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A brutal war and rivers poisoned with every rainfall: how one mine destroyed an island – by Matthew G. Allen (The Conversation – September 30, 2020)

https://theconversation.com/

Matthew G. Allen is a Professor of Development Studies at The University of the South Pacific.

This week, 156 people from the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, in Papua New Guinea, petitioned the Australian government to investigate Rio Tinto over a copper mine that devastated their homeland.

In 1988, disputes around the notorious Panguna mine sparked a lengthy civil war in Bougainville, leading to the deaths of up to 20,000 people. The war is long over and the mine has been closed for 30 years, but its brutal legacy continues.

When I conducted research in Bougainville in 2015, I estimated the deposit of the mine’s waste rock (tailings) downstream from the mine to be at least a kilometre wide at its greatest point. Local residents informed me it was tens of metres deep in places.

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Executive Order on Addressing the Threat to the Domestic Supply Chain from Reliance on Critical Minerals from Foreign Adversaries – by President Donald Trump (Whitehouse.gov – September 30, 2020)

https://www.whitehouse.gov/

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) (NEA), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,

I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, find that a strong America cannot be dependent on imports from foreign adversaries for the critical minerals that are increasingly necessary to maintain our economic and military strength in the 21st century.

Because of the national importance of reliable access to critical minerals, I signed Executive Order 13817 of December 20, 2017 (A Federal Strategy To Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals), which required the Secretary of the Interior to identify critical minerals and made it the policy of the Federal Government “to reduce the Nation’s vulnerability to disruptions in the supply of critical minerals.”

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Zambian Royalty Spat Halts $2 Billion of Copper Mine Investment – by Felix Njini, Taonga Clifford Mitimingi and Matthew Hill (Bloomberg News – September 30, 2020)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Copper miners in Zambia have halted $2 billion of planned investments because a royalty tax introduced last year makes the projects unviable, according to an industry lobby group.

A plan by First Quantum Minerals Ltd. to invest $1 billion extending the life of its Kansanshi operation won’t proceed until the royalty is scrapped, said Sokwani Chilembo, chief executive officer of the Zambia Chamber of Mines. The same goes for EMR Capital-backed Lubambe Copper Mine’s project to invest a similar amount in a new mining operation, he said.

“We need this royalty payment regime removed for progress to begin,” Chilembo said in an interview. “If the government thinking is otherwise, good luck.”

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Sudbury regreening program nearing 10 million trees planted: Restoration story serves as model for global push toward land reclamation – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – September 29, 2020)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

This autumn was supposed to herald a noteworthy milestone for the Sudbury regreening project: the planting of its 10 millionth tree.

But with the arrival of the novel coronavirus last March came a scaled-down 2020 planting season, and instead that marker will be celebrated in 2021.

Still, as year 42 of the one-of-a-kind land restoration initiative comes to a close, the organization leading the project believes that some areas of the city are nearing the point when human intervention will no longer be necessary and nature can start taking over.

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China’s shadow looms as New Caledonia decides whether to leave France – by Joshua Mcdonald (South China Morning Post – September 2020)

https://www.scmp.com/

The Pacific island of New Caledonia, home to 270,000 people, is slated to hold its second referendum on independence from France this weekend, amid bids for self-government in a region that has become a focus of geopolitical rivalry among the United States, China and Australia and has been late to the decolonisation process.

The former penal colony, which is reliant on Paris for about US$1.5 billion in funding annually, has an agreement with France for up to three referendums – each held two years apart – on the question of independence. In the first poll in 2018, close to 57 per cent of voters chose to stay with France.

New Caledonia gets most of the rest of its funding from the sale of nickel deposits to China, which is one of its strongest trading partners. In 2018, New Caledonia’s exports to China totalled US$1.06 billion, more than its combined exports to all other countries.

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Tesla As A Mining Company. Lithium Today, Nickel Tomorrow? – by Tim Treadgold (Forbes Magazine – September 29, 2020)

https://www.forbes.com/

Lithium mining today, so why not nickel mining tomorrow? That’s a question which investors in Tesla and other electric car (EV) makers ought to consider as a raw material rush heats up.

Right now, there’s not a shortage of most metals used in EV batteries, with the possible exception of cobalt, which makes Tesla’s decision to stake a claim to its own 10,000 acre patch of lithium-rich clay in Nevada quite interesting.

A second U.S.-focused lithium deal added to the intrigue with Tesla signing a five-year contract with a small company which has plans to produce lithium in North Carolina.

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COVID-19 cases at Nunavut’s Hope Bay mine cast shadow on proposed sale to Shandong Gold – by Jane George (Nunatsiaq News – September 29, 2020)

https://nunatsiaq.com/

New coronavirus cases scuttle plans for joint site visit

Travel in and out of the Hope Bay gold mine in western Nunavut has halted, following nine new confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the site, says Jason Neal, president and CEO of TMAC Resources Inc.

Today there was to be a crew rotation of 130 workers out of the mine site to Yellowknife and Edmonton, and the arrival of 130 new workers to take their place.

The freeze on travel to the site has also prevented a visit by executives from TMAC and Shandong Gold Mining Co. Ltd., which is seeking to buy TMAC and its Hope Bay mine.

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Gold-Buying by Central Banks Seen Climbing From Near Decade Low – by Ranjeetha Pakiam and Elena Mazneva (Bloomberg News – September 29, 2020)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Gold buying by central banks, an important driver of bullion’s advance in recent years, is forecast to pick up in 2021 after a slowdown this year.

Citigroup Inc. sees demand from the official sector rising to about 450 tons after a drop to 375 tons this year, which would be the lowest in a decade. HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. expects a slight up-tick to 400 tons from an estimated 390 tons in 2020, potentially the second-lowest amount in 10 years.

