Twitter

Land rulings a clear message to Ottawa, provinces: It’s time to govern – by Thomas Isaac (Globe and Mail – July 21, 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.

Thomas Isaac is leader of the Aboriginal Law Group at Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt.

The Supreme Court of Canada has delivered two significant decisions this summer regarding aboriginal title and treaty rights. In June, the Tsilqhot’in decision affirmed aboriginal title over a discrete area of central British Columbia. In early July, the Keewatin decision confirmed Ontario’s authority to legislate regarding Treaty 3, including over areas such as forestry and mining.

At first the decisions look quite different. They deal with different provinces, different facts and appear to have differing outcomes. However, both decisions are actually consistent with each other and their outcomes similar. Both decisions affirm that governments bear the burden of balancing aboriginal and non-aboriginal interests fairly and reasonably and confirm that governments have the tools to govern.

In Tsilqhot’in, the Supreme Court confirmed the six Tsilqhot’in Bands hold aboriginal title to approximately 1,700 sq. km of remote and sparsely populated land in central British Columbia. As a result, these bands now hold the land and, with a few important restrictions, can use and derive benefits from it. Importantly, the decision confirms that both governments can legislate regarding aboriginal title lands and can infringe aboriginal title, where justified.

While Tsilqhot’in is the first decision affirming aboriginal title in Canada, there is actually little new law in it, except that it is now clear that provincial laws can apply to aboriginal title lands and that provinces and the federal government can infringe aboriginal title.

Read more

NEWS RELEASE: Northern Superior: 2ND Year Recognition for Its Commitment to Progressive Aboriginal Relations

http://www.nsuperior.com/

SUDBURY, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – July 21, 2014) – Northern Superior Resources Inc. (“Northern Superior” or the “Company”) (TSX VENTURE:SUP) is pleased to announce that it has re-committed to the Progressive Aboriginal Relations (“PAR”) “Committed” status (“PAR Committed”) of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business (CCAB) for the second year in a row. The CCAB is a national non- profit organization whose primary mission is to foster sustainable business relations between First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples and Canadian business.

PAR is a certification program that confirms corporate performance in Aboriginal relations. Northern Superior`s recognition as a PAR committed company for the second year in a row confirms: a) the Company`s commitment to continual improvement in Aboriginal relations; and b) the Company`s intention to undergo additional external verification of its performance in the future to eventually obtain full PAR certification.

”Northern Superior is very proud to be recognized by the CCAB as a “PAR Committed” company for the second year in a row. For over 13 years Northern Superior has understood the importance and advantages of working closely with Aboriginal Communities within whose traditional territories Northern Superior conducts its mineral exploration programs. As Northern Superior stated last year, the CCAB is a staunch advocate for Aboriginal businesses and the improvement of Aboriginal livelihoods from coast, to coast, to coast, and it is an honor to be involved with them.” states Tom Morris, President and CEO of Northern Superior Resources.

“PAR is the only CSR program with an exclusive focus on Aboriginal relations. We are pleased to recognize Northern Superior’s ongoing commitment to building meaningful relationships with Aboriginal communities and businesses.” said J.P. Gladu, President and CEO of the CCAB.

Read more

Gold Diggers Revive French Exploration as Prices Drive Hunt – by Francois de Beaupuy (Bloomberg News – July 21, 2014)

http://www.businessweek.com/

In a field near Saint-Pierre-Montlimart, a small hamlet with a turreted church in western France, Jack Testard and Patrick Lebret dig up some earth with an agronomic drill and put it in a plastic bag.

The president and the chief geologist of a French mining exploration startup owned by Australia’s Variscan Mines Ltd will send dirt samples from the field, which is in an area that was home to a gold mine until 1952, to a laboratory in southern France to look for “mineral anomalies” the company is betting will show evidence of the precious metal.

“There are a lot of attractive points to prospect in France,” Testard says, as he points to a map with yellow dots representing areas where traces of the metal have been found. “It’s a really interesting time to prospect gold because the price is higher than before” and extraction technologies “are much more modern.”

