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Glencore: life after Ivan Glasenberg (Swiss Info – July 6, 2021)

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/

In his closing days as Glencore boss last week, Ivan Glasenberg flew to Kazakhstan and Tajikistan for presidential meetings, oversaw the appointment of a new chair and found the time for one last deal, a buyout of the company’s partners in a huge Colombian coal mine.

Over almost two decades, the chief executive’s relentless work ethic, steely resolve and fierce competitive spirit have driven the company’s transformation from a privately owned commodity trader into a $58 billion (CHF53 billion) publicly listed natural resources giant.

“We built the fourth-largest mining company in the world in 20 years,” Glasenberg told the Financial Times last month.

Now, with the Glasenberg era over and the world turning its back on fossil fuels, his handpicked successor Gary Nagle and new chair Kalidas Madhavpeddi need to hit the ground running.

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Iconic South African Mines Are Ravaged Economy’s Unlikely Savior – by Prinesha Naidoo and Felix Njini (Bloomberg News – July 6, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The world’s deepest precious-metals mines, together with giant iron-ore and coal pits are providing an unexpected boon to a South African economy slowly recovering from its biggest contraction in a century.

Surging demand and prices for commodities including platinum-group metals, iron ore, manganese and coal are generating record mining-company profits and bolstering government revenue. That’s even as decades of dwindling output and investor reluctance to build new mines blights prospects for the industry.

“Last year, we were concerned about the lack of space to support the economy amid the severe hit from the pandemic,” Elna Moolman, a South Africa economist at Standard Bank Group Ltd., said in an interview.

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With ‘Deep Ocean Mission’, India Begins Quest for Seabed Minerals in Earnest – by Mayank Aggarwal (Science The Wire India – July 6, 2021)

https://science.thewire.in/

Similar to some other countries such as China, the quest for minerals in the deep sea has been on India’s radar for some time now. Recently, in June 2021, it got a significant boost as the Indian government approved a ‘Deep Ocean Mission’ to explore the ocean for resources and develop deep-sea technologies for sustainable use of ocean resources.

But the move towards deep seabed mining has also reignited concerns that many environmental organisations have been pointing out over the potential harm it could cause to marine biodiversity.

The proposal of the Indian government’s Ministry of Earth Sciences was cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with an estimated cost of about Rs 4,077 crore for a period of five years.

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Union fears big job losses from going green, after Ottawa pledges $420 million to Algoma’s electric retrofit – by Tom Blackwell (National Post – July 7, 2021)

https://nationalpost.com/

Union says 2,700 Northern Ontario steelworkers will bear brunt of Canada’s move away from coal

The announcement by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Monday seemed like undiluted good news. Ottawa would provide $420 million in aid to Algoma Steel so it could convert its coal-fired furnaces to “electric-arc” technology.

Technology that could cut the greenhouse gasses spewed from the Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., plant dramatically — by the equivalent of 900,000 gas-guzzling cars. But not everyone was enthused.

The union for Algoma’s 2,700 workers fears the retrofit as described Monday could mean hundreds of fewer jobs, and that a small northern Ontario city will have to bear a lopsided burden for Canada’s carbon-reduction goals.

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Lithium Price Tipped To Rise After Warning Of ‘Perpetual Deficit’ – by Tim Treadgold (Forbes Magazine – July 2, 2021)

https://www.forbes.com/

If you’re investment portfolio is not exposed to lithium, a key metal in the batteries which power electric vehicles (EVs), then consider the price effect on a commodity said to be heading for a “perpetual deficit.”

That remarkable description of surging demand for lithium as EV sales accelerate incorporates the second price driver, a lack of supply response from the world’s major lithium miners.

Two investment banks this week upgraded their assessment of lithium in light of the increasing demand and sluggish supply growth with both upgrading their price forecasts for the metal.

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Fortescue produces first-ever green iron ore – by Nickolas Zakharia (Australian Mining – July 7, 2021)

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Fortescue Metals Group has produced high-purity green iron ore and trialled ammonia-powered freight as part of its Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) renewable energy and industry initiative.

The initiative aimed to test if there was 100 per cent green energy to manufacture green iron and steel, fertiliser and cement.

According to FFI chief executive officer Julie Shuttleworth, trialling hydrogen, ammonia and battery technology was successful in powering the company’s trains, ship engines, haul trucks and drill rigs.

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Commodities jump in 2021 as economies re-open – by Matthew Parizot (CIM Magazine – July 2, 2021)

https://magazine.cim.org/en/

Commodity metals have had a rough time over the past couple of years. A lengthy trade war between the United States and China during Donald Trump’s presidency, followed by a global pandemic that closed borders and shut down production in many countries did little to assuage the fears of worried economists.

In 2021, however, there has been cause for much more optimism. Prices for industrial metals such as copper and iron ore have set new all-time highs. Gold prices have continued to remain high.

Battery metals have seen increases in demand. Experts are theorizing as to whether the market has entered a new commodities supercycle. According to Marc Desormeaux, senior economist at Scotiabank, there are two main factors at play that have led to this rise in commodity prices.

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Barrick M&A leads to greenhouse gas emissions jump – Metals Focus – by Vladimir Basov (Kitco News – July 7, 2021)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – Barrick Gold’s corporate restructuring has led to a jump in greenhouse gas emissions, according to Metals Focus, a leading independent precious metals research consultancy, which today presented findings of its annual peer group ESG report comparing ESG metrics across 16 of the biggest gold miners over the last seven years.

