Barrick Gold looks to keep momentum with US$2 billion debt reduction target for 2016 – by Peter Koven (National Post – February 18, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. has set aggressive new targets for debt and cost reduction as it looks to continue momentum after a largely successful 2015.

However, the Toronto-based mining giant also offered up declining production guidance over the next few years. That underscores the challenges facing the entire gold mining industry, which has been on fire this year as prices have jumped.

Barrick said on Wednesday night that it expects to cut its debt load by “at least” US$2 billion in 2016 after reducing it by more than US$3 billion last year. That would take the overall debt down to US$8 billion and eliminate a lot of lingering concerns about Barrick’s balance sheet, which got over-leveraged because of a disastrous $7.3-billion copper acquisition in 2011.

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Suppliers news: $2.6M research cluster to tackle corrosion in Saskatchewan (Northern Miner – February 17, 2016)

http://www.northernminer.com/

The Saskatoon-based non-profit International Minerals Innovation Institute (IMII) has announced a research initiative that could benefit miners in the province.

The Mining Materials Research Cluster “will examine the corrosion of materials used in mineral processing and mining equipment and its supporting infrastructure, used in Saskatchewan’s potash industry,” IMII stated in a press release.

“The high chloride conditions that exist in the industry can cause corrosion and wear to production and related equipment and infrastructure, and lead to hazards to personnel and reduced asset life.”

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Naomi Klein stars in ‘This Misrepresents Everything’ – by Peter Foster (National Post – February 18, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

Apart from the stock shots of effluent pipes and belching smokestacks, Naomi Klein’s idea of objectivity about the Alberta oilsands is to find a worker prepared to blow his nose on a banknote in a Fort McMurray bar.

Scenes like this make Klein’s documentary This Changes Everything, which will air on CBC on Thursday night, not just intellectually vacuous but downright objectionable.

The guy using the currency as nasal tissue might well now be out of a job, not just because of the oil price collapse, but because of the prominent role played by Klein in killing the Keystone XL pipeline and thus draining billions from the Alberta economy.

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Child Suicide Is A Crisis In [Aboriginal] Canada. Here’s How We Can Prevent It – by Joshua Ostroff (Huffington Post – February 17, 2016)

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

“It happened during the holidays, just a few days before Christmas.” Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation in northern Ontario is recounting a recent tragedy, a type of story he’s had far too much experience retelling.

“The current system, as it is now, it’s not working. It’s unable to meet the needs of our families and communities,” he says in a voice flecked with anger and sadness. “We have 10-year-old kids taking their lives. Something is terribly wrong.”

Bearskin Lake is a remote Oji-Cree First Nations community of 472 on-reserve residents, more than 2,000 kilometres northwest of Toronto. It is an alcohol-free community of three settlements, accessible only by air, except for a few months when the winter road crosses Windigo Lake north through to Muskrat Dam.

It was here where a 10-year-old girl killed herself during the holidays, the youngest in a cluster of five youth suicides in the territory since December.

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BC announces renewed support for provincial exploration tax credit – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – February 17, 2016)

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The British Columbia provincial government on Tuesday extended its support for the provincial Mining Exploration Tax Credit (BC METC) through to January 1, 2020, and also renewed the BC Mining Flow-Through Share tax credit, which expired on December 31, 2015.

The projected fourth consecutive balanced provincial budget pegged the 2016 BC METC at its regular rate of 20% and reconfirmed the enhanced rate of 30% for areas affected by the mountain pine beetle. The tax credit had been originally set to expire on December 31, 2016.

Liberal Premier Christy Clark first revealed the proposed tax incentives during her remarks at the opening of the Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia’s (AME BC’s) Exploration Roundup Conference on January 25.

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Canada is building a reputation for uncertainty on foreign investment – by Martha Hall Findlay (Globe and Mail – February 16, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Our federal government has changed, but certain economic fundamentals have not. Canada relies on trade and depends significantly on foreign investment. Being open to trade and investment has been fundamental to Canada’s historical success – and it’s key to our future success.

