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Year: 2012

Honourable Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivers remarks at Minto Mine, Yukon (August 21, 2012)

“Here is the big picture. In the next ten years, more than 500 large new development
projects will be proposed for Canada. Together these new investments will be worth
more than half a trillion dollars. This means jobs and growth, jobs and growth that
Canada needs as we continue to navigate our way through a troubled global economy.”
(Prime Minister Stephen Harper – August 21, 2012)

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for that warm welcome. Thank you particularly, Leona, for that introduction, and also for all the great work you’re doing as our minister responsible for the three territories.

I’m delighted to be here on this, my seventh consecutive summer tour of Canada’s North, and there’s no place I’d rather begin than here in Yukon. I’d like to welcome all the dignitaries as well, Premier Pasloski, Chief McGuinty, and elder-in-training Harper.

You look too young to be an elder, so I’ll go along with elder-in-training. Minister Duncan, of course, joins us, territorial ministers Cathers, Nixon, Dixon, Senator Lang, and of course, your Member of Parliament and our emcee for today, Ryan Leef.

I’d also like to express appreciation to you, Darren Pylot, and to everyone here at Capstone Mining for your hospitality and for making your facilities available to us today.

Our visit to Minto Mine is timely because responsible resource development is going to be critical for many years to come, not just for the Northern economy, but for Canada’s economy as a whole, and you can see that here with people who have come from all over Canada to work here.

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Just the Pits [mining] – by Peter Koven (National Post – August 25, 2012)

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

The consensus view right now is that all companies in the mining industry are struggling because of high costs and falling commodity prices. This isn’t entirely true.

Take Amec PLC, the giant resource project management and consulting firm. In its latest financials, the U.K.based company reported a 37% jump in year-over-year revenue, along with a 25% rise in diluted earnings per share. And in Australia, mining services firms made headlines this week by reporting their best results.

“The order book has been maintained at record levels. We see continued demand for our services, and this has not been significantly impacted by the ongoing economic uncertainty,” Amec said.

Those results from a major industry services firm are a total disconnect from mining companies themselves. Over the past several weeks, miners have reported significant drops in profit, deferrals of key projects, and firings of chief executives who failed to boost the stock prices.

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The man who saw gold in Alberta’s oil sands – by Gordon Pitts (Globe and Mail – August 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.

Sixty-one years ago, a lowly Calgary employee of U.S. multinational Sun Oil Co. wrote a subversive letter to the company brass in Philadelphia. The message spit in the eye of his local managers in Alberta.

“I have long felt that our company should take a permit to explore for oil from the Tar Sands of Alberta,” 30-year-old Ned Gilbert wrote in September, 1951, in defiance of his immediate superiors, who opposed the idea of going any further than their first tentative steps in the area.

Mr. Gilbert appealed over their heads to Sun’s senior team, seeking the go-ahead to lease a tract of remote, undeveloped forest north of Fort McMurray that was believed to contain 800 million barrels of oil.

That letter set off a chain reaction that resonates to this day. Now 91 and living in a retirement home in Calgary, Mr. Gilbert helped tip the balance in persuading Sun, the precursor to giant Suncor Energy, to stay in the bitumen game. The company ended up becoming the first commercial developer of the economic juggernaut now known as the oil sands.

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Andrew Nikiforuk denounces the Energy of Slaves – by Andrew Nikiforuk (Toronto Star – August 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.

“Everything in modern life is congested—our politics, our trade, our professions and cities have one thing in common: they are all congested. There is no elbow-room anywhere . . . There can be but one path of escape, and that is backwards.”

— Arthur Penty, Guilds and the Social Crisis, 1919

Every oil company and petrostate today whistles a patriarchal tune. The American Petroleum Institute says the world needs more energy because oil drives “the American dream” and gives people the freedom to move anywhere, anytime. For Rex Tillerson, chairman and ceo of Exxon Mobil Corporation, the recipe for global prosperity is simple: “We must produce more energy from all available and commercially viable resources.”

Pipeline builders echo that the world is “clamouring for more energy.” With religious fervor, Shell executives swear that they will “produce more energy for a world with more people” so that millions can climb up “the energy ladder.”

