Canadian Media Resource Articles – Page 456

Centerra Gold escalates profit-sharing dispute with Kyrgyzstan to international arbitration – by Peter Koven (Financial Post – June 1, 2016)

June 1, 2016

http://business.financialpost.com/

TORONTO An ugly feud between Centerra Gold Inc. and the government of Kyrgyzstan is poised to get uglier as the Toronto-based miner has launched an international arbitration case against the state.

It is the first time since 2008 that Centerra felt the need to go to arbitration, and it reflects how toxic the company’s situation is Kyrgyzstan has become.

Last week, a local court fined the company US$98.4 million over its placement of waste rock from the Kumtor gold mine. There was also a separate US$10,000 judgment against the company, and other environmental claims continue to work their way through the court.

Centerra has stated repeatedly that it has done nothing wrong, and is appealing the rulings to a higher court.

Mining sector praised as ‘pillar of Saskatchewan economy’ – by Bruce Johnstone (Regina Leader-Post – May 30, 2016)

June 1, 2016

http://leaderpost.com/

Despite current low prices and production cutbacks, mining continues to be a “pillar of the Saskatchewan economy,” with potash and uranium investment in the province totalling $30 billion since 2007, Economy Minister Bill Boyd said Monday.

Potash companies alone have invested $20 billion in the province since 2008, 10 times the $2 billion invested by the potash sector during the previous eight years, Boyd told the news conference for the opening of Saskatchewan Mining Week.

Boyd noted that Saskatchewan was ranked “the number one jurisdiction for mining attractiveness in Canada and second-most attractive jurisdiction in the world” in a recent survey of global mining executives by the Fraser Institute.

While Canada dithers, the world shops elsewhere for energy – by Gary Lamphier (Edmonton Journal – May 31, 2016)

June 1, 2016

http://edmontonjournal.com/

Eventually, Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government will have to stop talking out of both sides of its mouth and make some tough decisions on whether to support new oil pipelines or liquefied natural gas projects.

Although the Selfie King’s extended political honeymoon is starting to ebb — witness the blowback over his tough guy act in Parliament two weeks ago — we’re no closer to a final decision on key energy infrastructure projects than we were when Trudeau was elected in October.

This isn’t a fresh observation, of course. Globe and Mail columnist Jeffrey Simpson, among others, has chronicled the Trudeau regime’s chronic aversion to decision-making, and its affection for seemingly endless consultation and protracted regulatory reviews.

RNC’s Beta Hunt ramp-up ahead of schedule – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – May 30, 2016)

May 31, 2016

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian gold producer Royal Nickel Corporation (RNC) is ahead of the May ramp-up schedule for its Beta Hunt mine, hitting about 65% of the year-end mining rate target, which is ahead of the ramp-up schedule that was planned in the Beta Hunt preliminary economic assessment, the company reported on Monday.

This was compared with 58% of the year-end mining rate at Beta Hunt, located in the Kambalda mining district of Australia, as at the end of the first quarter, the TSX-listed miner advised.

“We continue to evaluate the best long-term option to process gold production from Beta Hunt and have been satisfied with the initial results from a new tolling agreement that began last week. With the recently developed bonanza grade Hand of Faith (HOF) zone, targeting of further bonanza-grade zones for mining in 2016, and the strong progress in mine development to date, the mine continues to exceed expectations,” stated president and CEO Mark Selby.

Development restrictions around old mine site ‘unacceptable,’ says Pickle Lake mayor (CBC News Thunder Bay – May 31, 2016)

May 31, 2016

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/

The mayor of Pickle Lake, Ont., says the future of his town is being threatened by development restrictions imposed by the province, related to an abandoned mine site. Development has long been restricted in some areas because of contaminated tailings containing arsenic, left behind by the Central Patricia Mine, which closed in the early 50s, said Mayor Karl Hopf.

But the draft of a new official plan for the township would further block new development within a thousand metres of a mine headframe (the structure built above a mine shaft), he said.

“Now, the old headframe from 1952 is roughly 50 metres off our main highway corridor that goes to our commercial and industrial area,” he said, adding that about 700 acres of land could be included, and the province would also put further conditions on development on land bordering the restricted area.

