Blood diamonds, synthetics, and ethical supply: the diamond industry fights its corner – by Jon Yeomans (The Telegraph – November 18, 2016)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Diamonds continue to hold their lustre: after a tough year that saw prices and demand fall, the market is showing signs of life in 2016. But the sector, which straddles both mining and high-end retail, is still under pressure, with consumers growing increasingly interested in provenance, while synthetic diamonds are looking to grow their appeal.

The Kimberley Process this week closed its annual plenary session in Dubai, hailing “progress” in the industry to meet the challenges in the supply chain. The KP is the body charged with ensuring that so-called “blood diamonds” from conflict zones do not fall into the hands of consumers. But the process, which includes governments, NGOs and industry, has faced repeated criticism for not going far enough in upholding ethical supply.

Andrey Polyakov, president of the World Diamond Council (WDC) and a vice president of Russian diamond giant Alrosa, spoke after the event to defend the KP and illustrate its progress – including its efforts to bring Central African Republic, a potentially large source of rough diamonds, back into the international fold.

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Tribes Call On Obama to Bar Uranium Mining in Grand Canyon Forever – by Tanya H. Lee (Indian Country Today Media Network – November 22, 2016)

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/

The Havasupai, Hualapai, Navajo, and Hopi are among the tribes working with Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., environmental groups and other lawmakers to designate 1.7 million acres bordering Grand Canyon National Park as the Grand Canyon Heritage National Monument.

The designation would make permanent the 20-year federal moratorium on new uranium mining in and around the canyon put in place in 2012. At stake are a fragile watershed, extensive wildlife habitat and sacred and archaeological sites important to the tribes’ religious and cultural survival.

With elections less than a month away and a lawsuit brought by mining companies seeking to end the federal moratorium set for a hearing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in December, time is short.

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Uranium: the unloved metal whose price is poised to go radioactive – by Jon Yeomans (The Telegraph – November 20, 2016)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Last month, shovels hit the ground in a dry corner of western Spain, near the ancient city of Salamanca. Berkeley Energia, a mining company listed in Australia and on London’s junior AIM market, started work on a $100m (£80m) uranium mine.

The project hopes to create nearly 500 jobs in a depressed former mining region and tap into future demand for the heavy metal, which powers nuclear reactors.

To fund its plans, Berkeley recently raised $30m from a placing of new shares, winning support from funds run by the likes of Blackrock and JP Morgan. When it opens in 2018, the mine will be one of the lowest-cost uranium producers in the world – and the only such mine in Europe, turning out 4.5m pounds a year.

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Rio seeks iron ore premium from China mills in likely pricing war revival: sources – by Manolo Serapio Jr (Reuters U.S. – November 29, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

MANILA – Australian miner Rio Tinto is asking Chinese steel mills to pay a premium for its highest grade iron ore product for the first time since an annual pricing system collapsed in 2010, two sources familiar with the situation said.

The demand by the world’s No. 2 iron ore miner comes as Chinese steel producers recover from years of losses, buoying demand for the steelmaking raw material, but could revive tensions between miners and mills over pricing that they seemed to have ditched six years ago.

Rio is seeking up to $1 per ton more than the index price for its Pilbara iron ore product, or PB fines, from Chinese mills on long-term contracts for 2017, the sources said, in a break from a years-long trend of pricing at spot values. Previously, Rio was selling the ore at a premium only to traders.

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Miners go green in hunt for cost efficiencies, using renewable energy sources in far-flung locations – by Sunny Freeman (Financial Post – November 29, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

Mining companies are digging into renewable energy as a way to reduce costs and offset the impact of volatile conventional fuel prices as the world shifts to a low-carbon economy.

Industry executives gathered last week at the Energy and Mines World Congress in Toronto focused on how innovation in energy – which can comprise as much as one-quarter of operating expenses in remote locations – can make mines more cost-effective and environmentally sustainable. “I think we will be surprised at the speed at which mining companies will start to adopt these things,” said Adriaan Davidse, mining innovation leader at Deloitte.

