IKN

IKN684 has just been sent to subscribers. Politics, politics, politics…ugh.

A pity they only interviewed Ben Mossman, it seems Lawrence Lepard only likes Twitter and wasn’t there to add his dos centavitos. Anyway, here’s the link so go enjoy the whole thing, a long form report that goes into the pros and cons. The reporter does a good job, personally I liked this bit:

Before coming to Grass Valley, Mossman was the president and chief executive of a company called Banks Island Gold.

It ran the Yellow Giant gold mine on remote Banks Island off the coast of British Columbia, on the traditional land of the Indigenous Gitxaala Nation — which long opposed the mine due to potential pollution.

Mossman started mining there in 2014. But after he received complaints, provincial inspectors showed up the next year and found that his company was releasing mine waste and contaminated water into creeks, ponds and wetlands.

In July 2015, the British Columbia government shut down the mine. Mossman’s company declared bankruptcy a few months later.

The government confiscated the company’s $420,000 reclamation security — essentially a security deposit — and has spent about $250,000 to remove explosives and hazardous materials, develop a final cleanup plan, and monitor water quality, the British Columbia Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation told The Times.

Mossman and his chief geologist are currently on trial in British Columbia on nine federal and 20 provincial charges related to spills at the mine, a spokesman for the British Columbia Prosecution Service said.

The trial began this week, the spokesman said.

Mossman declined to comment on the case.

Your author is a massive fanboy:

As for Maurice Ravel’s composition, this showed up after five minutes inside the Googlemachine, here’s an excerpt:

“…far from being about death, Ravel stated that ‘When I put together the words that make up this title, my only thought was the pleasure of alliteration’. While it’s literally true that the French should be translated as ‘Pavane for a dead Princess’, Ravel was at pains to point out that it ‘Is not a funeral lament for a dead child, but rather an evocation of the pavane that might have been danced by such a little princess as painted by Velázquez’.“

Which is nice. Relax into the weekend in the hands of the magical Ms. Ott, the YouTube is here.

Fact: Chile is a sovereign state, it gets to be the country it wants to be, we on the outside respect that.

Fact: Chile has been the pre-eminent mining jurisdiction in Latin America for decades, in fact one of the most mining-friendly countries in the world, with clearly established rules and legislation that allows fair treatment for all sides.

Op-Ed: If Chile wants to change its status as a country that welcomes and benefits from mining, it can do so. When Chile’s environmental body, the Servicio de Evaluación Ambiental (SEA), recommended against the permitting of Anglo’s Los Bronces mine recently, it caused plenty of debate and grumbles in the wider mining circles outside of Anglo itself. However it was one case, arguably an isolated one with its own issues and ultimately, not enough evidence to suggest that the country’s mining industry was about to be stymied by the arrival of more radically green leadership in a specific and key government bureau. However, the decision taken by SEA on June 22nd regarding the Fenix project owned by Rio2 Ltd (RIO.v) now paints the SEA in a different light.

We know that mining causes environmental impact. In fact all human activity changes the circumstances of the environment, but mining’s impact can be highly negative if not controlled and therefore, rules and regulations are in place to control said impact. It is, at the most obvious and basic level, why companies need to apply for and obtain permits to operate mines. The impact of mining is never zero, the rules are there to mitigate and not eliminate the changes (or “damage” if you must) and are a trade-off against the benefits that the mine operation or project offer. In the case of Rio2 Ltd (RIO.v) at Fenix, the company has checked the boxes and been given the thumbs-up for all the major environmental issues regarding the project, including air quality, water use, land change, building, noise contamination and the list goes on. This case is not about the potential for air quality contamination that would potentially affect nearby towns and the lungs of people or animals as at Los Bronces, here we are talking about the only location around the project where 19 chinchilla chinchilla were spotted and studied, a kilometre or so to the West. The SEA agrees that these animals will not be unduly disturbed by the project, but in its wisdom has decided that RIO.v now needs to study a different area 500m or so closer to the project to see if there are more animals living there and if so, would they lose the vegetation they feed upon if the project went ahead.

And that’s fair enough! As stated, if Chile wants to stop this project from going ahead for this reason, as well as concerns that a migratory route for six vicuña may be partially blocked by the company’s planned construction in nearby valley, then Chile has the right to do that. However, the country cannot have its cake and eat it because if this project is red-lighted by Chile’s Council of Ministers on July 1st for these reasons, the mining industry will receive the message loud and clear; “You new guys are going to stop our projects from going ahead and you’ll find an excuse to stop them, no matter what.”

As stated yesterday, Rio2 at Fenix is a small junior mining company with a modest project in mining terms, certainly nowhere near the impact produced by any world-class porphyry copper project of the type constructed and operated by BHP, Anglo American, Rio Tinto or any of the other big-name, multi-billion dollar world mining concerns. However, be in no doubt that all the majors working in Chile are watching this case like hawks because from out of nowhere (or left-field, if you’ll pardon the pun) it has become a test-case that will measure the real intent of the Boric government toward the industry, actions speak louder than words. With the greatest respect to that small family of chinchilla chinchilla who live next to the Rio2 Fenix project area, if Chile is willing to knock back a project that’s been elaborated to the highest standards and passes all other environmental measures for this small reason, it will stop any project from going forward. The bottom line is that on July 1st, Chile under Gabriel Boric decides whether it wants to retain its mantle as the top LatAm mining country.

Here’s the NR, here’s the info:

“…entered into an agency agreement in connection with the marketed offering (the “Offering”) of 434,000,000 common shares of the Company (“Common Shares”, and Common Shares offered pursuant to the Offering being the “Offered Shares”) at a price of C$0.45 per Offered Share (for gross proceeds of approximately C$195 million) with a syndicate of…”

And…

Together with the previously announced …. total debt Facilities limit of US$250 million, the Company believes it is fully financed to complete the construction of its 100% owned Magino Project in Ontario, Canada. The project remains on schedule for first gold pour by the end of March 2023.

Absolutely scandalous.