Tungsten, tantalum, tin and gold are four conflict minerals with sizeable production in the Democratic Republic of Congo and surrounding countries.

Fighting in these countries results in 45,000 deaths each month. Conflict minerals fuel and fund the fighting.

Conflict Minerals 3TG infographic by brockthedesigner.

 

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That was the main conclusion of the Canadian Space Commerce Association (CSCA) conference held last week in Toronto.

Arny Sokoloff, the head of the organization, told attendees that mining off the planet would one day become one of the major factors in the development of space.

For him, there is no doubt that space mining will go farther than earth mining, he told Canadian Press, adding that governments should encourage the industry by offering tax benefits similar to those given to mining companies.

Colleagues, such as CEO of Moon Express Bob Richards, shared Sokoloff’s views. The leader of the US based company left Canada for California because he believes that's where the capital is that really supports the risk taking ability which could bring a revolution.

Richards believes space mining will seriously begin within one to three decades.

"What we mine today are just minute remnants that are near the surface. All of this is available in infinite quantities in space", he said.

Geologists believe that asteroids hold iron ore, nickel and precious metals at much higher concentrations than those found on Earth.

What’s more, scientists have said asteroid mining is a necessity as many metals that underpin our modern economy are quickly being depleted.

Without any new technological advances, metals like zinc and gold are expected to run out in 100 years, they claim.

Image by Elenarts/Shutterstock.com

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The Colquiri zinc and tin mine was expropriated from Swiss commodities giant Glencore in June last year following a dispute between rival unions.

During that month the mine's output was 429 tonnes of unrefined tin and zinc.

By December 2012, the monthly production rate from the mine reached only 337 tonnes – that's a 21% drop.

Over the same period, the state-controlled miner increased its workforce from 959 to 1,249 workers, an increase of 30%.

Morales said he was "very surprised" by the disappointing figures and characterized the developments at the mine as "worrying," but mentioned nationalization success stories in other sectors in the country, South America's poorest.

At the time the mine was seized Glencore said it had been planning $56 million of investment at Colquiri.

Youtube  image of Morales March 2012

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Without any new technological advances, metals like zinc and gold are expected to run out in 100 years.

by Neomam. Learn about infographics software.

 

 

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Indonesia is currently the world’s largest exporter of tin and thermal coal as well as the biggest producer of mined nickel. But, according to the article, the cost the country is paying is way higher than the benefits it gets, as the tin industry in particular “has wrecked the environment and claimed dozens of lives every year.”

Experts believe there is hope for a better future after the announced changes to Indonesia’s mining legislation. On Thursday, the country’s Constitutional Court gave greater power to local administrations to assign areas for mineral extraction and exploitation, by modifying some articles in the 2009 Mining Law.

The ruling will make local administrations consult with the parliament in deciding areas for mining, which will increase regulation on the industry.

Indonesia's reputation as a foreign investment has worsened considerably this year, with a wave of resource nationalism leading the government to forcibly seize majority stakes in mining sector joint ventures.

Read The Guardian’s article: “Death metal: tin mining in Indonesia” >> >>

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Mines Minister, Martin Kabwelulu, announced last month that a proposed reform of the country's mining code would seek to raise the state owned stakes from the current 5% to 35% or more.

The proposal, reported by Bloomberg News, upset foreign miners with operations in the central African nation and had to be later clarified by the authorities. In an interview with Reuters, Kabwelulu said the DRC government would not apply the mining code changes, if implemented, retroactively.

Mining controversy is not foreign to the DRC.

Last June Kabwelulu went on the defensive about allegedly granting mining licenses to companies with close connections to the government, qualifying those accusations as uninformed and a “double standard.”

He said that the government had not benefited some firms over others, as a report from Global Witness exposed.

According to that organization, Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (LON:ENRC), one of the largest mining groups listed on the London’s stock exchange, acquired stakes in mining concessions at prices that delivered considerable – and quick – profits to an Israeli businessman with links to the DRC government.

The country’s resource sector had already been thrown into turmoil in February with the death of the country's go-to mining guy.

Congo is the world’s number one cobalt producer and it also holds vast deposits of diamonds, copper, tin and gold.

The DRC is the sixth largest producer of diamonds behind No. 1-ranked Botswana and followed in descending order by Russia, Australia, Canada and South Africa according to 2009 figures by Geology.com. The country produced 5.2 million carats that year, compared to Botswana's 32 million.

The nation is among a number of developing countries trying to increase revenue from their mineral wealth by increasing taxes and the state's share in profits.

Image: A Congolese girl concentrates on her assignment © UNESCO/M. Hofer, via EFA Report

RELATED:

If you think Congo is unstable now watch what happens when you throw oil into the mix >> >>

Death of DRC mining go-to guy will reshape country's resource sector >>

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"We are signing an agreement that I think is historic, because it's ending one of the most significant and complicated conflicts that we've had to deal with in the last few years," he told local reporters, as quoted by Emol.com.

