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Zinc, Lead and Tin

Mining tourism still untapped potential in Iran (Tehran Times – June 25, 2021)

https://www.tehrantimes.com/

TEHRAN – Mining tourism as a relatively untapped potential could lead to economic prosperity and fuel boom in the Iran tourism scene by the means of creating new destinations and sustainable jobs for the locals.

Experts say mining tourism is a new category in the tourism industry, which involves tours of both abandoned and active mines.

Last year, Iran started to promote mining tourism by launching the first project in the Anguran lead and zinc mine, located 130 kilometers west of the northwestern city of Zanjan.

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Hitting the reset button: Trevali restarted the shuttered Caribou mine with a new lease on life – by Kylie Williams (CIM Magazine – June 17, 2021)

https://magazine.cim.org/en/

In mid-November 2020, Marie-Claude Dumont, senior operations manager at Trevali Mining’s Caribou zinc-lead-silver mine in northern New Brunswick, “dusted off the life-of-mine plan” for the operation the company had shuttered nine months earlier.

With zinc prices on the rise and a faint light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, Dumont and her team ran the numbers to assess the feasibility of restarting the mine. The models looked good, and with a healthy hedging deal in place, Trevali moved swiftly to announce the restart of the mine on Jan. 15, 2021.

By March 6, the first ore was at the surface and delivered to the stockpile, 20 days shy of a year since Trevali announced the temporary suspension of mine operations.

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Glencore preparing to go deeper than deep at Timmins’ Kidd Mine – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – June 8, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Feasibility study to be start on another expansion to world’s deepest base metal operation

After 55 years, the world’s deepest base metal mine looks to still have some life yet.

Glencore Canada is spending US$44 million on drilling and a feasibility study in preparing for another deep mine expansion at Kidd Mine near Timmins Kidd’s current life of mine runs out at the end of 2023 but Glencore management and technical staff have been working to extend it.

Known as Mine 5, Glencore said they’ve put 89,000 metres of drilling into the ore body and have queued up a new round of 87,000 metres once safety protocols are put in place.

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Glencore approves further drilling in hopes of extending Kidd mine life – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – June 4, 2021)

https://www.timminspress.com/

$50M feasibility study to be completed by end of 2022

Glencore Canada is investing more than $50 million on a drilling and feasibility program aimed at extending mine life at Kidd Operations. The mine is currently projected to wind down by end of 2023. However, hopes remain alive that operations may extend beyond that.

Last week, the company advised staff that the next phase of drilling and feasibility was approved for what has been dubbed the Mine 5 project, Alexis Segal, Glencore’s head of corporate communications told The Daily Press Thursday night.

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Championing a Green Energy Revolution through High-Grade Cu-Ni-Co-Zn Projects in the World’s Best Mining Jurisdictions – by Stephen Mlot, P.Eng (June 2, 2021)

Murchison Minerals Limited (TSXV: MUR) is a company founded by industry veterans and following a plan for discovering and building resources for the Green Energy Revolution through high-grade Cu-Zn and Ni-Co projects in Canada’s best mining jurisdictions.

Murchison is operating in the provinces of Saskatchewan and Quebec, based on those provinces’ rich variety of metal deposits, as well as the positive fiscal and operational environment for mineral exploration and development. In its 2020 Annual Survey of Mining Companies the Fraser Institute ranks those jurisdictions as the top two in Canada and in the top ten globally.

The Green Energy future is not just about electric vehicles and battery power. Clean energy goes beyond this to include Wind, Solar, Hydrogen Energy Cells, Geothermal and even Nuclear. Other drivers of the future will be the electrification of everything, the 5G interconnection of devices (managed by AI systems), and energy-efficient systems.

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Editorial: The cost of the Wolverine minesite – by Lewis Rifkind (Yukon News – May 9, 2021)

https://www.yukon-news.com/

The price of a decent wolverine fur goes for about $1,000 these days. Wolverine fur trim on hoods is highly desirable because it repels water. This means a frost-free hood on those cold days when Yukoners go outside.

Regrettably, there is a mine in the southeast Yukon of the same name that does not repel water and is costing Yukon residents a lot more than a single animal fur to treat its wastewater. This beast is known as the Wolverine Mine.

The Wolverine Mine site is located in the southeast Yukon on the Robert Campbell Highway between Ross River and Watson Lake. It produced mainly lead, zinc and some other metals for three years, and was last operated back in 2015.

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Tahltan Nation signs benefits agreement with Silvertip mine owners (CBC News North – January 21, 2021)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north

The Tahltan Nation and the owners of the Silvertip mine in northern British Columbia, 90 kilometres southwest of Watson Lake, Yukon, have signed an impact and benefit agreement.

The Tahltan Central Government says in a release it wants to implement the deal with Coeur Mining immediately.

“We have a shared vision of empowering Tahltan workers, entrepreneurs and companies while working together to mitigate the mine’s impacts to our Tahltan territory, culture and values,” said Chad Norman Day, president of the Tahltan central government.

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[Maine Mining] Wolfden reports additional findings of zinc, lead at Pickett Mountain location – by Alexander MacDougall (The County – January 12, 2021)

https://thecounty.me/

MT. CHASE, Maine — Additional findings of zinc minerals, as well as other elements such as lead and copper, have been found at the proposed Pickett Mountain mining site, located on property owned by Canadian mining company Wolfden Resources.

