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First Nations leaders, Idle No More activists warn peaceful protests could turn into months-long blockades this spring – by Kathryn Blaze Carlson (National Post – January 15, 2013)

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

First Nations leaders and Idle No More activists have promised only peaceful protests on their national day of action Wednesday, but once the snow melts and warmer weather sets in, key highways — including the main road to Alberta’s Fort McMurray, a major oil production hub — could be blocked for days, weeks or even months, prompting what one chief called “chaos.”

These latest threats of economic upheaval come at a fragile moment in First Nations-Crown relations, especially now that National Chief Shawn Atleo announced on Monday that a regional chief will take over his duties while he takes a “brief” doctor-ordered stress leave.

Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam said that while there are no plans to shut down Highway 63, the only all-weather road to Fort McMurray, on Wednesday, the government should expect a months-long summer blockade if it does not repeal or amend its recently passed omnibus budget bill that made changes to the Indian Act and the Navigable Waterways Act.

“If we’re going to shut down that highway, we’re going to shut it down completely — and not just for one day,” he said, warning that “every major highway across the country” would fall to a similar fate. “It’s escalated to a point where people’s frustrations are beginning to run out, and when people’s frustrations run out, things happen.”

In Southern Ontario, Grand Chief Gordon Peters of the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians warned that Wednesday’s planned disruption along Highway 401 near Windsor is just a taste of what could come if the Harper government does not acquiesce.

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The oil sands’ benefits – by David A. McLellan (National Post – January 15, 2013)

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

Great jobs with environmental issues that are being dealt with

From an economic perspective, Canada currently stands out among its OECD peers. On a relative basis, we have not looked this strong in more than a generation, although it is by no means a given that we will retain this superior economic performance, with so many obstacles facing our historical trading partners.

It will be imperative to capitalize on our natural resource assets in particular, by developing and commercializing advanced technologies to facilitate their development in more economic and environmentally responsible way.

Consider that there is an irrefutable positive correlation between standard of living and energy consumption, proofed by an examination of current global petroleum consumption. The International Energy Agency reported that in 2011, Canadian per-capita annual consumption of petroleum was 24.6 barrels; the U.S. figure was 21.8 barrels, while the Chinese figure was just 2.7 and the Indian figure was a paltry one barrel. It is not unreasonable to assume that the populations of China, India and much of the developing world would be striving to achieve a Western style standard-of-living.

It may be unreasonable to think they will get there soon, given their numerous challenges, but suppose they do get to a point where their per-capita consumption of petroleum rises to a level about one-third of North America’s.

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[IAMGOLD] Co. funds university pit-mine position – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Star – January 15, 2013)

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

A mining company called IAMGOLD Corporation has donated $1.25 million to Laurentian University to fund Canada’s first research chair in open-pit mining over a five-year period.

IAMGOLD will soon start mining operations at its Cote Gold project, an open-pit gold mine located near Gogama, about 180 km north of Sudbury.

“This is going to be a large mine that is going to require a lot of talent to operate,” said Gordon Stothart, IAMGOLD’s vice-president and chief operating officer. “Part of how we run our operations is to look around locally for who you can start to source talent.”

Laurentian has started a global search to find a suitable candidate for the research chair position, and is expected to make a decision as early as July.

“The main thing is we need someone with experience in open pit mining,” said Ramesh Subramanian, director of Laurentian’s Bharti School of Engineering. The school of engineering will establish the openpit mining research chair and choose the candidate for the position. Subramanian said about 75% of the world’s mines are openpit, but most mines in Canada are underground.

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UPDATE: 14,000 jobs affected as Amplats restructures Rustenburg – by Geoff Candy (Mineweb.com – January 15, 2013)

http://www.mineweb.com/

The platinum miner hopes to extract R3.8bn in cost savings and create 14,000 new jobs through the plan.

GRONINGEN (MINEWEB) – Anglo American Platinum said Tuesday it will, among other things, reconfigure its Rustenburg operations into three mines, sell its Union mine and deliver R3.8bn in cost savings by 2015.

These plans are all the result of a review of its operations undertaken by its parent Anglo American in a bid to return the company to long-term profitability and are expected to affect as many as 14,000 jobs, 13,000 of which will be in the Rustenburg area.

According to a release out on Tuesday morning, the group said, it would restructure its Rustenburg operations into a sustainable 320-350,000oz platinum producer across three operating mines.

As a result, “Four unsustainable, high-cost shafts, namely Khuseleka 1 and 2 and Khomanani 1 and 2, will be put on long-term care and maintenance.” This it says will see the production profile reduced by approximately 400,000oz per annum with a baseline production target of 2.1 – 2.3 million oz per annum.

