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Perfect opportunity to grow community, says [Sudbury] mayor – by Laura Stricker (Sudbury Star – June 22, 2012)

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

In her State-of-the-City Address in 2011, Mayor Marianne Matichuk said the issue of deregulating store hours, which was a cornerstone of her campaign, was “not dead.”

“If we are the only municipality in Ontario that’s not open for business, it’s a shame,” she told reporters at the time. “We are promoting ourselves as the retail spot in northeastern Ontario … If you don’t want to do it, get out of the way.”

One year later, in her State-of- the-City Address for 2012, the store hours issue received nary a mention.

“The main priority … is building this community,” Matichuk said after this year’s address, held Thursday at the Caruso Club. “We have a huge opportunity here … with all the money that’s being pumped in — we’ve got to look at that. We’ve got to look at growing people, we’ve got to look at growing our community.”

Her speech maintained that positive outlook, focusing largely on opportunities in the mining sector. “I would like to start off with an amazing number: $6.3 billion,” she said at the beginning of her speech.

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City of Greater Sudbury Mayor Marianne Matichuk “State of the City Address” – June 21, 2012

 Caruso Club, Sudbury, Ontario

Check Against Delivery

Good afternoon everyone. Bonjour tout le monde. This certainly has been an amazing few weeks in the mining capital of Canada with great investment news and scientific celebration.

Recently, in the span of about ten days we had the Cliffs decision to locate a $1.8 billion chromite smelter in our city, …the official opening of the internationally renowned SNOLAB research facility,

… and a provincial government announcement that Sudbury has been approved for a casino that may be built downtown, further contributing to the centre’s renewal.But first, I would like to start off with an amazing number: $6.3 Billion!

That is the current value of mining investment, confirmed or planned for Sudbury, over the next five years or so. This only includes capital projects by Vale, Cliffs, KGHM and Xstrata Nickel.

That six billion dollars does not include potential investments by the growing supply and service sector, government and
many other non-mining activities that will tap into these enormous projects.

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Sudbury booming, but city’s image needs a makeover, mayor says – by Sudbury Northern Life Staff (Sudbury Northern Life – June 21, 2012)

 

http://www.northernlife.ca/

State of the City address highlights economy, challenges

Without a doubt, Sudbury is booming. That was the main message Mayor Marianne Matichuk delivered during her State of the City address, June 21.

But even as the city’s economy is flourishing, skilled labour shortages abound as companies compete to attract workers. The problem for Sudbury, the mayor said in her speech at the Caruso Club, is the city’s image, which, according to Matichuk, isn’t good.

The “stereotypical ideas” of the city are apparently impacting companies’ abilities to attract workers here. “People still think of moonscape, pollution and low-tech mining,” she said. “They still think we have no culture except Sudbury Saturday Night drinking and bingo.”

One of council’s top priorities, Matichuk said, was to change that image. This will be achieved through improved communications and marketing, the redesigned tourism website, and soon-to-be-redesigned economic development sites. She also encouraged all Sudburians to be “ambassadors” for the city.

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NEWS RELEASE: Cementation recognized as leading apprenticeship provider in Ontario

June 20, 2012    

NORTH BAY – Cementation Canada is one of four Ontario employers to be recognized for their dedication to training the province’s next generation of skilled workers. The annual Ontario Minister’s Awards for Apprenticeship Training celebrate employers that show leadership in training apprentices, support the apprenticeship training system, and promote careers in skilled trades. Through apprenticeship programs employers have the opportunity to make an important contribution to the success of their businesses and industry as well as Ontario’s economy.

In a luncheon held Tuesday, June 19, 2012, in North Bay, Cementation Canada was recognized as a top 2012 apprenticeship provider for Northern Ontario by the Ontario Government.  In a time when the mining industry is concerned about the future labour pool and attracting young people into the industry, Cementation has taken positive steps in bringing young trades people into the mining sector through a well-developed apprenticeship program.

Eric Hodgins, Personnel Manager for the company, stated that “The employees involved in the program are committed to advancing their careers and they are all grateful for the opportunity. This program benefits both the individual and the company and we appreciate this recognition from the Ontario Government.” Cementation presently has 17 employees involved in the company’s apprenticeship program in the mechanical and electrical fields throughout Ontario, and an additional 7 apprentices working on projects in other regions of Canada.

