Republic of Mining

Mining for the future: Saskatchewan Research Council R&D fosters innovation and sustainability – by Greg Klein (Resource Clips – November 21, 2019)

November 22, 2019

Predictably for a jurisdiction so rich in potash and uranium, mining plays a prominent role in the Saskatchewan Growth Plan, a 10-year economic program announced last week. Skeptics, however, might question the goal to extract lithium and rare earths locally and even set a near-precedent in non-Chinese commercial REE separation.

But it turns out that some of that work has been underway for years, while other targets have already been in the planning stage. That’s just part of a wide range of mining expertise developed and applied by the Saskatchewan Research Council.

SRC figures strongly in the province’s new agenda, whose mining-related initiatives include a continuation of the PST exception on drilling, streamlining permitting, creating a Geoscience Data Management System, boosting annual uranium and potash sales, upgrading and building road, rail, pipeline and power infrastructure, and developing nuclear energy.

Haunted by Ghost Workers, Tunisian Phosphate Miner Seeks Revival – by Jihen Laghmari (Bloomberg News – November 21, 2019)

November 22, 2019

https://finance.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) — Tunisia says it’s on track to restore once economically crucial phosphate output to levels approaching those before the 2011 Arab Spring uprising, as its beleaguered state-owned miner undergoes a shakeup.

Output will probably be at least 4.1 million tons in 2019, up from 2.8 million tons the previous year, Industry Minister Slim Feriani said. Before the revolt that unseated President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and sparked long-running labor unrest, Tunisia was one of the world’s largest producers of the fertilizer component, creating as much as 8.2 million tons per year.

While the state-run Compagnie des Phosphates de Gafsa is suffering from “major economic problems,” it can be salvaged, Feriani said in an interview in Tunis. “The only solution is to improve production and productivity.” He described many of the company’s 30,000 employees as “ghost workers” hired “to maintain social peace.”

Canada companies’ watchdog to press Trudeau for expanded powers – by Jeff Lewis (Reuters Canada – November 21, 2019)

November 22, 2019

https://ca.reuters.com/

OTTAWA (Reuters) – The government agency set up to investigate claims of human rights abuses by Canadian companies abroad wants expanded powers, the head of the watchdog said, setting up a clash with the mining industry which has fought to limit its reach.

Canada created the office in 2018 to monitor and investigate claims of abuses by Canadian firms operating abroad. The body, which looks at the mining, energy and garment sectors, was meant to have the ability to recommend sanctions against violators, including withdrawing government export funding.

But human rights lawyers and advocacy groups have questioned whether the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) has the resources and independence needed to carry out its mandate.

OPINION: Producing More Valuable Minerals in the U.S. – by J. Winston Porter (November 20, 2019)

November 22, 2019

https://www.insidesources.com/

A large majority of important minerals used in America are imported from other countries, but the United States needs to produce more minerals in our country. In addition, now some want to obtain minerals via recycling in America.

Although the idea of recycling has obvious appeal, it simply isn’t easy or inexpensive. As for this issue, about 85 percent of all used automobiles are recycled, providing large quantities of iron and steel. And other recycling comes from scrap lead, copper and aluminum.

But even with significant political and financial incentives, recycling’s contribution to the supply of critically important minerals like indium, manganese, cobalt, cesium and vanadium has not budged. The result is that we are heavily dependent on imports of key minerals from overseas locations.

Commission seeks public input for Dawson land use plan – by Dave Croft (CBC News North – November 21, 2019)

November 22, 2019

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

The Dawson Regional Planning Commission in Yukon is releasing its work to date for public feedback. The commission, which is developing a land use plan for the 39,854-square-kilometre area in west-central Yukon, held an open house in Dawson City last week, and another in Whitehorse on Wednesday.

Senior planner Tim Van Hinte said the commission staff have been collecting information on things like minerals, wildlife, protected areas and climate change in the area to be covered by the plan.

They have also been researching key planning issues and interests, he said. “We know there’s heavy mining activity in the Dawson region, there’s also a lot of important fish and wildlife resources,” said Van Hinte, at the Whitehorse open house.

