2012 – Page 45 – Republic of Mining

Investors, mining companies, politicians, environment groups waiting for PQ’s vision for northern Quebec – by Monique Beaudin (Montreal Gazette – October 9, 2012)

October 9, 2012

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

It seems anyone with any bit of interest in northern Quebec would like a few words with the province’s new natural resources minister.

International investors, mining companies, municipal politicians and environmental groups are all wondering what exactly the new Parti Québécois government is going to do about the development of the north. Promoted internationally by former premier Jean Charest, it appears the new government has buried the 25-year, $80-billion Plan Nord.

Last week, Natural Resources Minister Martine Ouellet said the Plan Nord was just “marketing” for northern mining projects that were under way or in the planning stages. The PQ intends to go ahead with northern development, she said, but not any which way. The government is planning to create an agency to co-ordinate activities, similar to the Société de Plan Nord that was planned by the Liberals, she told La Presse’s editorial board.

Environmental groups welcomed the news, but Ouellet’s comments raised questions about what happens next. Mining companies and international investors are taking a “wait-and-see” approach, said Nochane Rousseau, a partner in the Montreal office of PricewaterhouseCoopers and leader of the company’s mining industry services.

The 9 Habits of Highly Effective Resource Economies: Lessons for Canada – by Madelaine Drohan (Canadian International Council Policy Report – October 5, 2012)

October 9, 2012

Madelaine Drohan is the Canada correspondent for The Economist and contributes regularly to its sister company, the Economist Intelligence Unit. For the last 35 years, she has covered business and politics in Canada, Europe, Africa and Asia. She has written in the past for The Financial Times (UK), appeared as a commentator on BBC Radio (UK), ABC Radio (Australia) and CBC Radio, and worked in Canada for The Globe and Mail, The Financial Post, Maclean’s, and The Canadian Press.

For the entire report click here: The 9 Habits of Highly Effective Resource Economies: Lessons for Canada

Executive Summary

Hewers of wood and drawers of water have had a bad image since Joshua cursed the Gibeonites and condemned them to those labours. Some of that biblical taint lingers in Canada. Fur, fish, wood, and minerals may have shaped this country, but for much of the 20th century, natural resources were largely regarded as part of the old economy, best left behind as Canada raced toward a glittery high-tech future.

That future did not arrive. Instead, the global commodity boom that began in 2003, fuelled by industrialization and urbanization in emerging economies, made the resource sectors important again.

Last year, the top Canadian merchandise export to every one of its major trading partners was a natural resource. This unexpected revival of the resource economy is one reason governments in Canada have come late to the realization that they must be more deliberate and united in their approach to resource development if they are to spread the wealth, not just over regions but also over generations.

Mining legend built legacy by giving back [John Larche dies] – by Kyle Gennings (Timmins Daily Press – October 8, 2012)

October 9, 2012

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Timmins lost one of the golden pillars of its community this Thanksgiving Day. John Larche died of natural causes, surrounded by his family at Timmins and District Hospital on Monday morning. He was 84.

It was the final page in a life highlighted by a long list of accomplishments which changed the face of the prospecting and mining industry the world round; it was the final page in a life that saw both hardship and success, one that was built on giving back, a life that cemented him in the memory of the City with the Heart of Gold

Larche was one of the true legends of the Porcupine Camp, as one of Canada’s most successful prospectors and in term of generosity in the community. He became involved in exploration in 1955, as an independent prospector and contractor.

He remained active in the industry until shortly before his death. Beginning in the late 1960s, he was elected president of the Porcupine branch of the Prospectors and Developers Association for 17 consecutive terms.

“He was a long-time friend,” said Dean Rogers, the association’s current president. “John was one of the stalwarts of the Porcupine Camp’s second generation, a true legend”

Foreign junket rules allow MPs to fly under the radar – by Barrie McKenna (Globe and Mail – October 8, 2012)

October 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 — Imagine that a Canadian company flies a group of MPs and their spouses to a conference in Paris or Hong Kong, puts them up in a luxury hotel, and then plies them with food and wine. Think this kind of junket is prohibited? Not necessarily.

