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Vale and Glencore team up on electric mining vehicle safety – by Len Gillis (Sudbury.com – September 23, 2022)

https://www.sudbury.com/

Big Sudbury miners realized safety goals could be better achieved by working together than tackling problems alone

Sudbury’s two large mining companies are working together on the transition to Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) to make it safer to operate those vehicles on surface and in underground mines.

The partnership between Vale Canada and Glencore was revealed at the Maintenance, Engineering and Mine Operators Conference in Sudbury held in Sudbury this week. This was one of several sessions that were held in the Innovation and New Technology category.

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Glencore Takes Heat in Quebec for Smelter That Spits Out Arsenic – by Mathieu Dion (Bloomberg News – August 10, 2022)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Quebec’s public health director took aim at Glencore Plc for toxic emissions at a copper smelter in the province’s northwest, saying the level of pollution must be brought down quickly because of evidence it’s causing increased risk of cancer and other health problems.

The Horne Smelter in Rouyn-Noranda, a remote city about 600 kilometers (373 miles) northwest of Montreal, is emitting 165 nanograms of arsenic per cubic meter of air on site, according to a recent study by public health authorities in the Canadian province. That’s 55 times the standard safe level of 3 nanograms.

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Column: Glencore’s smelter warning galvanises the zinc price – by Andy Home (Reuters – August 9, 2022)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Aug 10 (Reuters) – The London Metal Exchange (LME) zinc price jumped to a six-week high last week after Glencore (GLEN.L) warned of the continuing margin squeeze on its European smelters. The commodities powerhouse idled part of its Portovesme smelter in Italy at the end of 2021 due to high power prices.

Europe’s power crunch has got much worse in the intervening months after Russia launched what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine at the end of February.

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Glencore Is Thriving in a More Dangerous World – by Megha Mandavia (Wall Street Journal – August 4, 2022)

https://www.wsj.com/

Mining company’s outperformance will likely persist as long as energy security—and geopolitical risk—remain center stage

Glencore, the maverick of the mining world, has long been used to doing business in unstable places. Now that the whole world is looking unstable, it is unsurprising to see Glencore doing well. In particular, its decision to resist pressure to divest from coal is looking prescient.

On Thursday, the world’s top coal exporter reported a doubling of profits in the first six months of 2022, mainly due to surging coal prices as the world scrambles for energy amid rising geopolitical turmoil.

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EVs are about to break new ground deep, deep under Sudbury – by John Michael McGrath (TVO Today – August 2, 2022)

https://www.tvo.org/

Running diesel engines two kilometres belowground would be prohibitively expensive — so this mine is turning to battery power

It would be a lot easier if mining were just a matter of getting ore out from deep underground. But mining is done by miners, and those workers need air they can breathe.

As mining companies go deeper and deeper into the Earth searching for the minerals that go into steel and the other metals that make up modern life — including, now, high-capacity electric batteries — supplying something as basic as fresh air becomes more and more difficult.

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Glencore Is Cashing In on Coal to Dodge Big Mining’s Slowdown – by Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – August 2, 2022)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The world’s biggest miners have spent the past two weeks reporting lower profits, shrinking dividends and a worsening outlook as the year rolls on. Next up: Glencore Plc looks set to buck the trend.

While commodities like iron ore and copper have retreated as gloom settles over the global economy, Glencore is enjoying two key advantages over its mining rivals — a powerful trading business that thrives in volatile markets, and a suite of coal mines now churning out previously unimaginable earnings thanks to the global energy crunch.

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Glencore’s 95-year-old copper smelter in Quebec is a prized asset. It should pay to clean up its act – by Konrad Yakabuski (Globe and Mail – July 19, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Any Canadian who grew up in a mining town knows of the trade-offs that come with relying on a single major employer involved in the metals business. For residents of Rouyn-Noranda, Que., the ups and downs of the commodities cycle have defined their town’s existence since prospector Edmund Horne staked the first copper claims in the region a century ago, leading to the 1922 founding of Noranda Inc.

The mining colossus, whose rise was intricately tied to Canada’s economic development, was eventually absorbed by Swiss-based multinational Glencore in 2013. But its name lives on in the town where it got its start.

