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Quebec minister lashes out against plans to bring Alberta oil to province – by Nicolas Van Praet (Victoria Times Colonist – November 15, 2012)

http://www.timescolonist.com/index.html

MONTREAL – Quebec’s environment minister is expressing reservations about private-sector plans to import crude from Alberta’s oil sands to Montreal refineries, insisting Quebec will retain sovereignty over its land no matter what is decided by federal regulators.

Speaking to reporters in Quebec City Wednesday, Daniel Breton would not say outright if his Parti Québécois minority government opposes plans by Enbridge Inc. and TransCanada Corp. to ship Alberta oil eastward to Montreal. Rather, he attempted to flex a little muscle by saying nothing will move forward without Quebec’s blessing.

“There are some environmental risks with oil,” said Mr. Breton, a former environmental activist who helped found Quebec’s Parti Vert. “Given what happened [on the Kalamazoo River] in Michigan, we can’t take this lightly…. This is a question of protecting the environment that’s on our territory.”

A pipeline belonging to Calgary-based Enbridge ruptured at that location in 2010 in a spill the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency later estimated at larger than one million U.S. gallons. Cleanup costs have topped US$585-million.

Enbridge is planning a significant expansion of its pipelines that carry crude from the oil sands and the Bakken shale oil field to refineries in central Canada and the U.S. Midwest.

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Imported Chinese workers inflame B.C. debate over skills training – by Jim Sutherland (Canadian Business Magazine – November 14, 2012)

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/

On the day in late October when 13 temporary foreign workers arrived from China to begin work at a coal mine near Tumbler Ridge, B.C., the forecasted low was –19°C, with a snowfall warning. So much for a warm welcome. In fact, just two days later the federal government announced that it was re-examining the application that allowed HD Mining to bring in workers to the site in the first place.

But then, the reception afforded these particular arrivals was expected to be frosty. Unions were already angry about the growing number of workers entering the country through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, in part due to the Harper government’s easing of restrictions. Making it worse, here was China, long the great job thief, now exporting its impossibly cheap labour to Canadian shores.

Looming in the background was a historic misallocation of the labour market that has high-school graduates spending tens of thousands of dollars training for pursuits like web design and filmmaking, even as jobs go chronically unfilled in the country’s resource hinterland. The controversy, which started weeks before the workers’ arrival, happened to coincide with a much-mocked B.C. provincial government advertising campaign urging young people to reconsider their career paths, since “Hipster is not a real job.”

Then, there were some early missteps by HD Mining, a joint venture between Huiyong Holdings, a Chinese miner, and Canadian Dehua International Mines, founded by Naishun Liu, a China-born, Vancouver-based businessman.

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BHP to ramp up iron ore production from existing mines – by Sonali Paul (Reuters/Vancouver Sun – November 14, 2012)

http://www.vancouversun.com/index.html

PERTH – BHP Billiton expects to expand its iron ore capacity by nearly a fifth just by working its mines, rail lines and port harder as it looks to control costs in a softer iron ore market, the global miner’s iron ore chief said on Wednesday.

Uncertainty over iron ore prices due to stuttering demand for the steel making ingredient from China has prompted a rethink of expansion plans by most iron ore miners, including top global iron ore miner Vale.

BHP has slowed its growth plans, like Australia’s no.3 iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group, while their bigger rival Rio Tinto is pressing ahead with an expansion that will give it at least a third more capacity than BHP and more than double Fortescue’s capacity.

“Looking forward, things are not as rosy as they were in the past. The imperative to grow as aggressively as we were in the past has diminished slightly,” Wilson said at a conference.

Caught out by escalating costs, a sharp slide in iron ore prices and a persistently strong Australian dollar, BHP shelved plans in August to build a $20 billion iron ore harbour at Port Hedland in Western Australia that would have eventually doubled its iron ore capacity to 440 million tonnes.

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Canada’s deficit soars by $5 billion due to falling commodity prices, tax revenues (updated) – by Julian Beltrame (CP/Vancouver Sun – November 14, 2012)

http://www.vancouversun.com/index.html

Deficit to hit $26 billion as balanced budget target pushed back a year to 2016-17

The Harper government has pushed back its target date for eliminating the deficit by one year, leaving open the possibility it won’t be able to fulfil two key election promises on income splitting and doubling tax-free saving accounts.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty delivered his fall economic update Tuesday, saying global economic weakness has carved into commodity prices and tax revenues. The update showed a bottom line worse than many expected, with the deficit at $26 billion, up $5 billion from the March budget forecast.

