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China, US are racing to make billions from mining the moon’s minerals

Bloomberg News | May 17, 2022 | 

NASA outlined in 2019 its long-term approach to lunar exploration, which includes setting up a “base camp” on the moon’s south pole. (Artist’s rendition courtesy of NASA.)

“There’s going to be a new world order out there, and we’ve got to lead it,” US President Joe Biden said after Russia’s war in Ukraine upended global geopolitics. Far from Earth, that transition is already happening.


Just like in the era of Sputnik and Apollo more than half a century ago, world leaders are again racing to achieve dominance in outer space. But there’s one big difference: Whereas the US and the Soviet Union hashed out a common set of rules at the United Nations, this time around the world’s top superpowers can’t even agree on basic principles to govern the next generation of space activity.


The lack of cooperation between the US and China on space exploration is particularly dangerous in an era where the cosmos are becoming more crowded. Billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos along with emerging markets such as Rwanda and the Philippines are launching more and more satellites to bridge the digital divide and explore commercial opportunities.

The stakes are even higher when it comes to the US and China, which are erecting economic barriers in the name of national security as ideological divisions widen over the pandemic, political repression and now Vladimir Putin’s war. Their inability to cooperate on space risks not only an arms race, but also clashes over extracting potentially hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of resources on the moon and elsewhere.


“Our concern in the West is more about who sets the rules of the road, particularly access to resources,” said Malcolm Davis, a former official with Australia’s defense department who now researches space policy at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra.

“The biggest risk is you have two opposite set of rules,” he said. “You could have a Chinese company on the moon in the 2030s claiming territory with a resource on it, in the same way the Chinese have claimed the entire South China Sea.”

The geopolitics of space, once a frontier that brought rivals together for the good of humankind, are now mirroring the competition on Earth pitting the US and its allies against China and Russia. And just as Beijing and Moscow have blamed American military alliances in Europe and Asia for stoking tensions over Ukraine and Taiwan, Chinese state-run media has warned the US now wants to set up a “space-based NATO.”

At the center of the dispute is the US-drafted Artemis Accords, a non-legally binding set of principles to govern activity on the moon, Mars and beyond. The initiative, which NASA says is grounded in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, forms the foundation of the space agency’s effort to put astronauts on the moon this decade and kick-start mining operations of lucrative lunar elements.

So far 19 countries have agreed to support the accords, including four — Romania, Colombia, Bahrain and Singapore — that signed up after Putin’s invasion spurred a US-led effort to isolate Russia. Underscoring the divide, Ukraine was an early Artemis club member after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s government signed in late 2020.

The accords are part of an effort by the Biden administration to establish “a broader and comprehensive set of norms” for space, Vice President Kamala Harris said in an April 18 speech at Vandenberg Space Force Base, about 160 miles (250 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles.

“As we move forward, we will remain focused on writing new rules of the road to ensure all space activities are conducted in a responsible, peaceful, and sustainable manner,” she said. “The United States is committed to lead the way and to lead by example.”

China and Russia have led opposition to the accords, vowing greater space cooperation in early February as part of a “no limits” partnership when Putin visited President Xi Jinping in Beijing shortly before the war began. They are jointly promoting an alternative project on the moon they say is open to all other countries: the International Lunar Research Station.

One of China’s main problems with the Artemis Accords is a provision allowing nations to designate areas of the moon as “safety zones” — regions on the lunar surface that others should avoid. For the Americans and their Artemis partners, the exclusive areas are a way to comply with obligations under the Outer Space Treaty, which requires countries to avoid “harmful interference” in space.

To China, however, the safety zones are thinly disguised land grabs in violation of international law. Beijing wants any rule-making to be settled at the UN, where it can count on support from a wider group of countries eager for friendly ties with the world’s second-biggest economy.

“It’s time the US woke up and smelled the coffee,” the official China Daily proclaimed in a January editorial that criticized how NASA “invented” the concept of safety zones to allow governments or companies to reserve areas of the moon. “The world is no longer interested in its divisive, hegemonic schemes.”

China has good reason to be suspicious of US efforts in space. American legislation first passed in 2011 prevents NASA from most interactions with its Chinese counterpart, and the US has blocked China from taking part in the International Space Station — a move that simply prompted Beijing to build its own.

“China was left out of that order and now it’s going its own way,” said Lincoln Hines, an assistant professor at the US Air War College who has studied the Chinese space program. “That raises the challenge as to whether you can have a coherent system of rules in outer space when you have two different visions of order and there isn’t any cooperation.”

The head of the Russian space program, Roscosmos director Dmitry Rogozin, in late April suggested that Russia had decided to quit the International Space Station because of Western sanctions on Russia from its invasion of Ukraine.

While Russia’s space program was already in decline before Putin’s war, China is swiftly moving toward Xi’s goal of matching US capabilities in space. China became the first country to send a probe to the far side of the moon in 2019, and last year it became only the second nation after the US to land a rover on Mars.

On March 10, China launched a Long March rocket from the southern island province of Hainan to deliver cargo to the Tiangong, the orbiting spacecraft that Beijing plans to complete this year — making China the only country to operate its own space station. The following month, Xi ordered officials to build a world-leading spacecraft launch site in Hainan.

“To explore the vast cosmos, develop the space industry and build China into a space power is our eternal dream,” Xi said in the introduction to a white paper on China’s space program released in January, which said China plans to launch a robotic lunar mission around 2025. China may be able to send astronauts to the moon for the first time by 2030, Ye Peijian, chief designer of China’s first lunar probe, told state media at the time.

“China wants really badly to be seen as the NASA of the future,” said Michelle Hanlon, co-director of the Center for Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Space Law. “It wants to be that leader. China feels that it’s China’s time.”

As the US, China and other nations target the moon, the need to establish rules to avoid conflict is becoming more urgent.


NASA in April conducted tests for the launch of Artemis I, the first American spacecraft to aim for the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. While this mission will be fully robotic, NASA’s goal is to send astronauts to the moon around 2025 — including the first woman — and build a base camp on the lunar surface.

Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. will conduct a test flight from Texas in the next few months of the company’s new Starship rocket, which SpaceX plans to use to take humans to the moon and Mars.

Japan and South Korea, both Artemis Accords signatories, have lunar missions in the works. So does India, the largest space-faring nation yet to commit to either the American or the Sino-Russian teams. Putin also vowed last month to “restore the moon program.”

“The moon is in play,” said Steven Freeland, vice-chair of a working group on legal aspects of space resource activity for the UN’s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. Freeland, an emeritus professor of international law at Western Sydney University, expects to see the start of efforts to extract resources from the lunar surface by the end of the decade.

Unlike Earth, the moon may contain large amounts of helium-3, an isotope potentially useful as an alternative to uranium for nuclear power plants because it’s not radioactive. Chinese state media in 2019 said the moon is “sometimes referred to as the Persian Gulf of the solar system,” with experts believing 5,000 tons of coal could be replaced by about three tablespoons of helium-3.

While there’s not yet proof that helium-3 can do what boosters claim, Chinese researchers are already looking for the element in moon rocks brought back to Earth in late 2020 by one of China’s lunar missions. The moon could also prove valuable as a source of water, taken from ice at the lunar poles, to make rocket fuel that could power missions to Mars and other places in the solar system.

For now, the US appears to be ahead in winning over nations to its interpretation of rules for operating in space. As the Artemis Accords gain new signatories, China is still waiting for another leader besides Putin to team up on the International Lunar Research Station.


