Canadian Media Resource Articles – Page 604

Franco’s Harquail at Roundup 2015: ‘My belief in exploration has been shaken’ (Northern Miner – January 26, 2015)

January 27, 2015

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

VANCOUVER — It’s hard to find a better value-builder over the past decade than Franco-Nevada (TSX: FNV; NYSE: FNV), which essentially pioneered the royalty-stream finance model and has seen its share price rocket 362% over the past seven years to trade at one of the premier multiples in the gold space.

Since an initial public offering (IPO) in December 2007 — which valued the company at around $15 per share — Franco-Nevada has outperformed both gold and other gold equities, and closed near a 52-week high of $69.71 at the time of writing.

President and CEO David Harquail’s keynote speech at the Association for Mineral Exploration BC’s (AMEBC) annual Round-Up conference reflected on his career and the current state of mine finance, gold prices and exploration prospects.

Harquail began with a retrospective on his thirty odd years in the business, including an anecdote about growing up when his father worked with renowned mine-finder Thayer Lindsley at the Ventures group. Harquail would cut his teeth in a similar project evaluation role with the prolific Pierre Lassonde and Seymour Schulich, and make his way through a number of iterations of Franco before finding himself at the helm of the company.

“What strikes me is that going back to that time in the 1980s, I don’t think a lot has changed in the business. The distribution of mining outcomes is about the same as it has always been,” Harquail commented.

Canada gets soft on bribery – by Becky Rynor (MACLEAN’S Magazine – January 27, 2015)

January 27, 2015

http://www.macleans.ca/

Why rules aimed at cracking down on corruption by mining firms miss the mark

When International Trade Minister Ed Fast announced the Tories’ enhanced corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy last year, he sternly warned that Canadian mining companies involved in corrupt practices in other countries would be punished.

Most notably they would lose the diplomatic support of the Canadian government. If Doing Business the Canadian Way: A Strategy to Advance CSR in Canada’s Extractive Sector Abroad is Fast talking tough about corruption, it has some industry experts underwhelmed.

John Boscariol, a legal specialist in anti-corruption laws and policies, suspects the measures are an attempt by Canada to catch up to other countries that have long been cracking down on these illegal practices. “This is something [the Conservative government] can no longer pretend it is not seeing,” he says of corrupt practices by Canadian companies in other countries.

“If you look to the U.S., they have a much stronger record of enforcing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act where penalties sometimes in the hundreds of millions of dollars have been handed out for violations,” he says. “Canada is catching up to that under pressure from the U.S., the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Transparency International (TI) and others.”

The petro plunge will be painful, but we will adapt – by Stephen Gordon (National Post – January 27, 2015)

January 27, 2015

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

Oil prices have fallen, and our economy will have to adjust. This prospect may alarm many, but Canada has had to adjust to similar shocks throughout its history. The Canadian economy altered its structure in order to take advantage of higher resource prices, and part of that shift will now have to be undone.

There’s no point in pretending that this is anything but a negative shock, but it is possible to overstate the bad news. Firstly, the change in the Canadian economy over the past decade has often been overstated, and sometimes wildly exaggerated. Secondly, the ability of the Canadian economy to adjust is not well-enough appreciated.

No one will be surprised to learn that higher oil prices spurred more oil production, but the increase was surprisingly modest: The average growth rate of after the 2002 was 3.6%, compared to 2.6% during the preceding 12 years. But since other sectors have been growing even faster, the oil and gas sector’s share of GDP declined from 6.4% in 2002 to 6% in 2014.

Its share of employment has increased, but is still only 1.7% of the total. Claims to the effect that Canada has become a “petro state” or that its economy is largely dependent on oil simply do not mesh with the facts. As far as output and employment are concerned, the Canadian economy of 2015 is surprisingly similar to what it looked like in 2002.

Pacific Future Energy Corp eyes ‘money left on the table’ for $11-billion refinery project in B.C. – by Yadullah Hussain (National Post – January 27, 2015)

January 27, 2015

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

TORONTO – The company proposing a $11-billion heavy oil refinery in British Columbia is pushing ahead with the project despite market volatility and is seeking $25-million in financing, according to its chairman, Samer Salameh.

