Mining Conflict and Opposition – Page 65

Solid Gold Resources Corp. News Release: Tyranny at Lake Abitibi

October 22, 2012

Toronto, October 19, 2012 – Solid Gold Resources Corp. (“Solid Gold” or “the Company”) (SLD:TSXV) reports that new regulations obligating proponents to consult with potentially-affected Aboriginal communities before conducting exploration activities in Ontario are scheduled to come into force on November 1, 2012.

“These regulations result in a total transfer of all natural resources to the control of hostile, third-party governments. It is my opinion that Canadians must do everything possible to stop this ill-conceived, race-based initiative”, stated Darryl Stretch, President of Solid Gold.

On January 3, 2012, in the absence of any supporting law, a Motions Judge in the Superior Court of Ontario ordered Solid Gold to stop all exploration work at Lake Abitibi and, together with the Province of Ontario, to consult and accommodate the Wahgoshig First Nation (“the WFN”).

Two days later, in reference to the order, Premier Dalton McGuinty of Ontario stated, “There is an important legal obligation now placed on businesses to consult in a formal and thorough way.”

There wasn’t a law or regulation in place on January 5, 2012 when the Premier of Ontario made that statement and, in fact, the law will not come into effect for another two weeks.

Gold Fields set to fire 11,000 strikers in South Africa – Reuters (Globe and Mail – October 18, 2012)

October 18, 2012

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.

JOHANNESBURG — Reuters – Striking miners at one of Gold Fields Ltd.’s South African operations returned to work on Thursday, but the bullion producer still looked set to fire more than 11,000 others taking part in the worst wildcat walkout since the end of apartheid.

More than 80,000 miners have downed tools in the country since August in often violent strikes that are hitting growth and investor confidence in Africa’s biggest economy, and raising questions about President Jacob Zuma’s leadership.

Gold Fields, the world’s fourth-largest bullion producer and second-biggest in Africa, said all of the 9,000 workers at its Beatrix mine were now back at work after responding to a dismissal ultimatum.

Eleven thousand strikers at its KDC West operations in Carletonville, 40 km west of Johannesburg, have until 1200 GMT to return to work or face immediate dismissal. Gold Fields has said it may issue a similar ultimatum to those striking at KDC East.

More and more mines in South Africa have resorted to mass dismissals to tackle the strikes gripping the sector. Around 15,000 workers have been sacked in the last two weeks, although experts say it is more a hard-ball negotiating tactic than outright dismissal.

Mine Explorers See Cost Rising From 2013 Rules – by Liezel Hill – (Bloomberg.com – October 9, 2012)

October 9, 2012

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Changes to century-old mining rules in Ontario signal delays and added costs for hundreds of explorers in a $1 billion industry that provides a crucial source of new deposits for global metal producers.

Prospectors such as Northern Shield Resources Inc. (NRN) and Mistango River Resources Inc. (MIS), which are accustomed to drilling their mining claims without permission in the Canadian province, will need to submit details of almost every stage of their exploration plans and consult with native groups under rules published last week that become mandatory April 1.

Ontario says the changes will provide certainty for exploration companies and will help pre-empt disputes with native groups, known in Canada as First Nations. Prospectors say the delays and expense resulting from the new rules will be an added burden in an industry that relies on hard-to-come-by financing from investors.

“There’s enough hurdles in mining exploration these days with market conditions and financing, First Nations consultations,” Ian Bliss, chief executive officer of Ottawa- based mineral explorer Northern Shield, said by phone last week. “Now we are just throwing in another complication which slows the process, and there’s a cost to it.”

First Nations want to be consulted first in mining talks – by CBC Radio News (October 5, 2012)

October 6, 2012

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

‘Complexities’ surrounding ‘duty to consult’ not addressed, First Nations leaders say

First Nations leaders in northern Ontario say new mining regulations that go into effect Nov. 1 don’t go far enough. The updated mining act makes changes to early exploration requirements to help minimize the impact on the environment.

It also includes some new rules about consulting with First Nations, and a plan to better protect sites of Aboriginal cultural significance. But Lake Huron Regional Chief Isadore Day said First Nations are still concerned about the consultation process.

