Republic of Mining

UPDATE 2-Atlas Copco to shed more jobs as mining slump deepens – Niklas Pollard and Helena Soderpalm (Reuters U.K. – July 18, 2013)

July 19, 2013

http://uk.reuters.com/

STOCKHOLM, July 18 (Reuters) – Engineering group Atlas Copco announced more job losses on Thursday as spending cuts across the mining industry hit demand for its trademark drill rigs and loaders and raised worries the sector’s downturn may have further to run.

Robust activity in services and industrial equipment stemmed a fall in group profit and orders but the company forecast that demand for mining gear would slip further in the near term.

Mining is suffering a hangover from years of booming expansion and has slashed capital spending as softer prices for commodities such as coal, copper and gold have raise doubts about future investment returns.

The likes of BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto have cut billions of dollars from outlays. For Atlas Copco and its cross-town rival Sandvik, which together supply more than half the global market for underground mining gear, this has brought a sharp drop-off in equipment orders though a thriving services business has cushioned the blows.

Unlike Sandvik, which is due to report on Friday, Atlas’s single biggest mining exposure – around one third – is to gold whose price has slid more than 20 percent since year-end.

COLUMN-BHP, Rio gamble on iron ore, but they’ve stacked the deck – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – July 18, 2013)

July 19, 2013

http://www.reuters.com/

Clyde Russell is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own.

LAUNCESTON, Australia, July 18 (Reuters) – Ramping up output in the face of an expected easing in demand growth may seem like an odd tactic for a miner, but it’s exactly what Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton are doing in iron ore.

The world’s second- and third-ranked producers both said this week that their expansion plans are on track, notwithstanding the expected slowdown in China, which buys about two-thirds of global seaborne iron ore supply.

But there is method in the seeming madness of increasing production when the demand outlook is less than rosy. Both Rio and BHP are effectively betting that their low-cost operations in Australia will be able to dominate the market, squeezing out both Chinese domestic production and higher-cost mines elsewhere in Australia and around the globe.

They are also betting that the fears of a slowdown in Chinese demand growth are being overstated, and that import volumes will remain healthy. While these may look like risky assumptions for the two Anglo-Australian mining giants, they stand a good chance of being correct.

ONTC divestment could be costly for communities – by Lenny Carpenter (Wawatay News – July 18, 2013)

July 19, 2013

http://wawataynews.ca/

The Ontario government’s plans to sell off services of the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission (ONTC) could lead to higher costs for members of the James Bay communities, according to Mushkegowuk Deputy Grand Chief Leo Friday.

Last year, the province announced it would be divesting the government-owned transportation commission after citing stagnant ridership and increasing costs to its bus and train services that operate mostly in northeastern Ontario.

One of those services in the Polar Bear Express train, which runs between Moosonee and Cochrane and serves as a vital link between the James Bay coast and the rest of Ontario.

Since 2003, the province increased funding by 274 per cent to subsidize the Polar Bear Express, a subsidy that averages to about $400 per passenger. If the province continues with its divestment plan to sell the train services to a private corporation, Friday believes the people of James Bay will face the most financial impact.

“The minute the other company operates that train, they will jack up the rates and it’s not going to run every day – maybe once or twice a week because of the cutbacks,” Friday said.

Detroit Slides From Industrial Might to Bankruptcy – by Steven Church, Dawn McCarty & Margaret Cronin Fisk (Bloomberg News – July 19, 2013)

July 19, 2013

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Detroit, the cradle of the automobile assembly line and a symbol of industrial might, filed the biggest U.S. municipal bankruptcy after decades of decline left it too poor to pay billions of dollars owed bondholders, retired cops and current city workers.

“I know many will see this as a low point in the city’s history,” Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, a Republican, said in a letter yesterday authorizing the filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Detroit. “Without this decision, the city’s condition would only worsen.”

Michigan’s largest city joins Jefferson County, Alabama, and the California cities of San Bernardino and Stockton in bankruptcy. The filing shattered the presumption of many bondholders that local governments, eager to continue borrowing at reasonable rates, would do whatever it took, including raise taxes, to come up with the money to meet bond obligations. Kevyn Orr, the city’s emergency manager, said the debt is $18 billion.

