Republic of Mining

Modi’s coal turnaround to ease chronic power cuts – by Krishna N. Das (Reuters India – April 16, 2015)

April 17, 2015

http://in.reuters.com/

NEW DELHI – (Reuters) – Fewer power cuts are likely in India this summer after a surge in output at Coal India (COAL.NS) helped generators amass record stocks, a turnaround for Narendra Modi who had to battle a power crisis within months of becoming prime minister last May.

Fast-track mine approvals, tighter production oversight and more flexibility in coal sales have helped power station stocks recover from a six-year low hit in October, vindicating Modi’s pitch to voters as the state leader who brought round-the-clock power to industrial Gujarat.

As Modi prepares to mark his first year in office and seeks to fulfil a poll promise to provide power to all of India’s 1.2 billion people by 2019, power stations hold 28 million tonnes of coal, a 38 percent jump from a year ago, government data shows.

“The situation is improving,” said K. Raja Gopal, head of the thermal power business at construction, power and real estate conglomerate Lanco Infratech (LAIN.NS), pointing to recent growth in Coal India output. “More needs to be done but 8 to 9 percent didn’t happen before.”

India, the world’s third-largest coal buyer, is expected to cut imports by a fifth in the fiscal year to March 31 from an estimated 200 million tonnes in the previous year. Power companies have relied on imports for 15 percent of their coal needs.

Unlikely allies: Mexican miners and farmers unite over toxic spill – by David Bacon (Al Jazeera America – April 15, 2015)

April 17, 2015

http://america.aljazeera.com/

Outside groups help revitalize a six-year workers’ strike against copper giant Grupo México

CANANEA, Mexico — The pipes have gone silent. Gone is the hum of water flowing through them to the world’s second-largest copper mine, just south of the U.S. border. Instead, in the normally empty desert here, tents and buses line the highway. Dust and smoke from cooking fires fill the air while hundreds of people listen to speeches and discuss the day’s events.

This plantón, or occupation, which began on March 18, has shut down most operations at the Cananea mine, which consumes huge quantities of water pumped from 49 wells across the desert in order to extract copper concentrate from crushed ore.

Many of the people involved in the plantón are miners who have been on strike since 2008, when they walked out because of dangerous working conditions. Two years later, the government brought in 3,000 federal police, drove miners from the gates and occupied the town. Since then Cananea has been operated by contracted laborers recruited from distant parts of the country. But the strike has continued, as miners struggle to survive in this small mountain town where the mine is virtually the only source of work.

Now, for the first time in five years, the mine is again paralyzed. This time, strikers didn’t stop its operation by themselves. Half the people with them are farmers — residents of the Rio Sonora Valley, angry over a toxic spill that upended their lives last August, causing health problems and economic devastation.

NEWS RELEASE: The Cree Nation keeps Uranium in the spotlight

April 17, 2015

QUEBEC CITY, April 16, 2015 /CNW/ – The Cree Nation has kept uranium in the spotlight this week, hosting the International Uranium Film Festival and participating in the World Uranium Symposium in Quebec City. The Cree Nation’s position against uranium development in Eeyou Istchee, its territory in Northern Quebec, has garnered support not only from the people of Quebec, but also from the national and international experts and celebrities gathered this week for both events.

“We have always maintained that once Quebecers learned what the Cree Nation has come to know about uranium mining and radioactive waste, they would stand with us. This past year has proved this to be true,” said Grand Chief Dr. Matthew Coon Come. “We have proudly partnered with the International Uranium Film Festival to show Quebecers that the world stands with us as well. We have been very pleased by the turnout and interest this event has generated both in Quebec and around the world.”

The Cree Nation’s stand against uranium development began in 2008 when junior mining company Strateco Resources applied to the Quebec Government to pursue the Matoush advanced uranium exploration project. Located on the family hunting grounds of the Cree Nation of Mistissini, at the crest of two major watersheds that bring water throughout Eeyou Istchee, the Matoush project was the most advanced uranium project to date in Quebec. The Government of Quebec has since denied the required permit for the Matoush project, due largely to its lack of social acceptability amongst the Cree Nation.

First Nations need real reform – by Lorne Gunter (Ottawa Sun – April 14, 2015)

April 17, 2015

http://www.ottawasun.com/

We are killing our First Nations with kindness – and political correctness.

What most First Nations need is fewer tax dollars, better educational options for their young people and more individual liberty. Instead, Canada’s courts and politicians think more collectivism and more cash are the solutions to Third World conditions on many reserves.

Both the Chretien and Harper governments have attempted to break the cycle of bad governance that is behind much of the dysfunction on half or more of Canada’s just over 630 reserves.

