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Gold – Full Movie (Mining Movie – 1974)

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Gold is a 1974 thriller film starring Roger Moore and Susannah York and directed by Peter R. Hunt. It was based on the 1970 novel Gold Mine by Wilbur Smith. Moore plays Rod Slater, General Manager of a South African gold mine, who is instructed by his boss Steyner (Bradford Dillman) to break through an underground dike into what he is told is a rich seam of gold.

Meanwhile he falls in love with Steyner’s wife Terry, played by York. The film was only released as part of a double bill in the United States and is nowadays notable only as a period piece, being part of a propaganda effort to make Apartheid South Africa look ‘glamorous’ to European and American audiences.

Plot

The film begins with a tunnel collapse at the Sonderditch mine, in a scene that establishes the courage of Slater and his chief miner, ‘Big King’, and the bond of trust between them. This is contrasted with the contempt with which some other white managers treat the black miners.

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Jana predicts two dissident candidates will join Agrium board – by Peter Koven (National Post – April 9, 2013)

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

TORONTO • Agrium Inc. was confident from the start. When activist investor Jana Partners LLC launched a proxy battle against the Calgary-based company last November, chief executive Mike Wilson said the effort was doomed to fail.

He dismissed Jana’s arguments as nonsense, and said he had support from the vast majority of Agrium shareholders. His confidence was bolstered last month when a number of key institutions announced their support for the current board.

But on March 26, one event re-wrote the terms of the battle. Proxy voting firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) released a report recommending that clients elect two of Jana’s five dissident nominees to Agrium’s board: Jana founder Barry Rosenstein and former agribusiness executive David Bullock. Suddenly, Jana had a major talking point in its favour.

It wasn’t just the ISS recommendation that surprised Agrium. The report itself read like a press release for Jana, as the firm ripped Agrium’s corporate governance and suggested the board may have a “burgeoning credibility problem.”

The vicious proxy fight will finally be decided on Tuesday in Calgary, as directors will be elected at Agrium’s annual meeting. Given that both sides have declared victory at various times, someone is going to come out of the meeting looking bad.

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Chilean Copper Mines Begin to Lose Favor – by Laura Clarke and Alex MacDonald (Wall Street Journal – April 8, 2013)

http://online.wsj.com/home-page

SANTIAGO, Chile—Global mining companies have extracted copper from rich seams high in mountainous Chile for decades, but they are now also considering new investments in North America as copper-ore grades decline at Chilean mines in step with rival nations, while production costs rise.

Chile became the world’s largest copper-producing nation after forming state-owned copper-mining concern Corporacion Nacional del Cobre de Chile, or Codelco, in 1976 and later luring large mining companies with its copper-rich resources and cheaper labor.

Today, however, Chile’s mining industry faces rising costs for developing new ways to unlock further ore potential from deposits. Mining companies’ costs are rising here for electricity and desalination of sea water, which is pumped to mines at elevations of up to about 4,000 meters (13,200 feet). Chilean wages have also risen above those in the U.S. for certain workers as their productivity lags behind, while the U.S. shale-gas boom offers the hope of cheap energy despite a tough mine-permitting environment.

Chile’s competitiveness in the global copper-mining business is waning, and North America is likely to benefit, said executives from BHP Billiton Ltd., BHP.AU +1.30% Anglo American AAL.LN +0.30% PLC and Antofagasta ANTO.LN +3.07% PLC as the industry gathered in Santiago for its annual CESCO Week event, which starts Monday.

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North Bay group promotes mining industry – by Liz Cowan (Northern Ontario Business – April 2013)

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North.

For some, mining is associated with a preconceived notion that it is a dirty, lowtech industry. The Canadian Institute of Mining’s (CIM) Northern Gateway Branch in North Bay is working to change that misconception.

“We tried so many things over the years to get a hold of young people and let them know what the industry is really about,” said chair Tom Palangio. “We went to the schools to explain what mining was, and we even rented buses and got whole classrooms out on field trips.”

For the past few years, the branch has been financially supporting the teachers’ mining tour, a week-long conference organized by the Ontario Mining Association and held at the Canadian Ecology Centre in Mattawa every summer.

During the week, teachers learn about mineral exploration, mine development, geology and sectors of the economy supported by mining directly and indirectly. Along with hands-on training through workshops, the teachers have an opportunity to see mining operations, such as visiting operations in Sudbury and mining manufacturing facilities in North Bay.

