Republic of Mining

Enbridge made PR disaster worse: experts – by Peter O’Neil (National Post – July 14, 2012)

July 14, 2012

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

OTTAWA – Enbridge Inc. made a mounting public relations disaster worse this week by not immediately accepting blame in its official statement issued after an outspoken U.S. regulator compared one of Canada’s energy giants to the “Keystone Kops” due to Enbridge’s bungled response to a massive pipeline spill in Michigan, experts say.

National Transportation Safety Board chairwoman Debbie Hersman’s scathing assessment of Enbridge’s 2010 spill response has also raised questions over whether Prime Minister Stephen Harper needs to distance his government from Enbridge’s proposed $5.5-billion oil sands pipeline megaproject from Alberta to the B.C. coast.

Enbridge’s Pat Daniel, voted the 2011 Canadian chief executive of the year by the consulting firm Caldwell Partners, said in his initial formal response that company personnel “were trying to do the right thing” but encountered “a series of unfortunate events and circumstances [that] resulted in an outcome no one wanted.”

There was no apology or acknowledgement of wrongdoing in the release, though a company official said Mr. Daniel – who was not made available for an interview with Postmedia News – apologized when speaking to reporters in Washington, D.C., after the NTSB event.

Enbridge, TransCanada pipeline safety is a pipedream – by David Olive (Toronto Star – July 14, 2012)

July 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.

Someone needs to save Canada’s two largest pipeline operators from themselves. Enbridge Inc. and TransCanada Corp., both based in Canada’s greatest city, as Stephen Harper recently labelled his adopted Calgary hometown, have been doing giant work giving this country a black eye.

And they may have driven a stake through their plans for two pipeline megaprojects – combined cost, $13-billion-plus. One of them is to span the length of the U.S. to deliver Athabasca crude to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast (TransCanada’s Keystone XL). The other is to navigate the mountain ranges of B.C. and Alberta to convey Athabasca crude to Asian markets (Enbridge’s Northern Gateway) as an alternative to a U.S. market that now takes practically all of Canada’s oil exports.

Even before this week’s report by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) excoriating Enbridge over its reckless disregard and ineptitude with its massive leak in Michigan in 2010, controversy had dogged these two planned projects since their inception.

Then came Tuesday’s widely reported NTSB findings on the rupture of an Enbridge pipeline that spilled about three million litres of oil in one of the most heavily populated U.S. states, in the Kalamazoo River some 70 km. west of Detroit.

Miner strikes Chinese off-take agreement – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – July 2012)

July 13, 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.

Ironclad deal

When news about slowing growth in China shook down global commodity markets in May, Basil Botha wasn’t the least bit spooked. The president and CEO of Northern Iron Corp. announced this past spring that his company’s inroads into Asia had turned into good fortune.

His Vancouver-based exploration outfit received a sizeable order for 900,000 tonnes of hot briquetted iron (HBI) from China Railways Material Import and Export Company.

The product is scheduled for delivery in 2016 when Northern Iron’s mining and processing plant should be in operation near Ear Falls in the Red Lake district of northwestern Ontario. The company is advancing a series of iron ore deposits that involves dewatering the former Griffith open pit, once operated by Stelco.

This initial off-take agreement will take up two-thirds of Northern Iron’s anticipated annual production of HBI. Payment will be secured by a letter of credit from the prime bank of the People’s Republic of China.

It’s a tough time to be running a mining company – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – July 13, 2012)

July 13, 2012

www.mineweb.com

Politicians, environmentalists, labour activists, dissident shareholders – all can create major problems for today’s mining executive, particularly in a time of falling commodity prices.

LONDON (Mineweb) – Pity today’s mining company executive! Not only do today’s mining company boards have to weigh up the technical and environmental considerations of mining projects and dealing with ‘mining-friendly’ governments keen to use natural resource development as building blocks to advance their economies , but also deal with a major downturn in commodity prices, resource nationalism issues in less mining friendly nations, environmental activism, dissident shareholders and workforces with high expectations.

