Canadian Media Resource Articles – Page 556

There are many good reasons for takeover interest in Nevsun — and one really big downside – by Peter Koven (National Post – November 21, 2014)

November 21, 2014

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

Canadian miner Nevsun Resouces Ltd. has emerged as a potential takeover target, but any bidder is going to have to overcome a major deterrent: Eritrea.

The Vancouver-based miner revealed Thursday it recently received inquiries from “various parties” about a potential transaction. The announcement came after Bloomberg News reported that a Qatar-backed private equity fund called QKR Corp. is eyeing a US$1-billion bid for the company. Nevsun shares jumped 11%, giving the firm a market value of $942-million.

There are good reasons for the interest. Nevsun’s Bisha mine is extremely rich, with high-grade copper output that will transition into high-grade zinc output in a couple of years, when many analysts are forecasting shortages in the zinc market. The company has promising exploration ground in the area that could yield more mines. It also has close to US$400-million of cash, which means a takeover would largely pay for itself.

But the downside is that Bisha is in Eritrea, which is ruled by one of the world’s most repressive governments. The country is facing international sanctions, and Western governments may not look kindly at any company looking to do business there.

The Eritrean government has caused major problems for Nevsun.

By erecting new hurdles for Energy East, Quebec is caving to pipeline opponents – by Claudia Cattaneo(National Post – November 21, 2014)

November 21, 2014

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

As if TransCanada Corp.’s 30,000-page application to the National Energy Board for its proposed Energy East pipeline wasn’t good enough, the Quebec government has laid out seven conditions of its own before allowing the $12-billion project.

In a Nov. 18 letter (in French) to TransCanada president and CEO Russ Girling, Quebec Environment Minister David Heurtel said the conditions include passing an environmental assessment that examines its impact on greenhouse gas emissions, echoing President Barack Obama’s warning that he won’t approve Keystone XL if it exacerbates greenhouse gas emissions.

“If the company doesn’t respond to the conditions, the project cannot go ahead,” Mr. Heurtel said.

Quebec approval of Energy East, which would take 1.1 million barrels per day of Alberta crude oil to refineries in Quebec and New Brunswick and to ports in both provinces for export, is also contingent on the project providing a thorough emergency plan with a compensation fund in case of a spill; consultations with communities on the potential social impacts; use of the highest technical standards to assure public safety and protection of the environment; satisfying issues dealing with First Nations; generating economic benefits for all of Quebec, especially in job creation in areas where the pipeline will be located.

RPT-Quebec’s ambitious Plan Nord mineral project goes south – by Allison Lampert and Nicole Mordant (Reuters India – November 21, 2014)

November 21, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

Nov 20 (Reuters) – A plan by the Canadian province of Quebec to spend billions to develop the mineral riches of its northern region has been dealt a crippling blow by the pending closure of a major mine as iron ore prices sink and China’s interest wanes.

The Plan Nord project hopes to attract C$80 billion ($71 billion) of investment to the vast northern region, of which the iron ore-rich Labrador Trough is a major component. The French-speaking province is trying to sell the plan globally and is hoping miners will flock to northern Quebec after the government invests in the infrastructure necessary to open it up.

But Plan Nord took a big hit on Wednesday, when Cliffs Natural Resources said it is closing its Bloom Lake iron ore mine after struggling to secure funds to expand the mine and make it viable. Chinese steelmaker Wuhan Iron & Steel owns a minority stake in Bloom Lake.

Bloom Lake, one of three producing iron ore mines in Quebec, would have become a major customer for a railway line being considered under Plan Nord.

“Without Bloom Lake there’s no Plan Nord,” Cliffs Chief Executive Lourenco Goncalves told Reuters. “Without the mine, there’s pretty much nothing for Plan Nord to transport from point A to point B.”

Australia positioned as an Indo-Pacific power with new China, India trade deals – by Matthew Fisher (National Post – November 21, 2014)

November 21, 2014

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

CANBERRA — Australia is on the kind of diplomatic tear Canada can only dream of. Brisbane got lots of global attention by hosting the Group of 20 leaders summit in Brisbane last weekend because so many participants lined up behind Canada’s Stephen Harper to disparage Russian President Vladimir Putin for the Kremlin’s malignant actions in Ukraine.

Less than 24 hours later in Canberra, the Australian capital, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott signed China’s biggest trade deal ever. Mr. Abbott followed that triumph by announcing a strategic security alliance with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and, perhaps rashly, promised another trade deal could be expected by the end of 2015.

As Australia’s daily Financial Review crowed, “Simultaneous visits by Xi and Modi mark us as no longer an appendix to Asia, but as a core Indo-Pacific power.”

