Canadian/International Media Resource Articles – Page 37

UPDATE 2-POSCO moves closer to iron ore access for $12 bln India steel plant – by Suchitra Mohanty and Krishna N Das (Reuters India – May 10, 2013)

May 10, 2013

http://in.reuters.com/

NEW DELHI, May 10 (Reuters) – POSCO’s planned $12 billion steel project in India moved a step forward on Friday after a court handed a decision on a mining licence to the federal government, raising the South Korean firm’s chances of getting preferential access to iron ore.

The world’s fourth-largest steel producer has waited eight years to get necessary clearances, land and an iron ore mining licence to start work on the project, billed as India’s largest foreign direct investment.

While the project planned in eastern Odisha state may still face hurdles from protesters and over issues such as land ownership, a supportive federal government is expected to clear the path for POSCO’s top concern – a captive mine that will give it steelmaking raw material iron ore.

“This is positive for the company because the central government has been supporting this project,” said Rakesh Arora, a metals expert and head of research at Macquarie Capital Securities (India). “There’s no doubt that without iron ore, this project was not starting at all.”

India was concerned about the delays and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself is monitoring the project’s progress, Trade Minister Anand Sharma had said in January.

Enbridge, TransCanada on front lines of war between producers and anti-oil groups – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – May 10, 2013)

May 10, 2013

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

Imagine this corporate nightmare: activists dominating your annual shareholders’ meeting, sullying your brand over the Internet, discrediting you with politicians and agitating communities against you.

It used to be known as character assassination. Today it’s the environment in which Canada’s largest pipeline companies, TransCanada Corp. and Enbridge Inc., find themselves. They are on the front lines of the war between oil producers looking for new markets and opponents of oil extraction pushing to speed up the transition to renewable energy.

With pipeline rage that started with TransCanada’s Keystone XL and Enbridge’s Northern Gateway projects spreading like wildfire to other proposals, the two companies are transforming the way they grow their business.

It involves a change in attitude, communicating with more people, paying more attention to what can go wrong, and facing higher costs amid more competition from rail companies that are expanding without restrictions.

“There is a new reality in terms of permitting and constructing pipelines that wasn’t there before,” said TransCanada CEO Russ Girling, adding that the new model will be more time consuming, require more work, and in the end, cost more.

Barrick/Goldcorp remove overhang in Pueblo Viejo deal, but at a cost – by Peter Koven (National Post – May 9, 2013)

May 10, 2013

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

When the Pueblo Viejo mine entered commercial production early this year, it took about 20 seconds for politicians in the Dominican Republic to demand a bigger piece of the pie from the two Canadian owners (Barrick Gold Corp. owns 60% and Goldcorp Inc. owns 40%). Negotiations ensued and a revised agreement was announced Wednesday night.

After taking some time to chew it over, analysts weighted in on Thursday morning. Their views are decidedly mixed: the deal is positive in that it removes the political overhang, but negative in that it takes substantial benefits away from shareholders and hands them to the government. Also, payments to the government will be brought forward.

A number of changes were made to the Pueblo Viejo agreement, including the elimination of a 10% return embedded in the initial capital investment before a 28.75% tax kicks in, an extension to the period in which the miners recover their capital investment, a delay in the application of tax deductions, and a reduction in depreciation rates.

Barrick calculated that the total economic benefit to the government will rise by US$1.5-billion in this agreement, assuming a US$1,600 gold price. The Dominican was already expected to receive more than US$10-billion from the mine.

This week in junior gold quarterlies – lower gold price weighs – by Kip Keen (Mineweb.com – May 10, 2013)

May 10, 2013

http://www.mineweb.com/

Adding pain to the the junior gold miner balance sheet: lower gold prices this year than last.

HALIFAX, NS (MINEWEB) – The lower price of gold in the first three months of the year, as compared to same in 2012, started to weigh on junior gold producers quarterlies. It wasn’t the only factor in dropping net incomes, to be sure, as operating costs remained flat or worsened. But this just made the lower gold price all the harder to bear.

A year ago spot gold prices over the January to March period averaged a bit higher, around $1,690 an ounce, while in the first three months in 2013, they averaged around $1,630. That difference, around four percent, took its toll, adding to pressure on balance sheets as junior gold producers contend with the cost of mine expansions and longer term projects.

The lower spot price this year in January to March might be viewed as a small difference, yes, and one confounded by such idiosyncracies as when a miner sold its loot. However, it’s not looking like a one-quarter blip. Rather, the effect is set to worsen for gold miners in the coming quarter.

