Republic of Mining

Iran to Seek Bids on 15 Mining Deals as Gold Supply on Rise – by Hashem Kalantari (Bloomberg News – October 19, 2015)

October 19, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Iran will seek bids for 15 mining projects for international investors to develop, with production of zinc to gold and iron ore seen getting a boost with the end of sanctions.

President Hassan Rouhani plans to visit France and Italy in November to sign development agreements on some of the projects, according to Mehdi Karbasian, deputy minister of Iran’s Ministry of Industries, Mines & Trade, said in an interview in Tehran. Tenders to develop the 15 projects should be issued within the next four months, with the first one proposed in October to build the Neekouyeh gold mine west of Tehran, he said.

Iran’s gold production is forecast to triple from 2013 to 10,000 kilograms (321,507 troy ounces) by next year, with iron ore, steel, chromite, aluminum , bauxite, copper and zinc output also growing, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

How technology is going to impact on deep level mining in South Africa – by Dr. Declan Vogt (Mineweb.com – October 18, 2015)

October 19, 2015

http://www.mineweb.com/

A Mineweb Op-Ed exclusive by Dr Declan Vogt from the Wits School of Mining Engineering.

Johannesburg: Our deep level gold and platinum mines are in trouble. At today’s prices, most are not profitable. There are many explanations for the high cost: mines are getting deeper, infrastructure is old, and energy and labour costs exceed inflation. Given that we have little control over the price of the commodities, the only solution is improved productivity.

In many other industries, technology has enabled huge strides in productivity. Even in South Africa, almost all underground coal mining is now mechanised. So what about deep-level hard rock?

Technically, our orebodies present a challenge. Both the Witwatersrand and the Bushveld orebodies are hosted in very hard rock – quartzite and shales, or norites and anorthosites. The ore itself is also hard and abrasive, so rock cutting is not economic at present.

Cliffs CEO: Essar jeopardizes Range facility- by Bill Hanna (Mesabi Daily News – October 17, 2015)

October 19, 2015

http://www.virginiamn.com/

‘If they go online, I will shut down a plant the same day’ Vuppuluri: ‘Very sad and pained to hear such a statement’

CLEVELAND — The Cliffs Natural Resources CEO said he will close one of the company’s operations on the Iron Range if the Essar Steel Minnesota taconite plant in Nashwauk goes into production.

“If they go online, I will shut down a plant up there the same day,” Lourenco Goncalves said in an exclusive interview with the Mesabi Daily News last Thursday. “We have fully planned for the worst case scenario.”

Essar Minnesota CEO Madhu Vuppuluri said in response on Saturday that he is “very saddened to hear that statement that could have such an impact on employees and communities of the Iron Range.”

The $1.9 billion India-based Essar project under construction is scheduled to begin producing taconite pellets in the second half of 2016, most likely the third quarter.

[Saskatchewan Uranium waste] Gunnar cleanup to exceed $250M, 10 times estimate – by Alex MacPherson (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – October 17, 2015)

October 19, 2015

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/

The cost of cleaning up an abandoned uranium mine in northern Saskatchewan is expected to exceed $250 million, more than 10 times the original estimate – and the provincial and federal governments are divided on how the burden will be shared.

Located on the northern shore of Lake Athabasca near Uranium City, about 800 kilometres north of Saskatoon, the Gunnar uranium mine was abandoned in 1964. The site remained littered with radioactive tailings, asbestos-laced buildings and other waste for more than half a century.

The original mine operator, Gunnar Mining Limited, no longer exists.

In 2006, the federal and provincial governments signed an agreement to rehabilitate the site and reduce further ground and water contamination. The project was originally estimated to cost no more than $24.6 million and take 17 years, according to Natural Resources Canada documents.

NEWS RELEASE: Nemaska Lithium Receives Notice of Allowance for its Lithium Hydroxide and Lithium Carbonate Process Patent

May 13, 2016October 19, 2015

http://www.nemaskalithium.com/en/

QUEBEC CITY, QUEBEC–(Marketwired – Oct. 19, 2015) – October 19, 2015. Nemaska Lithium Inc. (“Nemaska Lithium” or the “Corporation”) (TSX VENTURE:NMX)(OTCQX:NMKEF) is pleased to announce that it has obtained a Notice of Allowance in Canada concerning Canadian Patent Application 2,874,917 that describes its proprietary process of preparing lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate from spodumene sources using membrane electrolysis. Nemaska is also pursuing patent protection on this process in multiple global jurisdictions.

In addition, the Corporation has received very positive feedback from the international examiners in charge of examining Nemaska Lithium’s international applications WO 2015/058288 and WO 2015/123762. These patent applications cover different technologies and processes for preparing lithium hydroxide. Finally the Corporation recently filed a new patent application in the United States (US 62/210,977) which is related to a new electrochemical process for making lithium hydroxide. In total, Nemaska Lithium now owns rights to 13 pending patent applications that are represented by 7 different patent families.

