Republic of Mining

Canadian Zinc hopes to start production at Prairie Creek mine in 2020 – by Randi Beers (CBC News North – December 1, 2017)

December 1, 2017

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

The Canadian Zinc Corporation believes production could start at Prairie Creek Mine by August 2020. This is according to results of a feasibility study commissioned by the company, which was released Oct. 31.

The study, put together by mining consulting firm AMC Mining Consultants, estimates the Prairie Creek mine could pull in $1.2 billion over its 15-year mine life and create 330 full-time jobs in the Dehcho region.

All of this is dependant on two major things, according to Alan Taylor, chief operating officer of Canadian Zinc. The company must get final approval to build an all-season road to the mine — which is at an advanced stage of construction already — and it must raise the money needed to both build the road and revive the mine.

How to Mine Cobalt Without Going to Congo – by Anna Hirtenstein (Bloomberg News – December 1, 2017)

December 1, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Almost 9,000 miles from the dusty Congo savanna, miners have hit on an entirely new source of cobalt — the rare mineral at the heart of the electric-car boom. And not only can they take coffee breaks, when they take a break, they can grab a donut at Tim Hortons.

Scientists working for American Manganese Inc., located in the suburbs of Vancouver, have developed a way to produce enough of the bluish-gray metal to power all the electric cars on the road today without drilling into the ground: by recycling faulty batteries.

It’s one of many technologies that entrepreneurs are patenting to prepare for a time when electric cars outnumber polluting petrol engines, turning the entire automotive supply chain upside down in the process. Instead of radiators, spark plugs and fuel injectors, the industry will need cheap sources of cobalt, copper and lithium.

New estimates could double diamond potential for Nunavut mining project (CBC News North – November 30, 2017)

December 1, 2017

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

Kimberlite pipe at site now estimated to be 540 metres deep, was previously estimated at 260 metres

A diamond mining project in Nunavut may have just gotten a whole lot bigger, as Peregrine Diamonds Ltd. says a kimberlite deposit at its Chidliak site is twice as deep as it previously estimated.

Peregrine has been exploring the Chidliak site, which sits 120 kilometres northeast of Iqaluit, since 2005. In a release issued Tuesday, the junior mining company announced that one of their most promising kimberlite pipes — named CH 6 — extends a total of 540 metres below the ground, 280 metres deeper than initially announced.

“We’ve got the potential to double the number of diamonds contained,” said Tom Peregoodoff, the president of Peregrine Diamonds. “If they can be extracted economically, we potentially have added significantly to both the mine life and eventual economic outcome of the project.”

‘Miner’s Revenge’ Is Coming With Electric Cars, Friedland Says – by Thomas Wilson (Bloomberg News – November 30, 2017)

December 1, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Surging demand for metals like copper, nickel and cobalt for use in electric vehicles promises to overturn the balance of power between mining companies and their customers, according to billionaire investor Robert Friedland.

Automakers will have to change the way they approach procurement if they want to power their vehicles, said Friedland, who as a student befriended Steve Jobs before a career backing major discoveries from Canada to Mongolia.

“Coming soon to a theater near you: this is the revenge of the miner,” said Friedland. “No miner is willing to sell a high-volatility metal to a car manufacturer at a fixed price.”

Orford to capitalise on ‘district-scale’ Qiqavik gold discovery, near-term catalysts in Carolina – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – November 30, 2017)

December 1, 2017

http://www.miningweekly.com/

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Planning is under way for another summer drill campaign at recently-gone-public explorer Orford Mining’s Qiqavik project, in the remote emerging gold belt of Cape Smith, in Northern Quebec.

“We’ve discovered a new gold district in Canada. This is like walking into the Timmins Belt for the first time,” veteran geologist, fund manager and now Orford president and CEO David Christie told Mining Weekly Online in an interview.

He explained that the Cape Smith Belt, especially the southern part, had seen significant exploration in the 1970s for base metals such as nickel. According to him, everyone was focused on nickel and no one considered the gold potential of Northern Quebec, until the 1980s.

