Republic of Mining

Acacia Mining says Barrick Gold offer doesn’t fairly value mining company – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – June 25, 2019)

June 25, 2019

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Acacia Mining PLC says Barrick Gold Corp.’s takeover proposal undervalues the company, prompting Acacia to push its biggest shareholder to table a “fair” bid.

Last month, Toronto-based Barrick said it was willing to acquire the 36.1 per cent of London-based Acacia that it doesn’t already own for US$285-million in stock. At the time, the proposal was worth roughly 9 per cent less than Acacia’s market value.

Barrick chief executive Mark Bristow told The Globe and Mail that the discounted proposal was justified because of the inherent risk Acacia presents: It operates three gold mines in Tanzania and is currently subject to a gold concentrate export ban in the East African country.

Glencore Cuts Out Agents and Dealmakers as Scrutiny Grows – by Jack Farchy and Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – June 25, 2019)

June 25, 2019

https://finance.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) — Glencore Plc is cutting out many of its intermediaries — the agents and dealmakers once essential to cracking the toughest markets — amid growing scrutiny of its operations around the world.

Under pressure from its compliance division, Glencore is dismantling much of its global network of trading agents, according to people familiar with the situation. To continue operating, the company is setting up teams in some countries, said the people, asking not to be named as the matter is private. In other places, Glencore is still using agents who pass strict compliance tests and have a clear role.

Glencore has long relied on intermediaries, who work on commission. The agents network with well-connected business and government officials in developing nations with the goal of securing commodity-trading deals. In a prospectus in 2003, for example, Glencore listed 64 field offices around the world, saying that included nine agents in eight countries “which act primarily for us.”

Why the global fossil-fuel phase-out is a fantasy akin to time travel – by Terence Corcoran (Financial Post – June 21, 2019)

June 25, 2019

https://business.financialpost.com/

To produce the power needed to offset fossil fuels, Canada would have to build two and a half $13-billion hydro dams every year

Judging from the headlines, Canada and the world are on track to ratchet up renewable energy and begin the rapid scale-down and ultimate phase-out of fossil fuels. Most energy analysts consider the fossil-fuel phase-out to be a scientific, economic and political fantasy, akin to levitation and time travel, but the movement keeps making news.

Governments everywhere — from Canada to the United Kingdom to states in Australia — are declaring climate emergencies and committing to variations on zero emissions. The international organization promoting emergency declarations claims “a fast transition to zero emissions is possible.”

Canada’s Green Party, said to be gaining ground, has a new platform plan, headlined “Mission: Possible,” to eliminate fossil fuels by 2050. A proposed Green New Deal in America aims to eliminate fossil fuels from the U.S. power grid by 2030 and phase gasoline out of the transportation sector.

NEWS RELEASE: VRIFY Partners With Kirkland Lake Gold to Launch the KL Gold Deal Room

June 25, 2019

VRIFY Deal Room from VRIFY Technology, Inc. on Vimeo.

TORONTO, June 24, 2019 /CNW/ – VRIFY Technology Inc. is pleased to announce it has entered into an agreement with Kirkland Lake Gold to launch the KL Gold Deal Room, a new online corporate development initiative that enhances the process of identifying and evaluating potential investment opportunities.

The initiative utilizes the VRIFY Deal Room platform, a cloud-based 3D presentation and collaboration technology that helps strategic investors and growth-oriented companies, like Kirkland Lake Gold, identify new opportunities to complement existing asset portfolios.

The launch of the KL Gold Deal Room supports Kirkland Lake Gold’s objective to deploy its capital and technical expertise to make new discoveries, develop new mines, secure future gold resources and continue to responsibly deliver value to its shareholders. Kirkland Lake Gold has outlined a simple set of criteria for assets which have the potential to complement its growth strategy and will consider possible strategic investments, joint ventures and M&A opportunities. Using the KL Gold Deal Room, companies with assets that require capital, and meet these criteria, are invited to make online submissions to the KL Gold Deal Room using one standardized format that can be accessed anywhere, anytime.

Mineweb: Anglo’s seen the future of mining, and it looks a lot like farming – by Ciaran Ryan (Money Web.com – June 24, 2019)

June 24, 2019

https://www.moneyweb.co.za/

The sector has to clean up its act while still making a profit – and it’s a race the group intends to win.

