Mining and Oil Sector Image – Page 16

The Horrible Reputation of Canada’s Mining Sector – by Stan Sudol

June 8, 2015November 29, 2011

Stan Sudol is a Toronto, Canada-based communications consultant, mining columnist and blogger. stan.sudol@republicofmining.com

Biggest commodity super-cycle in the history of mankind

The future of mining has never been brighter, yet its image among the general population seems to have plunged lower than the famous Kidd Creek mine in Timmins, Ontario – the world’s deepest base metal operation. The largest rural to urban migration in the history of mankind is taking place in China. It has been often said, that China needs to build two cities the size of Toronto, Canada and Sydney, Australia to accommodate that growth, every year! Analysts estimate that China’s middle class is expanding so rapidly that it will soon overtake the current U.S. population of 312 million.

In October, 2011, the world’s population had passed the seven billion mark. India, Brazil, Indonesia, Turkey and many other developing countries are following China and urbanizing and industrializing their economies. Mining experts feel that over the next 25 years, we will need to dig out of the ground as many minerals as consumed since the beginning of mankind.

One of the biggest concerns is a shortage of skilled workers. In the next decade half the mining workforce in Canada is eligible to retire and there are significant difficulties attracting and engaging the digital generation.
According to the Ottawa-based Mining Industry Human Resource Council’s 2011 hiring report, the industry will need to hire betwee 75,280 to 141,540 new workers in Canada depending on the state of the global economy by 2021. Similar labour shortage issues exisit in other western mining jurisdicitions like Australia and the United States.

The people vs gold – a global battleground – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – November 29, 2011)

November 29, 2011

http://www.mineweb.com/

Recent public opposition to gold mining developments in Peru and in Bulgaria are indicative of a trend towards opposition to new mines which are accused of threatening water supplies.

LONDON – More and more it seems that local populations, perhaps stirred-up by often misleading information from environmental activists, are protesting – sometimes violently – against the establishment of significant gold mining operations in their areas.

For example, in Peru, there is an ongoing protest by the citizens of Cajamarca against the development of the Newmont/Buenaventura $3.4 billion Minas Conga gold mine while in Europe’s Balkan region the citizens of the town of Krumovgrad in Bulgaria are currently conducting a campaign against the development of an open pit gold mine by Dundee Precious Metals. Both these to an extent also pit the locals against central government which sees the potential benefits of the respective mining operations to their revenues and in terms of increased employment.

The above protests revolve around water supply concerns, as have a number of other recent protests against mining operations. In the case of Minas Conga, this is something of an embarrassment to Peru’s left-leaning new President, Ollanta Humala, whose government has so far supported the mining companies in this particular case because of its potential importance to the economy.

Rio Tinto hiring hundreds of workers in Canada because of modernization projects – by Ross Marowits, The Canadian Press (Winnipeg Free Press – September 27, 2011)

November 27, 2011

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/

MONTREAL – A couple of years after it laid off 14,000 workers around the world, global mining giant Rio Tinto has launched a mini hiring spree in Canada, mainly due to its modernization projects.

The Anglo-Australian company is actively searching to hire more than 210 workers for mining and manufacturing in alumina, aluminum, iron ore, diamonds and titanium dioxide.

“We launched the campaign to help our ongoing recruitment efforts for our modernization and expansion projects,” Rio Tinto spokesman Bryan Tucker said in an email. Rio Tinto employs more than 13,000 people at 35 sites in Canada.

The company has turned to Facebook and YouTube, posting a four-minute promotional video showing operations such as the Diavik Diamond Mine, Iron Ore Company of Canada, Rio Tinto, Fer et Titane, and Rio Tinto Alcan.

Daniel Jaeb is an Underground Miner at Diavik Diamond Mine in the Northwest Territories. Local, northern and Aboriginal, he received training and certification in underground mining through the North’s Mine Training Society. He enjoys the many pastimes that come with living in Canada’s North.

