Canadian Media Resource Articles – Page 646

Kinross lobbying Ottawa over sanctions – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – June 17, 2014)

June 17, 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.

Kinross Gold Corp. has been working feverishly to ensure that its prized Russian mines do not become a casualty of the diplomatic spat between Russia and the West.

During a difficult period in which the company has struggled to placate both sides, federal lobbying records made public in June show that Kinross’s chief executive Paul Rollinson and a lobbyist for the Toronto-based gold miner have had numerous communications with the Canadian government’s top officials, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s foreign affairs policy adviser.

The high level of interactions with the federal government comes as investors fret over Western sanctions against Russia, which were imposed in an attempt to curb the country’s aggression in Ukraine.

In April, Kinross hired three lobbyists with ties to Mr. Harper’s Conservative government. The lobbyists include Michael Coates, the chief executive of Hill and Knowlton Canada and a former adviser to Mr. Harper who helped him prepare for elections in 2004, 2006 and 2008.

Rising instability may make $100-a-barrel oil seem cheap – by Peter Tertzakian (Globe and Mail – June 17, 2014)

June 17, 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.

“Five years ago, they told us we were running out of oil,” the speaker quips with a chuckle. Grinning, he pauses and fires the shot at the audience, “But we didn’t run out of oil.”

You’ll often hear variations of this wisecrack delivered at energy conferences or in written words. But the notion that a shortage of oil was avoided circa 2007 is misplaced. Make no mistake: The world did run out of oil in that decade. The world ran out of $20 (U.S.) oil.

It’s an unsettling reality that the price of a barrel had to jump fivefold and sustain at $100 before producers found the inventiveness to coax more out of the ground. And it’s remarkable that even after this sharp quintupling of price, global demand still continues to grow at over one million barrels a day, year over year.

Ten years ago, in the geriatric oil fields of the United States, Canada and the North Sea, a twenty-dollar bill had long lost its appeal as a draw for domestic investment. Abroad, twenty bucks lacked lustre in many major oil-producing countries. “Above ground” fiscal friction like corruption and geopolitics had added a fat layer of soft costs to the hard problem of satisfying unsustainable consumption growth from emerging economies.

“We’re not running out of oil.

Treasury Metals aiming at becoming Ontario’s next gold producer – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – June 17, 2014)

June 17, 2014

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Recent drilling results at TSX-listed Treasury Metals’ Goliath project, in western Ontario, have confirmed that gold mineralisation at a new zone continues at depth, highlighting the significant exploration upside at a project the company bills as probably being Ontario’s next gold producer.

Speaking to Mining Weekly Online in an interview on Monday, Treasury president and CEO Martin Walter noted that the company was well on its way to progressing the project up the value curve, being fully funded by South Africa-based Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) through to the “shovel-ready” stage.

“We have found a number of encouraging intercepts in the high-grade area of the C Zone, which is shaping our plans positively for the eventual underground mine. We will be testing more of these high-grade targets later in the year and we honestly believe that we will be able to breach the two-million-ounce resource level with our next resource update due out in the third quarter,” he said in Toronto.

Treasury last week reported that the company’s current drilling programme at Goliath, which was aimed at expanding the gold resource within the developing C Zone horizon as well as to tighten grades and extend known mineralisation at the Main Zone through infill drilling, was confirming significant upside to increase the resource beyond its current limits.

Canaries and Coffins – by Russell Noble (Canadian Mining Journal – June/July 2014)

June 17, 2014

Russell Noble is the editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication.

Canaries and coffins were once commonly listed as “supplies” at many mines because as we all know, in the earlier days of underground mining, particularly coal mining, the working conditions weren’t all that great and safety certainly wasn’t a consideration.

In fact, they were deplorable based on some historical photos I’ve seen that show workers subjecting themselves to environments unimaginable by today’s standards. Mind you, particularly during the aftermath of the recent Soma disaster in Turkey, are the mines of the world really all that much better today?

One would hope so but increasingly we’re hearing of, and seeing more examples that demonstrate they’re not!

There’s no argument that the mines in North America and many others around the world for that matter that are owned
and operated from here are safer by comparison, but it’s the others that are run in a haphazard manner by sketchy owners and governments with no respect nor compassion for the well-being of their miners that broad brush the mining industry as being heartless and negligent.

What just happened in Turkey, and routinely happens in China I suspect, just shows how little value too many governments place on their own people.

Ontario’s economic fundamentals need fixing – by Kevin G. Lynch (Toronto Star – June 17, 2014)

June 17, 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.

