2012 – Page 168 – Republic of Mining

NEWS RELEASE: Foreign Funding Poll: British Columbians Worried About Foreign Investment in Canadian Resources, Not Philanthropic Support for Environmental Groups

January 9, 2012

January 9, 2012

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA–(Marketwire – Jan. 9, 2012) – A poll released today by BC environmental groups shows that almost 75 percent of British Columbians are worried about foreign investment in Canadian natural resources. The poll results show that only a small minority of British Columbians (15%) are concerned about charitable funding provided by US philanthropic foundations to Canadian environmental groups.

The vast majority of British Columbians are worried about US and Chinese investment and control over Canadian natural resources.

“These poll results suggest that the oil lobby’s attacks against environmental groups are out of touch with the true values of British Columbians. The real issue is the unacceptable risk of a foreign-funded pipeline-oil tanker project that would ram pipe through unceded First Nations lands to ship some of the world’s dirtiest oil across thousands of fragile salmon-bearing rivers and streams,” said Will Horter, Executive Director of the Dogwood Initiative.

Nuclear waste-free zones promoted [in Northern Ontario] – by Carl Clutchey (Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal – January 9, 2012)

January 9, 2012

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

Two prominent Aboriginal organizations have come out against a proposal to bury nuclear waste in Northern Ontario.

The separate declarations by Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) and the Union of Ontario Indians (UOI) come as a half a dozen Northwestern Ontario municipalities continue to explore the possibility of hosting an underground storage facility for spent fuel bundles from nuclear reactors.

In separate news releases, NAN and UOI trash a search by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization to find a community willing to host a disposal site. “We have a mandate from the Creator to protect our lands and waters and have been doing so for thousands of years,” NAN Grand Chief Stan Beardy said.

“Nuclear waste is a poison that will damage our homelands.”

Titanic clash looms over proposed Northern Gateway pipeline – by Les Whittington (Toronto Star – January 9, 2012)

January 9, 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.

OTTAWA—A biologist, an energy lawyer and an aboriginal geologist will sit down Tuesday in a recreation centre in the wilderness of northern British Columbia to initiate what could be the fiercest environmental standoff ever seen in Canada.

Before the hearings in B.C. and Alberta are completed next year, more than 4,000 people are expected to appear before the three-member panel vetting the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline from Alberta through the Rockies to the B.C. coast.

Like the now-stalled Keystone XL project in the United States, the planned pipeline to carry tarsands-derived crude oil across the mountains to a new supertanker port in northern B.C. is shaping up as a titanic clash of economic and environmental imperatives.

Two peoples in one city – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (January 9, 2012)

January 9, 2012

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

WHILE issues unique to far northern First Nations unfold in places like Attawapiskat, a different set of challenges confronts aboriginal people who move south and the cities that become their homes.

Thunder Bay has always had native neighbours at Fort William. But the aboriginal population of the city itself grew 22.6 per cent between 2001 and 2006. It is estimated that one in five people living in Thunder Bay today is aboriginal, almost 40 per cent of them under the age of 20.

A recent report from Statistics Canada projects that in 2031, Thunder Bay will be one of five cities with the largest aboriginal populations in the country.

This growth will transform Thunder Bay in many ways. It is already straining services. A report to city council tonight updating the Urban Aboriginal Strategy recommends spending $125,000 to maintain the UAS advisory committee.

Oil-sands pipeline hits its highest hurdle – by David Ebner (Globe and Mail – January 9, 2012)

January 9, 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.

KITIMAAT VILLAGE, B.C.— The struggle to transport the harvest of Alberta’s vast oil sands enters a new arena this week – a village on the rugged British Columbia coast where the hopes of Canada’s biggest pipeline operator will meet a business-savvy first nation with little appetite for black gold.

Public vetting of Enbridge’s proposed $6.6-billion Northern Gateway oil-sands pipeline begins Tuesday. The arguments concerning aboriginal land rights and environmental impact promise a regulatory fight that could travel all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Reflecting the high stakes, the Harper government prepared a new warning, to be made public on Monday, that regulatory reviews for major energy projects should be accelerated and protected from interference by “radical environmental groups financed from the United States.”

Radical groups’ spur Tories to speed pipeline review process – by John Ibbitson (Globe and Mail – January 9, 2012)

January 9, 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.

