Republic of Mining

Michelle Ash: Barrick Gold’s Chief Innovation Officer: Digital Mining

July 11, 2017

http://www.ideacity.ca/

Michelle Ash is the Chief Innovation Officer at Barrick, where she looks at how innovation can not only drive productivity in the existing business, but how it can be harnessed to deliver alternative business models.

She joined Barrick in January 2016, with more than 20 years’ experience in the mining and manufacturing sectors, with a focus on business improvement and change management.

Previously she was Chief Operating Officer for Acacia Mining in Tanzania, spearheading business improvement programs that resulted in operational improvements and cost-savings.

Cheryl Recollet : Wahnapitae First Nation Director of Sustainable Development – Mining and Indigenous People – New Cooperation

July 11, 2017

http://www.ideacity.ca/

The Wahnapitae First Nation, near Sudbury, has taken a proactive approach to promote environmental sustainability in dealing with mining companies. Cheryl Recollet, Director of Sustainable Development, will tell us how and why the partnership works.

Cheryl Recollet is the key point of contact for consultation and negotiation strategies with industry and the government — including implementing and monitoring environmental components of mining relationships.

George Salamis: Executive Chairman of Integra Gold Corp. – Mining Disruption: An Overview

July 11, 2017

http://www.ideacity.ca/

Last year he challenged the industry to “get off the sidelines and into the innovation game.” Get ready to be astounded by what that means.

With over 25 years of experience in the mining industry, George Salamis understands the opportunities. He issued his challenge at Integra’s 2016 Gold Rush Challenge, the industry’s largest ever crowdsourcing campaign. Now new technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence and virtual reality are being applied to mineral exploration, and George is in demand as a speaker who can explain what’s happening now, and what’s coming next.

Todd White: Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Goldcorp Inc. on Designing Mines of the Future (Idea City.ca – June 2017)

July 11, 2017

http://www.ideacity.ca/

Todd White is Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Goldcorp Inc. He has a multinational background in large-scale development projects, management systems and operational efficiency over two decades. He’s a strong voice for continuing innovation in the mining industry.

He was formerly Senior Vice President, South America at Newmont Mining Corporation, responsible for leading business excellence, operations and environmental stewardship.

Could DRC’s resource wealth be the key to ending its conflicts too? – by Keith Slack (Oxfam America – July 10, 2017)

July 11, 2017

https://politicsofpoverty.oxfamamerica.org/

If there is to be a chance at peace, comprehensive mining reforms are needed to fight poverty and violence in DRC.

Africa watchers will know that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is once again poised on the verge of violent conflagration. How the country got there and how it might pull itself back from the brink are of keen interest to those of us who work on the “resource curse.”
DRC’s pathways into violence, and likely out of it, are deeply connected to its vast mineral resources. Harnessing those resources for development, rather than empowering those who would rip the country apart, is DRC’s defining development challenge – one that implicates everyone with a stake in the country’s future: donor countries, mining companies, civil society, and of course the country’s citizens and government.

DRC’s current crisis stems from President Joseph Kabila’s defiance of the country’s constitution and failure to leave office at the end of his term last year, and the foregoing of elections to choose his replacement.

Al Gore to PM: ‘Malcolm, don’t build the mine’ – by Nick Whigham (News.com.au – July 11, 2017)

July 11, 2017

http://www.news.com.au/

FORMER United States Vice President Al Gore has a message from our Prime Minister: “Malcolm, don’t build the mine.” He is, of course, referring to the government’s plan to allow Indian mining conglomerate Adani to build a mega-mine in North Queensland known as the Carmichael coal mining project.

Mr Gore is in Australia ahead of the release of An Inconvenient Sequel, the follow up to his Oscar-winning 2006 documentary on global warming. The movie follows Mr Gore as he travels the world giving his famous power point presentation and meeting politicians while championing the need for renewable energy sources to replace fossil fuels.

When asked by news.com.au if he’d ever tried to persuade the Australian government from pursuing the controversial mining project, he seized the opportunity. “Well if he’s watching, Malcolm don’t build the mine,” he said. “That’s a direct way to do it.”