Now that Ontario’s government is decided, it’s time to address a series of economic challenges that we ignore at our peril.

With Ontario’s government now decided, the governing begins. And it will be a challenging task. Ontario faces economic challenges that we ignore at our peril. The pace of growth has declined, and it is permanent, not temporary. The government debt of Ontario is high, and still rising. The productivity of Ontario business is low, and barely increasing, while its innovation performance is poor and shows only isolated pockets of improvement. The Ontario cost base, from electricity to regulations to congestion is relatively high, and shows few signs of becoming more competitive. As the Jobs and Prosperity Council bluntly observed, the status quo is not an option for Ontario.

Growth in Ontario, long the stalwart of the Canadian economy, averaged roughly three per cent annually from 1980 to just before the global recession, but is now heading downwards to a long term growth path of only 2.1 per cent per year according to the government’s Long-Term Report on the Economy, or even lower by other estimates.

This massive decline in Ontario’s potential growth is the result of a variety of interconnected factors: aging demographics, weak productivity growth, structural shifts in manufacturing competitiveness and sustained weakness in our traditional trading partners. What is clear is that a failure to rebuild Ontario’s growth capacity will affect everything from the affordability of public services to the number and quality of jobs to living standards.

Euromax proving to be an exception for Canadian mining firms in Europe – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – June 16, 2014)

June 16, 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.

Canadian mining companies have had a rough go in Europe. Clobbered by political indecision and fierce opposition from environmental groups, Gabriel Resources seems on the verge of abandoning its 15-year attempt to open the continent’s biggest gold mine, in Romania. Eldorado Gold has been besieged by protests and an arson attack that have slowed, though not killed, its mine development in northern Greece.

Euromax Resources is proving the exception to the rule that no Canadian mining development in Europe shall go unchallenged. The company’s shares, which are listed on Toronto’s Venture exchange, tripled over a three-day period starting June 5, when it released a pre-feasibility study that, it claimed, amply displayed the “economic robustness” of its Ilovitza gold-copper deposit in southeast Macedonia. The shares last traded at 60 cents; at one point in April, they were under a dime.

The encouraging study means that the $500-million (U.S.) open-pit mine is almost certain to go ahead. “We have the chance to build the first greenfield mine that anyone has seen in the Balkans for 30 years,” says Euromax CEO Steve Sharpe.

Even better, the permitting risk, while not absent, seems low. Macedonia is a new country that is working hard to attract foreign investors. To streamline development, it front-end loads the permitting process, that is, government departments and regulators provide permits based on detailed conceptual studies. “You get government buy-in from day one,” Mr. Sharpe says, noting that Euromax expects no problems in obtaining the construction permit.

Russia’s Gazprom cuts gas supply to Ukraine as talks fail – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – June 16, 2014)

June 16, 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.

ROME — Political tensions between Russia and Ukraine intensified on Monday when Russian energy giant Gazprom halted natural gas supplies to Ukraine after talks to settle a payment dispute failed.

“Gas supplies to Ukraine have been reduce to zero,” Ukrainian energy minister Yuri Prodan said, according to a BBC report.

Mr. Prodan’s announcement came shortly after Gazprom said it would only deliver gas to Ukraine that is paid for up front. For months, Gazprom and Ukraine have been locked in contract dispute over gas arrears payments. Gazprom puts Ukraine’s unpaid gas bill at $4-billion (U.S.) and demanded that almost half of it be paid by today’s deadline or face supply disruptions.

Gazprom said it had filed a lawsuit at a Stockholm arbitration court to try to recover the debt. Ukraine’s state oil and gas company, Naftogaz, said it was filing a suit at the same court to recover $6-billion in alleged overpayments.

The gas shut-off came as clashes between pro-Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine and Ukraine government forces turn more bloody. On Saturday, rebels shot down a Ukrainian military plane as it approached an airport in Luhansk, killing all 49 on board.

Ottawa to blame for First Nations’ pipeline stand, PM appointee says – by Justine Hunter (Globe and Mail – June 16, 2014)

June 16, 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.

VICTORIA — The federal government must shoulder much of the blame for the entrenched opposition to the Northern Gateway oil pipeline, says the Prime Minister’s special envoy on aboriginal and energy issues.

Doug Eyford says the Enbridge project – which Ottawa declared to be in the national interest – has foundered in large measure because industry was left alone to navigate complex First Nations issues, when there should have been more political oversight. His remarks were made last week at a conference for treaty negotiators, industry and government, and a copy of his address was obtained by The Globe and Mail.

