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British Columbia Mining

Year in Review: [B.C.] Resource sector booms, but concerns linger – by Derrick Penner (Vancouver Sun – December 31, 2011)

The Vancouver Sun, a broadsheet daily paper first published in 1912, has the largest circulation in the province of British Columbia.

Call 2011 a tale of two economies, which proved a boon to British Columbia on one hand, but still prompted wary concern on the other. Asia, particularly China, fairly rocketed forward in the post-recession recovery, carrying B.C.’s resource industries with it. Coal miners cashed in on record high prices, lumber producers continued to make record sales to China and resource developers rushed to push projects along, from new mines to pipelines and natural gas liquefaction plants.

B.C.’s real estate markets carried on from 2010’s strong rebound thanks in large part to an influx of investment from Asian investors and immigrants that helped push home prices in select markets up to levels that confounded observers and skewed average prices nationally. Yet provincial unemployment, while trending down, remained uncomfortably high and concerns remained about exposure to the markets that struggled.

The United States remained in the doldrums, Europe struggled through a sovereign debt crisis and the resulting fears of both regions sliding back into recession side-swiped expectations for stronger global growth.

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Ten questions for Jerry Asp [Aboriginal people and mining] – by Gail Jansen (Mining and Exploration – November, 2011)

http://www.miningandexploration.ca/

This year’s winner of the Skookum Jim award talks about Aboriginal Peoples and mining.

For more than 40 years, Jerry Asp has been working toward improving the quality of life for Aboriginal Peoples, using the mining industry as the driving force. He is a founder of the Tahltan Nation Development Corporation (TNDC), one of the largest native-owned-and-operated heavy construction companies in Canada. He helped set up both the National Indian Businessman’s Association and the Canadian Aboriginals Minerals Association and he is now president of C3 Alliance Corporation.

All of this makes Asp arguably the pre-eminent expert on aboriginal and mining relations. It’s an expertise he has been called upon to share around the world and one for which he has won numerous awards and accolades, most notably this past year when he was named recipient of the prestigious Skookum Jim Award from the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada.

Mining and Exploration magazine asked Asp to comment on his  award and his lifetime of service to the mining industry.

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NEWS RELEASE: Leaders in [British Columbia’s] Mineral Exploration and Mine Development to Be Recognized at January 25 Gala

Vancouver, B.C. — December 14, 2011 — The Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia (AME BC) is pleased to announce the 2011 recipients of its annual awards presented to individuals or teams for significant contributions to the mineral exploration industry in British Columbia and Western Canada.

“We are pleased to honour the diverse achievements of this year’s recipients,” said Mona Forster, AME BC’s Chairperson. “It is satisfying to see the traditions of discovery, development and dedication carried forward as we prepare to celebrate 100 years as an industry association.”

AME BC’s awards are named in honour of industry leaders who made transformative contributions to mineral exploration and development and to the progress of AME BC through advocacy and service. These awards are presented annually at Mineral Exploration Roundup, the world’s premier mineral exploration conference.

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B.C.’s Historic Silvery Slocan Mining District

 

This information came from the Hughes Exploration Group website: http://www.hughes-exploration.com/s/Home.asp

SILVER PRIZE FOR GOLD-SEEKERS

The first discovery of placer gold in the Fraser River in 1858 attracted thousands of prospectors and fortune-seekers to the wilderness of Western Canada, triggering the subsequent Cariboo gold rush of the 1860s and the Klondike gold rush of the 1890s. But as the easy pickings of gold nuggets were exhausted from the network of rivers and streams, resilient prospectors turned their attention to outcropping veins where precious metals could be extracted by hand on a limited scale.

In the summer of 1891, Eli Carpenter and Jack Seaton arrived on foot in what is now the Slocan Mining District of British Columbia, lured by tales of silver-rich deposits used by local native guides and hunters. In early September, they discovered an outcropping of sparkling silver-rich galena and collected samples for assaying.

As legend goes, the alliance between Carpenter, a French-Canadian former tight-rope walker, and Seaton, a wily Irishman from Tennessee, fell apart soon afterward amid allegations of double-dealing, with each taking on new partners to stake claims on Payne Mountain, where the initial discovery was made. What is certain is that both men sold their claims early to mining speculators for a pittance and moved on from the region.

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Mines Act changes signal B.C. ready to dig in against environmentalists – by Dirk Meissner (Winnipeg Free Press – November 20, 2011)

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/

Hitch said Canada’s mining industry is regarded as the
most efficient and environmentally safe in the world,
but the B.C. government needs to do a better job
telling people how mining works and how it contributes
to the province. (Winnipeg Free Press)

The Canadian Press – VICTORIA – Premier Christy Clark is about to find out her plans to chip away at the mountain of bureaucracy facing mining developments in British Columbia won’t be an easy climb if environmental groups have any say in the matter.

