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Twelve U.S. senators urge security rejection of China aluminum M&A deal – by David Lawder (Reuters U.S. – November 2, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

WASHINGTON – Twelve U.S. senators urged on Wednesday that a national security review panel reject Chinese aluminum giant Zhongwang International Group Ltd’s proposed $2.3 billion purchase of U.S. aluminum products maker Aleris Corp.

The senators asked Treasury Secretary Jack Lew in a letter to launch a review of the deal by the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States and “ultimately reject it” on grounds that it would damage the U.S. defense industrial base.

“Zhongwang’s purchase of Aleris would directly undermine our national security, including by jeopardizing the U.S. manufacturing base for sensitive technologies in an industry already devastated by the effects of China’s market distorting policies, and creating serious risk that sensitive technologies and knowhow will be transferred to China, further imperiling U.S. defense interests,” the senators wrote.

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I Know Why Trump Is Winning In Rural Communities Like Mine, And It’s Not Why You Think – by Ivy Brashear (Huffington Post U.S. – November 2, 2016)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Ivy Brashear is a tenth generation Central Appalachian, and the Appalachian Transition and Communications Associate at the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development in Berea, Ky.

I come from the land of Trump.

Eastern Kentucky is a region that many in this country – and in the media – have white-washed into a place where everyone is voting for the demagogue. Not many of the analyses I’ve seen have been able to truly get at the core of why so many ballots from my home region will go for Trump.

I’m from Viper, an expansive community split into four distinct sub-communities in the southern end of Perry County, Kentucky. My family has lived on the Left Fork of Maces Creek in Viper for five generations. They’ve been in Eastern Kentucky and Central Appalachia for 10.

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U.S. coking coal miners seen slow to respond to price rally – by Nicole Mordant (Reuters U.S. – November 2, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

U.S. miners of steel-making coal will be slow to lift output, even with prices tripling so far this year, as they need to renew operations shuttered during a five-year price collapse that pushed many into bankruptcy court, industry watchers say.

Delays in bringing on new supplies of steel-making coal, also known as metallurgical or coking coal, are expected to help keep global prices higher for longer. With operating costs higher than their Australian peers, U.S. miners typically bring supply online when prices rise and are cut back when they fall.

“Given how decimated the whole industry has gotten over the last two to three years, there is just not a lot of ready-use production that could come online,” said Jeremy Sussman, analyst at Clarksons Platou Securities in New York.

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The $100bn gold mine and the West Papuans who say they are counting the cost – by Susan Schulman (The Guardian – November 2, 2016)

https://www.theguardian.com/

Grasberg mine in the Indonesian region has been a source of untold wealth for its owners, but local communities say it has brought poverty and oppression

In 1936, Dutch geologist Jean Jacques Dozy climbed the world’s highest island peak: the forbidding Mount Carstensz, a snow-covered silver crag on what was then known as Dutch New Guinea. During the 4,800-metre ascent, Dozy noticed an unusual rock outcrop veined with green streaks. Samples he brought back confirmed exceptionally rich gold and copper deposits.

Today, these remote, sharp-edged mountains are part of West Papua, Indonesia, and home to the Grasberg mine, one of the biggest gold mines – and third largest copper mine – in the world. Majority-owned by the American mining firm Freeport McMoRan, Grasberg is now Indonesia’s biggest taxpayer, with reserves worth an estimated $100bn (£80bn).

But a recent fact-finding mission (by the Brisbane Archdiocese’s Catholic Justice and Peace Commission) described a “slow-motion genocide” (pdf) taking place in West Papua, warning that its indigenous population is at risk of becoming “an anthropological museum exhibit of a bygone culture”.

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Donald Trump’s Grandpa Made Fortune Selling Sex, Booze In B.C.’s North – by Jesse Ferreras (Huffington Post Canada – October 26, 2016)

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

Donald Trump would have you believe he’s a savvy businessman who has made sacrifices and seen “tremendous success.” But it was his grandfather Friedrich Trump who set the family on a course for business success, which he enjoyed early on by selling booze and sex to gold miners in northern Canada.

Bloomberg reported Wednesday on the Arctic Restaurant and Hotel, an establishment that offered food, alcohol and sex workers to miners seeking riches amid the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 19th century.

