Republic of Mining

Alberta fears chill in oil sands investment – by Carrie Tait, Shawn McCarthy, Nathan Vanderklippe (Globe and Mail – December 11, 2012)

December 11, 2012

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.

TORONTO and OTTAWA and CALGARY — Alberta issued a chilly response to Ottawa’s new foreign investment rules, with senior ministers concerned that investment in the oil sands will slow now that wealthy state-controlled energy firms are essentially off-limits for more takeovers in the province.

Alberta Energy Minister Ken Hughes said the new rules may reduce foreign investment and drive up the cost of capital for companies developing projects.

“There is the potential now for less investment going into the oil sands,” Mr. Hughes told a conference in Calgary. The minister said he worries that Alberta is already a high-cost jurisdiction for producing crude, and the possible increase in financing costs could reduce the competitiveness of the oil sands.

Share prices of Canadian energy companies were largely stable Monday, in the wake of the government’s late-Friday announcement that greatly restricts the ability of foreign state-owned enterprises to acquire Canadian energy firms. Indeed, chief executives from some of Canada’s largest energy companies applauded the federal government’s new policies, arguing that companies will find other ways to accomplish their financing and development needs.

North getting some attention – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Jouranl Editorial (December 11, 2012)

December 11, 2012

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

SEVEN Ontario Liberals who want to lead the party came to a weekend debate in Thunder Bay, mainly to say how they’d do the North differently. Each of them had some proposal for a new degree of autonomy here. Each of them recognized that their party, and the others, have failed to tend to the North enough over the years and promised that, if selected to replace outgoing Premier Dalton McGuinty, things up here will be different.

We say “up here” because all of the candidates are from deep in southern Ontario and, naturally, have not had a lot to do with the North until now.

Now, they are turning their backs, to one degree or another, on what their government has done concerning Northern Ontario in order to convince Northerners that a Liberal party under their leadership will do things better. It will provide the North with more decision-making, a bigger share in its own resources and more attention to lingering issues of social inequality. Despite this region’s long sense of alienation from Queen’s Park, each of them suddenly understands the North. And yet all of them have been cabinet ministers, some as recently as October. What’s changed?

Their personal aspirations. Whereas they used to be concerned with their own ridings and their particular cabinet responsibilities, now they must think of Ontario as a whole. Now, the North matters.

Miners comb through new Canadian investment rules – by Pav Jordan, Shawn McCarthy (Globe and Mail – December 11, 2012)

December 11, 2012

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.

TORONTO, OTTAWA — While the energy sector is sifting through Ottawa’s new takeover rules, the mining industry is abuzz about paragraph No. 6.

That’s the line in the Industry Canada policy statement last week that revised guidelines for investments by state-owned enterprises (SOEs), showing it will monitor transactions by SOEs throughout the Canadian economy and not just in the oil sands.

“It is easy to see how they might expand this to mining under the rationale given in the sixth paragraph that they will be looking at SOE investment broadly in the Canadian economy,” said Sander Grieve, co-chair of the mining group at Toronto law firm Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP. “We’ll be watching very closely.”

Canada announced the changes on Friday as it gave the green light to two controversial acquisitions by Asian companies of domestic oil and gas producers, the $15.1-billion (U.S.) bid by China’s CNOOC Ltd. for Calgary-based Nexen Inc., and the $6-billion (Canadian) acquisition by Malaysia’s Petronas of Progress Energy Resources Corp.

It also warned that takeovers of Canadian oil sands business in particular would only be deemed of net benefit on an exceptional basis.

First Nations using video game to attract youth to mining – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – December 10, 2012)

December 10, 2012

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.

In northwestern Ontario, mining companies struggling to find skilled workers may soon have a new recruitment ally on their side, and it comes in a most non-traditional package: a videogame.

Thunder Bay’s Oshki-Pimache-O-Win Education & Training Institute (OSHKI) has commissioned Algoma Games for Health (AGFH) in Sault Ste. Marie to develop an online videogame that will grab the attention of First Nations youth, in an effort to translate their heightened interest into careers in the mining industry.