Amid rapid improvements in renewable technologies, wind and solar prices have fallen dramatically in recent years and are expected to keep dropping. In many parts of the world —especially in remote locations – the alternative energy solutions are becoming cheaper than conventional sources.

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Saskatchewan, Ottawa strike accord on coal-fire power generation – by Shawn McCarthy (Globe and Mail – November 29, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

OTTAWA — Saskatchewan has reached a deal with Ottawa on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in its coal-fired power sector, but the two governments remain at odds over carbon pricing ahead of next week’s first ministers’ meeting on climate change.

Saskatchewan Environment Minister Scott Moe and his federal counterpart, Catherine McKenna, announced Monday that the two governments will conclude an “equivalency agreement” that could keep one or more coal-fired power plants operating past 2030, so long as the province makes major GHG reductions elsewhere in its electricity sector.

Ms. McKenna last week unveiled the federal plan to accelerate the phase-out of coal-fired electricity as part of the Canada’s commitment to reduce GHG emissions by 30 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030 under the international Paris Agreement on climate change.

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Ontarians will be forced to pay for imaginary ‘credits’ just so the government can feel good – by Christine Van Geyn (Financial Post – November 29, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

Canada contributes just 1.65 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, with only a tiny portion of that coming from Ontario. [Ontario contributes less than half a per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. – RepublicOfMining.com] The buying and selling of carbon credits will make no real difference. In fact, shutting  down the entire Ontario economy would make no measurable difference to global climate change.

For a time, it was fashionable to buy a star in the sky and name it after a love interest, a new baby or a recently deceased loved one. Could anything be more romantic or more sentimental?

It turns out that the companies that take money from consumers for “naming stars” are the only ones who actually recognize the name. The practice is considered by many to be a kind of scam that profits off of the idealism of consumers. Money for a star name is just money for nothing.

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Mining on a ‘knife edge’ due to political strife says Sibanye CEO (Reuters/Times Live – November 28, 2016)

http://www.timeslive.co.za/

The mining industry is at risk of collapse due to political unrest and labour instability which have negatively impacted investment into the country, the chief executive of the nation’s biggest gold company said on Monday.

Political ructions in Africa’s most industrialised country including scandals surrounding President Jacob Zuma for his alleged connections to the wealthy Gupta family have caused concern among investors, putting credit ratings at risk.

The mining sector, which accounts for about 7 percent of GDP, has opposed the introduction of regulations and laws that could see the powers of the mining minister increase and social capital commitments of companies rise.

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Cullen promises duty-to-consult mining framework by May – by Jonathon Naylor (Flin Flon Reminder – November 24, 2016)

http://www.thereminder.ca/

Manitoba Growth, Enterprise and Trade Minister Cliff Cullen has pledged a target of May 2017 or earlier to create a framework for the consultation process with indigenous people on mining and exploration projects. It’s a step many people within the mineral sector say is overdue and would help bolster an industry that has been shedding jobs in the province for years.

Cullen has long been critical of the previous NDP government’s policy toward the constitutionally required “duty to consult” with First Nations on resource projects that involve traditional indigenous territory.

He spoke of clarifying that process while in Flin Flon in September, but last week he went a step further by telling mineral sector leaders that a new framework would be complete within six months, according to the Winnipeg Free Press.

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Grande Cache coal mine looking to restart operations – by Roberta Bell (CBC News Edmonton – November 23, 2016)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/

Northwest Alberta mine shut down in 2015, laying off 400 employees

Steelmaking coal producer Grande Cache Coal says it plans to reopen its shuttered surface mine and coal-processing plant next year. “It is expected that the [surface] mine will resume operations by the end of Q1 2017,” the Chinese-owned company said in a regulatory update posted to its website this week.

The coal processing plant would start operating within a month of the resumption of mining operations, the update said. But the plans depend on “shareholders’ approval and the negotiation of key contracts,” the company said, adding that pre-production activities would start in January.

