Canadian Media Resource Articles – Page 568

COMMENT: Cliffs to sell Ring of Fire – by Marilyn Scales (Canadian Mining Journal – September 22, 2014)

September 23, 2014

http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Word is getting around that Cliffs Natural Resources wants to shed its properties in the Ring of Fire. The Cleveland, OH-based company slammed the door on its Big Daddy chromium project last November, and sold the exploration camp this summer. Thus, the largest player in an exciting new Canadian mining camp went home.

Now that Cliffs has ousted its Canadian-born executive Gary Halverson and replaced him with chairman, president and CEO Lourenco Goncalves, the idea of selling Big Daddy is gaining traction.

The Big Daddy project covers three deposits – Big Daddy, Black Thor and Black Label. The Big Daddy chromite deposit was discovered in 2008 by KWG Resources of Toronto and partner Spider Resources. The next year KWG approached Cliffs about becoming a partner at Big Daddy, and since 2010 Cliffs has spent in the neighbourhood of $500 million in the Ring of Fire at Big Daddy and Black Thor, which it owns outright. KWG retains a 30% interest in the Big Daddy deposit.

The partners fell out after KWG staked land for a potential rail line to the region. Cliffs balked, preferring a road instead.

Now it emerges that KWG president and CEO Frank Smeenk has had discussions with the Goncalves about buying out Cliffs’ share. If KWG can raise the money, a sale might suit both companies very nicely.

Ghost town to boom town: B.C.’s Kitsault looks to LNG – Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – September 23, 2014)

September 23, 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.

VANCOUVER — The proud owner of a B.C. ghost town figures he will get the last laugh. But Krishnan Suthanthiran still has a long way to go before making his unorthodox investment in the remote community of Kitsault pay off, if ever. Row after row of houses and other buildings sit empty, waiting for the first occupants since 1983. For now, the town serves as a time capsule from the early 1980s.

Mr. Suthanthiran paid $7-million for the community in northwestern British Columbia in 2005, when the region went through another round of rough times.

Today, the area’s economy is faring much better, fuelled in part by Rio Tinto Alcan’s massive modernization project at its aluminum smelter in Kitimat, a 230-kilometre drive south of Kitsault. Across northwestern British Columbia, several energy firms are doing preliminary work on their liquefied natural gas proposals.

Mr. Suthanthiran serves as president of Kitsault Energy Ltd., the name of a fledgling project to export LNG to energy-thirsty customers in Asia. Kitsault Energy is one of 17 B.C. LNG proposals announced to date, though it is far from certain that even one export plant will get built.

Aboriginals building a road to career success – by Kathryn Boothby (Regina Leader-Post – September 22, 2014)

September 23, 2014

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

Stories about making our way to school in the depths of winter have been a staple of family conversations for centuries. As Trevor Grandjambe of the Fort McKay First Nation tells the tale, his experience was a special test of endurance. He completed Grade 9 in his home community, but subsequently he had to face an hour-long trip to Fort McMurray every day to attend high school. But that didn’t stop him from graduating.

“Aboriginal people have many obstacles to overcome, but helping yourself goes a long way to helping you succeed,” he says. “You have to work hard and keep your goals in sight.”

Grandjambe, 35, is a senior site supervisor with Bouchier Group, one of the largest aboriginal-owned and operated construction and facilities maintenance companies in the oil sands. He joined the company nine years ago as an entry level operator working the night shift, after working as a labourer in the oil and gas sector for a number of years.

Continually upgrading his skills, learning on the job, and being proactive about leadership training helped Grandjambe reach his current position. “From supervisory and behaviour-related courses I learned how to react to situations and how to manage people in the workforce,” he says. “Getting that training helped my career tremendously. Being a supervisor is not simply about being the boss. There’s a lot of responsibility in ensuring everyone on your team gets home safely each day.”

Global warming is hardly the world’s biggest problem – by Bjorn Lomborg (National Post – September 23, 2014)

September 23, 2014

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

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is meeting the world’s leaders for a climate summit today, “to make climate change a top priority for all leaders.” Of the world’s many ills, he unequivocally finds that “top of the priority list is climate change.”

While it is important to find smart solutions to the real problem of global warming, it does not make sense to claim climate is our first priority.

With the outreach program The World We Want, the UN already has asked what the rest of us think. More than 4-million people from every nation say the top priorities are better education and health care, less corruption, more jobs and affordable food. At the very last place, as priority number 17, comes global warming.

