Canadian/International Media Resource Articles – Page 190

Commodities bloodbath ‘nothing to fear,’ mining tycoons say – by Lisa Wright (Toronto Star – May 17, 2011)

May 17, 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. This article was originally published May 17, 2011.

The recent slide in metals prices — make that a slaughter in silver — has been pretty hard to stomach for the stampede of investors who have taken a shine to the gritty mining industry lately. But Peter Munk, Ian Telfer and Bob Gallagher aren’t reaching for the Rolaids.

Nor are they the least bit bearish after two rocky weeks that saw silver plummet by 35 per cent, gold dip under the $1,500 U.S. per ounce watermark and a sharp pull back in construction-friendly base metals from aluminum to zinc.

Many investors are squeamish after the gut-wrenching correction which dragged once-soaring silver squarely into bear market territory. (A 20 per cent decline from a market high is the unofficial definition of a bear market.)

In fact ‘poor man’s gold’, as it’s known, suffered its biggest four-day decline in 28 years earlier this month after hitting a peak of $48.70 U.S. in April. Silver slid another $1.85 again Monday, closing at $34.35 in London.

Mining companies raise stakes in Whitehorse – by Paul Watson (Toronto Star – May 15, 2011)

May 16, 2011

Paul Watson is a columnist for 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. This article was originally published May 15, 2011.

WHITEHORSE—Park officers are normally on the lookout for rowdy campers, untended picnic baskets, guests that won’t go away and the odd ornery bear that lumbers into Wolf Creek Campground on this city’s edge.

Now they have to add voracious mining companies to the list of threats to fend off from the popular retreat in an old growth spruce forest overlooking the Yukon River.

Arcturus Ventures Inc., a Vancouver-based, penny-stock mineral exploration company, has staked its claim on the park, in a zone the city of Whitehorse has designated environmentally sensitive.

It’s a landmark where, every summer, some 60 campgrounds fill up with tourists who travel the Alaska Highway to the park to enjoy its hiking trails and spectacular wilderness vistas on the capital’s southern outskirts.

Once again, dreams of gold spark a rush to the Yukon – by Paul Watson (Toronto Star – May 14, 2011)

May 16, 2011

DAWSON CITY, YUKON—Not since the days when prospectors led pack trains upriver, hunting for the motherlode with picks and pans, has there been such a rush to stake claims in the Klondike.

In the new Gold Rush, stakers are more likely to leap into the bush from a hovering helicopter than ride the long, treacherous slog on horseback.

And most are working for a few large corporations racing to stake out vast tracts of the Yukon more than a century after armies of prospectors headed north in the late 19th century Klondike Gold Rush, along with prostitutes and other service providers.

In some provinces, you need a license to trudge around scouring for minerals. In a few, chasing your El Dorado is a simple as going online, clicking a mouse and putting down virtual stakes with some keystrokes.

A railway to Arctic riches: economic boom, environmental threat? – by Paul Waldie (Globe and Mail – May 14, 2011)

May 15, 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.

A handful of people shuffle into the community hall in Kimmirut, Nunavut, a tiny outpost on the southern coast of Baffin Island. It’s early December, and the small group shakes off the cold winter air and settles into folding chairs to hear a presentation about something completely foreign to Baffin Island – a railway.

“I have never seen a railway before,” a woman named Joannie tells the gathering, according to minutes of the meeting. “Could you give a better idea of what the train will look like?”

Nobody else has seen a railway on Baffin Island either. No one has built one this far north, anywhere. But now – thanks to an insatiable global demand for minerals, and climate change that has opened up northern shipping routes – a rail line across part of Baffin Island is about to become a reality.

It’s also a sign of things to come. Places like Baffin Island have always held a treasure trove of minerals, but low commodity prices, coupled with the high cost of operating in the Arctic, left many deposits undeveloped. With prices for nearly every mineral now soaring, however, mining’s last frontier has become financially viable. And with temperatures climbing because of global warming, mining in the Arctic has become logistically possible as well, because sea lanes stay open longer due to thinner ice and railways can operate year round.