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Rosy provincial forecasts fail to materialize as falling oil prices put budgets in peril – by Jen Gerson (National Post – June 21, 2012)

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

CALGARY — As oil prices continue to teeter, slumping Wednesday to their lowest level since October, provincial governments that have traditionally padded their budgets with resource royalties are facing the unpleasant prospect of ever-more glaring deficits in the coming months.
 
Saskatchewan is already creating contingency plans in case crude prices fall, as Newfoundland and Labrador premier Kathy Dunderdale warned voters that the province could be facing hard times if the price per barrel continues to dip. Alberta insists it’s too early in the fiscal year to panic, however its budget may be in for a rethink by the end of the first quarter.

Global Brent crude prices closed at US$92.57 per barrel on Wednesday, well below Newfoundland’s forecast of about US$124 per barrel. Both Saskatchewan and Alberta base their forecasts on the cheaper West Texas Intermediate benchmark, which closed at US$81.45 per barrel — again at a steep discount to the values predicted by budgetary bean counters.

Jurisdictions that rely on volatile commodity royalties often overshoot estimates, making it easier to justify more ambitious spending. Projections that look fine on paper during optimistic budget planning meetings, however, can end up in disastrous budgets if prices collapse. In 2008, the Alberta government’s $8.5-billion surplus projection shriveled to a nearly $1-billion deficit when recession hit and energy prices collapsed.

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Spate of oil spills pushes Alberta to look harder at pipeline safety – by Nathan Vanderklippe (Globe and Mail – June 21, 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.

As crews work to mop up more than a million litres of oil that has spilled in Alberta in a month, Premier Alison Redford is steering the province toward a safety review of its 377,000 kilometres of pipeline.

Ms. Redford has charged her ministers of energy and environment to investigate whether a larger provincial response to the spills is merited. The leaks have come at an alarming pace in recent months, while the government is attempting to persuade its neighbours across Canada and the United States to accept pipelines carrying Alberta crude.

The Premier’s statement on Wednesday, two days after 230,000 litres leaked from an Enbridge pipeline system, that she is “certainly not opposed to the idea” of a more comprehensive review, is her strongest support yet for the notion.

Ms. Redford has long defended Alberta’s pipelines. The province is looking for new markets – the U.S. Gulf Coast, Asia, California, Ontario and Atlantic Canada – to sell the dramatic growth in the output of its oil sands. But wherever it has sought to place new steel into the ground, it has run up against concerns about safety from first nations in B.C., ranchers in Nebraska and farmers in Ontario.

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Steelworkers gathering support for mining inquiry – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – June 21, 2012)

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

The Ontario legislature has adjourned, but United Steelworkers Local 6500 and their supporters intend to keep the pressure on the province to call a mining inquiry.

Local 6500 president Rick Bertrand said Wednesday that more than 2,500 postcards calling for the probe were signed June 8 at the gates of Vale Ltd.’s Sudbury mines and surface plants. The date marked the one-year anniversary of the deaths of Jason Chenier, 35, and Jordan Fram, 26, at Vale’s Stobie Mine.

An exhaustive investigation conducted by USW into the men’s deaths resulted in a 200- page report with 165 recommendations, three of them key to preventing future mining tragedies, the union says. One is the call for a public inquiry into the causes of the deaths and into underground safety generally, particularly as it relates to water management.

The last mining inquiry in Ontario was conducted more than 30 years ago, led by well-known labour relations expert Kevin Burkett.

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Make work safer, crowd urged – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – June 21, 2012)

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

Twenty-eight years ago, when four Falconbridge miners were killed after a rockburst 4,000 feet underground, no one imagined Sudburians would still be marking the event today, says the president of the union to which the men belonged.

Almost three decades later, the Workers’ Memorial Day held by Mine Mill Local 598/CAW is a rallying cry for ongoing improvements in workplace health and safety.

