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North Eastern Ontario urban mayors aim to put up united front – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – July 4, 2017)

http://www.timminspress.com/

TIMMINS – Mayors from Northern Ontario’s larger urban municipalities met in Timmins last week to discuss common concerns and plan strategies to get more funding from upper levels of government.

Key issues, according to Timmins Mayor Steve Black, included the need for more FedNor funding, a bigger commitment to Northern rail networks, more money for the opioid drug crisis and the need to restructure district social services administration board’s responsibilities.

Black said the first concern was discussion over the budget promise by federal Liberals to add $25-million to FedNor’s $41-million budget over a period of five years. “They have increased the FedNor budget but it’s not significant and substantial enough an increase to put us on equal ground with the other development agencies across Canada,” said Black.

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Symbols will not meet Trudeau’s goal of Indigenous reconciliation – by Tim Harper (Toronto Star – July 5, 2017)

https://www.thestar.com/

When Indigenous activists symbolically reoccupied traditional Algonquin land by erecting a teepee on Parliament Hill last week, Justin Trudeau paid a visit and spoke with them for about 40 minutes.

When Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence began a six-week hunger strike on Victoria Island in the shadow of Parliament Hill in late 2012, the prime minister of the day, Stephen Harper, never met with her and was loathe to utter her name.

Weeks after his cabinet was sworn in, the Trudeau government announced a national inquiry into murdered and missing Indigenous women. “Inaction” on a national tragedy “ends today,” said Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett. Harper, of course, rejected the idea, telling the CBC in a year-end interview in 2014, he saw no point in spending millions of dollars “to get the same report for the 41st or 42nd time.”

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Inside the startup that wants to mine asteroids and transform space travel forever – by Kathryn Nave (Wired U.K. – July 4, 2017)

http://www.wired.co.uk/

On May 25, 2008, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite transmitted a grainy image back to Earth. It showed two white dots – the Phoenix Mars lander and its parachute – descending against the backdrop of the planet’s vast Heimdal impact crater. Chris Lewicki, the Phoenix mission’s manager, hadn’t seen the lander since its launch on August 3, 2007, on board the Delta II rocket that carried it into space. The Phoenix landed 20km from the huge crater, kick-starting its search for microbial-friendly habitats on Mars.

For Nasa, this was the beginning of another successful mission, but to Lewicki, things began to feel repetitive. He had first become obsessed with space at the age of 11, when he saw images of Nasa’s Voyager mission, the space probe that captured images of the Solar System’s outer planets. He studied Aerospace Engineering at the University of Arizona and, in 1999, joined Nasa, where he rose through the ranks. In 2003, at the age of 29, he oversaw the landing of the Spirit and the Opportunity Mars Rovers.

Those missions were the fulfilment of his childhood dream. Now, with the Phoenix – his third mission to Mars – he began to feel restless. “A lot of my friends were working on the next big robot project, Curiosity,” he says. “But that felt like the easy thing to do.” So he started casting around for a new job.

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Tanzania Passes Laws Enabling Renegotiation of Mining Deals – by Omar Mohammed (Bloomberg News – July 4 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Tanzania approved two laws that enable the government to renegotiate contracts with mining and energy companies as the state seeks a greater share of revenue from natural resources.

The bills, which deal with state sovereignty over mineral wealth and contracts containing “unconscionable terms,” were approved by parliament on Monday, lawmaker Peter Kafumu said in a text message. The Tanzania Chamber of Minerals and Energy, the main industry lobby group that has opposed the new laws, said the implications of the bills are “vast.”

“There are many areas that the three bills touch on,” TCME Executive Secretary Gerald Mturi said by phone Tuesday from Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital. “The industry is going to be affected big time.”

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[Klondex Mines/Nevada] Reprieve for an Ancient Site: A Mining Company and a Tribe Find a Way to Work Together – by Stephanie Woodard (In These Times.com – July 3, 2017)

http://inthesetimes.com/

Preparations are underway to hand over to Western Shoshones 3,269 acres of Native sacred sites in Nevada. “We’ll have prayers, dancing, drumming and food,” says Joseph Holley, councilman and former chairman of the Battle Mountain Band of the Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshones, in Nevada. “There will be time for Paul to talk about what’s been happening over the past eight years and how he is helping us protect this place.”

Holley is referring to Paul Huet, the chief executive officer of Klondex Mines, a Canadian firm that in late 2016 purchased an existing gold-mining operation within a Western Shoshone cultural landscape called Tosawihi (pronounced DOS-a-wee). Purchased as part of the mining deal, the portion that Klondex will hand over to the Battle Mountain Band on August 18 is a spiritual hub.

