Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications – Page 209

Lesson for BC: Mining Politics Can Be Terribly Corrosive – by Kristian Secher (The Tyee.ca – August 11, 2014)

August 11, 2014

Consider Greece, where mistrust of Canadian mine safety helped spark massive revolt.

Friday’s blockade of the Imperial Metals’ Red Chris Mine site by members of the Tahltan Nation brings to mind scenes from another place, where plummeting faith in government safeguards after a rush to profit from resource extraction has fueled not just isolated protests but a full-scale political revolt tinged with violence.

That place is Greece, where two years ago I visited to report on the situation. My destination was the northernmost region of Greece, Halkidiki, the birthplace of Aristotle, embroiled in conflict after Vancouver-based Eldorado Gold scooped up most of the local mining industry and unveiled their billion dollar development plan in the austerity stricken region of Europe’s poorest country.

The gold grab made the empty state coffers in Athens rattle with joy but the people of Halkidiki were not as pleased. They had not forgotten the mess left behind by the previous Canadian owner TVX, (later Kinross Gold), nine years earlier and the prospect of renewed mining operations was not encouraging to the inhabitants of the tourism dependent region known for its pristine forests and sandy beaches.

TVX abandoned their properties in 2002 when Greece’s state council ruled that the potential risks of redeveloping the mines would exceed any benefits from the project. In 2003 ownership of the mining area was transferred to the state for a net sum of 11 million euros (C$16 million).

Other players active in Ring – by Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal (August 10, 2014)

August 11, 2014

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

WHAT a difference a year makes. In 2013, Northwestern Ontario communities were giddy at the prospect of getting in on the tremendous economic opportunities connected to the Ring of Fire mining belt. Thunder Bay and Sudbury were fiercely competing to be the site of a processing facility while Greenstone and other centres were pitching themselves as logical transportation hubs.

Then the big player walked away. For a variety of reasons — provincial indecision, First Nations objections, competitors’ alternatives, falling commodity and stock prices — Cliffs Natural Resources ended its substantial exploration activities. A coup of sorts among shareholders put in place a new CEO who agreed to return Cliffs’ attention to its iron ore business which Thunder Bay area residents can see when they drive through northern Minnesota.

While Cliffs hasn’t abandoned its stake in the Ring’s massive chromite deposit other companies that remain active in the region are now getting all the attention.

Noront Resources has its eye on the region’s rich nickel deposits and has promoted an east-west transportation route linking mine sites with the CN main line and running past several First Nations which would stand to enjoy direct employment opportunities along with economic partnerships.

Environmental monitoring training underway at Matawa – by Rick Garrick (Wawatay News – August 8, 2014)

August 8, 2014

http://www.wawataynews.ca/

This year’s science and environment workshops at the Nibinamik Youth Retreat were part of the training for the RoFATA Environmental Monitoring Training Program.

“(The youth) really enjoyed it,” said Harry Bunting, a Ring of Fire Aboriginal Training Alliance (RoFATA) environmental monitoring student from Constance Lake. “They learned quite a bit actually, and so did I. I was able to do some sampling of fish, learned how to age a fish and what to do when you are sampling and doing your protocols to help assess the water quality and assess the environment itself.”

The Environmental Monitoring Training Program is being delivered by Four Rivers Matawa Environmental Services Group at the Matawa First Nations building in Thunder Bay.

“As part of the training program, students are assigned to real community based projects or initiatives so that they can learn to do the work by actually doing it,” said Sarah Cockerton, manager of environmental programs at Four Rivers, in an e-mail. “This year, the environmental monitoring students organized, prepared and delivered the science/environmental workshops to the youth in addition to planning and organizing a lot of the logistics to the trip itself.”

The Four Rivers staff and the environmental monitoring students travelled to Nibinamik on July 14 for the youth retreat and returned on July 18. Soon after arriving back in Thunder Bay, the environmental monitoring students were back in class.

Dissident Shareholders Continue to Strike Fear in the Hearts and Minds of Mining/Energy Executives – by Travis McPherson (Ceo.ca – August 6, 2014)

August 8, 2014

http://ceo.ca/

Just a week after the New York hedge-fund, Casablanca Capital, won its intense proxy fight over the $2.7 billion Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF:NYSE), another New York based fund has sent a warning to Madalena Energy’s management this morning.

In a powerful yet to the point press release this morning, Joshua Silverman of Iroquois Capital Management, LLC stated, “As a shareholder of Madalena we are very concerned with management’s failure to generate shareholder value. We expect to hear some concrete steps the Company is taking to better manage their assets for maximum value creation during their investor conference call tomorrow.”

