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With deadline looming, charges recommended in Mount Polley mines disaster – by Justine Hunter (Globe and Mail – June 28, 2019)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A years-long investigation by multiple agencies into the largest mine-waste disaster in Canadian history has led to a recommendation for charges under the federal Fisheries Act.

With the five-year deadline for charges just weeks away, The Globe and Mail has learned joint task force on the 2014 tailings-pond breach at the Mount Polley mine in central British Columbia sent its recommendations to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada in early April. It is now up to the Crown to decide whether to approve the charges.

“The investigation of the Mount Polley pollution incident has been lengthy and complex. As the matter is now under charge assessment, there will be no further comment at this time,” Veronica Petro, a spokesperson for Environment Canada, said in a statement.

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A woman’s view of Inco – by Mia Jensen (Sudbury Star – June 29, 2019)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

In 1974, Inco started hiring women for the first time since the end of the Second World War. Cathy Mulroy, then 19, was the second woman in line for a job. Now, she’s written a book about her experiences.

Mulroy worked on the anode casting wheel in the copper refinery. Her job was to empty the molten metal arriving in hot cars from the smelter, into the furnace. It was hot, grimy work, but for Mulroy, the labour wasn’t the difficult part of her experience.

“Over the years, I was kind of a person who believed in people’s rights,” she says. “I was never quiet. So right off the bat, I started getting into trouble.”

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Why Japan and South Korea Still Spar Over History – by Youkyung Lee (July 1, 2019)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Japan’s colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula ended more than seven decades ago yet that legacy still roils everyday politics on both sides of the strait.

South Korea and Japan, major trading partners and both U.S. military allies, have been at loggerheads over what constitutes proper contrition and compensation for two groups of Koreans: those conscripted to work in factories and mines that supplied Japan’s imperial war machine, and those euphemistically called “comfort women” who were forced to work in military brothels.

Japan contends all claims were settled under a 1965 bilateral treaty and a fund set up in 2015. Seoul argues Japan hasn’t atoned enough. Some of Japan’s largest companies and the emperor himself have been dragged into the fray.

1. What are the roots of the forced labor dispute?

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Gold on six-year high, with observers predicting ‘multiyear bull market’ – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – July 1, 2019)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

After about three years of going nowhere, gold is once again the commodity du jour and some observers predict the rally is just getting going.

Since hitting a record high in late 2011 just shy of US$1,900 an ounce, gold has largely been out of favour among investors. As recently as August of last year, the precious metal was trading at US$1,170, almost 40 per cent below its peak.

But last week, gold futures hit a six-year high, driven on by expectations of interest-rate cuts and a weaker U.S. dollar. In the past month alone, gold has jumped 10 per cent, catapulting to more than US$1,400 an ounce.

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Redeveloping historic mines in South Korea – by Scarlett Evans (Mining Technology – July 1, 2019)

https://www.mining-technology.com/

Bluebird Merchant Ventures recently announced the progression of plans to develop the Kochang and Gubong mines in South Korea; two gold ore sites that last operated in the 1970s. Scarlett Evans spoke to Bluebird COO Charles Barclay about the process of reviving operations at these historic mines, and what the future of South Korean mining might look like.

The Asian-focused resource development group, in a joint venture with Australian exploration firm Southern Gold, has submitted applications for permits to develop the sites. The start of operations is awaiting feasibility reports, and Bluebird has voiced its confidence that production will begin during the fourth quarter of 2019.

Scarlett Evans (SE): What attracted you to these sites?

Charles Barclay (CB): After the Philippines became a virtual no-go area for mining for quite a few months, we had the opportunity to look at projects elsewhere with a group of professionals who wanted to open old mines.

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CORRECTED-Glencore’s Congo tragedy highlights security conundrum for miners – by Edward McAllister and Mitra Taj (Reuters Africa – June 30, 2019)

https://af.reuters.com/

DAKAR/LIMA, June 30 (Reuters) – The deaths of 43 illegal miners at a Glencore facility in Congo last week highlighted a growing challenge for mining companies struggling to secure sites from small-scale prospectors digging for cobalt, copper and other minerals.

