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New play explores Sudbury’s labour strife – by Mia Jensen (Sudbury Star – June 20, 2019)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Conversations around a kitchen table are a common experience, but playwright Rick Duthie believes that in Sudbury, something has been missing from the discussion.

Duthie’s new play, One Day Stronger, explores Sudbury’s labour history from the perspective of Laurie, anchored to her kitchen table, who relives her childhood memories from the 1958 Inco strike to her present, at the end of the 1978 Inco strike.

With more than 20,000 people on strike in a city of just 75,000, the post-war Inco strikes were a time of tension, disunity, and emotional exhaustion. Duthie’s play explores these events from the intimate perspective of a family, and a girl at two different points in her life.

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Column: Australian resource companies are becoming renewable energy believers – by Clyde Russell (Reuters India – June 20, 2019)

https://in.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia (Reuters) – It’s not quite yet a flood but Australian resource companies are increasingly embracing renewable energies into their mining and natural gas operations even in the face of a federal government that veers toward climate scepticism.

Among recent developments are moves by Rio Tinto to convert its iron ore trains to hybrid power, the commissioning of a solar power plant at an oil and gas facility operated by Santos in South Australia state, and battery storage being integrated into ConocoPhillips’ liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Darwin.

There are several other projects being undertaken or in place already, and it seems that momentum is growing among companies to look at ways of reducing the use of fossil fuels in mining and oil and gas operations.

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Back in Time: Striking it rich at Flin Flon’s first mine – by Craig Baird (Flin Flon Reminder – June 19, 2019)

https://www.thereminder.ca/

The origins of Mandy Mine involve two men who were working as railroad builders by Hudson Bay. They decided that they wanted to take their own prospecting trip along Grassy River and see what was there. They had some knowledge of the area thanks to earlier surveyors, but they wanted to see it for themselves.

Fred Jackson and Sidney Reynolds decided to take the trip in the autumn of 1915 and see what they could find. Luck was on their side as they decided to camp on top of a 35-foot wide lens of solid chalcopyrite.

Over the next few months, the were able to pull out 22 to 28 per cent copper, which contained $3.60 worth of gold per ton, along with about nine to 16 ounces of silver. For every $1,000 they spent drilling into the find, $1.25 million in ore was brought out. It was pay dirt for the two men.

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[Manitoba Flin Flon – Snow Lake Greenstone Belt] Rockcliff Metals Wins a Financing Lottery! – by Stan Sudol (June 19, 2019)

Rockcliff Metals founder, Ken Lapierre, holding rich core samples from Manitoba’s Flin Flon – Snow Lake greenstone belt.

At Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) 2018 mining convention, Rockcliff Metals was a typical struggling junior with a great land package in the lesser known but geologically-rich Flin Flon – Snow Lake (FF-SL) greenstone belt with eight high-grade VMS base-metal deposits and five promising lode-gold properties.

It was starting out to be a tough year and unfortunately an even rougher start the week before the convention when Rockcliff CEO Ken Lapierre slipped on the freshly fallen snow, when he was taking out the garbage. Not thinking much about his sore ankle, the six-foot, three inch, former hockey playing, karate practising jock, started shoveling the driveway. Twelve hours later, the swelling and pain in his left ankle demanded a trip to the doctor where he learned that it was broken and that he had torn all the soft tissue.

For the entire PDAC convention, the largest and most important in the world, for juniors to meet potential future investors and current shareholders and financiers, Lapierre had to use a knee walker that resembled a scooter to get around, along with a substantial amount of painkillers.

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Sudbury: Vale opens the books on Sudbury tailings dams following collapse in Brazil (CBC News Sudbury – June 19, 2019)

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

Mining giant releases report detailing its dozens of tailings dams in the Sudbury basin

Vale says it is currently doing work to stabilize some of its tailings dams in Sudbury, but stresses that there is no risk to the public.

The company this month released a report on the state of its dams around the world that it says was asked for by a large group of investors represented by the Church of England, following the collapse of a Vale dam in Brazil in January that killed 270 people.

The report includes dozens of dams that Vale manages in the Sudbury basin to hold mining waste, some dating back to 1929.

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COLUMN-United States aims to reshape the critical minerals world – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – June 19, 2019)

https://www.reuters.com/

China’s growing control of metals at the heart of the electric
transport revolution such as lithium and cobalt represents a
second front in the looming raw materials war.

