Republic of Mining

Police Disperse Crowd of 3,000 at Amplats Amid Strike Talks – by Paul Burkhardt (Bloomberg News – February 4, 2014)

February 4, 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/

South African police fired rubber bullets and water cannon to disperse a 3,000-strong crowd who massed at an Anglo American Platinum Ltd. (AMS) mine in support of a strike that has disrupted the world’s three biggest producers.

Police broke up the crowd at the Khuseleka mine, northwest of Johannesburg, Thulani Ngubane, a spokesman for the South African Police Service in the North West province, said by phone today. Two people were arrested.

The group had “the intention of not letting any mineworker go to work and we tried to resolve it amicably and we had to resort to minimum force,” Ngubane said.

Talks resumed in Pretoria aimed at resolving the dispute between producers and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, which has been on strike over pay since Jan. 23. The union has more than 70,000 members on strike at Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. (IMP) and Lonmin Plc (LON), which run the largest mines in a country accounting for about 70 percent of global output of the precious metal.

NEWSMAKER-Indonesian minister tried but couldn’t block his own law – by Wilda Asmarini and Kanupriya Kapoor (Reuters India – February 4, 2014)

February 4, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

Feb 4 (Reuters) – Indonesia’s mines minister, Jero Wacik, has been on an unusual mission in recent months: finding a way out of implementing his own government’s policy.

A smiling, well-rehearsed politician, Wacik was earlier tourism minister, pushing the charms of his native Bali island and other Indonesian attractions. In 2011, he was given the role of supervising the country’s $6 billion-a-year mining sector despite having no experience of the industry.

At the time, part of his job was to enforce a law President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had pushed through, a bold ultimatum to the mining industry: process your ores in Indonesia by 2014 or stop exporting.

But around the middle of last year, the government came to the conclusion that a ban on the export of ore would hurt the economy and lead to job losses that would be damaging in the 2014 election year. Wacik tried postponing the law, but parliament, already tired of the administration’s ambiguities, wouldn’t play ball. He then tried to water it down, but was not successful.

Low-cost production key for gold – by Barry Fitzgerald (The Australian – February 4, 2014)

February 4, 2014

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

IT stands to reason that in the mining world, the best defence against commodity price weakness is to be the lowest-cost producer. That goes doubly for the gold sector after last year’s price collapse.All that has panned out for those investors who responded to the massive shakedown in the gold price and equity values last year for gold producers not by fleeing altogether, but by seeking safe harbour in the lowest-cost producers.

They have been doing very nicely, thank you very much. Australia’s lowest-cost (listed) gold producer, Doray Minerals (DRM), is a case in point. Its cash costs are the lowest in the local industry if Newcrest’s Cadia operation, which gets the benefit of a copper credit, is ignored.

It’s hard to believe now but Doray got as low as 35c a share last July when the shakedown for gold stocks was in full swing. Realistically, some of that weakness was due to the fact that the group’s new Andy Well operation, north of Meekatharra in Western Australia, had yet to pour its first gold, meaning it had yet to prove itself.

COMMENT: Taku River Tlingit toss monkey wrench into Tulsequah Chief project – by Marilyn Scales (Canadian Mining Journal – February 3, 2014)

May 4, 2015February 4, 2014

Marilyn Scales is a field editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication. She is one of Canada’s most senior mining commentators.

A lawsuit filed on Dec. 17 by the Taku River Tlingit First Nation could derail plans by Chieftain Metals to develop its Tulsequah Chief base and precious metals project 100 km south of Atlin. The legal challenge seeks to void the environmental permit issued for the mine, naming the BC Minister of Environment, Environmental Assessment Office and Chieftain as co-respondents.

The Tulsequah project includes two former producers, the Tulsequah Chief and Big Bull mines. Readers can imagine that they have been producing acid drainage, and that problem can be solved by measures taken during the development of a new mine. Hence the sooner Chieftain can proceed, the closer a solution will be.

