Republic of Mining

No need to panic over Ring of Fire – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – November 27, 2013)

November 27, 2013

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – When Cliffs Natural Resources announced a couple of years ago it was going to establish a ferrochrome production facility in Capreol in connection with a planned chromite mine in the Ring of Fire, there was naturally disappointment in Timmins.

Timmins was one of four communities in the running to have this facility. However, following that decision, city officials were quickly pointing out Cliffs were not the only player within the James Bay lowlands.

Among those was Noront Resources, which has been looking at mining nickel, copper and platinum in that area, and is now at the stage of submitting an environmental assessment for a proposed mining operation.

In fact, there are close to 40 firms that have staked claims within the Ring of Fire – though not all of them are mining companies.

One should keep that in mind in the wake of Cliffs’ announcement last week that it is suspending its chromite project within the James Bay lowlands. The political reaction from Cliffs’ announcement was like a chorus of skinned cats.

Need to see details of Ring deal – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – November 27, 2013)

November 27, 2013

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

It’s been a week since Cliffs Natural Resources dropped the bombshell that was not a bombshell — that it was indefinitely suspending work on its Ring of Fire chromite project. You didn’t need a crystal ball to see that one coming although some politicians claimed to have been blind-sided by it.

Bill Boor, who was Cliffs’ vice-president of global ferroalloys but now has a new title, senior vice-president of strategy and business development, had been telegraphing that message for months.

A year ago, Boor cautioned 330 people at a Greater Chamber of Commerce luncheon that several planets would have to align for Cliffs to begin production at its McFaulds Lake mine by 2016.

In March, he told The Sudbury Star that while he understood that the change of leadership after Premier Dalton McGuinty resigned could slow the progress of talks, Cliffs needed to sign a “definitive document” before it could develop its Black Thor deposit.

Ring of Fire: Province challenges feds to develop Ring – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – November 27, 2013)

November 27, 2013

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

Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle challenged the federal government this week to accept responsibility to help develop the Ring of Fire and make a financial commitment to do so.

Gravelle wrote Kenora MP Greg Rickford, minister of state for Science and Technology and FedNor minister, asking the federal government to “step up to the plate” and be a committed partner in developing the rich chromite deposits.

Gravelle highlighted the potential benefits the Ring of Fire will have for First Nations and other people in Ontario and across Canada.

He pointed out the federal government has supported large-scale resource development initiatives in other parts of Canada because of their potential for national economic and social benefits, citing developments in B.C. and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Gravelle said the development corporation he announced almost three weeks ago “reflects our commitment to the infrastructure that is critical to successful development into the Ring of Fire.”

Poland’s road from coal destined to be long – by Jan Cienski (Financial Times – November 25, 2013)

November 27, 2013

http://www.ft.com/home/us

Less than six months before Poland hosted more than 10,000 delegates for the UN’s climate talks, Donald Tusk, the prime minister, was in the south-western city of Opole showing where his priorities really are.

He was there to shepherd through an agreement to spend 11bn zlotys ($3.5bn) building an enormous 1.8GW coal-fired power station that Polska Grupa Energetyczna, the country’s leading utility, was so reluctant to build that Mr Tusk had to browbeat Krzysztof Kilian, then chief executive, into going along with the project.

“We are now in the process of shaping the energy mix in which coal will again find its place,” Mr Tusk said during the signing ceremony. “It is important that coal produces energy, that people have work and that Poland has enough energy.”

Poland is under growing pressure from the European Union and elsewhere to move decisively away from coal, which provides about 90 per cent of the country’s electricity. However, there are few immediate alternatives. Natural gas, a much cleaner fuel, is unpopular because most of it has to be imported from Russia. Meanwhile, hopes of a native shale gas industry have failed to materialise until now because of -financial, regulatory and geological hurdles.

Rio Tinto losing $30m a year from Arnhem Land refinery – by Dennis Shanahan (The Australian – November 27, 2013)

November 27, 2013

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

RIO Tinto’s decision not to switch its alumina refinery at Gove to cheaper gas supplies has sealed the fate of the plant, which employs 1500 and keeps the Northern Territory’s fourth-largest town of Nulunbuy alive.

The international mining giant confirmed yesterday that it was “reviewing the status” of the refinery in Arnhem Land, which employs hundreds of indigenous workers.

The Rio board is expected to make a decision this week on winding down the refinery operations and instead to export bauxite from the Gove mine on the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Rio Tinto is losing $30 million a year from the refinery and the Northern Territory and commonwealth governments had hoped an offer of subsidised gas to replace high-cost fuel oil to make alumina would keep the refinery open.

Yesterday, Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles said he hoped Rio Tinto would keep the refinery open but the issue was “no longer about gas” for Gove.