“We are raising $25 million and that would take us to the permitting process, which would take two to three years,” Mr. Salameh, chairman of Pacific Future Energy Corp., said in an interview Monday on the sidelines of a speech to a business audience in Toronto. “We are down to finalizing two sites on the B.C. Coast, and we will be filing for an environmental assessment by the end of this year.”

Mr. Salameh previously managed the U.S. business interests of Mexico’s Carlos Slim, the second-wealthiest investor in the world, according to Forbes magazine. The management team includes Stockwell Day, a former federal minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway, and Shawn A-in-chut Atleo, a former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations. Mark Marissen, a political strategist and former-husband of B.C. Premier Christy Clark, is also part of the team.

The company has ambitious plans to build the world’s “near net-zero carbon emission facility and the cleanest refinery in the world,” powering it with natural gas and renewable to reduce emissions by 40%. Carbon-capture technology will further reduce emissions by 52%, the company claims. Mr. Salameh said the technology is “proven,” but admits that it will be the first greenfield refinery of its kind in the world.

Sherritt CEO Says Cuba Holds Promise for the Patient – by Liezel Hill (Bloomberg News – January 27, 2015)

January 27, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

The head of Sherritt International Corp. (S), the biggest foreign investor in Cuba, said industries from mining to infrastructure are ripe for development as the island nation moves tentatively to open up trade with the U.S.

The Toronto-based company, which has been mining nickel in Cuba for two decades and generates about 75 percent of its revenue there, has talked to the government about possible new investments in Cuba over the longer term, Chief Executive Officer David Pathe said.

“There’s huge opportunities for infrastructure in Cuba,” Pathe said in an interview in Bloomberg’s Toronto office. “There’s still a big power-generating deficit in Cuba, and there are other resource opportunities.”

U.S. and Cuban diplomats concluded what both sides called encouraging talks last week on restoring ties after the two countries unexpectedly said last month they would begin steps to normalize relations after a half century of U.S. trade and travel restrictions.

There are other ore bodies and “quite vast” nickel reserves on the eastern end of the island where Sherritt has been operating, and the Cuban government has indicated it’s interested in foreign investment in mining, Pathe said.

“We’ve talked to them about things that we might be able to do there over the longer term,” he said. “There could be more interest from international companies.”

PMO taking a look at Ring of Fire plan to rival Ontario’s: Cree chief – by James Munson (iPolitics.ca – January 24, 2015)

January 26, 2015

http://www.ipolitics.ca/

The Prime Minister’s Office has expressed interest in a First Nations-led plan to build a new seaport and railroad across northern Ontario to the Ring of Fire mineral deposit, an election-year effort that would rival Premier Kathleen Wynne’s own designs for the region.

The Mushkegowuk Council and TGR Rail Company are preparing a joint purchase of the Ontario Northland rail line between North Bay and Moosonee, pending the First Nation group’s approval from its council of chiefs this week, said Mushkegowuk Council grand chief Lawrence Martin Friday.

The plan would open the door to a east-to-west rail, transmission line and telecommunications corridor to the Ring of Fire, a 5,120 square kilometre crescent of ore that could bring a $9.4 billion increase to Ontario’s GDP over the next decade if developed.

After more than a year of what Wynne has characterized as foot dragging from Ottawa on a federal-provincial plan, the PMO and Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford’s office called TRG Rail in the past three weeks expressing interest in the new plan, Martin told iPolitics.

“We’ve even had a call from the PMO office asking for information for our project,” said Martin, adding it was TGR Rail, a Toronto-based rail company, that took the call. “It’s gaining momentum, so it looks like it’s going ahead.” TGR Rail would not comment on the corridor plan, saying only that the firm would issue a news release Monday.

Acquisitions are vital for survival, Goldcorp chairman says – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – January 26, 2015)

January 26, 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.

Goldcorp Inc.’s quest for new mines is a matter of survival, according to the company’s chairman. “The only way mining companies can grow is through acquisitions and the only way they can survive is through acquisitions. Sometimes, I’m not sure people outside the mining business appreciate that,” Ian Telfer said in a recent interview.

“You have to keep buying stuff or you shrink … When you get to the size that we are, you have to buy things that are considerable sized and the opportunities are limited,” he said.

Last week, the Vancouver-based company made a half-a-billion dollar all-stock offer for Probe Mines Ltd. for its gold property in Ontario. The site is near Goldcorp’s mine in Timmins, Ont., which will allow the company to use its existing operations to develop the mine.