Why the Taku River Tlingit would want to delay the project seems counterproductive to environmental stewardship. But the lawsuit splits hairs over the term “substantially started”.

The original environmental certificate was issued in 2002 to then-owner Redfern Resources and was valid for five years. It carried a clause that the project must be substantially started within five years of its issuance. Redfern received a five-year extension in 2007.

Indonesian govt must offer incentives to build smelters-PT Indosmelt – by Michael Taylor and Wilda Asmarini (Reuters India – February 4, 2014)

February 4, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

JAKARTA, Feb 4 (Reuters) – Indonesia’s government must provide tax holidays and other financial incentives to convince companies to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to build copper smelters amid weak global prices, said the head of smelting firm PT Indosmelt.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono last month imposed new mining policies, including a controversial mineral ore export ban and progressive export taxes, aimed at forcing miners to build smelters and process their raw materials in Indonesia.

The policies have forced U.S. miners Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold and Newmont Mining Corp, which together produce 97 percent of Indonesia’s copper, to halt all exports. The two firms have yet to commit to building smelters, saying it was not economically viable to make such large investments.

“The margins for smelters are small, very small,” Natsir Mansyur, president director of privately owned and unlisted PT Indosmelt told Reuters. “There must be incentives from the government. To build (a smelter), this business should be protected by the government.”

In mid-2012, government officials said they planned to offer financial incentives to help firms build smelters to comply with the new mining regulations, although the details have yet to be announced and talks are still ongoing.

Andrew Forrest takes fight to Nintendo – by John Daffe (Herald Sun – February 4, 2014)

February 4, 2014

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/

IT’S the battle that pits one of Australia’s richest men against one of the world’s biggest video game makers. And it’s game on.

Mining billionaire and philanthropist Andrew Forrest has set his sights on Nintendo, hoping to force the Japanese giant to beef up measures ensuring its products contain no “conflict minerals”.

The name refers to minerals – commonly tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold – that are heavily mined in and around the Democratic Republic of Congo using forced labour, debt bondage and child slavery.

Walk Free, the anti-slavery group founded by Mr Forrest, is stepping up its campaign against Nintendo, which it says is yet to take concrete steps to guarantee that the microprocessors powering its consoles are free from the minerals.

The group started an email campaign encouraging people to quiz Nintendo chiefs about their conflict minerals policy last year. It has launched a new push after last month’s decision by Intel, the world’s largest semiconductor chip maker, to guarantee its microprocessors are conflict mineral free.

Base metals in a post super-cycle world – Lennon – by Geoff Canday (Mineweb.com – February 4, 2014)

February 4, 2014

http://www.mineweb.com/

Jim Lennon discusses why demographics alone aren’t enough to recreate the massive type of growth in China that led to the super cycle.

CAPE TOWN (MINEWEB) – GEOFF CANDY: Hello and welcome to this Mineweb.com Newsmaker podcast, my name is Geoff Candy and joining me here live at the Cape Town International Convention Centre for the 2014 Mining Indaba is Jim Lennon, he’s the managing director at Red Door Research.

Jim, you’ve just done a presentation, the key note, about where we’re headed from a metals point of view, where the super-cycle is or if it’s going to come back, just generally speaking, the lay of the land. One of the things that struck from that is that it does seem to be moving very much from a demand-driven story to what’ s going to happening with supply over the next ten, 15, 20 years, is that a correct reading of things?

JIM LENNON: Partly, I think first China will continue to be a dominant factor on the demand side, the rates of growth in China were high double digit for the last ten years, we’re now seeing that slow down, so necessarily the growth rates are slowing. However, the volume required as a result of that slow growth because you’re working off the high base is still very, very high.

Cuba to cut nickel plant output for major overhaul (Reuters U.S. – February 3, 2014)

February 4, 2014

http://www.reuters.com/

Feb 3 (Reuters) – Cuba will reduce production at one of its two nickel plants this year so it can carry out maintenance and capital improvements to make the plant competitive at low international prices.