The company also said it plans to apply to the Alberta Energy Regulator to mine one of its underground coal seams “and not to abandon it.” More information is expected at an open house in Grande Cache on Dec. 14, the company said.

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Rio Tinto disposes of iron ore elephant, signals flexibility – by Clyde Russell (Daily Mail/Reuters – November 28, 2016)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Nov 28 (Reuters) – Almost unnoticed, Rio Tinto Chief Executive Jean Sebastien Jacques has ushered the China iron ore elephant out of the room.

News that Rio has quietly abandoned its long-held view that China’s steel output will rise to 1 billion tonnes a year by 2030 wasn’t exactly hidden by Jacques, but neither was it highlighted when the new boss of the world’s second-largest mining company held an investor briefing last week.

What gathered much more attention on the negative side was the scandal over $10.5 million in payments to an adviser on the ill-fated Simandou iron ore project in Guinea, which has claimed the jobs of two senior executives.

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Rio marks the re-emergence of the miners – by Robert Gottliebsen (The Australian – November 28, 2016)

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

In the next two years we are going to have a mining profits boom of considerable magnitude. Don’t be surprised to see the profits of some mining companies rise 50 to 100 per cent above their lows. Sometimes the rise will be even more.

I reached that conclusion as I was listening to the address by the chief executive of Rio Tinto Jean-Sébastien Jacques to some 700 mining, accounting, investment, legal and other executives at the Melbourne Mining Club last week.

Jean-Sébastien Jacques did not actually mention profit trends, so, to get the message, you had to listen very closely to what he was saying and combine that with the mood of the people at the function.

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Unfair Chinese practices put U.S. aluminum jobs at risk – by Garney Scott (Knoxville News Sentinel – November 27, 2016)

http://www.knoxnews.com/

Because it’s so common in our everyday lives, it’s easy to overlook aluminum. Everyone is familiar with the ubiquitous soda and beer can or kitchen foil, but aluminum is also used to create materials for building construction, aircraft, automobiles and even cellphones and tablet computers.

And a lot of that metal is made right here. In fact, the industry represents approximately $75 billion in direct economic impact in the United States and more than $3.1 billion in Tennessee.

Virtually alone among the basic material sectors of the world, aluminum is experiencing a once-in-a-generation expansion in projected demand as firms move to engineered aluminum solutions, from fuel-efficient vehicles to green buildings.

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Rio Tinto shareholders flag culture of fear concerns – by Neil Hume and Jamie Smyth (Financial Times – November 27, 2016)

https://www.ft.com/

Large shareholders in Rio Tinto have voiced concerns about the miner’s handling of a payments crisis in Africa, accusing it of failing to stand behind senior executives in the face of possible anti-bribery investigations.

The decision to sack Alan Davies, an executive once in charge of a controversial iron ore project in Guinea, risks creating a culture of fear inside Rio, two investors told the Financial Times, warning it could slow decision-making and cost them future deals.

“This has to have an impact,” said one top 10 shareholder who declined to be named. “The message it sends [to senior managers] is that you’re expendable.”

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Hooded protesters shut down Los Bronces copper mine in Chile again – by Fabian Cambero (Reuters U.K – November 26, 2016)

http://uk.reuters.com/

LIMA – Global miner Anglo American Plc (AAL.L) halted all activity at its Los Bronces mine in Chile after hooded protesters seized installations early on Saturday in the second illegal occupation of the copper deposit this month, the company told Reuters.

Anglo said it was not certain who the protesters were. The latest seizure immediately followed what Anglo called an agreement between companies it uses to provide services at the mine and the Federation of Contract Workers union.

But the union indicated that it was not satisfied, and would continue to demand better contracts for workers, blaming Anglo American for an “insufficient” offer given the rise in the company’s shares, which spiked with the price of copper after Donald Trump’s surprise victory in the U.S. presidential election earlier this month.

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