Twitter

Day: July 11, 2013

Nickel price slide hurting local miners – by Heidi Ulrichsen (Sudbury Northern Life – July 11, 2013)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Slowing Chinese economy partly to blame

While nickel prices are as low as they’ve been since the recession, the founding executive director of Laurentian University’s Goodman School of Mines said he expects mining to “chug along” in this area.

But Bruce Jago expects smaller operators with high production costs may close mines, while larger companies such as Xstrata Nickel or Vale will begin to curtail production. Nickel prices have been something of a rollercoaster ride in recent years.

They’re currently hovering at around $6.10 to $6.20 a pound. That’s down from $8 a pound just six months ago, and $12 a pound two years ago. In 2008, during the recession, nickel prices dipped to as low as $4 a pound, plummeting from historic highs of $24 a pound a year before.

Laurentian University economics professor David Robinson agrees with Jago larger mining companies won’t be as affected by the lower prices. With large, integrated operations, it’s difficult to close mines, because the smelter depends on the ore coming from the mines, he said. “That’s one of the reasons I worry a little less than I would,” Robinson said.

Read more

Companies Moving Slow on Conflict Minerals Rule – by Ben DiPietro (Wall Street Journal – July 11, 2013)

http://online.wsj.com/home-page

Two-thirds of respondents to a new survey say their companies are in the early stages or have not yet started compiling information needed to meet the requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s conflict minerals reporting law that takes effect in May 2014.

One-third of the nearly 900 executives surveyed said they still are trying to figure out if the reporting requirement applies to their businesses, according to the survey released Wednesday by PwC. Less than 5% said their companies have gathered most of the required information from their suppliers and have begun assessing it.

The SEC law mandates companies disclose whether any of their products–including materials provided to them by suppliers–contain tantalum, tin, gold or tungsten that comes from the Republic of Congo region in Africa. The mining of these minerals is believed to be funding armed groups in the region allegedly responsible for labor and human rights abuses.

“I dont think we expected to see this level of companies saying they haven’t really done much yet,” Bobby Kipp, partner in PwC’s risk assurance practice, said. “But I think companies are beginning to realize they can’t wait forever.”

Read more

Brazil indigenous protest blocks major iron ore railway (BBC – July 10, 2013)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/

Brazilian indigenous people in the Amazon region have blocked one of the country’s most important railways in a protest for better public services. The railway is owned by mining giant Vale and connects the world’s largest iron ore mine, Carajas, to a port on the northern coast near Sao Luis.

The track transports more than 100m tonnes of the mineral each year. It is the second time this week that the trains have been halted by protesters of neighbouring villages.

Protesters from several tribes burned wood on the railway in the Amazonian region of Alto Alegre do Pindare, demanding better transport, education, health and security.

Last week, they blocked the railway for two days. Earlier this week, residents of another village near Sao Luis, in the state of Maranhao, also stopped the trains in a protest. They want Vale to act on their behalf in negotiations with the authorities.

Because of the protests, the passenger train that transports about 1,500 passengers a day between the city of Parauapebas, in Para, and Sao Luis has not resumed its regular service since last week.

Read more

Detour chief confident despite plunging gold price – by Peter Koven (National Post – July 11, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Gerald Panneton winces every time he looks at his stock price. But the bottom line is that he is confident his company can thrive in the current gold price environment.

“Leave gold at US$1,250 and it doesn’t bother me,” the chief executive of Detour Gold Corp. said in an interview. “We can get through this no problem. We can adjust to the conditions of the market.”

The company’s Detour Lake mine, expected to be the largest gold mine in Canada, poured first gold in February and is gradually ramping up. This week, Detour reported second-quarter production results that showed good progress. The Ontario-based mine produced nearly 58,000 ounces of gold in Q2, and the mill was operating at more than 80% of planned capacity by the end of the month.

Production ramp-ups are almost always plagued with problems, and while the Q2 results were not as strong as Mr. Panneton hoped, they show the company is on track to reach commercial production in the current quarter. “We would suggest the ramp-up is going well,” TD Securities analyst Daniel Earle wrote in a note.

