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Canadian Media Resource Articles

A reckoning on home soil for mining firms – by Peter McKenna (Halifax Chronicle Herald – August 16, 2013)

http://thechronicleherald.ca/

In case you didn’t already know, Canada is a world leader in mineral extraction. Canadian companies have extensive mining operations in Africa and Latin America — and places in between.

You may or may not be also aware that some of these companies have incredibly poor reputations in many of the countries in which they invest heavily. Operations in Mexico (Calgary-based Blackfire Exploration Limited), Peru (Vancouver-headquartered Dorato Resources Inc.), and Guatemala (Vancouver-based Goldcorp), to name but a few, have each had their fair share of Canadian mining company horror stories.

Canadians travelling in Guatemala, for instance, have been told by the locals to maintain a low profile and to keep their flag lapel pins out of sight.

People in these countries have witnessed their land forcibly confiscated by the military and police, seen little in the way of financial compensation, and have watched corrupt local officials ostensibly sell-out their communities. Mining Watch Canada has done a good job of documenting many of these abuses. 

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Wall says he’s ‘pleased’ with Potash on promises – by Joe Couture (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – August 16, 2013)

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

Premier Brad Wall says he’s pleased with PotashCorp’s progress in keeping promises it made to the province at the time of the attempted takeover by BHP Billiton in 2010.

“We get a report from (PotashCorp), and I’ve had a chance to talk to (CEO) Bill Doyle directly about it. We had a conversation about the status of the pledge and I think Saskatchewan people should be pleased. We’re certainly pleased,” Wall said.

“They’re heading toward the exact number they promised for head office jobs. They’ve had so many move up from Illinois.

“They’ve actually exceeded their targets for overall numbers of employees. They’re moving in the right direction in terms of aboriginal employment,” he added. “And from a corporate citizen standpoint, here’s a company that has exceeded their pledge, frankly, I think, and expectations.”

As examples of that, Wall pointed to PotashCorp’s contributions to the STARS air ambulance program and to the new Global Food Security Institute.

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Why cartels collapse – by Jack M. Mintz (National Post – August 16, 2013)

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

The potash cartel collapsed, at least for now, and the oil cartel could be next

Cartels are tough to maintain as we have recently seen with the demise of the Russian-Belarusian duopoly that accounts for over 35% of world potash production. The North American Canpotex cartel accounting for another a third of global output faces a sharp reduction in profits.

The stock and bond markets have responded in kind. Potash Corporation, the leading global producer, has seen its credit rating downgraded by Standard and Poor’s from stable to negative following a steep drop in its stock price from $38 to $30.

Yet, not all cartels fall apart. OPEC has been in operation since 1960, first successfully manipulating global oil prices by reducing supply after the Yom Kippur war in 1973. Today, it is the swing producer, producing 32.4 million barrels per day (roughly 45% of world crude production in 2012). OPEC itself is dominated by Saudi Arabia, which accounts for almost one-third of OPEC production.

If a potash cartel can fall apart, could it happen to OPEC?

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ForestEthics fights for one-way democracy – by Peter Foster (National Post – August 16, 2013)

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

The question is whether eco storm troopers will abide by the decision if they lose

Eco radicals have a highly flexible approach to public participation, but little or no flexibility on its allowable conclusions. When it comes to forcing a green agenda on people – say, via removing the right to object to local wind farms in Ontario — they are all in favour. When it comes to new pipelines, however, they believe in the widest possible consultation, but with only one acceptable decision: Ban them.

This week the government’s regulatory streamlining legislation for new energy projects, contained within 2012’s Omnibus Bill C-38, was the subject of a lawsuit by an arm of San Francisco-based environmental group ForestEthics, which has for years been front and centre in anti-oil sands and anti-forestry activism.

A subsidiary, ForestEthics Advocacy, FA, and an individual named Donna Sinclair, both represented by celebrity Toronto lawyer Clayton Ruby, FA’s chairman, sought to overturn the government’s provisions on the basis that they restrict freedom of speech, not to mention threatening the survival of life on earth.

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Oil’s new Arctic passage to Europe – by Jeffrey Jones (Globe and Mail – August 16, 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.

Calgary –  As some of the biggest players in Canada’s oil industry fight for proposals to move the product west, south and east, a new plan is emerging to move crude north.

Omnitrax Inc., a private U.S. company that owns Churchill, Man.’s port, may provide a new channel for moving crude to markets on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Denver-based company, which also owns Manitoba’s northern railway, is nearing a test run to ship oil through its system as part of an ambitious plan that could see Western Canadian crude moving for the first time to Europe’s largest port via tanker across Hudson Bay.

If the plan is realized, it would run counter to long-established crude oil flows, in which east coast Canadian refineries have imported their feedstock from North Sea and Middle East suppliers.

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De Beers eyes expansion to mine project near Attawapiskat (CBC News Sudbury – August 15, 2013)

http://www.cbc.ca/sudbury/

Attawapiskat band members interested in negotiating a new Impact Benefit Agreement for the Victor Mine Extension Project.

