Latin America Mining – Page 106

Illegal Gold Miners In Brazil Destroying Amazon, Indigenous Tribes At Risk – by Alex Létourneau (Kitco News – September 10, 2014)

September 10, 2014

http://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – Illegal gold mining is by no means a new phenomenon, but it has been getting more and more attention with gold’s decade-long bull run. In the past, the focus on illegal gold mining has been more about the money countries are losing, but the spotlight is how starting to shift to the impact of these illegal practices on the environment.

At the moment, the Amazon rainforest, Earth’s largest rainforest, is seeing a growing number of illegal miners operating within it, causing environmental damage and disrupting Indigenous tribes living on government protected land.

In a joint statement to Kitco News, Marco W. Lentini, head of the Amazon program of WWF-Brazil, and Jean Timmers, superintendent of public policy at WWF-Brazil, said the region between the Amapá state in Brazil and French Guiana is one area that is experiencing major problems.

The two added that although there aren’t any specific survey’s documenting the number of illegal miners in the area “ it can certainly reach tens of thousands workers across the Amazon.”

“Illegal mining has intensified land use conflicts and also give incentives to encroach and access remote areas within protected areas in the Amazon, frequently with great conflicts with indigenous and other traditional populations,” they said.

Recent Mining Disasters Underscore Significant Challenges Posed by Huge Open Pit Mining Projects – by Frances Causey (Huffington Post – September 9, 2014)

September 10, 2014

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/green/

Frances Causey is a documentary filmmaker and journalist.

The Mount Polley mining disaster on Aug. 4 in Canada’s Cariboo Regional District is being called possibly the worst environmental disaster in British Columbia history. A tailings dam collapsed at an open pit copper and gold mine tailings dump, sending huge volumes of toxic waste into critical waterways 370 miles north of Vancouver, British Columbia. The environmental catastrophe wreaked havoc throughout the region, initiating an emergency drinking water ban, severely damaging the region’s important sockeye salmon habitat, a critical food and income source for the area’s First Nation’s communities and abruptly putting a halt to the area’s vibrant tourism.

Years before the disaster, the B.C. Ministry of Environment repeatedly warned the Mt. Polley mine owner, Imperial Metals, that the waste water level of the Mt. Polley tailings pond was too high. The Mt. Polley spill is being compared to the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989, which spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound in Alaska.

The area around the Valdez spill contained a thriving spring herring fishery that has not fully recovered and may never, according to government scientists. The impact and cost to clean up the Mt. Polley spill is still being evaluated and will be for years to come, but one can’t help but wonder what the sockeye salmon run there will look like in 25 years.

And just last week, 25 miles across the border from Arizona, Grupo Mexico’s Buenavista copper mine in Canenea, Sonora, had a tailings dump failure that poured 10 million gallons of copper sulfate acid into a river that supplies water to tens of thousands of people living in rural areas along the Rio Sonora. The river of orange poison reportedly is killing livestock and wildlife.

Iron ore giants eating little guys now, but cannibalism looms – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – September 3, 2014)

September 3, 2014

http://www.reuters.com/

Clyde Russell is a Reuters columnist. The views expressed are his own.

LAUNCESTON, Australia – (Reuters) – There was maybe more than a touch of hubris in Rio Tinto boss Sam Walsh’s recent comment that it’s time for other iron ore producers to “really feel the consequences” of the current low price.

The chief executive of the world’s No.2 iron ore miner was speaking after his company’s first-half results last month, basically delivering the message that Rio Tinto is going to keep going full-steam ahead on its iron ore expansion plans.

Walsh, along with the bosses of top iron ore miner Vale and No.3 BHP Billiton, is betting that their low-cost, high volume model will force smaller competitors to the wall, leaving them the undisputed kings.

Perhaps he should have a word or two with the chief executives of coal miners, which, oddly enough, includes himself given Rio Tinto’s extensive coal assets.

