August 26, 2014 – Republic of Mining

Gravelle mum on Ring of Fire development corporation – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Northern Life – August 26, 2014)

August 26, 2014

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Mines Minister says province will meet early September deadline to establish corporation

Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle said the province is not yet ready to announce a development corporation to lead infrastructure decisions around the Ring of Fire, despite a nearing self-imposed deadline.

Gravelle was not able to share new information regarding the long-awaited development corporation at the 2014 Energy and Mines Ministers’ Conference in Sudbury. The annual gathering of Canada’s provincial, territorial and federal mines and energy ministers is an opportunity for them to share best practices and build partnerships.

During her Speech from the Throne on July 3, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said the government would establish a Ring of Fire development corporation within 60 days.

“Your government commits $1 billion for transportation infrastructure to help access the Ring of Fire,” she said during the speech. “Your government will continue its efforts to bring the federal government to the table as a willing and active partner, and will seek a matching federal commitment to seize the opportunity for Ontario and Canada that lies in the Ring of Fire.”

Managing Mining Intelligence – the SAMSSA Solution – by Dick DeStefano (Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal -September 2014)

September 5, 2018August 26, 2014

Dick DeStefano is the Executive Director of Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association (SAMSSA). destefan@isys.ca This column was originally published in the September 2014 issue of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal.

When the Sudbury Area Mining Supply & Service Association (SAMSSA) was created in 2003 the founding fathers were looking for something of added value to assist member companies in improving their markets and business opportunities.

The idea of just having an association focused on a social environment offering coffee club meetings and the odd golf tournament and even a hard cover catalogue with direct mailing didn’t meet their needs in a rapidly growing digital age.

One of the most common comments was that the proliferation of industry news and global markets analyses was becoming overwhelming, contradictory and almost impossible to manage. In the process of developing this new service SAMSSA outlined its mandate which stated:

Mission – “Provide the most innovative and highest quality mining supply/products/services for domestic and worldwide markets.”

Peru to become world’s second-largest copper producer – by Andres Schipani (Financial Times – August 26, 2014)

August 26, 2014

http://www.ft.com/intl/companies/mining

Lima – Peru is set to become the world’s second-largest copper miner, behind neighbouring Chile, thanks to a $20bn pipeline of Chinese mining projects, according to senior officials in Lima.

Last month’s $7bn acquisition of Glencore’s Las Bambas copper project in Peru by China Minmetals’ MMG subsidiary has reinforced the links between the two countries, as Beijing seeks to secure more resources to drive economic growth.

MMG’s Las Bambas deal means Chinese backers are now behind one-third of all Peru’s new mining investments by value, estimated by the country at $61bn.

While US companies – including Newmont Mining and Freeport-McMoRan – have been among the biggest investors in Peruvian mining, Chinese projects in the country are now worth more than those from the US and Canada combined.

Eleodoro Mayorga, Peru’s energy and mining minister, said: “We have excellent relations with the Chinese; China has evolved as a partner. There is more openness, not only at a financial level, [but] also at trade and social responsibility levels.

“It is not the closed, traditional, governmental China, but transnational companies playing the market game,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times.

The case for U.S. oil exports – by Peter Foster (National Post – August 26, 2014)

August 26, 2014

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

The boom in U.S. petroleum production has led to an increasing clamour to overturn the ban on U.S. oil exports, a relic of the terrible energy policies of the 1970s.

The current agitation for exports is of more than passing interest to the Canadian oil industry, whose sales to the U.S. suffer a heavy discount due a combination of the U.S. boom and political hurdles to new pipeline construction.

However, those who support additional exports are – in the run up to the U.S. mid-term elections – facing populist concerns about the impact on gasoline prices, as well as perennial anxiety about energy security, not to mention opposition from environmental activists who want to end the age of oil.

If supporters of exports want an example of why free trade in energy is beneficial for jobs and growth, they should look to Canada, and to the benefits of reversing the misguided restrictions it imposed in the wake of the OPEC crises four decades ago.

Both oil and gas production have soared in the U.S. due to the application of fracking and horizontal drilling techniques, which enable access to previously uneconomic reserves. U.S. oil production is up more than 50% over the past five years, to more than eight million barrels per day, while imports are at their lowest level in almost three decades.

Quebec-Ontario electricity trade is smart, but not simple – by Christopher Ragan (Globe and Mail – August 26, 2014)

August 26, 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.

Last week, Quebec’s and Ontario’s premiers announced their desire to work together on crucial issues, including climate change, interprovincial trade and infrastructure. It is very positive for Canada when our two largest provinces recognize the benefits of co-operation. We should certainly hope they succeed, but let’s also be mindful of the obstacles in their way.

