Archive | Canadian Media Resource Articles

Bruce Hutchison rediscovers THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY (Northern Ontario) – by Bruce Hutchison (MACLEAN’s Magazine – March 17, 1956)

March 14, 2019 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Canadian Mining History, Northern Ontario History

https://www.macleans.ca/

“This land of shaven stone and stunted trees was called Ontario, but . . . the north was a separate province in everything but political arrangements, its people a separate breed, its life turned forever northward

IN COBALT I met two ruined men. One of them, being Chinese and therefore a philosopher, took ruin calmly and grinned at me from behind his restaurant counter like a gentle old monkey. The other, a broken miner, having no gift of philosophy, pointed to the tortured hills of Cobalt, the pyramids of crushed rock and the lurching mine towers. “She’s gone,” he said, “murdered, crucified and dead from hell to breakfast.”

The Chinese proprietor—speaking in an odd mixture of English and French—told me that the fatal mistake of his life had been to settle in Cobalt. His restaurant in Montreal had employed eight French-Canadian waitresses and had earned him a modest fortune, now lost. Here he was his own cook, waiter and dishwasher, trapped in Cobalt. Still, he rather liked it. The people were so nice, so gentile. Continue Reading →

Once-Mighty Canadian Mining Losing Ground to Global Competitors – by Danielle Bochove (Boomberg News – March 14, 2019)

March 14, 2019 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Canada is in danger of losing its global dominance in mining, despite recent government initiatives to improve competitiveness, according to a report from an industry association.

The report, by the Mining Association of Canada, comes as debate about the hollowing out of the country’s mining sector grows. Mega-mergers by Canada’s two largest gold companies, Barrick Gold Corp. and Goldcorp Inc., stand to erode its global influence.

The Barrick tie-up, with Channel Islands-based Randgold Resources Ltd., has already resulted in job cuts and further decentralization away from Canada, a trend that will likely increase under Barrick’s newly inked joint-venture in Nevada with Newmont Mining Corp. Continue Reading →

PDAC Interview: PM Justin Trudeau speaks on Canadian mining innovation, aboriginal engagement (Northern Miner – March 14, 2019)

March 14, 2019 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles

Northern Miner

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a visit to the annual convention of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) in Toronto on March 5, 2019, for a sit-in interview conducted by outgoing PDAC president Glenn Mullan.

Below is a full transcript of the 20-minute interview, edited for clarity. Topics that Trudeau and Mullan discussed included technological innovation, sustainable mining practices, federal regulatory changes and reconciliation efforts with Canada’s First Nations.

Glenn Mullan: We’re so much looking forward to the fireside chat without a fire. And we have a couple of topics that we thought would be agreeable for discussion, including Canada’s competitiveness, indigenous affairs and some of the regulatory things that we’re working on in collaboration with your government in particular. Continue Reading →

How the outlook for Canada’s miners may hinge on Volkswagen’s $66-billion gamble on electric vehicles – by Scott Barlow (Globe and Mail – March 14, 2019)

March 14, 2019 in Battery Technology Innovation/Electric Vehicles, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Metals and Manufacturing

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Global mining giant Glencore PLC estimates that the production of an electric vehicle will require 84 kilograms of copper, 30 kilograms of nickel and eight kilograms of cobalt. Demand for battery powered cars then is not only of interest to oil patch investors concerned about future demand, but also potential investors in Canada’s base-metal miners.

We will find out a lot about future demand for electric vehicles in 2019 as global auto companies attempt to eat into Tesla Inc.’s leading market share.

Consumer excitement about Tesla cars is expected to wane significantly. Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas, in a report Tuesday, noted that the Tesla brand is losing its “aura of exclusivity” because of recent price cuts. “We see TSLA hitting an air pocket in demand that is coming earlier than we expected,” he said. Mr. Jonas also cut his stock price target for Tesla to US$260 from US$283. Continue Reading →

Investors blast ‘terrible’ $12-million retirement deal for departing Goldcorp chair Ian Telfer – by Danielle Bochove and Anders Melin (Financial Post/Bloomberg News – March 14, 2019)

March 14, 2019 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://business.financialpost.com/

Telfer’s package to jump threefold if merger with Newmont goes through

A lucrative retirement package for the chairman of Goldcorp Inc. is raising the hackles of investors ahead of a key vote on the company’s planned merger with Newmont Mining Corp.

Ian Telfer’s retirement allowance will rise to roughly US$12 million from US$4.5 million if the miners merge, according to a regulatory filing from Vancouver-based Goldcorp, once the world’s largest gold miner by market value. Initially, the plan was for Telfer, 72, to join Newmont’s board as deputy chairman. On Tuesday, Goldcorp announced he wouldn’t accept the new job.

