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NEWS RELEASE: Commodity Supercycle Slows Down in 2012

New Worldwatch Institute study examines the slowdown in the global commodities market

Washington, D.C.—-Global commodity prices dropped by 6 percent in 2012, a marked change from the dizzying growth during the “commodities supercycle” of 2002-12, when prices surged an average of 9.5 percent a year, or 150 percent over the 10-year period, according to the new Vital Signs Online trend released by the Worldwatch Institute (www.worldwatch.org). This change of pace is largely attributed to China’s shift to less commodity-intensive growth. Yet while prices declined overall in 2012, some commodity categories-energy, food, and precious metals-continued their decade-long trend of price increases.

The commodities market consists of various raw materials and agricultural products with fluctuating value that are bought and sold in global exchanges. This includes agricultural products, such as corn, wheat, soybeans, and cotton; energy sources, such as crude oil and natural gas; metals used in construction, such as copper and aluminum; and precious metals that are often used for financial security, such as gold, silver, and platinum.

“Commodity prices were generally in decline for decades before 2002,” said Mark Konold, Worldwatch’s Caribbean Program Manager and the report’s author. “But as the number of rapidly growing emerging economies grew after 2000, urbanization led to a surge in demand. But that demand bumped up against a supply that was limited because of underinvestment in new capital expenditures as well as the difficulty of procuring new supplies due to stricter environmental regulations and deposits that were more remote. This opened the door to a dizzying climb in commodities prices over the next 10 years.”

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Northlander: A solemn anniversary – by PJ Wilson (North Bay Nugget – September 28, 2013)

http://www.nugget.ca/

There is still a feeling the axe is going to fall on Englehart, a year after the Northlander passenger train made its final run. “We’re all still very nervous,” says Val Kennedy, a union representative for Ontario Northland.

The small community midway between North Bay and Cochrane was devastated when former Northern Development and Mines minister Rick Bartolucci announced the province was going to sell the Crown corporation in March, 2012.

At the time, Ontario Northland employed about 1,000 people in Northeastern Ontario. More than 10% of those employees worked out of Englehart. The community has been hard hit by the uncertainty. “Who’s going to buy a car?” Kennedy asks.

A general store, in business a number of years, is closing down, she says. She blames its loss on the nervousness and fear in the community. On Sept. 28 last year, the Northlander made its final run, one passenger train southbound from Cochrane to Toronto, the other northbound from Toronto to Cochrane.

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No salvage plans for Giant Mine structures after cleanup – by CBC News North (September 30, 2013)

http://www.cbc.ca/north/

The federal team tasked with cleaning up the old Giant Mine site on the outskirts of Yellowknife says there’s no plans to salvage any of the buildings, but they’re open to suggestions from the public on the issue.

The mine produced more than 200,000 kilograms of gold during its more than 50 years in operation. But it’s sat idle since 2004 after the old owners left, and now it’s up to the federal government-funded team to clean up the mess.

Over the next few years, crews will dismantle the familiar silhouette of the mine’s wooden “C” headframe. That needs to go so they can seal off the mine shaft below. The plan to remove all the buildings, many of them are laden with asbestos and other contaminated materials.

Once that happens, there won’t be much evidence that anything was ever there. “It won’t be so obvious to them. In 20, 30 years, it’ll just be a cleaned up site,” N.W.T. Mining Heritage Society president Walt Humphries says. “They won’t have much to remember.”

For some, Giant Mine’s place in the city may already be fading into the past. “I got a son working in the mines up north… but I didn’t have no connection to this mine,” says resident Pearl Slade.

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U.S. Coal Companies Scale Back Export Goals – by Clifford Krauss (New York Times – September 13, 2013)

http://www.nytimes.com/

HOUSTON — The ailing American coal industry, which has pinned its hopes on exports to counter a declining market at home, is scaling back its ambitions as demand from abroad starts to ebb as well.

Just south of here, New Elk Coal terminated its lease late last month at the Port of Corpus Christi, where it had hoped to export coal to Brazil, Europe and Asia. Two days later, when the federal government tried to auction off a two-square-mile tract of land in Wyoming’s Powder River basin, a region once poised to grow with exports to Asia, not a single coal company made a bid.