To a great extent all the above are connected – by a period of very strong commodity prices – often called the commodity supercycle – which is currently in remission. The commodity price benefits achieved because of the huge surge in demand, while supply struggled to keep up, might have seemed like boom times for the miners, but in retrospect may be seen to be the root of many of its most recent problems too.

High commodity prices meant high profits and stock prices for miner, developer and explorer alike, but high profitability, or potential profitability, has led to often excessively high expectations from the stakeholders – governments, investors, workforces etc. and when an inevitable downturn arises the mining companies are seen to be underperforming and the expectations of these stakeholders are just not achievable.

Red Lake amps up electricity fight – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – July 2012)

July 12, 2012

Out of power?

There’s a “looming electrical power crisis” in Red Lake, one of the world’s gold mining capitals, and its economic development officer is looking to garner regional support to push for transmission line upgrades.

Bill Greenway wants to kick off a lobbying campaign directed at the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) to build a beefed-up transmission line to service a slate of new mine developments.

Since 1930, the Red Lake district has been a consistent producer of high- grade gold. But while much of the province’s power planning attention is directed at the Ring of Fire in the Far North, Greenway feels his town’s concerns have been placed on the backburner.

“I’d like to think we have a Ring of Gold,” said Greenway. He maintains the current 115 kV (kilovolt) high voltage serving Red Lake is inadequate to meet the municipality’s and industry’s future growth needs.

Northern Ontario residents feel they’ve been forgotten in plan to sell off train service – by Jim Coyle (Toronto Star – July 12, 2012)

July 12, 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.

John Vanthof was on the road home Tuesday from Iroquois Falls to Englehart. And if people in southern Ontario can’t quite place those communities — or Latchford, Haileybury, Earlton — well, the rookie New Democratic MPP for Timiskaming—Cochrane would hardly be surprised.

To live in northern Ontario, especially in the wake of the province’s decision to sell off the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission, is sometimes to feel you live not just in Ontario’s second solitude, but on another planet.

Vanthof was about 600 kilometres north of Toronto, fresh from a public meeting the night before in Timmins, where he and other local political leaders called for a grassroots uprising against a Liberal plan he fears would devastate the far-flung communities of Ontario’s northeast. “They really don’t have a clue, whoever made this decision,” he said over his car’s speaker phone.

This “is way more than the train. This is the whole system. This is our Internet system. . . It’s our freight system. There’s a rail-care refurbishment division in North Bay.”

Enbridge pledges to apply Michigan spill lessons to Northern Gateway pipeline – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – July 12, 2012)

July 12, 2012

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

With NDP leader Thomas Mulcair seizing on the oil spill in Michigan to demand that the Northern Gateway oil sands pipeline be spiked, Enbridge Inc.’s incoming CEO promised to do a lot better in the future and to deliver a world class project for British Columbia. It’s the right type of message from Al Monaco, who replaces the retiring Pat Daniel this year and will have to stickhandle the project.

It’s one that has turned into a political flashpoint that seems to be propelling the opposition, anti-pipeline NDP into power in B.C. and has handed Mr. Mulcair another divisive platform to fend off the energy superpower ambitions of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

But the message needs to come with results for the Calgary-based company. Public trust in its pipelines has been depleted by its handling of the proposed $5.5-billion project across northern B.C. as well as its response to a major spill from its Line 6B in Michigan two years ago.

NEWS RELEASE: Earth’s Oldest Meteor Impact Site Discovered at North American Nickel’s Maniitsoq Ni-Cu-PGE Project, Southwest Greenland

July 12, 2012

July 10, 2012 12:31 ET

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA–(Marketwire – July 10, 2012) – North American Nickel Inc. (TSX VENTURE:NAN)(OTCBB:WSCRF) (CUSIP: 65704T 108). North American Nickel (“NAN”) is pleased to note that on June 28, 2012 the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (“GEUS”) announced that the Maniitsoq Structure represents “The remains of a gigantic, three-billion-year-old meteorite impact…” This announcement by GEUS coincided with the same day publication of a paper on this subject in the prestigious journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters (Elsevier) authored by Adam A. Garde, Iain McDonald, Brendan Dyck and Nynke Keulen.