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Keystone follies: Canadian oil sands not a major source of climate change – by Susan McArthur and Ian Macgregor (National Post – April 9, 2013)

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

U.S., Chinese coal plants produce far more carbon dioxide

Canada’s oil sands seem to attract lies, half truths and sheer nonsense from every corner, including from Canadians themselves. The current hullabaloo regarding the Keystone pipeline and Canadian oil sands is to climate change as a drop of water is to the ocean.

The scientific consensus is that CO2 is contributing to global warming which is bad for the planet and our children. If CO2 is the problem policy makers and pundits should focus the most offensive CO2 perpetrators. U.S. coal-fired power plants emit 2000 million tonnes of CO2 per year vs the oil sands which emit 40 million tonnes per year.

U.S. coal-fired electricity plants emit 50 times more CO2 per year than oil produced from the Canadian oil sands. If you add China into the global warning equation we are talking about 100 times more CO2 per year as a result of Chinese coal fired plants than Canadian oil sands.

Canada’s boreal forest is a national treasure. The boreal forest stretches 10,000 kilometres across Canada, is an important absorber of the world’s CO2 and is home to more than 85 species of mammals, 130 species of fish, 300 species of birds and a whopping 32,000 species of insects. According to TreeHugger, Canada’s boreal forest is still 91% intact vs only 5% in Scandinavia.

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Alberta’s belated ‘Green Shift’ – by Gillian Steward (Toronto Star – April 9, 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.

Province desperate to win U.S. approval for Keystone bitumen pipeline.

Alberta Premier Alison Redford will be in Washington this week trying to convince legislators and other decision-makers that the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline should get the green light despite a well-organized and liberally funded campaign in the U.S to stop it.

This will be Redford’s fourth trip in 18 months, a sign of just how desperate the Alberta government is to get this project approved so diluted bitumen from the oilsands can be delivered to refineries on the U.S. gulf coast.

Not surprising then that on the eve of this trip word leaked out that government and oil industry representatives were discussing an increase in Alberta’s carbon emission taxes that would see them more than double. The move is obviously designed to prove to pipeline opponents in the U.S. that Alberta is serious about reducing greenhouse gases associated with the production of bitumen and their impact on climate change.

At this point it’s all talk, but certainly timely talk given Redford’s upcoming visit to the U.S. It also signals that perhaps the Alberta government and the oil industry are finally recognizing that their view of the world outside the province’s borders has to change if they want to get the tarry bitumen to market.

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Time to bust myths on mining’s impact, raise awareness about benefits – Ian Gould, former Rio Tinto Australia MD – by Christopher Russell (Adelaide Now – April 8, 2013)

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/

THE public too often views the mining industry as a necessary evil rather than the valuable mainstay of the community it actually is, one of South Australia’s leading businessmen says.

UniSA chancellor and former Rio Tinto Australia managing director Ian Gould said most people realised the resources sector generated a lot of Australia’s wealth.

“But many do not like or understand the industry,” he said. “They just tolerate it; and some of that is in the light of it being a necessary evil.

“Why would this be? Big, foreign, powerful, insensitive, low-tech, 12-hour shifts – sounds terrible. A major cause of environmental degradation, contests over land use with indigenous, conservation, agricultural and grazing interests.

“It doesn’t pay its fair share of taxes, it’s a small employer of Australians but its high salaries and its forcing the exchange rate higher are making other industries uncompetitive. “It undertakes very little training of Australians – instead using 457 visas.”

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Cuts not so severe: Clement – by Jonathan Migneaul (Sudbury Star – April 9, 2013)

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

Cuts to the Federal Economic Initiative for Northern Ontario in the latest federal budget are closer to $200,000 rather than the tens of millions claimed by the NDP, Tony Clement, the government minister responsible for FedNor, said Monday.

Industry Canada’s Report on Plans and Priorities for 2013-14 showed the Conservative government slashed the budget for community economic development by 26% from $81 million in forecast spending for 2012-13 to $60.3 million in planned spending for 2014-15.

NDP leader Thomas Muclair, during a Northern Ontario tour last week, said the cuts would affect FedNor, the federal department responsible to boost economic development in Northern Ontario.

