Republic of Mining

Brazilian state cancels Vale licenses at two mines in wake of disaster – by Ana Mano and Christian Plumb (Reuters U.S. – February 6, 2019)

February 7, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – The Brazilian state of Minas Gerais canceled Vale SA’s license to operate a dam at one of its largest mines, the company said on Wednesday, following the collapse of another dam in the state that killed an estimated 300 people.

Vale has come under intense public pressure since the Jan. 25 dam burst, with some politicians and prosecutors calling for criminal prosecution and a management shakeup, especially since it happened less than four years after another fatal dam burst in Minas Gerais.

Vale shares on Sao Paulo’s Bovespa exchange fell 4.9 percent to a seven-day low of 42.46 on Wednesday, while its U.S. traded ADRS slumped 6.2 percent.

Good Diamonds Are Hard to Find at World’s Richest Gem Mine – by Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – February 7, 2019)

February 7, 2019

https://www.bloomberg.com/

The Letseng diamond mine in Lesotho is renowned for unearthing some of the world’s most valuable gems, but it didn’t find many last quarter.

The average price of diamonds found was just $1,259 per carat in the fourth quarter, almost half the value for the full year, according to Gem Diamonds Ltd., which runs the mine. While that’s still the highest in the industry, it shows that the mine had a significant drop in finding the most precious stones.

Producing diamonds that are profitable to mine is a problem throughout the industry. Prices for the smallest and cheapest gems are falling because of too much supply and that’s shrinking profits for mining companies.

Nornickel promises halt in death clouds – by Atle Staalesen (The Barents Observer – February 7, 2019)

February 7, 2019

https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/

Poisonous air on 25th January rolled over the border and into the Norwegian settlement of Svanvik where local authorities quickly recommended people to stay indoor. It was another day with heavy emissions from the melters in Nikel, the nearby company town of mining and metallurgy giant Norilsk Nickel.

The company that same evening decided to temporary reduce production in a bid to curb emissions.

«After we got the information about the unfavourable weather conditions we introduced limitations in the technological regime of the melter in Nikel, even down to a halt in the feeding of raw materials to the furnaces,» says Yevgeny Bozenko, general director of Kola MMC, the regional subsidiary of Nornickel.

On Bill C-69, Alberta forced to seek salvation in the Senate – by Don Braid (Calgary Herald – February 6, 2019)

February 7, 2019

https://calgaryherald.com/

It’s frightening to realize that beginning Wednesday, Alberta’s economic future lies in the hands of — gulp! — the Senate of Canada. Senate hearings start into the Liberal government’s Bill C-69, which threatens the prospect of any major pipeline construction in Canada, ever again.

During an in camera session Tuesday, the Senate’s committee on energy, the environment and natural resources agreed to hold public hearings in every region of Canada.

“I see this as very positive,” says Alberta Sen. Doug Black, who has long pushed for travelling hearings. He expects the committee to hear bitter opposition to C-69 from coast to coast to coast.

The lithium boom is over and only one Canadian company is poised to emerge with a new mine – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – February 7, 2019)

February 7, 2019

https://business.financialpost.com/

Nemaska arranged a $1-billion financing to build a Quebec mine in the nick of time, while massive share price declines put other explorers’ projects out of reach

For a brief window of time, after Nemaska Lithium Inc.’s cafeteria went up in flames last week and the company halted construction of its mine in Quebec, questions swirled about what would happen next.

By Thursday, however, Nemaska’s workers were eating in a new cafeteria, operations resumed and the company’s investors were hardly burned — its stock barely down and trading at 60 cents — compared to everyone else in the lithium market.

Lithium — a key component in the batteries used in electric vehicles — started 2018 on a high note as prices for the metal drove investments in dozens of junior explorers.

Cannabis craze weeds out junior mining field – by Joe Bavier and Barbara Lewis (Reuters Canada – February 7, 2019)

February 7, 2019

https://ca.reuters.com/

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – A boom in cannabis investment is siphoning capital away from mining and hitting junior miners hardest, forcing them to up their game and potentially improving the quality of projects in a sector long rife with cowboy speculators.

