United States Mining – Page 86

Cliffs hanging on, but waiting to reopen plants – by John Myers (Duluth News Tribune – Jan 27, 2016)

February 19, 2016

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

Cliffs Natural Resources had a terrible 2015, losing money and slashing production, but the company expects demand for its taconite iron ore to tick up in 2016 and vows to reopen idled operations once sales increase.

Company officials Wednesday said both United Taconite in Eveleth and Forbes and Northshore Mining in Babbitt and Silver Bay will remain closed at least through March but will reopen “sometime this year” as demand from steelmakers for taconite increases.

Hundreds of laid-off workers at each plant are waiting to go back on the job.

“It’s too soon to give you a date, but it will be this year,” Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves told the News Tribune in a telephone interview Wednesday.

How the Coal Industry Flattened the Mountains of Appalachia – by the Editorial Board (New York Times – February 16, 2016)

February 17, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/

As the destructive coal mining process known as mountaintop removal ebbs in Appalachia, it is leaving behind what amounts to its own grim field of tombstones: A grossly disfigured landscape pocked with decapitated mountains standing flat as mesas and inhospitable to forest restoration.

The blight is more than vertical, for millions of tons of slag waste have been bulldozed down into the surrounding countryside for more than 40 years. The rubble has clogged countless streams and waterways and devastated the Appalachian environment with pollutants, rerouting rain torrents through homes and hamlets below.

The destruction, shocking to anyone flying across the scarred mountain remains, has now been measured in all three dimensions in a survey by researchers at Duke University. It presents a timely reminder of what has been lost to King Coal’s furious bulldozing swaths across the mountains of West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia.

UPDATE 1-Sumitomo Metal Mining to buy 13 pct stake in Morenci mine for $1 bln (Reuters U.S. – February 15, 2016)

February 16, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

Feb 15 Sumitomo Metal Mining, Japan’s second-biggest copper producer, said on Monday it would raise its stake in southeast Arizona’s Morenci open-pit copper mine by buying 13 percent from majority owner Freeport-McMoRan for $1 billion.

The move comes at a time when copper prices are near six-and-a-half-year lows. Last November, the company’s President Yoshiaki Nakazato said it was looking to acquire stakes in copper and gold mines, taking advantage of its sound finances and a slump in commodity prices to sustain future growth.

The acquisition will take Sumitomo Metal’s share in Morenci to 25 percent from 12 percent, while Sumitomo Corp holds 3 percent, leaving Freeport with the rest.

Freeport Pares U.S. Copper-Mine Stake in $1 Billion Deal – by John W. Miller (Wall Street Journal – February 15, 2016)

February 16, 2016

http://www.wsj.com/

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. on Monday said it reached a deal to sell part of its stake in an Arizona copper mine to one of the mine’s other owners, in an effort to pay down debt.

Phoenix-based Freeport, one of the world’s biggest copper miners, said it would sell a 13% ownership interest in its Morenci mine, located in the desert on the Arizona-New Mexico border, to Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. for $1 billion. The company said it would record a gain of $550 million on the deal, the difference between the sale price and the stake’s book value of $450 million.

Freeport Chief Executive Richard Adkerson said the transaction was part of the company’s plan to reduce what it owes to creditors “while retaining a portfolio of high-quality assets and resources.” Mr. Adkerson pledged last month to cut the company’s $20 billion debt by as much as $10 billion.

Bad Blood the Color of Rubies – by Eric Konigsberg (New York Magazine – February 11, 2016)

February 16, 2016

http://nymag.com/

A Jewelry Feud, Set In Jaipur and on Madison Avenue

On a recent morning when Siddharth Kasliwal came downstairs, his mother dropped a sheaf of papers on the table in front of him. “Potential brides,” he said later. “There were some party pictures, clippings about their families. My mother is getting impatient. There are 15 to 20 serious candidates, and already in my life I’ve met seven or eight of the girls.”

Siddharth, or Sid to his friends, is 31: handsome, cultured, deferential, occasionally preening — at once humbled and entitled by his privileged birthright as a ninth-generation co-owner of the Gem Palace, India’s most glamorous jewelry business. The Gem Palace was a sleepy favorite, before he was born, of Jackie Kennedy, Marella Agnelli, and Lord Mountbatten, among others.