The conflict-of-interest code for members of Parliament prohibits accepting “any gift or benefit … that might reasonably be seen to have been given to influence the member.”

But there’s a special exemption for travel if it “relates” to an MP’s work in the House of Commons, providing that details are disclosed to the federal ethics commissioner.

The result is a troubling contradiction. It’s sometimes okay for MPs to accept free travel from people who are actively lobbying them. “It’s a gaping hole in the MPs’ ethics rules,” argued Duff Conacher, the founding director of Democracy Watch.

“If someone’s lobbying you, they shouldn’t give you anything,” he said.

South Africa’s ruling party paralyzed as strikes choke off economy – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – October 8, 2012)

October 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.

JOHANNESBURG — Fuel and food supplies are beginning to run out as labour violence escalates in South Africa, leaving its ruling party facing a mounting national economic crisis while it is paralyzed by a leadership struggle.

The wildcat strikes are inflicting heavy damage on some of the world’s biggest gold and platinum producers in a country that remains Africa’s economic powerhouse. South Africa is the world’s biggest platinum producer and the fifth-biggest gold producer.

Two more people were reported murdered on the weekend in Marikana, the platinum mining town where 34 protesters were gunned down by police in August.

The labour unrest could become more chaotic this week as rail and port workers threaten to join 28,000 truckers whose strike has already disrupted fuel and food deliveries across South Africa, leaving some gas stations out of supplies, bank machines running out of cash and supermarkets suffering shortages of some products.

Resources: The flashpoint of 2015’s election – by John Ibbitson (Globe and Mail – October 8, 2012)

October 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.

The federal election of 1988 was so important that both sides agreed the very future of the country was at stake. The federal election of 2015 could be of similar nature. Then, the issue was trade. This time it could be resources.

The government and the opposition are dividing, with increasing bitterness, over whether and how Canada should exploit its resource wealth – especially petroleum. The question encompasses jobs, the environment, international relations, and regional growth and decline.

“The real issue is the vision of the future economically and environmentally,” NDP natural resources critic Peter Julian said in an interview. “These are the kinds of issues that will be front and centre in the next campaign.”

Twenty-five years ago last Thursday, as many have noted, Canada and the United States signed a free-trade agreement. But the country was bitterly divided over that issue, as well, ultimately forcing Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative government to call – and win – an election.

A nine-step plan to fix Canada’s resource economy – by Barrie McKenna (Globe and Mail – October 6, 2012)

October 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 — Canada will never be a true resource superpower until it shuns “rip-and-ship” extraction, embraces sustainability and shares the wealth with future generations.

Those are among the key conclusions of a provocative new report by the Canadian International Council, entitled “Nine Habits of Highly Effective Resource Economies.” Canada has won the “geological lottery,” with vast stores of resources that the world craves, but it risks squandering that inheritance because it lacks a clear national plan to exploit them wisely, the CIC says.

The foreign affairs think tank points to Norway, Sweden, Finland and Australia as the best examples of countries successfully leveraging their resources for maximum economic and social benefit.

“Other resource producers do a better job of collaborating, of finding a balance between environmental protection and the economy, of adding, building, or extracting value from their resources, of saving for future generations, and of being strategic about resource development,” according to the report, written by Madelaine Drohan, The Economist’s Canadian correspondent and former Globe and Mail reporter. “There are smaller countries with fewer resources than Canada that punch far above their weight on the global stage.”

China’s Nexen bid calls for a public debate – Toronto Star Editorial (October 7, 2012)

October 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.

Just how much of Canada’s vast oil and gas wealth is Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government prepared to put in the hands of China’s state-owned firms or other foreign actors? It’s a question that has been raised not only in Parliament, but also in the Alberta premier’s office and in corporate suites across the country, amid growing concern over China’s bid to buy Nexen Inc., a firm with interests in the western oilsands.

