Twitter

Miners urged to overhaul comms strategy and engage opposition – by Simon Rees (MiningWeekly.com – February 15, 2014)

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Within living memory, mining was often a dirty, dangerous and toxic business. Health and safety was an afterthought in poorly-run operations, while waste and reclamation work was sometimes shoddy and, in extreme cases, simply disasters waiting to happen. Events like the 1966 Aberfan disaster in South Wales still resonate.

Today, modern techniques and the growing emphasis on sustainability and reclamation have revolutionised the mining industry. Health and safety is a primary concern, while companies now strive to establish corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes and consult with those stakeholders affected by a project or operation.

More work still needs to be done and a minority of mining companies continue to make mistakes, some of them elementary. Opponents latch on to these errors, compounding the perception of an industry stuck in the past. At a company level, the damage done can be immense: from delays to project failure.

Mining companies are often wary of social media, forgetting that the platform can enable companies to highlight their objectives, clarify the real narrative of their actions and help stop the spread of supposition and rumour.

Read more

PoV: Why we need a statue of Stompin’ Tom [in Sudbury] – by Brian MacLeod (Sudbury Star – February 15, 2014)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

When a group of Sudburians first announced they wanted to raise $50,000 to place a bronze statue of Stompin’ Tom Connors downtown, it seemed a bit out of place. Connors was not a Sudburian, yet he is inexorably part of our heritage for his iconic song, Sudbury Saturday Night. He is not necessarily associated with an individual place, rather he was relentlessly Canadian. Why a bronze statue in Sudbury?

Because he was able to write a simple, irresistibly catchy song that captured who we were at the time. In 1965, when he wrote the song, we were a city of hard partying labourors drinking away the sweat of the mines. It does not represent what Sudbury is today, but Connors was able to make a nation think about a city that many at the time knew only as a place “up North.”

Sudbury Saturday Night — best captured in his performance at the Horseshoe Tavern — might make us cringe a bit now. “The girls are out to bingo and the boys are gettin’ stinko and we’ll think no more of Inco on a Sudbury Saturday Night.”

Inco is now Brazil-based Vale, and bingo has faded. And drinking heavily is not so much to be memorialized these days. “We’ll drink the loot we borrowed and recuperate tomorrow, cause everything is wonderful and we had a good fight.”

Read more

Deloitte to help establish Ring of Fire development corporation (CBC News Thunder Bay – February 14, 2014)

http://www.cbc.ca/thunderbay/

Firm expected to be a neutral, independent third party in development of chromite deposit

The provincial government has gone to the private sector for help to establish a development corporation for the Ring of Fire mining region in northern Ontario.

Mines minister Michael Gravelle announced Friday in Thunder Bay that the government has brought in Deloitte LLP, which a government news release calls one of Canada’s leading professional firms in consulting and corporate negotiation.

Gravelle said Deloitte will act as a neutral, third-party resource for key partners in the Ring of Fire, including First Nations, the provincial and federal governments and industry.

The province states that the Ring of Fire has a known mineral potential worth $60 billion and includes the largest deposit of chromite ever discovered in North America. Chromite is a key ingredient of stainless steel. Deloitte has what it takes to tackle a complex job, Gravelle said.

“These are people and an organization that has a particular expertise,” he said. “We think this will actually help us move forward more quickly in terms of those decisions being made and bringing the partners together.”

Read more

Anglo ‘not anywhere near where we need to be’ – Cutifani – by Leandi Kolver (MiningWeekly.com – February 14, 2014)

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

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – While Anglo American’s financial results were encouraging, they were “not yet satisfactory”, said CEO Mark Cutifani at the diversified major’s results presentation on Friday.

“The business improvement is encouraging, but we are not anywhere near where we need to be as a group,” he stated. Anglo reported a 6% increase in underlying profit to $6.6-billion for the 2013 financial year, with the company’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation having increased by 7% to $9.5-billion.

After deducting tax and profits attributable to noncontrolling interests, which represented a greater proportion of profit than in 2012, the company’s underlying earnings decreased by 7% to $2.7-billion. Underlying earnings a share amounted to $2.09.

The company also declared impairments of $1.9-billion, principally in relation to its Barro Alto operation, in Brazil, its platinum portfolio review, the Michiquillay operation, in Peru, and the Foxleigh mine, in Australia. Meanwhile, the group’s net debt increased by $2.14-billion to $10.65-billion, while net debt to total capital at December 31, 2013, was 22.2%, compared with 16.3% at December 31, 2012.

Read more

Barrick’s $10.4-billion loss caps brutal year for miners – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – February 14, 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 gold industry’s growth binge is over, and mining companies have sobered up. After a dismal year in which bullion and mining stocks dropped sharply in value, gold companies are slowly regaining their footing and learning to live with the lower precious metal price.

Canadian gold companies, from heavyweights Barrick Gold Corp., Goldcorp Inc. and Kinross Gold Corp. to the smaller Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd., slashed their bullion reserves and collectively recorded $17-billion (U.S.) in impairment charges in 2013.

