Republic of Mining

Steinmetz Said to Skip $1.2 Billion Vale Hearing, Risking Loss – by Jesse Riseborough and R.T. Watson (Bloomberg News – May 19, 2017)

May 19, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Billionaire Beny Steinmetz’s mining company may be asked to pay as much as $1.2 billion to former partner Vale SA after choosing not to attend an arbitration hearing in London in a dispute over one of the world’s richest mineral assets, two people with knowledge of the case said.

The decision by Steinmetz’s BSG Resources Ltd. to back out of hearings earlier this year will probably cost him the case, the people said, asking not to be identified as the matter is confidential. BSGR felt it wouldn’t be “treated fairly,” according to a letter sent by its lawyers Mishcon De Reya to Vale’s legal representatives dated Jan. 31 and seen by Bloomberg News.

An unfavorable ruling would be the latest setback for the 61-year-old Steinmetz, who’s facing a string of corruption investigations around the world resulting from his failed investment in the giant Simandou iron ore deposit in Guinea. Yet, Vale would still face years of legal battles to enforce any award from the case.

Diamond mining industry tries to woo millennials – by Henry Sanderson (Financial Times – May 19, 2017)

May 19, 2017

https://www.ft.com/

Groups led by De Beers grapple with challenge of young adults eschewing marriage

Erin Lowry told her partner in 2015 that she did not want an expensive diamond engagement ring. “I said I’d rather you get me a $1,000 solid band and we take the remaining money and put it to the honeymoon,” said the New York-based writer. “I’d much rather have a great trip than the ring I’m wearing.”

The statement by Ms Lowry, 27, who has not yet married, highlights the issue for the diamond industry posed by millennials. De Beers, the world’s largest diamond mining company, launched one of the world’s most successful advertising campaigns in 1948 when it coined the slogan A Diamond is Forever. It served to put diamond engagement rings at the heart of marriage for the rest of the 20th century.

But many millennials have an ambivalent or negative view of marriage. Increasing numbers of people who have entered adulthood in the 21st century are choosing to marry much later in life compared to previous generations, or not at all.

Investor lawsuits stack up against Barrick Gold over ‘misleading statements’ on cyanide spill in Argentina – by Sunny Freeman (Financial Post – May 19, 2017)

May 19, 2017

http://business.financialpost.com/

A number of class action lawsuits have been filed against Barrick Gold, alleging the world’s largest gold miner misled shareholders about the fallout of its most recent cyanide spill at a flagship mine in Argentina.

The class actions claim the company misled shareholders in public statements it made after a March rupture of a pipeline carrying a gold-cyanide solution at its Veladero mine in Argentina — the third spill at that mine’s leach pad in two years. Cyanide is used at mine sites to separate gold from the ore.

“Barrick Gold and certain of its senior executive officers made a series of materially false and misleading statements to investors about the Veladero mine and the company’s outlook and expected financial performance,” alleges the latest suit, filed Thursday by Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP.

Cobalt junior miner preps for summer drill program – Staff (Northern Ontario Business – May 18, 2017)

May 19, 2017

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

A Toronto-based cobalt junior miner is combining old mining data with modern technology to assess if an historic mining property can be put back into operation using bulk mining techniques.

First Cobalt announced it has started fieldwork on its 2,100-hectare Keeley-Frontier Mine property and surrounding exploration claims at Silver Centre, 25 kilometres south of the historic mining town of Cobalt.

The company’s stated objective is to assess the property for its potential as a large-scale, bulk mining operation, “something which has not been considered previously for this historic mining district,” according to a May 18 new release.

BHP stays course on Canada potash mine few expected built – by Rod Nickel (Reuters U.S. – May 18, 2017)

May 19, 2017

http://www.reuters.com/

NEW YORK – BHP Billiton Ltd’s (BHP.AX) (BLT.L) Canadian potash mine will use advanced, cost-saving technology, giving it a competitive edge in a currently over-supplied fertilizer market, the executive in charge of the business said on Thursday.

Australia-based BHP aims to start potash production at Jansen, Saskatchewan in 2023, the company said this week, eventually producing 4 million tonnes annually.

The mine is already under construction but requires BHP’s board to approve another $4.7 billion to bring Jansen into production. That decision may happen as early as June 2018.

