Republic of Mining

World’s Top Copper Producer Hit by Unrest as Mines to Halt – by Laura Millan Lombrana (Bloomberg News – October 23, 2019)

October 23, 2019

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Chile’s powerful copper-mining unions are encouraging workers in the world’s top producer to down tools and join anti-government demonstrations that have swept the country for the past five days.

Unions representing workers across Chile’s main mines have announced one or two-day stoppages as they call for the government to withdraw the state of emergency and listen to people’s demands. Port terminals, including some key copper-shipping facilities, will join the stoppage, unions said.

While Chile is the top copper-producing nation, churning out just under a third of global supply, it’s still unclear how much impact the disruption could have on copper markets, if any.

COLUMN-The Russians are coming for Asia and Europe’s coal markets – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – October 23, 2019)

October 23, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

LISBON, Oct 23 (Reuters) – Life is set to get even more difficult for major coal exporters with Russia planning to increase shipments of the fuel and the cost advantages appearing increasingly stacked in its favour.

Russia is already the third-largest supplier to the seaborne market, behind Indonesia and Australia, and is moving to take advantage of its central geographic position to boost exports to both the Atlantic and Pacific basins.

Finding bullish coal market participants is increasingly difficult but at this week’s World Coal Leaders conference in Lisbon, Russia provided a group of upbeat delegates. It’s not too difficult to see why they are positive about gaining market share in both Europe and the Far East from established competitors.

[Biomining/Bioremediation] Discover: Meet the Sudbury scientist who feeds minerals to microbes – by Mike Commito (Sudbury Northern Life – October 22, 2019)

October 22, 2019

https://www.sudbury.com/

One-on-one with Dr. Mike: A Q&A with microbiologist Dr. Nadia Mykytczuk

As part of Sudbury.com’s ongoing Discover Series, Dr. Mike Commito, Director of Applied Research & Innovation at Cambrian College, who is often referred to simply as Dr. Mike on campus, is sitting down with researchers and entrepreneurs in Sudbury to spotlight the innovative work they’re doing in our community and beyond.

This week, Dr. Mike had the chance to catch up with Dr. Nadia Mykytczuk on the shores of Ramsey Lake at the Vale Living with Lakes Centre at Laurentian University. Dr. Mykytczuk is a microbiologist who studies how bacteria live and adapt to extreme environments. She holds an Industrial Research Chair in Biomining, Bioremediation and Science Communication at Laurentian University.

When she’s not teaching, Dr. Mykytczuk spends most of her time investigating how bacteria can be used in the mining process. Based on her research, Dr. Myktytczuk believes there is a great opportunity for the mining industry in Canada not only to deploy bacteria in remediation efforts to break down tailings and minimize mine waste, but also to utilize this biomining technology as a catalyst during the extraction process.

Ontario Mining Association: Making the world cleaner, greener and technologically advanced – by Daniel Brightmore (Global Mining – October 21, 2019)

October 22, 2019

https://www.miningglobal.com/

Mining Global hears from Ontario Mining Association President Chris Hodgson on the capabilities of the mining industry to deliver the minerals and metals making modern life and innovation possible.

The Ontario Mining Association (OMA) was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry in the province of Ontario. One of the longest serving trade organisations in Canada, much has changed since the association was founded, but its mission remains consistent: to improve the competitiveness of Ontario’s mining industry while promoting safety and sustainability.

“Down the years, the OMA has maintained its core commitment to these ideals while embracing the change we’ve seen across the evolution of society’s expectations and the mining industry’s capacity to meet them,” confirms OMA President Chris Hodgson.

CANADA ELECTION: Obama wasn’t the only American interfering in the Canadian election – by Vivian Krause (Financial Post – October 22, 2019)

October 22, 2019

https://business.financialpost.com/

Barack Obama’s tweet in support of Justin Trudeau wasn’t the only outside influence in the 2019 election. In eight battleground ridings, Leadnow, a Vancouver non-profit with roots in the United States, was busy helping to try to defeat Andrew Scheer and the Conservatives.