Although France hasn’t historically been a large producer of gold, soaring prices of the metal are bringing companies to its door. By granting the first exploration licenses in mainland France in more than two decades to Variscan, Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg is trying to revamp the country’s mining industry and cut reliance on imports of metals such as rare earths critical for military equipment and renewable energy.

The French exploration push comes even as mining companies extend cuts in spending for a second year.

Read more

EPA’s new Pebble battle plan stokes fears of wider impact – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – July 21, 2014)

http://www.mineweb.com/

U.S. EPA rejects its proposed veto of the Pebble Project in favor of ratcheting down how many miles of streams and acres of wetlands can be disturbed by the mine.

RENO (MINEWEB) – Alaska’s Congressional delegation has expressed concerns that the Environmental Protection Agency’s latest plan to stop the development of the Pebble Mine in Alaska will go far beyond the Pebble project.

Instead of issuing a blanket prohibition of developing Pebble to protect the Bristol Bay watershed, based on EPA’s effort to broaden the scope of its Clean Water Act section 404(c) authority, EPA now is trying to restrict fill activities at the project by proposing caps on how many miles of streams and acres of wetlands could be lost, which may severely impact the Bristol Bay fishery.

The Bristol Bay watershed produces half of the world’s wild sockeye salmon

In a news release issued Friday, EPA asserted that the mine waste produced by the Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum project would fill a major football stadium up to 3,900 miles, while its “massive mine tailings impounds…would cover 19 square miles.” The agency suggested Pebble would fill in 1,100 or more acres of wetlands and re-route streams to more than 20% of daily flow.

The Clean Water Act requires a section 404(c) permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before any person can place dredged or fill material into streams, wetlands, lakes and ponds.

Read more

How the mining zombies found a future in technology – by Tess Ingram (Australian Financial Review – July 21, 2014)

http://www.afr.com/

Failed listed resources companies are finding a profitable future above ground – in technology.

Since January, at least eight struggling resources companies, including Latin Gold and Macro Energy, have merged with technology companies. Start-ups and companies looking for alternative capital raising mechanisms are using the “zombie” companies as shell vehicles for backdoor listings on the Australian Securities Exchange.

Last week, Perth-based Intercept Minerals announced plans to acquire US online streaming business xTV for $12.5 million.

Operating conditions are difficult for the small end of the resources sector. The median spend on exploration activity fell 27 per cent in the first quarter, BDO’s March Explorer Quarterly Cash Update said, noting that it was the biggest such decrease since it started looking at the trends.

Perth-based analyst Peter Strachan estimates that more than two thirds of listed resources companies have less than $2 million net cash.

“Over the last few years there has been a capital strike,” Mr Strachan said. “A lot of exploration companies are sitting around watching the paint dry and thinking about how to make some money.”

Read more

Lone producer, Canadian firm lead charge on Greek energy – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – July 21, 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.

ATHENS – In the 1970s, an unlikely company played a key role in opening up Greece’s oil and gas industry. That company was Toronto’s Denison Mines, then better known as a uranium miner but one with ambitions to put the Eastern Mediterranean on the energy map.

It worked for a while. Offshore rigs in the Prinos field, in the brilliant blue northern Aegean Sea, pumped away until the late 1990s, when the oil price collapsed. The Denison-led consortium handed the entire project to the Greek government and walked away.

For the next two decades, pretty much nothing happened in the Greek oil and gas sector even though the country’s energy bill was soaring.

That all changed in 2009, when a new Greek explorer, Energean Oil & Gas, prodded the old field back to life. Today, it is Greece’s only oil producer and, with the help of a small Canadian company, Petra Petroleum, is leading the charge to prove that Greece can meet a good chunk of its energy needs.

