Republic of Mining

Boot camp to promote mining in Ontario – by Ryen Veldhuis (Sudbury Star – June 6, 2013)

June 6, 2013

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

There is no better way to understand something than to experience it. For two days, 13 officers in Ontario’s mining industry will be immersed into manufacturing facilities and underground facilities as part of a mining ‘boot camp’ in Sudbury, MPP Rick Bartolucci announced Wednesday.

The senior economic officers from the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Employment will be experiencing the locations to support their work in promoting international sales and investment in Northern Ontario’s mining sector.

Bartolucci, who did not say when the camp will be held, said he felt it was important for those promoting the mining industry to be more familiar in the field with those first-hand experiences.

“This educational experience in Sudbury, Canada’s mining capital, will provide senior economic officers with a dynamic learning experience,” said Bartolucci in a release. “It certainly will expand their knowledge of our vibrant mining sector and support their efforts when marketing our mining supply and services sector in global markets.”

The goal is to educate senior economic officers in the geology of Ontario and its innovative northern products and services so they can more effectively promote them to potential worldwide clients.

Top 40 miners anxious about future of junior greenfields exploration – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – June 6, 2013)

June 6, 2013

http://www.mineweb.com/

Although mining companies are doing their best to manage productivity and improve efficiencies to maximize returns, a confidence crisis still permeates among mining investors, says a new PwC study.

“Miners are faced with a confidence crisis and they’re focused on trying to restore confidence,” said Mining leader for Canada and the Americas, John Gravelle, in the latest PwC report, Mine: A confidence crisis.

The report observed that the market has lost confidence in mining’s ability to control costs, to exercise capital discipline, that new CEOs can deliver on their promises, and fear that commodity prices will collapse.

Investors also fear that the industry will pile back into too many new projects or expensive deals when commodities prices rebound.

Nonetheless, Gravelle suggests, “Across the board, there’s a renewed focus on [mining companies] maximizing returns from existing operations through managing productivity and improving efficiencies.”

“The importance of returning to a lower cost base rather than relying on higher commodity prices should be on every miner’s agenda,” Gravelle stressed.

Ontario Mining Association’s SYTYKM video competition awards $36,500 to student film makers

April 5, 2015June 6, 2013

Best Overall Video: Christian Peters “Mining and My Community” Henry Coaster Memorial School, Ogoki Post

First Runner-Up: Clarabelle Lee “Mining Style” Don Mills Collegiate Institute, Toronto

From drama, to musicals, to stop motion animation . . . Ontario students have showcased their talents! The Ontario Mining Association this evening announced the winners of its fifth annual So You Think You Know Mining high school video competition, which challenges students to tell imaginative stories about the benefits of mining to society.

More than 130 high quality videos from across the province were evaluated by an independent panel of media professionals to determine the winning entries in 10 categories, with prize money ranging from $2,500 to $5,000. In addition, OMA member company representatives voted for the $2,500 OMA Academy Award winner in a secret ballot. There was additional recognition for honorable mentions, as well as cash prizes for participating schools. Details about the contest, as well as the winning videos can be seen at www.oma.on.ca/en/contestpages/index.asp.

UPDATE 1-Kyrgyz MPs set new deadline for deal with Centerra Gold – by Olga Dzyubenko (Reuters India – June 5, 2013)

June 5, 2013

http://in.reuters.com/

BISHKEK, June 5 (Reuters) – Kyrgyzstan’s parliament has set a new Sept. 10 deadline for the government to agree an improved mining deal with Canada’s Centerra Gold or unilaterally cancel the current arrangement.

Centerra, which runs the central Asian nation’s flagship Kumtor gold mine, has come under pressure to revise a deal struck in 2009 after a state commission said it was underpaying the government and had caused “colossal” environmental damage.

Last week, hundreds of protesters forced a brief stoppage to production at the mine, hidden high in the Tien Shan mountains near the Chinese border.

In late February, the legislature gave the government three months to strike a new deal with Centerra, but the government missed a June 1 deadline, saying it needed more time for talks. These include a proposal for Kyrgyzstan to swap its stake in the Toronto-listed company for joint ownership of Kumtor.

After hours of heated debates, the new deadline was adopted by a 65-5 vote. “There are three options. The first is to redraw the 2009 agreements and start working in line with Kyrgyz laws, including taxation,” Economy Minister Temir Sariyev said before the vote.

