Canada Mining – Page 284 – Republic of Mining

Ottawa’s responsible mining review awaited by NGOs – by Trinh Theresa Do (CBC News Politics – February 26, 2014)

February 26, 2014

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics

Review of Canada’s corporate social responsibility strategy likely won’t recommend mining ombudsman

The federal government’s five-year review of Canada’s corporate social responsibility strategy for the mining, oil and gas industry is expected to be released as early as next week.

But documents obtained by CBC News suggest the long-anticipated report is unlikely to recommend the creation of a legislated ombudsman who would investigate complaints and oversee the activities of the extractive sector.

It’s something non-governmental organizations have been calling for since 2007, without success. The international trade minister’s office would not provide any details as to what the review, which began last September, would entail, saying only that it is “ongoing.”

The government has made it clear, however, it prefers voluntary initiatives over mandatory mechanisms. In a letter contained in documents obtained through an Access to Information request, International Trade Minister Ed Fast responds to a call for an industry ombudsman by emphasizing “the government’s support for voluntary mechanisms for dispute resolution.”

Canadian aid for mining projects concerns NGOs – by Trinh Theresa Do (CBC News Politics – February 26, 2014)

February 26, 2014

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics

Corporate social responsibility strategy lets trade trump poverty alleviation, critics say

Canadian non-governmental organizations are on their toes as they wait for the five-year federal review of Canada’s corporate social responsibility strategy for the mining, oil and gas industry, set to come as early as next week.

Some NGOs are concerned about the very purpose of the strategy (dubbed Building the Canadian Advantage), which is to help Canadian mining, oil and gas companies improve their competitiveness abroad “by enhancing their ability to manage social and environmental risks.”

One of the government’s key commitments is helping host countries benefit from their natural resources by ensuring long-term development in areas where Canadian companies are operating. That has meant doling out aid dollars through Canada’s development agency, formerly known as CIDA, the Canadian International Development Agency.

But World Vision is apprehensive about that approach, especially in framing the strategy around “Building the Canadian Advantage,” which links foreign aid to benefits for Canadian companies.

Vale Sees Nickel Over $20,000 a Ton on Indonesia Ban – by Liezel Hill (Bloomberg News – February 25, 2014)

February 25, 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Nickel will climb significantly in 2015 and may advance to more than $20,000 a metric ton in the next few years because of Indonesia’s ban on ore exports, said Vale SA (VALE5), the world’s second-biggest producer.

The restrictions that Indonesia put in place last month probably won’t be eased, Peter Poppinga, executive director for base metals at the Rio de Janeiro-based company, said in a Feb. 21 interview. Big price movements are unlikely this year because of the high level of stockpiles in China, he said.

The largest nickel-ore producer banned the export of unprocessed ores in January as it tries to transform itself into a maker of higher-value products. Nickel, used to make stainless steel, climbed 3 percent this year, beating all other base metals in London as Barclays Plc forecast that the curb will help to shift the global market to a deficit from 2015. Vale last week opened its Totten nickel mine in Ontario after investing about C$760 million ($686 million) in the project.

“Next year I see the nickel price jumping quite significantly,” Poppinga said in the interview at the mine. “It is about Indonesia today, everybody knows that. The ore ban is in place and it’s holding, and I think the authorities in Indonesia are very reasonable and very serious about that.”

EXCLUSIVE-Small miners size up mergers, deals may be elusive -Reuters survey – by Allison Martell and Euan Rocha (Reuters India – February 25, 2014)

February 25, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

Feb 25 (Reuters) – Many of the small Canadian-listed mineral explorers that supply global major miners with new projects are considering merging with peers, according to a Reuters survey, but for most it may be tough to close deals.

Just over half the Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture-listed miners and explorers that participated in the Reuters survey said they are at least somewhat likely to announce a “merger of equals” over the coming 12 months, but only a handful said such a deal is “very likely.”

Out of favor with investors, most explorers – or junior miners – badly need cash. And the few with strong balance sheets figure there must be some great deals around. Several industry leaders have argued that consolidation could fix the sector.

But such discussions often come to a halt when executives at target companies realize that they will have to sell cheap. Some stocks have dropped more than 90 percent over the last two years, and bids reflect the low valuations.

