Republic of Mining

U.S. Energy Secretary Hopes Mexico, Canada Will Help Export American Coal – by Timothy Gardner (Reuters U.S. – February 7, 2020)

February 10, 2020

https://www.reuters.com/

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said on Friday that Canada and Mexico could help export U.S. coal to Asia to get around the blocking of shipments by West Coast states concerned about the impact of the fuel on climate change.

Brouillette said he expects the two U.S. neighbors will offer opportunities to export coal in talks that could be facilitated by the new North American trade agreement, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, that President Donald Trump signed last month.

“That’s why the USMCA was so important,” Brouillette said at an Atlantic Council event in Washington. “We hope to work more collaboratively with both Mexico and Canada to find export facilities to get the coal from Wyoming,” and other states in the U.S. West to Asia and other global markets.

Chile’s copper output down in 2019 on declining grades – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – February 10, 2020)

February 10, 2020

https://www.mining.com/

Copper production in 2019 in Chile, the world’s No. 1 producer of the metal, dropped by 44,000 tonnes compared to 2018, amid a perfect storm of falling ore grades at the largest deposits, water scarcity and operational issues.

Cochilco, the country’s copper commission, said Codelco, the state-owned giant, was the miner most affected by aging mines as its production declined by 5.6% in 2019 to about 100,000 tonnes.

The impact of such a fall at a national level was offset by results at other mines, such as Barrick’s Zaldívar, Lundin’s Candelaria and Antofagasta’s Centinela.

U.S. Drones Scouring for Rare Earths to End Reliance on China – by Luzi Ann Javier and Justina Vasquez (Bloomberg/Financial Post – February 9, 2020)

February 10, 2020

https://business.financialpost.com/

(Bloomberg) — The U.S. is deploying drones and other technology as it scours for potential rare-earths reserves at home and abroad to wean the nation off its dependence on Chinese imports.

“We’ve been almost 100% dependent on foreign sources of rare earth elements for industrial applications,” Jim Reilly, director of the U.S. Geological Survey, said.

“It’s not only the domestic sources of the resource that we concentrate on. We look for those resources literally across the globe, and then we build collaboration with our partners.”

Violence in Africa’s Sahel region attacks the mining food chain – by Helen Reid (Reuters U.S. – February 10, 2020)

February 10, 2020

https://www.reuters.com/

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – Violence in Africa’s Sahel region has driven mining exploration companies to put projects on hold, with knock-on effects for an industry struggling to expand and for fragile local economies.

At least 37 people died and 60 were wounded last November when militants attacked a convoy of Semafo Inc employees, the deadliest attack yet on a mining company in the region.

Islamist groups have been pushing south from strongholds in northern Mali and carried out attacks across much of Burkina Faso and parts of western Niger. As security costs have risen, mining companies that explore for mineral deposits have shut down projects in the most dangerous areas.

Keeping comms open in one of the world’s deepest mines: Kidd Mine gives iPhones to everyone in the mine – by Len Gillis (Northern Ontario Business – February 10, 2020)

February 10, 2020

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

With the Kidd Mine in Timmins being the deepest base metal mine in the world, Kidd Operations has made improved communications one of its key priorities. That was brought forward by operations engineer Patrick Desmarais during the recent Beyond Digital Transformation mining conference held in Sudbury.

He outlined how the company had installed a fibre-optic network through the mine. That resulted in a complete underground Wi-Fi system, and in the past year it was followed up by giving every worker an iPhone for instant communication, from level to level and from surface to the bottom of the mine.

Kidd is a blasthole mine that is 9,889 feet deep, operating on 32 active levels and is mining at the rate of 1.9 million tonnes per year.

RPT-COLUMN-Congo’s move to control artisanal cobalt is double-edged – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – February 9, 2020)

February 10, 2020

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Feb 7 (Reuters) – The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo has announced ambitious plans to take control of the country’s wild-west artisanal cobalt sector.

