Biden Decries 'Outrageous' Treatment of Haitians at Border—But Keeps Deporting Them

"I'm glad to see President Biden speak out about the mistreatment of Haitian asylum-seekers. 

But his administration's use of Title 42 to deny them the right to make an asylum claim is a much bigger issue.


President Joe Biden speaks in the East Room of the White House on July 22, 2021.

 (Photo: Adam Schultz/White House)

JESSICA CORBETT

September 24, 2021

After several days of global outrage over footage of mounted U.S. agents using their horse reins as whips and menacing Black migrants at the southern border, President Joe Biden on Friday finally condemned the conduct, while his administration continued mass deportations to Haiti.

A reporter asked the president whether he takes responsibility for the "chaos that's unfolding" at the border and if he was failing to deliver on his campaign promise to restore the moral standing of the United States, in part by ending the Trump administration's immigration policies.

"Of course I take responsibility. I'm president," Biden said, adding that it was "horrible… to see people treated like they did: horses nearly running them over and people being strapped. It's outrageous."

"I promise you, those people will pay," he said of the mounted agents, noting that a federal investigation is underway. "There will be consequences. It's an embarrassment. But beyond an embarrassment, it's dangerous; it's wrong. It sends the wrong message around the world. It sends the wrong message at home. It's simply not who we are."

Biden had been under pressure to speak out about the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents' recent actions at the border.

"The horrific conduct by CBP in Del Rio, Texas, including officers charging into crowds of Haitian asylum-seekers on horseback, violently dispersing them, taunting them, and forcing them away from safety, is reprehensible and underscores a deeper problem of systemic and racist treatment against Haitian and other Black migrants in the U.S. and at the southern border," said Paul O'Brien, executive director at Amnesty International USA.

Former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro said Friday that "I'm glad to see President Biden speak out about the mistreatment of Haitian asylum-seekers."

"But his administration's use of Title 42 to deny them the right to make an asylum claim is a much bigger issue. End Title 42," Castro added, referring to a controversial policy first implemented under former President Donald Trump that the Biden administration is still using to swiftly deport people on public health grounds due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Castro, on Thursday, had slammed Biden's silence about the CBP agents as "baffling and disappointing," and said—referring to one of Trump's senior advisers—that "this administration's use of Stephen Miller's Title 42 policy is a terrible error—in more ways than one. It should end."

Responding to Biden's Friday comments, the humanitarian aid group No More Deaths said that federal agents attack migrants "every day in the remote desert, away from cameras," and that "the problem isn't a few bad apples… it's a system rotten to the core."

During a Friday afternoon press conference at the White House, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas addressed the agents' actions and the resulting investigation.

The secretary explained that the use of horse patrol units has been halted in the area, at least for now, and "the agents involved in these incidents have been assigned to administrative duties and are not interacting with migrants while the investigation is ongoing."

He also confirmed there are no more migrants at the encampment in Del Rio, Texas, where about 15,000 people, mostly Haitians, had gathered days earlier to seek asylum. The Biden administration has faced criticism for responding by ramping up deportations.

Daniel Foote, the administration's special envoy to Haiti, resigned in a Wednesday letter that highlighted the current conditions of the Caribbean country, which is still reeling from the July assassination of former President Jovenel Moïse that was followed by an earthquake and tropical storm.

Foote wrote that he will not be associated with the "inhumane, counterproductive decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees and illegal immigrants to Haiti, a country where American officials are confined to secure compounds because of the danger posed by armed gangs," adding that the Biden administration's "policy approach to Haiti remains deeply flawed, and my recommendations have been ignored and dismissed."

The Associated Press reports that "a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the situation said six flights were scheduled to Haiti on Friday, with seven planned Saturday and six Sunday, though that was subject to change. The official was not authorized to speak publicly."

Mayorkas said that as of Friday, about 2,000 people had been deported to Haiti over the past week on 17 expulsion flights; another 12,400 migrants will have their cases heard by an immigration judge; and 5,000 are being processed by the Department of Homeland Security.

The DHS chief also noted the limitations of the U.S. asylum system and defended the administration's Title 42 expulsions, declaring that it's a "public health imperative" not an immigration policy and has been broadly applied to migrants regardless of their home country.

"Title 42 inflicts immense harm—stranding asylum-seekers in grave danger where they are targets of brutal kidnappings and attacks, turning away Black and LGBTQ asylum-seekers to suffer bias-motivated violence, separating families, and endangering public health," Human Rights First tweeted Friday, calling on Biden to scrap the policy, which his administration is currently defending in federal court.

Noting the dire conditions in Haiti, Amnesty's O'Brien said that "these mass deportations demonstrate that the government is not committed to upholding the rights and well-being of the asylum-seekers they are sending back to danger."

"The U.S. government has a moral and legal responsibility to welcome Haitians and all people who have fled their homes in search of safety," he added, "and the Biden administration can and must do better."

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'How Many More Deaths Must It Take?' Barbados Leader Rips Rich Nations in Fierce UN Speech

"How many more variants of Covid-19 must arrive, how many more, before a worldwide plan for vaccinations will be implemented?"


Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley addresses the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly on September 24, 2021 in New York. (Photo: John Angelillo/AFP via Getty Images)

JAKE JOHNSON

September 25, 2021

Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley delivered a scathing indictment of the rich and powerful during her address at the 76th session of the U.N. General Assembly on Friday, condemning the leaders of wealthy countries for refusing to take basic steps to end the coronavirus pandemic, tackle the climate emergency, and usher in a more just society.