Rio Tinto faces having to renegotiate terms of Mongolian copper project – by Anand Dairtan (Reuters U.S. – November 21, 2019)

November 22, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

ULAANBAATAR (Reuters) – Rio Tinto faces renegotiating the terms of an agreement underpinning its Mongolian copper mine project, after lawmakers on Thursday approved plans to revise the deal to make it more beneficial for Mongolia.

The Oyu Tolgoi mine, Mongolia’s biggest foreign investment project, has already been subject to delays and ballooning costs, leaving Mongolian lawmakers impatient for income, while Rio Tinto says it has invested billions.

Rio Tinto-owned Turquoise Hill Resources has a 66% stake in the multi-billion-dollar project and the Mongolian state owns 34%, with investment terms agreed in 2015 in a deal known as the Dubai Agreement.

Nunavut miner calls for Arctic strategy – by Elaine Anselmi (Nunatsiaq News – November 22, 2019)

November 22, 2019

https://nunatsiaq.com/

Agnico Eagle CEO Sean Boyd says the federal government needs to make the case for investing in the North

On a damp day in downtown Toronto, the head Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. told 150 people, mostly in suits, that if the federal government believes in the future of the North, it needs to show it.

“I think the federal government should be prepared to send a message that the North is important,” CEO Sean Boyd told Nunatsiaq News after his speech at the Canadian Club of Toronto, a platform for public affairs discussion.

“It’s not just important for the people that live there, but it’s important for the rest of the country in terms of being able to develop businesses that benefit all of Canada, and you have to make those investments.”

Vale returns looking for low-cost debt after Brumadinho tragedy – by Aaron Weinman (Reuters U.S. – November 21, 2019)

November 22, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

NEW YORK, Nov 21 (LPC) – The insatiable appetite to lend to Latin America’s blue-chip corporations may allow Brazilian miner Vale SA to return to the loan market and borrow US$3bn to refinance debt at ultra-low rates, only 10 months after a dam disaster that left the country reeling.

In January, following the collapse of a tailings dam at an iron ore mine in the Brumadinho region, Vale pulled back on original plans to refinance debt. Ten months and a public relations debacle later, a surfeit of lenders, including relationship banks with established ties to the miner and new lenders looking to forge a bond with one of Latin America’s most frequent borrowers, are expected to flock to the transaction.

A dearth of opportunities to lend to high-quality Latin American corporations has left banks with little option but to aggressively compete for business, giving borrowers cheap access to capital, and clout to dictate lending terms that allow for cost savings and flexibility.

Chile’s Codelco set to get a slice of Ecuador’s copper riches – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – November 20, 2019)

November 21, 2019

https://www.mining.com/

Chile’s Codelco, the world’s No. 1 copper producer, is closer to securing a long-awaited deal with Ecuador-controlled miner Enami EP, which will allow them to jointly develop a massive project located about 80 km northeast of the country’s capital, Quito.

The 982-million-tonne Llurimagua copper project, in the northern Imbabura Province, is in the advanced exploration stage and could become the first mine the Chilean giant operates abroad.

Construction should begin shortly after the board of Llurimagua Copper Company S.A., the 51%-49% joint venture between Codelco and Enami, approves the agreement that formalizes the entity.

Tracing Placer Gold in the Beauce Gold District – by Joseph Keller (Investing News Gold – November 19, 2019)

November 21, 2019

https://investingnews.com/

More than 100 years after the first Canadian gold rush, placer gold remains associated with the gold rushes of the late 19th century. That classic image of an old-time prospector knee-deep in a mountain stream panning for gold may no longer accurately portray what gold mining looks like, but the legacy is clear in some of the modern era’s greatest discoveries.

In the 21st century, mining exploration has returned to the sites of the Klondike and other historic gold rushes using cutting edge technology and exploration techniques to locate the sources of the riverbed gold that brought hopeful prospects to the Canadian Klondike.

Modern exploration techniques have worked wonders in Yukon and British Columbia, and now they are being put to work in Quebec. By tracing the placer gold deposits of the Beauce gold rush, modern miners are hoping to find hard rock deposits that dwarf anything those 19th-century prospectors could possibly have imagined.

Appalachia’s Strip-Mined Mountains Face a Growing Climate Risk: Flooding – by James Bruggers (Inside Climate News – November 21, 2019)

November 21, 2019

https://insideclimatenews.org/

VARNEY, West Virginia — Pigeon Creek flows through a narrow mountain hollow along a string of coal mining communities, its water trickling under the reds and yellows of the changing fall foliage.

