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NEWS RELEASE: Canada regains top spot as number one destination for mining deals: Ernst & Young

Q1 2012 value and volume down, but increased number of megadeals reveals appetite for deals

VANCOUVER, June 5, 2012 /CNW/ – Canada topped the global mining and metals sector as the number one target destination by total deal value in Q1 2012, says Ernst & Young.
 
“Canada is fast becoming a go-to destination for mining and metals transactions as companies around the world look for a secure and stable environment amid ongoing market and political volatility,” says Richard Crosson, Partner in Ernst & Young’s Transaction Advisory Services practice. “We’ve seen a number of deals, many being small domestic transactions targeting junior explorers and exploration properties.”
 
While continued uncertainty saw global mining and metals deal volume and value decrease by 34% and 20% respectively year over year, a strong pipeline indicates mining companies are showing an appetite to do deals. In fact, mining and metals companies completed 10 megadeals — deals over US$1 billion — in Q1 2012, twice as many as in the same period in 2011.
 
“The global market is active at both ends of the transaction scale, with a greater number of megadeals in Q1 2012 compared to Q1 2011 but with a lower average deal size,” says Crosson.

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Canada Employment Insurance or the Mines? – by Marilyn Scales (Canadian Mining Journal – June 5, 2012)

Marilyn Scales is a field editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication. She is one of Canada’s most senior mining commentators.

Bob Katter, who is running for the job of premier in Australia’s Queensland state, said if he were premier he would set up programs to train 40,000 unskilled workers for mining jobs, and unemployed people who refused to retrain as miners would lose their benefits. He sounds as if he is trying to solve two problems at once: provide more skilled workers to an industry facing a dire shortage and cut down on unemployment payments.
 
The Canadian government is trying to re-jig our employment insurance program to encourage more people to accept jobs outside the area in which they reside. The message is, “Look in more places to find work or don’t collect benefits.” The feds haven’t gone as far as to say which industry job seekers have to work in, or where, and we can’t imagine that a strong-arm tactic such as that would be popular.
 
But is Katter onto something? How easy would it be to arbitrarily replace retiring workers with trainees? Both Australia and Canada are facing a shortage of skilled workers in their mineral industries.

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Slow pace frustrates [Sudbury] union – by Star staff (Sudbury Star – June 6, 2012)

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

First they were the Fired Nine, then one of them retired at the end of a year-long strike by United Steelworkers Local 6500 against Vale Ltd. Then they were the Fired Eight, and arbitration dates were set for eight Steelworkers fired by Vale during the July 2009-July 2010 labour dispute.

Now, arbitrations are only being held for seven Steelworkers after one of them took a job in Red Lake and decided not to proceed with arbitration. Individual arbitrators, agreed upon by USW Local 6500 and Vale, are hearing the cases of the seven fired workers. But the matters are proceeding slowly through the process, said local president Rick Bertrand.

The arbitrations are being heard in the order in which the men were fired for what Vale says was improper behaviour on picket lines or in the community during the acrimonious labour dispute.

Ron Breault’s case was heard April 25 and 26, but couldn’t be concluded, so another day has been set aside for Sept. 6. Mike Courchesne’s dismissal was the subject of two days of arbitration, May 1 and 2, but the case couldn’t be concluded so a third day is scheduled for June 25.

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How First Quantum settled with ENRC for compensation over Congolese mine – by Matthew McClearn (Canadian Business Magazine – June 05, 2012)

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

It’s a bit like discovering your spouse’s name on a marriage certificate—to somebody else. Written in French and bearing official-looking stamps in red and black ink, the 56-page contract detailed a joint venture between a collection of mysterious shell companies and the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The happy new partners had agreed to harvest a valuable collection of mining scrap heaps called the Kolwezi Tailings. But for executives at First Quantum Minerals, the implication seemed clear: its crown jewel had just been stolen.

This was not entirely unexpected. Founded in the mid-1990s, Vancouver-based First Quantum developed a reputation for mining in difficult frontier countries. The Congo is the frontier of frontiers, where one either takes or is taken. Since Belgium’s King Leopold II ran the country as a private fiefdom in the late 19th century, a dominant theme of Congolese history has been plunder of this abundant natural endowment by those in power.

