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Petronas delays decision on Pacific NorthWest LNG project – by Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – December 4, 2014)

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 — Petronas has delayed making a final investment decision on plans to export liquefied natural gas from British Columbia, warning that estimated construction costs are too high.

The Petronas-led Pacific NorthWest LNG terminal proposed for Lelu Island has been budgeted to cost $11.4-billion, part of a $36-billion undertaking to ship LNG from the West Coast to energy-thirsty customers in Asia.

But Pacific NorthWest LNG warned Wednesday that pipeline and terminal engineering costs estimated so far make the Canadian LNG project uneconomic, especially against a backdrop where the Malaysian energy giant needs to scrutinize capital spending because it is being hurt by plunging oil prices.

In postponing the project decision, Petronas may be seeking to squeeze prospective suppliers’ bids on the project in hopes of nudging the project closer to being launched. Still, the delay raises the possibility that another major resource project in Canada could be sidelined, following a string of planned oil pipelines that have run into political and environmental opposition.

The window of opportunity for LNG exports from Lelu Island is closing, Pacific NorthWest LNG president Michael Culbert said in an interview.

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Emerging markets mock the pessimists – by Jim O’Neill (Business Standard – December 3, 2014)

http://www.business-standard.com/

Analysts’ prediction that 2014 would be a bad year for emerging markets didn’t play out. The numbers show that developing-country stock markets performed better than those in the advanced economies

Remember how this time last year a lot of analysts were predicting that 2014 would be a bad year for emerging markets? Didn’t really happen, did it? Now I hear economists saying the reckoning they’d expected has only been postponed. It’ll happen next year instead. It’s possible, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

In this discussion, one crucial fact is both obvious and usually forgotten: the so-called emerging markets are all quite different. They don’t move in unison. Take the impact of cheaper oil. Just as in the advanced economies, it’s good news for some (the equivalent of a tax cut) and bad news for others (the equivalent of a cut in income). It’s unhelpful to generalise. Many of the world’s star performers in 2014 were emerging-market economies. The same will be true in 2015.

The fallacy of agglomeration is compounded by a failure to grasp relative scales. Taken together, the two errors give a distorted picture of global activity.

The slowing of China’s expansion is a constant theme these days. Yes, but remember that China will be a $10-trillion economy by the end of 2014; that during the course of this year’s slowdown, it added roughly $1 trillion to world output; and that slowing growth in China is still quite rapid by most countries’ standards.

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Controversial mine legislation slipped into defense bill – by Rebekah L. Sanders (The Arizona Republic – December 3, 2014)

http://www.azcentral.com/

A controversial Arizona mining bill that appeared dead for this Congress has gotten new life, as supporters have tucked it deep into a defense bill that lawmakers must pass before the end of the year.

The legislation would authorize a federal land swap to allow an international mining company to drill into one of North America’s richest copper deposits near Superior, about 60 miles east of Phoenix.

House lawmakers slipped the land-exchange bill late Tuesday night into the 1,600-page National Defense Authorization Act, a key bill that continues funding for the Defense Department.

The must-pass defense legislation may give the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act its best chance of passage yet. A House committee will vote on the defense bill Wednesday and likely advance it to a full House vote on Thursday. From there it would go to the Senate, where no amendments would be allowed.

Lawmakers are trying to plow through a list of lame-duck priorities before leaving for Christmas. Most of Arizona’s delegation supports the land exchange, though they are staying mum for now.

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Rio Tinto diamond bet adds sparkle to junior miners’ prospects – by Susan Taylor (Reuters U.S. – December 3, 2014)

http://www.reuters.com/

TORONTO – Dec 3 (Reuters) – Rio Tinto Plc’s re-commitment to diamonds with a $350 million Canadian mine expansion has highlighted the prospects for a handful of smaller players boasting one of the sector’s rarest commodities – new mines.

After two decades without a big discovery, the $18 billion diamond mining industry will need fresh resources to feed a growing consumer appetite for the elusive stone, industry forecasters predict.

They say demand has been boosted by marketing aimed at convincing couples in China and India that diamonds are forever and single women to treat themselves to a right-hand ring.

Global consumer demand for diamond jewelry is forecast to grow at 4 to 5 percent annually, to $31 billion in 2018 from $25 billion last year, Anglo American Plc-owned De Beers said in a presentation last month.

