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Make up your minds [Thunder Bay generating station] – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (September 25, 2013)

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

WITH the fate of the Thunder Bay Generating Station occupying so much public and political attention these days, the ongoing crisis situation at the Regional hospital is unfortunately being shunted aside on the political agenda. The issue of hospital crowding is much worse because it is potentially life-threatening whereas a decision on the generating plant, though needed now, can take time to carry out.

Both crises demonstrate government indecisiveness on multiple pressing issues.

Queen’s Park twice reversed itself on converting the Mission Island generating station from coal to gas and currently has the matter on hold again while it awaits an analysis by the Ontario Power Authority on how best to serve the electricity needs of the Northwest. The region will need significantly more power when a pending mining boom occurs and it takes time to build transmission capacity.

Here, too, the province is dawdling on the central theme of how to get ore out of the Far North to processing plants. A legal tussle over whether it should be a road or a railroad needs provincial intervention on behalf of the entire region which stands to receive a major economic jolt once mining begins. Instead, the province is waiting and seeing while the lead company warns it is running out of time.

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Tories consider return of spring hunt – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – September 26, 2013)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – The provincial party that cancelled the spring black bear hunt is now considering including its reinstatement as a campaign promise. At the Progressive Conservative policy convention held in London this past weekend, Tory delegates voted in favour of having its policy team consider the hunt’s reinstatement as part of the party’s next platform.

The motion was put jointly forward by three Northern Tory candidates including Steve Black of Timmins-James Bay riding and Peter Politis of Timiskaming-Cochrane. The other delegate was Randy Nickel of Kenora-Rainy River.

“Three Northern associations recommended the spring black bear hunt be reinstated mostly due to the dangerous shift in bear behavior,” Black told The Daily Press. “That was a large focus. We discussed what’s transpired in Cochrane this year, the fact bears are now seen entering homes and the increased bear-human interactions.”

The idea would be reinstate a spring hunt in which only male black bears would be targeted, mirroring the policy of the previous hunt before it was cancelled.

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Inco retiree reflects on past days of riding the ‘rails’ in Sudbury – by Mary Katherine Keown (Sudbury Star – September 26, 2013)

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

As a younger man, Fred Baston lived on Riverside Drive. Each morning the Inco employee set out, sometimes while it was still dark and bitterly cold, to catch the streetcar near Regent and Lorne streets. His 12-hour shift at the Copper Cliff smelter ran from 8 a.m. to 8 p. m

“It was a good, cheap ride to work,” he says. The year was 1949 and it cost 25 cents to ride the streetcar, or five tickets for a dollar. Convenient enough, but not always comfortable. “They were noisy; you could hear them coming on the rails,” Baston, now 86 and living at Pioneer Manor, says.

The Sudbury-Copper Cliff and Creighton Electric Railway was founded in 1903, but the first streetcar made its inaugural run in 1912. It took 30 minutes to make the journey from Elm and Durham, to the terminal in Copper Cliff. More than 14 km of track were laid. The last carriage to run between Sudbury and Copper Cliff made its journey on Oct. 1, 1950.

As a kid, Baston was “bumming” it on trains. As he got older, he took to the hobo life, riding the rails westward. At 22, the young man left his hometown of Bathurst, N.B., 350 km north of Saint John on Chaleur Bay. He tucked himself into an open-air train car and hid from the view of ticketing agents.

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Economists duel over benefits of Arizona copper mine – by Mike Sunnucks (Phoenix Business Journal – September 25, 2013)

http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/

A new economic study pours water on the projected benefits of a huge proposed copper mine 60 miles east of Phoenix.
But the authors of a previous study, commissioned by the multinational companies proposing the mine, are sticking by their more ambitious projections.

The competing studies look at the proposed Resolution Copper Mine in Superior. The mine would be one of the largest in the world and is proposed by U.K.-based Rio Tinto PLC and Australia’s BHP Billiton Ltd. The two companies are among the largest copper miners in the world.

The San Carlos Apache Tribe — which opposes the mine — commissioned a new study by University of Montana economist Thomas Power and his firm Power Consulting Inc. The study takes issue with a 2011 study commissioned by Resolution Copper Co. and conducted by Scottsdale-based Elliott D. Pollack & Co.

