Republic of Mining

Mining boom to peak, slowdown ahead-Deloitte Access – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – July 23, 2012)

July 23, 2012

www.mineweb.com

Some planned mega-mining projects are at risk of being shelved due to a slowdown in Chinese metals/minerals demand, rising costs, and Australian politics, warns Deloitte Access Economics.

RENO (MINEWEB) – A report by one of Australia’s leading private-sector economic forecasters says the mining investment boom is about to peak and a slowdown is on the horizon within the next two years.

The quarterly Deloitte Access Economics Business Outlook highlighted the broad trend of “the increasing realization that China is no a permanent gravy train. Its future growth is less certain-perhaps particularly so in the short term-and its long term growth may be less resource intensive than some commentators had earlier expected.”

“Costs have risen fast and potential profits are being dialed down as commodity prices deflate and analysts reassess both shorter and longer term commodity demand from emerging Asia. That doesn’t necessarily say that some of the next found of mega mining projects may not get the green light,” said Deloitte Access.

A Gold Rush in the Abyss [mining under the ocean] – by William J. Broad (New York Times – July 9, 2012)

July 23, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/

Tom Dettweiler makes his living miles down. He helped find the Titanic. After that, his teams located a lost submarine heavy with gold. In all, he has cast light on dozens of vanished ships.

Mr. Dettweiler has now turned from recovering lost treasures to prospecting for natural ones that litter the seabed: craggy deposits rich in gold and silver, copper and cobalt, lead and zinc. A new understanding of marine geology has led to the discovery of hundreds of these unexpected ore bodies, known as massive sulfides because of their sulfurous nature.

These finds are fueling a gold rush as nations, companies and entrepreneurs race to stake claims to the sulfide-rich areas, which dot the volcanic springs of the frigid seabed. The prospectors — motivated by dwindling resources on land as well as record prices for gold and other metals — are busy hauling up samples and assessing deposits valued at trillions of dollars.

“We’ve had extreme success,” Mr. Dettweiler said in a recent interview about the deepwater efforts of his company, Odyssey Marine Exploration of Tampa, Fla.

Skeptics once likened mining the deep to looking for riches on the moon. No more. Progress in marine geology, predictions of metal shortages in the decades ahead and improving access to the abyss are combining to make it real.

Gateway pipeline risks exceed rewards, B.C. Premier says – by Karen Howlett and Bill Curry (Globe and Mail – July 23, 2012)

July 23, 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.

TORONTO and OTTAWA — British Columbia Premier Christy Clark is warning that the environmental risks associated with a plan to sell Canadian oil to Asia through the Northern Gateway pipeline outweigh the economic benefits, leaving her at odds with the federal and Alberta governments.

Ms. Clark conveyed her concerns about the project during a series of high-level meetings, beginning with a telephone call to Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Thursday. She met face-to-face the same day with Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall in Saskatoon and Alberta Premier Alison Redford in Edmonton.

Ms. Clark gave them a heads-up on changes her government is seeking, before Canada’s 13 provincial and territorial leaders meet this week in Halifax, where the pipeline project will be on the agenda, her press secretary, Michael Morton, told The Globe and Mail.

Until now, Ms. Clark has not taken a stand on the project. The proposed $5.5-billion pipeline plays a key role in Mr. Harper’s ambition to feed Canadian resources to customers in Asia. Mr. Harper has said it is vital for Canada to reassess its reliance on U.S. markets for energy, and look to Asia. Almost all of Canada’s oil exports go to the United States.

Nothing is sacred to Britain’s metal thieves – by Elizabeth Renzetti (Globe and Mail – July 23, 2012)

July 23, 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.

LONDON — For years the Haworth Parish Church in Yorkshire has withstood every onslaught, from the driving Pennines rain to thousands of tourists wanting to visit the final resting place of Charlotte and Emily Bronte. But one thing it couldn’t survive: The metal thieves who repeatedly stripped its roof in the night.

This week the church is surrounded by scaffolding, as a $2-million renovation begins with workmen removing Westmoreland slate tiles from the roof. They don’t have to remove the lead flashing and gutters, because those were taken by thieves in three daring raids over the past two years. With the lead gone, the rain poured in and the church began to rot from inside.

