Republic of Mining

Mining Alaska Part V: Mining and the environment – by Mallory Peebles (KTUU.com – November 6, 2015)

November 9, 2015

http://www.ktuu.com/

It took thousands of years for minerals to form but over just one century the process of mining changed drastically.

Today, machines weighing more than 2,000 tons quickly move dirt, miners use remote operated trucks and chemicals separate the minerals from their ores. The advancements are as huge as the mines themselves.

Critics of mines say that’s not a good thing. Dave Chambers, with the Center for Science in Public Participation, says large open pit mines create a greater risk for environmental damage.

[South African] Platinum mines may run short of water in 2016 – by Tina Weavind (MiningMx.com – November 6, 2015)

November 6, 2015

http://www.miningmx.com/

[miningmx.com] – WHILE the mining industry is so far coping with the effects of the ‘Godzilla’ el Nino event causing a drought in large parts of South Africa, the potential for forced cuts still looms large.

Peter Shepherd, principal hydrologist at consulting agency SRK, said he anticipated that platinum mines in the country’s North West province would “… begin to run short [of water] in the next year”.

It’s a potential nightmare for already stressed companies whose operations would face a further setback. Mining is notoriously water intensive and imposed cuts would immediately limit production. Shepherd said that while much of the water used in the processes was recycled, the evaporation from the tailings dams meant this closed cycle system would become less efficient.

In its 2015 annual report released last month, Impala Platinum (Implats) flagged water shortages as one of the most critical issues the company faces and where interventions were needed.

Obama Rejects Construction of Keystone XL Oil Pipeline – by Coral Davenportnov (New York Times – November 6, 2015)

November 6, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/

WASHINGTON — President Obama announced on Friday that he had rejected the request from a Canadian company to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline, ending a seven-year review that had become a symbol of the debate over his climate policies.

Mr. Obama’s denial of the proposed 1,179-mile pipeline, which would have carried 800,000 barrels a day of carbon-heavy petroleum from the Canadian oil sands to the Gulf Coast, comes as he seeks to build an ambitious legacy on climate change.

“America is now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change,’’ Mr. Obama said in remarks from the White House. “And frankly, approving this project would have undercut that global leadership.’’

The move was made ahead of a major United Nations summit meeting on climate change to be held in Paris in December, when Mr. Obama hopes to help broker a historic agreement committing the world’s nations to enacting new policies to counter global warming. While the rejection of the pipeline is largely symbolic, Mr. Obama has sought to telegraph to other world leaders that the United States is serious about acting on climate change.

Fiery Exchanges in Question Period over Ring of Fire (NetNewsLedger.com – November 5, 2015)

November 6, 2015

http://www.netnewsledger.com/

QUEEN’S PARK – POLITICS – There was a fiery exchange in Question Period in Queen’s Park between Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown and Thunder Bay Superior North MPP and Minister of Northern Development and Mines Michael Gravelle today. The PC Leader is demanding action on the Ring of Fire mining project that Brown states is stalled after eight long years.

There have been reports, in the Financial Post that Noront Resources is frustrated over progress on the mining project.

Minister Gravelle stated “As a government, we remain absolutely committed to the project. We have got our commitment of $1 billion locked in, thanks to the Minister of Finance for the transportation infrastructure corridor. We are looking forward to having an opportunity to have a discussion with the new federal government to engage in the process that was not very successful in the past with the previous government.

“We are engaged in a regional framework discussion with Matawa First Nations, and we have set up a development corporation to move that forward. So we are indeed making very positive progress.”

Western senators launch effort to reform mining law to spur cleanup – by Bruce Finley (Denver Post – November 5, 2015)

November 6, 2015

http://www.denverpost.com/

Legislation introduced by Sen. Michael Bennet and colleagues from New Mexico would charge companies fees and royalties

Western senators Thursday weighed in on the toxic mines problem, launching legislation to reform the nation’s 1872 Mining Law and require companies to pay fees to create a cleanup fund for abandoned inactive mines.

The legislation, introduced by Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet and New Mexico Sens. Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall, would apply to existing and new mining operations. It aims to raise at least $100 million a year.

The idea is to create a new path — beyond “Superfund” responses to environmental disasters — to begin to clean up tens of thousands of inactive mines in Western states that continue to taint headwaters of the nation’s rivers. These include an estimated 230 sites in Colorado where state officials have documented bit-by-bit degradation of waterways.

Congress has been giving greater attention to the problem after the Aug. 5 Gold King Mine disaster in southwestern Colorado above Silverton, where an EPA crew triggered a deluge of 3 million gallons of mustard-yellow liquid that worsened contamination of the Animas River.

