Republic of Mining

The assault on batteries – by Michael Lewis (Toronto Star – May 19, 2015)

May 22, 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.

Our digital revolution relies on far-from-perfect power sources. Here’s why we still spend so much time charging, and how Canadian scientists are trying to change things.

We can thank rapid advances in software and micro-processing for the current explosion in digital gadgets. But the battery remains a problem.

The promise of a super-cell that harvests voltage from thin air, holds an ultra-fast charge for days — and won’t burst into flames — remains the stuff of research labs and experimental prototypes.

For now, we’re stuck with conventional alkaline and lithium-ion systems that need lengthy plug-in charges during regular use. That’s not to mention environmental problems created by non-recycled alkaline batteries, which contain corrosive electrodes that have been known to leech in landfill.

Engineers, responding to the ballooning demands on battery technology, have been busy packing more active material into conventional battery cells, and have made electrodes thinner to double their density.

What you need to know: Some facts about mineral production in Saskatchewan, provided by the Saskatchewan Mining Association (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – May 21, 2015)

May 22, 2015

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/index.html

1 High-quality, economically mineable deposits of both potash and uranium are currently produced in relatively few jurisdictions in the world. Canada, Russia and Belarus together account for just over two-thirds of global potash production, and Kazakhstan, Canada and Australia produce twothirds of the world’s uranium.

2 Saskatchewan has the largest high-grade reserves in the world for potash and uranium.

3 The province boasts almost half of world potash reserves and eight per cent of known recoverable uranium reserves.

4 Canada’s mineral production was valued at $44 billion in 2013. Potash, coal and iron ore were the leading commodities by value of production.

5 Saskatchewan was Canada’s third-leading mining jurisdiction in 2013, with mineral production valued at $7.2 billion.

6 Potash was Canada’s leading mineral by value of mineral production in 2013 at $6.1 billion.

Between Friends (Canadian Mining Movie – 1973) Accent: 1973 film shot in Sudbury a neglected classic – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – January 26, 2014)

May 22, 2015

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

“What are you watching?” a character named Chino asks his pal Toby, slumped in front of a TV set. “It’s a commercial,” Toby replies. “They just interrupt it every now and then with a movie.”

The scene is from Between Friends, an overlooked gem of Canuck cinema shot in Sudbury in 1972. It appeared in 1973, made a stir on the festival circuit, then sank like a stone.

It did resurface briefly in 1985, long enough for me to see it as an undergrad at Queen’s. I remember leaving the lecture hall — there was no theatre at the university, not then, but there were projectors that could unspool a 35-mm reel — in a kind of fugue state. I had never seen a Canadian movie as gritty or as good as Between Friends.

I still haven’t. A tale of betrayal, broken dreams and a bungled plan to rob the payroll of a nickel mine, the film’s action takes place between Toronto, looking rather grey and grim, and Sudbury, where things get greyer and grimmer.

The latter isn’t named, but couldn’t be mistaken for anywhere else: Multiple images of the Inco smelter and surrounding slagscape, yet to undergo a greening makeover, form a key part of the film’s tone, not to mention a metaphor for the characters’ lives, which are progressively stripped of hope and purpose.

[Diamonds in Saskatchewan] New Frontiers: ‘Looking far into the future’ – by Joel Schlesinger (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – May 21, 2015)

May 21, 2015

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/index.html

Saskatchewan is a diamond in the rough — literally. The province has long been a global player in uranium and potash mining. And diamond mining might someday be added to the list.

In fact, the province has experienced a bit of a ‘diamond rush’ in the northeast thanks to a promising find near La Ronge, called the Pikoo Diamond Project.

“The samples are some of the best ever found in Canada; even better than the Point Lake discovery that launched the country’s diamond mining industry,” says Nick Thomas, with North Arrow Minerals, an exploration firm with the largest stake in the area.

“The Achilles heel is the size of the discovery — it’s smaller than others in Canada, but we’re still learning about it, and it did add a lot of excitement at a bleak time in the exploration sector.” Already many very junior exploration firms are staking claims around North Arrow’s find, hoping to discover more deposits.

