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Saskatchewan Mining

BHP Billiton says Jansen project still alive despite comments from MLA – by D.C. Fraser and Alex MacPherson (Regina Leader-Post/Saskatoon StarPhoenix – June 28, 2016)

http://leaderpost.com/

A government backbench MLA hinted earlier this month that BHP Billiton Canada Inc. would abandon its multi-billion-dollar Jansen potash mine if it doesn’t get further approval to proceed with construction. However, the global mining giant and the government minister responsible for the file said that isn’t case.

Glen Hart, MLA for Last Mountain-Touchwood, told a group of citizens fighting a separate proposed potash mine that BHP employees in Saskatoon told the government that the massive Jansen mine was “at a stage now where if the board of directors doesn’t authorize any more expenditure on this project, they’re going to walk way.”

Hart’s comments were recorded, though it’s unclear if the MLA knew he was being taped. The MLA claims the quote was taken out of context and he was trying to describe his understanding of the process for how potash mine is built. According to a spokeswoman for the premier’s office, Hart in no way meant to sound as if the mine would not proceed.

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Potash Corp. shares surge on possibility of market thaw – by Ian McGugan (Globe and Mail – June 24, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Shares of Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. are surging on speculation the company’s rivals in Belarus and Russia may once again team up – a development that could potentially mark an end to potash’s long swoon.

Prices for the crop nutrient have plunged since the heady days of 2010, when BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s largest miner, attempted to acquire Potash Corp. during the frenzy of the commodity supercycle.

One key factor in the protracted slide was the split-up in 2013 of the marketing alliance between state-owned Belaruskali of Belarus and Uralkali of Russia, which had previously helped to support global prices for potash.

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Finish line in sight for province’s first new potash mine in 40 years – by Bruce Johnstone (Regina Leader-Post – June 22, 2016)

http://leaderpost.com/

More than 300 First Nations and Metis are working with contractors on
site and more than $300 million in contracts have been awarded to
companies owned or partnered with aboriginal enterprises.

NEAR BETHUNE – If building a potash mine was like a horse race, K+S’s Legacy project would be entering the home stretch. The $4.1-billion solution potash mine remains on time and on budget to begin production at the end of this year and full commercial production of two million tonnes per year by late 2017.

“We will produce the first tonnes of potash at the end of this year,” K+S Canada Potash president and CEO Ulrich Lamp told reporters Tuesday. “Then we will produce one million tonnes in 2017 and achieve our capacity of two million tonnes per year by the end of next year.’’

For Lamp, the project is the culmination of a long journey that began on a prairie field and a tent in 2012 when K+S first broke ground at the Legacy mine site, about 70 km northwest of Regina.

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Mining companies, northern communities renew uranium development partnership (Saskatoon StarPhoenex – June 22, 2016)

http://thestarphoenix.com/

Seven northern communities have renewed their agreement with Cameco Corp. and Areva Resources Canada Inc. to support uranium mining operations in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin.

“The renewed partnership agreement gives the Athabasca communities certainty, to help ensure that the companies operate sustainably, bringing positive changes for the future generation,” Diane McDonald, lead negotiator for the communities, said in a statement.

The Ya’Thi Néné agreement, which means “Land of the North” in Dene, builds on a previous deal struck in 1999. It confirms the support of Black Lake, Fond du Lac, Hatchet Lake, Stony Rapids, Wollaston Lake, Uranium City and Camsell Portage for the Cigar Lake, McLean Lake and now-shuttered Rabbit Lake uranium operations.

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[Saskatchewan] K+S Legacy unveiled (Moose Jaw Times Herald – June 21, 2016)

http://www.mjtimes.sk.ca/

The K+S Potash Canada Legacy Project was officially unveiled on Tuesday. Located roughly 60 kilometers northeast of Moose Jaw, construction crews are now in the completion stages of the largest construction project currently underway in Saskatchewan.

With the strategy of solution mining and using water sourced from Lake Diefenbaker, the Legacy mine will produce mainly potash and salt, as well as fertilizer. The salt and potash will be sourced from 1,500-1,600 metres underground.

The construction phase, which began in 2013, employed 1,475 people from all over Canada. Once the first phase of production begins in the next few months, there will be about 350 local employees working on site, with another 100 or so working from headquarters in Saskatoon and Vancouver.

