The Liberal government may be buoyant about the mining boom it hopes will juice up the economy, but recent events have many wondering if mining firms are capable of delivering fair treatment to First Nations living over or near those subterranean resources.
A few weeks back, the Libs wrapped up the feedback process for their long-awaited revamp of the Ontario Mining Act, a target of native groups and mining watchdogs. The act enshrines the right of prospectors to subsurface minerals on land owned by others, and activists want changes allowing communities the right to refuse.
Alas, the province released its draft amendments earlier this year, and the fine print reveals major loopholes. Exploration firms would still be able to stake and sample claims without notifying First Nations; consultations would only be required for high-level prospecting.
Most striking, however, is the absence of any reference to the right of refusal. “We want to have the authority to say no, and I think we have that authority,” says Chief Donny Morris of northwestern Ontario’s Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI), which has had mining run-ins with the Libs.
Prolonged CP Railway strike could have serious impact on Canadian miners – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – May 25, 2012)
A prolonged strike against Canada’s second largest railway may have serious consequences for nation’s mining sector.
RENO (MINEWEB) – A Teamsters strike, which shut down Canadian Pacific Railway freight lines early Wednesday with no end in sight, is leaving mining and other resource companies in Canada faced with disruptions.
The strike involves 4,800 locomotive engineers, conductors, rail traffic controls and yard workers. Mining, agriculture, energy companies, and forestry depend heavily on rail shipments. A CP spokesman said the Teamsters strike idled another 2,000 unionized CP employees, who are being laid off.
The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference union and CP Railway were still at the bargaining table as the strike continued late Thursday night. Contract talks between the union and the company started in October.
A major bone of contention between the two parties is the annual pension paid to employees. CP has 16,200 employees and 18,000 retirees.
Premier Dalton McGuinty reaches out to Prime Minister Harper on Ring of Fire – by James Murray (Netnewsledger.com – May 25, 2012.
THUNDER BAY – Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty’s reach out to Prime Minister Harper on the Ring of Fire started early in May. The Premier wrote the Prime Minister on May 8th seeking federal goverment assistance. The Premier stated, “The Ring of Fire, located 540 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, is one of the most promising mineral development opportunities in Canada in almost a century”.
The May 8th letter continues, “Tomorrow morning, Cliffs Natural Resources management plans to announce the Ontario location of their ferrochrome processing facility, and Ontario Ministers will announce the province’s plans to engage First Nations in the region to help those communities benefit from this historic opportunity”.
“I am writing to invite your government to take a more active role in supporting the tremendous economic development opportunity associated with the Ring of Fire”.
The Premier adds, “Canada needs to deal with the acknowledged and widespread problems of inadequate First Nation’s social and community infrastructure.
McGuinty wants PM’s help to develop Ring of Fire – by Jonathan Jenkins (Sudbury Star – May 25, 2012)
The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.
TORONTO — Pulling stuff out of the ground is catching on with Premier Dalton McGuinty. “His curiosity was piqued,” McGuinty said Thursday of a meeting he had with Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Tuesday regarding development of the so-called Ring of Fire area of Northern Ontario.
“I pressed upon the prime minister that we’ve got a great natural resource in our own province right here in our backyard that we need to develop together,” McGuinty said.
The Ring of Fire, about 250 km west of James Bay, holds North America’s largest deposit of chromite. Chromite is an important building block of stainless steel and the find could mean billions of dollars if it’s developed.
“We need to put a road up there, we need to extend electricity transmission up there, we need to invest the skills and training levels of our First Nations communities,” McGuinty said.
Premier Dalton McGuinty seeks Stephen Harper’s help to develop Ontario’s Ring of Fire – by Rob Ferguson (Toronto Star – May 25, 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.
Premier Dalton McGuinty had a secret meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper this week to pitch for federal help in developing the mineral-rich Ring of Fire in northwestern Ontario.
McGuinty said he’s looking for aid on developing the arc of mining deposits — including chromite for stainless steel — in a project that could be Ontario’s equivalent of Alberta’s oilsands, resulting in billions of dollars in revenue.
“I think I piqued his real curiosity, if not his real interest, in developing the Ring of Fire,” the premier said of Harper, whom he met for an hour Tuesday in a downtown Toronto hotel. The meeting was not listed on McGuinty’s detailed daily itinerary.
The two men talked about the Ring of Fire “a great deal” with McGuinty noting Ontario needs help building roads, electricity lines and training local First Nations peoples for the thousands of jobs that would be available in mining and related fields.
