United States Mining – Page 102

Bloomberg Philanthropies brings ‘Beyond Coal’ investment total to $80 million – by Sarah Tincher (The State Journal – April 8, 2015)

April 9, 2015

http://www.statejournal.com/ [West Virginia Business Newspaper]

Bloomberg Philanthropies announced it will invest an additional $30 million in the Sierra Club, following a previous $50 million commitment, to secure the replacement of half the nation’s coal fleet by 2017 with clean energy. Sierra Club said it expects the investment in the Beyond Coal campaign to put the United States in a stronger position to drive more ambitious climate action at the 2015 United Nations climate change conference in Paris.

“The single biggest reduction in carbon pollution in the U.S. has come by retiring and repurposing coal-fired power plants — and that’s the direct result of our Beyond Coal campaign,” said Michael R. Bloomberg. “Thanks to the community leaders who have spearheaded this work, the U.S. led every industrialized nation in reducing carbon emissions last year.”

National Mining Association President and CEO Hal Quinn, however, released a statement calling the donation and coalition a “campaign to shut down affordable sources of electricity generation.”

“Policies favored by the Sierra Club have already destroyed large portions of the nation’s most reliable sources of electricity generation, leaving consumers more dependent on fewer and costlier sources of electricity and a less reliable supply, leaving tens of thousands of Americans without jobs and low-income families plus those on fixed incomes with still higher bills to pay,” Quinn stated. “There is no reason to celebrate raising costs for society’s most vulnerable.

Taking a closer look at mining’s economic impact in Elko, Nevada (Barrick Beyond Borders – April 08, 2015)

April 8, 2015

http://barrickbeyondborders.com/

There are 670 mining vendors in Elko County alone, according to the Nevada Mining Association. At 53,000, the county’s population has climbed 7.5 percent since 2010 and 15 percent since 2002. Between 2003 and 2013, the gold-mining industry added 3,600 jobs across Elko, Lander, White Pine and Eureka Counties. Another 1,360 mine industry support jobs were added during the same period.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Nevada’s unemployment rate is 7.1 percent as of October 2014. According to the same source, Elko County’s unemployment rate is 4.4 percent as of September 2014, down from 6.3 percent in February of 2014.

Below are a few vignettes that offer snapshots of mining’s impact in this Nevada community.

A carnival-like atmosphere

A new store opening isn’t a major event in big cities, but it is in rural America. So when a Jo-Ann Fabrics opened in Elko in late 2011, the local radio and television stations were both on hand to cover the event and so, it seemed, was half the population of northeast Nevada. That may be a slight exaggeration. But the new Jo-Ann’s in the Elko Junction Shopping Center did enjoy the largest grand opening in the history of the company. Within two months, a Rue21 and Famous Footwear had opened at Elko Junction and also reported record grand openings.

Steel ‘dumping’ blamed for Iron Range layoffs – Jon Collins (Minnesota Public Radio – April 1, 2015)

April 8, 2015

http://www.mprnews.org/

Politicians and mining company officials are blaming unfair foreign competition for more than a thousand recent layoffs in the state’s iron ore industry.

U.S. Steel announced Tuesday that it would idle part of its taconite plant in Mountain Iron, Minn., starting on June 1. Earlier last month U.S. Steel announced plans to idle a plant in Keewatin, which will result in more than 400 layoffs. Magnetation also recently announced that it was closing an Iron Range plant and laying off more than 40 people.

The closing of plants and mills comes from a glut of steel supplies and the steady decline of prices over the last few months.

Following news of the most recent plant closing, Rep. Jason Metsa, DFL-Virginia, blamed the low prices on “foreign countries for dumping state-sibsidized steel on American shores.” U.S. Steel officials have also pointed to illegal trade practices by Chinese companies.

Dumping is a frowned upon international trade practice, said Tony Barrett, a professor of economics at the College of St. Scholastica. It’s when a company sells steel abroad for cheaper than the cost to produce it because they don’t need to make the same level of profits as American steel companies.

Local View: A single mining job pays a lifetime of dividends – by Kirk D. Haldorson (Duluth News Tribune – April 2, 2015)

April 7, 2015

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

I grew up one of six children here in northern Minnesota, and my father was employed with Reserve Mining in Silver Bay. Growing up in a mining town, I never really thought of mining as anything but a normal, regular industry; and quite possibly I took for granted that it would always be there.

We grew up fishing, camping and swimming in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. We grew up planting trees for the U.S. Forest Service to help fund our college. We would plant as many as 200,000 trees a year and spend endless days enjoying the beautiful forests.

