World’s largest trona deposit emits enough methane to power 1m homes

MINING.COM Staff Writer | August 26, 2021 |

The Green River Basin region, pictured, hosts the world’s largest natural deposit of trona. (Image by Haddenham Cabin, Wikimedia Commons).

In a world-first, methane emissions from trona mining activities were captured by a satellite operated by GHGSat, a Canadian company that specializes in high-resolution greenhouse gas monitoring from space.


The satellite imagery shows emissions from the Green River Basin in Wyoming — the location of the largest natural deposit of trona from which 18.1 million tonnes of the mineral were extracted in 2019 and which supplies around 90% of the soda ash used in the United States.

Trona is a sodium carbonate compound extracted from underground mines and processed into soda ash. It is mostly used to manufacture glass for the automotive and construction industries and it is also the raw material for baking soda, laundry, and cleaning products used in the manufacture of cloth and paper.

WHEN TRONA ORE IS EXTRACTED FROM UNDERGROUND MINES, THE FRACTURING OF THE ROCK RELEASES METHANE

When trona ore is extracted from underground mines, the fracturing of the rock releases methane, which must be vented for safety reasons. While soda ash can be manufactured synthetically, about 35% of the world’s supply comes from natural sources.

Zooming into the Green River Basin, GHGSat’s satellite detected and measured methane emissions with an estimated rate of nearly 950kg/h. Whilst smaller than the average emission rate from coal mines observed over the last six months, if captured and processed into natural gas, the emission level measured could supply electricity for a year to approximately 1 million homes.

In the company’s view, the volume of methane measured presents a potential opportunity for mining operators in setting up an investment structure, by converting methane emissions into renewable energy.

“This first trona mine satellite observation has prompted GHGSat to monitor these sources of methane to help industrials and governments understand their emissions,” the Quebec-based firm said in a media statement.

“Both the UN Global Methane Assessment 2021 and the recent IPCC Climate Report have highlighted the rapid increase in methane emissions in recent years – with scientists attributing between 30 and 50% of the current rise in global temperatures to this potent greenhouse gas. Reducing methane is now one of the quickest actions we can take to curb global warming.”

PHILOSOPHER'S STONE

How nature recycles organic material to create diamonds

MINING.COM Staff Writer | August 24, 2021 \

(Reference image from Pxfuel).

A new study published in the journal Scientific Reports found that the Earth’s deepest diamonds are commonly made up of former living organisms that have been recycled more than 400 kilometres below the surface.


According to the paper produced by researchers at Australia’s Curtin University, both diamonds found in oceanic rocks and the so-called super-deep continental diamonds share a common origin of recycled organic carbon deep within the Earth’s mantle

The document states that Earth’s engine turns organic carbon into diamonds many hundreds of kilometres below the surface and then ballooning rocks from the deeper mantle, called mantle plumes, carry the diamonds back up to the Earth’s surface via volcanic eruptions.

THIS RESEARCH PROVIDES A MODEL THAT EXPLAINS THE FORMATION AND LOCATIONS OF OCEANIC, SUPER-DEEP CONTINENTAL AND LITHOSPHERIC DIAMONDS

“While recycling is becoming a modern-day necessity for our sustainable survival, we were particularly surprised to learn, through this research, that Mother Nature has been showing us how to recycle with style for billions of years,” Luc Doucet, lead author of the study, said in a media statement.

Doucet and his team reached these conclusions by analyzing the carbon isotopic compositions of three major types of diamonds, namely, oceanic, super-deep continental and lithospheric diamonds, all of which are formed at different levels of the mantle with a varying mixture of organic and inorganic carbon.

“This is the first time that all three major types of diamonds have been linked to mantle plumes, ballooning hot rocks driven by plate tectonics and the supercontinent cycle from deeper Earth,” co-lead author, Zheng-Xiang Li, said in the press brief.

