Canada Mining – Page 345 – Republic of Mining

Atleo to press private sector on respect for aboriginal treaty rights – by Tamara Baluja (Globe and Mail – July 20, 2012)

July 20, 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.

Following the lead of many chiefs who demanded the AFN take a more assertive role,
the AFN passed a resolution calling for the eviction of mining companies in Northern
Ontario’s Ring of Fire.”We’re being bullied by a giant mining company and a
desperate province,” Chris Moonias, a band councillor from the Neskantaga First
Nation, told the assembled chiefs.

With natives feeling ignored on key treaty rights, Shawn Atleo, the newly re-elected Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, says the advocacy organization will take the conversation directly to businesses on resource development. At the same time, he didn’t rule out delaying key projects like the Northern Gateway pipeline.

“The chiefs are standing together and saying if you do not deal with the recognition of our title rights, it will not result in more efficient development,” he said the day after he was re-elected to a three-year term as national chief of Canada’s largest aboriginal organization.

With billions of dollars at stake in projects like the Northern Gateway pipeline and mines in Northern Ontario, Canadian business leaders have urged politicians to give aboriginal communities a larger role in the development of Canada’s energy industry.

China buys into Canada – by Vanessa Lu (Toronto Star – July 20, 2012)

July 20, 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.

Just five years ago, China’s foreign direct investment in Canada was too little to report. But since the 2008 financial crisis, the inflows of cash from across the Pacific have soared, especially as a booming China with $3 trillion (U.S.) in reserves, moves to shore up its supply chain access to certain commodities.

Given Canada’s natural resources potential, China has looking here for investment opportunities. Well-publicized deals include China Investment Corp., the sovereign wealth fund, buying a $1.74 billion stake in Teck Resources, or the state-owned China Petroleum Corp, better known as Sinopec Group, buying a 9 per cent chunk of oil sands producer Syncrude for $4.56 billion.

Last year, Sinopec also acquired 100 per cent ownership in Calgary-based Daylight Energy, an oil and gas explorer with operations in Alberta and British Columbia, for $2.2 billion last year.

The deals keep coming, a far cry from 2004, when China Minmetals Corp. initially bid to acquire Noranda, raising considerable political concerns, given that Minmetals is a state-owned Chinese enterprise. The deal eventually fell apart, with Noranda merging instead with Falconbridge.

Canada’s Arctic push: Left out in the cold? – by Yadullah Hussain (National Post – July 20, 2012)

July 20, 2012

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

The five hotels of the Northwest Territories town of Norman Wells (population: 800) saw more than their fair share of hard hats last year. “You could not get a room there for six months last winter,” said David Ramsay, Northwest Territories’ minister of transportation industry, tourism and investment. “Grocery stores saw a 100% increase in sales; it was unprecedented economic activity for that period of time — we are going to see even more this coming winter.”

Norman Wells is not alone in witnessing this bonanza. Towns and communities across the vast Arctic landscape are waking up to the riches that lie buried beneath, as oil executives scope for prospects and Arctic governments take another ‘strategic’ look at the region’s hydrocarbon and mineral riches.

The area shared by Canada, Denmark (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States offers an estimated 46 trillion cubic metres of undiscovered global natural gas, or 30% of the global total. In addition, it holds 90 billion barrels of oil — or 13% of the estimated global total of undiscovered oil, according to a 2008 U.S. Geological Survey.

In Panama, Locals Protest Canadian Copper Mines – PBS News Hour – July 17, 2012

July 19, 2012

Watch In Panama, ‘New Conquistadors’ Protest Canadian Copper Mines on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/

Transcript

JEFFREY BROWN: Next, new battle lines are being drawn in the rain forests of the Americas, and billions of dollars are at stake. Canadian mining companies hold about 1,400 properties in developing nations from Mexico to Argentina.

One of those is in Panama, where local groups have teamed up with environmental activists to halt the building of new mines.

Our story is a collaboration with CBC News in Canada and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. The producer is Lynn Burgess. The reporter is Mellissa Fung.

MELLISSA FUNG, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting: Deep in the Panamanian rain forest, more than three hours northwest of Panama City, small agricultural communities dot the landscape, places that have remained unchanged for generations.

Carmelo Yanguez has lived in this town of Coclesito for more than 40 years. A subsistence farmer, he lives on what he grows, planting coffee, rice and beans and fish from nearby rivers. But his peaceful life, he fears, is changing.

Goldcorp wins mining dispute [against Barrick Gold Corp.] – by Cristin Schmitz (The Lawyer’s Weekly – July 20, 2012)

July 16, 2012

http://www.lawyersweekly.ca/index.php?section=main

Superior Court provides guidance for rights of first refusal agreements

A major commercial law ruling from Ontario holds useful lessons for the mining industry and other sectors that incorporate rights of first refusal into joint venture or shareholder agreements, counsel say.

