Republic of Mining

Analysis – Social media empowers anti-mining activists – by Allison Martell and Ioana Patran (Reuters U.K. – January 7, 2014)

January 7, 2014January 7, 2014

http://uk.reuters.com/

TORONTO/BUCHAREST – (Reuters) – Facebook and other social networks are making it easier for anti-mining activists to derail projects, helping them get their message out and organize more quickly against an industry that is already struggling with high costs and volatile prices.

From Romania to Peru to Canada, protest movements have disrupted projects in recent years, in part because activists have harnessed the power of social media and mobile technology, parties on both sides of the disputes say.

Civil unrest can spell disaster for mining projects at any stage, even after billions have been invested. That is not new. What has changed is activists’ ability to mobilize, a trend that echoes political upheavals that social media have helped fuel across the Middle East and North Africa.

The saga of Rosia Montana, the Romanian region where Canada’s Gabriel Resources Ltd wants to build Europe’s biggest open-pit gold mine, offers a clear illustration of how social media has shifted the balance of power. Gabriel’s push to get the project approved suffered a series of setbacks in the autumn after activists used Facebook to organize demonstrations across the country.

UPDATE 2-Indonesia mineral export ban uncertainty starts to bite – by Fergus Jensen and Wilda Asmarini (Reuters U.S. – January 7, 2014)

January 7, 2014

http://www.reuters.com/

Jan 7 (Reuters) – Indonesia’s planned mineral export ban – a policy designed to force miners to process their ores domestically – is sending shudders through the economy, with a Singapore-owned nickel miner suspending operations ahead of the Jan. 12 ban.

Indonesia is the world’s top exporter of nickel ore, thermal coal and refined tin, but also has significant exports of iron ore and bauxite, both of which are likely to be stopped after Sunday.

An increase in shipments of processed minerals would bolster the country’s foreign revenue and help narrow a current account deficit, which has undermined investor confidence and battered the rupiah.

However, the move has drawn protests from small mining companies, which say they can’t afford to build smelters, as well as from international majors, including U.S. giants Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold and Newmont Mining Corp .

The plan has also raised fears that export earnings could be slashed in the short term as miners scramble to meet the new regulation. Mining contributes about 12 percent of gross domestic product to Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

Kirkland Lake shares fall as miner launches sale process amid challenging gold market – by Peter Koven (National Post – January 7, 2014)

January 7, 2014

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

TORONTO – With low gold prices and a tight balance sheet putting strain on the company, Kirkland Lake Gold Inc. has put out the “For Sale” sign and said it will consider takeover bids and other transactions as part of a strategic review.

But there is no guarantee that the Toronto-based miner will find a friendly offer in such a challenging gold market. And that means the company needs to turn around its operations and generate positive cash flow.

“There’s definitely challenges here, and if they were easy [to fix], somebody would have solved them long ago,” chief executive George Ogilvie said Monday in an interview.

Like other small gold producers operating in Ontario, Kirkland Lake is facing cash flow problems at gold prices below US$1,250 an ounce. While the company’s reported cash costs are roughly US$1,100 an ounce, it has also poured large amounts of sustaining capital back into its Macassa mine, meaning it is bleeding cash. It is also burdened with $120-million of debt.

[Ontario] Nuclear waste decisions loom – by John Spears (Toronto Star – January 7, 2014)

January 7, 2014

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Questions about two proposed nuclear waste sites continue to provoke controversy.

More than half a century after miners started gouging uranium out of the Canadian Shield at Elliot Lake, William Elliott wants it back. He’s leading the campaign by the town and surrounding communities to become the place where the used fuel from Canada’s nuclear reactors is stored forever.

But the long-running saga of finding a spot for Canada’s nuclear waste still has years more to run as those who want the waste — and those who don’t — struggle over what to do with it.

And the question gets even more vexed as a decision nears on a second radioactive waste site for less potent — but still hazardous — nuclear waste that Ontario Power Generation wants to develop at its Bruce nuclear site near Kincardine, Ont.

Decisions about nuclear waste, which have simmered for decades, are starting to heat up, as two processes move forward.

[Arizona Copper Mining] America’s Future Depends on Decisions We Make Today – by David F. Briggs (Tucons Citizen – January 05, 2014)

January 7, 2014

http://tucsoncitizen.com/

David F. Briggs is a resident of Pima county and a geologist, who has intermittently worked as a consultant on the Rosemont Copper project since 2006.

Opponents claim the Rosemont copper project should not be allowed to be developed because most of the copper concentrates produced by this project will be exported for treatment by foreign smelters and refineries. The false premise of their argument is; “if the copper produced from Rosemont is not consumed here, this project will not benefit Americans.”

