Republic of Mining

Ragtag Activists Push Banks to Dump Coal – by Zeke Faux (Bloomberg News – December 3, 2015)

December 4, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

The anti-coal protest outside Morgan Stanley’s 42-story tower in New York attracted only three people—four if you count the infant one of them happened to be baby-sitting.

The few bankers who walked outside to meet restaurant deliverymen appeared to barely notice as the activists sang, “Go tell it on the mountain. Your bank poisons us.” It was all over in 15 minutes.

The Nov. 19 demonstration hardly seemed like the kind of thing that would lead an investment banking behemoth to stop putting money into fossil fuels. But the movement that sponsored it is getting results.

Namibia: Diamond Beneficiation in Crisis (All Africa.com – December 4, 2015)

December 4, 2015

http://allafrica.com/

The fortunes of the diamond value chain would be better served through a simpler structure as opposed to the extremely complex approach currently used. Such an re-alignment will be the driving force for polished diamond value growth.

The Chief Executive of Forevermark and the De Beers Group, Stephen Lussier alluded to a simplification of the diamond value chain in his speech before the second International Diamond Conference, titled, Omugongo, held last week in Windhoek.

More than 50 international industry experts, academics, business leaders and manufacturers converged on Windhoek for this landmark two-day conference.

Rio, BHP Billiton keep faith in China’s future steel demand – by Matt Chambers (The Australian – December 5, 2015)

December 4, 2015

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

Rio Tinto chief Sam Walsh says depressed iron ore prices face sustained pressure over the next couple of years even as Gina Rinehart’s $10 billion Roy Hill project and an expansion by Brazil’s Vale force more higher-cost producers out of the market.

But Mr Walsh and his counterpart at BHP Billiton, Andrew Mackenzie, both say future Chinese steel demand is being underestimated by many forecasters not factoring in substantial regional exports from the Asian powerhouse.

“As you see the Vale and Roy Hill (iron ore) tonnes come on, that’s going to put on some pressure,” Mr Walsh told The Weekend Australian in Melbourne during the week.

Nickel to rebound, Sudbury chamber told – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – December 4, 2015)

December 4, 2015

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

An economist who interprets economic trends and their impact on business delivered good news to about 130 members of the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce this week.

The price of nickel, which is at its lowest in a decade after falling 31 per cent this year to less than $4 a pound, is expected to rebound to a balanced market price by the end of 2016 as lower production worldwide brings the supply closer to the demand.

The price of copper, down 14 per cent in 12 months, is also expected to recover, although not so quickly. Pierre Cleroux said he expects to see a balanced copper market by the end of 2017.

Ghana, China Address Rampant Illegal Mining – by Masahudu Kunateh (All Africa.com – December 3, 2015)

December 4, 2015

http://allafrica.com/

Accra — The influx of illegal Chinese miners in Ghana is providing a stern test to the decades-old cordial relations between the two countries.

By law, small scale mining is solely preserved for Ghanaians. However, some Chinese miners have defied legislation by extracting gold in the remote parts of the West African country.

This has continued despite ongoing engagements between the two governments to address the issue.

Most of the Asian nationals, working without permits, have been accused of extending their operations into some restricted areas much to the devastation of land, crops, and farms.

[Ontario] Gov’t fumbling on mines: report – by Carl Clutchey (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – December 4, 2015)

December 4, 2015

http://www.chroniclejournal.com/news/

Ontario has been doing a poor job of laying the groundwork for new mining projects and keeping track of abandoned ones that pose a safety hazard, says the auditor general.

Bonnie Lysyk included the mining sector in an overall scathing report this week on how the provincial government has been managing various departments.

“Although Ontario is the largest mineral producer in Canada, accounting for one-quarter of total Canadian mineral production, a survey of mining and exploration companies ranked Ontario ninth among Canadian provinces and territories in investment attractiveness in mineral exploration,” Lysyk said after her report was tabled.

NEWS RELEASE: Snap Lake Mine to be put on care and maintenance

December 4, 2015

Mining to cease immediately

TORONTO, Dec. 4, 2015 /CNW/ – The De Beers Group of Companies today announced it has placed its Snap Lake mine on care and maintenance. The decision follows a review of the mine’s operation, particularly in light of current market conditions.

De Beers will evaluate market conditions over the next year to determine the potential of the ore body as a viable mine.

Work to suspend production at Snap Lake has begun, and is expected to last between one to nine months. During the care and maintenance period, environmental monitoring and work required under the mine’s permits will continue.

Billionaire Palmer steps up fight with China’s CITIC amid nickel slump (Reuters India – December 4, 2015)

December 4, 2015

http://in.reuters.com/

SYDNEY/MELBOURNE – Dec 4 Officials in Australia’s Queensland state are prepared to step in to help protect jobs at a nickel refinery if needed, but called on its owner, mining magnate and politician Clive Palmer, to be open about the refinery’s financial position.

Concerns resurfaced this week about the future of the Queensland Nickel refinery when a lawyer acting for Palmer sought an advance A$48 million ($35 million) payment in an unrelated dispute, saying the matter needed to he heard that week.

