Republic of Mining

Indonesia’s competition watchdog looks into nickel sector after cartel complaint (Reuters U.S. – November 18, 2019)

November 18, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

JAKARTA, Nov 18 (Reuters) – Indonesia’s anti-monopoly agency has begun a preliminary study of the country’s nickel smelting sector, an agency official said on Monday, after a miners’ association accused big nickel smelters of conducting a cartel.

The agency will decide whether to launch a full investigation of pricing and other practices in the industry after completing its initial enquiries, Guntur Saragih, a commissioner at Indonesia’s Commission for the Supervision of Business Competition (KPPU), told a news briefing.

The Indonesian nickel miners association (APNI) has claimed that two giant smelters control 60% of the local nickel ore market and determine prices in Indonesia, the world’s biggest nickel ore exporter. It has not named the two smelters.

Artisanal gold mining polluting Peruvian biodiversity hotspot -study – by Valentina Ruiz Leotaud (Mining.com – November 17, 2019)

November 18, 2019

https://www.mining.com/

Researchers at Dartmouth College analyzed satellite data and discovered that artisanal mining is altering the water clarity and dynamics of the Madre de Dios River watershed in the Peruvian Amazon.

In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers explained that higher levels of suspended sediment were found in rivers near the mining sites. The sediments contain mercury and other contaminants.

According to the Center for Amazonian Scientific Innovation, Canada’s NGO Artisanal Gold Council has registered that some 181 tonnes of mercury are released into the environment every year in the Madre de Dios region.

Public consultation launched on global tailings dam standards – by Barbara Lewis (Reuters U.S. – November 15, 2019)

November 18, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – A six-week public consultation launched on Friday will help set global standards to improve mining safety, aiming to prevent any repeat of the Vale tailings dam disaster in Brazil that killed 300 people in January.

Tailings dams are the most common waste disposal methods for mining companies, whether they’re extracting iron ore, gold or copper. They can tower dozens of meters high and stretch for several kilometers.

The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) said in March it was working on new safety standards with the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) and ethical investors’ body the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) following the collapse of Vale’s dam at Brumadinho.

Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug seeks to protect 1.3 million hectares – by Gary Rinne (tbnewswatch.com – November 16, 2019)

November 18, 2019

https://www.tbnewswatch.com/

KITCHENUHMAYKOOSIB INNINUWUG FIRST NATION, Ont. — The federal government has given K.I. First Nation $300,000 to work toward establishing an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area.

Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, 600 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, wants to prevent development within the watershed surrounding Big Trout Lake and its traditional homelands. Chief Donny Morris says that comprises an area of 1.3 million hectares.

“We will be able to practise our hunting and traditional things in this park…We just have to work to implement some rules, policies, how we’re going to run this protected area,” Morris told Tbnewswatch in an interview.

OPINION: If Alberta retreats behind a firewall, the province risks getting burned – by Kenneth Whyte (Globe and Mail – November 16, 2019)

November 18, 2019

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The Conservative Party of Canada will likely have an opportunity to regain power in a year or two. How does that happen while Alberta, the keystone of Canadian conservatism, is making a bunker of itself?

Red Deer lies halfway between Edmonton and Calgary, roughly 150 kilometres from each, and despite snow and ice warnings in both directions, a couple of hundred people from all over Alberta turned up early at a hotel conference room last Saturday to address the big question: How should the province respond to a disappointing outcome in last month’s federal election?

This was a different gathering than the feral, amateurish Wexit rally at the Boot Scootin’ Boogie Dancehall in Edmonton on Nov. 2, the one with the Make Alberta Great Again hats and chants of “The West Wants Out!” The Red Deer crowd was composed of seasoned political operatives, the sort of people who run local campaigns and sit on boards of riding associations.

Treaties in Ontario: what are they and what do they do? – by Rhiannon Johnson (CBC News Indigenous – November 10, 2019)

November 18, 2019

https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/

46 treaties cover what is now the province of Ontario

Since 2016, Ontario has held Treaty Recognition Week in the first week of November to honour the importance of treaties and raise awareness about treaty rights and relationships. What are treaties? A treaty is a legally binding agreement between nations.

European countries colonizing North America made treaties with the Indigenous Peoples occupying the land. These agreements often set out rules of governance, land use and the relationship between parties.

