United States Mining – Page 136

SEC conflict minerals rule foot-dragging a nightmare-GAO – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – July 24, 2012)

July 24, 2012

www.mineweb.com

The longer the SEC delays adoption of a final conflict minerals rule, the worse the situation becomes for global manufacturers voluntarily trying to keep conflict minerals out of supply chains.

RENO (MINEWEB) – A performance audit by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) has found the continued delay of the SEC to issue a final conflict minerals rule has contributed to “a lingering uncertainty among industry and other stakeholders” who have tried to implement voluntary conflict minerals supply chain initiatives.

In a recent report to the U.S. Congress, the GAO noted “the uncertainty regarding SEC’s reporting and due diligence requirements” has complicated the efforts of industry associations, multilateral organizations, and others who have developed global and in-region sourcing initiatives to help companies comply with future rules regarding conflict minerals.

Congress has pressured the SEC on two fronts to adopt rules relating to conflict minerals and resource extraction. In a June 22 letter to the SEC, 58 members of Congress urged the commission to implement Sections 1502 and 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which require public companies to make disclosures relating to the use of conflict minerals and payments made for mining of resources.

Mining Boom in Great Lakes States Prompts Environmental Concern – by Jim Malewitz (Stateline/Pew Centre – May 24, 2012)

June 20, 2012

Stateline is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news service of the Pew Center on the States that provides daily reporting and analysis on trends in state policy. http://www.pewstates.org/projects/stateline

BIG BAY, Michigan – For thousands of years, the Salmon Trout River held fast to a deep secret, as its pristine waters flowed into Lake Superior. Below the river’s headwaters, and hidden underneath 1,000 feet of sand, clay and rock, lie 4.1 million metric tons of ore speckled with valuable metals — primarily nickel and copper — a deposit that’s valued at as much as $5 billion.

The treasure is no longer a secret here on the Yellow Dog Plains, a region of Michigan’s Western Upper Peninsula marked by large swaths of untouched lands. The staccato of the hydraulic drill now overpowers the sound made by birds flying overhead, and trucks kick up dust where trees once stood. “I see something new every time I come here,” says Catherine Parker, noting a yellow electrical cord stretching across the ground, seemingly without end. The winding dirt road she drives is now bordered by a path of utility lines recently installed. It’s an addition that Parker, who doesn’t own a cell phone, says ruins the aesthetic.

Kennecott Minerals, a local subsidiary of the London-based mining giant, Rio Tinto, discovered the deposit about a decade ago. The company, which owns at least 400,000 of acres of mineral rights on the peninsula, is nearing completion of the nearly $500 million Eagle Mine, set to become the first primary nickel mine in the United States.

[Duluth Metals Ltd.] Company boosts projections for mine near Ely, Minnesota – by Associated Press (Canadian Business Magazine – June 13, 2012)

June 19, 2013June 14, 2012

Founded in 1928, Canadian Business is the longest-publishing business magazine in Canada.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — New data suggest that a proposed mine near Ely contains one of the world’s largest deposits of copper, nickel and precious metals, along with some of the largest platinum and palladium resources outside South Africa, the company planning the mine told analysts Wednesday.

Duluth Metals Ltd., the Canadian-based parent of Twin Metals Minnesota LLC, significantly boosted its estimates of what could be pulled from the mine based on the data projections, which are measured two ways.

The company said the site has “indicated resources” of 8 billion pounds of copper, 2.5 billion pounds of nickel and 12.1 million ounces of palladium, platinum and gold. The company is highly confident in those estimates because they are based on samples taken from a high number of drill sites.

Duluth Metals separately projects “inferred resources” of 13.5 billion pounds of copper, 4.6 billion pounds of nickel and 15.8 million ounces of precious metals. Those estimates are less certain because they’re based on fewer bore holes.

[Minnesota] Ely copper deposit estimate doubles – by John Myers (Duluth News Tribune – June 14, 2012)

June 19, 2013June 14, 2012

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

Already reported as the world’s largest untapped deposit of copper, the Twin Metals mine exploration area near Ely contains even more copper, nickel, platinum and other valuable metals than previously estimated, the mine’s parent company said Wednesday.

