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United States Mining

Famed Gold Rush era shipwreck yields more treasure – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – May 6, 2014)

http://www.mineweb.com/

One of the U.S’s most famous shipwrecks – and the millions of dollars in gold that it carried when it went down 4 years before the U.S. Civil War – is being re-explored after 23 years.

RENO (MINEWEB) – Nearly 1,000 gold ounces (28 kilograms) have been recovered during the first reconnaissance dive since 1991 to the SS Central America shipwreck site deep in the ocean east of Charleston, South Carolina.

Launched in 1853, the SS Central America is an 85-meter (280 foot) wooden-hulled, three-masted side-wheel steamship that operated during the California Gold Rush era, making 43 round trips between New York City and Panama.

On August 20, 1857, the mail steamer Sonora left San Francisco harbor carrying about 600 passengers and crew, as well as 10 tonnes of gold ingots, freshly-minted U.S. $20 Double Eagle coins, nuggets and gold dust mined in the California Gold Rush.

It also carried the largest Gold Rush relic, the Eureka Bar, which weighed 933.94 troy ounces, and was valued at $17,433 in 1857. The Eureka gold bar was scheduled to be melted and turned into coinage at the Philadelphia Mint.

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Poison pill works in takeover battle for Augusta – by Peter Koven (National Post – May 5, 2014)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

A ruling in the battle for Augusta Resource Corp. shows that Canadian securities regulators are willing to inject some actual poison into poison pills when shareholders clearly support the anti-takeover measure.

Late Friday, a British Columbia Securities Commission panel declared that Augusta’s shareholder rights plan (or poison pill) should stay in place until July 15. HudBay Minerals Inc. launched a $444-million hostile bid for Augusta back in early February, meaning the regulator gave Augusta more than five months to study its alternatives.

That is an extraordinary amount of time by Canadian standards. Historically, regulators have given hostile takeover targets mere weeks before striking down their poison pills. The pills were treated as a brief delaying tactic while the targets studied their options, and were not viewed as a serious impediment for hostile bidders.

However, that mentality is starting to change. After years of complaints that acquiring Canadian companies is too easy for hostile bidders, the Canadian Securities Administrators have proposed new rules that would allow companies to deploy rights plans for a full year as long as they are approved by shareholders. The plan could then be renewed for another 12 months with a fresh vote.

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Proposed mine by wild Smith River roils Del Norte County folks – by Peter Fimrite (San Francisco Chronicle – May 3, 2014)

http://www.sfgate.com/

The clear, flowing Smith River is a life force in the northern corner of California, where the locals keep a sharp eye out for threats to the pristine water and thriving fish.

That would explain why the folk who live along the river in Del Norte County nearly jumped out of their britches when they learned about a proposed nickel mine along a major tributary of the Smith, the last major river without a dam left in the state.

A London mining company has applied to the U.S. Forest Service to begin exploratory drilling over thousands of acres of forest lands, including Baldface Creek, in Curry County, Ore., which flows into the Smith and helps maintain one of the most abundant natural salmon runs in California.

Steelhead trout, chinook and coho salmon spawn in both Baldface Creek and Smith, a National Wild and Scenic River that also provides Crescent City and the surrounding communities with drinking water.

“Locating a strip mine in the headwaters of the wild and scenic Smith River is like putting ice cubes made with toxic waste in your favorite drink,” said Grant Werschkull, the executive director of the Smith River Alliance, in Crescent City. “It’s completely outrageous.”

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EXCLUSIVE: Memos show EPA officials tried to kill mine project before scientific review – by Phillip Swarts (Washington Times – April 30, 2014)

http://www.washingtontimes.com/

Agency officials coached tribes on how to oppose Alaska’s Pebble Mine

Though President Obama has repeatedly urged that science guide environmental decisions, regulators inside the Environmental Protection Agency secretly worked with tribal and environmental activists to preempt a full review of an Alaskan mine and veto the project before the owners’ permits could be considered, internal memos show.

