Canadian Media Resource Articles – Page 648

Quebec iron firm says mine railway feasibility study could stimulate investment – by Ross Marowits (Montreal Gazette – June 6, 2014)

June 9, 2014

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

THE CANADIAN PRESS – MONTREAL – A Quebec iron ore exploration company says the provincial government’s financial support to study building a railway link in northern Quebec’s Labrador Trough region could stimulate investment and create new jobs.

“At a time of uncertainty in investment markets regarding the outlook for iron ore, this decision will be seen as a defining point in the history of the mining industry in Quebec,” said Champion Iron chairman Michael O’Keeffe.

Iron ore prices have slumped to two-year lows, prompting miners to delay projects. Analyst Jackie Przybylowski of Desjardins Capital Markets doesn’t believe there is as much demand for a multi-user rail line as the industry thought in the past couple of years.

“Although a feasibility study is a good start, it certainly doesn’t guarantee that a rail line is going to get built,” she said. The Quebec government committed in Wednesday’s budget up to $20 million towards a feasibility study on the construction of a railway line connecting the iron ore deposits with the Port of Sept-Iles. Funding for the study will be conducted with private partners.

The new government said developing the mining potential of the region is a “cornerstone” of its relaunched Northern Quebec economic development plan.

B.C. mining industry climbing out of dark hole – by Derrick Penner (Vancouver Sun – June 5, 2014)

June 6, 2014

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

Sector looks to recover after hitting bottom, according to survey

While B.C. miners face an uncertain future, it pales in comparison with the challenges of the global industry, which saw its profits crushed in 2013, according to a new report from accounting and consulting firm PwC.

The world’s top 40 mining companies lost $280 billion in capital value on stock markets last year and profits, at $20 billion, down 72 per cent, representing the lowest level in a decade, the report states.

Canadian companies account for eight of the top 40 companies in the global survey, including Vancouver-based heavyweights Goldcorp. Inc., Teck Resources Ltd. and First Quantum Minerals Ltd.

“I think we’ve hit the bottom, and we’re starting to crawl out,” said James Gravelle, leader of PwC’s global mining practice.

Looking at first-quarter financial results for the companies that have reported, mining firms are starting to see firmer profits and improved stock values, he added. This is the result of cost cutting and rationalizing within the industry in recent months, according to Gravelle.

Uranium stocks tumble after RBC takes axe to price forecasts – by Peter Koven (National Post – June 6, 2014)

June 6, 2014

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

Uranium miners have offered a very consistent message to investors over the past couple of years: The short-term outlook is bad, but don’t worry, a lot more uranium is going to be needed down the road. RBC Capital Markets Analysts agree. Only they think it will be a much longer road than most.

Analysts Fraser Phillips and Patrick Morton on Thursday sent shudders through the industry as they took an axe to their uranium price forecasts. They cut their 2014 spot price forecast to US$31.50 a pound, down from US$45. And it got worse from there. The 2015 target was cut to US$40 (from US$60), and targets for the 2016 to 2018 period fell to just US$40-US$45 from US$75-US$80.

Not surprisingly, shares of every significant uranium company (including Cameco Corp., Paladin Energy Ltd. and Denison Mines Corp.) tumbled on Thursday.

The analysts believe the uranium market is going to be in surplus until 2021, which is far longer than most insiders expect. They blame continuing oversupply in the market.

“Active annual supply exceeds demand by a significant margin, and on top of that, significant excess inventories have been and continue to be accumulated post the Fukushima disaster, particularly in Japan,” they said in a note.

Mining industry clobbered in 2013: report – by Bertrand Marotte (Globe and Mail – June 5, 2014)

June 6, 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 was mining’s annus horribilis.

In 2013, the largest 40 global mining companies booked record impairments of $57-billion (U.S.), driving down aggregate net profits a whopping 72 per cent to $20-billion, a descent not seen in a decade, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP’s annual “Mine”report.

The Top 40’s market capitalization fell by $280-billion, or 23 per cent, to $958-billion at the end of last year.

Only four of the Top 40 companies managed an increase in market cap: Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (copper), Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. (iron ore), First Quantum Minerals Ltd. (copper, gold) and Polyus Gold International Ltd.

Gold producers were the hardest hit. Gold prices experienced their biggest annual decline – 27 per cent – in more than 30 years, says the report, released Thursday. And gold companies accounted for the lion’s share of impairments: $27-billion.

