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Made-in-China diamonds poised to shape global market (Singapore Straits Times – February 7, 2019)

https://www.straitstimes.com/

ZHENGZHOU/BRUSSELS (XINHUA) – A diamond is forever but its chemical composition is just carbon, the fourth most abundant element in the universe.

Before being cut and polished to what may cost over US$2,000 (S$2,710) per carat – one-fifth of a gram, or the weight of two grains of rice, diamonds have traditionally been mined from earth, where they were forged in extreme pressure and heat over millennia.

But companies in China and elsewhere have mastered the technologies to manufacture them en masse in a matter of weeks or days, with the products practically indistinguishable from those mined from earth.

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Danakali to start developing vast potash project in Eritrea – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – July 26, 2019)

https://www.mining.com/

Australia’s Danakali (ASX, LON:DNK) is closer than ever to beginning the development of its world-class Colluli potash project in Eritrea, which is expected to become one of the world’s most significant and lowest cost sources of sulphate of potash (SOP), a premium grade fertilizer.

A key step toward that goal was taken late last year, when Danakali signed a $200 million funding mandate with a syndicate of African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and Africa Finance Corporation (AFC)

Once those credit approvals are confirmed, something the Perth-based company estimates will happen “any day” now, Danakali will kick off development of the 1.1 billion-tonne potash project.

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China’s electric cars: Can they drive Chilean copper? – by Diego Laje (Al-Jazeera.com – July 29, 2019)

https://www.aljazeera.com/

Growing demand for battery storage and lithium could be a silver lining for Chile’s mining industry.

In the arid north of Chile some 1,500km from the capital, Chuquicamata has been a plentiful source of copper since before the rise of the Inca Empire in the 1400s.

“Chuqui” – as it is informally known – is one of the country’s most emblematic mines, a symbol of human ingenuity despite the fortnight of labour strikes held this June against mine owner Codelco over job cuts and compensation.

Economic reality sunk in last month when the mine shut down, as miners demanded better wages at the same time the place began an expensive transformation from an open pit to an underground shaft mine.

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Environmental concerns could dash Teck’s hopes of building massive oilsands mine – by Geoffrey Morgan (Financial Post – July 27, 2019)

https://business.financialpost.com/

CALGARY – Regulators have recommended the federal government approve Teck Resources Ltd.’s massive new oilsands mine that could help reverse a trend of declining investment in the heavy oil formation, though analysts have been skeptical new mining projects can ever be built in the play given emissions limits and stringent regulatory reviews.

The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency and the Alberta Energy Regulator announced late Thursday they were recommending Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna approve Frontier, a massive new oilsands mining project by the Vancouver-based miner, with the capacity to produce 85,000 barrels of oil per day by 2026, with future phases taking total output to 260,000 bpd by 2037.

While the two agencies determined the project was in the public interest, they also withheld approvals for parts of the project on Big Creek, a waterway in the area, and made its approval contingent on 62 different conditions.

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Large cost overrun by Canada’s Turquoise Hill haunts mining sector – by Tim Kiladze (Globe and Mail – July 28, 2019)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Soaring construction costs at one of the world’s most promising copper projects have hit the mining industry, giving skittish investors reason to question how much the sector has truly changed.

Canada’s Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd., which owns two-thirds of the Oyu Tolgoi (OT) project in Mongolia, unexpectedly announced this month that an underground expansion of its mine will take much longer, and will cost much more, than originally planned.

Already expected to cost US$5.3-billion, the OT expansion will now require up to an additional US$1.9-billion in capital spending to complete. Sustainable production from the project has also been delayed by 16 to 30 months from original estimates, to between May, 2022, and June, 2023.

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Protests over worker deaths paralyze production at some Coal India mines – by Jatindra Dash (Reuters U.S. – July 29, 2019)

https://www.reuters.com/

BHUBANESWAR (Reuters) – Members of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have mounted protests that have paralyzed production at one of India’s biggest coalfields following a deadly accident last week.

