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Long-awaited N.W.T. mining road through national park gets thumbs up from review board (CBC News North – September 14, 2017)

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

The much-anticipated all-season road to Canadian Zinc’s Prairie Creek mine passed its environmental assessment this week, more than five years after the Prairie Creek mine was approved in the heart of Nahanni National Park Reserve.

The Mackenzie Valley Review Board announced Tuesday it is recommending the project to the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs for conditional approval. This week’s green light marks the end of a process that lasted more than three years. The nearby Nahanni Butte Dene Band grew impatient, and began construction on their own road to the mine.

However, the board’s support is contingent on the implementation of 16 measures it says will prevent “significant adverse impacts on the environment.” Among those measures: a road adapted for permafrost conditions, along with ongoing permafrost monitoring; wildlife monitoring that incorporates traditional knowledge; and the creation of an independent technical panel to ensure the road’s design protects people and the environment.

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Fight for World’s Biggest Gold Mine Isn’t Over, Says Former CEO – by Karlis Salna and Yoga Rusmana (Bloomberg News – September 15, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

The landmark deal that forced Freeport-McMoRan Inc. to cede control of the world’s biggest gold mine and second-largest copper mine to Indonesia may not be the final outcome as both sides prepare for a politically charged fight over the price of the asset and how it will be run, according to the U.S. company’s former chief in Indonesia.

Chappy Hakim, who once led the nation’s air force and who remains an adviser to Freeport Indonesia after his resignation as chief executive in February, said the political nature of the negotiations, which have been going on for years, make it unpredictable as to what both sides will finally agree.

“They can go somewhere we don’t expect,” Hakim said in an interview in Jakarta. “There are a lot of side interests involving politicians. That’s why I don’t like it. Politicians are like golfers that have a lot of power but no direction.”

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Avalon intent to cash in on rapidly rising technology metal demand – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – September 15, 2017)

http://www.miningweekly.com/

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – A whole new world for lithium demand has aspiring technology metals firm Avalon Advanced Metals evaluating its options to cash in on the red-hot industry, with the company patiently advancing three projects in its portfolio that will benefit from higher metals prices.

Just this week, new evidence was provided that the emerging age of the electric vehicle (EV) is approaching faster and at a far greater scale than even recent forecasts predicted, with German automaker Volkswagen announcing its investment of about €20-billion in the space, which could alone gobble up the entire supply of lithium today.

China also dropped a bombshell this week when announcing tentative plans to ban internal combustion engines, which analysts expect will coincide with China’s commitment to an emissions cap by 2030.

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The one big problem with the electric-car movement – by Mark Richardson (Globe and Mail – September 13, 2017)

https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/

Auto makers are meeting government demands to develop more electric vehicles, but consumers don’t want to buy them

Half of Canada may not care – yet – but this week’s huge Frankfurt auto show is all about electrification. If it doesn’t have an electrified engine, or at least the option for it, then it just doesn’t matter.

The auto makers have little choice. Governments are insisting on it. Entire countries, such as the U.K., France, even China, are preparing to outlaw the internal combustion engine. In California and nine other states, and in Quebec, state and provincial laws are calling for huge penalties on auto makers that don’t do their part to save the planet by selling electric cars.

At this week’s show, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Jaguar Land Rover promised their fleets would offer electric options for every model, with a deadline of 2020 at the earliest and 2025 at the latest. BMW showed its all-electric Mini, which will be sold in 2019, and a sporty version of its i3; Mercedes showed its all-electric EQA and EQC concepts, and Audi showed its all-electric Elaine coupe concept.

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Gold miners seek safety as political risks rise – by Nicole Mordant (Reuters U.S. – September 14, 2017)

https://www.reuters.com/

VANCOUVER (Reuters) – Canadian miner Eldorado Gold Corp’s threat this week to freeze investments in Greece after years of frustrating and costly permit delays highlighted the risks the industry faces when it strays away from mining-friendly countries.

After moving into higher-risk countries in recent years to mine new deposits, companies are being forced to seek safe havens during a rise in so-called resource nationalism and other political headwinds.

From Indonesia and Tanzania to South Africa and Zambia, governments are demanding greater control over mineral riches as metals prices rise, often seeking higher royalty payments. In Eldorado’s case, the company faces a leftist-led Greek government that publicly backs investment but has powerful insiders that oppose privately owned mining projects.

