Chile to ‘sanction’ those responsible for sinkhole near copper mine
Reuters | August 8, 2022 | 

Sinkhole at the Alcaparrosa mine. (Image by Sernageomin, Twitter).

Chile will seek to apply harsh sanctions on those responsible for a huge sinkhole near a copper mine in the country’s north, the mining minister said on Monday.


The mysterious hole of 36.5 meters in diameter that emerged in late July has provoked the mobilization of local authorities and led the mining regulator Sernageomin to suspend operations of a nearby mine owned by Canada’s Lundin in the northern district of Candelaria.

“We are going to go all the way with consequences, to sanction, not just fine,” Mining Minister Marcela Hernando said in a press release, adding that fines tend to be insignificant and the ruling must be “exemplary” to mining companies.

Chilean authorities have not provided details of the investigation into causes of the sinkhole.

Local and foreign media showed various aerial images of the huge hole in a field near the Lundin Mining operation, about 665 kilometers north of the Chilean capital. Initially, the hole, near the town of Tierra Amarilla, measured about 25 meters (82 feet) across, with water visible at the bottom.

The Canadian firm owns 80% of the property, while the remaining 20% is in the hands of Japan’s Sumitomo Metal Mining Co Ltd and Sumitomo Corp.

The minister added that although the country’s mining regulator had carried out an inspection in the area in July, it was not able to detect the “over-exploitation.”

“That also makes us think that we have to reformulate what our inspection processes are,” she said.

In a statement, Lundin said the over-exploitation referred to by the minister had been duly reported.

“We want to be emphatic that, to date, this hypothesis as reported by Sernageomin has not been determined as the direct cause of the sinkhole. The hydrogeological and mining studies will provide the answers we are looking for today,” Lundin said.

“Different events that could have caused the sinkhole are being investigated, including the abnormal rainfall recorded during the month of July, which is relevant,” added Lundin.

(By Fabian Andres Cambero and Carolina Pulice; Editing by Leslie Adler and Kenneth Maxwell)

Pope worried about pollution of rivers with mercury used by gold miners in the Amazon
Reuters | August 9, 2022 | 

(Image courtesy of Catholic Church England and Wales | Flickr.)

Pope Francis will install the first cardinal of Brazil’s Amazon region this month in a sign of his concern for the rainforest and its indigenous inhabitants, the man whom he picked for the role said.


Dom Leonardo Steiner, archbishop of the Brazilian city of Manaus, said in an interview that Francis, the first pope from Latin America, is worried about deforestation, threats to indigenous cultures and pollution of rivers with mercury used by gold miners in the Amazon.

“The naming of a cardinal of the Amazon shows the pope’s desire to bring the Church closer to the Amazon,” Steiner said last week.

Steiner will be among 21 new cardinals that Pope Francis will appoint on Aug. 27 in a ceremony known as a consistory.

Illegal logging and mining in the Amazon has surged under Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. His government has also opened the door to more evangelical missionaries in the region.

Steiner said indigenous communities complain that the evangelical missionaries often undermine traditional rituals, songs and even their languages.

“That often results in the uprooting the culture of indigenous peoples and their different way of looking at the world,” Steiner said.

The Catholic Church was guilty of this in the past but now defends the preservation of indigenous cultures, he said.

Steiner highlighted the pope’s public apologies in Canada last week for sexual abuse at now-closed schools for indigenous children run by Catholic orders.

“We must ensure the indigenous people don’t lose their roots and always drink from their own fountains,” he said.

Francis held a synod, a session of consultation and dialogue, on the Amazon in 2019. In June, he met at the Vatican with the bishops of Brazil’s Amazon states along with priests, nuns and lay people from the region.

The pope encouraged them to engage with local communities, Steiner said, including original inhabitants of the forest and tribes that have had little contact with the rest of Brazil.

(By Bruno Kelly and Anthony Boadle; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Australia’s coal shipments face a ‘deadline,’ Greens leader says
Bloomberg News | August 9, 2022 | 6:55 am Australia Coal

Coal-loading terminal at Hay Point in Mackay Region, Queensland. Image courtesy of BHP Group.