The optics must have looked good to the 2.6 billion people back home in China and India, too. The two leaders were accorded rapturous welcomes when they addressed Australia’s parliament on consecutive days.

Mr. Xi talked about how it was best to achieve peace through trade. Mr. Modi spoke of the bonds that Indians and Australians share. Both countries are democracies, he said, and their citizens love cricket.

Teck to control contaminants from mining operations in B.C.’s Elk Valley (Canadian Press/Huffington Post – November 19, 2014)

November 20, 2014

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/british-columbia/

VICTORIA – A plan to address decades of coal-mining contaminants leeched into the Elk Valley watershed has been approved by the B.C. government.

The water treatment plan by Teck Resources Ltd. would control selenium and nitrate that have been dumped into nearby rivers and streams as the mining giant expanded operations over the years.

The company will construct water diversions and treatment facilities at several of its mine sites, including at Line Creek, Fording River and Elkview Operations, the government said. Environment Minister Mary Polak said Tuesday that the measures will improve water quality.

“This plan represents the next step in the long-term plan to ensure a healthy watershed in the Elk Valley,” she said in a statement. “Many different groups have come together to find solutions.”

In April 2013, the government ordered Teck Resources to stabilize and reverse water-quality concentrations. It cited the presence of several chemicals, including selenium, cadmium, nitrate, sulphate and the formation of calcite in the water.

Rock-bottom prices forcing Cliffs to pull up stakes in Canada – by Bertrand Marotte and Nicolas Van Praet (Globe and Mail – November 20, 2014)

November 20, 2014

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.

MONTREAL — Cliffs Natural Resources Inc.’s Canadian adventure is winding down. The Ohio-based mining giant is preparing to shut down its money-losing Bloom Lake iron ore mine in northeastern Quebec amid rock-bottom prices for the mineral and high operating costs. It has already closed a Labrador iron ore property at Wabush and said it is looking to sell its chromite deposits in northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire.

Cliffs has spent hundreds of millions of dollars developing the high-potential Ring of Fire deposit and the existing Lake Bloom operations, but has run into a series of roadblocks, including a five-year low for iron ore prices, slumping Chinese demand and major delays in getting agreements with Ontario and First Nations over essential infrastructure for the Ring of Fire.

A shutdown of Bloom Lake would be a major blow to the local economy and to the provincial government’s multibillion-dollar Plan Nord economic development strategy pinned on natural resources extraction north of the 49th parallel.

Likewise, the Ontario government had made the Ring of Fire the centrepiece of its ambitious development plans for the mineral-rich region about 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay in the James Bay Lowlands. And Cliffs had been the leading mining player in that plan.

What Uralkali’s mine shutdown may mean for the potash market – by Jonathan Ratner (National Post – November 20, 2014)

November 20, 2014

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

A major supply outage at one of Uralkali’s potash mines in Russia raises the prospect of a much tighter global market for the commodity and could serve as a much-needed catalyst for Canadian fertilizer stocks.

The shutdown of the Solikamsk-2 potash mine after Uralkali detected an increased flow of brine, which can weaken a mine’s structure, bodes particularly well for producers such as Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. to increase their sales since the Russian mine has annual capacity of approximately 2.3 million tonnes.

Raymond James analyst Steve Hansen said early indications are that the shutdown will be an extended one or possibly worse, and it comes during a period of international contract negotiations, which could influence both Chinese and Indian contract pricing to the upside.

He raised his 2015 international pricing benchmarks by US$10 per tonne to reflect the additional bargaining leverage that potash marketer Canpotex, whose members include Agrium Inc., Mosaic Co. and Potash Corp., should get from this development.

“With both Uralkali and Belaruskali running close to flat out of late, we believe that much of the volume shortfall stemming from this supply outage will accrue disproportionately to the western-based producers (i.e., Canpotex) who possess ample slack capacity,” he told clients.

Cliffs’ massive closure costs at Bloom Lake stun analysts – by Peter Koven (National Post – November 20, 2014)

November 20, 2014

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

Three weeks ago, Lourenco Goncalves warned that shutting down the Bloom Lake mine in Quebec would not be a simple task. “Going away from [Bloom Lake] is not deleting it on a computer. It’s a pretty complicated process,” the chief executive of Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. told the Financial Post.

He wasn’t kidding. Cliffs announced on Wednesday that it plans to exit Bloom Lake. And if it can’t find a buyer, it expects to be on the hook for astounding closure costs of US$650-million to US$700-million during the next five years. The stock plunged US$2.04 or 20% to US$8.17 in New York on the news.

