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Margaret Thatcher’s death greeted with little sympathy by Orgreave veterans – by Helen Pidd and David Conn (The Guardian – April 8, 2013)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/

‘I’m not a hypocrite. I spoke ill of her when she was alive and I’ll speak ill of her now she’s dead’

“I’ll tell you what really annoyed us miners,” said Pete Mansell, sipping a pint of John Smith’s on Monday. “She said we were the enemy within. We weren’t. We were just looking after our lives, our families, our kids and our properties, everything that we ever had. We were fighting for that big style.”

Along with most of the other men drinking in the Black Bull pub in Aughton, Rotherham, the 55-year-old former pit worker had borne witness to the fiercest confrontation in the miners strike at the nearby Orgreave coking plant on 18 June 1984.

Almost 30 years have gone by since Margaret Thatcher characterised those who took part in the “battle of Orgreave” as thugs. But in a village that one drinker said had been “decimated by Thatcher”, the words still cut deep. It is perhaps no surprise that those gathered in the pub were having what they described as a party after hearing about her death.

“I’m not a hypocrite,” said Mansell, who is from the nearby pit village of Swallownest and worked underground for 22 years. “I spoke ill of her when she was alive and I’ll speak ill of her now she’s dead. She doesn’t mean two iotas to me.”

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Margaret Thatcher and the pit strike in Yorkshire – by Martin Coldrick (BBC News – April 8, 2013)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/

Yorkshire – In Yorkshire, the mere mention of Baroness Thatcher’s name is often likely to lead quickly to talk of the 1984-5 miners’ strike.

With the news of her death at the age of 87, emotions remain high in Yorkshire’s former pit communities about the miners’ strike and the role of then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

At times, that strike – lasting from 5 March 1984 to 3 March 1985 – almost seemed to be a battle of wills between the Barnsley-born leader of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), Arthur Scargill, and the Conservative prime minister.

In 1984, when there were 170 working collieries in Britain, employing more than 190,000 people, Mr Scargill obtained a “hit list” of mines the Thatcher government was planning to close.

The ensuing strike against job losses, for which the NUM controversially never held a national ballot among its members, pitted striking miners against Mrs Thatcher’s government, the police and other miners, and led to divisions in families which remain to this day.

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Mongolia Scolds Rio Tinto on Mine Costs as Yurts Replaced – by Michael Kohn and William Mellor (Bloomberg Businessweek – April 09, 2013)

http://www.businessweek.com/

Outside, it’s minus 30 degrees Celsius as a February wind blasts across the Central Asian steppe and through the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar. Inside Government House, President Tsakhia Elbegdorj delivers a televised speech that simultaneously warms his people and chills foreign investors.

The country’s 76 legislators have convened to debate the future of one of the planet’s richest copper and gold mines, Oyu Tolgoi, which is 66 percent owned by London-based Rio Tinto Group (RIO) and 34 percent owned by the state. Elbegdorj tells them Rio Tinto has let the project’s total cost balloon by $10 billion. The higher expenses, which Rio Tinto disputes, would diminish and delay profits the government shares in, Bloomberg Markets magazine will report in its May issue.

“The time has come for the Mongolian government to take Oyu Tolgoi matters into its own hands,” Elbegdorj says to cheers from the lawmakers. His demands include giving Mongolian employees more management positions on the project, which is scheduled to begin exporting copper concentrate by June.

Few things matter more today in the political and economic life of this landlocked country of 2.8 million people than foreign investment to develop its mineral wealth.

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China Failed Mining Deals Top $45 Billion on Hanlong Bungle – by Helen Yuan and Elisabeth Behrmann (Bloomberg News – April 9, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Sichuan Hanlong Group’s botched $1.2 billion bid for Australia’s Sundance Resources Ltd. (SDL) brings the value of China’s recent failed mining deals to $45 billion, a record that’s prompted stricter Chinese scrutiny of acquisitions.

Chinese companies attempted $107 billion worth of mining takeovers over the past five years, with about $45 billion, or 42 percent by value, of deals ending in failure. Of $562 billion of deals proposed globally in the same period, $180 billion, or 32 percent, didn’t proceed, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The collapse yesterday of the bid for Sundance, seeking to develop a $4.7 billion iron ore project in Africa, comes after a string of failed investments by Chinese companies, including the demise of a $19.5 billion investment in Rio Tinto Group in 2009. Regulators under China’s new leadership team of Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang have told state-owned companies that overseas takeovers will face a more stringent approval process.

