Twitter

Canadian Media Resource Articles

Furious B.C. magnate says he’s caught up in ‘vicious’ smear campaign against Clinton charities – by Brian Hutchinson (National Post – May 6, 2015)

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

VANCOUVER — This seems out of character: Frank Giustra, one of Canada’s wealthiest and most guarded businessmen, is openly seething. Smacking the boardroom table and swearing.

“I can’t deal with this anymore,” snaps the mining and entertainment magnate. To his horror, he’s become hot political fodder south of the border. All because of his close relationship with former U.S. president Bill Clinton, suggestions of influence-peddling through related charities the two men established and a growing scandal ensnaring Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“I’ve spent the last 10 days doing nothing but dealing with media calls. I can’t get anything done,” Giustra says, his voice starting to crack the longer our interview inside his downtown Vancouver office this week continues. “It’s out of control. It’s a f—ing circus.”

A rags-to-riches multi-millionaire who normally shuns publicity, Giustra made his fortune as a stockbroker before “retiring” two decades ago, shy of his 40th birthday. An ugly, Bre-X-style gold mining scandal caused by others was singeing his feathers and creating what he describes as “internal conflict” at Yorkton Securities Inc., the Vancouver-based brokerage he headed.

Read more

Vaughn Palmer: Coal deal heralds future of resource development – by Vaughn Palmer (Vancoucer Sun – May 4, 2015)

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

Rights holders compensated and mine plan frozen, with possibility of future joint venture with First Nation

VICTORIA — When Mines Minister Bill Bennett met with reporters at the legislature late Monday afternoon, he announced an innovative solution to a dispute over some coal mining licences that also heralded the future for resource development in B.C.

The specifics involved some 61 privately held mineral licences, together forming the basis for an anthracite coal mine in the Klappan region in the northwest of the province.

Together they also formed the basis for a decade-long standoff between the two private company holders of the licences and the Tahltan First Nation, in whose traditional territory the mining property was located.

The Tahltan opposed the project, a determination manifested with blockades going back 10 years. Thus stalled, the rights-holders — Fortune Minerals and POSCO Canada — had no practical option to develop their property, acquired in good faith in 2002.

Read more

Why the rush into Canadian gold mines may continue – by Steve Todoruk (Mining.com – May 4, 2015)

http://www.mining.com/

Sprott’s Thoughts – In the mining sector, mergers and acquisitions can deliver rapid returns to shareholders.  Investors in Cayden Resources saw their shares swell by 300% in price late last year, when Cayden received a takeover offer from Agnico Eagle Mines.

Steve Todoruk, a broker at Sprott Global Resource Investments Ltd., has been eyeing the next possible takeover. He believes he’s narrowed down the most likely targets.

In a recent note, he explains why it comes down to safety for the company making the acquisition:

I’m seeing two trends in mergers and acquisitions right now, as I look around the space for the next Cayden or the next Osisko Mining (which received a generous takeover early last year).

First off, in the last bull market, many big mining companies went after mines in higher-risk jurisdictions around the world. Today, investors are retrenching towards areas that are perceived as ‘safe’ – where governments aren’t likely to change the rules or confiscate assets. Investors are increasingly risk-averse and want exposure to mines in countries like Canada, the US, and Australia.

Read more

Manitoba Hudbay workers go on strike in Flin Flon and Snow Lake – by Staff (Canadian Press/Global News – May 4, 2015)

http://globalnews.ca/

FLIN FLON, Man. — Hudbay workers in Flin Flon and Snow Lake, Man., went on strike Saturday.

The union representing the workers announced Friday negotiations with the mining company had failed and they would go on strike Saturday at noon.

Hudbay Minerals Inc. (TSX:HBM) confirmed in a news release that 180 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local No. 1848 began a strike at noon Saturday.

The striking workers represent about 12 per cent of Hudbay’s 1,460 person workforce in Manitoba, the company said.

The union has said members want changes in wages and pensions. It said 96 per cent of its members voted against an offer from the company last month. Hudbay said it has a contingency plan in place and expects its operations to continue.

Read more

B.C. government buys coal licences to stop mining dispute – by Justine Hunter and Ian Bailey (Globe and Mail – May 5, 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.

VICTORIA and VANCOUVER — The B.C. government has devised a unique solution to head off conflict between a First Nations community and the developers of a proposed a coal mine, using its Crown corporation BC Rail to buy and hold coal licences during talks with the Tahltan Nation on managing the resource.

The province is paying $18.3-million to buy 61 licences from Fortune Minerals Ltd. and POSCO Canada Ltd. in a region dubbed the Sacred Headwaters in northwest British Columbia. The area is important to the Tahltan Nation because the headwaters of three important salmon rivers – the Stikine, Skeena and Nass – are there.

