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Questions Remain in HD Mining Case – by Jeremy J. Nuttall (The Tyee – May 24, 2013)

http://thetyee.ca/

Key evidence was struck from the record in federal court, say unions. Earlier this week, a federal court justice dismissed an attempt by two British Columbia unions to have temporary foreign worker permits for 201 miners revoked.

The Construction and Specialized Workers Union and the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 115 launched their case after it came to light the company, HD Mining, had advertised mining positions listing Mandarin as a job requirement.

The unions contended the language requirement was meant to exclude Canadians so the company could bring workers from China and legally pay them 15 per cent less than market wages at its Murray River project near Tumbler Ridge, B.C.

After a months-long court battle Judge Russel Zinn ruled Tuesday HD Mining filed its applications properly according to the rules that were in place at the time.

But the unions said they lost because Zinn struck from the record key evidence that would have helped their case and, in their view, showed the company misrepresented its mining plans in the form of a notice of work application.

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Africa could still benefit from resources boom – by Geoff Candy (Mineweb.com – May 28, 2013)

http://www.mineweb.com/

According to the African Economic Outlook 2013, while Africa failed to capitalise on the resource boom of the last decade, there still remains hope for growth.

GRONINGEN (MINEWEB) – While Africa failed to capitalise significantly on the resources boom of the last decade, there remains hope that agricultural, mining and energy resources could boost the continent’s economic growth in the future, says the African Economic Outlook 2013.

According to the report, produced annually by the African Development Bank,the OECD Development Centre, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP). “What has been holding back Africa is not the large share of its primary sector in itself, but the poor performance of this sector.”

That is not to say the continent has not benefitted at all from the boom in resource prices seen over the last ten years, indeed according to the report, Africa’s GDP grew by 64% between 2000 and 2011, of which, 35% was accounted for by natural resources – primarily fuelled by a tripling of prices for metals and fuels.

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Editorial: Clash of the Titans [Glencore-Xstrata] – by John Cumming (Northern Miner – May 22, 2013)

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry. Editor John Cumming MSc (Geol) is one of the country’s most well respected mining journalists. jcumming@northernminer.com

Canadians trying to make sense of what’s going on in the upper echelons of the newly merged Glencore Xstrata are getting a feel of what it must have been like to be an ancient Greek peasant looking up at his distant panoply of far-from-perfect gods, with all their petty battles, betrayals and all-too-human schemes, and with Mount Olympus as a proto-version of a head office in Switzerland.

Initially pitched as a merger of equals, Glencore’s takeover of Xstrata was completed on May 2 after 15 months and five delays. A pivotal moment was the demand last June by Xstrata shareholders, led by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, for a higher acquisition price.

In a judo-like move of redirecting an attacker’s energy against himself, Glencore used that monetary concession to win greater management control over the merged entity, culminating in a November shareholder vote that quashed lavish retention bonuses totalling £140 million that were to have been paid to 70 remaining Xstrata personnel, and forced Xstrata chairman John Bond’s dramatic resignation.

The final deal stands as the largest takeover or merger in mining history and the fifth-largest ever in the broader resources sector, after the megamergers in the oil patch in the 1990s and early 2000s that saw the coming together of Exxon and Mobil, BP and Amoco, Chevron and Texaco, and Total and Elf.

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New uranium royalty incentives will encourage development in Saskatchewan – by Tony Playter (Regina Leader Post – May 25, 2013)

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

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In an effort to encourage new investments in uranium mining, the provincial government made changes to its uranium royalty structure earlier this year.

Tim McMillan, Minister Responsible for Energy and Resources, said the new royalty structure now recognizes actual costs incurred in development and mining.

“The old uranium royalty structure, which was put in place in 2001, presented a number of challenges,” said McMillan. “It was based on assumed costs and over the last 13 years we have seen the cost of construction far exceed assumptions that were put in the old model.”

The old royalty system had a very negative effect on mining in Saskatchewan. Over the years, many development and mine projects have been placed on hold because the structure would not recognize certain actual costs.

“We corrected that system, which was no longer reflecting the true costs of building a new mine or bringing new projects forward,” said McMillan.

