Shock at speed of Macraes lay-offs

The speed at which Oceana Gold has pushed through job cuts at Macraes gold mine has shocked workers and the fall-out is expected to continue with losses at other firms.

Amalgamated Workers Union New Zealand secretary Calvin Fisher said that last Thursday and Friday, Oceana Gold made about 76 of its open-pit staff redundant, less than two weeks after the cuts were announced as a response to falling gold prices.

''That took place on commencement of shifts over the three shift cycle. People were brought in by bus ... letters were issued and those affected by the decision were bussed off the site.''

This meant ''well over 100 people'', including the 39 Gough Group employees who serviced vehicles at the mine and non-pit staff, had been laid off in the past two weeks.

The number made redundant since last September would be ''up around 150''.

''The speed with which the company prepared a plan surprised a lot of them and they probably didn't see it coming as clearly as they perhaps could have.''

Many senior staff laid off - who felt their experience meant they would keep their jobs - were also surprised at the ''skill mix'' of the people kept on.

The fallout from the cuts would continue as smaller contractors, including engineering firms, fuel companies and the bus company which transported staff to the mine, were forced to lay off staff.

''There is a domino effect and it's impacting on those smaller companies.

''Its significance to the community is enormous.''

The downturn in the mining sector in New Zealand and overseas and the lack of work requiring similar skills in the Otago area - such as large infrastructure projects - meant it would be difficult for the redundant workers to find new jobs.

''The real tragedy of this is that ... the provincial economy for people with these skills has not been going ahead.''

Some staff had told him they regretted not finding work in the mining sector elsewhere in recent years.

''Had they gone, they might have been redundant elsewhere, because there are many thousands of miners out of work in the industry, because of the global drop in commodity prices,'' Mr Fisher said.

He did not blame the company for the job losses and said its plan to ''more or less'' secure jobs for the remaining workforce - which still exceeded 400 - until at least the middle of next year was a good one, given the ''volatility'' of the gold market.

He was also grateful the company accepted voluntary redundancies and that it did the ''right thing'' in terms of the redundancy package for the laid-off staff.

He encouraged laid-off staff to attend a meeting being held this Friday, which would be attended by an employment specialist from Winz.

SGS New Zealand business manager Hugh McMillan said the laboratory testing company, which had 30 staff at Macraes providing a range of services, was yet to make any staff redundant and was waiting to ''see how things unfold''.

RedBull Powder Company Ltd managing director Peter Shapiro, a provider of blasting services to Macraes, said it was ''working through'' the situation with Oceana Gold and could not comment on whether the cuts would affect its staff numbers.

Oceana Gold did not respond to questions yesterday.

BSGR wins battle in corruption probe over Simandou

Mining billionaire Beny Steinmetz’s BSG Resources has received a letter from the French government stating an article published last year by Le Canard, which said the magnate and his company had been part of a coup effort against Guinea’s present leader, was based on fake documents.

BSGR was awarded rights over Guinea’s Simandou, one of the world's largest untapped iron ore deposits, a few days before the death of dictator Lansana Conte, in 2008, after spending more than $160 million exploring the prospect. The article published last year claimed to have accessed the country’s secret service documents, which showed Steinmetz and his firm had been involved in a plan to overthrow current President Alpha Condé.

According to BSRG’s emailed statement, Le Canard's story was “exploited by the Guinean government ahead of legislative elections to undermine BSGR and Mr. Steinmetz,” to the point Guinea’s Minister of Security, Madifing Diane, said the country was in danger and that strings were “being pulled from outside."

In 2010 BSGR sold a controlling half of its concession to Brazil’s Vale (NYSE:VALE) for $2.5 billion.

But after forking over the first half a billion dollars, the Rio de Janeiro-based firm halted payments when Guinea's new president, Alpha Condé, ordered all mining deals signed under his predecessors be re-opened.

Rio Tinto came back in the picture in April 2011, after streaking a deal with the Condé government. It paid $700 million and granted Guinea a 35% stake to resolve all outstanding issues. Now, the world’s No. 2 miner is developing the southern part of the vast mountain deposit with first production from the massive $20 billion project expected by late 2018 at the earliest.

BSGR's role in the Simandou’s rights saga continues to be investigated in the US for potential illegal payments made to Guinean officials and to Mamadie Toure, a wife of the deceased former president Conte, to obtain mining concessions for BSRG in Guinea, as well as the subsequent transfers of those payments into the US.