Saying all this, I never would support something such as PolyMet Mining if I thought it would harm our environment. I can honestly say there is no one who loves nature and the wilderness more than me. I feel blessed to see some of the trees I planted so many years ago now being harvested for this generation.

We need to either grow it or mine it if northern Minnesota is going to provide for future generations. My parents raised six children, and all six went on to some sort of higher education — all because of one mining job.

All six children went on to get married, and all six children and their spouses currently live, work and pay state income taxes to Minnesota — all due to one mining job.

U.S. Steel to idle some production at Minntac, affecting hundreds of workers – by John Myers (Duluth News Tribune – March 31, 2015)

April 1, 2015

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

The string of bad economic news on the Iron Range compounded Tuesday when U.S. Steel announced that it will dramatically slow production at its Minntac taconite facility in Mountain Iron starting June 1.

Local union officials said the move will put 700 Steelworkers off the job, nearly half of the nearly 1,500 people who work at Minnesota’s largest taconite mine and processing plant.

The Pittsburgh-based steel giant said the move was forced by an oversupply of iron ore due to continued low demand for its American-made steel — a problem made critical in recent weeks by the ongoing flood of foreign steel made with cheap foreign iron ore.

“Global influences in the market, including a high level of imports, unfairly traded products and reduced steel prices, continue to have an impact,” the company said in a brief statement Tuesday.

State Rep. Jason Metsa, DFL-Virginia, said he’s been told that three of the plant’s five production lines will be shut down in an effort to reduce a backlog of 3.2 million tons of taconite. Union officials said they had not yet been told which employees will be laid off.

Appalachia Miners Wiped Out by Coal Glut That They Can’t Reverse – by Mario Parker (Bloomberg News – March 30, 2015)

March 31, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

(Bloomberg) — Douglas Blackburn has been crawling in and out of the coal mines of Central Appalachia since he was a boy accompanying his father and grandfather some 50 years ago.

The only time that Blackburn, now a coal industry consultant, remembers things being this bad was in the 1990s. Back then, he estimates, almost 40 percent of the region’s mines went bankrupt.

“It’s a similar situation,” said Blackburn, who owns Blackacre LLC, a Richmond, Virginia-based consulting firm. Now, like then, the principal problem is sinking coal prices. They’ve dropped 33 percent over the past four years to levels that have made most mining companies across the Appalachia mountain region unprofitable.

To make matters worse, there’s little chance of a quick rebound in prices. That’s because idling a mine to cut output and stem losses isn’t an option for many companies. The cost of doing so — even on a temporary basis — has become so prohibitive that it can put a miner out of business fast, Blackburn and other industry analysts say.

So companies keep pulling coal out of the ground, opting to take a small, steady loss rather than one big writedown, in the hope that prices will bounce back.

ENEMY OF MINE ENEMY: Mining companies and lobbyists are waging the real war on coal – by Jake Flanagin (Quartz – March 30, 2015)

March 31, 2015

http://qz.com/

It is indisputably better to be a coal miner today, in 2015, than in 1969—the year in which Congress passed the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act.

Generally known in simpler terms as “the Coal Act,” the law precipitated the establishment of a number of crucial regulatory bodies, including the Mining Safety and Health Administration (MSHA)—a sort of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), tailor-made for underground and surface-mining operations.

The act itself, in addition to creating this regulatory framework, laid down a set of nationwide health and safety standards for US miners, who, prior to, suffered some of the highest work-related mortality rates in the country.

The passage of the Coal Act, in conjunction with the establishment of MSHA, is generally credited with the precipitous decline in prevalence of coal worker’s pneumoconiosis (CWP, or “black lung”) between 1970 and 1995. This is an important distinction, because while life for the average coal miner today may be measurably better than it was 1969, it is not necessarily so when compared to industry-wide conditions in 1995.

Coal Producers: Obama Royalty Reform May Shut Us Down – by Mark Drajem (Bloomberg News – March 25, 2015)

March 30, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

(Bloomberg) — The Obama administration has proposed to change how it collects royalties on coal mined from federal land, a move that environmentalists hope, and the industry worries, will cut use of the fuel linked to climate change.

The Interior Department says the accounting change is needed to update rules adopted almost three decades ago, and streamline the program for companies such as Peabody Energy Corp. and Arch Coal Inc. And more changes are on the way.

“It’s time for an honest and open conversation about modernizing the federal coal program,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said in a speech last week to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “How do we manage the program in a way that is consistent with our climate-change objectives?”

