Canadian Media Resource Articles – Page 494

Court dismisses Rio Tinto suit against BSGR, Vale over Guinea iron-ore mine – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – November 24, 2015)

November 24, 2015

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

ROME — A New York judge handed Israeli diamond billionaire Beny Steinmetz a rare victory by dismissing Rio Tinto PLC’s claim that he and Brazilian mining giant Vale SA conspired to steal the world’s biggest undeveloped iron ore project, in Guinea, from Rio.

Judge Richard Berman of the U.S. District Court in New York dismissed the civil racketeering case against the defendants on a technicality; he ruled that Rio had waited too long to launch its case, which was filed in 2014.

He agreed with the defendants that the four-year statute of limitations began in 2008, when the Guinean government stripped Rio of half of Guinea’s rich Simandou iron ore deposit and handed it to BSG Resources (BSGR), a company affiliated with Mr. Steinmetz.

Ross River Kaska weigh benefits of massive lead-zinc mine – by Nancy Thomson (CBC News North – November 23, 2015)

November 24, 2015

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

Ross River Dena are weighing the pros and cons of the proposed Howard’s Pass lead-zinc mine, as they prepare to vote on a “socio-economic participation agreement” later this winter.

After months of negotiations, the Ross River Dena Council and Selwyn Chihong Mining Ltd. reached a preliminary agreement last month. It offers the Kaska, particularly the Ross River Dena, opportunities for training, employment and a share of the mine’s profits.

It also brings a whiff of opportunity to Ross River, one of Yukon’s smaller communities. According to the 2011 census, the average annual income in Ross River is just $31,000.

Canadian diamond producers best positioned to weather price crunch – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – November 24, 2015)

November 24, 2015

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – As the global diamond industry sobers from a hangover of expected market growth that did not happen, Canadian producers are perhaps best positioned to weather the downturn, given the superiority of the country’s diamond projects.

Since the global economic downturn of 2009 and up to the middle of last year, the midstream segment of the diamond industry – the cutters, manufactures and wholesalers, mainly in India – overspeculated on future demand by aggressively expanding businesses, despite market indications not supporting investment, independent diamond analyst and consultant Paul Zimnisky told Mining Weekly Online in an interview.

Banks accommodated these aspirations by providing the capital.

On-again, off-again Vale potash project at Kronau off again – by Bruce Johnstone (Regina Leader-Post – November 20, 2015)

November 23, 2015

http://leaderpost.com/

Vale Potash’s proposed $3.5-billion solution potash mine at Kronau is being put on hold as the Brazilian mining giant waits for market conditions in the potash industry to improve, says a spokesman for Vale Potash in Regina.

The company announced the decision to suspend work on the mine in a public letter to the community of Kronau, 28 km southeast of Regina, and the surrounding rural municipality. Vale says the recent feasibility study still shows a compelling case for a mine in Kronau someday, but market conditions make it difficult to finance the project right now.

“Give the global economic conditions, I don’t think it’s a big surprise,” said Matthew Wood, senior project leader for Vale Potash, in an interview Thursday.

Vancouver mining executives trapped in their rooms as gunmen stormed Mali hotel – by Laura Kane (Canadian Press/Vancouver Province – November 22, 2015)

November 23, 2015

http://www.theprovince.com/

Two Vancouver businessmen hid silently in their rooms for seven hours as gunmen stormed their hotel in Mali, sending text messages describing the sounds of gunfire and grenades to horrified colleagues in Canada.

The B2Gold Corp. executives were in the Radisson Blu hotel in the capital Bamako when Islamist militants launched the attack Friday morning. Unable to talk on the phone or leave their rooms, the men spent all day reporting what they were hearing through texts and emails, said CEO Clive Johnson.

Johnson was supposed to be on the same trip but had to stay in Vancouver due to knee surgery complications.

Support for UN declaration on native rights may spell trouble for Canada’s resource sector – by Tom Flanagan (Globe and Mail – November 23, 2015)

November 23, 2015

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Tom Flanagan is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Calgary and chair of the aboriginal futures research program with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

The new Liberal government says it will implement the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It’s no surprise, as the Liberals campaigned on it. Nonetheless, there is great potential for mischief here because the sweeping language of the declaration is inconsistent with well-established principles of Canadian property law.

Article 32 of the declaration would require Canada to obtain from indigenous peoples “free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories” for developing natural resources.

[Sudbury Neutrino Observatory] Art McDonald on how to win a Nobel Prize – by Kate Lunau (MACLEAN’S Magazine – November 21, 2015)

November 23, 2015

http://www.macleans.ca/

All it takes is one mine, 1,000 tonnes of heavy water, 274 scientists and the backing of an entire town

Arthur McDonald, tall, bespectacled and silver-haired, is hiking down the rocky tunnel of a nickel mine outside Sudbury, Ont., after descending more than two kilometres underground in a mine cage. The space is lit mainly by the roving headlamps worn by his small group. Roof bolts and steel screens brace the rock overhead.

