Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications – Page 174

Canada – a land of golden opportunity. As is Australia, Ghana etc – by Lawrie Williams (Lawrieongold.com – September 16, 2015)

September 17, 2015

I have just been sent a copy of a new Newsletter being put out by Peartree Securities – which reckons to be the largest provider of mining flow-through capital in Canada so knows something about junior mining. While the newsletter theoretically looks at Canadian resources in general it is most relevant to the hugely depressed junior gold sector and could well be being initiated at a most opportune time for investment in this volatile part of the market.

True resource analysts have been calling the bottom in the gold price dip for the past couple of years – and still gold has trended lower. As we have pointed out before, the lower the price falls, though, perhaps also the lower the downside investment risk in percentage terms. Gold has been fairly steady in its current range in US dollar terms of late and while some analysts – notably from the bullion banks – are calling for further falls still, triggered by US Fed interest rate raising forecasts.

We are of the opinion that, even so, any further downside is definitely limited given the likely minimalist rate raising that may be contemplated by the Fed if and when it actually takes place. While holding gold may not generate any interest, rates are still likely to remain in negative territory in real terms after any initial raise – a factor which just doesn’t seem to be being taken into account by the investment sector.

Moving forward [Iron Ore Company of Canada] – by Ty Dunham (St. John’s Telegram – September 16, 2015)

September 17, 2015

http://www.thetelegram.com/

IOC’s Wabush 3 project approved for development

The Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) has received approval for the expansion of the Wabush 3 pit.

The Iron Ore Company of Canada in Labrador City received the long awaited approval for the Wabush 3 open mining pit development. — Photo by Ty Dunham/The Aurora

The provincial government gave the green light to the environmental assessment last week, giving company the go-ahead on a critical project that will provide sustainability over the amount of ore that goes to the plant to meet the rate of production.

Marsha Power Slade, senior adviser for external relations and corporate affairs for IOC, said while IOC started focusing on the project 2 1/2 years ago, discussions on the expansion began five to seven years ago.

She added the additional pit would allow for greater ore flexibility due to its low strip ratio.

Sudbury’s Wallbridge Mining signs $11-million deal – by Staff (Sudbury Star – September 17, 2015)

September 17, 2015

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

Lonmin Canada Inc. and Lonmin Plc will spend $11 million over four years in a joint venture agreement with Sudbury-based Wallbridge Mining Company Limited.

In exchange, Lonmin can earn up to a 50 per cent interest in Wallbridge’s four Parkin Properties located North of Sudbury. The deal was announced Wednesday.

“Our business plan … focuses on acquiring value-accretive near-term production opportunities, as well as advancing our exploration properties, including our Parkin Properties, through joint venture partnerships,” Marz Kord, president and CEO of Wallbridge, said in a release.

“I am pleased that we have not only advanced our discussions regarding some external assets, but have now amended the (North Range Joint Venture agreement) with Lonmin to include our Parkin Properties. This plan provides the company with sustainable cash flow, while maintaining active exploration for large-scale discovery upside in the Sudbury camp.

Candidates discuss bridging gap btw industry, FNs – by Alan S. Hale (Timmins Daily Press – September 15, 2015)

September 16, 2015

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – First Nations within Canada have become a major factor in the county’s efforts to exploit its natural resources.

Many Aboriginal communities have parlayed their treaty rights and the government’s constitutional obligation to consult them and reasonably accommodate their concerns into a great deal of power over the resource industry as a whole.

First Nations now often hold the keys when it comes to deciding if a major mining or forestry project will go ahead or not. Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Pipeline to carry Alberta bitumen to Northern B.C. has withered on the vine in the face of Aboriginal opposition, and progress on the Ring of Fire chromite development here in Northeastern Ontario has ground to a halt due in large part to local First Nations’ concerns.

Because gaining First Nation support for projects has become so important to the future of Timmins area’s economy, The Daily Press asked the candidates of Timmins-James Bay how they would build the relationship with First Nations required to allow the resource industry to continue to grow.

Novelis manufacturing plant, once known as Alcan to generations of Kingstonians, marks 75 years in the city – by Steph Crosier (Kingston Whig-Standard – September 13, 2015)

September 14, 2015

http://www.thewhig.com/

From Alcan’s Kingston Works to Novelis Inc., the aluminum manufacturing plant is celebrating 75 years in the Limestone City.

“I think in the heyday there was 4,100 to 4,200 employees, three plants,” Jake Czyz, Novelis plant manager, told the Whig-Standard Saturday. “We pretty much say everybody in Kingston knows somebody who has retired or worked here at the plants.”

