August 13, 2014 – Republic of Mining

NEWS RELEASE: KWG’s Canada Chrome Corporation to Seek Leave to Appeal Divisional Court Decision

August 13, 2014

http://www.kwgresources.com/

TORONTO, ONTARIO — (Aug. 13, 2014) – KWG Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE:KWG)(FRANKFURT:KW6) subsidiary Canada Chrome Corporation (“CCC”) has served notice of its intention to seek an Order of the Court of Appeal of Ontario granting leave to appeal the decision of the Divisional Court of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice released July 30, 2014.

As reported on August 1, 2014, the Divisional Court decision ruled that CCC’s consent should be waived in an application for an easement to build a road over its mining claims.

About KWG: KWG has a 30% interest in the Big Daddy chromite deposit and the right to earn 80% of the Black Horse chromite where resources are being defined. KWG has also acquired interests in provisional patents including a method for the direct reduction of chromite to metalized iron and chrome using natural gas.

KWG also owns 100% of Canada Chrome Corporation which has staked claims and conducted a $15 million surveying and soil testing program for the engineering and construction of a railroad to the Ring of Fire from Exton, Ontario.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Following B.C. disaster, Alaskans seek tougher review of Canadian mines – by Pat Forgey (Alaska Dispatch News – August 13, 2014)

August 13, 2014

http://www.adn.com/

JUNEAU — Following a massive mine waste spill in Canada, Alaska state and Canadian federal officials are being asked to do more to protect parts of Alaska downstream of several Canadian mines.

“That water belongs to us, too,” said Rob Sanderson, a Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indians of Alaska vice-president and co-chair of the United Tribal Transboundary Mining Workshop.

He’s most concerned about the Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell mine in Canada east of Ketchikan, which he said is seven times the size of the Mount Polley Mine in interior British Columbia. The breach of the latter mine’s tailings dam contaminated the watershed of Canada’s important Fraser River.

“If that ain’t an eye opener down at Mount Polley, I don’t know what is,” Sanderson said of the KSM mine risks. “Could you imagine if they had a disaster like that at KSM if it was in full production, or even half production, it would be a disaster beyond words,” he said.

But state officials are defending provincial and federal regulators in Canada, and saying their environmental protection measures are as strong as those in Alaska or the United States.

NEWS RELEASE: Barrick Responsibility Report Now Available

August 13, 2014

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – Aug 12, 2014) – Barrick Gold Corporation has published its latest annual Responsibility Report, which provides a detailed overview of the company’s corporate responsibility performance. The report is available at barrickresponsibility.com. This is the 12th year that Barrick has published a Responsibility Report.

“Barrick’s priority is to achieve operational excellence, and that goal extends to every area of the company, especially to operate safely and responsibly,” says Peter Sinclair, Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs. “We know that a culture of innovation, transparency and continuous improvement is essential to achieve this priority, and this report provides an important way to communicate our performance and progress in this regard.”

Highlights from the 2013 Report include:

Community

Significant economic contribution to host countries and communities. In 2013, this contribution totaled $15.2 billion, including $11.1 billion in the purchase of local and national goods and services, $1.7 billion in taxes and royalties, and $2.3 billion in wages and benefits.

$7.1 billion of the company’s total economic contribution went to developing and emerging countries in 2013, providing significant economic opportunities to these countries and host communities.

Mount Polley mine spill: a hazard of Canada’s industry-friendly attitude? – by Peter Moskowitz (The Guardian – August 13, 2014)

August 13, 2014

http://www.theguardian.com/uk

A dam at a waste pond on the site of a British Columbia mine burst last week, releasing 4.5m cubic meters of potentially toxic slurry into virtually untouched forest

The scale of the devastation only became apparent from the air. A dam at a waste pond on the site of a British Columbia open-pit mine had burst, releasing 10m cubic meters of water and 4.5m cubic meters of potentially toxic slurry into virtually untouched forest, lakes and rivers into an area of Canada populated mostly by the indigenous First Nations peoples.

Soda Creek First Nations chief Bev Sellars took a helicopter tour to assess the scale of the disaster. “It looked like an avalanche, but avalanches don’t have toxic waste in them,” she said.

Government reports about the incident at the Mount Polley mine on 4 August have been cautiously optimistic, saying the surrounding water is likely safe to drink, and that wildlife will not be significantly impacted by the spill.

But the industry-friendly attitude that has become a hallmark of both the British Columbia and federal governments in Canada over the past decade has led to scepticism. Local activists and residents say they are waiting for data of their own to determine the safety of the surrounding environment. In the meantime, just over a week on from the spill, they are working to determine why it happened in the first place.

