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Our view: ‘Eyes wide open’ on metals mining – Duluth News Tribune Editorial (June 19, 2013)

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

A guest speaker in Duluth yesterday long has been a dark cloud over any prediction of economic benefit related to the coming mining of precious metals in northern Minnesota.

A guest speaker in Duluth yesterday long has been a dark cloud over any prediction of economic benefit related to the coming mining of precious metals in northern Minnesota. And he was brought here by Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, a Minneapolis-based anti-mining nonprofit.

So the expectation, naturally, was for a mining-is-evil message. And that’s just what Thomas Power, a Princeton-educated economics professor of 40 years at the University of Montana, delivered. But at least he did so with a history lesson rather than with half-truth propaganda or with picket-sign catch phrases that too often have been the weak tools of the doom-and-gloom, anti-mining crowd.

“My message is to go in with eyes wide open,” Power told the News Tribune Opinion page before speaking over the lunch hour Tuesday at Clyde Iron. “I’ve been doing economic research and teaching courses on Montana’s and on the western states’ economies for 45 years. … It wasn’t possible to study the Montana economy without paying attention to the mining part of it.”

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Copper mining economics questioned by Montana economist – by John Myers (Duluth News Tribune – June 19, 2013)

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

University of Minnesota Duluth geologists call it the largest untapped copper-nickel deposit in the world, with millions of tons of valuable metals worth billions of dollars sitting in the Duluth complex of rock under Minnesota’s Arrowhead.

University of Minnesota Duluth geologists call it the largest untapped copper-nickel deposit in the world, with millions of tons of valuable metals worth billions of dollars sitting in the Duluth complex of rock under Minnesota’s Arrowhead.

Supporters and economic reports point to hundreds of new mining jobs if Minnesota’s first-ever copper mines become a reality, along with spinoff employment, huge payrolls and millions in taxes and royalties paid. Mining, already one of Northeastern Minnesota’s largest industries thanks to taconite iron ore, has the potential to become even bigger with copper, nickel, palladium, platinum and gold.

But Thomas Power, former chairman of the University of Montana’s economics department, warned Northland residents Tuesday to be careful in the rush into copper.

At a Duluth lunch forum sponsored by the Friends of the Boundary Waters environmental group, the professor said mining’s economic costs are often overlooked in the luster of a promised boom time. He said many economic reports released around proposed mining projects are ripe with benefits but fail to address costs. That should cause economists, and the public, to bristle, he said.

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Minnesota’s next mining boom has picturesque Ely divided – by Josephine Marcotty (Minneapolis Star Tribune – June 16, 2013)

http://www.startribune.com/

ELY, Minn. – Every year Randy Stender and his family spend Memorial Day weekend at Birch Lake Campground, a tradition that ties him to the wild, unspoiled lands here on the edge of the Iron Range where he grew up. There was a time, he says, when he and his wife would have moved back — if there had been a job like the one his father once had at Reserve Mining.

So when he heard that Birch Lake’s shoreline could become the site of one of the largest copper mines in the country, he immediately grasped the conflict gripping this charming tourist town and spreading across Minnesota. “That’s the catch,” he said, opening his arms wide to the lake that shimmered in the morning light. “Because I kind of like it like this.”

The prospect of a massive new mining industry here is igniting long-simmering tensions — between those who long for the surge in prosperity it could bring and those who say it threatens the splendor of the North Woods and the tourism that relies on it.

At least a dozen companies are exploring for copper, nickel, gold and other precious metals in a vast geological formation called the Duluth complex, which stretches from Tamarack, Minn., to the nearby Kawishiwi River that feeds the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Company officials say hard-rock mining can — and will — be done safely, while creating thousands of jobs and spawning a new industry that could someday dwarf the state’s taconite and frac sand mining operations.

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After 10 years of effort, Rio Tinto clips Eagle Project’s wings – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – June 13, 2013)

http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/

The controversial Kennecott nickel-copper mine destined to usher in a new mining era and more jobs for Michigan’s economically hard hit Upper Peninsula is being sold.

RENO (MINEWEB) – After more than a decade spent studying, permitting and developing the first U.S. primary nickel mine to be built in years, Rio Tinto has decided to sell Kennecott’s Eagle Mine to Lundin Mining for US$325 million in cash.

Since Rio Tinto announced in 2010 that it would invest US$469 million in the development of the Eagle Mine, which was supposed to become the biggest nickel mine in the country, the $325 million-price tag at first appears to be a bargain for Lundin.