“The guys running these small companies are promoters. They’re dreamers, and they’ll hang in until the cows come home,” said Tom Caldwell, head of brokerage and wealth manager Caldwell Securities. “Most would rather hang in there and end up with $10 in the treasury and start the game all over again in two years.”

Augusta Resource rejects key permitting claim from hostile bidder HudBay – by Peter Koven (National Post – February 25, 2014)

February 25, 2014

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

The takeover battle between HudBay Minerals Inc. and Augusta Resource Corp. hinges on a key question: how far is Augusta from getting its permits?

When Toronto-based HudBay made its $428-million hostile bid for Augusta two weeks ago, it said Augusta’s management is being “overly optimistic” about when it will receive required permits for its Rosemont copper project in Arizona. Augusta expects to get its last permit by the end of the second quarter, allowing it to move right to construction.

Augusta formally rejected the HudBay bid on Monday, and in doing so, it provided a detailed breakdown of its permitting in order to convince investors that the timing for that final permit really is imminent.

The HudBay bid was launched “right before transformational events — events that our shareholders have been anticipating for years,” chief executive Gil Clausen said on a conerence call.

Canada, U.S., Mexico are now fierce energy rivals – by Barrie McKenna (Globe and Mail – February 24, 2014)

February 24, 2014

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 — The head of Mexico’s state-owned oil company envisions a NAFTA-style energy partnership with Canada and the United States.

Pemex chief executive officer Emilio Lozoya Austin isn’t the first person to muse about greater continental energy integration through such policies as resource pooling and harmonized regulations. But it’s a new energy world in 2014, two decades after the landmark North American free-trade agreement was struck.

The three countries are now fierce rivals in a North American energy landscape that has been dramatically reshaped by imminent U.S. energy self-sufficiency. Parochialism risks trumping integration, and common ground is increasingly hard to find.

There were troubling signs as Prime Minister Stephen Harper met his fellow NAFTA leaders in Mexico last week that the “three amigos” are drifting farther apart, and the schism is particularly apparent in energy.

In their post-summit statement, the leaders committed to a meeting of energy ministers later this year to vaguely discuss “opportunities to promote common strategies” in areas such as trade, infrastructure and unconventional energy.

For embattled Bre-X lawyer Joe Groia, the trial isn’t over – by Jeff Gray (Globe and Mail – February 15, 2014)

February 24, 2014

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.

TORONTO — Joe Groia, perhaps the best-known securities lawyer on Bay Street, enjoys a maverick reputation he owes largely to his biggest case: His successful defence of John Felderhof, the geologist at the centre of the Bre-X gold fraud that rocked Bay Street in the 1990s.

The Bre-X affair has long since faded into history – but not for Mr. Groia. The case that defined his career remains very much a present-day preoccupation.

Wearing a jacket and tie with faded jeans and gesticulating over a half-plate of orecchiette at Oro – a downtown Toronto Italian restaurant where he had a party after his wedding 25 years ago – he tells of how his link to the Bre-X saga began, recalling a promise he made to Mr. Felderhof that things would turn out all right.

Back in 1997, the geologist was under a cloud of suspicion after faked gold-drilling results from Indonesia caused stock in his company, Bre-X Minerals Ltd., to crater, costing investors billions. The Ontario Securities Commission, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the RCMP and the FBI were all on the case.

Mining for Gold at Minus 45 Celsius – by Alister MacDonald and John W. Miller (Wall Street Journal – February 23, 2014)

February 24, 2014

http://online.wsj.com/home-page

Meadowbank Project Is One Test of Whether Arctic’s Resources Are Within Reach

MEADOWBANK GOLD MINE, Nunavut—Gold miner Alain Belanger contends with 75 mile an hour winds, winter temperatures so cold they have cracked the steel on his 287-ton excavator and white-out blizzards that can halt mining for days.

This open-pit mine west of Canada’s Hudson Bay has had such steep construction and operating costs—flying workers in and out, stocking a year’s worth of food, employee turnover and battling snow drifts that can reach eight feet—that the project is unlikely to break even over the long haul, Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. AEM.T +0.37% executives now concede.

