Republic of Mining

Canada urged to address declining mining competitiveness – by Claire Cuddihy (Global Mining Review – July 18, 2019)

July 18, 2019

https://www.globalminingreview.com/

A national alliance of mineral exploration and mining associations are urging Mines Ministers, having convened for their 76th annual conference in Cranbrook (British Columbia), to take action to ensure Canada remains a globally competitive jurisdiction and can continue to attract mineral investment.

A brief submitted by the Canadian Mineral Industry Federation (CMIF) proposes a series of recommendations organised under the six strategic directions identified in the Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan (CMMP) published earlier this year.

The plan, developed by Natural Resources Canada with the support of most provincial and territorial governments, identifies specific areas where collaboration and action by federal, provincial and territorial governments can boost Canada’s ability to attract new mineral investment.

Australia Sees Jobs Boom in West as Resources Comeback on Cards – by Michael Heath (Bloomberg News – July 17, 2019)

July 18, 2019

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Employment jumped and the labor force swelled in Australia’s western mining heartland, offsetting job losses in every other state, suggesting forecasts of a resource investment revival might be coming to pass.

In Western Australia, 13,800 jobs were added in June, the participation rose 0.3 percentage point and unemployment fell almost half a percentage point to 5.8%, data from the statistics bureau showed in Sydney Thursday. In contrast, New South Wales, the economy’s growth driver in recent years and Australia’s biggest state, shed 17,400 positions.

“The pickup in full-time hiring in Western Australia may be a sign that the trough in resource investment may soon come to an end,” said Tamara Mast Henderson, an economist at Bloomberg Economics.

Washington continues critical inquiries into rare earths and uranium supply chains – by Greg Klein (Resource Clips – July 15, 2019)

July 18, 2019

http://resourceclips.com/

While somewhat relaxing its concern about uranium, the U.S. appears increasingly worried about rare earths supply. A Reuters exclusive says Washington has begun an inventory to itemize domestic RE projects.

“The Pentagon wants miners to describe plans to develop U.S. rare earths mines and processing facilities, and asked manufacturers to detail their needs for the minerals, according to the document, which is dated June 27,” the news agency reported.

“Responses are required by July 31, a short time frame that underscores the Pentagon’s urgency.” The request mentions the possibility of investment by the military, Reuters added.

The Next Neil Armstrong May Be Chinese as Moon Race Intensifies – by Bruce Einhorn, Justin Bachman, Hannah Dormido and Adrian Leung (Bloomberg News – July 17, 2019)

July 18, 2019

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Fifty years after Neil Armstrong took his one small step, there’s a renewed race to put human beings back on the moon⁠—and the next one to land there may send greetings back to Earth in Chinese.

China, which didn’t have a space exploration program when Apollo 11 landed in the Sea of Tranquility on July 20, 1969, is planning a series of missions to match that achievement. China could have its own astronauts walking on the moon’s surface and working in a research station at its south pole sometime in the 2030s.

On the way there, they may stop over at a space station scheduled for assembly starting next year. Those ambitions trouble President Donald Trump’s administration, which is locked in trade and technology-transfer disputes with China that raise fears of a new Cold War like the one between the U.S. and the Soviet Union that spawned the Apollo program in the 1960s.

Column: Copper concentrates tightness threatens benchmark pricing – by Andy Home (Reuters U.K. – July 18, 2019)

July 18, 2019

https://uk.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – The copper market may be stuck in a well-worn trading range but there is plenty of action unfolding in the mine concentrates segment of the copper supply chain.

China’s copper smelters have just slashed their minimum charges for converting concentrates into refined metal. The 10-member China Smelters Purchase Team (CSPT) has set treatment and refining charges at $55.00 per tonne and 5.5 cents per lb respectively for third-quarter deliveries.

That’s down from $73 and 7.3 cents in the second quarter and from $92 and 9.2 cents in the first quarter. It is now sufficiently low to cause margin distress for higher-cost smelters. Tumbling treatment charges reflect a tightening market for copper raw material.

