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Biodiversity initiative: Copper mine helps restore sturgeon population in Timmins river

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

Ontario Mining Association member Xstrata Copper Canada, Kidd Operations (Xstrata) through its financial and in-kind support of the Mattagami Sturgeon Restoration Project is giving new life to a fish species designated as of “special concern” by the province.  Indications are that Xstrata, in partnership with the Ministry of Natural Resources, Ontario Power Generation, Timmins Fur Council and Club Navigateur, is experiencing success in re-establishing the lake sturgeon population in a section of the Mattagami River watershed.

Lake sturgeons are descendants of a prehistoric fish going back to the Mesozoic Era (dinosaur age).  The fish appear to be much the same today as 100-million year old fossils, which have been found.   The Mattagami River flows north through Timmins into the James Bay drainage basin, which is part of the lake sturgeon habitat.

This fish, due to habitat loss and over fishing, had disappeared from a section of the Mattagami River between two hydro dams.  To help re-establish the species, 50 adult sturgeons were transferred back into this habitat in 2002.  Thirteen out of this original group of fish were marked with radio transmitters to monitor movement and potential spawning areas.

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Glencore says $30bn Xstrata deal “not a must-do” – by Clara Ferreira-Marques (Mineweb.com – August 21, 2012)

www.mineweb.com

CEO Ivan Glasenberg said Tuesday the $30 billion bid for Xstrata is not a must-do deal, strongly suggesting it will not yield to key shareholder Qatar’s demands for an improved offer.

LONDON (Reuters)  –  Glencore’s $30 billion bid for miner Xstrata is not a “must-do deal” its chief executive said on Tuesday, in making the company’s strongest suggestion yet that it will not yield to key shareholder Qatar’s demands for an improved offer.
 
Ivan Glasenberg, speaking after the commodities trader reported a smaller than expected drop in its first-half profit, expressed exasperation with Qatar Holding, which has been in a stand-off with Glencore since the sovereign wealth fund surprised the market by demanding an improvement to Glencore’s offer of 2.8 new shares for every Xstrata share.
 
Qatar has increased to 12 percent a less than 3 percent stake in Xstrata since the all-share bid was announced earlier this year, less than Glencore’s own 34 percent holding but enough to block the takeover under the current deal structure.

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Vale says ‘no plans’ to shut down operations – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – August 20, 2012)

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

As senior mining analyst at Salman Partners, an investment dealer, Raymond Goldie keeps a close eye on the nickel industry. But he’s finding it difficult to keep tabs on Vale, one of the world’s largest nickel producers.
 
That being said, Goldie is predicting Vale could be planning a production shutdown because of the low price of nickel. Nickel has fallen to below $7 a pound, something that could prompt other companies such as Xstrata Nickel and Norilsk to cease production for awhile as well, he said.
 
Vale spokeswoman Angie Robson said a planned maintenance shutdown is now underway at the company’s Greater Sudbury operations. Robson said the company has no other plans. “We don’t speculate on rumours, but there are no plans to shut down operations,” she said.
 
Goldie and other mining analysts who used to follow the former Inco Ltd. closely are finding it more difficult to do that now that it’s owned by the Brazil-based mining giant.

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Glenecore-Xstrata a possible Vale suitor? – by Harold Carmichael (Sudbury Star – August 18, 2012)

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

Should Vale put its base metals division up for sale, there would likely be only one buyer with deep enough pockets – the soon-to-be-merged Xstrata and Glencore.
 
“If that merger goes through, the merged Xstrata/Glencore International plc would be a real huge entity,” mining analyst Stan Sudol said. “Certainly, they could afford to buy the base metal assets of Vale.
 
“It’s a merger the Sudbury Basin would welcome. There are enormous amounts of synergy that couldn’t be realized because of it being two entities. Ninety-five per cent of the area’s nickel operations would be unified.”
 
Six years ago, the former Inco and the former Falconbridge held merger discussions. If that had happened, most of Sudbury’s mining, milling and smelting operations would have been owned by one company.