De Beers Canada is looking into the possibility of extending its current Victor Mine project on northern Ontario’s James Bay Coast, on traditional land, 90 kilometres west of Attawapiskat First Nation.

The company officially opened its existing Victor Mine site in mid-2008, after discovering the region’s lucrative kimberlite field more than two decades earlier. It was the province’s first diamond mine.

With an estimated five years remaining on that open pit diamond mine, the company has proposed the Victor Mine Extension Project.

The project is in an advanced exploration stage at the moment, meaning a final decision on whether to pursue the extension is still at least 18 months away, said Tom Ormsby, the director of external and corporate affairs at De Beers Canada.

An environmental assessment is currently underway, and core samples will be done to gauge the value of minerals in the ground.

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IBK Capital CEO [Michael White] calls the market bottom – by Alisha Hiyate (Mining Markets – August 14, 2013)

http://www.miningmarkets.ca/

Mining Markets recently spoke with Michael White, president and CEO of Toronto-based IBK Capital, for his views on the junior mining market. As the head of IBK, a private investment bank that largely deals with junior miners, White has had a front-row seat to the suffering of these companies over the past two years. While some companies won’t survive the current market malaise, White believes the market is at, or near, a bottom — and predicts a migration of talent from the majors to juniors that will build the next generation of majors.

Mining Markets: IBK does a lot of work with resource juniors, so you’ve got a front-row seat to the difficult markets they’ve been facing. Could you describe the current financing environment for the juniors?

Michael White: In the industry we talk about windows being open and windows being closed, and arguably, the window is closed. There are a few financings getting done, it’s not impossible to get financings completed. Sometimes these companies have to be a bit creative in order to fund their exploration or development, but generally speaking, the mining market today is much poorer than it was a couple years ago.

We really have seen a decrease in value in the equities for the exploration companies and the producing companies in metals and mining over the last two years.

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Foreign aid as a tool for Canadian development – by Campbell Clark (Globe and Mail – August 15, 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.

OTTAWA — The Conservative revolution in Canada’s foreign aid is finally here.

It’s not just that the Harper government has folded the former aid agency, CIDA, into the Foreign Affairs department, ending the flimsy pretense of separation between politics and aid policy. It’s that the money spent by Canada on aid now reflects the Tories’ view of the world, or at least the aid world.

For years the Tories have talked about changing Canadian aid, and NGOs and aid advocates have expressed fears about what they planned. But some of the Tories’ ideas about aid were ad-hoc notions, and it’s taken time for little shifts to really change the aid portfolio – a big, lumbering thing made up of thousands of multiyear projects. Now it has.

There’s a stronger belief in development banks, aid projects built around Canadian commercial interests in mining, and a profound faith in the power of the private sector.

The projects funded this year, especially, show an unmistakable Tory stamp.

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Penny stock fraud: Alleged mastermind Sandy Winick once lived the high life in Toronto – by Madhavi Acharya-Tom Yew (Toronto Star – August 15, 2013)

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.

Winick’s past includes bankruptcy filings, scrutiny by stock market regulators, and co-founding The Fight Network.

More details are coming to light about one-time Toronto resident Sandy Winick, the alleged mastermind of a worldwide pennystock fraud believed to be on the run in Thailand.

Winick’s track record in business includes bankruptcy filings, a dizzying number of subsidiaries and companies that traded over-the-counter, and co-founding testosterone-laden cable channel Fight Network, which features boxing and mixed martial arts.

Winick, who U.S. authorities alleged this week ran the $140 million fraud ring, also has a taste for the highlife, as can be seen in a Star article profiling his home in 2005.

Winick, an aquarium enthusiast, and his wife Jodi spoke about elaborate plans for one salt water and one fresh water tank in their north Toronto home.

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Why billionaire Tom Steyer has re-invented himself as an anti-Keystone campaigner – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – August 15, 2013)

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

In an open letter this week inviting Russ Girling, CEO of TransCanada Corp., to a live debate on the merits of the Keystone XL pipeline, California hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer said he is motivated by uncovering the truth.

It’s a noble pursuit. Yet the facts about the pipeline from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast have been in plain sight since its regulatory review in the United States began five years ago.

What’s less known is why Steyer, 56, a President Obama fundraiser and self-described “professional pain in the ass” who is re-inventing himself as a “clean-energy philanthropist,” has suddenly gone sour on the oil sands.

Steyer rose to the top of the list of oil sands foes this year and has been making a name for himself with anti-Keystone XL publicity stunts. His latest hit was a commercial so offensive toward Girling, the oil sands business and Canada that it was pulled off the air last week by WRC-TV, an affiliate of NBC in Washington, D.C.

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A Custom Fit [for Vale’s Newfoundland nickel project] – by Marianne Dupla and Dave Oliphant (Canadian Mining Journal – August 2013)

The Canadian Mining Journal is Canada’s first mining publication.

