Canadian/International Media Resource Articles – Page 185

Motherlode still eludes Chile’s [trapped miners] ‘Los 33’ – by Eva Vergara (Toronto Star – August 5, 2011)

August 5, 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.

Associated Press

SANTIAGO, CHILE—One of the myths surrounding the 33 miners who were rescued after being trapped for 69 days deep inside a Chilean copper mine is that they’re all millionaires and no longer need to work.

The truth: nearly half the men have been unemployed since their mine collapsed one year ago Friday, and just one, the flamboyant Mario Sepulveda, has managed to live well off the fame. Most have signed up to give motivational speeches. Four, so far, have gone back underground to pound rock for a living.

“Los 33” have filed negligence lawsuits demanding $10 million from the bankrupt mine’s owners and $17 million from the government for failing to enforce safety regulations, but years remain before any payout.

Despite rumours that miners got rich off media interviews, most got only paid trips, hotel stays and the kinds of gifts that don’t put food on tables.

Governments got $8.4B from miners in 2010 – by Peter Koven (National Post – August 4, 2011)

August 4, 2011

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper. Peter Koven is their mining reporter.

After a stunning drop-off in 2009, Canadian governments are once again swimming in mining-related revenues. And those revenues are expected to grow even more in the months and years ahead.

A study by the Mining Association of Canada (MAC), to be released Thursday, shows federal and provincial governments pocketed a whopping $8.4-billion from the mining sector in 2010, or $5.5-billion if oil sands is excluded. It is a dramatic 65% increase from 2009, though still below the record years of 2007 and 2008, when the total haul was more than $10-billion each year.

Those records could fall very soon, according to MAC president Pierre Gratton. His organization estimates that “well over $110-billion” could be invested in new and existing projects across the country over the next five years to expand production. If that happens, thousands of jobs will be created and the government revenue haul from mining will get much bigger.

Xstrata to expand Canadian operations, sweeten payouts – by Brenda Bouw (Globe and Mail – August 3, 2011)

August 3, 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. Brenda Bouw is the Globe’s mining reporter.

Global mining giant Xstrata PLC will use bulging profits to expand its Canadian operations and sweeten shareholder payouts, a sign of the industry’s rosy demand outlook despite global economic uncertainty alongside rising costs and government intervention.

Xstrata, based in Zug, Switzerland, said profits rose by about 30 per cent in the first half of the year, and the diversified miner more than doubled its dividend on the back of record-setting commodity prices.

“Our recovery has been swift and robust and we are now operating with good momentum to deliver a substantially stronger second half,” Xstrata chief executive officer Mick Davis told investors on Tuesday. He cited in particular strong demand from China, the world’s largest consumer of commodities, as the country continues its frenzied infrastructure build.

Globe and Mail Editorial: The oil-diamond analogy (ethicaloil.org) (August 1, 2011)

August 1, 2011

Its rhetoric is crude, and its visuals derivative (of the artist Barbara Kruger), but EthicalOil.org’s campaign is an effective and overdue response to the grossly distorted slurs used by some environmental groups to attack the oil-sands industry in Alberta.

Former federal Conservative political staffer Alykhan Velshi is driving the campaign, which characterizes oil flowing from Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Iran as “conflict oil” – a riff on conflict diamonds – that is used to prop up dictatorship, funds terrorism and results in persecution. In contrast, Canada’s “ethical oil” fuels democracy, funds peacekeeping and is an economic underpinning of a society that embraces tolerance, such as gay pride. As Mr. Velshi explains, “When people buy coffee, they want to buy fair-trade coffee. This is a similar sort of idea.”

[Barrick Gold’s] Peter Munk: in conversation – by Kenneth Whyte – Maclean’s Magazine – July 27, 2011

July 29, 2011

Maclean’s is the largest circulation weekly news magazine in Canada, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events.

On immigrant dreams, the importance of failure and why the future belongs to Canada

Peter Munk, the founder and chair of Barrick Gold, the world’s biggest gold miner, found a land of opportunity when he arrived in Canada as a teenager after he fled Nazi-occupied Hungary. But the 83-year-old businessman is convinced the country’s brightest days may still lie ahead. As the appetite for raw materials skyrockets in China, India and other developing countries, he argues that Canada has a rare, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to establish itself as the world’s next big financial sector, rivalling the dominance of London and New York.

Q: Let’s talk first about your earliest impressions of Canada as an immigrant boy.

A: That day I arrived, it was a miserable, rainy day in early March ’48. It was like, terra incognita, like going to Mars. I know it sounds moronic.

Q: No. It doesn’t.