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[Timmins] Xstrata Copper seeks cost-saving suggestions [at Kidd Creek Mine] – by Liz Cowan (Northern Ontario Business – August 2012)

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.

Timmins 100th anniversary special

At Xstrata Copper’s Kidd Creek Mine in Timmins, employee suggestions for improvement have helped increase the life of the mine. Its 2020 Vision initiative focused on engaging employees in an effort to realize cost savings that might further extend operations.
 
About 25 per cent of its workforce was interviewed by colleagues and the resulting 1,800 ideas are being put to good use. “We consolidated and grouped the ideas and the good news was that a lot of the ideas were things we had already started to do and people didn’t know about yet, so we were on the right track,” said mine manager Tom Semadeni.
 
“These ideas validated where we were going.” When the Kidd Metallurgical site closed in late 2010, only some concentrator employees were left. “We realized we needed to help all the employees understand they were part of a new organization because the dynamic was that we had the mine here and the met site concentrator some distance away,” he said.

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Xstrata extends life of Kidd Mine – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – August 8, 2012)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Xstrata Copper has added another three more years of mine life to its Kidd Operation. The mine was targeted to close by 2017. However, Carole Belanger, communications and community relations co-ordinator for the Kidd Operations, said they are now looking at continuing until 2020.
 
The mine has been able to achieve this by making better use of the “sub-economic” mineralized rock, which it has a vast amount of.
 
Belanger said the good news was shared with staff very recently. In the meantime, there has been a hike in activity at the Xstrata metallurgical site despite the fact the smelter there has been shut down since May 2010. Belanger said the company has invested $40 million in a two-phase reclamation project, which is currently underway at the site.
 
The first phase, which began February 2011 and has since been completed, saw the demolition and removal of 36 buildings or structures that were connected with the smelter operation.

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Xstrata’s losses not as significant as expected – by Clara Ferreira-Marques (Reuters/Sudbury Star – August 8,2012)

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

Miner Xstrata posted a smaller-than-expected drop in first-half profit as it cut costs to cushion the impact of weaker markets, overcoming what it said was a risk of distraction from trader Glencore’s $26-billion takeover bid.
 
The Anglo-Swiss miner, one of the world’s largest producers of thermal coal and copper, was hit along with its peers by falling commodity markets against a backdrop of stubbornly high wages and inflation, although it was partly shielded from tumbling thermal coal prices by higher-priced contracts.
 
The miner did feel the pain of market turbulence, taking a $514-million hit to write down the value of its almost 25% stake in South African miner Lonmin as the platinum sector suffers from a lethal cocktail of squeezed margins and increasingly militant unions.
 
Xstrata agreed earlier this year to be taken over by commodities trader Glencore, its largest shareholder. But the deal hit trouble in June after the miner’s second-largest shareholder, Qatar Holdings, demanded an improved offer.

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Miners take a loss – by Star Staff (Sudbury Star – August 7, 2012)

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

Global mining companies’ multi-billion dollar spending plans will be under scrutiny in the coming weeks when Xstrata and others look set to post their first decline in profits since 2009, hit by falling prices and high costs.
 
Stubbornly high costs and the impact of softer demand on the price of key commodities like iron ore have squeezed margins. Brazil’s Vale posted its worst second-quarter result in two years, while Anglo American saw interim profits drop by more than a third.
 
With the impact of weaker prices largely factored in, analysts say they and investors will be focused instead on companies’ cost-cutting plans. In particular, they will be looking at the impact of a deteriorating environment on the timing of major projects like BHP’s $20 billion expansion plan for Port Hedland in Australia or Olympic Dam in South Australia, one of the world’s largest mines.
 
BHP has already backed away from an $80 billion five-year spending plan announced in 2011, and has since signalled it would review its project pipeline and focus on cutting costs.

