Twitter

HISTORY: Timmins Pioneers preferred boozy beverages – by Karen Bachmann (Timmins Daily Press – November 29, 2014)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Karen Bachmann is the director/curator of the Timmins Museum and a local author.

TIMMINS – Now, for something just a little different. I was going to put together another collection of little items and stories from 1940, but, being the short-attention-span kinda gal I am these days, I was sidetracked by an article entitled “Some of the Beverages Used Through the Years” by that goddess of the 1940s kitchen, Edith M. Barber.

She began her informative piece with a definition of beverages (“anything in liquid form which we drink with or between meals” – how helpful), and then proceeded with a description of a variety of rather unsavory drinks from the early Canadian colonial period.

That got me thinking about some of those early drinks, seeing as how we are approaching the holiday season, and festive beverages are once again on the itinerary. I figured, how bad could these early cocktails actually be?

Turns out the answer is, actually, quite horrid. How anyone could stomach some of these concoctions is beyond me (by the way, museum staff who are coming to my place for a glass of Christmas cheer need no longer fear that it will be an 1812 themed event).

The thinking at the time (I mean in the early days of Canada, between 1763 and the mid-19th century) dictated that fermented beverages were so much safer than water.

Read more

On pipelines, politicians are just listening to the people – by Gary Mason (Globe and Mail – November 28, 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.

If you listen closely, you can hear the sound of desperation in the voice of Alberta Premier Jim Prentice when he talks about the Energy East pipeline. One doesn’t have to concentrate quite as hard to detect the same anxiety in the words of Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall.

Both were taken aback when Ontario and Quebec announced seven conditions for granting approval to the pipeline. One of those includes an assessment of the project’s upstream greenhouse gas emissions – which would appear to take into account the source of the crude moving through the pipeline. In Alberta’s case, that would be the oil sands, a high GHG emitter.

The conditions are similar to ones the B.C. government set out for pipeline projects, including a requirement to consult with First Nations. And we all know how that’s been going for pipeline companies trying to reach tidewater on the West Coast.

Despite conditional approval from the National Energy Board, most believe the Northern Gateway pipeline will never get built because of opposition to it. The courts have given First Nations new powers to fight developments that encroach on their land. Outside of aboriginal communities, public opinion regarding pipelines is at best divided – although there seems to be a growing societal angst about climate change that is palpable.

Kinder Morgan, which also wants to add a pipeline to the West Coast, is encountering that sentiment now.

Read more

Canada’s unfinished business with First Nations is an economic failure – by Diane Francis (National Post – November 29, 2014)

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

“The great themes of Canada are as follows: Keeping the Americans out, keeping the French in, and trying to get the Natives to somehow disappear.” – Will Ferguson, humorist and 2012 Giller Prize winner

Ferguson’s acerbic quote also summarizes the great unfinished business of Canada which is to reconcile the rights and create a role for the country’s 614 First Nations and their 700,000 members. The failure to have done this after centuries not only impedes national economic development, but is at the root of much of the misery and squalor on and off reserves.

The United States did not make deals, but conquered its Native Americans and, under international law, has only been required to compensate them. But here, Britain signed sovereign deals with aboriginals, catapulting them under international law to the rights and privileges of nation-states. Thus they call themselves First Nations. Australia has a similar history, but, unlike here, Canberra has fully addressed the issues.

Canada must now do the same. A recent, landmark Supreme Court of Canada ruling has fully, and radically, defined “aboriginal rights.” Justices unanimously decided that lands in the British Columbia interior, the size of Greater Vancouver, belonged to the Tsilhqot’in Nation, a band with 400 members. They now own and must manage the lands in perpetuity, rights they can relinquish only if they sign ownership over to a government.

Read more

Swiss Reject SNB Gold Initiative, SRF Projections Show – by Catherine Bosley (Bloomberg News – November 30, 2014)

http://www.businessweek.com/

Swiss voters rejected a referendum requiring their central bank to hold a portion of its assets in gold, a measure its President Thomas Jordan termed an “invitation to speculators” that could have hamstrung the economy.

The “Save Our Swiss Gold” proposal stipulating the Swiss National Bank hold at least 20 percent of its 520-billion-franc ($540 billion) balance sheet in gold and never sell any bullion was voted down by 78 percent to 22 percent, according to projections by Swiss television. Polls had forecast the initiative’s rejection. Two other initiatives on tax privileges for foreign millionaires and immigration limits also were rejected.

