Decline Shutters [South African] Mines – by Paul Burkhardt (Bloomberg News – December 17, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

A half-dozen unemployed workers from the Blyvooruitzicht gold mine southwest of Johannesburg finish off the last scraps of a slaughtered cow in the searing October heat. Since losing their jobs in August, meals have become much less predictable.

The men stand near a small wood fire as the sun shines off a hill of extracted earth, in sight of a housing block that was supposed to be vacated. One holds a jaw bone over the flame, nibbles the meat off, and tosses the rest into a rusty barrel. What’s left of the carcass with its entrails spilling out is starting to dry at their feet.

The scene, resembling something from an apocalypse film out of Hollywood, is an extreme example of the impact gold’s 25 percent drop this year may have on towns around the world that are dependent on the precious metal. Mining companies have announced plans to shutter mines or reduce operations from Nevada and Peru to Papua New Guinea in the Pacific Ocean, as gold heads toward its first annual loss in 13 years.

Blyvooruitzicht’s name means “happy prospect” in Afrikaans. These days that’s not such a sure thing. The mine’s most recent operator, Johannesburg-based Village Main Reef Ltd., cut funding and closed it last summer, letting go the remaining 1,700 workers. Plunging prices made it difficult to profitably extract gold, especially with electricity prices soaring and workers demanding higher wages.

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Ontario to review mine safety after Vale deaths in 2011 (Reuters U.S. – December 18, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

TORONTO – Dec 18 (Reuters) – The Ontario government will launch a review of mining safety, looking at the effectiveness of health and safety rules, enforcement and prevention in the Canadian province after the 2011 deaths of two men at a Vale SA mine prompted calls for reform.

The review, announced on Wednesday and to commence in early 2014, comes after more than a year of lobbying by the families and friends of the men, Jason Chenier and Jordan Fram.

The two were killed at one of Vale’s Sudbury, Ontario, nickel mines, and the Brazilian miner’s Canadian unit was hit with a record C$1.05 million ($984,900) fine for the incident in September. It had pleaded guilty to three counts of violating the province’s workplace safety law.

Mining has long been a major industry in Ontario, and miners, including big international players such as Glencore and Goldcorp Inc, produced some C$10.7 billion worth of minerals in 2011, according provincial government figures.

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Flake graphite price could spike as China orders production halt – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – December 18, 2013)

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – One of China’s primary flake graphite producing regions had been ordered to halt production on environmental grounds, which would take about 10% of the world’s flake graphite supply off the market, the equivalent of 60 000 t/y, UK-based market research firm Industrial Minerals Data said this week.

Given that China produces almost 75% of the world’s graphite and that ‘flake’ is the most sought-after form of natural graphite for value-added, high-technology carbon products, this was a significant development.

The last time a supply shortage close to this magnitude happened in China, was in 2009, which was seen as the catalyst for flake graphite prices reaching over $2 500/t in a year.

Industrial Minerals Data manager Simon Moores said in a report published on Monday that up to 55 miners and processors of graphite in the town of Pingdu, located in the east-coast province of Shandong, had been ordered by the local government to stop production after failing to improve wastewater, dust and gas emissions.

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A bad year for bullion – by Buttonwood (The Economist – December 17, 2013)

http://www.economist.com/

AS ENGLAND’S cricket supporters are discovering, every good run has to come to an end. For more than a decade, it seemed as if gold could only rise in price. But with a couple of weeks to go, bullion seems set to record its worst year since 1981, according to Adrian Ash of BullionVault – a 24% loss against 1981’s 32% decline. It is an appropriate comparison in more ways than one; 1981’s plunge followed the long 1970s bull run that reflected high inflation after the break-up of the Bretton Woods monetary regime and the loss of the last currency link to bullion.

