Canadian Media Resource Articles – Page 517

Conference Board cuts 2 N.W.T. mining projects from economic forecast – by Guy Quenneville (CBC News North – July 8, 2015)

July 8, 2015

http://www.cbc.ca/news

Two other advanced-stage projects look uncertain, says think tank

The Conference Board of Canada has dropped two N.W.T. mining projects from its latest Northern economic outlook and says two other projects probably won’t be included in its next forecast unless the conditions for raising money improve.

Tyhee N.W.T. Corp.’s Yellowknife gold project and Fortune Minerals’ NICO base metals project didn’t make the cut in the think tank’s latest forecast of future GDP growth in the territory, which will be released next week, says Marie-Christine Bernard, a forecaster with the conference board.

Avalon Rare Metals’ Nechalacho rare earth development project and North American Tungsten’s Mactung tungsten project likely won’t be included in the conference board’s next forecast either, added Bernard.

“When a project is just too far from obtaining financing, we take a second look [to see] if we postpone the project or pull it from the outlook altogether,” she said.

Canada faces questions from UN rights committee on mining industry – by Mike Blanchfield (Canadian Press/CTV News – July 7, 2015)

July 8, 2015

http://www.ctvnews.ca/

OTTAWA — The federal government is sidestepping a UN panel’s request to explain how Canadian mining and resource companies deal with human rights complaints.

Tuesday was the Canadian government’s first opportunity to address the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva, which is conducting the first review in 10 years of Canada’s compliance to a major international treaty.

The committee, comprised of 18 experts, heard repeated concerns about Canada’s extractives industry, the treatment of aboriginals and anti-terrorism measures from two dozen groups, including the Canadian Human Rights Commission and Amnesty International.

The committee asked Canada to provide answers to 24 separate questions about how it implements the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights — including how it monitors the human rights conduct of Canadian resource companies operating abroad, some of which face lawsuits alleging abuses.

“Please inform the committee of any measures taken or envisaged to monitor the human rights conduct of Canadian oil, mining and gas companies operating abroad,” said the list of issues given by the committee to Canada last fall in preparation for Tuesday’s testimony.

National Post View: Ontario has to get its house in order now, while it still can (National Post – July 8, 2015)

July 8, 2015

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

If Charles Sousa ever tires of being Ontario’s finance minister, he might find a second career as a corporate communications expert. Specialty: disaster management.

When Moody’s Investors Service reduced the province’s debt outlook from stable to negative a year ago, Sousa responded that it was no big deal. “The bankers aren’t freaking here.… What has happened is the degree of revenue has not met expectations,” Sousa said, as if a revenue shortfall in a chronically indebted economy wasn’t worth troubling himself with.

Similarly, when Standard & Poor’s downgraded Ontario’s long-term credit rating on Monday, Sousa managed once again to find the tiny ray of sunshine in the gathering gloom. “Part of the basis for S&P’s stable rating is that Ontario has a stable, majority government,” he beamed. “The report,” he added, “further notes that Ontario has ‘had some success in bending its cost curve over the past several years.”

The provincial debt is on track to reach $298 billion this year, almost half the size of the federal debt in an economy barely a third as large; servicing it costs $11 billion a year, the third-largest expense in the budget, even at today’s record-low interest rates; and the province’s productivity, according to a recent study by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards, is growing at the second-slowest rate in the country: just 0.5% a year between 2000 and 2012.

Silver Wheaton Corp shares slump 12% on possible tax reassessment, payments of more than $200M – by Peter Koven (National Post – July 8, 2015)

July 8, 2015

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

The Canada Revenue Agency is seeking more than US$200 million in back taxes and penalties from Silver Wheaton Corp. in a probe that raises concerns about the company’s entire business model.

Shares of the Vancouver-based firm dropped 12 per cent on Tuesday after the CRA’s proposal became public, wiping out more than $1 billion of shareholder value. Investors were alarmed by the possibility the CRA’s back tax demands could grow much bigger in the months ahead, and that Silver Wheaton could have to pay higher taxes on all its future income.