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Ruling against free-entry claims forces more First Nations consultation – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – January 15, 2013)

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – A December 27 ruling by three justices from the British Columbia (BC) Court of Appeal sitting in Whitehorse, granted an appeal by the Ross River Dena Council and found that allowing claim staking without first consulting First Nations contravenes the Crown’s duty to consult, potentially holding national ramifications for the exploration industry.

The BC First Nations Energy and Mining Council (FNEMC) said the BC government and the mining industry have been given a “blaring wake-up call” in the form of the precedent-setting court ruling against the existing free-entry claims process.

The council said government and industry now have the choice of spending huge sums and possibly several years trying to fight this decision before the Supreme Court of Canada, where First Nations have a winning record, or sitting down with First Nations to finally come up with a better way of doing business.

“This decision will eventually result in significant reforms to the mining industry across British Columbia. For the first time in a mining case the courts have said the duty to consult and accommodate must take place prior to the granting of an exploration interest, including the commencement of activities,” FNEMC board director chief Roland Willson said.

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Laurentian strikes gold with [IAMGOLD] research chair – by Heidi Ulrichsen (Sudbury Northern Life – January 14, 2013)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

IAMGOLD donates $1.25M to fund position

Thanks to a $1.25-million donation from IAMGOLD Corporation, Laurentian University’s Bharti School of Engineering will soon host the country’s first research chair in open-pit mining. The research chair is also the first at Laurentian funded entirely by private industry.

IAMGOLD Corporation, a 6,000-employee company with operations in Quebec, West Africa and South America, plans to open an open-pit gold mine at its Côté Gold project south of Gogama in 2017.

The company is looking to spend $1.4 billion to develop the mine, which will employ up to 2,000 people during construction and 400 people once up and running.Given these plans, the company thought it was a good idea to sponsor the research chair, said IAMGOLD CEO Stephen Letwin.

He said the company needs employees trained in the area of open-pit mining and sees the contribution as “an investment in the future.”

“I just can’t tell you how pleased we are to be part of the community and be partners with the school and partners with the region,” Letwin said, speaking to Northern Life on Jan. 14 after the position was announced.

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NEWS RELEASE: LAURENTIAN CREATES FIRST RESEARCH CHAIR IN OPEN-PIT MINING – Canadian company IAMGOLD funds position with $1.25M investment

(L to R) Stephanie Fontaine (2nd Year Mining Engineering Student), Ramesh Subramanian (Laurentian University), Gordon Stothart (IAMGOLD), Dave Brown (IAMGOLD), Philip Gaultier (IAMGOLD), Albert Nelmapius (IAMGOLD), Pierre Pelletier (IAMGOLD), Stephen Letwin (IAMGOLD), Tracy MacLeod (Laurentian University), Dominic Giroux (Laurentian University).

SUDBURY, ON (January 14, 2013) – The Bharti School of Engineering at Laurentian University in Sudbury will establish Canada’s first Research Chair in Open-Pit Mining, with the support of a significant investment from Canadian mining firm, IAMGOLD Corporation.

The company’s investment of $1.25M, dedicated to the creation of a Research Chair, was announced by IAMGOLD’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Letwin at a celebration at Laurentian University this afternoon.

“This investment represents a critically-important enhancement of our research capacity at the Bharti School. This new Research Chair will attract more cutting-edge knowledge to our mining engineering programs, and will certainly augment our international reputation in mining,” said Dr. Ramesh Subramanian, Director of the Bharti School of Engineering.

“The future of the mining industry depends on our ability to step up the pace of innovation and this has to start with educational programs and research opportunities specializing in advanced mining techniques,” said Steve Letwin, IAMGOLD’s President and CEO. “Creating Canada’s first Research Chair in the highly specialized field of open-pit mining, positions Laurentian University as a leader in mining research.

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Are SOEs really SOBs? – by Russel Noble (Canadian Mining Journal – January 2013)

Russel Noble is the editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication. 

Ten years from now when Asian governments have strengthened their grip on Canada’s petroleum and other natural resources and are pumping “our” oil through the Northern Gateway pipeline to their awaiting ships at either the Port of Kitimat, or Prince Rupert, or both, Prime Minister Harper will probably be back in Alberta somewhere thinking that perhaps his decision in 2012 wasn’t very good for Canada after all.

Like you, I have no crystal ball show¬ing what 10 years from now will look like exactly in terms of state-owned-entrepreneurs (SOEs) controlling our resources (or who knows what else by then?), but I have an uneasy feeling that it won’t be pretty because of the suspicions and the facts that we already have about how SOEs conduct business.

