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Canadian/International Media Resource Articles

UPDATE 2-Cliffs chromite project halt dims Canada Ring of Fire hopes – by Allison Martell (Reuters U.S. – June 12, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

June 12 (Reuters) – Cliffs Natural Resources Inc said on Wednesday it is “temporarily suspending” work on its $3.3 billion chromite-mining project in northwestern Ontario, casting doubt on development hopes for the region’s mineral-rich Ring of Fire.

Cliffs blamed the delay on stalled talks with the Ontario provincial government and on other political and regulatory
problems. But it’s far from clear that the company will be able to revive the project, called Black Thor, given the low iron ore prices that have put its operations elsewhere under pressure. “It’s hard to see why Cliffs would undertake a project of this magnitude when its core business, the source of all of its cash flow, is withering,” said Morningstar analyst Daniel Rohr.

He said Cliffs would likely not have had the capital to go ahead with Black Thor even if infrastructure and regulatory issues had been resolved.

The Ring of Fire, about 1,500 km (1,000 miles) northwest of Toronto, is a large cluster of mineral deposits that Canadian political leaders say could bring economic development to northern Ontario much as the oil sands have to northern Alberta.

There are no rail lines, highways or reliable power sources in the region, and Cliffs’ plan for Black Thor includes a $600 million highway that could open the zone to smaller mining companies such as Noront Resources Ltd that are developing projects or have claims there.

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Glencore Said to Study Rio Australia Coal-Assets Combination – by Jesse Riseborough (Bloomberg News – June 11, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Glencore Xstrata Plc (GLEN), the biggest exporter of power station coal, is studying a plan to combine some of its Australian coal operations with mines run by Rio Tinto Group, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Glencore and Rio own some of the largest thermal coal mines in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales and have held initial talks on ways to share mines and infrastructure to cut costs, the people said, asking not to be identified as the discussions are confidential. There is no certainty an agreement will be reached, one of the people said.

Slumping Chinese imports of the fuel and rising output in Indonesia are suppressing demand for Australian coal, prompting producers to fire workers to reduce costs. Baar, Switzerland-based Glencore Xstrata has interests in about 35 coal mines in Colombia, Africa and Australia, accounting for about 10 percent of global seaborne supplies of the fuel.

Spokesmen for Glencore and Rio Tinto declined to comment.

“A sharing of infrastructure and some combination of operations would likely have significant merit given coal earnings are highly sensitive to any reduction in the unit cost base,” Ash Lazenby, an analyst at Liberum Capital Ltd. in London, said today.

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The Worldwide Ramifications of South Africa’s Labor Disputes – by Uven Chong (Slate.com – June 12, 2013)

http://www.slate.com/

The country is the best source for metals critical for making lower-emission vehicles.

In May, security officials confronted 500 protesters at a chromium mine in Rustenburg, South Africa. Rubber bullets were fired, and 10 people were hospitalized. This is just the latest in a series of wildcat strikes turned violent in South African mines. Most notably, 34 miners died during a confrontation between miners and police in August at a platinum mine in Marikana.

These strikes are the result of rapidly deteriorating labor relations in the South African mining industry. Mining companies are facing increased financial pressure from rising costs and low global metal prices. They must also contend with rolling blackouts, which is crucial in the energy-intensive mining industry. This harms routine mining production and profits. As a result of these difficulties, companies are considering downsizing and laying off workers in an attempt to return to profitability.

Understandably, mine workers are not happy about the possibility of losing their jobs. They are also demanding higher wages because their salaries are not keeping up with the rapidly rising cost of living. To top this all off, rival labor unions are attempting to win workers’ support by making seemingly impossible-to-meet demands of mining companies. For instance, the National Union of Mineworkers wants to increase wages for gold and coal miners up to 60 percent.

The rival Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union—which has successfully poached enough members from the NUM to represent a majority of platinum miners—is expected to put in similarly ambitious wage demands.

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City sees big things in it’s future – Regina Leader Post Editorial (June 12, 2013)

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

The city councils of Saskatchewan’s two biggest cities are dreaming some pretty ambitious future population numbers these days – Saskatoon is eyeing expansion to over a million people while Regina is planning for 500,000.

Born of optimism from the continuing economic boom and rosy forecasts of long-term provincial economic growth fueled by natural resources and a resurgent agriculture sector, planners see the day when Regina and Saskatoon will be well over double their current size. In Regina’s case, that means annexing land on all sides of the city from the RM of Sherwood to accommodate expansion.

Are these projections realistic or just wishful thinking? Well, history does offer plenty of evidence for caution when it comes to population growth in this province.

