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Welcome back to your weekly mining news recap, where we catch you up on some of the news you may have missed. This week’s headlines include Wesdome takes another step towards restarting the Kiena gold mine complex, Vale fined an additional US$1.5 billion for Brumadinho disaster and a new report on the impact of technology and automation on Canadian miners.

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Exploration activities are slowly resuming in Ontario. First Mining Gold and Auteco Minerals are resuming their gold drilling programs near Red Lake, Sioux Lookout and Pickle Lake in northwestern Ontario, as reported by Northern Ontario Business. First Mining Gold is testing for gold extensions at its Goldlund mine project and has resumed drilling at its Pickle Crow project, a joint venture with Auteco.

Teck Resources announced that it is resuming operations at its Antamina mine in Peru, which has been conducting only critical operations since mid-March. The mine will restart activities at an 80-per-cent-workforce capacity and will gradually scale up to full production by the third quarter of 2020. Non-essential operations at the mine were suspended on Mar. 17, a day after the Peruvian government declared a national state of emergency, closed its borders and implemented a national quarantine in an attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19.

A mining contractor has died at Impala’s Lac des Iles Mine due to injuries sustained underground, as reported by Northern Ontario Business. Edward Gallant, an employee of SCR Mining and Tunnelling, was working underground when he was killed in a run of muck, according to the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development. An inspector from the ministry and an engineer are conducting a joint investigation at the scene with provincial police. The incident occurred as the mine was restarting operations in phases after being placed under care and maintenance in mid-April following a COVID-19 outbreak on site.

Miners and industry associations are making ambitious commitments to reduce carbon footprints. While in the past year companies such as Teck, Vale and more have pledged to reach net zero emissions by 2050 and miners have increasingly turned to electric-powered technology and sustainable energy at their operations, they are also being pressed to address the fact that most carbon emissions are generated when their raw materials are processed further down the supply chain.

Wesdome Gold Mines has released the results of its independent preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for its Kiena gold mine complex in Val d’Or, which has been suspended since 2013. Results from the PEA suggest that restarting activities would yield an after-tax net present value of $416.1 million with a discount rate of five per cent, an after-tax internal rate of return of 102 per cent and an estimated mine life of eight years. According to the PEA, the estimated total operating cost of the complex is $492 per ounce of gold with an all-in sustaining cost of $647 per ounce of gold, at a total sustaining capital cost of $120.8 million.

Endeavour Mining has published its 2019 sustainability report which focuses on implementing the Responsible Gold Mining Principles (RGMPs), the World Gold Council’s new ESG framework. In the report, the company set out its environmental goals for 2020, including developing a target for reducing emissions and reviewing sustainable energy opportunities at its operations. The company also announced that executive compensation will be dependent on completing ESG targets in the short-term, such as increasing the number of women employees to 10 per cent, and in the long-term by completing all of the RGMPs. The World Gold Council’s ESG framework was launched last fall to provide unified and coherent guidelines for responsible gold production.

The Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR) has released an inaugural report on the possible impact of technological innovation and automation on Canadian miners, as reported by Global Mining Review. The report, “The Changing Nature of Work: Innovation, Automation and Canada’s Mining Workforce,” follows a two-year study based on in-depth research on new mining technologies and interviews with over 125 mining stakeholders. The report also introduces the MiHR Occupational Vulnerability Index, which analyzes the impact on workplaces and workers who are most vulnerable to demands for greater training and education and technological disruption, and allows employers and governments to assess who is most at risk and who would most benefit from training to adapt to new technologies.

Vale has been ordered to pay 7.9 billion reias (US$1.5 billion) by a Brazilian judge towards potential fines related to the tailings dam collapse at Brumadinho in January 2019, which killed 270 people, as reported by Mining.com. This is in addition to the US$1 billion that a federal judge froze immediately following the accident, US$48 million of which has been returned to the company so that it may fund an investigation into the disaster. The fine comes months after state prosecutors charged former Vale CEO Fabio Schvartsman and 15 other people with homicide.

Barrick Gold has paid US$100 million to the Tanzanian government as the first step of its new partnership to settle land claims at its North Mara gold mine. The payment is part of a US$300 million deal - the rest of which will be distributed in annual payments of US$40 million over the next five years. The company also announced it had settled 90 per cent of outstanding land claims in the area in deals overseen by the government, local authorities and affected communities. In Papua New Guinea, Barrick has offered local landowners an additional 15 per cent stake in its Porgera gold mine to resolve a dispute with the national government, which did not extend the company’s mine lease last month, as reported by The Globe & Mail.

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