Still to file

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

Nuclear is in the news, making some residents of Northern Ontario nervous. The Nuclear Waste Management Organization is scouting for a permanent storage solution for the waste produced by Ontario Power Generation Inc., Hydro-Quebec and the New Brunswick Power Corporation reactors.

Blind River and Elliot Lake are in the running to host a deep geologic repository (DGR), a storage facility that plunges more than 500 metres underground, in which nuclear waste will be buried. White River, Ignace, Hornepayne and Manitouwadge are also under consideration.

Robert Beaudoin sees red flags. A regular contributor to the Facebook group, Citizens Concerned about Nuclear Waste in Elliot Lake, which currently has 274 members, he believes there is “a lot of business potential” in the city and the presence of a DGR would be a deterrent.

“This is just going to put the big red letter on us,” he says. “Who’s going to want to live here? I can’t. I’ll take a loss on my house just to get away. I don’t want to raise my son around this.” He says he would rather lose his house and declare bankruptcy than jeopardize the safety of his seven-year-old. If the DGR is built in Elliot Lake, Beaudoin plans to relocate his family to the East Coast.

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The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Allan O’Dette is the President & CEO of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce.

Earlier this week, federal Treasury Board President Tony Clement left many in the business community scratching their heads when he said that the Ring of Fire will not be developed “before economic conditions improve.”

Until then, he said, it is not realistic to expect his government to step in and “boost” the Ring of Fire. Minister Clement’s comments are perplexing. To which economic conditions is he referring?

The downturn in the global commodity cycle has had little impact on the economics of the Ring of Fire, which hinges on the forecast price of nickel and demand for stainless steel. The outlook for these indicators is positive: nickel prices are projected to increase by up to 40% over the next four years and demand for stainless steel remains strong, driven upward by robust consumer demand in developing countries for stainless steel appliances.

It would appear that Minister Clement’s comments are informed by a false narrative that has caught on in the discourse about the Ring of Fire: that the downturn in iron ore prices is impacting the economics of the Ring of Fire.

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http://www.mining.com/

According to the latest annual global survey released Tuesday by Canadian think tank the Fraser Institute, South Africa has fallen out of the top ten mining investment destinations on the continent and dropped 11 places to 67th globally.

The institute’s Annual Survey of Mining Companies 2014, rates 122 jurisdictions around the world based on their geologic appeal and the extent to which government policies encourage exploration and investment.

“While it is useful to measure the attractiveness of a jurisdiction based on policy factors such as onerous regulations, taxation levels, the quality of infrastructure and so forth, investment decisions are often based on the pure mineral potential of a jurisdiction. Indeed respondents consistently indicate that roughly only 40% of their investment decision is determined by policy factors,” according to the report.

The survey covers Central African Republic, Egypt, Lesotho, Mauritania, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda for the first time, but it’s at the top of the rankings that trends are most visible. And it’s not encouraging for the continent’s long-time stalwart.

South Africa is ranked the 11th most attractive African destination for investment in the resources sector behind the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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http://juneauempire.com/

Bill Bennett is the Minister of Energy and Mines for the province of British Columbia.

It’s unfortunate your editorial has seized upon the Mount Polley mine tailings storage facility failure to undermine the long tradition of respectful relations and co-operation between British Columbia and Alaska on mining development and environmental protection.

A breach of this magnitude is unprecedented in British Columbia in over 160 years of mining. Major breaches of tailings storage facilities have happened all over the world, including in many U.S. states. Your suggestion, based on the Mount Polley failure, that in B.C. we are somehow less responsible in developing our mining industry than you are in Alaska, or that we’re charging forward without due care for environmental protection is based on a misrepresentation of the facts. Let me set the record straight on a few things.

The independent panel traced the cause of the failure at Mount Polley to the original design of the tailings storage facility, and concluded that government inspectors could not have detected the issue.

The panel also noted that it considered the technical qualifications of British Columbia government inspectors as among the best that it has encountered among agencies with similar duties.

Most importantly, it is most certainly not “business as usual” in British Columbia regarding mine tailings storage facilities.

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www.fraserinstitute.org

Click here for full report: http://www.fraserinstitute.org/uploadedFiles/fraser-ca/Content/research-news/research/publications/survey-of-mining-companies-2014.pdf

CALGARY, ALBERTA–(Marketwired – Feb. 24, 2015) – Quebec is re-establishing itself as one of Canada’s – and one of the world’s – most attractive jurisdictions for mining investment, according to an annual global survey of mining executives released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian policy think-tank.

The Fraser Institute Annual Survey of Mining Companies, 2014, rates 122 jurisdictions around the world based on their geologic attractiveness and the extent to which government policies encourage exploration and investment. In this year’s survey, Quebec jumps up six spots and now ranks as the number three jurisdiction for mining investment in Canada and sixth worldwide.

“Quebec was atop the national and international rankings from 2007 to 2010 but tumbled down the list in recent years as a result of increased red tape, royalty hikes and uncertainty around new regulations,” said Kenneth Green, Fraser Institute senior director of energy and natural resources.

“The confidence mining executives now have in Quebec is due in part to the province’s proactive approach to mining policy and its Plan Nord strategy to encourage investment and mineral exploration in northern Quebec.”

