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Canadian Media Resource Articles

Ethical jewelry shop provides alternative to conflict minerals – by Marco Chown Oved (Toronto Star – September 29, 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.

Pioneers have shop in Cabbagetown that sources fair-trade gold from Latin America and custom makes engagement rings.

Peek into the window of the Fair Trade Jewellery Company on Parliament St. and you’ll see display cases filled with gleaming engagement rings.

It’s a view not unlike one you’d find at other jewelry shops in town, but the gold and diamonds here have an invisible but ethical difference — they’re traced all the way from mine to finger.

“We’re purpose-built to eliminate all the worst abuses that occur in mining, from gold that fuels conflicts to the mines that use child labour,” said the shop’s co-founder and lead designer Ryan Taylor. “We work directly with mining communities to improve their practices. We want to lead by example in this industry.”

Not everyone is preoccupied by the origins of their engagement rings, but as awareness of the dangerous conditions and toxic chemicals in mining grows, ethical jewelry is emerging as an alternative.

“We knew a bit about mining,” said Carleen McGuinty, who went to the Fair Trade Jewellery Company with her husband Eric for their wedding bands.

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BC Cities Demand Review of Thermal Coal Exports – by David P. Ball (The Tyee.ca – September 26, 2014)

http://thetyee.ca/

Confab of municipalities passes resolution in favour of greater oversight.

The province’s 190 local governments and 26 districts are calling for more government oversight over thermal coal exports in British Columbia, which are set to increase after a recent federal decision.

Delegates at the Union of B.C. Municipalities’ annual meeting in Whistler voted in favour of an assessment of the health and environmental risks of coal carried by train from the U.S. through White Rock and Surrey, and by barge to B.C.’s Texada Island — a corridor beyond the scope of Port Metro Vancouver’s own required reviews.

The UBCM resolution states that “there is currently no mechanism that provides oversight or ensures the implementation of mitigation measures to minimize environmental and health impacts of thermal coal transport over coastal waters and by rail.”

It calls for “a comprehensive environmental and health impact assessment for the shipment of thermal coal over coastal waters and by rail,” and that a provincial or federal agency be chosen to monitor it.

Though non-binding on the provincial or federal governments, the vote came five weeks after a federal port authority approved Fraser Surrey Docks’ application to build a transfer facility for four million tonnes of thermal coal a year.

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North Bay residents up in arms over TransCanada plan to switch crude oil for gas in local pipeline – by Raveen Aulakh (Toronto Star – September 28, 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.

TransCanada Corp. plans to repurpose a pipeline running through North Bay, Ont., from carrying natural gas to crude oil. Locals worry about potential environmental damage.

NORTH BAY, ONT.—From his many-windowed fifth-floor office at city hall, Mayor Al McDonald points to the Laurentian escarpment to the north, then to the shimmering blue waters of Trout Lake to the east. Vast Lake Nipissing is visible to the west, though you have to crane your neck to see it. Below are the Victorian buildings and tree-lined streets of the downtown.

McDonald clearly loves showing off the view. But it also pitches him into anxiety. “If something happens to Energy East here, if there is a spill, we’ll be ruined,” he says. “Who would want to come here then?”

Somewhere near the escarpment and Trout Lake, there is a natural gas pipeline. It has been there for four decades, but has become a source of concern in this northeastern Ontario city.

TransCanada Corp., the Alberta-based oil giant, wants to repurpose the pipeline, now carrying natural gas, to transport crude oil from Alberta’s oil sands to New Brunswick. Dubbed Energy East, the project is TransCanada’s $12-billion oil dream.

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Time to buy uranium? The best ways to play it – by Brenda Bouw (Globe and Mail – September 29, 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.

Patience could finally start to pay off for investors waiting for a revival of the uranium market that imploded in the aftermath of Japan’s nuclear disaster in 2011.

After the spot price hit a nine-year low of $28 (U.S.) this spring on oversupply concerns, dragging uranium equities down with it, many investors believe the commodity used to fuel nuclear power plants has finally hit bottom, as the demand picture brightens.

The price has risen about 30 per cent in recent weeks, to $36.50, driven by additional U.S. and European sanctions against Russia, a major uranium supplier, in its conflict with Ukraine. That threatens to put pressure on the global uranium supply, alongside a recent two-week strike at Cameco Corp.’s McArthur River and Key Lake operations in Saskatchewan.