The Liberals attempted to pass a First Nations Governance Act (FNGA) in 2002. It was an effort to make band councils more democratic and more accountable to their members and to Ottawa.

Chretien’s FNGA would have replaced the race-based Indian Act and introduced new rules to ensure free and fair elections on reserves, applied financial management standards comparable to those used by municipal and provincial governments, and sought to make on-reserve administration more professional.

REFILE-As rivers dry up, Chile copper mines turn to the Pacific for water – by Anthony Esposito and Fabian Cambero (Reuters U.S. – April 12, 2015)

April 16, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – Alvaro Badillo remembers a time when his dad would take him fishing in the stream just a stone’s throw away from the dusty streets of their small hometown of Caimanes in central Chile.

Now, like countless communities that dot the arid valleys north of the capital, Santiago, Caimanes is left with a dry riverbed. The culprit? That depends on who you ask.

For many in the town of 1,200 people, the answer lies just a few miles upstream: a 470 foot tall wall that stretches nearly a half-mile straight across the valley. It is the tailings dam for Los Pelambres, Chilean miner Antofagasta Plc’s flagship copper mine, which holds enough leftover processed rock to fill some 140,000 Olympic swimming pools.

For its part, Antofagasta blames an eight-year drought in Chile for the evaporation of already slim water resources, and says the canals it built to redirect rain water have minimized the impact on the stream.

Both sides have findings that support their arguments and are thrashing them out in a court battle that could stop work at one of the world’s biggest copper mines.

Australia steeled for China slowdown as iron ore prices fall – by Jamie Smyth (Financial Times – April 16, 2015)

April 16, 2015

http://www.ft.com/home/us

Sydney – The last time Western Australia was engaged in a dispute with Canberra of this magnitude, it threatened to secede during a financial crisis sparked by the 1930s Depression.

The current friction is linked to China’s slowdown — a sign of how closely Australia’s fortunes are tied to Beijing’s appetite for its commodity exports.

“It’s not secession but it is tension and disengagement,” Colin Barnett, Western Australia’s premier, said this week when Canberra and other states rejected a request to help plug a widening hole in the state budget caused by plunging iron ore prices.

Western Australia is a mining state that enjoyed a decade-long boom selling iron ore — a key ingredient in steel — to China. Known by some as “China’s quarry”, the state hosts BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals Group, which have spent billions of dollars building mines, railways and ports to almost double iron ore production to 717m tonnes over the past five years.

But just as global supply hits record levels, China’s economy is slowing and its desire for the reddish-brown ore may have plateaued.

PolyMet CEO: Copper can help Iron Range diversify – by John Myers (Duluth News Tribune – April 15, 2015)

April 16, 2015

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

You could understand why the mood might be dour at the annual Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration conference in Duluth this week. With the price of iron ore less than half what it was when last year’s conference was held, layoffs rampant and foreign steel flooding the U.S.economy, the 600 or more regional mining industry folks gathered here weren’t exactly whooping it up.

But Jon Cherry, president and chief executive officer of PolyMet Minerals, said copper may be the balm that soothes what ails northern Minnesota’s mining industry.

Iron ore that sold for $180 per ton in 2011 and $100 one year ago now is going for about $47. And while Cherry said he understands his brothers and sisters in the iron ore mining industry are facing “difficult challenges” with predictions of sub-$40-per-ton iron ore prices, he was happy to proclaim that “these are exciting times for PolyMet” and copper in Minnesota.

Cherry, the conference’s closing plenary speaker, said his company is projecting that both global supply and demand for copper will remain relatively stable through 2017 before both start to increase. In the meantime, he predicts stable prices, and nothing like the free-fall of iron ore prices, on the horizon for copper.

Beyond the backyard: Northern Ontario mining suppliers outgrow their traditional customers – by Eavan Moore (CIM Magazine – March/April 2015)

May 4, 2015April 16, 2015

http://www.cim.org/en.aspx

For every one person employed in an Ontario mine, there are two employed in the sectors that supply them. The expertise accumulated in the province has long overflowed its borders, but local developments and global forces have challenged mine suppliers who might otherwise have stayed content with local business.

“We’re running about 15,000 people working just in Sudbury alone on service functions and products and services,” says Dick DeStefano, executive director of the Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association (SAMSSA). “Vale and Glencore have maybe 5,000 people or 6,000 people total working. Mining suppliers get to the point where they need to maintain their workforces, so they go look for other markets.”

