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Canada Mining

Uranium deal with china ‘important’ for Saskatchewan – by Joe Couture (Saskatoon Star Phoenix – January 10, 2012)

www.starphoenix.com

Wall claims ‘great day’ for province

An agreement that is expected to allow Canadian companies to ship uranium to China is “very, very important” for Saskatchewan, Premier Brad Wall said on Thursday in reaction to news from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s visit to the Asian superpower.

“It’s a great day for Saskatchewan and we want to thank the federal government and the prime minister for raising a very Saskatchewan issue on their trade mission and making progress,” Wall told reporters Thursday at the Legislative Building.

Though a small amount of Saskatchewan uranium has been shipped to China before under special agreements, the new trade agreement signed by Harper is expected to allow Saskatchewan producers to directly sell Canadian yellowcake – a type of uranium concentrate powder – to China, he continued.

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Asbestos industry under microscope – by Michelle LaLonde (Montreal Gazette – February 11, 2012)

http://www.montrealgazette.com/index.html

Call for government to stop financial aid

If you were a private investor looking to sink some money into a promising venture, the expansion of an asbestos mine in Quebec may not sound like a great bet these days.

Quebec’s asbestos industry has been taking a heavy pounding of late, with two damning documentaries airing on CBC and Radio-Canada, renewed calls from politicians in Quebec City and Ottawa to outlaw the cancer-causing mineral, and a review launched into some industry-funded research at McGill this week.

On Friday, the opposition Québec Solidaire called on the provincial and federal governments to stop financing the asbestos industry and to ban export of the mineral. Parti Québécois mining critic Martine Ouellette told Canadian Press she wants a parliamentary commission to look at the issue.

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How First Quantum recouped its seized mine – by Matthew McClearn (Canadian Business Magazine – January 19, 2012)

Founded in 1928, Canadian Business is the longest-publishing business magazine in Canada.

In 2007 the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo announced it would autocratically tear up and renegotiate contracts with foreign mining companies. The price Vancouver-based First Quantum Minerals paid for resisting: the forcible seizure and resale of its properties in the country, including two operating mines and another on which construction was nearly complete.

The DRC investigated First Quantum for what it called “suspected widescale misconduct.” Its courts, which are not independent, slapped a stinging US$12-billion judgment on the company. The government transferred the properties for nominal sums to close associates of DRC president Joseph Kabila, who promptly flipped them for significant profits; Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC), a large London-based company dominated by Kazakh owners, paid just US$175 million for the Kolwezi project, which cost First Quantum nearly $800 million to purchase and construct.

First Quantum immediately sought redress, but its hand seemed weak. ENRC CEO Felix Vuilis had maintained his company owed nothing to the former owners. “Any dispute that First Quantum has is with the relevant DRC authorities,” he declared shortly after the purchase.

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The Canaccord-China deal: When $1-B is a drop in the bucket – by Marilyn Scales (Canadian Mining Journal – February 9, 2012)

Marilyn Scales is a field editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication. She is one of Canada’s most senior mining commentators.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s current trip to China is touted as an opportunity to create partnerships between the two countries. One positive outcome has just been revealed: Canaccord Financial of Toronto and a Chinese bank plan to establish a Canada-China Natural Resource Fund and give it an initial endowment of US$1 billion.

The fund intends to:

•Invest in both public and private natural resource and energy companies or projects in Canada;

•Promote interaction and sustainable development among Chinese, Canadian and other nature resources companies, and’

•Create opportunities for substantial returns on investment (be profitable) through the strategic and market-oriented allocation of the fund’s capital.

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Making sense of royalty structures and rates (Part I) – by Jonathan C. Lotz (Northern Miner – December 5-11, 2011)

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

Royalties in the mining industry look pretty straightforward, but dig a little deeper and the complexities are soon apparent. Let’s start with what exactly a royalty is, the different ways it can be structured and used, and its history in Canadian mining.

By definition, a royalty is the right to receive a percent of the revenue generated from the sale of mineral products mined from a property. The legal nature of this right depends on whether the royalty is a mere contractual right or a direct interest in the property.

If a royalty is determined to be a mere contractual right, the holder may lose the right on the sale of the property. However, if the right is an interest in land, the holder may be liable as an owner under environmental legislation.

Royalties are most commonly used in acquiring mineral properties. They benefit the purchaser because they calculate the full purchase price. If and when royalties start payment, the purchase price is amortized over an extended period of time.

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Africa: The Back Story to Cida-Mining Partnerships – by Catherine Coumans (All Africa.com/Mining Watch.com – February 9, 2012)

www.allafrica.com

Catherine Coumans is the research co-ordinator and Asia Pacific program co-ordinator for MiningWatch Canada. She is the author of Whose Development? Mining, Local Resistance, and Development Agendas.