The dispute, which rocked the country for months and cost it over $1 million, centred around the right to a mine that used to belong to commodity trader Glencore (LON:GLEN) but was nationalized by President Evo Morales last June.

Months of demonstrations and riots over Colquiri paralyzed parts of the South American country for days at a time, cutting off access routes to the capital city La Paz.

Thanks to the agreement, the Rosario vein at the Colquiri mine, located about 160km south of La Paz, will now be split into seven smaller sections, and miners from both sides will be able to exploit Colquiri for minerals.

While the settlement resolves the immediate differences by dividing the disputed vein more equitably between the parties, the events at Colquiri reveal the broader conflicts and paradoxes within Bolivia’s mining sector and the historical forces that have shaped them.

To avoid further conflict, expert say, Morales needs to formulate a clear policy, in the form of a mining code, that defines the respective roles and opportunities of each component of the mining sector.

The task, which has been stuck for some time by the inability to reconcile competing interests, represents a major political challenge for Morales. Losing the support from either the cooperative or the salaried mining sector could have serious effects in the President’s political future.

Morales has raised taxes and nationalized the key natural gas industry as well as the telecommunications and electricity sectors, since taking power in 2006. Earlier this year, Bolivia also took over assets from Spain’s Red Eléctrica Corp. (REE) and Pan American Energy LLC.

Image: Colquiri miners march in La Paz/ La Razón.com

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Reuters reports that the miners from the Colquiri tin mine threw rocks and sticks of dynamite at each other in the Bolivian capital of La Paz on Tuesday for over an hour.

According to witnesses thousands of independent miners stormed La Paz in the early afternoon and tossed dynamite at groups of unionized miners standing guard in front of the Miners' Federation labor organization.

Unionized and independent miners have been fighting since the seizure of the mine from Swiss commodities giant Glencore (LSX:GLEN) in June by leftist president Evo Morales, with the dispute centering on who has the right to exploit the mine's richest deposits.

The Morales government claimed that nationalization of the mine would enable it to quash disputes between both the mine owners and workers, as well as amongst the miners themselves.

The government has since failed to make good on its promise, with the ongoing violence reportedly costing the country's mining sector $200,000 a day.

Unionized workers now demand that Morales expel independent miners from Colquiri, who are currently working on a section of the site in accordance with an agreement brokered by the government in June.

RELATED:

Nationalization is no help ending a mine fight in Bolivia

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The three were later released La Razon reports.

Commodities giant Glencore operates and holds a 45% stake in the Potusi mine and four others in the South American nation under an August deal with Comibol, which owns the remaining 55%.

Glencore's Sinchi Wayra subsidiary in Bolivia were outright owners of the five mines, but after about 1,000 miners seized control of the Swiss-based company's flagship Colquiri silver and tin mining operations following violent clashes a new "partnership agreement" was signed.

Bolivia has nationalized a string of assets in the energy and mining industries since President Evo Morales (pictured) took office in 2006 including Glencore's zinc and antimony smelters which prompted the company to suspend any new investment in the country.

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According to the country’s Mining National Corporation (Comibol), the dispute between miners and contractors over rights to exploit Colquiri's Rosario vein will cost the country $200,000 a day from now on, adding to the already hefty loss figure reported local media Wednesday.

Comibol took over Colquiri after Bolivia’s leftist government seized Colquiri tin and zinc mine, revoking the mining licence of Sinchi Wayra—a wholly owned subsidiary of Glencore—after mining co-operatives and indigenous groups fought to take over the mine by force.

The move, told by Morales to be the best way of ending a long dispute between the global commodities giant and its workers and among the miners themselves, has not solved any conflicts so far. What’s more, the increasing violence and disagreement might force the government to exclude unions from running the mine, told to Radio Bolivia Net the Minister of Mines, Mario Virreira.

Morales has raised taxes and nationalized the key natural gas industry as well as the telecommunications and electricity sectors, since taking power in 2006. Earlier this year, Bolivia took over assets from Spain’s Red Eléctrica Corp. (REE) and Pan American Energy LLC.

Image by Pedro Rufo / Shutterstock.com

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BusinessWeek profiles the horrific conditions in Indonesian tin mines, where largely destitute miners extract ore with shovels and picks.

Bangka Island and its sister island Belitungwhich produce one-third of the world's supply of tin, a commodity that is playing a key part in the electronics used in tablets and phones:

Only a few hours earlier, Johidi had been working with two older men in a deep tin pit along a mud road a couple of miles behind the village. The pit began to cave in, the commander says, using the Indonesian word longsor—"landslide." The two older miners bolted away from the cascading mud, while Johidi, apparently confused, ran toward it, the commander says. It took three hours, about 50 villagers, and two excavators to uncover Johidi’s body from beneath 16 feet of dirt. When their search was finished, rescue party members mounted their motorbikes or climbed into the few vehicles parked on the edge of the mining site. Under a tropical downpour, they formed a long procession and streamed toward the village along the wet road. Up front was a black Suzuki flatbed truck carrying Johidi in the back, cradled in the arms of a villager.