It was also the year when it became clear that Paul Volcker broke the back of inflation in America. The rate peaked at 14.8% in March 1980 and was down to 8.9% by November 1981; although it edged back into double figures in December of that year, the trend was clearly downwards and the rate has been in single digits ever since. Bond investors were slow to appreciate inflation’s demise so real yields were very high.

That was bad news for gold which offers no yield; the opportunity cost of holding bullion increases when real yields rise. The same process has been happening, albeit less dramatically, this time round. US inflation has fallen from 2.9% to 1.2% since the start of 2012, while the 10-year bond yield has risen a full percentage point.

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Fed cuts bond-buying but stresses easy policy – by Jonathan Spicer and Jason Lange (Reuters U.S. – December 18, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

WASHINGTON – (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve announced plans to trim its aggressive bond-buying program on Wednesday but sought to temper the long-awaited move by suggesting its key interest rate would stay lower for even longer than previously promised.

In what amounts to the beginning of the end of its unprecedented support for the U.S. economy, the central bank said it would reduce its monthly asset purchases by $10 billion to total $75 billion. It trimmed equally from mortgage and Treasury bonds.

The move, which could come as a surprise to many investors, was a nod to better prospects for the economy and labor market and marks a historic turning point for the largest monetary policy experiment ever.

The Fed’s asset purchase program, a centerpiece of its crisis-era policy, has left it holding roughly $4 trillion of bonds, and the path it must follow in dialing it down is rife with numerous risks, including the possibility of higher-than-targeted interest rates and a loss of investor confidence.

The Fed “modestly” reduced the pace of bond buying in light of better labor market conditions, it said in a statement following a two-day policy meeting.

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Dream of a road to the Arctic Ocean takes shape – by Jeffrey Jones (Globe and Mail – December 18, 2013)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

TUKTOYAKTUK, NWT — On a November morning just outside Tuktoyaktuk, diesel engines break the silence as trucks and graders trundle back and forth, slowly pushing their way across the tundra toward Inuvik, about 140 kilometres south.

With the sun barely rising above the horizon on the northernmost reaches of Canada’s mainland, the crew is constructing a winding road that will provide the first year-round link between the Arctic Ocean and the rest of the country. It is a remarkable piece of engineering that is like laying a thick carpet across a giant frozen sponge.

The Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk gravel highway, a dream that goes back to the 1950s, will take about three years to complete, with most of the work being done in the long, bone-chilling winter. Northern residents, governments and aboriginal leaders are looking to it as a path to a brighter economic future following decades of high hopes and bitter disappointments.

Those have included an energy exploration boom in the 1970s, which ended when oil prices tumbled in the following decade, and on-again, off-again plans for a multibillion-dollar Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline.

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UPDATE 2-Australia to ship more iron ore as miners shrug off China risks by James Regan (Reuters India – December 18, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

SYDNEY, Dec 18 (Reuters) – Australia raised its forecasts for exports of iron ore and metallurgical coal — its two top export revenue earners — reflecting massive expansion work underway to meet demand for raw materials to make steel in China.

Despite moves to curb industrial growth rates and close some ageing steel works, China continues to produce more than 2 million tonnes of crude steel daily, almost 10 times the rate in the United States.

Australia, the world’s biggest producer of iron ore, forecast a 23.3 percent rise in exports to 650 million tonnes in the 2013/14 fiscal year, data from Australia’s Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE) showed on Wednesday.

The forecast was raised from an estimate of 615 million tonnes just three months ago.

“The super cycle is not over yet,” said Keith Goode, an analyst for Eagle Mining Research in Sydney, referring to unprecedented commodity demand driven by Chinese demand. “In China, the main demand still appears to be for iron ore.”

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Iron ore, chrome rates under pressure on poor demand – by Sadananda Mohapatra (Business Standard – December 17, 2013)

http://www.business-standard.com/ [India]

Prices of iron ore and chrome ore are witnessing downward pressure on poor demand from within the country, precipitated by stagnated consumption growth of finished steel products, traders and analysts said.