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http://www.ageophysics.com/

Val-d’Or, Quebec, Canada, February 9, 2015

Abitibi Geophysics, a mining exploration services company, reported that its new induced-polarization survey technology recently documented the existence of mineral deposits as deep as 450 metres under the bed of Quebec’s frozen Lake Pusticamica.

Under contract to Cartier Resources Inc., a Quebec junior gold-mining company, Abitibi Geophysics deployed its proprietary OreVision-IP system of electrical probes and sensors to map deposits on Cartier’s Benoist Property between the Bachelor and Langlois Mines.

“CEO says technique’s “convincing clarity” could boost investor confidence in projects where OreVision IP is used”

“Having the ability to detect mineralization to these new depths could be a game changer for the Benoist project” commented Philippe Cloutier, President and CEO, adding “since this new method offers depth of investigation unparalleled by other technologies while keeping optimal resolution from surface to depth, it could help us find more mineralization faster for a reasonable investment”.

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http://www.reuters.com/

RIO DE JANEIRO/LONDON – Jan 14 (Reuters) – Vale’s nickel business is a good target for former Xstrata CEO Mick Davis, but his reported offer price is probably too low, considering the Brazilian miner’s stated interest in only selling a minority stake, analysts and banking sources said on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that Davis, who runs London-based mining startup X2 Resources, is considering a $5 billion to $7 billion offer for Vale’s nickel assets. A spokesperson for Vale, the world’s second-largest producer of nickel, told Reuters on Tuesday no offer had been received and no talks held.

A spokesman for X2 also declined to comment. “Any offer at this level… would be far too low for Vale to consider, in our view,” Citigroup analyst Alex Hacking said in a client note.

Hacking valued the business at around $20-25 billion, given an average expected EBITDA, a measure of profit from operations, of as much as $4 billion.

Vale valued its base metals business (nickel and copper) at $30-35 billion in December when it said it was considering listing 30 to 40 percent of the division in Toronto as a separate company.

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

TORONTO – In the short-term, the diplomatic breakthrough between the United States and Cuba changes very little for Sherritt International Corp. and the dozens of other Canadian companies active in Cuba. But a potential lifting of the U.S. embargo would have a transformative impact on them.

Sherritt’s stock jumped more than 26% on Wednesday as the two countries re-established diplomatic ties. The reaction was not surprising, as the Toronto-based miner has always had a “Cuban discount” baked into its stock. Sherritt is the biggest foreign investor in the Communist state by a huge margin. Its shares closed at $2.87, up 60¢ in Toronto.

“There’s always been this uncertainty around political risk in Cuba as a result of the Cuba-America relationship,” chief executive David Pathe said in an interview. “And if this can help alleviate that, we think it’s a positive development for Cuba and for us.”

Nonetheless, it is largely irrelevant to the company’s business interests. The U.S embargo, which remains in place, prevents Sherritt from having any business dealings with companies inside the U.S., including banks. And the U.S. Helms-Burton Act prevents some of Sherritt’s directors and officers from entering the country.

Many experts see Wednesday’s news as the first step towards scrapping those policies.

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http://www.euractiv.com/

The free trade agreement between the EU and Canada (CETA) will provide European companies with long-term access to essential raw materials, Nickel Institute President Tim Aiken says, hoping to create more pro-business EU laws with CETA. EurActiv Germany reports.

Tim Aiken is President of the Nickel Institute, the global association of the world’s primary nickel producers. Aiken took part in the EurActiv Workshop “Europe+Canada”.

He spoke with EurActiv Germany’s Dario Sarmadi.

The CETA Free Trade Agreement between EU and Canada has been criticised especially in Germany and France because of the Institutional State Dispute Settlement clause. Do you think the clause should be removed?

The protection of investors is an important building block of the CETA Agreement, which provides both Canadian companies in Europe and European companies in Canada with a safeguard for their investments. Currently, it represents a hurdle for the debate within Europe. However I am convinced that the hurdle will be overcome given that the economic benefits of the CETA agreement for industry and consumers outweigh the criticism.

What opportunities does the CETA agreement offer to the raw materials industry?

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As part of the 25th edition of the Corporate Exploration Strategies (CES) study[1], a corporate exploration profile of each company budgeting at least US$50 million for exploration is available on the SNL company briefing books. In 2014, these 39 larger players budgeted a total of US$4.33 billion and accounted for 40% of the US$10.74 billion worldwide exploration total.

The top three explorers in 2014 include one copper producer (Antofagasta), a diversified major (Vale), and a major precious metal producer (Fresnillo). Chile-based Antofagasta has the world’s largest nonferrous exploration budget in 2014; this year’s program is growth-oriented and emphasizes late-stage and feasibility work. A strong grassroots effort includes programs in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Australia.

In second place, Vale is the largest explorer among the diversified majors, also with an emphasis on late-stage work. Vale continues to challenge Norilsk for the title of world’s top nickel producer; its output of 260,200 mt in 2013 was just 25,000 mt short of the 285,000 mt produced by the Russian miner. Vale also considers copper one of its core commodities, although production growth has been more gradual. Significant exploration expenditures are also directed to fertilizers in Brazil and Peru.

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