"How much more global temperature rise must there be before we end the burning of fossil fuels?"

"If I used the speech prepared for me to deliver today, it would be a repetition, a repetition of what you have heard from others and also from me," Mottley said at the outset of her remarks, which came after the leaders of African and Latin American nations decried the massive, persistent inequities in coronavirus vaccine distribution that have left billions of people without access to lifesaving shots.

"How many more times will we then have a situation where we say the same thing over and over and over, to come to naught?" she asked. "My friends, we cannot do that anymore."

In the roughly 15 minutes that followed, Mottley—the leader of Barbados' Labour Party and the first woman to serve as the small island nation's prime minister—decried the international community's continued inaction in the face of intensifying global crises.

"How many more variants of Covid-19 must arrive, how many more, before a worldwide action plan for vaccinations will be implemented?" Mottley said. "How many more deaths must it take before 1.7 billion excess vaccines in the possession of the advanced countries of the world will be shared with those who have simply no access?"

Watch the full speech:



"None are safe until all are safe. How many more times will we hear that?" she continued. "How much more global temperature rise must there be before we end the burning of fossil fuels? And how much more must sea levels climb in small-island developing states before those who profited from the stockpiling of greenhouse gases contribute to the loss and damage that they occasioned, rather than asking us to crowd out the fiscal space that we have for development to cure the damage caused by the greed of others?"

Mottley went on to dismiss the notion that the international community lacks adequate resources to make transformative progress in the fight against Covid-19, the climate crisis, and global inequality.

"We have the means to give every child on this planet a tablet, and we have the means to give every adult a vaccine, and we have the means to invest in protecting the most vulnerable on our planet from a changing climate—but we choose not to," she said. "It is not because we do not have enough, it is because we do not have the will to distribute that which we have. And it is also because, regrettably, the faceless few do not fear the consequences sufficiently."

"The nation states of this assembly and the people of this world must indicate what direction we want our world to go in," Mottley added, "and not leave it to the faceless few who have worked so hard to prevent the prosperity from being shared."

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Missing Voices in Broadcast Coverage of Afghan Withdrawal

Corporate journalists overwhelmingly leaned on government and military sources, while offering no clear antiwar voices and vanishingly few perspectives from civil society leaders in either Afghanistan or the United States.


Relatives and neighbors of the Ahmadi family gathered around the incinerated husk of a vehicle hit by a U.S. drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan on August 30, 2021. 

(Photo: Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

JULIE HOLLAR

September 25, 2021

 by Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR)

As the US after 20 years finally began its withdrawal from Afghanistan, the story dominated TV news. Just as they did when the war began (Extra!, 11–12/01), corporate journalists overwhelmingly leaned on government and military sources, while offering no clear antiwar voices and vanishingly few perspectives from civil society leaders in either Afghanistan or the United States.

FAIR studied a week of Afghanistan coverage (8/15–21/21), starting with the day the Taliban took back Kabul. We looked at the three primetime broadcast news shows, ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News, identifying 74 sources across the three shows.

Who got to speak?

Of these sources, 23 sources were Afghans (20) or identified as Afghan Americans (3)—31% of all sources. Only 11 of these 23—fewer than half—were identified by at least a first name, and only four were women. (Afghans often have only one name.) While three Afghan sources were identified as professionals who might have offered informed commentary on the broader political or historical situation—a journalist, a member of parliament and a nonprofit director—the vast majority of questions to all Afghan and Afghan American sources were about their personal risk and situation, essentially providing “color” rather than expert opinion to the story.

Americans who were not Afghans comprised the remaining 51 sources, with no other nationalities represented. Of these US sources, 31 were non-Pentagon government officials, and 16 were current or former military, from the secretary of Defense to enlisted soldiers. The remainder were three parents of Americans killed in the war, and a non-Afghan US citizen evacuating from Afghanistan.

The partisan breakdown of US officials was 29 Democrats to eight Republicans, with President Joe Biden accounting for 14 of the Democratic sources, and other members of his administration accounting for 12.

No scholars or antiwar activists from either the US or Afghanistan were featured. Only two civil society leaders made appearances: the director of a nonprofit women’s organization in Afghanistan (8/16/21) and the president of a New York City veterans’ organization (8/16/21).

Despite the media’s emphasis on the plight of women in Afghanistan as a result of US withdrawal (FAIR.org, 8/23/21), women were rarely considered experts, or even voices worth hearing on this story: Only eight sources were female (11% of the total), two of whom were unnamed.

No independent defense of withdrawal

Biden, who played a key role in leading the country into the Iraq War (FAIR.org, 1/9/20), was essentially the strongest “antiwar” voice in the conversation. While he and his administration frequently defended their decision to uphold the withdrawal agreement, there were no other sources who did so.

Of the three non-administration Democratic sources, two encouraged an extension of the withdrawal deadline. All of the Republican sources criticized either the commitment to or the process of withdrawal. Most of the remaining sources were also critical of the process.

The final days of the occupation were without question chaotic. But by only featuring sources who emphasized the “stain” on the US’s “reputation” (Sen. Mitch McConnell, NBC, 8/16/21), or the idea that “the Americans left us behind, and left us to those people who are not human and cut our heads off in front of our families” (Abdul, ABC, 8/20/21), a discussion of the tragedy of the 20-year occupation itself was completely foreclosed.
Journalists’ continued jingoism

And corporate journalists themselves, who have often been the loudest cheerleaders for the Afghanistan War (e.g., FAIR.org, 9/17/01, 8/25/09, 1/31/19), continued their jingoism in the face of the withdrawal.

