Canadian Media Resource Articles – Page 537

What Saskatchewan is doing right to attract mining investment – by Ravina Bains and Taylor Jackson (National Post – March 18, 2015)

March 18, 2015

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

“Furthermore, Saskatchewan has taken ownership of the consultation process; the provincial government
makes it very clear that it, not project proponents, is “responsible and ultimately accountable for
managing and implementing the duty to consult.” Saskatchewan is also home to innovative mining
partnerships between First Nations and resources companies. For example, Muskowekwan First Nation
and Encanto are undertaking a joint venture to develop the first on-reserve potash mine in Canada
that will generate 2.8 million tons of potash annually and create approximately 1,000 jobs.”
(Ravina Bains and Taylor Jackson)

The mining industry contributes mightily to Canada’s economic prosperity, adding $54 billion to Canada’s GDP and employing roughly 383,000 Canadians at an average annual salary of more than $110,000 in 2013.

But Canada has a serious problem with land-use certainty that may threaten future investment in the sector. Across the country, uncertainty surrounding disputed land claims remains a significant barrier to investment in the development of natural resources, particularly investment in the mining sector.

For example, every year the Fraser Institute surveys miners around the world to determine what makes a jurisdiction attractive — or unattractive — to investment. According to the most recent survey, in eight out of 12 Canadian provinces and territories in 2014, uncertainty over disputed land claims was the top barrier to investment.

Molycorp Inc at risk of financial collapse, signalling fall of rare earth industry – by Peter Koven (National Post – March 18, 2015)

March 18, 2015

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

North America’s flagship rare earth mining company is at risk of collapse, a symbol of how far the entire industry has fallen from its highs a few years ago.

Molycorp Inc. warned on Monday night that it may not be able to continue as a going concern if it can’t fix its balance sheet. The Colorado-based company has US$1.7 billion of debt, including US$206.5 million of convertible notes that mature in June of 2016. It is bleeding cash from operations and is not in a position to meet its future obligations. Its cash position was down to US$212 million at the end of December.

“We are focused on this issue and have retained financial and other advisers to assist us in strengthening our current financial position,” chief financial officer Michael Doolan said on a conference call.

The stock plunged 35% on Tuesday to close at just US48¢, giving Molycorp a market value of US$117 million. It is a stunning fall for a company that was worth almost US$80 a share at its peak in 2011, and acquired Canadian firm Neo Material Technologies Inc. for US$1.3 billion.

Molycorp went public in 2010, a period when prices for rare earth metals like dysprosium and neodymium were sky high.

New rail-car standards coming too slow, agency says – by Kim Mackrael (Globe and Mail – March 18, 2015)

March 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.

OTTAWA — Canada’s transportation watchdog is questioning a federal proposal to phase in tougher tank-car standards over the next 10 years, saying a recent spate of fiery derailments is evidence that faster action will be needed.

The Transportation Safety Board made the comments in a progress report on its investigation into a crude-oil train accident earlier this month in Northern Ontario. The TSB is investigating the derailment of a Canadian National train near Gogama, Ont., on March 7, which spilled crude oil into a nearby river and sparked a massive fire that burned for more than three days.

While investigators did not come to a conclusion on what caused the accident, they said they found a section of broken rail that had been installed two days before the accident. The rail was sent to a laboratory in Ottawa for further analysis, the report said.

All of the tank cars involved in the accident were built after 2011 and complied with the current CPC-1232 standard, the TSB report said. That means they had steel cladding at the front and protection over the valves – added safeguards that were not present on the earlier-model tank cars involved in the Lac-Mégantic disaster two years ago.

Pacific Future Energy proposes B.C. refinery for Alberta bitumen – by Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – March 18, 2015)

March 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.

VANCOUVER — The backers of a bitumen refinery project in northwestern British Columbia believe their made-in-B.C. recipe for getting oil out of landlocked Alberta will win over skeptics.

Other high-profile energy projects – such as Enbridge Inc.’s Northern Gateway pipeline – remain stalled amid widespread opposition in B.C., but officials at Pacific Future Energy say their solution is to build a refinery to address fears about tankers spilling oil into the Pacific Ocean.

While the Northern Gateway proposal calls for loading unrefined heavy oil into tankers for export from Kitimat, Pacific Future Energy is seeking to build an $11.4-billion (U.S.) refinery near Prince Rupert that would turn Alberta bitumen into products such as gasoline and diesel.