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Glencore Expands Coal Mining in an Australian Methane Hotspot – by Aaron Clark (Bloomberg News – July 13, 2022)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Glencore Plc is expanding a coal mine that scientists have estimated leaks so much planet-wrecking methane each year it has the same warming impact as the annual emissions from millions of cars.

New activity at the Hail Creek Mine involves digging up coal from gas-rich seams through surface mining — an approach for which the company has said there’s no reliable way to halt fugitive methane from escaping during operation.

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For those who were there, June 20, 1984, remains fresh as ever – by Harold Carmichael (Sudbury Star – June 21, 2022)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Four miners died following a massive rockburst struck Falconbridge Mine

The massive rockburst that struck Falconbridge Mine at about 10:12 a.m. June 20, 1984, that claimed four lives has left Rick Grylls and Tom Rannelli with memories that will never fade.

Grylls, a past president of the Mine Mill Local 598/Unifor union that represents production and maintenance workers at the former Falconbridge Limited (now Glencore’s Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations), had just put the electrical in the stope at the mine the week before He was embarking on a new job as financial secretary of his union when disaster struck.

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The Drift: Glencore makes battery vehicle order from MacLean Engineering – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – June 16, 2022)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Onaping Depth mine project will be an all-electric underground operation at production start in 2024

Glencore’s deepest new mine in the Sudbury Basin will be populated by electric vehicles from MacLean Engineering.

MacLean’s battery electric mining vehicles (BEVs) were chosen to be one of the mobile equipment suppliers of fleet vehicles for Glencore’s Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations and its Onaping Depth mine project, now under construction.

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Glencore Gets Rich on Coal, But Questions Persist Over Exit Plan – by Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – June 14, 2022)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Glencore Plc is getting rich on coal. The company is on course for another year of bumper profits, its shares just hit a record high — a feat that looked unlikely for most of the last decade — and investors are set for a windfall of returns. But some of them are now asking exactly how it’s all going to end.

For years the commodities giant has sought to balance two competing aims: securing the huge potential returns from its coal business and keeping investor support for mining the world’s most polluting fuel.

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How battery electric vehicles will help make mining cheaper – by Len Gillis (Sudbury.com – May30, 2022)

https://www.sudbury.com/

Mining industry finds that apart from the environmental benefit of electric vehicles, there is an economic payoff as well

Using battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in Northern Ontario mines is not just a nod toward being more environmentally tuned in, it is also something that makes good economic sense.

That was part of the message from Sudbury mining executive Peter Xavier who was a speaker last week at Sudbury’s first ever municipal conference to examine the importance of BEVs. Xavier, who is Vice President of Glencore’s Integrated Nickel Operations in Sudbury, said the company is finding it has to go to greater depths to find and recover new sources of nickel.

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Glencore suspends production at Raglan mine in Nunavik after workers strike – by Naimul Karim (Northern Miner – May 30, 2022)

Global mining news

Production at Glencore’s (LSE: GLEN) Raglan nickel mine at Nunavik has been suspended as hundreds of unionized workers went on strike for the first time in 25 years on the night of May 27.

Nearly 98% of the 630 workers from the United Steelworkers Union, Local 9449, voted in favour of a strike in late May citing issues including the use of subcontractors, deteriorating labour relations as well as a lack of respect. The strike was enforced on May 27 after negotiations between the parties amidst a government mediator failed to break the impasse.

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Glencore bribery cases draw in billionaire former executives – by Jack Farchy and Jonathan Browning (Bloomberg News – May 29, 2022)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

The US corruption and market manipulation cases against Glencore Plc include allegations about the conduct of two former executives who formed part of the inner circle of the trading house’s top management for over a decade — and walked away as billionaires.

The US government did not bring any charges against top Glencore managers in the sweeping cases against Glencore to which the company pleaded guilty this week.

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Sudbury miners look to fill the critical minerals demand and supply void – by Len Gillis (Northern Ontario Business – May 30, 2022)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Looming battery electric vehicle demand has Glencore on a metals recycling kick

As much as Ontario is ready to reap the rewards of the anticipated boom in battery electric vehicles (BEV) in the next 10 years and beyond, the move to go green is not as rosy as it might seem.

That was revealed during the two-day BEV conference held at Science North in Sudbury to explore the future of the BEV industry. On the first day of the conference, it was revealed the province has a virtual treasure trove of all the right minerals — nickel, lithium, cobalt, and copper — right here in Northern Ontario.

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