Canadian Media Resource Articles – Page 432

RNC focuses on free cash generation – by Salma Tarikh (Northern Miner – September 21, 2016)

September 28, 2016

http://www.northernminer.com/

RNC Minerals (TSX: RNX; US-OTC: RNKLF) — formerly Royal Nickel Corp. — has gone from a single-asset firm to a gold, nickel and copper producer, by taking advantage of the market downturn earlier this year to buy two producing assets.

RNC picked up a 100% interest in the Beta Hunt gold-nickel mine in Western Australia’s Kambalda district by acquiring private firm Salt Lake Mining in two transactions, completed in March and May.

“It’s a 40-year-old nickel mine, but a brand-new gold mine. There are few opportunities that you’d come across, where the first public news release on an asset is that it’s in production,” Mark Selby, RNC’s president and CEO, said in a webcast from the Precious Metals Summit in Beaver Creek, Colorado.

Ontario Liberals’ huge green energy about-face shows renewables aren’t so doable after all – by Terence Corcoran (Financial Post – September 28, 2016)

September 28, 2016

http://business.financialpost.com/

One should never underestimate the ability of politicians to convert massive policy failure into a dazzling display of green concern for the welfare of voters. That’s the trick now being attempted by the Liberal government of Ontario as it begins to unravel parts of its financially disastrous green energy program.

Glenn Thibeault, the province’s latest energy minister on Tuesday read through the script provided by the spin-meisters within Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government. The province, he said in a speech to the Ontario Energy Association, had decided to “suspend procurement” of 1,000 additional megawatts of unneeded wind and solar power.

The cancellation is “expected to save $3.8 billion in electricity system costs,” thereby saving a typical residential consumer “an average of approximately $2.45 per month.” Only a government can get away with declaring a saving for consumers by not spending on projects that are not needed.

Copper, platinum key to future of auto industry, mining financier says – by Ian McGugan (Globe and Mail – September 27, 2016)

September 27, 2016

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The current lithium frenzy will end badly while gold bugs should look at the riper opportunities available in copper and platinum, according to mining financier Robert Friedland.

In a sprawling, exuberant and at times politically incorrect speech at the Mines and Money Americas conference in Toronto, the veteran promoter demonstrated he hasn’t lost his sales mojo as he ticked off all the reasons why the properties owned by his Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. just happen to be ideally positioned for the next wave of automotive technology.

“I’m not here to depress the gold bugs in the room, but to get you excited about copper and other metals that we need in our new society,” he said as he accepted a lifetime achievement award.

Losing Inco and Falconbridge: Ontario could have acted – BNN Andrew Bell Interviews Mining Analyst Ray Goldie (BNN News – September 23, 2016)

September 30, 2016September 27, 2016

http://www.bnn.ca/commodities/ Ten years ago, Canadian mining giants Inco and Falconbridge went into foreign hands. Independent mining analyst Ray Goldie, author of the book Inco Comes to Labrador, says Ontario could have done more to keep the head offices in this country.

[TMAC Resources Inc.] Giant arctic gold mine takes one step closer – by Frik Els (Mining.com – September 27, 2016)

September 27, 2016

http://www.mining.com/

TMAC Resources Inc. (TSX:TMR) announced on Monday that Canada’s Nunavut Impact Review Board has okayed an amended mining plan for the company’s Doris North gold mine, the first stage of its Hope Bay project.

Toronto-based TMC said the receipt of the amended Project Certificate No. 003 for a much larger mine than previous owners of the property envisaged marks the completion of the NIRB process and that the agency now transitions to a monitoring role.

The water board of the northern Canadian territory is progressing with a related amendment to the water license for the Doris Mine according to TMAC’s statement:

Miners museum in Glace Bay in race against time to repair building – by George Mortimer (CBC News Nova Scotia – September 27, 2016)

September 27, 2016

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/

‘It’s like living in a sieve,’ says museum director Mary Pat Mombourquette

The Cape Breton Miners Museum in Glace Bay, N.S., is struggling to raise money on its own while making a plea for government funding to save it from closure.

A building audit done more than a year ago identified a badly leaking roof, air quality issues originating in the building’s distinctive tower and other structural problems, according to museum director Mary Pat Mombourquette.