A golden opportunity [Northern Ontario mining] – by Jasmine Budak (Maclean’s – November 1, 2010)

May 13, 2011

Maclean’s, the most influential current affairs magazine in Canada, covers national and international politics, business, social issues and culture on a weekly basis. This article was published November 1, 2010.

The sky-high price of gold has sparked a modern-day rush to Ontario’s mining towns

With the price of gold currently hovering around US$1,300 an ounce—up 45 per cent since early 2009—Ontario’s mining towns are exhibiting the classic symptoms of a boom: inflated house prices, overbooked hotels, frantic construction, labour shortages and a collective sense of optimism after decades in a slump. Across the province’s northern gold belt, defunct mines are being revived and exploration activity has taken an almost frenzied pace, the product of gold being an investment safe haven amid global economic uncertainty and a weak U.S. dollar.

“I’ve been here a long time,” says Brock Greenwell, statistical analyst for Ontario’s Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry. “And 2010 is looking like a record year for gold exploration. It’s unprecedented.”

There are 12 gold mines operating in Ontario, with four more slated to start production by 2012. And, with exploration expenditures for precious metals—mostly gold—expected to exceed $620 million this year in the province (compared with $389 million in 2009), it’s a safe bet that more mines will follow. “It’s an absolute boom,” says Bill Greenway, economic development officer for the municipality of Red Lake. “There are 40-plus exploration companies here at any given time.”

Law society paves way for Ontario’s first new law school in 43 years [in Thunder Bay] – Tracey Tyler (Toronto Star – May 11, 2011)

May 12, 2011

Tracey Tyler is the legal affairs reporter for 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. This article was originally published May 11, 2011.

In many ways, the future of the legal profession isn’t on Bay St., he [Beardy] contends, but closer to major mining exploration projects in the James Bay lowlands known as the “ring of fire.” Northern Ontario is rich in diamonds, gold, platinum and a recently discovered deposit of chromite, a mineral used in stainless steel production and expected to be in high demand in countries with rapidly developing economies, including China and India, Beardy said.

Grand Chief Stan Beardy of Nishnawbe Aski Nation likes to joke about seeing a sasquatch in the forest behind his home in Muskrat Dam in Northern Ontario.

But when he looks some 600 kilometres south and into the future, Beardy sees a law school, one that will boost the ranks of First Nations lawyers and support economic development in the north.

That vision is inching closer to reality now that the Law Society of Upper Canada has approved a proposal from Lakehead University to open a law school in Thunder Bay. The university says the school would give preference to northerners and First Nations applicants.

Quebec plans $80-billion investment in northern development – by Rheal Sequin (Globe and Mail – May 10, 2011)

May 10, 2011May 10, 2011

Premier Jean Charest has unveiled an ambitious multibillion-dollar plan to develop Quebec’s remote northern region, creating a legacy project that he hopes will generate a new source of revenue for the cash-strapped province.

The economic proposal, Plan Nord, involves a region north of the 49th parallel that is twice the size of France and covers more than 70 per cent of the province’s territory.

The proposal involves $80-billion in public and private investment over the next 25 years, Mr. Charest said. In return, he said, it will generate an estimated $14-billion in revenue over the same period and contribute $162-billion to the province’s gross domestic product.

“What we are unveiling here is Quebec’s future,” Mr. Charest said. “On the political level, this is one of the best moments in my life. This is one of the reasons I got involved in politics.”

For Barrick, a golden opportunity to expand [into copper] – by Brenda Bouw and David Ebner (Globe and Mail – April 30, 2011)

May 1, 2011May 1, 2011

“When you are not prepared to look at new things because you are struck in your own
success because the commodity is going up, that is when danger occurs. … Isn’t that what
business is all about, to take advantage of opportunities when they arise? … I am not an
employee. It’s my legacy, it’s my life. I live this company.”
(Peter Munk – Chairman Barrick Gold Corporation)

Peter Munk has heard the howls of protest from Bay Street before.

The founder and chairman of Barrick Gold Corp. was lambasted in 1994 when he paid $1.7-billion (U.S.) for gold miner Lac Minerals to expand outside of North America, and then again in 2006 when he took out rival gold producer Placer Dome for $10-billion, picking up 12 new mines to secure the company’s position as the world’s largest gold producer.