“Any discoveries of oil and gas would be a huge benefit to the local market,” said Energean chief executive officer Mathios Rigas, a former investment banker and private equity fund manager. “We will never find out unless we drill wells.” Foreign investors are starting to pay attention.

Read more

The case against asbestos: Accidental exposure, entirely preventable – by Kat Sieniuc (Globe and Mail – July 21, 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.

Some 60 years ago, lumps of wet, grey material were given to students in art classes to shape and mould into art to proudly display at home. It was especially good for objets d’art such as candle holders, since the substance was famous for stopping the spread of flames.

That material was asbestos, now known as a toxic material for which there is, quite simply, no safe level of exposure. It’s still regularly found in older schools and universities across Canada, wrapped around pipes, above ceilings and behind walls.

Though asbestos is the biggest workplace killer in the country, Health Canada is committed to the position that it’s only an issue when fibres become airborne and “significant quantities” are inhaled or ingested. While the Canadian government maintains it has “consistently acted to protect Canadians from the health risks of asbestos,” dozens of countries – including Britain, Australia, Japan, Sweden, Germany and Denmark – have banned it outright in recognition of the fact that exposure to fibres can cause various diseases, including mesothelioma and other cancers.

The World Health Organization has declared all forms of asbestos carcinogenic and recommends its use be eliminated; the International Agency for Research on Cancer has said there is no safe form of asbestos, nor is there a threshold level of exposure that is risk-free.

Read more

Ontario should import low-cost hydroelectric power from Quebec – by Jack Gibbons (Toronto Star – July 21, 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.

Jack Gibbons is chair of the Ontario Clean Air Alliance.

Their highly radioactive waste will linger forever, but the elderly nuclear reactors that provide half of Ontario’s electricity will soon reach the end of their lives. And the task of rebuilding them, currently in the planning stages, will almost certainly burden the fiscally crippled province with even more debt while electricity prices maintain their steeply upward trajectory for decades to come.

As an alternative, letting the oldest reactors die and replacing their output with clean, renewable water power from Quebec could save Ontario $600 million a year in foregone nuclear costs — beginning as soon as the two neighbours decide to end the electricity separatism that has traditionally stood in the way of such a logical and mutually beneficial hookup.

Quebec is the fourth-largest producer of hydroelectric power in the world and its electricity rates are among the lowest in North America. Its residential rates are 45 per cent lower than ours and its industrial rates are 55 per cent lower. In recent years, the province has produced far more cheap, clean electricity than it can use itself.

Meanwhile, its next-door neighbour, Ontario, is struggling with some of the highest power costs in the country and facing a minimum $13-billion bill to refurbish the Darlington nuclear reactors. There is already enough transmission capacity linking the two provinces to replace 97 per cent of the power currently produced by Darlington — and a tremendous opportunity to strike a deal that would provide huge economic benefits for both provinces.

Read more

Phosphate: Morocco’s White Gold (Bloomberg News – November 04, 2010)

http://www.businessweek.com/

(Please note, this article was published in November 2010.)

In May 2009 a petite brunette from Paris wearing black heels scrambled up a pile of mine tailings on the outskirts of the Moroccan town of Khouribga. From up there, Béatrice Montagnier, a hotel specialist with the hospitality consulting firm Horwath, took in the view: parched plains scoured by bulldozers; an old warehouse baking in the sun; a jumble of two-story concrete block homes with a rectangular minaret beyond them.

She spun around 360 degrees snapping photos with her pink cell phone and imagining the future: a planned 800-acre resort project that would attract visitors from around the world. How many hotel rooms would they need? she wondered. Should it be three stars or four? And where would the museum be going? There was one issue—project funding—about which Montagnier had no questions. The estimated $1 billion needed to build the resort would come from the ground beneath her feet.

