Labrador Trough positioned to feed Canada’s iron-ore exports – by Simon Rees (MiningWeekly.com – August 10, 2012)

www.mineweekly.com

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) While the world worries about the eurozone debt crisis, China’s economic model and US stagnation, mining operators and developers in the Labrador Trough, an iron-ore belt that extends through Canada’s northern Quebec and Labrador, are confident of weathering the storm and continuing to expand.
 
“Production could grow by a yearly compounded growth rate of 35% over the next five years,” the mines branch of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Department for Natural Resources said in its most recent edition of ‘Minfo’.
 
The bullish outlook is predicated on China’s desire to extend seaborne trade in iron-ore away from Rio Tinto, Vale and BHP Billiton. More significantly, the nature of the ore itself makes it an attractive drawcard to steelmakers, owing to its holding less contaminants when compared with material from Australia or Brazil.
 
“Labrador Trough ore remains attractive because it is one of the cleanest in the world; it holds less contaminants such as alumina and phosphates,” Alderon Iron Ore’s VP for business development, Simon Marcotte, explained.

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Charest touts Plan Nord on campaign trail – by Daneil LeBlanc – (Globe and Mail – August 10, 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.

VAL D’OR, QUEBEC – It’s the topic on which he is most proactive, promising it will play a key role in fulfilling the main plank in his platform: creating 250,000 jobs by 2017 if he forms the next government.

The Plan Nord is more than the Quebec Liberal Leader’s priority for a fourth mandate. The ambitious, 25-year, $80-billion economic program to develop natural resources in the province’s north is designed to be his main legacy. Launched during his third term in office, the Plan Nord is supposed to be to Mr. Charest what the massive James Bay hydro-electric project was to his predecessor, Robert Bourassa, in the 1970s.

Not surprisingly, most of Mr. Charest’s daily announcements are somehow linked to the Plan Nord and job creation, such as a promise to introduce Plan Nord RRSPs and to offer more long-distance training in fields such as mining and forestry. Most of his industrial visits – he does one a day – are linked to his dream of northern riches.

Still, there is no guarantee Mr. Charest will still be in power after the Sept. 4 election. Every day of the campaign, he has to bat away questions about other issues, from student protests to allegations of widespread corruption to the threat of a third referendum on sovereignty.

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Quebec will become ‘have’ province under northern-development plan: Liberals – by Andy Blatchford (Canadian Press/Winnipeg Free Press – August 12, 2012)

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/

MONTREAL – Jean Charest’s Liberals predict Quebec will make the historic transformation into a “have” province over the next quarter-century thanks to an ambitious northern-development plan.

Quebec’s natural resources minister says the project — known as “Plan Nord” — will enable the province to wean itself off decades of federal equalization transfers, tackle its heavy debt, and bankroll its costly social programs.

Clement Gignac’s prediction would see the province pump cash into the federation for the first time since the modern equalization program was established in the 1950s. Amid campaign clashes over tuition fees, corruption allegations and Quebec independence, Plan Nord is a sleeper issue heading into the Sept. 4 election.

Gignac says the initiative, which includes mining, energy and tourism projects, has the potential to become a game-changer for Quebec, much like the Hibernia oil project was for reversing the once-grim economic fortunes in Newfoundland and Labrador.

“It will increase our financial autonomy… and it will be a win-win for everybody,” Gignac told The Canadian Press in an interview.

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PQ gov’t would ‘redo’ Quebec’s northern development plan [Plan Nord] – by Canadian Press/CTV News (August 12, 2012)

http://www.ctvnews.ca/

MONTREAL — The Parti Quebecois says it will give Jean Charest’s signature northern-development plan a makeover if it wins the Sept. 4 election, altering a project the Liberal premier hails as Quebec’s ticket to prosperity.
 
The party’s mining critic said a PQ government would “redo” the multibillion-dollar Plan Nord. It argues the initiative offers up Quebec’s natural resources for next to nothing.
 
