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Mining and Oil Sector Image

NEWS RELEASE: The 2nd Annual Mining Film [November 17, 2011] Festival Kicks Off, Welcoming Outstanding Contributions from Two Major Municipal Leaders at Cinema Du Parc in Montreal

MONTREAL, QUEBEC–(Marketwire – Aug. 23, 2011) – Thursday, November 17, 2011, the Cinema du Parc in Montreal will host the 2nd Annual Mining Film Festival. The festival’s aim is to act as a platform upon which mining and natural resource industries can be observed objectively in a contemporary setting: where the realities of the third millennium appear in stark contrast to those of the 20th century.

This announcement came today from executives at IDNR-TV: the festival’s promoter. They noted the major changes taking place in natural resource industries in Quebec and in the world: technological innovations in the last few decades have led to increased health and safety for workers, and to more sustainable development practices that benefit all of Quebec and Canada.

For IDNR-TV Anchor, Alexandre Dumas, the Quebec government’s Plan Nord presents an opportunity for several communities that are both directly and indirectly involved to appreciate the full spectrum of fast-paced, sustainable mining and environmental development; all the while generating a greater awareness of the enormous potential our natural resources can offer.

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Lucky Sudbury, Far North Act and Mining Industry Terrible Image Speech – by Stan Sudol (November 8, 2011)

Stan Sudol gave the keynote address at the Ontario Prospectors Association’s 2011 Ontario Exploration & Geoscience Symposium – Sudbury, Ontario – November 8, 2011

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

Check Against Delivery

Sudbury: The luckiest city in Canada

It’s always great to get back to my hometown.

Way back in 1977, I worked for Inco at their Clarabell Mill complex for a year before going to college. And in 1980, I was a summer student replacement worker at their Frood-Stobie mine.

So I will always be a “Sudbury boy” regardless of where I live.

Without a doubt, Sudbury is this country’s epicenter of mining.

In fact, the Sudbury Basin is the richest mineral district in North America and among the top three hardrock mining regions in the world.

Only South Africa’s Witwatersrand gold region, and their legendary Bushveld platinum complex, can match the concentration and expertise of underground mining here.

We are the luckiest city Canada.

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Film looks at mining dispute – by Laura Stricker (Sudbury Star – November 8, 2011)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Robert Monderie and Richard Desjardins claim they are digging up the truth about the mining industry in their new documentary, Trou Story.

They’re also attracting the wrath of the mining industry and governments, who say Trou Story isn’t quite telling the truth.

“They say that what we are talking about is old stuff, that reality has changed a lot and that industry has been performing a lot better socially and environmentally, and the technology is less dangerous,” Desjardins, who directed the documentary with Monderie, said in a phone inter view Monday.

“We agree with that. But they assume that everything has changed, and we don’t think so. The … basic law is still the same. Regions don’t have more royalties. Mines are bigger, so that means that the waste is bigger, too. That waste will be there for centuries, and the cost to (clean that up) is not included in the price of the royalties.”

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Controversial Prosperity mine proposal gets second chance – by Canadian Press (Globe and Mail – November 7, 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.

VANCOUVER— The Canadian Press – A controversial proposal for a massive copper and gold mine in British Columbia will get another chance to become reality after Canada’s Environmental Assessment Agency agreed to a second review of the mine.

Taseko Mine’s original proposal failed the federal government’s first environment review, but the company has launched what it’s calling its New Prosperity proposal.

Federal Environment Minister Peter Kent instructed the agency to set up a process that will review the environmental concerns raised in the past assessment and consider the mining company’s changes.

With higher, longer-term prices for copper and gold, Taseko said it would spend an extra $300-million on the project to address the main concerns of the last environmental rejection, including the preservation of Fish Lake.

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New Prosperity plan is environmentally sound – by Russell Hallbauer, President and CEO, Taseko Mines (Northern Miner – November 04, 2011)

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

I read the editorial submission of Chief Marilyn Baptiste, of the Xeni Gwet’in band of the Tsilhqot’in National Government (TNG), on The Northern Miner’s website on Nov. 2.  It purported to list eight reasons why Taseko Mines’s resubmitted application to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) for the New Prosperity gold-copper project in B.C. will fail.

Ms. Baptiste’s latest comments are consistent with her wholesale rejection of any constructive dialogue around New Prosperity, which nevertheless holds tremendous value regionally, provincially and nationally.

The sentiments expressed in Ms. Baptiste’s editorial do not represent the views of the vast majority of people in Williams Lake and Cariboo communities.

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Eight reasons why Taseko’s New Prosperity will fail – by Chief Marilyn Baptiste (Northern Miner – November 2, 2011)

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

Marilyn Baptiste is the elected chief of the Xeni Gwet’in band of the Tsilhqot’in First Nation, whose territory largely lies to the west of the Fraser River and Williams Lake, B.C., where Taseko Mines’ New Prosperity copper-gold project is located. See www.xeni.ca for more.