While under court protection, Detroit can stop paying some debts, is temporarily immune from most lawsuits and may be able to ask a judge to cancel contracts, including union agreements. Under Chapter 9 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, the first step is likely to be a court fight over whether the city was entitled to bankruptcy protection, a challenge that would ask if the city was truly insolvent and it had no alternative to filing.

Ring of Fire negotiator starts First Nations visits – by CBC News Thunder Bay (July 18, 2013)

July 18, 2013

http://www.cbc.ca/thunderbay/

Frank Iacobucci aims to build a relationship with First Nations before Ring of Fire negotiations start

Ontario’s chief Ring of Fire negotiator says he is making a series of trips to Matawa First Nation communities as a way to ensure good lines of communication with First Nations. Frank Iacobucci says he’s already visited Eabametoong and Marten Falls this week — and will be going to other Matawa First Nations as well.

“I’ve been up in the north before, but I haven’t been to all these First Nations,” he said. “I want … First Nations [to] know who I am and what my mandate is — and they get it from me and not from just reading about it.”

Iacobucci said it’s important for him to learn more about the communities as he prepares to start formal negotiations with Bob Rae.

‘No one side that sets the agenda’

Iacobucci was accompanied Thursday by Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle. The pair met with reporters at Thunder Bay Airport before boarding for a two-hour flight to Neskantaga. “I’m very pleased to spend time travelling with Mr. Iacobucci,” Gravelle said.

NEWS RELEASE: Duluth Metals Provides Metallurgical Update on Twin Metals Minnesota Project

July 18, 2013

Positive results from various metallurgical options considered for the Twin Metals Minnesota Project
Good metal recoveries to both a bulk concentrate and to separate copper (~25% Cu, <1% Ni) and nickel (~10% Ni, <5% Cu) concentrates were achieved during recent pilot plant programs;
Good metal extraction from bulk concentrate using the CESLTM process;
Good recoveries of gold and platinum group elements from CESLTM residues by sulfur flotation.

TORONTO, Ontario, July 18, 2013 – Duluth Metals Limited (“Duluth Metals”) (TSX: DM) (TSX: DM.U) is pleased to announce significant progress on various metallurgical options being considered during pre-feasibility on the Twin Metals Minnesota Project (“Twin Metals”). Some of the most recent test results from an ongoing comprehensive metallurgical testwork program aimed at defining the optimal process flowsheet for the recovery of copper, nickel, gold, platinum, and palladium to payable products are summarized below. This metallurgical testwork program involved mineralogical assessments, laboratory bench scale testing, and pilot plant testing with independent laboratories.

The metallurgical testwork included flotation programs to develop and prove two separate flotation options: the first being the option to produce a bulk copper-nickel concentrate; and the second option being to produce a marketable copper concentrate and a marketable nickel concentrate.

Sulfide mining’s jobs are temporary, but its pollution will stay in our waterways – by JT Haines, Lee Markell, Dylan Nau and Ijaz Osman (Minn Post – July 18, 2013)

July 18, 2013

http://www.minnpost.com/

Like many Minnesotans, we’ve been camping in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA) every summer for years, several of us for a quarter century or more. Some of us used to live in the Arrowhead, but all of us share a certain unspoken feeling heading north, when deciduous turns to boreal. We appreciate that our great state can still offer us a place where you can catch a fish, and drink the water – right out of the side of a canoe! (A lotta guys don’t favor the exclamation point. Or sarcasm. But it hasn’t escaped our attention that we can no longer do either of these things in the Twin Cities, which we think merits an exception.)

Without exaggeration, we feel that the Boundary Waters enhances our humanness. The question that challenges us today is: How many places like it do we need? How many are left?

In their excellent July 7 letter to the International Joint Commission regarding sulfide mines, the Minnesota Backcountry Hunters and Anglers express their opposition to proposed sulfide mine projects in Northern Minnesota, which would leach sulfuric acid into waterways, the lifeblood of Northern Minnesota’s economy, for up to 2,000 years. The group points out, correctly, that the jobs are temporary, the bulk of the profits will flow elsewhere, and the “toxic legacy of damaged waterways” will remain with us here, in Minnesota.

