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China’s push to reshape global trade comes with high costs – by Nathan Vanderklippe (Globe and Mail – May 15, 2017)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

BEIJING — Had you come to Gwadar in 2000, you would have taken in what Sohaib Jamali saw on his first trip here: a small, dusty fishing outpost huddled at the end of a long and terrible road in the distant southwestern corner of Pakistan, just 70 kilometres from the border with Iran.

Even three or four years ago, “it was still a sleepy village and nothing else,” said Mr. Jamali, a Karachi-based economist and independent researcher who has been to Gwadar a dozen times.

Now, the town is showing glimmers of a transformation that promise to turn it into a major trading axis in a vast project led by Beijing, one using Chinese money and Chinese methods to redraw maps of global trade and influence to the benefit of the world’s second-largest economy – while also, China promises, allowing others to emulate its own success in building prosperity.

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Northern Ontario cities try to ‘sell’ themselves as best place to put Ring of Fire smelter (CBC News Sudbury – May 15, 2017)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/

There is not even a road leading to the Ring of Fire. Yet four northern Ontario communities are vying for the chance to possibly become home to a ferrochrome smelter for the giant future mining operation. “Every one of those locations has some pluses and some minuses,” said Alan Coutts, CEO of Noront Resources — the largest mining company remaining in the Ring of Fire.

“Some are closer to markets. Some are further. Some have better elliptical infrastructure. Some have poorer. “A big aspect of what our decision-making will be around is community acceptance, understanding the role First Nations want to play, having a skilled workforce.”

Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Timmins and Sudbury are being considered as locations for the facility, which could bring with it hundreds of well-paying jobs whenever the chromite deposit in the James Bay lowlands goes into production.

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BHP dumps Billiton in Australian identity push – by Peter Ker (Australian Financial Review – May 15, 2017)

 

http://www.afr.com/

BHP Billiton will seek to reclaim its Australian identity through a major rebranding exercise after conceding that it and other big companies were losing the trust of communities around the world.

The resources giant will today begin a $10 million advertising campaign that heralds the end of the “three blobs” logo and double-barrel name the company has used since the merger of BHP and Billiton in 2001.

The campaign refers to the company simply as BHP rather than BHP Billiton, and will eventually be followed by a change of the company’s official registered name to “BHP Limited”. The slim, lower-case letters in BHP’s existing logo will gradually be replaced by the bold, capital-letter logo BHP used prior to the merger.

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Ontario Premier warns First Nations about delays in Ring of Fire talks – by Allison Jones (Global News – May 12, 2017)

http://globalnews.ca/

The Canadian Press – TORONTO – Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne signalled this week to First Nations in the province’s north that she’s willing to abandon joint talks with them over building roads into the Ring of Fire region.

The provincial government has been talking with the chiefs of the nine Matawa First Nations for years, since it pledged $1 billion in 2014 to fund infrastructure into the chromite-rich area.

That funding promise was repeated in the government’s budget for the next two years, but was not in this year’s budget. Wynne said in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., earlier this week that commitment stands, but she told the chiefs that if Ontario is going to deliver on it, there can’t be any more delays.

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Continental surges 33% after securing $134m for Colombia gold mine – by Frik Els (Mining.com – May 11, 2017)

http://www.mining.com/

Shares in Continental Gold Inc (TSE:CNL) surged 33% on Thursday day after world number two gold miner Newmont Mining forked out $109 million for just under 20% of the Toronto-based explorer and its Buriticá project in Colombia.

At the same time private equity firm Red Kite is paying $25 million for a 4.6% stake. Together with a Red Kite credit facility, Continental, now worth $388 million on the TSX, is fully funded to start building at 100%-owned Buriticá later this year.

Denver-based Newmont, which operates South America’s largest gold mine Yanacocha and the Merian mine in Suriname, gets a seat on Continental’s board and the two companies agreed on the formation of joint management technical, exploration, and sustainability committees.

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Inventory of abandoned mines now available – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – May 12, 2017)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Mining watchdog suggests $3.1 billion worth of cleanup is required for Ontario alone.

A new online inventory that catalogues abandoned and orphaned mines across Canada is now available to the public.

The inventory, released in April, is a project of the National Orphaned and Abandoned Mines Initiative (NOAMI). NOAMI was launched in 2002 in response to a request from mine ministers in federal, provincial and territorial jurisdictions to address issues related to orphaned and abandoned mines across the country.