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Greece to grant mining permits to Canada’s Eldorado as workers protest – by Angeliki Koutantou and Alkis Konstantinidis (Reuters Canada – September 13, 2017)

https://ca.reuters.com/

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece said on Wednesday it would grant Canada’s Eldorado Gold outstanding permits this week to enable it to fully operate one of its three Greek projects, days after the miner threatened to suspend a major investment in the country.

Eldorado’s investment in northern Greece is among the biggest since its debt crisis began seven years ago and has long been viewed as a litmus test of Greece’s resolve to attract foreign capital. But differences have dragged on for years, especially over compliance with environmental regulations.

Eldorado Gold said on Monday it would halt new investment into its Olympias and Skouries projects and the Stratoni mine from Sept 22 due to permit delays and lack of clarity on an upcoming arbitration process.

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Elements of bio-mining: Engineering collaboration aims to turn mine waste into valuable metals – by Tyler Irving (U of T Engineering News – September 13, 2017)

UofT Engineering News Home

They are invisible to the naked eye, able to withstand extreme conditions and capable of breathing rocks. They are the microbes that thrive in tailings ponds at mining sites around the world, and a team of Canadian researchers believes they are the key to transforming waste material into something much more valuable.

“There are bugs that thrive on metabolizing sulfur, others on metabolizing iron,” says Professor Vladimiros Papangelakis (ChemE). “If we can control such biochemical reactions, we could both remediate the waste and recover valuable metals that could pay for the cost of processing.”

Papangelakis, along with Professor Elizabeth Edwards (ChemE) is leading the Elements of Bio-mining project, a multidisciplinary collaboration between U of T Engineering, Laurentian University, and the University of British Columbia (UBC), as well as a number of technology, engineering and mining companies, including Glencore, Vale, Teck, Barrick and Hatch.

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Gold Demand Stifled in Top Buyer by Prices, Laundering Curbs – by Swansy Afonso (Bloomberg News – September 13, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Rising gold prices and government measures to enforce compliance in the Indian jewelry industry are deadening demand in the world’s second-largest bullion market at the start of the traditional festival season when buying usually explodes.

“If you ask me, I wouldn’t purchase gold even if it was Diwali,” Prathamesh Mallya, chief analyst at Angel Commodities Broking, said by phone from Mumbai, referring to the Hindu festival of lights. “A lot of things have been happening across the globe that have been pulling up prices. And if North Korea sends another ballistic missile next week, you will see prices rising again.”

Bullion has climbed almost 10 percent on the Indian market this year as world prices increased on global tensions and reduced chances of a further hike in U.S. interest rates in 2017.

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Editorial: Gold, copper reach new highs – by John Cumming (Northern Miner – September 13, 2017)

The sustained strength in most precious and base metals this year reached breakout levels in September, as a weakening U.S. dollar and renewed optimism over Chinese metal demand pushed metal and mineral prices to new highs.

At press time, the spot gold price had surged to an 11-month high of US$1,336.60 per oz., up US$47.90, or 3.7%, in the last 30 days, up 9% in the last two months and up 17% this calendar year. Gold briefly touched US$1,356.60 per oz. on Sept. 8, before pulling back over the next two days, and seeming endling a two-month run-up from the US$1,211 per oz. level on July 10.

While the U.S. has enjoyed soaring stock markets, a growing economy and falling unemployment levels since Donald Trump was sworn in as U.S. president, the U.S. dollar has steadily lost strength throughout 2017, and has seen an accelerated decline since July, which observers attribute to the U.S. Federal Reserve not raising interest rates and gridlock in Washington, D.C. — which derailed health care reform and threatens to scuttle planned tax cuts. The U.S. Dollar Index is down more than 10% this year to 91.861 at press time.

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PotashCorp mulls selling stake in Chilean lithium producer SQM — report – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – September 13, 2017)

http://www.mining.com/

Canada’s Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (TSX, NYSE:POT), the world’s largest producer of the fertilizer by capacity, may sell its stake in Chilean lithium miner SQM to secure approval for its friendly merger with smaller rival Agrium (TSX, NYSE:AGU).

PotashCorp, which holds 32% percent of SQM and has three of eight board seats, said earlier this week the Canadian competition bureau had okayed the merger as it concluded the transaction would not lead to a substantial lessening or prevention of local competition for products sold by both companies, including potash fertilizer, dry or liquid phosphate fertilizer and nitric acid.

