United States Mining – Page 98

Finding Minnesota: The ‘Grand Canyon Of The North’ – by Mike Binkley (CBS Minnesota – May 31, 2015)

June 1, 2015

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/

HIBBING, Minn. (WCCO) – This year, thousands will take a side trip to a giant hole in the ground in northern Minnesota that locals like to call “the Grand Canyon of the North.”

It’s not a natural wonder. It’s a panoramic collection of cliffs, ridges and valleys that have all been carved up by humans. The Hull Rust Mahoning Mine on the edge of Hibbing is the second largest open pit iron ore mine in the world.

Beauty was not the main objective when miners first arrived there in the 1890s, but after 120 years of blasting, digging and hauling, beauty is what many visitors see. Anne Varda, whose family includes three generations of miners, is now president of the adjacent tourist center.

Nevada mining innovates and endures – by Dana R. Bennett (Elko Daily Free Press – June 1, 2015)

June 1, 2015

http://elkodaily.com/

Dana R. Bennett is the Nevada Mining Association President.

Nevada mining is dynamic—an evolving industry that changes over time. From our 21st century perspective, after many years of solid gold production numbers, it can be hard to imagine a time when gold was not the preeminent mineral in Nevada. There was a time – a long period of time – when gold mining was essentially dying in this state.

In 1942, the U.S. War Production Board ordered the closure of non-essential gold mines in order to concentrate the production of minerals needed for the war effort. Some Nevada mines closed completely, but some, such as the Getchell Mine in Humboldt County, were able to remain open by focusing on the production of industrial minerals.

After World War II ended and gold mines were allowed to open, Nevada’s gold industry was slow to recover. Production continued to decline. Nearly 20 years after the federal government order, Nevada’s gold production dropped to the second-lowest point in all of Nevada history.

Instead, Nevada’s mining industry focused on industrial minerals, producing iron, lead, manganese, tungsten and zinc in the early 1950s. Lander County produced world-renowned turquoise. By 1957, however, even the industrial mineral industry began to slide.

The Cornish Mines – by Graham Jaehnig (The Daily Mining Gazette – May 30, 2015)

June 1, 2015

http://www.mininggazette.com/

From the very beginning of the mineral rush in 1843, miners from other countries worked Copper Country lodes. John Hays, in working the area around Copper Harbor, worked teams of German coal miners he had retained from Pennsylvania. Colonel Charles Gratiot, working for the Lake Superior Copper Company, had brought with him a crew of some fourteen Cornish miners from the lead district of Wisconsin.

Cornwall is a small peninsula on the southwest portion of England that juts into the Atlantic Ocean, and enjoys a remarkable mining history. Mining in Cornwall had begun as early as the Bronze Age (2100-1500 BCE) and by the beginning of the 17th century CE, the Cornish had earned the reputation as experts and world leaders in mining and mineral dressing.

At the time when Cornish mines were becoming too deep to be profitably mined, large copper deposits were discovered in England’s North Wales. To compete with these new, shallow mines, Cornish engineers made great advancements in mining technology, such as pumping engines and mineral processing.

By the mid-1840s, as the Cornish copper industry was in major decline, the mineral lands of Lake Superior were just beginning to make world news for their finds of huge masses of pure copper.

Selling Off Apache Holy Land – by Lydia Millet (New York Times Opinion Pages – May 29, 2015)

June 1, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/

Tucson – ABOUT an hour east of Phoenix, near a mining town called Superior, men, women and children of the San Carlos Apache tribe have been camped out at a place called Oak Flat for more than three months, protesting the latest assault on their culture.

Three hundred people, mostly Apache, marched 44 miles from tribal headquarters to begin this occupation on Feb. 9. The campground lies at the core of an ancient Apache holy place, where coming-of-age ceremonies, especially for girls, have been performed for many generations, along with traditional acorn gathering.

It belongs to the public, under the multiple-use mandate of the Forest Service, and has had special protections since 1955, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower decreed the area closed to mining — which, like cattle grazing, is otherwise common in national forests — because of its cultural and natural value. President Richard M. Nixon’s Interior Department in 1971 renewed this ban.

