Aborigines have a right to economic development – by Wayne Bergmann (The Australian – September 30, 2015)

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

In his victory speech, new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced: “There has never been a more exciting time to be alive than today and there has never been a more exciting time to be an Australian. We will ensure that all Australians understand that their government recognises the opportunities of the future.”

If federal, state and territory governments are to ensure that Aboriginal Australians are included in these “opportunities of the future”, it is obvious their first priority should be to support the economic initiatives of Aboriginal people.

Remarkably, some governments do not understand this. Take the most recent Queensland state governments.

On Cape York Peninsula near Aurukan, there’s $20 billion worth of bauxite waiting to be mined. The traditional owners of the area, the Wik and Wik Way people, eager to be part of the economic development of their region, formed a joint venture with an Australian mining company to create Aurukan Bauxite Developments and planned to mine the resource.

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BHP Billiton’s split may have lessons for Alcoa – by James Regan (Reuters U.S. – September 29, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

SYDNEY – In what could be a cautionary tale for Alcoa Inc, global miner BHP Billiton’s decision to spin off non-core businesses into a separate company is yet to pay off for shareholders.

Alcoa announced on Monday it will break itself in two, separating a faster growing plane and car parts business from traditional alumina and aluminum production as shareholders seek higher returns amid a commodity slump.

BHP used a similar rationale for ring-fencing select operations in Australia, southern Africa and South America into what became South 32 last May to concentrate on its most profitable commodities.

South32 shares fell to a record low on Tuesday of A$1.38, more than a third below its listing price. BHP stock, at A$21.61 at Australia’s Tuesday close, is the lowest in seven years.

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Peru Declares Martial Law in Two Regions After Protests – by Ryan Dube (Wall Street Journal – September 29, 2015)

http://www.wsj.com/

Protests against the country’s biggest copper project resulted in at least three deaths

LIMA, Peru—Peru on Tuesday declared martial law in parts of its southern highlands after protests against the country’s biggest copper project resulted in at least three deaths.

The protests are the latest to hit Peru’s mining sector, which is one of the world’s top producers of copper, gold and silver. Mining accounts for about 50% of Peru’s exports.

The prime minister’s office said that martial law would be implemented in four provinces in the Apurímac region and two provinces in the neighboring Cuzco region, located high in Peru’s southern Andes.

Local residents clashed with police on Monday during protests against the $7.4 billion Las Bambas copper mine, owned by a consortium led by China’s MMG Ltd.

During the 30-day period of martial law, civil liberties like freedom of association and movement will be restricted, while police are allowed to enter houses without search warrants.

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NEWS RELEASE: Trans-Pacific Partnership will benefit Canada’s mining sector

Canadian economy cannot afford to be left out of major trade deal

OTTAWA, Sept. 29, 2015 /CNW/ – The Mining Association of Canada (MAC) expressed its firm support for Canada’s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

“Canada’s mining industry has been a strong advocate for liberalized trade and investment flows for many years,” stated Pierre Gratton, MAC’s President and CEO. “NAFTA, free trade agreements with Chile, Peru, Colombia, and other countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia have all helped to increase Canadian exports and investment, supporting jobs for Canadians here and abroad. TPP, representing such a massive trade block, including critical emerging markets, is a trading partnership Canada must not risk being left out of.”

The TPP is a multilateral trade negotiation that currently comprises 12 countries: the United States, Australia, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Peru, Chile, Brunei Darussalam, and Canada. Together, these countries represent a market of nearly 800 million consumers and a combined GDP of $28.5 trillion – nearly 40% of the global economy.

Canada’s exports of metals and minerals to TPP countries were worth on average $158.6 billion per year from 2012 to 2014. Through the reduction of tariffs, operators in Canada stand to gain significantly with TPP partners.