Last year the spot price of gold averaged about $1,650 and 1,585 per ounce in April and May, respectively. This year it was $1,485 and $1,462 in the same months, to date, setting up junior gold producers for an even tighter squeeze in the coming round of quarterlies. It could only be reversed if the price of gold makes a strong U-turn over the next month and a half.

African states should own half of new mining ventures, says Mohohlo – by Paul Vecchiatto (South Africa Business Day Live – May 10, 2013)

May 10, 2013

http://www.bdlive.co.za/

AFRICAN governments should own at least a 50% stake in any new mining venture in order to ensure the country receives more of the revenue that flows from a project than the mining company receives.

This is a recommendation of Linah Mohohlo, governor of Botswana’s central bank and a member of the Africa Progress Panel.

Speaking at Friday’s launch of the panel’s Africa Progress Report 2013, Ms Mohohlo pushed the point that only if there were transparency in monetary flows could there be real transparency on how mining companies operate on the continent.

However, Ms Mohohlo stressed that her recommendation was not a call for nationalisation in any way.

“What it is, it is a recommendation. As a former central banker I believe that only central banks can and should handle the revenue flows that stem from mining.

“The country, or the government, must receive more of the revenue flows out of a project than the company does,” she said. Ms Mohohlo said governments had to use the minimum shareholding of 50%, plus a sound tax regime that included clear guidelines on collection and definite dates for the end of the tax holidays often granted for a project to start.

Tensions high as Amplats to unveil South Africa job cuts plan – by Ed Stoddart (Reuters U.S. – May 9, 2013)

May 10, 2013

http://www.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – Anglo American’s (AAL.L) platinum arm, under pressure from South Africa’s government, could announce a restructuring plan on Thursday or Friday that will sharply scale back job losses as it tries to balance out cost cuts and the threat of labor unrest.

Anglo American Platinum (AMSJ.J) had planned to slash 14,000 jobs and mothball two mines to return to profit but industry sources have told Reuters that the final plan would be pared back, with as few as 5,000 jobs cut.

Militant workers have signaled they will launch protest strikes even if the job cuts fall far short of the initial target. Social tensions are running high after violence rooted in a labor turf war killed more than 50 people last year and sparked illegal strikes that hit production.

For Amplats, reining in costs and cutting production to such an extent that it lifts the price of platinum, used for emissions-capping catalytic converters in automobiles, is absolutely crucial after it fell into a loss last year.

“From the point of view of Amplats itself, both numbers will be critical, how many ounces will you produce, but also how many people, because that impacts on the cost base,” said Alison Turner, an analyst at Panmure Gordon.

Bitumen needed statesmen, not salesmen – by Jeffrey Simpson (Globe and Mail – May 10, 2013)

May 10, 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.

Proponents of bitumen oil see a sea of troubles, or at least choppy waters, almost everywhere. An eventual west-east line to Quebec and New Brunswick looks promising. Elsewhere, prospects are uncertain or grim.

The biggest proponents of bitumen oil – the Alberta Progressive Conservatives, the Harper Conservatives and the oil industry itself – have, in some respects, been the authors of these troubles. They could have acted differently and possibly made things easier. But a different course of action would have required a different strategic understanding.

They could have started with a map. Bitumen oil is landlocked. Instead of asking, “What can we do to help other jurisdictions trans-ship our oil?”, the Alberta government and the Harperites assumed that everyone else desperately needed bitumen – that what was good for Alberta would axiomatically be good for all.

The two governments insisted that critics were ill-informed when they said bitumen is dirtier than conventional oil. They swallowed the canard that bitumen oil is somehow “ethical” because Canada has better standards than Iran and Venezuela – standing ethics on its head by defining our practices against the worst, rather than the notional idea of the best.

EU dismisses Canada’s threat to appeal dirty oil designation – by Steven Chase, Paul Waldie and Shawn McCarthy (Globe and Mail – May 10, 2013)

May 10, 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.

OTTAWA and LONDON and OTTAWA — The EU believes its controversial proposal to label oil-sands crude as dirty would withstand a test at the World Trade Organization after Canada threatened to file a complaint over the measure.

The disagreement over the EU designation – which would effectively impose an import tax on Canadian bitumen – overshadowed talk Thursday by Brussels and Ottawa of a final push to sign a trade pact before the summer.

