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Denver Gold Forum Keynote Speaker Calls For ‘Honest Money’ Based On Gold – by Allen Sykora (Kitco News – September 23, 2013)

http://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – Denver – The masses would never consider allowing the size of a kilogram to fluctuate, the founding editor of the New York Sun told the 2013 Denver Gold Forum on Monday. That’s because nobody would know whether they were getting the appropriate quantity of any product they might purchase in kilograms.

Yet, the U.S. dollar is allowed to “float” under a fiat currency system, with the end result that the value of the greenback has fallen sharply in the last half century, said veteran financial journalist Seth Lipsky. Such a move would have dismayed the founding fathers of the U.S., who clearly felt the dollar should be tied to precious metals, he said.

Lipsky gave a keynote speech titled “Mainstreaming the Gold Standard” at the 2013 Denver Gold Forum. He called on the U.S. to return to some kind of gold standard, and urged those attending the Gold Forum not to be shy about entering the political fray.

In an interview ahead of his speech with Kitco News, Lipsky described the New York Sun as an online newspaper standing for limited government, free enterprise, strong foreign policy and “sound and honest money,” carrying more editorials on the gold standard than any other newspaper in the U.S. A book, “It Shines For All,” includes many of the editorials from the Sun for a gold standard and was distributed to those attending the speech.

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NEWS RELEASE: NORONT ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF PRESIDENT AND CEO

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – Sept. 24, 2013) – Noront Resources Ltd. (“Noront” or the “Company”) (TSX VENTURE:NOT) the board of directors (“Board”) of Noront announced today that Alan Coutts has been appointed as President and Chief Executive Officer and a director of the Company effective October 1, 2013.

Mr. Coutts is a mining executive with over 25 years of experience in all aspects of exploration, feasibility, construction and production of mineral deposits. He has worked both domestically and abroad in a variety of roles and across multiple commodities. Most recently, he was the Managing Director of Xstrata Nickel Australasia based in Perth, Australia. He was General Manager at the Brunswick Mine, Canada before relocating to Australia. Previous to that, Mr. Coutts occupied roles that included General Manager, Manager of Mining, Chief Geologist and Regional Exploration Manager, mostly with Falconbridge. Mr. Coutts holds an Honours degree in Geology from the University of Alberta and has Professional Geoscientist (P.Geo) status in the province of Ontario.

In announcing the appointment, the Chairman and interim Chief Executive Officer of Noront, Paul Parisotto, stated “We believe we have found in Alan a Chief Executive Officer who has a wealth of operating experience as well as managerial and strategic talent. He has developed and operated mines in remote regions world-wide, working closely with local stakeholders and governments to ensure positive outcomes. We are confident that Alan will be able to apply his skills to further the development and progression of Noront’s Ring of Fire properties”.

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Province won’t get involved in Stobie Mine deaths – by Star Staff (Sudbury Star – September 24, 2013)

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

Despite demands from the Ontario Federation of Labour, unions and others, the provincial government has no plans to reopen a criminal investigation into the deaths of two Sudbury miners in 2011.

The federation, which represents 54 unions and one million workers in Ontario, has reacted angrily to $1 million fined levied against Vale in a Sudbury courtroom last for the deaths of Jason Chenier and Jordan Fram on June 8, 2011.

It called on Attorney General John Gerretsen to press the Crown to lay charges and demanded that Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Madeleine Meilleur use her powers under the Police Services Act of Ontario to impose province-wide directives and guidelines requiring criminal investigations of every workplace tragedy to determine whether employer negligence was at fault.

Greater Sudbury Police investigated Fram’s and Chenier’s deaths, but determined no criminal charges were warranted. And in an email statement to The Star, Meilleur gave no indication the provincial government plans to intervene. “This is a tragic incident and my thoughts are with the family and friends of the deceased,” she said.

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Labour board rules against fired Sudbury Steelworkers – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – September 24, 2013)

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

Provincial arbitrator William Kaplan has ruled against three Steelworkers fired during the union’s year-long strike against Vale Ltd.

