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Latin America Mining

Low prices take toll on Cuban nickel revenues – by Marc Frank (Reuters U.S. – September 10, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

HAVANA, Sept 10 (Reuters) – Cuban nickel industry revenues were well below expectations in the first six months of the year, mainly because of low international prices, official radio reported this week.

The provincial radio station of Eastern Holguin province, Radio Angulo, reporting on a visit to Moa municipality by provincial Communist Party leader Luis Torres Iribar, said the municipality’s exports were short 26 percent, or $90 million, for the period.

Cuba’s only two nickel plants, the Cubaniquel-owned Ernesto Che Guevara plant and the Pedro Soto Alba, a joint venture between Canadian mining company Sherritt International and Cubaniquel, are both located in Moa.

The report said that the Ernesto Che Guevara plant’s earnings were 15 percent below expectations, and the Pedro Soto Alba plant was down 25 percent, “mainly due to the low price of the mineral on the world market.” Cuba plans to produce around 62,000 tonnes of unrefined nickel plus cobalt in 2013, according to local and foreign company reports.

Sherritt International has said it expects the Pedro Soto Alba plant to produce 38,000 tonnes, similar to 2012. An Ernesto Che Guevara manager said earlier this year the plant would produce 23,700 tonnes.

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Mining companies balk at Mexico’s proposed royalty plan – by Gabriel Stargardter (Reuters U.S. – September 10, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

MEXICO CITY – (Reuters) – Mining companies have threatened to cut investment in Mexico after the government proposed a 7.5 percent mining royalty, arguing that lower metal prices, rising running costs and higher taxes reduce the country’s investment allure.

The royalty proposal was part of President Enrique Pena Nieto’s plan to bolster Mexico’s feeble tax haul, a reform which focuses on reaping more income tax from higher earners, closing corporate loopholes and widening the tax base.

In April, Mexico’s lower house of Congress approved a new percent royalty to redistribute miners’ profits to the states and municipalities where they mine. The bill was originally due for a Senate vote in coming months.

However, lawmakers later decided to fold it into Pena Nieto’s fiscal reform, which has upped the stakes, proposing a royalty of 7.5 percent of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). It would rise to as much as 8 percent for gold, silver and platinum miners.

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Standing up to big gold – by Roxana Olivera (United Church Observer – June 2013)

http://www.ucobserver.org/

A fight pitting Indigenous Peruvians against a multinational mining company highlights the real cost of the global boom in precious metals

n July 3, 2012, Peruvian police opened fire on a public demonstration in the Andean town of Celendin, killing four protesters. José Sánchez was shot in the throat; Eleuterio García in the chest; Faustino Silva in the head. César Medina — the youngest among the dead at only 16 years old — was also shot in the head. Dozens more were seriously injured, and several arrested without cause. They were among 3,000 people rallying against the Minas Conga, a proposed gold mine that threatens to contaminate their community’s water supply.

The government immediately called a state of emergency in Celendin and two other provinces, suspending civil liberties and mobilizing riot police and soldiers to the region. But the very next morning, police and soldiers again fired at unarmed anti-Conga demonstrators in the nearby town of Bambamarca, this time killing Joselito Vásquez, 26, and injuring and arresting several others.

News of the violence sparked indignation in Peru and abroad. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, along with a host of other human rights groups, condemned the brutality, calling for a thorough investigation.

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Uruguay Prepares for Iron Rush – by Inés Acosta (Inter Press Service – August 26, 2013)

http://www.ipsnews.net/

The legal framework for large-scale mining is being prepared in Uruguay, a country where mining has never played an important role in the economy but which could become the world’s eighth largest producer of iron ore.

MONTEVIDEO, Aug 26 2013 (IPS) – A bill that would regulate large-scale mining operations is making its way through Uruguay’s two houses of parliament, despite a lack of political consensus and vocal opposition from environmental organisations and other sectors of civil society.

The proposed legislation, submitted by the executive branch and backed by the ruling Frente Amplio (FA) or Broad Front coalition, declares that large-scale mining would serve the “public interest”. But critics charge that the bill was drafted to serve the interests of the Aratirí project planned by the Indian mining group Zamin Ferrous, aimed at the production of 18 million tons of iron ore annually, with a promised investment of three billion dollars.

