Canadian Media Resource Articles – Page 637

What is Harper’s ‘real interest’ in Mongolia? – by Campbell Clark (Globe and Mail – July 28, 2014)

July 28, 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 — John Baird was given a ceremonial welcome in Ulan Bator, and invited to try a bow-and-arrow at a festival in the Jargalant Valley. The Foreign Affairs Minister is on a trip to Asia, visiting big powers China and Japan. But last week, his first stop was in a sparsely populated nation of three million.

Stephen Harper’s government is taking a particular interest in, of all places, Mongolia. Why?

Mongolia’s Foreign Minister, Luvsanvandan Bold, called Canada an important part of his country’s foreign policy. Canada just put Mongolia, a middle-income country, on its list of “countries of focus” for foreign aid.

Yes, there’s potential mining trade. But there’s also an invitation that the Harper government finds alluring: to help a little democracy maintain its independence from its two authoritarian neighbours, Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the People’s Republic of China.

“The Prime Minister has taken a real interest in Mongolia,” Mr. Baird said in a telephone interview.

Mr. Harper long ago turned from strident China critic to pragmatic trader with a rising economic power, but he still views its global influence darkly. And Mr. Harper has been a vocal critic of Mr. Putin’s actions in Ukraine: He’s called the Russian President a “throwback” to the Soviet Union.

Pact Putinia: How Russia’s gas plan will unfold – by Diane Francis (National Post – July 26, 2014)

July 28, 2014

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

Speculation about President Vladimir Putin proliferates. Does he want to occupy Ukraine? Has he gone too far by arming and training Russian mercenaries who shot down the Malaysian Air jet with 298 passengers? Why is he thumbing his nose at global outrage and more sanctions? What will stop him?

Such questions miss the mark.

Putin has been executing the same business/geopolitical model for years aimed at guaranteeing his natural gas monopoly in Europe and keeping out rivals.

Ukraine is his latest victim because it ousted his puppet, Victor Yanukovych, and also because its huge oil and gas reserves could eventually make Ukraine a competitor for European customers.

Russia has controlled Ukraine since it declared independence in 1991, mostly through corruption. But in 2005, the populace staged the 2005 Orange Revolution and the 2013-14 Maidan uprising rose up against and finally expelled Yanukovych. But their victory became defeat because Putin changed tactics by shifting from managing a Ukrainian kleptocracy to engineering a fake insurrection in parts of the country to turn its resource base into a no-go zone.

Mass grave with hundreds of skeletons found in Bolivian mining town – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – July 27, 2014)

July 28, 2014

http://www.mining.com/

Construction workers in the southern city of Potosi, Bolivia, have uncovered the remains of hundreds of miners believed to be from the Spanish colonial era.

They mostly mined at Cerro Rico Mountain, home to what became the world’s biggest silver mine and provided the Spanish with so much of the precious metal to ship to Europe that people used to say a bridge of pure silver could be built from the top of hill to the royal palace’s entrance in Spain.

But that boom came at an extremely high price tag — an estimated eight million miners died in Potosi alone between 1500 and 1800. What it is still unclear is how those miners met their deaths.

Some say the area was an indigenous burial ground for slaves and indentured servants who may have worked in the mines.

Another explanation could be that the remains are linked to the collapse of a reservoir in Potosi during the 17th century, which killed around 2,000 people.

“We are talking about a common grave found at about 1.8 metres, and the human remains are scattered over an area of four by four metres,” Sergio Fidel, a researcher at a museum belonging to Potosi’s Tomas Frias University, told AFP.

UPDATE 2-Potash Corp boosts outlook as profit tops expectations – by Rod Nickel (Reuters U.S. – July 25, 2014)

July 25, 2014

http://www.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – Potash Corp of Saskatchewan raised its full-year earnings outlook on Thursday after second-quarter profit fell less than expected due to improving global fertilizer demand.

Earnings have declined year over year for four straight quarters as the price of the crop nutrient hit a six-year low earlier this year. The breakup last year of global trading partnership Belarusian Potash Co accelerated the price slide, as it created more competition among producers.

Lower prices have recently rekindled demand, however, and cost-cutting has also improved Potash Corp’s bottom line.

Shares of Potash Corp jumped 4 percent to $37.62 in premarket trading. “The key question is, ‘Is this just pent-up (potash) demand finally being satisfied, or is it going to continue into 2015,'” said Peter Prattas, analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald. “Our view is that demand has room to increase slightly in 2015, but we’re not going to continue with the momentum we’ve had to start the year.”

The company said it has a strong potash order book from U.S. buyers for the second half, and Canpotex Ltd – its offshore trading partnership with Mosaic Co and Agrium Inc – is fully committed through the third quarter.