Zimbabwe plans $200 million platinum refinery with Australia’s Kelltech (Reuters U.S. – May 17, 2017)

May 18, 2017

http://www.reuters.com/

Zimbabwe is planning to build a $200 million platinum refinery next year in a joint venture with Australia’s Kelltech Ltd, the Mines Minister said on Wednesday.

The southern African nation holds the world’s largest deposits of platinum after South Africa and has been pushing mining firms operating in the country to build refineries to stop the export of raw platinum ore.

Walter Chidhakwa said the government’s mining arm, Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation, would own 30 percent of the refinery, privately-owned Kelltech would own 49 percent and the balance would be held by Golden Sparrow, a Zimbabwean firm.

First Quantum to kick off massive $5.48bn copper mine in Panama in just months – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – May 18, 2017)

May 18, 2017

http://www.mining.com/

Commissioning of the vast Cobre Panama mine will begin in early 2018.

Canada’s First Quantum Minerals (TSE:FM) is just a few months away from commissioning its massive $5.48 billion copper project in Panama, one of the largest of very few new red metal mines to begin production by the end of the decade.

The company, which gained control over the Cobre Panama project in 2013 with the acquisition of rival Canadian copper miner Inmet Mining, said Thursday the open-pit mine was now about 50% complete.

Speaking at the Paydirt Latin America Downunder conference, in Perth, First Quantum global exploration director, Mike Christie, said the firm would spend close to $1 billion this year to advance construction at the project, located about 120 km west of Panama City, and 20 km from the Caribbean Sea coast.

Sudbury’s Laurentian Research study gets overwhelming response from miners – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – May 17, 2017)

May 18, 2017

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Laurentian University’s Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health (CROSH) is making progress on its Mining Mental Health study, which aims to study mental health in miner’s across Vale’s Ontario operations.

As researchers with the Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health (CROSH) prepared to launch their Mining Mental Health study, they needed about 30 workers for a pilot project to test out their survey before getting the study underway.

It was just a precursor to the actual research, but a whopping 80 workers came forward, and many were disappointed when they were told they weren’t needed, said Dr. Michel Larivière, associate director at CROSH, an initiative of Laurentian University in Sudbury.

COLUMN-Coal exporters should fret as China, India become policy-driven markets – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – May 17, 2017)

May 18, 2017

http://www.reuters.com/

May 17, 2017 – Coal exporters may be feeling more comfortable about their future as they see both reasonable demand from Asia’s top importers and prices which appear to be stabilising at levels that allow for decent profits.

This renewed optimism was evident at this week’s Coaltrans Asia conference on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, where much of the discussion among delegates at the region’s biggest coal event was on plans for new capital spending and boosting output at existing mines.

But – and there is always a “but” for the coal sector in recent years – the exporting miners have to face the uncomfortable reality that the two biggest importers in the world, China and India, are now markets where policy decisions are the main drivers, not supply and demand fundamentals.

Startup uses blockchain to ensure minerals come from ethical sources – by Darren Campbell (Globe and Mail – May 18, 2017)

May 18, 2017

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Dawn Jutla says her company has the technology to help put an end to the shady practice of mining precious and industrial metals to finance war.

Ms. Jutla, the president and CEO of Halifax-based startup Peer Ledger, is staking its future on a blockchain technology called Mimosi that it says can track precious metals throughout the supply chain to ensure every milligram purchased by buyers has come from an ethical source and is not funding armed conflict in war-torn countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“This is important because of the damage buyers are seeing being done at the source mines among the Indigenous people who live in the area,” says Ms. Jutla, a professor of technology, entrepreneurship and innovation at St. Mary’s University in Halifax. “When I say damage I am talking about children being raped and used for labour in mines. End users of these metals are trying to use their purchasing power to prevent that.”

Forcing Trans Mountain through could make things ugly for Trudeau. Not building it might be worse – by Andrew Coyne (National Post – May 18, 2017)

May 18, 2017

http://news.nationalpost.com/

In the messy aftermath of the B.C. election, everyone is talking about the coming confrontation over Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline. Given federal approval just last November — Justin Trudeau travelling to the province to confer his benediction, in unusually personal terms — the project suddenly must contend, not with Christy Clark’s pipeline-supporting Liberals, but a probable minority government that, Liberal or NDP, is propped up by the pipeline-hating Greens.