For the scientists, this research not only provides a model that explains the formation and locations of the three types of gemstones, but it also helps to understand the planet’s carbon cycle, while at the same time having the potential to unlock more secrets of the Earth’s dynamic history through tracking the past locations of mantle plumes and superplumes. In their view, the latter can be achieved by mapping out the distribution of both continental and oceanic diamonds.

One mystery remained unsolved, though, and that is the reason why diamonds formed in the so-called ‘mantle transition zone,’ 400 to 600 kilometres deep, utilized recycled organic carbon only.

“This might have something to do with the physical-chemical environment there”, Li said. “It is not uncommon for a new scientific discovery to raise more questions that require further investigation.”

Petra sells two rare diamonds for $13.5 million

Cecilia Jamasmie | August 25, 2021

The 342.92 carat Type IIa white diamond. (Image courtesy of Petra Diamonds.)

South Africa’s Petra Diamonds (LON: PDL) has sold its recently recovered 342.92-carat Type IIa white diamond and an 18.30-carat Type IIb blue diamonds for a combined $13.5 million.


The company said it will receive upfront payments of $10 million for the white stone and $3.5 million for the blue stone, both recovered at its iconic Cullinan mine.

The buyer is a partnership between Petra itself and the South African subsidiary of Stargems Group, an international and vertically integrated diamond company, which will cut and polish the stones.

TYPE II DIAMONDS ARE FOUND LESS FREQUENTLY AND ARE MORE VALUABLE THAN TYPE I DIAMONDS, AS THEY HAVE NO MEASURABLE NITROGEN IMPURITIES.

“We are delighted that both stones will be manufactured in South Africa, and it is fitting that we will be working with Stargems, who specializes in the sourcing and supply of the finest diamonds to customers across the world,” chief executive Richard Duffy said in the statement.

Petra fetched in March $12.2 million for a 299.3-carat Type IIA white diamond. That meant it obtained $40,701 per carat, which exceeds the $34,386/ct received for the 424.89-carat “Legacy of the Cullinan Diamond Mine” in May 2019.

Type II diamonds are found less frequently and are more valuable than Type I diamonds, as they have no measurable nitrogen impurities.

Type IIb blue diamonds are so rare that their age has not been established. Recent studies on minerals trapped inside these diamonds imply that they are among the deepest-formed diamonds ever found, created at depths in excess of 500km below the Earth’s surface.

Cullinan is known as the birthplace of the famed 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond, which was cut to form the 530-carat Great Star of Africa.

It’s also the world’s most important source of blue diamonds, such as the 39.34-carat stone Petra found in April and which sold for $40.2 million last month. It was the company’s highest price ever for a single stone.

In era of green mining, even a zero-carbon project won’t do
Bloomberg News | August 26, 2021 

Image: Nussir ASA

In northern Norway, deep inside the Arctic circle, Nussir ASA aims to build what it hopes will be the world’s first zero-carbon mining operation. But the company planning to buy its copper has gotten cold feet over other potential environmental concerns.


Aurubis AG, one of the world’s largest copper smelters, terminated a provisional agreement to buy raw materials from Nussir after opposition from local indigenous groups, the company said on Thursday. At issue, among other things, is the impact on the local reindeer.

“This is not lip service for Aurubis,” Daniela Kalmbach, a spokeswoman for the Hamburg-based company, said by phone. “We know that Nussir have made several efforts with the community, but we still see potential for this aspect to be considered even more closely.”

The episode is the latest example of how projects with a focus on sustainability are coming are coming under increasing scrutiny by clients and investors as concerns over businesses’ impact on the environment grow.

In April, the Nature Conservancy started an internal review following concerns that its sale of carbon credits was meaningless. A string of recent “carbon-neutral” natural gas deals inked by companies including TotalEnergies SE has been scrutinized for similar reasons.

For Nussir’s mine in Norway, the issue isn’t the zero-carbon claims of the project itself, but rather other concerns related to sustainability at the site.