Many mines span hundreds of square kilometers across rural terrains, a tantalizing prospect for illegal miners, also known as artisanal miners, who break into sites in search of metals, some of which end up in electric cars and other products.

But even as last Thursday’s tragedy ratcheted up pressure on companies to make changes to security and community outreach, industry consultants and analysts say the task will be difficult given the geographic constraints and economic challenges faced by the world’s estimated 40 million artisanal miners.

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Economy ‘booming,’ Bigger says – by Mary Katherine Keown (Sudbury Star – June 28, 2019)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

“We have the greatest concentration of hard-rock underground mining expertise in the world. All of this, as transportation and industry shifts from fossil fuels to battery-electric technologies that require nickel, copper, cobalt and lithium – all extracted from within our city and Northern Ontario.” Sudbury Mayor Brian Bigger.

Sudbury has a bright future, according to the  city’s mayor. During his fifth state of the city address Thursday, Brian Bigger praised the city he calls home and said others are starting to take note of local attributes.

“As the saying goes, ‘It’s all about the economy.’ But I say it’s all about the people. Cities and industries of the future are being built around expertise,” Bigger told a packed Caruso Club. “We have the greatest concentration of hard-rock underground mining expertise in the world.

All of this, as transportation and industry shifts from fossil fuels to battery-electric technologies that require nickel, copper, cobalt and lithium – all extracted from within our city and Northern Ontario.”

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Editorial: Global geopolitics sideswipe African uranium miners – by John Cumming (Northern Miner – June 18, 2019)

Northern Miner

The global uranium mining market in the 2010s took a hit from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011 — which cut global uranium demand some 10% for many years — and the simultaneous ramping up of low-cost uranium production out of Kazakhstan that has transformed the country into the world’s largest uranium producer.

Thanks to the massive devaluation of the Kazakhstan tenge currency in 2014 and 2015, the country is also easily the lowest-cost producer in the world, with its in-situ recovery mines operated by Kazatomprom and Uranium One dominating the first two quartiles of uranium mining costs globally in 2018.

With Kremlin-backed Russian interests heavily influencing Kazatomprom and Uranium One, and the Russian government striking numerous nuclear-energy cooperation deals in developing countries across the globe, it couldn’t be clearer that the global nuclear fuel cycle is increasingly controlled by Russia, with all its geopolitical implications for the rest of this century.

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Protesters oppose Minnesota mine at PolyMet AGM in Toronto (CBC News – June 26, 2019)

https://www.cbc.ca/

Groups say Canadian-owned copper-nickel mine is threat to water flowing into Lake Superior watershed

Human rights and environmental groups protested at the PolyMet annual general meeting Wednesday over a proposed copper-nickel mine recently approved in Minnesota, about 50 kilometres from the Canadian border.

Ottawa-based PolyMet has recently obtained final state permits to move ahead with construction of the NorthMet mining complex, which would have three new open pits, waste rock heaps, and a permanent tailings waste dump on a site in the St. Louis River watershed which drains into Lake Superior.

The activists are concerned over the risk of tailings spills which could harm a sensitive watershed, kill fish and affect Indigenous wild rice beds. Representatives from Amnesty International Canada are framing it as a rights issue, pointing to the Mount Polley mine disaster in B.C. when a dam failure sent toxic tailings into a watershed used by Indigenous people.

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Glencore to support First Cobalt’s refinery in Ontario – by Trish Saywell (Northern Miner – June 25, 2019)

Northern Miner

First Cobalt (TSXV: FCC; US-OTC: FTSSF) has taken a major step toward becoming the only producer of refined cobalt in North America.

The company, which plans to restart its hydrometallurgical cobalt refinery near Cobalt, Ont., has signed an agreement with Glencore (LON: GLEN) that will see the metals giant supply the junior’s refinery with cobalt feedstock.

