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Mexico emerging as new rival to Canada’s oil sands – by Yadullah Hussain (National Post – December 17, 2013)

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

The Canadian oil sands sector is set to revive its rivalry with resurgent Mexican heavy crude production in the next few years as the southern country pushes through reforms and starts attracting billions of dollars in foreign investment in its energy sector.

“There is a potential for headwinds for Canadian heavy oil in the Gulf Coast, if Mexico gets its groove back, and is able to stabilize and then increase exports of Mayan crude,” said Judith Dwarkin, director, energy research at ITG Investments.

Mexico’s state-owned Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) already exports its benchmark heavy oil crude to Gulf Coast refineries but its influence has waned as domestic production declined over the past few years. During this time, Canadian heavy oil has increased its market share on the Gulf Coast.

President Enrique Pena Nieto, who swept to power last December partly on a pledge to dismantle PEMEX’s 75-year monopoly, has cut through decades of resistance towards foreign participation in the country’s energy sector.

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Canada: Bill 70, An Act To Amend The Mining Act: Québec Amends Its Mining Act – by Pascal De Guise and Misha Benjamin (Mondaq.com – December 16, 2013)

http://www.mondaq.com/

Bill 70, An Act to amend the Mining Act (Québec), passed on December 10, 2013. Most of its provisions came into effect immediately upon Royal Assent. While it was rushed through the legislative process, it is not a major overhaul of the current mining regime. Under Québec’s previous Mining Act, a mining company could make a claim, and convert it into a mining lease upon proof of exploitable reserves. This Bill generally adds certain requirements to the application for conversion, most of which codify existing industry best practices. The main changes are:

Before being granted a mining lease, mining companies must perform and submit feasibility studies, including a scoping and marketing study regarding the processing of ore in Québec. The Ministry of Natural Resources may, on reasonable grounds, require agreements to maximize economic spinoffs in Québec. In addition, no mining leases will generally be granted before the receipt of a certificate of authorization from Environnement Québec and the approval of a restoration and rehabilitation plan.

A committee charged with maximizing community involvement and economic spinoffs must be put in place by the lessee within 30 days of obtaining the mining lease. This committee must have at least one representative of a Native community consulted by the government as part of the project and be composed of a majority of persons independent from the lessee.

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Fine for Vale mine worker deaths goes to Sudbury budget – by CBC News Sudbury (December 16, 2013)

http://www.cbc.ca/sudbury/

A $1 million fine that Vale paid in the deaths of two miners is being absorbed into Sudbury’s city budget. All provincial offences fines go to city coffers, to help offset the city’s costs of running the provincial court.

Some called on Sudbury city council to give that money to the families of the miners or to create some kind of memorial to them. But city councillor Terry Kett recently said it’s better to honour workers who die on the job at the annual memorial day, which he attends in Sudbury every year.

“That’s more important I think than any naming of a park, etc. I think it’s important that we remember that and we keep that in our hearts and minds,” he said. Kett said $1 million from Vale will help the city balance its books, especially since the provincial offences collected last year were down $350,000.

The city receives the fines — including fines from parking tickets and illegal hunting charges — to help offset the cost of running the provincial offences court. Vale paid its fine after being convicted of health and safety violations leading to the fatal accident at Stobie Mine two years ago.

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New Gold signals delay at B.C. mine as low prices bite – by Peter Koven (National Post – December 14, 2013)

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

Thanks to plunging gold prices, a British Columbia project that looked like a priority for New Gold Inc. a year ago is not such a priority anymore.

The Vancouver-based miner announced late Thursday it will put its Blackwater project on the backburner and focus on building the smaller Rainy River project first. The announcement came as the company released results from a feasibility study on Blackwater.

The results were roughly in line with an economic assessment released last year. But the gold market is much weaker today than it was then, meaning the expected returns on the project are lower as well.

At a gold price of US$1,300 an ounce (above the current level of US$1,235), Blackwater has a net present value (NPV) of US$991-million, and a decent internal rate of return of 11.3%, according to the study. But if gold falls to US$1,150, the NPV sinks to just US$403-million. That is not attractive for a mine expected to cost US$1.9-billion.

