Republic of Mining

Survey praises Canadian Arctic companies for respecting indigenous rights – by Bob Weber (Canadian Press/680 News – February 10, 2017)

February 10, 2017

http://www.680news.com/

An international survey on resource development in the Arctic has ranked Canadian companies among the highest in the world for their policies on respecting indigenous rights.

A report from a member of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs says that four of the top 10 companies operating north of the Arctic Circle are Canadian. They include miners such as Teck Resources (TSX:TCK.a) and energy majors such as Imperial Oil (TSX:IMO).

“Companies operating in Canada and the U.S. do score very well,” said Indra Overland, the political scientist who heads the energy department for the institute, one of Norway’s most prominent think tanks.

Canada’s green electricity bailouts make the Bombardier giveaway look like peanuts – by Terence Corcoran (Financial Post – February 10, 2017)

February 10, 2017

http://business.financialpost.com/

While the punditocracy whipped itself into a justifiable if ritual lather over another Ottawa bailout of Bombardier, the $372-million loan is small change compared with the multi-billion-dollar green electric power fiascos across the country.

A rough tally of the ballooning financial plight of the electricity sectors in British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Newfoundland quickly runs to more than $50 billion in new debt and imbedded costs for investments that threaten to be money-losing drags on growth and consumers — and the federal government —for years to come.

The looming disasters have two things in common. They are the work of government-controlled and politically manipulated Crown corporations. They are also the product of a deliberate push to produce clean, green and renewable carbon-free electricity. No fossil fuels allowed. Money is no object.

COLUMN-How vulnerable is copper to supply disruption? – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – February 9, 2017)

February 10, 2017

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Feb 9 The copper market is facing the imminent prospect of the simultaneous closure of the world’s two largest copper mines. Strike action is due to start today at the largest, the Escondida mine in Chile.

There seems little prospect of a last-minute settlement between unions and the mine’s majority owner and operator BHP Billiton. The union didn’t even bother attending talks on the fifth day of statutory government mediation and the company has started shutting down operations.

In Indonesia, meanwhile, Freeport McMoRan is threatening to partly suspend operations at its Grasberg mine due to the lack of an export permit, the latest turn in the long-running stand-off between the company and the Indonesian government.

Argentina lithium projects seek financing as production seen tripling – by Juliana Castilla (Reuters U.S. – February 8, 2017)

February 9, 2017

http://www.reuters.com/

BUENOS AIRES – Argentina’s lithium carbonate production will triple by 2019, and could grow by even more if companies find financing for various projects they are prepared to launch, industry executives and a government official told Reuters.

Demand for lithium – a crucial material in electric car batteries and mobile phones – is soaring worldwide, prompting miners to lock up new sources of supply. Argentina is already the world’s third largest producer, and forms part of the so-called lithium triangle with Bolivia and Chile that accounts for half the world’s reserves.

Center-right President Mauricio Macri has implemented a number of pro-market reforms in Latin America’s third-largest economy since taking office in December 2015, making Argentina a natural choice for miners looking to boost output.

[Strategic Minerals] We have a national security crisis: Let’s do nothing – by John Moody (Fox News – February 8, 2017)

February 9, 2017

http://www.foxnews.com/

John Moody is Executive Vice President, Executive Editor for Fox News.

Can the United States do anything to reverse a dangerous dependence on crucial mineral supplies that put our future military security in the hands of China? We may be about to find out.

The challenge to our future security was outlined in a grim, largely overlooked report from the U.S. Geological Survey. In stark terms, it demonstrated that the U.S. is 100 percent reliant on foreign producers for at least 20 elements and minerals, some of them of strategic importance to our military. The most common source: China.

As Bellwether noted last week, a group of 17 materials, known collectively as rare earths, are produced almost exclusively by China. That’s the country President Trump has labelled a currency manipulator and trade cheat and which he has vowed to bring to heel in future bilateral negotiations.

[Australia mining] Brendon Grylls accuses BHP, Rio-backed mining lobby of ‘wet lettuce’ fight – by Julie-anne Sprague (Australian Financial Review – February 8, 2017)

February 9, 2017

http://www.afr.com/

WA Nationals leader Brendon Grylls has urged BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto to spend millions of dollars on a campaign against Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s reluctance to change the GST distribution system.