HSBC’s global mining index fell 23 per cent, a decline due to the negative commodity price outlook but “also in part due to the continued lack of confidence from investors based on historical performance,” the report said.

Oil sands score win in Europe as EU removes key hurdle – by SHAWN MCCARTHY AND JEFFREY JONES AND STEVEN CHASE (Globe and Mail – June 6, 2014)

June 6, 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.

TORONTO and CALGARY and BRUSSELS — The European Union appears to be backing away from a contentious fuel regulation that would hit oil sands producers, as governments there worry increasingly about their dependence on Russian energy imports.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper – in Europe this week – has won backing from key allies, including Britain, Poland and Italy, to deepen the Canada-EU energy relationship in order to enhance security of supply.

“There obviously has been some discussion here about energy security,” Mr. Harper told reporters after G7 talks in Brussels Thursday. “Our energy ministers, Natural Resources Minister [Greg] Rickford among them, met within the last month to have a very in-depth discussion of how we can move forward to enhance our energy security for the Western world generally.”

The European Commission has removed the most contentious part of the fuel quality directive that would impose new hurdles for Canadian imports, and would instead require refiners to report emissions on their feedstock regardless of the source of the crude, according to a draft document seen by Reuters news service.

Thunder Bay candidates talk Ring of Fire, spending at Chamber forum (CBC News – June 06, 2014)

June 6, 2014

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

Mining and money were hot topics at an election debate forum presented by the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce Thursday night.

Candidates from the two ridings that cover Thunder Bay spoke in front of about 50 people — many of whom were family and friends of the candidates. The candidates made their pitches on how their parties would improve northwestern Ontario’s economy.

Thunder Bay-Superior North PC candidate Derek Parks said that, when it comes to the Ring of Fire mining project, the government should help business, and stay out of discussions between remote communities and mining companies.

“The Ring of Fire, I would suggest has been hijacked by special interest groups through a few First Nation bands,” he said.

“Government interventions in this negotiation have brought it to a halt.” The Liberals and NDP say they would each invest heavily in the Ring of Fire. The other major topic — government spending — put Thunder Bay-Atikokan Liberal candidate Bill Mauro on the defence.

“Would you have not done the conversion of the coal plants or the four-laning of the highways or the angioplasty program or the 1,200 jobs at Bombarider? Which of those would you have chosen not to do?”

Quebec Government Revives Northern Plan to Boost Revenue – by Frederic Tomesco (Bloomberg News – June 5, 2014)

June 5, 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Quebec is once again looking north for growth and investment.

Finance Minister Carlos Leitao, keeping a campaign pledge, said the province’s newly elected Liberal Party government will revive the so-called Plan Nord, a strategy to tap mining and energy resources north of the 49th parallel that former Premier Pauline Marois halted after gaining power in 2012.

Canada’s second most populous province will also create a C$1 billion ($914 million) fund to buy equity stakes in mining and oil and gas companies, many of which operate in the province’s remotest regions, Leitao said yesterday in Quebec City as he unveiled his budget for the fiscal year that began in April.

“We intend to take full advantage of our natural resource endowment,” Leitao told reporters. “Many other jurisdictions in North America and elsewhere in the world would love to have the kind of natural resources we have.”

Led by Philippe Couillard, the Liberals swept to power April 7 thanks in part to a pledge to create 250,000 jobs in Quebec over five years. Former Liberal Premier Jean Charest unveiled the Plan Nord in 2011, promising C$80 billion of government and company investment by 2036 in an area twice the size of France.

Editorial: Ring of Fire funding – A Wynne-win? (Northern Miner Editorial – June 6, 2014)

June 5, 2014

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

In a rare turn, mining has emerged as an issue in a provincial election campaign in Ontario: the ruling Liberal party is promising to unilaterally pump up to $1 billion into infrastructure development in the remote Ring of Fire chromite camp in northern Ontario. It’s part of Premier Kathleen Wynne’s multi-billion dollar plan to ramp up infrastructure spending in the province if her party returns to power on June 12.

This Ring of Fire spending would mainly be earmarked for building a transportation corridor into the region — situated 535 km northeast of Thunder Bay — and it would represent at least half of what is probably needed to open the area up to mining. The $1-billion pledge was first put into the May 1 provincial budget, which failed to pass. However, that funding was contingent on matching dollars from the federal government.