This year’s deficit would be even higher, by about $7 billion, if Flaherty hadn’t hedged his bet by adding a $3 billion cushion, or margin for risk, into his budget calculations.

Flaherty also said it will take a year longer than predicted to balance the budget. During the last election campaign, the Conservatives said they would establish the Family Tax Cut income sharing for couples with dependent children under 18 years of age. It would give spouses the choice to share up to $50,000 of their household income for federal income tax purposes.

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[Canada] We need foreign workers, they need fair treatment – by Tim Harper (Toronto Star – November 14, 2012)

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.

OTTAWA – The day Canadians decide en masse that they will relocate to northern Alberta or northern British Columbia to take available jobs, we can have a proper debate in this country over the need for the Temporary Foreign Worker program.

Until that fanciful day arrives, let’s accept that this program fills a huge void in the Canadian labour market in 2012.

There are two other more relevant questions to debate — why has this program been left open to such obvious abuse and why has its use accelerated so quickly under the Conservative government?

Human Resources Minister Diane Finley has been forced into a long overdue review of the program by organized labour in British Columbia after a subsidiary of the Chinese Dehua Mines advertised for workers fluent in Mandarin, apparently ignoring the requirement that efforts first be made to locate or train Canadian workers to fill the mines jobs.

“Our government believes that Canadians must always have first crack at job opportunities in Canada,’’ Finley said.

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Canadians have cause for economic optimism – by David Olive (Toronto Star – November 14, 2012)

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.

Jim Flaherty’s forecast Tuesday of a weaker global economy, a bigger 2012 deficit than previously anticipated and a delay in the balancing of Ottawa books is likely to trigger the kind of headlines that get folks wringing their hands.

Canada’s 1.4 million unemployed workers will fear an even longer wait for a decent job. A middle class that’s been struggling for three decades to make ends meet will doubt that a revival in household-income growth is close at hand.

Yet the cause for optimism should be driven home hard and relentlessly. Optimism does tend to be a self-fulfilling prophesy, and we have plenty to be realistically hopeful about.

The assessment of Canada released last week by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is quite stunningly positive, though overshadowed by Flaherty’s hints Tuesday that we might not be able balance the budget quite as soon as the 2015-16 deadline set in his March 2012 budget.

The OECD forecasts Canada continuing to outpace its Group of Seven peers in economic growth over the next 50 years.

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[Thunder Bay] City talks power plant purchase – by Kris Ketonen (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – November 14, 2012)

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

If plans to convert the Thunder Bay Generating Station to natural gas from coal fall through, the City of Thunder Bay would look into buying the plant, Mayor Keith Hobbs said Tuesday.

The province announced a hold on the conversion project, saying the Ontario Power Authority says the region’s energy needs can be met for much cheaper if the plant is shut down.

The OPA has yet to reveal its plans, but if they result in the plant’s closure, Hobbs said the city will examine whether it’s possible to purchase the plant and keep it running. “If we hear that that plant would be mothballed, I think that’s the time to go into those discussions,” he said from Toronto.

Hobbs was among a delegation who met with Energy Minister Chris Bentley in Toronto on Tuesday. The possibility of buying the plant did not come up, Hobbs said.

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Plenty of questions to be answered [Thunder Bay power plant] – Kris Ketonen (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – November 14, 2012)

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

Despite several still-unanswered questions, Thunder Bay representatives are encouraged about the future of the Thunder Bay Generating Station after meeting with the provincial energy minister on Tuesday.

The government announced that it was putting a hold on the conversion of the plant from coal-burning to natural gas-burning.

The decision came as a result of assertions by the Ontario Power Authority that halting the conversion would save $400 million, while other initiatives — including expanding the east-west tieline that ships power between Northern and southern Ontario — would ensure the region’s energy needs are met.

Regional representatives, however, say the region’s power needs can’t be met if the plant isn’t running, especially given the looming mining boom. Nine mines are expected to start up in the Northwest within the next five years, bringing major power requirements with them. After meeting with Bentley on the matter, Thunder Bay Mayor Keith Hobbs said he was encouraged.