Miners have been working in Khouribga for almost a century, but only now is the area poised to become central to the global economy. Back in the 1920s pioneers started tunneling through the earth here, digging through layers of sediment formed under an ancient sea, looking for phosphate-rich rock and occasionally plucking out the tooth of a 30-million-year-old shark. The phosphate extracted from the rock, used in fertilizer, detergent, food additives, and more recently lithium-ion batteries, sold for decades in its raw state for less than $40 per metric ton. Those days are gone. It’s currently trading at about $130.

Read more

Go bigger with bear hunt (Thunder Bay Chronicle- Journal – July 20, 2014)

Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

A pilot-project bear hunt that ran in eight wildlife management units this spring, including one near Thunder Bay, needs to be expanded to be an effective wildlife management tool.

This past week a Thunder Bay man was knocked down and dragged by a bear near his home on Garden Avenue. It was the second aggressive bear encounter this summer in the city. One bear which showed up in the Oliver Road area and became aggressive had to be put down by city police.

In another encounter last month in Sioux Lookout, a man was dragged off a trail by a bear. So far no one has been seriously injured.

Northwestern Ontario Sportsmen’s Alliance John Kaplanis said Friday that it would be “most prudent” of Natural Resources Minister Bill Mauro to consider changes to the pilot project, if it is not doing enough to affect local bear populations.

He said NOSA has recommended that the pilot hunt be expanded to include additional wildlife management units as well as allow non-resident bear hunters, housed by tourist operators, to participate in the spring hunt.

Kaplanis noted that the spring hunt is only six weeks in length and with the very late thaw in Northwestern Ontario it is likely that the pilot bear hunt had little effect on black bear numbers.

Read more

B.C. mines get financial boost, one to open soon – by Ed Schoenfeld (CoastAlaska News – July 17, 2014)

http://www.krbd.org/

Canadian investors are putting millions of new dollars into mining projects near the Southeast Alaska border. They include the KSM and Tulsequah Chief prospects, which critics say could damage regional fisheries.

KSM is a multi-metal deposit about 150 miles northeast of Ketchikan. It’s near rivers or their tributaries that drain into the ocean northeast of Ketchikan and just south of the Alaska-B.C. border.

A group of Canadian financial firms are in the process of purchasing a million shares of Seabridge Gold, KSM’s parent company. They have an option to buy more, with the total new investment between $13 million and $15 million.

That’s not a lot for a large mine. So Seabridge, headquartered in Toronto, is negotiating to find much larger investors.

“We continue to seek partners and we have confidentiality agreements with several,” says Brent Murphy, vice president of environmental affairs for Seabridge Gold. Exploration continues at the KSM project, sometimes compared Western Alaska’s Pebble Prospect.

In an interview at a Vancouver, British Columbia, office, Murphy said the company has drilling rigs on site right now.Officials say the more-than-$5-billion project could be built and ready for operations by the end of the decade.

Read more

Coal Fuels Brewpubs in Wyoming as Kentucky Mines Misery – by Mark Drajem (Bloomberg News – July 18, 2014)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Trying to find the boom in U.S. coal? Stop in the Gillette Brewing Company in Wyoming, which 38-year-old Tom Gorton opened using some of the $70,000 a year he earns mining coal.

“Things were iffy there for a little bit, but it’s picking up now,” Gorton said at his brewery in the center of town, where customers wash down brie baked in a wood-fired oven with gluten-free blue agave ale. “When people have a little extra money, that changes things.”

In the coal region of eastern Kentucky, about 1,300 miles away, extra money is hard to come by. Brandon Farley lost his job there when the James River Coal Co. (JRCCQ) mine closed. Months of looking turned up only one job lead: a minimum wage opportunity at the local Pizza Hut.

“They want coal to be done with,” Farley said. “I believe it’s coming to an end.”

The experience of these two mining communities reflect the conflicting views of coal itself. Environmentalists see signs of its demise in shrinking production and growing concerns over global warming. Boosters point to a surge in demand by developing countries hungry for cheap and plentiful energy. Germany and Japan, too, are burning more coal as they reconsider the risks of atomic power.