Greens Party leader Adam Bandt has warned the Australian government needs to start moving away from coal exports to prop up its bottom line, saying net zero goals in major trade partners will cut into fossil fuel earnings.


Bandt said three of Australia’s biggest export markets for thermal coal — Japan, South Korea and Taiwan — had all pledged to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 or 2060. The process to decarbonize their economies to meet those targets would act as a “deadline” for Australian coal exports, he added.

“It’s going to be increasingly untenable for the government to maintain its desire to keep opening new coal and gas projects,” Bandt said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

The Greens Party has a significant number of senators in Australia’s upper house, making Bandt’s support vital to passing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s policy agenda. Since he was elected in May, Albanese has attempted to push greater climate action in Australia, including increasing emission cuts targets to 43% by 2030 and rolling out a strategy for greater use of electric vehicles.

However, Australia’s economy is heavily reliant on its mining and minerals exports, with the trade surplus hitting a record high in August off the back of strong growth in the resource sector. Coal is forecast to generate about A$104 billion ($73 billion) of export earnings in the year through June 30.

Australia is the world’s largest exporter of metallurgical coal and the second largest exporter of thermal coal.

Bandt has called on Albanese to go further in his action on climate change, including committing to end all new coal and gas mines in Australia. Albanese’s rejection of a moratorium on new fossil fuel projects is undermining his government’s promise of bolder decarbonization policies, according to campaigners.

“These weak targets could be blown out of the water in the next 12 months or so as the government approves some very big coal and gas projects that are on the books in Australia at the moment,” Bandt said.

(By Ben Westcott)

Foran Mining to receive $155m for McIlvenna Bay copper project in Saskatchewan

Staff Writer | August 9, 2022 | 

McIlvenna Bay project in Saskatchewan, Canada. (Image courtesy of Foran Mining.)

Canada’s Foran Mining Corporation (TSX.V: FOM) (OTCQX: FMCXF) has inked a preliminary deal for a C$200m ($155.1m) investment by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, for the company’s McIlvenna Bay copper project in Saskatchewan.


The agreement locks the parties into an exclusivity period deal, with the goal of signing a definitive agreement in Q3 2022.

The proceeds of the proposed investment will be used for the development of the McIlvenna Bay project towards commercial production, Foran said.

McIlvenna Bay is said to be the largest undeveloped Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (VMS) deposit along the prolific Flin Flon Greenstone Belt, which sprawls east-central Saskatchewan and the central area of Manitoba.

Recent feasibility results outlined an initial phase 18 year mine life producing 65 million pounds of copper equivalent at an average all-in sustaining cost (net of credits) of $0.90 per pound.

Foran is also trying to turn McIlvenna Bay into the world’s first carbon-neutral copper mine by offsetting carbon emissions generated in the exploration phase.

The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, with more than $240 billion in net assets, has investments in natural resources and royalty interests in oil and gas.

The organization manages benefits for retired school teachers of that Canadian province.

Denison makes improved offer in attempt to hijack Uranium Energy’s UEX bid

Staff Writer | August 9, 2022 | 

The Wheeler River camp in northern Saskatchewan. Credit: Denison Mines.

Denison Mines (TSX: DML) has made an improved offer to acquire UEX Corp. (TSX: UEX) after seeing its US-based rival Uranium Energy Corp. (UEC) trump its original bid earlier this week. The new proposal would see UEX shareholders receive 0.32 of a Denison share for UEX share held, representing an implied purchase price of C$0.51 per UEX share on a spot basis.


Denison said this offer represents a 7% premium to the price implied by the amended agreement between UEX and UEC, based on the one-day volume weighted average price on August 8, 2022, and a 9% premium to the 20-day volume weighted average price. The offer by UEC, which it revised to beat out Denison, had an implied price of C$0.49 per UEX share at the time, based on a share exchange ratio of 0.089 to 1.

