Twitter

Year: 2012

LAURENTIAN UNIVERSITY NEWS RELEASE: BHARTI SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING WINS CANADIAN MINING GAMES TITLE

Laurentian Wins Mining Games for 8th Time In Games’ History

SUDBURY, ON (February 27, 2012) – Top marks in mine design, rock mechanics and mineral processing events propelled the Bharti School of Engineering team from Laurentian University to a first-place finish in the 22nd Annual Canadian Mining Games, held February 23rd-26th in Sudbury, Ontario. The team from Laurentian ranked among the top three in 12 of the events that make up the competition, completing the Games with a 27-point margin of victory. The team from Polytechnique in Montreal placed second overall, while Université de Laval took third place.

“The competition was fierce,” said Ramesh Subramanian, Director of the Bharti School of Engineering at Laurentian University. “All of the teams were exceptionally strong this year. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such an extraordinary level of proficiency and talent in this competition.”

Teams of engineering students from ten universities across Canada take part in the competition, a series of 20 challenges that test the skills of future mining engineers. Competitors must complete exercises in surveying, mine and equipment design, and mineral separation. They must also demonstrate mastery in jackleg drilling and operation of scoop trams and excavating equipment.

Read more

MINING WATCH NEWS RELEASE: ROYALTIES, ENVIRONMENT AND CITIZENS’ RIGHTS : SURVEY RESULTS SUPPORT DEMANDS OF QUEBEC MINING REFORM COALITION

http://www.miningwatch.ca/

Monday, February 27, 2012

For Immediate Release

ROYALTIES, ENVIRONMENT AND CITIZENS’ RIGHTS: SURVEY RESULTS SUPPORT DEMANDS OF QUEBEC MINING REFORM COALITION

Montréal, Sunday, February 26, 2012. “The survey by Léger Marketing on the mining industry confirms the relevance and importance of our work over the last four years” stated Ugo Lapointe of the Coalition Québec meilleure mine (Better Mining Coalition). According to the survey, a majority of residents of Québec including the Abitibi region (the most active mining area of Québec) agree that there is a need for further reforms to improve royalties, environmental protection and respect of citizens’ rights. “It’s very encouraging. It shows that our positions are supported by the people of Québec, even in the mining regions where the industry lobby is most active” added Lapointe.

Conducted between February 17 and 19 for the Journal de Montréal the survey questioned 600 people, with a good representation of respondents from Abitibi-Témiscamingue. Results of the survey include:

–     59% of the Québec population judges current royalties to be insufficient, including 73% of Abitibi-Témiscamingue residents

Read more

Regulatory clock ticking for Glencore-Xstrata – by Clara Ferreira-Marques and Foo Yun Chee (Toronto Star – February 25, 2012)

The Toronto Star, has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Reuters News Agency

BRUSSELS—Commodities trader Glencore’s takeover of mining group Xstrata will face European Commission antitrust scrutiny, the companies said on Friday, kicking off a global regulatory process that could take months.

In a statement that follows a period of negotiation, the two firms involved in the proposed $90 billion (U.S.) combination said they had agreed to officially notify the commission about the deal.

That notification, once it has been acknowledged by the commission itself, leaves the regulator with 25 days to decide whether to approve, reject or begin an in-depth probe into the plan to create the world’s fourth-largest miner. It is just one of a series of antitrust hurdles the two companies will have to clear.

Some in the industry had expected Glencore and Xstrata to largely sidestep the EU antitrust process—and a possible probe—as Brussels has in the past considered the companies to be a single entity for the purposes of competition rules, given Glencore’s longstanding 34 per cent holding in Xstrata.

Read more

Fraser survey says New Brunswick is mining heaven, Honduras is the pits – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – February 24, 2012)

www.mineweb.com

“The best mineral deposit has no value if government regulations and taxation prevent production.” The latest ratings from the Fraser Institute see some significant changes from a year ago.

RENO (MINEWEB) –  New Brunswick in Canada has vaulted to the top of rankings as the world’s most attractive jurisdiction for mineral exploration and development according to the Fraser Institute’s latest survey of mining companies.

The survey of 802 mining exploration and development companies on the investment climate of 93 nations, provinces and states ranked Honduras as the worst jurisdiction for mining exploration and development.

The companies participating in the Fraser Institute’s Survey of Mining Companies: 2011/2012 reported exploration spending of US$6.3 billion in 2011 and US$4.5 billion in 2010.

“New Brunswick shot to the top of the rankings as miners lauded the province for its fair, transparent, and efficient legal system and consistency in the enforcement and interpretation of existing environmental regulations,” said Fred McMahon, Fraser Institute vice-president for international policy research and survey coordinator.

Read more

Board decision strikes ‘to the core:’ lawyer – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – February 27, 2012)

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

The decision by the Ontario Labour Relations Board to directly send the discharges of eight Steelworkers to arbitration is one of the most far-reaching made by the board in a decade, said United Steelworkers lawyer Brian Shell.

