Canadian Media Resource Articles – Page 481

Why ‘flow-through shares’ are a flop – by Kevin Libin (National Post – February 9, 2016)

February 9, 2016

http://business.financialpost.com/

You’d be hard pressed to find bigger fans of “flow-through shares” than the Bay Street lawyers and bankers using them to finance roughly a half-billion dollars in mining and energy deals every year.

But they’re hardly alone. Once dubbed by the Financial Post as “Canada’s quirky tax innovation,” flow-through shares were given high praise recently, in another national news outlet, by Richard Sutin, senior partner at Norton Rose Fulbright, who called them a “spectacular success, positioning Canada’s capital markets as a global leader in resource finance.”

And in its “Action Plan for Prosperity” a few years ago, the Coalition for Action on Innovation in Canada, chaired by Liberal big-thinker John Manley, urged policy-makers to build on the “success” of the flow-through share program — which “has helped make Canada a global leader in resource financing” — and expand them to other industries.

Cameco posts lower earnings amid “really tough” global market: CEO – by Alex MacPherson (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – February 8, 2016)

February 9, 2016

http://thestarphoenix.com/

Five years after the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, the uranium market has not recovered as quickly as expected, forcing Cameco Corporation to “learn to live in a different paradigm,” according to its president and CEO.

“I think everybody underestimated the reaction of Japan,” Tim Gitzel said, noting that while the Japanese government abandoned its plan to phase out nuclear power entirely, its stringent regulatory regime has allowed for just three reactor restarts to date. “We thought that would happen a lot faster,” Gitzel said.

The “really tough” global market, combined with factors such as the devalued Canadian dollar, resulted in Cameco posting a $10 million, or $0.03 per share, loss in the fourth quarter, bringing its yearly earnings to $65 million, or $0.16 per share — a 65 per cent slide from the $185 million it made in 2014.

Value of U.S. metal mine production drops 15% – by Andrew Topf (Mining.com – February 7, 2016)

February 8, 2016

http://www.mining.com/

The USGS also says the States is now 100% dependent on other countries for 19 minerals

The United States earned less from its mines in 2015 and became more reliant on outside sources for critical metals, according to a new report from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

The data comes from statistics gathered by the USGS on about 90 mineral commodities considered essential for the U.S. economy and national security.

Concerns have been raised for years that the United States is too dependent on other countries, namely China, for rare earth elements deemed essential for its aerospace and electronics industries, leading to suggestions that the U.S. create a strategic minerals reserve.

Arizona Mining shows upside at Taylor (Northern Miner – February 5, 2016)

February 8, 2016

http://www.northernminer.com/

VANCOUVER — When it comes to opportunities in the junior space that tick the prerequisite boxes for mineral development, there aren’t many that can match Arizona Mining (TSX: AZ) and its emerging Taylor zinc-lead-silver deposit roughly 80 km due southeast of Tucson.

The company features an accomplished management team and strong financial backing, and it completed a promising drill campaign last year that hints at the potential for a great mining opportunity driven by high grades and a clear permitting path.

Arizona is the brainchild of chairman — and well-known corporate finance figure — Richard Warke, who founded Augusta Resource and Ventana Gold. The company previously operated under the Wildcat Silver banner before shifting it’s identify in mid-2015 to signal a new focus on the Taylor discovery, which is part of the 140 sq. km Hermosa project.

Miner Tahoe Resources adds Ontario gold mines with Lake Shore buy (Reuters U.S. – February 8, 2016)

February 8, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

Miner Tahoe Resources Inc (TAHO.N) (THO.TO) said it would buy Canada’s Lake Shore Gold Corp (LSG.TO) for about C$751 million ($540 million) to add low-cost gold mines in Ontario to its portfolio.

Precious metals miners have been clamping down on costs amid a sharp decline in the price of bullion that has weighed on exploration spending, capital to sustain operations and dividends.

Spot gold prices XAU= have fallen nearly 40 percent from its peak of $1,920.30 an ounce in September 2011. The deal comes after Goldcorp Inc (G.TO) sold its 25.6 percent stake in Tahoe for C$998.5 million last June.