Under a memorandum of understanding, Glencore will also provide a loan to cover the estimated cost of re-commissioning the refinery, and collaborate on its final flow-sheet design.

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India scrambles to look overseas for rare earths used in EVs – by Rosemay Marandi and Kiran Sharma (Nikkei Asian Review – June 27, 2019)

https://asia.nikkei.com/

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI — Three Indian state-run companies are forming a joint venture to secure minor metals such as lithium and cobalt that could fuel India’s plan for mass adoption of electric vehicles by 2030.

National Aluminum, Hindustan Copper and Mineral Exploration Corp. plan on exploring mines in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and other countries for metals used to produce EV batteries, besides building strategic reserves of tungsten, nickel and rare earths.

India’s efforts toward securing a supply of minor metals, experts say, is crucial at a time when China is threatening to restrict export of rare earths as part of its escalating trade war with the U.S.

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Four Corners Could See Uranium Mining Revival This Summer – by Nate Hegyi (KUER.org – June 25, 2019)

https://www.kuer.org/

The Trump administration may soon push for more uranium mining in the Colorado Plateau, arguing the mineral is critical for national security. The potential move prompted criticism from Democrats during a hearing of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources on Tuesday.

“Arbitrarily classifying uranium as a critical mineral and declaring it a matter of national security is just a way for the Trump administration to speed up new mine permitting and prop up the declining uranium mining industry,” said subcommittee chairman Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.).

In 2017, 93% of the uranium used by U.S. nuclear reactors was imported from foreign countries. In 2018, the U.S. Interior Department listed the mineral as one of 35 commodities that were deemed essential for the economic and national safety of the U.S.

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Is the Northern Cape the new mining boom province? – by Lisa Steyn (Business Live – June 27, 2019)

https://www.businesslive.co.za/

Historic mines in the mineral-rich Northern Cape have a new lease of life thanks to the rise of smarter technology

The dusty, sparsely populated Northern Cape may seem far removed from the notion of the fourth industrial revolution and the rapid technological advances that characterise it.

But the province, possibly more than any other in SA, has the potential for a mining boom in new-tech minerals: zinc, nickel, lead, copper and cobalt. These are key elements in the manufacture of smartphones, electric vehicles and renewable power systems.

And with healthy prices and a good outlook for base metals, and other minerals key to new technologies, a few companies are looking to revive and even expand the Northern Cape’s proven resources. These include smaller players like Orion Minerals (listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and the JSE) and Daphne Mashile-Nkosi’s Kalahari Resources, as well as big names like Kumba Iron Ore.

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Rare earths opportunity for PM – by Tony Boyd (Australian Financial Review – June 28, 2019)

https://www.afr.com/

Rare earths should be a topic of conversation when Prime Minister Scott Morrison has bilateral meetings with US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the G20 Summit in Osaka over the next two days.

A discussion about rare earths has two distinct advantages for Morrison. First, it’s an opportunity to remind Trump and Abe of the increasingly important economic contribution Australia is making to the reliable and affordable supply of these strategic minerals to the US and Japan through Lynas Corporation.

Second, it’s an opportunity to draw the alignment between the economic benefits of the free trade between the three countries and the mutual geopolitical interest the US and Japan have in securing supplies of products critical to the technology, automotive and military industries.

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Glencore Says 19 People Were Killed in Congo Mine Collapse – by William Cloves and Thomas Biesheuval (BNN/Bloomberg News – June 27, 2019)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Glencore Plc said 19 illegal miners were killed when part of a mine collapsed in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Glencore shares fell as much 8.3%. The workers entered the mine without permission and put their lives at risk by trespassing on the industrial site, which is one of the world’s biggest cobalt mines, according to a statement from the company on Thursday. A search and rescue operation is ongoing. The incident will not affect Glencore’s production.

Producers and authorities in Congo and other African countries face a constant struggle against illegal miners, who break into operational and shuttered mines to extract ore and don’t follow official safety procedures.

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