Martine Ouellet said the PQ is pledging to raise royalties; ensure more Quebec resources are processed in the province; and spend less public money to help private companies — unless Quebecers get something in return.
 
“The Parti Quebecois is okay with developing northern mines, but certainly not in the same way as the plan I call ‘The Plan Marketing du Nord,’ ” Ouellet said in an interview. “We can’t continue like this, we’re letting our minerals go for free.”
 
Ouellet also said the PQ would launch environmental reviews before each project and boost returns for Quebecers by processing more of the resources in the province.

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CN, miners to study new line for Que.-Labrador iron belt – by The Canadian Press (Globe and Mail – August 11, 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.

Canadian National Railway Co. is taking a step toward building a potentially lucrative new transportation link for iron ore producers at the Quebec-Labrador border by proceeding with a feasibility study.
 
The country’s largest railway said Friday that it is working with several mining companies and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec on a study into the rail line and terminal handling facility, which analysts estimated could cost $5-billion.
 
The mining participants are Labrador Iron Mines Holdings Ltd., Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., a big multinational iron ore producer, as well as Canadian public mining companies New Millennium Iron and Alderon Iron Ore Corp.
 
CN said it will co-ordinate an application to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, clearing the way for discussions with affected parties including First Nations.

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Liberals promise tax break for Plan Nord investors by Roberto Rocha (Montreal Gazette – August 10, 2012)

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

QUEBEC CITY – Quebecers will have the chance to invest in the Plan Nord under a Liberal government, and receive a tax break if they do. Premier Jean Charest promised a new savings fund to which Quebecers can contribute a maximum of $5,000 a year and receive a tax credit of 10 per cent, to a limit of $500.
 
The fund, offered by workers’ venture capital firms like the Quebec Federation of Labour Solidarity Fund and Capital regional et coopérative Desjardins, would invest in companies involved in Plan Nord, the Liberal project to exploit resources in Quebec’s North.
 
These would include mining, energy and forestry firms, and companies that provide services and supplies for them. This investment would be eligible for a retirement savings plan (RRSP) or a tax-free savings account (TFSA).
 
This plan is part of Charest’s economic development platform, which has been the main focus of his campaign. He said $30 billion in projects have been announced in Plan Nord. The Liberals are aiming for $80 billion in total investments over 25 years, with $5.5 billion predicted to return to the provincial purse.

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Natural resource battle only beginning – by Jason Fekete (Saskatoon Star Phoenix – August 4, 2012)

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

British Columbia’s brawl with Alberta over the Northern Gateway pipeline and refusal to sign a national energy strategy may be harbingers of battles to come over natural resource developments that are driving the Canadian economy but drawing unprecedented criticism for their environmental impacts.
 
The petroleum, forestry, mining and electricity sectors are expected to generate hundreds of billions of dollars of investment and hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs across Canada over the next few decades.
 
The northern Alberta oilsands, British Columbia’s lucrative shale gas plays, petroleum and potash in Saskatchewan, the Ring of Fire mineral deposit in Northern Ontario, Quebec’s massive Plan Nord resource project and offshore petroleum riches in the Arctic and Atlantic Canada — all are part of the country’s eye popping resource bounty.
 
The Harper government has already identified natural resource development as a priority, and recently announced sweeping changes to expedite approvals and allow it to make final decisions on pipeline projects deemed in the national interest.

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New [Quebec/Cree] accord hailed as model for first nations negotiations – Montreal Gazette Editorial (Vancouver Sun – August 2, 2012)

 The Vancouver Sun, a broadsheet daily paper first published in 1912, has the largest circulation in the province of British Columbia.

Guest editorial from the Montreal Gazette

Matthew Coon Come has proven himself to be no pushover when it comes to defending the interests of his people.
 
Grand chief of Quebec’s Grand Council of the Crees and a former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, he has been an outspoken activist in the assertion of aboriginal rights, gaining an international reputation for his efforts in the process.
 
Therefore it was saying something when Coon Come effusively hailed as a landmark achievement the agreement signed last week between the Quebec government and the Cree Grand Council on resource development, land management and regional governance in the James Bay territory.
 