Though 83 percent of Nevada is owned by the federal government, the Klondex purchase and handover of this unusual tract will allow it to remain privately owned by those who value it most. The Battle Mountain Band will hold and administer the lands on behalf of all Shoshones, according to Holley.

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Mining in Mali: balancing prospects and problems – by Heidi Vella (Mining Technology – July 3, 2017)

http://www.mining-technology.com/

Landlocked between six other West African nations, including Burkina Faso and Guinea, Mali is a gold mining star in a resource-rich but troubled region.

The nation is the third-largest gold producer in Sub-Saharan Africa with seven projects currently in operation. UK mining firm Hummingbird Resources?is the latest company to get involved and is on course to start production at a $88m (£68.1m) open-cast gold mine this year. Yet only about six of the country’s 133 potentially gold-rich reserves have been mapped out, offering significant growth opportunities.

Furthermore, the government is keen to unlock the economic potential of its other resources, such as bauxite, manganese, lithium and uranium. In April, the Chamber of Mines announced that following several new discoveries, bauxite reserves in Mali’s Falea project are now estimated at 1.63 billion tonnes (Bt), which is equivalent to 572t of refined aluminium. A spate of investment deals signed with China, totalling about $11bn, aims to unlock the potential of other minerals.

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Banro halts gold mine in Congo due to violence, shares collapse – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – July 3, 2017)

http://www.mining.com/

Shares in Canadian gold miner Banro Corporation (TSX:BAA) (NYSE MKT:BAA) were getting hammered Monday after the company revealed it had to suspend operations and temporarily evacuate employees at its Namoya gold mine in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo due to violence.

The Toronto-based miner said the measures were taken after learning that 23 trucks belonging to a contractor of the mine were caught in crossfire between soldiers and a local self-defence militia near the town of Lulimba.

While drivers of those vehicles are safe, militiamen have not yet cleared the release of the trucks, the company said.

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Mining billionaire ‘Twiggy’ Forrest follows Buffett and Gates – by Sian Powell (Nikkei Asian Review – July 3, 2017)

http://asia.nikkei.com/

SYDNEY — Mining billionaire Andrew Forrest and his wife Nicola were the first Australians to sign up to the “Giving Pledge,” a philanthropic scheme pioneered by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett to encourage the very rich to donate more than half their accumulated wealth to worthy causes. Now the Forrests have fulfilled at least part of their commitment, pledging 400 million Australian dollars ($307 million), the largest charitable donation ever made by a living Australian.

The Forrests are among 169 of the world’s wealthiest individuals and families from 21 countries who have joined the Giving Pledge and undertaken to give away the majority of their assets, during their lifetimes or in their wills. Others include Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and the British entrepreneur Richard Branson.

Forrest founded the Australian mining company Fortescue Metals Group, the world’s fourth largest iron ore producer, and is estimated by Forbes magazine to have net worth of more than $4.3 billion, derived largely from iron ore mining. The Forrests also own thousands of square kilometers of pastoral holdings in Western Australia, a meat-processing plant and other interests.

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Lou who? The private man atop Canada’s public markets – by Christina Pellegrini (Globe and Mail – June 17, 2017)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Few people on Bay Street know much about Lou Eccleston. And he seems to like it that way. As the head of TMX Group Ltd., the operator of the country’s busiest stock exchanges, he sits in the middle of Canada’s clubby capital markets. But Mr. Eccleston – a 59-year-old American who took the TMX reins more than two years ago and splits his time between Toronto and Princeton Junction, N.J. – isn’t really a member of the club.

In a setting where many key characters are known for being seen, Mr. Eccleston is not. So much so that some working on the sell-side in Toronto have dubbed him “Waldo,” as in “Where’s Waldo?” In many ways, his private nature is by design. “A leader’s job is to enable success,” Mr. Eccleston says. “It’s not about you when you become a leader. It’s about the people you work with.”

The youngest of three siblings and a father of four, he is most at ease talking about his business rather than the path he took to get to the top; never mind what he likes to do in his spare time, which – after some prodding – he says includes cooking and being with his family. Put simply, he’s not the kind of boss who will ask about your weekend.

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YUKON – A STAMPEDE OF GOLD HUNTERS – by Eduardo Arcos (Global Business Reports – June 6, 2017)

http://gbreports.com/

ALL OF A SUDDEN MAJORS AND JUNIORS ALIKE ARE SNAPPING UP PROPERTIES IN YUKON.

For decades, Yukon has failed to live up to its mining potential. This territory, roughly as large as Spain, currently hosts only one major operating mine – Capstone’s Minto copper mine. Despite its widely acknowledged mineral wealth, companies have been reluctant to invest heavily in Yukon as they focused on overseas acquisitions during the boom years and cited high operational costs in this territory during the downturn.