The Dark Lord of Coal Country – by Jeff Goodell (Rolling Stone Magazine – November 29, 2010)

November 27, 2011

http://www.rollingstone.com/

One balmy night this fall, a black BMW 750LI — a German luxury sedan that costs more than a typical coal miner makes in a year — pulls into the parking lot of the shaggy country club in Bluefield, West Virginia. Bluefield is a fading coal town in a state that is full of fading coal towns. Seventy-five years ago, when the Pocahontas coal seam was one of the richest veins in America, and tooling up for the 20th century required massive tonnage of coal, there was money here, and hope. But now the coal is mined out, the buildings downtown are vacant, and shiny new Beemers are about as common as flying saucers.

The driver — a young, tan, L.A.-surfer-boy type — jumps out and opens the rear door. A tall man, 60, with a thin mustache and a double chin emerges: Don Blankenship, the CEO of Massey Energy, the largest and most powerful coal company in central Appalachia. He grabs his dark-blue suit jacket, which is folded on the tan leather seat beside him, and slips it on. He wears a red-and-yellow silk tie and tasseled leather loafers. His hands are chubby and white — no calluses, not a speck of coal dust. Accountant’s hands. His eyes are black and inexpressive.

Unless you live in West Virginia, you’ve probably never heard of Don Blankenship. You might not know that he grew up in the coal fields of West Virginia, received an accounting degree from a local college, and, through a combination of luck, hard work and coldblooded ruthlessness, transformed himself into the embodiment of everything that’s wrong with the business and politics of energy in America today

A reality check on Canadian mining in Africa -by Lucien Bradet (Embassy Magazine – November 23, 2011)

November 27, 2011

This column was first published by Embassy, Canada’s foreign policy newsweekly. http://embassymag.ca/

Lucien Bradet is president and CEO of the Canadian Council on Africa, which is dedicated to the economic development of Africa. CCAfrica is a private sector, member driven, non-profit organization. Members include companies such as IAMGold Corporation and Barrick Gold Corporation, government agencies such as the Canadian International Development Agency, and schools such as Concordia University.

It seems that every time you read or hear about Canadian mining in Africa, it’s negative toward the industry. But Canadian mining operations in Africa are providing jobs to local people and taxes, dividends and royalties to local governments.

It seems that every time you read or hear about Canadian mining in Africa, it prompts negative feelings in you, or you develop a negative opinion toward the industry. Why? Simply because everything you read is quite negative, you are dealing half-truths, an incomplete picture of the situation, misleading opinion and, most of all, the results of shabby research.

The roots of inequality: Mining profits soar, but Africans are still poor – by Yao Graham (Embassy Magazine – November 14, 2011)

November 27, 2011

This column was first published by Embassy, Canada’s foreign policy newsweekly. http://embassymag.ca/

Yao Graham is the co-ordinator of Third World Network-Africa, a pan-African policy research and advocacy organization based in Accra, Ghana.

Profits have ballooned in recent years, but African states haven’t seen their fair share. It’s time to look beyond the woefully inadequate compensation of voluntary corporate social responsibility actions by mining firms in Africa.

In 2009, African heads of state adopted the African Mining Vision. Its key objective is the transformation of Africa’s mining sector into a catalyst of broad-based growth and development and a key component of a diversified, vibrant and globally competitive, industrializing African economy.

The vision foresees Africa moving away from being a source of unprocessed minerals, towards the production of value-added goods from its mineral resources. It also recognizes that the governance of Africa’s mining sector must improve. It must become more environmentally friendly, more inclusive in sharing its benefits, more socially responsible and be accepted by surrounding communities.

Sydney Tar Ponds to get a facelift – by Emily Jackson (Toronto Star – November 25, 2011)

November 26, 2011November 25, 2011

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

Sydney, N.S., will soon boast its own version of Central Park, with one small caveat — it will be built on top of a former hazardous waste site. The park will mark the final phase in the $400 million cleanup of the Sydney Tar Ponds, pools of toxic waste caused by more than 100 years of runoff from a steel plant.

