Republic of Mining

Boardroom coup likely to see Cliffs on the selling block – by Peter Kerr (Sydney Morning Herald – August 5, 2014)

August 6, 2014

http://www.smh.com.au/

The miner at the centre of a $US2.65 billion ($2.84 billion) boardroom coup has conceded it will probably fall under the control of an activist hedge fund intent on breaking up its structure and selling its assets.

In a transition that is expected to put the fifth biggest iron ore export business in Australia on the selling block, Cliffs Natural Resources said overnight that hedge fund Casablanca Capital was expected to control six seats on the company’s 11-member board.

”The election of individual director candidates is not yet complete,” Cliffs said in a filing to market regulators in the US. ”However, based on the preliminary voting results, all six of the Casablanca Nominees and five of the Board Nominees have been elected for a term that will expire on the date of the 2015 annual meeting of shareholders.”

The comments support claims by Casablanca immediately after last week’s annual meeting of Cliffs’ shareholders, when the hedge fund claimed to have won control of the miner after a long campaign seeking higher dividends and asset sales.

Cliffs owns coal and iron ore assets across several locations in the US, Canada and Australia, including an iron ore export business in Western Australia.

That business, known as the Koolyanobbing operations, is profitable and exports about 11 million tonnes of iron ore a year through the port of Esperance.

15,000 Oregonians sign petition opposing nickel project – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – August 6, 2014)

August 6, 2014

http://www.mineweb.com/

More than 15,000 Oregonians have signed a petition advocating the withdrawal of lands, located in SW Oregon watersheds, from mining and exploration.

RENO (MINEWEB) – More than 15,000 petition signatures, in favor of a mineral withdrawal for public lands in southwest Oregon watersheds, were delivered Tuesday to the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to be presented to the U.S. Secretaries of Interior and Agriculture.

The named “critical” watersheds include the North Fork Smith River, Baldface Creek, Rough & Ready Creek, and Hunter Creek.

“These signatures build upon the request of a broad coalition of local and national conservation groups to withdraw these public lands from mining in response to proposals for nickel strip mining in the area,” said a news release published Tuesday by Washington, D.C.-based environmental NGO, Earthworks.

The petition not only calls for the immediate withdrawal of the Rough & Ready and Baldface Creek watersheds from mining under the Mining Law of 1872; it also urges the enactment of legislation “to protect them from destructive nickel strip mining and permanently preserve their unique natural values”.

Minerals withdrawals from the 1872 Mining Law of up to 20 years can be issued by the Secretary of Interior under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA).

Mt Polley Tailings Failure: Lies versus the Truth – by Jack Caldwell (I Think Mining.com – August 6, 2014)

August 12, 2014August 6, 2014

http://ithinkmining.com/

Jack Caldwell, P.E. has a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering, an M.Sc. (Eng.) in Geotechnical Engineering and a post-graduate law degree. He has over 35 years engineering experience on mining, civil, geotechnical and site remediation projects. He has worked on numerous projects throughout southern Africa, Europe, Canada and the United States.

Today we have read all we can find on the failure of the Mt Polley tailings facility. It is all distressing. And mostly misleading. Here are a few clear thoughts on the topic.

The videos show that the tailings and water are still pouring out of the failed facility. Problem number one is how do you stop this flow. I do not know how I would stop the flow and nobody seems concerned to stop the flow. But more tailings and contaminated water are escaping as we write. If it rains, even more will be washed out. Demand number one is an answer as to how continued tailings flow will be stopped.

I can accept that the water and all it nasty constituents will be diluted by the rivers and lakes into which the water is flowing. But what of the solids? They are in the river, on the banks, and now in the lake. Will it ever be possible to clean this up, or will these tailings have to be allowed to wash by rain into the lake to join the bottom sediments? Maybe we need to build an emergency dam up-river of the lake to catch the solids.

Imperial Metals is saying the area affected is small by comparison with the area of the tailings facility. This is true, but irrelevant. Until they stop outflow, the threat of all the tailings to the environment remains.

Mt Polley Mine Tailings Failure – by Jack Caldwell (I Think Mining.com – August 5, 2014)

August 6, 2014

http://ithinkmining.com/

It is always a very sad day when a major tailings facility failure occurs. As one commenter noted to me: “Whatever the facts, the failure casts a poor light on the industry, and makes all of our jobs more difficult in the future.”

Today we write about the failure of the Mt Polley tailings facility right here in British Columbia. I write only on the basis of the information readily available on the web. I have no other source of knowledge of this facility.