De Beers, the world’s biggest diamond producer by market value, has also said it expects global supply to decline after 2020, with demand outstripping supply in the next 10 years.

BMO Research forecasts rough diamond prices will increase 5-7 percent annually from 2015 through 2017, helped by solid retail sales.

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Ring of Fire needs urgency, warns Ontario Chamber of Commerce – by Lisa Wright (Toronto Star – December 4, 2014)

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Preliminary report card on the stalled mineral belt in Northern Ontario says “progress on development has been slow” and “major steps” are required soon to reap economic benefits.

Ontario needs to move quickly on development of the stalled Ring of Fire mineral belt or risk losing huge economic benefits for the province when metal prices bounce back again, warns a preliminary report card by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce.

“Despite the tremendous economic and social opportunities the Ring of Fire affords Ontario, progress on development has been slow,” says the consultation paper obtained by the Star Wednesday.

The future of the highly-touted, mineral-rich region in the James Bay lowlands has been put in doubt by a severe downturn in the global mining industry. And Cliffs Natural Resources, the largest land claim owner in the Ring, has pulled out of the area, and its new chief executive says there is “zero chance” a mine will ever be built there with all the red tape in the way.

“Unfortunately, in the last few months, the tone of the conversation surrounding the Ring of Fire has turned net negative,” says the document, which provides a preview of the chamber’s official report card on the Ring’s progress expected in February.

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Copper, zinc, pgms – Friedland’s got them all in mega quantities – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – December 3, 2014)

http://www.mineweb.com/

Robert Friedland’s latest take on his 3 megaprojects in Africa and his forecasts for likely markets are little changed.

LONDON (MINEWEB) – At yesterday’s well attended MineAfrica meeting in London, serial mining entrepreneur Robert Friedland was given virtually unlimited time to close out the day’s talks. He thus spent more than an hour talking delegates through the prospects for platinum group metals, copper and zinc, followed by why one should invest in his company to take advantage of what he sees as a rosy future ahead for the metals sector.

Most of what Friedland said about the metals and his three massive African projects he has said before but nonetheless they are interesting to recount again, with updates, given his remarkable track record in finding mega deposits.

As he is one to tell, his companies found Fort Knox (gold) and then more impressively Voiseys Bay (nickel) and Oyu Tolgoi (copper/gold) although his early near environmental disaster of Summitville (gold) is quietly forgotten. After all he was young then and has since grown older and perhaps wiser – and his almost evangelical speaking presentations have been well polished over the years.

On all the metals he points to global population growth and people’s aspirations to better themselves as being the key drivers for virtually all metals and minerals looking ahead, but particularly for those on which his Ivanhoe Mines company is concentrating.

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Yukon miners fear ‘uncertainty’ following Peel decision (CBC News North – December 03, 2014)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north

 People in the mining industry are questioning Yukon’s land use planning process in the wake of yesterday’s Peel court decision.

“The way it’s currently being undertaken is creating uncertainty for industry,” says Samson Hartland, executive director of the Yukon Chamber of Mines.

Yukon Supreme Court Judge Ron Veale ruled yesterday that the government must return to the planning process for the Peel watershed, a wilderness the size of Nova Scotia and home to four First Nations.

In 2011, the Yukon government rejected the final recommendations from the Peel Watershed Planning Commission, which called for 80 per cent of the area to be protected from development, in favour of its own plan, which provided protection for less than 30 per cent of the area.

But if the government’s aim was to create certainty for industry, it’s not working. Marc Blythe is the president of Tarsis Resources, which has more than a dozen properties in Yukon, including some claims in the Peel. He says the Peel process raises concern for those who’ve invested in the territory about what’s going to happen next.

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Peel watershed: Yukon court strikes down government land use plan (CBC News North – December 01, 2014)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north

‘A great victory for First Nations, environmental organizations, and all Yukoners,’ says Thomas Berger

In a historic ruling this morning, Yukon Supreme Court Justice Ron Veale found that the Yukon government’s modifications to the Peel land use plan did not respect the land use planning process set out in the territory’s final agreements with First Nations.

In a written judgment, he says the remedy is for the Yukon government to return to consultations on the final recommended land use plan. The decision also scolds the Yukon government for pursuing a “flawed process” for two years, instead of revealing more detail about its proposed modifications in February 2011.

