Republic of Mining

Lawrence Martin elected Mushkegowuk Grand Chief – (CBC News Sudbury – November 17, 2014)

November 19, 2014

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

Lawrence Martin has been elected as the new Grand Chief of the Mushkegowuk Council. Martin, who is a member of the Moose Cree First Nation, beat out six other candidates in a by-election. He has also served as Mushkegowuk Grand Chief before, from 1998 to 2001.

The grand chief position has been open since the death of long-time leader Stan Louttit, who lost a battle with cancer in June. “We have a lot of the housing issues, we have a lot of the water and sewage problems,” Martin said of the challenges he will face as Grand Chief.

“But there’s all kinds of money out there. Minister Rickford just announced the Canada Build program that has millions and millions of dollars and now we can actually start applying for those funds for the infrastructure in the communities.”

After Martin served a term with Mushkegowuk Council, he was active in off-reserve politics. He served as mayor of the towns of Cochrane and Sioux Lookout.

“Lawrence Martin made history as the first Aboriginal person in Ontario elected to lead a non-native municipality, then made history again by becoming one of the only people in Canada elected to lead two different municipalities,” Nishnawbe-Aski Nation Grand Chief Harvey Yesno said in a release.

Ring of Fire funding held up by Ottawa, Ontario battle – by Bill Curry (Globe and Mail – November 19, 2014)

November 19, 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.

OTTAWA — Plans to spend billions of federal and provincial dollars on infrastructure in Ontario are being held up by a behind-the-scenes battle over the Ring of Fire, as the province wants Ottawa to match $1-billion in new money to develop the ambitious mining project.

Nearly two years have passed since Ottawa announced a 10-year, $14-billion Building Canada Fund for infrastructure, but the Conservative government is expressing its strong frustration that Ontario has yet to submit a list of projects. Ottawa has said Ontario qualifies for $2.7-billion from the fund, but the province argues that using that money for the Ring of Fire would leave very little for other provincial needs such as transit and new roads.

As a result, the two governments appear to be at loggerheads, though ministers and officials are attempting to break the impasse. The waiting, combined with falling chromite prices, has proved to be too much for Cleveland’s Cliffs Natural Resources – the region’s leading mining firm is now looking to sell its Ring of Fire assets.

Federal Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford, who represents the Northwestern Ontario riding of Kenora, insisted Tuesday that there is momentum around the Ring of Fire and that he expects the two governments to make progress shortly.

MPP says Ontario dragging its feet on Ring of Fire – by Jeff Labine (Timmins Daily Press – November 19, 2014)

November 19, 2014

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – The MPP for Timmins-James Bay is blaming the Liberal government for squandering the proposed Ring of Fire project and causing friction with mining companies.

Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa delivered his fall economic statement, saying the government is working to meet fiscal targets despite modest economic growth and later than expected revenues. He said the revenue projection for 2014-15 is $118.4 billion – $509 million lower than first forecast.

In that same report, Sousa once again called on the federal government to match the Liberal’s $1-billion investment into the Ring of Fire.

New Democrat MPP Gilles Bisson said because the Liberals have dragged their feet, major companies like Cliffs Natural Resources have left the project. He said Cliffs and many other mining companies continue to voice their frustration with the government.

“They have been talking about the Ring of Fire for eight or nine years,” he said. “They have mentioned it now in two or three budgets and a couple of Throne Speeches. Now they got this fallacy going on that they are going to do something when it comes to infrastructure in the Ring of Fire but we have to wait for the feds.

Feds prepared to spend billions on Ring of Fire – by Len Gillis (Timmins Times – November 18, 2014)

November 18, 2014

www.timminstimes.co

Federal mines minister Greg Rickford said this week the federal government is ready to ante up its share of infrastructure funding for nationally significant projects such as the Ring of Fire mining development.

But he made it clear that the Province of Ontario will have to pay a share of those costs as well. Rickford, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, was speaking at the annual Mining Day event on Parliament Hill on Tuesday. The event was sponsored by the Mining Association of Canada. The Timmins Times requested a copy of his speech.

Rickford, the government MP for Kenora, said he recognizes the importance of mining on both the provincial and national levels, in that it continues to generate tens of billions of dollars to Canada’s GDP (gross domestic product).

