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Desperate junior miners ‘Breaking Bad’ to stay afloat – by Armina Ligaya and Peter Koven (National Post – March 26, 2014)

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

Canada’s hundreds of tiny mining companies have had such a rough ride, with metal prices tanking and financing drying up to a trickle, that some have simply resorted to drugs. Medical marijuana, to be exact.

Canadian resource companies such as Next Gen, Sartori Resources, and, most recently, TSX Venture-listed Cavan Ventures Inc., have floated the idea of a foray into medical marijuana industry, with the buzz often sending their stocks to a (very temporary) high.

Junior miners’ increasing interest in the medicinal plant is “symptomatic of how difficult it has become in this sector,” said John Kaiser, mining analyst and research director of Kaiser Research Online.

It’s similar to the ploys by resources companies in the late 1990s and early 2000s to jump on the dot-com boom amid a similar tough economic environment, he said. “To me it has this smell of an end times type of mentality,” he said. “Where nothing means anything any more, [and] it’s hopeless to raise money for real stuff in the resource sector.”

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UPDATE 1-India’s Goa should cap iron ore output at 20 mln T/yr -court panel – by Krishna N Das (Reuters India – March 26, 2014)

http://in.reuters.com/

NEW DELHI, March 26 (Reuters) – Iron ore production in Goa, usually India’s top exporting state of the raw ingredient for steel, should be capped at 20 million tonnes a year when an 18-month old mining ban is lifted, a court-appointed panel said, less than half peak output and curbing potential shipments to key buyer China.

But even with that limit, additional supply from Goa could further pressure iron ore prices in a global market expected to be in surplus this year as top miners boost output and Chinese demand slows.

India’s Supreme Court is likely to implement the recommendation from the panel, which it appointed in November to look at lifting the ban that was imposed to curb illegal mining. The court earlier allowed the sale of about 15 million tonnes of iron ore that had sat in a stockpile.

The panel also said in a report seen by Reuters that Goa should consider setting up a state iron ore mining company to minimise environmental damage by private miners. While analysts expect a gradual recovery in Indian iron ore exports over the next two years, the pace is likely to be modest and far from a record high of more than 117 million tonnes set in the fiscal year through March 2010.

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Elliot Lake wildcat strike led to key law – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – March 26, 2014)

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

United Steelworkers will mark a milestone in occupational health and safety next month with a forum to commemorate the 40th anniversary of a wildcat strike in Elliot Lake that led to safer workplaces throughout Ontario.

The forum will mark the start of the three-week strike by about 1,000 Steelworkers in 1974 at Elliot Lake’s Denison uranium mine that resulted in the Government of Ontario appointing a royal commission headed by James Ham.

The Ham Commission on Mine Safety resulted in the creation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act in 1979, the provincial law governing health and safety in the workplace, and the internal responsibility system.

The IRS is based on the principle that everyone in the workplace, workers and employers, are responsible for safety and for the safety of those around them John Perquin, a USW staff representative who works in the union’s head office in Pittsburgh, arrived in Elliot Lake about seven years after the strike that was a watershed moment in workers’ safety.

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Despite what seems, the U.S. in a much better position than Russia after Putin’s Crimean adventure – by John Ivison (National Post – March 26, 2014)

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

President Barack Obama threatened Vladimir Putin with “broad-based” sanctions that would target the energy and financial sectors, if Russia continues to gobble up the territory of its neighbours. Mr. Putin, who knows that western Europe relies on his $160-billion in oil and gas exports, was probably not quaking in his boots.

At a press conference in The Hague Tuesday, Mr. Obama was asked if the threat was hollow, coming from an America whose influence is declining. The tone of much of the commentary is that a resurgent Russia is thumbing its nose at an impotent and waning United States.

But, according to one of the world’s foremost energy experts, the map of world energy is being redrawn in front of our eyes — and not to Mr. Putin’s advantage.

Daniel Yergin, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Quest – Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World, said the energy revolution in the United States has created a “new dimension” to American foreign policy, while “the bloom is off the rose” of Russian energy production, in part because of the flight of capital in the wake of Mr. Putin’s Crimean adventure.

