November 7, 2014 – Republic of Mining

Development in northern Quebec questioned – by Staff (Canadian Press/Metro News – November 6, 2014)

November 7, 2014

MONTREAL – A former director general of Parks Canada has written a letter to Premier Philippe Couillard expressing concern that his government is backtracking on a major commitment in the development of northern Quebec.

The government had previously stated that 50 per cent of the land covered by what is called the Plan nord— or northern plan — would be protected from industrial activity. Nikita Lopoukhine, president emeritus of the World Commission on Protected Areas, has asked Couillard to clarify recents reports that government policy had changed.

He said he had learned from a provincial organization attending a panel last week that the new policy was to “implement conservation measures on 50 per cent of the Plan nord territory, including 20 per cent that would be protected areas.”

Lopoukhine said in his letter, dated Nov. 3, that he wants to make sure the government is not pulling back on its previous commitment of 50 per cent.

“I believe this substitution could be interpreted to mean that mining, forestry and energy projects could be included in the 50 per cent and (I think) that is not compatible with the vision expressed in the Plan nord,” he wrote in his letter.

Iron ore rhetoric should shift from China demand to oversupply – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – November 7, 2014)

November 7, 2014

http://www.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Nov 7 (Reuters) – One of the recurring themes in iron ore’s precipitous decline this year has been the weak state of Chinese demand. The problem with this is that it simply isn’t true.

It doesn’t take much of a search to find media and analyst reports that reference softness in China’s steel market as one of the major reasons for Asian spot iron ore’s 43-percent decline this year to a five-year low of $75.60 a tonne on Thursday.

“Iron ore falls further as Chinese buying interest stalls” was a Reuters headline from Oct. 17.

Just in case anybody thinks I’m picking on my own colleagues, this one is from competitor Bloomberg on Thursday: “Iron drops to lowest since 2009 as APEC curbs dent demand” – a reference to steel mills closures ahead of the upcoming meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group in Beijing as part of measures to control pollution.

It’s not just news reports, analysts have also pointed to the slowing growth of China’s economy.

“In China, slowing industrial trends and deteriorating property fundamentals are having an adverse impact on bulk commodity demand – prices of iron ore and thermal coal both hit five-year lows,” said a recent research report from a major bank.

Quebec First Nations petition province to include rare earths under uranium ban – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – November 6, 2014)

November 7, 2014

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – A group of Quebec- and Labrador-based First Nations would like to see the Quebec government include rare earth elements in the same moratorium currently in force for uranium.

The Quebec government had decreed a moratorium on issuing exploration, development or mining permits for uranium projects in the province on March 28, 2013, until an independent study of the impacts of uranium was completed.

The Assembly of the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador (AFNQL), which currently represented 43 tribal chiefs, said, during an assembly last month, the First Nations resolved to support the Eagle Village and Wolf Lake Algonquin First Nations in opposing Canadian firm Matamec Explorations’ proposed Kipawa rare earths project on First Nation reserve lands.

The AFNQL noted that it would communicate its position to the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE), which was holding public hearings this month on the uranium industry in Quebec.

The local opposition to uranium exploration and mining had all but snuffed out the provincial industry, exemplified by uranium project developer Strateco Resources in June, when it mothballed its flagship Matoush project, in the Otish Mountains, after spending more than $123-million.

Miners reveal a poverty of thinking on coal – by Richard Denniss (The Age – November 8, 2014)

November 7, 2014

http://www.theage.com.au/

Richard Denniss is the Australia Institute executive director.

In a world in which war is waged for humanitarian reasons but sending doctors and nurses to prevent an outbreak of Ebola is considered too risky, almost any spin seems possible. But surely the mining industry’s claim that the best way to tackle global energy poverty is to build more coal mines takes the biscuit.

Coal companies have been very vocal in recent times about the billions of people around the world without access to energy or safe cooking facilities. The CEO of coal mining company Peabody Energy went as far as to say that tackling energy poverty is “the world’s number one human and environmental crisis”.

