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China tightens rare earths controls in move that might inflame tensions with US, Europe – by Joe McDonald (The Associated Press/Canadian Business Magazine – August 08, 2012)

Founded in 1928, Canadian Business is the longest-publishing business magazine in Canada.

BEIJING, China – China’s government has further tightened curbs on production of rare earths used in mobile phones and other high-tech products in a move that might inflame trade tensions with Washington and Europe.

Regulations issued this week say mines and smelting companies must meet minimum output levels to continue operating. The state newspaper China Daily said Wednesday that might result in 20 per cent of the country’s production capacity to be shut down.

China has about 30 per cent of the world’s rare earths deposits but accounts for more than 90 per cent of production. It alarmed foreign manufacturers by imposing export curbs in 2009 while it tries to build up a domestic processing industry to capture more of the profits that go to U.S., Japanese and European companies that transform rare earths into mobile phone batteries, camera lenses and other products.

Chinese officials have expressed hope foreign companies that use rare earths will shift production to China and share technology with local partners.

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What Makes a Critical Metal “Critical” or a Strategic Element “Strategic”? – by Michael S. Fulp (The Mercenary Geologist – August 6, 2012)

http://www.themercenarygeologist.com/

I was a keynote speaker at the recent Murdock Capital Partners Critical Metals / Strategic Elements Symposium in New York City. This is my second gig at one of convener Tom Dean’s on-going series of symposia and I thank him for continuing support. Although the venue is small, intimate, and limited to 75 attendees, the investor quality is second to none, particularly in the amount of money represented and managed. In my presentation I categorized the metals critical to modern-day civilization and reviewed the minor metals that are increasingly used by society in new technological applications.

Recently a plethora of alternative names have been proposed and promoted for what were once known as the specialty or minor metals. These mostly obscure elements span the gamut from the lightest to the heaviest on the periodic table. In my opinion, analysts and investors alike have become confused by these newly-invented misnomers.

Much of the confusion can be blamed squarely on two recent reports from the United States government.

In December 2010, the US Department of Energy (DOE) produced a report entitled “Critical Metals Strategy”. It identified seven rare earth elements and three minor metals (lithium, indium, and tellurium) that are or could become in high demand and short supply from 2011-2025. The DOE list and analysis was predicated on future growth fueled by Obama’s proposed subsidies of the electric and hybrid vehicle, wind turbine, solar, and fluorescent lighting industries.

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Excerpt from Bootleg Gold – by Kevin Vincent

To order Bootleg Gold Volume One, please click here: www.bootleggold.net

Introduction

“Is my Dad in your book? You didn’t mention my grandfather by any chance did ya’? Is ‘you-know-who’ in the book?” As a writer, if you live in a gold mining town, and it becomes common knowledge that you’re writing a book about highgrading, which is basically the theft of gold from a mine, as well as long-forgotten gold robberies, almost everyone will approach you with a story to share.

Timmins, Ontario is such a town. There are others, such as Sidney, Nevada, Dawson Creek, Yukon, and Forbes, Australia. The same stories are heard in hundreds of towns and villages across Africa, dozens of communities in California, Colorado, Alaska, Québec and even the state of Idaho where the first thing that leaps to mind is potatoes, not gold.

Curiously, everyone wants to see their family name in print – not their own name, they’d prefer to see their uncle’s name or their great-grandfather’s name. It’s an unofficial badge of honour – one where “sticking it to the man” – in this case, multinational gold mines – was justified, and almost bordered, somehow on righteous.

None of these many people who approach the writer were ever personally involved in high-grading, of course, but they happen to know someone who, (wink wink, nudge nudge) just might have been “involved.”

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Northwest Ontario women form professional mining group – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – August 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.

Women in Mining

Women working in the mining sector in northwestern Ontario are giving back to the community, while simultaneously striving to change the perception of mining as a dirty industry.
 
Thunder Bay is now home to the newest chapter of Women in Mining, an international organization that promotes the professional development of women working in the mining and metals sectors and advocates for the industry.
 