A group of investors tracking the merger welcomed the decision, but in an emailed statement said the two mining companies “have still failed to justify how the threefold increase in the payment to Mr. Telfer is in the best interests of their respective shareholders.” Continue Reading →

Northern Dynasty raises $10 million to develop Alaska Pebble project – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – March 13, 2019)

March 14, 2019 in Alaska Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver, Junior Exploration Sector

http://www.mining.com/

Northern Dynasty Minerals (TSX:NDM) has entered into a bought deal financing with Cantor Fitzgerald Canada to raise $10 million that will allow the miner to further advance its Pebble copper-gold-silver project in Alaska.

The deal prices the company’s shares at 64 Canadian cents, a 13.5% discount to the stock’s price before the financing was announced.

The Canadian miner has also granted the underwriters an over-allotment option to acquire up to an additional 2.34 million-plus shares, which could raise another $1.5 million. Continue Reading →

Talk about ‘collusion’: How foreign-backed anti-oil activists infiltrated Canada’s government – by Gwyn Morgan (Financial Post – March 14, 2019)

March 14, 2019 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Oil and Gas Sector-Politics and Image

https://business.financialpost.com/

Piece by meticulously researched piece, Vivian Krause has spent almost 10 years exposing this story

Canadians watching Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election might be tempted to find comfort in their certainty that such foreign interference could never happen here.

Except it already has. And while the Russian government at least denies interfering in American political affairs, the perpetrators who meddled in Canadian elections have publicly trumpeted their success in devising and executing their plan aimed at helping elect who they wanted.

This story has all the elements of a fiction novel. Unfortunately it’s real. Piece by meticulously researched piece, B.C.-based independent researcher Vivian Krause spent almost 10 years exposing the story. Every detail has been corroborated, including with American and Canadian tax records, together with documents and statements from the perpetrators themselves. Continue Reading →

‘A never-ending cycle unless you break it’: Snotty Nose Rez Kids push against racism – by David Friend (Canadian Press/City News – March 12, 2019)

March 14, 2019 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Aboriginal and Inuit Non-Mining Issues, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Oil and Gas Sector-Politics and Image

 

https://toronto.citynews.ca/

TORONTO — Snotty Nose Rez Kids rappers Darren Metz and Quinton Nyce weren’t equipped as children to analyze the vicious Indigenous stereotypes and racist caricatures flashing on their TV screens.

Like many kids of the late 1990s, they were raised on a steady diet of Disney classics while living in Kitamaat Village on Haisla Nation in northwest B.C. Some of those animated movies sent clear negative messages about their identities that echoed throughout the community.

“Peter Pan” presented Native Americans as “savages” who spoke in monosyllables, while “Pocahontas” romanticized colonialism by framing it against a love story. Metz and Nyce remember how elders rarely questioned the ways Hollywood movies taught the Indigenous youth to devalue themselves. Continue Reading →

Keystone XL pipeline delays may cost contractors $2.5 billion: TransCanada – by Geoffrey Morgan (Financial Post – March 13, 2019)

March 13, 2019 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Oil and Gas Sector-Politics and Image

https://business.financialpost.com/

CALGARY — TransCanada Corp. has asked the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to lift an injunction on its Keystone XL pipeline by the end of this week, as it approaches an internal deadline to begin construction this year on the US$8-billion project.

Without relief from the injunction, TransCanada could delay construction by one year on the 830,000-barrels-per-day pipeline from Alberta to Nebraska. The project would expand the ability of Canadian oil companies to reach the U.S. Gulf Coast refining market through the company’s existing Keystone system.

In a March 11 filing, the U.S. State Department and Calgary-based pipeline giant requested a stay of an injunction granted late last year by a federal judge in Montana, which forced the company to cease all preparatory work on the oil pipeline until the State Department finished a supplemental review of the project. Continue Reading →

OPINION: How society pays a high price for gold – by Thomas Walkom (Toronto Star – March 13, 2019)

March 13, 2019 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://www.thestar.com/

I grew up over a gold mine. That didn’t make me rich. My father worked in the mine; he didn’t own it. Even if he had, neither we nor the other families that lived on this particular mine property just outside Timmins would have been rich.

In those days, when the price of bullion was pegged at $35 U.S. an ounce, many Canadian gold mines survived only through government assistance. But living there did make me curious about the sought-after but seemingly pointless metal upon which my community relied. So when a friend mentioned that he was working on a documentary about gold. I was eager to see it.

The Shadow of Gold is an ambitious exploration of a metal that still fascinates the world. More than anything else, gold is an idea. It is desired simply because it is desired. Continue Reading →

OPINION: Gold giants have yet to shake one of the industry’s chronic problems: excessive executive pay – by Jeffrey Jones (Globe and Mail – March 13, 2019)

March 13, 2019 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. had promised to usher in a new era of discipline in gold mining when it announced a blockbuster plan to take over U.S. rival Newmont Mining Corp. in a US$17.8-billion deal.

