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Webequie chief calls for true partnerships at mining summit – by Rick (Wawatay News – November 2015)

http://www.wawataynews.ca/

Webequie Chief Cornelius Wabasse called for “true partnerships” at the 4th Annual Mining Ready Summit, held Oct. 28-29 in Thunder Bay.

“That’s the way going forward for us to have a step in the processes and also be part of the processes that are potentially going to happen in our area,” Wabasse said. “We have to have these agreements and they have to be real and they have to be honoured.”

Wabasse said his community does not want to sign agreements where “nothing is happening on our side.”
“We know that we have to work our part as well too to make that agreement become reality,” Wabasse said. “We need to understand as First Nations about that agreement, what we need to do to make that happen as well too.”

Wabasse said his community is not opposed to development. “We want to be able to benefit from our lands and resources,” Wabasse said. “We want to be able to benefit from any development that is happening in our area.

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Uranium mining in Northern Arizona has a controversial history – by Andy Alvarado (The Daily Wildcat – November 10, 2015)

http://www.wildcat.arizona.edu/

Tensions are high at the Grand Canyon this year after a judge’s ruling in April that denied a request to stop new uranium mining at the canyon.

The neighboring Havasupai tribe and conservation groups like the Grand Canyon Trust work hard to put a permanent end to uranium mining at the canyon. The groups are weary of the potential dangers the mining poses to wildlife, the risks of contaminating freshwater springs, and the religious and cultural concerns of several tribes in the region.

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has led the push to re-open uranium mines after the federal government ruled in 2012 to put a stop to mining in the area.

“So much of what’s happening today in the environmental movement is not about science. It’s not about quality of life. It’s not about clean air.

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Oban Mining to pick up Northern Gold (Northern Miner – November 9, 2015)

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry.

Northern Gold Mining (TSXV: NGM) is the fourth junior this year to sign a business combination agreement with Oban Mining Corp. (TSX: OBM), joining Eagle Hill, Ryan Gold and Corona Gold, which consolidated their properties in Ontario and Quebec under the Oban banner in September.

“We’d been looking at Northern Gold for a while,” says John Burzynski, Oban Mining’s president and chief executive officer. “It’s been in our area of interest for quite some time and is one of a number of acquisitions that we are looking at doing in the near future.”

Oban Mining’s goal is to consolidate areas in the historic mining camps of the Abitibi and then apply its exploration model to find gold and other metals, a strategy that Burzynski, Sean Roosen and Robert Wares used to great success after they founded Osisko Mining Corp.

Osisko went on to build the Canadian Malartic mine in Quebec, which was sold in 2014 to Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX: AEM; NYSE-MKT: AEM) and Yamana Gold (TSX: YRI; NYSE-MKT: AUY) in a cash and share deal worth $3.9 billion.

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Mining analyst Stan Sudol weighs in on Ring of Fire development – Interviewed by Up North’s Jason Turnbull (CBC News Sudbury – November 6, 2015)

This week at Queen’s Park, the PCs said the Liberals were planning a tax on chromite. Analyst Stan Sudol weighed in. Click here for interview: http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2678464492/

Noront CEO Al Coutts on Ring of Fire Road Infrastructure and Eagle’s Nest Mine – Interviewed by Superior Morning’s Lisa Laco (CBC News Thunder Bay – November 6, 2015)

http://www.cbc.ca/superiormorning/ Over the past few years the Ring of Fire has certainly cooled off. Al Coutts of Noront Resources talks about their plans… and keeping anxious investors happy. Click here for interview: http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2678444727

Economist Saul Eslake says the mining boom may be the last ever – by Peter Ker (Sydney Morning Herald – November 11, 2015)

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

The final commodities boom in “human history” may have just finished, according to prominent economist Saul Eslake.

In a gloomy opening to the International Mining and Resources Conference in Melbourne on Tuesday, Mr Eslake said the downturn in mineral commodity prices had probably not reached its nadir, and there was little prospect of the recent China boom being repeated in the future.

While the mining industry often touts the future growth potential from urbanisation and development in nations like Indonesia, Vietnam, Pakistan and African giants like Nigeria, Mr Eslake said those nations could not match the population impact of China’s recent rise.

