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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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Anglo American Platinum to Eliminate Thousands of Jobs in South Africa – by Abayomi Azikiwe (Global Research – September 02, 2013)

http://www.globalresearch.ca/

Downsizing comes amid rising strikes by workers

South African workers are continuing their struggle against the bosses with strike actions spreading from the mines, automobile plants, air transport technology stations to construction sites. On September 3, thousands of members of the National Union of Metalworkers Union (NUMSA) were scheduled to march through Pretoria to the headquarters of the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa to deliver a memorandum demanding that the trade group pressure car production firms to settle a strike that was in its third week.

In the most significant industry, platinum mining, the largest owner Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), has announced that up to 7,000 jobs could be eliminated in a restructuring program. The company had earlier threatened to fire twice as many workers but revised its plan to wipe out only 50 percent in the initial proposal.

These developments are taking place throughout the mining industry inside the country. Anglo American, which is also involved in other extractive markets such as gold, has reported a 10 percent decline in value since the beginning of 2013. Amplats produces 40 percent of the platinum sales internationally. The most profitable region for the firm is located in Rustenberg where during 2012 police shot dead 34 miners at the Lonmin corporation facility at Marikana on August 16.

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Mining opponents: You think you know Ely’s needs? – by Joe Baltich (Minneapolis Star Tribune – August 31, 2013)

http://www.startribune.com/

Joe Baltich lives near Ely, Minn.

These days, everybody has a lot to say about mining, tourism and the northern Minnesota economy. Many from the Twin Cities area oppose an underground copper-mining proposal near Ely and have been trying to stop the project in its tracks.

One of their reasons for doing so is well-intended — they want to protect the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The second reason is more self-serving — they want to protect it for whenever the day comes that they decide to pay a visit.

I felt that it is time someone actually from Ely explained our reality. We want to protect the BWCA all the time, and we also want to be a viable, vibrant community. It is hard to do that with outside forces trying to stifle economic activity. I was recently asked by a Twin Cities resident to sign an anti-mining petition. Here is a condensed version of the letter I sent in reply:

The whole town of Ely is economically collapsing. Last year, 156 people were in the obituaries, and the New Year’s baby was born on Feb. 10. Resort bookings for May and June were substantially off, and I’m pretty sure they will be down for July and August.

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Europe’s Biggest Planned Gold Mine May Face Romanian Referendum – by Irina Savu (Bloomberg News – September 2, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Romania’s President proposed a vote on allowing development of Europe’s largest gold mine project following protests against technology that made the country home to one of the continent’s worst environmental disasters.

A day after thousands of demonstrators rallied against the use of cyanide in gold mining, President Traian Basescu said he may call a referendum next year on the Rosia Montana mine. That may delay the project, for which Canada-based Gabriel Resources Ltd. (GBU) said it could “hopefully” receive approval by November.

The rallies followed the government’s unveiling last week of a draft law to raise the state’s stake in the project, rekindling anger over the 2000 Baia Mare spill. Listed by the United Nations Environment Programme alongside Chernobyl as one of Europe’s major human-caused disasters, the spill happened when a dam holding back mine debris burst, flooding the Somes, Tiza and Danube rivers with tens of thousands of tons of cubic meters of cyanide-contaminated water.

“The biggest scare about the Rosia Montana mine is the cyanide process, which should have been discussed with experts,” Basescu said on newspaper Adevarul’s website. He said “society is rightfully reacting to this” because Romania had suffered from the Baia Mare spill.

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Lancaster Co. proposal could affect future gold mining – by Sammy Fretwel (Herald On Line.com – September 2, 2013)

http://www.heraldonline.com/

That’s why plenty of people are watching Romarco Minerals Inc. these days. The fate of gold mining in South Carolina is tied to an ambitious plan by the company to offset wetlands damage at a huge mine it plans near Kershaw – and how well Romarco navigates the environmental permitting process, observers say.

More than 20 years after one of the state’s most prolific gold mines closed, Romarco Minerals Inc. of Canada is trying to persuade state and federal regulators to let it dig up and substantially expand the Haile mine in Lancaster County.

To do that, Romarco must convince regulators that the company has done all it can to avoid unnecessary damage to wetlands, streams, rivers and groundwater – and Romarco must offer compensation for the environmental impacts the mine will have. The company recently offered a wetlands offset package that could cost it $32 million.

