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First Nations must be equal partners in Ring of Fire, Rae – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Northern Life – March 06, 2014)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Ontario has lagged behind other provinces – namely Quebec and British Columbia – when it comes to its dealings with First Nations, said Bob Rae. The former Premier of Ontario, and interim leader for the federal Liberal leadership, became the chief negotiator for the Matawa First Nations – representing nine Native governments – last year.

In his first role outside of the political arena on Parliament Hill, Rae has worked to develop a framework that would form the basis for a partnership between the Ontario government, the Matawa First Nations and the companies seeking to profit from the Ring of Fire.

Prior to a speech at Laurentian University – scheduled for Thursday night – Rae told Northern Life that Quebec and BC have have been much more open than Ontario to sharing management decisions with First Nations and granting authority to regional governments.

“If you look at the kinds of agreements that have been signed in other provinces you see very clearly that you’re looking at a way of not simply consulting with First Nations, but of giving First Nations the ability to take real responsibility for the building and management of infrastructure, the making of economic and social decisions, and participating fully in decisions affecting the natural environment,” Rae said.

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Africa’s push to add value to minerals now a riskier gamble – by Silvia Antonioli (Reuters India – March 6, 2014)

http://in.reuters.com/

LONDON, March 6 (Reuters) – African government efforts to force mining companies to process minerals before export may backfire as they come up against weakening commodity prices and investor demands that firms reduce risky investments.

In the last year alone, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Namibia, South Africa and others have hinted at, announced or put in place measures aimed at adding value to minerals exports, which would boost tax revenue, encourage formation of new businesses and add jobs.

But with falling metal prices and a drastic reduction in the capital available for the mining industry, wary companies are increasingly shying away from investment in countries where the rules of the game can change quickly.

“Investment sentiment in the last year has moved against the mining sector, but the governments tend to have a lagging view of how this is going to affect investment in their countries,” said Mike Elliott, global mining and metals leader at Ernst & Young.

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How the NDP is trying to be pro-mining – by Kim Mackrael (Globe and Mail – March 5, 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 federal NDP is positioning itself as a pro-mining party that would revive stalled negotiations on Ontario’s Ring of Fire development while keeping federal regulations “lean.”

Speaking with The Globe and Mail during a global mining conference in Toronto this week, NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair said his party would seek buy-in from First Nations communities to speed up new developments. The annual convention of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada has become a global attraction, drawing nearly 30,000 delegates and dozens of MPs.

Mr. Mulcair pointed to the fact that the NDP has a critic for mining issues – MP Claude Gravelle, from the Nickel Belt riding in Northern Ontario – as evidence his party takes the topic seriously. “We’re very interested and we want you to succeed,” Mr. Mulcair said he told industry representatives.

The NDP stepped up its presence at this year’s PDAC convention, with 16 MPs attending the event – four times the number present last year and a sign the NDP wants to show the mining industry it takes its concerns seriously.

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Women in Mining chapter starts in Sudbury – by Jonathan Migneault (Northern Ontario Mining – March 6, 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 inaugural meeting of Women in Mining Northern Ontario, Jan. 30, in Sudbury marked a “pivotal moment” for the sector, said the event’s keynote speaker.

Samantha Espley, general manager of mines and mills technical services with Vale’s Ontario operations, said it is important to inform young girls and women about the career opportunities. Women represent only 16 per cent of Canada’s mining workforce – the lowest proportion for any sector in the country.

Most women who work in the mining industry do not have technical roles, but occupy traditional office jobs in administration and human resources departments. Women in Mining Northern Ontario hopes to eventually increase female representation in the industry to 50 per cent.

Espley, who earned her engineering degree from the University of Toronto in 1988, said the industry has progressed a lot for women since she first started her career.

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Quebec’s ‘Ring of Fire’ key to Liberal jobs pledge – by Allan Woods (Toronto Star – March 6, 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.

Quebec Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard says Parti Québécois talk of sovereignty referendum will scare away business investment.

MONTREAL—Quebec Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard is promising to create a quarter-million new jobs, in large part by resurrecting an old party pledge to unlock the province’s tough-to-reach northern regions and tap the mining riches below the ground.

First floated in 2008, it took three years before Couillard’s Liberal predecessor laid out the plan on the eve of a 2012 election in which his party was defeated. In scope and ambition, the so-called Plan Nord resembles Ontario’s strategy to unlock the mineral-rich Ring of Fire north of Thunder Bay. In essence, the government would build the infrastructure and the private sector would build the mines and pay royalties.

When it was first detailed, ex-Liberal premier Jean Charest said the 25-year investment in Quebec’s North would create 20,000 jobs annually, which would go a long way to meeting Couillard’s election pledge of 50,000 new jobs a year over the next five years.

