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United States Mining

Support for Minnesota copper mines drops in poll – by John Myers (Duluth News Tribune – March 14, 2013)

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

Opponents of copper mining in Minnesota might be winning over more state residents, according to a new poll that shows more people oppose the new kind of mining here than support it.

Opponents of copper mining in Minnesota might be winning over more state residents, according to a new poll that shows more people oppose the new kind of mining here than support it.

The poll, paid for by the Minnesota Environmental Partnership and released Wednesday, found that 48 percent of state residents polled opposed copper mining while 39 percent favor the projects.

It’s the first time in five years the poll has been taken that more people opposed than supported copper mining. The coalition of 75 environmental groups conducts the survey annually to gauge public opinions on several key conservation issues.

The results show support for mining slipping from a high of 66 percent in 2009 to 62 percent in 2010, 52 percent in 2012 and 39 percent this year. Statewide, opposition increased from 19 percent in 2009 to 48 percent this year.

The telephone poll was conducted Jan. 6-8 by the team of California-based Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz and Associates along with Alexandria, Va.-based Public Opinion Strategies.

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Excerpt from “The History of Mining: The events, technology and people involved in the industry that forged the modern world” – by Michael Coulson

To order a copy of The History of Mining please click here: http://www.harriman-house.com/products/books/23161/business/Michael-Coulson/The-History-of-Mining/

WYOMING THE GIANT COAL PRODUCER

For most of its history the most important economic activity of the state of Wyoming has been farming and ranching, although coal was first discovered in the early 1800s and the first coal mined in 1859. Anthracite was the main coal product for many years. The coal seams of Wyoming, including those of the Powder River Basin, were formed from huge peat bogs that over millions of years have been compressed and altered to become coal. The first commercial mines in the state established in 1868 were at Carbon near Medicine Bow and nearby Rock Springs.

These were owned by Wyoming Coal and Mining which was taken over in 1874 by Union Pacific Railroad which already controlled the company as well as transporting the coal. By the turn of the century the mines had closed but not before severe labour disputes had led, as seems always the way in the coal mining industry, to tragedy. This came in the form of the 1885 massacre of low-wage Chinese miners by white miners at Rock Springs following a wages dispute with Union Pacific.

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NEWS RELEASE: Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. Announce Plans to Idle Wabush Pointe Noire Pellet Plant

March 11, 2013

CLEVELAND, March 11, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) (Paris: CLF) announced today that it expects to idle its Wabush Pointe Noire pellet plant within the city of Sept-Iles in Quebec by the end of the second quarter of 2013. The Company indicated that its decision to idle its iron ore pellet operation is due to high production costs and lower pellet premium pricing which is expected to persist in certain markets during the year.

“Due to the dynamics in the marketplace, we are taking measures to adjust our iron ore pellet production at our Wabush operation while continuing to meet our customer commitments,” said Joseph A. Carrabba, Cliffs’ chairman, president and chief executive officer. “Unfortunately this decision will impact approximately 165 employees. We understand this is a hardship for our employees and their families. During this transition, we will be working with them including exploring other opportunities at Cliffs.”

The Company’s current product mix in its Eastern Canadian Iron Ore business segment is comprised of iron ore pellets and concentrate. Cliffs expects to idle production at its Pointe Noire iron ore pellet plant and transition to producing an iron ore concentrate only product from its Wabush Scully mine in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador by the end of the second quarter in 2013.

“We are taking a long-term view of our investments in Canada. These measures address current market conditions and we look forward to advancing our work at Bloom Lake which is key to Cliffs’ future,” added Mr. Carrabba.

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[Wisconsin] Gov. Scott Walker signs iron ore mining bill – by Noah Goetzel (The Badger Herald – March 12, 2013)

http://badgerherald.com/

Gov. Scott Walker signed a controversial iron ore mining bill which streamlines the permit process into law Monday, more than a year after the legislation was first introduced.

The bill, supported solely by Republican legislators, will allow Gogebic Taconite LLC to create the largest open-pit iron ore mining operation in the world, according to a statement from the Wisconsin John Muir Chapter of the Sierra Club.

Walker said in a statement he was grateful to legislators statewide for moving forward a bill that will be deadline-oriented and environmentally friendly. He signed the legislation into law in Rhinelander and later in Milwaukee.

“Wisconsin’s seal and the state flag both depict mining in our great state,” Walker said. “In light of our mining tradition, I’m thrilled to sign legislation into law protecting environmental safeguards, while providing certainty to the mine permitting process.”