We thank the Hunters and Anglers for their letter, and couldn’t agree more. It passes our understanding that we would threaten this environment at all – let alone at the demand and benefit of foreign companies and mostly non-local investors.

Aboriginal relations enter new dynamic with Ring of Fire development – by Simon Rees (MiningWeekly.com – July 18, 2013)

July 18, 2013

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – In Ontario the relationship between the mining sector, the provincial government and the First Nations is changing rapidly. Once often viewed as an afterthought, consultation with aboriginal communities is now critical for the success of a project and entails constant dialogue.

But the process still has hurdles to overcome. This is particularly true for the north of the province, an area that includes the Ring of Fire region, where world-class chromite deposits abound.

THE RING THAT BINDS

On June 11, Cliffs Natural Resources announced that it was freezing work on the feasibility study for its $3.3-billion Black Thor chromite project within the Ring of Fire. One of the issues cited by the company was the need for greater clarity relating to First Nations negotiations and the position of the government. Several commentators argued the outcome was a major setback.

“But Cliffs hasn’t stopped discussions with the First Nations communities and I don’t have a sense that they’ve backed away from their interests,” chief negotiator for the Matawa First Nations Bob Rae told Mining Weekly Online.

Manufacturing Is Knowledge Driven – Hudak – by James Murray (Netnewsledger.com – July 18, 2013)

July 18, 2013

http://www.netnewsledger.com/

QUEENS PARK – Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak and PC Economic Development Critic Monte McNaughton hosted a conference call today following the release of Paths to Prosperity: Advanced Manufacturing for a Better Ontario, the thirteenth in a series of policy white papers. Ontario PC Leader.

“The big picture is our plan is big, bold, and optimistic, and came bring in 300,000 good high paying manufacturing jobs,” stated the PC Leader. Hudak says, “Some think Ontario can’t compete in the global economy, and I have one think to say, they are wrong”.

“Driving manufacturing drives the economy, international trade and research”. “If Ontario can capture six percent of the manufacturing jobs in North America, we will achieve our goal, it is realistic”.

There is a new availability of natural gas near Ontario that will lower costs for manufacturers. We need to move quickly to seize the opportunities. Ontario needs a government that believes in manufacturers. We can be the manufacturing heartland of North America,” states Hudak.

Monty McNaughton says, “ I have seen first hand what happens when government treats manufacturing as an afterthought. Instead of bold new ideas and action, we see studies and commissions, and a huge growth in the size of government”.

Commodity hedge funds suffer longest losing streak on record – by Tommy Wilkes (Reuters U.S. – July 18, 2013)

July 18, 2013

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – (Reuters) – Funds betting on commodity price moves have lost money every month since January, their joint longest losing streak on record, raising more doubts about their ability to make money at a time when the commodity “supercycle” may be over.

The average fund slid 3.58 percent in the first six months of the year, according to a widely watched Newedge commodity index. Funds have only suffered five consecutive losing months once before, in 2002-2003, the index shows.

Hedge funds market themselves as capable of making money in all markets, yet funds trading commodities as varied as gold, grains and gas, have failed to turn an annual profit in the last three years.

The weak performance will put more pressure on the industry to lower fees and introduce clawbacks, which enable investors to reclaim some performance perks paid to hedge fund managers in boom times if the returns they hope to achieve fail to continue.

Worries about cooling demand in key markets like China, and a huge shift in the supply-side from shortage to glut, has sent prices tumbling in recent years, and left many warning that the end of the commodity “supercycle” – the long period of rising commodity prices – is here.

North Slave Metis happy with Gahcho Kue agreement – by Lyndsay Herman (Northern News Services – July 17, 2013)

November 3, 2015July 18, 2013

http://www.nnsl.com/index.php

Funds vital to standing up for Metis aboriginal rights, says North Slave Metis Alliance president

SOMBA K’E/YELLOWKNIFE – NWT’s newest potential diamond project put its obligations to the North Slave Metis in black and white July 10. The Gahcho Kue Joint Venture, of which 51 per cent is owned by De Beers and 49 per cent is owned by Mountain Province Diamonds, and the North Slave Metis Alliance signed an impact benefit agreement, which outlines annual payments, training programs, scholarships, and business opportunities awarded to the NSMA through the project. The details of this agreement or other impact benefit agreement are not public.

