Twitter

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

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 —

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.”

Read more

Dash for salt: Cities scramble to find this winter’s hottest commodity – by Karen Howlett (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.

Niagara Falls is hoarding its stockpile. Hamilton is mixing its dwindling supply with sand. New Jersey is importing the scarce commodity known as white gold all the way from Chile. And sales are booming on the black market.

Road salt shortages are a continent-wide problem this winter. Long bouts of frigid temperatures and an abundance of snow have depleted reserves in parts of Ontario and the Northeastern United States faster than they can be replenished. Windsor Salt, one of three major suppliers in Ontario, is facing its highest demand in two decades. The company has shut its doors to new customers, and its three mines are working overtime to meet commitments on existing municipal contracts.

“You can’t just push the button and produce more,” said Luc Savoie, vice-president of sales and marketing.

The shortage of a crucial ingredient used to break up ice on city streets has forced many regions to ration supplies, make panic-buying calls to neighbouring communities with salt to spare and revise road maintenance budgets. The coveted mineral has even become a hot item on the black market in what amounts to war-on-winter profiteering.

Read more

PDAC 2014: In Ring of Fire, Cliffs remains elephant in the room – by Peter Koven (National Post – March 4, 2014)

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

TORONTO – In Northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire, Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. remains the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about.

A Tuesday lunch panel at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention focused on the giant undeveloped deposit in the James Bay Lowlands and what has to be done to move it forward.

There were some encouraging comments in that regard from former premier Bob Rae, who is representing the Matawa Tribal Council in its negotiations with the province over Ring of Fire development. He said the two sides are “making good progress at the bargaining table,” and he is optimistic that they will reach a framework agreement soon. That is good news for all involved.

But the panel largely ignored the broader questions investors have about the Ring of Fire: Does it make economic sense for a major mining company to invest the capital required for this highly remote project? And do any of them want to?

Those concerns came to the forefront last November, when Cliffs suspended all work on its Chromite project in the Ring. Some analysts said this was a smart move given the high risk and potentially low returns associated with the project.

Read more

ANALYSIS-Small U.S. uranium miners make contrarian bet by ramping up output – by Rod Nickel (Reuters U.S. – March 5, 2014)

http://in.reuters.com/

TORONTO – (Reuters) – Sinking prices for uranium in the past three years have caused many of the world’s biggest uranium miners to scale back production plans or defer projects, but two small U.S. producers are bucking the trend by planning to increase output this year and investors have sent their share prices surging as a result.

Uranium prices are hovering near eight-year lows because an earthquake and tsunami struck Japan in March 2011, crippling the Fukushima-Daiichi atomic power plant, and leading to the shutdown of nearly all reactors in the country, which previously relied on nuclear sources for 30 percent of its power. The disaster crimped Japanese demand for uranium and fueled fears about a backlash to nuclear power.

Last month, Japan included nuclear power in its draft energy plan, easing doubts about the industry and boosting uranium company shares. The spot uranium price, however, remains weak and companies scaled back production and halted expansion plans that curbed potential output by 20 million to 25 million lbs (9 million to 11.3 million kg), according to Edison Investment Research. That amounts to 16 percent of estimated global production last year.

Read more