“The Nussir copper mine will be built to the highest environmental standards,” company Chief Executive Officer Oystein Rushfeldt said by email, adding that the project has the support of local authorities and will benefit indigenous groups through work opportunities.

Nussir’s ambition to become a fully electrified, zero-carbon mining operation centers on its use of Norway’s abundant hydroelectric power, as well as a fleet of battery-powered heavy machinery. But critics in the local Sami population have fought the project, arguing that mining will wreak havoc on local wildlife and the community depending on it.

“There was great support by the local community in north Norway in general, and the project was fully approved,” Aurubis’s Kalmbach said. “Nevertheless, there was a smaller group of the indigenous Sami population who were very critical, both of the environmental impact and the potential impact on the reindeer population.”

(By Mark Burton, with assistance from Laura Millan Lombrana)

Centerra units file motion seeking $1m a day in penalties against Kyrgyzstan govt

Henry Lazenby | August 26, 2021 |

Press tour to the Kumtor mine held on May 28, 2021.

 (Image courtesy of Kumtor Gold Company.)

Two units of Canada’s Centerra Gold (TSX: CG) have filed a motion in a US Bankruptcy Court seeking penalties of $1 million a day against the Kyrgyzstan government, related to the May seizure of the Canadian company’s Kumtor gold mine.


The company’s Kumtor Gold Company (KGC) and Kumtor Operating Company CJSC (KOC) lodged the motion in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

The motion alleges the Kyrgyz government “blatantly and continuously” violates the court’s orders and has “continued and intensified” its efforts to deprive KGC and KOC of the protections afforded to them under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code, much in the same way that it took over the mine.

THE SECURITY SERVICE IS INVESTIGATING POSSIBLE CORRUPTION IN THE DEAL THAT GAVE CENTERRA CONTROL OVER THE COUNTRY’S BIGGEST GOLD MINE

Centerra said in May KGC and KOC commenced bankruptcy proceedings following the nationalization of the miner’s Kumtor gold mine by the former Soviet republic. Also in May, the government seized control of Kyrgyzstan’s most significant foreign investment project in a move challenged by Centerra Gold through international arbitration.

The motion also seeks an order staying the Kyrgyz government’s efforts to dismiss the case.

The motion alleges “continued and willful” violations of the automatic stay afforded by the Bankruptcy Court.

These include continued Kyrgyz court proceedings that seek to change KGC and KOC’s corporate resolutions illegally; the maintenance of the preliminary injunction barring KGC and KOC legal counsel and various individuals from participating in Kyrgyz court proceedings; the extension of the mandate of the so-called temporary manager; the termination of all KGC and KOC contracts with the Kyrgyz government and its related entities; and, laying the groundwork for the conversion of the Kyrgyz government’s environmental and tax claims against the KGC and KOC into equity with the effect of giving the Kyrgyz government complete ownership and control over the KGC and KOC.

Reuters reports the Kyrgyz state security service and prosecutors had said earlier this month they had established enough evidence to press on with removing Centerra from the Kumtor gold mine.

The security service is investigating possible corruption in the deal that gave Centerra control over the country’s biggest gold mine and subsequent amendments to the agreement.

Centerra denies the allegations.

Attorneys for KGC and KOC will present the motion to the Bankruptcy Court hearing to be held on September 15.

Centerra’s CEO, Scott Perry, said earlier this month Centerra remained “financially strong” with solid performance at its other operations three months following the Kyrgyzstan government’s seizure of the Kumtor mine.

At C$9.40 per share, Centerra’s Toronto-quoted shares trading in Toronto are down 43.2% over the past 12 months, capitalizing it at C$2.79 billion ($2.2bn).

ECOCIDE

Dust at BHP’s iron ore mines poses health hazard

Reuters | August 26, 2021 | 

BHP’s Western Australia Iron Ore operations involve a complex integrated system of seven mines, more than 1,000 kilometres of rail and two separate port facilities. 