More than 200 people gathered Wednesday at the Caruso Club to remember the four men — Sulo Korpela, Daniel Lavallee, Richard Chenier and Wayne St. Michel — who died as a result of the June 20, 1984, seismic event.

Three of the men died instantly, but St. Michel survived 27 hours while more than 50 mine rescuers worked to reach him. Sadly, the young man died minutes before rescuers could get to him. Local 598 president Richard Paquin said miners can’t “live in fear each and every day, wondering what is to come.”

But they can — and should — endeavour “over and over again … to make the safest possible workplaces for men and women.”

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Cliffs in driver’s seat on road to Ring of Fire: minister – CBC Radio Thunder Bay (June 20, 2012)

 http://www.cbc.ca/thunderbay/

Other mining companies eager to be active participants in development too

Mining minister Rick Bartolucci says Cliffs Natural Resources will take the lead on figuring how the road to the Ring of Fire is built and financed. “Through discussions with Cliffs, [the company] determined that the north-south corridor was the corridor of choice for them and so that discussion took place and the determination was made,” Bartolucci said during a visit to Thunder Bay this week.
 
And Bartolucci said the American company is driving the discussion as plans for the road move forward. “Once the agreement is finalized, then obviously the parametres of the agreement will be made public,” Bartolucci said.

That leaves other mining companies working in the area waiting to have their questions answered. “What standard would [the road] be built to,” asked Wes Hanson, president of Noront Resources. “How much [is it] going to cost?”

‘Profound impact for opportunities for other companies’

Noront is planning a nickel mine in the Ring of Fire. It originally proposed an east-west transportation route to move its ore, but has changed direction now that the province is backing Cliffs preferred north-south route.

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K+S turns sod on first new potash mine in Saskatchewan in 40 years – by Bruce Johnstone (Saskatoon Star Phoenix – June 19, 2012)

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

The company that’s building the first new potash mine in Saskatchewan in 40 years is the same company that helped build the last new potash mine in the province in the 1970s, before it was taken over by the then-NDP government to become Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan’s Lanigan mine.
 
But Nobert Steiner, CEO of K+S Group of Kassel, Germany, which is building the $3.25-billion solution potash mine near Bethune, 80 km northwest of Regina, says there are no hard feelings about the forced sale of the former Alwinsal mine to the Blakeney government for $76.5 million in 1977.
 
“Even more than a generation later, you can hardly believe that such an act could happen in a country belonging to the western world,’’ Steiner told participants at a sod-turning ceremony at the Legacy project site Tuesday. “However, after so many years, we are not looking back in anger anymore.’’
 
In fact, Steiner said K+S, which first came to Saskatchewan in the 1960s and started producing potash in 1968, was welcomed back to the province by none other than Premier Brad Wall. (Steiner said the K in K+S stands for Kali or potash in German, while the S stands for Salz or salt.)

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Ring of Fire moving too fast, say chiefs – by Shawn Bell (Wawatay News – June 20, 2012)

http://www.wawataynews.ca/

Development of the Ring of Fire is moving far too fast for First Nations to adequately prepare, say the chiefs of two northern First Nations whose traditional lands overlap the proposed mining area.
 
Both Chief Eli Moonias of Marten Falls First Nation and Chief Cornelius Wabasse of Webequie First Nation say they are not against development, and they both want to ensure that First Nations benefit from any mining projects that do go ahead in their area.

But both agree that current pace of planning for the Ring of Fire, and the proposed schedule laid out by Cliffs Natural Resources for the first project in the region, does not give their communities time to prepare for the major changes facing them.
 
“I’d like to have time before everything starts so that we’re satisfied that we’re taking the right direction, so we’re not jumping to conclusions here,” Moonias said.

Marten Falls wants to further explore negotiations with the provincial government over resource revenue sharing, Moonias said. He also wants to see what happens with the judicial review of the environmental assessment, currently before the courts, before making any decisions on whether to support or oppose the proposed Ring of Fire projects.

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NEWS RELEASE: Mining Association of Canada elects new Chairperson: Ian Pearce of Xstrata Nickel

Pearce brings 30 years of mining experience to his new role

OTTAWA, June 20, 2012 /CNW/ – The Mining Association of Canada (MAC) is pleased to announce that Ian Pearce, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Xstrata Nickel, has been elected Chairperson of MAC for a two-year term. Effective today, Mr. Pearce replaces Doug Horswill, Senior Vice President of Teck Resources Limited, who began his term in June 2010.
 