The Haworth Church, formally called St. Michael and All Angels, is particularly high-profile, but it’s merely an emblem of a much wider problem sweeping Britain during a time of rising metal theft. In a country so rich in heritage, how do you keep robbers from stealing history?

In the case of Haworth Church, the answer is typically Yorkshire (that is, blunt and succinct). “We’re installing a roof alarm,” says rector Peter Mayo-Smith, who has witnessed over the past two years the destruction of paintings and woodwork in his church as the elements took their toll.

China’s CNOOC to buy Nexen for $15.1-billion – by Nathan VanderKlippe (Globe and Mail – July 23, 2012)

July 23, 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 – Nexen Inc. has agreed to a $15.1-billion (U.S.) takeover by Chinese oil producer CNOOC Ltd., marking the most important acquisition to date by an Asian firm in Canada.

The all-cash deal is worth $27.50 per Nexen share, a 66-per-cent premium to the 20-day volume-weighted average for the company, which has not seen its shares reach that level since before the financial crisis. Nexen closed at $17.06 Friday.

Nexen is Canada’s 12th-largest energy company, producing 213,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. But the company has struggled in recent years as its corporate pillars each faced problems. Its North Sea production was hit by a new U.K. tax scheme. Its Gulf of Mexico drilling was hurt by the BP oil spill. Its West African offshore production was hit by a costly drill well. It was forced to abandon a major project in Yemen after a production sharing contract expired there. Its oil sands ambitions were hampered by problems at Long Lake, where problems with underground geology have so far kept it far from reaching its planned output.

Long Lake, however, served as a springboard to the corporate takeover. Last November, CNOOC completed a $2.1-billion buyout of OPTI Canada Inc., which held a 35-per-cent stake in the project, which is still operating at less than half its design capacity years after it began operation.

Aboriginal students graduating from post-secondary schools in record numbers – by Michael V’Inkin Lee and Christopher Reynolds (Vancouver Sun – July 15, 2012)

July 21, 2012

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

First nations students are attending — and graduating from — post-secondary schools and professional programs like law and medicine in record numbers

Mary Brearly had no idea as a little girl that she would grow up to be an underground miner. “I didn’t know that I could do that, I guess. Nobody had told me,” said the first nations Thompson Rivers University graduate, who earned her processing operations qualifications through the B.C. Aboriginal Mine Training Association in Kamloops last year.

Brearly, 27, is part of what the B.C. Ministry of Advanced Education says has been a 25-per-cent surge in post-secondary enrolment among aboriginal youth over the last four years. Statistics from some colleges and universities in B.C. also show that more aboriginal students are completing certificate and degree programs in a broader range of fields.

“Ensuring that aboriginal learners have access to post-secondary education and training is essential to fulfilling our labour needs,” said Naomi Yamamoto, the minister of advanced education.

The new shape of a centuries-old relationship [resource boom and First Nations] – by Ken Coates and Brian Lee Crowley (Troy Media/Vancouver Sun – July 20, 2012)

July 21, 2012

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

Resource boom holds potential to set all Canadians, aboriginal or non-aboriginal, on a more promising path

Ken Coates is Canada research chair in regional innovation at the University of Saskatchewan and Brian Lee Crowley is managing director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a public policy think-tank in Ottawa.

Regardless of short term ups and downs, Canada’s resource economy is booming as never before. Industrialization and urbanization, chiefly in Asia, will be the unstoppable engine driving the world’s appetite for our resources. This should be an opportunity not just for all Canadians, but especially for many aboriginal Canadians who inhabit the land surrounding the mining and energy projects under-way or planned across the mid and far North.

In fact, this new resource-based wealth could be the key to progress in ending the shameful plight of too many first nations people in Canada. To do so, however, we are going to have to change behaviour and expectations on both sides of the aboriginal/non-aboriginal divide. Happily, far from being a distant and improbable prospect, we can already discern the new shape of the relationship.

Indigenous conflict with resource developers is hardly new. Since the arrival of Europeans, mass evictions, pollution and social turmoil related to resource wealth have been facts of indigenous history.

