Republic of Mining

Saskatchewan is to mining what Crosby is to hockey – by Bruce Johnstone (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – May 19, 2015)

May 19, 2015

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

To call Saskatchewan a major player in the global mining industry is a bit like saying Sidney Crosby is a good hockey player. Saskatchewan is a mining superstar.

It’s the world’s leading producer and exporter of potash, accounting for 30 per cent of the global supply of the agricultural nutrient potassium (one of three essential components of fertilizer, along with phosphorous and nitrogen.)

Potash was the top-ranked commodity produced in Canada in 2013, with a reported value of $6.1 billion, ahead of gold ($5.9 billion) and iron ore ($5.3 billion), according to Natural Resources Canada.

In fact, potash is the only mineral in which Canada is a world leader. And virtually all of that Canadian potash (96 per cent) was produced in Saskatchewan. (The remaining four per cent was produced at the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan mine at Sussex, N.B.)

Saskatchewan is also a world leader in uranium production, with nearly 16 per cent of the world’s supply of the nuclear fuel source, placing Canada second among uranium-producing nations after Kazakhstan.

BHP Left With $2.8 Billion of Reject Assets After Spinoff – by David Stringer (Bloomberg News – May 18, 2015)

May 19, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Despite BHP Billiton Ltd.’s spin off and sale of about $15 billion of unwanted assets over the last three years, the biggest miner remains saddled with a portfolio of even harder-to-shift rejects.

A total of nine assets — from a U.S. thermal coal mine to U.K. oil and gas platforms — haven’t made the cut for a new slimmed-down parent or the demerger company South32 Ltd.

The unloved operations, valued at more than $2.8 billion according to RBC Capital Markets, are hampering Chief Executive Officer Andrew Mackenzie’s quest to halve the size of BHP’s core portfolio to focus on big ticket earners including crude oil, iron ore and copper.

“They did the big clean up with South32 and these are what are left,” said Michelle Lopez, a Sydney-based investment manager at Aberdeen Asset Management Ltd., which holds BHP shares. “I’m sure they’ve been on the sale slate for a long time. It’s a disappointment.”

Global mining companies are trimming portfolios to focus more closely on their most profitable operations as commodity prices have tumbled and amid a drive to reduce costs.

Wynne’s Ontario Transit Spending No Bogeyman for Bonds – by Josh Wingrove and Matthew Winkler (Bloomberg News – May 19, 2015)

May 19, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Investors are voting for infrastructure over austerity in Kathleen Wynne’s Ontario.

The province’s debt is outperforming the average of its peers as Premier Wynne pledges to spend C$130 billion ($108 billion) on roads, transit and hospitals over the next 10 years and Moody’s Investors Service has labeled it the world’s largest sub-sovereign debtor. The government is so confident of strong demand for the initial public offering of its Hydro One Inc. utility it plans to pay investment banks a quarter of the standard fees for the sale.

The demand signals markets are buying into Wynne’s Liberal Party vision for investing in the economy to help stoke growth. While jurisdictions from Greece to Italy are cutting spending to restore fiscal balance, the 61-year-old Wynne is taking a go-slow approach that is winning investors over.

“It’s encouraging, because we are at this moment having a very difficult discussion in Ontario about how we’re going to go about building this infrastructure,” Wynne said in an interview at Bloomberg’s New York headquarters on May 14, along with her finance minister, Charles Sousa. “This reinforces what Charles and I know to be true, which is – this is what’s needed in Ontario in order for us to be able to compete.”

B.C. First Nation will accept LNG project – on their terms – by Brian Lee Crowley (Globe and Mail – May 15, 2015)

May 19, 2015

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.

Brian Lee Crowley is the managing director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, an independent non-partisan public policy think tank in Ottawa.

What a brave new natural resource world it is that has such players in it. What else but the Bard’s Tempest could be brought to mind by the storm of consternation and controversy surrounding the decision by one B.C. First Nation to turn down more than $1-billion for their agreement to a liquefied natural gas project on their territory?

Is that tempest justified? If the media narrative around the decision were correct, the answer is probably yes. According to that account, yet another First Nation has refused a hugely generous benefits package in order to indulge their environmental and anti-development hobby horses. If this kind of behaviour is allowed to continue, it will spell the end of new natural resource investment in Canada.

That investment, already made nervous by Canada’s high costs, ponderous regulatory apparatus and politicized decision-making, was already close to concluding that Canada doesn’t want to develop its resources and going elsewhere. Adding unreasonable and capricious aboriginal demands to the mix is simply the straw that will break the camel’s back.

