Canada Mining – Page 342 – Republic of Mining

The man who saw gold in Alberta’s oil sands – by Gordon Pitts (Globe and Mail – August 25, 2012)

August 27, 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.

Andrew Nikiforuk denounces the Energy of Slaves – by Andrew Nikiforuk (Toronto Star – August 26, 2012)

August 27, 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.”

New national park falls short – Toronto Star Editorial (August 25, 2012)

August 27, 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.

Canadian special forces soldiers put on rare display of fighting talents – by Bruce Campion-smith (Toronto Star – August 25,2012)

August 27, 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.

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

August 27, 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.

Aboriginals readied for workforce – by Liz Cowan (Northern Ontario Business – August 2012)

August 23, 2012

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North.

As the fastest growing segment of Canada’s population, Aboriginals represent a great resource for filling any shortages in the workforce now and in the future.

“I sit in meetings and sometimes hear talk about how we need to access immigrants and I cringe,” said Nancy Beaulieu, Wabun Tribal Council’s employment and training co-ordinator. “We have such a great resource available here when it comes to the Aboriginal population, especially with the mining industry.”

With several memorandums of understanding and impact benefit agreements being signed between First Nations and mining companies, more opportunities are now available.

Some barriers do exist but they are being addressed. Employment and training programs offered by Wabun Tribal Council and others such as Mushkegowuk Council, which both have offices in Timmins, are trying to meet the employment needs of their people and of the employers.

As profit falls, BHP pulls back on new mines – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – August 23, 2012)

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.

BHP Billiton Ltd. has put major project decisions on hold as the world’s biggest miner adapts to slumping demand for commodities and reins in soaring production costs.

Reporting the first annual fall in profit in three years on Wednesday, BHP said it delayed the $20-billion (U.S.) open-pit expansion of Olympic Dam, a huge copper and uranium project in southern Australia.

The Anglo-Australian mining giant also said no other major project approvals are expected in the current fiscal year, including for Jansen, the $12-billion Saskatchewan potash project slated to become the world’s largest producer of the crop nutrient.

Mining companies are showing the bruises of slowing global commodities demand as key consumer China buys less coal, copper, iron ore and other commodities amid softening economic growth. Profits are also being squeezed as costs to build and operate mines rise at their fastest rate in a decade, especially for labour and energy.

Harper’s Arctic trips are now diplomatic ventures – by Campbell Clark (Globe and Mail – August 23, 2012)

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.

Stephen Harper’s trips to the Arctic no longer raise warnings that the Russians are coming. The sabre-rattling rhetoric the Conservatives initially applied to Canada’s Far North has largely been jettisoned for a more commercial focus on exploiting natural resources. But the world is still interested in the Arctic. The Chinese are coming. And others, too.

Mr. Harper’s Arctic trip this week started just days after the Chinese icebreaker Xuelong arrived in Iceland, the first Arctic crossing by a Chinese vessel. China has asked for official observer status in the Arctic Council – the eight-nation international body that Canada will chair starting next year – and so have Japan, South Korea and Singapore.

There are some misgivings, and hype, about what these outsiders want. For Canada, assessing their interests matters to our foreign policy and whether we preach quiet co-operation, launch legal battles or reach for our guns.

Harper pitches resource future with Yukon revenue deal – by Meagan Fitzpatrick (CBC News – August 21, 2012)

August 22, 2012

www.cbc.ca

Yukon is going to be able to cash in more on resource development in its own backyard thanks to an updating of revenue sharing agreements today that was overseen by Prime Minister Stephen Harper during his northern tour.

Harper visited a copper and gold mine in Minto, about 240 kilometres north of Whitehorse, along with John Duncan, minister of aboriginal affairs and northern development.

Duncan signed an agreement with Yukon Premier Darrell Pasloski that amends two existing resource revenue sharing agreements – the Canada-Yukon Oil and Gas Accord and the Yukon Northern Affairs Program Devolution Transfer Agreement.

The agreements cover revenues from oil, gas, forestry, land, water and minerals. The federal government says the reformed agreements will ensure a greater portion of the revenues generated from the mining and resource economy in Yukon will stay in Yukon.

Stephen Harper: Resource development will relieve social woes across the north – by Bruce Campion-Smith (Toronto Star – August 22, 2012)

August 22, 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.

MINTO MINE, YUKON—The billions of dollars of benefits generated from resource projects across Canada’s north offer a solution to the serious social challenges confronting this isolated region, Prime Minister Stephen Harper says.

And Harper is promising to streamline environmental reviews to help get those development projects across the north up and running faster.

The prime minister made the comments Tuesday during a visit to a sprawling copper mine hailed as an example of the ability of resource projects to pump investments into the local community. He said the “great opportunity” of resource projects is that they are unfolding in areas where First Nations have lacked other economic opportunities.

“I’m particularly pleased to see projects like these employing not just locals but aboriginal locals,” Harper said. “We want to make sure that those things are turned into opportunities for them. Obviously, for their communities to gain revenue to provide some of the services . . . but also that they gain employment and skills and expertise in these industries,” he said.

