Republic of Mining

Donald A. McLeod (b. 1928) – 2017 Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Inductee

March 9, 2018January 12, 2017

The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame was conceived by the late Maurice R. Brown, former editor and publisher of The Northern Miner, as a way to recognize and honour the legendary mine finders and builders of a great Canadian industry. The Hall was established in 1988. For more information about the extraordinary individuals who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, please go to their home website: http://mininghalloffame.ca/

Donald McLeod is a revered and iconic figure in Canada’s mining industry and an inspirational role model for young mining entrepreneurs. Born and raised in Stewart, B.C., he began his career as a pack-horse operator and miner’s helper in the 1940s, and went on to become a successful mine finder, developer, and founder of the Vancouver-based Northair Group of Companies.

He is best known for developing the Brandywine and Summit gold mines in BC, and for making high-grade gold discoveries at the Brucejack project. He also mentored and encouraged countless people to pursue opportunities in the mining industry, including his daughter Catherine and son Bruce, who both achieved success in their own rights.

http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.

Robert R. McEwen (b. 1950) – 2017 Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Inductee

March 9, 2018January 12, 2017

Robert (Rob) McEwen is one of Canada’s most innovative, original and dynamic mining entrepreneurs. He is best known for transforming Goldcorp Inc. from a holding company into a global gold-mining powerhouse and revitalizing Ontario’s Red Lake gold mine through the discovery of new high-grade resources at depth.

His famous “Goldcorp Challenge” in 2000, which provided open access to 50 years of proprietary geological data from Red Lake and offered prizes to anyone who could find the next six million ounces of gold, created an estimated $6 billion of value from subsequent discoveries.

http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.

James E. C. Carter (b. 1950) – 2017 Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Inductee

March 9, 2018January 12, 2017

James Carter is a giant in the history of Canada’s oilsands and an exemplary leader in their sustainable development. He transformed the fledgling industry — and the frontier town of Fort McMurray, Alta. — into a powerful economic engine for the nation while building Syncrude Canada into one of the world’s largest and most successful energy producers.

During his 28-year career with Syncrude, Carter revolutionized the oilsands industry through bold innovation. He championed development of the world’s largest trucks and shovels and introduced hydro-transport of oilsands and other leading-edge technologies that cost-effectively improved the industry’s performance.

http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.

Trumponomics Divides Investors as Gold ETF Flows Diverge – by Luzi-Ann Javier (Bloomberg News – January 10, 2017)

January 12, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Gold is splitting the investment community down the middle.

Take the flows into and out of exchange-traded funds. Money has been draining out of SPDR Gold Shares, the world’s largest gold-backed ETF used by big institutional investors, each week since Nov. 11. But iShares Gold Trust, a smaller rival favored by individuals investing lesser amounts for themselves, has seen back-to-back weekly inflows.

Large mutual, pension and hedge funds are chasing better returns in rallying U.S. stock markets thanks to President-elect Donald Trump’s pro-growth policies. Retail investors including iShares Gold holders are returning to gold amid renewed concern that Trump protectionism will restrict global trade and growth.

Those concerns were shared by more than two-thirds of traders surveyed by Bloomberg News last month, who forecast prices will gain this year as political uncertainties drive demand for haven assets including bullion.

Diamonds forever: Will Israel stay away from Congo? – by Daniel Brett (Al Arabiya.net – January 11, 2017)

January 12, 2017

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/

Building an empire in Congo

“Nothing happens in Congo without Dan Gertler and Gertler can do nothing without playing the Israeli card,” said an advisor to an international mining conglomerate. But the net is tightening around the Israeli billionaire mining magnate who dominates the economic life of the resource rich but economically impoverished Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The Israeli mining magnate has been fundamental in the Kabila family’s control of the DRC over the past two decades. But the 42-year-old billionaire, who was the inspiration of for the movie Blood Diamond starring Leonardo DiCaprio, is now under international scrutiny over corruption.

Meanwhile, his main Congolese ally, President Joseph Kabila, is clinging on by his fingertips to power. The fragile situation in the Central African rentier state threatens to drag the Israeli security establishment into a renewed conflict to defend the billionaire’s interests.