But the cries were particularly shrill this week after Barrick surprised the mining industry with a $7.3-billion (Canadian) bid for Equinox Minerals Ltd., a copper producer with operations in Africa and Saudi Arabia. Even as gold prices hit new highs this week, Barrick shares dropped 9 per cent since the deal was announced Monday.

Investors quickly voiced a number of concerns about the deal, from the rich premium paid, to increased political risk. But their biggest beef centres around the shift in strategy. Barrick, the world’s largest gold producer, is betting a bundle on a different class of metal: copper.

Northern Ontario seats get attention – by Brian MacLeod (Sudbury Star – April 28, 2011)

April 28, 2011

The Sudbury Star, the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper. This column was published on April 28, 2011 and is by Brian MacLeod, the paper’s Managing Editor. brian.macleod@sunmedia.ca

Federal parties have tried to court Northern Ontario votes with varying degrees of love — which is surprising, given potential voter volatility in the North. You’d have thought they’d be throwing pebbles at every window.

The NDP is giving the North a big hug. The Liberals are offering up a sibling kiss. And the Conservatives, well, they’re just not that into the North, it seems.

Seven of Northern Ontario’s 10 ridings are held by the NDP. Two are held by Conservatives (including Parry Sound-Muskoka’s Tony Clement) and one, Nipissing-Timisking’s Anthony Rota, is Liberal. That’s a big change from 2006, when the Liberals held seven of the North’s 10 ridings, with the NDP holding just two and the Conservatives one.

Fix No. 1 [Trans-Canada] Highway – by Livio Di Matteo and Wayne Simpson (National Post-April 27, 2011)

April 27, 2011

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper. This article was originally published in the Financial Post section on April 27, 2011.

Livio Di Matteo is professor of economics at Lakehead University. Wayne Simpson is professor of economics at the University of Manitoba. (Financial Post)

The Trans-Canada is far from the world-class Interstate Highway System that exists in the United States

The federal election has highlighted the need for transportation infrastructure in Canada’s Far North with the recent federal budget’s announcement of $150-million for an Arctic highway between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk. While the goal of a national highway system from sea to sea to sea can be seen as an important nation-building goal, the fact remains that the east-west Trans-Canada Highway system is still inadequate despite its crucial role as a national transportation artery.

While much of Highway 1, as it is known in much of Canada, is four lanes, it is still deficient in parts of Eastern and Western Canada. Moreover, even what is four lanes is still a far cry from a world-class highway system, as exists in the U.S. Interstate system or the European autobahns.

Canada is the largest developed country in the world without a system of fully grade-separated roadways that allow uninterrupted traffic flow between its major urban centres. The key roadblocks include the two-lane stretches from the Manitoba border to Sudbury and much of the route between the Alberta border and Kamloops.

[Teck Resources] Don Lindsay learns to keep his appetite in check – by Brenda Bouw (Globe and Mail – April 16, 2011)

April 25, 2011

“If you are building a great country, there are certain things that anchor, that form a base, that you should not give away, and no other country does. Unfortunately, we did give it away in 2006-2007 [Inco and Falconbridge] and we’ve seen what happened.”
(Teck CEO Don Lindsay-April 16, 2011)

Commodities are booming and Teck Resources Ltd. is flush with cash. But the company isn’t in a rush to spend it – and neither, apparently, is Don Lindsay. Today, he’s lunching on a soup-and-sandwich combo from Tim Hortons – a meal he regularly eats at his desk on the 34th floor of the company’s Vancouver headquarters.

“How much growth do we need?” the 52-year-old chief executive officer asks. “Because we have a lot.”

A focused approach is the product of a tough lesson for the diversified miner, which only two years ago was on the brink of disaster after a debt-heavy acquisition on the eve of the global economic meltdown.

Mr. Lindsay was in his third year as the company’s CEO when he orchestrated the ill-timed $14-billion purchase of Fording Canadian Coal Trust. The deal, which Teck financed with $9.8-billion (U.S.) in debt, pushed the company close to ruin. Fearing the worst, investors drove Teck stock to a multiyear low of just above $3, and some were calling for his resignation.

