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Four Canadians charged in massive $140M international penny stock fraud scheme – by Adrian Humphreys (National Post – August 14, 2013)

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

Former Toronto resident Sandy Winick figured he was on to a good thing with his scam raking in millions of dollars from investors, U.S. authorities allege, telling a colleague his scheme was better than another: “That deal is obviously a pump-and-dump. We know enough to be subtle.”

His business partner, Kolt Curry, another Canadian, allegedly boasted: “The money is good, it’s easy. It’s easy money. Definitely easy money, and it’s good money.” And for awhile, they were right.

On Tuesday, however, they were two of four Canadians indicted in the United States, alongside five Americans, charged with running the largest international penny stock and advance fee frauds in history.

Mr. Winick, 55, was named as the mastermind behind the two related schemes that U.S. prosecutors allege bilked victims in 35 countries out of more than $140-million.

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Losing Faith in Gold From Ghana to Vancouver Proves Rout – by Peter Robison & Ekow Dontoh (Bloomberg News – August 13, 2013)


http://www.bloomberg.com/

Akwesi Boahene’s gold dreams ended better than those of some people in Dunkwa-on-Offin, Ghana, whose riverbeds yield flecks of the precious metal to pickaxes. He still had his life.

Boahene, a satellite-television installer, and a partner pooled $10,000 two years ago to rent land and start a mining operation in a muddy West African town then booming with prospectors lured by what was gold’s longest bull market in at least nine decades.

In May, as prices sagged, his venture became another victim in a year of lost faith in the metal. Boahene shut down the no-longer-profitable business and told his 15 workers to stay home. When a former employee phoned one morning in June about returning to work, Boahene, 33, had no good news.

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Canada, Mexico not energy rivals, ambassador says – by Shawn McCarthy (Globe and Mail – August 14, 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.

OTTAWA — Shrugging off the notion of an industrial rivalry, Mexican Ambassador Francisco Suarez says Canadian companies will enjoy enormous opportunities as his country seeks to rejuvenate its energy sector with sweeping, though politically challenging, liberalization.

In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Suarez said he expects Canada’s highly developed energy sector to figure as a key partner in Mexico’s multibillion-dollar effort to modernize not only its oil extraction sector but the pipeline and refining businesses as well as natural gas and electricity industries.

“This is the mother of all reforms,” he said at his office a block from Parliament Hill. “I think this opens great possibilities for Canada not as competitors but as complementary economies. I think this offers enormous opportunities for the relationship between Canada and Mexico.”

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Monday introduced a long-promised reform package which includes constitutional amendments to allow foreign companies to invest in energy production, although it stops short of allowing non-Mexicans to own or control oil and gas reserves.

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Eastern Europe seeks shale gas ‘revolution’ – by Daina Lawrence (Globe and Mail – August 14, 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.

Eastern Europe could become the next hotbed of shale gas exploration as oil and gas moguls, such as Chevron Corp., chase opportunities in countries that want to establish their energy independence from Russia and rebuild their economies.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates the combined gas reserves in Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary could equal more than 535-billion cubic metres of gas. This would be enough to restock Romania’s consumption for almost 40 years, according to the agency, as Romania’s average annual consumption totals about 14-billion cubic metres.

Despite these motivations, the use of the controversial shale gas extraction method – known as hydraulic fracturing or fracking – has already caused serious domestic opposition in Eastern Europe.

While countries such as France and the Netherlands continue to ban the practice, Romania lifted a moratorium on fracking earlier this year. Protests ensued. However, the country is moving ahead in its pursuit of energy independence and has since granted exploration permits to U.S.-based Chevron to explore the country’s Black Sea region.

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Where Are All the Women in Mining? – by Tara Wiseman (Hujffington Post – August 13, 2013)

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

The other day, I was watching my friend’s one-year-old daughter as she crawled through the grass. She ripped up dandelions in her chubby fingers, and buried her hands into the warm dirt in the garden. Then, before anyone could stop her, she shoved two fistfuls of mud into her mouth. We all laughed uncontrollably.

Then my friend said, “I hope she never outgrows this.”

My friend wasn’t talking about her daughter’s love for eating dirt. Rather, she was talking about her daughter’s love of the outdoors, her sense of adventure, her desire to get dirty. Then she explained that she wants her daughter to grow up tinkering with machines, collecting rocks, and building things. Essentially, doing things that tend to be associated with boys, not girls.

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The hole in Canadian history – by Dieter K. Buse (Toronto Star – August 11, 2013)

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Northeastern Ontario has just two National Historic interpretative centres.

Congratulations to Parks Canada for having obtained another World Heritage Site designation. Canada’s 17th such site acknowledges the importance of Red Bay, the 17th century Basque whaling station in Labrador. Perhaps the publicity will inspire more people to experience such sites and to learn more about our diverse heritage. The sites recognize special geographic, geological, biological but especially cultural and historic places. Hence in Canada they include Gros Morne, the Klondike, the Rocky Mountain parks and the core of Quebec City.

