Republic of Mining

[Sudbury Glencore] Fatality at Nickel Rim Mine – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – October 20, 2015)

October 20, 2015

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

A Ministry of Labour inspector was on the way at noon to the scene of a fatality at Glencore’s Nickel Rim South Mine.

An employee, a member of Mine Mill Local 598/Unifor, was killed when a piece of machinery fell on him. The union represents production and maintenance workers.

Labour ministry spokeswoman Janet Deline confirmed a worker died this morning at the mine owned by Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations, a Glencore company.

Deline said paramedics were on the scene and Greater Sudbury Police Service officials were “holding” the site of the accident.

The company issued a statement a few hours after the accident, saying: “We confirm a fatality underground at our Nickel Rim South Mine this morning.

Record 10 indigenous MPs elected to the House of Commons – by Tim Fontaine (CBC News Aboriginal – October 20, 2015)

October 20, 2015

http://www.cbc.ca/news/aboriginal/

8 Liberal and 2 NDP MPs of indigenous heritage will take a seat in Parliament

There will be a record number of indigenous people in the House of Commons following Monday’s federal election, which saw 10 indigenous MPs elected.

That’s an increase of three from the 2011 election, when seven indigenous people won seats. But there was a significant shift towards Liberal representation, away from Conservative and NDP.

Of the 18 indigenous candidates the Liberals ran, eight won seats. Only one, Yvonne Jones from Labrador, was an incumbent.

Notable new Liberal MPs include Jody Wilson-Raybould, a regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations who took the newly created riding of Vancouver-Granville with just over 40 per cent of the vote.

In the inner-city riding of Winnipeg Centre, former mayoral candidate Robert-Falcon Ouellette unseated longtime NDP MP Pat Martin, capturing 56 per cent of the vote.

India looks to buy South African coking coal mines – by Krishna N Das/Reuters (Business Day Live – October 20, 2015)

October 20, 2015

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

NEW DELHI — India is in talks to buy South African coal mines to feed its expanding steel industry, Coal Secretary Anil Swarup said, adding that New Delhi also hoped to stop imports of coal used to generate power in three years as domestic output jumps.

After years of poor production crippling power supply, state-run Coal India is boosting output at a record pace to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal of connecting to the grid millions of Indians who still use kerosene lamps.

But India, which wants to triple its steel capacity to 300-million tonnes by 2025, did not have enough reserves of coking or steel-making coal, prompting Coal India to look at assets abroad, Mr Swarup told the Reuters Global Commodities Summit on Monday.

“They are presently in negotiations with people in SA,” Mr Swarup said. “We imported around 80-million to 90-million tonnes of coking coal last (fiscal) year, and if that is the amount that can come through a mine owned by Coal India, it would consider it.”

COLUMN-Coal’s blind optimism fades, but industry must shrink to succeed – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – October 20, 2015)

October 20, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

Oct 20 (Reuters) – Battered and beaten, the coal industry finally seems to be moving from blind optimism that things will somehow get better to a more realistic hope that it can survive, albeit in a smaller, less influential manner.

A common theme at coal conferences over the past few years is that prices have finally reached a bottom and that a recovery is just around the corner.

Given that global coal benchmarks are currently in their fourth consecutive year of declines, this has clearly been an optimistic view, based more on fervent hope than a sober analysis of the state of the industry.

But at the World Coal Leaders Network conference in Barcelona this week there appeared to be a greater acceptance of coal’s diminishing role in power generation, the rising political and environmental obstacles the fuel faces and an acceptance that low prices are here to stay and the glory days ended in 2011.

There were even a few analysts and industry leaders prepared to say that prices have reached, or are very close to the bottom of the cycle, but these cautiously optimistic views came with enough caveats to ensure that ‘bullish’ still isn’t a word used very much in the coal world.

Commentary: Pebble tries to hide disaster-in-waiting behind attacks on EPA, mine critics – by Alannah Hurley (Alaska Dispatch News – October 19, 2015)

October 20, 2015

https://www.adn.com/

Alannah Hurley is a lifelong Bristol Bay resident and executive director of the United Tribes of Bristol Bay. UTBB is a tribal consortium representing 14 tribes (over 80 percent of the total population of Bristol Bay) working to protect the Bristol Bay watershed that sustains the Yup’ik, Denai’na and Alutiq way of life.

If you read their press releases recently, you would get the impression that the Pebble Limited Partnership is having a very good bit of luck. That’s because a bought-and-paid for “independent” report by former Defense Secretary William Cohen stated that the company was treated “unfairly” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the people of Bristol Bay.

With all due respect to Mr. Cohen, who is neither a scientist nor a legal expert, a review of Pebble’s hand-selected documents and a flyover will not come close to really evaluating Bristol Bay or how its people feel about the potential development of a colossal open-pit mine in their backyard. Rather, Mr. Cohen’s “report” is simply the latest in a long line of Pebble-backed propaganda — with the mining company playing the role of innocent victim, and Bristol Bay’s residents the villains.

The report argues a traditional mining review process should have been undertaken in Bristol Bay.