As a result, they won’t be getting their jobs back. USW Local 6500 president Rick Bertrand said the three men – former local vice-president Patrick Veinot, current treasurer Jason Patterson and former member Michael French – won’t be rehired by the company.

The three were dismissed in January 2010 during the union’s strike against Vale after company officials said they violated Vale’s code of conduct when an incident occurred in the community.

A striking Steelworker who crossed the picket line and went back to work was accosted by the three members. Criminal charges were laid against the three because of the incident, although Veinot and Patterson were cleared of any wrongdoing.

French was convicted and was forced to write a letter of apology to the victim. The union received the decision on the workers’ fate Friday, said Bertrand. “It’s been a tough few days.” He and his members are “all shocked, outraged and very disappointed” with Kaplan’s decision, contained in his 73-page ruling, said Bertrand.

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Chromite mine, Capreol smelter uncertain: Cliffs – by Laura Stricker (Sudbury Star – September 24, 2013)

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

Three months after Cliffs Natural Resources stopped work on the Ring of Fire, the company has hit another roadblock.

Its application for an easement over claims staked by KWG was rejected two weeks ago. A Cliffs’ official isn’t sure where the company will go from here, or when it can get the project up and running.

“Unless a solution to that is found, it’s kind of a showstopper, potentially,” Bill Boor, the senior vice-president of global ferroalloys, said Monday. “I’m not saying that we’re resigned to that fact – we’re trying to pursue what options are available – but this ruling … as it stands today (means) we don’t have the land to develop the project.”

Cliffs made the request to the Ontario and Mining Lands Commissioner for exclusive rights to an area from the Ring of Fire to Nakina, a town about 260 kilometres from Thunder Bay. KWG, as well as a number of smaller mining companies, have staked claim to portions of that region.

Cliffs wants the land to build a road, while KWG is pushing for a rail line out of the Ring. “We were fairly confident that it made sense to allow the easement application to go forward, so I was a bit surprised by the decision,” said Boor, adding it’s possible they will appeal the ruling.

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Hardship a fact of life in platinum belt – by Jana Marais (Business Day – September 22, 1023)

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

DRIVING around Rustenburg’s central business district, one sees them everywhere — men in old mining overalls and women sheltering from the North West sun behind pieces of cardboard reading “Work wanted”.

Surrounded by some of the richest known mineral deposits in the world, Rustenburg — now better known for last year’s violent strikes and the police shootings of miners at Marikana than its platinum wealth — has seen an influx in residents in recent years.

People have been flocking to the area hoping for jobs on its mines. But for most, getting a job will remain a dream.

Those who are lucky enough to have employment are under increasing pressure as companies resort to cutting jobs, while rising prices of basic foodstuffs and paraffin make it more difficult to support their families.

While mineworkers earn relatively high wages in the South African context, they support on average eight to 10 people, often extended family living in other parts of the country.

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Does Anglo American’s departure doom the Pebble prospect? – by Alex DeMarban (Alaska Dispatch – September 21, 2013)

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/

Anglo American’s pullout from Pebble is hardly a death knell for the promising but beleaguered mineral prospect in Southwest Alaska. But the move increases the chance of an important shift in the project, one that could lead to a less environmentally risky design than the massive, open-pit option that has sparked widespread opposition.

That’s the opinion, anyway, of Paul Metz, a longtime mineral economics expert from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

With Anglo departing, Rio Tinto is now the only major mining company invested in the project. Rio Tinto, headquartered in London, holds 19.8 percent of Northern Dynasty Minerals, the junior mining company from Canada that has long led efforts to develop the prospect.

Rio Tinto has said it would support an underground mine at Pebble, while rejecting the open-pit approach that many believe will play a large part of Northern Dynasty’s eventual plans.

The Pebble Partnership, once owned half by Anglo American and half by Northern Dynasty, is now working on a transition plan as Anglo backs out, as was publicly announced earlier this week, an official with Pebble said.

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Biting the hand that feeds it [South Africa mining amendments] – by Chris Barron (Business Day – September 22, 1023)

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

CHAMBER of Mines boss Bheki Sibiya says nobody should be under any illusions about the impact that proposed mining law amendments will have on the industry and South Africa.

