Closer trade and investment ties to China turning into a big headache for Stephen Harper – by Les Whittington (Toronto Star – November 4, 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—Playing the China card, a key to Stephen Harper’s economic strategy, has proven a lot trickier than the federal Conservatives expected when the Prime Minister signalled in Beijing that Canada was open for business.

Increased trade, investment and energy dealings with Asia, particularly China, underpin the natural resources-heavy cure-all for the economy that the Harper government embraced last winter after U.S. President Barack Obama rejected the $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

In response, the Conservatives stepped up efforts to diversify trade and energy sales away from the U.S., touting as a national priority a proposed pipeline to carry oil sands-derived crude from Alberta to British Columbia for shipment to Asia. Regulatory approval was streamlined in hopes of fast-tracking energy sales to China, while the pipeline’s opponents were demonized as anti-Canadian.

And in February, Harper carried out a visit to Beijing characterized as a major breakthrough in Canada-China economic relations, with the Prime Minister initialling a long-sought investment protection agreement between the two countries.

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Amnesty International Film Festival: Canadian conquistadores exposed in Under Rich Earth – by Martin Dunphy (Georgia Straight – November 1, 2012)

http://www.straight.com/

Villagers in a remote Ecuadorian valley band together to repulse rapacious Canucks

The documentary Under Rich Earth, screening at this year’s Vancouver Amnesty International Film Festival, has been in release for a couple of years now, but don’t let that stop you from checking it out if you haven’t already done so.

Popular docs such as Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry and Big Boys Gone Bananas!*, both of which are also part of this latest installment of Amnesty’s local exposition, do a good job of uncovering government and corporate malfeascence.

The appeal of Under Rich Earth—which details the struggle in Ecuador, a putative democracy, of poor farmers against police, politicians, and paramilitaries in the employ of a Canadian mining company—is how it fits into the part of Amnesty’s mandate that commits the volunteer-activist organization to fight against political killings and disappearances.

Neither of those outrages are inflicted on those portrayed here, but the film details the myriad small steps—including corporate spin-doctoring, police co-optation, economic suasion, the division of communities, and, finally, threats, bogus legal charges, and physical intimidation and harm—that often lead to those ultimate violations of human rights.

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Potash Corp. eyes Israeli rival by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – November 1, 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.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., facing sharply lower demand in India and China, is setting the stage for a possible takeover of Israel Chemicals Ltd., in a politically sensitive move aimed at securing new markets for the world’s biggest producer of the crop nutrient.

Potash Corp., the world’s largest fertilizer maker, is looking to buy either all or a part of Israel Chemicals Ltd. (ICL), a $16.4-billion company in which it already owns a 14-per-cent stake.

“Discussions have occurred with Israeli government officials around potential options to increase our ownership stake in Israel Chemical Ltd.,” Potash Corp. said in a brief statement, in response to news out of Israel that it was in merger discussions.

The politically charged talks have involved state officials including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, underscoring the importance of ICL – which holds mining rights to the Dead Sea – to the government, which has a golden share in the company.

A merger would put key state assets into the hands of the fertilizer giant at a time when its production capacity is growing but it needs to find new markets. A merger would put key state assets into the hands of the Canadian fertilizer giant at a time when it is already targeting large organic capacity growth.

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Striking South African miners killed at Canadian coal mine: reports – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – November 1, 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.

JOHANNESBURG — Two striking miners have been killed by security guards at a Toronto-based company’s coal mine in South Africa, local reports say.

The deaths, confirmed by the company Thursday, are the latest in a year of sporadic violence that has killed more than 60 people at mines across South Africa, including 34 who were killed by police at the Marikana platinum mine in August.

In the clash on Wednesday, about 100 striking workers tried to storm a locked mine-explosives armoury at a coal mine owned by Toronto-based Forbes & Manhattan Coal, but were dispersed by security guards, police said.

“It is further alleged that the security officers chased some of the workers into an informal settlement near the mine and shots were fired, injuring two men,” police spokesman Colonel Jay Naicker said in a statement.

He said the two men died from their injuries in hospital, and police are investigating two counts of murder. The company confirmed Thursday that two of its employees were killed in the clash.