“We would like to thank Doug for his leadership over the past two years and we welcome Ian to his new role,” said Pierre Gratton, MAC’s President and CEO. “Ian brings three decades worth of mining expertise with him and has been actively involved in many of the Association’s activities. MAC and the Canadian industry at large will surely benefit under his direction.”
 
Mr. Pearce has been an active member of the MAC Board since 2007. He is also a member of the Executive Committee and the Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) Governance Team. In these roles, he provides support and input on the Association’s operations and provides guidance to MAC’s TSM initiative, which works to improve member company performance in the areas of corporate social responsibility and the environment.

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Mining Boom in Great Lakes States Prompts Environmental Concern – by Jim Malewitz (Stateline/Pew Centre – May 24, 2012)

Stateline is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news service of the Pew Center on the States that provides daily reporting and analysis on trends in state policy. http://www.pewstates.org/projects/stateline

BIG BAY, Michigan  – For thousands of years, the Salmon Trout River held fast to a deep secret, as its pristine waters flowed into Lake Superior. Below the river’s headwaters, and hidden underneath 1,000 feet of sand, clay and rock, lie 4.1 million metric tons of ore speckled with valuable metals — primarily nickel and copper — a deposit that’s valued at as much as $5 billion.    

The treasure is no longer a secret here on the Yellow Dog Plains, a region of Michigan’s Western Upper Peninsula marked by large swaths of untouched lands. The staccato of the hydraulic drill now overpowers the sound made by birds flying overhead, and trucks kick up dust where trees once stood. “I see something new every time I come here,” says Catherine Parker, noting a yellow electrical cord stretching across the ground, seemingly without end. The winding dirt road she drives is now bordered by a path of utility lines recently installed. It’s an addition that Parker, who doesn’t own a cell phone, says ruins the aesthetic.

Kennecott Minerals, a local subsidiary of the London-based mining giant, Rio Tinto, discovered the deposit about a decade ago. The company, which owns at least 400,000 of acres of mineral rights on the peninsula, is nearing completion of the nearly $500 million Eagle Mine, set to become the first primary nickel mine in the United States.

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Queen’s Park continues to disappoint – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – June 20, 2012)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Northerners can’t seem to get any satisfaction from Queen’s Park. When we want our provincial politicians to do something for us, they don’t it.

Even when they finally look like they’re doing something right, they screw it up. This has been no more evident than since the Ontario Liberals presented their budget. This, of course, came on the heels of the government’s announcement that it was going to privatize the Ontario Northerland Transportation Commission.

Naturally, we thought, great timing. Here we have the New Democrats in a position to force the Liberals hands by using the budget vote as leverage in preventing the sale of the ONTC.

As we know, the NDP made some demands and the Liberals made some concessions but the issue Northerners were particularly keen on — preventing the sale of the ONTC — was not part of that package.

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Pacific Rim Mining locked in closely watched fight with El Salvador – by Jeff Gray (Globe and Mail – June 20, 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.

Tom Shrake, the American mining industry veteran who heads Vancouver-based Pacific Rim Mining Corp., is nothing if not an optimist.

He’s had no end of troubles: His staff in El Salvador have faced intimidation at gunpoint by local opponents of his proposed mine. Anti-mining groups have accused his company of involvement in the killings of local activists, charges he vehemently denies and for which he says there is no evidence. And the government of the tiny, impoverished country has decided to block all mining within El Salvador’s borders out of fear that a mishap could contaminate the country’s water supply.

But Mr. Shrake says he remains committed to digging for gold and, he argues, digging the local population in northern El Salvador out of poverty. This month, he got a green light to keep fighting for that plan from a World Bank investment tribunal in Washington – a fight being watched closely by the mining industry, international trade lawyers and anti-mining activists.

“We don’t want to go to court. We never wanted to go to court … But they left us no choice,” Mr. Shrake said in an interview from Reno, Nevada, where he is based.

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