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Waiting on a business plan [Ontario Northland Transportation Commission] – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – January 8, 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. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

Ontario Northland Transportation Commission

The unions proposing a plan to transfer ownership of the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission (ONTC) to a new operating ‘port authority’ must submit a business plan to participate in the province’s divestment process, said a ministry spokeswoman.

Laura Blondeau said the ‘New Deal’ group must submit a qualified proposal of its capabilities to Infrastructure Ontario, something the government has yet to see, as of early December.

Blondeau said that was the message sent in an Oct. 31 meeting between Northern Development and Mines Minister Rick Bartolucci and Roy Hains, CEO of a proposed entity called the James Bay & Lowlands Ports Trustee Corp.

The ‘New Deal’ group is spearheaded by the General Chairperson’s Association, representing unionized employees at the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission (ONTC). Its ambitious plan is to transfer the ONTC’s assets, including the railroad, to a ‘port authority’ available under the Canada Marine Act.

The James Bay & Lowlands Ports Trustee Corp. proposal has been endorsed by KWG Resources, a chromite junior miner in the Ring of Fire, and Nipissing-Timiskaming MP Jay Aspin.

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Southern Ontario overlooks Northern Ontario at its peril – by Bruce Stewart (Troy Media – January 8, 2013)

http://www.troymedia.com/

Troy Media Syndicated Columnist Bruce Stewart is a management consultant located in Toronto.

TORONTO, ON, Jan. 8, 2013/ Troy Media/ – Most of Ontario’s landmass is in the north; most of its people are in the south. Northern Ontarians often find this frustrating. Southern Ontarians seldom think about the north at all.

There isn’t even agreement as to where “Northern Ontario” begins. Some people argue that anywhere the Canadian Shield can be seen should be thought of as “The North”. Others hold to a particular set of municipalities, or the dividing line of a highway (typically, Highway 17 as it goes from North Bay westward to Sault-Ste-Marie).

Ask people in Toronto what they know about Northern Ontario. You will get answers like “they’ve got lots of mines, don’t they?”, “isn’t that mostly logging country?”, “isn’t that mostly Indian reserves?” – and most commonly “gee, I dunno”.

Northern Ontario, to me (along with many others), has mostly been a fly-over experience. Half of the time spent flying from Toronto to Vancouver is spent getting out of Ontario – and all but the first 20 to 30 minutes are spent flying over “the North”.

From the air, it appears to be what the Kingston, Ontario musical comedy trio the Arrogant Worms sing about in their eponymous song: “We’ve got rocks and trees, and trees and rocks . . . and water.”

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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/

HOW THE PROSPECTORS GOT TO CALIFORNIA

The experience of those taking part in the California Rush was easier than the privations that would be experienced by those making it to the Klondike in that later rush. However, getting to the Californian gold fields was no picnic. Whilst today there are many road and rail routes across and through the great Sierra Mountains into the Pacific USA, in the 19th century the overland crossing from the eastern and central states into California was fraught with danger.

The other routes used were sea routes, first the long voyage down to the tip of South America, round Cape Horn and up to San Francisco, before the relatively short land journey south to the gold fields. The time this route took and the considerable dangers posed by the huge storms that often blew around Cape Horn led to a third route being established, sailing to the Panama Isthmus and then going by land to the Pacific side to board ships to San Francisco at the Gulf of Panama. Whilst this latter route was obviously faster than the Cape Horn route it was not without danger as Panama’s climate harboured diseases such as malaria and yellow fever, which led to many fatalities amongst the travellers.

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Project Focus: Ring of Fire – by John Chadwick (International Mining – January 2013)

http://www.im-mining.com/

There is a very exciting new mining camp developing in Canada, John Chadwick reports

According to the Ontario Government, “The Ring of Fire is one of the most promising mineral development opportunities in
Ontario in almost a century. Located in Ontario’s Far North, current estimates suggest the multigenerational potential of chromite production,as well as significant production of nickel, copper and platinum.”

