Canada Mining – Page 390 – Republic of Mining

The Competitiveness of Mineral Processing in Canada – by Paul Stothart

April 8, 2011

Paul Stothart is vice-president, economic affairs of the Mining Association of Canada. He is responsible for advancing the industry’s interests regarding federal tax, trade, investment, transport and energy issues. This article was published in August, 2010.

Throughout our history, there has been a call for greater value-added in Canadian resource production. The image of Canada as a hewer of wood and drawer of water has long irritated many Canadians – including politicians and industrial strategists who have felt that Canada should be more sophisticated and more active in manufacturing value-added products.

Rather than exporting lumber, we should export furniture or even prefab houses. In the mining sphere, rather than sending raw concentrate or bitumen abroad, we should be producing refined petroleum products, chemicals, finished jewelry, specialized metal alloys and the like. Or to move another few steps along the continuum, we should have inherent raw material advantages in producing computers, iPods, medical equipment and machinery.

There has historically been some appeal to this argument, including at the political level. Why send something abroad in an unfinished form when additional jobs and wealth could be associated with adding production value at home? This has manifested itself on some occasions in past decades, when inland mineral processing facilities in Ontario, Manitoba and New Brunswick were established largely for political reasons. Several of these facilities are today under competitive pressure – more so because of poor location rather than a failed economic model.

Mining: From “Old Economy” in the 1990s to “Sexy and Strategic” in the 2010s – by Paul Stothart

April 6, 2011April 6, 2011

Paul Stothart is vice president, economic affairs of the Mining Association of Canada. He is responsible for advancing the industry’s interests regarding federal tax, trade, investment, transport and energy issues. This article was published in April, 2011.

It is unlikely that any sector in Canada has undergone a transition in recent decades comparable to that seen within the mining industry.

The mining sector in the 1980s and 1990s was an afterthought. Mineral prices worldwide were in the dumps. Exploration and prospecting, in effect a form of R&D aimed at finding tomorrow’s stream of commodities, was neglected and the amounts invested were piddling. Attention to attracting new talent to the industry was minimal.

University mining programs closed. The sector was shunned by Canadian politicians and policymakers as old-school, dark and dirty, and non-technological. Economists and financiers held similar views. Even the leading companies such as Inco and Noranda were viewed as complacent and staid despite being world-leaders in many respects.

The contrast with Canada’s shining beacons of the day was stark.

[Minmetals bid for Equinox] When is a miner Canadian? (It’s not as simple as you think) – by Boyd Erman (Globe and Mail-April 5, 2011)

April 5, 2011

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous impact and influence on Canada’s political and business elite as well as the rest of the country’s print, radio and television media. berman@globeandmail.com

The multiparty merger fest that’s reshaping the copper mining industry in Canada has one very odd twist: The companies are here, but the metal is not.

The main assets in Canada for Lundin Mining Corp. , Inmet Mining Corp. and Equinox Minerals Ltd. are office space, Toronto Stock Exchange listings and investor interest. None is focused on Canada as a place to produce.

China’s Minmetals Resources Ltd., the interloper that on Sunday announced an intention to buy Equinox, is the only player that highlights its assets in Canada – a couple of exploration projects in the country’s North.

Inmet, which tried and failed to merge with Lundin, had an operating mine in Canada until last year, but no more; it now focuses on projects and exploration in countries such as Peru and Finland. The main assets for Lundin, the target of an Equinox takeover bid, are across the Atlantic, in Africa and Europe. Equinox’s big project is in Africa.

The tortured future of Elliot Lake – by Lloyd Tataryn (Saturday Night, June, 1976)

March 30, 2011March 28, 2011

This article was orginally published in Saturday Night (a Canadian general interest magazine that ceased publication in 2005) in the June, 1976 issue.

