Republic of Mining

Barrick Gold subsidiary loses prospecting licence in Tanzania – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – December 10, 2016)

December 12, 2016

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

JOHANNESBURG — Tanzania’s president has lashed out at a Canadian-owned mining company, ordering the cancellation of its prospecting licence at a site where thousands of small-scale miners were facing the threat of forcible removal.

“How do you kick out more than 5,000 people in favour of just one investor?” President John Magufuli told senior officials this week, according to Tanzanian media reports. “This is unacceptable.” He ordered his vice-president to cancel a licence held by a local subsidiary of Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp. and said the small-scale miners should be allowed to stay.

The popular new president, an anti-corruption campaigner nicknamed “The Bulldozer” who was elected last year, has repeatedly criticized the foreign-owned mining companies in his East African country. He has accused them of “a lot of funny deals” to avoid taxes in Tanzania, the fourth-biggest gold producer in Africa.

Remember This? Bruce Mines was kind of a big deal (Soo Today – December 11, 2016)

December 12, 2016

https://www.sootoday.com/

Driving along Highway 17 East you pass through the town of Bruce Mines, but many people may not realize that it is a town with a long history.

The town’s roots can be traced back to the industry of copper mining. Samuel de Champlain recorded the existence of copper mines on his map of 1632 during the early exploration of this area. Etienne Brule is believed to have spent one winter in the area of Bruce Mines investigating the existence of the copper deposits.

Members of the First Nations tribes in the area had discovered the importance of copper as a valuable item to trade with the white men who had begun arriving in the New World. The actual site of Bruce Mines was established as a settlement in 1842 when the first settlers came from Cornwall, England.

Arrested Development: How a new breed of activist is damaging economic growth, one project at a time – by Claudia Cattaneo, Geoffrey Morgan and Jesse Snyder (Financial Post – December 9, 2016)

December 9, 2016

http://business.financialpost.com/

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had barely finished delivering his statement approving the Trans Mountain and Line 3 pipelines, and rejecting Northern Gateway on Nov. 29 when anti-pipeline activists erupted on Twitter.

“@justintrudeau just approved the #Kindermorgan pipeline. Vancouver: Join us at the CBC building at 5 pm,” Stand.earth tweeted, along with a photo with protesters and the headline: IT’S TIME TO ESCALATE AGAINST KINDER MORGAN.

Greenpeace Canada took direct aim at Trudeau: “BREAKING: @JustinTrudeau approves #KinderMorgan and #Line3 pipelines, rejects #NorthernGateway,” illustrating it with indigenous protesters and the warning: “If Prime Minister Trudeau wanted to bring Standing Rock to Canada he succeeded.”

Rio Tinto revolution prompts sixth executive exit – by Peter Ker (Australian Financial Review – December 9, 2016)

December 9, 2016

http://www.afr.com/

Rio Tinto has lost the sixth member of its powerful executive committee in the space of nine months, as the revolution under new chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques continues. The latest departure is Hugo Bague, Rio’s “organisational resources” executive whose remit has included the company’s email and information technology systems.

Questions were asked of Mr Bague in recent months after emails showing three former Rio executives discussing a $US10.5 million payment to a controversial adviser in Guinea were leaked on a french website.

Former executive committee member Alan Davies was among those discussing the payment in the emails, and he was sacked for allegedly breaching the company’s code of conduct on November 16.

Blistering European mining rally hinges on China, Trump and dollar – by Atul Prakash and Peter Hobson (Reuters U.S. – December 9, 2016)

December 9, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Dec 9 European miners are in a race for the title of the best sector performer this year, a sharp turnaround from a slump in 2015, although the rally extending into 2017 rests on U.S. president-elect Donald Trump and China.

A recovery in commodity prices, better balance sheets and brighter global economic growth prospects have underpinned the rally in so-called ‘cyclical’ stocks – which tend to follow the fortunes of the wider economy – that were beaten down to low valuations at the end of 2015.

Glencore’s move to join a consortium taking a stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft suggests some companies are getting more confident about their balance sheets, analysts said. But with several blue-chip mining shares surging, a lot of optimism may already be in the price, they said.

