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Canadian Media Resource Articles

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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Northerners want training for careers in mining, energy – by Canadian Press (MACLEAN’s Magazine – April 24, 2014)

http://www.macleans.ca/

Polar Commission calls ‘job-readiness’ most significant development issue

Northerners want scientists to help them prepare for sweeping changes expected in the years ahead from resource development and climate change, suggests feedback collected from across the Canadian Arctic.

In dozens of interviews from all three territories, the Canadian Polar Commission found northerners want researchers to focus more on issues relevant to their daily lives — from better education to get aboriginals into high-paying jobs to ways that communities can wean themselves off expensive diesel electricity generation.

“Northerners themselves are becoming more engaged in asking the questions and in working to help answer the questions,” said commission director David Scott. The survey grew out of 2007′s International Polar Year, a multinational research effort that channelled hundreds of millions of dollars into research across the circumpolar world. It attempts to assess what was learned as well as to consider what still requires study — especially from the point of view of those who live in the Arctic.

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Genomic tools offer vision of a cleaner industry – by Randy Shore (Vancouver Sun – April 24, 2014)

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

Bacteria may be small, but they do heavy lifting in remediation and extraction

A few key microbes are on the verge of becoming key players in B.C.’s mining industry. Engineering professor Sue Baldwin has spent much of the past 15 years farming various combinations of anaerobic bacteria that have the ability to consume or remove heavy metals from mine tailings.

Tailings are ground up rock and chemical pollutants left over from the extraction of metals from ore. Baldwin has her toes in the water of several important cleanup projects, including the Teck Resources smelter near Trail, the Imperial Metals Mount Polley Mine, and analysis of the selenium-contaminated run-off from coal mine waste in the Elk Valley.

Imperial Metals has been operating a 450-litre-a-minute anaerobic biological reactor at Mount Polley since 2009, according to project engineer Luke Moger. The researchers are working to find the optimal environment and combination of microbes in which sulphate-reducing bacteria mitigate acid mine drainage and metal pollution by consuming sulfates in the tailings pond and water that has come in contact with waste rock. This creates sulphides that react with metals in the water to form harmless solids.

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Behind Barrick’s meltdown in the Atacama desert – by Stepanie Nolen (Globe and Mail – April 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.

In the violet light of a February Sunday afternoon, Padre Nelson Barrientos led his flock along the road that winds up Chile’s Huasco River Valley. The congregation of Our Lady of Lourdes of Conay was conveying a new statue of the Blessed Virgin to its home in the parish church, nestled in the shadow of the Andes. A half-dozen young people in traditional indigenous costumes—feathers, beads—drummed and danced, and their parents and neighbours followed in the procession. The mayor, Carmen Bou, was there, walking arm-in-arm at the front with Alicia Páez Campillay, the wife of the man whom everyone calls the valley’s richest businessman.

Many of the other marchers wore jeans and work shirts that hinted at a life spent in vineyards and orchards. Making their way to the village, the mayor, the dancers, their parents and the priest scrabbled up the loose gravel of the hillside, past a road sign almost swallowed by shrubbery, pointing up the mountain. On it, faintly visible despite someone’s best efforts with a can of spray paint, were the words “Pascua Lama.”

The Virgin was installed in the tiny blue chapel. There was dancing, poems, and an offering of the valley’s fat green grapes. As dusk fell, the white-haired priest tugged off a sweaty cassock; he, too, wore a plaid shirt and jeans.

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Barrick chair Peter Munk blasts Newmont’s company culture as miners struggle to reach deal – by Peter Koven (National Post – April 25, 2014)

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

TORONTO – Barrick Gold Corp. chairman Peter Munk levelled a pointed criticism of Newmont Mining Corp. on Thursday, saying he has struggled to strike a merger with his U.S. rival because the company is extremely bureaucratic and not shareholder-friendly.

Mr. Munk, 86, hoped to reach a deal to buy Newmont before he officially retires at Barrick’s annual meeting next month. But Toronto-based Barrick has been frustrated over years of negotiations by what he calls “cultural differences.”

He said that Newmont is an extremely conservative and risk-averse company, which makes negotiations very difficult. As one example, he pointed out that Newmont shut reporters out of its annual meeting this week after news of the talks leaked. He said Barrick would never consider doing that.

“That’s the cultural difference. That’s the kind of people they are, and that’s why it’s so difficult to make a deal,” he said in an interview. “They are not shareholder-friendly.” Even though they operate next to each other in Nevada, Barrick and Newmont are like oil and water.

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Barrick Gold Corp shareholders file class action suit over Pascua-Lama mine – by Drew Hasselback (National Post – April 25, 2014)

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

Barrick Gold Corp. has been named in a proposed shareholders class action lawsuit that seeks $6-billion in damages because the company allegedly failed to make timely disclosure of problems at its Pascua-Lama mine in South America.

“Barrick misrepresented the progress and feasibility for development and production at the Pascua-Lama mine, repeatedly through the class period,” the plaintiffs allege in a notice of action filed Thursday in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Toronto.

Lawsuits in Ontario usually begin with the filing of a legal document called a statement of claim. Filing a notice of action officially launches the case, but also gives plaintiffs more time to follow up with more detailed allegations in the statement of claim.

The document filed Thursday contains allegations that have not been proven in court. “The company is aware that a notice of action has been filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. Barrick disputes the allegations, and will defend itself against any lawsuit vigorously,” the company said in an emailed statement late Thursday.

