Republic of Mining

Laurentian U appoints research, eco-development czar – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – March 9, 2016)

March 18, 2016

http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Sudbury’s Laurentian University has; announced Craig Fowler will assume the role of associate vice-president, research partnerships, innovation and economic development.

Fowler will be responsible for developing new large-scale research collaborations to advance the university’s objectives and foster innovation and economic development.

In its Strategic Plan, Laurentian University has set a goal of increasing total annual funded research from $21.9 million in 2010 to $30 million by 2017.

“We are thrilled by the experience and vision that Craig brings to this portfolio,” said Rui Wang, vice-president of research at Laurentian University.

Who really runs South Africa? – by Martina Schwikowski (Deutsche Welle – March 17, 2016)

March 18, 2016

http://www.dw.com/en/

Pressure for President Jacob Zuma to step down is increasing after allegations of his involvement in a corruption scandal with the Gupta family. But who are the powerful Guptas?

More and more connections between South African President Jacob Zuma and the Indian Gupta family are coming to light as allegations regarding top government jobs offered by the infamous family continue to surface. The opposition party Democratic Alliance (DA) laid corruption charges against the controversial family at the Cape Town police station on Thursday (17.03.2016).

President Jacob Zuma was questioned in parliament about the Guptas’ political influence. Zuma, however, denied any involvement and reiterated that he alone holds the power to appoint cabinet members.

Nerves of steel: Glencore’s brave call in battle with short-sellers (Reuters U.K. – March 18, 2016)

March 18, 2016

http://uk.reuters.com/

March 18 (IFR) – Markets were panicking about Glencore on the morning of January 14. A rout in metals, agricultural and energy prices had hit the commodity trading company hard, making it a target for short-sellers who were betting on its collapse.

Glencore shares started trading that morning at 70.83p, their lowest open ever and down almost 90% from its IPO less than five years earlier. Its bonds with just a year to maturity were yielding over 10%, an unmistakeable sign of stress, while the cost of five-year default protection was quoted above 1,000bp for the first time since October 2008.

“People were starting to see ghosts,” said one banker who has closely worked with the company for a decade. “They thought Glencore was going bankrupt.”

From the outside, there looked to be plenty of reason to worry. Lured by surging commodity prices and growing demand from China, the company had gorged on cheap debt in the late 2000s, doubling its borrowings at a time when much of the corporate world was cutting back.

Anger in China’s coal country as miners feel left behind – by Gerry Shih (Seattle Times – March 18, 2016)

March 18, 2016

http://www.seattletimes.com/

The Associated Press- JUNDESHAN, China (AP) — Hanging from a highway overpass two hours’ drive from the Siberian border, a local government banner reads like a last-gasp exhortation to this exhausted coal community: “Improve our structure, change our methods, transform our city.”

This area has transformed in dire ways as China has retreated from coal and heavy industry. Li Jiuxian, who hasn’t been paid for half a year, sees only mounting debts and anger.

“I don’t even have anywhere left to borrow money from,” said the 51-year-old miner as he stepped outside a squalid mahjong parlor reeking of smoke and drink where miners while away days without work or pay. “There isn’t going to be change.”

[United Kingdom] North York Moors National Park at risk of being ‘industrialised’ by £2bn potash mine project – by Dean Kirby (The Independent – March 17, 2016)

March 18, 2016

http://www.independent.co.uk/

Business leaders say the mine will be the biggest private investment project in the North of England ‘by a billion miles’

One of Britain’s best-loved national parks is on the verge of being “industrialised” after a fertiliser company unveiled details of its plan to sink a huge potash mine, rural campaigners have warned.

Sirius Minerals says it will plough £2.4bn into the York Potash Project to build the mine to the south of Whitby in the North York Moors National Park in a move that will create more than 1,000 jobs.

Business leaders say the mine will be the biggest private investment project in the North of England “by a billion miles” and the firm’s economic forecasters say it will make an annual contribution to Britain’s economy of £2.3bn.