North Slave Metis Alliance president Bill Enge characterized De Beers’ approach to the negotiations as one of goodwill and integrity, adding the process was relatively efficient due to the success of the agreement already in place between the alliance and De Beers in regards to Snap Lake.

“We’re very happy with (the Gahcho Kue) impact benefit agreement,” Enge said. “This (agreement) pretty much mirrors the one we have with De Beers with respect to their Snap Lake diamond mine and using that impact benefit agreement that we already have with De Beers as a template we were able to expedite the negotiations as we had something to work from.”

Donkin mine project receives environmental approval – (Cape Breton Post – July 17, 2013)

July 18, 2013

http://www.capebretonpost.com/

DONKIN — Although residents of Donkin and surrounding areas are happy another aspect of the Donkin mine project has moved forward — the transportation proposal continues to be controversial.

Morien Resources Corp. of Dartmouth announced in a press release that Peter Kent has signed off on the environmental assessment of the Donkin mine project proposed by Xstrata Coal Donkin Management Ltd. Kent’s tenure as the federal environment minister ended this week, but the Donkin project received his approval after his review of a Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency report.

Hugh Kennedy, chair of the Donkin Xstrata community liaison committee, said the approval is good news which will move the project ahead and allow those involved to acquire permits. He believes this approval will help with the sale of the mine. “A company ready to invest hundreds of millions of dollars … into this mine is not going to do that unless they know it has environmental approval.” The province must also approve the environment assessment, explained Kennedy.

“I can’t see any roadblocks as the provincial and federal authorities have been working closely and sharing in the process. “Hopefully now with this out of the way Xstrata will continue with that work, to get approval from the provincial government on how to repair the tunnels and put a plan forward, get it approved and seek a permit for the mine.”

Staying cool? Thank nuclear power – by Margaret Wente (Globe and Mail – July 18, 2013)

July 18, 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.

Hot out, isn’t it? At least for some of us, anyway. Southern Ontario is sweltering in temperatures that have soared into the 30s. Toronto has declared an extreme heat alert, and the air conditioners are running at full blast.

Thank god for air conditioning. Or rather, thank nuclear power – that’s what’s keeping us cool. Wednesday morning at 7 a.m., Ontario’s nuclear plants were generating more than half of the province’s electricity: 11,148 megawatts. Gas, hydro and coal accounted for another 8,608 MW. Wind power, at 97 MW, barely moved the dial. Those mighty turbines (for which we will be paying dearly for many years to come) contributed less than half of 1 per cent of the total power output.

Of course, wind energy is green. But so is nuclear. Unlike coal and natural gas, nuclear power creates zero greenhouse gas emissions.

“Nuclear energy is the most powerful weapon in the war on global warming,” Steve Aplin, an Ottawa-based consultant in energy and the environment, told me in a phone interview. He points out that if Ontario’s environmental lobby had succeeded in having nuclear power replaced by natural gas, the province’s carbon dioxide emissions would have soared.

Poll finds Keystone XL enjoys broad support in U.S. – by Paul Koring (Globe and Mail – July 18, 2013)

July 18, 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.

WASHINGTON — Despite renewed rallying efforts from environmentalists intended to stir broad opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline and extensive media coverage of several serious spills involving Alberta oil sands crude, Americans still solidly back the controversial project to funnel Canadian crude to Texas refineries, according to a new poll.

Even after president Barack Obama defined a new bar for approving Keystone XL — that it not add significantly to carbon emissions driving global warming — more than two-thirds of Americans (67 per cent) want the long-delayed project approved.

Public support is up slightly since January while opposition to TransCanada’s $5.3-billion pipeline from Alberta to sprawling refineries on the Gulf Coast remains stuck below one-quarter, at 24 per cent. While Republicans were more strongly in favour, the poll found a solid majority – 56 per cent – of Democrats also backed Keystone XL, suggesting that even among his base, Mr. Obama faces no serious threat if he gives the project a green light.

The president is expected to decide sometime later this year. Opponents had vowed to create a new groundswell of opposition over the summer, with funding from billionaire turned climate-change activist Tom Steyer.