The heightened diamond activity comes at a time when exploration spending across Canada is down significantly from previous years. In 2011, according to data released by Natural Resources Canada (NRC), firms spent $4.2 billion in Canada on exploration.

RPT-UPDATE 2-U.S. SEC fines BHP Billiton $25 mln in 2008 Olympics bribery probe – by Jonathan Stempel (Reuters U.K. – May 20, 2015)

May 21, 2015

http://uk.reuters.com/

BHP Billiton Plc will pay $25 million to settle charges that it violated a U.S. anti-bribery law by failing to properly monitor a program under which it paid for dozens of foreign government officials to attend the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

The accord resolves U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges that BHP, one of the world’s biggest mining companies, violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act when it sponsored the attendance of officials who were “directly involved with, or in a position to influence” its business and regulatory affairs.

BHP, which has offices in London and Melbourne, Australia, neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing in agreeing on Wednesday to settle the civil case. It also said the U.S. Department of Justice ended a related criminal probe without taking action, and that all U.S. investigations into the matter are complete.

The SEC said BHP invited 176 government officials to attend the Olympics at company expense, including 98 who worked for state-owned enterprises that were customers or suppliers, under a “global hospitality” program tied to its sponsorship of the games.

Laurentian’s Bharti School of Engineering makes its mark – by Norm Tollinsky (Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal – May 2015)

May 21, 2015

http://www.sudburyminingsolutions.com/

Skyrocketing enrollment, national awards contribute to Bharti School’s stature as academic powerhouse.

It’s easy enough to illustrate the amazing growth of Laurentian University’s Bharti School of Engineering with a recitation of its skyrocketing enrollment numbers, but nothing speaks to the school’s stature as an academic powerhouse as eloquently as the awards its junior and senior teams took home from the 2015 Canadian Engineering Competition in March.

When the junior team won top honours at the Ontario Engineering Competition in February and the senior team came in second, both qualified to represent Ontario at the national competition at Memorial University in St. John’s.

“It was the first time that a university sent two teams to the competition and both won first prize,” said Bharti School director Dr. Ramesh Subramanian.

“It’s amazing how far we’ve come. We just had our iron ring ceremony and we had close to 90 students graduating. Less than 10 years ago, we had fewer than 15.”

New mineral development strategy seeks to maintain Ontario’s pole position – by Simon Rees (MiningWeekly – May 20, 2015)

May 21, 2015

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

ToRONTO (miningweekly.com) – Ontario’s Ministry of Northern Development and Mines (MNDM) executive adviser Rob Merwin recently stressed the importance of attracting back investment, especially in exploration, to the province, which currently had other jurisdictions champing at its heels for the title of Canada’s best mining destination.

The Ministry was currently seeking the opinion of industry, interest groups, the First Nations and the wider public to inform its new mineral development strategy for the next decade. The findings from MNDM’s strategy engagement would be collated and formally presented to the province this autumn. This would inform the drafting process for a formal release of the strategy on a yet-to-be-announced date.

“The intent is to listen and shepherd information about the state of the [mining and minerals] industry and some of the challenges and opportunities it faces. We will then take those ideas and thoughts and translate them into action and bring them forward to the government,” Merwin told an audience at an engagement meeting in Toronto on May 6.

The effort came at a time when the mining and exploration sector suffered the effects of the downcycle, with reduced capital investment and investment in exploration. “While the geology can’t move, we also know that people, technology and capital investment can go anywhere in the world. We need to attract that investment back,” he emphasised.

A Mining Investor’s Guide to Toll Milling in Peru – by Jamie Keech (CEO.ca – May 21, 2015)

May 21, 2015

http://ceo.ca/

In the late 1990s a small Canadian junior mining company bought an exploration property in southern Peru with a plan to capitalize on the newly opened market after two decades of internal conflict and civil war.

Just 100 km north of the Atacama Desert, the driest place on earth, the property consisted of hard earthen mountains, trickling riverbeds and the occasional cactus. Nestled in one rocky corner was a small, half-built gold processing plant. The mill came with the exploration property, almost as an afterthought, a redundancy that was easier to give away than tear down.

