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Barrick Gold may raise Pascua-Lama costs once more – by Allison Martell (Reuters Canada – October 29, 2013)

http://ca.reuters.com/

TORONTO (Reuters) – Barrick Gold Corp (ABX.TO: Quote) will likely raise the cost estimate for its huge Pascua-Lama mine project in South America for the third time in less than two years when the world’s top gold producer reports results on Thursday.

Much has changed since November, when Toronto-based Barrick pegged the cost of the gold and silver project at $8.5 billion, and markets are anxious to see the company’s new capital cost estimate.

High in the Andes, on the border between Chile and Argentina, Pascua-Lama is Barrick’s biggest and most important growth project. It’s risky, but the potential is great: when and if the mine is completed, it is expected to have exceptionally low operating costs, which could pay dividends for years to come.

Since Barrick released its November estimate, regulators have halted construction on the Chilean side of the project, citing serious environmental violations. Barrick has agreed to build a new water management system to meet their concerns, and said in June it would defer some spending that had been scheduled for 2013 and 2014.

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NEWS RELEASE: Scotiabank’s Commodity Price Index Loses Further Ground in September

 TORONTO, Oct. 30, 2013 /CNW/ – Scotiabank’s Commodity Price Index fell in September, declining 2.8% month over month (m/m) and 3.8% year over year (yr/yr). While the All Items Index will likely fall further over the balance of 2013, the correction in commodity prices, especially in metals and minerals, since April 2011 should be largely over by year-end.

“Traditionally, junior mining companies have been important contributors to mineral exploration across Canada, finding and delineating deposits, before selling them to senior producers for development,” said Patricia Mohr, Scotiabank’s Vice President of Economics and Commodity Market Specialist. “However, equity capital raised by junior mining companies on the TSX Venture plunged in 2012 and has moved even lower in 2013 year to date.

A revival of equity capital for junior miners will depend largely upon a cyclical rebound in metal and mineral prices and an improvement in investor sentiment for senior producers. However, M&A activity, financed by private equity, is beginning to pick up.”

Highlights in the report include:

The hard-pressed beef and pork industry in Western Canada received some good news from the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the European Union (if ratified).

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U.S. Steel ends an era in Hamilton – by Greg Keenan (Globe and Mail – October 30, 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.

TORONTO — United States Steel Corp. will permanently cease steel production at its Hamilton mill at the end of the year, ending an era that goes back more than a century.

The blast furnaces at the massive Hamilton Works site have been on what U.S. Steel calls “temporary idle” since late 2010. The permanent closure will leave just a coke-making operation, a cold mill that processes steel from the Nanticoke, Ont., operations and the company’s Z-line galvanizing operation, which finishes steel for automotive customers and others.

“Decisions like this are always difficult, but they’re necessary to improve the cost structure of our Canadian operations,” Mario Longhi, president of U.S. Steel said on a conference call for the company’s third-quarter financial results Tuesday.

The permanent end of steel making in what was the cradle of the Canadian steel industry is the latest step in what has been a troubled history for U.S. Steel with the operations of the former Stelco Inc., which it took over in 2007. Each set of negotiations with members of the United Steelworkers union in Hamilton or Nanticoke, Ont., led to lockouts of workers.

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Canadian mining tycoon follows Hollywood dream – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – October 30, 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.

JOHANNESBURG — Canadian mining tycoon Robert Friedland, who made billions from discoveries in Labrador and Mongolia, is embarking on a new career: Hollywood film mogul.

The flamboyant entrepreneur, famed as a master showman and pitchman at mining investor conferences, is now venturing into a different kind of show business. This time he’ll be fielding pitches from movie producers as he helms a new Hollywood-based company, Ivanhoe Pictures, to indulge what he calls his “long-held love of film and storytelling.”

His company has already acquired its first hot property, a film called Crazy Rich Asians, based on the bestselling comedic novel by Kevin Kwan, described as one of the most eagerly pursued titles in the industry. His partner on the project is the company that produced the blockbuster Hunger Games series.