Toronto-based Duluth Metals released an updated resource estimate that’s double its 2009 estimate, though the new findings aren’t likely to change the already developing plans for Twin Metals mining operations.

Data gathered from exploratory drill sites, including 170 new drill core samples reviewed in the past nine months, indicate a staggering 8 billion pounds of copper, 2.5 billion pounds of nickel and 12 million ounces of palladium, platinum and gold underground at the site along Highway 1 near the Kawishiwi River.

New report confirms enormous potential of Duluth base metals/pgm/gold resource – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – June 14, 2012)

June 19, 2013June 14, 2012

www.mineweb.com

A new independent technical report from AMEC confirms the vast tonnages and economic grades in the Duluth Metals/Antofagasta Twin Metals base and precious metals project in Minnesota.

LONDON (MINEWEB) – We have always been very aware of the enormous potential of the ground held by Duluth Metals in eastern Minnesota on the edge of the old iron range which contains literally many billions of tons of complex ore grade material with significant copper, nickel, platinum group metals and gold content.

It has to be one of the world’s great mineral deposits – the major problems are permitting and finding the funding to mine it – neither necessarily an easy task nowadays, although one suspects the funding may be the easier of the two given that Duluth has brought in a base metals mining major, Antofagasta, to help it develop and mine a significant part of the resource under the Twin Metals jv (60% Duluth and 40% Antofagasta) banner.

On the permitting front there is bound to be considerable opposition to mine development there from environmentalists given it borders on the Boundary Waters recreational area. However Twin Metals reckons it can meet the environmentalists’ concerns using modern mining standards, mining the deposit underground to reduce the surface impact and use brownfield sites from old iron range operations to locate some of the key surface facilities.

Homestake [South Dakota gold mine] grand dame’s body donated to science – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – May 31, 2012)

May 31, 2012

www.mineweb.com

One of the ultimate examples of the sustainability of mines-the nation’s first deep underground science lab-was formally unveiled deep in the caverns of the former Homestake gold mine.

RENO (MINEWEB) – Nearly five years ago Mineweb told readers about plans to transform the former grand dame of U.S. gold mining, the Homestake gold mine in Lead, South Dakota, into the nation’s first national deep underground science laboratory.

On Wednesday, South Dakota’s Sanford Underground Research facility formally unveiled the new 4,850-foot deep Davis campus, which will seek to unravel the mystery of dark matter, and also search for a rare form of radioactive decay.

The Large Underground Xenon Dark Matter Search Experiment or LUX experiment, considered the world’s most sensitive and largest dark-matter detector–is the culmination of the work of 70 scientists and 14 institutions over the past four years.

LUX physicist Simon Fiorucci told a local TV station, “There is a lot of mass that does not emit light that we cannot account for.”

‘Mining Truth initiative’ wants to ‘educate’ Minnesotans about mining – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – May 24, 2012)

June 19, 2013May 24, 2012

www.mineweb.com

Minnesota environmental special interests say their latest initiative aims to engage all Minnesotans, including miners, “in a respectful, open, fact based dialogue” about sulfide mining.

RENO (MINEWEB) – A coalition of three environmental organizations Wednesday announced it has launched a statewide sulfide mining initiative in Minnesota. Two mining companies, PolyMet and Twin Metals, are developing two mines in Minnesota’s lake country.

“Today, there is little awareness about sulfide mining-it’s very different from the iron ore mining that is more familiar to Minnesotans,” said Paul Danicic, executive director of Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness and founding member of the initiative Mining Truth. “This is a complex issue with long-term economic and environmental implications. We need a broad conversation about this.”

“The evidence shows there is reason to be cautious about effects on our lakes, rivers and groundwater, but we also recognize that the immediate need for jobs in Northern Minnesota is real,” said Paul Austin, executive director of Conservation Minnesota and founding member of Mining Truth.

The cost of moving Alaska’s Pebble mining project forward – by Marilyn Scales (Canadian Mining Journal – May 15, 2012)

May 4, 2015May 16, 2012

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.

I know an engineer who says anything is possible if you throw enough money at it. The costs associated with the development of the Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum project in Alaska come to mind when thinking in this vein.