The Harper government is now fighting for international acceptance of emissions-heavy oil-sands petroleum on two fronts.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Thursday he will go to New York next week as part of his push to win a green light from the U.S. for the Keystone XL pipeline project that would transport bitumen to Gulf Coast refineries but has been heavily opposed by environmental activists.

He’ll participate in a question-and-answer session at an event organized by the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Harper said he looks forward to discussing Keystone, among other issues, as a U.S. debate rages over whether to give the energy-intensive oil-sands development a thumbs-down.

[Ontario Premier] Wynne, McGuinty full of … gas – (Toronto Sun Editorial – May 9, 2013)

May 10, 2013

http://www.torontosun.com/home

Premier Kathleen Wynne and past premier Dalton McGuinty were so full of it in their testimony about the Liberals’ gas plant fiasco, that some final observations on their absurd arguments are warranted.

First was Wynne’s statement the government needs to develop better ways of listening to communities when it comes to locating gas plants, and McGuinty’s claim he cancelled the Oakville and Mississauga plants because he listened to local health and safety concerns.

In the real world, if McGuinty and Wynne gave a fig about community concerns, they wouldn’t have rammed industrial wind turbines down the throats of rural Ontarians, while taking away the rights of local municipalities to have any say on the issue.

McGuinty’s hypocrisy is particularly astounding, given that he called anyone who objected to industrial wind turbines a “nimby”, unless they were doing so for legitimate safety and environmental reasons, all of which his government rejected as invalid.

In fact, people claiming adverse health symptoms caused by noise and low-level vibrations from wind turbines were told by the Liberal government they were the only ones complaining, when in actuality hundreds of complaints were pouring in from across the province.

The terrible truth about the B.C. Liberals’ B.C. Jobs Plan – by Jim Sinclair (Vancouver Province – May 9, 2013)

May 10, 2013

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

Jim Sinclair is president of the B.C. Federation of Labour.

It is perhaps one of the more twisted ironies of this election that Premier Christy Clark and the B.C. Liberals are running on their record of job creation, a record they would probably be smarter to run away from.

Their much touted B.C. Jobs Plan has been discredited by the facts — more than 30,000 jobs have been lost since its inception. The latest figures show that B.C. lost 15,000 full-time jobs in March, setting off the largest rise in Canada. What to do when the facts don’t add up? Answer: buy ads.

While the last provincial budget cut money from programs that train workers, the Liberals could find $16 million of taxpayers’ money to try and sell us on the failed jobs plan.

But perhaps the most blatant example of the betrayal by this government on the critical issue of jobs has been its role in promoting the use of temporary foreign workers in British Columbia. Today, our province is breaking Canadian records for growth in the use of foreign workers — more than 74,000 — while at the same time more than 200,000 British Columbians are struggling to find a job and thousands cannot get the training they need.

Chromite project delays may jeopardize miner’s plans – CBC News Sudbury (May 9, 2013)

May 9, 2013

http://www.cbc.ca/sudbury/

Cliffs Natural Resources president remains optimistic, but has reasons for ‘concern’

A year after it was announced that a chromite smelter and hundreds of jobs were coming to Sudbury, there is still no deal in place. And the mining company behind the project, Cliffs Natural Resources, now says the delays could put the whole thing in jeopardy.

The province and the mining company have yet to sign an agreement that lays out the specifics of the mine access road, how much of the ore will be processed in Sudbury and how much Cliffs will pay for electricity.

After being in daily contact last year, the two sides haven’t met since January. But the new mines minister, Michael Gravelle, said there’s no reason to worry. “It’s not a question of apportioning blame at all, I think this is just a complex project,” he said.

Cliffs’ vice-president Bill Boor said he remains optimistic, however long delays could mean no mine and no smelter. “The project does have risk when it’s stopped like this,” he noted. “And that causes me concern.”

No meetings planned

While the chromite isn’t going anywhere, the market conditions have to be right for a complicated plan like this to work, Boor said.

Illegal mining Colombia’s new bane – by Paul Harris (Globe and Mail – May 9, 2013)

May 9, 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.

Canadian junior miners on front lines as criminal gangs, demobilized paramilitaries and guerrilla groups mine gold outside the law

MEDELLIN, COLOMBIA — In Segovia, a prosperous Colombian town of 50,000 people in northeastern Antioquia, the shops are closed by 6:30 p.m. and the streets empty. Segovia is a boom town, one of the country’s richest gold production centres, but tension is in the air as criminal gangs, demobilized paramilitaries and guerrilla groups flock to the area to mine gold illegally.

