Canada Mining – Page 377 – Republic of Mining

In standoff with Ivanhoe Mines, Mongolia blinks – Brenda Bouw (Globe and Mail – October 7, 2011)

October 8, 2011

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 — Mongolia is backing off plans to grab a larger stake of the massive Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project following warnings from its majority owner, Canada’s Ivanhoe Mines Ltd., that such a move would create mistrust among future international investors.

Statements from government officials put an end to weeks of speculation that the country might seek to prematurely boost its stake in the project.

Investor worry spurred a sharp selloff of shares of Ivanhoe Mines, the project’s 66 per cent owner, as well as Rio Tinto PLC, which owns 49 per cent of the Canadian company.

Oyu Tolgoi is key to economic growth in the country, the officials said, warning of the economic consequences of revising the existing deal that gives the country a 34-per-cent stake in the project. It has the option to increase that ownership to 50 per cent in 30 years.

The Mongolian government and Ivanhoe Mines, alongside its project partner Rio, later put out a joint statement confirming their support for the existing deal signed in 2009.

Wanted: workers with a healthy sense of adventure [Diavik Diamond Mine] – by Gail Johnson (Globe and Mail – October 7, 2011)

October 7, 2011

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.

Richard LeBreton works in one of the planet’s most unique and remote locations: a diamond mine on an isolated island that sits 300 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife, and 200 km south of the Arctic Circle. In winter, temperatures at the site in Lac de Gras regularly reach -40, and an ice road is required to transport supplies. All in all, it’s a geotechnical engineer’s dream come true.

“The Diavik Diamond Mine is a technological marvel,” he says. “The work itself is a prime opportunity to develop outstanding experience in my field. I pinch myself every day.”

To access the ore, dikes had to be constructed to hold back the waters of Lac de Gras. Mr. LeBreton, a native of Petit-Rocher, N.B., is charged with making sure the massive surrounding walls of granite don’t collapse.

“I ensure that the work environment remains stable,” he says. “It’s very specialized, challenging work. We’re dealing with the Canadian Shield,” which is a vast expanse of Precambrian rock that covers more than half of Canada.

Resources should rise if Europe’s woes fixed – by Jonathan Ratner (National Post – October 5, 2011)

October 5, 2011

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

Amid the staggering sell-off in commodities, there is a light at the end of the tunnel for investors – assuming we don’t see another global financial crisis.

The pullback in everything from oil and coal to copper and agriculture runs counter to strong Asian demand growth and structurally short supplies for metals, food and fuels.

So investors are left with a simple question: Will the European sovereign debt crisis and the resulting stress on the financial sector trigger a world economic recession as was experienced in 2008?

“The best way of assessing the likely future remains to track current economic momentum,” Credit Suisse said in a note to clients on Tuesday. “To that end, the first two months of panic looks to have had surprisingly little impact on the data from China and the U.S., although the Euro area has weakened noticeably.”

Quebec lawyers jump on Plan Nord – Drew Hasselback (National Post – October 5, 2011)

October 5, 2011

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

“Plan Nord is not portrayed as a massive government handout.
Montreal lawyers insist they believe the North will be
developed purely through market forces. They see the plan as
the government living up to its traditional role, which is to
install infrastructure such as roads, ports, power lines and
airports.”

“Plan Nord is about making sure Quebec has the roads,
electricity supplies, airports and shipping ports in
place to serve future generations.” (Drew Hasselback)

Step inside the office of any law firm in Montreal, and you won’t have to walk too far before you bump into someone who’s been assigned to that firm’s Plan Nord team. That’s because Plan Nord is the biggest source of business for transaction-oriented law firms in Montreal these days.

The plan is well understood within Montreal business circles, and it’s also caught the attention of resource investors from around the world. For lawyers, it pushes a lot of buttons. Plan Nord anticipates $80-billion worth of development in Quebec’s North over the next 25 years.

This involves the development of mining projects, transportation links, power-generation facilities, supporting businesses and other infrastructure investments. Putting the plan into action means business across a broad spectrum of legal specialities.

[Sudbury-based research organization] CEMI takes a new approach to mining innovation – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – September, 2011)

October 4, 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.

Holistic mining

It sounds more like a reference to a new-age healing trend, but a novel approach to mining that will focus on holistic practices is poised to put Sudbury’s Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) on course to change the face of the industry.

In July, CEMI received $823,000 from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp. (NOHFC) to instate a Research Chair for Holistic Mining Practices, vice-president Douglas Morrison, whose scope of work will include the expansion of research opportunities and attraction of innovation in mining.

