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Barrick Gold Corp. to sell three mines in Australia for $300 million (Canadian Press/Toronto Star – August 23, 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.

Barrick Gold Corp. has agreed to sell off three high-cost mines in Western Australia to South Africa-based miner Gold Fields Ltd. — a move analysts say will free Barrick up to focus on more profitable operations.

Barrick said it will receive about $300 million from the sale, which is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval by Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board.

The company said the three mines that comprise the Yilgarn South assets produced a total of 452,000 ounces of gold in 2012 and a further 196,000 ounces in the first half of this year.

Kerry Smith, an analyst at Haywood Securities, said selling the higher-cost mines will reduce Barrick’s operating expenses and have only a minimal impact on the company’s production volumes. “By eliminating those three mines out of their portfolio, it frees their management up to spend more time on other assets that actually make more cash,” Smith said.

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Arctic tour: Stephen Harper acknowledges social issues in Canada’s North – by Tonda MacCharles (Toronto Star – August 23, 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.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper shifted his political message in the North Thursday after he met Nunavut Premier Eve Aariak and faced media questions about the immense social challenges here.

RANKIN INLET, NUNAVUT—On a day he intended to highlight more money for mining development, Prime Minister Stephen Harper shifted his political message in the North after he met Nunavut Premier Eve Aariak and faced media questions about the immense social challenges here.

Those had largely gone unmentioned by the prime minister during his eighth annual Arctic tour. Instead it has focused on resource development and Arctic sovereignty. Thursday was also supposed to boost the prime minister’s credentials as a supporter of basic science.

In Rankin Inlet, on the northwest coast of Hudson’s Bay, Harper, who is frequently criticized for failing to back scientific research and accused of muzzling scientists, threw his weight behind a major geological research project and brought geologists along to tell everyone about it.

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Beyond bitumen: Can Fort McMurray build a future that’s bigger than the oil sands? – by Mashoka Maimona (National Post – August 23, 2013)

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

The matron of northern Alberta’s oil sands country — Fort McMurray — envisions a future beyond energy for a community built on bitumen.

Melissa Blake, the mayor of Wood Buffalo, the regional municipality made up of Fort McMurray and nine rural communities, is well aware her town — sitting on the largest deposit outside OPEC — has become synonymous with the oil sands.

“I can acknowledge that just about any other job that’s supported in Fort McMurray is one that is here to support those who work for the [oil] industry. But I also see the opportunity of being able to offer more cultural amenities, more social amenities, more retail and commercial opportunities — really allowing people who have creative energy to be successors in their own right,” Ms. Blake said in a phone interview from Fort McMurray. “If we turn our backs on those opportunities, we won’t be able to welcome a different era in the future.”

Fort McMurray is bursting at the seams: its population has doubled in the past 15 years to nearly 80,000, and the number is expected to surpass 200,000 by 2030.

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A pipeline that’s good for Canada is good for Ontario, too – by Jesse Kline (National Post – August 23, 2013)

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

British Columbia’s Liberal Premier, Christy Clark, has not been shy about her province’s desire to get its “fair share” out of the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, which would transport oil sands crude to the West Coast. Not only does Ms. Clark want to receive royalties from oil originating in Alberta, she also wants the federal government to pick up the cost, should anything go wrong.

Unfortunately, this strain of thought seems to have spread beyond B.C.’s borders, passing from one Liberal mind to another.

Last year, the former Liberal premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty, weighed into the debate by arguing that the high Canadian dollar that results from energy exports is bad for Ontario’s manufacturing sector. “If I had my preferences as to whether we had a rapidly growing oil and gas sector in the West or a lower dollar, I’ll tell you where I stand: with the lower dollar,” he said.

Mr. McGuinty eventually changed his mind, perhaps having realized that since Ontario manufactures much of the machinery used to develop Alberta’s oil resources, holding up the construction of new pipelines would be counterproductive. But now that he is out of office and his successors are facing the very real prospect of Alberta oil flowing through their backyard, the Ontario Liberals appear to be adopting strategies developed by their West Coast cousins.