With the federal government showing little interest in the Ring of Fire, Wynne stepped up the rhetoric at the unveiling of the party’s election platform in Thunder Bay on May 25, saying: “we have determined that this is such an important project that we need to go ahead with that investment of a billion dollars, with or without the federal government.”

The next day at the Northern Leaders’ debate in Thunder Bay, Wynne echoed the hyperbole of previous premier Dalton McGuinty by describing the Ring of Fire as “a national project, at least as important as the oilsands in Alberta.”

Jochen Tilk taking over as Potash Corp CEO just as its cartel model crumbles – by Richard Warnica (Canadian Business Magazine – June 4, 2014)

June 5, 2014

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/

For years, Potash Corp. has helped pump prices by limiting supply. That may have to change

As the president and CEO of Inmet—a Canadian copper miner with global operations—Jochen Tilk dealt with everything from illegal strikes in Papua New Guinea to runaway costs in Panama and environmental protestors in Spain. But when he takes over as CEO of Potash Corp. this summer, Tilk will be facing a whole new set of problems.

For years, Potash Corp. has been the gem of the Saskatchewan economy—and one of Canada’s most profitable companies, with net income of $1.8 billion and EBITDA of $3.3 billion last year. But recently it has run into trouble. The company sold less potash in 2013 than it did in 2012, even as the price for a tonne of the fertilizer dropped—by about 30% in major markets. In December, its stock languishing near a four-year low, the company laid off 1,045 employees—about 18% of its total workforce.

Around the world, global potash demand has been flat since 2007, while global production capacity has increased. Making matters worse, India, one of the world’s largest fertilizer customers, has cut the potash subsidies it pays to local farmers. China, another large customer, has increased domestic potash production. New competitors, including Australia’s BHP Billiton, are lurking on the sidelines. And perhaps worst of all, the export cartel model, the one that all but made the Canadian potash business what it is, is in danger of falling apart.

Tutu’s oilsands visit raises questions – by Ezra Levant (Toronto Sun – June 3, 2014)

June 5, 2014

http://www.torontosun.com/home

Desmond Tutu, the 82-year-old millionaire celebrity, jetted from South Africa to Fort McMurray, Alta., to call the oilsands industry “filth.”

“Do you want to live in a barren, treeless, flowerless desert? You have a choice,” he said. He said this while sitting in the middle of Canada’s boreal forest, one of the largest forests in the world.

The oilsands are filth, he said. We are destroying the world, he said. “Climate change is the moral struggle that will define this century,” he said, blaming the oilsands for that. Saying that puts us on par with what Tutu would likely say was the moral crime he knew best — apartheid itself. That is an extremist comparison, and one that profanes the victims of apartheid as much as it smears Canadians.

It’s sad, really. In another time, Tutu won a Nobel Peace Prize for his moral leadership, helping to end apartheid. But for a presumed six-figure speaking fee, paid for in part by a law firm specializing in suing resource companies, Tutu was willing to rent out his reputation, to demonize Canada on demand.

What did Canadians do to deserve this? We were amongst the world’s leaders in the battle against apartheid. Is this how Tutu repays us – by comparing us to racists, calling us filth, and telling lies about our environmental record?

U.S. coal curbs would boost B.C.’s Westshore Terminals traffic – by Wendy Stueck (Globe and Mail – June 4, 2014)

June 5, 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 — B.C.’s biggest coal export facility, Westshore Terminals Ltd., is operating at full capacity and regularly turns away business from U.S. coal producers that want to get their product to export markets. A $275-million upgrade now under way may provide some breathing room.

But it likely won’t be enough to suit American producers keen to find new customers if proposed U.S. regulations reduce domestic demand. “Westshore is running at capacity right now,” Greg Andrew, director of environmental and engineering services at Westshore Terminals, said Tuesday.

“It’s a function of our ability to receive trains, store coal and move it out to ships. And we are pretty much operating at capacity in both the receiving of coal and loading of ships right now.”

The push for export options through Westshore and other existing and proposed export terminals on the West Coast of Canada and the U.S. could become more pronounced as a result of regulatory changes in the U.S., where President Barack Obama on Monday announced plans to curb emissions from coal plants by 30 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030.

KWG Resources’ RoF social media campaign garners support – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – June 4, 2014)

June 4, 2014

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Ring of Fire- (RoF-) focused explorer KWG Resources this week launched a social media campaign to promote its proposed RoF bill to Ontario election candidates and voters, drawing more than 240 signatures to a petition it intends to submit to the next Ontario government.

