Republic of Mining

NEWS RELEASE: Largo initiates exploration program on potential new discovery of chromite and PGMs

November 10, 2014

Symbol: LGO (TSX.V)

www.largoresources.com

TORONTO, Nov. 10, 2014 /CNW/ – Largo Resources Ltd. (“Largo” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it has begun an exploration program for chromite and PGMs (platinum group metals) at its Capivara Prospect which is located in the Maracas region of Bahia, Brazil, but outside of the current mining area of its Maracas Menchen Mine.

Largo has recently discovered a new chromite showing on its Capivara Prospect (Figure 1). The Capivara Prospect lies 32 km north of the Campbell pit at the Maracas Menchen Mine. The original objective was to evaluate the known magnetite horizon which includes high grade vanadium values. While evaluating this magnetite horizon, the discovery was made of a number of zones containing chromite layers with fine grained sulphides. Samples have been collected and submitted to the lab with results pending.

The chromite layers have been traced over an area of 3km (north-south) by 0.5 km (east-west). There are at least two zones of chromite layers from 20 to 25 metres wide at surface. These zones lay 400 metres west of the Magnetite horizon that contains vanadium and anomalous platinum. The chromite layers are hosted in a thick ultramafic sequence including olivine gabbro, olivine pyroxenite and dunite. In the zones, the chromite layers consist of fine-grained massive chromite (˃ 60% chromite) and disseminated sulphides that could potentially contain PGMs. These massive chromite layers are 0.50 metres to 1.0 metre thick separated by material containing lesser chromite (˂ 10% chromite) and disseminated sulphides.

Development in northern Quebec questioned – by Staff (Canadian Press/Metro News – November 6, 2014)

November 7, 2014

http://metronews.ca/

MONTREAL – A former director general of Parks Canada has written a letter to Premier Philippe Couillard expressing concern that his government is backtracking on a major commitment in the development of northern Quebec.

The government had previously stated that 50 per cent of the land covered by what is called the Plan nord— or northern plan — would be protected from industrial activity. Nikita Lopoukhine, president emeritus of the World Commission on Protected Areas, has asked Couillard to clarify recents reports that government policy had changed.

He said he had learned from a provincial organization attending a panel last week that the new policy was to “implement conservation measures on 50 per cent of the Plan nord territory, including 20 per cent that would be protected areas.”

Lopoukhine said in his letter, dated Nov. 3, that he wants to make sure the government is not pulling back on its previous commitment of 50 per cent.

“I believe this substitution could be interpreted to mean that mining, forestry and energy projects could be included in the 50 per cent and (I think) that is not compatible with the vision expressed in the Plan nord,” he wrote in his letter.

Iron ore rhetoric should shift from China demand to oversupply – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – November 7, 2014)

November 7, 2014

http://www.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Nov 7 (Reuters) – One of the recurring themes in iron ore’s precipitous decline this year has been the weak state of Chinese demand. The problem with this is that it simply isn’t true.

It doesn’t take much of a search to find media and analyst reports that reference softness in China’s steel market as one of the major reasons for Asian spot iron ore’s 43-percent decline this year to a five-year low of $75.60 a tonne on Thursday.

“Iron ore falls further as Chinese buying interest stalls” was a Reuters headline from Oct. 17.

Just in case anybody thinks I’m picking on my own colleagues, this one is from competitor Bloomberg on Thursday: “Iron drops to lowest since 2009 as APEC curbs dent demand” – a reference to steel mills closures ahead of the upcoming meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group in Beijing as part of measures to control pollution.

It’s not just news reports, analysts have also pointed to the slowing growth of China’s economy.

“In China, slowing industrial trends and deteriorating property fundamentals are having an adverse impact on bulk commodity demand – prices of iron ore and thermal coal both hit five-year lows,” said a recent research report from a major bank.

Quebec First Nations petition province to include rare earths under uranium ban – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – November 6, 2014)

November 7, 2014

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – A group of Quebec- and Labrador-based First Nations would like to see the Quebec government include rare earth elements in the same moratorium currently in force for uranium.

The Quebec government had decreed a moratorium on issuing exploration, development or mining permits for uranium projects in the province on March 28, 2013, until an independent study of the impacts of uranium was completed.

The Assembly of the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador (AFNQL), which currently represented 43 tribal chiefs, said, during an assembly last month, the First Nations resolved to support the Eagle Village and Wolf Lake Algonquin First Nations in opposing Canadian firm Matamec Explorations’ proposed Kipawa rare earths project on First Nation reserve lands.

