Republic of Mining

Philippine nickel miners confident production won’t drop – by Anne Lu (International Business Times – August 06 2015)

August 6, 2015

http://www.ibtimes.com.au/

While the agricultural sector in the Philippines dread the looming El Niño phenomenon that could introduce widespread dryness across the country, the mining segment see it as a “blessing.”

“The impact of El Niño on our operations is going to be positive. The dry weather means our mines can continue to be productive in October or November when the season of heavy rains usually starts.” Nickel Asia Corporation CFO Emmanuel L. Samson told Business World.

During wet season, metal producers are forced to suspend field operations for safety and technical reasons, as it would be difficult to get ore underground when the earth is wet and damp. Typically, the rainy season stretches from October to the second quarter of the following year, a long period when most mining operations are recording average productivity levels.

Nickel Asia, which is also partly owned by Japan’s Sumitomo Metal Mining, has projected an ore export volume of more than 19 million wet metric tonnes (WMT) for 2015. The company produced only 17.9 million WMT last year.

Hiroshima Commemorates 70th Anniversary of Atomic Bombing – by Jonathan Sobleaug (New York Times – August 6, 2015)

August 6, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/

HIROSHIMA, Japan — Every year on Aug. 6, Hiroshima becomes a city of mourning. And one full of reminders — some delivered politely, some pointedly — of the most extreme dangers of modern warfare.

Seventy years ago, the city was incinerated by an atomic bomb, its population halved by the new and terrifying American weapon nicknamed Little Boy.

On Thursday, political leaders, aging survivors and ordinary citizens gathered at 8:15 a.m. to mourn the moment when the city unwillingly became part of the world’s introduction to the nuclear age. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima, together with another that hit Nagasaki three days later, killed more than 200,000 people, most of them civilians.

At a ceremony near the onetime industrial exhibition hall that has been preserved as a skeletal monument to the attack, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe renewed a longstanding Japanese pledge to seek worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons. The mayor of Hiroshima, Kazumi Matsui, accused “selfish” nuclear powers, including the United States, of standing in the way of that goal.

Slumping metals; new crisis or unwind of the old crisis? – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – August 6, 2015)

August 6, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – Copper’s there. So too are aluminum and nickel. Tin was there last month. And as for iron ore, well, it’s already gone there and beyond.

As industrial metal prices sink ever lower, the historical reference point becomes ever starker.

Most of the major metals traded on the London Metal Exchange are now trading at levels not seen since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008-2009.

The two exceptions are lead and zinc, which are “only” trading around five- and two-year lows respectively.

But are things really that bad? Leaving aside Greece, banks are not failing, credit is not evaporating and industrial production is not imploding.

Global manufacturing activity is at best moderate, at worst mediocre, but certainly not critical. History is not repeating itself, but it may be rhyming, since metals are being hit by another toxic bear cocktail of negative fundamental and financial drivers.

Barrick Deepens Cutbacks as Metal Meltdown Erodes Earnings – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – August 5, 2015)

August 6, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest producer of the metal, is intensifying efforts to strengthen its balance sheet as slumping metal prices squeeze margins.

The Toronto-based miner cut dividends, lowered its output forecast and is preparing to sell more U.S. assets as it targets $2 billion expenditures cutbacks by 2016, according to its second-quarter earnings report distributed after the close of trading Wednesday.

Barrick reported adjusted earnings that missed analysts’ estimates as previous measures to trim expenses and streamline operations failed to offset the price slide. Shares rose 1.6 percent at 9:30 a.m. in Toronto.

“We remain focused on improving productivity and driving down costs to ensure we can continue to generate free cash flow in the current gold price environment,” Barrick wrote.

Gold miners are battling to lower costs and debt levels after prices slumped to five-year lows as dollar gains and the prospect of higher U.S. interest rates reduce demand for alternative investments as an inflation hedge.

First Quantum makes its fortunes by going global – by Russell Noble (Canadian Mining Journal – August 6, 2015)

August 6, 2015

Russell Noble is the editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication.

Home grown, foreign fed

Head office for First Quantum Minerals is 543 Granville Street, 14th Floor, Vancouver, but like many Canadian mining companies, that’s primarily for administrative purposes where the mail is sent, so to speak, because most of the company’s business is taking place thousands of kilometres away from the corners of Granville and Burrard Streets in downtown Vancouver.

In fact, since July 18, 1996, to be exact, the company has spent almost three decades of its entire existence working far away from its head office and since its well-publicized takeover of Inmet Mining Corporation in 2013, the company now has a sizable representative office on Bay Street in Toronto too. It also gained three operating mines and the Cobre Panama copper project, one of the larger and more important private investments in Panama.

With seven offshore mines producing mainly copper, gold, nickel, zinc and platinum, First Quantum Minerals is probably better known to the people of Africa, Europe and Australia than it is to its fellow Canadians.

Lake Shore Gold wins bid for Temex Resources (Timmins Daily Press – August 6, 2015)

August 6, 2015

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

It looks like Lake Shore Gold in Timmins is able to expand local operations by taking over Temex Resources, a junior mining company that has been working historic mining properties in the East End of Timmins.