Now, after a century of making a fortune selling coal to those who could afford it and ignoring those who couldn’t, the mining industry has had an epiphany. Poor people in poor countries lack many of the necessities that Australians take for granted. And, according to their PR firms at least, the miners really want to do something about it.

The world’s greatest hearts and minds have long wrestled with the issue of how to lift people out of poverty. Mahatma Gandi, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates – they’ve all spent years pondering where best to start and how best to help. Is it by educating the masses, preventing aids and malaria, providing micro finance, or just cutting taxes and letting the market rip?

Iron Ore Has Biggest Weekly Loss Since May on Supply Glut – by Jasmine Ng (Bloomberg News – November 7, 2014)

November 7, 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Iron ore capped the biggest weekly decline in more than five months amid expanding global surplus, with Vale SA’s opening of a port in Malaysia highlighting rising supplies and investments by the world’s largest shippers.

Ore with 62 percent content delivered to Qingdao lost 4.7 percent this week to $75.84 a dry metric ton, according to data from Metal Bulletin Ltd. The decline completed three weeks of losses, deepening a bear market. Prices, which rose 0.6 percent today to snap a five-day losing streak, reached $75.38 yesterday, the lowest since September 2009.

The raw material lost 44 percent this year as producers including Brazil’s Vale, the world’s largest shipper, and BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto Group (RIO) in Australia expanded supplies and spurred the glut. Data this week showed record exports of the steel-making raw material from Australia’s Port Hedland last month. Mill closures ordered by China this week to curb air pollution for a global summit were also seen hurting demand.

“Demand in China is weak because some mills were asked to stop production before the APEC meeting,” Ben Cheung, head of metals at ABN Amro Group NV in Hong Kong, said before the price data was released. “The major producers are still expanding supply to try to increase market share. The over-supply situation doesn’t look like it will be alleviated next year.”

Collapse in global mining forces major cuts at SNC-Lavalin – by Nicolas Van Praet (Globe and Mail – November 7, 2014)

November 7, 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.

MONTREAL — The global rout in commodities and sputtering economic growth in many parts of the world is taking a toll on SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., forcing a major cut in its employee head count as the multinational company tries to carve out more sustainable operations for the years ahead.

Canada’s largest engineering and construction firm said Thursday it would slash 4,000 jobs as it deals with a collapse in global mining activity and stunted economic growth, particularly in emerging markets such as China. Montreal-based SNC also revised its 2014 profit outlook sharply downward as it reported third-quarter earnings that missed analyst estimates.

The stock tumbled 8 per cent in trading to $42.34, its biggest one-day loss since Feb. 28, 2012. That’s when the company disclosed an independent investigation into undocumented payments that subsequently ballooned into a wider corruption scandal.

“Investors probably weren’t expecting such a significant reduction in head count,” said Denis Durand, a partner at Montreal-based Jarislowsky Fraser Ltd., SNC’s largest shareholder. “The size of this surprised.”

The moves are part of a five-year effort by SNC chief executive Robert Card to revamp the company as he tries to turn it into one of the world’s largest engineering players and close the door on corporate conduct trouble that has forced out several senior executives.

Vale clear to tear down Sudbury’s Superstack – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – November 7, 2014)

November 7, 2014

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

Vale Ltd. won’t need approval from the Ministry of the Environment to tear down the Superstack if the company chooses to do so.

But it will require ministry approvals for any replacement smokestack it intends to build. Kelly Strong, vice-president of Vale’s Canada and UK operations, told a business group this week that the Brazil-based mining company is conducting an analysis to determine if it should replace the 1,250-foot chimney.

Company officials will likely decide by the end of the year what to do with the structure, which was built in 1972 at a cost of about $25 million.

Speaking to reporters after a presentation to the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce, Strong said he realized any talk of disposing of the structure was going to stimulate conversation in the community.