Mr Grylls accused mining lobby group Chamber of Minerals and Energy (CME) of a ‘wet lettuce’ fight with the Federal government during a live ABC radio debate in Perth on Wednesday.

CME chief executive Reg Howard-Smith said the lobby group had spent $2 million fighting Mr Grylls’s proposal, which combined funds from BHP, Rio, the Minerals Council of Australia and the CME. Mr Howard-Smith agreed the GST distribution system was unfair and that the lobby group had publicly declared Western Australia needed a fairer deal.

China’s secret Trump card: Could Beijing deprive our military of critical defense components? – by John Moody (Fox News – February 3, 2017)

February 9, 2017

http://www.foxnews.com/

John Moody is Executive Vice President, Executive Editor for Fox News.

Candidate Donald Trump promised to bring jobs back to America, rebuild our military, and on trade get tough with China, which he said was “raping” our economy. President Trump may find his administration the victim of exactly the job-exporting policies he railed against and face the very real possibility that China could cut off U.S. access to 17 rare materials vital to our advanced aircraft and guided missile systems.

Among major U.S. military projects imperiled by a potential China squeeze play is a $340 billion Navy program to create new, Columbia-class nuclear submarines, and a new electro-magnetic aircraft launch (EMAL) system, which the Navy hopes to use for catapults that launch planes from aircraft carriers.

The 17 materials, known as rare earth elements (REE), are essential to the production of the high-performance permanent magnets used in both those systems, as well as in motors and missiles, GPS systems, satellite imaging, night vision goggles, and consumer products like smartphones and flat television screens.

Commentary: Trump’s job promises won’t help struggling coal counties – by Alison Stine (Reuters U.S. – February 9, 2017)

February 9, 2017

http://www.reuters.com/

I watched the mountains, what was left of them, during soccer practice. While my son tumbled on a field with other five-year-olds, I cast my eyes across the river, where the hills were a pale brown with deep gorges and no trees: foothills with flat, bulldozed tops.

Two hundred years ago, my home in rural, Southeastern Ohio contained some of the county’s largest coal deposits. Three billion tons of coal was pulled from the ground in the state mostly by hand, loaded and shipped across the country via train and canals. Towns sprung up around coal, populated by miners who shopped at company stores, who were paid by the ton, and who often only saw daylight on Sundays.

The small towns and villages of my Appalachian county were called the little cities of black diamonds. Such was the value of coal, as precious as gems. Coal paid for towns. Coal paid for schools. Coal built the Tecumseh Theater in Shawnee, the Marietta and Pittsburgh Railroad.

Rio Tinto gears up for $2bn Queensland mine sales – by Bridget Carter and Scott Murdoch (The Australian – February 10, 2017)

February 9, 2017

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

Australian mining giant Rio Tinto is believed to be hiring Bank of America Merrill Lynch to sell its Queensland coking coal assets that are estimated to be worth about $2 billion.

BAML was the bank that was hired by Anglo American to sell its Moranbah North and Grosvenor mines in the state for at least $1bn to private equity firm Apollo before the vendor changed its mind and the deal collapsed.

Both Rio and BAML have declined to comment, but it is understood that BAML will be formally mandated in the weeks ahead once the Moranbah sale is officially off. Up for sale by Rio is its Hail Creek Mine, 120km southwest of Mackay in central Queensland, which supplies international markets with hard coking and thermal coal.

Barrick Sale of Super Pit Stake to China Buyer Stalls – by Brett Foley, Scott Deveau and Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – February 8, 2017)

February 9, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Barrick Gold Corp.’s plan to sell its stake in the Kalgoorlie Super Pit mine to a Chinese bidder has stalled, as the buyer faces delays securing financing for the $1.3 billion deal, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Minjar Gold Pty, a unit of property developer Shandong Tyan Home Co., is also still seeking Chinese regulatory clearance for the purchase, according to the people. Barrick is awaiting an outcome and remains interested in selling to Minjar, which outbid other suitors by a large margin, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.

