Republic of Mining

In The 33, ‘living under a rock’ describes both the characters and the filmmakers – by Chris Knight (National Post – November 13, 2015)

November 13, 2015

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Even if you don’t remember news reports from 2010 about the Chilean miners trapped by a cave-in, it’s clear The 33 is based on actual events. Take that title; Hollywood screenwriters working from a blank page would have made it The Seven, or The Nine tops.

The 33 is so crowded with Chileans, casting executives had to call in Spaniards (Antonio Banderas), French women (Juliette Binoche), Brazilians (Rodrigo Santoro), Cubans (Oscar Nuñez) and whatever nationality Lou Diamond Phillips is. In fact, The 33 is remarkably Chilean-free, although local boy Diego Noguera plays “man in suit.”

It’s a cycle, not a crisis, say fundies as bear market in commodities worsens – by Vesna Poljak (Australian Financial Review – November 13, 2015)

November 13, 2015

http://www.afr.com/

The prospect of further monetary stimulus from the European Central Bank has added to mounting bad news for commodity prices which already face the threat of a rising United States dollar if the Federal Reserve lifts interest rates next month.

All things being equal, a higher US dollar – if it is not already priced-in – makes oil, copper and iron ore less affordable for buyers funding their purchases in other currencies, especially those in vulnerable emerging markets prone to currency depreciation and foreign capital flight.

Commodity prices have been decimated in 2015 but it has taken a long time since the commodity cycle peaked for the big producers to become ensnared in a bear market.

This year markets finally responded because of higher production volumes, slowing investment in China hurting demand, the devaluation of the yuan and the US dollar’s stop-start rally.

Gold to Copper Bulls Left Heartbroken as Price Collapse Deepens – by Millie Munshi (Bloomberg News – November 12, 2015)

November 13, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Metal markets took a pounding on Thursday, sending gold to a five-year low and copper to the cheapest since 2009. Falling prices are dragging down producer shares, pushing the Bloomberg World Mining Index to a five-week low.

Investors are fleeing — withdrawing more than a $1 billion from exchange-traded funds tracking industrial and precious metals just this month, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Platinum dropped Thursday in the worst losing streak since 2002, while silver posted its longest slump since March 2014.

While China’s slowing growth has pressured prices, the country’s not all to blame for an acceleration of the metals meltdown. The latest catalyst for the collapse is the rapid shift in investors expectations for higher U.S. interest rates.

Traders are pricing in a 66 percent chance that Federal Reserve officials will start tightening monetary policy next month, up from 39 percent a month earlier.

Hong Kong tycoon buys record $48.5 million ‘blue moon’ diamond for 7-year-old daughter – by Kelvin Chan and Jamey Keaten (Associated Press/Toronto Star – November 13, 2015)

November 13, 2015

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Convicted billionaire property developer Joseph Lau spent a total of $77 million on two rare diamonds for his 7-year-old daughter Josephine at Geneva auctions.

GENEVA—A Hong Kong billionaire tycoon paid a total of $77 million (U.S.) at auctions in Geneva for two large and rare coloured diamonds for his 7-year-old daughter Josephine — and renamed them after her, his office said Thursday.

Joseph Lau was the top bidder for the 12.03-carat “Blue Moon” diamond that sold Wednesday night for a record-setting 48.6 million Swiss francs ($48.5 million U.S.), said a spokeswoman for Lau, who declined to give her name. Sotheby’s said the buyer promptly renamed the pricier gem “The Blue Moon of Josephine.”

Return of the Green Shaft – by Peter Foster (National Post – November 13, 2015)

November 13, 2015

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

According to a front page splash in another newspaper on Thursday, the Liberal cabinet is “going all in on climate change agenda.”

It would be advisable for us all to look before the cabinet leaps into the grand Paris conference that starts in two weeks. This is especially important if scientific input is coming from the government’s new Minister of State for Science, Kirsty Duncan.

Even more caution is called for since Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion, who also heads a key cabinet committee on climate, is the man calling for the full court press reported in the Globe and Mail.

As a piece by Tom Blackwell in the National Post on Thursday noted, Duncan is a controversial figure who has supported the debunked Zamboni treatment for Multiple Sclerosis, and clashed with eminent scientists outside her specialization (she is a geographer who has taught about the health impacts of climate change).

