Archive | International Media Resource Articles

EV charging points to bolster demand for copper – by Mariaan Webb (MiningWeekly.com – August 13, 2019)

August 14, 2019 in Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles, Copper, International Media Resource Articles

https://www.miningweekly.com/

As the global adoption of electric mobility accelerates and more charging stations are deployed across the world, demand for copper will increase substantially over the next decade.

A report by research and consultancy group Wood Mackenzie states that more than 20-million electric vehicle (EV) charging points will be deployed globally by 2030, consuming more than 250% more copper than in 2019.

To meet these targets, the group says more private and public investment is required. Copper is used throughout an EV, but research analyst Henry Salisbury notes that the need for copper becomes even greater when charging stations and supporting electrical grid infrastructure are also considered. Continue Reading →

Apple and Tiffany & Co. will source gold from miners who have committed to restore streams for fish (MacDailyNews.com – August 13, 2019)

August 14, 2019 in Alaska Mining, Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles

https://macdailynews.com/

There are hundreds of small and large placer mining operations in Alaska actively producing gold in the US. Placer mining sites sit along creeks and streams, giving miners the chance to re-mine for any nuggets or fine gold left over from the Yukon’s Klondike Gold Rush in the late 1890s.

Meanwhile, since 1991, 12 Pacific salmon runs have been listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). These routes that salmon use to make their run to their spawning beds each year are often adjacent to placer mining sites.

The causes for the ESA classification are not limited to mining. Add logging, urbanization, record wildfires and landslides in the region, and salmon runs don’t stand a chance. But RESOLVE, a nonprofit organization tackling some of the planet’s most critical challenges through innovative, unexpected partnerships, wants to fix that. Continue Reading →

South America’s glaciers may have a bigger problem than climate change – by Laura Millan Lombrana (Bloomberg News – August 14, 2019)

August 14, 2019 in Copper, International Media Resource Articles, Latin America Mining

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Government geologist Gino Casassa steps down from the helicopter and looks around in dismay. Casassa is standing at the foot of a glacier, 4,200 meters (13,800 feet) above sea level.

The sky over the Andes is a deep blue, but something is not right: It’s July—mid-winter in South America—and yet it’s mild for the time of year, above 0 degrees Centigrade. He takes off his orange ski jacket and walks on the bare rock.

“This should all be covered by snow this time of year,” he says, pointing to Olivares Alfa, one of the largest glaciers in central Chile, just a few meters away. “There used to be one single glacier system covering this whole valley; now it’s pulled back so much that it’s divided into four or five smaller glaciers.” Continue Reading →

Increased uranium mining proposal carries environmental concerns – by Calvin Cutler (News Center1.tv – August 13, 2019)

August 14, 2019 in International Media Resource Articles, United States Mining, Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

News  Center1 TV

OSHOTO, WYO. — A uranium mining company is looking to shift operations at their mine north of Moorecroft, Wyoming. Strata Energy, the US subsidiary of Australian Peninsula Energy is looking to ramp up operations at the Lance Projects.Strata hopes to bolster domestic uranium production.

The Lance Projects lie in Crook County. Inside the area are the Ross, Barber, and Kendrick projects. At the Ross Project, Strata Energy is in the process of testing a different type of uranium mining.

In Situ uranium mining allows companies to extract the product from the ground without digging an open pit. Strata recently shut down their alkaline leaching mines, and are focusing on their experimental acid leaching operation. They’re currently in the process of demonstrating to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality that they can effectively conduct operations at the site without effecting the groundwater. Continue Reading →

Greater Asia home to half of the world’s biggest mining companies (Consultancy.asia – August 14, 2019)

August 14, 2019 in Asia Mining, International Media Resource Articles

https://www.consultancy.asia/

Mining companies based in the greater Asian region now make up almost half of the world’s largest players according to a new industry report.

With Indonesia-based coal-mining company PT Bayan Resources now the world’s 40th largest-listed mining firm by market cap (as at 31 December 2018), the greater Asian region – including Australia and the Middle East – is currently home to almost half of the planet’s 40 biggest players, which collectively pulled in revenues of $683 billion last year according to the latest annual industry report from professional services firm PwC.

Despite growing environmental protests, the revenues at the 40 leading miners rose 8 percent last year, and have jumped significantly from the around $500 billion figure recorded in 2016 – with profits also on the up. Continue Reading →

Geneva prosecutors indict billionaire Steinmetz in Guinea corruption case (Reuters U.S. – August 12, 2019)

August 14, 2019 in Africa Mining, International Media Resource Articles, Iron Ore

https://www.reuters.com/

GENEVA (Reuters) – A Swiss prosecutor said on Monday he was seeking prison terms for Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz and two associates over the alleged payment of bribes linked to the allocation of mining licences in Guinea between 2005 and 2010.

