Republic of Mining

PRECIOUS-Gold falls, set for biggest yearly loss since 1981 – by Clara Denina (Reuters U.S. – December 23, 2013)

December 23, 2013

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Dec 23 (Reuters) – Gold fell on Monday, on course for its largest annual loss in 32 years, as thin pre-holiday trade and signs of an improving U.S. economy growth kept investors fretting over the impact of the Federal Reserve’s stimulus tapering.

The metal posted its biggest weekly loss in a month after the Fed’s decision to start scaling back its bond-buying stimulus, which was followed by upbeat GDP data.

“Gold is in a bit of a limbo now because we know that the Fed starting to reduce their bond buying is a reality and the dollar should hold relatively strong from here,” VTB Capital analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov said.

“I would argue that there is support at $1,190 … but there may be more downside as it doesn’t take much to move the market in thin holiday trading.”

Spot gold fell 0.6 percent to $1,195.00 an ounce by 1051 GMT. It had briefly rebounded above $1,200 an ounce in earlier trade as investors found value in the metal after prices lost 4 percent in the previous three sessions.

Tale of Two Polish Mines Shows Biggest EU Producer’s Woes – by Maciej Martewicz and Marek Strzeleck (Bloomberg News – December 23, 2013)

December 23, 2013

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Stock markets aren’t usually a subject of discussion when you’re a kilometer underground, yet Dariusz Batyra isn’t a typical Polish miner.

“I check the share price each day,” said Batyra, 39, a senior foreman at the mine run by Lubelski Wegiel Bogdanka SA, one of three coal companies in Poland not controlled by the government. “Everybody does in here.”

The performance of his employer compared with competitor Kompania Weglowa SA, the biggest producer in the European Union, explains why. Since debuting on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in 2009, Bogdanka has more than doubled in value as profits rose every year but one. It has done so even as the price of coal more than halved since 2008, when the global financial crisis took hold, pushing Kompania Weglowa to the brink of collapse.

Another year of diverging fortunes for the two miners underscores the contrast in an industry that’s struggled to adapt to the reality of the free market almost a quarter of a century after communism ended in Poland.

Bogdanka employs about 5,000 and analysts expect net income of 313.5 million zloty ($103 million) for 2013, making it the most profitable of seven Polish coal producers.

Alberta Premier says pipeline prospects improving – by Kelly Cryderman (Globe and Mail – December 23, 2013)

December 23, 2013

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.

CALGARY — Alberta Premier Alison Redford says that heading into 2014, she sees encouraging political signs in relation to approval of the Keystone XL pipeline in the United States, and North Americans are realizing that pipelines are a better means of shipping crude than rail.

In a year-end interview at her Calgary office, the Premier cited a broader recognition of the safety and environmental risks of rail, which has become the key transport alternative as Alberta oil sands and U.S. light oil production ramps up and pipelines are delayed.

Perhaps more than any other issues, pipeline approvals and market access have become her raison d’être as Premier. Since shortly after she took office in late 2011, Ms. Redford has made five trips to Washington to lobby for energy projects, including the controversial Keystone XL project that would take more landlocked Alberta bitumen to U.S. Gulf Coast markets and refineries – where producers believe it will command higher prices.

B.C. fights for bigger slice of Northern Gateway pie – by Justine Hunter (Globe and Mail – December 23, 2013)

December 23, 2013

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.

VICTORIA — Last week, the Northern Gateway project was given a tentative green light from a federal review panel with a whopping 209 conditions. The federal cabinet has six months to decide whether it will accept the recommendations, but it has another hurdle to consider, this one constructed by Premier Christy Clark. Somebody, somewhere, is supposed to cough up British Columbia’s “fair share” of the benefits.

There is a very large pie that Ottawa, Alberta and B.C. can expect to share if the pipeline is built. When Ms. Clark laid out her “five conditions” for supporting heavy-oil projects across British Columbia, she said the province’s share under the current tax system isn’t big enough. For 18 months now, this demand has sat without anyone stepping up and offering a solution.