(Image courtesy of BHP)

High levels of dust at two of BHP Group’s iron ore mines in Western Australia are impairing the health of workers and nearby residents, a union said this week, as BHP said it had undertaken a raft of measures to limit dust in the arid region.


The state’s environmental regulator this month began a review into elevated levels of airborne dust at BHP’s Whaleback and Newman mines in the Pilbara, as part of a review into BHP’s licence conditions and public submissions closed this week.


The review will be undertaken over the second half of this year and could result in changes to BHP’s license conditions. The mines are some 1 065 km (662 miles) north east of Perth.

A survey of current or former residents and mine workers who spent a significant amount of time in the community found 80% said the dust had affected their lives, according to a submission by the Western Mine Workers Alliance.

Of those, 82% said they had experienced adverse health affects, while others said they had suffered property damage and impacts to their lifestyle due to dust.

“All industry has some impact on the local environment,” said Brad Gandy, state branch secretary of the Australian Workers Union, which is part of the alliance.

“The problem is how this impact is managed, and it is clear that dust emissions are at levels that seriously affect the health, wellbeing and lifestyles of the Newman community.”

BHP said in a statement that it prioritises the health and safety of its employees and host communities, and was committed to managing our dust levels in Newman.

“Air quality is complex and the majority of elevated dust events in Newman occur in conjunction with certain weather conditions,” it said.

Dust control measures across the sites include using dust suppress sprays, water trucks and revegetation programs.

It is spending $230-million over the next five years to further improve air quality and implement dust mitigation work to keep dust levels as low as possible, it said.

(By Melanie Burton; Editing by David Holmes)

BETTING ON H2

Rio Tinto, Sumitomo to assess hydrogen plant at Yarwun refinery

Cecilia Jamasmie | August 24, 2021 | 

Yarwun alumina refinery in Gladstone, Queensland. (Image courtesy of Rio Tinto.)

Rio Tinto and Sumitomo Corporation announced on Tuesday they will jointly study the construction of a hydrogen pilot plant at Rio’s Yarwun alumina refinery in Gladstone, Australia.


Sumitomo had already been carrying out studies into building a hydrogen plant but hadn’t chosen a location. Rio, in turn, recently started a feasibility study into replacing natural gas with hydrogen in the alumina refining process.

If the partners choose to proceed, the pilot plant would produce hydrogen for the Japanese miner’s Gladstone Hydrogen Ecosystem project, announced in March, which is also located in Queensland’s Gladstone, a traditional coal and gas hub.


GREEN HYDROGEN — PRODUCED BY STRIPPING THE GAS FROM WATER USING ELECTROLYZERS POWERED BY WIND AND SOLAR — IS SEEN AS KEY TO ELIMINATING EMISSIONS FROM THE INDUSTRIAL SECTOR

Green hydrogen — produced by stripping the gas from water using electrolyzers powered by wind and solar — is seen as key to eliminating carbon emissions from the industrial sector.

Most Australian mines are already transitioning to renewable power and either turning to or expanding their electric vehicles fleets. Hydrogen is the next frontier.

“Reducing the carbon intensity of our alumina production will be key to meeting our 2030 and 2050 climate targets,” Rio Tinto Australia chief executive Kellie Parker said in the statement. “There is clearly more work to be done, but partnerships and projects like this are an important part of helping us get there.”

Energy hungry regions, particularly north-east Asia and Europe, lack the natural resources to generate large scale clean energy. This is particularly true in Japan, where nuclear energy has become politically and practically toxic.

The answer, as the country has very publicly committed to, is to transition to 100% green ammonia, which is the demand the growing number of large-scale green hydrogen projects in Australia are looking to meet

Green steel? Look to hydrogen as the answer, BNEF says
Bloomberg News | August 25, 2021 | 

Stock image.

Hydrogen made from clean power will be the cheapest way to bring emissions from steel production near zero by 2050, according to a BloombergNEF report.


While making green steel with hydrogen requires a price premium now, the process will likely be cheaper than coal- or natural gas-based production by mid-century, though that would require building new plants, BNEF said.