NBC‘s chief foreign correspondent, Richard Engel (8/16/21), for instance, offered an echo of—rather than a counterpoint to—McConnell and Abdul: “A 20-year war, the longest in US history, today ended a disgrace. The US leaving behind a country its citizens are too terrified to live in.”

Similarly, CBS‘s Norah O’Donnell (8/16/21) declared: “When America leaves, for many, so does the hope—the hope of freedom, the hope for human rights. And in its place comes the sheer terror of what’s next.” O’Donnell went on to detail the number of Americans killed and wounded, plus the unspecified “cost to America’s national security.”

Given that the withdrawal was an acknowledgement that after 20 years of occupation, the US had little control over what kind of country it would be “leaving behind,” it’s hard to imagine a withdrawal that Engel would not have considered a disgrace. But while he and O’Donnell highlighted the plight of “many” Afghans, neither made any mention of the number of Afghans killed and wounded in the 20-year war, which was at least 27 times higher than US casualties, according to the Costs of War project (9/1/21) at Brown University. That project estimated at least 46,000 Afghan civilians were killed, including more than 500 humanitarian workers and journalists, along with over 69,000 national military and police and more than 52,000 opposition fighters.

But these tallies—which do not even include the wounded, or excess (indirect) deaths—are almost certainly undercounts. New Yorker reporter Anand Gopal, who has spent years covering the war, including time in rural Afghanistan, believes that the available death tolls have “grossly undercounted” civilian casualties, as much of the ongoing conflict has taken place in outlying areas where deaths frequently go unrecorded (Democracy Now!, 9/16/21).

Gopal’s recent article (New Yorker, 9/13/21) on rural Afghan women recounted his investigation in the largely rural Helmand province, where he interviewed a random selection of 12 households, finding that each had lost, on average, 10 to 12 civilians to the war. While Taliban rule was not popular among those he interviewed, it was clearly preferred to US occupation, which had empowered even more ruthless warlords and ensured unending conflict, airstrikes and terror in the region.

This perspective was not to be found on US TV news coverage of the withdrawal, with its correspondents reporting from the airbase in Kabul, an Afghanistan a world apart from that known by the majority of the country’s population.

Rosy picture of occupation

NBC‘s Lester Holt (8/16/21), who visited Afghanistan in 2010 and 2012, offered a typical assessment, painting the occupation as a sensitive operation bringing Afghanistan out of darkness into a brighter future:

Traveling across Afghanistan a decade into the war [2012], it was hard not to feel some optimism, as if we were witness to a country emerging from darkness…. Through the war, epic American-led battles reclaim cities and villages from the Taliban. US commanders nurture trust among village elders believing in Afghanistan’s future. And now, in the chaos, we’re left to wonder how that future has been so rapidly rewritten with chapters from Afghanistan’s past.

Two weeks later, on the eve of the official withdrawal, CBS‘s O’Donnell (8/30/21) asked longtime Pentagon correspondent David Martin, “What does this moment mean?” Martin responded:

To me, it’s on all of us. All of us as American citizens. We as a country could not summon the will to outlast the Taliban. We sent more than 800,000 troops to fight in the war. The vast majority of them did everything we asked of them. They would have gone back for another 20 years if we had asked them. But the country grew tired of the war, and they elected political leaders, both Democratic and Republican, who wanted to end it. History will decide whether that was right or wrong. But either way, Norah, it’s on us.

O’Donnell herself (CBS, 8/26/21) painted a rosy picture of the occupation a few days prior :

This is what American troops were doing before terrorists struck today: feeding children, playing with kids, lending an arm to the elderly. The American military is the greatest in the world, not only because of its superior force, but because of its humanity—soldiers providing a helping hand, pulling Afghan infants to safety. This child kept warm by the uniform of a US soldier during her evacuation. This mother delivered her baby in the cargo bay of a C-17, naming the newborn Reach, after the call sign of the aircraft that rescued her.

For the last two decades, our mission has been about keeping us safe at home and improving the lives of Afghans. The 13 US service members who made the ultimate sacrifice today did not die in vain. One hundred thousand people have been evacuated because of their heroic actions. They answered the call and did what they were trained to do. A reminder of the high price of freedom. And God bless our US troops.

Obviously, the families of the thousands of Afghan civilians killed in US airstrikes—many of them children—or those victimized by rogue soldiers, might have a different perspective on the US military. Those voices, too, might have helped explain to journalists like Holt, and his viewers, why Afghanistan’s future looks the way it does, rather than the rosy, peaceful outcome those journalists seem to have expected the US to have supplied.

Veteran voices

The perspectives of US troops were occasionally presented, but segments featuring veterans’ voices seemed largely intended to reassure viewers that the 20-year war was worth it. “Some veterans are thinking, was it worth it? Were our sacrifices worth it?” O’Donnell (CBS, 8/18/21) said, followed immediately by a soundbite from a veteran: “It was worth it…. We gave Afghanistan two decades of freedom. It made the world a better place.”

Notably, post–9/11 veterans had soured on the war over the past decade. While a 2011 Pew poll found that 50% believed the Afghanistan War had been worth fighting, the outfit’s 2019 poll found that number had dropped to 38%—roughly on par with the general public. Afghanistan veterans were more likely than the general public to support the withdrawal—58% vs. 52%—even after it was well underway and the subject of widespread one-sidedly hostile media coverage (Morning Consult, 9/9/21).