LONDON, June 19 (Reuters) – The United States has laid out its strategy to rebuild collapsed domestic supply chains for metals and minerals deemed “critical” to its defence and manufacturing sectors.

“A Federal Strategy to Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals”, released earlier this month by the Department of Commerce, includes 61 recommendations, ranging from revamping mine permitting rules to stimulating recycling activities to forging alliances with “friendly” suppliers such as Canada and Australia.

This is very much work in progress. It’s only last year that the United States decided on what exactly constitutes a “critical” mineral. But added urgency has come from China’s veiled threats to use its dominance of rare earths production as a weapon in the broader trade stand-off with the Trump Administration.

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The Biggest Winner From a Rise in Precious Metals – by Adelaide Changole (Bloomberg News – June 19, 2019)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

The world’s best-performing precious-metals stock is up almost 90% this year, and there are signs the rally could run even further.

Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. has outpaced 87 global peers with a market value of at least $1 billion in 2019, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The South African miner has benefited from surging palladium and rhodium prices, along with any weakness in the local currency, which bolsters its income from sales of dollar-based metals.

“The rally in palladium has been a big contributor,” coupled with a weaker rand, said Henre Herselman, a derivatives trader at Johannesburg-based Anchor Private Clients. Palladium, up 60% since August, makes a 30% contribution to Impala’s earnings, he said. The rand has dropped 5.4% against the dollar in 12 months.

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NEWS RELEASE: Trump Administration Announces Strategy to Strengthen America’s Economy, Defense (U.S. Department of the Interior – June 4, 2019)

For the full report: https://bit.ly/2MMmLcC

Interior to Support Critical Minerals Strategy through Faster Permitting, Better Information, Nationwide Examination of Minerals Potential

WASHINGTON – Today, the Trump Administration released, “A Federal Strategy to Ensure a Reliable Supply of Critical Minerals,” to make America’s economy and defense more secure. The strategy directs the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) to locate domestic supplies of those minerals, ensure access to information necessary for the study and production of minerals, and expedite permitting for minerals projects.

“Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, today’s federal strategy lays out a blueprint for America to once again be a leader in the critical minerals sector,” said Secretary David Bernhardt.

“As with our energy security, the Trump Administration is dedicated to ensuring that we are never held hostage to foreign powers for the natural resources critical to our national security and economic growth. The Department will work expeditiously to implement the President’s strategy from streamlining the permitting process to locating domestic supplies of minerals.”

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‘The future is nickel’: Cobalt 27 sells off its namesake metal after tough year – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – June 18, 2019)

https://business.financialpost.com/

Toronto-based Cobalt 27 Capital Corp. is selling out at a low point for its namesake metal, a crucial component in the lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles and other devices.

The company, which stockpiles and streams cobalt, on Tuesday announced a $510-million deal that splits the company along cobalt and nickel asset lines.

Its largest shareholder, Swiss private-equity firm Pala Investment Ltd., which owns more than 19 per cent, will pay $3.57 cash per share for the company’s cobalt assets. The rest of the shareholders will also receive equity in a new company that retains the company’s nickel assets plus $5 million in cash.

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Liberal government approves $9.3B Trans Mountain expansion project, but critics say it’s too little too late – by Jesse Snyder (National Post – June 19, 2019)

https://nationalpost.com/

Criticism of the Trudeau Liberals shifted on Tuesday toward whether the publicly-owned project will now meet its tight construction schedule

OTTAWA — The federal government has announced it is moving ahead with the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, ending months of speculation over the development and offering some relief to the embattled oil and gas sector amid a years-long pipeline bottleneck.

“We have been assured by the company that their plan is to start construction this summer,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said of Trans Mountain Tuesday, just after his cabinet re-approved the project. “There is still a number of immediate steps to do in terms of permitting, but the pipeline is to have shovels in the ground this summer.”

The government did not provide an updated timeline on Tuesday, but past estimates suggest the project could be completed around 2022 or 2023. Trans Mountain Corporation, the Crown corporation building the project, still needs to secure a number of regulatory permits before the expansion can be entirely completed, including certain permits for railway crossings and species protections.