Public hearings on the amendments ended this week, leaving an overwhelming sense of approaching disaster. Mr Sibiya, who in three years as CEO of the chamber has impressed with his measured, thoughtful but frank assessments of the challenges facing the industry, says this could be the biggest so far.

The crux of the amendments being pushed through by the government in the teeth of detailed submissions by the mining industry is that they will empower the minister to intervene in all sorts of issues from pricing to ownership rights.

The immediate consequence is that “quite a number” of marginal mines will close, says Mr Sibiya. Projects that are at the prospecting stage will be suspended, thousands of jobs will be lost and investors will not invest.

“Mining is long term. Once one is not so sure about one’s rights in the long term, one would rather say let’s cut our losses now. This is what investors will do.”

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Mining labour shortage coming in next 10 years – by CBC News Sudbury (September 23, 2013)

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

Mining Industry Human Resource Council, Canadian Institute of Mining looking at options

Canada is poised for a big labour shortfall in the mining field — and Sudbury is not immune. According to the Mining Industry Human Resource Council, there could be a need for 150 to 200 thousand workers by 2023.

The head of the MIHR said the organization is coming up with strategies to make up for the gap. “Based on our forecasting, Sudbury will need about 20,000 new workers between now and the next 10 years,” Ryan Montpellier said.

“So really, we’ll need about 2,000 new people per year for the mining industry — due to some growth, but primarily due to replacement demand, or people leaving towards retirement.”

A recent industry report estimated that 25 per cent of current workers in Canadian mining will be eligible to retire by 2023. Meanwhile, the Canadian Institute of Mining is working on a new campaign to address the threat of a labour shortage in the global mining industry.

The executive director of the CIM said Canada could be short 100,000 workers in the next decade. “Right now, the industry doesn’t have a good enough handle on the global requirements,” Jean Vavrek said.

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Barrick Gold’s brave (and scary) new world – by David Milstead (Globe and Mail – September 21, 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 buzzword at Barrick Gold Corp. is governance, as the miner responds to unhappy shareholders by adding new members to its board and revising its pay practices for key executives.

The changes that may make the biggest difference to its survival, however, are occurring at the Toronto-based company’s mines. During the past few months, Barrick has cut its head count and deferred capital spending. It has also slashed its dividend as the price of gold has slumped.

As the most debt-heavy miner in the industry, Barrick has the most to lose as gold prices decline. It also has the most to gain as gold prices rise, which may explain why the shares are now near $20, up about 40 per cent from their weakest points earlier this year, as gold has bounced off its recent lows.

Investors who choose Barrick as a means of playing a gold rebound, however, could be in for a long, painful slog if the metal’s price languishes.

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Coal mining protest in B.C. set to erupt – by Margo Harper (Globe and Mail – September 21, 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.

An increasingly tense standoff between a B.C. First Nation and a London, Ont.-based coal company in a remote mountain valley known as Sacred Headwaters is set to erupt as protesters flaunt their month-long presence on a drilling site and taunt the RCMP to arrest them.

For the Tahltan First Nation, which has worked both with and against industry, the stakes are high: It is determined to halt the development of an open-pit coal mine in a spot it views as the land of origin, the birthplace of all waters.

“We dare Fortune to get us arrested. We have cameras here. We will make sure the world knows what’s going on,” said Rhoda Quock, spokeswoman for the protest group Kablona Keepers, in a statement.

Fortune Minerals Ltd., which has invested $100-million to develop what it says may be the world’s biggest undeveloped deposit of high-quality, clean-burning coal, has no intention of giving up on the Arctos Anthracite project.

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Staking Claim: Ontario’s Ring Of Fire Brings Opportunity And Fears To First Nations – by Sunny Freeman (Huffington Post – September 23, 2013)

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

Staking Claim is a multi-part series exploring the proposed Ring of Fire mining development in Ontario and how the First Nations communities are preparing for economic activity and the environmental and societal consequences of Canada’s next resource rush.

