Republic of Mining

Amplats reaches deal with S.African tribal leader in community fund row – by Ed Stoddard (Reuters Africa – January 9, 2018)

January 9, 2018

https://af.reuters.com/

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – A South African tribal leader has agreed to a more transparent structure for a 175 million rand ($14 million) community trust funded by Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), a move that aims to curb unrest around the firm’s most profitable mine.

The changes relate to the Mapela Trust, which was set up to fund development projects in communities around Amplats’ Mogalakwena operation, the world’s largest open-pit platinum mine and the Anglo American unit’s main cash spinner.

The structure of the fund has proved a flashpoint, with local communities saying the way cash was spent has not transparent and too much authority was given to the local chief, known as Kgoshi, to determine where money was invested.

Osisko Metals to acquire Pine Point zinc mine in NWT – by Trish Saywell (Northern Miner – January 8, 2018)

January 9, 2018

Northern Miner

Osisko Metals (TSXV: OM) is expanding its zinc footprint to northern Canada in a $35 million deal to acquire Pine Point Mining (TSXV: ZINC) and its Pine Point project near Hay River in the Northwest Territories.

Pine Point – once Canada’s most profitable zinc-lead mine – produced nearly 64 million tonnes of ore from 52 deposits between 1964 and 1987. Another 46 deposits on the property were identified but never put into production.

The acquisition, combined with Osisko Metal’s 50,000-hectares of zinc properties in New Brunswick’s Bathurst Mining Camp, gives the junior exploration and development company control over two world-class past-producing base metal camps.

Timmins Dome mine story still hasn’t reached an end – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – January 9, 2018)

January 9, 2018

http://www.timminspress.com/

TIMMINS – The closing of the Dome Mine underground operations at the end of December is but one chapter in the overall story that is Goldcorp Porcupine Gold Mines (PGM), according to Marc Lauzier.

As the mines general manager for PGM, Lauzier said it is not yet time to fully close the book on the Dome story, or the bigger story of PGM in the Porcupine Camp.

Lauzier was commenting Monday on the final shutdown of underground work at the historic Dome mine and what that operation has meant for the community over the past century.

“I think it has had an impact on the whole region,” said Lauzier. “The Dome has been open since 1910 I believe. I mean, that’s 107 years. How many communities can say they’ve had 107 years of active mine life from the same gold mine?”

Australia forecasts 20 percent iron ore price drop in 2018 as China demand eases – by James Regan (Reuters U.S. – January 7, 2018)

January 8, 2018

https://www.reuters.com/

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia on Monday said it expects iron ore prices to average $51.50 a tonne this year, down 20 percent from 2017, because of rising global supply and moderating demand from top importer China as its steel sector shrinks.

The government projection is out of step with some private forecasts, with UBS and Citi calling for iron ore prices to average around $64 a tonne in 2018 – flat on 2017’s $64.30 – with the market proving surprisingly resilient.

Spot iron ore, currently around $75 a tonne, last traded below $52 in June 2017, but Department of Industry, Innovation and Science resource and energy analyst David Thurtell pointed to an expected contraction in China’s steel industry. “We’re still comfortable with where our forecast sits,” he said.

Beyond lithium — the search for a better battery – by Nic Fildes(Financial Times – January 7, 2018)

January 8, 2018

https://www.ft.com/

As the world’s power needs grow, the search is on for better battery technology — not just to keep smartphones charged for longer, but to run electric cars and to store energy produced by solar and wind power.

For the last 25 years, the lithium-ion battery, has held sway. Packing a large amount of energy into a relatively small space and weight, these are in greater demand than ever for mobile phones and electric cars. In fact, 2017 has been, in the words of HSBC’s Paul Bloxham, a nirvana for lithium.

The price of the commodity has been driven 240 per cent higher. Batteries accounted for 35 per cent of lithium use in 2015, up from 25 per cent in 2007, with electric vehicles, phones and personal computers accounting for 60 per cent of that market.