Vale Tax Appeal Suspended as Justice Requests Revision – by Mario Sergio Lima & Juan Pablo Spinetto (Bloomberg News – November 26, 2013)

November 27, 2013

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Vale SA (VALE5), the world’s biggest iron-ore miner, had its appeal of a 30.5 billion-real ($13.3 billion) government tax claim suspended by Brazil’s Superior Court as the deadline approaches for an out-of-court settlement.

Justice Ari Pargendler, one of five presiding judges, asked to revise the case in a session today in Brasilia. The request followed Justice Napoleao Maia’s proposed approval, Justice Sergio Kukina’s rejection and Justice Benedito Goncalves abstinence. Vale shares fell the most since July.

The case, in which the Rio de Janeiro-based miner is arguing that earnings from foreign operations can’t be taxed in Brazil if they were paid abroad, probably will resume next week, Roberto Duque Estrada, a lawyer for the company, said from the tribunal. That would be after a Nov. 29 deadline for companies to accept a government proposal to scrap fines, interest and legal charges if they agree to pay in one tranche or reduce taxes and interest if they settle in installments.

“The market already priced in this dispute and just wants it to be over,” Leonardo Brito, an analyst at hedge fund Teorica Investimentos, said by telephone from Rio before today’s suspension. “This and the new set of mining rules that Brazil is establishing are pending like swords over the company’s head.”

Mining firm worried about review process – by Peter James (Prince George Citizen – November 26, 2013)

November 26, 2013

http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/section/princegeorge

A mistake in an environmental review could shake the confidence Canadians have in the regulatory system, according to a representative of a mining company alleging a major error has already occurred.

Taseko believes Natural Resources Canada erred when evaluating the seepage rates of its proposed New Prosperity copper and gold mine near Williams Lake by modeling the potential impacts using an incorrect design for the tailings pond. The company is calling on Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq to “correct the record” when she makes a final determination on whether the project could cause significant adverse effects.

“You expect, and I think the public expects, that these processes are going to be thorough and fair and appropriate, after all these are significant projects in Canada that go through an environmental assessment of this nature,” Taseko vice-president of corporate affairs Brian Battison said Monday. “People need to have confidence in the process, that the process is fair and unbiased. A mistake like this kind of calls into question the validity of the process and that has the potential to shake people’s confidence in the process.”

Oil sands debate not about good vs. evil – by Margaret Wente (Globe and Mail – November 25, 2013)

November 26, 2013

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.

I’m always amazed by the propaganda and parochialism that swamp our debates over energy development – especially when it comes to the oil sands, or Keystone. Too many people frame the issues as a medieval morality play – as if deciding to develop our abundant natural resources and send them to market is a pact with the devil.

Well, oil is not the devil. In fact, oil and other energy resources are the salvation for billions of impoverished people in developing nations. You can’t have human development without energy. And without energy – which, for the next few decades, mostly means fossil fuels – they will continue to lead miserable, degrading lives. So the next time you hear someone argue that we should leave our oil in the ground, give a thought to the people sleeping in the streets of Calcutta. It would be nice if they could cook their food with solar energy. But that day is still a long way off.

The biggest demand for energy no longer comes from the developed nations, where carbon emissions are actually in decline.
It’s coming from India, China and the rest of the developing world, which now account for the majority of global emissions every year.

Why is Canada backing oil over other industries? – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – November 25, 2013)

November 26, 2013

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.

In 1983, I started my journalism career in Alberta as an energy writer. It was a thrill. The oil sands were coming on strong, Calgary and Fort McMurray were boomtowns and stupid money was being thrown around. What fun, I thought; this otherwise dreary expanse of pasture was an energy superpower in the making.

The party was rudely interrupted by the commodities cycle. Even as hundred-buck cigars were being chomped at the Petroleum Club, oil prices went into free-fall, taking Dome Petroleum, Alberta’s oil and gas champ, down with them. The jobless rate hit 10 per cent and inward flow of workers from the rest of Canada reversed itself. A friend of mine handed his house keys to bank and hit the road – the mortgage exceeded the value of the property.

I left too, with the first big lesson in macro-economics drilled into my beer-soaked brain: Beware one-product wonders. Economies that are tilted towards a single industry are accidents waiting to happen, just like single-crop farms.

Three decades later, I wonder if Alberta – and Canada – have learned the risks of backing one industry at the expense of others.

Canadian Diamond Explorer Sees Irish Billionaire Backing – by Christopher Donville (Bloomberg News – November 25, 2013)

November 26, 2013

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. (MPV), a partner with De Beers in the Gahcho Kue project in northern Canada, plans to raise C$125 million ($119 million) in a rights offering backed by Irish billionaire Dermot Desmond.

The Toronto-based company’s biggest shareholder will ensure the offering in the first quarter is fully subscribed by buying rights not taken up by other investors, Chief Executive Officer Patrick Evans said in a telephone interview. Mountain Province, which needs the money for its 49 percent share of the cost of building the proposed diamond mine, raised C$47 million in an offering a year ago.