Finding cheaper ways to dig up metal has become every miner’s mission amid persistently weak commodity prices. Goldcorp enjoys the status of being the biggest gold miner by market capitalization, while producing less than the world’s two biggest producers, Barrick Gold Corp. and Newmont Mining Corp. It has a healthy balance sheet and is one of the few gold miners that can use its shares for acquisitions.

Gloomy outlook hangs over mineral exploration Roundup in B.C. – by Karen McColl (CBC News North – January 26, 2015)

January 26, 2015

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

Yukoners looking for hopeful signs at annual event

Yukoners working in the mineral exploration industry are facing a gloomy outlook as they get together in Vancouver this week for the annual Mineral Exploration Roundup.

The federal Department of Natural Resources says exploration spending in Yukon was down in 2014, and Samson Hartland, executive director of the Yukon Chamber of Mines, doesn’t expect 2015 to be much better. “There isn’t really any projection for that to change,” Hartland says.

He is hoping to get a better sense of Yukon’s 2015 mining outlook at the Roundup in Vancouver. Hartland is one of a couple hundred Yukoners expected to be at the conference, which brings together thousands of mining representatives from across Canada and internationally.

Statistics from Natural Resources Canada show mineral exploration spending in the Yukon dipped 12 per cent last year, to about $88 million. Exploration spending decreased about 10 per cent nationally.

Hartland says Yukon’s mining industry is impacted by global markets, making investment capital hard to come by.

Radical left Syriza surges to Greek election win – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – January 26, 2015)

January 26, 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 anti-establishment, radical left Syriza party surged to victory in Greece, the first time an anti-austerity protest movement has won a national election in Europe since the 2008 financial crisis shattered the economies of the continent’s Mediterranean flank.

In his victory speech in central Athens on Sunday night, Syriza’s youthful leader, Alexis Tsipras, a former communist, told thousands of jubilant supporters that “Greece leaves behind the austerity that ruined it … leaves behind five years of humiliation.”

He immediately threw down a challenge to the European Union, the main sponsor of the twin bailout packages that spared Greece from bankruptcy but whose demands for austerity – spending cuts and tax hikes – pushed the country into crushing recession. Since the crisis started, the Greek economy has shrunk by 25 per cent and millions of people were pushed into outright poverty.

But before he can launch his assault on the EU’s bailout terms, Mr. Tsipras has to form a government and that, depending on the final vote tally, may require him to form a coalition with a potentially unruly junior party. In the May 2012 election, Syriza was given the opportunity to form a coalition government but couldn’t come through.

What’s so smart about unaffordable housing? – by Konrad Yakabuski (Globe and Mail – January 26, 2015)

January 26, 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.

Of all the lofty attributes Canada’s world-class cities have touted in recent years, making a home unaffordable for average folks is perhaps the least enviable. It was also avoidable. But self-proclaimed “smart growth” policies have proven the opposite of smart, contributing to an affordability crisis with little to show in the way of a cleaner environment.

The biggest losers are millennials now entering their 30s, a generation urban planners and creative-class types predicted would always prefer downtown living over the suburbs. For these echo boomers, moving up to a single- or semi-detached home to raise a family is no longer even an option. Bringing up junior in a 600-square-foot condo is not as cool as it might sound. Yet that’s the choice many face.

Vancouver is considered the world’s second-most unaffordable housing market, after Hong Kong. A median-priced Vancouver home costs 10.6 times the city’s median household income, according to the latest Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey. Vancouver’s price-to-income ratio has doubled in the past decade.

At 6.5 times income, Toronto’s house price-to-income ratio has risen 65 per cent over the same period. Demographia defines a multiple above 5.1 as “severely unaffordable.” Toronto is now even more unaffordable than New York.

Harper says there’s more to the Canadian economy than oil – by Bill Curry (Globe and Mail – January 23, 2015)

January 23, 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 — Stephen Harper is playing down the impact of energy on the overall Canadian economy, noting that other sectors will help keep growth strong during hard times for the oil patch.

The Prime Minister, who has previously promoted Canada abroad as an emerging energy superpower, stressed the importance of small business, manufacturing and innovation during an event in St. Catharines, one of many Southwestern Ontario communities that have lost manufacturing jobs in recent years.