According to NOAMI, “orphaned or abandoned mines are those mines for which the owner cannot be found or for which the owner is financially unable or unwilling to carry out cleanup. They pose environmental, health, safety and economic problems to communities, the mining industry and governments in many countries, including Canada.”

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Why Canada may have missed the boat on building a viable LNG industry – by Claudia Cattaneo (Financial Post – May 6, 2017)

http://business.financialpost.com/

“The company now owns the only LNG project out of the 20 or so proposed for
the B.C. coast that is poised for takeoff. The rest are on hold, being
restructured or dropped, casualties of snail-paced government decision-
making, tough regulations, environmental and aboriginal opposition, and
changing market conditions, while the United States has already forged
a formidable LNG industry of its own.”

SQUAMISH, B.C. — The race to build a liquefied natural gas industry in British Columbia has had many twists and turns this decade and could be headed for another sharp one if the May 9 provincial election results in a change in government. But one of the oddest is found by taking a boat across Howe Sound — a network of spectacular fjords just north of Vancouver — to an abandoned pulp mill site on the traditional territory of the Squamish Nation.

The tranquil area, flanked by mountains and accessible only by water or helicopter, used to house a bustling community of nearly 1,000 people who toiled in one of Canada’s busiest mills, known as Woodfibre, complete with staff housing, bowling alleys and even churches.

The mill was shut down in 2006 after a century of operation, leaving behind significant environmental damage; a cluster of buildings including an ample warehouse, an old power station and storm-damaged docks that either had to be fixed or demolished; and an aboriginal community motivated to see its ancestral land cleaned up and put to good use.

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Premier feeling the heat from Ring of Fire – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – May 12, 2017)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Wynne reportedly upset over lack of First Nation consensus on access road

Premier Kathleen Wynne is reportedly getting tough with northern First Nation chiefs over hold-ups in the construction of a Ring of Fire road.

The Globe and Mail obtained a recent letter from an impatient Wynne to the nine Matawa chiefs indicating her government can’t afford any more delays and is prepared to start one-on-one negotiations with individual communities that do want development, if consensus can’t be reached.

For three years, the Ontario government has promised to invest $1 billion for mining-related transportation infrastructure but the money hasn’t been released in three successive budgets, including this past April’s spring budget.

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Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Letter to the Ring of Fire First Nations Chiefs About Transportation Infrastructure (May 10, 2017)

May 10, 2017

Chief Dorothy Towedo (Aroland First Nation); Chief Elizabeth Atlookan (Eabametoong First Nation); Chief Veronica Waboose (Long Lake #58 First Nation); Chief Wayne Moonias (Neskantaga First Nation); Chief Cornelius Wabasse (Webequie First Nation); Chief Rick Allen (Constance Lake First Nation); Chief Celia Echum (Ginoogaming First Nation); Chief Bruce Achneepineskum (Marten Falls First Nation); Chief Johnny Yellowhead (Nibinamik First Nation)

Dear Chiefs,

I wish to extend my sincere thanks and appreciation for the opportunity to meet with you on Monday, May 1, 2017.

We have worked together since signing the Regional Framework Agreement (RFA), including three meetings since October 2016, to advance Ring of Fire developments in a collaborative way that will bring benefits to all of us.

As I have emphasized to you in all three meetings, we want to be positioned to take advantage of Ontario’s proposals of financial support for infrastructure and related development in the Ring of Fire region. Three years after signing the RFA, the time has now come to make some decisions that will move us forward. This is especially true when it comes to connecting remote communities to all-season road infrastructure.

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Dominion Diamond shares rise on report of possible CPPIB bid – by Susan Taylor and Nicole Mordant (Globe and Mail/Reuters – May 11, 2017)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

TORONTO and VANCOUVER — The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), the country’s biggest public pension fund, is considering a bid for Dominion Diamond Corp and is studying the miner’s books, people familiar with the process told Reuters.

The move comes after Dominion, the world’s third largest diamond producer by market value, put itself up for sale in late March, following an unsolicited $1.1-billion approach from U.S. billionaire Dennis Washington.

Shares of Dominion Diamond rose as much as 6.1 per cent in Toronto trading and as much as 8.1 per cent in New York. CPPIB, with assets of $298-billion under management, and Dominion both declined to comment. The sources, whom Reuters spoke to over a period of several days, declined to be named as the talks are confidential.

