Republic of Mining

COMMENT: Quebec okays controversial Arnaud apatite [phosphate rock] mine – by Marilyn Scales (Canadian Mining Journal – March 19, 2015)

March 20, 2015

Marilyn Scales is a field editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication. She is one of Canada’s most senior mining commentators.

One of the hottest topics debated by residents of the town of Sept-Isles, QC, lately has been the fate of the proposed Arnaud open pit apatite mine. The project is owned by Invstissement Quebec and Yara International, a Norwegian fertilizer manufacturer.

Not surprisingly many residents of the North Shore town are wildly opposed to a large open pit on the edge of town. Even the Bureau d’audiences publicques sur l’environement (BAPE) said the project was “unacceptable” in its present form last year. The bureau cited the risk of water contamination and landslides.

Union members and the potential pool of workers for the project insist it must go ahead if the region is to have any economic hope. The Arnaud mine would create perhaps 330 jobs over its 30 year life, and it would be a welcome step toward diversifying the local economy.

Then on Monday, March 16, 2015, Quebec environment minister David Heurtel gave the project the province’s blessing. He said the operator has agreed to 11 conditions spelled out by BAPE to lessen the impact of the mine. And the new development is in line with the province’s Plan Nord.

Mining critics barred from Canada – by Jason Warick (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – March 20, 2015)

March 20, 2015

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

A group of farmers critical of Canadian mining interests in their native Dominican Republic has been blocked from travelling to Saskatoon, Toronto and other cities. “It’s so preposterous,” said Irena Smith of St. Thomas More College at the University of Saskatchewan. The three farmers, representing La Federación de Campesinos Hacia el Progreso, were due to arrive in Toronto Wednesday and travel to Saskatoon on Saturday to speak at various events.

Smith, an organizer for the Saskatoon leg of the speaking tour, said the farmers planned to speak about their work forming co-operatives and implementing environmentally-friendly innovations such as shadegrown coffee.

The farmers also planned to speak critically about Canadian mining companies and their multi-billion dollar operations in that country. The cross-Canada speaking tour has been in the works for a year, Smith said.

The farmers went to the Canadian embassy in the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo this month, bringing letters of support from the University of Saskatchewan, the University of Toronto, the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace and its youth wing, Just Youth, as well as other groups.

Latin American Bishops Petition Inter-American Commission On Human Rights To Hold Mining Companies Accountable For Economic And Environmental Harm

March 20, 2015

March 19, 2015 – WASHINGTON—The U.S. and Canadian governments must hold mining companies from their countries that operate in Latin America to laws and standards that protect indigenous communities and vulnerable groups, as well as local economies and the environment, said representatives of the bishops of Latin America in a hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), March 19. The hearing was held in response to a petition filed by the Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano (CELAM) and other member institutions of the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network, which represents bishops’ conferences, religious men and women and Catholic relief agencies throughout Latin America.

Archbishop Pedro Barreto of Peru and Bishop Alvaro Ramazzini of Guatemala represented CELAM, along with Father Peter Hughes and Enrique Pinilla of its Department of Justice and Solidarity. Bishop Donald Bolen, who heads the Peace and Justice Commission at the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), as well as Archbishop Timothy Broglio, archbishop for the Military Services, were present at the hearing to express support.

A petition provided an overview of the issues pertaining to extractives in a number of Latin American countries, outlining calamitous public health and environmental consequences of mining operations by U.S. and Canadian multinationals. The testimony at the hearing focused on six countries, Brazil ,Guatemala, Peru, Ecuador, Honduras and Mexico, and focused on key themes including violence and criminalization of human rights defenders and the need for a new model of sustainable development.

China Cuts Coal Mine Deaths, But Count in Doubt – by Michael Lelyveld (Radio Free Asia – March 16, 2015)

March 20, 2015

http://www.rfa.org/english/

China has announced continuing progress in reducing coal mine fatalities, although doubts remain about death counts and cover-ups in one of the most dangerous industries in the world.

On March 10, the director of the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) told a Beijing press conference that coal mine accidents claimed 931 lives last year, as the death toll dropped below 1,000 for the first time.

“The situation has been greatly improved,” said the SAWS director, Yang Dongliang, according to Agence France-Presse. Speaking on the sidelines of China’s annual legislative sessions, Yang mixed praise for safety advances with a promise that the agency was determined to do more.