Barrick sells $720-million of Nevada assets as it copes with low gold prices – by Ian McGugan (Globe and Mail – November 13, 2015)

November 13, 2015

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Barrick Gold Corp. has sold several Nevada properties for $720-million (U.S.) in a flurry of transactions that underline how the gold industry is reshaping itself to deal with falling prices for the precious metal.

Kinross Gold Corp. of Toronto is the major purchaser of the assets. It will pay Barrick $610-million for its Bald Mountain mine and for its half interest in the Round Mountain mine. Kinross already owns the other half of the Round Mountain property.

In addition, Waterton Precious Metals Fund II of Toronto will pay $110-million to Barrick for its Ruby Hill mine and for a 70-per-cent interest in the Spring Valley project.

The deals demonstrate the impact of falling gold prices. Over the past four years, the metal has tumbled from $1,900 an ounce to below $1,100 an ounce.

Iron Ore Crisis Could Be Followed By A Nickel Crisis For BHP Billiton And Vale – by Tim Treadgold (Forbes Magazine – November 13, 2015)

November 13, 2015

http://www.forbes.com/

The last thing two of the world’s biggest mining companies, BHP Billiton and Vale , need today is speculation that after the disaster at their jointly owned Samarco iron ore mine in Brazil they might also have to close big nickel-mining operations to stem a tide of heavy losses.

That, however, is precisely what has been suggested by research analysts at the investment bank Credit Suisse who have painted a depressing picture of demand for the metal which is largely used to make stainless steel.

Vale, as well as being the world’s biggest iron ore miner is the world’s biggest nickel producer thanks largely to its 2006 takeover of Canada’s Inco.

BHP Billiton is also a big nickel producer via its Australian business unit, Nickel West. The attraction of nickel to both is that buyers are essentially the same, with companies that buy iron ore also buyers of nickel to make stainless steel.

True or False: ‘The 33’s cinematic treatment of the 2010 Chilean mine disaster – by Jennifer Yang (Toronto Star – November 13, 2015)

November 13, 2015

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

What do the filmmakers get right and wrong bringing the harrowing rescue attempts to the big screen?

On Aug. 5, 2010, a gold and copper mine near Copiapo, Chile, collapsed and trapped 33 miners underground. Sixty-nine days later, they were brought back to the surface in a spectacular rescue televised around the world.

It was an event so momentous that some have compared it to the moon landing. And I was lucky enough to be there.

My three weeks covering the rescue of “los 33” were among the most memorable of my life and I often wish I could revisit that inspiring moment in time. Well, now I can — sort of. And you can, too. Today, the movie version of the rescue, The 33, hits the big screen.

Brazil levies initial fines of $66 million against mine for burst dams – by Stephen Eisenhammer and Marta Mogueira (Reuters U.S. – November 12, 2015)

November 13, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

MARIANA, BRAZIL – Brazil’s president slapped preliminary fines of 250 million reais ($66.2 million) against a mine in the country’s southeast where two dams burst, killing nine people and coating a two-state area with mud and mine waste.

The fines, announced after President Dilma Rousseff flew over the affected area, come as federal prosecutors announced plans to work with state prosecutors to investigate possible crimes that could have contributed to the disaster at the mine, jointly owned by two of the world’s biggest mining companies, BHP Billiton Ltd (BHP.AX)(BLT.L) and Vale SA (VALE5.SA).

Rousseff said the fines, imposed by Brazil’s environmental regulator IBAMA for violations that include river pollution and damages to urban areas where water service has been suspended, could be followed by penalties from other federal or state agencies.

The top government lawyer is working with IBAMA to sue the mine owners for up to $1 billion in environmental damages in civil court, a senior administration official told Reuters.

Deadly Brazil dam collapse puts spotlight on mining safety – by Gordon Hoekstra (Vancouver Sun – November 12, 2015)

November 13, 2015

http://www.vancouversun.com/

Similar tailings dam failure took place last year at Mount Polley mine in B.C. Interior

A deadly mine tailings dam collapse in Brazil has reignited concerns about safety in British Columbia where a similar collapse at Mount Polley mine last year caused environmental damage but no fatalities.

The catastrophic collapse of a dam at the Samarco iron ore mine, a joint venture of Vale SA and BHP Billiton, has left eight confirmed dead, another 21 people missing and hundreds of Brazilians displaced.

In the aftermath of the Brazil dam failure last week, both First Nations and environmentalists in B.C. are pointing to research released last summer by U.S.-based conservation groups, including the Center for Science in Public Participation, that predicted there would be more mine dam failures around the world as companies pursue lower-grade ore bodies that require bigger operations to make them economical and produce larger amounts of mine waste.

