Gold mine collapse in Venezuela kills dozen people
First Quantum requests access to Cobre Panamá copper mine to ensure environmental stability
Lifezone Metals updates mineral resource for Kabanga nickel project
China’s CMOC says geopolitics helped drive Australia sale
Rescuers pull out first survivor of Zambia landslide that trapped 38 miners
Colombia, Brazil destroy illegal gold dredges in Amazon rainforest
Gold mine collapse in Venezuela kills dozen people
The collapse of an artisanal gold mine in southeastern Venezuela near an Indigenous community killed at least 12 people, the government announced on Sunday.
A landslide on Wednesday buried the Paraiba de San Jose de Wadamapa mine near the town of Icabaru in Venezuela’s Bolivar state, close to the country’s border with Brazil.
Amid Venezuela’s prolonged economic collapse, informal mining operations have flourished in remote, mineral-rich areas of the country, where thousands of miners work to extract lucrative metals, especially gold, in unsafe conditions.
The accident-prone mines are run with little or no oversight from authorities, though the government often processes the gold into bars for its own use.
Venezuela’s Indigenous communities have a complex relationship with gold mining, which can provide an economic lifeline but also cause deforestation, mercury contamination and divert streams and rivers.
In November, local non-governmental organization SOS Orinoco reported a previous landslide at the same mine.
First Quantum requests access to Cobre Panamá copper mine to ensure environmental stability
First Quantum Minerals’ (TSX: FM) subsidiary issued a media statement this weekend requesting access to the Cobre Panamá copper mine to maintain the environmental stability of the site located to the north of the Central American country, 20 kilometres from the Caribbean Sea.
Aerial view of Cobre Panama’s flotation tanks.
In the brief, Minera Panamá notes that, following an order by Panama’s Trade and Industry Ministry (MICI) to end operations, work at Cobre Panamá has ceased but the mine remains under care and maintenance. However, ongoing blockades of the access roads to both the mine and the Punta Rincón international port have prevented the delivery of equipment and supplies necessary to fulfill what the miner calls ‘environmental stability and asset integrity measures.’
“Without these supplies, site environmental management will soon become increasingly difficult and could result in potentially significant environmental effects,” the communiqué states.
Minera Panamá noted that in its December 6 order to cease operations, the Trade and Industry Ministry demanded that the company take the necessary measures to ensure that the facilities remained safe and protected to avoid environmental damage, as well as to prevent other losses or damages in the mining area.
Lifezone Metals updates mineral resource for Kabanga nickel project
Lifezone Metals (NYSE: LZM), which is 17% owned by BHP (NYSE: BHP; LSE: BHP; ASX: BHP), announced on Thursday a mineral resource update for the Kabanga nickel project in northwest Tanzania.
Kabanga project site.
The company reported attributable measured and indicated resources totalling 43.6 million tonnes grading 2.02% nickel, 0.28% copper and 0.16% cobalt (2.57% nickel-equivalent). That represents a 69% increase relative to the February 2023 mineral resource estimate.
Attributable inferred resources totalled 17.5 million tonnes grading 2.23% nickel, 0.31% copper and 0.16% cobalt (2.79% nickel-equivalent).
According to Lifezone, around 71% of Kabanga’s resource tonnage is now classified in the higher-confidence measured and indicated categories relative to inferred.
The Kabanga project is believed to be one of the world’s largest and highest-grade undeveloped nickel sulphide deposits.
China’s CMOC says geopolitics helped drive Australia sale
Chinese copper and cobalt miner CMOC Group Ltd., which sold a controlling stake in its Northparkes mine in Australia earlier this week, said a changing geopolitical situation was one of the reasons for the divestment.
A media representative for the company — confirming comments made by a CMOC official to local media on the sale — said those shifts and a challenging outlook meant it was unlikely to expand its operations in Australia, which ultimately limited future synergies.
Beijing’s relationship with the US and its allies has been fraying, with Washington attempting to build supply chains for ingredients crucial to the energy transition to lessen reliance on China. Australia and Canada have also taken measures to limit Chinese participation in their resources sector.
“Western governments have woken up to the risk that their supply chains of critical minerals could be cut off, or severely squeezed if China dominates supply,” said Grant Sporre, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. That means “a tougher environment for further acquisitions,” especially in developed nations, he said.
CMOC, based in Luoyang in Henan province, agreed earlier this week to sell its 80% stake in the Northparkes copper and gold mine to Australian competitor Evolution Mining Ltd. for $475 million.
Rescuers pull out first survivor of Zambia landslide that trapped 38 miners
Small-scale miners in Zambia
Rescue workers in Zambia have pulled out the first survivor of a Dec. 1 landslide that inundated an open-pit copper mine and trapped at least 38 people who were working there without a permit, the disaster management unit said on Wednesday.
The rescue team also retrieved two bodies, which were yet to be identified, the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit said in a statement posted on Facebook.
“A 49-year-old man has been rescued from the collapsed mine slug dump site in Chingola after being trapped with several other miners,” it said, adding that he was being treated in hospital.
Zambia’s president Hakainde Hichilema said on Tuesday he was still hopeful that the trapped miners were alive, as rescue efforts continued.
The miners at Seseli Mine in Chingola, about 400 km (250 miles) northwest of Lusaka, were trapped in three locations and heavy rains had flooded the pit, the government said.
The mine was previously owned by Vedanta’s Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) but is now in the hands of a local company that is yet to start mining operations as it awaits safety and environmental approvals.
It was still not clear how many miners had been trapped but Mines Minister Paul Kabuswe said on Monday 25 families had so far come forward to report missing relatives who were working when the accident happened.
Colombia, Brazil destroy illegal gold dredges in Amazon rainforest
BOGOTA, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Colombia and Brazil destroyed 19 illegal gold mining dredges in the Amazon rainforest which were producing about $1.5 million of the precious metal a month and polluting rivers with mercury, Colombia's armed forces said on Wednesday.
A Colombian Air Force helicopter flies over an illegal mining site for gold extraction during a joint operation between Colombian and Brazilian authorities in the Amazon jungles
Monthly production at the illegal mining operation was 23 kilograms (50.71 lb), Colombian authorities said.
The U.S.-backed bilateral operation targeted the infrastructure of the transnational criminal group Familia del Norte, whose illicit gold mining dumped 114,000 grams of mercury and polluted 68 million liters (18 million gallons) of water every month, according to authorities.
The operation "became a source of financing for weapons and explosives and the acquisition of chemical inputs by the criminal structure known as the Familia del Norte," Colombia's armed forces said in a press release.
Brazil and Colombia are two of the world's most biodiverse nations, with swathes of their landmass covered by the Amazon rainforest, which scientists say is vital to slowing down climate change because of the huge amounts of greenhouse gases it absorbs.