Beneath its soils lie some of the world’s richest reserves of copper, cobalt, uranium, gold, diamonds and other resources. First Quantum coveted the copper- and cobalt-rich scrap heaps; it invested years and billions of dollars building the necessary infrastructure to harvest them. But then its relationship with the Congolese government went to hell. Losing its mining licence to someone else was just a formality.

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Cliffs fills labour pool – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – June 5, 2012)

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

Cliffs Natural Resources is early in the process of developing its chromite mine in the Ring of Fire, but it’s not too soon to begin scouting for the hundreds of workers it will need to develop its Black Thor deposit and process the ore from it.

Cliffs has a talent acquisition system that is part of an automated central repository that lists all of the jobs available with the Cleveland-based company.

The posting lists hundreds of jobs that will be available in Northern Ontario, some of them at least three years from now, as it gears up to start mining its rich chromite deposit and building a ferrochrome smelter near Sudbury.

Pat Persico, the company’s director of global communications, says the project has generated a great deal of interest throughout the North. When the company has held open houses, many have people inquired about how to apply for jobs.

With the automated system, potential applicants visit Cliffs’ website, under the Careers section, and create a profile online. Applicants will be asked questions about their history and experience and can upload resumes.

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East-West Ring of Fire corridor in jeopardy – by Shawn Bell (Wawatay News – June 4, 2012)

 http://www.wawataynews.ca/

Noront Resources says it will work with Cliffs Resources and the Ontario government on building a north-south transportation route to the Ring of Fire.
 
The announcement, made by Noront President and CEO Wes Hanson during a speech to a New York mining investment seminar, casts doubt on the possibility of an east-west road corridor connecting the Ring of Fire and four Mattawa First Nations to Pickle Lake. Noront was the main industry proponent of an east-west corridor.
 
Hanson said his company’s decision to reevaluate its proposed transportation corridor was “unfortunate,” but said Noront was forced to do so after Cliffs and Ontario committed to building the north-south corridor.
 
“One of the reasons we selected this (east-west) routing was largely because of social responsibility. We were trying to work with First Nations,” Hanson said. “But now we have a company with an $8 billion market cap committed to building the north-south route, and Ontario government support committed to building the north-south route.

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NEWS RELEASE: Webequie First Nation Frustrated with Noront Resources Ltd. in the Ring of Fire

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 4, 2012- Today, Webequie First Nation is expressing disappointment with junior mining company Noront Resources Ltd. The First Nation continues to patiently wait to develop a new agreement with Noront Resources Ltd. in order to move forward in its relationship with the company. Currently there is no existing agreement between the two parties for Noront’s proposed mine development in the Ring of Fire. More importantly, Noront has stopped supporting Webequie First Nation in both its community engagement and environmental assessment processes. This type of support is necessary to help the community deal with Noront’s mine development.

Webequie First Nation Chief Cornelius Wabasse says; “We are disappointed with the slow progress between Noront and our community. We need a process to guide negotiations for an eventual Impacts and Benefits Agreement that will need to be ratified by our community members. This process is normally outlined in a Memorandum of Understanding. Noront has stopped providing the needed resources to continue negotiations.”

The exploration agreement that was in place for Noront’s Eagle’s Nest project has since expired. In order to move forward, Webequie First Nation members need to feel that their traditional lifestyle is being looked after and that community interests are protected through an agreement. 

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Maclean’s Interview: Dambisa Moyo on resource scarcity, and China’s race for deals – by Brian Bethune (Maclean’s Magazine – June 4, 2012)


The above video is a Commodities Boom discussion panel put on by the Milken Institute 2012 Global Conference. (April 30, 2012)

Maclean’s is the largest circulation weekly news magazine in Canada, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. The interview below, with economist Dambisa Moyo, comes from the June 4, 2012 issue of the magazine.

Zambian-born, Oxford- and Harvard-trained economist Dambisa Moyo, 43, first rose to prominence with her bestselling 2009 polemic Dead Aid. In it she argued that development aid from rich countries to poor African nations has left the continent mired in dependency, corruption, market distortion and deeper poverty. In her new book, Winner Take All: China’s Race for Resources and What It Means for the World, Moyo rings a new alarm. Only China, she believes, has realized the pressure that rising world prosperity is placing on increasingly scarce commodities, and has begun to act accordingly.
 