Very little sulphur dioxide is travelling up the Superstack, said Strong, so it doesn’t make sense to use it any longer. Vale is completing the $1-billion Clean AER (Atmospheric Emission Reduction) Project that will cut current S02 emissions by 85%.

Kate Jordan, spokeswoman for the Ministry of the Environment, said Vale wouldn’t need ministry approval to remove the stack.

Canada’s Potash to spend over $53 million in US Clean Air Act case – by Jonathan Stempel and Rod Nickel (Reuters U.S. – November 6, 2014)

November 7, 2014

http://www.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – Potash Corp of Saskatchewan Inc agreed to spend more than $52 million on plant improvements and pay a $1.3 million civil penalty to resolve U.S. charges that it violated the Clean Air Act over the emission of harmful pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, U.S. authorities said.

Thursday’s accord with the world’s largest fertilizer producer includes a consent decree, and is the largest in the U.S. Department of Justice’s effort to address Clean Air Act violations by sulfuric acid producers.

It resolves claims by the Justice Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that three Potash units built or modified several sulfuric acid plants in ways that allowed the emission of excess sulfur dioxide into nearby communities.

Potash spokesman Tom Pasztor said that while the company disagrees with the EPA’s interpretation of the Clean Air Act, “we opted, rather than litigate, to work with them and other regulators to resolve this dispute.”

Sulfur dioxide has been linked to respiratory and cardiovascular problems, including premature death, and contributes to acid rain, haze and smog.

Mr. Obama, pull down that anti-Keystone XL wall – by Peter Foster (National Post – November 6, 2014)

November 7, 2014

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

This Sunday, November 9, marks the twenty fifth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, that great symbol of the brutal repression and utter failure of Soviet Communism.

Communism survives only in North Korea and Cuba, although Cuba is reportedly looking to “putinismo” as a possible way out. Russian president Vladimir Putin has in fact provided useful historical service in reminding us of what was on the other side of the wall. His conspicuous pining for the Soviet good old days has prevented Communism from being shoved down the memory hole as a “noble experiment” that inexplicably went astray.

He has also, ironically, exposed the folly of Europe’s commitment to end the age of fossil fuels in order to save the world from capitalism.

Last weekend, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, the politically-corrupted body that is meant to assess climate science, released the final “synthesis” of its Fifth Assessment Report. The mainstream media duly trumpeted the IPCC’s “dire” warnings, but fewer and fewer individuals are listening.

That is not just because people have more immediate worries than how to achieve an emission-free world in 2100. It’s because those regimes most committed to combating climate catastrophe have wreaked the greatest policy fiascos, and nowhere moreso than in Europe.

My Turn: Transboundary mines a looming problem [Mining on British Columnbia/Alaska border] – by Joe Mehrkens (The Juneau Empire – November 7, 2014)

November 7, 2014

http://juneauempire.com/

Joe Mehrkens is a retired forest economist living in Petersburg.

On Oct. 24, a public forum was held on the potential impacts to the Southeast fishing industry from new large mines in British Columbia. This is not the same old battle between greenies and boomers over development. It is a large, growing problem that has no institutional mechanisms to ensure environmental safeguards or provide any means to compensate third parties for potential damages.

This summer, a large tailings dam failed at the Mount Polley mine. The broken dam dumped 14.5 million cubic feet of water and slurry into salmon waters (Polley Lake, Hazeltine Creek, Quesnel Lake and Cariboo Creek). Even more disturbing, these polluted waters are a tributary of the Frazier River — the most productive sockeye salmon river in British Columbia. While total damages will be not quantified for years, it is characterized as Canada’s worst environmental disaster in modern times. Many more large mines are planned as BC expands its energy grid to new mineral deposits.

The Mount Polley failure may be a harbinger of the future. Environmental restoration will be minimal or nonexistent, and there will be no compensation for damage to non-mining interests — on either side of the border. Even if damaged parties successfully sue for damages, the mining company can go bankrupt. That process can result in shallow pockets when it comes to damage awards.