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CORRECTED-CESCO-Joint ventures seen boosting Chile’s copper exploration – by Julie Gordon (Reuters U.S. – April 9, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – Chile could boost copper exploration by encouraging state-owned giant Codelco, the world’s biggest producer of the metal, to partner with private mining companies, industry executives said on Monday.

Chile sits on the world’s largest copper reserves and is also the world’s largest producer of the metal, but aged, tired deposits dragged Codelco’s output last year to its lowest level since 2008, while costs soared 40 percent on the year.

Codelco, and its smaller peer ENAMI, own large swathes of land with copper reserves which they are not currently exploiting.

To capitalise on these properties, the state-owned companies should form joint ventures with smaller firms to explore these assets, said Cristian Quinzio, a director of the Centre for Copper and Mining Studies (CESCO).

“We should encourage state-owned companies to put more mining properties into private company hands through partnerships,” Quinzio told an exploration forum in Santiago.

“Those companies should be leaders in promoting joint ventures – directly calling tenders or taking actions to invite mainly junior companies to explore, while still maintaining the buyback option – just in case.”

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Rinehart gets on board Melbourne’s campaign to lure Rio home – by Stephen Mayne (Crikey.com.au – April 8, 2013)

http://www.crikey.com.au/

It’s not often that Stephen Mayne and Gina Rinehart agree. But they’ve found common ground in urging mining giant Rio Tinto, which has recently slashed its Melbourne workforce, to relocate its headquarters from London to Australia.

Should capital cities get into the business of trying to persuade multi-nationals to shift their headquarters to Australia?

That’s what City of Melbourne is doing tomorrow night as we debate a 10-page motion outlining the case for Rio Tinto to shift its 700-strong London head office to one of the major Australian capital cities.

The Australian Financial Review ran with the story on Saturday but we’re still yet to hear a peep out of the Herald Sun or The Age, even though the motion reveals Rio Tinto has almost completed slashed staff numbers at its Collins Street office in Melbourne from 300 to as little as 25.

The AFR was right to point out Rio Tinto retains 200 staff at an R&D facility at Latrobe University, but they were wrong in quoting an unnamed resources analyst saying the headquarters move was “highly unlikely given 80% of Rio Tinto”s investor base were also located in the UK”.

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B.C. mine’s temporary foreign workers case in Federal Court – CBC News (April 9, 2013)

http://www.cbc.ca/bc/

Unions challenge hiring of Chinese workers for B.C. coal mine

The fight by two labour unions against a company that hired more than 200 temporary workers from China for its coal mine in northeastern B.C. heads to Federal Court in Vancouver today.

The judicial review comes as the federal temporary foreign worker program has raised controversy following a CBC report this week that foreign workers were replacing some Royal Bank staff.

HD Mining International says it hired 201 workers from China for its coal mine in Tumbler Ridge because the 300 Canadians who applied for the jobs weren’t qualified. The two labour unions argue that HD Mining hired temporary foreign workers for jobs Canadians could have filled.

HD Mining International is a B.C.-based company. The majority owner is Huiyong Holdings Group, a private company from China, which operates several coal mines in that country. Vancouver-based Canadian Dehua International Mines Group also owns a stake in HD.

Brian Cochrane, of the International Union of Operating Engineers, hopes the case will result in changes to the temporary foreign worker program.

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NEWS RELEASE: GAS PLANT SCANDAL HITTING YOUR HYDRO BILL

April 8, 2013

QUEEN’S PARK – The costs of the McGuinty-Wynne Liberals’ power plant scandal are now hitting the hydro bills of Ontarians, Nipissing MPP and PC Energy Critic Vic Fedeli told the Legislature today during Question Period.

