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NEWS RELEASE: VALE INVESTS IN LAURENTIAN UNIVERSITY’S CENTRE FOR RESEARCH IN OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH

Company commits $125,000 towards a Health and Safety Research Chair at Laurentian

SUDBURY, ON (DECEMBER 7th, 2012) – Vale representatives presented Dr. Tammy Eger, associate professor at the School of Human Kinetics and current CROSH director, with a cheque for $125,000 at the 3rd Annual Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health (CROSH) Community Symposium. The funds will be used to aid in the establishment of a permanent Research Chair in Occupational Health and Safety, a key priority in the Centre’s growth plan.

“This is a proud day for CROSH,” said Dr. Eger. “We’ve come a long way in the past four years, and this donation will bring us closer to achieving one of our most important objectives. The creation of a Research Chair in Occupational Health and Safety will provide the leadership needed to build upon CROSH’s successes and expand its vision and influence.”

Officially approved by Laurentian University’s Senate in 2008, CROSH is a multidisciplinary group of researchers, guided by an advisory board comprised of representatives from labour, industry and local health and safety organizations, who engage in innovative studies aimed at identifying health and safety concerns and eliminating hazards and occupational disease from workplaces around the North.

Once full-funding for the position has been secured, the Research Chair in Occupational Health and Safety will drive innovative research that will establish the Centre as a national and international trendsetter in occupational health and safety research, development, education, training, and global best practices.

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When the big just keeps getting bigger – Duluth releases new metals resource – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com -December 7, 2012)

http://www.mineweb.com/

A significant increase in the enormous Twin Metals polymetallic resource in Minnesota, and identified higher grade zones, means the project economics just look like getting better and better

LONDON (MINEWEB) – With the release of an updated NI 43-101 compliant resource, Duluth Metals is just confirming the massive scale, and strategic mineral content, of the ground which falls under its Twin Metals jv with Antofagasta on the Duluth Metals complex in eastern Minnesota.

What is perhaps most impressive with regard to the future potential of the resource is that it only relates to around 11% of the ground controlled by the jv.

And from Duluth’s own viewpoint it is a resource which does not form part of its additional wholly-controlled ground holdings in the area where it has just started an exploration drilling programme, with four drill rigs turning.

But, coming back to the Twin Metals jv resource, the latest Indicated resource figures come out as containing an enormously impressive 13.7 billion lbs of copper, 4.4 billion lbs of nickel, and 21.2 million ounces of palladium+platinum+gold (TPM).

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OMA releases mining sector economic contribution study

The Above Video Provided by Rio Tinto: Making Modern Life Work

The article below was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

Click here for a copy of the report: http://www.oma.on.ca/en/ontariomining/resources/UofTMiningReport2012Final.pdf

The Ontario Mining Association’s 2012 mineral sector economic impact study “Mining: Dynamic and Dependable for Ontario’s Future,” was released today at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. University of Toronto economists Peter Dungan and Steve Murphy presented the key findings of their 81-page report, which was completed for the OMA, to industry representatives, government officials, academics and the media. Along with plenty of commentary and analysis, the study contains 47 charts, 32 tables and four maps.

“We know mining makes important contributions to the society and economy in all regions of this province and this study helps us quantify the scale of many of these positive impacts,” said OMA President Chris Hodgson. “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.”

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First Nations prepare for the mining boom – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – December 6, 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. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

Charlotte Tookenay is the new face of the mining industry. The mother of two teenagers, a graduate of the Mining Essentials training program for Aboriginal people run through Confederation College, is part of an industry push to employ more First Nations people to replenish its workforce ranks.

At the Nishnawbe Aski Development Fund’s Mining Ready Summit in Thunder Bay in October, she presented the 200 delegates with a video montage of photographs during her 12-week time in the program last summer.

Tookenay graduated from the program last June and landed a job with Barrick Gold at its Hemlo complex, not far from her home community, the Pic Mobert First Nation on the north shore of Lake Superior.

