Twitter
Boston-Bay-Mines-Announcement

Quebec Mining

Chinese Mining Giant Eyes Rio Assets in Canada – by Chuin-Wei Yap (Wall Street Journal – June 18, 2013)

http://online.wsj.com/home-page

BEIJING—In a sign that China hasn’t lost its appetite for global iron ore assets despite an economic slowdown, state-controlled mining giant China Minmetals Corp. said Tuesday it is considering a bid for Rio Tinto RIO.LN +0.32% PLC’s $4 billion Canadian iron-ore operations.

Minmetals, one of Beijing’s favored vehicles for cross-border mining deals, is interested in the asset and is “watching” the deal’s development, Assistant President Wang Jionghui told The Wall Street Journal on the sidelines of an industry conference. A more active pursuit of a bid would “depend on various factors, such as partners,” he said.

“We have invested in the neighborhood before and we are familiar with the area,” Mr. Wang said. He was careful to characterize Minmetals’ interest as being merely preliminary so far, adding that Rio’s assets are only one of many the company is monitoring.

The Anglo-Australian miner declined to comment Tuesday on Minmetals’ disclosure and other aspects of the impending sale.

If it materializes, such a bid would add to a string of Chinese acquisitions of Canadian resources, the largest of which was Cnooc Ltd.’s $15.1 billion purchase 0883.HK +0.29% of oil and gas producer Nexen Inc., completed in February.

Read more

Royalty hikes could dethrone Quebec’s mining sector – by Alana Wilson and Dr. Kenneth P. Green (Mining Facts.org – June 3, 2013)

http://www.miningfacts.org/

Canada is a king among mining nations, and until recently Quebec was the brightest jewel in its crown. In 2011 alone, the global mining sector invested $17 billion in Canadian operations and was directly responsible for $63 billion (3.9 per cent) of Canada’s GDP. [1] The mining sector is also an important contributor to the economy of Quebec, with mining and mineral manufacturing adding $10.2 billion (3.4 per cent) to provincial GDP in 2011, and $15.7 billion (24.7 per cent) of its total exports. [2] Quebec was ranked as the most attractive Canadian province for mining in recent years, but its edge is fading fast. And recently announced changes to the royalty regime in Quebec could threaten the mining sector’s future at a time when mining investors are already fleeing the province.

On May 6, Quebec announced long-awaited changes to its mining royalty regime. These changes will raise Quebec’s mining royalties to the highest in Canada and will introduce a host of factors that decrease Quebec’s attractiveness for mining investment. The first difference is in how the royalty is calculated: Instead of taxing profits, as is currently the case in Quebec, the new royalty regime will be based on the value of the ore being produced at a mine. In addition, a minimum royalty of one per cent of the ore value will be introduced for the first $80 million in output and four per cent for excess amounts. [2] These changes will result in companies paying royalties, regardless of whether or not they are profitable, and will compound problems during economic downturns and periods of low commodity prices.

A new three-tiered tax on profits will also be introduced with rates based on the profit margin: 16 per cent on up to 35 per cent profit, 22 per cent for profit between 35 and 50 per cent, and 28 per cent for profit above 50 per cent. [2] The proposed changes, scheduled to come into force in 2014, will require miners to pay the greater amount of either the minimum royalty or profit tax. [3]

Read more

Le Nord Pour Tous: Quebec Pushing the Boundaries of Mining Development – by Jonathan Arnold and Tom Syer (Business Council of British Columbia – June 4, 2013)

http://www.bcbc.com/

Those familiar with mining development in Canada are all too conversant with the tricky juggling act of resource extraction. The demand for social and environmental responsibility, government royalties, and maintaining global competitiveness can all pull in different directions. Government leaders across Canada often pride themselves in having fostered a mining sector that is one of “the most efficient, effective and competitive in the world,” backed by a “world-class environmental protection regime” (Natural Resources Canada, 2013).

But despite this optimistic picture, mining development in Canada is often a hotly contested policy arena. Look no further than the Federal government’s push for the rapid development of Ontario’s ‘Ring of Fire’, or the recently rejected coal mine in Comox, to get a flavour for the tug of war between vested interests.

Although Canada is a global leader in mining production, levels of investment are heavily dictated by outside pressures—guided by the ebb and flow of global commodity prices. Moreover, due to the plethora of mining opportunities across the world, including a growing number of emerging economies, capital is highly mobile and gravitates towards countries with high risk adjusted returns – valuing stable government regimes, low tax-rates, and good infrastructure in this comparative construct. Within Canada, the competition to attract new capital is then spread across provinces and territories, all with different tax structures, environmental rules and royalty requirements.

