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Baffinland wins approval for scaled-down Nunavut iron mine (CBC News North – April 29, 2014)

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

Baffinland Iron Mines has won the go-ahead to proceed with a considerably scaled down version of its proposed iron mine on North Baffin Island.

In December of 2012, Baffinland was approved to move 18 million tonnes of iron ore each year, shipping it first by rail to the west coast of Baffin Island, then by ships that would travel year round through the ice-choked waters of Foxe Basin to markets in Europe.

Just weeks after winning approval for the plan, Baffinland changed it, proposing a phased approach that would move about 3.5 million tonnes of ore per year using an existing road and port on the eastern side of Baffin Island, and citing the poor economy as a reason for doing so.

To accommodate the change of the plans, the Nunavut Impact Review Board modified 44 of its initial 182 terms and conditions for the mine and added eight new ones.

In a letter to the Nunavut Impact Review Board today, Bernard Valcourt, minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, accepted most of those changes, modifying nine and rejecting one.

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Gabriel may seek billions in arbitration over stalled Romanian mine – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – April 30, 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 Toronto mining company whose 15-year effort to open Europe’s biggest gold project has gone nowhere is preparing an international arbitration case against the Romanian government that would seek billions of dollars in damages.

Gabriel Resources is making plans for the case, which probably would be heard in Vienna in the second half of the year, as it starts to wind down its activities in Romania’s Transylvania region to conserve cash. About 400 employees, or 80 per cent, of Gabriel’s Romanian subsidiary, Rosia Montana Gold Corp. (RMGC), have been suspended at three-quarters pay. The company has said it may fire them in May “if there is no progress in the advancement of the project.”

Gabriel, which is listed on the Toronto stock exchange but run from London, is not expecting a breakthrough any time soon. The Romanian parliament’s chamber of deputies is scheduled to vote on a bill that would give special legal status to the $1.5-billion (U.S.) project, allowing it to go ahead, on May 7.

But the company does not expect the vote to go in its favour, partly because public opposition to the mine and its cyanide-based extraction technology remains strong.

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Gold giants’ merger falls apart as Barrick-Newmont spat goes public – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – April 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.

A spat between Barrick Gold Corp. and Newmont Mining Corp. erupted into a public war of words, with the companies accusing each other of ruining their $13-billion (U.S.) merger.

Barrick said its American rival reneged on their deal and tried to change key provisions, including the location of the head office in Toronto. Newmont disagreed with Barrick’s version and faulted the Canadian company’s incoming chairman John Thornton for not being constructive.

Over the years, the world’s two largest gold producers have made several attempts to unite and cut expenses in Nevada, where they both own multiple mines. The slump in the gold industry fuelled their latest merger ambitions, with the companies identifying about $1-billion in cost savings.

But they ultimately could not overcome two decades of personality clashes and cultural differences, which exploded into the public domain on Monday and likely killed any future merger discussions.

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Peter Munk’s career comes to end as Newmont firestorm envelops Barrick – Peter Koven (National Post – April 29, 2014)

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

It wouldn’t be in Peter Munk’s nature to go out quietly. But no one expected this.

As Mr. Munk, 86, officially retires at Barrick Gold Corp.’s annual meeting on Wednesday, he does so in the midst of an appalling public feud between Barrick and Newmont Mining Corp., which went from eager merger partners to mortal enemies in a matter of days. It will take years to rebuild the bridges between these companies, if indeed that ever happens.

Mr. Munk was not closely involved in the Newmont negotiations — he left that to his hand-picked successor John Thornton. But he still found a way to stick himself in the middle of the dispute. In a detailed interview with the Financial Post last week, just as talks were collapsing, he ripped Newmont’s corporate culture and said the company is “not shareholder friendly.” Newmont was not amused.

Remarkably, that was one of the less incendiary things Mr. Munk said about his U.S. rival over a lengthy conversation that touched on many aspects of his career. He has always spoken his mind and never worried too much about what people think of it. But as his time in Canadian business comes to a close, he was even more candid, thought-provoking and entertaining than usual.