According to B.C., the Northern Gateway project is expected to generate a windfall of $81-billion in provincial and federal government taxation over a 30-year period. Of that total, $36-billion goes to Ottawa and $32-billion to Alberta. B.C. would land $6.7-billion – only slightly ahead of Saskatchewan’s $4-billion.

NORCAT lands ‘exciting’ new tenant – by Laura Stricker (Sudbury Star – December 23, 2013)

December 23, 2013

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

A British Columbia-based company is moving one of its projects to Sudbury. Sky Vertical Technologies Inc., a subsidiary of Sky Harvest Energy Corp., is setting up its vertical wind axis turbine testing and manufacturing facilities to space owned by the Northern Centre for Advanced Technologies (NORCAT), it announced in a release earlier this month.

“Our CEO (of Sky Vertical) Kyle Loney lives in Sudbury. He is very integrated in the mining business himself and he knew of NORCAT and approached them. That’s how we came to learn of them,” William Iny, Sky Harvest’s president, told The Star this week.

What partially distinguished NORCAT, Iny said, was its 70,000-square-foot development facility.

“They’re not just involved in the mining sector, which we’re very interested in, because our vertical turbines have application for the mining ventilation shaft. Their high-tech facilities for … research and development and for manufacturing, their intellectual contacts within the technology field, were really impressive.

Can Ontario unlock the mineral riches of the ‘Ring of Fire’ – by Richard Vitari (Mining.com – December 22, 2013)

December 23, 2013

http://www.mining.com/

The mineral-rich area in remote Northwestern Ontario known as the ‘Ring of Fire’ has recently received a great deal of attention from the Ontario Provincial and Canadian Federal governments. The project is valued to bring $60-$120 billion in economic benefits to Ontario, and particularly some of the poorest areas of the Province. Rich in chromite, nickel and gold, the Ring of Fire is considered to be a mining jackpot for the province; however, significant infrastructure developments are needed in order for resources to be extracted.

Political squabbling between the federal and provincial governments has obstructed mining development in the region for years. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne recently called upon the federal government to help pay for the infrastructure, which, according to Wynne, will cost approximately $1 billion for industrial infrastructure and $1.25 billion for all-season roads needed to connect all Ring of Fire communities.

Wynne says Ontario would contribute a fair share of the cost of the infrastructure, but the need is large, it would need federal matching funds. The Liberal premier has repeatedly expressed frustration with what she termed a lack of engagement by a federal Conservative government that has strongly supported resource developments elsewhere in Canada—particularly Alberta’s oil sands.

The battle between Cree First Nations and Strateco Resources heats up – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – December 21, 2013)

December 23, 2013

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The grand council of the Crees of Eeyou Istchee, the Cree regional authority and the Cree nation of Mistissini on Friday said they had filed a declaration of intervention in the legal proceedings recently started by uranium explorer Strateco Resources against the Quebec Environment Minister Yves-François Blanchet.

Strateco, who seeks permission to undertake underground exploratory drilling in search of uranium at its Matoush advanced exploration project, early this month asked the Superior Court of Quebec to nullify the minister’s decision to refuse to grant a certificate of authorisation for the exploration.

Strateco had also asked the court to force the minister to issue a certificate of authorisation for the project. In his decision of November 7, Blanchet said that he refused to authorise the Matoush project owing to the absence of social acceptability for the project, particularly among the Crees.

Through the intervention filed today, the Crees sought full rights of participation in the proceedings, and urged the court to dismiss Strateco’s request.

Friedland raises industry ire over wages claim – by David McKay (MiningMx.com – December 20, 2013)

December 23, 2013

http://www.miningmx.com/

[miningmx.com] – IVANHOE Mines president and flamboyant mining promoter, Robert Friedland, has raised the ire of his platinum industry counterparts in South Africa following comments to reporters that his company would outstrip wages paid to miners on his company’s Flatreef platinum project in South Africa by an “order of magnitude”.

