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 an alliance for zero-emissions mining equipment, Quebec’s investment in Monarch’s Beaufor mine and Nouveau Monde beginning construction at Matawinie.

Canada is investing $400 million in ArcelorMittal Dofasco to help phase out its coal-fired steelmaking facilities in Ontario. The new facilities will use an electric-arc furnace and will save approximately three million tonnes of greenhouse gases every year. The announcement follows a similar investment of $420 million in Algoma Steel’s facilities on July 5.

The two-month-long union strike at Vale’s Sudbury nickel operations is coming to a close as both parties have come to terms on a new five-year collective agreement. One of the main issues between Vale and the USW Local 6500 was a disagreement regarding existing post-retirement health benefits for new employees. The new agreement will include a six per cent wage increase over five years, the preservation of the retiree health benefits and more.

PureGold announced that it has achieved commercial production at its self-titled gold mine, located in Red Lake, Ontario. According to the announcement, all the mine’s facilities are in line or rapidly approaching a production benchmark of 800 tonnes of ore per day. Construction on the site began in August 2019. PureGold drew on existing infrastructure, extensive drilling campaigns and experienced leadership to bring the mine to commercial production.

Blasting rocks underground is a tradition nearly as old as mining itself, but executing it improperly can be extremely hazardous to mines and their employees. As such, new innovations are emerging to improve the blasting process. Wireless technology to improve safety, new chemical formulas to reduce the environmental impact, and virtual simulations of blasting processes are some of the ways the industry is improving a tried-and-true mining method.

Mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP have signed on to Komatsu’s Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Alliance in order to promote the development of emissions-free mining haul trucks. Rio Tinto will conduct a pre-production trial of the vehicles at one of its mine sites, while BHP will provide engineering and technical resources to Komatsu during the development phase. Both companies will also be among the first to purchase the trucks from Komatsu once they become available.

Quebec has provided a $13.5 million loan to Monarch Mining to assist with the restart of its Beaufor gold mine and Beacon mill east of Val-d’Or, as reported by Mining.com. The mine has been on care and maintenance since June 2019 and is expected to reopen by June 2022. According to Monarch, the mine has measured and indicated resources of 219,200 ounces from 1,284,900 tonnes grading at 5.3 grams per tonne.

Construction has begun at Nouveau Monde’s Matawinie graphite mine in Saint-Michel-des-Saints, Quebec, as reported by MineConnect. The company is aiming to begin commercial production by the end of 2023, producing 45,000 tonnes of anode graphite material over the first two years. According to Nouveau Monde, once completed, Matawinie will become the world’s first all-electric open-pit mine, with its mining equipment and mineral processing activities becoming fully electric within the first five years of production. 

Barrick and the key stakeholders of its Pueblo Viejo mine in the Dominican Republic have agreed to independent, government-led oversight of  the mine’s impact assessment studies for its new tailings storage facility. The facility is a key part of the company’s proposed US$1.3 billion mine expansion project that would extend Pueblo Viejo’s life past 2040. The government oversight is the result of negotiations with the communities who could be directly or indirectly affected by the new facility.

After conducting a test program for its Muckahi mining method at its Media Luna gold-copper-silver project in Mexico, Torex Gold has opted to base a feasibility study on a conventional mining method. The Muckahi method, developed by Torex’s former president and CEO Fred Stanford, uses twin roof-mounted monorail lines to carry ore up steep, narrow tunnels to the surface. Torex says that the advantage of using this system wasn’t apparent at Media Luna, and there would be no readily available alternative once the decision is made to dig the ramps for the monorails.

Companies are continuing to release their second quarter results for this year. Here are some of the highlights:

Hecla Mining produced 59,139 ounces of gold and 3.5 million ounces of silver in the second quarter at an all-in sustaining cost (AISC) of US$1,419 per oz of gold and US$7.54 per oz silver. The company also reported an adjusted net income of US$32.8 million.

Equinox Gold produced 122,656 ounces of gold with an AISC of US$1,382 per oz. The company also took a 60 per-cent stake in the Greenstone project north of Thunder Bay and will begin construction before the end of the year.

McEwen Mining produced 40,700 gold-equivalent ounces across its operations in the second quarter, more than double when compared to the company’s Q2 2020 figures. The company recorded a net loss of US$6 million.

Taseko Mines reported a net income of $13.4 million and copper production of 26.8 million pounds in the second quarter.

Glencore released its 2021 half-year report, reporting a record adjusted EBITDA of US$8.7 billion over the past two quarters. The company produced 598,000 tonnes of copper, 581,800 tonnes of zinc and 14,800 tonnes of cobalt in the first half of the year.

Harte Gold recorded total production of 11,238 gold ounces in the second quarter at an all-in sustaining cost of US$2,033 per ounce. The company also reported a net loss of $920,000 this quarter.

Trevali produced 87.3 million pounds of zinc in Q2 at an all-in sustaining cost of US$0.97 per pound in the second quarter, as well as a net income of US$3.88 million.

B2Gold reported total gold production of 211,612 ounces across its operations at an all-in sustaining cost of US$1,016 per ounce. Net income for the quarter was reported at US$68 million.

Iamgold’s second quarter produced a net loss of US$4.5 million and gold production of 139,000 ounces with an average all-in sustaining cost of US$2,412 per ounce for the 135,000 ounces sold.

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