Cold Lake heats up as oil boom beckons – by Yadullah Hussain (National Post – July 25, 2014)

July 25, 2014

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

Osum Oil Sands Corp. CEO Steve Spence says he used to call Cold Lake the “unknown story in the oil sands”.

Not any more. While the city of Fort McMurray further north has garnered all the attention for its rapid growth, Cold Lake city has been an oil boomtown in its own right with production in its vicinity ramping up to half a million barrels per day.

“It is actually the most understood region [in terms of geology],” Mr. Spence said, although the Athabasca basin in Fort McMurray produces the bulk of Canada’s oil output.

Osum made a big move in Cold Lake in June, picking up Royal Dutch Shell Plc.’s assets in the region for $325-million. The Orion project produces about 6,700-bpd and is located close to the company’s Taiga facility, which is yet to start production. Mr. Spence expects the Orion transaction to close by the end of the month.

Mayor Craig Copeland says his city is ripe for a new boom.

“In the past few years, we have really seen a ramp up in development in our city. We have had several small booms before, but all of a sudden a lot of people have been coming to work on construction sites,” Mr. Copeland said in an interview. “This past winter —the winter that was so cold —we had approximately a good 3,000 people embedded in the community in rentals; houses and hotels were full.”

Beleaguered Cliffs posts Q2 loss, beats expectations – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – July 24, 2014)

July 24, 2014

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – US iron-ore and coal producer Cliffs Natural Resources, which is locked in a proxy fight with an activist shareholder for control of the board, on Wednesday reported a net loss for the three months ended June 30, as lower iron-ore and metallurgical steelmaking coal prices and reduced sales pressured the balance sheet.

The Cleveland, Ohio-based miner reported a loss of $2-million, or $0.01 a share, compared with a net income of $133-million, or $0.82 a share, in the second quarter of 2013.

The year-over-year consolidated revenues were 26% lower at $1.1-billion, mainly impacted by a 24% drop in sales volume from the company’s US iron-ore operations.

Seventeen Wall Street analysts had on average expected a loss of $0.06 a share, based on revenue of $1.17-billion.

The cost of goods sold decreased by 17% to $1-billion, mainly driven by reduced volumes, lower idle costs and favourable foreign exchange rates when compared with the second quarter of 2013.

Noront appeals Ontario Mining Recorder ruling – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – July 24, 2014)

July 24, 2014

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Noront Resources, the proponent of what could possibly be one of the first projects to get off the ground in Ontario’s prospective Ring of Fire mining district, has launched an appeal to the province’s mining and lands commissioner to set aside the finding of the Provincial Mining Recorder that rival KWG Resources is the first to stake two 16-unit claims when they came open on the morning of June 17, 2011.

KWG on Wednesday said it was on Tuesday served with a notice of Noront’s appeal.

The two claims were next to the southern two claims of Fancamp Exploration’s Koper Lake claims, where KWG is assessing the economic potential of the Black Horse chromite deposit under an option agreement with Bold Ventures and Fancamp. Noront is developing the Eagle’s Nest nickel/copper/platinum/palladium deposit.

“Koper Lake is an important amphibious aircraft facility for the Ring of Fire and the area used for landing and docking is within the eastern boundary of these claims. In the past, our exploration crews have been blockaded there, or embargoed from landing there, or [have] been levied substantial landing fees,” said KWG president Frank Smeenk.

He stressed that the firm believed that this was a critical part of the area’s transportation assets and should be operated as a public facility, from which the concept sprang of a federally sponsored port authority.

COMMENT: New standards for responsible mining proposed by IRMA – by Marilyn Scales (Canadian Mining Journal – July 22, 2014)

July 23, 2014

Marilyn Scales is a field editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication. She is one of Canada’s most senior mining commentators.

The Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA), has released a draft Standard for Responsible Mining for public comment. The draft is a proposed set of principles to improve social and environmental performance in the mining sector.

The draft was created over eight years by a group that includes members from the mining industry, organized labour, nongovernment organizations, impacted communities and businesses. IRMA said in a news release that the new standards seek to emulate for industrial scale mine sites what has been done with certification schemes in agriculture, forestry and fisheries.

Included in IRMA are representatives from Anglo American, IndustriALL Global Union, Earthworks, Tiffany & Co., United Steelworkers, Canadian Boreal Initiative, Jewelers of America, and Western Shoshone Defense Project.

Indeed the Standard is comprehensive. It includes guidelines on legal compliance as well as revenue and payments transparency. It addresses social responsibility including fair labour and working conditions, health and safety, human rights, informed consent, cultural heritage and communicable diseases. The section on environmental responsibility tackles not only water quality but water quantity, waste management, noise, air quality, biodiversity, plus the use and management of cyanide and mercury. Reclamation and closure are covered as well as management systems for assessment, monitoring and remedies.

