Republic of Mining

Robot Ghost Ships to Extend Miner’s Technology Drive to Seas – by David Stringer (Bloomberg News – June 6, 2017)

June 7, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company, is studying the introduction of giant, automated cargo ships to carry everything from iron ore to coal as part of a strategic shift that may disrupt the $334 billion global shipping industry.

“Safe and efficient autonomous vessels carrying BHP cargo, powered by BHP gas, is our vision for the future of dry bulk shipping,” Vice President, Freight Rashpal Bhatti, wrote in a posting on its website. The company, also one of the world’s largest dry bulk charterers, is seeking partners to work on technological changes in the sector, he said.

BHP, which charters about 1,500 voyages a year for around a quarter of a billion metric tons of iron ore, copper and coal, wants to deploy the technology within a decade, according to Bhatti. For the biggest miners, a move to crewless ships could deliver new savings in the $86 billion a year seaborne iron ore market, mirroring the shift to autonomous trucks to trains that allow fewer staff to remotely operate or monitor multiple vehicles.

Editorial: Environmental review report out of touch with Canadian mining realities – by John Cumming (Northern Miner – JUne 6, 2017)

June 7, 2017

http://www.northernminer.com/

Last August, the Trudeau-led federal government in Canada kicked off a wide-ranging review of the federal environmental assessment process for resource projects by appointing a four-person panel to carry out and deliver a final report to federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna.

The idea behind the panel was the new government’s contention that the previous Conservative government’s move under its Canadian Environmental Assessment Act of 2012 to streamline environmental permitting by eliminating the apparent duplication of effort by provincial and federal regulators had gone too far, and it was time to “restore public trust and confidence” in the country’s environmental and regulatory processes.

The panel — named the “Expert Panel for the Review of Environmental Assessment Processes” and comprised of chair Johanne Gélinas and members Doug Horswill, Rod Northey and Renée Pelletier — delivered its report entitled “Building common ground: A new vision for impact assessment in Canada” in April, and a period for commenting closed in May.

Low prices to pile more pressure on beleaguered nickel miners – by Melanie Burton and Cecile Lefort (Reuters U.S. – June 7, 2017)

June 7, 2017

https://www.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE/SYDNEY – Global nickel miners are coming under renewed pressure to cut costs or close capacity as a flood of cheap ore pushes prices to one-year lows, with analysts seeing little prospect of recovery.

Indonesia and the Philippines are ramping up shipments of nickel ore after Indonesia relaxed an ore export ban earlier this year and a hardline Filipino environmentalist was ousted from the country’s mining ministry. Nickel ore is popular as a cheaper alternative to refined metal for China’s vast steel mills, which use the metal to add strength to stainless steel.

The renewed supply comes as the market is already struggling with softening demand and high stocks, leading a slew of banks to slash their forecasts despite prices having already fallen 60 percent since mid-2014 80 percent from their 2007 peak.

Opponents rally against copper prospect they fear could become another Pebble – by Alex DeMarban (Alaska Dispatch News – June 7, 2017)

June 7, 2017

https://www.adn.com/

Critics of a copper prospect in the Bristol Bay region who fear it could become a smaller version of its giant neighbor, Pebble, have launched an early campaign to stop it.

The so-called Groundhog prospect follows the same geological belt that supports Pebble, the proposed massive open-pit gold and copper mine a few miles to the south. Pebble has bitterly divided pro-development and conservation forces for years.

But unlike Pebble, an Alaska Native village corporation owns part of the Groundhog mineral claims on state land. That’s not enough for opponents, who earlier this week said they oppose any mining in a watershed that supports one of the world’s most important wild salmon fisheries.

Taseko Mines in court to appeal defamation ruling (CBC News British Columbia – June 7, 2017)

June 7, 2017

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/

Taseko Mines is in court today to appeal a 2016 ruling that an environmental organization’s criticism of their mining project did not constitute defamation. The Wilderness Committee, who won the case, argues the lawsuit was designed to silence critics of the company’s proposed New Prosperity mine.

“We absolutely need legislation to protect citizens … from being harassed from companies like this,” said Joe Foy, national campaign director for the Wilderness Committee

In the original case, the alleged defamatory statements against Taseko Mines originated in three articles posted on the Wilderness Committee’s website, claiming the open pit gold and copper mine would turn nearby Fish Lake into a “dump site for toxic tailings.”