Q: You are a free-market economist, but here you are expressing a limits-to-growth view.
 
A: Three billion new people will join the middle class by 2030. This is a positive trend toward a wealthier and more inclusive global order, and it will not be possible without healthy levels of economic growth. My concern is the limits to the kind of economic growth now under way. There is increasing demand for land, water, energy and minerals that far exceeds the diminishing supply.
 
Q: The situation you describe seems Malthusian: peak oil—and peak land, peak water, peak minerals—writ large. Wouldn’t free-market determinists respond that either the market or technological change will see us through?

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NEWS RELEASE: Canadian Arrow commences mining at Kelex nickel project

SUDBURY, ON, June 4, 2012 /CNW/ – Canadian Arrow Mines Limited (CRO: TSX-V) (the “Company”) is pleased to announce it has commenced the mining phase on its Kelex nickel mine.  Overburden removal is in progress and is planned to take one month in advance of production.   The initial high grade/low tonnage open pit production from the Kelex open pit is scheduled for delivery to Xstrata Nickel’s Strathcona mill in mid-2012.  Plans are underway on a second phase 216,000 tonne open pit and 260,000 tonne underground expansion.
 
Mr. Kim Tyler, President of the Company stated, “We are extremely pleased to announce the re-start of mining at Kelex.  The Alexo/Kelex Complex will also be the catalyst for driving forward development of our much larger flagship Kenbridge nickel/copper project.  Despite the recent dip in metal price we are encouraged by strong market fundamentals and projections going forward.  Two thirds of world nickel produced is consumed in stainless steel production.  Despite turmoil in the world’s economies, 2010 and 2011 were consecutive record years of world stainless and heat resisting crude steel production exceeding 32Mt and 35Mt respectively. Production statistics in 2012 follow a similar trend to date. ”
 
The Company’s recent sale of a non-core asset for a $2.45M have sufficiently capitalized it to proceed, most notably without diluting its share structure, in a difficult equity market disconnected from metal markets.

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OMA’s Wesdome’s new Mishi pit pumps-up prospects in Algoma

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.

New mines in Ontario can come in all shapes, sizes and commodities — Earlier this week, OMA member and gold producer Wesdome officially opened the Mishi Pit, which is being integrated into the company’s precious metal operations in the Wawa area — A group, including company directors, Wesdome investors, financial analysts and employees participated in the ceremony, which included a controlled blast. . . .

Though this addition to Wesdome assets, which is expected to account for 9,000 ounces of gold in 2012, may be modest by some standards, its positive contribution to the local employment scene is quite significant.  The Mishi Pit is located about two kilometres from the company’s Eagle River Mill and 16 kilometres from its larger Eagle River underground gold mine.

The opening of the Mishi Pit itself has directly created 40 new jobs itself adding to the 240 employees at the Eagle River Mine.  Incorporating Mishi ore into the Eagle River mill has created a second shift at the processing plant and led to the hiring of additional employees.

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Illogical leaps of logic on the oil sands and economic growth – by Gwyn Morgan (Globe and Mail – June 4, 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.

Federal NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair is clearly a man who chooses to enrage rather than engage. In advance of his visit to Alberta’s oil sands last week, he declared that “their model for development is Nigeria.” That he had never been to either Nigeria or to the oils ands was clearly no impediment to that astonishing pronouncement.

Nevertheless, his Alberta hosts did their best to show him the great strides industry has made in reducing the environmental impact of oil-extraction operations, as well as the restored mine sites where wood bison and other wildlife now roam.

Mr. Mulcair would have learned that the entire disturbed area of the oil sands is 100 square kilometres smaller than the footprint of the City of Toronto and comprises just one-10th of 1 per cent of the Alberta northern boreal forest. He would also have learned that the oil sands produce only 5 per cent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions.

There is no sign that such information altered his characterization of the oil sands as a threat to local and global eco-systems, but surely his earlier declaration obliges him to next visit the Niger Delta.

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Mulcair, Trudeau, another NEP: the threat to Canadian unity – by Tom Flanagan (Globe and Mail – June 4, 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.

In 1980, a newly elected prime minister from Quebec, Pierre Trudeau, decided to mobilize the resource wealth of Western Canada in order to subsidize Eastern Canada. The result was the national energy program (NEP 1), which fixed domestic prices for oil and gas below world levels, levied an export tax to boost federal revenues and confiscated producing assets to give to Petro-Canada.