Analysis

Mining companies’ branding of themselves as bringers of development needs to be critically examined against the burgeoning ‘resource curse’ literature that links mining to deepening national impoverishment in mining-dependent developing countries

The Canadian International Development Agency’s funding of Corporate Social Responsibility projects mostly near mine sites is intended to help Canadian mining companies compete for access to lucrative ore bodies in developing countries in the face of increasing local opposition to mining.

As I write this, thousands of Cajamarcans in Peru are protesting Newmont Mining Corp.’s proposed Conga mine that will destroy four lakes they depend on for their water supplies and livelihoods.

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Goldcorp chair Ian Telfer’s name in an OSC insider trading probe is a high-profile symbol – by David Olive (Toronto Star – February 9, 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.

Chances are you have not heard of Eda Marie Agueci. Until she was suspended by her employer a few days ago, Agueci was a drone in a second-tier Toronto investment firm. She is alleged by the Ontario Securities Commission with being at or near the centre of a ring of friends and relatives engaged in improper insider trading practices at least from 2007.

By contrast, you might well know of Ian W. Telfer, 65, chairman of Vancouver-based Goldcorp Inc., one of the world’s largest gold-mining enterprises.

Telfer is a highly regarded figure, and rightly so. He built Goldcorp into an enterprise with $3.8 billion in 2010 and profits of $1.6 billion, with resource-development projects on four continents. Goldcorp has created a multitude of jobs worldwide, and kept Vancouver on the map as a centre of mining expertise when much of that activity has migrated to Calgary and Toronto.

Along with his 40 or so years of mining expertise, Telfer is a philanthropist whose largesse includes the Telfer School of Management at his alma mater back East, the University of Ottawa.

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Historic Canada-China trade agreements benefit both mining sectors – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – February 9, 2012)

www.mineweb.com

After 20 years of negotiations, Canada and China are closer to ratification of a Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement that may benefit mining and mining services in both nations.

RENO – The Canada Mining Innovation Council applauded Wednesday’s announcement by Prime Minister Stephen Harper that Canada and China completed negotiations on a historic Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA).

Negotiations for this agreement took 18 years and major players in mining, manufacturing, and the financial sectors were consulted to get to this stage. Harper and Chinese Premier Wen Jaibao Wednesday signed a declaration of intent which must be legally reviewed and ratified by both governments.

If ratified, Canadian mining companies would enjoy more protection and promotion of their Chinese investments through legally-binding rights and obligation. Wen also called for studies into the feasibility of a free-trade agreement between China and Canada.

Jiang Shan, minister counselor from China’s Ministry of Commerce, told China Daily, “Chinese enterprises could make forays into or add investment in the categories of coal, iron ore and potash manure.”

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Go west, young Canadians – by Margaret Wente (Globe and Mail – February 9, 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.

“Like it or not, Canada’s stupendous natural resources are
our future. They are the envy of the world, and will ensure
our prosperity for many years to come….The question is not
whether we should develop these resources, but how wisely and
how well.” (Margaret Wente – Globe and Mail)

When Caterpillar closed a plant in Southern Ontario last week and threw 450 people out of work, some commentators treated it like a national catastrophe. Caterpillar, which is notorious for its hardball labour tactics, plans to relocate the jobs in Indiana, where people are willing to work for half of what the unionized workers in Ontario got.

I felt awful for the workers. Who wouldn’t? But Ontario has to compete with the entire world. And even if those jobs don’t move away, many are being swept away by new technology. The mighty engine of Confederation has turned into its rust belt. But nobody in the rest of Canada is feeling particularly sorry for us. We squandered the fat years on a vast expansion of our government and threw away our money on foolish green energy schemes. Now we face a gloomy decade of tax increases, deteriorating health care and deep cuts to everything. Did I mention that the average detached house in Toronto costs $606,000?

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NEWS RELEASE: Canada world’s top exploration country for ten years

Metals Economic Group’s 22nd Corporate Exploration Strategies Study

U.S. dollar currency is used throughout this press release.

Vancouver, British Columbia, January 24, 2012 – According to Metals Economics Group’s (MEG) Corporate Exploration Strategies (CES), Canada has been the world’s top country for exploration for the last ten years, since overtaking Australia in 2002. Canada’s allocation for 2011 represents 18% of worldwide spending. (Metals Economics Group’s study covers expenditures for precious and base metals, diamonds, uranium, and some industrial minerals.)

“Three provinces—Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia accounted for more than 60% of the $3.1 billion in planned Canadian nonferrous exploration spending in 2011”, states Jason Goulden, MEG’s Vice President, Research. “Of the 781 companies that planned to explore in Canada in 2011, almost 91% were based in Canada, together contributing about 82% of the planned Canadian nonferrous exploration total.”

