Republic of Mining

MLA Steven Fletcher: Don’t create national park on Thompson Nickel Belt extension (Northern Miner – December 2017)

January 4, 2018

Northern Miner

The following is an edited transcript of Steven Fletcher — Independent Member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba for Assiniboia and a Conservative Member of the Canadian Parliament from 2004–15 — speaking in the Manitoba Assembly on Nov. 9 on the subject of a proposal to establish a national park overtop an extension of the Thompson nickel belt.

This is an issue of urgency and of public importance. The federal Liberal government announced, in their 2017 budget, plans for a national park. Though we are all supportive of parks, it’s very important where the parks are located.

The federal government announced it, apparently without consulting anyone — First Nations communities, not sure if they consulted the provincial government or not. If they did, the provincial government should have said no. And if they didn’t, the provincial government should have said no immediately after the announcement.

Plug in to underground digital innovation: PACE hosting inaugural conference aimed purely at digital future of mines – by Karen McKinley (Northern Ontario Business – December 29, 2017)

January 4, 2018

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Digital technology is part of so many aspects of life, yet there is little talk over the radical changes it is making in the mining industry. To help bring awareness to this phenomenon, and bring digital mining companies together in one place, Partners in Achieving Change Excellence (PACE) is hosting Beyond Digital Transformation, Feb. 1 at the United Steelworkers Hall in Sudbury to discuss how mining companies from around the world see the future of digital technology in their industry.

“The conference is really for anyone who wants to plug into where the mines are going from a digital transformation perspective,” said Neha Singh, the “change guru” and project manager at PACE.

And by digital transformation, she said they are looking at how companies and individual mines are using technology. She said the mining industry is a great example of a sector that hasn’t consistently embraced digital innovation underground for various reasons, including connectivity.

Feds jump into transboundary mining dispute – by Ed Schoenfeld (Coast Alaska News – December 29, 2017)

January 4, 2018

Coast Alaska News

The federal government is taking on the transboundary mining issue. The U.S. State Department now acknowledges Alaskans’ concerns about pollution from British Columbia mines. And it’s committed to engaging Canadian officials to protect salmon-rich, cross-boundary watersheds.

In November, the State Department issued a statement saying it was aware of Alaskans’ environmental concerns. And it said it was raising the issue with its Canadian counterparts. But details were scarce.

Then, the department sent a letter to Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott, who released it Dec. 28. He’s headed up the administration’s efforts to address potential pollution from mineral prospects across the border in British Columbia.

Recent burst in mining and metals IPOs expected to fade in 2018 – by Niall McGhee (Globe and Mail – January 1, 2018)

January 4, 2018

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

While 2017 saw a revival of initial public offerings in Canadian mining and metals, investment bankers aren’t optimistic that IPO activity will be as brisk in 2018.

“It doesn’t feel like there is a very long list of companies waiting to IPO,” said Michael Faralla, head of global mining with TD Securities Inc.

Mr. Faralla cited the current lukewarm market for secondary mining-equity issues, which went off the boil in the second half of the year. The secondary market acts as a leading indicator for demand for shares in new public companies. “There were fewer deals and I think they struggled,” he added.

[Australia Mining History] French nuclear test tensions threatened Olympic Dam expansion plans, declassified Cabinet documents reveal – by Peter Jean (The Advertiser – December 31, 2017)

January 4, 2018

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/

IT WAS a government destined to be swept from power at the 1996 election. Prime Minister Paul Keating was focused on the Working Nation program to kickstart the economy and negotiating a defence treaty with Indonesia. Other issues — including public outrage over French nuclear testing in the South Pacific — became thorns in the Government’s side.

THE FRENCH NUCLEAR TESTING

KANGAROO meat and other exports to Europe could be jeopardised if Australia took a hard line against French nuclear testing in the South Pacific, the Keating cabinet feared in 1995. A ban on uranium exports to France could also have put at risk a potential $1 billion expansion of South Australia’s Olympic Dam.

The resumption of underground nuclear testing in French Polynesia sparked boycotts of French businesses in Australia and plunged the Labor government into a diplomatic and political crisis.