The governor added he is optimistic his endorsement of the bill will create thousands of private sector jobs in the future.

However, Sen. Bob Jauch, D-Poplar, criticized Walker in a statement for signing the bill at Oldenburg Group Company and P&H Mining Engineering manufacturing plants because both locations are more than 100 miles away from the proposed mining site.

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Documentary: Gold Mining: “South Dakota Saga” 1941 Homestake Mining Company


 

“Gold mining and the life of gold miners in South Dakota, as seen by the mining company.”

Public domain film from the Library of Congress Prelinger Archive, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and equalization.

Gold mining is the removal of gold from the ground. There are several techniques and processes by which gold may be extracted from the earth.

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Author mines copper’s history, complexities – by Gerald M. Gay (Arizona Daily Star – March 7, 2013)

http://azstarnet.com/

A startling discovery in Bill Carter’s backyard led the Arizona author to write his latest book, “Boom, Bust, Boom: A Story About Copper, the Metal that Runs the World.”

Carter lived in Bisbee for nearly a decade. He met his wife and they had two children in the former mining town, which sits nestled in the Mule Mountains, nine miles north of the Mexico border.

In his book, Carter notes a local saying that Bisbee is “100 miles and 100 years from Tucson” with evidence of its past found all over town.

“The big open pit was not far off from our house,” said Carter, who now lives in Flagstaff and who will sit on three panels at this weekend’s Tucson Festival of Books.

“If you live in Bisbee, you just kind of use it as a landmark. You stop thinking about its history. It’s just that thing down the road.”

It wasn’t until the corporation Freeport-McMoRan acquired Phelps Dodge, owners of the dormant mining operations in Bisbee, in 2007, that Carter began thinking about the remnants from the past that he couldn’t see.

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Finland ranked as #1 for global mining investment—Fraser Institute Survey – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – March 1, 2013)

http://www.mineweb.com/

742 mineral exploration and development companies surveyed by Vancouver’s Fraser Institute say Indonesia is the worst place to do business out of 96 global jurisdictions.

RENO (MINEWEB) – The mining and exploration companies who responded to 2012/2013 Fraser Institute’s Annual Survey of Mining Companies ranked Finland as the best place to do business, while Indonesia was deemed the worst place for mining and exploration companies.

Along with Finland, the top 10-ranked jurisdictions are Sweden, Alberta, New Brunswick, Wyoming, Ireland, Nevada, Yukon, and Norway. All were in the top 10 last year except for Utah and Norway.

The 10 least attractive jurisdictions for investment are (starting with the worst) Indonesia, Vietnam, DRC (Congo), Kyrgyzstan, Zimbabwe, Bolivia, Guatemala, Philippines, and Greece. All of these jurisdictions except DRC Congo, Greece and Zimbabwe were in the bottom 10 last year.

The jurisdiction deemed to have the best current mineral potential assuming current regulations and land use restrictions is Greenland, followed by Finland, Sweden, Nevada and Saskatchewan. The worst is Bolivia.

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Barrick’s Golden Sunlight mine pursues clean-up of historic mines (Beyond Borders – January 2013)

Click Here For: Barrick Gold Beyond Borders

RESPONSIBLE MINING AT BARRICK GOLD CORPORATION

Barrick’s Golden Sunlight mine is spearheading an ambitious project to clean up environmental contamination at historic mine sites in Montana that will save the state and federal taxpayers millions of dollars.

Montana’s long history of mining, much of which pre-dates modern mining and environmental regulation, left a collection of improperly closed tailings impoundments and waste-rock piles that require clean-up. With taxpayers on the hook for the costs, Barrick found a creative solution.

In particular, while Montana’s historic tailings impoundments and waste-rock piles contain metals that can harm the environment, they also contain gold that can be extracted profitably at today’s prices. Barrick’s Golden Sunlight mine offered to re-process and store this material in its modern facilities, obviating the need for taxpayer-funded clean-ups.

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Excerpt from “The History of Mining: The events, technology and people involved in the industry that forged the modern world” – by Michael Coulson

To order a copy of The History of Mining please click here: http://www.harriman-house.com/products/books/23161/business/Michael-Coulson/The-History-of-Mining/

DANIEL GUGGENHEIM (1856-1930) MINING EMPIRE

These days the name Guggenheim is synonymous with the world of modern art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York. However in the 19th and the early 20th centuries the Guggenheims were better known as the most powerful force in US mining, having built a mining empire in both North and South America.