The Thunder Bay, Ontario-based company said its most recent test drilling showed polymetallic minerals, most particularly Zinc, which made up 24.2 percent of the results.

Other minerals reported were lead (11.2 percent of the results) and copper (3.2 percent). The total zinc equivalent, or the value of all reported minerals relative to the value of the mainly discovered zinc, was 52.9 percent.

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Zinc price soars as Vedanta halts Gamsberg mine after accident – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – November 18, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

Zinc prices climbed on Wednesday to an 18-month high after Vedanta suspended mining at its Gamsberg zinc mine in South Africa following an accident that trapped ten workers.

Vedanta Zinc International (VZI) noted the mine will stay closed until further notice while a search continues for two miners still missing after the incident.

The news comes in a zinc market where mine supply is already tight due mainly to restrictions to help slow the spread of covid-19.

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Why Canada needs to develop its zinc deposits – by Joseph Quesnel (Troy Media – September 30, 2020)

https://troymedia.com/

Joseph Quesnel is a research associate with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

Zinc is an important ingredient in disinfectants such as soap, so it plays an important role in preventing the spread of COVID-19. As we know, the twin pillars of COVID-19 prevention are social distancing and washing your hands properly.

So mining this bluish-white metal is important to Canada’s strategy for addressing the pandemic at home.

Beyond soap, zinc is used to galvanize steel to protect it from corrosion. And zinc is an essential element for our health, as over 200 enzymes in the human body require zinc to function.

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Significant demand from China to boost Zinc prices – by Yash Sawant (Economic Times/India Times – September 22, 2020)

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/

Yash Sawant is Research Associate, Angel Broking Ltd.

Zinc, the galvanizing metal, surged over 7 per cent and 5 per cent on the LME and MCX respectively since August’20 as the recovery narrative continues to be the solid expansion in China’s economy and massive liquidity infused by global central banks.

Another supporting element for the industrial metal prices was the plummeting US dollar. The accommodative stance adopted by the US Federal Reserve indicated a low interest environment for a prolonged period, which kept the greenback under pressure, making the industrial metals cheaper for other currency holders.

China: The recovery pillar

Zinc and the other industrial metals continued to post strong gains majorly reflecting the steady growth in China whilst the rest of the world struggled recovering from the pandemic led economic slump.

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Recovering Chinese steel output is boosting zinc price over short term – by Marleny Arnoldi (Mining Weekly – September 8, 2020)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

On the back of a stronger-than-expected rebound in economic growth in China, research agency Fitch Solutions Macro Research has revised upward its zinc price forecast for the year.

Initially, the agency anticipated a $2 100/t zinc price, but has revised it to $2 200/t, compared with a zinc price of $2 507/t at the end of 2019.

Zinc prices had fallen by 17.3% on average over the first three months of this year, but have since recovered to post new highs for the year, at a current price of about $2 483/t.

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As Arctic warming accelerates, permafrost thaw hits Red Dog mine with $20 million bill – by Nathaniel Herz (KNBA.org – September 8, 2020)

https://www.knba.org/

The multinational company that operates the massive Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska says that thawing permafrost linked to global warming has forced it to spend nearly $20 million to manage its water storage and discharge.

The problems at Red Dog, one of the world’s largest zinc mines, show how climate change poses a challenge not just to residents of Arctic Alaska, but also to the economy of the region, which is warming at triple the rate of the global average.

Vancouver-based Teck Resources Ltd. says that permafrost thaw in the watershed surrounding Red Dog is releasing higher natural levels of dissolved minerals and other particles into streams.

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ZINC-LEAD: Osisko Metals’ PEA for Pine Point suggests large-scale operation (Canadian Mining Journal – June 16, 2020)

http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

NORTHWEST TERRITORIES – A preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for Osisko Metals’ wholly owned Pine Point project outlines an 11,250 t/d open-pit and underground operation, mining 47 small open pits and eight high-grade shallow underground deposits.

The proposed 10-year mine would produce an average of 327 million lb. of zinc and 143 million lb. of lead annually at estimated cash costs of US67¢ per lb. of zinc-equivalent (including smelting, transport and royalties).
With a total initial capital cost of $555.7 million, the after-tax net present value estimate for the project, at an 8% discount rate, stands at $500 million with a 29.6% internal rate of return based on estimated life-of-mine zinc and lead prices of US$1.15 per lb. and US95¢ per lb., respectively.

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This Yukon First Nation wants to use native plants to help remediate abandoned mine sites – by Julien Gignac (The Narwhal – June 13, 2020)

The Narwhale

With unreclaimed mine sites littering Kaska territory, the community of Ross River is hatching a plan to help solve the problem: an industrial-scale nursery replete with native plants.

In southeastern Yukon, the Faro, Ketza and Wolverine mines have all seen their owners go bankrupt, leaving behind contamination and hefty cleanup tabs. Here, the community of Ross River, which is less than 180 kilometres away from all three mines, sees an opportunity.

The native plant nursery will be the first of its kind in Yukon, according to the project’s organizers, with a scale and mandate of supporting major reclamation projects that sets it apart from other nurseries in the territory.

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