The parties, however, warned the link-up is expected to close several months later than previously anticipated due in part to authorities in China and India who want the divestment of certain minority interests owned by PotashCorp.

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Opinion: Proposed Pebble Mine a non-starter for Alaska – by Joe Chythlook (Vancouver Sun – September 13, 2017)

http://vancouversun.com/

Joe Chythlook is chairman of the board of the Anchorage-based Bristol Bay Native Corporation.

By now, Alaskans have come to the unfortunate realization that the proposed Pebble Mine — a potentially massive gold and copper mine owned by a Vancouver company — is not dead.

A new administration in Washington, D.C. that is taking a vastly different approach to resource management is giving fresh life to a proposal to build a mine in an ecologically sensitive and economically important area of the state.

For many in the Bristol Bay region in southwest Alaska, timing of the Pebble Limited Partnership’s recent settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was ironic. It came just before the start of commercial fishing season — a season in which a near-record 59 million fish passed through Bristol Bay, waters that supply nearly half of the world’s wild sockeye salmon harvest.

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Carmakers face electric reality as combustion engine outlook dims – by Laurence Frost and Edward Taylor (Reuters U.S. – September 11, 2017)

https://www.reuters.com/

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – European car bosses are beginning to address the realities of mass vehicle electrification, and its consequences for jobs and profit, their minds focused by government pledges to outlaw the combustion engine.

As the latest such announcement on Monday by China added momentum to a push for zero-emissions motoring, Daimler (DAIGn.DE), Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) and PSA Group (PEUP.PA) gave details about their electric programs that could give policymakers some pause.

Planned electric Mercedes models will initially be just half as profitable as conventional alternatives, Daimler warned – forcing the group to find savings by outsourcing more component manufacturing, which may in turn threaten German jobs.

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Authorities: Gold miners at a bar bragged about slaughtering members of a reclusive Brazilian tribe – by Cleve R. Wootson Jr. (Washington Post – September 11, 2017)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/

The outside world might never have heard about the suspected massacre if not for some barroom boasting by a group of miners fresh from working an illegal gig in the Amazon jungle. The garimpeiros had bragged that they’d come across members of a reclusive, uncontacted Amazonian tribe near Brazil’s border with Peru and Colombia, authorities say.

The tribe members were greater in number — there were as many as 10 — but the gold miners said they’d gotten the better of them and killed the entire lot, said Carla de Lello Lorenzi, communications officer for Survival International in Brazil, relaying information from reports the group had received.

The miners cut the tribe members’ bodies so that they wouldn’t float, Lorenzi said, then dropped them into the Jandiatuba River. The miners had collected tools and jewelry from the indigenous dead, corroborating their story.

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China’s commodity imports show why rally in prices may stall – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – September 10, 2017)

https://www.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia (Reuters) – China’s imports of major commodities in August illustrate both why prices have gained in recent months and why this rally may be running out of steam. Imports of crude oil, copper, coal and iron ore remained relatively robust in August, but the customs data released on Sept. 8 also showed a certain loss of momentum.

Crude oil imports were 33.98 million tonnes, equivalent to about 8 million barrels per day (bpd), which was the lowest in about eight months and down from 8.18 million bpd in July.

While an explanation can be found in maintenance closures by refineries and ramped up environmental inspections by the authorities, it does appear that China’s crude oil imports have been losing some momentum. The year-on-year increase for the first eight months of 2017 was 12.2 percent, which is still robust.

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Eldorado Gold’s suspension threatens Greece’s investment image – by Sotiris Nikas and Paul Tugwell (Bloomberg/Globe and Mail – September 11, 2017)

https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/

Eldorado Gold Corp. has put Greece on the spot. The Canadian mining company’s decision on Monday to suspend all its operations in Greece, citing delays in acquiring routine permits, puts the Syriza government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in a difficult position.

Eldorado Gold is the largest foreign investor in Greece and its decision comes as the country, which is working on creating a sustainable path to exit its bailout program, tries to lure foreign investments. “Irrespective of what will happen next, the damage for Greece as an investment destination is done and it is very significant,” said Wolfango Piccoli, co-president of Teneo Intelligence in London.

The Greek economy has shrunk by more than 25 per cent since Europe’s sovereign debt crisis began in 2008. Since 2010, the country has been under bailout programs with stringent belt-tightening requirements. It has been working on attracting investments such as Eldorado’s to end the bailouts and tackle high unemployment.

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