“I’ve been surprised at the extent to which the federal government has been content to allow project proponents like Enbridge to engage aboriginal communities with little or no Crown oversight, direction, or assistance,” Mr. Eyford said.

Ottawa’s decision on Enbridge’s pipeline proposal to get Alberta oil to the B.C. coast, opening up international markets, could be announced as early as today. The federal cabinet is expected to give Northern Gateway a green light, but the project still faces significant hurdles that have increased with each passing month. Northern Gateway, 10 years after it was first proposed, now faces a battery of legal challenges and threats of civil disobedience, led by First Nations.

Canada’s ‘dig and deliver’ economy – by Robert McGarvey (Troy Media – June 10, 2014)

June 16, 2014

http://www.troymedia.com/

There has been a shocking collapse in Canada’s secondary economy

EDMONTON, AB, Jun 10, 2014/ Troy Media/ – The Ontario election is entering the home stretch: all three party leaders are in there pitching, offering the electorate ‘visions of sugar plums’ or variations on the theme. But none of the leaders dares address the most important issue: where are we going as a nation?

Political discourse in Canada these days is confined to the soothing and the trivial. It seems Canadians will tolerate only comforting noises. Meanwhile the country is on autopilot, rapidly being marginalized, reduced to a ‘dig and deliver’ Canada.

Economists have joined this soothing choir. On the surface, they assure us, the economy is fine. Canada is solidly middle-of-the-pack. Regrettably, a quick look beneath the covers reveals a very different, very troubling story of decline.

Consider the trade figures. On the surface figures vary month to month, but range within acceptable limits. On the other hand, beneath the surface, the figures reveal a frightening collapse in export trade. Doug Porter, BMO’s chief economist did us all a favour when he stripped out energy sector exports from the Canadian trade numbers. The results were shocking. Porter’s numbers have exposed a shocking collapse of Canada’s secondary economy.

According the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the collapse of Ontario’s secondary economy, its manufacturing sector, is systemic.

Regulators should get out of takeovers – by Adrian Myers (Globe and Mail – June 12, 2014)

June 13, 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.

Can an endangered wild animal determine the fate of a hostile takeover bid? In Canada, the answer seems to be “yes.”

On May 22, an ocelot was spotted on the site of Augusta Resource Corp.’s Rosemont copper project and speculation is that this wildlife sighting could be a boon for HudBay Minerals Inc.’s hostile bid for Augusta. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will now have to conduct further analysis of the project site, which means Augusta will likely not receive final development permits until the third quarter.

While this delay may seem minor, it may have a major effect on the outcome of HudBay’s bid by putting final permitting on the wrong side of the British Columbia Securities Commission’s (BCSC) arbitrary poison pill cease-trade deadline.

This reveals a fundamental issue with Canadian securities regulation: Regulators, not shareholders, are the ones who determine whether a hostile takeover succeeds or fails. By forcing companies to abandon takeover defences after arbitrary periods of time, regulators leave shareholders vulnerable not just to hostile bidders but to unexpected turns of fate, feline or otherwise.

Such deadlines mean that the most powerful voice in the debate over the fate of Augusta may not be the shareholder’s proxy ballot, but a dwarf leopard’s meek roar.

RoF development likely to get C$1bn boost as Wynne takes majority – Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – June 13, 2014)

June 13, 2014

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Infrastructure development in the prospective Ring of Fire (RoF) mining camp in Ontario’s far north is likely to get a C$1-billion boost after the Ontario Liberal Party took a majority win in provincial polls held on Thursday.

At the end of April, the then minority Liberal-lead provincial government announced a massive $1-billion set aside in its failed budget to develop strategic all-season industrial and community transportation infrastructure in the RoF.

Former Minister of Northern Development and Mines, Michael Gravelle, beseeched the federal government to match its contribution and throw its weight behind the development of what had been billed as a “project of national significance”.

However, with no formal plan in place, how the money was to be spent remained unclear, and the private sector was backing opposing modes of transport to reach the undeveloped mine camp, and transport the minerals to market.

In their campaign platform, the Liberals have promised to establish a development corporation within 60 days of being re-elected.

