Republic of Mining

AUDIO: Ontario’s far north one step closer to building all-season road (CBC News Sudbury – September 17, 2017)

September 18, 2017

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

Project becoming more urgent as winter road season becomes shorter every year

Plans to build an all-season road to the James Bay Coast in northern Ontario are moving forward with a feasibility study. It will examine information gathered from community consultations, environmental data and refine cost estimates, which have been pegged between $500 to $700 million.

“We’re no longer going to be isolated,” Mushkegowuk Council Grand Chief Jonathan Solomon said. “You’re going to see forestry. You’re going to see resource development. Companies coming into your territory.” Solomon adds that he hopes a permanent road will ease the cost of living.

“For instance, back home I was in my own community of Kashechewan this week and my wife went to the store to pick up a slab of bacon,” Solomon said. “She paid $17 for that … where they’re selling $3 or $4 in Timmins.”

‘Is it realistic to say it would be 50 per cent? No’: Mine workforce parity not likely in next decade, K+S says – by Alex MacPherson (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – September 18, 2017)

September 18, 2017

http://thestarphoenix.com/

The company behind Saskatchewan’s newest potash mine employs a greater percentage of women than many of its competitors in the traditionally male-dominated industry, but its senior manager of human resources says achieving gender parity in the next decade will be a tall order.

Maryann Deutscher said that while K+S Potash Canada’s (KSPC) superintendent of primary mining is a woman and there are other similar success stories in the company, it will take time for perceptions about traditional and non-traditional roles to fade and a larger pool of women willing to work in engineering and the trades to develop.

“Is it realistic to say it would be 50 per cent? No, it’s probably not realistic because your pool’s just not there yet, right?” Deutscher said Tuesday in an interview before adding: “When you’re thinking 10 years, there’s people that have to be in those trades, in those operator-type roles now … Will it grow? It’d be great to see it even grow by 10 per cent and get up to that 25-30 per cent, for sure.”

Palladium price consensus forecasts point to end of the rally – by Frik Els (Mining.com – September 18, 2017)

September 18, 2017

http://www.mining.com/

Monday was a bleak day on precious metals markets with the glaring exception of palladium which added more than 1% to $930 an ounce, closing the gap with sister metal platinum to only $30.

At the beginning of the month, palladium futures trading in New York jumped to just shy of $1,000, the highest since 2001. The metal, mainly used to scrub vehicle emissions, is trading up 37% so far this year on a combination of strong global sales for gasoline vehicles and persistent undersupply.

2016 was the fifth year in a row of substantial deficits (1.2m ounces or 37 tonnes) as production in South Africa continues a painful decline and Russia, which together with the African nation is responsible for more than 70% of global PGM output, navigate sanctions imposed by the West.

ARCHIVES: The Murders In The Mine – by Katherine Laidlaw (Up Here.com – September 18, 2012)

September 18, 2017

http://uphere.ca/

Eighteen months on the picket line. Thirty-eight kilos of explosives. Nine men dead. 20 years passed.

It’s the story that made world news and changed a mining town forever. The Giant Mine strike stands as one of the longest and bloodiest in Canadian history, punctuated by one of the worst mass murders the country has ever seen. For those who lived through September 18, 1992, the scars have never healed. Here are their stories …

On May 22, 1992, a company called Royal Oak Mines Inc. locked out its workforce at Giant Mine in Yellowknife. The union, the local 4 chapter of the Canadian Association of Smelter and Allied Workers, and management couldn’t reach a settlement. Before the strike, it was a good, if finite, time to be a gold miner.

The average worker at Giant was pulling in $77,000 a year, and those clocking overtime were making more than $100,000. But the strike got dirty quickly as rumours swirled of Royal Oak CEO Peggy Witte’s intent to break the union. One thing she did break was an unwritten labour rule in Canada: you don’t bring in replacement workers. No mining company had done that in 45 years. Nevada-born Witte flew them in by helicopter the next day.