The most recent fatality figure represented an 86.7 percent decline from the toll of some 7,000 in 2002, the official Xinhua news agency reported. “The nation is still confronted with grave and complicated challenges in coal mine work safety, as the authorities aim to achieve a zero-death target,” Yang said.

There seems little doubt that China has made major steps forward in lowering the casualty count in an industry that accounts for half the world’s coal output.

NEWS RELEASE: Mining Revenues Significant to Nunavut and Northwest Territories

March 20, 2015

http://www.miningnorth.com/

Yellowknife, NT (March 19, 2015) The value of mining production has increased in the Northwest Territories and in Nunavut over the last year, according to Federal government statistics just released. Preliminary estimates for 2014 mineral production posted by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) show that the total value of NWT mining production is $1.886 billion, up $227 million (14%) from $1,659 billion in 2014. Of this:

• Diamond production value is $1.794 billion, up $234 million or 15% from to $1.561 billion;
• Tungsten value was down approximately 2% to $84.71 million; and
• Copper value is down by 17% to $1.86 million.

In Nunavut, the total value of mining production was $642 million, up 2% from $629 million. Of this:

• Gold production value was $639 million, up 2% from $627 million in 2014; and
• Silver production value was up 8% to $2.6 million from $2.4 million last year.

Ontario falling behind in mining, say industry stakeholders – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Northern Life – March 20, 2015)

March 20, 2015

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Province holds consultation session to update mineral development strategy

Ontario is falling behind as a mining jurisdiction, agreed several industry players who participated in a consultation forum organized by the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines Wednesday.

“There’s no tacit recognition by this provincial government that it believes in mining,” said Gino Chitaroni, president of the Northern Prospectors Association. “All we hear about is the Ring of Fire. Let me explain something about the Ring of Fire, it’s not the only thing going on in this province. I’m sick to death of it.”

Chitaroni said that while the province has shifted its focus to the Ring of Fire – where development has advanced at a glacial pace, according to the Ontario Chamber of Commerce – other parts of the province have been neglected.

“We have a lot of projects out there that could be economic very shortly, but we have to encourage them,” Chitaroni said. “I don’t see it happening.” He said he could think of eight to 10 mining projects in eastern Ontario alone, that would be viable with some investment, and much easier to access than the remote Ring of Fire.

While legacy mining jurisdictions like Sudbury continue to do well, Chitaroni said, other parts of the province don’t have those advantages.

Parliament passes bills to allow mine auctions – by Krishna N. Das and Nigam Prusty (Reuters India – March 20, 2015)

March 20, 2015

http://in.reuters.com/

NEW DELHI – (Reuters) – Parliament passed two bills on Friday to auction mines that produce minerals such as coal, iron ore and bauxite, in a boost for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bid to kickstart an industry that has languished for years.

The Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation, and Coal Mines Special Provisions bills were seen as a test of the government’s ability to secure support from opposition parties in the upper house of parliament where the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lacks a majority.

BJP has an overwhelming hold over the lower chamber, Lok Sabha, due to Modi’s resounding election victory 10 months ago. The bills have to be approved by President Pranab Mukherjee for them to become law – likely to be a formality.

India’s mining sector has been mired in controversy over the illegal allocation of resources, causing a near standstill in granting permits to open new mines, including an iron ore exploration licence for South Korean steel giant POSCO that wants to set up a steel plant in India.

Asia’s third largest economy was once the world’s third-largest exporter of iron ore but now has to import heavily due to court action on illegal mining. The Supreme Court has eased some of the curbs, but state officials have been slow to renew mining licences, fearing charges of corruption.

[Aboriginal/Mining partnerships] Combined forces – by Chris Windeyer (CIM Magazine – March/April 2015)

March 20, 2015

http://magazine.cim.org/en/

A new partnership will jump-start mining contracts for First Nations in northern Ontario

The First Nations Mining Corporation (FNMC) is emerging as an example of a new kind of partnership to further aboriginal interests in mining development in Ontario. Centred in northern Ontario and formally launched in early 2014, FNMC is a joint venture between four First Nations and three corporate heavyweights in the Canadian mining industry. Lac Seul, Flying Post, Mattagami and Wahgoshig First Nations own 51 per cent of the registered corporation, with SNC-Lavalin, Cementation Canada and the Morris Group holding minority stakes.

“What we had envisioned for [FNCM] was finding a way that the communities can participate actively in mine construction, operation, and closure,” says Jason Batise, economic development and technical services advisor to the Wabun Tribunal Council, which represents the participating First Nations.