The board ruled in favour of the union Friday and is directing Vale to enter into arbitration to decide the fate of eight men fired during United Steelworkers’ bitter year-long strike against Vale.

Shell said the decision goes to the core of collective bargaining, “the core of the right to strike and to the core of the dig-n ity unionized workers are entitled to by joining a union, by having a bargaining agent and by having that bargaining agent do collective bargaining for them.

“It goes right to the heart of the entire system of labour relations,” Shell said. Vale has had little to say about Friday’s decision other than to release this statement Saturday afternoon that its team continues to “review and assess” the board’s 29-page decision.

Read more

Ontario urged to speak up for oil sands – by Dawn Walton (Globe and Mail – February 27, 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.

CALGARY— Supporters of Alberta’s oil sands say Ontario needs to do more to publicly defend the resource, including standing up for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, since its economy is the country’s second-largest beneficiary from the production of the gooey bitumen.

According to Alberta Premier Alison Redford, in Chicago for a few days talking up her province’s oil and gas industry, Quebec also needs to do its part to tell Alberta’s story. This is particularly important, she said, on the issue of the $7-billion pipeline that would link Canada to Texas, a project delayed by the White House.

And the rookie Premier, set to soon visit New York and Washington as well, isn’t alone. Pundits and industry are also calling on the have-not provinces to come to oil-rich Alberta’s aid.

“We in Alberta have a resource that matters to the rest of the country,” Ms. Redford recently told members of the Small Explorers and Producers Association of Canada in Calgary, “It’s not enough for Alberta to be talking about the importance of Keystone in the United States.

Read more

Gold, Silver Juniors Should Shine in 2012: Mark Raguz – by Brian Sylvester (The Gold Report – February 24, 2012)

This interview is from The Gold Report website: http://www.theaureport.com/

After a tough 2011, Mark Raguz and his colleagues at Pinetree Capital are looking at the junior resource sector with renewed optimism. In this exclusive Gold Report interview, he names some of the plays that are fueling that sentiment, from gold names in Northern Ontario to silver names in Mexico.

The Gold Report: Mark, what do you think will determine Pinetree Capital Ltd.’s (PNP:TSX) success in 2012, especially regarding the junior resource sector?

Mark Raguz: What we need to see is the embracing of less risk aversion and the desire of investors to move further along the liquidity curve toward the junior resource space. There are signs this is starting to happen. In the meantime, we believe we can add value by drawing on our expertise in the resource sector and filtering out the best names, whose value might be realized over time.

TGR: How do you determine the best names?

MR: We see things very early and we look at a lot of different names. Finding the gems becomes a lot easier as we have a lot of experience in this area and a lot of comparables to use because of the amount of companies we look at. My goal is to draw out the best management teams with the best assets, given our exposure to most of the names in the space.

Read more

Mining on the moon: gold, fuel, and Canada’s possible role in a new space race – by Peter Rakobowchuk (Winnipeg Free Press – February 26, 2012)

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/

The Canadian Press

MONTREAL – Canada could play a key role in a new international space race, with the next sprint to the moon gearing up as an extra-terrestrial gold rush.

Industry insiders will be watching closely this week as the heads of the world’s five biggest space agencies get together in Quebec City, where the partners on the International Space Station will discuss more than just the future of the orbiting lab.

They will also address an idea gaining currency in business and scientific circles: that within human reach lies an unfathomable wealth of resources, some of them common on Earth and others so exotic that they could change the way we live.

Canada could figure prominently in any discussion about lunar exploration, with nearly one-quarter of the world’s top mining companies headquartered here and this country also known for robotics like the famous Canadarm.

Read more

Cool It (Environmental Documentary – 2010)

This information is from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming is a book by the Danish statistician and political scientist Bjørn Lomborg. The book is a sequel to The Skeptical Environmentalist (first published in Danish in 1998), which in English translation brought the author to world attention.

Lomborg argues that many of the elaborate and expensive actions being considered to stop global warming will cost hundreds of billions of dollars without the same return on investment, often are based on emotional rather than strictly scientific assumptions, and may have very little impact on the world’s temperature for centuries. Lomborg concludes that a limited carbon tax is needed in the First World as well as subsidies from the First World to the Third World to help fight ongoing humanitarian crises.

Media

The New York Times says

“ In his short new book, “Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming,” Mr. Lomborg reprises his earlier argument with a tighter focus. He tries to puncture more of what he says are environmental myths, like the imminent demise of polar bears. ”
—The New York Times, [1]

Read more

An Inconvenient Truth (Environmental Documentary – 2006)

This information is from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

An Inconvenient Truth is a 2006 documentary film directed by Davis Guggenheim about former United States Vice President Al Gore’s campaign to educate citizens about global warming via a comprehensive slide show that, by his own estimate, he has given more than a thousand times.[citation needed]

Premiering at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and opening in New York City and Los Angeles on May 24, 2006, the documentary was a critical and box-office success, winning 2 Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature and Best Original Song.[4] The film also earned $49 million at the box office worldwide, becoming the sixth-highest-grossing documentary film to date in the United States.[5]

The idea to document his efforts came from Laurie David who saw his presentation at a town-hall meeting on global warming which coincided with the opening of The Day After Tomorrow. David was so inspired by Gore’s slide show that she, with Lawrence Bender, met with Guggenheim to adapt the presentation into a film.

