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Does Norilsk Nickel deserve to be Russia’s environmental gold standard? – by Charles Digges (Bellona.org – March 22, 2017)

http://bellona.org/

Norilsk Nickel, the giant Northern Siberian nickel producer and historically one of the country’s biggest polluters, won a prestigious environmental nod from the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs for closing down one of its most infamously befouling facilities

Norilsk Nickel, the giant Northern Siberian nickel producer and historically one of the country’s biggest polluters, won a prestigious environmental nod from the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs for closing down one of its most infamously befouling facilities.

According to the Russian business daily Vedomosti, the environmental award from the industrialists’ union is one of the organization’s key annual events. Russia’s environmental minister, Sergei Donskoi, who presented the prize, called Norilsk Nickel “the absolute leader in environmental change occurring in the industrial policy in Russia.”

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Greenland closer to building world’s fifth-largest uranium mine – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – March 13, 2017)

http://www.mining.com/

It would also be the world’s second-biggest rare earths operation.

Greenland may soon start building the world’s fifth-largest uranium mine and second-biggest rare earths operation, which could fuel independence dreams in the island, an “autonomous administrative division” within Denmark since 2009.

The proposed open pit mine in the southern town of Kvanefjeld is expected to process over 100 million tonnes of ore in the coming decades, helping Greenland to diversified its economy. According to Danish Radio, it would also alleviate the island’s dependence on a locked Danish subsidy of 3.2 billion DKK (about $500 million), which constitutes about half of its budget.

But Greenland Minerals and Energy’s (ASX:GGG) project, which would have an annual processing capacity of 3 million tonnes of ore a year and employ at least 325 locals, is facing opposition from those who don’t want to see major landscape and environmental changes.

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Russia proposes creating aluminum OPEC: Trade Minister (Reuters U.S. – February 27, 2017)

http://www.reuters.com/

Russia is proposing the creation of an OPEC-like organization for the global aluminum industry, TASS news agency quoted Russian Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov as saying on Monday.

Russia’s Rusal was overtaken by China’s Hongqiao as the world’s biggest aluminum producer several years ago, as Rusal cut back its production capacity due to a fall in prices. Manturov told reporters about the idea of an aluminum-making group on the sidelines of an economic conference in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi.

OPEC, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, unites some of the world’s largest oil producers. Its members, together with non-OPEC oil producers such as Russia, agreed to reduce oil production and support global prices in 2016.

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KGHM builds copper smelter in Poland (Resource World – February 9, 2017)

http://resourceworld.com/

The investment by one of the world’s largest copper and silver producers, KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. [KGH-WSE], in the Głogów Copper Smelter (HMG I), in western Poland, represents a milestone in the history of Polish metallurgy and puts KGHM at the forefront of copper producers.

KGHM said the state-of-the-art copper smelter is world’s largest flash furnace and electrical furnace. This unique technology is currently used only in three places in the world – one of them is Głogów. The opening ceremony at the smelter was held January 20, 2017.

This completed the implementation of the multi-annual Programme for Modernisation of Pyrometallurgy. Construction of a concentrate roasting installation, which will be launched in the fourth quarter of 2017, is an additional part of the Programme.

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Russians Come in From Cold as Trump, Commodity Markets Align – by Yuliya Fedorinova (Bloomberg News – February 10, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

As Donald Trump edges the U.S. closer to a thaw in relations with Vladimir Putin’s Russia, commodity investors are already jumping in. A plan by United Co. Rusal, the biggest Russian aluminum maker, for a London sale of shares valued at about $1.7 billion is the latest sign that Russia’s exile from world markets is over for the nation’s metal and mining giants.

It’s a turnaround from years in which slumping raw-materials prices, a weak economy and sanctions imposed by then-U.S. President Barack Obama over the annexation of Crimea punished valuations and drove away foreign investors.