Especially interesting is the prospect of greater interprovincial trade in electricity. This would be a game-changer in Canada, and a very positive one. Quebec has a great deal of low-cost hydroelectricity available to export, and its current U.S. markets are becoming less interested in purchasing long-distance hydro power because of their own development of low-price shale gas.

At the same time, Ontario’s economy continues to grow but has few options for increasing its electricity capacity at costs anywhere close to Quebec’s. So the idea of Ontario buying electricity from Quebec is obviously sensible.

Any idea that is so obviously sensible must have serious problems, and there are at least three that come to mind.

The first will be the pressures from within Ontario to resist importing cheaper Quebec electricity. It will be argued that Ontario has built a world-class nuclear industry and that refurbishing existing nuclear plants and building new ones is necessary to keep this expertise at home.

“Our Resources, New Frontiers” Speech – by the Honourable Greg Rickford (Sudbury, Ontario – August 25, 2014)

August 26, 2014

Greg Rickford is Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources and this speech was given at the Energy and Mines Ministers Meeting in Sudbury, Ontario.

Check against delivery

Thank you, David [David Simpson, Vice-president, Union Gas], for those kind remarks. Let me welcome you all to Northern Ontario, our extraordinarily beautiful and vast region. I can’t think of a better place and a better time for us to be gathered here in Sudbury, the mining capital of the world and — more than that — the centrepiece for Canada on the global stage for perhaps the world’s best example of a fully integrated city.

We’re building a region here that has a lot to offer the world. So it’s fitting that we’ve got people from around the world and particularly from across the country and, in particular, my colleagues — ministers from across the provinces and territories — to join me at this conference. Over the next 24 hours, ladies and gentlemen, we’ll be discussing a wide range of issues and hearing from and engaging with industry. But this afternoon, I want to speak about the priorities that I believe are critical to an upward trajectory of expanding opportunity over the coming years and beyond.

We all know the importance of natural resource industries to Canadians. They account directly and indirectly for almost one-fifth of our GDP — as many as 1.8 million jobs in every part of the country. That resource development is the difference between communities surviving and communities thriving, and it helps pay for our social programs and education program and public infrastructure and the quality of our life — the things, as I said last evening, that define us as Canadians and tie together our social fabric.

49 ‘dangerous occurrences’ at B.C. mine tailings ponds in past decade: ministry data – by Gordon Hoekstra (Vancouver Sun – August 26, 2014)

August 26, 2014

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

Dike breach, sinkholes and leaked tailings among incidents

Dangerous occurrences at tailings storage facilities at mines in B.C. between 2000 and 2012 included a breach of a dike, the discovery of sinkholes and leaked tailings. The vast majority of the dangerous occurrences involved incidents with equipment, which crashed, sunk into tailings storage facilities or flipped over.

In several cases, workers were injured and two workers died. The B.C. Ministry of Energy and Mines provided details of 49 dangerous occurrences at tailings ponds at the request of The Vancouver Sun following Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley tailings dam collapse on Aug. 4.

The dam failure released millions of cubic metres of water and tailings containing potentially toxic metals into Quesnel Lake in central B.C., and has increased scrutiny at the province’s 98 tailings facilities, which store mine waste.

The chief inspector of mines’ annual reports provide an annual breakdown of the number of dangerous occurrences, but the mines ministry initially balked at providing details of the dangerous occurrences, requested 10 days ago.

Neither B.C. Mines Minister Bill Bennett nor chief inspector of mines Al Hoffman were available for comment Monday.

Cliffs CEO: Non-Core Assets For Sale ‘at Right Price’ – by John W. Miller (Wall Street Journal – August 26, 2014)

August 26, 2014

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

Company Prefers to Sell Assets Rather Than Separate Into Two Firms

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. CLF +1.19% ‘s new chief executive wants to sell less-profitable mining assets at the right price rather than separate into two firms.

“I’ve made it clear, I don’t support splitting up the company,” said Lourenco Goncalves, a steel industry executive recently installed as chairman and chief executive following a boardroom coup orchestrated by hedge fund Casablanca Capital LLC.

One option floated by the fund had been to divide Cleveland-based Cliffs, the U.S.’s largest iron-ore miner, and refocus the company around its most profitable business segment: five iron-ore mines in Minnesota and Michigan. Anglo-Australian miner BHP Billiton BHP.AU -0.08% and Canton, Ohio’s steel and steel parts maker Timken Co. TKR +0.40% recently carried out similar restructurings.

Iron ore is the main ingredient in the making of steel, and Cliffs’s U.S. mines have benefited from the resurgence of the Detroit auto industry, drill-pipe demand for natural-gas wells and a geographical advantage over iron-ore superpowers Brazil and Australia.