The tranquil scene belies the devastation the creek delivered one night a decade ago as heavy rain fell on soggy soil and thousands of acres of nearby strip mines. Witnesses spoke of awakening in the dark of May 9, 2009, to the sound of rushing water like they had never heard before, entering their homes from underneath their doors.

“It was coming down out of the mountains bringing rock, trees, water and mud,” recalled Mildred Elkins, who became the lead plaintiff in a successful lawsuit with dozens of her flooded neighbors against several defendants, including Alpha Natural Resources, a coal mining company which has since gone through bankruptcy and merged with Contura Energy.

The Tragic True Story Behind The Crown’s Aberfan Mining Disaster Episode – by Samantha Vincenty (Oprah Magazine – November 20, 2019)

November 21, 2019

https://www.oprahmag.com/

In its three seasons, The Crown has educated many of its viewers on events that their history books may have skipped, such as the Profumo affair, the Great Smog of 1952, and the life and death of Princess Alice. “Aberfan,” the third episode of season 3, tells the story of a particularly horrifying day in U.K. history: The Aberfan mining disaster, which killed over 100 children at the Pantaglas Junior High School.

The Netflix series also attempts to explain why it took eight days for the queen to pay a visit to the site of the tragedy. Here’s what really happened at the Aberfan disaster portrayed on The Crown, and how Queen Elizabeth II reportedly feels about her reaction years later.

How did the Aberfan disaster happen?

It was a Friday morning on October 21, 1966, shortly after 9:00 a.m. In the South Wales coal mining village of Aberfan, students at the Pantglas Junior School had just began their day’s lessons after singing the hymn “All Things Bright and Beautiful,” as they did on every other school day before it.

Homes, land destroyed as desperate Zimbabweans turn to illegal gold mining – by Lungelo Ndhlovu (Reuters U.S. – November 19, 2019)

November 21, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

FILABUSI, Zimbabwe (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Under the blazing sun, a group of men use picks and shovels to dig up a bushy patch of land outside Zimbabwe’s second-largest city, stopping every few seconds to scan the soil for signs of gold.

The 13 men, led by one carrying a metal detector, left open gullies all over the area in Filabusi, about 80km (50 miles) south of Bulawayo. They told the Thomson Reuters Foundation they would dig wherever their metal detectors sensed gold, clearing bush and burning grass if they had to – even on someone else’s property. None of the men had a mining permit.

“Whenever you hear of a gold rush, you know serious money is involved. People literally pick up gold nuggets,” said Thomas Ncube, one of the miners whose name has been changed to protect his identity.

‘I Love You’ Goldman Sachs, Cliffs CEO Says Year After Outburst – by Joe Deaux (Bloomberg News – November 20, 2019)

November 21, 2019

https://www.bloomberg.com/

A year after Lourenco Goncalves raged against analysts from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. chief’s acrimony has reversed 180 degrees.

“I love you, you are the best commodity desk I have ever seen in my life,” he said at a conference organized by Goldman on Wednesday. That’s a far cry from last October, when Goncalves told metals and mining equity analyst Matthew Korn “you can run but you can’t hide” and criticized the bank for being “wrong about iron ore prices, years in a row.”

Wednesday marked the first time the chief executive officer of the top U.S. iron ore producer publicly sat down with Korn since Goncalves questioned the analyst’s calculations for concluding in a note the company “modestly missed estimates.” In their latest interaction, they were cordial to each other.

Nornickel to boost Taimyr mining by 75% to support the world’s shift to electric mobility – by Thomas Nilsen (Barents Observer – November 20, 2019)

November 21, 2019

https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/

10-years strategic ambition for mining on the Arctic tundra is set to 30 million tonnes per year, the Russian metal-giant said at its annual capital markets day.

Nornickel, describing itself as «the world’s best Tier-1 mining resource», says its unique commodity basket gives the company the best position to support the world’s shift to clean energy mobility.

The announcement to boost production of core metals for battery production comes as the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates sales of electric vehicles (EV) to reach 44 million annually by 2030, up from about 2 million in 2018.