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NEWS RELEASE: Wallbridge Mining Highlights Plans for 2012

January 05, 2012

Highlights

  • Wallbridge Mining is to advance the Broken Hammer copper-PGE project through feasibility with permitting and a production decision expected in 2012.
  • Wallbridge Mining plans 15,000 metres exploration drilling in Sudbury with a focus on Implats, Lonmin and Xstrata joint ventures.
  • Continued drilling at Parkin, following up high grade nickel-copper-PGE results at Milnet.

Toronto, Ontario — January 5, 2012 – Wallbridge Mining Company Limited (TSX: WM, FWB: WC7) (“Wallbridge”) today provided a business update highlighting its direction for 2012. Wallbridge plans include advancing its Broken Hammer copper-platinum group element (“PGE”) project through feasibility and completing over 15,000 metres of exploration diamond drilling on its Sudbury area projects.

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A cautious optimism for coal – by David Ebner and Brenda Bouw (Globe and Mail – January 4, 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.

RIDLEY ISLAND, B.C. AND VANCOUVER – The sky is a hard grey and the small mountains of coal piled a dozen metres high are thick black. From this outpost in northwestern British Columbia, about 700 kilometres from Vancouver, coal trundles on conveyors from train cars to the piles, and then onward to docked ships destined for steel mills in China, Japan, and South Korea.

New equipment – huge rings of steel – lays nearby. The gear will increase the capacity of Ridley Terminals Inc. to unload coal from trains, one step in a four-year, multimillion-dollar effort to double exports to 24-million tonnes a year, and handle new and increased production from coal mines in British Columbia, Alberta and the United States.

It is the second time Canada has bet big on higher coal exports to steel makers in Asia. Last time, the bet on Japan failed badly when the forecasted prolonged boom didn’t last. Today, the same belief, and certainty, has been attached to China, the world’s largest steel-producing nation.

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Will Quebec’s Plan Nord boost its cachet as a jurisdiction of choice? – by Alisha Hiyate (Mining Markets – December 2011)

http://www.miningmarkets.ca/

It’s probably safe to say that no one is happier about Plan Nord — Quebec’s 25-year plan to stimulate investment in the province’s vast northern reaches — than André Gaumond.

The founder, president and CEO of project generator Virginia Mines (VGQ-T) has been preaching the gospel of northern Quebec’s mineral potential for more than a decade, well before the provincial government unveiled its official Plan Nord policy this May.

“We’ve been selling or promoting the ‘Plan Nord’ for 15 years, travelling everywhere, talking with investors and the investment community and telling them that this. . . area has a huge potential,” Gaumond says. “We will find many mines, many deposits there: It is the future of the mining industry in Canada. This is what we’ve been telling people for years and years.”

Under Plan Nord, the Quebec government will spend $2.1 billion over the next five years to make Quebec north of the 49th parallel — an area that accounts for 72% of the province’s landmass — more accessible for exploration and development.

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Mining Boom in Quebec: Alain-Jean Beauregard – by Brian Sylvester (The Gold Report – December 23, 2011)

http://www.theaureport.com/

While many jurisdictions are working hard to prevent mining or mineral exploration, the province of Quebec is encouraging it. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, Alain-Jean Beauregard, founder of Geologica Inc., a geological consulting firm based in Val-d’Or, talks about the shining future of gold mining in Quebec.

The Gold Report: The province of Quebec where Geologica is based offers some of the best infrastructure and mineral exploration incentives of any state or province in North America. Why has Quebec embraced mining when so many other jurisdictions are working hard to prevent mining or mineral exploration at all?

Alain-Jean Beauregard: Like forestry, mining has traditionally been a region developer in the province of Quebec. Native land issues have already been settled for large parts of the province. Mining is an important job creator—one of the most important in the province. It’s good income for the province because of revenues from taxes. Quebec is happy to have mining companies in the province.

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The top [investment] mining bloggers, newsletter writers and speakers: our list of who to follow for investment advice – by Michael Allan McCrae (Mining.com – January 2, 2012)

http://www.mining.com/ Mining is fueled by investors and the lure of the next lucky strike. Here are some of the investment writers we like to follow, subscriber-based newsletter writers, as well as bloggers, speakers and news publications. The list is a personal selection. Any such list is subjective depending upon the investment advice offered and the …

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This teacher is on a mission to educate first nations – by Kate Hammer (Globe and Mail – January 3, 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.

Every Wednesday, after her day job teaching inmates of a Northern Ontario prison, Michelle Durant-Dudley climbed into her silver Subaru and drove 70 kilometres along a winding highway that was more dense with moose traffic than cars.

Waiting for her on a tiny reserve halfway between Lake Huron and James Bay was a group of mothers, fathers, grandparents, pregnant teens and residential school survivors who shared a piece of unfinished business: their high-school diplomas.

