E.C.
Not for nuttin ....
but based on a quickie ....
these guys are poking around with tungsten ...
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South Korea ....
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Oriental Minerals Initial Drill Results From Sangdong
VANCOUVER, BC -- (MARKET WIRE) -- March 01, 2007 -- Oriental Minerals Inc. (TSX-V: OTL) is very pleased to announce the drill results received from the Company's first drill hole at the Sangdong tungsten-molybdenum project in South Korea. Highlights from SD-01 include an interval grading 2.37% tungsten oxide (WO3), 0.12% molybdenum with 0.34 g/t gold, 0.02% tin and 0.15% bismuth over 6 metres. The initial results indicate mineralization disseminated much more broadly than reported historically and with significant grades occurring almost 70 metres closer to surface than the old mine workings. This has very significant implications, both in terms of the amount of mineralization and the choice of a future mining method as this former tungsten mine continues to be assessed by Oriental Minerals. Other significant results from the upper portion of hole SD-01 include:
TABLE
marketwire.com
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Where the Yukon?
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Largo Begins Scoping Study at Northern Dancer Project, Yukon
Study will evaluate various grade and tonnage scenarios to optimize project capital costs and overall project economics
By: Marketwire .
Feb. 20, 2007 09:05 PM
Canada
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 02/20/07 -- Largo Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE: LGO) (Largo) is pleased to announce that it has appointed Snowden Mining Industry Consultants Inc. (Snowden), a well known international mining and geological consulting group, to conduct a Scoping Study on its Northern Dancer tungsten-molybdenum deposit in Yukon Territory. The work emanating from this project will culminate in a technical report that is compliant with National Instrument 43-101.
sys-con.com
MARCH 14, 2007 - 09:00 ET Show Text
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Canada ?
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North American Tungsten Corporation Ltd.: NI 43-101 Compliant Mineral Resource Estimate for the Mactung Project
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(CCNMatthews - March 14, 2007) - North American Tungsten Corporation Ltd. (the "Company" or "NATC") (TSX VENTURE:NTC) is pleased to announce the completion by Scott Wilson RPA of a new mineral resource evaluation of its Mactung Project in compliance with National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101").
ccnmatthews.com
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BC?
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Attention Business Editors:
Jasper Mining Corporation mobilizes on to Erie Creek property
Trading Symbol: JSP (TSX-V)
CALGARY, Feb. 16 /CNW/ - Jasper Mining Corporation (the "Company") has
commenced mobilizing on to its 100% owned Erie Creek property located north of
Salmo and south of Nelson, in southeastern British Columbia. The property
comprises a total of 4,340 ha (10,727 acres), extending 10.3 kilometres
north-south by 7.3 kilometres east-west, consisting of 13 contiguous mineral
tenures over an area of approximately 70 square kilometres.
cnw.ca
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New Mexico
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Galway files new N.I. 43-101 report with new resource estimate for the Victorio Molybdenum Project
ELKO, NV, March 14 /CNW/ - Galway Resources Ltd. (GWY: TSX-V) ("Galway"
or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has filed a National
Instrument Technical Report and resource estimate (NI 43-101) prepared by SRK
Consulting (U.S.) Inc., an independent consulting firm. The Victorio
molybdenum-tungsten project is located approximately 20 miles west of Deming,
New Mexico in Luna County with very favorable infrastructure that includes
accessible power, natural gas, along with a nearby railway.
cnw.ca
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BC
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FEBRUARY 27, 2007 - 09:30 ET
Sultan Minerals Resumes Drilling to Expand Jersey Emerald Resource
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(CCNMatthews - Feb. 27, 2007) - Sultan Minerals Inc. (TSX VENTURE:SUL)(FRANKFURT:RZN) ("Sultan" or the "Company") is pleased to report that the planned 2007 underground drilling program has begun at its Jersey-Emerald Property near Salmo, B.C. The program, comprised of up to 14,000 feet (4,200 metres) of NQ-2 diamond drilling, is designed to expand the tungsten and molybdenum zones reported in the 43-101 compliant, Initial Resource Estimate on November 8, 2006. Drilling is being carried out from the historic Jersey Lead-Zinc Mine workings in order to penetrate and delineate the underlying tungsten and molybdenum bearing horizons.
The Jersey-Emerald property is host to the historic Jersey Lead-Zinc Mine, British Columbia's second largest lead-zinc producer and the former Emerald Tungsten Mine, Canada's second largest tungsten mine. Both mines were closed in 1973 due to low commodity prices. The initial resource evaluation released in November 2006 shows there is a remaining drilled out tungsten resource that compares favourably with the published reserves of the western world's three largest tungsten mines.
