Canadian Media Resource Articles – Page 600

Ring of Fire road study needs wider lens, environmental group says – by Jody Porter (CBC News Thunder Bay – March 2, 2015)

March 2, 2015

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay

“No one is saying, ‘Holy cannolis, what are all the plans for the region for the next 20 – 30 years?'”

Government funding for a $785,000 study of a road to the Ring of Fire is a “welcome move” for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, but the environmental group says more needs to be done to look at the region-wide impacts of the proposed mining development in northern Ontario.

The federal and provincial governments announced Sunday that they’ll jointly fund a study looking at a road that would connect the remote Webequie, Eabametoong, Nibinamik and Neskantaga First Nations to the provincial highway at Pickle Lake, Ont. about 500 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay.

The environmental group hopes it acts as a “springboard” for further study and a comprehensive, region-wide development plan for the nickel and chromite deposits in northern Ontario’s James Bay lowlands.

“Once a road goes in, it has a whole cascade of effects,” said Anna Baggio, the Ontario planning director for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society’s Wildlands League. “There are alternatives in terms of where these roads could go and that needs to be looked at and fully costed and accounted for in a transparent way.”

Ottawa urges development of foreign-aid mining projects – by Kim Mackrael (Globe and Mail – March 2, 2015)

March 2, 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 — Foreign-aid projects that involve Canadian mining companies and non-governmental organizations have shown enough promise that the idea should be refined and then scaled up, International Development Minister Christian Paradis says.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail on Saturday, Mr. Paradis said he is still waiting for detailed evaluations on several projects, launched in 2011, that saw Ottawa partner with mining companies and non-governmental organizations.

But he said he’s encouraged by what he’s heard so far and believes the positive aspects of the programming can be replicated. “I think we can take the best from [the projects],” Mr. Paradis said.

“We will just put aside what we don’t want or what is not effective, and then I think we will have the levers to go after [mining co-operation] on a broader scale.”

The Conservative government has made mining a prominent part of its foreign-aid strategy in recent years, including by launching new aid programs in mineral-rich countries and establishing an institute on global mining policy.

Investors hard to come by in mining industry downfall – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – March 2, 2015)

March 2, 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.

TORONTO — As the beleaguered mining sector suffers through another year of its deepening slump, the industry’s boom days are but a distant memory.

It’s an ugly time for the junior mining industry, as companies descend on Toronto for the annual Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference. Already starved for cash, small mining companies are facing their fourth consecutive year of declining commodity prices.

Since 2011, gold is down 30 per cent. Iron ore and metallurgical coal, both used to make steel, are about 70 per cent lower. Copper is down 40 per cent and nickel is off by 50 per cent. Shares of a slew of junior mining companies have crumbled to just a few pennies apiece.

The downturn has made it much harder to entice investors. Don Hoy, who discovered the large chromite deposit in Ontario’s Ring of Fire mineral belt, said investors’ attitude toward small mining companies has changed.

During the commodity boom several years ago, Mr. Hoy said “people did not want to miss the boat. They had to get involved.” But, “a lot of projects were far fetched,” he said.

“Now, investors are much more sophisticated.

PDAC 2015: Optimism clashes with reality on day one of conference – by Peter Koven (National Post – March 2, 2015)

March 2, 2015

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

As the junior mining sector continues to scrape along the bottom, the world’s biggest mineral conference is the one place where they can always find some reason for hope.

The annual Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) conference kicked off in Toronto on Sunday. Not surprisingly, the mood on the conference floor was a little subdued as metal prices continue to slump, financing dollars remain scarce, and the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index trades near an all-time low.

“Everybody here is hoping to weather the storm,” Aubrey Eveleigh, chief executive of graphite firm Zenyatta Ventures Ltd., said in an interview. “They’re waiting for a turnaround in the sector because we’ve seen it before. They’re hanging on with the little bit of money they have.” But even in a rough year, the PDAC conference can reliably attract around 25,000 people, and another big crowd is expected at this year’s show.