“I think it’s a total victory,” says Jeff Langlois, who represented the Northwest Territories’ Gwich’in Tribal Council, an intervener in the case. “It’s what Tom Berger was seeking entirely.”

Langlois says the ruling essentially orders the Yukon government to return to the final plan as recommended by the planning commission, and make modifications from there.

“I still don’t understand in this case whether Yukon still has the ability to reject that final recommended plan but if they do not, and that was certainly an argument Tom Berger made, then I believe the land use plan for the Peel is going to closely resemble the final recommended plan.”

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The shale slowdown: Oil’s price plunge hits U.S. production – by Shawn McCarthy and Jeff Lewis (Globe and Mail – December 3, 2014)

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.

The U.S. oil juggernaut is beginning to stumble as producers start pulling back spending plans in reaction to the steep drop in crude prices.

Several companies have already indicated they will cut their exploration and drilling programs as they brace for leaner profits. U.S. production has expanded by about 1.1 million barrels a day in the past year, but won’t match that pace in the next 12 months.

Oil prices have plunged 37 per cent since peaking last June, with the most dramatic drop coming after OPEC last week decided to maintain its 30 million b/d production quota. OPEC leader Saudi Arabia signalled it is prepared to wait out the slump to flush some of the highest-cost producers from the market, and at least some of those will be the smaller oil companies producing in the prolific tight oil, or shale, plays in the United States.

In trading Tuesday, the benchmark West Texas Intermediate fell $2.12 (U.S.) a barrel to $66.88. Some analysts believe markets have overshot on the downside, but few expect prices to roar higher any time soon.

Raymond James Financial Inc., for example, expects WTI prices to stabilize at around $75 a barrel.

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Jim Prentice makes the case for Canada in Energy East pipeline debate – by John Ivison (National Post – December 3, 2014)

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

“We are all mere petty provincial politicians at present; perhaps, by and by, some of us will rise to the level of national statesmen,” said Sir John A. Macdonald, on the eve of Confederation.

In the absence of the intervention of the current Prime Minister in the debate over the Energy East pipeline, Alberta Premier Jim Prentice is making the case for Canada.

“It is very much a nation-building project,” he said in an interview. “In Alberta, we produce 2.85 million barrels of oil a day. Next year, it will be three million barrels a day. The oil is, inexorably, making its way to ports and we need to figure out how to maximize the economic advantage for Canada.”

Mr. Prentice met with Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard Tuesday, and heads to Toronto to meet Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne Wednesday, as part of his campaign to convince central Canadians that the project to ship Western crude to the east coast will benefit the whole country. He pointed out the lack of access to world prices costs Canada more than $10-billion a year.

As part of his mission, the Alberta Premier visited Vancouver Monday, where he said Canada is an economic union, as well as a political union, based on the assumption that provinces should share the advantages of growth and development.

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Mongolia restarts bidding for giant coal project as economy flags (Reuters India – December 3, 2014)

http://in.reuters.com/

Dec 3 (Reuters) – Mongolia has relaunched an international tender to develop its giant Tavan Tolgoi coal project as it tries to boost a flagging economy hit by falling commodity prices and a decline in foreign investment.

The latest attempt has drawn interest from Hong-Kong listed Mongolia Mining Corp (MMC), U.S.-based Peabody Energy Corp and Japan’s Itochu Corp, despite weak global coal prices.

Tavan Tolgoi holds around 7.5 billion tonnes of coking coal, but Mongolia’s cash-strapped government has struggled to finance its development, and little progress has been made since an international bidding process collapsed in 2011.

The Mongolian Mining Corp (MMC) said on Monday that it has formed a consortium with “certain independent parties” to submit a bid for the project, located around 300 kilometres (186 miles) from the Chinese border.

Interested firms had to notify the Mongolian government of their intention to bid for the block before a Dec. 1 deadline, with a shortlist expected to be released by Dec. 15, MMC said.

The firm declined to give further details of its bid, when contacted by Reuters. Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi, the state-owned entity in charge of the project, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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Cheap Quebec power proposed for Ring of Fire – by Norm Tollinsky (Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal – December 1, 2014)

This article was originally published in the December 2014 issue of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal.

