Canadian Media Resource Articles – Page 505

Sherritt moves to protect liquidity (Northern Miner – September 18, 2015)

September 22, 2015

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry.

Sherritt International’s (TSX: S) president and CEO David Pathe did not mince words when he said the firm must take action to protect its balance sheet in order to withstand lower commodity prices at a time when “more than 60% of global nickel production is underwater on a cash cost basis.”

After markets closed on Sept. 17 Sherritt suspended its 1¢ per share quarterly dividend, noting that at current spot prices of US$4.50 per lb., nickel is down 32% since the company last cut its dividend in the first quarter of 2014 from 4.3¢ per share to 1¢ per share.

A world leader in the mining and refining of nickel from lateritic ores and the largest independent energy producer in Cuba with oil and power operations across the island, Sherritt said prices for nickel and crude oil haven’t traded this low since 2009.

Sherritt also said it would cut capital expenditures in 2016 by as much as 25%-35%. Earlier this year the company trimmed its 2015 capex guidance by $15 million to $195 million.

Stephen Poloz for Prime Minister – by Terence Corcoran (National Post – September 22, 2015)

September 22, 2015

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

After months of hyperventilating media reports on Canada’s slide into recession and a looming national economic crisis over falling oil prices, along comes Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz to calm the frothing waters.

The idea that Canada is undergoing a destructive economic mega-shift away from oil and natural resources has been one of the driving metaphors of the current election campaign. To avoid sliding helplessly beyond recession into some dark unknown future, Canada supposedly needs a retooled national policy “vision” from government — new strategies, bold investment initiatives, revamped incentives, grand innovation programs.

No such policy imperatives appeared in Poloz’s speech to the Calgary Economic Club Monday. On the contrary, the central bank governor declared Canada to be a resource-rich economy that will continue to thrive on its natural endowments. “While an abundance of raw materials may complicate the management of companies and the conduct of economic policy, it is far better for a country to have resources than not to have them.” They represent, he said, a “store of value and a source of future riches.”

[Canada] Our resource-rich economy – by Stephen S. Poloz (National Post – September 22, 2015)

September 22, 2015

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

Stephen S. Poloz is Governor of the Bank of Canada. This is an edited excerpt from his speech Monday to the Calgary Economic Club.

Because Canada has been endowed with such a wide variety of resources, we’ve had to learn how to deal with large swings in their prices. I don’t just mean the usual high degree of volatility common among many raw materials. I’m also referring to the long-term swings in prices that are often called “supercycles.” These long-term swings are driven by the fundamental economic laws of supply and demand, as well as the continuous technological progress that can affect both output and consumption.

The pattern is familiar. A large and persistent increase in demand leads to sustained upward pressure on resource prices. The higher prices act as an incentive to boost supply, and companies act by, for example, investing in new capacity and finding methods to increase efficiency.

While high prices can certainly spur research and development, technological progress has been a constant theme in natural resource industries. Because of this progress inflation-adjusted commodity prices have generally been trending lower for 200 years.

Anti-energy campaigns harming countries – by Dr. Patrick Moore (Toronto Sun – September 21, 2015)

September 22, 2015

http://www.torontosun.com/

Co-founder and leader of Greenpeace for 15 years, Dr. Moore is now Chair of Ecology, and Energy with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

It is obvious that civilization would not be possible without the mineral and energy resources mined and extracted from the Earth. Yet there is a growing movement to oppose nearly all such activities.

Even though 86% of the world’s energy supply, including 98% of the energy for transporting people and goods, comes from fossil fuels, there are proposals to end their use altogether. The G7 countries, including Canada, recently agreed that “zero emissions” is the desired long-term goal.

It is very difficult to obtain approval for a new mining development, even in the leading mining countries like Australia and Canada. It is virtually impossible in any European country where nearly all their metals are imported, mostly from developing countries.

This trend is based on the perceived negative environmental impacts caused by disturbing the land and water and by emitting CO2 into the atmosphere.