Opening eight new mines is a key plank of Clark’s jobs strategy, the most important policy initiative she’s launched since becoming premier early this year, and last week, the Liberals introduced minor changes to the Mines Act.

The move has triggered an avalanche of protest from the Sierra Club of B.C. which accused the government of looking to clear the way for mining companies to bulldoze the province. Sierra Club president George Heyman said Clark’s Liberals are heading in the opposite direction of public opinion if they loosen regulations to open more mines.

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NEWS RELEASE: Lack of government funding may force successful First Nations mining employment program to shut down

Vancouver, B.C. – (November 29, 2012) – Concern is rising in the British Columbia mining community that a successful program to train First Nations people for well paying mining jobs will be forced to shut down without the continuance of  Federal funding. If there is no commitment for funding by either the Federal or BC governments by December 1st, the BC Aboriginal Mine Training Association (BC AMTA) will begin the formal shutdown process. 

BC AMTA has candidates representing more than 120 Indian bands and currently has 60 employers in its network. To date, 222 Aboriginal people are working at well-paying mining jobs after going through the BC AMTA program. There are approximately 80 Aboriginal people including members of the Kamloops and Skeetschestn First Nations communities employed at the New Afton underground gold and copper mine under development 10 kilometers southwest of Kamloops. The mining operation is scheduled to begin production in July, 2012.

Two years ago, New Afton joined forces with the Association of Mineral Exploration BC and the Mining Association of BC and other companies to launch BC AMTA. 

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The Horrible Reputation of Canada’s Mining Sector – by Stan Sudol

Stan Sudol is a Toronto, Canada-based communications consultant, mining columnist and blogger. stan.sudol@republicofmining.com

Biggest commodity super-cycle in the history of mankind

The future of mining has never been brighter, yet its image among the general population seems to have plunged lower than the famous Kidd Creek mine in Timmins, Ontario – the world’s deepest base metal operation. The largest rural to urban migration in the history of mankind is taking place in China. It has been often said, that China needs to build two cities the size of Toronto, Canada and Sydney, Australia to accommodate that growth, every year! Analysts estimate that China’s middle class is expanding so rapidly that it will soon overtake the current U.S. population of 312 million.

In October, 2011, the world’s population had passed the seven billion mark. India, Brazil, Indonesia, Turkey and many other developing countries are following China and urbanizing and industrializing their economies. Mining experts feel that over the next 25 years, we will need to dig out of the ground as many minerals as consumed since the beginning of mankind.

One of the biggest concerns is a shortage of skilled workers. In the next decade half the mining workforce in Canada is eligible to retire and there are significant difficulties attracting and engaging the digital generation.
According to the Ottawa-based Mining Industry Human Resource Council’s 2011 hiring report, the industry will need to hire betwee 75,280 to 141,540 new workers in Canada depending on the state of the global economy by 2021. Similar labour shortage issues exisit in other western mining jurisdicitions like Australia and the United States.

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Controversial Prosperity mine proposal gets second chance – by Canadian Press (Globe and Mail – November 7, 2011)

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.

VANCOUVER— The Canadian Press – A controversial proposal for a massive copper and gold mine in British Columbia will get another chance to become reality after Canada’s Environmental Assessment Agency agreed to a second review of the mine.

Taseko Mine’s original proposal failed the federal government’s first environment review, but the company has launched what it’s calling its New Prosperity proposal.

Federal Environment Minister Peter Kent instructed the agency to set up a process that will review the environmental concerns raised in the past assessment and consider the mining company’s changes.

With higher, longer-term prices for copper and gold, Taseko said it would spend an extra $300-million on the project to address the main concerns of the last environmental rejection, including the preservation of Fish Lake.

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New Prosperity plan is environmentally sound – by Russell Hallbauer, President and CEO, Taseko Mines (Northern Miner – November 04, 2011)

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry.

I read the editorial submission of Chief Marilyn Baptiste, of the Xeni Gwet’in band of the Tsilhqot’in National Government (TNG), on The Northern Miner’s website on Nov. 2.  It purported to list eight reasons why Taseko Mines’s resubmitted application to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) for the New Prosperity gold-copper project in B.C. will fail.

Ms. Baptiste’s latest comments are consistent with her wholesale rejection of any constructive dialogue around New Prosperity, which nevertheless holds tremendous value regionally, provincially and nationally.

The sentiments expressed in Ms. Baptiste’s editorial do not represent the views of the vast majority of people in Williams Lake and Cariboo communities.

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Eight reasons why Taseko’s New Prosperity will fail – by Chief Marilyn Baptiste (Northern Miner – November 2, 2011)

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry.

Marilyn Baptiste is the elected chief of the Xeni Gwet’in band of the Tsilhqot’in First Nation, whose territory largely lies to the west of the Fraser River and Williams Lake, B.C., where Taseko Mines’ New Prosperity copper-gold project is located. See www.xeni.ca for more.