Addressing analysts in London recently, Anglo technical director Tony O’Neill outlined a vision of the future where mines will be similar to farms.

Virtually all mining activity, including the extraction of minerals, leaching and processing will take place below ground. Rock cutting will be done without vibration and only material of value will be brought to the surface. No more convoys of trucks or surface conveyor belts delivering material to the processing plant, no more mechanical shovels scarring the countryside.

On the surface, you may see green fields, cows, and perhaps a wind turbine or two and some solar panels. Surplus power generated by the mines will be supplied to local communities. Exploration will be done by satellite and minimal use made of water. Perhaps even no water at all.

Mineweb: Anglo American through the ages – by Ciaran Ryan (Money Web.com – June 13, 2019)

June 24, 2019

https://www.moneyweb.co.za/

It launched South Africa’s industrial age to support its mining activities, but since 2012 has halved the number of its assets. Where to now?

When the EFF’s Julius Malema talks of white minority capital, he is referring of course to Johann Rupert and the Oppenheimers for the most part. These are the families that helped build South Africa and, for better or worse, guided its political discourse in a direction favourable to their business interests.

Anglo American founder Ernest Oppenheimer would be hard put to recognise the group he founded in 1917. By the 1980s it accounted for a staggering 25% of SA’s GDP and owned an estimated 60% of the JSE – the result of an international embargo that forced SA companies to reinvest profits locally, turning the JSE into an incestuous and distended bubble.

The group that built its castle on diamonds and gold in southern Africa is now a very different animal. Since 2012, it has halved its number of assets, but now delivers 30% more product from each retained asset.

COLUMN-Boom-and-bust lithium market needs a pricing rethink – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – June 24, 2019)

June 24, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, June 24 (Reuters) – Albemarle Corp., the world’s largest lithium producer, is not impressed by the London Metal Exchange’s (LME) plans to launch a lithium contract.

“An exchange contract tends to support a commodity market, and that’s not what we believe this (lithium market) is,” David Ryan, the company’s head of corporate strategy and investor relations, told an industry conference in Chile earlier this month.

The conference was hosted by Fastmarkets, which has been chosen by the LME to provide the reference price for the new contract, but Albemarle won’t be contributing, for now at least. It and other established producers believe that lithium is a specialty chemicals market and should be priced on a contract-by-contract basis.

Soaring iron ore and gold prices boost WA’s economic outlook – by Frances Bell (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – June 24, 2019)

June 24, 2019

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

A predicted “mini gold rush” in Western Australia, combined with skyrocketing iron ore prices, is renewing optimism about the state’s long-subdued economy.

The price of gold in Australian dollars has reached a record high, hitting $2,000 an ounce for the first time last week. The precious metal also broke through $US1,400 ($2,014) an ounce for the first time in almost six years.

“Psychologically it’s a very important level to have broken through,” Katana Asset Management portfolio manager Romano Sala Tenna said. He said the price increase was fuelled by demand from central banks, which were buying gold as a store of value, as countries such as the US and China diluted their currencies.

Plummeting cobalt price takes toll on Democratic Republic of Congo – by Henry Sanderson (Financial Times – June 23, 2019)

June 24, 2019

https://www.ft.com/

Lubumbashi: The price of cobalt — a key metal in electric cars — has plummeted 65 per cent over the past year, putting a strain on the economy of the world’s largest producer, the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Economic growth in the DRC, one of the world’s poorest countries, is likely to fall to 4.3 per cent this year from 5.8 per cent in 2018 — in part due to lower cobalt prices, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The DRC produces more than 60 per cent of the world’s supply of cobalt, a metal that is used in lithium-ion batteries for smartphones and electric cars. Last year the country’s former president Joseph Kabila declared the metal “strategic” and launched new regulations that require miners to pay 10 per cent of their revenues on sales of the metal to the state.

France’s Eramet gives go-ahead to lithium project in Argentina (Reuters U.S. – June 24, 2019)

June 24, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

PARIS, June 24 (Reuters) – Eramet has approved the development of a lithium mine in Argentina as the French group pursues a shift towards minerals used to power electric vehicles to meet burgeoning demand.