Opening offshore drilling options: Trump’s move will benefit Alaska if done responsibly (Fairbanks Daily News-Miner – January 7, 2018)

January 8, 2018

http://www.newsminer.com/

News-Miner opinion: The Trump administration moved toward opening up 90 percent of the nation’s offshore oil reserves last week. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke rolled out the five-year plan that allows for 47 offshore drilling leases, with 19 of those off the coast of Alaska.

It’s the latest in a bevy of headlines that spark visions of a robust economy for Alaska in the not-too-distant future. Add offshore drilling to the list that includes the following: Gov. Bill Walker’s proposed natural gas pipeline, the opening of a portion of the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development, Kinross applying for permits to expand the boundaries of its Fort Knox Gold Mine and the Pebble Partnership being allowed to apply for mining permits at its Pebble Mine site near Bristol Bay.

Alaska may not see all of these developments come to fruition, but this diverse portfolio has the potential to create many jobs and pump money into Alaska’s economy.

Cobalt: A Metal Poised to Peak (Startfor Worldview – January 8, 2018)

January 8, 2018

https://worldview.stratfor.com/

At Stratfor, we use geopolitics to understand the constraints and advantages that geography confers on a country and the political, technological and economic decisions it compels.

As the demand for electric vehicles increases over the coming decades, so, too, will the demand — and the price — for the raw materials required to produce them. Increased demand for elements such as lithium and cobalt will lead to potential supply bottlenecks over the next several years.

And while the media has touted the potential of lithium — the eponymous component of lithium-ion batteries — to be the raw material that powers the gradual transition away from fossil fuel-reliant transportation, it has understated the significance of one element in the equation: cobalt. Lithium-ion batteries require lithium, yes, but they also require something else. Under the constraints of present technology, that something is, more often than not, cobalt.

Mini mining boom as export earnings hit a record $214b – by John McCarthy (Brisbane Courier-Mail – January 8, 2018)

January 8, 2018

http://www.couriermail.com.au/

AUSTRALIA has entered a mini mining boom pushing estimated export earnings for the financial year to a record $214 billion, according to the Federal Government’s Office of the Chief Economist.

That represented an increase of about $3.3 billion and was based on better than expected trading in iron ore and coal. The report also said there were committed projects in Queensland worth $10.2 billion.

Metallurgical coal export volumes may have grown to equal their highest level on record while earnings are likely to be unchanged at about $35.3 billion in 2017-18, but then drop by about $10 billion in 2018-19 as prices fall back.

Coal dwarfs battery metals in mining deals despite war on pollution – by Clara Denina and Barbara Lewis (Reuters U.S. -January 5, 2018)

January 8, 2018

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – Coal and iron ore dominated mining takeovers in 2017, Thomson Reuters data shows, with buyers favoring the heavily polluting devil they know over the uncertainties of a battery-powered future.

While the biggest deal was in Brazil, China was a top player despite planning to reduce domestic coal and steel-making to tackle smog in its cities. Elsewhere, miners haunted by the overpriced mega-purchases they made before the commodities crash of 2015 hesitated on deals involving the metals needed to run electric cars.

Mining deals totaled $96.8 billion, based on 2,109 mostly modestly-sized transactions in the past year, Thomson Reuters Deals Intelligence showed. That marked a 10 percent increase in value from 2016 but fell far short of $150-$200 billion totals in the boom years, after which miners had to write billions of dollars off the value of their assets.

As Afghanistan’s Mining Race Stalls, the Taliban and ISIS Tap Into Illegal Mines – by Matthew C. DuPée (World Politics Review – January 5, 2018)

January 8, 2018

https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/

Afghanistan has some of the richest mineral deposits in the world, but extracting them has proven difficult amid years of instability and war. There were modest signs of improvement in 2017, most notably the Afghan government’s ability to manage and report its earnings from mining royalties and taxes, which it couldn’t do much at all a few years ago.

But challenges remain to attract more meaningful foreign investment and capitalize on the country’s resources. The Afghan Ministry of Mines and Petroleum reported earning approximately $86 million in revenues in 2017, $19 million more than it reported earning in 2016. Yet no new major contracts were signed in 2017.