The earliest is the two-row wampum, an agreement between the Dutch and Haudenosaunee in 1613 in what is now New York state. The two-row wampum represents a river and the parallel lines represent the paths of each party’s vessel, and while they may travel forward together they will not intersect or interfere with each other.

Editorial: Mary River: if financial viability is a factor, then prove it – by Jim Bell (Nunatsiaq News – November 14, 2019)

November 18, 2019

https://nunatsiaq.com/

Nunavut’s system for regulating industrial development, born within the 1993 Nunavut land claims agreement, has likely never faced a greater test than the twisting, turning series of environmental and socio-economic assessments for the Mary River iron mine over the past 10 years.

This was on full public display in Iqaluit earlier this month, when the Nunavut Impact Review Board’s final public hearing on the $900-million railway expansion proposal from Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. imploded amidst a mood of confusion and incoherence. The final two days of that seven-day hearing, scheduled for Pond Inlet, were cancelled.

At the same time, the fate of Baffinland’s multibillion dollar, multigenerational iron mine is now shrouded in uncertainty. When this editorial was written, the review board had yet to decide on a motion from Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. that, if accepted, would delay proceedings for eight to 12 months.

Baffinland lays off 586 contract employees, halts planned work – by Emma Tranter (Nunatsiaq News – November 14, 2019)

November 18, 2019

https://nunatsiaq.com/

Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. says it has laid off 586 contracted employees working at its Mary River mine. Of those contractors, 96 are Inuit and 490 are non-Inuit, the company said in an email to Nunatsiaq News.

No direct Baffinland employees are affected, Baffinland said. The layoffs come shortly after the Nunavut Impact Review Board’s decision on Nov. 6 to abruptly adjourn its public hearing on the company’s expansion plans.

“Due to the uncertainty of Phase 2 permit approvals, work associated with the 2019 Work Plan has been demobilized,” Salima Virani, a communications specialist for Baffinland, said in the email.

The numbers show our green obsession is hurting Canada – by Lorne Gunter (Toronto Sun – November 16, 2019)

November 18, 2019

https://torontosun.com/

For instance, Ontario Liberal policies gave that province the highest
electricity costs on the continent, which contributed to the loss of
200,000 manufacturing jobs in the past 15 years. … Instead, they
are now trying to duplicate their disaster on a national scale.

The latest numbers on economic productivity in Canada are extremely disappointing. And with the Liberals back in power, the numbers are about to get worse, especially considering that the Trudeau government is now held in office by three anti-development parties — the NDP, Greens and Bloc Quebecois.

Even our “have” provinces fall far behind the top American states. And Canada’s poorest — the three Maritime provinces — are at or below the lowest state, Mississippi.

According to work done by Trevor Tombe, a University of Calgary economist, Alberta is Canada’s wealthiest province with a per capita GDP of $64,000 US. Yet that is behind 16 American states. Indeed, Alberta is a full 25% below the richest American jurisdiction — New York state at $86,000.

Sunday Strategist: Diamond Merchants’ Headaches Are Forever – by Peter Coy (Bloomberg News – November 17, 2019)

November 18, 2019

https://www.bloombergquint.com/

(Bloomberg Businessweek) — You know you have a marketing problem when you find yourself arguing that the competitor’s product is “simply too perfect looking.” Or when you fall back on warning people that if they buy the competitor’s product they may not be able to resell it—when reselling it was never their intention anyway.

That’s the diamond business for you. It gets harder every year for diamond merchants to fetch a good price for their product because the competition is insane. First there’s mounting production of natural diamonds. And now synthetic diamonds have gotten so good that for average customers they’re indistinguishable from the kind that come out of the ground.

On top of all that, some customers are turned off by the violence endemic in parts of diamond mining, featured in Leonardo DiCaprio’s film Blood Diamond. What’s a strategist to do? For De Beers, the diamond-mining unit of Anglo American Plc, conflict diamonds may be the smallest of its problem.

Bre-X: The real story and scandal that inspired the movie Gold – by Suzanne Wilton (Calgary Herald – January 30, 2017)

November 18, 2019

https://calgaryherald.com/

Please note that this series of articles are from 2017!

It’s often been said that the story of Calgary’s Bre-X Minerals had all the makings of a Hollywood script: gold, love, betrayal and mystery. Two decades after stock-market darling was declared a colossal hoax, the mining firm’s amazing tale is finally getting the celluloid treatment — though loosely based on true events — in a new film called Gold, starring Matthew McConaughey.

