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Key permit for copper project in Peru fuels fears of new round of unrest – by Marco Aquino (Reuters U.S. – July 10, 2019)

https://www.reuters.com/

LIMA (Reuters) – Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra’s decision to grant a green light for a long-delayed copper project is emerging as a key test of his ability to ease opposition to mining that has derailed billions in investments in the world’s No. 2 producer.

Opponents of Southern Copper Corp’s $1.4 billion proposed Tia Maria mine readied plans on Wednesday for an indefinite strike, a day after Vizcarra’s government granted the company a construction license that two of his predecessors had declined to issue.

Tia Maria is expected to add 120,000 tonnes of copper annually to Southern Copper’s production portfolio at the “very competitive cash cost” of $1 per pound, Moody’s Investors Service said.

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Hudbay CEO steps down after weathering Waterton proxy fight – by Danielle Bochove and Aoyon Ashraf (Bloomberg News – July 10, 2019)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Just months after withstanding a hard-fought proxy battle, the chief executive officer of Hudbay Minerals Inc. is leaving the Toronto-based miner.

Alan Hair, who has been with the company for more than 20 years, has stepped down, the company said Wednesday in a statement. Board member Peter Kukielski will step in as interim CEO while the company searches for a permanent replacement.

It’s been a tumultuous year for Hudbay, which saw one its largest shareholders, Waterton Global Resource Management, wage a public battle for sweeping changes to the miner, including, originally, Hair’s resignation. Waterton had sought to install Kukielski as CEO.

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Clean water or mining pollution for the nation’s favorite wilderness? – by Mike Dombeck (The Hill – July 8, 2019)

https://thehill.com/

When you picture wilderness, the first thing that comes to mind may be the shoreline of a clean, unpolluted lake. Which is reasonable given the protections we provide to national wilderness areas.

But that is likely to change if the Trump administration and Twin Metals Minnesota have their way. Twin Metals is a mining firm owned by Chilean conglomerate Antofagasta.

The aggressive push by the Trump administration to force approval of a sulfide-ore copper and nickel mine in northern Minnesota’s Superior National Forest will almost certainly pollute the waters of the nation’s third largest National Forest and vast Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The administration recently announced renewal of two mining leases for Twin Metals.

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Taseko Mines seeking court injunction after First Nation members block work at Fish Lake – by Andrea Woo (Globe and Mail – July 4, 2019)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A B.C. mining company is seeking a court injunction after its crew was blocked from beginning work this week on a controversial open-pit mine near Fish Lake, also known as Teztan Biny.

Brian Battison, vice-president of corporate affairs for Taseko Mines Ltd., said the company has no other choice but to pursue the authoritative option after members of the Tsilhqot’in Nation blockaded access to the site on Tuesday. “What else can you do but rely on the law?” Mr. Battison said Wednesday.

The roadblock was set up roughly 80 kilometres from the site of the proposed New Prosperity copper and gold mine project, southwest of Williams Lake. When Taseko crews arrived on Tuesday, members of the Tsilhqot’in Nation told them they did not have access to the site.

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‘Poverty-driven’ artisanal mining in spotlight after tragedy hits Canadian miner’s Congo property – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – June 29, 2019)

https://business.financialpost.com/

‘You need to find alternative ways for these guys to work’

The death of dozens of artisanal miners in Congo on the property of a Toronto-Stock Exchange-listed Canadian company highlights the fraught relationship between overseas mining companies and local communities.

At least 43 artisanal miners have reportedly died while digging for cobalt — a vital metal for the batteries found in smartphones, tablets and electric cars — on a spot of ground that overlooks Katanga Mining Ltd.’s vast Kamoto Copper Complex.

Throughout much of Africa and other parts of the world, artisanal miners are often found near mines, taking grave risks to scour tailings or waste rock in search of valuable metals. Their numbers appear to be growing, along with tragic accidents, which has provoked questions and challenges for mining companies.

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[Bougainville/Copper] Mining Hopes for Independence – by Geoff Hiscock (U.S. News – July 1, 2019)

https://www.usnews.com/

A copper quarry helps fuel Bougainville’s hopes for separation from Papua New Guinea, a move that would resonate across the Pacific.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — THE Pacific island of Bougainville is moving a step closer to potential independence from Papua New Guinea as preparations begin for a long-promised referendum later this year.