As the world warms, miners dream of unlocking trillions of dollars in diamonds, gold, nickel and other metals in the Arctic, a treeless cap that spans northern parts of Canada, Alaska, Russia and Scandinavian countries. So far, it has proved a quixotic quest for all but a few tenacious miners like Agnico.

“We know there is extreme wealth in the Arctic,” said Agnico’s Chief Executive Sean Boyd in an interview. “The reality, though, is you have to have a lot going for you to get it out the ground.”

Exclusive: Small miners set to dust off drill rigs in 2014 – Reuters survey – by Allison Martell and Euan Rocha Reuters U.K. – February 24, 2014)

February 24, 2014

http://uk.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – A large majority of the small Canadian-listed mining companies that help drive global mineral exploration expect to drill this year after a grim period of hibernation for many cash-strapped explorers, according to a Reuters survey.

The results of the survey of more than 60 mining executives are one of the first clear indications of a turning point in sentiment among so-called junior miners. Although money has begun to trickle back, the cost of drilling is down and the price of gold is up from last year’s painful lows, hopes for the sector have been muted at best.

More than three quarters of the Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture-listed miners and explorers that participated in the survey said they expected to have a drilling program at some point in the coming 12 months, while fewer than six in 10 said they had drilled in the previous 12 months.

“This is the best time to drill, the drilling contractors are very cheap,” said George Topping, chief executive of Venture-listed explorer Wolfden Resources Corp (WLF.V). Wolfden is one of the hundreds of small explorers that make Canada a centre of global mining finance. With no revenues, these companies exist to drill, or typically hire specialised contractors to do the job in Canada and around the world.

Northeast rock salt supply at critical low as more snow hits – by Victoria Cavaliere (Reuters U.S. – February 18, 2014)

February 24, 2014

http://www.reuters.com/

NEW YORK – (Reuters) – Rock salt was in short supply in the U.S. Northeast on Tuesday after successive winter storms led to critical shortages in Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania, while New Jersey scrambled to secure a huge shipment stuck at a port in Maine.

The shortages come as the East Coast was slammed by a third winter storm system in a single week, leaving many states over-budget for snow removal and running low on critical supplies, like rock salt, which is used to help melt ice and snow packed roads and public areas. The 40,000 tons of rock salt remained in Searsport, Maine, days after New Jersey was denied a waiver of federal shipping rules that would have allowed an available foreign-flagged vessel to bring it into a Newark port.

Instead, efforts to get the ice-melting material to New Jersey remained stymied by the 1920 Maritime Act, also known as the Jones Act, enacted to protect the American shipping industry from foreign competition.

“It’s very frustrating. We could have had that shipment here by this past weekend,” said New Jersey Department of Transportation Spokesman Joe Dee. Salt supplies were running so low in the state that crews were “scraping the bottom of the barrel,” he said.

Where the world’s mineral industry meets – by Staff (MiningWeekly.com – February 21, 2014)

February 21, 2014

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

It has been referred to as the Oscars or the Super Bowl of the mineral exploration and mining and exploration sector – the annual Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada’s (PDAC) Convention, the mineral industry’s most popular networking and educational event.

Now in its eighty-second year, the convention attracts investors, analysts, mining executives, geologists, prospectors and international government delegations from all over the globe.

In 2013, 25% of convention delegates were international – reflecting the evolution of the convention from a national event into an international one. Outside of Canada, the largest number of attendees in 2013 came from the US, Australia, Peru, Mexico and England.

“The PDAC Convention has really hit its stride in terms of its place in the global mineral industry,” says PDAC president Glenn Nolan. “In the early 1990s, the PDAC began to build up an international reputation. Since then, the PDAC Convention has come to be known as the global networking opportunity for the mineral exploration and development industry.”

Canada: Disclosure Of Oil And Gas & Aboriginal Payments Uncertain, Despite Release Of Recommendations On Mandatory Disclosure Of Payments From Canadian Mining Companies To Governments – by Julie Abouchar (Mondaq.com – February 21, 2014)

February 21, 2014

http://www.mondaq.com/

Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers LLP

Companies and Aboriginal communities negotiating resource agreements should note the Resource Revenue Transparency Working Group’s January 16, 2014 release of its Recommendations on Mandatory Disclosure of Payments from Canadian Mining Companies to Governments. The Recommendations stem from Canada’s June 2013 commitment to enhance transparency in the extractive sector.