Indeed, before the current economic boom began fuelling strong population growth less than 10 years ago, skeptics could point to the fact that Saskatchewan had a bigger population in the 1930s than in the 1970s. For example, the provincial population of 921,323 in 1976 was lower than that of 1936, when 931,547 people called the province home. And even though the province briefly surpassed the one-million mark in the 1980s, a stagnant economy and outmigration subsequently took the number down to 978,933 by 2001.

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Saskatchewan will need $20-$30B a year in capital – by Bruce Johnstone (Regina Leader Post – June 12, 2013)

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

Saskatchewan will need to attract $20 billion to $30 billion in capital investment annually for the next 20 years to finance its rapid economic and infrastructure growth, according to a Conference Board of Canada report.

How well the province manages this unprecedented demand for capital will largely determine whether or not Saskatchewan achieves its maximum growth potential, said the study, entitled Green Machine: Financing Growth in the New Saskatchewan.

About $38 billion in capital projects are currently underway, largely financed by multinational, out-of-province companies, with mining projects accounting for about 40 per cent of the work. But the province will require capital investment of $20 billion to $30 billion a year over the next two decades (2013 to 2032), to keep up with demand for oil and gas, mining and public infrastructure spending.

“This is not another commodity cycle. The force driving higher returns to crops and potash are real and long term,” the study said, noting that global population is expected to grow by 36 per cent by 2050, which will require another 945 million tonnes of cereal grains and 200 million tonnes of meat.

In addition to the capital demands of extractive industries, like oil and gas and mining, demand for public infrastructure, like roads, water and sewage treatment facilities, will also increase as the population grows to 1.4 million by 2035, the study said.

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Russian city awaits potash boom but outlook fragile – by Agence France-Presse/Global Post.com (June 11, 2013)

http://www.globalpost.com/

At first sight, Berezniki looks a typically bland provincial Russian outpost with its decrepit housing blocks and factory chimneys.

But the city in the Perm region of the Urals sits on a vast and hugely valuable secret — one of the world’s biggest deposits of potash, a mineral that is now coveted across the world as a fertiliser for food crops.

Berezniki, 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) east of Moscow, sits on the Verkhnekamsk deposit, which was discovered in 1925 and which was developed after World War II.

Its proven reserves represent some 34.5 percent of the world’s total and the deposit is the second biggest in the world after those in Saskatchewan in Canada, according to the US Geological Survey.

A veritable army of miners march up and down the kilometres of passages that have already been carved out 450 metres (1,500 feet) underground. Their machines work day and night to mine the pink coloured rock where the mineral is contained.

This is then taken to the surface by conveyors to extract the precious mineral. Once turned into powder or crystalised as granules, potash is used as a fertiliser to help crops grow and increase their immunity to disease.

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Wyoming govenor to talk coal exports on trip to Canada – by Bob Moen (Associated Press/Seattle Times – June 11, 2013)

http://seattletimes.com/html/home/index.html

Looking for ways to export coal mined in Wyoming, Gov. Matt Mead said he will tour port facilities in British Columbia as part of a weeklong trade trip to Canada.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Looking for ways to export coal mined in Wyoming, Gov. Matt Mead said he will tour port facilities in British Columbia as part of a weeklong trade trip to Canada.

Mead will meet with provincial leaders and talk to coal and rail representatives during the visit beginning on Wednesday.

Wyoming is the nation’s leading coal-producing state, but state officials are concerned about falling domestic demand as a result of global warming concerns and new federal regulations on coal-burning power plants.

Some see the need for more power generation by growing Asian economies as an ideal market for U.S. coal producers. But sending coal overseas requires West Coast ports.

Mining companies want to ship coal through ports in Oregon and Washington. However, opponents of coal trains in that region have raised concerns about dust, congestion and climate change.

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Cliffs stops work on chromite project in Ring of Fire – by CBC News Thunder Bay (June 12, 2013)

http://www.cbc.ca/thunderbay/

Cliffs Natural Resources says it needs various issues resolved

Cliffs Natural Resources announced Wednesday it’s putting the brakes on environmental assessment work for it’s chromite project in the Ring of Fire in northern Ontario.

The company is citing delays with government environmental assessments, land surface rights issues and negotiations with the province as problems to advancing its work on the mine, which is located in the James Bay lowlands. Cliffs said it will resume activity when all parties are “collectively ready to make this project a reality.”

