U.S. President Donald Trump delivered on his promise to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, signing an executive order Tuesday to advance its construction and giving Canada’s battered oilsands industry his support.
“We are going to renegotiate some of the terms” of the Keystone XL project, Trump said to reporters. “And if they like (them) we will see if we can get that pipeline built – a lot of jobs, 28,000 jobs, great construction jobs.”
He took the same action on the Dakota Access pipeline project, saying that it would be “subject to terms and conditions negotiated by us.” He decreed that American steel should be used for pipelines built in the United States.
The Superstack, which has dominated the Sudbury skyline since 1970, will soon be no more.
Vale announced plans Tuesday to decommission the iconic smokestack, which rises some 381 metres from the company’s smelter in Copper Cliff, by 2020. The Superstack will be replaced by two smaller and more efficient stacks, about 137 metres each, and eventually torn down.
“This certainly marks an end of an era and a new chapter in our journey as a responsible and sustainable operation,” said Stuart Harshaw, vice-president of Vale’s Ontario operations, during a press conference at Dynamic Earth on Tuesday.
“This is very historic for our operations and for Sudbury. We know a lot of people view the stack as an icon, something you see coming over the hill or coming up from the south.
SARAJEVO – A Chinese company began work on Monday on a $715 million expansion of a Serbian coal mine and a new power plant, part of a wave of investment in new coal-fired plants in the Balkans that is at odds with EU policy of reducing coal use.
China Machinery and Engineering Corp’s project to expand Kostolac, Serbia’s second biggest coal mine, and build a new 350 megawatt (MW) unit at a nearby power plant is the first new electricity capacity built in Serbia in nearly 30 years.
“Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) is opening a new chapter,” Milorad Grcic, chief executive of Serbian power utility EPS, said in a statement marking the start of construction. The investment, majority financed by China’s Export Import Bank [EXIMC.UL], secured the future of the mine and power plant for half a century, he said.
Pala Investments Ltd. fund manager Anthony Milewski figures one of the best payoffs from a global boom in electric vehicles will be a hard, gray metal that so far has drawn little interest from investors. That’s why he’s stockpiling it.
During the past year, the Switzerland-based mining fund has been buying cobalt, an essential element in the lithium-ion batteries powering Tesla Motors Inc. cars as well as all sorts of mobile devices. Even after a 50 percent surge in prices last year, Milewski and other bulls expect more gains as companies like General Motors Co. and Volkswagen AG make their own electronic vehicles.
But cobalt investing isn’t all that simple. There’s very little trading in futures contracts offered by the London Metal Exchange, which can mean increased volatility risk.
(L to R) Dave Stefanuto, Vice-President of Vale’s North Atlantic Projects and Base Metals Technology; Chris Hodgson, President of the Ontario Mining Association; Paul Lefebvre Member of Parliament for Sudbury; Glenn Thibeault, Ontario Minister of Energy and Member of Provincial Parliament for Sudbury; Stuart Harshaw, Vice-President of Vale’s Ontario Operations; Marc Serrè, Member of Parliament for Nickel Belt; Al Sizer, Deputy Mayor of the City of Greater Sudbury; Rick Bertrand, President of United Steelworkers, Local 6500; Mike McCann, Director of Milling & Smelting for Vale’s Sudbury Operations.
Emissions to be reduced to the point that the Superstack will no longer be required
SUDBURY, January 24, 2017 – Due to the significant reduction of atmospheric emissions at Vale’s operations in Sudbury, Ontario, today Vale announced its plans to take the iconic 1,250 foot (381 metre) Superstack out of service by the second quarter of 2020. The Superstack will be replaced with two smaller and more efficient 450 foot (137 metre) stacks.
“We are proud to be reducing emissions to a point where the Superstack is no longer required,” said Stuart Harshaw, Vice-President of Vale’s Ontario Operations. “Taking the Superstack out of service is a great symbol of how far Vale has come in terms of shrinking our environmental footprint and making Greater Sudbury a better place to work and live.”
Stuart Harshaw, Vice-President of Vale’s Ontario Operations.
The two smaller and more efficient stacks will require far less energy to operate than the Superstack, which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from Vale’s Copper Cliff Smelter by approximately 40%. At the same time, Vale’s Clean AER Project will reduce particulate emissions by 40% and dramatically reduce SO2 emissions by 85%.
CAIRO – The gold beneath Egypt’s desert could make it a top global producer, but the investment terms on offer are driving away small explorers whose skills the country needs to unlock its mineral wealth.
The Egyptian government launched its first international tender for gold mining concessions in eight years last week, potentially an exciting opportunity for global miners to help develop a relatively untapped gold-mining frontier.
Though it has a history of gold-mining stretching back to the pharaohs, Egypt today has a single commercial gold mine, Centamin’s Sukari, which produced 551,036 ounces last year.
WASHINGTON—U.S. President Donald Trump has signed executive actions to advance the construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines. The move is expected to be cheered by Republicans and some union groups who backed the projects.
Former President Barack Obama stopped the proposed Keystone XL pipeline in late 2015, declaring it would have undercut U.S. efforts to clinch a global climate change deal that was a centerpiece of his environmental legacy.