“In a platinum mine in South Africa today, you have to crawl on your hands and knees on that broken rock for several hundred metres to get to the working phase,” Friedland said at a conference in a report by Reuters.

“It’s pretty claustrophobic, the men are working with muscle power, they are getting silicosis, they are breathing what they are drilling and they are tired of doing it for $12 (R120) a day. I don’t think they are going to do it for much longer, and I don’t think they should.”

“You have heard of blood diamonds for example, or Apple getting criticised for what people get paid, or you see Gap stores get worried for what people get paid in Bangladesh for sewing your clothing. Similarly it is just not viable to pay these workers $12 a day,” he said.

NEWS RELEASE: NWT Government Outlines Vision for Expansion of Northern Power Transmission Grid

December 23, 2013

(Yellowknife, NT – December 20, 2013) Providing clean, reliable, and socially acceptable power for communities and industry is the vision of the Government of the Northwest Territories, as described in their just released Vision for the NWT Power System Plan (“the Vision”).

“Expanding the NWT grid to connect our existing hydro systems with communities, industry and the rest of Canada will create the backbone transmission infrastructure necessary to transform our energy system, support the potential expansion of the Taltson Hydro facility and unlock our enormous hydro potential,” said Minister Michael Miltenberger, Minister Responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation.

Key elements of the Vision include:
• Existing hydro systems at Snare and Taltson will be connected, which will improve reliability, shift two diesel communities to hydropower and consolidate surplus hydro resources;
• The grid will be extended northeast towards established mines in the Slave Geological Province in order to attract the customer base needed to support the investment and benefit electricity rates;
• The model proposes that the public sector own the transmission network while individual mine customers will pay for transmission spurs to feed into the Grid; and

Discovery casts doubt on Klondike gold claim – by Mark Hume (Globe and Mail – December 22, 2013)

December 23, 2013

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.

VANCOUVER — When George Carmack, an American prospector, died in Vancouver in 1922, he was known as the man who discovered the first nugget that started the Klondike gold rush. But did he really?

New research by a U.S. writer indicates Mr. Carmack unfairly took credit in an attempt to steal the prestige away from a Canadian and to help erase links to the native family he abandoned after striking it rich.

The question of who actually discovered gold at Bonanza Creek in 1896 has long been in dispute, with some giving at least a bit of the credit to the two Yukon aboriginal men, Skookum Jim and Dawson Charlie, who were with Mr. Carmack that day.

They both filed single claims on Bonanza Creek – but Mr. Carmack got two. “Carmack took credit for the find, staking the discovery claim – the first claim on the creek – which entitled him to a second claim,” states the Yukon government’s archives website.

First Nations Entrepreneurship: It’s No Business, As Usual – by Sunny Freeman (Huffington Post – December 20, 2013)

December 20, 2013

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

WEBEQUIE, Ont. — Eric Jacob sprinted to his pickup truck following an abrupt late night call. A seldom-seen shipment of large appliances had been strewn across an icy lake after a truck toppled on the winter road to his isolated reserve in Ontario’s Far North.

Determined to salvage the valuable inventory of the reserve’s only store, grocery manager Eric rounded up some buddies to make the four-hour round trip to fetch the damaged ovens and refrigerators and deliver them to the 840-person community.

“We did that all night,” he says. Fortunate to have any job on the poverty-stricken Webequie reserve, Eric is in an enviable position, one with security and benefits. And he takes it seriously.

Starting as a stock boy nearly 20 years ago, the 38-year-old climbed the ladder to become grocery manager at the Northern, the lone retailer on the reserve, which sells everything from milk to dining tables, at about three times what they would cost in Thunder Bay, a two-hour plane ride south.