Osisko Mining Corporation: The golden touch – by Will Daynes(Business Excellence Mining – June 4, 2013)

June 5, 2013

http://www.bus-ex.com/

ADVERTORIAL

Following more than 800,000 metres of drilling and intense preparation, financing and community relations works, in addition to obtaining hundreds of permits and constructing the actual mine, it was in April 2011 that the first gold bar was poured at Osisko Mining’s Malartic mine in Canada.

The pouring of this gold bar represented a sight that had not been seen in Malartic for 28 years previously and what followed a month later was the commencing of commercial production. Today the Canadian Malartic deposit is recognised as being one of the largest gold reserves in production in the country with proven and probable reserves of 10.11 million ounces of gold. In fact this figure continues to grow to this day through on-going drilling on adjacent mineralised zones.

Osisko Mining Corporation, a mid-tier gold producer based in Montreal, Quebec, is a mining company focused on acquiring, exploring, developing and mining gold properties. In addition to the Canadian Malartic gold mine in Malartic, Quebec, Osisko continues its exploration work on the Hammond Reef Project in Northern Ontario, the Kirkland Lake Project in North-eastern Ontario, as well as other projects elsewhere in Canada and around the world.

NEWS RELEASE: Mining Association of British Columbia and the BC Mining HR Task Force Celebrate the Winners of the 2013 BC Mining HR Diversity Award at the Grand Opening of the New BC AMTA Offices in Williams Lake BC

June 5, 2013

June 04, 2013 17:14 ET

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA–(Marketwired – June 4, 2013) – The Mining Association of BC (MABC) and the BC Mining HR Task Force (Task Force) are pleased to celebrate the winners of the 2013 BC Mining HR Diversity Award (HR Diversity Award), sponsored by Ernst & Young. The award was presented to the BC Aboriginal Mine Training Association and New Gold on May 1st, 2013, during BC Mining Week, at the Women in Mining Gala in Vancouver.

The award recognizes that the BC AMTA/New Gold initiative has had a significant, positive impact at the New Afton operation, on its employees, and for nearby communities. “This award is about recognizing work that is being done to create opportunities for people who might not have found their way to our industry otherwise,” said Zoë Younger, Vice President of Corporate Affairs at MABC, and HR Diversity Award co-chair. “One of the neat things about this program is that it can continue to grow, and the approach can be duplicated in communities across BC where mines are opening or operating,” she added.

While each submission had its strength, the joint BC AMTA and New Gold nomination presented the strongest emphasis on encouraging and supporting diversity within the workplace, with tangible results. The metrics associated with the BC AMTA initiative speak for themselves, and their vision in creating a program that provides skills, training and work experience for Aboriginal people in our industry is being duly recognized.

NEWS RELEASE: Flat revenues, falling profits, and plunging share prices — Global mining industry faces confidence crisis

June 6, 2013June 5, 2013

Revitalizing the industry starts with renewed focus on productivity

TORONTO, June 5, 2013 — While the Top 40 mining companies increased volumes by six per cent, softer commodity prices meant that 2012 revenues of $731 billion was only the second year in a decade that mining revenue did not increase, according to the latest PwC report: Mine: A confidence crisis.

The Mine report highlights a range of activity causing stakeholders to question the mining sector’s value proposition:

Net profits were down 49% to $68 billion
Gold equities declined despite steady gold price increases
Mining stocks in the first four months of 2013 fell nearly 20%

“Miners are faced with a confidence crisis and they’re focussed on trying to restore confidence,” says John Gravelle, Mining Leader for Canada and the Americas, PwC. “Across the board, there’s a renewed focused on maximizing returns from existing operations through managing productivity and improving efficiencies. Looking at the leadership changes last year, it reflects an industry that values experience and operational understanding over deal-making and growth.”

Gravelle adds, “The importance of returning to a lower cost base rather than relying on higher commodity prices should be on every miner’s agenda. Miners must deliver this while operating in an environment of intense resource nationalism where we see governments in traditional mining jurisdictions legislating substantial tax increases and emerging mining jurisdictions ignoring mining contracts after substantial investments are made.”