Silver Wheaton, for its part, fiercely denied that it has ever avoided taxes. “We remain confident in our business structure, which we believe is consistent with that typically used by Canadian companies,” chief executive Randy Smallwood said on a conference call.

The CRA’s probe involves the complex issue of transfer pricing and deals conducted through Silver Wheaton’s foreign subsidiaries.

[Saskatchewan] A uranium mid-cap – by Kip Keen (Mineweb.com – July 8, 2015)

July 8, 2015

http://www.mineweb.com/

Denison, Fission argue a merger of equals means a unique position as uranium mid-cap.

Fission Uranium and Denison Mines announced a merger of equals Monday that, if consummated, combines a few, key high-grade assets in a premier uranium mining region of the world in terms of grade. In selling the marriage of two key uranium juniors focused on the Athabasca Basin, the sales pitch was largely focused on the benefit of being a bigger company in a sour mining market.

Fission has emerged in recent years with an important uranium discovery, called Triple R, and first resource that catapulted its prospects as a uranium developer. It has gone from a virtual unknown, chasing a U3O8-mineralized boulder train, to one of the relatively rare junior explorers with a market capitalization counted in the hundreds of millions (~C$400m).

That has helped it catch up to and near equal Denison, a Lundin Group company that has a more established position in the Athabasca Basin. Denison’s assets include another, deeper, but uber grade uranium deposit (60% Wheeler project) and a 22.5% stake in a sizeable uranium toll mill operated by Areva, which processes ore from Cameco’s Cigar Lake mine.

Potash Corp. confident of K+S bid, could raise if more value seen – by Pachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – July 8, 2015)

July 8, 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.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. is confident K+S AG shareholders would accept its $8.7-billion (U.S.) bid, but is open to raising the offer if its German rival could reveal more value not currently seen by the Canadian company, according to a source close to the deal.

K+S has rejected Potash Corp.’s offer of €41 ($45 U.S.) a share, saying it is too low and grossly undervalues its Legacy potash project in Saskatchewan. K+S has said it believes Legacy alone is worth €21 a share, which has led some analysts to speculate that K+S is looking for an offer of about €50 a share.

The source characterized that amount as inconceivable and said there was no chance that such an offer would materialize given the average takeover premium in Germany is 32 per cent and Potash Corp. is offering a 57-per-cent premium to K+S’s share price over the past year.

China panic crushes mining stocks – by Frik Els (Mining.com – July 7, 2015)

July 8, 2015

http://www.mining.com/

Billions wiped from mining sector as gold, silver prices fall and copper, iron ore prices plummet to 2009 levels amid Chinese stock market collapse

The value of base and precious metal miners and the diversified giants all fell on Tuesday as commodity prices dropped to fresh multi-year lows hit by the triple whammy of a stronger dollar and turmoil in the eurozone and China.

In New York trade on Tuesday copper for delivery in September dropped as much as 6% to a low of $2.39 per pound or around $5,260 a tonne, the lowest since July 2009 and down 16% so far this year.

Despite a rebound in late trade, base metals prices ended the day at multi-year lows. Nickel lost as much 9% hitting $10,637 a tonne, tin ended 4.4% lower at $13,700 a tonne while zinc gave up 3.7% to $1,934 a tonne.

Lead prices dropped more than 2% to $1,722 a tonne entering a bear market with a 20% decline since its May high. The same fate befell aluminum which declined 1.7% to $1,666 a tonne, more than 20% below its September highs. Crude oil despite a slight gain late in the day is now back into bear territory.

‘Scratch & Lose’ cards aim to bring attention to mining industry woes – by Susan Bradley (CBC News Nova Scotia – July 8, 2015)

July 8, 2015

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia

Mining association lobbying for fuel tax rebate, better tax break

Nova Scotia’s mining industry is seeking recognition as being an important employer in the province. As a result, the Mining Association of Nova Scotia has issued “Scratch & Lose” cards to illustrate how jobs are being lost here because of government policies.

