Canadian Media Resource Articles – Page 540

Commentary: Aboriginal Peoples score 200 legal wins in Canada’s resources sector – by Bill Gallagher (Northern Miner – March 4, 2015)

March 10, 2015

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

Pipelines, energy exports, fracking, clear-cuts, tailings ponds and access to resources are daily in the news as the industry faces pushback on traditional lands from natives who feel that their way of life is threatened. But what’s different now is that the tone of the dialogue is changing — and not necessarily for the better.

For example, here is a quote from Northern News of Gino Chitaroni, president of the Northern Prospectors Association, recently speaking in Kirkland Lake, Ont.: “We are now at a crossroads, where our whole industry and way of life is completely threatened … the empowerment of First Nations at the expense of the mining and exploration industry … this is a massive sleeper problem that nobody wants to talk about in the press, because those who do may be targeted for reprisals and branded bigots and racists.”

We’ve seen a lot of court-bashing in the Canadian media from think tanks, former politicos and a former media tycoon. But the fact is that the native legal winning streak has rolled out in a highly consistent fashion. Indeed, it’s the courts themselves that have promoted the need for constructive dialogue for over 15 years now, based on the poignant closing in Delgamuukw, wherein the Supreme Court admonished one and all by writing: “Let us face it: we are all here to stay.”

Unfortunately, resource-centric governments have continued to do their talking in the court, with devastating results. Because today, after amassing 200 legal wins (I’ve been keeping track), Aboriginal Peoples are well on their way to redrawing the map of Canada not only at the resource sector’s expense, but also at the expense of the national economy.

New Ring of Fire report card gives Ottawa failing grade, urges immediate action – by Lisa Wright (Toronto Star – March 10, 2015)

March 10, 2015

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Exclusive: Ontario is still years away from building mines rich in chromite and other metals due to government stalling and red tape, yet there is a strong business case for moving ahead, says Ontario Chamber of Commerce.

Ontario’s Ring of Fire mineral belt is years away from being built despite an expected turnaround in metal prices and First Nations’ dire need for development of the far north, says the Ontario Chamber of Commerce.

“Despite its significant potential, we are no closer today than we were a year ago to realizing the benefits of the Ring of Fire,” says the new one-year report card obtained by The Star.

“After a year of delays, public and expert perception on the viability of the Ring of Fire as a sound economic investment has soured,” it says.

The site, 400 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, Ont., is estimated to have $60 billion of mineral value including base metals, platinum and palladium, along with North America’s largest deposit of chromite, which is used to make stainless steel.

Rick Rule: Gold price ‘could easily see $1,000’ – by Frik Els (Mining.com – March 6, 2015)

March 9, 2015

http://www.mining.com/

Gold on Friday plunged more than $30 an ounce after a better-than-expected US jobs report saw the dollar soar to multi-year highs.

In heavy trade of more than 20m ounces in New York, gold for delivery in April fell $32.33 an ounce or 2.7% from Thursday’s close hitting a low of $1,163.87 an ounce during one of the worst trading days in a year.

Gold is now at the lowest price since mid-November and more than $140 below its 2015 high struck January 22. Gold’s gains earlier this year were ascribed to safe haven buying amid currency turmoil, a slowing global economy, geopolitical concerns, the fallout of the collapse in oil prices and a debt crisis in the eurozone.

But with the first hike in more than six years likely at the Fed’s June meeting raising the opportunity costs of holding gold, traders refocused their attention on fundamental factors.

Gold reacts counter to confidence and it would appear that there is a lot of confidence in the market. Higher rates also boost the value of the dollar which on Friday hit fresh 12-year highs against the currencies of major US trading partners. The greenback has strengthened by more than 20% over the last year.

Lukas Lundin: Guts, glory and betting against the grain – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – March 6, 2015)

March 6, 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.

Lukas Lundin has no tricks for how to play the market, but somehow he has timed his deals impeccably.

The mining tycoon managed to sell a big gold mine for billions at the top of cycle. Then after bullion slumped 30 per cent he bought another gold project for a fraction of the original cost.

“It was some luck and some skill,” the executive said in an interview at this week’s Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada conference. Mr. Lundin said he learned his deal-making skills from his father, Adolf Lundin, who founded the $11.8-billion Vancouver- based Lundin Group, a conglomerate of mining and energy companies.