© 2021 Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR)

JULIE HOLLAR is the managing editor of FAIR's magazine, Extra!. Her work received an award from Project Censored in 2005, and she has been interviewed by such media outlets as the L.A. Times, Agence France-Presse and the San Francisco Chronicle. A graduate of Rice University, she has written for the Texas Observer and coordinated communications and activism at the Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby of Texas. Hollar also co-directed the 2006 documentary Boy I Am and was previously active in the Paper Tiger Television collective.

Silver-enhanced disinfectant has long-lasting effects against covid-19

MINING.COM Staff Writer | September 24, 2021

Spraying disinfectant. (Reference image from, Public Domain Pictures).

Researchers at the University of Central Florida are using an engineered nanostructure called cerium oxide modified with small amounts of silver to produce a disinfectant that can continuously kill viruses on a surface for up to seven days.


Cerium oxide is known for its regenerative antioxidant properties. Thus, this development could be a powerful weapon against covid-19 and other emerging pathogenic viruses.

The disinfectant is being created at UCF in partnership with Kismet Technologies, whose founder, Christina Drake, said she was inspired to develop it after seeing a worker at a grocery store spraying disinfectant on a refrigerator handle, then wiping off the spray immediately.

THE CERIUM OXIDE NANOPARTICLES ARE MODIFIED WITH SMALL AMOUNTS OF SILVER TO MAKE THEM MORE POTENT AGAINST PATHOGENS

“Initially, my thought was to develop a fast-acting disinfectant,” Drake said in a media statement. “But we spoke to consumers —like doctors and dentists— to find out what they really wanted from a disinfectant. What mattered the most to them was something long-lasting that would continue to disinfect high-touch areas like door handles and floors long after application.”

The cerium oxide nano-particle engineered disinfectant she came up with together with a team at UCF, is already potent but its properties increase with the added traces of silver.

“It works both chemically and mechanically,” said Sudipta Seal, nanosciences expert and co-author of the study. “The nanoparticles emit electrons that oxidize the virus, rendering it inactive. Mechanically, they also attach themselves to the virus and rupture the surface almost like popping a balloon.”

According to Seal and Drake, most disinfecting wipes or sprays will disinfect a surface within three to six minutes of application but have no residual effects. This means surfaces need to be wiped down repeatedly to stay clean. The nanoparticle formulation, however, maintains its ability to inactivate microbes and continues to disinfect a surface for up to seven days after a single application.

In its present formulation, the disinfectant has shown antiviral activity against seven different viruses, including coronavirus and rhinovirus. It also proved effective against a wide range of other viruses with different structures and complexities which — the researchers say — may make it a highly effective tool against other new emerging viruses.

The product is also free of harmful chemicals. However, more research is needed before it can go to market. This is why the next phase of the study will look at how the disinfectant performs outside of the lab in real-world applications. That work will look at how the disinfectant is affected by external factors such as temperature or sunlight.

To make this final step, the team is in talks with a local hospital network in whose facilities they would like to test the product.

Top copper producers show some love for Peru’s leftist leader

Bloomberg News | September 23, 2021 | 

Pedro Castillo. (Image from Castillo’s, Twitter profile)

Some of the world’s biggest miners say they like what they’re hearing from Peru’s new leftist government of late, further easing fears that drastic policy changes could stall future output in the No. 2 copper nation.


Freeport-McMoRan Inc. boss Richard Adkerson said Thursday at an industry event that he was left “encouraged” from a recent meeting with President Pedro Castillo, a former rural union activist from a Marxist party. At the same conference two days earlier, BHP Group’s president for minerals in the Americas, Ragnar Udd, complimented the government’s “strategic” approach.

The praise marks a sharp turnaround from the investor anxiety that surrounded elections in April, when Castillo vowed to nationalize assets, block projects and take a bigger share of the mineral windfall to fight poverty. The polarizing process spurred concern that a far more onerous operating environment would derail investments needed to help fill a looming copper supply gap as the world tries to wean itself off fossil fuels.

Adkerson, Udd and other executives speaking this week at the virtual Peruvian event known as Perumin highlighted the huge potential for the South American nation to capitalize on rising global demand to boost communities and the broader economy. But given mining’s historically tense relations with communities in Peru, speakers were also clear to underscore the industry’s collaborative and sustainable approach going forward.

And while the more moderate factions in the administration may have won favor of late, Castillo still plans to raise taxes to fight poverty — which explains some cautionary remarks.

“Other nations are also well resourced, and the nature of this industry is that not every opportunity will be realized — investment capital is a finite resource that competes on a global scale,” BHP’s Udd said.

American mining veteran Adkerson, who oversees the top publicly traded copper company, also spoke of the “complicated issues” that still have to be addressed. “But as miners, we want to listen to the problems and find ways of working with the government, communities and the country in trying to address them,” the Freeport CEO said.

(By James Attwood, with assistance from María Cervantes)

IMF to advise Peru on reform to increase mining taxes, says finance minister
Reuters | September 23, 2021 | 7:18 pm Intelligence Latin America Copper

Peru’s finance minister, Pedro Francke with the country’s new president, Pedro Castillo. (Credit: Presidencia Peru)

Peru’s finance minister said on Thursday that the International Monetary Fund would advise Peru on a tax reform on the mining sector that will capture more revenue in times of high metal prices without affecting competitiveness.


