Republic of Mining

Lima marchers, experts want climate deal to respect rights – by Megan Rowling (Reuters India – December 11, 2014)

December 11, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

LIMA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Rights experts and civil society groups issued an open letter on Wednesday to ministers attending U.N. climate talks in Lima, urging governments to enshrine “human rights for all” in the new global climate deal due to be agreed at the end of 2015.

At the same time, thousands of Peruvians and indigenous people from the Andean and Amazon regions marched shoulder to shoulder with climate activists from around the world on the traffic-choked streets of Lima.

They called for urgent action to tackle climate change and the environmental problems affecting communities dependent on natural resources for their survival.

Danitza, whose Quechua name Pilpintu means butterfly, from Peru’s south-central Andean region of Ayacucho, said people must take care of the earth, not least for the benefit of their children. “For the next generations, we should look after our water, the earth, our food,” she said, carrying her baby dressed in traditional clothes.

Many at the march, around 15,000-strong according to organisers, shouted and waved banners demanding clean water, 100 percent renewable energy, and protection of their rights threatened by extractive mining and major development projects, such as hydro-electric dams.

Perry Bellegarde, fiery new AFN grand chief, will ‘reach out’ for larger share of resource revenues – by Mark Kennedy and Richard Warnica (National Post – December 11, 2014)

December 11, 2014

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

Perry Bellegarde, elected grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations on Wednesday and the now the most powerful native politician in Canada, has spent the last 16 years honing a single, unambiguous message.

To paraphrase another prairie politician who hit it big on the national stage, in Mr. Bellegarde’s view, the First Nations want in.

A career politician and longtime regional chief from Saskatchewan, Mr. Bellegarde has long argued for a broader interpretation of treaty rights, one that would see First Nations earn a much larger share of resource revenues and jobs.

In a fiery first speech as grand chief Wednesday, Mr. Bellegarde doubled down on that theme. “To the people across this great land, I say to you, that the values of fairness and tolerance which Canada exports to the world, are a lie when it comes to our people,” he said.

“Canada will no longer develop pipelines, no longer develop transmission lines, or any infrastructure, on our lands as business as usual. That is not on.”

His final remarks drew one of the loudest responses from the crowd: “Canada is Indian land,” he said. “This is my truth and this is the truth of our peoples.”

Coal Provocateur Sees Profits in Coal’s Long, Slow Death – by Tim Loh (Bloomberg News – December 11, 2014)

December 11, 2014

http://www.businessweek.com/

Robert Murray is pumped — as though coal-fired steam might be coursing through his veins. Striding purposefully, he ascends a lectern in a conference room at Pittsburgh’s Wyndham Grand Downtown hotel toting a cardboard box with hundreds of copies of his keynote speech to give out later lest anyone miss a word.

It turns out to be a corporate version of a hellfire-and-damnation sermon for the 250 U.S. coal executives assembled at the Platts Coal Marketing Days conference. Satan and his minions aren’t in the room but Murray knows their names.

“Environmental alarmists” and “liberal elitists,” he says, his voice rising as he whips off his glasses. And worse than them all, “the insane, regal administration of King Obama” and Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency.

Murray, 74, pauses for effect and then lowers his voice. “We have the absolute destruction of the United States coal industry. It isn’t coming back. It’s permanent. Virtually all of it is permanent. And if you think it’s coming back, you don’t understand the business. Or you’re smoking dope.”

This is vintage Murray, America’s pro-coal provocateur-in-chief, a coal miner’s son and a former miner himself, a man whose anti-regulation record is so unwavering that he once dismissed acid rain as a hoax, never mind climate change.

Anglo aims to shrink workforce by 60,000 – by Allan Seccombe (Business Day Live – December 10, 2014)

December 10, 2014

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

ANGLO American plans to cut its global workforce by 60,000 people to 102,000 by 2017, with restructuring across its range of businesses and commodities as it seeks to drive up profits in a tough global market.

Anglo will know by the end of March next year whether it will list or sell its Rustenburg and Union platinum mines as it focuses on low-cost, high-margin, mechanised assets, removing about 20,000 employees from its books at a stroke.