Whether it can survive as a stand-alone nation is a key question for its 250,000 inhabitants, and for other separatist movements in the Pacific. The future course of the island could ripple across the region, as the question of Bougainville’s independence will touch on a complicated mixture of business concerns, environmental worries and geopolitical interests stretching from Australia and New Zealand to China, Japan and the United States.

It’s an outsized international role for Bougainville, which lies 900 kilometers (560 miles) east of the Papua New Guinea mainland. The roots of the referendum stem from a bitter inter-clan and separatist conflict that ran from 1988 to 1997, fighting that claimed between 10,000 and 20,000 lives through a combination of violence, disease, poverty and dislocation.

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OUR VIEWS: GLENCORE TRAGEDY SHOWS WHY MINING SHOULD BE DONE HERE (Mesabi Daily News – June 29, 2019)

https://www.virginiamn.com/

As news filtered out Thursday that Glencore had established itself as the majority shareholder of PolyMet, which is looking to build Minnesota’s first-ever copper-nickel mine near Hoyt Lakes, devastating headlines about the Swiss-based company were also breaking.

At least 43 “illegal miners” died at a Kamoto Copper Company mine, operated by Glencore’s subsidiary Katanga, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Glencore later said the incidents were not linked to the official “operations and activities” of the mine.

While clandestine miners, who access sites without approval or permits, are a common occurrence in Congo and across Africa according to Reuters, the incident raises several questions in light of Glencore’s new role on the Iron Range.

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CORRECTED-Glencore’s Congo tragedy highlights security conundrum for miners – by Edward McAllister and Mitra Taj (Reuters Africa – June 30, 2019)

https://af.reuters.com/

DAKAR/LIMA, June 30 (Reuters) – The deaths of 43 illegal miners at a Glencore facility in Congo last week highlighted a growing challenge for mining companies struggling to secure sites from small-scale prospectors digging for cobalt, copper and other minerals.

Many mines span hundreds of square kilometers across rural terrains, a tantalizing prospect for illegal miners, also known as artisanal miners, who break into sites in search of metals, some of which end up in electric cars and other products.

But even as last Thursday’s tragedy ratcheted up pressure on companies to make changes to security and community outreach, industry consultants and analysts say the task will be difficult given the geographic constraints and economic challenges faced by the world’s estimated 40 million artisanal miners.

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Protesters oppose Minnesota mine at PolyMet AGM in Toronto (CBC News – June 26, 2019)

https://www.cbc.ca/

Groups say Canadian-owned copper-nickel mine is threat to water flowing into Lake Superior watershed

Human rights and environmental groups protested at the PolyMet annual general meeting Wednesday over a proposed copper-nickel mine recently approved in Minnesota, about 50 kilometres from the Canadian border.

Ottawa-based PolyMet has recently obtained final state permits to move ahead with construction of the NorthMet mining complex, which would have three new open pits, waste rock heaps, and a permanent tailings waste dump on a site in the St. Louis River watershed which drains into Lake Superior.

The activists are concerned over the risk of tailings spills which could harm a sensitive watershed, kill fish and affect Indigenous wild rice beds. Representatives from Amnesty International Canada are framing it as a rights issue, pointing to the Mount Polley mine disaster in B.C. when a dam failure sent toxic tailings into a watershed used by Indigenous people.

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PolyMet Mining closer than ever to getting Iron Range mine operational – by Mike Hughlett (Minneapolis Star Tribune – June 25, 2019)

http://www.startribune.com/

Despite fears over mine’s environmental effect, company is confident

HOYT LAKES, Minn. – After years of planning and contention, the derelict taconite complex in Hoyt Lakes is closer than ever to hosting Minnesota’s first copper-nickel mining operation.

Backed by global-mining giant Glencore, PolyMet Mining Corp.’s executives are courting bankers for nearly $1 billion to finance the project, hoping to start construction next year. New concerns have blown up recently over one of PolyMet’s environmental permits, though the company said it doesn’t expect the mine’s progress to be impeded.

“It’s going to happen,” said Jon Cherry, PolyMet’s CEO. “It is so rare to get a fully permitted mine at this time in the United States.”

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Glencore Cuts Out Agents and Dealmakers as Scrutiny Grows – by Jack Farchy and Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – June 25, 2019)

https://finance.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) — Glencore Plc is cutting out many of its intermediaries — the agents and dealmakers once essential to cracking the toughest markets — amid growing scrutiny of its operations around the world.