“Bottom line – mining is a cornerstone of Canada’s economy and our quality of life,” he said. He admitted that as a Northern MP, he has a continuing local interest.

“My riding has a dynamic mining sector, with some of this country’s biggest mines. As your own figures show, the sector is directly responsible for providing more than 380,000 jobs. The industry is a major employer of Aboriginal Peoples, providing employment to over 10,000 individuals,” Rickford told the audience.

Media Statement: Dealing With Occupational Lung Disease – A Collaborative Initiative By SA Mining Companies

November 18, 2014

Five companies to seek comprehensive solution on occupational lung disease

Johannesburg, 18 November 2014: Anglo American South Africa, AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields, Harmony and Sibanye (“the companies”) announce that they have formed an industry working group to address issues relating to compensation and medical care for occupational lung disease (OLD) in the gold mining industry in South Africa.

The companies intend to engage all stakeholders in order to work together to design and implement a comprehensive solution that is both fair to past, present and future gold mining employees, and also sustainable for the sector.

To this end, the companies are arranging initial meetings with the departments of health, labour and mineral resources, organised labour, legal representatives of claimants and other mining companies. It is intended that this will lead to an intensive engagement process during 2015 intended to lead to a comprehensive solution.

The companies believe that fairness and sustainability are necessary to any comprehensive solution. The solution needs to be a product of the engagement process that has been initiated.

The companies are among respondent companies in a number of lawsuits related to occupational lung disease. These companies do not believe that they are liable in respect of the claims brought, and they are defending these.

Perception study of Aboriginal Canadians reveals low opinion of mining industry – by Creamer Media Reporter (MiningWeekly.com – November 18, 2014)

November 18, 2014

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – A Canada-wide survey of Aboriginal Canadians who reside in rural and/or remote communities has revealed that only 38% have a favourable perception of the mining and mineral exploration industry. This is a considerable difference compared with the positive approval among Canadians cited in recent industry studies, ranging between 76% and 82%.

The results provide valuable insight on how mining proponents can gain social license by building positive relationships with Aboriginal communities, addressing concerns and ensuring the communities benefit from proposed projects.

Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources and the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario, Greg Rickford, on Monday highlighted the importance of mining to Aboriginal peoples and the Canadian economy, as well as the potential presented by areas with high mineral development opportunities such as the Ring of Fire and the North.

When addressing attendees of the Canadian Aboriginal Minerals Association’s twenty-second annual conference, the Minister also emphasised the Canadian government’s commitment to responsibly developing Canada’s natural resources, which includes engaging with communities and environmental stewardship.

Rickford underscored the government of Canada’s ongoing efforts to increase Aboriginal participation in the mining industry with a particular emphasis on Aboriginal youth.

Twenty-Nine Coal Mining Deaths: Should The Former CEO Go To Prison? – by Ken Silverstein (Forbes Magazine – November 17, 2014)

November 18, 2014

http://www.forbes.com/

During the 2014 Midterm Elections, most candidates for federal and state offices in Appalachia couldn’t get enough of coal — races, in essence, to see who could be the most pro-coal. Now, though, with criminal charges just announced against one of the coal barons, elected officials are running in the opposite direction.

Those living in West Virginia’s coal towns have long known of Don Blankenship, the former chief executive of Massey Energy that is now owned by Alpha Natural Resources ANR -6.9%. To shareholders, he had been a no-nonsense guy, increasing mining production while adding to Massey’s bottom line. To miners and regulators, however, he has been the ultimate hard-ass, caring nothing about the little guy.

Lacking sentimentality is not a crime. But ignoring established mine-safety laws while misleading shareholders about those priorities is illegal. That is what the U.S. District Court for Southern West Virginia is alleging in its four-count indictment against Blankenship, released late last week. If found guilty of all charges, the former CEO could face up to 31 years in prison.

“He could have talked himself into believing that he knew the industry and the risks better than the government. He could also have chosen to close his eyes to the risks and was driven purely by greed. He could also try to justify it by reasoning that if someone dies, then it is simply a function of being in a dangerous business,” says Jane Barrett, professor of law and director of the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Maryland Law School, in an interview.

