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Can Canada remain an ‘energy superpower’? – by Glen Hodgson (Globe and Mail – September 6, 2017)

https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/

Glen Hodgson is senior fellow at the Conference Board of Canada

A decade ago, Canada was being touted by political leaders and media commentators as an “energy superpower.” Does that description still fit today – and will it be appropriate tomorrow?

It goes without saying that energy is a key part of the Canadian economy. It represents about 10 per cent of GDP and one-fifth of exports. Canadian oil production has grown by around 50 per cent in volume terms over the past decade – driven by oil sands investment and production – although natural-gas production has softened. Canadian exports of oil, natural gas and low-carbon electricity are very much in demand in the U.S. market.

But the energy game is changing. Four factors are going to challenge Canada’s future status as an energy power.

Factor 1: Ample new sources of oil and natural gas supply. Arguably the most striking story of new energy supply is happening not in the traditional Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries countries, but right next door in the United States.

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World’s Richest Mines Slipping From Hands of Multinationals – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – September 5, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Outnumbered and outflanked, Freeport-McMoRan Inc. Chief Executive Officer Richard Adkerson made an about-face. Only months before, Adkerson had dismissed the idea of selling a majority stake in the Phoenix-based company’s flagship Indonesian copper-and-gold mine to local investors. But, seated beside government officials in Jakarta last week, the veteran executive told reporters he planned to do just that.

“Freeport caves to govt demands” headlined The Jakarta Post while the Indonesian Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry tweeted its glee: “Freeport obedient, Indonesia is sovereign” and posted pictures of Adkerson, conspicuous in gold-and-black batik alongside triumphant local officials.

That image — a red-faced American CEO in a tropical shirt furiously back peddling — may come to haunt not just Adkerson but his cohort of multinational CEOs. Freeport’s loosening grip on its Indonesian crown jewel illustrates a larger challenge facing the global mining industry: In a surge of economic nationalism, local governments and unions are pushing back against Western dominance of the world’s natural resources.

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Trudeau announces $360 million highway improvement package for Yukon (Halifax Chronicle Herald – September 2, 2107)

http://thechronicleherald.ca/

THE CANADIAN PRESS – WHITEHORSE — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau poured nearly a quarter of a billion dollars into Yukon’s highway network Saturday in hopes it will lead to resource development, but some Indigenous leaders remain wary about environmental implications.

Trudeau and Yukon Premier Sandy Silver announced their two governments will spend more than $360 million to improve road access to mineral-rich areas in the territory. The federal share amounts to $247 million of that total.

The governments say the money will upgrade more than 650 km of road and build or upgrade a number of bridges for highways leading into the Dawson Range in Central Yukon and the Nahanni Range in the southeast part of the territory.

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Rise of copper and nickel has miners reaching for shelved plans – by Paul Garvey (The Australian – September 5, 2017)

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

The resurgence in nickel and copper prices to their highest levels in years has become the latest boon for Australia’s resources sector, boosting profit margins for miners and prompting others to consider dusting off old mines and forgotten exploration projects.

Nickel, which has for so long had been the exception to the broader post-downturn recovery in metals prices, this week touched its highest level in two years while the copper price has climbed to heights not seen since 2014.

The price of both metals has been helped along by a combination of a weaker US dollar, supply outages and healthy demand, as well as longer-term expectations of a substantial boost in demand from the rapidly expanding electric vehicles market.

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Nickel Prices Leap to Highest Level in Over Two Years – by Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – September 3, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Nickel climbed to a two-year high and copper extended gains to the highest since September 2014 as bets on tighter markets, especially in top user China, buoyed metals after their longest run of weekly gains in a decade.

Nickel advanced as much as 2.9 percent to $12,380 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange, its highest since June 2015. Copper climbed as much as 1.3 percent to $6,924 a ton. Most metals rose after the LME Index of six contracts capped an eight-week advance on Friday — one short of a record run in 2006.

Industrial metals have been lifted by sustained demand growth and restrained supply. In China, environmental inspections and planned anti-pollution curbs on steel and aluminum have also stoked expectations of shortages. Gains are also being fueled by a weaker dollar and a super-charged steel market in China that’s steering sentiment for other commodities.

