Archive | Canadian Media Resource Articles

‘A complete disaster’: Investors take aim at Teck CEO Don Lindsay after commodity cycle misses – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – May 20, 2020)

May 20, 2020 in British Columbia Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Coal, Copper, Oil and Gas Sector-Politics and Image

https://business.financialpost.com/

Days after Teck Resources Ltd. publicly pulled the plug in February on Frontier, a proposed $20.5-billion mine in the oilsands, one of the company’s largest investors started a campaign to oust the company’s chief executive, Don Lindsay.

Bob Bishop, founder of Impala Asset Management, a Florida-based resource focused hedge fund, which has been a shareholder since 2016, wrote a letter in late February to the board; and then a few days later, just before coronavirus halted all air travel, he flew to Toronto to deliver his message in person to the company’s chair Sheila Murray: It’s time for Lindsay to go.

For Bishop, whose firm owned 1.9 per cent of Teck’s Class B shares at year end, oil was proving to be another mistake in a long line of miscalculations: Teck invested $1.1 billion in Frontier, one of the largest greenfield oil projects ever imagined in Canada, before it abruptly withdrew from the permitting process. Continue Reading →

Premier and Centerra lock horns over Hardrock project in Ontario – by Kelsey Rolfe (Northern Miner – May 11, 2020)

May 19, 2020 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

Global mining news

Is the Hardrock gold project, 275 km northeast of Thunder Bay in northern Ontario, a shovel-ready gem or a promising project in need of further technical work?

Joint-venture partners Premier Gold Mines (TSX: PG; US-OTC: PIRGF) and Centerra Gold (TSX: CG) have painted two very different pictures of the development-stage project in a legal dispute that began late last year.

In a statement of claim filed against Premier’s subsidiary in Ontario’s Superior Court in late December and viewed by The Northern Miner, Centerra accuses the company of inflating Hardrock’s resource estimate to improve its own profile. Continue Reading →

Alcoa CEO Sees No Certainty a Definitive Recovery Is Coming – by Joe Deaux (Bloomberg News – May 14, 2020)

May 19, 2020 in Aluminium/Bauxite, Canadian Media Resource Articles, United States Mining

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Alcoa Corp. Chief Executive Officer Roy Harvey isn’t ready to declare that the world is on the road to recovery yet.

Speaking at a virtual metals and mining conference, the head of the aluminum producer said there remains too much uncertainty in global economies to feel comfortable saying the situation is improving from the coronavirus crisis. Aluminum gluts are now growing outside China, which Harvey said is already oversupplied, and this will further weigh on prices.

“I don’t think we’ve yet got the clarity, nor do we have the orders on the books, to signal that there is a definitive recovery coming,” he said. Continue Reading →

Ottawa urged to scrutinize China’s mining activities in the Arctic in wake of TMAC takeover – by Robert Fife, Steven Chase and Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – May 18, 2020)

May 19, 2020 in Canada Mining – North of 60, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

China’s growing control over strategic minerals could be a threat to Canada’s national security, a former head of CSIS says, and Ottawa should recognize this when it reviews a proposed takeover of an Arctic gold mine by a Chinese state-owned conglomerate.

Shandong Gold Mining Co. Ltd., one of the world’s largest gold producers, is paying $207.4-million to buy TMAC Resources Inc., the latest struggling Canadian junior miner to be swept up by a larger and better-capitalized company.

The deal will be among the first pored over by Ottawa after it announced in April that it would bring “enhanced scrutiny” to bear on acquisitions by foreign state-owned investors in a period where the COVID-19 pandemic has driven down the value of companies. China is the largest producer and consumer of gold in the world. Continue Reading →

The Coming Post-COVID Anarchy – by Kevin Rudd (Foreign Affairs – May 6, 2020)

May 19, 2020 in Canadian Media Resource Articles

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/

In January and February of this year, there was audible popping of champagne corks in certain quarters of the U.S. foreign policy establishment. What some observers had long seen as this era’s giant geopolitical bubble had finally begun to deflate.