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Goldcorp chairman confident in $2.8-billion hostile bid for Osisko – by Peter Koven and Nicolas Van Praet (National Post – March 26, 2014)

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

TORONTO/MONTREAL – The shares of Osisko Mining Corp. are trading well above his offer price, and investors and analysts are clamouring for a higher bid. But Ian Telfer maintains everything is going “extremely well.”

The chairman of Goldcorp Inc. remains confident his company’s $2.8-billion hostile offer for Montreal-based Osisko will succeed. In an interview in Toronto Tuesday, he pointed out that Osisko is running out of time to find a white knight bidder, and added that the “Just Say No” defence almost never works.

“Because there’s no other bidder, we see no reason to bid against ourselves,” he said in an interview. “You can’t have an auction with only one bidder.”

Osisko delayed Goldcorp’s hostile approach with a lawsuit that got settled this month. Mr. Telfer said Goldcorp got “exactly what we wanted” out of the settlement as it eliminated Osisko’s poison pill and will allow Goldcorp to do more due diligence starting next week on Osisko’s Canadian Malartic mine in Quebec. It is his understanding that Osisko’s board pushed its management team to settle with Goldcorp.

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Canadian firms in Russia push Ottawa for support – by RACHELLE YOUNGLAI, JEFF GRAY AND RICHARD BLACKWELL (Globe and Mail – March 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.

Canadian companies operating in Russia are pleading with Ottawa to ensure they aren’t sideswiped by sanctions as the federal government puts global security ahead of commercial interests in the region. On Monday Prime Minister Stephen Harper said commercial interests are now secondary in the consideration of responses to the Russian moves.

“We don’t like seeing disruption to investment or to markets or to trade but the fact of the matter is when you are looking at it from the standpoint of a greater national interest … this is not something we can subordinate to economic interests,” Mr. Harper said.

One Canadian company with significant operations in Russia, Kinross Gold Corp., has told the federal government that Ottawa needs to take into account the impact on Canadian employees and shareholders when it takes action in response to the Russian annexation of Crimea. About 27 per cent of Kinross’s production comes from Russian mines.

“We have communicated to the government of Canada our desire to see a balanced approach to resolving this situation in a way that considers Canadian interests in Russia,” Kinross spokeswoman Andrea Mandel-Campbell said.

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Illinois Residents File Intent to Sue for Federal Takeover of Rogue Coal Mining Agencies – by Jeff Biggers (Huffington Post – March 25, 2014)

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

What happens when government regulators fail to uphold coal mining laws, in a state of constant violations?

No one knows better than residents in Illinois: Today marks the March 25th anniversary of the tragic Centralia, Illinois coal disaster, when government inaction on a violation-ridden coal mine led to an explosion that needlessly took the lives of 111 miners.

Nor does anyone know better than residents in Clinton County, Illinois, where toxic coal slurry from a nearby mine contaminated the watersheds of unwitting farmers more than a decade ago.

Now, with state mining regulatory agencies mired in scandal, violations and public outcry, and on the heels of the West Virginia and North Carolina coal ash and slurry disasters, Illinois residents embroiled in one of the nation’s most notorious coal slurry cases are appealing for the federal government to revoke approval of the state’s rogue coal mining agencies and allow citizens to lawfully seek environmental compliance in the courts.

Citing a number of violations of the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, the Citizens Opposing Pollution filed a 60-day intent to sue notice on March 17th with the Department of the Interior, unless it takes over the state’s abysmal enforcement program.

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COLUMN-Cheaper Asian LNG depends on coal, Japan nuclear – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.K. – March 25, 2014)

http://uk.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – Asian spot liquefied natural gas prices have started their seasonal downturn after the winter peak, but how far they will fall depends on whether coal remains cheap and if Japan restarts some nuclear capacity.

LNG for May delivery was around $16.50 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), down from levels above $20 per mmBtu last month, reached as utilities re-stocked after peak winter demand. Last year, spot LNG LNG-AS fell 28 percent from the peak of $19.67 per mmBtu on Feb. 18 to a low of $14.13 on May 3.

Prices peaked at $20.50 per mmBtu on Feb. 7 this year, and a drop of a similar magnitude would see them fall to about $14.76 around May. However, much will depend on whether Japan does restart some nuclear generation, and whether it and China are willing to use cheaper coal despite the higher pollution.