I’m not, for example, necessarily singling out Chinese or Malaysian governments in particular (or maybe I am), but from what I’ve read and heard about their tenacious ways of doing business and in particular, their seeming disregard for whatever gets in their way (especially people), I can’t imagine they’ll change their business plans when they set up shops here in Canada.

In fact, I think it will be business as usual, Asian style, and that should be everyone’s concern because, just by example, have you ever looked deep into the face of a Chinese coal miner? There’s not a whole lot of happiness in those eyes. They’re filled with pain and fear, and that’s what I’m afraid Canada is in for too as more and more state-owned-entrepreneurs move in and take control.

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Idle No More: A chance to repair a sad legacy – by Jim Coyle (Toronto Star – January 13, 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.

The truth about stories, says the author and son of a Cherokee Thomas King, is “that that’s all we are.” It’s a notion at least as old as the Psalms. “We spend our years as a tale that is told.” And in our lifetimes, we’re shaped and guided by the stories we hear about who we are, where we come from, what we might be.

But stories can also be dangerous, King said in his Massey Lectures of 10 years ago. “So you have to be careful with the stories you tell. And you have to watch out for the stories you are told.”

As much as anything, Idle No More — born of a rally organized in Saskatoon in November by four aboriginal women — seems to be an attempt by Canada’s First Nations to insist that their story be reclaimed and heard, to galvanize their people and the wider public into addressing a long-standing national disgrace.

To get lost in the diet particulars of one hunger-striking chief in Ottawa, or the accounting idiosyncracies of one reserve’s band council, or a decision in Attawapiskat by a people grown wary of media to ban a TV crew, is to miss the larger and legitimate point of Idle No More and the opportunity it presents for essential change.

That drastic change is needed — at a time when the northwestern Ontario community of Pikangikum is called the suicide capital of Canada, and an inquest is soon to be held in Ontario into the deaths of seven native young people who died after leaving their remote home communities to pursue education in Thunder Bay — is beyond question.

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Mining industry supports Ontario’s transportation infrastructure

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 foundation of the multi-faceted transportation infrastructure that we all share in Ontario is supported by the province’s mining industry. According to the economic impact study Mining: Dynamic and Dependable for Ontario’s Future, which was completed by two University of Toronto economists, “One sector of the economy that depends vitally on mineral production in the province is the transport sector.”

The province’s marine transport industry serves mining customers and relies on mineral products. According to the study, minerals account for 56% of the cargo shipped by volume from Ontario Great Lakes ports to other locations in the province, 14% of cargo shipped elsewhere in Canada and 54% of cargo shipped internationally through the St. Lawrence Seaway.

All in all, 44% of the total cargoes carried by the marine industry in Ontario are mineral products. On the national level, the Mining Association of Canada (MAC) in its publication Facts & Figures indicates about 50% of all marine cargo traffic in the country involves minerals.

As heavy users of transportation infrastructure that benefits us all, mining companies often invest in the construction and maintenance of these facilities. For example, OMA member Sifto Canada joined forces with the Town of Goderich and the Goderich Port Management Corp in a public-private partnership to expand and enhance the local port. The three parties signed a memorandum of understanding for the $47 million project.

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NEWS RELEASE: First Quantum Minerals Delivers Letter to Inmet Warning Against Improper Defensive Tactics

2013-01-12T16:24:32+00:00

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA–(Marketwire – Jan. 12, 2013) –First Quantum Minerals Ltd. (“First Quantum”) (TSX:FM) (LSE:FQM) today announced that it has delivered the following letter to David Beatty, Chairman of the Board of Inmet Mining Corporation, in response to reports received by First Quantum regarding a proposed sale of a further minority interest in the Cobre Panama project:

“Dear David,

First Quantum published details on 9 January 2012 of its previously announced proposal to create a new force in mining, with a globally significant position in copper, through a merger with Inmet. First Quantum is pleased that Inmet’s largest single shareholder, and one with representation on the Inmet Board, has already expressed public support for our proposal. We have also noted Inmet’s response to our offer for the Inmet shares (the “Offer”), including the establishment of a Special Committee to examine its merits.

First Quantum has been approached, directly and indirectly through its financial advisors, by a number of shareholders of Inmet who have expressed concern that Inmet is proposing to complete a sale of a further minority interest in the Cobre Panama project. These concerns are apparently based upon discussions with a senior executive officer of Inmet.

As you know, it is a condition of First Quantum’s Offer that Inmet and its subsidiaries not take any action which might have the effect of materially diminishing the economic value to First Quantum of the acquisition of Inmet shares or make it inadvisable for First Quantum to proceed with the Offer. We are therefore very concerned that the Special Committee could be contemplating steps which could deprive Inmet shareholders the opportunity to consider our Offer.

