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Norilsk Nickel Turns its Attention to the Environment and Tier 1 Assets – by Vladislav Vorotnikov (Engineering and Mining Journal – February 2014)

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

Something happened on the road to the Voronezh project; environmental activists backed by Putin convinced Russian nickel miners to clean up their act

MMC Norilsk Nickel, the largest mining company in Russia and one of the world’s largest nonferrous base-metal miners, faces very serious pressure from the community and Russian environmental protection organizations. They claim that the company’s activity harms the health of surrounding citizens and nature. These pressures combined with weaker prices for metals are raising future performance standards for the company.

In terms of total world production, Norilsk Nickel mines palladium (41%), nickel (17%), platinum (11%), cobalt (10%, concentrate) and copper (2%). Domestically, the company accounts for all of the platinum production, most of the nickel (96%), cobalt (95%) and a majority of the copper (55%). As an industrial leader, it plays a crucial role in the Russian economy, accounting for about 4.3% of all Russian exports, 1.9% of GDP, 2.8% of total industrial output and 27.9% of output of the non-ferrous metallurgy industry.

Recently Norilsk Nickel updated its development strategy, which, as confirmed by top management, dramatically changes its course for the coming years. The primary focus of development in accordance with the new plan will be on large assets, possibly including Voronezh, the last large non-developed nickel deposit in Europe.

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Greenland building closer US relations, prime minister says – by Philip Stephens (Financial Times – March 6, 2014)

http://www.ft.com/home/us

Greenland is building closer ties with the US as the international scramble for mineral and energy resources in the Arctic turns the region into an area of great strategic importance, according to its prime minister.

Aleqa Hammond told the Financial Times that the opening in January of a representative office in Washington was part of her strategy to deepen Greenland’s relations with the US.

Ms Hammond, who last year became Greenland’s first female prime minister, said she was committed to building on the Nuuk government’s direct ties with Washington.

The “pivot” towards the US forms part of wider geostrategic manoeuvring in the Arctic region as melting ice sheets reveal large deposits of oil, gas and minerals.

By US estimates, the Arctic may hold 13 per cent of the world’s undiscovered oil and 30 per cent of its untapped gas as well as untold mineral resources including iron ore, zinc and gold.

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In Europe, Dirty Coal Makes a Comeback – by Stefan Nicola and Ladka Bauerova (Bloomberg News – February 28, 2014)

http://www.businessweek.com/

From the baroque castle where Beethoven premièred his Eroica symphony two centuries ago, Vladimír Buřt gazes down on giant excavators that eat into the ground around the clock, loading brown coal onto conveyor belts that fill waiting railroad cars. “There used to be a lake where we’d go swimming every day,” says Buřt, the deputy mayor of Horní Jiřetín, a 750-year-old village in the Czech Republic that could be destroyed if the coal mine is allowed to expand. “The Communists started this devastation, and this government wants to finish it.”

Horní Jiřetín and other small villages along Europe’s mining belt may soon succumb to the continent’s quest for cheaper electricity. Alarmed that energy prices in Europe are about double what they are in the U.S., governments in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Germany are green-lighting the expansion of mines that produce lignite, a moist, brown coal used to fuel power plants.

While lignite is plentiful and cheap, it packs less energy and releases more greenhouse gases than hard coal. The dirty coal’s resurgence runs counter to European Union efforts to limit emissions and promote cleaner energy. “It’s absurd,” says Petra Roesch, mayor of Proschim, a 700-year-old German village that could be entirely leveled if authorities in the state of Brandenburg allow the expansion of a lignite mine owned by the Vattenfall power utility. “Germany wants to transition toward renewable energy, and we’re being deprived of our land.”

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France targets Africa with new $550m state mining company – by Frik Els (Mining.com – February 25, 2014)

http://www.mining.com/

France plans to invest up to €400 million ($548 million) in a new state-owned mining company called Compagnie National des Mines de France (CMF).