The deal covers an area of 330,000 square kilometres, roughly the size of Italy. As a result of it, the municipality of James Bay will cease to exist and be replaced by a regional authority jointly governed by aboriginal and non-aboriginal residents of the territory.

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Plan Nord investments carry big risk – by Kevin Dougherty (Montreal Gazette – April 25, 2012)

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

The provincial government will spend a billion dollars over the next five years, but the viability of the project remains a question 

After two decades of keeping a low profile in the province’s mining sector, the Quebec government is coming back strong, giving itself a lead role in Premier Jean Charest’s Plan Nord to develop the mineral and other resources of northern Quebec.
 
Ressources Québec, a new state investment arm, is being entrusted with $1 billion in the next five years to invest in Plan Nord mining ventures and future oil and gas plays through a fund called Capital Mines Hydrocarbures. It will be headed by Jacques Daoust, who remains president and CEO of the expanded Investissement Québec.
 
With growing interest in Quebec’s deposits of iron ore, nickel, rare earths, gold and even diamonds, the province has increased its mining royalties.
 
And to aid mining and mineral processing, Quebec will pay $30 million toward a study on extending Gaz Métro’s natural gas distribution network to Sept Îles, a major Plan Nord hub. Quebec is also supporting a proposed new $5 billion rail link from Sept Îles north to the new mining zone, to be built by CN and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.

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Sleeping giant awakened in Sept Îles – by Leo Ryan (Montreal Gazette – April 25, 2012)

 http://www.montrealgazette.com/index.html
 
Dramatic increase in domestic and foreign investment in iron-ore projects fuelling port’s renaissance

A Klondike-type fever is gripping this port city facing a spectacular, semi-circular bay located more than 900 kilometres east of Montreal on the North Shore of the St. Lawrence River. The great catalyst, however, is not gold but a dramatic increase in domestic and foreign investments in iron ore projects, notably with a view to supplying the vital commodity for steel mills in China.
 
In short, in this relatively remote area of Quebec, a sleeping giant has awakened – signalling the ascension in the near future of Sept Îles as Canada’s second-biggest port after Vancouver in terms of volume. It is already the leading mineral port in North America.
 
Money is pouring from steel producers into the substantial, still-unexploited iron ore deposits in what geologists identified long ago as the Labrador Trough centred on Schefferville, nearly 800 kms north and connected to Sept Îles by a single rail line.
 
It all symbolizes a virtual economic renaissance following a long period of decline ushered in by mine closures in Schefferville in the 1980s and a collapse in demand from world markets.

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Ontario and Quebec propose changes to mining rules (Canadian Mining Journal – August 2, 2012)

The Canadian Mining Journal is Canada’s first mining publication providing information on Canadian mining and exploration trends, technologies, operations, and industry events.

Interestingly, both Ontario and Quebec are proposing significant changes to their respective mining legislation.
 
In Ontario, the public comment period closed on May 1, 2012, on six regulatory proposals under the Ontario Mining Act that were posted on the Environmental Registry (EBR) in March 2012 by the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines (MNDM). Feedback received is now under review.
 
The proposals were for amendments to certain existing regulations and introduction of new regulations to implement substantive changes made to the Mining Act in 2009.
 
The EBR postings were simply concept-level descriptions of what the regulations would address although the regulatory text itself was not provided. Until such time as specific draft regulations and associated policies and standards documents are released to the public, industry and First Nations, it is difficult to predict whether the concepts will be codified into law substantially as described. The regulatory proposals are outlined below. Here are features of the proposed regulatory changes in Ontario:

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Charest government may have miscalculated announcement to reopen Jeffrey Asbestos Mine with a $58-million loan – by Michelle Lalonde, (Montreal Gazette – July 30, 2012)

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

GAZETTE Environment Reporter

QUEBEC – If the Charest government was hoping to avoid criticism by quietly announcing the relaunch of Quebec’s controversial asbestos industry on the Friday before a holiday weekend, it might have miscalculated.
 