Q&A: Susilo Siswoutomo, Deputy of Indonesia’s Mining Ministry – by Ben Otto (Wall Street Journal – December 20, 2013)

December 20, 2013

http://online.wsj.com/home-page

JAKARTA, Indonesia–Indonesia, a major exporter of minerals like nickel, bauxite and copper, is weeks away from banning the export of ores that earn the country billions of dollars a year. The government says the move—based on a 2009 law—is necessary to force miners to build smelters and refine minerals domestically, adding value to an industry that is Indonesia’s greatest source of foreign direct investment. Many miners say smelters are too expensive to build, and that they need more time and certainty to comply.

Susilo Siswoutomo, deputy minister of Indonesia’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, says the government is working on a last-second compromise that will allow some miners to continue exporting ores.

In an interview, Mr. Siswoutomo told the Wall Street Journal’s Ben Otto that building smelters makes economic sense, that some miners may be excused from the ban, and that the government has been slow in addressing investor concerns.

Edited excerpts follow.

WSJ: Many companies say building smelters isn’t feasible.

World top ten mining billionaires in 2013 – by Steel Guru (December 20, 2013)

December 20, 2013

http://www.steelguru.com/

Forbes has compiled a list of the world’s top 1000 billionaires, and Ferret is cutting that down to show you those in mining that made the cut for 2013.

1. (No.32 globally) Alberto Bailleres Gonzalez and family [Mexico] – USD 18.2 billion
Gonzalez owns a holding company called GroupoBAL, which amongst other things runs Penoles, which is the world’s largest producer of refined silver and bismuth, as well as Latin America’s largest producer of lead and zinc.

2. (No. 35 globally) Iris Fontbona and family [Chile] – USD 17.4 billion
Iris Fontbona is the widow of Antonio Luksic, who is the founder of the Luksic Group.

Similar to GroupoBAL, Luksic holds a number of interests in different areas, but predominantly in mining. The group has major holdings in Antofagasta, the UK listed copper miner.

3. (No. 36 globally) Georgina ‘Gina’ Rinehart [Australia] – USD 17 billion
Australia’s own Gina Rinehart graces the list early on.

Turkey imposes restriction on its biggest ferrochrome producer – by Charlotte Mathews (Business Day – December 20, 2013)

December 20, 2013

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

TURKEY has imposed power restrictions on the country’s biggest ferrochrome producer, Eti Krom, which some analysts hope will help to support prices for one of South Africa’s biggest industries. In 2012, South Africa was the world’s second-largest ferrochrome producer, having lost first place to China largely because of rising Eskom electricity tariffs and power shortages.

South Africa’s biggest ferrochrome producers are Glencore Xstrata in a joint venture with Merafe Resources; International Ferro Metals, which is listed in London; Samancor Chrome; Hernic Ferrochrome; ASA Metals; and Mogale Alloys, owned by Afarak Group (formerly Ruukki Group).

Turkey ranks among the world’s top 10 producers. Ferrochrome is mostly used in stainless steel, whose production is forecast to rise about 5.5% a year for the next few years, as it is closely correlated with global gross domestic product growth. However, ferrochrome prices have been weak recently because of a slowdown in the Chinese economy coupled with growing Chinese production.

Chinese mining company faces another legal challenge in B.C. to foreign workers – by James Keller (Vancouver Sun – December 19, 2013)

December 20, 2013

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

Canadain Press – A Chinese-owned mining firm behind a proposed underground coal project in northern British Columbia is facing yet another union legal challenge over its use of temporary foreign workers.

HD Mining has been fending off controversy since it was revealed last year that it planned to use up to 201 temporary foreign workers from China at its Murray River project, near Tumbler Ridge.

The plan prompted federal politicians to suggest the permits shouldn’t have been granted and led to a legal challenge from two unions, which ultimately ended in the company’s favour.

Now, the United Steelworkers union is asking the B.C. Supreme Court to revoke the company’s mining exploration permit, arguing the province’s chief inspector of mines was wrong to grant the permit without adequately addressing concerns the workers would not be fluent in English.