Earlier this week, mining giant Vale made headlines when it announced that, beginning in the year 2020, it will decommission and dismantle the Superstack and replace it with two smaller stacks.
The 381-metre smokestack, the second tallest in the world, has been an iconic symbol of Sudbury since the 1970s and, on our website, many readers expressed their sadness that the towering chimney may soon vanish from the landscape.
http://www.thesudburystar.com/
When it comes to the Ring of Fire, Noront Resources Ltd. is in it for the long haul, president and CEO Alan Coutts said Thursday.
Speaking at Bryston’s on the Park in Copper Cliff as part of the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce President’s Luncheon Series, Coutts talked about the wealth pulled from the ground in the Sudbury area and how he sees similar potential in the Ring, a crescent rich in chromite and other minerals such as nickel and copper, located in the James Bay Lowlands, about 500 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, and dotted with five small Oji-Cree First Nations communities.
“We all know in this room the last 150 years has generated an incredible amount of wealth and prosperity from the Sudbury Basin,” Coutts said. “The Ring of Fire is almost identical in size, about 100 kilometres from tip to tail, and you can see there are already more than 20 deposits that have been discovered in that region, of various qualities and sizes.”
TORONTO, Jan 26 (Reuters) – A Canadian court ruled on Thursday that a lawsuit against Tahoe Resources Inc by Guatemalan men claiming they were shot by the miner’s private security guards can proceed in British Columbia, according to a copy of the judgment seen by Reuters.
The decision by the Court of Appeal for British Columbia, which reverses a 2015 B.C. Supreme Court ruling, said that Vancouver-based Tahoe had not proven Guatemala was a more appropriate forum for the case. The case is being closely watched by Canadian miners that operate abroad because it could increase litigation risk.
Seven Guatemalan men allege in a civil lawsuit that security personnel hired by Tahoe opened fire on them in April 2013 during a protest outside the Escobal silver mine in southeastern Guatemala. The men say they were injured during the shooting as they attempted to flee.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
When the Bre-X scandal broke in 1997 and a massive gold find was revealed as a more massive fraud, mining executives predicted the true-life tale would be made into a movie, then joked about which actor should portray them on the big screen.
In one of my all-time favourite e-mails, the chairman at one of Canada’s biggest mining companies, Norm Keevil at Teck, sent a tongue-in-cheek note to suggest he be played by Sean Connery.
For the key role of Bre-X chief executive David Walsh, an affable mining promoter with an impressive beer gut, insiders tossed out the names of bumbling, rotund actors: John Goodman was a popular choice, so was George Wendt, best known as Norm from the TV show Cheers.
While January’s mild temperatures may have been welcomed by some, it has been a curse for the First Nation communities that rely on cold, ice and snow to create their winter road system.
As of Monday, none of the roads in the six corridors in the Nishnawbe Aski Nation territory were open officially to full-load commercial traffic and only a handful of those roads were open to light vehicle traffic. Even then, Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler said the conditions of some these roads were far from ideal.
“I know that in speaking with Grand Chief Jonathon Solomon (of the Mushkegowuk Council), that the east corridor along the Coast is open to light traffic, but it’s travel at your own risk kind of a deal,” he explained. “But there is no heavy traffic going up North anywhere.”
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Ryan Samis isn’t ready to say mining exploration is out of a dark period, but there’s light at the tunnel. The president of the Canadian Diamond Drilling Association said the prevailing sentiment heading into 2017 is upbeat in comparison with recent years.
“It’s kinda like you want to believe that it’s finally going to come back this year,” said Samis, who works for Geotech Drilling’s exploration division manager based in Prince George, B.C.
“At the end of each year clients are looking at budgets and from what I’ve seen…programs are getting bigger, flow-through is getting better, and there is more demand (for drilling services),” said Samis.
NEW DELHI – India is planning to revive a cluster of colonial-era gold mines – shut for 15 years but with an estimated $2.1 billion worth of deposits left – as the world’s second-largest importer of the metal looks for ways to cut its trade deficit, officials said.
State-run Mineral Exploration Corp Ltd has started exploring the reserves at Kolar Gold Fields, in the southern state of Karnataka, to get a better estimate of the deposits, according to three government officials and a briefing document prepared by the federal mines ministry that was seen by Reuters.
The ministry has also appointed investment bank SBI Capital to assess the finances of the defunct state-run Bharat Gold Mines Ltd, which controls the mines, and the dues the company owes to workers and the authorities, said the officials, who are involved in the process.
Alaskans are used to seeing apocalyptic images about the Pebble mine. TV ads opposing the large copper-gold prospect near Iliamna cast images of toxic sludge cascading down mountain valleys into Bristol Bay, killing all the salmon.