Plaintiffs have filed similar securities class actions against Barrick over Pascua-Lama in the U.S. federal courts. The company has denied the allegations in the U.S. claims.

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How Keystone XL soured the ‘special relationship’ between Stephen Harper and Barack Obama – by Edward Greenspon, Andrew Mayeda, Rebecca Penty and Theophilos Argitis (National Post/Bloomberg News – April 25, 2014)

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

On Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, seated in his Ottawa office across from Parliament Hill, took an urgent call from U.S. President Barack Obama. Mr. Harper’s advisors were listening intently around a muted speakerphone in an adjoining room.

The U.S. State Department, Mr. Obama said, would be making an announcement later that day putting the Keystone XL pipeline project on hold. There was no choice, according to the president. Nebraska wanted the route changed to protect a key aquifer under millions of hectares of prime farmland. This would necessitate a new environmental assessment. He assured Mr. Harper the call wasn’t a game changer; neither a yes nor a no, just a delay.

Mr. Harper was far from assured — he was irritated. The project had already undergone three years of study and was, so the Canadians believed, on the cusp of approval. Delay, he told Mr. Obama, served no one’s interest.

By the time Mr. Harper hung up, according to people with knowledge of the episode, he had sized up the potential economic calamity for Canada and its oil ambitions. Western Canada’s land-locked Alberta oil sands hold roughly 168 billion recoverable barrels of heavy crude known as bitumen. The U.S. gobbles up almost all Canada’s oil exports.

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Barrick invites Newmont to restart merger talks – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – April 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.

Barrick Gold Corp. has formally asked Newmont Mining Corp. to resume merger talks after their negotiations hit an impasse late last week, according to a person familiar with the situation.

The North American-based gold miners had come close to agreeing on an all-stock deal, but their discussions broke down over which assets to spin out from the combined company, other sources have said.

The companies had aimed to make an announcement before their annual shareholder meetings this month. Colorado-based Newmont held its meeting in Delaware Wednesday morning, and Toronto-headquartered Barrick’s meeting is scheduled for April 30.

Barrick e-mailed the request to restart talks to Newmont, outlining the terms of their friendly proposal as well as issues that still must be resolved, according to the source familiar with what transpired.

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Editorial: Diamonds a lodestar in Canadian mining firmament – by John Cumming (Northern Miner – April 23, 2014)

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry. Editor John Cumming MSc (Geol) is one of the country’s most well respected mining journalists.  jcumming@northernminer.com

While much of the global mining industry has been limping along under sagging commodities prices and looming oversupply, one of the brightest spots has been the Canadian diamond-mining industry, which has weathered its wild, rocky youth and settled into its role as a reliable discoverer, developer and miner of top-quality diamonds.

It remains one of the most difficult, long-shot tasks in mining: finding and developing an economic diamond deposit. And it takes a special kind of investor to embrace diamond miners’ extreme risk–reward ratios and extra-long time horizons. But taking a look across Canada, we see all kinds of positive developments in the next generation of diamond companies and their assets.

This month Dominion Diamond — formerly Harry Winston Diamond — is heading into its second year as owner and operator of the prized Ekati open-pit and underground diamond mine in the Northwest Territories, picked up for US$553 million from BHP Billiton on April 10, 2013.

On a 100% basis, Ekati is home to 18.8 million carats in reserves in four pipes, plus an eye-popping 127 million carats in the measured and indicated category and 19 million carats in the inferred category, all in eight pipes.

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Transport Canada orders 5,000 most dangerous tanker cars off rail system – by Jeff Lacroix-Wilson (National Post – April 24, 2014)

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

OTTAWA – Transport Canada has announced new regulations tightening safety on Canada’s railways, beginning with ordering the 5,000 most dangerous tanker cars off the rails.

The new rules also cover speed limits, route assessments, emergency response plans and the phasing out of tens of thousands of dangerous railcars.

Transport Minister Lisa Raitt announced the moves Wednesday, accepting major safety recommendations of the Transportation Safety Board following last summer’s tragedy in Lac-Megantic, Que., in which a train carrying 113,000 litres of crude oil derailed, exploded and killed 47 people.

About 5,000 DOT-111 tanker cars are to be removed from Canadian railways within 30 days. Another 65,000 DOT-111 cars must be removed or retrofitted within three years, a timeframe rail industry experts are calling “ambitious.”

The measures didn’t fully satisfy NDP leader Tom Muclair. “What happens in the meantime in all those communities where this very dangerous material is being transported today?” he asked. “You can’t tell us you know that they’re dangerous and yet you’re going to continue to allow them to roll through these communities.”

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About 40,000 illegal miners ignore Peru’s deadline to formalize status – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – April 23, 2014)

http://www.mining.com/

Peru’s government has began legalizing tens of thousands of informal gold miners this week, in an effort to restrict an activity that has cost the country millions of dollars in lost fees and severely damaged the environment.

However, about 40,000 of roughly 110,000 illegal miners ignored the Saturday deadline to legalize their status, evading government efforts to bring them into the formal economy.

Over the past five years unregulated mineral extraction in the South American nation, especially gold mining, became an industry of its own, to the point experts calculated it was bringing more profit into the country than drug trafficking. The activity has also led to violence, pollution and the destruction of over 40,000 hectares of the country’s Amazonic rainforest.

In response to those challenges, Peru’s government launched in 2012 a program to incorporate illegal and informal miners into the system by April 2014. Minister of Energy and Mines Jorge Merino justified the measure saying Peru had reached a point of “no return” in the fight against the fly-by-night activity.

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