In May, Madalena (MVN:TSX) surprised investors by acquiring Gran Tierra Energy’s Argentinian assets. Although the deal was accretive on most measures, the rationale for the purchase was unclear due to the fact that management had been telling investors that they were trying to find a farm-in partner for the expensive drilling in Argentina and would be focusing their efforts on their Canadian production.

Haywood Securities’ Senior Energy Analyst, Darrell Bishop said in a note: “there are some investors disappointed that the first major news coming out of Argentina was not a JV deal, as most had expected.”

Rodriguez would renew fight for resource revenues – by Ben Leeson (Sudbury Star – August 7, 2014)

August 7, 2014

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

Some may call it an old idea. John Rodriguez calls it unfinished business.

The former Greater Sudbury mayor, who’s running again in the municipal election in October, said he’ll take up the fight once more to tackle the municipality’s $700-million infrastructure deficit by seeking “a fair share” of resource revenues.

Rodriguez made the announcement in front of the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines in Sudbury on Wednesday.

“It’s a question of justice, of fairness,” Rodriguez said. While the province receives royalties from the ores mined in Greater Sudbury – to the tune of $50 million in 2007, based on figures supplied by Rodriguez – the city does not.

Greater Sudbury does get 7.5 cents per tonne for gravel under the Aggregate Resources Act, while the province gets 13 cents.

“But for ores, we don’t get a penny,” Rodriguez said. “We have these major roads in the city – Lasalle Boulevard, Falconbridge Road, Cote Boulevard, (Municipal) Road 15, (Highway) 69 North — that are used as major routes for transporting ores from the mines to the smelters and refineries, yet we bear the cost of repairing these roads. You can set your clock by it, or your calendar. Every four or five years, we have to resurface the roads, but we don’t receive any royalties to help us offset the cost of repairing these roads.

British firm reviews Sudbury mining project – by Staff (Sudbury Northern Life – August 06, 2014)

August 6, 2014

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Study could lead to new spending on River Valley project

North West Capital Corp. has hired a British company to review its platinum group metals project east of Sudbury. In a release, Pacific North West said it the study could lead to new spending on the River Valley platinum group metals project.

British Columbia-based Pacific North West said it has hired SFA Oxford Limited to provide an independent strategic assessment of its River Valley platinum group metal project, near Sudbury.

SFA Oxford is a group of independent consulting analysts in mining, metals and commodities, with specialization in platinum group metals, including palladium – the main metal at River Valley.

Pacific North West said in a release its decision to hire SFA Oxford at this time “builds on the strong global fundamentals currently driving up the commodity price of palladium. Continuing production challenges in South Africa and rising tensions with Russia, the world’s two largest PGM (platinum group metal) producers, combined with soaring demand from the global automotive industry for auto catalysts (of which palladium is a key component) have all renewed interest in PGM projects in safe, secure mining jurisdictions like Canada.”

River Valley is located within 100 kilometres of Sudbury and is readily accessible via paved and gravel roads with settlements, power and rail all nearby.

Cliffs wins key court battle – by Staff (Sudbury Star – August 6, 2014)

August 6, 2014

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

The company that once planned to build a $1.8-billion chromite plant in Capreol has won a key court battle. Last week, an Ontario Divisional Court set aside a decision reached by the Ontario Mining and Lands Commissioner in September 2013. In that decision, the lands commissioner denied Cliffs Natural Resources an easement for a road to reach its Black Thor chromite deposit in the so-called Ring of Fire area of northwestern Ontario.

Cleveland-based Cliffs wanted the easement, even though the land is owned by rival KWG Resources. Cliffs, which has halted all exploration on its chromite project, launched the appeal in October. The case was heard in Toronto in June.

The court’s decision means that Natural Resources Minister Bill Mauro will now decide if Cliffs gets the OK for a road into the Ring of Fire.

“Whether or not it is in the public interest to grant an easement for a road is a matter for the minister of natural resources to determine, after an environmental assessment and consultation with First Nations and other affected interests,” the court ruled. “It is for the minister to determine whether the easement should be granted in the public interest and on what terms.”

Cliffs wants to stake a 330-kilometre long corridor using mining claims from Nakina north to the exploration camps in the James Bay lowlands.

NAN becoming more assertive – by Matt Vis (tbnewswatch.com – July 5, 2014)

August 5, 2014

http://www.tbnewswatch.com/

FORT WILLIAM FIRST NATION, Ont. — First Nations need to become more assertive in looking at ways to generate sustainable and independent economies, says the Nishnawbe Aski Nation grand chief.