The projects will open up economic opportunities in an extremely remote and undeveloped area, an 80 km by 100 km swath of
muskeg, especially for local First Nations communities. Any new infrastructure (community, social, etc.) will further benefitlocal communities. The region will require significant investment in mine and processing infrastructure, the construction and operation of transportation infrastructure and the provision of energy. Rail and all-weather road options are currently being assessed for the transportation corridor.

The exploration and prospecting involves some 16,400 claim units, covering an area of 2,630 km2, with 21 companies currently holding claims in the Ring of Fire belt. The area of most intense exploration is about 20 km long running northeast from Noront’s Eagle 2 prospect to Spider-KWG’s McFauld’s #2. Discoveries include chromite, nickel, copper, zinc, gold and kimberlite.

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Anglo American: The house that Oppenheimers built, now led by Mark Cutifani – by J Brooks Spector (The Daily Maverick – January 10, 2013)

http://dailymaverick.co.za/

Late last year, the Daily Maverick described the giant company’s travails in its story, “Anglo American: A giant corporation between a big rock and a very hard place”, and this week Anglo’s board took its decision to end the uncertainty about its new leadership.

For decades, Anglo was South Africa’s pre-eminent industrial and mining enterprise. At one point more than half the value of listed shares on the JSE were Anglo American-controlled enterprises. After the end of Apartheid’s isolation, Anglo began to spin off many of its enterprises that were not part of its core focus on mining. In 1999, Anglo changed its primary listing from the JSE to London. More recently still, Anglo American spun its gold mining interests into a separate corporation that merged with Ghanaian mining interests into AngloGold Ashanti – the same company Cutifani now heads.

Overall, reaction to Cutifani’s selection, so far at least, is generally optimistic. Many analysts are saying plainly Cutifani is probably the best person around for this job, based both on his broad international mining experience and his knowledge of South Africa’s specific social-political-economic circumstances. There are doubters, of course. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) was publicly disappointed that Anglo’s board couldn’t find a single black or female South African to head the multinational.

A deeper, and so-far unanswered, question is why, given the government’s obvious interest in, and the company’s frequently expressed support for, South Africa’s economic transformation, there seems to have been no visible, organised process for grooming a local, black successor generation for Anglo’s top management spots.

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Demolition planned for Shania centre [for gold mine] – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – January 9, 2013)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – The Shania Twain Centre and Underground Gold Mine Tour will be history in more ways than one if Goldcorp Canada completes a deal to purchase the land where those attractions are located.

“If an agreement can be reached, our plans are to demolish both,” Domenic Rizzuto, manager of human resources and corporate social responsibility for Goldcorp’s Porcupine Gold Mines, told The Daily Press.

Goldcorp’s interest in the property comes at a time when the company is developing an open pit mine in an area pocked by subsidances from the old Hollinger mine workings.

The original proposed layout of the open pit saw the exterior wall or berm curving around the property where the Twain centre and mine tour site are located. If the land sale goes through, there will be less need for Goldcorp to prevent the berm from encroaching in that area. “Goldcorp is in discussions with the city to purchase the Shania Twain Centre and Gold Mine Tour because there is an economic case to so,” said Rizzuto.

Timmins council announced on Monday the city was close to finalizing an agreement to sell the Twain centre and mine tour property to Goldcorp.

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Growth golden at Brigus projects – by Kyle Gennings (Timmins Daily Press – January 9, 2013)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – The coming year holds the promise of further expansion for Brigus Gold operations in the Black-River Matheson area. The Black Fox mine is slated to expand production while the Grey Fox mine will continue operational prep for full production in 2015.

For Brigus CEO Wade Dawe, 2013 will be yet another landmark year in growth for the mid-level operation, one that will see the residents of Timmins benefit.

“In 2012 we made great progress, we built the underground portion of the mine (Black Fox) and that is wrapping up very well,” he said. “We are on track to increase production in 2013 to between 90,000 and 100,000 ounces compared to the 77,347 ounces in 2012.”

This increase will continue to lay the ground work needed to allow Brigus to focus on further expansion of the Grey Fox operations. Dawe said that 2013 should be a stable year.

“Right now, we have approximately 377 employees at the Black Fox mine,” he said. “In 2013 our employment numbers will be reasonably stable. We may add up to 5% of additional personnel, although we are essentially stable in 2013.” Operations will ramp up even further in 2014.

