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Miners at Poland’s biggest coal group protest over pay, energy plans (Reuters U.S. – February 17, 2020)

https://www.reuters.com/

KATOWICE, Poland, Feb 17 (Reuters) – Miners at Poland’s biggest coal producer, state-run PGG, staged a two-hour strike early on Monday, warning they will not renounce demands for a 12% pay rise and a clear national energy plan guaranteeing a future role for coal.

The protest comes as PGG grapples with falling demand for coal and EU pressure to fight climate change.

“We hope that this week we can meet with the government representatives, because the issue of a salary rise is still unsolved. We also want to know what Poland’s future energy mix will look like,” said Boguslaw Hutek, the head of coal trade union Solidarity.

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Railroading of elected bands betrays progressive hypocrisy – by Jonathan Kay (National Post – February 15, 2020)

https://nationalpost.com/

The social-justice extremism that has been largely confined to campus life and obscure pubs has metastasized to the world of normal human beings

In late 2019, Ontario’s public broadcaster, TVO, produced a widely circulated video segment in which Indigenous public figures delivered short monologues responding to the controversial claim that Canada was perpetuating an ongoing “genocide” against Indigenous women.

The TVO commentators flatly told viewers that this ongoing genocide is a “fact,” and that any argument to the contrary amounts to “denial.” Moreover, we were told that anyone engaging in such denial is effectively abetting a crime against humanity, because “denial is a tool of genocide.”

If you find yourself astounded by the current situation in Canada, whereby protesters have been allowed to shut down a rail network that remains a backbone of passenger travel and industrial transport (and whose coast-to-coast completion in 1885 became a symbol of national unity), it’s useful to revisit the accumulation of symbolic gestures that have steadily destroyed the moral authority of our governments to push back at any assertion of Indigenous rights and grievances.

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South32 profit plunges on weak commodity prices; declares special dividend – by Melanie Burton (Reuters U.S. – February 12, 2020)

https://www.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Australia’s South32 Ltd reported a 80% plunge in half-year profit on Thursday, as a trade war between China and the United States hit prices of its key products, but the miner’s shares rose after it announced a special dividend.

Prices of South32’s top three commodities – metallurgical coal, aluminum and manganese – slumped in 2019 as the bruising Sino-U.S. trade war crimped demand.

However, the miner declared an interim dividend of 1.1 cents per share, down from 5.1 cents per share a year ago, and a special dividend of 1.1 cents per share. “At first glance, the results appear broadly neutral versus our estimates for earnings,” RBC Capital said.

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Barrick buckling down for ‘grunt’ work ahead, CEO Bristow says – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – February 13, 2020)

https://business.financialpost.com/

TORONTO — Since Mark Bristow took the helm of Barrick Gold Corp. in a transformational merger one year ago, the company has enjoyed a 42 per cent surge in its share price amid rising bullion prices and a streamlined portfolio and corporate structure that has won over many investors.

Still, in an interview at his office in a downtown Toronto high rise on Wednesday, Bristow suggested the coming year would reveal new, more difficult challenges.

“I don’t want to sound flippant,” he told the Financial Post, “but these last 12 months we set out to do something and we did it, but there was a lot of low-hanging fruit. Now it’s the grunt to get it to the next level.”

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Less 2020 Brucejack gold than envisioned – by Shane Lasley (North of 60 Mining News – February 12, 2020)

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

Pretium Resources Inc. Jan. 12 announced that the Brucejack Mine in northwestern British Columbia produced 354,405 ounces of gold last year at an all-in sustaining cost (AISC) of US$888/oz of gold sold.

As a result of these better than expected results, the mine generated US$184.2 million and Pretium was able to lower its debt by US$180.4 million over the course of 2019.

“In 2019, we beat the upper end of our revised gold production guidance and the lower end of our AISC guidance of 350,000 ounces and $900 per ounce of gold sold,” said Pretium Resource President and CEO Joseph Ovsenek.

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Top Indian Iron Ore Miner Targets 50% Output Jump Next Year – by Swansy Afonso (Financial Post/Bloomberg News – February 12, 2020)

https://business.financialpost.com/

(Bloomberg) — India’s biggest iron ore miner plans to raise production by as much as 50%, potentially boosting supplies and alleviating concerns of shortages of the key raw material.

State-run NMDC Ltd. is targeting production of 48 million tons in the year starting April, and will surpass 32 million tons this year, Amitava Mukherjee, director of finance, said.

The growth in supplies will come mainly from its mines in Chhattisgarh and includes 7 million tons of iron ore from the Donimalai mine in Karnataka state that is currently closed.

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Indonesia accused of putting profit ahead of the environment with new bill – by Gayatri Suroyo and Ed Davies (Reuters U.S. – February 13, 2020)

https://www.reuters.com/

JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia’s plans to relax environmental rules to encourage investment have drawn criticism from activists who say the government is putting profit ahead of protecting the archipelago’s rich natural surroundings.

The “Job Creation” bill, submitted to parliament on Wednesday, aims to open up industries and includes proposals to relax the need for companies to conduct environmental studies and eases rules on coal mining.

It is one of President Joko Widodo’s so-called “omnibus laws”, which aim to change scores of existing laws to cut red tape and attract investment into Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

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Canada is turning into a mob city while Trudeau remains silent – by John Ivison (National Post – February 13, 2020)

https://nationalpost.com/

Somebody in Ottawa should be pointing out that along with the right to protest there are certain responsibilities to allow other people to go about their business

Canada is slowly turning from democracy to mobocracy, as the rule of law is tested from coast to coast.