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Skurla study’s ‘mining boom’ would be due almost entirely to taconite – by Marshall Helmberger (MinnPost.com – March 6, 2014)

http://www.minnpost.com/

The following column was originally published in the Timberjay newspapers of Ely, Tower-Soudan and Cook-Orr. For more than three years, advocates for copper-nickel mining have pointed to the study produced by Jim Skurla, of the Labovitz School of Business at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, as a key justification for moving forward with this new type of mining.

The study, first released in 2009 and updated in 2012, touted huge impacts from planned new mining projects, in terms of jobs and new tax revenue to the state and local areas.

We’ve all heard the numbers from Skurla’s report cited by mining proponents — as many as 5,000 new jobs in what they term the “strategic mining sector” if all the proposed projects move forward as planned. To supporters, such numbers portend an economic renaissance for our region.

While some economists have taken issue with Skurla’s report, I don’t have any reason to believe that his conclusions are in error, at least within the context of economic modeling in general, which is typically about as accurate as your average weather forecast. The bigger concern, in my mind, is that his conclusions are widely misunderstood.

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Canada, the global ‘mining capital’, reaffirms support for industry – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – March 5, 2014)

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The Canadian Ministry of Natural Resources has used the world’s largest gathering of miners, the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s (PDAC’s) International Convention, Trade Show and Investors Exchange to once more throw its full weight behind the mining industry.

Speaking at the convention’s opening ceremony earlier this week, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver called Canada the mining capital of the world, and highlighted the federal government’s actions taken to strengthen and grow the mining industry.

He said that government’s Responsible Resource Development plan ensured world-class environmental protection while providing certainty for investors; a $100-million commitment over the next seven years for the geomapping for energy and minerals initiative would help exploration companies find deposits and create jobs; the extension of the mineral exploration tax credit in Economic Action Plan 2014 had helped junior exploration companies raise $5-billion in capital; and that government was pursuing an aggressive international free trade agenda, by concluding a comprehensive free trade deal with the European Union – the largest economy in the world.

Oliver also discussed the government’s efforts to implement transparency and accountability through mandatory reporting standards for Canadian extractive companies.

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Promoter Banks on Lucky Table 25 as 25,000 Trawl for Mine Deals – by Christopher Donville (Bloomberg News – March 06, 2014)

http://www.businessweek.com/

David Grondin had taken up position at his lucky table 25 in the InterContinental’s Azure restaurant, pitching his latest dream at the world’s biggest gathering of miners.

“We may be small, but we think big,” Grondin, 36, said during a break in the proceedings in Toronto. “All the world comes to PDAC and now they are coming to meet with me.”

Thousands of other entrepreneurs like Grondin, chief executive officer of TomaGold Corp. (LOT), were touting their projects with similar enthusiasm at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada convention.

This is how promoters of mine-exploration companies try to get projects off the ground: one plausible, or sometimes implausible, sales job at a time.

That task has only gotten tougher since gold fell last year by the most in more than three decades, reducing the chances that so-called juniors would get funding from, or be bought by, larger miners.

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Primero takes over Black For mine, mill [Timmins] – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – March 6, 2014)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Black Fox mine employees began meeting with their new owners this week.

On Wednesday, Primero Mining Corp. completed a deal to acquire all assets of Brigus Gold including the Black Fox mine and mill located in Black River-Matheson, as well as the adjacent Grey Fox mine property. The agreement was initially announced in December.

“The company was created about three-and-a-half years ago,” said Joseph Conway, Primero president and chief executive, who was at the Days Inn in Timmins to meet with mine staff. “It was through a buyout of an asset from Goldcorp in Mexico. It was a producing mine and it was running at 90,000 ounces a year but it was under-capitalized and since then we’ve been reinvesting back into that operation and are now producing about 160,000 ounces a year.”

While Primero plans to continue that trend of investing in its assets, Conway admitted they will be a little less bullish about bringing Grey Fox into production. The previous owner, Brigus Gold, had talked last year of pulling Grey Fox into production by the first half of 2015.

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Six years and waiting [Northwestern Ontario Mining] – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal (March 5, 2014)

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

IN the investment game, the worst scenario is a lack of confidence. If the money gets nervous, the chances for success begin to wither. The mining industry is beginning to lose faith in Ontario. Despite enormous new potential on top of its valuable status as a gold mine, so to speak, a series of delays has turned the mining world wary. Can Ontario confirm its own future as a key mining jurisdiction or will it preside over its own decline at the hands of indecision?

The Ring of Fire mineral belt semi-circling James Bay was first explored in 2002 by DeBeers, looking for diamonds. Instead, it found copper and zinc. This led to an exploration rush that by 2008 had uncovered a multi-billion dollar deposit of an extremely rare mineral called chromite — the first commercial quantities anywhere in North America.
The mining and investment world went wild with anticipation and major companies moved in to map the deposit and prepare to exploit it under Ontario’s mining rules.

That was six years ago. Since then, the biggest player, Cliffs Natural Resources, wooed by municipalities from Thunder Bay to Sudbury to be the site of a giant smelter, has turned away. Its move followed similar expressions from junior exploration firms stymied by conflicting and moving signals on how to play the game.