But he’s also planning a film that’s much closer to his mining obsessions. “We’re teaming up with a major Hollywood studio and we’re making a movie called Copper,” Mr. Friedland announced at a mining conference in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

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[Sudbury] City calls on province to make Ring a priority – by Laura Stricker (Sudbury Star – October 30, 2013)

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

The discovery of the Ring of Fire was like “winning the lottery,” and the province needs to treat it like so, a city councillor said Tuesday evening.

“The Ring of Fire is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Ron Dupuis. “The only way we’re going to get this going is to keep pressure on the people in Toronto and to make sure they understand how vital it is to us.”

Dupuis’ comments came following a motion introduced by Mayor Marianne Matichuk that calls on the province to make the chromite-rich deposit a priority for the government.

“This motion is not designed to favour one company over another or to wade into legal dispute,” the mayor said. “It’s about partners working together so legal intervention is not needed. “The province must work with all stakeholders … the Ring of Fire is critical to the economic future of all of Ontario.”

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US resources investor Rick Rule says most mining minnows worthless – by Matt Chambers (The Australian – October 30, 2013)

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

LONG-TIME US resources investor Rick Rule is in Australia to take advantage of what he sees as a once-in-a-decade opportunity to pick up stocks in struggling mining companies.

But the Sprott Global Resource Investments chairman has a stark message for the junior sector and its investors: most of the more than 800 junior miners listed on the Australian Securities Exchange are worthless.

“In the good times, from 2003 to 2011, the excesses here and in Canada and on (London’s secondary exchange) AIM were legendary,” said Mr Rule, in Melbourne to deliver the opening speech at today’s Mines and Money conference.

“We need to exorcise all of those sins from the system, which is a different way of saying perhaps 60 or 70 per cent of the junior listings here are truly valueless.

“One would hope that those (equity) issuers ultimately go to their intrinsic value, which is zero, and open up more space for the best 30 per cent of your issuers, the best of which are truly world class.”

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HudBay case raises litigation risk for Canadian resource companies – by Peter Koven (National Post – October 30, 2013)

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

When an Ontario court ruled against HudBay Minerals Inc. in a human rights case in July, it sent shockwaves across the Canadian mining and legal communities. Months later, lawyers remain far from certain what kind of long-term impact the decision will have.

In its decision, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice determined that the suit against Toronto-based HudBay should proceed in Canada, even though the alleged abuses took place in Guatemala. HudBay is not appealing the ruling, which paves the way for a trial some years in the future. The plaintiffs claim that HudBay’s security personnel killed a local activist and gang-raped 11 women.

The implication of the court ruling was obvious: In the future, Canadian resource companies with foreign operations (which is most of them) face a real risk of increased litigation at home based on their conduct abroad. That introduces significant risk for companies like Barrick Gold Corp. and Goldcorp Inc. that have been accused of massive misconduct in far-flung jurisdictions.

Murray Klippenstein, the plaintiff lawyer in the Choc vs. HudBay case who played a key role in bringing it to Canada, said he does expect more lawsuits of this kind.

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Tales from the OPEC cryp – Peter Foster (National Post – October 30, 2013)

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

Lesson from the oil crisis: The same lousy policies in different Halloween ‘Green’ masks

This month is the fortieth anniversary of the first “OPEC crisis,” when Egypt and Syria launched an attack on Israel, Arab oil-producing states introduced an embargo against the U.S., and the price of oil quadrupled.

Looking back — and without going into the complex geopolitics of the Middle East — a number of lessons stand out: markets rule, the oil industry is remarkably innovative, the “oil curse” is real, and the same lousy policies tend to return time and again, only dressed in a different Halloween masks.

The OPEC crisis seemed to herald the decline both of the major oil companies and of the West more generally, but it hasn’t turned out that way. If OECD countries are declining, it has a lot more to do with economic and social policies than the price of oil. The developing countries that have done best in recent decades are not oil producers but oil consumers, primarily China and India. Meanwhile those who have done worst include many inhabitants of OPEC countries.

In the latest Index of Economic Freedom, Algeria and Angola are in the bottom ten, while Venezuela is the lowest ranked of 152 nations.