The Cleveland-based miner did not respond to requests for comment. But analysts said a key problem for Cliffs is the penalty costs involved in breaking a “take or pay” rail contract between Bloom Lake and the Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway Company. If the mine shuts, there is no choice but to terminate that contract.

Citigroup analyst Brian Yu was forecasting US$360-million of care and maintenance and transport penalty costs over three years to close Bloom Lake, noting the company’s estimate is “obviously much larger.”

Cliffs said in a filing this month that if Bloom Lake were to close, “various commitments including rail minimums, royalties, and other ongoing costs could be incurred.”

Red Chris mine failure would eclipse Mount Polley damage: report – by By Cara McKenna (CBC News British Columbia – November 19, 2014)

November 20, 2014

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia

Porous soil at site of proposed tailings pond dam called a ‘major design issue’

The Canadian Press – The results of a third-party review into the design of a northwestern B.C. gold and copper mine says it has the potential to cause significantly more environmental damage than the recent collapse of the Mount Polley tailings pond.

Engineering firm Klohn Crippen Berger made 22 recommendations for the owner of the mine, Imperial Metals, to improve the tailings dam of the Red Chris mine, 500 kilometres north of Terrace.

The review found the design of the dam is feasible, but that there are issues that must be addressed. The three-phased review looks at the tailings pond design, water quality predictions and geohazards at the mine site.

It identifies a “major design issue” for the soil on which the dams would be built, noting the porous soil could cause damaging water leaks if the planned installation of a fine-grained tailings blanket isn’t enough to limit seepage.

It also suggests that designers carefully monitor the water balance for their tailings reservoir and complete a risk assessment around the effects of another nearby landslide.

Quebec-Ontario power-sharing shows energy synergy – by Martin Regg Cohn (Toronto Star – November 20, 2014)

November 20, 2014

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.

Quebec has put separatism on the backburner. Is Ontario ready to reciprocate — by renouncing its own costly history of electricity separatism?

For decades, Ontario built political moats around its nuclear reactors — and raised the drawbridges to prevent the flow of cheaper hydroelectric power from our neighbouring province. But as Central Canada faces up to an era of economic upheaval and energy uncertainty, against a backdrop of newfound political stability, the calculus is changing.

We’ll get a hint of the economic and political benefits of energy co-operation Friday, when Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard and a dozen of his senior ministers sit down with Ontario’s cabinet. The meetings of ministers will produce a meeting of minds:

After months of negotiations kicked off by Wynne and Couillard, the two provinces are set to sign a historic power-sharing agreement — electrical, not political. The goal is to backstop each other’s base load electricity during peak periods, going beyond the traditional stop-gap approach of buying and selling power on short-term deals at peak periods.

This new approach will lead to ongoing power swaps without any money changing hands: Quebec’s peak load occurs during the winter heating season, when electrical baseboard heating puts a strain on its abundant reservoirs of hydroelectricity.

OBITUARY: Engineer Walter Curlook was ‘Pied Piper of productivity’ – by Judy Stoffman (Globe and Mail – November 20, 2014)

November 20, 2014

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.

Walter Curlook’s favourite film was the Danish drama Babette’s Feast. Perhaps this story, of a Parisian chef who takes refuge in an austere religious community, then spends all her money to prepare a sumptuous meal that awakens her hosts’ repressed senses, confirmed Mr. Curlook’s belief in generosity – sharing wealth to enlarge people’s horizons.

As a metallurgist, engineer and manager who spent his entire career as an executive at Inco when it was the world’s largest nickel miner, he understood how to create wealth as well as share it. Mr. Curlook, who died on Oct. 3 in Toronto of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 85, held 14 patents for improvements to nickel refining and played a role in the establishment of a science centre, a college and a research facility for particle physics in Sudbury that has no equal in Canada.

Brilliant and tenacious, he never stopped working. After he retired from Inco, he became an adjunct professor in materials science and engineering (unpaid) at the University of Toronto and donated $1-million to set up two laboratories there for the study of minerals.

“He was one of those people able to use a larger percentage of his brain than most of us,” his son Michael said. His daughter Christine Stinson recalled her father’s ability to be so absorbed in some problem that he would not hear his children speak: “He would sort of zone out and my mother would tell us, ‘Quiet – your father is thinking.’”

PR trickery tarnishes oil patch’s credibility – by Jeffrey Jones (Globe and Mail – November 19, 2014)

November 20, 2014

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.

CALGARY — It’s become the mantra of the oil patch and its top executives: What this country needs is an adult, fact-based conversation about energy. According to a newly unearthed document with TransCanada Corp.’s logo on it, it could also do with a heaping helping of manipulation.

