Republic of Mining

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.”

Struggling junior miners hope Liberals extend exploration tax credit – by Peter Koven (National Post -November 2, 2015)

November 2, 2015

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

Canada’s junior mining sector is waiting with bated breath to see if Justin Trudeau’s incoming Liberal government will maintain a tax credit that has helped companies raise billions for exploration.

Miners argue that the 15-per-cent Mineral Exploration Tax Credit (METC) is an invaluable tool that encourages companies to work in Canada and helps keep the sector active during commodity downturns, including the current one. But there are detractors in the academic community who say it is just another inefficient benefit that favours one industry over another.

During the federal election campaign, the Liberals were the one major party that did not form a strong position on the METC, which is set to expire in March. The Conservatives said they would extend the credit for three years, and increase it to 25 per cent for remote projects, like Northern Ontario’s “Ring of Fire.” The NDP mused about making the METC permanent.

Rod Thomas, president of the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), said he is optimistic the Liberals will continue with it. “I think they recognize it is vital to the industry,” he said in an interview.

As downturn bites, Australia’s miners could turn to crowdfunding – by James Regan (Reuters U.S. – November 2, 2015)

November 2, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

SYDNEY – Nov 2 A pair of former miners are hoping to launch a crowdfunding website in Australia for small mining companies struggling to raise capital via traditional outlets as lenders turn their back on the sector.

Crowdfunding in Australia to raise equity is prohibited under the nation’s Corporations Act. The founders of Mineral Intelligence Pty, however, are counting on this to change by the end of the year under pro-business initiatives being considered by lawmakers.

U.S. securities regulators approved new crowdfunding rules on Friday, allowing start-up companies to raise money for the first time from mom-and-pop investors over the internet.

Over the past three years, tens of thousands of jobs have gone in Australian mining, once the nation’s economic engine, while some executives have taken pay cuts or forsaken bonuses to support the bottom line in the absence of fresh capital.

Radioactive Legacy, Part 1 of a Journal special report: A yellowcake gold rush – by Seth Tupper (Rapid City Journal – November 1, 2015)

November 2, 2015

http://rapidcityjournal.com/

Four million tons of radioactive waste are buried under a grassy field three miles southeast of Edgemont in far southwestern South Dakota. North of Edgemont, two massive abandoned mines, the biggest measuring about a mile across, scar the range land.

They are the byproducts of a uranium mining boom, and because the waste is nine feet underground and the mines are too far from the roads to be seen, they’re largely forgotten. So, too, are the other ill effects of the uranium mining rush that took place a half-century ago.

Locals may remember the jobs, and the bustling processing plant. They perhaps never knew about the out-of-state tycoons who pulled millions in profits from the ground, and then left a big mess behind. And they tend to forget or overlook the abandoned mill waste, the workers sickened by dust and radiation, and the abandoned mines and possible environmental contamination.

Now those old buried memories are being stirred by two very different yet confluent developments: a proposal for a new method of uranium mining in the same area; and new federal studies of the environmental damage caused by the old mines.

Lithium Air Battery Breakthrough Could Lead To Replacement Of Lithium Ion Batteries – by Angelo Young (International Business Times – November 1, 2015)

November 2, 2015

http://www.ibtimes.com/

Lithium ion batteries have been around for nearly a quarter-century, finding their way from laptops to electric cars. But British scientists say the popular energy storage device could be obsolete by the end of the next decade, replaced by a different recipe involving oxygen.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge announced they’ve created a battery prototype that overcomes some of the challenges to making the technology commercially viable, including size and amount of energy lithium oxygen (also known as lithium air) batteries can discharge. The new battery has the potential to store up to 10 times the amount of energy held in heavier lithium ion cells of comparable size, the inventors say.

The implications are enough to make any tech aficionado cheer. Mobile phones could be charged once a week instead of every few hours, and electric cars could finally travel distances similar to gasoline-burning cars without the annoyance of frequent half-hour recharges. The concept battery – still easily a decade away from a market-ready prototype – would be a fifth of the weight and cost of current lithium ion batteries.

Blame mining companies, not China, for resource value wipeout – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – October 31, 2015)

November 2, 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.

ROME — American senator Everett Dirksen wasn’t talking about the commodities industry when he reputedly said “a billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you’re talking real money.” Were he alive today, he could have. Great gobs of real money are being vaporized by mining and oil and gas companies. The slowdown in China, conveniently, is taking much of the blame. It shouldn’t.

Episodes of woe are recorded almost every day. Shares of Royal Dutch Shell, one of the world’s biggest oil companies, slumped again this week after it took an $8.2-billion (U.S.) hit on weak oil prices and decisions to scrap a Canadian oil sands project and retreat from Alaska.

Glencore, the world’s top commodities trader, has fallen by two-thirds this year alone. The Swiss company, which acquired Viterra and Falconbridge in Canada, is now busy shrinking its asset base and debt. On Friday, Chevron announced it would cut as many as 7,000 jobs – up to 11 per cent of its work force.

Can canoeing and mining coexist? Yes: Northland needs both mining and pristine nature – by Karl Everett (Duluth News Tribune – November 1, 2015)

November 2, 2015

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

Karl Everett of Duluth is a professional engineer, a geologist and a paddler. He has worked as a senior environmental manager; has consulted for mining and industrial clients; and has worked on many mining, metal and nonmetal projects.

We need mining for jobs and the economy in Minnesota. Mining continues to be one of the largest contributors to Northeastern Minnesota’s economy and directly employs thousands of men and women in high-paying jobs with medical benefits and supports additional people employed by vendors.