Read more

Strateco waits for court ruling on funding for [northern Quebec] Matoush project – by Robert Gibbens (Montreal Gazette – June 5, 2013)

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

Strateco Resources Inc. will probably know by month’s end whether it must shut down its Matoush uranium mining project 275 kilometres North of Chibougamau because of a Quebec government moratorium that freezes underground exploration indefinitely.

The Ministry of Sustainable Development, Environment, Wildlife and Parks has decided not to issue a certificate of authorization for the Matoush project until the province’s Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environment has submitted its report on the uranium mining industry’s activities in the province.

“That means there will be lengthy delays and even more uncertainties about the high-grade Matoush project after $123 million of investment and seven years of solid exploration and development,” CEO Guy Hebert said.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, the federal regulator, earlier approved Strateco’s move to drill underground to 300 metres depth, he said (interview). “The Commission supervises every exploration and development step you take and it has ruled Matoush is safe with today’s technology,” he added.

Read more

Osisko Mining Corporation: The golden touch – by Will Daynes(Business Excellence Mining – June 4, 2013)

http://www.bus-ex.com/

ADVERTORIAL

Following more than 800,000 metres of drilling and intense preparation, financing and community relations works, in addition to obtaining hundreds of permits and constructing the actual mine, it was in April 2011 that the first gold bar was poured at Osisko Mining’s Malartic mine in Canada.

The pouring of this gold bar represented a sight that had not been seen in Malartic for 28 years previously and what followed a month later was the commencing of commercial production. Today the Canadian Malartic deposit is recognised as being one of the largest gold reserves in production in the country with proven and probable reserves of 10.11 million ounces of gold. In fact this figure continues to grow to this day through on-going drilling on adjacent mineralised zones.

Osisko Mining Corporation, a mid-tier gold producer based in Montreal, Quebec, is a mining company focused on acquiring, exploring, developing and mining gold properties. In addition to the Canadian Malartic gold mine in Malartic, Quebec, Osisko continues its exploration work on the Hammond Reef Project in Northern Ontario, the Kirkland Lake Project in North-eastern Ontario, as well as other projects elsewhere in Canada and around the world.

Read more

Goldcorp – Éléonore mine: [First Nations] People in partnership in northern Quebec – by John O’Hanlon (Business Excellence Mining – June 4, 2013

http://www.bus-ex.com/

ADVERTORIAL

James Bay, a tongue of water licking out between Ontario and Quebec, is by any standards remote. The Cree nation that lives on its shores have staked their claim, not always without difficulty, to such economic development as has taken place in the region, but today the greatest impact on their way of life is undoubtedly mining.

Nobody coming into this area should doubt the need to involve the Cree, as traditional owners of the land, in their plans. Perhaps the highest profile local business to have been developed is Air Creebec, founded in 1982 and today carrying more than 60,000 passengers a year – it’s a wholly-owned Cree enterprise, and its largest customer is Goldcorp, one of the world’s fastest growing senior gold producers, with operations and development projects located throughout the Americas. Goldcorp plans to fly more than a third of that number to its Éléonore project during 2013.

A Canadian company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Goldcorp employs more than 16,000 people worldwide however one of its most significant current projects is its fast developing Éléonore project located some 200 kilometres inland from the Cree centre of Wemindji on the east cost of James Bay. When it comes into operation in 2014, according to figures from a pre-feasibility study published in 2011, it should be processing 3,500 tonnes of gold bearing ore a day, extracted from an underground resource that is known to have a lot more potential than so far confirmed.

Read more

Mining bill calls for local processing and more transparency – by Kevin Dougherty (Montreal Gazette – May 30, 2013)

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

Companies would have to pay full cost of restoring sites

The Parti Québécois government has presented its long-awaited Mining Act in the Quebec National Assembly. Bill 43 would require mining companies to put up 100 per cent of the cost of restoring mining sites to their natural state once the work is complete and calls for more processing of minerals in the province as a condition for granting a mining lease.

All mining projects would have to pass an environmental assessment, and the bill calls for dialogue between mining companies and nearby communities. In the name of transparency, mining companies would have to make public the tonnage of minerals extracted and the amount of royalties paid to the province.

Companies would have to make public their claims within 60 days and reveal operating plans 90 days before work starts.

Martine Ouellet, the PQ minister of natural resources, said it took almost nine months to frame Bill 43 because she consulted the mining industry and municipal governments about exclusion zones, where mining would not be allowed.

Read more

Quebec mining companies lash out at proposed legislation involving ore processing – by RHÉAL SÉGUIN (Globe and Mail – May 30, 2013)

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.