Tanzania’s president signs new mining bills into law (Reuters U.S. – July 10, 2017)

July 11, 2017

https://www.reuters.com/

Tanzanian President John Magufuli said on Monday he has signed into law new mining bills which require the government to own at least a 16 percent stake in mining projects. The laws, which also increase royalties tax on gold and other minerals, were passed by parliament last week despite opposition from the mining industry body.

Magufuli reiterated on Monday that no new mining licenses would be issued until Tanzania “puts things in order” and that the government would review all existing mining licenses with foreign investors.

“We must benefit from our God-given minerals and that is why we must safeguard our natural resource wealth to ensure we do not end up with empty mining pits,” Magufuli told a rally in his home village in Chato district, northwestern Tanzania.

Fires Affect Canadian Lumber Mills, Get Close to Kinder Pipeline – by Natalie Obiko Pearson, Danielle Bochove and Jen Skerritt (Bloomberg News – July 11, 2017)

July 11, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

More than 300 wildfires in British Columbia have forced Canadian lumber mills to shut as hot, dry weather sparked blazes across swaths of western Canada and the U.S. Norbord Inc., the largest North American producer of oriented strand board used in residential construction, suspended production at its mill in 100 Mile House in central B.C. but stressed that, for now, the mill is safe.

“We were in a zone that got evacuated Sunday night so we shut the mill down and that continues to be the situation,” Norbord Chief Financial Officer Robin Lampard said by phone Tuesday morning. The Toronto-based company has 440 million square feet of annual production capacity. It hasn’t disclosed the cost per day of the shutdown, Lampard said.

Canfor Corp.’s operations aren’t directly affected by the wildfires, spokeswoman Corinne Stavness said in an email Tuesday. Interfor Corp. couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.

Century-old underground [coal] fires stop trains in India amid passenger safety fears – by S.N.M. Abdi (Al Arabiya English – July 11, 2017)

July 11, 2017

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/

Underground fires burning for more than a century have forced authorities in India to evacuate a college and stop railway operations in the dangerous zone lest passenger trains fall into the inferno below the surface.

The first underground fires in Jharia coalfields of Jharkhand state in eastern India were reported way back in 1916 and all attempts to extinguish them have miserably failed so far. To prevent deaths, Bhagatdih’s historic Raja Shiv Prasad College, which has 6000 students on its rolls, has just been shifted to a safer site in Jamadoba six km away

And as more and more land in the affected area has started cracking or caving in due to subterranean fires, railway officials have decided not to run passenger trains on the 41-km stretch between Chandrapura and Dhanbad.

Copper and the Making of Kazakhstan’s New Metal Moguls – by Paolo Sorbello (The Diplomat – July 10, 2017)

July 11, 2017

http://thediplomat.com/

Commodity prices have found a “new normal” but copper is doing much better.

What seemed to be a widespread disease impacting commodity prices turned out to be a selective virus, against which some commodities proved immune, at least in the long run. The performance of copper prices over the last few months has contributed to the changing landscape of Kazakhstan’s richest people.

Together with the recent reorganization of the banking sector, commodities have played a major role in swaying the fortunes of the Central Asian country’s elite. After hovering around $2/lb for most of 2016, copper prices jumped 25 percent in November 2016 and have remained around or above this level for the past eight months. On June 30, Bloomberg quoted the precious metal at $2.7/lb.

In the same period, despite a roller coaster ride peaking above $55/barrel, Brent oil prices have returned to the same level of November 2016, at $46/barrel. Copper clearly outperformed other major commodities and this had a decisive effect in reshuffling Kazakhstan’s richest people.

Agreement between Western Shoshone and Barrick mining benefits both – by Sally Roberts (Northern Nevada Business Weekly – July 10, 2017)

July 11, 2017

Hostilities have long persisted between Nevada’s mining companies and the state’s Native American population. That was particularly true in the Elko area in the early years of this century.

“There were many many years of bad, difficult communications with Placer Dome, which had a different way of approaching the concerns of the Western Shoshone,” remembers Brian Mason, a member of the Western Shoshone, and now program manager of Native American Affairs for Barrick Gold Corporation.