Harper’s Northern Vision – by Peter Foster (National Post – August 21, 2012)

August 22, 2012

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

Aims to boost development while avoiding ‘industrial strategy’

Stephen Harper is on his annual visit to the North this week, quoting Robert Service and boosting the region’s vast resource potential. “The North” holds a particular place in the Canadian psyche, somewhat similar to that of “The West” in the 19th-century U.S. One thing nobody wants to see, however, is a jurisdictional “Wild North.”

One reason why attention has moved north in recent years is the possibility of regular commercial passage through the Northwest Passage due to climate change. This has brought sovereignty to the fore, an issue given a new twist by the recent transit of a Chinese vessel. China wants Arctic waters to be international, an open approach that is remarkably different from the policy China pursues closer to home.

In fact, Mr. Harper’s visit this year is built around the North’s economic promise rather than the assertion of offshore rights. There is a reason for soft-peddling sovereignty and security. The bold measures Mr. Harper announced in previous years — from new ice-patrol vessels to new research facilities — have been frustratingly slow to materialize.

In some ways, Mr. Harper’s invocation of a grand Diefenbaker-ish Northern Vision might appear out of ideological character.

First Nations must be partners, not an afterthought – by Shawn Atleo (Globe and Mail – August 22, 2012)

August 22, 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.

Shawn A-in-chut Atleo is the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

The debate over the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline has vaulted First Nations people and their rights to the forefront of the national discussion on energy, the environment and resource development.

This is fitting. Our lands are the backbone of the Canadian economy. Yet we have often been seen only as an obstacle or afterthought to development (when we were seen at all). Now we have an opportunity and impetus to reconcile our rights and interests and reap benefits for all Canadians.

The Northern Gateway project is capturing headlines, but it is only one of many major projects planned or under way, projects worth hundreds of billions in economic activity. All these projects are located in or near First Nations’ traditional territories. Any project that could affect their lands or lives requires their consent. This is what we agreed to in treaties and it is a reality in Canadian law.

Canada’s ‘Great National Dream’ will be fueled by Northern mining, oil & gas-Harper – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – August 22, 2012)

August 22, 2012

www.mineweb.com

“The North’s time has come, my friends, and you ain’t seen nothing yet,” says Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

RENO (MINEWEB) – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper suggests that the untapped mining, oil and natural gas resources in Canada’s North could generate enough cash to turn the country into an economic powerhouse.

During his current tour of Canada’s North, Harper suggested that over the next decade there are more than 500 large new development projects being proposed for Canada, which collectively will be worth more than “a half a trillion dollars.”

He estimates that 30 new mining projects will be developed across the North over the next decade.

While touring the Minto copper-gold mine in the Yukon Tuesday, Harper witnessed the signing by Yukon Premier Darrell Pasloksi and John Duncan, Canada’s minister of aboriginal affairs and northern development, of amendments to resource revenue sharing agreements which will ensure a greater portion of the revenues generated from the mining and resource economy in the territory will be available to the territory.

Harper’s northern tour continues at Yukon mine – by The Canadian Press/CBC News.com – August 21, 2012)

August 21, 2012

www.cbc.ca

‘You ain’t seen nothing yet’ for northern resource development, Harper tells partisan crowd

As the classic Canadian poem says, the Yukon is where people moil for gold. And today Stephen Harper is off to see what a more modern day version of that work looks like. On his first full day in the North, Harper was to tour Captstone’s copper gold Minto mine, about 240 kilometres north of Whitehorse.

His visit comes after a speech to party faithful last night in the territorial capital where he extolled the development of the North’s resources as the “great national dream.” The speech reiterated the priority the Conservatives say they’ve placed on the North since being elected in 2006.

“The North’s time has come,” Harper told a crowd of about 300 Conservative supporters at a rally Monday night. “I tell people starting to see the activity here, you ain’t seen nothing yet in terms of what’s coming in the next decade.”

Boosting resource development

Natural resources development has also become a renewed focus of the Harper government as countries the world express eagerness to receive a greater share.

On northern sovereignty, Harper should keep building momentum – but toward attainable goals – Globe and Mail Editorial (August 21, 2012)

August 21, 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.

It is easy to be skeptical about Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s annual jaunts to the Arctic, the latest of which he has embarked upon this week. For all the photo opportunities in front of spectacular backdrops, and northern-sovereignty rhetoric that fits neatly into the Conservatives’ political brand, little progress has been made toward many of the commitments that Mr. Harper has announced during them, including military procurements and the building of a “High Arctic research centre.”

To entirely dismiss these trips, however, would be to sell Mr. Harper short. Before he took office in 2006, the Far North was barely on the national radar, largely because the federal government had not made it a priority. That has dramatically changed – partly because climate change is opening up the Northwest Passage as a commercial shipping route, greatly enhancing its strategic importance, but also because Mr. Harper has made a sustained effort to instill pride in an enormous swath of the country where most Canadians have not actually ventured.

The question, now, is how best to channel that focus. On Mr. Harper’s past trips, the words and imagery have centred around defence, enough to give the impression that Canada boasts sole ownership of the Northwest Passage – which few other countries agree with – and that it is prepared to defend this claim by force.