However, this achievement needs to be seen in a larger context, and some bones picked with Parks Canada. If one looks at the location of Canada’s sites — easily done on the Parks Canada website map — one finds that many are located in remote and isolated areas. Perhaps that merely reflects the nature of our vast, lightly settled country.

Yet, it does pose the question why no significant place has been identified between the Rideau Canal system near Ottawa and Dinosaur Park in Saskatchewan? Do not some important, special landscapes, such as those made iconic by the Group of Seven, exist between those points? Have no important historical events occurred in such a large area?

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FBI arrests seven in $140 million penny stock fraud – by Bernard Vaughan (Reuters U.S. – August 13, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

NEW YORK – (Reuters) – Federal prosecutors said on Tuesday they arrested seven people in a more than $140 million international penny stock scheme that involved fraudulently inflating share prices and trading volumes.

Two people charged, including the alleged mastermind, remain at large, according to the office for the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

The fraud generated funds from investors in about 35 nations through various brokerage and bank accounts, according to a statement from the office of U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch in Brooklyn.

The arrests, made in five states and in Canada, followed one of the largest international penny stock investigations ever conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI, according to the statement.

“As alleged in the indictment, the defendants used our securities markets as a platform from which to run elaborate fraudulent schemes to victimize unsuspecting investors across the globe,” Lynch said in a statement. “Where others saw citizens of the world, the defendants saw a pool of potential marks.”

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UPDATE 1-Freeport says Indonesia export ban may cut copper output – by Fergus Jensen (Reuters India – August 13, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

Aug 13 (Reuters) – Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc’s Indonesian subsidiary warned that output from Grasberg, the world’s second-biggest copper mine, could be cut by a ban on unprocessed ore exports that takes effect next year.

The Indonesian government is pushing miners, especially foreign-owned operations such as Freeport’s Grasberg, to add more value within the country.

Freeport, which on Tuesday signed two memorandums of understanding with Indonesian companies planning to build smelters that would process its ore, said it might seek a way around the rules during its contract renegotiation with the government.

The company currently processes only around 40 percent of its ore mined in Indonesia at one smelter in East Java, PT Freeport Indonesia Chief Executive Rozik Soetjipto said on Tuesday, but the law now requires it to smelt all of the ore in Indonesia from January 2014.

“If there is no dispensation from the government… our mining capacity will need to be reduced … It’s very complicated,” Soetjipto said at a news conference in Jakarta.

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Northern Promise: Ring of Fire smoulders anew – by Peter Koven (National Post – August 13, 2013)

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

Northern Promise is a six-part series that explores the pace and progress of development in Canada’s remote communities. In this first instalment, Peter Koven covers the glacial-paced evolution of Ontario’s Ring of Fire.

Six years ago, there was no talk about uncertainty over environmental permits or First Nations disputes. The only mood surrounding the Ring of Fire was sheer euphoria.

When a then-unknown company called Noront Resources Ltd. announced its first discovery hole in the James Bay Lowlands in August 2007, it launched a staking rush and investor frenzy of unprecedented proportions for an Ontario project. Junior mining companies flocked to the region, and the mere mention that they had some land was likely to triple their stock price. It all culminated in Noront’s annual meeting that October, a giant party disguised as a shareholder meeting in which Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire was blared at full volume and then-chief executive Richard Nemis was treated like a rock star.

Sadly, that Noront AGM turned out to be the high point for the Ring of Fire story so far.

That is not due to the quality of the discovery. The Ring turned out to be far bigger than first anticipated, with an estimated $30-billion to $50-billion of minerals in the ground.

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Ring of Fire project still experiencing delays (CBC News Sudbury – August 13, 2013)

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

Cliffs unsure when environmental assessment to resume

Talks are continuing around the future of the Ring of Fire chromite project. Frank Iacobucci and Bob Rae have been representing the province and First Nations in on-going discussions.

Mining company Cliffs Natural Resources said it’s happy with the progress that’s been made, but still can’t say when it may resume its environmental assessment. “I think it’s encouraging to have those kinds of discussions and certainly those kind of people involved in that,” Bill Boor, Cliffs vice president said.

“So certainly, it gives me some optimism that we will be able to find a good path forward and get things started like we talked about.”

The company temporarily put its environmental assessment process on hold in June, citing unfinished agreements with the province as one of the reasons for the delay. Speaking on the CBC television program Power and Politics earlier this month, Bob Rae said he had very specific goals for the ongoing negotiations.

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Patent fight could impact half of global rare earth metal supply – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – August 13, 2013)

http://www.mineweb.com/

A dispute between a new Chinese rare earth company industrial alliance and Japan’s Hitachi Metals over extension of Nd-Fe-B magnets could impact U.S. and Chinese manufacturing.

RENO (MINEWEB) – China’s desire to promote the development of a domestic rare earth permanent magnet industry is running head-on into Japan’s Hitachi Metals, Ltd. which is trying to protect over 600 sintered rare earth magnet patents globally, including over 100 patents in the U.S., 300 in China and 600 in Japan.