Controversies surrounding the cleanup will linger for years, but all parties involved seem excited to move on from the toxic mess and finally transform the space into something positive. “At the end, the community was tired of fighting about the actual cleanup mechanism,” said Cape Breton Regional Municipality Mayor John Morgan.

The polluted sludge was mixed with cement, covered with an “impermeable” cap, and then buried under the soil where the park will be built. While people argued if this was the best way to remediate the waste (many wanted it to be burned), there has been very little bickering over what to do with the land once it’s actually clean, Morgan explained.

TEAMSTERS CANADA NEWS RELEASE: McGuinty government urged to kill plans to ship ‘Ring of Fire’ refinery work to China

November 25, 2011

Canada NewsWire

U.S. multinational Cliffs Natural Resources says it will seek exemption to Ontario Mining Act to ship raw chromite overseas, but Teamsters wants the government to tell foreigners that if you ‘mine it here, then refine it here or keep it in the ground’

OTTAWA, Nov. 25, 2011 /CNW/ – Queen’s Park will squander huge potential benefits of the so-called “Ring of Fire” mining discovery in the James Bay lowlands if it allows the lion’s share of raw materials to be siphoned off and sent to China for refining, says the head of Teamsters Canada Rail Conference Maintenance of Way Employees.

“A senior executive of Cliffs Natural Resources told CBC news this week that it plans to ship much of the raw chromite to Asia for refining and will seek an exemption to the Ontario Mining Act because the law prevents materials mined in Ontario being refined outside Canada,” says William Brehl, president of the union representing maintenance workers on several short line railways in Northern Ontario that may carry Ring of Fire minerals.

MINING WATCH CANADA NEWS RELEASE: Report Details Unacceptable Impacts from Deep Sea Mining by Canada’s Nautilus Minerals

November 25, 2011

For a copy of the report see: http://www.deepseaminingoutofourdepth.org

(November 24, 2011: Port Morseby, Ottawa, Melbourne) The Centre for Environmental Law and Community Rights in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and MiningWatch Canada and have released a new report called “Out of Our Depth.” It details serious environmental and social impacts expected as a result of unprecedented mining of the ocean floor in PNG.

Canadian mining company Nautilus Minerals Inc. (Nautilus) plans to extract gold and copper from the floor of the Bismarck Sea in 2012 at its Solwara 1 project. The project will mine active and inactive hydrothermal vents at 1.46 kilometres under the sea. Thousands of these vents over an 11 hectare area will be destroyed. Possibly the origins of life on earth, these high-temperature underwater vents host unique species, most of which have not yet been identified or studied.

The underwater mine site is located close to coastal communities that rely heavily on sea food for diet and income. The project is raising alarm among these directly affected communities, as well as among PNG citizens who question the environmental process that led to the licensing of the project.

Canadian asbestos production suspended – by Andy Blatchford (Globe and Mail – November 25, 2011)

November 25, 2011

Montreal— The Canadian Press – Canada’s once-mighty asbestos sector has ground to a halt for the first time in 130 years, as production of the controversial fibre has stalled in both of the country’s mines.

A shutdown this month marked a historic milestone for the Canadian asbestos industry, which at one time dominated world production and led to the construction of entire towns in Canada. Proponents of the industry insist it’s way too early write the obituary on Canadian asbestos; they’re hoping to start digging again as soon as the spring.

But for now, amid all the noisy political debates and a dramatic anti-asbestos news conference Thursday on Parliament Hill, Canadian production has quietly and suddenly stopped.

Work halted earlier this month at the Lac d’amiante du Canada operation in Thetford Mines, Que., which followed a production stoppage at Jeffrey Mine in Asbestos, about 90 kilometres away. The future of both mines is unclear.