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West Virginia Miners Play Second Fiddle to the Molly Maguires – by Mark Hand (Counter Punch.com – September 29, 2015)

http://www.counterpunch.org/

In search of improved working conditions and livable wages, mine workers in two major coal producing states resorted to violence against coal mine owners and managers. The militants in one of those states are celebrated as heroic fighters of America’s industrial age. In the other state, the miners’ campaign for human progress is omitted from state history books.

In Pennsylvania, the state contributed funds to build a monument to honor the Molly Maguires, a secretive Irish organization that allegedly killed coal company officials as retribution for their treatment of miners. In museums and gift shops in the state’s anthracite coal region, visitors can purchase t-shirts and other memorabilia honoring the Mollies, 20 of whom were hanged after they were found guilty of murder and other serious charges in the late 1870s.

A big-budget Hollywood movie, titled The Molly Maguires, was released in 1970 with a radical coal miner, played by Scottish actor Sean Connery, as the hero and a Pinkerton detective, played by Irish actor Richard Harris, as the anti-hero.

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NEWS RELEASE: Iran mining eyes $15 billion of foreign investment (Press TV – September 29, 2015)

http://www.presstv.ir/

Iran plans to attract $15 billion of foreign investment in its vast but largely underdeveloped mines and mining industry sector, an official says.

“The huge quantities of mineral resources call for attracting and absorbing domestic and foreign sources,” Deputy Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Mohammad Khazaee said on Tuesday.

Iran’s mineral reserves are estimated at a whopping 60 billion metric tons, including 37 billion metric tons of proven deposits. Officials say known reserves have been found on explorations over only 7% of Iran’s total area.

“The mining sector is in fact the main base and the mother of development for other sectors which needs special attention,” Khazaee said.

“According to the sixth national development plan which is in the formulation stage, $15 billion in foreign investment is envisaged to be attracted in the mines and mining industries sector,” he added.

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Rights Group: Filipino Child Miners Risk Lives in Gold Mines (Associated Press/New York Times – September 29, 2015)

http://www.nytimes.com/

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine government has failed to protect thousands of children, some as young as 9 years old, who risk their lives by working in illegal, small-scale gold mines under terrifying conditions, a human rights group said Wednesday.

Human Rights Watch’s report said the children work in unstable 25-meter (80-foot) deep pits or underwater along coastal shores or rivers, processing gold with mercury, a toxic metal that can cause irreversible health damage. Those who dive for gold stay underwater for several hours at a time in 10-meter- (30-foot-) deep shafts, receiving air through a tube attached to an air compressor.

The New York-based group says it interviewed 135 people, including 65 child miners from 9 to 17 years of age, in eastern Camarines Norte and Masbate provinces in 2014 and 2015.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz told the Associated Press that the government is addressing the problem by prosecuting those forcing the children to work, and by providing the children with health, education and livelihood programs.

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Glencore’s Glasenberg, once the hunter, now the hunted – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – September 30, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, AUSTRALIA – It must be tempting for Rio Tinto Chief Executive Sam Walsh to contemplate whether he should buy Glencore, almost a year after fending off an unwelcome approach from his now beleaguered rival.

It’s safe to say the almost 30 percent plunge in Glencore’s shares to a record low on Monday has laid to rest any hope that the mining and trading company had of pulling off a merger deal with Rio Tinto, which is vying with Brazil’s Vale for the title of the world’s largest iron ore producer.

When Glencore boss Ivan Glasenberg mooted a deal with Rio Tinto in July last year, the shares were trading around 344 pence ($5.19), while those of Rio Tinto were around 3,244 pence.

By Monday, Glencore’s stock was down 80 percent to 68.62 pence, while Rio Tinto’s was at 2,111 pence, a drop of about 35 percent.

These numbers alone make any new bid by Glencore fanciful, but they do raise the possibility that Glencore itself is vulnerable.

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Charging into Yukon’s new gold rush – by James Kwantes (Vancouver Sun – September 29, 2015)

http://www.vancouversun.com/

DAWSON CITY — It is possible to travel by boat for hours down the Yukon River to Dawson City without spotting another human, although you will likely see moose and black bears — and if you’re lucky, a grizzly.

