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Year: 2012

Keystone protesters pay price for dangling in Texas trees – by David Mildenbery (Bloomberg/Toronto Star – December 20,2012)

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.

AUSTIN, TEXAS—Protesters trying to save the world by sitting in trees or blocking equipment used to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline are learning that environmental activism can be a ticket to lengthy jail time in East Texas.

Matthew Almonte, Glen Collins and Isabel Brooks landed in jail in Tyler on Dec. 3, charged with misdemeanor criminal trespass, resisting arrest and illegal dumping, following efforts to stop work on the TransCanada Corp. pipeline. Each has asked for a reduction in the $65,000 (U.S.) bond that must be posted to get out pending trial, without success.

The trio joined more than 30 others arrested since October near Tyler and Nacogdoches as they tried to halt work on the $7.6 billion (U.S.) pipeline that would bring products of Alberta oilsands to Houston-area refineries. President Barack Obama blocked the northern U.S. leg, citing environmental risks in Nebraska. An updated review of a revised route may be released in days. The southern end runs from Oklahoma through Texas.

“This is the front line where the climate debate comes onto the ground and you can come over and kick it,” said Eddie Scher, a Sierra Club spokesman. The Washington-based group calls itself the largest, most effective U.S. environmental advocate. “There isn’t an inch of space between us and the blockaders.”

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Alberta feels the pinch of slumping commodity prices – by Josh Wingrove, Barrie McKenna and Nathan Vanderklippe (Globe and Mail – December 20, 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.

Edmonton, Ottawa and Calgary — Oil-rich Alberta is dialling back its budget forecasts, saying that slumping commodity prices could mean belt-tightening, bigger deficits, broken election pledges and a slower national economic recovery.

The warning Wednesday from Finance Minister Doug Horner is the latest signal that Canada’s economy will not turn around as swiftly as governments across the country had hoped. British Columbia, Saskatchewan and the federal government have pulled back on revenue projections in recent weeks because of sluggish growth and low commodity prices, particularly in oil and gas.

Mr. Horner blamed the gap between the price of Alberta’s oil and the North American benchmark. Alberta’s typically sells at a discount, one that has widened lately. “I’m very, very concerned about where those numbers are headed,” Mr. Horner said, adding the province needs new export pipelines to reach new buyers and fetch the higher price.

Any commodity downturn is felt most strongly in the west, but provincial forecasts across Canada are being revised as the U.S. economy remains sluggish and energy prices slump.

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[Newfoundland] Muskrat folly – by Tom Adams (National Post – December 19, 2012)

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

Tom Adams is a Toronto-based electricity consultant.

Newfoundland pushes project to exact revenge on Quebec

The governments of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Canada have teamed up to deliver what may prove to be the worst hydroelectric project ever in Canada — Muskrat Falls.

The plan involves building a dam and generating station on the Churchill River near Goose Bay, plus transmission lines to deliver power from Labrador to the island of Newfoundland and on to Nova Scotia. In 2010, the price tag was pegged at $6.2-billion with a modest contingency. Today, the price has ballooned to $7.7-billion, a figure that would be higher except that the contingency allowance was slashed by $370-million. Neither figure includes interest during construction that will add over a billion more.

To smooth what would otherwise be a drastic rate impact for Newfoundland consumers if conventional utility finance models were applied, the government plans to use a unique financial structure that shifts the main financial burden of the generator portion of the project up to 57 years into the future.

A joint federal-provincial review in 2011 refused to endorse the project.

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First Nations force their way onto Stephen Harper’s 2013 agenda – by Tim Harper (Toronto Star – December 19, 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 movement is known as Idle No More. In the next couple of days we will learn whether this is the latest venting of aboriginal frustration in this country or whether it grows to become a sleeper issue in 2013.

Aboriginal discontent could muscle its way onto Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s agenda very early in the new year.

The protests have been surprisingly robust, although Idle No More, born of opposition to the government’s omnibus budget bill, is only days old.

It has moved beyond the angry flare sparked by the bill and has grown, fuelled by young aboriginals deftly using social media, to represent the latest iteration of the festering conflict that has marked the Harper government — its determination to economically exploit resources over the objections of environmentalists and aboriginals who believe this regime is running roughshod over its ancestral lands.

But there is more, something even more fundamental, because movement leaders count 14 pieces of legislation — dealing with everything from education to water quality to financial accountability — that they believe are the laws of an adversary.