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Qatar iron man faces off with Glencore on Xstrata deal – by Mirna Sleiman (Mineweb.com – June 29, 2012)

Bankers who have dealt with Ahmad al-Sayed, the Qatari investment manager holding the fate of Glencore’s takeover of Xstrata, all agree he is a tough negotiator, someone who will cut the deal at the terms he wants.

www.mineweb.com

DUBAI (Reuters)  –  Ahmad al-Sayed, the Qatari investment manager holding the fate of Glencore’s $26 billion takeover of Xstrata in his hands, is known as an aggressive negotiator who relishes the big deal.
 
The lawyer was formerly general counsel at Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the sovereign wealth fund of the gas-rich Gulf state, before taking the helm as chief executive of Qatar Holding in 2008.
 
Well-liked and trusted by Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, the Qatari prime minister who is also chief executive of QIA and chairman of Qatar Holding, he has significant influence at the top level where decisions are made.
 
“An iron man, and a hedge fund manager in disguise, he can easily kill a deal if it doesn’t suit him,” said one banker who knows him personally.

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Glencore courts Qatar as Xstrata revises merger pay – by Jesse Riseborough and Firat Kayakiran (June 28, 2012)

www.mineweb.com

Glencore yesterday met with Xstrata’s second-biggest shareholder Qatar Holding LLC over its call for a 16% increase in the commodity trader’s bid, people familiar with the London talks said.

LONDON (BLOOMBERG) –  Glencore International Plc and Xstrata Plc (XTA), seeking to salvage the year’s biggest takeover, moved to appease dissident investors who have threatened to derail the 16 billion-pound ($25 billion) deal.
 
Glencore yesterday met with Xstrata’s second-biggest shareholder, Qatar Holding LLC, over the sovereign wealth fund’s call for a 16 percent increase in the commodity trader’s bid, people familiar with the London talks said. Xstrata revised payments for executives intended to keep them at the combined company by adding a link to performance and made all bonuses payable in shares after holders attacked them as excessive.
 
Qatar, which spent more than $4 billion amassing an 11 percent Xstrata stake, surprised investors and analysts two days ago with its criticism of the price. It asked Glencore (GLEN) to raise its February offer of 2.8 of its shares for each of Xstrata’s to 3.25, Qatar said June 26. Pressure on the companies intensified after Xstrata revealed May 31 it planned to pay top executives 172.8 million pounds in bonuses for their loyalty.

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Glencore battles to save Xstrata bid – by Kate Holton and Sinead Cruise (Mineweb.com – June 27, 2012)

www.mineweb.com

Qatar’s intervention pushed the deal to the brink as it prompted some shareholders to revisit their own particular concerns, such as soaring executive pay and fears that the combined entity would take on riskier business.

LONDON (Reuters)  –  Commodities trader Glencore battled to save its coveted $26 billion bid for miner Xstrata on Wednesday after key shareholder Qatar stunned the pair with a late demand for better terms.
 
The Qatari intervention pushed the deal to the brink as it prompted a string of shareholders to revisit their own particular concerns, such as soaring executive pay and fears that the combined entity would take on riskier business.
 
Qatar, which had remained silent for months as it built the second-largest stake in Xstrata, said in a statement late on Tuesday that it supported the principle of the deal but wanted 3.25 new Glencore shares for every Xstrata share, up from the 2.8 on offer.
 
The 11th-hour call will make it almost impossible for the deal to go through on current terms, several sources close to the deal said, leaving just two days for Glencore to sweeten the offer or delay shareholder meetings scheduled for mid-July.

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Timmins working to attract New Brunswick mine workers to the city – by TEDC News Release/The Timmins Times (June 22, 2012)

http://www.timminstimes.com/

Timmins Economic Development Corporation (TEDC) travels to Bathurst, NB where mine is closing next year

Timmins is heading to the east coast of Canada to see if it can find more skilled mine workers to come to the City With a Heart of Gold.