It is quite a contrast from the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896 to 1899, when treasure hunters turned the river into a superhighway of steamboats, barges, canoes and rafts.

One of the stops for prospectors was Coffee Creek, a farm and trading post. Today, the waystation is a barge stop and base camp for Kaminak Gold, one of several Vancouver-based companies taking part in a modern-day Yukon gold rush. Kaminak’s four-million-ounce Coffee gold deposit lies in nearby mountains.

“Thousands of prospectors would have stopped there over the years,” Kaminak founder and chairman John Robins said with a smile. His appreciation for the irony is heightened by a personal connection — his great-great-grandfather was a prospector who was part of the original gold rush.

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Mark Steen remembers… “My Old Man:” The Uranium King…Part 2 – The author debunks a few tall tales and tells what really happened in 1952 – by Mark Steen (Canyon Country Zephyr – April/May 2002)

http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/

At the beginning of my first article in The Zephyr about my father, Charlie Steen, and his discovery of the Mi Vida mine and its consequences, I wrote that people couldn’t seem to resist the impulse to distort and rewrite the history of Moab’s most famous prospector. I pointed out that falsehoods about my father’s uranium discovery and his role in the Uranium Boom were now finding their way into print in historical publications.

Potato Chips & Bananas

Two good bad examples of people distorting the truth or concocting half-truths about my father’s role in changing the course of the uranium industry clearly illustrate this point. In Utah’s official centennial history, Utah: The Right Placeby Dr. Thomas G. Alexander, the author has my Dad feeding his family on “potato chips and bananas” while he searched for uranium “with a Geiger counter under one arm and a bundle of Geological Surveys under the other.”

Aside from the well-known fact that my father couldn’t afford a Geiger counter and the lack of printed geological information about the Big Indian area prior to the Uranium Boom, Dr. Alexander, who has three university degrees in history, actually seems to think that six people could live for more than two years on potato chips and bananas! I wonder what level of sobriety the old timer who spun that yarn was in when that tale was told?

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“My Old Man:” The Uranium King (Part 1) – Charlie Steen’s youngest son ‘sets the record straight’ about the life and times of Moab’s most famous prospector – by Mark Steen (Canyon Country Zephyr – February/March 2002)

http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/

My father, Charlie Steen, has always maintained that the truth about his discovery of the Mi Vida mine and its consequences is a much better story than the fiction and half-truths that people insist on perpetuating. Despite the fact that his uranium discovery is one of the most publicized and well documented mineral discoveries in history, people can’t seem to resist the impulse to distort and rewrite history.

Unfortunately, this isn’t confined to bar-room reminiscences and tales told by old miners in rest homes. Articles about other peoples’ roles in my father’s discovery and observations by individuals who never met any of the players involved in the events of fifty years ago are now finding their way into print in historical publications. These accounts range from hard-luck stories about people who staked the Mi Vida ore body before my father, but couldn’t raise the money to drill where they knew a fortune was awaiting them, to lies about grubstakers being cheated out of millions because they couldn’t prove they had financed Charlie Steen’s prospecting activities.

Perhaps the most absurd of all of these revisionist discovery stories is the one that has my father’s jeep-mounted drill breaking down two or three miles from his intended destination; and, since he couldn’t go any further, he supposedly decided to drill for uranium where his rig had come to a halt. In this patently false version, Utah’s premier uranium mining area owes its discovery more to mechanical failure than to human endeavor.

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Copper Prices Surge on Supply Disruptions in Chile, Peru – by ESE ERHERIENE And TATYANA SHUMSKY (Wall Street Journal – September 30, 2015)

http://www.wsj.com/

In Chile, output at the world’s biggest copper mine, Collahuasi, was slashed by 30,000 tons a year due to low prices

Copper prices rose Wednesday as mine disruptions in Latin America and optimism for demand from China ushered buyers into the market.