Charged with being neutral arbiters, EPA officials instead began advocating for a preemptive veto of the Pebble Mine project in western Alaska as early as 2008, long before any scientific studies were conducted or the permit applications for the project were even filed, the emails obtained by The Washington Times show.

“As you know I feel that both of these projects (Chuitna and Pebble) merit consideration of a 404C veto,” EPA official Phillip North wrote in an email suggesting that the mining project’s rejection be added to the agenda of an agency retreat in summer 2009.

EPA wouldn’t even announce the beginning of a scientific review of Pebble Mine until 2011, two years after Mr. North’s email, but discussion of a pre-emptive veto dominated internal discussions inside the agency for much of the three years beforehand.

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Alaska Natives and First Nations Unite to Halt B.C. Mine That Threatens Salmon Habitat – by Paula Dobbyn (Indian Country: Today Media Network.com – May 2, 2014)

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/

It has become an all-too-familiar story: Pristine waters. Salmon habitat. Sacred significance. Mining.

The Unuk River watershed, straddling the border between British Columbia and Alaska, is on track to become ground zero in a struggle to stop the world’s largest open-pit mine, Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell (KSM). The fight against it is uniting First Nations and Alaska Natives as they battle to preserve stewardship of the pristine region. And it is just one of five massive projects proposed for the region.

If KSM secures the financing and the regulatory go-ahead, the giant mine would turn 6,500 acres of pristine land into an industrial zone that would generate more than 10 billion pounds of copper and 38 million ounces of gold, according to a project summary. As with any large mine, it would employ a hefty workforce—in this case mostly Canadians—and create taxes and royalty payments for Canada. But it would also produce a slew of waste. And that’s what critics say downstream Alaska communities stand to take on: none of the economic benefits but much of the environmental risk.

With its remote headwaters in British Columbia, the Unuk River is one of the world’s most prolific salmon waters. An international river, the Unuk flows into neighboring Southeast Alaska and its temperate rainforest, the 17-million-acre Tongass National Forest, a place of towering coastal mountains, tidewater glaciers and fog-shrouded islands.

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Editorial: Barrick-Newmont fling ends in acrimony – by John Cumming (Northern Miner – April 30, 2014)

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry. Editor John Cumming MSc (Geol) is one of the country’s most well respected mining journalists.  jcumming@northernminer.com

It’s gotta rank right up with the worst “first dates” in recent mining history: the proposed merger between gold titans Barrick Gold and Newmont Mining broke off a week after it was made public through media reports in April, and then things soured with a flurry of rival press releases pinning the blame on the other party for the breakdown.

Barrick and Newmont executives had gone so far as to negotiate a term sheet for a merger that was signed by both parties on April 8, after months of private negotiations. It’s a deal that hearkened back to 2005–2006 — the era of the growth for growth’s sake mega-merger — and would have been the biggest merger in the history of gold mining.

But by April 28, merger discussions were officially terminated. It didn’t stop there, however, with discreet silence or any deflecting “it’s not you, it’s me” sentiment: Barrick put out a press release and told reporters that it had wanted to finish the merger, but Newmont’s board had backtracked.

Newmont slipped that jab, came back hard with its own, by making public a private letter it had sent to Barrick’s board the week before.

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As Munk ‘steps down’, Barrick Gold records 90% plunge in profits – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – May 1, 2014)

http://www.mineweb.com/

“You can take, maybe, Munk out of Barrick, (but) you can’t take Barrick out of Munk,” Peter Munk told Barrick shareholders at the company’s AGM Wednesday.

RENO (MINEWEB) – Anyone who thinks Peter Munk’s influence will no longer play a major role at Barrick Gold as he retired as co-chairman of the board Wednesday was in for a rude awakening as Munk told shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting that he intends to remain “very involved in Barrick.”

Munk’s son Anthony Munk was re-elected to the Barrick Board of Directors with 94.1% of the shareholder vote. Peter Munk will retain an office at Barrick corporate headquarters in Toronto.