The Pebble Partnership, a joint venture of Vancouver’s Northern Dynasty Minerals and Anglo American plc of London, UK, is shepherding the US$5-billion project toward production. The deposit is estimated to contain 80.6 billion lb of copper, 107.4 million oz of gold, and 5.6 billion lb of molybdenum.

Pebble is a deposit worth going after even if it takes and investment of $400 million and more to conduct work programs, research and comparative studies so far. Move than $100 million has been spent on environmental and socio-economic studies, resulting in a 27,000-page environmental baseline document.

This year’s budget is $107 million to be spent on engineering studies to complete a project description.

Let Them Eat – The Case for Phosphate Mining – by Brian Ostroff (ResourceInvestor.com – May 8, 2012)

May 8, 2012

www.resourceinvestor.com

I will be attending the Hard Asset Conference in New York a little later this month where I am sure the topic of gold will be hotly debated. For one, I believe that gold is relatively cheap and will make its way considerably higher. As for gold equities, they are trading at valuations only seen once in the last thirty plus years and despite all those who argue that gold ETFs have killed gold stock investment, I would not be too quick to count these stocks out.

With that said, I would like to talk about a more important commodity for mankind. Yes, gold is important for those who are concerned about purchasing power, currency devaluation and a general hedge against economic and political uncertainty but when push comes to shove, could anyone really argue that anything is more important than food?

All food is grown (crops, fruits, vegetables, etc.) or comes from animals that themselves survive on things that are grown and, in order to grow things, we need fertilizer. Fertilizer in comprised of nitrogen, potash and phosphate and whether you realize it or not, North America has a problem when it comes to phosphate because North America is not self-reliant.

Canada has only one operating phosphate mine (Agrium’s Kapuskasing Mine) which is scheduled to close within a year and Florida’s operations have had issues mostly brought on by environmental concerns. The result is that North America’s deficit will continue to grow adding to our reliance on foreign countries to offset this shortage.

Crisis in Mining – by Richard (Rick) Mills (Ahead of the Herd.com – May 2012)

May 5, 2012

http://aheadoftheherd.com/

As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information

A combination of mass retirements and increasing natural resource demand from emerging economies has created a crisis in the resource extraction sector – one which is definitely not on investor’s radar screens.

Currently there is a “massive talent gap” that is going to get worse because the global mining industry is experiencing the biggest wave of workforce retirements in 70 years – the oldest baby boomers turned 65 years old in 2011.

The Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MIHRC) has recently said that about 40% of the resource extraction industry’s workforce is at least 50 years old and one third of them are expected to retire by 2022.

The organization also forecasts that the Canadian mining industry will face a shortage of 140,000 workers by 2021 – this number of workers being needed just to maintain current levels of production.

The Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada warned a severe oil patch labor shortage is looming and that the “patch” will need to hire 24,000 new employees by 2014.

Growing underground [in closed copper mine]: Canadian medicinal marijuana producer trys to put down U.S. roots – by Tom Blackwell (National Post – April 28, 2012)

April 28, 2012

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

The sprawling copper mine that stretches deep below White Pine once employed thousands of people, helping make the remote Michigan town a thriving outpost of the state’s northern hinterland.

Prices for the metal started to plummet, however, forcing the facility to shut down in 1996 and leaving White Pine a virtual ghost town. Suburban bungalows that once housed copper miners and their families now sell to vacationers for as little as $10,000.

Now a Canadian company is promoting an unorthodox form of salvation for the area, floating a plan to grow marijuana inside the cavernous mine to serve the state’s legion of 180,000 licensed pot users. Like a similar subterranean operation that Prairie Plant Systems (PPS) owns in Manitoba, the Michigan site would offer security from theft, natural climate control and little chance of contamination, its supporters argue.

Legislation expected to be introduced in both Michigan state chambers in the next week or two would set the stage for such industrial-scale production, outlining a series of standards that medical marijuana producers must meet. Michigan approved personal use of cannabis as a health product in 2008, but its somewhat chaotic implementation has undermined patient and public safety, said Brent Zettl, CEO of Prairie Plant.