Among the other assets up for sale or being considered for disposal are two coal mines in Australia, coal mines supplying Eskom in SA, the two platinum mines, along with two platinum joint ventures and the Thabazimbi iron ore mine in SA.

Copper assets are also being prepared for sale and Anglo was keeping its options open about whether to sell its nickel mine in Brazil, CEO Mark Cutifani said on Tuesday.

Anglo’s 80%-held subsidiary, Anglo American Platinum, has started the sales process for the Union mines, with Sibanye Gold, RBPlatinum and Northam Platinum understood to be the final three out of 81 expressions of interest in the assets. The sticking point is the price Anglo wants for the mines, but Mr Cutifani stressed Anglo was not chasing the best price.

Investors tapped to fund gold fraud film – by Ben Bland (Financial Times – December 10, 2014)

December 10, 2014

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

Jakarta – Two of the world’s toughest mining tycoons battle it out with a star geologist, a chancer and a dictator’s children for control of one of the world’s largest gold discoveries in the heart of the Indonesian jungle, until it is exposed as a huge fraud.

The true story of Canadian company Bre-X Minerals, which collapsed in 1997 after attaining a market capitalisation of $6bn, reads like a movie script and the producer of hit film Home Alone is trying to raise $18m from mining investors to put it on the silver screen.

Malcolm Burne, a serial mining entrepreneur and former Financial Times journalist, has given Hollywood producer Scott Rosenfelt $150,000 of seed capital and together they are tapping minerals investors from Canada to Australia to fund a film about a scandal that changed the industry.

“It’s an amazing story with political and financial intrigue and thousands of people’s lives shattered as well as those who are still standing tall like Peter Munk of Barrick Gold,” says Mr Rosenfelt, who has tentatively titled the film Bre X: King for a Day.

Gold-mining companies struggled to raise money for years after the fraud, which prompted stock market regulators in Canada and Australia to bring in rules forcing miners to disclose detailed technical information about new finds.

Marcotte, Smith in Sudbury hall of fame – by Ben Leeson (Sudbury Star – December 10, 2014)

September 5, 2018December 10, 2014

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

Many years after he passed away, Paul Marcotte helped his daughter, Alicia Woods, get started in the mining industry.

Wood was only 13, a Grade 8 student, when Marcotte, who helped found Marcotte Mining Machinery with his father and brothers in the late 1970s, lost his life unexpectedly in 1992, at just 37 years of age.

“Growing up, I would go to work with him and I wanted to follow in his footsteps,” Woods recalled. “But then he passed away and his company was sold to another company in southern Ontario, so I honestly thought that opportunity would not be there.”

She did take an alternate route initially and pursued a career as a teacher, but eventually found part-time, then full-time work in the mining supply and service sector.

Woods now works as sales director for MacLean Engineering, which designs and builds heavy equipment for the mining industry. She also founded Covergalls, a company specializing in workwear for women.

“You’re a young, 20-something female walking onto a mine site and it’s like, ‘What does she know about mining?'”

Province’s hands tied over Wabush Mines – by Ty Dunham (St. John’s Telegram – December 09, 2014)

December 10, 2014

http://www.thetelegram.com/

Lack of dialogue between Cliff’s and MFC isn’t hopeful: Minister

The answer many have been waiting for may not become a reality, and Wabush Mines will likely be shut down for good. Talks between Cliff’s Natural Resources and MFC Industrial over the sale of Wabush Mines began in July, but the companies haven’t spoken together in weeks, and MFC hasn’t put anything in writing.

Cliff’s is stripping the mine away one piece at a time, honouring a multi-million dollar closure and rehabilitation plan with the financial assurances it can be carried out, according to the Mining Act.

It would cost millions for them to put the brakes on the closure while the MFC merely expresses interest, and Natural Resources Minister Derrick Dalley said the government is in no position to force a company to spend that kind of money.

“We don’t have authority as a government to stop a company from closing,” said Dalley in a recent interview with The Aurora. “For us to intervene, we would be highly concerned it may jeopardize the closure plan and financial assurance that have been provided.”