Geography will also determine the most cost-effective way to produce green steel. A country with abundant hydrogen supplies could make it the dominant fuel for steel production, while a nation rich in hydropower or another clean energy source could directly electrify steelmaking through a process called molten oxide electrolysis, BNEF said.

Other technologies to decarbonize steel include recycling, carbon capture, alternative iron-making processes and carbon offsets. A combination of these will likely be needed on a global scale, BNEF said.

“We expect that the cost of many of these technologies can fall by realizing economies of scale and greater efficiency,” BNEF said.

(By Yvonne Yue Li)

Rio Tinto yet to pay compensation over sacred site destruction
Reuters | August 26, 2021 |

Juukan Gorge cave sites seen before the destruction. (Screenshot via YouTube.)

Mining giant Rio Tinto is yet to pay compensation to the Aboriginal group whose ancient rock shelters it destroyed for an iron ore mine in Western Australia last year, company officials told a parliamentary inquiry Friday.


The incident last year destroyed the historically and culturally significant site at Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara region that showed evidence of human habitation 46,000 years ago into the last Ice Age.

The destruction created public outrage that led to a dramatic overhaul of Rio’s leadership and a review of the Australian laws that are supposed to protect significant sites of the world’s oldest living culture.

An interim report from a federal parliamentary inquiry in December said Rio should pay restitution to the Puuti Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people (PKKP) with the final report and recommendations due in coming months.

The head of Rio’s Australian operations, Kellie Parker, told the inquiry on Friday the company was committed to “doing the right thing” around paying restitution but said that details around the financial component of any compensation were subject to a confidentiality agreement at the PKKP’s request.

Rio Tinto has rehabilitated parts of the Juukan Gorge and is working to restore the shelters in a structurally sound way, she said.


THE WORLD’S BIGGEST IRON ORE MINER DOES NOT PAY ROYALTIES TO THE WINTAWARI GURUMA FOR THREE OF SIX MINES IT OPERATES ON THEIR ANCESTRAL LAND

More broadly, Rio has moved responsibility for company relationships with traditional owners and mining near significant sites to operational managers, rather than the company heritage division. It has also committed to review mining plans around all areas of significance and “modernise” agreements with traditional owners, Parker said, without clarifying whether this could include backpayments for historic royalties.

Rio Tinto does not pay royalties to traditional owners for some mines where mining began prior to the native title act in 1993.

The world’s biggest iron ore miner does not pay royalties to the Wintawari Guruma for three of six mines it operates on their ancestral land, even though those mines are operational today, said Tony Bevan, a director at the Wintawari Guruma Aboriginal Corporation.

The miner posted record half year earnings of more than $12 billion in July.

WGAC want royalties to be considered as part of a modern agreement as well as compensation for heritage destruction and an ability for them to visit their traditional lands for which access is currently denied.

News emerged this year that Rio failed to protect WGAC artefacts that had been salvaged from its Marandoo iron ore project including 18,000-year-old evidence showing how people lived during the last Ice Age. Those and other artefacts were thrown in a Darwin rubbish heap.

Parker said that Rio was modernising agreements, with particular focus on social as well as economic contributions, but did not directly answer repeated questions by Senator Patrick Dodson about the number of mines that Rio doesn’t pay royalties on.

The PKKP said that it continued to work in good faith with Rio Tinto on the recovery and rehabilitation at Juukan Gorge as well as the development of a co-management model for their operations.

“The results on these will be the true test of our relationship with Rio Tinto,” it said.

PKKP said it wanted a relationship-based co-management system with Rio that reflected a shared commitment and respect for its rights, and participation in decision making throughout all phases of a mine, from development to closure.

(By Melanie Burton; Editing by Sam Holmes and Simon Cameron-Moore)

Rio Tinto-led plan for major lithium mine stirs protests in Serbia

Reuters | August 26, 2021 | 

The Jadar project has an estimated production capacity of 55,000 tonnes per year.(Image courtesy of Rio Tinto.)