A report on the evening government newscast on Sunday said the Ernesto Che Guevara processing facility in eastern Holguin province would be given a major overhaul.

The state-owned plant, built with Soviet technology and opened in 1986, has a capacity of about 30,000 tonnes of unrefined nickel plus cobalt a year at a cost of more than $12,000 a tonne.

Spot nickel prices on the London Metals Exchange opened at $13,695 a tonne on Monday. The broadcast quoted the plant’s head of maintenance as saying it would be the biggest overhaul in the plant’s 28-year history and that workers face the challenge of producing 14,700 tonnes of unrefined nickel plus cobalt while it is taking place.

Tighter South African emission laws boost platinum ‘beneficiation’ – by Martin Creamer (MiningWeekly.com – February 3, 2014)

February 4, 2014

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

CAPE TOWN (miningweekly.com) –Tighter vehicle emission legislation in South Africa would boost the struggling platinum mining industry and be a fantastic local beneficiation route for the metal, which is facing an uphill battle, SFA Oxford MD Beresford Clarke said on Monday.

Beresford, who was addressing the Investing In African Mining Indaba on Monday, said that South Africa was becoming less competitive in the platinum market and the next three years would be tough for platinum.

The recycling of platinum autocatalysts and platinum jewellery had risen to two-million ounces a year, four times higher than in 2000, and was tantamount to Lonmin-sized output being incrementally added every five years.

Palladium-rich Russian and North America were outdoing platinum-and-rhodium dominant South Africa, with both countries producing at lower cash costs and higher by-product credits than South Africa.

Sage-grouse could become mining’s ‘Spotted Owl on Steroids’ – AMEA – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – February 4, 2014)

February 4, 2014

http://www.mineweb.com/

Federal designation of the Greater Sage-grouse as threatened or endangered could result in the withdrawal of over 17 million acres from mining, says the American Exploration & Mining Association.

RENO (MINEWEB) – The America Exploration & Mining Association (AEMA), formerly the Northwest Mining Association, recently accused the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service of making an unprecedented attempted to limit multiple use on public lands through use of “the Spotted Owl on Steroids”—the Greater Sage-Grouse.

“BLM and USFS are inappropriately using concerns about a potential listing of the Greater Sage-grouse as a threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act to asset a need for widespread land use restrictions—including withdrawing over 17 million acres from operation of the US Mining Law,” said AEMA, which represents U.S. explorationists, as well as mining companies.

The association claimed that the “sweeping land use restrictions and prohibitions” in the BLM/USFS Draft environmental impact statements for sage-grouse exceed the agencies’ statutory authority “by proposing actions that fail to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and violate:

Obama won’t rush Keystone decision, White House says – by Barrie McKenna (Globe and Mail – February 3, 2014)

February 4, 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.

OTTAWA — Barack Obama is refusing to give Ottawa the quick answer it wants on the Keystone XL pipeline in spite of a State Department report that dispels the U.S. President’s main climate-change fears.

The White House said Sunday it will wait at least another 90 days to make a final decision as it awaits vital input from other government departments and agencies, raising the possibility that the U.S. President may avoid a decision on the controversial project until after the November U.S. midterm elections for fear of alienating Democratic voters.

On Friday, the U.S. State Department answered Mr. Obama’s main concerns about climate change by concluding that the TransCanada Corp. pipeline would not significantly boost greenhouse gas emissions or Canadian oil sands output.

But White House chief of staff Denis McDonough, Mr. Obama’s top adviser, insisted the President is still looking for more guidance and won’t be rushed into a quick decision. Keystone XL would carry 830,000 barrels a day of diluted bitumen from Alberta’s oil sands and light oil from North Dakota’s Bakken fields to the massive refining complex on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Grassy Narrows First Nation on alert for logging – by Crystal Greene (CBC News Aboriginal – February 3, 2014)

February 4, 2014

http://www.cbc.ca/news/aboriginal

Longest running First Nations blockade effectively stopped logging since December 2002

The Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation (Grassy Narrows) is on alert for logging trucks to come in April 2014. Grassy Narrows is the home of the longest running First Nations blockade in Canada. Its original Slant Lake blockade site, about 100 km north of Kenora, Ontario, started on December 2, 2002.