She was spurred into making a career change out of sheer necessity. “Mobert has so little employment and job opportunities,” said Tookenay, who worked on highway construction jobs and as a Native language teacher.

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CIDA reforms are good; but Minister Fantino has bungled the message (Globe and Mail Editorial – December 6, 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.

International Co-operation Minister Julian Fantino is not helping his government and is undermining needed reforms to foreign-aid delivery by his incoherent rhetoric and weak grasp of his file. He has profoundly miscommunicated the ideas behind the creation of public-private partnerships to deliver aid, and responded defensively to questions. “We’re not talking about pillaging and exporting,” he said this week.

Mr. Fantino is consequently diverting attention from the clear benefits that the approach could have, including better ways of poverty reduction, and promotion of sustainable development overseas. Partnering with the private sector, including enterprises, foundations and individuals, is a good idea, and can improve the flexibility, transparency and effectiveness of aid projects.

While it might be seen as revolutionary by some circles in Ottawa, the public-private model was endorsed by the U.S. a decade ago, and has been followed by Australia, Germany and the U.K., with minimal controversy. In fact, many Canadian companies already partner with USAID. The results have been largely positive.

The parliamentary standing committee on foreign affairs and international development held hearings for several months on the issue and recently released a 118-page report with recommendations supporting this approach to aid delivery (with some notable opposition dissenters).

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Fantino under fire to explain CIDA direction – by Kim Mackrael (Globe and Mail Editorial – December 5, 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.

Ottawa — Canada’s minister for international co-operation is facing questions about the ability of the country’s foreign-aid agency to focus on its mandate as it moves to increase ties with the private sector.

Julian Fantino has drawn attention in recent weeks after he began publicly championing a philosophical shift in the way his government approaches aid. He says the Canadian International Development Agency will work more openly to promote the country’s interests abroad, a strategy that includes helping Canadian businesses become more competitive in developing countries.

CIDA already funds several non-governmental organizations in Africa and Latin America to work with Canadian mining companies on development projects, something Mr. Fantino has suggested could be a template for future private-sector engagement.

Appearing before a House of Commons committee Tuesday morning, the minister said his plans to increase partnerships with the private sector will help – not hurt – CIDA’s ability to deliver effective foreign aid.

“As we look to the future and strive to maximize our results, we must also look to innovative solutions to development challenges.

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Why Latin America is a magnet for Canadian businesses – Tavia Grant (Globe and Mail Editorial – December 5, 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.

If there is one word that signifies the march of millions of Brazilians out of poverty and into the middle class, it is this: perfume.

Brazil is now the world’s largest fragrance market, and third in the $300-billion-plus global beauty market. Its consumer class, the biggest in the continent, also has a voracious appetite for cellphones, flat-screen TVs and tablet computers.

It’s not just Brazil. A sea change is rippling through Latin America, a region once better known for hyper-inflation, political instability and high poverty rates. In the past decade, 50 million people have joined the middle class, a World Bank study showed last month. The massive shift means the middle class and the poor now account for about the same share of region’s population, at about 30 per cent.

With rising fortunes come shifts in consumption patterns, from needs to wants, from low-priced goods to middle and high-end products such as fridges and cars. It explains why companies are so keen on the region, where Dorel Industries is selling more car seats, Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics more soap, Research In Motion more BlackBerrys and Bank of Nova Scotia more mortgages. It’s also where Canada’s biggest public pension manager is pouring investments – into Brazilian shopping malls and Chilean toll roads – a long-term bet this trend will only gather steam.

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TOP 10 MINERS: A tough year, for CEOs and for stock prices – by Barry Sergeant (Mineweb.com – December 6, 2012)

http://www.mineweb.com/

The CEO’s of major top miners have faced relentless pressure this year, both from poor metal price performance and, increasingly demanding shareholders.

JOHANNESBURG (MINEWEB) – For listed mining companies everywhere, this year has been all about stock prices facing headwinds, along with relentless pressure on CEOs.