Barrick may still decide to re-enter talks with other buyers or keep its 50 percent stake in the Western Australia asset, which is the country’s largest open-pit gold mine, the people said.

White House plans directive targeting ‘conflict minerals’ rule: sources – by Sarah N. Lynch and Emily Stephenson (Reuters U.S. – February 8, 2017)

February 9, 2017

http://www.reuters.com/

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump is planning to issue a directive targeting a controversial Dodd-Frank rule that requires companies to disclose whether their products contain “conflict minerals” from a war-torn part of Africa, according to sources familiar with the administration’s thinking.

Reuters could not learn precisely when the directive would be issued or what the final version would say. However, a leaked draft that has been floating around Washington and was seen by Reuters on Wednesday calls for the rule to be temporarily suspended for two years.

Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the document. The sources spoke on Tuesday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record about the plan.

Choking China Backs Australia in Race for Cleaner Iron Ore – by David Stringer (Bloomberg News – February 8, 2017)

February 9, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Chinese engineers who carved a railway through the Tibetan plateau and built the world’s longest sea-bridge across Hangzhou Bay have a new challenge: developing a $3.4 billion project on Australia’s remote Eyre Peninsula to meet increased demand for cleaner iron ore.

China Railway Group Ltd., the world’s second-largest infrastructure builder, is backing the mine, port and rail-road project that aims to supply high-quality, lower-emission ore to Chinese steel mills facing stricter environmental rules.

The project would be a major step toward South Australia’s goal of securing A$10 billion ($7.6 billion) of investments to fund a stable of new iron ore mines by 2021. China Railway’s partner Iron Road Ltd. aims to bring the 24 million ton-a year mine into production in late 2020 after tests showed its product can help customers meet the tougher standards.

[Oregon mining] EDITORIAL: Mining threat renewed (Register Guard – February 9, 2017)

February 9, 2017

http://registerguard.com/

The Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest is in one of the more remote parts of western Oregon, not within easy reach of the main population centers in the Willamette Valley.

Its location in the southwestern corner of the state is both an asset and a liability. The 100,000 acres of public land — 95,805 acres of it national forest and 5,216 acres of it under the Bureau of Land Management — has remained unspoiled. Its streams and rivers run crystal clear, its salmon runs are a magnet for fishermen.

But its location, tucked away in the mountains east of Brookings and Gold Beach, west of Grants Pass, straddling the Oregon-California border, also means it’s not on the radar screen of many Oregonians who might otherwise be concerned about the threat it is now facing.

African mining hopes are distant from uncertain reality – by Clyde Russell (Reuters Africa – February 8, 2017)

February 9, 2017

http://af.reuters.com/

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – It should be a match made in heaven. Developing Africa’s vast mineral resources to meet the needs of the resource-hungry economies of China and the rest of Asia.

But if there is one message to take away from this week’s Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town, it’s that there remains a large gap between hopes and reality, and that in much of sub-Saharan Africa mining investment remains challenging, if not in the too-hard basket.

In many cases, it appears that the various stakeholders in mining simply talk past each other, with mining companies pleading for regulatory certainty, preferably on favourable terms, and government leaders pushing their agenda that the industry must benefit all. The main problem is that many African countries have what are effectively incompatible goals when it comes to developing their natural resources.

Timmins Primero Black Fox Mine GM talks upcoming projects – by Alan S. Hale (Timmins Daily Press – February 9, 2017)

February 9, 2017

http://www.timminspress.com/

Primero Mining Corporation is hard at work exploring its options when it comes to finding new gold deposits that will expand the life of their Black Fox Mine located outside of Timmins.

This year, the company will be pumping millions of dollars into surface and underground exploratory drilling, and has begun the permitting and First Nations consultation process on a new open pit mine called the “Froome Zone” which could double amount of ore the company extracts every day.

At the same time, another promising new project dubbed “the Grey Fox Mine” has been shelved for the foreseeable future. “There is a lot of potential to find a lot more gold in that area,” said Dan Gagnon, general manager of the Black Fox Mine. “We are a producer of 60,000 to 70,000 ounces (of gold) per year for the next couple year, and we have projects to bring us up to 100,000 ounces.”