Stockwell Day, the former federal international trade minister who is now Pacific Future Energy’s senior adviser, argues that Enbridge isn’t able to win a social licence for Northern Gateway because the pipeline proposal is tainted by the risk of oil spills from Asia-bound tankers.

Pacific Future Energy is casting Enbridge as an Alberta-centric company that has underestimated British Columbians’ opposition to oil tankers.

Talisman Energy Inc, Nexen Energy ULC fire hundreds of employees in ‘bloody Tuesday’ – by Claudia Cattaneo and Geoffrey Morgan (National Post – March 18, 2015)

March 18, 2015

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

CALGARY – St. Patrick’s Day turned into “bloody Tuesday” in Calgary as major companies Talisman Energy Inc. and Nexen Energy ULC — both recently acquired by foreign operators — axed hundreds of employees, adding to the surge of energy sector jobs cut as a result of low oil prices.

Talisman, the international oil and gas producer that has been purchased by Spain’s Repsol SA, said 10% to 15% of its employees and contractors would be laid off this week, or about 150 to 200 of 1,300 Calgary head-office jobs that support its global operations.

“It’s a tough week, it’s a tough time for the industry, and the reality is that no oil and gas company is immune to low commodity prices,” said Brent Anderson, spokesman for Talisman.

Nexen, a subsidiary of China’s CNOOC Ltd., also announced 400 job cuts – 300 of them in Calgary. The job losses represent 14.5% of the company’s total Canadian head count.

“A decision was made to conduct a thorough review of our organization to ensure our long-term viability and sustainability,” CEO Fang Zhi said in a statement. “While regrettable, these organizational changes are necessary to align the company with our reduced capital spending program. We take these decisions seriously, and all impacted employees have been treated fairly and with respect.”

Canada’s big mining firms to expand prospecting within the nation – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – March 16, 2015)

March 16, 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.

After three years of falling commodity prices, big mining companies are taking the lead on exploration in Canada as cash-strapped junior miners struggle to stay afloat.

Centerra Gold Inc. will spend upward of $100-million to develop a gold deposit in Ontario. Goldcorp Inc. is spending about 10 per cent more on exploration in 2015 than it did last year. Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. is expanding its exploration team in Nunavut after it found gold on boulders near its mine in the territory.

“We have a lot of evidence that there is gold in the area,” said Sean Boyd, Agnico’s chief executive. The company is moving eight drill rigs and about 80 miners to its arctic camp, in order to locate the source of the golden boulders.

Traditionally, small mining companies have done the bulk of the prospecting in Canada. But with commodity prices at multiyear lows and a dearth of high-profile discoveries, investors are unwilling to bankroll junior miners with little or no track record.

Last year, junior companies spent a total of $742.5-million exploring in Canada, while the senior companies spent a total of $1.2-billion, according to government data. At the height of the commodity boom in 2011, the groups of small and big companies each spent around $2-billion.

Exploration companies get consultation tax break (CBC News North – March 14, 2015)

March 16, 2015

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

Companies can now write-off cost to consult aboriginal groups

The federal government has created a new tax break for Canadian exploration companies that will allow them to deduct expenses related to consultation with aboriginal groups.

Exploration companies can spend tens of thousands of dollars explaining their projects to aboriginal communities that live near proposed mine sites. Costs associated with environmental and First Nations consultation will now qualify as a Canadian Exploration Expense.

Costs include flights to communities, hotels, hall rentals, vehicle rentals, publication of materials, translation of information into local languages — and of course, the small courtesy of bringing coffee and snacks.

Resource Analyst John Kaiser says offering tax deductions could help junior companies survive the early financial hurdles of early-stage exploration. “When it starts to show up early in the exploration cycle, before you even know if there’s anything worth developing, the costs become onerous,” he said.

Jamie Kneen of MiningWatch Canada says the change could attract more investors but it doesn’t address capacity issues that aboriginal groups face. “The mounds of applications and papers they get to go through — from water permits to land use plans — they don’t have time time and capacity to deal with it all. This doesn’t address that at all,” he said.

Where’s the logic in Ontario’s power play? – by Konrad Yakabuski (Globe and Mail – March 16, 2015)

March 16, 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.

