Republic of Mining

Barrick estimates $2 billion costs if Nevada, Peru projects proceed (Reuters U.S. – February 22, 2016)

February 22, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

Barrick Gold Corp (ABX.TO) (ABX.N), the world’s largest gold miner, estimated spending of about $2 billion if it decides to proceed with projects in Nevada and Peru.

Barrick, releasing updated pre-feasibility and feasibility studies on the projects, also said on Monday it would redeem up to $750 million of notes to help cut debt by at least $2 billion this year.

The company’s U.S.-listed shares were down about 3 percent at $12.18 in premarket trading on Monday.

Barrick said a pre-feasibility study estimated $1 billion in initial capital spending on its Goldrush project in Nevada, based on a start of construction in 2020.

QUEBEC INVESTS 26 MILLION FOR THE BLOOM LAKE MINE (The Silver Times – February 22, 2016)

February 22, 2016

http://sivertimes.com/

The collapse of the iron market does not frighten Quebec which loosens again the purse strings to deploy the Northern Plan. The government yesterday announced plans to invest 26 million in the resumption of mining assets Bloom Lake on the North Shore, just sold to Champion Iron Limited.

Earlier this month, Quebec stretched 66750000 to get their hands on strategic installations in the Pointe-Noire, in Sept-Îles, which belonged – like the Bloom Lake mine – to Cliffs Natural Resources, which placed its Quebec properties under the protection of the arrangement Act companies’ creditors there one year.

“We want to support more businesses and promising projects in the mining and hydrocarbons sector,” said Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Pierre Arcand, also responsible for the Northern Plan, in a statement issued in any end of the day.

Zimbabwe orders diamond mines shut, says not nationalising – by MacDonald Dzirutwe (Reuters Africa – February 22, 2016)

February 22, 2016

http://af.reuters.com/

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe ordered diamond mining firms to stop operations immediately on Monday and leave the Marange fields as their licences have expired but denied the government was seizing the mines.

The diamond fields in the east of Zimbabwe near Mozambique are mined by nine firms. Eight, including two Chinese-run companies, are joint ventures 50 percent owned by the government and the other one is wholly owned by the state.

“The JV companies neglected or failed to renew the special (mining) grants. Some expired as far back as 2010 and others in 2013,” Mines Minister Walter Chidhakwa told reporters and executives from the mines in question.

Green Illusions – Why Wind and Solar Power Cannot Displace Coal – by John Petersen (InvestorIntel.com – February 22, 2016)

February 22, 2016

http://investorintel.com/

We live in a crazy mixed-up world where half-truths abound as politicians, stock promoters, forecasters and advocates of all stripes blithely ignore the vulgar exigencies of objective truth when it comes to the energy supplies that make our industrialized economies and comfortable lives possible. It’s a golden age of green illusions, a/k/a alternative energy fairy tales.

Since this series of articles will focus on the contrast between objective truths and green illusions, I can’t think of a better way to kick it off than a quote from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass:

Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said, “one can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

How a crash in metals prices has made 2016 a great year to build a mine – by Peter Koven (Financial Post – February 22, 2016)

February 22, 2016

http://business.financialpost.com/

Earlier this month, Stornoway Diamond Corp. said something that would have been unimaginable a few years ago — its mine is being built ahead of schedule and under budget.

“You can imagine we’re sticking our necks out by saying that, so we have to be pretty confident it’s the case,” Stornoway chief executive Matt Manson said in an interview. “And we are.”

The Montreal-based firm, which is building Quebec’s first diamond mine, moved the completion date up by five months to the end of 2016. It also slashed the construction cost estimate by more than $35 million to $775.4 million.

During the commodity boom, capital cost blowouts became so routine in the mining industry that they became a running joke.

Iron ore rally lifts Fortescue Metals – by Barry Fitzgerald (The Australian – February 22, 2016)

February 22, 2016

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

The value of chairman Andrew Forrest’s one-third stake in Fortescue Metals has climbed back to more than $2 billion after briefly dipping to as low as $1.5bn a month ago.

While his stake is still down heavily on its $6bn value in 2011, the recent value surge reflects a rally in iron ore prices as measured by the Steel Index to a three-month high of $US47 a tonne, and expectations of good news on a number of fronts in Wednesday’s interim profit report.

Fortescue shares shot 22 per cent higher last week from $1.62 to $1.99 as iron ore prices climbed in response to restocking by Chinese steel mills after the Lunar new year.

Gold Lining On The Commodity-Price Collapse – by Tim Treadgold (Forbes Magazine – February 22, 2016)

February 22, 2016

http://www.forbes.com/

There is a perfect storm blowing through the Australian gold-mining industry, but it’s not doing any damage, because it’s a storm which has triggered soaring share prices and a modern-day gold rush.

A recovery in the U.S. dollar gold price is one factor driving interest in the metal, but it’s not the major force in the Australian gold sector. Two other events have helped some miners more than double their share prices over the past year.

A 30% fall in the value of the Australian dollar against the U.S. dollar has boosted the Australian gold price to an all-time high in the local currency while operating costs and fuel prices have been slashed.

COLUMN-Governments’ bull policies for bear markets hurt commodities – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.K. – February 22, 2016)

February 22, 2016

http://uk.reuters.com/

Feb 22 – One of the problems for embattled resource companies is that the legislative environment in which they exist is often no longer reflective of the reality of the current, or likely future, markets in which they compete.