Metals Focus said that this report, the latest of which comes out this week, aims to make like-for-like comparisons across this peer group, although this is not possible for all metrics because of the variability in disclosure.

However, Metals Focus noted that comparing these companies from a high level does offer some useful perspectives.

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Editorial: Mine extension announcement good for remaining Vale employees (Thompson Citizen – July 7, 2021)

https://www.thompsoncitizen.net/

Last week’s announcement that Vale Manitoba Operations is spending $150 million on the first phase of a mine extension and exploration project in Thompson is good news, even if it won’t have much effect on the size of the local workforce.

The money being spent to construct a new ventilation raise, extend power distribution underground and increase backfill capacity so that mined areas can be filled in and mining start in new areas faster will go mostly to contractors, Manitoba Operations general manager Gary Annett told the Thompson Chamber of Commerce June 30, but will also extend the mine life by 10 years and result in up to 30 per cent more production.

That provides stability to the people who survived the job-shedding of the past few years at Vale and, perhaps, the possibility of more jobs down the road if nickel prices take off in concert with electric vehicle production and sales.

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Penance is required for the church’s residential school sins – by Diane Francis (Financial Post – July 6, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

Guaranteeing the security and well-being of children in a society is a sacred trust. Both church and state were to blame in Canada for this terrible stain on the country’s history

My late mother spent her childhood in a Roman Catholic orphanage in Chicago with her siblings. She never talked about it. She eventually left the church when I was young. She never fully explained why.

My family history is another reason why Canada’s renewed residential school scandal, because of the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves near some of these schools, has hit me harder than most.

It’s an abomination and the Catholic Church has much to answer for. These unmarked graves were found near some of their schools and others are being probed.

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Lithium supply chain threatened by East-West geopolitical tensions – report – by Staff (Mining.com – July 6, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

Geopolitical risks and the US-China tensions pose threats to the global lithium supply chain, a new report by Fitch Solutions Country Risk & Industry Research states.

Based on questions asked by the participants in the webinar “Global Lithium Outlook – Key Themes For A Fast-Growing, Fast-Evolving Sector,” the report presents the viewpoint of Fitch’s experts on what the future of the lithium market may look like.

According to the analyst, increasingly tense relationships between the West – a rising battery manufacturer and key EV end market and China – a dominant lithium-processing player and current leading battery manufacturer – are the main issues raising risks over the resilience of supply chains.

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EXCLUSIVE Peru’s Castillo expects mining firms to accept ‘prudent’ tax changes, adviser says – by Marco Aquino (Reuters – July 6, 2021)

https://www.reuters.com/

LIMA, July 6 (Reuters) – Peru’s socialist president-in-waiting expects mining firms enjoying high metals prices to be won over to “prudent” plans to hike taxes on mineral resources, a top adviser told Reuters on Tuesday.

In a sign that the gap between the business sector in the world’s no. 2 copper producer and the incoming leftist government is closing, Pedro Francke, Castillo’s economic adviser, said he expected firms would not oppose a planned review of tax rules after dozens of meetings with businesses.

Castillo is set to be confirmed president after a review of ballots from the June 6 vote. The political novice and former teacher has rattled Peru’s elite with plans to redraft the constitution and sharply hike taxes on miners he once said had “plundered” the country’s wealth.

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Real Threats To Planet And People – OpEd – by Paul Driessen (Eurasia Review – July 5, 2021)

https://www.eurasiareview.com/

Totalitarian actions in the name of ‘climate change’ threaten wildlife, people and freedoms

Environmental activism was already nasty and lethal when I wrote Eco-Imperialism: Green Power – Black Death 18 years ago. It’s gotten steadily worse since then, especially with hysteria about the “looming manmade climate apocalypse” driving ever more extreme demands that we rid the world of fossil fuels and prohibit or roll back modern living standards.

The demands have reached previously unimaginable extremes – based primarily on GIGO computer models and wild assertions about planetary temperatures, weather, icecaps and vanishing wildlife. The claims have little basis in real-world evidence, but are presented as Gospel Truth by climate alarmists.

One group of extremists wants to make what it calls “ecocide” an “international crime” – then prosecute and imprison political leaders and corporate executives who have engaged in “mass ecological destruction” that these zealots assert has now reached a magnitude “similar” to Nazi genocide.

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Mining brines from dormant volcanoes could provide metals needed for a sustainable future – by Valentina Ruiz Leotaud (Mining.com – July 4, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

Scientists at the University of Oxford are proposing the idea of sustainably extracting copper, gold, zinc, silver and lithium from brines trapped in porous rocks at depths of around 2 kilometres below dormant volcanoes.

In a paper published in the journal Open Science, the researchers explain that the gases released by magma beneath volcanoes are rich in metals. As the pressure drops, the gases separate into steam and brine.

Most metals dissolved in the original magmatic gas become concentrated in the dense brine, which in turn gets trapped in porous rock.

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Pioneering explorer, pilot Ron Sheardown – by A.J. Roan (North of 60 Mining News – June 25, 2021)

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

Few men and women could attest to having lived with an adventurous spirit and actually having gone and adventured, but this isn’t so for mining and aviation pioneer Ronald Sheardown.

Soon to be inducted into the Alaska Aviation Museum’s Hall of Fame for Pathway and Explorer Pilot this year, Ron has lived a life many could not even dream about.

Born in Bolton, Ontario, in 1936 – a stone’s throw from Toronto – Ron came from a time when aviation was still in its fledgling years, and Man was still mastering the ways to conquer gravity.

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