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After 33 years, uranium riches finally in sight for Cameco at Cigar Lake – by Peter Koven (National Post – September 2, 2014)

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

Stepping out of the shaft and into the underground workings at Cigar Lake, it is hard to believe that anything ever went wrong here.

The Northern Saskatchewan mine looks pristine and ready to go. A massive jet boring system 480 metres below the surface has begun extracting uranium ore from the deposit by pumping water upward at supersonic speed. Other tunnels are filled with a dizzying network of storage, piping and processing infrastructure to handle the incredibly rich ore and deal with the incredibly poor ground conditions.

Along with the nearby McArthur River mine, this is easily the richest uranium operation in the world, with grades that are more than 100 times the world average. In terms of complexity, it’s roughly a million times the world average. It took 33 years of work to move Cigar Lake from discovery to production. The very fact it exists is a credit to human technology and engineering.

But until recently, it didn’t feel like such a triumph. When a crew tried to step out of that same underground shaft in February 2010, they could barely take a step.

“They found a metre of mud right through the mine. Just complete mud,” recalls Tim Gitzel, the chief executive of Cameco Corp., which built the mine and owns half of it. “They couldn’t even get the cage down because there was so much mud.”

The crew was the first one to enter the mine after a devastating flood in 2008, that that came on the heels of one in 2006. The two disasters cast a black cloud over Cameco and made a lot of people wonder if the Saskatoon-based company could ever get this mine working properly.

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When the Levee Breaks [Mount Polley and Pebble mines] – by Bill Carter (Huffington Post – August 28, 2014)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-blog/

Bill Carter is the author of Boom, Bust, Boom: A Story About Copper, the Metal That Runs the World and Red Summer: The Danger and Madness of Commercial Salmon Fishing in Alaska. Carter is an assistant professor of practice in documentary studies at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Mother Nature has a way of reminding us that humility is a trait that humans too often lack. Take, for instance, the engineering firm Knight Piesold, which stated that “modern dam design technologies are based on proven scientific/engineering principles and there is no basis for asserting that they will not stand the test of time.”

Until they don’t. Earlier this month a tailings dam designed by Knight Piesold at the Mount Polley copper mine breached, dumping up to 10 million cubic meters of heavily contaminated water into surrounding streams, rivers and lakes in central British Columbia. Since the accident aerial photographs show a massive mudslide attacking the tranquil waters of a nearby salmon stream and dumping into Quesnal Lake. The salmon run will most likely perish, along with the entire ecosystem that the salmon and other species rely on for life.

Even so, the company is probably off the hook. Full disclosure: The quotation at the beginning of this essay is not related to the Mount Polley mine; Knight Piesold offered up the above assurance in defense of the proposed Pebble mine in southwest Alaska.

The Pebble mine would be one of the largest mines ever built. The deposit is huge, with a market value ranging from $350 billion to $500 billion of copper and gold.

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Celebrity bullies like the ‘tar sands’ punching bag – by Doug Firby (Troy Media – August 27, 2014)

http://www.troymedia.com/

Doug Firby is Editor-in-Chief and National Affairs columnist for Troy Media.

The latest big hitter to take a swipe at Alberta’s biggest industry is Leonardo DiCaprio. His tour to the northern Alberta “tar sands” comes on the heels of visits by such high-profile heavy hitters as Neil Young, James Cameron and even spiritual leader Archbishop Desmond Tutu. In fairness, it’s hard to think of them as bullies, until they get on their high moral horses.

Tutu is the odd man out in this group, with a track record of courage and conviction from his leadership days on South Africa that puts the Hollywood gang to shame. Even if you don’t agree with his assessment that the oil sands development is “evil”, you still have to respect the man and listen to what he says because of everything that he’s done.

The rest are entertainers, who have made their fortunes through pop culture. Perhaps their celebrity alone gives them a mandate to speak out, but their fame should never be confused with having the credentials necessary to be recognized as authorities on the causes they choose.

They are not scientists who build their case on the foundation of evidence; nor are they reporters, who are expected to vet the facts they are given. Instead, each is a powerful communicator who employs their talent and fame to broadcast the messages on behalf of like-minded comrades in the cause.

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Mandatory-reporting plan for energy and mining companies welcomed by provinces – by Shawn McCarthy (Globe and Mail – August 27, 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.

