Republic of Mining

In Diamond City, slowdown is not forever – by Melvyn Reggie Thomas (The Times of India – November 21, 2015)

November 23, 2015

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

Surat: The world’s biggest diamond polishing center – Surat – can hope for the much-needed recovery from the slowdown it is reeling under since almost 18 months.

The Diamond Producers Association (DPA), a consortium of world’s leading diamond mining companies, is set to launch a $6 million global marketing blitzkrieg to boost the sale of diamonds.

DPA has hired Mother, a leading advertising agency in New York, for the campaign that would mainly target the millennial or ‘young adult’ population across the globe.

Tough road ahead for LME’s new steel, aluminum contracts – by Maytaal Angel and Eric Onstad (Reuters U.S. – November 20, 2015)

November 23, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – New steel and aluminum contracts to be launched next week by the London Metal Exchange (LME) are expected to attract initial interest from customers, but building up strong liquidity in the current bear market may be challenging.

The launch on Monday is a key element of a strategy by the LME’s owner, Hong Kong Exchanges and Cleaning (HKEx), to boost profitability at the 138-year-old exchange.

Three new contracts in steel rebar, steel scrap and aluminum premiums will go live nearly three years after HKEx bought the LME for $2.2 billion, pledging to widen the scope of the exchange from its core business in key industrial metals.

On-again, off-again Vale potash project at Kronau off again – by Bruce Johnstone (Regina Leader-Post – November 20, 2015)

November 23, 2015

http://leaderpost.com/

Vale Potash’s proposed $3.5-billion solution potash mine at Kronau is being put on hold as the Brazilian mining giant waits for market conditions in the potash industry to improve, says a spokesman for Vale Potash in Regina.

The company announced the decision to suspend work on the mine in a public letter to the community of Kronau, 28 km southeast of Regina, and the surrounding rural municipality. Vale says the recent feasibility study still shows a compelling case for a mine in Kronau someday, but market conditions make it difficult to finance the project right now.

“Give the global economic conditions, I don’t think it’s a big surprise,” said Matthew Wood, senior project leader for Vale Potash, in an interview Thursday.

World’s Top Miners Risk $10 Billion of Earnings on Carbon Cost – by Jesse Riseborough (Blolomberg News – November 23, 2015)

November 23, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

The world’s biggest mining companies face a combined $10 billion risk to their earnings if carbon pricing tightens in the wake of crucial global climate talks in Paris starting next week, according to a report from U.K. non-profit organization CDP.

CDP, which says it advises institutional investors with assets of $95 trillion, ranked 11 companies on climate change-related metrics including disclosure of emission-reduction targets, conducting water stress-test studies and preparing for an expected tightening of carbon regulation to emerge from the United Nations climate summit.

The estimate of earnings at risk, representing about 15 percent of the total for the group, assumes the introduction of a carbon price of $50 a metric ton, a level already accounted for by some companies, it said.

Botswana explores a future without sparklers – by Alex Vines (Business Day Live – November 23, 2015)

November 23, 2015

http://www.bdlive.co.za/

BOTSWANA is world-renowned for two things: awe-inspiring game parks and diamonds. But unlike its timeless natural beauty, the diamonds are not forever. Botswana needs to prepare for an economic future without them.

For years, the government has talked about economic diversification, but in practice little has been done. That’s not to say Botswana has mismanaged its diamond inheritance. It is rightly held up as an example of what can be achieved when natural resources are harnessed responsibly.

I feel this keenly because I spent much of the past decade working as a United Nations (UN) sanctions inspector in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire and Angola, trying to stop rebel-controlled “blood diamonds” from contaminating global supply chains.

Editorial: Bill would push mining jobs to other countries – by Albuquerque Journal Editorial Board (Albuquerque Journal – November 22nd, 2015)

November 23, 2015

http://www.abqjournal.com/

U.S. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich are digging into familiar territory with a proposal to reform the General Mining Act of 1872, which governs mining on federal lands. But the New Mexico Democrats’ plan to charge royalties on new mines to help fund the cleanup of thousands of old ones gives those mining companies, other extractive industries and the public the shaft.

The problems of using a 143-year-old law to regulate an industry with a historically checkered environmental responsibility record are well known.

From Gov. Bill Richardson in 2008 to U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman in 2009, New Mexico politicians have tried to come up with new rules that would balance taxpayers’ interests, environmental concerns and the economic importance of mining to New Mexico and to the United States.

Rio Tinto’s fight with Vale over massive iron ore mine falls at first hurdle – by Matthew Stevens (Australian Financial Review – November 23, 2015)

November 23, 2015

http://www.afr.com/

How apt that a failed racketeering case by World Wrestling Entertainment sets a critical benchmark in a New York court’s refusal to allow Rio Tinto to continue its case for criminal damages against fellow iron ore major Vale and its allies in Guinean grubbiness.

Others tarred by Rio’s sensational racketeering allegations against its Brazilian competitor number an Israeli billionaire, Benny Steinmetz, a former mines minister of Guinea, the third wife of one of its deceased presidents and a bloke who is currently in a Florida jail as a result of bribes paid to her in the US.

The nub of the Rio case was (and will be again given the likelihood of appeal) that Vale “secretly” worked with a Steinmetz company called BSGR to steal rights to two iron ore mining tenements in Guinea.