A new state company, Entreprise Generale du Cobalt (EGC), has been given monopoly powers to purchase and market cobalt from the informal sector. The move is being hailed by the government as a way to clean up a sector that is tarnished with a reputation for child labour, lax safety and illegal activity.

That would be very good news for the cobalt market. The human cost of mining in the Congo, which accounts for more than 60% of global cobalt production, is one of the reasons companies such as Tesla are actively trying to engineer the metal out of their battery supply chain.

Northern prospectors look to boost their visibility- by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – February 7, 2020)

February 10, 2020

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Tough times in grassroots exploration prompt Ontario Prospectors Association to boost their image as lobby group

Gold and palladium prices are reaching lofty heights but there continue to be troubling signs on the grassroots side of Ontario’s mining industry. Garry Clark, executive director of the Ontario Prospectors Association (OPA), said the mining sequence of discovery and development is faltering right now.

Since the economic crash of 2008, investor interest in early-stage exploration has largely been in the dumper, despite the uptick in value of various mineral commodities. “Grassroots exploration isn’t happening as much as it should,” said Clark.

Part of problem, he said, has been competition for investor attention from other high-risk, high-reward ventures such as Bitcoin, Blockchain and marijuana stocks.

Exclusive: Top lithium miner seeks to monitor water scarcity in parched Chile salt flat – by Dave Sherwood (Reuters U.S. – February 9, 2020)

February 10, 2020

https://www.reuters.com/

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – With residents and courts ringing the alarm about depleted water supplies in Chile’s Atacama salt flat, the world’s top lithium miner Albemarle (ALB.N) quietly filed a proposal in December for a network to monitor flows beneath the parched desert floor.

The previously unreported move is an indication of how important it has become for miners to prove their supplies of the so-called “white gold” battery metal are sustainable as they court automakers preparing for the coming electric vehicle revolution.

Car companies have ratcheted up scrutiny in the Atacama, by far the biggest source of supply in South America’s so-called “lithium triangle,” where one lithium producer is locked in a court battle over pumping of brine and a copper miner has opted for pricey desalination over drawing water from local aquifers.

The Liberals are pouring kerosene on the flames of Western separatism – by Rex Murphy (National Post – Feburary 8, 2020)

February 10, 2020

https://nationalpost.com/

Denying Teck’s Frontier mine project would be unspeakably stupid. And dangerous. And talk of an ‘aid package’ for Alberta is simply outrageous

“If they say no to this project, then they are signalling … that he (Prime Minister Justin Trudeau) wants to phase out the oilsands,” Kenney said.

It was not a sentence I was prepared to read. Not even in the central Canadian press. The sentence was this: Canada is preparing an aid package for Alberta. Let me detail how wrong this is, and outrageous.

Where did this “Canada” come from? The Liberal government is not Canada. And everyone in Canada except, perhaps, the Liberal government, knows this.

EDITORIAL: Alberta gets all the attention. New Brunswick faces its own climate test with Maritime Iron (Globe and Mail – February 10, 2020)

February 10, 2020

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The proposed Frontier oil sands mine in Alberta has attracted a lot of attention in recent weeks, with the Trudeau government appearing to waver on approving a project that has cleared all its regulatory hurdles. That debate encapsulates the strain between a potential economic win and Canada’s climate-change goals.

Frontier, however, is hardly alone among the difficult industrial-development questions facing the country.

New Brunswick is wrestling with its own Frontier-like challenge. In mid-January, a small Toronto company called Maritime Iron filed its plans to the provincial government for an environmental review. The company wants to build a facility to turn iron ore into pig iron, a product used in steelmaking. The site is beside a coal-power plant in rural New Brunswick near Bathurst.

Teck Frontier oilsands project pits Trudeau’s climate credibility against concerns for Alberta’s economy – by Alex Ballingall (Toronto Star – February 8, 2020)

February 10, 2020

https://www.thestar.com/

OTTAWA—Like most everyone with a stake in the quagmire of Canadian climate politics, Colleen Thorpe does not know if the Liberal government will approve the Teck Frontier oilsands project. But she sure is worried it will.

