Republic of Mining

Dozens of northern leaders to attend 2019 Vancouver mining conference – by Hilary Bird (CBC News North – Janaury 28, 2019)

January 29, 2019

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

6 out of 7 N.W.T. cabinet ministers will be attending the 4-day conference

Dozens of leaders from across the North are in Vancouver this week for one of the country’s largest mineral development conferences. The Association for Mineral Exploration’s 2019 Mineral Roundup begins Monday.

Six out of the seven Northwest Territories cabinet ministers will be attending the four-day conference, as well as several of their staff members.

Forty leaders from the territory’s Indigenous groups will also be in attendance. N.W.T. MLA Cory Vanthuyne will also be attending as the chair of the legislature’s Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment.

Brazil eyes management overhaul for Vale after dam disaster – by Gram Slattery (Reuters U.S. – January 28, 2019)

January 29, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

BRUMADINHO, Brazil (Reuters) – Brazil’s government weighed pushing for a management overhaul at iron ore miner Vale SA on Monday as grief over the hundreds feared killed by a dam burst turned into anger, with prosecutors, politicians and victims’ families calling for punishment.

By Monday night, firefighters in the state of Minas Gerais had confirmed that 65 people were killed by Friday’s disaster, when a burst tailings dam sent a torrent of sludge into the miner’s offices and the town of Brumadinho.

There were still 279 people unaccounted for, and officials said it was unlikely that any would be found alive. Brazil’s acting president, Hamilton Mourao, told reporters a government task force on the disaster response is looking at whether it could or should change Vale’s top management.

Former coal miner says Jan. 28 is anniversary of an economic homicide for Cape Breton – by Sharon Montgomery-Dupe (Cape Breton Post – January 28, 2019)

January 28, 2019

https://www.capebretonpost.com/

‘Like a drive-by shooting’

SYDNEY, NS — For some people, today might mark an anniversary or birthday, but for Steve Drake of New Waterford it signifies the “economic homicide” of Cape Breton. Drake said Jan. 28 marks the 20th anniversary of the death of the coal mines when then-Natural Resources Minister Ralph Goodale announced plans to privatize the coal mining industry on Jan. 28, 1999.

“They did it like a drive-by shooting,” Drake said. “I stood side by side with 200 coal miners and their families at the Delta Hotel in Sydney and shook my head as Minister Ralph Goodale hammered the final nail into the coffin of our beloved coal industry,” Drake said.

“The government handed out information kits like they were lottery tickets, like we had all won something.” The federal government’s announcement included plans to close Devco’s Phalen coal mine by the end of 2000 and sell the company’s Prince mine and other operations.

As gold sector consolidates, analysts see possible role for B2Gold – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – January 28, 2019)

January 28, 2019

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

With two of the biggest takeovers in the Canadian gold sector in a decade unveiled in the past few months, attention has turned to who might be next. Some analysts think it could be B2Gold Corp.

The Vancouver-based gold miner has posted sharply higher production and earnings in a sector where many companies have stumbled in pursuit of growth. In a little over a decade, the company has turned itself from a tiny explorer to close to a million-ounce-a-year producer.

B2Gold has done that primarily by making smart acquisitions and building its own mines, a rarity in an industry that typically outsources construction to an external engineering firm.

Column: A record-breaking year for China’s metals trade – by Andy Home (Reuters U.K. – January 28, 2019)

January 28, 2019

https://uk.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – Last year was one of the most interesting in a decade for China’s trade in base metals with multiple records broken both for imports and exports. The irony is that many key themes played out in the statistical darkness after China’s customs department suspended from March its traditional detailed monthly breakdown.

While some copper and aluminium insights could still be gleaned from customs’ continuing preliminary estimates, many other components of China’s metallic interaction with the rest of the world simply “disappeared”.

Partial light has since been restored thanks to the department’s new website and the forensic work of colleagues at Refinitiv. Here are some of the stand-outs in terms of what the markets largely missed at the time.

Bigger is looking better for gold miners in wake of megamergers – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – January 26, 2019)

January 28, 2019

https://business.financialpost.com/

With many gold companies struggling to raise equity in public markets, consolidation may become a way of life in the sector

Within the gold sector, few strategies attract as much public disdain from executives as merging with a rival simply to increase the number of ounces of yellow metal pulled out of the earth. At least one executive has compared it to a disease that infects the industry.