The case against estranged iron ore partner, China’s CITIC Ltd, over any advanced payment of royalties due on the Sino Iron project will now be heard on Monday.

Ontario’s energy mismanagement should feed fears about its cap-and-trade plans – by Kelly McParland (National Post – December 4, 2015)

December 4, 2015

http://news.nationalpost.com/

The overwhelming impression conveyed by Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk’s sweeping denunciation of Ontario’s management of the electricity system is the sheer audacity of a government that shows no hesitation whatever to putting political considerations ahead of the cost to consumers and the interests of the province.

Again and again, it shows, the governments of premiers Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne simply ignore the sensible advice they get from experts hired to oversee and operate the electricity grid on a safe, effective and efficient manner.

Tens of billions of dollars are poured into actions that please Liberal political aspirations but mean soaring costs to consumers.

BATTLE FOR THE BOREAL – by Peter Kuitenbrouwer (National Post – December 4, 2015)

December 6, 2015December 4, 2015

http://news.nationalpost.com/

The workday is over at the Hotel Matagami. Guests in steel-toe boots eat club sandwiches with poutine, drink five-dollar bottles of Labatt 50 and cheer the TV as the Montreal Canadiens thrash the New York Rangers.

At one table, Nicolas Mainville, 37, a biologist with Greenpeace, opens a ThinkPad with a sticker on its lid. It reads: “May the forest be with you.”

The screen glows with 33,000 kilometres of red tentacles: these are the logging roads on Crown land in the boreal forest, the same forest that doubles as hunting grounds for the Cree Nation of Waswanipi.

Those two activities are clashing, with the Cree and the loggers both blaming the other for unfairly damaging their way of life.

Iron Ore on the Cusp of $30s as BHP, Rio Shares Extend Slump – by Jasmine Ng (Bloomberg News – December 3, 2015)

December 4, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Iron ore is on the cusp of dropping into the $30s a metric ton as the biggest producers expand supply and the onset of winter in China dulls demand that’s been hurt by the slowdown in growth in the world’s top user. Miners’ shares retreated.

“The outlook remains grim for iron ore fines because end-demand from construction and manufacturing is uncertain,” said Jessica Fung, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto. “Steel inventories have been building.”

Spot ore with 62 percent content delivered to Qingdao fell 0.9 percent to $40.75 a dry ton on Thursday, a record low in daily prices compiled by Metal Bulletin Ltd. dating back to 2009. It’s dropped each day this week, losing 8.4 percent.

Ontario won’t raise mining tax despite auditor’s report: Minister – by Keith Leslie (Canadian Press/680News.com – December 3 2015)

December 3, 2015

http://www.680news.com/

TORONTO – Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle says the Ontario government is not going to increase the mining tax, despite the auditor general’s concern about falling revenues.

Auditor general Bonnie Lysyk says Ontario’s revenue from mining taxes averages less than two per cent of the value of the minerals extracted, and less than one per cent of the value of diamonds that are mined.

Ontario is the largest mineral producer in Canada with about 25 per cent of total national production, but provincial mining revenues from taxes and royalties fell from a high of $236 million in 2008 to just $18.6 million in 2014.

Former Massey Energy C.E.O. Guilty in Deadly Coal Mine Blast – by Alan Blinder (New York Times – December 3, 2015)

December 3, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Donald L. Blankenship, a titan of the nation’s coal industry whose approach to business was scrutinized and scorned after 29 workers were killed at the Upper Big Branch mine in 2010, was convicted Thursday of a federal charge of conspiring to violate mine safety standards, part of a case that emerged after the accident, the deadliest in mining in the United States in decades.

The verdict reached by a federal jury here made Mr. Blankenship, 65, the most prominent American coal executive ever to be convicted of a charge connected to the deaths of miners. He had been accused of conspiring to violate mine safety regulations, as well as of deceiving investors and regulators; prosecutors secured a conviction on only one of the three charges.

Brazil asks court to uphold closure of Vale Amazon nickel mine – by Jeb Blount (Reuters U.S. – December 2, 2015)

December 3, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

Dec 2 Brazil’s attorney general has asked the supreme court to uphold the closure of Brazilian mining company Vale SA’s Onça Puma nickel mine for allegedly failing to meet the terms of its environmental license, the prosecutor said on Wednesday.

Attorney General Rodrigo Janot made the request in response to a petition by the state of Pará to reopen the mine, ordered closed in August, on the grounds that the shutdown puts 850 jobs at risk and threatens the region’s economy, according to a statement from his office.

Located in Brazil’s Amazon region, Onça Puma produced 5,900 tonnes of nickel in the third quarter, or 8.2 pct of production at Vale, the world’s largest nickel producer.

De Beers may consider closing N.W.T.’s Snap Lake diamond mine – by Hilary Bird (CBC News North – December 3, 2015)

December 3, 2015

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

De Beers Canada says it’s unsure of the future of its Snap Lake diamond mine, given a downturn in diamond prices and a costly water problem that required a licence amendment.

The Snap Lake mine, located 220 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife, was De Beers’ first diamond mine outside of Africa. It opened in 2008 and was projected to have a mine-life of 20 years.

Officials with De Beers told CBC on Wednesday that they’re looking at many options including shutting down the mine.