A Revitalized Pittsburgh Says the President Used a Rusty Metaphor – by Kim Lyons, Emily Badger and Alan Blinder (New York Times – June 2, 2017)

June 7, 2017

https://www.nytimes.com/

PITTSBURGH — President Trump picked the wrong city as a counterpoint in announcing his plans on Thursday to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord. “I was elected,” the president said, “to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.”

But the president was hardly speaking about a place of domestic political strength: Although Mr. Trump carried Pennsylvania last fall, 75 percent of voters in Pittsburgh voted for Hillary Clinton.

In defiance of the president, city leaders vowed again on Thursday to pursue their own climate action. Pittsburgh, they point out, is the wrong metaphor anyway: The former steel hub has spent the last 30 years trying to remake its economy in precisely the mold that climate advocates envision.

Zambia Copper Output to Rise 4% to Record, Lobby Group Says – by Taonga Clifford Mitimingi (Bloomberg News – June 6, 2017)

June 7, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Zambia’s copper output will climb by about 4 percent to a record this year as operators near a resolution with government over power prices, according to the Chamber of Mines in Africa’s second-biggest producer of the metal.

Production will increase to about 800,000 metric tons, said Nathan Chishimba, president of the lobby group. That would be higher than the 770,600 tons mined last year, and exceed a previous record of about 790,000 tons in 2013. The forecast is less optimistic than a projection by Christopher Yaluma, the mining minister, who sees output jumping to 850,000 tons.

Negotiations over a proposed power-tariff increase for the industry that accounts for more than half of Zambia’s electricity consumption are “progressing well,” Chishimba said Tuesday in an interview in Kitwe, Copperbelt province. Most Zambia mines rejected an increase the government imposed in 2014, and again at the start of 2016, and talks have been ongoing.

[India] Fighting for Jharkhand’s tribal heritage amidst threats of coal mining- Bulu Imam’s incredible story – by Sneh Singh (Your Story.com – June 6, 2017)

June 7, 2017

https://yourstory.com/

Once a big-game hunter, Bulu Imam has been an environmental and tribal activist and a revivalist of tribal painting. Now, he plans to set up a museum and research centre in Hazaribagh.

On the fringes of Hazaribagh in Jharkhand, one can find a colonial house enclosed by lush green trees and bushes. In this serene environment, reading perched on an arm chair is 74-year-old Bulu Imam.

Bulu is a treasure unfamiliar to many. A big-game-hunter-turned-environmentalist, he is also an archaeologist, a revivalist of tribal paintings, and the winner of the International Peace Award by the Gandhi Foundation for his humanitarian work. Today, with his son Gustav Imam, plans to set up a museum and research centre in Hazaribagh.

Presently, he runs a museum and art gallery, ‘The Sanskriti Centre’. He has also authored several research papers and books. Bulu’s life has been a somewhat enthralling journey. As a big-game hunter in the ’60s and ’70s, Imam hunted 19 elephants and many man-eating tigers.

East Africa: Bid for an EA Regional Mining Umbrella Afoot – by Deus Ngowi (All Africa.com – June 7, 2017)

June 7, 2017

http://allafrica.com/

Arusha — Tanzania grapples with challenges related to mining, the issue covers the broader East African region, as a bill in regard to the sector is now in the hands of the sector’s committee at the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA).

The EAC Mining Bill that was moved by Mr Chris Opoka- Okumu (Uganda) hopes to provide a legal framework for the regulation of mining operations in the East African Community (EAC). It seeks to implement the EAC Vision 2050 and specifically to operationalise Article 114(2) (c ) (iv) of the EAC Treaty that calls for harmonisation of mining regulations to ensure environmentally friendly and sound mining practices.

The Bill further provides for a transparent and accountable mechanism for reporting mining and mineral related activities in the region. It is aimed at ultimately reducing differences in the operating environment for the sector. It sailed through after the first reading and sent to a committee for necessary actions.

[Abitibi and James Bay Regions] Quebec’s golden pockets – by Virginia Heffernan (CIM Magazine – December 15, 2016)

June 7, 2017

http://magazine.cim.org/

Exploration spending is down across the board, but budgets for gold exploration have suffered less than other metals. And in two particular regions of Quebec – the established Abitibi gold belt and the emerging James Bay region – exploration drills are busily biting the rock.