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Michael Den Tandt: Days into Harper’s trip, the real problems of the North begin to emerge – by Michael Den Tandt (National Post – August 23, 2013)

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

RANKIN INLET, Nunavut — After days of singing the praises of Arctic sovereignty, resource extraction and development, Prime Minister Stephen Harper came face to face here with the stark challenge of catalyzing a 21st Century gold rush in a society afflicted by grinding poverty and social dysfunction. It is a daunting task, with no assured outcomes. What is clear, now, is that the Conservatives intend to try.

Thursday morning the PM appeared before a small crowd to deliver the day’s pre-packaged news — a $100-milion investment in geo-mapping, intended to lay bare the underground riches of the North. The goal is to send geologists fanning out across the Arctic Archipelago, first by air and then on the ground, to create a map that will guide mining firms in their own future explorations.

While he spoke, children played outside on a dirt field, as beat-up pickup trucks and four-wheelers raced along gravel roads, among the modular buildings that make up this hamlet of 2,358. Rankin Inlet, high on the northwest shore of Hudson’s Bay, is one of three regional centres in Nunavut, alongside Cambridge Bay and the capital of Iqaluit.

Though clearly better off than communities further north, Rankin has a developing-world feel — right down to the choking dust and chaotic traffic. Respiratory ailments, one resident told me, are rife, particularly among the elderly.

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NEWS RELEASE: Geo-mapping key to opening up mineral opportunities in Canada’s North – Mining industry commends the federal government on GEM funding announcement

OTTAWA, Aug. 22, 2013 /CNW/ – The Government of Canada’s decision to renew the Geo-mapping for Energy and Minerals (GEM) program is a positive and welcome investment that will help facilitate exploration activities in Canada’s North.

Building on a previous allocation of $100 million over five years from Federal Budget 2008, the government’s renewed commitment of $100 million over seven years will carry this important work forward to the benefit of the mineral industry, northerners and all Canadians.

“Mineral exploration is like looking for a needle in a haystack,” said Pierre Gratton, President and CEO of the Mining Association of Canada (MAC). “This continued investment in surveying will help the industry better determine where mineral deposits are located, and ultimately, where the next generation of Canadian mines can be developed.”

Geoscience is a fundamental building block of a minerals economy. For companies conducting exploration, it makes sense to spend their high-risk dollars in areas where good geological data is available in order to heighten the chances of finding a deposit. By developing a broader body of reliable geological information, Canada is enhancing its attractiveness as a destination for mineral exploration investment.

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Barrick Gold sells mines to Gold Fields as part of restructuring – by James Wilson and Andrew England (Financial Times – August 22, 2013)

http://www.ft.com/home/us

London/Johannesburg – Barrick Gold has started its promised restructuring by selling a trio of Australian gold mines to industry rival Gold Fields.

The $300m sale will help the Canadian miner’s stretched balance sheet and will switch Gold Fields’ main production focus away from western Africa to Australia, where it will bundle assets with its existing mines to try to lower costs.

Barrick, the world’s largest gold miner by volume, flagged the possible sale of the Yilgarn South mines earlier this month, when it posted an $8.6bn quarterly loss. The loss was linked to writedowns to asset values because of the fall in the price of gold this year.

The three mines at Yilgarn South produce 452,000 ounces of gold annually, equivalent to about a quarter of Gold Fields’ annual output. Barrick said the sale would not change its plan to produce between 7m and 7.4m ounces this year.

Nick Holland, Gold Fields’ chief executive, said there was “considerable opportunity for cost synergies” between the Lawlers mine, one of the Yilgarn South group, and its adjacent Agnew mine.

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South Africa all but off BHP Billiton’s radar screen – by Martin Creamer (MiningWeekly.com – August 21, 2013)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa has all but fallen off the radar screen of BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest mining company, which on Tuesday reported an 8.7% fall in revenue to $65.9-billion for the year ended June.

The name of the country did not cross the lips of new CEO Andrew Mackenzie and one got the impression that this region’s aluminium, thermal coal and manganese interests are hanging on by a thin thread in a company dominated by iron-ore, oil, copper and coking coal.