Meantime, Japan is readying the restart of its nuclear program, while China continues its aggressive nuclear plant build-out as part of its strategy to cut pollution by developing cleaner energy sources.

“I think the worst is behind us in the uranium space,” said BMO Nesbitt Burns analyst Edward Sterck. While he doesn’t expect a big rally in uranium and is neutral on the overall sector right now, Mr. Sterck sees investors slowly returning to the space.

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David Black faces skepticism over West Coast refinery – by Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – September 29, 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 — David Black is undeterred by skeptics and insists his vision for an export refinery makes sense for British Columbia’s energy market and Alberta’s oil sands.

For the past two years, the B.C. newspaper publisher has been investing his own money to get the ball rolling on Kitimat Clean Ltd., an ambitious project that aims to turn bitumen from the oil sands into refined products, such as gasoline, for shipping in tankers to Asian energy buyers.

“There is money to be made, but I got into this because I want to reduce the environmental risk,” the founder and chairman of Black Press Group Ltd. said in an interview from Victoria. The risk that he is referring to is the fear of a massive oil spill from tankers off the West Coast, a concern that is shared by First Nations in British Columbia.

If a tanker hauling gasoline were to leak in the waters near Kitimat, B.C., it will be easier to contain and clean the spill because the fuel won’t sink to the bottom of the ocean like bitumen would, Mr. Black argues.

His venture carries a hefty $32-billion price tag – $21-billion for the refinery in Kitimat, $8-billion for the pipeline and $3-billion on other infrastructure and a tanker fleet.

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Vale, nickel giant, gets into the bee business in Sudbury, Ont. – by Markus Schwabe (CBC News Sudbury – September 26, 2014)

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

Bees help enhance the seeding of flowering plants, ‘which helps with the biodiversity of our city’

Mining company Vale is hoping honey bees will encourage its re-vegetation project in Sudbury. For decades, nickel producer Vale (formerly INCO) dumped tons of molten slag around its refinery in Copper Cliff. The by-product of the nickel-smelting process accumulated until black mountains were formed.

In 2006, Vale embarked on a $10 million re-vegetation project to grade the landscape, cap the slag with soil, then scatter the ground with clover, grass and wildflower seeds. Trees were also planted.

This year Vale contacted the services of a retired Vale employee, Wayne Tonelli, to raise honeybees on the property. “With all the wildflowers, it was thought to promote pollination and help the re-vegetation process,” the Vale superintendent of decommissioning and reclamation said.

Seven hives are now buzzing with more than 350,000 bees. The hives are situated in an old utility trailer owned by Vale, which allows for the bees to enter, but keeps predators likes bears out.

Dr. Jennifer Babin-Fenske of Earthcare Sudbury supports in the initiative.

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Renewed Plan Nord to be announced next week – by Andy Blatchford (CTV News Montreal – September 26, 2014)

http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/

The Canadian Press – MONTREAL — More than 500 scientists from Canada and around the world are urging Quebec’s premier to stick to his pledge to preserve a huge section of the province’s north as part of an ambitious development plan.

Philippe Couillard has been promising to breathe new life into the Liberals’ multibillion-dollar northern development project since the party regained power earlier this year.

For years, the Liberals have touted the “Plan Nord” as a way to create thousands of jobs through energy development, mining and tourism in Quebec’s north, on an area about twice the size of France.

But the proposal, first unveiled in 2011, caught the attention of the international scientific community for its other key goal: to protect half of that boreal wilderness from industrial development.

On Friday, a group of international scientists will send a letter to Couillard, encouraging him to move forward on a sustainable-development and conservation project they believe could “serve as a model for the rest of the world.”

The scientists are also calling on Couillard to ensure aboriginal and local communities in the remote region are partners in the project.

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Junior miners ‘starting to disappear’ as grim market reality takes hold – by Peter Koven (National Post -September 26, 2014)

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

The junior mining sector is in such brutal shape right now that most companies are unwilling to even pay for booths at conferences that are geared to them.

The annual Cambridge House International conference in Toronto, going on Thursday and Friday, has shrunk to a fraction of its former size. Just a few dozen junior miners elected to host booths at what used to be one of the sector’s hottest events during the resource bull market.

There is a good reason why almost every junior company decided to sit it out: they have little to no cash, and no prospects of raising any in the near future. Investor appetite for small mining stocks has simply evaporated over the last several years after they lost billions of dollars on these companies. Other sectors of the market have performed much better and drawn their attention elsewhere.