Despite these protections, in December 2014, Congress promised to hand the title for Oak Flat over to a private, Australian-British mining concern. A fine-print rider trading away the Indian holy land was added at the last minute to the must-pass military spending bill, the National Defense Authorization Act.

The History of Erie Mining Company (Hometownfocus.us – May 29, 2015)

May 29, 2015

http://www.hometownfocus.us/

A project to document the history of the pioneering research, preliminary pilot plant, and construction and operation of the world’s first completely integrated taconite mine.

In early 2014, a team of willing and dedicated former Erie Mining Company/ LTV Mining employees began meeting monthly at the Hoyt Lakes City Hall. The team set as its purpose to document the initial development of Minnesota’s taconite Industry by preparing a history of the pioneering research, construction and operation of Erie Mining Company and the establishment of the town site of Hoyt Lakes.

Partnering with the St. Louis County Historical Society, the group established a goal of publishing a quality book, containing both the technical and pictorial history of the mine, plant site, railroad, power plant and harbor, town sites of Hoyt Lakes, Taconite Harbor, and Murphy City as well as the personal stories and experiences of the employees, contractors, vendors, and “town folk” who built and operated one of the world’s largest and most innovative green field mining operations, and one of our nation’s largest private capital enterprises of the past century.

The group contacted local historians, the Minnesota Historical Society and others, who confirmed that there are no comprehensive, historically accurate books documenting the history of the Erie Mining Company, or for that matter, any of Minnesota’s taconite mining and processing operations.

Nine Months After Polley Breach, Alaskans Seek Compensation Guarantee from BC – by Jordan Wong (TheTyee.ca – May 29, 2015)

May 29, 2015

http://thetyee.ca/

Proposed northern BC mines ‘source of great angst in Juneau.’

Earlier this month, Heather Hardcastle, a commercial fisherwoman from Juneau, Alaska met in Williams Lake, B.C. with members of the Tsilhqot’in First Nation. They shared a meal of wild Alaskan salmon that Hardcastle brought as a symbolic gesture: This fish was a reminder of all there was to lose.

After lunch, Hardcastle and her team of Alaska visitors boarded a helicopter and flew 25 minutes away to the site of the Mount Polley accident, the scene of a massive breach last August of its mine waste dam near the town of Likely, B.C.

The breach released millions of cubic metres of contaminated water into Quesnel Lake, which feeds into the Fraser River.

Nine months later, Jacinda Mack, a Xatsull woman from the Soda Creek reserve and one of many residents living near the path of the spill, invited the Alaskans to Williams Lake to see firsthand the main effect of that accident.

On the Fraser River, contamination from the mine breach threatened the run of Sockeye salmon that spawns in Quesnel Lake.

Inside the war on coal – by Michael Grunwald (Politco.com – May 2015)

May 27, 2015

http://www.politico.com/

How Mike Bloomberg, red-state businesses, and a lot of Midwestern lawyers are changing American energy faster than you think.

The war on coal is not just political rhetoric, or a paranoid fantasy concocted by rapacious polluters. It’s real and it’s relentless. Over the past five years, it has killed a coal-fired power plant every 10 days. It has quietly transformed the U.S. electric grid and the global climate debate.

The industry and its supporters use “war on coal” as shorthand for a ferocious assault by a hostile White House, but the real war on coal is not primarily an Obama war, or even a Washington war. It’s a guerrilla war. The front lines are not at the Environmental Protection Agency or the Supreme Court.

If you want to see how the fossil fuel that once powered most of the country is being battered by enemy forces, you have to watch state and local hearings where utility commissions and other obscure governing bodies debate individual coal plants. You probably won’t find much drama. You’ll definitely find lawyers from the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, the boots on the ground in the war on coal.

Beyond Coal is the most extensive, expensive and effective campaign in the Club’s 123-year history, and maybe the history of the environmental movement.

The 1959 Copper Strike: Local Event has National Ramifications – by John Hernandez (Copper Area.com – May 26, 2015)

May 27, 2015

http://www.copperarea.com/pages/

The Voice of the Copper Corridor. [Arizona]

In 1959, Dwight D. Eisenhower was in the last year of his presidency. The dictator Fulgencio Batista fled Cuba as communist revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro took control of the island nation 90 miles from the United States. Alaska and Hawaii would become states. A little known actor, Clint Eastwood appeared on a new television series, Rawhide. Teenagers were saddened by “The Day the Music Died” when Buddy Holley, Richie Valens and the “Big Bopper” J.P. Richardson were killed in a plane crash in Iowa.