While the forecasts are far from the near-record purchases of more than 600 tons a year seen in both 2018 and 2019, increased central bank activity will help bolster bullion.

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NEWS RELEASE: License to operate remains top mining risk, with high-impact risks a close second (EY Mining and Metals Survey – September 29, 2020)

LONDON, Sept. 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Global mining executives rank license to operate (LTO), high-impact risks1, productivity and rising costs as the top three risks facing their business over the next 12 months, according to EY mining and metals survey, Top 10 Business Risks and Opportunities – 2021.

The survey of more than 250 global mining executives shortlists the most significant risks shaping the industry, and the reshuffled ranking reflects how the COVID-19 pandemic has unexpectedly disrupted commodity demand and prices and reframed the risk landscape. LTO, disruption, environment and geopolitical risks are all becoming more prominent as social responsibility and broader stakeholder demands intensify during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The survey highlights the way in which the pandemic has heightened stakeholder expectations around safety, environmental management and corporate responsibility. This is driving the urgency to address external perceptions of the industry, as investors look to understand value beyond the financials.

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ROB MAGAZINE: Why RBC’s Chris Beer is betting on gold – by Shirley Won (Globe and Mail – September 28, 2020)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Over his career, Chris Beer has watched the price of gold soar—albeit in fits and starts. When he worked as a field geologist searching for gold in Newfoundland in the late 1980s, bullion fluctuated around US$400 an ounce.

In 2003, he became portfolio manager of the RBC Global Precious Metals Fund, which he now co-runs with Brahm Spilfogel and Jeffrey Schok, and has $1.16 billion in assets. Gold took off and peaked near US$1,920 an ounce in 2011, but then plunged and only surpassed that record this past August.

The equity fund has outpaced the S&P 500 Total Return Index in Canadian dollars over the past 15 years. We asked Beer, 55, if investors should consider gold stocks for dividend income and why he likes Barrick Gold Corp.

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Brazil’s hidden treasures – by Bruno Venditti (Mining.com – September 28, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro plans to expand mining in the country, a sector that is held back by a lack of knowledge about geological sites and an excess of bureaucracy, according to executives and officials.

Today the government unveiled its Mining and Development Program (PDM) with goals for the sector in a meeting held by Bolsonaro.

As part of government efforts, the president presented a controversial bill in February that would allow commercial mining on protected indigenous lands, delivering on a campaign promise that sparked protests from tribal leaders and environmentalists.

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One step closer to the dream of an Alaska to Alberta railway – by Colby Cosh (National Post – September 30, 2020)

https://nationalpost.com/

On Sunday, the president of the United States, while horsing around on Twitter in his familiar fashion, announced that he intends to issue a presidential permit for a rail line running from Alaskan seaports to the Canadian bitumen capital, Fort McMurray, Alta.

If you were expecting this news to provoke jubilation in Alberta, you might have been a little disappointed. Clearance from the U.S. executive is a necessary piece of the puzzle now being pieced together by the Alaska-Alberta Railway Corporation, but unfortunately, it’s a thousand-piece puzzle.

And so far there is an absence of enthusiastic helpers to put their hands to the work. The Alaska-to-Alberta (A2A) rail concept has been around in various forms for decades. It doesn’t take a genius of enterprise to wonder why there is no freight link from south-central Alaska’s tidewater to the rest of the continental economy.

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Electric Vehicle Demand Will Spark Lithium Mining Reinvention – by Grace Kay (Bloomberg News – September 29, 2020)

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) — Lithium producers must reinvent mining methods for the key metal used in rechargeable batteries to meet rising demand from the electric-vehicle industry, according to Standard Lithium Ltd.’s top executive.

“The industry’s going to have some challenges as higher purity lithium compounds are required — they’re going to have to reinvent themselves,” Standard Lithium Chief Executive Officer Robert Mintak said in a phone interview. “We’re not going to be saddled with 20-year-old processes and refining capabilities.”

The soft silvery-white metal is a vital ingredient in rechargeable batteries of electric vehicles, including those made by Tesla Inc., and Mintak sees both challenges and supply shortages unless lithium producers turn to more unconventional methods to fulfill demand. Standard Lithium is already embracing new ways to recover lithium.

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How Nornickel Became the Arctic’s Biggest Polluter (VTimes/Moscow Times – September 28, 2020)

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/

One Russian company releases more sulfur dioxide into the air than the whole of the U.S.

Ecologists often joke that Europe owes its clean skies to the dirty sky of Norilsk — and there’s more than a shred of truth in this assertion.

The Nornickel mining and metallurgical company supplies metals to 37 countries, where they are used in the production of electric cars, electricity stations and solar panels.

But in the process of extracting all these environmentally valuable metals, Nornickel systemically pollutes the surrounding nature with sulfur dioxide (SO2). Toxic in high doses, this gas causes choking, coughing, pulmonary edema, and (according to the WHO) increases the frequency of respiratory tract diseases.

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Why I love Thunder Bay, and you should get to know this city, too – by Thomas Kehoe (Globe and Mail – September 30, 2020)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

I write a love letter to the reviled. To one whose very name has become synonymous with racism, violence and corruption. Worse yet, I understand that many of these charges are valid and accurate depictions of character.

I write a love letter to the city of Thunder Bay in Northern Ontario. Oscar Wilde once said, “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.” This is a tough sale in Thunder Bay. Award-winning bestsellers have been written about the city’s plague of dead Indigenous teenagers.

The arrest of both the mayor and the chief of police have made national news (and inspired many Dukes of Hazzard jokes). More often than not, the city is the murder capital of Canada. All accurate. Guilty as charged. An accurate, yet incomplete, portrait.

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