China’s ambassador, Zhang Junsai, makes a spirited case that “Chinese investments should be encouraged” to put Canada-China trade on a sounder footing and to help raise the $200 billion needed to develop the oilsands in the coming decades. Moreover, the Chinese National Offshore Oil Corp.’s proposed $15.1-billion buyout is a friendly one, laced with promises to make Calgary the head office for all of the firm’s operations, to list shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange and to keep the current management and workforce.

Still, many Canadians worry about the implications of this deal. Harper himself acknowledges that the bid “raises a range of difficult policy questions, difficult forward-looking issues.”

Meanwhile, Alberta Premier Alison Redford, while supportive, wants Ottawa to insist that CNOOC guarantee that Canadians will hold half of Nexen’s board and management positions, according to media reports.

Will the Parti Québécois Alter Québec’s Mine-Friendly Policies?: Eric Lemieux – by Brian Sylvester (The Gold Report – October 5, 2012)

October 6, 2012

http://www.theaureport.com/

A plan to build roads into mining projects. Tax breaks for junior mining companies. Does the return to power of the Parti Québécois signal the end to the province’s mining-friendly policies? Unlikely, according to Eric Lemieux, equity analyst with Laurentian Bank Securities. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, Lemieux says that even if the PQ tweaks current policy, it will take time, and he believes there are plenty of good stories to tell and invest in before that happens.

The Gold Report: Eric, you primarily cover mining companies in Québec, one of Canada’s most mining-friendly provinces. However, last month the Parti Québécois (PQ) won a minority mandate. Are the glory days for Québec’s mining sector over?

Eric Lemieux: Without saying the glory days are over, the election of the Parti Québécois will definitely put things on hold. The PQ has a very pro-environment and anti-mining perspective based on the personal convictions of certain ministers.

I think the PQ will change some of the priorities in Québec. I do not know if it will turn out to be effectively anti-mining. I think its people will just want to do things differently or give the perception that they are doing things differently. Recall the PQ held a very pro-ecological, anti-mining electoral stance that went in-line with the “printemps érable” (Maple Spring Arising) with the student protests.

First Nations want to be consulted first in mining talks – by CBC Radio News (October 5, 2012)

October 6, 2012

http://www.cbc.ca/sudbury/

‘Complexities’ surrounding ‘duty to consult’ not addressed, First Nations leaders say

First Nations leaders in northern Ontario say new mining regulations that go into effect Nov. 1 don’t go far enough. The updated mining act makes changes to early exploration requirements to help minimize the impact on the environment.

It also includes some new rules about consulting with First Nations, and a plan to better protect sites of Aboriginal cultural significance. But Lake Huron Regional Chief Isadore Day said First Nations are still concerned about the consultation process.

“It’s very clear that … it didn’t go deep enough to look at the complexities that have to do with the duty to consult,” he said. The executive director of the Ontario Prospectors Association said the province will inform First Nations if a claim is staked in traditional territory and put the mining company in contact with the correct person to consult.

“It’s always been a challenge to find the right person in the community to talk with,” Garry Clark said. “It’d be good because then we wouldn’t be exploring there and harming anything that has significance to the First Nations,” Clark said.

12,000 striking South African miners fired as unrest deepens – by Rodney Muhumuza (Globe and Mail – October 6, 2012)

October 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.

JOHANNESBURG — The Associated Press – Anglo American Platinum has fired 12,000 striking miners for staging an unlawful strike that is one of several that are slowly paralyzing South Africa’s crucial mining sector.

About 80,000 miners, representing 16 per cent of the country’s mine work force, are currently striking in a wave of wildcat work stoppages that have serious economic and political implications for South Africa.

Strike leader Gaddafi Mdoda, a mine worker at Anglo American Platinum, or Amplats, said he was one of the workers who received e-mails or SMS messages telling them they had been dismissed. “Things are bad here,” Mr. Mdoda said. The strike leader said he was shocked by the decision to dismiss striking workers, even though “it is nothing to be afraid of.”

“Approximately 12,000 striking employees chose not to make representations, nor attend the hearings, and have therefore been dismissed in their absence,” a statement from Amplats said, according to the South African Press Agency.