“There is a need for more fiscal resources,” finance minister Pedro Francke, a left-wing economist, said at the Perumin conference, attended by many mining executives in the world’s No. 2 copper producer.

“It’s not about changing the system we have … but to raise rates in the higher (income) bands,” Francke added. In addition to the IMF, Francke said the World Bank had also offered to help with the tax reform.

Mining is a key source of tax revenue in Peru and the new leftist administration of President Pedro Castillo has repeatedly said it wants to increase mining taxes to pay for new social programs.

Peru has one of the lowest tax-to-GDP ratios in Latin America, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and Francke said he is eager to improve those numbers.

Francke’s remarks are in line with what he told Reuters in an interview in early August when he said higher taxes would be designed to not affect the mining sector’s competitiveness.

Francke said he would unveil more details about the proposal next week when he is scheduled to present the tax reform proposal to Congress.

Francke’s remarks come after accompanying Castillo to the United Nations General Assembly, a trip where the two also held meetings with investors and mining corporations.

He said he had met with the CEO of gold miner Newmont, as well as executives from Freeport-McMoRan, Anglo American and Rio Tinto.

Freeport’s CEO Richard Adkerson said at the Perumin conference earlier on Thursday that he had been “impressed” by Castillo after meeting with him.

“We agreed that we need to try to work together and to provide an opportunity for mining companies in Peru to be comfortable in investing,” Adkerson said.

He noted that “no decisions were made” at the meeting.

(By Marcelo Rochabrun; Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Cameco inks deals to supply fuel for small modular reactors

Canadian Mining Journal Staff | September 23, 2021 

SASKATECHWAN Cigar Lake uranium mine (Image: Cameco)

Cameco (TSX: CCO; NYSE: CCJ) has signed a memorandum of understanding with GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH), GEH SMR Technologies Canada, and Synthos Green Energy to evaluate the potential establishment of a uranium supply chain in Canada capable of service a potential fleet of GWRX-300 small modular reactors (SMR) in Poland.


The BWRX-300 is a 300-MW, water cooled natural circulation SMR with passive safety systems. It has the potential to be the lowest risk, most cost competitive and quickest to market SMR, Cameco said in a release.

Last week, Cameco signed an agreement last week with an engineering company to potentially supply fuel for SMRs in Canada and the United States. The firm, X-energy, specializing in nuclear reactor and fuel design, has developed what it calls the Xe-100 SMR.

Cameco is one of the world’s largest suppliers of uranium, and as such, is well placed to support SMRs. “We intend to be a fuel supplier of choice for the emerging SMR and advanced reactor market and look forward to working with X-energy to see what opportunities might exist around their innovative reactor technology,” said Cameco president and CEO Tim Gitzel.

This summer, Cameco signed similar deals with GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy and Global Nuclear Fuel-Americas.

SMRs are seen as a replacement for diesel at mines and communities in remote locations. Each installation would have a life of 20 or 30 years, providing clean, economic and reliable energy and heat. A study was completed in 2018 for Ontario Power Generation, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories and MIRARCO that may lay the foundation for future development.

(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)

WORKERS ARE WORTH IT
Iron ore miners lure workers to outback with resort-style living

Bloomberg News | September 24, 2021 | 

Mulla Mulla camp. Image by BHP.

In the outback’s blistering-hot mining sites, the hours are long and the flies relentless. Now, in a bid to attract skilled workers and overcome a labor supply crunch, Australia’s iron ore companies are turning to Olympic-sized swimming pools, virtual golf arcades and fine dining.


When production starts at Mineral Resources Ltd.’s Ashburton iron ore hub around mid-2023, staff will be offered what it calls resort-style accommodation twice the size of the industry average, featuring a queen-sized bed, kitchen and lounge areas. And to overcome the strains of working remotely, a full-time mental health consultant will be on hand.

“We want to figure out how to make sure we keep the people that are working for us with us until they retire,” the company’s chief executive, Chris Ellison, said.

Meanwhile, the mining giants are also upping their game. BHP Group’s South Flank, which started production in June, features a worker village with a pool, tennis and squash courts, an indoor golf range and a range of bars and restaurants.

A RECENT REPORT SHOWED WESTERN AUSTRALIA’S RESOURCES INDUSTRY NEEDS TO ATTRACT AS MANY AS 40,000 EXTRA WORKERS OVER THE NEXT TWO YEARS

And Rio Tinto Group is seeking workers for its $2.6 billion Gudai-Darri project, due to start early next year, promising them comfortable living and high-speed connectivity at a site where workers will “genuinely respect each other.”

It’s a far cry from the industry’s traditional image of so-called fly-in, fly-out workers — flown in to work at mines in the desert for weeks at a time — being offered accommodation in sites resembling testosterone-fueled, heavy-drinking boot-camps, and sleeping in tiny rooms known as dongas after grueling 12-hour shifts.

The industry is also trying to clean up its sites after coming under attack due to sexual harassment claims made by women. BHP fired dozens of workers after it verified the claims, including substantiated allegations of rape. Rio also responded with steps to improve safety for female workers at its mines, including a buddy system, greater supervision and training, shorter rosters and a four-drink daily limit on alcohol consumption. BHP also has a four-drink cut-off at its sites.

“We’re trying to soften the sites down to attract a more diverse workforce,” Ellison said.

Mining companies know the ability to attract workers to their sites, and then keep them, is crucial. Despite an historic crash in iron ore prices this week to a 16-month low of $90, major miners like BHP and Rio still profit given their cost of production can be less than $20 per tonne.