The government in Kabul has long viewed the natural resources contained beneath Afghanistan’s mountains and deserts, estimated to be worth as much as $1 trillion to $3 trillion, as a potential economic panacea. But an array of problems beyond the country’s war—corruption, inadequate infrastructure, legal uncertainty, illegal mining and wavering investors—has diminished hopes for Afghanistan’s mining potential.

A visit to B.C.’s Cariboo region may have you catching gold fever – by Tim Johnson (Toronto Star – January 5, 2018)

January 8, 2018

https://www.thestar.com/

This interior district in B.C. is known for its gold, and the picturesque mining town of Wells is still home to a full-scale hard-rock operation.

WELLS, B.C—There’s still gold in them hills — and some of it happens to be on the table, right here, right now, at breakfast. A few ounces, both dust and nuggets, drawn from one of the richest mining claims ever staked in North America. Worth a few thousand dollars, and just sitting on the table here at the Wells Hotel, between our omelettes and coffees and huevos rancheros.

“All through the region here, people still work every creek, and you can’t step out of your car without setting foot on someone’s claim,” says Robin Sharpe, the mayor of this picturesque mountain town, which is still home to a full-scale hard-rock operation.

As snow falls lightly outside, I weigh up the heavy, valuable stuff currently selling for about $1,600 an ounce — in my hand. Noting a certain glitter in my eye, Sharpe feels it’s about time to issue a warning. “Gold fever, you know, it’s an addiction,” he says, with a knowing smile. “People really go nuts.”

Slowing China demand to curb PH nickel ore exports – by Karl R. Ocampo (Inquirer.net – January 6, 2018)

January 8, 2018

https://business.inquirer.net/

Weaker metal demand from China is expected to affect the local mining industry, which has been the Mainland’s chief supplier when it came to nickel ore.

According to a report by the World Bank entitled “Commodity Markets Outlook,” there is a possibility for the booming Chinese economy’s consumption of metal to flatline as it limits its output and exports due to tighter environmental policies.

Moreover, the shift of that country’s focus from manufacturing to services might bring demand for steel in particular to dip. For the last 15 years, the World Bank said China has accounted for the bulk of global growth in the consumption of metals as it continued to grow its red-hot economy.

[Michigan Upper Peninsula] Geologists didn’t always get copper mining right – by Graham Jaehnig (Te Daily Mining Gazette – January 7, 2018)

January 8, 2018

http://www.mininggazette.com/

Native copper was, to state it bluntly, a geologic fluke. It did not occur in commercial quantities anywhere on Earth except in the Lake Superior copper district.

Although its existence in the region had been known in Europe and the American colonies since the French had discovered it in the 1600s, most knowledgeable people who had seen specimens disregarded native copper as an absolute and isolated freak of nature. As a freak of nature, however, native copper stumped many geologists.

Some geologists, like Douglass Houghton, Columbus C. Douglass and Samuel Hill, did not focus their studies so much on why native copper occurred, but rather on how much of it occurred. Could it be profitable? Was there enough to mine? Was it pure?

U.S. agency starts review for Alaska mine project opposed by environmentalists – by Yereth Rosen (Reuters U.S. – Janaury 6, 2018)

January 8, 2018

https://www.reuters.com/

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – U.S. regulators formally launched a review process on Friday that could produce a permit a Canadian mining group needs to build the Pebble Mine copper and gold project in southwest Alaska, which is opposed by environmentalists.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency that regulates the development and dredging of wetlands, has published the completed permit application from the Pebble Limited Partnership on its website.

The application will trigger a formal environmental review of the plan to build an open-pit mine in a region with the world’s biggest sockeye salmon runs.

The future of our technology and our planet depends on one thing: the battery – by Jamie Carter (Techradar.com – January 6, 2018)

January 8, 2018

http://www.techradar.com/

The lithium-ion battery is growing to power the electric car era, but solid-state batteries are incoming

Most of us are running on empty. Since the mobile phone spawned a smartphone-first world, we’ve all been tending to the needs of batteries.

The daily or nightly charge of the smartphone is the most prevalent, but laptops, tablets, drones, wireless headphones, smartwatches and other wearable devices are becoming more common.

We are constantly recharging batteries, there are some attempts to create fast-charging batteries and, of course, a new generation of wireless charging devices, but they’re just about convenience.