Judy DaSilva is a member of Grassy Narrows First Nation and has been on the forefront right from the start. “As a mom, I’ll do whatever I can to protect the forests, pretty much the other moms around here have the same mindset,” said DaSilva a mother of five with concern for the future generations.

In 2002, DaSilva was tired of seeing mercury debilitate her people, watching logging trucks pass by her home and took action.

Last year, DaSilva won a Michael Sattler Peace Prize from the German Mennonite Peace Committee for her non-violent direct-action approach in the blockade at Grassy Narrows traditional territory, within the Treaty 3 region. Logging halted for over 11 years, but in the past few months things are picking up once again.

NEWS RELEASE: Mine safety review launch draws media attention

February 4, 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.

The inaugural meeting of the Ministry of Labour’s mine safety review panel attracted pretty well the full slate of Sudbury’s media representatives – print, radio and television; English and French; local and outlets with national affiliations. The Sudbury media had an opportunity to interview Ontario Chief Prevention Officer George Gritziotis, who is leading the review, along with Fergus Kerr, industry co-chair, and John Perquin, labour co-chair.

“It is about outcomes, responsiveness and comprehensiveness,” said Mr. Gritziotis, who was kept very busy by the high level of media interest. “It is about having a positive impact on the workplace as soon as possible, whether through regulation, mandatory training or best practices.”

The comprehensive mining safety review was announced by Ontario Labour Minister Yasir Naqvi just before the end of 2013. It is the next logical step in the ongoing process to improve the health and well-being of mineral industry employees and reach the goal of zero harm. The evidence-based review is to complete its work in 12 months.

COLUMN-Indonesian minerals ban bites as well as barks – by Andy Home (Reuters India – February 3, 2014)

February 3, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.

Feb 3 (Reuters) – Indonesian minerals policy is rarely a straightforward affair and so it proved again in the run-up to the Jan. 12 ban on exports of unprocessed ores.

There was plenty of last-minute drama, particularly concerning the treatment of copper concentrates. These were first unexpectedly included in the ban and then granted an eleventh-hour presidential exemption, but with an equally unexpected caveat of rising export taxes.

And there will surely be more twists and turns in the story in the weeks and months ahead. Both of the major copper producers operating in the country, Freeport McMoRan and Newmont Mining, are challenging the government’s right to change existing contracts of work governing their operations at Grasberg and Batu Hijau respectively.

A local mining association, meanwhile, has wasted no time in filing a legal challenge to the ban. The really big surprise, though, is just how total the ban is.

Coal Baron Digs a Deeper Hole – by Elliot Negin (Huffington Post – February 3, 2014)

February 3, 2014

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

Elliott Negin is the director of news and commentary at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Robert E. “Bob” Murray, the pugnacious owner of Ohio-based coal giant Murray Energy Corp., keeps his lawyers busy. Besides appealing safety fines, over the past few years his company has sued two news organizations — the Charleston Gazette and Huffington Post — for defamation and the Labor Department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration for levying “unfounded and baseless violation citations.”

More recently, the company turned it up a notch, announcing it will sic its lawyers on the Environmental Protection Agency. Why? The company — the largest producer of underground coal in the country — alleges that the agency has illegally ignored the impact of Clean Air Act enforcement on jobs in the coal industry.

“Over the past five years, EPA has waged what can fairly be described as a war on coal, repeatedly and consistently encouraging sources to switch from coal to other fuels, to shut down coal-fired sources, and to avoid constructing new coal-fired sources, all through EPA’s administration and enforcement of the Clean Air Act,” the company’s law firm, Squire Sanders, stated in a January 21 “notice of intent” letter, which plaintiffs are required to file in advance of suing a federal agency.