LSG is a mid-level gold producer with all its mining operations in Timmins, sees the Temex takeover as a ways to contribute more gold to the newly rejuvenated LSG Bell Creek milling complex in Porcupine, according to a company news release issued last month.

The new deal is based on terms agreed to in June. Under those terms of proposal, as outlined in an earlier news release, Temex shareholders would receive, for each Temex share, 0.105 of a Lake Shore Gold share, having a value of $0.13 based on the closing price of Lake Shore Gold’s shares on the TSX on July 15, 2015.

The Lake Shore deal was made at the end of June, in the midst of a pending deal Temex had with Oban Mining Corporation. As part of the new deal, Temex is now required to provide a termination payment to Oban of $691,896.

Nickel West just might be the biggest loser – by Barry FitzGerald (The Australian – August 6, 2015)

August 5, 2015

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

Mylanta and Panadol were in short supply as the 1700 mining types pushed through the final day of the Diggers & Dealers bash. “Go hard or go home” seemed to be mantra.

But while sympathy was in short supply for those delegates who had badly timed their runs, there was much on offer for our biggest miner, BHP Billiton.

Not that BHP was out and about. While it operates the Kalgoorlie nickel concentrator and smelter, BHP operatives are only seen in the shadows, if at all.

Anyway, BHP’s Nickel West division — the one that wasn’t good enough to shove in to the South32 spin-off — is doing it tough, real tough, as a result of the crash in nickel prices.

Talk around the conference is that it would be no surprise if Nickel West was losing tens of millions of dollars a month — that’s right, a month — at current prices for the stainless steel ingredient of $US4.86 a pound.

Clueless do-gooders make Africa’s conflict mineral mines even more dangerous – by Tim Worstall (The Register – August 5, 2015)

August 5, 2015

http://www.theregister.co.uk/

Dodd-Frank stupidity writ large

Worstall on Wednesday I have muttered around here more than a few times about the various idiocies of the Blood in the Mobile campaign. This was the idea that we could stop the appalling (and true) levels of violence in Eastern Congo’s mining trade by making American companies fill out lots of documents.

The idea was that if they all had to say whether they used conflict minerals, they’d all prefer to be able to say “no” and therefore there wouldn’t be the violence over the minerals trade that happens today.

We were told that this would cost some $10m originally, one cent on the price of each mobile phone. By the time the legislature got at it, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it would cost $4bn in the first year alone.

I rather railed against this, insisting that there was a much easier, cheaper and simpler system available; one that the industry itself was already implementing.

[Canada] CRA targeting mining-sector tax havens – by Nelson Bennett (Business Vancouver – August 5, 2015)

August 5, 2015

https://www.biv.com/

Tax evasion by Canadian companies using offshore havens promises to become election issue

Canadian corporations that use tax havens like Switzerland and the Cayman Islands to reduce the taxes they pay at home have good reason to worry.

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has been stepping up its scrutiny of Canadian companies with offshore subsidiaries, as evidenced earlier this month when it was announced that Vancouver streaming company Silver Wheaton (TSX:SLW) is facing a potential reassessment that could cost the company more than $600 million.

It’s an issue that the Canadians for Tax Fairness and the Liberal Party of Canada appear to be hoping to make a federal election issue.

Tackling corporate tax evasion is one of the planks in the Liberal Party’s platform and has been raised in Parliament by Liberal national revenue critic Emmanuel Dubourg.

“It is unacceptable and unfair that CRA frightens and poorly serves honest Canadian taxpayers and it harasses charities for political reasons while leaving billions uncollected in tax havens,” Dubourg told Business in Vancouver by email.

Approving uranium project will only alienate Nunavut Inuit: Mining Watch (Nunatsiaq News – August 5, 2015)

August 5, 2015

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/

“Inuit would rightfully feel like their voice does not matter”

Mining Watch Canada is urging the federal government to take the advice of the Nunavut Impact Review Board, which advised that a Nunavut uranium project should not move forward for now.

The mining watchdog group sent a July 28 letter to Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Minister Bernard Valcourt, asking him to uphold the NIRB’s decision on Areva Resources Canada’s Kiggavik mine proposal.

Mining Watch’s letter comes just weeks after Areva asked the federal government to reject the NIRB’s report, which recommends the proposed uranium project not go ahead because of the company’s lack of firm start date.

“It is entirely inappropriate for a proponent to propose a major mining project without any start date, let alone wait until after a review has concluded to bring forward vital arguments and information related to substantial community concerns,” said Ugo Lapointe, Canadian program co-ordinator at Mining Watch Canada, said in a news release.

More trouble for snakebit Sudbury mine – by Jonathan Migneault (Northern Ontario Business – August 4, 2015)

August 5, 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.

A weekend underground explosion at First Nickel’s Lockerby Mine in Sudbury on Aug. 2 resulted in minor injuries and smoke inhalation for one worker, confirmed the company’s president and CEO.