Is the hype shoe now on the other foot? It’s jarring, but sponsored-content pitches are now showing up on mainstream Internet sites touting Pebble, posted not by owner Northern Dynasty but by people touting Pebble’s stock.
The headline blares: “Is this tiny gold miner about to soar? Will Trump open development of the world’s biggest gold mine … right here in America?” With a new friend in Washington — meaning President Donald Trump — Pebble’s ultimate development is a no-brainer, the story goes.
LONDON – Lonmin LML.L reported weaker than expected output on Thursday, causing analysts to raise doubts over 2017 production targets, and faced demands for compensation following the shooting of 34 miners at Marikana in South Africa’s platinum belt.
The company reiterated its sales guidance for 2017, but said larger shafts, known as generation 2, had disappointed and production from them was 5.2 percent lower in the final three months of last year than in the previous year.
The production shortfall added to steep losses for Lonmin’s volatile share price. It was down more than 16 percent by 1230 GMT. The wider sector was roughly flat. .FTNMX1770
MANATEE COUNTY – At what is expected to be a contentious public hearing Thursday, the Manatee County Commission will consider Mosaic Fertilizer’s request to expand one of its phosphate mines.
Commissioners have already received hundreds of pages of correspondence from supporters and opponents of the Wingate East mine proposal, as well as numerous phone messages. (Read some of the public’s comments here.)
Because they want to attend a meeting at which the Palmetto City Commission is to approve its commitments for a proposed hotel adjoining the Bradenton Area Convention Center, the commissioners intend to pause the proceedings at 5 p.m. If the hearing has not been concluded and they have not rendered a decision, the commissioners will resume the hearing at 10 a.m. Monday.
More than a month after Russia announced one of its biggest privatisations since the 1990s, selling a 19.5 per cent stake in its giant oil company Rosneft, it still isn’t possible to determine from public records the full identities of those who bought it.
The stake was sold for €10.2 billion to a Singapore investment vehicle that Rosneft said was a 50/50 joint venture between Qatar and the Swiss oil trading firm Glencore.
Unveiling the deal at a televised meeting with Rosneft’s boss Igor Sechin on December 7, President Vladimir Putin called it a sign of international faith in Russia, despite US and EU financial sanctions on Russian firms including Rosneft.
Caterpillar Inc. forecast 2017 revenue and earnings that trailed analysts’ estimates as signs of a recovery in mining and energy have yet to translate into a rebound in demand for the company’s signature yellow machines.
Revenue will be in a range of $36 billion to $39 billion, with a midpoint of $37.5 billion, the Peoria, Illinois-based company said in a statement Thursday.
That is less than the $38.1 billion average of 16 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg, and indicates annual revenue may fall for a fifth consecutive year. Earnings excluding restructuring costs will be $2.90 a share at the midpoint, compared with the analysts’ estimate of $3.08.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Metals mania is back. Since the start of January, the Toronto Stock Exchange’s mining sector has surged to double-digit gains, led by the likes of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd., HudBay Minerals Inc., First Quantum Minerals Ltd. and Teck Resources Ltd., each of which has rocketed ahead by 27 per cent or more in less than four weeks.
The big gains reflect a growing consensus that global growth is picking up, fuelled by solid growth in China, an improving outlook in Europe and enthusiasm about U.S. President Donald Trump’s spending plans.
However, the leaping share values also raise questions about whether investors may be getting ahead of themselves.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au
BHP Billiton is set to ramp up its West Australian iron ore mines, rail and ports to full capacity quicker than previously flagged as a two-year rail system overhaul looks set for completion in little more than a year.
The extra rail capacity could deliver up to an extra 10 million tonnes of iron ore sales in the next two years, more than offsetting the impacts of power outages and unplanned maintenance at the Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine in South Australia, which caused a 40,000-tonne cut in copper guidance this year.
In its quarterly production report, released yesterday, BHP said that an extensive overhaul of the company’s big private Pilbara region railways, ordered by Australian mining president Mike Henry in March last year as one of his first edicts in the position, was moving at a cracking pace.
http://business.financialpost.com/
Barrick Gold Corp.’s annual gold production in 2016 fell by nearly 10 per cent and copper production was down about 19 per cent compared to the year before, largely due to the company’s decision to sell off some non-core mines, the company announced Wednesday.
The Toronto-based mining giant said it produced about 5.5 million ounces of gold at its 16 gold mines — which was at the high end of its 5.25 to 5.55 million ounce guidance. But that was short of the 6.1 million ounces mined in 2015.
Production was impacted by the sale of some of its smaller mines such as Cowal, Round Mountain, Bald Mountain, Ruby Hill and the sale of half its interest in Porgera, the company said. Still, production at its core mines, including Cortez and Goldstrike, rose slightly from 2015.