Cheryl St-Amour, from the Timmins Economic Development Corporation (TEDC), has travelled to Bathurst New Brunswick with representatives of Xstrata Copper Kidd Operations to promote the City of Timmins, and specifically, www.jobsintimmins.com said a news release from TEDC. Cheryl St-Amour noted that the “jobsintimmins” website has now become a central source of information on available employment opportunities in the City of Timmins, said the release.

Bathurst is home to the Brunswick Mine, an Xstrata Zinc operation. In March 2012, the company announced that Brunswick Mine would close in 2013 after almost half a century of mining activity. More than 800 people will be seeking to use their skills at other projects. These employees consist of a variety of skilled and unskilled workers, equipment operators, professionals and other mining related positions, said TEDC.

Xstrata Zinc is working to assist employees and their families transition to new opportunities and have been holding both internal and external job fairs for employees.

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City of Greater Sudbury Mayor Marianne Matichuk “State of the City Address” – June 21, 2012

 Caruso Club, Sudbury, Ontario

Check Against Delivery

Good afternoon everyone. Bonjour tout le monde. This certainly has been an amazing few weeks in the mining capital of Canada with great investment news and scientific celebration.

Recently, in the span of about ten days we had the Cliffs decision to locate a $1.8 billion chromite smelter in our city, …the official opening of the internationally renowned SNOLAB research facility,

… and a provincial government announcement that Sudbury has been approved for a casino that may be built downtown, further contributing to the centre’s renewal.But first, I would like to start off with an amazing number: $6.3 Billion!

That is the current value of mining investment, confirmed or planned for Sudbury, over the next five years or so. This only includes capital projects by Vale, Cliffs, KGHM and Xstrata Nickel.

That six billion dollars does not include potential investments by the growing supply and service sector, government and
many other non-mining activities that will tap into these enormous projects.

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Sudbury booming, but city’s image needs a makeover, mayor says – by Sudbury Northern Life Staff (Sudbury Northern Life – June 21, 2012)

 

http://www.northernlife.ca/

State of the City address highlights economy, challenges

Without a doubt, Sudbury is booming. That was the main message Mayor Marianne Matichuk delivered during her State of the City address, June 21.

But even as the city’s economy is flourishing, skilled labour shortages abound as companies compete to attract workers. The problem for Sudbury, the mayor said in her speech at the Caruso Club, is the city’s image, which, according to Matichuk, isn’t good.

The “stereotypical ideas” of the city are apparently impacting companies’ abilities to attract workers here. “People still think of moonscape, pollution and low-tech mining,” she said. “They still think we have no culture except Sudbury Saturday Night drinking and bingo.”

One of council’s top priorities, Matichuk said, was to change that image. This will be achieved through improved communications and marketing, the redesigned tourism website, and soon-to-be-redesigned economic development sites. She also encouraged all Sudburians to be “ambassadors” for the city.

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Nickel Slump Seen Ending as China Faces Ore Import Curbs – by Jae Hur, Agnieszka Troszkiewicz and Ichiro Suzuki (Bloomberg.com – May 31, 2012)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

After slumping more than any other industrial metal, analysts and traders say the worst may be over for nickel as restrictions on shipments from Indonesia, the biggest producer, diminish a worldwide glut.

Indonesia banned some ore exports from May 6 and imposed a 20 percent tax on the remainder to spur the development of its refining industry. The nation’s output will drop for the first time in four years in 2013, slashing global supply growth to 0.2 percent, from 4.9 percent in 2012, Morgan Stanley estimates. Prices will average $20,000 a metric ton in the fourth quarter, an increase of 23 percent, the median of 16 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg shows.

The metal fell 13 percent this year on prospects for the biggest surplus since 2009. Morgan Stanley now predicts the glut will peak in 2012 and Barclays Plc says prices should rally toward the end of the year on strengthening demand from stainless-steel makers, the biggest consumers. The rebound may not happen until then as China runs down record ore stockpiles accumulated in anticipation of the Indonesian ban.

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