How many of you know that most of the copper-bearing materials collected at domestic recycling centers are also shipped to foreign facilities for treatment because the United States no longer has the capacity to treat these materials here? During 2011, recyclable materials containing 1,367,000 short tons of copper were exported to foreign countries for treatment. Most of this recyclable material (75.8%) was exported to China.

Should we also stop recycling copper because most of it is also shipped abroad for treatment? Isn’t recycling copper good for the environment?

[Montana and North Dakota] As Oil Floods Plains Towns, Crime Pours In – by Jack Healy (New York Times – November 30, 2013)

January 7, 2014

http://www.nytimes.com/

SIDNEY, Mont. — One cold morning last year, a math teacher jogging through her hometown in eastern Montana was abducted, strangled and buried in a shallow grave. Charged in her death were two drifters from Colorado, drawn to the region by the allure of easy money in the oil fields.

One hundred fifty miles away, in a bustling oil town in North Dakota, a 30-year-old man disappeared one afternoon from the street where he had been putting in water and sewer pipes, leaving behind a lunchbox with his paycheck inside and a family grasping for answers. After months of searching, his mother said she now believes her son is gone, buried somewhere on the high plain.

Stories like these, once rare, have become as common as drilling rigs in rural towns at the heart of one of the nation’s richest oil booms. Crime has soared as thousands of workers and rivers of cash have flowed into towns, straining police departments and shattering residents’ sense of safety.

“It just feels like the modern-day Wild West,” said Sgt. Kylan Klauzer, an investigator in Dickinson, in western North Dakota. The Dickinson police handled 41 violent crimes last year, up from seven only five years ago.

NEWS RELEASE: OMA’s SYTYKM video competition adapted in South Australia

April 5, 2015January 7, 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.

If indeed “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” then the Ontario Mining Association has a big fan in an antipodean counterpart. The South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy (SACOME) has recently launched “Dirt TV – what mining means to me.” This student video competition for seven to 12 year olds is modeled along the lines of the OMA’s So You Think You Know Mining high school video competition.

Jason Kuchel, Chief Executive of SACOMBE says he was so impressed by the SYTYKM competition when he was in Toronto at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention in 2012, that he was motivated to use the initiative as a model for a similar competition in South Australia.

“South Australia also has a strong mining and oil and gas industry,” said Mr. Kuchel. “The competition works on so many levels, including building community awareness of the benefits of the sector, increasing understanding of career opportunities among high school children and addressing the science and arts curriculums with a practical, real-world example that is also a lot of fun.”

Intel says its processors are now free of minerals from mines held by armed groups in Congo – by Peter Svensson (The Republic – January 07, 2014)

January 7, 2014

http://www.therepublic.com/ [Columbus, Indiana]

LAS VEGAS — Intel Corp., the world’s largest maker of computer processors, says its processors are now free of minerals from mines held by armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

It’s the first major U.S. technology company to make such a claim about its products. It’s the fruit of four years of work by the company to determine the sources of four crucial metals widely used in electronics manufacturing: tantalum, tungsten, tin and gold.

Eastern Congo is rich in minerals, and economic activity other than mining has been disrupted by nearly two decades of fighting between the government, rogue soldiers and different ethnic groups. There’s been widespread concern that foreign purchases of minerals from mines held by armed groups are fueling the conflict, though many experts say the minerals are not the root cause of the fighting.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich made the announcement Monday in a keynote speech ahead of the opening of the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Amnesty International News Release: USA: Reject legal threat to lifesaving Conflict Minerals Rule

January 7, 2014

http://www.amnesty.org/en

January 6, 2014 – US corporate interests must not be allowed to invalidate the Conflict Minerals Rule, which requires companies to investigate and disclose whether their products contain certain minerals that help fund armed groups in mineral-rich countries in Africa, said Amnesty International today.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will hear a challenge by three industry groups against the rule on Tuesday. Amnesty International joined the lawsuit to support the rule.

“This legal challenge to the Conflict Minerals Rule is nothing but a crass effort by industry groups to put profits ahead of principles,” said Steven Hawkins, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA.

“The rule was required by Congress to save lives and stop human rights abuses by curbing the flow of funding to armed groups operating with impunity in the areas these minerals are mined – in Democratic Republic of the Congo and other central African countries.” The Conflict Minerals Rule was required by the US Congress in 2010 as part of a raft of measures to reform business practices after the 2008 economic downturn.

Canada looking to break into ‘critical’ rare earth elements mining – by Jason Fekete (Calgary Herald –January 6, 2014)

January 7, 2014

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

OTTAWA — Canada is quietly staking its claim to being a global leader in a growing multibillion-dollar industry largely unknown to most Canadians but deemed by the government as “critical” to the country’s economy.

Canadian extractive companies, in collaboration with the federal government and other groups, have launched more than 200 exploration projects targeting what are called rare earth elements (REE).