The outcome of the investigation could influence Guinea's decision on whether to strip BSGR of the rights to develop the northern portion of Simandou.

The sought after iron ore deposits in Guinea are said to have the potential to transform the fortunes of the impoverished West African nation.

Investors pump $60 mn into aluminum can plant in Puerto Rico

Some $60 million was invested in an aluminum can plant in Cidra, Puerto Rico, that will export its products to the United States, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and other countries in the region, investors said.

Caribbean Can Manufacturing Company's plant covers 165,000 sq. meters (1.7 million sq. feet) and created 75 direct jobs, as well as 120 indirect jobs during the construction phase.

The plant produces cans for different beer and soft drink brands, Caribbean Can Manufacturing Company, which is owned by Puerto Rican investors, said in a statement.

The Cidra plant has the capacity to produce 1,800 cans per minute, or about 650 million units annually, Caribbean Can Manufacturing Company said.

The plant will produce cans for the Puerto Rican market, but it will also export aluminum cans to other markets in Latin America and to the United States. EFE

Eldorado Gold plans to build mines in Greece not likely to happen before May

Canada’s Eldorado Gold Corp (TSX:ELD) (NYSE:EGO) said Thursday it doesn’t see its Perama Hill project in Greece to get approval before local elections scheduled for May.

Delivering its 2013 results, the firm said it has reduced capital spending in the project to $25 million, it now expects to begin construction at Perama in late 2014, as opposed to the previously announced July deadline.

Last year the Vancouver-based company mined 721,201 ounces of gold, which represents a 10% increase over 2012 with average cash costs of $494 per ounce.

CEO Paul N. Wright said expected output for this year is between 730,000-800,000 ounce, or 6% more than in 2013.

Recurrent protests

When referring to its larger Skouries project, also in northern Greece, Eldorado Gold said it is set to continue “in full development mode” this year.

The proposed mine has had locals divided since early 2011, when Eldorado Gold’s subsidiary Hellenic Gold received government approval to mine in the northern peninsula.

Some claim the mine will harm tourism and release toxic substances, while others believe the operation is good news for Greece because it will generate new jobs and bring hundreds of millions into the struggling economy.

Local activists said they are concerned for residents' livelihoods as the region where the Canadian miner is planning to open two new mines largely depends on income from tourism, fishing, farming and beekeeping.

"A total of 3,000 hectares of forest has to be cleared for the Skouries mine," Jannis Verginis of the Coordinating Committee of Associations of Stageira-Akanthos Against Gold Mining told Deutsche Welle. "It's pristine forest – and most of it has already been cut."

Eldorado has, however, stated that only 180 hectares will be removed, vowing to replant the Skouries site afterwards.

Based on data posted on the company’s s website, the Skouries mine is expected to open by 2016 and will have a mining life of 27 years.

Eldorado also has mines and projects in Turkey, Romania, China and Brazil.

Tension between DNR, mining company may indicate more conflict to come

Tensions between the Gogebic Taconite mining company and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources rose to new heights last week in a public dispute over how much regulatory authority remains in the agency’s hands under a 2013 law that rolled back environmental restrictions to make iron mining easier.

The company objected to a DNR research document that listed environmental hazards of mining, and it has sharply criticized the extent of agency questions about plans to dig up rock for testing.

But the dispute over what is allowed and what isn’t under the untested mining law may be a preview of what is to come when the company seeks state permission for an open pit mine that would stretch 4 1/2 miles long and 800 feet deep in the forested hills of Iron and Ashland counties.

“All of the tests and modeling we’ve done cost money,” said company spokesman Bob Seitz. “(Some studies cost) tens of thousands of dollars a crack. So this should be about what’s necessary and not what’s wanted to satisfy curiosity.”

DNR officials said they were a little puzzled by a strongly worded letter the company wrote saying the agency was going too far, but they will continue to ask questions that need asking to ensure that the environment is protected and to provide information to the public.

“I was surprised that they took it so hard,” said Ann Coakley, one of the DNR’s key managers for the mine project. “We will always be here with a smile and a ‘How can we help you?’”

Delays

Act 1 of 2013 rewrote the rules for iron mining by imposing deadlines for DNR reviews of permit applications. It also eliminated the need for a full environmental impact statement or a permit for bulk sampling.

But a bulk sampling plan — which will determine some of the machinery needed to extract the ore — is required. Seven months have passed since the company first submitted its initial plan.

Seitz said rounds and rounds of questions from the DNR have delayed the sampling operation. The deadline for deciding if the plan is complete has been extended each time the agency requested more information.

