Quebec Mining – Page 45 – Republic of Mining

Rio Tinto wants to reopen union deal in Quebec – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – October 13, 2012)

October 14, 2012

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.

Rio Tinto Alcan is in talks with workers about reopening a nine-year collective agreement at its aging Arvida smelter in Quebec, as the company battles stubbornly low aluminum prices hit by a global commodities slowdown.

Montreal-based Rio Tinto Alcan, the aluminum division of parent Rio Tinto PLC, said it met on Thursday with representatives of the 1,500-strong Canadian Auto Workers union at Arvida and related facilities, for preliminary talks about how to cut costs at the smelter.

The meeting, expected to be the first of several over coming weeks, came just days after London-based Rio Tinto, the world’s third-biggest diversified miner, said it would delay new project approvals in the near term because the business outlook has become less certain than it was even a few months ago.

“There are a number of headwinds that we are dealing with, but certainly with the metal where it is, today it is just under $2,000 on the [London Metal Exchange], it’s a pretty challenging environment,” said company spokesman Bryan Tucker.

Investors, mining companies, politicians, environment groups waiting for PQ’s vision for northern Quebec – by Monique Beaudin (Montreal Gazette – October 9, 2012)

October 9, 2012

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

It seems anyone with any bit of interest in northern Quebec would like a few words with the province’s new natural resources minister.

International investors, mining companies, municipal politicians and environmental groups are all wondering what exactly the new Parti Québécois government is going to do about the development of the north. Promoted internationally by former premier Jean Charest, it appears the new government has buried the 25-year, $80-billion Plan Nord.

Last week, Natural Resources Minister Martine Ouellet said the Plan Nord was just “marketing” for northern mining projects that were under way or in the planning stages. The PQ intends to go ahead with northern development, she said, but not any which way. The government is planning to create an agency to co-ordinate activities, similar to the Société de Plan Nord that was planned by the Liberals, she told La Presse’s editorial board.

Environmental groups welcomed the news, but Ouellet’s comments raised questions about what happens next. Mining companies and international investors are taking a “wait-and-see” approach, said Nochane Rousseau, a partner in the Montreal office of PricewaterhouseCoopers and leader of the company’s mining industry services.

Will the Parti Québécois Alter Québec’s Mine-Friendly Policies?: Eric Lemieux – by Brian Sylvester (The Gold Report – October 5, 2012)

October 6, 2012

http://www.theaureport.com/

A plan to build roads into mining projects. Tax breaks for junior mining companies. Does the return to power of the Parti Québécois signal the end to the province’s mining-friendly policies? Unlikely, according to Eric Lemieux, equity analyst with Laurentian Bank Securities. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, Lemieux says that even if the PQ tweaks current policy, it will take time, and he believes there are plenty of good stories to tell and invest in before that happens.

The Gold Report: Eric, you primarily cover mining companies in Québec, one of Canada’s most mining-friendly provinces. However, last month the Parti Québécois (PQ) won a minority mandate. Are the glory days for Québec’s mining sector over?

Eric Lemieux: Without saying the glory days are over, the election of the Parti Québécois will definitely put things on hold. The PQ has a very pro-environment and anti-mining perspective based on the personal convictions of certain ministers.

I think the PQ will change some of the priorities in Québec. I do not know if it will turn out to be effectively anti-mining. I think its people will just want to do things differently or give the perception that they are doing things differently. Recall the PQ held a very pro-ecological, anti-mining electoral stance that went in-line with the “printemps érable” (Maple Spring Arising) with the student protests.

Iron ore price plummet brings trouble to Labrador Trough – by Peter Koven (National Post – October 1, 2012)

October 1, 2012

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

Short of the oil sands, there is no Canadian resource getting more foreign attention than the Labrador Trough.

The red-tinged ground that permeates the Quebec-Labrador border region hints at the massive iron ore riches that lie below, and the construction activity around Schefferville (along with much larger booms in nearby Wabush and Labrador City) points to the huge investments to come.