Drilling for oil in the Far North’s great unknown – by Nathan Vanderklippe (Globe and Mail – May 25, 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— In the midst of the largest auction of Western Arctic oil and gas rights in Canadian history, two giant rectangles of land up for grabs in the northeastern stretches of the Beaufort Sea are particularly mysterious.
No oil and gas company has ever drilled there, and why any company would want rights to the area is difficult to understand – unless it had access to a new trove of data quietly compiled by a Texas company over the past half-decade.
Though the economic and technical hurdles to plucking oil from the Arctic remain high, that data is altering the energy industry’s view of the potential in Canada’s Far North, pointing to a resource that now looks larger than formerly believed. It is, in the words of data collector ION Geophysical Corp., “a world-class play.”
Six years ago, the Houston-based company launched a multiyear program to peer into the subsurface below the Beaufort Sea, using sophisticated seismic and gravity equipment to identify structures that could contain oil and gas.
Western energy vs. eastern industry: a manufactured debate – by Anne Golden and Glen Hodgson (Globe and Mail – May 25, 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.
Anne Golden is President and Chief Executive Officer of The Conference Board of Canada. Glen Hodgson is Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist of The Conference Board of Canada.
In recent weeks there has been a recurring debate on whether the economic success being felt in much of Western Canada is hurting the rest of the country. The debate has centred on the oil sands and whether they have caused so-called “Dutch disease”, specifically in the manufacturing sector based largely in Central Canada.
The argument that good news for oil sands is bad news for the rest of the Canada is not supported by evidence.
Contrary to widespread opinion, the oil sands are not a significant share of the Canadian economy, and are not crowding out other sectors. Total energy and mining production as a share of Canadian GDP is actually smaller today that it was in recent decades – 4.6 per cent of GDP today, versus 5.1 per cent in 1990 and 5.9 per cent in 1980.
[Timmins gold] Mine lies in path of blaze – by Kyle Gennings (Timmins Daily Press – May 25, 2012)
The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.
Flames were expected to cross two highways overnight
The Gogama-area forest fire was expected to cross two highways 144 and 101 overnight and continue heading in an easterly direction.
“The fire has increased in size over the past few days,” said Joel Legasy, fire management supervisor for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources Timmins unit. “The precipitation we saw through Monday night and into Tuesday morning slowed the fire temporarily, but by yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon the fuel dried out and the fire became more intense.”
The significant growth seen on Thursday prompted the Ontario Provincial Police to close escorted access to the Old Mill Campground via highway 101, around 1 p.m.
“We can no longer escort anyone through to Foyelet,” said OPP Const. Marc Depatie. “The high winds, heavy smoke and heat are such that I cannot safely condone the travel for residents or for my fellow officers.”
[Ring of Fire] Industry game-changer – by Julie Gordon and Bhaswati Mukhopadhyay (Sudbury Star – May 25, 2012)
The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.
A $3.3-billion plan to build North America’s first major chromite mine deep in the Canadian wi lderness promises to usher in an era of prosperity for the region’s aboriginals and generate millions of tax dollars over its lifetime.
Tucked deep into Northern Ontario, the Ring of Fire contains rich mineral deposits that could transform the region, much as the oilsands have transformed Alberta. Much like the oilsands, it has raised deep environmental and social concerns.
But the Ring of Fire stands apart from other resource mega-developments around the world in one important respect. Rather than oil, gold or iron ore, its main attraction is a relatively minor ore — chromite — which is refined into ferrochrome to make stainless steel.
The region contains North America’s only known large-scale chromite deposit. If Cleveland-based Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. develops the Black Thor project, it will likely revolutionize the stainless steel industry on the continent, which now relies on imports from South Africa and Kazakhstan. It would make Canada the world’s four thlargest chromite producer.
Ontario’s Ring of Fire Will Fuel Our Economy – by Tim Hudak (May 22, 2012)
Tim Hudak is the opposition leader of the Ontario PC Party
Ontario once enjoyed bountiful supplies of affordable energy — and used it over more than a century to build our province into an industrial powerhouse and resource development dynamo. But times have changed.
You may have seen a news article a week ago, for example, about how high electricity prices, along with a burdensome approvals process, add up to obstacles to investment in Northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire region. My caucus colleague, and Ontario PC energy critic, Vic Fedeli used a recent provincial parliamentary committee meeting to press the government for some answers about this critical issue.