The eye of the beholder [Barkerville Gold Mines controversy] – by Peter Koven (National Post – July 21, 2012)

July 21, 2012

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

Autonomous geologists, hired to analyze mining data, have tons of leeway

When Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd. told investors a few weeks ago that its British Columbia-based project held the potential to cough up 90 million ounces of gold, the first reaction from industry insiders was disbelief. After all, the legendary Timmins gold camp has produced about 70 million ounces, and fewer than 100 million ounces are produced globally each year.

Their second reaction was more of a question: Who the heck calculated those numbers?

It turned out they were derived by Peter George, a veteran geologist at Geoex Ltd. The British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) has since intervened with many concerns about his work on Barkerville’s Cow Mountain project, and the company remains a penny stock as investors have little confidence in its stated resources. The stock spiked from 81¢ to as high as $1.67 after the report came out, but has since dropped to 77¢.

Will tight oil change the world? – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – July 21, 2012)

July 21, 2012

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

CALGARY — The quick rise of tight oil in the United States and Canada is dominating oil patch chatter as players take stock of what it could all mean — are we on the verge of a global energy revolution, or on a trend that is encouraging, but unlikely to meet lofty expectations? Tight oil is unconventional oil resources extracted by horizontal drilling and fracking technologies.

With production in the United States gushing out of the Bakken and lots of potential in the Eagle Ford and 20 other plays, Canada barely getting warmed up, and other countries looking to copy the North American experience, optimists envisage the biggest game changer for the energy sector in decades.

By offering North America a shot at energy independence, there’s talk of vast political implications, including a new U.S. foreign policy free of Middle East strings and less urgency to find/subsidize alternative fuels. Some argue the growing importance of tight oil could even shine a new light on Canada’s oil sands in the eyes of Americans because they make energy independence achievable.

Robin West, chairman and chief executive officer of PFC Energy, a global consulting firm that specializes in oil and gas, has gone as far as branding the shift as the energy equivalent of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Stan Beardy on treaties, resources and national agendas – by Shawn Bell (Wawatay News – July 19, 2012)

July 21, 2012

http://www.wawataynews.ca/

Wawatay spoke with Regional Chief of Ontario Stan Beardy soon after he won the election to represent 133 First Nations. Here is an excerpt from that interview.

Wawatay: What are your thoughts on winning the election, and what that means for yourself and for northern First Nations?

Stan Beardy: First of all, it’s definitely a great honour to be selected as Regional Chief of Ontario with 133 First Nations. Yes, I am from the North, and I have a good understanding of northern issues, but I am responsible for all First Nations in Ontario. I believe there is great diversity, and we need to find a way to use that diversity for our strength.

My mandate is for three years, and I believe I was selected based on the platform which I put forward. I am very strong on our rights-base, and I am very strong on our Treaty position. That Treaty relationship, I believe, is the number one priority in terms of moving forward on improving the quality of life.

When we talk of First Nation laws across Ontario, and asserting our jurisdiction, we’re talking about finding a way to harmonize the federal government’s legislation and laws with ours.

Regional chief wants Ring of Fire revenue sharing – by Shawn Bell (Wawatay News – July 19, 2012)

July 21, 2012

http://www.wawataynews.ca/

Ontario’s new regional chief wants to see First Nations get a cut of royalties and taxes collected from resource extraction projects on traditional lands. In an interview following his election victory, Stan Beardy told Wawatay that it is not enough for industry and governments to simply provide jobs and training to First Nations people in exchange for access to resources on First Nations’ land.

Beardy said that the treaty relationship, where First Nations agreed to share the land and resources, means that the wealth generated by both the provincial and federal governments from that land should be shared with First Nations.

“We agree that when we talk about benefits (from resource extraction) we talk about guaranteed jobs and training, across the board, for First Nations people,” Beardy said. “But also there has to be a discussion on arrangements in regards to sharing the wealth. That means not only being compensated for being displaced from your homelands, but also we’re talking about sharing the wealth of the funds collected by the governments for user fees, royalties and taxes.”

Why Canada Can’t Say “No” to Asbestos – by David Suzuki (Huntington Post – July 18, 2012)

July 21, 2012

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

Mesothelioma is a nasty cancer that affects the lining around a person’s lungs. It can also damage membranes around the abdomen, heart, and testicles. The prognosis for those who have it is poor. It causes close to 90,000 preventable deaths a year. More than 90 per cent of cases are attributed to asbestos exposure.