BETWEEN LONG LAKE No. 58 AND LONGLAC, Ont. — Along this desolate stretch of Northern Ontario highway, an idyllic white chapel is perched on the point of a peninsula next to to a “No Swimming” sign wedged into the poisoned shoreline that juts into glistening Long Lake.

On the opposite side of the Trans-Canada Highway, a downtrodden young man, a filled plastic garbage bag slung over each shoulder, saunters past a long-idle train toward the swampy lowland of the Long Lake No. 58 First Nations reserve.

There are no job opportunities where he is headed and no businesses, save for a single band-owned gas bar. Dilapidated box houses, many boarded and abandoned, line the three roads that form the reserve.

Two kilometres east is Longlac, the self-proclaimed “Gateway to Northwestern Ontario” and last stop for eastbound travellers — 14 hours from Toronto — in search of a coffee shop or motel ahead of a 200-kilometre stretch of uninhabited land.

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Province must settle this [Ring of Fire] dispute – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (September 22, 2013)

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

A BUSINESS dispute over access to the Ring of Fire mineral belt has escalated to the point where the major player now claims the future of the entire development is threatened. Boardroom machinations are common in business but this goes far beyond a private enterprise spat. Determining how best to bring heavy chromite ore out of a vast tract of muskeg goes to the heart of a mining prospect so rich it stands to transform the moribund Northern Ontario economy and help the province itself recover economically.

So this impasse cannot be allowed to stand. It has to be solved and the province, as governor of mining activity, is the only party that can do it if lengthy court action is to be avoided. So far, however, Ontario has kept its hands off the dispute. That, too, cannot last.

Cliffs Natural Resources and KWG Resources cannot get past a tiff over land control. KWG’s search for diamonds led to the discovery of a mother lode of chromite, essential to stainless steel-making. It and Cliffs, a much bigger company, wound up partners but Cliffs eventually acquired a KWG partner and became the dominant Ring player intent on developing its Black Thor project including a road to bring ore out.

The road, using a desirable ridge of high ground seen as the key transportation corridor out of the Ring, would pass over some KWG claims. KWG remains fixed on its Big Daddy deposit and proposes instead a railroad.

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First Nations seek economic partnership with NEOMA – by Wayne Snider (Timmins Daily Press – September 23, 2013)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – First Nations and municipalities in the North face many of the same challenges in terms of economic development.

Now, it appears two key groups are ready to come together to foster growth. Mushkegowuk Council, which represents eight First Nation communities, has approached the Northeastern Ontario Municipal Association (NEOMA) to develop a growth strategy.

Deputy Grand Chief Les Louttit of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) spoke to NEOMA members on Friday. Mushkegowuk Council is part of NAN, which represents 49 First Nations across Northern Ontario.

“We would like to propose an official entity of some kind to partner with NEOMA and Mushkegowuk Council,” Louttit said. “We would have an organization together, with people from your and our organizations, to foster business development, to take advantage of future business opportunities and economic development from the mining, forestry and tourism sectors.”

At the request of Mushkegowuk Council, NAN helped develop a proposal. This plan is currently being reviewed by Mushkegowuk Council and its member First Nations.

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Innovators work to diversify the U.P. economy – by Kathleen Lavey (Detroit Free Press – September 22, 2013)

http://www.freep.com/

Gannett Michigan – Seven hundred feet below the surface of the earth, John Mason drives a truck through the heart of Eagle Mine, the tires crunching on irregular pieces of rock at the bottom of the tunnel.

He points to a section of the rock that’s a slightly different color than the rest. It gleams a little in the artificial light from the lamp on his hard hat.

“There,” Mason says, “is the ore body. Right there.” Four percent copper. Five percent nickel. An estimated 550 million pounds of usable metal in a mine near Marquette.

That’s no match for the purity of the copper hewn from the U.P.’s ancient rock formations during its 19th- and 20th- Century mining boom. But these days, getting it out is worth an investment of more than $1 billion and an effort that will keep a crew of up to 220 miners busy for at least eight years.

The new mine, scheduled to begin extracting ore late next year, is the next chapter in the Upper Peninsula’s long history of making a living from natural resources.

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