October 2015 – Republic of Mining

Focus on Africa for next commodities ‘supercycle’ – by Paul Murphy (Financial Times – October 30, 2015)

October 30, 2015

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

Battered miners will pivot to continent when excess capacity is finally squeezed out

There was a frenetic air to trading in London’s listed miners this week — things were faster, wilder and even more uncontrolled to the downside than battered sector players have come to expect.

No one mentions the concept of a commodities “supercycle” these days, not after four years of a downturn with no end in sight. The themes of oversupply and faltering Chinese demand are well-worn, but the focus recently has moved to corporate debt levels and dividends. Or rather debt and the non-deliverable nature of those dividends.

There is also the slightly unintuitive issue of rapidly falling production costs in the mining industry, noted by Investec’s sector specialist Marc Elliott this week as he and his research team again chopped their commodity price forecasts across the board.

Taken in tandem with a belated realisation that China itself built massive new mining capacity during the latter stages of the boom years —

The Canadian resource sector’s messy duty to consult – by Dwight Newman (National Post – October 30, 2015)

October 30, 2015

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

Dwight Newman is professor of law and Canada research chair in indigenous rights, University of Saskatchewan and visiting fellow, James Madison Program, Princeton University.

This week, closing arguments were heard in a lawsuit that highlights the Ontario provincial government’s slowness in developing clear approaches to the duty to consult Aboriginal communities and in offering any clarity to those attempting to operate in the Canadian resource sector.

The decision to be rendered has widespread implications. The case has parallels to the situation of other resource companies, and it highlights the significant dangers in governments trying to muddle through the interaction between Indigenous rights and resource development without making clear decisions and enacting clear legal frameworks. Future prosperity for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities alike will be affected by what happens with these sorts of lawsuits.

Upbeat gold miners report stronger results – by Lisa Wright (Toronto Star – October 30, 2015)

October 30, 2015

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Barrick, Goldcorp increase production, cut costs in third-quarter

There was a funny sound that hasn’t been heard in several years on Barrick Gold Corp.’s latest earnings conference call: optimism.

Battered by one of the worst bear markets ever for metals, the Toronto-based gold giant reported a second straight quarter of positive cash flow and that it’s well on the way to meeting its massive debt reduction target of $3 billion (U.S.) this year.

“We’re getting Barrick back into a position of financial strength,” said company president Kelvin Dushnisky, who was audibly more upbeat on a call with analysts Thursday. “We’ve really started to deliver,” he said.

Mining Explorers 2015: Majors carry Alaska exploration – by Shane Lasley (Petroleum News – November 1, 2015)

October 30, 2015

http://www.petroleumnews.com/

Alaska producers continue robust programs, other majors seek opportunities

The owners of Alaska’s five large metal mines – Sumitomo Metal Mining Pogo, Hecla Mining Co., Kinross Gold Corp., Teck Resources Ltd. and Coeur Mining Inc. – accounted for nearly half of the US$96 million of exploration spending in the state during 2014. This year, similar investments by these large companies and other majors are again providing solid footing for the Far North state’s mineral exploration sector.

Avalon Development Corp. President Curt Freeman said he is seeing more mining majors shopping for deals in Alaska.

“The junior markets are still flat, but that plus-three-year slump in the junior explorer market has caused joint ventures and leases and mining claims to unravel, providing well-heeled producers with opportunities to acquire at the bottom of the market. Expect to see more producers become involved in Alaska’s mineral industry this year,” the longtime Alaska geologist predicted.

Sumitomo Metal Mining Pogo – a joint venture between Japanese firms Sumitomo Metal Mining Company (85 percent) and Sumitomo Corp. (15 percent) – accounted for nearly 20 percent of the exploration spending in Alaska during 2014 and 2015.

Corruption concerns have increased implications for mining and exploration M&A – by Simon Rees (MiningWeekly.com – October 29, 2015)

October 30, 2015

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Buyers are becoming increasingly wary of corruption issues when buying projects, operations or other companies, and those looking to sell will have to be more mindful of this, says PwC Canada MD and anticorruption expert Frederic Miller.

“Nobody these days wants to buy a problem. That’s why they hire people like me to look and ensure [that] they’re not about to step into something they don’t want to step into,” he told an audience at a recent Canada-Southern Africa Chamber of Business corporate social responsibility (CSR) seminar.

KEEP IT CLEAN

As the mining and exploration sectors languished in a downturn, purchasing and mergers and acquisition (M&A) activity was dominated by spin-outs, noncore asset divestment or fire sales by those desperate for liquidity. For those lucky enough to be buying, the top concern was to ensure no corruption was associated with the M&A target.