[Pipelines] Will it be Paris or Calgary, Mr. Trudeau? – by Rex Murphy (National Post – February 8, 2016)

February 8, 2016

http://news.nationalpost.com/

What will it be, Paris or Calgary? That is the question.

Are the commitments made so energetically and with such a show of elan in Paris superior to the need to give support and relief to the oil industry in Calgary? Indeed, the commitments made in Paris run counter to the needs of Calgary (let Calgary here stand for all Alberta).

One cannot make huge pledges to reduce carbon emissions one week and wax all enthusiastic about giving federal support to pipelines intended to carry Alberta oil the next. The two agendas are simply not compatible.

Thus, the debate over pipelines is not about the pipelines themselves, as there is really only one question that a debate over pipelines has to answer: will they be safe?

Debt risks mount as Canada’s base metal miners sink deep in the hole – by Peter Koven (Financial Post – February 6, 2016)

February 8, 2016

http://business.financialpost.com/

As one base metals mining executive after another took the stage last week at the TD Securities Mining Conference in Toronto, they knew almost everyone in the audience had the same question: What are you going to do about the balance sheet?

Right now, it’s the only topic that matters. The crash in copper, nickel and zinc prices, which began in 2011 but picked up steam in the past eight months, has torn into miners’ revenues and raised serious concerns about their ability to repay debt.

Canada’s biggest base metal miners assumed they would enjoy long-term metal prices far above current levels when they borrowed hundreds of millions (in some cases, billions) of dollars to build and acquire mines. Now the grim reality of the situation is taking hold, and companies need to take action to avoid disaster.

Mild winter blocks access to ice roads in remote Ontario reserves – by Julien Gignac (Globe and Mail – February 6, 2016)

February 8, 2016

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Many remote First Nations communities in Northern Ontario are suffering the effects of one of the mildest winters on record: Roughly 60 per cent of ice roads connecting dozens of reserves to southern municipalities have yet to open. Most of those that have opened can only sustain light traffic – snowmobiles or small, half-ton trucks.

Frigid temperatures are welcomed in the region, as ice roads function as lifelines to otherwise landlocked First Nations, expediting the transportation of such supplies as diesel fuel, building materials and food. Sometimes community members themselves make the trip to Thunder Bay to stock up on essentials. Without winter roads, northern communities have been forced to ship supplies by air, a costly endeavour.

“Nothing’s moving,” said Darrell Morgan, president of Morgan Fuels, which is a top distributor of fuel in the Northern Ontario region. “The lack of ice is a tough go. We supply some communities with fuel through air freight, but it’s extremely expensive.”

Hydro-Québec on a research quest for the ‘God Battery’ – by Bertrand Marotte (Globe and Mail – February 6, 2016)

February 8, 2016

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

VARENNES, QUE. — Karim Zaghib powers up a Chevy Volt electric hybrid for a tour of his domain: the energy storage and conversion facilities at Hydro-Québec’s sprawling two-square-kilometre research campus in Varennes, a Montreal exoburb on the South Shore of the St. Lawrence River.

Mr. Zaghib is Hydro-Québec’s point man on a high-stakes strategic mission to develop the superbattery of the future that will propel the much-vaunted all-electric car into the realm of commercial viability and consumer receptivity.

The veteran electro-chemist is a self-described idealist who dreams of spearheading the big technological breakthrough in electric-vehicle battery technology, committed to making a major contribution to a cleaner, more liveable planet.

The Gates-backed Canadian building a better battery – by Alec Scott (Globe and Mail – June 23, 2015)

February 8, 2016

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Donald Sadoway is the Mr. Chips, the Mr. Holland, the Miss Jean Brodie of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The elfin 65-year-old from Oshawa, Ontario, is the sort of teacher who alums discuss fondly at reunions. Remember the class on the chemistry of Champagne, when he wore a tuxedo and served flutes of bubbly?

Or how he blasted Handel’s Water Music at the start of the class on how hydrogen bonds with oxygen?

Sadoway has won almost every teaching award they have at MIT, some of them multiple times. But he also explodes that nasty old distinction between teachers and doers. He is an inventor with 19 patents, and he’s about to launch a battery that could change the world.

