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Drones help Yukon prospectors find new gold deposits – by CBC News North (September 4, 2013)

 

http://www.cbc.ca/north/

A gold prospector from Yukon is using unmanned aerial drones and other technologies to survey huge stretches of land for mineral deposits, and leaving less of an environmental footprint in the process.

Shawn Ryan says the technology is greatly reducing the cost of doing business in the initial stages of mineral exploration.

The drones he uses look a bit like a medium-sized kite, and carry a relatively simple 16-megapixel camera on board. It flies over a target area, snapping photos of the ground.

He and his team also do geophysical surveys of the area — they string out a 420-metre cable over an area that soil sampling has already indicated may have potential. The cable has electrodes spaced out every five metres that send electrical currents about 90 metres down into the ground and can show faults or cracks that may contain gold.

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Wisconsin iron ore project accused of ‘sweetheart’ dealmaking – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – September 4, 2013)

http://www.mineweb.com/

The fight over the return of Wisconsin iron ore mining is not finished, as opponents try to prove the Gogebic Taconite project will harm water quality in wetlands.

RENO (MINEWEB) – Wisconsin tribes, lawmakers and miners are fighting over an emergency bill introduced in the Wisconsin State Legislature over the long Labor Day weekend and scheduled for hearing Wednesday, which would allow a controversial iron ore project to restrict public access to a parcel of land near the project.

The Gogebic Taconite iron ore company, owned by West Virginia coal magnate, Chris Cline, aims to construct a $1.5 billion iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin after the state legislature enacted permitting reform in March 2013 to bring back iron ore mining to the state. The mine would operate for at least 35 years and generate 700 jobs in an economically hard-hit area of Wisconsin.

However, the battle over the project is far from over as Native Americans have been regularly protesting against it, prompting accusations of “eco-terrorism” by mining officials. In June, protestors were accused of slashing tires, damaging equipment, and knocking over fences on the minesite. Opponents argue the new mine permitting legislation has relaxed environmental regulations that will lead to pollution of the Bad River watershed, which flows north from the proposed mine area into Lake Superior.

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New lease on life for Cobalt – by Norm Tollinsky (Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal – September 2013)

This article was originally published in the September 2013 issue of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal.

Refining, milling, assaying and bulk sampling capacity creates critical mass

Proclaiming the rebirth of Cobalt, one of Ontario’s earliest mining camps, may be a stretch, but the recent reopening of the Yukon Refinery just north of town is a step in the right direction.

The refinery had been in mothballs for 13 of the preceding 15 years when United Commodity AG of Switzerland purchased it in June 2012. It has since added a Merrill-Crowe process for gold and silver recovery and struck some longterm deals for processing concentrate.

Originally a silver mill, Cobatec purchased and converted it to a recovery plant for tailings in the early 90s, recalled plant supervisor Gunner Skillins. “That didn’t work too well, so we went into feed from a smelter stack in Cuba containing both cobalt and nickel.”

That, too, proved short-lived. The plant shut down and was purchased in the late 90s by Canmine Resources, which operated it for a few years before going bankrupt. Ownership devolved to the bondholders represented by a Swiss financial group, which kept it on care and maintenance while trying to sell it for 10 years.

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Uranium juniors merger between Fission, Alpha Minerals creates bigger target – by Peter Koven (September 4, 2013)

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

The co-owners of a landmark Saskatchewan uranium discovery are coming together in a deal that they hope will be a precursor to a much bigger sale in the future.

Ever since junior miners Fission Uranium Corp. and Alpha Minerals Inc. started to release spectacular drilling results from their Patterson Lake South (PLS) project last year, investors viewed a merger of the two companies as a logical move. It would give them greater scale, make them more appealing to large investors and create a potential takeover target for a senior producer.

A friendly deal finally arrived on Tuesday, as Fission said it will buy Alpha for $185-million in stock. The move comes after a few large Alpha shareholders approached Fission about putting the two companies together. Each company owns 50% of the PLS project.