A Jewish immigrant from Switzerland, Meyer Guggenheim started his business career in the US in manufacturing and then in importing fine lace from Switzerland. He invested some of the gains from his importing business in silver and lead mines at Leadville, Colorado. In 1884, encouraged by the success of his Leadville investment, and of the rapid industrialisation of the US, he closed the lace business to concentrate on mining interests and founded Philadelphia Smelting and Refining to treat his Leadville mining output.

At that time he was almost 60 and his eldest son, Daniel, one of eleven children, who had worked for the Swiss end of the family’s importing business, took up the reins, and progressively became the driving force behind the family’s mining strategy. Daniel was educated at a Catholic high school in Philadelphia and by-passed university to enter the family business and was supported by five of his six brothers.

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Rio Tinto delays [U.S. Eagle nickel mine] production because of falling market prices – by John Pepin (The Mining Journal – February 20, 2013)

http://www.miningjournal.net/

HUMBOLDT – Rio Tinto officials said Tuesday they plan to shift first production of nickel and copper at the company’s Eagle Mine and Humboldt Mill to the second half of 2014.

Rio Tinto spokesman Dan Blondeau said Tuesday an aggressive construction season had been planned for this year and production was initially slated for early to mid-2014, but the decision has now been made to “moderate” the pace of construction in response to “economic headwinds” and volatility in commodities markets.

“We’re not the only ones going through this tightened schedule, it’s across the industry,” Blondeau said. “Everyone is taking a more disciplined approach in where they’re spending their money and where they’re getting their capital.”

Construction at the mine is 80 percent complete, with the project overall – including the Humboldt Mill – about half done. “A lot of work this coming year was going to be at the mill,” Blondeau said. Any current construction work will be completed, but new construction will be rescheduled.

Blondeau said a primary objective will be to minimize any impacts of the new schedule to company staff. Even with the decreased construction efforts, Rio Tinto will continue to spend about $10 million each month on the mine and mill projects.

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Cliffs Natural posts loss after writedown, cuts payout – Staff (Reuters.com – February 12, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – Cliffs Natural Resources Inc (CLF.N) reported a quarterly loss on Tuesday, dragged down by a writedown in the value of a Canadian acquisition, higher costs and lower iron ore prices, prompting the miner to slash its dividend by 76 percent.

Shares of the Cleveland-based producer of iron ore and metallurgical coal dropped 7.5 percent to $33.86 in after-market trading. The writedown was announced previously, but the dividend cut was a surprise.

The reduced payout was a sharp reversal from last March, when Cliffs more than doubled its payout and pledged to focus on boosting shareholder returns. The business also felt the impact of a sharp drop in iron ore prices, which plunged to $86.70 a tonne, in September from more than $180 a tonne in September 2011.

That partly reflected on falling demand from China, the world’s largest producer and consumer of steel. Benchmark 62-percent grade iron ore .IO62-CNI=SI has since recovered to about $155 a tonne.

“In their Canadian operations, which is really their platform for future growth, it cost on a cash basis $117 a tonne and they sold each ton at $101,” said Morningstar analyst Daniel Rohr. “So when your main growth area is turning in those kind of numbers, it’s not so hot.”

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UMD report underscores value of iron ore mining, potential for copper – by John Myers (Duluth News Tribune – February 7, 2013)

 http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

Iron ore mining in Minnesota has a $3.2 billion annual impact on the state’s economy, according to a new University of Minnesota Duluth study, but that’s only half the story if copper mining begins as expected.

Iron ore mining in Minnesota has a $3.2 billion annual impact on the state’s economy, according to a new University of Minnesota Duluth study, but that’s only half the story if copper mining begins as expected.

The study, released Wednesday by UMD’s Labovitz School of Business and Economics, found that the existing iron ore industry — mining, processing and shipping taconite — pumped $3.2 billion into the state economy in 2010 and was responsible for 11,500 jobs.

But if the wave of new copper mines and expansion of traditional taconite mining planned in Northeastern Minnesota come to fruition, those numbers would more than double to $7.7 billion and 27,000 jobs, the study concluded.

Those numbers don’t include temporary construction jobs to build the projects like the proposed PolyMet open-pit copper mine near Hoyt Lakes, the massive underground Twin Metals mine proposed near Ely and the new Essar Steel taconite plant under construction in Nashwauk, among other projects on the books.

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Carlin Trend Co-Discoverer Livermore dead at 94 – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – February 8, 2013)

http://www.mineweb.com/

Prospector, geologist, rancher and public resource advocate John Sealy Livermore was the last surviving member of three men considered the fathers of the Carlin Trend and “invisible gold” deposits.