Opposition to these plans by environmentalists, farmers and other residents of the areas that would be affected by the mining operations is becoming increasingly louder. In the last demonstration against large-scale mining in Uruguay, held on May 10, more than 10,000 participants marched down 18 de Julio Avenue, the main thoroughfare in downtown Montevideo.

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Anti-mining protests biggest hurdle for Peru’s mining growth – S&P – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – August 29, 2013)

http://www.mineweb.com/

Peru’s mining sector may be booming, but the country need political stability to support long-term mining growth, Standard & Poor’s advises.

RENO (MINEWEB) – Of all the challenges facing Peru’s mining sector, Standard & Poor’s considers anti-mining protests the main constraint on its expansion “because if protests become more widespread, other mining projects could be delayed or scrapped entirely.”

Nevertheless, S&P Credit Analysts Diego Campo, Francisco Serra and Richard A. Francis feel “Peru’s mining sector is poised for significant growth, thanks to its large and high-quality metals reserves, reasonable tax regime, regulations that promote private investment, attractive power costs, and a long track record of mining activity. Plus, the country has fostered the development of ancillary-services suppliers and qualified manpower.”

“We expect investment in the energy and mining sectors will continue at a steady, rapid pace through the 2016 national elections, supporting future economic growth,” the analysts forecast in note published Wednesday. “Moreover, fiscal revenues from the mining sector, along with implementation of the new fiscal rule, should help Peru’s fiscal accounts and continue to reduce the government’s debt burden.”

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Commentary: Guatemalans’ lawsuit against Hudbay in Canada – by Christina Hall and Kevin MacNeill(Northern Miner – August 27, 2013)

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry. 

On July 22, 2013, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled in Choc v. Hudbay Minerals Inc. that three separate lawsuits brought by indigenous Guatemalans against Canadian mining company Hudbay Minerals and other defendants, can go forward in Canada.

The plaintiffs’ lawsuits allege that between 2007 and 2009, security personnel working for Hudbay’s subsidiaries — who were allegedly under the control and supervision of Hudbay, the parent company — committed various human rights abuses. These include the alleged gang rape of 11 Guatemalan women, the beating and shooting death of a respected Guatemalan indigenous leader who had been an outspoken critic of mining practices, and the shooting of another Guatemalan man in an unprovoked attack which left the man paralyzed.

All of these abuses are alleged to have been committed by security personnel at Hudbay’s Fenix mining project, a proposed open-pit nickel mining operation located on Lake Izabal in northeastern Guatemala. According to the pleadings in the lawsuit, Hudbay and the other the defendants asserted that they had a valid legal right to this land, while indigenous communities claimed that the Mayan Q’eqchi’ were the rightful owners of the lands, which they considered to be their ancestral homeland.

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Canadian mining executive freed by Colombian rebels – by Nadja Drost (Globe and Mail -August 28, 2013)

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.

SEGOVIA, COLOMBIA — After 221 days of captivity at the hands of Colombian rebels, Canadian mining executive Gernot Wober is free.

He was handed over Tuesday in an isolated clearing in northern Colombia by rebels of the National Liberation Army (ELN) to a Red Cross delegation and whisked away by helicopter and then plane to Bogota. “He looks good. He’s suffered a lot, but he’s very excited about his liberty,” said Archbishop Dario de Jesus Monsalve, a member of the delegation.

Mr. Wober, vice-president of exploration for Canadian junior mining company Braeval Mining Corporation, was a bargaining chip in a long-standing battle over mining rights between Colombia’s leftist guerillas and its government. Now, his release could have implications for future peace in a country racked by 50 years of violent armed conflict, by opening the door to allow the ELN, Colombia’s second-largest guerrilla group, to the negotiating table.

The Canadian went from being a pawn in the conflict over resources to a possible lynchpin in negotiating peace with one of Latin America’s oldest rebel groups.

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Miners Buying Hugo Boss Perfume as Chile’s Copper Booms – by Matt Craze & Javiera Quiroga (Bloomberg News – August 20, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/ 

Since starting work at the Esperanza copper mine in northern Chile two years ago, Erick Moreno has tripled his salary and is preparing to buy his first home. The pay, he says, is so good that he’d never take a job elsewhere.

“I am going to die in this industry, I don’t see myself anywhere else,” Moreno said by phone from Antofagasta, a city on the edge of the mineral-rich Atacama desert. “When you start working in a mine, everything changes and in a very little period of time.”