MFC has yet to provide a business plan, production plan, closure and rehabilitation plan or financial assurance, Dalley noted.

NEWS RELEASE: SNL Metals & Mining 25th Annual Corporate Exploration Study Finds Larger Players Account for 40% of Global Exploration Budgets

December 10, 2014

As part of the 25th edition of the Corporate Exploration Strategies (CES) study[1], a corporate exploration profile of each company budgeting at least US$50 million for exploration is available on the SNL company briefing books. In 2014, these 39 larger players budgeted a total of US$4.33 billion and accounted for 40% of the US$10.74 billion worldwide exploration total.

The top three explorers in 2014 include one copper producer (Antofagasta), a diversified major (Vale), and a major precious metal producer (Fresnillo). Chile-based Antofagasta has the world’s largest nonferrous exploration budget in 2014; this year’s program is growth-oriented and emphasizes late-stage and feasibility work. A strong grassroots effort includes programs in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Australia.

In second place, Vale is the largest explorer among the diversified majors, also with an emphasis on late-stage work. Vale continues to challenge Norilsk for the title of world’s top nickel producer; its output of 260,200 mt in 2013 was just 25,000 mt short of the 285,000 mt produced by the Russian miner. Vale also considers copper one of its core commodities, although production growth has been more gradual. Significant exploration expenditures are also directed to fertilizers in Brazil and Peru.

Liberal Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli should resign – by Christina Blizzard (Toronto Sun – December 10, 2014)

December 10, 2014

http://www.torontosun.com/

TORONTO – Not only should Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli resign. He will resign. His performance Tuesday as he slammed provincial auditor general Bonnie Lysyk was shocking.

Now that voters have given the Liberals a majority, they’ve become arrogant. In my years at Queen’s Park, I’ve never seen a politician suggest an auditor got it wrong.

Lysyk had just released her annual report, which included a scathing review on the smart meter program. Chiarelli’s response was the political equivalent of patting her on the head, telling her it’s complicated and, well, what does she know.

Asked why we would believe a politician’s figures over those of an independent officer of the legislature, Chiarelli got testy, suggesting the electricity system was too complicated for her to understand.

“Why are my numbers more credible than hers? First, the electricity system is very complex, is very difficult to understand,” Chiarelli told reporters.

[Ontario government] Smart Meters continue to be stupid – by Christina Blizzard (Toronto Sun – December 10, 2014)

December 10, 2014

http://www.torontosun.com/

Turns out Smart Meters were a really dumb idea. Who knew? Well, beleaguered homeowners desperately trying to pay their skyrocketing hydro bills certainly had a pretty good idea.

Now the provincial auditor has confirmed with cold, hard facts about what hydro customers have been saying for the past seven years.

In her damning report Tuesday, auditor general Bonnie Lysyk painted a sorry picture of how your hydro bill ran so far out of control. The savings we were promised for Smart Meters didn’t materialize – and the Liberal governments of Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne have wreaked untold misery and hardship on households across the province.

Anyone who’s opened a hydro bill and groaned or wept at the staggering costs it’s added to their household costs can see how badly Smart Meters were bungled by the Liberals.

They massively over-estimated the net benefits – easy to do when you consider that, unlike other jurisdictions, they didn’t bother to do a cost-benefit analysis.

The Liberals projected Smart Meters would have a net benefit of $600 million over 15 years. Turns out, they were $512 million wrong.

NEWS RELEASE: PDAC Honours Six Industry Leaders With 2015 PDAC Awards

March 15, 2018December 10, 2014

TORONTO, ON–(Marketwired – December 09, 2014) – The Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) is set to honour six industry leaders at the PDAC 2015 Convention in Toronto. The annual PDAC awards showcase the achievements of companies, individuals and groups in the mineral exploration and mining sector by highlighting the best in domestic and international mineral discovery, mine development, Aboriginal achievement, environmental and social responsibility, and distinguished service.

Recipients of the 2015 annual awards will be celebrated at the association’s Awards Evening on Monday, March 2 at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel during the PDAC 2015 Convention.

Award recipients are selected by the PDAC’s Board of Directors based on the recommendations of the association’s awards committee. A summary of the awards and recipients are listed below.