The company said it has suspended operations at its Magdalena and Aviemore underground coal mines in South Africa, where strikes have been continuing since Oct. 17.

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NEWS RELEASE: Inmet Mining Partners With the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation

10/31/2012

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – Oct. 31, 2012) – Inmet Mining Corporation (TSX:IMN) and The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation are thrilled to announce the Canadian-based global mining company’s generous contribution of one million dollars over four years in support of the molecular profiling program at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, led by Dr. Lillian Siu and her colleagues. Molecular profiling of cancer genes identifies characteristics of a tumour that are specific to each patient. Understanding the unique characteristics of each patient’s cancer will lead to individualized treatment that ultimately will result in higher response rates.

Jochen Tilk, President & CEO of Inmet Mining Corporation, has been a longstanding supporter of The Princess Margaret and its vision to Conquer Cancer In Our Lifetime. Tilk and his team at Inmet Mining have participated in the Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer since it began five years ago and he has recently accepted the position of 2013 Honourary Chair. In his role, he will assist in continuing to build on the success of the event and invite other like-minded companies to join in the fight to conquer cancer by riding 200+km on June 8-9, 2013 and raising crucial funds to help revolutionize Personalized Cancer Medicine at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.

“I am thrilled to play an even more integral role at The Princess Margaret and contribute to one of the leading cancer research centres in the world,” said Jochen Tilk. “I am a strong supporter and advocate of The Princess Margaret and I believe in supporting the vision to conquer cancer in our lifetime.”

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Canada economy shrinks in August, clouds outlook – by Louise Egan (Reuters Canada – October 31, 2012)

http://ca.reuters.com/

OTTAWA (Reuters) – The Canadian economy shrank in August for the first time in six months, an unexpected contraction that pointed to a sharp slowdown in third-quarter growth and reinforced the Bank of Canada’s message that interest rate hikes are less imminent.

The 0.1 percent contraction from July reflected broad weakness across most industries as well as temporary shutdowns at some oil and mining sites, Statistics Canada said on Wednesday.

Analysts revised forecasts lower, noting economic pressures that went beyond oil and mining. The Canadian dollar fell.

The Canadian economy recovered from the global recession more quickly than most, and is expected to grow at slightly more than 2 percent this year, according to forecasts that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said on Wednesday were still valid.

But the outlook is shaky due to the choppy U.S. recovery and the European debt crisis, prompting questions about whether August was a blip or the start of a more serious economic downturn.

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Centamin’s licence for flagship Sukari mine revoked by Egyptian court – by Peter Koven (National Post – October 31, 2012)

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

TORONTO – More than 18 months after the revolution, political risk remains a serious concern for companies doing business in Egypt.

Investors in Toronto-listed gold miner Centamin PLC learned this fact first-hand Tuesday, after an administrative court in Egypt ruled the company’s concession on its flagship Sukari mine should be revoked. There was no written judgment to go with the decision and Centamin was unable to get details.

The stock traded briefly in London, and was down 35% Tuesday morning before being suspended. It was halted in Toronto and never opened for trading.

The ruling was made as part of an ongoing case that originates with an Egyptian lawyer named Hamdy El Fakharany. He argues that the licence for Sukari should be revoked because of irregularities with the contract, which dates back to 1994, and because it does not generate enough revenue for Egyptians.

Centamin claims the Sukari concession agreement is valid and that this court has no jurisdiction to overturn it. The company is continuing operations at Sukari as if nothing happened, and analysts believe this issue can be settled at Egypt’s Supreme Court.

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BMO adviser Donald Coxe to halt long-running newsletter – by Martin Mittelstaedt (Globe and Mail – October 30, 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.

Donald Coxe, one of Canada’s best known stock-market prognosticators, plans to cease publishing his market letter.

For the past 20 years, Mr. Coxe has been issuing massive 10,000- to 12,000-word missives outlining his investing views, laced with a healthy dose of his conservative political philosophy. But at 76, he’s decided to hang up his pen to concentrate on investment advice for the funds he helps manage.

December will mark the last issue of his Basic Points newsletter, which has recently been appearing once every two months.