Canada’s relaxation of cannabis laws culminated in legalization for recreational use in October. Other jurisdictions are following suit or liberalizing their laws on medical or health use, creating an industry that has lured a breed of high-risk, high-return investors.

The world’s top three listed cannabis companies – Canopy Growth, Tilray and Aurora Cannabis – have a combined market value of around $30 billion. And consumers are expected to spend over $7 billion on cannabis products in Canada alone this year, according to Deloitte.

[Philippines Mining] Researcher touts mine site rehab using microbes (Business World – February 7, 2019)

February 7, 2019

https://www.bworldonline.com/

THE National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP) proposed on Thursday to rehabilitate degraded mining sites by deploying microbes into the soil, a process called bioremediation.

“There are 50 active metallic mines that will surely become mined out or (contaminated with) mine tailings if there is no responsible mining. That means we will have more abandoned mines,” according to Dr. Nelly S. Aggangan, lead researcher of a study commissioned by the NRCP.

Ms. Aggangan was presenting her 2017 study, “Greening Mined-out Areas in the Philippines,” during the NRCP-Legislative Scientific Forum for Policy Development.

Surging Iron Ore Prices Will Hurt China’s Economy While Benefiting Australia And Brazil – by Jim Collins (Forbes Magazine – February 6, 2019)

February 7, 2019

https://www.forbes.com/

As we enter the Year of the Pig in the Chinese calendar, the performance of iron ore has been, well, piggish of late. Coal and iron ore are the two key ingredients in the production of steel in the Bessemer process. As popular as Alibaba, Tencent’s WeChat, iQiyi and countless other Chinese apps may be, steel production is still the best determinant of the health of the Chinese economy.

Chinese government estimates place 2018 steel output at 923 million tonnes, an 11% increase over 2017’s figure. October’s output of 82.552 million tonnes reflected an all-time record for the Chinese economy.

So, all those out-of-context, sentiment-based data points that seem to be showing a slowdown in the Chinese economy–PMI data for example–really are giving a false positive for the all-important “China’s economy is slowing” narrative that so many market observers in the U.S. love to push.

Bolivia picks Chinese partner for $2.3 billion lithium projects – by Daniel Ramos (Reuters U.S. – February 6, 2019)

February 7, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

LA PAZ (Reuters) – Bolivia has chosen a Chinese consortium to be its strategic partner on new $2.3 billion lithium projects, the government said on Wednesday, giving China a potential foothold in the country’s huge untapped reserves of the prized electric battery metal.

China’s Xinjiang TBEA Group Co Ltd will hold a 49 percent stake in a planned joint venture with Bolivia’s state lithium company YLB, the Bolivian firm said. Together, the companies will seek to produce lithium and other materials from the Coipasa and Pastos Grandes salt flats.

Bolivia estimates that development of the projects will cost at least $2.3 billion. The Chinese firm will provide initial investment and YLB will pay its share with future lithium production, YLB’s executive manager Juan Carlos Montenegro said by phone.

Sudbury conference imagines mining with no tailings or blasting – by Donald Macdonald (Sudbury Star – February 7, 2019)

February 7, 2019

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Sudburians are used to feeling the shudders from underground blasting and seeing the night sky lit up from slag, but mines of the future could be much more subtle and efficient.

“One of the things we’re looking at is mining with no tailings,” said Carl Weatherell, executive director of the Canada Mining Innovation Council, at the Beyond Digital Transformation conference on Wednesday.

As well, companies are exploring how to “get rid of drill and blast,” he said, which apart from being dangerous is “perhaps not the most effective way to break rock and is not creating value.”

Sudbury’s CEMI signs mining deal with university in Peru – by Staff (Sudbury Star – February 7, 2019)

February 7, 2019

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

The Sudbury-based Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation has signed an agreement with university in Peru to develop and promote mine innovation.