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All candidates want ferrochrome plant in the Sault – by Elaine Della-Mattia (Sault Star – May 12, 2017)

http://www.saultstar.com/

A presentation by NorOnt Resources top brass have created a stir with candidates running in the provincial byelection. NorOnt is to decide by the end of summer which of four Northern Ontario communities – Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, Timmins or Thunder Bay–Fort William – will become home to the first ferrochrome plant in North America to process the minerals from the far north Ring of Fire development.

NorOnt President and CEO Alan Coutts and Chief Development Officer Stephen Flewelling were in Sault Ste. Marie Wednesday making a presentation to Chamber of Commerce members and meeting with local officials.

Liberal candidate Debbie Amaroso, who met with the representatives, urged them to locate the smelter in Sault Ste. Marie. “I strongly encouraged NorOnt to locate their smelter in the Sault,” Amaroso said. “Based on the southern tip of Lake Superior, Sault Ste. Marie is the ideal location.”

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Bus-Burning Protesters Are Latest Threat to Lonmin Comeback – by Kevin Crowley (Bloomberg News – May 12, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Just as Lonmin Plc Chief Executive Ben Magara puts out one fire, another one lights up. After Lonmin spent 70 percent of its cash in the last three months of 2016 following a labor dispute at the platinum miner’s biggest shaft, Magara, 49, donned a hard hat and mining overalls to meet workers every day in February to ease tensions. The efforts proved successful and he reported in March that production was back on track.

But the relief was shortlived. Violent community protests around the company’s Marikana operations forced it to temporarily close two smaller shafts last week, amid concerns for workers’ safety. A bus was later set on fire.

The protests are just the latest in a litany of social and labor disputes threatening to overshadow Magara’s turnaround efforts when Lonmin publishes half-year results on Monday. The South African platinum producer, which last reported an annual profit in 2013 and has seen its share price decline about 97 percent since then, is under growing pressure to prove it can make money.

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EPA may allow massive mine near pristine Alaskan bay – by Becky Bohrer and Michael Biesecker (Victoria Times Colonist – May 12, 2017)

http://www.timescolonist.com/

The Associated Press – WASHINGTON — The Trump administration settled a lawsuit Friday over the proposed development of a massive gold and copper mine at the headwaters of one of Alaska’s premier salmon fisheries.

The Environmental Protection Agency settled the long-running case with the Pebble Limited Partnership, agreeing to allow the Canadian-owned company to seek a federal permit to build its mine near Bristol Bay.

Pebble sued in federal court over what it claimed was EPA’s collusion with mine opponents to block the project, which a study shows could pose significant risk to salmon populations. A review by EPA’s inspector general found no evidence the agency acted improperly.

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World Silver Survey 2017 (The Silver Institute/Thomson Reuters – May 2017)

http://www.silverinstitute.org/

1. SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK

Last year was a turning point for silver prices on an annual average basis, with dollar denominated prices up 9.3% to $17.14/oz, marking the first increase since 2011. This performance was aided by a deficit of 147.5 Moz (4,788 t), the largest for three years.

Central to this performance was a turnaround in investor interest in Exchange Traded Products (ETPs), aided by geopolitical uncertainty. As a result, investors purchased a net 47.0 Moz (1,461 t) of ETPs, a four-year high, sending ETP holdings to a record level.

The strength in silver prices however was far from solely due to investors. The physical balance recorded a deficit for the fourth successive year, albeit a markedly smaller one of 20.7 Moz (643 t). Indeed, arguably the key reason for the smaller deficit was the softer offtake from retail investors of coins and bars after the record level of 2015.

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Guinea town’s unrest a cautionary tale for African mining – by Tim Cocks (Reuters U.S. – May 12, 2017)

http://www.reuters.com/

BOKE, GUINEA – When the frustration of youths in this Guinean mining town finally erupted, they looted shops, pillaged government buildings and smashed up dozens of vehicles, dispersing only when police opened fire.

“It was an immense crowd,” said Lieutenant Souare Abdoul, a fireman who had to shelter in a council building in Boke while young men tore out furniture, emptied a safe, stole computers and scattered hundreds of files across the floor.

“You could see they were angry and they wanted to destroy this place,” he added, walking on a carpet of papers and shattered glass. Only after gendarmes opened fire were the council staff able to escape.

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