March 11, 2015 – Republic of Mining

Watertight is the word as crews work to restore salt mine’s old shaft liners – by D’Arcy Jenish (Canadian Mining Journal – February/March 2015)

March 11, 2015

http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Cementation Canada Ltd. of North Bay, Ont. bills itself as “one of the premier shaft sinking companies in the world,” and it has the track record to back up that claim.

With some 20 projects on the go in Canada, the U.S. and elsewhere around the world, Cementation is also on record for having sunk the deepest shaft in Canada at the Kidd Creek Mine in Timmins, the deepest single lift shaft in the U.S. at the Resolution Copper Project in Superior, Arizona, and the deepest single lift shaft in the world at the South Deep Gold Mine in South Africa.

But by the end of March, Cementation crews will start a completely different sort of project at the Sifto Canada salt mine in Goderich, Ont., on the shore of Lake Huron. They will begin refurbishing the liners inside two of the mine’s three shafts, which will take almost four years, and rank among the most challenging work the company has taken on in recent years.

“Technically, this is a very different project,” says President and Chief Executive Officer Roy Slack. “It’s not like designing a shaft or shaft liner from scratch. We have to adapt to what’s there.”

In both cases, what’s there is a concrete liner that has deteriorated and sprung leaks. In some places water is seeping in. Elsewhere, it is surging through the concrete as though driven from a garden hose.

COLUMN-Who benefits from the iron ore supply glut? Nobody? – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – March 11, 2015)

March 11, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

PERTH, March 11 (Reuters) – One question that skulks like an elephant in a room where the iron ore industry has gathered is who has benefited the most from bulging global supplies.

The Anglo-Australian pair of BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto are happy to tell you how they have successfully ramped up output at costs low enough to still rake in profits.

That was very much their message at this week’s Global Iron Ore & Steel Forecast conference in the Western Australia capital city.

The smaller miners suffering from the collapse in Asian spot iron ore prices are only too willing to speak of their battle to survive amid what they see as the destruction of the value of an industry that is Australia’s largest export earner.

The price of iron ore .IO62-CNI=SI hit its lowest on record on Tuesday, at $58 a tonne, with this year’s decline of 19 percent compounding last year’s slump of 47 percent.

Steel industry officials in China, the destination of two-thirds of the world’s seaborne iron ore, will also tell you how their industry suffers from overcapacity, poor profits and the economy’s shift to consumption-led growth.

Kidd tries deep mine drilling to extend life – by Ron Grech (Daily Press – March 10, 2015)

March 11, 2015

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – With Kidd Mine set to wind down by 2021, the company has been testing some long-held theories about the configuration of the ore body in hopes of extending the mine life.

“We drilled a 1.4 kilometre horizontal hole from 7,900 feet below surface,” said Tom Semadeni, general manager of Kidd Operations. They drilled two holes at the level, and to Semadeni’s knowledge, those were the “longest holes at these depths in the world.”

Semadeni, who provided Timmins city council with an update of its operations this week, said they conducted the drilling to test a theory which “has been around for many years, that the Kidd ore body goes way down and then at some point might curl back up again. We don’t see it at surface, we don’t see it part-way down from surface but we thought we would put in some wildcat holes at depth to test the theory.”

Zinc and copper are the key minerals extracted from the Kidd Mine, though the operation does produce a fair share of silver as well.

“We didn’t hit any significant mineralization but we did run some geophysical instruments and geochemical analysis down through the hole, and we’re analyzing that now,” said Semadeni. “We didn’t find the next motherlode but we will do some more analysis and if it makes sense, we’ll drill another hole.

Western Canada’s mining sector faces bleak employment outlook: report – by David Kennedy (Globe and Mail – March 10, 2015)

March 11, 2015

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.

From copper miners to the oil patch, plunging commodity prices are taking a toll on employment in Western Canada – a trend employers see persisting for at least another three months.

While most Canadian companies expect relatively steady hiring in the next quarter, miners in Western Canada are more likely to cut staff, the latest Manpower Inc. employment survey shows.

Across all sectors, 18 per cent of employers say they are looking to hire in the upcoming quarter, while only 5 per cent anticipate downsizing. Taking into account the seasonal adjustment, the net Canadian employment outlook is at 10 per cent, unchanged from last quarter and one percentage point higher than a year ago.

The net employment outlook is the percentage of employers expecting to bring on more staff, minus the percentage of employers expecting to cut back. “I can’t say that it’s strong from a year-over-year [comparison], when you’ve got a one-point percentage increase,” Michelle Dunnill, branch manager of Manpower’s Toronto office, said,“but given our challenges that are transpiring right now, [we’re] cautiously optimistic.”

Indonesia attracts $1.4 bln in investment for 11 nickel smelters – by Wilda Asmarini (Reuters U.S. – March 11, 2015)

March 11, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

JAKARTA – (Reuters) – Eleven new nickel smelters are to be built in Indonesia over the next two years at a cost of $1.4 billion, a mining ministry official said, a sign that laws requiring domestic processing of ores are having an impact after initial resistance from the industry.

Early last year, Jakarta put in place export restrictions aimed at forcing mining firms to develop smelting and processing facilities so that Indonesia could refine all of its raw ores and concentrates.