In 2012, a would-be prime minister from Quebec, Thomas Mulcair, has resurrected the idea of diverting Western Canadian income, but with an environmental gloss. According to statements by Mr. Mulcair and other leading members of the New Democratic Party, there should be a carbon tax to raise federal revenue, environmental controls to limit or even terminate oil sands production, and requirements to refine hydrocarbons in Canada rather than in other countries, even if it’s uneconomic. Call it NEP 2.

NEP 1 was an economic disaster that had to be repealed within a few years, but the political consequences lasted longer. It jump-started the development of Western separatism, previously a fringe phenomenon. A separatist candidate was elected in an Alberta by-election in 1982, and his party got over 10 per cent of the vote in the general election that followed within a few months.

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Romanian mining town suffers from its riches – by Luiza Ilie (National Post/Reuters – May 31, 2012)

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

ROSIA MONTANA, Romania — Nature has carved a humbling landscape of deep river valleys and reddish peaks in a corner of the Carpathian mountains in western Romania.
 
Rosia Montana town, made up of 16 villages that dot the slopes along the river Rosia, has hundred-year-old churches and houses, cemeteries and ancient Roman mine galleries.
 
It also has gold. But for many who live here, that is more of a bane than anything else. Canada’s Gabriel Resources wants to build Europe’s largest open cast gold mine in Rosia Montana, a 15-year quest that has put the area at the centre of a national debate between heritage and development.
 
The mine could bring billions of euros in taxes and potentially thousands of jobs to an economically depressed region. But it will also require blasting four mountain tops, relocating the community and flooding one village to create a 300-hectare pond for chemical waste held back by a 180-metre-high dam.
 
On Friday, shares of Gabriel rose more than 20% after Romania’s economy minister said he was convinced the Rosia Montana project would start this year. The mine has the support of most of the 2,800 locals, the mayor and county administration and President Traian Basescu, eyeing the bounty the investment will bring.

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Why Thomas Mulcair is clearly a national problem – by Diane Francis (National Post – June 1, 2012)

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

NDP leader Thomas Mulcair has had a couple of red-letter weeks. He moved into the mansion called Stornaway for Opposition Leaders, with its big expense account and Royal trappings.
 
He got tons of attention when he recycled the “Dutch Disease” phrase to blame the booming West for the beleaguered East. 
Then he toured the oil sands, Canada’s economic cornerstone, by helicopter and described them as big or “awe-inspiring”.
 
These recent events certainly serve to reveal the character of the latest actor on Ottawa’s stage who is in a major supporting role. Here’s my analysis of Mulcair based on his recent milestones:
 
1. On living in a mansion
 
Mulcair is the latest incarnation of what the British dubbed the “champagne socialist”. Stornaway is another symbol of inherited privilege, like the Monarchy, where status and perquisites are given away to the duly “crowned”.

Mulcair, if consistent with his ideology, should have declined the grand housing perq and diverted the excessive cost of his upkeep to some worthy cause.

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How Europe is mining’s emerging market – by Peter Koven (National Post – June 1, 2012)

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

You won’t find a region with a longer and richer mining history than Andalucia.
 
Digging up rocks has been a staple of the southern Spanish territory for the past 5,000 years, and its mineral wealth attracted the Phoenecians, Romans and many others over the centuries. This is the place that gave birth to mining giant Rio Tinto Ltd., and its namesake copper mine may be the oldest in the world.
 
But these days, everything feels brand new. Just 20 kilometres from the city of Seville (and more than 700,000 people), Inmet Mining Corp. is beginning to reap huge rewards at Las Cruces, a copper mine that has been running for just three years and boasts some of the industry’s highest grades. In the midst of the excruciating Andalucian heat — which doesn’t seem to bother locals in the least — the Toronto-based company has overcome a rough start and figured out an innovative process to produce copper cathode.
 
While other miners have ventured to distant outposts in search of riches, Inmet is making it work in what is arguably the least remote mine on the planet. A short drive away, the ancient Rio Tinto mine is being revived with a new company and modern technology. And across Spain, a host of new projects points to a reawakening of mining in a country that could never turn away from it, even if it appeared to be doing just that for the past 30 or 40 years.

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