Geneva prosecutor Claudio Mascotto said in a statement the three were accused of “having promised in 2005 and then paid or had bribes paid to one of the wives of former Guinean President Lansana Conte” so as to have mining rights in Guinea’s Simandou region allocated to Beny Steinmetz Group Resources (BSGR).

BSGR walked away from Guinea’s massive Simandou iron ore project as part of a settlement announced in February which ended a long-running dispute with the West African nation, the company and Guinea’s government said at the time. Continue Reading →

Arizona copper mine ruling expected to have national impact (San Francisco Chronicle – August 13, 2019)

August 14, 2019 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Canada Mining, Copper, International Media Resource Articles, Mining Conflict and Opposition, United States Mining

https://www.sfchronicle.com/

Associated Press – TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A federal court ruling against a planned Arizona mining project is expected to have national repercussions if upheld by higher courts, experts said.

The mining industry has decried the ruling against the proposed $1.9 billion Rosemont Mine, The Arizona Daily Star reported .

The U.S. Forest Service’s approval of plans for the new copper mine in southeastern Arizona was overruled July 31 by U.S. District Court Judge James Soto. Conservation and tribal groups praised the ruling, saying it recognized the Forest Service’s failure to protect public land and resources. Continue Reading →

Australia should reduce emissions, coal mining: Pacific leaders – by Colin Packham (Reuters.com – August 13, 2019)

August 14, 2019 in Australia/New Caledonia/Papua New Guinea Mining, Coal, International Media Resource Articles

https://www.reuters.com/

FUNAFUTI, Tuvalu (Reuters) – Australia should do more to reduce its carbon emissions and giving cash to countries battling climate change was not enough, Pacific island leaders said on Tuesday in a rebuke of Canberra’s latest attempt to improve ties with the region.

Australia will give A$500 million ($339 million) to Pacific island nations for renewable energy projects and to help them prepare for the impact of climate change, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday before a trip to the region.

Leaders from the Pacific’s smallest islands, who say rising sea levels are an existential threat to their low-lying nations, said Canberra’s announcement did not excuse its support for the country’s coal industry. Continue Reading →

UPDATE 1-Nickel sizzle: Hot money piles into metal on Indonesia ore ban talk – by Mai Nguyen and Bernadette Christina (Reuters U.S. – August 8, 2019)

August 14, 2019 in Asia Mining, Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles, International Media Resource Articles, Nickel, Nickel Laterites

https://www.reuters.com/

SINGAPORE/JAKARTA, Aug 8 (Reuters) – Nickel prices surged on Thursday on concerns that major supplier Indonesia could bring forward a ban on ore exports despite a senior official claiming any such ruling remains “uncertain.”

Benchmark three-month nickel on the London Metal Exchange (LME) surged as much as 12.7% to $16,690 a tonne, its highest since April 2018. That is the biggest intraday percentage gain for the nickel forward since Jan. 2, 2009.

LME nickel eased to $15,545 a tonne at 0940 GMT, up 5%. The most active nickel contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) rose to a record 124,890 yuan ($17,730.49) a tonne. “This is a very sexy price. For miners, higher price always makes us happy,” said a trader with a nickel mine. Continue Reading →

Gold Is Hot But Nickel Is Hotter As Demand Grows For Batteries In Electric Vehicles – by Tim Treadgold (Forbes Magazine – August 11, 2019)

August 12, 2019 in Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles, International Media Resource Articles, Nickel, Nickel Laterites

https://www.forbes.com/

Gold is hot but there’s another metal which is hotter, nickel. Up 30% over the past two months nickel has delivered more than double the performance of gold which is up 13% over the same time, and the gap could get a lot wider as the supply of nickel stagnates and demand accelerates.

The driving force behind the recent awakening of gold is well-understood and can be summed up as a flight to safety as the China v U.S. trade war slows global growth and values of conventional, or fiat currencies, are debased by governments resorting to quantitative easing or other forms of creating money.