Environment assessment for Alaska’s Pebble mine ‘theatre of the absurd’ – Northern Dynasty- by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – June 5, 2013)

June 5, 2013

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Dual-listed project developer Northern Dynasty Minerals has filed a 205-page submission with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in response to its call for public comments on the revised draft Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment (BBWA), calling the draft report and the process used to complete it “biased, manipulative and contrary to the EPA’s own guidelines”.

Northern Dynasty president and CEO Ronald Thiessen said the 2013 draft BBWA, released in April, suffers from the same significant shortcomings as the original report published in May 2012 – in particular, that the EPA continued to assess the environmental effects of a hypothetical mine of its own invention, one that did not employ modern engineering standards, environmental safeguards or project-specific mitigation measures and could not be permitted under US or Alaska law.

Despite the fact that the EPA’s “hypothetical mine” was sited at the location of the Pebble deposit, Northern Dynasty believed the BBWA authors continued to refuse to consider the most extensive scientific data set available on the region – environmental baseline data collected by the Pebble Limited Partnership (PLP) at a cost of about $150-million.

Northern Dynasty said the EPA’s failure to fully consider the PLP’s environmental data was contrary to its own guidelines for data quality and was compounded by the fact that the BBWA study authors had never set foot on the Pebble project site.

PRESS RELEASE: China: Wood Mackenzie Says Thermal Coal Demand Will Reach Nearly 7btpa by 2030

June 5, 2013

http://www.woodmacresearch.com/

SINGAPORE/EDINBURGH/HOUSTON, 4th June 2013 – Wood Mackenzie’s report titled ‘China: The Illusion of Peak Coal’ says that despite efforts to limit coal consumption and seek alternative fuel options, China’s strong appetite for thermal coal will lead to a doubling of demand by 2030. China’s demand will grow to approximately seven billion tonnes per annum (btpa) of thermal coal which is contrary to speculation that China’s thermal coal demand may be reaching a peak in the next decade.

“It is very unlikely that demand for thermal coal in China will peak before 2030,” states Mr. William Durbin, Wood Mackenzie’s Beijing-based President of Global Markets. “Why? Because China’s aggressive investment program for nuclear, natural gas and renewables capacity is centred in the coastal region while coal-fired capacity grows in the central and western provinces. Indeed, there are also a plethora of coal-intensive conversion projects being built or planned that are significantly adding to demand.”

“Wood Mackenzie’s analysis already takes into account a rapid improvement in energy efficiency the likes of which have not been seen. We expect power demand per unit of GDP to fall by half in just 17 years, an extraordinary achievement for an economy experiencing such sustained growth. In spite of this efficiency improvement, power demand is still set to nearly triple to 15,000 Terawatt hours (TWh) by 2030. Indeed, if expected efficiency improvements do not materialise, then in the absence of alternatives, coal demand could increase further.”

Centerra mulls offering stake in Kumtor mine to Kyrgyz government amid violent protests – by Peter Koven (National Post – June 5, 2013)

June 5, 2013

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

TORONTO – As it faces a barrage of nationalization threats in Kyrgyzstan, Centerra Gold Inc. is studying a possible solution: giving the government a direct stake in its flagship mine.

Centerra revealed Tuesday that it negotiating a potential transaction with the Kyrgyz government that would convert the state’s 32.7% ownership of Centerra shares into direct ownership of the Kumtor mine through a joint venture.

The talks come amid a major crisis for Centerra. Last week, the Toronto-based miner had to temporarily shut down Kumtor after hundreds of protestors set up a roadblock near the mine and shut down a substation that was providing grid power.

The government later declared a state of emergency as hundreds of protestors clashed with riot police near Kumtor. The mine has since re-opened and the road is now clear again. “Probably by today or tomorrow, we’ll be at full capacity again,” said John Pearson, Centerra’s vice-president of investor relations.

The protestors were demanding that the government’s 2009 investment agreement with Centerra be torn up, with some calling for outright nationalization.

High Ontario power rates blamed for deterring investment – CBC News Thunder Bay (June 4, 2013)

June 5, 2013

http://www.cbc.ca/thunderbay/

Association of Major Power Consumers of Ontario say province’s rate double that of Manitoba, Quebec, Michigan

A growing number of Ontario mayors and manufacturers say the province’s energy prices and infrastructure are bad for business.