The junior was headed by Jean Martineau, a French-Canadian pulp and paper mill operator turned broker turned CEO.

Jean’s days as a broker had left him with one overriding view of the junior mining sector: it ran on a terrible business model – constantly raising money, diluting value, and rarely benefitting investors.

An experienced operator, Martineau decided the best way to fund exploration was to generate cash by getting the small mill on site up and running, purchasing ore from nearby small-scale miners as feed and processing it at a profit.

Population growth bodes well for potash – by Paul Sinkewicz (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – May 20, 2015)

May 21, 2015

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/index.html

Saskatchewan potash producers have two billion reasons to feel secure.

They don’t have to worry too much about the spot price of the fertilizer ingredient in 2015, or the outcome of the recently announced provincial royalty review, or even the machinations of competitors flooding the market with product to grab market share.

Those two billion reasons represent the expected increase in world population in the next 35 years, so the major expansions underway at Saskatchewan potash mines appear to be safe bets, according to industry representatives.

“Food security is a defining issue of our time; and for the next century, demand for food will only accelerate,” says Walt Precourt, senior vice-president of potash for The Mosaic Company.

Precourt noted those two billion new mouths to feed are equivalent to the entire world population in 1940. Today there are seven billion people on Earth, with some forecasts putting the population at more than 10 billion in 2050.

“The investments we have made in expanding our potash operations in Saskatchewan will ensure we have the capacity to meet the demand for potash and help the world grow the food it needs,” says Precourt.

Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey lose their way on iron ore – by Jennifer Hewett (Australian Financial Review – May 21, 2015)

May 21, 2015

http://www.afr.com/

Pick your dollar-per-tonne figure. After a minor recovery from recent lows, the iron ore price seems to be at risk of falling back again. Certainly, there’s no sustained improvement in sight. Pick your reason.

The inevitable volatility of a global commodities market? Or Chinese futures traders relying on sentiment about oversupply, thanks to Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton’s statements about future production? Or Brazil’s iron ore industry receiving new assistance from the Chinese government? Or the big miners’ success beating back Andrew Forrest’s complaints and initial prime ministerial enthusiasm for an iron ore inquiry? Or a combination?

Australia’s most senior politicians are obviously confused about the right answer. The government’s formal backing away from an inquiry on Thursday just confirmed a belated and clumsy attempt by Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey to extricate themselves from a political contradiction. They had backed an inquiry after being persuaded by a powerful combination of forces, ranging from Forrest himself, to a ravaged budget, to radio broadcaster Alan Jones criticising the damage to the national interest.

At the time, they also thought a government-led inquiry would be better managed than the prospect of another Senate inquisition dominated by Labor and independents.

Western Nunavut miner calls feasibility study “very compelling” (Nunatsiaq News – May 21, 2015)

May 21, 2015

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/

But Sabina Gold and Silver Corp. will look at trimming project costs

“Very compelling” — that’s how Sabina Gold and Silver Corp. describes the results of a new feasibility study for its Back River gold project in western Nunavut.

Bruce McLeod, Sabina’s president and CEO, said in a May 20 news release that the feasibility study “demonstrates the potential of Back River to be a significant Canadian gold producer.” But getting the mine up and running will take deep pockets.

The feasibility study calculated the initial capital cost of the Sabina mine at $695 million, with another $539 million needed to sustain operations.

On the other hand, over the mine’s 10-year proposed lifespan, its gross revenues could reach $4.5 billion. However, Sabina said it recognized that “financing such a project in current market conditions would be challenging.”

So Sabina may look for a “more easily financeable project in the current capital markets environment,” the release said.

A note on the historical accuracy of this [Iron Range] novel – by Megan Marsnik (Minneapolis Star Tribune – May 20, 2015)

May 21, 2015

http://www.startribune.com/

“Under Ground” is a work of fiction based on actual events that occurred in northern Minnesota during the tumultuous iron mining strike of 1916.