Acacia faces Tanzanian roadblock as Barrick bid set to expire – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – July 18, 2019)

July 18, 2019

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Acacia Mining PLC is facing a new threat to its African gold-mining operations, as it pushes for a higher takeover offer from parent company Barrick Gold Corp.

In a statement on Wednesday, Acacia said that Tanzania’s environment regulator has ordered it to close the tailings management facility at its North Mara mine by Saturday morning, citing a “failure to contain and prevent seepage.”

The directive threatens to cripple production at the mine, which accounted for about two-thirds of Acacia’s gold output last year. The development isn’t coming entirely out of the blue. In May, Acacia was fined for environmental breaches at North Mara, and in January, Tanzania told Acacia it must completely rebuild and redesign the facility.

Column: Nickel jumps but fear of Indonesia export ban is unfounded – by Andy Home (Reuters U.K. – July 17, 2019)

July 17, 2019

https://uk.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – Nickel is enlivening an otherwise torpid summer for the base metals complex. The market is on a bull charge in both London and Shanghai. London Metal Exchange three-month nickel has jumped 23% since the start of June and at a current $14,250 per tonne is trading at its highest level in a year.

Chinese speculators are surging into the Shanghai Futures Exchange contract, which is also nudging one-year highs. The trigger for this collective exuberance is news that Indonesia will stop allowing the export of unprocessed nickel ore in 2022.

Since this is a key raw material pipeline for China’s giant nickel pig iron (NPI) sector, the price reaction might seem rational. Except that the “news” is not new. The 2022 deadline was set in 2017, when the Indonesian government allowed a five-year grace period for ore exporters in return for investment in processing capacity.

Rockcliff gears up to drill in Snow Lake – by Stan Sudol (Northern Miner – July 15, 2019)

July 16, 2019July 16, 2019

Rockcliff Metal’s founder Ken LaPierre at the 2019 PDAC Mining Convention. A $29 Million financing has turbo-charged junior Rockcliff Metals, which plans to complete over 100,000 metres of exploration drilling over next 18 months. Rockcliff is the 2nd largest landholder in the legendary Flin Flon/Snow Lake greenstone belt in Northern Manitoba after HudBay Minerals. (Photo by Stan Sudol)

Northern Miner

At the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention in Toronto in March 2018, Rockcliff Metals (CSE: RCLF) was a struggling junior with a large land package in the lesser known but geologically rich Flin Flon–Snow Lake (FF–SL) greenstone belt, with eight high-grade, base-metal volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposits and five gold properties.

It began as a tough year for Rockcliff, and it turned even rougher the week before the PDAC convention, when Kenneth Lapierre, Rockcliff’s president and CEO at the time, slipped on freshly fallen snow when taking out the garbage at home.

Not thinking much about his sore ankle, the six-foot-three-inch, former hockey-playing, karate-practising jock then started shovelling the driveway. Twelve hours later, the swelling and pain in his ankle demanded a trip to the doctor, where he learned that it was broken, and that he had torn all the soft tissue.

Barrick Gold just won a US$5.83B arbitration award, but getting paid may be a different story – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – July 16, 2019)

July 16, 2019

https://business.financialpost.com/

Collecting such high-value awards is far from simple or guaranteed

The World Bank’s International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes has ordered the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to pay US$5.83 billion to a Barrick Gold Corp. joint venture subsidiary for blocking a mining project nearly a decade ago.

It marks the latest in a string of high-value arbitration awards that Canadian resource companies have won against foreign countries in recent years, although collecting such awards is far from simple or guaranteed.

Barrick, which jointly owns the subsidiary with Chilean copper company Antofogasta Plc, long ago dropped the project from most of its investor materials. On Monday, both companies signalled an interest in settling the matter with Pakistan, which is set to receive billions of dollars in loans from the International Monetary Fund as it struggles to revive its economy.

Private investors protect vast forests in U.S. coal country – by Carey L. Biron (Reuters U.S. – July 15, 2019)

July 16, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

WASHINGTON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Private investors have backed what supporters say is one of the largest conservation acquisitions ever in the eastern United States, offering a promising new model to protect land.