Resolution Copper is the company formed by BHP and Rio Tinto to develop the mine. The Pollack study projects the mine will create 3,719 jobs statewide worth $220.5 million in annual wages. That includes 1,429 direct mining jobs for the mine.

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Anglo American SA reaches settlement with silicosis-stricken miners – by Agency Staff (Business Day – September 25, 2013)

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

A SETTLEMENT between Anglo American South Africa and former miners who had contracted silicosis while working for the company benefited all parties, the company said on Wednesday.

“Anglo American South Africa announces that it has concluded an agreement which resolves fully and finally 23 stand-alone silicosis claims, instituted against it between 2004 and 2009,” the company said in a statement. “The settlement has been reached without admission of liability by Anglo American South Africa and the terms of the agreement remain confidential.”

The case was brought by 23 miners, 18 of whom had worked at Anglo’s President Steyn mine in the Free State. They claimed they contracted silicosis and silico-tuberculosis while working for the company up to 1998.

Anglo American South Africa executive director Khanyisile Kweyama said: “Anglo American South Africa believes that agreeing to settle this long-standing litigation is in the best interests of the plaintiffs, their families, Anglo American South Africa and its wider stakeholders.

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Economic potential Northwestern Ontario – by Matt Vis (tbnewswatch.com – September 25, 2013)

 http://www.tbnewswatch.com/

Economic prospects for Northwestern Ontario are looking strong, say experts attending the fourth annual Prosperity Northwest conference.

The event, a one-day forum and trade show, was hosted by the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce at the Valhalla Inn Wednesday and featured speeches from business executives as well as a collection of business exhibits.

François Lecavalier, vice-president of acquisitions and partnerships in the mining and metallurgy department of Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin, was one of the invited speakers. Lecavalier addressed the divisive Ring of Fire development and stressed the need for all parties to be operating on the same page.

“The Ring of Fire has the potential to help economic growth in Canada and Ontario over the next decades, but it won’t happen if there isn’t the necessary infrastructure to get the resources out,” Lecavalier said prior to his presentation.

“This will only happen if there is real partnership between the mining companies, both levels of government and the First Nations communities.

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Locals up in arms over big new [Canadian platinum] mine – by Schalk Mouton (Sunday Times – September 25, 2013)

http://www.timeslive.co.za/ [South Africa]

Community members in several villages accuse Canadian mining group Ivanhoe Mines of attempting to shove them aside to make way for its Platreef mine.

Ivanplats, an Ivanhoe subsidiary, is prospecting around the villages of Kgobudi, Magongoa, Mzombana and Tshamahansi, where it has discovered a massive reef with inclusions of platinum, palladium, gold, rhodium, nickel and copper.

The company, which plans to establish a highly mechanised underground mine, has applied for a mining licence. The mine is the second that mining companies intend to open to exploit the 30km-long reef. The first is Anglo Platinum’s Mogalakwena.

But the community is angry. “They will fight,” said Sylvester Masenya, a Mzombana resident. “They are angry but they can’t do anything.” Eliphas Molwatsi, chairman of the Mokopane Interested and Affected Community organisation, claimed community members had been assaulted, bribed and intimidated into signing documents stating that they agreed to the establishment of the mine.

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Iron ore giant Vale has a secret but it is not telling – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – September 25, 2013)

http://www.mining.com/

Brazilian miner Vale (NYSE: VALE), the world’s biggest iron ore firm, is considering more non-core asset sales by the end of the year, but it is also working on a deal that could shock the market, said Chief Executive Murilo Ferreira yesterday.

After a speech at the Brazilian Mining Congress, the executive told reporters Vale was evaluating whether to sell its 22% stake in aluminum producer Norsk Hydro ASA (STO:NHYO), as well as its 40% stake in Brazilian bauxite miner Mineracao Rio do Norte SA. The company is also evaluating what to do with its remaining oil and gas assets.

“We also have a surprise that I won’t mention so you remain curious,” Ferreira told reporters Tuesday, after a speech at the Brazilian Mining Congress, according to Bloomberg.