In Odisha, the major iron ore producing state, the rates have been hovering around Rs 5000 to Rs 6000 per tonne for 62 to 65 grade mineral for last one month. “The rates will stay at current levels for next one month or so. Actually it should be coming down as demand for the mineral is not so strong. But supply problems are supporting the rates,” said an official of Altrade Group, which has five iron ore mines in the state.

Major miners such as Essar and Rungta have rolled over the rates of iron ore lumps from November levels in anticipation of weak demand from sponge iron makers, a major user of the raw material.

“The iron ore rates have been trading at similar levels for past one month due to sluggish demand from sponge iron makers as steelmakers are preferring to use imported scrap instead of sponge iron.

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TransCanada mulling rail bridge if Keystone XL delays continue, CEO Russ Girling says – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – Decemeber 18, 2013)

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

TransCanada Corp. could develop a rail bridge from Canada to Nebraska if the northern portion of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline continues to be held up by the U.S. government, president and CEO Russ Girling said Tuesday.

The Calgary-based company has ongoing dialogue with railways and oil companies about options to Keystone, and “if we need to bridge with rail, we will bridge,” Mr. Girling said in an interview.

“I don’t think we would ever stop pressing the pipeline option, but there is a point in time at which we would consider a rail option,” he said. The company is awaiting the release any day of a much-delayed final environmental impact statement by the U.S. State Department on the $5.4-billion, northern leg of the cross-border project to carry oil from Canada’s oil sands all the way to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries.

The department has jurisdiction because the pipeline crosses an international border. The southern leg, known as the Gulf Coast Project, was fast tracked because it didn’t need approval and is due to start delivering oil on Jan. 22.

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RepRisk Releases “Special Report on Consumer Electronics: The Human Toll Behind the Mining”

www.reprisk.com

Zurich, December 18, 2013 – RepRisk’s latest “Special Report on Consumer Electronics: The Human Toll Behind the Mining” highlights the social and environmental issues associated with sourcing the minerals required for the manufacturing of everyday electronic products.

While the sale of cell phones, laptops, tablets and other consumer electronics is booming, mining of metals and minerals worldwide have been directly linked to violence, armed conflict and grave human rights abuses. Many developing countries rich in mineral resources have been torn apart by brutal conflict as a result of their natural wealth.

Certain studies have suggested that 40 percent of all intrastate conflicts in the last 60 years have been linked to natural resources. Human rights groups have repeatedly drawn attention to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in particular, where minerals have spurred regional conflict by helping to finance various domestic and international armed groups.

RepRisk has identified numerous news articles, which have linked mining activities to violent repression by police and armed forces, forced displacements, overuse of water and other basic necessities, environmental degradation, child labor, as well as poor and dangerous working conditions.

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Who’s being irrational? Northern Gateway skeptics overlook Canada’s safety record – by Joe Oliver (National Post – December 17, 2013)

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

Joe Oliver is Minister of Natural Resources

Last year, over 99.999% of oil and gas arrived safely through federally regulated pipelines

David Miller sets up a straw man, distorting our government’s environmental goals and intentions and then proceeds, in high dudgeon, to pummel us based on this misrepresentation. Moral indignation founded on misinformation is not a sound basis for policy.

Of course concern about the environment is rational. Our government is at one with the importance that Canadians, including aboriginal peoples, place on the precious natural beauty of our magnificent country and the protection of our land, water and air. That is why we have invested over $10-billion to foster green energy initiatives and have advanced numerous policies to enhance environmental protection.

What is not rational is to claim that our natural resources cannot be developed and transported safely. Generations of Canadians have proven otherwise and we have prospered as a nation because of our willingness to innovate and to overcome challenges.

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Barrick Gold loses two more directors – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – December 18, 2013)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Two of Barrick Gold Corp.’s independent directors resigned suddenly on Tuesday, the company said in a surprise announcement that came less than two weeks after it overhauled its board and nominated four new independent board members.