How big miners are reliving the late 90s bust – by Steve Todoruk (Business Excellence Mining – November 18, 2014)

November 18, 2014

http://www.bus-ex.com/

Steve Todoruk, a mining veteran who joined Rick Rule in 2003 at Sprott Global Resource Investments Ltd. says he’s seeing some key similarities between today and the last big bear market for resource stocks, which lasted from around 1998 to 2001. Many of today’s mining legends made their reputation and their fortune during that time.

The last time we saw this happen was in the late 1990s. Gold was around $300 per ounce; silver was near $6; and copper was $0.60 a pound.

Commodity prices had fallen so much that big miners were producing near or below the sale price of their product. In some cases, the more they produced the more money they lost. Many mines had been shut down or were in the process of closing due to their inability to produce a profit.

Copper miners needed around $1.10 per pound to make a decent profit. At $0.60 these companies were losing their shirts. In the gold space, Goldcorp was one of the very few miners to eke out a small profit because they had only one mine, which happened to be one of the richest high-grade gold mines in the world.

Today, most industry experts believe that the ‘all-in sustaining cost’ to produce one ounce of gold is somewhere between $1,000 and $1,300. The all-in sustaining costs include all the costs of running current mining operations plus cash spent finding new ounces to replace mined reserves.

Japan’s nuclear restart to boost Australian uranium industry – by Vicky Validakis (Australian Mining – November 18, 2014)

November 18, 2014

http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/home

The Minerals Council of Australia says Australia’s uranium industry is set for a boost as Japan moves to restart nuclear reactors for the first time since the Fukushima meltdown.

Two reactors at Japan’s Sendai nuclear plant in the south west of the country are due to restart next year after receiving approval from local governor Yuichiro Ito.

This is the first time a reactor will restart since an earthquake triggered a tsunami in 2011, causing a meltdown at the Fukushima facility.

All of Japan’s 48 nuclear plants were shut down in response, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been pushing for their reopening as the cost of importing oil and gas hurts the Japanese economy, BBC reported.

Before the meltdown nuclear energy produced around 30 per cent of Japan’s power. “I have decided that it is unavoidable to restart the No. 1 and No. 2 Sendai nuclear reactors,” Ito said. “I have said that assuring safety is a prerequisite and that the government must ensure safety and publicly explain it thoroughly to residents.”

Executive director for uranium at the Minerals Council of Australia Daniel Zavattiero said the move was good news for the local uranium industry and its 4000 workers.

Coal Rush in India Could Tip Balance on Climate Change – by Gardiner Harris (New York Times – November 17, 2014)

November 18, 2014

http://www.nytimes.com/

DHANBAD, India — Decades of strip mining have left this town in the heart of India’s coal fields a fiery moonscape, with mountains of black slag, sulfurous air and sickened residents.

But rather than reclaim these hills or rethink their exploitation, the government is digging deeper in a coal rush that could push the world into irreversible climate change and make India’s cities, already among the world’s most polluted, even more unlivable, scientists say.

“If India goes deeper and deeper into coal, we’re all doomed,” said Veerabhadran Ramanathan, director of the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and one of the world’s top climate scientists. “And no place will suffer more than India.”

India’s coal mining plans may represent the biggest obstacle to a global climate pact to be negotiated at a conference in Paris next year. While the United States and China announced a landmark agreement that includes new targets for carbon emissions, and Europe has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent, India, the world’s third-largest emitter, has shown no appetite for such a pledge.

“India’s development imperatives cannot be sacrificed at the altar of potential climate changes many years in the future,” India’s power minister, Piyush Goyal, said at a recent conference in New Delhi in response to a question. “The West will have to recognize we have the needs of the poor.”

NORCAT training centre at Collège Boréal – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – November 17, 2014)

November 18, 2014

http://www.timminspress.com/

TIMMINS – NORCAT, the Sudbury-based mining research and innovation agency, has opened a training and development centre in Timmins. The facility is set up at the Timmins campus of Collège Boréal.

NORCAT Timmins, as the facility is called, will provide programs, services and training resources that focus on such things as reducing injuries, saving lives and enhancing productivity in the workplace, said Ken Stewart, the manager of training and development for NORCAT Timmins.