Out of Africa for First Cobalt: Cobalt hunter ditches Congo J-V for northeastern Ontario – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – September 18, 2017)

September 18, 2017

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Only months after announcing it was buying into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), First Cobalt is pulling out to concentrate on its exploration work in northeastern Ontario.

The Toronto-headquartered cobalt hunter announced Sept. 18 that it will not complete its “strategic alliance” on seven cobalt exploration properties in the DRC. Instead, the company said it will focus on its flagship property in the historic Cobalt mining camp.

It’s Greater Cobalt Project, includes an option for the former producing Keeley-Frontier mine, a high-grade mine that produced over 3.3 million pounds of cobalt and 19.1 million ounces of silver from 301,000 tonnes of ore, as well as a joint venture on a fully permitted cobalt refinery in the town of Cobalt.

Kinross to Invest $820 Million to Tread Water on Production – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – September 18, 2017)

September 18, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Kinross Gold Corp. is spending more than $800 million to essentially tread water as — like many miners — it faces a future in which new gold assets are increasingly difficult to find and costly to develop.

The Canadian miner said Monday it will move ahead with expansions at mines in Mauritania and Nevada as part of efforts to maintain its production and lower costs.

“I don’t look at it as standing still,” Chief Executive Officer Paul Rollinson said Monday in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “Top line production will be similar but the cash flow that’s coming out of this asset will be dramatically different.”

NEWS RELEASE: Mining Suppliers Trade Association Offers New Branding, Renewed Focus

September 18, 2017

https://mstacanada.ca/

TORONTO, Sept. 18, 2017 /CNW/ – Formerly known as the Canadian Association of Mining Equipment and Services for Export – (CAMESE), the association has rebranded with a new look and a host of new services to support members of the mining supply and service industry.

“We are very excited about our new branding and renewed focus on our member’s business priorities,” said Ryan McEachern, MSTA CANADA’s Managing Director. “With the volume of change in the sector over the past 35 years, we wanted to ensure our association was laser focused on supporting our members. Our job is to provide the tools and services they need to help grow their businesses in Canada and around the world.”

Announced at the TMX Broadcast Centre, MSTA CANADA will take a renewed focus to the Mining Service and Supply Sector by delivering enhanced value and services to its membership. “We listened to our members who told us we needed a new approach to supporting their business objectives, and we’ve done just that,” said McEachern. “We have redefined our organization to better reflect the unique needs of our members.”

FROM THE ARCHIVES: ‘It was like one big family’: 25 years later, a B.C. ghost town’s former residents still miss their home – by Maryse Zeidler (CBC News British Columbia – September 17, 2017)

September 18, 2017

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/

Cassiar, B.C., was once centred around now-closed asbestos mine

When Herb Daum thinks of growing up in Cassiar, B.C., a lot of his memories seem to be about how frigid it was. “The winters were long, cold and hard,” said Daum, 63, from his home in Powell River, B.C.

Cassiar sits near the Yukon border. Temperatures as low as – 40 C weren’t unusual there, Daum says, and lakes in the area often wouldn’t thaw until June. As a pastime when Daum was little, he and his neighbourhood friends would climb onto the roof of his porch, pull down their toques over their heads, and dive head-first into the snow.

But the house that he grew up in doesn’t exist anymore. In fact, the entire town of Cassiar is gone, razed to the ground. “It’s kind of weird losing your roots like that,” Daum said. Twenty-five years ago this week, Cassiar, B.C., held an auction like none other: up for grabs was the entire contents of the company town.

Kinross Gold to spend $1 bln to expand Mauritania, Nevada mines – by Nicole Mordant (Reuters U.K. – September 18, 2017)

September 18, 2017

http://uk.reuters.com/

Sept 18 (Reuters) – Kinross Gold Corp, as expected, gave the go-ahead on Monday to spend more than $1 billion to expand two of its gold mines, including its Tasiast mine in West Africa, but its shares fell as investors took profits after a stellar run this year.