The benchmark stock, BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest diversified resources group, saw its stock price in US dollar terms peak out in the latter stages of 2010. Given the wobbles in the global economy, the fall from there has been relatively modest, from around US$26.00 a share to recent trades around US$19.00. Vale, the world’s No 2 miner by market value, has seen its stock price fall by just over 50%, to current levels around US$17.00 a share.

Over the past 12 months, Vale and Anglo American have underperformed, probably on the back of a heavier exposure to developing markets, where regulatory uncertainty has been on the rise, over the past two years, in particular. This week in Johannesburg, outgoing Anglo American CEO Cynthia Carroll decried a number of factors that had contributed to uncertainty in this country, and appealed, in effect, for improved leadership at all levels.

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Breaking new ground [Ontario Mining] – by George Ross, (Canadian Government Executive – Vol. #18 Issue #9 – November 2012)

http://www.canadiangovernmentexecutive.ca/

George Ross is deputy minister, Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, and the president of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada.

Ontario and jurisdictions across Canada are entering a new golden era of mining. Massive mineral deposit discoveries are spurring enormous economic opportunity. But, to fully benefit from the prospect at hand, governments need to adapt to 21st century needs, and Ontario has led the way.

There is no doubt that the minerals industry in Ontario is booming. We are anticipating eight new mines to open over the next decade with three opening this year.

Yet, while success has been traditionally measured by jobs created and economic prosperity gained, it’s vital that the social well-being of Aboriginal communities and other area residents – and the need to curtail any potential environmental concerns – are put front and centre in the planning process. This is not only for just reasons, but also to ensure mine development can be fostered swiftly and assuredly. In addition, it’s critical that the province – through its legal duty to consult – ensure that Aboriginal and treaty rights are respected throughout the mining process.

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The fate of our resources is in the hands of our most disadvantaged citizens – by John Ivison (National Post – December 6, 2012)

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

It was the most exciting thing to happen in the foyer of the House of Commons, since the late Reg Alcock nearly provoked fisticuffs when he called Peter MacKay “a scumbag.”

A group of native chiefs protesting new government legislation jostled with security guards outside the chamber of the House Tuesday, as they tried to push their way inside. It was over in an instant, without so much as a torn hangnail.

But it served notice that not only are First Nation leaders frustrated, they know they are riding a wave of native empowerment that has come nowhere close to cresting.

The Assembly of First Nations met Tuesday in Gatineau to catalogue the usual litany of how they’ve never had it so bad. Yet on the ground, natives are the resource rulers – wielding a veto over which projects will succeed or fail.

Bill Gallagher, a lawyer and author who has written a book called Resource Rulers: Fortune and Folly on Canada’s Road to Resources, says natives have an almost unbroken series of 171 court case victories, when it comes to resource cases. “It is a very one sided legal contest,” he told the CBC.

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First Nations will rise to challenge – by Xavier Kataquapit (December 5, 2012)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Things are not looking good for remote First Nation communities in northern Canada. In particular there are serious problems developing for communities up the James Bay coast and much of this has to do with global warming and changes in weather patterns.

My people, the Cree of James Bay, could always count more or less on food, products and fuel being shipped up by barge in the summer and by the ice road in the winter. Although air transport has been available for many years, it is reserved mainly for passenger travel as the cost is very high to move goods by aircraft.

Very rapidly, over the past few years, it is becoming obvious that the great changes in weather are affecting the movement of goods to remote First Nations like Attawapiskat, Fort Albany and Kashechewan.

Weather is playing havoc with the winter ice road. When I was a boy a few decades ago the winter road was built from Moosonee to the James Bay coastal remote First Nations in late December and it lasted until April on average.

With the great changes in weather, the ice road construction has to wait until late January and it melts much earlier in March.

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Labour is key to being an energy superpower – by Eugene Lang and Christopher Smillie (Globe and Mail – December 6, 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.

Eugene Lang is co-founder, Canada 2020: Canada’s Progressive Centre, a non-partisan, public policy think tank based in Ottawa. Christopher Smillie is senior adviser for the building and construction trades department of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), Canadian office.