QUEBEC — Quebec mining companies are reeling over proposed legislation that would require them to produce studies on the feasibility of processing ore in the province before proceeding with a new project.

The requirement is part of the new Mining Act tabled on Wednesday, in which the Parti Québécois minority government is seeking to maximize the economic spin-offs from major new mining projects.

“Processing [ore] could create three to four times more jobs than simple extraction,” Natural Resources Minister Martine Ouellet said. “We are aware that you can’t process 100 per cent of the ore mined in Quebec. But between what is being processed now and 100 per cent, there is a great deal of room for improvement.”

The Quebec Mining Association said it is not against promoting secondary industries around mining projects. But it lashed out at a plan it said would create an additional financial burden in a province that, according to the lobby group, has the highest production and transportation costs in the country.

“We aren’t against processing the ore here, but companies need incentives. What we are seeing here are more coercive measures,” said the association’s president and director-general, Josée Méthot.

Read more

Alcoa and Alcan postpone Quebec smelter upgrades – by Sophie Cousineau (Globe and Mail – May 17, 2013)

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.

MONTREAL — With an aluminum market weighed down by surpluses, Alcoa Inc. and Rio Tinto Alcan are postponing billions in upgrade and expansion plans to their smelters in Quebec.

While some 750 Rio Tinto Alcan employees will get to keep their jobs longer, 500 Alcoa workers will be pushed into early retirement.

Alcoa is deferring by three years the $1.2-billion modernization of its Baie-Comeau smelter. But the aluminum producer is still going ahead with plans to shut down two of the plant’s old potlines. The dismantling of those Soderberg potlines, which will take place over the next two years, will eliminate 500 positions, or about a third of the smelter’s 1,400-employee work force.

This is the second time the American producer has reviewed its plans for the upgrade of the Baie-Comeau smelter, which was built in 1957. The Pittsburgh-based company first unveiled plans to modernize the smelter in 2008, but gave the final go-ahead on Nov. 7, 2011, after securing a 25-year electricity procurement deal with the Quebec government.

For its part, Rio Tinto Alcan is also pushing back, by three years to 2019, completion of the $2.1-billion investment plan it unveiled in 2006.

Read more

NEWS RELEASE: PRODUCTION COMMENCES AT BRACEMAC-MCLEOD [Matagami, Quebec]

May 16, 2013, Montreal, Québec: Mr. Harvey Keats, Chief Executive Officer of Donner Metals Ltd. (“Donner” or the “Company”) (TSXV-DON), is pleased to report that production at the anticipated average rate of 3,000 tonnes per day commenced on May 15 at the Bracemac-McLeod Mine located near Matagami, Québec. Donner’s partner and operator, Glencore Xstrata plc (“Glencore Xstrata”), is now processing copper and zinc ore from the new mine following the depletion of ore at their Perseverance Mine.

The Bracemac-McLeod Mine is a 65% Glencore Xstrata, 35% Donner joint venture. As operator, Glencore Xstrata is responsible for the execution of all development, production, processing, milling, smelting and refining activities related to the Bracemac-McLeod Mine, as well as the exploration programs conducted on the Matagami Project.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

Discovered in 2007 by the Donner and Glencore Xstrata team, the Bracemac-McLeod mine represents a $159 million investment. It is the 12th zinc mine in the Matagami camp. Matagami operations contribute significantly to Québec’s economic development by employing 260 people, directly injecting $27 million into the economy through wages. In addition, the operations create hundreds more indirect jobs via $13.5 million in annual goods and services procurement through 23 mostly Québec-based companies.

Read more

Strateco books $87m impairment as Quebec uranium project stalls – by Henry Lazenby (May 15, 2013)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Quebec-based Strateco Resources has booked a $87-million impairment charge during the first three months of the year, as its flagship Matoush uranium project lays in limbo following the province’s March moratorium on uranium exploration and mining.

This follows the decision by Quebec Environment Minister Yves-François Blanchet not to issue the certificate of authorisation for the Matoush uranium project, located east of James Bay in a First Nation reserve, until the relevant public hearings committee, the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement, better known as BAPE, had submitted its report on the province’s uranium industry.

As at December 31, Boucherville-based Strateco had invested more than $123-million in moving the Matoush project up the value curve.

Strateco charged it was obliged to impair its Quebec uranium properties, deferred exploration and evaluation expenditures and fixed assets associated with the project, owing to its inability to proceed with the underground exploration programme, the absence of significant exploration and evaluation expenditures planned for the year and the overall uncertainty surrounding Quebec’s uranium industry.

Read more

An ill wind blows for Quebec taxpayers – by Sophie Cousineau (Globe and Mail – May 15, 2013)

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.