While Moreno, 27, completed his engineering course at Antofagasta University, he says many fellow students dropped out to start work at the mines without graduating. Most of them already own their homes and drive sports cars, while many older miners have five or more houses, some far from the mines that litter the northern desert, he said.

Spending by high-earning miners is spreading through the economy, fueling a consumer boom and driving unemployment to its lowest since 1973. The nation, squeezed between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, has become the wealthiest in Latin America, according to the International Monetary Fund, with gross domestic product per capita rising to about $16,300 this year from $4,780 ten years ago. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim last month congratulated the country on earning “high-income” status.

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B.C. mining companies digging up rage abroad – by Paul Luke (The Province – August 17, 2013)

http://www.theprovince.com/index.html 

Vancouver’s Eldorado Gold stayed calm in the face of rage triggered by the mine it’s building in Greece.  The company didn’t expect everyone in Aristotle’s birthplace in northeastern Greece would ­shower it with love. It knew that protests against everything from austerity to a U.S. pizza chain’s hiring policies are common in a region with a 35-per-cent jobless rate.

Eldorado’s gold project has the support of 12 of 16 villages in the area. It has a crucial environmental permit from the central government to start production at Skouries.  Opponents say the Skouries mine will trash the environment. ­Eldorado has offered detailed ­reassurances that it won’t.

Protesters say the mine will ruin the region’s tourism industry. “It’s not a big tourism area at all,” Eldorado spokeswoman Nancy Woo says.  But in the wee hours of Feb. 17, mine opponents went too far. About 50 people stormed the mine site, assaulted two Greek security guards and torched construction offices, trucks and heavy equipment.

“We fully condemn any activities that put the safety of our ­employees, contractors and assets at risk,” Eldorado CEO Paul Wright said in deploring the violence. 

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How Colombian FARC Terrorists Mining Tungsten Are Linked to Your BMW Sedan – by Michael Smith (Bloomberg Market Magazine – August 8, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

It’s a sweltering day in March, and Javier Garcia slogs through the dense undergrowth in a remote stretch of the Amazon jungle in southeastern Colombia.

He and a friend have hiked all day toward their goal, a mining site 100 kilometers from the nearest town. As the men hack through the thorny brush with machetes, following a narrow, muddy path, Garcia stops in his tracks.

Centimeters away, a venomous snake called four-noses coils up, poised to attack. Garcia says he will be dead within an hour if the pit viper strikes. His friend grabs a long stick and carefully flips the snake into the jungle. They move on, Bloomberg Markets magazine will report in its September issue.

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Speaker’s Corner: Piercing of corporate veil in Hudbay case may send Canadian companies elsewhere – by Megan Lem (Law Times News – August 5, 2013)

http://www.lawtimesnews.com/index.php

Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel (Guatemala Nickel) owns and operates the Fenix nickel mine in Guatemala. Between 2007 and 2009, there were some unfortunate security incidents at the mine when protesters clashed with police and private security details working for a security contractor that had been retained by Guatemala Nickel. These clashes allegedly led to the death of one man, the serious injury to another man, and the rape of several women.

The alleged victims of this violence in Guatemala, rather than suing Guatemala Nickel domestically in that country, brought three separate actions in Canada against Hudbay Minerals Inc., the parent company of Guatemala Nickel, for an aggregate of approximately $67 million in damages. Hudbay, in response, brought a motion in Ontario’s Superior Court to dismiss the Guatemalan claims, asserting that the proper place for a trial, if any, was in Guatemala, and that the proper party that should be responsible for whatever happened in Guatemala, if any, was Guatemala Nickel.

On July 22, Superior Court Justice Carole Brown denied Hudbay’s motion to dismiss the case in Canada, allowing the Guatemalans to continue their lawsuit against Hudbay in Canada. This precedent-setting decision is, according to Murray Klippenstein, counsel for the plaintiffs, “the first time that a Canadian court has ruled that a claim can be made against a Canadian parent corporation for negligently failing to prevent human rights abuses at its foreign mining project.”

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Finding Chuqui’s lost ore – Lowell on tackling world-class mystery – by Kip Keen (Mineweb.com – August 1, 2013)

http://www.mineweb.com/

The massive Chuquicamata copper deposit has long been theorized to be missing ore, possibly faulted off to the south. Now exploration legend David Lowell is looking.

