U.S. bill ends legal quandary over mining rights in space – by Irene Klotz (Reuters U.K. – December 2, 2015)

http://uk.reuters.com/

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. – A new law clears U.S. companies to own what they mine from asteroids and other celestial bodies, ending a legal quandary that had overshadowed technical and financial issues facing the startups, industry officials said on Tuesday.

The Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, signed by President Barack Obama last week, includes provisions that authorize and promote exploration and recovery of space resources by U.S. citizens, although no one can claim ownership of a celestial body.

“It’s not unlike fishing vessels in international waters,” said Bob Richards, chief executive of Moon Express, a lunar transportation and mining company.

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Our view: Push away petty politics, help Iron Range miners – Editorial (Duluth News Tribune – December 2, 2015)

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

Turkey Day has come and gone, and most of us are focusing now on having a merry Christmas.

But not so much across the Iron Range where the upcoming holidays are being anticipated with a little less cheer this year after more than 1,400 iron mining employees were laid off in recent weeks and where, worse, unemployment benefits for some 600 of them are about to expire. That’s 600 families for whom the future is bleak and for whom the holidays — well, who can think of the holidays?

Making matters more gut-wrenchingly maddening is the knowledge that Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton and the Minnesota Legislature have the ability to help but haven’t.

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NEWS RELEASE: Rio Tinto unveils 187.7 carat Canadian diamond

 

Rio Tinto has unveiled one of the largest diamonds ever discovered in Canada.

The 187.7 carat gem-quality rough diamond, known as The Diavik Foxfire, was discovered at the Diavik Diamond Mine in the remote Northwest Territories of Canada, 220km south of the Arctic Circle.

The Diavik Foxfire diamond was showcased during an exclusive preview at Kensington Palace in London.

Rio Tinto Diamonds managing director Jean-Marc Lieberherr said “We are delighted to showcase this exceptional, two billion-year-old Canadian diamond.

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[Ontario] MNDM Minister welcomes mining report – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – December 2, 2015)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Ontario’s minister of Northern Development and Mines and the Ontario Chamber of Commerce don’t agree on every point, but both share a commitment to seeing the mining sector build and grow.

To that end, Michael Gravelle appreciates the chamber report, “Digging Deeper,” which offers recommendations for strengthening Ontario’s mining advantage.

The first of nine recommendations in the report released Tuesday includes broadening the focus of the Ring of Fire Infrastructure Development Corporation, an opinion Gravelle doesn’t share.

The Mines minister believes it’s important for the development corporation to remain focused on the Ring of Fire, bringing partners together to determine how best to build transportation systems and infrastructure in the area.

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Secret deal on Alberta’s oilsands emissions limits divides patch – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – December 2, 2015)

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

A hard cap on oilsands emissions that became part of Alberta Premier Rachel Notley’s climate change plan was the product of secret negotiations between four top oilsands companies and four environmental organizations, the Financial Post has learned.

The companies agreed to the cap in exchange for the environmental groups backing down on opposition to oil export pipelines, but the deal left other players on the sidelines, and that has created a deep division in Canada’s oil and gas sector.

Four oilsands leaders — Murray Edwards, the billionaire oil investor and chairman of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.; Steve Williams, president and CEO of Suncor Energy Inc.; Lorraine Mitchelmore, president of Shell Canada; Brian Ferguson, president and CEO of Cenovus Energy Inc.

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Realism, not rhetoric, must drive the climate discussion – by Jeffrey Simpson (Globe and Mail – December 2, 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.

bout 80 per cent of global energy consumption is based on fossil fuels, according to the International Energy Agency. This consumption is the major reason for global warming that produces climate change. Reducing the share will take a long time; eliminating fossil fuels completely is a pipe dream.

Fossil fuels – coal, oil and natural gas – will be with the world for a very, very long time because they are abundant, cheap and reliable. Alternatives such as solar and wind and tidal power are more expensive and produce energy only intermittently.

The idea that renewables will any time soon replace fossil fuels is greenwash, to turn the meaning of a common environmental word on its head.

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Vale’s Onca Puma ferro-nickel plant operates through court-ordered mine closure – by Luc Cohen (Reuters U.S. – December 1, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

NEW YORK – Dec 1 Brazilian miner Vale is operating a nickel processing plant at the Onca Puma project, an Amazon mine where a court has ordered mining activities halted, the company’s nonferrous metals chief told Reuters on Tuesday.

While the plant continues to process ore into ferro-nickel, Vale has stopped operations at the open pit mine where it obtains the nickel ores, Jennifer Maki, Vale’s head of base metals, said on the sidelines of the annual “Vale Day” event.

Vale, the world’s largest producer of nickel, has said in recent days it is in full compliance with the order to halt mining operations at the key nickel facility.

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Co-existence with mines impresses Peruvian delegates – by Alan S. Hale (Timmins Daily Press – December 1, 2015)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – A delegation of community members from villages in the Cusco Region of Peru were in Timmins last week to find out what it is like living in a community in close proximity to major mining operations.

The six different communities the delegates are adjusting to the copper mining operations in their region being conducted by the Canadian company, Hudbay Minerals. This is the second group Peruvians to come to Timmins to see first-hand how a community can coexist with the mining industry and all the opportunities and problems that come with it.

