Editorial: Whither gold?
Gold is a wonderful symbol of indestructible beauty, but all kinds of gold investment strategies have been going down in flames this year.
Editorial
Editorial: Brunswick takes its final bow
The iconic symbol of mining in the Maritime provinces, the Brunswick zinc-lead mine in northern New Brunswick’s Bathurst camp, is ceasing mining operations this month after 48 years and four different owners.
Editorial: Anglo CEO presses ‘eject’ button
Late October was notable for the sudden and unexpected resignation of Cynthia Carroll as CEO of London-based mega-miner Anglo American, widely seen as a giving in to strong shareholder pressure to step down. It brings to an end this particular…
This industry’s ‘ripe for consolidation’
Pierre Lassonde built his remarkably successful career on gold, as cofounder and chairman of gold royalty powerhouse Franco-Nevada, a former CEO of Newmont Mining, a past chairman of the World…
Editorial: Iron ore market gets anemic
Unto everything there is a season; a time to hustle and sell off your vast, frozen iron ore assets in remote parts of the country to foreigners from the tropics, and a time to throttle back production at actual iron ore mines in Canada’s…
Editorial: SA police fire on Lonmin strikers
It’s the kind of incident long feared since the end of apartheid in South Africa: members of the South African Police Service opened fire on striking workers at Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mine in North West province on Aug. 16,…
Editorial: Atleo keeps his crown
Every once in a while, by a cosmic long shot, the meek really do inherit the Earth. What’s unsaid is that they’re never so meek again once they’ve taken the reins of power.Amid increasing calls for his ouster, Shawn Atleo…
Editorial: Fleece Navidad
At the halfway mark of the year, the political difficulties are starting to pile up for North American and European explorers and miners operating in several Latin American countries. But front and centre these days is Argentina, with its rich…
Editorial: Putting the Lie in Libor
Have you ever felt the whole game was rigged? Well, there’s some justification for that feeling, as the month of June closed out with British banking giant Barclays doing the perp walk and agreeing to pay out a relatively miniscule US$453…
Editorial: Stainless steel turns 100
Looking for an excuse to celebrate something in mining? Look no further than the one-hundredth anniversary of the invention of stainless steel — that wonderfully shiny, hard, corrosion-resistant alloy that’s one building block of a…
Editorial: Blood diamond victims get some justice
Another sad chapter in Africa’s modern history has come to a close. The former Liberian President Charles Taylor was convicted by the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague of aiding and abetting war crimes in…
Questions, but no answers (yet)
These are interesting times for an industry that is still recovering from the Great Recession. BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto announced in recent months that they’re looking to leave the…