The AFNQL noted that it would communicate its position to the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE), which was holding public hearings this month on the uranium industry in Quebec.

The local opposition to uranium exploration and mining had all but snuffed out the provincial industry, exemplified by uranium project developer Strateco Resources in June, when it mothballed its flagship Matoush project, in the Otish Mountains, after spending more than $123-million.

Miners reveal a poverty of thinking on coal – by Richard Denniss (The Age – November 8, 2014)

November 7, 2014

http://www.theage.com.au/

Richard Denniss is the Australia Institute executive director.

In a world in which war is waged for humanitarian reasons but sending doctors and nurses to prevent an outbreak of Ebola is considered too risky, almost any spin seems possible. But surely the mining industry’s claim that the best way to tackle global energy poverty is to build more coal mines takes the biscuit.

Coal companies have been very vocal in recent times about the billions of people around the world without access to energy or safe cooking facilities. The CEO of coal mining company Peabody Energy went as far as to say that tackling energy poverty is “the world’s number one human and environmental crisis”.

Now, after a century of making a fortune selling coal to those who could afford it and ignoring those who couldn’t, the mining industry has had an epiphany. Poor people in poor countries lack many of the necessities that Australians take for granted. And, according to their PR firms at least, the miners really want to do something about it.

The world’s greatest hearts and minds have long wrestled with the issue of how to lift people out of poverty. Mahatma Gandi, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates – they’ve all spent years pondering where best to start and how best to help. Is it by educating the masses, preventing aids and malaria, providing micro finance, or just cutting taxes and letting the market rip?

Iron Ore Has Biggest Weekly Loss Since May on Supply Glut – by Jasmine Ng (Bloomberg News – November 7, 2014)

November 7, 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Iron ore capped the biggest weekly decline in more than five months amid expanding global surplus, with Vale SA’s opening of a port in Malaysia highlighting rising supplies and investments by the world’s largest shippers.

Ore with 62 percent content delivered to Qingdao lost 4.7 percent this week to $75.84 a dry metric ton, according to data from Metal Bulletin Ltd. The decline completed three weeks of losses, deepening a bear market. Prices, which rose 0.6 percent today to snap a five-day losing streak, reached $75.38 yesterday, the lowest since September 2009.

The raw material lost 44 percent this year as producers including Brazil’s Vale, the world’s largest shipper, and BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto Group (RIO) in Australia expanded supplies and spurred the glut. Data this week showed record exports of the steel-making raw material from Australia’s Port Hedland last month. Mill closures ordered by China this week to curb air pollution for a global summit were also seen hurting demand.

“Demand in China is weak because some mills were asked to stop production before the APEC meeting,” Ben Cheung, head of metals at ABN Amro Group NV in Hong Kong, said before the price data was released. “The major producers are still expanding supply to try to increase market share. The over-supply situation doesn’t look like it will be alleviated next year.”

Collapse in global mining forces major cuts at SNC-Lavalin – by Nicolas Van Praet (Globe and Mail – November 7, 2014)

November 7, 2014

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

MONTREAL — The global rout in commodities and sputtering economic growth in many parts of the world is taking a toll on SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., forcing a major cut in its employee head count as the multinational company tries to carve out more sustainable operations for the years ahead.

Canada’s largest engineering and construction firm said Thursday it would slash 4,000 jobs as it deals with a collapse in global mining activity and stunted economic growth, particularly in emerging markets such as China. Montreal-based SNC also revised its 2014 profit outlook sharply downward as it reported third-quarter earnings that missed analyst estimates.

The stock tumbled 8 per cent in trading to $42.34, its biggest one-day loss since Feb. 28, 2012. That’s when the company disclosed an independent investigation into undocumented payments that subsequently ballooned into a wider corruption scandal.

“Investors probably weren’t expecting such a significant reduction in head count,” said Denis Durand, a partner at Montreal-based Jarislowsky Fraser Ltd., SNC’s largest shareholder. “The size of this surprised.”

The moves are part of a five-year effort by SNC chief executive Robert Card to revamp the company as he tries to turn it into one of the world’s largest engineering players and close the door on corporate conduct trouble that has forced out several senior executives.

Vale clear to tear down Sudbury’s Superstack – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – November 7, 2014)

November 7, 2014

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

Vale Ltd. won’t need approval from the Ministry of the Environment to tear down the Superstack if the company chooses to do so.