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TSX cracking down on Ring of Fire remote miners – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – December 18, 2012)

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North.

The lack of a coherent plan to develop transportation infrastructure in the Ring of Fire is hurting the exploration financing scene in Ontario, says a leading business law firm.

Fasken Martineau issued a Dec. 13 bulletin that the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) has taken the position not to list companies with exploration projects in global regions where there is no authoritative plan to move raw and bulk product to market. This pertains to junior miners operating in Ontario’s Far North, the firm said in a statement.

Fasken said, historically, a National Instrument 43-101 technical report establishing “economically interesting grades” of mineral resources on a property was usually good enough to satisfy the TSX.

Not anymore. Faskens said the TSX wants assurances that bulk products, such as concentrate, can be shipped to market by roads, rail or via port facilities.

“We understand that the TSX has recently turned down the listing application of several companies in the Ring of Fire and in Quebec, because of concerns about the availability of infrastructure.”

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[Sudbury] Local 598 starts talks with Xstrata – by Heidi Ulrichsen – Sudbury (Northern Life – December 19, 2012)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Negotiations ‘cordial and sincere‘

Mine Mill Local 598/CAW began negotiating a new contract with Xstrata Nickel on behalf of its 900 members who work for the company Dec. 14. The union’s three-year deal with Xstrata Nickel expires at midnight Jan. 31.

So far, negotiations have been “cordial and sincere,” and the bargaining committee is cautiously optimistic a new contract can be reached without a labour dispute, a press release from the union said.

“We’ve had a good relationship with them over the last three years,” said Local 598 president Richard Paquin. “All indications so far are they want to maintain that.”

Negotiations will continue through the Christmas season as both parties try to come to an agreement, he said. If a deal isn’t reached by mid-January, Local 598 will hold a strike vote, Paquin said. During the last set of negotiations in 2010, a deal wasn’t reached until the early morning hours of Feb. 1, a few hours after the contract expired.

In the end, the union didn’t give up any concessions, and it doesn’t plan to do so this time, either, Paquin said. The 2010 negotiations were difficult, but “all negotiations are difficult,” he said.

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Ring of Fire: Miles to Go Before We Dig – by Stan Sudol

This column was published in the January 5 and 7 editions of the Sudbury Star:

http://www.thesudburystar.com/2013/01/05/accent–ring-of-fire—miles-to-go-before-we-dig

http://www.thesudburystar.com/2013/01/07/miles-before-we-dig

Intro

It may be a cliché, but over the past six months, how things have changed and how they’ve stayed the same in the Ring of Fire. There may be some ongoing activity or discussions behind the scenes, but without a doubt, the declining state of the global economy, First Nations issues and Ontario politics seem to have halted any progress on a varity of issues.

First let’s look at the fragile nature of the world economy. The U.S. is still struggling, Europe is worse, with skyrocketing unemployment rates in many countries and China’s past double-digit expansion is gone. It is estimated that their economy will “only” grow seven per cent this year.

The price of commodities and the value of resource companies have plummeted. Many mining projects are being put on hold or cancelled while layoff notices are being handed out. Funding for junior exploration companies – the source of future discoveries like the Ring of Fire – has become almost imposible to find putting many on life support.

The stock price of Cliffs Natural Resources has plummeted from US$100.00 per share a year and a half ago to a little under US$30.00 recently. Cliffs has publicly stated that they are looking for a partner to help develop their northern Ontario chromite deposits. Recently the company has put their Bloom Lake iron ore expansion project in Quebec’s Labrador Iron Trough on hold and stopped production at two of their U.S. iron ore mines.

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OMA NEWS RELEASE: Helping make communities better: Goldcorp in Timmins

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.

As the holiday season is upon us, a couple of items have come to light recently which show how Ontario Mining Association member Goldcorp is stepping forward to help make Timmins a little more of a caring community. The gold producer is doing its bit for the area’s social safety net.

Goldcorp’s Porcupine Gold Mines has provided financial support for the Shania Kids Can (SKC) clubhouse in the local Schumacher Public School. Renowned entertainer Shania Twain donates $40,000 to $50,000 annually to this program designed to help children in challenged situations have a more positive childhood experience.