Junior miners have always been a resilient group, and there was a fair bit of optimism on the conference floor on Thursday. But that was tempered by the grim reality of where these companies find themselves.

“It will be hard to raise capital for several years,” analyst John Kaiser warned in a presentation. He said there are around 700 mining companies on the TSX Venture Exchange with negative working capital, and the total number of small miners is shrinking. “They are starting to disappear,” he added.

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Commentary: Plan Nord+ – Fresh breezes from the Belle Province – by Éric Lemieux, P. Geo (Northern Miner – September 25, 2014)

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

Having just recently attended the Precious Metals Summit in Beaver Creek, Colo., and the Denver Gold Show, I was pleased to see that even with dampened enthusiasm on the show floors due to the downward-trending price of gold, there was plenty of good cheer to be found — most notably among my fellow Quebec delegates, excited by the renewed prospects for Plan Nord, the mega-economic development strategy for Quebec’s north that had stalled under the previous Parti-Québecois (PQ) government.

In fact, there was an undeniable perception among the delegates that the new Liberal provincial government’s pledge to revamp Plan Nord (or Plan Nord+, as it’s now being called in some circles) will, at the very least, succeed in stabilizing the mining and exploration sector in Quebec and provide the impetus to stop the province’s continuing slide in the Fraser Institute’s annual global mining survey.

From 2007 to 2009, Quebec ranked first in the survey, then dropped to fifth in 2011, 11th in 2012 and finally 21st in 2013, due largely to changes in Quebec’s mining and tax policies under the PQ government.

Plan Nord is the economic development strategy launched by the Liberal government of Premier Jean Charest in May 2011 to develop the natural resources sector north of the 49th parallel in Quebec. The 25-year plan was intended to foster nearly $80 billion in energy, mining, and forestry investments and create quality jobs and infrastructure development.

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Northern Ontario mining projects need province’s support, analyst says (CBC News Sudbury – September 25, 2014)

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

A mining industry watcher says the provincial government should do more to help with First Nation consultation, and putting a cap on energy rates. Stan Sudol said recent changes to Ontario’s Mining Act have made negotiations between the industry and First Nation communities more complicated.

The Toronto-based communications consultant and mining policy analyst said that’s hurting the industry, because it’s delaying exploration projects, and increasing the cost. The onus is on the government to improve the negotiation process, Sudol added.

“The government needs to meet with the tribal councils across northern Ontario, along with junior mining companies, and let’s hammer out a blanket, uniform agreement that is good for everybody.” Unless something is done, junior mining companies and prospectors fear the consultation process could become more onerous, he said.

Ontario power costs too high

While the future of the Sudbury Basin mining camp looks promising, Sudol said he’s concerned about climbing power rates due to Ontario’s Green Energy Act.

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Petronas plays hardball with B.C. over Pacific NorthWest LNG – by Brent Jang and Justine Hunter (Globe and Mail – September 26, 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 and and VICTORIA — Malaysia’s state-owned energy company is picking a fight with British Columbia over its handling of the province’s fledgling liquefied natural gas industry, creating a rift that threatens a major project and further clouds Canada’s natural-resource ambitions.

Shamsul Azhar Abbas, the chief executive officer of Petronas, is warning that unless the B.C. government unveils competitive tax and regulatory rules next month, he will cancel plans to spend an estimated $36-billion on the Malaysian-led energy project called Pacific NorthWest LNG. The massive budget includes nearly $11-billion for an export plant to be built at Lelu Island in northwestern B.C.

“Rather than ensuring the development of the LNG industry through appropriate incentives and assurance of legal and fiscal stability, the Canadian landscape of LNG development is now one of uncertainty, delay and short vision,” Mr. Shamsul told the Financial Times. Canada is “already 40 years behind in the game.”

The dispute pits Petronas against a province that has been striving to turn its rich reserves of natural gas into a vibrant new industry that would create tens of thousands of jobs and a lucrative stream of tax revenue. It comes as Canadian energy companies are increasingly running into roadblocks in their efforts to bring more oil and gas to global markets. Major oil pipeline developments have been held up by opposition from environmentalists and First Nations, as well as political conflict.

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Yara, CF in talks to create $27-billion global fertilizer giant to rival Canada’s Potash Corp – by Peter Koven (National Post – September 23, 2014)

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

A potential combination of the world’s two biggest nitrogen producers threatens to break up the established order in the fertilizer industry and create a new dominant player to match Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc.