“Following the expiration of our previous acquisition proposal, which equated to a premium over the amended UEC agreement on a 10- and 20-day volume weighted average price basis, and after internal discussions, including with our legal and financial advisors, Denison decided to make a further premium acquisition proposal to UEX,” Denison CEO David Cates said in a media statement.

“The success of this offer is subject to the board of UEX determining that it is superior to the amended UEC agreement and is also subject to UEC’s five-day right to match,” Cates said. “We note that on August 5, UEC increased its offer in response to Denison’s superior acquisition proposal of July 22, and that the UEX board of directors concluded that the amended terms offered by UEC constituted a matching offer – despite the fact it implied a lower UEX price from the perspective of premiums over normalized trading periods.”

Cates also said the company recognizes that UEC remains in the “driver’s seat” through its right to match, and that its offer may not ultimately prevail.

“That said, we believe that the UEX assets are so complementary to our own portfolio and Athabasca Basin specialization that it would be short-sighted not to afford another opportunity for both Denison and UEX shareholders to prosper from this combination.”

A successful acquisition of UEX would see Denison consolidate a 100% ownership of the Wheeler River project, which is host to the high-grade Phoenix and Gryphon uranium deposits and represents the largest undeveloped uranium project in the Athabasca Basin region of northern Saskatchewan.

Denison Mines Wheeler River Project | Home

https://wheelerriverproject.ca

Denison 

Denison is actively advancing the Phoenix deposit, which is proposed as a low-cost in situ recovery mining operation through the environmental assessment and feasibility study processes. The results from the pre-feasibility study completed for Wheeler River suggest that Phoenix has the potential to be one of the lowest cost uranium mining operations in the world. Denison currently has an effective 95% interest in Wheeler River.

Through acquiring UEX, Denison would also be able to obtain 100% ownership of JCU (Canada) Exploration Company, which holds a portfolio of 12 uranium project joint venture interests in Canada, including a 30.099% interest in the Millennium project (Cameco – 69.901%), a 33.8118% interest in the Kiggavik project (Orano Canada – 66.1882%), and a 34.4508% interest in the Christie Lake project (UEX – 65.5492%). Denison currently has a 50% ownership interest in JCU.

Denison Mines - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denison_Mines

Denison Mines 

Imperial Metals records $29.3M net loss in Q2 as it works to reopen Mount Polley

Jackson Chen | August 9, 2022 |

A feasibility study for the Red Chris underground is expected early next year. 

Credit: Imperial Metals

Imperial Metals (TSX: III) racked up further losses during the second quarter of 2022, recording an adjusted net loss of $29.3 million compared with $5.1 million for the 2021 comparative quarter. This was despite a slight revenue increase of $2.2 million from the second quarter 2021.


Contributors to the higher net loss include a $1.4 million decline in mine operations income, over $30 million of spending on the Mount Polley mine restart, a $4.6 million rise in idle mine costs, and an additional $3.5 million in tax recovery. Capital expenditures including leases also rose to $39.6 million in the June 2022 quarter, up from $23.8 million in the 2021 comparative quarter.

Imperial’s mining operations, specifically the Red Chris mine that is 70% owned by Newcrest Mining, helped to lift up the company’s revenue in the second quarter 2022. Metal production from the northwest B.C. mine totalled 22 million lb. of copper and 19,540 oz. of gold, which respectively were 25.2% and 26.5% higher than the 2021 quarter.

Exploration drilling at Red Chris remains underway, with up to eight drills in operation during the second quarter, focusing on expanding the East Ridge zone and gathering geotechnical information for infrastructure related to the development of a block cave. The exploration decline had advanced 1,717 metres as of July 20, 2022. Work on the block cave feasibility study is ongoing and is targeted to be released in the first half of 2023.