For industry, the broad effort is seen through the prism of their ongoing complaints that President Barack Obama is waging a “War on Coal.” Sales of federally owned coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana — the biggest source — topped 350 million tons last year, generating company revenues of almost $5 billion, government data showed.

The Interior Department wants to assess the royalty when mining companies sell the coal to an unaffiliated buyer, not when sales are made to related intermediaries.

Mining for tourists? A dubious economic savior in Appalachia – (Chattanooga Times Free Press – March 29, 2015)

March 30, 2015

http://www.timesfreepress.com/

Associated Press – SECO, Ky. (AP) – Mines built this company town. Could vines – the wine grapes growing on a former strip mine in the hills above – help to draw visitors here?

Jack and Sandra Looney sure hope so. Their Highland Winery – housed in the lovingly restored, mustard-yellow “company store” – pays tribute to coal-mining’s history here, as do their signature wines: Blood, Sweat and Tears.

“The Coal Miner’s Blood sells more than any of them,” Jack Looney says of the sweet red. He and his wife have converted the store’s second and third floors into a bed and breakfast. They’ve also bought and restored a couple dozen of the old coal company houses as rentals, and rooms fill up during their annual spring Miner’s Memorial Festival.

Seco, like so many Central Appalachian communities, owes its existence to coal – its very name an acronym for South East Coal Company. But as mining wanes, officials across the region are looking for something to replace the traditional jobs and revenues.

In some of the poorest, most remote counties, about the only alternative people can come up with is tourism – eco-, adventure, or, as with the Looneys, historical and cultural.

My turn: Mine development in British Columbia raises concerns – by Abe Tanha (The Juneau Empire – March 29, 2015)

March 30, 2015

http://juneauempire.com/

Abe Tanha is owner and operator of Hooked On Juneau, a locally operated fishing tour company.

As owner of a sportfishing business based in Juneau, I join a large group of Alaskans including Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, Rep. Don Young, 11 municipalities including CBJ and the Southeast Conference of Mayors, tribes, fishermen and tourism operators who are deeply concerned with the scale and speed of mine development in British Columbia. Thank you, Juneau Empire, for a thorough job documenting this issue for your readers.

Last week the Empire responded to a litany of outrageous claims from B.C.’s Minister of Energy and Mines, Bill Bennett, about the Mount Polley mine tailings dam failure and development in the transboundary region. Bennett’s remarks are a total mischaracterization of Alaskans’ concerns and the widespread call from Alaskans for International Joint Commission involvement.

As unprecedented as the Mount Polley catastrophe may have been, the tailings dam failed because of regulatory oversight. Bennett claimed government inspectors could not have detected the glacial silt layer; however, they did identify a plethora of issues related to poor design and maintenance of the dam. These went unaddressed by Imperial Metals.

[Barrick Gold] Unprecedented sage grouse protection deal signed in Nevada – by Scott Sonner (Washington Times – March 26, 2015)

March 27, 2015

http://www.washingtontimes.com/

Associated Press – RENO, Nev. – An unprecedented attempt to protect sage grouse habitat across parts of more than 900 square miles of privately owned land in Nevada will begin under a deal Thursday involving the federal government, an environmental group and the world’s largest gold mining company.

The agreement comes as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approaches a fall deadline for a decision on whether to protect the greater sage grouse, a bird roughly the size of a chicken that ranges across the West, under the Endangered Species Act.

Commercial operations, including mining companies and oil and gas producers, are entering into such deals in an effort to keep the bird off the threatened or endangered list because the classification would place new restrictions on their work.

The deal involves Barrick Gold Corp., The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management and Fish and Wildlife Service. It establishes a “conservation bank,” providing the mining firm credit for enhancing critical habitat, in exchange for flexibility in future operations. It aims to preserve and restore more habitat than is lost through development while at the same time providing Barrick with more certainty as it maps out new mining plans.

“This is the kind of creative, voluntary partnership that we need to help conserve the greater sage grouse, while sustaining important economic activities on western rangelands,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said.

Dayton: ‘Outdated’ clean water standard could doom mining industry – by Tom Scheck (Minnesota Public Radio – March 24, 2015)

March 24, 2015

http://www.mprnews.org/

Gov. Mark Dayton is siding with U.S. Steel in a battle over water pollution standards for the company’s taconite facility in Mountain Iron. In an interview with MPR News, Dayton said the existing sulfate standard aimed at protecting wild rice is out of date, and pushing it could be catastrophic for northeastern Minnesota.

