Republic of Mining

Northwestern Ontario could host one of Canada’s largest gold mines (Northern Ontario Business – October 18, 2019)

October 21, 2019

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

First Mining Gold’s technical study places 12-year mine life on Springpole project

A technical study is putting a 12-year mine life on a proposed open pit gold and silver mine in the Red Lake area of northwestern Ontario. First Mining Gold released a new preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for its $959-million Springpole Gold Project mine and mill operation.

In an Oct. 16 release, the company said the PEA provides updated metallurgical work that should significantly improve gold and silver recoveries.

Located 110 kilometres northeast of Red Lake, the company refers to Springpole as being “one of the largest undeveloped open pit gold projects in North America.”

China starts new $10b Oakajee iron ore push – by Peter Ker (Australian Financial Review – October 21, 2019)

October 21, 2019

https://www.afr.com/

A Chinese state-owned entity will seek to revive a $9.7 billion mining rail and port project in Western Australia, in a move that could unlock the nation’s next iron ore export province.

Sinosteel has acquired Japanese giant Mitsubishi’s interests in the long-stalled Oakajee Port and Rail project, in a deal that comes in the strongest year for iron ore prices since 2014.

The acquisition effectively resolves a dispute over port tariffs that was the major wrecker of attempts to develop Oakajee during the heady peaks of the iron ore boom in 2011, and when combined with Sinosteel’s existing assets nearby, make the Chinese company the dominant force in the mid-west region of WA.

Chile’s Codelco ditches ‘green copper’ push, eyes wider mine clean-up in two years – by Fabian Cambero (Reuters U.S. – October 17, 2019)

October 21, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – In 2017, the world’s largest copper producer – Chile’s Codelco – announced a plan to sell “green copper” at a premium price to customers using more sustainable practices like renewable energy and recycled water to cut its carbon footprint.

The project has run aground however, Codelco insiders and an executive said, as the miner realized it would struggle to guarantee its copper’s sustainability once it left the mine to be melted down and taken to market. Without that, traders said, higher prices were unjustifiable.

Now, the world’s largest miner of the prized red metal told Reuters it would drop the “green copper” plan piloted in one of its smaller mines in favor of a broader initiative to make its product more sustainable.

Timmins feels door still open for ferrochrome plant – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – October 18, 2019)

October 21, 2019

https://www.timminspress.com/

Mayor George Pirie remains confident Timmins will ultimately be the location of the ferrochrome processing facility which Noront Resources awarded to Sault Ste. Marie earlier this year.

“I still have the same opinion (as he had in May when Noront made it announcement) we’re going to get it,” said Pirie, shortly before Friday’s start of the annual general meeting of the Timmins Economic Development Corporation.” It won’t get built in Sault Ste. Marie.

“They haven’t done the consultations with the right Indigenous groups. You can see the fact that they don’t have the right area set up for the product and the tailings facilities — we do.

Ebola concentrated in Congo mining area, still an emergency: WHO – by Stephanie Nebehay (Reuters U.S. – October 2019)

October 21, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

GENEVA (Reuters) – Ebola is infecting and killing people in a gold mining area of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, and the “complex and dangerous” outbreak still constitutes an international emergency, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

The virus has infected 3,227 people and killed 2,154 of them since the outbreak was declared in August 2018 and went on to became the world’s second worst outbreak, it said.

The WHO’s Emergency Committee on Ebola reviewed the situation since declaring the outbreak an international emergency on July 17. In a statement on Friday, it said the epidemic is “currently concentrated in the Mandima health zone in the Biakato mine health area”.

BOOK REVIEW: Linden MacIntyre’s The Wake is a long overdue obituary for the miners of the Burin Peninsula – by Ken McGoogan (Globe and Mail – October 19, 2019)

October 21, 2019

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

On Feb. 15, 1965, a retired miner named Rennie Slaney sat down at his kitchen table in St. Lawrence, Nfld., and typed out a five-page, single-spaced document that, as Linden MacIntyre writes in The Wake, would reverberate “across the land.” The 58-year-old Slaney, who could no longer work because of severe health problems, laid out what had happened in recent decades to the people of his small community on the Burin Peninsula.

