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Archive for the ‘Commodity’ Category

The Cost of Mine Heap Leach Pad Management

Posted in consulting, Gold, tagged , , , on May 9, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

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Yesterday in the post just below this post, I bemoaned the fact that there is no general model or method out there to estimate the cost of mine tailings management.  That issue remains valid today.

I have however, been informed that there is a cost model for gold heap leach pads.  It is compiled by Fred A. Leonard.  He currently provide service via his private consulting practice in Winnemucca, Nevada.  Contact me for his phone number.

His model is generally available through CostMine. 

Incidently, if you want to learn more about heap leach pad design, construction, operation, and closure go to the EduMine course at this link.

Or come to the conference later this year on heap leach pads.  See this link.

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Invest in Mining in the Downturn (Recession/Depression)

Posted in Coal, Investing & Finance, Uranium, tagged , , on May 8, 2013 | 1 Comment »

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One of the miracles of the free-market system is that when one person sells a share, there is another who is buying.  Who are the current buyers when all are seemingly selling? (more…)

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The True Price & Value of Gold: A Massive Scam or The Cost of a Suit?

Posted in About the news, Gold, Mining history, tagged , , , , on April 17, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

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The expensive clothes store at the entrance to our office building is advertising “two hand-made suits for $1,500.”  This tells that the price of gold will decrease a lot more.  For historically the price of gold has been equal to the price of a suit for a well-dressed man.  It cost an ounce of gold to buy a toga for a Roman senator;  it cost ounce of gold to buy the outfit Lord Capulet wore at that fateful ball where Juliet met Romeo; it cost my father $35 for a good suit when he was a miner of gold at $35 an ounce.  Why should I pay twice the price of an ounce of gold for a suit? (more…)

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Mine Water Solutions in Extreme Environments: The Chilean court kicks off Pascua Lama and the Conference with gusto.

Posted in About the news, consulting, Global Warming, Gold, Investing & Finance, Latin America, Law (Mining), Peru, tagged , , , , , , on April 15, 2013 | 2 Comments »

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There is no mine water solution for the Pascua Lama mine in the high Andes of Chile and Argentina.  Here is one report:  (more…)

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Bingham Canyon Mine Slope Failure

Posted in About the news, Copper, Investing & Finance, Open Pit, tagged , , , , , on April 12, 2013 | 3 Comments »

Massive landslide damages Kennecott\'s Bingham Canyon Mine

A massive slope failure has occurred at the open pit of the Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah.  Here is a link to a magnificent collection of photographs of the failure, which appears to have taken out part of a building, access roads, and filled the bottom of the pit with slide material.  Nobody was hurt: the mine had been monitoring movement and when deformation increased from 1 mm a day to 5 mms day they pulled out all workers.  A fine testament to the engineers who study rock and soil slope stability in the open pit mine context.  (more…)

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Panoro Minerals Ltd as Best Represented by Luquman Shaheen: A New Peruvian Mining Region?

Posted in About the news, consulting, Copper, feasibilty studies, Gold, Investing & Finance, People, Peru, tagged , , , , on February 14, 2013 | 2 Comments »

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Yesterday I finished a three-day EduMine webcast on Mining Investment – Understand the Risks.  Today I took my own advice to heart and attended a presentation by Luquman Shaheen of Panoro Minerals Ltd on their projects in Peru.  Should I invest?  Should I advise you to invest?  Should we join Hudbay Minerals who own some seven percent of the company in the excitement of new prospects in a mining-potential-rich part of Peru? (more…)

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Peabody Energy Protest and the state of the U.S. Coal Industry

Posted in About the news, Coal, Jobs and Salaries, tagged , , , , , on February 14, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

In response to a request from Amy Shenker, I post the following from a news release she sent me.  I post this willingly as the story is so sad and yet so illustrative of current issues in the U.S. coal mining industry.  (more…)

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Reworking Old Tailings Facilities aka Slimes Dams

Posted in About the news, Gold, Mining history, Tailings, Uranium, tagged , , , , on February 6, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

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The following just in from Venmyn Deloitte on reworking of old South African slimes dams or tailings facilities to use the more modern term.  All the old slimes dams around the area I grew up are gone.  The biggest loss is that big pile of yellow sand down which we would slide on corrugated cardboard boxes.  The pile was so full of uranium and gold that it was one of the first to go.  I hate to think what our radioactive exposure was as kids.  I can report no ill after-effects either from the radioactivity or from the mercury my father brought home for us to play with on the bedroom floor.  And we knew not what a seatbelt was in those heady days of vast exposure to danger.  (more…)

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Whistle Blowing in Mining and Heavy Civil Construction

Posted in Coal, consulting, health and safety, People, tagged , , , on January 31, 2013 | 3 Comments »

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A miner who believes he rightfully blew the whistle on his employers is now the center of a nasty litigation marathon—see this link.  A part of the story says this: (more…)

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Miners Salaries in Ounces of Gold

Posted in Gold, Jobs and Salaries, Mining history, tagged , , on December 21, 2012 | 1 Comment »

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In the mid-fifties, gold cost $35 an ounce.  My father, a mine captain, earned a hundred and fifty pounds a month.  I cannot be sure of the exchange rate.  Vaguely I recall that a pound was about two dollars.  So let us say he earned about ten ounces of gold a month or about one hundred ounces of gold a year.

With gold at about $1,700 an ounce these days, a hundred-ounce-a-year salary is about $170,000.   How many miners these days earn that sum?  Truth is not many from what I can see.  You have to be pretty senior to earn that salary–but then my father was relatively senior.

These gold-price to salary comparisons are prompted by a fun article in Commodity HQ at this link.  Surprising how little an ounce of gold buys these days.  I know that I spend the equivalent of an ounce of gold each month on books, CDs, DVDs, and other indulgences, vices, and diversions.  What gold-percent of your income goes on pure pleasure?

Which makes me wonder if mining salaries and the price of gold have advanced in lock-step with the price of gold — or have salaries fallen behind?  Is there a correlation?  I have done no research for this posting.  I leave that to those with a greater eye for the detail of the price of gold.  And I would appreciate your take on the correlation of the gold price and mining salaries.

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