Twitter

Zimbabwe attracts two new investors to develop platinum mining projects (Reuters U.S. – April 17, 2019)

https://www.reuters.com/

MHONDORO-NGEZI, Zimbabwe (Reuters) – Zimbabwe will in coming weeks name two new investors who will develop separate platinum mining projects west of the capital as the country ramps up mining output in an attempt to ease a severe dollar shortage, the mines minister said on Wednesday

The southern African nation has the second largest platinum deposits after South Africa and hopes to transform its economy by boosting investment in the mining sector.

Winston Chitando said the two investors would be confirmed in the next few weeks, joining a sector where Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum already operate.

Read more

Mick Davis Moves Closer to Iron Ore Mining With Liberian Deal – by Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – April 18, 2019)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Mining dealmaker Mick Davis has won permission to export iron ore from a planned mine in West Africa, adding momentum to the industry veteran’s comeback.

Davis, through his new Niron Metals vehicle, has signed an agreement with Liberia that will allow him to use a rail and port to export iron ore from the mine that he’s seeking to build in neighboring Guinea, according to a statement.

The Zogota project, where mining giant Vale SA has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars, could be brought on quickly and relatively cheaply.

Read more

CLIMATE CHANGE THREATENS ICE ROADS. SATELLITES COULD HELP – by Nick Stockton (Wired Magazine – April 18, 2019)

https://www.wired.com/

FOR A FEW months each winter, Canada’s Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road is the world’s longest ice highway, a 300-plus-mile network of frozen lakes that connects lucrative diamond mines in Canada’s Northwest Territories to supplies from the nation’s not-quite-so-far north.

But warmer winters and earlier springs have shortened the road’s open season by up to two weeks over the past decade. The loss of the road for even such a short time is very expensive, because the only other way to reach these mines is by air.

Salvation may come from space. A Canadian researcher has demonstrated that radar emitted from satellites can peer through the ice, determining not just its thickness but also its quality. (Does it have a lot of bubbles?

Read more

How Bill C-69 could escalate regulatory costs until projects become unworkable – by Jack Mintz (Financial Post – April 18, 2019)

https://business.financialpost.com/

As the Senate continues its hearings on Bill C-69, it might be useful to focus on what is claimed to be the objective of the new environmental and regulatory approval act: A fairer, faster regulatory system.

Calgary’s National Energy Board will become a less-powerful Canadian Energy Regulator while an Ottawa-based body, the Impact Assessment Agency, will provide final advice to the government to determine whether a project is in the “public interest.”

The new legislation is ostensibly intended to reduce delays for federal approval of resource projects while providing greater political acceptability. It is hard to see how that will be case.

Read more

Majority of B2Gold’s mines outperform guidance in strong first quarter – by Nadine James (MiningWeekly.com – April 18,2019)

https://m.miningweekly.com/

SX-listed B2Gold exceeded its first-quarter production and sales guidance by 6%, producing 230 859 oz and selling 232 076 oz of gold.

The Fekola, Masbate, Otjikoto and El Limon mines all exceeded their targeted production, with the Mali-based Fekola and the Philippines-based Masbate mines, having produced 6% and 15% above guidance, respectively.

The consolidated gold revenue of $302-million generated for the sale of 232 076 oz of gold at an average price of $1 300/oz was lower than the $344-million in revenue generated from the sale of 259 837 oz at an average price of $1 325/oz in the first quarter of 2018.

Read more

EDITORIAL: Support mines that support Nunavummiut (Nunavut News – April 17, 2019)

Nunavut News

Whether you notice it or not in your daily life, all reports show a glittering economic forecast for Nunavut. Speaking at the Nunavut Mining Symposium, Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz noted that the territory is set for the strongest growth among all territories and provinces for 2019, at a rate of nine per cent.

“That’s pretty spectacular stuff,” Poloz said. “That’s not some fiction, that’s real.” Nunavut’s senior economist Francois Picotte piled on the good news, noting the territory will see very high growth for the next four years.

All of this is thanks to mining, which is becoming such an economic force in Nunavut that it will surpass even government in its weight in the territorial economy.

Read more

UPDATE 1-Liberia, Guinean iron venture sign outline export deal – by Barbara Lewis and Saliou Samb (Reuters Africa – April 18, 2019)

https://af.reuters.com/

LONDON/CONAKRY, April 18 (Reuters) – Liberia has signed an outline deal with a new venture set up to mine iron ore in Guinea to be shipped via Liberia, an export route the Guinean government has vetoed for the much larger Simandou project.

The Zogota iron ore project in Guinea is being developed by former Xstrata boss Mick Davis through his Niron Metals venture and marks a relaunch of his mining career.

Following a pledge on economic cooperation by the presidents of Guinea and Liberia at the start of the month in Dakar, an announcement on Thursday in London said the Liberian government and Niron Metals had signed a memorandum of understanding on the passage through Liberia of iron ore from the Zogota deposit.

Read more

U.S. shifts Cuba policy to allow lawsuits against foreign companies — and that includes Canadian firms – by Mike Blanchfield (Canadian Press/Financial Post – April 18, 2019)

https://business.financialpost.com/

OTTAWA — Canada and the European Union hit back Wednesday at the Trump administration’s decision to allow lawsuits against foreign companies connected to properties seized from American firms during the Cuban revolution, vowing to protect their businesses.

Canada and the EU pledged to work together in the World Trade Organization and ban the enforcement or recognition of American court orders against Canadian or European companies.

The landmark tightening of the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba’s communist government represents a major shift in U.S. foreign policy — one that could place Canadian mining, tourism and financial services companies at risk in American courts.