They were the latest signs that a global coal glut and price slump, along with persistent environmental opposition, are reducing the likelihood that additional exports could shield the industry from slipping domestic demand caused by cheap natural gas and mounting regulations.

United States coal exports this year are expected to decline by roughly 5 percent from last year’s record exports of 125 million tons, and many experts predict the decline will quicken next year. At the beginning of 2012, the coal industry had plans to expand port capacity by an additional 185 million tons. But those hopes have faded this year.

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Landowners seek compensation for no-drill zones- by CBC News Saskatoon (September 27, 2013)

http://www.cbc.ca/saskatoon/

Say province, potash companies rendered mineral rights ‘useless’

Today, oil rigs dot the landscape near Rocanville. They stop abruptly along 17,839 hectares of privately-owned farmland, sitting on top of PotashCorp Rocanville’s mine. 190 farmers own parcels of that land, as well as mineral rights. They tell CBC they’ve been cheated.

In 1995, the province passed a law, allowing potash companies to restrict drilling on farmland around mines. The Potash Restricted Drilling Areas (PRDAs) cover 72 sections of land around each potash mine. The only place the law was ever publicly noted before it passed was in the Saskatchewan Gazette, a weekly publication of the Saskatchewan legislature, which is available by subscription.

Landowners in the restricted zones say no one notified them of the change, nor was there any public consultation. They say they’ve never received any compensation for the lost rights.

Scott Norton said he only learned about PRDAs 11 years later, when an oil company stopped paying to lease land he owned. “An oil company leased our mineral rights in 2006 and they drilled on a quarter right beside it,” said Norton. “And they did hit oil and they were going to develop a well there and all of a sudden they disappeared.”

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Germany’s Effort at Clean Energy Proves Complex – by Melissa Eddy and Stanley Reed (New York Times – September 18, 2013)

http://www.nytimes.com/

BERLIN — It is an audacious undertaking with wide and deep support in Germany: shut down the nation’s nuclear power plants, wean the country from coal and promote a wholesale shift to renewable energy sources.

But the plan, backed by Chancellor Angela Merkel and opposition parties alike, is running into problems in execution that are forcing Germans to come face to face with the costs and complexities of sticking to their principles.

German families are being hit by rapidly increasing electricity rates, to the point where growing numbers of them can no longer afford to pay the bill. Businesses are more and more worried that their energy costs will put them at a disadvantage to competitors in nations with lower energy costs, and some energy-intensive industries have begun to shun the country because they fear steeper costs ahead.

Newly constructed offshore wind farms churn unconnected to an energy grid still in need of expansion. And despite all the costs, carbon emissions actually rose last year as reserve coal-burning plants were fired up to close gaps in energy supplies.

A new phrase, “energy poverty,” has entered the lexicon. “Often, I don’t go into my living room in order to save electricity,” said Olaf Taeuber, 55, who manages a fleet of vehicles for a social services provider in Berlin. “You feel the pain in your pocketbook.”

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Getting it Right in the Ring of Fire – by Anna Baggio (Huffington Post – September 30, 2013)

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

Few of you reading this will ever see Ontario’s Far North. Yet this vast region matters to everyone as much as their own backyard. As one of Earth’s last great, undisturbed expanses of forest and wetlands, the Far North regulates the climate, stores and cleans huge quantities of fresh water, and sustains animal and bird species being decimated elsewhere. It’s home to 24,000 First Nations people who rely on the land and have an inherent right to determine its future.

While they pay lip service to environmental protection and First Nations, governments and industry have been rushing to exploit the Ring of Fire’s mineral riches in the conventional way that’s caused so much destruction around the planet. We must ensure industrial activity is allowed only after thorough assessments of all its impacts and in a manner that sustains this irreplaceable environment and the people who inhabit it.

You’ve likely heard about the Ring of Fire boom in Ontario’s Far North. What seemed a race to extract chromite, nickel and other minerals from beneath the pristine boreal forest and tundra appears to have slowed to a stroll.