Nickel’s drivers are different and far easier to understand and boil down to a simple case of supply exceeding demand which, in past nickel booms, was essentially a case of mines failing to keep up with the requirements of steel mills making stainless steel, a material which has traditional consumed close to 80% of the world’s nickel. Continue Reading →

‘It’s our problem’: Brazilian drama brings Amazon rainforest battle to screen – by Anna Jean Kaiser (The Guardian – July 13, 2019)

August 12, 2019 in International Media Resource Articles, Latin America Mining, Mining Conflict and Opposition

https://www.theguardian.com/

Aruanas aims to make the environment an ‘everyday topic’ at a time when politics is dominated by the interests of agribusiness

Deep in the Brazilian Amazon, an environmental activist meets with a journalist who warns that a mining company is responsible for a looming environmental disaster. “People are already getting sick,” he warns, before promising to bring her documentary proof the next day.

But in the jungle, someone is watching. Driving to their next meeting, the activist hears a phone ringing in the back of her car. She opens the trunk – and finds the journalist’s dead body.

The gruesome discovery is the opening act of the latest blockbuster series from Brazil’s telenovela powerhouse TV Globo: Aruanas. The series focuses on environmental journalists and activists in the country’s vast, forested interior, where 57 environmental defenders were killed in 2017. Continue Reading →

Idaho tribe sues mining company over pollution at idle site – by Keith Ridler (Associated Press/Times Union – August 9, 2019)

August 12, 2019 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles, Junior Exploration Sector, United States Mining

https://www.timesunion.com/

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The Nez Perce Tribe has filed a lawsuit to force a Canadian company to clean up an idle central Idaho mining area — which the company says it plans to do if it gets approval from U.S. officials to restart mining at the site.

The tribe contends in the federal lawsuit filed Thursday that British Columbia-based Midas Gold is illegally allowing arsenic, cyanide and mercury to remain in the area where the tribe has had hunting and fishing rights since an 1855 treaty with the U.S.

Midas Gold itself has never mined in the area about 40 miles (65 kilometers) east of McCall, but in the past decade has acquired existing mining claims and developed a plan it says will clean up the mess left by a century of mining by other companies. The tribe in the lawsuit said it’s time for the company to act. Continue Reading →

UPDATE 1-Indonesia says no decision yet on early start to mineral ore export ban (Reuters U.S. – August 9, 2019)

August 9, 2019 in Asia Mining, International Media Resource Articles, Nickel, Nickel Laterites

https://www.reuters.com/

JAKARTA, Aug 9 (Reuters) – Indonesia is discussing bringing forward a ban on mineral ore exports that was previously set to begin in 2022, but no decision has yet been made on such a move, its trade minister said on Friday.

Talk of a possible earlier start to the ban on ore exports from one of the world’s key sources of metals pushed benchmark nickel prices to a 16-month high on Thursday.

Indonesia’s trade minister, Enggartiasto Lukita, also said on Friday that President Joko Widodo had asked for input from his ministers on the step. Current mining regulations allow exports of unprocessed mineral ore until January 2022, with an Indonesian industry association on Thursday urging the government to stick to that timetable. Continue Reading →

Melting Greenland Is Awash in Sand – by Henry Fountain (New York Times – July 1, 2019)

August 9, 2019 in Aggregates, Europe Mining, International Media Resource Articles

https://www.nytimes.com/

A few miles up the Sermilik Fjord in southwestern Greenland, the water has abruptly turned milky, a sign that it is loaded with suspended silt, sand and other sediment.

It is this material — carried here in a constant plume of meltwater from the Sermeq glacier at the head of the fjord — that Mette Bendixen, a Danish scientist at the University of Colorado, has come to see. As their research boat moves farther into the murky water, she and several colleagues climb into a rubber dinghy to take samples.

Dr. Bendixen, a geomorphologist, is here to investigate an idea, one that she initially ran by colleagues to make sure it wasn’t crazy: Could this island, population 57,000, become a provider of sand to billions of people? Continue Reading →

Column: Glencore and the perils of riding the electric vehicle tiger – by Andy Home (Reuters U.K. – August 8, 2019)

August 9, 2019 in Africa Mining, Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles, Cobalt, Critical, Strategic and Rare Earth Minerals and Metals, International Media Resource Articles

https://uk.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – Glencore has “a key role to play in enabling the transition to a low-carbon economy,” according to Chief Executive Officer Ivan Glasenberg, writing in the company’s 2018 annual report.

Glencore’s “well-positioned portfolio” includes metals at the heart of the electric vehicle (EV) revolution such as copper, cobalt and nickel. But the global metals and marketing powerhouse has just found out that riding the EV tiger can be perilous as well.

The company reported a 32% drop in first-half core profit on Wednesday thanks in large part to problems at its African copper-cobalt business. Continue Reading →