“The countries that are still to develop are much smaller than China and India are, they are not, in most cases, starting from as far back on the development curve as China was in 1979 or India was in 1991, and most of them are much more self sufficient in commodities than China or India ever were,” he said.

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Lonmin stock discount signals trouble in South African platinum industry – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – November 10, 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.

JOHANNESBURG — For the world’s third-biggest platinum producer, it was a stunning admission of its precarious condition. Desperately needing money to stave off collapse, Lonmin PLC announced on Monday that it will issue its latest stock offering at a 94-per-cent discount.

The huge discount, allowing Lonmin to raise the $407-million (U.S.) that it needs to survive, is the latest sign of a major shakeout in South Africa’s troubled platinum sector. But two Canadian platinum companies are still pushing ahead with their South African investments, convinced they can find profits with lower-cost projects.

The platinum industry has been stumbling from crisis to crisis for the past several years. Global platinum prices have dropped by more than 50 per cent since 2011. The industry has been plagued by rising costs and labour unrest in its South African heartland, including a heavily damaging five-month strike in 2014 and the notorious police shooting of 34 protesters at Lonmin’s Marikana mine in 2012.

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Algoma granted creditor protection again amid plunging steel prices – by Greg Keenan and Ian McGugan (Globe and Mail – November 10, 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.

Essar Steel Algoma Inc., the economic backbone of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., for more than a century, will make its third trip through creditor protection amid a collapse in steel prices and a battle with a critical supplier.

The steel maker, which was founded in 1901 to make rails for the growing railway industry, was granted protection Monday under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, saying it does not have enough money to make $25-million in debt payments due next week or special payments on pension funds with a combined deficit topping $500-million.

“The urgency of the need for immediate cash is unquestioned,” Ontario Superior Court Justice Frank Newbould said in granting the company creditor protection.

The filing underlines the battered state of much of the steel sector in Canada and North America. Essar Algoma joins U.S. Steel Canada Inc., which was granted CCAA protection in September, 2014 – the second trip for the former Stelco Inc. through a court-supervised restructuring.

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NEWS RELEASE: Harte Gold – Sugar Zone Deposit Bulk Sample Update

Harte Gold from Harte Gold on Vimeo.

http://www.hartegold.com/

Toronto – November 10, 2015 – HARTE GOLD CORP. (“Harte Gold”) (TSX: HRT / Frankfurt (FSE: H4O) announced today that the first blast to cut the Portal was been completed on October 30, 2015 and underground ramp development is currently underway. Harte Gold also announced that Roger J. Emdin, P.Eng., has joined the Harte Gold team as Vice President, Projects.

Bulk Sample Project

With the commencement of underground ramp development and site development to support operations through winter 2016, near completion, Technica Mining Inc. (“Technica”) has transitioned to two-shift 24-7 operations. Click here for site pictures and video from the recent site visit.

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Grave mistake’ to be complacent on energy security, International Energy Agency warns – by Yadullah Hussain (National Post – November 10, 2015)

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

A prolonged period of lower oil prices would benefit consumers, but would trigger energy-security concerns by increasing reliance on a small number of low-cost producers “or risk a sharp rebound in price if investment falls short,” the International Energy Agency warned Tuesday.

A surge in renewable energy deployment and a period of low oil prices is giving the world a false sense of energy security, the Paris-based agency warned in its benchmark annual World Energy Outlook.

“It would be a grave mistake to index our attention to energy security to changes in the oil price,” IEA executive director Fatih Birol, said in a statement. “Now is not the time to relax. Quite the opposite: a period of low oil prices is the moment to reinforce our capacity to deal with future energy security threats.”

The global oil industry needs to invest US$630 billion “just to compensate for declining production at existing fields and to keep future output flat at today’s levels” the energy watchdog said.

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Rush to speed Brazil mine permit may be behind dam disaster – by Anthony Boadle and Alonso Soto (Reuters U.S. – November 9, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

BRASILIA – Mining companies often complain endless red tape makes it hard to do business in Brazil but prosecutors and environmentalists say burst dams at an iron ore mine that triggered massive flooding last week point to gaping lapses in regulation.

The floodwaters and mudflow killed at least two people and another 25 are still listed as missing in a disaster that came two years after a study requested by a prosecutor warned the dams in the mineral-rich state of Minas Gerais could collapse.