The back-and-forth is documented in letters between the company and the state that are posted on a DNR website. The letters show the longest delay came when the company waited until Nov. 25 to respond to questions the DNR posed on Aug. 13, said DNR project manager Larry Lynch.

Lynch said the initial sampling plan delivered too little detail, even under relaxed provisions of the new law.

Sen. Bob Jauch, a Democrat whose district includes the mine site, said the company is using “bullying” tactics.

“It isn’t the DNR’s fault that Gogebic wrote their first application in crayon and didn’t hire consultants until after filing it,” said Jauch, referring to the company’s original bulk sampling plan.

Gogebic Taconite’s tough tone will backfire if the DNR is forced to deny the company’s final mining permit because the company fails to provide needed data within the new law’s tightened timeline for decision by the state, Jauch said.

Seitz acknowledged that the company has caused some delays, but he said the more important problem is an overzealous DNR.

Requests refused

In a Jan. 8 letter to the DNR that was released last week, company engineer Tim Myers answered most of the DNR’s latest questions but said the law didn’t require him to provide all the information requested on topics including how hazardous sulphide and asbestos-like minerals would be identified and tested.

“The additional information requested in your December 20 letter goes far beyond any additional information that would be needed,” Myers said in the letter.

He described preliminary testing of small quantities of rock that he said found little if any potential for devastating acid drainage from sulfide. And he dismissed UW-Madison laboratory testing that found asbestiform grunerite in a rock from the site. The DNR maintains that the tests confirmed the presence of asbestiform minerals, which is associated with high cancer rates among mine workers. Myers said the tests aren’t valid because they weren’t done by “an experienced person who has compared thousands of fiber analyses.”

Myers refused a DNR request that as soon as bulk sampling is completed the company share documented results of testing to detect sulfides and asbestos-like fibers.

“GTAC will document its bulk sampling findings in any future required filings, such as the environmental impact report” required before a final mining permit is issued, Myers’ letter states. “No other advance filings of the results of the bulk sampling are required.”

Myers pointed out that the 2013 iron mining law eliminated the need for the company to obtain a permit for bulk sampling.

Scientific review

Seitz said a DNR review of scientific literature on iron mining showed bias by some in the agency because the report listed the potential hazards without waiting for the company to fully analyze the mine site.

DNR officials said the 103-page report was compiled by the agency’s science services bureau to brief regulators on peer-reviewed studies of mines. The report describes extensive testing and monitoring that can minimize or prevent damage, for example, from sulfuric acid runoff into streams and from dangerous mercury emissions into the air when ore is processed.

Seitz pointed to a report on the conservative Media Trackers website saying that one of the report’s nine authors, a Northland College geoscience professor, misidentified a rock sample from the mine site.

Tom Fitz has said he found asbestiform grunerite in several spots on the mine site, but last week he conceded he was partially wrong about one sample he sent to a lab at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

Fitz said the lab manager told him the sample wasn’t grunerite.

But Fitz said the rocks he found all contain slender fibers that appear to be asbestiform material, which can occur in minerals other than grunerite that are found around iron deposits.

Fitz, the company and the DNR agree on one thing: More laboratory testing is needed to determine if significant quantities of the fibers are present.

But Seitz and Sen. Tom Tiffany, a Hazelhurst Republican who has championed legislation to help Gogebic Taconite, said Fitz’s involvement with the DNR review of mining research shows the report is biased.

Tiffany said he viewed Gogebic Taconite’s frustration with the DNR as justified. But he said strong disagreements were part of the normal give and take in mine permitting.

Congress slashes SEC’s funding for technology upgrades

Congress snatched away half of the $50 million that the Securities and Exchange Commission had set aside for technology initiatives Thursday, dashing the agency’s hopes ofbeefing up the tools it needs to swiftly spot violations such as illegal trades and accounting fraud.

The decision, included in a ­massive spending bill, was a setback for the Wall Street regulator as it struggles to keep up with a market dominated by high-speed traders and avoid the type of oversight lapses that allowed Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme to go undetected for years.

Technological investments already have helped the agency better protect investors, SEC Chairman Mary Jo White said in a statement Thursday. The sizable cutback “will affect the pace and extent of our continued progress,” White said.

The agency, often bashed for its lack of technological savvy, is one of only two financial regulators that rely on Congress for their annual funding. It has been operating on a tight budget subject to the whims of lawmakers, making it difficult for the regulator to commit to technology projects long term or upgrade existing ones, agency officials have said.