My first impression is that this is in a direct line of failures from Bafokeng, through Merriespruit, to now. Nothing has changed, this failure looks just like the failed Bafokeng dam looked when I went out to see it the week after it failed way back in the earlier 1970s.

We still cannot agree if the cause of the Bafokeng failure was overtopping of the crest of the perimeter embankment by too much water in the dam, piping of water through a sandy layer in the embankment, or slope instability via sliding of soft foundation clays.

Spilled waste water at Mount Polley mine had failed guidelines for human, aquatic health – by Gordon Hoekstra and Tara Carman (Vancouver Sun – August 5, 2014)

August 6, 2014

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

Possible contamination after tailings pond for Imperial Metals’ mine breached, sending millions of cubic meters of waste into waterways southeast of Quesnel

The millions of cubic metres of water that poured out of Mount Polley mine when the dam collapsed had failed provincial water quality guidelines for human and aquatic health in the past, according to the B.C. environment ministry.

Data sent to the ministry by Mount Polley as recently as Monday showed that selenium concentration exceeded drinking water guidelines by a factor of 2.8 times.

There have also been drinking water exceedances of sulphate over the last few years, according to information supplied to The Vancouver Sun by environment ministry spokesman Dave Crebo.

Aquatic water guidelines have also been exceeded in the past for nitrate, cadmium, copper and iron.

The release of 10 million cubic metres of water — enough to fill BC Place more than four times — is also potentially contaminated with toxic metals such as arsenic and mercury, a concern for hundreds of area residents’ water supply and important salmon habitat.

Gold Industry Takeovers Climb to Highest in Three Years – by David Stringer (Bloomberg News – August 4, 2014)

August 5, 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/

There’s no sign of a let up in gold industry takeovers as a surge in acquisitions by producers, led by Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. (AEM) and Yamana Gold Inc. (YRI), has pushed deals to a three-year high.

Mid-sized and small producers are seizing on assets discarded by larger competitors as they trim portfolios to focus on their most profitable operations after gold last year notched up the biggest annual drop in more than three decades.

“The hunters have feasted for the last six months,” said Raleigh Finlayson, managing director of Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd. (SAR), which in May completed a deal to buy OAO GMK Norilsk Nickel’s mothballed Thunderbox operations in Australia. “There are projects still out there and the field might have opened up for those that are left, so that’s an opportunity for some.”

Finlayson is among mining executives gathering this week in Kalgoorlie, the Western Australian town 595 kilometers (370 miles) east of Perth, for the annual Diggers & Dealers conference through Aug. 6. Former Bank of England governor Mervyn King addressed the forum ahead of presentations by executives from Fortescue Metals Group Ltd., AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. and Gold Fields Ltd. in coming days.

Deals worth about $14 billion have been announced or completed so far this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, the highest annual total in three years and led by Agnico Eagle and Yamana’s $3.44 billion acquisition of Osisko Mining Corp., the industry’s biggest deal since 2010.

B.C. mine had issues with rising waste water ahead of breach, consultant says (The Canadian Press/Globe and Mail – August 05, 2014)

August 6, 2014August 5, 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.

Quesnel, B.C. — A tailings pond that breached Monday, releasing a slurry of contaminated water and mine waste into several central British Columbia waterways, had been growing at an unsustainable rate, an environmental consultant says.

Brian Olding, who operates Brian Olding and Associates Ltd., said Imperial Metals Corp. (TSX: III) had been working on fixing the problem with waste water from the mine. Olding said he was hired by the company as well as the Williams Lake and Soda Creek First Nations to review the company’s plans to treat and release water as part of the province’s effluent release permitting process.

“More water was coming in over the year than they could deal with,” Olding said. “They just kept building the walls up higher and higher every year and it got to the point where that was untenable.”

He said the firm was seeking a permit to treat and release some of the water to keep the size of the pond in check at its Mount Polley Mine, an open-pit gold and copper mine about 140 kilometres southeast of Quesnel.

The earthen dam at one end of the four-kilometre-long pond breached early Monday morning, sending a 45-metre-wide wall of water and mining debris into local creeks and lakes.

NAN becoming more assertive – by Matt Vis (tbnewswatch.com – July 5, 2014)

August 5, 2014

http://www.tbnewswatch.com/

FORT WILLIAM FIRST NATION, Ont. — First Nations need to become more assertive in looking at ways to generate sustainable and independent economies, says the Nishnawbe Aski Nation grand chief.

That will be a primary focus of the 33rd Keewaywin Conference, which is being held on the Mount McKay Lookout, Harvey Yesno said in an interview shortly after the grand entry to kick off the gathering.