The report shows that at a cut-off grade of 0.15% WO3 there remains a measured plus indicated tungsten resource of 2,510,000 tons averaging 0.37% WO3 with an additional inferred resource of 1,210,000 tons averaging 0.40% WO3. The resource evaluation also reported an inferred resource of 481,000 tons averaging 0.103% Mo in the recently discovered Dodger Molybdenum zone. The study shows that both the tungsten and molybdenum resources may be significantly expanded with additional diamond drilling in both the historically mined areas and the surrounding terrain.
ccnmatthews.com
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My favorite place - Peru
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Attention Business/Financial Editors:
Dynacor invests US $2 million for the exploration on the Huayllapon sector of the Pasto Bueno tungsten property
Symbol: DYN
Toronto Stock Exchange
MONTREAL, March 5 /CNW Telbec/ - Based on new sampling results from
levels 3 and 4 of the Huayllapon sector, Dynacor is pleased to announce that
it will intensify the exploration on this sector of the Pasto Bueno tungsten
property, in Peru. This sector is located approximately 2 km east of the
Huaura sector, already in production.
A first series of sampling results, taken in November 2006 from a drift
on level 6, confirmed an average width of 1.54 m at 1.07% WO3 over 17 samples,
representing 44 of the accessible 102 metres of the Chabuca vein (see press
release dated November 15, 2006).
cnw.ca
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To Hanks Point
knuckles and fingernails ...
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Nationalization and Neglect: Unregulated Mining in Rural Bolivia
Written by Julia McDowell
Tuesday, 06 March 2007
In the rural municipality of San Antonio de Lomerío, in the eastern department of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, farmers are trading their usual day of rest, Sunday, for more work. Instead of the usual cultivation of yucca and corn, however, the farmers extract Tungsten from a hillside mine with no safety or environmental protections.
Run by a private concessionaire from the city of Santa Cruz, the Lomerío mine is one of many unregulated private mines found throughout Bolivia and neglected by President Evo Morales’s mining plan. Lomerío is legally titled as a Communal Territory of Origin (TCO), a denomination reserved for indigenous nations and created by the National Institute of Agrarian Reform Law in 1996. The law was designed in part to incorporate indigenous systems of land holding into the institution of private property, and it recognized the communal lands and traditional territories of indigenous nations as independent entities for the first time. In congruence with tradition and the law, the TCO is administered by the Indigenous Union of Original Communities of Lomerío (CICOL), composed of caciques, or chiefs. The Caciques are chosen by community members in a grand assembly to oversee community justice and head decision-making processes on issues of communal importance.
One of the defining factors of the TCO of Lomerío is the communal ownership of land. Land meaning soil, that is, for agricultural use. Under Bolivian law, subsoil is the property of the state to be rented to concessionaires. Past government efforts to attract foreign investors have made obtaining a mining concession as simple as paying a fee. According to Mario Velasco, Chief of the Environmental Unit at the Ministry of Mining and Metallurgy, an environmental license, is issued to concessionaires after one year. The license requires compliance with health and pollution regulations. However, the concessionaires in Lomerío have operated for two years and have yet to present any environmental license, as is often the case in remote rural areas where there is little central government presence.
While the mining legislation backs the concessionaires’ rights to subsoil access, over the past two decades the growing indigenous and peasant movements of Bolivia have encouraged communities to protect their territory and often physically block outside parties from entering. Thus, while in the past some miners exploited the remote areas of Lomerío clandestinely, even the legal concessionaires did not enter the areas close to Chiquitano communities, for fear of reprisals. Finally, however, the economic needs of the communities outweighed the environmental damage of mining, and the Chiquitanos pushed their leaders to negotiate with the eager mining companies. Mariano Choré, Chief of Economy at CICOL, explains, "we did not let the concessionaires enter for years . . . but finally we thought, when are we going to take advantage of our resources? There are a lot of needs to be met."
When CICOL finally struck an informal deal with the Santa Cruz based concessionaire Puerta del Sol, they were not sure of the market value of their Tungsten and accepted the concessionaire’s offer of seven dollars per kg. Lucky for the community, Velasco explains, "It is really the highest price possible for this type of artisanal [unmechanized] mining." Tungsten sells for $10-12 in the city of Oruro, where many of Bolivia’s buyers and refineries are located. Other rural communities have not been so lucky, and have been cheated out of their mineral deposits for a pittance. Because the quantity extracted is so small and the process so inefficient, it will be difficult to improve the incomes of the Chiquitano miners until the process is industrialized and more vehicles and machinery enter the premises, something CICOL and many locals do not want.
The municipality of San Antonio de Lomerío is trying to take steps to hold the concessionaire accountable, something that could cause conflict with the locals, whose need for greater income trumps many other concerns. The municipality as a political structure is often mistrusted by indigenous people, not only because it is a foreign form of governance that excludes both indigenous leaders and traditional forms of decision making, but also because it has a history of corruption and is often run by mestizo or white Bolivians who do not have the best interest of indigenous residents in mind. Several years ago, San Antonio de Lomerío successfully petitioned to separate from the larger municipality of Concepción to become an independent indigenous municipality, where the municipal officials come from the almost exclusively Chiquitano population.