“He backstopped that one and will backstop the next one as well,” the 58-year-old Evans said, adding that Desmond has owned Mountain Province shares for 17 years. “I don’t know that he is as forthcoming and generous with all his businesses, but he certainly is with ours.”

Mountain Province’s financing and plans for mine construction at Gahcho Kue, 400 kilometers (250 miles) south of the Arctic Circle, come amid renewed investor interest in diamond projects as a recovering global economy boosts demand for engagement rings and other jewelry in the U.S. and emerging-market countries such as China and India.

The need to achieve balance in the panel review process – by Karina Briño (Vancouver Sun – November 25, 2013)

November 26, 2013

http://www.vancouversun.com/index.html

Karina Briño is President and CEO of the Mining Association of British Columbia.

In resource-rich British Columbia, it is not surprising that much of the conversation around economic growth and job creation has surrounded a broader discussion about sustainable resource development. Often the case is compelling, weighing the economic benefits alongside an industry wide commitment to environmental safeguards and stewardship.

As British Columbians we are very fortunate to live in a place that has rigorous and stringent environmental and consultation processes. These processes are important and play a critical role in creating a forum for public input and community consultation that help ensure the development of our natural resources is done in a sustainable, respectful manner.

This is in part achieved by the panel environmental review process, which includes a community hearing component. The panel hearing process is set up to be a quasi-judicial forum that is arm’s length from government. It is an opportunity for proponents, stakeholders and community members alike to come to the table on the important issue of sustainable development.

Get the Ring back on track – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal (November 26, 2013)

November 26, 2013

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

THE ongoing interest of a number of mining concerns in the vast Ring of Fire region is not what holds public attention today. Neither is it the creation of a development corporation to manage the project or negotiations between the province and First Nations. Rather, it is the sense of lost opportunities that comes with the indefinite departure of the mineral belt’s biggest player. There is a growing suspicion that something is wrong and that the province is not saying so.

Viewed in isolation, the government’s announcement of a development corporation to bring the multi-mineral development on line is a good thing. It suggests the province takes seriously the potential for immense economic development in the North and the province as a whole. The timing is another question. Toronto Star Queen’s Park columnist Martin Regg Cohn, syndicated in this newspaper, writes today that it “now looks like an act of desperation in anticipation of the Cliffs pullout.”

The question is what did the government know about Cliffs’ intentions and when. The company has been sending signals of frustration with the long process of securing permission to operate. Its warnings were seen by some as undue impatience until it abandoned $500 million of preparatory spending and closed its Thunder Bay and Toronto offices and its site camp. Renewed interest by the company with an upswing in the commodities market would greatly relieve many people.

Tin miners getting twice price for certified DRC ore – US State Department – by Martin Creamer (MiningWeekly.com – November 26, 2013)

November 26, 2013

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

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Tin-mining companies that certified their ore against conflict were receiving prices double those of noncertified participants, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Peter Harrell said on Tuesday.

“Miners participating in that scheme are earning $4/kg for tin ore compared to $2/kg for noncertified tin ore,” Harrell said, referring to a tin-led initiative in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC’s) South Kivu region to tag and certify tin ore from conflict-free mines.

Harrell was speaking from Washington in a telephonic press conference call on compliance with the conflict minerals provisions of Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which requires companies listed on US stock exchanges to assure that tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold sourced from Africa’s Great Lakes region have not funded conflict.

USAID DRC mission director Diana Putman, who joined the discussion from Kinshasa, said 150 mine sites in the DRC were currently in the traceability system and being accepted as conflict free by smelters in Asia, Europe and the US.

“But that is only 10% or less of the mine sites in the east, so there’s still a lot more work to do,” Putman said.

Detour Gold founder resigns as miner struggles amid falling gold prices – by Peter Koven (November 26, 2013)

November 26, 2013

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

For many investors, Gerald Panneton was Detour Gold Corp.

It was Mr. Panneton, a veteran geologist, who saw the potential of the Detour Lake gold property back in 2006, long after most of the industry lost interest in it. He acquired the Ontario-based project for a mere $75-million, incorporated Detour Gold and took it public. Under his leadership, the company identified more than 15 million ounces of reserves at Detour Lake. And earlier this year, it began production at what is now Canada’s biggest gold mine.

But for Mr. Panneton, it is all over. Toronto-based Detour stunned the street by announcing his resignation on Monday. The stock dropped 12% on the day (after falling as much as 33% at one stage), as investors worried about the future of the company without its chief executive and visionary.

“Investors are obviously shocked by the news, the suddenness of it,” interim CEO Paul Martin said in an interview. “And they’re wondering if it has anything to do with the operational performance of the mine, which we confirmed that it does not.”