Romarco’s efforts are expected to guide future company work in South Carolina, as well as those of other gold-exploration companies on whether to dig new mines. Some of Romarco’s competitors have been searching for gold in the Carolina Slate Belt, a rocky area that in South Carolina is largely between Columbia and Charlotte.

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Premier meets with mining probe proponents – by Heidi Ulrichsen (Sudbury Northern Life – September 01, 2013)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Wynne ‘very compassionate’ to accident victim’s family

The premier took some time during her visit to Sudbury last week to meet with those pushing for a mining safety probe in Ontario.

Kathleen Wynne met Aug. 30 with Steelworkers Local 6500 president Rick Bertrand, as well as Wendy and Briana Fram, the mother and sister, respectively, of Jordan Fram, who died in 2011 along with Jason Chenier at Vale’s Stobie Mine.

The Fram family are part of the Mining Inquiry Needs Everyone’s Support (MINES) committee, which is pushing for a full inquiry into mining safety in the province. Steelworkers Local 6500, the union representing Vale workers, made the original recommendation for the mining inquiry in its 2012 report into Fram and Chenier’s deaths.

“It was wonderful to meet with her, share our story and tell her why we feel we need an inquiry into Ontario mines,” Briana said. “She was very compassionate and listened to our story.” The meeting with Wynne comes after a previous failed attempt to do just that by those who want a mining inquiry. The Steelworkers requested a meeting with the premier in May, but didn’t receive a response until late July, at which time Wynne turned down their request, referring the matter to Labour Minister Yasir Naqvi.

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Tearful Cutifani in appeal to end ‘tide of destruction’ in mining – by Allan Seccombe (South Africa Business Day – August 30, 2013)

http://www.bdlive.co.za/

A DEEPLY emotional Mark Cutifani, the CEO of Anglo American and president of the Chamber of Mines, has urged the government not to add to the risks besetting the mining sector by creating regulatory uncertainty.

“Our most important industry is in crisis and we have not yet found the answer to stemming the tide of destruction,” he said.

Mr Cutifani broke down in tears at the start of a speech at a dinner on Thursday marking the end of the three-day Mining Lekgotla in Sandton, where stakeholders gathered to discuss the sector’s competitiveness and transformation.

He said “cowards, thugs and murderers” and “loud-mouthed opportunists” should not be allowed to intimidate and bully others and to define the dialogue South Africa was having.

Mr Cutifani, the former CEO of AngloGold Ashanti, praised the achievements of South Africa, which had undergone one of the world’s largest social reconstructions since the demise of apartheid in 1994. However, despite the JSE outperforming the New York bourse since 2007, posting a 60% growth, the mining index was flat and had destroyed 30% of absolute value in the same time, he said.

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Copper Rally Reversing as Glut Expands to ’01 High: Commodities – by Agnieszka Troszkiewicz & Maria Kolesnikova (Bloomberg News – September 3, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

The biggest rally in copper in three months is reversing as analysts predict that the largest glut in 13 years will overwhelm consumption from an accelerating Chinese economy, which uses two in every five tons.

Production will exceed demand by 408,000 metric tons next year, the most since 2001, compared with 167,000 tons in 2013, the average of 15 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg shows. Futures rose 3.2 percent in August, the most in three months, on signs of an expansion in Chinese manufacturing. Prices will drop 6.1 percent to $6,800 a ton by the end of December, the median of 13 analyst and trader predictions shows.

Copper is falling with all other metals this year after a decade when prices rose fivefold. Producers from Rio Tinto Group to BHP Billiton Ltd. added 3.4 million tons to output since 2003, about what Europe uses in a year, and Morgan Stanley expects another 4.1 million tons by 2017. While prices are 29 percent below the record set in 2011, they are still about 50 percent higher than what the costliest mines need to break even, Macquarie Group Ltd. estimates.

“We’re having this big wave of copper supply growth,” said David Wilson, an analyst at Citigroup Inc. in London who has followed metals for almost two decades.

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Opinion: Taseko seeks path forward for New Prosperity – by Russ Hallbauer (Vancouver Sun – September 2, 2013)

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

Misinformation tainted hearings, sowed mistrust

Russ Hallbauer is president and CEO of Taseko Mines Ltd.

The final weeks of the First Nations community hearing sessions of the federal environmental assessment for New Prosperity Gold-Copper Mine witnessed emotional testimony from many Tsilhqot’in and Shuswap First Nations peoples.