DeStefano believes that more northern Ontario suppliers have turned their attention outwards. Part of that is simply due to the universal downturn; in Ontario as everywhere else, mining has slowed in recent years. But Vale and Glencore (then Xstrata) also changed the local landscape when they acquired major customers Inco and Falconbridge in 2008 and 2009.

“When the global mining companies purchased the Canadian assets, among all the other effects two actions occurred regarding the acquisitions,” explains Spencer Ramshaw, director, information and communications at the Canadian Association of Mining Equipment and Services for Export (CAMESE).

Copper Kings Look Past China Wobbles to Looming Scarcity – by Matthew Craze and Agnieszka de Sousa (Bloomberg News – April 14, 2015)

April 16, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

As forecasters debate copper’s next price move, the world’s biggest producers say they can extend a decade of profits as mines struggle to keep up with demand.

Even with Chinese growth slowing, aging mines will fail to keep pace with electrical equipment demand in developing countries, according to Jean-Sebastien Jacques, head of Rio Tinto Group’s copper business. He joined executives from Codelco, Freeport McMoRan Inc., Antofagasta Plc and Teck Resources Ltd. in Santiago this week for the industry’s annual get-together.

“I see a substantial supply gap opening up by the end of this decade,” Jacques said. “Now is the time to keep investing.”

Copper lost 11 percent in the past year and traded at three-week lows Wednesday after data showed China’s economy grew at the slowest pace in six years. The metal used in wiring and plumbing will avoid following oil and iron ore into a more abrupt slump as an anticipated surplus is erased by mine setbacks, mining executives including Antofagasta Chief Executive Officer Diego Hernandez and Teck CEO Don Lindsay told the World Copper Conference in Santiago.

Uranium deal with India signals new era, Modi tells Harper – by Les Whittington (Toronto Star – April 16, 2015)

April 16, 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.

Trade, energy, the environment, security, and culture are expected to be among the issues Harper and Modi will discuss during the visit.

OTTAWA—Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off his visit to Canada by signing a uranium supply deal with Ottawa he says signals a new era in cooperation between the two nations.

At a joint press conference on Parliament Hill with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Modi said the agreement that will see hundreds of millions of dollars worth of uranium exported to India from Saskatchewan annually “is a mark (of Canada’s) trust and confidence” in his country.

“And this is going to take forward our relations,” Modi told the media, adding that uranium for India’s civilian nuclear program will help his country address global warming through “clean energy” and thus allows India “to give something to the world.”

Harper, who will accompany Modi to Toronto and Vancouver during the Indian leader’s three-day visit, agreed the uranium sales deal will end the lingering tension arising from India’s use of Canadian equipment to develop a nuclear bomb in the 1970s — which Harper said created “an unnecessarily frosty relationship for far too long.”

NEWS RELEASE: Sale of Canadian Uranium to India Denounced by International Experts at the World Uranium Symposium

April 16, 2015

QUEBEC CITY, QUEBEC–(Marketwired – April 15, 2015) – About 200 international experts and delegates of the World Uranium Symposium this morning denounced the sale of Canadian uranium to India, a country that maintains an arsenal of nuclear weapons and has never signed the United Nations’ Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). By signing such a deal on the eve of the NPT review conference to be held in New York City in two weeks’ time, Canada is undermining and discrediting the key international treaty prohibiting the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

“Canada’s attitude sends a terrible message to the international community regarding the necessity for all countries to respect and to reinforce the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,” said Arielle Denis, Director of the International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

“India’s nuclear weapons program is very active, as demonstrated by a series of nuclear test explosions. Moreover tensions between India and Pakistan, a country with its own nuclear arsenal, are running very high. The attitude of Canada is irresponsible and alarming,” according to Shri Prakash, one of several participants from India at the World Uranium Symposium.

“Despite rules specifying no military use of Canadian materials, some uranium from Canada could well end up in Indian bombs,” said Dr. Gordon Edwards of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility. “At the very least, Canadian uranium will free up more Indian uranium for weapons production purposes.”

Advanced military technology shows need for minerals and metals supply – by Hall Quinn (The Hill – April 7, 2015)

April 16, 2015

http://thehill.com/

Quinn is the president and CEO of the National Mining Association. http://www.nma.org/

Innovation is essential for sustaining strong national defense and security. Take, for example, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Robotics Challenge (DRC). In June, teams representing some of the most advanced research and development organizations in the world will showcase the hardware, software, sensors and human-machine control interfaces of robots capable of aiding the U.S. military response efforts in environments that may be too dangerous or difficult for humans to navigate.