“He had a big appetite for risk,” said Mr. Lundin. One of the family’s 11 companies is called NGEx Resources Inc. It stands for “No Guts, No Glory Exploration,” a play on patriarch Lundin’s “no guts, no glory” motto.

“He was a big speculator, took big risks, sometimes maybe not calculated. Hopefully I take more risks that are calculated,” said Mr. Lundin.

Breaking mining’s ‘rock ceiling’ for women – by Derrick Penner (Vancouver Sun – March 6, 2015)

March 6, 2015

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

Goldcorp among companies taking steps to make industry more welcoming

By the numbers, the mining industry still looks very much like a boys club. Just 17 per cent of the sector’s workforce in Canada is female, according to Mining Association of Canada statistics.

Industry leaders know they need to raise that number over the long term if the sector expects to maintain a sustainable pool of applicants to fill jobs in its rapidly aging workforce.

The industry has also launched programs to recruit more minority groups and First Nations, which has proved a particularly successful strategy in northern B.C. Vancouver-headquartered Goldcorp Inc. has adopted its own edge in recruiting by expanding Creating Choices, its internal training and mentorship program for women.

The program is “becoming one of the tools” attracting potential recruits, said Anna Tudela, Goldcorp’s vice-president of regulatory affairs and corporate secretary and the program’s creator.

“In the mining industry, we’re lacking the (future) workforce,” Tudela said. “We will have to attract more women,” as well as workers from diverse backgrounds.

Rocky road ahead for sputtering China – by Brian Milner (Globe and Mail – March 6, 2015)

March 6, 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.

China has cut its growth target for this year by half a percentage point to about 7 per cent, a level that would mark its slowest expansion in a quarter of a century.

It also ought to dispel any notion that its leadership can engineer a fairly smooth economic transition toward the greater manufacture and domestic consumption of higher-value goods without serious growth hiccups and heavy state intervention.

The less optimistic outlook makes sense for a government that typically does whatever is necessary to meet – and preferably exceed – its publicly avowed goals for the economy.

The technocrats have known for some time that the sputtering economy has no chance of exceeding 7 per cent growth this year, and that it may take considerable data massaging (a government specialty) just to reach the lower bar. Major headwinds include continued weak demand in key export markets, serious manufacturing overcapacity and a bubble-ridden property market teetering on the brink.

Ottawa Urged To Share Resource Taxes With Aboriginals – by Bob Weber (Canadian Press/Huffington Post – March 3, 2015)

March 6, 2015

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/politics/

EDMONTON – First Nations should get some of the money generated by resources on their lands, suggests a report commissioned by the federal government and the Assembly of First Nations.

The report, released Tuesday by the Working Group on Natural Resource Development, says a First Nations resource tax could be a consistent and practical way for mineral and energy wealth to benefit aboriginal communities.

“We strongly urge the federal government, along with the provinces and territories, to come together with First Nations to explore options for resource revenue sharing,” says the report.

“This discussion is long overdue and requires immediate action in order to bring greater predictability to resource development in Canada and establish a long-term pathway to greater First Nations self-reliance.”

The group was struck after a meeting between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and former Assembly of First Nations grand chief Shawn Atleo. Its report was issued after meetings in Toronto and Edmonton between First Nations, governments, industry and non-governmental organizations.

Goldcorp Sees Investors Taking Shine to ‘Beaten-Up’ Industry – by Liezel Hill(Bloomberg News – March 3, 2015)

March 6, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

(Bloomberg) — The world’s largest gold producer by market value says investor sentiment for the sector may finally be starting to turn after years as one of the least-loved industries.

“There’s generalist value investors out there saying ‘OK, I like looking at beaten-up sectors, this sector is really beaten up,’” Goldcorp Inc. Chief Executive Officer Chuck Jeannes said in an interview Tuesday at Bloomberg’s Toronto office. “People are trying to call the bottom.”

Jeannes said he’s been fielding more calls from unfamiliar investors and has a new entity among its top 10 shareholders. Artisan Partners, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based investment company with more than $100 billion in assets, added 15.7 million shares in Goldcorp last year, making it the seventh-largest holder, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Gold & Silver Index plunged 70 percent from the start of 2011 to the end of last year. Producers struggled to contain costs and wrote off billions of dollars after prices for the metal — which had risen to more than $1,900 an ounce — began dropping in 2012. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed 64 percent in the past four years.

