the bank i work for has one of, if not the top mining investment banking practices in the world. so we fund and advise all sorts of mining companies. tonight i was working on a presentation on some mining assets and i came across some very interesting ones.
warning: do not click these links if you are an environmentalist, pictures within are.. graphic
lihir island. gmaps: http://bit.ly/3x5B8d pic: http://bit.ly/ceUTV
a gold mine on an island in papua new guinea. built on a highly volcanic island, so the geothermal energy is vented and used in the gold extraction. bottom of the mine is 200 metres below sea level. tailings (extremely toxic chemicals to collect the gold from the crushed ore) are piped out to sea. oh, see those little dump trucks in the mine? each one costs over a million dollars. present value of gold resources in lihir at 0% discount: US$40 billion.
grasberg. gmaps: http://bit.ly/OQYlH pic1: http://bit.ly/K3pRz pic2: http://bit.ly/5xr9w
gold-copper mine in the central mountains of new guinea. ore slurry is piped from the mountains to the ocean (70 miles) where it is dewatered with energy from a coal power plant and shipped. tailings (230,000 tonnes per day) from this operation are piped directly into the river system, where they run to the ocean. in between the mine and the ocean are swamps, which have now filled with toxic copper compounds up to 480m deep. if you look at the river to the south of the mine, it appears purple due to the chemicals in the water. as a result of the environmental devastation in the area, the norwegian pension fund has divested $900 million from Freeport-McMoRan and Rio Tinto. present value of gold resources in grasberg at 0% discount: ~US$110 billion.
warning: do not click these links if you are an environmentalist, pictures within are.. graphic
lihir island. gmaps: http://bit.ly/3x5B8d pic: http://bit.ly/ceUTV
a gold mine on an island in papua new guinea. built on a highly volcanic island, so the geothermal energy is vented and used in the gold extraction. bottom of the mine is 200 metres below sea level. tailings (extremely toxic chemicals to collect the gold from the crushed ore) are piped out to sea. oh, see those little dump trucks in the mine? each one costs over a million dollars. present value of gold resources in lihir at 0% discount: US$40 billion.
grasberg. gmaps: http://bit.ly/OQYlH pic1: http://bit.ly/K3pRz pic2: http://bit.ly/5xr9w
gold-copper mine in the central mountains of new guinea. ore slurry is piped from the mountains to the ocean (70 miles) where it is dewatered with energy from a coal power plant and shipped. tailings (230,000 tonnes per day) from this operation are piped directly into the river system, where they run to the ocean. in between the mine and the ocean are swamps, which have now filled with toxic copper compounds up to 480m deep. if you look at the river to the south of the mine, it appears purple due to the chemicals in the water. as a result of the environmental devastation in the area, the norwegian pension fund has divested $900 million from Freeport-McMoRan and Rio Tinto. present value of gold resources in grasberg at 0% discount: ~US$110 billion.
All your disclaimers made me want to view the pictures more.
Go Norway!
Heh one of the largest scams of all time was a fake mine in south america. They stole like billions from investors.
That's excluding the bailout as a scam =P
bre-x was pretty famous, it got a firm value of something like $6 billion before it was exposed.
Bingham Canyon Mine - http://bit.ly/ecwqH
Check out how the scale compares :O
Check out how the scale compares :O
yeah, i was going to talk about bingham canyon but i got lazy. it is almost out of reserves though.
olympic dam is another big mine
as is kalgoorlie
norilsk is a relatively recent discovery of mine.. located north of the arctic circle in siberia. gmaps
see the greyish purple area extending to the south of the city? that's all dead land from the massive amounts of acid rain that come from the smelting operations. bbc article says there is not a single living tree for 30 km surrounding the smelter. so much platinum and palladium has been deposited from the exhaust of the smelter that it is economically feasible to mine the soil around the site. wikipedia tells me that 4 million tons of cadmium, copper, lead, nickel, arsenic, selenium and zinc are released into the air every year.
the city itself is a 'closed city'. no foreigners or even regular citizens are allowed to enter. many of the facilities were built by prisoners at soviet camps.
zooming in shows the extent of the smelting operations. http://tinyurl.com/na3n92
you can also see some open pits around the site, but most of the mining is done underground at up to 1200m (not that deep -- gold mines routinely go to 3000m).
the mine is worth approximately $210 billion using my bank's long-term forecasts for commodity prices. it is the world's largest nickel deposit, and it also holds platinum, palladium, and copper. the mining rights are exclusively held by the operator, mmc norilsk, which also holds a controlling stake in some mines in montana (stillwater & east boulder).