That will be a primary focus of the 33rd Keewaywin Conference, which is being held on the Mount McKay Lookout, Harvey Yesno said in an interview shortly after the grand entry to kick off the gathering.

“We’re looking at the whole of the region and I think we need to partner with both senior levels of government to really address the infrastructure that will stimulate and foster investment,” Yesno said Tuesday.

“We’re looking not just at job creation but wealth creation and getting involved with some of these business enterprises.” Creating favourable economic conditions will play a significant role in solving challenges such as housing shortages and high unemployment rates, he added.

Ontario Regional Chief Stan Beardy echoed those views and said communities, many of which have an abundance of potential assets, need to become their own economic drivers. Treaty agreements put the responsibility on First Nations to financially prosper, he said.

“What we need to begin to understand is that handouts will never address our needs,” Beardy said.

Ukrainian Redress: ‘A dark chapter’ [Sudbury/Canada History] – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – July 5, 2014)

August 5, 2014

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

A shameful part of our history will be acknowledged this month when a plaque recognizing the internment of Ukrainians is installed at Hnatyshyn Park.

During the First World War, thousands of Ukrainians were imprisoned in labour camps across Canada — including ones in Kapuskasing and Petawawa — even though no disloyalty had been shown on their part.

“It was a dark chapter that no-one wants to talk about,” said Stacey Zembrzycki, a Sudbury native and historian at Concordia University. “We’re 100 years later and a large segment of the population still doesn’t know it happened.”

Reticence extended to the Ukrainians themselves, as many of those who weren’t imprisoned were still deemed “enemy aliens” of Canada. It was a stamp they were eager to forget.

Zembrzycki interviewed 82 aging members of Sudbury’s Ukrainian community for a book she is releasing in September, and found very few would talk about this period. “For my great-grandfather’s generation, there was silence and shame associated with it,” she said. “And I think they felt it was better to not acknowledge their heritage or something like that could happen again.”

Eyed suspiciously by those in their adopted country and called “bohunks” behind their backs — or even to their faces — many Ukrainians kept a low profile and anglicized their last names.

Cliffs wins victory in Ring of Fire court case – by Sudbury Northern Life Staff (August 1, 2014)

August 1, 2014

http://www.northernlife.ca/

It’ll be up to Natural Resources Minister Bill Mauro to decide if Cliffs Natural Resources gets permission for an overland transportation route into the Ring of Fire.

On July 29, an Ontario Divisional Court set aside a decision reached by the Ontario Mining and Lands Commissioner last September that denied Cliffs an easement for a road to reach its Black Thor chromite deposit atop the mining claims of a rival company, KWG Resources.

Cliffs, which has halted all exploration on its chromite project, launched the appeal last October. The case was heard in Toronto, June 16-17.

The bone of contention with Cliffs has been over the use of surface rights by KWG to stake a 330-kilometre long corridor using mining claims from Nakina north to the exploration camps in the James Bay lowlands.

Cliffs contended that KWG was holding other mining companies hostage by blocking a critical path into the region. KWG, through its Canada Chrome subsidiary, wants to use the corridor for a future railroad.

KWG also has a 30-per-cent stake in the Big Daddy chromite deposit that it shares in an adversarial relationship with Cliffs.

Suites offer comfort for weary business travellers [Cobalt mining tourism] – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – July 29, 2014)

July 31, 2014

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North.

To say it was impulse for Nicole Guertin to purchase a century-old mansion while on a brief 2003 visit to Haileybury is a gross understatement.

But Guertin, who, along with her partner, Jocelyn Blais, is the proprietor of Presidents’ Suites and Prospector’s House guest homes, was so struck by the beauty and history of Temiskaming, she followed through on her instinct.

“A lot of people in the North — Timmins, Kapuskasing — we come down and we’re always in a hurry; we never come through Haileybury, so we don’t know what’s here,” said Guertin, who hails from Kapuskasing. “It was really the first time I came here, and I was surprised how beautiful it was.”

The house isn’t like any other. The rambling mansion overlooking Lake Temiskaming along Millionaires’ Row was built in 1906 by Arthur Ferland, a mining bigwig who struck it rich during the Cobalt silver-mining boom. His wealth was reinvested into the original Timmins gold discovery and helped build the industry there.

Despite the home’s grandeur, it required a lot of work to bring it up to a high standard, and when zoning complications thwarted Guertin’s original plan for a B&B, she opted for suites instead, completely gutting the home and rebuilding it one room at a time.

Getting it right in the ring may take decades – by Rick Millette (Sudbury Star – July 30, 2014)

July 30, 2014

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

Rick Millette is from the Northern Policy Institute.

