadelphia Smelting and Refining to treat his Leadville mining output.

At that time he was almost 60 and his eldest son, Daniel, one of eleven children, who had worked for the Swiss end of the family’s importing business, took up the reins, and progressively became the driving force behind the family’s mining strategy. Daniel was educated at a Catholic high school in Philadelphia and by-passed university to enter the family business and was supported by five of his six brothers.

Zambia: Safety Gaps Threaten Copper Miners – by Human Rights Watch (February 20, 2013)

February 21, 2013

http://www.hrw.org/home

Government, Chinese State-Owned Subsidiaries Make Uneven Progress

(Johannesburg) – Workers in the copper mining sector in Zambia remain vulnerable to abuse. New Human Rights Watch research found that the government of President Michael Sata, who promised to prioritize labor rights when he took office in September 2011, has made some improvements in supporting the oversight of the mines, but there remains inadequate enforcement of national labor laws designed to protect workers’ rights.

Human Rights Watch published a report in November 2011 documenting labor rights abuses at four Zambian subsidiaries of China Non-Ferrous Metal Mining Corporation (CNMC), a state-owned enterprise under the authority of China’s highest executive body, the State Council. In follow-up research in October 2012, Human Rights Watch found that CNMC’s subsidiaries made some notable improvements on reducing work hours and respecting freedom of association, but that miners continued to face poor health and safety conditions and threats by managers if they tried to assert their rights. The Zambian government has not adequately intervened to address these problems, Human Rights Watch found.

“President Sata ran on a populist campaign to protect workers, so the lack of meaningful progress in the mining sector is disappointing,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Although CNMC’s subsidiaries have addressed some of the labor rights abuses documented by Human Rights Watch in 2011, the miners still face significant health and safety risks.”