The case pitted two Canadian mining giants, Barrick Gold Corp. of Toronto against Vancouver-based Goldcorp Inc. (and two other defendants), in a dispute over the ownership of one of South America’s largest gold and copper deposits. Barrick contended that Goldcorp illegally gained control of the Chilean mine that Barrick had conditionally purchased from co-defendant Xstrata Copper Chile S.A.

Superior Court Justice Herman Wilton-Siegel’s 229-page ruling dismissed all of Barrick’s claims against the three defendants. “Barrick’s principal claim for breach of contract is dismissed on the basis that the agreement between Barrick Corp. and Xstrata Chile S.A. terminated upon the exercise of the right of first refusal,” the judge wrote.

Mark Gelowitz of Osler in Toronto, who represents Goldcorp, said the judgment provides a useful overview of the rationale and principles that underlie rights of first refusal (ROFRs) and similar liquidity arrangements in shareholder agreements.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo Speech – THE ECONOMICS OF RECONCILIATION – April 23, 2012

July 16, 2012

This speech was given at the Canadian Club of Toronto on April 23, 2012

Check Against Delivery

THE ECONOMICS OF RECONCILIATION

I am honoured to be with you here again. I remember well being here last year speaking about the enduring relationship between First Nations and the rest of Canada.

I spoke of the proud heritage of indigenous nations and the Treaties made between our nations and the newcomers. The relationships set in Treaty are important to Canada and represent the way forward. As we discussed, the stark and tragic inequities First Nations face today reveal that this relationship has been denied too long. We shared views of the possibility of a new story – a story of hope and opportunity for First Nations.

Today, I want to continue this conversation but turn our focus sharply to the economic side of the story. Reconciliation is a complex concept but we can all agree it compels action – right now.

I will suggest that reconciliation can be best approached as the building of a re-newed foundation with four cornerstones: rights recognition, healing and education, capacity and a fourth which will be my principal focus today – seizing economic potential.

Canada’s pink gold rush [Saskatchewan Potash] – Marc Davis (National Post – June 25, 2012)

June 25, 2012

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

With the precious cargo slung over his shoulder, Vikram Singh strides through his field spreading the white granular stuff where it matters most. “I can’t afford to waste any … I had to buy it on the black market,” says the 38-year-old farmer from Dostpur Mangroli village in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

For the past two decades, Mr. Singh has toiled his field for wheat and rice to feed his family of six, using the white stuff to stimulate the crops and his livelihood in India’s once-fertile Gangetic Plain.

“I have to use more and more because the land is not as good as it once was … This is not only expensive, it’s very hard to get,” says Mr. Singh, who paid twice the retail amount of 1,200 rupees (about $23) for a bootleg 50-kilogram bag of the white stuff – potash-based fertilizer.

Like Mr. Singh, farmers around the world are demanding better access and prices to the indispensable and irreplaceable pink salt known as potash, which optimizes the delivery of nutrients to plants.

NEWS RELEASE: Mining Association of Canada elects new Chairperson: Ian Pearce of Xstrata Nickel

June 20, 2012

Pearce brings 30 years of mining experience to his new role

OTTAWA, June 20, 2012 /CNW/ – The Mining Association of Canada (MAC) is pleased to announce that Ian Pearce, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Xstrata Nickel, has been elected Chairperson of MAC for a two-year term. Effective today, Mr. Pearce replaces Doug Horswill, Senior Vice President of Teck Resources Limited, who began his term in June 2010.

“We would like to thank Doug for his leadership over the past two years and we welcome Ian to his new role,” said Pierre Gratton, MAC’s President and CEO. “Ian brings three decades worth of mining expertise with him and has been actively involved in many of the Association’s activities. MAC and the Canadian industry at large will surely benefit under his direction.”

Mr. Pearce has been an active member of the MAC Board since 2007. He is also a member of the Executive Committee and the Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) Governance Team. In these roles, he provides support and input on the Association’s operations and provides guidance to MAC’s TSM initiative, which works to improve member company performance in the areas of corporate social responsibility and the environment.

Pacific Rim Mining locked in closely watched fight with El Salvador – by Jeff Gray (Globe and Mail – June 20, 2012)

June 20, 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.

Tom Shrake, the American mining industry veteran who heads Vancouver-based Pacific Rim Mining Corp., is nothing if not an optimist.

He’s had no end of troubles: His staff in El Salvador have faced intimidation at gunpoint by local opponents of his proposed mine. Anti-mining groups have accused his company of involvement in the killings of local activists, charges he vehemently denies and for which he says there is no evidence. And the government of the tiny, impoverished country has decided to block all mining within El Salvador’s borders out of fear that a mishap could contaminate the country’s water supply.

But Mr. Shrake says he remains committed to digging for gold and, he argues, digging the local population in northern El Salvador out of poverty. This month, he got a green light to keep fighting for that plan from a World Bank investment tribunal in Washington – a fight being watched closely by the mining industry, international trade lawyers and anti-mining activists.

“We don’t want to go to court. We never wanted to go to court … But they left us no choice,” Mr. Shrake said in an interview from Reno, Nevada, where he is based.