Foreign investors require stability and certainty. Canada does well in offering political and economic stability, but after a decade of inconsistent decisions, lack of clear criteria, mixed messages to the global investment community, inability to move forward with indigenous communities and, more recently, disregard for our own regulatory decisions, we are building a unique reputation for uncertainty.

In 2010, Ottawa’s refusal to allow Australia’s BHP Billiton’s purchase of Potash Corp. surprised many. The decision was seen as political, and ripples were felt throughout the global investment community. In 2012, Canada approved the acquisition of Nexen by China’s CNOOC, only to immediately, and confusingly, impose rules preventing other similar investments.

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We should be so lucky as to have China’s crash – by David Olive (Toronto Star – February 16, 2016)

http://www.thestar.com/

E-commerce has taken a stronger hold in China than in most major economies. Walt Disney Co.’s $5.5 billion (U.S.) investment in doubling the size of a Disneyland Shanghai, which will re-open in June, is a bet that China’s current tourism decline is an aberration, and that the enlarged park will be profitable as early as 2019.

China is more of a magnet for Taiwanese immigrants than ever, prompting fears in Taipei of a brain drain. More than 600,000 of Taiwan’s 23 million people live at least half the year abroad, about three-quarters of them in China.

And development continues on the world’s biggest megalopolis, Jing-Jin-Ji, connecting Beijing, Tainjin and the Hebei Province, with a population about the size of Japan’s 130 million.

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Saudi-Russian freeze on oil output sets stage for more moves by OPEC – by Jeffrey Jones (Globe and Mail – February 17, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

CALGARY – Don’t get too excited, oil buffs. Saudi Arabia and Russia have agreed, in principle, sort of, to freeze oil production as part of a deal that is conditional on others joining in.

Freezing won’t do the trick. Crude prices have skidded to levels of more than a decade ago based on the output levels that are in place now. In addition, Iran, Saudi Arabia’s OPEC partner, wants back into the export game in a major way after years of sanctions, and this looks to be a gargantuan hurdle to any concerted effort.

So, there’s no indication that the move, should it gain traction, will cut into the oversupply weighing on the market. Judging from the weakening of West Texas intermediate and Brent crude prices on Tuesday, the market is, at best, wary.

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Franco CEO touts ‘opportunity-rich’ market after Glencore deal (Northern Miner – February 15, 2016)

http://www.northernminer.com/

VANCOUVER — Depressed base metal prices have created a strong deal-making environment for precious-metal streaming companies, and industry leader Franco-Nevada (TSX: FNV; NYSE: FNV) is ready to take advantage. On Feb. 10 the company unveiled its latest transaction, wherein it will pay US$500 million for a silver-gold stream from Glencore’s (LON: GLEN) large-scale Antapaccay copper mine in Peru’s Cusco Region.

Under terms of the deal Franco’s initial silver and gold deliveries will be determined by reference to copper shipments. The company will receive 300,000 oz. gold for every 1,000 tonnes of copper in concentrate, and 30% of gold in concentrate after 630,000 oz. have been delivered.

In terms of silver, Franco will receive 4,700 oz. for every 1,000 tonnes of copper in concentrate, and 30% of silver in concentrate after 10 million oz. have been delivered.

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With mining industry on its knees, increased flow-through benefits could fuel recovery – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – February 12, 2016)

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Proponents of Canada’s long-standing flow-through share tax incentive programme, which is available to mineral exploration companies to raise funds to look for new deposits, say that increased benefits could help resuscitate the domestic industry, even though signs are pointing towards a possible trough being reached in what has been one of the worst commodity price downturns in decades.

“Our number one priority, as we have been doing for the last decade now, is to get in front of the new Liberal government, to understand what their priorities are and to explain the value of the flow-through share programme to ensure that the framework is maintained – that’s the critical starting point.