It’s holistic because the research and innovation opportunities will encompass a greater spectrum of considerations than the technical aspect of mining, explained CEMI president and CEO Peter Kaiser.

“You can’t think anymore just technical, little gadgets. You can’t just think of cost reduction. You need to think safety, environmental, permits, Native issues,” Kaiser said. “If you want to succeed, it’s no more just a technical problem and ‘How do I bring a ton of ore out of the ground.’ You need a more holistic approach.”

Sarnia rallies against asbestos – Katie Daubs (Toronto star – October 1, 2011)

October 1, 2011

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.

SARNIA—Chantale De Paepe is getting married this Saturday. Her day is packed with hair, makeup, and a memorial asbestos walk. Her dad, Vince, died of mesothelioma this summer.

“Here in Toronto, people are like, ‘What’s that? I’ve never heard of it,” the 28-year-old said. But the rare form of cancer is well known in Sarnia, where De Paepe is from.

For decades, the small city has been synonymous with chemical production and oil refineries, with a concentration of companies doing business in an area dubbed “Chemical Valley” by locals. In the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, the pipes that snaked through the valley were insulated with asbestos.

In the last decade, an alarming number of men and women in the area have died of asbestos-related cancers, which have latency periods of 20 to 40 years. Since 1999, 105 people with mesothelioma have come through the local Occupational Health Clinic for Ontario Workers. Only two are still alive.

PDAC NEWS RELEASE: Human Resources Issues Threaten Canada’s Mineral Exploration Supremacy

September 30, 2011

For Immediate Release

Sept. 30, 2011

To read the complete report click here: Unearthing Possibilities

Canada’s position as the global leader in mineral exploration is at risk because of a human resources triple threat, according to a study released today by the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) and the Mining Industry Human Resources (MiHR) Council.

Unearthing Possibilities: Human Resources Challenges and Opportunities in the Canadian Mineral Exploration Sector says Canada’s mineral exploration industry faces challenges on three critical fronts: a lack of awareness about the exploration sector and its many related career opportunities; a thinning labour pool that is affecting companies’ recruitment efforts; and attrition that sees many versatile, multi-skilled professionals leave the sector in mid-career.

“The worldwide demand for skilled labour in this sector is constantly increasing and driving up the cost of human resources,” says Dr. Scott Jobin-Bevans, PDAC president. “We have to work harder to attract more Canadians to this industry.”

In an increasingly globalized economy that prizes highly educated, multi-skilled workers, Canada will continue to lose mineral exploration professionals and its decades-long number one ranking in mineral exploration may quickly change.

Barrick Gold’s Tanzanian headache: Blood and Stone – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – Report on Business Magazine – October, 2011)

September 29, 2011

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.

Across the cavernous pits and the mountains of waste rock, the alarm wails eerily, warning that an explosion is imminent. Dozens of villagers gather silently at the edge of a pit, past the holes that have been torn in the fence, waiting for their chance.

Then comes the blast. As a plume of smoke curls into the sky, the scavengers scramble into the pit, eager to prise a living from the freshly smashed rock.

Suddenly the police appear, careering over the rocky road from another corner of the vast mine. The pickup truck full of armed men in green uniforms bounces across the wasteland like a scene from Mad Max. The truck hurtles toward the scavengers, but is halted by a boulder that they have pulled across its path. By the time the police can leap down and move the boulder, the scavengers have scattered into the nearby trees, where they wait for their next opportunity.

This is the daily ritual of conflict at the North Mara gold mine in Tanzania: Intrude and retreat, pursue and withdraw—punctuated by flare-ups that sometimes leave people dead.

For an eyewitness, it’s difficult to reconcile this cycle of violence with the avowed community-friendly policies of the mine’s parent company, Barrick Gold Corp. and the professed goal of its founder, Peter Munk, of making good corporate citizenship the “calling card that precedes us wherever we go.”

BHP dreams big for Saskatchewan, talks of five more potential mines – by Jennifer Graham, Canadian Press (Canadian Business Website – September 28, 2011)

September 29, 2011September 29, 2011

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

SASKATOON – The world’s biggest miner says there is the potential for several new potash mines to be built in Saskatchewan, but it’s taking a measured approach an ambitious dream.

BHP Billiton has about 14,500 square kilometres of land in the Prairie province and thinks there’s the potential for about five more mines.