“We’re looking at the whole of the region and I think we need to partner with both senior levels of government to really address the infrastructure that will stimulate and foster investment,” Yesno said Tuesday.

“We’re looking not just at job creation but wealth creation and getting involved with some of these business enterprises.” Creating favourable economic conditions will play a significant role in solving challenges such as housing shortages and high unemployment rates, he added.

Ontario Regional Chief Stan Beardy echoed those views and said communities, many of which have an abundance of potential assets, need to become their own economic drivers. Treaty agreements put the responsibility on First Nations to financially prosper, he said.

“What we need to begin to understand is that handouts will never address our needs,” Beardy said.

Quebec Innu upset with IOC’s deal with Labrador Innu (St. John’s Telegram – August 2, 2014)

August 5, 2014

http://www.thetelegram.com/

First Nations groups say they have claim to territory where the company is conducting mining operations

Two Innu First Nations groups in Quebec are claiming rights over lands in Labrador where the Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) has already concluded an agreement with Labrador’s Innu Nation.

The Uashat mak Mani-utenam and Matimekush-Lac John Innu First Nations in Quebec are objecting to IOC’s claims that the company has settled aboriginal issues regarding IOC’s projects on an area they say is their traditional territory. The groups are calling on the IOC to come to an agreement with them as well.

The request comes shortly after IOC signed an agreement with the Labrador Innu Nation, which the groups consider, “a curious development,” considering the fact their groups have rights to the area.

“We have never ceded nor otherwise lost our rights to our traditional territory, our Nitassinan, which territory we have possessed, occupied and administered since time immemorial,” Matimekush-Lac John Chief Réal Mckenzie stated in a news release issued Friday.

“Governments and the mining industry allow other aboriginal groups with no legitimate claim to our territory to encroach on our lands at our expense. We can no longer tolerate such an attitude which aims to capture our resources and the benefits which derive from them.”

Guinea’s Simandou iron ore trove: huge potential for the hugely patient – by Saliou Samb (Reuters India – August 5, 2014)

August 10, 2014August 5, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

BEYLA, Guinea, Aug 5 (Reuters) – In a remote, southeastern corner of Guinea, the mist-shrouded Simandou mountain range rises above the lush forest. Buried under its green slopes lies some of the planet’s finest iron ore, a treasure long coveted by the world’s mining giants.

But any profit, for Guinea or the firms, will remain locked in the russet ground until an export outlet to the coast is cleared, a task that will involve building 650 kilometres (400 miles) of railway, 35 bridges, and 24 km of tunnels.

Coupled with the need for a new port to load the ore onto ships, the initial price tag would be around $20 billion, making it Africa’s biggest mining project ever, to be carried out in one of the continent’s most unstable and rundown nations.

“The logistical challenge is such that the whole project remains on hold until the infrastructure can be put in place to get the ore out,” said Madani Dia, a Guinean mining analyst.

Lack of adequate infrastructure – ports, roads and railways – to expand the trade and export of Africa’s mineral riches is one of the biggest brakes on the continent’s faster growth.

Global firms including Rio Tinto and Brazil’s Vale have for years been eying Simandou, and most recently miner and commodity trader Glencore has expressed interest in Guinea’s iron ore, a presentation obtained by Reuters shows.

COLUMN-Coking coal prices set for modest gains, thermal still marooned – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.K. – July 5, 2014)

August 5, 2014

http://uk.reuters.com/

Clyde Russell is a Reuters columnist. The views expressed are his own.

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Aug 5 (Reuters) – Prices for thermal and coking coal appear poised to diverge, with the power-plant fuel remaining mired in the doldrums and the steel-making ingredient posting modest gains.

The halving of thermal coal prices since early 2011 has grabbed the most attention in the beleaguered industry, but coking coal has actually performed worse, dropping by almost two-thirds since its post-2008 recession peak in mid-2011.

The 2011 high was reached after severe flooding in Queensland state, the main coking coal producer in top exporter Australia.

Both types of coal have been plagued by oversupply, which has swamped the modest increases in demand in top importers China and India.

The problem for thermal coal has been supply hasn’t significantly been cut despite weak prices. Producers in the top two exporters Indonesia and Australia have been instead trying to cut costs and increase volumes in order to boost revenues.

Australian producers have another problem, the so-called “take-or-pay” contracts that commit them to paying for transport costs whether they actually ship coal or not.

Manitoba looks to jump into potash industry, develop mine (CBC News Manitoba – July 23, 2014)

August 5, 2014

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba

The Manitoba government is hoping to develop a significant potash deposit in the western part of the province near Russell, Man. Chris Radford, Mayor of Russell, said having the potash industry present would be great for his community.

