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NEWS RELEASE: B.C. Securities Commission to look for answers to current junior mining downturn

VANCOUVER, Oct. 10, 2013 /CNW/ – The B.C. Securities Commission is consulting with industry experts in BC’s junior mining sector to better understand why it is facing such a serious downturn and what to do about it.

The BCSC’s annual Capital Ideas conference on October 17th will focus on B.C.’s venture market, in particular the junior mining sector. KPMG will release the results of research, commissioned by BCSC, which summarizes junior mining executives’ perspectives about what is happening in the market and why.

Paul Bourque, the BCSC’s Executive Director, will lead a discussion with five industry experts about the present funding challenges and what can be done about it.

B.C. is home to more than half of Canada’s mining exploration firms, and has the largest concentration of mining exploration firms in the world. As well, more than 2,400 firms are involved in supplying services to this industry, so it is without a doubt a very significant contributor to B.C.’s economy.

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NEWS RELEASE: What is mining going to do for Ontario in the next decade?

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 people inside the mining industry, this headline will perhaps be viewed as a rhetorical question. Those involved in the mineral sector know about the large capital investments, the thousands of direct jobs, the proliferation of indirect jobs providing supplies and services to mines, the provincial infrastructure built by and supported by mining, the communities it builds and the taxes companies and well paid employees pay to support all Ontarians – and Canadians.

Yesterday, we looked closely at five of the 24 mines that the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines confirms opened in Ontario within the past 10 years. Now let’s see what new operations may be opening their doors in the not too distant future and providing their own additional contributions to Ontario’s society and economy.

Vale is on schedule to bring the Totten Mine in the west side of the Sudbury Basin into the ranks of nickel and copper producers by the start of 2014. The company has invested $760 million during the past seven years to advance this base metal project. During construction, there are about 500 people working on the site and when production begins, the mine will employ about 200 people.

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B.C.’s First Nations are suddenly the cool kids – by Gary Mason (Globe and Mail – October 11, 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.

For decades, federal governments have done their best to avoid dealing with the many intractable issues facing British Columbia’s First Nations. Provincial governments have been only slightly more engaged in trying to right many of these decades-old wrongs.

The B.C. treaty process established in the early 1990s has been a failure. In the intervening time, only two First Nations groups have signed accords. The blame for failing to reach more deals has been laid at the feet of Ottawa, which has preferred to study the often thorny problems emerging from negotiations rather than actually deal with them.

Any time a federal or B.C. government has tried to unilaterally exert rights in matters affecting the province’s First Nations, they’ve been slapped down by the courts. Still, it hasn’t stopped Ottawa from pretending and acting as if the rulings didn’t give aboriginal groups any additional powers. At least until now.

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Michigan usurps Ontario as auto-making king – by Greg Keenan (Globe and Mail – October 11, 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.

The days of Ontario bragging about being the largest auto-making jurisdiction in Canada and the United States are coming to an end.

Michigan has roared into first place in vehicle manufacturing among states and provinces this year, knocking Ontario off the perch it has enjoyed since 2004.

The Great Lakes State is forecast to hang on to the lead when year-end statistics are tabulated. Michigan and some other U.S. states have been the biggest beneficiaries of the robust recovery in the U.S. market that has the Detroit Three auto makers rushing to boost production as quickly as they can.

The U.S. state’s leapfrog over Ontario is the latest troubling sign for the province’s most important manufacturing industry, which has fallen behind in the highly competitive global contest for automotive investment.

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Scrapped reactors ‘a psychological blow’ for Candu – by Richard Blackwell (Globe and Mail – October 11, 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.

Ontario’s decision not to build new nuclear power plants will keep Canada’s home-grown atomic power company, SNC-Lavalin subsidiary Candu Energy Inc., dependent on maintenance and refurbishment of its existing reactors around the world.

Ontario Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli confirmed Thursday a report in The Globe and Mail that the province scrapped a plan to spend as much as $10-billion new nuclear reactors as part of its long-term energy strategy. Declining demand for electricity in the province, the potentially huge nuclear build-out costs and decreasing prices for natural gas and other power sources undercut the economic justification for nuclear plants. Ontario will, however, continue an ongoing refurbishment of Darlington Nuclear Generating Station’s four reactors.

The Energy Ministry’s decision “is a psychological blow, although not a huge surprise,” said Mark Winfield, an environmental studies professor at York University in Toronto, who follows the nuclear industry. “The writing has been on the wall for several years,” he said, since the provincial government balked at an earlier plan for new reactors back in 2009.

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Ontario’s Ring Of Fire Risks Becoming ‘Wild West’ Of Mining: Watchdog – by Sunny Freeman (Huffington Post – October 11, 2013)

Ontario’s Ring of Fire region could devolve into the “wild west” of resource development, if the province doesn’t immediately make environmental risks a priority, warns the government’s environment watchdog.