Mining Alaska Part IV: Red Dog Mine – by Mallory Peebles (KTUU.com – November 5, 2015)

November 6, 2015

http://www.ktuu.com/

ANCHORAGE – Red Dog Mine is Alaska’s only Arctic mine. Located 106 miles north of the Arctic Circle, the mine employs close to 500 people, not including about 130 additional contracted workers.

Beneath the frozen ground at Red Dog Mine is zinc and lead. The ore is so rich it could be seen from the sky 50 years ago when a pilot flying overhead first discovered the prospect.

“It’s a world class deposit,” says Teck Community & Public Relations Manager Wayne Hall. “Other mines may be around 5 percent. Just to put it in perspective, our average grade here is right around 17 to 18.”

Merge or die, major gold miners told – by Thomas Biesheuvel (Business Day/Bloomberg News – November 6, 2015)

November 6, 2015

http://www.bdlive.co.za/

LONDON — The biggest gold miners, weighed down by record debt and with prices near a five-year low, will have to merge with others to survive, according to Randgold Resources, the best-performing producer of the metal in the past 10 years.

“The big producers have the biggest challenges of all,” Randgold CEO Mark Bristow said on Thursday. “Eventually, you’re going to see survival mergers.”

Gold’s 42% price slump from a record set four years ago is cutting profits and stressing balance sheets for mining companies, with the largest producers weighed down by debt totalling almost $35bn.

In September, the benchmark 30-member Philadelphia Stock Exchange gold and silver index, which includes Barrick Gold and Newmont Mining, fell to the lowest level since 2000.

Mining Alaska Part III: Striking gold at Kensington Mine – by Mallory Peebles (KTUU.com – November 4, 2015)

November 6, 2015

http://www.ktuu.com/

A century of advances in technology and engineering has dramatically changed the way gold is mined. Pickaxes, wheelbarrows and pans have been replaced by remotely operated trucks and large industrial mills where gold is separated by the process of mineral flotation.

Kensington Gold Mine, in the Borough of Juneau, began production in July of 2010. The locally owned company, Coeur Alaska Inc., employs more than 300 people and is the largest property taxpayer in the borough as well as the second largest private company in terms of payroll, which exceeded $41 million in 2014 according to the Alaska Miners Association.

The mine does not produce pure gold. Instead, it ships out 2 ton sacks of gold concentrate, a mix of fine gold and dirt. Each sack contains between 10 to 17 ounces of gold which makes it worth about $20,000 at current market value.

At $27 Billion, Mining in Space Could Cost Less Than a Gas Plant – by David Stringer (Bloomberg News – November 5, 2015)

November 6, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Getting a mine up and running on the moon or an asteroid would cost less than building the biggest gas terminals on Earth, according to research presented to a forum of company executives and NASA scientists.

A mission to Ceres, a dwarf planet 257 million miles from the Sun and the size of Texas, may cost about $27 billion. The expense includes 10 rocket launches to convey equipment, the extraction of metals and water, and the construction of an in-orbit facility to process the raw materials.

The costing comes from graduate business students at Australia’s University of New South Wales, which is also collaborating with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on the economics of space mining. By comparison, Australia’s biggest single resources development — Chevron Corp.’s Gorgon liquefied natural gas plant — has an expected price tag of about $54 billion.

Still, getting investors to buy into the grand vision that mankind has a future in the stars is a high bar to clear.

Chromite tax helped kill Capreol plant: Tories – by Keith Leslie (Canadian Press/Sudbury Star – November 6, 2015)

November 6, 2015

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

TORONTO — Ontario’s Opposition says a Liberal government plan to tax the mineral chromite prompted Cliffs Natural Resources to pull out of the Ring of Fire mining project in the province’s north.

The U.S.-based Cliffs withdrew earlier this year from the Ring of Fire, a region 540 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay that is rich in deposits of copper, nickel, platinum and chromite, which is essential for making stainless steel.

The company, which spent $550 million to buy land in the area, was in negotiations with the Ontario government for a $3.3-billion capital investment to develop the Ring of Fire until it pulled out last spring. It also cancelled a planned $1.8-billion chromite processing facility in Capreol.

Documents released as part of an investigation into cancelled gas plants in the Toronto-area four years ago revealed the province wanted to impose a royalty on chromite mined by Cliffs of between $6.6 million and $34.4 million a year.

Cuts in China’s rare earth output not enough to revive hard-hit market – by Eric Onstad (Reuters U.S. – November 6, 2015)

November 6, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Nov 6 (Reuters) – An output cut by six top rare-earth producers in China has spurred a modest rise in prices and is helping to steady a hard-hit market, but a continued glut of illegal output will likely cap any rebound.