“It’s very clear that … it didn’t go deep enough to look at the complexities that have to do with the duty to consult,” he said. The executive director of the Ontario Prospectors Association said the province will inform First Nations if a claim is staked in traditional territory and put the mining company in contact with the correct person to consult.

“It’s always been a challenge to find the right person in the community to talk with,” Garry Clark said. “It’d be good because then we wouldn’t be exploring there and harming anything that has significance to the First Nations,” Clark said.

12,000 striking South African miners fired as unrest deepens – by Rodney Muhumuza (Globe and Mail – October 6, 2012)

October 6, 2012

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.

JOHANNESBURG — The Associated Press – Anglo American Platinum has fired 12,000 striking miners for staging an unlawful strike that is one of several that are slowly paralyzing South Africa’s crucial mining sector.

About 80,000 miners, representing 16 per cent of the country’s mine work force, are currently striking in a wave of wildcat work stoppages that have serious economic and political implications for South Africa.

Strike leader Gaddafi Mdoda, a mine worker at Anglo American Platinum, or Amplats, said he was one of the workers who received e-mails or SMS messages telling them they had been dismissed. “Things are bad here,” Mr. Mdoda said. The strike leader said he was shocked by the decision to dismiss striking workers, even though “it is nothing to be afraid of.”

“Approximately 12,000 striking employees chose not to make representations, nor attend the hearings, and have therefore been dismissed in their absence,” a statement from Amplats said, according to the South African Press Agency.

Environmental group starts Ring of Fire campaign – by Shawn Bell (Wawatay News – October 3, 2012)

October 6, 2012

Northern Ontario’s First Nations Voice: http://wawataynews.ca/

The environmental organization CPAWS Wildlands League is hoping pressure from people across Canada will convince the Ontario government to refocus its involvement in the Ring of Fire.

CPAWS kicked off its latest campaign in Toronto in September with a series of media advertisements geared at the Ring of Fire.

The goal is to convince Ontario to create a regional plan for development in northern Ontario’s mining sector, said CPAWS spokesperson Anna Baggio.

“For many years now we’ve been hoping (the government) would do some sort of regional planning in regards to the Ring of Fire,” Baggio said. “We’re very worried – I don’t think they have a plan for the region. Instead, the development is happening in a piecemeal way, where everyone’s got their own little part of it.”

Baggio said CPAWS is concerned that ecosystems are being put at risk, endangered species like woodland caribou are being ignored and First Nations communities are being left on the sidelines as the government pushes forward with the massive mining development.

Platinum producer fires 12,000 striking South African miners as unrest deepens – by Agnieszka Flak (Globe and Mail – October 5, 2012)

October 5, 2012

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.

JOHANNESBURG — Reuters – Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) fired 12,000 wildcat strikers on Friday, a high-stakes attempt by the world’s biggest platinum producer to push back at a wave of illegal stoppages sweeping through South Africa’s mining sector and beyond.

The rand fell sharply after the announcement, suggesting investors fear the sackings could worsen what is shaping up to be the most damaging period of labour unrest in Africa’s biggest economy since the end of apartheid in 1994.

Police shot dead one striking miner overnight, bringing the death toll in two months of unrest to 48. Strikes have spread beyond the mining sector, with Shell declaring on Friday that it would not be able to honour contracts to deliver fuel near Johannesburg because of a trucking strike.

The unrest is causing political trouble for President Jacob Zuma and his ruling African National Congress (ANC), the veteran liberation movement with long-standing ties to labour unions. “You fire 12,000 people, and it’s like ‘Oh my god, what happens now?’” one Johannesburg-based currency strategist said.

MPs arrested over Canadian mine protest – by Olga Dzyubenko (Globe and Mail – October 5, 2012)

October 5, 2012

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.

BISHKEK — Reuters – Kyrgyzstani police on Thursday arrested three members of parliament who had led a crowd that tried to storm government headquarters in a protest over a Canadian-owned gold mine, Centerra Gold.

Wednesday’s clashes between police and supporters of the opposition Ata Zhurt party in the former Soviet republic were the most violent in the capital, Bishkek, since the April, 2010, revolt that ousted then-president Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

The protesters want the mine, crucial to Kyrgyzstan’s fragile economy, to be nationalized. The three parliamentarians – Kamchibek Tashiyev, Sadyr Zhaparov and Talant Mamytov – are being held on suspicion of trying to seize power. Prosecutors have 48 hours to decide whether to charge them.