Christy Marinig, the chief executive officer of the Timmins Economic Development Corporation, which hosted the delegation, said the plan is to have two groups coming to Timmins every year for the next five years. The TEDC took on the role of bringing up groups from Peru after they were contacted by the Global Indigenous Trust, which was looking for a mining community to act as a role model.

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Iron ore extends slide, Shanghai rebar hits record low (Australian Financial Review/Bloomberg – December 1, 2015)

http://www.afr.com/

Spot iron ore hit a new decade low as the glut-hit market for the steelmaking ingredient continued to struggle with poor demand from top consumer China, where Shanghai steel rebar prices sank to a record low.

Stocks of iron ore at China’s ports climbed to 87.65 million tonnes on November 27, the highest since May, data from SteelHome showed. The port inventory has risen more than 10 per cent since June, reflecting slow demand from Chinese steel producers, many of whom have curbed production as falling industrial demand widens their losses.

Top global iron ore miner Vale said earlier it expected to produce between 340 million and 350 million tonnes of iron ore in 2016. That compares with guidance of 376 million tons given in December.

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OPINION: Obama’s Appalachian Tragedy – by Paul H. Tice (Wall Street Journal – November 30, 2015)

http://www.wsj.com/

Mr. Tice is a senior managing director and head of the Energy Capital Group at USCA Asset Management LLC.

The traveler comes to the Appalachians in the lovely season. He sees the hills, the streams, the foliage—but not the poor.” That passage comes from “The Other America,” Michael Harrington’s 1962 book that opened the eyes of liberal policy makers to America’s invisible poverty.

The classic work helped provide the intellectual ammunition for President Lyndon Johnson’s “unconditional war on poverty,” announced in his State of the Union address two years later.

Fast forward to today. The latest touchstone of liberal policy, the regulation of greenhouse-gas emissions, is causing economic destruction and pushing poverty higher in the Appalachians.

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Dayton issues warning to Essar about paying companies working on Nashwauk site – by John Myers (Duluth News Tribune – November 30, 2015)

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

Gov. Mark Dayton on Monday pledged to play hardball with Essar Steel Minnesota, saying he’ll call the state’s $67 million loan to the company on Wednesday if Essar doesn’t pay past-due bills from local construction companies.

Essar has essentially been in default on the state money since October because it failed to live up to an agreement to create jobs at an iron and steelmaking facility in Nashwauk by that date.

The company has moved ahead with work building a taconite plant at the Nashwauk site, but has shelved plans to make iron and steel at the site.

That puts the company in violation of the 2007 agreement signed when the economic development money was awarded by the state.

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Europe’s Coal Curtain Is Complicating the Climate Fight – by Ladka Mortkowitz Bauerova (Bloomberg News – November 30, 2015)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

At the Bilina mine 50 miles north of Prague, excavators the size of 10-story buildings claw at the earth and scoop out 2,700 tons of brown coal a day to feed the smoke-belching power station on the horizon. After the Czech government relaxed environmental regulations this fall, they’ll be able to keep going for another 40 years.

Some 130 miles away, in eastern Germany, Vattenfall AB’s Jaenschwalde coal pit is preparing to scale back production as the country shifts away from coal and the oldest units of the adjacent power station are scheduled to shut down by 2019.

The two mines highlight Europe’s growing divide on cutting greenhouse gases as global leaders descend on Paris for the biggest climate conference in history.

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What went wrong at Rubicon Minerals, one of the biggest junior mining meltdowns in years – by Peter Koven (National Post – December 1, 2015)

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

Even before its meltdown, investors watching Rubicon Minerals Corp. could see some troubling warning signs.

Everything seemed fine on the surface. The company said in April that it was on track for first gold production at its Phoenix project in Northern Ontario in mid-2015. And in June, it did indeed pour its first gold.

Yet at the same time, Toronto-based Rubicon was saying very little in what should be a busy period. Its second quarter financials, which were filed to SEDAR in August with a press release, showed the company spent tens of millions more than expected in the quarter, leading some analysts to wonder what was going on. Sources said they had trouble getting detailed answers from the company.

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[Ontario] Boost mines sector: Report – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – December 1, 2015)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The global mining industry is in a down cycle, with prices for nickel and other minerals at their lowest in as much as a decade.

Despite that, Ontario is in a competitive position to emerge stronger when the demand for metals picks up again, says the Ontario Chamber of Commerce in a report being released today.

But it can only do that if federal, provincial and municipal governments, and aboriginal communities work together to move mining projects forward.

The Ontario chamber makes nine recommendations in a report called Digging Deeper: Strengthening Ontario’s Mining Advantage.

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Your Complete Guide to the Climate Debate – by Matt Ridley and Benny Peiser (Wall Street Journal – November 27, 2015)

http://www.wsj.com/

In February President Obama said, a little carelessly, that climate change is a greater threat than terrorism. Next week he will be in Paris, a city terrorized yet again by mass murderers, for a summit with other world leaders on climate change, not terrorism.

What precisely makes these world leaders so convinced that climate change is a more urgent and massive threat than the incessant rampages of Islamist violence?

It cannot be what is happening to world temperatures, because they have gone up only very slowly, less than half as fast as the scientific consensus predicted in 1990 when the global-warming scare began in earnest.

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