The electrolysis technology developed by Nemaska Lithium to convert lithium sulphate into lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate, has been successfully lab scale tested, pilot plant tested as well as tested at supplier facilities over the past three years. In the past, electrolysis based technologies have been commercially used in multiple industries and have demonstrated that they can be very efficient and very reliable. For example, over the past 50 years, chlor alkaline industry has been using industrial processes for the electrolysis of sodium chloride.

Megafactory trend sparks ‘arms race’ in battery sector – by Simon Rees (MiningWeekly.com – September 29, 2015)

October 26, 2015October 19, 2015

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Tesla Motors’ so-called ‘gigafactory’ has sparked an “arms race” in the battery sector, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence MD Simon Moores told an audience attending the Toronto leg of the company’s World Tour 2015, in which Mining Weekly Online participated.

The gigafactory, now being built in Nevada, was designed to meet Tesla’s future battery requirements, either for electric vehicles (EV) or its Powerwall and Powerpack technologies.

“Battery majors, such as LG Chem or Samsung, have all responded with expansion plans for their new plants. Companies like BYD are also building their own battery plants. Boston Power is looking to expand, while Foxconn said they were going to enter battery manufacturing,” Moores stated.

“The megafactory trend is one the battery industry has not seen before. This is not an industry saying it expects to expand by 10% or 20% over the next three years – it’s at an order of magnitude that’s much bigger,” he added.

Glencore likely to cut back nickel production, says analysts – Paul Ploumis (Scrap Monster.com – October 14, 2015)

October 16, 2015

http://www.scrapmonster.com/

After copper and zinc, Glencore may now announce production cut in Nickel, says analysts.

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): According to analysts speculations, Glencore may cut back Nickel production. The company had earlier announced cuts to its copper and zinc production.

Gavin Wendt, analyst at Minelife commodities noted that cut in nickel output is likely to save millions of dollars for the company and lift the prices of the metal in the process. Production cut by Glencore will have immense impact on global nickel market and could lead to a rally in beaten-up nickel prices, he added.

According to UBS analyst Daniel Morgan, not many nickel miners have resorted to production cuts when compared with other commodities. The notable cut in production so far has come from Canadian Sherritt International Corp. which reduced its nickel production targets in July from earlier estimate of 80,000-86,000 tonnes to 78,000-82,000 tonnes. He added that nearly 50% of the world’s nickel production is at loss at today’s price. Moreover, LME warehouses hold excessive nickel inventory levels of 440,000 tonnes as on date.

How Tesla sparked the latest race for bigger, better batteries – by Michael McCullough (Canadian Business Magazine – September 1, 2015)

October 26, 2015October 16, 2015

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/

Battery makers are suddenly finding themselves with an explosion of new markets to service—both big and small

You can be forgiven for thinking Tesla Motors is a car company. Yes, it started out making electric cars, but only because personal transportation is the lowest-hanging fruit in tackling the global energy and emissions problem. In fact, Tesla’s core mission is to make big batteries inexpensive and practical for any number of uses.

Last spring, founder Elon Musk unveiled a new product called Powerwall, a battery pack starting at US$3,000 that’s designed to power your whole home for 10 hours or more. If you have a solar panel on your roof, it will allow you to store the electricity produced during the day and use it in the evening to cook, do the laundry and max out your electronic devices.

Even if you don’t have solar panels, you may live in one of the growing number of jurisdictions where electricity costs rise and fall at different times of the day. You could save money on your utility bill by charging your Powerwall during the wee hours and drawing from it later.

How a new battery revolution will change your life – by David J. Unger (Christian Science Monitor – August 30, 2015)

October 26, 2015October 16, 2015

http://www.csmonitor.com/

A new generation of super cells promises to reshape the future of energy.

CAMBRIDGE, MASS.; AND ARGONNE, ILL. — It’s probably safe to say that freshman chemistry rarely ranks among college students’ most memorable courses. An overcrowded lecture hall teems with 18-year-olds with chins propped on palms. Eyelids droop at the mere mention of Planck’s constant or Bohr’s model of hydrogen. Yawns abound.

So when Donald Sadoway began teaching introductory chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge in 1995, he wanted to liven things up. Sure, he still lectured on the properties of atomic arrangements in crystalline and amorphous solids, but he did it an unusual way: He peppered his presentations with chemistry jokes only an MIT undergrad would understand and wove literature and art into the rigid lines and squares of the periodic table.

A lifelong music lover, Dr. Sadoway paired each lecture with a relevant tune. He’d play Handel’s “Water Music” in a lecture on hydrogen bonding and Aretha Franklin’s “Chain of Fools” in a class on polymers. For DNA – that famous double-helix spiral – he’d play Hank Ballard’s version of “The Twist.”

Miners can exploit opportunities in alternative energy – by Prinesha Naidoo MoneyWeb.com – October 16, 2015)

October 16, 2015

http://www.moneyweb.co.za/

And learn from past failures.