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[KGHM Sudbury] Podolsky Mine closing – by Star Staff (Sudbury Star – January 10, 2013)

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

KGHM International Ltd. has begun issuing layoffs to about 70 people who work at Podolsky Mine located north of Capreol.

A company official said Wednesday the mine will close by the end of the first quarter of 2013. The company had originally planned to close the mine by the end of 2012. She said layoffs shouldn’t come as a surprise, since KGHM International Ltd. announced in November plans to shutter the mine.

“There is nothing left to mine,” she said. KGHM International and Steelworkers Local 2020 will now meet to discuss how the layoffs should be implemented.

Quadra FNX — which merged with Polish company KGHM Polska Mied S.A. in 2012 and now operates as a subsidiary, KGHM International Ltd. — began commercial production at Podolsky Mine of copper, nickel, gold, platinum and palladium in 2008.

In November, the company said despite exploration work, it could find no reserves at Podolsky. President and CEO Paul Blythe said then the company decided to focus on its more promising projects.

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[Sudbury] Robotics impress minister – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – January 10, 2013)

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

FedNor Minister Tony Clement left Sudbury on Wednesday with a promise to a city entrepreneur his government would do everything it can to remove road blocks to developing innovative robotics.

Clement first delivered almost $1.8 million in FedNor funding to two organizations in the city to create jobs and stimulate economic growth. The Northern Water Sports Centre received $1 million toward the cost of constructing the facility and Nickel Basin Federal Development Corporation received $795,000 to offer access to capital for new and existing small- and medium-sized businesses.

Clement then travelled 20 minutes to a former elementary school in Naughton that now houses a business called Penguin Automated Systems Inc., where 26 people work in the field of robotics and automation.

Penguin chair and chief technology officer Greg Baiden toured Clement around the plant, showing him where the $400,000 that FedNor gave to Penguin will be put to use.

Baiden and company have developed a prototype he calls a “sewer rat bot” that is used to inspect and map wastewater pipes.
The FedNod money will go to develop two more prototypes that will put the robot closer to production.

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Barrick, China walk away from Africa deal – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – January 9, 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.

Barrick Gold Corp. has ended months of efforts to sell its African unit to state-owned China National Gold Group (CNGC), unwilling to settle for fire-sale prices even as it struggles to cover massive cost overruns elsewhere.

The assets had been up for sale as part of a revitalization strategy that was launched by the world’s largest gold miner last summer amid a falling stock price and shareholder discontent.

The move leaves Barrick with a high-cost producer in African Barrick Gold PLC at a time when mining on the African continent is losing its shine for shareholders, who are wary of resource nationalism amid months of labour strife in African mines.

The end to the talks also underscores the fiscal discipline of Chinese state-owned mining companies, showing they are careful not to overpay for assets even as the country seeks ownership of mineral resources to feed booming economic growth.

Barrick chief executive officer Jamie Sokalsky, who took the helm of the Toronto-based miner in June after the ouster of predecessor Aaron Regent, engaged the Chinese as one of a series of bold moves to address investor backlash against Barrick, which like others in the sector pursued aggressive growth for years but failed to spark good returns for shareholders.

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OMA NEWS RELEASE: Xstrata Nickel executives recognized as two of Canada’s top business women

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.

Dominique Dionne, Vice President Corporate Affairs for Ontario Mining Association member Xstrata Nickel, has been recognized as one of Canada’s leading businesswomen along with her colleague Sepanta Dorri, General Manager Business Development at Xstrata Nickel. Ms Dionne received the RBC Champions Award in the 2012 Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 program.

Ms Dorri was named to the 2012 Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 program in the Trailblazers and Trendsetters category. The OMA joins in congratulating both executives for this achievement. These honours were officially presented at the 10th annual ceremony run by the Womens’s Executive Network (WXN). It recognizes female business leaders in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. WXN started 15 years ago and it has approximately 18,000 members.

“Dominique has relentlessly pursued her goal to develop the next generation of female leaders in the mining sector by championing Xstrata’s support of programs to expand opportunities for women within our industry,” said Ian Pearce, Xstrata Nickel Chief Executive Officer in a letter to staff.