Mining Tycoon’s $1 Billion Manganese Project Nears Collapse – by Simon Gongo (Bloomberg News – December 9, 2016)

December 9, 2016

https://www.bloomberg.com/

A unit of Timis Mining Corp. that says it was forced to stop developing the world’s largest manganese deposit may seek as much as $4 billion in damages from Burkina Faso because the suspension of mining will endanger its other projects in West Africa.

Pan African Minerals’ $1 billion Tambao project has been “completely suspended” since June 2015 and the company has fired almost all its workers, managing director Souleymane Mihin said in an interview Thursday in Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou. The company on Dec. 2 petitioned the International Court of Arbitration in Paris to protect its permit from being withdrawn, he said.

“Since the new government was appointed, no one has ever come to speak with us,” Mihin said. “The court will have to resolve this.” With estimated reserves of 100 million metric tons, Tambao is the largest manganese mine in the world, according to Timis Corp.

BHP boss Andrew Mackenzie a rarity in big business – by Will Glasgow and Christine Lacy (The Australian – December 8, 2016)

December 9, 2016

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

All agree that BHP Billiton boss Andrew Mackenzie’s response to the Samarco dam disaster just over a year ago was close to flawless. He was on the first flight to Brazil, spent days on the ground meeting staff, inspecting the damage and briefing the media, and he’s made sure to return to see the recovery operation himself.

It was textbook disaster management — a stark contrast to the blundering performance of the then Neil Balnaves-led Ardent Leisure in the days after the Dreamworld tragedy.

But what hasn’t emerged until now is the action the humble Scotsman took to make sure he personally felt a financial penalty for Samarco. In the weeks before the Carolyn Hewson-chaired BHP remuneration committee was due to consider his 2016 pay, Mackenzie quietly approached Hewson and requested he get no bonus.

China the Centre of the Lithium Universe – by Kirill Klip (Renewables International – December 7, 2016)

December 9, 2016

http://www.renewablesinternational.net/

Maybe you missed it, but China is now “The Center of the Lithium Universe”. China is already the world’s largest electric vehicle market, says Kirill Klip, President of International Lithium Corp.

The recent Volkswagen scandal has once again shed light on polluting vehicles and the health hazard they pose to the public and environment. In hopes of ending this tainted legacy governments have began implementing regulations to phase out emission causing vehicles. Respectively, all major automakers have followed suit and pledged to build dozens of electric vehicles in years to come.

BYD, the Chinese company backed by Warren Buffet, is the largest EV manufacturer in the world, thus the Chinese companies are producing the largest amount of lithium chemicals for the batteries required to make them. The market is booming, there are currently 25 companies making 51 models of electric cars in China. Over 500,000 EVs will be sold in China this year alone.

Following the blood diamond trail from CAR to Cameroon – by Warren Dick (Mineweb.com – December 5, 2016)

December 9, 2016

http://www.mineweb.com/

Conflict diamonds from the Central African Republic (CAR) continue to enter world diamond markets via Cameroon in direct contravention of the Kimberley Process and international law. This is according to a report released by Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) last Friday (December 2).

The proceeds of the diamond sales are probably arming the Seleka rebels which are the same group that overthrew the government in 2013 and in the process killed fifteen members of the South African National Defence Force.

Conflict diamonds are defined as “rough diamonds used by rebel movements to finance wars against legitimate governments”. CAR is the only source of traditionally defined conflict diamonds in the world today.

SNC-Lavalin job cuts not indicative of wider trends in mining: expert (CBC News Sudbury – December 9, 2016)

December 9, 2016

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

The news coming out of SNC-Lavalin to shed jobs across Canada, including some in Sudbury is disappointing, according to an expert in mining and supply services in the northeastern Ontario city.

The large engineering company announced another round of job cuts Thursday, totaling 405 across Canada, due to the weakness in the mining sector and ongoing efforts to boost its profit margin. Five of those layoffs are in Sudbury, according to a company spokesperson, as SNC-Lavalin will shut down its office in the northeast.

The moves don’t come as good news, given how much work the engineering firm does for mining companies in northern Ontario, said Dick Destefano, the executive director of the Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Services Association, but he added that it’s not indicative of a wider problem in the sector.