“Chinese regulators are probably going to allow fewer deals to go through as they become more discerning,” Jonathan Li, a corporate partner at Clayton Utz, said in a phone interview from Melbourne. “The market will come to expect that when a deal involving a Chinese acquirer is announced, all the internal Chinese approvals will already have been obtained.”

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Arie Papernick: A New Mining Investment Landscape Explained – Interviewed by Brian Sylvester (The Metals Report – April 9, 2013)

http://www.theaureport.com/

Life is difficult for junior resource companies. Not only are stocks and commodity prices moving sideways, but tax changes in Canada may signal less friendly treatment for exploration investment. But not all is grim, according to Arie Papernick, the head of equity capital markets at Secutor Capital Management Corp. in Toronto.

In this interview with The Metals Report, Papernick says investors can still make money if they focus on companies that are producing or near production with an attractive capital structure and strong balance sheets. Royalty plays are another favorite. He reveals that the next big opportunity may be coming in the energy metals space.

The Metals Report: Arie, the Canadian government recently introduced a new budget that contains changes to the tax code that are expected to affect mining companies with producing mines. John Gravelle, a mining expert for PricewaterhouseCoopers, recently called this legislation “a form of stealth resource nationalism.” What’s your view?

Arie Papernick: The budget proposes reductions to some of the tax benefits that can be passed to flow-through shareholders. The major impact is that some traditional pre-production expenses, also called Canadian exploration expenses (CEE), which previously could be 100% written off in the year incurred, will be phased out over the next few years. Starting in 2018, only 30% of these expenses can be deducted on a declining basis as Canadian development expenses (CDE). This will potentially hurt resource companies’ ability to raise capital through flow-through shares as the flow-through investor community generally insists on receiving only CEE deductions.

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Congo’s mining heartland a volatile “powder keg” – lawmaker – by Jonny Hogg (Reuters U.K. – April 9, 2013)

http://uk.reuters.com/

KINSHASA – (Reuters) – Growing unrest in Democratic Republic of Congo’s copper-rich Katanga province risks scaring off investors and derailing its thriving mining sector, said the lawmaker heading an inquiry into a rebel attack on the provincial capital last month.

Katanga, in the country’s south, has been seen as insulated from the violent unrest that much of the rest of Congo. Billions of dollars have poured into the province to develop mining projects aiming to tap its underexploited mineral wealth.

However, security is steadily eroding as rebel groups, some of them seeking independence for Katanga, sweep down from the north of the province, massacring civilians and emptying villages.

“If nothing is done, Katanga is a powder keg and anything can happen,” Claudel Andre Lubaya, a legislator who is the rapporteur for the parliamentary commission for defence and security, said on Tuesday following a visit to Lubumbashi.

“Persistent insecurity could lead to investors pulling out. That’s why the government must not take only cosmetic measures.”

Last month’s raid saw around 300 fighters penetrate into the heart of Lubumbashi, Congo’s second city and the country’s principal mining hub, before they were stopped by the army’s elite Republican Guard.

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Mrs. Redford goes to Washington amid a rising furor of anti-pipeline activism – by Mitch Potter (Toronto Star – April 10, 2013)

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.

Alberta Premier Alison Redford shows up in Washington for a final round of lobbying on behalf of the controversial TransCanada Corp. pipeline project.

WASHINGTON—The drive to bring Alberta crude to the United States will continue no matter what the Americans decide about the KeystoneXL pipeline, Alberta Premier Alison Redford said Tuesday.

In Washington for a final round of lobbying on behalf of the controversial TransCanada Corp. project, Redford cautioned that outright rejection by the Obama administration when the issue comes to a head this summer could transform KeystoneXL into a never-ending diplomatic thorn, likely to rise anew every time Canadian and U.S. politicians meet.

Cancellation of the Alberta-to-Texas pipeline would not mean “the matter fell off the table,” Redford said in remarks at the Brookings Institution.

The cross-border business community invested in oilsands development, she said, would likely proceed unfazed, because it involves “very tight relationships” where “everyone understands what the opportunities are.”