Iron ore prices to hold

The miner is quite bullish about global iron prices, as it sees demand from China, the world’s top iron ore consumer, likely to moderate next year. The executive director for ferrous and strategy, Jose Carlos Martins, said Wednesday the firm was expecting prices to be in range of $120-$130 a tonne in the fourth quarter.

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Global Witness’ Latest Silly Suggestion About Conflict Minerals – by Tim Worstall (Forbes Magazine – September 24, 2013)

http://www.forbes.com/

There are times when the actions of do-gooders makes me want to kneel down and weep bitter tears of pain. One such is the latest proposal from Global Witness on the subject of conflict minerals. They’ve decided that one particular program, one massively expensive and destructive of human wealth, should not be curtailed, adjusted or made more efficient: no, they’ve decided that it should be expanded. Forgive me for having rather strong views on this but it’s all happening in a corner of my working world and I can see what they’re doing wrong.

The background is over the use of conflict minerals in the supply chain. Conflict minerals are those coming from war torn areas of the world and it’s most certainly true that we’d like everyone to stop using minerals mined using slave labour, rape to keep people in line, minerals where the profits go to feed the armed gangs that control those mining areas. I agree with this aim and desire: it’s the methods proposed to achieve this goal that are so dire that they cause that pain in me.

For the latest suggestion is that the European Union should bring in regulations similar to those in Dodd Frank. This would require all companies to investigate their supply chains and thus check on whether they, or any of their suppliers, are using said conflict minerals. The problem with this being that this is a vastly expensive method of reaching this mutually desired goal.

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China’s potash deal with Russia threatens Canadian profits – by Carrie Tait (Globe and Mail – September 25, 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.

CALGARY — China has bought a chunk of one of the world’s largest potash producers, giving the Asian country more control over what price it should pay for the fertilizer – a move that could drag down prices for the mineral and eat into profits for Canada’s potash companies.

China Investment Corp., Beijing’s sovereign wealth fund, agreed to acquired a 12.5-per-cent stake in Russia’s OAO Uralkali. The deal – a debt-for-equity exchange between CIC and a company owned by three Russian oligarchs – comes after Uralkali said it intends to break from Belarus Potash Co., the cartel it had with state-owned Belaruskali.

Companies controlled by Beijing have invested billions of dollars as part of an overall strategy to secure energy supplies as well as basic manufacturing and building materials. In Canada, Chinese oil and gas companies, along with CIC, are significant energy players. CIC’s deal with Uralkali fits the recent Chinese model: Invest in resources in order to secure supply and exert some control over prices.

China is the world’s most populous country and largest potash consumer, and its stake in Uralkali could hurt Canada’s fertilizer producers because they could further lose pricing power.

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Peter Munk responds to his critics – by Peter Munk (Globe and Mail – September 25, 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 an article published in this newspaper on Sept. 18, 2013, David Parkinson was unfairly critical of me and the governance practices at Barrick Gold Corp. Mr. Parkinson went so far as to suggest that I was treating Barrick as if it were my “personal piggy bank.” You have extended to me the opportunity to rebut his criticisms, for which I am thankful.

I founded Barrick more than 30 years ago. In the period since, Barrick has become one of the most successful companies in Canada, and one of the world’s largest and most profitable gold mining companies. Barrick now has operations on five continents and more than 25,000 employees. In the most recent fiscal year, Barrick had record revenues of more than $14.5-billion. In the last three years alone, despite some major non-cash write-offs, Barrick had operating cash flows of more than $16-billion; and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of more than $23-billion. Measured by these key metrics, this ranks Barrick as one of the top performing companies on the Toronto Stock Exchange over the period.

Contrary to Mr. Parkinson’s assertions, the board of directors of Barrick takes its governance obligations very seriously. Moreover, the compensation arrangements referred to in his article were approved both by Barrick’s compensation committee, comprised entirely of independent directors; and subsequently and unanimously by the independent directors of the board as a whole.

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Vale fine should go to families, Steelworkers prez says – by Heidi Ulrichsen (Sudbury Northern Life – September 24, 2013)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

The $1,050,000 fine imposed by the courts on Vale last week in the 2011 deaths of two miners should be directed to their families, said Steelworkers Local 6500 president Rick Bertrand.