On day one, they got a big burst of optimism from the mining industry’s most famous promoter: Robert Friedland of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. He kicked off a commodity outlook panel with his usual gusto, talking about the giant urbanization trend that continues to happen worldwide and predicting it will have very positive implications for metal prices.

Republicans need to make it clear that Keystone will help end U.S. dependence on Mideast oil – by Ted Morton (National Post – March 2, 2015)

March 2, 2015

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

What do American Sniper, Chris Kyle and the Keystone XL pipeline have in common? Most Americans would probably say “nothing.” Unless that changes soon, U.S. President Barack Obama and the Democratic minority in Congress will succeed in sustaining the veto over Keystone that Obama exercised last week.

If the Republicans want to win this battle, they have to change their message. The Keystone pipeline is not about creating more jobs over the next three years, but about saving more lives over the next three decades — lives of young Americans being sent to the Middle East to defend America’s security of supply of imported OPEC oil.

The recent collapse of oil prices and availability of cheap gasoline have made it easy for Americans to forget how dependent on Middle East/Arab oil the U.S. and its allies still are. Thanks to the shale revolution of the past decade, U.S. oil production has risen three-million barrels per day (b/d) to 8.5-million b/d. But American consumption of oil is still double this amount, so the Americans are still importing 7.6-million b/d. While more and more of this is now coming from Canada — over three-million b/d — most of it still comes from the Middle East.

U.S. shale oil is not going to change this. Contrary to what most Americans may assume, OPEC’s share of global oil production has actually risen since 1985 from 30% to 39%. And OPEC’s share of global production is projected to continue to increase to 49% by 2040.

Miners descend on Toronto amid brutal market downturn – by Lisa Wright (Toronto Star – March 1, 2015)

March 1, 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.

“This is certainly a trying year for the mining sector and many feel attendance at
the convention will be lower than last year,” says industry observer and mining blogger
Stan Sudol. “Financing is hard to come by, but if you have a good project you will find
the money,” says Sudol, of republicofmining.com (Toronto Star – March 1,2015)

Metal prices are at rock bottom levels, but that won’t stop 25,000 miners from four days of networking at the annual prospectors’ convention

Thousands of miners and investors are flocking to Toronto this week for the world’s largest annual prospectors’ convention, amid a severe downturn in all things metallic.

The frigid temperatures that Toronto has struggled with lately are nothing compared to the deep freeze the mining industry has endured over the last couple of years, analysts say. Everything from gold and platinum to copper and zinc continue to take a beating on metals markets, and small-cap junior exploration companies are desperately seeking financing to stay in the bush.

Even giants such as Canada’s Barrick Gold Corp. and Goldcorp Inc. have suffered record losses, slashed budgets and taken massive write-downs on problematic projects — mainly because it’s not economic to build and operate mines with rock-bottom metal prices.

Probe’s David Palmer our Mining Person of the Year – by Trish Saywell (Northern Miner – February 25, 2015)

February 27, 2015

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

When the discovery of a new gold patch rocks the mining world, it is a wondrous thing. When the discovery is made in an underexplored area with no previously known precious metal deposits it’s even more exciting, and when the discovery stems, in part, from a simple good deed, it becomes extraordinary.

The tale of how David Palmer discovered the Borden Lake gold deposit and earned the prestigious Bill Dennis Award and title to The Northern Miner’s Mining Person of the Year for 2014 begins in 2003, about four years after he graduated from McGill University with a PhD in economic geology.

The geologist, whose PhD thesis focused on ore-forming hydrothermal fluids associated with carbonatites, was working for a junior, when a prospector he didn’t know by the name of Bob de Carle, pitched a nickel property called Sunday Lake, north of Thunder Bay.

The property didn’t fit the company’s model, so it passed. But Palmer thought it still held promise. His view was that the material just hadn’t been presented in the right way, which masked some of what he felt were its most interesting features. So he offered to spend some personal time reworking the geological data to improve the odds that de Carle — a geophysicist by training — could find success the next time he shopped it around.

Getting to Yes has never been tougher – by Jeffrey Simpson (Globe and Mail – February 27, 2015)

February 27, 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.