To address those concerns, Congress directed the SEC to set up a $50 million reserve fund for multi-year projects, and the SEC has devoted the money to technology since late 2011.

But this week, when Congress unveiled the government’s spending plan for the year, lawmakers rescinded half of the technology money. They did not offer a reason why, though the agency’s critics have long pressed for ways to cut SEC spending.

Now the regulator must decide how to scale back, at least for this year. Agency officials declined to comment on which initiatives might suffer.

Among the SEC’s most ambitious undertakings is software that streams real-time trade data. The technology enables the SEC to reconstruct market events, a need that became clear after the 2010 “flash crash” in which the Dow Jones industrial average plunged before bouncing back in minutes. It took the SEC four months to unwind the billions of orders that took place that day and determine what happened.

The money for that project came from the $50 million fund, agency officials said.

More recently, the agency began using software that scans the financial statementscompanies file, assesses risk factors and generates a score that identifies outliers within a peer group. The SEC also wants to enhance a system that flags potential insider trading by identifying individuals who trade in unison around certain market events, and another that aims to combat hedge fund fraud by sniffing out unusual fund performance.

Andrew Ceresney, director of the SEC’s enforcement division, said these types of technologies help investigators make connections they may have otherwise missed.

“The technology is of high value,” Ceresney said. “Several insider trading cases that we’re currently investigating were developed because of the technological advances we have recently made.”

Vincent Morris, communications director of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in ­e-mails that the “SEC has as much tech money as it needs” and that the agency’s leaders “should feel confident that they have sufficient revenue to carry out their technology mission.”

Aside from the reserve fund, the agency has other money in the spending bill for ongoing technology expenses, such as computer upgrades. It got short shrift, however, in its overall budget.

It requested $1.67 billion for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 but is receiving $1.35 billion if the budget is enacted. The amount is slightly higher than what the agency received last year, though not close to the level it says it needs to address its top priorities.

The SEC asked for more staff to cope with new responsibilities under the Dodd-Frank Act and another relatively new law designed to help fledgling firms grow. The agency also cited a severe shortage of examiners. Last year, it examined only 9 percent of the 11,000 investment advisers it regulates.

“It is particularly frustrating considering that funding for the SEC does not contribute to the federal deficit,” agency spokesman John Nester said in a statement.

Each year, the agency collects fees from Wall Street that match the funding it gets from Congress, which makes the SEC “deficit neutral.” Many agency commissioners have pushed to have the agency fund itself, as most other financial regulators do, said Larry Harris, a professor at the University of Southern California.

“This has been on the SEC’s wish list from the beginning,” said Harris, former chief economist at the SEC. “But Congress is not about to give up its control.”

NSW gold mine plans to employ 1000 locals

The Hillgrove gold mine will look to employ more than 1000 people from the Armidale area, with plans to restart operations at the site in March.

Bracken Resources paid $30 million to purchase the mine last year, with the site being non-operational since 2009.

Hillgrove Mines chief executive Roger Jackson said with start-up plans ramping up, initially the mine would require 80 people, but these figures are expected to triple by the end of 2014, Armidale Express reported.

Jackson said the mine’s workforce would be based in Armidale and surrounding areas.

“The majority are local and the ones that aren’t will be moving here,” Jackson said.

“There will be no fly-in, fly-out workers except for the odd expert.”

Bracken said it is confident there are 3 million ounces of gold and 300,000 tonnes of antimony at the site, and have spent around $50 million to improve the mine and buy equipment.

“And a lot of that has gone to local contractors,” Jackson said.

“Just in the building phase there has been a lot.

“We say for every 100 people we employ there are actually 400 jobs created.”

While phase two of operations will see a further $30 million spent.

Attempts to reopen the mine were hamstring in the past because of fear of run-off entering the Macleay River catchment.

In July 2010 the former owner of the mine, Straits Resources, was fined $50,000 by NSW Land & Environment Court after being found guilty of polluting waters systems.

However Jackson said Bracken had taken the necessary steps to improve the mine’s environmental procedures, including the full treatment of water using during production.

“The mine has spent considerable money and made a concerted effort in solving any environmental potential issues we may have encountered,” he said.

 “We have introduced some fantastic initiatives relating to the environment in our operations and we are confident the community will appreciate our efforts.”

This includes the introduction of a $ 2 million microfiltration and reverse osmosis plant to treat water used by the mine.