Hillcrest: Canada’s forgotten disaster – by Valerie Berenyi (Calgary Herald – June 13, 2014)

June 13, 2014

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

100 years ago 189 died in the depths of an Alberta coal mine

They say you don’t go
Say you don’t go down in the Hillcrest Mine
‘Cause it’s one short step

You might leave this world behind
And they say you don’t go
Say you don’t go down in the Hillcrest Mine

—James Keelaghan’s ballad Hillcrest Mine

Coalminer Charles Elick may have thought himself a lucky man. He survived the Frank Slide in 1903 when a massive rockslide buried part of the little town of Frank in southwestern Alberta. He and co-workers at a nearby mine were trapped by the rubble, but managed to free themselves after digging for 13 frantic hours.

Charles then relocated his growing family to the nearby mining town of Hillcrest and went back underground. His luck ran out on the sunny morning of June 19, 1914, when he said goodbye to his wife Julia, pregnant with their fifth child, and went off to work at the Hillcrest Mine. Two hours after the morning shift began, a methane gas and coal dust explosion ripped through the mine, killing Charles and 188 other men.

Northern Gateway vs. Crowd science – by Peter Foster (National Post – June 13, 2014)

June 13, 2014

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

Novice Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford, while expressing the Federal Cabinet’s infinite concern for a balanced appraisal of the Northern Gateway pipeline, which is due by next Tuesday, managed to leave the impression in New York this week that the decision might be delayed, even as he was also quoted as saying that it was “relatively straightforward.” Officials were left to unfuzzify his remarks.

This is hardly the time for communications cock-ups, particularly given that the Harper government is coming under predictable pressure as it prepares — presumably — to approve the proposed $6.5-billion pipeline from the oil sands to the coast of B.C. Why would the Cabinet want any delay? Is Stephen Harper aspiring to look like President Odithers on Keystone XL?

Northern Gateway is at least as politically fraught for Mr. Harper as Keystone XL is for Mr. Obama, but in economic terms the Enbridge proposal is of far greater economic significance for Canada than Keystone XL is to the U.S.

Liberal Opposition leader Justin Trudeau called upon the Prime Minister this week to “do the right thing and just say no” to the pipeline, which in turn gave Mr. Harper the opportunity to conjure up the ghost of Mr. Trudeau’s father, Pierre, perpetrator of the 1980 National Energy Program, and suggest that opposition to the oil industry might be in the Liberals’ DNA.

Kathleen Wynne will have to show what kind of premier she really is – by Adam Radnowski (National Post – June 13, 2014)

June 13, 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.

Kathleen Wynne has achieved what even many of her fellow Liberals doubted was possible.

A year-and-a-half after inheriting from Dalton McGuinty what seemed to be the flaming wreckage of a decade-old government, Ms. Wynne’s party entered this campaign just hoping to cling to power. Instead, their rookie leader won them back a majority.

Now, having proved herself a remarkably successful campaigner, Ms. Wynne will have to demonstrate what kind of premier she really is. And the big catch is that the way she won back office, by rallying the centre-left (and a whole lot of unions) behind her in opposition to Tim Hudak’s Progressive Conservatives, has set up expectations she is going to have a hard time meeting as she returns to the cold realities of a government deep in deficit.

It may take a little while, for both her and her supporters, for those realities to sink in. Ms. Wynne has vowed to reintroduce promptly the budget the Tories and NDP rejected to kick-start the election, which means she will get to make good on her promises to launch a new provincial pension plan, increase spending on social programs, invest in infrastructure, and try to stimulate economic growth through direct business investment.

Comment: How to break the resource deadlock – by Bill Gallagher (Financial Post – June 13, 2014)

June 13, 2014

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

Aboriginal communities right across the country will have likely won 200 legal rulings in the resources sector by the end of this year. This unprecedented winning streak has become the central plank in the native empowerment ‘toolbox’ and it outclasses the toolboxes of governments and industry, both of whom now seem to accept resource project delays as an economic fact of life.

Indeed the cumulative negative impact on our resources future is the biggest under-reported business story of the decade. Over the past year, I have been promoting a series of recommendations at resource symposiums to reverse this unhappy trend.

Before delving into my suggestions however, it is important to note that the Federal Government is pretty well out of the resources business. The provinces rule that roost, the northern Territories have been sufficiently devolved in order to run their affairs, and even offshore energy plays are managed under joint boards. The Feds are left with mandates in (some) environmental approvals, climate change protocols, species-at-risk, marine transportation and national infrastructure. None of these drive resource projects.

It’s precisely because Ottawa is out of the resources business that it needs to get into it. And the mechanism for returning to the fore requires the creation of an entirely new federal ministry that will act as a clearing-house. Nothing on this scale exists.