Canada’s chronic asbestos problem – by John Gray and Stephanie Nolen (Globe and Mail – Report on Business Magazine – November 21, 2011)

November 24, 2011November 22, 2011

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.

For a place of modest size, Asbestos has made an impressive imprint on the Canadian psyche. In 1949, the Asbestos Strike—which took place at the mines in Asbestos and nearby Thetford Mines—helped to usher in the Quiet Revolution that shaped the modern Quebec. And in 2011, the place’s eponymous product is giving a black eye to Canada’s international reputation as a fair dealer.

Most of the world, including the medical community, agrees that asbestos is desperately dangerous. The World Health Organization reports that more than 100,000 people die every year from lung cancer and other respiratory diseases due to asbestos exposure. And many more will die, because 125 million people are exposed to asbestos in their workplaces today and every day.

No surprise, then, that the stuff is effectively banned in Canada. And a surprise, to observers, that Canada exports it to other countries, most notoriously India, where public-health regimes are less vigorous than in Canada.

But that fact is no more mysterious than two forces that are as well known in India as they are in Canada.

Activist nun who fought Indian mining companies brutally murdered – by Stephanie Nolen (Globe and Mail – November 18, 2011)

November 19, 2011

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.

NEW DELHI – Sister Valsa John wanted to go home. Living in self-imposed exile hundreds of kilometres away, she pined for the hut in an aboriginal village where she had built a life. She talked about the people she loved there, and the quiet of the nights. Then she added, in a voice both wistful and matter-of-fact: “If I go home, most probably they will kill me.”

They did kill her. In the early hours of Wednesday morning, a mob of 25 or 30 men carrying spears, clubs and axes burst into her house in Pachuwara, a remote village in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand. They beat and hacked her to death, a week after she went home.

The “they” Sister Valsa feared were “goons” hired by the mining companies she had helped the community of Pachuwara fight. The “coal mafia” told her on more than one occasion to get out of Pachuwara or they would kill her. She had repeatedly appealed to police for protection after threats on her life.

The pitch is made [for Ring of Fire refinery] – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal (November 17, 2011)

November 17, 2011

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

Fort William First Nation Chief Peter Collins and Thunder Bay Mayor Keith Hobbs agree that the ferrochrome processor that is to be part of the Ring of Fire development needs to be in Northwestern Ontario, whether it is Thunder Bay or the Township of Greenstone.

Hobbs and Collins, along with other local leaders, returned to Thunder Bay on Wednesday following a trip to Cliffs Natural Resources headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio, where they pitched Thunder Bay’s case as a potential site for the processor.

“The pitch was just that Thunder Bay may not be the base case, but it is the best case,” Hobbs said shortly after returning to the city. Sudbury is currently Cliff’s base case, but Hobbs said Northwestern Ontario will only benefit if chosen as the site. “There will be no benefit in this region if it goes to Sudbury,” he said.

Quebec mining film festival will salute Ontario community leaders

April 5, 2015November 15, 2011

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

The second annual Mining Film Festival run by IDNR-TV will salute two Ontario mining community leaders and several Quebec officials to emphasize the mineral sector links and shared geology between Northeastern Ontario and Northwestern Quebec. This event is being held on Thursday, November 17, 2011 at the Cinema du Parc in Montreal.

The festival’s aim is to act as a platform on which mining and natural resource industries can be viewed objectively and realistically and to raise awareness of one of Canada’s most important industries. Films will highlight major changes taking place in the sector, technological innovations and sustainable mining practices.

Vic Power, who was Mayor of Timmins from 1980 to 2000 and from 2003 to 2006, will be presented with a tribute trophy for his positive influence on the growth and development of his city and region. Also, Tom Laughren, the current Mayor of Timmins, will receive a certificate of recognition. “IDNR-TV and Arcelor Mittal Canada Mines wish to acknowledge the outstanding contribution made by these regional leaders in building bridges and fostering cooperation between the francophone and anglophone communities that are central to the development of natural resources and the local mining industry.”