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Mining and racism – by Roger J. King (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – November 14, 2012)

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

Re OPA Wants to Clear the Air — CJ, Nov. 9:

With all due respect I must disagree with Gary Clarke who claims there is no racism in the Ontario Prospectors Association. I was a member of the Northwestern Ontario Prospectors Association for many years in the late ’90s, an umbrella member of the OPA. Being light skinned, many of the prospectors did not know I was an Indian from Gull Bay.

I attended the monthly meetings where I witnessed a number of stereotypical racial comments. I did not have the fortitude to stand to speak up for myself then. No one in the executive in those meetings got up to intervene on those comments, including Mr. Clark who was present at many of them.

By no means am I painting all those prospectors present as racist. It appeared this was part of the group dynamics as the 30-or-so members conducted business.

I recalled incidents of race relations I grew up with. After I graduated high school I went to university in eastern Ontario where there was very little discrimination against Indians.

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Pierre Lassonde’s Keynote Address at the Denver Gold Forum (September 10, 2012)

Hosted each September in Colorado, the Denver Gold Forum (DGF) is the world’s most prestigious precious metal equities investment forum. The Denver Gold Forum showcases four-fifths of the world’s publicly traded gold and silver companies when measured by production and reserves.

For a video presentation of the speech, click here: http://www.gowebcasting.com/events/denver-gold-group/2012/09/10/keynote-address/play/stream/5084

Pierre Lassonde Speech

Thank you, Tim. It’s a great pleasure to be here. I’ve been coming to the Denver Gold Show for as long as it’s been around, so 20-some-4 years, I guess. And it’s always one of the preeminent forums for our industry.

So, I thought what I would do today is I’ve entitled my presentation “It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times” and it has to do, really, with where we are in the industry. When you look at the last 30 years, if you want, this bull market in gold started in 1971; gold went from $35 to $800 in the 70’s.

You can see it took about seven years for the industry to respond, but then respond it did. Production then more than doubled over the following 20 years while the gold price kept going down for 20 years, interestingly enough. But we see the same pattern again. We’ve had seven years of downturn in the production, but then finally last year in 2011 we are back up now at the same level as we were back in 2000.

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More mineral riches from the smoky waters of Minnesota – by John Chadwick (International Mining – November 2012)

International Mining is a global technical magazine written for miners by miners. John Chadwick is the publisher. john@im-mining.com 

Ore riches that built America have much more to offer. Minnesota’s Iron Ranges to the west of Lake Superior – Vermilion, Mesabi and Cuyuna from the northeast of Duluth down to the south-southwest – have been the most important ore deposits in US history, and continue to be so, providing well over 90% of the iron ore the country needs. Just a few of the great historical landmarks include the establishment, in 1901, of the world’s first multi-billion dollar corporation, US Steel.

Before that, in May 1890, Edmund Longyear (founder of one of the companies that was to become, much later, Boart Longyear) brought the diamond drill to the Iron Ranges. This exploration tool was to be a key to unlocking the riches of the region.

There was also the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co (3M) founded in 1902 at the Lake Superior town of Two Harbors. However its only connection with the Iron Ranges was location. The deposit was set up to mine for grinding-wheel abrasives proved to be of little value.

William Boeing made profits from the Mesabi Range and just a few other great names with Iron Ranges associations include Henry Bessemer, Frederick Weyerhaeuser, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Kelsey D. Chase, and J.P. Morgan.

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No racism in mining firm’s actions with native band – by Peter Best (Opinion Letters) (Sudbury Star – November 24, 2012) Wednesday, November 14, 2012

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

Re: Miners racist, natives charge — Nov. 8.

This article was shockingly unfair and inaccurate towards Solid Gold Resources. Wahgoshig Chief Dave Babin says his band is taking a legal and principled position to defend their rights. That’s fine. But when Solid Gold takes a legal and principled position to defend their rights, he disgracefully accuses it of waging a “racist media campaign” against them, the better to shut down free speech on this important issue and avoid any critical inquiry of his and his band’s behaviour.