The $95 million project demonstrates the Pentagon’s commitment to innovation and the creation of state-of-the-art military technologies. But beyond the design and testing of these sophisticated systems, we must ensure that our military has secure and reliable access to the domestic raw materials needed for these systems.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) uses 750,000 tons of minerals each year in technologies that protect the very troops that protect our nation. Metals such as copper, lead and nickel are used in military gear, weapon systems and other defense technologies. Additionally, the mineral beryllium is used to reduce weight and improve guidance performance in fighter jets and NASA technologies such as the mirrors on the James Webb Space Telescope.

Mining Uranium: Saskatchewan Cameco Sets the Standard – by Rick Littlechild (First Nations Drum – April 12, 2015)

April 16, 2015

http://www.firstnationsdrum.com/

The Athabasca Basin hosts the world’s richest high grade uranium deposits. Saskatchewan produces 30% of the world’s uranium, and one main player in this Canadian mining success story is Cameco. The company was formed in 1988, and for over a quarter century, the company has been safely and reliably producing uranium and nuclear fuel products. Cameco currently has three active mines in northern Saskatchewan: Rabbit Lake, McArthur River and Cigar Lake.

Last year, Cameco successfully commenced production at their new Cigar Lake mine in northern Saskatchewan. This year, their main focus is to safely ramp up production at the mine. They expect to produce 6 to 8 million pounds in 2015, which would make Cigar Lake the third largest mine in the world by production. By 2018, Cameco expect’s to produce 18 million pounds(100% basis) of uranium concentrate annually.

The ore mined at Cigar Lake is transported by truck to the Mclean Lake Mill operated by Areva Resource Canada Inc, where it is processed to Unranium concentrate. Mclean Lake Mill is located approximately 70 kilometres northeast of the mine site. Mining at Cigar Lake began in March 2014 and the first Uranium concentrate was packaged at Mclean Lake in October 2014.

The company has developed strong ties with aboriginal people, with an emphasis on partnerships, Metis Sean Wiilly has spent a career in mining and is very sensitive to Aboriginal relations stated that “ Our goal is to develop and maintain long-term relationships between First Nations and Metis communities near where we operate.

Cameco’s first deal with India gives it access to the world’s second-fastest-growing consumer of uranium – by Jonathan Ratner (National Post – April 16, 2015)

April 16, 2015

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

The numbers certainly aren’t mind-blowing on Cameco Corp.’s five-year agreement to provide 7.1 million pounds of uranium to India through 2020.

The deal is only estimated to be worth $350 million and it’s small when you consider that the Saskatchewan-based miner sells about 33 million pounds of uranium annually.

But it’s not the size of the deal that prompted investors to push the stock up 7.56 per cent on Wednesday. What excites them and Tim Gitzel, Cameco’s chief executive, is the opportunity that has now opened up.

“This was more than a uranium buy-sell agreement,” Gitzel said in a telephone interview. “It was really a marking of a new relationship between Canada and India via Cameco. The pounds here aren’t enormous, it’s really the importance of being able now to deal with the Indians and bid into their market.”

Canada banned uranium exports to India in the 1970s after the country used Canadian technology to build nuclear weapons. But the countries put what Prime Minister Stephen Harper called an “unnecessarily frosty relationship” behind them on Wednesday, building on a nuclear cooperation agreement established in 2013.

NEWS RELEASE: Mining vs. Aboriginal Rights in Canada – Rio Tinto told to pay its rent to the Innu People

April 16, 2015

LONDON, UK, April 16, 2015 /CNW Telbec/ – Three First Nations chiefs, dressed in traditional garb and aware of the historic nature of their action, have come to London to address the shareholders of mining giant Rio Tinto directly during their annual general meeting in today, April 16, 2015. On the floor of the meeting, they asked Rio Tinto’s president and CEO, Sam Walsh, and its board of directors to intervene to end a longstanding conflict between the Innu Nation in Quebec, Canada, and mining company IOC, majority owned by Rio Tinto.

Inspired by Midnight Oil’s Beds Are Burning, a political song demanding the return to Australian aboriginals of ancestral lands stolen 200 years earlier by British colonists, the Innu chiefs informed Rio Tinto that “it’s time to pay the rent,” 60 years after exploitation of their territory began.

Supported by international law recognizing that indigenous peoples have rights—notably free, prior and informed consent—the Innu chiefs wanted to inform Rio Tinto shareholders that they can shed light on the negligence of IOC in Canada.

The Innu chiefs sought to inform Rio Tinto shareholders that there is specific legal precedent in Canada, where a recent Supreme Court ruling recognized the existence of First Nations ancestral title and stated that Aboriginal peoples holding this title, including the Innu of Quebec, “have the right to the benefits associated with the land—to use it, enjoy it and profit from its economic development” (excerpt from the ruling).