Republic of Mining

Ajax mine: too close for comfort in Kamloops? – by Nelson Bennett (Business Vancouver – September 19, 2017)

September 20, 2017

https://www.biv.com/

Copper-gold mine is just two kilometres from the city limits

“I’m not against mining, but…” That line from a recent letter to the editor in Kamloops This Week pretty much sums up the tone of discussion around the Ajax copper-gold mine – a discussion that has been going on in Kamloops since 2011.

It’s a discussion that promises to get more heated in the coming weeks, now that the mine project is in the public comment period of a joint provincial-federal environmental review.

According to KGHM International Ltd., the Polish company that would develop the mine, Ajax would cost $1 billion to build, create 1,800 short-term jobs over a two-and-a-half-year construction period and 500 permanent jobs once the mine is in operation, and generate an annual payroll of $60 million.

Russian Nuclear Giant Joins Scramble to Supply Electric-Car Boom – by Jack Farchy and Elena Mazneva (Bloomberg News – September 19, 2017)

September 20, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Russia’s state-owned nuclear corporation is joining the lithium rush. After a collapse in the price of uranium, Rosatom Corp. plans to start mining and trading the metal used in batteries as it seeks to profit from the rapid rise of electric vehicles.

“The evolution of the car business is going much faster than predicted,” Kirill Komarov, the company’s first deputy head, said in an interview. “We plan to accumulate the whole integrated line of everything starting from lithium and up to final batteries or even some cooperation with car producers.”

Rosatom is the latest company to join a global scramble for lithium projects to supply growing demand for batteries used in electric cars such as Tesla Inc.’s Model 3 and General Motors Co.’s Chevrolet Bolt.

Dominion Diamond investors OK $1.2B US sale to Washington Companies (CBC News North – September 19, 2017)

September 20, 2017

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

Shareholders expected to receive $14.25 US per share in cash when acquisition closes

The Canadian Press: The Canadian head office of Dominion Diamond is to remain in Calgary after its shareholders voted on Tuesday to approve its $1.2-billion US sale to Washington Companies.

Larry Simkins, president of the Montana-based acquirer, attended Dominion’s special meeting. He said afterwards it wouldn’t make sense to relocate the 100 employees of Dominion in Calgary after the head office was moved from Yellowknife earlier this year.

“It just moved here and the last thing we would do is uproot families and move them back to Yellowknife or some other place,” he said. Investors in the Northwest Territories diamond producer voted more than 99 per cent in favour of the deal announced in July.

Northwest Territories Mining – The Drive Beyond Diamonds: Whati Road Could Deliver Polymetallic NICO Mine and More – by John Curran (Aboriginal Business Quarterly – Summer 2017)

September 20, 2017

For the entire issue: http://www.mirabelsmagazinecentral.com/Publication/Product/inukshuk-publishing/aboriginal-business-quarterly/summer-2017

There’s no denying the importance of the mining sector for the NWT’s economy, but at the same time this key industry has become completely dependent on a single commodity in recent times: Diamonds. Over the years, gold, lead, zinc, silver, tungsten, radium and many other minerals have been mined around the territory, but those days are currently in the rearview mirror. As the recent downturn has shown us, economic dependence on a single item plucked from the ground is never good – even something as lucrative as diamonds.

When prices for rough gems dropped a couple of years back and NWT mines were forced to trim operating costs, the territory has been suffering through the miners’ belt-tightening ever since. Despite the decline, diamond mining remains the dominant industry in the NWT.

“Resource projects, such as the diamond mines, provide the GNWT with a significant portion of corporate income tax, fuel tax, and property tax revenues and the projects’ employees provide payroll tax and personal income tax revenues,” said Andrew Livingstone, Senior GNWT Cabinet Communications Advisor. “Over the past three years, diamond mines contributed 41 per cent of the GNWT’s corporate income, fuel, property and payroll tax revenue.”

Resource nationalism: do the riches outweigh the risks? – by Sandra Rubin (Lexpert Business of Law – September 19, 2017)

September 20, 2017

http://www.lexpert.ca/

Canadian miners experiencing “increasing anxiety” over country risk

WITH A GROWING NUMBER of mining companies moving into higher-risk countries in recent years in the search of the next big deposit, they and their investors are increasingly grappling with a resurgence in resource nationalism that can badly buffet share prices.