According to the Association of Major Power Consumers of Ontario, industrial customers pay approximately $85 per megawatt hour in Ontario when all components of the price of electricity is included. That’s more than double the $40 average paid in neighbouring provinces Manitoba, Quebec and the state of Michigan.

Ian Howcroft, the vice president of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Ontario, said energy is a major factor when companies look to invest or expand in the province. “Companies are looking at all costs. It could be a deal breaker,” Howcroft said of energy rates. “Ontario is a high-cost jurisdiction, especially with the high dollar.

“It could be the straw that broke the investment camel’s back.” Howcroft said energy could account for as much as 30 per cent of a company’s expense, especially in mining and foundries.

“It depends on your sector, but it is a major concern we hear about from our members on an ongoing basis,” Howcroft said. “If we want to be globally competitive we have to address the cost concerns in a variety of areas but particularly in energy.”

Goldcorp – Éléonore mine: [First Nations] People in partnership in northern Quebec – by John O’Hanlon (Business Excellence Mining – June 4, 2013

June 5, 2013

http://www.bus-ex.com/

ADVERTORIAL

James Bay, a tongue of water licking out between Ontario and Quebec, is by any standards remote. The Cree nation that lives on its shores have staked their claim, not always without difficulty, to such economic development as has taken place in the region, but today the greatest impact on their way of life is undoubtedly mining.

Nobody coming into this area should doubt the need to involve the Cree, as traditional owners of the land, in their plans. Perhaps the highest profile local business to have been developed is Air Creebec, founded in 1982 and today carrying more than 60,000 passengers a year – it’s a wholly-owned Cree enterprise, and its largest customer is Goldcorp, one of the world’s fastest growing senior gold producers, with operations and development projects located throughout the Americas. Goldcorp plans to fly more than a third of that number to its Éléonore project during 2013.

A Canadian company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Goldcorp employs more than 16,000 people worldwide however one of its most significant current projects is its fast developing Éléonore project located some 200 kilometres inland from the Cree centre of Wemindji on the east cost of James Bay. When it comes into operation in 2014, according to figures from a pre-feasibility study published in 2011, it should be processing 3,500 tonnes of gold bearing ore a day, extracted from an underground resource that is known to have a lot more potential than so far confirmed.

Farming boom [for Northern Ontario] on the horizon – by Benjamin Aubé (Timmins Daily Press – June 5, 2013)

June 5, 2013

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Mayor Mike Milinkovich of Black River-Matheson made the 45-minute drive up Hwy. 101 to Timmins city council on Monday to talk about the future of farming in the region.

Though Northern Ontario’s Claybelt is synonymous with mining and forestry, the Northeast Community Network (NeCN) has been exploring agriculture as a third staple industry for the region. An Agriculture Steering Committee has been created, funded by various regional partners.

Milinkovich is on the NeCN board of directors. He explained how in the past year or so, Mennonite families from Southern Ontario have been among those purchasing and building on more than 15,000 acres of arable land in Black River-Matheson (see story from back in November here: www.timminspress.com/2012/11/30/bright-future-for-farming-in-the-north).

Add that to the 184 farms already in production sitting on 75,000 acres in the Cochrane District, and you’ve already got an interesting foundation. But in Milinkovich’s estimation, that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. He said there exists close to 1.2 million acres of privately owned land in the district that remains to be explored.

Right decision, finally, on Endangered Species Act – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – June 4, 2013)

June 5, 2013

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Environmental lobby groups would have you believe the government has given free rein to the forest industry and that endangered species are now at risk of extinction.

The outcry by environmental groups over the province’s decision to harmonize requirements under the Endangered Species Act and the Crown Forest Sustainability Act should come as no surprise.

After all, special interest groups had a free hand in drafting the original ESA. In fact, environmental groups boasted in an Ivey Foundation report about how effective they were in limiting the industry’s input.

Credit the Ontario government for recognizing the redundancies and myopic slant of the regulations that ignored impacts on resource industry-dependent communities.

Anyone who is even vaguely familiar with forest management process knows the industry does not have the free rein to clearcut and destroy wildlife habitat. Despite environmentalists’ claims, there are Crown forests that have seen substantial reductions in available fibre due largely to caribou conservation efforts. These have all been implemented through a conventional forest management planning process.