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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 a road blockade at Lundin Gold’s Fruta del Norte mine, the Mining Association of British Columbia warning of decreased mining operations in the province and the town of Asbestos, Quebec proposing a name change.

BHP has shelved the proposed US$2.5 billion expansion of its Olympic Dam mine in South Australia, as reported by Mining.com. According to the company, recent studies revealed that the mine’s copper resources are more complex in structure and less continuous in higher-grade zones than previously believed. The company also reduced the mine’s copper production forecast from 350,000 tonnes a year to 300,000 tonnes, though maintained that the long-term opportunity of the mine is unchanged.

PureGold expects to pour first gold at its Red Lake mine in Ontario in the fourth quarter of this year after beginning project construction in late 2019. The company says the short timeline was possible due to the project’s database of over a million metres of drill results, as well as existing infrastructure, experienced leadership and a new geological model of the deposit. According to the company, the Red Lake mine will process 800 tonnes per day and produce around 100,000 ounces of gold per year over a 12.2-year mine life with a capital cost of $95 million.

Lundin Mining announced that 550 workers at its Candelaria operations in Chile are on strike, after failing to reach an agreement with the Candelaria AOS Union representing them. Another 350 workers represented by the Candelaria Mine Workers Union are also striking at the site. The company stated that it is preparing for a temporary suspension of non-critical operations at Candelaria and has withdrawn its 2020 production, cash cost and capital cost guidance.

Lundin Gold reported that local community members in Ecuador have blockaded a public road to its Fruta del Norte gold mine following a bridge collapse in the nearby town of Los Encuentros. The company agreed to fund the building of a new bridge by the provincial government in 2018. Although it expressed support for local residents, the company stated that the road blockade is a result of frustration over the lack of progress in building the new bridge. Though the blockade is preventing the company from moving personnel and goods to and from the mine, Lundin said that operations are currently continuing uninterrupted.

Mining companies say that the federal government’s decision to extend its timeline for deciding to conduct national security reviews of proposed foreign acquisitions of domestic companies will impact current operations and future investment. TMAC Resources is one of the companies that has already felt the impact, after a decision to conduct a national security review of its $149-million acquisition by China’s Shandong Gold was only made last week after months of waiting. The company said that the delayed decision has pushed back the expected closing date of the deal to the fourth quarter of 2020 or the first quarter of 2021, and caused the company to put its Hope Bay expansion feasibility study on hold.

The Mining Association of British Columbia has released a report suggesting that the number of operating mines in the province could decrease from 14 to five by 2040, as reported by Business in Vancouver. According to the report, the provincial carbon tax on mining may discourage companies from building new projects in British Columbia and instead build them in jurisdictions with lower or no carbon taxes, causing carbon leakage. The report calls on the provincial government to use its Clean BC Industrial Incentive program to provide miners in British Columbia with better protection against miners in jurisdictions with lower carbon-pricing levels.

The federal government has provided $100 million to the Clean Resource Innovation Network to research projects that will lower greenhouse gas emissions by the oil and gas industry, as reported by CBC. The network will use the funding to support research projects over a period of four years that will reduce the sector’s emissions by 100 megatons by 2033. The network will call for project applications in seven areas, including ecosystem growth and long-term sustainability, and will award at least half of the funding to medium and small businesses.

According to a report by PwC, operating costs, rather than taxes or royalties, are the major barrier to companies wishing to mine in the Northwest Territories, as reported by Cabin Radio. The report, commissioned by the NWT government, states that the government will need to focus on the underlying issues driving its high costs in order to attract more mine development in the territory. While the NWT industry minister said the report was an “initial step” in evaluating the territory’s tax and royalty framework for mining, other officials criticized it for not being thorough enough in comparisons between jurisdictions, among other issues.

A First World War pilot, the founder of the Women’s Association of the Mining Industry of Canada (Est. 1921) and a resource financier of more than 400 exploration and development companies are among the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame’s (CMHF) 2021 inductees. The CMHF will welcome William Gladstone Jewitt, Mary Edith Tyrrell, David Elliott, Patricia Dillon and Steven D. Scott as its five new members at a gala dinner and induction ceremony in July 2021.

British Columbia’s Liberal party leader Andrew Wilkinson has said he wishes to decrease permit processing times for new mine applications, as reported by Kamloops this Week. Wilkinson said that the new process would involve a single person in charge of permitting for the Ministry of Energy and Mines, and also proposed a resource benefit-sharing framework to benefit small and rural communities. The announcement comes ahead of the provincial election on Oct. 24.

The one-time mining town of Asbestos, Quebec, has begun the process of adopting a new identity after 2,800 residents voted to change the town’s name to Val-des-Sources, as reported by CBC. The town has borne the name of mineral extracted for over a century from the local Jeffery mine. The mine closed in 2011 and Canada banned the trade and use of the known carcinogen in 2018. The town council hopes to have the name change finalized by December.

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