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Europe Mining

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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Kola Peninsula nickel giant promises to cut sulfur dioxide emissions in half – by Charles Digges (Bellona.org – November 21, 2016)

http://bellona.org/

MURMANSK –The notoriously polluting Kola Mining and Metallurgy Combine (KMMC) has said it plans to reduce annual emissions of sulfur dioxide by nearly half within two years, it’s parent company told Bellona.

A source of tension between Norway and Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union, the KMMC – a daughter company of the giant Norilsk Nickel based in Northern Siberia – yearly emits some 80,000 tons of the heavy metal, much of which finds its way into northern Norway.

Norilsk Nickel itself announced last week that it would slash emissions in its hometown – the most polluted city in Russia – by as much as 75 percent by 2020. Yury Yushin, who heads the Norilsk Nickel’s department of cooperative programs told Bellona that the company intends to reduce its emissions to 44,000 tons a year by 2019. He didn’t, however, discuss any specifics behind the dramatic reduction.

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How Romanian People Power Took On Mining and Corruption – by Shaazka Beyerle and Tina Olteanu (November 17, 2016)

http://foreignpolicy.com/

One doesn’t usually think of the southeast corner of Europe as a hotbed of citizen dissent and mobilization. Yet people power in the region has been on the rise in recent years, producing some impressive outcomes. This has been most notable in Romania, where grassroots action has challenged corrupt political-economic interests, undone a toxic gold mining project, and put teeth back into the country’s democracy.

This was clearly evident about a year ago, on October 30, 2015, when thousands of Romanians took to the streets of their capital to protest a horrific fire in a Bucharest nightclub that took 64 lives. The organizers of a rock concert had set off fireworks inside, causing a catastrophic blaze.

The club’s owners were arrested and charged with building code violations. Some of the hospitalized victims contracted life-threatening bacterial infections after a Romanian pharmaceutical company supplied over 350 hospitals with heavily diluted antiseptics at inflated prices.

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Russia plans to use Canadian experience in domestic gold mining – by Eugene Gerden (InvestorIntel.com – November 16, 2016)

http://investorintel.com/

Russia plans to use the experience of Canada in the field of geological exploration of domestic gold fields, that will take place through the attraction of startup private companies to invest funds in the conduction of geological surveys of the country’s gold fields.

These plans have been recently confirmed by Sergey Donskoy, Russia’s Minister of Natural Resources.

According to the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, to date, the volume of investments, allocated by small startup companies in geological exploration of gold fields in Russia has been insignificant, not exceeding 10-15% in the overall structure of investments in exploration activities in the Russian gold mining.

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2,000 jobs on cards at [Irish] Clare mine – by Andrew Hamilton (Irish Examiner – November 16, 2016)

http://www.irishexaminer.com/

Australian businessman Michael Hudson is heading a newly formed company which has just bought a site at Kilbrecken in Quin, near Ennis, from Canadian mining company Lundin. Extremely high-grade zinc has been discovered in deep veins at the site and indications are good that a major mining operation may be possible.

The new company, Hannan Ltd, will begin an assessment of the site immediately with exploratory drilling and non-invasive seismic tests due to begin in early 2017.

A small local team will be employed to undertake these assessments and it will be a number of years before full-scale mining could begin. If successful, the mine will operate fully underground with the zinc deposits running to at least 400m under the surface.

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Row over Romania’s land of Dracula and gold spills onto new international stage – by Claudia Ciobanu (Reuters U.S. – November 9, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

ROSIA MONTANA, Romania (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A battle over plans to build a huge gold mine in Rosia Montana, a Romanian village boasting intact Roman mining shafts and 18th century houses, has moved to an international stage, sparking residents’ fears that the project could be resurrected.

Sitting atop one of Europe’s largest gold deposits, Rosia Montana has for 15 years been at the center of a battle between villagers and Canada-listed mining company Gabriel Resources.

Gabriel Resources said the $1.5 billion project to build Europe’s largest gold mine would provide a major boost for Romania’s lagging economy and create hundreds of jobs for the Transylvania region – the legendary home of Dracula. But local residents fear the mine would destroy historic Rosia Montana, surrounding hillsides, and pollute the local environment with cyanide used in the mining process.