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Exclusive: Canada’s Saskatchewan may scrap potash royalty review – minister – by Rod Nickel (Reuters U.S. – June 16, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

Saskatchewan is considering whether to end a review of its potash royalty system, the economy minister of the Canadian province said, as producers of the crop nutrient struggle with low prices.

The province had said any changes would be revenue-neutral to its treasury, but Potash Corp of Saskatchewan (POT.TO) raised concerns last year when the cash-strapped government took an interim step to boost its revenues.

“Part of the discussion is whether or not we do anything at the moment or whether we hold off on any kind of further discussion,” said Economy Minister Bill Boyd, in a phone interview from Regina on Thursday, adding that the government would probably decide within a week or two whether to end the process.

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Proposed Yancoal potash mine divides Saskatchewan community – by Adam Hunter (CBC News Saskatchewan – June 15, 2016)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/

Mine project curently under review by government

About 60 people crammed into a room at the legislature on Wednesday to voice their concerns over a proposed Yancoal potash mine near Southey.

“Ten years ago the province was begging to have a community like ours, now they are set to destroy it,” said Neil Wagner a Southey area business owner who grew up near the mine site.

“Our concern is about the environmental impact this is going to have and that’s our issue with it.” Yancoal, which is owned by the government of China, wants to build a solution mine, which would use millions of cubic metres of water each year to dissolve the potash.

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Cameco CEO Tim Gritzel on uranium market transformation – by Irina Dorokhova – Kursiv (Mining.com – June 10, 2016)

http://www.mining.com/

Uranium is having the worst start to a year in a decade. U3O8 is down more than 20% in 2016 with the UxC broker average price trading around the $28 a pound mark this week. Current levels are the cheapest spot uranium has been since 2005. At the same time the long term price, where most uranium business is conducted, is hovering at around $44 a pound, where it’s been since July 2015.

IntIrina Dorokhova of MINEX Central Asia sat down with Tim Gritzel, President and CEO of Cameco to talk about the changing dynamics of the uranium market, how the Canadian company is riding out the slump and its new agreement with Kazakh giant Kazatomprom.

Mr. Gitzel, what’s happening in the spot uranium market? Why do you think the spot price stabilized in 2015 and dropped in the first quarter of 2016?

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Saskatchewan’s Brad Wall warns the oilpatch is under siege by activists – by James Wood (Calgary Herald – June 8, 2016)

http://calgaryherald.com/

“Alberta has made their decision. I think the timing for another new national tax,
carbon tax or levy of some sort, is just wrong,” he said, comparing the situation
to a hypothetical new tax on vehicles being introduced when the auto industry
was in turmoil during the economic crisis of 2008-09….Wall said he isn’t
suggesting governments shouldn’t try to curb greenhouse gas emissions but he
downplayed Canada’s 1.6 per cent contribution to global carbon output.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall came to the heart of the oilpatch Wednesday to warn that the energy industry is under “existential threat” from environmental activists.

In a speech to the Explorers and Producers Association of Canada at the Petroleum Club, Wall slammed the idea of a national carbon tax and took aim at both the United States government for rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline and other Canadian provinces for throwing up obstacles to energy transportation projects.

Wall, whose Saskatchewan Party was recently re-elected for a third term, said the energy industry needs defenders against “an ever-growing matrix of activists,” citing proponents of the Leap Manifesto within the NDP and the divestment movement that calls for companies and public bodies to shed their energy holdings.

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Expanded PotashCorp Rocanville will be one of the world’s biggest underground mines – by Bruce Johnstone (Regina Leader-Post – June 1, 2016)

http://leaderpost.com/

The finishing touches are being put on PotashCorp Rocanville’s $3-billion expansion project, which will double its production capacity, making it one of the biggest underground mines — potash or otherwise — in the world, according to PotashCorp Rocanville’s general manger.

“Our planned production is about five million tonnes per year,” Larry Long told a Saskatchewan Mining Week breakfast here Tuesday. “Obviously, this will be dictated by potash markets, but it will be quite a change for us at Rocanville (located about 200 km east of Regina near the Manitoba border). We typically did 2.5 million to 2.7 million tonnes per year, so this is a giant step up.”