When BHP and Gencor/Billiton of South Africa merged at the start of the new millennium, the South African assets helped to lift the chin of a then downcast BHP.

The performance of then standalone BHP, which in merged form has paid out more in dividends than the rest of the mining world put together, was so mediocre that the Economist of London scoffed that the letters BHP really stood for Broken Hearted People, and not Broken Hill Proprietary.

But the powers that be are clearly in no mood to return the favour; instead they are directing any tender, loving care they still have towards potash risk at Jansen in Canada, which is still a cost centre.

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RPT-INSIGHT-Barrick Gold’s Peter Munk seeks to regain his Midas touch – by Euan Rocha (Reuters U.S. – August 22, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

Aug 21 (Reuters) – Peter Munk has long driven the agenda for Barrick Gold Corp, the company he formed in 1983 and built into the world’s largest gold producer, but recent missteps have raised questions about the leadership of a man once seen as a visionary in the industry.

Munk, who owns a stake of less than a quarter of a percent in the company, still steers Barrick’s strategy from his position as chairman, and he is now attempting to shore up the miner’s position. But some investors, seizing on what they view as misguided decisions and problems at several mines, are questioning both the company’s direction, and Munk’s role.

In the last two years, gold miners across the globe have been stung by falling bullion prices and a surge in costs. Barrick has fared worse than its rivals, outlining about $13 billion in writedowns this year alone.

Its share price is down nearly 65 percent in two years, outpacing a 50 percent drop in the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index , and a 26 percent drop in the price of spot gold.

While environmental woes at its Pascua-Lama gold-mining project, high in the Andes, have been the biggest drag on Barrick’s share price, investors have taken the most issue with its disappointing push into copper and with a proposal to give Munk’s heir apparent, co-chairman John Thornton, an unusually large, $11.9 million signing bonus.

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NEWS RELEASE: OMA member-First Nation agreement opens employment and business opportunities

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.

An agreement between Ontario Mining Association member Goldcorp and Lac Seul First Nation opens training, employment, business and contracting opportunities in the Red Lake area. The Obishikokaang Collaboration Agreement, which was signed recently in a ceremony by both parties, establishes a framework for continued consultation to support existing and future gold mining operations of Goldcorp in the region.

The Lac Seul First Nation has about 3,200 band members, with about two thirds living off reserve. This First Nation has historic ties to the development of the Red Lake gold camp and many of its members live in the community.

“Goldcorp’s commitment to working with First Nations is once again demonstrated with this agreement, ensuring both the sustainable development of the area in which we operate and long-term economic benefits for communities,” said Chris Cormier, Mine General Manager at Goldcorp’s Red Lake Gold Mines. “We look forward to working in partnership with Lac Seul First Nation to foster continued dialogue and to implement the initiatives set out in the agreement.”

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FEATURE-North Nigeria’s poor beat path to nascent mining boom – by Tim Cocks (Reuters India – August 22, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

BAGEGA, Nigeria, Aug 22 (Reuters) – Like almost everything else in Nigeria’s economy, mining of metals and other solid minerals fell by the wayside when the West African nation discovered oil.

In the two decades to 1954, foreign companies produced around 360,000 ounces of gold in total, according to government statistics – tiny by today’s standards, but not insignificant for a country approaching independence with high hopes.

By 1964 – post-independence and less than a decade after oil was found in the creeks of the southern Niger Delta – gold production had largely ground to a halt.

Now much of the digging up of Nigeria’s minerals is done by artisanal miners in the largely Muslim north, bereft of the high-tech machinery that makes it safe and brings economies of scale.

“The sector was left in the hands … of untrained and ill-equipped artisans … making negligible contributions to GDP,” was how a government policy brief summed it up last year.

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BHP’s sales plan latest blow to Canpotex pricing power – by Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – August 22, 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.

VANCOUVER — BHP Billiton Ltd. is honing its strategy to sell Saskatchewan potash on its own to Asian customers, sidestepping Canada’s export marketing agency for the farming commodity.