They’re also used to volatile prices swings, so their hunt for talent is unlikely to change for now. Iron ore is responsible for about a third of Australia’s export revenue, or a record A$152 billion ($110 billion) in the year to June 30. while the industry employs around 280,000 people.

A recent report showed Western Australia’s resources industry needs to attract as many as 40,000 extra workers over the next two years or risk delays and potential postponement of some A$140 billion in projects. That challenge has been further complicated by the state’s border closures to keep out covid-19, while workers are also often headhunted to work in high-skilled industries such as tech and finance, despite being offered wages around double the national average at the mines.

For Mineral Resources, it’s not only about attracting and keeping the best workers: Ellison says it’s just as important to provide a safe and comfortable environment which supports the mental well-being of employees. The company is breaking the mold by planning to build accommodation to suit couples and families, seeking to get them to permanently reside and play an active part in the local community.

Still, the bulk of Western Australia’s mining-site workforce is destined to remain tied to their homes and families based hundreds of miles away, and from whom they need to remain physically distanced from for sometimes weeks at a time. Mineral Resources’ head of mental health, Chris Harris, said fly-in, fly-out workers suffered twice as much psychological distress as other Australian workers.

“Some of those challenges are just the nature of sector,” Harris said. “The question is: how do we support people to navigate those challenges?”

(By James Thornhill)

MINING IS NOT SUSTAINABLE
Investors in British Columbia back Faro mine restart in Yukon Territory

Nelson Bennett - Business in Vancouver | September 24, 2021 | 

Road near Faro, Yukon. Stock image.

The tiny Yukon town of Faro, a four-hour drive northwest of Whitehorse, would never have existed were it not for the nearby lead-zinc mine of the same name, which is said to have been the largest in the world at the time it was built in the late 1960s.


At its peak the town was home to 2,100 people, with the Faro mine accounting for 35% of Yukon’s GDP.

But after the mine’s owners went bankrupt, the mine shut down, the town’s population dwindled to 420 people and the federal government was left with what it described as “one of the most complex abandoned mine cleanup projects in Canada.”

To date, it has cost the Canadian government an estimated C$500 million in environmental remediation and mine site care and maintenance.

But the Faro mine district is far from exhausted of valuable metals. The region may still host a wealth of lead, zinc, silver and gold, not to mention more than $100 million worth of mining and public infrastructure, including a small airport, so the potential to restart the mine has always been there.

Now that First Nations in the area are on board with the idea of restarting the mine under a new co-ownership agreement, B.C. serial entrepreneur Don McInnes has helped put together a consortium of investors and a plan to acquire the land and restart the Faro mine.

THE REGION MAY STILL HOST A WEALTH OF LEAD, ZINC, SILVER AND GOLD, NOT TO MENTION MORE THAN $100 MILLION WORTH OF MINING AND PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE, INCLUDING A SMALL AIRPORT

The consortium – Tse Zul Development Corp. – includes McInnes’ company, Broden Mining, Vancouver-headquartered Strategic Metals Inc. (TSX-V:SMD) and the Ross River Dena Council.

McInnes has a long track record of financing successful mining and renewable energy projects. A partner at Oxygen Capital Corp., McInnes founded Plutonic Power, a B.C.-based renewable energy company that eventually became Alterra Power, which was sold to Innergex Renewable Energy (TSX:INE) in 2018 for $1.1 billion.

“When the last operator went bankrupt, it wasn’t because the mine wasn’t doing well, it was because they also owned the Westray coal mine in Nova Scotia, which blew up, and that bankrupted the company,” McInnes said.

The Faro mine complex has two main historic open-pit operations 15 kilometres apart. One of the pits is exhausted and is not part of the land package the consortium plans to buy. It is the Grum deposit in the southeast that the consortium is focused on.

The federal government would continue to be responsible for the environmental remediation of the exhausted pit. The consortium would assume the liabilities of the area around the Grum deposit, generally known as the Vangorda Lands.

“When we close – which hopefully will be this fall – we are going to be responsible for cleaning up our portion of the project, should we make an investment decision,” McInnes said.

“This is an economic arrangement between Canada and the Ross River Nation, and we’re kind of coming in behind Ross River as their mining partner, bringing them the financial and technical capacity. This is not a consult-and-accommodate opportunity. They are partners in acquiring it from the government.”

The consortium would need to rebuild a processing mill. Otherwise, the area has all the necessary infrastructure in place. When the mine was built in the 1960s, the federal government spent more than C$50 million building roads, bridges, power lines and a rail line to Whitehorse. The previous mine owners spent C$68 million on the mine’s operations.

“The deposits on the Vangorda Lands are some of the largest and richest zinc-lead-silver prospects in Canada, and they benefit from excellent infrastructure,” said Strategic Metals CEO Doug Eaton.

FIRST NATIONS IN THE AREA ARE ON BOARD WITH THE IDEA OF RESTARTING THE MINE UNDER A NEW CO-OWNERSHIP AGREEMENT

Once the land is acquired, the consortium would do a prefeasibility study, and if investors decide to sanction the project, it would have to go through a new environmental assessment. McInnes expects that would take about three years.

“If everything’s positive, and the community accepts the approach, then you might be able to start construction in three or four years from now,” McInnes said.

The plan is to restart the open-pit mining operations at the existing Grum deposit, which had been mined for only a couple of years.

