Twitter

The case for $10,000-an-ounce gold – by Adam Mayers (Toronto Star – July 1, 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.

As gold continues its sell-off, a book by a Toronto bullion fund manager predicts better things lie ahead.

It’s been a dreadful stretch for gold bugs. The past three months have seen a record quarterly drop in gold’s price. In the bigger picture, gold is more than a third below its peak of $1,900 (U.S.) an ounce, reached in 2011. Last week, the spot price tumbled anew, settling near $1,225.

Goldman Sachs now sees a price of $1,050 by the end of next year. Barrick Gold, one of the world’s biggest gold miners trimmed 100 head office jobs mostly in Toronto. And Australia’s Newcrest Mining wrote down the value of its assets by $5.5 billion. With news like that who’s buying gold now? Nick Barisheff, CEO of Toronto’s Bullion Management Group for one.

Barisheff runs several precious metal mutual funds, so always likes gold’s lustre. His funds have been around since 2002 and own gold, silver and platinum bars, rather than mining stocks. BMG’s holdings are stored in bank vaults and the funds are RRSP and TFSA eligible.

Barisheff is the author of the recently published $10,000 Gold: Why Gold’s Inevitable Rise Is The Investor’s Safe Haven (Wiley, $39.95). As the title boldly predicts, he sees the metal at $10,000 an ounce, and soon — within seven or eight years. The timing of the book’s release couldn’t be worse, but even so Barisheff says bullion is down, but by no means out.

Read more

Barrick faces new setback, more pressure – by Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – July 1, 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 — Barrick Gold Corp. has gained some breathing room with its decision to delay development of its Pascua-Lama project, but the company faces pressure to shrink its global mining operations amid tumbling metal prices.

Barrick says first production from the South American gold and silver venture will be postponed by more than 18 months, as the Canadian company forecasts taking a writedown of up to $5.5-billion (U.S.) on the project.

Toronto-based Barrick said it has opted to vastly scale back capital spending this year and in 2014 on the project, which is located in the Andes mountains and straddles the border between Chile and Argentina. While construction of the $8.5-billion project has suffered another setback, the venture remains strategically important to the world’s largest gold producer, analysts say.

“With all this talk about what Barrick could look like in the future, Pascua-Lama will be key to the company’s future operational performance, especially if Barrick wants to shed high-cost mines,” said Chris Thompson, a Vancouver-based mining analyst at Raymond James Ltd.

Read more

Shale gives Obama elbow room on climate change – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – June 29, 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.

ROME — Why did U.S. President Barack Obama launch his climate change fighting plans when he did?

The timing of his Climate Action Plan speech, on Tuesday at Georgetown University, was indeed curious. Climate change initiatives have all but died in the post-Lehman Brothers world. The 2009 Copenhagen climate change conference was a bust on a global scale and, since then, tapped-out governments have been obsessed with keeping their sorry treasuries intact, stemming job losses and, in southern Europe, keeping demonstrators from burning the place down. Preserving the environment has always been a rich country’s hobby.

To be sure, the United States is richer than most, but its recovery has been weak. The point being, fighting climate change is still a tough sell in the United States, especially among the Republicans who control the House of Representatives, where flat earth science is alive and well. Fixing climate change costs money. Even if most people suspect that carbon emissions from human activity are to blame for global warming, these same people also suspect that carbon-reducing policies are more likely to kill jobs than create them.

Read more

PRESS RELEASE: (CNW) Gahcho Kué Joint Venture and the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) Sign Socio Economic Agreement

June 28, 2013, 2:04 p.m. ET

YELLOWKNIFE, TORONTO and NEW YORK, June 28, 2013 /CNW/ – De Beers and Mountain Province Diamonds (TSX: MPV, NYSE MKT: MDM) are pleased to announce that De Beers as Operator of the Gahcho Kué Project today entered into a Socio Economic Agreement (SEA) with the Government of the Northwest Territories for the proposed Gahcho Kué diamond mine located in Canada’s Northwest Territories (NWT).

The agreement formalizes commitments made with respect to employment, training, business opportunities and other related benefits for NWT residents. It also establishes measures to monitor possible socio-economic impacts related to the proposed mine and establishes the mechanism to work with communities close to the mine site to ensure an adaptive management approach to socio-economic performance of the mine.

“In signing this SEA, both parties are affirming their commitment to advancing this Project in a way that not only creates jobs for our residents, but that supports the health and wellness of the region,” said Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, David Ramsay. “This is a significant step forward in opening this mine, a project that will translate into economic opportunities for people throughout the North and South Slave Regions, and across the territory.”