When the price of both thermal and coking coal started to decline in mid-2011, the word from the industry was that this wasn’t too big a surprise, but no need to worry as Chinese demand will ensure prices don’t fall too far, and all the new capacity brought on and planned will be profitable.

No Apology From Mining Tycoon German Larrea For Worst Ecological Disaster In Mexico’s History – by Dolia Estevez (Forbes Magazine – September 2, 2014)

September 2, 2014

http://www.forbes.com/

Grupo Mexico, the mining giant owned by German Larrea Mota Velasco, Mexico’s second richest man, has been in the center of a political storm since one of its mines in northern Mexico caused the worst ecological disaster in Mexican history.

According to Mexico’s federal environmental protection agency, Profepa, on August 6 Grupo Mexico’s subsidiary Buenavista del Cobre mine spilled 10 million gallons (40,000 cubic meters) of copper sulfate acid into the Sonora and Bacanuchi rivers, 25 miles south of the border with Arizona.

The contamination turned the waterways orange and affected the water supply of 24,000 people in seven communities along the rivers, forcing schools to close for several weeks while environmental authorities clean up the mess; 322 wells were shut down and more than 3 million liters of water have been distributed in trucks and bottles. Authorities place the cost of the total cleanup in the “hundreds of millions or billions” of Mexican pesos.

“This is the worst natural disaster provoked by the mining industry in the modern history of Mexico,” said Mexican Environment Minister Juan José Guerra Abud on August 26. Profepa said the mine’s leach solution yard is where the spill originated and ordered it partially shut,citing “imminent risk to the environment.”

The government has taken preliminary action to fine Grupo Mexico more than $3 million for the spill and Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office has opened a criminal investigation into top officials at the Buenavista mine, the world’s fourth largest copper mine by output.

5 gold miners still trapped in Nicaragua – by Luis Manuel Galeano and Olga R. Rodriguez (USA Today – August 30, 2014)

September 2, 2014

http://www.usatoday.com/

BONANZA, Nicaragua (AP) — Rescue workers and trapped miners alike frantically dug away at opposite sides of rock and mud that blocked a Nicaragua gold mine, finally succeeding in freeing at least 20 men. Efforts to reach five miners still missing continued Saturday.

Antonio Diaz said the miners tried to cheer each other up inside the dark, cold shaft, attacking the slide with their picks and shovels by the light of helmet lamps. But after 24 hours, they began feeling hungry and some started losing hope.

“The sadness of feeling yourself trapped in a hole is immense but I never lost hope,” said the 32-year-old miner from a hospital bed in the town of Bonanza, near the El Comal gold and silver mine. “I kept thinking I was too young to die and above all, I thought about my two daughters.”

He said the miners finally cut a hole through the blockage and started shouting, but at first there was no answer. “Hours later, someone heard us, and when he answered us we felt life returning to our bodies,” Diaz said. “God had answered our pleas to keep living.”

Bonanza Mayor Alexander Alvarado, a former miner who participated in the rescue efforts, said it took about 100 men working around the clock to reach those trapped and even then, it took about another two hours to bring the first miner out to safety.

Glencore Mine in Doubt After Dominican Park Bill Passes – by Bill Faries (Bloomberg News – August 28, 2014)

August 28, 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/

The future of Glencore Plc’s (GLEN) shuttered ferro-nickel mine in the Dominican Republic was cast into doubt after passage of legislation declaring the region surrounding the mine a national park.

The Senate approved a measure yesterday creating a protected area at Loma Miranda, home to the Falcondo mine. Glencore, led by billionaire Chief Executive Officer Ivan Glasenberg, called for “rationality” in decision-making on the mine’s future, the Baar, Switzerland-based company’s local unit said in a statement today.

The cost of permits to operate the mine will rise if the national park legislation is signed into law by President Danilo Medina. Affected landowners will be compensated, according to the bill. The mine, which Glencore acquired in 1956, contains 19.3 million tons of minerals.

