Republic of Mining

Northerners want training for careers in mining, energy – by Canadian Press (MACLEAN’s Magazine – April 24, 2014)

April 25, 2014

http://www.macleans.ca/

Polar Commission calls ‘job-readiness’ most significant development issue

Northerners want scientists to help them prepare for sweeping changes expected in the years ahead from resource development and climate change, suggests feedback collected from across the Canadian Arctic.

In dozens of interviews from all three territories, the Canadian Polar Commission found northerners want researchers to focus more on issues relevant to their daily lives — from better education to get aboriginals into high-paying jobs to ways that communities can wean themselves off expensive diesel electricity generation.

“Northerners themselves are becoming more engaged in asking the questions and in working to help answer the questions,” said commission director David Scott. The survey grew out of 2007′s International Polar Year, a multinational research effort that channelled hundreds of millions of dollars into research across the circumpolar world. It attempts to assess what was learned as well as to consider what still requires study — especially from the point of view of those who live in the Arctic.

Genomic tools offer vision of a cleaner industry – by Randy Shore (Vancouver Sun – April 24, 2014)

April 25, 2014

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

Bacteria may be small, but they do heavy lifting in remediation and extraction

A few key microbes are on the verge of becoming key players in B.C.’s mining industry. Engineering professor Sue Baldwin has spent much of the past 15 years farming various combinations of anaerobic bacteria that have the ability to consume or remove heavy metals from mine tailings.

Tailings are ground up rock and chemical pollutants left over from the extraction of metals from ore. Baldwin has her toes in the water of several important cleanup projects, including the Teck Resources smelter near Trail, the Imperial Metals Mount Polley Mine, and analysis of the selenium-contaminated run-off from coal mine waste in the Elk Valley.

Imperial Metals has been operating a 450-litre-a-minute anaerobic biological reactor at Mount Polley since 2009, according to project engineer Luke Moger. The researchers are working to find the optimal environment and combination of microbes in which sulphate-reducing bacteria mitigate acid mine drainage and metal pollution by consuming sulfates in the tailings pond and water that has come in contact with waste rock. This creates sulphides that react with metals in the water to form harmless solids.

NEWS RELEASE: Building a better mining workforce for the future

April 25, 2014

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

More than 80 practitioners convened yesterday to tackle and make progress in dealing with the mining industry’s main human resource issues. The Canadian Human Resource Mining Leadership and Professionals Conference was held at York University’s Schulich School of Business in Toronto. Joining industry leaders and expert panelists in the seminars were students from the Schulich Global Mining Management MBA program.

“This symposium was held for mining sector human resource leaders and professionals to share ideas and work on solutions to workforce specific issues in the mineral sector,” said conference organizer Geoff Ramey, Vice President Human Resources & Business Technology Solutions for St Andrew Goldfields. The event combined the use of keynote speakers, expert exchanges, roundtable discussions, comedy and networking to work on important topics.

Key issues examined included retention of vital personnel, leadership gaps, cost containment, career promotion, workforce planning and competing cultures in joint ventures and merger and acquisition transactions. Other topics involved diversity of the workforce, change management, attracting skilled workers, knowledge transfer and the expectations of the next generation of mining industry employees.

NEWS RELEASE: Harper Government Promotes Responsible Resource Development in Northern Saskatchewan

April 25, 2014

LA RONGE, SASKATCHEWAN–(Marketwired – April 25, 2014) – Western Economic Diversification Canada

Today, Rob Clarke, Member of Parliament for Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River, on behalf of the Honourable Michelle Rempel, Minister of State for Western Economic Diversification, announced a $350,000 federal investment toward the monitoring of caribou herds in northern Saskatchewan. Data collected from tracking Woodland Caribou will help mining and construction firms, as well as local and provincial governments, to cost-effectively prepare responsible resource development plans that include measures to protect the herds.

The Saskatchewan Mining Association (SMA) is partnering with Western Economic Diversification Canada (WD) and the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) to conduct the comprehensive five-year study. In March, researchers with the U of S Department of Biology ‘collared’ 120 Woodland Caribou, outfitting them with the latest global positioning satellite (GPS) technology.