Barrick chief executive Jamie Sokalsky, who closed the book Thursday on a $10.4-billion net loss for the year, called it the most difficult year in the company’s 30-year old history and said it has gone through a “sea change.” The world’s biggest gold producer epitomized the industry’s mantra of “growth, growth, growth, growth” during the commodity boom. But in the past few months it has overhauled its board, sold expensive mines, put the brakes on a key project and paid down some of its debt while trying to calm shareholders irate with how the company was governed.

Read more

NEWS RELEASE: New ‘historic’ gold mine brings dual benefits

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

Goldcorp’s Porcupine Gold Mines plan to develop an open pit mine on the site of the historic underground Hollinger gold mine brings a series of environmental and economic benefits to Timmins. The company has recently received its final environmental approval for the project.

The plan has been under development since 2006. The aim is to recover gold through an open pit operation from the workings of a historic underground gold mine while simultaneously eliminating legacy environmental concerns and carrying out mine reclamation activities.

The projected workforce of 180 people will open 60 new jobs and the open pit gold operation is estimated to have an eight year mine life. Marc Lauzier, General Manager of Goldcorp’s PGM, which is an Ontario Mining Association member, says the company has three main goals with this development – reclaim the land, return as much land as possible to public use and recover the gold that is in place.

Read more

Deloitte gets nod to help resolve Ring of Fire fracas – by James Munson (iPolitics.com – February 14, 2014)

http://www.ipolitics.ca/

Ontario Minister of Northern Development and Mines Michael Gravelle is bringing in global consulting and accounting firm Deloitte LLP to resolve the province’s spat with Ottawa over how to develop the Ring of Fire.

The federal and provincial governments are at odds over who you should pay for a transportation corridor into the far-flung mining district in northern Ontario. While the Ring of Fire’s bounty in chromite and other metals could be worth $60 billion according to Queen’s Park, building either a railway or a highway into the area is estimated to cost between one and two billion dollars.

Ottawa was initially supportive of the Ring of Fire, appointing Treasury Board president Tony Clement to oversee the file. But the portfolio has since been bumped to a junior minister and Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a press conference in November that the mineral play was a provincial matter.

The chasm grew in part because Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announced a development corporation without first alerting the federal government on November 8.

Read more

Wallbridge tries to understand its ‘enigmatic’ minerals – by Jonathan Migneault (Northern Ontario Business – February 13, 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. 

Around two billion years ago an asteroid or comet approximately 10 to 15 kilometres in diameter collided with what is now the Sudbury basin.

When it entered Earth’s orbit it was travelling at a speed of around 36,000 kilometres per hour. The power of the impact when it hit the planet’s surface was “off the scale,” according to Gordon Osinski, an associate professor of planetary geology at the University of Western Ontario. “It’s an incredible amount of energy deposited almost instantaneously,” he said.

Geological changes can take millions of years, but that impact altered Sudbury’s landscape in a flash. The heat from the impact was so intense it created a pool of molten rock three kilometres thick. Geologists have estimated the crater it created – which is no longer visible today – was around 200 kilometres in diameter.

The Chicxulub crater, underneath Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, is around 180 km in diameter. The asteroid impact that created it 65 million years ago is largely credited for the mass extinction of the dinosaurs.

Read more

NEWS RELEASE: CLIFFS NATURAL RESOURCES INC. ISSUES OPEN LETTER TO SHAREHOLDERS

CLEVELAND – Feb. 14, 2014 – Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) (Paris: CLF) today issued the following open letter to all shareholders:

Dear Cliffs Shareholder:

Our Board and management team are fully committed to pursuing a course that enhances long-term shareholder value – and we want to accomplish it in a manner that is sustainable and that will benefit all of our shareholders.

As we do with any significant investor, Cliffs’ Board of Directors and management team have attempted to maintain a constructive dialogue with Casablanca. In fact, Cliffs’ Chairman along with senior management has met with Casablanca in person twice in addition to a number of telephone calls and emails. Also, one of the Company’s financial advisors, along with members of senior management, participated in a discussion with Casablanca regarding its proposal and analysis of Cliffs. We are disappointed that Casablanca seems intent on waging a public campaign rather than continuing its private engagement with our Chairman and management to address our doubts and concerns relating to Casablanca’s proposal.

Since July 2013, Cliffs has instituted a number of changes to our Board and senior management team. These changes included the addition of four highly qualified directors:

Read more

Quebec takes an inside seat in Anticosti Island oil development – by Nicolas Van Praet (National Post – February 13, 2014)

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

MONTREAL – The Quebec government is taking control of oil exploration on remote Anticosti, striking joint venture deals with all oil and gas companies holding permits on the island in exchange for funding their drilling programs.

The move shows, really for the first time, the unequivocal determination by the revenue-challenged Parti Québécois government to figure out just how much oil and gas Quebec may have on its territory. And it underlines the province’s resolve to take a central role in that process as a way to build social acceptability and reap the returns.

“Today, Quebec is asserting its rights over the natural resources that belong to it,” Quebec Premier Pauline Marois said in a news release.

“The potential benefits [from oil development on Anticosti] could have a determining influence on Quebec’s economy,” Ms. Marois said at a news conference Thursday, estimating the boon to the province could top $45-billion over 30 years through royalties, taxes and returns on equity. Quebec must reduce its reliance on foreign oil imports, she said.