The investment which will be spread out over five to seven years marks the establishment of the European nation’s first new state-owned industrial enterprise in 20 years.

CMF will be built around the same model as Japan’s Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) which was created a decade ago on February 29, 2004 and has an annual budget of $150 million.

France’s Bureau of Geological and Mining Research (BRGM) and the Agency for State Participation (EPA) will also be shareholders in CMF.

CMF’s exploration activities will focus on specialty metals including lithium, germanium, tungsten, antimony and rare earths inside France and around the globe including former colonies in Africa and South America.

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European Union seeks to stem use of conflict minerals – by Francesco Guarascio (Reuters U.S. – February 5, 2014)

http://www.reuters.com/

BRUSSELS, Feb 5 (Reuters) – The EU’s trade chief will present a voluntary scheme in March aimed at stemming the import of minerals from conflict zones and prevent mining them from financing war and strife, EU officials said on Wednesday.

Karel De Gucht’s proposal to the European Commission, the EU executive, will encompass gold, tungsten, tantalum and tin, in a bid to pressure importers to classify them as coming from areas free of conflict.

“Work is currently underway to prepare a proposal … for a comprehensive EU framework on responsible mineral sourcing in line with international guidelines,” said EU Trade spokesman John Clancy.

The United States defines the conflict mineral zone as the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring countries including Angola and South Sudan. They make up 17 percent of the global production of tantalum, 4 percent of the global production of tin, 3 percent of tungsten and 2 percent of gold.

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Greenland’s gamble on modernization [mining, oil and gas] – by Gwynne Dyer (Hamilton Spectator – February 1, 2014)

http://www.thespec.com/hamilton/

Will vulnerable cultures be sacrificed in the race for economic growth?

Greenland has the highest suicide rate in the world: One in five Greenlanders tries to commit suicide at some point in their lives.

Everybody in Greenland (all 56,000 of them) knows this. In fact, everybody knows quite a few people who have tried to commit suicide, and one or two who have succeeded.So is it really a good idea to subject this population to an experiment in high-speed cultural and economic change?

Greenland is not fully independent: Denmark still controls its defence and foreign affairs, and subsidizes the population at the annual rate of about $10,000 per person. But Greenlanders are one of the few aboriginal societies on the planet that is dominant (almost 90 per cent of the population) on a large territory: the world’s biggest island. And it is heading for independence.

So the debate in this soon-to-be country is about what to aim for. Do you go on trying to preserve what is left of the old Arctic hunting and fishing culture, although it’s already so damaged and discouraged that it has the highest suicide rate on the planet?

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Potash turning into a buyer’s market – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – January 22, 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.

The giants of the potash industry are losing their grip on the market. In a sign that the industry is shifting in favour of the buyer, Russian producer OAO Uralkali took a 24-per-cent cut in potash prices when it negotiated a semi-annual contract to supply China with 700,000 tonnes of the crop nutrient.

“This was a very good deal for the Chinese,” said Michael Levshin, analyst with Veritas Investment Research Corp. “It’s the least China has paid for potash in more than half a decade,” he said. In the past, China and India have tried to force the world’s biggest producers to reduce prices by delaying their potash purchases.

But the Asian countries had marginal success until last year when Uralkali killed the Russian-Belarus potash cartel and sent the fertilizer industry into turmoil. Before the breakup, Belarusian Potash Co. (BPC) and its North American equivalent Canpotex Ltd. controlled 70 per cent of the market.

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INTERVIEW-Greenland eyes mines as melting ice cap unlocks mineral riches – by Balazs Koranyi (Reuters India – January 21, 2014)

http://in.reuters.com/

TROMSOE, Norway – Jan 21 (Reuters) – Greenland will push ahead with a uranium and rare earths mine despite the objections of its former colonial ruler and main benefactor as the melting of the polar ice cap unlocks the country’s natural resources, its prime minister said.