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Mineral exploration up, but more needed ‘to find the mines of tomorrow’ – by Darren Gray (Sydney Morning Herald – September 4, 2017)

http://www.smh.com.au/

Australia needs more greenfields mineral exploration “to find the mines of tomorrow,” the acting chief executive of the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies said on Monday, in the wake of new national figures showing a slight lift in spending on mining exploration.

Graham Short welcomed the jump in mineral exploration spending (excluding petroleum), which rose 9.9 per cent in the June quarter to an estimated $437.7 million on a seasonally adjusted basis. The new Australian Bureau of Statistics figures also showed a smaller increase, of 4.7 per cent, in petroleum exploration expenditure to $355.6 million.

The ABS figures showed that while mineral exploration spending (excluding petroleum) was up $90 million on June last year, it was far below the levels seen in the June quarter of 2011 and 2013, when activity was estimated at about $600 million on a seasonally adjusted basis.

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COLUMN-Boom, bust and boom again for rare earths? – by Andy Home (Reuters U.K. – September 1, 2017)

http://uk.reuters.com/

LONDON, Sept 1 (Reuters) – All commodity markets are prone to boom and bust cycles. But few have been as spectacular as that experienced by rare earths at the turn of the decade. Prices of such exotic components of the periodic table as dysprosium and terbium increased by multiples over 2010-2011 before collapsing just as quickly.

Five subsequent years of low-scale range-trading have seen rare earths slip off the collective investment radar, their place taken by new “hot” metals such as lithium and cobalt. But now they’re back. Or at least a couple of them are.

The prices of neodymium MYSTL-GANZ-NEDO and praseodymium oxide MYSTL-GANZ-PRAS are going stratospheric again, up by over 80 percent since the start of the year. As ever with rare earths, this is all about what is happening in China, the world’s dominant producer of these critical materials.

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COLORADO LEGENDS: Ghosts of the Cripple Creek Mining District (Legends of America)

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/

In the high country beyond Pike’s Peak is the Cripple Creek Mining District, dotted with historic mine shafts, head frames, and tumbling down miners’ cabins. Not only might a visitor find a “taste” of gold fever in this historic district, but may also experience their hair rising on the back of their necks as they “bump” into one of the many ghosts that reportedly roam the area.

Like many other mining towns of the Old West, Cripple Creek is said to be extremely haunted. Given its rich history, complete with mining accidents, floods, fires, lawlessness, and bloody battles between mine owners and labor unions, it comes as no surprise to learn of the many ghosts who continue to linger in this once thriving city. In fact, there are so many tales of spirits wandering this historic town, that at one time boasted one homicide per day, some say it is the one of the most haunted cities in the United States.

The Fairley Brothers and Lampman Building at 300 East Bennett Avenue now houses the Colorado Grande Casino and Maggie’s Restaurant. Here, you may not only enjoy a little gaming and some great food, but you might just get a glimpse of a ghost as well.

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North-south road offers way out of poverty, isolation for Martin Falls First Nation – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – September 1, 2017)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Marten Falls will collaborate with province on first stage of Ring of Fire road

One isolated First Nation community near the Ring of Fire declares that a year-round access road will bring a “prosperous, sustainable, and more inclusive future for its elders, youth and families.” In an Aug. 31 news release, Marten Falls said the time has come to finally be connected to the provincial highway system after “years of negotiating and planning” for a community access road.

Premier Kathleen Wynne’s two-corridor Ring of Fire road proposal unveiled in Thunder Bay on Aug. 21 was initially being celebrated as a breakthrough in finally making progress on development in the stalled Far North mineral camp.

Within days, the chiefs of four of the five communities closest to the Ring of Fire either backtracked on their support for a east-west shared community/industrial road, or vowed to stop its planned construction in early 2019.

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NEWS RELEASE: Marten Falls First Nation’s North-South Road Goes to the Community and Eventually to Ring of Fire

THUNDER BAY, Ontario, Aug. 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Marten Falls First Nation was pleased to participate in the August 21st media announcement of the government of Ontario. What is most important for Marten Falls and has been overlooked in the announcement is the reality that the First Nation will finally, after years of negotiating and planning, get a community access road. The road to the community will follow a north-south alignment from around Aroland/Nakina and construction of the road is planned to start in 2019.

Marten Falls views the access road as a means to food security and to improving housing, education and economic opportunities. The First Nation experiences poverty, drug addiction, and social and economic challenges and has also been denied development and employment opportunities due to remoteness.