“With operations at Loma Miranda, the Dominican economy would receive some $5.7 billion during the next 20 years,” according to the statement. “Where will those resources come from now?”

The Caribbean nation’s government has clashed with mining companies in recent years over royalties and environmental regulations. Dominican customs agents held up shipments from Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX)’s $4 billion Pueblo Viejo mine last year after Medina called the company’s concession “unacceptable.” Glencore temporarily shuttered the Falcondo mine last year due to low global nickel prices.

Peru to become world’s second-largest copper producer – by Andres Schipani (Financial Times – August 26, 2014)

August 26, 2014

http://www.ft.com/intl/companies/mining

Lima – Peru is set to become the world’s second-largest copper miner, behind neighbouring Chile, thanks to a $20bn pipeline of Chinese mining projects, according to senior officials in Lima.

Last month’s $7bn acquisition of Glencore’s Las Bambas copper project in Peru by China Minmetals’ MMG subsidiary has reinforced the links between the two countries, as Beijing seeks to secure more resources to drive economic growth.

MMG’s Las Bambas deal means Chinese backers are now behind one-third of all Peru’s new mining investments by value, estimated by the country at $61bn.

While US companies – including Newmont Mining and Freeport-McMoRan – have been among the biggest investors in Peruvian mining, Chinese projects in the country are now worth more than those from the US and Canada combined.

Eleodoro Mayorga, Peru’s energy and mining minister, said: “We have excellent relations with the Chinese; China has evolved as a partner. There is more openness, not only at a financial level, [but] also at trade and social responsibility levels.

“It is not the closed, traditional, governmental China, but transnational companies playing the market game,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times.

Vale secures key licence for flagship iron ore mine expansion – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – August 21, 2014)

August 21, 2014

http://www.mining.com/

Brazil’s Vale (NYSE:VALE), the world’s largest producer of iron ore, has secured a key environmental licence for a 90 million tonnes a year expansion of its flagship iron ore mine in the Carajás complex, in the northern state of Para.

The nearly $20 billion plan is expected to start production in 2016 and reach full capacity of 90-million tonnes a year of iron-ore in 2018, or nearly a third of Vale’s existing annual output.

In a statement Wednesday evening, the company said Brazil’s environmental regulator Ibama had granted it a preliminary license for its plans to expand its N4WS, N5S, Morro I and Morro II projects at the Carajás complex, which combined would give Vale an additional 1.8 billion tonnes in reserves.

The expansions are considered vital for Vale as the miner has been losing market share to Rio Tinto (ASX, LON:RIO) and BHP (ASX:BHP).

Carajás, located in a remote corner of the Amazon rainforest, currently holds the world’s largest iron ore deposits with 7.2 billion tonnes combined in proven and provable reserves. It accounts for 35% of Vale’s annual ore output of more than 300 million tonnes. Last summer Vale received a licence from the Environmental Protection Agency of Brazil to build a $19.5 billion railway expansion to its Serra Sul mine, part of the Carajás complex.

Batista’s MMX to Halt Work at Mine as Iron-Ore Falls – by Juan Pablo Spinetto (Bloomberg News – August 20, 2014)

August 21, 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/

MMX Mineracao & Metalicos SA (MMXM3), the mining unit of former billionaire Eike Batista, will temporarily stop operations at its only producing mine as it seeks to avoid bankruptcy protection amid lower metal prices.

The Brazilian iron-ore producer will give workers at its Serra Azul unit in Minas Gerais state a 30-day “collective vacation,” MMX said in a statement today. The furlough will begin during the first week of September.

“The necessity of the collective vacation and temporary stop of the production activities at the Serra Azul Unit is a consequence of the significant and prolonged decline of the iron-ore price,” MMX said in the statement. The measure also stems from “the operating restrictions imposed by the environmental authorities of the state of Minas Gerais.”