“Unfortunately,” Muclair said, “the Conservatives’ cuts, the planned cuts of tens of millions of dollars from the budget of FedNor, will have a devastating effect in the whole region, particularly in centres of excellence. (The cuts will be) 20% this year, 25% next year.

“Those are the actual cuts to FedNor. If Tony Clement says anything otherwise, he’s not telling the truth. This is not a matter of ‘he said, she said,’ these are facts, they are printed on a piece of paper.”

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Sir Mark Moody-Stuart: “CEOs must listen and visibly engage” – Critical Resource – January 2013

Critical Resource specializes in political, sustainability and stakeholder risks facing natural resource investments. We advise senior executives and investors in some of the world’s largest companies. http://www.c-resource.com/

In a wide-ranging interview with Critical Resource, Sir Mark Moody-Stuart – former Chairman of Anglo American and Shell gives his top tips on managing stakeholder expectations, resource nationalism, and other social and political pressures facing resource firms.

CEOs should focus hard on engagement

CEOs need to be open and talk to people. They need to visibly engage and communicate both inside and outside the organisation. This is extremely important. First, CEOs have to listen and secondly, they need to be extremely clear. When a project opens, local people often hope to become wealthy and gain employment. It is important for companies to speak about the realities and explain what is really going to happen.

People need to be told early if they lack the education levels to fill jobs. Be clear about what jobs are likely to be available so as to ground expectations in reality. Companies then need to challenge themselves to raise education levels so that kids who are now eight can think about going to university when they are 18. They need to commit to creating a mechanism and to test progress towards that goal – consulting stakeholders on progress.

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Excerpt from “The History of Mining: The events, technology and people involved in the industry that forged the modern world” – by Michael Coulson

To order a copy of The History of Mining, please click here: http://www.harriman-house.com/products/books/23161/business/Michael-Coulson/The-History-of-Mining/

THE RISE OF THE GULAGS AND NORILSK

The Soviet years of central control and direction saw a major push to develop the vast country into an economic powerhouse to match the West. These were the Stalin years and the expansion of the mining industry was often achieved by the use of labour transported to the Gulags of the eastern USSR. In these transportations dissident professional and manual workers alike were settled in camps, often for decades, until the death of Stalin in 1953 led to most of them being closed by 1960.

The Gulags had a number of key political functions, but economically they played an important role in the establishment of heavy industrial complexes for steel, manufacturing and mining, including mining of coal, iron ore and base metals. Gold production was also an important activity given that the rouble was unconvertible and the USSR was not a major manufacturing exporter like Germany or the UK, but was from time to time a heavy importer of food stuffs and advanced machinery, and therefore in need of convertible assets.


 

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PRESS RELEASE: Worldwide Mining Projects Exceed $1.5 Trillion, an Industrial Info News Alert

April 8, 2013, 6:15 a.m. EDT

SUGAR LAND, TX, Apr 08, 2013 (Marketwired via COMTEX) — Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas) — Global demand for mined resources, including coal, iron, copper, gold and aluminum (via bauxite), has spiked over the past 10 years, driving a worldwide mining boom. Resource-rich countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Peru, Russia and South Africa, have benefited from growing capital expenditures aimed at developing mining projects.

Countries like China and India are investing worldwide to secure resources that will feed growing domestic demand. Toward the end of 2012, demand began to taper off in some markets, leading major mining firms, including BHP Billiton /quotes/zigman/270355/quotes/nls/bhp BHP +0.18% and Rio Tinto plc /quotes/zigman/182541/quotes/nls/rio RIO +0.04% to cut back production and capital spending, effectively ending the mining boom. Capital expenditures continue to decline in 2013.

However, the bow wave of mining projects that have kicked off over the past three years will push actual capital spending in 2013 higher than 2012. At the same time, many mining firms are putting off new project construction, so construction starts are expected to decline in 2013, leading to a reduction in actual spending for 2014. Peabody Energy has slashed 2013 capital expenditure plans 50% to between $450 million and $550 million, in order to pay off debt.

While the short-term prospects for mining project development remain volatile, the long-term prospects for the industry are bright as growing urbanization in developing nations will continue to boost demand for mined products.