Chinese state media reported in March that negotiations were underway with the European Space Agency, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia about taking part in the rival moon base. But Russia’s war in Ukraine will likely make the project much less appealing to some nations.

The European Space Agency on March 17 suspended a plan to send a Russian-made lander to Mars in September or October, following UK-based satellite operator OneWeb Ltd.’s cancellation of plans to launch its low-Earth orbit satellites aboard Russian rockets.

“The impact on the Russian space program is going to be disastrous,” said Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics, which is operated by Harvard University and the Smithsonian Institution.

Although China doesn’t need Russian expertise, Xi’s long-term strategic calculus means Beijing is unlikely abandon Moscow in an effort to win more potential partners. Putin’s top space official has already called for greater cooperation with China.

“We work well with our Chinese friends,” Roscosmos director Rogozin said in an interview with Chinese state-run broadcaster CGTN released on April 4. “To be friends in space, we must be friends on Earth.”

The same appears to hold true for adversaries. In a sign of what could go wrong without a common set of rules in space, the US and China traded accusations in recent months over two incidents last year involving satellites launched by Musk’s SpaceX that Beijing said came dangerously close to its orbiting space station.

After China lodged a complaint with the UN, the US said a notification wasn’t necessary — implying Beijing exaggerated the risk. That irked China even more, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian saying the US didn’t reply to emails to discuss the incident and wasn’t “showing the due responsible attitude as a space power.”

The episode points to China’s bigger problem with the Artemis Accords: Beijing is upset about being left out of the process and pressured to accept principles that were crafted by the US instead of at the UN, according to Jessica West, senior researcher and managing editor for the Space Security Index project at Project Ploughshares, the peace research institute of The Canadian Council of Churches.

The conflict over who makes the rules, she added, shows the world has lots of work left to avoid a clash in space.

“I’m not sure people expected the explosion of space activity that happened,” West said. “We’re just not adequately prepared.”

(By Bruce Einhorn, with assistance from Jing Li)

NWT
Mountain Province discovers kimberlite in three target areas at Kennady North

Staff Writer | May 17, 2022 |

The Kennady North project is located 300 km east-northeast of Yellowknife, NWT. 

Credit: Mountain Province Diamonds

Mountain Province Diamonds (TSX: MPVD) has released interim exploration results for its 100%-held Kennady North project in Northwest Territories, consisting of over 107,000 ha of claims and leases that completely surround the Gahcho Kué diamond mine.


The 2022 exploration program is focused on finding new kimberlites based on a detailed analysis of historical technical information, including ground and airborne geophysics, kimberlite indicator minerals, and geological mapping. The latest results highlight the discoveries from 3,000 metres (20 holes) of the current 6,000-metre drill program that have been completed so far.

Drilling to date has tested four of the 16 target areas identified on the property, with three of those returning kimberlite intersections: the North anomaly, north of the Faraday 1-3 kimberlite deposit; the South anomaly, south of the Faraday 2 deposit; and Kelvin South, south of the Kelvin deposit. Overall, 16 of the 20 holes intersected kimberlite.

At the North anomaly, all seven holes intersected kimberlite, including hypabyssal kimberlite (average thickness of 1.54 metres) and also volcaniclastic kimberlite (average 0.95m), which is often an indicator of kimberlite size potential.

At South Anomaly, all five holes hit hypabyssal kimberlite at an average width of 4.5 metres (3.23-metresthickness). At Kelvin South, four of six drill holes intersected hypabyssal kimberlite.

“We began 2022 with a plan to launch an aggressive winter exploration campaign over Kennady North, and we have achieved that plan” said CEO Mark Wall. “We have discovered kimberlite in three of four targets tested to date, and completed all of our scheduled airborne and ground geophysics.”

The winter drilling is expected to continue at Kennady North through the end of May, with the aim of testing as “many priority anomalies as feasible,” he added.

Summer exploration at Kennady North will start in the third quarter, with emphasis on follow-up sampling of indicator mineral results generated from the 2021 till sampling program, which are expected to be complete by the end of Q3.

A review of all winter 2022 ground geophysical data continues through the second quarter, with the intent to drill areas of interest with land-based anomalies in the summer program.

The Kennady North project has been the focus of exploration by numerous operators since 1992. Limited drilling led to the discovery of the Kelvin deposit, and later on Faraday 1, 2, and 3. Subsequent geophysics and drilling resulted in significant tonnages of kimberlite at both Kelvin (8.5 million indicated tonnes grading 1.6 carats per tonne for 13.6 million carats) and the Faradays (nearly 4 million inferred tonnes containing 7.35 million carats).

Barrick’s Rhetoric Belies the Lived Reality of Communities at its Mines Around the World

Source: MiningWatch Canada

(Ottawa) As Barrick prepares to speak at its Annual General Meeting about the soaring gold price in an unstable world, returns on investment for shareholders, and the value of the company’s global assets, affected communities from Alaska to the Dominican Republic, and from Tanzania to Papua New Guinea, speak out about the ongoing harm they suffer as Barrick explores and mines their traditional lands.

Last year Barrick put out a Human Rights report on December 10, United Nations’ Human Rights Day, but the experiences of people at Barrick mines show the company’s glossy text does not reflect long-standing, ongoing, and un-remedied harms endured, or opposition expressed by Indigenous people at new mine sites.

Porgera, Papua New Guinea – Un-remedied violence against Indigenous peoples by mine security

The Porgera Joint Venture mine in the highlands of Papua New Guinea has a long history of violence and sexual assault by private and public mine security against local men, boys, women and girls. Very few of hundreds of cases brought to the mine’s grievance mechanism have been addressed to date. Barrick has failed to implement key recommendations made by its own consultants BSR, to improve the grievance mechanism in collaboration with grassroots organizations who have filed most of the claims.

In a letter exchange initiated by Porgeran community organizations with Barrick CEO Mark Bristow, Bristow commits to “implementing a robust coherent strategy and action plan to deal with Human Rights and legacy grievances or violations, and to reset and rebuild relationships with the Porgera community.” With regard to the grievance mechanism, Bristow notes that “Barrick had begun developing an action plan and implementing changes” and that “[o]n January 1 2019, when the merger with Randgold resources was completed, there were 447 open grievances at Porgera. By the end of 2020 there were 265.” However, there has been no outreach to any of the local grassroots groups who have filed claims and who wrote letters to Bristow, nor any indication that any of the hundreds of cases they have filed have been resolved.

“Barrick backed our government into a corner by starting legal action against it in an international tribunal, just as Barrick did in Pakistan,” says Stanley Peter, of Akali Tange Association. “We were told that after receiving a permit extension to keep mining, Barrick would deal with “legacy issues,” but we are still not seeing any movement to deal with decades of human rights abuses in Porgera caused by mine security – there has been no outreach to us on creating a credible grievance mechanism together with those of us who have been helping victims to file claims.”

After years of ignoring public concerns raised by MiningWatch Canada and others about high levels of sexual violence by mine security, Barrick put a short term mechanism in place between 2012-2014 to process victims of sexual assault by private mine security. 119 women received remedy payments in return for signing legal waivers. These women are not satisfied with the remedy they received and have requested that the legal waivers be lifted. In its 2021 Human Rights report (p.32) Barrick says of its grievance mechanisms, “These programs are developed in accordance with the UNGPs and do not obstruct access to other remedies available to rightsholders such as state-based remedies or other internationally recognized mechanisms.” But Barrick has refused to rescind the legal waivers the sexual assault victims were asked to sign.

