May 2012 – Page 2 – Republic of Mining

Vale looks for some [mining employment] help – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – May 30, 2012)

May 30, 2012

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Vale Ltd. is embarking on an aggressive campaign to hire more than 40 engineers and hundreds of other employees by “selling” the quality of life in the Nickel City and the opportunities for advancement with the giant miner.

At least 400 new employees will be hired this year, many to work on the $3.4 billion in investments the company is making in its Clean AER project at the Copper Cliff Smelter.

Engineers are also needed to do preliminary work on Vale’s Victor-Capre and Copper Cliff Deep projects.

Vale employs almost 4,000 people at Sudbury in six mines, a mill, a smelter and a refinery. Kelly Strong, general manager of Vale’s Ontario operations, says his company is in stiff competition with mining companies, such as BHP and Rio Tinto — and from other industries such as oil and gas.

Part of the company’s hiring plan is promoting a new image of mining, starting in area high schools, and at colleges and universities.

Time to reinstate spring bear hunt – Thunder Bay Editorial (Chronicle-Journal – May 29, 2012)

May 30, 2012

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

Sometimes, a dead horse has to be kicked, again and again. The former spring bear hunt in Ontario is one such animal.

If the provincial government is really serious about helping the region’s tourist industry and managing black bear populations in Northern Ontario, it will reinstate the spring bear hunt.

The hunt is currently a viable tourism and wildlife management option in nine other provinces and territories across Canada. Why not Ontario? Are their bears different from ours?

A Winnipeg man has already been bitten this year by a bear north of Sioux Lookout, hauled from an outhouse in a story that made national headlines. Children in the town’s Sioux Mountain School are reportedly being kept indoors at recess these days because bears are roaming the area. A longer fall bear hunt has not been sufficient to keep bear numbers in check and the number and reports of nuisance bears is rising throughout the province.

McEwen comments on uncertainty in Argentina – Canadian Mining Journal (May 28, 2012)

May 29, 2012

The Canadian Mining Journal is Canada’s first mining publication providing information on Canadian mining and exploration trends, technologies, operations, and industry events.

When mining entrepreneur Rob McEwen put US Gold and Minera Andes together to create McEwen Mining he was working on the model that you could take one company that had cash flow and another company that had development projects and create a stronger company.

But what he didn’t foresee, he told investors and analysts on a conference call earlier this week, and apologized for not foreseeing, was that there would be changes in Argentina that would create a lot of uncertainty and put that model at a disadvantage.

McEwen arranged the May 22 conference call to alert shareholders about potential difficulties and delays in repatriating cash flow from McEwen Mining’s 49% stake in the San Jose mine in Argentina, which has been earmarked to fund development of the company’s El Gallo project in Mexico. ( El Gallo is in Mexico’s Sinaloa state, along the foothills of the Sierra Madres, and includes the El Gallo and Palmarito silver deposits and the Magistral gold deposits, all located within a 13 km radius.)

The re-education of Thomas Mulcair [Alberta oil sands] – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – May 28, 2012)

May 29, 2012

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

The re-education of Thomas Mulcair starts this week, when the federal NDP leader is scheduled to visit Alberta’s oil sands after launching a series of offensive attacks on the resource’s place in Canada.

Like thousand of oil sands bashers before him who made the trip to Fort McMurray — from Hollywood celebs such as James Cameron to international politicians and media representatives, Mr. Mulcair will find the view on the ground doesn’t quite match the spin of the environmental extremists who seem to have his ear.

No question, the oil sands are a massive project that is impacting the environment and the communities around it. But to paint them as a Canadian economic and environmental scourge is politically immature — certainly for an aspiring Canadian Prime Minister.

When he visits Alberta Wednesday and Thursday, Mr. Mulcair will also find one of the earth’s most diverse and productive workforces, human ingenuity at its finest, scores of young people in leadership roles, a commitment to technological innovation, enterprising First Nations and a lot of unfilled, well-paying jobs.

Coalition wants [Wolf Lake mining] lease to lapse – by Star Staff (Sudbury Star – May 29, 2012)

May 29, 2012

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The Wolf Lake Coalition is once again urging the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines to let a mining lease in the Wolf Lake old-growth forest expire Thursday.

In fact, the coalition argued in a release Monday that regulations in the Mining Act would support such a decision, and that to allow exploration would be “shameful.”

“The Mining Act affirms that if the leaseholder is not in production or on the road to production in that lease, it should expire,” the coalition said. “According to public records, very little activity has occurred on this lease for the past 30 years. Not only is this area not in production — it is not remotely close.

“Under our own legislation, this lease should not be renewed.” Flag Resources, a Calgarybased company, holds mining leases in the reserve. The comp a ny’s president, Murdo McLeod, has said in the past there is potential for gold, copper, cobalt and palladium mines in Wolf Lake, where the company has been since the 1980s.