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The merger of the century – by Diane Francis (National Post – September 30, 2013)

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

“The problem for Americans as well as Canadians is that foreign governments, and their vassal
corporate entities, have established themselves in Canada and are nibbling away at resource
assets … Their targets include resources, farmland, market access and iconic corporations,
assets that they do not allow Canadian or American individuals, corporations or governments
to acquire in their own countries.” (Diane Francis, National Post, September 30, 2013)

In her new book, National Post columnist Diane Francis makes the case for the U.S. and Canada forming a united North America

The 9/11 attacks and the financial crisis that started in 2008 damaged the economies of Canada and the United States, and accelerated the decline of most wealthy democracies. Throughout it all, emerging economies, led by China and India, did not skip a beat. Between 2000 and 2010, they grew by an average of 6% per year, while developed nations posted an average of only 3.6%, according to The Economist’s “Power shift” report.

By 2030, Brazil, Russia, India and China could overtake the U.S., Japan, Germany, Italy, Britain, France and Canada in economic size. And these seven nations, the original G7, cannot catch up because of debt, demographics, resistance to change and an inability to recognize and counteract the strategies of their rivals.

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Getting better all the time – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (September 27, 2013)

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

THE GLASS in Thunder Bay and Northwestern Ontario appears to be half-full and then some. Economic prospects are being touted, even on the once-dicey forestry front which is making a nice comeback after a recessionary bust. We will not see the same kind of forest industry any more. Instead, we will see advanced versions of traditional forestry and new ways to use trees. In a region where an estimated 60,000 jobs were lost to a perfect storm of economic, political and market challenges, any news of improvement is good news. There was some of that at a conference in Thunder Bay this week.

Where all but the hardiest pulp, paper and sawmills closed in the face of the 2008 recession, new growth is under way in innovations like biofuel. The Ontario generating station in Atikokan, for example, is being converted from coal to burn wood pellets and forestry in that region is rebounding to provide them.

The big pulp mill in Terrace Bay that thrived for years making traditional pulp for longtime owner Kimberly Clark’s Kleenex tissues, then closed, has been purchased by an Indian company that is converting it to produce dissolving pulp instead. The rayon ingredient is in high demand for textiles — everything from rayon to cellophane to tire cord — and specialty paper products like filters, among other products.

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OPINION: Chromite chronicles – by J.R. Shermack (tbnewswatch.com – September 27, 2013)

http://www.tbnewswatch.com/

Happy days are here again, or at least they soon will be if we can believe Mayor Hobbs. Once that Ring of Fire thing kicks in we will all be rich. It’s just a matter of time before the dividend cheques start rolling in – should be around 2015 or so.

The Ring of Fire will pay for new infrastructure and solve our social problems, all while respecting the environment and turning us into chromite millionaires. This promise of a golden future is being dangled in front of our noses while we dance like monkeys on a string, imagining all the things we could buy with the money.

Mr. Hobbs has a vision. He can foresee a day when Thunder Bay is the new Fort McMurray. Imagine that. Minister Michael Gravelle couldn’t agree more. He envisions a whole new generation of prosperity with thousands of new jobs and new, improved infrastructure for all.

Who knows what highways he’ll be twinning next? At the federal level, Minister Tony Clement called the Ring of Fire the economic equivalent of the Athabasca oil sands.

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Saskatchewan’s history of potash, politics and profit (Regina Leaderpost – September 28, 2013)

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

1943: Geological surveys and exploratory drilling reveals that Saskatchewan has one of the largest potash deposits in the world.

1951: First commercial production potash mine is attempted by Western Potash Corporation Limited in the Unity district. Numerous delays and flooding make the project unsuccessful.

1958: Potash is first produced by Potash Company of America (PCA) near Saskatoon. The mine floods the next year and does not return to production until 1965.

1960: 1970: Potash production in Saskatchewan has been continuous since 1962: Ten mines are built in Saskatchewan for less than $300 million by six different companies. Referenced by: company name, location (year of initial production). Potash Company of America, Saskatoon (1958); International Minerals and Chemical Corporation (IMC), Yarbo K-1 (1962); Kalium Chemicals Limited, Belle Plaine (1964);

IMC, Gerald K-2 (1967); Allan Potash Mines, Allan (1968); Duval Corporation of Canada, Saskatoon (1968); Alwinsal Potash of Canada Limited, Guernsey (1968); Central Canada Potash, Colonsay (1969); Cominco Ltd., Vanscoy (1969); Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co. Limited, Rocanville (1970).

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PoV: Hudak’s plan for the North worthy of good debate – by Brian MacLeod (Sudbury Star – September 28, 2013)

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

A Progressive Conservative government in Ontario under Tim Hudak would shift policy heavily towards development in the North, but it is questionable whether this would play out as explained in his newest white paper: Paths to Prosperity — A Champion for Northern Jobs and Resources.

