Republic of Mining

Timeline of [South Dakota] Edgemont’s uranium industry – by Seth Tupper (Rapid City Journal – October 26, 2015)

November 3, 2015

Here is a look back at the timing of key events in the history of the Edgemont uranium mining industry:

1951: Uranium deposits are discovered in a canyon wall near Edgemont.

1952: The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission opens an ore sampling and buying station in Edgemont, one of many Western sites where the federal government buys uranium to fuel its growing stockpile of nuclear weapons.

1953: The Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad reorganizes and emerges as a subsidiary of a new holding company, Susquehanna Corporation, which will soon come to dominate Edgemont’s uranium industry.

1955: Mines Development Inc., a subsidiary of Susquehanna Corp., builds a uranium mill in Edgemont.

1960: Edgemont’s population hits 1,772, a 53 percent increase from 1950.

Liberal stimulus plan a chance to reinvigorate Canadian steel industry – by Bill Missen (Globe and Mail – November 3, 2015)

November 3, 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.

Bill Missen is former senior vice-president at Stelco Canada.

Even before it is formally installed, the newly elected Liberal government faces the pressure of high expectations – especially when it comes to infrastructure spending. It’s a platform promise with the potential to provide much-needed economic stimulus by doubling the public works budget to $125-billion over the next decade.

By implementing this spending plan, the new government has an exceptional opportunity to extend a lifeline to Canada’s struggling steel industry. But it is an opportunity that could easily be squandered.

Before the first dime of public money is spent, a strong made-in-Canada supply policy needs to be firmly in place. Without that, new jobs will not be created and existing ones will not be preserved.

Ontario is playing politics with power – again – by Margaret Wente (Globe and Mail – November 3, 2015)

November 3, 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.

Do you understand your electricity bill? Me neither. All I know is that it keeps going up. There was a rate increase in May, and Ontarians got another one this week.

The provincial government made it sound like nothing. An increase of only 3.4 per cent, on average. Four bucks and change a month! A latte at Starbucks costs more. But this isn’t the truth, of course. The truth is that residential electricity rates have gone up a whopping 12.6 per cent since last winter, says Tom Adams, an independent energy consultant who is an expert on energy politics in Ontario.

The average Ontario household is paying about a third more for power than in 2010. On Jan. 1, bills will go up again when the government cancels the 10-per-cent rebate that it cheerily calls the “clean energy benefit.” There will also be a new tax to subsidize low-income users. Suck it up, people. There is no end in sight.

Why privatizing Hydro One is proving politically costly – by Martin Regg Cohn (Toronto Star – November 1, 2015)

November 3, 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.

Hydro One sell-off not a risk not worth taking — mostly because of the public policy peril, not financial risk.

As Hydro One is slowly sold off, it won’t be so much missed as misunderstood. And misrepresented.

Misunderstood, because most people living in the Greater Toronto Area have never dealt directly with Hydro One and might reasonably wonder what, if anything, its sale has to do with rising electricity bills. (Answers below.)

Misrepresented, because a political fight over the sell-off of this provincially owned utility is obscured by predictable government contortions and opposition distortions. (Miscalculations below.)

Hydro One is back in the news thanks to the foresight of Ontario’s New Democrats.

[Wallbridge Mining] Sudbury junior joint ventures with Lonmin on Sudbury PGM project – by Ella Myers (Northern Ontario Business – November 2, 2015)

November 3, 2015

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North.

Sudbury’s Wallbridge Mining Company started the next phase of exploration on its Parkin Properties in October, with funding from Lonmin. Wallbridge and Lonmin announced their agreement for the project in mid-September. Lonmin will be funding the project up to $11 million, with the potential to earn up to 50 per cent interest. This was an amendment to their existing North Range Joint Venture agreement (NRJV).

Lonmin is currently Wallbridge’s largest shareholder. The start date of Oct. 1 coincides with the beginning of Lonmin’s fiscal year.

Wallbridge initially worked with Impala Platinum Holdings Limited on the Parkin Properties. Josh Bailey, vice-president of exploration, said that in December, Wallbridge opted to purchase Implats’ 49.6 per cent interest in the joint venture by making cash payments over the next five years.

BHP Billiton says no relief from weak iron ore prices – by Amanda Saunders (Australian Financial Review – November 3, 2015)

November 3, 2015November 3, 2015

http://www.afr.com/

A senior BHP Billiton executive says there is no light at the end of the tunnel for depressed iron ore prices, which will gradually deteriorate over the next few years before finding a new normal well below $US50 a tonne.