Bill Dennis Award for a Canadian mineral discovery or prospecting success

David Palmer, President and Chief Executive Officer of Probe Mines Limited, is the recipient of this year’s Bill Dennis Award for a Canadian mineral discovery or prospecting success. David Palmer is receiving the award for the Borden Gold Project, a discovery located near Chapleau, Ontario. The Borden Gold Project is an exciting and important new gold discovery that continues to evolve, grow and improve with continued exploration.

Exxon sees abundant oil, gas far into future – by Jonathan Fahey (Blomberg News – December 09, 2014)

December 10, 2014

http://www.businessweek.com/

NEW YORK (AP) — North America, once a sponge that sucked in a significant portion of the world’s oil, will instead be supplying the world with oil and other liquid hydrocarbons by the end of this decade, according to ExxonMobil’s annual long-term energy forecast.

And the “almost unspeakable” amount of natural gas found in recent years in the U.S. and elsewhere in North America will be enough to make the region one of the world’s biggest exporters of that fuel by 2025, even as domestic demand for it increases, according to Bill Colton, Exxon’s chief strategist.

“The world has such an improved outlook for supplies,” Colton said in an interview. “Peak oil theorists have been run out of town by American ingenuity.”

In a forecast that might make economists happy but environmentalists fret, Exxon’s two chief products, oil and natural gas, will be abundant and affordable enough to meet the rising demand for energy in the developing world as the global middle class swells to 5 billion from 2 billion and buys energy-hungry conveniences such as cars and air conditioners.

This is a result of advances in drilling technology that have made it possible for engineers to reach oil and gas in unconventional rock and extreme locations and quieted talk that the world was quickly running out of oil.

Vietnam’s emerging nickel-sulphide district – by Frik Els (Mining.com – December 9, 2014)

December 10, 2014

http://www.mining.com/

Nickel investors have been on a wild ride in 2014. Indonesia, supplying more than a fifth of global exports, surprised the mining world in January by putting into effect an outright ban on nickel ore exports.

Initially record warehouse inventories, massive stockpiling by Chinese nickel pig iron producers and growing mine supply kept a lid on the price which was languishing at near five-year lows below $14,000 a tonne at the start of the year.

The Asian nation, against expectations, stuck to its guns and the ban, in combination with fears that tensions with Russia could affect supply from top miner Norilsk, eventually sent the price above $20,000 in May.

But as LME stocks continued to rise and the Philippines – the only other source in the region of high-grade laterite ore required by China and responsible for 9% of global mine supply – took up some of Indonesia’s slack, supply worries subsided and the price tanked again, nearly wiping out all 2014’s gains.

Prices are now back above $16,500 on the back of dwindling stockpiles in China and expectations of robust demand from steelmakers in the US, China and the EU.

Canadian mining companies face lawsuits over foreign activities – by Drew Hasselback (National Post December 10, 2014)

December 10, 2014

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

Vancouver-based Nevsun Resources Ltd. joined an interesting club last month when three plaintiffs said they are suing the company in a B.C. trial court, alleging forced labour and other human rights violations at the company’s Bisha gold mine in Eritrea.

Nevsun, which describes the allegations as unfounded, is the latest Canadian parent company to be sued over the alleged actions of a foreign subsidiary or contractor. Vancouver-based Tahoe Resources Inc. was named in a suit last June over an incident at the company’s mine in Guatemala.

Then there’s Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals Inc., which has been sued in Ontario allegations that security personal assaulted women at its mine in Guatemala.

It was once believed that as separate legal entities, a Canadian parent company was distinct and therefore legally immune from the actions of its foreign subsidiary or contractors. Or so goes the legal reasoning if you believe the “corporate veil” insulates the parent from any liabilities that attach to its subsidiaries abroad. But plaintiff lawyers have developed a work around that appears to be putting Canadian parent companies on the hot seat. Lawyers expect more such cases.

“This is on the horizon more than ever. Companies traditionally think they were protected from these types of actions because of the corporate veil,” says Luis Sarabia, a partner with Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP in Toronto. “Mining companies are just coming alive to this being a real risk.”