And Chief Babin’s assertion that the Ontario government is somehow supporting Solid Gold in this is false. The Ontario government allied itself with Wahgoshig in the original injunction proceeding, where it was Wahgoshig and the Ontario government on the one side, and little Solid Gold on the other (its shares are now trading at under three cents thanks to Wahgoshig and Ontario).

Solid Gold sought and was granted leave to appeal the injunction ruling. In its court filings, the Ontario government again supported Wahgoshig, arguing that it, and therefore its de facto delegatee, Solid Gold, had a duty to consult Wahgoshig, which Solid Gold failed to meet. Solid Gold argued, as was its right, that it didn’t have a duty to consult — that the 2004 Supreme Court judgment referred to in the article, (called Haida Nation), did not extend through the Crown to exploration companies like Solid Gold with already-existing rights under previously and validly staked claims.

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Neighbours feel pit decision less than golden – (Timmins Daily Press – November 13, 2012)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – The location of the Hollinger pit continues to polarize opinions regarding Goldcorp’s mining project on the site.

With no assurance in place to protect potential property devaluation or damage over the next decade of mining on the site, nearby residents and business owners are still fuming over city council’s decision to green-light the project on Monday.

“I think there were methods that could have been put in place to allow everyone to benefit,” said Lorne Feldman, owner of Feldman Timber and the industrial development it’s located in, off Algonquin Blvd. E. Businesses in the development include Shoppers Drug Mart, A&W and the Timmins Family Health Team clinics.

“That could have provided the protections necessary to adjacent land owners, and also allow this very worthwhile project to move forward.”

Rick Dubeau of the Hollinger Project Community Advisory Committee (HPCAC) and Bill Hughes, owner of Senator Place apartments, have been raising concerns for the past few weeks in city council, most recently in presentations prior to Monday’s decision.

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BHP Billiton breaks its diamond engagement – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – November 14, 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.

BHP Billiton Ltd. is out of the diamond business, fed up with prolonged dull prices for gemstones and few opportunities to improve profit margins.

The world’s largest diversified miner said on Tuesday it sold its controlling stake in Ekati, Canada’s first ever diamond mine, to diamond retailer Harry Winston Diamond Corp. for $500-million (U.S.), well below what analysts expected. Billiton’s diamond-marketing operations are also included in the sale.

The deal follows an 18-month lull in diamond prices that began after a darkening global economic outlook left speculators holding gems collected in anticipation of a stronger recovery after the 2008-09 financial crisis. Harry Winston itself, which owns a 40-per-cent stake in the Diavik mine near Ekati, saw average diamond prices drop 10 per cent in the latest fiscal quarter, when profit was cut in half. Rio Tinto PLC owns the remainder of Diavik, and has said it may also seek a buyer for its share in the mine.

More than just a sale, the Ekati transaction marks the end of an era for Canadian diamond mining, ushered in when BHP completed the mine in 1998 just as consumer backlash grew against so-called blood diamonds produced in war zones in Africa where much of the world’s diamond wealth originates.

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[International Energy Agency] Anti-markets drivel – by Peter Foster (National Post – November 14, 2012)

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

Predicted U.S. oil boom no threat to Canada

There is more for Canada to celebrate than bemoan in the U.S. oil boom highlighted by the International Energy Agency’s latest World Energy Outlook. The boom will provide a welcome boost to the economy of our most important trading partner. It will also provide benefits to our service industry. If there is any threat to Canadian exports to the U.S., it comes not from increased U.S. production but the policies of President Obama.

According to the IEA, U.S. oil output is set to surpass that of Saudi Arabia by the early 2020s. “[O]ne remarkable feature of the market, to which we draw attention this year,” declares the report, “is an energy transformation in the United States. Due to a combination of new technology, free markets and policy action, the United States is well on the way to becoming self-sufficient in energy, in net terms.” But it’s only remarkable if you don’t believe in free markets or human ingenuity. You won’t find the words “free market” anywhere else in this 690-page digital doorstop.

While U.S. oil production is projected to grow, the U.S. will continue to be a major oil importer. Canada, after all, is more than self-sufficient in oil but still imports, mainly to Eastern markets. The U.S. boom in North Dakota is certainly having an impact on Canadian export revenues, but that is because of a bottleneck at Cushing, Okla., which is being addressed by new pipelines to the Gulf Coast.

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