Vale will be paying the fine to the City of Greater Sudbury. That’s because the company was charged and pleaded guilty to three offences under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, which are tried in Provincial Offences Court.

Provincial offences were downloaded to the city in 2001, and as such, any fines meted out by the courts are paid to the city.

Jason Chenier, 35, and Jordan Fram, 26, were killed June 8, 2011 after they were buried by an uncontrolled released of muck, sand and water from an ore pass at the 3,000-foot level.

“With the $1 million that’s going to be coming to the city, the first thing that goes through my mind is that the families should be compensated somehow,” said Bertrand, whose union represents Vale miners.

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B.C. Mining Protest: Company Pulling Out From Mt. Klappen – by The Canadian Press (Huffington Post – September 24, 2013)

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/british-columbia/

VANCOUVER – A Canadian mining company is moving to diffuse a growing dispute with First Nations over a proposed open pit coal mine in northern B.C., by pulling out of the mine site for several months.

However, Fortune Minerals (TSX:FT) said it is not leaving Mount Klappan for good, and that the company remains committed to the mine in an area considered sacred by First Nations.

“While all of Fortune’s activities at the project site are focused on gathering necessary information that will be used in a B.C. environmental assessment process, … the company has faced disruptive and damaging protests,” the firm said in a statement.

On Sunday, about 40 members of the Tahltan First Nation, including elders, moved into the Fortune’s camp site at Mount Klappan and asked the workers to leave.

Tahltan members had earlier issued what they called an “eviction notice, requiring the company to halt its exploration activities and leave the area,” said a news release issued by the Tahltan Central Council on Tuesday.

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Vale CEO says Batista’s MMX must honor railway deal – by Sabrina Lorenzi (Reuters India – September 24, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

BELO HORIZONTE, BRAZIL – (Reuters) – MMX, a mining company controlled by Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista, should honor a contract to pay Brazil’s MRS railway for iron ore shipments even if its mines are not ready to produce, Vale SA (VALE5.SA) Chief Executive Murilo Ferreira said on Tuesday.

MMX Mineração e Metálicos SA (MMXM3.SA) has a take-or-pay contract with the MRS Logística SA (MRSA3B.SO) railway to ship 36 million tonnes of iron ore a year through 2026 at 26.46 reais ($12.03) a tonne. The iron ore was to be shipped from MMX mines in Minas Gerais state to MMX’s Sudeste Port near Rio de Janeiro.

The contract states MMX must pay for at least 80 percent of the total contracted volume starting in 2017 whether it actually ships the iron ore or not, according to MMX’s website.

Vale owns 38 percent of MRS’s voting stock and 42 percent of its total capital, making the Rio de Janeiro-based miner the railway’s largest shareholder.

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NEWS RELEASE: Harper Government Creating Right Conditions for Growth of the Mining Sector in Northern Ontario

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – Sept. 24, 2013) – The Honourable Greg Rickford, Minister of State for Science and Technology, and FedNor, and Minister responsible for the Ring of Fire, today addressed delegates at the 45th Annual Canadian Mineral Analysts Conference. During his address, Minister Rickford highlighted the importance of mining to the Canadian economy and the Harper Government’s commitment to ensure the sector’s continued growth.

“Mining and resource development are important drivers of economic progress and are key to enhancing Canada’s prosperity and competitiveness,” said Minister Rickford. “Our Government recognizes the important role the mining sector plays in creating jobs, attracting investment and strengthening not only the economy of Northern Ontario, but also of the country, which is why we are committed to creating the conditions that will enable the industry to continue to flourish.”

There are more than 200 active mines in Canada, producing more than 60 minerals and metals. Canada’s mineral exports were valued at approximately $93 billion in 2012, accounting for more than one-fifth of the country’s total exports.

The Ring of Fire, located approximately 500 km northeast of Thunder Bay, could become the largest mining development Northern Ontario has ever seen. The region has significant mineral deposits of nickel and copper, and especially chromite, used in the production of stainless steel. With an estimated value of up to $50 billion, the Ring of Fire could generate 5,000 jobs in Northern Ontario alone.

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