2 Australian mines are now operating with an all-driverless fleet of trucks – by Matthew Yglesias (Vox Business and Finance – October 19, 2015)

October 20, 2015

http://www.vox.com/

The first big commercial deployment of driverless car technology is coming not in the streets of Silicon Valley but in the arid and sparsely populated Pilbara region of Australia. That’s where the large mining conglomerate Rio Tinto has rolled out fleets of all-driverless trucks at two iron ore mines, according to a report by Jamie Smyth at the Financial Times.

Rio Tinto tells Smyth that the driverless transition has improved performance by 12 percent, mainly by “eliminating required breaks, absenteeism and shift changes.”

GPS guides the trucks and allows them to deliver iron ore 24/7, 365 days a year, without the kinds of breaks and handover periods that human drivers would need. The GPS navigation system is backstopped by a team of human operators working remotely from Perth, hundreds of miles away.

Not only does this reduce the total number of humans who are needed to run the trucking operation, but it eliminates the need to employ those humans in the remote and desolate mining country.

Australia needs policy reform to milk $9.5 billion uranium cash cow, report argues – by Frank Chung (News.com.au – October 20, 2015)

October 20, 2015

http://www.news.com.au/finance/

AUSTRALIA is sitting on a figurative gold mine of literal uranium, with a massive untapped opportunity to unlock an export boom and add thousands of jobs to the economy, a new report has argued.

The study, commissioned by the Minerals Council of Australia and conducted by RMIT University economists Sinclair Davidson and Ashton de Silva, found that under the right conditions, Australian uranium could generate as much as 5 per cent of the world’s electricity.

“This would be an outstanding contribution to global low-emissions electricity generation,” Minerals Council uranium executive director Daniel Zavattiero said.

Australia is sitting on about 30 per cent of the world’s uranium reserves but produces only 10 per cent of global production, making us the world’s third-largest exporter behind Kazakhstan and Canada.

The authors argue that, under the right policy settings, Australia’s could bring its share of global supply closer to 30 per cent.

Uranium miner sees China and India as key growth markets – by Ashley Redmond (Globe and Mail – October 20, 2015)

October 20, 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.

Canada is the world’s second largest uranium producer in the world, next only to Kazakhstan, according to the World Nuclear Association. And we export about 85 per cent of what we mine.

But the uranium sector went into a downturn in recent years, especially after Japan’s post-tsunami nuclear reactor meltdown caused that country to shut down reactors, with ripple effects in other countries. However, with new reactors being built, especially in Asia, and the expected restart of more Japanese reactors in the next few years, some analysts are calling for demand, and spot prices, to increase.

Even with decreased global demand, the value of Canadian-origin uranium exports in 2013 amounted to about $1-billion, according to government figures. Exports are mainly to the United States, Europe and Asia.

Tim Gitzel, president and chief executive officer of Saskatoon-based Cameco Corp., oversees the largest high-grade uranium mines in the country: McArthur River and Cigar Lake, both in Saskatchewan.

Africa’s mining sector is under (re)construction – by Nastassia Arendse (Mineweb.com – October 19, 2015)

October 20, 2015

http://www.mineweb.com/

Key elections will lay out the roadmap for the future of mining.

2015 has been eventful for African democracy and leadership transitions and it will continue to be well into the year 2016. Not every desk-based investor wants to deal with social instability, coups and state disintegration. Democratic transitions in African countries will have an impact on the stability of the environment in which mining companies have to operate.

The slowdown in China as the country shifts to a consumer led model has prompted many resource rich African countries to re-evaluate their dependency on Chinese demand. The weak performance in commodities has prompted mining companies to cut investments in even the most resource-rich countries. Voters and investors are focusing on what measures governments will take to shore up their economies.

The prospects of job losses haunt Africa countries ahead of forthcoming elections which are due to take place in countries such as Burkina Faso, Central African Republic (CAR), Côte d’Ivoire and Tanzania – to name but a few.

“Looking beyond 2015, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Republic of Congo will be in focus.

Iron ore competition runs hot as Vale hits production record – by Amanda Saunders (Sydney Morning Herald – October 20, 2015)

October 20, 2015

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

Australia’s iron ore wars may have died down but fierce global competition in the commodity has not, with Brazil this week clocking a new production record, and former Rio Tinto chief executive Tom Albanese starting exports from India after a three-year impasse.

Brazil’s Vale posted a quarterly production record of 88.2 million tonnes for the three months to September, despite pulling marginal tonnes out of the market. Productivity campaigns at its lower-cost operations helped offset the production cuts, edging its output 2.9 per cent higher than the period a year earlier.

Australia’s big two, Rio and BHP Billiton, also continue with their expansions, while Fortescue is running at about 165 million tonnes a year after a rapid three-year expansion.
Depressed iron ore prices have stabilised in recent weeks, trading around $US55 a tonne, after months of wild volatility. Iron ore has averaged about $US60 a tonne this year.

Glencore woes cast shadow over coal M&A – by Sarah McFarlane (Reuters U.S. – October 20, 2015)

October 20, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

BARCELONA – Oct 20 Glencore’s efforts to reduce debts to turn around its share price will limit its ability to do deals on coal assets and its absence is expected to slow consolidation in the depressed sector.