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Vale commissions hydromet nickel plant at Long Harbour (Northern Miner – December 11, 2013)

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry. 

VANCOUVER — Twenty years after Diamond Fields Resources discovered nickel in at Voisey’s Bay in Labrador and eight years after Vale (NYSE: VALE) predecessor Inco started mining, work is now wrapping up on a state-of-the-art hydrometallurgical facility that will process the mine’s rich nickel–copper–cobalt ore without smelting it.

Vale has been sending ore from its open-pit Voisey’s Bay mine to its smelters in Sudbury, Ont., and Thompson, Man. Starting early next year those long hauls will be over, replaced by shipments to a new facility in Long Harbour, 100 km west of St. John’s, N.L. — keeping a promise made to the provincial government that Voisey’s Bay ore or its equivalent would be refined in-province.

Cutting back on haulage is just one advantage. More important is the new facility design, which represents the first time hydromet technology will be used on a large scale to produce nickel.

Hydrometallurgy uses water, oxygen, solvents and high pressure to dissolve a metal from its ore, or from a concentrate or intermediate product, such as matte (the product of smelting).

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Mining industry warns of skilled worker shortage – by James Keller (MacLean’s Magazine – December 16, 2013)

http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/

Mines recruiting Aboriginals, temporary foreign workers

VANCOUVER – The Canadian Press – Glen Paul still remembers his first week on the job at a copper-gold mine in British Columbia’s Interior — a position, he says, he landed three years ago as a “fluke” after taking a course to operate heavy machinery.

Paul says he didn’t start his training with a specific plan to end up in the mining industry, but there he was at the New Afton project near Kamloops, which at the time was still two years away from full production.

By his second day, he was standing underground for an orientation of the mine site.

“It was slightly overwhelming, because I’ve never been to a mine before, I’ve never seen one,” says Paul, 24, who grew up on the Kamloops Indian Band reserve and was connected to the job through the B.C. Aboriginal Mine Training Association.

“When I was younger, I really liked geology. … I’ve always been interested in machines, and after I got to see everything underground and to see some of the machines I had a possibility of working on, I was hooked.”

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Chinese investors warned about African mining risks – by Toh Han Shih (South China Post – December 16, 2013)

http://www.scmp.com/business/commodities

Resource-rich continent attractive to China, but potential investors are told to proceed cautiously

Chinese companies are keen to pour money into mining projects in Africa, but investors have received a fresh warning about the risks in the continent’s mining sector. Speakers at the recent Global Resource Investment Conference in Shenzhen told of some of the problems that can beset projects in resource-rich Africa.

“There are many potential Chinese clients who are interested in investing in mines in Africa, but there are lots of challenges,” said Cindy Pan, a lawyer at international law firm Dentons.

Pan cited poor infrastructure, political instability, corruption, cultural differences, as well as other political and legal risks. She cited the case of a Chinese company that invested in a mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where officials made repeated demands for bribes.

One Chinese company bought a mine in Mozambique, where the acquisition contract included a clause that allowed the government to buy 15 per cent of the mine, Pan said.

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Nickel market may be missing the bigger picture – by Roskill Information Services (Mining.com – December 16, 2013)

http://www.mining.com/

With 2014 quickly approaching, all eyes in the market appear to be turned east to Indonesia.

As of the beginning of December, the Indonesian government has signalled that it would proceed with putting into effect a ban on unprocessed mineral ores.

Roskill’s nickel analyst, Thomas Hohne, answers some of the major questions related to the ban and its effect on the nickel market, and shares some of Roskill’s views of what other factors will be driving the nickel market in the years to come. What should we expect to happen come January 2014?