All of the local characters are fictional. Although some were inspired by actual Iron Range natives, their lives and words as portrayed in this novel are imagined, placed in historical context of the times. For example, fictional character Milo Blatnik was inspired by two miners: Joe Greeni and John Alar. On June 2, 1916, Greeni led the strike walkout at the St. James mine and was followed by more than 20,000 men.

On June 22, Alar, a husband and father of three, was fatally shot in the yard of his Hibbing home as picketers marched nearby. As with the fictional character Milo, Alar’s funeral procession followed a black banner that read “Murdered by Oliver Gunmen,” photographs of which are available at the Iron Range Research Center in Chisholm, Minn. Thousands attended and his death marked a turning point in the uprising.

The “What we want is more pork chops” speech delivered in the novel by fictional character Andre Kristeva was a real speech delivered June 22, 1916, by mining clerical worker George Andreytchine.

Controversial UK potash project nears decision day – by Rod Nickel (Reuters U.S. – May 20, 2015)

May 21, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

NEW YORK – Sirius Minerals PLC, the British company behind a controversial proposed potash mine, said it hopes to win a key regulatory approval this summer that could lead to production within four years.

Sirius aims to be the biggest producer of granulated polyhalite, which contains multiple crop nutrients such as potash, sulfur and calcium.

The company is also awaiting results of a feasibility study this summer before proceeding with the mine in England’s North York Moors National Park.

Polyhalite, unlike conventional muriate of potash (MOP), contains little chloride that is harmful to fruit crops. The company expects to sell it at a huge premium over MOP, of which there is excess global mining capacity.

“We’ve got a product that is better for the environment and better for food productivity,” said Chief Executive Chris Fraser on Wednesday on the sidelines of a BMO investor conference in New York.

There is no reason to delay the project just because there is a surplus of the conventional potash form, he said.

Alcan Aluminium Limited History (1902 – 2000)

May 21, 2015

For a large selection of corporate histories click: International Directory of Company Histories

Strength, growth and value are at the core of Alcan’s strategic intent. We do more than make and sell aluminum–we build alliances with all our stakeholders. We also take pride in developing and delivering value-added differentiated aluminum products making Alcan the partner of choice. Strength reflects Alcan’s strong financial state, its healthy debt-to-equity ratio and improved profitability.

It also signifies the quality and dedication of Alcan’s employees. Finally, strength together with light weight, thermal and electrical conductivity, barrier qualities, infinite recyclability and many other characteristics make aluminum … the material of choice.

Growth is working with all our stakeholders to develop and deliver value-added, differentiated aluminum products, bringing increased value to our customers. It means continuous improvement in everything we do–earnings, technology, employee development, safety, and environmental stewardship. Growth is about looking to a new future as we enter the new millennium–fully optimizing our existing assets and aggressively pursuing opportunities to grow shareholder value.

Value is the reason we’re here. It is an ongoing commitment to our shareholders, to our customers, to and by our employees to create value in everything we do. It also symbolizes Alcan’s values–our ethics, our conduct, our reputation.

Westpac eyes China, India for commodities trade growth – executive – by Melanie Burton (Reuters U.S. – May 21, 2015)

May 21, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

HONG KONG – A recent entrant in Asia’s commodities markets, Australia’s Westpac Banking Corp is ramping up to take advantage of a commodities “supercycle” that it says has at least another 30 years to run.

While some global banks have exited commodities due to more stringent regulations, Westpac is setting itself to support a deeper push into the region by its corporate customers, a senior executive told Reuters.

“The commodity cycle is still in the supercycle phase. The urbanization of Asia has not stopped – all we’re getting at the minute is a correction,” said Paul Gardner, the bank’s Singapore-based Global Head of Structured Commodity Finance.

“When you’re dealing with a 30-40 year window (of a bull cycle), are you really late, or are you just coming to the party at the right time? There were some major players who were in very early and who are already gone.”

Australia’s No. 2 lender by market value has been setting up a commodity trading desk in Singapore over the past 18 months, to focus mainly on lending in metals, as its customers tap Asia’s construction boom.