Situation un-bear-able – Timmins Daily Press (May 28, 2012)

May 29, 2012

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Councillor calls for return of spring bear hunt

Northerners are voicing their unbearable stress towards the provincial government’s latest approach to problem bruins. The MNR has dropped responsibilities for nuisance bears on private property. The buck has been passed to Ontario Provincial Police and local police services.

Coun. John Curley is outraged with the recent letter from Natural Resources Deputy Minister David O’Toole. The letter was revealed to Timmins council at Monday night’s regular meeting.

It stated the recent changes came about as part of the Transformation Plan announced in the 2012 Ontario Budget. The plan was a review of how government programs delivered services to Ontarians, which includes eight-year existing Bear Wise program/

In his letter, O’Toole admitted the relocation of black bears was not as effective compared to other MNR bear handling strategies.

Mining Maven [Catherine McLeod-Seltzer] Says Share Slump to Spur Merger Boom – by Liezel Hill – (Bloomberg.com – May 28, 2012)

May 28, 2012

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Mineral prospectors and promoters are “some of the most optimistic
people on the planet,” McLeod-Seltzer says. “We’re like cockroaches
— we’ve survived a lot of nuclear winters.”

Catherine McLeod-Seltzer, one of Canada’s top mining dealmakers, is forecasting an increase in mergers and acquisitions because of a shortage of financing.

Mining stocks are trading close to a three-year low as commodity prices decline on concern that growth is slowing in China, the largest metals consumer. McLeod-Seltzer says that as investors shun equity offerings and banks shy away from making loans, more mine developers will be bought by larger competitors looking to add output and reserves.

“I see these downturns as opportunities,” she said in an interview in Toronto. “The company that’s going to create value for shareholders today is the one that’s not timid.”

McLeod-Seltzer, 52, who sits on the boards of five miners including Toronto-based Kinross Gold Corp. (K), says that during her 28-year career she has raised more than $600 million for new companies searching for mineral riches.

Ottawa under the gun to end CP strike – by Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – May 28, 2012)

May 28, 2012

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

As the economic impact of the strike against Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. mounts, industries across the country are urging the federal government to intervene when Parliament resumes Monday.

More than $50-million of grain is stuck in elevators and thousands of new cars and trucks are effectively stranded, awaiting CP to get the trains rolling. Manufacturers and miners are sounding the alarm about disruptions to the supply chain while the propane industry is worried about bottlenecks.

Supply chain pressures for both imports and exports are becoming severe, Port Metro Vancouver said Sunday. The port is part of a growing chorus of industry groups and companies urging Ottawa to introduce back-to-work legislation as the CP strike by 4,800 members of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference enters its sixth day on Monday.

“For CP, this walkout has resulted in tens of thousands of carloads of freight not moving every day on our Canadian network,” said CP spokesman Ed Greenberg, adding the railway has laid off 2,000 other CP workers because of the walkout by the Teamsters.

Last tango in Argentina? – by Peter Foster (National Post – May 25, 2012)

May 28, 2012

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Its spending and expropriation spree hardly provides a model for Greece

That Argentina is being hauled before the World Trade Organization by the European Union for its beggar-thy-neighbour trade and investment policies at the same time as it is being hailed as a model for Greek salvation confirms that we live in interesting times. That Argentina’s policies — in particular the recent expropriation of YPF, the local subsidiary of Spanish oil giant Repsol — are ostensibly being guided by an academic with Elvis sideburns who combines Che Guevara with John Maynard Keynes suggests a stranger-than-fiction narrative somewhere between Gabriel García Márquez and Ayn Rand.

This bizarre situation is of more than passing interest to Canadian mining companies in Argentina. Might they be next? Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s firm stand at the recent Summit of the Americas against Argentinean sabre-rattling over the Falklands certainly did not endear him to Argentina’s dragon lady, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

Greece’s prospective exit from the euro is claimed to be parallel to Argentina’s decision 10 years ago to ditch a link with the U.S. dollar. Argentina, it is claimed, hasn’t done too badly since, which offers some hope for the Grexit. However, while abandoning the euro may allow it to devalue, Greece does not have the abundant natural resources of Argentina. Also, unlike Argentina, it does not have a currency. Finally, Argentina is not a model for any government whose interests go beyond power-hungry populism.

Glencore to lay out final Xstrata merger plans – by Clara Ferreira-Marques and Victoria Howley (Mineweb.com – May 28, 2012)

May 28, 2012

www.mineweb.com

Glencore moves into the final stage of its long-awaited $30 billion takeover of Xstrata, as shareholders are sent detailed documents on the deal, kicking off a charm offensive ahead of July votes.

LONDON (Reuters) – Glencore will this week move into the final stage of its long-awaited $30 billion takeover of miner Xstrata, as shareholders are sent detailed documents on the deal, kicking off a last charm offensive ahead of July votes.

But Xstrata investors hoping for an improvement to the all-share offer are likely to be disappointed, at least for now.