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Vale cut not ‘fatal’ to city’s economy – by Harold Carmichael (Sudbury Star – January 12, 2013)

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

Vale’s decision to cut in half the proposed $2 billion it would spend on a massive pollution-reduction project at the Copper Cliff Smelter site will affect local mining supply and service companies, but it’s not a fatal blow, says Dick DeStefano.

DeStefano, executive director of the Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association, said local companies had about a 25% of Vale’s Clean Atmospheric Emissions Reduction project, which will now cost $1-billion. The members reaction, he said, is the work will be made up somewhere else.

“I haven’t heard one complaint because they made a business decision,” said DeStefano. “No one has called me up saying ‘I am losing a pile of money.’ Our guys are saying ‘let’s move on. There are other markets in other places. If we don’t see it here, there are others. We have to live with it.’”

DeStefano said the good news Thursday is the increased push to develop the Victor-Capre Mine and the Copper Cliff Mine brownfield site, which he said, could lead to $500 million-plus of investment at each site, more than making up for the lost $1 billion from Clean AER.

While he accepts that the Clean AER announcement was a business decision, DeStefano said the Copper Cliff Smelter could run into problems down the road when it operates with just one furnace.

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First Quantum accuses Inmet of trying to sabotage takeover – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – January 12, 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.

Leading shareholders of Inmet Mining Corp., say the company is shopping a significant but minority stake in Cobre Panama, the $6.2-billion (U.S.) copper project it is developing in Central America, as it works to fend off a hostile takeover from Canadian rival First Quantum Minerals Ltd.

“First Quantum has been approached, directly and indirectly through its financial advisers, by a number of shareholders of Inmet who have expressed concern that Inmet is proposing to complete a sale of a further minority interest in the Cobre Panama project,” First Quantum said in a statement on Saturday, decrying the tactic as potentially diminishing the economic value of the acquisition of Inmet.

“These concerns are apparently based upon discussions with a senior executive officer of Inmet.” Sources say the stake could be as large as 20 per cent and as small as 15 per cent and would be sold as a tactic to defend against a $5.1-billion hostile bid for all of Inmet from First Quantum, a Vancouver-based firm with key assets in Africa.

Inmet could not be reached for immediate comment on Saturday, but company chairman David Beatty signalled earlier this week that the board was considering its options in the face of the hostile bid, including some that predate the offer.

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‘We are businessmen’: First Nations entrepreneurs far from idle – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – January 12, 2013)

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

The Idle No More movement presents one face of Canada’s First Nations: combative, frustrated with government, impoverished, opposed to resource projects while claiming entitlement to revenue sharing.

Aboriginal entrepreneurs such as Wilf Lalonde present the other face. He’s a Cree from northern Alberta who sees big opportunities to work in and profit from oil and gas and other resource projects, and strives to make First Nations self-sufficient.

It’s a side of First Nations that gets little notice next to the constant stream of grievances and the anti-development tough talk. But it’s alive and pushing to make room for itself, fighting tensions between First Nations about how to deal with the extraction of resources on traditional lands and over who gets to benefit, and struggling to find funding and to convince the corporate community that aboriginals have the capacity and the resolve to deliver.

Mr. Lalonde wouldn’t comment on Idle No More, saying it’s political and he is no politician. He’s taking a different path to prosperity.

“We are businessmen,” Mr. Lalonde, a member of the Driftpile First Nation near Slave Lake, said in an interview in Calgary this week, where the group of aboriginal companies he leads, as yet unnamed, has set up an office to be close to energy company headquarters, bid for contracts and act as the go-to-guys for skilled and unskilled aboriginal labour.

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Baffinland Iron Mines sharply scales back Mary River project – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – January 12, 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.

Plans to build Baffin Island’s massive Mary River iron ore project, a key driver of Canada’s northern development, have been scaled back to a much smaller proposal as its owners fall victim to global financial tumult.

In a letter to Nunavut authorities, operator Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. said it is replacing a mine plan to produce 18 million tonnes a year of iron ore with one that will produce just 3.5 million tonnes. A planned railway for the project will be deferred, and the iron ore will instead be trucked to an existing small port instead of a building a new one.

The original project had a development cost of about $4-billion, but the scaled-down plan would keep spending to an estimated $740-million.

“In the current global financial environment, the large development cost for the Mary River Project is difficult to finance,” said Baffinland, a joint venture between global steel giant ArcelorMittal and Iron Ore Holdings LP, its private equity-backed partner, in a letter to the Nunavut Impact Review Board. “The same effect is being felt by many major projects around the world.”

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