“Barrick has only ever shown interest in the gold under our feet, not the lives of our people,” says Lely Kesa, of Akali Tange Association, “so many women and girls who have suffered rape and gang rape by Porgera mine security have never received remedy and Barrick refuses to lift the legal waivers for the 119 women who did receive inequitable remedy.”

North Mara, Tanzania – Ongoing violence by mine security and contamination of local water sources

In its Human Rights Report (p.3), CEO Mark Bristow speaks of progress made by Barrick in community relations that is nowhere “more evident than at North Mara, where community relations have been radically repaired.” While unable to conduct human rights field assessments during the last two years of the pandemic, MiningWatch has continued to receive reports of violence against local Indigenous Kuria community members by police operating under a Memorandum of Understanding at the North Mara Gold Mine.

In spite of more than a decade of complaints of excess use of force by mine security and police at this mine, including cases of women who have endured rape, and in spite of already settling one lawsuit by victims of violence by mine security out of court in 2015, Barrick has refused to stop using police as part of its security arrangements at the mine. Barrick has also refused to settle with new victims of violence by police and mine security in a new and ongoing court case in the U.K. that resulted in part from MiningWatch Canada’s documentation of over a hundred cases of violent acts by mine security and police against local Kuria people.

“As reports of violence against Indigenous community members by police at the North Mara Gold Mine continue to come in, it is time for Barrick to sever relations with Tanzanian police at the mine,” says Catherine Coumans of MiningWatch Canada. “Barrick also needs to stop delaying justice and remedy for the North Mara victims of violence before the court in the U.K. and come to the table to settle that case.”

This year we have also received new reports of contamination of the North Mara River, which runs close to the mine. Problems with leaks of toxic mine waste effluent into ground and surface water around the tailings facility and other discharge sites around the mine are longstanding. In this case a review conducted by an eleven person national committee, formed by Vice President and Minister for Union and Environment, Dr. Selemani Jafo, has been rejected by Members of Parliament amidst calls for an independent team to conduct a scientific examination of the polluted river.

Donlin, Alaska – Lack of Indigenous Consent

In Alaska, Indigenous Yup’ik, Cup’ik, and Athabascan peoples are opposing Barrick’s proposed Donlin Gold Mine over concerns the mine will contaminate the Kuskokwim River, which supports one of the largest traditional and customary fisheries in the world, with salmon making up more than 50% of the annual diet of the local Indigenous peoples.

In its 2021 Human Rights report (p.59), Barrick says it has established “friendship agreements with six native communities and key stakeholder organizations in the Yukon-Kuskokwim (Y-K) region in Alaska,” but fails to disclose Indigenous opposition to the mine by the majority of communities in the region indicating failure to achieve not only a social licence to operate but also Free Prior and Informed Consent of affected peoples, required under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In advance of the AGM, nine Tribes in the Kuskokwim region sent a letter calling on Barrick to withdraw financial support for the project. Opposition to the controversial open pit cyanide-leach gold mine has dramatically increased in recent years, including formal opposition by the Association of Village Council Presidents, which represents 56 Tribal Governments in the Kuskokwim region, the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation, and the National Congress of American Indians.

“The Donlin Project poses too much risk to our lands and our food security, which we have an obligation to protect for future generations,” said Beverly Hoffman, Orutsararmiut Tribal Citizen. “We are asking Barrick Gold: What will it take to walk away from Donlin?”

Pueblo Viejo, Dominican Republic

Barrick Gold continues with its proposed expansion of the Pueblo Viejo gold mine, which would include the construction of a new tailings dam to store the mine’s waste, while communities continue to urge the company to withdraw its plans and call on the government to stop the project from moving forward.

Barrick currently operates Pueblo Viejo, an open-pit mine located on 4,800 hectares of land in Sánchez Ramírez, approx. 100km outside of the Dominican Republic’s capital city of Santo Domingo. Dominican social movements and affected communities have expressed grave concern about environmental and social impacts of the proposed tailings dam and organized demonstrations in opposition to it. Government officials (including the president of the Alianza País political party and an official representing Monte Plata), civil society (including Centro Montalvo and the Archbishop of Santo Domingo), and others have expressed solidarity with community members in opposing this project.

Facing strong opposition to the project, the Ministry of Energy and Mining announced in March 2022 that Barrick would not be allowed to build a dam in their preferred location in Monte Plata. Barrick and the Dominican Government have doubled down on efforts to find an alternative site in Sánchez Ramirez and promote the project to communities and Dominican authorities. Communities continue to protest the project.

According to Dario Solano from AfrosRD, “The company’s efforts are creating divisions in communities, repression, and human rights violations against environmental defenders. The negative social and environmental impacts of Barrick Gold are unacceptable.”

According to Heriberta Fernandez Liriano of Centro Montalvo, “Instead of pushing ahead with this expansion, Barrick Gold should be asking for forgiveness from the people of the Dominican Republic given the company’s history of environmental contamination and their efforts to force a tailings dam on communities strongly opposed to their project.”

While Barrick claims to have a strategy to address legacy contamination, the Pueblo Viejo operations have faced credible allegations of environmental harm. A 2012 report by the Dominican Academy of Sciences concluded that Barrick operations were contaminating water sources and locals allege that Barrick’s work at the mine also exacerbated pollution of the local Maguaca and Margajita rivers. Local families have persistently sought relocation from the area, raising concerns about environmental contamination.

Leoncia Ramos, from the Comité Nuevo Renacer, in Sánchez Ramirez said, “The greatest curse for our communities is to have been born with gold in our territories, because Barrick has an insatiable avarice.”

For more information contact:Catherine Coumans, MiningWatch Canada – catherine@miningwatch.ca, 

Stanley Peter, Akali Tange Association – spangoro@gmail.com

Lely Kesa, Akali Tange Association – lelykesa12@gmail.com

Beverly Hoffman, Orutsararmiut Tribal Citizen – bev@kuskofish.com, nodonlingold.org, 

Diario Solano, AfrosRD – dasolano@gmail.com

Heriberta Fernández Liriano, Centro Montalvo – proyectorsm@gmail.com

UPDATED

Review board rejects Baffinland expansion plans in Nunavut

Cecilia Jamasmie | May 16, 2022 

Mary River iron ore mine site on Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada, 

(Image courtesy of Baffinland Iron Mines.)

Baffinland Iron Mines’ proposed expansion of its Mary River iron ore operation on the northern tip of Baffin Island, in Canada’s territory of Nunavut, has suffered a major blow after a review board advised against the project on environmental grounds.


After four years of consultations and deliberations, the Nunavut Impact Review Board (NIRB) rejected last week the miner’s request to more than double output to 12 million tonnes a year, to eventually reach 30 million tonnes annually.

The board cited “significant adverse ecosystemic effects” on marine mammals such as narwhals, fish, caribou and other wildlife, which in turn could harm Inuit culture, as the main reason for the decision.

The company said it was both surprised and disappointed by the board’s decision.

“Our … proposal is based on years of in-depth study and detailed scientific analysis, and has considerable local support based on years of consultation with Inuit and local communities,” chief executive officer Brian Penney said in the statement.

“We will be asking the federal government to consider all of the evidence and input and to approve the … application with fair and reasonable conditions,” Penney noted.