“Well this would be fantastic news for our area,” said Radford. “It’s something that obviously we’ve been looking forward to for a long time. There have been a lot of times that they have talked about this in the past and we certainly hope that this time things will be able to move forward.”

The province-owned Manitoba Potash Corporation has acquired the rights to a vast deposit of the mineral, used as a key ingredient in fertilizer. It has bundled together the mineral rights to much of the potash in the province.

The next step will be to ask major players in the industry to do a feasibility study on developing a mine, said Manitoba’s Minister of Mineral Resources Dave Chomiak

“We’ve gone to the market and asked people to look at it and see if they are interested in doing a feasibility, which if proved positive, would lead to a potash development,” he said.

Chomiak said It could take up to a decade to develop a potash mine, but it could generate as many as 600 jobs and provide hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties for the province.

Cliffs’ boardroom shake-up presents buying opportunities for Canadian miners – by Peter Koven (National Post -August 5, 2014)

August 5, 2014

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

A boardroom shake-up at Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. has raised the likelihood that its international assets will hit the market, creating some intriguing buying opportunities for Canadian miners in their own backyard.

These assets include a large but troubled iron ore mine in Quebec, and a huge chromite deposit in Northern Ontario’s “Ring of Fire” that one company has already expressed interest in buying.

Cleveland-based Cliffs has been engaged in a vicious proxy war with hedge fund Casablanca Capital LP for the past six months. That battle ended in an apparently decisive victory for Casablanca last week, as the New York-based activist fund said it claimed six of the 11 seats on Cliffs’ board. Cliffs has not yet confirmed the final numbers.

Casablanca has been very open about its plans for Cliffs: It wants the company to focus on its core U.S. iron ore operations and look at divesting everything else, including assets in Canada and Australia.

The fund had plenty of shareholder support for this strategy, because Cliffs’ recent international forays have simply not worked out. In Canada, the company spent a staggering $4.9-billion in cash to buy the Bloom Lake iron ore mine in the 2011 takeover of Consolidated Thompson Iron Mines Ltd.

NEWS RELEASE: Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. Announces Results of Annual General Meeting of Shareholders

August 5, 2014

Aug 05, 2014

CLEVELAND – Aug. 5, 2014 – Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) today announced that, based upon the preliminary report of the Inspector of Elections, IVS Associates, Inc., five Cliffs’ directors have been re-elected to the Board – Mark E. Gaumond, Gary B. Halverson, Janice K. Henry, Richard K. Riederer and Timothy W. Sullivan. The preliminary report also indicates that they will be joined by six newly elected directors, Lourenco Goncalves, Robert P. Fisher, Jr., Joseph Rutkowski, James Sawyer, Gabriel Stoliar and Douglas Taylor. The Cliffs Board will not contest the preliminary voting results and, as such, these results will be final once certified by the inspector of elections.

Cliffs issued the following statement:

“Over the past several months, a number of different perspectives were conveyed and our shareholders had the chance to express their views on a variety of points. We appreciate the consideration and support of our shareholders, as well as the valuable insights they have offered our Board and management team throughout this process. We welcome our new directors to the Board and look forward to working with them.

We would like to thank Susan M. Cunningham, Barry J. Eldridge, Andrés R. Gluski, Susan M. Green, James F. Kirsch and Stephen Johnson for their service on Cliffs’ Board of Directors and their many contributions to the Company.”

Cliffs noted that the voting results also indicated that shareholders approved all of the other proposals submitted for a vote at the Annual General Meeting. As previously announced, the newly constituted Cliffs’ Board will elect a new Chairman as soon as practicable.

Residents calling it an environmental disaster: tailings pond breach at Mount Polley Mine near Likely, BC – by Paula Baker, Marlisse Silver Sweeney and Justin McElroy (Global News – August 4, 2014)

August 6, 2014August 5, 2014

http://globalnews.ca/toronto/

Local residents are calling it an environmental disaster. A breach of the tailings pond on Mount Polley Mine sent five million cubic metres of toxic waste into Hazeltine Creek, Quesnel Lake and Polley Lake, with fears it could spread far and wide in the coming days.

Residents in the area, along with visitors to waterways near the Mount Polley Mine close to Likely, B.C., have been issued a complete water ban. Affecting close to 300 homes, it extends to the entire Quesnel and Cariboo River systems up to the Fraser River, including Quesnel Lake, Cariboo Creek, Hazeltine Creek and Polley Lake.

People in Quesnel are also being asked to avoid using water from the Quesnel River, and late in the day the Cariboo Regional District extended the water advisory right to the Fraser River – although they said that was a precautionary measure.