But with many gold companies struggling to raise equity in public markets — and with the Barrick-Randgold and Newmont-Goldcorp mergers resetting the scale of the industry — some executives are beginning to acknowledge that an increase in size by itself can carry quite a few benefits.

That has some industry watchers predicting a wave of combinations in 2019, as small single-asset companies and mid-tier producers vie to expand their access to capital, diversify their operational risks and gain greater visibility with investors.

Canada collects $839M in steel and aluminum tariffs, but aid for sector mostly unspent – by Janyce McGregor (CBC Politics – January 27, 2019)

January 28, 2019

https://www.cbc.ca/

Federal support from $2-billion aid package slow to pay out

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland told an interviewer in Davos this week that once the U.S. drops its steel and aluminum tariffs, Canada will too, “30 seconds later.”

Until that day comes, the extra taxation is pretty lucrative for the federal government. Finance Canada says $839 million was collected in the six months leading up to Dec. 31 from retaliatory tariffs on imported American steel, aluminum and other products.

Canada didn’t start this tariff spat, and from the prime minister on down every Canadian official says he or she wishes it would end. The tariffs on both sides of the border have disrupted supply chains and added extra costs for consumers and businesses across a wide range of industries.

New Dam Disaster Puts Vale CEO, Deals and Dividends Under Scrutiny – by Tatiana Bautzer (U.S. News.com – January 27, 2019)

January 28, 2019

https://www.usnews.com/

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – When Fabio Schvartsman took the reins of Vale SA in 2017, he suggested a motto for the world’s largest iron miner, turning the page on a tailings dam disaster that hit a small Brazilian town two years before: “Mariana, never again.”

That and many of Schvartsman’s other big promises look destined for the scrap heap. Four years later and some 100 km (60 miles) from Mariana, a breached Vale tailings dam on Friday unleashed a torrent of mud on another small Brazilian community, Brumadinho, leaving hundreds missing and presumed dead.

While the company’s focus so far has been on the human tragedy, analysts and shareholders have little doubt that Vale cannot continue on the track its CEO set.

Report from transportation watchdog probes commodity discrimination by rail – by Christopher Reynolds (Financial Post – January 26, 2019)

January 28, 2019

https://business.financialpost.com/

A preliminary report from the Canadian Transportation Agency appears to confirm shippers’ complaints about a relatively high number of restrictions on commodities they tried to move by rail through the Vancouver area.

Industry groups have accused Canada’s two largest rail companies of “discriminatory treatment” against some commodities, the report notes, highlighting the use of embargoes that temporarily stop traffic at specific loading points or interchanges.

Filed Thursday, the report is part of a CTA investigation launched on Jan. 14 following complaints from shipping associations about rail service in B.C.’s Lower Mainland over the past three months.

For some miners it was never say die – by T.W. Paterson (Cowichan Valley Citizen – January 26, 2019)

January 28, 2019

Cowichan Valley Citizen

For 12 years, single-handed, A.L. Marsh bored his way to bedrock. A miner’s lot, like that of a policeman, wasn’t an easy one in the so-called good old days. In an industry that’s known a thousand busts for every boom, countless dreams have been shattered in the quest for riches.

A prime example is that provided by A.L. Marsh, who invested 25 years of back-breaking work to prove his claim in the Okanagan’s Cherry Creek district. Gold Commissioner L. Norris, writing his annual report for 1913, described Marsh’s lonely battle against the odds. In so doing, he wrote an encapsulated history of the B.C. mining industry.

“Over the hill and east from the Monashee [Mine] mill-house lies the placer ground where A.L. Marsh drove, single-handed, 2,500 feet of tunnel in a vain attempt to reach bedrock in the bottom of the gulch. (To put this in context for the metrically corrupted, 2,500 feet is just short of half a mile! —TW.)

News Release: IAMGOLD Defers [Ontario] Côté Construction (January 28, 2019)

January 28, 2019

All monetary amounts are expressed in US dollars, unless otherwise indicated.

Toronto, Ontario–(Newsfile Corp. – January 28, 2019) – IAMGOLD Corporation (TSX: IMG) (“IAMGOLD” or the “Company”) today announced its decision not to proceed with construction of the Côté Gold Project (“Côté”) in Ontario.