“There was an explosion this morning (Aug. 2) that resulted in a worker requiring a medical aid – nothing serious,” said First Nickel president and CEO Thomas Boehlert in an email to Northern Ontario Business. “As we do not run a shift on Sunday, we will be assessing the situation underground tomorrow.”

In a later release, the company reported that three other workers were checked for smoke inhalation and released without medical treatment.

The company said it is investigating the cause of the incident and planned to resume operations the following day. It’s unknown if the Ministry of Labour is investigating.

In coal-mining Kentucky, shock and dismay over Clean Power Plan’s new targets – by Francine Kiefer and Ryan Alessi (Yahoo News – August 5, 2015)

August 5, 2015

http://news.yahoo.com/

Kentucky was on track to meet an earlier proposed target in the Clean Power Plan. Now the state, which has lost thousands of coal-mining jobs in recent years, plans to fight the final, more stringent rule in the courts.

It is a tense time in Kentucky. The Environmental Protection Agency has just come out with its final rule on reducing carbon emissions – the strongest step ever taken to counter climate change in the United States – and this coal state is reeling.

“We are shocked at the difference in the proposal we were given to work on last year, versus the final rule announced Monday,” said Dick Brown, spokesman for the state’s Energy and Environment Cabinet, in an e-mail. The new target is a 27 percent increase in the amount of CO2 emissions that Kentucky’s power plants have to reduce by 2030, he says.

In many states, residents may be wondering how the EPA’s Clean Power Plan will affect their energy bills, for example. But in states like Kentucky, the new carbon rule arguably hits even closer to home. The Bluegrass State is America’s third-largest coal producer, and it gets more than 90 percent of its electricity from coal. Even before the carbon rule was finalized, the state had lost thousands of coal-mining jobs in the past two years alone.

A big fall in gold output will come from mine closures – by Lawrie Williams (Mineweb.com – August 5, 2015)

August 5, 2015

http://www.mineweb.com/

Consultancy Metals Focus forecasts gold output to fall as unprofitable mines are shut.

LONDON – Taking All-in Sustaining Costs (AISC) figures, precious metals consultancy Metals Focus reckons that just short of a quarter of global new mined gold output is running at a loss at an $1100/ounce gold price, and falls below that level will add to this quite sharply.

The consultancy’s global cost curve covers gold mines providing around half the global gold output of 1,650 tonnes. Metals Focus estimates that as much as half of annual new mined production in their survey, i.e. 400 tonnes, will be uneconomic at current prices.

Presumably extrapolating this figure across total global gold output would thereby suggest that as much as 800 tonnes of production could currently be running at a loss.

But the consultancy notes, this doesn’t mean that any of the production will fall away through closures and cutbacks, not until the gold price downturn is more prolonged or more severe. It notes that there may be substantial costs involved in closing an operating mine down, which may mean it is less costly to keep the mine producing at some level – perhaps high grading where this is an option (which may actually increase output).

NEWS RELEASE: Guyana Goldfields Inc. Pours First Gold at its Aurora Gold Mine

August 5, 2015

http://www.guygold.com/s/Home.asp

TORONTO, Aug. 4, 2015 /CNW/ – Guyana Goldfields Inc. (TSX:GUY) (the “Company” or “GGI”) is pleased to announce that first gold production has been achieved on-time and on-budget at its Aurora Gold Mine (the “Project”) in Guyana, South America.

First gold production was attained through the gravity and saprolite production circuits which allowed for earlier gold production (pre-commercial production) through the processing plant. Initial start-up gold was captured by processing the lowest grade ore available and GGI is now progressing towards full saprolite circuit operation and will gradually feed the mill with higher grade material. The commissioning and startup of the hard rock crushing circuit is projected to be completed later in the third calendar quarter of 2015.

The Company expects to produce between 30,000 ounces to 50,000 ounces of gold in 2015, depending on how quickly full ramp-up is achieved, and approximately 120,000 ounces to 140,000 ounces of gold in 2016. GGI expects to issue an updated National Instrument (NI) 43-101 Technical Report Feasibility Study in the first quarter of 2016 for the Project which will reflect an extended open pit mining scenario while deferring the underground production until later in the mine life, as well as, current operating cost parameters, and an updated ore reserve metal price.

South Africa strives to save jobs at under-fire mines – by Zandi Shabalala (Reuters U.S. – August 5, 2015)

August 5, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

PRETORIA – South Africa’s mining ministry held talks with companies and unions over planned job cuts on Wednesday, as President Jacob Zuma’s government frets over high unemployment ahead of key elections next year.

The mining industry, which contributes around 7 percent to Africa’s most developed economy, is struggling with sinking commodity prices, rising costs and labor unrest.

“It’s about jobs, jobs, jobs and none of us should leave this place without committing something to the table,” mining minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi told reporters.

Zuma’s African National Congress (ANC) heads into local elections next year with its main rival the Democratic Alliance (DA) targeting wins in key metropolitan areas, including Gauteng, home to economic hub Johannesburg.

The DA will target the ANC on its inability to reduce stubbornly high unemployment, which officially stands at 25 percent but some experts believe is much higher.