OTTAWA – The Conservative government will bring forward new rules to greatly shorten environmental reviews of pipelines and other major projects, arguing that “radical groups” are exploiting the reviews to block proposals vital to Canada’s economic future.

On the eve of hearings into the proposed Northern Gateway oil pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific coast, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver released a strongly-worded open letter Monday condemning some opponents of the pipeline. A copy of the letter was provided in advance to The Globe and Mail.

The letter warns of “environmental and other radical groups” including “jet-setting celebrities” funded by foreign special interest groups who “threaten to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological ends.”

They system “is broken,” Mr. Oliver concludes in the letter. “It’s time to take a look at it.”

Ottawa backtracks on coal emissions – by Shawn McCarthy (Globe and Mail – January 6, 2012)

January 7, 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.

The federal government is offering the provinces a way to avoid tough new regulations that would eventually force power companies to shut down the country’s fleet of coal-fired power plants.

Environment Minister Peter Kent and Prime Minister Stephen Harper have privately indicated they are willing to provide flexibility in how new power-plant emissions rules are implemented, provincial and industry sources said Thursday. Mr. Kent is expected to release the final version of the long-promised regulations in the coming months.

The change in stance by the federal government provides relief for some of the country’s biggest utilities. Alberta-based power generators such as TransAlta Corp., Capital Power Corp. and Atco Ltd. – as well as Nova Scotia’s Emera Inc. – have warned that a rigid approach to Ottawa’s plant-by-plant rules would increase costs, drive up electricity prices for consumers, and strand valuable assets by imposing arbitrary deadlines for power plant closings.

Much ado about Canada’s energy ‘strategy’ – by Andrew Coyne (National Post – January 7, 2012)

January 7, 2012

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

Then we’re agreed. Canada needs a national energy strategy, says the Canadian Council of Chief Executives. Canada needs a national energy strategy, the Council of Canadians concurs. What this country needs is a national energy strategy, asserts the Energy Policy Institute of Canada, an industry group. Or what about a national energy strategy, counters the Alberta Federation of Labour, not an industry group. The country’s energy ministers discussed the need for a national energy strategy at their meeting last summer, since which time not a week has passed without someone demanding to know why we have not yet got one.

Given the idea has such universal support across the land, it might seem strange to find the prime minister, of all people, in some uncertainty as to its meaning. Asked his views on a Calgary radio show, Stephen Harper confessed, “the honest truth is I don’t know precisely what it means. I’m looking forward to having some discussions with some provinces to find out what they have in mind.” But in fact the prime minister’s confusion is entirely appropriate.

Tiny port, new energy battleground – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – January 7, 2012)

January 7, 2012

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

CALGARY — In a remote Aboriginal recreation centre on the shore of the Douglas Channel in British Columbia’s North Coast, Canadian regulators are kicking off historic hearings on Tuesday on the proposed $5.5-billion Northern Gateway oil sands pipeline. By the time they are finished in two years, thousands of Canadians will have had their say on the giant project.

The three-member Joint Review Panel will travel across Western Canada on behalf of the National Energy Board and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency to hear views about the environmental impact of the 1,172-kilometre project, starting with oral testimony from the elders of the Haisla Nation.

The 700-member community hosting the event’s high profile first days is located 12 km south of the city of Kitimat, the end point of the Enbridge Inc. project that would carry 550,000 barrels of oil a day from the Alberta oil sands to markets around the Pacific coast.

The region’s few hotels are stretched to the limit to accommodate the influx of visitors, including observers for the green lobby and the energy industry, the media, and the usual coterie of lawyers.

Lots to celebrate in [Timmins] 1912 – by Karen Bachmann (Timmins Daily Press – January 7, 2012)

January 7, 2012

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Karen Bachmann is the director/curator of the Timmins Museum and a local author.

HISTORY: Newspaper articles highlight the unbridled enthusiasm seen in the early days of the Porcupine Camp

OK, I’m feeling the pressure. This is the first article I get to pen for Timmins’ 100th anniversary, and it has to be special – so, of course, I’m frozen at my keyboard, awaiting Divine Intervention (or a third cup of coffee).

How to begin? What is there to be said?

Sadly, the stuff I should be writing about I am afraid to say, I have already written – the beginnings of the camp, the development of Northern Ontario, etc. … So, I pray your indulgence as I present to you a small piece based on the items from the front page from the very first Porcupine Advance newspaper, published on March 28, 1912 (Vol. 1, No. 1).