For six years now Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been referring to Canada as “an emerging energy superpower.” It is a very ambitious goal that comes with significant geopolitical clout, the likes of which this country has not enjoyed in decades, if ever. And it will not be achieved without considerable public policy action, especially from the federal government.

While the idea of a “national energy strategy” has been rejected by the Harper government, this government has, nonetheless, taken two steps over the past year to facilitate achieving its energy superpower objective.

The first step has been to open the door to more foreign investment into the oil and gas sector so that this capital-intensive resource can be developed. This was symbolized by agreeing to a Foreign Investment Protection Agreement with oil-thirsty China.

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NEWS RELEASE: Positive [Nunavut] Mary River Iron decision welcome news

 

(Yellowknife, NT – December 3, 2012) The Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, The Honourable John Duncan, today approved and announced that the proposed Mary River iron mining project was not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects and referred the project to the Nunavut Impact Review Board (NIRB) to complete the process for project certification. The announcement was in response to NIRB’s letter to Minister Duncan on September 14, 2012, which recommended approval of the project, subject to 184 conditions.

“We are tremendously pleased to see the Mary River iron mine advance to the regulatory phase,” said Cathie Bolstad, President of the NWT & Nunavut Chamber of Mines. “This decision to approve the project helps bolster mining investor confidence in Nunavut.”

“We now look forward to timely progress of the Mary River Project through the licensing phase,” says Bolstad, “particularly given the coordinated process framework that was agreed to by NIRB and the Nunavut Water Board in late 2008. The Nunavut Land Claim Agreement has mandated that these institutions of public government find areas of common ground and creative ways for Nunavut to streamline its review and regulatory processes. We are hopeful this approach can be used for future mining projects throughout the North.”

Advancing the project would benefit Nunavut’s economy, the Inuit Land Owner in the mine area – the Qikiqtani Inuit Association and its residents – as well as the Inuit land claim organization, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.

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Joint-venture poised to tackle infrastructure, labour shortages – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – December 4, 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. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

Don Wing looks upon Wasaya Dowland Contracting as having a transformational effect in giving Aboriginal people the skills and confidence to tackle a looming labour shortage in the North.

With more than a dozen potential new mines poised to start development within five years, the vice-president of Dowland’s Ontario division calls the new joint venture between the Wasaya Group of companies and Dowland a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change the way things are done.”

“We’re going to take that venture, we’re going to make it successful, and we’re going to change people’s lives.” Dowland Contracting appeared on the Thunder Bay scene last year when the Wasaya Group introduced the Northwest Territories-based contractor as a strategic development partner.

With 51 per cent of the limited partnership owned by Wasaya, the aim is to position itself to meet the infrastructure challenges in remote First Nation communities as resource development takes hold.

The venture is viewed as a stepping stone to train Aboriginal people in the skills required to build mines, power lines, arenas, hospitals, hotels and schools.

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OMA member Vale helps rocks get centre stage at a national museum

(L-R) Vale Canada representatives Cory McPhee, VP, Corporate Affairs; Audrey Leduc, Corporate Affairs Officer; and John Mullally, Director, Corporate Affairs in front of display with rock sample from Sudbury’s Vale mine. (Photo by: Jamie Kronick, Canadian Museum of Nature)

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.

After residing for almost two billion years in the Sudbury Basin, a 227-plus kilogram piece of nickel ore now has a new home as a centrepiece in the Vale Earth Gallery at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. The new gallery was officially unveiled recently. It has 8,000 square feet of floor space and it provides a journey through billions of years of geological time and shows how geology and mineralogy connect to everyday life in the 21st century.

In 2009, Vale pledged $1 million to sponsor this gallery. A smaller phase of the Vale Earth Gallery opened in 2010. The new, larger and permanent gallery is the result of two years of planning and three months of extensive renovations. The gallery is also home to a satellite exhibit from the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame.

The giant piece of nickel ore is not alone in the new gallery. Fourteen oversized mineral samples share space with about 1,000 mineral, rock and gem specimens. The gallery also contains numerous interactive educational exhibits.

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