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New national park falls short – Toronto Star Editorial (August 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.

The theme of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s annual trip to Canada’s North this year has been the supremacy of the resource economy — the “great national dream” of reaping the economic bounty of the region — over competing claims. And appearances to the contrary, his announcement of a new national park is consistent with that theme.
 
Nááts’ihch’oh National Park Reserve, which comprises 4,840 square kilometres in the Northwest Territories, is a welcome new jewel in our rich parks system. It will protect large portions of the upper waterhead of the South Nahanni River, as well as the area’s grizzly and woodland caribou habitats. It will also preserve part of a place of particular spiritual significance to the First Nations peoples in the area.
 
There is, however, some concern about how the government will manage to maintain the site and facilitate access. While Harper has commendably announced no fewer than five new national parks since taking office in 2006, his government has also slashed Parks Canada’s budget, forcing many sites to reduce operating hours or cut other services.

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Canadian special forces soldiers put on rare display of fighting talents – by Bruce Campion-smith (Toronto Star – August 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.

ABOARD HMCS ST. JOHN’S—Three rigid inflatable boats speed across the choppy waters of Hudson Bay, slow alongside a fishing vessel and send soldiers clambering up the sides.

Two helicopters swoop in overhead. They slow to a hover 10 metres off the deck, ropes drop down and other soldiers rappel to the moving boat below. They hit the deck fast and hard and unclip from the ropes with guns at the ready.

It’s a blazingly quick assault as the soldiers take control of the vessel and take down the would-be suspect onboard in a roughhouse tackle that sends the man sprawling to the deck. In the blink of an eye, Canada’s elite warriors were out of the shadows.

Canadian special operations forces (SOF) soldiers — including members of Joint Task Force 2 — put on an unprecedented public display of their fighting talents Friday. Never before have JTF2 soldiers held such a demonstration to show off their skills, highly honed to take on terrorists, end hostage takings or in this case, board a suspicious ship on the high seas.

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Canada’s elite special operations forces get the limelight in Op Nanook – by Jessica Murphy (Toronto Sun – August 25, 2012)

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/home.html

Prime Minister Harper says we’re ready to fight to protect our northern resources

CHURCHILL, MB – This year’s Operation Nanook sent a clear message – Canada is ready and willing to protect the North and its Arctic sovereignty. The military billed it as the largest and most complex northern training operation the armed forces has held to date – taking place over the course of a month in both the Western Arctic and in northern Manitoba.
 
And on Friday, it included the public unveiling of the special operations forces, and the first time the elite unit displayed its capabilities to Canadians and the rest of the world.
 
Brig.-Gen. Denis Thompson, commander of the special operations forces, said the goal of the display was “deterring those who would do harm to us and reassuring the Canadian public they could handle any threat. “It’s important for them to be seen to be contributing to Canada’s defence because a lot of what we do is in the shadows,” he said.

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The Deadly Tin Inside Your Smartphone – by Cam Simpson (Bloomberg Businessweek – August 23, 2012)

http://www.businessweek.com/

On May 29, in the bottom of a tin-mining pit on Bangka Island in Indonesia, a wall about 16 feet high collapsed, sending a wave of earth crashing down on a 40-year-old father of two. His name was Rosnan. The dirt crushed his legs, sent something sharp slicing through his right thigh, and buried him from the waist down. His partner, panicked but unhurt, scrambled out of the pit screaming for help. About 20 other miners rushed in to dig Rosnan out with their bare hands.

“He kept repeating, ‘Please, please help me,’ ” recalls Rosnan’s son, Dian Chandra, 20, who rode in the back of a car with his father to a nearby hospital. Rosnan lost too much blood. “I couldn’t find a pulse,” says Dr. Mario, the emergency room physician on duty. Dr. Mario declared Rosnan dead at about 3 p.m. (Like many Indonesians, including Dr. Mario, Rosnan had one name.)