In the prospering mining town of San Manuel the contracts with the unions and the San Manuel Copper Corporation were set to expire June 30. Competing unions, the United Steelworkers of America and the International Union of Mine, Mill & Smelter Workers, were still battling each other to represent the workers.

Early in the year, smelter workers petitioned the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and asked that their union, the United Steelworkers of America, be recognized as the bargaining agent for San Manuel rather than Mine Mill. Mine Mill had defeated the Steelworkers in the 1956 elections. The election was challenged by the Steelworkers but their protest was denied by the NLRB.

Another unit of San Manuel Copper Corporation, the heavy equipment operators, joined with the smelter workers and asked that elections be held to determine which union would be the collective bargaining agent for the workers.

Blood on the Mountain: New Film Chronicles Coal’s War on Appalachia – by Jeff Biggers (Huffington Post – May 26, 2015)

May 26, 2015

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/green/

One of the most telling moments in the new documentary film Blood on the Mountain draws from 2008 footage of former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship calmly mumbling his replies to numerous questions on mine safety at a hearing. When asked if he knew how many coal miners had died in Massey mines in the eight years since Massey became a publicly traded company, the notorious “dark lord” of the coal industry shook his head and said no.

Filmmakers Mari-Lynn Evans and Jordan Freeman allow for a gut-wrenching moment of silence, having methodically chronicled the industry’s treadmill of violation-ridden disasters, and then provide the answer: 52 deaths under Blankenship as CEO of Massey Energy.

Up North Report: Inside North America’s biggest construction project – by Aaron Brown (Minneapolis Star Tribune – May 25, 2015)

May 26, 2015

http://www.startribune.com/

Construction is accelerating at the long awaited $1.9 billion Essar Steel Minnesota mine near Nashwauk, while Essar now says it’s optimistic about producing direct reduced iron products here.

In a tour of the Northern Minnesota site on May 21 with Mitch Brunfelt, Essar’s assistant general counsel and director of government and public relations, I took pictures and observed progress at the site of the biggest construction project on the Mesabi Iron Range in a generation.

This is currently the largest greenfield construction project on the continent, and it’s hard to understate the sheer size, commontion, and labor involved. The site produces a steady drone, easily heard from my home eight miles away.

After years of starts and stops, Essar now says it is finally fully financed and has increased its contractor workforce at the site. About 400 workers were on site the day I visited. Brunfelt said they will soon see 600-800 workers on site each day as summer arrives in force.

Essar has officially amended its construction timeline to reflect the realities of the company’s progress. Brunfelt said Essar engineers are now eying production of taconite by late June or July of 2016.

The EPA’s Pebble Blame Game – by Kimberley A. Strassel (Wall Street Journal – May 21, 2015)

May 26, 2015

http://www.wsj.com/

The agency digs deep for excuses—and not very good ones—to explain its veto of an Alaskan mine project.

Government agencies have a certain descending order of excuses they employ as a scandal grows. When they reach the point of quibbling over semantics and blaming low-level employees, it’s clear they know they’ve got a problem.

The EPA has a problem: its pre-emptive veto of the Pebble Mine, a proposed project in southwest Alaska. The law says that Pebble gets to apply for permits, and the Army Corps of Engineers gets to give thumbs up or down. The EPA, a law unto itself, instead last year blocked the proposal before applications were even filed.

The agency claims it got involved because of petitions from Native American tribes in 2010, and that its veto is based on “science”—a watershed assessment that purportedly shows the mine would cause environmental harm.

This column reported a week ago on EPA documents that tell a very different story. They reveal the existence of an internal EPA “options paper” that make clear the agency opposed the mine on ideological grounds and had already decided to veto it in the spring of 2010—well before it did any “science.”

[Iron] Range Resiliency Tested Again: WE WILL PERSEVERE – by Bill Hanna (Mesabi Daily News – May 23, 2015)

May 25, 2015

http://www.virginiamn.com/

Resilient — adjective.