These Are The 3 Companies Brent Cook & Joe Mazumdar Like In 2018 – by Neils Christensen (Kitco News – December 29, 2017)

January 4, 2018

http://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – Known as a fan favorite, the Expert Series brings together well-known investors and Kitco regulars to find out where they will be putting their money in 2018.

This year, in a new twist to the feature Kitco News has asked some of the most influential mining sector newsletter writers how they would invest $100K in the mining sector.

While the mining sector has struggled to maintain momentum, 2017 has been anything but boring with new assets like cryptocurrencies making waves in financial markets. What does 2018 have in store? Check out what the mining experts have to say! Experts: Brent Cook & Joe Mazumdar – Claim to Fame: creator and co-editor of Exploration Insights

City hopes to tie leash on Noront plant in 2018 – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – December 30, 2017)

January 4, 2018

http://www.timminspress.com/

TIMMINS – With Timmins making a hard push to convince Noront Resources to locate its ferrochrome production facility here, 2018 is shaping up to be a potentially significant year for this city.

“When you look at the Ring of Fire and Noront, there is probably no more crucial time to celebrate our successes,” said Timmins Mayor Steve Black. “This has been the heart of mining in Ontario for a century now and will likely be for another century going forward.

“We have the expertise, we have the supply sector, we have the people, we have the goodwill. When you look at Timmins versus some of the other communities that are in that race … there is no community that is as positively supporting of mining as Timmins is.

Ontario Northland: Through timber to tidewater – by John Thompson (Railway Age – December 28, 2017)

January 4, 2018

http://www.railwayage.com/

Some Railway Age readers will be surprised to learn that GO Transit, launched in 1967, was not the first venture of the Province of Ontario into the railway business; that event actually occurred some 60 years earlier. The honor actually belongs to the provincially owned Ontario Northland Railway, which links the city of North Bay, on Lake Nipissing, to Moosonee, on the salt waters of James Bay.

At that time, and until recent years, North Bay was on the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) transcontinental (Montreal-Vancouver) main line. During the past decade, the trackage between a point just east of North Bay, to Smiths Falls (60 miles west of Montreal) was abandoned.

The territories served by the two provincial railways could hardly be more different: GO Transit is based in Toronto, Canada’s largest city, and carries commuters in business attire through an area of subdivisions, apartment towers, industries and fertile farmland.

Deadline approaching for Ontario prospectors to make switch to map staking (CBC News Sudbury – January 3, 2018)

January 3, 2018

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

Prospectors will not be able to stake claims until online system is implemented in April

A deadline is fast approaching that will completely change the way Ontario prospectors do business. In April, the province is rolling in a new Mining Lands Administration System that will see prospectors stake their claims online, instead of on the ground.

As of Jan. 9, no new claims will be filed until the online system is fully functional.Gino Chitaroni, the president of the Northern Prospectors Association, based in Cobalt, Ont. says there’s a push to physically stake a claim before the deadline.

“Everything’s frozen for about four months,” he explained.”If you’ve got something that’s hot, you want to get it now. You don’t want to wait because … once you go to map-staking, anybody can get it. My prediction is it’s going to be hard on the prospecting community to survive.”

Nickel on the upswing – by Harold Carmichael (Sudbury Star – January 3, 2018)

January 3, 2018

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

“So, we should remember that the many sustainable mining
practices — lowering carbon emissions, mine safety and an
96 per cent reductions in sulphur emissions since 1970, just
to name a few — done in the Sudbury Basin to supply the
necessary nickel, copper and cobalt puts this community in
a leading role in the transition to a green auto future.

“Both the provincial and federal levels of government should
recognize this important fact and ensure none of their green
energy policies hinder the future growth of this strategic
sector.” (Stan Sudol – RepublicOfMining.com)

It looks like 2018 will be a very good year for nickel. Last month, world metal markets closed for the Christmas break with nickel on an upswing. The metal reached $5.46/pound U.S., more than $1 U.S. higher than the average price of $4.43/pound U.S. in the first half of the year..

The $5.46 U.S. price was also 23 cents higher than the $5.23U.S. recorded back on Nov. 27. The amount of nickel sitting in London Metal Exchange warehouses –another indicator of where prices are headed — is also showing signs of life. On Nov. 27, there were 382,362 tonnes of nickel in the warehouses. But as of Dec. 20, the total had fallen to 373,400.