OTTAWA — Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford vowed to introduce legislation requiring energy and mining companies to report all revenue paid to foreign and domestic governments, but said its impact on corporate payments made to First Nations will be delayed for two years while Ottawa consults aboriginal leaders.

At a meeting in Sudbury, provincial and territorial resource ministers endorsed Ottawa’s plan to impose new mandatory reporting of resource payments. But most provinces appear willing to let Ottawa take the lead on the measure, which includes controversial new accountability rules for First Nations.

“Canada is recognized around the world as a leader in promoting transparency and accountability in the extractive sector as a whole, here at home and around the world,” Mr. Rickford said on Tuesday after the ministerial meeting. “We have a responsibility to ensure that here at home and abroad, our corporations – in their relationships that they build in the effort to develop resources responsibility – that they are transparent and accountable.”

Mr. Rickford said the proposed legislation would allow each province or territory to implement its own mandatory reporting regime that could supersede the federal rule, and Quebec has indicated it intends to do so.

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A Wake-up Call for Canada’s Mining Industry – by David Suzuki (Huffington Post – August 27, 2014)

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

David Suzuki is a co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation

When a tailings pond broke at the Mount Polley gold and copper mine in south-central B.C., spilling millions of cubic metres of waste into a salmon-bearing stream, B.C. Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett called it an “extremely rare” occurrence, the first in 40 years for mines operating here.

He failed to mention the 46 “dangerous or unusual occurrences” that B.C’s chief inspector of mines reported at tailings ponds in the province between 2000 and 2012, as well as breaches at non-operating mine sites.

This spill was predictable. Concerns were raised about Mount Polley before the breach. CBC reported that B.C.’s Environment Ministry issued several warnings about the amount of water in the pond to mine owner Imperial Metals.

With 50 mines operating in B.C. — and many others across Canada — we can expect more incidents, unless we reconsider how we’re extracting resources.

Sudden and severe failure is a risk for all large tailings dams — Mount Polley’s waste pond covered about four square kilometres, roughly the size of Vancouver’s Stanley Park. As higher-grade deposits become increasingly scarce, mining companies are opting for lower-grade alternatives that create more tailings.

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UPDATE 1-Barrick scraps corporate development team, further cuts coming -sources – by Euan Rocha and Nicole Mordant (Reuters U.S. – August 27, 2014)

http://www.reuters.com/

Aug 26 (Reuters) – Barrick Gold Corp is eliminating its entire corporate development team and more cuts are in the works as the world’s top gold miner looks to trim costs, three sources familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.

The sources, who asked not to be named as they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said Rick McCreary, the development team’s head, is leaving the company this week, with some others on the team set to depart next month.

The corporate development team’s main role was to identify and evaluate assets worth buying. McCreary, a former investment banker with CIBC, has led the team within Barrick since 2011.

A spokesman for Barrick declined to comment on whether the company was doing a wider round of cuts, which the sources said would be announced in the coming weeks. He confirmed, however, that the corporate development team was being restructured with some staff moving into other groups.

“The change reflects our focus on achieving operational excellence across the company, with an emphasis on optimizing our existing portfolio and further improving efficiency across our operations,” said Andy Lloyd, a spokesman for Barrick Gold.

Some staff from the corporate development team will stay on as part of a newly minted business development unit, while most others depart the company.

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Ontario talks hydro trade with Quebec and Manitoba – by John Spears (Toronto Star – August 27, 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.

Ontario’s energy minister Bob Chiarelli has talked to Quebec and Manitoba about increased hydro power imports

Ontario’s energy minister says he has held direct talks with his counterparts from Quebec and Manitoba about importing more electricity into Ontario.

But Bob Chiarelli cautioned that making deals is “not a slam dunk in any way.” Chiarelli made the comments at the annual meeting of federal and provincial energy and mines ministers, which wrapped up Tuesday in Sudbury.

He said the one-on-one meetings with Quebec and Manitoba officials during the federal-provincial conference were useful.

“We discussed specifically and in detail the opportunities and the challenges that exist for us to have more energy contracts to supply Ontario,” he said at a news conference following the meeting.

Ontario is mulling huge new investments in nuclear power, and has established programs for renewable power developments. But Premier Kathleen Wynne has spoken publicly about buying more electricity from Quebec as well.