For example, if Newmont didn’t like the “not shareholder friendly” line, it certainly won’t appreciate his description of how Barrick found its flagship gold mine and became the dominant player in Nevada:

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Barrick needs a deal maker, not a deal breaker – by Boyd Erman (Globe and Mail – April 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.

Barrick Gold Corp. co-chairman John Thornton has laid out a vision for creating a diversified miner – a vision that is going to be more difficult to realize after a nasty end to talks in his first major transaction.

Mr. Thornton has stated he wants Barrick to be a leader “in a range of minerals.” To do that, he is going to have to be a buyer, adding companies that produce other metals to complement Barrick’s output of gold and copper. So it’s all the more problematic that would-be merger partner Newmont Mining Corp. singled out Mr. Thornton as a particular obstacle to getting a deal done. Even if it’s not true (and it’s hard to know what is fact in any such situation), the statement is out there now and will be attached to Mr. Thornton’s name.

Negotiations break down all the time, between all types of companies. But rarely do supposedly secret talks spill into the public sphere quite so comprehensively as they have in the past week, as seemingly every detail of the talks between Barrick and Newmont landed in the press. Since the first reports that merger talks between the two had hit a snag, the premium, the timing, the consideration, the executive structure and other key terms all made their way to the press even though neither side ever publicly confirmed the negotiations.

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New calls for Canadian mining ombudsman so far unanswered – by Marion Warnica (CBC News Edmonton – April 28, 2014)

http://www.cbc.ca/edmonton/

Federal mining watchdog spot empty for seven months

A group of South American advocates wants Canada to appoint an ombudsman to regulate its mining activities outside its borders.

The group says the federal government, which has yet to release the results of its long-awaited review into its foreign mining policies, should be more involved in the monitoring and management of its foreign operations.

“A great deal of economic development that Canada enjoys, a lot of that results in human rights violations that we cannot tolerate,” said Archbishop Pedro Barreto, the president of the Solidarity and Justice Department in the Latin American Episcopal Council based in Huancayo, Peru.

Barreto spoke to CBC News as part of a larger investigation into water stress in Peru. He has joined a growing number of advocates and NGOs who want Canada to appoint a legislated mining ombudsman to oversee Canadian extraction activities around the world.

“The government of Canada is decisively supporting mining enterprises, without caring for lives or their social responsibility – and we are severely concerned about this,” said Barreto. Critics await improvements to failed complaints process

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Barrick-Newmont merger collapses into toxic war of words – by Peter Koven (National Post – April 29, 2014)

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

TORONTO — A much-anticipated merger between Barrick Gold Corp. and Newmont Mining Corp. has collapsed into a toxic public feud between leaders of the two firms that simply could not get along.

Talks between the two companies are finished, and sources said there is no chance they will start again anytime soon. That is bad news for shareholders, who stood to benefit if the miners combined their highly complementary Nevada operations.

It would have been the biggest deal in the history of the gold mining sector. Its failure demonstrates that clashing personalities can destroy a transaction that seemingly makes sense in every other way.

The two firms have tried to merge numerous times over the years, but personality clashes got in the way each time. This time was no different, though this was as close as they ever got to a deal. Newmont initiated the latest round of negotiations.

“They’re like two kids in the sandbox,” said John Ing, president and gold analyst at Maison Placements Canada. “The logic of the merger is there, but when you get down to board seats and personalities, it’s a different kettle of fish.”

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Province pledges $1 billion to Ring of Fire – by Lisa Wright (Toronto Star – April 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.

But funding only available if Ottawa matches it.

The provincial government says it’s prepared to pump up to $1 billion into all-season access to the mineral-rich Ring of Fire deposit in Northern Ontario — provided Ottawa matches the funding.

Calling the $60 billion site Canada’s next great mining development, Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle announced Monday that the funding would go toward a much-needed transportation and power corridor to the remote site located in the James Bay lowlands.

“The Ring of Fire represents one of the most significant mineral regions in the province, and includes the largest deposit of chromite ever discovered in North America,” said Gravelle. He added that mine development will create thousands of jobs for generations to come and boost Northern Ontario’s struggling economy.