There’s been a trend recently for foreign governments, especially in emerging-market countries, to target large producers and seek higher taxes, larger shares of the profits, new ownership arrangements or new kinds of payments from the same companies they once wooed with generous concessions.

And if they don’t get what they’re asking for? The companies may find their permits yanked, their income and personnel restricted from leaving the country, their tax regimes or legal obligations suddenly changed, or even be forced to give the government or state a larger stake in the project.

Matt Barrie says doomed Australia needs ‘an Apollo program’ (Australian Financial Review – September 20, 2017)

September 20, 2017

http://www.afr.com/

Australia is doomed to become a third-world country unless its government starts “something like the Apollo program” to inspire its citizens into becoming a technology economy, Freelancer.com chief executive Matt Barrie told the AFR Innovation Summit 2017.

Australians are “too busy paying off their mortgages and watching Netflix” to realise their economy was missing out on a technology goldrush, Mr Barrie said, which had seen just five American technology companies – Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook – now generate annual revenues equivalent to half of Australia’s gross domestic product.

The economy would struggle to replace the revenues lost when the mining booms and housing booms inevitably imploded, Mr Barrie said, pointing out that Chinese banks were by some estimates facing $1.7 trillion losses from bad loans.

OPINION: In the Amazon, a Catastrophic Gold Rush Looms – by Chris Feliciano Arnold (New York Times – September 18, 2017)

September 19, 2017

https://www.nytimes.com/

CONCORD, Calif. — Brazil’s interim president, Michel Temer, is willing to sacrifice millions of acres of rain forest in pursuit of a 16th-century boondoggle: fortunes of gold in the Amazon.

In August, Mr. Temer signed a decree to open a rain forest reserve — an area larger than Denmark — to commercial mining, threatening decades of progress on environmental protection and indigenous rights in the Amazon. The approximately 17,800-square-mile National Reserve of Copper and Associates, or Renca, which straddles the northern states of Pará and Amapá, was created by Brazil’s military dictatorship in 1984 to guard mineral resources from foreign exploitation as the country staggered toward democracy.

Today the reserve is a patchwork of conservation areas and indigenous lands. Its protected status has deterred the runaway development rampant elsewhere in the Amazon that has squelched biodiversity, destroyed indigenous communities and reduced millions of acres of rain forest to pastureland.

Africa is rich in diamonds but still poor (Deutsche Welle – September 18, 2017)

September 19, 2017

http://www.dw.com/en/

For months now, Africa’s rough diamonds have been increasing in value but the sale proceeds do not reach the people. Instead, they benefit metropolitan elites and the mine companies, which are usually foreign-owned.

Last week Tanzanian police struck a blow against international diamond smuggling. A consignment of diamonds worth around 28 million euros ($33.4 million) was seized at the country’s main airport. Petra Diamonds, the biggest listed diamond company in the world, based in the tax haven of Jersey, had registered a consignment of 14 kilos (30 pounds.) However, according to the Tanzanian authorities, it actually weighed 30 kilos. The rough diamonds from the Williamson mine were intended for export to Belgium for processing.

The Williamson mine in the north of Tanzania is a joint venture. 75 percent belongs to Petra Diamonds, 25 percent to the Tanzanian government. Tanzania’s president, John Magufuli, has declared that combating corruption in the mining sector is a priority for his government. His anti-corruption platform played a large part in helping him to power in 2015.

Hedge funds bet on bright future for metals – by Maiya Keidan, Pratima Desai and Barbara Lewis (Reuters U.K. – September 19, 2017)

September 19, 2017

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – Hedge fund investment in the metals industry is at its highest since 2011, according to investment data, a sign that investors are hoping to profit from a rise in prices that have spent years in the doldrums.

The investment by hedge funds follows a broader inflow of money into industrial metals, where prices are rising after production cutbacks helped to reduce a supply glut. That oversupply crisis led to the closure of some specialist metals hedge funds, including those run by Apollo Global Management and Hall Commodities.

The metals industry’s fortunes are turning, as an environmental crackdown in China, the world’s second-largest economy and biggest consumer and producer of industrial metals, in polluting industries cuts supplies.