According to emails sent to anyone who subscribes, Leadnow made 150,000 phone calls, and in Greater Toronto, it ran radio ads against the Conservatives.

Leadnow is one of the lead organizations in a Rockefeller-funded international effort called The Tar Sands Campaign that aims to land-lock oil and natural gas from Western provinces, keeping Canada out of the global oil market.

CANADA ELECTION: Western anger was hot before Monday’s election. Now it’s molten – by Rex Murphy (National Post – October 22, 2019)

October 22, 2019

https://nationalpost.com/

Among the most ludicrous of campaign pitches, and there were so many to choose from, was the latter-day lunacy that if you, the voter, wanted to save the planet, you had to vote Liberal. The hubris in that claim was equal to its idiocy.

Canadian elections are not about the world. It is not ours to save, or (all deference to Greta the Grinch) to destroy. Canadian elections are about Canada, how to make it better, stronger, more healthful and secure for its citizens. They are — or should be — exercises where party leaders refresh our sense of Canada’s aspirations and ideals as a country, a nation.

Above all they should be about making sure the arrangement we have with ourselves — the Confederation — goes through an ever-necessary renewal, answers to contemporary challenges, and continues to secure the peaceful, prosperous and highly successful country that Canada is. Well … a person can dream, can’t he?

Column: Sustainability the new battleground for aluminium producers – by Andy Home (Reuters U.K. – October 22, 2019)

October 22, 2019

https://uk.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – Another year, another portfolio review by Alcoa. The U.S. aluminium producer has just announced a five-year review of around 4.0 million tonnes of alumina capacity and 1.5 million tonnes of smelter capacity.

Assets will be improved, curtailed, closed or sold. It’s not quite an annual event but Alcoa shareholders have been here many times before as the company keeps trying to move down the cost curve in the face of chronically depressed prices.

On the London Metal Exchange (LME) three-month aluminium has ground steadily lower over the course of 2019 and at a current $1,720 per tonne is close to the near three-year low of $1,705 recorded earlier this month.

Rio Tinto has ‘eureka moment’ with California lithium discovery – by Henry Sanderson (Financial Times – October 22, 2019)

October 22, 2019

https://www.ft.com/

Rio Tinto said it had found a potentially large source of lithium for electric car batteries while looking for gold in piles of waste rock in California, describing it as a “eureka moment” for the company.

The London-based miner said it could become the largest producer of lithium for batteries in the US if it can successfully process the rock on a larger scale.

The discovery may pave the way for Rio’s entry into the lithium market, which is set to see dramatic growth over the next decade due to the rise of electric vehicles, which are powered by lithium-ion batteries.

CANADA ELECTION: Canada’s Trudeau hangs onto power in election; aides see two-year respite – by David Ljunggren (Reuters Canada – October 22, 2019)

October 22, 2019

https://ca.reuters.com/

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hung onto power after a tight election on Monday that saw his government reduced to a minority, but aides predicted he would be able to govern for two years without many problems.

Trudeau, one of the world’s most prominent progressive politicians, struggled to overcome the effects of two domestic scandals. His Liberals were leading or elected in 157 seats, a decrease of 20, preliminary results showed.

He now looks set to govern with the left-leaning New Democrats, who have 24 seats. Together the two parties can muster a majority 180 seats in the 338-seat House of Commons.

President Pinera Says Chile ‘at War,’ Calls on People to Choose Sides – by Laura Millan Lombrana and Sebastian Boyd (Yahoo/Bloomberg News – October 21, 2019)

October 21, 2019

https://finance.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) — Thousands of protesters gathered in Chilean city squares on Monday after a weekend marked by images of soldiers and police clashing with demonstrators and shooting at masked looters. The Chilean peso and local shares slumped.

Chile is enduring a fourth day of rioting and protests in the worst social unrest since the country returned to democracy in the late 1980s to become Latin America’s most prosperous nation.