SNB policy makers warned repeatedly that the measure, which also required the 30 percent of central bank gold stored in Canada and the U.K. to be repatriated, would have made it harder to keep prices stable and shield the central bank’s cap on the franc of 1.20 per euro. That minimum exchange rate was set three years ago, with the SNB pledging to buy foreign currency in unlimited amounts to defend it.

“The key word is relief, but it’s not a reason to crack the champagne corks yet,” said Janwillem Acket, chief economist at Julius Baer Group Ltd. in Zurich. Due to the rejection, “the SNB has more options and fewer constraints on monetary policy,” he said.

Investors anticipating more easing by the European Central Bank helped push the franc to a 26-month high against the euro earlier this month. ECB President Mario Draghi has explicitly cited government bond-buying as a possible policy tool.

Read more

‘Deep Down Dark,’ by Héctor Tobar – by Mac McClelland (New York Times – November 20, 2014)

http://www.nytimes.com/

In 1987, a toddler who became known to the world as Baby Jessica fell into an abandoned well in a backyard in Midland, Tex., where she was stuck for 58 hours. Watching the coverage as a 7-year-old, I couldn’t get an answer from the newscasters or my parents that explained why it was taking so long for so many smart grown-ups to solve such a simple problem. Even now, I find it hard to believe that the human race can be outmatched by such a primitive adversary as a hole in the ground.

Crises of faith are the dominant theme of Héctor Tobar’s “Deep Down Dark,” the story of 33 men who were buried for 69 days in a collapsed Chilean mine in 2010. With his exclusive access to the survivors, Tobar, a Pulitzer Prize-­winning journalist, graphically recounts the quandaries that beset the men as well as their families — camped out at the mine’s entrance — the officials and rescue crews as a worldwide audience watched. There is weeping.

There is acceptance of death. There is the miners’ terror, every time the rescue drill stops, that they have been given up for dead. “The silence just destroyed us,” one man told Tobar. “Without a positive sign, your faith collapses. Because faith isn’t totally blind.” Some men find a stronger connection to God (“Omar realizes that the improbable fact of their survival also carries a hint of the divine. To be alive in this hole, against all odds, speaks to Omar of the existence of a higher power with some sort of plan for these still-living men”). Others struggle with whether to pray or to succumb to the darkness and lie down to die.

The hierarchy that gave the miners order in their workday routine is destroyed almost instantaneously. The shift supervisor buckles under the realities of the collapse and abdicates his authority.

Read more

Conference shines spotlight on deep mining expertise in Sudbury – by Norm Tollinsky (Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal – November 26, 2014)

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

Delegates from around the world share deep mining solutions

Deep Mining 2014, held in Sudbury September 16 to 18, was a big hit, attracting 302 attendees from around the world.

“It was an overwhelming success,” said conference co-chair and Laurentian University associate professor Marty Hudyma. “We really didn’t know what to expect in view of the fact that the industry is in a downturn. We were optimistic that we would get 200 delegates, and 250 would have been beyond our wildest dreams, so we were ecstatic with 302.”

According to Hudyma, approximately half of the delegates were from outside the Sudbury area, including contingents from Australia, South America, Europe and South Africa.

Deep Mining 2014, the seventh International Conference on Deep and High Stress Mining, was hosted by the Australian Centre for Geomechanics. It attracted 62 papers on a wide variety of topics including ground control, seismicity, ventilation, mine design and logistics.

“The feedback I got from delegates was that there were a lot of very good case studies on deep mining and the challenges they have to deal with,” said Hudyma.

“There are three real challenges. The first is the ground conditions and the stresses are getting more difficult, so we have to modify our mining practices to be able to work effectively and safely at great depth.

Read more

HISTORY: Workers at biblical copper mines ate quite well – by By Megan Gannon (Fox News.com – November 28, 2014)

http://www.foxnews.com/

LiveScience – Metalworkers who did skilled labor at biblical-era copper mines in modern-day Israel were rewarded for their efforts with well-rounded meals, new research suggests.

The metalworkers’ diet included good cuts of sheep and goat, as well as pistachios, grapes and fish brought to the middle of the desert from the Mediterranean, according to an analysis of ancient leftovers at “Slaves’ Hill,” a mining camp in Israel’s Timna Valley.