Asbestos is made up of tiny fibres that can be inhaled, penetrating the lungs. Because they are mineral-based, they can’t be broken down by the body’s natural defences, so they cause inflammation. The fibres also remain in the lining around the lungs, and over time — often 20 to 30 years or more — may cause mesothelioma or other diseases.

Because asbestos is a known carcinogen, it has been banned by more than 50 countries, including all members of the European Union. They appear to be getting along fine without it, probably because there are safe alternatives for construction, fire-proofing, and other asbestos functions. Canada and the U.S. have not banned it but don’t use it much anymore.

Although Canada doesn’t have a domestic market for asbestos, we actively support the industry and promote exports to other countries, especially India. In fact, Canada is one of only a few countries that still exports asbestos.

“Cliffians” [Copper Cliff] reconvene – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – July 21, 2012)

July 21, 2012

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

It started as a house party last year and has morphed into a reunion more than 250 people are registered to attend.

“Back to the Cliff” will bring together people who have lived in the community all their lives, former Copper “Cliffians” who have moved away and people who just wish they were from the town that grew along with the International Nickel Company. Deborah Gray was shouting out instructions to volunteers Friday about lunchtime as they were putting finishing touches on the three-day homecoming.

Gray moved to Copper Cliff when she was seven years old and has never left the community, which is now part of the City of Greater Sudbury. Municipal amalgamation can’t erase the feeling, though, that if you’re from Copper Cliff, you’re “almost like family,” said Gray. She was looking forward to renewing acquaintances with old friends and spending time with friends she just hasn’t met yet.

Contractor pinned between scoop tram, forklift – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – July 21, 2012)

July 21, 2012

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

Production was halted at Vale’s Stobie Mine on Friday after a contract worker was injured in an accident about 9 a.m. A Ministry of Labour investigator happened to be at the mine when the accident occurred and is now looking into it, ministry spokesman Matt Blajer said Friday afternoon.

The ministry hasn’t determined what happened, but Blajer said it was told the employee was standing between a forklift and a scoop tram when another scoop collided with the forklift, pinning the worker. The oncoming scoop operator “did not see the fork sticking out, and the worker was standing between the scoop and the forklift,” said Blajer.

The worker suffered a broken right leg and was transferred to Health Sciences North’s Ramsey Lake Health Centre, he said. The ministry inspector wasn’t expected to file anything official until Monday.

Vale spokeswoman Amanda Eady confirmed the accident and said the labour ministry has frozen the scene. The labour ministry was on site Friday afternoon, as were representatives from the contracting company.

Anti-exploration NIMBYs win in Whitehorse, but elsewhere perhaps not so – by Kip Keen (Mineweb.com – July 20, 2012)

July 20, 2012

www.mineweb.com

Mineral explorers in urban areas come up against NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) opposition as the will of mineral explorers meets with the will of the public, but economic necessity is turning the tables in some areas of the world.

HALIFAX, NS – If you had plans to stake a claim in downtown Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon, forget it, at least for the next five years. The Yukon territorial government, after prodding from the Whitehorse City Council, has put a moratorium on staking of hard rock claims in one of North America’s more storied gold jurisdictions. Whitehorse, after all, was a prospector’s hub during the Yukon Gold Rush and, indeed, a launching point for Yukon’s recent gold renaissance. But Whitehorse is no more the dusty turn-of-the-19th-century town where, for the most part, destitute men descended to make their fortunes, of which a few did and many did not. It is now a growing city centre – if minuscule by global standards with about 25,000 inhabitants – with a populace that has more than mining on their mind.

Indeed the banning of claim staking in Whitehorse has for years been an issue. Of all banner bearers, one of the more vocal has been the Whitehorse Country Ski Club. With the prospect of mineral development in the city’s parks and ski trail system, it has demanded a ban on claim staking in town. It is a rather surreal issue that might befuddle a Parisien, Londoner or even Vancouverite for that matter: to find wooden posts with small metal tags nailed to their tops stabbed into the earth at, say, a local park.