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Mineral-rich Ecuadorean province requests popular referendum on mining (Reuters Canada – July 30, 2019)

https://ca.reuters.com/

QUITO (Reuters) – The government of a key mining province in southern Ecuador has proposed a popular referendum on the development of new mines in the region, the latest obstacle to market-friendly President Lenin Moreno’s efforts to attract foreign mining investment.

Azuay province is home to several potentially lucrative gold, silver and copper projects, including the Loma Larga project operated by Canada’s INV Metals (INV.TO) and the Rio Blanco mine, owned by a Chinese consortium consisting of Junefield Mineral Resources Limited and Hunan Gold Group.

But provincial prefect Yaku Perez on Tuesday requested the South American country’s Constitutional Court make mining development subject to a popular referendum, expressing concerns about mining’s environmental impacts.

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De Beers Diamond Sales Sink to Three-Year Low as Buyers Hold Off  – by Liezel Hill (Bloomberg/Yahoo Finance – July 30, 2019)

https://finance.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) — The crisis squeezing the diamond industry is gaining momentum. De Beers reported another sharp drop in its latest sales to the lowest since 2015, after the world’s biggest producer allowed its struggling customers to defer more purchases to later this year.

The mostly family-run businesses that cut, polish and trade the world’s diamonds are battling to make a profit as demand slumps because of a surplus of polished stones and as demand for high-end jewelry stagnates. It has also become harder for these companies to access financing.

De Beers sells gems at 10 sales a year in Botswana to a select group of customers, who are expected to accept the price and quantities they’re offered. Membership of the group was once a lucrative coup for anyone in the industry, but some buyers are now struggling to make money as De Beers keeps prices high, even if it means selling fewer stones.

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Court ruling against Venezuela in Crystallex case puts Citgo at risk (Reuters Canada – July 29, 2019)

https://ca.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – A U.S. federal appeals court on Monday rejected an appeal by Venezuela’s state-owned oil company to set aside an order allowing a Canadian gold mining company to seize shares in its U.S. refining unit, Citgo Petroleum Corp.

Crystallex International Corp had won the $1.4 billion judgment as compensation for the expropriation of its assets in Venezuela under late leftist President Hugo Chavez. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia said a lower court was right to attach Petroleos de Venezuela’s shares of its U.S. unit, which owns Citgo.

“The District Court acted within its jurisdiction when it issued a writ of attachment on PDVSA’s shares of PDVH to satisfy Crystellex’s judgment against Venezuela, and the PDVH shares are not immune from attachment,” Judge Leonard Stark wrote, referring to PDVSA’s U.S. unit.

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Rare earths filtered from phosphate mine waste (Mining Magazine – July 30, 2019)

https://www.miningmagazine.com/

The project for the Florida Industrial and Phosphate Research Institute had the aim of capturing, extracting and separating rare earth elements (REE) out of both phosphoric acid and the resulting waste.

Precision Periodic, which is a University of Central Florida incubator company, has developed a proprietary nano-filter for extracting and releasing multiple REEs, precious metals, heavy metals and/or radioactive elements out of acidic liquids. It is both reusable and scalable for different size applications.

With the Thor nano-filtration system, the test team was able to capture 40-60% of the REEs and radioactive elements in a five-minute, single pass-through from wet process phosphoric acid, and 80% of the REEs in a five-minute, single pass-through from sulphuric acid leached waste.

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NEWS RELEASE: Changes Needed To Make B.C. Mining Companies Financially Accountable For Disasters (BC First Nations Energy and Mining Council – July 30, 2019)

VANCOUVER, July 30, 2019 /CNW/ – Five years after the Mount Polley tailings dam breach that spilled 24 million cubic metres of waste into critical salmon habitat in Fraser River Watershed, communities and taxpayers face the prospect of having to foot the bill to clean-up the next mining disaster unless the BC government compels mining companies to provide funds for cleanup, according to a new report released today.

The report, commissioned by the BC First Nations Energy and Mining Council (FNEMC) and written by economist Jason Dion, calls on the province to introduce a new legal framework to close a policy gap that allows mining companies to operate without providing financial assurance to cover the costs of a disaster.