While it was rigorously testing a customized use of hydrometallurgical technology to assure commercial viability for its mammoth nickel-mining project, Vale Canada Ltd. was also testing a comprehensive effluent treatment program that incorporates new high-rate softening and clarification technology to help protect the environment.

International mining company, Vale, is nearing completion of its US$3.7-billion nickel processing plant at Long Harbour, on Newfoundland’s Placentia Bay. The Brazilian mining company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Vale Canada Limited, formerly known as Vale Inco, is directing the construction of the processing plant, which began in April 2009.

Start-up of the plant is scheduled for August 2013. Once fully operational, it is expected to annually produce 50,000 metric tons of nickel, 4,700 metric tons of copper, and 2,500 metric tons of cobalt.

The mined ore will first undergo a concentrating process at the Voisey’s Bay mine site in Labrador before it is transported by ship to the processing plant at Long Harbour. By processing ore concentrate at the plant, Vale anticipates achieving higher metal recoveries while also eliminating the time and expense of shipping to Ontario or Manitoba for refining.

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Anglo American expands B.C. coal mine with eye on Asia – Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – August 15, 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.

VANCOUVER — Anglo American PLC is expanding its northeastern B.C. mine, betting that the quality of the coal and the ease of transport to Asia will help the company win more contracts from steel makers in Japan, China and others in the region.

London-based Anglo American, one of the world’s largest mining companies, will make the expansion announcement Thursday at its operations near Tumbler Ridge, B.C., about 700 kilometres northeast of Vancouver.

The company has budgeted $50-million for the first phase of a $200-million, multiyear project to boost output of coking (or metallurgical) coal, a key ingredient in the production of steel.

Seamus French, head of Anglo American’s metallurgical coal division, said in an interview that its Tumbler Ridge coal is high quality, and that the rail line transporting it to the port of Prince Rupert for export is underutilized. “We see fantastic long-term potential,” he said in an interview, adding that the mining expansion will provide employment security for the 420 Anglo American workers in B.C. as well as generate 100 construction jobs.

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Coast to coast, a power grid stretched thin – by Shawn McCarthy and Josh Kerr (Globe and Mail – August 15, 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.

OTTAWA AND TORONTO — Faced with rising demand and aging infrastructure, Toronto Hydro is spending $184-million to install a transformer just south of the CN Tower to keep the lights on and air conditioners humming along the city’s lake shore.

It’s the first new transformer station the utility has built since the 1950s, and part of an ongoing investment plan to ensure North America’s fourth-largest city has a reliable power system that can withstand whatever nature or malicious humans might throw at it.

But observers warn that work under way in North America to improve power reliability isn’t addressing all of the most critical problems. Across Canada, electricity companies are spending billions a year to reinforce aging transmission and distribution systems, with the industry estimating it will need nearly $300-billion over all in the next two decades to meet Canada’s demand for reliable power, according to a 2012 report by the Conference Board of Canada. That sort of spending requires an assured rate of return for utilities and other investors footing the bill, and consumers are increasingly reluctant to stump up.

“What it comes down to is a discussion about what is the value of reliability; what is the value of risk reduction,” said Jim Burpee, president of the Canadian Electricity Association.

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Four Canadians charged in massive $140M international penny stock fraud scheme – by Adrian Humphreys (National Post – August 14, 2013)

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

Former Toronto resident Sandy Winick figured he was on to a good thing with his scam raking in millions of dollars from investors, U.S. authorities allege, telling a colleague his scheme was better than another: “That deal is obviously a pump-and-dump. We know enough to be subtle.”

His business partner, Kolt Curry, another Canadian, allegedly boasted: “The money is good, it’s easy. It’s easy money. Definitely easy money, and it’s good money.” And for awhile, they were right.

On Tuesday, however, they were two of four Canadians indicted in the United States, alongside five Americans, charged with running the largest international penny stock and advance fee frauds in history.

Mr. Winick, 55, was named as the mastermind behind the two related schemes that U.S. prosecutors allege bilked victims in 35 countries out of more than $140-million.

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Canada, Mexico not energy rivals, ambassador says – by Shawn McCarthy (Globe and Mail – August 14, 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.

OTTAWA — Shrugging off the notion of an industrial rivalry, Mexican Ambassador Francisco Suarez says Canadian companies will enjoy enormous opportunities as his country seeks to rejuvenate its energy sector with sweeping, though politically challenging, liberalization.

In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Suarez said he expects Canada’s highly developed energy sector to figure as a key partner in Mexico’s multibillion-dollar effort to modernize not only its oil extraction sector but the pipeline and refining businesses as well as natural gas and electricity industries.

“This is the mother of all reforms,” he said at his office a block from Parliament Hill. “I think this opens great possibilities for Canada not as competitors but as complementary economies. I think this offers enormous opportunities for the relationship between Canada and Mexico.”

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Monday introduced a long-promised reform package which includes constitutional amendments to allow foreign companies to invest in energy production, although it stops short of allowing non-Mexicans to own or control oil and gas reserves.

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