Now there are satellite boutiques around the world, including in Istanbul, Tokyo, and New York. His father, Munnu, and an uncle, Sanjay, were the public faces of the business for decades.

Despite sagging demand, officials see shiny future for copper – by Lauren Clark (Tucson Sentinel – February 11, 2016)

February 11, 2016

http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/

Cronkite News – WASHINGTON – It’s a rainy Monday morning at Potomac Metals, a scrap yard just outside of Washington, D.C., as a customer climbs into the bed of his pickup truck and starts sorting odd scraps of metal into piles.

As he sorts, a worker weighs the piles then hands over cash for the metal. But the copper that would have brought $3 per pound three years ago yields just $1 per pound on this day.

Copper is one of the pillars of Arizona’s economy, but steadily falling demand on world markets has depressed prices and caused ripples that are felt in the state and as far away as this East Coast scrap yard.

Obama’s Clean-Power Plan Put on Hold by U.S. Supreme Court – by Greg Stohr and Jennifer A. Dlouhy (Bloomberg News – February 9, 2016)

February 10, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

A divided U.S. Supreme Court blocked President Barack Obama’s sweeping plan to cut emissions from power plants, putting on hold his most ambitious effort to combat climate change.

The 5-4 order Tuesday halts the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan until at least the final months of Obama’s presidency — and casts doubt on its ultimate fate before the nation’s highest court by suggesting concern among a majority of the justices.

Utilities, coal miners and more than two dozen states say the agency had overstepped its authority and intruded on states’ rights.

New open pit mine in Timmins expected as Lake Shore Gold is merged with Tahoe Resources – by Alan S. Hale (Timmins Daily Press – February 8, 2016)

February 8, 2016

http://www.timminspress.com/

Lake Shore Gold will soon become part of Tahoe Resources. The mining companies announced on Monday that Tahoe intends to buy a 75% stake in Lake Shore by exchanging shares in that company for Tahoe shares.

This announcement comes after trading on Lake Shore Gold’s shares were halted on Friday. It appeared at the time that it was to halt market speculation after positive news from an ongoing exploration project, but it now seems it was in anticipation of announcing the merger.

Under the agreement announced on Monday, each common share of Lake Shore Gold will be exchanged for a 0.1467 share in Tahoe which, when the markets closed on Friday, was worth $1.71. This would mean Lake Shore Gold shareholders would make a 15 cent profit on every share they own.

Value of U.S. metal mine production drops 15% – by Andrew Topf (Mining.com – February 7, 2016)

February 8, 2016

http://www.mining.com/

The USGS also says the States is now 100% dependent on other countries for 19 minerals

The United States earned less from its mines in 2015 and became more reliant on outside sources for critical metals, according to a new report from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

The data comes from statistics gathered by the USGS on about 90 mineral commodities considered essential for the U.S. economy and national security.

Concerns have been raised for years that the United States is too dependent on other countries, namely China, for rare earth elements deemed essential for its aerospace and electronics industries, leading to suggestions that the U.S. create a strategic minerals reserve.

Arizona Mining shows upside at Taylor (Northern Miner – February 5, 2016)

February 8, 2016

http://www.northernminer.com/

VANCOUVER — When it comes to opportunities in the junior space that tick the prerequisite boxes for mineral development, there aren’t many that can match Arizona Mining (TSX: AZ) and its emerging Taylor zinc-lead-silver deposit roughly 80 km due southeast of Tucson.

The company features an accomplished management team and strong financial backing, and it completed a promising drill campaign last year that hints at the potential for a great mining opportunity driven by high grades and a clear permitting path.

Arizona is the brainchild of chairman — and well-known corporate finance figure — Richard Warke, who founded Augusta Resource and Ventana Gold. The company previously operated under the Wildcat Silver banner before shifting it’s identify in mid-2015 to signal a new focus on the Taylor discovery, which is part of the 140 sq. km Hermosa project.