Read more

Not Evil Just Wrong (Mining Documenatry – 2009)

This information is from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Not Evil Just Wrong (2009) is a documentary film by Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer that challenges Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth by suggesting that the evidence of global warming is inconclusive and that the impact global-warming legislation will have on industry is much more harmful to humans than beneficial.[1] The movie was filmed in 2008 and was screened at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam[2] and at the Right Online conference in 2009.[3]

Despite earlier screenings at conservative political conferences, filmmakers promoted a “premiere” on October 18, 2009.[4] The film attempted to break a World Record for largest simultaneous premiere, which is currently held by the documentary The Age of Stupid, another global warming documentary.[5] The film’s website claims that there were 6,500 U.S. screenings and 1,500 foreign screenings and reached 400,000 people.[6]

Read more

Ottawa’s focus on Alberta oilsands is killing manufacturing jobs in Eastern Canada, economists say – by Antonia Zerbisias (Toronto Star – February 26, 2012)

The Toronto Star, has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

You know that old saying, “When the U.S. sneezes, Canada catches a cold.”

It still applies. The United States remains our biggest trading partner. What happens there affects everything from our tourism to our exports. But now, Canada is facing a bigger threat to its economic health.

It’s called Dutch Disease — and it’s complicated by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s newly acquired China Syndrome. Stung by U.S. President Barack Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, Harper is looking to China’s government-owned oil companies.

Dutch Disease isn’t about tulips or wooden shoes or even sick elm trees. It’s about Canada’s steady conversion to a petro-state, fuelled by the rapid development of Alberta’s oilsands. It means that, more and more, Canada’s economy will be subject to the price of oil.

Coined by The Economist in 1977, “Dutch Disease” describes what happened to the Netherlands after natural gas fields were discovered off its shores. The little country became so economically entangled with its resource industry, its manufacturing sector tanked.

Read more

Canada Mining Corruption: Survey Finds Canadian Provinces Seen As Riskier Than Parts Of Africa – by Daniel Tencer (The Huffington Post Canada – February 24, 2012)

This article is from: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

Corruption in Canada’s mining industry is worse than in some African and Latin American countries, says a new survey from the Fraser Institute.

Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories all ranked in the survey as more corrupt than Chile and Botswana. The remaining provinces and territories ranked better than any developing country, but were still seen as more corrupt than many U.S. and Australian jurisdictions.

The study notes that Chile and Botswana have the fastest-growing resource sectors on their respective continents, suggesting a link between economic growth and lack of corruption.

The Northwest Territories ranked as the most corrupt in Canada, with fully 16 per cent of respondents saying corruption would keep them from investing in the area.

Sweden, Norway and Finland, as well as the U.S. states of Minnesota and Missouri, were ranked as the least corrupt in the survey that looked at 93 countries and sub-national areas and surveyed 802 mining companies worldwide.

Read more

The new Canadian gold rush [Detour Lake, Northern Ontario] – by Renata d’Aliesio (Globe and Mail – February 25, 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.

COCHRANE, ONT.— Scott Ulvstal had pretty much given up on the idea of settling down in his hometown in northeastern Ontario. He left with his girlfriend, Rosanna, a decade ago, hitting the road in a rented U-Haul truck after finishing his studies in graphic design.

There were few job prospects to keep them in Cochrane, a small blue-collar town surrounded by rugged wilderness, the last stop on a 755-kilometre rail line from Toronto. And the young couple were looking for adventure somewhere west.

Visits home over the years offered Mr. Ulvstal little hope of moving back. Shutdowns and layoffs at the sawmill and plywood plants had become routine. Grocery stores, restaurants and clothing shops closed as the community’s population dwindled. The town’s once-grand winter carnival had faded to a small gathering of residents.

“It was like a ghost town down there,” Mr. Ulvstal recalls of Cochrane’s main street. “I didn’t think there would be any work for us here.”

Read more

How Green Was My Valley (Mining Movie – 1941)

This information is from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

How Green Was My Valley is a 1941 drama film directed by John Ford. The film, based on the 1939 Richard Llewellyn novel, was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and written by Philip Dunne. The film stars Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O’Hara, Anna Lee, Donald Crisp, and Roddy McDowall. It was nominated for ten Academy Awards,[1] winning five and beating out for Best Picture such classics as Citizen Kane, The Maltese Falcon, Suspicion and Sergeant York.

The film tells the story of the Morgans, a close, hard-working Welsh family at the turn of the twentieth century in the South Wales coalfield at the heart of the South Wales Valleys. It chronicles a socio-economic way of life passing and the family unit disintegrating.

In 1990, How Green Was My Valley was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Read more