“The mining and quarrying industry, all over the province, has lost 800 jobs since 2008,” association executive director Sean Kirby said. He said mining and quarrying employs 5,500 people and generates $420 million in economic activity, a big chunk of it in rural areas.

The association sent out the cards, modelled on lottery scratch-and-win cards, to bring home the message Nova Scotia’s global reputation in the mining sector is suffering.

“We feel we need to get that fixed so we can help the industry grow and create more jobs,” Kirby said.

Refracking the hot new craze sweeping across shale oil fields – by Dan Murtaugh, Lynn Doan and Bradley Olson (National Post/Bloomberg News – July 8, 2015)

July 8, 2015

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

The technique itself is nothing new. Oil crews across the world have been schooled on its simple principles for generations: Identify aging, low-output wells and hit them with a blast of sand and water to bolster the flow of crude. The idea originated somewhere in the plains of the American Midwest, back in the 1950s.

But as today’s engineers start applying the procedure to the horizontal wells that went up during the fracking boom that swept across U.S. shale fields over the past decade, something more powerful, more financially rewarding is happening.

The short life span of these wells, long thought to be perhaps the single biggest weakness of the shale industry, is being stretched out. Early evidence of the effects of restimulation suggests that the fields could actually contain enough reserves to last about 50 years, according to a calculation based on Wood Mackenzie Ltd and ITG Investment Research data.

If the word fracking has carved out a spot in the lexicon of Americans as the nation advances toward energy independence, then refracking, as roughnecks have begun calling it, could be next.

Salt mine keeps Goderich alive, ‘youthful’ (CBC News Canada – July 7, 2015)

July 7, 2015

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

Harsh winters boost demand for mineral spread on roads, sidewalks

Deep under Lake Huron, five kilometres from shore, miners work in a cloud of fine particles, the beams from their headlamps piercing the darkness. The rooms and tunnels they have dug out are huge, the ceilings 20 metres from the floor.

Trucks load and scurry about, tipping their loads of freshly mined salt into crushers connected to long, fast-moving conveyor belts.

Some 500 people work in this mine in Goderich, Ont., exploiting a massive and almost pure deposit that is the small town’s ace in the hole.

“There is salt underground in this seam for 100 years of mining, ” said Gerry Rogers, the Compass Minerals executive in charge of the operation. “It will last a long time.”

The company says the salt mine in Goderich, a town about 100 kilometres northwest of London, is the largest in the world. And business is good.

Gold-Mine Developer TMAC Declines in Toronto Debut – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – July 7, 2015)

July 7, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

TMAC Resources Inc., the first mining company to have an initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange in more than two years, fell 6.5 percent in early trading.

The shares, which were sold in the IPO at C$6 ($4.70) apiece, traded at C$5.61 at 10.26 a.m. Toronto time, joining a wider selloff of gold and gold-mining equities.

TMAC raised C$135 million in the offering to help develop its Hope Bay gold mine in the Canadian territory of Nunavut. The company will also use C$65 million of available cash plus a debt facility of as much as C$153 million to fund construction of the mine, located 160 kilometers (99 miles) north of the Arctic circle, Chairman Terry MacGibbon said.

The offering follows a difficult period for gold mining, with two straight annual gold-price declines prompting some of the largest companies in the industry to reduce costs and sell less-profitable mines. The previous mining IPO on the Toronto Stock Exchange was completed by Oban Mining Corp., a Canadian gold explorer, in October 2012.

[Hard-Line] Underground connection – by Katelyn Spidle (CIM Magazine – June/July 2015)

July 7, 2015

https://www.cim.org/en.aspx

Communication is key in underground mines, and wireless local area networks (WLAN) are connecting miners and their tools to the Internet to allow them to share and retrieve data efficiently, without interference.