The mandate Ontario’s Liberal government handed former TD Bank chief Ed Clark was flawed from the outset. Selling off prized electricity assets to pay for transit projects smacked more of a cash grab than a considered approach to maximizing value and making sound energy policy.

In the end, Mr. Clark’s panel recommended last fall that Ontario maintain full ownership of Hydro One’s transmission assets, made up of 30,000 kilometres of high-voltage lines across the province, and privatize the utility’s distribution arm, which serves 1.4 million Ontarians. “There is far less reason to regard distribution as a core strategic asset than transmission,” the panel said.

As The Globe and Mail revealed last week, however, Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government is now thinking of both selling up to 60 per cent of the transmission business to investors and privatizing the distribution arm in order to spur a sector-wide consolidation among the spate of “local distribution companies” that interface with electricity customers across the province.

Both are interesting ideas. But the devil is in the details. And when it comes to Ontario governments meddling in the electricity sector, the details always seem to ruin everything.

On what grounds can the provincial government justify using proceeds from selling electricity assets to fund transit?

Snap Lake mine could close if dissolved solid limit not raised: De Beers – by Guy Quenneville (CBC News North – March 13, 2015)

March 16, 2015

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

Company asking Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board to nearly triple limit

De Beers Canada says some recommendations for how to tackle a groundwater problem at its Snap Lake diamond mine could, if implemented, result in the mine closing down early — a move that would put 300 N.W.T. residents out of work.

De Beers has encountered higher than expected volumes of total dissolved solids (TDS) — including mineral salts — in water leaking through the inner walls of the underground mine, located 220 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife.

The company treats that water and releases it back into the lake. But to avoid going over the acceptable level of TDS for the lake, the company has also been storing TDS-high water underground since June 2014. De Beers is asking the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board to nearly triple the highest allowed level of TDS in Snap Lake to 1,000 milligrams per litre.

“Snap Lake mine cannot continue to operate if a level of [total dissolved solids] is set that is not sustainable,” said Glen Koropchuk, De Beers Canada’s chief operating officer.

Koropchuk said De Beers has already spent $20 million to capture and release TDS-high water at Snap Lake. It’s one of several unanticipated issues Koropchuk says De Beers has faced at Snap Lake since the mine opened in 2008.

Spring budget is Liberals’ fire sale to cure 12 years of mismanagement – by Christina Blizzard (Toronto Sun – March 14, 2015)

March 16, 2015

http://www.torontosun.com/

TORONTO – The deficit-plagued Liberal government of Kathleen Wynne is hanging the “For Sale” sign on government assets. The Liberals’ spring budget won’t be so much a fiscally responsible financial document outlining the government’s plan to prudently manage government programs as it will be a fire sale to help fund the Liberals’ 12 years of mismanagement.

Suddenly, Hydro One is for sale. And the government is going to open up wine and beer sales to large grocery stores and rake in millions in franchise fees.

This all has a Nixon to China flavour to it. If a Conservative government suggests changes to liquor sales or selling off utilities, it’s accused of being in the pockets of big business.

When Mike Harris’ government suggested selling off parts of Hydro One more than a decade ago, it was slammed for trading away the province’s “central nervous system.”

The difference back then was that Harris suggested selling off Hydro One because his government philosophically believed the private sector could do a better job. In hindsight, looking at the mess Hydro One is in, Harris was right.

Mining downturn a chance for governments to craft competitive policies: World Bank (Northern Miner – March 13, 2015)

March 16, 2015

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

Like other regions, Latin America has seen a slowdown in mining investment thanks to the global decline in commodities prices.

But however much it might hurt in the short-term, the slowdown represents a chance for Latin American countries to rethink their strategies around mining and the industry’s strategic role in spurring economic development, says Paulo de Sa, Practice Manager with the World Bank’s Energy and Extractives Global Practice group (GEEDR).

“It’s an opportunity for governments to think about competitiveness of their industries,” he said at a World Bank sponsored forum on mining in Latin America during the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention in March.

While in previous commodity downturns, countries cut taxes to remain competitive in a “race to the bottom,” de Sa is hopeful that this time around, governments will explore other ways to achieve competitiveness. “We believe there are many, many ways of continuing to be attractive to mining investment other than just reducing the taxes,” he said.

To give governments some ideas on how to do that, the forum heard from officials from several different jurisdictions inside and outside of Latin America.