“It all started with their shareholders coming to us, and not us coming to them,” Fission chairman and chief executive Dev Randhawa said in an interview. PLS is a very early-stage discovery, but the grades are high and the potential is enormous. It is the most exciting find in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin since Hathor Exploration Ltd. discovered the Roughrider deposit in 2008. Hathor was later sold for $654-million.

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Mine safety inquiry would have clout: Steelworkers – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – September 4, 2013)

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

A delegation from United Steelworkers, including Local 6500 president Rick Bertrand, will meet again this week with Labour Minister Yasir Naqvi about how to make mining safer in Ontario.

The USW delegation will return to Queen’s Park on Thursday with revisions and comments on a proposal Naqvi presented when the union visited him last month to renew its call for an inquiry into mining practices.

USW has been calling for a full-scale inquiry, similar in scope to the one being held into the June 2012 collapse of the Algo Centre Mall in Elliot Lake. Naqvi gave the union with a proposal that falls short of a full inquiry, a process some are calling a review.

Bertrand said his union doesn’t believe a review will have the clout of an inquiry, which would compel mining companies to provide testimony and release documentation to a hearing chairperson.

The union has been reviewing and reworking the minister’s proposal since meeting with him Aug. 15. “We’re going back to have a discussion about possible changes to see if there’s an avenue … to get things done,” said Bertrand.

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Australian coal miners hope election will see new govt cut red tape – by Sonali Paul (Reuters India – September 4, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE – (Reuters) – You know you’re in trouble when you’re ranked worse for red tape than India. The World Economic Forum this week put Australia 129th out of 148 countries, ranking it 25 spots lower than India, in terms of the burden of government regulation.

And Australia’s red tape is hurting growth in its key mining sector at a time when other sectors are struggling to fire up to fill the gap left by a fading mining investment boom.

Australian miners sitting on coal lodes that could produce 100 million tonnes a year say they are frustrated by layers of state and national approvals that take years to secure, anti-coal campaigners using the courts to delay projects, and carbon and mining taxes eating into potential returns.

“Green tape in Australia really has become very stifling for business, to the point now where it’s difficult to tell the difference between green and red tape, it’s so embedded,” said Whitehaven Coal Chief Executive Paul Flynn, referring to lengthy environmental reviews by state and federal agencies.

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Rio to BHP Invest $244 Billion as Glasenberg Warns: Commodities – by Elisabeth Behrmann & Jesse Riseborough (Bloomberg News – September 4, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

The biggest mining companies are set to spend about $244 billion on expansions to 2015, slow to heed Glencore Xstrata Plc Chief Executive Officer Ivan Glasenberg’s call for austerity to end an oversupply in mineral markets.

That’s just a 2.4 percent drop from the $250 billion in capital expenditures made in the previous three-year period, according to forecasts compiled by Bloomberg for the 20 largest mining companies by market value. Glasenberg joined a chorus of investors pushing for spending cuts after the companies had to make $60 billion of writedowns over 18 months.

From BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP), the world’s biggest, to Rio Tinto Group, industry members are telling investors they’ve become more optimistic for demand growth in the U.S. and China, the biggest minerals buyer, and that future capex will be more disciplined. The Bloomberg World Mining index has jumped about 16 percent from a four-year low in July.

“Institutional shareholders still feel that management need to prove to them that over the long term the discipline associated with capital allocation is there,” Catherine Raw, co-manager of BlackRock Inc. (BLK)’s $7 billion World Mining Fund, said yesterday in a phone interview from London. “They could always do more. Shareholders are not releasing the pressure.”

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South African gold miners ease some wage demands as strike slams troubled industry – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – September 4, 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 — The vast majority of South Africa’s biggest gold mines have been severely affected by a national strike that began on Tuesday night by nearly 80,000 mine workers.

Of the 23 gold mines targeted by the strike, 17 have been forced to halt operations or have less than half of their workers on duty, according to reports on Wednesday as the strike entered its second day.

