Canadian Media Resource Articles – Page 715

Canadian producers can meet U.S. oil demand even without Keystone, executive says – by Yadullah Hussain (National Post – September 11, 2013)

September 11, 2013

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

TORONTO – Calling Canadian heavy oil logistical challenges “overblown,” a senior oil sands industry executive says other pipelines and rail projects are available to meet rising demand from Alberta producers who until recently have been counting largely on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline to move their product to the United States.

“Misconceptions are common,” Doug Proll, executive vice-president with Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. said Tuesday. “There is ability to meet the supply even without Keystone XL. For the next little while, market access should not be constrained as result of other options.”

Enbridge Inc.’s debottlenecking of the Mainline pipeline will facilitate 400,000 barrels per day to the United States, while TransCanada Corp.’s west-to-east pipeline and the southern leg of the Keystone XL, along with a number of other proposals, expansions and added rail capacity mean Canadian producers have a number of outlets to get to market.

CNRL is planning to spend $2-billon to $2.5-billion annually over the next three years to take production from its Horizon Oil Sands development to 250,000 bpd from its current level of about 100,000 bpd.

Neil Young Talks Oilsands, Compares Fort McMurray To Hiroshima – by Jason MacNeil (The Huffington Post Canada – September 10, 2013)

September 11, 2013

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

His guitarist in Crazy Horse might be dealing with a fractured hand, but Neil Young threw some verbal punches this week when he compared the oilsands in Fort McMurray, Alta. to Hiroshima, the site of the first atomic bomb drop in August 1945.

The Globe and Mail today reported Young was in Washington, D.C. yesterday when he told those attending an event for the National Farmers Union about oilsands development and its environmental impact.

“The fact is, Fort McMurray looks like Hiroshima,” he said, as shown in a YouTube clip. “Fort McMurray is a wasteland. The Indians up there and the native peoples are dying. The fuels all over — the fumes everywhere — you can smell it when you get to town. The closest place to Fort McMurray that is doing the tarsands work is 25 to 30 miles out of town and you can taste it when you get to Fort McMurray. People are sick. People are dying of cancer because of this. All the First Nations people up there are threatened by this.”

Concern growing over Sept-Îles oil spill – by Lynn Moore (Montreal Gazette – September 9, 2013)

September 18, 2013September 10, 2013

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

MONTREAL — An oil spill that happened more than a week ago in Sept-Îles might be far more serious than first reported.

Quebec Environment Minister Yves-François Blanchet visited the area Sunday while cleanup crews tried to contain a large slick before tides and winds take the oil out into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

While Blanchet urged a more “aggressive approach” to preventing oil spills during his visit, local environmental groups worried about damage to aquatic life in Sept-Îles Bay and beyond.

Overnight on Aug. 31, bunker oil was spilled near a shipping operation of an iron ore pellet plant operated by Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. at Pointe Noire. While the “source of the incident” is under control, investigation into the cause of the incident is ongoing, the company said Sunday.

Some media reports have pointed to a botched reservoir transfer as being at the heart of the problem. Environment Quebec has said that about 450,000 litres of bunker oil were spilled.

Gabriel shares plummet as massive project in Romania now on the rocks – Peter Koven (National Post – September 10, 2013)

September 10, 2013

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

The long-suffering shareholders of Gabriel Resources Ltd. two weeks ago received a brief glimmer of hope — a hope that now appears to be extinguished.

Shares of the Canadian miner plunged an astounding 53.7% to close at 68¢ on Monday after Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta reversed course and said the company’s giant Rosia Montana project should not go ahead. At one point, the stock was down as much as 72%.

While Mr. Ponta’s comments do not mark the end of Gabriel’s quest to build Rosia Montana, which could become Europe’s biggest gold mine if it is ever approved, the response from investors on Monday shows many of them have had enough of this saga.

Gabriel has been trying to win approval for the project since the late 1990s, but has faced vicious opposition from anti-mining activists along the way. The company battled back — it even helped fund a documentary called Mine Your Own Business, which portrayed the activists in a very negative light and suggested the mine is needed to create economic activity in an impoverished part of Romania.

Northern Promise: Arctic road to prosperity paved with obstacles – by Jeff Lewis (National Post – September 10, 2013)

September 10, 2013

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

INUVIK, N.W.T. — Seismic lines etched into the permafrost from decades-old exploration are still visible in the 137 kilometres separating the Town of Inuvik and the Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk on the Arctic Coast.

About 50 kilometres north of Inuvik, the remnants of industrial prospecting mark the location of the Parsons Lake gas field, discovered in the 1970s and one of three proposed to anchor the moribund Mackenzie Valley pipeline. Today, they are an uneasy reminder of the ecologically fragile terrain northern infrastructure must traverse.

“When you put marks in the tundra, it never really goes away,” says Mike Parkes, 32, a helicopter pilot, pointing the throttle on his AS-350-B2 machine north along the Arctic peninsula.