Mining project proposal sparks concern in Kanesatake – by Christopher Curtis (Montreal Gazette – May 30, 2016)

May 31, 2016

http://montrealgazette.com/

In an effort to keep a controversial mining project alive, a Montreal-based developer will present its multi-million dollar proposal to the Kanesatake Mohawks on Thursday.

The community meeting comes after citizens in neighbouring Oka rejected a pitch by development firm Eco-Niobium last month during a public forum.

An agent from the firm will present a revised draft of the project on the Mohawk territory—eliciting concerns from community members who say the niobium mine could contaminate the region’s water table. The proposed mining site is just a few kilometres from the Kanesatake settlement and falls squarely in the band council’s land claim.

China’s huge cement industry latest to face massive cuts – by Nathan Vanderklippe (Globe and Mail – May 31, 2016)

May 31, 2016

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

BEIJING — China’s cement industry, the largest on earth, needs to rapidly dismantle large numbers of factories as part of a newly urgent effort to cut overcapacity, the country’s top administrative authority says.

China should slash 500 million tonnes of cement-making capacity in three years, an amount equivalent to more than four times total U.S. production, the State Council said in a policy document on boosting efficiency in the building materials sector.

Cement production is the third major industry to face the threat of major change in China, which began high-profile efforts earlier this year to cut back overcapacity in coal and steel. Dislocations in those industries threaten to displace millions of workers, and are among the most visible of the wrenching problems facing China as it struggles to move beyond the industrial-heavy growth that it relied upon for decades.

Ontario’s moment of truth, message of reconciliation – by Martin Regg Cohn (Toronto Star – May 31, 2016)

May 31, 2016

https://www.thestar.com/

One public pledge stands out as the easiest to uphold: The promise to recognize and remember the history of residential school survivors by retelling their stories to all our schoolchildren through a revised curriculum.

For most of its existence, Ontario’s legislature has not been an especially welcoming place to the indigenous people who predate it.

The hallways at Queen’s Park are a pantheon of portraits showing stolid leaders of European descent — generals, politicians, fathers of Confederation — their stern visages looking down upon visitors. Today, that whitewashed view of the province’s history looks a little less cloistered.

After a sunrise reconciliation ceremony on the front lawn of Queen’s Park, hundreds of indigenous Ontarians were invited inside Monday to see its new public face.

Interest Rate Expectations Pressure Gold Below $1,200 In Holiday Trading – by Neils Christensen (Kitco News – May 30, 2016)

May 30, 2016

http://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – According to some analysts, gold prices remain on the defensive Monday, in thin holiday activity, as traders continue to price in a rate hike from the Federal Reserve some time during the summer.

Both U.S. and British markets are closed for holidays Monday and thin volume helped push gold future below the key psychological support level at $1,200 an ounce in electronic markets. Overnight gold prices hit a session low of $1,199 an ounce. Although prices have managed to push off those lows, they are still under pressure, last trading at $1,207.70 an ounce, down 0.50% on the day.

Alex Thorndike, senior precious metals dealer at MKS, said that traders are still digesting Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s comments Friday. At an event at Harvard University, she said she was optimistic that the U.S. economy will continue to expand and added that it could be appropriate to raise interest rates in a few months.

Why India could be the oil market’s next big driver of consumption – by Joe Chidley (Financial Post – May 30, 2016)

May 30, 2016

http://business.financialpost.com/

Oil’s rise to US$50 a barrel earlier this month proved to be short-lived, but at least it suggested that oil prices had established a new and higher range. We might not be looking at a return to US$100-a-barrel WTI anytime soon, but prices seem to have stabilized somewhat, remaining north of US$40 for several weeks now.

Who knows how long this will last, of course. Support for higher prices has come at least in part from supply disruptions — in Nigeria and Libya, as well as Alberta, thanks to the Fort McMurray fires. Recent U.S. Energy Information Administration data suggest that stockpiles of crude are coming down.

Yet things like supply disruptions are difficult to predict, and even harder to count on when it comes to having a lasting impact on the supply glut. The better news might be that the other side of the supply-demand imbalance is starting to do what it’s supposed to do: There are signs that global demand is picking up.

Dubbed the ‘new gasoline’, lithium fuels gains for miners – by Ian McGugan (Globe and Mail – May 30, 2016)

May 30, 2016

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Over the past few months, it has been touted as the “new gasoline,” hailed as the vital ingredient in the electric-car revolution and billed as a great investment opportunity. Lithium is enjoying its moment in the spotlight – and at least some of the enthusiasm for the once-obscure silvery-white metal is solidly grounded in reality.