Dan Vandal, the federal northern affairs Minister, has 90 days to either side with the review board or the mining company, in which steel giant ArcelorMittal has a 28% stake. The rest of Baffinland is held by Nunavut Iron Ore Inc., which is controlled by a Texas-based private equity firm called the Energy & Minerals Group.

“I will be taking time to review the report along with federal officials,” Vandal said on Twitter. “A decision will be taken following appropriate due diligence and comprehensive analysis, including whether the duty to consult has been met or not.”

Mary River, considered one of the world’s richest iron deposits, opened in 2015 and ships about six million tonnes of ore a year.

If the expansion is approved, Baffinland would send about 12 million tonnes of the 30 million tonnes via the North Railway to Milne Port. It also plans to build a second railway to Steensby Port, from which it intendes to ship an additional 18 million tonnes of ore a year.

Current shipping volumes have already had a “devastating” impact on the area’s narwhal population, the world’s densest, vice-chairperson of the Mittimatalik Hunters and Trappers Organization, Enookie Inuarak, said in an emailed statement.

Narwhals are a type of whale with a long, spear-like tusk that protrudes from its head. The marine mammal is an important predator in Eclipse Sound and other Arctic waters, as well a major food source for Inuit in the region.

Last year, a group of hunters from Arctic Bay and Pond Inlet blocked access to the mine in protest of the company’s ice breaking practices due to their negative impacts on narwhals.

The company agreed to avoid ice breaking in spring, based on “the precautionary principle that is the foundation of our adaptive management plan,” Baffinland’s CEO said in a statement at the time.

Loss of economic benefits

In its report, the NIRB acknowledged the loss of economic benefits Phase 2 would cause to Inuits, which has been conservatively estimated at C$2.4 billion (about $1.9bn) based on the current size of the known mineral resource.

“Many residents in the affected communities also expressed the view that the potential positive socio-economic benefits of the proposal focus on financial benefits, while the negative socio-economic effects focus on effects on land use, harvesting, culture and food security that cannot be compensated with money,” NIRB said in the 441-page report.

Area of the proposed mine expansion on the northern tip of Baffin Island is home to the world’s densest narwhal population. (Stock image.)

The same board recommended against construction of the Back River gold in Nunavut’s Kitikmeot region in 2016. Then-federal minister Carolyn Bennett rejected that advice and asked NIRB to give Sabina Gold & Silver’s (TSX: SBB) project a second chance.

The mine was approved the following year and the project stands as a fully permitted, financing package settled and shovel ready mine.

In Chile’s Atacama, lithium mining stirs fight over flamingos

Reuters | May 19, 2022 

Flamingo numbers are falling, with a new study linking this to the water extracted by mining firms to pump up brine filled with lithium. (Stock Image)

On the white plains of Chile’s lithium-rich Atacama desert, bright pink flamingos enliven the sprawling salt flats where sporadic blue pools provide much needed hydration.


But flamingo numbers are falling, with a new study linking this to the water extracted by mining firms to pump up brine filled with lithium, the metal used to make batteries for mobile phones, laptop computers and electric vehicles.

Miners contend their operations do not affect flamingo herds and say the studies are based on unreliable data.

The stand-off underscores growing tensions in the Andean nation over water use and mining’s impact on local communities and the environment. Tougher regulation is a risk for firms in the world’s No. 2 lithium producer and No. 1 for copper.

“You can explain the effects specifically from lithium extraction,” said Cristina Dorador, co-author of the study in the Royal Society’s Proceedings B journal, referring to findings that flamingo numbers dropped as more water was used up.

The scientists examined salt flats throughout Chile to measure the effects of other variables on water levels. Satellite imagery of mining ponds on the Atacama, home to most of Chile’s lithium, was used to calculate how much water was extracted.

Flamingos reproduce less with less water, which over time could impact herd numbers, said co-author Nathan Senner, a researcher of ecosystems and environmental change.

“It’s not like they all die at once, but if you’re not reproducing all of a sudden, even things that live as long as flamingos start to die. And that’s where numbers really start to tumble quite rapidly.”

In other salt flats without mining, flamingo populations remained steady over the last decade despite natural water variations linked to rainfall and climate shifts. In the Atacama, though, James and Andean flamingos declined 10-12%.

Chile’s National Mining Society declined to comment. Albemarle Corp, one of the main two lithium miners in Chile, did not respond to a request for comment.

SQM, the other main lithium miner, disagreed with key parts of the study, saying in a statement that its own monitoring indicated that “flamingo populations have remained stable.”

SQM said satellite analysis could considerably over- or under-estimate water use, and called for more research on the ground.

Dorador, a scientist from the region and an elected official working on Chile’s new constitution, said locals have noticed a decline in flamingos in the salt flats affected by mining for years.

“They are incredibly important because they’re one of big tourist attractions of San Pedro de Atacama,” said Dorador.

Dorador said indigenous elders collect flamingo eggs on the flats for their regular diet, while the birds regulate the ecosystem eating plankton, crustaceans and microorganisms, helping avoid damaging bacterial blooms on the water.

Chile’s flamingo numbers overall have held up, thanks to herds on other flats not affected by mining. But the consequences could be severe as demand spikes for lithium batteries powering electric vehicles, Dorador warned.

“We have to think where these materials come from, because we’re not always aware. We buy all these things but we often don’t know what had to happen to make that product.”

(By Alexander Villegas and Cristian Rudolffi; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Richard Chang)

Foxes add to Gold Fields headaches in Chile

Cecilia Jamasmie | May 19, 2022

The Culpeo is a South American fox species. It is the second-largest native canid on the continent, after the Maned wolf. (Stock image.)

South African miner Gold Fields (JSE, NYSE: GFI), already dealing with the effects of inflation and the relocation of endangered chinchillas at its Salares Norte gold project in Chile is now facing potential sanctions from the country’s environmental regulator due to the death of specimens of culpeo fox in the area.


The Superintendency of the Environment (SMA) has ordered the company to implement a series of “urgent” and “transitory” measures after the miner reported three incidents around the project that included the death of three culpeo foxes, a species found in the Andes.

The SMA boss, Emanuel Ibarra, said its office constantly monitors the environmental impact of the Salares Norte project, located at 4,200m above sea level, in the dry Atacama region.

“Given the environmental risk tied to the [culpeo fox] species, and bearing in mind the high degree of sensitivity of the ecosystem in which the project is located, we are asking the company to fulfill the requested demands as soon as possible”, he said in a statement.

The issues the SMA is asking Gold Fields to address include submitting new reports of the three incidents informed, incorporating graphic records and studies from specialists, as well as restricting traffic speed in all the project’s interior roads to 40 km/hour.

The watchdog has also demanded Gold Fields re-define emergency reports to include the nature of the environmental impact caused, the relevance of the element impacted and the reversibility of the damage.

Salares Norte is one of five gold projects set to begin operations in Chile by 2023. 

(Image courtesy of Goldfields.)

This is not the first time Gold Fields has to tip-toe around species native to the project’s area of impact. In 2020, the miner began relocating 25 chinchillas, short-tailed rodents found only in the north of Chile and which are protected by law.

The operation was going according to plan until the SMA halted it, after one chinchilla suffered a broken leg and two others died. After a series of studies the SMA requested Gold Fields to come up with with a new plan to relocate the bluish-grey furred rodents.

The company, which began construction of $860 million project last year, expects to kick off production in the first quarter of 2023.

Gold Fields will process two million tonnes of ore per year for the production of doré gold once the project is commissioned, over a 10-year mine life.