Addressing his testimonial to a special committee appointed by the government of Premier Joey Smallwood, Slaney mentioned a miner who died in hospital that very day, while another lay nearby, “just awaiting his time.”

Slaney himself, having worked in the mines for 23 years, was suffering from chronic bronchitis, obstructive emphysema, infective asthma and “a usually terminal heart disease caused by lung failure.” The man could step forward because, MacIntyre tells us, he had nothing left to lose: “His lungs were shot.”

Canada Election: Once an international superstar, Trudeau fights for his political life – by Ethan Bronner (Bloomberg News – October 18, 2019)

October 21, 2019

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg Businessweek) — Clad in boxing shorts, jacket, and ankle-high athletic shoes, he slipped unaccompanied from the gritty north Montreal neighbourhood into the gym across from a highway overpass, gear bag slung over his shoulder. He’s 47 but as trim and smooth as an undergraduate. Jacket removed, he stepped into the ring and donned his gloves, an aboriginal Earth-and-raven tattoo dominating his left triceps.

The boxer, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, didn’t, in fact, come alone. His security detail coordinated his arrival in black SUVs, and his media handlers instructed TV cameramen where to stand.

This was less a morning workout than a bit of campaign choreography, part of the Trudeau brand of sex appeal. Reporters on the scene rolled their eyes because it was an exact rerun of a photo op from his 2015 campaign, itself an echo of a 2012 charity boxing victory that lit up his political future.

Canada Election: Can’t the Liberals and Conservatives both lose? – by Andrew Coyne (National Post – October 19, 2019)

October 21, 2019

https://nationalpost.com/

Yet, as incompetent, unethical and ruinous as the governments each would lead may be, the alternatives are worse

It has been, I think we can all agree, a disgraceful election. Most elections are, but this one — this farrago of insults, gotchas, lies and giveaways; this all-party panderfest, in the face of looming recession, anemic growth, and an aging population; this collective shrug of indifference at racist provincial laws, rising national divisions, and a collapsing international order; this six-week symphony of cant — this is by common consent the most disgraceful in living memory.

Certainly neither of the two historic governing parties has begun to make the case for why they should be entrusted with power, as their sliding poll numbers reveal: if current trends hold, both will come in with less than a third of the vote, for the first time in our history.

That is as much a tribute to their leaders as it is to their platforms: if the worst that can be said of Justin Trudeau is that he could not defeat a morally and intellectually vacuous marshmallow like Andrew Scheer, the worst that can be said of Scheer is that he could not defeat a preening fraud like Trudeau.

Protest against open-pit gold mining planned during Nova Scotia mining show (Canadian Press/Bloomberg – October 18, 2019)

October 21, 2019

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

HALIFAX — A public rally critical of open-pit mining practices was set to take place in the Halifax area Friday as business leaders get together to promote Nova Scotia’s growing gold industry.

Demonstrators planned to gather over the lunch hour during the Nova Scotia Gold Show at a hotel at the Halifax airport. Sean Kirby, director of the Mining Association of Nova Scotia, said millions of dollars of investment are coming to the province.

But as industry speakers are discussed projects, protesters were set to hold an information session to discuss how to prevent further development of open-pit gold mines in the province.

OPINION: What if Suncor Energy used Canadian uranium to clean up its oil sands-tainted image? – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – October 19, 2019)

October 21, 2019

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Suncor Energy has an image problem that seems incurable. The Alberta oil sands giant produces vast amounts of synthetic crude oil, a product that comes with a rather frightening carbon footprint. As the oil sands expand, Suncor will become an ever-bigger target for climate-change activists and green-tinged politicians.

Even Justin Trudeau, who may or may not survive as prime minster after next week’s election, once said that Canada should “phase out” the oil sands.