Read more

PRESS RELEASE: Barrick Provides Updates on Pascua-Lama Project

June 28, 2013

All amounts expressed in US dollars unless otherwise indicated

TORONTO — Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:ABX) (TSX:ABX) (Barrick or the “company”) is providing the following updates on the Pascua-Lama project in Chile and Argentina with respect to construction re-sequencing, capital expenditures and impairment testing.

Schedule Re-sequencing and Reduction of 2013-2014 Capital Spending

The company has submitted a plan, subject to review by Chilean regulatory authorities, to construct the project’s water management system in compliance with permit conditions for completion by the end of 2014, after which Barrick expects to complete remaining construction works in Chile, including pre-stripping. Under this scenario, ore from Chile is
expected to be available for processing by mid-2016.

In line with this timeframe, and in light of challenging market conditions and materially lower metal prices, the company intends to re-sequence construction of the process plant and other facilities in Argentina in order to target first production by mid-2016 (compared to the previous schedule of the second half of 2014).

Re-sequencing the project primarily entails a reduction in project staffing levels as construction is extended over a longer period of time to coincide with the availability of ore from Chile in mid-2016.

Read more

The week that was in the Ring of Fire – by Wendy Parker (InSupportOfMining.com – June 28, 2013)

http://insupportofmining.wordpress.com/

Lots of active non-action in the Ring of Fire this week. Cliffs Natural Resources continued to walk back from its Ring of Fire adventure with an announcement that Dana Byrne, vice president responsible for government and public relations, will retire on July 1.

“Over the past three years, Mr. Byrne has been extensively involved with the company’s chromite project in the Ring of Fire located in Northern Ontario,” the company said in its announcement. “His work with the First Nations and familiarity with all aspects of the government’s interests in this project has and continues to be invaluable to Cliffs.”

Byrne will maintain his invaluable 34-year ties with the Ohio miner through a one-year consultancy.

His replacement is Raga Elim, who vacates his position as director – global government relations to take up the job of vice president – global corporate and government affairs, as well as responsibility for the company’s global communications and public affairs functions.

Elim, who has been with Cliffs but a couple of years, previously served as the head of Rio Tinto’s Washington, D.C. government affairs office. He has extensive experience with a variety of American governments and was “a speechwriter at the last four Presidential Election Conventions for one of the major political parties,” which suggests, we suppose, that he is well-connected in a vague but interesting way.

Read more

Rudd: China Boom Over – by Anthony Fensom (The Diplomat – June 27, 2013)

http://thediplomat.com/

Australia’s second-time Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has wasted no time hammering a nail in the coffin of the China boom after ending the political career of his predecessor. Making his first press statement Wednesday night after successfully challenging Julia Gillard for the Labor Party leadership, the Mandarin-speaking Rudd said Australians must diversify away from the Middle Kingdom.

“The global economy is still experiencing the slowest of recoveries. The China resources boom is over…and when China represents such a large slice of Australia’s own economy, our jobs, and the opportunities for raising our living standards, the time has come for us to adjust to the new challenges,” he said.

“New challenges in productivity. New challenges also in the diversification of our economy. New opportunities for what we do with processed foods and agriculture, in the services sector, and also in manufacturing…..Looking at our global economic circumstances therefore, we have tough decisions ahead on the future of our economy.”

China overtook Japan as Australia’s top trading partner in late 2007 due to China’s seemingly insatiable appetite for Australia’s energy and mineral resources, including iron ore, coal and gold. Two-way trade amounted to A$125 billion in 2012, with Australia becoming China’s sixth-largest source of imports.

Read more

Noront offloads interest in Quebec project, focuses on Ring of Fire – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – June 28, 2013)

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Explorer Eagle Hill has consolidated its ownership of the prospective Windfall Lake project, in the Abitibi mining camp of northern Quebec, as project developer Noront Resources agreed to sell its 25% interest in the project for $5-million in cash and 25-million shares.

Noront said selling its interest, royalty interests and all other associated rights in the noncore asset provided it with an immediate cash infusion that would be put to use in developing the company’s flagship Eagle’s Nest project, in the chromite-rich Ring of Fire-region of northern Ontario, while the equity interest in Eagle Hill would allow it to participate in the upside potential of the Windfall Lake gold project.

Eagle Hill had also entered into a binding letter agreement with its strategic partner Southern Arc, under which Southern Arc Minerals had agreed to invest, together with Dundee Corporation, a total of $12-million in Eagle Hill to complete the Windfall Lake transaction and advance the project. Dundee had been a shareholder in Eagle Hill since February 2012, and currently owned an 18.8% interest in Eagle Hill.

Noront had previously agreed to sell its stake in the Windfall Lake project to gold producer Maudore Minerals. Completing of the transaction was still subject to obtaining shareholder approvals of Eagle Hill and Southern Arc to finance the agreement, for which Eagle Hill had already paid a non-refundable deposit of $615 000 and obtaining all required stock exchange and regulatory approvals.

