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Government failing to fuel Ring of Fire, says Ontario Chamber of Commerce – by Mark Sabourin (EcoLog.com – March 13, 2015)

http://www.ecolog.com/default.asp

The stink of the Cliffs mining debacle has soured the air around Ontario’s Ring of Fire and has slowed pace of development in the remote but mineral-rich area. Ontario should kick-start development afresh by fast-tracking the most promising proposal on the table and moving aggressively on an infrastructure plan. If it does, dollars will flow into the region from the federal government and the private sector.

So says the Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC) in its just-released report card on the Ring of Fire. In 2014, it outlined the potential the region holds and laid out a path to further development. This year’s 2015 report card evaluates the provincial government’s progress against that plan and gives it a failing grade.

Stan Sudol, communications consultant, mining columnist and owner/editor of RepublicOfMining.com, calls it “a stunning indictment of government incompetence, both provincial and federal.”

The OCC conservatively estimates that the first 10 years of development of the Ring of Fire will add up to $9.4 billion to the GDP, sustain up to 5,500 jobs annually, and generate $2 billion in government revenue.

The Ring of Fire is everything it’s cracked up to be, Sudol told EcoLog News, and likely more. Once more of the region becomes road-accessible — inevitable once development gets underway — geologists are confident that even more discoveries will follow. If northwestern Ontario is a mineral-rich iceberg, the Ring of Fire may be only its visible tip.

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More Coal Cuts Needed as Demand for Steel Slows: Commodities – by Liezel Hill and Tim Loh (Bloomberg News – March 12, 2015)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

(Bloomberg) — In the last year, mining companies eliminated about 15 million tons of production capacity for the coal used to make steel, while outlining plans to double those cuts in the near future. It won’t be near enough.

That’s the determination of Chief Executive Officer Don Lindsay at Teck Resources Ltd., the world’s second-biggest exporter of metallurgical coal. For supply to match flagging demand, the industry must cut a total of as much as 45 million tons, he says, raising the ante as prices sit at a six-year low.

While U.S. and Australian miners are now losing money on as much as 50 million tons of annual capacity, they’re dragging their feet on reductions at high-cost mines. The result: a “miserable” market for at least six months, and perhaps as long as a year, according to Lindsay.

“There’s a lot of production that’s underwater, but it takes a long time for them actually to shut,” Lindsay said in an interview. “They always last longer than you think.”

There are two main types of coal. Lower-quality coal is burned to generate electricity, and coal with fewer impurities is used to make steel. Metallurgical coal makes up about 15 percent of production, and sells for about twice the price of thermal coal.

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Wolf Minerals’ tungsten mine to start production in Devon – by James Wilson (Financial Times – March 13, 2015)

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

It has required moving wildlife, building “bat hotels” and planting 40,000 replacement trees. But after more than a year of construction, Britain’s first metals mine for more than four decades is nearing completion.

On the edge of Dartmoor, in Devon, cranes loom over the steel skeleton of a shed as long as a football pitch and 25m high. Within months a complex circuit will begin to process the local rock and liberate the tiny fraction, less than 0.2 per cent, that matters.

The tungsten that Wolf Minerals will mine here is worth almost $30,000 per tonne: enough for a business with $100m in annual revenues.

Tungsten is one of the hardest of elements, seven times heavier than water and used in toolmaking and armaments. The Devon deposit was mined during the first and second world wars, but before Wolf spotted the opportunity to acquire the mining licence, the last serious exploration took place in the 1980s, before China’s explosive industrial growth.

The process plant, the nearby tailings dam for waste rock and the big open pit itself are the essential “kit” of a modern metal mine. They are familiar from Australia to Zambia but not in the UK, where such mining has been all but extinct in recent decades. The closure of almost all Britain’s collieries after a bitter 1980s strike further loosened the country’s bond with mining, and while London remains a centre for global mining finance, the projects are usually thousands of miles away.

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Future Arctic: More Mining, More Shipping and More Tourists – by Benjamin Hulac and Climate Wire (Scientific American – March 13, 2015)

http://www.scientificamerican.com/

As the Arctic thaws, northern nations dream of a new economy

ROVANIEMI, Finland—In one of this nation’s northernmost cities and at the close of a winter that citizens here have called unusually mild, foreign ambassadors spoke of their nations’ hope to do business in the Arctic, Finnish spokesmen outlined their plans to attract international money, and business owners burnished their cases for investment in the polar north.