COLUMN-Global PMI may be signalling commodity lift-off, but wait for China – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – November 12, 2015)

November 12, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

Nov 12 (Reuters) – – The recent uptick in purchasing managers’ indexes in both China and the developed world has led to some optimism that a rebound in commodity demand and prices is just around the corner.

This view is largely based on previous experiences of rising PMIs being accompanied by stronger consumption of natural resources, and both data evidence and logic support the historical argument.

However, like the legal disclaimers that accompany investment brochures, it’s worth noting that past performance is not always a reliable indicator of future outcomes.

The positive case is that the global PMI for October accelerated to 51.4 from September’s 50.7, the strongest monthly gain in nearly two years. October’s reading was also the first timer since March that the global PMI had moved above its three-month moving average.

China domestic demand could be driver to new commodities supercycle – by Lawrie Williams (Lawrieongold.com – November 12, 2015)

November 12, 2015

http://lawrieongold.com/

If you thought Black Friday and Cyber Monday were the peak of overhyped sales frenzy – you ain’t seen nothing yet! China’s Singles Day – an even more hyped up event from China’s online giant, Alibaba, sees even more conspicuous demand than Black Friday and Cyber Monday rolled together – and all in one day.

The event falls on the 11th day of the 11th month and this year saw sales hit an almost unbelievable US$14.3 billion – up from just over $9 billion a year earlier.

For a country the media tells us is in recession and struggling with its domestic economy – a factor blamed for many of theWest’s current ills, and for the resource sector’s poor performance in particular – this has to be a truly remarkable figure and suggests that whatever may be afflicting the country’s manufacturing and exports sector, domestic demand is running higher than it has ever been – and substantially so.

OPINION PAGE: Grand Canyon Waters, at the Abyss – by Mark Udall (New York Times – October 14, 2015)

November 12, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/

Mark Udall, who represented Colorado as a Democrat in the Senate from 2009 to 2015, is a member of the board of the Grand Canyon Trust.

Eldorado Springs, Colo. — I RECENTLY reunited with an old friend — not a person, but a place in Arizona, the state where I was born. It is a timeless place of great antiquity, a shrine of the ages that President Theodore Roosevelt said “man can only mar.”

Roosevelt proclaimed the Grand Canyon a national monument in 1908. In so doing, he specifically intended to prevent mining and tourist development from harming one of our nation’s most treasured landscapes. “Keep it for your children, your children’s children and all who come after you,” he said, “as the one great sight which every American should see.”

But mar it we have. An abandoned uranium mine on the canyon’s South Rim has cost taxpayers more than $15 million to remove toxic wastes from the surface.

The melting Arctic is like ‘discovering a new Africa’ – by Leslie Shaffer (CNBC – November 12, 2015)

November 12, 2015

http://www.cnbc.com/

Governments and the private sector are positioning to develop the Arctic, where the wealth of resources is akin to a “new Africa,” according to Iceland’s president.

The melting of the Arctic is an ongoing phenomenon: In October, about 7.7 million square kilometers (about 3 million square miles) of Arctic sea ice remained, around 1.2 million square kilometers less than the average from 1981-2010, according to calculations by Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis that was published by researchers at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

One effect of the melting ice has been newly opened sea passages and fresh access to resources.

“Until 20 or so years ago, (the Arctic) was completely unknown and unmarked territory,” Iceland’s President Olafur Grimsson told an Arctic Circle Forum in Singapore on Thursday. “It is as if Africa suddenly appeared on our radar screen.”

[Ontario] Open the north; get on with it – Editorial (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – November 12, 2015)

November 12, 2015

Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

Ontario has just completed the fourth Northern Leaders Dialogue. Provincial, municipal and indigenous leaders gathered in Thunder Bay to discuss issues around development and transportation, part of the province’s growth plan for Northern Ontario.

The advent of exploration around the rich Ring of Fire mineral belt has added urgency to the notion of opening the North. Yet there remains much indecision on whether transportation should be rail or road, east-west or north-south. Who should pay what share of the cost? While Ontario spins its wheels, what are neighbouring provinces and other jurisdictions doing?

In Quebec, 950 kilometres north of Quebec City, Stornoway Diamond Corp. invested $800 million in capital expenditures in the province’s first diamond mine. To provide year-round access, the province and Stornoway split the cost of building a 243-kilometre road serving one of 35 mines that the Quebec government estimates will be operating by 2020.