Eleven people have died and 1,500 have been arrested in a wave of arson attacks, looting and riots that have brought cities to a near standstill. President Sebastian Pinera declared a state of emergency Friday and called on the army to restore order.

Nickel Relives The Failed Attempt By The Hunt Brothers To Corner Silver – by Tim Treadgold (Forbes Magazine – October 20, 2019)

October 21, 2019

https://www.forbes.com/

Attempts to “corner” a metal market invariably end in tears, if not jail time, which is what happened with silver in 1980 and copper in 1995, so when the market in nickel “inverted” last week warnings were issued that an old game was being played in one of the new generation of battery metals.

The term inverted essentially means that the short-term price of a product, whether a metal or a government bond, rises above the long-term price, which is unnatural and a sign of trouble ahead. An inverted bond yield can be interpreted as a recession pointer.

Three Brothers And A Silver Plan

Silver had its crisis when three brothers who were heirs to the Hunt Oil fortune acquired, or attempted to acquire, one-third of the global supply of the metal.

China takes the long view on copper despite soft market – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – October 21, 2019)

October 21, 2019

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

China is taking the extremely long view on copper. State-owned Chinese firms are making big bets on Canadian copper companies at a time when other investors are backing away amid weak commodity prices and a shaky international geopolitical climate.

Last week, state-owned Chinese miner Jiangxi Copper Co. Ltd. announced it had amassed a 10.8-per-cent stake in Vancouver-based First Quantum Minerals Ltd., through Pangaea Investment Management Ltd. Jiangxi also said it may end up increasing its stake to 16.6 per cent through a share purchase agreement with an unnamed counterparty.

Vancouver-based Ivanhoe Mines Ltd., which is developing the giant Kamoa-Kakula copper resource in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has attracted two major Chinese backers over the past few years.

Canadian Federal Election: What the Resource Industry Wants – by Scott Tibballs (Resource Investing News – October 20, 2019)

October 21, 2019

https://investingnews.com/

In the lead up to the Canadian federal election on October 21, Canadian politicians have been wearing out their shoe leather by making sales pitches on why they should represent their local ridings in Ottawa, and party leaders have been squaring off in national debates.

Given how much influence government policy has over the resources industry, the Investing News Network (INN) reached out to the Mining Association of Canada (MAC), the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) and the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) — three bodies that represent the interests of the resources industry.

Pierre Gratton of MAC focused on a desire for policy stability for the industry, while Ben Brunnen of CAPP talked about the importance of Canada’s role in a global approach to climate policy and the PDAC shared its wish list of priorities for the next Canadian parliament.

New Brunswick: Rare mineral discovered near Nepisiguit Falls (CBC News New Brunswick – October 20, 2019)

October 21, 2019

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/

Melanterite is rare to New Brunswick and dissolves in water

A Bathurst man who collects minerals as a hobby stumbled across a rare substance that has never been recorded in the New Brunswick Museum’s archives.

Jesse Chamberlain went to a former mining site near Nepisiguit Falls in May to dig for minerals with his girlfriend. After digging about two feet deep into the side of the hill with a small gardening tool, Chamberlain stumbled across a blue-green mineral called melanterite.

“It was the first time I ever seen that colour come out of the ground,” Chamberlain said. “I was very surprised, so I called my girlfriend over to take a look at it. We weren’t sure what it was, so we collected as many samples as we could.”

Barrick Gold reaches deal with Tanzania to settle disputes over Acacia Mining (Reuters U.S. – October 20, 2019)

October 21, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

Oct 20 (Reuters) – Barrick Gold Corp said it had reached a deal to settle a long-running tax dispute between Tanzania and mining group Acacia, which Barrick bought in a $1.2 billion deal approved by a British court last month.

The agreement includes the payment of $300 million to settle outstanding tax and other disputes, the lifting of a concentrate export ban, and the sharing of future economic benefits from mines on a 50-50 basis, Barrick said in a statement on Sunday.

An Africa-focused international dispute resolution framework will also be established as part of the agreement, Barrick said.