A small army of mining companies are moving ahead with iron-ore projects that could pour tens of billions of dollars into the region. Since most of these firms are juniors and could never finance these projects on their own, they have secured Asia’s largest steelmakers as backers. Iron-ore giants Rio Tinto Ltd., Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. and ArcelorMittal are also in the midst of production expansions.

The Trough only churns out about 40 million tonnes of iron ore a year right now — a pittance in a global market bigger than one billion tonnes. Both the Asian steelmakers and Canadian investors are counting on those numbers to rise substantially in the years to come.

Which is why they were so stunned at what just happened. With virtually no warning, the iron ore price fell off a cliff in August, plummeting about 30%. It was below US$85 a tonne by early September, compared with almost US$200 a tonne in 2010.

Don’t scare off mining producers with confusion on future royalties and taxes, Major Drilling tells Quebec – by Robert Gibbens (Montreal Gazette – September 24, 2012)

September 25, 2012

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

Francis McGuire, CEO of Moncton’s Major Drilling Group International Inc., has a message for Quebec Premier Pauline Marois and Mines Minister Martine Ouellet: Don’t repeat the confusion on future mining royalties and taxes that has plagued Australia, Argentina and Mongolia, or producers will cut or go.

“In Australia, a key market for our drilling services, we’ve seen new business drop by 50 per cent since the public debate between federal and state governments on royalty rates became critical, so just don’t follow them,” McGuire said after addressing a Montreal investment group.

“The pre-election talk about raising Quebec royalties on mineral production from 16 per cent to 30 per cent is best forgotten,” he said. “Mining always was a highly cyclical industry and many commodity prices have come under pressure just when costs are rising rapidly.”

Major Drilling, which last year bought Rouyn Noranda’s Bradley Group Ltd. for $95 million to boost business in the gold mining camps of Northern Quebec and Northern Ontario, is the world’s second-biggest drilling services firm with operations on six continents, a 5,400-strong payroll, 739 rigs and a 72-per-cent utilization rate for the most profitable specialized high-tech units.

The belated demise of Canada’s asbestos industry – by Kathleen Ruff (Toronto Star – September 23, 2012)

September 24, 2012

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.

Kathleen Ruff is senior human rights adviser to the Rideau Institute and author of Exporting Harm: How Canada Markets Asbestos to the Developing World.

In the space of three weeks, the political support the Quebec asbestos industry has enjoyed for decades from the Quebec and Canadian governments came crashing down.

It could hardly have been more politically dramatic or more financially devastating for the tottering, bankrupt Quebec asbestos industry. After 130 years in operation, the last two asbestos mines in Quebec — the Jeffrey mine in the town of Asbestos and the mine run by LAB Chrysotile at Thetford Mines — shut down more than a year ago in the face of catastrophic financial and environmental problems.

Both mines, however, clutched to hopes of resurrection, nurtured by a $58-million loan given to the Jeffrey mine by former premier Jean Charest just before he called the recent Quebec election, as well as by the undying political support that Prime Minister Stephen Harper swore to give to the asbestos industry during the 2011 federal election campaign.

What’s the plan for PQ’s Plan Nord? – by Sophie Cousineau (Globe and Mail – September 19, 2012)

September 19, 2012

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.

MONTREAL — Watching Jean Charest resign after 28 years in politics, Quebeckers were struck when his voice choked with emotion. As premier, no one could recall him being so overwhelmed while speaking of his family.

Yet that was not the most poignant moment of his farewell. It was when he pleaded – almost desperately – with premier-designate Pauline Marois to press on with his ambitious plan to harness the province’s resources north of the 49th parallel. “The next government must absolutely pursue the Plan Nord’s development for the future generation of Quebeckers,” he said.

It is remarkable that Mr. Charest, who often appeared aloof as premier, became so passionate about the “construction site of a generation.” What started as a search for a project to win a majority government in the 2008 elections became what he now views as his political legacy. This 25-year plan to access the abundant resources of Quebec’s far north was unveiled in May of 2011. But its figures are still dizzying: $80-billion in investments that will create 20,000 jobs a year and bring in $14-billion in the government’s coffers.