Those familiar with Ms Twain’s history know her growing up years were crowded with circumstances of hardship and, on occasion, coping with poverty. SKC is a personal mission for Ms Twain, who has a strong attachment to Timmins. The city is home to the Shania Twain Centre, which opened in 2001.

Money from Goldcorp will be used to fix up the SKC Clubhouse at Schumacher Public School and make it a model for other clubhouses in schools across North America. The plan is to make the clubhouse more of a fun facility and a little less of a classroom.

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NEWS RELEASE: NORTHERN ONTARIO HERITAGE FUND CORPORATION INVESTS IN LAURENTIAN RESEARCH CHAIR IN OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY

(L to R) John Fera, former president of USW Local 6500; Leo Gerard, CROSH Advisory Committee Chair; Honourable Rick Bartolucci, Minister of Northern Development and Mine and Chair of the NOHFC; Marianne Matichuk, Mayor of the City of Greater Sudbury; Dr. Tammy Eger, Director of CROSH; Dominic Giroux, President and Vice Chancellor of Laurentian University.

SUDBURY, ON (DECEMBER 19, 2012) –The Honourable Rick Bartolucci, Minister of Northern Development and Mines and Chair of the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC), today announced funding for the establishment of a Research Chair in Occupational Health and Safety at Laurentian University.

The new Research Chair in the existing Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health (CROSH) will lead research relevant to a broad range of workplaces. The Research Chair will work to make the Centre a national and international leader in occupational health and safety research, development, education, training, and global best practices. The CROSH Research Chair will be supported by a team of research assistants and other personnel.

“Our government continues to partner with universities to support important research initiatives,” said Minister Bartolucci. “I am very pleased that the NOHFC could invest in this Research Chair that will further help establish Laurentian University and Northern Ontario as a leading centre in occupational health and safety.”

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The Northern Miner’s 2012 Mining Person of the Year: Garofalo a steady hand on the Hudbay tiller – by John Cumming (Northern Miner – December 19, 2012)

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry. Editor John Cumming MSc (Geol) is one of the country’s most well respected mining journalists.jcumming@northernminer.com

In these times of economic and political turmoil, boring has become the new exciting.

With mining companies of all stripes running aground on the shoals of cost overruns, nationalization movements and environmental opposition, any executive that manages to guide a company to fiscal health, sustainable growth and positive community relations stands head and shoulders above his peers. And so this year, Hudbay Minerals president and CEO David Garofalo is our Mining Person of the Year for his fine job in making Hudbay a standout success story amid the dwindling list of mid-tier base metal miners.

Garofalo is a accountant by training, with a B.Comm. from the University of Toronto and a Chartered Accountant designation. He started out in 1990 as treasurer of Inmet Mining before joining Agnico-Eagle Mines in 1998 and becoming CFO in 1999. That was back when it only had one gold mine — the pre-expansion LaRonde in Quebec’s Abitibi region — and penny pinching was the order of the day, as gold traded for just US$250 per oz.

Garofalo helped Agnico nail down financings that allowed the company to grow prudently through mine expansions and asset purchases, without having to hedge production in a rising gold environment. In 2009, a year in which Agnico raised about a billion dollars, Garofalo won the award for “Canada’s CFO of the Year,” an honour that’s usually handed out to CFOs from much larger and more established Canadian companies.

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Coal to rival oil as dominant energy source by 2017: IEA – by John McGarrity (Reuters/National Post – December 19, 2012)

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

Coal will nearly overtake oil as the dominant energy source by 2017, and only a drop in world gas prices could curb the use of the dirtier fossil fuel in the absence of high carbon prices, the International Energy Agency said.

The IEA, the energy agency for developed countries, said earlier this year that without a major shift away from coal, average global temperatures could rise by 6 degrees Celsius by 2050, leading to devastating climate change.

China will use more coal than the rest of the world put together, while India will overtake the United States as the world’s second-largest consumer and become the biggest global importer, the Paris-based IEA forecast in its annual Medium-Term Coal Market Report, released on Tuesday.

“Coal’s share of the global energy mix continues to grow each year, and if no changes are made to current policies, coal will catch oil within a decade,” IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven said in a statement.

Use of the highly-polluting fossil fuel has surged in the past decade, mainly because of stronger demand from China and India, where cheap coal-fired electricity has helped to drive breakneck economic growth.

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Potential suitors eye Inmet’s Panama project – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – December 19, 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.