Part of the direct impact to the economy includes taxes and royalties paid by the mining industry toward Minnesota’s education.

Environmental management is a worldwide issue. After seeing pictures from Beijing during the Olympics, I think we are better at environmental management than most countries.

Goncalves tirade against the ‘enemy’ – by Kip Keen (Mineweb.com – November 1, 2015)

November 2, 2015

http://www.mineweb.com/

Who’s myopic in this argument Mr. Goncalves?

Pure ridiculum. Cliffs Natural Resources Chairman and CEO Lourenco Goncalves descended into a xenophobic tirade against China during a Friday conference call in which he warned Australia to choose sides in a world where it was helping an “enemy” build up.

China will “bring Australia down” Goncalves said as he reiterated his position that the big diversifieds are oversupplying the iron ore market. He went so far as to suggest that trade with China was a questionable strategy, noting that he was doing everything he could to separate the Cliffs business from China “since the day I put my feet here.”

At one point during comments he went so far as to implore Australia to rethink its trading with China. “I hope the Australians will continue to question themselves why one or two companies are giving their finite resource away to the Chinese while the Chinese build into a military powerhouse in the South China Sea,” Goncalves said.

Papua New Guinea is falling short of its potential – by Devesh Rasgotra (Global Risk Insights – November 1, 2015)

November 2, 2015

http://globalriskinsights.com/

Falling commodity prices alongside poor political governance have meant that Papa New Guinea, rich in natural resources, is seemingly not fulfilling its potential.

Papua New Guinea is one of the poorest and most isolated countries in the world. Yet it has experienced sustained economic growth in recent years. The country is rich in gold, oil, gas, copper, silver and timber.

The extraction of these natural resources accounts for 60% of its GDP whilst it’s other main economic sector, agriculture, employs up to 85% of the population.

The revenues from this commodity-based economy have not translated into strong economic development and improvements to living standards. Despite maintaining an average annual growth rate of 6.5% over the past 10 years, the country is blighted by corruption and poor fiscal management by the government.

Lake Shore Gold’s future in Timmins is bright despite falling gold prices, CEO – by Sarah Moore (Timmins Daily Press – November 2, 2015)

November 2, 2015

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

They may be the new kids on the block in the Timmins mining community, but Lake Shore Gold foresees an extremely prosperous future in the city.

“We see ourselves as being able to grow to be much larger,” Tony Makuch, CEO of Lake Shore Gold, said in an interview on Friday, “and to go from a junior producer to an intermediate to maybe a more senior producer” that is still producing gold in Timmins “and still being profitable even beyond the next five years.”

At a luncheon at the Dante Club on Friday afternoon, Makuch provided an update on the Lake Shore Gold operations at the Timmins West mining complex by Highway 101 west, and the Bell Creek mine in Porcupine.

As one of the newest gold mining operation in Timmins, Lake Shore Gold has produced almost 650,000 ounces of gold since going into full operation back in 2011. They hit a record last year, producing 185,000 ounces in 2014 alone.

China is Not Collapsing – by Anatole Kaletsky (Project Syndicate – October 12, 2015)

November 2, 2015

http://www.project-syndicate.org/

LONDON – One question has dominated the International Monetary Fund’s annual meeting this year in Peru: Will China’s economic downturn trigger a new financial crisis just as the world is putting the last one to bed? But the assumption underlying that question – that China is now the global economy’s weakest link – is highly suspect.

China certainly experienced a turbulent summer, owing to three factors: economic weakness, financial panic, and the policy response to these problems. While none on its own would have threatened the world economy, the danger stemmed from a self-reinforcing interaction among them: weak economic data leads to financial turmoil, which induces policy blunders that in turn fuel more financial panic, economic weakness, and policy mistakes.

Such self-reinforcing financial feedback is much more powerful in transmitting global economic contagion than ordinary commercial or trade exposures, as the world learned in 2008-2009. The question now is whether the vicious circle that began in China over the summer will continue.

Focus on Africa for next commodities ‘supercycle’ – by Paul Murphy (Financial Times – October 30, 2015)

October 30, 2015

http://www.ft.com/intl/

Battered miners will pivot to continent when excess capacity is finally squeezed out

There was a frenetic air to trading in London’s listed miners this week — things were faster, wilder and even more uncontrolled to the downside than battered sector players have come to expect.

No one mentions the concept of a commodities “supercycle” these days, not after four years of a downturn with no end in sight. The themes of oversupply and faltering Chinese demand are well-worn, but the focus recently has moved to corporate debt levels and dividends. Or rather debt and the non-deliverable nature of those dividends.

There is also the slightly unintuitive issue of rapidly falling production costs in the mining industry, noted by Investec’s sector specialist Marc Elliott this week as he and his research team again chopped their commodity price forecasts across the board.

Taken in tandem with a belated realisation that China itself built massive new mining capacity during the latter stages of the boom years —

The Canadian resource sector’s messy duty to consult – by Dwight Newman (National Post – October 30, 2015)

October 30, 2015

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

Dwight Newman is professor of law and Canada research chair in indigenous rights, University of Saskatchewan and visiting fellow, James Madison Program, Princeton University.

This week, closing arguments were heard in a lawsuit that highlights the Ontario provincial government’s slowness in developing clear approaches to the duty to consult Aboriginal communities and in offering any clarity to those attempting to operate in the Canadian resource sector.

The decision to be rendered has widespread implications. The case has parallels to the situation of other resource companies, and it highlights the significant dangers in governments trying to muddle through the interaction between Indigenous rights and resource development without making clear decisions and enacting clear legal frameworks. Future prosperity for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities alike will be affected by what happens with these sorts of lawsuits.