Arctic Greenland, with the lowest population density in the world, could open its first big iron ore mine in five years and award the first rare earths exploitation licence by 2017, hoping for riches that could attract thousands of workers and leave the locals in a minority, Aleqa Hammond told Reuters.

“We simply refuse to go under as a culture because of climate change,” Hammond, 48, said on Tuesday on a visit to Norway. “We have to adapt because the ice is disappearing and hunting is no longer the main source of income.

“But climate change gives us a new chance to survive because our minerals become accessible so we’ll adapt,” Hammond, an Inuit woman brought up to skin seals, said. “We are one of the very few countries around the world where climate change is giving us benefits.”

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NEWS RELEASE: Outokumpu – Proved ore reserves of the Kemi mine significantly larger after new drillings

OUTOKUMPU OYJ – STOCK EXCHANGE RELEASE

January 13, 2014 at 4.00 pm EET

Outokumpu has updated its estimates on the proved ore reserves and mineral resources of the Kemi mine in Finland. The proved ore reserves have significantly increased compared to earlier estimates, and are now altogether 50.1 million tonnes instead of the earlier estimated some 33 million tonnes.

The 50% increase in the proved ore reserves is based on new underground drillings made below the old Surmaoja open pit. Based on these underground drillings Outokumpu has made a new excavation plan and started the preparations for the underground production in the Surmaoja ore body. The target is to begin the ore excavation in 2015. This does not require major investments, since the proved ore reserves are within the reach of the current, already expanded infrastructure.

In addition to the proved ore reserves, the updated estimates show that the mineral resources of the Kemi mine are altogether 97.8 million tonnes. The grade of the mineral resources is 29.4% Cr2O3 and that of ore reserves is 26.0% Cr2O3. The mineral resources are estimated to the depth of one kilometer, but seismic measurements indicate that mineralization continues even further downwards.

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Insight: Gold mine stirs hope and anger in shattered Greece – by Deepa Babington and Lefteris Papadimas (Reuters U.S. – January 13, 2014)

http://www.reuters.com/

OURANOUPOLI, Greece – (Reuters) – A Canadian quest to mine for gold in the lush forests of northern Greece is testing the government’s resolve to prove Europe’s most ravaged economy is open again for business.

The Skouries mine on Halkidiki peninsula – a landscape of pristine beaches and rolling hills dotted with olive groves – is among the biggest investments in Greece since it sank into a debt crisis four years ago.

But it has set Greece’s desperate need for finance to rebuild the economy against the interests of its vital tourism industry, and aroused anger on the peninsula – site of the famed Mount Athos monasteries – over the environmental cost.

Vancouver-based Eldorado Gold Corp took over the project in 2012, promising to invest $1 billion over the next five years as part of a plan to mine eventually source up to 30 percent of its global gold production in Greece. Yet preliminary work on the mine, which is supposed to open in 2016, has set off months of politicking and protests.

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Greenland Seeks Advice on Uranium Extraction – by Clemes Bomsdorf (Wall Street Journal – January 10, 2014)

http://online.wsj.com/home-page

Government Has Worked to Lure Developers and Miners, but Small Populace Lacks Experts

COPENHAGEN—Greenland’s leader said Friday the nation is looking to implement the toughest possible rules for exporting uranium, a radioactive material that is a natural byproduct when mining rare-earth minerals.

Greenland Prime Minister Aleqa Hammond, in an interview, said “it is our duty and obligation” to pursue the same conditions as nations considered to be leaders when it comes to security precautions. “We will be following the highest international standards [and are aiming at] Canada and Australia.”

The future of Greenland’s mining sector is one of the more important questions facing Ms. Hammond, elected in 2013. Because Greenland still is under Danish sovereignty, Ms. Hammond has been negotiating with Denmark’s leaders, including Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt —on how to approach the sensitive issue of uranium extraction and export, and an agreement is expected later this year.