But Trump, who left Germany at the age of 16 before making his way to New York and eventually B.C., didn’t go looking for gold in any mountain. He was more focused on “mining the miners,” biographer Gwenda Blair told the news agency. Trump and partner Ernest Levin initially established the Arctic Hotel in Bennett, B.C. in 1899, in a place that was once a thriving hub for prospectors.

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Newmont Mining Swings to a Loss, Revises Dividend Policy – by Maria Armental (Wall Street Journal – October 27, 2016)

http://www.wsj.com/

Newmont Mining Corp. swung to a third-quarter loss, hurt by a charge tied to the planned sale of its stake in one of the largest copper deposits in Indonesia. The deal, which had been expected to close in the third quarter, is now expected to close in the fourth quarter.

On an adjusted basis, however, the miner’s profit more than doubled as it benefited from higher prices and higher gold production.

Separately, Colorado-based Newmont, the world’s No. 2 gold miner by production, said it was updating its gold price-linked dividend policy to take advantage of rising prices and said that Nancy K. Buese, most recently chief financial officer at MPLX LP, will take over as CFO on Oct. 31.

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Fact Checker: The facts behind Trump’s repeated claim about Hillary Clinton’s role in the Russian uranium deal – by Michelle Ye Hee Lee (Washington Post – October 26, 2016)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/

“Hillary Clinton gave them 20 percent of our uranium — gave Russia for a big payment.”
— Donald Trump, campaign rally, Oct. 25, 2016

“Remember that Hillary Clinton gave Russia 20 percent of American uranium and, you know, she was paid a fortune. You know, they got a tremendous amount of money.”
— Donald Trump, campaign rally, Oct. 24, 2016

“She even handed over American uranium rights to the Russians.”
— voice-over in Trump campaign ad, “Corruption”

Hillary Clinton’s involvement with a Russian uranium deal has come under scrutiny since author and Breitbart News senior editor-at-large Peter Schweizer dedicated a chapter to the topic in his 2015 book, “Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich.”

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Ohio’s US Senators Call for WTO Action Against Chinese Aluminum Firms – by Staff (Alumimium Insider – October 23, 2016)

http://aluminiuminsider.com/

Ohio’s two United States senators issued a joint press release on Friday urging the United States Trade Representative to bring a World Trade Organization case against the People’s Republic of China over its aluminium overcapacity. The senators say that 15,000 American workers have lost their jobs in the industry over the last decade.

“China has unfairly subsidized its aluminum industry – it’s not competing, it’s cheating,” said Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown. “Enforcing our trade laws will ensure that U.S. aluminum manufacturers, the best in the world, have the opportunity to compete on a level playing field. The Administration needs to stand up for American businesses and put an end to the massive layoffs that have devastated workers and their communities.”

“I firmly believe that when Ohio workers have a level playing field, they can compete and win against competition anywhere in the world,” said Republican Senator Rob Portman. “Unfortunately, China’s persistent cheating has led to a situation where the playing field is not level in the aluminum industry, and Ohioans have suffered as a result.

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Newmont, Barrick Agree More on Present Than Future Value of Mine – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – October 17, 2016)

http://www.bloombergquint.com/

(Bloomberg) — A split between the world’s two largest gold producers over the value of their jointly owned Australian mine is more about future economic expectations than what’s in the ground.

That’s the view of Newmont Mining Corp.’s Gary Goldberg, who has been saying for over a year he’d be interested in buying Barrick Gold Corp.’s half of the Kalgoorlie Super Pit — at the right price. Since Barrick officially started a sales process of the 50 percent stake in July, a wide field of potential bidders is said to have formed to vie with Newmont for the stake in Australia’s largest open-pit gold mine.

“We’re not misaligned in terms of where we see some of the value of the resource that’s there,” Newmont’s chief executive officer said in an interview with Bloomberg TV Canada. “But people have different assumptions on exchange rates, and gold price, those sorts of things.”

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Mountaintop Removal Never Ended: Coal River Mountaineers Fight On – by Jeff Biggers (Huffington Post – October 17, 2016)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Standing in solidarity with the water protectors on the Standing Rock Sioux Nation, Coal River Mountain residents already fending off seven square miles of devastating mountaintop removal mining permits are planning a protest on Monday at the Department of Environmental Protection in Charleston, West Virginia against pending permits for a possible expansion of operations by formerly bankrupt Alpha Natural Resources.