Alan Chirgwin, BHP’s vice president of marketing for iron ore, says the price will gradually fall over the next few years before finding a new normal at the highest breakeven of “a major producer in Australia or Brazil”.

That would likely be either Fortescue Metals Group or Brazil’s Vale, which are both racing to avoid the unwanted marginal producer status. Fortescue is sitting at about $US37 to $US38 on breakeven, while Vale is closer to to $US40 a tonne, and they are well behind the other two majors, Rio Tinto and BHP.

How Diamonds Became Forever – by J. Courtney Sullivan (New York Times – May 3, 2013)

November 2, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/

Peggy Olson, that emblem of the pioneering ad woman in a man’s world on the television show “Mad Men,” would have been all of 8 years old on the night in 1947 when the real-life copywriter Frances Gerety coined the phrase “A Diamond Is Forever.”

As Ms. Gerety recalled in a 1988 interview with a co-worker, Howard Davis, she had just finished a series of ads and was headed to bed when she realized that she had forgotten to create a signature line. Exhausted, she said “Dear God, send me a line,” and scribbled something on a slip of paper. When she woke up and saw what she had written, she thought it was just O.K. A few hours later, she presented her idea at a meeting. According to her, “Nobody jumped.”

When Ms. Gerety applied to work at the Philadelphia advertising agency N.W. Ayer & Son in 1943, she was told that her timing was perfect: the agency had just lost a female copywriter.

Mining veteran brought in to reboot palladium mine – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – November 2, 2015)

November 2, 2015

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

The last two years at North American Palladium’s Lac des Iles mine, Jim Gallagher has experienced a major company refinancing, an ownership changeover, a management reshuffle, a tailings pond issue, a round of layoffs, and the tragic death of a worker.

As the newly anointed president-CEO, Gallagher is hoping the streak of bad luck has run its course and he can now focus on the positives. “We’re setting the goal of becoming one of the best mines in the world.”

Earlier this year, the Toronto-headquartered miner was struggling under a crushing debt load until Brookfield Capital Partners recapitalized and restructured the company. Gallagher was promoted to the top job last August, replacing Phil du Toit, who resigned.

China coal testing regime ‘significant impost’ on free trade, BHP says – by Amanda Saunders (Australian Financial Review – November 1, 2015)

November 2, 2015

http://www.afr.com/

The world’s biggest exporter of metallurgical coal, BHP Billiton, says China’s import-coal quality testing regime is a “significant impost” on free trade and some rivals are being forced to sell rejected cargoes at “distressed” prices.

Shaun Verner, BHP’s vice-president of marketing for coal, told Fairfax Media the testing was hurting sentiment and making it “much more difficult” and slower to sell tonnes into China.

BHP has not had a cargo rejected, but Mr Verner said “our understanding is that where some cargoes have been rejected, and we have heard through the market that there have been a few, they have had to be reloaded and resold as distressed cargoes in other markets.

“If you take the general market situation, and price where it is, the risk of having a cargo rejected is not something that people are willing to bear.”

Revolution in air as Latino voters eye change – by John Paul Rathbone (Financial Times – November 1, 2015)

November 2, 2015

http://www.ft.com/

Volatile times ahead in region as popular expectations remain high

The commodity supercycle ended and in the Americas the political repercussions have followed swiftly. Almost everywhere, the status quo is being upended. Citizens are agitating for change. Their ends are sometimes revolutionary.

In Argentina, pro-business presidential candidate Mauricio Macri may well end 12 years of populist rule at an electoral run-off on November 22. In Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, elected president last year, is now the most unpopular leader in national history, while her Workers Party is in disgrace.

In Venezuela, the long-ruling socialist party will likely be trounced in December’s mid-terms; the only question is by how much. In Guatemala, a television comedian with no political experience has been elected president while his predecessor has been indicted for corruption.

Drought-Caused Blackouts Batter Zambia, Zimbabwe Economies – by Associated Press (NBC News – October 31, 2015)

November 2, 2015

http://www.nbcnews.com/

HARARE, Zimbabwe — With the rains not having fallen as they normally do, water levels have dropped in a dam that supplies electricity to Zambia and Zimbabwe, causing power blackouts, business closures and consternation. Some traditional chiefs are blaming an angry river god.