Other Cliffs assets, such as coal mines in the U.S., iron-ore assets in Australia and Canada and a suspended chromite project in Canada, have been less profitable. Cliffs, one of the worst performers on the S&P 500 index in the past two years, has been hurt by declining iron-ore prices, which have fallen 20% in the past year, mostly because of oversupply. Cliffs reported a $1.9 million loss in the second quarter, compared with a $133.1 million profit a year earlier. Revenue dropped 26%.

UPDATE 1-Newmont withdraws mining arbitration case against Indonesia – minister – by Michael Taylor and Yayat Supriatna (Reuters India – August 26, 2014)

August 26, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

Aug 26 (Reuters) – Newmont Mining Corp has withdrawn its international arbitration filing against the Indonesian government, the industry minister said on Tuesday, in a possible sign of a breakthrough over its seven-month dispute that halted exports.

Newmont’s Indonesian CEO Martiono Hadianto said the mining giant had reached a “constructive solution” over new mining rules, and expects to resume production at its copper mine soon. He declined to give additional details and a company spokesman could not be immediately reached.

U.S.-based Newmont, which declared force majeure at its Batu Hijau copper mine in June and then filed for arbitration in July, is in dispute with the Indonesian government over an export tax imposed in January that the U.S.-based miner says conflicts with its mining contract.

“I heard Newmont’s lawyer has withdrawn the case a few days ago,” Indonesia’s Industry Minister Mohamad Hidayat told Reuters, adding that investment board chief Mahendra Siregar had confirmed the news.

Indonesia’s Chief Economics Minister Chairul Tanjung is expected to make an announcement on Newmont’s arbitration on Wednesday, said Susyanto, the director of the law bureau for the mines ministry.

Feds say: Province needs to decide – road or rail – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – August 26, 2014)

August 26, 2014

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

The Ontario Government should stay focused on deciding on a transportation corridor to get to the Ring of Fire and reaching revenue agreements with first nations before worrying about striking deals with the federal government on infrastructure projects.

Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford says the federal government is already involved in training and local infrastructure programs on first nations that will get people and communities ready when the area is opened to development.

Rickford is in Sudbury this week, attending the 2014 Energy and Mines Ministers Conference. Discussion is expected to focus frequently on developing the rich chromite deposits located 540 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay.

Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne has pledged $1 billion to build infrastructure in the Ring of Fire, and is seeking a matching commitment from the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Rickford has said, and he repeated it Monday in Sudbury, that the federal government has Build Canada Fund money available to share the cost of infrastructure, but only after the province makes decisions about what those specific projects will be.

We can work with feds on Ring of Fire: Gravelle – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – August 26, 2014)

August 26, 2014

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

While Michael Gravelle wasn’t ready to unveil a development corporation for the Ring of Fire yesterday, the Northern Development and Mines minister did tell an audience of policymakers and industry leaders from across Canada that action on this front is looming.

“We are working very hard, right now, to get a corporation established and I will have an update on that very, very soon,” said Gravelle, during a keynote address at the Energy and Mines Ministers’ Conference at College Boreal.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne earlier promised her government would create a corporation to guide development of the James Bay chromite deposits within 60 days of the July 3 throne speech — in other words, by early September — and Gravelle said this remains the plan.

“We will meet the commitment,” he pledged. Addressing federal colleague Greg Rickford, the Natural Resources minister and minister for FedNor, Gravelle said he looked forward “to having a more substantive conversation with you once we have the details in place on a development corporation.”

Such a creation “is of vital importance,” said Gravelle, “because it will bring partners together to make the infrastructure decisions — partners who live in and around the region who are closely affected, like the Matawa member First Nations.”

UN agency to study organized crime’s role in illegal gold mining – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – August 26, 2014)

August 26, 2014

http://www.mineweb.com/

“These criminals are stealing the minerals of the country”, says Capt. Paul Ramaloko of the South African police force investigative unit, Hawks.

RENO (MINEWEB) – The United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) is reportedly launching a global study in September examining the role organized crime allegedly plays in the production and distribution of precious metals such as gold, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Although Mineweb could not find a reference to the new study on the UNICRI website, the organization’s magazine, Freedom From Fear, has an article on illicit trafficking in precious metals in its latest issue.

The agency claims that illicit trafficking of precious metals has become the focus of organized criminal groups “in producing countries such as South Africa, Africa, Russia, the USA, South America and China”.

“Unfortunately, law enforcement in general has not recognized the emerging pattern of this global crime yielding high returns on the black market that funds other types of organized crime and terrorism and has thus not accorded it the same priority as they have other series crimes,” said F3 magazine in an article by South African Peter H. Bishop.