The companies will be able to buy back the assets at their original price if they reach an agreement with the Tahltan in the next 10 years.

Anthracite coal deposits that the companies want to mine are in an area within the Sacred Headwaters called the Klappan, which has been identified as having significant cultural significance to the First Nations community.

Read more

Quebec prepared to buy rail to help rescue iron-ore mine – by Sonja Elmquist and Frederic Tomesco (Bloomberg News/Montreal Gazette – May 5, 2015)

http://montrealgazette.com/

Quebec is prepared to buy a rail line and port facilities that service a shuttered Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. iron-ore mine to pave the way for the operation to reopen under new owners.

The government also is open to buying 20 percent of the Bloom Lake mine to facilitate a deal, Economy Minister Jacques Daoust said. Purchasing the rail and port facilities could lower the mine’s operating costs by as much as $20 a ton, he said.

“We’re trying to ensure the survival of the mine,” Daoust said Friday in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. “If the last 20 percent is a problem, I will fix it.”

Cliffs suspended production at Bloom Lake in January and sought creditor protection for the operation. That put pressure on the Quebec government, which wants to boost economic activity in Cote-Nord, a region with 10.7 percent unemployment. Bloom Lake employed about 600 people when it was operational, according to Investissement Quebec, a government agency.

As recently as 2013, Bloom Lake was considered a critical part of Cleveland-based Cliffs’ strategy to build its export business to mitigate its dependence on U.S. customers.

Read more

Battle between Canadian mining magnates for Coastal Gold Corp heats up – by Peter Koven (National Post – May 5, 2015)

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

Two Canadian mining magnates are fighting an increasingly heated battle for a tiny junior company, with one accusing the other of “incestuous behavior” within his empire.

Keith Neumeyer’s First Mining Finance Corp. has offered six cents a share (or about $10.2 million) for Coastal Gold Corp., which has a project in Newfoundland. The rival offer for Coastal, from Stan Bharti’s Sulliden Mining Capital Inc., is worth about 2.3 cents.

Given that First Mining’s offer is more than double Sulliden’s offer, one might assume that Neumeyer is convinced he will win. But that isn’t the case. Coastal’s board is currently endorsing the Sulliden bid, and Neumeyer would be surprised if that changes.

“It’s a joke,” he said in an interview. “They are obviously not acting in the best interests of shareholders and exercising their fiduciary duties properly.”

Neumeyer, who previously founded First Quantum Minerals Ltd. and First Majestic Silver Corp., thinks the problem here is inter-relationships between Bharti’s companies. Both Sulliden and Coastal are under the umbrella of Forbes & Manhattan (F&M), Bharti’s conglomerate of resource companies.

Read more

‘Game changer’: Gas company offers $1-billion to First Nations band in B.C. – by Justine Hunter and Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – May 1, 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.

VICTORIA and VANCOUVER — The proponent of a liquefied natural gas plant on British Columbia’s north coast is offering more than $1-billion to obtain the consent of a First Nations community, a groundbreaking proposal that could establish the new price for natural resource development in traditional aboriginal territories.

In a province where resource projects have stalled and sometimes foundered over aboriginal opposition, the tentative deal between the Prince Rupert-based Lax Kw’alaams band and a joint venture led by Malaysia’s state-owned Petronas sets a new benchmark for sharing the wealth from energy extraction.

If approved by band members, the agreement will transfer roughly $1-billion in cash to the Lax Kw’alaams band over the span of the 40-year deal, while the B.C. government is putting more than $100-million worth of Crown lands on the table. For the 3,600 members of the Lax Kw’alaams community, the total package works out to a value of roughly $320,000 per person.

Read more

Alaska turns up the heat on proposed B.C. mines – by Gordon Hoekstra (Vancouver Sun – May 3, 2015)

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

Lt. Gov. Mallott to meet with cabinet ministers, business and First Nations leaders

B.C.’s push to develop mines in its shared watersheds with Alaska is under increasing scrutiny from the American side of the border.

Concerns over multiple proposed metal mines near the southeast Alaska border has drawn Alaska’s Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott — and a coterie of commercial fishing, conservation and First Nation groups — to British Columbia this week.

In a visit that coincides with mining week in B.C., Mallott will meet with B.C. Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett, Environment Minister Mary Polak, industry representatives and First Nation leaders.

The Alaskan fishing, conservation and aboriginal representatives are in B.C. to build alliances in their push for more scrutiny of the potential effects on Alaska waters that support a multi-billion-dollar fishery.