A: I arrived in Toronto, and I tried to talk to my Uncle Nick in Hungarian, I tried to talk to him in German. The last time I saw him was in 1938 when Grandfather sent him to Canada as a General Motors agent. He was my father’s young brother. When I arrived, Uncle Nick was a part-owner of the Ajax manufactory. He said, “We don’t speak here Hungarian. This is Canada, we speak English.” I took it in school and I never practised except for the five days in England when Dad shoved me on that boat in Liverpool.

Q: Was the idea that you’d come and do a year of high school and then go to university?

A: It was Grade 13, and number one, I never in my life could conceive, never heard, never read, about mixed-sex schools. In Hungary and Switzerland there were girls’ school, and if a guy went near a girls’ school he was in danger to be dismissed, okay?

Heavy metals [aluminum] – by Pratima Desai, Clare Baldwin, Susan Thomas and Melanie Burton (Reuters-National Post – July 29, 2011)

July 29, 2011

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

Goldman Sachs turns aluminum and warehouses into money machine

In a rundown patch of Detroit, enclosed by a cyclone fence and barbed wire, stands an unremarkable warehouse that investment bank Goldman Sachs has transformed into a money-making machine.

The derelict neighbourhood off Michigan Avenue is a sharp contrast to Goldman’s bustling skyscraper headquarters near Wall Street, but the two operations share one important element: management by the bank’s savvy financial professionals.

A string of warehouses in Detroit, most of them operated by Goldman, has stockpiled more than a million tonnes of the industrial metal aluminum, about a quarter of global reported inventories. Simply storing all that metal generates tens of millions of dollars in rental revenues for Goldman every year.

Digging in: Proves bigger can be better [Ontario mining] – Peter Koven (National Post – July 27, 2011)

July 27, 2011

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper. Peter Koven is their mining reporter.

Detour Lake, Ontario – It will soon be Canada’s largest gold mine. For now, it is simply one of its busiest construction sites.

More than 900 people and 14 different contracting companies are hard at work at the mosquito-infested Detour Lake site at Northern Ontario, where construction on Detour Gold Corp.’s $1.3-billion gold mine is moving at impressive speed. It is the biggest of several promising gold projects that promise to make Ontario a much bigger player in the global gold sector as the metal continues to hit record highs.

“Managing 14 contractors to stay on time and on budget is always challenging. But so far, so good,” says Gerald Panneton, Detour Gold’s chief executive.

Like many other mining projects in Canada and around the world, Detour Lake is a past-producing property that is being revitalized as a new operation because of high prices. But what makes Detour unique is the stunning exploration success that its new owners have managed in a brief period of time. In five years, Mr. Panneton’s team has identified almost 15 million ounces of gold reserves, with more being added on a regular basis. Including resources, the project holds more than 25 million ounces.

Digging in: Beating the bad rap [British Columbia mining] – Peter Koven (National Post – July 27, 2011)

July 27, 2011

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper. Peter Koven is their mining reporter.

For all the criticism that British Columbia’s mining industry receives, Jim O’Rourke will tell you that it is a good place to do business.

He should know. Mr. O’Rourke is the chief executive of Copper Mountain Mining Corp., which is holding the grand opening of its namesake mine in B.C. next month. It is the most promising new operation to open in B.C. in years. He was also involved in a number of prior B.C. projects, including the Endako mine in the 1960s and the Gibraltar mine in the 1970s.

“The whole Copper Mountain project went very well. From the time of buying the mine, completing our preliminary assessment in the first year, we went right into the feasibility study and met all of our targets over the past four years,” he says. “I think things have gotten a little more complicated [in B.C.] but, overall, it went well.”

Northern Ontario communities band together to help evacuees – by Carys Mills (Globe and Mail – July 23, 2011)

July 23, 2011

GREENSTONE, ONT.— In a cramped high-school kitchen on the Ginoogaming First Nation reserve, Krista Taylor fries bacon and toasts bread, making breakfast for close to 100 forest-fire evacuees.

She labours in the kitchen with two other women from the reserve who have worked the eight-hour shift that starts at 7 a.m. Some evacuees are asleep in nearby classrooms and the gym, while a few others chat by the school’s front doors.

Ginoogaming, with an on-reserve population of about 160 people, has stepped up to feed and house evacuees from the Sandy Lake First Nation, where forest fires rage. The community near Greenstone, Ont., about 250 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, opened its doors when more than 1,600 people were flown out of Sandy Lake this week, after the government deemed the level of smoke blowing from nearby fires was too treacherous.

For Ms. Taylor, the choice to help was simple. “I like cooking and it’s good to help these people,” she said, wearing a name tag on her T-shirt reading “cook.” It’s been about a decade since she worked at an evacuation this large in the area.

The [global] race for rare metals – by Geoffrey York and Brenda Bouw (Globe and Mail – July 16, 2011)

July 16, 2011

VANRHYNSDORP, SOUTH AFRICA, VANCOUVER – Filled with radioactive waste, its buildings gutted and crumbling after 48 years of disuse, the abandoned Steenkampskraal mine would seem to hold little value to anyone.

