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Year: 2012

Nickel Quest a reality: A Virtual Underground Mine Tour

 

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

The “Nickel Quest” educational resource, was originally launched in June 2007, to complement aspects of the grade seven to grade nine curriculum.

The project was launched with the idea that it isn’t possible to provide all Ontario students with the educational experience of touring an underground mine. The Ontario Mining Association (OMA) took the route of using technology to create a virtual mine tour and take the underground mine experience to the classroom.

The development of Nickel Quest was led by the OMA Virtual Mine Tour Advisory Panel. This group, had representation from the mining industry, education and government, and worked together to produce an educational — and entertaining — resource that will help provide the link for students from mining activity to the products they use everyday and show why mining is important to all.

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Qatar backing puts Glencore’s takeover of Xstrata on track – by Sarah Young (Mineweb.com – November 15, 2012)

http://www.mineweb.com/

Qatar said on Thursday that it will vote in favour of two key resolutions on the takeover aimed at creating a mining and trading powerhouse.

LONDON (REUTERS) – Commodity trader Glencore’s $32 billion takeover of miner Xstrata looked set to go ahead after Qatar Holdings – the bid target’s second-largest shareholder – backed the deal.

Qatar, an unexpected kingmaker in Glencore’s bid for Xstrata, said on Thursday that it would vote in favour of two key resolutions on the takeover aimed at creating a mining and trading powerhouse.

In a snub to Xstrata management, Qatar said that it will abstain from voting on a multimillion-pound management retention plan, which increases the chances of that aspect of the deal being voted down. “In a nutshell, this means the deal is all but done,” Liberum analysts said.

Qatar’s support for the deal, first announced in February, comes after its surprise opposition to terms in June and brings Glencore within weeks of sealing its long-running pursuit of the Swiss mining company.

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Lights, camera, action: Let Season Five of Ontario Mining Association’s SYTYKM begin

 

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

So You Think You Know Mining (SYTYKM)

The Ontario Mining Association has launched season five of its province-wide high school video competition So You Think You Know Mining. Every year, this contest has grown in interest, in the number of entries and in prizes. This year is no exception. Available prize money for season five is $36,500, up from $33,500 last year.

The award for the Best Overall video is $5,000 and most other Oscar-type award categories carry $2,500 cash prizes for winners. “We strive to make SYTYKM interesting and innovative every year,” said OMA President Chris Hodgson. “The SYTYKM award prizes are like scholarships and we have been gratified at how past winners have utilized their prizes to help finance their post-secondary education and in some cases film and arts careers. We want to enable, inspire and engage the opinion makers and story tellers of tomorrow.”

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Let’s not buy a power plant – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal editorial (November 15, 2012)

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

THE devolution of central government has seen municipalities forced to pick up responsibilities and costs on many fronts. We don’t need more. Ottawa has been offloading programs onto provinces and “downloading” has become a dirty word in Ontario where municipalities with limited local tax bases have been expected to take on everything from selected health care to courtroom security.

Social services are legislated by the province but the costs that are apportioned over every municipality in Thunder Bay District are staggering for some. In order to secure a new regional hospital, Thunder Bay taxpayers voted to assume $25 million of the cost. This week, Thunder Bay Mayor Keith Hobbs resurrected the idea of buying the provincial power plant located on Mission Island. Let’s not. Instead, let us insist the province fulfill its mandate to supply electricity.

As part of widespread cost-saving measures, the Ontario Power Authority is considering cheaper methods of providing electricity to Northern Ontario. It claims it can supply all the power needed — including that for a new mining boom — by expanding the main east-west transmission line. Closing the Thunder Bay Generating Station would save $400 million, OPA says. Local officials scoff at this notion and insist that planned conversion of the coal plant to natural gas is essential if the region is to provide all the power needed to feed dozens of existing and pending mines.

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As bribery rules get tougher, resource firms put on notice – by Laura Cameron (Globe and Mail – November 15, 2012)

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.