Now is the time to make these changes. The expert panel mandated by BC First Nations Leadership Council and the provincial government to determine the cause of the disaster warned BC can expect two massive dam failures every 10 years unless mining laws are changed.

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Poldark and Cornish mining at heart of Perranporth events (The Falmouth Packet – July 29, 2019)

https://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/

Talks on Poldark and beach art are among the free activities helping families learn more about the the mining history of Perranporth.

Experts have been studying the little-known mining history of the vulnerable cliffs overlooking the beach at Perranporth, to show if the search for tin and copper in the area began in medieval or even prehistoric times.

Thousands of visitors enjoy the town’s beach each year, but many don’t realise that many of the caves and huge rock arches in the cliffs are man-made. The coast was used for mining rather than leisure in the past, with the solid rock being tunnelled through by miners.

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Ravensthorpe nickel mine set to re-open a third time amid soaring demand for the metal – by Kit Mochan (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – July 30, 2019)

https://www.abc.net.au/

The owners of the mothballed Ravensthorpe nickel mine in Western Australia’s south-east say they will move to re-open the site if surging demand for the metal continues.

In its latest quarterly results posted overnight, First Quantum Minerals said it was planning to restart the nickel and cobalt operation by early next year.

The Canadian mining giant memorably bought the asset off BHP Billiton in 2010 for $US340 million ($493 million), a fraction of the $US3 billion it cost to build and commission the facility.

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ENVIRONMENT: From ‘they need it’ to ‘it’s going to destroy the land,’ people in Ely have a lot of thoughts about Twin Metals – by Walker Orenstein (MinnPost.com – July 29, 2019)

https://www.minnpost.com/

At Ely’s annual Blueberry/Art Festival this weekend, the debate over copper-nickel mining near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA) was nearly as visible as the food, music and crafts for sale.

Dueling booths run by supporters and opponents of Twin Metals Minnesota and the controversial underground mine it hopes to build dotted Whiteside Park on Friday as thousands of people streamed through the small town in northern Minnesota for the first day of the festival.

One of those tents was run by Up North Jobs, a pro-mining nonprofit that declared the weekend “Twin Metals Appreciation Days” in honor of the company’s continued investment in Ely. Just across the park was Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness and the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters, which warned fairgoers of the risk that copper-nickel mining could be to the BWCA.

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[Pure Gold] Red Lake mine developer sharing the wealth with First Nations – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – July 29, 2019)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Wabauskang and Lac Seul First Nations will be part owners in Pure Gold Mining after signing a project agreement with respect to the Madsen Mine development outside of Red Lake.

Under the terms of the deal, 500,000 shares will be issued to each First Nation, subject to regulatory approval. The agreement establishes a framework for revenue sharing based on the mine’s gold production, spells out future employment and contracting opportunities for the two Anishinaabe communities, and provides for future education and training initiatives.

The communities agree to work with the mining company in support of the regulatory permitting processes and the company has confirmed its commitment to protect the environment.

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Op – eds: Serbia and Kosovo spar over Trepca Mining Complex (New Delhi Times – February 25, 2019)

New Delhi Times

Distrust between Serbia and Kosovo remains intact two decades after the Kosovo war. In 2008, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia. Till date, Serbia refuses to recognise the independence of Kosovo despite the fact that most Member States of European Union (EU) have done so. Moreover, the independence of Kosovo has also been recognised by USA and 100 other countries.

Territorial disputes are at the forefront of strained relations between Serbia and Kosovo. European Union has been acting as a mediator in the conflict. In 2011, EU facilitated the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, which can be classified a process-oriented approach rather than an outcome-oriented approach.

The mediation efforts of EU have produced a series of agreements between the two sides but many conflict issues remain unresolved. The ownership structure of Trepca Mining Complex is one of such issues.

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Ferrochrome plant will pay employees well, Noront says – by Elaine Della-Mattia (Sault Star – July 29, 2019)

https://www.saultstar.com/

When Noront Resources ferrochrome facility becomes a reality in Sault Ste. Marie, employees will be averaging about double the average Canadian wage. The average wage for a Noront Resource employee will be about $108,000, about double Canada’s average wage of $52,000.