Real life can be stranger than fiction, which is why stories from the news often form the basis of scripts for the big screen. Such is the case with the tale of Calgary’s Bre-X Minerals. It’s a story of greed, gold, and downright mystery even today, two decades after Bre-X became the Cinderella stock darling of the world before suffering a dramatic collapse.

What follows is a series of timelines, photos and newspaper articles that tell the story that inspired the movieGold, starringMatthew McConaughey. This is the real-life story and scandal of Bre-X. The compilation starts with a story published on the 10-year anniversary of the Bre-X collapse, in which two Postmedia journalists — Suzanne Wilton and Ted Rhodes — went back to the Indonesian jungles where the gold fraud started.

Vale Manitoba operations to make case for $1-billion investment in Thompson mine (CBC News Manitoba – November 16, 2019)

November 16, 2019

https://www.cbc.ca/

It’s believed investment could expand mine’s lifespan by 25 to 30 years

The operators of the Vale nickel mine in Thompson, Man., are hoping a $1-billion investment could extend the mine’s life span by 25 to 30 years. Gary Eyres, head of Vale’s Manitoba operations, said the mine’s team has been stepping up its exploration efforts, including aerial and magnetic surveys, and believes there are large enough ore deposits to warrant the investment.

Eyres says he’s confident that somewhere along the Thompson nickel belt is the equivalent of another mine “just waiting to be found.” They want to be able to present their case for it in the next six to 12 months to the company’s owners in Brazil, Eyres said

“Everything that I’m doing at the moment and our teams here in Thompson are doing at the moment, is we’re focusing only on when this happens, rather than if it happens,” he said.

UPDATE 4-China-backed consortium wins $14 bln Guinea iron ore deal, pipping Australia’s Fortescue – by Saliou Samb (Reuters Africa – November 13, 2019)

November 15, 2019

https://af.reuters.com/

CONAKRY, Nov 14 (Reuters) – A consortium representing Chinese, French and Singaporean interests won a $14 billion tender to develop part of Guinea’s Simandou iron ore project, sources familiar with the talks told Reuters, edging out Australia’s Fortescue Metals Group.

The consortium – which includes Société Minière de Boké (SMB) and Singapore’s Winning Shipping as well as Guinean government interests – has committed to develop blocks 1 and 2 of the largest known deposit of its kind, holding more than 2 billion tonnes of high-grade ore.

Guinea has sought to develop the Simandou deposit for decades, but the project has been mired in protracted legal disputes and the high costs have curbed interest.

Caterpillar takes a hit as Chile riots add to global uncertainty – by Joe Deaux (BNN/Bloomberg News – November 13, 2019)

November 15, 2019

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Add the riots in Chile and political issues in other parts of Latin America to troubles dimming the outlook for Caterpillar Inc.

On Wednesday, the world’s largest maker of mining and construction equipment reported that its three-month rolling average sales growth in the region slowed to 4 per cent in October, matching the January data that was the weakest since mid-2017.

Latin America accounted for about 9 per cent of Caterpillar’s revenue in 2018, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Weakness in the region accelerated the slowdown in the company’s worldwide sales growth to 3 per cent, the worst since April 2017.

“There’s the social unrest in Chile, which is an important mining market,” Larry de Maria, an analyst at William Blair, said in a telephone interview. “Argentina has a difficult political situation and Brazil hasn’t really improved the way people hoped it would improve.”

$40 billion megaproject begins to take shape in Kitimat – by Nelson Bennott (Business in Vancouver – November 12, 2019)

November 15, 2019

https://biv.com/

One year ago, the partners behind LNG Canada formally sanctioned the $40 billion project. Today, roughly 1,000 workers are on site in Kitimat – about half of them from the Kitimat-Terrace area – and that’s just to set the stage for the main construction phase, which isn’t expected to start for another couple of years.

Last week, Business in Vancouver toured the project in Kitimat, which is booming, according to Kitimat Mayor Phil Germuth. “It’s definitely buzzing,” he said. “The hotels are full, there’s another brand new hotel that’s being built. There’s a brand new 35-unit townhouse development being done.”

Located at the mouth of Douglas Channel, next to the recently upgraded Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) aluminum smelter – the scale of which is impressive in its own right – the LNG Canada site at 400 hectares is about the size of 550 soccer fields.