March mining madness as copper, iron ore prices rebound – by Frik Els (Mining.com – March 17, 2016)

March 18, 2016

http://www.mining.com/

Volatile metal and mining stocks enjoy another huge rally

March madness reached the commodities markets on Thursday as investors piled into the mining sector on the back of a jump in the copper price and a renewed iron ore rally

On the Comex market in New York copper for delivery in May climbed as much 2.8% to $2.2925 a pound or some $5,050 a tonne. It’s the highest closing value since November 4 and the red metal is now up more than 18% from a six-year low hit mid-January.

Other industrial metals also gained led by zinc which rose 2% to $1,812 a tonne nearly matching a five-month high hit earlier in March. Nickel rose to $8,765 a tonne on the LME. Nickel was last year’s worst performing metal with a 40% drop and hit a 13-year low mid-February of $7,725.

TransCanada Corp to overhaul its business in US$13B acquisition of Columbia Pipeline Group – by Geoffrey Morgan (Financial Post – March 18, 2016)

March 18, 2016

http://business.financialpost.com/

CALGARY – TransCanada Corp. proved rumours of its interest in Columbia Pipeline Group true on Thursday when it announced a US$13-billion deal to buy the Texas-based natural gas pipeline firm.

At the same time, the Calgary-based pipeline company announced it was overhauling its existing business to pay for the transaction by raising $4.2 billion. The company is also selling off its power-generation stations in the northeastern United States and its minority interest in its Mexican natural gas pipelines.

TransCanada president and CEO Russ Girling called the US$13-billion deal — a price tag that includes US$2.8 billion worth of Columbia’s debt — “truly transformational.”

Ontarians just signed up for more expensive, unreliable electricity they don’t need – by Tom Adams and Scott Luft (Financial Post – March 17, 2016)

March 18, 2016

http://business.financialpost.com/

The costs may be high and the need questionable, but Ontarians signed up to buy a lot more renewable power last week when Ontario’s Independent Power System Operator (IESO) announced the results of the province’s latest procurement. The new deal brings “low prices” for new wind and solar generation, says Ontario Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli.

No, not “low” like Ontario’s dysfunctional market price for electricity, which was less than two cents/kilowatt-hour (kWh) over half of all hours in 2015. And not “low” like the average 1.2 cents/kWh rate that electricity bound for New York and Michigan has sold for this year.

When the Ontario government says “low,” it means seven to fourteen times as much as that, with the IESO reporting the weighted-average price of the new wind power at 8.6 cents/kWh and new solar at 15.7 cents/kWh.

Biggest mining equity rally in years built on shaky foundations – by Clara Denina (Reuters U.S. – March 18, 2016)

March 18, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – The biggest rally for mining company shares since 2009 risks fizzling out as gains have largely been driven by funds reversing bets on lower prices rather than long-term investors looking for value.

The benchmark FTSE 350 mining index, which tracks the performance of the UK’s 11 biggest listed miners, is up 26 percent this year, the biggest quarterly gain since September 2009, and marking a revival after three years of losses.

Sentiment in the sector has been helped by a weaker U.S. currency, which makes dollar-denominated commodities cheaper for non-U.S. consumers and expectations that top consumer China will use further stimulus to boost its flagging economic growth.

Yellen Reignites Commodities Rebound From Gold to Copper – by Luzi-Ann Javier (Bloomberg News – March 17, 2016)

March 18, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s dovish message reignited a commodities rebound that pushed up everything from gold and copper to miners including Teck Resources Ltd. and Freeport-McMoRan Inc.

The Fed on Wednesday signaled it won’t raise interest rates as much this year as forecast in December amid weakening global economic growth, sending gold prices surging just after futures capped the longest slump since November.

A gauge of 14 gold miners climbed to the highest in more than a year, while the Bloomberg Americas Mining Index surged to an eight-month high. “With loose monetary policy and low rates, we’ll have a lot of money out there in the system and demand will be higher,” Bob Haberkorn, a senior market strategist at RJO Futures in Chicago, said in a telephone interview.

BHP Billiton invites coal to join new world order – by Matthew Stevens (Australian Financial Review – March 17, 2016)

March 18, 2016

http://www.afr.com/

Two weeks before Andrew Mackenzie extended his mission of simplicity to Australian industrial relations, the coal workers of Queensland were offered documentary evidence of exactly what the BHP Billiton chief executive might have in mind.