The terrain is uneven, and it’s easy to stumble. McDonald, 72, takes slow, considered steps, occasionally turning to warn the others of a treacherous puddle or ditch. Fatigue is a common side effect of time spent this deep underground, where the air pressure is much higher than above ground, but he doesn’t seem to feel it.

Why 2015 will go down as a year to forget for North American coal miners – by Peter Koven (National Post – November 21, 2015)

November 23, 2015

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Plenty of coal industry insiders have spoken out about the collapse of the business in the United States. But nobody does it with quite the same fervor as Robert Murray.

“We have the worst president the United States has ever had in its history,” said the founder and chief executive of Ohio-based Murray Energy Corp., one of the largest coal producers in the U.S.

“He has stacked the government with hundreds of thousands of bureaucrats who are on a regulatory rampage (against coal) that are carrying out the desires of those who got him elected,” Murray said in an interview.

First Nations, province co-operating in mining – by Martin Cash (Winnipeg Free Press – November 19, 2015)

November 20, 2015

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/

EFFORTS by the province and some Manitoba First Nations to work together in the mining industry are beginning to bear fruit.

Two years ago, the province established a mining council made up of representatives of First Nations, industry and government officials.

The goal was to help smooth what had been a rocky relationship between the provincial mining branch and exploration and development companies and the First Nations whose resource lands were being affected by mineral exploration and development.

Lucara shares surge on discovery of 1,111-carat diamond – by Ian McGugan (Globe and Mail – November 20, 2015)

November 20, 2015

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Lucara Diamond Corp.’s stock soared by as much as 37 per cent after the Vancouver miner said it had unearthed the biggest diamond to be found in more than a century.

The 1,111-carat, gem-quality stone is slightly smaller than a tennis ball. It was dug out of Lucara’s Karowe mine in Botswana.

The diamond, the second-largest in history, is one of several giant finds that the company has recently uncovered. Lucara, part of the mining and energy group headed by Lukas Lundin, also reported it had found an 813-carat stone that ranks as the sixth-largest ever discovered.

Agnico Eagle is the world’s most-resilient gold miner – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg/Globe and Mail – November 20, 2015)

November 20, 2015

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. is emerging as the winner in the race to shield profit from slumping gold prices. Since gold began a more than 40-per-cent plunge from a 2011 peak, the miner’s gross margins have narrowed by just 1.9 per cent thanks to expansions and a strengthening U.S. dollar.

For every dollar of gold Agnico Eagle sold last quarter, 49 cents (U.S.) was gross profit, little changed from four years ago when gold touched $1,900. That’s the best performance among 15 major producers tracked by Bloomberg, whose margins compressed by an average 64 percent.

Has China peaked? – by Michael Auslin (National Post – November 20, 2015)

November 20, 2015

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

The annual Halifax International Security Forum will convene on Nov. 20, bringing together some of the finest military and strategic thinkers in the Western world for a three-day conference. In the run-up to the event, the National Post is presenting four essays that describe the challenges, and opportunities, facing the West today.

At a dinner at the Halifax International Security Forum in 2013, a table of experts and interested participants, including former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd, had a spirited discussion on an unconventional theme: “Peaking China.”

Even two years ago, the idea that China would not be forever rising was a fringe concept.

Marxipedia, your tax dollars at work – by Peter Foster (National Post – November 20, 2015)

November 20, 2015

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

When Joe Oliver was Natural Resources Minister in the Harper government, he identified “foreign-funded radicals” as obstructions to Canadian resource development. He was pilloried for speaking the truth. Imagine if any government-funded organization had given out millions of dollars to study those sources of foreign funds?

There would have been political and academic outrage, cries of “witch hunt” and “muzzling.” Well, the muzzle is now off, and foreign-funded radicals have nothing to fear.

They are seated at the right hand of power, radical funding has been repatriated, and the anti-corporate witch hunt can begin in earnest right here in Canada with local funding.

Vale to shut Manitoba nickel smelting, refining in 2018 – by Rod Nickel (Reuters U.S. – November 19, 2015)

November 19, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

Nov 19 Brazilian miner Vale SA will close its nickel smelting and refining operations in the western Canadian province of Manitoba in 2018, but will continue mining and milling despite the plunge in the price of nickel, a company official said on Thursday.

Vale, the world’s biggest nickel producer, will cease smelting and refining in Thompson, Manitoba, once work is complete to allow it to produce and ship nickel concentrate from its mill, said Mark Scott, Vale’s director of mining and milling in Thompson.

Smelting and refining operations were originally scheduled for closure this year, until the company struck an agreement with workers and Canada’s environment department to keep them running until as late as 2019.

Teck enduring worst financial squeeze since the recession – by Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – November 19, 2015)

November 19, 2015

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

VANCOUVER — Teck Resources Ltd. is facing its worst financial squeeze since the recession, forcing the company to retrench during a mining industry slump that has hammered coal exports from Canada.

Vancouver-based Teck is cutting 1,000 jobs and lowering its semi-annual dividend to only 5 cents a share as it seeks to corral expenses amid depressed commodity prices.

The diversified mining company will eliminate the jobs at its offices and operations worldwide through layoffs and attrition, representing almost 10 per cent of its current work force.