The miner expects to invest 525 million euros ($597 million) in the Centenario deposit with the aim of producing 24,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent per year in a first phase that could start at the end of 2021, it said on Monday.

The estimates were in line with previous guidance given by the company earlier this year. A final investment decision would be made at the earliest in the fourth quarter of this year once financing has been obtained, it said in a statement.

Chinese Rare-Earth Magnet Producer to Expand as EV Demand Booms (Bloomberg News – June 23, 2019)

June 24, 2019

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Industries around the world producing a host of electrical appliances will increasingly be forced to compete for rare-earth magnets with China’s burgeoning market for new energy vehicles, according to one Beijing-based magnet producer.

Jingci Material Science Co. is expanding its production capacity of neodymium-iron-boron — NdFeB for short — magnet material to 8,000 tons by the end of the year, from about 6,500 tons currently, sales director Qiu Yi said on the sidelines of an industry conference in Shanghai last week. The eventual goal is to raise capacity to 12,000 tons, he said, without giving a time-frame.

The importance of rare earths, ubiquitous across a range of applications from consumer goods to military gear, has been thrust into the spotlight in recent weeks as China mulls whether to use its position as the world’s dominant supplier as a counter in its trade war with Washington.

OPINION: Nuclear power is the key to fighting climate change. So why don’t we embrace it? – by Dan Gardner (Globe and Mail – June 22, 2019)

June 24, 2019

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Dan Gardner is the author of Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear and a principal at Tactix, an Ottawa consultancy

One in three Canadians thinks nuclear power emits as much carbon dioxide as burning oil. Almost three in 10 think it emits more.

There are several reasons to marvel at these facts, which were uncovered by Abacus Data earlier this year. First, they’re spectacularly wrong. After construction, nuclear power is effectively zero-emission electricity, while oil is one of the leading causes of climate change.

Second, the fight against climate change is about replacing fossil fuels such as oil with the short list of zero-emission energy sources. And yet it seems most Canadians don’t know what’s on the list.

OPINION: Justin Trudeau’s climate mess – by Margaret Wente (Globe and Mail – June 22, 2019)

June 24, 2019

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

How’s this for incoherence? Last week the Parliamentary Budget Officer reported that Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax – his signature initiative on global warming – won’t be nearly high enough to make a difference.

To get people to change their carbon-hungry habits, the tax would eventually have to double from the $50 level it is scheduled to reach by 2022 (if the Liberals are still in power, that is).

The government immediately denied that it plans to do any such thing. “The price will not go up,” vowed Catherine McKenna, Mr. Trudeau’s earnest but preachy environment minister.

Lynas optimistic about rare earths boom (Australian Mining – June 24, 2019)

June 24, 2019

https://www.australianmining.com.au/

Lynas Corp has updated its 2025 growth plans, detailing a positive outlook on the rare earths market and regulatory issues in Malaysia.

The shareholder update emphasised the boom of rare earths in response to “global macroeconomic issues”, including the United States-China trade war that led to increased interest in Australian companies as the US looks to diversify supply sources.

It also reported that despite short term increases in the market, including prices for neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) increasing by 40 per cent over the past 60 days, the company “remains focussed on longer term trends.”

Scheer and Trudeau both continue their tiresome climate charades – by Rex Murphy (National Post – June 22, 2019)

June 24, 2019

https://nationalpost.com/

“Daddy, what did you do in the Climate War?” “Son, I carpooled twice a week, and (his voice breaks, a tear bleeds down his cheek) gave up stir sticks and plastic coffee lids.” Quoted from It was Hard: Tales from the Climate War (Patmos Publications, 2077).

It is a fiction and a delusion that Canada is in any way now or ever will be a significant influence, for good or ill, in the dreary, endless, pup-chasing-its-own-tail “fight against climate change.”

Canada’s leverage over the future climate of the entire planet is incidental and trivial. We are as a toothpick among redwoods. This is acknowledged. Were we to halt this country’s entire energy output, the race to eco-apocalypse that the doom-mongers say we’re on would not be slowed by a week. The coal mines of India and China would see to that.