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Mozambique ruby mine boosts global supply – by Jessica Diamond (Financial Times – September 5, 2014)

 

http://www.ft.com/

Coloured gemstones dominate today’s global fine jewellery market, sparkling in the windows of Bond Street, Place Vendôme and beyond. Rubies, particularly the deep red colour known as pigeon blood, are among the most prized stones, but supplies had become scarce until recent months.

This was largely because of a US ban on imports from Myanmar, one of the world’s most important ruby mining countries. But human rights abuses under the country’s military dictatorship had led to sanctions.

Yet demand remained high, especially in India and China, where red is regarded as a symbol of wealth.

The ethical conundrum continued until 2012, when Gemfields, a mining company specialising in ethically sourced coloured gemstones, acquired a 75 per cent interest in the Montepuez ruby deposit in Mozambique.

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The dangerous world of Pakistan’s gem trade – by Adnan R. Khan (MACLEAN’S Magazine – May 24, 2014)


http://www.macleans.ca/

Inside the world’s oldest gem market in Pakistan, home to terrorist financiers and drug smugglers

“Twenty-thousand dollars.” That’s how much Jalil says the blood-red ruby he is holding is worth. “It’s not my best,” says the 47-year-old gem trader. “My best pieces I only show to people holding a bag of cash.” A hush descends over the small group of men huddled around a lamp in Jalil’s shop.

The ruby, three near-flawless carats, glimmers with a surreal clarity. Other gemstones lie scattered on crisp white sheets of paper—sapphires from Kashmir, emeralds from Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley, citrine and aquamarine—making the dark, windowless office feel like a cave of treasures.

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Secret Rocks: The $10 billion jewels industry is shrouded in beauty—and mystery. Is change about to come? – by Shibani Mahtani and Patrick Barta (Wall Street Journal – May 17, 2013)

http://www.wsj.com/

TO HEAR RICHARD HUGHES tell it, the journey was like something straight out of “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.” One of the world’s leading modern-day gem hunters, he was hell-bent on reaching the fabled jade mines of upper Myanmar—a jungle redoubt so remote and closely guarded that few living Westerners have ever laid eyes on it.

Before he could get close, he had to spend months ahead of his trip convincing Myanmar’s secretive military, which controlled access to the country’s mines, to let him in. Then he had to navigate some of the most punishing, malaria-ridden terrain east of the Congo, capped by a grueling climb along a dirt road his handlers said would only take seven hours to ascend.

The trail quickly turned into a river of sludge under Myanmar’s brutal monsoons, trapping vehicles in mud to their doors until teams of elephants showed up to haul them out.

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Shelter From Gold Rout: Australian Miners Provide Safe Haven – by David Stringer and Jasmine Ng (Bloomberg News – July 24, 2015)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

As gold prices have sunk to the lowest level since 2010, canny investors are seeking refuge in Australian gold mining stocks.

The key is the plunging Australia currency that’s helping local producers boost margins even as the U.S.-dollar denominated metal slides. While spot gold tumbled 16 percent in the past year, the metal’s price in Australian-dollar terms has risen about 8 percent.

That’s helped the S&P/ASX All Ordinaries Gold Index of 21 Australian miners gain 12 percent this year as of Thursday, as the benchmark Philadelphia Stock Exchange Gold and Silver Index slumped 31 percent.

Suppliers in Australia, the second-largest producing nation, benefit by selling the metal in U.S. dollars while their costs and profits are mostly denominated in the weaker local currency. The Aussie fell Friday to a six-year low.

“A weak Australian dollar against the U.S. dollar powerfully expands Aussie miner margins,” William Kaye, the Hong Kong-based owner of The Pacific Group Ltd. and chief investment officer of its Greater Asian hedge fund, said in an e-mailed response to questions. This would make Australian miners attractive to investors, he said.

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PRESS RELEASE: Commodity Prices Expected to Remain Weak in 2015 Despite Slight Rebound in Oil Price

Special feature assesses how China and India play significant roles in world commodity markets

Click here for the World Bank July 2015 Commodity Markets Outlook report: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPROSPECTS/Resources/334934-1304428586133/GEP2015c_commodity_Jul2015.pdf

WASHINGTON, July 22, 2015 –The World Bank is nudging up its 2015 forecast for crude oil prices from $53 in April to $57 per barrel after oil prices rose 17 percent in the Apr-Jun quarter, according to the Bank’s latest Commodity Markets Outlook, a quarterly update on the state of the international commodity markets.

The Bank reports that energy prices rose 12 percent in the quarter, with the surge in oil offset by declines in natural gas (down 13 percent) and coal prices (down 4 percent). However, the Bank expects energy prices to average 39 percent below 2014 levels. Natural gas prices are projected to decline across all three main markets—U.S., Europe, and Asia—and coal prices to fall 17 percent. Excluding energy, the World Bank reports a 2 percent decline in prices for the quarter, and forecasts that non-energy prices will average 12 percent below 2014 levels this year.

“Demand for crude oil was higher than expected in the second quarter. Despite the marginal increase in the price forecast for 2015, large inventories and rising output from OPEC members suggest prices will likely remain weak in the medium-term,” said John Baffes, Senior Economist and lead author of Commodity Markets Outlook.