The Aluminum Company of Canada plant was built in 1940 to support the Allied effort during the Second World War. The plant — referred to as “the annex” — housed manufacturing and research facilities. During the 1960s and 1970s, the plant was responsible for the research and manufacturing of aluminum sheet metal, cans and supplies for major industries such as automotive, transportation, beverage and packaging.

Today, Novelis, a subsidiary of the Aditya Birla Group, has 25 operating facilities on four continents with approximately 11,500 employees. The Kingston location employs approximately 275 people and creates aluminum products for Ford, BMW, Mercedes, General Motors, Thyssen Krupp and Peterbilt.

How First Nations resurgence could help or hinder pipeline projects (Business Vancouver – september 8, 2015)

September 8, 2015

https://www.biv.com/

There’s something significant going on in the aboriginal world, which needs to be viewed with a historical frame of reference. From demonstrations of indigenous identity …

The Canadian oilpatch was dumbstruck by incoming Alberta Premier Rachel Notley’s pre-election announcement that her government would withdraw support for Enbridge’s (TSX:ENB) Northern Gateway pipeline.

“It’s not worth it,” Notley said, suggesting that she considered First Nations opposition intractable and noting the “intense” environmental sensitivities in British Columbia.

Shortly after the NDP’s orange crush started giving Calgary energy executives the blues, B.C.’s Lax Kw’alaams Band unanimously rejected the $1.1 billion offer from Petronas-led Pacific NorthWest LNG to site its liquefaction terminal on Lelu Island near Prince Rupert.

As Canada’s oil and gas export industry starts shifting from the shrinking U.S. market to the expanding Asian markets, getting aboriginal buy-in for the requisite infrastructure has proved extremely difficult.

Mining makes its debut in Canadian election – by Andrew Topf (Mining.com – September 6, 2015)

September 8, 2015

http://www.mining.com/

It’s not often that mining makes headlines as an election issue in Canada, but there it was last week, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a scheduled campaign stop in the battleground riding of Nipissing–Timiskaming in Northern Ontario.

Harper, whose incumbent Conservative Party finds itself in a tight three-way race with the Liberal Party and the NDP, told a group of supporters in North Bay that the 15 percent mineral exploration tax credit, in place since 2006, would be extended at least another three years if the government is re-elected.

Projects that face steep overhead costs due to remote locations, such as the Ring of Fire in Northern Ontario and the Plan Nord in Quebec, would qualify for a 25 percent tax credit.

The cost of extending the credit and the new enhanced credit would be about $60 million a year starting in 2016-17. Both Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau and the leader of the NDP, Tom Mulcair, have said they oppose the tax credit.

Recession has little impact on Sudbury [mining]: Chamber – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Northern Life – September 02, 2015)

September 8, 2015

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Mining supply and services remain steady, but not great

While Canada officially entered a recession Tuesday, it has mostly been business as usual for the last two quarters in Sudbury, says the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce.

“I think Sudbury, as a whole, is doing reasonably well,” said Karen Hourtovenko, chair of the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce.

Statistics Canada announced Tuesday Canada’s gross domestic product decreased by 0.5 per cent between April and June, which marked the second GDP decline in as many quarters. The technical definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth.

The recession has been driven by a slump in the oil and gas sector, but other sectors of the economy have seen more positive growth. The resale housing market, for example, increased nearly 10 per cent in the same quarter.

Low nickel price ‘not sustainable’ – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – September 4, 2015)

September 4, 2015

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

Bring on the monsoon.

It may seem like a strange wish to make from a part of the world that is more likely to get a freak autumn snowfall than a drenching from rain-laden ocean winds, but it could help a domestic mining industry that has been rocked of late by low nickel prices.

“Right now we’re about two-thirds of the way through the peak shipping season for laterite nickel ore from the Phillipines, which is the primary exporter to China,” said Mark Selby, a former Inco executive now heading up Royal Nickel, a Toronto-based junior mining company.

Laterite ore — which Selby describes as “basically soggy dirt sitting at the surface” — is cheaper to mine than the sulphide ore in Sudbury, but complicated to process.

China, which converts it to so-called pig iron once coke is added to it in a furnace, does a brisk trade with laterite providers from the Phillipines and (before an export ban was imposed) Indonesia.

KGHM, Metis Nation strike Victoria Mine agreement – by Staff (Sudbury Star – September 4, 2015)

September 4, 2015

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

The Metis Nation of Ontario and KGHM International Ltd. announced Thursday a deal covering development of the Victoria Mine project in Sudbury.

The memorandum of understanding will guide their working relationship as the mine is being prepared for a 2017 opening.