As he departed from the Barrick board, Munk predicted Wednesday his greatest investment for Barrick over the past 32 years will be new Chairman of the Board John Thornton.

During Munk’s tenure as CEO, chairman, and co-chairman over the past 32 years, Munk said Barrick twice earned more money than any mining company in Canadian history, paid $8 billion in taxes, and created 25,000 jobs in 20 countries. However, along with Munk’s overall success as a CEO and chairman of Barrick, have come some staggering losses.

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Gold giants’ merger falls apart as Barrick-Newmont spat goes public – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – April 29, 2014)

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.

A spat between Barrick Gold Corp. and Newmont Mining Corp. erupted into a public war of words, with the companies accusing each other of ruining their $13-billion (U.S.) merger.

Barrick said its American rival reneged on their deal and tried to change key provisions, including the location of the head office in Toronto. Newmont disagreed with Barrick’s version and faulted the Canadian company’s incoming chairman John Thornton for not being constructive.

Over the years, the world’s two largest gold producers have made several attempts to unite and cut expenses in Nevada, where they both own multiple mines. The slump in the gold industry fuelled their latest merger ambitions, with the companies identifying about $1-billion in cost savings.

But they ultimately could not overcome two decades of personality clashes and cultural differences, which exploded into the public domain on Monday and likely killed any future merger discussions.

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Barrick-Newmont merger collapses into toxic war of words – by Peter Koven (National Post – April 29, 2014)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

TORONTO — A much-anticipated merger between Barrick Gold Corp. and Newmont Mining Corp. has collapsed into a toxic public feud between leaders of the two firms that simply could not get along.

Talks between the two companies are finished, and sources said there is no chance they will start again anytime soon. That is bad news for shareholders, who stood to benefit if the miners combined their highly complementary Nevada operations.

It would have been the biggest deal in the history of the gold mining sector. Its failure demonstrates that clashing personalities can destroy a transaction that seemingly makes sense in every other way.

The two firms have tried to merge numerous times over the years, but personality clashes got in the way each time. This time was no different, though this was as close as they ever got to a deal. Newmont initiated the latest round of negotiations.

“They’re like two kids in the sandbox,” said John Ing, president and gold analyst at Maison Placements Canada. “The logic of the merger is there, but when you get down to board seats and personalities, it’s a different kettle of fish.”

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COMMENT: Newmont, Barrick talks dead -by Marilyn Scales (Canadian Mining Journal – April 28, 2014)

Marilyn Scales is a field editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication. She is one of Canada’s most senior mining commentators.

Even when a merger is no longer on the horizon, the two sides still disagree. Such is the case as Toronto’s Barrick Gold issued a terse press release this morning to say that talks of a merger with Newmont Mining of Denver have been terminated at Newmont’s request.

That might have been the end of it, but Newmont released the text of an April 25, 2014, letter from chairman Vincent A. Calarco to Barrick co-chair John L. Thornton. Newmont said it had been hopeful that the two companies could merge and realize their combined strengths. However, over recent weeks the talks had become adversarial rather than oriented toward a mutually beneficial partnership.

“Our board,” wrote Calarco, “has met a number of times since we were twice told definitively last Thursday by your co-chairman that the process in which we had been engaged to find a basis to merge our two companies was ‘dead’. As you would expect, that unilateral declaration made us question whether we actually shared the vision and values that are necessary to forge a successful new company.”

Unsaid, but understood, is that Newmont is pointing the finger at Thornton.

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Nearly 150-Year-Old [U.S.] Federal Mining Law Could Need Update (Jefferson Public Radio – April 28, 2014)

http://ijpr.org/

The federal legislation that regulates mining for copper, zinc, gold and many other minerals was originally signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant. In ways, the law reflects a 19th century view of natural resources: limitless and there for the taking.

Now, a legacy of pollution at tens of thousands of abandoned mines across the West is prompting an Oregon congressman to head a new effort to revise the General Mining Act of 1872.