I have chosen to do this because the tone of that first newspaper and the articles presented back then really do illustrate the unbridled enthusiasm that was rampant in those early days of the Porcupine, and of the Town of Timmins.

NEWS RELEASE: Wallbridge Mining Highlights Plans for 2012

January 6, 2012

January 05, 2012

Highlights

Wallbridge Mining is to advance the Broken Hammer copper-PGE project through feasibility with permitting and a production decision expected in 2012.
Wallbridge Mining plans 15,000 metres exploration drilling in Sudbury with a focus on Implats, Lonmin and Xstrata joint ventures.
Continued drilling at Parkin, following up high grade nickel-copper-PGE results at Milnet.

Toronto, Ontario — January 5, 2012 – Wallbridge Mining Company Limited (TSX: WM, FWB: WC7) (“Wallbridge”) today provided a business update highlighting its direction for 2012. Wallbridge plans include advancing its Broken Hammer copper-platinum group element (“PGE”) project through feasibility and completing over 15,000 metres of exploration diamond drilling on its Sudbury area projects.

First Quantum exits DRC with $1.25-billion settlement – by Brenda Bouw (Globe and Mail – January 6, 2012)

January 6, 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.

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. (FM-T22.220.241.09%) is closing a painful chapter of its history in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by selling its mines and settling all legal claims for $1.25-billion (U.S.), years after its operations were nationalized by the government.

Vancouver-based First Quantum will sell the controversial Kolwezi copper-cobalt project, as well as its Frontier and Lonshi mines, to Kazakh miner Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. PLC, also known as ENRC, the same company it has been battling in international courts over its properties in DRC, one of the world’s most attractive copper regions.

The settlement comes as copper prices (HG-FT3.40-0.03-0.80%) are struggling to rebound from a 20-per-cent drop last year, amid worries that debt concerns in Europe and a slowdown in China’s rapidly growing economy could curb demand for the metal used in everything from cars to construction.

Northern [Ontario] MPPS say growth plan fails – The Daily Press (January 6, 2011)

January 6, 2012

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

A pair of Northern MPPs say a government growth plan has missed the mark. Gilles Bisson (NDP — Timmins-James Bay) and Michael Mantha (NDP — Algoma-Manitoulin) say the Northern Growth Plan has failed to address the real needs of northern Ontario.

The plan calls for the creation of “hubs” to promote development, but Sudbury and Thunder Bay are the only cities designated as such.

“The fact is that there is no money tied to the Northern Growth Plan. We’re not even sure what these two ‘hubs’ in Sudbury and Thunder Bay are meant to do. What money is being allocated to make these projects work?” said Bisson.

“I’m not only concerned for the cities like Timmins and Sault Ste Marie that are left out but I’m also concerned for Sudbury and Thunder Bay because without a clear vision and funds attached to it these centres are not likely to succeed.”

Injunction ‘a matter of respect’ for First Nations – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – January 6, 2012)

January 6, 2012

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper

Wahgoshig First Nation is not out to stop development, says Chief Dave Babin. The community, he added, simply wants its values respected by industry.

Wahgoshig won an injunction this week to halt mining exploration by Solid Gold Resource Corporation on its territory. The company was drilling in an area which the First Nation had identified as sacred ground.

“It’s a long-overdue issue that First Nations are facing with the industry and these are the things the industry has to understand with First Nations,” said Babin. “I’m not going to have people coming around here and terrorize the land because they feel they are following the Mining Act.

“They have to have respect for our cultural values within our territories. We have issues out there that we want to protect. It has no value to them but it has value to us.”

[Aboriginal] Injunction shuts down [Northern Ontario] miner – by Carl Clutchey (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – January 6, 2012)

January 6, 2012

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

A court ruling in favour of a Timmins-area First Nation regarding a mining dispute is further evidence that courts are backing up Aboriginal legal requirements to be consulted before drilling and staking begins.

“It proves the point that if you don’t follow the law, you’re going to end up in court and it’s going to cost your investors money,” Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Stan Beardy said Thursday.

Beardy was reacting to Ontario Superior Court of Justice Carol Brown’s decision this week that granted a 120-day injunction to Wahgoshig First Nation to temporarily prevent junior miner Solid Gold Resources from drilling on their land.

According to the ruling, “no consultation occurred with (WFN) before Solid Gold’s drilling began in the spring of 2011.”