Four years from now, fields in the Jadar river valley in western Serbia where Djorjde Kapetanovic grows corn and soy to feed his cattle will be turned into a waste dump for Europe’s biggest lithium mine.


Rio Tinto in July committed $2.4 billion to its Jadar project as global miners push into metals needed for the green energy transition, including lithium, which is used to make electric vehicle batteries. The Jadar project, once completed, would help make Rio a top 10 lithium producer, just as demand for EVs booms.

Opposition to the project is growing, however, because of concerns about possible environmental damage and protest rallies have become more frequent. In April, thousands gathered in Belgrade to protest against widespread pollution in the Balkan country and against the lithium mine near Loznica, 142 km (88 miles) southwest of the capital.

Once it reaches full capacity, the mine is expected to produce 58,000 tonnes of refined battery-grade lithium carbonate per year. That would make it Europe’s biggest lithium mine in terms of production, Rio said.

In the village of Korenita, dairy farmer Kapetanovic said the mine, if opened, could leave him without income. Part of his land where he grows crop to feed his animals will be turned into a dump for mining waste, known as tailings, with compensation from the company.

LITHIUM IS CENTRAL TO THE EUROPEAN UNION’S PLANS TO SECURE AN ENTIRE SUPPLY CHAIN OF BATTERY MINERALS AND MATERIALS AS THE USE OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES INCREASES

Other areas of his land, his house and a cattle shed will be outside the mine, leaving Kapetanovic worried about exposure to possible pollution.

“Who would want to buy products made on the outskirts of the mine?” said Kapetanovic, who produces 10 tonnes (22,000 lb) of meat and 90,000 litres (23,775 gallons) of milk per year, making him one of the bigger producers in the Loznica area.

Rio Tinto Serbia CEO Vesna Prodanovic said the Anglo-Australian miner would meet all European Union and Serbian environmental regulations, including on the treatment of wastewater.

“There’s simply no way for the construction to start without securing licences (and) if all those (EU standards) are not adhered to,” she said in an interview.

“We take into account precipitation levels, prescribed dust levels. We take into consideration everything there is in the field. We are making all studies and tests to get clear data about what is the current situation in the area.”

One study, commissioned by Rio on the mine’s environmental impact, concluded the mine should not be built as it will cause “irredeemable damage to the biosphere”, an abstract obtained by Reuters found.

“The implementation of the planned activities, especially the disposal of industrial waste, will significantly impair biodiversity in the entire area of the planned works,” the study by Belgrade University’s Faculty of Biology said.

“In … primary zones of (the mine’s) influence, there will be complete and direct destruction of habitats with the disappearance of all organisms that inhabit them.”

Rio said the biodiversity study was part of a wider feasibility study and it would conduct further research to “support the most advanced and most expensive solutions in nature protection, which would minimise the impact”.
Economic boost

Lithium is central to the European Union’s plans to secure an entire supply chain of battery minerals and materials as the use of electric vehicles increases.

Serbia, which sits on the world’s 11th largest lithium reserves, is working its way through the accession process to join the EU.

For its own economy, the Jadar project is one of Serbia’s biggest foreign investments to date and could help to tackle rising unemployment in the Balkan country.

Rio said the project would create about 2,100 construction jobs and inject approximately 200 million euros ($235.32 million) per year into the domestic supply chain.

Energy minister Zorana Mihajlovic told Reuters that Serbia aimed, like the EU, to secure the entire production chain, including a potential battery plant and an electric vehicle plant.

Rio’s Serbia CEO said the company’s studies estimated the project would add 1 percentage point to Serbia’s $51.4 billion annual GDP. It would also boost Loznica’s municipal budget by 60-70% annually, she said.

In June, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who is under fire for supporting the project, said a referendum would be held to allow people to decide whether it should go ahead.