RENO (MINEWEB) – John Livermore–the legendary American geologist who believed new gold mines could be developed from “invisible gold”—died in his sleep in his own bed Thursday after a short bout with cancer.

Guided by the ideas of U.S. Geological Survey geologist Ralph J. Roberts, Livermore and fellow Newmont geologist Alan Coope in October 1961 staked the claims that would become of one of world’s richest gold regions—the Carlin Trend. Livermore and Coope’s discovery was believed to contain 4 million ounces of gold. The entire Carlin Trend has produced well over 50 million ounces of gold.

Livermore remained with Newmont until 1970 when he returned to Nevada to form Cordex exploration. By 1970, only one other gold mine had been discovered in Nevada, the Cortez operation. However, Livermore felt a return to basic prospecting might lead to other economic gold discoveries.

He hired mining engineer Whit “Dee” DeLaMare, whose work led to the discovery of the Pinson, Preble, Sterling and Dee gold mines, as well as the development of the Getchell Trend. The Pinson Mine discovery enabled Cordex to get its capital investment back in 13 months, Livermore recalled in an oral history.

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The U.S. National Mining Hall of Fame & Museum Profile: John S. Livermore – Co-Discoverer of the Nevada Carlin Trend)

 The U.S. National Mining Hall of Fame & Museum – located in the famous 1880’s silver mining boomtown of Leadville, Colorado – is a monument to the memory of the men and women who pioneered the discovery, development and processing of our nation’s natural resources. http://www.mininghalloffame.org/

John S. Livermore, an exploration geologist working for Newmont, provided the drive that led to the 1961 discovery of the Carlin Mine in northern Nevada. Carlin became the first large gold mine on what is now known as the Carlin Trend. John subsequently played an energizing role in exploration that has established northern Nevada as one of the world’s premier gold districts.

Carlin-type deposits are characterized by extremely fine-grained gold — gold that cannot be seen by the human eye nor concentrated by panning. Nevertheless, several small Carlin-type deposits were discovered in northern Nevada and worked as mines prior to the discovery of the Carlin orebody. John Livermore examined one such deposit at the Standard Mine near Lovelock, Nevada in the late 1940s and believed that other, possibly richer, fine-grained deposits remained to be found. Where to look was an open question.

Ralph Roberts, a field geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, provided the answer in a short paper, “Alignment of Mining Districts in North-Central Nevada,” which came to John Livermore’s attention in early 1961. Roberts pointed out that known deposits were associated with windows in the (coincidentally named) Roberts Mountain thrust fault — windows where older, over-riding rocks from the west had been eroded to expose younger rocks below.

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Does reality TV’s gold boom suggest an end to soaring prices? – by Colin Campbell (Maclean’s Magazine – February 5, 2013)

http://www2.macleans.ca/

Gold Rush fans may not want to change the channel just yet

Reality television’s latest obsession is gold. Jungle Gold, Gold Rush, Bering Sea Gold and Gold Fever are all shows documenting miners’ efforts to dig up flakes of the precious metal worth $1,700 an ounce. The last time TV was so caught up in a trend it was in the house-flipping genre (Flip This House, Flip That House), which seemed to hit its peak just before the U.S. housing market crashed. Is there a similar warning sign in the TV gold boom? Does all the mainstream fascination with gold suggest an overinflated interest and price?

Some analysts on Wall Street, at least, seem to think gold’s wild ride may be nearing its end. This week, Morgan Stanley lowered its gold-price forecast for the year by four per cent, to $1,773. Late last year, Goldman Sachs cut its target price for 2013 to $1,800 an ounce from $1,940, citing an improving U.S. economy. “The risk-reward of holding a long gold position is diminishing,” it said.

Gold is the ultimate safe-haven investment and has enjoyed an incredible rise in recent years. A decade ago, gold was worth little more than $300 an ounce. Since 2000, it has gone up every year for 12 years (a record) and in each of the three years after the 2008 crash, gold prices peaked to hit record highs. That gold might be finally losing some of its shine suggests fear of riskier investments may be ebbing. The S&P 500 index last week, for instance, cracked the 1,500 mark for the first time since 2007.

Not everyone is convinced the gold rush is finished just yet. Morgan Stanley said that despite its price cut, it still remains “bullish on the gold-price outlook,” citing an ongoing commitment in the U.S. to low interest rates and government stimulus spending in the face of “a below-par recovery.” Many central banks are also still buying gold. As Goldman admits, “calling the peak in gold prices is a difficult exercise.”

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