According to the Ontario Mining Association, about one out of every 10 people working in Ontario’s mining industry has an aboriginal background. What is changing is that aboriginal communities are moving beyond participation via impact and benefit agreements (IBAs); they are now organizing businesses and joint partnerships to spearhead mine development.

For the Wabun Tribal Council, mining is nothing new, says Batise. WTC is headquartered in Timmins, where gold mining has been going on for over a century.

Shaft Sinkers shakes off sinking feeling – by Allan Seccombe (Business Day Live – March 19, 2015)

March 20, 2015

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

SHAFT Sinkers, the essentially South African mine shaft development company, is poised to rise from near financial ruin, but it is unclear whether shareholders will benefit from the recovery.

It has put its main South African operating subsidiary into business rescue, after £10m in legal fees and a five-month platinum strike last year crippled the company and threatened to drag down the entire London-listed entity, which has valuable projects in India, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kazakhstan and SA.

It has lost four, big shaft-sinking contracts in the local platinum sector, with Impala Platinum terminating three of those and Royal Bafokeng Platinum the fourth.

With the problematic South African company ring-fenced, Marius Heyns, previously CEO of construction company Basil Read for a decade, plans to resurrect the business by focusing on the mining subsidiary. Mr Heyns is executive chairman and acting CEO and chief operating officer.

TMAC aims to revive mothballed western Nunavut gold mine project (Nunatsiaq News – March 19, 2015)

March 20, 2015

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/

“The Doris North project is expected to change status from care and maintenance in 2015”

Two years after acquiring the Hope Bay gold mine project in western Nunavut from Newmont Mining Corp.,TMAC Resources Inc.says it plans to bring part of the mine complex out of mothballs in 2015.

TMAC owners said last September that they wanted to see their mine at Hope Bay, located 120 kilometres south of Cambridge Bay on the mainland, operating by 2020. On March 18, they told the Nunavut Impact Review Board that “the Doris North project is expected to change status from care and maintenance in 2015.”

That came in an update on a project certificate for the Doris North Mine, one of several sites on the TMAC property. This new timeline is considerably slower than the first envisioned by TMAC in 2013, which promoted an “aggressive timeline” to get the mine into production in 2015.

Now the plan is to build a mine that will be “multi-generational” — that is, with more gold resources and a longer lifespan than the earlier forecast period of 10 years.

NEWS RELEASE: SNL Metals & Mining Releases March Monthly Industry Monitor

March 20, 2015

http://www.snl.com/Sectors/metalsmining/

Finds gloomy market conditions for the international mining industry

Halifax, Nova Scotia (March 18, 2015) Announced today, SNL Metals & Mining’s latest Monthly Industry Monitor reveals another set of depressing statistics. The first two months of the New Year have failed to dispelthe gloomy market conditions for the international mining industry.

SNL’s Pipeline Activity Index (PAI) has four constituents: the number of exploration announcements, initial resources, completed financings and positive development “milestones.” The PAI fell in February, for the fifth consecutive month, despite two of the constituent measurements showing a month-on-month improvement (see graph).

Although SNL’s metals price index had improved fractionally in January, it fell to 108 in February. Indeed, there were falls for all eight constituents of the index — cobalt, copper, gold, molybdenum, nickel, platinum, silver and zinc. While the industry’s aggregate market cap bucked this trend by increasing to US $1,350 billion at the end of the month, early indications for March suggest the industry’s value will resume its downward trajectory.

The number of distinct projects reporting drilling activity fell to 113 last month, compared with 160 projects in January. Gold-exploration activity accounted for 59% of the total, but after the encouraging increase the previous month there was a fall to 67 gold projects in February.

Here’s What Coal Mining Is Doing to Communities in the Navajo Nation – by Laura Dattaro (Vice News – March 18, 2015)

March 20, 2015

https://news.vice.com/

For sixty years, the billions of tons of coal found beneath Arizona’s Black Mesa have powered the cities of the Southwest. But getting at all that coal has meant the displacement of more than 12,000 people of the Navajo Nation, one of the largest removals of Native Americans since the 19th century. For those that have remained, the mining process has compromised their health and their environment.

The mesa rises up from the dry Arizona landscape a few miles south of Kayenta Township, where Peabody Energy operates a mine that in 2013 produced nearly eight million tons of coal. The company proposed in May 2012 to expand its excavation, a plan that needs approval from the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation, and Enforcement (OSMRE). Locals are concerned because that would add 841 acres of land to the Kayenta Mine complex — which would displace even more Navajo and ensure continued air and water contamination for decades to come.