As the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency prepares to release new environmental standards, U.S. Steel is lobbying the Legislature to delay the implementation of a clean water standard aimed at protecting water where wild rice grows.

The existing state standard prevents companies from discharging more than 10 milligrams of sulfate per liter of water. But company lobbyists and Iron Range legislators say the standard is too low. With his latest comments, his strongest to date on the long-running debate, Dayton is joining that group.

“Some people will say, ‘you’re going to abandon the standard,'” Dayton said. “But if the standard is obsolete and it’s not validated by current science and information, then to stick with it and close down an industry isn’t really well advised.”

Dayton said the sulfate standard is outdated and has rarely been enforced since it was first established in 1973. U.S. Steel’s Minntac plant was facing the new standard as it renewed a decades-old permit — something U.S. Steel said would cost hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrades.

What 60 Minutes Got Wrong About Rare Earths And China – by Tim Worstall (Forbes Magazine – March 23, 2015)

March 24, 2015

http://www.forbes.com/

Last night 60 Minutes ran a segment on how American industry, and more importantly, the American defense industry, is prostrate before a Chinese monopoly of rare earths production. This is of course very worrying for all sorts of Very Serious People and something no doubt should be done.

There is a slight problem with the analysis 60 Minutes presented though: that problem being that their analysis was wrong. And I say this as someone who works in that rare earth industry, someone who has, at times, been a near monopoly supplier of one of the rare earths and, even, a supplier to the US defense industry of non-Chinese rare earths.

Here are the most important lines in the 60 Minutes report:

But trouble is once again looming for the U.S. rare earth industry. Since restarting operations two years ago, Molycorp’s mountain pass mine has yet to turn a profit, and so deeply in debt that just last week, its own auditor warned it may not be able to stay in business.

Montana mning proposes environmental safeguards – by Mark Thompson (Montana Standard – March 21, 2015)

March 23, 2015

http://mtstandard.com/

Mark Thompson is the Montana Mining Association president and manager of environmental affairs for Montana Resources in Butte.

On Friday, legislation was introduced in the state Senate that would ensure Montana’s environmental protections are amongst the most rigorous in the world. Senate Bill 409 carried by Sen. Chas Vincent, R-Libby, is the advent of a new era of mining in Montana, where industry proposes standards progressive in concept, comprehensive in scope and definitive in responsible management of tailings storage facilities.

Following a tailings area breach in British Columbia, the Montana Mining Association took a long, hard look at what the Treasure State had on the books to prevent a similar disaster from occurring in Montana.

Mine tailings are the uneconomic remains that result from the milling process, and are conventionally stored in large impoundments similar to the one which breached in British Columbia last year. No such occurrence with a large impoundment has ever happened in Montana’s more than 100 years of mining, yet the Montana Mining Association had the foresight to facilitate a bill which would add a laundry list of new requirements in law and would implement measures to ensure that Montana’s impoundments remain safe.

Through an exhaustive investigative process, the association pooled together resources and information from the industry’s foremost experts in mining and engineering and has proposed a process with significant engineering and review requirements ahead of any new mine tailings storage facilities or expansions.

Empire Editorial: On the topic of transboundary mines, a response to Mr. Bill Bennett Posted (Juneau Empire – March 22, 2015)

March 22, 2015

http://juneauempire.com/

The Tulsequah Chief Mine, located south of Juneau on the Taku River just across the Canadian border, has leached acid runoff into the Taku River since its closure in the 1950s.

Alaskans — Native tribes, commercial fishermen, local governments and ordinary residents — feel it is not at all respectful to leave a mine in ruin, leaching acid runoff. Nor do we feel this is in any way an example of “environmental protection.”

As B.C. forges ahead with 30 new mines to add to the existing 123 along the transboundary region, we’d like to see a firmer grip on reality and less public relations spin from our Canadian neighbors. We need actual compromise and solutions. (Juneau Empire Editorial-March 22, 2015)

It’s not often the Juneau Empire offers a rebuttal to an submitted column. Waging a back-and-forth war of words isn’t fair for the other party. We buy ink by the barrel and have dedicated staff to get the word out online as well.

However, we must respond to the Feb. 24 My Turn penned by Bill Bennett, the Minister of Mines for British Columbia.

Let us start off by addressing the first portion of Mr. Bennet’s piece when he states it was “unfortunate your editorial has seized upon the Mount Polley mine tailings storage facility failure to undermine the long tradition of respectful relations and co-operation between British Columbia and Alaska on mining development and environmental protection.”