Regulator sounds alarm over deaths at coal mines – by Kate Gibson (CBS News – February 3, 2016)

February 4, 2016

http://www.cbsnews.com/

Already in severe economic distress from tumbling demand and plunging energy prices, the nation’s beleaguered coal industry started the new year on a tragic note: Three miners died on the job in the first three weeks of 2016.

While it would be a mistake to draw too much from the spate of fatalities, the man in charge of keeping miners safe found the death toll troubling, particularly given the fatal accidents in January follow the two back-to-back safest years in U.S. mining history.

“When those three fatalities happened, we weren’t waiting to let folks know that this needs to get turned around here,” Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health Joseph Main told CBS MoneyWatch. “Understanding the economic difficulties here, we cannot lose ground, which can happen if they start pulling back on investments in mine safety in these tough times.”

Extracting rare-earth elements from coal could soon be economical in U.S. – by Liam Jackson (Penn State News – February 2, 2016)

February 4, 2016

http://news.psu.edu/

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The U.S. could soon decrease its dependence on importing valuable rare-earth elements that are widely used in many industries, according to a team of Penn State and U.S. Department of Energy researchers who found a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to extract these metals from coal byproducts.

Rare-earth elements are a set of seventeen metals — such as scandium, yttrium, lanthanum and cerium — necessary to produce high-tech equipment used in health care, transportation, electronics and numerous other industries.

They support more than $329 billion of economic output in North America, according to the American Chemistry Council, and the United States Geological Survey expects worldwide demand for REEs to grow more than 5 percent annually through 2020. China produces more than 85 percent of the world’s rare-earth elements, and the U.S. produces the second most at just over 6 percent, according to the USGS.

Appalachian Miners Are Learning to Code – by Tim Loh (Bloomberg News – February 3, 2016)

February 3, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Jim Ratliff worked for 14 years in the mines of eastern Kentucky, drilling holes and blasting dynamite to expose the coal that has powered Appalachian life for more than a century.

Today, he rolls into an office at 8 a.m., settles into a small metal desk and does something that, until last year, was completely foreign to him: computer coding.

“A lot of people look at us coal miners as uneducated,” said Ratliff, a 38-year-old with a thin goatee and thick arms. “It’s backbreaking work, but there’s engineers and very sophisticated equipment. You work hard and efficiently and that translates right into coding.”

He works for Bit Source now, a Pikeville, Kentucky, startup that’s out to prove there’s life after coal for the thousands of industry veterans who’ve lost their jobs in an unprecedented rout that has already forced five major producers into bankruptcy.

UPDATE 3-Freeport loses right to export from Indonesia copper mine, talks ongoing – by Bernadette Christina Munthe and Fergus Jensen (Reuters India – January 29, 2016)

January 29, 2016

http://in.reuters.com/

JAKARTA, Jan 29 Freeport McMoRan Inc on Friday lost its right to export copper concentrate, valued at more than $1 billion, from one of the world’s biggest mines as talks with Indonesia’s government remained deadlocked over payment for a new metal smelter.

Freeport’s six-month licence to export concentrate expired on Thursday and it was unclear how soon a new one would be issued as the two sides have yet to resolve a government demand that the U.S. firm first pay a $530 million deposit.

“Without an export permit, there can be no exports. The exporter knows that,” Didi Sumedi, Indonesia’s director of mining and industrial products told Reuters via text message.

THE INTERVIEW: Coal comfort: Murray Energy Corp.’s CEO fights back – by John Daly (Globe and Mail – January 29, 2016)

January 29, 2016

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The founder of America’s largest underground coal mining company was infuriated, but not surprised, by last December’s UN climate change summit. “The errant President, Barack Obama, is attempting to commit the United States to draconian carbon dioxide emissions requirements when the rest of the world is not going to make any commitments,” declares Bob Murray, 76-year-old CEO of Murray Energy Corp.

The U.S. coal industry has been in Obama’s crosshairs since he took office in 2009, vowing to shift to a green-energy economy. Since then, the toll of coal-fired units (of which power plants are comprised) that have closed, fixed dates for closing or converted to cleaner-burning natural gas has grown to more than 400.

In the same period, the share of U.S. electricity generated from coal has declined from about one-half to one-third. The Dow Jones U.S. Coal Index has fallen by more than 97 per cent from its peak in 2008.