Company wants to grow quality medical marijuana in old [Michigan Upper Peninsula] mine – by Paul Egan (Detroit Free Press – April 22, 2012)

April 22, 2012

http://www.freep.com/

WHITE PINE — In this hard-luck town in Michigan’s western Upper Peninsula, rumors persist of a company growing pot deep in the bowels of a former copper mine nearby.

In 2010, the rumors got so bad, the State Police contacted the owners and asked to inspect the White Pine Mine sometime in the next couple of days.

“No, right now,” SubTerra official Mark Pierpont said he told them, not wanting lingering suspicions that he had spent a day hiding a stash of marijuana.

Trooper Timothy Rajala later reported how he “entered the mine in a vehicle which we drove approximately 1 mile underground” before reaching a sealed and brightly lit chamber he could only enter after washing down his feet and putting on clean clothes.

Inside, Rajala “noted several plants that were not narcotic,” he wrote. “There was no evidence of marijuana nor any signs of suspicious activity.”

Duluth sets Bechtel parameters for 100 year copper-nickel-pgm mine PFS – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – March22, 2012)

June 19, 2013March 22, 2012

www.mineweb.com

Duluth Metals’ huge copper-nickel-pgm-gold resource on the Duluth complex in northern Minnesota moves on a stage with top engineering company Bechtel being given the parameters on which to base a PFS

HONG KONG (Mineweb) – Talking to Duluth Metals Chairman and CEO, Chris Dundas at Mines & Money Hong Kong he remains extremely enthusiastic about his monster mining project in Northern Minnesota, USA which, if and when it comes to fruition, will become one of the world’s great underground mining operations with a mine life probably well in excess of 100 years.

Top engineering company Bechtel has been retained to undertake the preparation of the NI 43-101 Prefeasibility Study (PFS) on the initial project based primarily on the Nokomis section of this vast resource and the parameters under which Bechtel has been instructed give a great indication of the scale of operations envisaged.

Bechtel has thus been instructed to prepare its study based on the following:

The Metallurgical Achilles’ Heel of the United States – by Richard (Rick) Mills (Ahead of the Herd.com – March 2012)

March 18, 2012

http://aheadoftheherd.com/

“The United States has consistently maintained that a strong domestic minerals and metals industry is an essential contributor to the nation’s economic and security interests…The United States has a fundamental interest in maintaining a competitive minerals and metals sector that will continue to contribute significantly to the nation’s economic strength and military security. The industry represents an $87 billion enterprise that employs over 500,000 U.S. workers and provides the material foundation for U.S. manufacturing.” The 1980 National Academy of Sciences executive summary of “Competitiveness of the U.S. Minerals and Metals Industry”

A concise summary of U.S. mineral vulnerabilities was presented to the Industrial Readiness Panel of the House Armed Services Committee as early as 1980 by General Alton D. Slay, Commander Air Force Systems Command. He pointed out that technological advances have increased the demand for exotic minerals at the same time that legislative and regulatory restrictions have been imposed on the U.S. mining industry.

The 1981 report “A Congressional Handbook on U.S. Minerals Dependency/Vulnerability” singled out eight materials “for which the industrial health and defense of the United States is most vulnerable to potential supply disruptions” – chromium, cobalt, manganese, the platinum group of metals, titanium, bauxite/aluminum, columbium, and tantalum – the first five have been called “the metallurgical Achilles’ heel of our civilization.”

Matewan (Mining Movie – 1987)

February 25, 2012

This information is from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Matewan (1987) is an American drama film written and directed by John Sayles, illustrating the events of a coal mine-workers’ strike and attempt to unionize in 1920 in Matewan, a small town in the hills of West Virginia.[1]

Based on the Battle of Matewan, the film features Chris Cooper, James Earl Jones, Mary McDonnell, David Strathairn, Kevin Tighe and Will Oldham.

Plot

It was 1920 in the southwest West Virginia coal fields, and, as the narrator recalls, “things were tough.” In response to efforts by miners to organize into a labor union, the Stone Mountain Coal Company announces it will cut the pay miners receive, and will be importing replacement workers into town to replace those who join the union. The new workers are African Americans from Alabama and are coming in on the train, but the train is stopped outside town and the black men are told to get off. Derided as “scabs”, they are then attacked by the local miners, but manage to get back on the train and continue their journey.