Few will support Naomi Klein’s revolution, thankfully sparing us from national suicide – by Conrad Black (National Post – September 19, 2015)

September 22, 2015

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

The Leap Manifesto unveiled by Naomi Klein and a coalition of somewhat kindred spirits this week in Toronto illustrates the phenomenon of regrouping in which the shattered Old Left, heavily buffeted eco-zealots, imperishable agitators for the native people, and the detritus of organized labour, together with an endearing rag-tail of old do-gooders, posturers and hemophiliac bleeding hearts have stood on each other’s shoulders and proclaimed once more that they are the wave of the future.

The inspiriting tocsin for this bedraggled resurrection, which if any of it actually occurs will be the greatest comeback since Lazarus, seems to have been Naomi Klein’s book last year, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate. Her organizing principle is that ecological necessities have made much of commerce, and especially the carbon-based economy, obsolete and unsustainable.

The bone-crushing defeat of international communism — the metamorphosis of China into a pure-capitalist/command-economy hybrid and of the Russian core of the old Soviet Union into a gangster state run by avaricious and cynical friends of the regime — has forced the traditional Marxists of the West to engage in frenetic networking and consensus-building. They have made their big move toward the environment zealots.

CANADA’S WATERLESS COMMUNITIES (Vice.com – September 2015)

September 22, 2015

http://www.vice.com/en_ca

This is a “must watch” series by Vice News, a current affairs media company that produces news documentaries that are not thoroughly covered by mainstream global news gathering organizations. The issue of non-potable drinking water in many of Canada’s First Nations communities is a national scandal that continues to be largely ignored by the very influential Toronto media. – Stan Sudol (RepublicOfMining.com)

CANADA’S WATERLESS COMMUNITIES, PART 2 (Vice.com – September 15, 2015)

Shoal Lake 40 has been cut off from the mainland for over 100 years. The First Nation community is fighting for an access road to the west so that it can build a water treatment plant. The community has been on a boil water advisory for 17 years. But so far, the federal government has failed to commit its portion of the funding. In Part 2 of this feature, Hilary Beaumont sees the community’s reaction to the latest government announcement.

Click here: http://en.daily.vice.com/videos/canadas-waterless-communities-part-2

CANADA’S WATERLESS COMMUNITIES, PART 3 (Vice.com – September 16, 2015)

The residents of Shoal Lake 40 rely on an aging barge to get food and water from the mainland. In the winter, they drive across the ice. But in the spring and fall, the crossing becomes treacherous. In today’s feature, Hilary Beaumont talks to a resident whose mother died while trying to cross the lake.

Click here: http://en.daily.vice.com/videos/canadas-waterless-communities-part-3

Resources firms endorse call for aboriginal veto rights to projects – by Shawn McCarthy (Globe and Mail – September 21, 2015)

September 21, 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.

Two of Canada’s biggest resources companies have endorsed a call for governments and industry to clearly assert the right of aboriginal communities to veto major projects that negatively affect their traditional territories.

Suncor Energy Inc. and Tembec Inc. are members of the Boreal Leadership Council that is releasing a report Monday calling for the adoption of the principle of “free, prior and informed consent” when industry is working with indigenous populations. The council is composed of businesses – including Toronto Dominion Bank – environmental groups and First Nations that work together on northern issues.

Aboriginal communities have frequently reaped benefits in agreements with resources companies over development projects, but often complain they are not treated as full partners and have little real power over the fate of projects. In recent years, Canadian courts have made clear that these communities need to be consulted and their concerns accommodated, and that where they have clear title to land, their consent must be given.

Kinross Gold struggling to reverse losses at Mauritania’s Tasiast mine – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – September 21, 2015)

September 21, 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.

NOUAKCHOTT, MAURITANIA — When the executives of Kinross Gold Corp. fly in from their Canary Islands office to the dusty capital of the desert country where their flagship African gold mine is located, they can’t avoid seeing the hulking symbol of mining failure that dominates the skyline: the empty shell of a 15-storey skyscraper that the state mining company had started building.