Marten Falls has been looking for options to connect the community to the provincial highway for a while and although four other remote regional First Nations received $785,000 in March 2015 from the federal and provincial governments for studying an all-weather road, Marten Falls only started work on road options with the province late last year.

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[South Dakota Gold Mining History] New Homestake trail retraces the past – by Tom Griffith (Rapid City Journal – August 31, 2017)

http://rapidcityjournal.com/

LEAD | Listen long enough as winds comb through the boughs of towering pines and you’ll hear the century-old whispers of steam-fired trains chugging through the forest to service the fabled Homestake Gold Mine.

Now, more than 100 years after hundreds of faceless miners scraped and blasted a rail bed through the remotest regions of the Black Hills, hikers and mountain bikers have the opportunity to retrace the route of a narrow-gauge railroad that brought needed supplies from Deadwood to its sister city of Lead and the Homestake Mine.

The new three-mile Homestake Railroad Grade Trail returns to life a major transportation portal that traces its origins to 1890, when the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad constructed the line to haul myriad supplies to the burgeoning gold camp of Lead.

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Preparing for more robots in Yukon mining – by Lewis Rifkind (Yukon News – August 29, 2017)

Increased automation means the territory has to be prepared for changes in the mining industry

Mining creates jobs but jobs are fickle things. Not only humans can do them. Robots and computers can also do them too, and usually do them cheaper and better than humans

Signs of that are obvious, Automated Teller Machines have somewhat replaced human bank tellers. Even ATMs are now being somewhat replaced by online banking applications on smartphones and computers. Certain coffee shops now have automated coffee makers. Press a button and instant, freshly brewed java pours into your cup. Think of how many baristas those machines have replaced.

The mining industry is not immune to these changes. According to a report developed by the McKinsey Global Institute, A future that works: Automation, employment, and productivity (January 2017), 96% of some mining jobs, such as continuous mining machine operators, can be automated.

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Palladium Rally Is About More Than Just Autos – by Shelley Goldberg (Bloomberg News – August 30, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Geopolitical risk has a role, too.

Palladium has been on a tear this year. Its spot price increased 45 percent year on year in the first half of 2017, and it now trades at a 16-year high. Although the rally has largely been attributed to the strong demand from the automotive industry, there’s a geopolitical risk premium baked into the price.

Approximately 67 percent of palladium produced is used in catalytic converters, which convert up to 90 percent of the harmful gases in automobile exhaust to less noxious substances.

Global auto sales, up 4 percent for the year, are driven by a global increase in SUV sales, the ongoing shift from diesel to gasoline engines in Europe (diesel engines alternatively use platinum), and tightening emission legislation.

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Premier Wall says he expects head-office pledge to be honoured after PotashCorp-Agrium merger – by Alex MacPherson (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – August 31, 2017)

http://thestarphoenix.com/

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall says he expects that the “spirit and the letter” of Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc.’s pledge to the province in the wake of BHP Billiton’s failed takeover bid will be reflected in Nutrien Ltd., the company that will be formed when PotashCorp and Agrium Inc. merge later this year.

To that extent, the outgoing premier said, Saskatchewan’s new energy and resources minister Nancy Heppner will in the coming weeks contact Saskatoon-based PotashCorp and Agrium, which is headquartered in Calgary, to ensure the new firm’s head office will in fact be located in Saskatchewan.

“We want to ensure that Saskatchewan, as the head office for this company, has the maximum number of head office jobs, that the presence in this province is indisputably the head office,” Wall told reporters Wednesday at Government House in Regina after shuffling his 17-member cabinet.

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‘We’ll have final say on any mining,’ warn Panguna landowners – by Fabian Hakalits (Asia Pacific Report – August 30, 2017)

Panguna landowners will determine any reopening of the controversial mine on Bougainville, says a local leader. Philip Miriori, chairman of the Special Mining Lease Osikaiyang Land Owners Association (SMLOLA) in Panguna, Philip Miriori, has told EMTV News that all parties and talks would go through them.

This was because the people in the Special Mining Lease area were greatly affected by the mine’s impacts when it was operating in the 1980s before the 10-year Bougainville civil war. “We do not want the past to repeat itself but it must be a reminder to us now to get a better deal for the SMLOLA members and the rest of Bougainville,” he said.

Miriori said the past had gone, and history should not be repeated in Bougainville. He claimed meetings had been conducted with resolutions and agreements passed which the SMLOLA were not a party to.

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