U.S. regulations will force Canadian commodity extractors to disclose all payments made to governments over $100,000

For Canadian resource companies, the cost of doing business abroad is about to go up. New reporting requirements passed under the U.S. Dodd Frank financial overhaul bill will require resource extraction issuers to disclose all payments made to governments over $100,000, beginning in 2014. The Securities and Exchange Commission regulations will add new expenses for Canadian mining and energy companies listed in the U.S., and may hinder their competitiveness overseas.

Section 1504 of the bill is intended to empower citizens of resource-rich countries to hold their governments accountable for the money they receive, which often lines the pockets of corrupt officials rather than going to the betterment of the population. The regulations also seek to shed light on illegal payments made by companies to gain access to resources in developing nations.

The SEC’s new requirements are part of an international crackdown on corruption, which has been steadily gaining momentum since the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development signed its anti-bribery convention in 1997. As part of its obligations as signatory, Canada passed the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act (CFPOA) in 1999. But it is only in the past five years that Canadian authorities have been taking serious steps toward enforcement.

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Skittish investors abandon Iamgold – by Martin Mittelstaedt (Globe and Mail – November 15, 2012)

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.

Iamgold Corp. shares sagged nearly $3 or more than 19 per cent in active trading, after the gold producer reported weaker-than-expected third-quarter earnings and announced a major reduction in its production outlook for next year.

The stock tumble follows the recent pattern in the gold-mining industry, where companies that disappoint investors have seen their stocks get crushed as skittish owners rush for the exits.

Operating profit in the quarter fell to 16 cents (U.S.) a share, down almost half from 30 cents earned in the same period a year ago. The consensus estimate among analysts had been 24 cents.

“Execution in the gold space is very important and when you mis-execute, investors shoot first and ask questions later,” said Pawel Rajszel, an analyst at Veritas Investment Research Corp. who slapped a sell recommendation on Iamgold Wednesday.

Iamgold, which has mines in Suriname in South America and in West Africa, said gold output this year will be “at the lower end” of its guidance of 840,000 to 910,000 ounces; for next year the company is expecting between 875,000 to 950,000 ounces, a major reduction from previous forecasts that ranged up to 1.1 million ounces.

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Quebec minister lashes out against plans to bring Alberta oil to province – by Nicolas Van Praet (Victoria Times Colonist – November 15, 2012)

http://www.timescolonist.com/index.html

MONTREAL – Quebec’s environment minister is expressing reservations about private-sector plans to import crude from Alberta’s oil sands to Montreal refineries, insisting Quebec will retain sovereignty over its land no matter what is decided by federal regulators.

Speaking to reporters in Quebec City Wednesday, Daniel Breton would not say outright if his Parti Québécois minority government opposes plans by Enbridge Inc. and TransCanada Corp. to ship Alberta oil eastward to Montreal. Rather, he attempted to flex a little muscle by saying nothing will move forward without Quebec’s blessing.

“There are some environmental risks with oil,” said Mr. Breton, a former environmental activist who helped found Quebec’s Parti Vert. “Given what happened [on the Kalamazoo River] in Michigan, we can’t take this lightly…. This is a question of protecting the environment that’s on our territory.”

A pipeline belonging to Calgary-based Enbridge ruptured at that location in 2010 in a spill the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency later estimated at larger than one million U.S. gallons. Cleanup costs have topped US$585-million.

Enbridge is planning a significant expansion of its pipelines that carry crude from the oil sands and the Bakken shale oil field to refineries in central Canada and the U.S. Midwest.

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Imported Chinese workers inflame B.C. debate over skills training – by Jim Sutherland (Canadian Business Magazine – November 14, 2012)

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/

On the day in late October when 13 temporary foreign workers arrived from China to begin work at a coal mine near Tumbler Ridge, B.C., the forecasted low was –19°C, with a snowfall warning. So much for a warm welcome. In fact, just two days later the federal government announced that it was re-examining the application that allowed HD Mining to bring in workers to the site in the first place.