Ontarians will head to the polls on June 12 in the province’s 41st general election, after the Liberal provincial government was dissolved on May 2.

KWG president and CEO Frank Smeenk said that the company had taken a leadership-role in a bid to end the “political gridlock” surrounding development of the region, which is located in the remote northern reaches of the province.

He stressed that KWG’s proposals are “real and achievable solutions”. “The RoF is an economically and socially transformative project that will benefit every citizen and community of Ontario, especially in the North, as well as all Canadians, for many generations.

“I encourage all RoF supporters to participate in this process by having your voices heard and helping spread the message to every corner of this country. Together, we will get the RoF going,” Smeenk said on Monday.

France sets its sights abroad: New state-owned French mining company to explore for minerals in francophone Africa and in South America – by Tom Dinardo (CIM Magazine – May 2014)

June 4, 2014

http://magazine.cim.org/en/2014/May.aspx

The mining industry within France has been dormant for decades and its global portfolio is modest, but the French government is determined to change that. In late February, French Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg announced the republic would create the Compagnie Nationale des Mines de France (CMF) as part of a plan to grow the country’s mining sector. CMF will act as a de facto junior mining company, exploring for non-energetic minerals largely outside of France in francophone Africa, South America, and Central Asia. It is the first new state-owned company created by the French government since 1993.

A source close to the minister, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the decision to create CMF was spurred by demand from foreign countries, mainly in Africa and Asia, for French aid in exploring and developing their natural resources. Rather than deal with private junior and major companies, these countries indicated a preference to work government-to-government on such exploration projects, the source said.

There is also currently a heightened sensitivity to the geopolitics of metals, said Jean-Claude Guillaneau, director of georesources at France’s Bureau of Geological and Mining Research (BRGM). “China is producing 95 per cent of the rare earths and they use [them] to attract industrial development,” he said. “To secure our industry, we need to have some long-term control of the metal availability at least on some strategic and critical metals,” he explained, adding other countries like Japan have similar publicly owned mining companies.

Aluminum industry must think beyond cars for long-term growth, says demographer – by Ross Marowits (Canadian Business Magazine – June 3, 2014)

June 4, 2014

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/

The Canadian Press – MONTREAL – A rapidly aging population means the aluminum industry needs to look beyond the high demand for lightweight cars if it wants to grow long into the future, a Canadian demographer said Tuesday.

University of Toronto economics professor David Foot told an aluminum conference that spending patterns will shift as people age, potentially impacting the long-term demand for the metal.

“When we get into our 60s and 70s, we drive our automobiles a little less, we fly a little less, so some of the current uses of aluminum which are great, are not going to be long-term growth prospects,” he said in an interview.

The aluminum sector foresees “game changing” demand from planes, trains and automobiles, which are increasingly using the metal to lower the weight and improve fuel efficiency and environmental emissions.

For instance, automaker giant Ford already plans on reducing the weight of its F-150 pickup truck by increasing the amount of aluminum used to 315 kilograms from 45 kilograms on current models.

B2Gold strikes deal to buy Papillon Resources for $570-million in stock – by Peter Koven (National Post -June 4, 2014)

June 4, 2014

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

B2Gold Corp. has positioned itself to be a leading mid-tier gold producer after striking its fifth major acquisition in less than seven years. Now it just has to keep delivering for investors.

The Vancouver-based miner announced a US$570-million all-stock takeover of Papillon Resources Ltd. on Tuesday, a deal that gives it the promising Fekola gold project in Mali. It is another big milestone for B2 chief executive Clive Johnson, who is establishing himself as the single most prolific dealmaker in the sector.

“We are the fastest-growing profitable gold producer in the world,” Mr. Johnson said on a conference call. The recent history of M&A in the gold mining space has been mostly awful, with companies overpaying for assets and then recording massive writedowns on them.

Mr. Johnson acknowledged that some investors may be concerned about B2’s acquisition spree given this history of bad transactions in the sector. But he said that B2’s strong track record should give people comfort that his team chooses good targets and integrates them well.

“We’ve looked at literally hundreds of projects over the last six years or so at B2,” Mr. Johnson said. It’s alarming how few projects actually meet our requirements. This one [Fekola] definitely does.”