“We are reasonably confident – because we have 700 drill holes of data – that there’s a lot of ore left there,” McInnes said. “We are also aware of significant other showings from previous exploration activities that stretch out to the east. And we also have a project just to the north of this called the Silver Range lands, at which a 36-million-ounce silver deposit has been found.”

(This article first appeared in Business in Vancouver)

Arctic Oil Is Booming Despite Strong Opposition

By Irina Slav - Sep 23, 2021, 11:00 AM CDT

Arctic oil and gas drilling is enjoying strong interest—and not just from Russian companies—despite the political rush to transform the world’s energy systems and remove fossil fuels from them.

A new report by Reclaim Finance, an organization that seeks to build a financial sector that will support the energy transition, has found that oil and gas companies had plans to increase their output in the Arctic by 20 percent over the next five years.

“These Arctic ‘expansionists’ – such as Gazprom, Total and ConocoPhillips – have, it is revealed, been backed by hundreds of billions of dollars of support from banks and investors, despite many holding commitments to restrict fossil financing in the region,” the report’s authors wrote.

The nonprofit said it had uncovered some $314 billion in funding for new oil and gas drilling in the Arctic distributed between 2016 and 2020, all from major banks and asset managers, most of whom have already made net-zero commitments.

Among the lenders to Arctic oil and gas, Reclaim Finance listed JP Morgan, which, according to the report, provided $18.6 billion in Arctic oil and gas financing, as well as Barclays, with $13.2 billion, and Citigroup, with $12.2 billion in financing for the oil and gas industry in its Arctic endeavors.

Private equity giants were also on the list with their holdings in the industry. The pack was led by BlackRock, which has holdings of $28.5 billion in companies with Arctic oil and gas operations. BlackRock, whose CEO Larry Fink recently said that a net-zero world is “the shared responsibility of every citizen, corporation, and government,” was followed by Vanguard, which has some $21.6 billion in exposure to oil and gas drillers in the Arctic, and Amundi, with $12.9 billion in oil and gas holdings in companies with Arctic operations.

“The Arctic is a climate bomb, and our research shows that the oil and gas industry is hellbent on setting it off, thus blowing up our chances of avoiding runaway climate breakdown,” the author of the report, Alix Mazounie, said.

“But they are not the only culprits: financial institutions have bankrolled these companies, making a mockery of their own climate commitments. Since the oil & gas tigers won’t change their stripes, the likes of BNP Paribas, BlackRock and JPMorganChase must heed the instruction of the International Energy Agency and cut off the taps.”

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

'There is no Planet B': Thousands march in Montreal to protest climate change

Friday's march was significant as Montreal's first large-scale environmental protest since the pandemic began.

Author of the article: René Bruemmer
Publishing date: Sep 24, 2021 •

Many attendees of Friday's climate march said they were spurred to turn out because the recent federal election left them doubtful Canada’s political leaders are taking the issue seriously. 

PHOTO BY DAVE SIDAWAY /Montreal Gazette

Thousands of mostly young Montrealers bearing placards reading “Wake up Mr. Trudeau” and “There is no Planet B” gathered on Mount Royal and then joined a spirited Global Protest for Climate Justice march that stretched for kilometres through the streets of downtown Friday.

They were part of the first major in-person Fridays for Future strikes — started by Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg — to be held since the pandemic began, and which drew similar crowds in more than 1,500 cities. Thunberg attended a massive rally in Berlin on Friday.

Although nowhere near the size of the mega-march that overtook Montreal in September 2019 — when Thunberg, just 16 at the time, led an estimated 500,000 people in a call for action on climate change — Friday’s march was significant as the city’s first large-scale environmental protest since COVID-19 quelled outdoor congregations.

Many attendees, most of them masked, said they were spurred to turn out because the recent federal election left them doubtful Canada’s political leaders are taking the issue seriously.

“I think the greatest threat to our health in the 21st century is the climate,” said Audrey Claveau, a pharmacist and member of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment who came to the mountain. Her young daughter held a hand-painted cardboard sign that read “I adore dinosaurs but I don’t want to end up like them.”

“I think it will affect much of the population,” said Claveau, “the aged, the asthmatic, those with health conditions, so it’s important to say it. And the government isn’t acting quickly enough.”

Claveau wants to see emissions cut drastically between now and 2030, and for government subsidies to oil and gas corporations to be halted.

Jenna Deer-Frainetti came to the monster rally in 2019, at the age of 15. Now a student at John Abbott College, she returned because “I don’t want to live on a planet that is burning,” she said. “Things are not progressing in the direction we wanted. There are more people in the younger generation that are getting involved, but I don’t think our government is doing enough. Especially with the recent election, I don’t think anything is getting done.”

She wants stricter carbon taxes to be implemented, clean drinking water to be available on all Indigenous reserves, and bans on sales of one-use plastics.

Friday’s Montreal march was organized by the Racial Justice Collective, Solidarity Across Borders, Coalition étudiante pour un virage environnemental et social and Pour le futur Mtl.

Organizers emphasized the idea that marginalized groups and developing nations are the ones that suffer the most from the effects of climate change. Abdoul Kane, spokesperson for Solidarity Across Borders, said the message is finally getting through.

“There is a large segment of the population that has a new awareness and that has decided to rise up to show to other Canadians what we are doing as a country is destroying the Earth and creating famines and a lot of problems in the world,” Kane said. “I think this is a good start to be able to start showing people that what we are doing is not good.”

Following the speeches, demonstrators walked down Parc Ave. and then west along Sherbrooke St. in a protest that was mostly peaceful. Montreal police reported three arrests: one for mischief, one for assault on a police officer and one for threats.