That is because of technical changes set to support Glencore shares over the coming weeks, share sales by prominent naysayers and stake-building by Qatar, whose sovereign wealth fund now has more than 9 percent of Xstrata and is expected to back the deal.

Glencore, which already owns almost 34 percent of the miner, is offering 2.8 new shares for every Xstrata share held to conclude its long-standing plan to create an integrated mining and trading powerhouse. Those terms will likely be confirmed in the documents, due out by Thursday, though Glencore can still increase the bid up until a few days before shareholders vote.

Rain brings relief [Timmins fire]- by Kyle Gennings (Timmins Daily Press – May 28, 2012)

May 28, 2012

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Size of blaze smaller than originally projected

Sunday brought a welcome sigh of relief for Timmins residents as rain and cooler tempertures helped to reduce the size of the Timmins 9 forest fire. The blaze, just 30 kilometres outside the city centre, is 70 kilometres long and has consumed thousands of hectares of forest west of Timmins.

Despite the positive outlook today, Timmins Mayor Tom Laughren offered some grounding words at Sunday’s press conference.

“Yes, the fire has shrunk in size, from a community perspective this is a relief,” he said. “But we need to remember the size of this fire, remember that it will take more than a days water bombing and a days rainfall to control it.”

With the addition of 20 new four-man crews from British Columbia working the southern flank of the fire, just north of Gogama, the Ontario fire rangers have been able to concentrate their efforts on the northeastern flank on the Kenogamissi and Cache areas, saving every residence and cottage in the area, only losing a couple of sheds and a vehicle.

Quebec turns to Alberta for guidance in developing a massive tract of resource-rich land in its north – by Marzena Czarnecka (Alberta Venture Magazine – May 22, 2012)

May 27, 2012

http://albertaventure.com/

Erik Richer La Flèche … believes successful implementation of Plan Nord has
the potential to transform Quebec into a “mini-Australia, that is, a preferred,
stable supplier to some of the largest economies in the world.”

What can Quebec learn from Alberta’s experience, and what might it mean for this province’s future?

May 2012 marks the one-year anniversary of the launch of Quebec’s Plan Nord by Premier Jean Charest. It’s a 25-year, $80-billion economic, social and environmental development strategy for Quebec’s massive northern territory.

Sound familiar? The parallels between Plan Nord and Alberta’s oil sands occurred to Robert Yalden during the Montrealer’s last visit to Alberta. “I was struck by how much history there was to the endeavour,” says Yalden, a partner with Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. “By how much investment, how much public planning for the development of infrastructure necessary for the private sector, how much forethought and long-term thinking was required to understand, back in the 1960s and 1970s, that the oil sands could become an extremely important part of the Alberta economy.” Looking at his province’s Plan Nord, he sees the need for the same type of long-term planning and vision.

And, perhaps, the need to learn from Alberta’s missteps along the way, because there have been a few.

Beyond the Ring [Northwestern Ontario mining] – by Jamie Smith (tbnewswatch.com – May 26, 2012)

May 26, 2012

http://www.tbnewswatch.com/

There are 25 million ounces of gold under the region’s feet ready to be taken out in the next five years.

Even without major discoveries in the Ring of Fire, the region will have a mining boom industry experts say. There are 11 mining projects outside of the highly publicized Ring of Fire that are expected to be operational by 2017 with an expected total life of more than 100 years.

Rubicon Minerals, which is mining for gold under Red Lake, is expected to start late next year and hit 2.8 million ounces of gold in its high-grade deposit over a dozen years. A lower grade deposit, which in industry terms is about a gram of gold for every tonne of rock mined, like Rainy River Resources’ 5.72 million ounces will run for 13 years.

Those two projects alone represent almost a billion dollars in capital costs with more than 700 construction jobs and nearly 900 operations jobs.

As of May 15, the Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission estimates the mining projects ready to go will create at least 4,000 new jobs.

NORDIK INSTITUTE NEWS RELEASE: Concerned citizens in the Sault join North Eastern Municipalities ONTC divesture fight

May 26, 2012

Screening of acclaimed film ‘Derailed – The National Dream’

May 25, 2012

COCHRANE – Northern municipalities affected by the Province’s divesture of the ONTC are continuing to escalate the issue.

They do not accept the Province’s unilateral and autocratic approach to the ONTC which represents an integral part of the region’s economy and opportunity to grow into the next age of multi-modal transportation.

The approach is arrogant and places far too much risk on the region as it has no clear plan or desired outcome. At the same time, the issue is rapidly expanding its reach to now include concerned residents as far as Sault Ste. Marie.

On May 30 2012, northern municipalities along with Cochrane mayor and council, and Sault Ste Marie are the Coalition for Algoma Passenger Trains (CAPT) will host the screening of Derailed: The National Dream, produced by documentary film maker Dan Nystedt.

The film first screened on Sunday, March 4,2012 at the Grand Theatre, in Sault Ste. Marie as part of the Shadows of the Mind Film Festival.