Read more

Osisko CEO touts new mining royalty firm with ‘a little extra punch’ – by Peter Koven (National Post – July 18, 2014)

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

The mining royalty space already has some serious players for investors to choose from, but Sean Roosen is convinced his new offering stands out from the pack.

“We’ve got a couple of areas where we think we bring a little extra punch to the table,” the chief executive of Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd. said in an interview.

The stock started trading last month and was well-received from the start, opening above the implied valuation at launch and remaining there ever since. The company does not even have a website yet (apart from a splash page), but has generated plenty of investor interest.

That is not surprising. The royalty firm was spun out of this year’s $3.7-billlion takeover of Osisko Mining Corp., which was one of the mining sector’s most successful companies of the past decade. The team at Osisko Mining, led by Mr. Roosen, found and built the massive Canadian Malartic mine in Quebec, a world-class gold mine.

Nearly all the key players behind Osisko Mining are working together again at the royalty firm, including Mr. Roosen, John Burzynski (senior vice-president) and Brian Coates (president). They have a dedicated investor following who made money with Osisko Mining and are keen to do it again.

Read more

Arianne Phosphate lifts Quebec resource base – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – July 18, 2014)

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – TSX-V-listed Arianne Phosphate, which is developing the Lac à Paul project, in Quebec, this week reported that its 2014 drilling programme had enabled it to significantly lift its flagship project’s compliant inferred resources.

The Saguenay, Quebec-based firm on Wednesday said it had added 146-million tonnes grading 5.30% phosphorus pentoxide (P2O5), when using a 3.5% P2O5 cutoff grade, from the South TraMan Zone in the inferred category to its mineral resources.

The company also revealed that it had identified a new inferred resource from the Traverse zone totalling 17-million tonnes at 5.98% P2O5, at a 3.5% P2O5 cut-off grade.

Arianne noted that the added 163-million tonnes grading 5.37% P2O5 of inferred resources at the South TraMan and the Traverse Zones, along with the 78-million tonnes grading 5.34% P2O5 of inferred resource at Nicole Zone and a potential mineral target of between 260-million and 390-million tonnes, with grades ranging from 5.34% to 7.13% P2O5, near the Paul Zone, could be of significant benefit to its operations and deserved further investigative work.

The company released a feasibility study for Lac à Paul in October 2013, outlining an openpit operation with a mine life of 25.75 years and a yearly output of three-million tonnes, grading 38.6% P2O5 at an average mill recovery of 90%.

Read more

$3-million Mineral Exploration Assistance Program (MEAP) will support 22 new projects – by John Barker (Thompson Citizen – July 18, 2014)

The Thompson Citizen, which was established in June 1960, covers the City of Thompson and Nickel Belt Region of Northern Manitoba. The city has a population of about 13,500 residents while the regional population is more than 40,000.  editor@thompsoncitizen.net

Manitoba Mineral Resources Minister Dave Chomiak said June 23 the Mineral Exploration Assistance Program (MEAP), which delivers financial assistance to companies carrying out mineral exploration in Manitoba, would invest $3 million in 2014-15 to support 22 new projects, doubling 2013-14 funding levels. MEAP provides assistance in the form of a partial refund of approved exploration expenditures.

“Doubling our investment will have a positive effect on mineral exploration and development in Manitoba,” said Chomiak. “We are attracting new companies exploring here for the first time, creating good jobs for Manitobans, especially in northern communities.”

The companies are exploring for a variety of commodities including a number of projects for gold, copper, zinc and nickel. There is also one project each for graphite and uranium. Base metals and gold represent 92 per cent of the proposed MEAP projects. Twelve of the projects (54.5 per cent) are exploring for gold; five projects (22.7 per cent) are looking for copper and zinc; and three projects (13.6 per cent) are exploring for nickel.

There are 22 companies involved in 23 projects – 22 of them which are new projects – and three of the companies have been attracted in part by MEAP’s financial assistance to explore in Manitoba for the first time, Chomiak said.

Read more