Long, a mining industry veteran from New Brunswick, said the eight-year expansion project presented many challenges and obstacles to overcome, including an “monster feature” — an unexpectedly large salt formation — which separated the new and existing potash ore bodies.

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Mining sector praised as ‘pillar of Saskatchewan economy’ – by Bruce Johnstone (Regina Leader-Post – May 30, 2016)

http://leaderpost.com/

Despite current low prices and production cutbacks, mining continues to be a “pillar of the Saskatchewan economy,” with potash and uranium investment in the province totalling $30 billion since 2007, Economy Minister Bill Boyd said Monday.

Potash companies alone have invested $20 billion in the province since 2008, 10 times the $2 billion invested by the potash sector during the previous eight years, Boyd told the news conference for the opening of Saskatchewan Mining Week.

Boyd noted that Saskatchewan was ranked “the number one jurisdiction for mining attractiveness in Canada and second-most attractive jurisdiction in the world” in a recent survey of global mining executives by the Fraser Institute.

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University of Saskatchewan offers mining specialization – by Alex Frazer-Harrison (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – May 28, 2016)

http://thestarphoenix.com/

POSTMEDIA CONTENT WORKS – A new set of undergraduate courses at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Engineering is helping open the door for students seeking to enter the mining field.

The “mining engineering option” courses in geological, chemical and mechanical engineering allow students seeking a bachelor of engineering degree the opportunity to take additional specialized classes related to mining. Announced in 2013, the first five students to enrol will graduate this spring.

“This means students taking engineering degrees in chemical, mechanical or geological can pick up these mining-focused classes. … We have a strong interest at home because there are still very large mining operations in Saskatchewan,” says Al Shpyth, executive director of the International Minerals Innovation Institute, which entered into a funding agreement with the U of S for five mining-related courses and the options.

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Future of potash is solid despite low prices – by Paul Sinkewicz (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – May 28, 2016)

http://thestarphoenix.com/

POSTMEDIA CONTENT WORKS – As potash prices remain depressed, the watchword for Saskatchewan’s major producers in 2016 is cost control. Prices for the fertilizer ingredient were more than $900 a tonne in 2008, but thanks to slumping demand for the mineral, they are now expected to stay in the $200 to $300 range for the next several years.

Already the world’s largest producer of potash, Saskatchewan had been enjoying the promise of even greater things ahead for the industry with firms investing billions in upgrades to existing sites and several new major mining operations taking shape.

The Mosaic Company alone has committed more than $3 billion to a new shaft at its Esterhazy mine. The K3 development has been underway since 2013, and remains on schedule and on budget, says Bruce Bodine, incoming senior vice-president, potash.

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A tale of two minerals: Overproduction, low demand, weak prices dog potash, uranium mining – by Bruce Johnstone (Regina Leader-Post – May 27, 2016)

http://thestarphoenix.com/

With apologies to Charles Dickens, it was the best of times and worst of times for Saskatchewan’s mining industry in 2015.

Both production volume and value of Saskatchewan’s most important mineral resources — potash and uranium — were up in 2015 over 2014. And, for the first time ever, Saskatchewan was ranked second in terms of the value of mineral production among Canada’s mining provinces last year.

But by the fourth quarter of 2015 and first quarter of 2016, overproduction and low prices resulted in potash and uranium mine shutdowns and layoffs.According to Natural Resources Canada, the value of Saskatchewan’s mineral production was $8.5 billion in 2015, with a nearly 20 per cent share of Canadian mineral production.

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Newfoundland’s Sisters of Mercy challenge Potash Corp in board room – by Michael Swan (The Catholic Register – May 25, 2016)

http://www.catholicregister.org/

The Sisters of Mercy of Newfoundland lost a vote at the May 11 Annual General Meeting of Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, Inc., but they won attention from the mining giant’s management.

The community of 95 Catholic sisters were asking the company, currently valued at $14.7 billion on the Toronto Stock Exchange, to undertake a human rights study of its operations in the Western Sahara. The proposal garnered just 6.7 per cent of the votes at the 2015 AGM, but it attracted support from 31.6 per cent of the outstanding shares — including the votes of major institutional investors this year.

The sisters’ motion was backed by the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, which handles pension funds for BC public servants, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan among others — totalling 159,593,972 shares voting for the motion, versus 344,850,348 shares against.

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