As an investment writer, Mr. Coxe is best known for his view that the financial world is in the middle of a “commodity super cycle.” That’s a long period during which the prices of energy, food, metals and other raw materials rise – in the current instance, driven by the rapid growth of emerging economies.

Mr. Coxe said producing a market letter while also working as an investment strategy adviser at the Bank of Montreal, which distributes his newsletter, has been a strain.

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Agnico surprises with third straight quarterly profit – Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – October 29, 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.

A year ago Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd.’s Meadowbank mine in Nunavut was producing more bad news than gold. But after ending 2011 with a loss, Agnico just reported its third consecutive quarter of profits, surprising analysts with higher-than-expected production from its large, open-pit operation.

“Big beat on Q3 production and costs,” Credit Suisse analyst Anita Soni wrote in a report after Agnico-Eagle results were published. “Meadowbank drives the beat, mine optimizations working.” According to chief executive officer Sean Boyd, it may not be the last surprise from the mine, which is Agnico’s largest producer.

“We began the year with this plan that on paper looked good,” Mr. Boyd said after the company reported record production of 110,988 ounces of gold at Meadowbank in the third quarter. The figure beat second-quarter production by 10 per cent and came after it mined higher grade pockets with greater success.

A secondary crushing unit at the mine helped it process about 11,000 tonnes of ore per day, the company said, compared with almost 10,000 tonnes per day put through the mill in the previous quarter.

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In the Congo, Canada puts too much faith in mining companies – by Gerald Caplan (Globe and Mail – October 26, 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.

While he was attending the recent summit of La Francophonie in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Stephen Harper also met with human rights activists. Here’s what he told them:

“We’re concerned about many things in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including … violations of human rights… unfairness in some of the electoral process, but also we’re particularly concerned about the worsening situation in the eastern part of country. Canada will be supporting additional initiatives to combat the barbarous acts of sexual violence against women that are occurring all too frequently.”

These comments were both reasonable and trite. They’re exactly what all western governments say repeatedly about the Congo, yet little changes. There are far more important things he might have said.

He might, for example, have acknowledged that his government had already funded a campaign against sexual violence against women in eastern Congo that had received a negative assessment by his own government. The campaign was judged to have been poorly thought out and failed to achieve its objectives. This internal evaluation was revealed in The Globe and Mail by Geoffrey York, the Africa correspondent, who also interviewed Congolese civil society activists and found them to be equally critical of the Canadian project.

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NEWS RELEASE: NWT Government Recognizes and Celebrates Two Geoscience Milestones

Yellowknife, NT (October 25, 2012) “This year … marks the 10th anniversary of the NWT Geoscience Office … as well as the 40th anniversary of the Yellowknife Geoscience Forum, both notable achievements,” so said the NWT Industry, Tourism and Investment Minister Dave Ramsay in the Legislative Assembly yesterday.

The Minister went on to say: “The NWT remains a land of opportunity. Our mining, oil and gas industries rely on modern, accessible geoscience information to make investment and land use decisions. Investing in geoscience programs attracts investment to our territory and creates spin-off exploration projects that will provide employment and business opportunities for NWT residents.

The Northwest Territories Geoscience Office provides governments, industry, Aboriginal organizations and many other stakeholders with up-to-date, easily accessible geoscience information. This information is key to encouraging investment in mineral and petroleum exploration.”

President of the Chamber of Mines, Pamela Strand said, “We are very pleased to hear Minister Ramsay explain that for every dollar invested in government-funded geosciences in the NWT, five dollars are in turn spent by our mineral exploration companies. And since the NWT is one of the least mapped regions of Canada, we are also very pleased that the NWT Government will continue to support the work of the NWT Geoscience Office.”