MMX is reviewing its business plan to bolster cash as iron-ore prices decline. The company will pay workers during the furlough, MMX said in an e-mailed reply to questions.

Batista, once Brazil’s richest person, has been selling assets as missed targets, mounting debt and accumulating losses forced his oil and shipbuilding companies to enter Brazil’s so-called judicial recovery proceedings last year.

Mexican government files criminal charges in copper mine acid spill – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – August 20, 2014)

August 20, 2014

http://www.mineweb.com/

Mexico’s Environmental Secretary has estimated that the fine for the Buenavista copper mine spill could reach $3 million.

RENO (MINEWEB) – Mexico’s federal environmental protection regulator, Profepa, has filed criminal charges with the Federal Attorney General’s Office against Grupo Mexico’s Buenavista del Cobre and Minera Mexico over a leakage caused by defects in newly constructed leaching ponds, which contaminated two rivers and left thousands of people without drinking water.

Two days after the Mount Polley tailings dam breach in British Columbia, 40,000 cubic meters of copper sulfate acid solution from Grupo Mexico’s Buenavista mine spilled into the Bacanuchi River and, subsequently, the Sonora River in northern Sonora State.

Initially, Grupo Mexico blamed unseasonal rains for causing the acid solution to spill from a dam now under construction for a new leaching plant in the mining operation. The company said it would pay for all the damage from the accident.

Arturo Rodriguez, chief of industrial inspection for the Attorney General for Environmental Protection, suggested mine operators should have been able to detect the leak before such a large amount of drainage had leaked into the rivers.

However, Mexico’s Environmental Secretary Juan Jose Guerra Abud told a local radio station Tuesday Grupo Mexico’s claim that excessive rain caused the overflow was “totally false” because there was no rain on August 6th, the day the spill is believed to have occurred.

In focus: Pascua Lama remains in legal limbo – by Fermín Koop (Buenos Aires Herald – August 18, 2014)

August 18, 2014

http://www.buenosairesherald.com/

Barrick says project has slowed due to the company’s debts, lower gold prices

With more than US$5 million spent so far in what has long been described as one of the first bi-national mining projects in the world, Barrick Gold continues with its foot firmly on the brakes in Pascua Lama hoping to resolve its legal limbo in Chile as soon as possible while it seeks out new investors to join the project.

Even as Barrick likes to tout the potential benefit of the project for both Chile and Argentina, environmental groups continue to call for the cancellation of the mine’s environmental permits due to the potential risks the project could have on the area’s rivers and glaciers, which they say have already been affected.

“The project has not been abandoned, we temporarily decreased the pace of construction. It was impossible to keep working at a quick pace considering the company registered a US$10.37 billion loss last year and the price of gold dropped a lot,” a Barrick official in Buenos Aires told the Herald. “Plus, the legal issues in Chile led to the suspension of the construction there.”

Located in the Andes Mountains on the border between Argentina and Chile, Pascua Lama is an open pit mining project of gold, silver, copper and other minerals. It contains estimated deposits of 18 million ounces of gold and 676 million ounces of silver, with 75 percent of the deposits in Chile and 25 percent in Argentina.

Former Chilean president slams Codelco’s governance, calls for greater autonomy – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – August 14, 2014)

August 14, 2014

http://www.mining.com/

Former Chilean president Ricardo Lagos (2000-2006) has called for a more independent Codelco, the state-owned copper company that is the world’s No.1 producer of the industrial metal.

Speaking at the 30-year anniversary of local mining think tank Cesco, Lagos said the miner’s corporate governance should be similar to that of the country’s central bank, La Segunda reports (in Spanish).

Chile’s monetary authority has its own legal framework and The President is responsible for appointing its five directors for a 10-year period, with the consent of the senate.

A nine-member board currently rules Codelco, with of three of the directors named by the President, four selected from a shortlist provided by the senior public management council, and two workers’ representatives.

