United States Mining – Page 67

Interpreting Trump’s not-so-subtle threat to India to do more in Afghanistan – by Rajrishi Singhal (Quartz India – August 27, 2017)

August 28, 2017

The India-US relationship has conventionally been undergirded by commonly shared democratic traditions, despite periodic upheavals. Thanks to president Donald Trump, this is likely to change soon and acquire a transactional shade based on quid pro quo, where acknowledgement is contingent on favours extended.

This was evident when Trump unveiled his long overdue strategy for Afghanistan, a nettlesome issue that’s remained unresolved through the last four presidencies to now bedevil a fifth one. Apart from his trademark bluster and rhetoric, Trump’s speech revealed two distinct strands: a deal-based approach to achieving strategic objectives, and, a marked candour that separates his speech from the studied diplomatese of past presidents.

Obviously, no speech on Afghanistan and South Asia can ignore India. But, Trump’s hat-tip to India and its critical role in maintaining regional stability has acquired a new binary, apart from a foreboding tenor: “We appreciate India’s important contributions to stability in Afghanistan, but India makes billions of dollars in trade with the United States, and we want them to help us more with Afghanistan, especially in the area of economic assistance and development.”

Copper Industry, Environmentalists Battle Over US Monuments (U.S. News – August 27, 2017)

August 28, 2017

https://www.usnews.com/

Associated Press – TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Arizona’s copper industry, environmentalists and recreation groups are fighting over the future of three national monuments in the state.

As the U.S. Interior Department reviews the size of 21 national monuments across the country, the multinational mining company Asarco is asking that more than 11,000 acres be pulled from the 129,000-acre Ironwood Forest National Monument northwest of Tucson so it can mine more copper there, next to the company’s Silver Bell copper mine, the Arizona Daily Star reports (http://bit.ly/2wErswa .)

Asarco say its needs use of the 11,000 acres because it’s unable to make economic use of 880 acres it owns and 4,050 federally owned acres on which it has filed mining claims within monument boundaries.

Coal’s comeback – by Hoppy Kercheval (Metro News: Voice of West Virginia – August 25, 2017)

August 28, 2017

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The anti-coal movement and its advocates in the previous administration in Washington tried their best to snuff out the industry and, in the process, ruin the livelihoods of miners and destroy communities. President Obama’s executive orders and his EPA’s regulatory stranglehold nearly brought coal to its knees.

When confronted with allegations of their “war on coal,” the response was that market conditions and competition from abundant, clean burning natural gas were actually the reasons. Clearly, the gas boom has been a huge factor, but a funny thing has happened since Obama left office and the regulatory boot has been lifted off of coal’s throat—it’s coming back.

The National Mining Association reports, “From the 2nd quarter of 2016 to the same period this year, coal production rose almost 17 percent.” The biggest jump has been in the production of steel-making metallurgical coal from Central Appalachia, where 57 mines have opened (or reopened) in the last fiscal year.

Coal Makes a Comeback – Editorial (Wall Street Journal – August 16, 2017)

August 25, 2017

https://www.wsj.com/

Trump’s policies and exports to Europe are helping the industry.

Not long ago liberals hailed the demise of coal as inevitable while the Obama Administration strangled the industry with regulation. But don’t look now, Tom Steyer, because coal is showing signs of a revival and breathing economic life into West Virginia and other coal states.

Former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy proclaimed in 2015 that coal “is no longer marketable.” She planned to be the lead undertaker. The Obama Administration worked tirelessly to fulfill her mission and may have succeeded had Hillary Clinton become President. “We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of work,” the 2016 Democratic nominee famously promised.

Yet the Trump Presidency seems to have lifted animal spirits and coal. Weekly coal production has increased by 14.5% nationwide over last year with even bigger bumps in West Virginia (19%), Pennsylvania (19.7%) and Wyoming (19.8%). Exports were up 58% during the first quarter from last year. Apparently coal can be marketable if regulators let it be.

Editorial painted misleading picture of mining – by Jim Taylor (Gainesville Sun – August 24, 2017)

August 25, 2017

http://www.gainesville.com/

Jim Taylor is a local attorney who lives in Bradford County and represents HPS Enterprises.

You might be surprised to learn that phosphate mining in Florida first started here in Alachua County more than 130 years ago. Phosphate nutrients are just as important for farmers to grow the food we eat as they were back then, but the processes we use to mine this crucial resource have undergone significant advancements.