We’ve done the cost-benefit analysis, and we need to make sure that everybody understands the importance of the flow-through regime,” PearTree Securities president Trent Mell told Mining Weekly Online in an interview.

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Turning from the past, Anglo American targets era of ‘capital discipline’ – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – February 16, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

As he unveiled a staggering loss of $5.6-billion (U.S.) in his company’s latest results, Anglo American chief executive Mark Cutifani couldn’t resist a few bitter potshots at the grandiose expansion dreams of the global mining industry.

“This industry has destroyed value again and again,” he told his audience of investment analysts in a blunt and scathing commentary on Tuesday. “We spent money on stupid things.”

Minutes earlier, Mr. Cutifani and his executives had been forced to defend Anglo American from questions about its latest credit downgrade. Embarrassingly, the company’s credit rating has just been pushing into “junk” status in a new assessment by Moody’s Investor Service this week, and the analysts wanted to know why.

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Another Ontario green energy blow-up – by Terence Corcoran (Financial Post – February 16, 2016)

http://www.financialpost.com/index.html

Debris from the exploding Ontario Liberal green energy rocket continues to land on the hapless citizens of the province. Gas plant scandals, soaring power rates, declining electricity output, massive subsidies to money-losing wind and solar, non-stop bafflegab from government ministers: when will it stop? Not now, and maybe never.

Details of the latest meteorite-sized chunk of the Dalton McGuinty/Kathleen Wynne green power blow-up are on display at the blog of energy consultant Tom Adams, who formerly served on the Ontario Independent Electricity Market Operator board of directors and the Ontario Centre for Excellence for Energy board of management

Adams picks up a story that made brief headlines in late 2012 when Windstream Energy, a U.S. company, filed a NAFTA complaint claiming $475 million in damages.

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Saudi Arabia’s oil supply strategy could turn ugly for all producers – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – February 14, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Who is the Saudi Arabian oil industry’s worst enemy? If you guessed it is the burgeoning U.S. shale oil industry, you would be half right. The enemy is also OPEC itself, and the Saudis may be set to destroy their own creation.

Fifteen months ago, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, led by the Saudis, abandoned its price-fixing strategy, allowing the market to set the price. The strategic about-face meant that individual OPEC countries could, in effect, ignore production caps and produce and export as much as they wanted.

The Saudis’ goal was to claw back market share lost to more expensive production from the U.S. shale industry, the Canadian oil sands and offshore wells.

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BNN Reporter Andrew Bell Interviews Randall Oliphant, Executive Chairman New Gold (Business Network News – February 12, 2016)

http://www.bnn.ca/

Gold no longer ‘the skunk at the picnic’, says mining industry veteran

Investors worried about global growth and central bank actions have sent gold prices on a tear so far this year, and companies that mine the yellow metal got a big boost this week as risk aversion intensified.

Industry veteran Randall Oliphant told BNN on Friday that gold has gone from “the skunk at the picnic to a rock star.”

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Mining stocks resemble ‘a big Walmart sale’ as low commodity prices persist – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – February 12, 2016)

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Sentiment remains negative about the mining and oil and gas industries as the supercycle nears a protracted potential bottom, resulting in dwindling market capitalisations for companies large and small and cruelly undervalued stock prices – creating a buyer’s market for the savvy investor.

CEO and chief investment officer at US Global Investors Frank Holmes, who specialises in natural resources and emerging markets investing, notes that the mining industry is on sale at the moment.

“The entire industry’s stocks are like a big Walmart sale. There’s a big sale happening right now, and it is the cheapest area of the equity markets by far,” he stated during the recent Cambridge House Resource Investment Conference in Vancouver.

Pan American Silver founder Ross Beaty agrees, saying this market is a phenomenal buying opportunity for oil and gas and mining stocks. “It’s a wonderful time to be in the market,” he says.

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