Lekgotla to reflect on bruised [South African] mining sector – by David McKay (Miningmx.com – August 12, 2014)

August 13, 2014

http://www.miningmx.com/

[miningmx.com] – CALL it bad luck, but Gold Fields may find itself in the naughty corner again as South Africa’s mining industry, its union, and government worthies gather again at the Mining Lekgotla – the talk-shop its participants insist isn’t a talk-shop.

Last year, the gold producer was the by-word for executive excess following revelations its CEO, Nick Holland, had been paid R45m in salaries and long-dated share awards.

For the current year, it’s the group’s shortcomings in implementing social and labour plans. This follows a Business Day article this week which cited a letter from the mineral resources department (DMR) threatening to suspend South Deep – Gold Fields most precious asset in terms of gold production and resources – unless it improved practices such as mentorship.

How employers treat employees will be seized with vigour at the lekgotla especially as Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s deputy president and former non-executive director of Lonmin, acknowledged on August 12 that the platinum firm’s living-out allowance policy had “unintended consequences” leading up to the Marikana atrocity in August, 2012.

Gold Fields might therefore be subject to some tut-tutting, but they’ll also be questions about the looming mining charter deadline and who qualifies and who doesn’t for a medal, and just how empowerment obligations will be finally met by the industry.

Imperial Metals insurance likely not enough for dam collapse cleanup – by Gordon Hoekstra (Vancouver Sun – August 12, 2014)

August 13, 2014

http://www.vancouversun.com/index.html

Restoration costs expected to be hundreds of millions of dollars

Imperial Metal’s $15-million property and business interruption insurance coverage is likely to fall short of the cleanup cost of the collapse of its mine waste dam at Mount Polley last week.

The company also has $10 million in third-party liability insurance, triggered if a party other than the company is responsible for damage.

While Imperial Metals says it is too early to provide a cleanup cost, the collapse of the mine waste dam in 1998 of the Los Frailes lead-zinc mine near Seville, Spain, cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Imperial Metals vice-president of corporate affairs Steve Robertson said Saturday he would be guessing at a cleanup at cost at Mount Polley. The company has, however, vowed to do all it could to “make right” the effects of the dam collapse.

“I don’t know if it’s nowhere near (enough insurance) — it would we way too early to tell,” Robertson said in an interview. A BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. analysis pegged the cost to the company at $200 million. That does not include legal damages that could double that amount.

Asbestos industry still strong in developing world – by Katy Daigle (Canadian Manufacturing.com – August 12, 2014)

August 13, 2014

http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/

Quebec was the world’s biggest asbestos producer until it exited the business in 2012 after many questioned why it mined and exported such a material

The Associated Press -VAISHALI, India – The executives mingled over tea and sugar cookies, and the chatter was upbeat. Their industry, they said at the conference in the Indian capital, saves lives and brings roofs, walls and pipes to some of the world’s poorest people.

The industry’s wonder product, though, is one whose very name evokes the opposite: asbestos. A largely outlawed scourge to the developed world, it is still going strong in the developing one, and killing tens of thousands of people each year.

“We’re here not only to run our businesses, but to also serve the nation,” said Abhaya Shankar, a director of India’s Asbestos Cement Products Manufacturers Association. In India, the world’s biggest asbestos importer, it’s a $2 billion industry with double-digit annual growth, at least 100 manufacturing plants and some 300,000 jobs.

The International Labor Organization, World Health Organization, the wider medical community and more than 50 countries say the mineral should be banned. Asbestos fibers lodge in the lungs and cause many diseases. The ILO estimates 100,000 people die every year from workplace exposure, and experts believe thousands more die from exposure outside the workplace.

Mine in northern Mexico was slow to report huge acid spill: official – by Mark Stevenson (Canadian Manufacturing.com – August 13, 2014)

August 13, 2014

http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/

Spill at copper mine near Mexico-U.S. border was caused by defects in newly constructed leaching or holding ponds

The Associated Press – MEXICO CITY- A civil defence official says a private mine in northern Mexico did not immediately report a massive acid spill, allowing it to flow into a river that supplies water to tens of thousands of people.

Carlos Arias, director of civil defence for the northern state of Sonora, said the spill at a copper mine near the United States border was caused by defects in newly constructed leaching or holding ponds.