While a Toronto-based company poised to open a nickel mine in the Ring called the potential financing a “vital milestone” to development, critics called it part of the Liberal government’s pre-election spending spree that comes just days before the Ontario budget is announced.

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COMMENT: Newmont, Barrick talks dead -by Marilyn Scales (Canadian Mining Journal – April 28, 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.

Even when a merger is no longer on the horizon, the two sides still disagree. Such is the case as Toronto’s Barrick Gold issued a terse press release this morning to say that talks of a merger with Newmont Mining of Denver have been terminated at Newmont’s request.

That might have been the end of it, but Newmont released the text of an April 25, 2014, letter from chairman Vincent A. Calarco to Barrick co-chair John L. Thornton. Newmont said it had been hopeful that the two companies could merge and realize their combined strengths. However, over recent weeks the talks had become adversarial rather than oriented toward a mutually beneficial partnership.

“Our board,” wrote Calarco, “has met a number of times since we were twice told definitively last Thursday by your co-chairman that the process in which we had been engaged to find a basis to merge our two companies was ‘dead’. As you would expect, that unilateral declaration made us question whether we actually shared the vision and values that are necessary to forge a successful new company.”

Unsaid, but understood, is that Newmont is pointing the finger at Thornton.

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The meaning of Peter Munk – by Peter C. Newman (MACLEAN’S Magazine – April 28, 2014)

http://www.macleans.ca/

As the notorious magnate leaves Barrick Gold, Peter C. Newman contemplates his rise, fall, and what’s next

With Peter Munk about to abandon his chairmanship of the Barrick mining empire at next week’s annual meeting in Toronto, it seems only appropriate to dwell on his fall from grace. From being the invincible king of international gold mining, the pride of Canada’s business tycoonery, the talented Mr. Munk finds himself accused of having moved too far, too fast, at too high a cost—¬leaving his company stuck with a tricky salvage operation.

But that is not the guts of the story, not the sum total of this remarkable mega-entrepreneur’s long journey from his aristocratic Hungarian background to at least three excursions into commercial glory. That sequence of initiatives climaxed in his successful run as the world’s champion gold magnate, who until the past three years could do no wrong. The dramatic reversal of his standing on Bay Street brought into play British explorer George Leigh Mallory’s 1924 comment about Mount Everest. When asked why he risked his life climbing the mountain, he famously replied: “Because it’s there.” Sixty-four years later, on Sept. 29, 1988, when Stacy Allison became the first American woman to conquer the great peak, was asked the same question, she smiled and shot back: “Cause I’m here!”

That’s the essence of Peter Munk, explained in three words: ¬the optimistic, fast-action guy, convinced that everything he touched would turn to gold. For most of the past five decades that was pretty well what happened. His company was flying high and he dominated its annual shareholders’ meetings, rhetorically armed to meet any challenge. It was at these public performances that he shifted into high gear, using messianic hand gestures and commanding body language. Inevitably, he won over his audiences.

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Ontario offers $1bn to develop RoF infrastructure, looks to feds to match – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – April 28, 2014)

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The provincial government of Ontario on Monday announced a massive $1-billion set aside in its new budget, which would be announced on Thursday, to develop strategic all-season industrial and community transportation infrastructure in the Ring of Fire (RoF), in Northern Ontario.

In making the webcast announcement in Thunder Bay, provincial 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”.

“Our government is committed to making a significant investment to fund transportation infrastructure development in the RoF. We have made important progress over the past few months to bring partners and divergent interests together. Now we need the federal government to match this commitment so that we can move forward on realising the RoF’s potential and making important advancements on regional, environmental, and economic developments,” Gravelle said.

The Ontario provincial government and local First Nations last week Thursday celebrated the recent signing of a regional framework agreement to develop the RoF, a mineral-rich area in the northern muskeg-wastelands of Ontario.

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Barrick Gold says Newmont Mining ends merger talks – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – April 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.

Barrick Gold Corp. said on Monday that Newmont Mining Corp. has decided to end their merger talks, a development that could lead Barrick to launch a hostile bid for its American rival.