At Mount Polley, Imperial first began the required work to reopen the copper-gold mine during the fourth quarter of 2021. Initial mill commissioning and operations began on June 25, 2022. Commissioning work continues into the third quarter, with six of the eight mills in the grinding circuit now in operation. During the second quarter, 62,775 tonnes were milled and 6.3 million tonnes were mined, achieving a day rate of 69,013 t/d. By the end of the second quarter, approximately 1.3 million tonnes had been stockpiled for future milling.

The restart of the facilities took approximately three months longer than planned due to difficulties in hiring operating personnel, certain supply chain challenges and unanticipated electrical and mechanical work that needed to be completed in order to get the plant operating. Also, the failure of a key electrical component two weeks after the restart of mill operations caused a 10-day delay in the ramp up of mill operations. As a result, Imperial has sought additional funding for the Mount Polley restart budget.

Additional information about the Mount Polley mine restart is posted on www.ImperialMetals.com.

SEE Contamination from Mount Polley spill continues to affect waterways, study finds | CBC News

Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley restart facing budget shortfall

Staff Writer | August 8, 2022 |

Credit: Imperial Metals

Imperial Metals (TSX: III) said it intends to secure additional financing for the restart of its Mount Polley mine by way of a convertible debenture financing totalling C$45 million ($35m).


The Mount Polley mine, which has been on care and maintenance since 2019, is currently operating at targeted production rates. The company had previously aimed to reopen the mine operation by the end of June.

However, the mine restart took longer than planned due to difficulties in hiring operating personnel, supply chain challenges and unanticipated electrical and mechanical work. This, together with lower copper prices, caused a shortfall in revenues compared to budget. In addition, Imperial Metals’ previously announced rights offering was not fully subscribed, resulting in a shortfall in budgeted equity financing. Due to these reasons, the company is now seeking additional funding via debt financing.

The convertible debentures will have a five-year term ending August 31, 2027. Each C$3.20 of the principal amount will be convertible into one common share of Imperial Metals. Up to 14.06 million common shares are expected to be issued if all the convertible debentures issuable were converted.

Murray Edwards, the company’s largest shareholder, has advised that he intends to purchase between C$30 million and C$35 million of the debentures.

Located about 56 km northeast of Williams Lake in south-central British Columbia, the Mount Polley copper-gold underground mine was first shut down in 2014 after a massive tailings pond collapse. Imperial Metals had to rebuild the mine’s tailings and spent more than C$70 million in environmental rehabilitation. Operations resumed two years later, but was halted again in 2019 due to a slump in copper prices.

Aiming to restart the operation once again, Imperial Metals has spent around C$22.4 million in one year, dating back to the end of the March 2021 quarter. This includes C$21.7 million in operating costs and C$700,000 in depreciation expense. Exploration, development and capital expenditures on Mount Polley rose by C$2 million in the March 2022 quarter in comparison to the 2021 quarter.

In the week following the repair of a key electrical component on July 27, the concentrator at Mount Polley produced concentrate containing approximately 336,000 lb. of copper and 550 oz. of gold against the budget for the initial week following start-up of 188,403 lb. of copper and 495 oz. of gold.

Tiny pure-gold pin is ‘pulsing heart’ of European space mission
Staff Writer | August 10, 2022 |

Gold pin. (Image courtesy of ESA-Remedia).

A pure-gold pin not much bigger than the tip of a pencil is the ‘pulsing heart’ of the European Space Agency’s Low Earth Orbit Facility, LEOX.


The pin is being produced at a jewelry shop in Italy that offered to manufacture it, using their experience supplying miniature mechanical gold parts for clockmakers and other industries.

The device is part of the materials being developed to withstand the highly-erosive individual oxygen atoms prevailing at the top of the atmosphere, the result of standard oxygen molecules of the same kind found just above the ground being broken apart by powerful ultraviolet radiation from the sun.

All missions that orbit less than about 1,000 kilometres above earth’s surface must be designed to resist atomic oxygen. To realistically simulate the low-earth orbit environment, the LEOX atomic oxygen facility generates atomic oxygen travelling at 7.8 km/s.

Atomic oxygen is not easy to generate on earth because it is very reactive. This means that the materials used to make the simulator must be as robust as the materials flown in space.