Robert Franklin and Donald Carty had been in charge of talking to Barrick’s institutional investors about their concerns regarding the company’s governance. They joined Barrick in 2006 when the gold producer bought Placer Dome, where they served on the board. Mr. Carty is currently the chairman of Porter Airlines Inc.

They had led the search for the new slate of independent Barrick directors, which culminated in a board revamp announced early this month that included the planned exit of chairman Peter Munk along with two other long-standing directors. Major Barrick shareholders had clamoured for boardroom changes after it awarded Barrick co-chairman John Thornton with a $11.9-million (U.S.) signing bonus, which he used to buy Barrick stock.

The unexpected departure of two more Barrick directors signals that institutional investors continued to look for governance improvements even after the board overhaul, earlier this month.

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ONTC needs change: Gravelle – by Michael Gravelle (Sudbury Star – November 18, 2013)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Michael Gravelle is Ontario’s minister of Northern Development and Mines.

The transformation of the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission is, expectedly, of considerable interest to northerners. That is why, as minister of Northern Development and Mines, I continue to work alongside a dedicated group of Northerners that include members of my ONTC advisory committee, ONTC management and union representatives to transform the ONTC. We share a goal of sustainable telecommunication and transportation services and we certainly share the goal of a prosperous North.

I would, however, like to take this opportunity to clarify a few points. 
Last week, Ontario’s Auditor General published a special report on the ONTC. The report clearly acknowledged the significant challenges and complexity of transforming the ONTC. At the same time, she specifically notes that, “There is little doubt that without change, the operation of the ONTC in its current structure will require taxpayers to subsidize its operations on an annual basis.”

This is a subsidy that is only projected to grow into the future.
Our discussions with northern leaders show a clear consensus that the current state of the organization is not sustainable and change is needed. It is also clear that the services provided by the ONTC are vital to Northern communities. Transformation of the ONTC is intended to save taxpayers money in the long run, while ensuring vital transportation and communications services continue to be provided to northerners.

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Liberals’ latest disaster in works leaves northern Ontario vulnerable – by Christina Blizzard (Toronto Sun – December 18, 2013)

http://www.torontosun.com/home

TORONTO – It’s almost as if the Liberal governments of Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne want to turn out the lights in northern Ontario, shut the place down and walk away from it.

The disastrous decision to shut down Ontario Northland Railway — a vital passenger link for northern communities — was bad enough. It was supposed to save $230 million. Last week we heard from auditor general Bonnie Lysyk it will probably cost around $820 million to shut it down.

The latest disaster in the works is a plan to cut Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) fire services to Kirkland Lake — a plan that will leave an area the size of France without fire protection, says Kirkland Lake Mayor Bill Enouy.

“We have no protection in Timiskaming right now because they tell us they’re protecting us from Cochrane or Timmins, which are 145 km away,” he told me. Kirkland Lake was hard hit by forest fires in 2012. Without the MNR firefighters, those infernos would have been even more devastating.

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OMA NEWS RELEASE: Let’s look at Canadian mining’s all-star female team

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

The achievements and leadership qualities of 15 women working in the Canadian mining sector have been acknowledged through the Women in Mining U.K. launch of the 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining Project. Its goal is to recognize and promote the significant impact of females in the mineral industry.

“WIM (UK) has collaborated with WIM groups all over the world in order to reflect a broad cross-section of global industry talent in the 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining Project,” said Amanda Van Dyke, Chair of WIM (UK). “From engineers and geologists, to finance professionals and investors, each woman has been selected because of the lasting impact she makes on those around her as a positive role model and her contribution to the industry.”

“WIM (UK) congratulates each of these women and is pleased to celebrate their efforts to make the mining industry a more inviting and viable option for working women of different backgrounds,” she added. “Each woman contributes to the mining industry in her own meaningful way as endorsed by their nomination.”

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