UPDATE 3-Peru strike spares output at top copper and gold mines – by Mitra Taj and Marco Aquino (Reuters U.S. – May 18, 2015)

May 19, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

May 18 (Reuters) – Peru’s production of copper and gold was largely unaffected by a national strike on Monday as unionized workers declined to down tools for fear of losing their jobs and companies used replacements.

Walk-outs at some mines, however, might have curbed silver, tin and iron output, according to unions in Peru, the world’s third biggest copper, silver, zinc and tin producer and the seventh-ranked gold producer.

The strike, organized by the National Mining Federation that represents about 20,000 workers, aimed to press the government to tighten restrictions on firings and the use of contract workers.

But plans for an ambitious stoppage across Peru were upended after the government declared the strike unfounded and companies threatened to dismiss strikers or ordered contract workers to fill in, said federation head Ricardo Juarez.

Copper output from Peru’s four top producers, Antamina, Southern Copper, Cerro Verde and Antapaccay, was normal, union bosses at the mines said. The mines together produced about a million tonnes of the red metal last year, or more than three quarters of Peru’s total copper output.

Dig Into New Jersey’s Mining History at Sterling Hill – by Brian Glaser (May 18, 2015)

May 19, 2015

http://baristanet.com/

http://sterlinghillminingmuseum.org/

New Jersey is famously The Garden State, but as far back as its Colonial days it also was a major North American mining center. The Sterling Hill Mining Museum, about an hour north of Essex County, lets families to dig into this important part of the state’s history.

Located in Ogdensburg, Sterling Hill is the site of a zinc mine that is one of the oldest in the U.S., operating from the early 1700’s until it closed in 1986. It was converted into a museum in 1990, and the good news is that it’s not just an abandoned hole in the ground you can walk through—the Sterling Hill folks converted the mine into a real museum and offer an experience that’s fun and educational.

Most days at 1pm, Sterling Hill offers a guided tour that’s 2-plus hours long and includes an exhibit of vintage mining equipment equipment and minerals from around the world, followed by a walk inside the actual mine—where it’s always a cool and comfy 56 degrees! (Group tours can be booked, too.)

The entrance to the mine immerses you in the sights, sounds and overall feel of NJ’s mining days, and the museum has historical equipment and mannequin miners set up in key points throughout the tunnels.

Northeastern Ontario municipalities back First Nations’ proposal for a railway across traditional lands for Ring of Fire – by Len Gilles (Timmins Daily Press – May 19, 2015)

May 19, 2015

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Martin was a guest speaker at the spring meeting of NEOMA, the Northeastern Ontario Municipal Association, which met in Iroquois Falls on Friday.

He outlined for municipal leaders from across the North how the plan is to build and east-west rail corridor from Moosonee, up to Kashechewan and then over to Webequie, where the Ring Of Fire mining prospects are located. Further to that, Martin said Mushkegowuk also wants to install a high voltage hydro transmission line to the same area.

The Ring of Fire is the name given to the vast deposit of chromite and nickel, located in the McFauld’s Lake and Webequie area, about 600 kilometres north-west of Timmins. The prospect is valued in the tens of billions of dollars.

After an extensive presentation by Grand Chief Martin on Friday, NEOMA members voted on, and approved, a resolution of support put forward by the City of Timmins, seeking formal support for the Mushkegowuk plan.

Before the resolution could be voted on, Cochrane mayor Peter Politis stood up to say he had a concern about the Timmins resolution, which he said had a “nuance” about the conceptual support for Mushkegowuk to privatize the rail service in Northeastern Ontario.

THE LUNCH: Christy Clark: B.C. premier has made a big bet on LNG – by Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – May 16, 2015)

May 19, 2015

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.

VANCOUVER — Christy Clark springs out of her chair after she sees four kids waving at her through the restaurant window.

“Hold on a sec,” the B.C. Premier tells me, gesturing to them to meet her inside. She poses for photos with the four smiling elementary school pupils, who are on a family outing to Vancouver from the nearby community of Abbotsford in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley.

We are two-thirds of the way through our lunch, seated in a corner of the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel’s Arc Restaurant with a great view of the North Shore mountains. It’s a convenient spot because it’s across the street from her downtown Vancouver office. I remark that someone was bound to recognize her and want to meet her. “It’s not that often that kids do,” she says. “I kind of thought that I should reward that attentiveness.”