While this change has improved relations with the population, the municipality continues to be dominated by traditional political parties regarded with suspicion by many residents. Community members still tend to place their trust in CICOL, where they bring their demands and needs, including their need for income from mining. The municipal government, on the other hand, has the obligation and desire to enforce what legal regulations it can for the safety and the environment of the municipality. Says municipality councilman Agustin Chuvé, "[the concessionaires] have shown us no license for their machinery, nor their environmental license. They have the concession for prospecting, but the quantity being extracted is more than that." The municipality is in the process of forming an official demand for the concessionaire’s environmental license, but technically has no power to enforce such a demand, which is the authority of the Ministry. Pushing the subject too far, however, would be risky, as residents have become dependent on the mining income and would be outraged if the mine were to close.
So the farmers-turned-miners of Lomerío continue to eke Tungsten from the hill with only rudimentary tools, and without safety equipment, accident or health insurance, or proper safety training. They then wash it free of dirt and other minerals, dumping the contaminated water into the river.
A day’s work can result in anywhere from 200 mg to 2 full kg of unrefined Tungsten, which at seven dollars per kilogram means a significant sum for a peasant household. According to the National Institute of Statistics of Bolivia, nearly 100% of Lomerío’s inhabitants live below the poverty line, surviving on subsistence agriculture. In order to participate into the national economy and achieve what many see as an increase in quality of life, surplus income is a necessity.
Many Lomerío parents dream of sending their children to college, not only so they can achieve individual success, but also so they can return to help the community with their acquired skills and knowledge. For most, the expenses of university are a far-off dream, both geographically (the 8 hour bus ride along miserable dirt roads to Santa Cruz) and economically (city living is incredibly expensive for the peasant families). Despite these obstacles, a few students have been funded by a combination of scholarships and community funding efforts. Even sending children to high school is a sacrifice, as it means that they are unavailable for work in the fields. "Mining satisfies needs and helps the economy," says the Cacique of the community of San Lorenzo in Lomerío, Miguel Chore. "Especially now that our children are going to high school, it helps cover expenses."
Yet the long-term costs, with respect to health and environmental degradation, have yet to be counted. Dr. Nevert Aguilera of the Swiss Red Cross has worked in Lomerío for years and warns, "Artisanal mining like this, with no insurance or protection, has been known to cause silicosis." Community members are not unaware of the physical dangers, which could impede both mining and agricultural work. Maria Luisa Cesari of San Lorenzo has family members work in the mine. "What if a rock lands on your foot?" she asks. "What can you do?" Such an injury could leave a worker with no form of income at all.
The health and environmental consequences of mining are being sidelined by the current socialist government, which is focusing on the economic issues and sovereignty over natural resources. While the partial nationalization of mining has been a part of President Evo Morales’s agenda since he took office in January of 2006, a bloody conflict between state-salaried miners and private cooperative miners at the Huanuni tin mine last October left 16 dead and brought the issue to the spotlight.
The administration claims to pursue a mixed system of mining, both revitalizing and amplifying the state sector while encouraging private mines and investment. The government has demonstrated this mixed strategy over the past several months with the expropriation of the Swiss company Glencore International’s tin smelter in Vinto, Oruro, and the contrasting government contract with the Indian mining company Jindal Steel & Power Limited. Jindal is involved in the private extraction of iron from one of the world’s largest deposits in Mutún, Santa Cruz.
The government expects to earn up to $300 million a year from the steep taxes it has worked into the contract with Jindal. Glencore, however, was not compensated, as the government claims the sale of the state-owned smelter, privatized in 1999, was illegal in the first place. But while the government is improving its economic gains from large-scale mining enterprises, small-scale mining operations pay little to no taxes. President Evo Morales’s recent attempt to raise taxes on private mining entities failed due to intense protests by the privately-owned cooperatives. The incorporation of more cooperatives into the state mining structure is slowly progressing, but with little support by the cooperative miners, who prefer renewed private access to state mines such as Huanuni.
Small non-cooperative private mines like the one in Lomerío have been mostly left out of the equation. The relatively tiny amount of minerals being extracted, lack of competition with state mines, and remote nature of these mines means they have avoided attention—and regulation. But while the cooperatives and state-salaried miners are organized and able to negotiate with the government in the nationalization process, the farmer-miners of Lomerío continue to be isolated, uninformed about their rights, and forgotten by the ministry charged with protecting them.
While the extraction of natural resources has the potential to supplement the incomes of campesinos and significantly improve their economic possibilities, dependence on mining enterprises for income should not compromise the health and safety of the laborers. Furthermore, while indigenous organizations like CICOL have the right to negotiate their own contracts with private mining entities, changes in the mining laws would help them improve the terms of those contracts and assure fair compensation for their resources. The most constructive legal additions would give indigenous organizations legal control over both superficial and subsoil territory, as well as some authority to demand proper environmental and health conditions of the mining operation, or even direct it themselves.
With or without nationalization, in a country where the state has very little presence in remote rural areas, clandestine and unsafe mines will continue to operate if the scope and funding of government supervision does not improve.
upsidedownworld.org
EDIT
further to Hanks point ... there is an outfit called
the China News - you gotta sign up
theres a blurb in there saying the Chinese YADA-YADA-YADA
are concerned about certain metals (5 or 6) and therefore
China should tighten up by YADA-YADA-YADA ....
I don't have the link.
regards,
John |