“If you compare Codelco’s current corporate structure to that of the central bank, the degrees of autonomy are clearly different, which is based on the importance the company plays in the country’s public finances,” Lagos was quoted as saying.

Budget battles

Mine in northern Mexico was slow to report huge acid spill: official – by Mark Stevenson (Canadian Manufacturing.com – August 13, 2014)

August 13, 2014

http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/

Spill at copper mine near Mexico-U.S. border was caused by defects in newly constructed leaching or holding ponds

The Associated Press – MEXICO CITY- A civil defence official says a private mine in northern Mexico did not immediately report a massive acid spill, allowing it to flow into a river that supplies water to tens of thousands of people.

Carlos Arias, director of civil defence for the northern state of Sonora, said the spill at a copper mine near the United States border was caused by defects in newly constructed leaching or holding ponds.

Such ponds hold the overflow of acids used to leach metal out of crushed rock. But Arias said a pipe either blew out or became unseated on Aug. 7, allowing nearly 38 million litres of mining acids to flow downstream into a river.

“Definitely … it was an error” in the design or construction of the retaining pond, Arias said. He said the sulfuric acid spill was detected by residents downstream the next day, and that the mine operators hadn’t notified state authorities.

Arias said tests have revealed the spill contains pollutants like arsenic above acceptable levels. Water supplies from the river have been cut off to about 20,000 people.

UPDATE 2-Brazil’s Vale profit falls; prices undermine record output – by Stephen Eisenhammer (Reuters India – July 31, 2014)

August 5, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – Brazilian miner Vale SA posted a sharp decline in profit from the previous quarter as lower iron ore prices undermined record production of the steel-making ingredient.

Vale, the world’s largest producer of iron ore, reported second-quarter net income of $1.43 billion, down 43 percent on the previous quarter and below the average analyst estimate of $1.89 billion in a Reuters survey.

“It was a very challenging environment where the price of our most important product has dropped by 15 percent,” Chief Financial Officer Luciano Siani said in a video accompanying results.

Net income was more than three times higher than the year-ago quarter, when a one-time foreign exchange charge slashed profit to $424 million. Prices for iron ore .IO62-CNI=SI have dropped by nearly 30 percent this year, hitting a 22-month low in June.

Iron ore production rose 12.6 percent to 79.45 million tonnes from a year earlier, as better weather conditions combined with ramp-ups at its two main mine sites in Brazil.

Mega miners Vale and Australia’s Rio Tinto Ltd and BHP Billiton Ltd are ramping up output and slashing costs in an attempt to increase market share.

KGHM Starts Copper Output in Chile After Record Takeover – by Maciej Martewicz (Bloomberg News – July 31, 2014)

July 31, 2014

http://www.businessweek.com/

KGHM Polska Miedz SA, the copper producer with the largest European output, began production in its Chilean mine, acquired two years ago as part of a record Polish takeover transaction abroad.

The Sierra Gorda mine will operate at full capacity at the start of 2015 and will produce 120,000 tons of copper a year, the Lubin, Poland-based company said in a regulatory statement today. KGHM will also produce 50 million pounds of molybdenum, used to toughen stainless steel, and 60,000 ounces of gold annually in the mine.

KGHM acquired the Sierra Gorda project as part of its $2.9 billion takeover of Canada’s Quadra FNX Mining Ltd. in 2012. The state-controlled company expands outside Poland as it seeks to cut production costs and raise output.

“The start of Sierra Gorda production will help us cut unit cost in the group,” Chief Financial Officer Jaroslaw Romanowski said in an e-mailed statement today. “This is mainly due to additional products from the site, like gold as well as molybdenum, whose price is currently one fourth above what we initially estimated.”

KGHM produced 666,000 tons of copper in its Polish and northern American sites last year at an average cost of $1.85 a pound, which includes $0.53-a-pound impact of Polish copper taxes imposed in 2012. The production cost at Sierra Gorda is estimated at $1.13 a pound, according to its presentation.