Two years after the B.C. Liberals were re-elected with a majority government, Ms. Clark isn’t showing any signs of rust when it comes to her campaign skills. Whether it’s connecting with kids who are still many years away from voting or telling the server that she loves the soup of the day, her ability to launch a charm offensive won’t be easy for Opposition NDP Leader John Horgan to counter in the next provincial election in May, 2017.

For the Lax Kw’alaams, cultural identity is priceless compared to LNG – by Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – May 16, 2015)

May 19, 2015

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.

LAX KW’ALAAMS, B.C. — Aboriginal artist Lianna Spence will treasure this feast long after the 100 friends and relatives finish their plates filled with B.C. seafood.

It is a special occasion for this late-afternoon potluck lunch at the elders’ lodge in Lax Kw’alaams. On a long table are an array of delicacies, including dried salmon and halibut, smoked black cod, boiled Dungeness crab and fried eulachon – small fish that many natives enjoy eating whole, from head to tail.

It is a day to laugh and cry as residents share memories to celebrate the life of Ms. Spence’s great-grandmother, Vera, who raised her in Lax Kw’alaams, a remote B.C. community accessible by boat or float plane. Ms. Spence, 32, spent months carving and painting an elaborate totem pole in honour of Vera, who died in 2006 at the age of 87.

During this long day full of emotion, Ms. Spence takes time to talk about a subject that has dominated the Lax Kw’alaams people’s thoughts over the past couple of weeks – Pacific NorthWest LNG’s $1-billion cash offer to the 3,600-member band, or the equivalent of almost $320,000 a person.

The worldwide crackdown on NGOs – by Lawrence Solomon (National Post – May 19, 2015)

May 19, 2015

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

In Canada, China, India, Israel, Russia and in other countries around the world, governments are cracking down on foreign-funded NGOs operating in their countries. These crackdowns are inevitable and understandable, and in all cases come down to one factor: Governments, whether democratic or dictatorial, don’t like foreign forces interfering in their domestic politics.

The crackdowns typically take the form of beefing up laws and regulations, or creating new ones, to require more disclosure on the activities of NGOs. An exception is China’s proposed Foreign NGO Management Law, now in Second Reading in its legislature, where the Public Security Department of China’s State Council — its cabinet — would assume responsibility for approving the funding and the activities of all NGOs in receipt of foreign funds, to guard against purposes ranging from the political to the religious to the economic. Unlike other countries, China’s NGO law isn’t about disclosure but about censorship and control.

In one country — the United States — there is no talk of crackdowns, not because the U.S. is blasé about foreign-funded NGOs but because it has long had strict laws on the books.

In the 1930s, Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) after he realized that the American Nazis — then a potent force in U.S. politics — were being funded by Hitler’s Germany.

Rio Tinto puts aluminium assets on block in potential $1bn deal – by James Wilson and Neil Hume (Financial Times – May 17, 2015)

May 19, 2015

http://www.ft.com/intl/companies/mining

London – Rio Tinto is making a fresh attempt to sell unwanted aluminium assets in a potential $1bn deal, the latest sign of global miners’ attempts to restructure in the face of a commodities downturn.

The Anglo-Australian company has engaged Credit Suisse to find a buyer for its Pacific Aluminium business, a group of smelters in Australia and New Zealand, according to people aware of Rio’s plans.

The move is part of trend among mining groups, which are cutting back on non-core assets. BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company, is spinning off a collection of assets into a separate company called South32, which is due to start trading Monday.

Rio has not created a separate spinout vehicle but has sold $4bn of assets in the past two years, chief executive Sam Walsh said this month.

The company has tried to sell Pacific Aluminium, known as PacAl, in the past, but halted its efforts in 2013 after there was scant interest in its lossmaking operations. “The market was aware PacAl wasn’t going to sell . . . I am a realist. Let’s get on with life,” Mr Walsh said at the time.

NEWS RELEASE: OVER 1200 STAKEHOLDERS FROM THE WORLDWIDE PHOSPHATE INDUSTRY ARE EXPECTED IN MOROCCO FOR THE THIRD SYMPHOS EVENT.

May 19, 2015

Casablanca, 18th May 2015: OCP Group is planning its third International Symposium on Innovation and Technology in the Phosphate Industry (Symphos) from the 18th to 20th of May 2015 in Marrakesh, with the theme “Innovation to serve sustainable agriculture”.