Goldcorp fell 2.4 percent to C$25.45 at the close in Toronto. The shares, which have risen 19 percent in 2015, have dropped in the prior four years.

Mood at PDAC 2015 ‘cautiously optimistic’ (Northern Miner – March 4, 2015)

March 6, 2015

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

This year’s annual Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention drew in 23,578 attendees from over 100 countries. While the crowd for the world’s largest mining event, held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, was slightly smaller than last year’s over 25,000 participants, the mood was relatively more positive, PDAC president Rod Thomas told The Northern Miner.

Here’s an edited transcript of an interview with Thomas from the four-day event, which ended on March 4:

The Northern Miner: How has the PDAC convention evolved since you have been attending the event? How long have you been involved with the PDAC?

Rod Thomas: I first came here as a student in the 1970s. And for a student, in those days, it was the free sweets and so and so forth, and that was the main attraction. But, I have been coming for close to 40 years, I suppose. It has grown a lot, of course. Back then, it was held in the Royal York and I think we probably had an attendance in the order of 2,000 people.

I didn’t really start getting involved as a volunteer until the early 1990s. At that time, one of the directors asked me to help them to vet or set up the Investors Exchange.

Canada gold assets regaining lost luster, helped by soft C$ – by Euan Rocha and Susan Taylor (Reuters U.S. – March 5, 2015)

March 6, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – Canadian gold projects once shunned by miners in favor of more alluring opportunities overseas are regaining their sheen, as a weaker currency, new tax breaks and greater security of tenure are wooing miners to return home.

In the gold rush during the last decade, Canadian miners had largely focused on projects in far flung countries that often offered much larger potential output than what was available at home.

But a rash of windfall gains taxes, political turmoil and even outright expropriation have caused those miners to rethink their strategies.

“Canada is, for all intents and purposes, one of the best places you can explore,” said Ian Ball, president of Abitibi Royalties Inc. “It had fallen out of favor a bit, but it is coming back quite rapidly.”

At this week’s Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention, the world’s largest mining gathering, the mood was somber. Many junior mining companies ravaged by the downturn in metal prices have struggled to raise financing, or attract the interest of larger rivals.

But that trend is beginning to turn for some of those with gold projects in Canada.

Former Xstrata CEO poised for a comeback with X2 Resources – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – March 4, 2015)

March 4, 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.

Mick Davis, the mining boss who sold Xstrata to Glencore for $50-billion (U.S.), has reached $5.6-billion in investor capital to finance a mining investment campaign that will almost certainly turn his comeback vehicle, X2 Resources, into an operating company this year.

X2 announced the finish of its capital raising effort from a roster of international “blue chip” investors Wednesday night in London. If debt leverage is added to the figure the new company would have considerable firepower, making it capable of buying assets or operating companies valued at $15-billion to $20-billion.

The $5.6-billion includes $4-billion in committed equity capital that can be spent immediately, and US$1.6-billion that can be spent under certain conditions. A year ago, X2 announced that it had raised $3.75-billion in unconditional and conditional capital, none of which has been spent. The new figure includes the amount raised last year.

The capital comes from 20 investors, of which only two have been identified. They are Noble Group of Hong Kong, one of the world’s largest commodities trading and infrastructure companies, and TPG Capital, the private American investment firm with $65-billion in capital under management. The others are sovereign wealth funds and pension funds, several of which are Canadian.

PDAC 2015: Junior miners dig into new ways to tap retail investors – by John Shmuel and Peter Koven PDAC 2015: Junior miners dig into new ways to tap retail investors – by John Shmuel and Peter Koven (National Post – March 3, 2015)

March 4, 2015

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

TORONTO — For junior exploration companies, alternative financing options such as crowdfunding are starting to be taken seriously.

The halls of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) conference here are littered with companies clinging onto their last dollars and seeing no opportunity to raise money through traditional equity issues.

So it was no surprise that a big focus of the conference on Monday was digging into the alternatives. Some of them, notably crowdfunding, have real potential. But the rules remain uncertain and they raise serious concerns that even the experts acknowledged are not yet understood.