Jane Fonda comes to Alberta to inform them that oil is bad and they should get other jobs – by Tristin Hopper (National Post – January 12, 2017)

January 12, 2017

http://news.nationalpost.com/

Fort McMurrayites might have assumed the celebrity visits would stop after the city was swept first by recession, and then by wildfire. Or when the provincial government introduced a carbon tax and started phasing out coal.

And surely, with Donald Trump in the White House, even the oiliest corner of Canada would shift to the activist back burner. But no; here comes Jane Fonda.

“We don’t need new pipelines,” she told a Wednesday press conference at the University of Alberta where she also dismissed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a “good-looking Liberal” who couldn’t be trusted.

[Australia] Would-Be Kingmaker Calls Out Iron Giants in Ore Tax Battle – by Rebecca Keenan (Bloomberg News – January 12, 2017)

January 12, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

The world’s biggest mining companies producing iron ore from Australia aren’t paying their fair share in taxes, according to a lawmaker who wants a 20-fold raise in a state levy that’s been unchanged since the 1960s and the era of imperial pounds, shillings and pence.

The proposal has “overwhelming” support and Rio Tinto Group and BHP Billiton Ltd.’s objections don’t stack up, according to Brendon Grylls, Western Australia’s Nationals party leader. Grylls, a farmer and one-time baker turned politician, is championing the drive to raise the lease rental payment, levied on ore from the two companies, to A$5 a metric ton ($3.68) from 25 Australian cents.

“It is quite clear to me that Western Australia is not receiving a fair recompense for making our iron ore available,” Grylls said in an interview from his office in West Perth on Tuesday. “It was 2 and 6 converted to 25 cents when decimalization came in.”

[Manitoba Mining History] Flin Flon – by Jack Paterson (MACLEAN’S – OCTOBER 1, 1938)

January 16, 2017January 12, 2017

http://www.macleans.ca/

Ten years ago Flin Flon was a struggling mining camp in the wilderness; today it is Manitoba’s third city

OVER Flin Flon at 4,000. Visibility excellent. Landing now. Advise Winnipeg. Okay Lac Du Bonnet.”

A quick rattle of sign-off letters and the pilot carelessly tossed sponge-rubber earphones above the cowling. At Lac du Bonnet, 450 miles distant, a young operator of Wings, Limited, would relay the message from loudspeaker to private telephone line. In brief seconds head office would have it. Simple routine.

My mind flashed to an article I had done for Maclean’s short years back, wherein was prophesied general two-way radio for wilderness airplanes. At that time voice distance and sixty-five pounds unit weight had been the sticker. Now here was voice distance handled by a compact set of only thirty pounds, live and simple as a telephone.

Progress. Yes, but 4,000 feet below us, a jumble of wooden boxes, scattered over rocky hills plumed by smoke from a great smelter, was another herald of progress that commanded attention. Ten years! My spine tingled at thought of changes I would see.

Mining’s Next Big Boom – by David Fickling (Bloomberg News – January 11, 2017)

January 12, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Here’s something to give a fresh shot in the arm to copper, the second-best-performing base metal over the past three months: the prospect of strike action at its biggest pit.

Management at BHP Billiton Ltd.-run Escondida in Chile have rejected union demands for a 7 percent pay rise and 25 million peso ($37,300) bonus, and talks are ongoing ahead of a vote by workers on a final proposal Jan. 24, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday.

As Gadfly argued in September, the risk of industrial action is one of the major supply-side factors supporting copper at the moment. Escondida accounted for about 1.2 million metric tons of mined copper in 2015, so any stoppage could sharply tighten a market that Bloomberg Intelligence estimates will see a 453,000-ton surplus this year.

BHP Billiton chiefs meet Donald Trump in New York – by Daniel Palmer (The Australian – January 11, 2017)

January 11, 2017

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

BHP Billiton’s most prominent executives have met with Donald Trump in New York just two months after the company warned the US president-elect to back away from a 45 per cent trade tariff on China.

The controversial policy was flagged through a heated election campaign that saw Mr Trump consistently hit out at Beijing. At BHP’s meeting with Mr Trump and vice president-elect Mike Pence were chief executive Andrew Mackenzie, chairman Jac Nasser and chief legal counsel Geoff Healy.