Ms. Durant-Dudley started those Wednesday drives in 2009. Since then, thanks to her efforts and the opening of a nearby mine, residents of Wahgoshig First Nation have been breaking out of the cycle of poverty and poor education that blights many aboriginal communities.

Close to $3-billion began streaming into the area around Wahgoshig in 2010, with the construction of a gold mine and a cluster of dams along the lower Mattagami River opening up hundreds jobs, some of which paid $29 an hour. But for many locals, the requirement of a Grade 12 education put those jobs out of reach.

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Rio Tinto, Caterpillar lock out more than 1,000 workers – by Christine Dobby (National Post – January 3, 2012)

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

The year began with lockouts for about 1,200 workers at two companies in Ontario and Quebec, as contract negotiations broke down in the waning days of 2011.

Caterpillar Inc. subsidiary Electro-Motive Canada locked out about 420 production workers at its London, Ont. facility on Sunday, the same day as Rio Tinto Alcan Inc. said it initiated a lockout of about 750 employees at its smelter in Alma, Que. Collective agreements in both cases expired on Dec. 31.

In the Electro-Motive case, the Canadian Auto Workers Local 27, the union representing the workers who make locomotives at the plant, had been negotiating a new contract with the company since November, hoping to replace a six- month extension with a new collective agreement.

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Bill 14 will change [Quebec] mining sector for worse – by Jean-Francois Minardi, Troy Media (Montreal Gazette – September 20, 2011)

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

Giving power to municipalities will make it harder to invest in new jobs

Jean-François Minardi is associate director of the Global Natural Resource Policy Centre with the Fraser Institute.

Until recently, Quebec was seen by mining executives around the world as having the best policy environment for investment, mainly thanks to a predictable regulatory environment, the absence of territorial claims in northern Quebec, high quality geo-scientific data easily accessible to miners, good infrastructure, a skilled workforce, and an attractive mining-tax system.

But with the introduction May 12 of Bill 14, to amend Quebec’s Mining Act, the province is now poised to introduce a high level of uncertainty that may scare investors away and seriously damage the policy attractiveness of Quebec to mining investment.

Bill 14 gives additional power to municipalities to control mining activities on their territory, something municipalities clamoured for during the heated debates over regulating the shale gas industry.

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Sherritt CEO [Ian Delaney] reflects on 40 years in the capitalism game – by Jennifer Wells (Toronto Star – January 1, 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.

“You do understand it’s a lottery,” says the fired executive. “You know the whole damn thing’s a lottery.” The fired executive is talking about life, that damn thing, that single ticket you’re given. Punched once, you’re done. Adios.

So the executive, who enjoyed the benefits that come along with a multimillion-dollar salary and a chief executive officer’s title, up and fired himself four weeks ago, an act that has put him in the mood to reflect on the past 40 years playing the capitalism game.

It’s a good year for reflection.

The year the eurozone went to hell in a handbasket. The year of the Occupy movement. The year of economic foreboding. There’s 1 per cent. There’s 99 per cent. There’s one-tenth of 1 per cent. Like this guy. So.

Ian Delaney often reaches for small words and sprinkles them over the boardroom table as if they were full sentences.

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Year in Review: [B.C.] Resource sector booms, but concerns linger – by Derrick Penner (Vancouver Sun – December 31, 2011)

The Vancouver Sun, a broadsheet daily paper first published in 1912, has the largest circulation in the province of British Columbia.

Call 2011 a tale of two economies, which proved a boon to British Columbia on one hand, but still prompted wary concern on the other. Asia, particularly China, fairly rocketed forward in the post-recession recovery, carrying B.C.’s resource industries with it. Coal miners cashed in on record high prices, lumber producers continued to make record sales to China and resource developers rushed to push projects along, from new mines to pipelines and natural gas liquefaction plants.

B.C.’s real estate markets carried on from 2010’s strong rebound thanks in large part to an influx of investment from Asian investors and immigrants that helped push home prices in select markets up to levels that confounded observers and skewed average prices nationally. Yet provincial unemployment, while trending down, remained uncomfortably high and concerns remained about exposure to the markets that struggled.

The United States remained in the doldrums, Europe struggled through a sovereign debt crisis and the resulting fears of both regions sliding back into recession side-swiped expectations for stronger global growth.

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Bonuses attracting skilled workers – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – December, 2011)


 

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.

Playing favourites

Backed by a driving soundtrack, the commercial starts with a swooping aerial shot of the Cana­dian wilderness, the narrative alternating slow-motion shots of young people hard at work with massive machines biting chunks out of the rugged Canadian landscape.

And then comes the voiceover: “Canada: a country rich in natural resources. Rio Tinto: a global leader with over a century of experience in transforming these resources for the products we all need.”