Much of what’s contained isn’t a surprise.

Hudak would try to expedite development of the Ring of Fire by speeding up construction of an all-season transport ring; he would aim to permit 10 mines over the next five years, give First Nations a portion of mining royalties and stumpage fees, stop the sell-off of the ONTC, give the North more say in how its lands are used, reel in the power of conservation authorities, repeal the Far North Act and scale back the power of the Endangered Species Act by placing the final decision of what species are added to the list in the hands of a cabinet minister.

There are also plans for more inexpensive power, modernizing the trail system and changing the Highway Traffic Act to accommodate off-road recreational vehicles.

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From Big Bang to No Wimper: A historical book review – by Dieter K. Buse (Sudbury Star – September 30, 2013)

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

To order a copy of “From Meteorite Impact to Constellation City”, please click here:  http://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/Catalog/saarinen-meteorite.shtml

In 1980, a disgruntled person who had moved from Sudbury to Edmonton, Alta., published a long piece in the Edmonton Journal proclaiming the demise of the city he had left and ranting at length about its problems.

Yet, 30 years later, despite a mess at city hall — though not matched by the Ford brothers show in Toronto or rotation of mayors in Montreal — and crumbling infrastructure as everywhere, Sudbury seems to be more than surviving. With every passing year it becomes a more attractive place to live due to its physical setting among lakes, its increasingly diversified economy (research institutes, medical school) and the limited stresses of a mid-sized regional service centre.

The lengthy book under review, Oiva W. Saarinen’s From Meteorite Impact to Constellation City: A Historical Geography of Greater Sudbury, is the most comprehensive account of Sudbury’s past published to date and helps to explain its survival despite the many odds aligned against it. The author underscores the importance of space and place to understanding the city’s long-term development and its continued difficulties.

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Exploration and Co-Operation: When Mining Companies and First Nations Work Together – by Thomas F. Morris (Huffington Post – September 29, 2013)

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

Since joining Northern Superior Resources in 2002 (formerly Superior Diamonds) as President and CEO, I have applied my strong belief that First Nations must be meaningfully consulted and actively engaged in exploration programs. These exploration programs, after all, take place in the back yards and across the traditional territories of Aboriginal communities where Northern Superior explores.

To respect the traditional land uses of these communities is absolutely essential. We actively strive to prevent disturbances to areas that are sacred to the community or where important community events occur. At the same time, it is also very important for First Nation communities to understand what exploration is all about and the limitations of a junior mining company.

Insufficient consultation can seriously impact an Aboriginal community’s rights, way of life, and culture in a negative and hurtful way. This is a reality the industry is at long last coming to understand. But where work is still required is in ensuring that Aboriginal communities understand the tremendous impact they can have on a junior exploration company.

If the community does not respect nor appreciate the positive intentions of the company as well as their financial reality, expectations become unmanageable and opportunities for progress disappear.

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Ring Of Fire Project: For First Nations, Disruption Is Certain, Profits Less So – by Sunny Freeman (Huffington Post – September 30, 2013)

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

WEBEQUIE FIRST NATION, ONT. — A bald eagle soars from the east between the evergreen branches of an uninhabited island in Ontario’s Far North and swoops in front of a fisherman’s small aluminum boat.

Another eagle flaps nearby as the boat speeds toward fertile fishing grounds. Sightings of the majestic bird on this fly-in First Nation reserve have become more frequent, just as at-risk woodland caribou have started trekking through Webequie’s land.

So have wolves. And last winter, a wolverine — another threatened species — was spotted on the ice road connecting the community on the skinny northern tip of Eastwood Island to the nearest town 250 kilometres southwest.

Some say the eagles, the wolves and the caribou signal that wildlife is fleeing the Ring of Fire, an area of mining development that has been dubbed “Canada’s next oilsands.” The boggy region in the James Bay lowlands is less than 90 kilometres southeast of this reserve, and in one of the world’s last undisturbed forests. It is farther north than most Canadians have ever travelled.

At the moment, the Ring of Fire is little more than a 20-kilometre strip of discoveries surrounded by prospectors’ stakes, drilling equipment and dirt roads in the midst of a marsh.

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