If sales of electric vehicles from Tesla Motors Inc. and other manufacturers take off in years to come, so too will sales of a new generation of lithium-ion batteries. Increased use of lithium-ion batteries will propel “staggering growth in lithium demand” over the next five years, writes Julia Ralph, a Hong Kong-based principal consultant for CRU Group, a metals and mining research company.

Lithium lust is already fuelling big gains in some Canadian-listed junior miners, such as Nemaska Lithium Inc. and Lithium X Energy Corp., both of which have quadrupled in share price this year.

Opinion: Making mines safe: Victoria gets an ‘F’ – by Calvin Sandborn (Vancouver Sun – May 29, 2016)

May 30, 2016

http://vancouversun.com/

Calvin Sandborn is legal director of the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre.

We’ve done it with the highest standard of sustainable mining in the world… Premier Christy Clark, 2012

We found over a decade of neglect in compliance and enforcement program activities …
B.C. Auditor General, 2016

The muddy torrent that ripped down Mount Polley dam and turned gentle Hazeltine Creek into a toxic canyon also did something else: It swept away a decade of empty government boasts about environmental stewardship.

The recent Auditor General report on compliance and enforcement of the mining sector pulls no punches about the state of mine regulation: “The ministry is deficient in carrying out most of the expected regulatory activities. …

University of Saskatchewan offers mining specialization – by Alex Frazer-Harrison (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – May 28, 2016)

May 30, 2016

http://thestarphoenix.com/

POSTMEDIA CONTENT WORKS – A new set of undergraduate courses at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Engineering is helping open the door for students seeking to enter the mining field.

The “mining engineering option” courses in geological, chemical and mechanical engineering allow students seeking a bachelor of engineering degree the opportunity to take additional specialized classes related to mining. Announced in 2013, the first five students to enrol will graduate this spring.

“This means students taking engineering degrees in chemical, mechanical or geological can pick up these mining-focused classes. … We have a strong interest at home because there are still very large mining operations in Saskatchewan,” says Al Shpyth, executive director of the International Minerals Innovation Institute, which entered into a funding agreement with the U of S for five mining-related courses and the options.

Future of potash is solid despite low prices – by Paul Sinkewicz (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – May 28, 2016)

May 30, 2016

http://thestarphoenix.com/

POSTMEDIA CONTENT WORKS – As potash prices remain depressed, the watchword for Saskatchewan’s major producers in 2016 is cost control. Prices for the fertilizer ingredient were more than $900 a tonne in 2008, but thanks to slumping demand for the mineral, they are now expected to stay in the $200 to $300 range for the next several years.

Already the world’s largest producer of potash, Saskatchewan had been enjoying the promise of even greater things ahead for the industry with firms investing billions in upgrades to existing sites and several new major mining operations taking shape.

The Mosaic Company alone has committed more than $3 billion to a new shaft at its Esterhazy mine. The K3 development has been underway since 2013, and remains on schedule and on budget, says Bruce Bodine, incoming senior vice-president, potash.

Strong tailwinds giving juniors, project developers room to run – research note – by Henry Lazenby (Mining Weekly.com – May 26, 2016)

May 27, 2016

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – About halfway through the first quarter, analysts at Dundee Capital Markets noticed that exploration companies that had weeks earlier appeared to be dead in the water, as investors abandoned all but a handful of names, were steadily starting to leave the laggards behind as a combination of the gold price rally and improved investor sentiment blew wind in their sails.

On the back of a 17% rise in the price of gold during the first three months of 2016, the coverage universe of 47 resource stocks that Dundee tracked on an enterprise value per ounce (EV/oz) metric, based on a total mineral inventory (TMI) had risen steadily, helping analysts to differentiate those companies that had the benefit of wind in their sails from the idlers and providing a good measure of the potential upside that the market was willing to pay for quality gold opportunities.

In a research note published on Thursday, research analysts and co-authors Ron Stewart and Erik Bermel noted that the average EV/oz had so far this year improved from $13/oz to $32/oz, reflecting improved investor sentiment toward exploration-focused companies which, in turn, reflected the 15% year-to-date improvement in the gold price to about $1 220/oz.