It is a lesson that informs an ambitious road-building project under way on the edge of the Beaufort Sea. Work is set to begin this winter building a highway between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk, in a throwback to former Conservative Prime Minister John Diefenbaker’s much-vaunted — but ultimately unrealized — 1950s “road to resources” campaign to connect the Western Arctic and Canada’s southern provinces.

Keystone XL ball is now back in Obama’s court – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – September 10, 2013)

September 10, 2013

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

In another visit to the United States to promote the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver met Monday with his United States counterpart, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, to propose a joint approach to greenhouse gas emissions and other technology initiatives in energy.

While light on specifics and heavy on niceties, it’s increasingly obvious something had to be done by Ottawa to rescue the Alberta-to-Texas pipeline from sliding yet again into President Obama’s too-hot-to-handle purgatory. The two countries remain far apart on the controversial project and a decision on a permit is now expected next spring.

On the one hand, it appears the White House is pushing Canada to adopt more stringent GHG targets for oil sands companies than Canada is prepared to do, the price for approving KXL so environmental organizations get their pound of flesh.

On the other, Canada believes it is finalizing GHG reduction targets for the oil and gas sector that enable it to meet its international climate-change commitments, plans to announce them by the end of the year, and wants extra efforts to come under a joint Canada/U.S. approach to avoid putting its oil and gas industry at a competitive disadvantage.

Hedge fund urges breakup of Barrick Gold to boost stock price – CBC News Business (September 9, 2013)

September 9, 2013

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

A small, U.S. hedge fund wants to break up Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold, saying its collection of mining assets is spread out over too broad of a geographic area, which has led to a disappointing shareholder return.

Mike Morris, co-founder of Two Fish Management, which is exposed to Barrick Gold through its options holdings, has written to Barrick CEO Jamie Sokalsky and other board members recommending that the North and South American assets of the mining company be split from the African and Australian Pacific holdings.

“Each distinct business unit has unique political environments, geologies, operating costs, reserve profiles, profitability, capital intensities and growth prospects,” he says in the letter.

Barrick Gold’s stock has fallen by nearly 50 per cent in the past year, as the gold mining company took massive writedowns and cut its dividend. The price of gold has been falling, but in addition, Barrick’s gold production per share fell 28 per cent from 2003 to 2012, Morris said.

Start-up problems delay production from Cameco’s Cigar Lake mine into 2014 – by By Lauren Krugel (Canadian Press/Montreal Gazette – September 9, 2013)

September 9, 2013

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

SASKATOON – Cameco Corp. says its long-delayed Cigar Lake uranium mine in Saskatchewan won’t begin producing until early 2014 because of some glitches it encountered during the start-up process.

The company had expected to produce 300,000 pounds of milled uranium this year, but on Monday said it will be unable to meet that target. The Cigar Lake mine — delayed several times in recent years due to flooding and other technical issues — is 97 per cent complete and had been close to finally starting up.

“When a mine is being commissioned, issues are going to come up and Cigar Lake is no exception,” CEO Tim Gitzel told a conference call.

“While we’re not happy with these delays, we have to keep in mind that Cigar Lake is a long-term project that we expect to last for many, many years. It is an important source of what will be low cost production for Cameco and a key component of our strategy to increase annual production to 36 million pounds by 2018.”

Gabriel Resources seeks Romanian clarification on key gold mine – by Bertrand Marotte (Globe and Mail – September 9, 2013)

September 9, 2013

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.

Gabriel Resources Ltd. is frantically trying to confirm statements by Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta and other ministers regarding rejection of a draft bill allowing the company to build Europe’s largest gold mine.

The Canadian mining company said Monday that it is “urgently seeking confirmation of the actual statements made and clarification of the impact on the proposed permitting of the Project.”

Media reports on Monday quoted Mr. Ponta as saying that the Rosia Montana gold-and-silver project in a small Romanian town is “case closed” after a week of protests by environmentalists and citizens throughout the country concerned over the use of cyanide in the extraction process.

The project, which Gabriel has been pursuing since the late 1990s, would also involve the razing of four mountains to allow for a giant open pit mine. Backers of the project say the mine would help boost the economically deprived region of northwest Romania and create much-needed jobs.

From potash powerbroker to Minsk prison, the cost of crossing Belarus – by Polina Devitt (Reuters Canada – September 8, 2013)

September 9, 2013

http://ca.reuters.com/

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Vladislav Baumgertner has the fluent English, Western business degrees and meteoric career that typify Russia’s young executive elite, but the boss of Uralkali, the world’s largest potash producer, is now more in need of Soviet-era survival skills.

For two weeks Baumgertner, 41, has been held in a dank Stalin-era Belarusian cell, facing up to 10 years in jail on charges of abusing power and seeking gain at the expense of Belarus while chairman of a joint venture cartel, Belarusian Potash Company (BPC), which until last month controlled Russian and Belarusian exports of the fertilizer ingredient.

