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The battle between Cree First Nations and Strateco Resources heats up – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – December 21, 2013)

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The grand council of the Crees of Eeyou Istchee, the Cree regional authority and the Cree nation of Mistissini on Friday said they had filed a declaration of intervention in the legal proceedings recently started by uranium explorer Strateco Resources against the Quebec Environment Minister Yves-François Blanchet.

Strateco, who seeks permission to undertake underground exploratory drilling in search of uranium at its Matoush advanced exploration project, early this month asked the Superior Court of Quebec to nullify the minister’s decision to refuse to grant a certificate of authorisation for the exploration.

Strateco had also asked the court to force the minister to issue a certificate of authorisation for the project. In his decision of November 7, Blanchet said that he refused to authorise the Matoush project owing to the absence of social acceptability for the project, particularly among the Crees.

Through the intervention filed today, the Crees sought full rights of participation in the proceedings, and urged the court to dismiss Strateco’s request.

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Friedland raises industry ire over wages claim – by David McKay (MiningMx.com – December 20, 2013)

http://www.miningmx.com/

[miningmx.com] – IVANHOE Mines president and flamboyant mining promoter, Robert Friedland, has raised the ire of his platinum industry counterparts in South Africa following comments to reporters that his company would outstrip wages paid to miners on his company’s Flatreef platinum project in South Africa by an “order of magnitude”.

“In a platinum mine in South Africa today, you have to crawl on your hands and knees on that broken rock for several hundred metres to get to the working phase,” Friedland said at a conference in a report by Reuters.

“It’s pretty claustrophobic, the men are working with muscle power, they are getting silicosis, they are breathing what they are drilling and they are tired of doing it for $12 (R120) a day. I don’t think they are going to do it for much longer, and I don’t think they should.”

“You have heard of blood diamonds for example, or Apple getting criticised for what people get paid, or you see Gap stores get worried for what people get paid in Bangladesh for sewing your clothing. Similarly it is just not viable to pay these workers $12 a day,” he said.

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NEWS RELEASE: NWT Government Outlines Vision for Expansion of Northern Power Transmission Grid

(Yellowknife, NT – December 20, 2013) Providing clean, reliable, and socially acceptable power for communities and industry is the vision of the Government of the Northwest Territories, as described in their just released Vision for the NWT Power System Plan (“the Vision”).

“Expanding the NWT grid to connect our existing hydro systems with communities, industry and the rest of Canada will create the backbone transmission infrastructure necessary to transform our energy system, support the potential expansion of the Taltson Hydro facility and unlock our enormous hydro potential,” said Minister Michael Miltenberger, Minister Responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation.

Key elements of the Vision include:
• Existing hydro systems at Snare and Taltson will be connected, which will improve reliability, shift two diesel communities to hydropower and consolidate surplus hydro resources;
• The grid will be extended northeast towards established mines in the Slave Geological Province in order to attract the customer base needed to support the investment and benefit electricity rates;
• The model proposes that the public sector own the transmission network while individual mine customers will pay for transmission spurs to feed into the Grid; and

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Discovery casts doubt on Klondike gold claim – by Mark Hume (Globe and Mail – December 22, 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.

VANCOUVER — When George Carmack, an American prospector, died in Vancouver in 1922, he was known as the man who discovered the first nugget that started the Klondike gold rush. But did he really?

New research by a U.S. writer indicates Mr. Carmack unfairly took credit in an attempt to steal the prestige away from a Canadian and to help erase links to the native family he abandoned after striking it rich.

The question of who actually discovered gold at Bonanza Creek in 1896 has long been in dispute, with some giving at least a bit of the credit to the two Yukon aboriginal men, Skookum Jim and Dawson Charlie, who were with Mr. Carmack that day.

They both filed single claims on Bonanza Creek – but Mr. Carmack got two. “Carmack took credit for the find, staking the discovery claim – the first claim on the creek – which entitled him to a second claim,” states the Yukon government’s archives website.

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First Nations Entrepreneurship: It’s No Business, As Usual – by Sunny Freeman (Huffington Post – December 20, 2013)

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

WEBEQUIE, Ont. — Eric Jacob sprinted to his pickup truck following an abrupt late night call. A seldom-seen shipment of large appliances had been strewn across an icy lake after a truck toppled on the winter road to his isolated reserve in Ontario’s Far North.

Determined to salvage the valuable inventory of the reserve’s only store, grocery manager Eric rounded up some buddies to make the four-hour round trip to fetch the damaged ovens and refrigerators and deliver them to the 840-person community.

“We did that all night,” he says. Fortunate to have any job on the poverty-stricken Webequie reserve, Eric is in an enviable position, one with security and benefits. And he takes it seriously.

Starting as a stock boy nearly 20 years ago, the 38-year-old climbed the ladder to become grocery manager at the Northern, the lone retailer on the reserve, which sells everything from milk to dining tables, at about three times what they would cost in Thunder Bay, a two-hour plane ride south.