Share sales by Russian mining companies have been rare since 2010. Until two months ago, PhosAgro PJSC’s offering in April 2013 was the last major sale by a non-state Russian mining company. The fertilizer miner and processor is among those that have returned since December.

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Industrial Pollution, The Kola Mining and Metallurgy Combine: Pollution cuts from Norilsk Nickel could quiet Norwegian rebels – by Charles Digges (Bellona.org – February 7, 2017)

http://bellona.org/

Norilsk Nickel head Vladimir Potanin announced plans to spend $17 billion in the company’s modernization during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin last week, about a quarter of which will go toward environmental improvement, by 2023.

The money would add up to a giant slash in sulfur dioxide emissions from the Kola Mining and Metallurgy Company that have been wafting in the hundreds of thousands of tons across the Norwegian border since before the fall of the Soviet Union.

In the meeting, which was described on the Kremlin website, Potanin reiterated promises that the company would slash emissions of sulfur dioxide by 75 percent from its Norilsk facilities in northern Siberia, and by 90 percent at its daughter Kola Mining and Metallurgy Company near Murmansk.

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RPT-COLUMN-Cornish lithium dreams may die in South America’s salt lakes – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – February 6, 2017)

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Feb 3 There’s lithium in them there Cornish hills! News that a start-up, Cornish Lithium, is going to explore for the “metal of the future” in Britain’s historic tin-mining region has been greeted with predictable national euphoria.

“Cornwall’s mining industry set for 50bn pound revolution,” proclaimed a headline in The Sun newspaper. Which may be just a little bit premature.

The company, led by Jeremy Wrathall, a graduate of Cornwall’s famous Camborne School of Mines and now a banker with Investec, is currently trying to raise 5 million pounds to start an exploration programme. Any production of lithium is at least five years away.

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UPDATE 1-Russia’s Nornickel sees nickel, palladium output up in 2017 (Reuters U.S. – January 31, 2017)

http://www.reuters.com/

Jan 31 Norilsk Nickel (Nornickel) , one of the world’s largest nickel and palladium producers, plans to increase output of its main metals from Russian raw material this year, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

Nornickel, which competes with Brazil’s Vale SA for the rank of the world’s top nickel producer, experienced falls in production of nickel, copper and platinum group metals in 2016.

The lower output was mainly due to scheduled decommissioning of an old nickel plant and ongoing reconfiguration of downstream production facilities in northern Siberia.

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Balkan push for new coal-fired plants raises environmental concerns – by Maja Zuvela (Reuters U.S. – January 24, 2017)

http://www.reuters.com/

SARAJEVO – A Chinese company began work on Monday on a $715 million expansion of a Serbian coal mine and a new power plant, part of a wave of investment in new coal-fired plants in the Balkans that is at odds with EU policy of reducing coal use.

China Machinery and Engineering Corp’s project to expand Kostolac, Serbia’s second biggest coal mine, and build a new 350 megawatt (MW) unit at a nearby power plant is the first new electricity capacity built in Serbia in nearly 30 years.

“Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) is opening a new chapter,” Milorad Grcic, chief executive of Serbian power utility EPS, said in a statement marking the start of construction. The investment, majority financed by China’s Export Import Bank [EXIMC.UL], secured the future of the mine and power plant for half a century, he said.

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Canada’s Strongbow’s UK partner to explore for lithium in Cornwall – by Barbara Lewis and Peter Hobson (Reuters Canada – January 19, 2017)

http://ca.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – British company Cornish Lithium said on Thursday it had reached a mineral rights agreement with Canada’s Strongbow Exploration (SBW.V: Quote) to explore for lithium in Cornwall, southwest England, stoking hopes for a British mining revival.

Cornwall historically was a mining hub for metals such as tin and copper and the British government is keen to resurrect the industry as it seeks to bolster the economy against the shock of leaving the European Union.

Cornish Lithium said new technology offered the potential to extract lithium from underground hot springs and to supply products to the rapidly growing battery market for electric cars and for power storage.