Read more

Duluth Minnesota mining project holds promise for northern suppliers – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – June 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.

The copper-nickel-PGM property being developed by Duluth Metals isn’t located in Northern Ontario. You can’t even find it in Canada. But a recent Sudbury appearance to SAMSSA Members by Duluth’s president and CEO, Vern Baker, attracted a packed house based on the potential it holds for northern supply and service companies.

Located in Northern Minnesota along the north shore of Lake Superior, Baker predicts the Twin Metals Minnesota (TMM) complex (a joint venture with Chile’s Antofagasta plc) will become one of the world’s major mining districts over the next five to 10 years because of the massive potential tonnages and the types of ore to be found there.

“We have a huge opportunity just in the quantity of metal that’s available,” said Baker, who puts TMM on the same scale as some of the largest copper mines in South America. “It’s got some very distinct similarities to Sudbury and some very distinct differences.”

Duluth’s January 2013 NI 43-101 resource report indicates 13.6 billion pounds of copper, 4.4 billion pounds of nickel, 5.6 million ounces of platinum, 12.7 million ounces of palladium, and 3.1 million ounces of gold. It infers another 11.9 billion pounds of copper, 4.1 billion pounds of nickel and 12.8 million ounces of total precious metals.

The company has spent $200 million on the project to date, and Baker estimates that could rise to between $1.5 billion and $2 billion.

Read more

China Falling? Not So Fast – by Joshua Kurlantzick (Bloomberg News – June 28, 2013)

 http://www.businessweek.com/

Over the past month, global financial markets have become terrified by the prospect of a Chinese economic slowdown. Last week, the interbank lending rate in China jumped precipitously, suggesting that Chinese banks, which for years have been piling up debt lending to state-owned enterprises and building infrastructure, may now be facing a severe credit crunch. China’s money markets slowed to a near halt, China’s stock markets suffered whiplash, and many Western fund managers began lightening their China exposure.

To some, Chinese banks’ debt loads signal the arrival of an event doomsayers have been predicting for decades—not just a slowdown but a meltdown of China’s economy. That, of course, would be catastrophic for the international economy, since nearly every other country in Asia is dependent on trade with China—as are most Western multinationals.

But although international markets, the original kind of crowdsourcing, often deliver the right verdict, there’s good reason to bet they’ll be proven wrong this time. The Chinese economy, the second-largest on earth, is not going to melt down soon; in fact, it might still grow more strongly this year than most others in the world.

Almost since it began reforming in the 1970s, China’s economy has attracted skeptics. By only partially privatizing massive state companies over the past 20 years, the government has been criticized for creating enormous inefficiencies, building up more than 100 “national champion” companies in such industries as energy, telecommunications infrastructure, and automaking and using cheap credit from state banks to help these indigenous companies grow.

Read more

Norilsk to Focus on Arctic Circle Mines as CEO Builds Team (2) – by Yuliya Fedorinova (Bloomberg News – June 28, 2013)

 http://www.businessweek.com/

OAO GMK Norilsk Nickel (GMKN), the largest nickel and palladium producer, plans to focus on developing its operations in northern Russia over international assets after installing a new chief executive officer and management team.

“We will be looking at opportunities to optimize our portfolio of assets, including our international operations, with a key strategic focus on the sustainable increase of the firm’s return on capital,” Norilsk Deputy CEO Pavel Fedorov, head of strategy and business development, said in an interview in Moscow. “Enhancing the efficiency and capitalization of our key Polar Division would be at the heart of the new strategy.”

The division has seven mines north of the Arctic Circle, producing nickel, copper, platinum, palladium, cobalt and gold above the 69th parallel. Plants processing ore from these mines achieve an extraction rate of 83 percent of nickel from each ton of ore after the first phase of enrichment, compared with 70 percent and below for Norilsk’s assets in Africa and Australia, according to its annual report.

Billionaire Vladimir Potanin replaced Vladimir Strzhalkovsky as CEO at the end of 2012 as part of a truce to end a conflict between Norilsk shareholders Interros and United Co. Rusal over how the company was run. In April, Potanin hired Fedorov, a former mergers-and-acquisitions banker, for the 12-member management board among nine newly appointed executives.

Read more

World Gold Council releases new gold-mining cost metrics – by Martin Creamer (MiningWeekly.com – June 27, 2013)

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

http://www.gold.org/

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The World Gold Council (WGC) on Thursday released two new methods of calculating and reporting gold-mining costs to improve clarity and provide greater investor understanding of the complete costs associated with the mining of gold.

The first method is an extension of the existing “cash cost” metrics and incorporates costs that are related to sustaining production, which the council refers to as the “all-in sustaining cost”.