Conservation group the Nature Conservancy announced Monday that it and partners now control almost 400 square miles (1,000 sq km) of land in three states in the central Appalachian Mountains, traditionally heavily dependent on coal mining.

The tracts, part of what backers say is one of the world’s largest intact forests, were purchased from timber management entities through a $130 million investment fund.

Steel mills to the rescue as Rio’s iron mines hit four-year low – by Peter Ker (Australian Financial Review – July 16, 2019)

July 16, 2019

https://www.afr.com/

Strong Chinese steel production is papering over cracks in Rio Tinto’s flagship iron ore division, where production over the past six months slumped to the lowest level in four years.

Rio’s Australian iron ore mines provided just 93 per cent of the iron ore shipped by the company in the three months to June 30, forcing Rio to draw down 5.7 million tonnes of stockpiled iron ore. Those stockpiles were worth almost $1 billion based on the $US119.25 per tonne that iron ore was fetching on Monday.

The weak statistics published by Rio’s most important division on Tuesday only bolster expectations that 2019 will be the first year since the turn of the century that Rio’s Australian iron ore exports will fall sequentially.

‘Bisbee ’17’ Documents Dark History Of Mass Deportations In Arizona Mining Town – by Robin Young (WBUR.org – July 15, 2019)

July 16, 2019

https://www.wbur.org/

More than a century ago, nearly 2,000 copper miners — most of them immigrants — were deported from Bisbee, Arizona, to the desert of New Mexico. Those who survived the deportation were banned from returning.

At that point 1917, copper was critical for Americans fighting abroad during World War I. The miners, who were underpaid and worked in dangerous conditions, had joined the Industrial Workers of the World, which threatened a strike. Some residents saw the workers as communists who were undermining the war effort.

Authorized by the sheriff, residents dragged workers and their sympathizers from homes and businesses, forced them into cattle cars and deported them miles from town.

Saskatoon: Cameco encouraged as Trump ends fears of uranium import restrictions – by Chelsea Laskowski (CBC News Saskatoon – July 15, 2019)

July 16, 2019

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/

In a memorandum late Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump rejected restrictions on foreign uranium imports

Saskatoon-based uranium mining company Cameco is breathing a sigh of relief after U.S. President Donald Trump declined to put restrictions on uranium imports from other countries in a memorandum sent Friday.

“I wouldn’t say it was a surprise, but we were certainly pleased,” said Jeff Hryhoriw, director of government relations and communications with Cameco.

Uranium producers in Canada had been watching the U.S. closely for the past year as that country’s Commerce Department started investigating whether restrictions on uranium imports were necessary to maintain national security.

Canada’s Belo Sun touts procedural win but Brazil gold mine still on hold – by Christian Plumb and Jake Spring (Reuters U.S. – July 12, 2019)

July 16, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

SAO PAULO/Brasilia (Reuters) – Belo Sun Mining Corp (BSX.TO) said on Friday it had won a legal victory in its push to mine the country’s largest undeveloped gold deposit in the Amazon rainforest, which has drawn criticism from environmentalists and indigenous advocates.

But the public prosecutor’s office that is seeking to block the mine disagreed with that interpretation of the ruling.

Felicio Pontes, a federal prosecutor on the case, said the appeals court had merely rejected a request for a preliminary judgment and the merits of the case have yet to be judged.

[U.S. Coal Mining] Head of miners union calls Green New Deal’s main goal ‘almost impossible’ (The Hill – July 15, 2019)

July 16, 2019

https://thehill.com/

The president of the United Mine Workers of America characterized the progressive Green New Deal’s goal of transitioning to renewable energy over 10 years as “almost impossible.”

The Green New Deal, introduced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) earlier this year, aims to cut greenhouse emissions in half by shifting to 100 percent renewable energy over the next decade. The proposal also calls for creating millions of “good, high-wage” jobs to achieve that goal.

“It’s almost impossible to transition in 10 years away from fossil fuels even if everybody was for it,” Cecil Roberts told Hill.TV on Monday. “It just can’t really be done but if you did do that, you’re going to have a massive, terrible economic problem on your hands.”