These potentially lucrative rare earths — which include the 15 lanthanide metals on the periodic table plus scandium and yttrium — are increasingly sought after by several major industries for manufacturing their products.

The rare earth elements are split into “light” or “heavy” depending on their atomic number. Rare earths, especially the “heavy” ones, are considered to be critical for manufacturing new technology, clean energy, aerospace, automotive, defence and many other industrial products because of their luminous, magnetic, catalytic and other characteristics.

Investment in resources being stymied by vocal minority – Gwyn Morgan (Globe and Mail – January 6, 2014)

January 6, 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.

From the day the first Europeans set foot on Canadian soil, the country’s resources have been the core of its development.

First, fur traders endured danger and deprivation to explore the vast wilderness; they were followed by forestry workers who wrestled huge logs to tidewater.

Then came hardy settlers, who turned soil frozen for half the year into a breadbasket of the world, thus creating the driving force behind the most important project in Canadian history, the building of a national railway.

Steam locomotives require large amounts of coal, which spurred Canada’s first underground mines. In 1883, during the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, nickel-copper ore was discovered near Sudbury, launching a huge metals mining development. That same year, thousands of kilometres to the west, the railway helped launch Alberta’s petroleum industry when a well drilled to supply water for steam locomotives struck natural gas.

Walsh’s steely resolve for change of culture helps Rio Tinto turn around – by Andrew Burrell and Paul Garvey (The Australian – January 4, 2014)

January 6, 2014

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

SOON after arriving in London a year ago to begin his reign as chief executive of Rio Tinto, Sam Walsh took a stroll from his Kensington home to check out an antiques fair at nearby Sloane Square.

The avid collector of milk jugs — he has more than 350 of the cherished antiques stashed away in his other house in Perth — was in his element as he prepared to browse the collectables. “I walked up to the very first stand and picked up a Royal Worcester milk jug,” recalls Walsh. “And the lady looked at me and said, ‘Australian accent, interested in milk jugs, we know who you are — we’ve been expecting you!’ ”

Walsh roars with laughter when telling the story, partly because he cheerfully revels in the fact his passion for delicate milk jugs breaks all the stereotypes of the knockabout mining industry. But he knows too that it’s much harder to be anonymous — even at an antiques fair — when you’re running one of the biggest companies in one of the world’s financial capitals.

It’s even harder, it may be suggested, when you’re trying to lead the turnaround of a company that had spectacularly lost its way under predecessor Tom Albanese, culminating in more than $US14 billion in writedowns as a result of the failed 2007 acquisition of Canadian aluminium producer Alcan and the disastrous takeover of African coal play Riversdale Mining in 2011.

[Ontario] Mines minister confident Ring talks making headway – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – January 6, 2014)

January 6, 2014

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

Michael Gravelle wasn’t sharing insider information about how talks are progressing between the government of Ontario and First Nations closest to the Ring of Fire.

But he telegraphed some heavy hints in an end-of-year conversation about the development of the rich chromite deposits located 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay.

Consultations being led by retired supreme court justice Frank Iacobucci for the province and former Ontario New Democrat premier and federal Liberal leader Bob Rae representing the Matawa Tribal Council are vital part to moving the Ring of Fire forward, said Gravelle.

They are progressing well, the minister of Northern Development and Mines said several times during a telephone interview with The Sudbury Star.

And while didn’t want to “presume the end of the discussions” between the first nations and the province, Gravelle said he hopes his government will be in a position “very soon” to announce a framework agreement between the two parties.

[Vale, Glencore Sudbury] Merger wouldn’t result in plant closures, mine analysts say – by Harold Carmichael (Sudbury Star – January 6, 2014)

January 6, 2014

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

If ongoing Vale and Glencore Xstrata discussions produce an agreement in 2014 on how to mine nickel and copper in the Greater Sudbury area more cost-effectively, there might be some short-term job cuts, but no big plant closures, says a man who runs a website devoted to mining.

“Absolutely not,” said former Greater Sudbury resident Stan Sudol, who now works in Toronto and operates The Republic of Mining website. “The two operations – the Clarabelle Mill and the Strathcona Mill – process different types of ore. On the north slope (of the Sudbury Basin), the ore is heavy in copper and PGMs (platinum-group metals). The Clarabelle Mill, meanwhile, deals with ore from the south side which is more nickel heavy. I would be very surprised if either of the mills gets closed.”

Sudol added that the Falconbridge Smelter, which he understands is operating under capacity, is processing ore from Australia and the Raglan project in Quebec, in addition to local ore. “The operation is a part of a global industry,” he noted.

On. Dec. 18, Reuters reported Vale’s chief executive officer Murilo Ferreira said he expects Vale’s “consortium” with Glencore Xsrata in Greater Sudbury nickel projects to be defined by the first quarter of 2014 and for the venture to operate as a single unit.