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NEWS RELEASE: MacDonald Mines Readies Drill Program on Butler Property in ‘Ring of Fire,’ James Bay; Provides Background on Current Mining Exploration Environment

January 09, 2013 08:00 ET

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – Jan. 9, 2013) – MacDonald Mines Exploration Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:BMK) (‘MacDonald’ or ‘the Company’) provides a mining industry update and an outline of its drill program scheduled for early 2013 to advance its potential VMS discovery at the highly prospective Butler 3 location (see Figure 3). The Butler property is located 36 kilometres west of Cliffs Natural Resources (‘Cliffs’) Big Daddy Chromite deposit (Click here for map).

Kirk McKinnon, President and CEO of MacDonald Mines comments, “As we enter 2013, MacDonald Mines believes it is important to provide a current backdrop for junior mining exploration companies. We find it extremely ironic that both the Prime Minister and the Ontario Premier have outlined natural resources as a prime catalyst for growth in the country and in the province of Ontario respectively. Specifically, Premier Dalton McGuinty outlined the James Bay Lowlands and Natural Resources as a prime catalyst for growth within the province. With this as a backdrop, we wonder why large trading institutions are allowed to impact junior mining stocks with high frequency trading (as profiled in the Financial Post, October 10, 2012 and the Huffington Post) and also receive trading credits from the TSX in return for placing bids.

We are aware high frequency trading is active in the United States but has been banned in some jurisdictions. It has less impact in the United States because of the sheer critical mass in the number of stocks and the number of shares in their trading jurisdictions. Compounding this, large Canadian national banks have certainly discouraged, and all but disallowed, any trading in junior mining stocks. This makes it extremely difficult for their clients to even consider these stocks as part of their overall portfolio or as opportunities for making money. We realize that exploration stocks are high risk and do require some expertise and insight on the part of shareholders but they can also play a role in a balanced portfolio where it constitutes a small percentage of the total investment.

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Theresa Spence’s hunger strike obscures the key First Nations issue: resource revenue sharing – by John Ivison (National Post – January 8, 2013)

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

There is hope for the future of relations between natives and non-natives in Canada. It is embodied in leaders like Glen Nolan, a former Cree chief from Northern Ontario, who is the president of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada.

He doesn’t support the Idle No More movement because he says he’s never been idle. “There are too many examples of [native] individuals and communities who have broken away from the notion that government is there to look out for them,” he said.

Attempting to get at the truth involves abandoning stereotypes and clichés. That is hard when the subject matter conforms to easily attached labels, like Theresa Spence, the chief of another Cree community in Attawapiskat, who points the finger of blame at Ottawa with one hand, while extending the other for more handouts.

It is a welcome reminder when more sober voices like Mr. Nolan point out that many First Nations reject dependency on transfers from the federal government.

Mr. Nolan, now an executive with a junior mining company developing nickel and copper in Ontario’s Ring of Fire, said his time as chief of the Missanabie Cree First Nation north of Wawa was characterized by building strong support networks to encourage education, work and business creation.

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The real story behind Attawapiskat’s problems – by Thomas Walkom (Toronto Star – January 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.

Making sense of Attawapiskat is not easy. The James Bay native community is synonymous with poverty. But it sits next to a diamond mine. Its chief, Theresa Spence, has become famous across Canada because of the hunger strike she is waging on an island in the Ottawa River.

She insists she’ll only consume liquids until Prime Minister Stephen Harper meets with her (which he has agreed to do). But what does Spence want from that meeting? This is less clear. She talks vaguely of a new relationship between aboriginal first nations and the federal government.

We now know, thanks to a detailed audit of Attawapiskat’s finances commissioned by Ottawa, that the first nation’s bookkeeping leaves much to be desired.

Auditors from Deloitte and Touche concluded that roughly 80 per cent of the detailed spending transactions they investigated came with little or no paperwork, making it unclear how the monies were spent.

Yet oddly enough, another auditing firm — this one based in Timmins — has regularly been okaying the band’s annual financial statements, all of which are available on the Attawapiskat website.

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