Hollinger pit now operating 24/7 – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – October 30, 2015)

October 30, 2015

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – An update to city council on the latest developments at the Hollinger open pit mining included the response to a fly rock the size of a “softball” coming over the berm and landing next to the water tower.

Don Burke, the new manager of the open pit, having recently moved to Timmins from Red Lake, explained the mine has taken measures in response to that incident.

He said they brought in a world-renowned blasting expert to offer additional direction and have introduced new protocols when blasting rock in “pioneering areas” of the mine.

Mayor Steve Black told Burke, “I am happy to see you have taken measures to prevent this from happening again but I don’t want to understate the seriousness and the concern that obviously us at city hall and residents did have in that regard.

Escalating Violence and Mining Encroachment Spark Protests in the Philippines – by Hilary Beaumont (Vice News – October 28, 2015)

October 30, 2015

https://news.vice.com/

Hundreds of sombre indigenous protesters marched through the dark streets of Manila Sunday nightafter travelling for days to the Philippine capital. They held banners and signs calling on the government to end the escalating violence and killings of Lumads in the mineral-rich southern Mindanao region.

The Lumads, an indigenous group with traditional land in the Mindanao, say the government is sanctioning military and paramilitary operations on their land in order to displace them and allow mining companies, including those with Canadian, Australian and British interests, to enter the region.

In recent months, increased violence and murders of Lumads in the Mindanao region has forced thousands to evacuate communities and schools. On Aug. 18, five Lumads were killed, allegedly by government soldiers, according to Human Rights Watch, and on Sept. 1, three leaders of a Lumad community were allegedly killed by a paramilitary group. Bishop Modesto Villasanta told Filipino newspaper Sun Star that soldiers stood by and did nothing as the paramilitary murdered them.

The Alberta disadvantage – by Peter Foster (National Post – October 30, 2015)

October 30, 2015

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

There were few surprises in this week’s first budget from Alberta’s NDP government, but one great paradox. Projections of eventual fiscal balance depend on the recovery of an industry which the government is committed not merely to diversify away from but euthanize.

The environmental left usually has the luxury of living in a dream world in which they can enjoy the fruits of a fossil-fuelled society while they condemn it, and dwell in Utopian visions of a wind- and solar-powered future. The Alberta NDP is unusual in being forced to confront fossil-fuel reliance very directly, although it doesn’t appear to have quite caught on. Then again, that’s why it’s an NDP government.

As the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers noted in a submission to the province’s royalty review panel this week, the oil industry employs approximately one in three Albertans, it generates two-fifths of Alberta’s GDP, and is responsible for more than a third of provincial revenues.

So the government wants to get away from it as quickly as possible, both for the sake of diversification and the health of the planet.

Slash in Goldcorp’s share price shows that investors still wary of gold’s prospects – by Ian McGugan (Globe and Mail – October 30, 2015)

October 30, 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.

Skittish investors have grown sensitive to any hint of problems in the gold sector after four years of falling metal prices and disappointing share performance.

They demonstrated their anxiety on Thursday by chopping 10 per cent off Goldcorp Inc.’s share price after the company reported a surprise loss for the quarter, largely as a result of inventory adjustments and other non-cash items.

Analysts said the fall in Goldcorp’s share price was also related to teething problems at a number of its operations. At its new Éléonore mine in Quebec, for instance, folds and cracks in the rock are resulting in lower-than-expected ore grades being mined. In addition, the company is facing labour issues at its Cerro Negro mine in Argentina and is having to rethink how it approaches the Cochenour ore deposit in Ontario after exploratory drilling revealed a different shape from what had been expected.

Sherritt widens loss as lower commodity prices weigh – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – October 28, 2015)

October 29, 2015

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Diversified miner Sherritt International has increased its net loss by C$158.7-million during the third quarter ended September, as lower prices for nickel, cobalt and oil and gas products weighed on its bottom line.

The Toronto-based firm reported a net loss from continuing operations of C$210-million, or C$0.72 a share, compared with a loss of C$51.3-million, or C$0.17 a share, in the prior-year period.

Excluding special items, the company reported an adjusted loss of C$91.4-million, or C$0.31 a share, missing analyst expectations of a loss of C$0.30 a share, on revenue of C$91.9-million.

Consolidated revenue declined 19% to C$246.5-million for the period, mainly owing to lower nickel and oil prices, which were partly offset by a weaker Canadian dollar relative to the US dollar. The gross working interest (GWI) oil output in Cuba was also lower as oil output from new development wells was not able to offset natural reservoir declines, the company stated.