The BJP workers have been staging sit-down protests and waving flags at state-run Coal India Ltd’s mines in the eastern state of Odisha, demanding a safety audit of all mines in the region.

Rescue officials said they have recovered the bodies of three workers who were trapped inside the mine in Odisha’s Angul district after a landslide on Tuesday, and are trying to recover another body from inside the mine.

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CALIFORNIA: Must Reads: A war is brewing over lithium mining at the edge of Death Valley – by Louis Sahagun (Los Angeles Times – May 7, 2019)

https://www.latimes.com/

A small Cessna soared high above the Mojave Desert recently, its engine growling in the choppy morning air. As the aircraft skirted the mountains on the edge of Death Valley National Park, a clutch of passengers and environmentalists peered intently at a broiling salt flat thousands of feet below.

The desolate beauty of the Panamint Valley has long drawn all manner of naturalists, adventurers and social outcasts — including Charles Manson — off-road vehicle riders and top gun fighter pilots who blast overhead in simulated dogfights.

Now this prehistoric lake bed is shaping up to be an unlikely battleground between environmentalists and battery technologists who believe the area might hold the key to a carbon-free future.

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[Osisko Mining Inc.]Price surge fuels fresh hopes that Canada’s richest gold country has more to give – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – July 27, 2019)

https://business.financialpost.com/

‘Every time someone says all the mines have been found I laugh’ – John Burzyunski, CEO Osisko Mining Inc.

This spring, John Burzynski, chief executive of Osisko Mining Inc., caught whiff of an opportunity to acquire land near the Cadillac-Larder break — a name that may not ring a bell with most Canadians, but is renowned gold country.

Running from western Quebec to Larder Lake, Ontario, it stands out among the world’s richest geological gold belts; and even today, more than a century after being discovered, it is dotted with mines that pump out hundreds of thousands of ounces of bullion every year.

Burzynski, and his partners have been to the Cadillac-Larder break before: They discovered the deposit that became the Canadian Malartic mine, currently the country’s largest gold mine, which last year produced 697,200 ounces of gold, worth about $1.3 billion at current prices.

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Column: Why London Metal Exchange warehouses thrive in the shadows – by Andy Home (Reuters U.K. – July 26, 2019)

https://uk.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – Investment fund Cobalt 27 boasts on its website that it holds 2,904.7 tonnes of physical cobalt “fully insured and stored in LME-certified warehouses in Europe and the U.S.” Which is curious because the London Metal Exchange (LME) reports only 840 tonnes of cobalt sitting in its entire global warehouse network.

That, however, is metal that has been placed on warrant with the exchange. What Cobalt 27 owns is not on warrant. It could be warranted overnight. It is, after all, already sitting in one of the LME’s 559 registered warehouses.

But because it hasn’t been warranted, it doesn’t get counted as part of the LME’s daily inventory reports. And because it hasn’t been warranted, it’s also subject to a much lower storage charge. Which is, of course, one of the main reasons it hasn’t been warranted.

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Shrugging off rising tensions, China’s largest gold miner opens office in Toronto – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – July 26, 2019)

https://business.financialpost.com/

Shandong hopes to build relationships with Canada’s mining community to help it grow into one of the top ten largest gold miners in the world by 2020

At a time when Sino-Canadian diplomatic tensions run high, China’s largest gold miner, Shandong Gold Group Co., Ltd. gathered several dozen bankers, lawyers, local mining executives and media at a downtown Toronto hotel to celebrate the company’s new Bay Street office.

Board chairman Chen Yumin, who travelled from China to attend the event, said Toronto remains a capital of talent and finance for the mining industry. By opening an office in the city, he said Shandong hopes to build relationships with Canada’s mining community to help it grow into one of the top ten largest gold miners in the world by 2020.