OSHKI serves the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN), a collection of 49 First Nation communities located throughout the region.

Gordon Kakegamic, OSHKI’s e-learning co-ordinator, said information about the mining industry on the internet often uses tech-based language and ideologies, which is difficult for the average youth reader to understand.

“We want to present that same kind of information in a different approach using methods that gamers use,” he said. “There are different strategies that programmers use to interact and engage people, and we’re trying to apply those same principles to the portal. It makes learning fun.”

Liberal candidate calls for new Northern Ontario government – by Karen Howlett (Globe and Mail – December 10, 2012)

December 10, 2012

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.

Liberal leadership contender Glen Murray is once again displaying a strong focus on northern and rural issues and a willingness to put forward new policy ideas.

At an all-candidates debate in Thunder Bay on Sunday, Mr. Murray called for the creation of a regional government for Northern Ontario, one that would make decisions on a range of policies that directly affect the area, including job-training programs, transportation and electricity prices.

Strengthening the relationship with residents of Northern Ontario is a key priority for the Liberal Party, one it has been accused of neglecting under outgoing Premier Dalton McGuinty.

The booming mining industry – centred around an exploration area in the James Bay Lowlands known as the Ring of Fire – needs “made-in-the-North” decisions, said Mr. Murray, a former mayor of Winnipeg who now represents an urban riding in Toronto.

Can trillion-dollar platinum coins solve the U.S. debt ceiling problem? – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – December 10, 2012)

December 10, 2012

http://www.mineweb.com/

As the U.S. government struggles through another fiscal crisis, pundits are resurrecting a theory that the minting of a handful of trillion dollar platinum coins could resolve U.S. debt woes.

RENO (MINEWEB) – As wrangling continues between President Barack Obama and House Republicans about exactly how to avoid the fiscal cliff, the U.S. Treasury Department will hit its $16.4 trillion debt ceiling In February.

Analyst Chris Krueger at Guggenheim Securities’ Washington Research Group recently suggested that to avoid a default sometime in February, the Proof Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PPCS) might be considered.

PPCS involves minting proof platinum coins with arbitrarily high face values, depositing them at the Fed, receiving electronic credits equal to the face value of the coins from the Fed, and then having Treasury sweep the profits in the Treasury General Account, where they could be used to redeem debt held by the Fed, debt held by Trust Funds and government agencies, and debt held by the non-government sector including domestic investors and foreign government and investments.

In an article published on the www.ourfuture.org website, author Joseph M. Firestone, writes, “It is important to emphasize that the capability to use PPCS, and to pay off the national debt, lies with the Executive Branch.”

A Canadian prairie game-changer: BHP bets big on potash – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – December 10, 2012)

December 10, 2012

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.

JANSEN, SASK. — Meet the Herrenknecht, a borer drill the size of a blue whale that is tearing up the Saskatchewan landscape – and with it the economics of the mining industry’s new hot commodity.

Some 32 metres long and as wide as a small house, the custom-made piece of German engineering is embarking on a journey to a point one kilometre below the province’s grain fields. There it will strike prairie gold – potash.

Jansen is slated to be the world’s largest potash mine, twice the size of its closest rival. With a total estimated cost of some $14-billion, it’s a brazen bet by Australian mega-miner BHP Billiton Ltd. that the crop nutrient will be the world’s most important mined commodity for decades as farmers struggle to boost food production for a hungry planet.

Jansen promises to drive a momentous power shift in the global potash industry, dominated for decades by groups of producers, under fire as alleged cartels, that have controlled most of the world’s supply and enjoyed strong profits.

BHP is throwing down the gauntlet on that cozy arrangement. The world’s largest mining company says it will sell its potash independently of any rival marketing group, adding a weighty new competitor to the negotiating table when major consumers seek new supplies of the fertilizer.

First Nation frustrated by mine’s toxic legacy – by Jody Porter (CBC Radio Sudbury – December 5,2012)

December 10, 2012

http://www.cbc.ca/sudbury/

Cool Minerals twice ignores clean-up orders for abandoned site near Sachigo Lake

An abandoned mine site has left a toxic legacy near Sachigo Lake First Nation, 700 km northwest of Thunder Bay, according to the community’s consultant.