Mauritania’s state-owned iron-ore company, SNIM, was due to finish the tower months ago. Instead it sits half-built and abandoned, flanked by a pair of idle construction cranes. There are no signs of life. The foreign construction contractors are long gone, leaving behind piles of sand and cement blocks.

Plagued by strikes and weak iron-ore prices, SNIM is in deep trouble, while most of Mauritania’s other resource projects are winding down or shelved. The national economic slump has compounded the pressure on Kinross as it struggles to reverse the losses at its huge Tasiast gold mine on the edge of the Sahara in northwestern Mauritania.

How smaller Canadian gold miners are thriving despite today’s gloomy price environment – by Peter Koven (National Post – September 19, 2015)

September 21, 2015

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

KIRKLAND LAKE, ONT. – Deep underground in Kirkland Lake, 300 kilometres north of Sudbury, it is hard to think about the rich veins of gold near at hand. The heat and humidity overpower everything else.

Crews are currently working 5,400 to 5,600 feet below surface, making it one of Canada’s deepest gold mines. And in this part of the world and at these depths, a first-time visitor would find the temperature suffocating.

Work crews start dripping with sweat almost as soon as they step out from the shaft underground to begin their shift. Mining this far down is technically challenging and not for the faint of heart. But more than 100 years after the first shaft was sunk in this sturdy Northern Ontario community, it looks as attractive as ever — even if it is surrounded by an environment of gloomy gold prices.

The Kirkland Lake operation, known as Macassa, is one of the world’s richest gold mines by any measure — the data service IntelligenceMine ranks it second overall. The mine’s owner, Kirkland Lake Gold Inc., likes to say that of the world’s 10 highest-grade operations, this is the only significant one that isn’t owned by a major company.

Even the stars of mining deals are sidelined in sinking market – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – September 19, 2015)

September 21, 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 — You know that something is seriously awry in the global mining industry when the two smartest men in the room – Ivan Glasenberg and Mick Davis – are crouching under rocks. Mr. Glasenberg, CEO and co-founder of Glencore , the world’s top commodities trader, is busy whittling down a mountain of debt in the wake of the company’s submarine performance on the London Stock Exchange. Mr. Davis, the former CEO of Xstrata , launched X2 Resources a couple of years ago but has yet to do a deal.

The mining market, in other words, is moribund. No one is selling, no one is buying and values are still in retreat. If either Mr. Glasenberg or Mr. Davis were convinced the bottom had been reached, you would think they would find ways to swing back into deal-making mode, for that was what they did best.

Today’s commodities markets are not about growth; they are about survival, and the body language of the industry’s biggest players suggests that won’t change any time soon.

Opinion: Alaska needs iron-glad guarantees on B.C. mines – by Dale Kelley and Cynthia Wallesz (Vancouver Sun – September 18, 2015)

September 21, 2015

http://www.vancouversun.com/

Dale Kelley is executive director of the Alaska Trollers Association. Cynthia Wallesz is executive director of United Southeast Alaska Gillnetters.

We were among a group of fishing, environmental and tribal representatives who met recently with Alaska Lt.-Gov. Byron Mallott, B.C. Mines Minister Bill Bennett and other officials on transboundary mining issues. Bennett’s visit was largely the result of Alaskans’ resistance to B.C.’s aggressive mining agenda and the risks it poses to our region.

Our organizations represent thousands of Southeast Alaska fishing families and businesses who fear development near the border could threaten water quality, habitat and the fish we rely upon. Last year’s tailings breach at the Mount Polley mine and plans to open several large acidic mines near our rivers heighten those concerns.

While the meeting was a good first step to starting a discussion with Canada, it did not alleviate our concerns.

Bennett told us the status quo cannot continue, but that he understands no amount of money or jobs is worth sacrificing our resource values. We absolutely agree.