Nevertheless, in addition to the total acquisition price of $325 million, remaining investment of Lundin Mining for the balance of 2013 and 3014 to bring the Eagle Mine into production is estimated at $400 million.

Located northwest of Marquette, in the historic mining region of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Eagle was to be the first new mining operation to be built in Michigan in years. The “world class” underground nickel-copper mine was also supposed to boost the fortunes of an economically hard-hit region with 500 construction and 220 mining jobs. Rio Tinto had pledged to give 75% of those jobs to local residents.

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Wyoming govenor to talk coal exports on trip to Canada – by Bob Moen (Associated Press/Seattle Times – June 11, 2013)

http://seattletimes.com/html/home/index.html

Looking for ways to export coal mined in Wyoming, Gov. Matt Mead said he will tour port facilities in British Columbia as part of a weeklong trade trip to Canada.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Looking for ways to export coal mined in Wyoming, Gov. Matt Mead said he will tour port facilities in British Columbia as part of a weeklong trade trip to Canada.

Mead will meet with provincial leaders and talk to coal and rail representatives during the visit beginning on Wednesday.

Wyoming is the nation’s leading coal-producing state, but state officials are concerned about falling domestic demand as a result of global warming concerns and new federal regulations on coal-burning power plants.

Some see the need for more power generation by growing Asian economies as an ideal market for U.S. coal producers. But sending coal overseas requires West Coast ports.

Mining companies want to ship coal through ports in Oregon and Washington. However, opponents of coal trains in that region have raised concerns about dust, congestion and climate change.

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Canadian Company: EPA is Evil, Let Us Create Giant Alaska Mine – by Hal Herring (Field and Stream – June 10, 2013)

http://www.fieldandstream.com/

There is nothing like a good anti-federal-government advertising campaign to rally support for, well, almost anything. In this time of Internal Revenue Service scandals and accusations that the Environmental Protection Agency has charged so-called “conservative” groups for Freedom of Information Act requests that they handed over to environmental groups for free, the time was ripe for a smart advertising professional to tap in to the zeitgeist and try, yet again, to sell a highly skeptical American public on the Pebble Project—a huge proposed gold and copper mine proposed by two foreign mining corporations to be built on public lands in the headwaters of Bristol Bay, Alaska.

On June 4, Northern Dynasty Minerals, Limited, a Vancouver, Canada-based corporation that owns 50 percent of the Pebble Project, ran an ad in the Washington Post and on various political websites that demands an end to what it calls EPA’s “black box bias” against the mine. The ad also claims that the EPA is manipulating public opinion and denying science in response the results of the EPA’s 14 month-long comprehensive Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment (BBWA) show that the Pebble Project does indeed threaten the greatest salmon fishery on earth (a $500 million industry annually) and the estimated 14,000 jobs that depend upon it, thus industrializing one of America’s wildest and most pristine expanses of public land, which would forever change the culture and economy of the 7,500 people, mostly Native Americans, who now call it home.

I’m not sure what the Canadian mining executives thought the report should have said. Perhaps that Pebble Project would build the first road, first power-generating facility, and first deep-water port in the region to open up mining on tens of thousands of acres of public land in the trackless headwaters of the Nushagak and Kvichak Rivers.

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Civil War Pretty Much Declared in Ely over [Minnesota Twin Metals] Sulfide Mining – by Bill Hanna Executive Editor (Mesabi Daily News – June 8, 2013)

http://www.virginiamn.com/

ELY — A well-known self-described “612-er” pretty much issued a declaration of civil war in Ely over copper/nickel/precious metals mining on a cloudy and misty Saturday afternoon a week ago.

In combative remarks during an event to officially open the “Sustainable Ely” storefront in a house on the city’s main drag of Sheridan Street, former WCCO Twin Cities TV reporter/personality Don Shelby issued some marching orders directed against the proposed Twin Metals Minnesota nonferrous project near Ely and Babbitt.

Meanwhile, Twin Metals continues its work and involvement in the community, with one of its headquarters in Ely, while planning and setting the stage for a major project that will create more than 1,000 long-term jobs.

A group of more than 100 anti-sulfide mining supporters packed inside the house’s lower level were more than receptive to his comments, nodding in agreement and clapping in support. They embraced the hard-line message, many of them with stern facial expressions.

Shelby, who is also a board member of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, which is headquartered in St. Paul, told the faithful that they won’t have to just fight the mining companies over proposed nonferrous projects in the area.