Investors hoping to cash in on Taseko Mines’ second bid to develop the Prosperity copper-gold mine (“New Prosperity”) should think back a year. At that time, despite assurances from the company and its president that the original Prosperity mine proposal would be accepted, it was soundly rejected by the federal government and the company’s share price plunged.

With New Prosperity, once again there is a proposal before the federal government’s Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) and the company’s president is saying he is confident it will be approved. And once again the federal government will have no choice but to reject it.

Here are eight reasons why the New Prosperity bid will fail:

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A tale of two BC mining fiascos – by Rafe Mair (Rossland Telegraph – November 01, 2011)

http://rosslandtelegraph.com/

Rafe Mair was a B.C. MLA 1975 to 1981, Minister of Environment from late 1978 through 1979. Since 1981 he has been a radio talk show host, and is recognized as one of B.C.’s pre-eminent journalists.

There are two mining stories out of last week in Lotusland. For openers, let’s deal with “Prosperity” lake which, before the corporate flacks got involved, was called Fish Lake.

The short story is that this is a mine prospect held by Taseko Mines. While the Provincial government approved it, it was turned down by the feds who then gave the company time to put in a new proposal, which they did. With the speed of light the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency received the new application last February and hasn’t yet decided anything.

This delay brought a fire and brimstone editorial from the Fraser Institute’s house paper, the Vancouver Sun, which threw unsourced “facts” at us, including a promise of 71,000 jobs with 5,400 new residents for the nearby town of Williams Lake.

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The Right Footing: Rio Tinto Alcan and the Haisla First Nation – by David Hicks (The Global Commodities Report – October 2011)

Published by New Vanguard Media, The Global Commodities Report is a digital magazine about the benefits of resource business.

The Kitimat aluminum smelter was built smack in the middle of the claimed traditional territory of the Haisla First Nation back in the oblivious 1950s. With a $2.5 billion upgrade in the works, it was time to re-engineer the social relationship as well.

A long overdue formal agreement, called the “Haisla Nation – Rio Tinto Alcan Legacy Agreement”, has been achieved between Rio Tinto Alcan, the owner and operator of the aluminum smelter at Kitimat, British Columbia, and the Haisla First Nation, both of whom reside at the headwaters of the Douglas Channel in northwestern BC.

While the first relationship protocol and series of meetings between the parties began just over a decade ago, the current relationship took work, but both parties ratified the 30-year renewable agreement in support of the aluminum operations at Kitimat.

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The West grabbing a growing share of Canada’s investment capital – by Gordon Hamilton (Vancouver Sun – October 29, 2011)

The Vancouver Sun, a broadsheet daily paper first published in 1912, has the largest circulation in the province of British Columbia.

Strong commodities markets, especially mining, pulling growing volume of M&A activity to western provinces

The Western provinces are taking a bigger share of Canadian business investment as a result of the global commodities boom, a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report on mergers and acquisitions shows.

Ontario and Quebec continue to be the top investment destination, according to the report Deals Quarterly Special Feature, but the two Central Canada provinces are losing market share to the West. The report looks at merger and acquisition activity province-by-province over the last 10 years.

“There is certainly a shift, a trend,” Kristian Knibutat, PwC Canadian deals leader, said in a teleconference on the report Friday. He said the geographic shift comes as no surprise, given the “super cycle” that commodities have been experiencing over the decade.

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New Prosperity mine proposal must be put on review fast-track – Vancouver Sun Editorial (October 27, 2011)

The Vancouver Sun, a broadsheet daily paper first published in 1912, has the largest circulation in the province of British Columbia.

A fact sheet about Williams Lake put out by the city’s economic development office cites statistics on building permits, business licences, real estate and the labour force, providing a snapshot of the local economy.

Under the Industry subheading, it lists the price of just two commodities, gold and copper, the lifeblood of the region. At its doorstep lies one of Canada’s largest gold-copper deposits, holding the promise of 13.3 million ounces of gold and 5.3 billion pounds of copper.

Primary industries and services related to them represent the largest source of employment here and the income generated supports other businesses that maintain the city’s viability and vitality. So, when former federal environment minister Jim Prentice killed Taseko Mines’ Prosperity mine last November, it hit the city hard.

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B.C. shells out $30 million in settlement of [uranium] mining company case – by The Canadian Press (Canadian Business Magazine – October 21, 2011)

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/

VANCOUVER – At a time when British Columbia’s premier has staked her jobs agenda on a burgeoning mining industry, the province has agreed to hand over $30 million to one company in a settlement over what the company’s president called “dirty dealings.”

Boss Power Corp. and lawyers for the provincial government were scheduled to square off in court this month over the company’s claim that the province had effectively expropriated its uranium deposit 50 kilometres northeast of Penticton without compensation.

Instead, lawyers for the government agreed to the pay out, saying in a news release earlier this week that B.C. had reached a legal agreement for Boss Power to surrender all claims to its uranium and mining rights.

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