It’s time to buy mining stocks, says Ross Beaty – by Lesley Stokes (Northern Miner – February 5, 2016)

February 5, 2016

http://www.northernminer.com/

VANCOUVER — Mining financier and entrepreneur Ross Beaty told an audience at the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference in late January that it’s a “phenomenal” time to buy resource stocks.

“The tide is way out and it’s a buyer’s market everywhere across the board from oil, mining, currencies, and real estate,” Beaty said. “Every so often cycles get to the point where they’re at today and it’s just hard to lose. It’s a wonderful time to be in the market.”

He admits the vast majority of his money has always gone into companies he either manages or is otherwise involved with, but in recent years, he’s been beefing up his stake elsewhere in the junior resource sector.

Make Northern Ontario a separate province: online petition (CBC News Sudbury – February 4, 2016)

February 5, 2016

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/

Northerners tired of being ignored by politicians in Toronto, Trevor Holliday says

Some northern Ontarians have had enough of dealing with the bigwigs in Toronto and are calling on the region to support forming their own province with an online petition.

From travelling long distances to see a doctor to feeling underrepresented in Queen’s Park, Trevor Holliday of North Bay, Ont., said the frustration led him to create the movement and push the idea forward.

So far, the petition he started has more than 2,500 supporters as northerners seek more resources, especially in health care. The idea of separation isn’t new. This sentiment has been expressed by a variety of northerners over the decades and actually dates back to the 1970s.

Equity analysts signal there’s tremendous profit potential in bonds of miners – by Ian McGugan (Globe and Mail – February 5, 2016)

February 5, 2016

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Equity analysts see lots of potential in beaten-up base-metal miners. The bond market begs to differ.

Many producers of basic industrial materials – including Freeport McMoRan Inc. of the United States, and First Quantum Minerals Ltd., HudBay Minerals Inc., Sherritt International Corp. and Teck Resources Ltd. of Canada – have seen their bonds hit by a stampede of selling in recent months as prices for copper, nickel, iron ore and other key raw materials have ground relentlessly lower.

The yield of a bond moves in the opposite direction to its price, so the outburst of selling has driven the expected payoff on the sector’s bonds into the stratosphere. Nearly all of Teck’s bonds now offer yields-to-maturity north of 10 per cent, while the corresponding payouts for issues from First Quantum, Freeport, HudBay and Sherritt have shot even higher – above 20 per cent in some cases.

Meet the new [resource environmental] regulations. Same as the old regulations – by Melanie Paradis (National Post – February 5, 2016)

February 5, 2016

http://news.nationalpost.com/

On the heels of the federal government’s new principles for environmental assessments, the Conservatives were quick to condemn the changes as obstructive to industry and the economy. This was rather cheeky of them, given that it was their government that rewrote our environmental legislation to include many of the very same principles.

To their credit, the Conservatives did make significant strides in improving and streamlining environmental approval processes. Streamlining did not mean diminishing regulation; quite the opposite. Harmonization with the provincial regulators removed redundant bureaucratic processes.

Previously, developers would need to produce multiple versions of reports that shared the same information but in slightly different formats while meeting slightly different specifications. Harmonization meant both levels of government would agree to use a single format and eliminate duplication. This may seem like a painfully obvious step, but it was only taken in 2012.

Canada’s Centerra given go-ahead to mine Mongolian gold deposit (Reuters U.S. – February 4, 2016)

February 4, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

Feb 4 Canada’s Centerra Gold Inc has been given the go-ahead from Mongolia’s lawmakers to mine the Gatsuurt Gold deposit after a five-year delay, as the resource-rich country looks to bolster its economic activity and gold reserves.

Mongolia’s once-booming economy has taken a steep slide, with the Asian Development Bank estimating growth in 2015 at less than 3 percent compared with 17.5 percent in 2011. Mongolia hopes to rake in greater revenue this year and stimulate growth by green lighting projects such as Gatsuurt, despite a backlash from some citizens.

The parliament passed a bill granting the country 34 percent ownership of the mine with 1.6 million ounces of probable gold reserves, a government website says. Centerra, which also owns the Boroo mine in Mongolia, will hold the remaining 66 percent of equity.