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Who’s being irrational? Northern Gateway skeptics overlook Canada’s safety record – by Joe Oliver (National Post – December 17, 2013)

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

Joe Oliver is Minister of Natural Resources

Last year, over 99.999% of oil and gas arrived safely through federally regulated pipelines

David Miller sets up a straw man, distorting our government’s environmental goals and intentions and then proceeds, in high dudgeon, to pummel us based on this misrepresentation. Moral indignation founded on misinformation is not a sound basis for policy.

Of course concern about the environment is rational. Our government is at one with the importance that Canadians, including aboriginal peoples, place on the precious natural beauty of our magnificent country and the protection of our land, water and air. That is why we have invested over $10-billion to foster green energy initiatives and have advanced numerous policies to enhance environmental protection.

What is not rational is to claim that our natural resources cannot be developed and transported safely. Generations of Canadians have proven otherwise and we have prospered as a nation because of our willingness to innovate and to overcome challenges.

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Barrick Gold loses two more directors – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – December 18, 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.

Two of Barrick Gold Corp.’s independent directors resigned suddenly on Tuesday, the company said in a surprise announcement that came less than two weeks after it overhauled its board and nominated four new independent board members.

Robert Franklin and Donald Carty had been in charge of talking to Barrick’s institutional investors about their concerns regarding the company’s governance. They joined Barrick in 2006 when the gold producer bought Placer Dome, where they served on the board. Mr. Carty is currently the chairman of Porter Airlines Inc.

They had led the search for the new slate of independent Barrick directors, which culminated in a board revamp announced early this month that included the planned exit of chairman Peter Munk along with two other long-standing directors. Major Barrick shareholders had clamoured for boardroom changes after it awarded Barrick co-chairman John Thornton with a $11.9-million (U.S.) signing bonus, which he used to buy Barrick stock.

The unexpected departure of two more Barrick directors signals that institutional investors continued to look for governance improvements even after the board overhaul, earlier this month.

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ONTC needs change: Gravelle – by Michael Gravelle (Sudbury Star – November 18, 2013)

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

Michael Gravelle is Ontario’s minister of Northern Development and Mines.

The transformation of the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission is, expectedly, of considerable interest to northerners. That is why, as minister of Northern Development and Mines, I continue to work alongside a dedicated group of Northerners that include members of my ONTC advisory committee, ONTC management and union representatives to transform the ONTC. We share a goal of sustainable telecommunication and transportation services and we certainly share the goal of a prosperous North.

I would, however, like to take this opportunity to clarify a few points. 
Last week, Ontario’s Auditor General published a special report on the ONTC. The report clearly acknowledged the significant challenges and complexity of transforming the ONTC. At the same time, she specifically notes that, “There is little doubt that without change, the operation of the ONTC in its current structure will require taxpayers to subsidize its operations on an annual basis.”

This is a subsidy that is only projected to grow into the future.
Our discussions with northern leaders show a clear consensus that the current state of the organization is not sustainable and change is needed. It is also clear that the services provided by the ONTC are vital to Northern communities. Transformation of the ONTC is intended to save taxpayers money in the long run, while ensuring vital transportation and communications services continue to be provided to northerners.

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Liberals’ latest disaster in works leaves northern Ontario vulnerable – by Christina Blizzard (Toronto Sun – December 18, 2013)

http://www.torontosun.com/home

TORONTO – It’s almost as if the Liberal governments of Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne want to turn out the lights in northern Ontario, shut the place down and walk away from it.

The disastrous decision to shut down Ontario Northland Railway — a vital passenger link for northern communities — was bad enough. It was supposed to save $230 million. Last week we heard from auditor general Bonnie Lysyk it will probably cost around $820 million to shut it down.

The latest disaster in the works is a plan to cut Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) fire services to Kirkland Lake — a plan that will leave an area the size of France without fire protection, says Kirkland Lake Mayor Bill Enouy.

“We have no protection in Timiskaming right now because they tell us they’re protecting us from Cochrane or Timmins, which are 145 km away,” he told me. Kirkland Lake was hard hit by forest fires in 2012. Without the MNR firefighters, those infernos would have been even more devastating.

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OMA NEWS RELEASE: Let’s look at Canadian mining’s all-star female team

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.

The achievements and leadership qualities of 15 women working in the Canadian mining sector have been acknowledged through the Women in Mining U.K. launch of the 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining Project. Its goal is to recognize and promote the significant impact of females in the mineral industry.

“WIM (UK) has collaborated with WIM groups all over the world in order to reflect a broad cross-section of global industry talent in the 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining Project,” said Amanda Van Dyke, Chair of WIM (UK). “From engineers and geologists, to finance professionals and investors, each woman has been selected because of the lasting impact she makes on those around her as a positive role model and her contribution to the industry.”

“WIM (UK) congratulates each of these women and is pleased to celebrate their efforts to make the mining industry a more inviting and viable option for working women of different backgrounds,” she added. “Each woman contributes to the mining industry in her own meaningful way as endorsed by their nomination.”