Allyne Glidden said debris from a gold mine that operated at Lingman Lake is troubling for the First Nations people who live nearby.

“There’s hazardous material that has been there for upwards of 40 years,” Glidden said. “Certainly some of the concerns of the community are open shafts, open vent raises, giant old generator sets with old PCBs.”

Elevated levels of arsenic

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines burned off several barrels of fuel that were left at the site. “The emergency measures taken by MNDM’s emergency fuel incineration project have eliminated or greatly reduced the environmental impact risks of the mine site,” said Julia Bennett, the media issues co-ordinator for MNDM.

Harper draws a line in the oil sands – by Nathan Vanderklippe, Shawn McCarthy and Jacquie McNish (Globe and Mail – December 10, 2012)

December 10, 2012

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.

A Calgary billionaire. A quartet of policy gurus. An Alberta academic. Groups of oil-patch executives. And behind them all, a Prime Minister who for months took a deep personal interest in a decision that stands to shape Canada’s economy for years to come.

When Stephen Harper told Canadians how he intends to re-draw the rules around investment by foreign state-owned companies, his words were, in many cases, borrowed. They were culled from a select group whose insights were given great weight by a Prime Minister who was engaged with the problem even before a pair of oil-patch deals forced the pace.

The Harper government pledged more clarity on foreign investment guidelines two years ago, when it turned down BHP Billiton Ltd.’s takeover of Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Ltd. It is unclear how much of that new policy had been devised by last July, when China’s state-controlled CNOOC Ltd. launched a $15.1-billion bid for Nexen Inc., following what would be a $6-billion bid for Progress Energy Resources Corp. by Malaysia’s Petronas. By then, sources say, the Prime Minister was already taking a personal interest.

The two takeover bids set in motion a federal drama that would feature missed deadlines, an overturned deal that was subsequently revived and a government warring internally as it sought to establish a response.

Canadian energy doesn’t need foreign capital – by Jim Stanford (Globe and Mail – December 10, 2012)

December 10, 2012

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.

Jim Stanford is an economist with the Canadian Auto Workers union.

A common undercurrent in debates over foreign ownership is the near-universal assumption that Canada “needs” foreign capital to develop its vast energy resources. Friday’s Globe and Mail, for example, quoted an Alberta professor who put it unequivocally: “There’s no doubt we need capital to develop our resources, and the biggest single available pool is in China.” If the analysis starts with that assumption, then it’s no wonder policy-makers will bend over backward to attract this essential, precious substance called “capital,” as witnessed by Ottawa’s approval of two takeovers by state-owned foreign firms.

In popular discourse, capital is a synonym for “money.” In economics, however, it means something more specific: It’s production saved from current output, to be reinvested in the expansion of future output. Corn seed that’s saved and replanted next year, rather than being eaten this year, is the simplest example.

To qualify as capital in this sense, the value in question must be produced but not consumed, then used to produce something else. Complementing the tangible product that’s actually reinvested (physical capital), we also need the know-how (“human capital”) to use ever-more-sophisticated capital goods to enhance future production.

Note to foreign firms: We’ll take your cash, but keep your promises – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – December 10, 2012)

December 10, 2012

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.

The Harper government has now agreed that a chunk of Canada’s oil and gas sector can be controlled by state-owned companies from afar. China’s CNOOC will get its prize in Nexen; Malaysia’s Petronas will be allowed to own Progress Energy Resources.

But that’s it. After the deals are done, state-owned enterprises, or SOEs, will be allowed to buy oil sands companies only under exceptional circumstances.

Is that fair? The issue should not be whether to allow foreign ownership, but whether that ownership comes with iron-clad commitments.

At this point, we don’t know, because Ottawa has not disclosed the commitments made by CNOOC in its $15.1-billion (U.S.) deal and Petronas in its $6-billion (Canadian) acquisition.

But one hopes the government has learned the lessons of the past because, so far, most foreign takeovers have come up shamefully short on assuring a “net benefit” to Canada. That’s as much the government’s fault as that of the foreign buyers.