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Calgary coal mining firm disputes land use plan – by Amanda Stephenson (Calgary Herald – October 29, 2013)

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

A Calgary company wanting to bring coal mining back to the Alberta side of the Crowsnest Pass is raising serious concerns about a new draft land use plan for southern Alberta.

Altitude Resources Inc. said it will express its fears about the proposed South Saskatchewan Regional Plan at upcoming public consultation sessions. Altitude chair Gene Wusaty said if left as is, the plan could clip the wings of southern Alberta’s fledgling coking coal industry and serve as a roadblock to economic development.

“The way we look at it, there’s no real balance (in the plan) for economic activity,” Wusaty said. “We’re going to have, I think, one kick at the cat here to be heard. Because if it passes, the chances of us going back and getting it changed are going to be pretty slim.”

The South Saskatchewan Regional Plan – unveiled by the Alberta government earlier this month – is meant to guide future decisions on development, recreation and conservation in the province. Touted as a balance between development and conservation, the plan proposes 32 new and expanded recreation and conservation areas, with nine new or expanded provincial parks and three new or expanded recreation areas.

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Rio Tinto’s former boss says miners were ‘too slow’ to react – by Clara Ferreira-Marques (Reuters U.S. – October 29, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – (Reuters) – Mining companies were too slow to respond to changing investor demands from mid-2011 as sentiment deteriorated, failing to spot the wave of change which eventually swept out a generation of executives, the former boss of miner Rio Tinto said on Tuesday.

“We didn’t react fast enough,” said Tom Albanese, chief executive of Rio Tinto (RIO.L) (RIO.AX) until he was ousted in January – one of a string of executives toppled by writedowns at the world’s largest mining firms, as boom-year deals soured.

Recalling Rio’s half-year earnings, released in August 2011, Albanese told an industry gathering that the company had felt at the time that it was announcing positive numbers. Indeed, it reported record cash flow and record profits.

Investors, though, were watching screens “filled with red”, he said, and the mining group’s shares fell. Instead of demanding more growth, investors had begun to feel nervous.

“It felt like panic was setting in… We said this is not us, this is not our problem. We should have said this is us, this is our problem,” the U.S.-born mining veteran said, in one of his first public appearances since his departure from Rio.

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It is too early to start digging back into the mining sector – by Tom Stevenson (The Telegraph – October 26, 2013)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

If you want to know what is going on at a company, it is sometimes better to ask its suppliers rather than its management. They have less interest in telling you everything is just fine.

So it was revealing this week to hear BHP Billiton’s bullish assessment of the outlook for commodities alongside news of slumping demand for the picks and shovels provided by the likes of Caterpillar and Sandvik, two of the world’s leading suppliers of mining machinery and tools.

BHP’s chairman, Jac Nasser, told the mining giant’s annual meeting that demand for some commodities could rise by 75pc over the next 15 years as he expressed confidence that the Chinese government retains the firepower to keep its economy growing strongly.

But Sweden’s Sandvik reported a 17pc decline in orders for its mining business, while US-based Caterpillar once again cut its full-year revenue outlook and predicted another downturn in mining-related sales next year. The mining sector is going through a painful transition after a decade, to 2010, in which China-fuelled growth seemed endless and the sector outperformed the wider stock market by a factor of 20.

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Friedland wows City of Gold with his knockout platinum story – by Martin Creamer (MiningWeekly.com – October 29, 2013)

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

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Mining entrepreneur extraordinaire Robert Friedland came to the City of Gold on Tuesday and wowed his audience with a stirring story of the richness of South African platinum endowment.

The geological marketing wizard, whose name is associated with the Voisey’s Bay nickel deposit in Canada and Oyu Tolgoi copper deposit in the Mongolia’s Gobi desert, delivered an hour-long key note presentation in which he rolled out plans to build a promising platinum mine in the rich Platreef close to the Mogalakwena mine, South Africa’s richest platinum operation owned by Anglo American Platinum.