The findings imply that “Slaves’ Hill” might be a misnomer; the people who manned the furnaces probably weren’t slaves, but rather, they held a higher status because of their craft, archaeologists say. [The Holy Land: 7 Amazing Archaeological Finds]

Not-exactly ‘Slaves’ Hill’

“Somebody took care that these people were eating well,” said Erez Ben-Yosef, an archaeologist from Tel Aviv University.

Since 2012, Ben-Yosef has been leading an archaeological expedition in the heart of Timna Valley, the second biggest source of copper in the southern Levant region. (The biggest is Faynan, farther north in Jordan.) People have taken advantage of the copper deposits at Timna for millennia. There are dozens of smelting sites and thousands of primitive mining pits clearly visible in the region today. And the area is still used for copper production; the Mexican mining giant AHMSA has a stake in the region.

Read more

COLUMN-Sliding investment, cost-cutting shows commodity boom-bust lives – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – November 28, 2014)

http://www.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Nov 27 (Reuters) – Anybody who still has lingering doubts that the commodity cycle has turned bearish need only delve into two reports released this week on Australia’s resources sector.

The half-yearly report from the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE), the government’s forecaster, showed only three projects, worth a total A$597 million ($507 million), reached a positive final investment decision (FID) in the six months to October.

This is not only the lowest number, but the lowest value for more than a decade, and is conclusive proof that investment in projects is waning under the burden of low prices and more muted demand forecasts as growth in top buyer China slows.

The other report released this week came from consultants PwC, with their annual review of mid-tier Australian miners showing companies are now trying to maximise productivity by boosting output while cutting costs.

The problem is so far these efforts aren’t bearing fruit, as prices fall faster than the companies can make improvements. “In fact, the worst may be yet to come, at least for iron ore and coal miners,” PwC said in the Nov. 25 release.

Read more

Central bankers’ love-hate gold relationship – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – November 28, 2014)

http://www.mineweb.com/

Why are most central bankers so keen not to proceed with gold repatriation? What is the true picture for gold held in official vaults?

LONDON (MINEWEB) – One senses a bit of a momentum growing in the precious metals sector. Is this just wishful thinking from someone who is something of a long-term believer in gold and silver, or is there some substance behind the feeling? After all gold is having trouble making any kind of decisive move above $1,200, being knocked back every time it sticks its head above the 1,200 parapet. But then, despite the knockbacks, it still seems to be clinging on, just about, to the $1180s and 90s with the occasional foray down a few dollars.

On the negative side the Swiss gold referendum looks to be going to come up with a No vote after unprecedented lobbying and scaremongering from the Swiss establishment. Even so the fact that this referendum is even taking place reflects the obvious unease which is running through sectors of the European financial community regarding the true levels of physical gold held on their behalf in the US in particular.

This suggests the beginnings of a growing lack of trust in the political and financial establishment. If this trust evaporates much further then government attempts to prop up their fiat currencies, which might otherwise be failing, will be called further into question as will government statistics purporting to show things are getting better the whole time while most of the people are not seeing the fruits of the so-called financial recovery.

Read more

Mining, independence at stake as Greenland goes to the polls – by Katja Vahl and Sabina Zawadzki (Reuters India – November 28, 2014)

http://in.reuters.com/

NUUK/COPENHAGEN – Nov 28 (Reuters) – Greenlanders go to the polls on Friday with hopes for a mineral-rich independence from Denmark foundering on the reality of a tiny, shrinking economy.

The fall of premier Aleqa Hammond last month in an expense scandal has muted the nationalist rhetoric that promised independence based on wealth from some of the largest mineral deposits on earth.

With major mining projects in limbo due to low commodity prices, regulatory instability and the bankruptcy of the owner of the most promising prospect in the country, politicians of all hues have focused on the ailing subsidised economy.

The campaign appears neck and neck. For weeks, polls showed opposition party Inuit Ataqatigiit, led by 36-year-old Sara Olsvig, would win for only the second time since 1979.

But the ruling Siumut party, now led by former policeman Kim Kielsen, is managing to distance itself from former premier Hammond’s expenses scandal. At least one poll in the past week shows Kielsen in the lead.

“Hammond accentuated all the differences between Denmark and Greenland.

Read more

NEWS RELEASE: David Suzuki Foundation supports call for moratorium on mining permits in northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire November 27, 2014

TORONTO — The David Suzuki Foundation has told the Ontario government it supports First Nations’ requests for a moratorium on mining exploration permits in the Ring of Fire. The Neskantaga and Nibinamik First Nations have asked the provincial government to enact an immediate moratorium on mining exploration permits in the region — the biodiversity-rich boreal forest and Hudson’s Bay Lowlands, more than 500 kilometres north of Thunder Bay.