None of Japan’s reactors, which used to supply about 20 percent of the nation’s electricity, are currently online, although two are now on a shortlist for a final round of safety checks.

Public scepticism remains high three years after the earthquake and tsunami that caused the destruction of the Fukushima plant, which led to the idling of nuclear generation.

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Headline: Development corp. benefits unclear to Matawa – by Bryan Phelan (Onotassiniik – Spring 2014)

 http://onotassiniik.com/

 Suspension of Cliffs’ chromite project a relief to First Nations, Ferris says

More than two months after the Ontario government announced it, Matawa First Nations had yet to endorse a proposed development corporation for building infrastructure to the Ring of Fire mineral development. Ontario declared in early November it would lead the creation of such a business structure.

“Recent developments, and divergent private sector interests, have impacted our ability to move forward on vital infrastructure required to develop the region,” said Michael Gravelle, minister of northern development and mines.

“Currently there are a variety of proposals for infrastructure development. They propose different corridors and different modes of transportation but in the end, they all lead to the same place. In recent weeks, it has become increasingly clear to me that we need to determine exactly what those infrastructure needs are, and we need to do it now.”

As a result, Gravelle said, “The creation of a development corporation will bring First Nations, mining companies, and provincial and federal partners together to settle divergent interests and get back to making this development happen.

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Time for regional environmental assessment for Ring of Fire – by Anna Baggio (Onotassiniik – Spring 2014)

 http://onotassiniik.com/

Anna Baggio is the Director Conservation Planning, CPAWS Wildlands League.

Oh the gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair that has occurred in various media outlets and around the province since news broke that Cliffs would suspend indefinitely its chromite project in northern Ontario. It wasn’t a surprise to those of us who follow global market prices, corporate boardrooms and here at home the environmental assessment processes. The project had been sputtering for quite some time.

With news of the indefinite suspension by Cliffs, there has been a lot of finger pointing and apportioning of blame. But I think this is a distraction from bigger, more important issues such as how Ontario should develop its non-renewable resources in the Ring of Fire. “The Ring” is more than Cliffs, after all.

How should we address neighbouring First Nations’ decades-long infrastructure needs? How do we make sure the Ekwan, Attawapiskat and Albany rivers will be clean and healthy forever? How do we all make best use of limited public resources? How do we ensure there is transparency and integrity around decision-making and that First Nations are respected?

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Miners Brave Congo’s Warlord History as Demand for Tin Soars – by Michael J. Kavanagh (Bloomberg News – March 25, 2014)

http://www.businessweek.com/

As his chartered Cessna flies above the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Katanga province, Mussadiq Hamid Merican flips through the pages of his Malaysian passport, counting Congolese visas.

“Nine, 10, 11,” he laughs, while the plane passes over villages of thatched-roof huts scattered across sparsely forested savannah. “And these are multiple entry visas so it’s actually more than that.”

The pilot banks and approaches a dirt landing strip rolled in the 1980s by a now-defunct tin company. For the past four years, Merican, 34, has been flying in and out of mines like this in Congo for Malaysia Smelting Corp. (SMELT), the world’s second-largest tin producer. Merican’s company is among those trying to determine if it’s possible to mine in the country profitably — without enriching warlords.

Since the mid-1990s, when war broke out in eastern Congo in the aftermath of the genocide in neighboring Rwanda, Congolese minerals have been linked with corruption, killing and sexual violence. Rebels, unscrupulous traders and members of the army helped themselves to tin ore, of which Congo is Africa’s biggest producer, gold and columbite-tantalite, or coltan, an ore used in smartphones and laptops.

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History of Ukrainian Mining City of Donetsk [Coal-rich Donets/Donbas Basin]

This article is from: http://www.citylife.donetsk.ua/main/history

The year 1869 is traditionally referred to as the date of founding Donetsk (former Hughsofka). In contrast to many other large cities which were born of the advantages provided by geography and transportation, Donetsk sprang up and developed from a mining and metallurgical industry thanks to rich stores of minerals. In the upper regions of Kalmius river, where the city is located, there were large deposits of coal, and around the settlement of Alexandrovka, founded in 1779, the first coal mines appeared. The residents of other nearby settlements Semyonovka, Lyubimovka (Zakop), Nikolaevka, Ekaterinovka, Grigorievka (Georgievka), and Larinka also provided the labour force to work in the mines.