Read more

Report: Going 100% renewable power means a lot of dirty mining – by Naveena Sadasivam (Grist.org – April 17, 2019)

https://grist.org/

Click here for full report: https://bit.ly/2L2wGdd

For more than a decade, indigenous communities in Alaska have been fighting to prevent the mining of copper and gold at Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, home to the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery and a crucial source of sustenance.

The proposed mine, blocked under the Obama administration but inching forward under the Trump administration, has been billed by proponents as necessary to meet the growing demand for copper, which is used in wind turbines, batteries, and solar panels.

Similar stories are playing out in Norway, where the Sámi community is fighting a copper mine, and in Papua New Guinea, where a company has been mining the seabed for gold and copper.

Read more

What Jason Kenney’s election in Alberta means for Justin Trudeau – by John Ivison (National Post – April 18, 2019)

https://nationalpost.com/

I don’t think he [Trudeau] has the foggiest idea what’s
going on,” Kenney told a reporter in one particularly caustic
put-down. “This guy is an empty trust-fund millionaire who
has the political depth of a finger-bowl.”

Jason Kenney saved his vitriolic interventions in the Alberta election campaign for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rather than his opponent, NDP Premier Rachel Notley.

This made sense — political attacks rarely work when the target is more popular than source and many voters held Notley in greater esteem than Kenney.

But there was an edge to the United Conservative Party leader’s attacks on Trudeau that went beyond campaign strategy. The Liberal leader was citizenship and immigration critic while Kenney was the minister for the file in his early days in Stephen Harper’s government, and it would be fair to say Alberta’s premier-designate didn’t hold his counterpart in high regard.

Read more

Kenney’s resoluteness won Alberta. Trudeau’s hypocrisy helped Notley lose – by Rex Murphy (National Post – April 17, 2019)

https://nationalpost.com/

Anyone who’s surprised Jason Kenney won a majority government Tuesday night has either been asleep for a long while, or working in the Prime Minister’s Office. The indefatigable, persevering, and super-industrious Kenney is a miracle of political endurance. No ordinary politician could out-work Kenney even if supplied with a few spare clones.

There are many reasons why he won but let us establish right at the top that the first reason, and the one that fired all the rest of them, is that he works like the sun never sets, and that sunrise is just something that happens only long after he gets up.

Secondly, he knows what a job is. To be exactingly precise he knows what not having one means to normal everyday people. It is always annoying to listen to the bigheads who rabbit on about “transitioning to a non-carbon economy” of how glibly and disinterestedly they reference the tens and hundreds of thousands who will be displaced from their employment in oil, gas and coal industries.

Read more

Thunder Bay: Ring of Fire development to be ‘slow, contested’ if Far North Act replacement stands as-is, legal expert says – by Matt Prokopchuk (CBC News Thunder Bay – April 17,, 2019)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/

Province reviewing Far North Act to reduce ‘red tape’ over development

Ontario’s proposed revamping of legislation that dictates how development proceeds in the province’s far north doesn’t do enough to protect the rights of First Nations and will likely lead to “renewed conflict” with Indigenous communities, according to an environmental law expert.

That’s among the conclusions submitted by Dayna Scott, an associate professor at Osgoode Hall and a co-director of the law school’s environmental justice and sustainability clinic to the ongoing review of the Far North Act.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry is reviewing the 2010 legislation with an eye on repealing it, “with a view to reducing red tape and restrictions on important economic development projects in the far north.”

Read more

Why, and how, oil should be shipped in Canada’s Pacific waters – by Stewart Muir (Financial Post – April 17, 2019)

https://business.financialpost.com/

Opinion: Hundreds of billions in future investments and revenues are at risk of being switched off with the stroke of a pen if C-48 is passed as written

Parliament’s Upper House is considering the Trudeau government’s controversial tanker ban legislation that is meant to prevent large oil carriers from ever visiting any British Columbia port north of Vancouver Island.

A group of senators is touring the west to understand the issue firsthand. The Senate has been described as the chamber of “sober second thought.” It’s needed now more than ever.

It’s a good thing the parliamentarians decided to hit the road because the impact of the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act (Bill C-48) will be felt across the country.

Read more

The Rally in South African Mining Stocks Isn’t Done Yet – by Adelaide Changole (Bloomberg News – April 17, 2019)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

South African mining stocks have had their best start to the year since 2016 and there’s every chance they are not done yet. The FTSE/JSE Africa Mining Index has gained 22 percent as of April 16 and is close to an eight-year high, helping South Africa’s benchmark gauge advance 12 percent as investors show few signs of nerves before elections on May 8.

The benefits of iron-ore supply disruptions from Brazil to Australia that have crimped shipments and driven prices to the highest since 2014 are clear to see: Kumba Iron Ore Ltd. has jumped 67 percent this year and is among the main index’s biggest winners.

The financial windfall for companies from rising commodity prices looks set to preserve the sector’s allure for investors, said Matthew Shields, an analyst at Avior Capital Markets Ltd. in Johannesburg.

Read more

Hissing snakes and ‘predatory schemes’: How the fight for Hudbay Minerals descended into name-calling – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – April 17, 2019)

https://business.financialpost.com/

So far, investors appear to love the fight

The battle for the future of one of Canada’s oldest mining companies, Hudbay Minerals Inc., has spilled into the courtroom, and turned into a mud-slinging contest as the company and one of its largest shareholders lash out at each another.

So far, investors appear to love it: The company’s stock has nearly doubled in the past six months, soaring from $5.17 on Oct. 1 to $10.01 on the Toronto Stock Exchange near close on Tuesday.

That surge began the same day mining-focused private equity firm Waterton Global Resource Management, which controls 12 per cent of Hudbay’s shares and has been leading a campaign to replace most of the board and the chief executive, filed a lawsuit accusing the company of depicting it as “snakes” in a circular sent to other investors.

Read more