Mines and forest projects can face the same procedural snakes and ladders.
In Northern Ontario, the so-called Ring of Fire chromite deposits will be
tied up for years and years in environment reviews and aboriginal demands.
Already, the major U.S. company interested in developing the deposits has
walked away. Who could blame it? (Jeffrey Simpson – Globe and Mail)

Forget for a moment U.S. President Barack Obama’s doubts about the Keystone XL pipeline. Whether the President decides for or against the project shouldn’t deflect Canadians from asking within their own borders: How do we get to Yes?

Getting to Yes is becoming harder all the time. Fossil-fuel developments, pipelines, mines, dams, hydro-electric transmission lines and wind turbines are frequently contested, delayed or blocked.

Even when they’re approved, the process for getting to Yes can take so long that projects lose their economic rationale, as with the now-abandoned Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline, which shuddered to a halt after 10 years of review because the gas market had changed. Or, projects are postponed or killed because they face tough competition from overseas suppliers where approvals are not so protracted. Proposed liquefied natural gas projects in British Columbia face this very risk.

Giant Mine headframe set for demolition this summer – by Guy Quenneville (CBC News North – February 27, 2015)

February 27, 2015

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

Yellowknife city council abandons plans to take over Con Mine Robertson headframe

One landmark from Yellowknife’s gold mining past is close to disappearing for good, while the future of another is in limbo. Plans are underway to begin dismantling the iconic C-Shaft headframe at Giant Mine this summer, representatives from Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada said at a public meeting Thursday night.

It’s part of an early “site stabilization” phase of the remediation project triggered in 2013 by concerns about site safety. “People will definitely notice a difference,” said Jane Amphlett, an engineering manager with the project.

“We haven’t finalized the plan, but it’s likely that significant parts of the shaft will come down in the next year, and likely perhaps all of it will come down once [our engineers] finalize the actual plan for it.” Amphlett said the timber tower, which is at the centre of the clean-up site, poses a potential safety risk to remediation workers.

The smaller A-Shaft headframe, near the Yellowknife boat launch area and close to the intended site of a proposed N.W.T. Mining Museum, will also be taken down, though when has not be determined yet, Amphlett added.

On Keystone, the Conservatives made one fatal blunder – by Tasha Kheiriddin (National Post – February 26, 2015)

February 26, 2015

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

Between price drops and presidential vetoes, Canada’s oil-fuelled future is looking more and more like a mirage. The latest blow came on Wednesday, when U.S. President Barack Obama vetoed Congress’ endorsement of the Keystone XL Pipeline. Obama’s letter to the Senate was both fulsome and blunt: “Because this act of Congress conflicts with established executive branch procedures and cuts short thorough consideration of issues that could bear on our national interest — including our security, safety, and environment — it has earned my veto.”

The move was not unexpected. For years, the White House had repeatedly delayed its decision on the project. In an interview given to The New York Times in July 2013, Obama pooh-poohed Keystone’s job-creation potential, and warned that he would insist that environmental standards be the ones that prevailed. And now, with crude prices hitting rock-bottom, oil sands projects shutting down, and U.S. petroleum inventories growing, it’s hard to argue the pressing need to pipe in more oil from Canada.

Why did this happen? It’s not like Canada didn’t try: The federal government threw everything at the Keystone file. Yet despite heavy lobbying by Ottawa and Alberta, despite the fact that Canada produces “ethical” oil untainted by gross human rights violations, despite our nation’s military engagement in Afghanistan and now Iraq, despite paying for the U.S. customs plaza at the new Windsor-Detroit bridge, in short, despite being a damn good neighbour, friend and ally, all Canada got is a sharp stick in the eye.

Through all this, however, the Conservative government made one fatal blunder: It underestimated the importance of the environment to the Obama presidency.

Nunatsiavut president Sarah Leo ‘quite disturbed’ over Vale agreement – (CBC News Newfoundland – February 25, 2015)

February 25, 2015

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador

The Inuit government in Labrador isn’t happy with the announcement of changes to the Voisey’s Bay agreement, which will allow Vale to continue exporting unprocessed ore from the massive nickel mine.