Deepening Metals Rout Sends Copper Below $4,500 as Nickel Slumps – by Agnieszka De Sousa (Bloomberg News – November 23, 2015)

November 23, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Copper fell below $4,500 a metric ton for the first time in six years and nickel touched the lowest in more than a decade on concern producers aren’t doing enough to trim a glut of metal.

The retreat in commodities helped send a gauge of mining companies to near the lowest in almost seven years. The London Metal Exchange’s index of six main contracts has slumped 27 percent this year, the most since the global financial crisis in 2008, as a slowdown in top user China cut demand.

Expectations that the Federal Reserve will soon raise U.S. interest rates has boosted the dollar and made metals more expensive for buyers holding other currencies.

Vancouver mining executives trapped in their rooms as gunmen stormed Mali hotel – by Laura Kane (Canadian Press/Vancouver Province – November 22, 2015)

November 23, 2015

http://www.theprovince.com/

Two Vancouver businessmen hid silently in their rooms for seven hours as gunmen stormed their hotel in Mali, sending text messages describing the sounds of gunfire and grenades to horrified colleagues in Canada.

The B2Gold Corp. executives were in the Radisson Blu hotel in the capital Bamako when Islamist militants launched the attack Friday morning. Unable to talk on the phone or leave their rooms, the men spent all day reporting what they were hearing through texts and emails, said CEO Clive Johnson.

Johnson was supposed to be on the same trip but had to stay in Vancouver due to knee surgery complications.

Support for UN declaration on native rights may spell trouble for Canada’s resource sector – by Tom Flanagan (Globe and Mail – November 23, 2015)

November 23, 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.

Tom Flanagan is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Calgary and chair of the aboriginal futures research program with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

The new Liberal government says it will implement the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It’s no surprise, as the Liberals campaigned on it. Nonetheless, there is great potential for mischief here because the sweeping language of the declaration is inconsistent with well-established principles of Canadian property law.

Article 32 of the declaration would require Canada to obtain from indigenous peoples “free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories” for developing natural resources.

Is Ring reality or myth: next 100 days will tell – by Stefan Huzan (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – November 8, 2015)

November 23, 2015

Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

I believe the next 100 days will demonstrate if there is to be a new economic reality in Northern Ontario because Justin Trudeau, the new prime minister of Canada, has appointed Patty Hajdu, Thunder Bay-Superior North, to the federal cabinet.

After all, the biggest promise of the Liberal election campaign was multi-billion dollar investments for growth.

And, it is important to note that Ontario Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne had also won majority support of voters in 2014, to a large extent on the basis of similar promises of multi-billion dollar investment into infrastructure.

[Sudbury Neutrino Observatory] Art McDonald on how to win a Nobel Prize – by Kate Lunau (MACLEAN’S Magazine – November 21, 2015)

November 23, 2015

http://www.macleans.ca/

All it takes is one mine, 1,000 tonnes of heavy water, 274 scientists and the backing of an entire town

Arthur McDonald, tall, bespectacled and silver-haired, is hiking down the rocky tunnel of a nickel mine outside Sudbury, Ont., after descending more than two kilometres underground in a mine cage. The space is lit mainly by the roving headlamps worn by his small group. Roof bolts and steel screens brace the rock overhead.

The terrain is uneven, and it’s easy to stumble. McDonald, 72, takes slow, considered steps, occasionally turning to warn the others of a treacherous puddle or ditch. Fatigue is a common side effect of time spent this deep underground, where the air pressure is much higher than above ground, but he doesn’t seem to feel it.

Why 2015 will go down as a year to forget for North American coal miners – by Peter Koven (National Post – November 21, 2015)

November 23, 2015

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

Plenty of coal industry insiders have spoken out about the collapse of the business in the United States. But nobody does it with quite the same fervor as Robert Murray.

“We have the worst president the United States has ever had in its history,” said the founder and chief executive of Ohio-based Murray Energy Corp., one of the largest coal producers in the U.S.

“He has stacked the government with hundreds of thousands of bureaucrats who are on a regulatory rampage (against coal) that are carrying out the desires of those who got him elected,” Murray said in an interview.

Guest Commentary: Nuclear power critical to climate fight – by Stephen Antony (Denver Post – November 21, 2015)

November 23, 2015

http://www.denverpost.com/

Stephen Antony is president and CEO of Energy Fuels, a Lakewood-based integrated uranium mining company.

Nuclear power has the potential to emerge globally in the coming years. It’s incontrovertible: Honest efforts to fight climate change and air pollution will absolutely depend on nuclear energy. Moreover, achieving real energy independence will depend on nuclear energy. That makes these two goals very much intertwined.

The U.S. has greatly benefited from a shale revolution that has yielded billions of barrels of oil and gas. This has brought enormous economic benefits to America and made our nation less dependent on foreign sources of energy.

However, there is another key consideration: taking greater responsibility in providing cleaner energy to the world.

Hopes fade for 100 miners missing after landslide near Myanmar jade mine – by Aung Hla Tun (Reuters U.S. – Novmeber 23, 2015)

November 23, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

YANGON – Hopes faded on Monday that any of an estimated 100 people missing would be found alive after a landslide in northern Myanmar buried an encampment near a jade mine, and officials said it was still unclear how many people were living in the area.

Rescue workers had recovered 113 bodies when the search was suspended on Monday evening, Khin Kyaw, a local police officer, told Reuters. Two of the bodies recovered were women, he said.

Heavy equipment has been brought in to assist the digging in Hpakant, the site of the landslide in a mountainous area in the northern Kachin State that produces some of the world’s highest-quality jade.