The latest map of exploration drilling in Canada resembles a nighttime satellite image of the country: vast expanses of monochrome punctuated by clusters of brightness. If the clusters represented urban areas, the Abitibi greenstone belt straddling the Quebec-Ontario border would be a bustling metropolis and the James Bay region a small but growing municipality.

Despite a global slowdown in exploration spending that S&P Global Market Intelligence expects to continue into 2017, pockets of Quebec could be on the cusp of an upswing. The province’s share of Canadian drilling activity averaged about 30 per cent in the first nine months of 2016, reaching almost 40 per cent in August, according to analysis by S&P Global.

Opposition will ‘not let up’ to planned seabed mining in Philippines – by Rachel E. Llorca (Asia Pacific Report – June 7, 2017)

June 7, 2017

Manila – Fishermen from the archipelagic province of Romblon in the Philippines are opposed to planned deep sea mining ventures in the area amid fears it will destroy their livelihoods. One of these fishermen is 55-year-old Agosto Rivera. Fishing is his livelihood, with the fish nets and blue sea of Odiongan Bay –- part of Tablas Island –- his constant companion for 43 years.

With a PHP300 (NZD$8) daily bounty from fishing, and sometimes a PHP5000 (NZD$140) commission when doing deep sea fishing, the sea has been the lifeblood of Rivera’s wife and 10 children.

But Rivera’s livelihood, and that of the estimated 1390 fisher folk in Odiongan Bay, is said to be in danger. Rivera’s fears are echoed by local government leaders and cause-oriented citizens (known locally as Romblomanons) who are wary of prospective deep sea mining operations that the firm Asian Palladium Mineral Resources, Inc. wants to conduct in Romblon’s Tablas Strait.

‘Auspicious’ time for M&A, yet difficult to secure capital – mining survey – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – June 6, 2016)

June 6, 2017

http://www.miningweekly.com/

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – There is a clear indication that mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity among smaller players in the mining sector will increase this year, while the majors will increase divestitures to focus on core commodities.

This will, in turn, benefit some of the midtiers that are able to make acquisitions, a recent survey by international executive search firm Pedersen & Partners has found. Nearly 80% of the 114 executives surveyed by Pedersen & Partners suggested that M&A activity will likely be part of their 2017 strategy.

Pedersen & Partners commented on Monday that, internationally, transactions in 2016 were mostly on the divestment side as companies sought to reduce debt. Looking to this year, it appears that the sector will build slowly and begin to improve more rapidly toward the end of the year.

IAMGOLD secures Japanese partner to develop Gogama open-pit mine – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – June 6, 2017)

June 6, 2017

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Miner inks $195-million joint venture with Sumitomo Metal Mining to develop Côté Project

IAMGOLD is teaming up with a Japanese mine developer to advance its Côté Gold Project toward the feasibility stage and eventually open-pit mining.

The Toronto-headquartered mid-tier miner announced June 5 that it’s signed a joint venture (J-V) agreement with Sumitomo Metal Mining of Tokyo in a $195-million partnership arrangement. Sumitomo buys itself a 30 per cent stake in the northeastern Ontario project.

IAMGOLD will hold majority ownership and will be the operator during development and once the Côté open-pit mine is in operation. This transaction is expected to close by the end of June. “It will enable us to move the project into development and to significantly diversify our production profile as a result of future production from our Canadian operations,” said IAMGOLD’s President and CEO Steve Letwin in a statement.

COLUMN-Nickel facing a long and rocky road to price recovery – by Andy Home (Reuters U.K. – June 5, 2017)

June 6, 2017

http://uk.reuters.com/

LONDON, June 5 Nickel touched a near one-year low of $8,700 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange (LME) last week.

It has recovered a little to $8,900 this morning but that still makes it by some margin the worst performer among the major LME-traded industrial metals with a year-to-date decline of over 10 percent. And, if you believe Goldman Sachs, the stainless steel ingredient is going to stay at these bombed-out levels for a good while.

The Wall Street heavyweight has just downgraded its three-month, six-month and 12-month price forecasts to $9,000-per tonne from $12,500, $11,000 and $11,000 respectively.