That comes from Stephen Flewelling, Noront’s chief development officer, at last week’s Chamber of Commerce luncheon themed Sault Ste. Marie Resource City, Resource Champion. Flewelling praised ‘Made in Canada’ opportunities and especially those that the Ring of Fire presents.

With almost 200 metric tons of chrome valued at $150 billion discovered, the true full value of the extensive mining operation has yet to be determined, he told the crowd. But none of it will start without the development of a road to the site, he said.

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COLUMN-Where BHP goes on climate change, will others follow? – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – July 29, 2019)

https://www.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia, July 29 (Reuters) – BHP Group may just have set the template for how resource companies are going to deal with the challenge of climate change, even if some of its competitors would prefer a course of more talk and less action.

The world’s biggest miner announced on July 23 that it will invest $400 million over five years to reduce emissions. While this move is both laudable from the perspective of combating climate change and sensible from the point of making BHP a more attractive purchase for ethical investors, the real game-changer is BHP’s move to include emissions beyond what it directly produces.

The Anglo-Australian miner is the world’s largest exporter of coking coal used in steel-making, the third-biggest iron ore miner, and is also a significant producer of copper, crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG).

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The elite club that rules the diamond world is starting to crack (Singapore Straits Times – July 29, 2019)

https://www.straitstimes.com/

It’s one of the world’s most exclusive clubs, known over the years as the Syndicate, the Central Selling Organisation and the Diamond Trading Company.

For more than a century, De Beers has sold most of its rough diamonds to a select number of customers, a list that reads like a who’s who of the opaque gem-trading world. Tiffany & Co, Graff Diamonds and Signet Jewelers Ltd all own subsidiaries in this group, guaranteeing a steady supply of gems with the pedigree of being vetted by De Beers.

In the diamond trading world, becoming one of De Beers’s elite buyers is viewed as essential to achieving success and making money. Now, it’s no longer so easy.

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Geology Corner: Deposits that host the world’s base metals – by Lesley Stokes (Northern Miner – July 29, 2019)

Northern Miner

The earth has many unique ways of stripping base metals from its crust and concentrating them into deposits. Over the course of civilization, humans have uncovered seven main types: sediment-hosted copper-cobalt, magmatic nickel-copper-platinum group metal; volcanogenic massive sulphide; porphyry; mississippi valley type; sediment exhalative; and laterites.

Sediment hosted copper-cobalt deposits

The majority of world-class sediment hosted copper-cobalt deposits formed shortly after a unique period of time often referred to as the “Boring Billion,” the “Earth’s Middle Ages”, or “the Dullest Time on Earth”. The earth’s major landmasses combined to form one large supercontinent, and remained relatively stable, positioned along warmer latitudes, from 1.7 billion to 750 million years.

The continent began to break apart in the neo-Proterozoic, but many of the rifts failed, becoming significant basins of evaporitic, lacustrine and red-bed sediments mixed with saline and oxidized fluids called brines. The brines circulated through the basins for tens, if not hundreds of millions of years, stripping metals from the rocks only to redeposit them onto chemically reductive horizons.

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Lithium Industry Buildup Is Outracing the Electric-Car Boom – by Laura Millan Lombrana (Bloomberg News – July 29, 2019)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Lithium miners are bulking up for a booming future when electric cars go mainstream. But speed bumps loom, with prices tumbling on a burst of new production and demand growth slowing in China.

Between mid-2015 and mid-2018, prices for lithium, the soft, silvery-white metal crucial for rechargeable batteries, almost tripled as the world’s fleet of electric vehicles hit the 5 million mark, and the auto industry began to fret over the supply of raw materials.

That sparked the opening of six lithium mines in Australia since 2017 as companies raced to gain from an evolving technology. But while the EV boom is coming, it isn’t here yet. Sales growth is slowing in China, the top market, and the drive to fill the battery supply chain has cooled. The result: A 30% price plunge for lithium that’s spurring concern over where the bottom may lie.

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