As protesters walked in the sun of an unseasonably warm late-September day, their signs, featuring images of the Earth on fire, countered the upbeat tone of the march.

Amid them, one protester carried a placard bearing just one word: “Panic.”

rbruemmer@postmedia.com

  

Quebecers march in Montreal to demand better action on climate change

Rachel Lau

CTVNewsMontreal.ca Digital Reporter
 Friday, September 24, 2021 

MONTREAL -- Quebecers across the province took part in a Canada-wide demonstration to demand action be taken against climate change Friday.

Activists said they want to #uprootthesystem and "demand for intersectional climate justice."

"I had really just been focusing on my own personal carbon footprint, my family, my school, but I saw that really what we need is to unite our voices to demand action from the people who can make a real difference -- from our political leaders and from large companies," said Shirley Barnea with Pour le Futur Montreal.

The youth-led and organized global climate strike movement started in August 2018 when then-15-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg started a school strike for the climate.

Soon joined by her peers, "they created the hashtag #FridaysForFuture, and encouraged other young people all over the world to join them. This marked the beginning of the global school strike for climate," the organization notes.

"Their call for action sparked an international awakening, with students and activists uniting around the globe to protest outside their local parliaments and city halls," the group explains. "Along with other groups across the world, Fridays for Future is part of a hopeful new wave of change, inspiring millions of people to take action on the climate crisis."

THREE ARRESTS

The Montreal police (SPVM) confirmed that three people were arrested during the protest, one for mischief, one for assault of a police officer and another for making threats.

"So three arrests were made by the Montreal Police Department side, no one was injured, and at this moment the protest is now over," said SPVM spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant.

WHAT THEY WANT

The group's message to political leaders includes asking:
The Global North to cut emissions drastically by divesting from fossil fuels and ending its extraction, burning and use.
"Colonizers of the north" pay their climate debt for their historic emissions.
For genuine global recovery from COVID-19 by ensuring equitable vaccine distribution and suspending intellectual property restrictions on COVID-19 technologies.
To recognize the tangibility of the climate crisis as a risk to human safety and secure the rights of climate refugees in international law.
To recognize the impact of biodiversity on Indigenous communities.
To stop violence and criminalization of Indigenous peoples, small farmers, small fisherfolk and other environmental and land defenders.

"Canada has such disproportionately large emissions compared to our population and such large historic emissions as well," Barnea states. "We're asking for Canada to be carbon neutral by 2030 to allow other countries to develop and reduce their emissions at a pace that is more comfortable."

POLITICIANS IN ATTENDANCE

Both the Quebec Liberals (PLQ) and Parti Québécois (PQ) have said they plan to attend the marches.

Liberal Leader Dominique Anglade, as well as "numerous" members of her party, will be in Montreal Friday.

The demonstration is set to take place starting at the Sir George Etienne-Cartier Monument at 1 p.m.

The PQ says it will have politicians in attendance at marches in Alma, Joliette and Quebec City.

Jonquière representative Sylvain Gaudreault will take part in the demonstration in Alma, which starts at 11:30 a.m. at the Green Plains behind the Mario-Tremblay Centre.

Joliette MNA Véronique Hivon will be at the march in Lanaudière, set to start at 12 p.m. at CEGEP régional de Lanaudière.


PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is expected to join those demonstrating in Quebec City starting at 1 p.m. from Place d'Youville.


Students take part in a climate change protest, in Montreal, Friday, Sept. 24, 2021. 

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

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Changes have to happen now, says Dawson College

 student, because 'we know that our future is in peril'

CBC News · Posted: Sep 24, 2021 5:15 PM ET | Last Updated: September 24

The march in Montreal was part of a global movement for climate justice. (Kwabena Oduro/CBC)

Thousands of people gathered in several different Quebec cities on Friday to press for stronger action action against climate change.

The demonstrations were part of a global movement inspired by the young Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg.

In Montreal, people of all ages came out to push for change, including the city's mayor, Valérie Plante.

"More than ever, the population is concerned about the climate crisis and asks governments to accelerate the ecological transition," she said on Twitter.

But there were plenty of kids participating. For example, nine-year-old Henri Amyot said he doesn't "want the world to burn because it's burning."

And eight-year-old Pacha Guillen said she doesn't want to live on a planet with so much garbage.

As part of the global movement, Fridays For Future, the demonstration in Montreal on Friday was one of thousands worldwide. (Kwabena Oduro/CBC)

Mia Kennedy, a member of Dawson College's Green Earth Club, said it's time for concrete action.

"I think that we are all really passionate about the environment," she said.

"Especially as young people, we know that our future is in peril, and that if we don't mobilize and don't act now, we may be dying of climate change." 

Organizers are calling for carbon neutrality by 2030 in Quebec, and are hoping Canada will cut its emissions and be a leader among G7 nations. 

The Fridays For Future movement began in August 2018, after Greta Thunberg and other activists sat in front of the Swedish parliament for three weeks. (Kwabena Oduro/CBC)

There were a lot of different signs being held up at the demonstration in Montreal on Friday. (Kwabena Oduro/CBC)

There were kids, adults and politicians participating in the Montreal rally Friday. (Kwabena Oduro/CBC)

The climate change demonstration in Montreal was part of the Fridays For Future movement which claims to have inspired similar protests in some 7,500 cities since 2018. (Kwabena Oduro/CBC)

Based on a report by Kwabena Oduro