You heard it here: Northern Gateway’s dead – by Jeffrey Simpson (Globe and Mail – October 5, 2012)

October 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.

The Northern Gateway pipeline that Enbridge proposes to build from Alberta’s bitumen oil to the Pacific coast of British Columbia is, for all intents and purposes, dead.

Yes, regulatory hearings before the National Energy Board will continue until the NEB approves the project. And yes, Enbridge will keep pushing for it. And yes, the Harper government, which is so publicly committed to the project, will continue to extol its virtues as part of the need to get Canadian resources to Asia.

But the project is dead. It has too many obstacles now, and there’ll be more in the future.

To survive, the Gateway pipeline would have to push past the growing opposition of British Columbians in general, the opposition of the current Liberal provincial government and the NDP government likely to replace it next year, the unanimous opposition of environmentalists, considerable opposition from at least some of the aboriginal groups along the route and, if all this were not enough, the likelihood of prolonged court battles.

Letting China Inc into the oil patch could scuttle Keystone XL – by Diane Francis (National Post – October 6, 2012)

October 6, 2012

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

If the CNOOC/Nexen takeover approval is given before the Keystone pipeline is approved, a new set of questions for the Americans will be opened up. So will any trade deal, now in Parliament, that gives China similar privileges as Americans get.

Letting China Inc. have special access could give President Obama a reason not to approve Keystone, and could also give Romney, if he wins, a reason to give approval, as he has pledged to do on Day One.

I raise the issue of Keystone XL, not because the Americans have a right to tell us what to do, but because they always do what is in their national interest. So does China and it has obviously targeted the oil sands with a view toward diverting its oil to China. That is the endgame, make no mistake about it. This is not about Nexen, or offering opportunities to Canadians to do business in China.

The proposed bilateral Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement with China would give its entities the same recourse and dispute settlement mechanism (called Chapter 11 in NAFTA) as Americans have through NAFTA. They can claim discrimination if denied investments or immigration requests.

Chinese wall needed – by Michael Bloom and Glen Hodgson (National Post – October 5, 2012)

October 6, 2012

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

Separate Nexen management after takeover

Michael Bloom is vice-president and Glen Hodgson is senior vice-president and chief economist at the Conference Board of Canada.

China National Offshore Oil Corp.’s proposal to acquire Nexen for $15-billion should be approved — with specific conditions attached that address the underlying concerns of citizens and business leaders. The minister of industry should require CNOOC to assume a set of “undertakings,” so that Nexen looks and acts like other Canadian companies operating on normal commercial principles. In addition, the minister should commit to modernizing the Investment Canada Act in the near future.

By creating the right policy framework around the Nexen deal, Canada would finally clarify for investors at home and around the globe what they can expect when making a major capital investment in the Canadian economy.

Canada has had a long history of large foreign corporate takeovers — including acquisitions by European state-owned enterprises (SOEs) — that government approved. However, BHP Billiton’s bid for Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. was arguably the most significant challenge to Canada’s investment review policy since the inception of the Investment Canada Act in 1985.

Revenge of the fossil fuels: Setbacks mount for renewable energy sector – by Yadullah Hussain (National Post – October 5, 2012)

October 6, 2012

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

After a fantastic run spanning a few years, the renewable energy sector has taken a number of hits recently, which suggests its inevitable march as the energy source of the future is far from certain.

“It’s pretty bleak — there is no way to sugar coat it. But I wouldn’t call it a lost cause,” says Matt Horne, director of climate change at the Pembina Institute.

While all sectors have ups and downs, there is a fear that renewables’ weaknesses could lead to structural changes, as policymakers no longer have the luxury of supporting and extending subsidies at a time of fiscal austerity.

And much to the dismay of environmentalists, fossil fuels are clawing their way back into the public’s good books. Or at least they are offering a compelling economic case that few can resist at a time of slow economic growth.

A number of factors have turned the tide. Plentiful oil and abundance of cheap natural gas, especially in the United States and Canada, with its promise of high-paying jobs has been an irresistible lure for governments desperate to create employment.