Because it’s been in the news lately, I want to use the Ring of Fire to illustrate a broader point, to show how heavily energy costs can weigh on economic sectors like mining, forestry and manufacturing — where Ontario most urgently needs to kick-start job creation with more than half a million people unemployed.
The Ring of Fire should be a cause for optimism with the ongoing jobs crisis in Ontario. According to Richard Nemis, the entrepreneur who gave the Ring of Fire its name, the “economic impact of this discovery on the Ontario economy will probably run into the hundreds of billions of dollars over time.”
CP Rail to lay off up to 3,400 additional workers for duration of strike – by Scott Deveau (National Post – May 23, 2012)
The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.
Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. ratcheted up the pressure in its dispute with the union representing 4,800 of its striking engineers, conductors, and traffic controllers Wednesday by saying it would be forced to lay off thousands of their colleagues until freight service resumes at the railway.
The striking employees, who are represented by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, walked off the job shortly after midnight Wednesday morning after failing to reach a new labour agreement by their strike deadline. Talks continued throughout the day, but CP’s freight service in Canada ground to a halt shortly after the workers walked off the job.
As a result, CP said it would lay off 2,000 workers, and if the strike were to continue into next week another 1,400 employees would follow.
The layoffs would be in addition to the striking workers, the company said, and from areas not needed while the trains were not running, including yard workers and mechanics.
Native groups unhappy with pipeline reversal plan – by John Spears (Toronto Star – May 24, 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.
LONDON, ONT.— The impacts of reversing the flow of an Enbridge oil pipeline between Sarnia and Hamilton are “minimal and manageable,” the company’s lawyer told a National Energy Board hearing Wednesday.
But aboriginal groups disagreed – both inside and outside the hearings at a London hotel.
Traditionalist members of the Six Nations reserve near Brantford forced the hearings to adjourn for several hours just as they got going Wednesday morning, as they complained the hearings were illegitimate and undemocratic.
Once the hearings had resumed in the afternoon, Chief Christopher Plain of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation near Sarnia complained that his members “have not been consulted in a meaningful way” in the energy board process.
‘Mining Truth initiative’ wants to ‘educate’ Minnesotans about mining – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – May 24, 2012)
Minnesota environmental special interests say their latest initiative aims to engage all Minnesotans, including miners, “in a respectful, open, fact based dialogue” about sulfide mining.
RENO (MINEWEB) – A coalition of three environmental organizations Wednesday announced it has launched a statewide sulfide mining initiative in Minnesota. Two mining companies, PolyMet and Twin Metals, are developing two mines in Minnesota’s lake country.
“Today, there is little awareness about sulfide mining-it’s very different from the iron ore mining that is more familiar to Minnesotans,” said Paul Danicic, executive director of Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness and founding member of the initiative Mining Truth. “This is a complex issue with long-term economic and environmental implications. We need a broad conversation about this.”
“The evidence shows there is reason to be cautious about effects on our lakes, rivers and groundwater, but we also recognize that the immediate need for jobs in Northern Minnesota is real,” said Paul Austin, executive director of Conservation Minnesota and founding member of Mining Truth.
Far North chitchat [about Far North Act] – by Jeff Labine (tbnewswatch.com – May 23, 2012)
Michael Gravelle has tested the waters to see if Northern First Nation communities wanted to join forces to manage areas covered in the Far North Act.
The Minister of Natural Resources met with representatives from Northern First Nation communities at the Travelodge Hotel on Wednesday. The group spent the day discussing a potential joint body in regards to the Far North Act where First Nation communities would have more input on policies.
The Far North Act, which was passed in 2010, represents 42 per cent of Ontario or 450,000 square kilometres and applies to public lands in the Far North but not to First Nation communities or to federal, private or municipal lands.
In order to manage development plans better, the province implemented a community based land use initiative with the intent to have direct input from First Nation communities.
Argentine policies have Canadian miners rethinking projects – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – May 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.
Efforts by Argentina to fine-tune its economy are forcing miners to reassess investment plans in the Andean country that is home to massive gold, copper and other resource deposits.
Argentina, Latin America’s third-largest economy, has moved aggressively in recent months to stem capital outflows and bolster the market with measures including forced repatriation of export revenue on local markets and requirements for companies to source equipment locally.
The measures could hinder access to cash flow in one of the world’s most capital-intensive industries, and cause operational delays in terms of getting equipment to remote sites in a timely manner.