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s mining directors did not act fast enough in response to the country’s energy challenges. That’s according to Thomas Garner, CEO of Cennergi, an independent power producer.

Participating in a panel discussion about the energy crisis and changing energy mix at the Joburg Indaba, Garner said the stability of the country’s electricity supply had been flagged as a risk since the mid-2000s: “We predicted that electricity prices would treble and no one believed us”.

At that stage, electricity was never listed as a massive risk or even one of the top five risks to industrialisation in South Africa due to Eskom’s reliability and the fact that it was cheap to buy electricity from the utility, he said. And this, according to him, raises questions as to how directors with fiduciary responsibilities make decisions.

But fellow panelist and energy thought leader Mike Rossouw said the fact that “nobody knows what energy demand is going to be in the future” has profound implications for investing in growth.

Lithium, the love story – by Antoine Dion Ortega and Pierrick Blin (Corporate Knights.com – June 16, 2014)

May 13, 2016October 16, 2015

http://www.corporateknights.com/

Purmamarca, ARGENTINA – When Tesla Motors revealed in February it would build the world’s largest lithium-ion battery plant, shares in major lithium producers such as SQM, FMC and Rockwood – all active in South America’s so-called lithium triangle – got a noticeable boost.

Tesla pledged to invest more than $5 billion in its factory, construction of which would begin in 2017 with an eye to producing 500,000 batteries a year. Analysts now expect the Palo Alto, California-based electric carmaker to strike a strategic lithium supply agreement in the near future.

When that deal comes through, it could be huge. Tesla alone might represent an 8 per cent increase in global demand for lithium, and that’s good news for countries in the lithium mining game. Yet it’s unclear to what extent South America’s resource-rich nations will truly benefit from it, and whether the foreseen “white gold rush” will be a sustainable one.

Just a few days before Tesla’s announcement, Bolivian President Evo Morales was dressed in white overalls, carefully examining a battery cell during the inauguration of a pilot manufacturing plant, located within the 10,000 square kilometre salt flats of Uyuni.

Could lithium become the new oil? – by Vikram Mansharamani (PBS Newshour – October 15, 2015)

May 13, 2016October 16, 2015

http://www.pbs.org/

Vikram Mansharamani is a lecturer in the Program on Ethics, Politics & Economics at Yale University and a senior fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School.

I recently spoke with a group of Nigerian leaders who were visiting Yale. I expressed to them my confidence in the long-term outlook for oil demand. A booming middle class in the emerging markets, I argued, would consistently demand more fuels. They were engaged throughout my talk and cared about many different topics, but kept returning one.

“OK, but Vikram, what will oil prices be next year?” I answered honestly, “I don’t know.”

Several other questions came up, but then another person asked, “OK, very compelling presentation, thank you. But do you think oil prices will be higher or lower next year than they are today?” Again, I pleaded ignorance.

The process continued, and eventually, everyone was laughing about the persistent focus on oil prices.

[Minnesota] Gov. Dayton traveling to view best and worst of mining – by Josephine Marcotty (Minneapolis Star Tribune – October 15, 2015)

October 16, 2015

http://www.startribune.com/

His visits to Michigan and South Dakota are preparation for PolyMet decision.

Gov. Mark Dayton plans to visit two mines in other states — examples of good and bad environmental outcomes — as he prepares to decide whether Minnesota should move forward with a controversial project proposed by PolyMet Mining Corp. on the Iron Range.

The $650 million open-pit operation would be Minnesota’s first copper-nickel mine. It promises to bring some 300 to 350 jobs to northeastern Minnesota, but it also would bring unprecedented environmental risks to a region known for beautiful lakes and forests.

A 10-year environmental review of the project is due for completion in November, and shortly after that PolyMet is expected to apply for a permit to start construction. Dayton has called it “the most momentous, difficult and controversial decision I will make as governor.”

That’s why he is taking the unusual step of examining mines in other states on Oct. 27 and Oct. 30.

Indonesian battle over Freeport threatens to mar leader’s U.S. trip – by Randy Fabi and Wilda Asmarini (Reuters U.S. – October 16, 2015)

October 16, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

Jakarta – Indonesian ministers are battling over control of U.S. mining giant Freeport-McMoRan’s future in the country, threatening to mar the president’s first trip to the United States later this month.

President Joko Widodo starts a five-day trip to Washington and San Francisco on Oct. 25, as investor sentiment in Southeast Asia’s largest economy brightens following a cabinet reshuffle and a series of new stimulus measures.

One of Widodo’s first stops will be with Freeport executives at a breakfast ahead of his meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, according to a tentative schedule obtained by Reuters.

At the heart of talks will likely be Freeport’s years-long bid to renew its contract, allowing the firm to continue operating beyond 2021 at the lucrative Grasberg mine in Papua, one of the world’s biggest deposits of gold and copper.