Editorial: The coming US mining renaissance – by John Cumming (Northern Miner – January 3, 2017)

January 3, 2018

The Northern Miner

While for much of past twenty years there has been a slow withering of the mining industry in the U.S., with the notable exceptions of a few bright spots such as gold mining in Nevada, things are starting to look much more optimistic thanks to a combination of rising commodity prices, an easing of regulatory burdens and a new pro-business atmosphere punctuated by the deep corporate cuts in the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act pushed through by Republicans as 2017 drew to a close.

One of the first signs of recovery came in the early months of 2017 as coal mines in Appalachia started to reopen and hire new employees in response to the doubling of metallurgical coal prices — reversing a brutal 5-year decline in Big Coal that saw the bankruptcies of most of the country’s largest coal miners in the mid-2010s.

Year-over-year, U.S. coal production increased 8.9% in the 52 weeks ending Dec. 23, according to the Energy Information Administration’s weekly estimates.

Marilyn Monroe’s Wedding Ring Loses Its Shine – by David Fickling (Bloomberg News – January 3, 2018)

January 3, 2018

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Just as electric cars seem to be taking over, an element inextricably tied to the fortunes of the internal combustion engine is surging.

Palladium hit a 16-year high of $1,094.51 an ounce Tuesday and is 1.5 percent away from breaching its 2001 record of $1,110.50 an ounce, after doubling in price over the past two years. Having traded for a fifth of the cost of platinum as recently as 2009, palladium is now worth more than its sister metal’s $943.65 an ounce.

To understand what’s going on, it’s worth looking to the long shadow cast by Volkswagen AG’s diesel-testing scandal, and the growing toll of diesel emissions on European cities.

The spark plug of the world’s electric cars – by Jonathan Pearlman (Singapore Strait Times – January 3, 2017)

January 3, 2018

http://www.straitstimes.com/

A vast stretch of remote territory in Western Australia has become the epicentre of the world’s electric car and battery storage boom. The area, once famous for sourcing the iron ore that supplied China’s construction boom, is now providing the lithium required for the world’s so-called energy revolution.

Australia is the world’s largest supplier of lithium, with roughly half of the global supply coming from a growing number of mines scattered across the resource-rich state of Western Australia. The amount is due to increase in the coming years as several large-scale projects start extractions.

An expert on mining economics, Professor Allan Trench of the University of Western Australia Business School, said lithium extraction in the region has had “exceptionally fast growth”. He told The Straits Times that the explorations and discoveries are likely to continue.

Trains, ships, automobiles: The autonomous evolution continues – by Eric Atkins (Globe and Mail – January 3, 2018)

January 3, 2018

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Driverless freight trains are roaring across Australia’s outback, part of Rio Tinto Ltd.’s bid to cut costs and boost efficiencies as it moves iron ore from its mines to the ports.

The mining company ran its first autonomous train in late September, and now runs 60 per cent of its rail journeys in “attendant mode” – a person is in the cab but not in control. Rio Tinto plans to have all its trains in Western Australia operating without crews by next year, assuming it wins the backing of the rail regulator.

The autonomous trains are running 6 per cent faster than conventional locomotives, while reducing maintenance costs and improving safety, said Stephen McIntosh, the Rio Tinto executive in charge of the miner’s growth and innovation group.

2017 brought cash, more big names and good news to Yukon miners – by Dave Croft (CBC News North – December 22, 2017)

January 3, 2018

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

Several of the biggest gold producers in the world have a staked a claim on Yukon’s mineral wealth

People in Yukon’s mining industry are optimistic about the future after increased spending and other developments over the past year. Companies spent about $90 million on mineral exploration in the territory in 2017, according to Scott Casselman, the territorial government’s head of mineral services. That’s up 57 per cent from 2016, he said.

Spending on mines in the development stage was $68 million — mostly at Victoria Gold’s Eagle Gold mine north of Mayo — up from $8 million in 2016. Casselman said as of early November, placer miners had reported production of 67,000 ounces of gold, worth $87 million.

Majors bring cash and stability

“You know, I think in general it’s nice to see we’ve stopped that downward slide over the last few years. We’ve started the uptick, and hopefully we can continue on with that,” said Casselman. “It’s attributable primarily to the interest of the major mining companies that have come into the territory, over this year and last.”