On Thursday, about 1,000 supporters rallied in the main square of the southern city of Jalalabad, their power base, to demand their release. There was no violence. “Parliament, the President, the government should resign because they are not resolving the Kumtor issue,” one demonstrator shouted through a megaphone.

Platinum, gold, coal, diamonds, iron ore. No end in sight for SA mine strikes – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – October 4, 2012)

October 4, 2012

www.mineweb.com

The South African mine strikes, and associated intimidation of any who wish to return to work, appear to be continuing to spread – from platinum, to gold and now to other mining sectors as well.

LONDON (MINEWEB) – Writing here on Mineweb in mid-August (Platinum mine violence impact – could it spread to gold mines too?) we commented thus on the prospect of the strikes and associated violence then being experienced on the platinum mines spreading to the country’s gold mining sector: “But, the issues which have led to the platinum mining violence are potentially mirrored in South Africa’s gold mines – an even bigger sector (just) – and the government will be hugely worried about the potential spread of mine unrest given the potentially major impact on the South African economy of a mining meltdown.

South Africa may no longer be the world’s largest gold producer – a position it held for nigh on a century, but it still remains one of the world’s biggest and disruption here could have a very negative impact on global mine supply – and again lead to the permanent closure of some of the more marginal operations, which are struggling to stay afloat even at current gold prices. The platinum and gold mines operate in a very similar manner and employ huge workforces by western standards. If the AMCU starts to move into the gold mines in a similar manner the impact could be equally destabilising.”

Ex-Implats CEO speaks out on strikes, mine conditions – by Christy Filen (Mineweb.com – October 1, 2012)

October 2, 2012

www.mineweb.com

In his first interview with Mineweb since leaving Impala Platinum, David Brown, hits back at critics accusing the company of starting the wave of strikes.

JOHANNESBURG (MINEWEB) – The former CEO of Impala Platinum, David Brown, has said that accusations that the miner had, while he was at the helm, kicked off the recent spate of wild-cat strikes by negotiating and settling with illegally striking workers is misplaced.

Brown said that the accusations are not accurate as nothing extra was given to striking workers until they had returned to work and there was normality.

In the CEO’s first interview since announcing his resignation from the platinum miner, Brown said “Well you can go back to Adam beget Cain, as to who started it, I think that they are missing the point. The point is that we all pay subtly different wages and benefits and that has been one of the issues”.

We saw Implats hurry up an annual increase to workers earlier on in the year after a violent six week strike in which three people died and then Lonmin agreeing to a 11% to 22% increase across the categories after a lengthy strike resulted in the deaths of 46 people and scores injured.

South Africa on the brink – Northern Miner Editorial (October 1, 2012)

October 2, 2012

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

Post-apartheid South Africa has provided duelling optimists and pessimists with plenty of fodder to back up their long-standing positions. There have been unabashed triumphs — such as the country’s avoidance of Zimbabwe-style de-evolution, and its wonderful job hosting the World Cup — bumping right up against major societal obstacles, such as the flood of truly appalling violent crime, and the intractability of the nation’s simmering racial, class and tribal divides.

The strikes this year in the country’s platinum and gold mines, and particularly the recently settled strike at Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mine near Rustenburg, are once again causing miners and investors around the world to pause and wonder what’s next for South Africa’s mining sector, which accounts for a fifth of the country’s gross domestic product.

The 46-person death toll during the now-settled Marikana strike made headlines around the world, as it echoed some of the worst political violence of the apartheid era. As has been detailed in this and past issues, on Aug. 16, what appear on video to be trigger happy police — both black and white — opened fire with automatic weapons on a group of 3,000 strikers that had refused orders to disperse, killing 34 workers and wounding another 78. Some 270 strikers were arrested.

Mine clean-up rules too lax, critic says – by Elizabeth McMillan (CBC News North – September 29, 2012)

September 30, 2012

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

Taxpayers still may end up with massive bills like Giant Mine in future, says MiningWatch

When Royal Oak Mines went bankrupt more than a decade ago, it left behind a toxic legacy that Canadian taxpayers are still paying to clean up.