Read more>>

Tin miners on Bangka Island from the 1940s from Tropenmuseum.

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Reuters reports LME's warehousing operations "have been dogged by controversy since big banks and trading houses including Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase bought warehousing operations."

LME regulations allow firms to release "a fraction of their inventories each day, leading to long queues to collect metal," but will now mandate new daily out-flow rates for nickel and tin.

LME shareholders last week approved the Hong Kong’s stock exchange operator's $2.2 billion offer marking a new era in the 135-year old exchange which handles some 80% of global trade in metals futures.

Warehouse levels of copper has been a particular point of contention with the re-emergence of a dominant market player in copper stocks that could squeeze the market just as it did in April.

Earlier in the year an "entity took control of up to 90 percent of cash contracts and inventories on the LME, facing off against Chinese market participants who were caught with short positions".

That entity was widely believed to be Swiss commodities trading giant Glencore.

LME copper stocks had fallen dramatically since the start of the year and have not improved significantly since hitting the lowest levels since the 2008 recession during the northern hemisphere spring.

The copper price is also at or near backwardation – tocks for delivery in three months are cheaper than cash copper for immediate delivery– as was the case in April.

Copper futures were trending higher on Wednesday with three-month copper trading down a fraction at $7,581 a tonne. Today's levels are well within marginal costs which for copper producers are in the $6,000 – $7,000 a tonne range or roughly $2.75 – $3.15 a pound.

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The regulations, introduced in December 2010, would require companies to report to the SEC each year whether they use tantalum, tin, gold or tungsten in the DRC. It also would require them to disclose payments made to overseas governments to develop natural gas.

The agency will also consider a rule required by the 2012 JOBS Act lifting advertising restrictions on some companies going public.

The SEC has been under pressure from Democrats to act on the measures, as shows a June 22 letter to the SEC from House representatives:

Conflict minerals and non-transparent payments for natural resource extraction continue to be a weight on developing nations’ growth and are a risk to investors and the public. Worse, continued delay undermines efforts in the DRC to make the mining industry more transparent and to diminish the link between minerals and the funding of brutal violence carried out by warlords.

Groups including the National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Retail Industry Leaders Association have expressed concern about the rules. They believe they would accumulate burdens on companies trying to meet the requirements, while doing little to actually lessen woes in the DRC.

International watchdog Oxfam even sued the SEC in May over the delay in implementing the rule.  The so-called Dodd-Frank Act said should have be completed by April 16, 2011.

The polemic rules are available here

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According to Terra.com, President Evo Morales resolved to nationalize the Colquiri mine to end a long dispute between the global commodities giant and its workers. The decree said the government will only pay Glencore's local subsidiary, Sinchi Wayra,  a nominal amount for the machinery and belongings stored there, but nor for any debts the company has.

With the presidential ruling, the control of the deposit goes back to the State mining company Comibol which sold off Colquiri in 2002, which was then acquired by Glencore in 2005 from former president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada.

Morales has raised taxes and nationalized the key natural gas industry as well as the telecommunications and electricity sectors, since taking power in 2006. Earlier this year, Bolivia took over assets from Spain’s Red Eléctrica Corp. (REE) and Pan American Energy LLC.

Last week, hundreds of police and soldiers were sent to Colquiri following violent fights between rival miners. It is believed that the battle began when Glencore workers tried to forcefully take back control of the mine from a rival state-based company.

There is history behind the fighting seen at the Colquiri mine.  Six years ago similar circumstances saw violence break out over access to the state-controlled Huanuni mine.  The clash ended in the death of 17 people.

Bolivia is a current hot spot for investors as President Morales has been in consultation with local leaders to allow the extraction of resources originally thought to be untouchable.

Read more on Bolivia's decision to allow foreign companies access >>.

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Yesterday, in a report to Bloomberg, Bolivian Mining Minister Mario Virreira said "the government intends to revoke a lease granted to Glencore International AG to operate a tin and zinc mine."  The move names Comibol, the state mining company, as the new operator.

Recently the Bolivian government under President Evo Morales, has been making the case for greater state control of many of the country's mineral and energy commodities.  It is believed that the violence began when Glencore workers tried to forcefully take back control of the mine from a rival state-based company.

There is history behind the fighting seen at the Colquiri mine.  Six years ago similar circumstances saw violence break out over access to the state-controlled Huanuni mine.  The clash ended in the death of 17 people.

Bolivia is a current hot spot for investors as President Morales has been in consultation with local leaders to allow the extraction of resources originally thought to be untouchable.

Read more on Bolivia's decision to allow foreign companies access.

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