NEWS RELEASE: Investment in mining and oil and gas sectors stimulates demand in other Canadian industries

June 19, 2012

OTTAWA, June 5, 2012 /CNW/ – Massive investment in the oil and gas and mining sectors is fuelling growth in industries ranging from manufacturing to engineering, according to the Canadian Industrial Profile-Spring 2012 published by The Conference Board of Canada in association with the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC).

The Canadian Industrial Profile provides a five-year (2012-2016) production, revenue, cost and profitability forecast for six industries each quarter. The Spring 2012 edition includes forecasts for:

• Electrical Equipment
• Fabricated Metal Products
• Machinery Manufacturing
• Oil and Gas Support Activities
• Professional Services
• Textiles and Apparel

“It is interesting to note that the economic boom linked to oil and gas and mining activities is benefiting many industries – not only in Western Canada, but throughout the country,” said Pierre Cléroux, Vice President, Economic Analysis, at BDC.

Glencore buys into seafloor mining – Peter Koven (National Post – June 16, 2012)

June 18, 2012

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

The world’s largest commodity trader has endorsed speculative undersea mining as a handful of entrepreneurs continue to try to put the industry on the map.

Vancouver-based DeepGreen Resources Inc. has struck a deal with Glencore International Inc. under which the commodity giant agreed to buy 50% of the nickel and copper DeepGreen plans to produce from a seafloor project located west of Mexico.

DeepGreen is a private company founded by David Heydon, the man who built industry leader Nautilus Minerals Inc. and kick-started the underwater mining business. He has planned to take DeepGreen public in Toronto for more than a year, and Glencore’s commitment is a potential catalyst to attract investors to an IPO. The offering has already been delayed because of weak market conditions.

Mr. Heydon views the Glencore deal as evidence that DeepGreen – and seafloor mining as a whole – need to be taken seriously.

EU shouldn’t throw stones at Canada – by Matthew Fisher (National Post – June 12, 2012)

June 12, 2012

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

As for the suggestion that Canada’s ambitious plans for the oil sands would turn
it into a second-tier country, this man , who is not given to hyperbole, laughed
out loud. Canada’s resource sector was, he said, one of the few things creating
any economic excitement these days.

A U.S. energy advisor to the European Union declared last week that Canada had made “a really, really historic mistake” by backing the oil sands. Europeans, who had made green power their priority, now regarded Canada as “a bad guy” that “could potentially become a second-tier country,” the EU consultant said.

Days later Germany’s ambassador to Ottawa said his country was annoyed with Canada for being slow to contribute to an International Monetary Fund bailout package for Europe.

That anyone with an EU connection today would dare to venture a critical opinion about Canada’s economic policies or its energy priorities takes some gall. Here on the sunny, unhappy shores of the Aegean Sea there are fears of serious public disorder if, as seems likely, the continent’s colossal economic woes worsen.

Northern communities consider hosting facility – by Heidi Ulrichsen – (Sudbury Northern Life – June 9, 2012)

June 11, 2012

This article came from Northern Life, Sudbury’s biweekly newspaper.

If the entire current stock of used nuclear fuel in Canada were stacked like cordwood, it could fit into the space the size of six hockey arenas, from the ice surface to the top of the boards.

Of course, used nuclear fuel isn’t stored in hockey arenas. But what exactly happens to it? The uranium dioxide pellets are contained in half-metre-long cylindrical bundles made of a strong, corrosion-resistant metal called Zircaloy.

So far, in the 40 years nuclear power has been used in this country, we’ve produced two million of these bundles. After coming out of a nuclear power plant reactor, this material is “cooled” in pools of water known as used fuel bays on site at nuclear facilities for at least 10 years, until it becomes less radioactive.

Then it’s moved from the used fuel bays into robust concrete and steel containers, and stored in large warehouses on the station site. Although these containers are designed to last at least 50 years, they’re not a permanent solution.

PRESS RELEASE: Minister Oliver Highlights Importance of the Mining Sector to Economic Growth

June 11, 2012

June 11, 2012

SUDBURY, ONTARIO, Jun 11, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — The Honourable Joe Oliver, Minister of Natural Resources, today delivered the keynote address at the MassMin 2012 Conference and Trade Show. The Minister highlighted the importance of the mining industry to Canada’s economic growth and long-term prosperity and acknowledged Sudbury as a centre of job creation and innovation in the Canadian mining sector.

“Our Government recognizes the importance of mining to the Canadian economy and resource-based communities,” said Minister Oliver. “That is why we are committed to innovation, investments in public geoscience and renewing Canada’s regulatory system with our plan for Responsible Resource Development.”

Responsible Resource Development is founded on four main pillars: to make project reviews more predictable and timely; to reduce duplication of project reviews; to strengthen environmental protection; and to enhance Aboriginal consultations.

“The responsible resource development of natural resources is key to maintaining and building the economic strength of great nations,” said Minister Oliver.