Investors hoping to cash in on Taseko Mines’ second bid to develop the Prosperity copper-gold mine (“New Prosperity”) should think back a year. At that time, despite assurances from the company and its president that the original Prosperity mine proposal would be accepted, it was soundly rejected by the federal government and the company’s share price plunged.

With New Prosperity, once again there is a proposal before the federal government’s Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) and the company’s president is saying he is confident it will be approved. And once again the federal government will have no choice but to reject it.

Here are eight reasons why the New Prosperity bid will fail:

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Trou Story: Digging up dirt [anti-mining] – by Jeff Heinrich (Montreal Gazette – November 3, 2011)

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

MONTREAL – The title – Trou Story, or in English, The Hole Story – is typical Richard Desjardins: a play on words, vaguely scatological, loaded with droll sarcasm. It’s the title of his latest film, made with longtime colleague Robert Monderie: a trenchant documentary about the devastation wrought by a century of mining in the Canadian Shield of northeastern Ontario and Abitibi-Témiscamingue, the filmmakers’ home turf.

The duo have been making social-commentary docs about their far-flung region since the late 1970s. In 1999, they took a whack at the forestry industry with L’erreur boréale (Forest Alert), which won a Jutra and led to the Coulombe commission inquiry into forestry management. Another Jutra followed in 2009 for Le peuple invisible (The Invisible Nation), about the plight of the Algonquin people.

Now, Desjardins and Monderie are back with Trou Story – and already, their doc is controversial.

Produced by the National Film Board and narrated by Desjardins, the film begins with a 30-minute exposé of the history of mining in the Shield and toll it’s taken on human life: Canadian soldiers killed by bullets made from Sudbury nickel that was sold to the Germans in the First World War; unsanitary conditions that led to a typhoid epidemic in the silver-mining town of Cobalt; arsenic from abandoned Abitibi gold mines that continues to seep into the water supply.

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An international view of crisis management of the Chile mine disaster – by Heather Yaxley (PR Conversations – October 14, 2010)

http://www.prconversations.com/

On the face of it, the handling of international media relations following the Chilean mining disaster has been a triumph.  It appeared to strike the perfect balance between control and lightness of touch.

The open communications approach that was evident from initial reports of the collapse of the mine reflected the leadership style of the Chilean president, Sebastián Piñera.  Recently elected, engaging and able to undertake interviews in English, he was the perfect figurehead for global communications, particularly as hundreds of media descended on the country; outnumbering family members and rescuers in the aptly named Camp Hope.

Piñera not only had an international upbringing, education and career – but he is a former media owner.  His experience with Chilevisión is evident in his mastery of the broadcast medium.  The billionaire businessman’s well funded, successful presidential campaign involved considerable marketing and public relations competency.

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A tale of two BC mining fiascos – by Rafe Mair (Rossland Telegraph – November 01, 2011)

http://rosslandtelegraph.com/

Rafe Mair was a B.C. MLA 1975 to 1981, Minister of Environment from late 1978 through 1979. Since 1981 he has been a radio talk show host, and is recognized as one of B.C.’s pre-eminent journalists.

There are two mining stories out of last week in Lotusland. For openers, let’s deal with “Prosperity” lake which, before the corporate flacks got involved, was called Fish Lake.

The short story is that this is a mine prospect held by Taseko Mines. While the Provincial government approved it, it was turned down by the feds who then gave the company time to put in a new proposal, which they did. With the speed of light the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency received the new application last February and hasn’t yet decided anything.

This delay brought a fire and brimstone editorial from the Fraser Institute’s house paper, the Vancouver Sun, which threw unsourced “facts” at us, including a promise of 71,000 jobs with 5,400 new residents for the nearby town of Williams Lake.

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Mining watchdog agency called ‘bogus PR job’ – CBC Special Report by Wendy Mesley

This is a “must watch” special news cast. It makes the image of the mining sector look bad affecting both juniors and majors inside and outside Canada. – Stan Sudol

For an eleven minute special news report by CBC report Wendy Mesley, go to the CBC website: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/10/31/mining-watchdog-agency.html

A mining watchdog agency that was supposed to hold Canadian companies accountable for their actions overseas has done little to protect communities abroad, critics say.

In October 2009, the federal government appointed a corporate social responsibility counsellor to probe complaints about Canadian companies committing abuses in developing countries.

The Toronto-based office, however, has only received two complaints in the past two years — one of which was recently dropped because the mining corporation chose not to undergo the voluntary investigation.

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[Quebec] Filmmaker targets mining industry – by Nicolas Van Praet (National Post – November 2, 2011)

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

MONTREAL — When documentary filmmakers target the corporate world, the results can be nasty but fleeting.

Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me forced McDonald’s Corp. to respond to the portrayal of its food as a silent killer. But it did little harm to the fast-food giant’s popularity and share price, which has more than tripled since the day the film was released in 2004.

In Roger & Me, Michael Moore decried General Motors Corp.’s closure of several auto plants in his native Flint, Mich. The movie awakened for many Americans the debate over globalization and protecting local employment.

As for the bespectacled Quebec singer and poet Richard Desjardins, he’s become a bit of a folk hero for shaking up corporate Quebec.

His 1999 shock documentary L’Erreur Boréale (English title: Forest Alert) fuelled a public outcry against deforestation. He forced Toronto-based Norbord Industries Inc. to suspend logging in the woodland west of his hometown of Rouyn-Noranda. No matter that his film was widely denounced by the forestry industry as manipulative and inaccurate. L’Actualité magazine named him Man of the Year that year.

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Republic Of Mining named to ‘Top 10 Mining Blogs’ list by Australian guide – by John Barker (Thompson Citizen – November 1, 2011)

The Thompson Citizen, which was established in June 1960, covers the City of Thompson and Nickel Belt Region of Northern Manitoba. The city has a population of about 13,500 residents while the regional population is more than 40,000.  editor@thompsoncitizen.net

Mining IQ, a Sydney, Australia-based mining guide and international learning and communications portal, which is a division of International Quality & Productivity Center (IQPC), has named Republic Of Mining (http://republicofmining.com) to its list of “Top 10 Mining Blogs,” one of only two Canadian sites to be included.

In 1973, the publishers of Industry Week magazine co-founded a company called Penton Learning Systems, which managed a consortium of more than 100 colleges and universities and assisted in the design and development of over 30,000 short courses and seminars in the fields of quality management, project management, finance and accounting, marketing management, strategic planning and implementation. IQPC was founded in 1989 and is still owned by Penton Learning Systems of Little Falls, New Jersey.

Republic of Mining is published by Stan Sudol, a Toronto-based journalist, communications consultant, mining strategist and speechwriter. Sudol picks up Thompson Citizen and Nickel Belt News mining stories, editorials and photos, with our permission, from time to time, usually about Vale’s Manitoba Operations.

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American nimbyism real threat to Canada – by Diane Francis (National Post – October 29, 2011)

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

The United States has become the world’s ultimate Banana Republic, a nation choked by the “Build-Absolutely-Nothing-Anywhere-Near-Anyone” people who prowl its corridors of power.

This, more than any Greek, Euro or banking crises, threatens Canadian living standards.

America’s political gridlock afflicts all forms of industrial or energy development. It is harming U.S. living standards and job creation that indirectly hurts Canada because of the close economic partnership. More specifically, the Banana mentality is threatening Canada’s critically important oil sands and the building of the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline to bring 700,000 barrels a day of new production to the U.S. market.

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Longtime [Sudbury labour] activist dies at 89 – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – October 26, 2011)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper. cmulligan@thesudburystar.com

Members of United Steelworkers Local 6500– and working people in Sudbury — owe a debt of gratitude to a man whom many of them have never met.

Gilbert “Gib” Gilchrist, a former senior staff representative for USW Local 6500 and a former president of the Sudbury & District Labour Council, died Monday in Gore Bay at age 89. Longtime friend and fellow labour activist Homer Seguin, 77, was deeply saddened to learn Tuesday about his friend’s death.

Seguin, a former USW staff representative and Local 6500 president, said he first met Gilchrist in 1964 when Seguin was a trustee with the union and Gilchrist arrived in Sudbury from Elliot Lake. Gilchrist was born near Spr ing Bay on Manitoulin Island, the youngest of nine children, on a farm his family homesteaded in 1883.

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Canada hypocritical on a dangerous mineral [asbestos] – by Keeble McFarlane (Jamiaca Observer – October 22, 2011)

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/

We all no doubt remember the rushing cloud of whitish dust which ballooned out over southern Manhattan on the morning of September 11, 2001, as the iconic towers of the World Trade Centre fell in on themselves after the planes commandeered by terrorists crashed into them.

In addition to the almost 3000 people who died in the towers themselves, dozens of rescue workers and others caught in the cloud have since died from exposure to the dust. Many others developed serious lung problems which have severely affected their health and which will invariably shorten their lives.

That cloud was a toxic mixture of all the materials contained in those towering structures – gypsum wallboard, floor and ceiling tiles, disintegrated concrete, shredded paper, furniture, carpets and draperies, office chemicals, metal residue, even food blown to bits in the devastation and, saddest of all, people and their clothing. Perhaps most crucial was the 400 tonnes of asbestos, used as a fire-retardant.

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