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Environment assessment for Alaska’s Pebble mine ‘theatre of the absurd’ – Northern Dynasty- by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – June 5, 2013)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Dual-listed project developer Northern Dynasty Minerals has filed a 205-page submission with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in response to its call for public comments on the revised draft Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment (BBWA), calling the draft report and the process used to complete it “biased, manipulative and contrary to the EPA’s own guidelines”.

Northern Dynasty president and CEO Ronald Thiessen said the 2013 draft BBWA, released in April, suffers from the same significant shortcomings as the original report published in May 2012 – in particular, that the EPA continued to assess the environmental effects of a hypothetical mine of its own invention, one that did not employ modern engineering standards, environmental safeguards or project-specific mitigation measures and could not be permitted under US or Alaska law.

Despite the fact that the EPA’s “hypothetical mine” was sited at the location of the Pebble deposit, Northern Dynasty believed the BBWA authors continued to refuse to consider the most extensive scientific data set available on the region – environmental baseline data collected by the Pebble Limited Partnership (PLP) at a cost of about $150-million.

Northern Dynasty said the EPA’s failure to fully consider the PLP’s environmental data was contrary to its own guidelines for data quality and was compounded by the fact that the BBWA study authors had never set foot on the Pebble project site.

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The fastest-growing coal-producing region in the USA – by John Chadwick (Publisher/International Mining – June 2013)

http://www.im-mining.com/

While coal in the USA is generally a story of falling output, the Illinois Basin – which covers southern Illinois, Indiana and west Kentucky – is bucking that trend. Production across the nation fell 7% in 2012, compared with 2011, with the biggest falls in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin (PRB), and Central Appalachia; but Illinois Basin output was up 10%.

It is this coal’s high sulphur content that resulted in it being largely ignored over recent years, in favour of coal that is more expensive to mine in fields to the east.

However, with power generators equipping facilities with scrubbers that sulphur content is no longer a problem. And producers can save money from Illinois Basin coal that costs something like half that of Central Appalachia to produce.

Characterised by high BTU, mid-range sulphur, moderate ash and low moisture content coal, 2012 output declined an estimated 63.5 Mt, led by an 18% decrease in Central Appalachia. PRB production declined 8%, while the Illinois Basin
rose 11%.

According to the USGS, the area of coalbearing rocks in the Illinois Basin comprises 95,312 km2 in Illinois, 16,835 km2 in southwest Indiana, and 16,576 km2 in western Kentucky.

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Copper-nickel mining divides Ely [Minnesota] residents – by Dan Kraker (Minnesota Public Radio – May 31, 2013)

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/features/

ELY, Minn. — The polarizing divide over the future of mining around Ely will be on display this weekend, when an anti-mining group opens shop on Sheridan Street, the canoeing mecca’s main drag.

Workers in the new center, dubbed “Sustainable Ely,” will encourage tourists to take action urging President Barack Obama to protect the region’s environment from copper-nickel mining. They also want people to urge Gov. Mark Dayton’s administration to expand a mining protection zone around the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

Down the street from tourist shops like Mostly Moose and Loony’s Northwoods Emporium, the new center houses a shiny Wenonah canoe dotted with several signatures scrawled in black marker. Anti-mining activists aim to gather thousands more.

“We hope to portage this down the mall in Washington, D.C., and present it to President Obama, and ask him to protect the Boundary Waters watershed from sulfide ore mining,” said Becky Rom, a retired attorney who is among nearly 100 contributors to the center.

Although the center’s organizers see mining as a major environmental threat, many in town believe it copper-nickel mining can be done safely and jumpstart the region’s economy.

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Pebble Mine could spark economic transformation in SW Alaska – CEO – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – May 31, 2013)

http://www.mineweb.com/

The Pebble Project’s estimated $1 billion in annual operating costs “could define a new economic engine for Alaska,” says a new report commissioned by the Pebble Limited Partnership.

RENO (MINEWEB) – A study by economic analysis firm IHS Global Insight advises that development of the Pebble copper deposit “could have significant economic impacts” for the state of Alaska including $136 million to $180 million in yearly taxes and royalties, and support more than 16,000 jobs nationwide during construction including nearly 5,000 jobs in Alaska.

The study, which was commissioned by the Pebble Limited Partnership estimates that Pebble-related jobs could pay an average annual wage of $63,500 per year. “Once the mine is constructed, it could provide approximately 2,900 operating jobs, of which 915 will be at the mine,” said IHS Global Insight. Pebble workers on-site could earn approximately $109,500 per year on average with about 75% of the workers expected to be Alaska residents.