Zimbabwean media, citing the chiefs, said the low water levels at Kariba Dam, built in 1960 on the border between the two countries, could be due to failure to conduct traditional rites. The flow of the Zambezi River, which feeds the dam, has also dropped, depleting the famed Victoria Falls of its majestic power.

The Kariba power station is a major provider of electricity to the neighboring nations. Traditional leaders on both sides of Kariba Lake, which is formed by Kariba Dam and is the world’s largest man-made lake by volume, have conducted rain-making ceremonies to try to stem further decline of water levels. They plan to appeal for rain in another ceremony on Saturday.

Gang wars erupt over abandoned mines in South Africa – by Béatrice Debut (Yahoo.com – November 2, 2015)

November 2, 2015

http://news.yahoo.com/

Springs (South Africa) (AFP) – With his armoured 4×4 parked at the entrance of an abandoned gold mine shaft in South Africa, the security guard armed with a gun and a bullet proof vest makes for a menacing sentry.

But he couldn’t do anything when five illegal miners were killed in September by gangs fighting to control the Grootvlei mine in Springs, a blue-collar town located 30 kilometres (20 miles) east of Johannesburg.

“Bullets were flying. I called the police but they only came in the morning to pick up the bodies,” said the security guard, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“Police are too afraid to come here.” South Africa has approximately 6,000 mines that companies have been abandoned in the face of falling profits.

Turning Brownfields into Greenfields: From Coal to Clean Energy – by Lee Buchsbaum (PowerMag.com – November 1, 2015)

November 2, 2015

http://www.powermag.com/

As the coal industry declines in many places around the world, can the mines it leaves behind be repurposed for cleaner energy projects that benefit multiple stakeholders, including local economies? Several existing and planned projects demonstrate that there may be multiple paths toward that transition.

No question, the coal industry in Appalachia, the rest of the U.S., and much of the developed world is going through massive structural changes. As mines close and regulators and citizens take stock of their legacy, people are wondering what’s next for the coalfields.

Beyond attempting to restore scarred lands to their “approximate original contours,” as required by U.S. federal law, there may be another approach, one that could provide lasting value to mining companies, landowners, residents, and other stakeholders.

Thousands of acres of once-abandoned mines are now wildlife preserves or slowly reviving parklands, but can mined land be put to economic use?

Lights Out in Britain for the Coal Industry – by Stephen Castle (New York Times – October 31, 2015)

November 2, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/

KELLINGLEY, England — Tens of thousands of British coal miners have lost their jobs in recent decades, during the steep decline of an industry that stoked the nation’s industrial rise, sustained it through two world wars and once employed more than one million people.

Chris Jamieson will be one of the very last. In December, his job is set to disappear when Kellingley colliery, Britain’s last deep coal mine, is scheduled to close for good.

In the mine’s empty parking lot, Mr. Jamieson, 50, is already thinking about the moment in a few weeks’ time when the last group of miners is hauled to the surface. He expects to work the final shift at the colliery, which has been reduced to little more than a quarter of its peak work force and is succumbing to pressure from cheaper imported coal.

“I will be putting the lights out,” he said, adding that, after a quarter-century in the industry, he would particularly miss not just his paycheck but the unique camaraderie among colleagues who work together underground.

The threats to America’s minerals – by William Perry Pendley (Washington Times – November 1, 2015)

November 2, 2015

http://www.washingtontimes.com/

Death by a thousand paper cuts

William Perry Pendley, a lawyer, is president of Mountain States Legal Foundation in Denver and author of “Sagebrush Rebel: Reagan’s Battle with Environmental Extremists and Why It Matters Today” (Regnery, 2013).
Much has been written about the impossibility of developing America’s rich natural resources given the opposition of the Obama administration, radical environmentalists and actively empathetic judges; it has been a horror show for oil pipelines, energy on federal lands and coal anywhere.

What happens, however, when the minerals at issue are deemed critical to national defense, key to green technology innovation and crucial to contesting Chinese combativeness and therefore: the stars align, the White House gives its support and environmental groups eschew the courthouse? Sadly, as an essential rare earth elements mine in Wyoming reveals: death by a thousand bureaucratic paper cuts.

In 1980, Congressman Jim Santini, Nevada Democrat, warned of America’s risky reliance for strategic and critical minerals on foreign sources, primarily Africa. Gov. Ronald Reagan, in his 1977 radio address, decried a “campaign” by the Soviet Union and Cuba “to achieve strategic dominance over Africa with all its mineral riches.”