In the paper, the authors postulate that crustally contaminated intrusions of the Greenland Norite Belt (GNB) are products of the impact. The GNB has been the focus of the NAN’s work at Maniitsoq since it initiated the project last year. NAN is interested in the GNB because it is aerially extensive (the main belt is over 70 km long and up to 15 km wide), is comprised of noritic intrusions that show evidence of crustal contamination (believed to be important in the formation of nickel-copper sulphide ores), hosts numerous historical high-grade nickel occurrences (e.g. 9.85 m averaging 2.67% Ni and 0.60% Cu at the Imiak Hill showing) and is remarkably under-explored.

The Garde et al paper is exciting news because it suggests that the GNB is the result of an enormous and unique geological event. The impact hypothesis also has implications for exploration.

NEWS RELEASE: ABORIGINAL WORKERS OFFER PART OF THE SOLUTION TO CANADA’S LOOMING LABOUR SHORTAGES

July 12, 2012

Ottawa, July 11, 2012 – Aboriginal workers can help address the labour and skills shortages that many Canadian businesses face, especially those located in the Northern regions where resource development is creating a growing demand for workers. Yet low levels of formal education and a lack of work experience hinder the success of Aboriginal peoples in Canadian workplaces, according to a new Conference Board of Canada report.

“Soon, Canada will not have enough workers with the right skills to meet its labour needs. The Aboriginal population, including Inuit, Métis, and First Nations, is the fastest-growing cohort in Canada, but it is underrepresented in the labour force compared to the non-Aboriginal population,” said Alison Howard, Principal Research Associate at the Conference Board, and co-author of Understanding the Value, Challenges, and Opportunities of Engaging Métis, Inuit, and First Nations Workers.

Integrating more of the Aboriginal population into Canadian workforces will require improving educational outcomes—especially high school completion rates—and providing better opportunities to gain work experience.

In Latin America, nationalism stumps Canadian mining companies – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – July 12, 2012)

July 12, 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.

Bolivian President Evo Morales has revoked the mining rights of Vancouver-based South American Silver Corp., the latest blow to foreign miners operating in Latin America amid a growing wave of resource nationalism.

The decision to expropriate the Canadian company’s Malku Khota silver mine was the second for Bolivia in a month, highlighting the increasing risks to developing mining and energy assets in the mineral-rich region.

From expropriations in Venezuela, Bolivia and Argentina to violent opposition in traditionally mining-friendly jurisdictions such as Peru and Chile, the rising political tensions pose a risk to a decade-long bonanza mining companies have enjoyed.

“Resource nationalism is not just about expropriation,” said Alan Hutchison, an expert in mining and energy securities and corporate law at Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP who specializes in Latin American matters. “It is the role and the stake that the government is going to take in any resource project and I think you are seeing that on the rise with the continued high commodity prices.”

Union continues its push for mining inquiry – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – July 12, 2012)

July 12, 2012

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

United Steelworkers Local 6500 is stepping up its call for the Government of Ontario to commission an inquiry into mining practices by printing 3,000 more postcards demanding the inquiry and seeking an appointment to meet with Labour Minister Linda Jeffrey over the summer.

The campaign was prompted by United Steelworkers’ investigation into and report on the June 8, 2011, deaths of Jason Chenier, 35, and Jordan Fram, 26, at Vale Ltd.’s Stobie Mine.

USW investigators concluded that warnings from Chenier about safety hazards in the mine, including con-c erns about excess water, wen t unheeded by Vale and ultimately resulted in the men’s deaths.

The Labour ministry has laid charges against the Brazil-based mining giant and one of its supervisors under the Occupational Health and Safety Act. A first court appearance on those provincial offences is scheduled for August.

Sceptics await 11 million ounce Barkerville Gold approved NI43-101 resource statement – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – July 11, 2012)

July 11, 2012

www.mineweb.com

Barkerville Gold surprised the markets with the announcement of very large preliminary indicated gold resource assessments last week, but sceptics are awaiting official confirmation before climbing in.