“We really only have one chance to get things right in the far north,” Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller said in a speech Thursday after presenting his annual report.

“We’re talking about a really remote facility, but a huge economic opportunity for the province of Ontario.”

Miller skewered the government for its lack of formal environmental monitoring in the far north, despite burgeoning mining activity in the Ring of Fire, which is said to contain as much as $50 billion in resource wealth.

The Environmental Commissioner of Ontario’s report makes two recommendations concerning the region. He calls on the government to conduct immediate and thorough environmental monitoring and to expand the scope of its environmental reviews to include the cumulative impact of a new mining frontier in an untouched region of Canada.

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Mining legend [Robert Friedland] speaks to Sudbury students – by Staff (Sudbury Star – October 11, 2013)

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

Canadian mining companies have a responsibility to help people to make the goods they need to live in a smart and ethical way, one of the men who discovered Voisey’s Bay told a Sudbury audience this week.

Robert Friedland, chairman and founder of Ivanhoe Capital Corporation and executive chairman and founder of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd., delivered Laurentian University’s Goodman School of Mines’ inaugural lecture series on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, he spoke to Laurentian students. “We’ll soon be sharing this planet with nine billion other inhabitants — most of whom, given a choice, would prefer to live in safety and comfort, drive cars, and have air conditioning and smartphones.” he said. “They also want clean air and clean water.

“In addition to its fundamental mission of finding and producing critical materials to support growing economies, the mining industry has a responsibility to present and future generations to develop and adhere to ethical and responsive practices, delivering effective management of the impacts of mining metals.”

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China’s changing growth profile and the commodities that stand to benefit – by Geoff Candy (Mineweb.com – October 11, 2013)

http://www.mineweb.com/

According to Standard Bank, while it is not going to be a linear progression, the nature of Chinese growth is likely to moderate over the next five years.

GRONINGEN (MINEWEB) – Like any good relationship, it is hard to imagine one’s life without the other person while things are going well. Which is why, any mention of slowing growth in China was met by many in the commodities market with loud cries of “I can’t hear you” and hands clasped firmly over ears.

A case in point, it could be argued, is the massive expansion in iron ore production by the likes of Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton in the face of slowing demand from China, which is expected to result in at least four years of expanding gluts, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

That’s also not to say, and this is an important distinction, that growth in China has stopped, rather it is moderating. Overall growth is expected to slow over the course of the next few years but it is still going to be at a healthy rate. Indeed, it should also be noted that the base on which this, albeit slower, growth is now placed, and thus the quantum of commodities required in any given year, is vastly higher than it once was.

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Asean nations continue to develop mining industry – by Henry J. Schumacher (Business Mirror – October 9, 2013)

http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/index.php/en/ [Philippines]

ASSOCIATION of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) member-states are mineral rich, and mining is playing an increasingly important role in the region’s economic growth (hopefully also in the Philippines). In Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, mining accounts for 12 percent of gross domestic product.

Even as global demand has eased, Asia’s locomotive economies continue to drive Asean’s fast-developing mining sector, especially China, which consumes more than 40 percent of the world’s output of industrial ores.

The most rapid growth in both Indonesia and other Asean states has been seen in the extraction of industrial minerals—such as copper, nickel, tin and, more recently, gold. The region’s status as an area of world mineral importance, with immense, still to be exploited, deposits of an almost limitless range of ores, is a focus for the world’s biggest developers.

The Philippines is considered to be the fifth most mineralized country in the world, with its gold resources ranking as the third largest. The country also has the fourth-largest copper resources and fifth-largest nickel deposits. However, only a relatively small amount of territory has been mined.

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Commodity managers warm up to metals as world economy improves – by Claire Milhench (Reuters India – October 10, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

LONDON, Oct 10 (Reuters) – Base metals are back in favour with commodity managers after a long period in the dog house, reflecting a new enthusiasm for growth-oriented assets as the global economy picks up.

“The key economic regions of the world have either resumed a slight upward trend or have at least put the worst behind them,” said Ronald Wildmann, an adviser to the GFP Long Mining Fund , which returned almost 15 percent in the third quarter. “In China, the hard landing feared by many has not come to pass.”

Commodity prices as indicated by the Thomson Reuters-Jefferies CRB index rose 3 percent in the third quarter, compared with a 6 percent fall in the second quarter.

This turnaround meant the average actively-managed fund in the Lipper Global Commodity sector was up 1.94 percent, compared with a loss of 9.58 percent in the second quarter.

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Cliffs appeals Ring of Fire road decision – by CBC News Thunder Bay (October 10, 2013)

http://www.cbc.ca/thunderbay/

KWG Resources official predicts little will come of Cliffs’ appeal over mining road decision

A spokesperson for KWG Resources says Cliffs Natural Resources is doing the prudent thing by filing notice of an appeal of a recent decision by the Ontario Mining Commissioner.