Yes, Virginia, in 2016 formerly bankrupt coal companies continue to blast away historic Coal River Mountain and adjacent communities. Let’s call it morally bankrupt.

And while the presidential campaigns trade “war on coal” slogans, no candidate and few reporters have made a single mention of one of the most egregious environmental crimes and civil rights violations in our lifetimes: The enduring health crisis of residents living amid the fallout of mountaintop removal operations.

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Coal company shifts to Canadian port to reach Asia markets – by Matthew Brown (Associated Press – October 13, 2016)

http://www.newscenter1.tv/

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) – A coal company with mines in Montana and Wyoming said Thursday that it’s begun exporting fuel to Asia through a Canadian shipping terminal, after its years long effort to secure port access in the U.S. Pacific Northwest has come up short.

The announcement from Lighthouse Resources, Inc. offered a rare bit of positive news for the coal mining industry, which has been in a prolonged tailspin amid falling demand due to climate concerns and competition from cheap natural gas.

But industry opponents said the move signals that coal exports through Oregon and Washington are doomed to failure, while a regional trade group warned it heralds a loss of U.S. jobs to Canada. Details on the announcement were obtained in advance by The Associated Press.

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U.S. judge dismisses aluminum price-fixing litigation – by Jonathan Stempel (Reuters U.S. – October 5, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

NEW YORK – A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed nationwide litigation by aluminum purchasers who accused banks and commodity companies of conspiring to drive up prices for the metal by reducing supply, forcing them to overpay.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan halts, for now, three years of litigation against Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, mining company Glencore Plc, and various commodity trading, mining and metals warehousing companies.

Purchasers had accused the defendants of colluding from 2009 to 2012 to manipulate prices by hoarding inventory. They claimed that this caused delays of up to 16 months to fill orders, leading to higher storage costs, which in turn inflated aluminum prices and the cost of producing cabinets, flashlights, soft drink cans, strollers and other goods.

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Wyoming coal counties best positioned to weather declining industry – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – October 4, 2016)

http://www.miningweekly.com/

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – In dealing with the decline of US coal mining, western coal-producing states, such as Wyoming, are much better positioned to weather the market shift than their eastern counterparts, such as West Virginia and Kentucky, according to new analysis by Moody’s Investors Service.

Driven by weaker seaborne demand, lower natural gas prices and tighter emissions regulations, coal production is experiencing record declines in the three largest coal producing states.

As the downturn increasingly trickles down to local governments, Wyoming counties are benefiting from greater production levels, more favourable income and poverty indicators, as well as a lower reliance on state severance tax distributions, Moody’s states.

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Gold mine chose ‘eviction over dialogue’ in Peru land dispute – report – by Chris Arsenault (Reuters U.K. – September 29, 2016)

http://uk.reuters.com/

RIO DE JANEIRO (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – One of the world’s biggest gold mining firms has pledged to improve its dispute resolution practices following an 18-month investigation into a bitter, ongoing conflict over land between farmers and its Peruvian subsidiary.

Denver-based Newmont Mining Corporation said the company-financed independent investigation into conflicts around South America’s largest gold mine had found no conclusive evidence of human rights abuses.

Rights groups had complained that private security forces backed by the firm assaulted protesting farmers. The company denies being involved in the attacks. But Newmont said in a statement after the investigation was released on Wednesday that it had not properly followed its own standards for dialogue in resolving land disputes.

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Wyoming’s 1st major coal mine in decades clears council (Denver Post – September 28, 2016)

http://www.denverpost.com/

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS – CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A state environmental review board voted Wednesday to allow Wyoming’s first major coal mine in decades to proceed despite the objections of another coal company.

Amid competition from natural gas and tougher environmental regulations, coal mines tend to be cutting back production or even shutting down — not opening anew. Kentucky-based Ramaco’s relatively small Brook Mine would buck that trend but has faced opposition from another company and a ranch.

The Wyoming Environmental Quality Council voted unanimously to allow Ramaco to go ahead despite the Big Horn Coal Company’s objections. Ramaco hopes to begin digging a few miles north of Sheridan by early next year, CEO Randall Atkins said.

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