Republic of Mining

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]

October 30, 2013

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.

BHP Billiton defends its track record on assisting black mines – by Brendan Ryan (Business Day – October 28, 2013)

October 30, 2013

http://www.bdlive.co.za/ [South Africa]

IN AN unusually public and hard-hitting statement, mining resources giant BHP Billiton has disputed claims by Transnet CEO Brian Molefe that the miner is not doing enough to promote black economic empowerment (BEE) in South Africa’s coal-mining export industry.

BHP Billiton described Mr Molefe’s statements as being “far from the truth” on Friday and criticised Transnet Freight Rail’s underperformance in matching its capacity to rail coal to Richards Bay Coal Terminal’s (RBCT’s) expanded capacity.

Previously, individual coal exporters have avoided criticising Transnet “on the record” apparently because of fears that the utility, which runs the all-important coal line from Emalahleni to Richards Bay, would penalise them in terms of availability of trains required to haul coal to RBCT for export.

On the rare occasions when the industry has criticised Transnet, it has come from RBCT, whose members include the country’s most important coal-mining and exporting companies.

Responding to questions last week after his presentation of Transnet’s interim results for the six months to end-September, Mr Molefe accused RBCT members of denying access to the export market to small black-owned coal companies.

[Canadian Chamber of Commerce] Championing the Ring of Fire – by Ian Ross (October 29, 2013)

October 29, 2013

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

The Timmins Chamber of Commerce wants Ottawa to partner with mining companies in the Ring of Fire to build the infrastructure needed to reach that future mining camp in the James Bay lowlands.

At the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s annual general meeting in Kelowna, B.C., the Timmins Chamber successfully lobbied to have Canada’s largest business advocacy group push the federal government for more funding for miningrelated transportation and energy infrastructure in the region.

The development of any plan to bring either a permanent road or rail to the remote chromite and base metals exploration camp, 600 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, appears to be at a stalemate, at least on the provincial level. “The policy that we’ve put forward with the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce is asking the feds to come to the table in a consistent way,” said Nick Stewart, the Timmins Chamber’s manager of policy, research and communications.

Saskatchewan Premier presses Ottawa for Asian free-trade deals – by Iain Marlow (Globe and Mail – October 29, 2013)

October 29, 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 — In late September, a Shanghai-bound cargo ship left the port of Seattle bearing containers stuffed with drums of uranium concentrate dug from a Saskatchewan mine, the first ever shipment of Canadian-sourced uranium concentrate to China.

For Cameco Corp., the Saskatoon-based mining giant behind the shipment, the demand from China, the world’s fastest-growing nuclear energy market, has translated into two agreements struck in 2010. Those deals, combined with subsequent accords, are worth about $3-billion.

Increasing shipments to Asia, such as Cameco’s, helped push the prairie province’s exports to $32.6-billion earlier this year, surpassing British Columbia for the first time, according to Statistics Canada. That made Saskatchewan Canada’s fourth-largest provincial exporter.

Premier Brad Wall, who was in Toronto on Monday to speak to a business lunch at the Shangri-La hotel, used Cameco as an example and said much of the province’s success is a result of seeking out emerging markets and cultivating ties with countries such as China, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Toward Electronics Free of Conflict Minerals – by Wasima Khan (Huffington Post – October 28, 2013)

October 29, 2013

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

Wasima Khan is a PhD Candidate in Corporate Law, Erasmus University – Rotterdam.

With the acquisition of conflict minerals for their manufacturing, the electronics industry is involved in an ongoing humanitarian crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Recent law reforms for US listed companies have so far failed to incentivize investors to change corporations’ “bad” practices. Can social enterprises like Fairphone can help achieve a world free of conflict mineral products?

One of the world’s deadliest wars continues to wrack the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) and it is partly financed and sustained by the electronics industry. Electronics-makers seek a variety of natural resources for the production of their products in DR Congo. Yet armed militia have taken over the natural resource mines in this region and commit severe human rights abuses.

As the corporations are forced to reckon with these armed groups to acquire natural resources, the latter have effectively become a part of the electronics industry’s supply chain. As a result, aggressive militia, violating human rights, are profiting from the exploitation of raw material resources.

So how do big legal sticks force corporations to remove themselves from this ugly situation? In order to address DR Congo’s humanitarian crisis, law reforms have recently taken place in the United States specifically targeting electronics corporations.

Friedland in show-stopper ahead of SA listing – by David McKay (Miningmx.com – October 29, 2013)

October 29, 2013

http://www.miningmx.com/

“People are saying the super-cycle is dead; they are completely idiotic…” Robert Friedland

[miningmx.com] – DEMONSTRATING all the brio that allowed him to raise $504m for mining in two of the world’s riskiest mining domains – the Congo and South Africa – entrepreneur Robert Friedland urged his audience at the Joburg Indaba to ignore the ‘idiots’ who thought the commodity super-cycle was dead.