Mason began his work in mining with Placer Dome’s environmental restoration department. Whenever Placer Dome opened the permitting process for a project, which includes public comment, it faced 200 to 300 objections from tribal members, he said. That led to lawsuits and court delays.

Electric cars pose headaches for the oil industry – by Gillian Steward (Toronto Star – July 11, 2017)

July 11, 2017

https://www.thestar.com/

Electric cars are having a moment. There are only a few on the road compared to gas guzzlers but recent predictions by reliable sources see battery powered vehicles becoming the rage much sooner than had been expected.

Since these sedans, SUVs, and possibly pickup trucks will be powered by electricity instead of gasoline what will that mean for the regions in Canada that produce oil from which gasoline is made? Less demand for oil means prices stay flat or go down, investment dries up, employment sags, provincial treasuries accrue fewer taxes and royalties.

New technology that people can afford and is useful to them can become common place in a relatively short time. The iPhone is so ubiquitous now we can hardly remember what life was like before we spent most of our time looking at little screens.

The awesome, unstoppable revolutionary electric-car revolution that doesn’t actually exist – by Kevin Libin (Financial Post – July 11, 2017)

July 11, 2017

http://business.financialpost.com/

Something strange happened at the Ecofiscal Commission recently. Earlier this month, the carbon-tax advocacy group featured on its website as one of its advisers the renowned Canadian economist (and FP Comment columnist) Jack M. Mintz. The other day, suddenly and without fanfare, Mintz was gone from the website, and the commission’s advisory board.

Advisers come and advisers go, of course, but it turns out there was an impetus for Mintz’s departure. The Ecofiscal Commission in its latest report, dropped just before Canada Day, seemingly shifted from its position that carbon prices were so excellent at mimicking market forces that the tax could repeal and replace virtually the entire vast expensive gallimaufry of subsidies, caps, rules and regulations that are costing Canada a fortune in business and bureaucrats.

As some Ecofiscal commissioners wrote just a few months ago, policies that “dictate specific technologies or methods for reducing emissions constrain private choice and increase costs” and were a bad idea.

AWARD: Ross Beaty receives Order of Canada (Canadian Mining Journal – July 10, 2017)

July 11, 2017

http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

OTTAWA – Mining magnate and philanthropist Ross Beaty is among the 99 prominent Canadians awarded membership in the 2017 Order of Canada.

The award shows that mining and environmentalism are not necessarily incompatible. Beaty, the founder and chairman of Pan American Silver and executive chairman of Alterra Power Corp – a geothermal, wind and hydro power company – is also a generous philanthropist. In May he gave $5 million over 10 years to Panthera, which is a global wild cat conservation organization.

A few month earlier the Canadian Museum of Nature announced that Beaty would be providing it with its largest ever philanthropic gift: a $4 million investment to enhance the museum’s national research and collections that are focused on species discovery. The gift was through the Sitka Foundation, which Beaty founded in 2007 to be a catalyst in the protection of the environment and promotion of biodiversity.

Life In Norilsk, A Frozen Gulag Turned Mining Town – by Emmanuel Grynszpan (World Crunch.com – January 11, 2017)

July 11, 2017

https://www.worldcrunch.com/

NORILSK — The belly of Mother Russia is most fertile 1,000 meters underground and 300 kilometers north of the polar circle. Outside, the temperature can drop as low as -60 degrees Fahrenheit. But down below, it’s warm and moist. And the walls shine. The blocks that detach themselves as bulldozers strike the stone are loaded with precious and semi-precious metals: nickel, copper, palladium and platinum.

In the “Skalista” mine, in Norilsk, monstrous machines stride along a maze of tunnels that will soon reach 2,000 meters below ground level. The sound of the machines shaving off the walls is terrible. Danger is omnipresent. “The worst thing is the fires,” explains Ivan Grinchuk, lead engineer at the mining group Komsomolsky, an affiliate of Norilsk Nickel.

This year, at least four miners have lost their lives in accidents. “What can I say? That’s how mining is. It’s the same all over the world,” says Grinchuk, who’s been working in Norilsk for 20 years. “It was a lot worse in the 1960s,” he adds. Grinchuk says the accidents are often caused by drunk workers. “When that’s the case,” he explains, “their families don’t get any compensation payments.”