But it will require ministry approvals for any replacement smokestack it intends to build. Kelly Strong, vice-president of Vale’s Canada and UK operations, told a business group this week that the Brazil-based mining company is conducting an analysis to determine if it should replace the 1,250-foot chimney.

Company officials will likely decide by the end of the year what to do with the structure, which was built in 1972 at a cost of about $25 million.

Speaking to reporters after a presentation to the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce, Strong said he realized any talk of disposing of the structure was going to stimulate conversation in the community.

Very little sulphur dioxide is travelling up the Superstack, said Strong, so it doesn’t make sense to use it any longer. Vale is completing the $1-billion Clean AER (Atmospheric Emission Reduction) Project that will cut current S02 emissions by 85%.

Kate Jordan, spokeswoman for the Ministry of the Environment, said Vale wouldn’t need ministry approval to remove the stack.

Canada’s Potash to spend over $53 million in US Clean Air Act case – by Jonathan Stempel and Rod Nickel (Reuters U.S. – November 6, 2014)

November 7, 2014

http://www.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – Potash Corp of Saskatchewan Inc agreed to spend more than $52 million on plant improvements and pay a $1.3 million civil penalty to resolve U.S. charges that it violated the Clean Air Act over the emission of harmful pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, U.S. authorities said.

Thursday’s accord with the world’s largest fertilizer producer includes a consent decree, and is the largest in the U.S. Department of Justice’s effort to address Clean Air Act violations by sulfuric acid producers.

It resolves claims by the Justice Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that three Potash units built or modified several sulfuric acid plants in ways that allowed the emission of excess sulfur dioxide into nearby communities.

Potash spokesman Tom Pasztor said that while the company disagrees with the EPA’s interpretation of the Clean Air Act, “we opted, rather than litigate, to work with them and other regulators to resolve this dispute.”

Sulfur dioxide has been linked to respiratory and cardiovascular problems, including premature death, and contributes to acid rain, haze and smog.

Mr. Obama, pull down that anti-Keystone XL wall – by Peter Foster (National Post – November 6, 2014)

November 7, 2014

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

This Sunday, November 9, marks the twenty fifth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, that great symbol of the brutal repression and utter failure of Soviet Communism.

Communism survives only in North Korea and Cuba, although Cuba is reportedly looking to “putinismo” as a possible way out. Russian president Vladimir Putin has in fact provided useful historical service in reminding us of what was on the other side of the wall. His conspicuous pining for the Soviet good old days has prevented Communism from being shoved down the memory hole as a “noble experiment” that inexplicably went astray.

He has also, ironically, exposed the folly of Europe’s commitment to end the age of fossil fuels in order to save the world from capitalism.

Last weekend, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, the politically-corrupted body that is meant to assess climate science, released the final “synthesis” of its Fifth Assessment Report. The mainstream media duly trumpeted the IPCC’s “dire” warnings, but fewer and fewer individuals are listening.

That is not just because people have more immediate worries than how to achieve an emission-free world in 2100. It’s because those regimes most committed to combating climate catastrophe have wreaked the greatest policy fiascos, and nowhere moreso than in Europe.

My Turn: Transboundary mines a looming problem [Mining on British Columnbia/Alaska border] – by Joe Mehrkens (The Juneau Empire – November 7, 2014)

November 7, 2014

http://juneauempire.com/

Joe Mehrkens is a retired forest economist living in Petersburg.

On Oct. 24, a public forum was held on the potential impacts to the Southeast fishing industry from new large mines in British Columbia. This is not the same old battle between greenies and boomers over development. It is a large, growing problem that has no institutional mechanisms to ensure environmental safeguards or provide any means to compensate third parties for potential damages.

This summer, a large tailings dam failed at the Mount Polley mine. The broken dam dumped 14.5 million cubic feet of water and slurry into salmon waters (Polley Lake, Hazeltine Creek, Quesnel Lake and Cariboo Creek). Even more disturbing, these polluted waters are a tributary of the Frazier River — the most productive sockeye salmon river in British Columbia. While total damages will be not quantified for years, it is characterized as Canada’s worst environmental disaster in modern times. Many more large mines are planned as BC expands its energy grid to new mineral deposits.

The Mount Polley failure may be a harbinger of the future. Environmental restoration will be minimal or nonexistent, and there will be no compensation for damage to non-mining interests — on either side of the border. Even if damaged parties successfully sue for damages, the mining company can go bankrupt. That process can result in shallow pockets when it comes to damage awards.

