TORONTO (Kitco News) -The strong economic outlook for miners has encouraged production across the world, and in North America a sort of renaissance of mining has begun.
Senior mining companies in Canada and the U.S. with existing deposits are doing more exploration on their lands, and mines that were shuttered after becoming unprofitable when metals priced plunged in the late 1980s and early 1990s are being considered again.
New technology has helped miners get at harder-to-reach deposits, while states and provinces see the allure of high-paying jobs for their residents.
Globally, nonferrous exploration budgets in 2010 totaled $11.2 billion, up 45% from 2009, according to a study done by Metals Economics Group, which was released at the recent Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada’s conference in Toronto. Regionally, Latin America was the top area for exploration, while Canada was the top country overall. More than half of that exploration budget went to find gold, with copper a distant second.
The group’s study is based on information obtained from more than 3,200 mining and exploration companies globally, it said.
In North America, the study showed that planned exploration spending in Canada rose 73% in 2010 and 75% in the U.S.
In addition to the economics making a difference in reopening mines or expanding existing mines, several industry sources said geopolitical risk in North America is lower than in other parts of the world. Considering the current turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa, sensitivity on this issue has been heightened.
This is a big factor for miners in the U.S. said Micheal George, mineral commodity specialist at the National Minerals Info Center, part of the U.S. Geological Survey.
“It’s more stable to mine in the U.S., there’s less geopolitical risk, and the costs have not gone up as much as in some places. The geology is interesting for some of them. And it’s a known commodity; they know what they’re getting into. They can get into other countries easily, but they have no idea 20 years down the road how things are going to look…. In the U.S. if you have the mine rights to a project, you know you have the rights. In other places people have lost their mine rights without too much compensation,” he said.
George said the bulk of the money being spent in the U.S. by senior mining firms revolves around drilling for existing deposits.
“You have Newmont, you have Barrick, Kinross, they have a lot of money to spend and they’re trying to increase their reserves, so they’re trying to do it organically through their own deposits. A lot of the time they know there is something there, and now with gold prices where they’re at, they can go at what’s underneath that they couldn’t before,” he said.
Nevada and Alaska remain the dominant gold-producing states, but other historic areas are being reopened.
One mining company that is resurrecting a dormant U.S. mine is Romarco, which is operating the Haille mine in South Carolina. Haille was one of the first mines dug in the U.S. when the Carolinas were the home of gold production. It has been mined four times since 1827 and was shuttered in 1999 when it became unfeasible. Romarco bought that mine and a few smaller, nearby mines, bringing the total mining area privately owned by the firm to 8,000 acres, said Dan Symons, manager of investor relations for Romarco. It’s a fee-simple ownership where the firm owns the surface water and mining rights, and total reserves are 4 million ounces, he said.
Subject to permitting, Romarco hopes to pour its first gold bar by the first quarter of 2013 and be commercially producing by the second quarter of 2013, he added. High gold prices and new technology makes the Haille property operational again.
The Haille mine is opening in a rural area, but one with a relatively sizable population. Part of what makes Nevada so popular to mine in – geology aside – is that it’s rather isolated, George said. “It will be interesting to see what happens in South Carolina, because you’re going to have more neighbors. It’s in a rural area, but you’re still going to have closer proximity of people than anywhere else,” he said.
Mickey Fulp, veteran geologist and editor of the newsletter Mercenary Geologist, said attitudes toward mines have improved over the years. “We try to do it better, try to be good stewards of the land, and plus people need jobs. Especially that part of South Carolina used to be all textile mills. That industry has gone to Hades and Asia and it’s not coming back, so mining makes for really well-paying jobs,” he said.
Not all mines have had success reopening in North America. One example is the Taseko Prosperity Mine, in British Columbia, which came under fire from Aboriginal and environmental groups. Taseko resubmitted its project in late February to amend the environmental concerns, but with additional costs.
George said that despite the rebounding U.S. mine industry, it still takes a long time to open a new mine. From discovery to production it can take anywhere from 10 to 30 years. One example, the Cortez Hills mine owned by Barrick in Nevada took 10 to 11 years to get done, he said. The Kensington mine, owned by Coeur d’Alene in Alaska, was discovered in 1980 and began producing in 2010.
Getting permits is not the hard part, George said. That can take two to three years and goes pretty smoothly, he said, citing what others have told him. “It’s after you get the permit then you have to defend it against lawsuits. People sue whoever gave you the permit. That seems to be one of the things that keeps coming up as a problem,” he said.
Despite those drawbacks, mining still has a future. To sum up the outlook for mining in the U.S., George used one word: “more.”
“More, more, more. I talked to several companies at this conference and every single one of them are drilling more, especially when the summer months come around, they’re going to drill a whole lot more. I don’t think there’s going to be a drill that’s not being used right now,” he said.
By Debbie Carlson
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