“The ceiling keeps collapsing. We’re losing more and more every day, and with the rain we lose a good chunk,” she said. “There’s problems with the foundation, problems with the walls, with the window, with the doors. Everything is leaking heat and everything is letting in rain. It’s like living in a sieve.”

Name game: Potash merger offers much-needed rebranding opportunity – by Susan Krashinsky (Globe and Mail – September 27, 2016)

September 27, 2016

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The proposed $36-billion (U.S.) mega-merger of Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. and Agrium Inc. is a bid to create a Canadian giant in the fertilizer market. It is also a union of two thoroughly boring brands.

One is literally named for the thing it sells and the location of its headquarters. The other is slightly more creative – named for a reference to agriculture with the “ium” suffix meant to symbolize “a close connection to the earth.” A key decision in the merger is still unknown: What will the new company be called?

“Agrium and PotashCorp are aware that naming the new company is one of the most important marketing activities that they will undertake. They intend to take their time to do it right and will provide an update on this in due course,” the companies said in an e-mailed statement.

Royal Bank of Canada CEO touts pipelines as key to transitioning to a greener economy – by Geoffrey Morgan (Financial Post – September 27, 2016

September 27, 2016

http://business.financialpost.com/

CALGARY – The head of Canada’s largest bank made the case for new pipelines on Monday, while also calling for a national price on carbon.

“Our ability in the decades ahead to finance innovation, to create technologies that will power the 21st century and help transform the world to a cleaner economy, depends on our decisions today to get our natural resources to market,” Royal Bank of Canada CEO Dave McKay told a business luncheon in Edmonton.

Demand for oil and gas continues to rise around the world and domestic energy companies will lose their window to supply the market without new pipelines, he said. If that happens, McKay said, Canadian governments will need to tax other sectors to make up for lost revenue. “We can’t get to the economy of the future if we don’t use all of our resources, smartly and sustainably,” he said.

North American Aboriginals, First Nations join hands to thwart domestic oil development – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – September 23, 2016)

September 26, 2016

http://www.miningweekly.com/

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Canadian and Northern US Aboriginal groups and First Nations, this week, adopted the Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion, seeking to officially prohibit and collectively challenge and resist oil sands industry expansion in Alberta. This extends to preventing the transport of such expanded production, whether by pipeline, rail or tanker.

Some 50 First Nations and tribes have committed to stopping five current tar sands pipeline and tanker project proposals – Kinder Morgan, Energy East, Line 3, Northern Gateway and Keystone XL – as well as tar sands rail projects such as the Chaleur Terminals export project, at the Port of Belledune, in New Brunswick.

“What this treaty means is that, from Quebec, we will work with our First Nation allies in British Columbia to ensure that the Kinder Morgan pipeline does not pass and we will also work with our tribal allies in Minnesota as they take on Enbridge’s Line 3 expansion, and we know they’ll help us do the same against Energy East,” said Kanesatake grand chief Serge Simon.

The 54M carat gem: De Beers’ new diamond mine is a rare thing that could be the gem giant’s best friend – by Jesse Snyder (Financial Post – September 24, 2016)

September 26, 2016

http://business.financialpost.com/

GAHCHO KUÉ, N.W.T. — Seen from inside an approaching aircraft, the Gahcho Kué diamond mine seems to materialize out of nowhere, a speck of industrial development amid an endless stretch of low vegetation and tiny lakes imprinted on the northern Canadian rock face. Here, there are no natural points of reference. The view looking out from one side of the mine is nearly indistinguishable from any other.

But beneath the surface, the location is distinct from its surroundings. Under the cap rock at Gahcho Kué are three vertical tubes of mineral — known in the industry as pipes — rich with diamonds. The mine is expected to produce 54 million carats of diamonds during its 12-year lifespan, making it the world’s largest new diamond mine to be constructed in 13 years.

The joint-venture operation, located about 280 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife, is 51-per-cent owned by De Beers Group of Companies, a privately owned diamond mining and retail company, and its massive London-based parent, Anglo American PLC. Toronto-based Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. owns the other 49-per-cent stake.