Belarus, which has long bridled at what it believes is Uralkali’s aim to take over its own producer Belaruskali, was angered by Uralkali’s abrupt exit from BPC last month, a move likely to lower prices, hit a key source of hard currency and hurt Belarus’s rickety economy.

The Belarusian Investigative Committee has not provided details on the charge, though among comments it made at the time of Baumgertner’s arrest are allegations that he and others at BPC provided discounts on product to some buyers without telling the Belarusians, redirected ships to take Uralkali product instead of Belaruskali’s, and cancelled some BPC contracts, promising partners a Uralkali alternative at lower prices.

Shawn Ryan’s new Yukon vision – by Gwen Preston (Northern Miner – September 4, 2013)

September 6, 2013

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

DAWSON CITY, YUKON — Shawn Ryan could have retired. Ryan and his wife, Cathy Wood, are the Yukon prospecting team whose dedicated soil sampling led Underworld Resources to the million-ounce-plus White Gold deposit in 2009, a discovery that sparked a new Yukon gold rush. They also get credit for Kaminak Gold’s (TSXV: KAM; US-OTC: KMKGF) Coffee project, already at 3.2 million oz. and growing, and have at least another dozen soil anomalies on option to explorers across the White Gold district.

After years of scraping by on government grants and prospecting contracts, Ryan and Wood made it to the big leagues when Kinross Gold (TSX: K; NYSE: KGC) acquired Underworld for $138 million. With that payday, plus a steady stream of option payments, the team could easily have stepped back from the grind and enjoyed their just rewards.

Instead, Ryan and Wood spent the last 18 months figuring out how to make exploring for gold in the Yukon less expensive and more reliable. “I could see the crash coming and I could see there was so much money being wasted up here,” Ryan says in an interview in Dawson City. “So we took a step back and thought, ‘If we’re going to keep this momentum alive, we need to add something new — we need to figure out some simple new tools that will increase drilling confidence without costing millions.”

Obama blaming Canada for Keystone delay is just more fence-sitting – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – September 6, 2013)

September 6, 2013

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

As the latest, realistic decision point on whether the Keystone XL pipeline gets a United States permit slips toward the spring of 2014, the new excuse bandied about is that the delay is Canada’s fault because it has failed to deliver greenhouse gas regulations for the oil and gas industry.

It’s an excuse that needs to be exposed for what it is: a continuation of the U.S. administration’s leadership by avoidance on a grossly mishandled project.

Indications are that Canada will be well on its way to implementing regulations for oil producers by next spring that will be more stringent than anything Obama has been able to deliver in his own country.

The regulations will put Canada’s oil and gas industry at a disadvantage versus U.S. oil producers and all other suppliers of oil to the United States, yet the odds are Obama will still sit on the fence because he will by then be facing mid-term elections in November 2014, when he will need the support of his insatiable green base.

So-called ‘Dutch Disease’ has actually left Canada’s economy much stronger, economist says – by Jen Gerson (National Post – September 6, 2013)

September 6, 2013

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

A Quebec-based economist is trying to squelch the “Dutch Disease” theory long touted by New Democratic Party leader Thomas Mulcair, claiming the phenomenon has actually left Canada’s economy much stronger.

“The increase in commodity prices is a good news story for Canada. It means there is increased world demand for something Canada produces,” said Stephen Gordon, author of a report released Thursday by the University of Calgary School of Public Policy.

“What happened is that we shifted workers away from a declining sector and into an expanding sector. That’s exactly what you’d expect, and it’s what you’d want because it results in higher wages.”

The economic premise of Dutch Disease has long pinned the decline of central Canada’s manufacturing sector to growing oil production in Alberta.

The term is an economic shorthand that describes the hollowing out of a country’s manufacturing sector after the discovery of natural resources; the subsequent increase in the value of currency makes exporting manufactured goods uncompetitive.

Commentary: Understanding [Quebec’s] Bill 43 – by Pascal de Guise, Yaël Lachkar and Misha Benjamin (Northern Miner – September 4, 2013)

September 6, 2013

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

Bill 43 is the third attempt to reform Quebec’s Mining Act in the last five years. The first two bills were tabled by the Liberal government, but were not passed. This latest bill (Bill 43), tabled by the minority Parti Québécois (PQ) government, would be a major overhaul of the Mining Act, and its importance should not be understated. The prices of metal are falling and mining investments are slowing around the world. At a time when Quebec’s reputation as a mining-friendly jurisdiction is being questioned and critics from all sides are calling for a reform, Bill 43 could have an adverse impact on mining investment in the province.

It is in this context that the government of Pauline Marois has proposed a PQ version of the Mining Act and an overhaul of the way in which mining royalties are collected. The plan, which was referred to during the election period as the “North for All” plan, is a remodelling of the Liberals’ Plan Nord.

During the election period and the following months, drastic measures were proposed by the Minister of Natural Resources, Martine Ouellet, which were heavily criticized on the fiscal front. At the time, the PQ was criticized for aggressively seeking to maxi¬mize royalties from ex¬ploiting natural resources, affecting the industry’s ability to properly function.