China’s Communist Party leadership, the thinking went, was at last coming apart, a result of its obsession with official secrecy, its initial missteps in responding to the novel coronavirus outbreak, and the unfolding economic carnage across the country.

Then, as China began to recover and the virus migrated to the West in March and April, irrational jubilation turned to irrational despair. The commentariat greeted with outrage any possibility that the pandemic might in fact help China emerge triumphant in the ongoing geopolitical contest with the United States. Continue Reading →

OPINION: Pretending oil is dead makes bad climate policy – by Campbell Clark (Globe and Mail – May 19, 2020)

May 19, 2020 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Oil and Gas Sector-Politics and Image

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The problem with Elizabeth May’s warning that “oil is dead” is not just that she’s wrong. It is that she ignored the lesson that the coronavirus crisis offered about oil, and reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.

There was a strange triumphalism in Ms. May’s obituary for the Canadian oil industry, when she said “the idea that we’ve got this product that everyone wants is delusional.”

That sparked angry reaction from the oil patch, but it is climate-change activists who should tell Ms. May she got it wrong. Continue Reading →

‘Lack of new major gold deposits’: Discovery numbers dive in the last decade – S&P Global Market Intelligence – by Anna Golubova (Kitco News – May 14, 2020)

May 14, 2020 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) New major gold discoveries have been on a decline this past decade, according to a report by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

During the past three years there were no major new gold discoveries, the report said. And during the past decade, there were only 25 new major discoveries.

Dwindling numbers are due to miners focusing on exploration around older mines, S&P Global said. “The lack of new discoveries is the result of exploration focusing on older discoveries and later-stage assets,” wrote S&P Global principal research analyst Kevin Murphy. Continue Reading →

Teck CEO defends strategy at mining conference as investors launch criticism – by Dan Healing (Canadian Press/Global News – May 12, 2020)

May 14, 2020 in British Columbia Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Coal, Copper

https://globalnews.ca/

The CEO of Teck Resources Ltd. defended his company’s growth strategy on Tuesday as dissident shareholders criticized what they called “underperforming” investments in coal and oilsands.

“Our strategy is very straight forward,” said CEO Don Lindsay in a webcast speech at the online Bank of America Securities Global Metals, Mining and Steel conference.

“Teck is implementing a copper growth strategy financed by the strong cash flows from steel-making coal and zinc. We are focused on rebalancing our portfolio to ultimately make our copper business bigger than our coal business, beginning with QB2, which will double our copper production on a consolidated basis.” Continue Reading →

Investors seeking ‘apocalypse insurance’ send gold ETFs skyrocketing – by Gillian Livingston (Globe and Mail – May 14, 2020)

May 14, 2020 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Sparked by a flight to safety during the COVID-19 crisis, investors are turning to gold as a haven, which has boosted the price of the precious metal and led to a high demand for Canadian gold-equity and gold-bullion exchange-traded funds.

“People definitely use gold as a form of ‘apocalypse insurance,’” says Daniel Straus, head of ETF research and strategy with National Bank Financial Inc.

The demand has sent the price of gold above US$1,700 per ounce, an increase of about 11 per cent so far this year and about 32 per cent over the past year. Continue Reading →

Bishop’s Impala Joins Campaign to Oust CEO of Teck Resources – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – May 11, 2020)

May 14, 2020 in British Columbia Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Impala Asset Management has become the second investor in a month to go public about efforts to pressure Canadian miner Teck Resources Ltd. into ousting its longstanding CEO.

The Connecticut firm, founded by industry veteran Bob Bishop, said it sent a letter to Teck’s board Feb. 28, excerpts of which it provided to Bloomberg.