“We are focused on creating superior shareholder value by allocating our capital to our best near- and long-term opportunities in a manner that is consistent with shareholder expectations, and with our goal of maintaining a strong balance sheet. We have substantially de-risked the Côté Gold Project, from both a technical and financial perspective, and believe in its potential to positively transform the Company. However, we have decided to wait for improved, and sustainable, market conditions in order to proceed with construction,” said IAMGOLD’s President and CEO, Steve Letwin.

IAMGOLD remains focused on our existing operations and on current initiatives and opportunities at Saramacca, Rosebel, Essakane, and Westwood. The Company will continue to advance engineering and permitting work at Côté, which it believes will add value. The Company has added value over the past several years by:

UPDATE 2-Brazilian despair turns to anger as toll from Vale dam disaster hits 60 – by Gram Slattery (Reuters Africa – January 28, 2019)

January 28, 2019

https://af.reuters.com/

BRUMADINHO, Brazil, Jan 28 (Reuters) – Grief over the hundreds of Brazilians feared killed in a mining disaster has quickly hardened into anger as victims’ families and politicians say iron ore miner Vale SA and regulators have learned nothing from the recent past.

By Monday, firefighters in the state of Minas Gerais had confirmed 60 people dead in Friday’s disaster, in which a tailings dam broke sending a torrent of sludge into the miner’s offices and the town of Brumadinho. Nearly 300 other people are unaccounted for, and officials said it was unlikely that any would be found alive.

Vale shares plummeted 17 percent in Monday trading on the Sao Paulo stock exchange, which had been closed on Friday. Brazil’s top prosecutor, Raquel Dodge, said the company should be held strongly responsible and criminally prosecuted. Executives could also be personally held responsible, she said.

Headwinds on horizon for Canadian mining, industry official warns – by Hayley Woodin (Business Vancouver – January 25, 2019)

January 28, 2019

https://biv.com/

The high-profile nature of Canada’s controversial Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project is hurting the country’s mining industry, says industry association president Pierre Gratton.

“That is casting a pall, a cloud over Canada as an investment destination,” said Gratton, president and CEO of the Mining Association of Canada. “We really need to get some resolution around Trans Mountain, get access to tidewater and move forward as a country thereafter, because it’s affecting the rest of the resource sector, I think, quite negatively.”

Gratton was the latest executive to tell Greater Vancouver Board of Trade members that Canada’s competitiveness on the world stage is slipping.

How the US lost the plot on rare earths – by Rick Rule (AheadoftheHerd.com – January 2019)

January 28, 2019

http://aheadoftheherd.com/

On Wednesday morning, a rocket blasted off from Blue Origin’s West Texas facility in West Texas, carrying eight NASA experiments into space with it. Climbing past an altitude of 350,000 feet (over 100 kilometers), the New Shepard rocket launched its capsule, from which the company founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos plans to conduct space tourism. Blue Origin tweeted that it plans to begin flying humans to space next year.

Those watching Wednesday’s launch probably assume that the parts for American rockets are made in the United States. While that may be true for space-travel companies like Space X, Blue Origin and Virgin, it isn’t for rockets sent skyward for national security missions, through something called the United Launch Alliance. These rockets are powered by Russian engines. Yes, you read that right.

Our Cold War enemy for 30-odd years, which ironically started the space race with the 1957 launch of Sputnik, all use RD-180 engines made by NPO Energomash, a Russian state-owned company.

Hundreds missing in Brazil, 34 found dead, after Vale dam burst – by Gram Slattery (Reuters U.S. – January 26, 2019)

January 27, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

BRUMADINHO, Brazil (Reuters) – Brazilian rescue workers halted searches for the night on Saturday for hundreds of people missing and feared dead under a sea of mud after a tailings dam burst at an iron ore mine owned by Vale SA, killing at least 34 people.

The dam ruptured on Friday, releasing a torrent of mining waste that slammed into Vale’s facilities and cut through a nearby community, leaving a roughly 150-meter-wide (500-foot-wide) wake of destruction stretching for miles (km).

The Minas Gerais state fire department, which gave the latest confirmed death toll, also said 23 people had been sent to hospitals. Some 250 people remained missing, according to a list released by Vale. All of those missing are Vale employees or contractors, a police spokesman said.