Thousands of snow geese die after landing in contaminated Montana mine pit – by Debbi Baker (San Diego Union Tribune – December 7, 2016)

December 9, 2016

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/

Thousands of snow geese died last week in Butte, Montana after a snowstorm forced them to land in contaminated water in an open pit at an old copper mine.

The site, called the Berkeley Pit, was the only open water in the area. Witnesses said it looked like “700 acres of white birds,” said Mark Thompson, environmental affairs manager for Montana Resources, which is responsible for the mine along with Atlantic Richfield Co.

According to The Montana Standard, mine officials estimated that as many as 10,000 of the migratory birds may have perished. Some were found dead or dying in and around town, including two in a Walmart parking lot.Thompson told the Associated Press that as many as 25,000 birds were flying through the area since Nov. 28, thousands more that the usual numbers of between 2,000 and 5,000 a year.

[Child Miners] The dark side of 2016 holiday gift-giving – by Sally Greenberg (Huffington Post – December 8, 2016)

December 9, 2016

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Holiday shopping season is already well underway. In fact, if you haven’t started putting your credit cards to use and checking gifts for loved ones off your lists, you might feel behind already. This year, Christmas-gift-purchasing Americans said they expected to spend an average of $831, according to Gallup—no small expense for most of us. And nearly one in three of us expects to spend $1,000 or more on Christmas gifts this year.

But there’s a dark side to the enthusiastic holiday gift-buying and giving that a majority of us doesn’t realize: many of the gifts we purchase to wear, eat, or use on a daily basis are made by the tiny hands of exploited child laborers aged anywhere from four to 17.

China Set to Rescue Australia Economy at Just the Right Time – by Michael Heath (Bloomberg News – December 7, 2016)

December 9, 2016

https://www.bloomberg.com/

The news out of Australia isn’t all gloom. While growth figures stank last quarter, the nation is again being cushioned by its status as the developed world’s most China-dependent economy. Surging coal and iron ore prices have helped ease an erosion of national income Down Under and, together with a slower slide in mining investment, signal better prospects ahead.

Australia can thank its No. 1 trading partner, whose old economy is reviving as fiscal stimulus gets smokestacks billowing again. Traditional Chinese industries seen as proxies for growth, such as electricity and rail cargo, have collectively bounced back to the highest level in three years. The big unknown: the durability of a turnaround that’s ended a more than 50 percent drop in commodity prices between 2011 and 2016.

“This story is a big one for Australia,” said Paul Bloxham, chief Australia economist at HSBC Holdings Plc, who previously worked at the nation’s central bank. “We’ve talked about the commodity price rise as being a game-changer.”

COLUMN-Crunch time coming for Philippines nickel ore exports – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – December 9, 2016)

December 9, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Dec 9 Crunch time is coming for the flow of nickel ore from the Philippines to China. The market is awaiting news of how many more nickel mines might fall foul of a sweeping clamp down on what the Philippine administration terms irresponsible mining.

Eight nickel mines have already been suspended. Another 14 have been put on notice. Between them they account for around half of the country’s production, putting at risk China’s nickel pig iron (NPI) producers who have become increasingly reliant on Philippine supply for their raw material input.

But the truth of the matter is that Philippine ore exports are going to slow dramatically over the coming months whatever the outcome of the current mine audit. They always do at this time of year because of the rainy season.

John Glenn, former astronaut and senator of Ohio, has died at 95 – by Seth Borenstein (Salon.com – December 8, 2016)

December 9, 2016

http://www.salon.com/

Glenn, the first US astronaut to orbit the Earth in 1962, died Thursday

ASSOCIATED PRESS – WASHINGTON (AP) — John Glenn, whose 1962 flight as the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth made him an all-American hero and propelled him to a long career in the U.S. Senate, died Thursday. The last survivor of the original Mercury 7 astronauts was 95.

Glenn died at the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, where he was hospitalized for more than a week, said Hank Wilson, communications director for the John Glenn School of Public Affairs. John Herschel Glenn Jr. had two major career paths that often intersected: flying and politics, and he soared in both of them.

Before he gained fame orbiting the world, he was a fighter pilot in two wars, and as a test pilot, he set a transcontinental speed record. He later served 24 years in the Senate from Ohio. A rare setback was a failed 1984 run for the Democratic presidential nomination.