The executive director of Équiterre was among a host of Quebec environmentalists who met Monday with key cabinet ministers to air their thoughts about the massive — and politically contentious — proposed development in northeastern Alberta. Naturally, Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson was there.

But so was Steven Guilbeault, the rookie politician installed as heritage minister after he was elected in Montreal last fall. In his prior life, Guilbeault was one of Quebec’s most prominent green activists, a vocal campaigner in the fight against climate change, who co-founded Thorpe’s organization and worked there until less than two years ago.

‘We’re Definitely Not Prepared’: Africa Braces for New Virus – by The Associated Press (New York Times – February 8, 2020)

February 10, 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/

LUSAKA, Zambia — At a Chinese-run hospital in Zambia, some employees watched as people who recently returned from China showed up with coughs but were not placed in isolation. A doctor tending to those patients has stopped coming to work, and health workers have been ordered not to speak publicly about the new virus that has killed hundreds around the world.

The virus that has spread through much of China has yet to be confirmed in Africa, but global health authorities are increasingly worried about the threat to the continent where an estimated 1 million Chinese now live, as some health workers on the ground warn they are not ready to handle an outbreak.

Countries are racing to take precautions as hundreds of travelers arrive from China every day. Safeguards include stronger surveillance at ports of entry and improved quarantine and testing measures across Africa, home to 1.2 billion people and some of the world’s weakest systems for detecting and treating disease.

UPDATE 2-Nigeria sets ambitious target for mining sector growth – by Wendell Roelf (Reuters Africa – February 5, 2020)

February 6, 2020

https://af.reuters.com/

CAPE TOWN, Feb 5 (Reuters) – Nigeria expects its mining sector to grow to 3% of GDP within the next five years from just 0.3% currently as the government seeks to diversify the economy away from oil, the minister for mines and steel development said on Wednesday.

Nigeria has been trying to boost the sector as part of efforts to diversify its economy. Gold, lead, zinc, limestone and coal are among seven strategic minerals Nigeria has identified for investment.

“We’ve seen steady growth … and we’re now poised for exponential growth as investments start crystallising,” Olamilekan Adegbite told Reuters on the sidelines of the Mining Indaba in Cape Town.

Top 10 largest silver producers in the world – by Vikas Shukla (Value Walk.com – February 6, 2020)

February 6, 2020

https://www.valuewalk.com/

Humans have been using silver for thousands of years. Several kingdoms and countries in the past have used it as currency. It’s still considered a precious metal and a store of value.

The white metal is widely used in various industries such as medical instruments, solar technology, electronics, automobile, water purification, and photography. It’s also used to make silverware, jewelry, and other decorative items. Here we take a look at the top 10 largest silver producers in the world.

Even more-so than gold, silver finds value in industries because of its ability to reflect light and resist the corrosive effects of oxygen. It’s also the metal with the highest thermal and electrical conductivity. In nature, silver is found in combined form with copper, zinc, and lead. The white metal constitutes less than 0.1% of the ore containing silver.

The 25 Most Famous Diamonds Mines of the World (Diamonds Examiner – January 21, 2018)

February 6, 2020

https://www.diamonds-examiner.com/

You’ve certainly heard about the most famous diamonds of the world like the Hope Diamond, the Koh-i-Noor or the Cullinan diamond. But do you know from which diamonds mines they are coming from? Read this post to learn about it.

1. Cullinan Diamond Mine

The Cullinan Diamond Mine, previously known as the Premier Mine (renamed in late 2003), is an underground mine located in today’s Gauteng Province of South Africa, in the eponymous town of Cullinan (both the mine and the town were named after Thomas Cullinan, a diamond magnate of South African origin).

Much as the new name would imply, this is the mine that yielded the largest rough stone in the world to date – the 3,106.75-carat Cullinan (unearthed in 1905, only three years after the mine’s establishment). Cullinan I and Cullinan II are the most prominent cut stones in the Crown Jewels of the UK.