“While most aspects of the chromite project have advanced according to plan, temporarily suspending the environmental assessment work acknowledges that certain critical elements of the project’s future are not solely within our control and require the active support and participation by other interested parties such as government agencies and impacted First Nation communities,” said Bill Boor, senior vice president of global ferroalloys for Cliffs, in a press release.

“We remain excited about this project and its potential for Cliffs and northern Ontario. However, given the current unresolved issues, we cannot and will not unilaterally move the process forward and must manage our resources appropriately.”

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Cliffs suspends Ring of Fire chromite project efforts – by Bertrand Marotte (Globe and Mail – June 12, 2013)

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.

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. is putting on hold the environmental assessment work for its massive chromite extraction project in the Ring of Fire region of Northern Ontario.

The company says the decision to temporarily suspend the activities is because of delays related to the environmental assessment process, land surface rights and talks with Ontario.

“While most of the aspects of the chromite project have advanced according to plan, temporarily suspending the environmental assessment work acknowledges that certain critical elements of the project’s future are not solely within our control and require the active support and participation by other interested parties such as government agencies and impacted First Nation communities,” Cliffs senior vice-president for global ferroalloys said in a news release Wednesday.

Cliffs says progress on the $3-billion project in the fragile muskeg of the James Bay lowlands has been hobbled by a series of setbacks, including delays on the terms for the provincial environmental assessment (EA) process, uncertainty over the federal EA process, a court challenge by First Nation bands to the federal decision to conduct a comprehensive study rather than a full-fledged review including public hearings, unresolved land right issues and unconcluded agreements with Ontario.

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Russia Stocks Sink 2nd Day on Bets Commodity Supercycle Fading – by Ksenia Galouchko (Bloomberg News – June 11, 2013)

http://www.businessweek.com/

Russian shares dropped for a second day on concern commodities may extend their decline, curbing growth in the world’s biggest energy exporter.

The Micex Index (INDEXCF) fell 1.4 percent to 1,317.20 by 11:31 a.m. in Moscow, the sharpest slide in almost a week. Basic materials companies led the retreat, losing 1.5 percent on average. The volume of shares traded on the gauge was 50 percent below the 30-day average, while 10-day price swings subsided to 16.497.

The Standard & Poor’s GSCI (SPGSCI) gauge of 24 raw materials retreated 0.5 percent as the Bank of Japan disappointed investors by failing to expand monetary stimulus and concern grew that the U.S. Federal Reserve will scale back debt purchases. Russian central bank Chairman Sergey Ignatiev, who presided yesterday over his last policy meeting after leading the regulator for more than a decade, kept key rates on hold for a ninth month.

“The market is falling on fears that we’re entering the end of the commodity cycle, that the rise of commodities is over,” Sergey Kucherenko, who manages about $50 million in Russian equities at OAO Nomos Bank in Moscow, said by phone. “Russia is very closely correlated to oil.” The dollar-denominated RTS Index (RTSI$), which last week entered a bear market, declined 1.4 percent to 1,282.53. On the Micex, 3 stocks increased while 44 dropped, three were little changed.

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Canada’s mining industry steps towards publishing what it pays – by Stella Dawson (Thomson Reuters Foundation – June 11, 2013)

http://www.trust.org/

WASHINGTON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Canadian mining companies have reached a draft agreement to disclose what they pay to governments for the right to extract gold, coal and other minerals, anti-poverty activists and an industry group said.

The agreement, due for release later this week once final details have been ironed out, would be a major expansion of transparency in the extractive industries and would start to bring Canada into line with standards now taking shape in the United States and the European Union.

“Three-quarters of all transactions in the mining sector have occurred in Canada. If you want to capture transactions, the Canadian market is essential,” said Andrew Bauer, economic analyst at Revenue Watch Institute, one of the parties in the talks.

Campaigners say requiring companies to reveal what they pay governments in the oil, gas and mining sectors will increase accountability for how natural resource wealth is used by countries and will help combat corruption. About 3.5 billion people live in resource-rich countries worldwide, yet many are desperately poor, too often because government officials siphon off resource money into personal accounts.

Financial transparency is high on the agenda for G8 leaders from major industrial countries meeting next week in Northern Ireland as a way to tackle poverty in times of constrained development aid budgets.

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[Saskatchewan potash] Bethune Mine: Promises Lasting Legacy – by Ella McIntyre (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – June 11, 2013)

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

A promise of economic growth and employment, with an eye to ensuring long-lasting environmental and community well-being, is behind K + S Potash Canada’s $3.25 billion dollar solution mining Legacy Project planned for the Rural Municipality (RM) of Dufferin, near the village of Bethune. Bethune is approximately 50 kilometres from Regina.