Is this surprising? If you’re Samson Banda from Zaire, having been sick from malaria for six months and faced with appalling health care, your priority is health. As he says: “If I die from malaria tomorrow, why should I care about global warming?”

This is also true for rich countries. When the Pew Research Center earlier this year asked Americans to rank 20 top priorities for the President, they similarly focused on jobs, education, health along with the economy and terrorism.

Rockefeller heirs’ fossil fuel divestment is more bluster than real action – by Terence Corcoran (National Post – September 23, 2014)

September 23, 2014

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

For more than a century, the Rockefeller family has lived well off the proceeds of crime, apparently. But not any more. In a bold but empty public relations move, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund — controlled by heirs of John D. Rockefeller, the genius founder in 1870 of what eventually became Exxon-Mobil — announced that it will “begin” divesting itself of oil company stocks, part of a global campaign to help rid the world of carbon emissions.

“There is a moral imperative to preserve a healthy planet,” Valerie Rockefeller Wayne told The Washington Post on the eve of a UN climate summit in New York. Ms Wayne, a great-great-granddaugher of John D., said that if he were alive today he would be “investing in alternative energy sources and renewables right now.”

Maybe he would, but if the great Mr. Rockefeller were alive today he would not also be liquidating his Exxon-Mobil shares. Looking to the future, and being a smart man, he would again realize it is dead certain that the world will need growing supplies of his oil company’s fossil fuels to feed, clothe, transport and otherwise raise the standard of living of the world’s billions. Keep the shares, daughter, he might say, and use the income to invest in renewables if you want and they are profitable.

Come to think of it, if oil money is so bad, why don’t today’s Rockefellers walk away from all of their personal wealth. The origins of that wealth, after all, is dirty oil. When does the taint of fabulous wealth from more than a century of carbon emissions cease to be a moral burden?

AUDIO: Low metal prices put chill on northern Ontario mineral exploration (CBC News Sudbury – September 22, 2014)

September 22, 2014

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

Northern Ontario’s mineral exploration industry is experiencing trying times. Exploration spending is down $400 million from 2011.

Brian Polk, who has been working in the mining and exploration industry in Timmins for the past 30 years, recently had to take up a day job to support his family. Recent changes to Ontario’s Mining Act have increased the cost and time it takes to do exploration work, he noted.

“It’s hard to get anything done. So, I think a lot of these companies, which are now global in philosophy, are simply just going to places that aren’t as expensive, which could be as close as Manitoba or Quebec.” Polk added the downswing in the exploration industry is hurting the economy in northeastern Ontario.

“A lot of the old-timers — I guess I’m one of them — say now that this is the worst they’ve ever seen it and I believe it.” Sudbury’s Scott McLean said he’s never seen it this bad.

“[The year] 2013 was probably the worst year that I’ve seen in my career and I’ve been through a number of cycles,” the 30-year exploration worker said.

Mount Polley disaster undermines public trust – by Justine Hunter (Globe and Mail – September 21, 2014)

September 22, 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.

VICTORIA — When Enbridge Inc. sought approval to build the Northern Gateway oil pipeline, Premier Christy Clark said she would oppose the project so long as the environmental safety regime on land and on the water was in doubt. In its formal rejection letter, her government stated: “‘Trust me’ is not good enough in this case.”

The same could be said in the case of the Mount Polley mine. And the Clark government should be worried that this lack of faith could spill across the resource sector.

It is still not clear why the mine’s tailings dam burst last month. Environment Minister Mary Polak says there is no evidence that her government’s cutbacks to enforcement and inspections were to blame.

The breach in the dam flushed 24 million cubic metres of water and mine tailings into Quesnel Lake. Mining industry and government officials alike tugged their forelocks and promised to review dam design and maintenance. If the public focuses only on the question of dam safety, they will be getting off lightly.

Experts have warned, time and again, that provincial budget cuts to environmental regulation could result in a catastrophe. Here are just two examples:

Mount Polley’s Sister Mine: We Must Do This One Right – by Wade Davis (The Tyee.ca – September 22, 2014)

September 22, 2014

http://thetyee.ca/

Red Chris mine is expected to yield a vast fortune. But how to insure against another catastrophe?

The highest levels of corporate integrity and responsibility should be the standard for any new mine in Canada, and especially for one with as much potential as Imperial Metals’ Red Chris project, situated at the heart of the Sacred Headwaters in remote northwestern British Columbia. Imperial Metals has acknowledged that all exploration, regulation and construction costs will be reclaimed within two years of the mine’s anticipated three decades of active production.