Canada’s four newest gold mines – by Alisha Hiyate (Canadian Mining Journal – September 13, 2017)

September 19, 2017

http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

It’s been tough for the last several years to get mine financing, but these four new Canadian gold mines, all coming on stream this year, prove that it hasn’t been impossible. The challenges aren’t over once the financing is in hand or the construction is complete, however. Read how these mines are dealing with the issues – big and small – that come with working the bugs out of a new operation.

BRUCEJACK – Pretium Resources – B.C.

Pretium Resources’ Brucejack mine, in B.C.’s Golden Triangle, achieved commercial production in July – only eight years after the super high grade Valley of the Kings deposit at the project was discovered.

The deposit was discovered in 2009 by Silver Standard Resources and a year later, Pretium Resources had its IPO and acquired the project. Ever since then, Pretium has been pushing hard to get the underground mine into production. In fact, the mine achieved commercial production three months early.

Nation builders: The current generation of mine builders – by Stan Sudol (Canadian Mining Journal – September 13, 2017)

September 19, 2017

http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

In the February/March 2017 issue of CMJ, I highlighted the top 10 mine builders in Canadian history and lamented that we recently passed the tenth anniversary of the takeover of historic Canadian companies Inco, Noranda and Falconbridge. These companies played a key role in opening up isolated northern regions and trained generations of world-class mine finders and builders.

Notwithstanding an enormous amount of national angst about a “hollowing out” of the Canadian resource sector, the following list of current mine builders – who may end up on some future “Top 10” list – clearly indicates that we still have an enormous talent pool of visionaries who will continue to build and find mines and create the next generation of homegrown corporations.

This list is in no particular order and is a very wide cross-section of industry players that range from junior mine builders to seasoned CEOs of multi-billion dollar corporations and represents a very small selection of Canada’s mining talent.

Tanzanian Leader’s War for Taxes Puts Economy in Firing Line – by Omar Mohammed and Michael Cohen (Bloomberg News – September 18, 2017)

September 19, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Tanzanian President John Magufuli’s deepening dispute with companies he accuses of being tax cheats is rattling investors and dimming the allure of one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies.

Since taking office in late 2015, Magufuli has been on a drive to increase revenue from natural resources to help fund his industrialization plans. His administration has passed laws enabling it to renegotiate contracts and ordered foreign mining firms to sell stakes on the local stock exchange to increase transparency.

The authorities have hit Acacia Mining Plc with a $190 billion tax bill, curbed its exports and detained a senior employee, and seized gems and questioned staff from Petra Diamonds Ltd., alleging it hadn’t paid its dues.

NEWS RELEASE: Taking action to prevent child and forced labour in the mining supply chain

September 19, 2017

OTTAWA, Sept. 18, 2017 /CNW/ – The Mining Association of Canada (MAC) today announced the addition of two new components to its Towards Sustainable Mining® (TSM®) initiative to contribute to global efforts in preventing the use of child and forced labour in the mining supply chain, and to provide the information needed to demonstrate the responsible sourcing of minerals and metals.

Despite the fact that Canada has rigorous legal measures in place to prevent child and forced labour, this action was undertaken because MAC’s TSM initiative has been expanding internationally. These additions to TSM build on the program’s commitment to continuously improve the social and environmental performance of the industry.

This work also responds to the needs of organizations such as the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition to ensure and demonstrate that such labour practices have no place in their supply chains. For example, Apple’s recently-updated Supplier Responsibility Standards included TSM, but noted that the program did not cover child or forced labour. This prompted MAC to take action to strengthen TSM in this important area.

COLUMN-Coal’s rally isn’t all about China, it’s also quality, supply – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – September 18, 2017)

September 19, 2017

https://www.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Sept 18 (Reuters) – It is increasingly popular to write obituaries for coal, with analysts, market watchers, investors and utility bosses leaping on the bandwagon, declaiming that the days of the polluting fuel are numbered.

Certainly the long-term outlook for coal is becoming less certain as more countries commit to ending, or severely curtailing, use of the fuel. But while the doomsayers may eventually be proven correct, coal is enjoying a stellar year, particularly in Asia, the main demand centre.

The price of benchmark prices for thermal coal at Australia’s Newcastle Port slipped toward the end of last week, but still ended above $100 a tonne on Sept. 15. The contract rose 45 percent from the closing low of $71.30 a tonne on May 16 to a peak of $103.50 on Sept. 12, providing a bonanza for miners in Australia and Indonesia, the two largest exporters of thermal coal used in power stations.