However, recent developments suggest that a paradigm change is in the works. Vancouver-based giant Goldcorp acquired Kaminak Gold in July 2016 through a $500 million transaction. Its Coffee Gold project is a high-grade, heap leach project and Goldcorp is currently in the process of reviewing and optimizing Kaminak’s feasibility study along with developing infrastructure.

Another major with an established presence in Yukon is Kinross Gold, which acquired the White Gold property in 2010 with an inferred resource of 400,000 oz at its Golden Saddle zone. Last December, Agnico Eagle announced the acquisition of 19.3% of White Gold Corp, the largest landholder in the prolific White Gold district.

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COLUMN-Copper bulls load up on longs, but China PMIs are unconvincing – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – July 3, 2017)

http://www.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia, July 3 Copper reached a three-month high after a surprise rise in China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), and while the boost was short-lived it does beg the question as to whether better times are ahead for the industrial metal.

Benchmark London copper futures touched $5,965 a tonne on June 30 after the official Chinese PMI rose to 51.7 in June, it’s eleventh consecutive month on the positive side of the 50-level that marks expansion from contraction in the world’s biggest manufacturing sector.

Copper’s gains didn’t last beyond the Asian session, slipping as the U.S. dollar strengthened and also as London Metal Exchange data showed inventories of the red metal gained, indicating supplies are plentiful. Nonetheless, copper is holding around its strongest levels since March, and is up 8.2 percent since its recent closing low of $5,486 a tonne on May 8.

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A Gold Rush Revival in Italy, With Nuggets the Size of Bread Crumbs – by Elisabetta Povoledo (New York Times – June 28, 2017)

https://www.nytimes.com/

VERMOGNO DI ZUBIENA, Italy — Italy may not be the first place that leaps to mind when you hear the words gold rush. But for thousands of years this neck of the northern Piedmont region, what some call Italy’s Klondike, has attracted prospectors seeking gold flowing down the Elvo River from deposits left eons ago by receding Alpine glaciers.

Gold rushes in the area have ebbed and flowed over the centuries, but they have seen a revival in recent, recession-hit years. Increasing numbers of people have been contacting local gold-seeking associations hoping to get rich quick.

Last weekend, panners from around the world even descended on a clearing for the Italian Goldpanning Championship. Under a hot sun, they stooped knee deep in mucky water, swishing sand and gravel around a flat grooved pan in search of gold specks.

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China’s Wild West – by Eugene K. Chow (The Week – July 3, 2017)

http://theweek.com/

Mining boom towns, violent clashes with indigenous peoples, prospectors pushing into foreign lands — welcome to China’s Wild West!

As the country continues to develop, a distinctly Chinese version of the United States’ westward expansion in the 19th century is taking shape. While 19th-century America was obsessed with Manifest Destiny — the idea that predominantly white Americans would conquer all the land from the East Coast to the West — the People’s Republic has its own obsession: the Chinese Dream.

A kind of unifying nationalism promoted by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Chinese Dream is the belief that the entire country — urban and rural alike — must become well-off, socially harmonious, and fully developed by 2049.

Driven by this dream to modernize the entire country — as well as by its insatiable demand for natural resources — China is taking a page from Uncle Sam’s old playbook and using settlers, prospectors, and railroads to conquer its restive borderlands.

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California’s Far North Deplores ‘Tyranny’ of the Urban Majority – by Thomas Fuller (New York Times – July 2, 2017)

https://www.nytimes.com/

REDDING, Calif. — The deer heads mounted on the walls of Eric Johnson’s church office are testament to his passion for hunting, a lifestyle enjoyed by many in the northernmost reaches of California but one that Mr. Johnson says surprises people he meets on his travels around America and abroad.

“When people see you’re from California, they instantly think of ‘Baywatch,’” said Mr. Johnson, the associate pastor of Bethel Redding, a megachurch in this small city a three-and-a-half-hour drive north of San Francisco. “It’s very different here from the rest of California.”

Mr. Johnson lives in what might be described as California’s Great Red North, a bloc of 13 counties that voted for President Trump in November and that make up more than a fifth of the state’s land mass but only 3 percent of its population.

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Can development minerals avoid abuses and fuel African growth? – by Kieran Guillbert (Reuters July 3, 2017)

https://www.reuters.com/

DAKAR, July 3 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – On a continent better known for enriching colonisers and corporations by exporting its gold, copper and diamonds, so-called “development minerals” – ranging from limestone to granite – could help Africa fuel its own economic growth.

The sector, estimated by the United Nations to employ at least 8 million Africans, could create millions more jobs across the continent – many for young people and women – to meet a fast growing need for housing and infrastructure, mining experts say.

Development minerals refer to materials and minerals that are considered low-value – such as granite, gravel and sand – and are mined, processed, manufactured and used locally in industries from construction and manufacturing to agriculture.

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