HALIFAX, NS (MINEWEB) – David Lowell, the famed octogenarian explorer credited with finding the Escondida copper deposit, among others, is now taking a crack at one of the world’s greatest exploration mysteries: finding lost – or believed to be lost – Chuquicamata copper ore. Forgive the superlative. For the known Chuquicamata copper-molybdenum deposit and mine in Chile, now owned by Codelco, is ranked by many as the greatest – or certainly one of the greatest – copper ore bodies in the world.

Chuquicamata, Chuqui for short, is big and, for its size, very high grade. A mid-2000s estimate tallied 2 billion tonnes @ 1.54 percent copper as having been mined. These days, a grade a third that is considered pretty normal – good even – for a large porphyry deposit like this. So Chuqui is abnormal. And many billion tonnes of ore remain at the known Chuqui deposit. As the massive Chuqui open pit wanes, Codelco aims to continue mining in a giant block cave mine it estimates will cost about $4.2 billion to build. The pit is reaching its limits, about 900 metres deep, and four kilometres long and three kilometres wide.

The Chuqui mystery is this: a fault, called the West Fault, cuts through the Chuqui ore body and appears to have moved a chunk – how much is not clear – of Chuqui ore elsewhere, where or exactly how far is uncertain.

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Barrick looks to cut high-cost mines – by Tim Kiladze (Globe and Mail – August 2, 2013)

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.

After its second major writedown in just six months, Barrick Gold Corp. is trying to wooing back shaken investors by focusing on assets closer to home.

The world’s largest gold miner announced a hefty $8.7-billion (U.S.) after-tax impairment charge, leaving the company with a second-quarter loss of $8.6-billion.

Barrick also slashed its dividend by 75 per cent as part of its second quarter earnings. In response to the losses, the Toronto-based company plans to shed, suspend or shut high-cost mines and continue to cut costs.

Chief executive officer Jamie Sokalsky said he is considering changes to his lineup of high-cost mines, most of which are in Africa and Australia. On a conference call Thursday, he said is already “well-advanced in a process to sell certain Australian assets.”

The miner will also continue to slash expenses where possible, having already cut or deferred $4-billion in capital spending over the past year, half of which came in the first six months of 2013.

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How rage over a Mexican mining tragedy has propelled a union leader’s book to the bestseller list – by Oakland Ross (Toronto Star – July 27, 2013)

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

In Collapse of Dignity, Napoleon Gomez Urrutia reveals much about Mexico’s corrupt mining sector – but what about himself?

Will the real Napoleon Gomez Urrutia please stand up? About 66 years old and living in exile in Vancouver, the Mexican labour leader has trod many different paths during a long, eventful career, and now he has written a book about that journey.

Titled Collapse of Dignity: The Story of a Mining Tragedy and the Fight Against Greed and Corruption in Mexico, the densely written volume recently scaled its way into the Top 10 on The New York Times list of non-fiction bestsellers, an impressive achievement by any measure and all the more so in this case because a good deal of the book is at least somewhat fictitious.

It’s also pretty hard slogging for much of its 368-page length. Still, the good parts are engrossing, and they centre on a mining disaster – or, really, two mining disasters. One of these mishaps took place in northern Mexico, on Feb. 19, 2006, and it was an unmitigated catastrophe.

Sixty-five men lost their lives after a huge explosion hit the Pasta de Conchos coal mine in the early hours that day.

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BHP and Rio fork out $3.7 billion for water in Chile – by Brian Robins (The Age – July 26, 2013)

http://www.theage.com.au/

BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto are being forced to spend $US3.4 billion ($3.67 billion) on a water plant at their copper project in Chile, at a time when mining companies globally are curtailling capital spending.

The two miners will lose access to most of their water supply at the Escondida project, the world’s largest copper mine, in 2017.

BHP’s share of the new round of investment is estimated at $US1.97 billion and Rio’s at $US1.03 billion. Construction on the planned desalination plant is to start immediately, with completion planned for 2017.

The partners are in the middle of a $US4.5 billion round of spending which is to be completed next year, primarily on a new ore concentrator at the project, together with ancillary upgrades.

When completed, these upgrades will enable the production of more than 1.3 million tonnes of copper a year from 2015.
When the partners in Escondida disclosed the $US4.5 billion upgrade early last year, they signalled this was the first in a series of programs that could substantially expand capacity at the mine.

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