Goulden adds, “Worldwide, Canadian-based companies accounted for more than half of the 2,400+ active explorers—each with a budget of at least $100,000—covered by the 2011 edition of CES, and together accounted for 40% of the $17.25 billion budgeted by all companies for nonferrous exploration in 2011.” 

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Xstrata-Glencore deal a possible game changer – by David Ebner (Globe and Mail – February 7, 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.

VANCOUVER— The merger of Glencore International PLC and Xstrata PLC has the potential to spark a new wave of deals in the mining industry, particularly among copper producers, some analysts say.

The two companies are expected to announce an $88-billion (U.S.) deal Tuesday that will unite one of the world’s biggest traders of commodities with one of the largest miners of base metals. The new company will be a massive player in resources such as zinc, thermal coal, nickel and copper.

And even though their union has been anticipated for months, even years, the reality of a merged Xstrata-Glencore might be enough to jar others to action.

“There’s a big difference between almost pregnant and pregnant,” said Michael Locker of consulting firm Locker Associates in New York.

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Australia-China relationship a lesson for Ottawa [about resources] – by Matthew Fisher (National Post – February 7, 2012)

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

Canadians are about to discover that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has caught China fever. The Prime Minister arrives Tuesday in Beijing to shout that Canada is open for business.

Australia caught China fever some years ago and because of it the Land Down Under has been creating a staggering amount of wealth out of one of the greatest resource booms of all time.

To little fanfare elsewhere, Australia’s trade to China has tripled over the past five years to more than $60-billion a year.

When imports are included, trade between the countries is $80-billion a year, compared with a relatively piddling $30-billion a year of trade between Canada and China.

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Plan Nord: Jean Charest says half of northern Quebec will be protected – by René Bruemmer (Montreal Gazette – February 6, 2012)

This article came from: http://www.montrealgazette.com/index.html

Environmentalists celebrate increased safeguarding of extra 100,000 square kilometres of land

MONTREAL – Calling it perhaps the largest environmental conservation project on the planet, Quebec premier Jean Charest unveiled how the government plans to safeguard 50 per cent of the province’s northern territory – a region the size of France – from industrial development Sunday.

Chief among the measures was the announcement that 20 per cent of the region will be declared protected areas by 2020, nearly twice the amount of land Quebec first pledged would be granted full protection.

Another 30 per cent of the land will be closed to mining and hydroelectric projects, although other development projects deemed to have less impact on the ecology, like ecotourism, for instance, will be permitted. The nature of those development projects have yet to be defined.

The announcement was met with cautious approval by conservation groups, some of who have characterized the government’s Plan Nord vision to invest $80 billion in energy development, forestry, mining and tourism over 25 years as a marketing plan to sell off natural resources to foreign countries.

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Caterpillar likes to play hardball — so let’s play hardball – by David Olive (Toronto Star – February 6, 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.

Recession-ravaged London, Ont., needn’t lose its status as one of the world’s leading locomotive manufacturing centres.

Yes, that is the plan revealed Friday by U.S.-based Caterpillar Inc., owner of London’s 90-year-old Electro-Motive Diesel Inc. (EMD). Caterpillar has abruptly shut down the firm just 18 months after buying it. Cat is poised to ship EMD’s specialized equipment and technology — intellectual property developed in London over several generations — to low-wage jurisdictions outside Canada. Naturally, Caterpillar presents this outrage as a fait accompli.

Already there are calls for a government inquiry to determine how such industrial rape can be prevented in future. A good idea. But we also should and can quash Cat’s plans for EMD.

When it paid a bargain $820 million for EMD in 2010, Caterpillar appeared to be getting a mere factory. What it actually got its hands on is one of the global industry’s few major locomotive manufacturers. (EMD’s sole major North American rival is General Electric Co.) EMD is richly endowed with made-in-Canada technology and boasts the largest customer base in the world.

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Quadra FNX bidders [KGHM Polska Miedz] tour Sudbury – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – February 6, 2012)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Getting to know their neighbours in areas in which their company operates is the regular course of business for Polish mining company KGHM, say three of its executives.

The company prides itself on its relationship with employees at its three mines and two smelters in southwest Poland, and the communities they are in. KGHM has made what it is essentially a $3.5-billion offer to acquire Quadra FNX, which has holdings in Sudbury, the United States and South America.

Shareholders will vote on that offer this month. The company is calling it a “friendly acquisition” in which it will pay shareholders up to $3 billion — or $15 a share — and take on the company’s $500-million debt.

KGHM general director Jarek Romanovski, business development officer Chr is Kubacki and director Artur Wienowski visited Sudbury this week to meet with Quadra FNX managers and employees, and leaders in the community.

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