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World top ten mining billionaires in 2013 – by Steel Guru (December 20, 2013)

http://www.steelguru.com/

Forbes has compiled a list of the world’s top 1000 billionaires, and Ferret is cutting that down to show you those in mining that made the cut for 2013.

1. (No.32 globally) Alberto Bailleres Gonzalez and family [Mexico] – USD 18.2 billion
Gonzalez owns a holding company called GroupoBAL, which amongst other things runs Penoles, which is the world’s largest producer of refined silver and bismuth, as well as Latin America’s largest producer of lead and zinc.

2. (No. 35 globally) Iris Fontbona and family [Chile] – USD 17.4 billion
Iris Fontbona is the widow of Antonio Luksic, who is the founder of the Luksic Group.

Similar to GroupoBAL, Luksic holds a number of interests in different areas, but predominantly in mining. The group has major holdings in Antofagasta, the UK listed copper miner.

3. (No. 36 globally) Georgina ‘Gina’ Rinehart [Australia] – USD 17 billion
Australia’s own Gina Rinehart graces the list early on.

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Turkey imposes restriction on its biggest ferrochrome producer – by Charlotte Mathews (Business Day – December 20, 2013)

http://www.bdlive.co.za/

TURKEY has imposed power restrictions on the country’s biggest ferrochrome producer, Eti Krom, which some analysts hope will help to support prices for one of South Africa’s biggest industries. In 2012, South Africa was the world’s second-largest ferrochrome producer, having lost first place to China largely because of rising Eskom electricity tariffs and power shortages.

South Africa’s biggest ferrochrome producers are Glencore Xstrata in a joint venture with Merafe Resources; International Ferro Metals, which is listed in London; Samancor Chrome; Hernic Ferrochrome; ASA Metals; and Mogale Alloys, owned by Afarak Group (formerly Ruukki Group).

Turkey ranks among the world’s top 10 producers. Ferrochrome is mostly used in stainless steel, whose production is forecast to rise about 5.5% a year for the next few years, as it is closely correlated with global gross domestic product growth. However, ferrochrome prices have been weak recently because of a slowdown in the Chinese economy coupled with growing Chinese production.

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Chinese mining company faces another legal challenge in B.C. to foreign workers – by James Keller (Vancouver Sun – December 19, 2013)

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

Canadain Press – A Chinese-owned mining firm behind a proposed underground coal project in northern British Columbia is facing yet another union legal challenge over its use of temporary foreign workers.

HD Mining has been fending off controversy since it was revealed last year that it planned to use up to 201 temporary foreign workers from China at its Murray River project, near Tumbler Ridge.

The plan prompted federal politicians to suggest the permits shouldn’t have been granted and led to a legal challenge from two unions, which ultimately ended in the company’s favour.

Now, the United Steelworkers union is asking the B.C. Supreme Court to revoke the company’s mining exploration permit, arguing the province’s chief inspector of mines was wrong to grant the permit without adequately addressing concerns the workers would not be fluent in English.

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Editorial: A year to endure – the top stories of 2013 – by John Cumming (Northern Miner – December 18, 2013)

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry. Editor John Cumming MSc (Geol) is one of the country’s most well respected mining journalists.  jcumming@northernminer.com

For miners, the only dispute about 2013 was whether it was the worst year since 2008, 2000 or even going back decades. If the mood was glum, there was at least no shortage of news to spice up the year. Here are our picks for the biggest stories of the year for North American-listed miners.

Gold price plummet — After trending sideways from September 2011 to December 2012, the spot price of gold tumbled mightily in 2013, dropping from its year-end close of US$1,664.00 per oz. to its nadir of US$1,192 per oz. as a PM fix on London on June 28, 2013. Things perked up for a while after that, with gold rising above US$1,400 per oz. in late August. It’s been mostly a long slide down after that, however, with gold now treading water at US$1,235 per oz. at presstime in mid-December.

Freeze in financings, M&A — As 2013 winds down, it looks like only about $2 billion will be raised by the mining sector in Canada this year, according to a tally by CIBC that only looks at financings larger than $10 million. That $2 billion figure is down nearly 80% from the five-year average. Mergers and acquisitions felt a similar chill, with most of the biggest deals coming in at several hundred millions of dollars. The last mega-deal of the cycle was First Quantum Minerals’ $5.1-billion acquisition of Inmet Mining, way back in early 2013.

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Private equity’s evolving role in mining – by Alisha Hiyate (Mining Markets – December 19, 2013)

http://www.miningmarkets.ca/

In his fifteen years with Resource Capital Funds, a firm that pioneered the role of private equity investment in mining, partner Ross Bhappu has seen some big changes. One of them is in the willingness of the institutional and other sophisticated investors that provide the capital for private equity funds to invest in the mining sector.

“We had a very hard time raising our first couple of funds just because you do have to educate investors about the mining sector and they have to buy in to the whole idea that there’s tremendous value to be created here,” Bhappu said in an interview.