Formed in 2007, the organization has more than 700 women registered around the globe, and includes chapters in Toronto, Saskatchewan, Vancouver, Manitoba, Montreal and Winnipeg.
 
Barb Courte, owner of Northstar Drilling Inc. and Cobra Drilling Inc., was inspired to form the northwestern Ontario chapter after attending a Women in Mining function in Vancouver. Proceeds from a silent auction hosted by the group were being set aside for children’s breakfast programs in the area.

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NEWS RELEASE: Mining and metals deal value down 41%, volume 26%, in Canada year over year: Ernst & Young

Capital costs and softening prices are the driving forces behind decline

(Vancouver – August 7, 2012) Escalating capital costs and softening prices are causing mining and metals companies to rethink investment decisions, particularly when it comes to deals, says a new Ernst & Young report.

“Global economic uncertainty and market volatility subdued deal value and volume in 1H 2012 in Canada and abroad,” says Richard Crosson, Partner in Ernst & Young’s Transaction Advisory Services practice. “In the first six months of 2012 deal value and volume in Canada fell by 41% and 26% year over year.”

Mergers, acquisitions and capital raising in the mining and metals sector — 1H 2012 reveals there were 470 global mining and metals deals with a total deal value of US$55.7 billion between January and June 2012, down 19% in value and 38% in volume on the same period in 2011.

Increased activity in June points to a return in mining and metals M&A momentum, with deals totalling more than US$10 billion completed and an increase in 1H 2012 volumes over 2H 2011.

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CNOOC: not much to fear – by Peter Foster (National Post – August 8, 2012)

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

The proposed $15.1-billion takeover of Calgary-based Nexen Inc. by majority Chinese state-owned CNOOC has inevitably brought out the reflexive economic nationalists, wailing collectivists, fretters about “hollowing out,” champions of “national champions” and peddlers of muddled metaphors.

Certainly, there is legitimate cause for concern about the degree to which Beijing might dictate to CNOOC, but the takeover in no way represents a “predator” stealing “our” oil. The Nexen board has approved the deal, which offers shareholders a 60% premium over the pre-bid price. Alberta and Ottawa retain significant power over Nexen, from ownership of the resource through regulation of exploration and development to stock market oversight and corporate taxation.

One of the more bizarre criticisms of the deal is that CNOOC’s preferential access to capital might put it in a position to outbid rivals. But should shareholders worry about the possibility of being overpaid?

One pundit suggested that it was “ironic” that Calgary was ostensibly welcoming CNOOC after the hard time it allegedly gave to Canadian state oil company PetroCanada when it turned up in the 1970s.

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Stephen Harper tempers message on Northern Gateway pipeline – by Les Whittington (Toronto Star – August 8, 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—Prime Minister Stephen Harper for the first time sounded a cautious note about the approval process for the highly controversial Northern Gateway pipeline that would carry oil sands-derived crude from Alberta to the British Columbia coast.
 
Harper’s government has been a strong supporter of the proposed pipeline and has given itself the power to make the final decision on whether the $6-billion project should go ahead regardless of the outcome of an independent environmental review process by federal regulators.
 
But on Tuesday he appeared to backpedal as he qualified his commitment to Northern Gateway, which polls show is widely unpopular in B.C. “The only way governments can handle controversial projects of this manner is to ensure that things are evaluated on an independent basis scientifically, and not simply on political criteria,” Harper told reporters during a visit to B.C.
 
“And as I’ve said repeatedly, the government does not pick and choose particular projects,” the prime minister said.

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Feather dust-up highlights Enbridge’s culture clash with first nations – by Nathan Vanderklippe (Globe and Mail – August 8, 2012)

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.

CALGARY — The official with Enbridge Inc.’s Northern Gateway pipeline walked into the Island Gospel Fellowship Church in Burns Lake, B.C., and got a face full of tiny feathers.