“It was evident this dam was risky,” Carlos Eduardo Pinto, a state prosecutor who probes the mining industry, told Reuters, referring to the first dam that gave way, leading to the rupture of another.

Pinto is investigating whether a tailings pond, a reservoir for water with mine waste held by the dam, was too full.  The dams burst on Thursday at a mine operated by Samarco, a joint venture between BHP Billiton Ltd , the world’s largest mining company, and Vale SA, the biggest iron ore miner.

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China Burns Much More Coal Than Reported, Complicating Climate Talks – by Chris Buckley (New York Times – November 3 2015)

http://www.nytimes.com/

BEIJING — China, the world’s leading emitter of greenhouse gases from coal, has been burning up to 17 percent more coal a year than the government previously disclosed, according to newly released data. The finding could complicate the already difficult efforts to limit global warming.

Even for a country of China’s size, the scale of the correction is immense. The sharp upward revision in official figures means that China has released much more carbon dioxide — almost a billion more tons a year according to initial calculations — than previously estimated.

The increase alone is greater than the whole German economy emits annually from fossil fuels.

Officials from around the world will have to come to grips with the new figures when they gather in Paris this month to negotiate an international framework for curtailing greenhouse-gas pollution.

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India’s coal-fueled economy taking a toll on environment and rural villagers – by Shashank Bengali (Los Angeles Times – October 15, 2015)

http://www.latimes.com/

A giant power plant set atop what was once a virgin forest churns with coal from a nearby mine, a roaring example of India’s aspirations to best China’s economic growth and light the homes of its poorest people.

Yet the privately run Sasan power project — backed by hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. government funding — has also generated land disputes, health and environmental concerns and financial hardship for villagers who say it has delivered little of what was promised.

As India tries to bring electricity to 300 million people who lack it, it is defying international calls for reducing climate-changing fuel emissions and instead heavily expanding investments in coal, often with huge costs for rural people living in the path of the inexpensive fossil fuel.

In the village of Amlohri two miles west of the Sasan plant, a mountain of rocky mining waste dumped by Reliance Power, the plant developer, surrounds a cluster of mud-and-brick dwellings, their tin roofs reflecting a blinding sun.

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Canadian Mining Companies Better Beware, the Liberals Are Coming for Them – by Justin Ling (Vice Magazine – November 6, 2015)

https://news.vice.com/

A regime change in Ottawa means that the government of Canada will be breathing down the necks of its mining companies operating in the the global south, a Liberal MP confirmed to VICE News.

John McKay, who has sat in the House of Commons since 1997, has repeatedly tried to push the previous Conservative government to set up penalties for mining companies who have breached human rights, environmental standards, or labor practises.

But his efforts to update the law, by way of bill C-300, were foiled — once in 2009, and again in 2011.

While McKay says the new government hasn’t discussed the bill yet, he’s optimistic the legislation will be returning in due course. “That, I hope, would be a government initiative,” McKay says.

C-300 would have created a system to allow citizens of foreign “developing” nations to file complaints against Canadian mining companies, directly to either the minister of foreign affairs, or international trade.

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Edward Burtynsky’s Mesmerizing Images of Copper Mines – by Jon Mooallen (New York Times – October 22, 2015)

http://www.nytimes.com/

Trying to comprehend the scale of open-pit extraction with aerial photographs.

The scale of an open-pit copper mine feels impossible; it is a Bible-grade phenomenon made by machines. Vehicles called bucket-wheel excavators, nearly five times the size of the largest dinosaurs, rip up the surface and gradually descend, piling 200,000 cubic meters or more of rock behind them every day.

Once the copper is extracted, waste products and unrecoverable metals stream out as tailings, snaking tributaries that turn psychedelic-looking as they oxidize in open air for the first time in millions of years. Each excavator, meanwhile, turns the land it is standing on into a ledge and leaves a succession of these steps, or ‘‘benches,’’ behind it as it goes.

The Chino Mine, for example, in Grant County, N.M., has been excavated persistently for more than a century and now stretches almost two miles across and 1,350 feet down. It’s a chasm, a void, a deep and disordered amphitheater built around an abyss. It gets four out of five stars on TripAdvisor.

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