The second method takes into account additional costs and reflects the varying costs of producing gold over the life cycle of a mine, which the WGC dubs the “all-in cost”.

WGC director Terry Heymann told Mining Weekly Online from London that the new metrics had been developed to help provide greater clarity and consistency to improve investor understanding.

WGC has worked closely with its member companies and beyond to develop the non-Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) measures and expects them to be helpful to investors, governments, local communities and other stakeholders.

Read more

Idle No More: Canada Escalates War on First Nations – by Winona LaDuke and Frank Jr. Molley (Indian Country: Today Media Network.com – June 26, 2013)

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/ A weekly U.S. newsmagazine that is a national news source for Natives, American Indians, and Tribes in the U.S. and Alaska.

Mi’kmaq and Maliseet reserves in Atlantic Canada are the sites of a new major battle between First Nation activists and the Canadian government that represents the next stage of the Idle No More movement. The flash point came when the Conservative government threw down the gauntlet with what some call sign-or-starve consent agreements presented to First Nations right across the country.

Facing increasingly strong opposition to both its extractive industries and its federal policies, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government has adopted a hard-line strategy seemingly designed to eliminate First Nations’ negotiating power and rights. Harper’s cudgels are annual contribution agreements between the government and the First Nations that have new, questionable appendices that are forcing some of the poorest communities to take it or leave it, or worse, face third-party management, which would essentially mean having the Canadian government manage their finances and governmental affairs. At stake here is title over Indian lands and minerals, as well as a host of choices on the future direction of Canada.

The government seems to be focused on getting de facto termination of many constitutionally and treaty protected rights of First Nations. Its first thrust in this battle was this past fall’s Bill C-45, which gutted most of Canada’s environmental laws and was the spur for last year’s Idle No More movement.

Read more

NEWS RELEASE: Superior Copper Corporate Update

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – June 27, 2013) – Superior Copper Corporation (TSX VENTURE:SPC) (“Superior Copper” or the “Company”) is providing the following information update to the shareholders of the Company.

The Company announces that it intends to complete a best efforts non-brokered private placement financing (the “Financing”) of up to $300,000 principal amount of convertible promissory notes (“Notes”).

The Notes are due two years from the date of closing of the Financing (the “Maturity Date”) and bear interest at a rate of 8.0% per annum, payable monthly. The holder is entitled to convert all or any portion of the unpaid principal amount of the Notes into units of Superior Copper (“Units”) at a price of $0.10 per Unit. In the event that the 20-day weighted average trading price of Superior Copper’s common shares (“Shares”) on the TSX Venture Exchange (the “TSXV”) is at least $0.25 at any time prior to the Maturity Date, Superior Copper is entitled to require the holder to convert all or any portion of the unpaid principal amount of the Notes into units of Superior Copper (“Units”) at a price of $0.10 per Unit.

Each Unit will be comprised of one Share and one Share purchase warrant (“Warrant”), with each Warrant being exercisable for one Share at an exercise price of $0.15 on or before the Maturity Date. Where the closing price of the Shares on the TSXV is at least $0.25 for a period of 20 consecutive trading days, the Company shall have the right to accelerate the expiry date of the Warrants by giving notice to the holders of Warrants that the Warrants will expire 30 days later.

Read more

Excerpt: From Meteorite Impact to Constellation City: A Historical Geography of Greater Sudbury – by Oiva W. Saarinen

To order a copy of “From Meteorite Impact to Constellation City”, please click here: http://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/Catalog/saarinen-meteorite.shtml

Sudbury: A Union Town? (Part 4 of 5)

The Battle for Inco Begins

The District Two Convention held in Sudbury April 24–29, 1961, served as the scene of the first clash in the all-out battle for union supremacy. In contrast to the local’s meetings where it was the old guard leading the confrontation process, the new guard led by Gillis took this opportunity to harangue Chairman Solski and his supporters. Predictably, chaos resulted, and not a single resolution was passed. Since no progress had been achieved, the Gillis executive again did not remit the local’s dues to the National Office.

This move was supported by the majority of the local’s members, as shown by the third election victory of the Gillis slate on June 7, 1961. By this time, the new Local 598 leaders were exploring the option of seceding Local 598 from the National and International Union, and becoming a chartered local of the CLC.

When it became clear that the only way Local 598 could get into the CLC was by joining the Steelworkers, The Sudbury Star joined in the cause by printing a story under the headline, “Has Steel Begun Drive to Supplant Mine Mill?” Given the threat of losing Local 598’s buildings and finances, the National Office succeeded in acquiring a local injunction, allowing William Kennedy, its Secretary-Treasurer, to administer the local on the National’s behalf. On August 26, the Union Hall was taken over by Kennedy.

Read more