Clash of cultures blamed in Vale Inco strike – by Tony Van Alphen (Toronto Star – March 27, 2010)

June 10, 2015April 25, 2011

Tony Van Alphen 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. This article was originally published March 27, 2010.

Mark Cutifani runs a gold mining company in South Africa now, long gone from Vale Inco in Canada where he had begun engaging workers and changing an adversarial climate that had defined labour relations for more than half a century.

That adversarial climate is back in a big way at the mining giant in Sudbury and Port Colborne, where more than 3,100 employees have remained off the job in an increasingly bitter 8 1/2-month strike.

The classic labour-management struggle threatens to set back labour relations for years and undermine the value of one of the richest mineral deposits in the world.

The United Steelworkers union says a clash of cultures is at the root of the dispute. It argues that Inco’s Brazilian owners want to instill a foreign brand of subservient labour relations here; run roughshod over existing workers’ rights and cut bonus pay at a time when the company is profitable. Vale Inco says the union’s statements smack of racism and the company rejects the idea that cultural differences have anything to do with the strike.

[Vale Inco Miner’s Income] Where upper-class incomes are earned underground – by Tony Van Alphen (Toronto Star-May 18, 2008)

June 10, 2015April 25, 2011

SUDBURY– Jack (Coco) Simons could retire today with a good pension. But he’s having too much fun making a whole lot of money underground.

Riding the boom of all booms here, Simons collected about $152,000 in gross pay last year as a top-notch production miner at Vale Inco’s Coleman Mine in the northwest end of the city.

This year, Simons says he could crack the $165,000 mark with a little more overtime. “It would be foolish for me to quit now,” says the fit, 53-year-old Simons, relaxing on his couch after a 12-hour shift. “I love this. The money is just too good. It’s motivational. Why not go for it.”

Sudbury miners are making more money than ever because of soaring nickel prices and worldwide demand for the mineral, a key element in stainless steel and other alloys. Simons receives a base rate of $27.81 an hour but earns a great deal more because he’s a member of one of numerous elite crews that each extract thousands of tons of ore every week.

Sudbury booms on soaring metal prices – by Tony Van Alphen (Toronto Star-May 18, 2008)

June 10, 2015April 25, 2011

“And everybody’s tickled, for it’s Saturday tonight”
– Stompin’ Tom Connors, “Sudbury Saturday Night”

GREATER SUDBURY – It feels like Christmas here every day. Everybody is in a rush. And everybody seems to have money to spend. Newcomer Rick Chessel got that holiday buzz when he tried to elbow his way from shop to shop at the New Sudbury Centre on a recent Saturday.

“It was just like the day before Christmas,” says the 51-year-old machinist. “It was shoulder to shoulder everywhere.”

Diners are spending more at the Tommy’s Not Here restaurant in the south end. At the SRO nightclub downtown, where the Eaton’s store once stood, the acronym really fits because it’s standing room only many nights.

“Everybody’s happy,” says miner Jack (Coco) Simons. “It’s been a long time since we’ve seen this.” The “nickel capital of the world” hasn’t had a boom like this since Stompin’ Tom Connors began banging his feet and singing “Sudbury Saturday Night” at the Coulson Hotel in the 1960s.

[Canada] Northern diamonds in the rough – by Lisa Wright (Toronto Star – April 23, 2011)

April 26, 2011April 23, 2011

These women know the drill in a quest for a girl’s best friend

It was the little Canadian diamond mine that could – then fell off the rails.

Hopes were high for the Jericho mine when it started cranking out carats five years ago in Nunavut, 420 km northeast of Yellowknife. But operational setbacks, the strong loonie, skyrocketing oil prices and sinking rough diamond prices all took their toll. Former owner Tahera Diamond Corp. went into bankruptcy protection and was forced to mothball it less than two years into production.

But the daughter of a Canadian mining icon and a very determined geologist hope to breathe new life into this former gem after purchasing the shuttered property last year with a goal of reopening it as early as next year.

“Ultimately we bought Jericho with a view that it wasn’t irreparably broken, but there is a lot of work to do to get it to where we want it,” says Julie Lassonde, executive chairman of the mine’s new owner Shear Diamonds Ltd.