“Nordic lights is a good example of business actually nowadays,” Juha Mäkimattila, the chairman of the Lapland Chamber of Conference, said at a dinner for foreign guests Wednesday, with a slideshow of aurora borealis photographs thrumming behind him. “We can actually make money on the northern lights from people from new parts of the world.”

At the two-day Arctic Business Forum, hosted by the Lapland chamber, delegations from more than 20 nations, most which do not border the Arctic Circle, said the tone reflected a robust appetite for economic expansion, natural resource extraction and an optimistic prognosis for strong tourist spending.

Meeting in a city that advertises itself on its website as “The Official Hometown of Santa Claus,” most speakers alluded to environmental management but didn’t get into the problems of melting permafrost or the additional threats of future oil spills or the loss of species.

On both days, the tone was bullish. Diplomats from global trade and economic powers signaled their governments’ growing interest in Arctic transit and heavy shipping in the Arctic Ocean.

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Kirkland Lake mounts a comeback on the Southern Abitibi (Northern Miner – March 12, 2015)

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

VANCOUVER — The past two years have been a story of redemption for producer Kirkland Lake Gold (TSX: KGI; US-OTC: KGILF) at its Macassa and South Mine complex in the prolific the Southern Abitibi gold belt 46 km due southeast of Timmins, Ont. The company just wrapped up its third consecutive quarter of positive earnings and free cash flow, and looks poised to hit the upper end of its annual production guidance.

On March 11 Kirkland reported that it sold 39,700 oz. of gold last quarter at an average realized price of US$1,371 per oz., which resulted in cash flow from operations of $23.7 million. Over the past nine months the company has cranked out around 162,000 oz. of gold at all-in sustaining cash costs of US$1,289 per oz., which marks a material improvement over the 131,000 oz. it produced in 2014 at all-in costs of US$2,054 per oz.

The main driver for Kirkland has been higher grades encountered at the South Mine Complex (SMC), which has also resulted in improved throughput rates at the Macassa mill.

Average production rates last quarter were around 934 tonnes per day, which marks a 3% quarter-on-quarter increase. The good news for Kirkland is that it managed a further improvement in January, when throughput averaged 1,107 tonnes per day resulting in the delivery of around 34,500 tonnes of ore to the mill.

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Lake Shore’s potential new ore – by Kip Keen (Mineweb.com – March 13, 2015)

http://www.mineweb.com/

We take a look at what’s driving reserve and resource growth at Lake Shore Gold.

Lake Shore Gold, an Ontario miner, issued a good gold reserve update on Thursday: by key analyst measures it beat expectations. The headline was 29% reserve growth, after depletion.

It was impressive, albeit growth on top of already short-lived reserves. Lake Shore has only about five years of minelife, though, it must be said, it has pushed that minelife out consistently with reserve additions over the years. The grade dropped, slightly, in its reserve update, but ounces grew: to 773,000 ounces gold @ 4.4 g/t Au from 598,000 @ 4.6 g/t Au.

For it, on a day that the spot price of gold was bouncing off $1,150/oz, Lake Shore did well in trading, gaining as much as 1.2% during the day.

But if the reserve growth surprised, a little, the real meat is yet to come. Much more interesting still, at this point, is what Lake Shore can bring in its relatively new 144 Gap discovery, 500 metres from its mining operations at Thunder Creek.

In drilling 144 Gap this and last year, Lake Shore caught some attention and for good reason: The hits have been high grade and broad. Late last year Lake Shore reported as much as 7.18 g/t Au over 24 metres among a number of other strong hits. More recently it has highlighted as much as 5.36 g/t Au over 47 metres. The intercepts have put the discovery at the forefront of Lake Shore’s drilling plans.

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Lessons from Rio’s Mongolian adventure – by Neil Hume and James Wilson (Financial Times – March 13, 2015)

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

How to minimise the risks of joint ventures with governments

If Rio Tinto could start again with Oyu Tolgoi, a $12.6bn copper and gold mine in Mongolia, what would it do differently? The question is addressed in an academic paper that examines ways to reduce the risks resource groups take when investing in frontier markets.

OT, which has already cost more than $6bn, is expected to be one of the biggest copper producers in the world and to last for decades. However, development has stalled as the Anglo-Australian mining group and the Mongolian government argue over how to pay for the second underground phase.

Rio is refusing to proceed until disagreements over cost overruns and taxes have been ironed out, while the cash-strapped Mongolian government wants to cut its 34 per cent equity stake in the project in return for higher royalties from the mine.