“People are saying the super-cycle is dead; they are completely idiotic,” said Friedland who added that South Africa as an investment destination was also safe. “The review of mining legislation [in South Africa] has raised some concerns, but nationalisation has ben kicked into touched. Shouldn’t that give us comfort?”, he said.

“You can’t argue that the state should protect its own interests. The referee must be independent, the playing field level. Once investors have confidence in policy stability, the rest must follow,” he said.

Friedland was hitting all the high notes once again promoting this time Ivanhoe Mines, the Toronto-listed exploration and development company that is planning to build South Africa’s largest platinum mine, the so-called Flatreef project, as well as a copper project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), known as Kamoa.

UPDATE 2-Mosaic to buy CF’s phosphate business for $1.2 billion – by Rod Nickel (Reuters U.S. – October 28, 2013)

October 29, 2013

http://www.reuters.com/

Oct 28 (Reuters) – Mosaic Co said on Monday that it would buy the phosphate business of fellow U.S. fertilizer producer CF Industries Holdings Inc for $1.2 billion in cash, in a deal that bolsters each company’s core business.

The deal signals Illinois-based CF’s increased focus on its core nitrogen fertilizer products and comes after Mosaic has said it was looking to increase its production of phosphate, one of three critical crop nutrients.

Shares of CF, the largest U.S. nitrogen producer, was up 3.8 percent at $217.62 in midday New York Stock Exchange trading, while Mosaic, the world’s biggest producer of finished phosphate products, rose 0.2 percent to $46.02.

Minnesota-based Mosaic will acquire the South Pasture phosphate mine and plant, a phosphate manufacturing plant and ammonia terminal and warehouse facilities, all of which are in Florida.

The facilities produce about 1.8 million tonnes of phosphate fertilizer per year, topping up the annual 8.2 million tonnes produced by Mosaic and adding about 30 cents per share to its 2015 earnings, the company said. It expects the deal to close in the first half of 2014.

Illinois’ Teachable Moment: The True Cost of Coal, Slavery and Historical Markers – by Jeff Biggers (Huffington Post – October 28, 2013)

October 29, 2013

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

As another coal train derailed in southern Illinois last weekend, the Illinois State Historical Society teamed up with the Illinois Coal Association on Saturday for their own collision with history during the installation of a historical marker for the state’s “First Coal Mine.”

The real train wreck: Among numerous errors, the Illinois State Historical Society marker fails to mention that other coal mines abounded in southern Illinois, thanks to enslaved African American labor — including the so-called “first coal mine” — while the Illinois Coal Association took the occasion to erroneously bash “environmental regulations” for mining job losses, as the Prairie State plunges head-long into a new coal rush and a reckless environmental and health disaster.

What gives, Illinois State Historical Society? Doesn’t history matter — at least over the hackneyed phrases of the Big Coal lobby, even if they provided most of the funds for the historical marker?

While our nation now recognizes that “Black History Month” emerged from historian Carter Woodson’s “six-year apprenticeship” in the West Virginia coal mines, isn’t it time for the Illinois State History Society to stop finding excuses in the Land of Lincoln — and Obama — and finally come clean on the secret legacy of slavery in our coal mines and salt wells, if only to remind us of cautionary tales for our own times?

NEWS RELEASE: Mining Association of Canada supports Canada-European Union Free Trade Agreement – Canada advances historic comprehensive economic trade agreement

October 29, 2013

OTTAWA, Oct. 18, 2013 /CNW/ – The Mining Association of Canada (MAC) is pleased with the federal government’s progress toward finalizing the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). The announcement was made jointly today in Brussels by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso.

“Given the global nature of our sector, the Canadian mining industry is highly supportive of the formation of new trade agreements with key markets,” said MAC’s President and CEO, Pierre Gratton. “Today’s agreement in principle on the comprehensive economic and trade agreement is a significant step forward that, once finalized, will eliminate existing European tariffs on Canadian mineral products, help facilitate labour mobility, and encourage European investment in the Canadian mining sector.”

The European Union (EU) is Canada’s second largest export market for Canadian metals, the third largest market for non-metals, and the fourth largest market for mineral fuels. On an annual average between 2010 and 2012, Canada exported $20.4 billion worth of metal and mineral products to the EU, led by precious gems and metals. Key exports included gold, nickel, diamonds, aluminum and iron ore. Upon implementation, the new agreement will eliminate 98 percent of Canadian and EU tariffs, while phasing out remaining tariffs over time. Of specific interest to the Canadian mining industry is the elimination of the following tariffs:

Selling their nickel for a dime – by Shelley Marshall and Omar Pidani (Jakarta Post – October 29, 2013)

October 29, 2013

http://www.thejakartapost.com/

Shelley Marshall is a senior lecturer at the department of business law and taxation, the Faculty of Business and Economics at Monash University. Omar Pidani is undertaking a Phd at the Australian National University with a scholarship from the Indonesian Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP).