The Working Group is comprised of representatives from the Mining Association of Canada, the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), Publish What You Pay Canada and the Revenue Watch Institute. The Working Group’s transparency initiative is widely supported by Canadian mining companies.

Companies and Aboriginal communities want to know how the reporting would work and whether payments under resource agreements/IBAs will come under the purview of any Canadian requirements. The recommendations do not currently include oil and gas or Aboriginal payments. However, such payments could follow in a second phase of the project, dubbed “transparency 2.0” by Working Group member and PDAC Executive Director, Ross Gallinger, at an Ontario Bar Association address on February 19, 2014. To take effect, the recommendations must next be adopted, following discussions with provincial securities commissions and the provincial finance ministries. Presumably, Aboriginal communities would be consulted about making IBA payments subject to reporting.

Award-winning golf resort was once a Florida phosphate mine – by Tamara Lush (Waterloo Record – February 20, 2014)

February 20, 2014

http://www.therecord.com/waterlooregion/

BOWLING GREEN, Fla. — What do you do with 15 million cubic yards of sand? If you’re Mosaic, one of the world’s largest phosphate companies, you build two award-winning golf courses. And a spa. And an edgy, modern hotel.

In the middle of Central Florida, far from any theme park or beach. Streamsong Resort opened its golf courses and clubhouse in late 2012, and last month, it unveiled its 216-room lodge. It’s located in the tiny community of Bowling Green, which is closer in DNA to cattle ranches than Disney.

In fact, Streamsong is difficult to find; the journey from the Tampa Bay area included a turn at a ramshackle BBQ restaurant and a drive past several cows. A medium-sized metal sign with the resort’s name is the only thing signalling that one has arrived on the property.

Visitors are first greeted by the sight of large, grass covered dunes and blue lakes, and instead of the flat landscape of Central Florida, there are hills and dips and yes, some green of the golf courses. A modern-looking hotel, with its slightly curved exterior, is nestled near a lake.

The whole landscape is nothing like anything in Florida, possibly because it’s not groomed and plucked and patterned with palm trees. The property is oddly wild and rough, yet Zen-like and tranquil.

Emerging markets seen as an opportunity again – by Paul Brent (Globe and Mail – February 20, 2014)

February 20, 2014

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.

After a bleak period, hopeful signs on horizon for some of the world’s budding economies

Emerging markets have been hammered by recent tapering of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing program, which has hit both currencies and equity valuations as investor money has sloshed back into the developed world, specifically the U.S. markets.

Savvy investors need to ask how long this shift will last given some pretty strong fundamentals for select economies in the developing world and some signs that the vaunted U.S. recovery is not as strong as expected.

Emerging markets investment firm Ashmore Investment Management argued last week that the groundwork, in the form of five conditions, has been laid for an emerging markets turnaround.

The so-called hot money of retail investors that poured into those markets in 2012 and much of 2013 has left (at a loss, mostly). The firm also expects emerging markets economies will pick up this year, achieving an average 5-per-cent growth rate.

Ring of Fire must be a national priority: report – by Lisa Wright (Toronto Star – February 20, 2014)

February 20, 2014

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.

Ontario Chamber of Commerce says the promising metals-rich region will generate more than $25 billion in economic activity.

The highly touted Ring of Fire mineral belt in Northern Ontario is expected to generate nearly $2 billion in tax revenues and up to 5,500 full-time jobs in the first 10 years of mining activity, says a new report.

The Ontario Chamber of Commerce’s action plan and economic analysis, to be made public in Toronto Thursday, also calls on the federal government to make the Ring of Fire a national priority.

The report says that within the first decade of development, the mineral-rich area will generate up to $9.4 billion in GDP and nearly $6.2 billion for the province’s mining industry.

Hoping to spur activity in the stalled region, the chamber is calling on Ottawa to take a more active role in the financing of the lucrative mining camp, since it stands to be the primary benefactor of tax revenues — and that “should provide a compelling incentive to invest.”