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BEHRE DOLBEAR GROUP INC.2013 Ranking of Countries for Mining Investment: “Where Not to Invest” – by Chris Wyatt and Taylor McCurdy (April 4, 2013)

http://www.dolbear.com/

Since 1999, the Behre Dolbear Group Inc. has compiled annual political risk assessments of the key players in the global mining industry. Over time, our assessment indicates a positive correlation between the growth of a nation’s wealth and the prosperity of its mining industry – only when a country recognizes its critical need to adapt and restructures burdensome policy – will it truly optimize this economic potential.

While our perspective is often considered provocative, it is our intent to highlight countries whose policies and business conditions promote investment growth in the mining sector. Behre Dolbear welcomes continued feedback from our clients and industry professionals alike. Both positive and negative dialogue enables Behre Dolbear to improve its assessment.

This year’s survey, as it has in the past, concentrates on specific countries, regional issues, and notable trends. Geology and mineral potential were not considered, as the fact that exploration, development, and mining activity are occurring confirms the existence of such potential. Only factors relevant to “political risk” have been considered. We do not make an effort to include mitigating factors such as economic returns or an investor’s relevant experience in a particular country as part of our ranking.

The Behre Dolbear Group of companies is comprised of more than 150 professionals based out of 12 offices around the globe. The views expressed herein reflect the collective responses to our annual internal survey. Our professionals’ opinions are valued as they have the unique opportunity to conduct business and evaluate investments within many different countries. In 2012, Behre Dolbear completed 220 projects in over 55 countries.

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Copper’s slump a warning sign for economy – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – April 8, 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.

Asharp drop in copper prices last week may be just the start of more woes for the industrial metal that has best weathered the global economic crisis.

Copper markets are threatening to move into surplus this year as demand is subdued by a slack global economy and new production comes into the market.

“One of the reasons why copper prices have been so incredibly strong in the past five years has been the fact that there’s been very little new mine supply come on stream,” said Patricia Mohr, vice-president of economics and commodity market specialist at Bank of Nova Scotia.

“Copper has been in a deficit until fairly recently, but it seems it may shift this year into a surplus,” she said, pointing to expansions and new mine construction in countries from Chile and Peru to Indonesia, the African continent and Canada.

Copper’s inability to maintain firm prices is a worrying signal that the outlook for the global economy is too weak to provide solid demand.

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CESCO-ANALYSIS-Labor unrest during electoral year could jolt Chile copper – by Alexandra Ulmer and Fabian Cambero (Reuters India – April 8, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

SANTIAGO, April 8 (Reuters) – The costly port strikes that recently hit top copper producer Chile and detained an estimated 9,000 tonnes of the red metal’s exports per day were an unwelcome reminder for miners of the risk of labor action during an electoral year.

For copper powerhouse Chile, 2013 was set to be its year. With massive investment in troubled mines paying off, a rare
new deposit slated to come on line at the end of 2013 and fairly smooth contract negotiations at two key mines, Chile’s copper output seemed all set to reach a record 5.596 million tonnes.

But that was overlooking Chile’s hotly contested presidential election in November and the labor unrest it can
galvanize as unions seek to make their issues heard.

Leading copper miner Codelco is facing a potential 24-hour strike in all its divisions this month, and industry players now fear conflicts could flare up in more of the Andean country’s mega mines.

“This is going to be an intense year,” one Chile-based trader said. At stake is a third of the world’s copper supply. The potential uptick in labor unrest will likely be a major talking point on the sidelines of the CESCO/CRU copper conference in Santiago this week.

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Rio Tinto’s asset sales may show bearish commodity outlook – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.K. – April 8, 2013)

http://uk.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia, April 8 (Reuters) – The lengthening list of assets being put up for sale by Rio Tinto shows the world’s second-largest miner is serious about cutting costs and exiting non-core businesses, but what does it say about the state of commodity markets?

Coal and copper assets in Australia and iron ore in Canada have reportedly been added to the for-sale list, joining diamonds in Canada and aluminium smelters around the Pacific.

So far the company is winning praise from analysts for the focus of new Chief Executive Sam Walsh on increasing returns to shareholders through a relentless focus on containing costs, paring back capital expenditure and asset sales.

While the first two present challenges, they are likely to produce far more tangible results than the planned sale of a grab-bag of high-cost mines and aluminium smelters.

The logic here is simple: if Rio, with all its deep experience of developing and running such assets, can’t make them work, why would anybody else take them on?

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