Shipments are set to be barred from January 12th onwards as proposals for a phased introduction of the ban have been discussed, but not adopted, as of yet. With Indonesia’s earnings from ore exports in the range of US$10 billion in 2013, much of which would evaporate overnight, pressure for some intermediate solution will remain. Because of this, however, any temporary solution is likely to be reached after the imposition of the ban, rather than before. Moreover, Indonesian officials have already indicated that even as the legislation will go ahead, implementation of the ban may allow for some amendments in practice.

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Wyoming uranium miners look to capitalize on end of Russian exchange program – by Benjamin Storrow (Casper Star-Tribune – December 15, 2013)

http://trib.com/

It is hard to imagine, staring out into the expanse of the Great Divide Basin, how events in Russia could shape the future of the Lost Creek uranium mine.

The closest town, Bairoil (pop. 106), is some 30 miles of bumpy dirt road away. The Wind River Mountains to the west and Green Mountain to the east offer the only break on the horizon, an otherwise unabated sea of rolling sagebrush. And the sole inhabitants, besides the bands of roving wild horses, are the Lost Creek miners themselves, though to call them miners is slightly disingenuous. Lost Creek is more oil field than it is mine, and those that work here are far more likely to tap a keyboard than wield a pickax.

But as unlikely as it may seem, this isolated facility in south-central Wyoming is inextricably linked to the land of Catherine the Great, Lenin and, more recently, Vladimir Putin.

Lost Creek began production in June. On Dec. 3 the mine made its first shipment of yellowcake uranium to a conversion facility in Illinois. A few weeks prior, on the other end of the globe, the final shipment of weapons-grade uranium was packed into a shipping container in St. Petersburg and sent via boat to Baltimore.

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PolyMet mining project tears at DFL unity – by Baird Helgeson (Minneapolis Star Tribune – December 15, 2013)

http://www.startribune.com/

A copper mine that could provide hundreds of high-paying jobs on the Iron Range also is threatening to crack the fragile alliance of blue-collar Democrats up north and the environmentalists that are an influential part of Minnesota DFL’s base.

Iron Range Democrats are looking to the proposed PolyMet copper-nickel mine as a way to rejuvenate an area rocked by years of declining mining employment. But such mines also have a long history of pollution in other states and countries, and some have warned that a mine expected to last 20 years could result in centuries of cleanup.

All sides are closely watching as Gov. Mark Dayton’s administration faces a crucial decision on the project that could come near the election.

At risk is a political coalition that has made good on a string of high-profile DFL priorities like same-sex marriage, higher taxes for the rich and expanded union influence around the state. Dayton is depending on that same coalition to help him press for a second term and keep the state House in DFL hands.

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Slow, downsize Ring of Fire project – by Patricia McCormick (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – December 14, 2013)

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

In response to Don Watson’s question “Why the Ring rush?” (letter, Dec. 4) and Kaleigh Bahlieda’s answer, “If you can’t grow it, it has to be mined!” (letter, Dec. 5) I’d like to agree with both of them and add my own question: When would be a good time to practise sustainability for minerals supply via recycling, totally?

I ask this because eventually we will exhaust our Earth’s deposits of minerals. We must ask ourselves how much or how many of our other precious resources, for example clean watersheds and boreal forest, are we willing to give up for a new versus a recycled supply of minerals?

How much of these new minerals do we really need? How much are destined solely to make money for shareholders and executives of large corporations via creation of consumer ‘need’ for, for example, stainless steel kitchen appliance replacements for the previous ‘must have’ white fridge, green fridge, gold fridge, back to the white fridge . . . and now stainless steel fridge?

I take issue also with Gary Laine’s article, Ontario’s Ring of Failure (Viewpoint, Dec. 2). “Our provincial leadership is badly stricken by analysis paralysis” Laine says.

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Think You’re Not Part of the Congo Conflict? Check Your Pocket – by Paul Dewar (Huffington Post – December 13, 2013)

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

Paul Dewar is the NDP MP for Ottawa Centre; Official Opposition Foreign Affairs Critic

As we prepare for the holiday season, many of us are thinking about how we can be responsible consumers. The choices we make about where we shop and what we buy have an important impact on the environment and on the people who make the products we enjoy.