But then, the reception afforded these particular arrivals was expected to be frosty. Unions were already angry about the growing number of workers entering the country through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, in part due to the Harper government’s easing of restrictions. Making it worse, here was China, long the great job thief, now exporting its impossibly cheap labour to Canadian shores.

Looming in the background was a historic misallocation of the labour market that has high-school graduates spending tens of thousands of dollars training for pursuits like web design and filmmaking, even as jobs go chronically unfilled in the country’s resource hinterland. The controversy, which started weeks before the workers’ arrival, happened to coincide with a much-mocked B.C. provincial government advertising campaign urging young people to reconsider their career paths, since “Hipster is not a real job.”

Then, there were some early missteps by HD Mining, a joint venture between Huiyong Holdings, a Chinese miner, and Canadian Dehua International Mines, founded by Naishun Liu, a China-born, Vancouver-based businessman.

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BHP to ramp up iron ore production from existing mines – by Sonali Paul (Reuters/Vancouver Sun – November 14, 2012)

http://www.vancouversun.com/index.html

PERTH – BHP Billiton expects to expand its iron ore capacity by nearly a fifth just by working its mines, rail lines and port harder as it looks to control costs in a softer iron ore market, the global miner’s iron ore chief said on Wednesday.

Uncertainty over iron ore prices due to stuttering demand for the steel making ingredient from China has prompted a rethink of expansion plans by most iron ore miners, including top global iron ore miner Vale.

BHP has slowed its growth plans, like Australia’s no.3 iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group, while their bigger rival Rio Tinto is pressing ahead with an expansion that will give it at least a third more capacity than BHP and more than double Fortescue’s capacity.

“Looking forward, things are not as rosy as they were in the past. The imperative to grow as aggressively as we were in the past has diminished slightly,” Wilson said at a conference.

Caught out by escalating costs, a sharp slide in iron ore prices and a persistently strong Australian dollar, BHP shelved plans in August to build a $20 billion iron ore harbour at Port Hedland in Western Australia that would have eventually doubled its iron ore capacity to 440 million tonnes.

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Canada’s deficit soars by $5 billion due to falling commodity prices, tax revenues (updated) – by Julian Beltrame (CP/Vancouver Sun – November 14, 2012)

http://www.vancouversun.com/index.html

Deficit to hit $26 billion as balanced budget target pushed back a year to 2016-17

The Harper government has pushed back its target date for eliminating the deficit by one year, leaving open the possibility it won’t be able to fulfil two key election promises on income splitting and doubling tax-free saving accounts.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty delivered his fall economic update Tuesday, saying global economic weakness has carved into commodity prices and tax revenues. The update showed a bottom line worse than many expected, with the deficit at $26 billion, up $5 billion from the March budget forecast.

This year’s deficit would be even higher, by about $7 billion, if Flaherty hadn’t hedged his bet by adding a $3 billion cushion, or margin for risk, into his budget calculations.

Flaherty also said it will take a year longer than predicted to balance the budget. During the last election campaign, the Conservatives said they would establish the Family Tax Cut income sharing for couples with dependent children under 18 years of age. It would give spouses the choice to share up to $50,000 of their household income for federal income tax purposes.

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[Canada] We need foreign workers, they need fair treatment – by Tim Harper (Toronto Star – November 14, 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 – The day Canadians decide en masse that they will relocate to northern Alberta or northern British Columbia to take available jobs, we can have a proper debate in this country over the need for the Temporary Foreign Worker program.

Until that fanciful day arrives, let’s accept that this program fills a huge void in the Canadian labour market in 2012.

There are two other more relevant questions to debate — why has this program been left open to such obvious abuse and why has its use accelerated so quickly under the Conservative government?