PNG mining sector generating over 50pc in revenue: Tuke (Papua New Guinea Today – December 1, 2017)

December 1, 2017

http://news.pngfacts.com/

The mining sector is currently the single largest export earner, contributing over 50 per cent of the country’s revenue, according to Minister for Mining Johnson Tuke. He said the overall mineral production on all exports and revenues in 2017 including from the alluvial sector was almost K11 billion (US$3.4 billion) – an increase of 13.4 per cent from 2016.

“These figures are supported by direct employment of the mineral sector increasing from 15,000 employees last year to more than 17,000 this year,” he said. Tuke said 86 per cent were PNG workers.

He also told the PNG Mining and Petroleum Conference in Port Moresby of the conclusion of the 2009 legislative review of Papua New Guinea’s mining sector. The consultation and the review exercise took seven years. The mining ministry in addition developed six new mining policies.

AN INTERVIEW WITH RAPAPORT, THE DIAMOND MAVERICK – by Coleby Nicholson (Jeweller Magazine – December 01, 2017)

November 30, 2017

http://www.jewellermagazine.com/

Martin Rapaport is never short of words when it comes to diamonds. Coleby Nicholson met with the industry nonconformist to discuss the current state of the international diamond market.
Martin Rapaport: most people in the industry will know the name, or at least recognise the face and signature bow tie.

The founder and chairman of Rapaport Group, which publishes Rapaport magazine and operates online trading platform RapNet among other products and services, began his career in the diamond industry in 1975 as an apprentice diamond cleaver in Antwerp.

His Wikipedia page notes that he has been called a ‘maverick’ within the diamond industry and probably rightly so. I met with Rapaport in July to discuss the state of the industry and his often counter-intuitive and controversial stances on various industry issues.

Down to Earth: Amanda Lacaze Turns Around Australia’s Lynas Corp. – by Tim Treadgold (Forbes Magazine – November 29, 2017)

November 30, 2017

https://www.forbes.com/

Few companies come back from a 99% plunge in their share price, but that’s what an Australian rare-earths miner and chemical processor has done–thanks to the electric-car revolution and an environmental cleanup in China.

Lynas Corp. was a highflier six years ago as strong demand and tight supplies lifted prices for the unusual metals it produces, such as praseodymium and neodymium–they’re used to make high-strength magnets and other products essential for a range of technologies. But from a market capitalization on the Australian stock exchange of $3 billion in 2011, Lynas’ value plunged to $3 million in 2015.

It was only a penny stock, worth just 2.3 Australian cents a share. High debt, problems building its processing plant in Malaysia and tumbling prices for rare earths had driven the company to the brink of collapse.

Renewable Energy Isn’t Perfect, But It’s Far Better Than Fossil Fuels – by David Suzuki (Huffington Post – November 29, 2017)

November 30, 2017

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

In their efforts to discredit renewable energy and support continued fossil fuel burning, many anti-environmentalists have circulated a dual image purporting to compare a lithium mine with an oilsands operation. It illustrates the level of dishonesty to which some will stoop to keep us on our current polluting, climate-disrupting path (although in some cases it could be ignorance.)

The image is a poor attempt to prove that lithium batteries and renewable energy are worse for the environment than energy from oilsands bitumen. The first problem is that the “lithium mine” is actually BHP Billiton’s Escondida copper mine in Chile (the world’s largest.)

The bottom image is of an Alberta oilsands operation, but it’s an in situ underground facility and doesn’t represent the enormous open-pit mining operations used to extract most bitumen.

Chile’s Codelco plans environmental impact pricing for copper (MiningWeekly.com/Reuters – November 30, 2017)

November 30, 2017

http://www.miningweekly.com/

SHANGHAI – Chile’s Codelco will soon sell its first copper cathodes with pricing that takes into account the environmental footprint of production, its chairman said on Thursday.

The plan would mark a stark change from the traditional pricing model for copper producers where the quality of metal is the price differentiator for what is otherwise a standardized product.

Under the scheme, customers would pay different prices for copper depending on the carbon footprint or impact on a local community of its production. The move echoes steps taken by the palm oil industry to establish a sustainable supply chain to address a tarnished environmental reputation.

Carube seeks to reignite Jamaica’s copper industry – by Richard Quarisa (Northern Miner – November 28, 2017)

November 30, 2017

Drilling at Carube Copper’s (TSXV: CUC) 100% owned copper-gold Bellas Gate property in Jamaica returned positive drill results this October.