As the largest shipper of thermal coal, Glencore has been omnipresent in deals concerning assets in the sector, where a glut of supply has sent prices to multi-year lows, prompting expectations for a wave of consolidation among miners.

This changed in September, however, when Glencore succumbed to shareholder pressure and announced plans to reduce its debt to $20 billion from the current $30 billion, including a share issue and asset sales.

“Glencore, if they had been financially powerful, would have accelerated the consolidation of the thermal coal industry,” a trader at a mining company said.

Glencore declined to comment on its ability to make acquisitions.

Indonesia’s Nationalism – by Neil Chatterjee (Bloomberg News – October 19, 2015)

October 20, 2015

http://www.bloombergview.com/

Indonesia has been plundered since the Dutch collected nutmeg and cloves from the archipelago they called the East Indies 400 years ago. With treasures strung across 17,000 islands, it’s home to the world’s largest gold mine and exports the most power-station coal, palm oil and tin.

Indonesia’s identity was forged by a half-century of sometimes savage dictatorship that sold its riches overseas. Now the country wants to keep more of its wealth at home. The pull of protectionism has characterized the presidency of Joko Widodo, who came to power in October 2014 as the country’s second freely elected leader.

A rising tide of economic nationalism is threatening to undo the formula that for many years brought much-needed investment to the world’s fourth-most-populous nation and its 250 million people.

The Situation

Widodo, better known as Jokowi, represents a new generation of Indonesian politicians: a self-made furniture seller and can-do bureaucrat focused on cutting graft and red tape.

First Nations hope for better relationship with feds under Trudeau – by Graham Slaughter (CTV News – October 20, 2015)

October 20, 2015

http://www.ctvnews.ca/

With Stephen Harper stepping down from his party’s helm in the wake of a Liberal victory, First Nations leaders seem to have accomplished their goal of helping to defeat the Conservatives.

The Tories also lost Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt’s riding of Madawaska-Restigouche in New Brunswick.

According to Perry Bellegarde, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, that’s a telling loss. “I think that’s a strong message in terms of not getting the job done,” Bellegarde told CTV News as the results came in.

In the days after the Liberal sweep, Bellegarde says that First Nations people have a clear mission: “To build a relationship first with the new prime minster.”

First Nations leaders and advocates locked horns with the Conservatives over a wide array of indigenous issues, from treaty rights and Aboriginal education to the ability to get clean water on reserves.

Canadian Oil Sands Ltd CEO says Suncor Energy Inc used ‘insider information’ for ‘opportunistic and exploitive bid’ – by Yadullah Hussain (National Post – October 20, 2015)

October 20, 2015

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

TORONTO — Canadian Oil Sands Ltd.’s CEO Ryan Kubik said Monday his board will fight the sale of the company at what it calls “firesale prices” and he accused Suncor Energy Inc. of taking advantage of insider information to present an “opportunistic and exploitive” bid.

“They are using all of this opportunism to try to capture value for their own shareholders — that’s good for Suncor shareholders in building Suncor’s empire but not good for Canadian Oil Sands shareholders,” Kubik told the Financial Post on a visit to Toronto that involved mustering shareholder opposition to Suncor’s $4.3-billion hostile takeover plan, announced earlier this month. The COS board unanimously recommended Monday that its shareholders reject Suncor’s $4.3 billion bid.

No other offers have been put on the table for Canadian Oil Sands, whose business relies on a 37 per cent stake in the 350,000 barrel per day Syncrude oilsands project, in which Suncor also has a 12 per cent stake. The COS acquisition would raise Suncor’s stake in Syncrude to nearly 49 per cent.

CANADA FEDERAL ELECTION 2015: Trudeau rides national desire for change to majority government – by Eric Andrew-Gee, Steven Chase, Daniel LeBlanc and Les Perreaux (Globe and Mail – October 20, 2015)

October 20, 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.

In a stunning political comeback propelled by a national desire for change, Justin Trudeau and the Liberals won a decisive majority Monday night, bringing an end to the Stephen Harper era and a decade of Conservative rule.

Long derided by opponents as shallow and inexperienced, the Liberal Leader will now be the second Trudeau to take up residence as Prime Minister at 24 Sussex Dr. after leading the Liberals from the political wilderness back into government.

The result signals a vast reversal of fortunes for a party that was all but written off after winning just 34 seats in the past election. Their seat haul on Monday – with huge gains across the country – amounts to the largest increase in seats for a party between elections in Canadian history. The party was elected in 175 ridings and leading in a handful of others late Monday night.

The vote put an end to a long, acrimonious campaign that saw charges of Conservative Islamophobia and a bitter fight between the Liberals and NDP for the “change vote,” a battle the Liberals won.

In his victory speech in Montreal, Mr. Trudeau sent out a message of unity to Canadians, continuing the positive approach he adopted during the campaign. The Liberals operated on the principle that “you can appeal to the better angels of our nature, and you can win doing it,” he said.