1. Springing back; rebounding.

2. Recovering readily from adversity or the like.

The word resilient definitely defines a strong quality of the Iron Range, its people and our No. 1 industry of mining.

The Range has had to bounce back several times from economic difficulties associated with the ore and steel industries. And we have done so repeatedly through hard work, innovation and a never-give-up attitude.

The Range’s resiliency is now being tested once again because of a downturn in the ore and steel industries brought on in a major way by illegally subsidized steel that has flooded the U.S. market and a glut of iron ore that has lowered prices for the resource.

These certainly are some tough times for mining on the Iron Range. But, once again, the resolve of the companies and people who flip the switch of the industry to make it go will persevere.

The [United States] House just passed a bill about space mining. The future is here. – by Brian Fung (Washington Post – May 22, 2015)

May 22, 2015

http://www.washingtonpost.com/

For as long as we’ve existed, humans have looked up at the stars — and wondered. What is up there? Who is out there?

Now, to that list of questions we can add: And CAN I HAVE IT?

The United States has already shown its penchant for claiming ownership of space-based things. There are not one, not two, but six U.S. flags on the moon, in case any of you other nations start getting ideas. (Never mind that the flags have all faded to a stateless white by now.)

So it only makes sense that American lawmakers would seek to guarantee property rights for U.S. space corporations. Under the SPACE Act, which just passed the House, businesses that do asteroid mining will be able to keep whatever they dig up:

“Any asteroid resources obtained in outer space are the property of the entity that obtained such resources, which shall be entitled to all property rights thereto, consistent with applicable provisions of Federal law.”

This is how we know commercial space exploration is serious. The opportunity here is so vast that businesses are demanding federal protections for huge, floating objects they haven’t even surveyed yet.

Murray Energy to Lay Off Around 1,800 Workers – by Timothy Puko and John W. Miller (Wall Street Journal – May 21, 2015)

May 22, 2015

http://www.wsj.com/

Move is another blow to the coal mining industry in Appalachia

Coal miner Murray Energy Corp. is set to announce layoffs of around 1,800 workers at nine locations on Friday, according to a person familiar with the matter, dealing another blow to the coal-mining industry in Appalachia.

The planned layoffs, which represent about 21% of Murray’s workforce, will come largely at mines in West Virginia and Ohio, a region already reeling from the impact of abundant natural gas and a global coal glut.

Robert Murray, the 75-year-old founder and chief executive of the company, made the decision Wednesday after a 12-hour meeting with operations managers, according to the person familiar with the matter.

The company decided to make much bigger cuts than it had previously been considering because of growing concerns about the slumping market for thermal coal, the person said.

The company plans to send formal notice on Friday to workers at the Monongalia County Coal Co. in West Virginia, the mine that will see the largest layoffs. The mine had been idled earlier this spring, putting several hundred miners out of work.

Coeur d’Alene Mines Corporation History (1928 – 1998)

May 22, 2015

For a large selection of corporate histories click: International Directory of Company Histories

As we look ahead, our strategy for growth remains as straightforward as that which brought us to our current record levels. We continue to target opportunities in politically stable countries with historic mining traditions and ample opportunity for developing production and reserves. Through the efforts of our exceptional group of employees, this past year [1996] we secured a number of important stakes on the separate continents to guarantee continued development this year and beyond.

Company History:

Coeur d’Alene Mines Corporation (Coeur) is a global precious metals producer, specializing in the exploration, extraction, and development of both gold and silver resources in its seven active gold and/or silver mines. Directly and through its subsidiaries, the company operates primarily within North and South America, Australia, and New Zealand. Coeur silver is used in film, jewelry, medicine, batteries, electrical appliances, in high technology defense and scientific applications (where instant bursts of electric power are required), and as a bacteria killer in water–reusable laundry discs using silver can eliminate the need for detergents.

Due to its ability to bind specialized superconductive materials together, silver is expected to play a significant role in a new era of high temperature superconductors–materials that conduct electricity with little or no electrical resistance. Silver and gold are being used to remove frost from automobile and airplane windows, by conducting heat through a nearly invisible layer of silver embedded in the glass.