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People around Earl Grey, Sask., discuss proposed potash mine (CBC News Saskatchewan – July 23, 2015)

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

Public meeting held in Earl Grey

People from around Earl Grey, Sask., took part in a public meeting Thursday to discuss a proposed Chinese-owned potash mine in the area.

Yancoal Canada, which operates coal mines in China and Australia, is proposing a potash mine with an annual output of 2.8 million tonnes near the communities of Earl Grey, Southey and Strasbourg.

Prior to the meeting, local resident Cathi Beckel said she has concerns about the project, noting there are too many risks — including water security issues and a boom and bust job situation — with too few benefits.

“I’m concerned about our environment. I’m concerned about our farmers. I’m concerned about our communities,” Beckel said. “These big industries come in and they really change communities.”

Representatives from Yancoal, and provincial officials from the ministries of the economy and the environment were at the meeting to make presentations on the proposal. There was also a question and answer session.

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Miners Shed Thousands of Jobs as Commodities Prices Slide – by Scott Patterson (Wall Street Journal – July 24, 2015)

http://www.wsj.com/

Anglo American to cut 53,000 jobs, while Lonmin will cut 6,000 jobs over the next two years

The world’s biggest miners are hemorrhaging jobs as the price for almost everything they dig up—from gold to aluminum to copper—slides relentlessly downward.

Anglo American PLC, the U.K. mining titan, on Friday announced the most dramatic job-reduction figure yet in the ailing industry, saying it would slash 53,000 jobs over the next several years—including 6,000 in the corporate offices amounting to $500 million in savings. That would amount to a reduction of 35% of its current workforce of 151,000.

“We’re looking at every dollar and pulling everything back,” Anglo-American Chief Executive Mark Cutifani said in a presentation of the miner’s first-half earnings results to investors Friday. “It’s a constant process driving out costs.”

Also on Friday, South Africa’s Lonmin PLC said it would cut 6,000 workers over the next two years. BHP Billiton has recently cut hundreds of jobs linked to its giant copper, gold and uranium mine, Olympic Dam, in South Australia so far this year.

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Commentary: Fulfilling CSR goals without violating anti-corruption laws -by Mark N. Sills and Jennifer L. Egsgard (Northern Miner – July 22, 2015)

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is increasingly important to successful business operations. Yet CSR initiatives are often developed without attention to possible liability under anti-corruption laws.

CSR once referred primarily to a company’s voluntary philanthropic projects, such as donating to a local charity or building a school. While these types of projects are still important, today the term CSR refers more broadly to a corporate responsibility to understand and address the various impacts a company’s operations may have on its stakeholders in the economic, social and environmental spheres, as well as their relationships in the workplace, the marketplace, the supply chain, the community and the public policy realm.

An example of this newer concept of CSR is set out in the widely endorsed UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. These “Guiding Principles” state that businesses have a responsibility to respect all internationally recognized human rights by avoiding infringement on the human rights of others, conducting due diligence to monitor rights impacts and addressing adverse human rights impacts that may arise out of their operations.

CSR and anti-corruption initiatives are often approached differently both conceptually and within companies, yet they are linked.

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Empire Editorial: Canada can say ‘no’ to mining (Juneau Empire – July 24, 2015)

http://juneauempire.com/

This newspaper in the past year has questioned Canada’s mining standards, including if they exist. In light of the August 2014 failure of the Mount Polley Mine tailings dam that sent billions of gallons of toxic tailings and contaminated water into Southeast Alaska waters, there is ample reason to be concerned.

But there’s also reason to be hopeful, however, that Southeast residents’ concerns are being listened to across the border.

The recent decision by Canadian officials to send Pacific Booker Minerals, Inc., back to the drawing board to reassess its plans for the Morrison Mine, a proposed open pit copper and gold mine in the Skeena River watershed, is a promising sign for those concerned with environmental consequences down stream.

Pacific Booker Minerals was denied an Environmental Assessment certificate not once but twice, as Empire reporter Mary Catherine Martin wrote in an article published in today’s Outdoors section. The second came after the mining company sued and the BC Supreme Court asked the country’s Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Energy and Mines to reconsider its 2012 denial.

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Sudbury study to examine mental health of miners – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – July 24, 2015)

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

A research project on the mental health of workers in the mining industry is exactly the type of study Ontario Labour Minister Kevin Flynn would like to see more of in Ontario.

The three-year, $400,000 study, funded by Vale Ltd., is a partnership among the mining company, United Steelworkers and Laurentian University’s Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health (CROSH).

The goal of the study, called Mining Mental Health, is to collect information to develop strategies to promote strong mental health among workers in Vale’s Ontario operations.

Flynn paid his first visit to a mine earlier this year when he went underground at Vale’s Coleman Mine.

Travelling 5,000 feet below surface “was quite the experience for a city kid,” Flynn told about 100 people in the lobby of Laurentian’s Ben Avery building Thursday.

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Lacking proof, Mitsubishi unwilling to apologize to Canadian POWs [Mine slave labour] – by Iain Marlow (Globe and Mail – July 24, 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.