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International Minerals Innovation Institute – by Robyn Tocker (Regina Leader Post – May 25, 2013)

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

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In Saskatoon, a unique, non-profit institute funded by Saskatchewan’s mining industry and government that brings “market pull” to the design of education and training (E&T) programs and research and development (R&D) projects has been developed. International Minerals Innovation Institute (IMII) “is focused on enhancing mining technology, processing technology, environment and safety management, exploration, social license and policy research, and economics of global commodities,” said Rodney Orr, executive director of IMII.

The goals are simple: to support the attraction and retention of educated and skilled people; facilitate research and development; and provide leadership and capacity-building in the development of programs, technical certificate and undergraduate and post-graduate programs. IMII has already begun their work to meet the mining industry’s needs by entering into an agreement with the University of Saskatchewan to provide $1.68 million over a three-year period for the start-up costs of developing Mining Option classes for engineering students and to explore the delivery of an undergraduate mining engineering degree.

IMII was designed to fill the gap for skill development through industry-driven education and training programs and R&D within [the Saskatchewan] mineral industry. It is a unique approach.

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SIMSA – promoting Saskatchewan solutions to the global resource industry – by Tony Playter (Regina Leader Post – May 25, 2013)

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

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The Saskatchewan Industrial and Mining Supply Association (SIMSA) is a new organization representing Saskatchewan based companies that provide goods and services to mining, oil and gas, and industrial projects.

With Saskatchewan’s strong resource base and growing economy, SIMSA – which was officially launched at the 2013 Saskatchewan Mining Supply Chain Forum – will play an important role in providing world-class opportunities and solutions to members of the industry. SIMSA assists its members by promoting the capabilities and capacity of its members who represent Saskatchewan industrial manufacturers and service suppliers.

“Our mandate is to represent the interests and concerns of our members who are Saskatchewan industrial equipment and service suppliers,” said Tom Foster, chairman of SIMSA’s board of directors. “We look to promote our members and create lasting partnerships within the industry and other associations.”

SIMSA will also promote its members and their services to global companies working in Saskatchewan as well as globally. The organization will also provide one voice when reviewing new policies and regulations that may affect their members.

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Company hopes to usher in new era of Yellowknife gold mining – by CBC News North (May 27, 2013)

http://www.cbc.ca/north/

TerraX Minerals exploring same gold belt Giant Mine is located on

A junior exploration company — TerraX Minerals — hopes to bring a new era of gold mining to Yellowknife. The last gold mine close to the city shut down almost a decade ago, and exploration in the Yellowknife gold belt has been stagnant, until now.

In February, TerraX has acquired a site along the lucrative belt, located about 15 kilometres from Yellowknife. The Northbelt site is about 13 kilometres in length and 36 square kilometres in size, and sits just north the Giant Mine. It once belonged to Royal Oak, the last company to run Giant Mine.

“It’s the most promising expansion of mineralization that was mined in the past,” said company president Joe Campbell. TerraX Minerals is starting a small exploration program this summer. It’s doing geological surveys and combing through old drilling records.

But down the road, a big hurdle could be selling a project that neighbours one of the most toxic mine sites in Canada. The federal government is spending almost a billion dollars to clean up the Giant Mine and store 237,000 tonnes of arsenic trioxide, dust produced during gold production.

“Anyone that mentions gold mining in Yellowknife is obviously going to associate it with the gold mining that occurred in the past, and therefore the question that will come out is, ‘is this going to be another environmental disaster in 40 years like Giant’,” said Campbell.

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Gold Bets Cut to Five-Year Low as Prices Whipsawed: Commodities – by Tony C. Dreibus (Bloomberg News – May 27, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Hedge funds are the least bullish on gold in more than five years as speculation about the pace of money printing by central banks whipsawed prices, driving volatility to a 17-month high.

Money managers cut their net-long position by 9 percent to 35,686 futures and options as of May 21, the lowest since July 2007, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. Holdings of short contracts rose 6.7 percent to a record 79,416. Net-bullish wagers across 18 U.S.-traded commodities slid 2.1 percent, as investors became more bearish on coffee and wheat.

Gold’s 60-day historical volatility touched the highest since December 2011 last week and a gauge of price swings for the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest bullion-backed exchange-traded fund, surged 73 percent this year. Bullion see-sawed as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke testified before Congress on May 22. Two days later, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said he’s done enough to spur growth.