Under Environment Canada’s Species at Risk Act, Canada’s Woodland Caribou population is considered ‘threatened’. Until now, limited data on Woodland Caribou prevented industry from developing appropriate plans to alleviate disturbances to the animals’ habitat. Information collected from this tracking program is expected to close this data gap, allowing mining and construction companies, as well as government, to develop strategies to protect the herds.

Behind Barrick’s meltdown in the Atacama desert – by Stepanie Nolen (Globe and Mail – April 25, 2014)

April 25, 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.

In the violet light of a February Sunday afternoon, Padre Nelson Barrientos led his flock along the road that winds up Chile’s Huasco River Valley. The congregation of Our Lady of Lourdes of Conay was conveying a new statue of the Blessed Virgin to its home in the parish church, nestled in the shadow of the Andes. A half-dozen young people in traditional indigenous costumes—feathers, beads—drummed and danced, and their parents and neighbours followed in the procession. The mayor, Carmen Bou, was there, walking arm-in-arm at the front with Alicia Páez Campillay, the wife of the man whom everyone calls the valley’s richest businessman.

Many of the other marchers wore jeans and work shirts that hinted at a life spent in vineyards and orchards. Making their way to the village, the mayor, the dancers, their parents and the priest scrabbled up the loose gravel of the hillside, past a road sign almost swallowed by shrubbery, pointing up the mountain. On it, faintly visible despite someone’s best efforts with a can of spray paint, were the words “Pascua Lama.”

The Virgin was installed in the tiny blue chapel. There was dancing, poems, and an offering of the valley’s fat green grapes. As dusk fell, the white-haired priest tugged off a sweaty cassock; he, too, wore a plaid shirt and jeans.

In platinum’s war of attrition, capital has labour out-gunned – by Ed Stoddart (Reuters U.S. – April 25, 2014)

April 25, 2014

http://www.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – Labour brought a machete to a gunfight with management in South Africa’s platinum belt. Small wonder it looks set to lose.

South Africa’s big platinum strike has highlighted issues ranging from cash reserves to changing market dynamics that have curtailed labour’s ability to influence prices. The result has been to expose the weakness of the country’s miners in any confrontation with producers.

As it marked its 13th week, the showdown took a dramatic turn on Thursday when marathon wage talks collapsed. The world’s three top producers now say they will take their latest offer directly to employees.

They are effectively forcing the hand of the hard-line Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union. The AMCU’s leaders were reluctant to take the latest offer back to their members – probably because they feared the rank and file would accept it after three months with no pay.

A typical South African mine worker has eight dependants and often two families, one in his home village and the other near the shafts. That means many of them are now near the breaking point, especially as domestic inflation accelerates.

In destabilising economic war over Ukraine, gold the winner – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – April 25, 2014)

April 25, 2014

http://www.mineweb.com/

U.S. data and the escalating Ukraine crisis have seen gold Yo-Yo down and back up again.

LONDON (MINEWEB) – Some very volatile trading in gold and silver yesterday. The former dived to its lowest price since February to around the $1,270 mark before almost immediately rebounding sharply to a little below $1,300 before settling above $1,290, a position it held overnight.

Silver, living up to its more volatile general role at one stage dipped down below $19.00, its weakest level since its December lows before it too revived sharply jumping back to close the day at around the $19.60 level before settling back to around $19.55 where it was sitting this morning as Europe opened.

Analysts put the price movements to factors such as U.S. economic data, but in this writer’s view the downturn was largely due to a loss in confidence by traders in the prospects for short term precious metals price growth following gold and silver’s lacklustre performance as it drifted downwards – but then the recovery came on the back of the deteriorating situation on the ground in the Ukraine. Ukrainian forces started to move in to quell the demonstrations and government building occupations in the Donetsk region in the east of the country.

DST, NRF launch holistic collaborative mining research centre at University of Johannesburg – by Natalie Greve (MiningWeekly.com – April 24, 2014)

April 25, 2014

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

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Advancing South Africa’s ambitions of evolving from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-based economy, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the National Research Foundation (NRF) on Thursday launched a specialised academic institute that will focus on holistic research into the country’s profusion of mineral resources and look to stimulate the creation of a cohort of skilled South African economic geologists.

The Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Integrated Minerals and Energy Resource Analysis (Cimera) would be hosted by the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and would see the collaboration of South African economic geology research units the Palaeoproterozoic Mineralisation Centre, at UJ, and the Economic Geology Research Institute, at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits).

This was the fifth DST-NRF CoE to be launched this month, following the official opening of four other research units focusing on food security, scientometrics and science, technology and innovation policy, mathematical and statistical sciences, and human development respectively.

Barrick chair Peter Munk blasts Newmont’s company culture as miners struggle to reach deal – by Peter Koven (National Post – April 25, 2014)

April 25, 2014

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

TORONTO – Barrick Gold Corp. chairman Peter Munk levelled a pointed criticism of Newmont Mining Corp. on Thursday, saying he has struggled to strike a merger with his U.S. rival because the company is extremely bureaucratic and not shareholder-friendly.

Mr. Munk, 86, hoped to reach a deal to buy Newmont before he officially retires at Barrick’s annual meeting next month. But Toronto-based Barrick has been frustrated over years of negotiations by what he calls “cultural differences.”

He said that Newmont is an extremely conservative and risk-averse company, which makes negotiations very difficult. As one example, he pointed out that Newmont shut reporters out of its annual meeting this week after news of the talks leaked. He said Barrick would never consider doing that.

“That’s the cultural difference. That’s the kind of people they are, and that’s why it’s so difficult to make a deal,” he said in an interview. “They are not shareholder-friendly.” Even though they operate next to each other in Nevada, Barrick and Newmont are like oil and water.

Barrick Gold Corp shareholders file class action suit over Pascua-Lama mine – by Drew Hasselback (National Post – April 25, 2014)

April 25, 2014

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

Barrick Gold Corp. has been named in a proposed shareholders class action lawsuit that seeks $6-billion in damages because the company allegedly failed to make timely disclosure of problems at its Pascua-Lama mine in South America.

“Barrick misrepresented the progress and feasibility for development and production at the Pascua-Lama mine, repeatedly through the class period,” the plaintiffs allege in a notice of action filed Thursday in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Toronto.

Lawsuits in Ontario usually begin with the filing of a legal document called a statement of claim. Filing a notice of action officially launches the case, but also gives plaintiffs more time to follow up with more detailed allegations in the statement of claim.

The document filed Thursday contains allegations that have not been proven in court. “The company is aware that a notice of action has been filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. Barrick disputes the allegations, and will defend itself against any lawsuit vigorously,” the company said in an emailed statement late Thursday.

Plaintiffs have filed similar securities class actions against Barrick over Pascua-Lama in the U.S. federal courts. The company has denied the allegations in the U.S. claims.

How Keystone XL soured the ‘special relationship’ between Stephen Harper and Barack Obama – by Edward Greenspon, Andrew Mayeda, Rebecca Penty and Theophilos Argitis (National Post/Bloomberg News – April 25, 2014)

April 25, 2014

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

On Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, seated in his Ottawa office across from Parliament Hill, took an urgent call from U.S. President Barack Obama. Mr. Harper’s advisors were listening intently around a muted speakerphone in an adjoining room.

The U.S. State Department, Mr. Obama said, would be making an announcement later that day putting the Keystone XL pipeline project on hold. There was no choice, according to the president. Nebraska wanted the route changed to protect a key aquifer under millions of hectares of prime farmland. This would necessitate a new environmental assessment. He assured Mr. Harper the call wasn’t a game changer; neither a yes nor a no, just a delay.

Mr. Harper was far from assured — he was irritated. The project had already undergone three years of study and was, so the Canadians believed, on the cusp of approval. Delay, he told Mr. Obama, served no one’s interest.

By the time Mr. Harper hung up, according to people with knowledge of the episode, he had sized up the potential economic calamity for Canada and its oil ambitions. Western Canada’s land-locked Alberta oil sands hold roughly 168 billion recoverable barrels of heavy crude known as bitumen. The U.S. gobbles up almost all Canada’s oil exports.