Salares Norte hosts 3.5 million ounces of gold, 39 million ounces of silver, and 695 million pounds of copper.
Beyond copper

Discovered in 2011, Salares Norte is one of five gold projects set to begin operations in the South American nation over the next two years.

Chile’s gold production peaked in 2000 at 54.1 tonnes, data from the country’s copper commission, Cochilco, shows. The nation, the no.1 copper producer and second-largest lithium producer after Australia, currently ranks 16th among the world’s top gold producing nations, according to IndexMundi.com.

Other gold projects set to come online in Chile by 2023 are Kinross Gold’s La Coipa Restart, Yamana Gold’s El Peñón expansion, Canadian Rio2’s Fenix and Australia’s Kingsgate Consolidated’s Nueva Esperanza.

The Salares Norte gold project is located in the Atacama region of northern Chile.

 (Image courtesy of Gold Fields Chile.)

Colombia, Ecuador & Peru: Social engagement can make or break mining investment
Henry Lazenby | May 20, 2022 |

A 2021 meeting with farming communities protesting MMG’s Las Bambas copper mine in Peru. (Reference image by Peru’s Presidency of the Ministers’ Council, Flickr).

Companies operating in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru should do a better job of engaging and sharing the wealth their mines generate.


Observers tell The Northern Miner that implementing corporate social responsibility (CSSR) programs when mining business in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru is simply not enough to guarantee success.

Instead, mineral explorers and developers often see substantial projects halted in their tracks by staunch community-level opposition, even when projects had passed regulatory muster, says mining sector researcher, analyst and reporter Paul Harris, in an interview.

Related: Peru fails yet again to broker truce allowing Las Bambas mine restart

Legacy CSR programs are simply no longer adequate. The analyst suggests those wishing to do business in these jurisdictions take a more holistic approach toward meaningful engagement with host communities before engaging governmental authorities about their respective projects.

The solution, according to Harris, is companies today have to be willing to give up an ownership stake in their projects so that local communities and local and federal governments have more skin in the game.

PAYWALL
KEEP READING AT NORTHERN MINER

Peru fails yet again to broker truce allowing Las Bambas mine restart

Reuters | May 19, 2022 

Las Bambas copper mine. Image: YouTube

Peru’s prime minister on Thursday failed to broker a deal with indigenous communities to allow for the restart of operations at MMG Ltd’s Las Bambas copper mine, the government’s fourth failed negotiation attempt.


Chinese-owned Las Bambas is one of the world’s largest copper mines, accounting for 2% of global supplies. The mine suspended operations on April 20 after two indigenous communities entered company property, reclaiming land that had once belonged to them before the mine started operations in 2016.

Peru is the world’s No. 2 copper producer.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Anibal Torres traveled to the Andean region of Apurimac where the mine is located. But he arrived late and then abruptly left the meeting only an hour after it had started.

“It’s a lack of respect toward community members,” Baltazar Lataron, the governor of Apurimac, said about Torres’s departure.

The failed meeting extends the uncertainty on when Las Bambas will be able to restart copper production as its current suspension approaches the one-month mark, its longest shutdown so far.

Las Bambas accounts for 1% of Peru’s gross domestic product and company executives have warned that if a solution is not found soon they may have to furlough or fire some of its workers.

The protesting communities of Fuerabamba and Huancuire sold land to Las Bambas in the past for millions of dollars, but allege the mine has failed to honor all of its commitments.

Las Bambas is notorious for its social conflicts, involving dozens of different Andean communities that allege the benefits of its vast mineral wealth have not trickled down to them.

(By Marcelo Rochabrun; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Peru mining protests risk clogging $53 billion investment pipeline

Reuters | May 17, 2022 

Yanacocha mine, in Peru’s northern Cajamarca region. (Image courtesy of Newmont.)

Peru, the world’s second-largest copper producer, risks losing out on billions of dollars of mining investment if the government fails to defuse protests that are hitting the industry and denting production, analysts and executives said.


Social conflicts have risen in the Andean nation over the past year since socialist President Pedro Castillo came into office, with a spate of protests against mines, including one that has halted production at the huge Las Bambas copper deposit.

With global prices soaring on high demand, that now threatens a mining investment pipeline of some $53 billion and could stall future projects expected by investment bank RBC to make up 12% of the world’s copper supply in years to come.

“Without any world-class projects on the horizon, the prospects for sustaining production are not good,” said Gonzalo Tamayo, analyst at Macroconsult and a former Peruvian mines and energy minister.

Mining executives and analyst met last week in Peru’s capital Lima, where the main concern was falling investment tied to rising social protests. A central bank report shows investment dipping some 1% this year and 15% in 2023.

The conflicts, mainly in poor Andean areas where communities feel bypassed by the huge mineral wealth beneath their soils, have started to bite, with protesters emboldened under Castillo who won election pledging to redistribute mining wealth.

Southern Copper’s Cuajone mine was paralyzed for almost two months earlier this year.

Las Bambas, owned by China’s MMG Ltd, suspended operations in April after an invasion of the mine by communities demanding what they called ancestral lands. The mine, which produces 2% of the world’s copper output, remains offline.

Las Bambas had received government approval in March to expand the mine, a plan which is now under threat.

Álvaro Ossio, vice president of commercial and finance for ​​Las Bambas, said in a presentation at the Lima event, that the country faces a big task to benefit from high global prices.

“The great challenge that remains for all Peruvians is to take advantage of this great opportunity in these future trends,” he said.

Peru’s last big mining investments were in Anglo American’s Quellaveco and Minsur’s Mina Justa of a combined $6.6 billion. Their operations starting this year will help Peru hit annual output of 3 million tonnes of copper by 2025, experts say.

However, other major projects like Southern Copper’s Tia María, Michiquillay and Los Chancas worth some $6.7 billion, Buenaventura’s near billion dollar Trapiche and Rio Tinto’s $5 billion La Granja remain up in the air.

Not all was downbeat, however.

The world’s largest gold miner, Newmont Mining, said at the event that it was considering expanding into copper production in Peru, with a potential future return to the canceled Conga project.

Analyst Tamayo, though, stressed recent protests against mining had become harder to resolve.

“Now there are protests that stop mines in full operation,” he said. “The mining firms feel that the State does not support them and that the State has ceased to be the arbiter in conflicts.”

(By Marco Aquino; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Richard Pullin)

SASKATCHEWAN 
BHP to speed up Jansen potash mine as Ukraine war weighs on supplies

Cecilia Jamasmie | May 18, 2022 | 

BHP plans accelerate Jansen Stage 1 first production into 2026. (Image courtesy of BHP.)

BHP’s (ASX: BHP) chief executive Mike Henry wants to gear up on the company’s $5.7 billion Jansen potash project in Canada as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused major disruptions to global fertilizer supplies.


The ongoing war in Ukraine has left the world not only short of important grains but also fertilizers since neighbours Russia and Belarus account for almost 40% of global production.

Belarus state-owned potash miner Belaruskali set off alarm bells mid-February by declaring force majeure on its contracts. This shook up a market that was already contending with soaring prices.

Sanctions on Russia after invading Ukraine have made the situation worse.

BHP approved last year a $5.7 billion investment in the Jansen potash mine in northern Saskatchewan to bring it to production. The company had mulled a final decision on the asset for at least eight years, during which it spent about $4.5 billion laying the ground for the crop nutrient-producing project.