Kinross okayed a second-phase, $590 million expansion at its Tasiast operation in Mauritania, which will help the company, the world’s fifth-biggest gold miner by output, maintain production levels as some of its other shorter-life mines show declines.

The Toronto-based miner also said it will spend $445 million to add five years of production to its Round Mountain mine in Nevada, currently scheduled to end in 2022.

OPINION: The Richmont gold deal: A sign of things to come? – by Andrew Willis (Globe and Mail – September 18, 2017)

September 18, 2017

https://beta.theglobeandmail.com

In mining circles, the Ontario town of Wawa on the shores of Lake Superior is suddenly a hot place to do business.

Wawa, home to 3,000 souls and an enormous Canada Goose sculpture, is the closest place to buy groceries if you work at the Island Gold mine, a property that has yielded 430,000 ounces of gold for owner Richmont Mines Inc. and holds something like another 1.7 million ounces of the precious metal.

Proven reserves in politically stable jurisdictions are near the top of the shopping list for acquisitive mining companies. And Wawa is the model of stability in comparison to many of the places Canadian mining companies do business, such as Tanzania, which recently hit a Barrick Gold Corp. subsidiary with an absurd $190-billion (U.S.) tax bill – that’s billion with a “B” – as part of an ongoing dispute over three mines, or even Greece, where the government in dragging its feet on permits for properties owned by Eldorado Gold Corp.

Mining millions to lift traditional Aboriginal landowners out of ‘poverty’, says Ngadju elder – by Jarrod Lucas (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – September 17, 2017)

September 18, 2017

http://www.abc.net.au/

Twenty-five years since the High Court’s landmark Mabo decision, traditional landowners in one of Western Australia’s biggest mining regions are finally starting to see the benefits of native title.

The resources wealth of WA’s Goldfields, which generates a gross regional product of more than $6 billion for the state, has not stemmed the ongoing social issues that prompted a widespread trial of the Federal Government’s cashless welfare card.

But Aboriginal leaders are optimistic the start-up of two major mining operations will improve the lives of Indigenous Australians living in poverty while creating life-changing education and job opportunities for young people. The $456 million Nova nickel-copper mine, which was officially opened this month by WA Mines Minister Bill Johnston, is expected to deliver more than $20 million in native title royalties for the Ngadju people over the next decade.

Don’t let Dawson City’s UNESCO debate pit miner against miner – by Stuart Schmidt (Yukon News – September 14, 2017)

September 15, 2017

Stuart Schmidt is the past president of the Klondike Placer Miners’ Association.

The nomination of Trondek-Klondike for UNESCO world heritage designation is a contentious subject and I am concerned that it is causing a rift within the membership of the Klondike Placer Miners’ Association (KPMA) and among the placer mining community at large. I would like to try to explain why I support the UNESCO nomination even though there may be no immediate or apparent benefit to gold miners or our organization.

I have not forgotten 2003 when the federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans cancelled the Yukon Placer Authorization and we were faced with the prospect of most of us not being able to operate any longer or only being able to operate in a very limited fashion in only a few areas. I was truly grateful for all the people in the Yukon who came out and voiced their support for placer mining both in Dawson and across the territory.

I was and continue to be especially grateful to the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation. They came out fully in support of all of us and they carry a lot of political clout. This I have not forgotten and to this day I feel indebted to them for their support during those challenging times.

BlackRock fund bets big on electric future for lithium – by Henry Sanderson (Financial Times – September 15, 2017)

September 15, 2017

https://www.ft.com/

BlackRock has emerged as a big backer of lithium start-ups, as the world’s largest asset manager bets on the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.

The BlackRock World Mining Trust, which has more than £800m in assets and is co-managed by Evy Hambro, has become the largest shareholder in a handful of small mining companies aiming to produce lithium for use in batteries.

Demand for lithium has surged as the first mass-market electric vehicles such as the Tesla Model 3, Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Bolt attract buyers. Growing demand for EVs has sparked a scramble to locate new supplies of lithium and prices have jumped about 26 per cent this year, making it one of the best performing commodities.