Gibraltar a rock in stormy waters for Taseko – by James Kwantes (Vancouver Sun – July 22, 2014)

July 23, 2014

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

With New Prosperity on hold, central Interior mine could fund acquisitions

VANCOUVER — The battle over Taseko’s New Prosperity copper-gold project has played out in the media, corridors of political power and now, in court.

Out of the limelight, Taseko has sunk about $300 million into equipment that will increase production and reserves at its 75-per-cent owned Gibraltar copper-molybdenum mine in the central Interior, and the strategy appears to be paying off.

For the three months ended June 30, Gibraltar produced 38.5 million pounds of copper and 667,000 pounds of molybdenum — increases of 37 per cent and 100 per cent, respectively. Gibraltar is Canada’s second-largest open-pit copper mine and one of the largest employers in the Cariboo, with 700 workers.

“We’re in the early stages of really starting to make it purr like a fine-tuned machine,” Taseko CEO Russ Hallbauer said during a recent interview. “It’s a big accomplishment for everybody involved, from the employees at the site to the corporate folks that worked on it.”

Gibraltar’s site costs — “what we can control” — are down to about $2 per pound of copper, putting the company on solid footing in case of a downturn in metals prices, according to Hallbauer. Copper now sells for about $3.16 a pound.

“We can withstand all the bottoms of the cycle, unless it becomes very, very extraordinary,” he said.

Dundee takes on high-profile mining banker in cutthroat court battle – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – July 23, 2014)

July 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.

It looked like a perfect match – a star mining banker joins a hungry Bay Street shop looking to raise its game in the resource sector. It ended in a nasty split, with accusations of stolen clients, incompetence and defamation.

The saga finds mid-tier dealer Dundee Securities in a tangled court battle with veteran Bay Street mining banker Bob Sangha, who joined the firm in 2010. Dundee alleges Mr. Sangha and one of his associates later secretly set up a competing firm and solicited Dundee clients, including Osisko Mining, which was embroiled in a high-profile takeover battle this year, according to a lawsuit filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

Mr. Sangha denies the allegations and accuses Dundee representatives, including one executive, of making false and defamatory statements against Mr. Sangha and his investment bank Maxit Capital Inc., according to the countersuit.

The bitter fight between Mr. Sangha and Dundee provides a window into the cutthroat battle for business in the mining industry. Mr. Sangha is seeking $50-million in damages from Dundee Securities. Dundee is seeking a total of $43-million in damages from Maxit Capital, Mr. Sangha and his associate.

Mr. Sangha was plucked from BMO Nesbitt Burns to serve as Dundee’s managing director of mining banking. Hired to beef up business and raise the profile of Dundee’s mining team, Mr. Sangha brought about two dozen of his mining clients.

Essar Steel Algoma staves off third round of bankruptcy protection – by Greg Keenan (Globe and Mail – July 23, 2014)

July 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.

Essar Steel Algoma Inc., considered making its third trip through bankruptcy protection in a quarter-century before reaching a preliminary deal last week with a group of creditors to restructure its debt.

“The company’s current debt obligations of over $1.2-billion and annual interest expense of $113-million are unsustainable,” Algoma’s general counsel, Robert Sandoval, revealed in a court filing that said the steel maker rejected a proposal by one group of creditors that it file for protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA).

Such a move would have followed court-supervised restructurings in 1991 and 2001, which came before Algoma was bought in 2007 by India-based Essar Global Fund Ltd., in the global steel industry consolidation that led to the purchase of all of Canada’s major steel makers by foreign-based giants.

The court filings said Algoma – once Canada’s third-largest steel maker – plans to reach a final deal with holders of its 9.875 per cent unsecured notes by Sept. 30. The preliminary deal calls for holders of about $385-million worth of debt to receive 32 per cent of the value of their notes in cash and another 55 per cent in new notes.

Instead of using the CCAA to restructure, Algoma has filed a restructuring proposal under the Canada Business Corporations Act (CBCA) and has been granted protection from creditors in the United States under chapter 15 of the U.S. bankruptcy code.

[Canadian federal minister] Leona Aglukkaq targets Greenpeace in ICC speech – (CBC News – July 22, 2014)

July 22, 2014

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

Leona Aglukkaq, Nunavut’s MP and Canada’s Minister of Environment, had strong words against Greenpeace in her keynote address at the Inuit Circumpolar Council’s general assembly in Inuvik, N.W.T.

“Inuit were victims of misinformation and lies spread by a group that had no regard for their impact on our way of life,” she said of Greenpeace’s campaign against the seal hunt.