And there, encapsulated in a neat package, is precisely what’s wrong with public discourse about energy development and building pipelines.

Rather than actually sticking to a policy of engaging in open dialogue, promoting economic benefits and addressing concerns with real explanations from experts – all things the industry has pledged to do time and again – there are factions preferring communications black ops, phony grassroots campaigns, squadrons of dutiful Twitter trolls and search-and-destroy missions on opponents.

The document, prepared by Edelman, the global PR firm, for TransCanada and its $12-billion Energy East pipeline proposal, was obtained by Greenpeace and released on Monday.

Some parts include obvious strategies like sticking to a positive message and framing a communication to try to gain trust. Other parts urge the kind of mean-spiritedness the company will want to avoid as it promotes a project that would change the face of the energy industry by moving oil sands crude across six provinces.

Lacking buyers, Cliffs Natural looks to exit Quebec’s Bloom Lake mine – by Bertrand Marotte (Globe and Mail – November 19, 2014)

November 19, 2014

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.

MONTREAL — Hobbled by an iron ore price plunge and high costs, Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. says it is “pursuing exit options” for its Eastern Canadian iron ore operations which may result in the closure of the Bloom Lake mine.

The U.S. iron ore producer, cut to junk status by Standard & Poor’s last month, said on Wednesday that a “potential investment” in Bloom Lake is not “achievable within a time frame acceptable to Cliffs.”

Closing costs at the mine, located north of Sept-Îles, Que., would be in the range of $650-million (U.S.) to $700-million over the next 5 years, the company said. About 500 people work at Bloom Lake.

The price for iron ore – a key ingredient in steel-making – has slipped to its lowest level in more than five years. It is now in the $72-per-tonne range and could fall to less than $60 as output continues to rise and global demand remains weak, Citigroup Inc. said in a report.

A slump in Chinese demand and a global iron ore glut as Australian producers ramp up production have pushed prices down. “The drop in the iron ore price is forcing the closure of some of the higher-cost ore mines,” Raymond James analyst Adam Lowe said.

Canada’s Estractive Sector Strategy well received, expected to fuel prosperity of sector – by Tracy Hancock (MiningWeekly.com – November 19, 2014)

November 19, 2014

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Canadian government has an important role to play in supporting both the global competitiveness of the Canadian mineral industry and its ability to contribute to the sustainable development of the societies in which it operates, said Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) president Rod Thomas on Tuesday.

The organisation has welcomed Canada’s commitment to assist the mineral exploration and mining industry to succeed abroad, noting that measures to support the sector were included in the updated Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Strategy for the Canadian International Extractive Sector that was released on November 7, as well as the Extractive Sector Strategy on Tuesday in Ottawa by Minister of International Trade Ed Fast and Minister of Natural Resources Greg Rickford.

The Ministers made the announcement at the Mining Association of Canada’s annual Mining Day on the Hill luncheon. The Extractive Sector Strategy builds on Canada’s plan for responsible resource Development, ensuring that mining and energy continued to represent an engine of economic growth and prosperity for Canadians.

“Our government recognises the importance of the mining industry to Canadian jobs and long-term economic prosperity. We’re working aggressively to attract investment and open new markets. Once again, we are demonstrating our commitment to creating the conditions that enhance Canada’s competitive position as a global mining leader, ” said Rickford.

Lawrence Martin elected Mushkegowuk Grand Chief – (CBC News Sudbury – November 17, 2014)

November 19, 2014

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

Lawrence Martin has been elected as the new Grand Chief of the Mushkegowuk Council. Martin, who is a member of the Moose Cree First Nation, beat out six other candidates in a by-election. He has also served as Mushkegowuk Grand Chief before, from 1998 to 2001.

The grand chief position has been open since the death of long-time leader Stan Louttit, who lost a battle with cancer in June. “We have a lot of the housing issues, we have a lot of the water and sewage problems,” Martin said of the challenges he will face as Grand Chief.

“But there’s all kinds of money out there. Minister Rickford just announced the Canada Build program that has millions and millions of dollars and now we can actually start applying for those funds for the infrastructure in the communities.”

After Martin served a term with Mushkegowuk Council, he was active in off-reserve politics. He served as mayor of the towns of Cochrane and Sioux Lookout.

“Lawrence Martin made history as the first Aboriginal person in Ontario elected to lead a non-native municipality, then made history again by becoming one of the only people in Canada elected to lead two different municipalities,” Nishnawbe-Aski Nation Grand Chief Harvey Yesno said in a release.