Such ponds hold the overflow of acids used to leach metal out of crushed rock. But Arias said a pipe either blew out or became unseated on Aug. 7, allowing nearly 38 million litres of mining acids to flow downstream into a river.

“Definitely … it was an error” in the design or construction of the retaining pond, Arias said. He said the sulfuric acid spill was detected by residents downstream the next day, and that the mine operators hadn’t notified state authorities.

Arias said tests have revealed the spill contains pollutants like arsenic above acceptable levels. Water supplies from the river have been cut off to about 20,000 people.

Gold royalty firms Franco Nevada, Sandstorm Gold team up for first time as business evolves – by Peter Koven (National Post – August 13, 2014)

August 13, 2014

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

Two mining royalty firms have teamed up in a financing deal for the first time, a signal their business is evolving and more cooperation is likely across this sector in the future.

Franco-Nevada Corp. and Sandstorm Gold Ltd. announced this week that they will jointly provide at least US$100-million to True Gold Mining Inc. for the company’s Karma gold project in Burkina Faso. The transaction has two key elements: a fixed repayment in gold, and a long-term streaming agreement in which the royalty companies will acquire a portion of the gold from Karma.

It is a small deal, but insiders said it provides a glimpse of how this business is rapidly changing as royalty deals start to resemble more conventional project financing.

The major royalty firms (Franco, Silver Wheaton Corp., Royal Gold Inc. and Sandstorm) have become an increasingly crucial source of capital for emerging mining companies over the last several years. They have stepped up and done a large number of transactions as the banks became reluctant to deal with any single-asset miners.

Traditionally, the royalty companies provided capital to miners in exchange for a passive royalty on future production. Over the last decade, they also did more active streaming deals, in which they acquired gold and silver from the projects they invested in.

Beware Hasty, Unwise Policy Decisions After Mount Polley – by Kenneth P. Green (Huffington Post – August 12, 2014)

August 13, 2014

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

Kenneth P. Green – Fraser Institute Senior Director, Natural Resource Studies

The pictures coming out of northern British Columbia where the Mount Polley mine tailings pond ruptured on Aug. 4 are painful to see. The fact that the site is remote, and that only a small number of people are likely to be directly affected doesn’t mitigate the visceral pain one feels at seeing images of uprooted trees, and mud-clogged streams and rivers. Humans inherently find healthy ecosystems beautiful and degraded ecosystems painful.

One also has to sympathize with the people near Mount Polley, who have been (temporarily at least) told not to consume water from their local waterways, and who fear damages to salmon and other wildlife, and damages to their livelihoods that partly depend on tourism.

In the aftermath of such incidents, it’s normal to ask what can be done to prevent this from happening again, and indeed, such questions are not only normal, they are at the heart of how we learn as human beings.

But it’s one thing to seek to learn from a disaster and it’s another thing to incite emotional responses to promote hasty, unwise public policy actions. Despite the fact that virtually nothing was known about the cause of the Mount Polley leak, only two days after the spill, the David Suzuki Foundation had set up an automatic petition portal on their website calling on the provincial government to institute a moratorium on new mine approvals, a suggestion that would imperil a substantial part of BC’s economy. This is “ready, fire, aim” policy-making.

COLUMN-Australian coal miners running out of costs to cut – by Clyde Russell (Reuters India – August 13, 2014)

August 13, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

Aug 13 (Reuters) – Coal miners in Australia have spent the past two years desperately cutting costs in a bid to survive falling prices, but this strategy is running out of steam.

While coal miners have been successful in lowering costs, they still haven’t managed to do it anywhere near as fast as prices have declined, and now the scope for further costs reductions is limited.

It’s likely that mining costs will start to rise again in the next year or two as the current round of cost-cutting has led to under-investment and a focus on extracting the easiest, or cheapest, to mine coal.

While coal miners are by nature a tough bunch, the prevailing sentiment at this week’s Coaltrans Australia conference in Brisbane was that prices need to increase soon or more mines will have to be shut, or placed on care and maintenance.

Data from consultants CRU illustrates the problem for coal miners in Australia, which is the world’s largest exporter of coking coal used in steel-making, and number two in thermal coal used in power plants.

This shows that mining costs have fallen, but only marginally, with site costs in New South Wales state dropping from around $65 a tonne in 2012 to $63 a tonne this year, while those in the other major producing state, Queensland, fell from about $61 to $60.