From blocked intersections in downtown Toronto, to journalists and legislators being barred entry to the B.C. legislature; from an obstructed CN line affecting rail traffic out of the port of Prince Rupert, to the barricades impeding Via Rail’s service between Toronto and Montreal, Canada is slowly being choked into submission.

The protests are in solidarity with the opposition to the Coastal GasLink pipeline in northern B.C. by hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en Nation. But a considerable number of “outsiders” are using the dispute as an excuse for mischief.

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Prospects brighten for Northern Dynasty Pebble mine on leaked draft study – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – February 13, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

A leaked draft of an environmental impact statement (EIS) on Northern Dynasty’s (TSX: NDM) proposed copper-gold mine in Alaska has brighten up its prospects, suggesting nearby terrestrial freshwater resources and downstream fisheries could co-exist with the project.

While the US Army Corps of Engineers’ document is not final, it could mean the government is closer to issuing a long-sought permit for the $100 billion copper-gold mine in the Bristol Bay, southwest Alaska.

Shares jumped up as much 9.4% to 70 cents on the news on Wednesday, to close at 69 cents, the highest value so far this year. If permitted, Pebble would be North America’s largest mine, according to a study by the Center for Science in Public Participation.

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‘Transformation’ is in the air at Vale – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – February 12, 2020)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Electric vehicle market, carbon neutral plans, environmental safeguards part of Sudbury miner’s current and future operations

The thrust of Dino Otranto’s presentation was on the transformational challenges ahead for base metal mining giant Vale to create a business that’s sustainable in the Sudbury basin for generations to come.

But the opening image he flashed to a Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce lunchtime crowd on Feb. 11 was of the Brumadinho tailings dam break at Vale’s Córrego do Feijão iron ore mine in Brazil on Jan. 25, 2019. It was the company’s second major dam breach in that country in four years.

The man-made environmental catastrophe at Brumadinho produced a toxic mudflow that swept away the company’s offices, and houses, farms and roads in a nearby village, and contaminated a major river system.

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WHAT B.C. NEEDS TO BE NO. 1 IN THE WORLD OF MINING (Mata Press Service – February 13, 2020)

http://www.asianpacificpost.com/

The mining industry in British Columbia is facing a crisis of confidence due to increasing red tape and social licence issues that has dampened investor confidence.

This sentiment was clear at the recent Association for Mineral Exploration’s (AME) 2020 Roundup convention, which brought together more than 5,000 delegates from industry, government and First Nations.

Despite this prevailing perception, fuelled by the fact that no new mines have opened In British Columbia in the last two years, mining continues to be a mainstay of the provincial economy.

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Rail blockades could turn into a full-blown secession crisis — and Trudeau’s government is to blame – by Diane Francis (Financial Post – Feburary 13, 2020)

https://business.financialpost.com/

The illegal road and rail blockades perpetrated by Indigenous radicals across the country are not about pipelines or fossil fuels. It’s an existential threat to Canada and its sovereignty — and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government is to blame.

Five years of pandering and subsidizing 632 First Nations leaders has led to this catastrophe, which is being spearheaded by five unelected hereditary chiefs in British Columbia who claim their nation — the Wet’suwet’en — is exempt from Canadian laws and regulations.

They claim sovereignty over a 22,000-square-kilometre swath of land, an area the size of Israel, and have successfully invoked nationwide solidarity protests that have crippled portions of the country’s rail system.

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Editorial: Uncertainty lingers as Vale switches Thompson bosses again (Thompson Citizen – February 12, 2020)

https://www.thompsoncitizen.net/

The removal of Gary Eyres as head of Vale’s Manitoba Operations and his replacement with Franco Cazzola, who formerly worked in Thompson for a few years from 2005 to 2008, indicates that things are still in flux at the Thompson mining and milling operation.

As a result, the uncertainty that first took hold of Thompson nearly a decade ago when the Brazilian mining company that purchased Inco in 2006 announced that it was shutting down the smelter and refinery still lingers, even after the axe has fallen.

In the lead up to the closure of the smelter and the refinery in mid-2018, people didn’t know what to expect. Obviously, the loss of a few hundred good paying jobs was going to have a trickle-down effect and it has, as several businesses have closed up shop over the past few years, though sometimes it is because their owners couldn’t find buyers or family members to take over the operations from them.

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Investors from five countries eye Mexico’s nascent lithium market (Reuters U.S. – February 12, 2020)

https://www.reuters.com/

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Investors from at least five countries have expressed interest in Mexico’s nascent lithium extraction and production industry, said Francisco Quiroga, the undersecretary for mining, after a promising find in the north of the country.

The find is still in the exploration phase. If initial estimates of lithium deposits are confirmed, Mexico could emerge as one of the world’s largest players in a thriving sector.

In January, the mine’s two foreign operators estimated that it could contain 8.8 million tonnes of lithium. This would put Mexico on a par with Bolivia or Chile, whose mines have large known deposits.

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Barrick CEO says younger generation desperately needed to rejuvenate ‘dinosaur’ gold industry – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – February 13, 2020)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Mark Bristow, the chief executive officer of Barrick Gold Corp., says the gold sector is in desperate need of fresh young blood to rejuvenate what has become a “dinosaur” industry.

“The industry needs to grow and be more relevant,” Mr. Bristow said in an interview in Toronto, after the release of the company’s fourth-quarter financial results. Mr. Bristow stressed the need for mining companies to both attract younger employees with fresh ideas, and a sprier set of investors.

Attending the annual Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) conference – one of the industry’s premier events – Mr. Bristow said, is like “walking into an old age home.”

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