“[Supply-side disruption linked to the war in Ukraine] has positively reinforced the decision we’ve taken to enter potash,” Henry said at the Bank of America Metals and Mining conference this week. “We are making good progress and we’re looking at potential to accelerate Jansen Stage 1 first production into 2026.”

BHP had originally planned to kick off production at Jansen in 2027. The company, Henry noted, has also begun studies for a second phase of development.

BHP to start potash production at Jansen a year earlier than planned. 

(Image courtesy of BHP.)

“BHP is trying to accelerate first tonnes at Jansen, but it still seems best case is first tonnes come late 2026 with a two-year ramp,” BMO Fertilizers and Chemicals analyst, Joel Jackson, said in a note to investors.

“We believe BHP needs to hire about 600 miners for Jansen with the labour per tonne deemed lower than [competitors] Nutrien and Mosaic’s incumbent mines as BHP expected to employ less equipment per tonne and other innovation,” Jackson noted.

Of the $5.7 billion investment, BHP had awarded roughly $1.4 billion in contracts so far and another $200 million since the company published half year results in February, which cover port infrastructure, underground mining systems and other shaft and surface construction activities.

Jansen is expected to produce around 4.2 million tonnes a year of potash during a first phase. Stage 2 would add an additional 4 million tonnes per year, at a capital intensity of between $800 and $900 per tonne, almost 30% lower than expected for Stage 1.

The cost reduction would be possible because phase two will be able to leverage the infrastructure built along with Stage 1, including the shafts, Henry said.
Quarter of global supply

Potash is seen by farmers as an attractive resource because of its use as fertilizer, which also boosts drought tolerance and improves crop quality.

BHP expects potash demand to increase by 15 million tonnes to roughly 105 million tonnes by 2040 or 1.5% to 3% a year, along with the global population and pressure to improve farming yields given limited land supply.

Jansen had the potential to produce 17 million tonnes a year under a four phased development. This would account for about 25% of current global potash demand.

“If we decide to bring on all four stages, and at prices just half of where they are today, we’d be generating around $4 billion to $5 billion of EBITDA [earnings before interest, depreciation, tax and amortisation] per year,” Henry said

.

Taken from BHP’s presentation at BMO Farm to Market Conference.

This compares to a five-year average of $3 billion a year from the miner’s petroleum business.

“Realistically, BHP has shown a path to 16 million tonnes of potash capacity for well over a decade, and there seems much in flux still how the phases would come,” BMO Jackson wrote.

BHP had tried to tap into the fertilizers market for some time. In 2010, it unsuccessfully bid $38.6 billion for Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan, which in 2018 merged with Agrium Inc. to form Nutrien (TSE, NYSE: NTR).

Given the current political climate, as well as the continuing effects of the covid-19 pandemic worldwide, BHP is expecting the current supply chain issues in the mining sector to take up to three years to resolve.

BHP CEO says supply disruptions may last years; could speed up Jansen project

Reuters | May 17, 2022 

BHP CEO Mike Henry.

 (Screenshot from Sky News Australia | YouTube)

Supply chain disruptions in the mining sector could take up to three years to resolve, the chief executive of the world’s largest listed miner BHP Group said on Tuesday.


Mike Henry also said that the Anglo-Australian miner may accelerate its Jansen potash project in Canada by a year, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has tightened supplies.

“Both Ukraine and covid-19 have led to lowered expectations for Chinese and global GDP growth in the near term,” Henry said at the Bank of America Global Metals, Mining & Steel Conference.

“We also expect that the current supply chain disruptions may also take 2-3 years to resolve,” he added.

Henry said he expected some economic growth in China to spill over into next year.

“We expect a degree of catch-up when lockdowns do ease,” he added.

In a wide-ranging speech, Henry said the company’s decision to invest in the Jansen project will bring greater cash flow stability and returns resilience.

The fundamentals for potash remain strong and were reinforced by supply-side disruption linked to the war in Ukraine, whose neighbours Russia and Belarus account for almost 40% of global production.

“This has positively reinforced the decision we’ve taken to enter potash,” Henry said. “So we are making good progress and we’re looking at potential to accelerate Jansen Stage 1 first production into 2026.”

The company has also begun studies for Stage 2 of the project, he said.

As global miners push into the metals needed for the green energy transition, Henry said BHP continues to favour copper and nickel over lithium, which is used to make electric vehicle batteries.

“It is something that we keep a watching brief over but if you look at the amount of lithium out there, it’s significant, so we don’t see a real long-time constraint in terms of resource,” he said.

“We believe there is more to do in copper and nickel where we see better cost curve shape.”

BHP announced a record dividend payout in February after reporting estimate-beating first-half profits, helped by higher commodity prices, despite a cutback in demand from top metals consumer China.

The miner, however, recorded lower estimates for iron ore production for the March quarter as a pandemic-related labour crunch weighed on efforts to boost output.

(By Praveen Menon and Clara Denina; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Barbara Lewis)

How ‘weak sustainability’ helps miners contribute to the UN development goals

Staff Writer | May 18, 2022 

Ain Beni Mathar integrated combined cycle thermo-solar power plant in Morocco. (Reference image by Dana Smillie / World Bank, Flickr)

In a recent article in the journal Earth Science Systems and Society, an international research team describes how current mining practices could be improved and the sourcing and management of metals better aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs).


According to the researchers, the mining sector can offset some of its negative impacts through compensation measures. High sustainability standards should be applied in the sourcing of raw materials and recycling systems should be significantly strengthened in order to promote an efficient and market-based circular economy, they say

A more sustainable extractive industry would provide a cornerstone for the fulfilment of the SDGs, for example, by supplying key raw materials for building infrastructure (SDG 9) and the production of wind and solar technologies (SDG 7).

It is clear, however, that mining will never be able to achieve all the goals of sustainable development, such as eliminating the use and consumption of non-renewable raw materials. In light of this, the authors recommend that changes should be guided by the concept of “weak sustainability”, which focuses on achieving realistic targets. This approach allows for the use of non-renewable resources if this contributes to other sustainability goals such as renewable energy generation.

In the authors’ view, the first step toward this path is improving governance. They believe this will require the participation of diverse stakeholders at different levels, from individual companies to international policymakers.

Based on their analysis, the researchers recommend the following concrete steps:Planning and management at the organizational level: Companies and investors are responsible for incorporating sustainability indicators into their decision-making and controlling activities. Sustainability must become an integral part of the accounting system;

Regional and national regulations: All mining activities are embedded in the context of regional and national regulations. These should be guided by the three dimensions of sustainability: environmental, economic, and social. In particular, regulations should offer incentives – such as tax reductions for excellent sustainability performance or penalties for violations of sustainability goals – this can offset the financial burden for investments in sustainable operations. Regional regulations should ensure the active and effective participation of local communities and stakeholders in shaping operating conditions;

Voluntary agreements and certification systems in the industries: Benchmarks for the ecological, economic, and social sustainability of mining operations should be agreed at the international level. Clear provisions for measurement, monitoring, and compliance management are needed. This could be facilitated by national mining associations but also by large standardization organizations such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO);

Global governance structures: Regional and national regulations should be harmonized worldwide. A global agreement of this kind could still include mechanisms to reflect specific regional circumstances. A new secretariat or unit could be created at the United Nations to govern mining worldwide. The more sustainability evolves into a key driver for change, the more the global community needs a forum in which rules for mining can be developed, negotiated, and implemented; and

Financial instruments (green investment funds): The financial sector can support the shift toward sustainability by incorporating sustainability indicators into decision-making about loans or when rating agencies rank companies’ performance.