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Mount Polley fallout puts damper on Canadian mining – by Derrick Penner (Vancouver Sun – August 27, 2014)

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

Signs continue to mount that the modest rebound that Canada’s mining sector had been experiencing has been knocked off the rails by the blowout of the tailings dam at Imperial Metals’s Mount Polley Mine and the Supreme Court of Canada’s Tsilhqot’in decision on land title.

Shares of Canadian mining companies had been doing well in the weeks before the court decision on July 29, and then the mine disaster on Aug. 4, as investors anticipated better demand for metals for a booming global auto sector. But declines have been steady in recent days.

“People are being discouraged about investing in mining in general,” said Raymond Goldie, a senior mining analyst with the brokerage firm Salman Partners, referring to the recent developments.

He added that Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett’s establishing an independent review panel to investigate the Mount Polley dam failure, and then ordering the operators of all 98 tailings ponds licensed under his ministry to conduct independent safety inspections, is the latest fallout from Mount Polley that is clouding investor sentiments.

“That is going to dissuade companies from investing in British Columbia,” Goldie said. “(And) along with the Tsilhqot’in decision of last month, it increases the uncertainty about investing in (the province).”

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Deadly clashes continue at African Barrick gold mine – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – August 27, 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.

JOHANNESBURG — Police have killed more villagers in clashes at a controversial Tanzanian gold mine owned by a Barrick Gold Corp. subsidiary, despite the company’s pledges to reduce the violence, researchers say.

The researchers, including a law firm and two civil society groups, say they’ve received reports that as many as 10 people have been killed this year as a result of “excessive force” by police and security guards at the North Mara mine, owned by African Barrick Gold, a subsidiary of Toronto-based Barrick.

A spokesman for African Barrick confirmed to The Globe and Mail that “fatalities” have occurred in clashes at the mine site this year, but declined to estimate how many. It is up to the Tanzanian police to release the information, he said.

Tanzanian police have repeatedly refused to give any details on fatalities at the site. Dozens of villagers have been killed by police at the mine in the past several years, according to frequent reports from civil society groups. The company occasionally confirms some of the deaths, including a clash in which police killed five people in 2011.

The deadly clashes occur when villagers walk into the mine site in search of waste rock, from which small bits of gold can be extracted. Hundreds or even thousands of “intruders,” as they are known locally, can be involved.

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The case for U.S. oil exports – by Peter Foster (National Post – August 26, 2014)

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

The boom in U.S. petroleum production has led to an increasing clamour to overturn the ban on U.S. oil exports, a relic of the terrible energy policies of the 1970s.

The current agitation for exports is of more than passing interest to the Canadian oil industry, whose sales to the U.S. suffer a heavy discount due a combination of the U.S. boom and political hurdles to new pipeline construction.

However, those who support additional exports are – in the run up to the U.S. mid-term elections – facing populist concerns about the impact on gasoline prices, as well as perennial anxiety about energy security, not to mention opposition from environmental activists who want to end the age of oil.

If supporters of exports want an example of why free trade in energy is beneficial for jobs and growth, they should look to Canada, and to the benefits of reversing the misguided restrictions it imposed in the wake of the OPEC crises four decades ago.

Both oil and gas production have soared in the U.S. due to the application of fracking and horizontal drilling techniques, which enable access to previously uneconomic reserves. U.S. oil production is up more than 50% over the past five years, to more than eight million barrels per day, while imports are at their lowest level in almost three decades.

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Quebec-Ontario electricity trade is smart, but not simple – by Christopher Ragan (Globe and Mail – August 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.

Last week, Quebec’s and Ontario’s premiers announced their desire to work together on crucial issues, including climate change, interprovincial trade and infrastructure. It is very positive for Canada when our two largest provinces recognize the benefits of co-operation. We should certainly hope they succeed, but let’s also be mindful of the obstacles in their way.

Especially interesting is the prospect of greater interprovincial trade in electricity. This would be a game-changer in Canada, and a very positive one. Quebec has a great deal of low-cost hydroelectricity available to export, and its current U.S. markets are becoming less interested in purchasing long-distance hydro power because of their own development of low-price shale gas.

At the same time, Ontario’s economy continues to grow but has few options for increasing its electricity capacity at costs anywhere close to Quebec’s. So the idea of Ontario buying electricity from Quebec is obviously sensible.

Any idea that is so obviously sensible must have serious problems, and there are at least three that come to mind.