Moises Ronald Vázquez Caicedo Ayras, president at the Universidad Nacional del Centro del Perú (UNCP), and Douglas Morrison, president and CEO of the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI), said in a release they have signed a memorandum of understanding.

The deal is “a first step in developing a partnership to advance mining innovation programs that include technology and knowledge transfer, demonstration projects, skills development for students, faculty and professionals.

Billionaire Robert Friedland Plans World’s No. 2 Copper Mine – by William Clowes and Dylan Griffiths (Bloomberg News – February 6, 2019)

February 6, 2019

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Billionaire investor Robert Friedland said the copper deposit Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. is developing in the Democratic Republic of Congo has the potential to become the world’s No. 2 mine for the metal.

“Kamoa-Kakula will become the world’s second-largest copper mine with peak annual production of more than 700,000 tons of copper metal,” Ivanhoe founder Friedland said Wednesday at a mining conference in Cape Town.

Friedland announced the findings of an independent pre-feasibility study after Ivanhoe invested $800 million in exploration and development. The capacity of the project’s first phase, producing 6 million tons of ore a year, could later be tripled, the company said. Initial mine grades will average 6.8 percent copper, with production expected to start in 2021.

U.S. Loosing Global Battery Arms Race that is Critically Dependent on Nickel, Cobalt and Lithium – by Simon Moores (Benchmark Mineral Intelligence – February 5, 2019)

February 6, 2019

Written Testimony of Simon Moores, Managing Director, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence
For: US Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Committee
Hearing: Tuesday, February 5 2019, at 10:00a.m. Room 366, Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, DC.
Subject: Outlook for energy and minerals markets in the 116th Congress.

We are in the midst of a global battery arms race in which the US is presently a bystander.

Since my last testimony only 14 months ago, we have reached a new gear in this energy storage revolution which is now having a profound impact on supply chains and the raw materials that fuel it.

The advent of electric vehicles (EVs) and the emergence of battery energy storage has sparked a wave of lithium ion battery megafactories being built.

RPT-COLUMN-Vale disaster makes miners’ image problem worse – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – February 6, 2019)

February 6, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/

CAPE TOWN, Feb 6 (Reuters) – The response to the horrendous dam collapse at a mine owned by Brazil’s Vale has focused on iron ore prices and how a disaster that will likely claim more than 300 lives occurred, and what must be done to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

These are valid concerns, but the risk of focusing on the immediate issues is that the much larger problems of the mining industry are once again glossed over. Namely that miners aren’t trusted and suffer from a serious image problem.

It may seem somewhat trivial to talk about image in the face of such a human tragedy, but mining’s poor image across a range of stakeholders is the major issue for the industry.

NEWS RELEASE: [Documentary] The Shadow of Gold explores the dark side of the world’s most precious metal (January 19, 2019)

February 6, 2019

Do you know where the gold in your ring comes from?

TORONTO (January 30, 2019) – The Shadow of Gold pulls back the curtain on the world’s most coveted heavy metal. Filmed in Canada (Mount Polley, BC), the U.S., London, Dubai, China, Peru and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the feature film is an incisive global investigation of the gold trade, from raw material to market, exposing its impact on human lives, the economy and the planet.

An international Canada-France co-production by award-winning filmmakers Robert Lang (Canada), Denis Delestrac (France) and Sally Blake (France), The Shadow of Gold makes its world premiere at Toronto’s Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema on February 22, followed by screenings in Ottawa (February 27), Vancouver (March 11), Calgary (March 20), Montreal (March 26) and Halifax (Date TBA).

The film will make its broadcast premiere as a two-part documentary with expanded content in back-to-back episodes March 13 at 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. on TVO, and March 28 at 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Canal D (Canada). Additional broadcasts on Knowledge Network (BC) – date to be announced, ARTE (France, Germany), SVT (Sweden) and NRK (Norway).