The Australian mining giant, which this week announced a $2.6-billion (U.S.) investment in its Jansen mine southeast of Saskatoon, is crafting detailed plans to transport potash by rail. The company will use Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. across Western Canada, then connect to Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp.’s train system through Washington State, say BHP officials.

BHP is still working out the logistics of shipping potash from the Port of Vancouver in Washington, where a sprawling U.S. property has been set aside for a new export terminal that would be built in time for the company to launch sales in 2020.

The company’s plans highlight the new pressure being placed on Canpotex Ltd., Canada’s export agency for potash, one of two groups that together control roughly 70 per cent of global supplies of the fertilizer ingredient, used to boost crop yields on farms. Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., Mosaic Co. and Agrium Inc. are the agency’s members.

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For potash juniors, the pressure’s on – by Brenda Bouw (Globe and Mail – August 22, 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.

Junior potash companies, already suffering from tight financing conditions, will start to feel more pain following an industry shakeup that has increased competition among suppliers of the crop nutrient.

The dismantling of the world’s largest potash oligopoly last month has already hit stock prices for potash companies, and is expected to lead to a drop in potash prices, which would lower margins for producers and make new projects less viable.

BHP Billiton Ltd.’s decision this week to push ahead with its Jansen project in Saskatchewan, expected to be the world’s largest potash mine, also threatens to create a glut of the mineral. BHP’s announcement follows a move by Russia’s OAO Uralkali to drop out of Belarusian Potash Co. (BPC), a joint venture with rival Belaruskali of Belarus.

Only those potash projects with low-cost projects as well as money and time to spare are expected to survive the next few quarters, analysts say.

“Even before Uralkali’s announcement last month and BHP’s Jansen update this week, the junior potash projects were already in trouble.

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When BC Cancer Foundation seeks sponsorship, Big Oil need not apply – by Jonathan Kay (National Post – August 22, 2013)

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

Are oil companies the new tobacco companies — grudgingly tolerated for the sake of the associated tax revenue, but too disreputable to have their brands associated with charitable events and sports competitions? This month’s developments in B.C. suggest anti-oil demagoguery may be driving the country in that direction.

Earlier in August, The Ride to Conquer Cancer — which organizes a two-day cycling-themed fundraising event every year — posted the following notice on its website:

“The Ride to Conquer Cancer, benefiting the BC Cancer Foundation, announced an exciting new commitment from Silver Wheaton. The Vancouver-based precious metal streaming company is the Presenting Sponsor of the B.C. Ride to Conquer Cancer in 2014 through to 2016 — supporting the largest cycling fundraiser in B.C. history … ‘Silver Wheaton is proud to become the lead sponsor for the B.C. Ride to Conquer Cancer,’ said Randy Smallwood, president and CEO of Silver Wheaton. ‘With a staggering one in three British Columbians diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, this cause is quite personal for many of our employees and their families. Our company is honoured to be supporting the BC Cancer Foundation’s vision for a world free of cancer.’ ”

Good for Silver Wheaton, I say. But its honour is another company’s dishonour.

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Key Arctic naval facility delayed by budget cuts despite being announced with much fanfare by PM in 2007 – by Lee Berthiaume (National Post – August 22, 2013)

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

National Defence is hoping it can finally start moving on an already diminished and delayed plan for establishing a key naval facility in Canada’s Arctic after submitting a new environmental impact assessment to the Nunavut government this week.

The creation of a deep-water port and naval resupply facility at an old lead-zinc mine in Nanisivik, Nunavut, was announced to much fanfare by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2007 as part of his government’s promise to protect Canadian sovereignty in the North.

“With its sheltered harbour, nearby jet-capable airstrip, and proximity to the Northwest Passage, Nanisivik offers an ideal location for the docking and refuelling facility,” the prime minister said at the time.

Estimates at the time put the total cost of getting Nanisivik up and running at about $100 million, with construction expected to start in 2010 and the deep-water port fully operational by 2015.

But budget cuts, regulatory snags and an apparent bout of shortsightedness have significantly reduced the project’s scope while causing delays and uncertainty about when construction can actually start.

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