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Oh what a difference a year makes.

With the metal market tanking the once promising acquisition has become a millstone around the neck of Rio Tinto's CEO and his critics have taken up a hue and cry against him - some even calling for his ouster. Reuter's reports,

Albanese, once confident enough to spurn an all-share bid worth almost $200 billion from bigger rival BHP Billiton, is now entering into what some shareholders and politicians regard as a kind of Faustian deal with China.

In agreeing a $19.5 billion cash injection from state-owned Chinalco, Rio is taking Beijing's money -- reportedly much more than it could otherwise expect in a depressed market -- in return for giving China a seat at the mining industry's top table.

"They think they can sell less than a controlling interest in their assets and still control them. They think they will still rule the roost and have money in the tin but that seems crazy," Warren Staude, investor adviser with Taurus Funds Management.

The good times started to sour for Albanese last November when BHP pulled its offer amid tumbling commodity prices, looming world recession and the daunting prospect of having to refinance Rio's debts. Rio's shares immediately fell by more than a third.

The future of Albanese as Rio Tinto's CEO is murky at best, but we'll continue watching this story and updating you as events unfold.

Sure enough, last month, some of President Obama's economic advisors published an analysis of the impact of his proposed $600 billion stimulus plan, by employment sector.

On page nine of the analysis they said the stimulus would create 26,000 mining jobs. The report doesn't provide much detail about those projected jobs, though.

For the full story click here.

With exploration projects facing big cutbacks in the wake of the economic downturn, can the Pebble Mine project survive?  We shall see.

One of the issues where it is completely possible to make a difference is the wild Alaskan salmon fisheries. In the past, the major concern of Alaskan salmon fisheries was the burgeoning farmed salmon industry. This new industry continues to threaten both wild salmon markets and, quite literally, the very existence of wild salmon, but today the Alaskan salmon fisheries face an even greater threat: A large mining company called the Pebble Limited Partnership wants to open one of the world's largest open pit mines at the headwaters of the world's largest sockeye salmon return. The mine would be up to a mile deep and four miles across. Over the life of the mine, it might produce $350-$500 billion in gold and copper, but continually threaten and possibly destroy Alaska's sustainable commercial and sport fisheries, which produce nearly $400 million every year. Although the Pebble Limited Partnership promised that the mine would be absolutely foolproof, no open pit mine has ever been constructed without later causing major environmental issues.

Click here to read the article in its entirety.

A new federal study says the state's largest mine likely caused reduced caribou and beluga harvests by nearby villagers.

 

The harvests in the subsistence-dependent village of Kivalina declined substantially after the Red Dog zinc and lead mine opened 20 years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency said in the draft report on the mine's impact on the environment.

 

For decades, Kivalina hunters have blamed the daily traffic on the 52-mile industrial road connecting the mine to its port, as well as ship traffic at the port, for changing animal migrations and causing hunting problems. The Chukchi Sea port lies 17 miles southeast of the village in Northwest Alaska.

 

In a section of the 650-page report, the EPA said it agrees with the villagers.

To read the entire ADN story click here. We’ve included the ADN’s graphic for your viewing pleasure. Food for thought if you’re in the Pebble Mine neighborhood.  Maybe Red Dog is better left as a beer rather than a zinc mine.

“We have started the consultation process with the unions and with government,” David Noko, managing director of De Beers Consolidated Mining, said in a statement today.  The number of workers to be fired will probably be less than 1,000 out of the 3,500 people it employs in South Africa, Reuters reported, citing De Beers spokeswoman Lynette Gould.  David Prager, De Beers’ director of communications, was not immediately available for comment.

Anglo American Plc owns 45 percent of De Beers with the rest owned by the Oppenheimer family and the government of Botswana.  BRC DiamondCore Ltd., the Toronto-based gem producer, on Jan. 14 said it would extend a shutdown at its South African operations and start talks with labor unions over job cuts because of “persistent depressed” diamond prices.

A lawyer representing an Alaska gold mine urged the Supreme Court on Monday to uphold the mine owner's permit even though he acknowledged that the company's plan to dump metal waste into a nearby lake would kill all aquatic life.

 

But mining company lawyer Theodore Olson told justices that the waste is more accurately defined as "fill." And, after a decade or more of mining, he said, the lake could be restocked with no permanent harm to the environment.

 

"There will be more fish in a bigger lake, and more livable conditions for the fish and the aquatic life after this process is finished," Olson said.

 

Justice David Souter called that logic "Orwellian." He said the mining company, Coeur Alaska Inc., and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which granted a permit for the mine, were "defining away" the problem by calling the wastewater discharge fill.

Here’s how the story goes.

Back in 2005, the army Corps of Engineers issued a permit for waste dumping at the planned Kensington mine north of Juneau. The plan allowed for tailings – waste left after metals are extracted from ore – to be disposed of into Lower Slate Lake. Concerned environmental advocates sued in order stop the practice, correctly observing that dumping the mine tailings in the lake would kill fish. A federal appeals court blocked the permit, saying the dumping is barred by stringent Environmental Protection Agency requirements under the Clean Water Act of 1972.

The Kensington case is getting close attention in Alaska due to its likely consequences for much bigger mining projects, such as Pebble, a massive and controversial copper and gold prospect in Southwest Alaska. The Supreme court should issue their opinion on the Kensington case in the coming months and the outcome would likely create a national legal precedent for how mine waste is to be disposed.

The battle for Bristol Bay and the protection of that amazing ecosystem continues on and we are going to continue to do everything we can to get the message out to as many folks as we can.

Our partnership with The Sportsman's Alliance for Alaska continues with our Moose Promotion and I would like to encourage each and everyone of you to log on and make a donation of $50.00 so that you can have an opportunity to win one of the best packages I have seen put together. The package includes a Kimber Rifle, A Leupold scope, A set of Sitka Gear and 10 day moose hunt in Alaska. All of this for a donation of $50.00 to protect one of the greatest ecosystems in America.

Click here to donate your cash and win your 'shot' at a moose.

The Nashville Scene blog posted a YouTube video (dated Dec. 30) of a canoe trip by Appalachian Voices through ground zero of the spill area. They took water samples, and intend to publicize the results when obtained. Towards the end of the video, you will see TVA cops chase them down and give them a citation, even though they remained in the river at all times and did not trespass on private property. What's TVA trying to hide?

Appalachian Voices describes the site as looking eerily similar to Alaska shores following the Exxon Valdez spill--dead fish, blackened water thick like espresso, and five-foot "ashburgs" floating about. The group also found evidence that TVA was doing more to protect its own plant from pollution than halting the contamination for spreading down river.