“Gold has so many drivers that it leads to a lot of getting pushed around by one thing or another,” said Dan Denbow, a fund manager at the $1 billion USAA Precious Metals & Minerals Fund in San Antonio. “It makes it impossible to determine a direction.”

May Returns

Futures dropped 5.4 percent in May, poised for a second monthly decline. The Standard & Poor’s GSCI Spot Index of 24 commodities fell 0.1 percent and the MSCI All-Country World of equities also declined 0.1 percent. A Bank of America Corp. Index shows Treasuries lost 1.3 percent.

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Why everyone wants a piece of the Arctic – by by Luiza Ch. Savage (MacLean’s Magazine – May 27, 2013)

http://www2.macleans.ca/

In temperature and politics, the Arctic has never been hotter. As other nations try to get in on the action, Canada is gearing up for a fight.

Ólafur Grímsson, the jovial, globe-trotting president of Iceland, likes to tell the story of his first state visit to Russia 11 years ago, when he asked to meet with Vladimir Putin to talk about the Arctic. The snow-haired Icelander was told that such esoteric matters would be best discussed with local authorities in Kamchatka and Murmansk, thousands of miles from the Kremlin. These days, says Grímsson with a chuckle, Putin himself gives speeches at Arctic conferences—and sends emissaries to Iceland to personally invite Grímsson to attend.

In temperature and in geopolitics, the Arctic has never been hotter. The ice cap is melting rapidly; new shipping lanes are opening up, as are previously inaccessible reserves of oil, gas and minerals. It is estimated that one-fifth of the world’s petroleum reserves lie in the Arctic. Whether these riches will be developed and transported, under what conditions and by whom, are high-stakes questions that are growing in urgency for governments and industry around the world.

Some projections say a nearly ice-free Arctic Ocean could occur by mid-century. “For the first time in human history we will witness the creation of a new ocean,” Grímsson told a conference in Washington last month. And the rest of the world wants in. Last summer, a Chinese-owned icebreaker, the Snow Dragon, sailed from Shanghai to Iceland. The purpose of that expedition was ostensibly to research how the melting of the sea ice creates extreme weather patterns in China. But China is also building cargo ships to sail across a polar route this decade using the ice-free summer months, cutting the distance to Europe and America.

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20K trees to be planted at old Sudbury mine site – by CBC Radio Sudbury (May 23, 2013)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/

It will be decades — if not a century — before the program is complete, city environmental planner says

The City of Greater Sudbury is ready for another season of tree planting — and this year it is getting a significant boost. It announced Tuesday that 20,000 trees donated by CN Rail and a non-profit group called Tree Canada will be planted.

During the announcement the city gave helicopter tours of a former Inco smelter site in Coniston that was devastated by mining. This is where the new trees will find their home.

‘Tremendous amount of work left’

A representative with Tree Canada said she can see how much the city has changed. “I just feel like the world’s going to be OK when I come up this way,” said Debra Beattie, who also grew up in Sudbury.

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Future mines will be technology driven, [South African] Minister tells union – by Martin Creamer (MiningWeekly.com – May 27, 2013)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/home

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Technological innovations would drive the mines of the future, which would need to be run by young people with the appropriate skills, Minerals Minister Susan Shabangu told South Africa’s biggest mining union at the weekend.

Urging the central executive committee of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) to rise to the new challenge, Shabangu denigrated the current migrant labour system of recruitment as unsustainable, against the changed background of large numbers of unemployed young people now living on the doorsteps of many mines.

“The mines of the future will have to be modelled differently to those that have characterised this industry for the past 136 years. These mines will inevitably have to accommodate young people who will need to operate them, armed with the appropriate skills, technological knowledge and training.

“There’s no doubt that the mining industry of the future will be driven by technological innovations and research and development, and I’m sure NUM will rise to this challenge,” Shabangu said.

The headwinds from a fragile world economy had conspired to make the mining sector a difficult economic terrain, not just for workers and business, but also for government as regulator and policy maker.

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Language credentials turned upside-down in HD Mining case – Globe and Mail Editorial (May 27, 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.