The Mining Commissioner rejected Cliffs’ bid for an easement to build a road over KWG mining claims, located in the James Bay lowlands of northern Ontario. A vice president with KWG said Cliffs had to meet a deadline to file notice of appeal, but he’s not sure it will even proceed.

“Our counsel has told us that the ruling that the commissioners wrote was very well written, and left very little room for appeal,” Moe Lavigne said. Cliffs has said previously that the decision makes it difficult to continue justifying its Black Thor mining project in the Ring of Fire.

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Mining is critical for the planet – Cutifani – by William Lawrence (Mineweb.com – October 10, 2013)

http://www.mineweb.com/

Anglo American CEO, Mark Cutifani, is the new chairman of the ICMM Council and has already made it apparent where he would like the organisation to focus in the year ahead.

LONDON (MINEWEB) – “Mining is critical for everyone on the planet” said Mark Cutifani at an ICMM reception yesterday evening in London, as he set out his stall on what he thinks the International Council on Mining and Metals should be focussing on as his term begins as the august organisation’s chairman.

According to its website, the ICMM’s basic brief is as follows: to improve sustainable development performance in the mining and metals industry. Its core membership comprises 21 mining and metals companies (the world’s largest miners) as well as 35 national and regional mining associations and global commodity associations working, in combination, to address core sustainable development challenges.

The ICMM now serves as an agent for change and continual improvement on issues relating to mining and sustainable development. It requires member companies to make a public commitment to improve their sustainability performance and report against their progress on an annual basis.

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Cliffs to appeal roads decision – by Mary Katherine Keown (Sudbury Star – October 10, 2013)

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

Cliffs Natural Resources announced Wednesday it plans to appeal the Sept. 10 decision by the Mining and Lands Commissioner, who dismissed its application to build a 340-km all-weather road that traversed land staked by Montreal-based KWG Resources Inc.

“The appeal raises important issues of law under the Mining Act and the interpretation of the law may have significant negative ramifications for the development of mining claims,” Cliffs wrote in a state-m ent it issued Wednesday, which marked the deadline to initiate the appellate process.

The Cleveland-based company had sought to dismiss the consent of its rival company in order to establish a transportation channel from its Black Thor deposit to the community of Greenstone.

The company deems the road “essential to the development of the Ring of Fire and a necessary component” of its chromite project, according to a Sept. 20 press release. Cliffs plans to ship the chromite to a smelter in Capreol. The smelter would create as many as 500 jobs in the Sudbury area.

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Pretium shares plunge 30.5% as independent consultant resigns – by Peter Koven (National Post – October 10, 2013)

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

TORONTO – The shareholders of Pretium Resources Inc. were rattled on Wednesday after one of Canada’s most respected teams of geologists severed ties with the emerging mining company and its heavily-hyped gold project in British Columbia. Pretium announced that Strathcona Mineral Services Ltd. resigned from its role as “Qualified Person” on a sampling program for the Brucejack project. The move cast a cloud over the project, and Pretium shares plunged 30.5%.

Strathcona was brought in as an independent consultant to oversee and report on Pretium’s bulk sample project. The independent verification is required under Canadian mining disclosure rules, and Toronto-based Strathcona is known for its conservative and disciplined approach.

Strathcona did not respond to requests for comment. But Pretium chief executive Robert Quartermain downplayed the resignation and maintained the Brucejack project is on track. “We’re in a situation where we have a disagreement between two Qualified Persons with regards to reconciling the bulk sample with the resource estimate we have,” he said in an interview.

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UPDATE 1-Protests close world No. 2 ferronickel mine in Colombia – by Luis Jaime Acosta and Peter Murphy (Reuters India – October 10, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

BOGOTA, Oct 9 (Reuters) – Cerro Matoso, the world’s No. 2 ferronickel producer owned by multinational BHP Billiton and located in Colombia, said it has temporarily shut its mine after two weeks of protests by indigenous groups, halting 4 percent of world output.

The impact of the stoppage on the nickel market is likely to be subdued amid a global surplus of nickel that has caused prices to tumble about a quarter in the last year but adds to near-constant disruption in Colombia’s mining sector this year.

The London-traded nickel contract ended 1.7 percent lower at $13,660 per tonne on Wednesday. Cerro Matoso took the decision to close its mine for workers’ safety, it said in a statement, adding that protesters were demanding “monetary indemnification”. It did not say why, merely that the dispute could only be resolved in the courts.

“This implies that from now there will be no ferronickel production or associated activities … until conditions enable the company to operate normally,” it said. A mining ministry source said the protesters were demanding compensation for alleged harm to their health from pollution caused by the open-pit project which the source said generates about $185,000 a day for the government in royalties.

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