In other words, government policymakers quite often have laws, taxes and regulations designed for a bull market when a bear market is in place, and vice versa.

While it’s easy to have a shot at politicians, in their defence, it can be the case that by the time they manage to go through the protracted processes of introducing new rules and regulations, the situation they envisaged has been substantially altered.

Indonesia’s minerals sector is a good recent example, but not the only one, of how even policies that were relatively well designed and had reasonable aims can backfire because the market has changed.

Zinc Approaches Bull Market on Supply Shortfalls; Miners Advance (Bloomberg News – February 22, 2016)

February 22, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Zinc rallied to the highest since October, putting the metal on track to enter a bull market, after production cuts tightened global supplies. Other metals and mining shares climbed.

Zinc soared 21 percent in about six weeks after Glencore Plc and Nyrstar NV last year announced production cuts to cope with a slump in prices. The market will have a deficit of 440,000 metric tons this year, the most in more than a decade, according to Mitsui Mining & Smelting Co.

“The supply-side factor — the dip in output — is the reason for the price rise,” Casper Burgering, a senior economist at ABN Amro Bank NV in Amsterdam, said by phone. “There is really no reason for these low prices and I think that markets have started to realize that.”

Alaskans awaken to issues of mining, salmon and rivers we share with Canada – by Melanie Brown (Alaska Dispatch News – February 21, 2016)

February 22, 2016

http://www.adn.com/

Melanie Brown works with Salmon Beyond Borders to advocate for healthy watersheds in Southeast Alaska.

Although my parents are from Western Alaska, I consider myself lucky to have been born in Sitka. Work opportunities took our family northward, but my life led me back to Southeast Alaska, where I have chosen to raise my children.

It is a rich life with all the rivers, land and sea have to offer. We have friends who are good about sharing what they have and we are happy to reciprocate. We migrate along with the salmon to Bristol Bay every summer to be with our blood relatives and our home-river, but returning to Juneau for winter “fits our skin.” Not long after moving back here however, we learned of a looming threat to Southeast waters.

Laurentian creates Sudbury mining research hub – by Ben Leeson, (Sudbury Star – February 20, 2016)

September 5, 2016February 22, 2016

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

Vic Pakalnis doesn’t want to sugarcoat it. The mining industry is going through “some very tough times right now,” said Pakalnis, newly appointed associate vice-president of Laurentian Mining Innovation and Technology.

And there’s no better time, he believes, to prepare for the next upswing and develop the “Sudbury Advantage,” as Laurentian University plans to do with through LMIT, a new mining innovation and technology research initiative to co-ordinate and promote all mining-related research at the university.

“I’m a mining engineer and I have been in the mining industry since my birth,” Pakalnis said, during a press conference held at Laurentian on Friday to officially announce the establishment of Laurentian Mining Innovation and Technology. “My father was a mining engineer, my mother was a mining engineer, and I have survived five of these cycles.

We need disruptive innovation in the mining sector, as well – by Rick Howes (Globe and Mail – February 20, 2016)

February 22, 2016

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Rick Howes is chief executive officer of Dundee Precious Metals.

While declining metal prices have cast a negative light on the status of the mining industry, the facts still speak to the tremendous role mining plays in the Canadian economy. More than 380,000 Canadians work directly in the industry, and in Ontario alone, another 68,000 work for mining industry suppliers.

The dynamics of the global economy are forcing adjustment on many, but our country’s historical strengths and continued expertise in mining positions us to lead globally moving forward.

To do so, however, requires us to apply the same innovative principles to our business as seen in software, financial services and retail. How will we adapt to disruption and the growing distribution of mining expertise around the world? The answer means focusing on how we can build the mines of the future that use technology and data to operate more efficiently and effectively.

Why Canada risks losing out on minerals in space – by Michael Byers (Globe and Mail – February 20, 2016)

February 22, 2016

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Michael Byers holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law at the University of British Columbia.

Three-quarters of the world’s mining companies are incorporated in Canada. But as the global industry prepares for its greatest leap since mechanization, Canada risks losing that leadership position – unless it takes sides in a debate over the private ownership of minerals found in space.

The United States has already shown an interest in asteroids, some of which pass quite close to Earth and might be exceedingly rich in heavy elements such as cobalt, gold, platinum, rhodium and tungsten. Later this year, NASA will launch a spacecraft, the Osiris-Rex, on a mission to retrieve a mineral sample from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu.

Canada is providing Osiris-Rex’s laser altimeter, which will map the surface of the 500-metre-diameter asteroid. This will enable scientists to determine the best site for the spacecraft to touch down, briefly, to collect the sample.

Africa’s costly missing rail links – by Gavin du Venage (The National – February 20, 2016)

February 22, 2016

http://www.thenational.ae/

CAPE TOWN // Transporters moving goods across Africa put up with a lot: bandits armed with AK-47s, elephants using a fender to ease an itch and thieves who run alongside slow moving vehicles to siphon diesel out of the tank into Coca Cola bottles.

Then there are border posts, police checkpoints and various other forms of bureaucracy that can hold up lorries for days. Often, bribes and spurious fines also need to be paid before cargo can move.

It is hardly surprising that according to the African Development Bank it costs twice as much to transport goods across many countries on the continent than it does anywhere else in the developing world.