“The conditions in Elliot Lake are not the best conditions to work in to survive a normal life span. If anybody does not like to go to the hospital with lung cancer, he should have a very close look at the Elliot Lake situation before he signs on as an employee of either one of the companies. We believe that the companies should not have the right to expose people to conditions that will cause bodily harm. There has to be a clean-up programme before we can definitely advise people to seek employment in Elliot Lake.” (Paul Falkowski, United Steel Workers of America, Environmental Representative – June 1976)

The uranium miners there are dying of cancer at three times the normal rate. But what can a single-industry town do about it? Close down? Or live with death?

His voice broke in mid sentence. His eyes were red-rimmed and he fought back tears.

“I could be healthy, still workin. Now I have dust plus cancer. And the family is all upside down. Dad’s gonna die maybe today, maybe tomorrow, we don’t know.” His voice broke once again. “And that’s the way it looks like. It’s bad. It’s very bad for a family. Family’s more hurt than me. Cryin’, you know. Disaster.”

It was the type of interview that makes a documentary a success. It was also the type of interview that makes a journalist fell parasitic. One is pleased with having captured an extremely moving moment on tape. But one also feels exploitative for having the presumption to ask a dying man to spill his emotions into your microphone.

Here was a forty-four-year-old man who had spent fifteen years digging and blasting a living in the Elliot Lake uranium miners in northern Ontario. The work was back breaking, the kind of work that makes a man tough and hard. Miners a proud of the strong, vigorous image they project. They don’t cry in public. They don’t cry, that is, unless they are overwhelmed by events and their defences have been destroyed.

[Canada Mining] Underground Takeover – by Mike Blanchfield (Sharp April, 2011)

March 23, 2011March 23, 2011

Sharp is Canada’s largest men’s lifestyle magazine, covering fashion, technology, cars, food, booze, culture and current events from an intelligent Canadian perspective. Subscribe to the magazine and the Sharp Insider newsletter at Sharpformen.com

Mike Blanchfield covers international affairs for The Canadian Press in Ottawa.

Underground Takeover – Mike Blanchfield

Foreign Companies are lining up to buy the extraction rights to Canadian oil, nickel and potash and spending billions in the process. Are we selling our birthright?

The town of Kitimat was born in the brash 1950s, the product of a successful marriage between herculean feats of engineering and unabashed visions of grandeur.

Canadian captains of industry carved the town out of old growth forest at the end of the Kitimat River, blasting an industry out of British Columbia’s rugged Coast Mountain range that would sustain its people for the next half-century. The engineers of Alcan – then the Aluminum Company of Canada – saw a rich future in this rugged northwestern BC terrain. The company built the town over four years, as 35,000 workers bored a 16-kilometre tunnel through the mountains and erected a massive hydroelectric dam and aluminum smelter. In August 1954, when Kitimat produced its first batch of aluminum, Prince Phillip was on hand to help celebrate the day.

PDAC NEWS RELEASE: Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada welcomes extension of mineral exploration incentive in 2011 federal budget

March 23, 2011

TORONTO (March 22, 2011) – Scott Jobin-Bevans, president of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), expressed support for the inclusion of the Mineral Exploration Tax Credit (METC) in the Government of Canada’s budget, announced today.

“On behalf of our members, many of whom are involved in raising financing for grassroots exploration, I am pleased that the federal government has proposed that the Mineral Exploration Tax Credit be extended for another year,” said Dr. Jobin-Bevans. “Investment in mineral exploration is the first step in addressing Canada’s decline in mineral reserves and the METC program plays a critical role in encouraging investment in Canadian-based projects.”

The 2011 federal budget proposes that the Mineral Exploration Tax Credit, known also as the super flow-through share program, that was due to expire at the end of March 2011 be extended for an additional year to March 31, 2012. As stated in today’s budget, exploration and development of Canada’s rich mineral resources offer important investment and employment benefits in many parts of the country, particularly in rural and remote regions.