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Miners faced environmental and political challenges around the world in 2013 – by Craig Wong (Canadian Press – December 17, 2013)

http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/

OTTAWA – After years of riding surging metal prices and spending freely on takeover deals and massive new projects, Canadian miners were forced to tighten their belts in 2013 as the cycle turned against them.

The industry took billions in write downs as companies re-evaluated projects that they believed were worth far more just a couple of years ago and slashed spending as falling commodity prices squeezed margins.

But it wasn’t just financial problems for the miners, as political and environmental issues made headlines around the world for several Canadian mining companies.

The largest company to face problems was Barrick Gold, which suspended nearly all of the work at its massive Pascua-Lama project high in the Andes mountain range.

The halt followed massive cost overruns and protests from an indigenous community living below the project who tried to have Barrick’s licence revoked and force a new environmental impact study.

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Zimbabwe: Mugabe Uses Zanu-PF Conference to Rage and Threaten [miners] – by Alex Bell (All Africa.com – December 16, 2013)

http://allafrica.com/

ZANU PF’s ageing leader used the party’s conference this weekend to rage against the West, his old partners in government, the country’s economic position, the mining sector and more.

The 89 year old also moved to threaten some players in the country’s platinum and gold sectors, repeating calls to ban raw mineral exports. “We should not continue to send our minerals out in their raw form,” Mugabe told delegates at the party’s annual conference in Chinoyi.

He singled out Zimplats, a subsidiary of platinum-mining multinational Implats, for “externalising” raw platinum ore. “Zimplats has been exporting platinum but we have very little by way of earnings. We don’t know where the money is going. We must have our money back.”

Mugabe also said the government was considering slashing the number of diamond miners operating in the country. “We should be looking at the possibility of rationalising the mining of diamonds,” he said. “We have six companies mining diamonds, but of these six only three are really worth talking about. We would also want greater transparency.”

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Chilean communities struggle after halts at Pascua Lama, other mines – by Marta Lillo (Globe and Mail – December 17, 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.

Real estate broker Patricia Cortés began a small corporate events business in the northern Chilean town of Vallenar four years ago, with her eye on a gold mine.

Her hopes for success were pinned on the vast Pascua Lama gold-copper project that had begun taking shape 150 kilometres away in a glacier-covered area of the Andes on the border with Argentina.

Vallenar is the closest commercial centre to Pascua Lama, and the town was set to reap rich benefits from the $8.5-billion (U.S.) project. Once it gets going, Pascua Lama, with 18 million ounces of proved and probable gold reserves, is expected to produce up to 850,000 ounces in its first five years.

But prospects for the Cortés’s business look much bleaker now that Barrick Gold Corp. has shelved construction of the mine, citing lower metal prices and a series of regulatory and legal roadblocks imposed by the Chilean government.

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Ottawa must reject Prosperity Mine proposal – by Joe Alphonse (Victoria Times Colonist – December 17, 2013)

http://www.timescolonist.com/

Chief Joe Alphonse is tribal chairman of the Tsilhqot’in Nation.

In 2010, Bill Bennett was B.C.’s mines minister and was ignoring all information regarding Taseko Mines Ltd.’s Prosperity Mine proposal for Teztan Biny (Fish Lake) — except for the claims made by the company itself.

The area that TML wanted to turn into one of the world’s biggest open-pit, low-grade gold and copper mines was featured in B.C.’s own tourism pamphlets, yet Bennett dismissed it as a “muddy little pothole of a lake.”

He and the company kept insisting the mine would be approved by Ottawa, and TML’s investors sent the company’s share price soaring to over $7 based on these assurances.

Even the pro-mining federal government of the day found the federal panel report so “scathing” in terms of environmental impacts and infringements on aboriginal rights that it had no choice but to reject it.

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Global coal demand slows, peak demand not yet in sight – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – December 16, 2013)

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Tougher Chinese policies aimed at reducing the country’s dependency on coal would help restrain global coal demand growth over the next five years, the International Energy Agency (IEA) found in its yearly ‘Medium-Term Coal Market Report’ released in Paris on Monday.

Despite the slightly slower pace of growth, coal would meet more of the increase in global primary energy than oil or gas – continuing a trend that has been in place for more than a decade.

“Like it or not, coal is here to stay for a long time to come. Coal is abundant and geopolitically secure, and coal-fired plants are easily integrated into existing power systems. With advantages like these, it is easy to see why coal demand continues to grow.

“But it is equally important to emphasise that coal in its current form is simply unsustainable,” IEA executive director Maria van der Hoeven said at the launch of the report.

The IEA found that coal was the fastest growing fossil fuel in absolute and relative terms in 2012.

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BC announces coal rights deferral deal in Sacred Headwaters area – by Dirk Meissner (Vancouver Sun – December 16, 2013)

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

VICTORIA – A remote area of northwest British Columbia considered sacred by aboriginals and resource rich by mining companies has received a reprieve from potential coal-mining activities with a government order that puts new coal tenures on hold for one year.