“Not only is the Legacy Project Saskatchewan’s first potash mine in nearly 40 years, it is one of the world’s most economically attractive greenfield projects,” said Christine Stass, spokesperson for K+S Potash Canada and its parent K+S Group, a leading supplier of fertilizers and the world’s leading salt producer.

As Stass explains, with a potash price of between USD 400 and 450/tonne, the project achieves a Return on Capital Employed of 12 per cent and an attractive premium on K+S Group’s costs of capital. It also promotes important jobs and economic opportunities for Saskatchewan. By spring 2013, 200 to 300 people will be working on site which, at its peak, will provide over 1,100 jobs and roughly 6 million employment hours. The following two years will see rail construction, structures built and equipment installed and, by late 2015, plant commissioning and the site near completion. Once in full production, the mine will employ 320 permanent workers, with more jobs created through ongoing contract employment.

Potash production for the mine is anticipated for 2015. The operation will ramp up to full capacity of 2.86 million tonnes by 2023. With further expansion, production could increase up to 4 million tonnes per year.

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Arctic governments stand by as deadly pollution spews from Russia’s Nikel mine – by Alex Boyd (Nunatsiaq on line.ca -June 11, 2013)

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/

“More profitable to keep polluting the region than modernize the production”

The nickel mine in the aptly named town of Nikel in northwestern Russia is usually notable for three things: it’s big, it’s a massive source of pollution, and, for more than 20 years, it’s defied all attempts to change.

Controversy is as constant in Nikel as the clouds of sulphur dioxide; the mine here is equal parts economic powerhouse and environmental scourge. Yet, criticism has kicked up a notch in recent weeks after European leaders met to discuss issues in the region — and failed to mention Nikel.

Last week’s Barents Summit in Kirkenes, Norway brought together leaders from all over northern Europe, but despite old promises to deal with the mine’s pollution and new commitments to environmental sustainability, the mine located just 50 kilometres away went unmentioned.

Amid the international hoopla over the Arctic, it’s easy to forget that the region is a relatively small place, with a small population. The presence of organizations such as the Arctic Council and the Barents Council means countries are increasingly trying to tackle Arctic issues as a group, but disagreements still arise.

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How Canada’s big oil firms are trying to sway public opinion – by Kelly Cryderman (Globe and Mail – June 11, 2013)

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.

CALGARY — The images have become ubiquitous in the Canadian TV advertising landscape – earnest engineers working to unlock oil sands bitumen from Northern Alberta’s boreal forest, and manufacturers parlaying the Fort McMurray boom into jobs in Ontario and Quebec.

The oil industry has developed TV, print and online ads to extol the national economic and social benefits of the oil sands, and to battle critics who have emphasized the risk of spills, and say an overreliance on the energy industry as an economic driver means outsized greenhouse gas emissions and environmental degradation.

The question is, are Canadians moved by the pictures and words paid for by big Canadian oil? Greg Lyle, managing director of Innovative Research Group Inc. – a Toronto-based public affairs and corporate communications firm that counts a number of energy companies among its clients – believes there’s some potential to move “the mushy middle” of Canadian public opinion.

“When they’re given new information – which are the arguments the industry puts forward – they’re prepared to be swayed. That doesn’t mean they will be.”

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RPT-BHP entry threatens creaking global potash duopoly – by Ron Bousso and Polina Devitt (Reuters U.K. – June 10, 2013)

http://uk.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – The prospect of new competition from miner BHP Billiton could dynamite the cracks appearing in a potash duopoly that accounts for 70 percent of global trade in the fertiliser.

For decades two export groups, Belarus Potash Company (BPC), which represents producers in Russia and Belarus, and Canpotex, its North American equivalent, have set identical prices in key markets such as China and India and have often curbed output simultaneously.

That choreography, which smaller players also dance in step with, is already under fire; four producers in the groups – BPC’s Uralkali, and Canpotex’s three members Potash Corp of Saskatchewan, Agrium and Mosaic – recently agreed to pay over $100 million to settle a U.S. antitrust lawsuit accusing them of concerted action to raise prices.

Canpotex and BPC did not respond to a request for comment for this story, but the producers have denied the accusations, and Uralkali said “potash producers and traders do not agree with each other on prices and pursue their own pricing policies”. Their footwork has also faltered under the strain of falling prices in recent months, and the music could stop altogether if BHP goes ahead with the 8 million tonne per year Jansen mine in western Canada, which would be the world’s largest potash mine if it opens as scheduled in 2017.

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