Conductor missing as freight train derails in Quebec – by Eric Atkins (Globe and Mail – November 6, 2014)

November 6, 2014

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

A freight train conductor is missing after the derailment of a Quebec North Shore and Labrador train near Sept-Îles, Que.

A spokeswoman for Iron Ore Co. of Canada, which owns the short-line railway, says the locomotive was found submerged in the Moisie River on Thursday morning and that a landslide is the likely cause.

Claudine Gagnon of Iron Ore Co. said the train was travelling north carrying empty rail cars to the mine, and it is not known how many locomotives were involved.

“Our first priority is to locate our employee,” Ms. Gagnon said, adding the company is not identifying the person at this time. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada says it has deployed a team of investigators to the site of the derailment.

QNS&L railway runs 418 kilometres between Iron Ore Co.’s mine in Labrador City and the St. Lawrence Seaway port of Sept-Îles. The Iron Ore Co., which is majority owned by global mining company Rio Tinto PLC, produces ore pellets for making metals.

Plunging Gold Price Has Mining Companies Selling at Loss – by Liezel Hill and Kevin Crowley (Bloomberg News – November 5, 2014)

November 6, 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/

The latest decline in the price of gold is saddling higher-cost producers with losses on every ounce mined, and pushing others to the brink of also slipping into the red.

Gold fell to a four-year intraday low of $1,137.10 an ounce today, below production costs for seven of 19 mining companies tracked by Bloomberg Intelligence, including Harmony Gold Mining Co., South Africa’s third-largest producer, and Primero Mining Corp. (P) Two more producers are within $50 of the figure.

“What’s developing is almost a two-tier type of market,” John Ing, chief executive officer at brokerage Maison Placements Canada Inc., said by phone. One tier has companies with good assets and lower costs, while the other comprises producers “who are saddled with high-cost operations” and stretched balance sheets.

“Investors are looking through the so-called carnage and are holding onto the top tier and are dumping the second tier,” he said.

The seeds of the industry’s predicament were sown during gold’s 12-year bull-run, when it rose to a record $1,923.70 an ounce in New York in 2011. Mining costs were allowed to spiral “out of control” and mines were built assuming high prices, said Mike Schroder at Old Mutual Investment Group in Cape Town.

Donald Lindsay: Mining is in Teck chief’s blood – by Melanie Jackson (Business Vancouver – November 4, 2014)

November 6, 2014

http://www.biv.com/

From underground mining in Saskatchewan to the top corporate tier, Donald Lindsay’s career has been a lifelong love affair with the industry

As part of Teck Resources Ltd.’s (TSX:TCK.B, NYSE:TCK) Emerging Leaders program, president and CEO Don Lindsay greets aspiring vice-presidents, aged 30 to 45, by saying:

“It’s an honour to be selected to this program. It means that you’ve worked awfully hard. You’ve been successful and you’ve accomplished great things. But I’m here to tell you that you can never get yourself promoted again. It’s over.”

Lindsay pauses. At this point his listeners could be forgiven for thinking, What on earth? Then he explains, “The only people who can promote you from here on are those around you. If they don’t want you to succeed, if they don’t want to be led by you, you won’t be.”

Lindsay seeks leaders people want to have around – as opposed to those who try to intimidate or make them feel inadequate.

“The ones who are going to be really successful are going to go and talk to the customer, or talk to the potential partner, find out what their concerns are, find out what their needs are, find out how they like to work.

Alaska Legislature inherits mother of political footballs – the Pebble Project – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – November 6, 2014)

November 6, 2014

http://www.mineweb.com/

Another ballot measure has thrown yet another hurdle into Northern Dynasty’s quest to develop the Pebble Project.

RENO (MINEWEB) – As Alaskan voters demonstrated they are more than willing to tax and regulate the production, sale and use of marijuana in the state, and resoundingly voted to increase the state’s minimum wage, they are not about to make it easy for the Pebble Mine near Bristol Bay.

Ballot Measure 4, or the “Bristol Bay Forever” initiative, was aimed squarely at the proposed Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum mine in the Bristol Bay region of Southwest Alaska. The measure was passed by a resounding margin of 65.32% to 34.68%, according to the Alaska Division of Elections.

Officially described as “An Act Providing for Protection of Bristol Bay Wild Salmon and Waters Within or Flowing into the Existing 1972 Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve”, the measure requires the Alaska Legislature to “approve future large-scale metallic sulfide mines in the Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserves (BBFR) by passing a law”.

“The law would have to find that any proposed mine would not endanger the BBFR fishery. The approval would be in addition to any other required permits or authorizations,” according to the full ballot summary.