[Ontario] Tories would pursue ‘quick win’ to kick start Ring of Fire: Fedeli – by Darren MacDonald (Sudbury Northern Life – April 24, 2014)

April 25, 2014

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Says work on east-west road could begin in the fall

A Progressive Conservative government would back an industry plan that could see work begin on an east-west road into the Ring of Fire as early as this fall, Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli said Thursday.

“We believe there’s a quick win here, and that’s the Noront Resources solution,” Fedeli said during a visit to Greater Sudbury.

Noront is working to develop its Eagle Nest and Blackbird deposits, a mix of nickel, copper, platinum and palladium, as well as its chromite deposit in the remote site in northwestern Ontario. It proposes building a permanent road from the Webequie First Nation through Pickle Lake to Saugeen, connecting it to existing road and rail infrastructure.

‘Exciting years’ for Lake Shore Gold – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – April 25, 2014)

April 25, 2014

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Dan Gagnon held a captive audience of local business owners as he talked about the prospects of Lake Shore Gold’s “continuous improvement and growth” filtering down to the community.

“I think we’ve had an exciting couple of years, definitely a breakthrough year for us in 2013,” said Gagnon, who is Lake Shore Gold’s senior vice-president of operations. “We saw a steady increase in production. We started generating free cash flow, so we’re now a business that can fund its own projects … We’ve basically gone from 85,000 ounces a year in 2012, to 135,000 in 2013, to 160,000 to 180,000 (anticipated this year).”

Gagnon was the keynote speaker at a Timmins Chamber of Commerce luncheon held Thursday at the Schumacher Lions Den.

Asked if there were opportunities for small local businesses to prosper from the growth in operations at Lake Shore Gold, Gagnon replied, “Definitely. In 2012, for example, we spent $130 million locally. That was 60% of our spending which was basically local with all the suppliers that you see off Algonquin Boulevard. There is a big push for us to support the local, then the Northern and then Ontario.”

Fears looming hydro hike will hurt industry – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – April 25, 2014)

April 25, 2014

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – It was denied at the time by Xstrata Copper. Yet many in the community continue to blame Ontario’s higher energy costs for the company’s decision that ultimately led to the Timmins smelter closing in 2010.

The fact there is a substantial hydro rate increase on horizon doesn’t bode well particularly in communities in Timmins that depend on resource-based industries which are traditionally high-energy users.

“For our industries, mining and forestry, because they are energy intensive, it’s a job killer,” said MPP Gilles Bisson (NDP – Timmins-James Bay), on the prospect of a rise in hydro rates. Phil Barton, a small business owner in Timmins and president of the city’s chamber of commerce, came close to echoing that view.

“I personally think one of the reasons we lost the met site was due to high energy costs and it is certainly detrimental to many of the other big users of power,” said Barton. “If they have to raise their costs because of energy, perhaps it makes them less competitive in the global marketplace. And that has a ripple effect throughout our whole region, probably more so than in many other regions.”

Peter Munk to leave Barrick Gold having seen its highs and lows – by James Wilson (Financial Times – April 24, 2014)

April 24, 2014

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

Peter Munk started Barrick Gold with $40m of his own money in 1982, knowing not much about mining.

Now 86, and after more than 30 years in the gold business, Mr Munk still talks about Barrick having been the entrepreneurial “young upstart” for much of its life – but it became a company worth $50bn, a Canadian national champion built by a Hungarian-born refugee and the largest producer of gold in history.

Yet the past two years have been tough on Mr Munk, Barrick and the rest of the gold industry, particularly 2013, when Barrick posted $11.5bn of writedowns, cut its dividend and had to raise $3bn in equity to try to cut its debt.

“I would not have chosen this particular year as my final one as chairman, but I don’t get to write the script,” a chastened Mr Munk wrote in the company’s annual report. Barrick is now worth about $21bn.

Mr Munk also acknowledged the damage wrought by Barrick’s acquisition of Equinox Minerals in 2011. The unexpected diversification into copper came at an inflated price, for cash, and sparked doubts last year over Barrick’s debt levels and liquidity.