“We’ve got a great land position in Saskatchewan . . . and we’re exploring that as fast as we can to make sure that we understand the resource that we have available to us,” Chris Ryder, vice-president of external affairs for BHP in Canada, said in a phone interview Wednesday.

BHP, a British-Australian company with global operations — including diamond and potash businesses in Canada, is currently developing its Jansen mine in Saskatchewan and hopes to start producing potash in 2015.

Giving asbestos new life – by Graeme Hamilton and Nicolas Van Praet (National Post – September 29, 2011)

September 29, 2011

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper

He has been portrayed as a monster, a businessman with impeccable political connections who sells a product so dangerous it has been banned in Europe and largely shunned on this continent.

But Baljit Singh Chadha says he is simply aiming to make some money while helping the poor improve their lives. And it looks like the Quebec government is about to back him up.

Mr. Chadha is a Montreal entrepreneur and the new face of the asbestos industry in Canada. After acting as the sales agent in India to Quebec’s Jeffrey asbestos mine for years, he has put together a plan to buy the bankrupt business and give it new life.

The Liberal government of Premier Jean Charest has committed $58-million in loan guarantees to relaunch the mine, provided Mr. Chadha can show the project can turn a profit, that the asbestos will be used safely in importing countries and that he can find private investors willing to put $25-million into the plan.

CIBC NEWS RELEASE: Energy infrastructure megaprojects will unlock Canada’s resource wealth and create a million new jobs, says Hon. Jim Prentice, CIBC Vice-Chairman

September 29, 2011

Investments will help Canada ride out current uncertain economic environment

A copy of the CIBC Economics report Energizing Infrastructure is available here.

A copy of Mr. Prentice’s full speech is available here: “Nation-building in the 21st Century: The Case for the Lower Churchill Hydro Development”

HALIFAX, Sept. 28, 2011 /CNW/ – Canada’s era of nation-building through transformational infrastructure investments is far from over as planned megaprojects will unlock resource wealth, secure new markets for Canadian energy and create a million new jobs, the Hon. Jim Prentice, CIBC Senior Executive Vice-President and Vice Chairman, said today.

“No other nation is leading energy projects at our pace and scale,” Mr. Prentice said in a speech to the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council. “And in an economic climate where the world debates how much public money to borrow to create stimulus jobs, Canada stands alone in terms of its potential to chart a different course.”

“The economic potential of these projects, the job creating power of these projects, led for the most part by the private sector, is immense.”

Rio Tinto hiring hundreds of workers in Canada because of modernization projects – by Ross Marowits, Canadian Press (Winnipeg Free Press – September 27, 2011)

September 28, 2011

The Winnipeg Free Press is the oldest newspaper in western Canada and has the largest readership in the province of Manitoba.

MONTREAL – A couple of years after it laid off 14,000 workers around the world, global mining giant Rio Tinto has launched a mini hiring spree in Canada, mainly due to its modernization projects.

The Anglo-Australian company is actively searching to hire more than 210 workers for mining and manufacturing in alumina, aluminum, iron ore, diamonds and titanium dioxide.

“We launched the campaign to help our ongoing recruitment efforts for our modernization and expansion projects,” Rio Tinto spokesman Bryan Tucker said in an email. Rio Tinto employs more than 13,000 people at 35 sites in Canada.

The company has turned to Facebook and YouTube, posting a four-minute promotional video showing operations such as the Diavik Diamond Mine, Iron Ore Company of Canada, Rio Tinto, Fer et Titane, and Rio Tinto Alcan.

Ivanhoe Mines pushes back at Mongolia over copper mine – by Brenda Bouw (Globe and Mail – September 27, 2011)

September 27, 2011

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.

MINING REPORTER- Canada’s Ivanhoe Mines Ltd.is battling back against moves by the Mongolian government to secure a larger chunk of the promising Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project, but investors are bailing out.

The Vancouver-based miner said it expects Mongolia to honour a 2009 investment agreement giving the country a 34-per-cent stake in Oyu Tolgoi for 30 years. Ivanhoe holds the remaining 66-per-cent interest. The company’s stock lost about one-fifth of its value on Monday before recovering about half that loss to close.

Ivanhoe shares were already under pressure, falling nearly 20 per cent last week as Mongolia started to signal its interest in upping its stake to as much as 50 per cent.

Ivanhoe said the existing ownership agreement of Oyu Tolgoi is legally binding and “deserves and requires the unqualified support of all parties.” It also warned that revising the deal, signed after six years of negotiations, could harm Mongolia’s reputation as a desirable place to invest.