Nunatsiavut president Sarah Leo said the Newfoundland and Labrador government was required to consult the Inuit because the mine is on land connected to their land agreement with the provincial and federal governments.

“We should’ve been consulted — I mean, it’s in our backyard. It’s right here,” she said. “We have a land claims agreement that specifically has a chapter dedicated to the Voisey’s Bay project,” Leo told CBC News. “So, it’s very important to us that we have an understanding and are involved in what’s happening with the project.”

On Tuesday, Natural Resources Minister Derrick Dalley and Vale VP Stuart Macnaughton announced that they were amending the Voisey’s Bay Development Agreement to allow the company to send nickel concentrate from the mine in Labrador to Ontario and Manitoba for processing.

The delay is connected to delays in completing Vale’s massive processing facility in Long Harbour, in Newfoundland’s Placentia Bay.

Vale to pay Newfoundland $230-million for nickel export boost – by Sue Bailey (Canadian Press/Globe and Mail – February 25, 2015)

February 25, 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.

ST. JOHN’S — Mining giant Vale SA will pay Newfoundland and Labrador $230-million for letting the company export more Voisey’s Bay nickel concentrate while a processing plant ramps up in the province.

Vale will be allowed to export another 94,000 tonnes that must be replaced later, Natural Resources Minister Derrick Dalley said Tuesday.

The move will mean $200-million in compensation from Vale over three years. Another $30-million in community investments from the company are to be negotiated with the province. Complex design and other issues have delayed full operation of the Long Harbour processing plant, about 120 kilometres west of St. John’s.

The $4.3-billion facility will be an asset for years to come, Mr. Dalley said. The announcement is on top of other export allowances in 2013 and 2002, totalling 633,000 tonnes in potential processing exemptions that must be replaced.

Stuart Macnaughton, Vale’s vice-president of operations in the province, said the added flexibility means mining at Voisey’s Bay in Labrador will continue while the plant in Long Harbour is finished.

Obama’s veto of Keystone XL bill is a slap in Canada’s face – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post -February 25, 2015)

February 25, 2015

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

U.S. President Barack Obama made good Tuesday on his threat to veto a bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, maintaining under his full control the final decision on the Canadian project’s future.

His office downplayed the gesture, only the third veto of his presidency. There was to be no “drama or fanfare around it,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest.

It’s “certainly possible” that Obama will approve the pipeline once a State Department review of the project is completed, he added, though he gave no deadline for a decision.

Yet the move is another slap in the face to Canada, which has championed the pipeline for years and did everything by the book to get it approved, only to be led down the garden path, through a maze of roadblocks and traps, by its supposed best friend and ally.

“I think you should take this personally,” said Matt Koch, vice-president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy.

Vale gets extension for exporting Voisey’s Bay ore – by Terry Roberts, CBC News Newfoundland – February 24, 2015)

February 24, 2015

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador

Long Harbour nickel plant now schedued for full production by 2018-19

Vale has won approval from the Newfoundland and Labrador government to export more nickel concentrate from its mine at Voisey’s Bay, as a result of delays in commissioning its $4.25 billion processing plant in Long Harbour.

The company will pay $200 million over four years in compensation for the right to export an additional 94,000 tonnes of nickel concentrate from its mine on Labrador’s northern coast to its other processing facilities in Ontario and Manitoba. Vale will contribute another $30 million to a community fund.

The exemption gives Vale flexibility in its efforts to bring its nickel processing plant in Long Harbour, in Newfoundland’s Placentia Bay, up to full capacity, and to avoid any production interruptions at the Voisey’s Bay mine, which is one of the Canada’s most significant nickel finds.

The latest amendment to the Voisey’s Bay Development Agreement was announced Tuesday morning by Natural Resources Minister Derrick Dalley and Stuart Macnaughton, Vale’s vice-president of operations in Newfoundland and Labrador.

“Had the export cap not been increased, we would have been left with no choice but to stop operating in Labrador for up to 18 months and not resume normal operations at Voisey’s Bay until Long Harbour was able to process larger quantities of nickel concentrate from Voisey’s Bay,” said Macnaughton.