“The reason that we opened a Toronto office is not just (about) the relationship between Canada and China,” Yumin said through a translator during a press conference following the event. “What we are looking at is global reach.”

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Anglo Plans $1 Billion Buyback After Bumper Iron Ore Profit – by Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – July 25, 2019)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Anglo American Plc plans to buy back up to $1 billion of shares after the diversified miner reaped bumper profits from its iron ore business, more than offsetting declines in diamond and copper.

Anglo is the first to report earnings among the handful of giant miners that produce iron ore and investors have been preparing for big windfalls. The steelmaking ingredient surged to the highest in more than five years after a deadly Brazilian dam collapse and operational setbacks in Australian caused a supply shock.

The buyback represents a shift for Anglo, which has been focused on repairing its bruised balance sheet and investing in growth while the world’s biggest producers handed massive amounts of money back to shareholders in recent years. The company’s net debt stands at $3.4 billion.

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BAANG Vs. FAANG Stocks: Here’s Why You Can’t Go Wrong With These Gold Miners – by Anna Golubova (Kitco News – July 25, 2019)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – Could BAANG be the new FAANG? This new basket of gold miners should not be missed this year, according to Wolfe Research, which came up with the index that includes Barrick Gold, AngloGold, Agnico Eagle Mines, Franco-Nevada and Gold Fields.

“We made this index BAANG in homage to the fading FAANG,” Wolfe Research technical analyst John Roque told CNBC this week.

Roque sees his BAANG index following the same upward trajectory as gold. “[These miners are] much like gold … An excessively low-interest rate is a great environment for gold,” he said.

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Chile’s mining waste poses silent threat to humans on multiple fronts (Channel News Asia – July 25, 2019)

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/

For every ton of minerals extracted, 30 tonnes of mining waste are generated.
With 1.5 million tons of residue created per day, Chile is the world leader in
mining waste.

REQUINOA, Chile: From the sky, the glistening emerald ponds of northern Chile are almost beautiful, but closer to the ground they harbour an ugly and dangerous secret: the reservoirs, filled with toxic waste from the country’s mining industry, are ticking time bombs.

Mines are the pillar of Chile’s economy, but their byproducts – which accumulate in ravines, mountain areas, river beds and reservoirs, and which are often used to create tailings dams, pose a handful of problems for surrounding inhabitants.

Apart from the environmental threat, the recent collapse of two Brazilian dams that killed hundreds of people has triggered alarm in Chile, which produces approximately a third of the world’s copper.

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Chinese firms to build gold smelter, refineries in Tanzania – by Fumbuka Ng’wanakilala (Reuters US. – July 24, 2019)

https://www.reuters.com/

DAR ES SALAAM, July 24 (Reuters) – Tanzania said on Wednesday it had awarded licences for the construction of a mineral smelter and two gold refineries to Chinese firms, as part of government efforts to generate more revenues from the nation’s mining industry.

Minerals Minister Doto Biteko said the Chinese companies would also soon be awarded licences for mines, each of which would require investment worth more than $100 million.

He did not name the firms or give details about the mining or other projects in the East African nation, Africa’s fourth-biggest gold producer after South Africa, Ghana and Mali.

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Mega-merger hurdles at Newmont Goldcorp hit gold miner’s profit – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – July 25, 2019)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

The world’s largest gold miner is experiencing some growing pains as it tries to integrate a slew of new assets from its recently completed mega-merger.

Newmont Goldcorp Corp.’s () shares fell after it posted an adjusted profit that was about half what analysts were expecting in a messy second quarter that included its merger with Goldcorp Inc. and the start of a new joint venture with rival Barrick Gold Corp. () in Nevada.

Although there have been “no surprises” in the acquired Goldcorp assets, underinvestment has been an issue throughout the portfolio, Newmont President Tom Palmer told analysts Thursday on an earnings call. “There was not the work done on exploration, there wasn’t the work done on development, and that’s absolutely fundamental in either an open pit or an underground mine.”

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