In 1999 Hard-Line – a Sudbury-based heavy equipment remote control supplier – tested wireless technology in Falconbridge’s Craig mine. Hard-Line was using Aironet technology, now part of Cisco Systems, to develop new communications solutions for the mining industry.

Its key focus was to discover how wireless technology, relatively new at the time, could improve the safety and security of workers. In the end, the project also revealed wireless technology to be cost-effective, efficient and reliable.

“In the early 2000s we approached one of the larger companies and we showed them this technology; it blew their minds,” said Hard-Line president Walter Siggelkow. “It was everything they had asked for in a communications system.”

Hard-Line has since converted its original network system, the Mine Area Net, to act as the backbone of the company’s Teleop Tele-Remote Control Systems.

Jim Gowans: Modest mastermind – by Peter Braul (CIM Magazine – June/July 2015)

July 7, 2015

http://magazine.cim.org/en/2015/June-July.aspx

Not one to toot his own horn, Jim Gowans says what sets him apart from others in the mining business is simple – he has a lot of experience. If you believe his logic, lasting 40 years in the industry is all you have to do to reach the top of the biggest gold mining company in the world. But Gowans’ success is proof that it is what you do with your time that counts: he has managed to build six major mines over his career so far. Now co-president of Barrick Gold, he has moved back to Canada after years in Botswana managing Debswana, the world’s largest diamond producer, and is still eagerly looking ahead at the next big project.

CIM: Is there a Barrick operation you are particularly excited about?

Gowans: There are a couple of them, and for different reasons. Pueblo Viejo, in the Dominican Republic, is a new operation: I was involved in Placer Dome when we were actually looking to do the acquisition of that mine. It’s the only operation that produces over a million ounces a year. It’s got a long life and there is lots of potential there. It’s very complex metallurgy and I’m a metallurgist, so the flow sheet is very interesting to me.

Selwyn-Chihong Mining eyes upgrade to N.W.T. road to Yukon mine – by Guy Quenneville (CBC News North – July 7, 2015)

July 7, 2015

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

‘It’s our only viable access route into the mine site,’ says Doug Reeve

A Chinese-owned company that’s developing a Yukon lead-zinc mining project wants to spend between $35 million and $45 million upgrading a crucial N.W.T. access road to the mine.

Selwyn-Chihong Mining, a Canadian subsidiary of Yunnan Chihong Zinc and Germanium Co., is applying to the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board for permits that would allow the company to convert a narrow and windy access road cutting through multiple areas of the N.W.T. into a two-lane service road capable of handling regular and heavy truckloads during the mine’s construction and operation.

“It’s our only viable access route into the mine site,” said Doug Reeve, Selwyn-Chihong’s manager of permitting. “If we don’t have that permitted, it will be very difficult, of course, to develop a mine site.”

The 79-kilometre gravel road was originally built in the late 1970s to access mineral deposits but fell into disrepair until Selwyn-Chihong spent around $13.5 million in 2014 to install bridges and convert the road into a single-lane all-season road.

Ontario’s credit rating downgraded over heavy debt load, budgeting – by Jane Taber (Globe and Mail – July 7, 2015)

July 7, 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.

TORONTO — Standard & Poor’s is downgrading Ontario’s long-term credit rating, saying the province may be tackling its deficit but a multibillion-dollar 10-year plan for infrastructure spending will exacerbate its debt load

The downgrade, from double-A-negative to A-plus, comes because of a combination of “very high debt burden” and “very weak budgetary performance,” the major credit-rating agency says.

Since being re-elected last year, Ontario has been moving to cut the province’s deficit – projected to fall to $8.5-billion this year – by squeezing health care and education spending. But S&P is focusing, among other things, on the government’s intention to spend $130-billion over the next 10 years on transit and other infrastructure.

In addition to raising a red flag on the province’s long-term infrastructure plans, the rating agency chastised Queen’s Park for not being stricter on reining in its spending.