The Federal Court of Canada’s judgment last week in the HD Mining case was something of a pyrrhic victory for the Temporary Foreign Worker Program as it now stands. The topsy-turvy upshot is that suitable Canadian miners could not be found for a coal mine near Tumbler Ridge, B.C., in large measure because the predominant language at the mine is Mandarin, which the Chinese government recognizes as China’s national language.

Justice Russel Zinn of the Federal Court upheld a labour market opinion issued by William MacLean, an officer of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, in which he had found that the hiring of 201 Chinese workers at the coal mine would have “a neutral or positive effect on the labour market in Canada.” That opinion enabled HD Mining International Ltd., a Chinese-controlled company, to hire the foreign workers. The Construction and Specialized Workers’ Union and the International Union of Operating Engineers challenged that opinion in court.

Given the list of factors that it was Mr. MacLean’s duty to consider, his conclusion was right. But because the language of that particular workplace is Mandarin, most English-speaking miners in northeastern British Columbia would not be able to communicate with their fellow employees in HD Mining’s Murray River project.

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RPT-Disruptions tighten copper supply, surplus narrows – by Melanie Burton and Eric Onstad (Reuters U.s. – May 26, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

SINGAPORE/LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) – A series of copper mine shutdowns and supply logjams has prompted some analysts to scale down forecasts for a market surplus, but it would take more disruptions to swing the market into a deficit.

“People are making adjustments, we certainly are. At the beginning of the year we were pencilling in a 300,000 tonne surplus. That’s probably going to be pegged back by half or so,” analyst Robin Bhar at Societe Generale in London said.

“Demand is down as well, so one offsets the other. I don’t think we’ll have a deficit market again but certainly a more balanced market.”

The forecast surplus has weighed on benchmark copper prices , which have shed 13 percent since touching a peak in February of $8,346 a tonne for the year so far.

The global market for refined copper was expected to have a 98,500 tonne surplus this year and 305,000 tonnes in 2014, based on the average forecast of 18 analysts polled by Reuters in April. The 2013 estimate was already scaled back from a 127,000 tonne surplus forecast in January.

Those April forecasts came shortly after a rockslide at Rio Tinto’s Bingham Canyon copper mine, which the company said would reduce production by about 100,000 tonnes.

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Saskatchewan mining companies contribute to their communities – by Carol Rogers And Barb Flynn (Regina Leader-Post – May 25, 2013)

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

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Saskatchewan’s mining corporations are drilling into more than just the earth. Many are becoming involved in and giving back to their communities. They are doing this in a variety of ways including by introducing educational programs, providing employment opportunities, ensuring employee safety both on and after leaving the job, and addressing child hunger as a way of promoting a healthy education and lifestyle. Here is a look at some of the ways that companies are investing in local communities.

AREVA

AREVA Resources Canada is entering an exciting phase of growth in 2013. Not only is AREVA restarting the mill at McClean Lake this summer, they are also upgrading and expanding it so they can process all the ore from the nearby Cigar Lake mine.

The key to their success? Hiring a significant number of employees to ensure they are ready for this growth and development. In 2012, AREVA launched a major recruitment campaign focused on gaining employees from northern Saskatchewan.

Because it is a competitive market with many projects underway in the province, AREVA understands that they need an innovative approach to attract and retain talent.

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Minister responsible for Energy and Resources – by Tony Playter (Regina Leader-Post – May 25, 2013)

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

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Q & A with Tim McMillan

According to the Saskatchewan Mining Association website, Saskatchewan has more than 25 operating mines that produce minerals such as potash, uranium, coal and gold as well as mineral resources including diamonds, copper and zinc.

To ensure continued success in the mining sector and the province’s overall economic growth, the Ministry of the Economy has taken several steps to encourage investment and development in Saskatchewan. Tim McMillan, Minister responsible for Energy and Resources, discussed the future of mining in Saskatchewan.

Q: Since 2007, how has the provincial government encouraged investment in Saskatchewan’s mining sector?

I believe it is important to tell the Saskatchewan story in an accurate and positive light. For too long, Saskatchewan politicians talked about what we couldn’t do, what we didn’t have and how we would never grow or prosper like some of our neighbours.

The change in paradigm has been a very important part of our success. We have been very open and made some key structural changes that have created a stable royalty system that will drive long-term investments and benefits for our province.

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