She did not specifically mention the issue of seismic testing to look for oil and gas reserves in Nunavut. Greenpeace opposes seismic testing and has been working with Inuit groups in Nunavut who are fighting federally-approved seismic testing off Baffin Island over concerns of the effects the tests would have on marine mammals.

Aglukkaq said Inuit need to stick together and not be manipulated. “Other people who are not our friends will try to use Inuit as weapons in their own battles,” she said.

Kinross Says BNP Paribas Helping on Tasiast Mine Funding – by Liezel Hill (Bloomberg News – July 22, 2014)

July 22, 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Kinross Gold Corp. (K), the gold company with the cheapest shares among large producers, is working with BNP Paribas SA to arrange financing this year for a $1.6 billion expansion project in Mauritania.

The third-largest Canadian gold miner has taken more than $5.5 billion of writedowns on its Tasiast operation since its acquisition as part of an C$8.2 billion ($7.7 billion) purchase in 2010 of Red Back Mining Inc. Chief Executive Officer Paul Rollinson, who took over from Tye Burt two years ago, is trying to get funding to justify making Tasiast the company’s biggest mine.

“We think we’ll get pretty good terms,” Rollinson, 52, said last week in an interview at the company’s Toronto headquarters. “It just takes longer to structure when you’re working through government agencies and their systems and approval processes.”

The company expects to finalize the Tasiast financing toward the end of the year, Rollinson said. The lenders may include multilateral credit agencies, such as the World Bank’s International Finance Corp., and the funding may total about $700 million to $750 million, he said.

The company won’t make a final decision on the expansion until early 2015, he said. The project was delayed after Rollinson ordered fresh studies to reassess the design. “My theme there is, take the time to get it right,” he said. “Bigger isn’t always better.”

Forty five years after man first walked on the moon, a new space race is beginning to take shape – by Peter Kavanagh, (National Post – July 22, 2014)

July 22, 2014

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

It was our first truly global village moment, and it didn’t even take place on the planet.

Forty five years ago this past weekend, July 20th, 1969, at 20:18 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), half a billion people sat around radios or television screens, or stood, outside, eyes scanning the sky. I was one of them, moving back and forth between the TV in our living room and our front yard where I could stare straight into the sky and see the moon. I remember the moment — which I can (and do) relive on YouTube — and the incredible, quiet excitement when, while holding my breath and watching the slow, agonizingly descent, I heard the words, “Houston … Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”

What we were all really waiting for, though, was the extreme rush that came six hours later when Neil Armstrong stepped down on to the surface of the moon and uttered that now famous phrase, “That’s one small step for man … one giant leap for mankind.” It was amazing, stunning, excruciatingly exciting. Every science-fiction story written had been made real, palpable and possible on that summer’s night. Everyone and anyone could dream about going to the stars, and no longer be dismissed as simply a dreamer. Having one’s head in the clouds lost its sting, briefly, as an insult.

And the world cheered … well, part of the world cheered. After all, despite the “We are all in it together” sentiment of Armstrong’s quote, landing on the moon was a key component of the space race, an adjunct of the Cold War. America’s accomplishment was, for the Soviets, a bitter defeat.

Land rulings a clear message to Ottawa, provinces: It’s time to govern – by Thomas Isaac (Globe and Mail – July 21, 2014)

July 21, 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.

Thomas Isaac is leader of the Aboriginal Law Group at Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt.

The Supreme Court of Canada has delivered two significant decisions this summer regarding aboriginal title and treaty rights. In June, the Tsilqhot’in decision affirmed aboriginal title over a discrete area of central British Columbia. In early July, the Keewatin decision confirmed Ontario’s authority to legislate regarding Treaty 3, including over areas such as forestry and mining.

At first the decisions look quite different. They deal with different provinces, different facts and appear to have differing outcomes. However, both decisions are actually consistent with each other and their outcomes similar. Both decisions affirm that governments bear the burden of balancing aboriginal and non-aboriginal interests fairly and reasonably and confirm that governments have the tools to govern.

In Tsilqhot’in, the Supreme Court confirmed the six Tsilqhot’in Bands hold aboriginal title to approximately 1,700 sq. km of remote and sparsely populated land in central British Columbia. As a result, these bands now hold the land and, with a few important restrictions, can use and derive benefits from it. Importantly, the decision confirms that both governments can legislate regarding aboriginal title lands and can infringe aboriginal title, where justified.

While Tsilqhot’in is the first decision affirming aboriginal title in Canada, there is actually little new law in it, except that it is now clear that provincial laws can apply to aboriginal title lands and that provinces and the federal government can infringe aboriginal title.