Chris Cora of the Environmental Protection Agency stands on what used to be a mountaintop in the Umpqua River Basin of Southern Oregon. Now, it’s essentially a landfill “filled with waste rock and tailings,” Cora said. “There’s actually zinc ore in here. Well, it’s concentrated zinc, which is really bad for the environment,” he said.

The rubble in the area is what’s left after a mining operator blasted off the top of the mountain to get to deposits of copper and zinc. The company piled up the leftovers, covered them with plastic liner and soil, then abandoned the site. The liner soon failed.

Now, rainwater percolates down through the mining waste, picking up a toxic load of heavy metals and acid. Cora said that’s made the nearby creek uninhabitable for the region’s threatened coho salmon and other fish.

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Mining industry support firms congregate here – by Tony Davis (Arizona Daily Star – April 27, 2014)

http://azstarnet.com/

A growing phalanx of companies in Tucson and Southern Arizona service the mining industry.

Amigos, a statewide industry support group, counts its Southern Arizona membership at about 250 to 300 businesses. They employ a total of 25,000 to 30,000 people, says Bob Humphrey, an Amigos board member. The business count has grown from about 150 in 2003, due mainly to the rise in global copper prices from about $1.30 per pound back then to a little over $3 today.

The companies include engineering firms, environmental consultants, industrial distributors, equipment manufacturers, metal fabricators, dealers of Caterpillar construction equipment, systems suppliers, temporary employee firms, construction service firms, structural concrete and steel suppliers, construction services firms, mine planning and evaluation firms and many more.

While individual companies cite many reasons for locating here, chief among them is the large copper mine presence in the region, including Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold’s Sierrita Mine and Asarco’s Mission Mine south of Tucson; mines elsewhere in Arizona and in southern New Mexico; and a smelter in Hayden.

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Barrick chair Peter Munk blasts Newmont’s company culture as miners struggle to reach deal – by Peter Koven (National Post – April 25, 2014)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

TORONTO – Barrick Gold Corp. chairman Peter Munk levelled a pointed criticism of Newmont Mining Corp. on Thursday, saying he has struggled to strike a merger with his U.S. rival because the company is extremely bureaucratic and not shareholder-friendly.

Mr. Munk, 86, hoped to reach a deal to buy Newmont before he officially retires at Barrick’s annual meeting next month. But Toronto-based Barrick has been frustrated over years of negotiations by what he calls “cultural differences.”

He said that Newmont is an extremely conservative and risk-averse company, which makes negotiations very difficult. As one example, he pointed out that Newmont shut reporters out of its annual meeting this week after news of the talks leaked. He said Barrick would never consider doing that.

“That’s the cultural difference. That’s the kind of people they are, and that’s why it’s so difficult to make a deal,” he said in an interview. “They are not shareholder-friendly.” Even though they operate next to each other in Nevada, Barrick and Newmont are like oil and water.

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Barrick invites Newmont to restart merger talks – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – April 24, 2014)

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.

Barrick Gold Corp. has formally asked Newmont Mining Corp. to resume merger talks after their negotiations hit an impasse late last week, according to a person familiar with the situation.

The North American-based gold miners had come close to agreeing on an all-stock deal, but their discussions broke down over which assets to spin out from the combined company, other sources have said.

The companies had aimed to make an announcement before their annual shareholder meetings this month. Colorado-based Newmont held its meeting in Delaware Wednesday morning, and Toronto-headquartered Barrick’s meeting is scheduled for April 30.

Barrick e-mailed the request to restart talks to Newmont, outlining the terms of their friendly proposal as well as issues that still must be resolved, according to the source familiar with what transpired.

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Barrick’s Munk: Newmont Deal ’Always Made Sense’ (Bloomberg TV – April 23, 2014)

  http://www.bloomberg.com/tv/ April 23 (Bloomberg) — Peter Munk, founder and chairman of Barrick Gold Corp., talks about a possible merger with Newmont Mining Corp., gold prices, and Barrick’s acquisition of Equinox Minerals Ltd. Munk speaks with Erik Schatzker on Bloomberg Television’s “Market Makers.” (Source: Bloomberg)