Mushkegowuk Council First Nations study rail, energy and seaport corridor to James Bay

The eight First Nation communities of the Mushkegowuk Council in Ontario’s Far North are proposing a rail, energy and seaport infrastructure corridor connecting the province’s massive Ring of Fire chromium deposits to James Bay.

The idea is still in the very earliest stage of development, and hinges on importing cheap electricity from Quebec on a First Nation-owned grid free from having to charge Ontario’s much higher regulated electricity rates.

Three of the Mushkegowuk Council’s member First Nations are already in the electrical transmission business as owners of Five Nations Energy Inc.’s 270-kilometre Western James Bay Transmission Line, which runs from Moosonee to Attawapiskat and supplies energy to De Beers’ Victor Mine.

The proposed infrastructure corridor would include a seasonal seaport on James Bay, a transmission line to the Ring of Fire and an electrified rail line.

The transmission line would also be extended to supply electricity to the isolated Matawa First Nations most immediately affected by the Ring of Fire development and currently dependent on diesel power.

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Quebec’s Plan Nord Exposes The Seedy Side Of A Resource Boom – by Catherine Lévesque (Huffington Post Quebec – December 2, 2014)

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/business/

SEPT-ÎLES, Que. — For some, it’s a way to make some fast cash. For others, it’s a chance to latch on to an engineer for maybe more than one night.

The “world’s oldest profession” has always found a niche in proximity to large-scale projects that require thousands of workers — where men are alone, isolated from their families and earning a big salary. It’s no different along Quebec’s North Shore, with the advent of Plan Nord, a provincially funded strategy to develop natural resources in northern Quebec, mostly in the mining and energy sectors. Launched in 2011 by former Quebec Premier Jean Charest, it’s targeted at getting major corporations to invest big bucks in an area three times the size of France.

And prostitutes are hoping to take advantage of a resource boom, using classified ads and dating sites to offer their services.

One online ad is from a woman we’ll call “Claudie.” Looking to attract North Shore guys, her piercing eyes promise them seventh heaven. Oral sex is $40 and sex is $100 an hour, and she will provide a receipt if the client chooses to get a massage.

Claudie, who leaves Saguenay by car, will pick up a client on the way near highway 138. Those who want to can meet her at the destination, a motel in Baie-Comeau. She likes her work and told The Huffington Post Québec that it was a job like any other.

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Alaskans fear environmental, industrial threats from B.C. mines – by Dirk Meissner (Canadian Press – December 3, 2014)

http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/news/

Alaskan environmental, aboriginal groups say unchecked development threatens salmon and tourism industries

VICTORIA—British Columbia’s ambition of opening new mines in the province’s north has raised fears in neighbouring Alaska where environmental and aboriginal groups say the unchecked development threatens their salmon and tourism industries.

Tribal leaders and salmon-protection advocates gathered at a Bureau of Indian Affairs conference in Anchorage, and high on the agenda was the impact of B.C. mineral developments on the multi-billion-dollar Alaskan industries.

Conference delegates called on the United States State Department to use the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty to activate the International Joint Commission, hold boundary dispute hearings and discuss the important salmon waterways, the communities they support and the risks they face from potential mine contamination.

“We’re asking the U.S. federal government to elevate this issue to the International Joint Commission,” said Guy Archibald, a spokesperson for the southeast Alaska Conservation Council.

Archibald said conservation and aboriginal groups have formed the Salmon Beyond Borders coalition to lobby their government to pressure Canada and B.C.

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$4-million investment in golden property – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – December 3, 2014)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Another junior mining company is betting it has found a viable gold property in the city with a heart of gold. Gowest Gold Ltd., a firm with solid roots in Timmins, is planning to fast track an exploration program for its Bradshaw gold deposit, located about 40 kilometres north of the built up area of Timmins.

The company held an open house Monday at the McIntyre Auditorium to bring shareholders, supporters and members of the public up to speed on the work the company is planning in the coming year.

One of the first things the company has planned is to prepare the Bradshaw site to remove overburden and create a water management infrastructure. The company has also planned significantly more exploration drilling, according to company president and CEO Greg Romain, a Timmins native.

He said the company is in an enviable position of having closed a $4-million financing deal with Fortune Future Holdings Limited of China, who Romain said has demonstrated significant faith in the project.

‘First of all it is one of the newest deposits, not near an existing mine, to be found what I’ve been told since Hoyle Pond was discovered 25 years ago.

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