Under pressure from its compliance division, Glencore is dismantling much of its global network of trading agents, according to people familiar with the situation. To continue operating, the company is setting up teams in some countries, said the people, asking not to be named as the matter is private. In other places, Glencore is still using agents who pass strict compliance tests and have a clear role.

Glencore has long relied on intermediaries, who work on commission. The agents network with well-connected business and government officials in developing nations with the goal of securing commodity-trading deals. In a prospectus in 2003, for example, Glencore listed 64 field offices around the world, saying that included nine agents in eight countries “which act primarily for us.”

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UPDATE 2-Zambian court rejects Vedanta bid to join liquidation case – by Chris Mfula (Reuters U.S. – June 20, 2019)

https://uk.reuters.com/

LUSAKA, June 20 (Reuters) – Vedanta Resources said it would take urgent steps to protect its Zambian assets and pursue international arbitration if necessary after a Lusaka court on Thursday rejected its request to be included in liquidation proceedings.

A Lusaka judge on Thursday ruled Vedanta Resources could not take part in proceedings to wind up its Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) business in Zambia, but granted Vedanta leave to appeal the ruling. The company said it would consider whether to do so.

The case has intensified concerns among international miners about resource nationalism in Africa. Zambian firm ZCCM-IH holds around 20 percent of KCM, while Vedanta Resources, part-owner of the Mumbai-listed Vedanta group of companies, holds a majority stake.

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[Manitoba Flin Flon – Snow Lake Greenstone Belt] Rockcliff Metals Wins a Financing Lottery! – by Stan Sudol (June 19, 2019)

Rockcliff Metals founder, Ken Lapierre, holding rich core samples from Manitoba’s Flin Flon – Snow Lake greenstone belt.

At Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) 2018 mining convention, Rockcliff Metals was a typical struggling junior with a great land package in the lesser known but geologically-rich Flin Flon – Snow Lake (FF-SL) greenstone belt with eight high-grade VMS base-metal deposits and five promising lode-gold properties.

It was starting out to be a tough year and unfortunately an even rougher start the week before the convention when Rockcliff CEO Ken Lapierre slipped on the freshly fallen snow, when he was taking out the garbage. Not thinking much about his sore ankle, the six-foot, three inch, former hockey playing, karate practising jock, started shoveling the driveway. Twelve hours later, the swelling and pain in his left ankle demanded a trip to the doctor where he learned that it was broken and that he had torn all the soft tissue.

For the entire PDAC convention, the largest and most important in the world, for juniors to meet potential future investors and current shareholders and financiers, Lapierre had to use a knee walker that resembled a scooter to get around, along with a substantial amount of painkillers.

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Chile’s Codelco seeks to defuse strike after miners clash with police – by Fabian Cambero (Reuters U.K. – June 18, 2019)

https://uk.reuters.com/

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Chilean miner Codelco sweetened its contract offer to workers on Tuesday in a bid to defuse rising tensions after miners striking at its giant Chuquicamata copper mine were involved in clashes with police earlier in the day.

Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas early on Tuesday as workers at the mine tried to block access to the site operated by state-owned Codelco, the world’s largest copper miner.

Codelco said in a statement it had made a new “serious, responsible and realistic” offer to workers to try to end the strike, now in its fifth day. The offer included an important element related to improving workers’ retirements plans.

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Copper-Mine Strike May Pack Punch as Trade War Distracts Market – by Laura Millan Lombrana (Bloomberg/Yahoo Finance – June 14, 2019)

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) — A strike at a major copper mine isn’t getting a lot of attention from investors, but it could end up packing a big market punch.

As the market focuses on trade wars and geopolitical tensions, thousands of workers downed tools at top copper-producer Codelco’s Chuquicamata mine in Chile on Friday, according to Liliana Ugarte, president of Union No. 2. A prolonged stoppage would tighten global supply in a market where output is already expected to trail demand this year, analysts say.

A majority of members of Unions No. 1, 2 and 3 at the mine rejected the company’s last offer for a labor contract in a freehand vote on Wednesday evening. A strike started at the Santiago-based company’s third-largest mine at 5 a.m. local time. Copper futures in New York settled lower on Friday as growth worries outweighed supply risks against growth worries.

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