The absence of further details on the referendum has worried opponents. In July, Loznica municipal assembly, which is dominated by Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party and its allies, formally gave a green light for mine construction by approving a new municipal plan for land allocation.

Contacted by Reuters, the president’s office had no immediate comment.

Rio has bought nearly half of the land required for the mine, which will be spread over roughly 387 hectares.

Some $100 million of Rio’s investment has been earmarked for environmental protection, but activists say that is insufficient to compensate for potential damage.

One major concern for environmentalists is Rio’s plan to put

waste dumps in the Korenita and Jadar rivers valley, an area prone to flash flooding.

In 2014, Korenita river flooding caused a closed mine’s tailings dam to overflow, spilling toxic waste onto agricultural land.

Rio Tinto said it planned to convert the liquid waste into “dry cakes” to make it easier and safer to store and is planning for once-in-a-millennium floods in its construction.

($1 = 0.8499 euros)

(By Ivana Sekularac and Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Amran Abocar and Barbara Lewis)

SQM told to resubmit compliance plan as lithium scrutiny grows

Bloomberg News | August 26, 2021 |

Dried up brine pool on the Atacama salt flats, northern Chile, property of SQM the world’s second largest lithium producer. (Image courtesy of Ferrando | Flickr.)

SQM has been asked to resubmit a compliance plan for extracting brine from a salt flat in northern Chile, a process on which its lithium expansion plans depend.


The world’s no. 2 producer of the battery metal has 15 business days to address technical observations related to the impact of removing the solution from the Atacama salt pan and its system for monitoring pumping levels, environmental agency SMA said in a document dated August 19.

The process relates to charges that SQM had overdrawn brine, which led to a $25 million compliance plan that was approved by the SMA in 2019 but then blocked by a court in a win for indigenous and environmental activists. The SMA’s resolution last week includes observations from the Toconao community and grants a request by the Socaire community to also be party to the sanctioning process, said Cristobal De La Maza, who heads the agency.

While probably just a minor setback in a years-long process, the SMA’s requests underscore heightening scrutiny of the environmental and social impact of producing materials needed for the clean-energy transition.

SQM has laid out plans to reduce its use of fresh water and brine pumping rates even as it expands output to cater to an expected tripling of demand in a rechargeable battery boom.

“We received comments from the authority on the presentation we made last October, so now it’s up to us to deliver the proposal with the requested improvements,” said the Santiago-based company formally known as Soc. Quimica & Minera de Chile SA.

(By James Attwood, with assistance from Eduardo Thomson

Labor tensions are ratcheting up again in Chile

Bloomberg News | August 26, 2021 |

Codelco’s Salvador mine. (Image courtesy of Codelco | Flickr)

A growing number of copper workers in top producer Chile are digging in for a bigger share of the metal windfall, increasing the prospect of further supply disruptions.


Just this week, a union at a mine owned by JX Nippon Mining & Metals and plant workers at Codelco’s Andina operation rejected new wage offers, opting instead to continue their strikes. A Cerro Colorado union urged members to snub BHP Group’s final proposal, describing it as “abusive,” and Codelco’s best offer to workers at its Salvador mine was labeled as “unacceptable” by the union.

There’s still time to prevent strikes at Cerro Colorado and Salvador, but the rhetoric suggests it will be a hard task. The four mines represent about 2.2% of global production. While one of the market’s biggest supply threats was neutralized earlier this month with a deal at BHP’s Escondida, talks are only just beginning at Codelco’s top mine, El Teniente.

For now, copper traders are focused on how the Federal Reserve intends to pare stimulus. But physical factors may come back into the spotlight at a time of tight supplies.

To be sure, brinkmanship, eleventh-hour deals and stoppages have characterized previous collective bargaining cycles in Chile, with Escondida hit with a 44-day strike in 2017. Producers can also limit the impact of industrial action by undertaking maintenance work. Codelco, for example, said Tuesday that it can still produce slightly more than last year despite disruptions at Andina.