LONDON (Mineweb) – One of the surprise stories last week was the announcement by Canada’s Barkerville Gold of an enormous indicated mineral resource assessment on its principal properties in central British Columbia’s Cariboo Mining District which the company said it had to release early once the latest geological assessment was made known to the Board under Canadian stock market regulations.

Normally a company would wait for the full NI43-101 report to be approved by the relevant authorities and published, but the preliminary information received from the independent consultants assessing the resource represented such a huge ‘material change in conditions’ that the directors were obliged to report to shareholders as soon as they were made aware.

Indeed, the figures presented to the Board by the independent consultants, Geoex, assessed by well-known Canadian geologist Peter George, went a lot further than this estimated 10.63 million ounce indicated resource on the company’s Cow Mountain (also known as Gold Quartz) section. They suggested a geological potential for a massive 65-90 million ounces of gold on the 6.4 km long Island-Cow-Barkerville trend covering three adjacent mountains, all with a prior underground gold mining history. Barkerville has been assessing mining these with large scale open pits.

Enbridge’s sloppy Michigan spill response shows oil sands’ ugly side – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – July 10, 2012)

July 11, 2012

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

CALGARY — How does Enbridge Inc. maintain trust in its oil pipelines — existing and proposed — in the face of its embarrassing handling of a major oil spill in Michigan two years ago?

While the pipeline giant patted itself on the back for its response, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) came to a much different conclusion on Tuesday.

Its extensive investigation into the spill from Line 6B — the largest and costliest in the U.S. onshore — put the blame squarely on the Canadian company for the disaster, citing a failure to fix known and growing cracks in the 50-year-old pipeline due to corrosion, inadequate training of personnel, deficient integrity-management procedures, and an oil spill response plan that wasn’t good enough for a major incident.

Investigators, who provided a rare picture of the organization’s behavior, found lack of communication between different parts of the company, employees who were reluctant to report errors out of fear of getting fired, first respondents who failed to respond, and a lack of learning from previous incidents.

Enbridge handled oil spill like ‘Keystone Cops’: safety board – by Vanessa Lu and Mitch Potter (Toronto Star – July 11, 2012)

July 11, 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.

WASHINGTON — A “tragic and needless” 2010 pipeline rupture in Michigan became exponentially worse after an astonishing 17-hour delay to stop the flow of oil, raising concerns about proposed pipelines from Keystone XL to the Northern Gateway.

Canada’s Enbridge Inc. was in the hot seat Tuesday as regulators in Washington delivered a withering broadside, warning that disasters like the oil spill in the Kalamazoo River will continue until the pipeline industry pursues safety “with the same vigour as they pursue profits.”

Environmental groups on both sides of the border seized upon the findings, calling the report a watershed moment in their efforts to limit wholesale expansion of Alberta oilsands. Likening the Calgary company’s management of the disaster to the “Keystone Cops,” National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Debbie Hersman said Enbridge failed to adequately address well-known corrosion problems as far back as 2005.

North must call out McGuinty on ONTC – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – July 10, 2012)

July 10, 2012

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

MPP says grassroots uprising only way to save Ontario Northland

If Northerners want to prevent the sale of Ontario Northland Transportation Commission, they need to make their voices heard at Queen’s Park. That was the key message conveyed by local politicians to a crowd of about 70 people who attended a public meeting held at Centennial Hall in Timmins Monday night.

Residents were urged to express their opposition to the sale of the ONTC by phoning or sending letters or emails to Premier Dalton McGuinty and Northern Development Minister Rick Bartolucci.

Timmins Mayor Tom Laughren said the only way they were going to be successful was through a “grassroots movement” in which the “people bring the fight to Queen’s Park.”

MPP Gilles Bisson (NDP — Timmins-James Bay) said if the McGuinty government “starts to sense there is a groundswell, that’s when they will start to respond… All I know is, if we don’t try, they’re just going to go ahead and do it.”