Read more

Cliffs cutting jobs, costs – by Star Staff (Sudbury Star – February 14, 2014)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

U.S.-based Cliffs Natural Resources, which once had ambitious plans to open a chromite smelter in Sudbury by 2015, has announced that it will lay off about 500 employees and dramatically reduce spending.

“Sharper capital allocation must drive our decisions,” CEO Gary Halverson said in a statement. “(The) announcement to reduce overall capital spending is an important first step.”

However, on Thursday, Cliffs, which is facing against an activist investor who wants to break up the mining company, reported higher fourth-quarter profits helped in part by higher iron ore prices and a drop in the cost of goods sold.

The iron ore and metallurgical coal producer said net income rose to US $31 million, or 20 cents a share, in the three months to end-December. A year ago, it reported a loss of $1.6 billion, or $11.36 a share, when it wrote down $1 billion related to its 2011 acquisition of Consolidated Thompson Iron Mines Ltd.

Revenue was marginally lower at $1.52 billion in the quarter from $1.54 billion as lower prices and sales for coal were partially offset by a 10 percent increase in global seaborne iron ore pricing.

Read more

Stalled at a railroad crossing – by Dave Dale (North Bay Nugget – February 13, 2014)

 http://www.nugget.ca/

It’s like watching the slowest train wreck in history. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne visited North Bay last week to do what leaders of a party and province are expected to do in an election year.

Wynne highlighted a funding grant to a mining service company, a primary vertebrae in the economic backbone of this diversified yet strained regional economy.

She also gave the official nod to the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission managers to sit down with the unions and finalize a three-year business plan “template.”

Mayor Al McDonald described it as the best news we’ve heard since the governing Liberals decided two years ago they wanted to chop up and sell the Ministry of Northern Development and Mine’s wart.

I call it a wart because it’s consistently viewed by successive Ontario governments as a financial liability instead of an economic engine.

Read more

NEWS RELEASE: World’s largest coking coal mine discovered in west Canada

Xinhua – February 14, 2014

A coal field estimated to have 7 billion tons of reserve has been discovered in west Canada, making it the largest coking coal field in the world, Canadian Dehua International Mines Group Inc (CDI) said on Thursday.

Vincent Li, chief engineer of CDI, told Xinhua that analytic data showed the 150 square kilometers field contains 7 billion tons of coal, most of which is buried within a depth of 1,000 meters, while half of the total reserve is high quality coking coal.

The newly discovered mine, located in the Wapiti river area in northeast British Columbia of Canada, surpasses the previous largest field, the Tavan Tolgoi in Mongolia, which has 1.8 billion tons of coking coal in its 6.5 billion tons of coal reserve.

The data came from months of studies conducted by Golder Associates, an environment and energy consulting company, the Snowden Consulting Company and China’s Shandong Geological Exploration and Research Institute, Li said.

Read more

UPDATE: 500 workers affected as Wabush Mines idled (St. John’s Telegram – February 11, 2014)

http://www.thetelegram.com/

Cliffs Natural Resources is shutting down production at Wabush Mines, affecting 500 workers currently employed there.

The news was confirmed in an official statement by the company. The statement was not specific to the status of Wabush Mines, but instead focused on a more than 50 per cent slash in the company’s capital spending across its business year over year.

Premier Tom Marshall has issued a statement in response to the news. “The decision by Cliffs Natural Resources to idle its mining and processing operations at the Scully Iron Ore Mine in Wabush is very disappointing. While we believe this was undoubtedly a difficult decision for Cliffs, our thoughts are with employees of the mine and their families during this challenging time,” Marshall said.

“I will be in Wabush this week with Ministers Dalley and McGrath for discussions with stakeholders. We will continue to further opportunities for development in Labrador West. We remain confident in the future of the mining industry in the region.”

Wabush Mines started pulling ore from the Scully Mine in 1965. The ore goes to a concentrating plant at site and is then moved, by rail, to Point Noire, Que.

Read more

NEWS RELEASE: Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. Announces the Appointment of Gary B. Halverson as President and Chief Executive Officer

CLEVELAND – Feb. 13, 2014 -Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) (Paris: CLF) announced today that its Board of Directors has appointed Gary B. Halverson, 55, formerly president and chief operating officer, to president and chief executive officer, effective immediately. He also serves as a director on Cliffs’ Board.

James Kirsch, Cliffs’ chairman of the Board, said, “We are confident that Gary is the right candidate to lead Cliffs given his proven experience with international and long-term mining operations and understanding of the global commodities industry. Since joining Cliffs, Gary has executed a number of key strategic initiatives to strengthen the Company and enhance value for all Cliffs’ shareholders.”

A number of Mr. Halverson’s key strategic initiatives include:

· taking action to optimize performance, cut costs and extract shareholder value from the Bloom Lake asset;

· announcing a $90 million reduction in expected 2014 SG&A and exploration spending;

· reducing 2014 capital expenditures significantly from 2013 year-over-year;

· performing global asset review and interactions with key customers;

· halting development of the Chromite Project indefinitely;

Read more