Read more

Danger by rail – by Tasha Kheiriddin (National Post – July 11, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

In Whitby, Ont., just blocks from our house, the freight trains roll by day and night. Car after cylindrical car ferries unknown liquids past a neighbourhood park, over an old stone bridge and through a new housing development. My preschool daughter calls it the “juice train,” convinced the cylinders are full of apple juice. She often waves to the conductors as the cars trundle by; they wave back, a quintessential slice of ex-urban Canadian life.

But after the horror of Lac Megantic, it is impossible to look at those trains the same way again. For residents of the small Quebec town, Saturday’s devastating derailment truly was the “end of the world,” an inferno that consumed the heart, if not the spirit, of their community. And after the initial shock and sadness, the next thought on many Canadians’ minds was: could it happen here?

The unpleasant truth is that there is something nasty lurking in everyone’s backyard. Canada’s communities grew up around railroads, many of whom have been affected by the transport of dangerous cargo, though none with such horrific consequences as Lac Megantic.

In 1979, a 106-car train loaded with propane and chlorine derailed in Mississauga, Ont.; one car exploded but miraculously no one was killed, though the city’s then population of 200,000 people had to be evacuated.

Read more

Shell Jackpine oil sands project approved by regulator, but with slate of environmental warnings – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – July 11, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Regulators have approved a giant expansion of an oil sands project proposed by Royal Dutch Shell PLC – but included an unprecedented list of warnings about the negative impacts on the environment and on Aboriginal communities.

While finding the 100,000-barrel a day expansion of Shell’s Jackpine mine is in the public interest based on economic benefits, the panel, representing the Alberta Energy Regulator and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, dedicated large parts of its 405-page ruling to the cumulative environmental costs, some of them irreversible.

The takeaway: With the oil sands industry under growing public scrutiny, the regulators are signalling they are not willing to take responsibility for broader societal choices and want governments to step up and take the heat for them.

“Politicians have used regulators to insulate them from the political aspects of ongoing development, and it would appear that this ruling is saying: ‘This is going to be a political decision and we need direction’,” said David Yager, national leader, oil field services, at MNP LLP, in Calgary.

Read more

Feds, province [Newfoundland] mum on Vale charges – by Ashley Fitzpatrick (St. John’s Telegram – July 11, 2013)

http://www.thetelegram.com/

The federal government has refused to comment on the charges being pressed against Vale Newfoundland and Labrador for alleged illegal release of liquid waste into Anaktalak Bay, Labrador.

Three charges are being laid against Vale relating to alleged breaches of the federal Fisheries Act over the course of almost a month in October 2011.

In response to questions on the case, Environment Canada issued a response by email, received by The Telegram at 9 p.m. Wednesday: “Thank you for contacting Environment Canada. However, as this case is currently before the courts, it would be inappropriate to comment.” The paper posed questions about the Vale case to communications staff at the provincial and federal level throughout the day Wednesday.

The questions — including whether or not the provincial government was aware of the allegations against Vale — have bounced between the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) representatives, a provincial spokesperson for DFO, the Environment Canada communications office in Ottawa and provincial communications staff from Service NL to Environment and Conservation.

Read more

First Nations resource development group stalled by the AFN – by Laura Stone (Global News – July 10, 2013)

http://globalnews.ca/

OTTAWA – A government working group set up to ensure aboriginals share the benefits of natural resource development is more than a month behind schedule because the Assembly of First Nations has yet to nominate its members.

The delay comes after the previous incarnation, a joint economic task force, fell apart last November after two AFN appointees quit, according to briefing notes released to Global News under access to information.

The creation of a working group was among the pledges made at this year’s Jan. 11 meeting between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and National Chief Shawn Atleo, and reflects a similar commitment made at the 2012 Crown-First Nations gathering.

The four-member group, with two members and co-chairs each nominated by the AFN and the department of aboriginal affairs, was supposed to start its seven-month term on June 1.

But that hasn’t happened. The federal government has picked its members, but the AFN has not. Once the nominees are in place, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt will make the appointments, the note says.

