Republic of Mining

NEWS RELEASE: Royal Nickel Completes Dumont Bulk Test and Successfully Produces World’s Highest Grade Nickel Sulphide Concentrate

December 15, 2015

http://www.royalnickel.com/

Toronto, Ontario, December 15, 2015 – Royal Nickel Corporation (“RNC”) (TSX: RNX) has
successfully completed a large scale bulk test which generated approximately 2 tonnes of nickel concentrate from 300 tonnes of ore from the Dumont Nickel Project.

The sample was produced at a pilot plant at SGS Minerals Services in Lakefield, Ontario. The concentrate will be further treated though a roasting process and sent to potential customers in Asia and Europe which will allow RNC to continue to advance its offtake and financing discussions.

The average grade of the sulphide concentrate, as measured from the pilot plant surveys, was over 31% nickel, consistent with the previous test work performed as the basis of the feasibility study.

Can Canada’s new PM stop mining abuses in Latin America? – by David Hill (The Guardian – December 14, 2015)

December 15, 2015

http://www.theguardian.com/

A Guatemalan investigative journalist named Luis Solano was in Canada last month to launch a report about a Canadian-owned silver mine in south-east Guatemala. The mine, Escobal, began operating last year and is run by Minera San Rafael (MSR), a subsidiary of the British Columbia-incorporated Tahoe Resources.

The 27-page report, titled Under Siege: Peaceful Resistance to Tahoe Resources and Militarization in Guatemala, was commissioned by the International Platform Against Impunity in Central America and MiningWatch Canada, which published it in November.

Based on the experience of several years research and interviews with local inhabitants conducted in mid-2015, one of the key allegations is that 1000s of people living in the region have voted against the mine and further expansion plans, with numerous plebiscites and peaceful marches held.

Attitudes of ‘coldness, indifference’ behind thousands of residential school deaths: TRC report – by Mark Kennedy (National Post – December 15, 2015)

December 15, 2015

http://news.nationalpost.com/

More than 3,000 aboriginal children died at residential schools, often of causes that could have been prevented, and the failures of those responsible for properly safeguarding the students bordered on criminal, according to a special report on the scandal.

In its final report to be released Tuesday, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) provides a detailed account of the known deaths. The recorded figure is 3,201 but the actual number is probably much higher because of incomplete records, and the commission notes the death rate was much higher than among children in Canada’s general population.

Its report documents how the children were buried in gravesites, many unmarked, that were not in their own communities. Today, many of those gravesites sit untended – the final injustice to the children.

After stock sell-off, what lies ahead for battered mining sector? – by Ian McGugan (Globe and Mail – December 15, 2015)

December 15, 2015

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

An across-the-board sell-off in mining stocks is picking up speed, leading to new questions about what lies ahead for the battered sector.

On Monday, the metals and mining group in the S&P/TSX composite index plunged 6.5 per cent, a remarkable fall for an industry that has already seen its share values devastated by falling commodity prices.

The losses hit both gold miners and base metal producers and far outpaced the rest of the market, which slid less than a percentage point. The damage to miners also exceeded the declines in metals prices themselves.

Too much nickel being produced, analysts warn – by Staff (Sudbury Star/Reuters – December 15, 2015)

December 15, 2015

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

As much as 70 per cent of global nickel output is unprofitable, the chief executive officer Glencore says, amid calls to slash production.

Ivan Glasenberg said that in 2013, the biggest nickel producers “really screwed up” by expanding too fast. The Baar, Switzerland-based company has already cut output in copper, zinc and coal.

In Sudbury, Glencore operates the Nickel Rim and Fraser mines, a mill and a smelter and employs about 1,200 people.

“People are bleeding cash, and when I say bleeding, it’s big cash,” Bloomberg News reported Glasenberg as saying, adding that as much as 70 per cent of global nickel output is unprofitable.

A Belarus Wildcard Is Shaking Up the Global Market for Potash – by Alistair MacDonald and Vibhuti Agarwal (Wall Street Journal – December 14, 2015)

December 14, 2015

http://www.wsj.com/

SOLIGORSK, BELARUS—In the massive Soligorsk mine, workers 2,000 feet below ground are drilling at seams of pinkish rock and rattling a $20 billion commodity market.

That pink rock is potash. The mine’s operator is a state-owned producer that has been outcompeting rival suppliers of the crucial fertilizer in a business that many who follow it say was long shaped by cartels.

JSC Belaruskali’s output was once constrained by its membership in one of those groupings. But when it broke up two years ago, Belaruskali ramped up production and pushed into new markets. It now fills almost 17% of global potash demand and has become a major wild card for analysts and rivals alike.

Rio Tinto set to seal $4bn financing deal for Mongolia copper mine – by James Wilson (Financial Times – December 14, 2015)

December 14, 2015

http://www.ft.com/

Rio Tinto is set to seal a project finance deal of at least $4bn to expand one of the world’s largest copper mines in spite of a commodities downturn that has sent the price of the metal to multiyear lows.

The miner’s agreement with banks to provide funds for the Oyu Tolgoi project in Mongolia is expected to be announced this week in Ulan Bator, the capital.

It follows years of delays amid disputes between Rio and Mongolia’s government over how to share costs and profits from the project.

After Rio and Mongolia resolved their differences this year, the project finance deal with lenders is one of the last steps remaining before Rio’s board is expected to to press ahead with expansion of the mine.

Out of Rand Crisis, Opportunity for World’s Costliest Gold Mines – by Kevin Crowley (Bloomberg News – December 14, 2015)

December 14, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

South African President Jacob Zuma is causing turmoil in financial markets and accidentally throwing a lifeline to his country’s struggling gold industry.