If true this immense and certain profitability ought to allow both the company and the government to push the limits of excellence on every front, assuring the public at every step in the process that costs and/or expediency will never deflect them from their goal of building an exemplary mine. It is in the interests of all of the mining industry and both federal and provincial governments that such high standards be set for Red Chris. Civic and corporate responsibility aside, self-interest alone would suggest that Imperial ought to build a great mine.

Consider the optics of Imperial’s immediate dilemma. Todagin Mountain, site of the Red Chris mine, is home to the largest concentration of stone sheep in the world, a resident population that attracts remarkable numbers of predators. A wildlife sanctuary in the sky, the massif looks west to Edziza, sacred mountain of the Tahltan; north to the Grand Canyon of the Stikine, internationally known as the K2 of white water challenges; east to the Sacred Headwaters, birthplace of the Stikine, Skeena and Nass Rivers; and beyond to the Spatsizi, widely recognized as the Serengeti of Canada.

U.S. Steel filing throws fate of Hamilton, Ontario assets into question – by Euan Rocha and Allison Martell (Reuters Canada – September 21, 2014)

September 22, 2014

http://ca.reuters.com/

TORONTO (Reuters) – U.S. Steel Corp’s move to seek creditor protection for its Canadian operations throws into question the fate of the more than a century old steel operations in Hamilton, Ontario.

U.S. Steel acquired the Canadian operations – including the Hamilton assets and the newer Lake Erie facilities in Nanticoke, Ontario – through its acquisition of Stelco Inc in 2007. The Canadian operation was soon bleeding red ink, however, as demand for steel declined following the financial crisis.

Much of the Canadian operation’s value is seen residing in Lake Erie, with years of job cutbacks, environmental liabilities and the weight of a massive retiree base weighing on the worth of the Hamilton assets.

People familiar with the situation told Reuters that U.S. Steel had sought to restructure its Canadian operation this summer, before it sought creditor protection in Canada earlier this week. One plan included the parent company acquiring the Lake Erie facilities but divesting itself the Hamilton assets.

After those plans failed to pan out, some industry watchers think U.S. Steel’s move to seek creditor protection may just be the longer road toward the same end game.

AUDIO: NDP MP Claude Gravelle blasts Tories over Ring of Fire inaction (CBC Radio Sudbury – September 19, 2014)

September 22, 2014

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

Feds claim Ontario has not identified Ring of Fire mining project as a priority

Concerns about the development of the Ring of Fire are being raised in Ottawa. This week, KWG Resources announced it’s talking to Cliffs Natural Resources about the company selling its assets.

So far, Cliffs is only saying it is exploring strategic alternatives. During question period, Nickel Belt NDP MP Claude Gravelle questioned the Conservative party about the mining developme

“Northerners are fed up,” he said. “Instead of a real plan from the Liberals of Ontario, there is real trouble. Start-up is delayed, the smelter is on hold. Thousands of potential jobs are in jeopardy, but we see no leadership from the Conservatives.”

He asked what the Conservatives will now do to get the Ring of Fire file moving. “Unlocking the vast potential of the Ring of Fire will require a nation-to-nation approach and real engagement from the federal government,” Gravelle continued.

“Northern communities should not be forced to pay for the price of government’s inaction. We’re talking about good value-added jobs and economic development that would transform our region.”

How much does it really cost to mine an ounce of gold? – by David Milstead (Globe and Mail – September 20, 2014)

September 22, 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.

A scan of major gold producers’ earnings suggests the cost of mining gold has risen dramatically over the past few years. Part of that is a true increase, owing to inflation and the expense of digging out tough-to-reach grades. But most of it is due to a change in the cost metric that gold miners emphasize in their reports to the investing community.

For years, miners liked to talk about “cash costs,” the mine-level expenses of pulling an ounce of gold from the ground. For the most part, cash costs ran from $500 (U.S.) to $800 per ounce, depending on a miner’s properties.

There was a problem, however: Even as the price of gold skyrocketed to nearly $1,900 per ounce, miners weren’t reporting wild windfall profits on their bottom lines. That’s because cash costs left out a host of expenses, from the costs of running the company to annual spending on equipment.

The new “all-inclusive” measures attempt to solve that. The most frequently used metric, “all-in sustaining costs,” puts the cost of extracting an ounce of gold at more than $1,000 industrywide – and explains why miners are having a rough go at profitability when gold sells for a couple hundred dollars more than that.