nice!
see the greyish purple area extending to the south of the city? that's all dead land from the massive amounts of acid rain that come from the smelting operations. bbc article says there is not a single living tree for 30 km surrounding the smelter. so much platinum and palladium has been deposited from the exhaust of the smelter that it is economically feasible to mine the soil around the site. wikipedia tells me that 4 million tons of cadmium, copper, lead, nickel, arsenic, selenium and zinc are released into the air every year.
the city itself is a 'closed city'. no foreigners or even regular citizens are allowed to enter. many of the facilities were built by prisoners at soviet camps.
zooming in shows the extent of the smelting operations. http://tinyurl.com/na3n92
you can also see some open pits around the site, but most of the mining is done underground at up to 1200m (not that deep -- gold mines routinely go to 3000m).
the mine is worth approximately $210 billion using my bank's long-term forecasts for commodity prices. it is the world's largest nickel deposit, and it also holds platinum, palladium, and copper. the mining rights are exclusively held by the operator, mmc norilsk, which also holds a controlling stake in some mines in montana (stillwater & east boulder).
nice!
wow
> norilsk is a relatively recent discovery of mine.. [...]
yeah i saw that one but, damn, i didn't know those details.
:o
yeah i saw that one but, damn, i didn't know those details.
:o
i do a lot of work on mines and every once in a while i realize how much it's worth and i take a look at it on google maps. next up will be a gigantic coal mine.
Intense!
this post has been archived.
double post for emphasis!
I didn't mean to double post. :\
here's one a bit closer to home. one that has cleaned up its act but still will shock and offend many..
nickel mining in sudbury, ontario. check out the acid rain destruction
the main smelting operation is run by vale, a brazilian base metals mining company (2nd largest producer in the world, equity value $125 bn). vale acquired inco ltd in 2006. inco was a canadian company and the 2nd largest nickel producer in the world.
the inco superstack is the 2nd largest freestanding structure in canada (after the cn tower and before my office building). it is the tallest chimney in the western hemisphere. the chimney was built to disperse the toxic smelting gases away from the city itself and over a wider swath of land (see norilsk on what happens if you don't do this). anyway, from what i can tell, it hasn't done all that much (see first gmaps link on the destruction of the surrounding forests).
unfortunately for us, most of the nickel mining operations are underground. the sudbury basin is centred on the world's second largest crater from a 10km meteorite that impacted 1.8 bn years ago. the impact crater caused volcanic events that stimulated a massive amount of nickel, copper, platinum group metals (PGMs), etc to form in the crater. this same sort of event (except the largest known) caused the formation of the bushveld igneous complex in the vredefort crater, south africa -- where the vast majority of the world's PGMs are located. probably highlight some of those mines in the future as they are all really crazy too.
nickel mining in sudbury, ontario. check out the acid rain destruction
the main smelting operation is run by vale, a brazilian base metals mining company (2nd largest producer in the world, equity value $125 bn). vale acquired inco ltd in 2006. inco was a canadian company and the 2nd largest nickel producer in the world.
the inco superstack is the 2nd largest freestanding structure in canada (after the cn tower and before my office building). it is the tallest chimney in the western hemisphere. the chimney was built to disperse the toxic smelting gases away from the city itself and over a wider swath of land (see norilsk on what happens if you don't do this). anyway, from what i can tell, it hasn't done all that much (see first gmaps link on the destruction of the surrounding forests).
unfortunately for us, most of the nickel mining operations are underground. the sudbury basin is centred on the world's second largest crater from a 10km meteorite that impacted 1.8 bn years ago. the impact crater caused volcanic events that stimulated a massive amount of nickel, copper, platinum group metals (PGMs), etc to form in the crater. this same sort of event (except the largest known) caused the formation of the bushveld igneous complex in the vredefort crater, south africa -- where the vast majority of the world's PGMs are located. probably highlight some of those mines in the future as they are all really crazy too.
so you work here?
yep
i was just right by that on friday. at that oasis/gretzky's. a friend has a place next to the CN tower.
>> so you work here?
> yep
shiit
> yep
shiit
what do you think of this proposed mine in alaska, nestor? I am watching this frontline episode alaska gold about it.
i know a little about it. i don't think it's going to get built, project economics are pretty marginal and the JV dynamics are bad.
damnit i hate when old threats are bumped sometimes. you know... seeing legacy avatars.
Legacy avatars cause real life BSODs.
haha