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Chile’s Codelco seeks to defuse strike after miners clash with police – by Fabian Cambero (Reuters U.K. – June 18, 2019)

https://uk.reuters.com/

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Chilean miner Codelco sweetened its contract offer to workers on Tuesday in a bid to defuse rising tensions after miners striking at its giant Chuquicamata copper mine were involved in clashes with police earlier in the day.

Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas early on Tuesday as workers at the mine tried to block access to the site operated by state-owned Codelco, the world’s largest copper miner.

Codelco said in a statement it had made a new “serious, responsible and realistic” offer to workers to try to end the strike, now in its fifth day. The offer included an important element related to improving workers’ retirements plans.

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Trump’s Biggest Move to End the ‘War on Coal’ Won’t Rescue the Industry – by Jennifer A Dlouhy (Bloomberg News – June 19, 2019)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

President Donald Trump is scaling back sweeping Obama-era curbs on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants burning coal, his biggest step yet to fulfill his campaign promise to stop a “war” on the fossil fuel.

Yet the Environmental Protection Agency’s rewrite of the Clean Power Plan, unveiled Wednesday in Washington, will do little to halt a nationwide shift away from coal and toward cheaper electricity generated by the wind, the sun and natural gas.

The U.S. is experiencing “a wave of coal retirements — and we don’t think we’re near the end of it,” said Nicholas Steckler, head of U.S. power for BloombergNEF. “Coal is inferior to natural gas in many ways today — it’s less flexible, it’s higher cost, even its fuel is generally more expensive, and, of course, it’s dirty. It has so many reasons stacked against it.”

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Trans Mountain approval a high wire act on which Trudeau is staking his future – by John Ivison (National Post – June 19, 2019)

https://nationalpost.com/

The accusation that climate leaders don’t build pipelines stings and Trudeau is a reluctant proponent of Canadian crude

The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion lives — at least until the next court challenge. Justin Trudeau was flanked by his most senior cabinet ministers as he announced his government has approved TMX, the twinning of the pipeline between Alberta and British Columbia.

The project, which was blocked last year by the Federal Court of Appeal, is back. Trudeau said the government acted on the court’s directive, ordering the National Energy Board to examine the impact TMX could have on the marine environment and redoubling efforts to consult with Indigenous communities.

Last October, the government re-launched those consultations, under the direction of former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci, and eventually concluded that Canada had met its duty to consult.

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British Columbia: Canadian mining company liable for pollution flowing from Kootenays to U.S. – by Bob Keating (CBC News British Columbia – June 18, 2019)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/

Top U.S. court denies Teck’s appeal; miner now on the hook for legal costs, cleanup

Vancouver-based mining giant Teck has run out of appeals after polluting the Columbia River and Lake Roosevelt in Washington State for decades from its huge lead-zinc smelter in Trail, B.C.

The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear Teck’s appeal of the case brought by the Colville Confederated Tribes (CCT) in Washington State. The CCT successfully argued Teck used the Columbia River in southeastern B.C. as a “convenient disposal facility for its wastes.”

“This is a battle that the Colville Tribes has been fighting for at least 20 years,” said CCT Chairman Rodney Cawston. The Supreme Court’s decision to not hear Teck’s appeal leaves a previous ruling in place, awarding over $8 million in legal costs to the tribes. It also makes Teck responsible for cleaning up the damage from decades of pollution.

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Reporters investigated abuse and corruption at a Barrick gold mine in Tanzania. They faced threats and censorship – by Marion Guégan and Cécile Schilis-Gallego (Toronto Star – June 19, 2019)

https://www.thestar.com/

In Tanzania, reporters trying to investigate violence, environmental damage and other wrongdoing connected to a gold mine in the north of the country are trapped between the silence of a mining giant and the lies of a repressive government.

At least a dozen reporters — local and international — who wrote about the mine have been censored or threatened. Forbidden Stories, an international consortium of 40 journalists publishing in 30 media organizations around the world, unveiled the shameful history of gold leaving the North Mara gold mine to end up in coveted high tech phones and computers.

This is part of the “Green Blood” series, a project pursuing stories of journalists who have been threatened, jailed or killed while investigating environmental issues.

“Truly innovative products leave their mark on the world instead of the planet,” Apple proudly claims on its website. “We are building a better world for future generations,” says Canon’s CEO. Nokia’s “technology improves lives.”

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