What can Suncor do? Here’s a radical idea: Get into uranium. Nobody talks much about uranium anymore. The naturally radioactive metal is associated as much with disaster, because of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, as it is with clean energy.

Adani awards QLD business $100m rail construction contract (Australian Mining – October 21, 2019)

October 21, 2019

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Adani has handed out a $100 million rail contract to Australian-operated Martinus Rail, which will deliver the work out of Rockhampton, Queensland.

This is the latest in the more than $450 million worth of contracts awarded for the Carmichael coal and rail project. A majority of these have been given to regional Queensland areas.

Martinus Rail will be based in Rockhampton, where Adani has also opened a business centre. Martinus Rail managing director Treaven Martinus said the company was keen to ensure regional communities saw the benefits of the significant contract.

Dam Collapse at Siberian Gold Mine Leaves at Least 15 Dead – by Yuliya Fedorinova (Bloomberg News – October 19, 2019)

October 21, 2019

https://finance.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) — At least 15 people died when a dam collapsed at a gold mine in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region, the Ministry of Emergency Situations said on its website.

The incident happened at about 2 a.m. Moscow time Saturday near one of the small local gold mining companies’ operations, the ministry said.

Emergency services continue rescue efforts and seven of the 13 people reported missing earlier have been found alive, the Tass news wire reported, citing a local official.

China Is the World’s Biggest Coal User. Can It Break the Habit? – by Eamon Barrett (Fortune Magazine – September 5, 2019)

October 21, 2019

https://fortune.com/

The future isn’t bright for Chinese coal. Ever since 2013, when the country was smothered by dangerously thick pollution in an event known as China’s “airpocalypse,” the country’s government has come under pressure to rid China of smog-making coal power plants.

Coal is the “most dirty energy” in the world, said Yang Fuqiang, senior advisor to China’s Natural Resources Defense Council, speaking at a roundtable debate on the future of energy Thursday at Fortune’s Global Sustainability Forum in Yunnan, China.

“The question is, how do we get rid of coal?” he asked. That’s a tricky task, particularly in China, which accounts for 50% of global coal consumption. According to Yang, coal consumption in China’s northern Shandong province alone surpasses the total coal consumption of Europe.

Nutrien and other rivals get nervous as BHP Billiton eyes $17-billion potash project in Saskatchewan – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – October 18, 2019)

October 18, 2019

https://business.financialpost.com/

Chuck Magro, chief executive of Saskatoon-based Nutrien Ltd., remained quiet on Thursday after the Australian-based mining giant BHP Billiton Ltd. disclosed its latest plans to build a giant potash mine in his company’s backyard.

BHP announced it would commit an additional US$345 million, on top of roughly $3 billion already spent, to de-risk Jansen, a proposed potash mine east of Saskatoon that could upend the market; and it gave itself until February 2021 to make a final decision on the estimated $17-billion project.

If constructed, Jansen would add about 4.4 million tonnes of potash per year, roughly 7 per cent of the current market, and potentially enough to drive down potash prices and deal a blow to Nutrien, the largest producer in the world. The Saskatoon-based firm’s stock price fell just under a per cent to $64.64 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

INCO trailblazer and champion of women’s rights tells her story in new memoir – by Colleen Romaniuk (Northern Ontario Business – October 17, 2019)

October 18, 2019

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Cathy Mulroy has always understood that well-behaved women seldom make history. In 1974, after becoming one of the first women hired in a non-traditional role at INCO since the Second World War, the Sudbury native, who stood at 5 feet 1 inch and weighed 105 pounds, was quickly labelled a troublemaker.

As a 19-year-old mother stuck in a toxic marriage, Mulroy signed up to work in the copper refinery in the anode department casting molten metal copper with the hope of earning enough to become financially independent.

She was often found guilty for the crime of sticking up for herself, and in Mulroy’s own words, she “never put up with crap.” Years later, after Mulroy retired, she decided to write a book about her experience using all the material she accumulated over the years. Mulroy documented everything, writing on cigarette packs, paper towels, and in diaries, collecting newspaper clippings, and more.