Iron Mines, Jobs, & Obstructionists

[WhiskeyGirl]

Democrats and a Rino in Wisconsin recently obstructed a new iron mine in one of Wisconsin's poorest counties - Iron County.  The mine would have created thousands of jobs in poverty areas of the north, and in South Eastern Wisconsin. 

The problem?  Senate Democrats and the Rino kept moving the goal post.  IIRC, they wanted to make all kinds of new rules that were anti mine and would have created a perpetual state of answering lawsuits for the mining company.  What did the mining company do?  Moved to Upper Michigan.  Sorry, no jobs for Wisconsinites.

Who provides the globe with high quality iron ore?  Is there an increasing demand?

I was looking for something else and came upon this article -

"London Mining aiming to up iron-ore production at Sierra Leone mine to 1.8Mt by end of 2012"

Production will ramp up during the first half of 2012 to over 160 000 t/m, with 1.8-million tons of production still targeted for next year.
 
A prefeasibility study (PFS), which was completed earlier this year, indicated the viability of an expansion to 16-million tons a year during Phase 2.
 
The PFS considers the extension of Marampa to 2036 and comprises three phases, namely Phase 2a, Phase 2b and Phase 2c.
 
The first phase – a low capital expenditure expansion – includes the initial expansion of eight-million tons a year at an estimated cost of $659-million, and provides the miner with several options of financing the expansion, such as funding from project cash flow.
 
The miner says the $1 187-million Phase 2b expansion will increase production to a total of 16-million tons a year, based on the mining and processing of the unweathered portion of the Marampa orebody.

read more here - http://www.miningweekly.com/article/marampa-mine-project-on-track-2011-12-16

We live in a global marketplace.  Where are the jobs for Americans? 

Imagine the great wealth being created.  I wonder if those are good paying union jobs in Sierra Leone?

[WhiskeyGirl]

Who does mining better?  Cleaner?

On the environmental protection front, global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from production would rise by at least 15% a ton as a result of the displacement of capacity from the world’s most efficient South African smelters to the world’s least efficient energy-sapping and CO2-spewing Chinese smelters.

Jobs lost too--more than 20,000...

In South Africa, the industry wants govern-ment to impose an export duty to discourage the country from exporting raw chrome ore and, in the longer term, establish an industry marketing arm, similar to CanPotex, of Canada, which has been highly successful at marketing potash.

Where is the American export duty on raw materials?  Coil?  Crude oil? 

The meltdown signs are there for anyone to see. Producers have been closing furnaces left, right and centre and selling back their power allocation to State power utility Eskom.

Sounds like the oil refiners in the NE closing left and right - apparently they have declining access to good quality crude from the Mid West...places like North Dakota.  Need more pipelines.

read more here - http://www.miningweekly.com/article/south-african-ferrochromes-in-meltdown-urgent-intervention-needed-2012-03-16

[WhiskeyGirl]

Hmmm...

No mining jobs for Wisconsinites living in poverty...jobs for those in Brazil?

The iron ore business unit of Anglo American Brazil (Anglo Brazil) hopes to conclude a contract with the Italian-Argentinian group Techint, to supply the latter with the ore for a planned new steel plant in Rio de Janeiro state, before the end of the first quarter of this year. This has been revealed by Anglo Brazil iron ore business unit President Paulo Castellari Porchia. “We are now confirming the availability of volumes for Ternium, pending only the settlement of two commercial matters.”

Ternium is a Techint subsidiary and is a major steelmaker in the Americas, with an annual production capacity of some 10-million tons of finished steel products and operations in Colombia, Guatemala, the southern US and especially Argentina and Mexico. Ternium also has a stake in Brazilian steelmaker Usiminas.

Hmmm...no mining jobs for American union workers...

The new Ternium plant will be fed with ore from Anglo Brazil’s Minas-Rio project, which the global mining group bought off Brazilian miner MMX in 2007 for $7-billion. Minas-Rio will enter production during the second half of next year and will have an annual production capacity of 26.5-million tons. Ternium will receive about 25% of this, with another 25% going to Asian countries and the rest to the Middle East.

Why isn't the US exporting iron ore?  Steel?

read more here -http://www.miningweekly.com/article/anglo-american-on-verge-of-landing-major-iron-ore-contract-in-brazil-2012-03-16

Sounds like another Obama special interest...

Chinese and others can drill in the Gulf of Mexico for oil...isn't that a danger?  Not Americans.  No jobs for Americans.

Obama invests billions in loans to SA oil interests...no jobs for Americans?

Where are Obama's MILLIONs of new jobs for Americans?  Solyndra?

[WhiskeyGirl]

"Iron-ore demand to reach 3.5bn tons by 2030"

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Global iron-ore demand was expected to double to 3.5-billion tons a year by 2030, as China’s appetite for the steelmaking commodity continued to drive the market.

Anyone in the White House ever hear of the global economy?  Why aren't union workers in Wisconsin helping fill that demand for China?

red more here - http://www.miningweekly.com/article/iron-ore-demand-to-reach-35bn-tons-by-2030-2012-03-19