Resource Capital Funds (RCF) managed to raise US$41 million for its first fund in 1998. In contrast, earlier this year, it raised an impressive US$2 billion for its latest fund (Fund VI).

“Once you start building a track record over, in our case, fifteen years of being successful in investing in the space, all of a sudden they do take notice,” Bhappu said. “A lot of investors are waiting to see your track record and to be able to test a hypothesis over a number of years.”

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Will private equity save the mining sector? – by Alisha Hiyate (Mining Markets – December 16, 2013)

http://www.miningmarkets.ca/

With the mining sector in its third year of a painful downturn, a collective realization is starting to set in that business as usual isn’t going to cut it anymore.

The public markets remain extremely difficult for miners, metals prices continue to languish, and investors have long since fled to greener pastures.

“I think what’s happening here in the last twelve or eighteen months, it’s taken people from la-la land down to reality, and (so far) they’ve been able to hang on in the reality,” says Isser Elishis, managing partner and chief investment officer of gold-focused private equity firm Waterton Global Resource Management.

“What’s going to happen in the next few years is people are going to get swallowed up by the earth.” Elishis believes commodities prices, which have already been hit by slowing growth in China, are headed lower in the short-term and that the mining downturn has several years left to run before the positive long-term fundamentals reassert themselves.

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Silvercorp short-seller hit with fraud allegations – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – December 20, 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.

Canadian regulators alleged on Thursday that a Silvercorp Metals Inc. short-seller committed fraud when he wrote negative reports about the mining company in order to profit from a drop in the miner’s stock.

The accusation from the British Columbia Securities Commission is a sharp reversal of fortunes for short seller Jon Carnes, who operates New York-based EOS Holdings LLC and runs a financial blog, called Alfredlittle.com, where he issued his first damning report against Silvercorp in September, 2011.

Mr. Carnes’s report alleged that the company inflated its profits and misled investors about production levels at its main silver mine in China. Since then, a Canadian named Huang Kun, who helped gather data on Silvercorp for Mr. Carnes, has been thrown into a Chinese jail, and Mr. Carnes has spent more than $2-million defending himself against Silvercorp’s defamation suit.

Now the B.C. regulator is alleging that Mr. Carnes lied about his investing experience and created a fake research group, fake names and fake research in order to help him profit from his negative reports, including his report on Silvercorp.

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Uralkali gains share amid volatile potash market – by Peter Koven (National Post – December 20, 2013)

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

Last summer, Russian potash giant OAO Uralkali predicted that its plan to collapse a cartel-like entity would allow it to seize market share from rivals, including those in Canada. It appears the company was right.

On Thursday, the company said its potash sales volumes in the third quarter were 2.6 million tonnes, essentially in line with last year’s figure, while export volumes rose 11%. That is a solid result, because it comes amid a period of extreme volatility and uncertain demand in the potash market. Both Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. and Agrium Inc. reported year-over-year sales volume declines of more than 20% in Q3, despite falling prices.

Uralkali said its new strategy is progressing “very satisfactorily.” “They did gain share in Q3,” said Joel Jackson, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets.

Historically, potash companies made money by withholding production to keep the market in balance and maintain their pricing power. But Uralkali, the world’s biggest producer, threw that plan out the window when it shut down its cartel-like marketing partnership with Belaruskali last July and vowed to boost production.

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African Barrick to compensate assault victims – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – December 20, 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.

JOHANNESBURG — A Canadian-owned gold company says it is giving cash payments and other compensation to 14 women who were sexually assaulted by police and security guards at its controversial North Mara gold mine in Tanzania.

African Barrick Gold, a subsidiary of Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp., says it spent two years questioning more than 200 people in an independent investigation of the sexual-assault allegations, which were first disclosed by Barrick in 2011. “Fourteen women are presently receiving remediation packages,” the company said in a statement to The Globe and Mail on Thursday.

“Although the exact components of each package depends on the individual claimant, they have included cash compensation, sponsored employment to provide job training, financial and entrepreneurial training, education expenses for claimants’ children, relocation expenses, home improvements, health insurance for claimants and their families, and counselling services.”

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Super-strong material renews faith in technological advancement – by Scott Barlow (Globe and Mail – December 20, 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 the past 25 years, three market bubbles, a once-in-a-generation financial crisis and the rise of China have convinced many that the long-feared decline of Western civilization is fully under way.

But miraculous innovations like graphene – a new material with the potential to transform the world similar to the advances in plastics during the years following the Second World War – make me inclined towards a more optimistic view.

Graphene is a one-atom-thick layer of graphite that can be grown like crystals. Its properties and potential applications are scarcely believable. Graphene was declared the strongest substance ever tested by Columbia University engineers, or about 350 times stronger than the Kevlar used to make bulletproof vests. It must be heavy, though, right? Not at all, they say. “It is often said that a single sheet of graphene [being only one atom thick], sufficient in size enough to cover a whole football field, would weigh under one single gram.”

The most immediate applications of graphene are in powerful semiconductors – it’s literally a million times better than copper at conducting electricity.

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