[Northern Ontario – Iroquois Falls] Small Town Shut Down – The Agenda’s Steve Paikin interviews Michael Shea, Jamison Steeve, Madge Richardson and Stan Sudol (March 11, 2015)

March 14, 2016March 13, 2015

http://theagenda.tvo.org/ Resolute Forest Products is shutting down the newsprint mill in Iroquois Falls, Ontario, a move that will result in the loss of 182 jobs , continuing to erode livelihoods in a town of just 4600. The forestry company essentially built Iroquois Falls a century ago and was its largest employer. Like many other single-resource …

THE LUNCH: The skinny on ex-Xstrata boss Mick Davis and X2 – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – March 13, 2015)

March 13, 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.

LONDON — There’s a lot less to Mick Davis than there used to be.

Let’s start with the man himself. When he was running Xstrata PLC, the mining company he sold to Glencore PLC, the world’s biggest commodities trader, in 2013, he was a big man – “Big Mick,” they called him. He topped out at 317 pounds and had developed Type 2 diabetes. In the interests of survival, he launched a hostile raid on his own girth. Today, Big Mick is on the verge of skinny, at 196 pounds, a downsizing so successful that he no longer has to take diabetes medications.

I ask him how he did it. “You eat less, exercise more, and stick to it,” he says. “I took up cycling and I love it.” His day job has shrunk too, even more so. At its peak just before the 2008 financial crisis, Xstrata, which bought Canada’s Falconbridge Ltd. in 2006, had a market value of about $85-billion (U.S.), making it the fourth- or fifth-largest mining company in the world, with almost 70,000 employees and contractors.

Today, he runs X2 Resources, which has 10 employees and zero assets other than $4-billion of investor capital, some of it from Canadian pension funds, sitting idly in the bank.

X2 was launched a year ago and has been shopping for mining assets or operating companies, but has come up short. Mr. Davis admits he is finding it harder to buy now than in the previous decade, when he spent $35-billion on 40 rapid-fire acquisitions in one of the greatest bull runs in history. “We’ve given some people an expression of interest,” he said. “I expect to do a deal this year.”

These gold hunting drones and drills don’t need a permit to make your rich – Business Network News Andrew Bell interviews Shawn Ryan (March 5, 2015)

March 13, 2015

http://www.bnn.ca/

Article by Jeff Lagerquist, BNN.ca staff

The people behind GroundTruth Exploration Inc. are the Navy SEALS of prospecting. They use innovative technologies to gather precise intelligence. They can work under the harshest conditions deep in the wilderness, almost anywhere in the world, leaving behind virtually no trace. The data they gather can literally be worth millions. And they get the job done with a level of speed and efficiency that threatens to upend the way mineral deposits are found.

Shawn Ryan, principal at GroundTruth relishes the comparison to the elite U.S. fighting force, and says his Yukon Territory-based company’s potent combination of existing technologies newly applied to the prospecting industry can cut exploration costs by 80 percent.

“What would normally cost us two field seasons in the Yukon, and $500,000 to $700,000, we do it in two weeks, any time of the year, for under $100,000,” he said.

Franco-Nevada ready to bankroll cash strapped producers ahead of exploration drought – Business Network News Andrew Bell interviews Pierre Lassonde (March 3, 2015)

March 13, 2015

http://www.bnn.ca/

Article Jeff Lagerquist, BNN.ca staff

It’s a buyer’s market for gold royalty companies as cash-strapped miners look to fill the capital void left by fleeting venture capital and bank debt. Few know this as well as Franco-Nevada (FNV.TO 1.17%), the Toronto-based rival of Silver Wheaton (SLW.TO 2.16%) who announced a dividend for the first quarter of 2015 earlier this month.

Pierre Lassonde, Franco-Nevada’s chair, is making big bets ahead of the exploration drought he sees five-to-ten years down the road to the tune of U.S. $900 million in 2014.

Franco-Nevada announced in October it’s providing an up-front deposit of $648 million to acquire the gold and silver stream from Freeport-McMoRan Inc.’s (FCX.N -4.1%) Candelaria operation in Chile from Lundin Mining Corporation (LUN.TO -2.14%). It’s the biggest deal of the year for Franco, the royalty and streaming investor that became famous for acquiring a royalty on Barrick Gold’s Nevada mine in 1985.