PDAC NEWS RELEASE: Highlights from the 2011 PDAC International Convention, Trade Show & Investors Exchange

March 23, 2011

TORONTO (March 22, 2011) Where the world’s mineral industry meets just about sums up this year’s PDAC International Convention. Total attendance was a record-breaking 27,700, up by 26% or 5,000 from last year. Attendees included registered delegates, exhibitors, investors, speakers, sponsors, students, media, staff and volunteers.

In all, 1,000 companies showcased their discoveries and wares at the Trade Show and Investors Exchange in an exhibit space covering the equivalent of eight football pitches. Sixty companies were featured in the Core Shack.

More than 50 foreign delegations, many of them headed by government ministers, attended. The largest contingents came from Argentina, Chile, China, India, Mexico and Peru. Many countries booked rooms where their governments could promote mining and investment opportunities, and the crowds flocked to find out more about Armenia, Bolivia, Portugal, Australia, Greenland, Brazil. Ecuador, South Africa, Peru, Chile, Colombia and India.

Thompson Citizen Editorial: Hats off to the save-the-smelter team (February 23, 2011)

March 22, 2011March 22, 2011

This article was originally published in the Thompson Citizen which was established in June 1960. The Citizen covers the City of Thompson and Nickel Belt Region of Northern Manitoba. The city has a population of about 13,500 residents while the regional population is more than 40,000.

February 23, 2011

While we haven’t written in this space about the local Vale refinery and smelter saga since Jan. 5, it hasn’t been for lack of interest in recent weeks. Rather, we stepped back to watch events unfold and see how things play out a bit before offering our two cents again from the cheap seats.

At the same time, however, we are cognizant that some things merit commenting on along the way before the final chapter is written in this story, which is likely some time away given the final shutdown isn’t scheduled until 2015. It’s probably trite but nonetheless true to observe the obvious: a lot can happen in four years.

Last week, the save-the-smelter team as they’re sometimes dubbed by us (it includes the refinery, too, of course, but there are only so many words you can include in a catchy headline), travelled to Toronto again to meet with Tito Martins, chief executive officer of Vale Canada and executive director of base metals for the international parent company, and his senior management team, and deliver proposals aimed at keeping the smelter and refinery open beyond 2015 with those 500 “value-added” jobs Thompson NDP MLA and Infrastructure and Transportation Minister Steve Ashton often mentions, rightly stressing those two words – value added.

Michael Moore delivers the goods for [Thompson NDP MP] Niki Ashton [on Vale Shutdown] – by John Barker (February 25, 2011)

March 22, 2011March 22, 2011

editor@thompsoncitizen.net

It took more than a month, but Churchill riding NDP MP Niki Ashton has got her wish: American left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore has featured Thompson and Vale’s plan to shutdown the smelter and refinery here by 2015 on his website.

But in an even bigger coup, The Huffington Post, perhaps the most important English-language liberal political blog in the world, picked up at 12:02 EST Moore’s blog entry today on Vale and Thompson — which is hitting the social media jackpot. New York City-based HuffPo was sold by founder Arianna Huffington earlier this month for $315 million to AOL Inc., formerly America Online, and had a reported 40 million unique visitors in January.

A Thompson Citizen online poll that ran from Feb. 9 to Feb. 15 asked readers, “What do you think of Churchill riding MP Niki Ashton’s attempt to enlist left-wing US filmmaker Michael Moore in the battle to save the Vale refinery and smelter in Thompson?”

NEWS RELEASE: Natural Resources Canada News – Government of Canada Strengthens Commitment to Mineral Exploration

March 21, 2011

March 7, 2011

TORONTO — Canada’s world-leading exploration and mining industry, an important source of employment and an economic driver for the country, will benefit from a new federal investment in mineral exploration geoscience.

Speaking at the annual Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference, the Honourable Christian Paradis, Minister of Natural Resources, today announced the third renewal of the Targeted Geoscience Initiative (TGI). The Government of Canada will provide funding of $25 million over five years ― more than double the original two-year allocation of $12 million ― to help develop new ways of exploring for deep mineral deposits.