The Tahltan Nation call the area Klappan, and it has been the site of protests by aboriginal elders who say mining will threaten the spiritual, cultural and wilderness values of the region, which includes the confluence of the Skeena, Nass and Stikine rivers.

Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett said Monday the Klappan Coal Licence Deferral Area Order is a temporary measure that will allow the government, the Tahltan and the mining industry time to negotiate a management agreement for the area.

The deferral order impacts 62 coal licence applications, but existing area coal tenures and authorizations, including the Fortune Minerals’ Arctos project, are not impacted, he said.

Fortune Minerals, of London, Ont., announced last fall that it was pausing exploratory work for an open-pit coal mine in the Klappan, following an earlier decision by Shell Canada to give up its rights to explore and drill for coal-bed methane gas.

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Taconite future looking bright in 2014, 2015 – by John Myers (Duluth News Tribune – December 17, 2013)

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

Minnesota’s taconite iron ore producers will make less product in 2013 than they did in 2012, but the downturn looks to be brief.

It appears 2013 will end up with about 38.9 million tons produced and shipped from the Iron Range, according to state estimates. That’s down about 2 percent from 39.7 million tons produced in 2012, said Bob Wagstrom, who tracks taconite production for the Minnesota Department of Revenue.

Most of the difference was spurred by a million-ton drop in production at Cliffs Natural Resources’ Northshore Mining, which idled two production lines for most of 2013 after losing a customer. Some of that loss was buffered by an increase at U.S. Steel’s Minntac plant in Mountain Iron, Wagstrom said, and by continued increasing production by Magnetation, which has several small plants that recover useable ore from old mine waste sites.

“With the exception of Northshore, everybody was right at last year or even a little up for this year,” Wagstrom said. Northshore officials already have announced that they will restart their idled lines in 2014, boosting production. And Wagstrom said that with continued incremental increases by Magnetation and Mesabi Nugget — the state’s first iron nugget plant near Hoyt Lakes — taxable production could total about 40 million tons in 2014, a level not seen since 2000.

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Op-Ed: Profitable PotashCorp underpays province – by Scott Doherty (Regina Leader-Post – December 17, 2013)

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

Scott Doherty is western director of the union Unifor, which represents some workers at PotashCorp.

For communities relying on the resource sector, there can be few mornings more devastating than the one earlier this month when workers at the Lanigan potash mine arrived at work, only to be told they were now unemployed and to go right back home. They had been laid off.

What a hard drive home that was for many back on the highway, heading out across central Saskatchewan, back to one of the many rural communities that rely on potash for their livelihood. They had plenty of time to let the news sink in … only to have to repeat it to their families when they got home.

For some 212 workers at the PotashCorp mine in Lanigan, that was how the morning of Dec. 3 played out when the company announced it would lay off 440 workers across the province and more elsewhere.

Workers at the mine were expecting something to come as potash prices dropped. Years of strong prices had come to an end with the Russians pulling out of an international potash marketing group.

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Sudbury firm eyes role in lunar mining mission – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – December 17, 2013)

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

INNOVATION: Deltion partners with NASA contractor

A city once described as a moonscape now boasts expertise to mine the real lunar surface. Sudbury’s Deltion Innovations Ltd., formerly affiliated with the Northern Centre for Advanced Technology, has been developing space mining systems for over a dozen years and is now a step closer to putting its high-tech drilling and excavating equipment into orbit.

Last week, the company announced a new partnership with Neptec Design Group Ltd. of Kanata to collaborate on projects involving space flight systems.

The two companies have worked together in the past, but now have what Deltion CEO Dale Boucher describes as a “strategic alliance.”

The Kanata enterprise has been a prime contractor for Canadian Space Agency and National Aeronautics and Space Administration projects, providing flight machine vision systems and supporting shuttle missions. “They built a laser system to inspect the shuttle before coming down,” notes Boucher.

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Minnesota’s grandfather of copper mining Lehmann dies at 84 – by John Myers (Duluth News Tribune – December 17, 2013)

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

Ernie Lehmann, sometimes called the grandfather of copper mining in Minnesota and a tireless promoter of the region’s vast mineral wealth, has died. Jim Kiehne, a business associate, said Lehmann died peacefully in his home Friday from congestive heart failure. He was 84.

Lehmann has been prospecting for, researching and promoting Northeastern Minnesota’s mineral wealth for more than a half-century, especially focusing on the Duluth Complex and its deposits of copper, nickel, gold, platinum and other valuable metals.

“For those of you in the industry who knew his incredible drive and passion for his work, you will not be surprised to know that he was following the recent developments in northern MN and active in helping with business decisions up until the last few days of his life,” said Kate Lehmann, Ernie’s daughter and business partner, in a statement. “This is a great loss to the industry as well as our family. We will send you information about a memorial service after plans are finalized. We expect to wait until after the holidays.”

Lehmann was born in Germany, but came to the U.S. with his parents at the outset of World War II. He earned a geology degree from Williams College and has worked out of an office in Minneapolis since 1958.

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