“BHP Billiton believes it’s in the national interest to simplify workplace agreements so that our teams have the flexibility to succeed in the global market,” Mackenzie told The Australian Financial Review Business Summit on Wednesday.

True to his politically moderate roots, Mackenzie went on to note that industrial relations in Australia posed nothing like the competitive risk that it did in some of BHP’s other global constituencies. Rather he suggested that our inability to put the relationship between capital and labour on a more productive footing was a competitive advantage surrendered.

Grand Council of the Cree Grand Chief shocked at First Nation opposition to land claim – by Alan S. Hale (Timmins Daily Press – March 18, 2016)

March 18, 2016

http://www.timminspress.com/

Grand Chief Michael Coon Come said he was shocked by the wall of opposition from Ontario First Nations to the Grand Council of the Crees’ lawsuit to claim Aboriginal rights and title over a section of land on the Ontario side of the border.

The piece of land in question stretches from the southern coast of James Bay all the way to Lake Abitibi east of Timmins. Moose Cree First Nation is saying that is their traditional territory and an all rights and title to it belong to them exclusively.

Coon Come said that the Cree communities on the east coast of James Bay in Quebec are willing to come up with an arrangement where the rights and title to the land can be shared. But that didn’t stop the Moose Cree, the Mushkegowuk Council and the Nishnawbe Aski Nation all to denounce the lawsuit and demand that it be withdrawn.

How did the world’s miners not see it coming? – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – March 17, 2016)

March 18, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

It is an extraordinary fact that in just three years, 2011,
2012 and 2013, China used more cement than the United States
did in the 20th century, 6.6 billion tonnes compared with 4.4
billion, according to figures from the U.S. Geological Survey.

LONDON – “Why did nobody see it coming?” With this simple question, posed to Professor Luis Garicano of the London School of Economics in November 2008, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth famously summed up the layman’s astonishment that an obscure part of the derivatives universe could trigger a global financial crisis.

A similar question might be posed of the world’s miners right now. Having collectively bet the house on a commodities “supercycle” only to see the “super” part of that cycle dissolve in front of their eyes, they are now fighting the numerous fires engulfing their overstretched balance sheets.

Pardieu Brings Ruby Rush to Life with Stories, Updates from Madagascar – by Jaime Kautsky (Gemological Institute of America – March 10, 2016)

March 17, 2016

http://www.gia.edu/

A gem “fingerprint.” That’s what Vincent Pardieu, senior manager of field gemology for GIA in Bangkok, and his six-person team are looking for as they traverse the globe – and log hours in the lab – finding, analyzing and cataloging colored stones for GIA’s Colored Stone Identification and Origin Report reference collection.

So when Pardieu’s team learned of a newly discovered ruby deposit in northeast Madagascar in July 2015, they arranged a field expedition and set to work investigating and documenting the rubies of the island nation’s Zahamena National Park.

On Nov. 4, just a month after their trip, Pardieu and field assistant Manuel Diaz visited GIA’s Carlsbad campus to share their findings − and sometimes harrowing experiences − with students and staff.

Diamonds suffer from oversupply, price falls in new era – by James Wilson (Financial Times – March 16, 2016)

March 17, 2016

http://www.ft.com/

Only eight years ago, De Beers celebrated the opening of Snap Lake — a landmark project for the diamond producer. The diamond mine in Canada’s remote North West Territories was De Beers’ first outside its African heartland and the first completely underground diamond mine in the country. By the end of 2014, $2.2bn had been spent on development and operations.

Yet today, not a single diamond is being produced at Snap Lake, which has been closed with the loss of more than 400 jobs as De Beers responds to one of the worst market downturns in diamonds for years. This year, De Beers will consider whether the mine has a viable future. As recently as 2014 the mine was producing 1.2m carats of diamonds annually.

The temporary closure of the mine summed up the problems facing the diamond industry during 2015, when a downturn gathered pace and led to financial pain for miners, dealers and retailers.