Human Resources Minister Diane Finley has been forced into a long overdue review of the program by organized labour in British Columbia after a subsidiary of the Chinese Dehua Mines advertised for workers fluent in Mandarin, apparently ignoring the requirement that efforts first be made to locate or train Canadian workers to fill the mines jobs.

“Our government believes that Canadians must always have first crack at job opportunities in Canada,’’ Finley said.

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Canadians have cause for economic optimism – by David Olive (Toronto Star – November 14, 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.

Jim Flaherty’s forecast Tuesday of a weaker global economy, a bigger 2012 deficit than previously anticipated and a delay in the balancing of Ottawa books is likely to trigger the kind of headlines that get folks wringing their hands.

Canada’s 1.4 million unemployed workers will fear an even longer wait for a decent job. A middle class that’s been struggling for three decades to make ends meet will doubt that a revival in household-income growth is close at hand.

Yet the cause for optimism should be driven home hard and relentlessly. Optimism does tend to be a self-fulfilling prophesy, and we have plenty to be realistically hopeful about.

The assessment of Canada released last week by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is quite stunningly positive, though overshadowed by Flaherty’s hints Tuesday that we might not be able balance the budget quite as soon as the 2015-16 deadline set in his March 2012 budget.

The OECD forecasts Canada continuing to outpace its Group of Seven peers in economic growth over the next 50 years.

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[Thunder Bay] City talks power plant purchase – by Kris Ketonen (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – November 14, 2012)

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

If plans to convert the Thunder Bay Generating Station to natural gas from coal fall through, the City of Thunder Bay would look into buying the plant, Mayor Keith Hobbs said Tuesday.

The province announced a hold on the conversion project, saying the Ontario Power Authority says the region’s energy needs can be met for much cheaper if the plant is shut down.

The OPA has yet to reveal its plans, but if they result in the plant’s closure, Hobbs said the city will examine whether it’s possible to purchase the plant and keep it running. “If we hear that that plant would be mothballed, I think that’s the time to go into those discussions,” he said from Toronto.

Hobbs was among a delegation who met with Energy Minister Chris Bentley in Toronto on Tuesday. The possibility of buying the plant did not come up, Hobbs said.

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Plenty of questions to be answered [Thunder Bay power plant] – Kris Ketonen (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – November 14, 2012)

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

Despite several still-unanswered questions, Thunder Bay representatives are encouraged about the future of the Thunder Bay Generating Station after meeting with the provincial energy minister on Tuesday.

The government announced that it was putting a hold on the conversion of the plant from coal-burning to natural gas-burning.

The decision came as a result of assertions by the Ontario Power Authority that halting the conversion would save $400 million, while other initiatives — including expanding the east-west tieline that ships power between Northern and southern Ontario — would ensure the region’s energy needs are met.

Regional representatives, however, say the region’s power needs can’t be met if the plant isn’t running, especially given the looming mining boom. Nine mines are expected to start up in the Northwest within the next five years, bringing major power requirements with them. After meeting with Bentley on the matter, Thunder Bay Mayor Keith Hobbs said he was encouraged.

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Mining and racism – by Roger J. King (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – November 14, 2012)

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

Re OPA Wants to Clear the Air — CJ, Nov. 9:

With all due respect I must disagree with Gary Clarke who claims there is no racism in the Ontario Prospectors Association. I was a member of the Northwestern Ontario Prospectors Association for many years in the late ’90s, an umbrella member of the OPA. Being light skinned, many of the prospectors did not know I was an Indian from Gull Bay.

I attended the monthly meetings where I witnessed a number of stereotypical racial comments. I did not have the fortitude to stand to speak up for myself then. No one in the executive in those meetings got up to intervene on those comments, including Mr. Clark who was present at many of them.

By no means am I painting all those prospectors present as racist. It appeared this was part of the group dynamics as the 30-or-so members conducted business.

I recalled incidents of race relations I grew up with. After I graduated high school I went to university in eastern Ontario where there was very little discrimination against Indians.

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