That’s why it was disappointing to read The Sun’s recent editorial, “Mine poses threat to river, aquifer,” which paints an incomplete and misleading picture of the phosphate mining plans that have been submitted to officials in Union and Bradford counties.

The families pursuing this opportunity are local residents who have owned this land for decades. They are part of our community. They have a vested interest in returning the land to productive use for wildlife, agriculture and other purposes after mining has taken place, and they want to make sure our area’s precious natural environment and quality of life are protected for generations to come.

Trump to open parts of Utah National Monument to miners, oil firms — report – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – August 24, 2017)

August 24, 2017

http://www.mining.com/

US President Donald Trump may soon revoke the protected status from Bears Ears National Monument, in southeastern Utah, opening parts of the area to mining and oil companies under a recommendation that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke issued on Thursday.

The monument, one of the 27 President Trump is taking a second look at, covers 1.3 million acres (about 5,260 square km), and it includes land considered sacred to Native Americans.

Former President Barack Obama designated it a national monument near the end of his time in office and if Trump decides to reopen it for commercial mining and drilling, it would be a direct blow to his predecessor’s environmental legacy, and the first major test of a century-old conservation law, The New York Times reports.

Indonesian Energy Minister Jonan expects mining deal with Freeport this month – by Ed Davies (Reuters U.S. – August 22, 2017)

August 24, 2017

https://www.reuters.com/

JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia expects to strike an agreement this month to allow Freeport McMoRan Inc to keep operating its huge copper mine in Papua in the coming decades, the country’s mining and energy minister said on Tuesday.

The U.S. mining giant has been locked in a lengthy dispute with the government over the rights to mine at Grasberg, the world’s second-biggest copper mine, costing both sides hundreds of millions of dollars.

“I expect to have a conclusion this month,” Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources Ignasius Jonan said in an interview with Reuters, when asked about the status of the negotiations.

A Coal Country Dispute Over an Alleged Trump Promise Unmet – by JEFF HORWITZ, MICHAEL BIESECKER and MATTHEW DALY (Associated Press – August 22, 2017)

August 23, 2017

https://www.usnews.com/

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has rejected a coal industry push to win a rarely used emergency order protecting coal-fired power plants, a decision contrary to what one coal executive said the president personally promised him.

The Energy Department says it considered issuing the order sought by companies seeking relief for plants it says are overburdened by environmental rules and market stresses. But the department ultimately ruled it was unnecessary, and the White House agreed, a spokeswoman said.

The decision is a rare example of friction between the beleaguered coal industry and the president who has vowed to save it. It also highlights a pattern emerging as the administration crafts policy: The president’s bold declarations — both public and private — are not always carried through to implementation.

Bill would end Wisconsin moratorium on sulfide mining, create easier path to future mining – by Lee Bergquist (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – August 22, 2017)

August 23, 2017

http://www.jsonline.com/

A bill that would end the moratorium on sulfide mining in Wisconsin also retools other regulations aimed at easing the way for future mining projects in the state. The legislation is sure to spark a big fight between environmental and business interests over whether sulfide mining can be carried out safely in Wisconsin and whether the bill, in effect, will roll back protections.

Mining companies have eyed Wisconsin for years, but according to mining supporters, the state’s laws are too restrictive. The legislation targets mining for minerals such as copper, zinc, gold and silver in sulfide rock deposits that have the potential to create acidic runoff and pollute ground and surface water.

That is the chief concern of environmentalists: Sulfide deposits will leach into water and cause long-lasting damage. The last such mine in Wisconsin, near Ladysmith, was successfully closed and reclaimed in 1999.

The victor, the spoils? Trump eyes Afghanistan’s elusive mineral riches – by James Mackenzie (Reuters U.S. – August 20, 2017)

August 22, 2017

https://www.reuters.com/

KABUL (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump is eyeing Afghanistan’s mineral wealth to help pay for a 16-year war and reconstruction efforts that have already cost $117 billion. Investors who have studied the country, one of the world’s most dangerous, say that is a pipe dream.

Ever since a United States Geological Survey study a decade ago identified deposits later estimated to have a potential value of as much as $1 trillion, both Afghan and foreign officials have trumpeted the reserves as a likely key to economic independence for Afghanistan.

As well as deposits of gold, silver and platinum, Afghanistan has significant quantities of iron ore, uranium, zinc, tantalum, bauxite, coal, natural gas and significant copper – a particular draw given the dearth of rich new copper mines globally.