They believe that B.C.’s review process is not adequate and want Alaska to have a seat at a table, potentially through an international joint commission, to examine potential cumulative effects on water and salmon. The groups are also concerned about compensation if there is a disaster.

Read more

Giustra fights back after U.S. campaign smears – by Don Cayo (Vancouver Sun – May 1, 2015)

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

Vancouver mining magnate Frank Giustra finds himself caught up in the repeated mudslinging that surrounds Hillary Clinton’s campaign to become the next U.S. president. He doesn’t like it, and he’s fighting back.

His story has yielded big headlines in big-name media — The New York Times and The Washington Post, to name just two. And it has been playing out over the better part of a month as new angles are explored and old ones rehashed.

It’s a story made complex both by innuendo and by the muddying, glossing over or ignoring of timelines that might cast factual information in another light. And, of course, the Twitterverse and Internet are awash in vitriol from those who accept innuendo and suggestions as literal truth.

But the basic facts, neither damning nor exculpatory in themselves, are simple. They include:

• Billionaire Giustra and former U.S. President Bill Clinton, have become fast friends in the past decade. They travel the world together in Giustra’s jet to look in on philanthropic projects they jointly support. Giustra has given Clinton’s foundation many tens of millions of dollars, and he has raised many tens of millions more from rich acquaintances.

Read more

Goldcorp Inc shareholder’s back company on “say on pay” – by Peter Koven (National Post – May 1, 2015)

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

TORONTO – After shareholders approved Goldcorp Inc.’s “say on pay” resolution at its annual meeting on Thursday, chairman Ian Telfer fired off a zinger at the proxy advisory firm that recommended against it.

“The ‘Glass Lewis’ is half empty, not half full,” he quipped, referring to Glass Lewis & Co. “Because 90 per cent of shareholders ignored their advice.”

Glass Lewis also advised shareholders to vote against the executive compensation packages at Barrick Gold Corp. and Yamana Gold Inc. And in both cases, an overwhelming majority of investors rejected those plans at annual meetings this week.

But it appears the Glass Lewis recommendation on Goldcorp got little to no traction, as 89 per cent ofshareholder votes were in favour of the company’s compensation plan. Chief executive Chuck Jeannes told reporters after the meeting in Toronto that he was “thrilled” with the result, which is non-binding.

“I was disappointed in the Glass Lewis recommendation. I don’t think it made sense because it was based on a comparison of our financial results with companies outside our sector,” he said.

Read more

Agnico digs deeper in Val d’Or – by Robert Gibbens (Montreal Gazette – May 1, 2015)

http://montrealgazette.com/

North America’s deepest gold mine, in northwestern Quebec, may soon get deeper. The LaRonde mine 56 kilometres west of Val d’Or, with a depth of 3.1 kilometres, could reach 3.7 kilometres in the latest development initiative by operator Agnico Eagle Ltd.

If the deep-level operation is successfully developed, the mine will have enough reserves to last an additional decade, to 2034, the company said.

Chief executive Sean Boyd, a 22-year Agnico veteran, has an engineering team working on the new 3.7-kilometre target level, seeking higher-grade ore and lower production costs to help LaRonde deal with bullion prices around the present $1,200 U.S. an ounce. Most of LaRonde’s ore now comes from the deeper levels.

Boyd told analysts Friday Agnico is working to extend LaRonde’s reserve base by targeting the 3.7-kilometre level and it has two drill holes under way. Drilling late last year added 444,000 ounces to LaRonde’s indicated reserves.

“We have a big exploration program underway this year in Canada and the LaRonde project is part of our long-term strategy,” he said.

Read more

Sherritt’s CEO optimistic about future nickel prices – Business Network News (The Street – April 29, 2015)

  http://www.bnn.ca/ David Pathe, Chief Executive Officer of Sherritt International, joins BNN’s “The Street” to discuss the mining industry, nickel, and relations with Cuba. He says that he sees a shift from excess nickel supply to surplus demand over the next several years, which will help the company’s bottom line. Despite lower production costs, Sherritt …

Read more

Yamana CEO giving back special share units after say-on-pay vote – by Janet McFarland (Globe and Mail – April 30, 2015)

 

http://www.bnn.ca/

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.

Yamana Gold Corp. chief executive officer Peter Marrone is giving back special share units he was granted last June, saying he has heard the message sent by shareholders who voted against the company’s compensation plan in its annual say-on-pay vote.

Yamana reported Wednesday that it lost the say-on-pay vote at its annual meeting in Toronto, making it the third major major company to lose a compensation vote in the past week. Shareholders of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Barrick Gold Corp. also voted against compensation plans at both companies, complaining about special payments awarded to senior executives in both cases.

Read more