The sturdy gold pin is used to inject tiny pulses of oxygen gas molecules into a vacuum chamber, where the molecules are split into atoms using a powerful laser.

Pure gold, though expensive, is one of the few materials that can resist the combined impact of the laser and the highly erosive atomic oxygen, allowing the simulator to pulse millions of times during each test campaign.

The pins, however, do eventually erode and need to be replaced.

Chile rethinks mine safety after worker deaths and expanding sinkhole
Reuters | August 10, 2022 

Workers at Chuquicamata mine, Chile. Credit: Codelco

Chile is taking another look at health in safety in its mines after two workers died on a mining construction project in July and a giant sinkhole more recently opened up near a copper mine.


Chile President Gabriel Boric said on Wednesday he wants to ratify an International Labor Organization (ILO) convention on health and safety in mines. The rules were issued in 1995 and first adopted by Botswana, Finland, Spain and Sweden. Brazil adopted the rules, known as convention 176, in 2006 and Peru in 2008.

Trade associations and legislators have requested government support for convention 176, which includes guarantees for workers, while requiring the state to adopt certain legislative standards.

“Although accident rates have decreased in the last 10 years, we still have a lot to do,” Boric said during a speech commemorating Chile’s Miner Day.

The president said that there were 20 accidental deaths in the mining industry last year and wants to reach a goal of zero.

In July, two workers died in separate accidents at different construction projects for state-owned Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer.

Chile’s mining regulator Sernageomin found “deficiencies” in both cases, noting that the deaths could have been prevented, bringing attention to compliance with industry safety standards in Chile, the world’s No.1 copper producer.

Ratifying the convention would mean stricter safety measures, more government oversight and allow workers to file lawsuits to the ILO.

Boric also mentioned the recent sinkhole that occurred near a copper mine in northern Chile that is still being investigated.

“What if that sinkhole happened in a town? What if it happened in a work site?” Boric said. “What would we be lamenting today? It could perfectly have happened.”

(By Fabián Andrés Cambero and Alexander Villegas; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Glencore takes heat in Quebec for smelter that spits out arsenic

Bloomberg News | August 10, 2022 | 

Credit: Glencore Canada

Quebec’s public health director took aim at Glencore Plc for toxic emissions at a copper smelter in the province’s northwest, saying the level of pollution must be brought down quickly because of evidence it’s causing increased risk of cancer and other health problems.


The Horne Smelter in Rouyn-Noranda, a remote city about 600 kilometers (373 miles) northwest of Montreal, is emitting 165 nanograms of arsenic per cubic meter of air on site, according to a recent study by public health authorities in the Canadian province. That’s 55 times the standard safe level of 3 nanograms.


It must be brought down to 15 nanograms, according to Luc Boileau, who was appointed this year as Quebec’s top public health official.

“The actual situation from the Horne Smelter is not acceptable,” Boileau said. “At a threshold of 15 nanograms, the protection objectives will be achieved. It reduces the risk of lung cancer for the general population.” In a neighborhood near the plant, arsenic pollution is 90 nanograms, or 30 times the standard.

The smelter, in operation since 1926, has taken center stage in Quebec’s news media after data showed the population of Rouyn-Noranda has a higher percentage of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease than the provincial average. More than 50 health professionals from the region signed a letter calling on the government to apply air-quality standards.

“We take note of the recommendation issued today by the National Director of Public Health regarding air quality in Rouyn-Noranda, and are sensitive to the concerns expressed about the well-being of the community,” Glencore spokesperson Alexis Segal said in an emailed statement.

“We are more determined than ever to minimize our environmental footprint and offer our full cooperation to reduce our emissions to a minimum,” Segal said, adding that the company will unveil an action plan “in the coming days.”

In July, the Institut National de Sante Publique du Quebec, an agency that assists in public health decisions, said that the risk of cancer due to arsenic and cadmium in the air “exceeds the value considered negligible.”