On Christmas morning, 1944, 23-year-old Corporal George Peterson of the Winnipeg Grenadiers was told by his Japanese guards that he wouldn’t have to go down the Mitsubishi-owned coal mine that day.

Mr. Peterson, who had already spent three grueling years as a prisoner of war, said it looked as though the POWs were about to get a break from the slave-like working conditions. The guards first dragged out a fir tree, then brought out extra food for the famished prisoners, including riceballs and beer.

“They lined us up behind the table and took a picture,” says Mr. Peterson, now 94. But then “they said we could go back down the mine. … When we came up from the mine at about 5 p.m., the guards were laughing at us, saying the food was pretty good. We laughed right back, because we were trying not to let them know how much it hurt.”

Nearly 70 years after the end of the Second World War, Mitsubishi Materials Corp. has begun to issue historic apologies to POWs – but it has not yet apologized to Canadians.

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Canadian firms cry foul over Kenyan government as Obama visits – by Peter Koven (National Post – July 24, 2015)

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

U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Kenya, which begins on Friday, is an event that country’s government has awaited for years.

With the world’s attention focused on Kenya, the birthplace of Obama’s father, the East African nation has an opportunity to show it welcomes foreign investment and does not tolerate corruption. As such, one of the last topics the government wants anyone to bring up is Canadian resource companies that are fighting it in court.

Two small companies, Vanoil Energy Ltd. and Pacific Wildcat Resources Corp., have begun international arbitration cases against Kenya, claiming they lost access to their properties under very peculiar circumstances. Vanoil is seeking US$150 million (and is threatening additional litigation), while Pacific Wildcat wants more than US$2 billion, according to a report.

Interviews with executives at the two companies paint a troublesome portrait of Kenyan government officials willing to push out companies that own concessions. Kenya has traditionally been viewed as one of Africa’s most attractive places to invest, but political risk, along with a tenuous security situation, are harming that perception.

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COMMENT: One in 10 gold mines losing money – by Marilyn Scales (Canadian Mining Journal – July 23, 2015)

Marilyn Scales is a field editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication. She is one of Canada’s most senior mining commentators.

That’s a headline guaranteed to make any gold bug sit up and take notice. What individuals think this means remains ripe for discussion.

It’s no secret that the price of gold is dropping. It closed at $1,088.60 on July 22, the second lowest level since January 2010. (In February 2010 the price bottomed out at $1,058.50.) [All figures in US dollars.]

Why so low? Ideas differ. There is discussion about the United States raising interest rates in the short term. The stronger US dollar is gaining favour by individuals and institutions. China is reportedly selling its gold reserves. Gold demand in India is not enough to pick up the slack.

Worse yet, some analysts are predicting a further fall to $1,000 per oz.

Gold producers are swaying under a mountain of debt, estimated to be more than $30 billion, a monumental rise from less than $5 billion in 2007.

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The UN Shames Canada — Again — About the Same Human Rights Issues – by Rachel Browne (Vice.com – July 24, 2015)

https://news.vice.com/

The UN Human Rights Committee is shaming Canada for its human rights record, which hasn’t improved much in the last decade.

On Thursday, the committee released its first review of Canada in 10 years — and the first ever under Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The findings claim that the government has failed on a host of issues ranging from missing and murdered Aboriginal women, its treatment of refugees, to its overly broad anti-terror legislation, Bill C-51.

The seven-page report comes after more than 26 human rights organizations submitted their concerns about Canada and provided testimony in front of the 18-person committee in Geneva earlier this month. The committee calls on the federal government to launch a national inquiry into the missing and murdered women, while making note of “persisting inequalities between men and women” in Canada, and asking the government to consider overturning Bill C-51.

The report is quick to point out that Canada has failed to create a way for its recommendations to be carried out at all. “The Committee regrets the lack of an appropriate mechanism in the State party to implement views of the committee,” it says.

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Vale’s Nickel IPO Chances Wane as Fires, Shutdowns Hurt Output – by Juan Pablo Spinetto(Bloomberg News – July 23, 2015)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

A fire in Canada, disruptions in Indonesia and shutdowns in Brazil and New Caledonia: it was tough getting nickel out of the ground last quarter for Vale SA.

Output of the metal at Vale, the world’s largest producer, missed estimates for a second consecutive quarter. The lower-than-expected production comes as a plunge in metal prices makes the Rio de Janeiro-based company’s plan to sell as much as 30 percent of the unit in an initial public offering less likely.

Vale said in its second-quarter output report Thursday that nickel production rose less than 9 percent to 67,100 metric tons, missing a 73,900-ton average forecast by seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The result, called “poor” by BMO Capital Markets in a research note, puts production for the first half at 136,000 tons, or less than 45 percent of the company’s annual target of 303,000 tons.

Operations in the quarter were affected by a fire at its operations in Sudbury, Ontario, which reduced nickel and copper production by 5,000 tons each, furnace maintenance in Indonesia and a “brief shutdown” for plant improvement at the Onca Puma project in Brazil, Vale said. The miner is planning to close facilities at Sudbury and Thompson in August for maintenance, it said.

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