Canadian Media Resource Articles – Page 447

Northern Gateway ruling puts future pipeline consultations to the test – by Jeffrey Jones (Globe and Mail – July 13, 2016)

July 13, 2016

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

CALGARY — Ottawa’s haste to get an oil pipeline to the Pacific built ended up being a project’s undoing. The federal Court of Appeal’s quashing of the Northern Gateway pipeline’s approval exposed the slipshod approach the former Conservative government took with rules of consultation with First Nations.

Now, for the Liberals and the energy sector, there are lingering risks for future pipelines and other resource projects that go beyond what the court used to strike down the Northern Gateway decision.

They boil down to a fundamental question – what must consultation achieve? Yes, aboriginal groups have rights to be informed and accommodated, but it remains to be seen how much power an opponent who refuses to be swayed ultimately has over a project’s go or no-go ruling.

Hunting for Diamonds Under Canada’s Frozen Tundra – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – July 11, 2016)

July 12, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

A quarter century of digging under ice sees winners, losers, and an Irish billionaire teaming up with De Beers.

On the semi-frozen surface of Faraday Lake in Canada’s subarctic, two diamond rigs are drilling around the clock. It’s spring breakup north of the 63rd parallel, which means the Kennady Diamonds Inc. exploration team is running out of time.

“It’s starting to candle,” says geologist Martina Bezzola, scuffing her rubber boot over the fast-melting ice where vertical tunnels, or “candles,” have recently appeared. The thaw means the team has two weeks to extract kimberlite samples from beneath the lake before they’re banished to drilling onshore. “Basically it’s like sticking a needle into a haystack to determine what’s in the haystack.”

Twenty-five years after the first diamonds were found in Canada’s Northwest Territories, it’s still a game of hurry-up-and-wait. For every thousand grassroots exploration projects, only one becomes a mine. Snap Lake, one of three operating mines in the region, was shuttered by De Beers last year, a casualty of harsh geography and falling diamond prices.

Brexit panic to give way to commodity revival, Citi report suggests – by Ian McGugan (Globe and Mail – July 12, 2016)

July 12, 2016

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Commodities from oil to sugar to copper are poised for big gains in 2017, according to analysts at Citigroup Inc. They suggest that investors’ anxiety over Brexit will dissipate quickly, giving way to renewed interest in raw materials.

Since the commodity super-cycle peaked in 2011, prices for metals, energy and agricultural goods have frequently risen from January to June, only to slump during the second half of the year. This year will break that discouraging pattern, the analysts assert.

“Citi expects the strong performance of commodities to resume this quarter and through the end of the year,” Edward Morse and his team wrote in a report published on Monday. The gains will only pick up speed after that, they said. “Citi is especially bullish [on] commodities for 2017.”

The New Gold Rush: How the Yukon became Canada’s most reality-TVed jurisdiction – by Tristin Hopper (National Post – July 11, 2016)

July 12, 2016

http://news.nationalpost.com/

Two years ago, the National Post wrote about how the Yukon is the last place in Canada still handing out homesteads. In the months since, an incredible four separate production companies asked for contacts to shoot a “Yukon Homesteaders” reality T.V. pilot.

The Yukon might be the country’s most lightly populated jurisdiction, but it’s apparently filled with Canada’s most watchable people. As of this writing, there is one “Yukon” series for every 5,000 Yukoners, and many more movie-length documentaries and special episodes set in the territory. The result is arguably the world’s highest regional per-capita density of documentary camera crews.

In a place renowned for its misfits and recluses, this hasn’t always been the most welcome development. But there is apparently no noun or activity that can’t be made into a hit T.V. show without adding the words “Yukon” or “Klondike.”

South Africa girding for another platinum strike – by Andrew Topf (Mining.com – July 10, 2016)

July 11, 2016

http://www.mining.com/

In what seems like an annual event, platinum mining companies in South Africa are bracing for what could be another year of labour unrest.

The firms that mine the precious metal and the labour unions that represent their workers are in talks next week, trying to hammer out a deal that could avert a strike of similar magnitude to 2014.

That year, a strike led by the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) forced major producers Amplats (LSE:AAL), Implats (OTCMKTS:IMPUY) and Lonmin (LSE:LMI) to shed over 70,000 jobs. The strike lasted 21 weeks, cost the industry R24 billion, and resulted in 1.3 million ounces of lost production – about a third of global output.

