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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)

https://www.northernminer.com/

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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Conference highlights Sudbury’s role in green transportation – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – May 27, 2022)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Mines electrifying own fleets while supplying ingredients for broader battery market

As they produce the material to electrify traffic on highways and streets, mining companies are increasingly using the same green technology to power their own subterranean fleets.

“We have a responsibility to keep pace with what is happening above-ground,” said Alex Mulloy, BEV program lead with Vale, at a conference Wednesday that drew together a wide range of players in the growing EV scene. Projected on a screen behind him in the Vale Cavern at Science North was a massive green haulage truck the company recently acquired for use at a local operation. It weighs 42 tonnes, but can run without a drop of diesel.

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Glencore reaches coordinated resolutions with US, UK and Brazilian authorities – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – May 25, 2022)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Mining company has made substantial investments to enhance its Ethics and Compliance Programme

Glencore has resolved the previously disclosed investigations by authorities in the United States, the United Kingdom and Brazil into past activities in certain Group businesses related to bribery, and separate US investigations related to market manipulation. Glencore cooperated with these investigations.

Under the terms of the US resolutions, Glencore will pay penalties of $700,706,965 to resolve bribery investigations and $485,638,885 to resolve market manipulation investigations by the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”).

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Science North’s Go Deeper campaign gets major financial boost – by Staff (Sudbury Star – April 2, 2022)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Science North on Thursday launched a capital campaign for its $7.4 million Go Deeper expansion project at Dynamic Earth.The project represents the largest investment in mining and earth sciences experiences since Dynamic Earth’s inception in 2001.

Go Deeper will provide memorable experiences that portray modern mining in a realistic way and showcase this rapidly changing and dynamic industry, Science North said in a release. The capital campaign aims to raise $3 million.

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Devil Copper: War and the Canadian Nickel Industry, 1883–1970 – by Scott Miller (National Defence Canada – Winter 2019)

http://www.journal.forces.gc.ca/

Located in the heart of northeastern Ontario, the city of Sudbury is often referred to as the ‘Nickel Capital’ for its historic relationship with this particular metal. Indeed, by the eve of the First World War, it had become the world’s leading producer of nickel, and by 1950, its share of the global supply peaked at 95 percent.1

Also known as ‘devil copper,’ worldwide demand for nickel remained strong throughout much of the 20th Century, largely as a result of its far-reaching military applications. While the citizens of Sudbury are generally well aware of this mining legacy, others may not be as familiar with the significance of nickel in Canadian political and military history. This is hardly surprising. As renowned historian J.L. Granatstein once asserted, there is a lack of “…serious scholarship on Canada’s industrial [war effort],” including its mineral and mining sectors.2

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NEWS RELEASE: MINING IN GREATER SUDBURY REGION CONTRIBUTES $3.3 BILLION IN GDP (Ontario Mining Association – March 24, 2022)

Over 50% of the gross output by Ontario’s mining industry comes from Sudbury

SUDBURY MARCH 24, 2022: A new report, State of the Ontario Mining Sector, published by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA) in partnership with Ontario’s Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry, demonstrates the majority of regional economic contributions from mining in Ontario occurs in the Sudbury region, with total annual economic contributions in 2019 of approximately $7.5 billion in gross output and $3.3 billion in GDP.

“The opportunities for the Ontario mining industry in Sudbury have arguably never been greater than they are now. As the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, faces increasing geopolitical uncertainty and as the race to halt climate change accelerates, the region is primed to continue contributing meaningful solutions, while capitalizing on rising global demand for green and critical minerals,” stated Chris Hodgson, President of the Ontario Mining Association.

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