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Despite its many doubters, the coal industry could soon roar back to life – by Bryan Borzykowski (Canadian Business Magazine – April 8,2013)

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/

Following a brutal year.

The darkest day in the coal industry’s recent past arrived on July 9, 2012. About five minutes after the market closed, St. Louis–based Patriot Coal Corp. filed for bankruptcy and destabilized an already troubled sector. The company, one of the largest metallurgical coal producers in the U.S., had nearly as much in debt as it had assets and, thanks to plummeting prices, its balance sheet was simply under too much pressure.

Stock prices across the sector fell quickly. James River Coal Co., which many thought would follow Patriot into bankruptcy, saw its shares drop 44% that week. Some of the more stable businesses, such as Consol Energy and Cloud Peak Energy, fell by 10%.

At the time, no one was sure when or even if coal would recover. But after a lousy year that saw the commodity’s price get slashed nearly in half, many experts believe that the sector has finally hit its nadir. The industry will still be volatile this year, and may see another bankruptcy or two, but stock prices have nowhere to go but up. “You need to get in early,” says Matthew Peterson, a portfolio manager with Newgate Capital Management. Coal stocks move quickly, he says, so if you wait for good news, you’ll have already missed much of the upside.

While coal experiences more ups and downs than other commodities—the weather can have an effect on prices—the black rock has been in use for centuries. Even though it’s considered the dirtiest of fossil fuels and as a result is being burned less in many developed countries, there’s no way that it would suddenly stop being used.

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NEWS RELEASE: 10,000 people sign a petition opposing any increase in mining royalties

QUÉBEC CITY, April 9, 2013 /CNW Telbec/ – The Québec Mining Association (QMA) has made public a petition asking the Québec government to review its plan to change the mining tax regime in Québec. To date, over 10,000 people have shown their support for the mining industry by signing the petition.

The wording of the petition is clear: “I am not against mining royalties, but I believe they must allow a form of mineral resource development that is profitable and economically acceptable. A change to the current tax regime could lead to mine closures and the postponement of several key projects; it could also drive away investors and lead to a loss of jobs throughout Québec. I am therefore opposed to any change to the mining tax system.”

“The fact that 10,000 people have taken the time to sign the petition to indicate their support for the mining industry shows that the population is on our side and that people appreciate the positive impact of our industry in Québec. It is interesting to note that the messages of support we have received come from all across Québec, and not just from the mining regions,” says Josée Méthot, QMA President and CEO.

The Québec Mining Association believes that the Forum on mining royalties provided an opportunity for discussion, and a way for mining companies to make their voices heard. “Our goal is not to frighten people, but the risk of lost investment is real, and the damage caused to the Québec economy could be far greater than the benefits derived from an increase in royalties.

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Salt of the Earth: The Movie Hollywood Could Not Stop – Steve Boisson (American History Magazine – February 2002)

http://www.historynet.com/

When director Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront opened in 1954, critics and audiences hailed the gritty movie about Hoboken dockworkers and applauded Marlon Brando’s performance as the ex-boxer who ‘coulda been a contender.’ At the next Academy Awards ceremony, On the Waterfront won Oscars for best film, best director, best actor, and best supporting actress.

Another movie about beleaguered workers opened to quite a different reception that same year. Like Kazan’s film, Salt of the Earth was based on an actual situation, in this case a mining strike in New Mexico. Both movies were shot on location with the participation of those who had lived the real stories. And both movies shared a history in the Hollywood blacklist. There the similarities ended. Kazan and his writer, Budd Schulberg, had both named names — identified movie people they said were Communists — when questioned by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).

Some saw their movie, in which Brando’s character testifies against the racketeers who run the docks, as an allegory in support of informing. The people behind Salt, in contrast, were unrepentant blacklistees whose leftist political affiliations derailed their careers during the Red scares of the 1950s. On the Waterfront was a hit and is remembered as a classic film. The makers of Salt of the Earth struggled to find theater owners willing to show their incendiary movie.