Or so the original plan goes. It now lies in the hands of a skeptical Parti Québécois government, which will unveil its cabinet Wednesday. Everybody expects economist Nicolas Marceau will become the next finance minister.

Rail money offered to Quebec miners – by Ashley Fitzpatrick (St. John’s Telegraph – September 19, 2012)

September 19, 2012

http://www.thetelegram.com/

Adriana Resources not the only iron ore company backed by Wuhan Iron and Steel

Eager to get their hands on Canadian iron ore, Chinese backers of the Lac Otelnuk project in Northern Quebec — what Adriana Resources highlights as the country’s largest iron ore deposit — are willing to cover the construction of a new rail line to move the resource to processing and shipping facilities south, in Sept-îles.

President and CEO of Adriana Resources, Allen Palmiere, included the news when he spoke about Lac Otelnuk at an investors’ forum at the Sheraton Hotel in St. John’s Tuesday. He said regardless of the solution, transportation infrastructure is needed to move iron ore from the project across the 850-kilometre span to the coast.

The company is developing plans for a mine at the Lac Otelnuk find, expected to be capable of producing 50 million metric tonnes of iron a year. It hinges on having government approvals, aboriginal agreements, power and — something Palmiere focused on — rail access. “We have some challenges,” Palmiere said. “Mining’s the least of our issues.”

Despite having talked to CN about a rail project, Adriana Resources has not signed a deal with the Canadian railway company.
“We haven’t been in dialogue with CN for many months,” Palmiere said. “The discussions are certainly not closed by any means, but we seem to have hit a bit of a stumbling block.”

It’s business as usual, asbestos company says – by Monique Beaudin (Montreal Gazette – September 18, 2012)

September 18, 2012

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

Reopening set despite Ottawa, PQ actions

MONTREAL – The company planning to reopen Quebec’s only asbestos mine says Ottawa’s decision to stop opposing the addition of asbestos to an international hazardous-substances list will not stop the mine’s relaunch next spring.

And despite a promise by the Parti Québécois to cancel a $58-million loan to reopen the Jeffrey Mine in Asbestos, a company spokesperson said work to prepare the mine to reopen is continuing.

“The status remains unchanged as far as the mine is concerned,” said Guy Versailles, a spokesman for Balcorp Ltd., part of a consortium of investors in the mine. The mine received the loan in June, and at least $7 million has been disbursed, Versailles said.

Adding asbestos to the hazardous-substances list under the United Nations Rotterdam Convention would require exporting countries to inform importing countries about the hazards of using it, and to include safe-handling and proper precautionary measures.

Air Creebec flies high as Plan Nord ramps up – by Fancois Shalom (Montreal Gazette – September 18 2012)

September 18, 2012

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

Airline Inaugurates its new $10-million hangar and terminal at Trudeau airport

Jean Charest may be gone, but he is far from forgotten – by Air Creebec at least. “We view (the former premier’s) Plan Nord as really a personal friend,” said Sylvain Dicaire, chief financial officer of the Val d’Or-based airline owned by the Cree nation. “We couldn’t agree with it more.”

Since its founding in 1982, the airline has banked heavily on northern development – mostly mining, forestry and Hydro-Québec.

But Charest formalizing the economic development of Quebec’s far north as a premier strategic objective for the government means that “the sky is the limit for us now,” Dicaire said. The occasion Monday was itself a testament to the benefits of that interest.

On its 30th anniversary, Air Creebec inaugurated its new $10-million hangar and terminal on the edges of the runway at Dorval’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport – built with a $1.3-million subsidy from the province, Dicaire noted. Plan Nord may be a formal stamp, but in truth, Dicaire said, “we sensed it before (it was launched).”

Federal government won’t block efforts to limit asbestos exports – by Sarah Schmidt (Montreal Gazette – September 15, 2012)

September 16, 2012

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

OTTAWA — The Conservative government announced Friday it will no longer be a champion of asbestos on the world stage, effectively conceding the end of the asbestos industry in Quebec with a promise of up to $50 million to diversify the economy of the mining communities.