In Colombia, gold is the new cocaine as outlaw groups increasingly move into mineral-rich parts of the country on their own terms to take advantage of the metal’s strong price.

“The relatively high price of gold, the fact that the final product is legal and its production sources cannot easily be traced, means that illegal groups can operate large, profitable operations without the risks involved in the drug trade,” said Daniel Linsker, vice-president of global services for Latin America, at Control Risks, an international business risk consulting firm.

It’s estimated that illegal mining accounts for most of Colombia’s gold production. Production was an estimated 66 tonnes in 2012, according to the country’s National Mining Agency. About 10 tonnes comes from legal mines and about 10 tonnes from scrap such as old jewellery, meaning more than 40 tonnes is produced illegally, estimates CIIGSA, one of Medellin’s gold refineries.

Oliver threatens trade fight if EU taxes oil-sands crude – by Steven Chase (Globe and Mail – May 9, 2013)

May 9, 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.

Ottawa — Canada’s Natural Resources Minister is raising the prospect of a trade fight with the European Union over its proposal to label oil-sands crude as dirty even as both sides try to seal a major deal to liberalize two-way.

In Brussels on Wednesday, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said Ottawa would consider launching a complaint with the World Trade Organization, the global referee for commercial disputes, if the EU proceeds with a fuel-quality directive that singles out crude from Canada’s oil sands as the most harmful to the planet’s climate.

The directive would effectively slap an import tax on oil-sands crude because refiners who use it would face extra costs. EU refiners are required to cut carbon content in fuels by 6 per cent or pay a penalty.

Ottawa fears the directive would hurt Canada’s ability to open new markets for its oil and depress prices for North American crude. “This fuel-quality directive is discriminatory towards Canadian oil and not supported by scientific facts,” Mr. Oliver said.

A spokesman for International Trade Minister Ed Fast said that Ottawa believes Canada’s campaign for better treatment for the oil sands will not affect trade talks with Brussels.

What On Earth Are “Commodity Super-cycles” And Why Do They Matter? – by Marcelo GiugaleWorld (Huffingotn Post – May 9, 2013)

May 9, 2013

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

Marcelo GiugaleWorld is the World Bank’s Director of Economic Policy and Poverty Reduction Programs for Africa

The average developing country lives off exporting commodities like oil, gas, copper, cocoa or soybeans. The sale of these resources brings both revenue to the government and foreign currency to import what is not produced at home–which, in these places, tends to be most things. So whatever happens to the price of those commodities matters a great deal for development and, even more, for the war on poverty. The problem is that those prices are famously volatile.

They can jump up and down seemingly at random, from year to year, month to month, even within a single minute. This makes life miserable for those who have to plan public investments in schools, hospitals or roads. Statisticians and investors have studied the problem to death, not least because there is a lot of money to be made if you can find a predictable pattern. And despite all their efforts, they have come up mostly empty-handed.

Mostly. There has always been suspicion that, if you took a really long view–we are talking centuries here–you might uncover periods of about forty years when commodity prices steadily climb for a decade or two, only to fall slowly back to where they were. That is, you might uncover “super-cycles”. It may sound crazy but, before anyone could actually find one, plenty of theories were put forward to explain why super-cycles happened and what to do about them.

PQ presents ‘North for All’ plan – by Kevin Dougherty (Montreal Gazette – May 8, 2013)

May 8, 2013

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

First Nations feel blindsided by plan

MONTREAL — The Plan Nord was launched by Jean Charest as the “project of a generation,” with the short-term hope of generating votes for his Quebec Liberals.

Two years later, in a fly-in, fly-out news conference in Chibougamau, the Parti Québécois government has launched its Nord pour tous (North for All) plan. Despite similarities, Premier Pauline Marois insists her government’s plan is not at all the same as the Plan Nord.

In fact, the PQ has scaled down the size of public investments in the north and Marois avoided any mention of Charest’s 25-year target of $80 billion in investments.

Marois stressed that unlike the Liberal Plan Nord, her North for All vision is focused on protecting the environment and takes into account the concerns of native and non-native people living in the north. But environmentalists and aboriginal leaders expressed disappointment, and said they felt blindsided by the government.

Ghislain Picard, Assembly of First Nations chief for Quebec and Labrador, said he received a “maladroit” email invitation last Friday to the Chibougamau news conference.