The dispute could impact up to half of the world’s rare earths production. The neodymium- iron-boron alloy magnet is used in motors, audio speakers, headphone, cordless tools, computer hard drives and even golf ball markers.

A year ago, Hitachi Metals, Ltd. and Hitachi Metals North Carolina, Ltd. asked the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to stop the sales of such products and their downstream products that did not have a U.S. patent license. Four Chinese companies entered into settlement agreements with Hitachi in May by paying money to gain the patent license.

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Mexico’s oil policy change challenges Canadian energy sector – by Jeffrey Jones (Globe and Mail – August 13, 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 — A rush of foreign investment in Mexican oil production in the wake of that country’s energy reforms threatens to fuel competition against Canada in the race to supply the U.S. Gulf Coast market with crude.

Mexico’s government is seeking to break a 75-year state monopoly on energy and lure private investors into the oil, gas and electricity industries to boost flagging output and lower energy costs for manufacturers.

The plan from President Enrique Pena Nieto, unveiled Monday, will be sent to the Congress for approval this week. It includes plans to change articles of the Constitution that prohibit private ownership of Mexican oil and introduce profit-sharing contracts.

If enacted, the reforms would mark the largest private sector opportunity in decades for Mexico’s oil and gas industry, which was nationalized in 1938 and is controlled by state monopoly Pemex. The national oil sector has been a source of Mexican pride since then, so approval of the reforms is still uncertain.

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NEWS RELEASE: Wallbridge Mining Provides Mid-Year Exploration Update (August 13, 2013)

Toronto, Ontario — August 13, 2013 – Wallbridge Mining Company Limited (TSX: WM, FWB: WC7) (“Wallbridge”) today provided a 2013 mid-year exploration update. Exploration activities to date in 2013 have included over 4,000 metres of exploration diamond drilling on the Sudbury area projects. Exploration activities are ongoing, focused on joint venture projects with partners Lonmin Plc (“Lonmin”), Impala Platinum Holdings Limited (“Implats”), and Xstrata Nickel (“Xstrata”). In addition, work is continuing to advance the Broken Hammer PGE-copper project through feasibility and into production.

On the Parkin Offset Joint Venture, which covers a nine kilometre strike length of the Parkin Offset, a review and compilation of the existing and historical drill information has been completed and an updated geological model was created in the first half of 2013. Various targets have been identified within the Parkin Offset Dyke from surface down to 1500 metre level. Follow up drilling and geological interpretation has been proposed for the 2013-2014 exploration program. This $1.0 million 2013/2014 program was approved by the Management Committee. Implats has elected to not participate in the 2013/2014 program. In light of this, Wallbridge will implement a reduced program on the joint venture this year.

The Parkin Offset Dyke hosts platinum, palladium, nickel, copper and gold mineralization typical of other offset dykes in Sudbury with examples at Vale’s Copper Cliff North and South mines and Vale’s Totten mine development. Mineralization on the Parkin Offset includes the Milnet Mine with reported past production of 157,130 tons averaging 2.25 g/t platinum, 2.98 g/t palladium, 0.93 g/t gold, 1.49 % nickel and 1.54 % copper.

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Mexico proposes energy reform, some investors skeptical – by David Alire Garcia and Simon Gardner (Reuters U.S. – August 12, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

MEXICO CITY – (Reuters) – President Enrique Pena Nieto on Monday proposed an overhaul of Mexico’s energy industry to offer private companies profit-sharing contracts, but investors said it might be too cautious and some sold Mexican assets.

The proposal calls for changes to key articles of the constitution that ban certain contracts and make oil, gas, petrochemicals and electricity the sole preserve of the state, in a bid to lure investment to stem sliding oil output.

If enacted, the reform would mark the largest private sector opening in decades for Mexico’s energy industry, which was nationalized in 1938 and is controlled by state monopoly Pemex.

However, the centrist government’s bill stops short of proposing concessions to tap Mexican oil, or production-sharing, that were viewed as the best-case scenarios by oil companies.

It also avoids giving private companies ownership over Mexico’s oil and gas and instead gives them a share of profits, in cash but not oil. It was not yet clear how attractive the reform would be for oil majors such as BP Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp.

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Canada must continue to exercise its sovereignty in the North (Calgary Herald Editorial – August 12, 2013)

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

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who made the Arctic a priority soon after coming to power in 2006, apparently needs to educate others in the federal government about how important the North is to the country’s well-being.

National Defence advisers have revealed there’s too much infighting going on in the civil service and that departments are failing to embrace the Tories’ so-called Northern Strategy. Their internal report, which was published last year but just now obtained by Postmedia News, is worrisome.

It is essential that Canada demonstrates its sovereignty in the sparsely populated region, which is rich in natural resources and is expected to become increasingly important for shipping in future years.

“The federal government culture can often be described by its hierarchical leanings and stove pipes which limit the exchange of information and often produce a reluctance to co-operate, lest traditional boundaries be violated or perceived authority be ceded unnecessarily,” says the report by the Defence Science Advisory Board.

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