In the authors’ view, however, to achieve such commitments a certain level of compromise must exist.

“The regulation of mining activities will always entail trade-offs, for example, between opportunities such as facilitating the energy transition, innovative battery design and e-mobility on the one side and risks for ecosystems and communities on the other side,” first author Ortwin Renn said in a media statement.

“It is important to find the right balance that ensures shared benefits, supports sustainable development as a whole and reduces the risks.”

For Renn and his colleagues, creating a sustainable mining sector will require policies that put environmental, economic, and social sustainability at the top of the agenda.

BAD CANADIAN MINER IN BURKINA FASO

Trevali’s missing workers failed to reach Perkoa mine’s refuge chamber during floods

Staff Writer | May 18, 2022

Perkoa Zinc Mine – Image courtesy of Trevali Mining Corporation

Trevali Mining (TSX: TV) said the eight missing miners, for whom rescuers have been searching since the company’s Perkoa mine in Burkina Faso was hit by flash floods last month, have failed to reach the mine’s refuge chamber situated more than 500 metres below the surface.


“This is devastating news,” the company’s CEO Ricus Grimbeek said in a press release on May 17. “We would like to offer our deepest sympathies to our colleagues’ families and friends during this difficult time.”

The search for the missing miners will continue, he added.

The Burkina Faso government, in a statement on social media, confirmed that the rescue teams found the refugee chamber empty.

On Apr. 16, heavy rains outside the usual rainy season poured about 125 mm of rain in less than an hour, triggering flash floods that breached the open pit at Perkoa, located about 120 km west of the capital of Ouagadougou.

As the water entered the open pit and underground mine, electricity and communications were lost. While most workers escaped, the company hasn’t been able to communicate with the eight missing workers.

Six out of the eight missing men are from Burkina Faso, while the other two are from Tanzania and Zambia.

The rescue team and the company have been pumping water from the bottom of the mine at level 710 over the last month. The refuge chamber is located below level 520 of the mine.

“Rescue team members reached the refuge chamber… (it) was found intact and with no one inside. It is now clear that none of the eight missing workers reached the refuge chamber,” Trevali said.

The Perkoa mine produced 316.2 million payable lb. of zinc in 2021 and generates the bulk of the company’s revenue. Trevali owns 90% of the mine, while Burkina Faso holds a 10% interest.

According to Scotiabank analyst Orest Wowkodaw, the company’s credit facility matures in the third quarter of 2022. “Securing a refinancing package to replace its maturing credit facility and to fund development of the proposed Rosh Pinah expansion project (in Namibia) has been complicated by the Perkoa incident,” he wrote in a note to clients on May 16.

A McKinsey & Co. report published in 2020 stated that commodities like iron ore and zinc, based on their location, are more exposed than other materials to “extremely high flood occurrence.”

Flooding affects some commodities more than others, based on their location; in McKinsey’s analysis, iron ore and zinc are the most exposed to extremely high flood occurrence, at 50% and 40% of global volume, respectively.

Burkina Faso rescuers find no survivors in flooded mine’s rescue chamber

Reuters | May 17, 2022 

The Perkoa zinc mine is located 120 km away from Burkina Faso’s capital city Ouagadougo. It is the first large-scale base metal mine in that country.

 (Image courtesy of French Ambassador to Cameroon Gilles Thibault via Twitter)

Rescue workers have found no survivors in a rescue chamber deep inside a flooded zinc mine in Burkina Faso, the government and the mine owner said on Tuesday, all but extinguishing hope that eight missing miners could still be alive after a month.


The Perkoa mine, owned by Canadian firm Trevali Mining Corp and located about 120km (75 miles) west of the capital Ouagadougou, was abruptly submerged on April 16 after torrential rain fell unexpectedly during the country’s dry season.

There had been faint hope during a month-long search and rescue operation that the missing men might have reached the rescue chamber, which is stocked with food and water and located around 570 metres below ground.

“The rescue teams have opened the refuge chamber, unfortunately it is empty,” the government’s information service said in a statement posted on social media.

Trevali said the refuge chamber had been found intact, and it was now clear none of the eight missing workers had reached it.

“This is devastating news, and we would like to offer our deepest sympathies to our colleagues’ families and friends during this difficult time,” said Ricus Grimbeek, President and CEO of Trevali, in a statement.

“We will continue our search efforts unabated and reaffirm our commitment to work at full-speed to find our colleagues.”

Distraught relatives of the missing men have been gathering every day at the site in the Sanguie province, seeking solace from each other as they faced the agonising wait for news.

Deadly mining accidents are common in Africa. The Perkoa flood garnered more attention than many because of the hope, albeit remote, of an outcome similar to the dramatic 2010 rescue in Chile of 33 miners who had spent 69 days underground — but it was not to be.
Complex operation

Both the company and the government have launched investigations into the causes of the disaster. The prime minister said on May 2 that mine managers had been banned from leaving the country.

The Perkoa mine consists of an open pit with underground shafts and galleries below. Most of the workers who were there at the time of the flash flood were able to escape, but the missing eight were more than 520 metres (1,706 feet) beneath the surface.

Six of the missing men are Burkina Faso nationals, one is from Tanzania and one from Zambia.

With many in Burkina Faso asking why it took so long to reach the rescue chamber and criticism of the company and state emergency services mounting, Trevali said the technical challenges were immense.

The violence of the flood was such that it washed away the road leading down into the mine as well as damaging electricity supply. The road had to be resurfaced and power restored before a full-scale search could begin.

Initially, equipment was being carried down on foot, but vehicles were necessary to install machinery capable of pumping water from depths below 500 metres.

Rescuers have pumped out about 55 million litres of floodwater, out of an estimated total of 165 million litres that swept through the underground portion of the mine.

(By Anne Mimault, Thiam Ndiaga, Sofia Christensen and Estelle Shirbon; Editing by James Macharia Chege and Ed Osmond)

African Mine Disaster Turns Spotlight on Canadian Mining Firms

Eight miners are trapped in a mine owned by a Vancouver-based company. Advocates want more accountability.

Amanda Follett Hosgood 

10 May 2022

TheTyee.ca

Burkina Faso Prime Minister Albert Ouédraogo (centre, in blue hat) visits Perkoa Mine on May 1. Eight miners have been trapped more than 500 metres underground for more than three weeks and hope for a successful rescue is fading. Photo via Burkina Faso government Twitter.

As the search continues for eight African miners trapped underground in a Canadian-owned mine in Burkina Faso, advocates say Canada’s laws should be toughened to ensure greater corporate responsibility.

Vancouver-based Trevali Mining Corp. said Monday that there has been no communication with the miners since heavy rains caused flash flooding at the mine on April 16.

As workers evacuated, eight miners working more than 500 metres underground became trapped, the company said. There has been no contact with the workers, six of whom are local with the remaining two from Zambia and Tanzania, according to news reports.

While extreme weather is blamed for the disaster, Burkina Faso government officials have also placed responsibility on managers at Perkoa Mine, saying the government has launched a judicial investigation. Six of the miners’ families have also taken legal action. The West African country has a population of 20 million.

Catherine Coumans, a research co-ordinator with advocacy group MiningWatch Canada, said environmental and human-rights violations by Canadian mining companies operating overseas are more common than most Canadians realize.

She hopes recently tabled federal legislation could bring about change.