Zimbabwe: Small Scale Chrome Miners Sing the Blues (All Africa.com – October 29, 2015)

October 29, 2015

http://allafrica.com/

WHEN the ban on chrome ore exports was said to have been lifted in June, miners along the Great Dyke thought their woes would soon be over.

But the joy was short-lived as companies such as the Zimbabwe Iron and Smelting Company (Zimasco) and Zimbabwe Alloys Limited (Zimalloys) among others who collectively own 78 percent of claims along the Great Dyke somewhat refused to relax terms of contracts. The companies still dictate the prices of chrome ore mined by tributary miners.

Most chrome miners especially around Shurugwi have borne the brunt of poverty for many years due to the fact that their short-term contracts can be revoked any time by claim owners even without notice. Life has thus increasingly become difficult.

The Chrome miners have been selling their chrome ore at between US$35 to US$40 per tonne to Chinese nationals who are exploiting them by offering low prices for their ore.

Former Inco exec to receive honourary doctorate from Laurentian – by Staff (Sudbury Northern Life – October 28, 2015)

October 29, 2015

http://www.northernlife.ca/

The former chief operating officer of Inco Ltd. will receive an honourary doctorate from Laurentian University in June.

Mark Cutifani, now the CEO of Anglo American, returned to Sudbury this week where he took in an international mining safety conference, before delivering an Oct. 27 lecture at Science North in the evening.

He was the guest speaker at Laurentian University’s Goodman School of Mines’ GSM lecture. Cutifani, who worked for Inco from 2003-2007, focused his speech on changing the conversation around mining and how the industry can make positive connections with communities and economies.

The hour-long lecture was well attended, and Cutifani was tested with questions about leadership challenges and the mining industry’s track record with respect to the environment, citing recent developments about Vale leaking toxic runoff into the city’s waterways.

The announcement that he’ll receive the honourary doctorate came from Laurentian’s vice-president, academic, Robert Kerr.

One uranium mine in Niger says a lot about China’s huge nuclear-power ambitions – by Armin Rosen (Business Insider Australia – October 25, 2015)

October 29, 2015

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/

The odds of finding much of anything seem slim in northern Niger’s unnerving expanses of hazy white desert.

The land is so vast, so untethered from any obvious landmarks that when straying just a few hundred feet off of the inconsistently paved road between Abalak and Agadez, it’s hard to shake the fear that the driver won’t be able to find the highway again.

Even with plenty of water, gas, and daylight on hand, there’s a general feeling of being marooned. In the post-World War II years, huge amounts of cheap electricity were needed to fuel the breakneck growth of Western economies.

At the same time, nuclear weapons became the ultimate embodiment of national power and prestige.

So the discovery of uranium in Niger in 1957 was a much-needed economic boon for a country that still ranks 187th on the Human Development Index.

For Mongolia, China’s slowdown is provoking emergency response – by Michael Kohn (Chicago Tribune/Bloomberg – October 24, 2015)

October 29, 2015

http://www.chicagotribune.com/

While China’s slowing economy has singed stock markets around the world, no nation is more affected than neighboring Mongolia.

Things have gotten so bad that the government in this mineral-rich nation is planning job and salary cuts for bureaucrats, and the sale of of shares in state- owned companies including the postal service.

Sandwiched between China and Russia, Mongolia is an early illustration of fallout from slower growth in the world’s second-biggest economy. “When China sneezes, we get a cold. That is how the situation is. It really affects us in a major way,” Dale Choi, founder and director of the research firm Independent Mongolian Metal & Mining Research, said in a phone interview.

That’s because about 88 percent of Mongolia’s exports — mostly commodities including coal — wound up in China in 2014 and falling revenue from these products is pushing Mongolia deeper into economic crisis. Earlier this month the country’s Finance Minister Bolor Bayarbaatar unveiled emergency austerity measures so the government can pay its bills.

COLUMN-Colombia is the ultimate cap on Asian coal prices – by Clyde Russell (Reuters India – October 29, 2015)

October 29, 2015

http://in.reuters.com/

Oct 29 (Reuters) – There are several reasons why coal prices in Asia are unlikely to rally much in the coming years, but the most compelling one is also likely one of the most obscure: Colombia.

Why should a South American country that hasn’t exported much coal to Asia recently provide the cap for prices?

Because as soon as Asian coal prices rise to a level that would make sense for Colombian miners to resume exports, they will, and they have as much as 25 million tonnes of spare capacity in their production and export chain.

It’s true that Colombia and other producers in the Americas, such as the United States and Canada, have been largely forced out of the world’s biggest coal market by the relentless decline in prices.

But while U.S. and Canadian miners may struggle to resume exports to Asia even if prices do recover, given they have been closing pits, their Colombian counterparts are largely ready to increase output.