Energy firms salute Canada-first oil sands – by Nathan Vanderkippe and Andy Hoffman (Globe and Mail – December 8, 2012)

December 10, 2012

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.

CALGARY and VANCOUVER — Ottawa’s new takeover rules, which enshrine the government’s desire to keep other states from controlling a resource that has made Canada a magnet for foreign money, have been met with approval by Canadian energy executives, many of whom feared a harsher policy that would severely constrain investment.

The rules all but forbid further takeovers of Canadian oil sands companies by state-controlled enterprises. But they still give substantial room for foreign capital to come in, leaving the door wide open to minority investments and joint venture partnerships.

Across the great expanse of Canada’s resources sector – from Bay Street to companies extracting oil near Fort McMurray, to mines spread across the Canadian Shield – the new rules were met with praise.

The government announced the guidelines as it gave its blessing to two controversial deals – CNOOC Ltd.’s $15.1-billion (U.S.) takeover of Nexen Inc. and the $6-billion (Canadian) purchase by Malaysia’s Petronas of Progress Energy Resources Corp.

CNOOC and Petronas takeovers approved, but future deals face new restrictions – by James Munson (iPolitics.ca – December 7, 2012)

December 7, 2012

http://www.ipolitics.ca/

The federal government is severely limiting any future investment by foreign state-owned enterprises in the Canadian energy sector despite approving two long-awaited takeovers Friday evening.

The Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation, better known as CNOOC, will be allowed to buy Calgary-based Nexen after agreeing to a strict set of requirements demanded by Ottawa exclusively by this bid.

CNOOC, which offered to buy Nexen for $15.1 billion, will have to keep certain parts of its operations in Canada and agree to rules on employing Canadian.

The Chinese oil giant will swear to work by “free market principles” as well as file an annual compliance report to Industry Canada, the department responsible for handling foreign takeovers.

“Under existing guidelines, (CNOOC’s) proposed transaction to acquire control of Nexen is likely to be of net benefit to Canada,” said Industry Minister Christian Paradis in a statement issued Friday.

Business-backed website defends HD Mining – by Wendy Stueck (Globe and Mail – December 7, 2012)

December 7, 2012

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 — HD Mining supporters have launched a website to support the company, which has come under fire for its plans to develop a coal mine with the help of Chinese miners brought to Canada under the temporary foreign worker program.

A website entitled Friends of HD Mining lists member companies in businesses including trucking, construction and restaurant services and says the initiative is funded by donations from those members.

It includes a bulletin headlined “HD Mining is under attack.”

“As fellow service providers to HD Mining, we feel the need to stand up for a company that has been supportive of all of us,” it says. “Certain organizations in B.C. have targeted HD Mining in an effort to succeed in their own selfish agenda. This website has been developed to provide a voice for the many Canadian-owned companies providing services to HD Mining and to set the record straight about our friend and client, HD Mining Ltd.”

The recent furor over foreign workers has overshadowed the positive impact of HD Mining’s project, says one of the business people involved in the campaign.

Miner output is six times Ontario’s industrial average – OMA – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – December 12, 2012)

December 7, 2012

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The output per worker in Ontario’s mining industry is $680 000/y, or is six times the province’s industrial average, and mining in the province has an expanding workforce in which the average weekly wage is about 60% higher than the average for all industry in Ontario, a report published by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA) has found.

The OMA’s mineral sector economic impact study ‘Mining: Dynamic and Dependable for Ontario’s Future’, prepared by University of Toronto (UoT) economists Peter Dungan and Steve Murphy was released on Thursday at the UoT’s Rotman School of Management.

“Mining is an expanding component of the Ontario economy. The world wants Ontario’s mineral products and if the province provides necessary infrastructure support and maintains an atmosphere conducive to investment, it will continue to be pulled ahead by a strong mining industry,” OMA president Chris Hodgson said.

Mining companies in Ontario contribute more than $800-million in taxes a year and personal income taxes paid by mining sector employees reach at least half-a-billion-dollars more each year. Capital investments in new projects are also increasing and so are investments in mineral exploration.