The David Suzuki Foundation is working with the communities to help strengthen their capacity to engage in present and future policy, planning and land use decision-making processes, based on the shared objective of maintaining healthy landscapes that support traditional ways of life and provision of ecological services.

In September, Neskantaga and Nibinamik were two of nine Matawa communities calling for a moratorium on granting future and pending permits until First Nations and the Ontario government develop a regional protocol to address the issue, as they believe adequate consultations are not taking place.

“We agree that proceeding with development decisions while negotiations are under way is counterproductive,” said Rachel Plotkin, Ontario science projects manager at the David Suzuki Foundation. “The David Suzuki Foundation strongly believes that before mineral exploration begins, sufficient investments must be made in the social capital of the affected communities, such as investments in community services, so they can successfully engage in government-to-government decision-making processes.”

Read more

David Suzuki Foundation wants “social capital” invested in the Ring of Fire – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – November 27, 2014)

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.

The David Suzuki Foundation is siding with two northern First Nation communities in requesting a moratorium on mining exploration permits in the Ring of Fire.

The Toronto and Vancouver-based environmental organization has been working with Neskantaga and Nibinamik to build the remote communities’ policy and decision-making capacity toward making planning and land-use decisions that are in keeping with their traditional way of life.

Last September, Neskantaga and Nibinamik were two of nine Matawa tribal council communities that called for a moratorium on granting permits for mineral exploration until First Nations and Queen’s Park finalized a regional consultation protocol to address development in the James Bay lowlands.

The chiefs accused the province of moving forward on permitting companies which have not consulted with area First Nations. They insist it breaks the spirit of a regional framework signed last March that was supposed to guide future mining and infrastructure development in the Far North.

Read more

Iron-Ore Giant Vale Sees Rebound as Glut Squeezes Mines – by Juan Pablo Spinetto and Peter Millard (Bloomberg News – November 27, 2014)

 http://www.bloomberg.com/

Iron-ore prices are poised to rebound from five-year lows as Asian infrastructure demand improves and high-cost mines close, according to the top producer Vale SA. (VALE5)

The steelmaking raw material, which slumped 49 percent this year to $68.49 a dry metric ton yesterday, will return to an average range of $85 to $90 next year, Chief Executive Officer Murilo Ferreira said in an interview. Prices jumped 2.2 percent today, the most in seven weeks. Vale isn’t considering slowing its expansions because of slumping prices and is pressing ahead with the $19.7 billion Serra Sul S11D mine and logistics project, the industry’s biggest, he said.

“There was a lot of volatility in prices this year and the market is undershooting at the moment and this will bring about a correction,” Ferreira, 61, said at the company’s headquarters in Rio de Janeiro yesterday. “This correction will come through the closure of many inefficient miners of high cost and poor quality iron ore.”

Vale, Rio Tinto Group (RIO) and BHP Billiton Ltd. are maintaining their expansions betting that higher-cost producers will be squeezed out of the market. The price plunge, including a 20 percent drop in the past three months, is prompting speculation China will close inefficient mines, while Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. is considering shutting a mine in Canada.

Read more

God didn’t make salmon streams for strip mining – by Judy Heilman (Alaska Dispatch – November 27, 2014)

http://www.adn.com/

This week I woke to yet another front-page story about a mining company destroying a salmon stream. This time it’s the Australian mining company XS Platinum Inc. that got caught turning the Salmon River in Southwest Alaska into a river of mine waste.

With mining disasters more and more common in the pages of Alaskan newspapers, it’s time to stop blindly trusting Outside mining companies with Alaska’s wild salmon streams. When XS Platinum applied for its permit to mine near the Salmon River, it promised Alaskans a “zero discharge” mine.

Instead, XS Platinum knowingly dumped enough pollution to turn the clear river into a filthy mess — so muddy that fisheries biologists couldn’t count the salmon from above.

But this mine isn’t alone. Another mine — heralded by the mining industry as an example of how mining and salmon can successfully co-exist — failed late this summer, sending billions of gallons of toxic mine waste into one of North America’s premier salmon streams.

The Mount Polley mine along the Fraser River in British Columbia is just the latest example how “state of the art” mining technology cannot stop the harm caused by massive dredging operations in and around sensitive salmon habitat.

Read more