“It’s obviously significant for the Canadian economy, particularly certain sectors and regions, but the oil industry isn’t remotely the entire Canadian economy,” said Mr. Harper. “There are many benefits to other parts of the economy because of these developments and although the oil industry in those regions are going to face some pretty significant adjustments, the fact of the matter is that this is a resilient industry that knows that prices go up and down.”

The Prime Minister’s comments, which followed an announcement to expand a program for small-business loans, marked his first public response since Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz shocked markets Wednesday by cutting interest rates in response to lower-than-expected growth and inflation.

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, the careful reformer, dies at 90 – by Mark MacKinnon (Globe and Mail – January 23, 2015)

January 23, 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 — King Abdullah, the monarch who led Saudi Arabia through a period of wrenching change in the Middle East – keeping the oil-rich country stable as the region convulsed around it and critics demanded urgent reform – died late Thursday, a statement from the royal palace in Riyadh said.

The death, while immediately mourned in the Arab world, was hardly unexpected. The 90-year-old Abdullah had been seriously ill for several weeks, suffering from pneumonia and breathing only with the help of a tube.

Abdullah became king after the 2006 death of his half-brother, Fahd, but with Fahd in ill health, he had been de facto regent for a decade before that. He led the country through the worst years of the Iraq war, kept the kingdom intact through the upheaval of the Arab Spring, and in recent years built an informal Sunni Arab coalition that confronted what he saw as Iran’s rising influence across the region, particularly in Syria.

Saudi Arabia’s role in Syria will remain a controversial part of Abdullah’s legacy. Saudi Arabia gave money and weapons to jihadi groups opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, helping give birth to the force now known as Islamic State.

Iron Ore goes bust in Labrador West, once booming in production – by Terry Roberts (CBC The Current – January 23, 2015)

January 23, 2015

http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/ Click here for program but note advertisements for other news segments: http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/podcasts/current_20150123_79604.mp3 The fall in demand for Iron Ore is turning life upside down in the part of Labrador they once called “Mini Fort Mac”. Today we head to Labrador West, Canada’s capital of Iron Ore, where they know a thing or two about …

B.C. First Nation to probe pollutants despite assurances from mine – by Mark Hume (Globe and Mail – January 22, 2015)

January 23, 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 — A small native community in central British Columbia has launched a health study into the possible impacts of a copper mine, despite assurances from the company that its research shows there’s no reason for concern.

Chief Bernie Mack of the 180-member Esdilagh First Nation said as tailings from the Gibraltar Mine build up around reserve lands, concerns are growing that pollutants may be seeping into the ecosystem.

“Number one thing is, our community members fear the resources and the water around the mine are contaminated. So why we are doing this research is to find out how safe the ecosystem and the health of the environment is,” Mr. Mack said Thursday.

A research team from the University of Victoria and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, a Switzerland-based agency that works globally, will conduct the research. Mr. Mack said many Esdilagh members grew up with the mine almost in their back yards, but they have become increasingly concerned about the operation.

Welcome to Winnipeg: Where Canada’s racism problem is at its worst – by Nancy Macdonald (MACLEAN’S Magazine – January 22, 2015)

January 23, 2015

http://www.macleans.ca/

How the death of Tina Fontaine has finally forced it to face its festering race problem.

“Oh Goddd how long are aboriginal people going to use what happened as a crutch to suck more money out of Canadians?” Winnipeg teacher Brad Badiuk wrote on Facebook last month. “They have contributed NOTHING to the development of Canada. Just standing with their hand out. Get to work, tear the treaties and shut the FK up already. Why am I on the hook for their cultural support?”

Another day in Winnipeg, another hateful screed against the city’s growing indigenous population. This one from a teacher (now on unpaid leave) at Kelvin High School, long considered among the city’s progressive schools—alma mater to just about every Winipegger of note, from Marshall McLuhan to Izzy Asper, Fred Penner and Neil Young.

Badiuk’s comments came to light the day Rinelle Harper—the shy 16-year-old indigenous girl left for dead in the city’s Assiniboine River after a brutal sexual assault—spoke publicly for the first time after her recovery. She called for an inquiry to help explain why so many indigenous girls and women are being murdered in Winnipeg, and elsewhere in Canada.

Badiuk’s comments came while the city was still reeling from the murder of Tina Fontaine, a 15-year-old child from the Sagkeeng First Nation who was wrapped in plastic and tossed into the Red River after being sexually exploited in the city’s core.