If it’s a white knight Inmet Mining Corp. is looking for, there’s no shortage of candidates it might lure to its massive world class copper project in Panama.

Inmet has yet to comment on the merits of a $5.1-billion hostile takeover offer from rival First Quantum Minerals, the Canadian copper miner that wants to combine the companies and become a top five producer. Late last month Inmet rejected an informal approach from First Quantum that valued it at $4.9-billion, saying it was highly conditional.

Industry experts say Inmet has essentially put itself up for sale, and expect it to start an auction process to attract a bid higher than the $72 per share on offer from First Quantum.

“The next question is who, because so often a bidder comes out of the woodwork and you say, ‘Oh, I didn’t think of them,’ ” said Raymond Goldie, an analyst with Salman Partners in Toronto, pointing to Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s largest diversified miner, as a potential candidate.

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Three of four top NA gold miners burdened by debt and rising costs – S&P – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com- December 19, 2012)

http://www.mineweb.com/

North American gold miner Goldcorp “has stood alone among gold miners” in increasing production and earnings without adding large amounts of debt, says Standard & Poor’s analysts.

RENO (MINEWEB) – In spite of favorable gold prices and strong operating cash flow, Standard & Poor’s analysts have been unhappy with gold producers’ rising costs and higher debt burdens.

In an analysis published Tuesday, S&P Credit Analysts Donald Marleau and George Economou observed, “Rating pressure is emerging in the gold mining industry as companies struggle to boost returns, despite the long-standing run of gold prices.”

“In fact, some of these companies are taking on unprecedented levels of debt to fund large, risky investments or acquisitions to increase—or even merely sustain—gold output,” they said.

Of the four North American gold companies reviewed by S&P, Goldcorp’s “track record of growing output, lower costs, and stable debt compares favorably with its larger, more diverse ‘BBB+’ rated peers Barrick and Newmont,” said S&P, “Moreover, the company’s ‘modest’ financial risk profile acts as a considerable buffer against potential shocks, such as unstable prices and costs or sudden spikes in capital spending needs.”

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Wabauskang heading to court to stop gold mine – by Shawn Bell (Wawatay News – December 18, 2012)

Northern Ontario’s First Nations Voice: http://wawataynews.ca/

Wabauskang First Nation is preparing to file a lawsuit to oppose Rubicon Minerals’ proposed Phoenix Gold Mine in Red Lake.

The Treaty #3 First Nation says it was left with no choice but to go to court after attempts to work with the company over the past year to address Wabauskang’s concerns failed to resolve the differences.

Wabauskang Chief Leslie Cameron pointed blame over the dispute directly at the federal government. Cameron said the government has passed its duty to consult First Nations onto Ontario and then onto mining companies. “The government has to deal with us directly,” Cameron said. “They can’t hide behind mining companies.”

Cameron said Wabauskang expressed its concerns with Rubicon’s Phoenix Gold Mine project right from the time the project was initiated. Despite those concerns, Ontario approved the mine’s process review in the fall of 2011.

“We didn’t want to go to court, so even though we don’t think Ontario had the authority to approve the mine, we tried to work with the company over the last year to resolve our concerns,” Cameron said. “We’ve been unsuccessful, so we’re forced to go to court to ensure that our interests are protected.”

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TransCanada seeks to shift focus to workers as furor over Keystone pipeline grows – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – December 19, 2012)

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

A couple of weeks ago, as anti-oil sands activists were in the headlines for their blockade in Texas of the Keystone XL pipeline, TransCanada Corp. president and CEO Russ Girling was nearby, surveying progress on the right of way and talking to his new recruits.

Four thousand of them were digging ditches and welding pipe in the southern portion of the controversial project to transport oil from Alberta to Texas — the only part that was allowed to proceed by U.S. President Barack Obama this year.

Many were recently unemployed, were looking forward to buying Christmas presents, and were expressing frustration at the few dozen protesters, largely from outside the area.

“On the ground, in Texas and Oklahoma, where we are under construction, you are starting some push-back from people who are saying: ‘I want to go to work. I don’t want you to be in my way every day’,” Mr. Girling said in an interview.

The workers are part of the grassroots TransCanada believes will step up in Keystone XL’s defence as a re-routed project lands before the U.S. President in the spring for a decision on whether it can move forward and contribute to North American economic revival and energy independence — or be rejected yet again as part of a broader stance against climate change.

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