Until recently, the decaying apartheid-era mine in a remote patch of South African desert was mainly of interest to scientists studying the effects of high radiation on the thousands of bats that hibernate in the empty mine shaft.

But soon the bats will be evicted, the radioactive waste will be buried and the shaft refurbished. The Canadian owners of this mine are scrambling to tap the mine’s rare-earth minerals – possibly the hottest commodity on the planet these days, with immense strategic and technological significance, and pivotal to a global geopolitical rivalry.

As prices soar, there is a frantic global rush to develop new sources of rare earths. These obscure minerals – 17 different elements with futuristic names such as neodymium, samarium, yttrium and lanthanum – are crucial for everything from guided missiles and hybrid cars to flat-screen televisions, iPods and BlackBerry phones.

China growth spurs rebound in mining deals – by Brenda Bouw and Tamara Baluja (Globe and Mail – July 14, 2011)

July 14, 2011

China is reigniting the mining sector with its near double-digit economic growth, working through inventories and triggering a rebound in commodity prices that is inspiring a new round of deal-making in the industry.

The world’s largest commodities consumer reported robust second-quarter growth of 9.5 per cent on Wednesday, surpassing expectations and helping send both stock markets and metal prices higher.

Copper, considered an indicator of global economic activity, slumped below $4 (U.S.) a pound in May amid widespread worries that China’s moves to tackle inflation could derail the country’s breakneck growth. But copper prices have rebounded sharply, reaching $4.40 Wednesday and closing in on the record $4.62 reached in mid-February, as the Asian superpower confounds skeptics.

China’s latest growth figures “should dampen fears that the economy is heading into a hard landing and they suggest that policy makers can afford to stay focused on tackling inflation for a while longer,” said Mark Williams, senior China economist at Capital Economics. That is expected to keep driving demand for commodities used to help build infrastructure and everyday goods such as appliances and automobiles.

Gold on a record-breaking roll – by Lisa Wright (Toronto Star – July 14, 2011)

July 14, 2011

Lisa Wright is a business reporter with the Toronto Star, which has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on Canada’s federal and provincial politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Gold prices have reached a new record high and are expected to top $2,000 U.S. an ounce later this year amid the recent flurry of anemic U.S. economic data and new fears that Europe’s debt crisis will spread.

“It’s pretty amazing. Gold is really the ‘it’ thing,” said mining analyst Barry Allan of Mackie Research Capital in Toronto. “I remember not long ago when it hit $500 and people were cheering about that,” he said.

After a steady climb from $1,495 on July 4, bullion shot up another $23.30 U.S. an ounce to close at $1,585.20 in New York Wednesday. And the gold bugs say it’s just a preview of more good times to come for the often fickle precious metal.

The last record high of $1,577.40 was set on May 2 before an abrupt pullback in precious metals that dragged gold below the key $1,500 benchmark.

Aboriginals tap into oil sands – by John Shmuel (National Post – July 12, 2011)

July 12, 2011

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

As major Canadian resource projects across the country expand in the wake of rising commodity prices, a less noticed business boom in Canada’s Aboriginal communities is also taking shape.

Economic development corporations, which can loosely be described as businesses started and backed by regional First Nations, Métis or Inuit groups, are helping to grow Aboriginal incomes in communities throughout Canada.

Their benefit is reflected in a recent report by TD Economics. TD estimated that economic development corporations will help the combined income of Aboriginal households, businesses and governments reach $24-billion in 2011, and ballooning to $32-billion in 2016.

“We’re seeing more Aboriginal communities looking to business as a shining light to create opportunity for their young people,” Clint Davis, chief executive of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, said. “So we’ve seen some rapid creation of economic development corporations in the last, probably five to 10 years.”

Flurry of metal deals signals bold outlook – by Brenda Bouw (Globe and Mail – July 12, 2011)

July 12, 2011

Miners bet commodities boom has legs by unveiling a handful of takeovers

A sudden rebound in mining acquisitions signals a return of confidence in the industry after weeks of uncertainty and volatile prices that froze deal activity in the sector.

As commodity prices begin to bounce back from a recent fall, miners are betting once again on strong and steady demand from fast-growing nations such as China, India and Brazil to prevent another severe global economic downturn.

The positive outlook driving these new deals comes despite worries that inflation and debt problems around the world will weigh on the economy and metal prices down the road. Stock markets dropped sharply Monday on renewed concerns about solving Europe’s debt crisis.

The largest deal announced Monday was Peabody Energy and ArcelorMittal SA’s joint $5-billion (U.S.) bid for Australia’s Macarthur Coal Ltd., the world’s biggest producer of pulverized coal, a type of metallurgical coal, amid strong demand forecasts for the steel-making ingredient.