“This agreement is very important to the Metis people because it guarantees that Metis rights will be protected and the Metis way of life in the Sudbury area is being respected,” Metis Nation of Ontario chair France Picotte said in a release.

“We are pleased to continue working with KGHM. Agreements like this one are another benefit that we see coming from the MNO-Ontario Framework Agreement, which was first signed in 2008 and renewed this past year.”

In 2012, KGHM announced plans to spend $750-million to redevelop Victoria Mine near Worthington. One of Sudbury’s oldest and most prolific mines, Victoria would employ more than 200 full-time workers by the time it goes back into full production in 2017. It would produce copper and nickel.

Sudbury group to build the ‘mine of the future’ – by Staff (Sudbury Star – August 28, 2015)

August 28, 2015

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

NORCAT has announced new strategic partnerships with four local companies to help expedite the agency’s vision of building the “mine of the future” in Northern Ontario.

Equipment World, Fuller Industrial, Spectrum Group and K4 Integration will provide the NORCAT Underground Centre with state-of-the-art technology to not only advance the facility, but also to demonstrate leading innovation available to the global mining industry.

“The NORCAT Underground Centre is a unique facility,” Don Duval, the CEO of NORCAT, said in a release. “We’re the only non-profit organization in the world that has an operating mine that provides both start-up tech ventures and multi-national companies the resources, expertise and equipment to enable them to design, test and ultimately showcase new and innovative products in an operating mine environment.”

Fuller Industrial, which delivers and maintains process piping systems and corrosion, and abrasion resistance, will provide the Underground Centre with best-in-class engineered piping for high compression air and water.

[Timmins gold mining] 56 laid off as Primero’s open pit mined out – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – August 28, 2015)

August 28, 2015

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

BLACK RIVER-MATHESON – The gold mining industry in Northeastern Ontario took another hit this week.

Primero Mining Corporation announced Thursday that 56 workers have been laid off as a result of the closure of the open pit operation at the Black Fox mine, located about 10 kilometres east of Matheson. It was formerly the Brigus Gold property.

Primero’s Black Fox underground mine continues to operate, despite the layoffs in the pit, said mine general manager Dan Gagnon at a news conference in Timmins Thursday morning.

Gagnon, a veteran in mine management, was appointed as the new boss at Primero just three months ago. Gagnon made it clear the underground operation at Black Fox is continuing and provides jobs for roughly 310 employees.

It was this time last week that IAMGOLD revealed that 33 employees were to be laid off from the Côtė Lake gold project, located southwest of Gogama.

OPG partners with First Nation for $300M project – by Alan S. Hale (Timmins Daily Press – August 28, 2015)

August 28, 2015

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

SMOOTH ROCK FALLS – Nearly 30 years of work by the members of the Taykwa Tagamou First Nation culminated in a ceremony held along the bank on the New Post Creek north of Smooth Rock Falls on Thursday morning.

The location is the future site of the Peter Sutherland Sr. Generating Station, which is a joint project between Ontario Power Generation (OPG) and a band-owned company, Coral Rapids Power. Although construction began on the $300 million hydroelectric dam months ago, the official announcement of the project was an emotional one for the First Nation members; some of whom have worked for decades to make it a reality.

“It took a big team to put this together. We had to push hard for it, and sometimes it nearly went off the rails. But we had a dream, and it is now a reality,” said band councillor and former chief Peter Archibald, who has worked on the project since 1979. “When this started, I had long hair that was black. Look at me now — falling out and white!”

Once completed, the new dam will produce 28 megawatts of power; enough to power 1,000 to 2,000 homes. The construction of the dam is expected to create 220 construction jobs.

Global economy now on verge of perfect storm – by Gwynne Dyer (London Free Press – August 27, 2015)

August 27, 2015

http://www.lfpress.com/

Good things come in threes, but so do bad things. Especially in economies. The financial crisis everybody has been waiting for is a “hard landing” of the Chinese economy, the world’s second-biggest. It now seems to have arrived, though the Chinese government is still denying it.

The second crisis is a credit crunch sabotaging economic growth in almost all developing countries except India. Since commodity prices have collapsed, their dollar earnings from exports have collapsed, and in many cases their currencies have fallen to historic lows against the dollar.

A third crisis is looming in the developed economies of Europe, North America and Japan, which can see another recession on the horizon before they have even fully recovered from the effects of the banking crash of 2007-08.

These crises are all connected. When the huge mistakes and misdeeds of American and European banks caused the Great Recession of 2008, China escaped the low growth and high unemployment that hurt Western countries by flooding its economy with cheap credit. Between 2007 and 2014 total debt in China increased fourfold.