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Death of an Industry: The Decline of Canadian Mineral Exploration – by Brent McNiven, B.Sc Geology, MBA-PM (October 2012 – Part 2 of 2)

Brent McNiven holds a B.Sc Geology from the University of Calgary, and MBA-PM from Athabasca University. Working in 12 countries in the Americas since 1993, he has been a business consultant involved in market and industry analysis, owned / operated various consulting and contracting businesses related to mineral exploration, and has extensive experience in cross cultural project management. Fluent in Spanish, he is a former resident of Peru, Venezuela, and Brazil. He can be contacted at: sedex@shaw.ca

Lowest Common Denominator:

Of interest are the results of an informal poll conducted at the PDAC 2012, where Canadian students soliciting field exploration work were asked “what does a geologist do”. The responses to the question were disturbing in that none could provide more than simplistic one word answers, and not a single response presented a higher level, or comprehensive understanding of the field of study, even when prompted.

The results of the poll, combined with their demonstrated lack of field experience, present an equivalent level of preparation of the recent graduates interviewed in Mexico and Peru. Latin American labor laws (and culture) generally eliminate the possibility for students to gain summer work experience, so their response was expected, but it is not the historical condition of Canadian graduates.

The quality of education, and by extension the quality of the graduates varies widely across countries, and universities, however the findings and cost benefit analysis are, that provided interview and selection process were valid ie the best candidates were carefully selected and duds weeded out, that in actual field exploration conditions, the difference in performance by nationality is not significant.

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Death of an Industry: The Decline of Canadian Mineral Exploration – by Brent McNiven, B.Sc Geology, MBA-PM (October 2012 – Part 1 of 2)

Brent McNiven holds a B.Sc Geology from the University of Calgary, and MBA-PM from Athabasca University. Working in 12 countries in the Americas since 1993, he has been a business consultant involved in market and industry analysis, owned / operated various consulting and contracting businesses related to mineral exploration, and has extensive experience in cross cultural project management. Fluent in Spanish, he is a former resident of Peru, Venezuela, and Brazil. He can be reached at the following email address: sedex@shaw.ca

Executive Summary:

The purpose of this paper is to provide a qualitative overview of the state of the Canadian mineral exploration industry, and the changes observed over the past 15 years, and hopefully provoke meaningful discussion on future direction.

The junior mining and exploration sector that once formed a discreet, integrated and dynamic economic entity has become a fragmented and isolated group of investors / managers with narrow focus and short term (often short-sighted) mandates, operating too many companies (excess supply) lacking sufficient resources to be effective.

The contracting and consulting sectors have been sharply reduced in scope and capacity, and face increasing international competition, for example Australia, but also local actors in every market, resulting in consolidation, increased barriers to entry and lost opportunities.

Where Canada once produced world class exploration geologists, the failed industry / university link consistently graduates students without any field experience and lacking even the most basic exploration skills.

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Mining mediator renewed for three more years – by James Munson (iPolitics.com – October 22, 2012)

http://www.ipolitics.ca/

Marketa Evans has been reappointed as Canada’s counsellor for corporate social responsibility in the extractive sector for another three years.

Evans was the first person to take up the job after it was created in 2009 as part of Ottawa’s response to growing allegations of human rights abuses, social conflicts and environmental degradation by Canadian firms overseas.

So far, communities in central Mexico, Mauritania and Argentina have sought the counsellor’s help for everything from labour disputes to air pollution to water usage.

But companies don’t have to participate in mediation if they don’t want to, something critics say renders the office useless. So far, companies have declined to participate in two of the three cases the office has handled.

Before her first appointment in 2009, Evans was a bank executive and executive director of the Munk Centre for International Studies in Toronto, according to the Foreign Affairs website.

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Conservatives work to clarify foreign takeover policy – by Steven Chase and Shawn McCarthy (Globe and Mail – October 24, 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.

OTTAWA — The Harper government is sharpening its policy on takeovers by foreign corporations to single out firms controlled by other governments and set more detailed conditions they must meet before Ottawa would approve a deal, sources say.

Under rising pressure to clarify Canada’s rules on foreign takeovers, the Conservatives are trying to strike a balance between attracting foreign investment to develop Canada’s natural resources and concerns about the objectives of powerful state-backed firms from China, Russia and elsewhere that have deep pockets and big appetites for resources.

Senior government sources offered the most detailed sense yet of what the Conservatives are considering.

At its heart would be a more sharply delineated, two-track system for judging whether a foreign takeover provides a “net benefit” – one track for transactions with typical corporations and another track for firms under the influence of foreign governments.

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