Now that it has dropped its major offensive, one of the industry’s chronic problems – excessive executive pay – has bubbled up again. This time, the target of investor wrath is Ian Telfer, chairman of Goldcorp Inc.

Mr. Telfer stands to pocket US$12-million in Goldcorp’s sale to Newmont – a deal that predated the Barrick-Newmont proposal and could have been scrapped because of it. That’s nearly three times what had been reported as his retirement package before last week. Following the steady deterioration in the company’s stock price over the past decade, it has Goldcorp investors spitting fire. Continue Reading →

Barrick drops $18-billion hostile bid, signs Nevada joint venture with Newmont Mining – by Niall McGee and Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – March 12, 2019)

March 12, 2019 in Barrick Gold Corporation, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver, Nevada Mining, Newmont

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. and Newmont Mining Corp. have agreed to team up in a joint venture in Nevada that will see Barrick drop its hostile bid for its biggest rival and unite the world’s two biggest gold miners in one of the richest goldfields on the planet.

The accord means Colorado-based Newmont is far more likely to succeed in its efforts to buy Goldcorp Inc. and bypass Barrick as the world’s biggest gold company. Barrick’s pursuit of Newmont had threatened to derail the US$10-billion deal that was announced in January.

The Barrick-Newmont ownership split announced on Monday will be 61.5 per cent in favour of Barrick with the Toronto-based miner also named as the operator. The agreement will see gigantic mines, including Barrick’s Goldstrike and Cortez operations, along with Newmont’s Carlin, unite under one roof. Continue Reading →

Support for climate change action could wane if no help for coal workers: report (CTV News – March 11, 2019)

March 12, 2019 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Climate Change, Carbon Taxes and ENGOs, Coal

https://www.ctvnews.ca/

CANADIAN PRESS: OTTAWA – Environment Minister Catherine McKenna is hinting the upcoming federal budget might have room for additional aids to help coal industry workers transition to new jobs.

The 2018 federal budget included a $35 million, five-year fund to help retrain coal workers to work in new jobs, but that was before Ottawa assigned a task force to consult affected provinces and communities on what was specifically needed. That task force reported Monday, laying out 10 broad recommendations to help workers prepare for a future without coal.

McKenna told The Canadian Press Monday she was intrigued by most of what was in the report. “There are some really good suggestions here,” she said. “We kind of have to look at it as a package. Most of the things we’re looking at in terms of the budget.” Continue Reading →

Is the Barrick-Newmont joint venture a ‘stepping stone’ to a bigger deal? – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – March 12, 2019)

March 12, 2019 in Barrick Gold Corporation, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://business.financialpost.com/

When asked if the venture was a prelude to something else, Barrick CEO Mark Bristow chuckled: ‘I’m not prepared to comment on that’

Barrick Gold Corp. and Newmont Mining Corp., the two largest gold producers in the world, ended their feud Monday and agreed to work together in the Nevada desert where both companies operate vast mining complexes.

Almost immediately, questions surfaced about whether it was a prelude to a larger deal between the two giants and Barrick chief executive Mark Bristow declined to rule out such an idea. Asked by one analyst whether the Nevada joint venture is merely “a stepping stone” to greater consolidation, Bristow chuckled.

“I’m not prepared to comment on that,” he said.As part of that agreement announced Monday, however, Toronto-headquartered Barrick agreed to drop its US$17.8 billion hostile bid for Colorado-headquartered Newmont and to commit to a two-year standstill that prevents further action. Continue Reading →

How Canada’s North can fulfill its great mining potential – by Ashley Stedman and Elmira Aliakbari (Troy Media – March 12, 2019)

March 12, 2019 in Canada Mining – North of 60, Canadian Media Resource Articles

https://troymedia.com/

Ashley Stedman is a senior policy analyst and Elmira Aliakbari is the associate director of natural-resource studies at the Fraser Institute.

Mining investors are eyeing all three territories in Canada’s North, according to the Fraser Institute’s annual survey of mining companies. For the first time in more than five years, all three territories are among the top 15 most attractive regions for mining investment worldwide.

But territorial governments and the federal government must implement policy reforms to capitalize on this moment, which could bring much-needed investment, employment and government revenue to areas of the North.

Every year, the Fraser Institute surveys miners around the world to determine which jurisdictions are attractive – or unattractive – for investment based on policies and geology. The survey spotlights policies (taxes, duplicative regulations, availability of labour and skills, etc.) that govern the mining industry and impact the investment attractiveness of jurisdictions. Continue Reading →