There was a glimmer of hope on Wednesday as the leading mine worker union reportedly offered to compromise by cutting its wage demands below its original call for a 60 per cent wage increase, although the details of its new demand were unclear. The seven gold mining companies – including AngloGold Ashanti and Harmony Gold – have insisted that they cannot offer anything more than a 6.5-per-cent wage increase.

The strike, expected to cost the South African economy about $60-million a day, has dealt another blow to a beleaguered industry that already suffers from rising costs and shrinking production. Some analysts predict that it could become the costliest strike in the country’s history. With the two sides far apart, a lockout is also possible.

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Industry facing cut in wood allocation for caribou – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – September 3, 2013)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Despite reassuring words from provincial politicians, the forest industry still faces a massive reduction in wood volume due to caribou conservation efforts being proposed in this region.

“On the Abitibi River Forest, it’s a disaster because they have not changed the long-term management direction one iota,” said Cochrane Mayor Peter Politis. “The existing long-term management direction sees about a 65% volume loss in 25 years which will devastate towns right from North Bay to Hearst.”

This is a marked change in tone from two months ago. Industry and municipal politicians were hailing Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources when it formally acknowledged the Crown Forest Sustainability Act fulfils the requirements of the Endangered Species Act.

However, the decision to harmonize these acts hasn’t made any difference to the caribou conservation efforts being implemented on the Abitibi River Forest.

“What the MNR is doing, they’re trying to recover caribou all over the place, all the way down south of Lake Abitibi where they don’t exist right now,” said Politis. “That’s what’s causing the problem.”

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Kathleen Wynne says no point in rushing Ring of Fire – CBC News Thunder Bay (September 3, 2013)

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

Bob Rae and Frank Iaccobucci working closely with First Nations communities, making progress

Ontario’s Premier says the province will let businesses make decisions on where to locate smelters and processing plants, while the Ring of Fire will bring jobs to the region on its own.

Kathleen Wynne made the comments Tuesday after a mining analyst’s suggestion the government should do more to make mining attractive. Wynne said there’s no point in rushing agreements among government, First Nations, and mining companies.

“There is a political message that’s out there from the opposition parties that says … we should move faster on the Ring of Fire … and we just have to sweep all of the barriers out of the way,” Wynne said.

“That’s code for not paying attention to environmental protections, and not making sure that our relationships with First Nations are in place.” Wynne added that Bob Rae and Frank Iaccobucci are working very closely with First Nations communities, and are making progress.

With respect to the location of the chromite smelter, “I’m pleased … that that decision was made to have that processor here in Ontario,” she said.

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COLUMN-China PMI may not signal rising commodity demand – by Clyde Russell (Reuters India – September 3, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

(The author is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)

(Reuters) – Commodity producers and traders have no doubt been cheered by the recent recovery in China’s key manufacturing sector, but the boost may be more to sentiment than actual demand.

This is because there is a fairly weak correlation between movements in China’s official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) and imports of key commodities such as crude oil, iron ore and copper. There is a far better correlation between China’s imports and the price of these commodities.

This suggests that while stronger, or weaker, industrial growth helps set the direction for imports, the actual size of the movement in imports is more related to price.

The official PMI rose to a 16-month high of 51.0 in August, beating market expectations for a reading of 50.6, with the breakdown showing better conditions across the factory sector, including the key export orders category.

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[Thunder Bay generating station] Up in the air – by Leith Dunick (tbnewswatch.com – September 3, 2013)

http://www.tbnewswatch.com/

Premier Kathleen Wynne says the future of the Thunder Bay Generating Station is still up in the air.

The Ontario leader, in the city for a series of events this week, including Minister of Northern Development and Mines Michael Gravelle’s nomination Tuesday night, said the conversation about the plant is ongoing, but no decisions have been made.

Last year the province decided to halt the conversion from coal to natural gas, stating it would save $400 million.