U.S. producer CF Industries Holdings Inc. and Norwegian firm Yara International ASA announced Tuesday they are in early negotiations to form a US$27-billion giant. It would be the untouchable leader of the nitrogen fertilizer sector, with more than four times as much ammonia production capacity as the next largest rival.

“We’ve had a slew of M&A on the nitrogen side in the last four or five years, but it would be the crowning achievement if these guys get together,” said Spencer Churchill, an analyst at Paradigm Capital. “Because they would be just a dominant force.”

The proposed “merger of equals” got an immediate thumbs-up from investors and analysts, as the two companies appear to be a sensible fit. CF is the dominant producer in the United States, while Yara is a big player in other countries and has a broad distribution network that CF can access. There are possible tax synergies for CF shareholders if the combined company is headquartered outside the U.S. And Yara would benefit from the low natural gas prices CF enjoys in North America.

Nitrogen prices have held up better than potash prices in recent years. As a result, there is speculation a combined CF-Yara could become the flagship investment in the sector, unseating Potash Corp.

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Power grid connection for First Nations to save millions, report says – by Jody Porter (CBC News Sudbury – September 24, 2014)

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

Ontario Power Authority report says 21 First Nations to be taken off diesel, connected to grid

The Ontario Power Authority says getting 21 First Nations off diesel generation and onto the provincial power grid will save a billion dollars over the next 40 years. The draft Remote Community Connection Plan outlines the business case for building power lines in the remote north.

The report states: “The $1 billion cost savings reflects only the avoidable cost of diesel fuel and system expansion. It does not reflect the additional economic, societal, developmental and environmental benefits that would also arise from transmission connection of remote communities.”

The federal government would reap the majority of the savings, as it is currently the major source of funding for diesel generation in First Nations.

However, all electricity customers in Ontario would benefit through a reduction in the rural and remote subsidy portion of their bills, according to Power Authority planning analyst Stephanie Aldersley.

“By having transmission connection we’re reducing some of the need for that cost so that’s how Ontario customers stand to benefit from the connection,” she said. Aldersley said there could be additional cost savings if a proposed mining development in the area moves ahead, but the plan doesn’t rely on it.

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Young workers lining up for lucrative, ‘hands-on’ mining jobs (CBC News Sudbury – September 24, 2014)

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

CEMI official says he’d like to see more young people from southern Ontario work in mining

Young people are turning to the mining and mineral exploration industry to land what they perceive is a well-paying job and a chance to do hands-on work.

The executive director at Laurentian University’s Goodman School of Mines said he’s noticed more students interested in mining and geology. “People increasingly are seeing it as a good job to get. As a wage sector, it’s much higher than a lot of other sectors,” Bruce Jago said.

The Mining Association of Canada reports mining is the highest paid industry of all industrial sectors in Canada. But the money isn’t all that young people are after. Just ask 22-year-old Julia Davis. “I said I will never become a geologist, it is so boring, until I worked in the actual field.”

Davis is currently working as a mine geologist near Matheson. She plans to earn her professional geoscientist accreditation in the hopes of carving out a long career in the mines. Paul Ricker spent years finding his passion and eventually received a mining engineering diploma at Cambrian College.

Now the 33-year-old is working as a geomatics technician in Sudbury. “You’re underground, you can touch the rock, you can see the machinery, and you can see the designs that you may have done up in the office,” he said. But jobs are limited for people like Ricker.

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Canadian miners struggle amid oversupply, price collapse – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – September 24, 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.

The world is flooded with metals. Years of expensive expansions have left the market awash with iron ore, metallurgical coal and copper.

For more than a decade, China’s growing economy fuelled the bull market in commodities. Mining companies spent billions on acquisitions and new projects around the world, adding waves of new supply to keep the country’s steel mills and factories humming.

Then China’s economic growth slowed and the good times stopped. Now the mining industry around the globe is suffering amid a price collapse for some key metals.

Iron ore has lost more than half its value since the boom days, trading at $80 (U.S.) a tonne from a high of $190 in 2011. Metallurgical coal has sunk to $120 a tonne, down from $330 in 2011. Copper has retreated to $3.03 a pound, compared with a high of $4.50 in 2011.

“It will be a while before we see a boom again,” said Fabien Jurdant, chief operating officer with CRU Consulting, a global commodities adviser. “We are not seeing any kind of major upturn for some time. Unless there was some miracle, if India becomes the new China. But we are not predicting that,” Mr. Jurdant added.

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