Industry Minister Christian Paradis, who represents a riding at the heart of Quebec’s asbestos mining region, said he didn’t want to abandon the industry, but said Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois left Ottawa no choice. During the summer campaign, Marois, who is now premier-designate of Quebec, promised to cancel an $58-million government loan to revive the Jeffrey Mine, signalling the end to Quebec’s long history of asbestos production.e

The federal government’s policy change of heart, unveiled in Thetford Mines by the government’s Quebec lieutenant, means Canada will no longer block international efforts, through the United Nations’ Rotterdam Convention, to place limits on the export of asbestos.

“It would be illogical for Canada to oppose the inclusion of chrysotile (asbestos) in Annex III of the Rotterdam Convention when Quebec, the only province that produces chrysotile, will prohibit its exploitation,” Paradis told reporters, saying it was clear the decision Marois is final, so it wasn’t a time for “academic” consultations.

Canada to stop defending asbestos, striking blow to once-mighty industry – by Andy Blatchford (The Canadian Press/Montreal Gazette – September 15, 2012)

September 16, 2012

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

MONTREAL – The federal government has tossed in the towel and will stop fighting international efforts to list asbestos as a dangerous substance, striking another blow to a once-mighty Canadian industry now on the verge of extinction.

In a sudden reversal for the Harper government, Industry Minister Christian Paradis said Ottawa will no longer oppose efforts to include asbestos to the UN’s Rotterdam treaty on hazardous materials. For Paradis, the announcement Friday was far from celebratory.

He hails from central Quebec’s asbestos belt and is one of the sector’s staunchest defenders. Paradis looked glum and spoke in a nearly hushed tone as he spoke in his hometown of Thetford Mines, a community still dotted with imposing tailing piles that remind locals of the industry’s once-bustling heyday.

He blamed the new Parti Quebecois provincial government for killing the industry and cast Friday’s move as an inevitable response.

In making the announcement, the Conservatives fired the first shot in what is expected to be a turbulent relationship between Ottawa and the freshly elected PQ.

Conservative government ends opposition to listing asbestos as hazardous substance – by Joanna Smith (Toronto Star – September 15, 2012)

September 15, 2012

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.

OTTAWA—The first potential clash between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and newly elected Quebec Premier Pauline Marois has come to a swift end as the Conservatives revealed they would stop defending the controversial asbestos industry.

Federal Industry Minister Christian Paradis announced Friday afternoon that the Conservative government would no longer oppose adding chrysotile asbestos to an international list of hazardous substances.

The Conservative government has stuck by the troubled industry despite strong criticism at home and abroad for downplaying the cancer-causing effects of chrysotile asbestos, but on Friday it was clear that Ottawa had seen the writing on the wall of the new political context in Quebec.

The Parti Québécois promised during the recent provincial election campaign to cancel the $58-million government loan the former Liberal government had given to the Jeffrey Mine in Asbestos, Que. this summer.

Parti Québécois mining promises under scrutiny – by Monique Beaudin (Montreal Gazette – September 10, 2012)

September 12, 2012

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

Premier-designate Pauline Marois made a lot of promises about mining in the election campaign. Her Parti Québécois promised to hike mining royalties, revamp the 25-year Plan Nord and require environmental reviews of new mining projects.

Now the industry and environmental groups are wondering which promises will come true. On Monday, a coalition of environmental groups called on the new government to make good on its promises, while an industry spokesperson denied companies were “in a panic” about the PQ plans.

“Despite being in a minority position, we believe that the Parti Québécois is in a good position to make quick and necessary reforms in Quebec’s mining sector,” said Ugo Lapointe, spokesperson for Québec meilleure mine, a coalition of 30 different groups.

There was a consensus among all political parties that Quebec’s mining law needs to be updated, the group said in a statement. It believes Quebecers should benefit more from the development of the province’s natural resources.