“The Pebble Limited Partnership has the potential to develop one of the most significant discoveries of copper, molybdenum, gold and silver in the world,” said the report.

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Minnesota lawmakers raise taconite tax to help pay for Iron Range school construction – by John Myers (Duluth News Tribune – May 24, 2013)

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

Minnesota’s per-ton tax on taconite iron ore produced in the state will increase a dime this year, and the extra money will be dedicated to help rebuild and retool Iron Range schools.

The taconite provision was included in the 2013 Legislature’s final omnibus tax bill, which Gov. Mark Dayton signed into law Thursday.

The per-ton tax on taconite will increase to $2.56. Half the increase is part of an annual inflationary increase — this year, about 5.3 cents per ton produced. But there’s also an additional increase of a nickel per ton.

“We’re capturing that 10.3 cents to build and rebuild facilities for schools within the taconite tax relief area,” said state Rep. Tom Anzelc, DFL-Balsam Township, who served on the House Tax Committee and helped craft the taconite tax changes. “It’s something that’s long overdue and the school districts simply can’t handle on their own.”

That money will be made available for school construction and improvement projects through bonds issued by the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board. The extra money for school construction projects won’t affect other recipients of taconite tax revenue, such as homeowners, counties, towns and city governments and the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board. They all should get about the same amount as last year out of the taconite tax pool.

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Rio Tinto reports at [Eagle] mine forum – by Stephen Anderson ([Michigan] Daily Mining Gazette – May 16, 2013)

http://www.mininggazette.com/

L’ANSE – Rio Tinto representatives provided an update on the Eagle Mine, collected live electronic survey results through a community scorecard and fielded an array of questions and comments during a mining forum Wednesday night at the L’Anse American Legion Post 144.

Mine update

Matt Johnson, manager of external relations at Rio Tinto Eagle, gave a brief historical recap of the mine, starting with explorations dating back to the 1950s, the discovery of the ore body in 2002, the permit application and finalization in 2008 and 2010, respectively, and the start of underground drilling in 2011.

“We do have a goal of being in production in 2014,” he said. “A few months ago we announced a moderated schedule, so we pushed our schedule back. (Work on the Humboldt Mill) has been postponed for the time being.”

Production was originally slated to start in early 2014; now it’ll likely be toward the end of that year, but that’s not the only reason the life of the mine will extend farther.

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US House Resources Committee approves rare earths/critical minerals bills – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – May 16, 2013)

 http://www.mineweb.com/

The National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act and the National Strategic and Critical Minerals Policy Act are now headed to a vote of the U.S. House of Representations.

RENO (MINEWEB) – The House Natural Resources Committee Wednesday approved two bills aimed at the development of rare earths and critical minerals in the United States.

Approved on a 24-17 committee vote, the National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act of 2013 (H.R. 761) requires the Secretaries of Interior and Agriculture to more efficiently develop domestic resources of the minerals and mineral materials of strategic and critical importance to United States economic and natural security and manufacturing competitiveness.

The chief sponsor of the bill, Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nevada, seeks to limit the length of delays to permit new mining projects. The measure sets time limits for the permit review process, including a maximum of 30 months for the total review process.

The bill also stipulates that the lead agency is not required to address agency or public comments that were not submitted during the public comments period required by law or provided by the lead agency.

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The Canary in the Copper Mine (is dead) – by Laura Paskus (Santa Fe Reporter – May 14, 2013)

http://www.sfreporter.com/santafe/

How New Mexico’s copper industry wrote its own rules

Close your eyes, and picture a radical. Bill Olson is not that guy. With a neat brown beard and a fondness for western shirts and jackets, even the occasional bolo tie, he’s the quintessential water nerd. When asked, over coffee and a blueberry scone, to talk about groundwater, he actually grins. Delightedly.

In short, he’s not exactly the person you’d expect to find at the center of a controversy over New Mexico’s environmental rules. And yet, here he is.

Olson is a former bureau chief at the New Mexico Environment Department, which regulates how industry impacts the state’s natural resources. Specifically, he has worked to keep groundwater—the underground aquifers that provide most of New Mexico’s drinking water—from becoming contaminated.

“I’m passionate about groundwater and protection issues,” he says. “It’s something that’s important to me.” It’s early May, and the state has just wrapped up a few grueling weeks’ worth of hearings about a new water pollution rule for copper mines.

To industry, the new rule represents the chance to profit and create jobs in New Mexico. Others see it as an abdication of the state’s responsibility to protect groundwater—and a move to hand over the public’s water to private companies.

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