The letter criticizes Teck’s chief executive officer, Don Lindsay, for what the firm calls destruction of shareholder value while saying he received one of the biggest paychecks in the industry. In 2019, Lindsay’s total compensation was C$9.2 million ($6.6 million), including C$1.64 million in salary. Continue Reading →

NexGen Energy lines up US$30M financing with Queen’s Road Capital – by Carl A. Williams (Northern Miner – May 12, 2020)

May 14, 2020 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Saskatchewan Mining, Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

Global mining news

NexGen Energy (TSX: NXE; NYSE: NXE) has signed a US$30 million financing agreement with Queen’s Road Capital Investment (TSXV: QRC) and plans to use the funds to advance work at its flagship Arrow deposit, part of the company’s Rook 1 project in Saskatchewan.

“Warren Gilman, chairman and chief executive officer of Queen’s Road Capital, is a long-time shareholder and supporter of NexGen and also joined our board in 2017,” Leigh Curyer, NexGen’s CEO, said in an interview.

“Warren came to us and wanted to invest in uranium, but only wanted to invest in world-class projects and world-class management teams. We met both those criteria.” Continue Reading →

Canadian gold miner SSR to buy Alacer Gold in $2.4-billion all-stock deal – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – May 12, 2020)

May 12, 2020 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canada’s SSR Mining Inc. is buying Denver-based miner Alacer Gold Corp. in an all-stock, zero premium transaction worth $2.4-billion, the latest big mining deal aimed at trying to win back the interest of institutional investors.

Vancouver-based SSR operates precious metals mines in Canada, the United States and Argentina. Alacer’s chief asset is the Copler gold mine in Turkey.

SSR is paying 0.3246 of its shares for each Alacer share, equivalent to $8.19 a share, the same level Alacer closed at on Friday. Continue Reading →

U.S. demands explanation from province over river pollution from B.C. mines – by Bob Weber (CBC News British Columbia – May 11, 2020)

May 12, 2020 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution, Tailing Dams and Abandoned Mines, United States Mining

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/

Contamination from Teck coal mines in waterways of Elk River watershed is a long-standing problem

CANADIAN PRESS: The U.S. government is increasingly concerned about pollution from British Columbian mines, following new research that shows contaminants in a river south of the border came from Canada.

In a letter obtained by The Canadian Press, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is demanding the provincial government hand over data explaining why Teck Resources coal mines in southern B.C. are being allowed to exceed guidelines for a toxic heavy metal.

“The EPA … finds it unacceptable that the province has accepted [a treatment plan] that will allow seasonal exceedances of water quality objectives into the future,” says the Feb. 4 letter to B.C. Environment Minister George Heyman. Continue Reading →

Gold miners’ profits ‘set to explode’, but companies persist with no-premium mergers – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – May 12, 2020)

May 12, 2020 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://business.financialpost.com/

The gold sector may have reached a critical juncture

In a reminder that some market forces still exert more power than the economic fallout from COVID-19, Vancouver-based SSR Mining Inc. on Monday announced a no-premium, all-stock “merger of equals” with Denver-based Alacer Gold Corp. that was months in the making and would create a US$4 billion company.

The deal marks the latest in a string of mergers in the gold sector during the past 18 months, a trend which has continued even as the coronavirus pandemic has radically handicapped investors’ ability to conduct due diligence such as site visits to mines.

During a presentation to analysts on Monday, Rod Antal, who will move up from chief executive of Alacer to chief executive of the newly combined entity, SSR, once the deal closes in the third quarter, bluntly dismissed coronavirus as a factor, saying talks started last November, allowing ample time for face to face meetings before the pandemic. Continue Reading →

Canadian oil still has a future, even if Elizabeth May can’t see it – by Max Fawcett (National Post – May 12, 2020)

May 12, 2020 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Oil and Gas Sector-Politics and Image

https://nationalpost.com/

There may not be a French translation for the word “chutzpah,” but that doesn’t mean that Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet can’t summon it.

Case in point: his recent suggestion that the federal government shouldn’t prop up oil and gas businesses “that will not be self-sufficient in any time in the future.”

You could almost hear Albertans choking on their indignation when he said that, given Quebec’s storied history of propping up businesses whose own lack of self-sufficiency is a matter of public record. Continue Reading →