The federal government had to take responsibility for two of the company’s gold mines in the Northwest Territories — Giant Mine in Yellowknife and Colomac, located about 220 km northwest of the capital. Giant is one of the most contaminated sites in Canadian history and it will be one of the most expensive to clean up.

The company’s costly wake leaves some wondering whether enough has changed to prevent taxpayers from getting similar bills in the future. MiningWatch Canada said recent examples such as Jericho diamond mine in Nunavut show money set aside by mines for clean up isn’t always adequate.

“One thing that has happened time and time again is that there are surprises and cost overruns at the time of closure,” said Ramsey Hart, MiningWatch’s Canadian program co-ordinator. “Certainly we’d like to see some contingency funds set aside for unanticipated events.”

Duty to consult questioned in Wahgoshig mining case – by Shawn Bell (Wawatay News – September 26, 2012)

September 27, 2012

Northern Ontario’s First Nations Voice: http://wawataynews.ca/

As a legal decision, the Sept. 4 finding that Solid Gold Resources will be allowed to appeal its case against Wahgoshig First Nation over mineral exploration on Wahgoshig’s traditional land was hardly remarkable. It was simply a matter of a company asking for and receiving approval to take its appeal to a higher, precedent-setting court.

The finding of the judge, however, has the potential to have far-reaching consequences on whether mining companies have the duty to consult First Nations before conducting exploration on traditional lands.

Justice H.P. Wilton-Siegel’s ruling to give Solid Gold Resources leave to appeal took aim at the duty to consult – specifically, whether Ontario can pass its duty to consult with First Nations to a mining company.

“I see no basis in the facts of this case for an imposition of a duty to consult on Solid Gold,” Wilton-Siegel wrote. “If the Crown wishes to delegate operational aspects of its duty (to consult First Nations) it … must establish a legislative or regulatory scheme (to do so). The mining act does not presently contain such a scheme.”

The case stems from Wahgoshig’s efforts to block Solid Gold from exploring on its traditional lands in an area thought to contain sacred burial sites.

[South African] Platinum output disruption – It ain’t over yet – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – september 21, 2012)

September 21, 2012

www.mineweb.com

As the platinum price discount to gold increases again following the Lonmin settlement it may yet be too early to write off the labour problems at the SA mines as being over.

LONDON (MINEWEB) – As the dust begins to settle at Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mine and workers drift back after the killings and walkouts, the platinum price has drifted back to a substantial discount to the gold price again. This morning the price for platinum was some $140 below that of gold, back from a deficit that had fallen to as low as the high $60s at the peak of the Lonmin upheavals.

But perhaps the quick new rise in the gold:platinum price ratio has been overdone given the amount of lost production to date, not just at Lonmin – and at Impala earlier in the year – but also at the other platinum mines in the Rustenburg area which have all been affected to some extent, as well as the potential for further loss of output ahead.

Notably, the world’s largest platinum miner, Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) has itself faced substantial disruption and had to temporarily suspend output for a few days and, perhaps more importantly, is still suffering in the fallout from the Marikana problems with militant miners blockading the streets and creating an atmosphere which is not conducive to their fellows returning to work.

Two more killed in crackdown on South Africa mine strikes – by Carley Petesch and Michelle Faul (Globe and Mail – September 20, 2012)

September 20, 2012

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.

Rustenburg, South Africa — The Associated Press

South African police have killed two more people in a crackdown on striking miners, labour advocates said Thursday, with the victims being a ruling party municipal councillor who died of injuries from a rubber bullet and a miner who was run over by an armoured car.

Police threatened to take further action Thursday against illegally protesting strikers at the world’s biggest platinum producer, Anglo American Platinum. Wildcat strikes continued at several other mines even as miners returned to work at the Lonmin PLC platinum mine where police killed 34 miners on Aug. 16. The violence started Aug. 10 with a wage dispute and union rivalry.

Police in two water cannon trucks and several armoured cars moved in Thursday morning on a gathering of striking Anglo American Platinum miners at a shantytown where residents set up barricades of rocks and burning tires and logs. Strike leader Evans Ramokga told The Associated Press that one miner was run over Wednesday by a police armoured car and dragged several meters (feet) before it stopped. He said the man died overnight in the hospital.