Like the children who anticipate the big day coming, Northern Ontarians are finding it painfully difficult to stop themselves from diving under the tree and ripping open the prize that awaits. But wait they must.

“We can and we will create a much better, a much stronger, Ontario and Canada through the Ring of Fire,” says Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle. “and we will do it right.”

The federal minister responsible for the Ring of Fire, Greg Rickford, said much the same when telling Canadian Press that “this is a legacy resource project and we want to get it right for the multi generations of Northern Ontarians that can benefit from this.”

It’s hard to argue with the rationale of taking the time and “getting it right.” However, there’s another determining factor at play. That factor is the reality of how mining projects usually unfold from discovery to development.

About 150 kilometers to the east of the Ring of Fire, there is the DeBeers Victor diamond mine. Access is only possible by winter road or aircraft. DeBeers had to build an ore processing mill, on-site accommodations and operational buildings, as well as a 90-kilometer hydro line and an airstrip to start up. Before that, there were time-eaters like environmental studies, agreements with First Nation Communities, training plans and hiring. Not to be forgotten is the actual digging to get at the diamonds, via a large open pit operation.

Teck still on solid ground, despite coal price slump – by Nelson Bennett (Business Vancouver – July 29, 2014)

July 30, 2014

http://www.biv.com/

BC’s largest mining company remains on solid financial ground, despite its profits dropping 63% in the first half of 2014 and a commitment to spend $850 million this year on a new oilsands project in Alberta.

In a second-half earnings call, Teck Resources Ltd. (TSX:TCK.B) reported its profits dropped from $197 million in the second quarter of 2013 to $72 million in this year’s second quarter.

That decline was due largely to a global glut of metallurgical (“met”) coal, which accounts for about half of Teck’s business. The company’s gross profits were down from $871 million in Q2 2013 to $633 million to date.

But unlike American coal miner Walter Energy Inc. (TSX:WLT), Teck has not had to resort to closing any of its B.C. mines, although it has officially mothballed the long-planned restart of the Quintette mine in Tumbler Ridge.

Teck estimates it could take several months to whittle down the current oversupply of steelmaking coal. Teck’s coal sales in Q2 were up by 500,000 tonnes, but prices were down 23% to US$122 per tonne. The company expects to ship 26 million to 27 million tonnes of coal in 2014, and has contracts to sell at US$120 per tonne for the higher-grade coal.

Timmins’s Kidd Operations earn reclamation award – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – July 30, 2014)

July 30, 2014

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – As David Yaschyshyn leads the way towards the former jarosite pond site, a cool mild breeze carries a waft of clover from the field up ahead.

Yaschyshyn, the environmental manager at Kidd Operations (Glencore), points to the ground, noting the fresh moose tracks along the trail.

“Since the jarosite pond has been reclaimed and re-vegetated, we have seen hundreds of geese. We’ve seen bears and their cubs and even moose wandering across. So it really has been returned to nature. It’s now an open meadow ecosystem.”

Yaschyshyn isn’t exaggerating. The 50-hectare area that was once a dumping pond for a liquid byproduct of the zinc refinery process is now covered waist-high in wildflowers and native grasses.

The jarosite (iron sulphate mud) pond was built in 1971 and was used as part of the smelting process from 1972 until the refinery at the metallurgical site closed in 2010.

After that there was no use for the storage pond, so it was dewatered, dried, covered with layers of stones, gravel and dirt, before being sealed with a specially designed 60-millimetre thick plastic liner.

The end of Cliffs in the Ring of Fire? – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – July 29, 2014)

July 29, 2014

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

A New York hedge fund proclaims it’s won a bitter proxy fight with Cliffs Natural Resources to achieve majority control of the Ohio iron ore and coal miner’s board of directors. Casablanca Capital said it was successful in convincing Cliffs’ shareholders to elect all six of its nominees at the miner’s annual general meeting in Cleveland, July 29.

The final results are subject to independent inspection over the next three days. If Casablanca is right, it means Cliffs’ hold on its Ring of Fire chromite properties in the James Bay region is tenuous at best.

Casablanca, which acquired 5.2 per cent of Cliffs’ shares, wants to break off Cliffs’ international assets, including its Ring of Fire properties, from its core U.S. iron and coal divisions.

“We are grateful to our fellow Cliffs shareholders for their careful consideration of the issues and gratified that they have sent a resounding message of support for our efforts to drive meaningful change at Cliffs, bring true accountability to the company’s leadership, and restore shareholder value,” said Casablanca fund chairman Donald Drapkin in a statement.