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Legal and Regulatory Environment Risk Atlas 2014 – by Maplecroft Global Risk Analytics (January 8, 2014)

http://maplecroft.com/

Myanmar has been identified as the country making the greatest improvements to its business environment for 2014. Strides have been made through reforms to address issues such as corruption; rule of law; the regulatory framework; respect for property rights; and corporate governance, reveals Maplecroft’s annual Legal and Regulatory Environment Risk Atlas (LRERA). Senegal, Guatemala, Mozambique and Rwanda, meanwhile, are among the countries with best performance over the last five years.

The fifth annual Legal and Regulatory Environment Risk Atlas includes 21 risk indices developed to enable companies and investors to monitor the ease of undertaking business in 173 countries. Since 2009 some of the biggest increases in legal and regulatory risk have been experienced by foreign investors in Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh and Egypt. Maplecroft states that the business environment in these countries is being curtailed by factors such as a lack of respect for the rule of law and property rights; weak investor protection; increasing regulatory burdens; and poor governance resulting from instability.

Legal mechanisms and regulatory structures are typically well entrenched features of a country that are not subject to fast change without significant political will and reform. However, over the last five years the LRERA reveals that a number of countries have made steady improvements. Senegal has risen 23 places from 28th to 51st (1st place is considered the highest risk in the LRERA), Guatemala went from 32nd to 61st, Mozambique 40th to 71st, and Rwanda 66th to 101st.

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Greenland explores Arctic mineral riches amid fears for pristine region – by Terry Macalister (The Guardian – January 5, 2014)

http://www.theguardian.com/uk

London Mining’s £1.5bn iron ore mine and new oil drilling licences for BP and Shell spark concern for environment

London Mining, a British mineral company, is trying to attract Chinese and other international investors to build a £1.5bn iron ore mine just outside the Arctic Circle in Greenland.

The move comes as BP and Shell join others exploring for oil and gas in the pristine waters off Greenland, as concerns grow that the wave of industrialisation in the region will damage the pristine environment.

Greenland and the wider Arctic is seen as one of the new frontiers for exploiting mineral wealth, but uncertain national boundaries have also opened up potential political, if not military, conflicts.

London Mining, whose board includes a former British foreign minister in Sir Nicholas Bonsor, has already opened talks with Chinese mining group Sichuan Xinye and others about helping finance a new mine at Isua.

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National Archives: Margaret Thatcher was days from calling out troops during miners’ strike, documents show – by Sam Marsden (The Telegraph – January 3, 2014)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Ministers considered ordering an emergency recall of Parliament to pass a new law giving extra powers for soldiers to replace striking workers, papers from 1984 made public by the National Archives disclose

Margaret Thatcher came within days of declaring a state of emergency and calling out the military just four months into the miners’ strike, Cabinet papers released on Friday show.

Ministers secretly discussed recalling Parliament in the summer of 1984 so they could urgently pass a new Emergency Powers Act that would give wider scope for troops to stand in for striking dockers.

At the same time Norman Tebbit, the trade and industry secretary, privately warned the prime minister that diminishing coal stocks meant that the Government could soon be forced into making humiliating concessions to Arthur Scargill to end his union’s industrial action.

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S. Korea’s Former Miners Dig Up Nation-Building Past – by Agence France-Presse/Jakarta Globe (January 3, 2014)

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/

Fifty years ago, several hundred South Koreans went to work in German mines in the first wave of a flood of Korean migrants whose remittances helped jumpstart one of the great economic transformations of the modern age.

The experience was often lonely, and for some their contribution was tainted on their return by the social stigma attached to a job that was tough, filthy and dangerous in a society that looked down on manual labour.

As a result, they feel their role in South Korean history has been largely overlooked, despite helping to seed South Korea’s economic growth and rapid industrialisation by sending funds home.

Mostly in their 20s, the miners — the first South Koreans to work overseas since the peninsula split into the capitalist South and a communist North in 1945 — were part of Seoul’s strategy to solve a high jobless rate and earn hard foreign currency. Bae Jung-Hwan left his homeland in 1970 to work at a German mine before returning a few years later. He says he only recently told his wife and children about his past.

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