Prices of 17 rare-earth elements used in high-tech sectors such as electronics, defence and renewable energy have been sliding over the past four years, hit by heavy oversupply.

Last month, the country’s top producer China Northern Rare Earth High Tech Corp and five other main suppliers said that due to weak prices, they would produce around 10 percent less than their 2015 government-set output targets.

China is the world’s dominant producer of rare earths, accounting for 90 percent of global supplies. “The cuts caused a short-term bump (in prices), but the real problem is that it’s only a small drop in the ocean,” said David Merriman, senior analyst at consultancy Roskill Information Services in London.

Taylor Mine is the newest mine in Ontario (Northern News – November 5, 2015)

November 6, 2015

http://www.northernnews.ca/

KIRKLAND LAKE – St Andrew Goldfields Taylor Mine project is now in commercial production and will increase the company’s gold production.

With the acceptance of the Taylor Mine closure plan the company has three gold producing mines in operation.

“We are pleased to declare Taylor the newest mine in Ontario, one which we anticipate will bolster the company’s gold production profile for 2016 by 40,000 – 50,000 ounces and provide much needed jobs and economic benefits to the communities in the region. I would personally like to thank the SAS team, the provincial government officials, the First Nations and our communities for their hard work and support in helping us bring Taylor into reality.

The mine is expected to be a significant contributor in the future as we are ramping up to full production by the end of this year,” said Duncan Middlemiss, President and Chief Executive Officer. “With the addition of Taylor to the portfolio of producing assets, we are also pleased to raise our 2015 full year production guidance to between 100,000 and 110,000 ounces of gold with the Taylor contributing 10,000 to 15,000 ounces of gold for the balance of 2015.

AUDIO: Mine closure in Red Lake, Ont., surprises mining economist (CBC News Thunder Bay – Novemeber 5, 2015)

November 6, 2015

http://www.cbc.ca/

New strategy required for gold extraction, Lakehead postdoctural fellow says

The news of a temporary closure at the Rubicon Minerals mine in Red Lake, Ont., came unexpectedly to one mining economist at the Centre for Excellence in Sustainable Mining at Lakehead University.

The shutdown of the mine is leaving 330 workers without a job in the northern Ontario town with 5,000 residents.

In a paper highlighting key mining developments, Karl Skogstad said the Rubicon mine was one of the more promising projects in northern Ontario.

“That came as a bit of a surprise to me,” Skogstad said. “That was one of the two projects that we said, ‘this is going to open, you know, relatively on schedule, and it’s doing well.'”

The volatile price of gold is presenting challenges to companies such as Rubicon, he added.

Miners worried: Hydro One sale could spell price troubles – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Northern Life – November 6, 2015)

November 6, 2015

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Electricity-hungry industry depends on competitive power rates

If the controversial privatization of Hydro One results in increased hydro prices, it could spell trouble for the province’s mining sector, says the Ontario Mining Association.

“We’re concerned, obviously,” said Chris Hodgson, the association’s president. “The mining market is not great, so if you want to stay in business you have to be competitive.”

Hodgson and other mining industry representatives were a Queen’s Park on Nov. 3, where they met with various MPPs for the annual Meet the Miners lobby day.

The province’s rising hydro rates were a big topic of discussion during the meetings, Hodgson said. Hydro costs represent around 15 per cent of a mine’s operating costs, and with smelting operations that can increase to 30, or even 50 per cent, Hodgson said.

NEWS RELEASE: Fatal Brazilian mine waste disaster shows modern mining is increasingly dangerous

November 6, 2015

https://www.earthworksaction.org/

November 6, 2015 – Earthworks and Center for Science in Public Participation

New research validated: mining disasters on the rise because of modern mining techniques

Washington, D.C. — A mine waste dam at the Germano open-pit iron ore mine in Brazil’s state of Minas Gerais breached yesterday, flooding the downstream area with mining waste and causing fatalities. The Germano facility is co-owned by two of the world’s largest mining companies, Brazilian Vale SA and Anglo-Australian BHP Billiton.

A recent report, The Risk, Public Liability & Economics of Tailings Storage Facility Failure, demonstrates that catastrophic mine waste failures are increasing in frequency and severity because of — not in spite of — modern mining techniques, and will continue to do so until regulators and mining companies take active steps to prevent them.

“Our research shows that more mining waste disasters like Brazil’s Germano spill are inevitable,” said David Chambers, report co-author and director of the Center of Science in Public Participation.