U.S. Steel Canada threatens to leave Canada if court rejects request – by Greg Keenan (Globe and Mail – September 18, 2015)

September 21, 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.

U.S. Steel Canada Inc. is threatening to cease operating in Canada by the end of the year if an Ontario Superior Court judge rejects its request to stop paying municipal taxes, halt payments into pension funds, and cut off health care and other benefits to 20,000 retirees and their dependents.

A decision by the company’s parent, United States Steel Corp., to shift production of high-value-added steel to U.S. mills means the Canadian unit requires a “business preservation order” that will allow it to keep operating, U.S. Steel Canada said in a court filing.

Unless the court approves U.S. Steel Canada’s motion to conserve cash by slashing spending, “we don’t see any way to avoid ceasing operations at the end of 2015,” the company’s president, Mike McQuade, said in a separate memo to employees.

The prospect of a shutdown of operations in Hamilton and Nanticoke, Ont., comes as U.S. Steel and its Canadian unit prepare to enter mediation efforts after a year of protection from creditors under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act.

Barrick closing Utah office and copper unit in cost-cutting effort – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – September 18, 2015)

September 18, 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.

Barrick Gold Corp. is shutting a major American office and dismantling its copper unit, the company’s latest steps to cut costs and overhaul operations amid the slump in gold prices.

The closing of its Salt Lake City office along with the unwinding of its copper business will help the world’s biggest gold producer save $2-billion (U.S.) by the end of next year, the company said.

Four years of declining gold prices have forced a broad retreat at Barrick and battered the company’s share price. In addition to selling a slew of mines and non-core assets, Barrick recently reduced its dividend again and sold a stake in its top copper mine in Chile as well as part of one of its most profitable gold mines, in the Dominican Republic.

Barrick’s Salt Lake office, which employs about 110 staff, will close in November after supporting the miner’s core Nevada operations for nearly two decades. It follows the shutdown of Barrick’s Perth bureau and job cuts in its Santiago office.

Forced labour built Canada mine in Eritrea, ex-official says – by Chris Arsenault (Reuters/Globe and Mail – September 18, 2015)

September 18, 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.

Hundreds of men drafted into Eritrea’s army were used as forced labour to build a Canadian company’s copper-gold mine in central Eritrea, according to a former construction official, in a case testing the global responsibility of foreign firms to workers.

Claims of forced labour at the Bisha mine, jointly owned by Nevsun Resources Ltd. and state-owned Eritrean National Mining Corp., date back to 2008 but are now the subject of a class-action lawsuit at British Columbia’s Supreme Court.

Eritrean plaintiffs, living in exile in Ethiopia, say in the lawsuit filed last November that they were forced to build the only operating mine in the Horn of Africa country during national service, enduring filthy conditions, little food or scarce payment.

Although Nevsun was not directly responsible for hiring local staff – that was done through local contractor firm Segen – plaintiffs argue the Canadian company was complicit in their servitude, a claim the Vancouver-based company denies.

Oil forecaster Ed Morse sees oil price rebound — but don’t count on US$100 levels again – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – September 18, 2015)

September 18, 2015

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

BANFF, Alta. – The oil-price crash remains painful and may be far from over, but top oil forecaster Ed Morse offered some hope Thursday to Canada’s gloomy oil industry — a recovery by 2017 as the “weeding out” of uneconomic production runs its course.

Still, Morse’s relative, medium-term optimism has its limits. The rebound won’t mean a return to the heyday of the North American energy renaissance because new technologies that enabled production from the oilsands in Canada, shale oil in the United States, and deepwater fields will continue to change the oil business and keep prices in check.

Don’t count, then, on US$100 a barrel oil making a comeback any time soon.

“The age of abundance of supply is here, even as the world is moving away from fossil fuel, and makes it highly unlikely that we will see $100 oil again,” Morse, the New York-based global head of commodities at Citi Research, said in an interview on the sidelines of the Global Business Forum, an annual gathering of business leaders.