Stewart said Northern College had previously established an e-learning training partnership in Timmins but he said there was a market demand to “grow the business” in Timmins.

“Certainly we will have classroom training and this will enhance their e-learning courses. We have in excess of 50 courses,” Stewart said.

NORCAT has set up two training and e-learning classrooms at the college and Stewart said he is confident that Northeastern Ontario mining operations will soon be taking advantage of the facility.

“Of course, the big thing now is simulation training. That is huge. NORCAT has a simulator in Sudbury. We can look forward to seeing either that simulator, or a stand alone simulator, come to Timmins to be used with the local mining community,” said Stewart.

Central African Republic new ‘blood diamond’ hub – by Martin Creamer (MiningWeekly.com – November 18, 2014)

November 18, 2014

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The dysfunctional Central African Republic (CAR) has taken over as the country where “blood diamond” activity is again rife.

Diamonds worth $24-million have been smuggled out of CAR since the suspension of the Kimberley Process last year and Seleka rebels and “anti-balaka” militia are providing security to local diamond traders, who initially pay the warring groups for safe access to diamond fields and then for ongoing protection during mining.

“It’s a classical case of blood diamonds,” International Crisis Group project director Thierry Vircoulon told Mining Weekly Online in the attached video.

Belgian authorities earlier this year confiscated diamonds ostensibly smuggled through the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Dubai to Europe from the ungoverned CAR, which is currently hobbling along as an impoverished failed State.

The chairperson of the Kimberley Process has put in a written request to the United Nations Security Council to alert neighbouring countries to the presence of diamond contraband.

Osisko Gold chief says $461M Virgian Mines takeover a ‘natural evolution’ – by Peter Koven (National Post – November 18, 2014)

November 18, 2014

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

From the day he launched Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd. in June, chief executive Sean Roosen knew that a merger with Virginia Mines Inc. was too logical to pass up.

The transaction was finally unveiled on Monday, as Osisko announced a $479-million all-stock deal to buy Virginia Mines and create a powerful Quebec-based royalty company that generates cash from the province’s two biggest gold mines.

“It was evident that this was a pretty natural evolution,” Mr. Roosen said in an interview. His prior company, Osisko Mining Corp., built the giant Canadian Malartic mine. When Osisko was sold for $3.7-billion this year, Osisko Royalties was spun off and granted a 5% royalty on Canadian Malartic.

Virginia Mines is led by André Gaumond, a Quebec entrepreneur who has struck a dizzying number of mining deals across his home province. His best discovery was the Éléonore project, which Goldcorp Inc. acquired nine years ago for US$420-million. Mr. Gaumond kept a royalty on Éléonore that is now paying off, as Goldcorp brought the mine into production this year.

Mr. Roosen thinks these are the two best royalties in the gold business. By putting them together, Osisko transforms into a $1.3-billion company that can compete with the three dominant players in the mining royalty space: Franco-Nevada Corp., Silver Wheaton Corp. and Royal Gold Inc.

Gold bounces back above $1 200 – will it jump higher? – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – November 18, 2014)

November 18, 2014

http://www.mineweb.com/

Gold moved back above the psychological $1 200 level this morning. Can it retain this upwards move and perhaps extend it?

LONDON (MINEWEB) – Gold bounced back above $1 200 this morning in London, but before one can be sure that this is the start of the long-expected recovery there could yet be teeth in the bear. The big money playing the futures markets with paper gold can still exert ultimate control over where the price is headed short term and if it suits them there could yet be another sharp price drop to try and drive out any remaining weak gold holders.

But medium term it may be that options are becoming more and more limited for keeping the market depressed. Gold continues to flow from West to East with the big recovery in Indian demand coupled with continuing high levels of withdrawals from the Shanghai Gold Exchange as the key elements in this.

Although whether Indian demand has recovered to overtake China’s over the past two quarters as World Gold Council figures might suggest, and which has been reported as fact by much of the media, given SGE withdrawal figures have been running at such high levels of late we think is not a true picture of the real situation, but in combination India and China are taking in gold at back to peak levels.