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Boliden to invest €44m in Tara Mines after finding new resources – by Charlie Taylor (Irish Times – January 11, 2017)

http://www.irishtimes.com/

Boliden, the Swedish owner of Tara Mines in Co Meath, is to invest €44 million in the site after identifying new mineral resources and deciding to expand the mine’s tailing dam.

The mine, which is just outside Navan, is Europe’s largest, and the world’s ninth largest zinc mine. It currently employs over 600. Production at Tara Mines began in 1977, and since then more than 80 million tonnes of ore have been mined.

Boliden Mines said a recent exploration has resulted in the discovery of a new mineralisation Tara Deep. An extension of the capacity of the tailings dam, which currently limits Tara’s lifespan, has also been decided. The new tailings dam will have sufficient capacity for production at current levels until 2026, Boliden said.

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France ready to save nuclear group Areva whoever wins presidency – by Geert De Clercq (Reuters U.S. – January 4, 2017)

http://www.reuters.com/

PARIS-A government-led rescue of French nuclear group Areva and the wider atomic energy industry may cost the state as much as 10 billion euros ($10.45 billion), but political support is almost certain whoever wins the presidential election in May.

While taxpayers will ultimately pick up the huge bill, the main election contenders – from the Socialists and conservatives to the far-right National Front – broadly back the bailout, which involves splitting up Areva. (AREVA.PA)

On top of its dire financial state, Areva is beset by technical, regulatory and legal problems. But given its importance to a nuclear industry that generates three quarters of France’s electricity and employs 220,000 people, the next government probably has little choice but to stand by the scheme hatched under outgoing Socialist President Francois Hollande.

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Nordic Mining: Incentive for Innovation – by Simon Walker (Engineering and Mining Journal – October 31, 2016)

http://www.e-mj.com/

Producers are viewing today’s tough conditions as an incentive to explore the feasibility of introducing new operating systems

Using a nautical metaphor, to say that mining and exploration in the Nordic countries is in the doldrums is perhaps as apt as it gets at the moment. Operating in respected, stable fiscal and legal environments comes at a price, which, in this case, relates to higher labor and social costs.

Add on the challenge of maintaining operations in remote, sometimes sub-Arctic locations, and it becomes easy to see why industry participants are being cagy about spending.

Across the board, the message appears to be the same—costs must be trimmed wherever possible to keep existing mines viable.

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Blistering European mining rally hinges on China, Trump and dollar – by Atul Prakash and Peter Hobson (Reuters U.S. – December 9, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Dec 9 European miners are in a race for the title of the best sector performer this year, a sharp turnaround from a slump in 2015, although the rally extending into 2017 rests on U.S. president-elect Donald Trump and China.

A recovery in commodity prices, better balance sheets and brighter global economic growth prospects have underpinned the rally in so-called ‘cyclical’ stocks – which tend to follow the fortunes of the wider economy – that were beaten down to low valuations at the end of 2015.

Glencore’s move to join a consortium taking a stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft suggests some companies are getting more confident about their balance sheets, analysts said. But with several blue-chip mining shares surging, a lot of optimism may already be in the price, they said.

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Undeterred by politics, Eldorado digs in for the long haul in Greece – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – November 30, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

ATHENS – The development of Eldorado Gold’s mining projects in Greece have been exercises in misery.

In 2012, the Skouries mining site in northern Greece, the centrepiece of the Canadian company’s European gold portfolio, was besieged by protesters who said the mine would be an environmental disaster. A year later, the site was firebombed. In mid-2015, the new, far-left Syriza government revoked the permits that Eldorado needed to put Skouries into production and the project was suspended.

Today, after striking peace agreements with the Syriza government, Eldorado is sinking more than $1-billion (U.S.) into three projects in Greece, dominated by Skouries, that will drive the company’s growth in the next decade. Propelled by the Greek mines, Eldorado expects to produce more than 800,000 ounces of gold in 2020, up 110 per cent from forecast production in 2017.

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