Read more

SA gold production plunges, total mining output down 0.7% – by Natasha Odendaal (MiningWeekly.com – July 11, 2013)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) on Thursday said that mining output during May decreased 0.7%, after a 0.7% revised year-on-year improvement in April.

Gold production emerged as the highest contributor, at -2.4 percentage points, to the decline, while manganese ore, contributing 1.5 percentage points, was a significant positive contributor.

Investment bank Investec’s Kamilla Kaplan commented: “There was a continuation of the trend in gold production that has been in place for much of the last decade. Specifically, that production remained in contractionary territory”.

Gold output, which has been falling since May 2011, plunged 14.6% year-on-year during the month under review, compared with a 3% year-on-year decline reported in April. The gold sector remained a key mineral export, accounting for 8.8% of total export revenues in the first five months of this year.

“At the prevailing gold price, gold miners are already under pressure to sustain operations and will struggle to grant double-digit wage increases sought by the unions [in this year’s wage negotiations],” Kaplan pointed out.

Read more

Wave of sackings at nickel mine swamps Forrest’s Poseidon adventure – by Andrew Burrell (The Australian – July 11, 2013)

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business

POSEIDON Nickel chairman Andrew Forrest’s bid to revive the historic Windarra project in the face of worsening nickel prices appears to have suffered a blow after more than 40 contractors were sacked amid speculation the company is attempting to preserve cash.

The suspension of drilling at the Windarra nickel site this week comes after Mr Forrest, the 32 per cent owner of Poseidon, and chief executive David Singleton returned empty-handed from New York last month following a bid to secure about $200 million in debt financing for the project. The job losses at Poseidon follow a wave of redundancies at other mining companies and contractors in the wake of weaker commodity prices.

Sources close to contracting firms at the Windarra site in Western Australia’s Goldfields told The Australian yesterday that about 45 workers were “completely shocked” to be told they had been sacked on Tuesday. They said the move was sudden and contracting firms working at the site had not been previously advised of any shutdown. “They even woke up people who were on night shift to tell them they’d been sacked,” said one worker.

Those made redundant include geologists, geotechnicians, drillers, field assistants, shift bosses, cleaners and caterers. At the meeting on Tuesday, the workers were told that technical problems involving dewatering at the site had forced the shutdown, but that Poseidon Nickel would work to fix the issue.

Read more

2013 KGHM International Corporate Social Responsibility Report Introduction – by Derek C. White, President and Chief Executive Officer

To view the 2013 KGHM International Corporate Social Responsibility Report, click here: http://www.kghm.com/files/doc_downloads/WEB_KGHM%20CSR%202013%20English.pdf

KGHM International has grown to be a globally diverse mining company, with operations and projects in Canada, Chile, Greenland and the United States and is a growth vehicle for our parent company, KGHM Polska Miedź, S.A. Each of our operations is located within their own distinct communities, whether they are situated near a small town in the middle of the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile, or within a renowned world-class mining camp in Canada. We appreciate and recognize that each site is unique and do our best to be a good neighbour wherever we operate.

We believe in four very important values: Zero Harm, Results Driven, Success Through Teamwork, and Courageous. These
values not only guide how we behave at our operations, they provide the foundation for how we interact and communicate
with our surrounding communities. These values help to ensure that we are operating in a safe, socially accountable and
environmentally responsible manner.

Zero Harm is at the heart of our core values. We are committed to the health and safety of our employees and the communities in which we operate. Our Zero Harm commitment applies not only to our employees, but also to the environments in which we live, work and play. Through careful planning and practices we minimize the impact of our activities, from development to operation, to closure and rehabilitation.

Read more

Anglo American chief warns on S Africa mining talks – by Andrew England (Financial Times – July 10, 2013)

http://www.ft.com/home/us

Mark Cutifani, chief executive of Anglo American, warned on Wednesday that the wage negotiations beginning in South Africa’s mining sector will determine not only the future of the industry, but also the future of the continent’s largest economy.