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A new ONTC must move forward – by John R. Hunt (North Bay Nugget – March 4, 2014)

http://www.nugget.ca/

The mountain has laboured and produced a plan. The ONTC rail unions and management have got their act together and sent their plan for a new ONTC to Toronto.

Both sides agree that change is necessary and it appears that the unions have accepted some reduction in the labour force. However, this will be achieved through attrition. The plan will be studied by Northern Development And Mines Minister Michael Gravelle and his advisory committee.

The success or failure of this plan is of vital importance to North Bay although the minister is apparently considering a number of options.

The unions are afraid that Ontera, the ONTC’s communication wing, may be sold before a decision is reached. This would be grossly unfair and if Ontera is profitable it makes little sense to sell it.

It should be remembered that the Ontario Northland Railway pioneered long distance telephone service in the Northeast.

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Mining in an ENGO hole – by Peter Foster (National Post – March 5, 2014)

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

“We live in a world with thuggish NGOs breathing down our necks”

If Stephen Harper went to the mammoth Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) Convention in Toronto this week to provide a boost to the industry, he chose a strange way of doing it.

Why would the PM bash Taseko Mines’ New Prosperity project in B.C. by suggesting that the environmental report that turned it down was “damning?” Presumably he did so to counter the constant allegation that his government is “soft” on the environment. However, his move backfired since it drew a sharp response from Taseko (as reported by the Post’s Peter Koven).

Taseko’s forthright vice president of corporate affairs, Brian Battison, questioned both Mr. Harper’s understanding of the project’s environmental threats and the status of related aboriginal land claims. He pointed our that those claims had been deemed not to meet the test of legal title. The case is now before the Supreme Court.

One doubts, meanwhile, that talking about turning down Taseko won the feds any brownie points when it comes to the real issue: the extraordinary success of radical environmental groups in holding the extractive industries in Canada —

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NEWS RELEASE: Digital Investment to Disrupt and Drive Mining and Metals Industry over Next Three Years, Accenture Survey Shows

TORONTO; March 5, 2014 – North American metals and mining companies’ investment in digital has increased over the past three years, and will continue to rise as companies seek to disrupt traditional business models to maintain their competitive position, control costs and stay viable, according to an Accenture (NYSE: ACN) survey of mining executives in Canada and the United States.

One-quarter of mining executives surveyed said their overall digital investment in the past three years has doubled or more. Almost all companies surveyed (93 per cent) are satisfied with their digital investment and the associated business outcomes. In the next three years, 33 per cent will significantly increase their digital investment, 63 per cent will increase their spending modestly, while only 5 per cent will keep spending the same. No companies surveyed are planning to cut back on digital investments in the next three years.

Nine out of 10 executives surveyed said that a business strategy that incorporates digital technology will revolutionize the way they do business to a degree similar to the advent of the Internet in the 1990s, and will provide a significant source of value to the business. Companies that do not embrace digital will lose their competitive position and may face extinction, according to 88 per cent of respondents.

“Now more than ever, North American metals and mining companies are turning to digital, a new frontier for metals and mining companies to improve operations, productivity and identify growth opportunities,” said Jose J. Suarez, Managing Director, Mining (North America) at Accenture.

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Miners misplace hopes for cash in private firms – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – March 5, 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.

Contrary to popular belief, private equity is not going to be the saviour for mining companies desperate for cash to fund their exploration and projects.

There are only a few private equity firms that have a real interest in the mining space and they are taking their time looking for new investments.

“The industry has developed a level of exuberance around private equity which isn’t well researched and certainly overblown,” said Michael Scherb, general partner with London-based Appian Capital Advisory LLP, which has raised $375-million (U.S.) to invest in mining assets.

“The real capital dedicated to the space is really only in a handful of dedicated mining specialist investment houses,” said Mr. Scherb on the sidelines of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference in Toronto. He is looking to deploy his fund’s capital over the next few years and recently made an investment in a Toronto-listed junior miner.

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PDAC: The age of paternalism is gone, Bob Rae says (Northern Miner – March 5, 2014)

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

“Good progress” is being made at the bargaining table on a framework agreement between the Matawa Tribal Council and the provincial government on advancing the Ring of Fire, says former Ontario Premier Bob Rae, who represents the Council in the negotiations. But he warns that much work needs to be done and says he “refuses to give in to the sentiment that says this has got to be done in two weeks, or two months, or four months.”

“This has got to be done right and it has to be done in a way that shows real understanding and respect for the people whose lives are going to be more impacted than the lives of anyone in this room,” he said during a panel discussion Tuesday at the PDAC.

Rae argues that the First Nations have to be consulted in a way that is different from consultations that have taken place in the past. Ontario is a province that has relied extensively on mining for development for over 150 years, he points out, but “this development has taken place without particularly benefiting First Nations communities.”

When people talk about what has to be done so that this project or this part of Ontario is able to benefit from growth and prosperity, Rae says, “it’s really quite simple.”

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