Quebec’s environment ministry is in talks with Glencore about its plan to lower emissions. Premier Francois Legault threatened to close the plant if the company doesn’t act, though he didn’t exclude the possibility the government may offer financial help to modernize the facilities.

The Syndicat des Metallos, a union representing more than 1,500 Glencore employees in Quebec, has been told by the company it will invest C$1.5 billion ($1.2 billion) in the smelter over the next 10 years to reduce arsenic and greenhouse gas emissions.

According to Glencore, the Horne plant is the only copper smelter still operating in Canada, contributes C$500 million to Quebec’s gross domestic product and represents more than 650 direct and 1,850 indirect jobs.

(By Mathieu Dion, with assistance from Erik Hertzberg)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

JPMorgan gold traders found guilty in Chicago spoofing trial
Bloomberg News | August 10, 2022 | 

Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

The former head of the JPMorgan Chase & Co. precious-metals business and his top gold trader were convicted in Chicago on charges they manipulated markets for years, handing the US government a win in its long crackdown on bogus “spoofing” orders.


Michael Nowak and Gregg Smith were found guilty Wednesday by a federal jury after a three-week trial and more than eight days of deliberations. Prosecutors presented evidence that included detailed trading records, chat logs and testimony by former co-workers who “pulled back the curtain” on how Nowak and Smith moved precious-metals prices up and down for profit from 2008 to 2016.


A salesman on the desk, Jeffrey Ruffo, was acquitted of charges he participated in the conspiracy.

The case was the biggest yet by the US Justice Department, which alleged the precious-metals business at JPMorgan was run as a criminal enterprise. Nowak, the managing director in charge of the desk, and Smith, its top trader, were convicted of fraud, spoofing, market manipulation.

“They had the power to move the market, the power to manipulate the worldwide price of gold,” prosecutor Avi Perry said during closing arguments.

US District Court Judge Edmond Chang said Nowak and Smith will be sentenced next year. Each faces decades in prison, though it may be far less. Two Deutsche Bank AG traders convicted of spoofing in 2020 were each sentenced to a year in prison.

Lawyers for Nowak, Smith and Ruffo didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

JPMorgan, the largest US bank, agreed in 2020 to pay $920 million to settle Justice Department spoofing allegations against it, by far the biggest fine by any financial institution accused of market manipulation since the financial crisis.

The criminal case against some of the biggest players in the precious-metals markets was closely watched. Spoofing became illegal with the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010.

“It’s something that’s been on the minds of many people that were involved in the precious-metals markets in that point in time, and I would say this verdict closes a chapter,” said Phil Streible, the chief market strategist at Blue Line Futures. “This kind of thing had been going on for at least 15 years or more with people waiting for justice, and I never thought it would ever get closed.”

Dennis Kelleher, co-founder and Chief executive officer at Better Markets, an organization advocating stricter financial regulation, said the verdict “should signal to Wall Street’s biggest financial firms and executives that they are not above the law.”

The star witnesses at the criminal trial were former co-workers who said they participated in the spoofing activity over years. Traders John Edmonds and Christian Trunz testified about market manipulation by all three defendants at JPMorgan, while trader Corey Flaum described similar behavior when he worked with Smith and Ruffo at Bear Stearns, before it was acquired by JPMorgan in 2008.

The JPMorgan case wasn’t a complete victory for prosecutors. All three defendants were acquitted of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a law more commonly used against gangs or mafias. Jurors didn’t agree with prosecutor claims that the JPMorgan precious-metals desk was run as a criminal enterprise. No witnesses or chat logs presented during the trial showed the defendants openly discussing their intent to spoof.

Previous convictions of former precious-metals traders at Deutsche Bank and Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch unit involved only spoofing-related crimes.

Racketeering charges also are part of the federal government’s case against Bill Hwang, whose Archegos Capital Management collapsed last year and cost banks billions.

The case is US v. Smith et al, 19-cr-00669, US District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago)

(By Kim Chipman and Joe Deaux, with assistance from Tom Schoenberg and Eddie Spence)