The most actively traded contract, for December delivery, was recently up 9.70 cents, or 4.3%, at $2.3485 a pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In Chile, output at the world’s biggest copper mine, Collahuasi, was slashed by 30,000 tons a year due to low prices. The mine accounted for 6% of global production in 2014.

Meanwhile, Peru declared a state of emergency in the area around MMG Ltd.’s Las Bambas mine after clashes between police and protesters left three people dead. Peru is the world’s third-largest copper producer, after Chile and China, but has struggled to resolve opposition from rural communities to mining in recent years.

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Glencore seen reluctant to step up asset sales to include top mines – by Eric Onstad and Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo (Reuters U.S. – September 29, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON/JOHANNESBURG, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Debt-laden Glencore may unload all its agricultural assets instead of just a stake, analysts said, but the commodity group is unlikely to expand its divestment programme to include top mines.

Selling assets is one prong of a wider strategy by the Swiss-based trader and miner to cut about a third of its $30 billion debt and to regain the trust of investors after its shares tumbled by about three quarters this year to record lows amid weak global commodity prices.

On Tuesday, Glencore shares bounced and the group said it was “operationally and financially robust”.

Earlier this month, Glencore outlined a plan to reap $2 billion for its debt reduction plan by selling a minority stake in its agricultural business and also the rights to precious metals extracted from its copper and zinc mines, among other possible asset sales.

On Monday, Glencore provided a taste of what might come with the $8 million sale of a Brazilian nickel project.

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Glencore Copper Mines Seen Top of China’s Asset Shopping List – by David Stringer (Bloomberg News – September 30, 2015)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

As Glencore Plc looks to reduce its debt load by selling assets, analysts say Chinese companies would be most interested in the Swiss trader’s copper mines.

With China’s economic slowdown roiling commodity markets, Glencore has announced measures to shore up its balance sheet, including issuing new shares, scrapping dividends and selling assets. While it hasn’t flagged its copper operations alongside options including the sale of stakes in agriculture assets and precious metals streaming deals, the China Mining Association, Argonaut Securities Asia Ltd. and Clarksons Platou Securities say the Chinese would be willing buyers.

China’s commodities companies are seizing on the turmoil in markets to fund or buy suppliers or assets. Iron-ore giant Vale SA signed four deals with Chinese counterparts in May including a credit agreement worth as much as $4 billion, while MMG Ltd., the overseas unit of China’s biggest state-owned metals trader, led a group that bought the Las Bambas copper project in Peru from Glencore last year for about $6 billion.

“If Glencore wanted to have some asset sales then they could definitely speak to some of these Chinese companies,” Helen Lau, a mining analyst at Argonaut Securities, said by phone from Hong Kong. Potential buyers are seeking assets with high grade, good logistics and low political risks, Lau said. “Of course the price is very, very important.”

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Plan for cleaning up uranium tailings ready for approval – by Alex MacPherson (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – September 28, 2015)

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/

The cleanup of a derelict northern Saskatchewan uranium mine could move one step closer this week.

The Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) — which is overseeing the multi-million-dollar Gunnar Remediation Project on behalf of the provincial government — will present its plan to cover the site’s three tailings deposits at a Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) hearing in Ottawa on Wednesday.

Canada’s nuclear watchdog will consider evidence presented by all interested parties, including the SRC and northern First Nations, before making its decision, which is expected in about six weeks, a CNSC spokesman said Monday.

The Gunnar mine site is located near Uranium City on the northern shore of Lake Athabasca, about 800 kilometres north of Saskatoon. The deposit was discovered in 1952 and mining commenced three years later.

When it was operational, the site featured an open pit mine, an underground mine, two acid plants, a uranium mill, and various ancillary buildings. Three tailings deposits totalling some 4.4 million tonnes and a large waste rock pile eventually accumulated on the site.

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