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Fosun in exclusive talks to buy stake in Russian gold miner Polyus: sources – by Julie Zhu and Polina Devitt (Reuters U.S. – November 3, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

HONG KONG/MOSCOW – Fosun International Ltd, is in exclusive talks to buy a large minority stake in Russia’s biggest gold miner Polyus, three sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, in what would be the Chinese group’s maiden Russian deal.

Fosun, an aggressive buyer known internationally for its purchase of French resort operator Club Med, is keen to invest in Russia and other emerging markets such as India, as it moves away from Europe and developed markets. Reuters reported in August that Fosun is also in talks to buy a minority stake in Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital..

Fosun’s interest in Polyus comes as other Chinese companies have also been targeting gold mine acquisitions to meet domestic demand amid a recovery in prices. State-controlled Zijin Mining Group Co Ltd and state-backed Shandong Gold Mining Co Ltd held separate talks with Canada’s Barrick Gold Corp to buy a 50 percent stake in an Argentinian gold mine, Reuters reported last month.

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NEWS RELEASE: MiningWatch Predicts KGHM Ajax Would Face At Least $100 Million in Compensation or Litigation Costs If Mine Opens

http://miningwatch.ca/

(Kamloops) – October 21, 2016 – MiningWatch Canada claims that Kamloops should pay attention to recent legal developments of the only other urban mine of comparable size in Canada: the Malartic open pit mine in Quebec.

For the first time since it started operations in 2011, the Malartic open pit mine, owned by Agnico Eagle and Yamana Gold, faces a $70 million class action suit for the impacts on 700 houses and 1400 people located closest to the mine site. The suit was launched on August 1st of this year and aims to compensate damages related to dust, noise, and daily blasts.

The company itself has admitted the impacts of its mine on local community members and has agreed, on September 1st 2016, to offer a $50 million relocation and compensation package for the 3500 residents of Malartic, some of whom live up to about 2-2.5km away from the mine site at the city limits.

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Aberfan disaster: 50th anniversary marked with silence (British Broadcasting Corporation – October 21, 2016)

 

http://www.bbc.com/

Wales fell silent on Friday as the country remembered the Aberfan disaster 50 years ago.
On 21 October 1966, a mountain of coal waste slid down into a school and houses in the Welsh village, killing 144 people, including 116 children. A day of events to commemorate the disaster included a service at Aberfan Cemetery at 09:15 BST on Friday.

Prince Charles has visited the Aberfan memorial garden and will unveil a plaque in memory of the victims. Earlier, he visited the Aberfan Cemetery and laid a wreath.

He also attended a reception with the families of some of those who lost their lives, before signing a book of remembrance. Prince Charles said anyone old enough remembers where they were when they heard the “appalling news” about the Aberfan disaster – saying he was at school in Scotland.

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[Coal mining tragedy] Aberfan: The mistake that cost a village its children – by Ceri Jackson (British Broadcasting Corporation – October 21, 2016)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/

“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” The phrase is one of the most enduring and quoted of modern literature, an almost proverbial reference to the archaic and bygone.

It is the opening line of LP Hartley’s 1953 novel The Go-Between, an eerie story set 50 years on from a tumultuous experience of an adolescent boy; an experience so devastating it propelled him prematurely into adulthood and ruined the rest of his life.

The story of what happened in the south Wales mining village of Aberfan is a devastating one which dealt a similar fate to the children who survived it. It too is a story for which Hartley’s opening line could not be more pertinent.

It is exactly 50 years since tragedy swooped down on Aberfan killing 116 children and 28 adults. Revisiting the “obscenity” of 21 October 1966, and its aftermath is a stark reminder of the incongruities of the past.

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Poland’s Kings of Coal – Photo Essay by Tomasz Tomaszewski (Social Documentary Network)

http://viewfind.com/

Poland-Faces blackened with coal, miners in Upper Silesia emerge from beneath the surface and blink into the Polish twilight – just as they have been doing for hundreds of years.

When photojournalist Tomasz Tomaszewski showed up, however, he found an industry flailing amidst global competition and a Western World hungry for green energy, leaving the proud Polish miner a dying breed.

“When the time comes to work, The Silesian miner works relentlessly. When a colleague must be saved from death, he does not hesitate to walk into danger. The Silesian miner, along with his comrade the steelworker, is one of the most valuable members of Polish socity,” wrote Gustaw Mocinek in Upper Silesia, a book about gritty Polish communities written in 1950.

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