In a brief statement, the mining giant said the discussions had been “productive” but declined to elaborate on the specific details of the talks.

COLUMN-Funds keep the faith with the base metals turnaround story – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – January 11, 2017)

January 11, 2017

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Jan 11, 2017 – This time last year the base metals complex was all doom and gloom. The London Metal Exchange (LME) index of prices touched 2,049 in January 2016, its lowest reading since the dark days of January 2009, when the world seemed to be spiralling into full-blown depression.

China came to the rescue then and it came to the rescue again last year, Beijing policymakers once again pumping money down the twin metals-intensive channels of infrastructure and construction to reinvigorate economic growth. The LME index has since recovered to 2,768. True, performance has been mixed, largely reflecting each individual metal’s supply dynamics.

But the worst seems to be over for base metals prices, with more upside to come. That, at least, is what fund managers are betting on. There was some marginal reduction in fund positions over the course of December but the money men appear to be largely keeping the faith with the broader turnaround story.

Back to the drawing board: Rubicon outlines its Red Lake exploration program – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – January 10, 2017)

January 11, 2017

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

New management at Rubicon Minerals promise a more thorough, responsible and transparent approach toward getting its shuttered Phoenix Gold Project back on track. The would-be Red Lake miner provided the details on its exploration plans over the next two years on Jan. 10.

“We have finalized the details of our 18- to 24-month exploration program that will advance our understanding of the F2 Gold Deposit at the Phoenix Gold Project,” said Rubicon president-CEO George Ogilvie in a news release.

Coming out of creditor protection and refinancing, Rubicon is out to restore investor confidence and attempt to shake off its reputation as one of Northern Ontario’s biggest mining blunders.

The Mine of the Future Is Run by Drones – by Corin Faife (MotherBoard.com – January 10, 2017)

January 11, 2017

http://motherboard.vice.com/

Like the famous canaries that were first brought into coal mines from the early 1900s to detect carbon monoxide, creative solutions have long been used to mitigate some of the risk inherent in mining.

Even so, human bodies have long borne the brunt of this cramped and strenuous occupation, from the creeping ‘black lung’ of coal miners to blasting injuries from explosive flyrock. So it’s good news that the new frontier in mining is to remove them from proximity to physical danger as much as possible, perhaps one day entirely.

That’s why automation is a big deal in heavy industries like mining and construction. Leading names of the industry, like British-Australian firms Rio Tinto and BHP and Canada’s Barrick Gold, are all investing large sums of money in automating more and more of the process of mining, including an increasing use of driverless vehicles.

McConnell Outlines Environmental Wish-List for Trump Action (New York Times – January 10, 2017)

January 11, 2017

http://www.nytimes.com/

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS – WASHINGTON — The top Republican in the Senate outlined a series of actions he hopes President-elect Donald Trump will take to overturn environmental regulations imposed by President Barack Obama, including a rule to protect streams from coal-mining debris.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., urged Trump in a letter to scrap a rule to protect small streams and wetlands from development and other regulations that the GOP considers overly burdensome. He also asked Trump to drop a legal defense of the Clean Power Plan, Obama’s signature effort to limit carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants.

The plan, the linchpin of Obama’s strategy to fight climate change, is on hold awaiting a court ruling. In a Jan. 4 letter to the president-elect, McConnell said Trump “inspired the American people with your vision of less regulation, free and fair competition and enhanced job opportunities.”

[Australia] Indigenous people and miners need each others’ help – by Nyunggai Warren Mundine (Australian Financial Review – January 10, 2017)

January 11, 2017

http://www.afr.com/

The minerals industry isn’t going anywhere. It will only get bigger. The human appetite for resources shows no signs of abating. Technology and innovation, population and economic growth will only make that appetite stronger.

Indigenous people aren’t going anywhere either and our population is also getting bigger. Minerals extraction means engaging with Indigenous people. Indigenous Australians have ownership or other rights over 20 per cent of the continent, including most areas where mining occurs. And there’s still native title claims to be concluded and compensatory funds to be invested.

Socio-economically, there’s a big gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Demographically, Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia are like two different countries – the demographics of Australia are typical of developed economies; the demographics of Indigenous Australia resemble developing economies.