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Salt of the Earth – Full Movie (Mining Movie – 1954)

This information is from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Salt of the Earth (1954) is an American drama film written by Michael Wilson, directed by Herbert J. Biberman, and produced by Paul Jarrico. All had been blacklisted by the Hollywood establishment due to their alleged involvement in communist politics.[1]

The film is one of the first pictures to advance the feminist social and political point of view. Its plot centers on a long and difficult strike, based on the 1951 strike against the Empire Zinc Company in Grant County, New Mexico. In the film, the company is identified as “Delaware Zinc,” and the setting is “Zinctown, New Mexico.” The film shows how the miners, the company, and the police react during the strike. In neorealist style, the producers and director used actual miners and their families as actors in the film.

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Silver Bears (Mining Movie – 1978)

This information is from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Silver Bears is a 1978 comedy thriller film directed by Ivan Passer and starring Michael Caine, Cybill Shepherd, Louis Jourdan and Joss Ackland. Caine portrays mob accountant “Doc” Fletcher who acquires a Swiss bank and a silver mine but must fight a complex struggle in order to keep hold of them.

Plot summary

Financial wizard “Doc” Fletcher (Michael Caine) persuades his boss, American mobster Joe Fiore (Martin Balsam), to buy up a Swiss bank in order to more easily launder their ill-gotten gains. The impoverished Italian Prince Gianfranco di Siracusa (Louis Jourdan) agrees to act as chairman of the board in order to give it an air of respectability.

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Excerpt from “The History of Mining: The events, technology and people involved in the industry that forged the modern world” – by Michael Coulson

To order a copy of The History of Mining, please click here: http://www.harriman-house.com/products/books/23161/business/Michael-Coulson/The-History-of-Mining/

 

MINING FILMS

One of the earliest mining themed films was Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush made in 1925 and set in the time of the Alaskan gold rush where Chaplin revives his famous Little Tramp role as a gold prospector.

Gold has always had a key role to play in films with mining themes. The classic Treasure of the Sierra Madre directed by John Huston in 1948 and starring Humphrey Bogart and John’s father Walter Huston was one of the finest of the genre of prospectors searching for gold to secure them financially for life and falling out with disastrous consequences.

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Mon oncle Antoine: Of Asbestos Mines and Christmas Candy – by André Loiselle

http://www.criterion.com/

Every decade since 1984 the Toronto International Film Festival has conducted a poll of film scholars, critics, and directors to determine the ten best movies in the history of Canadian cinema. This top-ten list has changed somewhat over the years, as the tastes and preoccupations of respondents have shifted and a few new masterpieces have displaced old classics.

But one thing has remained constant: in all of these polls, one title has invariably topped the list, unmoved by passing trends. It is Claude Jutra’s Mon oncle Antoine (1971), which for the last twenty-five years has held the official title of “best Canadian film ever made.” While some might claim that other films are equally deserving of this distinction, no one would deny that Jutra’s bittersweet tale of a boy’s coming-of-age in 1940s rural Quebec is one of the greatest cinematic achievements ever to come out of Canada.

By the time he directed Mon oncle Antoine, Claude Jutra (1930–86) was already a well-known filmmaker in Quebec. The son of a renowned Montreal radiologist, Jutra was a gifted student who had completed medical school by the tender age of twenty-one. He never practiced medicine, though, for his passion had always been cinema, and he devoted all of his spare time and energy to the seventh art. Encouraged by his family to pursue his artistic vision, he started making shorts when he was still a teenager, and before turning twenty had already won a Canadian Film Award for best amateur film.

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Mon oncle Antoine – Full Movie (Mining Movie – 1971)

Mon oncle Antoine by Claude Jutra, National Film Board of Canada

 This information is from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Mon oncle Antoine is a 1971 National Film Board of Canada (Office national du film du Canada) French language drama film. Québécois director Claude Jutra co-wrote the screenplay with Clément Perron and directed what is one of the most acclaimed works in Canadian film history.

The film examines life in the Maurice Duplessis-era Asbestos region of rural Québec prior to the Asbestos Strike of the late 1940s. Set at Christmas time, the story is told from the point of view of a 15-year-old boy (Benoît, played by Jacques Gagnon) coming of age in a mining town.

The Asbestos Strike is regarded by Québec historians as a seminal event in the years prior to the Quiet Revolution. Jutra’s film is an examination of the social conditions in Québec’s old, agrarian, conservative and cleric-dominated society on the eve of the social and political changes that transformed the province a decade later.[1]

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