NEWS RELEASE: Ontario Coalition of Aboriginal People opposed to Goliath Gold Project Wastewater Plans

August 13, 2014

(WABIGOON, ON – August 11, 2014) The Ontario Coalition of Aboriginal People (OCAP) is strongly opposed to the plan of Treasury Metals’ Goliath Gold Project to discharge effluent into Blackwater Creek or pipe it directly to Wabigoon Lake through a submerged diffuser. The recent catastrophic spill of wastewater and tailings waste in British Columbia is a warning to everyone in this region of the importance of protecting Wabigoon Lake.

It has come as a surprise to many people in the Dryden region that Treasury Metals plans to submit their environmental impact study and that they don’t see any red flags concerning the project. These facts contrast strongly with the concerns about the health and environment from Aboriginal Peoples and others living in the region.

“Wabigoon Lake is of great importance to Aboriginal Peoples in this region and the name itself is Ojibwe for ‘flower’. The pristine waters of the lake are a major attraction for recreational boaters and anglers and this generates significant economic benefits. Allowing metal mining corporations to use our lake as a dump for their wastewater and tailings is a pollution risk that we should not be taking,” said Brad Maggrah, OCAP President.

The concerns and issues of Aboriginal Peoples about federal and provincial environmental policies, which allow mining companies to destroy lakes and waters with toxic tailings, have fallen on deaf ears. Aboriginal Peoples have a deep respect and spiritual connection to lands and waters, and the pollution of our freshwater lakes is of great concern.

Oil prices fall to 13-month low despite global conflicts – by Jeffrey Jones (Globe and Mail – August 13, 2014)

August 13, 2014

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.

CALGARY — Ample crude supplies and a weak global economic outlook have pushed world oil prices to a 13-month low despite armed conflicts that have flared up in key producing regions.

Oil markets are “almost eerily calm” even as geopolitical risks abound in the Middle East and in other important energy regions, the International Energy Agency said in the August edition of its much-followed Oil Market Report.

The world is well supplied, after Saudi Arabia ramped up production past 10 million barrels a day, its highest in nearly a year, and its OPEC partner Libya eked out tentative gains. They have made up for losses in Iraq, Iran and Nigeria this summer, the IEA said. Meanwhile, North America’s oil-production renaissance has hummed along unabated.

At the same time, the IEA cut its oil-demand forecast for 2014 by 180,000 barrels a day, after crude deliveries in the Americas and Europe in the last quarter sank by 440,000 barrels a day and the global economy underperformed previous expectations. It trimmed its outlook for all-important Chinese demand growth to 2.9 per cent from 3.3 per cent.

B.C. further rescinds water-use ban near Mount Polley mine spill – by Sunny Dhillon and Andrea Woo (Globe and Mail – August 12, 2014)

August 13, 2014

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.

VANCOUVER — The province of British Columbia has announced that a ban on water use near the Mount Polley mine spill has been further rescinded and that fish appear to have escaped major harm – but any sense of normalcy has been offset by fear the spill could ultimately cost hundreds of area residents their jobs.

On Tuesday, a ban that at one time left up to 300 people without water to drink, bathe in or give to pets and livestock was further rescinded. Acting on positive findings in additional water tests, Interior Health said the do-not-drink order now only remains in effect for the immediate “impact zone” of the spill, where few people live.

Trevor Corneil, a medical health officer with Interior Health, said there is no reason to believe water outside the impact zone was exposed to unsafe levels of contaminants.

Environment Minister Mary Polak said “almost all” contaminants tested in water samples from Polley Lake meet federal and provincial drinking water guidelines, with the exceptions of pH and aluminum, which “slightly exceed” them.

Aboriginal institute trains mining industry workers – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – August 13, 2014)

August 13, 2014

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

Seven Generations Education Institute is seeking to create a home grown workforce to position Aboriginal people in northwestern Ontario to take advantage of coming opportunities in the mining sector.

The Aboriginally run Treaty 3 organization, established in 1978, was the recipient of $5.2 million in federal funding last spring to provide training and real world experience to First Nation, Inuit and Métis participants.

The one-time grant funding will be spread out over 15 months. The money, which arrived last April through Ottawa’s Skills and Partnership Fund, is aimed at skill development of new workers coming into the mining sector and placing them in a position to fill vital support roles as development begins to unfold in the region.

“The goal is not to create miners,” said Brenda Cameron, project coordinator of the Mining Workforce Preparation Program for Seven Generations. “It’s to create a trained Aboriginal workforce where people can secure a job somewhere in the mining industry.

“You need people to staff the offices, build the mines, tradespeople, electricians, first responders and line cooks.” Those skills are also transferrable to other sectors as well.