“The Government of Canada recognizes that modern geoscientific information can help lower industry’s exploration risks and support the search for undiscovered natural resources,” said Minister Paradis. “We are committed to fostering economic growth throughout Canada, improving our global competitiveness and helping create local employment in mineral-based communities.”

Canada’s mining sector has pulled up its environmental SOx

March 21, 2011

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

Canada’s mining industry has made significant improvement in its environmental performance on many fronts from 1998 to 2008, according to a federal government publication. The “Mining Sector Performance Report” was produced by Natural Resources Canada in consultation with an external advisory committee. It included representation from industry, academia, provincial governments, Aboriginal groups and non-governmental organizations.

“One cannot report on the industry’s performance without noting the significant progress in environmental protection,” said the report. “The mining sector, through multi-stakeholder initiatives, regulatory and financial instruments and science and technology has demonstrated its environmental commitment through reductions in energy intensity, air emissions and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as increases in environmental expenditures, including remediation and decommissioning.”

“This change in performance has taken place against a backdrop of rising public expectations, which has challenged the industry to extend its practices beyond regulatory compliance to environmental stewardship.”

There has been a tremendous growth in investments in the environment. Between 1997 and 2006, environmental expenditures on operating costs rose from $796.1 million to $960.9 million and environmental capital expenditure increased from $420.9 million to $453.6 million over the same time period.

Miners should dig deeper – by William Watson (Financial Post- March 17, 2011)

March 17, 2011

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper. This article was originally published in the Financial Post on March 17, 2011.

Mining companies pay just 9% in corporate taxes, while retailers fork out 23%

Here in Canada we may be lumberjacks, to paraphrase the famous Monty Python song, but we’re not OK. Or at least we may be OK in an overall sense but we’ve never been very OK about being lumberjacks. Hewing wood, drawing water and digging for ores for a living, even if it has given us a very good living, has always been a source of shame for us. Couldn’t we find something, well, harder and more demanding of cleverness in order to earn our way in the world?

Hewing, drawing and digging all seem so mindless. They’re not, of course. Done the modern way, they all involve much more brain power than brawn. But still we’re sheepish.

Which makes the results of a new study from a couple of U.S. business school researchers all the more puzzling. Douglas Shackelford of the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Kevin Markle at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth have just published a comprehensive study of the corporate taxes paid by 11,602 public corporations from 82 countries from 1988 to 2009. They trace corporate ownership structures across countries and are mainly interested in whether multinational companies can manage their affairs so their worldwide tax burden doesn’t much depend on where they locate. They find that in fact domicile does matter, which is an interesting result in this supposed age of footloose capital. But it’s their comparison of tax rates by industry that caught my eye.

Scarcity of talent threatens profitability – by Van Zorbas

March 11, 2011

Van Zorbas is a partner in Deloitte Canada’s Human Capital practice. He can be reached at 403-503-1460 and vzorbas@deloitte.ca

This column is from the February/March 2011 issue of the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication.

Aging workforces. Looming waves of retirement. An inability to attract new talent to the field. In recent years, demographic trends like these have plagued the mining industry—and the situation only promises to get worse. According to the Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MIHRC), by 2020, over 60,000 Canadian mining employees will retire. To maintain current levels of production, that means the industry will need an additional labour force of 100,000 people(1). And that doesn’t take into account the higher levels of production likely required to meet escalating global demand for commodities.

Already, labour shortages are creating untenable situations for mining companies. In western Australia, for instance, some companies fly employees thousands of miles to their workplace. Aside from the financial and logistical challenges this entails, this heightened level of worker mobility puts bargaining power squarely in the hands of skilled talent. Critically, this comes at a time when the mining industry is experiencing a serious talent gap. Due to low participation in the industry over the past several decades, many mining companies lack experienced middle managers.

The recent Deloitte report, “Empower your talent: Building a high-performance organization,” details approaches for surviving this talent gap. Here are some strategies to consider as you structure your own talent management program.