Back at the mine, someone stuck a withered sapling into the soft bottom of the pit near the spot where Rosnan fell—a far too frequent sight in the mines of Bangka, where Rosnan was the first of six to die on the job during a single week this spring. The other victims didn’t make it to the hospital. All, including a 15-year-old boy, were buried alive.

Three days after Rosnan’s death, and following Friday prayers at the local mosque, his family and friends gathered to mourn him at his brother’s cinder-block home. They sat on the bare floor, sharing a meal of rice, noodles, and fish stew. Rosnan’s 57-year-old brother, Rani, recalls that Rosnan had few options outside the pit. “We have to live,” he says. “We need money.”

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SUSTAINABILITY OF STRATEGIC MINERALS [PGM’s, chromite, manganese and others] IN SOUTHERN AFRICA AND POTENTIAL CONFLICTS AND PARTNERSHIPS – by Dr. Stephen Burgess (2010)

Dr. Stephen F. Burgess is Associate Professor, Department of International Security, U.S. Air War College. His three books are South Africa’s Weapons of Mass Destruction (with Helen Purkitt), Smallholders and Political Voice in Zimbabwe, and The United Nations under Boutros Boutros-Ghali, 1992-97. He has published numerous articles and book chapters on African security issues.

Dr. Burgess helped to lead in the organization and execution of the Air Force Africa Command Symposium held at Air University. Since 1999, Dr. Burgess has taught courses on international security, peace and stability operations, and African regional and cultural studies. He is also an Associate Director of the U.S. Air Force Counterproliferation Center. Dr. Burgess holds a Ph.D. from Michigan State University and has been a faculty member at Vanderbilt University, the University of Zambia, the University of Zimbabwe, and Hofstra University.

The principal sustainability challenge in Southern Africa for the United States and its allies is uncertain access to strategic minerals, particularly platinum group metals (PGMs), chromium and manganese; and rare earth minerals, cobalt and uranium. The causes of this challenge are increasing global demand and supply shortages caused by inadequate infrastructure, politicization of the mining industry, and China‟s aggressive, monopolistic behavior in pursuit of minerals.

The challenge is most acute in the five Southern African countries of South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Environmental sustainability of the mining industry is another concern. The purpose of this paper is to provide scope to the problem and recommend steps the United States can take in order to ensure continued access.

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Northern Ontario is an Oasis of Mining Activity – by Dick DeStefano (Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal – August 2012)

Dick DeStefano is the Executive Director of Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association (SAMSSA). destefan@isys.ca This column was originally published in the August 2012 issue of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal.

Northern Ontario is an oasis in the global mining market.  Northern Ontario is “booming” (some would say a mini super cycle) and will continue to do so for at least three years with an expectation to extend to five and some say for 95 years more. Others warn of a commodities downturn for a short period until China and India ramp up again. Its all about cycles.

The Honourable Joe Oliver, Minister of Natural Resources, Canada recently highlighted the importance of the mining industry to Canada’s economic growth and long-term prosperity. He acknowledged Sudbury as a centre of job creation and innovation in the Canadian mining sector.

We are talking about billions of dollars of capital and operating investments and major exploration activity in Northern Ontario. Highlighting every active mine and potential new mining enterprise is a difficult task, but we can offer some of the recent significant activity.

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Glencore/Xstrata deal on the brink of collapse as deadline passes – by Clara Ferreira-Marques and Sinead Cruise (Mineweb.com – August 24, 2012)

www.mineweb.com

Glencore’s proposed takeover of Xstrata came a step closer to collapse Friday, as the company looked set to let slide an informal deadline for it to raise its offer and yield to rival shareholder Qatar.

LONDON (Reuters)  –  Glencore’s proposed $30 billion takeover of Xstrata came a step closer to collapse on Friday, as the commodities trader looked set to let slide an informal deadline for it to raise its offer and yield to rival shareholder Qatar.
 
While Friday is not the final death knell for one of the largest ever proposed deals in the sector, analysts, investors and sources involved in the talks said the fact Glencore and Qatar continued to stare each other down – with only two weeks to go before shareholders vote – had put the deal on the brink.
 