The first will be the pressures from within Ontario to resist importing cheaper Quebec electricity. It will be argued that Ontario has built a world-class nuclear industry and that refurbishing existing nuclear plants and building new ones is necessary to keep this expertise at home.

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49 ‘dangerous occurrences’ at B.C. mine tailings ponds in past decade: ministry data – by Gordon Hoekstra (Vancouver Sun – August 26, 2014)

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

Dike breach, sinkholes and leaked tailings among incidents

Dangerous occurrences at tailings storage facilities at mines in B.C. between 2000 and 2012 included a breach of a dike, the discovery of sinkholes and leaked tailings. The vast majority of the dangerous occurrences involved incidents with equipment, which crashed, sunk into tailings storage facilities or flipped over.

In several cases, workers were injured and two workers died. The B.C. Ministry of Energy and Mines provided details of 49 dangerous occurrences at tailings ponds at the request of The Vancouver Sun following Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley tailings dam collapse on Aug. 4.

The dam failure released millions of cubic metres of water and tailings containing potentially toxic metals into Quesnel Lake in central B.C., and has increased scrutiny at the province’s 98 tailings facilities, which store mine waste.

The chief inspector of mines’ annual reports provide an annual breakdown of the number of dangerous occurrences, but the mines ministry initially balked at providing details of the dangerous occurrences, requested 10 days ago.

Neither B.C. Mines Minister Bill Bennett nor chief inspector of mines Al Hoffman were available for comment Monday.

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Alaska requests greater involvement in oversight of large B.C. gold mine – by James Keller (Globe and Mail – August 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 Canadian Press – The state of Alaska has taken the rare step of asking the Canadian government for greater involvement in the approval and regulation of a controversial mine in northwestern British Columbia amid growing concern that the project could threaten American rivers and fish.

Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources outlined its request in a letter this week to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, which has been reviewing the proposed KSM gold and copper mine, owned by Seabridge Gold Inc. The project has already been approved by B.C.

“The state of Alaska has important obligations to our citizens relating to the protection of fish, wildlife, waters and lands that we hold in trust,” says the state’s letter, signed by three senior bureaucrats.

They request in the letter that the state be involved in the authorization and permitting process for the KSM mine, the development of enforcement provisions in those permits, and the development of monitoring programs for water quality and dam safety.

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Alberta riled by Leonardo DiCaprio’s position on oil sands – by Ingrid Peritz (Globe and Mail – August 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.

Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio is ruffling feathers in Alberta after becoming the latest celebrity to visit the province and shine a critical spotlight on Canada’s oil sands.

Both the Alberta government and the oil industry came to the defence of the oil sands after Mr. DiCaprio travelled Friday to Fort McMurray, the heart of the oil-sands industry, as well as to the small community Fort Chipewyan, which has drawn world attention to health and environmental concerns.

The purpose of the trip was to reportedly research a documentary, but The Wolf of Wall Street actor has already staked a high-profile position as an environmentalist and critic of big oil. A video released last week, narrated by Mr. DiCaprio, warns about climate change and depicts the fossil-fuel industry as a robotic monster stomping over the Earth.

“They drill, they extract, making trillions of dollars,” Mr. DiCaprio says about the industry, in the video titled ‘Carbon’. “We must fight to keep this carbon in the ground.”

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Wynne, Couillard to push national energy strategy at premiers conference – by Jane Taber (Globe and Mail – August 25, 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.

Bolstered by the new partnership with her Quebec counterpart, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is eyeing Quebec’s abundant hydro power to light up Northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire development and reinvigorate talks for a national energy strategy.

She and Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard, both rookie premiers with majority mandates, recently forged a central Canadian alliance to co-operate on issues and bring prosperity back to their provinces.

Beginning on Aug. 26, all of the premiers will meet at the Council of the Federation in Prince Edward Island, and she and Mr. Couillard hope to come to the table with a “shared position” on a Canadian energy strategy. Under the previous separatist government – Mr. Couillard defeated Parti Québécois premier Pauline Marois in the spring provincial election – Quebec refused to participate in a Canada-wide strategy.

“It’s a different situation when there’s a strong federalist premier in Quebec,” Ms. Wynne said in an interview.

In addition, their new alliance calls for potentially increasing electricity trade between the two provinces. Northern Ontario is in dire need of infrastructure to help develop the Ring of Fire, which could provide thousands of jobs to the province and about $60-billion to its economy, according to the provincial government’s estimates.

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