Much is at stake for both sides. For Rio, the expansion of OT will bulk up its copper business and reduce its dependence on iron ore. For Mongolia, it needs cash quickly from the mine to meet spending commitments.

So what can be done to prevent this situation happening again? The paper, written by Henry Steel, a special adviser at Rio, and Stefano Gatti, of Bocconi University Milan, focuses on the investment agreement between Rio and the Mongolian government as a key source of tension.

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65 Alberta Dams To Be Inspected For Integrity – by John Cotter (Canadian Press/Huffington Post – March 12, 2015)

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/alberta/

EDMONTON – The Alberta Energy Regulator says it will inspect the structural integrity and review the safety records of 65 dams used by the oilsands and coal industries in the province.

The announcement follows criticism by the auditor general that the provincial government is failing to properly regulate Alberta’s network of dams and tailings ponds.

The 65 dams are used to contain industrial waste and the regulator says 32 are classified as posing either “extreme” or “very high” environmental consequences if they were to fail.

CEO Jim Ellis said the regulator will apply the same safety standards to these dams that are used on oil and natural gas pipelines in order to ensure the safe, environmentally responsible development of energy resources.

“The auditor general has recognized the AER’s pipeline regulation performance, and Albertans can be confident that we will apply that same rigour to all AER-regulated dams,” he said. The regulator took responsibility for regulating energy industry dams from Alberta’s Environment Department last year.

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Internet of Things improving Goldcorp operations – by James Perkins (Mining Innovation News – March 12, 2015)

http://www.mininginnovationnews.com/

Operations at Goldcorp’s Éléonore gold mine in Canada are benefiting from a complex sensor and monitoring network, and its manager predicts that “all mines of the future” will follow suit.

The mine, which opened in late 2014, is extracting gold 4,000 feet below the surface. The mining management has deployed a network of sensors and monitors to ensure the safety and efficiency of workers and equipment.

Éléonore mine manager, Guy Belleau, explains that “with Wi-Fi in the underground mine, we can apply all kinds of technology and processes that allow us to track equipment and people on a real-time basis… it’s a super management tool, and all mines in the future will have this.”

The Éléonore mine uses a network of 160 access points with wireless LAN controllers, broadband routers and service routers provided by Cisco as part of its ‘Connected Mining’ solution.

Furthermore, a communications network has been employed with Voice-over-Internet-Protocol phones to communicate with underground workers from the surface to track progress or report issues.

The mine management monitors the location of workers through RFID tags in the helmets, there are also similar tags in the mine’s 200 vehicles and other heavy equipment as well as hand held tools to better manage the equipment available.

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NEWS RELEASE: Wataynikaneyap Power ownership grows to 20 First Nation communities and project receives key approval

http://wataypower.ca/

Click here for an updated preliminary business plan: http://wataypower.ca/sites/default/files/Wataynikaneyap%20Preliminary%20Business%20Plan%20-%20November%2028%202014.pdf

To view the map associated with this release, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/MapWatay.pdf

March 12, 2015 – Thunder Bay: Wataynikaneyap Power today held a press conference announcing that Sandy Lake First Nation and Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation will join the Wataynikaneyap Power Transmission Project, bringing the number of communities participating in the First Nation-led company to twenty. Each community is an equal owner in the project to bring grid-connection to remote First Nation communities, currently serviced by diesel generation.

“Having 20 communities come together to own a major infrastructure project at any one time is truly unprecedented,” says Margaret Kenequanash, Chair of Wataynikaneyap Power. “Our communities see the value of controlling infrastructure development in our traditional homelands to ensure responsible development while maximizing benefits to our communities. I would like to welcome both Sandy Lake First Nation and Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation as partners and shareholders in this unique and exciting project.”

“It is an honour to join the other First Nations on this very important and much needed infrastructure project,” says Sandy Lake Chief, Bart Meekis. “Grid connection will bring many benefits to our community including the opportunity to develop renewable energy projects.”

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AUDIO: Chambers’ Ring of Fire report card ‘not applicable’ to the north (CBC News Sudbury – March 12, 2015)

http://www.cbc.ca/news

A professor at Laurentian University calls a new report card on the Ring of Fire unfair. The report released this week by the Greater Sudbury and Ontario Chambers of Commerce gives the project a failing grade for development.