Freeport Indonesia copper mine access to resume after clashes – by Sam Wanda (Reuters U.S. – August 20, 2017)

August 21, 2017

https://www.reuters.com/

TIMIKA, Indonesia (Reuters) – Limited access to the giant Grasberg copper mine in eastern Indonesia is expected to resume on Monday, its operator said, after hundreds of former workers blockaded the site and clashed with police.

Trouble erupted at the mine, which is operated by the Indonesian unit of Freeport McMoRan Inc, during a demonstration over employment terms on Saturday afternoon.

Three former workers were injured after police fired tear gas and warning shots to disperse the blockade, according to a union official representing the ex-workers. Freeport said at least four contractors were also injured.

Artists, hippies, miners — Patagonia divided over hamlet’s economic future – by Lucas Waldron (Arizona Daily Star – August 13, 2017)

August 14, 2017

http://tucson.com/

Patagonia has one bar, one coffee shop, one gas station. And customers at nearly all of them are divided between those in favor of a new mining project in this tiny southeastern-Arizona town and those against it.

Roughly half of Patagonia’s 900 residents support Arizona Mining Inc., a Canadian company that recently bought land near town for exploratory drilling. The rest oppose the mining company, seeking to preserve the region’s unique rare wildlife and steer the economy away from mineral extraction and toward environmental restoration.

Arizona Mining Inc. has vowed to create an estimated 500 jobs through a mine it plans to have up and running in 2020. In July, the company predicted the mine will extract 10,000 tons of minerals per day and could be viable for eight years.

Cash-rich Newmont Mining mulls boosting dividend as peers pursue debt reduction – by Susan Taylor (Reuters U.S. – August 9, 2017)

August 10, 2017

https://www.reuters.com/

TORONTO (Reuters) – With a plump $3.1 billion pile of cash, Newmont Mining Corp is mulling a sweeter dividend to attract a broader shareholder base, a move that makes it an outlier in the still recovering gold sector.

Although miners are no longer crippled by expansion-fueled debt loads, the priority for their cash is building and expanding mines to replace depleting gold reserves, and further reducing debt. Dividend increases are not on their immediate horizon, making Newmont, which has said it was considering doing so, stand out.

Like other producers, Newmont is also investing in expansion projects, but with the fattest purse among gold producers and no debt due until 2019, the Colorado-based miner may have excess cash to return to shareholders.

Trump Moves to Increase Subsidy for Coal Mining on Federal Lands – by Eric Levitz (New York Magazine – August 7, 2017)

August 8, 2017

http://nymag.com/

Donald Trump appears to set regulatory policy on a kind of reverse-utilitarian calculus, working diligently to do the greatest good for the smallest number. With the help of the congressional GOP, the president has made it easier for coal companies to dump mining waste in streams; given financial advisers the right to scam their clients; and made companies that routinely abuse their workers eligible for federal contracts again.

But with its latest deregulatory endeavor, the Trump administration has taken this governing philosophy to new heights: The White House appears to have found a way to put the profit margins of select coal companies ahead of not merely environmental conservation, climate sustainability, and federal taxpayers, but also coal miners in Appalachia.

Early in his tenure, Trump reversed the Obama administration’s moratorium on leasing federal lands to coal companies, and canceled its proposed study on the environmental impacts of the coal industry. But Trump’s Interior Department doesn’t merely want the public to blindly absorb the environmental costs of fossil-fuel extraction on public lands — it also wants us to subsidize the financial costs of such activity.

Ukraine Coal Exports Part of Trump Bid to Counter Russia – by Ari Natter (Bloomberg News – August 1, 2017)

August 1, 2017

https://www.bloombergquint.com/

(Bloomberg) — A Pennsylvania company will send 700,000 tons of coal to Ukraine in a deal the administration of President Donald Trump heralded as an important tool to undercut the power Russia has over its European neighbors.

While Trump has pledged to improve ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, his administration says it’s trying to use more U.S. exports of coal, natural gas and oil to curtail Putin’s sway with Russian natural resources. Ukraine had been reliant on Russia for much of its oil and gas, and its domestic thermal coal supply collapsed because much comes from the rebel-controlled eastern part of the nation.

“In recent years, Kiev and much of Eastern Europe have been reliant on and beholden to Russia to keep the heat on,” Energy Secretary Rick Perry said in a statement announcing the coal-export deal. “That changes now. The United States can offer Ukraine an alternative, and today we are pleased to announce that we will.”