It was, the company understood, an act of hostility by the local Wet’suwet’en nation – perhaps even a death threat on a day of federal review hearings into the $6-billion twin-pipeline proposal. “These feathers covered the hair and clothing of the Northern Gateway representative targeted by this feathering incident,” Enbridge reported in a document filed with the National Energy Board. A member of the Wet’suwet’en then explained that local traditional laws against trespassers were “strictly enforced” and “punishable by death,” Enbridge wrote.

There is, according to the Wet’suwet’en, one problem with the account of that January day: The eagle down blown by an elder over both Enbridge and members of the federal joint review panel wasn’t a declaration of hostility. It was a declaration of peace – and the misunderstanding, they say, is the latest sign of the gulf that separates Enbridge from the first nations whose support it is seeking for Gateway, which would carry Alberta crude to the Pacific.

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Xstrata’s losses not as significant as expected – by Clara Ferreira-Marques (Reuters/Sudbury Star – August 8,2012)

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

Miner Xstrata posted a smaller-than-expected drop in first-half profit as it cut costs to cushion the impact of weaker markets, overcoming what it said was a risk of distraction from trader Glencore’s $26-billion takeover bid.
 
The Anglo-Swiss miner, one of the world’s largest producers of thermal coal and copper, was hit along with its peers by falling commodity markets against a backdrop of stubbornly high wages and inflation, although it was partly shielded from tumbling thermal coal prices by higher-priced contracts.
 
The miner did feel the pain of market turbulence, taking a $514-million hit to write down the value of its almost 25% stake in South African miner Lonmin as the platinum sector suffers from a lethal cocktail of squeezed margins and increasingly militant unions.
 
Xstrata agreed earlier this year to be taken over by commodities trader Glencore, its largest shareholder. But the deal hit trouble in June after the miner’s second-largest shareholder, Qatar Holdings, demanded an improved offer.

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Natural resource battle only beginning – by Jason Fekete (Saskatoon Star Phoenix – August 4, 2012)

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

British Columbia’s brawl with Alberta over the Northern Gateway pipeline and refusal to sign a national energy strategy may be harbingers of battles to come over natural resource developments that are driving the Canadian economy but drawing unprecedented criticism for their environmental impacts.
 
The petroleum, forestry, mining and electricity sectors are expected to generate hundreds of billions of dollars of investment and hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs across Canada over the next few decades.
 
The northern Alberta oilsands, British Columbia’s lucrative shale gas plays, petroleum and potash in Saskatchewan, the Ring of Fire mineral deposit in Northern Ontario, Quebec’s massive Plan Nord resource project and offshore petroleum riches in the Arctic and Atlantic Canada — all are part of the country’s eye popping resource bounty.
 
The Harper government has already identified natural resource development as a priority, and recently announced sweeping changes to expedite approvals and allow it to make final decisions on pipeline projects deemed in the national interest.

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New [Quebec/Cree] accord hailed as model for first nations negotiations – Montreal Gazette Editorial (Vancouver Sun – August 2, 2012)

 The Vancouver Sun, a broadsheet daily paper first published in 1912, has the largest circulation in the province of British Columbia.

Guest editorial from the Montreal Gazette

Matthew Coon Come has proven himself to be no pushover when it comes to defending the interests of his people.
 
Grand chief of Quebec’s Grand Council of the Crees and a former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, he has been an outspoken activist in the assertion of aboriginal rights, gaining an international reputation for his efforts in the process.
 
Therefore it was saying something when Coon Come effusively hailed as a landmark achievement the agreement signed last week between the Quebec government and the Cree Grand Council on resource development, land management and regional governance in the James Bay territory.
 
The deal covers an area of 330,000 square kilometres, roughly the size of Italy. As a result of it, the municipality of James Bay will cease to exist and be replaced by a regional authority jointly governed by aboriginal and non-aboriginal residents of the territory.

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Former MLA – and Enbridge VP – weighs in on Northern Gateway – by Ian Bailey (Globe and Mail – August 7, 2012)

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.

VANCOUVER — There’s a lot of talk in British Columbia these days about Enbridge Inc. and its challenges advancing its Northern Gateway pipeline project.