The Ontario Power Authority also said the power it creates won’t be needed down the road, though the region’s energy task forced begged to differ, presenting a much different – and more prosperous – outlook for Northwestern Ontario’s mining sector.

“It’s one of those fundamentals of infrastructure and conditions that has to be in place for job creation to happen and economic development to happen and economic growth to happen,” Wynne said in a brief media availability on Tuesday morning.

“So we’re committed to making sure that power supply is there and the specifics on that conversion are ongoing,” she said.

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Thunder Bay could be chromite-stainless steel hub, analyst says – CBC News Thunder Bay (September 3, 2013)

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

For a nine minute interview between CBC Thunder Bay Superior Morning host Lisa Laco and Stan Sudol, click here: http://www.cbc.ca/superiormorning/episodes/2013/09/03/chromite-crumbs/

Mining writer says province should look at exporting chromite in the form of stainless steel

A mining consultant and writer says the debate should be re-opened on where to locate a ferrochrome smelter in northern Ontario.

Stan Sudol said he thinks the smelter should not be located in Sudbury, but instead go to a port city like Thunder Bay. He added that chromite from the Ring of Fire region could also be used to produce stainless steel in a new plant located in Thunder Bay.

“This would be an enormous long-term gain for not only northern Ontario, but the entire province, if the provincial government could attract one of the major stainless steel producers around the world to locate in northern Ontario,” he said.

Sudol said a waterfront location, like Thunder Bay’s port, would be key to attracting a stainless steel producer. Clustering the ferrochrome smelter and a stainless steel mill together makes the most sense, Sudol said.

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Mining deal value down 74% in first half of 2013, study says – by Peter Koven (National Post – September 3, 2013)

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

Weak commodity prices, a wave of CEO firings and more than $60-billion of writedowns have slowed mining M&A activity to a crawl. And almost no one thinks it will rebound anytime soon.

A new study from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC (PwC), to be released Thursday, details the damage. There were a total of 649 mining deals in the first six months of 2013, according to PwC, down 31% from the same period a year ago. And deal value plunged 74% in that period to US$20.6-billion.

The poor result is no surprise given recent market conditions. But it highlights just how much things have changed since the M&A frenzy of the last decade fizzled out. At times, multi-billion-dollar takeovers were routine.

Many of those deals backfired over the last couple years due to rising costs and falling metal prices, which forced companies to delay or cancel projects and record billions of dollars of writedowns. Barrick Gold Corp. reported US$9.3-billion of impairment charges last quarter alone. Nearly every senior mining company has replaced its CEO since the frenzy ended, and not surprisingly, the new group has a much more negative attitude towards takeovers.

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Biofuel blunder – by Douglas Auld (National Post – September 3, 2013)

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

Lobbying trumped science as politicians lavished more than $100-billion in subsidies on morally suspect energy

The federal government’s decision to shut down the ecoEnergy program for biofuels is long overdue but does nothing to modify and substantially reduce existing biofuel subsidies that will cost the Federal treasury more than $1-billion by 2017. Add to that the myriad provincial biofuel subsidies and other forms of support, and the bill to taxpayers is staggering.

Canada is not alone in doling out large sums of public money for biofuels. Globally, in 2011 Canada, the United States, the European Union, China, India, Brazil and Australia, to name the major players, spent more than $40-billion on biofuel subsidies in the name of energy security, green house gas reductions and regional economic development. Since 2005 more than $100-billion worldwide has been allocated to biofuel programs with very little, if any, net improvement in reducing green house gas emissions.

In Europe, after years of subsidies and mandates, several countries are scaling back, albeit in a small way, their grandiose biofuel initiatives, particularly biodiesel production and consumption. The demand for feedstock oils from food and non-food plants, bushes and trees to feed the biodiesel thirst has imposed huge costs in terms of deforestation, land abuse and decreased water quality on those countries supplying the feedstock for biodiesel.

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