Just getting the pipeline approved was no small feat in itself: before cabinet signed off, there were years of hearings before the National Energy Board, whose endorsement came with 157 conditions attached. But regulatory and cabinet approval are in today’s Canada only the start.

There must first be an appeal of the NEB’s ruling, to be heard this fall in Federal Court, which is fair enough. But opponents of Trans Mountain have made clear they will be no more deterred by a court decision in its favour than they were by the opinions of either the regulator or the duly elected government of the land.

Violence in Central African Republic diamond mining hub, UN sends troops to tackle (African Review – May 18, 2017)

May 18, 2017

http://www.africanreview.com/

The United Nations plans to send additional peacekeeping forces to Bangassou, a diamond-mining town in Central Africa with 35,000 inhabitants, to tackle raising violence in the city that causes human right violations

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, replied in email that the law and order condition in Bangassou needs immediate assistance following a recent flare of attacks on civilians that has cost hundreds of lives in the past two months.

The violence in Bangassou started in 2013 when a coalition of Muslim Seleka rebels ousted the President Francois Bozize. The recent violence in the diamond-mining town is a fresh escalation of the four-year old conflict.

Billion-Dollar Gold Dream Lures Mining Maverick Out of Hiatus – by Natalie Obiko (Bloomberg News – May 17, 2017)

May 18, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Frank Giustra likes to see big where others think small. The Canadian mining maverick’s latest target is a subterranean patch of red earth in southwestern Mexico. In January his new undertaking, Leagold Mining Corp., bought the Los Filos mine from Goldcorp Inc. for $350 million. It wasn’t the open pits churning out 200,000-plus ounces of the precious metal that caught this attention — it was the untapped deposit stretching for roughly 600 meters below.

“We just looked at it and thought: This is a jewel,” Giustra, 59, said in an interview at his downtown Vancouver office, where a George Rodrigue blue dog painting hangs at the entrance. The plan is to use Los Filos to build “a major gold producer over the next two, three, four years,” he says. “Unless the world changes dramatically, I think we’ll pull it off.”

Giustra has a track record of finding the sparkle in the dirt. He’s used what he calls a grow-by-acquisition model to help build Endeavour Mining Corp. as well as a predecessor to Goldcorp, which is now one of the largest gold producers and Leagold’s biggest shareholder.

NEWS RELEASE: HOW TO REIGNITE THE RING OF FIRE AND MINING IN NORTHERN ONTARIO – by Heather Hall and Ken Coates (Macdonald-Laurier Institute – May 18, 2017)

May 18, 2017

http://www.macdonaldlaurier.ca/

To read the full paper, titled “Missed Opportunities, Glimmers of Hope: Aboriginal communities and mineral development in Northern Ontario”, click here.

MLI paper charts a path through the conflict between First Nations, business and government in Northern Ontario’s mining sectors

OTTAWA, May 18, 2017 – The potential of the Ring of Fire, a large-scale mineral deposit in Northern Ontario, to bring prosperity to Indigenous communities remains trapped under a simmering conflict.

First Nations, governments, and mining companies continue to debate issues such as the responsibility for infrastructure development, support for First Nation communities across much of Northern Ontario, and conflict between the governments of Ontario and Canada.

How can we push through the stalemate to create viable solutions that permit development to proceed?

Heather Hall and Ken Coates, in a paper for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, chart a path forward for the Ring of Fire and mining in Northern Ontario.

Exclusive – Australian billionaire uses indigenous land laws to keep prospectors off farm – by Jonathan Barrett (Reuters U.K. – May 18, 2017)

May 18, 2017

http://uk.reuters.com/

SYDNEY – Mining magnate Andrew Forrest has used laws designed to protect indigenous land rights to stop prospectors searching for minerals on his West Australian cattle farms, angering both traditional Aboriginal landowners and mining community members.

While tensions between the competing interests of indigenous landholders, pastoral leaseholders and miners on government-controlled land are common, Forrest’s approach represents one of the first known examples of a non-Aboriginal successfully using rights afforded to indigenous people to their own advantage.

Native title is a legal doctrine in Australia that recognises indigenous rights to certain parcels of land. Forrest’s use of it is not illegal, but it adds to the fractious relationship he has with some indigenous groups. Different groups have raised concerns over Forrest’s cattle interests and have battled over land rights with the company he founded and chairs – Fortescue Metals Group (FMG.AX), the world’s fourth biggest iron ore miner.