Four and a half years ago, I visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo — a place of beauty and heartbreak, mountain gorillas and mass atrocities. For a decade and a half, government forces, rebel groups, and private militias have been competing for control of territory and natural resources.

I spoke with Congolese government officials to see what was being done to enable a future of peace and sustainable development. The most striking response was not an answer but a question — my question, turned back on me: “What are you doing?”

And it was a fair question, because the truth is that the tragedy of the Congo is not merely a Congolese or an African problem. It is our problem — and the reason is probably in your pocket.

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Chinese investors looking beyond slump in mine sector – by Toh Han Shih (South China Post – December 13, 2013)

http://www.scmp.com/business/commodities

Despite falling prices, those with a long view and deep pockets on the mainland and in HK are buying projects worldwide, especially for gold

Despite the bearish mood in the global mining sector, participants at a conference in Shenzhen this week said mainland and Hong Kong investors are snapping up mines around the world.

One of them is Samuel Chan Wing-sun, vice-chairman of YGM Trading, a Hong Kong-listed garment firm, who acquired 59 per cent of Crater Gold Mining about 12 months ago and was appointed Crater Gold chairman in February, John Hung, an adviser to Crater Gold, said at the Global Resource Investment Conference. Crater Gold is an Australian-listed firm with gold mines in Papua New Guinea and a metals mine in Australia.

Stewart Cheng Kam-chiu, a nephew of Hong Kong tycoon Cheng Yu-tung, had agreed to co-underwrite a continuing rights issue of A$2.1 million (HK$14.8 million) for Crater Gold, Hung said.

“Before Sam came in, the company suffered from a lack of funds,” he said. “At the moment, it is very difficult to raise funding in Australia because market sentiment is very soft for gold mining companies.

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Israeli billionaire Steinmetz sues campaigners Global Witness (Reuters India – December 16, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

LONDON – Dec 16 (Reuters) – Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz and three others working with the mining arm of his business empire, BSG Resources, have sued campaign group Global Witness, claiming damages for what they say are breaches of their human and data protection rights.

BSG Resources (BSGR) is battling for the right to develop half of the Simandou deposit in Guinea, one of the world’s largest untapped iron ore resources.

The government of Guinea, which is running a review of mining contracts allocated by previous administrations, says BSGR bribed officials to win a 2008 licence to develop the promising deposit. Global Witness, which campaigns for transparency in the resources industry, has on several occasions linked BSGR to corruption allegations.

BSGR denies it paid bribes for its Simandou concession and has criticised the contract review, which it says is designed to allow Guinea to renege on its obligations. It has also accused international advisers working directly and indirectly with the Guinean government, including financier and philanthropist George Soros, of orchestrating a smear campaign against it.

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NEWS RELEASE: Noront Santa gets set for special deliveries

Noront 2012 Ring of Fire Christmas Fund

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.

To donate to the Noront Ring of Fire Christmas fund, visit https://www.canadahelps.org/CharityProfilePage.aspx?charityID=s101217

Click “Donate Now” and then use the “Fund/Designation” drop down menu to pick “5. Noront Ring of Fire Christmas Fund”

or you can contact Kaitlyn Ferris at Noront Resouces (416 367 1444 ext 130) kaitlyn.ferris@norontresources.com

Thanks to the employees of Ontario Mining Association member company Noront Resources and its employees Fifth Annual Ring of Fire Christmas Fund, Santa will make a special early visit to some communities in the region. Over the past four years, Noront has raised more than$75,000 in donations to ensure that every child under 13 in Webequie and Marten Falls receives a wrapped Christmas gift.

This year, Noront has purchased and wrapped more than 350 Christmas gifts, which will be delivered to children living on and off reserve. If the weather cooperates, Santa and a team of Noront elves will be delivering gifts and festive pizzas in Webequie and Marten Falls First Nations on December 17 and 18, 2013. Along with these visits, the Christmas Fund takes Santa to Thunder Bay for celebration s and gift giving to people from the Webequie and Marten Falls First Nations living off reserve in that larger community.

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