The Toronto-based Barrick had been trying to renew talks with Colorado-headquartered Newmont last week, a source had said. But Newmont’s board of directors decided to “terminate” their discussions, Barrick said.

“Although Barrick believes the interests of shareholders are best served through the completion of this business combination, Newmont’s board has determined that the interests of Newmont’s shareholders are best served by remaining independent,” Barrick said in a statement. Newmont had no immediate comment.

The companies, the world’s two largest gold producers, have discussed merging at least two other times over the last two decades.

The rout in the gold industry led to their recent discussions, with the miners identifying about $1-billion in cost savings.

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Big-name lawyer takes on Ontario’s law society [Bre-X and Joe Groia] (MACLEAN’S Magazine – April 27, 2014)

http://www.macleans.ca/

Judges said that Joe Groia was “unprofessional” in his successful defense of Bre-X vice-president John Felderhof against fraud charges in the late 1990s

The Canadian Press – TORONTO – A prominent securities lawyer and the society that regulates the legal profession in Ontario are bound for court in the latest round of an epic battle started in the aftermath of the billion-dollar Bre-X mining fiasco in the late 1990s.

Closely watched by the legal profession, the contest pits Joe Groia, who successfully defended the only person charged in the history-making securities scandal, against the Law Society of Upper Canada.

“There have been few cases, if any, where the (society) has been so dogged and determined to maintain a position that was so damaging to the public and profession as a whole,” Groia argues in court documents.

How he behaved during the tumultuous Bre-X courtroom odyssey is what’s at issue. The society maintains Groia misbehaved to such an extent in defending Bre-X vice-president John Felderhof that he warranted a two-month suspension and ordered him to pay $247,000 in costs — reduced on initial appeal in March to one month and $200,000.

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At helm of Anglo American, consummate miner digs deep for savings – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – April 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.

LONDON — Mark Cutifani and I meet in the strangest places. My first encounter with the CEO of Anglo American, one of the world’s biggest mining companies, came last September at a Vatican mining conference in Rome. He and other mining bosses were learning how to inject a bit more of the Holy Spirit into their digging activities.

The second time was two months later at a gold mine in Chelopech, Bulgaria, of all places. The little mine wasn’t Anglo’s. It belonged to Toronto’s Dundee Precious Metals and Mr. Cutifani was there to learn how the Canadians had reduced costs by some 50 per cent through a range of technologies, such as novel underground WiFi and data networks. “This is where the innovations are, in the small mines,” he said at the time, decrying the lack of technology in Anglo’s own mines.

The third meeting came in March, at Anglo’s headquarters in London, near Trafalgar Square, at the heart of what used to be world’s greatest empire. The location is appropriate. Anglo American was founded in 1917 by Sir Ernest Oppenheimer with £1-million ($1.85-million) in capital from British and American sources (hence the name Anglo American). Like Britain, it would establish outposts around the world. From its foundation in South Africa – home to its vast gold, platinum and diamond operations – it would expand into base metals in Canada, coal and manganese in Australia and iron ore, ferronickel and copper in Latin America. At one point, Anglo was the world’s mightiest mining company.

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Red Lake area running out of power to feed mines (CBC News Thunder Bay – April 17, 2014)

http://www.cbc.ca/thunderbay/

Hydro One to consider solutions to allow production to begin at two new mines next year

The Northwest Energy Task Force is keeping a close eye on the power needs of two mines scheduled to open next year at Red Lake. Task force member John Mason said there’s a looming problem for two new mining projects that need a solution.

“Between the Rubicon operation and (Goldcorp’s) Cochenour Bruce Channel, I would estimate over $700 million has been spent, and yet could be hampered with power issues, which would be devastating to these new operations.”

Mason said the mines could be held up unless electricity infrastructure is upgraded. Rubicon’s Phoenix gold project is set to start up next spring, and mine maintenance superintendent Sylvain Talbot agrees there’s a challenge to overcome.

“There is nine megawatts available, and Goldcorp and Rubicon are maybe looking for 20 megawatts. And there is another junior company that’s coming, so Red Lake area is running out of power.” Talbot said he recently asked about options to enable Rubicon to start production at the new mine next spring.

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