The pipeline would have carried almost one-quarter of Canada’s oil exports to U.S. refineries in the Gulf Coast. The U.S. government needed to approve the pipeline because it crossed the border.
De Beers had its biggest diamond sale in at least a year as the gem industry restocked after the key holiday period.
The company, owned by Anglo American Plc, sold $720 million of diamonds in its first sale of the year, compared with $545 million at last year’s January offering, it said in a statement Tuesday.
The world’s biggest diamond producer said it saw “good demand” across most diamond categories, while there was a larger-than-usual gap between its previous sale.
The large amount may help boost confidence that demand is continuing to rebound after a slump in 2015.
Sudbury’s most conspicuous landmark may soon disappear from the skyline, or at least puff its last plume of smoke. CTV News is reporting Vale intends to take the 381-metre (1,250-foot) Superstack out of service by 2020 and replace it with two stacks about a third its size, stretching just 137 metres (or 450 feet) high.
Vale spokesperson Angie Robson said she couldn’t confirm the plan, but said the company would be making an announcement on Tuesday regarding environmental improvements and the future of the Copper Cliff icon.
The retirement and potential demolition of the Superstack has long been rumoured; two years ago, Kelly Strong, then the vice-president of Vale’s Canada and UK operations, told business leaders in Sudbury that the Brazil-based mining company was conducting an analysis to determine if it should replace the 1,250-foot chimney.
LONDON – Last year it was the strength of demand that caught the copper market by surprise. Everyone had braced themselves for an expected hard metallic landing in China, the driver of global copper usage. But that’s not how things played out.
China itself, it seems, was not quite ready for the promised shift from the old model of fixed asset investment to what was touted as the “new normal” of slower, more consumer-oriented growth.
Infrastructure and property investment boomed again, as did the country’s appetite for copper. Imports of both unwrought copper and mined concentrate probably hit record highs last year, judging by the preliminary figures released last week.
Hundreds of job reductions are expected at Hudbay’s Flin Flon operations by 2019 or 2020, with the company hoping retirements and a proposal to maintain the zinc plant can minimize job losses.
While Hudbay has developed projections around job losses and layoffs, Daniel Weinerman, manager of investor relations and corporate communications, stressed all figures under discussion are preliminary estimates.
At best, the news will mean a reduction of approximately 500 jobs: Hudbay estimates 200 will come from layoffs, with the rest from attrition as workers leave or retire. At worst, Flin Flon could lose 800 to 900 jobs, leaving the city with a small fraction of the company’s Manitoba workforce.
The President of Guinea is disputing public statements made by Rio Tinto Group regarding the firing of a senior executive for a $10.5 million payment made to the president’s friend Francois de Combret.
President Alpha Conde said the firing of Alan Davies, who headed Rio’s $20 billion Simandou iron ore project in Guinea, was the result of an internal feud. Rio has said it was because of improper payments to de Combret in 2011 for assisting the company’s negotiations with Conde on the mine.
Davies had been seen as a challenger to Jean Sebastien Jacques prior to the Frenchman becoming chief executive officer in July. “In reality, it was a settling of scores because the new CEO wanted to get rid of Alan Davies,” the 78-year-old Conde, who’s been president since 2010, said in an interview on Wednesday in Davos, Switzerland.
TIMMINS – Glencore’s Kidd Operations was recognized by the province for its energy conservation efforts on Friday morning at a presentation at the Timmins Museum.
Representatives from the mine joined Timmins Mayor Steve Black, Terry Young, vice-president of conservation and corporate relations with the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) and Ontario Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault that morning to showcase Kidd’s new ventilation-on-demand system as an example of how utilizing government funding programs will reduce energy consumption and cut energy costs.
Kidd tapped into the government’s Industrial Accelerator Program in order to offset $5.6 million of the total $9 million required to transition to the fully automated underground ventilation system it now has today.
The billionaire New Zealand family behind an ambitions $5 billion proposed iron ore development in Western Australia’s Pilbara are confident the project can start construction next year, despite not yet having its foot on enough iron ore to support the plan.
Todd Corp, the private conglomerate owned by NZ’s Todd family, on Monday signed a state agreement with the WA government spelling out the framework for its proposed Balla Balla infrastructure project.
The $5bn development will include a 160km railway network and a so-called trans-shipping port, with the entire operation capable of exporting about 50 million tonnes of iron ore a year.
From a peak of more than $1,900 in mid-2011, gold prices dropped below $1,100 in 2015 before rising to around $1,400 last summer. On Friday, the February delivery price settled at $1,210.20, up about $100 since mid-December. The price of gold generally rises in periods of inflation and periods of economic uncertainty.
This is certainly one of the latter and may be the beginning of one of the former. The consumer price index topped 2% last week, and November’s election of Donald Trump as the 45th U.S.
President has presented investors with plenty of uncertainty. A strong dollar also tends to weigh on the price of gold, and Trump has made clear his belief that the dollar is overvalued compared with the Chinese yuan. If the dollar sinks, interest in gold rises.