Carube owns 11 properties across Jamaica covering 536 sq. km of mineral rights, but its focus is on Bellas Gate, which consists of two 100% owned prospecting licenses covering 84 sq. km. The licenses are located within highly deformed, altered and mineralized Cretaceous rocks within the central inlier of Jamaica.

From May to September, the company carried out a 1,900 metre drill program on Bellas Gate that targeted three main zones: Provost, Hendley, and Provost South East.

Mining Day in Ottawa draws Sudbury crowd: Sudbury pitches local mine tech to big industry, government – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – November 30, 2017)

November 30, 2017

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Mining Day on the Hill was an opportunity for Greater Sudbury Mayor Brian Bigger to rub elbows with the lead player in the Ring of Fire.

Bigger was part of a delegation from Sudbury who headed to Ottawa for the Mining Association of Canada’s (MAC) industry-government networking event on Nov. 21. The annual get-together attracts mining executives, companies and federal bureaucrats to discuss policy and showcase technology.

In a Nov. 30 news release, Bigger said while there he bumped into Noront Resources president-CEO Alan Coutts to talk “about the importance of mining in our community, which was evident by the enthusiasm and representation that evening by our industry partners who are all optimistic about the future of mining and innovation in Greater Sudbury.”

Australia’s new gold rush lures prospectors Down Under – by James Regan (Reuters U.S. – November 29, 2017)

November 30, 2017

https://www.reuters.com/

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Canada-based Kirkland Lake Gold will list its shares on the Australia bourse on Thursday after investing millions of dollars and joining dozens of other prospectors in a modern-day gold rush.

Kirkland Lake expects to produce a quarter-million ounces of gold in 2017 from a mine it bought a year ago in eastern Australia and is also dipping a toe into a tantalizing new gold region on the other side of the continent. More than 25 publicly-listed companies and legions of small prospectors are exploring for gold on the western fringe of Australia in an area known as the Pilbara, better regarded for iron ore.

The target is gold occurring in clusters of pebbles and which investors such as Kirkland are betting will compare in size with South Africa’s massive Witwatersrand Basin, where more than a third of the world’s gold has been mined.

Controversial measures to clear way for more Minnesota mining spark debate in U.S. House – by May Rao (Minneapolis Star Tribune – November 29, 2017)

November 30, 2017

http://www.startribune.com/

WASHINGTON – Two controversial measures from Minnesota congressmen, both of which would ease the way for mining expansion in northeastern Minnesota, have divided the state’s congressional delegation while spurring a broader environmental debate in the U.S. House.

The House on Tuesday passed legislation by DFL Rep. Rick Nolan that would finalize a land exchange between the U.S. Forest Service and PolyMet Mining. Nolan said his bill is key to advancing PolyMet’s proposed northeastern Minnesota copper-nickel mining project, with 6,690 acres of private land becoming public while 6,650 acres of contiguous forest and wetlands would fall under PolyMet’s control.

“This bill is a win for taxpayers, for the environment, and for good-paying jobs,” Nolan said. Other prominent DFLers, including Gov. Mark Dayton, have supported Nolan’s proposal, although it does not currently have a companion bill in the U.S. Senate.

‘Cobalt for cobalt’s sake’: Electric vehicle boom changing the equation for a mining byproduct – by Geoff Zochodne (Financial Post – November 30, 2017)

November 30, 2017

http://business.financialpost.com/

Investors have renewed their interest in an historic Canadian cobalt play amid a recent boom brought on by the adoption of electric vehicles.

Toronto-based First Cobalt Corp. has seen its stock price double in value since announcing last week that it had received shareholder backing for a three-way merger with fellow juniors Cobaltech Mining Inc. and Cobalt One Ltd. The deal includes past-producing mines near Cobalt, Ont., a town named after the metal and located approximately 500 kilometres north of Toronto.

With its acquisitions expected to close in the coming week or so, First Cobalt says it now controls 45 per cent of the land in the so-called “Cobalt Camp,” in addition to owning the only permitted cobalt refinery on the continent that can produce battery-grade materials. While the camp is still in its exploratory stage, shares of First Cobalt are up nearly 280 per cent for the year, closing at $1.47 Wednesday.