Zuma’s decision to fire respected Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene drove the rand to a record low, instantly reducing labor and other costs in the local currency for mining companies, relative to the U.S. dollars they earn by selling gold.

Shares of Harmony Gold Mining Ltd., the highest-cost major miner of the metal, are up 25 percent since Zuma’s decision Dec. 9. AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. gained 12 percent and Gold Fields Ltd. 11 percent.

A weak rand offers relief to an industry plagued by labor unrest, aging mines and power shortages.

De Beers does the unthinkable – by Gary Vivian (Northern News Service – December 14, 2015)

December 14, 2015

http://www.miningnorth.com/

Guest Editorial by Gary Vivian, President, NWT & Nunavut Chamber of Mines.

De Beers deserves a huge thank you from Northerners for doing what many might believe is the unthinkable. Let me be the first to say it: “Thank you De Beers for Snap Lake”. Lest readers think that I mean closing their mine, I do not. What is quite unthinkable is this.

De Beers came to the NWT in 2005 and brought with them $975 million of their own money to build a diamond mine.

They spent that, and went on to spend over $2.3 billion to construct and operate the mine. Through their supportive northern business policy, they spent over $1.5 billion with northern businesses and joint ventures.

COLUMN-Climate deal may be terminal for coal, but death will be lingering – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.K. – December 14, 2015)

December 14, 2015

http://uk.reuters.com/

Dec 14 It’s tempting to take the champagne-fuelled view that the historic global climate agreement reached in Paris signals the death of coal, but even if the dirty fuel is terminal, it will be a long, lingering demise before the final hacking cough.

This is simply because coal is, and will remain for decades, the main fuel in the world’s top and third-biggest emitters, China and India.

While China has changed direction on coal fairly dramatically in the past two years, its pledge at the climate summit that ended last weekend in the French capital is only that its emissions will peak by 2030.

There’s lithium in them thar … lakebeds – by Sandra Chereb (Las Vegas Review-Journal – December 13, 2015)

December 14, 2015

http://www.reviewjournal.com/

CARSON CITY — A new mining boom is taking shape in Nevada, one focused not on gold and silver but brines and clay containing an element critical to a 21st century world.

Interest in Nevada’s lithium supplies spiked after Tesla Motors Inc. chose the Northern Nevada desert as the site for its $5 billion lithium-ion battery factory, a joint venture with Japanese company Panasonic Corp.

Elon Musk, Tesla’s billionaire CEO, said mass production of the batteries is key to his goal of making the company’s fast and sexy electric cars affordable to the general public.

Since factory construction began last year, Musk has launched another endeavor — making energy storage units for homes and businesses capable of storing solar-produced electricity for use when the sun doesn’t shine.

Hedge Funds Burned by Commodities Lose $40 Billion Since ’08 – by Agnieszka De Sousa (Bloomberg News – December 14, 2015)

December 14, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

The biggest commodities meltdown in a generation has cost hedge funds more than $40 billion in seven years.

Losses due to poor performance and investor withdrawals have left assets at the top 10 commodities hedge funds at less than $10 billion, compared with more than $50 billion in 2008, according to estimates from Trafigura Pte Ltd.’s annual report.

The trader and asset manager said the perception of commodities as an investable asset has been replaced by a “generalized aversion.”

“Commodities as an asset class are not as attractive as before and we are seeing the consequences on our asset management division,” Trafigura Chief Financial Officer Christophe Salmon said in a phone interview.

[Canada] The Coal Bust – by Kelly Cryderman and Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – December 12, 2015)

December 14, 2015

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

HANNA, ALTA., AND VANCOUVER – Tanis Graham is having trouble sleeping.

At night, the shop owner in the small town of Hanna worries about the downturn in the oil and gas industry and how she’s going to afford the Alberta government’s plan to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

And in the past few weeks, Ms. Graham, 43, has been kept awake by news that the nearby coal-fired generating station will be closed a decade earlier than scheduled due to the province’s new climate-change strategy.

About 110 people from the area are employed at the coal mine that supplies the generating station, including Ms. Graham’s partner.

MMG boss Michelmore says copper will be deficit in 2016 – by Peter Ker (Sydney Morning Herald – December 14, 2015)

December 14, 2015

http://www.smh.com.au/

MMG chief executive Andrew Michelmore has revealed himself to be perhaps the most bullish of the copper bulls, saying that copper markets could be in deficit in 2016.

Speaking ahead of MMG’s first day of listing on the ASX on Monday, Mr Michelmore said the slow delivery of new copper mines plus China’s need to continue developing infrastructure like its electricity grid would ensure copper prices recover from their current woes.

“This year was surplus in copper but nowhere near the tonnage that was expected and our analysis, and my own feel for it, is that next year will actually be in a deficit, certainly in the second half and I think that is making copper far more attractive,” he said.

The ‘climatecrats’ and their credibility gap – by Konrad Yakabuski (Globe and Mail – December 14, 2015)

December 14, 2015

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The global climate negotiations in Paris, like the schemes some Canadian provinces have adopted to meet their self-imposed targets, have all been predicated on the fib that greenhouse-gas emissions are easily measurable and verifiable. The opposite is true, a fact politicians and climatecrats continue to gloss over as they jet to summits pretending to save the planet.

The climatecrats’ most obvious disconnect concerns China. No one knows how much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases the world’s biggest polluter really emits.

The Chinese government’s own estimates are simply not credible, a fact underscored by its recent admission that the country had been burning 17 per cent more coal a year than it had previously disclosed.