[British Columbia gold rush] 1858: How a violent year created a province – by Justine Hunter (Globe and Mail – November 18, 2008)

September 26, 2016

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

On a Sunday late in April of 1858, the governor of Vancouver Island stepped out of church in Fort Victoria and learned that the gold rush was on. The U.S. steamer Commodore had just arrived in the harbour from San Francisco, delivering 450 passengers bound for the Fraser Canyon.

The miners were driven by a “mania for gold” and soon would find themselves at war with local native populations, and confronting the will of a scheming politician with great ambitions for the wild and lawless territory that is now the mainland of British Columbia.

“It will require I fear the nicest tact to avoid a disastrous Indian war,” the governor, James Douglas, warned his political masters in London in a June 15 dispatch. By the time the letter arrived, U.S.-based militias were already charging through the Fraser Canyon, intent on killing every Indian they could find.

The hollowing out of Canadian mining: Vale’s takeover of Inco, 10 years on – by Andrew Bell (Business Network News – September 23, 2016)

September 23, 2016September 23, 2016

http://www.bnn.ca/

Ten years ago this Saturday, a global mining gem slipped out of Canadian fingers. In 2006, Canadian nickel miner Inco agreed to be bought by Brazil’s Vale in a $19-billion takeover. The announcement of the acquisition came just weeks after fellow nickel giant Falconbridge was acquired by Xstrata of Switzerland (now part of Glencore) in an $18-billion deal. The previous year, Falconbridge had combined with another Canadian mineral giant, Noranda.

The Inco sale “further undermines Canada’s status as a force in the mining industry,” the New York Times proclaimed at the time of the acquisition.

The two takeovers rankled because both Inco and Falconbridge sat atop a mineral lode in in Sudbury, Ont., which is among one of the greatest deposits on Earth. Vale itself calls the northern Ontario city “the mining capital of the world,” adding that its operations there “are among our largest on the planet, employing approximately 4,000 people.”

Gold bug heaven: Fund manager predicts $4,000 an ounce – by Scott Barlow (Globe and Mail – September 22, 2016)

September 22, 2016

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Investors have learned in the past decade that almost anything can happen in global markets, but a lot would have to change for the gold price to reach $4,000 (U.S.) an ounce.

Nonetheless, fund manager Diego Parrilla of Old Mutual Global Investors told Bloomberg he believes there’s “a few thousand dollars of upside” in the gold price.

Mr. Parrilla was somewhat coy about his investment thesis for bullion, noting, “As some of the excesses in other asset classes get unwound, gold will perform very strongly. … [T]he perfect storm scenario will mean that gold will perform best when other classes are doing worst.”

Big gold miners see muted M&A as bullion’s rise limits bargains – by Nicole Mordant (Reuters U.S. – September 22, 2016)

September 22, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. – The world’s biggest gold miners will stay shy of big acquisitions, top executives said this week, noting that a jump in the price of bullion has made potential purchases pricey, and memories of failed deals linger.

The need for financial discipline was the dominant theme at the Denver Gold Forum this week, an annual conference for top miners, as the sector emerges from a deep, four-year slump. Executives met as the spot gold price surged by 30 percent in the first seven months of the year to as high as $1,374 an ounce. It has since slid to $1,326, still up 25 percent.

Had the industry experienced lower gold prices for longer this year, there would likely have been more mergers and acquisitions, said Gary Goldberg, Chief Executive of Newmont Mining Corp, the biggest gold miner by market value.

The counterfeit ‘conservativism’ of carbon taxers – by Peter Foster (Financial Post -September 22, 2016)

September 22, 2016

http://business.financialpost.com/

Mark Cameron, executive director of Canadians for Clean Prosperity (CFCP), put up a spirited defence of his organization’s ostensibly “market-based” approach to climate policy in Wednesday’s FP Comment. As a former senior policy adviser to Stephen Harper, Cameron is the public face of an organization that claims “conservative” credentials.

On Friday, CFCP will hold an invitation-only conference in Toronto featuring some prominent conservative voices, such as those of Preston Manning and David Frum, but does Clean Prosperity really represent a principled conservative position on climate?

Such a position would not merely emphasize the power of markets, it would look with intense suspicion at any rationale for a vast increase in the size and scope of government, which is what the climate agenda demands.