Most of the six new nickel smelters due to be finished in 2015 are located in Sulawesi, Coal and Minerals Director General Sukhyar told reporters late on Tuesday. They involve a combined investment of $920 million and will have capacity to produce 6,000 tonnes of refined nickel a year plus 66,000 tonnes of ferro nickel and 50,000 tonnes of nickel pig iron.

Another five nickel smelters set for completion in 2016 are all in Sulawesi, Indonesia’s main nickel ore region, and will cost about $468 million in total, Sukhyar added.

“We estimate that if all these nickel smelters are completed, in 2018 we will be able to process 30 million tonnes of nickel ore – 50 percent of our nickel ore exports in 2013,” he said, referring to exports before the January 2014 ban.

Cliffs Shuns Seaborne Iron Ore as Australia Unit for Sale – by Jasmine Ng (Bloomberg News – March 11, 2015)

March 11, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

(Bloomberg) — Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., the largest U.S. iron ore mining company, is quitting the seaborne trade in the commodity after the world’s biggest suppliers flooded the market with low-cost output and hurt prices.

The Cleveland-based company will focus on the U.S. market, where demand for steel is increasing, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lourenco Goncalves said at an industry conference in Perth, Australia, on Wednesday. The company’s operations in Western Australia are for sale, he said.

Iron ore tumbled 47 percent in 2014 and has extended losses this year as surging low-cost supply from Rio Tinto Group and BHP Billiton Ltd. outpaced demand growth, triggering a global glut. Goncalves, who took over as CEO in August after an activist investor ousted the previous management, has sold mines and rationalized other operations in the face of the slumping prices. Cliffs’ stock lost 71 percent over the past 12 months, and is at the lowest since 2004.

“Here in Australia, we have a very good operation,” said Goncalves. “The asset is for sale, even if someone comes and buys to shut it down, that’s fair game. We’d like to sell to someone that will continue to keep the mine in operation.”

College celebrates mining program, strikes new one at PDAC – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – March 10, 2015)

March 11, 2015

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.

Thunder Bay’s Confederation College celebrated a successful mining industry training alliance at the recent Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) Convention and confirmed a new one.

Its industry partner, Noront Resources, received the PDAC’s Environmental and Social Responsibility Award for its work with the Ring of Fire Aboriginal Training Alliance (RoFATA), along with other community initiatives with remote First Nation communities.

The award recognizes outstanding leadership in environmental protection and/or good community relations.

“We celebrate this incredible achievement of our community partner and are proud to have played a small part in their success,” said Confederation president Jim Madder in a March 9 news release. “Noront Resources has provided extensive support and leadership within the RoFATA program and has consistently demonstrated its commitment to education and providing pathways to employment in the mining industry.”

Launched in October 2013, RoFATA is training partnership between the college; Matawa First Nations and its training agreement holder, Kiikenomaga Kikenjigewen Employment and Training Services; and Noront.

The platinum story nobody is talking about – by Patrick Cairns (Mineweb.com – March 9, 2015)

March 11, 2015

http://www.mineweb.com/

Reasons for optimism.

Most investors currently view South Africa’s platinum industry with a huge amount of scepticism. Platinum stocks on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange have been shedding value in an environment where their balance sheets are deteriorating and free cash flows are close to zero.

Impala Platinum and Anglo American Platinum have both announced that they are looking to sell non-profitable mines. Glencore also recently told its shareholders that it will be unbundling its stake in Lonmin, which suggests that there is little hope for finding a buyer.

This is all taking place at a time when the prices of platinum group metals (PGMs) have remained depressed, with even the CEO of Impala Platinum, Terence Goodlace, recently commenting that he expects above-ground stocks to keep the platinum price low for another two to two-and-a-half years. On top of this, the seemingly hostile labour environment, power shortages and regulatory uncertainty make South Africa’s platinum mining sector appear like a place few would fear to tread. However, there is another side to the story.

Consider that 35 kilometres north west of Rustenburg, there are three new platinum mines being developed on the western limb of the Bushveld Complex. In total, $3.5 billion worth of capital is going into these ventures, which are all more or less within eyesight of each other.

Future Fumes?: Will Sudbury super stack be needed by Vale after retrofit project? (Canadian Mining Journal – February/March 2015)

March 11, 2015

http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

At more than 388m high and just over 36m wide at base, Vale’s “Super Stack” in Sudbury is unquestionably the city’s most outstanding feature.

In fact, it’s also one of Northern Ontario’s more outstanding features because it’s literally the tallest structure in the north and can be seen for miles from every direction as it towers over the city.

Even Sudbury’s world-renown “Big Nickel” pales by comparison when it comes to size and impressive landmarks. Built from almost 16,500m3 of concrete and strengthened with nearly 956 tonnes of 38mm and 13mm re-bar, the stack is a solid monument that has withstood the harshest of conditions that Mother Nature could throw at it.

Extreme cold and blowing snow, fierce winds and driving rain, heat and lightning, and even ground-shaking tremours, have barely made a mark on the stack. And, the fact that it’s also lined from top to bottom with 6.4mm nickel stainless steel and that its walls are 1.1m thick at the base and 267mm at the top, have all added to make the stack almost indestructible.

It was clearly built to last and since it started rising on the horizon in 1970, and subsequently going into service on August 21, 1972, the stack has performed as planned by safely carrying sulphur dioxide from INCO’s (now Vale’s) Copper Cliff smelter high into the atmosphere and away from the city.