In the month following the June 29 announcement that Quebec would loan $58 million to help reopen and expand the Jeffrey Mine in the town of Asbestos, newspapers across Quebec and Canada have run editorials and columns condemning the decision. The wisdom of staking public money on this project has come under question, and last week an international scientific organization of epidemiologists joined the call for a global ban on asbestos.
 
In April 2011, the Liberal government had promised to provide a guarantee on a $58-million loan to the project’s proponents — Westmount businessman Baljit Chadha and Jeffrey Mine president Bernard Coulombe — if and when they could come up with $25 million in private investments to enable the reopening of the mine.
 
The government is now providing a direct loan rather than a guarantee, and critics charge that’s because no financial institution would loan the money, even with a government guarantee.

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Quebec’s mining royalty regime is fine, study says – by Lynn Moore (Montreal Gazette – July 31, 2012)

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

Regime based on profits, not value of minerals is better for Quebec: report chief

MONTREAL – Quebec’s mining royalty regime offers the “competitive structure” best suited to the province, according to a study likely to fuel provincial election debates.
 
The consulting firm KPMG LLP and the law office of Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP unveiled Tuesday “an analytical framework” they say permits an objective evaluation of mining royalty regimes around the globe. “There is no ideal regime,” Renault-François Lortie, KPMG partner and director of the study, told reporters.
 
But, all things considered, “the structure of the current regime is the right one” for Quebec. “We think that a regime that is based on profits compared to one based on the value of the minerals is better suited to the mineral characteristics and level of production costs in Quebec,” Lortie said.
 
Quebec’s current royalty scheme of 16 per cent royalty on the profits of each mine is relatively high, said Lortie, noting that the study does not address whether the rate of 16 per cent is ideal for Quebec.

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Election could imperil Plan Nord – by Lynn Moore (Montreal Gazette – July 31, 2012)

http://www.montrealgazette.com/index.html
 
Desjardins Report; Parties differ on scale of economic payback to Quebec taxpayers
 
The Plan Nord, the Charest administration’s legacy development strategy for Northern Quebec, could be at risk as the province heads for the polls, a Desjardins Capital Markets report says. “Depending on the outcome of the election, Plan Nord stakeholders could face increased uncertainty if another party takes power and/ or a minority government is elected,” says the report made public Monday.
 
Entitled Plan Nord at the Crossroads, it notes that while all parties appear to support northern development, they differ as to the scale of economic payback to Quebec taxpayers.
 
The Parti Québécois contends that current royalties are too low. It supports higher mining royalties “and suggests that Quebec could put in place a royalty regime similar to that in Australia – a 30 per cent tax of ‘super profits’ from the extraction of non-renewable natural resources,” the note to clients said.
 
Coalition Avenir Québec, which also contends Quebecers should be better compensated for natural resources, proposes the creation of a $5-billion fund, to be managed by the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, to invest in extraction companies with all royalties from extraction of non-renewable resources used for debt reduction.

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Public money should not prop up asbestos mining – by Alana Wilson (Winnipeg Free Press – July 17, 2012)

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/

Alana Wilson is senior research analyst in the Fraser Institute’s global centre for mining studies www.miningfacts.org

Canada’s mining industry is globally competitive, and has long succeeded without much in the way of government subsidies. It even thrived in the last recession by responding to market demand. Yet instead of letting markets drive mining investment in Quebec, the provincial government is bailing out the asbestos industry using taxpayer money — and this for a product that is harmful to human health.

In recent years, market demand for chrysotile asbestos produced in Canada shrunk dramatically which lead to a halt of chrysotile mining. But instead of letting mines stay closed, taxpayer funds will reopen an unprofitable chrysotile mine.

Quebec Premier Jean Charest recently approved a $58 million loan to allow the closed Jeffrey asbestos mine to reopen. Even before the announced bailout, the mine struggled and operated infrequently in recent years. All other Canadian asbestos mines have closed; the last one was shuttered in November.

The demise of Canada’s asbestos industry reflects a declining demand for asbestos, driven by health concerns.

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