It’s slick, it’s seductive, and it’s modern: this is recruitment in 2011.

Rio Tinto is currently undergoing a nationwide recruitment campaign to fill the hundreds of positions available with its company. Aside from the TV spot, which recently reached more than 5,000 views on YouTube, the company is using social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, along with a dedicated recruitment website, to attract the right applicants.

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Saskatchewan is the shining light on the prairies – by David Breen Seymour (National Post – December 29, 2011)

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

“No longer do businesses in the energy and mining industries
abandon the province in the face of hostile and activist
regulatory regimes that threaten to make their investments
worthless. Saskatchewan has discovered that, with its
resource base, creating space for secure investment and
innovation is all that’s required for substantial economic
growth.” (David Breen Seymour)

Ontario needs to rethink the Far North Act and specific
aspects of their Mining Act revisions that are causing
many junior mining companies – the lifeblood of the mining
sector – to slow down their activities or leave the
province. – (Stan Sudol)

Saskatchewan stands at an opportune time in its history.

Outside its borders, globalization means there are more people who want to buy what we have and also more people willing to sell us what we want in return. More demand for Saskatchewan’s food and energy-based products in tandem with more supply of the finished goods that its people buy could raise standards of living in Saskatchewan to levels never before seen anywhere. Inside the province’s borders, politics have matured, making it easier than ever to do business.

A deeper theme is that public policy matters. Throughout history, no factor has impacted on the quality of the lives people live more than the quality of their public policies. Many other explanations are given for prosperity, but none of them stand up to scrutiny. If natural resources were the key to prosperity, Nigeria would be rich and Singapore poor.

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NEWS RELEASE: Sudden Passing of John Zigarlick, Chairman of Nuna Logistics Limited


 

EDMONTON, Dec. 20, 2011 /CNW/ – Mervyn Hempenstall, CEO of Nuna Logistics Limited, announced the sudden passing of John Zigarlick, Nuna Logistics’ Chairman, on December 17, 2011. “As founder and Chairman, John Zigarlick was the pillar of the Company.  John’s passion about the North and its development was an inspiration to us all.

He will be missed by many of us who saw him as a mentor and friend,” said Mervyn early today. Amongst his numerous achievements, John will be best remembered for the pioneering spirit he demonstrated in 1980 in the concept, planning and execution of placing Echo Bay’s Lupin gold mine into production. Echo Bay developed from a small silver producer with a net worth of $7 million in 1979, to a corporation with a 1995 market capitalization of approximately $2 billion. Mr. Zigarlick spent 21 years in the employment of Echo Bay Mines Ltd., including 16 years as President and CEO.

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Building Canada’s Epic Ice Road (Popular Mechanics – December 18, 2009)

http://www.popularmechanics.com/

“If you want to learn about Canadian ice roads, sooner 
or later you have to talk to John Zigarlick.”

The truckers who haul 70-ton rigs hundreds of miles across Canada’s frozen lakes aren’t afraid of much — except warm weather.
 
The temperature: 10 below zero. The location: the middle of frozen Waite Lake in the Northwest Territories, 1000 miles north of the U.S. border. I’m with six Canadian ice-road experts on the shoulder of a highway that curves from the powder-frosted shoreline forest, across the lake and into the distance. In the pale light of winter, even the sun seems frozen.

Fifty yards away, a tanker truck hauling 40 tons of fuel oil inches forward, its huge diesel rumbling. I’m startled to hear the ice beneath our feet make a sound like shattering window glass, but no one else seems to notice. Apparently, ice that’s 3 ft. thick behaves this way when you drive a massive truck over it.

But something else I notice is definitely not normal. A few yards from the road, Waite Lake’s smooth surface rears up in jagged shards; beyond is a pool of black water.

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Market forces to buffet potash – by Ryan W. Lijdsman (National Post – December 22, 2011)

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

Ryan W. Lijdsman is an international business consultant and freelance writer who has been working with various companies and governments in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

While BHP Billiton failed in its attempt to take over Potash Corp., it is succeeding in transforming the Canadian potash industry from supply management to free market. BHP and other new entrants are opening new potash mines that will sell directly to buyers, bypassing Canpotex. Over the long term, this transformation will be positive for both the industry and the governments that receive royalties, but in the short term the proposed supply increases are far greater than current demand, leading to market volatility as the forces of supply and demand clash.

Canadian potash has traditionally been exported through Canpotex, a producer-owned export cartel made up of Potash Corp., Mosaic and Agrium. Canpotex manages the price and volume of exports and with the other large global exporter Belarusian Potash Co. – a consortium that controls the exports of Belarusian and Russian potash – controls 70% of the export market.

The supply management that Canpotex provided producers has benefited the industry by providing stability when supply was greater than demand.

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