“It wouldn’t be illogical to say this is 10 percent happening, 90 percent not happening,” one source involved in the negotiations said. “If you were laying bets, you’d have to say this isn’t going anywhere. It is not clear what the Qatari game is.”

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AuRico Gold’s official opening of the Young-Davidson Mine spruces up regional economy

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.

Approximately 850 people were on hand for the official opening of Ontario Mining Association member AuRico Gold’s Young-Davidson Mine recently.  The new precious metals producing operation, which completed its first gold pour in April, is located near Matachewan in northeastern Ontario about 60 kilometres west of Kirkland Lake.

Rain didn’t spoil the enthusiasm of visitors from taking mill tours and visits to the open pit and a display site for underground mining equipment.  Guests included employees and their families, contractors and suppliers, seasonal cottagers, local First Nations residents, politicians from various levels of government and special guests associated with the history and development of the Young-Davidson property.

Various departments at the mine, including geology, environment, surveying and mine rescue, had booths set up to showcase what they do on the job.  A gold bar was on site, which proved to be particularly popular for photograph opportunities.  The local newspaper “Northern News” reported that “Young-Davidson employees, who were leading tours and at various displays, volunteered their time to be there.  That shows the pride the employees have in the mine.” 

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Ghosts of apartheid haunt memorials at [South Africa] Lonmin mine – by David Dolan (Globe and Mail – August 24, 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.

MARIKANA, SOUTH AFRICA – South Africans held a memorial service on Thursday at a mine where police shot dead 34 strikers, bloodshed that revived memories of apartheid-era violence and laid bare workers’ anger over enduring inequalities since the end of white rule.

Some 500 people crammed into a marquee pitched at the platinum mine, near what has been dubbed the “Hill of Horror” where police opened fire on striking miners in the deadliest security incident since apartheid ended in 1994.

Crowds spilled out into the scorched, dusty fields outside, listening to hymns and prayers. Women wrapped in blankets wept and mourners placed flowers at the scene. Other memorials took place around the country, including in downtown Johannesburg.

“Such a killing of people, of children, who haven’t done anything wrong and they didn’t have to die this way,” said Baba Goloza whose two sons died. He blamed mine owner Lonmin for not taking care of its workers at its Marikana mine, northwest of Johannesburg.

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S. African platinum mine strikes spread – by Javier Blas (Financial Times/Globe and Mail – August 23, 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.

Platinium mine after platinum mine, the labour unrest in South Africa is spreading. Terence Goodlace, chief executive at Impala, the world’s second-biggest platinum miner, warned on Thursday of a “significant risk to the industry.”

The warning came only a day after workers at two other platinum mines also demanded higher salaries and blocked the entrance to several underground pits, prompting concerns of full-blown industrial unrest in South Africa, one of the world’s most important commodity producers. The country is home not just to platinum but also to significant deposits of dozens of other minerals.

Yet, industry executives, analysts and bankers point out that the unrest so far remains concentrated in the restive platinum sector, with little sign that it is spreading to other commodities such as gold and iron ore, which have a history of better labour relations.

The violence – which has left at least 44 people dead and more than 70 injured – started two weeks ago when a group of drill operators at London-listed Lonmin demanded substantial wage increases amid a turf war between rival unions.

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OMA Noront member helps strengthen foundation for high school video competition

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.

Ontario Mining Association member Noront Resources is busy this summer broadening the foundation for future So You Think You Know Mining video entries.  The company is spearheading The Mining Movie Making Summer Camp in several Aboriginal communities in partnership with DAREarts, Engage Learn and the OMA.

The hands-on community based program provides three days of sharing stories about rocks, minerals, the environment and traditional territories.  Then students work to collaborate and create their own Aboriginal community video, which hopefully becomes a future entry to the OMA’s SYTYKM high school video competition.

The first camp, which was held earlier this month, involved more than 40 students from the Simon Jacob Memorial Education Centre in the Webequie First Nation.  The second camp was held in the Marten Falls First Nation and later in August a camp is scheduled to be held in the Long Lake #58 First Nation.  In the Fall, the team aims to take the program to other communities in the Ring of Fire area.

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