In 1866 Russian engineer A. Mevius proved the necessity of building iron works on the right bank of Kalmius, not far from Alexandrovka settlement. This site had everything that was necessary; in upper Kalmius there was coal; not far away in Karakuba (today the city of Komsomolsk, in Starobeshevskiy Region) there was iron ore; in the nearby village Elenovka there was lime; and right at hand was river water.

The Tsarist government was unable to deal properly with the land riches. And having estimated all possibilities for making huge profits on cheap coal by cheap labour, foreign concessionaires poured into Donbass. One of them was the English technician-metallurgist John James Hughes, a manager of a small plant near London. Having bought or leased the land at profitable terms, he made an agreement with the Committee of Russian Ministers to establish Novorossiysk Coal, Iron and Railway Society, and the Society of the Railway branch of Kharkov-Azov line.

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South Africa platinum strike causing ‘irreparable’ damage – producers – by Xola Potelwa (Reuters U.K. – March 25, 2014)

http://uk.reuters.com/

JOHANNESBURG – (Reuters) – Platinum producers Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin said on Tuesday a strike now in its ninth week at their South African mines was causing irreparable damage to the sector and local economy.

Wage talks have broken down between the companies and the striking AMCU union, which is demanding a doubling of basic wages, although the world’s top three platinum producers said they were open to talks “within a reasonable settlement zone”.

In a joint statement, the companies said they had lost nearly 10 billion rand ($921 million) in revenues, but also pointed to the cost to communities around the mines in the platinum belt northwest of Johannesburg.

South Africa’s biggest post-apartheid mine strike, which has hit 40 percent of global production of the precious metal, is also seen denting sluggish economic growth and widening the current account deficit as its effects ripple from the platinum communities throughout the wider economy.

“The financial cost … does not tell the full story,” the companies said. “Mines and shafts are becoming unviable; people are hungry; children are not going to school; businesses are closing and crime in the platinum belt is increasing.”

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Goldcorp to consider Osisko Mining spinoff to sweeten offer – by Rachelle Younglai and Boyd Erman (Globe and Mail – March 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.

Goldcorp Inc. would consider spinning off Osisko Mining Corp.’s exploration assets into a separate company as a way to sweeten its unsolicited offer for the smaller gold miner, people familiar with the matter said.

Montreal-based Osisko has rejected Goldcorp’s $3-billion cash and stock offer and is courting a range of suitors for its large Canadian Malartic mine in Quebec.

With a spinoff, Osisko shareholders would not only get a stake in the much larger Goldcorp but also retain ownership in some assets with growth potential, such as Osisko’s deposits in Ontario’s Kirkland Lake area.

Getting a friendly deal would ensure that Goldcorp locks up an asset it has coveted for more than five years before Osisko signs up to sell to another bidder. It is not just a rival bidder that Goldcorp has to consider. There is the possibility that Osisko shareholders simply say no.

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Rio set for potash push – by Matt Chambers (The Australian – March 24, 2014)

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business

Rio Tinto could start building a Canadian potash project within three years, according to its joint venture partner, as the big miner chases a fertiliser push by BHP Billiton to position itself at the forefront of a global food boom.

There is also growing speculation Rio will make a bigger plunge into the sector through an acquisition or joint venture of neighbouring junior Western Potash, or even by joining BHP.

Last week, Rio revealed it had made a “tier-one” potash discovery at its KP405 lease near Regina, in Saskatchewan’s Elk Point Basin. This is the basin where BHP is spending $US3.8 billion ($4.2bn) sinking big mine shafts and building associated infrastructure about 200km to the north to be ready for expected growth in global demand for the crop fertiliser.

Rio’s Russian partner, Acron, has called the find “massive” and, based on a Rio report, capable of supporting a long-life, low-cost potash mine. Still, KP405 is lower grade, has been proved up to a fraction of the certainty and is less than a third the size of the resource BHP is targeting. It is also nearly twice as deep, meaning mining methods will be different and probably more expensive.

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