Speaking to the Financial Times a day before gold miners open salary talks, Mr Cutifani said: “[I am] worried for South Africa, I’m worried for the industry and I’m worried for the people. We have got to get the balance right”.

The mining industry in South Africa is entering two-yearly wage negotiations as many companies are still recovering from a weeks of wildcat strikes last year. That unrest is estimated to have cost the industry more than R15bn ($1.5bn) in lost revenue, while some 50 people were killed in strike-related violence.

How the wage talks proceed is seen as a major test for the country’s fragile labour relations, with concerns that any further unrest could have a contagion effect on other sectors.

“The period we are in now is the most important period I’ve seen in my time here in the [South African] industry – it is so critical for the future of the industry and the future of the country,” said Mr Cutifani, who is also president of the South African Chamber of Mines.

Read more

Matawa community members to get more training – by Rick Garrick (Wawatay News – July 10, 2013)

http://wawataynews.ca/

Kiikenomaga Kikenjigewen Employment and Training Services (KKETS) has partnered with Aecon Group Inc. to expand training and development programs for First Nations in the Ring of Fire area.

“In the past, First Nations did not have the same participation in the labour market, but through the process of developing and maintaining relationships with key employers, potential employment opportunities have been recognized,” said Morris Wapoose, KKETS’ program manager. “We want to thank Aecon for stepping forward and we look forward to building this positive relationship.”

Aecon and KKETS have agreed to work collaboratively to develop remote training centres, which will be operated by First Nations in a socially and culturally relevant environment to provide local access to community-based education, trades and apprenticeship training. The remote training centres will employ state of the art computerized technology systems and high-speed satellite broadband Internet to connect the communities.

“Our relationship with the Matawa First Nations and KKETS is an important component of Aecon’s strategic approach to community engagement and skilled labour development,” said Teri McKibbon, Aecon’s president and chief operating officer in a press release. “Education and training is a priority for Aecon. Programs such as the remote training centres are an innovative response to the future demand for labour in remote areas, and will make positive contributions to surrounding communities.”

Read more

Executive level changes at Cliffs could mean new opportunities for industry – by Jeff Labine (tbnewswatch.com – July 10, 2013)

http://www.tbnewswatch.com/

Fresh faces among Cliffs Natural Resources senior executives could mean new opportunities for the struggling company, says a spokesman for national mining advocacy group.

Crain’s Cleveland Business reported Joseph Carrabba would be retiring from the company’s president and chief executive by the end of the year. His announcement follows the departure of executive vice-president and president of global Laurie Brlas.

Earlier this year, Cliffs suspended its environmental assessment activities in the Ring of Fire. Delays to the environmental assessment process, land surface rights and negotiations with the province of Ontario were some of the main reasons for the decision.

The company’s stock also dropped in the past year from a high of $53.13 to a low of $16.74. It’s currently trading near $16.70.

Jamie Kneen, communications co-ordinator with MiningWatch, said he doubts things could get much worse for Cliffs. He wasn’t sure how the change will impact projects like the Ring of Fire, but said that at least it provides new opportunities. Whether those opportunities are good or bad for the company remains to be seen, he added. “They might need people who are willing to look ahead,” he said in a phone interview with tbnewswatch.com from Ottawa.

Read more

Falling metal prices stifle [Ontario] mining exploration – by CBC News Sudbury (July 10, 2013)

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

Northern Ontario prospector’s association says its been decades since the industry has been hit this hard

The mining sector is in a cycle of uncertainty and exploration companies are taking the greatest hit, says the president of the Porcupine Prospectors and Developers Association.

Dean Rogers said exploration companies are having difficulties attracting investment — and most aren’t raising enough money to operate.

“No one really has a crystal ball to know just when the cycle will repeat itself,” he said. “It doesn’t appear there’s any need for metals at this time. Industry has slowed down, [and] people aren’t building.” Some junior companies face bankruptcy or have been forced to amalgamate with larger companies, he noted.

Rogers said it has been decades since the industry has been hit this hard, “back in the early 80s, when we were into another sort of recession.”

Read more