For decades, exploration companies could count on Canadian retail investors to provide capital. Now that institutional investors have almost entirely stopped funding greenfield exploration, they need to tap into retail more than ever. But under the current securities regime, they have failed to do that in recent years. Now they need to win the retail investor back.

“This is the worst bear market in decades and the retail investor has completely left the room,” said junior mining analyst John Kaiser. He added that the sector has become “inaccessible to the retail investor.”

PDAC Interview: Michael Gravelle beats the drum for Ontario – (Northern Miner – March 3, 2015)

March 4, 2015

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

Ontario’s Minister of Northern Development and Mines, Michael Gravelle, and Greg Rickford, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources and Minister for the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario, kicked off PDAC with an announcement of a joint investment of more than $785,000 to support economic development and community access in northwestern Ontario.

The government of Canada and the province of Ontario will each invest $393,814 to enable the Webequie First Nation, in partnership with the First Nations of Eabametoong, Neskantaga, and Nibinik, to complete a study on a regional community service corridor. The study will examine the benefits of developing an all-season transportation corridor connecting First Nation communities in the area with existing roadways, in order to capitalize on opportunities related to resource development in the region, including in the Ring of Fire, 540 km northeast of Thunder Bay.

In a further announcement on the second day of the mining conference, the provincial government said it plans to renew its 2006 Mineral Development Strategy, with fresh input from stakeholders. Over the next three months, the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines will host workshops across Ontario to provide industry, Aboriginal communities, and other community partners the opportunity to respond to the proposed themes for a renewed MDS and set priorities to strengthen the sector.

The Northern Miner caught up with Gravelle on the sidelines of the conference.

Mushkegowuk rail plan still on despite road study – by Len Gillis (Timmins Times – March 3, 2015)

March 4, 2015

http://www.timminstimes.com/

The federal and provincial governments announced on the weekend that more than three-quarters of a million dollars will be spent on a study for a new road in Northern Ontario.

The announcement was made Sunday at the annual Prospector’s and Developers Convention (PDAC) in Toronto. Federal Natural Resources minister Greg Rickford and provincial Northern Development and Mines minister Michael Gravelle said their governments are contributing 50-50 to a $785,000 expenditure through the FedNor Northern Ontario Development Program.

The money is for a joint venture to study the idea of building a road into the lucrative Ring Of Fire mining prospect.

“The study will examine the benefits of developing an all-season transportation corridor connecting First Nation communities in the area with existing roadways, enabling them to capitalize on opportunities related to resource development in the region,” said the joint news release.

Reaction to the announcement is generally good, but there doesn’t appear to be a lot of overwhelming excitement, based on comments from from at least two Northern leaders. “The word I am hearing is, there’s the announcement and some people are saying, what, another study?” said Lawrence Martin, the Grand Chief of the Mushkegowuk Council.

PDAC 2015: Lukas Lundin sets lofty goals as he re-enters gold game – by Tommy Humphreys (National Post – March 3, 2015)

March 4, 2015

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

Legendary mining and oil tycoon Lukas Lundin has never been modest about his goals. So his latest targets probably shouldn’t surprise anyone, as eye-opening as they might sound.

“I want Lundin Mining up to $10-billion [market capitalization]. I want Lundin Petroleum up to $10-billion. And I want Lundin Gold [at] $5-billion,” the Swedish entrepreneur said in an interview in his office, which overlooks the city of Vancouver and the North Shore Mountains beyond.

On his bookshelf sits an unusual marble pig with a red dash up its spine. It is a gift from an investment banker that commemorates Mr. Lundin’s US$7.1-billion sale of Red Back Mining Inc. to Kinross Gold Corp. in 2010. That was probably the most one-sided deal in the history of the gold business, and Mr. Lundin, as he usually does, came out on the winning end.

Now the Lundin Group of Companies is back in the gold game. It paid US$240 million – including US$100 million from Mr. Lundin’s own family – to Kinross for the Fruta del Norte (FDN) project in Ecuador last year, creating Lundin Gold Inc. Kinross paid US$1.2 billion for FDN in 2008, but decided not to build the mine after the government imposed a punitive windfall profits tax.

FDN is one of the largest and richest undeveloped gold projects in the world. It’s capable of producing 500,000 to 600,000 ounces of gold per year at low cash costs, Mr. Lundin said. But he has to overcome the political problems in Ecuador that felled Kinross.