The New Prosperity project is located in British Columbia’s Cariboo-Chilcotin region. It proposes to save the culturally sensitive Fish Lake, and it will have a significant positive socio-economic impact on the region, British Columbia and Canada.

The Tsilhqot’in people have a long history and traditional connection to the land throughout their traditional territory, including in the proposed mining area around Fish Lake.

These communities, many with strong family ties, are working to heal some pressing social issues by strengthening awareness of their heritage and traditional practices among their youth as well as more broadly in the general population.

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Mining: Who gets the royalties; who makes the decisions? – CBC News – The Sunday Edition (September 1, 2013)

http://www.cbc.ca/thesundayedition/

Click here for a 40 minute interview: http://www.cbc.ca/thesundayedition/popupaudio.html?clipIds=2403660426

It may sound like sacrilege in this land of hewers of wood and drawers of water, but some argue that building an economy around what comes out of the ground is not the best path to prosperity. Mining and energy are expected to pump billions into northern Canada in the next few years – but at what cost? Who will share in the wealth, and who will make the decisions?

Guest-host Karin Wells talks to Eva Aariak, Premier of Nunavut, about her desire for more control over the exploitation of her territory’s mineral resources.

Karin Wells also speaks with Catherine Coumans of MiningWatch Canada who says Nunavut would be better off with a focus on diversifying its economy, rather than relying on mineral exploration and development.

Corporate Social Responsibility and the NGO’s:

Two years after Ottawa began supporting Canadian mining companies abroad by funding partnerships with Canadian non-governmental organizations, the battle rages on.

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Hope muted but persistent for Labrador Trough iron rush – by Keith Norbury (Canadian Sailings-Transportation & Trade Logistics – August 27, 2013)

http://www.canadiansailings.ca/

Signs abound that enthusiasm for new iron ore mines in the Labrador Trough have tapered off since February 2011 when the spot price was nearly $190 a tonne. Since then, prices have been on a roller coaster, which experienced more downs than ups. They dipped as low as $87 last September, soared back up over $150 in February, and then tumbled back down to below $115 in June.

Coinciding with that volatility, Canadian National Railway suspended a feasibility study on a new $5 billion rail line to serve potential new mines in the Labrador Trough. Mining giant Rio Tinto has put up for sale its 58.7 per cent interest in Iron Ore Company of Canada, one of the Trough’s and Canada’s largest iron ore producers.

Champion Iron Mines Ltd., one of the promising junior players in the Trough, abruptly pulled out of its participation in a new multi-user $220 million multi-user iron-ore port at Pointe-Noire in Sept-Îles, Que. And Cliffs Resources shut down indefinitely its pelletizing plant at Pointe-Noire.

Despite those setbacks, the consensus among financial analysts and economists who follow the trials and tribulations of the iron ore industry, as well as of industry insiders, is that long-term prospects for ramping up iron ore production in the Trough remain solid.

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Ring of Fire: Chromite Crumbs or Stainless Steel for Ontario? [Part Two of Two] – by Stan Sudol (Sudbury Star – August 31, 2013)

Outokumpu Stainless Steel Plant Tornio, Finland. Outokumpu Group is the largest stainless steel producer in the world.

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

This was originally published in the Sudbury Star on August 31, 2013 under the title “From ore to steel“.

Canada is the only G-8 country in the world that does not have a “major” stainless steel sector. There is one speciality steel producer, ASW Steel Inc. in Welland, Ontario, that dedicates 30 per cent of its production capacity to stainless steel. Employing  about 95 people, the company manufactures roughly 30,000 tons of stainless steel ingots and billets. By comparison, Outokumpu, the biggest international producer, produces almost 3.6 million tonnes of stainless steels worldwide, slightly over ten per cent of the 35.4 million tonnes of global production last year, according to International Stainless Steel Forum preliminary figures.

We do have world-class carbon steel plants mainly concentrated in Ontario at Hamilton, Nanticoke and Sault Ste. Marie.

Stainless steels are more valuable than carbon steels due to their corrosion and rust resistance due to the addition of chromite. Nickel is added to some varieties of stainless steels to increase the hardness and strength, further corrosion resistance as well as enabling the material to withstand extreme cold and hot temperatures without becoming brittle or deforming.

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