The Toronto Stock Exchange-listed Ivanhoe Mines, which submitted an application for a mining licence to the Department of Mineral Resources five months ago, has well advanced plans for a secondary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

Friedland gave his presentation on day-one of the Joburg 2013 Investing in Resources and Mining in Africa conference attended by the who’s who of the South African mining industry. “Africa is potentially one of the most rewarding places to be operating on the planet,” said Friedland, whose Ivanhoe is also developing the Kamoa copper mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

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Chromite Game changer? – by Jodi Lundmark (tbnewswatch.com – October 28, 2013)

http://www.tbnewswatch.com/

KWG Resources has applied for a patent on a new refining process that would make processing chromite from the Ring of Fire more viable in Ontario.

“Instead of using electricity to break down the chromite into its (ferrochrome), we’re using natural gas,” said Moe Lavigne, vice-president of KWG.

“We engaged a lab to do this research for us over the past number of months. We’ve now come to the conclusion this is going to be a much more economical way of reducing chromite to ferrochrome,” he added.

Lavigne said this could be a game-changer for the mining industry, allowing companies to process chromite in the province instead of going to Manitoba or Quebec where energy is less expensive. The process of refining the chromite wouldn’t change much from using natural gas over electric furnaces; the only difference would be in the cost.

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The Nickel Miner’s Ghost – by Mark Leslie and Jenny Jelen (Excerpt from Spooky Sudbury: True Tales of the Eerie & Unexplained) [RepublicOfMining.com – Halloween Theme]

To order a copy of Spooky Sudbury, click here: http://www.dundurn.com/books/spooky_sudbury

For a CBC Sudbury interview with Mark Leslie, click here: http://www.cbc.ca/morningnorth/past-episodes/2013/10/01/spooky-sudbury/

The Nickel Miner’s Ghost

It was a fresh new century when, in newlywed bliss, Amanda, her husband, their daughter, and a red Doberman moved into the beautiful old house they had purchased in an established Sudbury neighbourhood. The gorgeous two-storey home had character and charm, but it also held a little something else that wouldn’t fully reveal itself until a couple of years later, when their son arrived.

And though their very first night in the new home was a disturbing night to remember, the chills that later greeted them were never frightening, never threatening; they were merely eerie. “Our first night at the house was a horror!” Amanda says with a bit of a grin.

They were exhausted from the day of moving, and the beautiful spa bath upstairs that had so attracted Amanda when they had been considering the home called to her like a siren beckoning a sailor on the open seas.

Amanda started the tub, filled it up, and then went down¬stairs to get a nice glass of wine to drink while relaxing in the tub. It wasn’t until she was heading back upstairs that she heard what sounded like rain inside the house. She ran back down to the kitchen to see water pouring from the pot lights in the kitchen ceiling.

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Haunted 2650 Level of Levack Mine – by Mark Leslie and Jenny Jelen (Excerpt from Spooky Sudbury: True Tales of the Eerie & Unexplained) [RepublicOfMining.com – Halloween Theme]

To order a copy of Spooky Sudbury, click here: http://www.dundurn.com/books/spooky_sudbury

For a CBC Sudbury interview with Mark Leslie, click here: http://www.cbc.ca/morningnorth/past-episodes/2013/10/01/spooky-sudbury/

Haunted 2650 Level of Levack Mine

It is a well-known fact that shift work and general over-tiredness can often lead to a change in perception, a blurring of the lines between reality and the dream world. In his 1996 book, Sleep Thieves, Stanley Coren described the effects of sleep-deprivation on our physical and mental health.

One such side-effect has to do with hallucinations. Coren documented what happened when Peter Tripp, a New York City DJ, decided to go without sleep for two hundred hours for a charity fund-raising event. Early into the experience, Tripp experienced distortions in his visual perceptions: he was inter-preting spots on the table as bugs, seeing spiders crawling around his booth, and even spinning webs on his shoes.3 Later on, Tripp was so susceptible to delusions that he became convinced that the doctor monitoring his health was actually an undertaker there to bury him alive. Tripp could no longer properly distinguish between reality and his nightmares.

Tripp’s experiences are perhaps a bit extreme, but Coren also includes multiple references to the effect of shift-work on internal circadian clocks. He illustrates how workers on rotating shifts tend to sleep two less hours per day, spend most of their time sleeping in the lightest stages of sleep, and thus typically suffer from sleep deprivation and build up a significant amount of sleep debt.

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