“We are constantly being made aware of these incidents, where workers are put at risk because of working for Canadian mining companies,” Coumans said, pointing to two unrelated recent disasters in Burkina Faso and Ghana. Both mines were owned by Toronto-based companies.

“It’s a matter of cutting corners. It’s a matter of getting away with what you can get away with,” said Coumans. “There is a real problem with lack of accountability and effective impunity when our Canadian companies operate overseas.”

Trevali did not immediately respond to The Tyee’s interview requests or emailed questions.

But in recent updates posted to its website, the company said flooding had eroded the mine’s main access route, which spirals more than half a kilometre underground.

“The torrent of water entering the mine resulted in significant road surface erosion,” the company said, adding that additional pumps could not be moved into the depths of the mine until access was repaired. By April 23, a week after the flood, communications and power had been re-established to 520 metres below ground, it said.

However, the workers remain deeper than that.

“There has been no communication with these workers since soon after the evacuation order was given,” the company said, adding that two refuge chambers located below 520 metres are “designed to provide a refuge for workers trapped in a hazardous environment.”

It added that it did not know if the workers were able to access the chambers.

Even if they had, their ability to survive is likely running out. According to local media reports, shelters within the zinc mine can provide two weeks of water and oxygen, but food remains a problem. The workers have been trapped for over three weeks.

The refuge where the workers may be located is 580 metres below the surface. Local media reported over the weekend that “significant advances” in pumping had cleared flood waters to 550 metres.

On Friday, the government of Burkina Faso called for international help to find the missing miners. “All human and material resources must be deployed on the Perkoa site to give the miners the chance to live,” government spokesman Lionel Bilgo said.

Vancouver-based Trevali, which focuses its operations on zinc production, purchased Perkoa Mine in August 2017. In addition to its Burkina Faso mine, it operates mines in Namibia and northern New Brunswick. It also has non-operational properties in New Brunswick and Manitoba.

Last week, the company cancelled a conference call where it had intended to deliver 2022 first-quarter financial results, saying its primary focus is on the missing miners. The call is now planned for May 16.

In February, Trevali reported that its revenues increased by 61 per cent last year over the previous year, to almost US$350 million. It credited an increase in zinc prices and a reduction in processing costs.

While the company said it had reduced its “significant incidents” by 30 per cent last year, its total recordable injury frequency — the number of incidents requiring medical treatment — were nearly twice those of the previous year.

The underground portion of the Perkoa Mine has been operating since 2013. A 70-metre deep open pit was previously established to access material near the surface, according to a technical report prepared for Trevoli as it took ownership in 2017.

The mine’s portal is located at the base of the open-pit portion of the mine, something flagged as a potential flood risk in the report.

“Great care has been taken to manage rainfall in the portal box cut as this is the biggest exposure to flood,” the report noted, adding that sumps are built into the box cut, or mine entrance, to capture water and reduce its ability to enter the mine.

According to the report, a ventilation shaft “connects all levels” of the mine and also acts as an emergency escape route. At the time of the report, mining was occurring down to 400 metres, with mining at deeper levels slated for possible future development. It noted that more drilling would be needed to determine whether mineral resources were available below 520 metres.

It’s unclear what, if any, exit routes had been established in the more recently developed sections of the mine.

Burkina Faso Prime Minister Albert Ouédraogo has blamed “irresponsibility” on the part of mine managers for the disaster. He said flooding was a result of weakening of the underground gallery due to the use of open-air dynamite.

Mine managers have been barred from leaving the country while the investigation is ongoing.

The families of six trapped miners have reportedly also filed lawsuits against “persons unknown” for attempted manslaughter, endangering life and failing to assist a person in danger.

While Coumans said it’s “rare” to detain company executives following a mining disaster, she isn’t optimistic it will lead to better outcomes or accountability on behalf of the company if wrongdoing is found.

“I would be very surprised if there were actual repercussions for the company or its senior executives,” said Coumans, who noted that in the more than 20 years that MiningWatch Canada has been operating there has been very little progress in holding Canadian companies operating overseas to account.

“The problem of effective impunity when our Canadian companies operate overseas is alive and well,” she said. “It’s no different now than it was in 1999 when we started.”

What has changed, she said, is what she describes as the opening of a “clear path forward” for holding Canadian companies accountable.


Canadian Mining Companies Profit as Guatemalans Suffer, Authors Argue

READ MORE

In March, the federal NDP tabled two private members bills aimed at improving accountability of Canadian companies abroad by requiring them to do risk assessments on potential harms and demonstrate how they would prevent them. The approach is based on models developed in Europe that ensure corporations and their subsidiaries are not violating human rights or contaminating environments.

“This is what we need. We need mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence in Canada,” Coumans said. “Unless there’s consequences for the harm that’s done… [by] cutting corners they can save money.”

Trevali said in statements posted to its website that it is working around the clock to locate the missing miners and remains in regular contact with their families. The company did not respond to specific questions about what support the families are receiving or The Tyee’s request for an update on the search for the miners. 

 

Amanda Follett Hosgood is The Tyee’s northern B.C. reporter. She lives in Wet’suwet’en territory. Find her on Twitter @amandajfollett.

MAY 11, 2022

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/05/families-of-trapped-burkina-faso-miners.html

MAY 10, 2022

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/05/burkina-faso-trapped-miners-families.html

MAY 5,2022

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/05/burkina-faso-investigates-b.html

APRIL 20, 2022

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/04/eight-workers-missing-at-trevalis.html

Chile’s top court puts Dominga mining project decision on Boric admin

Reuters | May 18, 2022

Dominga is located about 65 km (40 miles) north of the central city of La Serena. (Digital rendition of project, courtesy of Andes Iron)

Chile’s top court on Wednesday turned down appeals filed by communities and environmentalists against the controversial Dominga mining project, saying a final decision needs input from President Gabriel Boric’s administration.


Last year, environmentalists and surrounding communities appealed a ruling from a lower court that tossed out a decision by a regulator that denied the company permits.


In its ruling, the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court said that it was turning down the appeals because it “determined that there is no final judgment that can be reviewed by this court,” adding that the final decision on the environmental evaluation is “pending a resolution from the administrative authority.”

That authority is the committee of ministers, made up of the mining, agriculture, energy, economy, health ministers and is chaired environment minister.

In his first speech as president-elect in December, Boric voiced opposition to projects that “destroy” the country, such as Dominga, which seeks to annually produce 12 million tonnes of iron concentrate and 150,000 tonnes of copper concentrate.

An environmental evaluation commission endorsed the $2.5 billion project last year, but it has been delayed for years amid strong opposition from environmental and social groups that say it would cause serious environmental damage to the region.

OceanaChile, an environmental group dedicated to protecting the ocean, has said the project could hurt the Humboldt archipelago off Chile’s coast, endangering its species and biodiversity.

“Our trust is in that the Committee of Ministers will consider all the scientific information that backs why Dominga is unviable and the Humboldt archipelago must be protected permanently,” it said in a tweet responding to the decision.

Andes Iron, the company in charge of the Dominga project, issued a statement saying it welcomed the court’s decision and added that “every time the Dominga project has undergone technical evaluations we have received favorable pronouncements.”

The project has spanned multiple administrations and sparked controversies for former presidents Michelle Bachelet and Sebastian Pinera. Pinera faced and survived an impeachment vote after details of possible irregularities linked to the Dominga project were revealed in the Pandora Papers leak.

(By Natalia Ramos, Fabian Cambero and Alexander Villegas; Editing by Aurora Ellis)