The report cites the absence of an agreement with First Nations, problems with permits and a lack of federal funding as the most significant barriers to development.

But David Pearson said the expectations for the project are too great and it’s unreasonable to think that all First Nation communities in the far north can speak to the project with one voice.

“I think the standards that you’ve used to put your F’s on and your C’s and your D’s and so forth are not standards that are applicable to the far north,” he said. Some industry experts have defended the findings, saying the point of the report is to draw a sense of urgency to the project.

A panel discussion on the subject was held in Sudbury Wednesday night at Dynamic Earth. The Ontario Chamber of Commerce’s Josh Hjartarson said he wants to talk about the project, but government officials aren’t returning his phone calls.

He’s said he’s trying to pressure the government to take action. “What I’m trying to say is that we’re spending some political capital,” he continued.

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Ring of Fire producing mostly press releases, says federal NDP advisor – by Jamie Smith (tbnewswatch.com – March 12, 2015)

http://www.tbnewswatch.com/default.aspx

THUNDER BAY — Nothing has happened in the Ring of Fire in nearly a decade and nothing will until the federal and provincial governments manage and make decisions with First Nations. That’s according Howard Hampton, former Ontario NDP leader and current paid adviser on the Ring of Fire for the federal New Democratic Party.

Hampton, during an interview with tbnewswatch.com Thursday, said both levels of government have completely missed what First Nations have been saying all along, that all three need to co-manage the development and make decisions together.

“We’ve had about eight year about press releases about the Ring of Fire,” Hampton said in Thunder Bay Thursday after returning from a trip to several Matawa communities.

“But if you look at the situation not much has happened.” Announcements like the development corporation and Cliffs’ one-time plan to put a processor near Sudbury were done unilaterally, without any consultation with First Nations Hampton said.

The $1 billion for infrastructure was nothing more than a nice pre-election promise while a recent plan to get Matawa a feasibility study for an all-weather road is actually a re-announcement from 1999 when the federal government outlined a plan to build all-weather routes to several Northern communities. Both levels of government to this point have handled the Ring of Fire badly.

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Saudis, frackers big stakeholders in oil price war – by Gwynne Dyer (Elliot Lake Standard – March 11, 2015)

http://www.elliotlakestandard.ca/

I’m in Alberta, the province that produces most of Canada’s oil, and there’s only one question on everybody’s lips: How long will the oil price stay down?

It has fallen by more than half in the past nine months — West Texas Intermediate closed at $48.29 US a barrel Wednesday — and further falls are predicted for the coming weeks.

This hits jobs and government revenues hard in big oil-producing centres like Alberta, Texas and the British North Sea, but its effects reach farther than that. “Clean” energy producers are seeing demand for their solar panels and windmills drop as oil gets more competitive.

Electric cars, which were expected to make a major market breakthrough this year, are losing out to traditional gas-guzzlers that are cheap to run again. Countries that have become too dependent on oil revenues are in deep trouble, such as Russia (where the rouble has lost half its value in six months) and Venezuela.

Countries like India, which imports most of its oil, are getting a big economic boost from the lower oil price. So how long this goes on matters to a great many people. The answer may lie in two key numbers. Saudi Arabia has $900 billion in cash reserves, so it can afford to keep the oil price low for at least a couple of years.

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Poor grades for Ring of Fire don’t surprise key players – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Northern Life – March 11, 2015)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Panelists say little progress made after years of work

Key industry players in the Ring of Fire mineral deposit said they were not surprised by an Ontario Chamber of Commerce report card that criticized the glacial pace of progress in the region.

During a panel discussion the chamber organized in Sudbury Wednesday, Paul Semple, the chief operating officer with Noront Resources, a junior miner that owns stakes in the Ring of Fire, said the failing “F” grade for the development of the Ring of Fire was warranted.

“We’ve done some good things, there has been a framework agreement with the province for $1 billion, but you don’t win a hockey game with a couple of good shifts,” Semple said. “We haven’t really done anything with that billion dollars, we haven’t done anything with the development corporation, and the framework hasn’t honestly given any benefits to the First Nations.”

George Darling, the mine technical services director with engineering firm SNC-Lavalin, who also sat on the panel, said he was disappointed by the speed at which the project has progressed.

Darling said a “huge smelter” his company is building in Madagascar – a project worth $2.5 billion – took only two years to get going. “What I’m very nervous about is the amount of time it takes in North America to develop project, compared to countries like Madagascar that are really developing right now,” he said.

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