Communities on stunning Halmahera Island in North Maluku that have acted as the custodians for biodiversity for generations are being economically displaced for a nickel mine. A recent report reveals that they have been failed by weak legal enforcement processes and international human rights mechanisms, despite national and international laws that should protect them.

Halmahera Island is the site of spectacular natural beauty and biodiversity, and it is also the arena for an unfolding social tragedy. Extensive blocks of habitat still cover the island, and around 80 percent is still primary forest.

It was here in 1858 that the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace famously wrote to Charles Darwin, outlining his ideas on the development of new species.

Investors ‘more comfortable’ putting money into gas projects in Iraq than Quebec: banker – by Nicolas Van Praet (National Post – October 29, 2013)

October 29, 2013

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

Canada’s oil and gas industry is “losing the war” against anti-hydrocarbon activism as the balance of power tilts in favour of project opponents, says the head of Quebec’s Oil and Gas Association.

Limits-to-growth and other social movements that sprouted out of such events as Niagara Falls, N.Y.’s Love Canal disaster in the 1970s have been “hammering away” at industry and government over three decades, Michael Binnion said Monday in an interview at the association’s annual meeting in Montreal.

“I think they are doing some good, getting us focused on what we could do better and should do better,” Mr. Binnion said. “But when we let the power to oppose become bigger than the power to propose, we have a problem in society. And [that is happening].”

From pipeline proposals in British Columbia to efforts to develop Quebec’s shale gas deposits in the St. Lawrence lowlands, there is no shortage of oil and gas-related projects that have drawn the attacks of activists in Canada. Even the least problematic are now assailed, Mr. Binnion said.

A quashed Keystone XL would cost Canadians $1.7-billion a year – by Jack M. Mintz (National Post – October 29, 2013)

October 29, 2013

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

If U.S. President Obama rejects the Keystone XL in 2014 – or punts it to past his term ending in 2016 – Canada will be hurt demonstrably. Canadians will be bewildered as to how this one single pipeline project became the whipping boy for an environmental movement intent on achieving a carbon-less while GHG emissions are accelerating with emerging country growth.

Looking back, it will be seen partly as the industry’s fault for falling into a trap nicely set by President Obama when he declared that he would support the project if it did not increase greenhouse gases. The industry response – quickly picked up in the media – was that Canada will be able to transport its oil anyway as alternative routes are available. Thus, one should not expect any increase in GHG emissions if Keystone XL is approved.

This response has made it easier for President Obama to reject Keystone XL in 2014. If other alternatives are available, why should he spend any political capital approving a hot potato (in large part of his own making) that would alienate part of his base during the mid-term election year? If Canadians can export oil anyway, he can reject Keystone XL since it does not matter that the project is approved.

Grupo Mexico will focus offshore if Mexico mining tax enacted – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – October 29, 2013)

October 29, 2013

http://www.mineweb.com/

Greater production from Grupo Mexico’s mining division increased third-quarter base metals sales, but precious metals sales declined.

RENO (MINEWEB) – Grupo Mexico warned Monday that Mexico’s proposed 7.5% tax on mining earnings–in addition to a 0.5% tax on precious metals revenue and the elimination of the immediate deduction on exploration expenses–“will jeopardize investment in current and future projects in the sector, along with the consequent effect on jobs and infrastructure.”

“If approved, we will conclude our current investment program of US$3.5 billion for 2013 and US$1.5 billion for 2014,” said the company.

“Nevertheless, we will be obliged to re-direct our future investment program of US$5.3 billion for the coming years, which is primarily allocated to Mexico, and analyze opportunities in countries where the investment conditions are more favorable, such as the US, Canada, Peru or Chile which offer a stable tax regime with stimuli and low energy costs,” Grupo Mexico advised.

Opinion: Red tape bleeding life from B.C.’s resource opportunities – by Mark Redcliffe (Vancouver Sun – October 27, 2013)

October 29, 2013

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

Cost of compliance: Growing regulatory burden is moving the industry unnecessarily toward a bleak future

Costlier and additional regulatory requirements are exacerbating harsh economic realities for B.C.’s resource sector and independent brokerage business. With junior companies on the precipice, Canada’s growing regulatory burden is moving the industry unnecessarily toward a future far more bleak than 2008’s notorious global market free-fall.

The fallout several years ago was as severe as it was quick. Junior exploration companies and senior producers were soon lifted by strong bull markets for commodities, including gold and silver, copper, uranium preceding Fukushima, and oil. However, due to slow economic growth and global financial issues during the last two years, investors don’t want to risk their capital. As a result, share prices have bottomed out, and there are no immediate lifelines on the horizon.

This scenario has acutely impacted the long, mutually beneficial and dependent relationship between B.C.’s junior companies and independent brokerages — venture companies have no operating revenues and rely on equity financings for their operational needs; we historically underwrite these essential transactions.