MONTREAL – Pity Pauline Marois. Her government has been making good on its promise to balance the books. Yet the business community, still unsettled by higher personal income taxes, a new mining regime and proposed changes to the language law, won’t give the Quebec Premier any credit for it, as she recently lamented in front of the Conseil du Patronat du Québec lobby group.

All the while, the left-wing Québec Solidaire party has been ferociously criticizing Ms. Marois and her government’s austerity measures. Listening to its articulate leaders, you could believe that Ms. Marois is a reincarnation of Margaret Thatcher. Attacked left and right, Ms. Marois’ popularity has been sinking to depths rarely seen for an eight-month-old government. Two polls recently conducted by Crop and Léger Marketing indicate that under Philippe Couillard’s new leadership, the Quebec Liberal Party is now well ahead of the Parti Québécois – despite the Liberals’ power-worn brand.

This explains why the PQ has shifted gears into good news mode, in the hopes of seducing its disillusioned supporters. In the past month, ministers have unveiled plans for a new hospital in the Charlevoix region and a number of hospital renovations and extensions across Quebec at an election-campaign pace.

Good news is no news, as some journalists say cynically. But with the new 800 megawatts of wind mill projects that Ms. Marois unveiled Friday in the Gaspé region, good news is bad news.

Read more

How Quebec Cree avoided the fate of Attawapiskat – by Terry Milewski (CBC News – May 14, 2013)

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

On the eastern shore of James Bay, a very different story

Freezing, mouldy homes. Sewage contamination. Sick kids. Unemployment. A blockade on the road to the mine. A hunger strike by the chief.

That, it seems, is the news from the Cree of James Bay — at least, as it’s defined by the desperate community of Attawapiskat, in northern Ontario. Before that, there was the news from nearby Kashechewan. Flooding. Despair. Suicide.

And both James Bay towns endured fresh emergencies this spring as the annual meltwaters exposed, again, their rickety infrastructure.

But bad news makes headlines and good news usually does not. So we’ve heard all about the mess on the Ontario shore of James Bay — and next to nothing about the success on the eastern shore, in Quebec.

Read more

Innu not idle as Plan Nord advances – by Aaron Lakoff (Briar Patch Magazine – May 1, 2013)

http://briarpatchmagazine.com/

Resistance to repackaged neoliberalism grows in Quebec’s North

One year after the student strikes and Maple Spring that erupted in Quebec in 2012, the ongoing wave of social protests is having to recalibrate itself to meet a new set of challenges.

Former Liberal premier Jean Charest incited popular outrage with a proposed university tuition hike and broader austerity measures, but with last September’s election of Parti Québécois (PQ) leader Pauline Marois, many are finding that the neoliberal policies of the Charest government are only taking on slightly subtler forms.

In late February, Marois held a two-day summit on post-secondary education and announced that her government would continue to increase tuition costs, much to the chagrin of the student movement.

Also continuing is the northern Quebec development project known as Plan Nord under the previous provincial government and recently rebranded Le Nord Pour Tous under Marois. According to its official website, Plan Nord is a 25-year project estimated to bring in $80 billion in investments and create 20,000 jobs in mining, forestry, and dam projects.

Read more

NEWS RELEASE: Royal Nickel Announces $15 Million Royalty Financing from Leading Global Mining Investor

(All amounts expressed in U.S. dollars unless otherwise indicated)

TORONTO, May 9, 2013 /CNW/ – Royal Nickel Corporation (“RNC”) (TSX: RNX) is pleased to announce that it has signed a royalty purchase agreement with RK Mine Finance (“Red Kite”). Under the terms of the agreement, Red Kite will acquire a 1% Net Smelter Return (“NSR”) Royalty in the Dumont Nickel Project for a purchase price of $15 million.

“This commitment by Red Kite is a significant endorsement of the Dumont project by a recognized global mine finance firm. This royalty sale provides an attractive form of financing, particularly in current capital market conditions. The additional capital will allow us to continue to aggressively advance the project once the feasibility study is completed by mid-year. We look forward to working further with Red Kite as we advance the project,” said Tyler Mitchelson, President and CEO of RNC.

Pursuant to the agreement between RNC and Red Kite, on closing RNC will receive $15 million and Red Kite will be entitled to receive 1% of the net smelter return from the sale of minerals produced from the Dumont Nickel Project. Closing is expected to occur on May 10, 2013.

RNC’s Dumont project contains the third largest nickel reserve in the world1 and is expected to be among the largest 5 nickel sulphide operations in the world. RNC is on track to release the results of a feasibility study for the Dumont project by mid-2013 and the permitting process is well underway with necessary permits expected to be received by the second quarter of 2014.

Read more