Canadian affiliate charity of Clinton Foundation defends expenses – by Joanna Smith (Globe and Mail July 10, 2016)

July 11, 2016

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The Canadian Press – A Canadian affiliate of the Clinton Foundation that has raised millions from mining executives has spent far more on salaries and administrative costs than charitable programming in the two most recent years for which numbers are available, according to financial statements from the Canada Revenue Agency.

The Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership (Canada), a registered charity based in Vancouver, B.C., devoted $737,441 — amounting to 78 per cent of its expenditures — to management and administration in 2014. The amount includes spending on office supplies and expenses, salaries and professional and consulting fees.

That same year, according to the return filed to the Canada Revenue Agency and published online, the organization devoted $205,419 to charitable programs, accounting for 22 per cent of its expenditures.

A decade of bitumen battles: How 10 years of fighting over oilsands affects energy, environment debate today – by Jason Fekete and Chris Varcoe (Financial Post – July 9, 2016)

July 11, 2016

http://news.nationalpost.com/

Ottawa/Calgary – OTTAWA – Standing two storeys tall, the 180-tonne yellow dump truck parked on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., commanded attention all around Capitol Hill.

With tires four metres high, the Caterpillar 777F hauler — similar to the monster machines used in the oilsands — was the main attraction for Alberta’s exhibit at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in July 2006. The behemoth machine symbolized the province’s growing energy bounty: a secure supplier of crude to the United States, boasting some of the planet’s largest oil reserves.

But in a global game of Show and Tell, the move would also backfire. During that two-week stretch, the truck unexpectedly became a powerful symbol and prime target for a U.S. environmental movement searching for a focal point for its next campaign.

The nagging question behind the mysterious theft of a $7.5 million golden eagle – by Douglas Quan (National Post – July 11, 2016)

July 11, 2016

http://news.nationalpost.com/

Jim Murphy, a performance coach for professional athletes, had just finished giving a motivational talk on “living your dreams” at the Pneuma Church in Ladner, B.C., on May 29 when he says a man wearing a backpack approached him.

Ron Shore told Murphy he enjoyed his talk and would like to have coffee with him sometime. He said his sister-in-law had died from breast cancer and he was trying to raise $100 million for breast cancer research.

Murphy was distracted; he was in the middle of signing books and others wanted to talk to him. But something Shore said caught his attention. He disclosed he had a $9-million golden eagle statue in his backpack as part of his fundraising efforts. And he had another piece of art valued at about $50,000 in his car.

Mount Polley mine owner sues engineering firms over tailings dam failure – by Laura Kane (Vancouver Sun – July 9, 2016)

July 11, 2016

http://vancouversun.com/

The Canadian Press – VANCOUVER — The owner of the Mount Polley mine in British Columbia’s Interior has sued two engineering firms for damages over a disastrous dam collapse two years ago.

Imperial Metals (TSX:III) has filed a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court alleging negligence and breach of contract by Knight Piesold and AMEC, now Amec Foster Wheeler. None of the allegations has been proven in court and neither company has filed a statement of defence.

The lawsuit alleges a flawed tailings storage facility was designed and monitored by Knight Piesold from the late 1980s to 2011, and then by AMEC until its collapse in August 2014.

Canadian lithium-ion battery maker Electrovaya racks up orders, cranks up German subsidiary: ‘We’ve taken off’ – by Peter Kuitenbrouwer (Financial Post – July 9, 2016)

July 11, 2016

http://business.financialpost.com/

The sprawling Electrovaya Inc. factory in Mississauga, Ont., looks more like a graveyard for prototype electric cars than the clean, green future of our battery-powered planet. The plant is about 90 per cent empty. A locker room for hundreds of workers lies abandoned. Nearby sit four green “Maya 2000” electric cars.

Further along languish more cars, including an SUV that Sankar Das Gupta, the rumpled, effusive electrochemist who is Electrovaya’s chief executive, proudly calls, “the first electric car in North America.” Asked why these cars are parked, Das Gupta blames Canadian investors’ historic aversion to risk and Transport Canada rules that forbid vehicle road tests.

In a corner of the quiet shop floor labelled New Product Introduction, two older engineers hunch over laptops connected to a network board plugged into black boxes containing hundreds of interconnected lithium-ion battery cells.