But Roger Harris offers something extra to the conversation. From 2008 to 2010, the one-term BC Liberal MLA for Skeena was working for Enbridge, mostly as a vice-president of aboriginal and community partnerships. He says he left, by mutual agreement, because he advocated a broader approach to engaging with communities and stakeholders than the company was interested in.

Now, the consultant to business, government and first nations says Gateway may be beyond saving – though he continues to believe in shipping Canadian energy to foreign markets.

Is it reaching the point where this project is going to be a non-starter? If Enbridge continues to do probably a number of things, [this project] has the potential to meet the legal threshold and, with the current federal changes to the environmental assessment, the political threshold that would allow someone to say, ‘You will get a permit to build this. It will have some conditions on it, but here it goes.’

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Plan Nord investments carry big risk – by Kevin Dougherty (Montreal Gazette – April 25, 2012)

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

The provincial government will spend a billion dollars over the next five years, but the viability of the project remains a question 

After two decades of keeping a low profile in the province’s mining sector, the Quebec government is coming back strong, giving itself a lead role in Premier Jean Charest’s Plan Nord to develop the mineral and other resources of northern Quebec.
 
Ressources Québec, a new state investment arm, is being entrusted with $1 billion in the next five years to invest in Plan Nord mining ventures and future oil and gas plays through a fund called Capital Mines Hydrocarbures. It will be headed by Jacques Daoust, who remains president and CEO of the expanded Investissement Québec.
 
With growing interest in Quebec’s deposits of iron ore, nickel, rare earths, gold and even diamonds, the province has increased its mining royalties.
 
And to aid mining and mineral processing, Quebec will pay $30 million toward a study on extending Gaz Métro’s natural gas distribution network to Sept Îles, a major Plan Nord hub. Quebec is also supporting a proposed new $5 billion rail link from Sept Îles north to the new mining zone, to be built by CN and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.

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Sleeping giant awakened in Sept Îles – by Leo Ryan (Montreal Gazette – April 25, 2012)

 http://www.montrealgazette.com/index.html
 
Dramatic increase in domestic and foreign investment in iron-ore projects fuelling port’s renaissance

A Klondike-type fever is gripping this port city facing a spectacular, semi-circular bay located more than 900 kilometres east of Montreal on the North Shore of the St. Lawrence River. The great catalyst, however, is not gold but a dramatic increase in domestic and foreign investments in iron ore projects, notably with a view to supplying the vital commodity for steel mills in China.
 
In short, in this relatively remote area of Quebec, a sleeping giant has awakened – signalling the ascension in the near future of Sept Îles as Canada’s second-biggest port after Vancouver in terms of volume. It is already the leading mineral port in North America.
 
Money is pouring from steel producers into the substantial, still-unexploited iron ore deposits in what geologists identified long ago as the Labrador Trough centred on Schefferville, nearly 800 kms north and connected to Sept Îles by a single rail line.
 
It all symbolizes a virtual economic renaissance following a long period of decline ushered in by mine closures in Schefferville in the 1980s and a collapse in demand from world markets.

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Days of drilling and blasting coming to an end -AngloGold – by Christy Filen (Mineweb.com – August 7, 2012)

www.mineweb.com

AngloGold has forced itself to think differently about deep level mining and this, they are hoping, will spawn an operating section employing the new technology by end 2013.

JOHANNESBURG (Mineweb) – When Apple launched the iPad, it didn’t just alter the numbers spinning about on its profit line, it changed the technology industry.
 
And if AngloGold Ashanti executive vice president of business strategy, Canadian engineer, Mike MacFarlane is to be believed the gold digger is looking to do something similar to deep level gold mining.
 
Since 2010, the group has been looking for ways to leverage old technology in new ways to mine gold even deeper than the current depths around 4kms. And, it is now aiming to introduce a new operating section at AngloGold by the end of 2013 that moves away from the conventional drill and blast methodology to one where the ore bearing reef is extracted with modified raise bore drills.
 
The raise bore drill, called an Amtek, is currently undergoing testing and is sourced locally in South Africa from a company called Atlantis.

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