“The old [cash cost] led to a lot of misunderstanding about the ability of cash flow that would be there for equity holders,” says Jorge Beristain, an analyst for Deutsche Bank.

Cliffs may be looking sell Ring of Fire claim – Interviews by Jason Turnbull (Points North – September 18, 2014)

September 22, 2014

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury A news report claimed Cliffs Natural Resources wants to sell off its assets in the mineral deposit. Interviews with KWG Resources’ Moe Lavigne and Ontario NDP MPP’s Michael Mantha. Click here for an audio interview: http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/Local+Shows/Ontario/Up+North/ID/2522905241/

AUDIO: International miners tour ‘deep’ Sudbury mines – by Jenifer Norwell (CBC News Sudbury – September 19, 2014)

September 22, 2014September 22, 2014

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

Delegates from mining companies around the world are touring mines in Sudbury Friday. They are in town as part of Deep Mining 2014, an international conference to talk about the future of underground mining—which continues to progress at deeper levels, previously considered “un-minable”.

Marty Hudyma is an assistant professor at Laurentian University and is one of the main organizers of the week’s events. “Sudbury and Ontario has some of the deepest mines in the world. Outside of South Africa, we are the deepest mines in the world,” he said.

“And when I talk about deep, I’m talking about two kilometres and three kilometres and deeper.”

CBC Sudbury’s Jenifer Norwell met up with him to talk more about what lies ahead for the industry in the northeast. There was also a focus on what comes next for the industry globally.

The conference brought together mining personnel, consultants and researchers from around the world to discuss and document their experiences in deep mining.

Ray Durrheim from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa was a guest speaker. He talked about improving safety in mines in his country with CBC Sudbury’s Jenifer Norwell.

Mining companies must win hearts and minds or face further opposition – by Simon Rees (MiningWeekly.com – September 19, 2014)

September 19, 2014

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

“We know the Ring of Fire’s future will not be determined within the region
itself but in southern Ontario, where the majority of the political ridings
are,” she noted. “Or it will be decided [in Ottawa] to the extent that the
federal government is involved.”

“So we must win the hearts and minds of those people sitting at home because
that’s how your project is going to be approved,” she said, stressing that
meaningful CSR and engagement with locally affected communities was one of
the best methods of doing this. (Kate Lyons)

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Opposition to the extractive industries continues to grow in Canada, with increasing influence on decisions that surround project approval, delegates at the Canada-Southern Africa Chamber of Business risk mitigation and corporate social responsibility (CSR) seminar were told last week.

“The world of the stakeholder is large. From the comfort of a home heated by natural gas or cooled by electricity, and probably using a device laden with metals, a person can discover whether they are ‘against’ an industry,” Goodmans partner Kate Lyons said.

Opposition can develop among thousands of people living many kilometres away from a mining region, their opinions shaping and influencing project outcomes. Lyons highlighted northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire as an example.

Keystone XL battle in Year 6: How a pipeline grew into a political phenomenon with a life of its own – by Yadullah Hussain (National Post – September 19, 2014)

September 19, 2014

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

Friday marks the sixth year to the day TransCanada Corp. filed an application with the U.S. State Department to build the 1,897-kilometre pipeline. Since then it has become not only the most polarizing energy project in North America, but also has taken on a life of its own almost separate from the Calgary-based company that proposed the project.

“Keystone XL is a political phenomenon that has gone to a place that no company would want – it is symbolic of a lot of different things,” said Sarah Ladislaw, director and senior fellow, energy and national security program at Washington, D.C.-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies. “It is used now as a short-hand … to signal ideological divisions.”

For the industry, the controversial project is seen as an efficient access point to its key market in the Gulf Coast; for environmentalists it is a portal to climate hell. For others it is neither an access issue or environmental cause célèbre.

For Dave Domina, a lawyer and Democrat candidate for the U.S. Senate, it is about re-enforcing landowners’ rights. Mr. Domina has been making the case for landowners against the Nebraska governor’s approval of the pipeline’s route in front of the state’s Supreme Court in Lincoln, Neb.

“All of my work in this lawsuit has been focused on protecting these landowners,” Mr. Domino said in a phone interview from Lincoln. “That’s what this case is about – it is a siting and landowner’s rights issue. There is no environmental dimension to my work as a lawyer here.”