But the typical tensions of renewing contracts are being inflamed by the current highly profitable copper prices and Chile’s broad-based social justice movement that has plugged into an uptick in resource nationalism globally. Workers are also looking to be rewarded for their sacrifices in keeping mines operating during the pandemic. A bumper bonus package granted to Escondida workers caught the attention of other unions.

At the same time, companies are striving to keep labor costs in check in a cyclical business facing pricier inputs and falling ore quality. In the case of state-owned Codelco, there’s an added responsibility to feed state coffers at a time of increased spending on social services, with the company taking into account each mine’s productivity in wage talks.

(By James Attwood)

Union at BHP’s Cerro Colorado calls on workers to reject contract offer

Reuters | August 25, 2021 

Cerro Colorado mine in Chile. (Image by Zwansaurio | Flickr Commons)

The workers’ union at BHP’s Cerro Colorado copper mine in Chile has called on its members to reject a final contract offer by the company, paving the way for a strike at the small deposit, the group’s leadership told Reuters.


The labor tensions come shortly after a court ordered the mine to cease pumping from a reservoir that supplies it with fresh water, citing environmental concerns and slowing progress on a key mine maintenance project.

Union leader Marcelo Franco said BHP had used the regulatory issues it faces as an excuse to lowball workers with an inadequate contract proposal.

“We are calling to vote for a strike,” Franco said.

If the union rejects the contract, Chilean law allows the parties to request government-led mediation for up to 10 days in an effort to reach an agreement and stave off a strike.

BHP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The global miner recently struck a deal with workers at its massive Escondida mine that resulted in record-breaking benefits, an outcome that will likely raise the bar at Cerro Colorado and elsewhere in world top copper producer Chile.

Cerro Colorado, a small mine in BHP’s Chilean portfolio, produced about 1.2% of the South American nation’s total copper output in 2020.

(By Fabian Cambero and Dave Sherwood)

 

COVID-19 and masking impact emotional labor performance

by David Bradley, Inderscience

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

We are emotional beings and this matters deeply in our personal lives but also in our working lives, perhaps nowhere more so than in the face-to-face service industries. New research in the International Journal of Quality and Innovation, has looked at the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on what is commonly referred to as "emotional labor performance," the workplace management of emotions that are integral to a worker's performance

Niamh Lafferty and Sarah MacCurtain of the Kemmy Business School at the University of Limerick in Castletroy, Limerick, Ireland, and Patricia Mannix McNamara of the School of Education there, explain that the emergence of a global pandemic caused by an airborne virus meant that the public and workers alike have been for many months now obliged to wear a face covering, a protective mask, to reduce the risk of spreading the disease and to some extent catching it.

"By the nature of emotional labor, employees rely on both the ability to read service users' emotions and the ability to express appropriate emotional displays in response," the team writes. "In simpler times, employees could assess non-verbal expressions of emotion through facial recognition and respond with facially recognizable emotions evidenced in expressions such as a smile or one of concern," they add.

A face covering obviously precludes the normal appreciation of visual cues, such as smiles and frowns that we expect of our interactions with other people. This "new normal" has led to significant modifications to the interactions between service users and the people providing a service.

The new normal represents uncertainty and struggle for so many people. There are major challenges that have arisen in the time since we first recognized the pandemic nature of the virus formally known as SARS-CoV-2 and the disease it causes, COVID-19. However, from the perspective of those researching emotional labor, the widespread wearing of face coverings actually presents a new research opportunity to better understand the interactions between provider and user in ways that are not possible when facial expressions are wholly visible to each party in such an interaction.

"This mask-wearing time provides an exceptional opportunity to test [the] relevance, significance, and impact [of emotional labor] in a way that previously could never have been achieved," the team writes.When faces are partially covered, neither people nor algorithms are good at reading emotions

More information: Niamh Lafferty et al, Donning the mask: the impact of Covid-19 on emotional labour performance, International Journal of Quality and Innovation (2021). DOI: 10.1504/IJQI.2021.117187

Provided by Inderscience