A VICE News crew traveled to the Black Mesa area to document the effects of coal mining on their health, the environment, and the local economy.

NEWS RELEASE: Development of natural resources: Aboriginal communities as business partners

March 19, 2015

Click here for The Cree and the Development of Natural Resources publication: http://www.iedm.org/files/note0315_en.pdf

MONTREAL, March 19, 2015 /CNW Telbec/ – While the Quebec government was giving the green light this week to the development of the Arnaud Mine project near Sept-Îles, on the North Shore, opponents and supporters alike wasted no time making their voices heard. On what basis can we move forward on these debates surrounding natural resource development projects? Do any agreements exist that can satisfy all the parties?

An Economic Note published today by the MEI shows that certain collaboration models, notably the one involving the Cree, encourage and facilitate resource development in Quebec’s north while respecting Aboriginal communities and forming partnerships with them.

The study describes certain recent cases in which different Aboriginal communities have a financial interest in the economic success of a mining or other development project. This can occur through stock ownership, as with the Cree community of Nemaska that holds shares in a mining project in the James Bay region, or the Mi’kmaq communities that are partners in a windfarm project in the Gaspé Peninsula. Other agreements between businesses and communities are based on mechanisms for the sharing of revenues with the community, for example through royalties that will grow as a function of a mine’s production or of profits earned.

“Debates about natural resource development are too often centred on conflicts between the government, local communities, and businesses. Yet there are models that could serve as an example for future projects, especially that of the Cree since the signing of the “Paix des Braves” agreement.

COLUMN-Commodity price boom over, volume boom gathers pace – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – March 19, 2015)

March 19, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia, March 19 (Reuters) – It’s become conventional wisdom that the commodities boom is over, and while the era of rising prices is gone, figures from the Australian government suggest the surge in volumes is well under way.

Exports of iron ore will jump 22.5 percent between the 2014-15 fiscal year and 2019-20, while liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments will triple, according to the latest quarterly report from official forecaster, the Department of Industry.

Even the pressured coal sector is expected to post gains, with thermal coal exports climbing 16.6 percent over the period and those of metallurgical grades rising 7.3 percent.

Australia is the world’s top shipper of iron ore and metallurgical coal, number two in thermal coal and soon to take the lead in LNG, once the seven gas projects under construction are completed. But while the report, released on Wednesday, is relatively bullish about the outlook for export volumes, it’s another matter when it comes to prices.

Iron ore will average $60.40 a tonne in 2015, dropping to $56.80 next year before recovering to $64.60 in 2017, the department said. It expects the price recovery to continue to 2020, when it will reach $81.80 a tonne.

Live wire act [Mining power costs] – by Chris Windeyer (CIM Magazine – March/April 2015)

March 19, 2015

http://magazine.cim.org/en/

No other significant cost factor varies so widely as electricity – internationally, more than 800 per cent variation in the price of electricity from one jurisdiction to another is accepted as normal. So what can miners do to turn such risks into opportunities? The cost of electricity is generally the second biggest cost factor that miners face. Only the workforce costs more. In Canada alone, miners (excluding coal) spent $2.4 billion on energy costs in 2012, according to figures from Natural Resources Canada.

That was up from a 2011 tally of $2.2 billion that included coal. At the same time, no other significant cost factor varies so widely – internationally, more than 800 per cent variation in the price of electricity from one jurisdiction to another is accepted as normal. So what can miners do to turn such risks into opportunities?

“If you’re sitting in northern Quebec and you have access to the hydro grid, there’s nothing that will beat Hydro Quebec’s rates,” says Steve Letwin, CEO of Toronto-based Iamgold, which owns mines in Quebec, Suriname, Mali, and Burkina Faso. Letwin says Quebec’s electricity costs 3.5 cents per kilowatt- hour (kWh), compared with off-grid Africa, where Iamgold relies on diesel and heavy fuel oil, and costs can reach 30 cents per kWh.

The recent decline in oil prices has knocked those off-grid costs down to around 21 cents per kWh, which Letwin says translates into cash cost savings of around $200 per ounce. At Iamgold’s Essakane mine in northeast Burkina Faso, currently operating with costs of around $1,000 per ounce, Letwin says halving the mine’s power costs would bring cash costs down to about $800 per ounce; it is roughly the same impact as doubling the grade.