Barrick Says Becoming Debt-Free Within a Decade Is in Reach – by Danielle Bochove and Scott Deveau (Bloomberg News – July 8, 2016)

July 11, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Barrick Gold Corp., the largest miner of the metal, could be free of debt within a decade on bullion-price gains, cost cuts and asset sales, President Kelvin Dushnisky said.

The Toronto-based miner had about $9 billion in debt in the first quarter, down from a peak of $15.8 billion in the second quarter of 2013. Dushnisky said debt could fall to $5 billion in three years and zero within 10 years.

“That’s not unreasonable,” Dushnisky said in an interview on Bloomberg TV Canada. “Yet again, it’s gold-price dependent. We’ve been very clear, Barrick was the only company with an A-rated balance sheet for the longest time. Our intent is to be strong investment grade, and we’d like to be in the position where we have no corporate debt.”

Canada’s forgotten silver boomtown – by Douglas Baldwin (CIM Magazine – June/July 2016)

July 8, 2016

https://www.cim.org/en/

Douglas Baldwin is a retired history professor from Acadia University, Nova Scotia. This piece has been adapted from his new book, Cobalt: Canada’s Forgotten Silver Boom Town.

To order the book, click here: http://www.cobaltboomtown.com/#!shop/vu6uk

Most Canadians know about the Klondike Gold Rush, but few realize that the stampede for silver in Cobalt, Ontario only five years later far surpassed the Klondike in terms of profits, production and long-term impact.

Concentrated in an area less than 13 square kilometres, Cobalt mines supplied almost 90 per cent of Canada’s silver production between 1904 and 1920, and by the time the boom petered out in the 1920s, the camp had become the fourth-largest silver producer ever discovered. The early history of hard rock mining in Ontario is essentially the story of the discovery of silver near Cobalt in 1903.

Diamond giant calls Calgary home – by Andrea MacLean (CTV Calgary – July 7, 2016)

July 8, 2016

http://calgary.ctvnews.ca/

Amidst thousands of jobs losses and shrinking head offices in our city, some unusual news: a prestigious diamond company has decided to call Calgary its new home. De Beers is one of the largest diamond mining and processing companies in the world.

Like oil, the market for diamonds has dipped. So, in an effort to cut costs, the diamond giant decided to move their Canadian corporate headquarters from Toronto to Calgary. There were other cities in contention – including Vancouver – but De Beers Canada CEO, Kim Truter, says Calgary perfectly suited to their needs.

“Taking into account things like logistics, cost of living, attraction, retention – all of those criteria – Calgary came out the winner,” said Truter, “especially on the logistics aspect. As you know, Calgary is the logistics hub of Canada; so, it’s perfect for our needs.”

University of Saskatoon opens mine reclamation research facility – by Betty Ann Adam (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – July 7, 2016)

July 8, 2016

http://thestarphoenix.com/

The metres-thick layers of minerals, soil and vegetation used to cover tailings and waste rock at decommissioned mines need to prevent hazardous materials from leaching to surface water for centuries into the future.

A new research testing facility unveiled Thursday at the University of Saskatchewan’s Global Institute for Water Security will be used to better understand how those “cover systems” respond to weather and other natural elements like tree roots, burrowing animals and insects, said Jeffrey McDonnell, head of the Global Institute for Water Security’s Mine Overlay Site Testing (MOST) facility.

Until now, the only way for a mining company to know how to isolate waste was to use computer modelling to design a layered system based on predictions of how a particular site would respond to the environment and then build an actual test site at the mine and monitor it for five or 10 years. Mine closure is one of the largest costs of the mining enterprise, McDonnell said.

Trudeau’s Northern Gateway snub a page torn from President Obama’s playbook – by (Claudia Cattaneo (Financial Post – July 8, 2016)

July 8, 2016

http://business.financialpost.com/

In Montreal this week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau left the impression he’s not going to take a new look at the now permit-less Northern Gateway pipeline, likely putting the project on the backburner for as long as he’s in power.

It’s what the Federal Court of Appeal asked his cabinet to do in last week’s 153-page decision as a way to remedy “inadequate” consultation by the Crown with impacted aboriginal communities.

Meanwhile, the court took the draconian step of quashing the project’s permits, granted by the previous Conservative government after years of regulatory hearings, planning, consultations, and more than half a billion in spending by proponent Enbridge Inc. and its partners.