This year’s event will bring together over 1200 participants from the phosphate industry from all corners of the world, representing over 45 countries. Symphos 2015, a forum for meetings and discussions between the major international players in the phosphate and phosphate derivatives industry, will build on the previous events, with greater focus on innovation to serve sustainable agriculture. In particular, this year’s event will cover themes regarding industrial processes, elements of value, fertilizers of the future and slow & controlled releases.

The event has become an international benchmark in the sector, offering a forum that promotes diversification, modernisation and development of the phosphate industry and support for the development needs of worldwide agriculture. Aware that innovation is the primary tool for rational and sustainable exploitation of phosphate reserves, OCP Group uses Symphos to highlight its commitment to sustainable and prosperous agriculture throughout the world.

By bringing together the global phosphate community to share expertise, skills and experiences, Symphos aims at contributing to the emergence of the ideas of tomorrow, and taking up the major challenge of soil and resource conservation for sustainable agriculture.

Editorial: Renewed focus on mine safety in Ontario (Northern Miner – May 13, 2015)

May 19, 2015

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry.

A newly released coroner jury’s verdict and recommendations stemming from the two-week inquest into the deaths of two miners at Vale’s underground Stobie nickel mine in Sudbury, Ont., in 2011 has met with wide approval from all players in the tragedy.

Jason Chenier, 35, and Jordan Fram, 26, were killed on June 8, 2011, when a run of muck overcame them while they worked at the 3,000-foot level near the No. 7 ore pass. They were moving muck through a transfer gate when a sudden release of 350 tons of sandy muck and water broke through the gate. Both miners died from smothering and compressional asphyxia, and Chenier also suffered blunt-force injuries.

It turns out a crash gate into the area where the two were working had been left open, so the muck, which had been stuck in the ore pass, came loose and flooded the area.

After pleading guilty to three of six charges in 2013, Vale received the largest Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S) fine ever issued in Ontario for the violations.

Excerpt From Call of the Northland: Riding the Train That Nearly Toppled a Government – by Thomas Blampied

May 15, 2015

To order a copy of Call of the Northland: Riding the Train That Nearly Toppled a Government, click here: http://www.northland-book.net/buy.html

Historian, author and photographer Thomas Blampied has been interested in railways for as long as he can remember. Growing up east of Toronto, he spent summer evenings sitting trackside with his father watching streamlined VIA trains race past and long freight trains rumble by. From these early railway experiences grew a lifelong passion for railways and rail travel which has manifested itself through model railroading, photography, writing, railway preservation and the academic study of railway history. This is his fourth book about railways in Ontario. He has studied in both Canada and the United Kingdom and currently resides in Southern Ontario.

Chapter 4: The North

The next station was one I had been looking forward to for many years – Cobalt. Legend has it that the town’s silver bonanza was set off by one Fred La Rose, a blacksmith, who threw a hammer to scare away a fox. According to the tale, when his hammer missed the animal and hit the ground, it uncovered a vein of silver. While this story might be true, the credit for the first silver find goes to J.H. McKinley and Ernest Darragh, who were scouting for suitable timber for railway ties.

Their claim predated La Rose’s by a month and, besides, La Rose incorrectly identified his silver vein as copper. The approach to “Silver City,” renowned for its steep and winding streets, is truly special as the line carves a long, sweeping curve around the lakeshore before passing the station. We were one minute late at 4:21 but, with nobody there, we rolled right by the large station and on past the preserved mine buildings. This is what I had wanted to see for so long. Some of the most iconic shots of the ONR over the years have been taken from the road bridge overlooking this spot – with the mine to the left and the railway snaking around an “s” curve to the right.

Osisko wades into iron ore amid ‘perfect’ market for royalty companies – by Damon van der Linde (Financial Post – May 15, 2015)

May 15, 2015

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

MONTREAL – Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd. says it has confidence in its recent acquisition of a stake in Labrador Iron Ore Royalty Corp., even if its shareholders don’t quite know what to make of the investment at a time when the metal’s price languishes near half its value of a year ago.

“We understand that there are cycles and ‘buy low, sell high’ is easy to say but hard to do,” said Osisko CEO Sean Roosen. “In this case and time, when everyone is running for cover, that’s when we want to wade in. I think we bought it right.”

Osisko announced Friday in its quarterly earnings release that it has amassed a 9.75 per cent interest in Labrador Iron Ore Royalty since the start of the year.

“The way we look at this, this gives us a relatively low-risk access to short-term dividend cash flow and that helps us with our numbers,” said Roosen.

Osisko is a mining royalty company, meaning it has agreements giving it the right to a share of income from mines operated by other companies.