Fedeli pointed to the Ontario Energy Board’s 26-page rationale released Friday for the 2.9 per cent hydro rate increase that will take effect on May 1. It explicitly states that costs resulting from the Oakville gas plant cancellation are now figuring into electricity charges in Ontario. The text of Fedeli’s questions is below:
My question is for the Premier. Premier, your Liberal seat-saver gas plant scandal has finally come home to roost on the hydro bills of Ontarians. On Friday, we learned hydro bills for seniors, families and businesses are going up nearly 3%. On page 18 of the Ontario Energy Board’s report, this sentence details the latest hydro hikes:

“The cost of the turbine purchase that is part of the Oakville gas plant cancellation agreement is included in the forecast of global adjustment costs.”

Premier, can you tell us today, how much is the Oakville cancellation really adding to our hydro bills?

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Mining in Tibet: The price of gold – The Economist (April 6, 2013)

http://www.economist.com/

A fatal landslide in Tibet raises questions about a rush for the region’s resources

BEIJING – THE ecology of the Tibetan plateau, noted the Ministry of Land and Resources two years ago, is “extremely fragile”. Any damage, it warned, would be difficult or impossible to reverse.

But, it went on, the China National Gold Group, a state-owned company, had achieved “astonishing results” in working to protect the environment around its mine near the region’s capital, Lhasa.

On March 29th at least 83 of the mine’s workers lay buried under a colossal landslide. Its cause is not yet certain, but critics of Tibet’s mining frenzy feel vindicated.

The disaster at the Jiama copper and gold mine, about 70km (45 miles) north-west of Lhasa, has clearly embarrassed the government in Beijing. According to China Digital Times, a California-based media-monitoring website, the Communist Party ordered newspapers to stick to reports issued by the government and the state-owned news agency, Xinhua.

Foreign reporters are rarely allowed into Tibet, least of all to cover sensitive incidents. The official media have avoided speculation about any possible link between the landslide and mining activities in the area.

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Mackenna’s Gold – (Mining Movie – 1969)

 

This information is from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Mackenna’s Gold is a 1969 western film directed by J. Lee Thompson, starring Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif, Telly Savalas, Camilla Sparv, and Julie Newmar. It was photographed in Super Panavision 70 by Joseph MacDonald, with original music by Quincy Jones.

The film is based on the novel of the same name by Heck Allen using the penname Will Henry, telling the story of how the lure of gold corrupts a diverse group of people. The novel was loosely based on the legend of the Lost Adams Diggings, crediting the Frank Dobie account of the legend (Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver) in the Author’s Note.

Plot

An old legend tells of a fortune in gold hidden in the “Cañon del Oro,” guarded by the Apache spirits. Along with several others, a man named Adams found it when he was a young man, only to have the Indians capture and blind him, leaving him stranded in the desert after killing his companions. Years later, Marshal MacKenna (Gregory Peck) wounds an old Indian shaman named Prairie Dog (Eduardo Ciannelli) who tried to bushwhack him; Prairie Dog subsequently dies, despite MacKenna’s attending to him.

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OMA NEWS RELEASE: Global urbanization trend fuels long-term demand for Ontario minerals

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.

The continuing global trend toward greater urbanization holds the potential to fuel demand for Ontario mineral products well into the future.. The United Nations Population Division predicts that in the next 37 years, urban environments will accommodate three billion more people than today.

Chamber of Mines of South Africa Senior Executive Roger Baxter sees this ever increasing urbanization trend anticipated out to 2050 as providing positive opportunities for mining. Urbanization due to the inherent infrastructure that accompanies it and higher living standards are the main modern-day drivers of mineral demand.

You can’t build cities without roads, bridges, tunnels, transit, airports, train stations, houses, schools, hospitals, electricity grids and telecommunications networks. All of these vital components of urban infrastructure cannot be created without metals and mineral products.

The United Nations tells us that over the same period, 800 million people will become city dwellers in Africa and the total population of that continent will double to two billion people. It also forecasts one billion new urbanites in India, China and the rest of Asia by 2050.

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Gold – Full Movie (Mining Movie – 1974)

This information is from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

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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